Career Transition Help with Boots to Books President & Army Veteran Peter Cline

Warriors, Fall In! 

Today we are bringing in a military warrior who served 3 years as an Infantryman, earned Ft Benning’s Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year, and now is the founder and President of Boots to Books, which is an organization that seeks to empower transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses with assistance through every facet of their education and employment journey.

To my military warriors, listening right now, there are GREAT organizations like Boots to Books, that in addition to your GI Bill, you can also take advantage of FREE opportunities for self-investment for furthering your education, so listen in today at what’s being offered bc today we are joined with Army Veteran Peter Cline, who’s going to tell us about his organization, services offered, and upcoming events.

Boots to Books Website:
https://www.boots2books.com

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-cline/

Transcript

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KP: 0:56

This episode is powered by act now education, go to www dot act now education.com For free comprehensive educational resources and opportunities for active duty veterans, military spouses, and children.

Peter Cline: 1:13

There was tremendous value in the things that I had done and the things that everyone in the military has done requires translation and it requires, you know, your value proposition. I didn't realize that. And so I struggled in silence for a while and just didn't get why it wasn't working out for me. And so I finally swallowed my pride and reached out to my best friend and now the co founder of boots, two bucks

KP: 1:36

or yours fall in, it's time for formation. Today we're bringing in a military warrior who served three years as infantry men earn Fort Benning, his noncommissioned officer of the year, and is now the founder and president of boots two books, which is an organization that seeks to empower transitioning Servicemembers, Veterans, Military Spouses, with assistance through every facet of their education and employment journey. To my military words, listening right now, there are great organizations like Boots to Books, that in addition to your GI Bill, you can utilize and take advantage of the free opportunities for self investment for furthering your education. So listen in today at what's being offered, because we are joined with an Army veteran, his name is Peter Klein. He's going to tell us about his organization, the services offered, and any and all upcoming events for 2022. Peter, thank you for joining us.

Peter Cline: 2:30

Awesome, thank you so much for having me on to talk a little bit about Boots to Books and the services we can offer. It's definitely an exciting time for us right now. So couldn't be a better time to come on. Thank you very much.

KP: 2:41

Now, it's always an honor to have organizations like yours who's tremendously helping out our community with that transition. And just right off the bat, in your own words, can you tell our audience about boots, two books, and what inspired you and the co founders to create this organization?

Peter Cline: 2:56

Yeah, definitely. So I mean, the the founding of boots, two bucks, and the organization as a whole is kind of a story of myself needing help initially. So when I transitioned out of the military, like you said, I had one for putting into the year I actually won next to a soldier who's on my team. So a four man team swept the competent, or, you know, two thirds of the competition for 30,000 person base, I was so elated and I had this fallacy that everyone would want to hire me, I could get into any college, I could do, you know, anything in the world. And while there was tremendous value in the things that I had done, and the things that everyone in the military has done, it requires translation. And it requires, you know, your value proposition, I didn't realize that. And so I struggled in silence for a while, and just didn't get why it wasn't working out for me. And so I finally swallowed my pride and reached out to my best friend, and now the co founder of boots, two books on resign. And I basically told him, I think I need help man, I, you know, my college application is not going well, and you helped my resume. And this guy who was super busy, and a data analytics major working on these internships, short on time, you know, trying to live his own life as well. He sat down with me every week and helped me through the process. And it resulted in two real things. The first being I got an academic scholarship to my dream school, Chapman University, that's preserving some of my benefits. So you know, now if I go on to graduate degrees, something of the sort, it'll be debt free, or with very little. And, you know, and also, I've worked in some great careers since getting out as well, I got to lead teams on a congressional campaign, I work in wealth management now, super happy with it. And the second realization was, as great as that help was, and you know, the successes I was reaping because of armories help. There were a lot of people that weren't getting that help weren't afforded the same opportunities. I was, didn't have a friend like Aubrey, who would be there for them throughout the whole thing. You know, we're kind of clueless in the transition. And, you know, I think the pandemic kind of exacerbated a little bit, a lot of the transition stuff went online, people might have not taken it as seriously as they should have. And so that, we realized pretty quickly that help was needed. And that, but he did for me work very well. And so it first started around education in the sense, like, let's cover, you know, books, things like that. But quickly, kind of with support we've gotten and the events we've been able to put on, it's, it's routed into a lot more than that. And so I'm sure we'll, we'll get a chance to talk about that. But that's the kind of short where we came from, it really was me, eventually swallowing my pride and being like, okay, like, I need to reach out to someone for help, and Aubrey was the one to do it.

KP: 5:34

I think that's great man. It definitely underlines the ideology behind battle buddy, which I don't think that we in the military community are very, very familiar with. We go to basic training, we go to our units, and then we get connected with folks that we probably would have never spoken to in our entire lives. And what I mean by that is, you're you're sort of forced to bunk with people and sit in the foxhole. have people who are from all different parts of the country, all different cultures and things like that. And you find out that you really do have a lot more in common when it comes to achieving and succeeding and just having each other's backs. So that's a great story, man. And, and you're, you know, you're right there. In 2007. When I got out the military, I was, I was a commissioned officer, when I got out, I thought that I had all the hardware that I would need to find that job. And I would have literally tons of opportunities thrown at my feet. And that wasn't the case at all, It dwindled down to just one opportunity for me. And I was there for about a year and then I ended up moving on to something else. It just really wasn't for me. And the pendulum has kind of swung man where it and I really appreciate folks like you who actually go out, and then not just take care of yourself, but then you create this organization to take care of our entire community. So surely appreciate what Boots to Books stands for. And I just want to ask you what, how does boots to book solve those pain points and obstacles over a military career? Transitioning community?

Peter Cline: 7:02

Yeah, definitely. So I mean, for the the broad, I guess, ideological way to put it, we try to be the most accessible thing out there. And so whether that the you're looking for education help or employment help, we want to be there in quickly responsive and able to give you help not make you sit around and wait. And it also a lot is personalization, and coming down to every transition is different. And we can pull elements for our own to help someone but there's no format to fit a transition. And so kind of starting with education. For as far as like when you start the very beginning, applying and paying for the applications. If it's a place that doesn't waive the fees, we can help cover that we can connect you with people at the various schools. So you can do your kind of educational informational interview and find out more about that we can actually help with your application review. So you submit your strongest application possible, pass that when your resources exceed the GI Bill like textbooks, tutors. This semester, I think we're already almost at $2,000 in textbooks covered. So when they exceed the GI Bill, we help there. And then when you finish your bachelor's degree, and you're looking at graduate school or law school, through Magoosh, we can do which is a elearning test prep company, we can offer the Graduate School Entrance Exam Preparation for the GRE GMAT and LSAT that we've been doing for the past year, we actually just took on some more for that for the GRE. And so that's the kind of educational portion and how we initially began, because that's the main kind of focal point of Arby's help to me. But kind of quickly, we got support from local foundations, two of them being the Rotary Club, whatever, on Sunset Carolina, Peter Friedman Foundation. And we realized that employment was was this huge thing, there are a lot of people that want to hire vets, there are all these different trainings out there. They're all these talented veterans looking for work, where's the conduit of it all. And so from there, we focus on education a lot. And one of the things we started with professional certifications, and training to the sort because they give a hard backing, and a skill set to that veteran, especially if it's a legitimate training, not some check the block hand me a piece of paper thing that we make sure to avoid. So professional certifications, or one last year was $23,000, over 23,000 certifications we covered. Then we do networking things we do soft skills. The kind of idea behind our employment approach is that it's multifaceted in the sense that you'll get the hard skill backing of the education, the professional certifications, and whatever free resources you can take advantage of. And then you'll get that soft skill backing in the sense of you get career coaching events, you get resume review, you get interview prep. And then we culminate that in events to get hired with veteran friendly companies or companies specifically looking for you. And these events are limited to military independence. The last set of Amazon Royal Caribbean, and more there the next is in April, but these events are fantastic. You can live chat with recruiters view of enrolls entirely in your browser. Looks like you're at a job fair. I mean, it's fantastic. Amazon's have five offers after the last event. So it's pretty, you know, it's been a pretty incredible way to connect the companies that want veterans and those job seeking veterans. So this year, we're gonna do two more, which is super exciting, where we're gonna announce more about those as you know, time progresses. But even between those fairs, there's a lot of companies that will reach out with open roles, or even a broad idea of that. We want veterans, you know, we have a lot of roles to fill. And so it's been, you know, making personal introductions, even to those roles has been extremely successful. I know Oracle's hired a lot of veterans recently. And so it's, you know, it's a lot about kind of what you said there's that initial mean, needing help and the small community I've relied on, especially already to get help and make it through it. And now the catalyst of Boots to Books growth has been the community because it's not Aubrey or I hiring everyone or training everyone or paying him Have this. It's the support we've gotten from this amazing community that realizes there's some issues out there. And there's no reason for talented veterans to be unemployed, especially when there's roles to be filled. I've kind of rallied behind the idea of the innovative approach to solving this issue.

KP: 11:12

Yeah, no, I dig it. I, you know, the first thing that comes to mind just listening to you talk about this organization. And we just mentioned battle buddy, right, because you reached out to your battle buddy, for help. Talk about a sense of being assessable. And accessibility. I went to your website last night, and I saw how easy it was to find the form to initiate contact with the organization. So accessibility is something that I certainly feel like is something that booster books has done. As far as building this organization, you guys have done a great job as as far as being assessable. Because it's very easy to go to the website, fill out the form and start that initial contact. And this is kind of a battle buddy organization, in a sense, where a battle buddy is someone that is accessible to you. They're knowledgeable, and they're willing to help. And I can really, really appreciate that man as far as like building up this entire platform that you guys have done as far as helping out the military community, its organization. Like I said, I was on your website yesterday, and I saw that you, you had some pretty interesting events that took place at the end of 2021. And you also have some interesting events coming up in 2022. Would you mind highlighting and going back and talking about how those events weren't at the end of 2021? And then highlighting some of those events and coming up in this next year? And where can folks find more information on them?

Peter Cline: 12:38

Definitely. Yeah. So I'll start I'll start in September. With with the hiring fair, we had I touched on a little bit before, but September 24, we had a hiring fair, a bunch of companies, whether it's 17 Different companies, we had different VSOs represented vets, the industry and project, where do you fit. And so the whole goal behind this was, the companies came with the idea in mind that they were not going to be sending people to an information page on their website or a careers page. While of course, they're going to screen these candidates and you know, do whatever it's not, you know, this typical, take a flyer and see later, they were going to come give feedback to candidates look to hire candidates, and legitimately try to expedite interviews as much as they could. And considering the majority of these recruiters are veterans themselves, you know, military spouses, or at least, you know, part of the community that understands the value of that military community brings. They've all agreed to it and made it really, really successful event. But following the event, obviously, we were is you know, as much success we hadn't as happy as we were with it, there's always things to be learned, there's always feedback to get and a big thing we got. And this segues into the next event was that people would enter in a sort of generalist fashion in the sense that they knew they wanted to work in this industry, maybe this set of roles, but they didn't know their specific role. They weren't tailoring to that role they had and tailor their application to it. And when they were asked what role they wanted to work in, they couldn't, you know, namely, say that one even if it was the most applicable to their skills. And we heard that and so the next thing we did was a career expo where we found 16 different people, I believe it was in different careers all across cyber X. This was a cyber specific event, and had them each talk through what they did every day. You know, how they ended up landing their role and take questions from the audience. And so that's something we're gonna incorporate before the next hiring fair as well. But at the end of the year, we did a couple of giveaways with vets, the industry, gave away trainings, some shirts, some bets the industry coins, $100 Visa gift card, and it was awesome. We got Josh Mason at cyber supply drop John levy to intellectual point all of them were donating trainings, to be certified to AWS architects through Cantril. Io. John Lehman intellectual point gave us an ITIL four course and a CCNA course to give out, which was fantastic. Giovanni mahiya, donated a security plus Learning Center code. It was fantastic. And so so many people got this free help. And the whole goal was like, do it right. You know, kind of around the holidays, do it really quick. So we didn't detract from anybody's family time, of course, but like, get off really quick and be like, Hey, guys, like, boom, here you go. Reach out and claim it. And it worked out. Fantastic. So we did two of them. And then now looking into the new year. On the 11th. We announced Monday we are Tuesday we announced that we were recovering textbooks for this semester that exceed the GI Bill. We are already almost at$2,000 covered for this semester alone, which has just been amazing. And the you know the reception that it's gotten, it's been fantastic. And then January 28. We have a resume events. We're going to go over the basics of the resume and then also dive into some of the mistakes people make more often. That's what Laurie Norris she's been helping veterans succeed for 16 years. She's a resume expert. She is not some person that doesn't know what they're talking about throwing you advice. This is an expert to break it down. And also we're gonna do a q&a. So the questions that you're unsure about out are the things she may miss, you can ask. So it's not something you'd want to miss this can be through LinkedIn live. So Boots to Books page or mine, you will see it promoted. But it's our upcoming event. Following that in February, we have a training pathway opening where people can get a variety of certifications by application until it fills up. That includes Lean Six Sigma, and agile leader, certain a variety of other ones. And then also in February, we're going to do another career coaching esque event, as well as in March, the kind of general schedule for the year is going to be centered around April and September, because that is when we, as of this morning, signed a contract to do two more events this year of the hiring fairs. So those are going to be April 29. And then the one in September, I don't believe we have the exact date for it yet. So that is going to be the events will kind of culminate with those hiring fairs, ideally, with a Career Expo and a chance to get a look inside the different roles that are being hired at the fair. So the people that are going and applying can actually be like, Oh my god. So that's what it's like to work there and actually do that when I go and talk to a recruiter about it, and explain why I want this role I'm applying and you know, why they actually are applying in the first place. So that'll be great. More chances to get certifications and training. There's a training pathways page. I know you mentioned the website was built well, that is not my doing in any way, shape or form. I actually can't code a padlock funny. No, but outside is that is the kind of genius behind our website. And he, you know, he's done a lot of great things, he just added that training pathways page, which has the kind of some of not all of the opportunities, we're gonna have to get professional certifications this year. I mean, the intent of that was to put it out in advance so people could see exactly where they're happening. And there's a countdown right there. And when that countdown hits zero, the application is going to be right on the page, make it as easy as possible, keep up the accessibility. And kind of on top of that we're always on LinkedIn row is reachable. So we really do want to be like a battle buddy, I agree with what you said. And the goal is, you know, these hiring fairs, everybody gets jobs and it comes great, unbelieving into it even after it, you know, their struggles, or whatever it may be, we're always here to help. We're always here to support rights, or to be a sounding board for ideas, resume revisions, whatever it may be. It is, you know, an attempt to be a really demystifying force in the transition space. Sorry, for my super long tangent, oh, man, I love project,

KP: 18:28

it all makes sense, man, I love it. And before we started talking, you mentioned how your events are actually scheduled out as a similar to military training, as far as having the culminating event at the very end. And a lot of folks out there who are listening are gonna be able to relate to this quite a bit, because we all remember doing the crawl, walk run. Right? And, and I love that part about it, how planned out you guys are for the entire year. So you attend to training in January, then you have a follow on training and say like March and then maybe in June, and then at the very end of it all, it all leads up to something much bigger. And I completely dig that man that that makes a lot of sense. Instead of being here, they're all over the place, you really can can grab the attention of a transitioning service member, or a military spouse, starting out from the resume phase, all the way to the interview phase, all the way to understanding culture phase, to actually sitting across from recruiter, it just all comes together at the very end, man and I love that whole culminating event ideology that you guys have. And, Peter, in your opinion, and from your own experiences of being a military veteran, for anyone out there who's going to be doing the career transition out of the military, what can they do to better prepare for a more optimal passage coming out of the military.

Peter Cline: 19:50

Um, I'd say if there's if there's one quote, or one thing that that I think is widely applicable is you can't hit your target if you don't know what it is. And so you might know, and it goes with kind of being a generalist. And that may be fine in some industries, or if you're seeking, you know, nice things, but it's about networking, networking early, being adaptable and open to learning. You can't be stagnant, you can't be, you know, reliant on your military service is your value proposition. Although it brings a lot of value. You as a continuous learner, leveraging that background is going to bring a lot more value than someone who hasn't changed at all. Doing research, networking, and actually connecting with people and doing informational interviews, so many people network in the sense of they send out blanket connection requests. And that's, you know, whatever, if you're just looking to build your network in you know, numerically, that's fine. But in terms of the job hunting approach, actually, like reaching out to people in their desired roles and trying to get informational interviews and like, maybe even understand the role. A lot of people might think they want to be even more Like a project manager, right? But like that title in and of itself can vary so much from company to company, and they might not understand that they might be a very non technical PM, and be applying for, you know, the most technical role in the world. And they would know that if they didn't do a little bit of research into the company, and you know, then they'd be confused why they weren't hearing back when, you know, they didn't have any experience doing X, Y, and Z. And so that's definitely the biggest one is network, be adaptable and learn, do your research.

KP: 21:26

Especially in today's day and age, I say this in probably every single interview, because it's something I can relate to in 2007, the only thing we really had was Myspace, there was no Facebook, there was no LinkedIn, making those connections was nearly impossible unless they lived within your local community. So it's, it's something that in today's military, there's really no excuse for you not to have a LinkedIn for you not to be able to connect with folks like Peter here, and some of the other folks that you mentioned, as well, and join those organizations join those groups. Because more I mean, from what from what I've seen, you know, a lot of these organizations out here, they don't require any money, no monetary, it just requires your time and your basic information. So for anyone listening out there, Boots to Books, and all these organizations that Peter just mentioned, is definitely something that you want to check out. And it's something that can really help you out if you're looking to make that transition at some point. And, Peter, can you tell us about the real world value behind the training pathways opportunities that I saw on your website, that it looks like a great opportunity for folks out there that someone might want to take advantage advantage of?

Peter Cline: 22:38

Yeah, definitely. So we touched on a little before about how we try to make it a little more scheduled out now. So it was easier to see when they were coming and playing around that and also how it's kind of scheduled out kind of reflective of the military a little bit with the culminating event. And so that's how they were kind of brought into mind. But the value of them is each of these different pathways. I mean, there's variety, like you really can't find in other places, and it's always free. Like you said, each of these pathways is through an accredited institution and its own industry, and has been taught to, you know, we've talked to business leaders, we've talked to people hiring in that specific industry. And there are certifications that are being hired for their things that people need to break into industries, and they're free, they're accessible online, we can send them to you quickly and easily. And you can do them at your own rate, which is just ideal for the transitioning service member with, you know, the 100 million things going on with them or, you know, a military spouse in the transition process, who has to coordinate 2000 different things. So on their side, you know, and on the employer side, something that it really does is bring hard skills to the resume, especially through an accredited institution, when they're getting that training, it's not a check the block thing, they know that they're bringing a certain skill set day one. So that's almost a guarantee to them that, okay, they have that. And with that, you know, they can leverage their military experience a little bit more, because not only do they have this background, all these hard, you know, soft skills of the things they've done the military, whatever hard skills in the military, they did, if that role does translate over which it does a lot of the time, coupled with that now hard backing, can do a lot for them, especially if they present themselves in the right way. But also at these pathways, it's not just like, we're kind of handing a certification and being like good luck, we really want to change this to have it be where you get into it, you get guaranteed support throughout the entire thing. And if you're having questions, if you're doing poorly, we're going to connect you with a veteran that's passed that thing with flying colors, and they'll be happy to talk to you are going to get your mentorship, I'm going to be personally accessible to every single person that's in them. You know, I don't think that somebody in that, you know, cyber pathway is really going to come to me with that question on, you know, a plus. But as far as you know, interview prep, resume review, things like that, I'm always there as well. And the goal here is, you know, then learning and kind of starting this continuous development to it shines really well. And then it kind of shows them to like you need to be adaptable and keep learning. Even once you land that role, you don't want to stay stagnant and get complacent. You know, it really does, especially with the$0 price tag. It's it's a really great opportunity to just get that even if you're not sure what you want to do a taste of that industry. And if it's something like you know, Six Sigma that's widely applicable, it's you know, it's kind of a camp mess for someone that's unsure at the time.

KP: 25:27

You're I'm sitting here listening to you, man, and I gotta tell you, I'm a little jealous. Because when I got out I didn't have any of this stuff at all man, it was pretty much be myself and I and I did. I was guilty of being my own worst enemy when it came to getting some help. But the only help that it really had was probably what whatever was there on base. Like I said there was the LinkedIn, the organization's as far as the amount of organizations that were out there were much harder to find much harder to locate, and, I guess indirectly so I highly appreciate what you're doing and what folks like v2 i Active Education, what all these different organizations are doing. Because the one thing that we don't really indirectly talk about all that much is that 22 A day suicide rate that our military community has. And I truly believe that the transition and the over a landing spot that most of our military community members, Landon has something to do with that number. And that's why I highly appreciate what you and Aubrey do for our military community. And I think at the heart of it all, that's our number one goal is to make things easier for our military veterans to get back into civilian life and to get back into a headspace and a career where they can be happy and living where they want to live, making the money that they want to make and doing what they want to do so highly appreciate what you're doing. But anyone out there that's listening right now, Peter, and they're interested in connecting with your organization, how do they get started with Boots to Books?

Peter Cline: 26:57

Definitely. So there's kind of, I guess, a couple of ways that you know, if they're looking to get help, or do any of the training pathways, or any of the services I was talking about, in my super long kind of tangent that I went on, they can reach out to me, they reach out to shamira, they can reach out to Aubrey or they can just go to the Buddhist books website and fill out the form. There's so many ways to get in touch with us, the main way is go to the website and use the forum. But if you see me on LinkedIn, and you just want to click on my name, and hit message, that's fine, too. And that as far as getting help, the training pathways page will have all the certification opportunities, those will have applications that will open and we'll take as many people as funding will allow us to for each one. And those will be right on the website. We'll also make announcements on all of our social medias and by email when those open so that people don't miss their chance. As far as if you want to get involved as far as volunteer or support us with a donation or something of the sort, you can go to our website and contact us or donate there. And you know it, it all goes to veterans. No one is getting paid from this yet. We may bring on our first part time paid employee this year. That's our exciting news. But you know, will not be Aubrey awry. It really is. The goal is to make the most innovative and kind of efficient program to veterans. You know, and I think that right now we're definitely on the right track. So if someone wants wants help, or wants to be a part of that our websites definitely the best place to start. But I'm always here to

KP: 28:27

it sounds outstanding, Peter and I don't want to finish out this episode without acknowledging some of your main team members for boots, the books, do you want to really quickly just mention who they are? And a little bit about them and what they do?

Peter Cline: 28:40

Yeah, definitely. So I mean, I'll start with with Aubrey, you heard a little bit about him, you know, helping me in my transition. But aside from that, he's the vice president of boots, the Bucs and it's not everything, of our, you know, technical presence, any technology we've used any bad idea, I've had a shot down, and there's been a lot you know, he's he's been really fantastic and has a support past my transition. And, you know, really driving force behind boots, two bucks. shamira has been our program manager, and she has been doing the intake of the veterans and making sure that they're all accurately tracked and get the help they request on a volunteer basis and doing tireless work adaptively. And so that's just been amazing. Bringing her on is helped so much as far as being able to scale it and help more people. Since she came on, even our donations, it's kind of skyrocketed up and projected for the next year. So she has been huge, we just brought on a guy who is in Ranger Regiment right now in 275, through the army work X program. So the Department of Labor allows service members for the last six months or less, he's doing a little bit less than six, to work full time for an organization while getting paid by the army to develop the resume some skills. And it's perfect. And so he's come on is an operations manager. He's doing a lot of the marketing. And as we grow our team, he's going to be taking a more organizational leadership role, which is going to be awesome and kind of help make sure that we're still able to be accessible, and put out great stuff for our veterans as we get more and more than need help. So he's been awesome. And then we have an amazing board who's been just absolutely unbeatable, which is Bill McNicholas Patrick Gillespie. And he tie Ethan Chuck and I always kind of mispronounce his last name, my bad, but he is the best man in the world. And they've been invaluable and kind of steering us in the right direction as well. And we're bringing on a bunch more people right now. There's going to be some more exciting news. But until then, I'll leave it there. But they've been, you know, even aside from them, they've been so many people Paul Cummings. First off fallen you know, a lot more that even while not directly in boots, the books have done so much for the organization to allow it to grow and to allow it to do things that specialize to certain industries. And so it's been really a community effort, it's kind of been a showing of how strong the community is as a whole, and rallying behind those that you know, need some support. There, they're always there when needed.

KP: 31:12

I tell you, I certainly have been hearing a lot of buzz about Boots to Books. And so I had to have you on the show. And overall, Peter, I gotta tell you just reviewing everything, all your materials out there, this is certainly a very assessable battle, battle buddy organization, because it was built on that whole aspect in itself. And so for anyone out there that's listening who thinks that these organizations are not for them, the first step is going to the website, filling out the form and making that initial contact, because I think you'll feel at home with folks like Peter and Aubrey, and an entire team over at Boots to Books when it comes to making that transition. So please, take advantage of these opportunities, opportunities that we never had in times past, to make that Trent that career transition, the best and the most optimal that could possibly be. And before we finish things out, Peter, is there anything in summary that you'd like to tell our audience out there or give any advice for to anyone out there that's listening?

Peter Cline: 32:10

I mean, I'd say the biggest thing is the transition is tumultuous by design, it's never gonna be, you know, unless everything goes perfectly there, it will often be hectic and stressful. And remembering that it's, you know, things happen for a reason, but your resilience and ability to keep working hard, despite what you know, despite what's facing you, is extremely important. But what's equally as important is knowing when to reach out for help, and finding the right resources. And I think one thing that that is definitely good, and I'm happy to go out and say is that there's so many other great VSOs and other great people helping out as well. And so if it's not as if somebody reaches out for help, you know, this community is so great that there is always someone out there to offer help and be that battle buddy. And so it's, you know, worker bleep off. But, you know, don't do so blindly reach out for help as well.

KP: 33:04

That is some solid advice, Peter, and you know, I want people out there listening to understand if you're in a service right now, when you get out of the military. It's not just you against other veterans trying to get these positions. It's going to be you against people who went to universities, some of them were in certain fraternities. And it's something that I experienced when I got out that it wasn't just me, trying to get positions against other fellow veterans, it was me competing with folks who went to very top Ivy League schools who joined the right fraternities, the right sororities, things of that nature, that might align better with those companies that I was trying to get into. So positioning yourself by getting the certifications by getting involved as much as you can prior to your transition is going to make things way more seamless for you. And so just understand, pull yourself back a little bit further and understand that it's not just you, and the military community looking for these jobs, but it's literally all over the world, especially now with the internet, people can apply from anywhere. And some people may have network better than you. So this is a great way for you to set yourself apart from other folks out there. It's going to be very competitive when you make that transition. And so, Peter, if anyone is out there interested in contacting you, what's the best way for them to contact you?

Peter Cline: 34:30

Definitely. So they can reach out through the booths book site or contact me directly on LinkedIn. I'm always open to hearing from new people, and hearing new ways to help our community or you know, new people that may need it. At any time, reach out and you know, we pride ourselves on being responsive is all hack. So we'll get back very quickly.

KP: 34:52

take that first step, folks. All right, Peter, I want to thank you for your time today. And all the information mentioned as far as the website and how to get a hold of Peter is going to be located in the show notes. So scroll down to the bottom of the podcast where you can go to my website and then from there, you'll see the video as well as the podcast platforms that this will be published on. For anyone listening out there. Thank you for your time today. Make sure you get in contact with Boots to Books by going to the website until later. I want you to stay tuned stay focused and stay motivated. Warriors fall out