Well, good afternoon everybody. Uh, Stephen Hartz here with Charles Hall, and we’re currently at the Veterans Edge, which is a conference located in Dallas, Texas. It happens, this is the 9th year, and it’s run by IVMF, and it’s specifically for veteran-owned businesses. But before we get into all of that, we’re going to kind of recap our week. We’re on a, on a tirade of travel over the next several weeks, and it started off on Sunday.

Charles, where’d we go on Sunday? Oh my goodness, uh, you go, which Sunday are you talking about? We headed off to the American College of Healthcare Executives in Houston. It’s an annual event where executives, about 7,000 folks, uh, executives, healthcare executives around the nation come together to learn, to network, and, and really to connect with the latest and greatest in philosophies around healthcare. Yeah, and it was, uh, it was interesting, you know, this year in Houston.

I think next year they’re transitioning it over to Nashville. Uh, arriving this time, we 65,000 young ladies who were out there for the National Cheerleading Championship while you’re also trying to load 7,000 executives in healthcare to all get ready for their conference. It was, it was pretty busy. But I’ll tell you, we recently posted an article about the value of conferences, and you’ve been in healthcare for decades and decades, Charles. You know, I see the value in healthcare is on the business side.

It’s our opportunity to network. It’s opportunity to meet with clients and candidates and, and learn what’s current in healthcare on my side, but having been an administrator and a clinician and that experience, what do you think the values are for those kind of conferences? Yeah, I know when you and I were sitting there just reflecting on that conference, um, I’m going to use some, some words like seasons, uh, seasons in people’s profession. And so we were sitting back taking a look at the seasons that we saw. We had young folks, you had middle-aged folks, and and some more established executives that were there, and they were at different seasons of their life.

And it’s funny, I’ve been going there for, ah, maybe 10 years in one form or fashion or another, and it meant something different to me at different seasons of my life. And so this is that give-back season where leadership for Steve, you, and I means all this experience over the last 30 years of leadership and healthcare and what we can offer and give back. Those are the forums that are designed for folks like us to give that back and also to learn and to network. And it was great to see the hunger to learn from so many executives there that we interacted with. Yeah, I agree.

It was nice seeing some friendly faces that we’re familiar with from, again, across the spectrum from retired flag officers in the Navy to those looking for their next opportunity. I personally like the opening speech. I thought they did a really good job. You know, they always give out an award or two at the beginning, but their initial speaker was great. He’s a professor and he was talking about leadership and leadership styles and how to bring it all to healthcare.

And I find those events to be awesome. They usually have pretty good speakers. And then you and I left at different times. I came up here to Dallas Monday night, had to leave a little early from the conference, but I came up to a program that I’m participating in called the CEO Circle hosted by JPMorgan Chase through the IVMF program, which was- it’s awesome. I’ve had the opportunity to do it for a couple months now, and it is like-minded veteran-owned businesses that as CEOs, principals, founders come together and we talk about our challenges.

And it’s interesting because we all come from different walks. You have everything from government contracting work to independents to one of the guys, David, in our CEO circle has this wonderful company called Shitty Little Company that works in porta-potties. But they, you know, we’re all facing the same challenges. How do we find the right finance team, how do we market ourselves properly, what are the best practices? And I think the other side, and I think you’ll have the opportunity to do this in this coming year, is I like personally when you get to that honest moment of like, if I’m being honest, and Todd who runs this program, that’s his biggest thing.

If I’m being honest, my biggest challenge is like, man, I’m burned out. I don’t know if I want to keep doing this. And you would hear everything from these CEOs of, if I’m being honest, I don’t know if I’m going to make payroll next week. If I’m being honest, our company made $100 million, but we only had 0.5% of profit. And it was interesting just hearing that different dynamic from all these different CEOs and realizing, hey, you know, you and I’ve been doing this now for almost 3 years.

It is not easy. There are a lot of challenges we face. Yeah. So I want to give some kudos out, just kind of set the stage. We mentioned the word or the letters IVMF.

It’s the Veterans of Military Families, and it’s done out of an institute in Syracuse. University of Syracuse puts this on, and there’s unbelievably amazing programs for veterans and veteran spouses. And so, Steve, what you’re talking about is the IVMF CEO Circle that’s really designed for up-and-coming and scaling executives to grow their business from one level, midsize, to the next level. And can you tell me a little bit more about the program? So it’s a, it’s a year program.

And so generally the year-long program, we meet every month. We meet in our what’s called a call sign. It’s a small group, about 8 to 10 people. And I’m in Blue 2 is my call sign. And then you have cohort, the, the whole group, which is about 60 people, and we meet once a month as well.

Now there are 4 fly-ins a year where we actually all come together. So our first fly-in was in December in New York City at the JPMorgan Chase headquarters. Um, we tack on the first 2 days of Veterans Edge, another IVMF program. Then we met here in Plano, Texas. And then we’ll meet again in New York City for a fly-in.

And then the last one is in December where we- my class would graduate and your class would get started. And, um, and what’s cool about it is not only are the CEO Circles typically have 50 to 60 new members every year, but the alumni- if you’ve been in the CEO Circle, you get the opportunity to come back, continue to improve, uh, be an ambassador, or maybe be the facilitator for the program. And What’s awesome is, I will tell you, just the group that you’re around, that’s one of my favorite things about being a veteran-owned business is we have like-minded individuals. We have other CEOs and veterans who’ve done, you know, 2 years to 36 years, but it’s the camaraderie. And then it’s the speakers.

We’ve had Jamie Dimon speak with us, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was outstanding. We’ve had the Secretary of the VA came and speak to us. We’ve had leaders or CEOs of veteran-owned companies that have gone from zero to $100+ million and talked about their successes and challenges. And then we’ve had others that came and talked to us about their failures and how they’re, you know, reattacking again. And I think all of that is awesome because it kind of helps you understand more about just generally in business and then some of the challenges you have to be prepared for.

And it’s- the programs have been phenomenal. So as, as I understand the program, as we were preparing for this session together, we’re doing a little bit of reflection of Steve on the back end of the one-year CEO Circle. Yeah. And so generally about 60 CEOs come into this cohort for a year and from companies of a minimum of $1 million of revenue. That’s correct.

Up to greater than $5 million. Is that correct? That’s true. And I will say there were some in there that had way more revenue than that. There’s some government contractors that had, you know, $30, $50, $70 million, but they’re facing challenges because what they make off of that amount of money wasn’t there.

And it’s, again, I think the other thing that was unique is we have a lot of obviously veteran-owned businesses. You have a lot of government contractors that work in DOD or other type of or DOW or other type of entities now. And so they’re facing their challenges because of government funding. Whereas some other organizations that were doing like garbage collection or construction, they’re facing their unique challenges. And just the way everybody comes together and, hey, this is my biggest problem, these are some of the things are done.

And then it’s going around the room saying, well, have you thought about this? It’s just getting everybody’s opinion to be able to sit there and validate, hey, these are concerns, how do we address them? And, um, the CEO Circle wasn’t something that I was very familiar with. You know, you and I both went through the EBV program, which is the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans program, um, which is what they would consider their premier program. That is for individuals who are either just starting out or having an idea of a business, or maybe in that initial infancy of a, a business.

And, you know, we both went through that. We went through Syracuse. There are many programs out there in the country- LSU, Texas A&M- but obviously you and I went to the best program, which is Syracuse University, the home of IVMF, which is actually put together by Mike Haney. And Mike Haney was just announced this week as the new chancellor. I believe it’s the 13th or 16th chancellor for Syracuse University.

Yeah. And so let me kind of dive into this as all. So really want to put a shout out to the CEO Circle and the experience that you had, Steve, and really what it’s designed for. It looks like it has about 5 pillars. And so I’d love to have you talk a little bit about those 5 pillars, a peer advisory, the groups that come together for networking and learning, the executive education, mentorship, networking, and some growth opportunities.

What are the top 2 or 3 takeaways that you’ve had over the last year? I think the biggest one I would say is networking. And I would tell you that’s in any of these programs. I think the networking and the relationships you make have been phenomenal. Everybody is going through a challenge or something like that, and sometimes you’re the person who needs the help and sometimes you’re the person that can offer the help.

And I think that’s what the networking does. I think the other side of it is the growth. And, and through that, it comes in a couple different ways. One is education and training, you know, maybe being introduced to resources that you’re not familiar with. We’ve learned of many resources through JPMorgan Chase through the program that we were not aware existed.

And that’s one piece of it. I think the other side of it that kind of combines networking and growth is we’ve met a lot of other businesses that are kind of in parallel to our business. One’s doing maybe staffing. Or ones doing IT or other type of services that we don’t specifically do that, um, work for our clients, but we need that work done for our clients. And now we’re able to make connections and it helps us grow together.

And I think those are some of the great things. But I will tell you, as, um, the director Misty had talked about the other day, was that a lot of them also lead to joint ventures, like brand new companies that come out of two people that are having coffee and having an idea. And we met a great young man, uh, just this week, Yusuf, who’s in some incredible technology with artificial intelligence and workflow development and supplemental support in the rev cycle, specifically in healthcare. And it was that relationship that leads to a connection that leads to a connection. And I think for me, the networking and the growth, those two pillars are my favorite pieces of the, of the program.

Now I want to transition over to the EBV program. The EBV program was post-9/11 veterans, and it was designed to help veterans transition into entrepreneurship. And so it is a good way to say it’s structured much like a boot camp. There is coursework that occurs prior to the arrival, many different locations. In both of our situations, it was Syracuse University up in Syracuse, New York, and we come together for, I think, about 10 days.

Yep. Um, and we work on sometimes the fundamentals, sometimes advanced skills like, uh, business programs or marketing plans or strategic development, all designed to interact with other leaders or other veterans at the same kind of level as you are, working to learn from each other and take our companies to the next level. I did mine last summer, 2025, over the month of August, and you did yours in 2024. There is a picture out there of you in 2024. Apparently you played football and there was some camaraderie there.

You wanna talk a little bit about that moment and your experience? So I actually, I went in 2023 and I think you went in 2024. We were one, one year off. Oh my goodness, the time flies, doesn’t it? It seems like yesterday.

Where are we today? But, uh, yeah, so I went in 2023, uh, before we started, uh, the company. And, um, I went there, I had a buddy of mine, uh, Tom Jones, a gentleman I served with in the Navy, played rugby with. He went through a program in Oklahoma. He gave me the information about it and I went there.

And then I played football at Virginia Tech, and Virginia Tech and Syracuse had a very very strong rivalry. And so the entire time I was there, the staff was giving me a good hard time. But when we graduated the program on the last night, I had won a leadership award for the, for the cohort or for the EBV program, and I was selected by my peers for that. And of course, when I went up on stage, Mike, the executive or vice chancellor and the executive director for IVMF gave me a big Syracuse football shirt. So of course I had to wear my Syracuse shirt over top of my suit, which was- everybody got a kick out of it.

But I will say, you know, one of the other great programs about the EBV program, and I’m kind of going squirrel moment here for a second, was that every graduate from the Syracuse program becomes a Syracuse alumni. Oh. And so, Joe. Yeah. And I was like, I thought that was pretty cool that the chancellor at the time- and I know Mike will continue this on in the future- is when you go through the Syracuse program, they believe in the program so much that you become a Syracuse alumni and the benefits that go with being an alumni of the University of Syracuse, which is- I will say it’s a beautiful campus, much nicer in the summer than it is in the winter, though.

True. All right. So let’s get into the details. We’re using these letters like EBB. Let me give you one real quick one, Charles, because you went the year after me and you had a phenomenal experience in there, and you got the leadership award also for leading on your team and all.

And I don’t want to- I don’t want to let that go because I thought that was amazing that you and I went two different times, two different classes, and you got the leadership award as well. And I think it’s a true testament to, uh, I think there’s about 20, 20, 25 folks in these courses. And it’s an intensive- EBB stands for Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Veterans. And so they are held on various campuses. Syracuse is one of them.

Texas A&M, Gig ‘Em, I’ll say that since I’ve lived in that world for a bit. UCLA and LSU. And, uh, In there, it’s an intensive study with your peers, and the goal is to make it through that and learn to get a business plan and put together. And our journeys are very similar through that. I think the award is really designated to those who help others.

It’s that leadership, it’s that mentorship side, and just being reflective. I have such a great cohort that was there, And they were all different levels from food trucks to the clothing industry, to the service, to service dogs. It was really impressive to see. And as we went through this, I have a little bit of background in business as well as in business plans and marketing. And so not everybody has that same experience.

And I think when I went through that, it was more of a coaching experience and a mentorship, and I’ve learned quite a bit. And that just ended up into a pretty nice award. And, and that was similar for yourself as well. Yeah. And, you know, I think what’s interesting about the Malcolm Award was that award is really designed to be leadership, meaning that you were leading within that cohort, that the people felt that they could come to you for advice and recommendation.

You were helping to lead in that, that team. And I think that that was awesome. And I I think the other thing that’s interesting about EBV, I, you know, you did a great job of explaining. If I were to break it down, uh, what I call Barney style, I think of it like an MBA on steroids. Like, you got 7 days and they’re teaching you marketing, finance, accounting, IT.

They were like 15-hour days. Yeah, long days. And it culminates in a dinner, but right prior to the dinner is the thing that everybody gets a little nervous about, which is the pitch. Talk to me about your experience with the pitch. I think you never know who’s gonna be in that room.

True statement. True statement. Very true statement. Beautiful campus, beautiful building. And you go into a large classroom, pseudo boardroom, and you have stakeholders, I’m gonna call them stakeholders, friends and leaders to veterans that are there.

Folks that are quite prominent or quite generous, two ways to look at it, and extremely experienced. And when you walk in, you never know who you’re going to pitch to along next to your peers. And so we pitched our company. You’re right, coming into the, into the first year of H&H leadership, you’re walking into starting H&H leadership at the time. And we pitched our vision.

And our vision at that time, full service solutions and recruitment firm. And if I remember correctly, we are 10 months in and we are approaching $2 million in revenue. [Speaker:CHRIS] That’s right. [Speaker:AL] At that time. And we showed the model of the states that we were in and where we were across the nation.

And the conversation was showing people what was possible. That’s exactly right. I think, you know, because I had went a year before you and we hadn’t even begun everything, right? We had this idea, this, the seed you and I were starting. And then, you know, as you mentioned, you never know who’s gonna be in the room.

True statement. We, I had the opportunity to pitch in front of a gentleman named Ted. Ted’s a Syracuse alumni, he’s a football player. We were giving each other gentle ribbings. Um, but at the end of that, Ted spoke to you and I probably a week or two later and said, hey, hello, I want to give you the seed money to start your company.

And, you know, when you go through the program, they tell you- and the funny part is, God bless them. Yeah, we’re going to say that really quick, like, amazing gentleman. Um, we were exploring how to make this happen and not even thinking seed money. No, that was exactly right. I mean, we were, we were looking at every option out there, all the standard ways to raise capital, SBA loan, putting our kids to work.

Yeah, all sorts of great things. Absolutely. You know, selling a corner of my property, whatever it takes. But, you know, he came to us and said, I believe in you. And, and, you know, basically gave us the money to start this company and loan- loan- loan.

Yes. Loaned us the money to start this company. But we’re pleased that that is near payoff. Absolutely. And, and what was interesting is we were just talking about this in one of our sessions here this week, was how rare that is that somebody believes in you as the person, you know, and, and your, your concept of how you’re going to do it enough to give you the funding to start your company.

And to me, it was amazing. I mean, I tout this all the time. I think IVMF was life-changing for you and I because it gave us the opportunity to really pursue our passion and our dream. And, you know, the pitch I think was fun. I- it was interesting because I’m pretty good at just getting up there and talking.

And so, no, no, I never talk too much. I don’t know what you mean. Next slide. Yeah, but when we got through it, it came out great. And then, you know, what I like now is then you went a year later and it was the fruition was in there.

And this is not a true statement. So there’s multiple rooms there and you never know who’s going to come in. It’s picked by random and and Ted happened to be there. Now, the good thing about Ted is Ted is also one of our advisors. And so he knows our company a lot more thoroughly.

And we meet with him on a regular basis, him and a few other awesome leaders. And he was in there too. And it was a strong pitch with tough questions and then a pause.

And then, by the way, I know these gentlemen and let me tell you what they really have done, because I think both of us in some ways are a little bit more humble. But our footprint at that time was, I believe, 7 or 8 states that we were in at that time. Today, I did a little counting. We’re in over 15 states. And growing.

And growing. And over 3 dozen health systems that we are with and have worked closely with to either stabilize or help take them to the next level. Yeah, I don’t know if we would have thought of that 3 years ago. I, you know, it’s when you take the moment to pause and think about it, it’s like, wow. Um, and I will tell you, we’re incredibly blessed.

Uh, I don’t think we would be where we’re at without the support of great organizations like IVMF, uh, the people like Ted and our other advisors, um, but also our families. You think about how our families have supported us through this journey. It’s been a busy time. I can only imagine that there is a larger picture of us that they carry with them everywhere we go while we’re on travel. I mean, I like to think that way.

I’m confident that’s not the case, but without them, none of this would be possible, and the impact is amazing. I want to do a couple more shoutouts as we think about EBV, Entrepreneurship for Veterans. There’s 4 other programs that we’ll mention. One we kind of mentioned called Veteran EDGE, and it’s a national conference for IVMF, and it’s for veteran business leaders. We meet annually.

These last few years we’ve met in Dallas and we get together for a few days and we learn and we network and mentorship is there, which is awesome. I want to put a shout out to VWISE. That’s Entrepreneur Training for Women Veterans and Military Spouses. Uh, my bride had that opportunity to go, I believe it was Atlantic City at the time, and was able to really learn quite a bit because she too is an entrepreneur and a veteran and was able to gain quite a bit of experience. Your bride also had the opportunity to dive into IVMF programs.

Yeah, uh, Sandra had the opportunity as a military spouse to attend a program called EBVF, which is for Entrepreneurial Boot Camp Veterans for Families. She attended hers down at Florida State, and it was kind of a more rapid version of our EBV program. They do it over a 5-day period. But again, the opportunity to network. We actually met one of her students or one of her classmates here this Veterans Edge.

Rebecca was one of her classmates in that EBVF program. But what I think is amazing about the programs You know, even if you’re not ready, they have programs and you apply for a program, whether it’s CEO Circle or EBV, they’ll, they assess you, right? And if you’re not ready for it, they’ll move you to maybe an earlier stage program where, hey, we’re going to do a little more time to get you ready for EBV. Or excuse me, if you’re farther along, they have another program called EBV-A, which is accelerator, which I think is probably yours and my next step. For programs that are kind of the 3 years past mark.

We’re really on the acceleration plan and the scaling side. They have Military Founders Lab, which is a 10-week virtual entrepreneurial program. Not everybody can travel. And so we really want to put a huge shout out for the blessing that Syracuse, those leaders, and, and the generosity of many people around the world that have donated their time and their funds to help support veterans and help veteran-owned businesses get off the ground and not just survive, but thrive. Absolutely, Charles.

And I’m going to, I’m going to name a few off the top of my head that I know that have been huge, huge supporters of IVMF. First, the Danello family. Dan Danello. Got to spend some time with him this morning. We did.

We got to meet and have breakfast with him. Dan Danello was one of the founders of the Carlyle Group. That was awesome. Walmart. Walmart.

The Schultz Foundation, Howard Schultz, you know, Starbucks, you know, and I will tell you, he’s very humble about being a part of it, but he is, he was awesome to support us with that. JPMorgan Chase supports us on a variety of different programs. Fiserv is another great investor and supporter, and just dozens and dozens of others. Those are the ones off the top of my head. Let me throw a few more out there.

Um, the staff of IVMF. Oh yes. Uh, 2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, a similar philosophy that, uh, Steve and I carry for our company. Um, they too are there. Misty Fox, uh, rock star in a thousand different ways, um, is there to help guide resources and knowledge and mentorship for those who need it at at any time of the year, which is- she’s just been an amazing asset to the program.

I agree. Uh, you know, I got an opportunity to meet Misty for the first time, and what was interesting was, is she’s the director, and the first time I went to EBV, she was like there with her car to pick me up at the airport. And I’m like, I thought it would be like an Uber or taxi, and she was like, nope. She’s like, I’m here, I’m the one. I, I did an overnight flight and they picked me up.

I think it was like 5 in the morning. Yeah, I mean, just dedicated. Uh, Michael Haney, you talked a little bit about, um, which is the brainchild, my understanding, of IVMF. He is, uh, founder, really the guy to get it off the ground, a veteran himself, um, helped to put this together. And again, a huge shout out to him.

Announced this week that he is the next chancellor of Syracuse University. I’ll give another one, uh, she’s been instrumental, not not only in the program since I’ve been part of it, but Veterans Edge, is Tiffany Jones. Oh, she’s a rock star. Yeah, Tiffany, Tiffany just leads in so many fronts for the organization, has really helped, um, the team get together. And just, I mean, people that you can rely on and count on.

And I will tell you, like you said, 2 AM, 2 PM, we have reached out to them for questions on everything from legal advice to patents and trademarks and they come back and they’re always there for you to help you out. Well, you know, I think this session talked a little bit about our week, our week in Houston, but also here in just outside of downtown Dallas and got a chance to have some barbecue like we do every year. Absolutely. Tradition, we visit some amazing friends, the Eichlers, gonna do a shout out to them. Amazing, amazing family right there, long history with them.

And the work that they’ve done in healthcare. IVMF, we want to really just put a shout out to all veterans out there that they’re- for those who are interested, have a deep desire, or currently, currently have a business, IVMF is a great resource for you to help propel your organization. Yeah, and I, you know, I would tell you that it’s beyond that. You know, if you are Leaving the service, they have programs, I believe it’s called O2O. right.

program. If you’re looking to get your PMP, your Lean Six Sigma, those certifications, all these different programs that are out there. And I will tell you, if you’re leaving the service, whether you’ve done 20+ years in the service or you leave before that, whether you’re an E-1 or an O-10, there are programs out there for you and take a look at them. And if IBMF’s not the right one for you, they’ll put you in touch with the ones that may be able to help you. And the fact that it’s coast to coast, north to south, east to west, uh, programs from UCLA to Connecticut to Syracuse down to Texas A&M, there will be a program for you.

Let them help you figure it out. Don’t be out there by yourself not knowing where you want to go or what you want to do, even if you just need somebody to talk to. And I will tell you In my experience, even the members who have attended IBMF or the EBV program CEO Circles or etc., if you have questions, they can answer them. One last thing I’ll bring up about the program. There are traveling IBMF programs that will travel around the country, and oftentimes you might have a chance to meet an ambassador.

And so there are IBMF ambassadors that are people who have attended the programs. They’re the ones you really want to reach out to. And I’ll tell you, you can Google IVMF, you could ChatGPT IVMF, however you find your information. Any questions, reach out to them or reach out to Charles and I. We’d be happy to talk to you about our experience with the program and help you any way we can.

All right. Because this is an audio session, for those of interest, please check out the program, www.ivmf.syracuse.edu.

.edu. Again, www.ivmf.syracuse.edu. Please take a look at those programs. Feel free to reach out to either Stephen or I if you’re a veteran and want to know more. Absolutely.

So as we finish this up, let’s talk about the next couple weeks, Charles. I know we got, uh, 2, 3 more weeks of travel at least. Where are you headed to next? Uh, The good news is I get a night or two at home, which is not true for yourself. And we get a chance on Monday to meet back in Washington State.

And we have a week-long Washington State meeting with a great client of ours, a hospital system deep in the mountains, one of our favorite places to go and spend a little time. And then we’re off to Spokane. Absolutely. I will get- let’s see, today is March 6th. It’s Friday.

Look, it’s Friday. Yeah, Friday. I had to look at the calendar. Friday, March 6th, I head to Miami for a weekend to see my family and we get to go to a friend of ours’ quincea era. And then I will be flying out to meet you in Washington State.

We’ll spend a week out there. And then I think next weekend we’re on another conference in Phoenix. Yep. And then I’ll be heading to Denver and meet our clients out on the Eastern Plains. And then Then we have our conference, and then we’re back to DC.

Yeah, we have the NEMSMA conference, uh, NEMSMA National EMS Management Association, um, inaugural annual conference, and, uh, at the Army-Navy Country Club. Yep. Oh, we have our- we do have our whiskey tasting at the Army-Navy Country Club that, uh, that conference. And then this conference will be held at the Hilton. And but that whole DC metro area during- that’s right, Cherry Blossom Festival.

Terry Plus. So it’ll be, it’ll be beautiful. So we’re looking forward to it. We appreciate everybody taking the time to listen to us. And, you know, Colin or Colin here podcasting here from Dallas, Texas.

I’ll sign off and thank you guys. Charles, thank you for everything you do, man. Thank you. Vice versa. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Look forward to the next podcast we do.