Entrepreneurial Appetite

From Military to Marketplace: Veterans Mike Steadman and Lamar Sales on Entrepreneurship

• Mike Steadman/Lamar Sales • Season 5 • Episode 52

Share episode

Discover how two remarkable veterans, Iron Mike Steadman and Lamar Sales, turned their military experiences into thriving entrepreneurial ventures. From Charleston to Newark, our guests recount their transformative journeys marked by resilience, determination, and a deep commitment to their communities. Listen as we explore Lamar's transition from an Eagle Scout to a United States Army officer and Mike's founding of Ironbound Boxing. Their stories offer a testament to the powerful influence of heritage and the enduring spirit of Black pride.

Mike and Lamar open up about the challenges they faced while pivoting from military life to entrepreneurship. Hear how Mike's nonprofit boxing gym laid the groundwork for his future business ventures, and Lamar's experience in mortuary affairs during Hurricane Katrina shaped his approach to problem-solving and opportunity recognition. These narratives unveil the critical life lessons in adaptability and energy management, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and the courage to pivot when needed.

Finally, we touch on the crucial intersections of mental health, identity, and entrepreneurship, particularly for Black men. Amid the hustle and grind, our guests reflect on finding balance and maintaining authenticity. With insights from the book "Good to Great," the discussion emphasizes the power of brevity and the significance of surrounding yourself with the right people. Whether you're a veteran, an aspiring entrepreneur, or someone navigating life's transitions, this episode promises profound insights and inspiration.

Support the show

https://www.patreon.com/c/EA_BookClub

Langston Clark :

Hey everyone, thank you again for your support of Entrepreneurial Appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support. What's up everybody? Continued support. What's up everybody.

Langston Clark :

This is Langston Clark, the founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. And today we have a very special live episode. Our two guests for today Iron Mike Stedman, who is a Marine Corps veteran and author of Black Veteran Entrepreneur Validate your Business Model, build your Brand and Step Into Greatness. And we have a very special guest host, Lamar Sales, who is president and CEO of Petro Ops and he's a United States Army veteran. I thought Lamar would be the perfect person to facilitate tonight's conversation, because Lamar is someone that has had the Black Veteran Entreprene entrepreneur experience, thought it'd be a great opportunity for him and Mike to meet, and so, Lamar, thank you for stepping in, and I'll let you take it from here.

Lamar Sales:

I appreciate it, appreciate it. Thank you for the warm introduction. But yeah, Lamar Sales, originally from Charleston, South Carolina, grew up, as you say, with Southern boy. I lost some of my geeky accent, but when I go home comes out right. So the first thing I do is, you know, always hug my mom, and I look for the first little penis I can find to realize that I'm home. So it's always proud to be here, always proud to work around people who want to strive for more and be more. My story wasn't easy.

Lamar Sales:

Most like other people, came from two parents. My dad was military. My mom was a nurse supporting the military. I have a twin sister and older sister. We were always in sports. I am an Eagle Scout. I never said I was, because once you're an Eagle Scout you're always an Eagle Scout. So that was the values and stuff in the church that we grew up in. You know, I went through a lot of hard times, hard tribulations, got scholarships for playing football and I broke my leg my senior year. So a lot of those big schools pulled back, like one of the schools that said they're going to stay with me was one was South Carolina State and two was the Citadel.

Lamar Sales:

At that time I wasn't ready to go to the Citadel mentally and so I started to go to South Carolina State, went to South Carolina State and I can tell you in that year in 1999, there's a few albums that dropped that same year, 112 dropped. Snoop Dogg had signed with no Limit, enter. The Drew came out. DMX album came out and I say that because those are all pivotal times, right? No, miss Education. Lauryn Hill also came out. Those are very important because at that time I'll be very honest with you. That's when I actually really found my Blackness right, I thought I knew who I was, but going to Sacramento State. Now I say I went to Sacramento State but, I, never said.

Lamar Sales:

I graduated from Sacramento State. My twin sister she actually went to the Citadel. She was the first black female to actually attend the Citadel Military Institution First time we were away and I decided that after my first year I was going to transfer and be with my family. So I transferred to Ticonderna State, I went to the Citadel and the rest is history, Became an all conference linebacker on the football team. From there I commissioned into the military.

Lamar Sales:

But there are some things that changed. That 9-11 was my junior year in college, Right. So I watched the Twin Towers fall and if you get to know me, I'm like the move of the blind side. I'm a very big on protection, and so I decided that if someone attacks my family, someone attacks my community, someone attacks my country, then I'm the person who knocks back, right. So that's the premise of who I am and where my story begins, right. So we always want to go to the beginning. So I just want to tell that and you know, I just want to open up the mic, you know, and if you can, kind of let us know who you are, where you're from and some things that, before we get into why you're doing what you're doing. I think it's really good to understand where you come from and because a lot of times you'll make connections with people before you tell your story and you can give a little bit about your past and your upbringing man.

Mike Steadman:

I'd love to, and first of all, it's just an honor being here, but before I do that, I do got to tell you about this connection and the story. So I'm going to talk about this. You know, as we talk today, I had an opportunity to go to the Naval Academy Prep School, which eventually led me to the United States Naval Academy. When I was at the Naval Academy Prep School I came across a show I think it was by the Marine Corps of Times called the Making of a Marine Officer, and in the show it featured black second lieutenant by the name of Omar Fitzgerald, right, and Omar Fitzgerald played. Did he play football at Citadel? Or he attended the Citadel and I saw myself in him because, you know, he was somebody like I aspired to be, like I wanted to be a Marine Corps infantry officer, et cetera.

Mike Steadman:

Time goes on, right. I finally get to the academy and then, a couple of years later, I try to kind of look him up and, you know, find out where he was at in his journey. And then I was, you know, sad to discover that he was killed in combat in Iraq, and I just remember how devastated I was to kind of hear that because I had never met him in person, right. But just as a young black kid from Texas trying to make a way out of no way become a Marine Corps infantry officer, right, I felt that connection, and so anytime I meet a Citadel grad from that area, I just kind of like to share that story, mainly just because, even though you never meet people at times, right, they still had a huge impact on your life.

Lamar Sales:

Yeah, so let me jump on that before you keep going. So I wear this right, which is it's a sign of deployment. So I wear this, which is a sign of deployment, it's a sign of military strength. It's also the sign that we remember those who have fallen, and Omar Fitzgerald, one of my brothers, and so when he did fall it was very tough. Malcolm, last name's Malcolm. I'll say his first name. He's another brother that fell.

Lamar Sales:

So the fact that you know Omar Fitzgerald and you know the story, it's full circle. I will tell you a little bit about him. He was a man's man, he was a community man, he was a God-fearing man and he was a brother and when he gave, he sacrificed his life for this country. I was not surprised and I was honored to be able to know him, I was honored to have a serve with him and I was honored to be able to salute him on the day that he did fall. So full circle. And I know Omar will be proud of all of us and I appreciate that. And, yeah, just very good moment there.

Mike Steadman:

Yeah, and it's funny, even just telling that story I get a little emotional because at the time that I found that out I was following the same exact path. You know, I was going to go to the basic school. I was going to be a Marine Corps infantry officer. I knew I wanted to go to combat Right and you know I just remember the feeling and the sadness I felt. So it's good that even being able to tell these stories, we're able to keep his legacy alive, you know, because it's easy to forget as we start to move along with our lives. Because a lot's happened. So I guess I'll go back to the beginning, like you asked me. My name is Mike Stedman. I go by Iron Mike. I'm working on how do I describe myself? Right? These days I am a professional business coach and brand builder for what I call the underdogs and misfits, which I describe as ring knockers, so those from service academies, military veterans as a whole and anyone else that's used to, anyone that's used to being one-on-one in a room. So you can imply you know what that means. I love helping you know underdogs and misfits, because that's how I felt, you know, coming from Texas and having a chance to go to the Naval Academy and being a Marine Corps infantry officer.

Mike Steadman:

I grew up in very humble backgrounds, raised in a single parent home by my mom, malene Stedman. She was a special education teacher, worked her way up to director. I did have an older sister. She was six years older than me, is six years older than me. But you know, I grew up in an environment where there weren't too many male figures around. You know we had, like our, our basketball coaches and football coaches, and you might have that one got one dad in the neighborhood that was kind of like mentoring a lot of us.

Mike Steadman:

But I mean, I grew up in an environment where there just weren't a lot of males around. But I knew I wanted more for myself and I had opportunity to go to the Naval Academy Prep School which led to me getting an official appointment to United States Naval Academy and by the time I graduated I fell in love with the sport of boxing and became a three time national boxing champ, two time most viable boxer. Captain of my boxing team, I went on to graduate, serve our country as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, as an infantry officer, following in Omar's footsteps, deployed to Afghanistan, japan and the Philippines and then, when I got out in 2015, I moved to Newark, new Jersey, and that's where I became an entrepreneur, because I started a boxing program for the kids called Ironbound Boxing and that basically created a platform for me to enter into entrepreneurship.

Lamar Sales:

That's amazing and I know a lot of people didn't take the path that we took right. So there's other paths that get to entrepreneurship and growth, and I'll tell you, my path was 9-11 hit. I actually went into the Air Force because while I played college football and back in the day, ncaa was very strict on if you could receive money and so since I cannot go to Ranger School because I was on full scholarship, there's not many options I had. So the city allowed about five or six of the football players to commission after we graduated and so the Air Force was the only person taking us, because Army, you had to get prepped summers beforehand. So, long story short, when I went to officer training school I got distinguished graduate. So out of 700, I was ranked in the top five. From there, a two-star journal came to me and says we got a special job we want you to do, and they gave me the job of mortuary affairs and search and rescue team chief for the Midwest of the United States.

Lamar Sales:

So basically, at 23 years old, I was responsible for anything that hit in Texas, to the West of the United States. So basically, if a plane went down, I went in. If a guy got killed, I went in. If killed, I went in. If the car wrecked, I went in. And so I was prepped and ready to go. I was my first station at Abilene, texas. Got there for six months. Then what happened? Katrina hit and I got that call Lieutenant Sales, I need you to take your team and get into Katrina my first thing of understanding business. This is kind of weird. I was like well, sir, all due respect, there's no planes flying into New Orleans because there's a hurricane coming.

Lamar Sales:

I was given $100,000 on my government purchase card and he said figure it out, me being a 23-year-old man, I was actually playing basketball at the time. So I had a white beater on, I had some gym shorts, I had the emergency phone that was always on me, and so what do I do? I grabbed my NCOs, I said, hey, we got six hours to load up and pack up, and I said we need to get there. So I went to the. I told me and so we're going to buy two Jeeps, but we have some mode of transportation. We didn't have enough time to figure out from logistics and this is in 2003, where FEMA wasn't really available as they were now People didn't really understand the emergency preparedness.

Lamar Sales:

So I go into this dealership and I'm trying to buy two Jeeps. No one's talking to me. I'm a lieutenant, all right, I can spend. And I said and my NCO was Caucasian male and he was like hey, he's really upset. And I said just watch how this happens, watch what we have to deal with. I walk into this guy's. I need to buy that. He walks away. Walk to the guy, he walks away.

Lamar Sales:

So when you go into a car dealership there's usually a man or a woman sitting behind this high, high desk. You know that they can see everybody. So I walloped there and desk and I said who wants to make some money today? I use some different language who wants to make some money today? A Hispanic male came to me and said hey, sir, how can I help you? I said I'm a lieutenant sales, I'm on orders, I get to buy two Jeeps and he goes how much or what color? I said I don't have time to do the paperwork. So that day we left with two brand new Jeeps, no tags, no, nothing, and I don't have to pay for it.

Lamar Sales:

That was the first realization, understanding like, hey, you know what One?

Lamar Sales:

There's business out there.

Lamar Sales:

Two, what you look like matters and three people always don't take full advantage of opportunity.

Lamar Sales:

Right right, this story is not about me being black. This story is about business. This story is my entrepreneur. This is about taking advantage of the opportunity and a lot of times and I don't know how christian and how spiritual people are, like you know the lord gets you to a place you need to be, and it's often your time to open the door, or the lord to get you somewhere, and you got to be prepared and a lot of people aren't prepared. So, when you're growing up, or when you're going through what was a pivot, what? What was a breakthrough? What was a change of direction? Because everyone has one. People may not know that it is, but what was one of the changes of directions that had you change? When it come to you being a coach, you being a mentor, you've been at what is something that happened in your life that you saw that it was a pivoting, changing moment of you for yourself, I definitely think, the moment I hired my first business coach.

Mike Steadman:

So I moved to Newark in 2015, worked at a private school for about three years called St Benedict's Prep, so I worked in the evening, I ran the residence hall, so I was a glorified house parent. That gave me the day to myself to do my boxing gym and by 2018, I was ready to jump in full time and I created a for profit arm. So I started the boxing gym as a nonprofit, because I don't believe kids could have to, should have to pay to box, at least in the inner city, right, and so I had this for profit business model and I was basically getting punched in the face. And we're going to talk about this why? Because businesses fail for primarily two reasons Number one, no market need. And number two, they run out of cash. I didn't validate that for profit business model before I quit my job, that for-profit business model, before I quit my job. So I had to learn the process of entrepreneurship, which is a different level where you're like relying on the income that you're generating from that venture. I had to learn how to do that while building a parachute after I jumped out the plane, but around 2018, 2019, you just become self-aware with things, right, and I remember growing up like there are these words that I didn't really know what they meant executive coach, business coach, et cetera but I just knew I was like white knuckling it and I was like I got to. I feel like I need some help here, and at the time there was a it's called the GI Go Fund. They had a veteran incubator, so they gave me free co-working space and I called the, the CEO of the GI Go Fund, and asked him. I said you know, I'm really needing some help with some like productivity stuff or, you know, do you know anyone? And he was going to connect me with someone. He said it sounds like you're looking for executive coaching.

Mike Steadman:

I ended up getting a call from a West Point grad at the time that connected me with somebody who was making our apparel, because we had, you know, sick boxing hoodies and all this gear and the company that we use was led by a West Point grad and he I kind of put the bug in the ear in his ear also that I was looking for something and he's like I should connect you with my people. The guy calls me from West Point and he started inquiring about coaching and I was absolutely interested and so he connects me with this West Point grad by the name of Bill Watkins. He graduated in like the class of 1975. He was a professional business coach and you know I was sold within 15 minutes. I was like the easiest call ever because I was self-aware to recognize that like I didn't know what I didn't know and I needed help.

Mike Steadman:

And I grew up, you know not, I didn't grow up boxing but by the time I got to Naval Academy I was pretty freaking good at boxing and I knew that I was coachable. I just need to get pointed in the right direction. And I definitely think that decision to invest in myself and that was not cheap I mean, it was like a big expense at the time but it got me through COVID, you know. It got me through like all these different pivots and you know all the different things. And so you know we're we're obviously on this platform. You know talking about entrepreneurship and we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge, you know, 40 percent of black businesses that shut down altogether during a pandemic. You know and we know the struggle with getting access to capital, like you said, proven our, our worth over and over again. But that coach man, he had me sharp and he empowered me with tools that I have been using ever since.

Lamar Sales:

It's a good story. I always look at people like Usher and even Justin Bieber. People see the success of those and don't realize how far they've come, or they don't realize how many churches they were singing in, I mean, how many songs they sang to get to where they just see that they've been a success. And also a little bit, maybe before I get into my business, fortunately, entrepreneurship. So in the Air Force did very well. I dealt with nothing but death. A lot of things happened Katrina. A lot of things happened, but I wanted to be in the fight. I had that. I wanted to be on the ground. So I did something that was very rare at the time I transferred from the Air Force to the.

Lamar Sales:

Army and I get right into the Army and as soon as I get in the Army, captain, korea's Army officers, don't have your skill set. That's an illicit thing. And there's a big thing called Iraq, right. And so they immediately sent me over to Iraq for 15 months and I was running the entire mortuary collection point of all of Iraq and Baghdad during the height of Iraq. So there's not much I have not seen. I have stories about, and it's the stories within the stories. It's not the actual soldier gives his life, it's the. I have a note in my pocket please give my girlfriend, who I want to be my wife, make sure she gets this ring type stories that we hang on to. But I did that for 15 months. Finally came home, wanted to get out. Michael Jackson passed away.

Lamar Sales:

I always use certain things that happen as my time my frame of reference. A commander came in and said they call me soupy sales. I was like, hey, we want you to apply for this command job. And I said I've done my, I've done my due diligence. It's time for me to start working for me. And they said well, the army's not done. Long story short, I got the command job. Six weeks later they said my company got tapped to go back over to Afghanistan. So going for 15 months, came home for three months, got got a command job, got tapped and now I'm taking the 180 to 200 soldiers there by myself, not going with my unit. And now I'm back on and remember I'm the mortuary affairs guy. So I know if I don't train my guys appropriately, I know what happens. So I train though. I train them like I train the football team. We make a move, we all make a move together. You missed. You missed the tackle. Figure out the tackle. We'll talk about the play later. And so I deployed as a company commander.

Lamar Sales:

I was awarded two bronze stars in my career, combat action badges. I was awarded distinguished officer, so I was ranked number two officer of all officers in combat. I as well got hurt. I hid my injuries because I was the commander. There's no way I was coming home and I had 200 soldiers in there the most, the greatest thing I've ever done in my life, I can say, as we drove over 550,000 miles. I was one of the only commanders at that time who did that type of job to return 100% of his soldiers. So I have a son. My son is 13 months. I love it, but the greatest thing I've ever done is because that's a generation of people and that's 10 to 12 years ago. That's a generation of people and that's 10 to 12 years ago. I'm still helping my soldiers, who are now grown NCOs, get their VA ratings and writing their resumes for them, and helping them continue on Because, as we learn in the military, the war may be over but the battle is still beginning and the battle is still going on.

Lamar Sales:

I can tell you I wasn't the greatest person when I got out. I was going through struggles of the responsibility that I had for the last eight years in the military. I had to find myself, I had to redesign myself, I had to build myself for the future and once I got hurt, I was at Brooke Army Medical Center, had seven surgeries on wrist, shoulder, knee, you name it, you know going through counseling, whatever, and they actually battlefield promoted me. So I got promoted to the major with nine years in the military and the three-star general says, hey, we're going to retire you at major and we're going to take care of you for you know, for for your service, and I really appreciated that.

Lamar Sales:

But I wasn't done from there. I'm 32 years old and I'm like I got the rest of my life, and so I landed the job with Valero Energy Corporation. But the difference when I landed my job at Blair Energy Corporation black in the fuel industry wasn't really big yet. Right, and this is, this is 2013. I'm not talking 1995. I'm not talking 18. I'm talking 2013. So oftentimes I was the only person I would send emails to different clients and they wouldn't respond to me. I had to change my signature block to say Lamar sales lead specialist, major US Army retired combat commander. Then I would get people to respond and so I had to pivot and understand the business. And so, as I'm there, I'm realizing like man for me. I'm thinking to myself you may have gone through this as you're growing like man. I'm just a military guy who happens to be in the fuel. This guy's got to be smarter than me.

Lamar Sales:

And so I decided to get my executive MBA from the university of Texas at San Antonio, and when I went through that program I was almost like on the wizard of all, like the scarecrow, as soon as he handed me the diploma. You know what's this? What is it? The sides of an obsolete triangle are equal to the opposite sides. That's kind of what the scarecrow says when he hands him the poem. I was like it was something I learned myself, that I was able to do it. So that caused me another pivot.

Lamar Sales:

When I was in my executive MBA, they asked us to build a company, build a program and sell it. And that's where Petro Ops came from, because my second job in the military I didn't tell you on purpose was I ran all the fuel farms, I ran all the ammunition, I ran all the supplies for all of Iraq. So I knew the fuel guys, I knew how it worked. So petrol ops, petroleum operations I sell fuel to the government around the world. That's great. I worked at Valero Energy Corporation, which is a fuel company. So I took everything I learned and I pivoted and I said OK, what can I do? I started my own business. That's the business I've done, and actually last week is my eight year in business I've done and actually last week is my eighth year in business.

Lamar Sales:

A lot of times, like you said, people fail because one, they didn't do the assessment of if they're trying to solve a problem and the second is not having enough capital. What I decided was one the government always needs this commodity. Two, there's regulations and there's laws that say the government has to buy things from people who look just like you, look just like me, understand the regulation, understand the rules of the game, adhere to the rules and make the referee make the call. So that's how we built PetroOx and that's how we stayed in business, because other companies can't compete with me because they weren't disabled yet they weren't minority owned, they weren't a combat company, and so the plethora of companies I was going against had been lowered Right.

Lamar Sales:

But also I understood because my, our mission is delivering to the warfighter on top, and because that's what we did. So that's what my business came, and I'll jump in some more entrepreneurship. That's really the question is. But I'm going to float it back to you. I always ask what was the cause or what happened, because always something that happens that made you think I can do this, I can be who I want, I can affect the community. What made you realize that you were capable?

Mike Steadman:

So you know, I mentioned I hired this business coach back in 2019. And in 2022, he approached me about training me to be a professional business coach, because he's a little bit older, but a little bit older. He's like in his 70s, right, and he says he's done. It's not about him being on like the mountaintop, right, so we're talking about lift as we climb. I see you rocking the shirt, right. He's really about kind of amplifying other people. And he approached me and he's like I think you'd be a great business coach. And at the time I'm thinking to myself like, well, not a coach. Right, I haven't built and exited no company. Right, like I'm not that guy. But he saw something in me, he gave me an opportunity. And the thing is, you know, I wrote a book, blackbird Entrepreneur. I became a boxer, right, national champ, et cetera. Right, I started a boxing gym.

Mike Steadman:

The silver line in between all those things is that I'm very motivated by identities. You know, and maybe that's because of the background I grew up in, right, like I think when you don't have a father figure around, it's really hard to know what you can become, right, so you kind of pull and test a bunch of different things and so I'm moved by that. And I won't lie, first time I met him I was like I would love to be a business coach one day, just because I could see it, I could touch it Right, and I knew the impact he had on me. But he, when he asked me, even though I wasn't ready at least mentally I didn't think I was ready I was like you know what? This is one of those crossroads, because this is a skillset I can learn and this is something I can see myself doing in the perpetuity. Like I would love to be able to travel the world and work with amazing entrepreneurs and get paid for it. But I was like I feel like this is one of those moments where you have this older individual who's willing to pour into you, teach you the arts and crafts of it, and so I leaned in.

Mike Steadman:

I went six months without closing a client and one thing I noticed with a lot of black and underrepresented founders that don't have that entrepreneurial experience is that they really struggle with the sales component. The nice thing about coaching was it's a very hard thing to sell if you haven't experienced it. So learning how to sell coaching was on hard mode, you know. It was like sales on hard mode, because you're having people take this leap of faith in you and it's not based on, like, any accolades or anything. You've got to demonstrate your business acumen. You've got to have these high performers and show that you can bring them value.

Mike Steadman:

I don't have an MBA, but sometimes the people that sit on the other side of that screen they do. And so going through the six months with him learning the art of selling coaching because he taught us that you can be a coach if you can't sell coaching it's like an oxymoron. But by month six, boom, it hit and then I just started closing, closing, closing. So going through that process, learning that and now building up that skill set, and over time I'm very blessed to kind of look back and say going from that six months of not closing to now being able to even describe myself as a professional business coach, because I was super intimidated by it for a long time. But now I just own it. It's part of what I do. It's not the only thing that I do. I barely market it. I get a lot of inbound for it, but it is something I see myself really wanting to grow because it does fill my cup. It fills my cup a lot.

Lamar Sales:

As people are watching, and I feel that we've been doing this for a while and we're comfortable. There's something I always ask folks right? You being the military, past military, your medals on your chest are your accomplishments. Sir, we're going to see your resume. Is your experience that you do well? Tell me something that you did not do well as you grew in your business. What did you? What was it? What'd you learn from it? And was it something that really did you excel more because you didn't do something well and you learned a lesson from it?

Lamar Sales:

Like for myself in the military, the one thing that it was a pivot for me was we're going on a mission and I was taking 45 soldiers to a base and we're going through Afghanistan, which was the easy part, and we were ready to go. We had, we had done all our research, we had done all you know, we knew the roads, but I didn't realize the size of the base. We drew big trucks. That truck can only, that base can only hold 12 trucks. I came with 30. So that means 15 of my trucks. That means at least 45 of my guys had to stay on the gun and ready for six hours because they couldn't be in the safety of the base. Also, when we're delivering the supplies, that supply, that supply depot didn't have backhauls, they didn't have things to take supplies off the truck. So it took very long and I said I didn't do my job as commander. I left 35 of my soldiers in possible danger.

Lamar Sales:

So anytime before we went I would call make sure we had enough food, make sure I had the bedding what was the size? You know what was the dimensions and make sure my soldiers were safe. And then my business side is, as I'm delivering fuel, I want to deliver all the fuel to big, big places. What I did not realize is I need to make sure my administration, my admin department, was Gucci with their admin department, because as I delivered the fuel, one thing I didn't realize is the tax difference. And then so only one job and I've done over 8,000 fuel jobs only one job. I've ever lost money. That was my second job and I realized, okay, there's some things that I have to do, so for you, as you're going through business or everything's on your chest and you're proud of what is something you learned about that you probably did not do well, that really helped and got you.

Mike Steadman:

I definitely think, pivoting sooner. So one of the things that you learn, as you, I kind of view entrepreneurship like a video game right, the first time you play you just get punched in the face, right, and you just die. You can't get past that one boss. Then you get to level two and now you're rock and roll. Then you die again, then you get to level three, you know, but each time you're taking that dad in and stuff.

Mike Steadman:

As I get older at this game, I've just learned to value and appreciate and protect my energy. Energy in terms of the tasks that I'm focused on, the clients I'm working with, the ventures I'm building, et cetera. Focus on the clients I'm working with, the ventures I'm building, et cetera. And sometimes I think for a lot of veterans I think they can relate to this your identity. It's real easy for your identity to fall into your be a part of your job or your venture. So if you come out with your first venture, a lot of times it's going to be your identity, because you're going to tell everybody, you're going to make your little LinkedIn post, you're going to do all those different things and it becomes hard to fail. You know, kind of shut that bad boy down or pivot soon or not follow through with the mission and stuff, et cetera.

Mike Steadman:

But I think over my entrepreneurial journey, if I'm being honest with myself, there were times where I could feel that energy shift. But instead of pulling a trigger, sooner rather than later I would ride it out and just kind of grind it out. Versus now I tell my clients to do the exact opposite. The energy it's taken you to wade through water on this venture or with this customer, I'm telling you cut them loose. You might go on the hold a little bit for a second, but then you're gonna bounce back and it's gonna become your new normal.

Mike Steadman:

But see, I didn't have a pattern recognition to recognize that at the time. And so, honestly, when they say, is there anything you did wrong or any regrets, a lot of times I kind of feel like no, because I had to learn this stuff. Entrepreneurship and running a business is unnatural. I feel like there's a lot of frauds out there. Right, they go online posting pictures of themselves, quoting themselves and yada, yada. But I'm privileged enough to sit on the other side of the table and talk to founders that are building legit businesses, million dollar businesses, and I know what they're doing and how they're spending their time, and it ain't like that.

Lamar Sales:

That's funny that you say that, because when you're an entrepreneur and you're a business person, when someone starts talking about business, you can tell right away if they are Fugazi or not meaning if they're fake or if they're a certain way. Because when you're an entrepreneur, you are the admin, you are the accountant, you are the CFO, the CEO, you are the person running to UPS to do the stamps, you are the person that's filling out all your paperwork with legal zoom. You're you're doing everything, you're doing everything. So when someone kind of brings up a story, you're like oh, you know how many people you have in your company. Oh, oh, you're not doing that. Well, you know, right, you can see it right away yeah, my thing is I always ask people.

Mike Steadman:

I just say, how's the hustle going? And people just get born but they're like I'm hustling, or if somebody's talking, such a big game. I learned this from my coach. He would always ask him what are you paying yourself? And then the marbles in the mouth, you know, oh yeah, we're killing it. We just signed this contract, right. He's like, oh yeah, what are you paying yourself?

Mike Steadman:

Well, I'm actually not paying myself right now, cause you know, yada, yada, yada, and so just kind of seeing that and getting exposed to that kind of stuff, cause I just wasn't exposed to it.

Mike Steadman:

I wasn't exposed to business frameworks, you know, I wasn't exposed to business operating systems. I wasn't exposed to this level of game that a lot of people at a certain level of success just kind of have. They have coaches, they have wealth advisors, they have family offices these words, these lingo that I know now. I did not know that when I started I knew boxing, and so it's very surreal to make that jump too, because everybody knew me for boxing, everybody knew me for starting that nonprofit, and so when you talked about those pivots, one of the things that I've done a very good job of is, I've leveraged content to allow me to make those kind of career pivots in terms of my entrepreneurial journey. So I went from boxing gym to podcast production, which got me in the brand building, and that was the business I had when my coach approached me to be a business coach.

Lamar Sales:

I go back to the point you made about energy. I think everyone watching and everyone's going to watch this. What he's really focused on, guys, is when you put your energy in something that's necessarily failing, you have to know when to say OK, you got to put your energy somewhere else. A lot of times people just say I can get it back going or I can get it. No, that piece is done Right and that's OK, because you know that's a small piece of the bigger. And can you kind of talk about that, because I think that's really really huge, because people like I got to do this. I got to do this Like for myself.

Lamar Sales:

I started in the United States Air Force. I was going to be Air Force officer. Then I went to the Army. I said I got blown out of the Army. I went to Valero. Things happened to Valero. You know, let's leave it at that. I transferred to the USA. I went to the USA. I was the chief of staff at the USA. I'm like I'm going to be here Now. I'm at Wells Fargo, all those places. I thought I was going to be there forever. I was like I'm going to be this, you know, in my class at years, because I graduated in 2012, 2003. So right, 20 years. So explain, explain really the importance of energy to where you put it and where you don't put it. All right.

Mike Steadman:

So I'll give you an example, right, I have a client and a client's getting was getting ghosted on a proposal payment. A company she had a client had been doing the work for the client. They had the contract and everything and this client owed her an absorbent amount of receivables. Now she's a solopreneur so she's just now kind of getting her feet into the water and you know at the stage she's in her business, you know the amount of money kind of hurts a little bit, but the energy it takes to sue these people, bring a lawyer in, do all that different stuff. I'm like sometimes gotta just take the l, we gotta go on the offense Because that right there is soul sucking. I'm seeing it right now. We need to get on sales and you need to make up that contract. Pointed her in the right direction, shifted her from Defeat mentality to put her on the offense and boom, she's already sent me a new invoice for another client.

Mike Steadman:

But the thing is, when you come from a scarcity mindset, it's hard to see these things. But just when you've experienced it, I just I'm very cautious of like you only have so much time during the day, you know, and if you're spending it on stuff that's soul sucking, it's not allowing you to do your best work. It robs you of creativity, and so sometimes that means cutting loose a client. Another thing is your venture just might not be working. So during the pandemic, right, I told you I started this for-profit arm. I was teaching boxing to companies in the New York City metro area. We work Spotify, nextjump, et cetera. When the pandemic hit, I was like, oh, it's a wrap, no market need for boxing and a lot of my corporate clients are going to need me to come in office, no more. Well, a couple of days passed and then, all of a sudden, they asked us to teach boxing online. So go on the little zoom and whatever. That's not who I am. I'm a legit boxing coach. I was like Billy Blanks, right, I was sweating bullets, you know, teaching jazzercise on zoom, and I knew that this was not it. What I do plant this little bird, this little seed, in my mind and start a podcast company. I read like 10 books, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, got my first client, got my second client. By the time I got my third client, I knew I had validated the business model and I made up the income I needed to from the virtual boxing classes.

Mike Steadman:

And you know it's funny, like here in New York City I see a lot of people that are unfortunately at least in the fitness trend, like that whole market has shifted so much and I'm just so thankful that I don't have to do that stuff no more. Because when you're younger you'll do certain things, most a lot of that. We like fitness, so we'll jump into the fitness business and own a gym or do something crazy, right. But guess what? One year turns to two years, two years turns to four or turns eight, and next thing you know you're like, damn man, I'm working my ass off to make you know $200 when I could go be making you know $20,000 from a comfy apartment in Jamaica or something crazy and so.

Mike Steadman:

But you got to get exposed to those things. So that's why I say it's like all part of the journey. But one thing you can't say about me is I have not not grown and evolved. And a lot of my classmates, a lot of people that have seen the ground level work, they see the evolution. You know they're like this guy was holding mitts. I used to walk through the trains, I used to carry sea bags worth of boxing glove and punching mitts in New York City and then I have to go back to Newark. Versus now, I'm able to travel the world, I'm able to work remote, I'm at a think week right now in Jamaica, but all these things would have been possible if I stayed stagnant and I did not shift my energy.

Lamar Sales:

You sound like Sean Porter on Porter's podcast. I love that you've heard Sean Porter's podcast. I watch it very often. There's a few amazing things you said, but I think there's one thing that people may miss that I want you to collaborate on again. It's validate the business model. What do you mean? What does that mean to you? You can validate the business.

Mike Steadman:

So, when you first start out and this is the problem with how we teach entrepreneurship anyways, because we always talk about the problem, the problem, the problem and true, you know, you got to identify a good problem, but you got to validate that people are willing to pay you to solve that problem. And the problem is, for a lot of first time, veteran entrepreneurs that lack pattern recognition. You're so in love with your idea that you're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole and you haven't experienced the feeling and exuberance that comes when you have something and people are buying it. Really, it's like one of those things where, like you know, instead of you having to force it down to people's throat like, oh, this is the best product in the world, this product in the world, identifying a market pool instead, so validating the business model. Let's say, you have an idea for a web design agency or something right, you want to build websites, you want to build brands and stuff, et cetera. You could good stay behind the scenes, make your little logos, do all your little stuff, announce to the world all your LinkedIn that you're open for business. That's one way to do it. The other way to do it, maybe you talk to 10 people and you get people to know, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing.

Mike Steadman:

And somebody says, you know what I'm actually looking for someone to help me with build a website. And you say, oh really. And they're like, yeah, well, what's your budget? And they're like, yeah, well, what's your budget? And they say, well, I don't really know. You say, how about this? Can you do it for 7,500? I'll give you a landing page logo. Boom, they say, absolutely, send the invoice. That's a validated business model. You've identified a customer and there's a clear market pool. But see, actually you haven't really validated it yet. You got that first sale, the next, for what validation means for you?

Mike Steadman:

So let's say you're working a full-time job and you need to make up your income. Always ask people what's your number, how much do you need to bring in? And they say, okay, I need to bring in 10,000. So if you can bring in close to it 7,500, or maybe you exceed it, then you say, if you're able to do that, does that justify and validate that business model for you? So it's working backwards financially. What do you need to bring in? What is a good business for you? Because the other thing we talked about, remember, was energy. Does this business work for me? Because you don't want to get in a situation that you're miserable and you hate getting up out of bed for in the morning and you've created this little ugly monster that you hate. That's not what you want to be in, so you've got to be strategic about going to market, getting the reps in, getting paid, and then deciding, hey, is this the path I want to go or do I need to shift my energy towards something else?

Lamar Sales:

Tell me why you're proud of yourself Because oftentimes we tend to skip ourselves, we tend to give everybody phrases, we tend to pat everybody on the back and we don't pat ourselves. So tell me, as you're just talking to me, why are you proud of yourself?

Mike Steadman:

If people knew, really knew, where I had to go, where my, where my starting point was to get to where I am at now. Some of y'all might have tears in your eyes and I'm not saying that like I've had it harder. Let me take this back. I'm going to take off my armor. See, and I think you can relate to this, lamar People like us. We deal with hardship and because we've had to deal with it for so long, it's just normal to us. But then all of a sudden you start telling these stories to other people and they start looking at you like you're crazy, you know. And then you're like why are you looking at me like that, or whatever? Or then something like George Floyd happens and all these craziness I call it black paranoia that you felt growing up, being one-on-one in the room, situations that you were found yourself in, that you felt like you were treated as less than that no one else saw at the time. Then all of a sudden, something like George Floyd happens and people calling you, other military officers calling I'm so sorry Mike, I'm so sorry, mike, I'm so sorry about you know what we had. You went through that, you know.

Mike Steadman:

And the realization and to recognize, just being able to recognize that the kind of journey and the path I've been on you know that I'm still here and I'm still standing there's been a couple times in my life where, like I've walked by like a mirror and I saw myself and I've been like that's me. You know, it was like the first time I won a national championship at Navy. It was like, yeah, I remember when I was going to another patrol base in Afghanistan and I had been out this other PB for a long time so I hadn't seen myself in the mirror. And then I saw myself in this mirror, you know, as we were transitioning to this other patrol base and I was like just looking at myself, like I'm a Marine Corps infantry officer.

Mike Steadman:

Even more recently, like a year and a half ago, two years ago, I got a fellowship to Stanford University's Hoover Institution and I remember getting ready to go to an event. I'm at my hotel, I'm dressed, suited and booted and I'm looking at myself in the mirror and it's like that's me. And then, more recently, I traveled to Nepal. I trekked up to Everest Base Camp, so 17.5. And I also did Kalapatara, which got up to 18.5. And I got this really sick photo of me overlooking a mountain, and that's me so, and there's pain and heartache right To get from that point to the next point, but I'm very proud of myself for being able to do that.

Lamar Sales:

Awesome, pierre. I think we also need to always tell ourselves no-transcript. I never had to give you anything, even though my dad was there. My dad was always there. My dad was my Marvel, my dad was my Black Panther, my dad was Wakanda for me, but he always called me man.

Lamar Sales:

Let me jump the guy's name who helped all of the young kids out of Auschwitz, out of the Holocaust. They interviewed him. They asked you, why did you help so many kids? His simple answer was I was capable. So me, I'm very happy myself, because I realize that if I'm capable, when I'm capable, I make sure that I use my ability to do that. And so you said you have great things.

Lamar Sales:

There's something I have behind me I can show y'all, but I have a pistol as a replica of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment from the movie Glory, and so it's the actual gun I can show you. It's the actual rifle from the officers with the actual bullets and all that kind of stuff. I was going to get those aboard to me, and this is actually one of the belts from one of the soldiers from the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. And that movie Glory meant a lot to me as a kid, and that movie Glory changed when I was a black officer, leading soldiers in combat, going up hills and stuff like that. And there was a part that Denzel said something and he said I love the 54th. Right, he hated it, he hated everything and he goes we men, aren't we, we men? And it was like, oh my Lord, lord, lord, lord. That's something that always stuck with me, like I love the 54th. That means I love me, I love black men, I love what we do. It will always be a part of me. I am proud to be able to carry this with my flag and say I was a company commander of the 24th, which came from the 54th. So I'm proud, I'm always going to be proud of that. My son, everybody's going to know that. So what I say is be proud of who you are, where you came from and when you're capable of doing something.

Lamar Sales:

One energy, don't waste it. Two, your ability and doing something. One energy, don't waste it. To your ability. And three, you got to have fun doing it, cause the man we're talking to right now he's having fun doing what he's doing, not to the fact that he's in Jamaica right now, montego Bay. He's about to go get some. You know, he's about to get some Jamaican rum later on, but he's having a good time doing it and I appreciate you sharing the energy with us, you sharing the goodness and sharing the key things Understand your business model, understand your energy, understand your pivot you know. Understand your financials. And understand is keep pushing yourself to be better.

Langston Clark :

Yeah. So you know, lamar, I couldn't have done that interview better than you. So before I get into these final questions for you, I want to just reiterate and thank you again for stepping in as a guest host these final questions for you. I want to just reiterate, and thank you again for stepping in as a guest host. So I always like to end with this question. And, lamar, I'm going to throw a question in here for you too.

Langston Clark :

So, mike, you wrote this book Black Veteran Entrepreneur Validate your Business Model, build your Brand and Step Into Greatness. And if there was anything additional, that well, first let me recommend the book to folks to read the book, particularly if you're if you're a black veteran. It really gives you an in-depth sort of view of all the different steps that you need to take to be successful in business. But if there was something you were to add, or if there's something coming after the book, what would that be? And Lamar, when he gets done answering that question, I would ask you to answer the question what is a book that has inspired your journey into entrepreneurship or help mold and shape who you are today? You know, as a man, as a black man, as a businessman?

Mike Steadman:

So, for me, the chapter I wish I would have had would have been one on sustainability and mental health. So, unfortunately, over the last few years I mean, I wrote the book in 2022. Yeah, we're in 2024 now I got frat brothers that committed suicide, right. You've got people that have tapped out, you know they. Just the grind is the grind, right. And so I'm just more aware about building a sustainable kind of lifestyle in general and what that looks like and what I've learned and been able to do.

Mike Steadman:

Like, I took off for three weeks to go trek in Nepal and I'm still having like one of my best years of business ever, while working less and traveling more. And it was just me claiming that, like, I was going to be the guy to get to go do these dope trips. Yeah, right. And so then you start to back ass. Ok, well, what we need to happen? And so I do a lot of stuff that I didn't do back in the day. I take off on Thursdays, Thursday self-care day, I do my sauna, cold plunge, more. You know, I meet with my coach, right. I'm just chilling on Thursdays, right, and I wish I could have included something like that in that book.

Mike Steadman:

Black Vein Entrepreneur. But for my next book I will, because I think it's an important component, because you just see people tap out. People always talk about this hustle, hustle, hustle. There's a lot going on in the background. People are passing away, people are going through divorces, people got families, you know, and so just kind of like the whole person and the lifestyle, like what does that look like? Because if you can have it sustainable and you enjoy it, you're going to go so much further than just burning out.

Lamar Sales:

To answer your question of what I think all African-American people in business need to know is this one it's called brief. The reason why is we don't have much time to get into a room and sell what we're trying to do, so there is a communication of being direct, being professional and being brief. Because here's the thing. One thing I learned on Shark Tank the longer the backstory, the shorter the business plan, the more emotional your story is. The moment is not the stronger business plan, it's right, but the book I grew up when I got hurt and I was in the hospital and I was preparing to get out of the military, the book I I live by is the good, the great good the great.

Lamar Sales:

Jim Collins, the good, the great. It is about taking someone who is decent and and and and pushing pushing your energy, pushing your capability to doing more, to being more. Now, everyone's not going to be CEO, everyone's not going to be LeBron James. Now I'm going to say somebody's got to be BJ Armstrong, right. Someone's got to be Robert Orr. You're going to hit one shot. You can hit two shots. Someone's got to take the charge, right. You can't always be that, but the one thing about this book I'll tell you is, if you're going to drive a bus, make sure the right people are getting on your bus.

Lamar Sales:

A lot of times, we have the wrong people on our bus, and so it doesn't matter what the bus looks like, it matters who's on it. And when you get the right people on that bus, that bus will take you to Nepal. That bus will take you to Jamaica. That bus will take you on the top of the hill where you want to go the mountaintops, right. And there's another great person who talks about the mountaintops, and so that's the difference. So for me, it's the difference. So for me, it's the good to great it's. I'm OK with being in the NBA or I want to be a starter. I'm OK with being a starter. I want to be an all star.

Lamar Sales:

I want to be an all star. I want to be a Hall of Famer. That's the difference. It's where you want to be Energy, understanding your capability, understanding your pitfalls. Fools rush in where heroes tend to fall. Also, the other one's heavy is the crown.

Lamar Sales:

You know, mike made a good point. I'm a hustle, I'm a hustle, I'm a hustle. Slow your ass down, appreciate. Take a day off, take some time, eat a cupcake, kick your feet up, go get a mimosa, go get a massage, do something, go watch a game, go spend time with your family for five hours. Leave the iPad, Leave the phone somewhere and understand, like you, hustling and hustling, you're missing out on quality stuff, because then you become good and you forget to be great, cause the great person that Mike is going to be it's not just for Mike, it's for his community, it's for everybody. Mike can only be good for Mike, but Mike can be great for everybody else and that's the difference and that's what I live by and that's one of the books I still today. I will just randomly look at a page and be like transformation, like getting the right people in the book.

Langston Clark :

I just happened to turn to that one all right, look y'all talking and I gotta ask one last question, because I just decided I'm gonna use this for both podcasts, because both of y'all have backgrounds in sport. So imagine I'm a black male student athlete, okay, and I'm about to graduate and the league, whatever league, whatever next level in sports, is not there for me. What's your pitch for the benefits of thinking about a career in the military as my next step into my development, mike, as you were saying when you were at Everest Base Camp? Oh, that's me fulfilling self-actualization. What sort of advice or insights might you give to somebody who's in that transition phase, who's currently a student athlete?

Mike Steadman:

I just think so much of life is playing chess, not checkers, and a lot of people are playing, just, you know, checkers, right, it's bouncing. And I didn't have this when I was coming up, but I kind of stumbled into it, to be honest, because for me, going to the Naval Academy, I didn't have to pay for college. Tumbled into it, to be honest, because for me, going to the Naval Academy, I didn't have to pay for college. Right, I got a world class education or I'm not going to say free because your boy had to go down range, you know, but I was able to earn a world class education and I was able to earn a brand that's world class and renowned. You know, as a, as a brand guy, I'll try to tell you you can build it, you can borrow it, you can buy it.

Mike Steadman:

United States Marine Corps has a strong brand.

Mike Steadman:

You know, being a Marine Corps officer has a strong brand.

Mike Steadman:

Being a Marine Corps infantry officer, you know, you start to stack these things, so it's a way to say a lot without saying a lot.

Mike Steadman:

Yeah, and I think now, particularly when so many people are just struggling to make ends meet, you can be a little bit more strategic. Look at the different options that the military provides education-wise, network-wise, etc. You can really put yourself in a position to where you are not surviving, essentially not going into debt for school, not going into debt for all these different things and actually coming out on top. But again, I do not recommend people join the military for the wrong reasons, because you will be putting your life on the line and you need to understand what that means to serve others. And so, if that is something you're considering, just please make sure you do your research and, for all the brothers and sisters out there with college educations, if you're going to go in be an officer, I meet countless talented black, brown, yellow whatever you want to call it right Underdogs and misfits that have college degrees, and these recruiters keep trying to push them to go enlisted.

Lamar Sales:

To question. Watch my space. People are afraid and they would say, oh, the military is going to use me. You better learn how to use the military. The military is not a stepping stone, it's a catapult. The military as an officer, in the matter of four years, it will give you a brand that no one could take. It will give you a stamp that no one can rub off from you because I can say I'm an army infantry officer, I'm a combat commander. I don't have to say much else. I'm going to let your mind wander. But what, what people are afraid of?

Lamar Sales:

I would tell that person, hey, look, go in there with a plan. Mind wander. But what, what people are afraid of? I would tell that person, like, look, go in there with a plan. Understand, hey, four years. I'm maybe struggling right now. Give myself four years to develop because as an officer, you can get out after your four years. But understand, you go in there with a plan. If you don't go in the plan and you're like, oh, I'm gonna do this and this next, you know eight years, you're bouncing around. But if you go in and solve a plan, like, hey, I want to learn something, I want to be exposed to things. I'm going to have medical, I'm going to have dental, I'm going to have I'm already building a retirement that people don't really realize. You're already building a retirement and that VA is more powerful than any 401k. You know at our age when it pays off at the end. But you have to go in there with a plan.

Lamar Sales:

Like I said, you can't just go in there and you understand, once you get in, I'm going to use them as much as they use me and I'm still do my job and do my job well. It'll take you. It'll take you pretty far. So I guarantee you. I don't know him other than this if Mike doesn't go into the Navy, his pivot is a lot different, right, His experience is a lot different. Why? Because people take him differently. I'm not speaking for him, but I can imagine, like with me, I walk in certain rooms and if I wasn't that army officer, if I wasn't that decorated army, army combat officer, I would get no play, Not at all.

Mike Steadman:

Because why that's reality?

Lamar Sales:

of what I look like. Right, that has to be reality. And so, because I know that, you know, we asked him. You, I'm a marsup from charleston, south carolina. Two things I love growing up sports and outdoors. I know my. I know my brand, my brand pitch right. I know, and I always say I'm an eagle scout. Why? Because the most of the people are not eagle scout and the people who are, I got a connection right. So, basically, the answer to your question is if you're going to use the military, make sure that you get everything out of it and make sure you understand the branding that the military can come, because a lot of times the military will overwhelm you if you don't have a plan.

Langston Clark :

All right, fellas. Thank you both for joining us here on the latest episode of Entrepreneurial Appetite and we'll see you next time on Entrepreneurial Appetite. Thank you for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite, for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Give us five stars and leave a comment. You.