https://calendly.com/commandyourtransition

Command Your Transition, New Orleans, LA (2026)

11/11/2025

18 MONTHS LATER, PART 2

The uniform is a medium.

The military, as a medium, prescribes certain solutions and structures for how to live and serve. There are elements of both technology and environment unique to being in the uniform—so well adapted to military life they have little parallel once we leave that saturation.

You can’t be a military man without the uniform. You can be militant, you can have martial discipline. But military? No longer.

Marshall McLuhan is well known for the phrase “The medium is the message”. He frames that quote in a variety of ways. One framing, really sticks with me:

“the medium is also the message — that, all puns aside, it literally works over and saturates and molds and transforms every sense ratio. The content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb.”

The uniform made me a military man.

We wrap a lot of values and emotion into the uniform, as the uniform exerts more influence on us than we realize. Pervasively. Implicitly. The author Seth Godin captures this perfectly:

“People like us, do things like this.”

The “people like us” are those who serve. It’s hard to let go of a medium because we don’t see ourselves separate from it. We become it. But just as we entered into a social contract with the uniform—on top of the official contracts—we must also exit the same way. Deliberately. Consciously.

Today, we’re fortunate that veterans return with a measure of honor and respect not often seen in history. The uniform is recognized for what it represents.

There’s a lot to reconcile with the uniform as medium. It wasn’t my original intent to post this today, but Veterans Day is the right day to recognize that power—and to honor those who wore the uniform and carried what it represents into the world beyond it.

11/02/2025

18 MONTHS LATER

18 months ago, I hung up the uniform, forever.

(I did apply once for Retired Recall. But, you have to at least try, right?)

I had the obligatory “1 year later” post ready in April, but let it pass. I couldn’t come up with a clear list of lessons at 12 months. That post was a ramble, with no clear direction or lesson. And, I had just left my first civilian job, and for the first time in almost 30 years — I could take a break.

Looking back 12 to 18 months — five lessons emerged. These are new lessons than when I wrote “Command Your Transition” (CYT) in 2016. And I had an amazing photo from the longest retirement flyover ever I’ve been itching to use.

I’m sharing these lessons and moving on. Let’s start with Lesson 1: YMMV.

Your Mileage May Vary. YMMV.

There are few singular pieces of advice — save using or applying for all your VA benefits — that matter to every veteran uniformly. Even “retirement” and “transition” have different meanings than in 2016.

The mileage and roads vary.

Here’s a mileage example. I used to comment on several ratios to compare transition to landing. One was “For every $10,000 you want to earn, spend a month actively job searching.” Consider this — a $100,000 position requires almost a year of active networking, applying, skill-building, and research.

And in now AI, inflation, pandemic over-hiring, and identifying the ideal work/life environment are affecting a job market with analogues, but no equivalent.

10/01/2025

Well, once more into the breach this goes.

07/15/2025

Recession 2024-2028 is going to be lit if they’re allowing betting on children’s games. I can’t wait for the Spades tables at Circus Circus.

02/27/2025

Mapping the Military Transition Maze 2

“The traveler stood in the middle of the square, overwhelmed by choice and frustrated by obstacles, and began to starve in the middle of a vast feast.”

This allegory, written in 2017, captures a timeless paradox in military transition: the simultaneous abundance of support and the scarcity of clear direction. It’s even more relevant today as the distance between military and civilian life continues to grow.

The traveler is a military member at the end of their service obligation. Ready to move and transition into civilian service, they’re overrun by the number of veteran support services available, yet somehow still struggling to find their way.

Yes — there’s transition training and counseling. But even those tools only capture a part of the myriad of options and opportunities out there. More concerning, service-based transition support lags what industry does.

The military transition space moves in generations, probably 5-7 years behind what veterans most need based on their service experience. The GWOT generation are now in mid & senior-rank positions; the civilian sector has moved on from the frenetic pace and demand GWOT service required.

The new generation of service members in a post-COVID environment faces a transformed workplace: work disintermediated from location, digital first is the norm, and where combat takes place in isolated conditions like Syria, Mali, or places Americans aren’t expected to be.

The WW2 generation had the garrison as its focal point. The military from 1945 until BRAC in 1995 centered around the garrison. While the campaigns and expeditions changed over the 2.5 generations in that period, the garrison remained there — unique to the service you served in.

Both the garrison and the American Dream reinforced by garrison life of the 1950s & 1960s are gone.

We must make the garrison of today for ourselves.

That is why this post, continues to resonate with me today.

02/23/2025

Mapping the Military Transition Maze

I applied for retired recall six months into my military retirement.

I know — that wasn’t in my retirement plan.

I pursued an opportunity — a unique chance — but it didn’t work out.

I pursued this opportunity, because of a lesson I learned years ago in the military transition space: Carry two plans — one to stay in and one to leave.

I hadn’t considered planning in reverse, having a plan to return if there’s an opportunity to go back to the uniform. But it was worth an attempt.

At six months into my transition, I discussed this process and my retirement on a podcast with my old mentor, Duane France.

Duane and I met virtually on LinkedIn in 2016 when I published Command Your Transition. He’s been a great mentor for veteran mental health and military transition.

His post — Starving at the Feast — remains relevant today in the post-Skillbridge, MGIB re-eligibility, and blended retirement military talent environment.

Yes — that’s a lot in one sentence.

His idea was that there are too many veteran support resources, but not enough maps or guides to access them. That mismatch causes unease and distress.

Easing that dissonance has been Duane’s core work since he retired in 2014. He’s now working with Psych/Armor — an organization changing how public and private sector companies engage with the military and veteran community.

In this podcast episode, Duane and I discuss our shared military transition experiences, my transition journey, and the ongoing mental health challenges in the US Coast Guard.

Thanks, Duane and Psych/Armor for the opportunity!

https://lnkd.in/gYqb3n7q

02/15/2025

THESIS POINTS 003

Is trust analog or digital? This question, unthinkable just 50 years ago, now defines our technological era.

Analog trust is inherently tribal—earned and maintained through community bonds. While self-trust matters, technological trust is fundamentally communal, woven into the fabric of our shared experiences. And woven in the ways to share these experiences.

Digital trust mimics data states: in use, in transit, in storage. It’s built through our communications and shaped by how we integrate technology into our lives. But unlike binary code, trust isn’t absolute. It exists in a nuanced space between 0 and 1, where human experience intersects with digital infrastructure.

02/13/2025

Thesis Points 002

The distinction between trusting “in” versus “through” technology has blurred. What was once a clear line between instrumental trust (in) and consequential trust (through) has become increasingly complex.

Cybersecurity principles like integrity and non-repudiation were designed to ensure trust “through” our digital systems. They promised data remains unchanged and actions can’t be denied or revoked.

If you think of the expansion of the CIA triad to CIAAN (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Authentication, and Non-Repudiation), those expansions into Authentication and Non-repudiation, are key to instrumental trust.

We’re even calling these digital workplaces, Zero-Trust Environments!

But here’s the paradigm shift: We’ve reached a point where these aren’t separate concerns. Our trust in technology is now inextricably linked to our trust through it. The technology itself, and what flows through it, have become one interconnected system of trust.

02/12/2025

Thesis Points 001: Trust

We’re changing our scale of technological advancement.

The first impact that comes to mind is how little we intuitively comprehend scales beyond linear; algorithmic and exponential scale is very challenging to comprehend.

Second, the rapid integration of AI, deep fakes, and digital manipulation / obfuscation / revision tools isn’t just changing how we interact—it’s fundamentally reshaping our ability to trust what we see and hear.

And also what we said or heard.

This erosion of trust threatens the very fabric of our social contract. When we can’t distinguish truth from fiction, how do we maintain the shared reality that underpins civil society?

We can grasp the linear erosion of trust.

But algorithmic or exponential erosion, or accumulation, is beyond our intuitive understanding.

What do you think?

02/09/2025

From Resolution to Revolution 3: Rebuilding Internal and Environmental Trust

Trust is a form of hope — but it also becomes something more concrete.

That sounds like an unusual equating of action with faith. Equating belief and action with new year’s intent.

To me, that’s true — depending on how trust is framed.

In the last post, I discussed task, outcome, and environment as focal lenses to frame a year.

Task is about the daily focus on small actions to complete.

Outcome is about accomplishments and alignment to achieve them.

But environment is the larger, categorical undertaking of building a world where success or change are easier to achieve.

In my last post, I discussed three focal lenses for framing a year: task, outcome, and environment. Now, I’m seeing how trust operates uniquely within each of these layers, especially during major life transitions.

To trust the tools and practices of your profession, you must trust yourself on a task.

You must trust its results to trust the outcome.

To trust the attendant and surrounding factors, you must trust yourself in the environment.

But trust is essential for living through the change you want to make.

In today’s always-on media environment, trust is more fragile and harder to find. Both trust in the world, and the diminishing connection between trust and truth. This environment subverts where we can make a difference where everywhere we shouldn’t be affected, but become so.

I want to replicate, and avoid, that danger within our internal context.

Where we are most honest is where we trust ourselves. Where we trust our task, outcome, or environment, we can be more like ourselves in that same structure or boundary.

Trust forces consideration — especially where life is centered or separated.

I’m six weeks into this calendar year and six months into my first year of retirement. As I learned to trust the military and uniform environment, I now incorporate that experience to create a personal environment.

02/02/2025

From Resolution to Revolution 2: Environment, Outcome, Task

This post was supposed to discuss frameworks From Resolution to Revolution 2: Environment, Outcome, Task

This post was supposed to discuss frameworks for a new year.

Wow, January has flown by.

I realized today that I retired from the US Coast Guard six months ago.

I promise I won’t celebrate every six months.

I’m realizing how differently time flows outside military structure, six months into retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard. While January has passed quickly, I’m thinking differently about new beginnings.

I keep a quote by Cal Newport on my refrigerator as a bearing reminder:

“Fix the lifestyle you want. Then work backwards from there.”

Newport wrote this in 2008. But that principle holds even more value today as innovation challenges my previous, career military notions of balance and success.

From a lifestyle design perspective, planning a year isn’t confined to the traditional January-to-December timeline. Newport’s quote shifts my focus on three levels to shape change:

Task Focus: This is about the small, daily efforts that compound over time. It’s the military precision of consistent action – when each day mirrors the last in its core routines, creating progress by default. Think of the service member who builds fitness not through sporadic intense workouts, but through daily training.

Outcome Focus: This is the destination-driven approach. Vision boards exemplify this focus – whether you believe in their psychological impact or not, they represent a clear visualization of desired results. It’s similar to planning a military career path, with each rank and qualification mapped out.

Environment Focus: This is where the military excels – creating an ecosystem that shapes behavior and performance. Consider the entire military structure: indoctrination, boot camp, the layered framework of laws, regulations, policies, and doctrine, uniforms, and talent management. These elements work together to create a norm-referenced performance curve. In this environment, you understand what leads to success and what might end your career.

01/12/2025

From Resolution to Revolution: Transforming Your Approach to Annual Goals

I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions.

While I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions, I deeply value the resolve they represent.

In 80 years of living, there’s limited room for Resolutions. Also, there’s too much distraction, variance, & dissonance to face the resolution outcome head-on.

I don’t like Resolutions; I love the Resolve.

Resolve creates an intention to change, improve, or move from the past. It causes dissonance in our identity and thoughts.

Resolve is core to reinforcing our identity. The gravity of our identity often pulls us back to who we are, where resolve pulls us toward who we aspire to be.

Resolutions alone don’t bring change. They provide the desire for change; however, the actual change comes from attacking resolve, then identity.

Identity pushes us towards a default direction. And after choosing a new direction, we turn towards action.

Resolve —\> Identity —\> Direction —\> Action.

This is where I find fault in Resolutions. Resolutions assume this pipeline happens at once. But Resolve gives way to identity; identity to direction; direction to action.

Returning to my sailor past, the compass was key for finding the right direction.

Compasses have a full circle of degrees and a shorthand of points and markers for sailors to know their steering direction. The easiest shorthand is the cardinal markers: North, East, West, South.

Cardinal markers denote a clear direction.

My friend, Chris Brogan, uses a form of cardinal markers for annual planning. His perspective comes from the “My Three Words” exercise.

Think of three words as a cardinal marker to navigate the new year. It’s a great exercise. Sometimes, I’d add an extra word to cover all four cardinal directions for a new year.

This year, I want to try something different.

I’m orienting towards 2025 with a singular focus: Trust.

Command Your Transition

11/11/2025

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