EP14: Veterans Helping Veterans: Creating a Safe and Supportive Space with Robert Novotny

Seth Waters: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Purposeful Prosperity Podcast. My name is Seth Waters and I'm here with Jack Smith. And you know Jack. Jack is a founder, entrepreneur, investor, and world-changer. And Jack, excited to be with you today.

Jack Smith: Always a pleasure, Seth. Thanks.

Seth Waters: Yeah. Today we have a great conversation with Robert Novotny. Excited about that.

Jack Smith: Absolutely. Robert's such a great dude. So much energy. A veteran that - a Marine, sorry, to be specific. You'll see in a moment. But he brings such great energy and such wonderful passion to what's otherwise a boring industry, right? It's finance. It's investing in particular. Not, you know, really anything up forward. But he does so many great things in the world.

Seth Waters: Yeah. One of the really interesting things you talk about in this conversation is the importance of self-aid as leaders. Self-care. Taking care of your mental health as a leader. And one of the things you said, Jack, during this conversation is that you are the product of a lot of processing yourself. I'd love to hear you talk about just how important is it for purposeful leaders to address their mental health?

Jack Smith: Absolutely. So as leaders, it's our job to live the life we know we want others to emulate. And that means taking care of yourself and putting your mask on first. There's nothing more important than your mental health for whatever, you know, job, country, all of that stuff. Doesn't matter if you're not well. You can't be helpful. You can't be useful to the people who need you. And I'm personally a product of relationship counselors, job counselors, life counselors, parenting counselors, you name it. I've had them and I'm better off for it. And I really encourage our staff to do it. One of the things that we've done here at Fortuna is that we have free mental health, remote mental health accessible to all of our staff. And that's one part because we do deal with a lot of military veterans and a lot of people who do have mental struggles. And we want to make sure that there's a safe space and create the world that says it's OK to struggle today. And we've got your shoulder and here's the help you need. It's not about being a hero. It's about being here tomorrow.

Seth Waters: That's really good. And Robert does talk a lot about that, working with transitioning veterans and the importance of creating a safe place for them. How do you know, as we're talking, I know it's a passion of Fortuna and Jack Smith, you know, how do we how do we do that? How do we create safe places for veterans in our communities?

Jack Smith: It's about talking. It's about kindness. Just create the space to be curious about another person's journey. Just by asking, just by listening to their story, you'll give them that support, create that space that they need to tell whatever it is or just to feel, hey, I'm not feeling it today. I'm going to go sit over there and be OK with it and still make sure that they're part of the group. Just give them that space, that kindness. We talk about kindness a lot and kindness isn't always nice. Kindness is what they need. It's the support that they need to move forward. And if you create that safe space, nonjudgmental, just accepting and understanding, that's really the key. And as leaders, it's our job to kind of live the life that we expect others to follow.

Seth Waters: That's really good. Well, we're looking forward to this interview with Robert. Here we go.

Advertisement: This episode was brought to you by Fortuna Business Management Consulting. As a global IT consulting and staffing company, Fortuna BMC is your go-to partner for a wide range of solutions. From comprehensive contact center solutions to efficient staff augmentation, information security, advanced business analysis, and IT consulting, Fortuna BMC has got you covered. When it comes to achieving your goals, Fortuna BMC will help you get the job done. For more information, visit fortunabmc.com.

Jack Smith: It is my pleasure today to bring to you guys Robert Novotny, my friend, Marine Corps veteran. If you didn't notice from the background, he's ate up about the military. He's ate up about life. He's a big personality and a brilliant and wonderful soul. And I'm grateful to call you my friend. Welcome to the show.

Robert Novotny: Thank you so much. This is great. It's so cool. Let's get after it, man.

Jack Smith: Absolutely. So, Robert, you are many things, right? You're a military veteran, you're president of the NAIVOBA Association, the New York Veteran Owned Business Association. These are your give backs that you do to the world. You don't get paid for that job, and it is definitely thankless. And you are a wealth manager, right? So you just changed, you formed a partnership, right, with Cerruti Financial. So you have to tell me a little bit more about that. And I noticed you were living the dream. You just got your house out in the Hamptons. You just had your one-year anniversary, a beautiful wife. I mean, life looks fantastic for you, brother. Tell me a little bit about it.

Robert Novotny: So first and foremost, we'll introduce…

Jack Smith: There it is. Oh, there she is. Cheers and congratulations, brother.

Robert Novotny: Thank you. Yeah, so we did. We are living the dream out here. It's a wonderful, wonderful life. We're doing a lot, though. We're doing a lot. So like you said, the NAIVOBA, wealth management, married, house on the water, living the dream, and it's really come from basic networking, I guess, you know, it's meeting people and the right people and taking advice and open-mindedness. And I hope this is, you know, just another piece of that where if I can do it, you know, anyone can.

Jack Smith: So that's what we're here to do. Right. That's what this podcast is all about, to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs that teaches them it's not that hard. You get out there, you hustle, you shake hands, you meet some people, you ask some questions and you listen to the answers. And eventually, you find your path and everybody's path is different. And that's that's beautiful. So tell me a little bit about Cerruti, because when I met you, you were working with a larger financial firm like a Morgan Stanley or somebody like that. I don't remember. PacWest? Pacific Life? I don't know. You got it.

Robert Novotny: So I'm still at that firm, Northwest Remutual.

Jack Smith: Oh, Northwest Remutual. I'm sorry.

Robert Novotny: Yep. They allowed us to really take our business by the horns and rebrand. And once you hit certain accolades, you can partner. So it was really exciting. I was working a lot with a volunteer fireman who's in the business and we were just doing a lot of cases together, like-minded people. If he had a veteran, I would come in on the case. And if he was working with a, or if I was working with a fireman, I would bring Zach in. So Zach and I, end of February, 2020, so we are the domino that fell to start the lockdown.

Jack Smith: So it's your fault.

Robert Novotny: And we might - But that's, it was really, really important actually to get that partnership agreement done and we did it. And then we went through the lockdown together as a team, as a unit, during this most chaotic time, you had someone who would run into a burning building and someone who, you know, capture-kill missions and done some humanitarian aid disaster relief stuff, all of those chaotic scenes, this to us was nothing. So the calm of the storm for our clients, it was one of the most important things that had happened for us and we had no clue what was on the horizon.

Jack Smith: I love it. So absolutely.

Robert Novotny: Yeah. I didn't change firms. We just became super intentional and he owns more of the practice than I do. So Cerruti Financial it is.

Jack Smith: Fair enough. Is that his last name? Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Um, so tell me a little bit about that. You just said you were more intentional about that. We're about purposeful prosperity. So can you tell me a little bit more about the intention of partnering?

Robert Novotny: Yes. So I realized I'm an enlisted guy. I'm not really the best at the officer side of things. And when you relate that into companies and building companies like that and business, it is, I wasn't really great at a profit and loss statement, which apparently is important.

Jack Smith: Numbers matter for a financial planner, who knew?

Robert Novotny: P and L. So like, I'm really good at the art of this, the art, I'm great at. The sales side of it, the onboarding of client, the relationship piece of it. I'm not the best at the running of the actual business payroll, those types of things. So it was really again, the intention out of the yin and yang of it. So now there's when we hired someone to do a lot of our, our help in the backend, we've got two front men that are now able to do what they do the best. That's I can go out and meet great people. And if they're a little bit more financially astute than I am from a planning standpoint, I've got the knowledge behind it to hey, I've got to loop someone in. And I've always been really happy to be the dumbest person around.

Jack Smith: Well, it's about having the right team and pulling in the experts. And that's really, to me, if we can do one thing on this podcast, it's teaching people that the solopreneur is the pathway to death of a business. If you don't team up and find compliments, you're never going to be an expert at all the things. So accept the things you're not good at and go hire a friend, recruit partner, team up, you don't beat everybody up, team up and together we go further together. And that's awesome. I'm glad that you found that in Mr. Cerruti. So that that's very exciting. So tell me a little bit about, about NAIVOBA? So this group has been growing for about what? Five, six years now, seven years. God, time flies with COVID.

Robert Novotny: Yeah, right. There's like a two-and-a-half-year window where just skip that.

Jack Smith: Just edit.

Robert Novotny: Right. So I came on board in 2019 with NAIVOBA. They were around in 2018. So five, six years, something around there. And the mission has changed a lot. It was at the beginning, getting the 6% set aside accomplished. Right, so New York State has a 6% set aside to spend procurement dollars with veteran-owned businesses. Very exciting. What started happening once that got passed and that was the original mission, we started having meetings, networking, introductory meetings. And then we started noticing that we weren't getting the jobs anymore as there were less and less state jobs, and more and more county jobs that did not have in each county by law or, you know, whatever their rule book is. I forget right now. Um, it wasn't in their code. So now we've gone out and we can't lobby because we're a 501C3, but we're allowed to be at the same places as these people and we've been able to get counties on board to constitution. They do a little constitutional convention with their legislative districts and they amend the code that allows minority and women-owned businesses. They just, all they have to do is add in their veteran-owned business as well.

So it's been very simple, very seamless. And it's allowed now the veteran-owned businesses that are small and can't do what the Turner, what the Skanska, what those big construction firms can do. And we're not looking for those. We're not looking for prime. You know, we're not looking to be the GP of a whole big, you know, excavation deal. It is, “Hey, you need someone to hang up nets so that birds don't fly into people repaving the white stone bridge, we've got the team.” Um, so it's, it's now become this twofold thing where we still need to meet with these legislative leaders to change law in specific counties, um, and the mandate to be enforced. New York State's doing great with that. Where we really found our niche is the veterans that own the larger companies are looking to retire and there's no veterans that are service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses that can get that same seal from New York State. They don't have the capital. So we're doing mentorship program, and this is where a little bit of, you know, the wealth planning comes in structured sales and buyout agreements for the seller to do a seller finance buyout. The new owner takes over and now we've built the seller a pension. Um, or if they do want to just full-blown sale, I'm looking, um, I'm working with an investment bank in the city to start a fund, right? To start a $200, $300 million fund that can loan, debt, security, you know, partnership with the young veterans that don't have the $32 million.

Jack Smith: I call it “Pass the Torch Program.” I'm trying to build it on our side too, because I've seen it on the California side, because everybody, when you leave as a veteran-owned business, um, you have to sell it to another veteran or you sell it for pennies on the dollar. You just let the thing fall off, right? You just stopped winning work and the thing dies and it's bad for the community. It's bad for the veteran who owned the business and it's bad for those coming up because we all have to climb the same mountain every time rather than you sell it to the next generation and they put their renewed effort and they take it further rather than paving the same roads. So I absolutely love it. And speaking of the veteran transition, we're talking about a veteran business transition in this particular instance, but you do a lot of work with transitioning veterans out of the military. Can you tell me a little bit more about your veteran transition initiatives?

Robert Novotny: Sure. So it started with mine was garbage. It wasn't awful. It was different. I got out of the Marine Corps from Okinawa. So doing interviews, this was when it's 2013. So Skype is just coming out really. And I have to do interviews from Japan at one in the morning, two in the morning, three in the morning, because it's noon, one, two Eastern Standard Time. So it was, it was hard. I didn't get any job offers right out of transitioning out. So when you leave Okinawa, you have to spend 30 days on American soil before you can transfer out. That was the law then. I don't know if that's changed. But then I only got a job offer in Indiana. So with all of that, it didn't leave a great taste in my mouth that it can take 13 weeks to get a civilian to graduating bootcamp. That's it, right? You haven't done anything. You just transitioned into being a Marine, but it takes a four-day class to get out. Right. So, and who's really paying attention in that class? I was - my transition class was three people from the brig getting dishonorable discharge, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Chief Foreign Officer, and then two Sargents, me and my buddy.

Jack Smith: That's a motley crew, if there ever was one, and none of them alike in their situation in any way.

Robert Novotny: None of them alike. It was a true breakfast club mentality in there and there was the guy just scribbling on the table and, um, it was, it was very, again, it was garbage. Um, so I know that that has changed and I'm sure that it was probably specific to Okinawa, how many people are getting out from there, um, but truly, truly going through that class made me realize. There's like, you know, there's so much, no one mentioned to me anything about a business program. And if I could go back in time, I would go vocational rehab first off, get my bachelor's, start a business. If I needed to go to school afterwards for more, I still have the full GI bill. So even that process, never explained.

Jack Smith: Right. Or how to best opt, you know, get the best bang for your buck and the most value for your life.

Robert Novotny: Absolutely. Cause it's now like being a business owner, it's everything is revenue. Back to that profit and loss statement. I don't understand. It's all right. We go from a first and the 15th paycheck to, you know, it's, we should realistically ever, if you've been, I think an NCO or higher, you should seriously be looking to start a business for yourself. A hundred percent. We don't jive well in a nine-to-five environment. We jive in places where we're done when the mission is complete. There's no other place than being in business for yourself where that's possible. So I think the transition itself from getting out of the military should encourage a route that education through vocational rehab to business development, and then you could be a consultant for other businesses. So, you know, leadership consulting is a big thing for the military veterans now, but getting into business is the true American dream and it's, it's incredible how rewarding and purposeful it will be.

Jack Smith: And every veteran deserves that dream and that purpose. Exactly. No, that's, that's what it's all about. I can't wait to tell you, I'm building an international training center in Fort Bragg or right outside of Fort Bragg. That's now Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that is targeting all of these things and is positioned there because the five hundred and fifty veterans that come out of Fort Liberty every month.

Robert Novotny: Five hundred and fifty a month?

Jack Smith: A month, out of Fayetteville.

Robert Novotny: That right there is like a Berkshire Hathaway a month. You can get someone doing railroads, gas. I mean, you could build this conglomerate of…

Jack Smith: Hi, let me introduce you to Fortuna BMC. We are, we are working on that. That's what our, really our goal is to try to put more vets to work and in purpose. And that purpose is different, right? We're an IT consulting company in our heart, but what we do is employ vets. And so we're building those bridges to all of those purposeful jobs that might not be sexy, but they're what you need or what fills your bucket, right? That's, that's how you process your time, however that is. And that's different for every journey. That's why the entrepreneur path is so important for veterans because then you kind of get to build your own adventure as much or as little as you want. Some people want the, you know, the retired gladiator life and, and, and want to just go to their farm and till their land and be done with it. And that's cool too, right? I mean, those journeys are important. And so some of them just want a job that they get paid for and they come and do, you know, welders and that kind of stuff like hand, you know, their own little solopreneurs. That's a perfect opportunity for that. But if you want to be a business owner, team up and find other vets to roll with you. The world would be a better place.

Robert Novotny: Amen to that.

Jack Smith: I love it. So you have a concept that I really love and I see you live it all the damn time. So I want you to talk about your concept of donating time, not money, and tell me about some of those places in particular, where you spend a lot of your time.

Robert Novotny: Oh, I love it. So I'm going to give a shout-out to my wife here. She is two years sober. And part of their veteran journey to sobriety. It's a wonderful thing. Beautiful.

Jack Smith: Conquering of demons for sure.

Robert Novotny: Absolutely. So with that, they have this mantra. If you want what we have, do what we do. And their whole thing is they learn the 12 steps of sobriety and give it to the next person for free. Right. And that really I've equated like depression and suicidal ideation and, you know, the head trash that we as veterans typically have is that same thing. Right. I've learned how to go through a lot of therapy and I've learned how to really.

Jack Smith: And don't diminish that, right. I think we need to celebrate that. I think as a society, it's really important. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. I'm the guy I sit today from lots of different counselors for lots of different challenges. If you're not getting help, you're not getting better. So I just want to take a moment and celebrate that because that's part of that time. You have to invest the time in yourself and put your mask on first before you're even functional for others.

Robert Novotny: Right. Absolutely. You know, you self-aid then buddy-aid. And that's where this concept of the donating of time and not money because monetary value is, it's essential, but that can be done by the big corporate sponsors and all of that, right? But I am a race director and I know come race day if I don't have people to block off a road, I have no race. That means people don't hear my mission. That means no one shows up because I can't run a functioning operation. So donating time, it can be as simple as we have, you know, the girl scouts and boy scouts come into our parking lot. And then we have the Mike Murphy Navy SEALs do our water stations. And then we have people doing our road guards. Without that, there's no event. And then we can't going back to celebrate, we can't celebrate the good work that we're doing. Right. So whether it's I'm on a couple of boards and whether it's getting veterans to get their service disabled owned business to New York State certified or it's teaching a veteran how to play guitar or comedy or going on long-distance hikes. Right, if there's no volunteering of the time, who's going to learn guitar?

Jack Smith: It's about showing up, right. It's about being present and connecting. Right. I talk a lot about building community. You can't build community remote without showing up. You got to put your face on Zoom. You got to get out there. You got to put your time and effort into it. Community happens through connection.

Robert Novotny: Yeah. And there's something special when endorphins are released together. 100%. Right. It's a magical moment. Yeah. It's and you have to be there. You got to be present for it. Must be present to win. Yeah. It's something that we focus on a lot. Right after this, I'm going to celebrate a buddy. And then after that, there's shootout for soldiers.

Jack Smith: So you can tell us a little bit about the race. You talked about the operations of the race. Can you tell me what the race benefits?

Robert Novotny: Why do you put it on? Yeah. Project Nine Line. Project Nine Line. I'm the vice president of Project Nine Line. It is a local only to Long Island veteran service organization whose mission is to help veterans reintegrate through arts and activities. And we do anything that you would consider art, painting, poetry, songwriting. We do mixed martial arts because there's an art at the end of that. The biggest draw to our programs, our best programs are every piece of a band, drums, bass, guitar, guitar, songwriting, and singing. And then we have a really, really robust comedy program where we've actually done something called the Veterans Comedy Assault. And we've gone through Mohegan Sun up here. We get veterans jobs like paying gigs. Nice. They started, some dudes got together. They started a band. They opened for Whitesnake at Jones Beach.

Jack Smith: That's rad. That's so cool. A group of veterans. That's impact, man. And that's awesome. I love it. And that's just in Long Island. So what can we do to span that throughout the world?

Robert Novotny: Yeah. So what we did is we started our programs in a facility that was already a veteran-owned service organization that was failing. And we said, we'll pay rent to be here. And we sold little chocolate heart-shaped lollipops at every, like, they shut down a bunch of main streets here on Long Island and they call them Alive After Five. So we were just selling chocolate and paying rent that way.

Jack Smith: That's awesome.

Robert Novotny: Since day one, that was our fundraising initiative, but no veteran has ever paid for a class. Our instructors all come in and teach pro bono. So it is a really, really lean operation. What we do is we set up these gigs for the veterans. If they want to show their art somewhere, we'll pay the fee to go let them show their art for free. Yeah. It's really, really cool. So we've been on the fence - if we want to bring it larger scale, we don't want to dilute the magic. And that is, it’s a hard piece.

Jack Smith: I talk a lot about “glocal impact”, making a global impact at a local level. And I think this solution is tied perfectly to that. So I think we can definitely explore how to pod it out because I agree with you. There's something intimate about that arts relationship. Again, it's community, right? You have to show up in order to really get the benefit from it. You can't play my guitar virtually. Move your fingers to show you the right chord from 400 miles away. Exactly. So that's awesome. I'd love to explore with you how we can kind of unpack that and maybe see how we can take that “glocally” because that is really, really inspirational. If our listeners wanted to support your causes there, your funding, your training, your motivation, what you're doing, if our listeners wanted to support your causes there, your fundraising, your selling, your 501C3, is there anything that our listeners can do to support you in your mission?

Robert Novotny: Absolutely. So I specifically am on all of the social medias at Vets Lives Matter. Vets Lives Matter. Project 9 Line is on Instagram and Facebook. We have nivoba.org. So that is a great starting point if you are a business and want to do business in New York State. We've got 1024 registered businesses. So really cool. When there's request for procurement that come out, we typically see them and can field out what NAICS codes specifically match the job. So you don't have to really worry about running through a 190-page request for procurement to find out that you're a painter and they need four bathrooms painted. So that's it. You know, Vets Lives Matter is the best way to reach me specifically. Project 9 Line and nivoba.org. There's also project9line.org so you can see some cool stuff there.

Jack Smith: Anything that you'd recommend to our listeners if they wanted to get started in helping your causes tomorrow? Obviously checking out your websites. But is there anything they can do at home in their own communities or maybe they're out there in the East Coast somewhere nearby to lend a hand?

Robert Novotny: So Heart of an Eagle 5K is going on in September. The date escapes me right now. Great. Good job, Director. It's never going to be on 9-11. So it's a weekend right around there. I think it's the 10th if that's a weekend. Virtually we're doing it on Long Island. If you've never been, it's a great time of year. The bugs are typically gone and it's still 75, 80 degrees. It's beautiful time of year. I've done it is the self-proclaimed fastest 5K on Earth because it is absolutely flat. Beautiful. You run along the South Shore of Long Island, see the Atlantic Ocean. So it could get breezy. But it's a beautiful course. If you're around, we would love to have you. If not, you want to support virtually. It's a very cheap option because it doesn't cost us anything. And you can support run your 5K and know that you're helping veterans learn arts and activities to save their lives.

Jack Smith: Absolutely. And you wear a ruck when you run that 5K. If I remember correctly.

Robert Novotny: I absolutely do.

Jack Smith: Can you tell me a little bit about why you wear that ruck?

Robert Novotny: So my 36th birthday was yesterday. And it also commemorates 12 years since my best friend chose to end his life. So he took his life on my 24th birthday. Had a really tough time with that. And I actually did a 23-day, 430-mile hike from where we met in Quantico, Virginia through DC to Annapolis to Baltimore to Philly. To ground zero to West Point to Dover Plains where he's buried. So I walked from where we met to where he's buried all with a ruck sack. So it's just my way of carrying with me.

Jack Smith: I love it, brother. And I appreciate that. That's part of our community, right? You know, once a soldier, always a soldier. And we're all part of the same family. So I appreciate that.

Robert Novotny: Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Yep. You're here with me.

Jack Smith: Absolutely. So anything else that you'd like to leave our listeners with? I appreciate all that you are. I love how much you love in general. And in particular to our veterans, thank you for everything that you do. I'm grateful to know you.

Robert Novotny: Excellent. Yeah, I mean, in closing, I've always been a big fan of the saying, be the change you want to see. So if you're struggling in your own life, just go get help, be the change. It's going to inspire others to do it as well.

Jack Smith: Absolutely. And then tell people about it, too. Don't be afraid. There's no shame in that. And in fact, the more we normalize it, the more help is normal.

Thank you guys for tuning in to Purposeful Prosperity. Tune in next week where we’ll bring in another entrepreneur doing world-changing things. Until then please like, follow, and share, and keep doing good in the world. Thanks for listening.

‍