The Construction Veteran Podcast
Welcome to the Construction Veteran Podcast. This is a podcast connecting and celebrating veterans in construction, those who have the desire to be in the industry, and those who support them to create the built environment.
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The Construction Veteran Podcast
From Marine Corps Helicopter Pilot to Project Manager: Dan Sampson's Transition to Civilian Success
Ever wondered how military leadership transitions into a civilian career? Former Marine Corps helicopter pilot Dan Sampson takes us on an inspiring journey from his roots in Dallas, Texas, through rigorous years at the Naval Academy and his decade-long service flying UH-1 Yankee helicopters. Now a project manager at Arco Murray, Dan navigates the complexities of managing contracts, supporting field operations, and ensuring client satisfaction. Tune in to hear Dan's reflections on military esprit de corps and how it shaped his early career aspirations.
Our conversation dives into the unique dynamic between project managers and superintendents in the construction industry, drawing compelling parallels to the military relationship between officers and senior NCOs. Dan and I share personal anecdotes, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and understanding each other's roles. We also explore the strategic decision-making and networking that are crucial for veterans transitioning from the military to new careers, underscoring the value of a supportive community.
In the final segment, we address the emotional and psychological hurdles veterans often face upon leaving the service, particularly the loss of a tight-knit community. Dan opens up about the isolation many veterans feel and the importance of seeking social connections and support networks. We highlight organizations like Memorial Ranch and Bullets and Bourbon that provide crucial outlets for veterans. The episode wraps up with a heartfelt exchange of gratitude, underscoring the importance of meaningful interactions and community engagement in both military and civilian life.
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If you're a military veteran in the construction industry, or you're in the construction industry and support our military vets, and you'd like to be a guest on the podcast you can find me at constructionvetpodcast@gmail.com , or send me a message on LinkedIn. You can find me there at Scott Friend. Let's share the stories and motivate others!
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every construction project. Project is is a mission and you can define for yourself a purpose this is the construction veteran podcast, connecting and celebrating veterans in construction.
Dan Samson:Now. Now, here's your host, scott Friend. Welcome back to the Construction Veteran Podcast. I'm Scott Friend and I am stoked to bring you guys my friend Dan Sampson, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot and current project manager in the construction industry. Let's dig into it. Manager in the construction industry.
Scott Friend:Let's dig into it.
Dan Samson:Hey Dan, what's going on man? Hey Scott, how are you? I'm very good. I'm glad to have you on. So Dan and I met at a monthly event here in the Dallas area called Bullets and Bourbon, ran by a former SEAL officer named Clint Bruce, which is actually an old friend of Dan. We'll get into that here in a little bit. So, dan, I want to first dive in and talk about where you're from and what you did in the service.
Scott Friend:Yeah, no, absolutely, and Scott, thanks for having me on. Yeah, my name is Dan Sampson. I grew up here in Dallas, texas, graduated high school in 2008, and then went to the Naval Academy, graduated there in 2012 and then spent 10 years in the Marine Corps where I was a UH-1 Yankee helicopter pilot, wrapped up my active duty time towards the latter part of 2022. Wrapped up my active duty time towards the latter part of 2022. And then came on board with Arco Murray, my current company, which is a national general contractor focusing in design, build construction.
Dan Samson:And I work as a project manager. So, dan, I got to ask when you go to the academy so most people might know but not everybody knows you have the opportunity to go become a naval officer or Marine Corps officer. What was the decision on your part why you went Marine Corps?
Scott Friend:So I had actually known that I wanted to be a Marine for quite some time, so kind of like fifth or sixth grade and I'm not. I've tried to trace this back a couple of times and I'm not entirely sure how I arrived on the Marine Corps Some combination of like a pretty serious Marine Corps recruiting effort, I'm sure, and then also kind of the esprit de corps that's associated to the Marine Corps. I think that was around the time that the guy in his dress blues, you know, killing a dragon with a sword, that commercial came out.
Dan Samson:Oh yeah, if you came out, oh yeah.
Scott Friend:If you're familiar.
Scott Friend:I probably probably got its hooks into me pretty good, Um, so that had been, you know, a focus of mine for quite some time.
Scott Friend:Um, and then in, you know, in middle school, I, I struggled academically and ended up with a, uh, with a tutor for math who had attended the Naval Academy and I kind of heard some stories and was like man, that sounds really cool.
Scott Friend:And then, um, between my eighth grade year and freshman year of high school, uh, I ended up getting to go visit the Naval Academy for about a week, um, during graduation week, which uh, is is quite the event and kind of gets you, gets you pretty fired up about it. Um, and I was like um, during graduation week, which uh, is is quite the event and kind of gets you gets you pretty fired up about it. Um, and I was like man, you know, you can go to this really cool college and, um, and go be a Marine too. That sounds, you know, kind of kind of like the the choice for me. So I was, you know, I was pretty dead set on that starting, starting in high school, uh, but the Marine Corps, you know, substantially before that, uh, I think it was, you know, like I said, the, the esprit de corps and kind of the few, the proud um aspect of that you know whether, whether warranted or not at the time for a, for a young 11 year old was was pretty motivating.
Dan Samson:Oh cool. So you thought you were going to be slaying dragons and dress blues.
Scott Friend:Uh, that's correct. Um, I, yeah I, I did not get to do that. Um. I know it was a bummer, um, but yeah, no, the Marine Corps career was, you know, was awesome and and you know that that esprit de corps was was obviously on on display and and was where I belonged, I think so, uh, it all, it all worked out for the best. But, yeah, no, no dragons, never saw a dragon.
Dan Samson:Very cool. So, uh, you mentioned you're a project manager, and so, uh, tell me what is a project manager? Uh, if people don't know, really in the construction side, what you do, what would you say is like a typical day to day.
Scott Friend:Yeah, I think so. So generally, and you know, for those veterans that are, they're looking to the AEC industry, you've got, you know, generally, like two hemispheres of a construction project and you know they're they're nominally called the field in the office. Your, your superintendent, which, scott, you're uh intimately familiar with that role um is basically running things uh in the field and your project manager is have a pretty uh pretty wide breadth of responsibilities. Uh, and that can, that can range from, you know, any any part of a construction uh project. So uh, like my, my military brain wants to call that the left and right side of a construction process, progress project Um, but anything from uh estimating to uh to getting into the actual weeds of of a construction project, so um, managing contracts with, with owners, managing subcontracts with.
Scott Friend:You know, your your different uh trade teams, um dealing with things as they come up on site to provide as much administrative support as you possibly can. And then sometimes you know being a sounding board for your superintendent to bounce some ideas off or providing your own directional ideas to you know, project closeout, where you're managing the punch list and ensuring that you know you've got a satisfied and happy client at the end of the project. So a good amount of administrative support, a lot of managerial aspects to that job, and then, at the end of the day, you're providing as much leadership as you think that you can or is deemed appropriate for a project. As you think that you can or is deemed appropriate for a project is something that goes a long way in motivating a team, is understanding that the project manager that is behind the desk is not always behind the desk and is on site, and it's tough to be mad at someone when you actually know them by name and by face.
Dan Samson:Yeah, very well said, man. So, um, I think there's a common misconception that, like, the superintendent works for the PM, or vice versa. Certainly, um, how would you describe that relationship, I think?
Scott Friend:one of the the best ways to answer that question, especially with with the audience that we have here, um with with veterans that are looking at the AAC industry, is like on my on my second day at at Arco I, I, uh, I actually spent all day on site with a superintendent um on a, on a project that was probably call it 60% complete or so. Um prior to this and Scott, you did, you did a great job of digging into my background here but I was a Marine helicopter pilot. It's not the CVs, we weren't constructing things. In fact, if they saw pilots with tools, they usually told us to put them down, which I think is fair. With tools, they usually told us to put them down, which I think is fair. But you know, I walked on this construction site day two and I started talking about the superintendent and I at the time was generally unfamiliar with the roles of what a superintendent was and what a project manager was, and you know how those roles kind of interfaced and I started to, I sat down with the superintendent and I basically just asked like, hey, if you could, if you could build your perfect project manager, you know what? What would this project manager look like Um, good question, thank you. And he started to describe um basically like someone that would support, like the administrative functionalities of a superintendent and of the like the project in general.
Scott Friend:And as he was describing this, I was thinking in the back of my head and it's not exactly. You know, scott, to your point, like the superintendent is not working for the project manager. The project manager and superintendent are working hand in hand, um, but I, I I was reminded of like echoes of a, you know, staff and CO and like junior officer uh relationship. Like specifically, the good ones, right, the, the, the junior officers that are not uh, pointing at the shiny stuff on their collar and saying, like we're going to do this because you know, I went to college and that's what I said. Um, and the staff and CEOs that are willing to provide some left and right, you know lateral limits for for their officers to support, like, at the end of the day, a good officer. You know, as much as we don't like to believe it is not a trigger puller, right, like we're not a trigger puller, we're not the tactical arm, we are setting conditions for our trigger pullers to succeed.
Scott Friend:And I think of that very similarly with a project manager and a superintendent. You know your subject matter expert. They're the. You know SME, if we want to use acronyms, but, um, the project manager exists during the course of construction to set conditions for the superintendent and for the field team to succeed, um, and when you know you have two people that are operating with that relationship in mind, I think that the project is, is bound to succeed. Um, when those two roles and responsibilities get reversed. I mean you, you, scott, you saw it in the, in the military all the time, and you know I'm, I'm only using that cause. You know that's that's, I spent 10 years there. Um, that's when, when things start to you know, quote unquote come off the rails a little bit. Um, and hopefully that kind of kind of summates what I, what I think about that relationship.
Dan Samson:Yeah, no, that's good, and I appreciate that you took the time to ask that question as well, because I think there's a lot there. A lot of different companies will have that animosity between the field and the office. It's this well they don't know what they're doing, and it it goes both ways. But when you kind of dig into each other's world a little bit, you realize yeah well, I'm not really doing what I need to do to support this guy, and vice versa. So I appreciate you doing that with your super yeah, no, absolutely.
Scott Friend:I mean I think it's the superintendent, is the stake that a construction project rides on and a good project manager and superintendent are going to work hand in hand and the officer staff and CO hopefully that doesn hand. And you know the the officer staff and CO like, uh, hopefully that doesn't come across in the wrong way, like that's those, those symbiotic relationships. You know the the staff and CO is is not working for the officer I, you know, as an officer I I really did not like that, that type of relationship it's. It's two people working on the, you know, on the same level, one is working to support the like the actual, you know, trigger pulling functionalities of the other um and and support them in the best way they can set conditions for for success. You know, for your quote, unquote, trigger pullers.
Dan Samson:Yeah, that's good. I'll share a quick story. I don't know if I've shared it on the post before, but know or the podcast before. I know I've told some friends. But uh, when I went back in and I commissioned into the army reserves, we went out to the field and I had another butter bar with me at the time and he had no prior service and the command sergeant major wanted us to wear our gear basically as soon as we stepped out of the tent. And this is blazing hot outside he's like I don't.
Dan Samson:Why do we have to do this? This is goofy, and can't I tell him I'm not going to do that, Cause I'm an officer? I said, well, maybe on paper, but he's going to turn around and go to the battalion commander and say you need to fix that officer.
Scott Friend:That's exactly right yeah.
Dan Samson:Yeah, I kind of know your role type deal, so, um, all right, so let me, let me change here a little bit, change it up. Um, what was it?
Scott Friend:Because you went from being a helicopter pilot and now you're in construction. How did that happen? Yeah, so um, probably a longer answer here than you're looking for, but um, no man the floor is yours around the.
Scott Friend:So you know. So for me, I reached the 10 year mark and you know that's that's about the time where everybody's deciding is it, is it? It's kind of like your last chance, like, is it time to leave or are you going to ride it out for another 10 years? My wife and I had had a bunch of conversations. My wife is absolutely wonderful and supported, you know, at the end of the day she was, she was very frank and said you know, this is, this is your decision to make. Um, you know you lead our family in the way that you, that you feel is is the right way.
Scott Friend:Um, I, I asked myself some pretty, some pretty in-depth questions, uh, to arrive at the solution that you know it was, it was it was time to forgive the aviation pun but punch out that. You know it was, it was, it was time to forgive the aviation pun but punch out. Um, and before I, before I made that, that decision, um, it or kind of like in concert with that decision, I, I started getting very aggressive, uh, on, you know quote unquote networking.
Scott Friend:Um and it's relatively tough to do when you're, when you're insulated. You know, quote unquote networking, um, and it's relatively tough to do when you're, when you're insulated, you know, on whatever military base you're, you're at because I would be willing to bet there's a, there's a fairly good chance that that location is geographically disparate from where you eventually want to end up. Um, so I, I, I started, uh, and you know, scott, we talked about it. I, I had wanted to be a Marine since I was in fifth grade. Um, and Scott, we talked about it. I had wanted to be a Marine since I was in fifth grade and then get to the end of a 10-year career. I'm 32 years old, I've got a wife and a kid and I have to decide what I want to do when I grow up, which is a tough decision to arrive at. So I started digging into just companies that I'd heard of, you know, professions that I just like generally had heard of. I leveraged LinkedIn in a pretty big way and it's something that I would advocate for for veterans that are looking to get out. You can get a LinkedIn premium account for a 12 month time period for free if you're a military active duty member or a veteran, if you haven't done it previously. And I would look into companies and industries and I would search for someone that had something in common with me. So three things generally come to mind. And I was a Naval Academy graduate. That network's relatively strong. I was a Marine and then I a Marine and then I was a helicopter pilot, um, so I would look for someone in that company or industry that had something similar with me in common. So once I found that person, I would send them a message and ask for 30 minutes of their time, um to hop on a call and just hear their story, hear how the transition went, how they decided on the industry they were in Um and that that informed um. It just gave me like a general background for for how guys were, you know, arriving in certain industries?
Scott Friend:Um, around that time period I actually got connected to one of the uh the partners at my current company, um, via a friend from high school. Um, you know he, we were. We happened to be at a wedding uh together and you know he kind of looked across the table. It was like hey, have you ever thought about project management? And you know Scott staff and COs officers, like that's kind of like the go-to move for us getting out and it was like the first thing you think of is project management. Um, and I like the go-to move for us now and it was like the first thing you think of is project management and I was like yeah, absolutely. And he said that he wanted to connect me with with, with one of our you know, one of one of our partners. We hopped on a call and I did some quick research on you know Arco Murray and what they did. I come to some.
Scott Friend:A decent amount of my family is in the construction industry, so I have some peripheral knowledge of it, not not very in-depth but but but peripheral. Um, I think the thing that impressed me the most, actually, uh or or kind of like stuck with me the most is I. I probably I had two or three calls with with different people in leadership positions at the ARCO Dallas office and you know I was immensely impressed with with how forthcoming and intelligent and you know the questions that they were asking they were just it was like man, this. This feels to me a lot like, you know, a ready room feels or a squadron feels, where, where you've got you know smart people that are, that are driven and confident in themselves. And I was like you know, gosh, you know I'm looking for kind of a softer landing pad here, you know, recognizing that I was going to lose some of that environment as I left the military, kind of, as those interviews progressed like I never lost that feeling, if anything, it compounded. And then I ended up getting offered a position and you know I didn't look back from there. For me it was, I was actually drawn by the social environment of the company that I work at. Once we got into and I got exposed to the construction industry and I'm on our tenant solutions team. Industry term is tenant improvement. Generally it's existing renovations of existing structures. Man, I loved it, it was it and have loved it it's.
Scott Friend:You know, a construction project generally mirrors the operational planning cycle of the military in a sense of you know you've got a defined objective and you backwards plan. You know, I know, on a previous podcast, you, you, you know mentioned some lean planning principles and it, you know it's this you've got this defined objective, backwards plan from the defined objective in order to to arrive at your end state. And it, you know, a lot of times in the military. You've got this relatively nebulous end state of like. Well, you know we'll capture in seas and you know whatever the, the, you know verbiage is there, but you know it's hard to be. You know more concrete and building, you know, or like there's, this is, this is how we're going to, this is, this is what we're going to do at the at the end of the day, like, this is 100% of the product we're looking to turn over to the client and I, I, I enjoy that type of planning.
Scott Friend:And then, you know, the tenant improvement space is also very interesting, scott. I think we've talked about it and I think you've done some TI. But you know, man, like every building in the TI space starts as a mystery. You know it's trying to dig in and figure out. You know this building was built in 1930 and you know multiple iterations of contractors have been in there and like, what did they do? What were they trying to achieve? Why is this here? Um, is is really a, a, a fun, uh and an enjoyable kind of gosh like brain exercise, right, and and then not only how, how did it get there? Why is it there and how do we get it out? Or what do we put in its place? Um is that that's. That's very enjoyable.
Dan Samson:Yeah, I do. I agree with you that it's kind of like it's a pass fail right.
Dan Samson:There's no in between we either delivered it or we didn't, and obviously there's changes along the way and you have to be flexible with that. But it sounds like you know your, your story is really what I'm trying to impress upon people. That it's it's. It's a fairly simple not simple, I shouldn't say it's a fairly seamless transition, if you will, going from the service into this industry and there's a, there's a role for everybody, whether you are, you know, an ops leader and now you're the one planning it out, kind of like a project manager would be, or if you're the one running the troops in the field, like a superintendent you know, no I
Dan Samson:100% agree. So what was it? I mean, you might've already answered this, basically, but what was it that kind of kept you on this track? I mean, it seems like you just the what you loved about the Marine Corps and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it seems like what you loved about the Marine Corps and just that organization and the target goal is what you loved Is that kind of what's kept you doing this or what made you realize. When did you have that aha moment of? Okay, I think I found my spot.
Scott Friend:Yeah, great, great question. I would say the you know to address this kind of separately that what I loved about the Marine Corps, you know, flying it, flying a helicopter, is awesome.
Dan Samson:In a word, I love that the thing that I humble brag right. We all want to be helicopter pilots. That's awesome.
Scott Friend:Yeah, I'm surprised we made it like two minutes into the podcast before I said something about being a helicopter pilot, those pilots man, you know, the thing that I loved about being in the Marine Corps was I took a lot of pride in and really enjoyed being a Marine Corps, a Marine officer, and I would tell people you know we would have. You know, you've got a friend of a friend who's you know cousin is thinking about you know, joining the military because they want to be a pilot. And you know, one of the bigger questions I had for them, relatively routinely, is like well, do you want to be, do you want to be a pilot, or do you do you want to be a Marine officer that flies? Cause, if you want to be a Marine officer that flies, you should join the Marine Corps. If you want to be a pilot, then perhaps think about another service. You know the Marine Corps is very good at impressing upon their leaders that you know you're a Marine officer first and then you know your, your, your identity as a pilot comes second. So I I love being being in that role and providing as much you know, leadership and and management and mentorship realistically as a butter bar. You shouldn't be mentoring anybody without any prior service.
Scott Friend:But you know, I, I, I enjoyed that uh a lot. The operational planning is, you know it was, was, was certainly part of it. You know, getting to construction, I, I, I agree with you, I think I don't. You know, I think that construction AC I would say the, the C in construction is is certainly a soft, soft landing pad for for veterans. Right like you, you enter the, the environment, and it's not, it's not the same song, but it rhymes um, yeah I get you, you've got.
Scott Friend:You know, the first time I stepped on a construction site I was like, man, there's, you know, there's all this stuff going on and it doesn't make sense to me yet, but it's like a flight line. Like if I was to bring somebody to a flight line they would just be like, man, this is chaos, our helicopter's not running into each other, and it's like, well, you know, it's because it it because it's coordinated, and I recognize that, like gosh, you know this, this, this is going to be. I think this is right. And then that that furthers, as you kind of kind of go through the process, you've got you know, as a, as a project manager, you're doing a lot of interdisciplinary leadership and management right. You've got, especially when you're over the project as a general contractor, you've got you know 10, 12, 20 trades that you're, that you're managing at any given point, and that takes a lot of awareness of your own internal management style, own internal leadership style as well.
Scott Friend:And that all mirrored what I had experienced in the military when I left my last unit in the military. I was our operations officer and military exercise planning, et cetera. It all has the same echoes in the construction industry and you know the construction industry is a people forward business, it's a human business and you know that's exactly what the military is. So, because they, they mashed and correlated I've, you know, when you show up, you you feel almost at home, like this is, this is an environment that I'm comfortable with. Yes, we're doing something new, uh, that I haven't personally experienced before, but, like man, you know, like I, once I get my feet underneath me, knowledge-wise, like you know, the, the, the structure is, is already existing.
Dan Samson:Yeah, very good. So, man, this is a loaded question, but I want your opinion. How do you think your service cause you spent a fair amount of time and you spent a decade in serving how how do you think it's helped you the most in what you're doing now? I mean, there's a lot of crossover, I would say, especially with the PM side. What do you think that really sticks out to you Like? Oh man, I remember doing that in the Marine Corps.
Scott Friend:I think it's kind of what we just talked about, scott. I think it's finding the right blend of leadership and management to, you know, to to motivate, you know, an interdisciplinary team which sounds it sounds a little trite, I guess, in a way, but but for those that know and have seen it done well before, like I, it's a very specific, you know, it's a very specific mindset. You know, you've got. You know, scott, I'm sure you've experienced it. Like, to me, in my mind, leadership and management are two separate but very related things. You could have somebody that's just a rock star leader and just a garbage manager and you can have someone that's a rock star manager and just a garbage leader. And the best you know leaders in the military, the best NCOs, staff, ncos and officers that I experienced were some combination of those two things. You start kind of exploring the space, like you know.
Scott Friend:I think that the it's a bit of a misnomer that that just because you served in the military, that like yeah you're, you're just going to knock the leadership and managerial stuff out of the park. I don't think that's necessarily the case. You know the military is, is an extension of the American populace. Um, you've, you've got great, good, bad, anything in between. However, what the military does a fantastic job of is exposing you to leadership opportunities very early on in life. You know the construction space does that as well.
Scott Friend:And, if you can, for veterans, if you can recognize that and hold true to the values that made you a successful leader or manager or some combination therein, the things that made you a great NCO or staff NCO in the military world, like, yeah, you're going into something potentially that you haven't done before, an industry that is slightly foreign to you. However, the bones of your, you know, leadership and managerial style will, you know, carry you to success because you know, at the end of the day, construction it's a very large, you know, people-focused people, people forward environment. It's based on relationships. Um, and you know you, you have to, you have to put a foot into leadership and a foot into management one way or another, um to to motivate those teams in the in the best possible way.
Dan Samson:I think I need to reframe the way I asked some, I guess, this question, but uh, not that you would you regret anything necessarily, but along your journey, I mean, let's, let's take a step back. We talked about Clint a little bit and then he kind of encouraged you along your journey before you even went into the Marine Corps. Is that correct?
Scott Friend:That's correct.
Dan Samson:Yeah, certainly, so I'm curious about. So let's talk about who Clint is, real quick and kind of how he guided you, and then once you, kind of baby bird, flew the nest if you will, and you went off on your own. If there's anything along that journey. Maybe you would have done a little differently to get where you're at now.
Scott Friend:Yeah, so so Clint Bruce, I've known Clint for gosh. I think I was 14 or 15 years old when I when I met Clint, and I'm 34 now, if that puts that into context. Um, so Clint, uh, is another Naval Academy graduate. Um, he graduated class of 94 or 96, I think. Um very successful middle linebacker at the Naval Academy uh, and then went on to have a stint with the Baltimore Ravens. Um, clint forgive me if I'm messing any of this up Um, I think Clint's Clint. What is Clint's joke? Uh, that he played. Uh, his overlap at the Ravens was with Ray Lewis, uh, so he didn't see much playing time.
Dan Samson:Right yeah.
Scott Friend:I think he says something like he thought it was going to be easier to be a Navy SEAL, so he did.
Dan Samson:Yeah, it was apparently.
Scott Friend:he said yeah it was, and to beat Ray Lewis, that's right. So he became a Navy SEAL and then left the teams in, I think, the early 2000s, which is about the time that, um, that uh, I I started my mentorship, I guess, or he started mentoring me, um, so there was a there was a small um fellowship program that that Clint ran for some of the, the offensive and defensive linemen um, on our high school football team. Clint ran that and that's where you know, uh, I'm meeting, you know, a little bit of providence here, like meeting another Naval Academy guy feeling like, okay, well, you know, this is a really good dude that went to this school I keep hearing about, I feel pretty, pretty set on this course. And and, clint, actually, when I, when I got accepted to the Naval Academy, clint, clint came to my high school to kind of be the guy that told me, oh cool. So you know, clint provided some fantastic guidance and leadership, as he's done for just you know, hordes of people at this point. And then when I was looking to get out of the military, I linked back up with Clint and you know he's pulled me in uh, kind of kind of under the wing here and continue to to provide guidance and you know this.
Scott Friend:Next, in this next step, you know, in terms of things that I regret, you know. You know there's to be honest with you, scott, like going back. I wouldn't take any of it back. I had a fantastic experience in the Marine Corps. I had a fantastic experience in the Naval Academy. I met just the greatest people that you'd interact with.
Scott Friend:I think my biggest learning moment when you check into the deployable squadrons is a is a new, second or first lieutenant, you know 0102, you are qualified to. You know sit in the seat and generally be a copilot and not touch many buttons. And then you kind of progress through a syllabus and you will eventually become an instructor. And then you kind of progress through a syllabus and you will eventually become an instructor. And you know, as I, as I became an instructor, I realized I had kind of thought for a while, like man, this you know, kind of like instructor and leadership thing comes like relatively naturally to me. Um, and it turned out that my uh instructor slash, leader slash, just like general way I acted in the aircraft, was, uh was very off putting to people.
Dan Samson:Um I was uh.
Scott Friend:I know I was very, I was very particular about how things went and I I got, you know, relatively upset when they, when they deviated outside of of of the way that I wanted them to go, and I really had to take a step back and and you know, um, and and evaluate the way that I was, that I was acting, and the way that I was, you know, leading to a degree and the way I was instructing and and I think that you know, I I turned that around pretty well. So, like, do I regret? Uh, you know the way I acted in those moments? Um, yes, um. However, you know the way I acted in those moments, yes, however, you know, I think that it's made me a much, much calmer person, I think, a much better leader and teacher and instructor. You know I took some they were hard learned lessons to a degree, but you know they were incredibly valuable to a degree, um, but you know they were, they were incredibly valuable, all right.
Dan Samson:So question about you know we we discussed a little bit that part of this podcast is trying to get people from the military that are actively, you know, serving or are veterans, and we know we need people really bad Um, what would you say to them to try to encourage them to get into the industry?
Scott Friend:You know, I think we've done a pretty good job of kind of like outlining some of the similarities between the military and how you can generally feel at inside the industry. I think it's important for guys, when they're looking to get out, to be very introspective, to really evaluate the reasons that they're getting out and you know, if they're set on getting out, that's great and they've got good reasons and awesome but to also to really think about what that transition will bring with it. Right, and like a couple of things come, come to mind and that's, you know, potential loss of purpose, potential loss of mission, mission. And then you know, loss of your, your social environment, like this environment that you, that you have lived for, you know four to 10 to potentially 20 years, um, and, and the construction industry is, is a very comfortable place, uh, to land, in which you, you have those things Like there's, there is a purpose, there is a mission, like it's very concrete and you know every construction project, project, is, is a mission and you can define for yourself a purpose inside. You know whether that be a trade or construction management, like you can, you can define that, that personal purpose. You know I'm, I'm, I'm redefining myself to, you know, provide X type of life for my family. And then you know I'm doing that through the construction industry because I feel that I have a mission and then my purpose is to provide, you know, the best possible service I can for, uh, for my in-state customer, um, and, and I think that you can check those boxes relatively easily. You know, it's not, it's not as big of a leap um, inside, inside the construction space, and then just generally the environment is, is incredibly familiar.
Scott Friend:Um, for for someone coming out of, for someone coming out of the military, like even even the way that you know you speak, like there's, there's it can potentially be a little bit more brusque, which I think you would agree is, you know, very similar to to the way people talk in the military. Um, it's full of acronyms, uh, there's. You know, a fairly good chance that you know what 70% of those acronyms mean, but you definitely know what it is, um, you just may not know exactly what the letters stand for. You know it's, it's, it is, it's a comfortable environment, like, like I've said before, it's a, it's a soft landing pad.
Dan Samson:Yeah, Very good way to put it. Um, so I got to ask I like to discuss mental health on here too. Yeah, Um, it's an issue that we face in the service, obviously, and it's it. I think it's understated about how big of an issue it is in our environment, in this industry. Um, I mean, there's long hours. Um, I've man, I'll be honest, it's pretty depressing to be away from your family. So if we've got vets, it just compounds being a veteran. So if we've got folks out there listening that are in the industry as vets or anybody for that matter, that's just kind of going through the muck. What would you say to them?
Scott Friend:Yeah, I think it goes back to being introspective is you lose your friends? Right, but friends is like not, it's not a sufficient enough explanation of what those people are to you, right, like you, you, you spend all of your time with them, even the time that you're not at work you're spending with them and you, you potentially deployed with them. Um, like you, you trust them implicitly. Um, and one of the things that that that I've seen is that people underestimate how, how, and we're used to communicating with those people. You know, somebody told me like this is you have to stop thinking of friends like you're.
Scott Friend:You know, like your friends from your old job, like those were more than that, they were family members or maybe even slightly different. You're used to communicating with them with a 0% social filter, and not only was that commonplace, it was kind of beat into you and nobody trusted somebody that communicated like hid 10% of their thoughts. You may not completely verbalize everything that you're thinking, but when you do that, better be 100 percent of what you're thinking, and when you lose that, you lose a bit of an outlet, you lose commonality and and that's it's unfortunate. Not only is it unfortunate, I think it could be contributory to to the way that guys are. Guys are feeling now in the, in the military, where that was, uh, you know, provided for you. I want to say artificially, but like you were kind of forced into it, right.
Scott Friend:Yeah, yeah, when you're on a nine month deployment together, you, you learn each other pretty quick, exactly In the when, when you leave the military and you enter another industry, then that is not necessarily provided to you. It's something that you have to exhibit some forward action into setting for yourself, and that takes some effort and it's difficult, um, but you know it's, it's something that that, frankly, I identified, uh, when I left the service. Um is, you know, man, I, I need to, I need to, I need to have that outlet somehow. Um, and you know I, I had a buddy that left, uh, left the Marine Corps. Um, maybe two months after me he ended up moving to Dallas. Uh, we get together relatively frequently and and I've got a couple other guys, um, you know Spencer, uh, pain, who you've met, um, who you know I link up with, and, and, and they're there, that outlet, and that outlet doesn't necessarily have to be. You know I link up with and, and, and they're, they're that outlet, and that outlet doesn't necessarily have to be.
Scott Friend:You know, uh, you know something super heavy socially. It can be like, hey, let's just check in on each other, like, let's, let's, uh, you know, uh, you know, talk with our hands and tell helicopter stories and, you know, relive, you know, x, y and Z memory and I, and I think that that's a good, you know, social reset, like that's a that's, that's good for us. It's something that that we, we used to get on a daily basis, um, or monthly basis, you know, on a deployment, um, but, but, but it's, it's stripped from us, not, you know, it's our own decision when we leave, like, but it's something that that I didn't identify, something I wish I would have identified, that that I was going to miss um, and I think it's something that you can do proactively. Now you know that that is so much easier said than done, um, but all that to say those organizations, those, those groups, you know they, they do exist. Like what you're, what you're doing with Memorial Ranch.
Scott Friend:You know, like the, the, the bullets and bourbon, that that's run by Clint Bruce, these organizations exist, these opportunities exist. They're difficult or more difficult to find than they, than when they were just kind of artificially presented to you, uh, by way of you know, uh, somebody writing you PCS orders for three years.
Dan Samson:Right, yeah, I appreciate you sharing that man. Yeah, well, dan, I'm going to go ahead and wrap up here.
Scott Friend:Uh.
Dan Samson:I just want to say, man, it's been really nice getting to know you over the last shoot. We probably met a year and a half ago, maybe something like that. So I really appreciate it, dan, um, and you got a really cool story. I mean, you've got a really nice uh, I don't want to say seamless, but it's been a good transition for you, um, because you haven't been out too long. You know we're talking less than five years, right?
Dan Samson:Yeah, I mean we're um, I think it'll be two years here in just a couple months. Yeah, so it's been really encouraging when I see guys like you that get out and just flourish. This has been great. So if anybody wants to get a hold of you, what would be the best way?
Scott Friend:I think, um, you know, I'm connected with you on linkedin. Um, it's just, you know, dan samson, you know, feel free to connect with me there and I'd love to hop on a call or just exchange emails. You know, if you're in DFW, please feel free to reach out, and especially those that are looking to transition out of the military, like, please, please, let me know. This is all still relatively fresh on my mind. I've taken notes, uh, I've, I've got some, some things that I that I think would would benefit. But, scott, you know, I really appreciate you. Having me on this has been a great opportunity. You're, you're, you're a wonderful human being and just and just an excellent friend. Um, I, I really appreciate everything that you're doing for this community. I think this is awesome and and thank you very much.
Dan Samson:Thanks, man, I appreciate that and I want to say real quick too, I like the fact that you asked people just let me give give me 30 minutes of your time. I think that's smart, so anybody can spare that at some point.
Scott Friend:So yeah, All right man.
Dan Samson:Well, dan, thanks again, man, I really appreciate it.
Scott Friend:Yeah, of course, scott, thank you.
Dan Samson:All right.
