We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ritchie Thomas, A Soldier’s Coach. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ritchie below.
Ritchie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
It was 2007, I was in Atlanta… standing in the unemployment line praying that they would extend my unemployment check for $247 a week to help put food on the table. Standing there humiliated, hurt, and ashamed I realized how far I had fallen–
6 months previously I was in the Army (active duty) and now, I was in a different Army, the Army of the Unemployed 💔
For the next 18 months, it would be unemployment and minimium wage opportunities and no one who would hire me based upon my war stories in Afghanistan.
Fast forward 12 years later and I now realize that sometimes we get exposed to something because we were meant to do something about it. Today, as America’s #1 Military Speaker I help our brave men and women in the United States Armed Forces mentally transition from a soldier’s mindset to a business professional’s mindset via speaking engagements and military transition workshops.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Unemployment is the #1 issue for our brave troops after they transition out of the military. In reality, it makes sense, as soldiers are trained for the combat battlefield, not the economic battlefield…
so as America’s #1 Military Speaker I essentially do 3 things at a really high level to help them mentally transition from a soldier’s mindset to a business professional’s mindset so they can win the battle of unemployment:
-provide captivating speaking engagements around military transition w/ actionable takeaways
-facilitate military transition workshops to ensure they can mentally transition from a soldier to CEO (of their life)
-conduct small group coaching to help them develop a six-figure earning strategy after they transition out of the military
My 1st book, The Mediocre Miracle was my letter to the 26 yr old unemployed veteran and I have since followed it up with “Your Final Marching Orders: The 10 Secrets to Successfully Transition Out of the Military That Every Veteran Needs to Know”
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The hardest lesson I’ve ever learned is that sometimes we get exposed to something because we were meant to do something about it.
Being an unemployed veteran was my ‘Scarlet Letter’ as society tells us that your salary equates to your level of success; therefore, the more money you make, the more “successful” you are. If we reverse this, then what are you?
There are 5 big issues in the veteran community: unemployment, homelessness, mental health (suicide), physical injury, & lack of education.
If I would never gone through that, I wouldn’t be able to help coach, train, and speak to the troops, as i now understand the pain points of a soldier ❤️🤘🏽
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I have a million $ coach who told me, “Ritchie, it’s not social media, it’s business media…”
This was a complete paradigm shift for me as I HATED SOCIAL MEDIA (and honestly, I still secretly do); however, you can’t fight the market, so meet them where they are. My cheat code came once I realized that sites like LinkedIn and YouTube are not just websites, but actual computer programs. If you ‘program’ these sites to bring traffic, leads, and conversions to and for your business, it is an absolute game changer😉.
Understanding and maximizing these resources is how I got to page #1 of Google in my industry (go ahead, ‘Google’ “Military transition speaker”, I’ll wait🤘🏽)
It’s a key in what I teach veterans, as understanding (and mastering) marketing is how any business will thrive and again, you have to understand any and all businesses are in the technology business (most just don’t know this).
You build an audience through consistent storytelling about the biggest problem in your niche. Your book, your podcast, and your (CONSISTENT) content should demo how/why YOU are the expert in your lane.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ritchiethomas.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritchierthomas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RitchieThomasJr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ0gov-7V46V_pN7WiOrngQ
- Other: https://www.ted.com/talks/ritchie_thomas_your_final_marching_orders