We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shawn Banzhaf. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shawn below.

Shawn , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

The story is one that starts with simply wanting to help other people like I had been helped. Seeing a need and trying to decide how to provide what others might be in search of. With my book, I pitched the idea of its frame work to family and friends. They listened as I laid it out for them. They appeared interested while I talked them through the idea. After I was finished they said….You need to write a book on this! People will pay money to hear what you have to say here. I had always, low key, dreamt of writing a book and now I felt I had the right thought process to produce something solid and set out on making my dreams come true. It simply started with a manuscript but there is much more that goes into writing a book than meets the eye. I learned the importance of the process and am glad I did it!

Shawn , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I come from rural America, Nebraska born and raised. I was a high school athlete with potential but not enough to pay for college. With a small scholarship, I chose to join the Army National Guard in April of 1990. I went on to play some college football at my alma mater Chadron State College, met my bride, we married and stayed in Chadron, Nebraska to raise our family. During over two decades there, we were fully part of the community, I continued to serve in the military part time and was a local police officer. During my 21 years in the military I was deployed in natural disaster recovery, from Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1999, to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I then was deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2006 and spent a year there in combat operations. After I came home, I was back to the police force but something in me had been changed, broken in a way. I did what I could to continue but eventually I needed a change. I decided to become a pastor for college students and finish my undergrad. It took some time for me to graduate college while raising a family, in fact I didn’t get my bachelors until 2010! After our kids were out of the house, my wife and I chose to move to the valley of the sun in 2014 and make a new start. We both got jobs at Arizona State University which is a story in itself (read my book to find out how it went down!). I started as a volunteer and am now the Executive Director of the Pat Tillman Veterans Center where serve over 15,000 military connected learners. These past five years with the center have given me the inspiration to write my book The Five Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma. I have sold over 2,000 copies and have trained 1,000’s in the framework I developed, including all of the Tempe Police Force and I am current training the Tempe Fire Department on how to be Trauma informed.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think, the fact that I was able to work through my post traumatic stress and change it into post traumatic growth is my illustration of resilience. A victim of childhood trauma, to trauma as a police officer, to trauma as a solider, to being a published author and a leader of the nations premier higher education veterans services center is a testament to my resilient nature.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had been more adept at website development and would have created my website prior to my publication. I might have done some pre-work on the publicity side of the house to get people interested in my upcoming release.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shawnbanzhaf.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawnbanzhaf/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnbanzhaf1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnbanzhaf/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shawnbanzhaf
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shawnbanzhaf2353
• Other: https://amazon.com/author/shawnbanzhaf

Image Credits
Charlie Leight Shawn Banzhaf