We were lucky to catch up with Son Lam recently and have shared our conversation below.

Son, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.

In 2016, I retired early as a Gunnery Sergeant from active duty, United States Marine Corps. During my time in, I deployed to Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan in 2010. Since those years, my previous units have suffered dozens of suicides and/or deaths resulting from substance abuse. When those numbers hit double digits, I wanted to gather up all of the veterans in the local area I once deployed with, just to catch up and check in on each other. I began looking at different venues to host such a reunion but couldn’t truly settle on a place. Some of the veterans were doing well financially in life and most were not so I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

I decided to look into American Legion Posts. Some background, American Legion Posts are veteran clubs established by Congress in the 1900’s. Each post typically has an event hall, full bar, full kitchen and is usually in prime real estate location. They are usually manned and maintained by the membership of each location. Membership requires a person to be an honorably-discharged veteran or currently serving. Membership is usually $50 a year, which gives you access to over 13,000 posts nationwide and a few abroad.

So, I looked at several locations within the Orange County area but as I had suspected, most of the buildings have become incredibly outdated and worn out. In addition, the members which CURRENTLY frequent these posts are typically that of the Desert Storm war era and back. In order for this to change, younger veterans are needed to come into these establishments to take over leadership and pump new life and ideas to generate revenue. It was then, I decided to find a solution to this. I envisioned a modern, trendy speakeasy to attract younger veterans into the building just to get their foot in the door. Eventually, the goal was to spread awareness of such a great organization which is the American Legion.

At this point, I simply had a vision. Coincidentally at this time, I also applied to the USC Master of Business for Veterans (MBV) program. I was accepted for Cohort 10 (X) and began my studies there. Throughout my time at the School of Marshall, I used my speakeasy concept as a model for all entrepreneurship projects we had. Therefore, I had the input of my peers and professors and by the end of graduation…I had already started construction. It all worked out very well.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a city boy raised in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. My parents were immigrants from Vietnam during the war, like most roots of Vietnamese American families now. They started with a Vietnamese sandwich(banh mi) shop which eventually grew into several Vietnamese restaurants. So as a child, I grew up working in the environment of a small business and one that existed to “host” others. My father always loved having events and friends come together to enjoy a night out, oftentimes, at the expense of making a profit.

If you were to ask ten of my closest friends what my best trait is, it would be that I like to connect people together. My vision for OpSek Post 354, the veteran themed speakeasy lounge, is to have a place where veterans and guests alike, can be connected in order to get the resources and networking they deserve and oftentimes need.

I’m most proud of my concept because it is unique and addresses a problem everyone regardless of your veteran status, is aware of. That is, veteran suicide. I firmly believe a major contributing factor to veteran suicide is finances. There are thousands, if not more, who have parted ways with military service and have yet to file or seek resources of which are warranted to them. Most have too much pride or simply don’t know where to start. My aim is to open this line of communication with them as they come into OpSek, and hopefully provide them with the guidance of which they need before they leave. I’m really proud of this because it is a proven concept. In my short time of being open for 8 months, there have been countless veterans who have come in and had this conversation with either myself or my staff. I’ve seen some of these customers be awarded disability ratings to which otherwise, would have not received as soon as they did.

Although OpSek is designed to attract veterans, civilians are welcome to because our aim is to spread the awareness of the American Legion to the rest of the nation. The American Legion does so much for the nation but most of this country is simply not aware of it. My aim is to show the world the veteran community is a strong one and continues to serve even, when they have separated from active service.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The one thing that has significantly impacted my forward progress of this vision are my peers from business school. Throughout the construction phase, I ran into many obstacles including permits, construction scams and hurdles that really got me discouraged. Through it all, it was the motivation and belief from my peers that kept me continuing on with it. After every weekend of class, I would leave it all hyped up and super motivated to press on no matter what was in between me and completion of the project. So I definitely had a huge support circle around me and I think that’s one of the most important things to have when you’re venturing into something like this.

Any advice for managing a team?

My advice to managing a team is to recognize that each member is valuable and that most decisions can be brainstormed together as a team. The manager doesn’t need to necessarily wait for a vote to happen before a decision is made but oftentimes, the team appreciates their input being heard, at least from time to time. I’ve also learned being genuinely concerned with their quality of life helps with their output and productivity at work when I’m not around. If a person knows you care for them and their well-being, they’re more inclined to put in the extra work and effort for you, especially when they’re running the place by themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.opsekspeakeasy.com
• Instagram: @opsek_post354
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonlam1/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/op-sek-post-354-buena-park?osq=opsek