#186 - From Military to Millions? The Truth About Veteran Entrepreneurship | Jonathan Bates

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All of these skills equal this thing.

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And the more you can learn, the more action you can take, the more mistakes that you can
make, the faster that you can compound that and get to the next level.

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Today's guest is Jonathan Bates.

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He's a partner at Patriot Growth Capital.

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Patriot partners with accounting and professional services firms that want to grow without
losing what made them successful in the first place.

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He also works closely with founders who are at an inflection point, thinking about scale,
succession, capital, and what the next chapter actually looks like after years of building

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something meaningful.

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This conversation today for 30 to 40 minutes, it's not just about quick exits or financial
engineering.

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It's about long-term thinking.

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leadership transitions, and how entrepreneurs make smart decisions when the stakes are
high and the business is personal.

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Jonathan Bates, welcome to The Necessary Entrepreneur.

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Mark, thanks for having me on, brother.

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I'm so excited to dig in and see what I can learn.

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Oh, I think it's what we're gonna learn today, man.

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think we could probably sit here and talk for two or three hours.

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I'm pumped about you coming to Cincinnati at some point and we sit down in person.

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But we talked for a few minutes before we kicked off this conversation.

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And I don't know if we're gonna get to the depth of your experience and what you've done
throughout your life and what makes you willing to like eat anything and should be on Fear

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Factor.

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But...

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You believe in your business, we'll talk about Patriot Growth Capital and the impacts
you're making and first principles and what your core values are, but you talk about this

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belief in providing and building durable value.

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Why is that so important?

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Man, durable value is, I mean, we've all had those investments that we thought were cool
or the mindset of the average, you know, American or military person, you know, like,

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great, got a, I got a bonus.

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Woo!

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And you see all these young kids with new trucks and things like that.

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And you're like, man.

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And you look back today, I'm sure that you have the same thing where you're like, man, if
I hadn't a

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done all those other things, I could have done these other things.

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And so really building that durable value is, uh, how can we think a little more long-term
and actually get to where we want to be for our families and ourselves, our dreams.

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And so that, that is the key is making sure that we have, I believe that we're actually
this close to anything we want if we could just define it.

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And defining it helps make those decisions on whether I buy a brand new truck with cash or
I invest in a business or something.

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I think the most valuable thing you can invest in is your, is yourself, your education.

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Cause that compounds like everything that you you'd learn and then every mistake you make
it compounds so that, you know, some people are like, man, they have a sunk cost fallacy.

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Like, dude, I got to start over.

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Durable value is.

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Dumb man, you've built all these things.

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You're never starting from scratch.

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You're just starting fresh.

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And you can't do that without durable value, whether it's through a business or investing
in yourself or anything like that.

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So I think the long-term good that you can do on this earth for you and your family and
the rest of America and the rest of the world is built on, on really focusing on that

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durable.

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How long do you think we should define?

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purpose, the goal?

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Is it five years?

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Is it 10 years?

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Is it for the end of our life?

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Is it for legacy afterwards?

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What should the goal be?

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What should we define?

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Yeah, so I've been, I just had.

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A friend of mine commits suicide about four days ago now.

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When you, I think this applies to everybody.

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Uh, when you transition from one big thing to another in your life, but I'm looking
through the lens of a military guy.

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This gentleman worked for me, uh, for almost a decade off and on over 26 years and
fantastic individual.

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But

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You know, he lost his hope and stuff like that.

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his goodness is just like, dunno, he lost faith in himself.

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It was, you know, I make sure you check your texts.

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like, did I do it?

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Everything I could.

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And the last things, know, is, you know, I was me reaching out, things like that.

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Um,

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about purpose as well is that what we're talking about?

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that's what I'm talking about here is when you are in the military or you have a great
job, like you've like, you're the, you're the man where you are.

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The people around you, like you're the superhero, you're the, you're the hero of this
story, of your story.

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Your family's lives depend on you.

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The people that you work around, depend on the quality of work that you do.

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You have to overcome obstacles to keep winning.

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In the military, you have that.

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You're like, cool.

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This is, this is what I'm doing.

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This is the purpose that I have.

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These are the people I'm doing it with.

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is how I'm getting there.

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There's no question on that.

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Then the next day, you're not allowed to wear the same clothes.

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You're not allowed to talk to the same people.

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You're not allowed to go to the same places.

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Who are you?

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And that lack of purpose and definition of why I'm here, who am I and what's next.

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You know, I think that hits a lot of people pretty hard.

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So when we talk about how long should I plan for purpose, I have a slightly different take
on it.

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Uh, for instance, our onboarding process for our veterans, less than 1 % of people
actually finish for our program, for our practical MBA that we do.

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And.

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The first thing we do now is we talk about dreams.

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And the importance of dreams actually came around because I had a conversation with my
daughter.

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She's 17.

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She's going to turn 18 in a month.

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And she was like, Hey, I'm like, are you excited?

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Cause remember when you were turned 18, you're like, woo, I'm out.

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Like, yeah, heck yeah.

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I can't wait to do this next thing.

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Yeah.

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And I was like, are you excited?

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This was one of the most exciting points of my life.

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And she looked up at me and she goes, dad.

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I'm scared.

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And I was like, man, like...

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What kind of failure as a father am I to create somebody who's scared about the rest of
their life?

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And just what an epic fail of anything that I thought I had done well as a man and a
husband and a father.

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And so obviously I'm, I'm like, I gotta make a change.

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Like this is super, this is the most important thing right now.

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And.

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I realized that I had not, I, I traveled about average of 280 days a year in the military,
you know, supported every major conflict we've had for the last quarter century.

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And there was a point in time where I was never home for more than two weeks in a row for
14 years.

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And I two of my kid's entire lives.

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Thank goodness my wife is, the fantastic, you

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machine that she is to be able to hold things down.

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And one time she's like, why am in a foreign country with three kids and three dogs all by
myself?

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She could do all of that.

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Like she, she, you know, she kept the goodness going.

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But what I hadn't done is I don't know about you, but my kids don't like to do what I say.

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They like to do what I do.

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And I hadn't shown my kids like how I come up with the next goal or the next thing to
think about, or how I shaped my dreams or anything like that.

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They've never seen it.

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And so I fail.

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And so it was some hope, you know, some prayer and some contemplation.

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This dude, Dane Espergard, I saw him come on and talk to a couple buddies of mine, um,
just in in a small group, uh, about his book, the dream machine.

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And I was like, oh, thank you.

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This is exactly what I needed.

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And so I've ripped all that off.

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give him total credit, but the, did my dream sheet.

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And I brought it to my daughter and I shared it with her.

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And she's like, yeah, that's cool, dad.

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You know, I kind of want to get back to my phone.

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And I'm like, Hey, can we do this for you?

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And she's like, no, that doesn't sound exciting at all.

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I'm like, all right, how long do you want this to take?

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Cause you know, that's once, once we get to a point, they know like, all right, well dad's
just.

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We're not taking no for an answer on this.

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Yeah.

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And so I was like, what does a dream mean to you?

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And she was like, I don't know, dad, Jeepers.

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Like, well, sometimes it's easier to help define what they're not.

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The first thing a dream is not is it's not a goal and dream is not a commitment.

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So like, okay, like dreams actually are the definition of dream for us right now between
you and me is something that you would be happy if it happened in your life.

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And she's like, okay.

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And I'm like, looks, the dreams are not something that we're shooting for dreams.

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And then this goes back to the purpose question, Dreams are actually a floor of hope and
goodness that you've defined for you.

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And that floor needs to be as big and as stable as possible for you to build off of.

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Cause when life slaps you, and that's what I believe happened to my friend, you're going
to feel the feels and you're going to keep falling while you're feeling the feels.

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But as soon as you can get through feeling the feels, you land on that floor of hope and
goodness that I didn't tell you was good.

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You defined as good.

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so that we can build up from there.

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And I can choose a dream and lift it up to be a goal or a commitment.

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And so that, I believe like the purpose, like you can pull that out of your dreams and
stuff like that.

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But really defining them is super important.

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I can talk about this all day, brother, obviously, because it's made a huge difference in
my life.

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like I said, we actually, this is the first thing, if you want to work with us, you're
going to do your dream list.

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That's the first thing we do and it goes back to our core values and all that sort of
thing.

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But it's so that you know that I'm going to do everything I can for you.

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My vision and purpose in life has to be so crystal clear and so big that you can see it as
a stepping stone inside of your journey to get to your dreams and your purpose.

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Yeah, have you found it's essential?

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Did this come out of, I'm assuming, massive deep dives, problem solving, things happening
to your friend?

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I bet you could probably go through a laundry list of situations like this over the past
decade or two that you're like, man, all you had to do was just keep going a little bit

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longer.

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if you could have gotten through today, if you could have found some purpose, if to your
point now, it's like, man, if you just had some dreams, is it because when it's really

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hard, you have something to still believe in that it's worth it?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Um.

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I can say it has to be that foundation.

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Cause when everything that is in life can be taken away from you.

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Like when life slaps you, all the things that we think are cool, family, houses,
businesses, cars, jobs, health, all that gone.

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There's only a couple of things that you take with you.

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One, for me, I know that I'm a child of God and that I'm made in Him's image and that I am
good.

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because of that.

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That's the basis of everything.

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After that, the only thing that can't be taken away from me is what I've learned.

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And then on top of that is the experiences that I've experienced.

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And so making sure that I have that core that when you're field of fields, you don't think
about any of those things.

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Yeah, you don't.

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Yeah.

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What about what?

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How does this tie to identity?

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Because when you were talking about your friend and other people, it's like it seems like
maybe when you guys were in the military and the unit and special ops and all this, I'm

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assuming that your complete identity 280 days a year was tied up in that role, that job.

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Am I correct?

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, because you know who you are as the Bomb Squad guy.

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I'm the leader of this team.

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I'm responsible for these things.

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Yep.

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And then everything else though, like you said, all of sudden, one day you're out of the
military and everything that you had built your infrastructure on, your ego, personal,

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your self-worth, everything, even probably what you think the value to your family, it's
all eliminated.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, no, it's, uh, it happened.

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I retired, walked into my 14 year old room and I was like, what's up?

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And she's, you know, look at her phone and I'm like, what's going on?

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And she's like, uh, what?

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Who are you?

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What do you want to do?

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And she's like, dad, why are you in my Wheaties?

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And it was another crushing moment of all the things that my identity and my purpose that
I thought was important so that I could have this time with her.

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She'd learned how to grow up without me.

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And become okay with that.

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And those years are gone.

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Those experiences that I could have had with her gone.

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And so, yeah, it's, uh, it is super important to be able to have that.

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But that's what I said.

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Like my identity is based off of those four things and really focusing on the difference
between guilt and shame.

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I'm just talking, going back to the, you the things that would cause somebody to hurt
themselves.

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I lose probably four people a year to it after the.

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And those sting, you know what mean?

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Cause you always probably go to this place of, to what you said earlier, it's like, Hey,
what could I have done?

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Where do I, where do I have responsibility in this?

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If I could have had one more conversation with them.

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So is a part of this in this belief in this foundation of what you're building with
Patriot Growth Capital.

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Like we have the word capital in it, but it's so much more.

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oh

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yeah.

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Like I said, this is, this is exactly what we do.

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our purpose at Patriot Go Capital is change veteran family lives through business.

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And like I said, that has to be super crystal clear of how we do that and why we do that
and what the steps are so that people have clarity.

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00:15:02,642 --> 00:15:09,317
I said, what we want to do is if you're interested, go ahead and apply.

218
00:15:09,317 --> 00:15:11,438
And the first thing we're do is dream work.

219
00:15:11,818 --> 00:15:12,658
And

220
00:15:12,888 --> 00:15:20,222
Like I said, less than 1 % of people actually pass our three-step onboarding process to
apply for our practical MBA.

221
00:15:20,222 --> 00:15:26,105
And it's because going back to the, like, should I have a five-year vision or whatever?

222
00:15:26,105 --> 00:15:27,466
We have a five-year program.

223
00:15:27,466 --> 00:15:32,649
So we ask for a five-year, once you've your dream works, the second thing we do is a
family vision.

224
00:15:33,589 --> 00:15:36,711
And it's a five-year vision because we have a five-year program.

225
00:15:37,191 --> 00:15:41,966
And then the third thing we do is have a uh super quick video of saying, this is who I am.

226
00:15:41,966 --> 00:15:42,717
And these are my dreams.

227
00:15:42,717 --> 00:15:44,028
This is what I want for my family.

228
00:15:44,028 --> 00:15:46,370
And I believe that working with Patriot Growth Capital is going to help me get there.

229
00:15:46,370 --> 00:15:47,391
That's it.

230
00:15:48,713 --> 00:15:50,073
It's that simple.

231
00:15:50,154 --> 00:15:57,621
And I believe that the people don't do it because they have two fears and it applies
definitely to the military and special operations.

232
00:15:57,621 --> 00:15:59,292
And I believe it applies to everybody.

233
00:16:01,570 --> 00:16:03,914
the dream work and the family vision.

234
00:16:04,116 --> 00:16:08,166
And I think that personally I would do three years if I didn't have a five year program to
work on.

235
00:16:08,166 --> 00:16:10,049
Cause three years is tangible.

236
00:16:10,860 --> 00:16:12,322
Next seems like a long time.

237
00:16:12,322 --> 00:16:12,622
Yeah.

238
00:16:12,622 --> 00:16:15,703
Next month though, it's two years and 11 months.

239
00:16:15,703 --> 00:16:18,404
shoot, and this is going pretty quick.

240
00:16:18,684 --> 00:16:23,246
Five years is a little, little out of touch unless you have something that like a program.

241
00:16:23,246 --> 00:16:29,748
Um, but the reason that people I believe don't do it is for two fears.

242
00:16:29,748 --> 00:16:31,649
And these are the fears that I had.

243
00:16:32,129 --> 00:16:35,080
Number one, I don't, what if I choose the wrong thing?

244
00:16:37,974 --> 00:16:40,539
And number two is, I don't want to look like a fool.

245
00:16:40,539 --> 00:16:42,481
What if I don't accomplish it?

246
00:16:44,514 --> 00:16:56,169
And so that's why the two definitions, the defining what a dream is not is super important
first, because it takes a lot of heart, mind, and brain sweat to overcome those two fears.

247
00:16:56,169 --> 00:16:58,540
Like if I was to ask you, what are your dreams right now?

248
00:16:58,540 --> 00:17:02,982
You might get through three dreams before you hit a dream where you're like, that's,
that's a little crazy.

249
00:17:02,982 --> 00:17:04,482
I don't want to share that with him.

250
00:17:05,223 --> 00:17:08,524
You know, like you would vapor lock.

251
00:17:09,504 --> 00:17:10,405
Maybe not.

252
00:17:10,405 --> 00:17:14,040
But building those, I'm, yeah, you're probably better than the average person.

253
00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:14,955
Hahaha

254
00:17:14,955 --> 00:17:18,087
Well, I just think when you work on something for long enough, right?

255
00:17:18,087 --> 00:17:24,422
There's this principle about doing the work and I don't care if it's getting 1 % better
every day, but you know, we touched on something earlier.

256
00:17:24,422 --> 00:17:26,929
I don't want to jump too far ahead, but we touched it.

257
00:17:26,929 --> 00:17:31,757
You said that, you know, action is the solution or answer for everything.

258
00:17:32,097 --> 00:17:39,442
And, um, I hate to just sit on a podcast or sit next to a guy when you get to meet him the
first time.

259
00:17:39,442 --> 00:17:40,803
Yeah, I agree.

260
00:17:40,904 --> 00:17:44,886
But I've just found that I've just found if you keep moving.

261
00:17:44,886 --> 00:17:46,136
It solves all the problems.

262
00:17:46,136 --> 00:17:46,987
That's what you're talking about.

263
00:17:46,987 --> 00:17:49,107
It just does.

264
00:17:49,107 --> 00:17:57,360
so that's why when I hear these people, the problems that people have, obviously me
leading companies and organizations, um I hate when humans are holding themselves back

265
00:17:57,360 --> 00:17:59,211
from the potential that they want.

266
00:18:00,071 --> 00:18:00,971
I hate it.

267
00:18:00,971 --> 00:18:03,682
And all as it is, it's just a little bit of a mind shift.

268
00:18:03,682 --> 00:18:09,054
But when you said, I've never heard anybody say that about that, what if I choose the
wrong thing?

269
00:18:10,146 --> 00:18:10,668
Yeah.

270
00:18:10,668 --> 00:18:15,038
mean, who hasn't had the sunk cost fallacy go through their head?

271
00:18:17,315 --> 00:18:26,591
And if I'm going to, so now we're thinking like about futures and the older you get, you
know, possibly have a family or an organization.

272
00:18:26,591 --> 00:18:28,373
These people all depend on me.

273
00:18:29,016 --> 00:18:30,738
What if I choose the wrong thing?

274
00:18:33,634 --> 00:18:35,194
Yeah, that makes me sad.

275
00:18:36,234 --> 00:18:37,926
You know, I'm smiling, but it does make me sad.

276
00:18:37,926 --> 00:18:40,737
It makes me sad for them because it's a self-limiting belief.

277
00:18:40,737 --> 00:18:45,719
Because what I do really quick when you say it, I'm like, let me go through my past of
work experience.

278
00:18:46,259 --> 00:18:50,781
And every one of those things didn't turn out to be the thing I was going to do.

279
00:18:50,781 --> 00:18:54,222
However, every one of them pushed my growth forward.

280
00:18:54,743 --> 00:18:55,083
Right?

281
00:18:55,083 --> 00:18:58,024
So none of them were choosing the wrong thing.

282
00:18:58,784 --> 00:19:01,075
I just chose the thing in front of me right then.

283
00:19:01,075 --> 00:19:02,774
And the angle was.

284
00:19:02,774 --> 00:19:04,805
What has helped me achieve what I've done right now.

285
00:19:04,805 --> 00:19:09,959
And I hope in 10 years, I look back and I'm like, look at what I've done compared to what
that guy has done, had done then.

286
00:19:09,959 --> 00:19:15,442
But the benefit to me was whatever you choose to do, just do it great.

287
00:19:16,363 --> 00:19:19,025
Just do it the best you possibly can.

288
00:19:19,025 --> 00:19:28,712
And what I found is every time I did that, when I was finished doing the thing, when I
realized it wasn't the thing that I wanted to define my life, I became a way more capable

289
00:19:28,712 --> 00:19:32,404
human being and a better version of myself to take on to the next thing.

290
00:19:32,546 --> 00:19:33,206
Right.

291
00:19:33,206 --> 00:19:38,368
And I believe that goes back to the, to the enduring value.

292
00:19:38,729 --> 00:19:42,850
Like I said, every single thing that we do builds upon itself.

293
00:19:42,850 --> 00:20:01,078
Uh, and then the, is our attitude and it's, mean, dude, try to explain this to a teenager
is thank goodness for every drop of blood or tear or sweat that I've had because it got me

294
00:20:01,078 --> 00:20:02,388
here today with you.

295
00:20:03,126 --> 00:20:09,078
Literally life would be totally different if you tried to look at the dominoes, if I
hadn't have made that mistake.

296
00:20:09,612 --> 00:20:13,065
Isn't that just a, you're talking about a way of thinking.

297
00:20:13,065 --> 00:20:22,683
I was sitting down last night with somebody that, um, you know, I consistently, everybody
that I come into contact with, if I can't provide value to them to help them live a little

298
00:20:22,683 --> 00:20:25,636
bit better life today, why am I talking to them?

299
00:20:25,636 --> 00:20:30,610
Whether it could be through friendship, sitting in a hot tub, but there's something about
that conversation that's going to happen.

300
00:20:30,610 --> 00:20:31,681
That's going to move us forward.

301
00:20:31,681 --> 00:20:37,586
Um, but this idea, somebody from your field.

302
00:20:38,510 --> 00:20:43,285
Don't have to name names like one of the people has the biggest brands, the biggest
podcasts out there.

303
00:20:43,285 --> 00:20:45,630
His thing is good.

304
00:20:47,564 --> 00:20:48,135
Right.

305
00:20:48,135 --> 00:20:49,055
I don't know him.

306
00:20:49,055 --> 00:20:53,579
don't, I don't even know the guy to invoke his name and stuff, but he's very popular now.

307
00:20:53,579 --> 00:20:53,889
Right.

308
00:20:53,889 --> 00:20:58,473
But his whole response is whatever happens to you, all the bad shit, everything.

309
00:20:58,473 --> 00:21:00,004
he's like, good.

310
00:21:00,004 --> 00:21:00,985
That's what you're talking about.

311
00:21:00,985 --> 00:21:01,785
Right.

312
00:21:03,007 --> 00:21:03,866
Every experience.

313
00:21:03,866 --> 00:21:04,448
Good.

314
00:21:04,448 --> 00:21:15,516
Now I'm sure there's somebody that could be listening to this that had some very tragic
things happen to them and around their life to people, things they didn't participate to

315
00:21:15,957 --> 00:21:17,538
in those moments.

316
00:21:17,952 --> 00:21:22,561
It might be too much to ask to have that response.

317
00:21:23,628 --> 00:21:26,072
Well, yeah, I think in those moments.

318
00:21:26,072 --> 00:21:26,844
Yeah.

319
00:21:28,620 --> 00:21:34,313
And so I, you I'm always trying to learn from people who articulate things the way I feel
better than me.

320
00:21:35,174 --> 00:21:46,980
And so if I was to say though, my favorite articulation of how to respond to that, of the,
the way I look at it, you know, not everybody looks at things the same way and that's

321
00:21:46,980 --> 00:21:47,540
great.

322
00:21:47,540 --> 00:21:48,031
You know what mean?

323
00:21:48,031 --> 00:21:50,201
I want you to be happy, whatever makes you happy.

324
00:21:50,222 --> 00:21:52,163
That's the actual win in life.

325
00:21:53,244 --> 00:21:58,366
But, um, I think it was Alex Ormosi who said,

326
00:21:59,343 --> 00:22:00,284
okay.

327
00:22:00,586 --> 00:22:05,394
What if everything that you're saying is true and that you are the victim here?

328
00:22:07,054 --> 00:22:07,935
All right.

329
00:22:07,935 --> 00:22:10,337
You get the biggest victim trophy.

330
00:22:11,318 --> 00:22:12,399
Now what?

331
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:14,411
There you go.

332
00:22:14,411 --> 00:22:19,466
so, like I said, you're not going to think of any of these things while you're feeling the
feels.

333
00:22:20,056 --> 00:22:29,573
the challenge is to build a truly brilliant and capable mind is to try to get as close to
that as you can for those hard moments.

334
00:22:29,573 --> 00:22:30,003
Right.

335
00:22:30,003 --> 00:22:30,334
Right.

336
00:22:30,334 --> 00:22:31,335
That's Donald.

337
00:22:31,335 --> 00:22:31,695
Right.

338
00:22:31,695 --> 00:22:37,984
Well, for me, it's, you're going to feel the feels bro, whether it's a nanosecond or as
long as you want it to take.

339
00:22:37,984 --> 00:22:43,230
How can I shrink that timeframe so that I can get past it and move forward and take.

340
00:22:43,330 --> 00:22:44,071
There you go.

341
00:22:44,071 --> 00:22:49,513
So you can start compounding things, get closer to that dream, that dream weaver life,
right?

342
00:22:49,594 --> 00:22:50,194
Yeah.

343
00:22:50,194 --> 00:22:52,845
So what are you guys doing at Patriot Growth Capital?

344
00:22:52,845 --> 00:22:55,076
I the actually business of the business.

345
00:22:55,076 --> 00:22:55,747
Man, I am.

346
00:22:55,747 --> 00:22:56,967
Like what are you, happening?

347
00:22:56,967 --> 00:22:58,198
What are you, what are you doing?

348
00:22:58,198 --> 00:22:58,604
Yeah.

349
00:22:58,604 --> 00:23:04,358
I'm so excited to talk about what we do, brother, because I love it.

350
00:23:04,699 --> 00:23:06,740
I love what we're doing.

351
00:23:07,281 --> 00:23:12,064
So basically we, like I said, change veteran family trees through business, but how do we
do that?

352
00:23:12,244 --> 00:23:14,145
Well, we solve three problems.

353
00:23:14,206 --> 00:23:16,667
Number one is mindset.

354
00:23:16,908 --> 00:23:21,561
So we have a nonprofit called advancing line for veterans, atlvets.org.

355
00:23:21,561 --> 00:23:25,698
We served 9,000 people the first year we had.

356
00:23:25,698 --> 00:23:27,419
that go on four to 10 events a month.

357
00:23:27,419 --> 00:23:33,043
But what we do is bring big business, regular business and veteran families together to
compare realities.

358
00:23:33,123 --> 00:23:37,346
We've all driven past that house where we're like, man, I wonder what that dude does.

359
00:23:38,467 --> 00:23:45,391
Well, we interact with these experiences to where eventually somebody's like, man, if that
Jonathan Bates suits a clown, if he can do this, I can do this.

360
00:23:46,593 --> 00:23:48,454
I mean, my dad had three jobs.

361
00:23:48,454 --> 00:23:49,705
We moved around every couple of months.

362
00:23:49,705 --> 00:23:50,936
I joined the military.

363
00:23:50,936 --> 00:23:55,038
Owning a business is something that Mark does and that's great for him, but that's not
what I do.

364
00:23:55,502 --> 00:24:01,387
But if I want to be and have the results in life like Mark, maybe I should change what I
do to create that reality for my family.

365
00:24:01,387 --> 00:24:04,689
That's what we focus on in the first step, the mindset.

366
00:24:04,949 --> 00:24:06,870
The second one is money.

367
00:24:06,911 --> 00:24:07,942
It's a two-part problem.

368
00:24:07,942 --> 00:24:08,822
Like I'm an American.

369
00:24:08,822 --> 00:24:11,000
There's a of the right.

370
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:17,160
There's a lot of it around and people don't there is it money is not scarce it is not
right

371
00:24:17,358 --> 00:24:23,378
I agree with you, but when you don't have those lens, that lens on, where am I supposed to
get millions of dollars to buy a business?

372
00:24:23,378 --> 00:24:24,958
That's what it takes, right?

373
00:24:25,578 --> 00:24:30,898
And the second part of that problem is, dude, even if I had millions of dollars, what does
a good business even look like?

374
00:24:31,078 --> 00:24:35,118
And so Pager Growth Capital solves that problem by us and our investors.

375
00:24:35,118 --> 00:24:38,978
buy good businesses doing at least a million and a half a year in profit.

376
00:24:38,998 --> 00:24:40,378
A hundred percent.

377
00:24:40,378 --> 00:24:43,430
So they don't have to worry about where to find it or what it looks like.

378
00:24:43,874 --> 00:24:50,856
We focus on internet-based businesses because that's generally what a family can run with
a team, you know, behind them.

379
00:24:51,196 --> 00:24:58,298
But a family can actually make a lot of money online without having to move everywhere or
do different things.

380
00:24:58,298 --> 00:24:59,678
And so that's the second problem we solve.

381
00:24:59,678 --> 00:25:02,349
We take that, that piece on.

382
00:25:02,349 --> 00:25:04,900
They don't have to, nobody has to think about that.

383
00:25:04,900 --> 00:25:07,581
The third problem we solve is experience.

384
00:25:07,581 --> 00:25:11,221
And we do that through our practical MBA.

385
00:25:11,822 --> 00:25:12,962
You can go to Harvard.

386
00:25:12,962 --> 00:25:20,428
for five years, get an MBA, be maybe 500,000 or so at all, and then have to decide what
you're going to be when you grow up.

387
00:25:21,389 --> 00:25:28,295
But with us, we're paying a good six figure salary for our 16 month program.

388
00:25:28,456 --> 00:25:36,362
First two years is systems and processes and language of the business that you know on day
one that we want you to own a piece of.

389
00:25:38,030 --> 00:25:41,411
The second two years is more bringing them up so they can learn how to work on the
business.

390
00:25:41,411 --> 00:25:48,033
And the last year, we wrap it all up with a bow so that you can confidently step into
business ownership.

391
00:25:48,033 --> 00:25:52,174
Cause at 40 hours a week for 60 months, that's over 10,000 hours of expertise.

392
00:25:52,174 --> 00:26:00,497
You're not the same person who's coming out of the, any other experience with no, with no
ability or knowledge about a business.

393
00:26:00,497 --> 00:26:02,317
can say, this is what I do.

394
00:26:02,558 --> 00:26:03,828
This is easy.

395
00:26:04,162 --> 00:26:05,683
With my team, I can accomplish this.

396
00:26:05,683 --> 00:26:13,666
can overcome these problems and you get to be confident into the, into us transferring a
piece of that business to you and your family.

397
00:26:13,666 --> 00:26:17,648
So that your family now has an income stream that it never had before.

398
00:26:18,549 --> 00:26:19,969
And so those are the three things that we do.

399
00:26:19,969 --> 00:26:21,640
That's the problems that we solve.

400
00:26:21,998 --> 00:26:26,505
was getting ready to say it, said, man, you're solving a lot of problems all with one
company here.

401
00:26:27,628 --> 00:26:28,209
Yeah.

402
00:26:28,209 --> 00:26:28,650
Yeah.

403
00:26:28,650 --> 00:26:29,440
Yeah.

404
00:26:29,774 --> 00:26:43,314
It, took me a while to wrap all the pieces together, but once I saw that, man, the ability
of private equity to create good instead of just whatever private equity used to do is

405
00:26:43,314 --> 00:26:44,514
astounding.

406
00:26:44,514 --> 00:26:51,334
And like I said, I believe that business is the greatest lever for good that we have here
in America.

407
00:26:52,394 --> 00:26:54,138
Are you doing this for the most part?

408
00:26:54,138 --> 00:26:58,907
mean, is it veterans that you're embracing this program with?

409
00:26:58,989 --> 00:26:59,439
Right?

410
00:26:59,439 --> 00:27:01,900
people that apply, it's veterans that you're doing this with.

411
00:27:01,900 --> 00:27:07,680
Yeah, so probably the easiest comparison is if you qualify for USA, you qualify for our
program.

412
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:07,991
Wow.

413
00:27:07,991 --> 00:27:08,302
Okay.

414
00:27:08,302 --> 00:27:13,356
That's, that's, at what percentage of the country is it like 20 % of the country that
would qualify?

415
00:27:13,356 --> 00:27:13,866
Yeah.

416
00:27:13,866 --> 00:27:23,672
So if you, if you can say, Hey, my family served or I served, because if you've had to
tell one kid brother, and I've had to tell too many over the past couple of decades, if

417
00:27:23,672 --> 00:27:32,697
you have to tell one kid that his dad loved him and to have a nice life, that person, the
rest of your family didn't volunteer for this, for what we volunteered for.

418
00:27:32,937 --> 00:27:35,559
They have to suffer those consequences though.

419
00:27:35,559 --> 00:27:39,100
And, thankfully people out there focus on veterans and spouses.

420
00:27:39,221 --> 00:27:41,672
There's not a lot of people who focus on the whole family.

421
00:27:42,744 --> 00:27:44,018
And that's what we do.

422
00:27:48,238 --> 00:27:49,470
That's a big dream.

423
00:27:50,708 --> 00:27:51,469
we're doing it.

424
00:27:51,469 --> 00:27:53,062
It's not a dream, dude.

425
00:27:53,062 --> 00:27:55,084
Like I said, action is the key.

426
00:27:56,536 --> 00:27:58,742
The, when did you start this?

427
00:27:58,742 --> 00:27:59,714
Just two or three years ago?

428
00:27:59,714 --> 00:28:01,006
When did it really start?

429
00:28:01,006 --> 00:28:09,246
Yeah, about two years ago, I retired, made a commitment to take 12 months off, worst 12
months of my life.

430
00:28:10,406 --> 00:28:15,566
Um, and then as soon as it kicked off, then I was like, all right, I'm putting the pieces
together, putting the team together.

431
00:28:15,566 --> 00:28:18,626
And so, yeah, now we've been, uh, we've been at it.

432
00:28:18,626 --> 00:28:21,846
Uh, last year was our best year yet.

433
00:28:21,846 --> 00:28:23,326
Closed our first business.

434
00:28:23,326 --> 00:28:27,206
Uh, it's doing about 2 million in EBITDA now grew 30%.

435
00:28:27,206 --> 00:28:30,498
About 12 million in revenue and.

436
00:28:30,498 --> 00:28:35,008
Yeah, this year we're looking for three more and just going to continue to grow that way,
bro.

437
00:28:35,008 --> 00:28:35,489
Like I said.

438
00:28:35,489 --> 00:28:36,034
Nice.

439
00:28:36,034 --> 00:28:37,075
Let's move forward.

440
00:28:37,075 --> 00:28:41,757
you're looking for three amazing individuals that you see something in.

441
00:28:41,757 --> 00:28:43,297
They might not see it in themselves, right?

442
00:28:43,297 --> 00:28:44,558
You see something in them.

443
00:28:44,558 --> 00:28:46,799
They're the 1 % of the people that apply.

444
00:28:46,799 --> 00:28:47,839
Right.

445
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:57,925
this is mentorship, tutelage, MBA practically to your point at a level that you probably
believe and you don't see is happening at the level that you're doing.

446
00:28:57,925 --> 00:29:01,406
This is probably very unique and novel what you've created here, I'm assuming.

447
00:29:01,546 --> 00:29:03,147
yeah, yeah.

448
00:29:03,187 --> 00:29:09,410
like I said, imagine, so we, say there's five levels of crazy when you get out of the
military.

449
00:29:09,431 --> 00:29:12,953
The least crazy thing is you go, I got a government job.

450
00:29:12,953 --> 00:29:15,194
And everyone's like, welcome to the womb.

451
00:29:15,194 --> 00:29:17,935
I'm to be in the same desk with different clothes tomorrow.

452
00:29:17,935 --> 00:29:19,136
And everyone's like, yeah, right on.

453
00:29:19,136 --> 00:29:20,177
That's the least crazy thing.

454
00:29:20,177 --> 00:29:22,828
The second craziest thing you can do is like, I got a regular job.

455
00:29:22,828 --> 00:29:27,340
And people are like, well, it's not a government job, but right on brother, you know, good
job.

456
00:29:27,801 --> 00:29:30,252
The third most crazy thing you can do is say.

457
00:29:30,252 --> 00:29:32,194
I'm starting a government contracting business.

458
00:29:32,194 --> 00:29:35,817
So people are like, that's not a job, but at least they're set aside.

459
00:29:35,817 --> 00:29:37,058
So that guy's a little crazy.

460
00:29:37,058 --> 00:29:37,988
Good luck.

461
00:29:38,509 --> 00:29:43,217
The fourth most crazy thing you can do is go, I had this dream last night.

462
00:29:43,217 --> 00:29:44,922
I'm going to start my own business.

463
00:29:44,922 --> 00:29:48,597
And people are like, Dude, there's, there's no set aside.

464
00:29:48,597 --> 00:29:50,118
That's, that's crazy.

465
00:29:50,119 --> 00:29:55,303
And the fifth craziest thing you can do is go, I'm going to buy a business that's already
making money.

466
00:29:55,303 --> 00:29:57,605
And people are like, what?

467
00:29:57,665 --> 00:29:58,958
Dude, who are you?

468
00:29:58,958 --> 00:30:02,438
Elon Musk, and there's probably some expletives in there.

469
00:30:02,478 --> 00:30:03,538
Like get out of here, dude.

470
00:30:03,538 --> 00:30:04,598
Like stay away from that guy.

471
00:30:04,598 --> 00:30:05,638
He's crazy.

472
00:30:05,638 --> 00:30:12,698
And so we focus on the fifth level of crazy and how we do it is with the practical NBA and
our core values and things like that.

473
00:30:12,978 --> 00:30:18,238
So, um, but yeah, brother, we, we 100 % are all in on this.

474
00:30:18,238 --> 00:30:20,518
It is unique because you get paid.

475
00:30:21,558 --> 00:30:24,598
You know, on day one, you're not starting at some random mail room.

476
00:30:24,598 --> 00:30:26,214
You're starting in your mail.

477
00:30:27,862 --> 00:30:31,845
And as you grow, you're going to get more bit more responsibility.

478
00:30:31,845 --> 00:30:40,402
Also in that 60 months, we get to pour into you everything that, that our family offices
are, are, are doing.

479
00:30:40,402 --> 00:30:44,839
We have a system about 75 family offices and they have an education system for their
family.

480
00:30:44,839 --> 00:30:47,157
Cause we're not trying to make lottery winners.

481
00:30:47,222 --> 00:30:49,259
They're trying to actually make fishermen.

482
00:30:49,940 --> 00:30:57,686
And so how can we make sure that your family goes from the mindset of, of what you had
before to being able to handle.

483
00:30:59,398 --> 00:31:03,213
a large income stream and actually change that family tree.

484
00:31:03,213 --> 00:31:13,254
Like I said, we're not trying to just have you, you know, have new trucks for everybody in
the family and that sort of So yeah, we have 60 months to pour into it.

485
00:31:13,262 --> 00:31:18,622
So this is, it's almost like the new social media commercial or infomercial they're going
to make.

486
00:31:18,682 --> 00:31:22,302
They say, it's like, Hey, we're not going to buy lottery tickets.

487
00:31:22,302 --> 00:31:23,322
We're going out fishing today.

488
00:31:23,322 --> 00:31:26,042
So you can bypass the counter of the lottery ticket.

489
00:31:26,042 --> 00:31:27,802
go get in the boat and you go fishing.

490
00:31:27,802 --> 00:31:30,602
And then all of a sudden they're catching little sunfish.

491
00:31:30,602 --> 00:31:33,862
And then you're like, Hey, just wait, they're going to get better and they're going to get
bigger.

492
00:31:33,862 --> 00:31:35,282
We're going to teach you how to do it better.

493
00:31:35,282 --> 00:31:42,392
think that, you know, clearly defining what you're not trying to do, what you're doing is
important for the world.

494
00:31:42,392 --> 00:31:43,125
Right.

495
00:31:43,990 --> 00:31:49,914
I think that you have respect for the responsibility you have when you take these people
under your wing.

496
00:31:49,914 --> 00:31:58,770
And that's probably why only 1 % get through that initially apply is because they do need
to be a certain individual, a certain mindset.

497
00:31:58,770 --> 00:31:59,661
And that's not too big.

498
00:31:59,661 --> 00:32:05,905
Everybody should make the video and send it to you, but they're going to have to come to
you with a willingness and a commitment that they're going to see this through.

499
00:32:05,905 --> 00:32:06,846
I'm assuming.

500
00:32:06,846 --> 00:32:07,636
Yeah.

501
00:32:07,704 --> 00:32:10,695
So I love the amount of friction that we have.

502
00:32:10,695 --> 00:32:14,245
Those first three steps sound simple, but like I said, you have to overcome fear.

503
00:32:14,245 --> 00:32:15,757
You have to actually do it.

504
00:32:16,458 --> 00:32:19,619
less than 1 % of people actually submit the video.

505
00:32:20,740 --> 00:32:22,050
There's no timeframes on it.

506
00:32:22,050 --> 00:32:24,007
I people call me and you're like, I'm still working on that thing.

507
00:32:24,007 --> 00:32:25,561
I'm like, great, send it in.

508
00:32:26,342 --> 00:32:36,566
What's important here is the fact that every single person on my team is investing their
personal money and our personal time and millions of dollars with our investors.

509
00:32:37,710 --> 00:32:45,650
And if you don't want to invest in yourself and figure out exactly like you have to, like,
if you don't want to invest in yourself, we knew like there's other things for you to do.

510
00:32:45,650 --> 00:32:46,090
That's great.

511
00:32:46,090 --> 00:32:56,910
Not everybody should be a business owner and not for the fact of any kind of shame, which
is another part of our nonprofit is we continue to teach what we call intrapreneurship.

512
00:32:57,590 --> 00:33:00,190
Where you create value inside of another company.

513
00:33:00,190 --> 00:33:05,510
And if that actually meets and makes your family and you happy, then that's the wind.

514
00:33:05,804 --> 00:33:13,984
Because having a hundred thousand dollar a year job is the same as having a million dollar
a year business with 10 % net margins with none of the hassles.

515
00:33:14,306 --> 00:33:22,040
You know, I sat down last night, part of this dinner was I looked at someone and I said,
Hey, listen, we had a very transparent, honest conversation about entrepreneurship and

516
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:23,051
what it takes.

517
00:33:23,051 --> 00:33:24,452
And, I said, man, I'm getting to this place.

518
00:33:24,452 --> 00:33:25,282
I'm very positive.

519
00:33:25,282 --> 00:33:25,963
I'm not changing.

520
00:33:25,963 --> 00:33:27,924
I'm 20 years in on this game.

521
00:33:27,924 --> 00:33:30,775
But I said, I know I have another decade in front of me now.

522
00:33:30,775 --> 00:33:41,021
And I said, what true entrepreneurship is, is that you make this said the issue with
entrepreneurship is that when we all think about the business we want to build, we all

523
00:33:41,021 --> 00:33:42,962
think about the people at the top.

524
00:33:43,470 --> 00:33:45,430
That's what we all think about.

525
00:33:45,430 --> 00:33:48,630
The vision that we have and the dream we have is the people at the top.

526
00:33:48,630 --> 00:33:49,190
And I'm like, do it.

527
00:33:49,190 --> 00:33:50,090
I did it as well.

528
00:33:50,090 --> 00:33:51,630
I'm sure you've done it.

529
00:33:51,630 --> 00:33:54,190
really like what's the elite type of business.

530
00:33:54,190 --> 00:33:59,709
The issue is we don't have the full understanding about what the commitment is to get
there.

531
00:33:59,709 --> 00:34:00,190
Right.

532
00:34:00,190 --> 00:34:08,210
And I don't know if we actually could, because if you haven't traveled that path and I
just said, Hey man, if I look back on these 20 years, I'm going to tell you that if I

533
00:34:08,210 --> 00:34:12,191
would have chosen the other path to work inside the company and not start the business.

534
00:34:12,191 --> 00:34:17,968
Listen, this is a no regret company, but I can look back and definitely tell you what that
life would have looked like.

535
00:34:17,968 --> 00:34:21,011
And dude, it's 90 % easier.

536
00:34:21,101 --> 00:34:23,375
It's 90 % less complicated.

537
00:34:23,375 --> 00:34:26,259
Now it's 90 % less impacting other people's lives.

538
00:34:26,259 --> 00:34:28,531
But for me and my direct family.

539
00:34:30,254 --> 00:34:34,695
stress would almost be eliminated at the level that I understand it being an entrepreneur.

540
00:34:34,755 --> 00:34:39,577
And so I said, hey man, I'm not sitting here talking you out of continuing the path.

541
00:34:39,577 --> 00:34:46,329
You just need to be honest about what both of them are and try to design with the wife
that you want and which one's gonna give you that wife sooner.

542
00:34:46,329 --> 00:34:52,010
And so um I think the reason why so many businesses fail is because people don't go down
this path.

543
00:34:52,010 --> 00:34:57,792
It's probably what you help people do in this 60 month, this MBA and what you're talking
to them on the front end because

544
00:34:58,262 --> 00:35:00,664
You have this responsibility and so do I.

545
00:35:00,664 --> 00:35:06,487
The moment that somebody buys into our thing, eh we now have responsibility like they're
our family.

546
00:35:07,769 --> 00:35:08,209
Yeah.

547
00:35:08,209 --> 00:35:11,021
Um, so I like what you guys are building here, man.

548
00:35:11,021 --> 00:35:15,954
I we got to wrap up cause you got to move on and stuff, but, um it is.

549
00:35:17,115 --> 00:35:18,026
Entrepreneurship.

550
00:35:18,026 --> 00:35:19,656
The benefit to me.

551
00:35:20,317 --> 00:35:22,318
Isn't the money that I've made.

552
00:35:22,839 --> 00:35:27,412
It's the person I've become and how capable I've become to help other people live better
lives, man.

553
00:35:27,532 --> 00:35:28,123
Yeah.

554
00:35:28,123 --> 00:35:28,484
Yeah.

555
00:35:28,484 --> 00:35:32,420
think that might be where, uh, listening to you might be where, Tommy got it.

556
00:35:32,420 --> 00:35:34,713
He's like, I want you to make a million dollars a year.

557
00:35:34,894 --> 00:35:40,402
Not so you can have a million dollars a year, but so you can become the person that can
create that much value.

558
00:35:40,430 --> 00:35:49,010
100 % because I look at someone see our past I'm not worried about our past to say
definitely what we're gonna do in the future But if I can look back and see that somebody

559
00:35:49,010 --> 00:35:52,890
has this trajectory of building this thing and they have it It's not that they have the
million bucks.

560
00:35:52,890 --> 00:36:00,970
I know now how much more they can do That's the part that's the person I want to go mess
with and it's like wow We can do some big big stuff because the you already learned all

561
00:36:00,970 --> 00:36:06,220
the context of the road Let's take this thing and make massive impacts in people's lives
now

562
00:36:06,220 --> 00:36:06,771
Yeah.

563
00:36:06,771 --> 00:36:07,171
Yeah.

564
00:36:07,171 --> 00:36:17,659
It's that, it's that compounding investment that, uh, that we talked about in the
beginning, uh, everything like all of these skills equal this thing.

565
00:36:17,659 --> 00:36:26,510
And the more you can learn, the more action you can take, the more mistakes that you can
make, the faster that you can compound that and get to the next level.

566
00:36:26,510 --> 00:36:28,091
That's why we don't want to retire.

567
00:36:28,091 --> 00:36:29,673
Screw retirement.

568
00:36:29,673 --> 00:36:31,033
a wife.

569
00:36:31,975 --> 00:36:32,615
You lived it.

570
00:36:32,615 --> 00:36:32,935
Yeah.

571
00:36:32,935 --> 00:36:35,528
I'd want to go deeper there, but we both, we both got a run man.

572
00:36:35,528 --> 00:36:42,936
But I think, I hope to see you here soon because see on a second conversation that we
could have, we don't have to have the first conversation again.

573
00:36:42,936 --> 00:36:44,366
Yeah, get.

574
00:36:45,692 --> 00:36:47,474
Yeah, no, it's a.

575
00:36:47,997 --> 00:36:52,115
It's been a blessing and an honor to get to know you, brother, and have this conversation.

576
00:36:52,115 --> 00:36:53,006
So thank you.

577
00:36:53,006 --> 00:36:56,286
Thank you for coming on and Patriot Growth Capital.

578
00:36:56,286 --> 00:36:56,766
I'm pumped.

579
00:36:56,766 --> 00:37:02,586
I'm pumped to watch it, to see it, to get to know you a little bit and see Jonathan Bates
lights.

580
00:37:02,586 --> 00:37:04,266
His name is in lights.

581
00:37:04,306 --> 00:37:09,894
He had the identity of past his new identity of the marquee coming to find out what this
guy's built.

582
00:37:10,318 --> 00:37:11,138
man.

583
00:37:11,178 --> 00:37:11,949
yeah.

584
00:37:11,949 --> 00:37:20,847
That's one of my things I'm trying to do better is be able to, get into the limelight
before if I got in and out of a country without nobody knowing, then I win.

585
00:37:20,847 --> 00:37:23,959
And the only time anybody got in trouble was videos and, stuff like that.

586
00:37:23,959 --> 00:37:27,672
So I'm getting over my PTSD and, and, sharing more brother.

587
00:37:27,672 --> 00:37:30,094
So I appreciate your, your giving me this opportunity.

588
00:37:30,094 --> 00:37:30,945
Congrats what you've done.

589
00:37:30,945 --> 00:37:32,125
It's great to get to know you.

590
00:37:32,125 --> 00:37:37,640
Thanks for spending this time and I look forward to knowing all the things and being
around for what Patriots gonna do.

591
00:37:38,741 --> 00:37:39,392
Thank you, man.

592
00:37:39,392 --> 00:37:40,372
Okay, man.