Speaker 1: 0:23

Are we good?

Speaker 3: 0:26

Hey, how's it going? We're good man.

Speaker 4: 0:27

Go ahead.

Speaker 5: 0:28

Okay, All right Well today's going to be a bit of a shocker, for most.

Speaker 3: 0:36

Hey, how's it going? Everyone, I'm Jay Salters on Acnal Education. As you can see, I am pretty badly wounded, but I'm good. I'm here pretty badly wounded, but I'm good, I'm here. Over the last week or so, I was in a really bad accident. I was doing something that I shouldn't have done because I thought I was younger than what I am. Let's put it that way Playing young man games at over 40 is not a thing I highly recommend.

Speaker 4: 1:09

You guys don't do that, but uh the real story is um, for all of you guys who don't know, jay salter is an active duty navy officer and he was talking to some some guy and he go and he said, go, navy, beat army. And he didn't know the guy was actually army, and so he told him actually what the real saying should be is go army, beat navy, okay, and the rest is history now I gotta tell people the full story, because everyone's thinking we're fighting somebody, all right.

Speaker 3: 1:41

So, uh, I was on, um, I was in dominican republic and uh, I got on atV and I had like a souped up ATV. It wasn't just like a normal ATV. So you remember all those safety briefings we give people? Well, yeah, we're about to get one on a Saturday, but anyway, I was driving it cautiously, you know, around the island and then we found a like a turnout somewhere, like like a construction site that was. It was wide open, except for some, some, some key areas. And uh, yeah, I don't know what happened, but my helmet came off and, um, I started going really fast and I like going fast, and so it was a fun time.

Speaker 3: 2:20

And, uh, until until I corrected myself, uh, I was going like 65 or 63 miles per hour and I hit like a ramp, like a dirt mound, and on the other side of the dirt mound there was a big construction foundation that hasn't been like laid yet, like the cement hadn't been laid, but there were rods all around it, and so, essentially, it was like a death pit. And I went to go press the brakes on ATV and it didn't work and they jammed and I kept on pressing the brakes and it didn't work. And then, like right before the actual pit, there's a lift. It was like a little bit of dirt, like a, like a for someone to push a barrel and drop dirt.

Speaker 3: 3:03

Um and my panic. I grabbed the brakes again but didn't work. And then I end up pressing the acceleration by mistake and I accelerated so I hit that dirt mound, flew over that pit. So I'm here, I'm alive. I don't look like anything. I've been through uh, but uh, I am very badly wounded. Uh, so it's a process, but I'm here, so it's hard for me to move around.

Speaker 3: 3:27

So last week we were supposed to provide people with like a list of who got, uh, who won. Um, all that stuff got pushed to the right because I was out for for some time, so we're getting back to normal. This is my actual shirt that I was wearing the act now shirt. As you can see it it it it looks really tore up, but it's really bad. It was, it was. I'm going back next year. I didn't learn my lesson, but I'm not gonna go so fast.

Speaker 4: 3:54

So like a self-respecting american. He's suing that atv company for a billion dollars. Okay, yeah, and that's how you achieve financial freedom exactly that atv is tore up.

Speaker 3: 4:04

It was destroyed, um, but nonetheless uh, for those who are tuning in and uh hearing about my sob story, my name is Jay Salters, founder of Act Now Education. We are here to provide you with resources, not necessarily just give you a safety briefing, but it's always good to have one, especially coming from an officer that just did something Right. But I'm glad you guys are here. We're going to talk about a lot of different things, but I'm glad you guys are here. We're going to talk about a lot of different things. We have a bunch of folks on the line to touch base on job opportunities, virtual job opportunities. Cert is what we do. No one on the team is paid. Everyone does this to support the community and we want to be able to help folks, and so, even when I don't feel like I'm ready to go, I will still come up all bandaged up, you know, just to be able to provide you guys that support, because we care that much. So, without further ado, do we have anything else that we need to touch base on? Amal?

Speaker 4: 5:09

Negative. Just want to remind everybody you know, go Army, maybe Navy, oh no, no, no.

Speaker 3: 5:16

Yeah, no, go Navy, go Navy all day. Well, put Navy in the chat. Where are my Navy folks at Navy spouses? We will put Navy in chat, let's go there. We go Go Navy Absolutely. Navy in chat, let's go there. We go Go Navy Absolutely. We kind of act like there's no other services.

Speaker 4: 5:35

There's going to be somebody out there that's going to be like what about Coast Guard?

Speaker 3: 5:41

Do we have any Space Force in the building? No, not a one. All right, we got to work on that. We got to help the space force get up to speed. Oh, there we go. We got one space force. Look at that, jimmy solo shout out to you jimmy, all right, air national guard. We got air guard. All right, awesome, awesome. No coast guard though. Yeah, okay, all right, good, good all right.

Speaker 2: 6:08

so the way that this is Okay, all right good, good, all right.

Speaker 3: 6:10

So the way that this is going to work, all right, shout out to the Coast Guard. I see you in the building. Okay, we got the full serving of what the US power has to offer. So I'm great to be here, I'm glad that you guys are here and I'm glad you guys are spending your time with us. So, to kind of give you a rundown of the day, we're going to cover down on what Vertforce has to offer. So that'll be the first conversation we get into, and then we have Steve on the line to talk about some opportunities, and also I have a bit of opportunities I want to talk about for Empower. So is anyone in Ohioio or in the um raleigh region, north carolina, just put a? Oh, we got brand. Okay, all right, we got a few. Ohio, we got four brag, all right.

Speaker 3: 7:01

So for you folks that are in those areas, please pay close attention to what I mentioned. Once we get done with the intros, there is a certification opportunity specifically just for you guys, and then, tying into that, there's a job opportunity if you're looking for it. So if you're unemployed, looking for job opportunities or you just want to switch up and get into some technical careers. I got a really good resource for you and opportunities open now, so we have a direct connect to it. So make sure you get certifications and get a job opportunity. And it also applies to not only just veterans military spouses, but also if you have children between the ages of 18 to 24, they can also apply. Or if you just know any kids that's in college, they can also apply as well. So, all right, without further ado, um, katie, you're gonna have to follow up to my, um, my tragic uh weekend, you're gonna tell us a really gnarly story.

Speaker 9: 7:57

Katie to combat what jay just went through I'm gonna say my only uh gnarly story is a a dodgeball tournament on a navy base in japan and a dislocated kneecap, but we won, nobody got me out.

Speaker 3: 8:11

So that's not quite as exciting as atvs, but but you won okay next week if I got like a punch or lung or a ruptured disc or something, but yeah, dislocated, yeah I haven't broken a bone in my body, but I think I did. I don't know, we'll find out.

Speaker 9: 8:30

I'm glad you're okay, jay, I'm really glad you're okay. That could have been a lot worse.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Yes, it could have been. Yeah, it would have been a different story, but yeah, I'm glad we're here, all right.

Speaker 9: 8:40

All right. Well, hello everybody, Thanks for having me. I'm Katie Castillo. I'm with VertForce. Me, I'm Katie Castillo. I'm with VertForce.

Speaker 9: 8:51

For those of you who don't know who we are at VertForce, we are a military spouse and veteran owned and operated company and our entire purpose is to help support military spouses and veterans find primarily remote jobs. We look for PCS friendly, location, flexible jobs to help connect you with, and part of that is not only finding remote jobs but also education and resources to help you on your journeys in your careers. I'm going to drop some links in the chat for you, just so you guys have a little blurb about us, who we are, and some links for you as well. So, like I said, first and foremost, we help find remote jobs, so we have a job board. You can find that at jobsvertforceus. That link is on the little thing I just put in the chat there for you. We have quite a few new jobs this week. All of the jobs are with. They're vetted, legitimate jobs. There's no scams, no MLMs, no commission-only roles that you'll find with us. They're all salaried or hourly and legitimate roles with military-friendly employers. Most of them are remote. We do have a hybrid role in Pennsylvania this week. So if anybody is in Pennsylvania, it's a hybrid role, it's an HR operation specialist role. So if anybody is in Pennsylvania I can't remember the exact spot about camping this week, so I can't remember the specific place in Pennsylvania, but you'll be, it's mostly remote, but a day or two in the office and, like I said, it's in Pennsylvania. So once a week in office you'll find that on the job board.

Speaker 9: 10:25

One thing to mention before I go any further make sure that you sign up for the job board if you are exploring open positions. It is a private job board. It is all free, All of our resources, everything is free for you. But it is a private job board so you do have to make an account to actually see all of the positions. If you don't sign in you won't see all of the positions. So make sure you sign in so you can see them all. That's also how you'll be able to apply for them.

Speaker 9: 10:54

But we've got a new role up in the last, like two days, a permit manager role. It's fully remote, there's no quiet office hours, which is really nice. So it's a 1099 flexible role. Like I said, we have that HR operations specialist role. We've got a ton of nursing and healthcare roles up this week with Imagine 360. They are a remote, first customer focused healthcare company. I highly recommend checking them out. But we have a lot of nursing roles with them and with CVS Health and we also have a like. We have some like account specialist roles and things like that that are not specifically nursing or healthcare related roles.

Speaker 9: 11:31

I could go over all of the roles in the job board. There are a lot. We have like seven new roles come up this week so I will save you all the time and not go into all of them because I don't want to take all of Jay's time today. But make sure you check out the job board, especially if you're looking for roles on the job board too. You'll also see at the top there's a calendar for upcoming events we have we're kind of in a little bit of a quiet zone right now with our employers for employer events, but as we have events, you'll see those up there and we also have resources and learning on there and so there's lots of free educational things. You can find those on the job board.

Speaker 9: 12:08

We also have a Facebook group similar to the Act Now Education one, helping people find leads, giving people advice. So if you are interested in getting more like specific, tailored advice to what you're looking for, or you're looking for something specific, feel free to join that group. Here's my plug Make sure that you answer all of the membership questions when you request to join, Otherwise we can't admit you. So make sure that you answer those questions. It's a great place for resources. We also share all of our upcoming events and there are lots of. We're in there every day sharing things. So I do see Travis's HR specials looking for more Travis. Check out the job board. We've got some HR roles. Those roles update frequently too, so make sure you're checking those out.

Speaker 9: 12:53

We have an upcoming event later this summer with Intuit TurboTax. We are in the process of finalizing dates with them and coordinating everybody's schedule, so it's taking a little longer than we expected, but we will have an event coming with them later this summer and it's a great chance. If you're interested in tax, it's a great way to if you have tax experience or you don't have any tax experience to get a role with a remote company. Those roles are entirely remote, which is nice. I can, you can. If you are interested in the Intuit information, you can email me. That's how I'm kind of doing this right now while we're finalizing dates, and that's Katie K-A-I-T-I at vertforceus, and we will have more employer events coming soon. We have an Imagine 360 event coming in September. We will have an event with Travelers Insurance coming up in October, I believe. So that's where the Facebook group is nice. We're signing up for the job board so that you have access to all of that and you're getting updates as we have them.

Speaker 9: 13:54

And I think that's the bulk of what I wanted to talk about. I'll do a quick little check. I did put a couple links there at the bottom. I put my LinkedIn there. If you're interested or you need more information or you need to contact me, you have questions, you can always reach out to me there, and I did put our YouTube on there. I will drop that one more time for you guys to have it.

Speaker 9: 14:15

Our YouTube is also a great place for resources. Every time we have an employer event or educational events, we put those on our YouTube. I go live every Tuesday at noon Pacific time on our Facebook group, in our LinkedIn and on that YouTube that's linked in the chat and we talk about jobs, events, things like that kind of similar to what I'm talking about now and we'll also. We usually share some kind of advice or tips or help answer your questions, so I will be hanging out in the chat. If anybody has questions or needs help, feel free to let me know. We're here to support you and help you find stable, flexible, remote careers. So have a wonderful weekend and thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 4: 14:58

Thank you so much. Appreciate you, katie. And again, for anyone who's interested, you know, just go ahead and start DMing her or talking to her. First of all, jump on that job board, create your account, look at the job and then start talking about particular jobs. Next here, if anybody listened to this, if anybody is interested in getting their PMP and, most importantly, if you have the requisite information or job experience for taking the PMP course and exam and you have a PMI application submitted and approved, put hashtag Pmp in the chat for me, if you have your three to five years of experience in education and have a pmi application that has been submitted to the project management institute and it's approved and you're just waiting for taking the test waiting for taking the test Hashtag PMP, all right. So we'll let Steve talk about this and other things that he might have in store for anyone here that is a veteran or spouse interested in edumacation.

Speaker 10: 16:24

Hey, I appreciate it, Anwar. I do see a bunch of PMPs in the chat, so that is what I will talk about first. I have coming up in September and October, so these classes will be back to back. If you don't get in the first one, we can get you into the second one. I have 25 seats available for the October course and for the September course I have 11 seats, okay, so if you already have your required hours, you're looking to take the test?

Speaker 10: 17:08

We have a PMP course, completely free to you. It does come with a testing voucher at the very end of it. We have an instructor that has been teaching it since Christ was a corporal. He teaches it at the University of Georgia in Augusta. He teaches it at the University of Georgia in Augusta and he's been doing this for years and years. He is not a veteran himself, but his father was a World War II vet and after he retired from doing PMP work himself, he's been teaching it, for I think this is his 38th year. So I'm going to be putting information down into the chat once I'm done with everything. But for you PMP folks, I have a total of 36 seats available. Tim, is that question for me, the virtual summit?

Speaker 4: 18:00

No, no, that's fine. We'll take care of it For folks. Please, in the chat, please only address whoever is speaking. All the other questions will be answered after this. Okay, so let's just handle the speakers.

Speaker 10: 18:17

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Speaker 4: 18:18

Okay.

Speaker 10: 18:19

So PMP out of the way. I got 36 seats. I'll have all the information below in just a few minutes. Next up I have for those that are looking to get into programming, looking to take that very first step anybody interested in learning Python, go ahead and hashtag Python in the chat for me so I can see what that number looks like. We're talking about a basic Python course. There's a whole bunch of them. Yep, I see them. Perfect, I have more than 50 seats available for a course that will be starting in August.

Speaker 10: 18:57

It is four weeks long. It is four nights a week, two hours each night. So you end up getting about 32 hours of instruction over the course of four weeks and if you stick with it, you'll be surprised what you can learn. That is for my basic Python folks. Hey, how you doing, oscar, I see you in there. Okay, here's the big one. This is the one that I have been at. It is all online, yes, 100% online. The one that I have been at. It is all online, yes, 100% online. So here's the big one. This is the one that I have been asked about the most over the past year and I am running it one time this year. That is all I have. I have between 25 and 30 seats for people that already know how to program. Is there anybody in here that is interested in learning AI and ML?

Speaker 10: 19:54

You have to have programming experience already. If there are any AI ML folks in here, put in hashtag AI. Absolutely, what I'm gonna ask you AI folks to do is you got to have a couple of things ready when you email me. The first thing that you've got to have is you have to submit your GitHub, your Bitbucket, whatever repository you are using. You have to submit that link to me so that we can review your code. This is an extremely competitive cohort, so not everybody will get in, but I guarantee you we will be running it again later this year, so if you don't get in this first one, we will get you in the next one. So I need your repos so that we can review your code, and I need you to fill out the form that I'm going to have linked in the information when I post it below.

Speaker 10: 20:53

We were asked a whole lot about that one. I'm taking the course in the background, oscar, I'm with you. I develop software. I've not yet touched AI. I'm with you. I'm just shadowing the course, and then the last thing that I have for this month is I have an AWS course that will be starting at the beginning of August and I have.

Speaker 10: 21:24

Can you share examples of your work? Yes, that's what I'm looking for. Can you share examples of your work? Yes, that's what I'm looking for. If you don't have private projects, I still need examples of your code. I'm not asking anybody to share their company's proprietary stuff. I do not want that. But I do need examples of your coding ability. For AWS, I have at least 25 seats for the month of August. That one will begin August 4th. That, I believe, is all we have to cover this week. We got PMP got a whole bunch of seats there. We got Python got a whole bunch of seats there. I have AIML. Those are very competitive. So please don't get discouraged if I send you an email that says not this time around. And then AWS got a whole bunch of seats. I will be posting a big blob in the chat with how to contact me, how to find all of these different events, events. It'll all be in there in just a few minutes awesome.

Speaker 4: 22:31

Steve, appreciate you sharing. And for everybody else again, contact steve, talk to him about this. And chris or whoever else, just like with any opportunity, measure your bandwidth. Don't sign up for 50 things just to sign up, just because it's free, okay. If you sign up and you, you take somebody else's slot and then at the end something gets in the way. Or because you just sign up for everything, you are taking somebody else's slot. Another'm not a veteran who might need that. So again, not targeting chris or whoever I don't know him. We're just talking in general here.

Speaker 4: 23:13

Only apply for something that you are willing to commit to these guys. Come here, share, share free opportunities to you as a veteran transition service member, spouse, because of the commitment you made for this country, okay. So please we say it again and again and because it happens all the time only sign up for something that you are willing to commit to. Okay. Same thing when Jay is going to come and talk about and power and things like this, 50,000 people will rush for it and then five people will actually show up. We don't want that because those companies, eventually they'll turn around and say, no, we don't want to commit with you anymore, we don't want to partner with you anymore because last time you brought us 70 people and we were excited. We stopped recruiting and then only five people showed up, or 10 people showed up and we couldn't even fill the class. Ok, any case, over to you, jay.

Speaker 3: 24:13

Is Nicole online? I don't think so.

Speaker 4: 24:15

I don't see her.

Speaker 3: 24:17

OK, I know she is Her daughter's birthday today, so shout out to Ari hey. So real talk. Where else would you go on a Saturday and jump online and get resources directly that can actually impact and change life? I don't know of many, right. And so this is what we do and this is how we do it, and what Anwar is getting at is is a thousand percent true. Right, we, the organizations we work with, the organization we partner with, we are really focused on really making a difference for you. But just because things are free does not mean there is no cost associated with it, and it does take time, energy and effort.

Speaker 3: 24:59

We Act Now has given out 535 certifications and certificates from the summit. I have that list with me and when I can move around a little bit more, I'll share that promptly. But you got to understand like this is what we do, this is how we support, so do me a favor and make sure that you let other people know what we do and how we do it. These resources are out there for you. They're really helping you try to identify opportunities and they're really helping you move the needle within your career, and that's the goal for us and that's what we want and also, when you have the ability, definitely write a review, right. Let us know what you think about what we do and how we do it. If there's any areas of improvement, we'll take that feedback as well. This is us in our community. No one's going to come and save us.

Speaker 3: 25:49

I'm a firm believer that you have to figure out your direction, your goals, your trajectory and there are a lot of organizations out there, right, but you have to make sure that you have a clear path on it. If you don't know what to do and you don't know who to reach out, to make sure you tap into Mill Mentor. There is a reason why we created Mill Mentor right, we wanted to make sure that folks had a resource that they can touch base with mentors that's, in the industry and get informational knowledge, do informational interview and then be able to use that information to help them in their career. Or, you know, if you're doing entrepreneurship, whatever it is that you're looking to do, make sure you tap into Mill Mentor. All our resources from the ACNOW Education Community are free. We do not charge for anything, and when we bring our partners on board, they don't do that as well. So it's really important that you understand that and then share that information and have those resources readily available. But I digress.

Speaker 3: 26:42

So the next thing I want to kind of touch base on is for those Ohio folks. So if you are from Ohio, put a well, not from. If you're currently in Ohio, put a five in the check. Let me see what we got going on. You got a few, all right. Now I know you guys got offered other opportunities and I would say this one specifically for you and you have an extremely high chance of getting this opportunity locked in for you, and so I'm going to post this so that you guys have this information, that you can take advantage of it. And then where's my Raleigh, north Carolina folks? Put a, put a three in the chat, all right, well, from out from, yeah, ok, good, we got quite a few All right. So here is the information that I want you guys to tap into.

Speaker 3: 27:33

So Empower is an organization that focuses on helping people break into tech, and they have kind of like a roundabout way of doing this and essentially their holistic way of doing this. I should say better wording. So they will train you on whatever aspect. So you'll get certifications, whether it's CompTIA Tech or A+ or the Google IT support. They'll walk you through that and you'll kind of get a good understanding of what it is involved, what opportunities are out there. Not only that, they help you with your resume, and so they have specific people on their team. That is their focus. Their goal is to help align you with jobs within those areas. The training is all remote, so you don't have to show up at the office or you don't have to show up to a classroom. You do everything virtually. And then, once you get done with the training, you have an opportunity to work with their employers, recruiting employees, which essentially helps you get a job, and so they find you job opportunities, and so I don't know any organization that does it that way and provides that much value.

Speaker 3: 28:42

And then, for those who are interested in this overall, there are other programs out there or other states, I should say, that are also doing this. So I just mentioned these two because these two are the newest to start this. And so Ohio and North Carolina. If you guys sign up, like I said, there's almost like a 99% chance that, as long as you finish the application, that you'll get accepted, you'll get the certification and you'll start that process. Now for other states. We have texas, california, maryland, um which one does somebody say something? All right, yeah texas oregon.

Speaker 3: 29:21

Yeah, oregon, there's about, I want to say 10 states that empower actually covers down on, and so just because you're not one of the states that I mentioned, I'll actually cover the whole list. So you guys have the whole list, so you know exactly what states are. But if you're in any one of these states, you can also apply as well. So, like I said, california, new York, texas, maryland, new Jersey, virginia, michigan, obviously, north Carolina, missouri and Ohio If you're from any one of those states, they are also running their programs as well, and so you can just go to the Empower website. I dropped the link and I'll drop it again. Florida is not listed, but here's the link again and so you just well, that's sorry, that's for Ohio Just go to the last link there. I'll drop this one where it says link, link to register. That will take you to their actual website and I'll put the website on here so you can see it.

Speaker 3: 30:15

But it's just empower org is a nonprofit organization. They do great things and they really try to help you get jobs and opportunities. They also have a skill bridge program that they run out of California. They have cyber programs like cybersecurity. They give you different certs, and so take a look at it, get into it, use these resources. Don't be using money out of your own pocket for your educational needs. If you're a military spouse, veteran, transit and service member, national Guard Reservist, there are opportunities out there for you. We want you to take advantage of those before you start diving into your own financial funds to support your education. It's always good to invest in yourself, but if we got organizations out here that's willing to pay for it and you have to just only bring the sweat equity, let's do that. Cool, all right.

Speaker 3: 30:59

Who's fired up? Look, look, there's a lot of good information. Look, we talked about the PNP AWS. We talked about. The only thing we didn't mention is the CompTIA. Pnp AWS we talked about. The only thing we didn't mention is the CompTIA. But yeah, we pretty much hit everything else. Who else is fired up?

Speaker 4: 31:13

That's yeah, Steve, you have your hand up again.

Speaker 3: 31:16

Steve, you got a question.

Speaker 10: 31:18

Yeah, I forgot one thing, and it is super, super important because it is very, very time sensitive. Vets in Tech doesn't just do education. If there is anybody at all in here, that is in the entrepreneur space. Okay, and you are ready to take the next step with your business. We have our annual pitch contest. That will be on August 12th. Submissions have to be in by the 16th. We're talking about venture capital that is non-diluting for your business, completely for free, doesn't cost you anything to apply.

Speaker 10: 32:03

I'm going to put the link for that directly. Hold on, steve, tell them the amount. Oh, excuse me, they don't know the amount. They got to get excited. They know these numbers. You're absolutely right. Third place in the pitch contest is going to get $5,000 toward their business. Second place will get $10,000 toward their business and first place will get $25,000 for their business. And all of this is non-diluting funds. So you will keep 100% of your business. We don't want any percentage of it. Charles, I don't actually have an answer to that question. I don't generally do anything with the entrepreneur space in Vets in Tech. I only work in education, but it is the one event that I have listed right here in front of me that I forgot to talk about, because it's not education, it is entrepreneurship space. So if that is you, I'm going to post the link below. We have $40,000 up for grabs, non-diluting, for your veteran-owned small business. That link is going into the chat right now.

Speaker 3: 33:26

So really important. Thank you for that, Steve.

Speaker 3: 33:28

Really important to understand, like I've been in the entrepreneur journey for quite some time and it's definitely a character building event for me, but I can tell you like taking advantage of opportunities like this could really make a difference. Like taking advantage of opportunities like this, um, could really make a difference. You may think like, okay, you know, how can twenty five thousand dollars affect my business? Or ten thousand five thousand, that could be a product that you need, that could be a system that you can need, that needs like a uh, you know, bringing on a va to support you. Think about the different aspects of that can actually have an effect on you. And so being able to get that money and not having to spend your own money is great, right. And the other fact is the fact that they don't want equity in your business. Right, this is not shark tank. You don't have to give up five percent for, for or well, they usually want like 25 or something like that, but you don't have to give a percentage. You keep your business, you keep your equity that way when it grows and if you do want to sell it, you have options and opportunities, and so this is a great opportunity.

Speaker 3: 34:25

Who who's signing up? Put one in the chat who's trying to get that All right. So for everyone that says that, even though Steve said it's non-diluting, you do have to give Act Now Education about 25% of that just off the strength of. No, I'm just joking, but we really want you guys to win. It's a great opportunity, so make sure that you tag. To win is a great opportunity, so make sure that you tag, make sure you do that, make sure you jump on that opportunity. And a lot of times, like believe it or not, a lot of times when it comes to events like these or things like that, you learn about them and you're like.

Speaker 3: 34:57

Well, you know maybe I'm not there, I'm not ready, or the vice versa. However you think about it, most of the time all it takes is you just showing up and you just never know.

Speaker 10: 35:07

I can't remember all three businesses that won last year, but I can tell you what all three, what space they were. All three, in the first place was a medical instrument that that ended up getting fully funded, and it was for a new type of intubation for hospitals. Yes, he was a medic. He built a better way to do intubation for patients and his ended up getting fully funded. Two one of them was in the GIS space, in mapping, and one of them was a drone company like small little radio-controlled drones. So you know, it doesn't have to be the next groundbreaking thing.

Speaker 4: 36:05

We're just looking to see what your ideas are and help you guys reach your goals. Yeah, absolutely, you guys reach your goals. The only thing is, if you go on the link that he shared the event board that he shared the submission closes on July 16th for you to submit your stuff. So if you dilly-dally about it and July 17th comes and whatnot, please don't come back with an excuse. If your grandma is alive alive, let her enjoy her retirement. If your grandma passed away, let her rest in peace. Stop, you know, using grandma as an excuse. My grandma died. I was at the funeral. That's why I missed the deadline.

Speaker 3: 36:38

Okay, so take, take a chance on yourself if you want to go with that. I was like wait, we're like wait, what that just went dark really fast.

Speaker 6: 36:55

I'm a college professor and every semester I have one student that killed their grandma.

Speaker 10: 36:57

When finals come around, Happens every cohort. I'll end up with 70 people signed up for Python and out of those 70, 12 people's grandmas die before the course starts. Happens every single month. All these grandmas just passing away and I feel bad, but it happens every single month.

Speaker 3: 37:15

Man, that's so sad. It's grandma killing season. That's crazy.

Speaker 4: 37:20

So yeah go ahead guys For anybody who's interested, go ahead and submit to this pitch contact. You might not have an entrepreneurship spirit. Maybe that's just the push that you might need.

Speaker 3: 37:33

If somebody's interested, Okay, and then you can be like Jay come here and always talk about your lavish lifestyle going around the world staying in five-star hotels based on, you know Okay, sponsored by the government, you know, okay, sponsored by the government, sponsored by the government. Look, look, my all my travels, except for the last one. That was actually my first vacation and, like I said, close to life and death experience, so I was like I don't know if I need to go. This is a hint. I don't need to be on vacations at all whatsoever, um, but yeah, all right, folks, so let's get into the meat of it. Um, we kind of touched base on some programs and you know opportunities. So there's a plethora of them. There's no excuse. We deliver. Now it's on your part to make sure you close that gap. Don't be like, oh you know, jay said I need to do this, and then you just like, if you just focus on your career, focus on what you want to do, put that work in, um, so that we can keep programs like this going. Because, like I said, the funding, we all have to answer to somebody for reports, right, and so whether you know vets and tech is answered to their sponsors. Um, we are answering to the people who provide us funding. It all matters and it all comes from somewhere.

Speaker 3: 38:47

Now for those who asked about the summit, I know we had a lot of summit questions. I don't know if you guys just jumped on, but I was in an accident last week and so I didn't do anything summit related or nothing. I've had some deadlines but I needed to to recover and I'm still recovering. Like I said, you only see this part of it. The rest of my body is pretty badly damaged. Um, but as I get better, I will put the list out and we'll we'll get. We'll get going on that and we'll make sure that everyone's good to go. Um, you know what? Is anyone on here from the summit? Put on the chat view from the summit. I was going to show the list. I guess no one's here from the summit. I guess I won't be showing the list then. Okay, let's go on to the next topic. No, everyone's like no, I'm from the summit. All right, look.

Speaker 4: 39:38

Latanya is looking at you like what? Let me know, man.

Speaker 3: 39:43

I will show you guys the finalist. Keep in mind, this is 535 certifications and other stuff that we're giving away. Give me a second. This list is not publicized so it will be soon, but mind you, like I said, it takes me some time to kind of put all this stuff together.

Speaker 4: 40:09

So I would check real fast to see if your name is on here.

Speaker 3: 40:12

I'm going to share it one time.

Speaker 4: 40:15

The only thing I would share with you, with everyone here, once Jake contacts you with that voucher.

Speaker 3: 40:21

All right, oh, there's a whole procedure, bro. There's a whole procedure.

Speaker 4: 40:25

I understand you. I was just going to say because we used to do it before and I you know with other places and you tell them, okay, the voucher is valid for like, let's say, a year or whatever, or whatever he's gonna give. You don't wait until the last day and say, hey, can I extend my voucher for another year, or something like that. No, if the voucher comes from, like, pmi or comp t, whatever, they have the deadlines. Yeah, okay, be diligent about it.

Speaker 3: 40:55

Thank you for saying that. For those who are here and you are on the list, the thing that will work out is we will provide you with a documentation stating that you will take it between this time and this time. There's no push and shove. Like I said, we have to pay for the vouchers up front, and so those vouchers have a timeline. Push and shove Like I said, we have to pay for the vouchers up front, and so those vouchers have a timeline. And the other aspect is, if you get a voucher and you acknowledge that you want to go and proceed with this, you can also just turn it down and say hey, I'm Jay, I'm not ready, I don't want to do this right now, which is perfectly fine.

Speaker 3: 41:23

We'll give it to someone who needs it, someone who's looking for a job, but if you take a voucher and you do nothing with that voucher, please know we will ban you from the acnal community. Have no issues doing that because, like I said, you're taking food off of someone else's plate and if you do that, I'm coming for you. We work hard to make this stuff happen, so just understand that. Um, in that aspect, all right, so is the list. So the folks that won personal certificates I will put down your certificates in here, but obviously there's 263 of you, so it's going to take me some time. So this is the let me maximize this a little bit. Where's the screen? Let's get to 200. All right, so this is the list of all the folks that won personal certificates and we'll get that to you. That's a lot of you. So this is our biggest list so far. Is it 256? Let me see. Everyone's like where's my name? All right, yeah, 262. Sorry, all right For the self-directed IRA winners every single person and I know everyone's like what are you guys talking about? Every single person who requested the self-directed IRA on the form is actually going to get one. This was a lot of money. So know that. And, like I said, everyone understands the situation that happened on there. So we are funding every single self-directed IRA so we can help you get one step closer to your financial well-being. I don't know any other organizations that's doing that and, like I said, that was a big, huge commitment and we're glad to do so because we care about our community. So if your name is on this list, you're getting one.

Speaker 3: 43:16

For our AWS certification winners here are you folks. So I would have to reach out to you directly and figure out which certificate. Believe me, there's a whole process for it, and so just give me some time. And so just give me some time. But yeah, for our first Scrum cohort, here's our 30 that will be in there. And then, following up, for our second Scrum cohort, here is our other 30 that will be in the second class that we have. For our CompTIA winners here are you folks. So it's quite a few folks.

Speaker 3: 43:58

Like I said, this is a lot of certifications. We have the SHRM it's SHRM 20, but Nicole is the one who's managing that, so we would drop that soon. But we have the next Sherm CP. I should actually have CP in here. So certain, it's not certain discern, but the Sherm CP certification. And so, from what I understand and don't quote me this, but I think it's 10 within the military community. So like 10, sorry, overall 20, but 10 military spouses, specifically like for this particular one. We put aside 10 for that. And then for our product owners. I'm not done with this list, but this is the first initial draft of it, so we have 17 already. That's going through that and that will happen soon. And then for our Splunk certification, we have you folks, so you will be receiving your Splunk certification.

Speaker 3: 44:51

For our laptop winners, these are the four laptop winners. For our Visa gift cards these are Visa gift card winners. And the Xbox I'm sorry, the PlayStation. Folks know who they are, and then I will make a final announcement on who won that nice MacBook that I got to go pick up today. I got to figure out how to get in my car, but I'll do that, so that's that. That's why you should come to the summit. If you've never heard about us, you're missing out, and we will be doing another one no time soon. No, just kidding. We'll be doing another one, probably next year sometime. Maybe We'll see. We'll see how everything pans out. But for those who were at the summit, if you don't mind coming online and just kind of talking about your experience. Please, unfiltered, non-paid, don't worry about it. Yeah, just if you can come on the line to talk about your experience at the summit, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 14: 45:49

I'm here, Jay. How are you?

Speaker 3: 45:51

There you go. How are you going?

Speaker 14: 45:53

This is Sasha Gale. I'm doing all right. My mind was on you the entire week. I'm so sorry to hear what happened.

Speaker 3: 46:00

Yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 14: 46:02

Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, good to have you here still. So, about the summit I dedicated the entire slot Like I was sitting there the entire day. I went on the road to drop my dad at an appointment and I was in the car on the phone. I did not miss a beat, right, and I also think I left it at home for my husband to listen to it on the computer. Right, it was jam packed with just great information. There was no fluff, it was just straight to the point information that I knew before and just adding on stuff that I didn't know. And I'm still on a high. So it was just a great summit overall. It was. Agno doesn't disappoint ever, so I'm happy to be here and, um, still on high from the summit and what happened?

Speaker 3: 46:56

what happened to you as well. What can you tell them? Your personal situation when paying attention to the summit?

Speaker 14: 47:03

well, my son won an xbox.

Speaker 3: 47:07

Well, not an xbox, yeah he asked for a playstation four. Look, mom, I'm messing it up playstation five.

Speaker 14: 47:14

He's been asking me about that but, yeah, that happened, yeah, and, and you know I'm grateful and and thankful for that. But one thing I wanted to ask going down the list just now, jay, I didn't see the the white feather, um, what you call it, the 12-month thing for the white feather, because that's one of the ones that I had put on there.

Speaker 3: 47:38

Yeah, buddy is running that one, and so we'll list out and we'll put out who got access to that.

Speaker 14: 47:44

Okay, no problem, sounds great. Thank you, I'll jump off All right.

Speaker 3: 47:49

So yeah for those who are not tracking yet it was. It wasn't just education. We talked about finance. We actually talked about like VA, like stuff that you really don't hear too much about. We had experts in the field. A lot of people feel like I'm an expert when it comes to certifications and things like that. I made sure to bring in folks that had the same type of level of expertise in other areas and we worked together myself and Buddy Russians to put it together. So it was fire. It was awesome, it was all virtual and that was the reason why I ended up in DR, because I was like I need a break. Now, I know, just to stay my ass home. Excuse my language.

Speaker 8: 48:30

And Jay, when you have a chance, one second one second, please one second here.

Speaker 4: 48:33

Before it was time for everybody else who's asking in the chat or dming me about the list or anything like that. Jay was just showing it right now to alleviate some people's stresses. He will contact everybody individually. So you know again he. You know, if you were on the list you would get contacted.

Speaker 3: 48:52

Yeah, okay, and we're going to put it out. We're probably going to put it on video form so everyone can see everyone's name and stuff like that. But please know that this is not like. This is not a quick turnaround process. I do not have, obviously, you see, my full operation here. I'm in the basement, so we do not have a full team that's processing each and every single one of them. So we have our steps in place that we'll be able to reach out to you. So please know that this is going to be a great opportunity. You guys are going to get a lot from this and I look forward to kind of doing this again next year.

Speaker 4: 49:23

So we have Tammy, tammy, anita yeah.

Speaker 8: 49:26

So Tammy yeah so let me jump in before my kids interrupt me again. So yeah, I was at the summit and I just want to let everyone know I've learned so much.

Speaker 8: 49:34

white feather then did this boot camp on the side. This meeting, I think about once a month for AI and just connecting with everybody from that summit has led me to so many different outlets for AI to learn and I actually got my first interview. I finally got a response on a job, had two interviews, met with this CEO last week. I am waiting to find out if I'm selected on Monday. So I'm so happy, life-changing, that I found this community because I've been applying here and there like as I could. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I've been on a career break for seven years as a military spouse Back that up.

Speaker 3: 50:13

Everybody, Come on, show us some love. What are you guys doing? And the best part is.

Speaker 8: 50:16

During my interview with the CEO, I mentioned Act Now and what they could do for corporate gifting, because I found out that the company actually is veteran-owned and I was like, well, listen, we need to connect this corporate gifting like, let's get you know, military spouses, the unemployment rate is 20 military spouses. This is the area of your sector that is military and unemployed, and I threw all those in there. So hopefully I will one day have some certifications to give out and be able to help people too in this community. Um, so we'll see to be to continued.

Speaker 4: 50:49

Awesome Congrats, Tammy. And somebody in the chat media, something on media. Megan also got a job here because she's been part of ACNA and 4Block. Congratulations again. It's about you know. If you find an opportunity, take advantage of it, and that's the reason why we keep mentioning it again and again and again. Measure your bandwidth. Don't just sign up for every damn thing out there. If you chase 15 rabbits, guess what happens? You don't have no dinner. You go to sleep hungry because your attention is just crashed across all of them. Okay, because your attention is just crashed across all of them. Okay, Just laser focus and grab the opportunity when it's presented to you and run with it. Tammy, congrats. Media congrats. Maybe, Jay, you can add a couple of more notches to your tally of who you helped find jobs. And I'm not going to, you know, blabber too much.

Speaker 16: 51:51

Nita, you have a question no, I just wanted to say that I attended the um summit as well and it was fabulous, and I'm so sorry but I'm grateful that you're still here with us and you're look like you're in good health and spirits. But, um, definitely the summit was amazing. Um, I was a licensed insurance agent and I gave up my license, uh last year in 2024, january, but because of the summit, I got my license back, um and I was just able to get a mentor through middle mentor right off the rip. Um, who gave me some great things to help with my job search. The AI factor I went ahead and signed up for ChatGPT for the $20 and got me some bots going. So it just was such a pleasure and it was so awesome just to take part in that and I'm just glad that I did, because I almost missed it, but I made it and it was. It was outstanding.

Speaker 3: 52:52

So, yes, yes, I hope you guys are feeling that FOMO for not showing up. That's the whole reason I'm doing this. So you know, to show up for yourself. We can't invest in you if you don't invest in yourself. And believe me, when we put something together, we're going to put that work in, and so make sure that you are prepared for that and don't take it lightly If I'm telling you we're bringing some experts and we're bringing some skills and we're bringing some knowledge and all that other stuff. We got it going, but what you got Brandon.

Speaker 2: 53:20

Hey, jay, how are you Doing? All right, I was at the summit also and I would say that you know I've been in veteran services in the HR sector for I don't know 15, 20 years and it was by far the best resource organization that I've ever been to. I'm short of begging for the SHRM. I'm trying for that, but in the time that I did get access to the Coursera, just from the time of the summit, I've already got my APHR, I got my Azure AI 900 cert and I got two other continued education credits from Wharton School of Business and AI. I've really been pounding it. This organization gives you access to that. If you get the chance to do it, I highly recommend it.

Speaker 4: 54:06

Appreciate you saying that, Brandon. I'll piggyback on one thing you just mentioned. I don't know if that applies to you, but there was somebody earlier asking about the difference between certification and certificate. Again, one thing we'll mention from time to time. Understand certification is it can be in AWS, it can be in SHRM, it can be CompTIA, it can be anything, and I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but it's you taking a course for whatever and go and taking the test that is provided by that organization and earning something from them that shows you have it. Okay, that's what you can put on your resume or your LinkedIn or whatever A certificate is. If you jump on Coursera or LinkedIn Learning or Udemy or MIT, OpenCourseWare or whatever other platform, you just take that course and they say now you're finished. You have a certificate of completion or AIML from Working Business School or Stanford or whatever. Okay, Some people might do it. School or Stanford or whatever Okay, Some people might do it.

Speaker 4: 55:12

When I was at AWS, somebody sent you know, was trying to apply for a job and I was trying to help him with a referral. The dude. He said I have 78 cloud certifications under my belt. You go on LinkedIn and all he has is just coursework from LinkedIn, from Coursera. Nothing bad about it. But just don't misrepresent it, Because when I submitted, the guy came back and said hey, I don't want to talk to this guy, All he has is a bunch of learning courses from LinkedIn. And you gave me an idiot. Again, I'm not an HR guy. I am not a hiring manager. We're just sharing professional feedback.

Speaker 2: 55:48

Just to add to that another benefit if you get the access to Coursera through ActNow, so for I don't know about AWS, but for Azure if you take the Coursera course you get 50% off the actual test. So it is actually really beneficial to go that route.

Speaker 4: 56:03

Yep. Jennifer you have a question.

Speaker 3: 56:06

Hold on before we jump into this. If you did land a job, if you have landed a job, please let us know. Like I said, I use this for AML to get other opportunities and so if you did land a job the link in there, this in the chat right now just let us know that you landed a job so we can highlight you and share your wins with the community and stuff like that. We're here to support you, especially if you landed I mean specifically if you landed through us, like if you landed through ACNOW's education effort please let us know. This is what we do. If we helped you get a job, let us know. Aside from that, I have some really personal questions to ask somebody. Anwar knows where I'm going with this, but Brandon, are you a veteran or what's your background?

Speaker 2: 56:50

Yes, I'm a veteran. I've been out for quite some time. Okay, what was your service? I was an Army combat engineer.

Speaker 3: 56:57

Okay.

Speaker 4: 57:02

And Anwar. What comes next? You don't know.

Speaker 3: 57:04

He didn't say Navy, so he's not going to involve me. Look, everyone's witnessing this. We want to put you into the SHRM CP course so you can get your SHRM certification.

Speaker 2: 57:12

Thank you so much, Jay.

Speaker 3: 57:14

I'm so excited, absolutely, thank you. Do me a favor and this is really rudimentary. I knew I needed a better process. Dm me on LinkedIn, just Brandon, please, no one else, because everyone else still does this and my inboxes are inundated. Dm me on LinkedIn and just type in SHRMCP, all caps, and that will let me know that I've given you that voucher. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2: 57:40

Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough.

Speaker 4: 57:41

Just mention hey, I was in the Act Now education group and so give him contacts, because he gets like 50,000 DMs every day. Look, if you think you're the only person that messages me, so you give him context, because he gets like 50,000 DMs every day.

Speaker 3: 57:52

Look, if you think you're the only person that messages me and I'm just in general, I'm just telling people. If you think you're the only person like, that is yeah. Somebody did something funny, though, like last week. Somebody like because we gave away some shirts last week as well and somebody emailed, like texted me on LinkedIn, and they wrote $5,000 in all the caps. I was like did I give away $5,000? I was like, oh, that's smart. He's like, I'm just joking with you. I was like, oh, okay, okay, that was good, if I had it I wouldn't give it to you, but still, that's funny.

Speaker 4: 58:20

Too easy man. All right, there's something with it. Good man, Brandon, congrats. Hope to hear from you later on that you pass your Sherman.

Speaker 2: 58:29

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 58:30

You're in good hands, you're working with you're going to be working with Nicole. Nicole is a beast when it comes to Sherm, so good looks, uh, good luck, and so just just message me on LinkedIn. Um, okay, Jennifer.

Speaker 4: 58:43

Jennifer, Jennifer, before you say Jennifer, before you say anything, let me know that you're actually studying for your Sec Plus when you're taking it.

Speaker 1: 58:50

Absolutely. I'm waiting on you, Anwar.

Speaker 4: 58:53

I haven't studied for you yet. Okay, all right, go ahead. What's your question? What's your question?

Speaker 1: 59:01

But that's kind of the point. No, I just wanted to do a quick plug on the summit itself. So you know I went to the summit. You know I've been coming since March. But I just want to let people know that it's not about what you necessarily get, because the information is invaluable and you can pass it on to folks. So for the summit specifically, I wasn't awarded anything, but that's fine. You know what I'm saying, because the amount of information that you get, you've got tons of things that you can look into every week. Just don't lose hope right like, don't get discouraged because you didn't get it this time. So I just wanted to like add that quick plug for folks. You know what I mean, because it's the consistency. You keep coming, things are going to work out because you're investing in yourself, you're acquiring the knowledge that you need and you know you're gonna universe is gonna open up for you the more effort you put in.

Speaker 3: 59:52

So I just want to add that quick plug for folks hey, put, put a seven in the chat for jennifer for motivational speaker. Yes, thank you. There you go, look at that because I was in it.

Speaker 1: 1:00:05

It's funny because anwar comes on here. He talks shit every week I'm gonna let y'all know every week. And I love it so much so that I said I'm going to learn from this man and I signed up for his Sec Plus class on Vets in Tech. It's a winner, y'all, so get in there, I'm with it. Yep, kevin, I see you, that's one of my new mentors. I'm waiting, I'm working on it. I got your recommendation and all your feedback coming, so bear with me.

Speaker 4: 1:00:32

I appreciate you, jennifer. All right, thank you so much. One time I heard you say, hey, I'm going to lecture you, and now you said I don't want to talk shit, so I'm going to, I guess, recalibrate myself. But what I'm trying to do here and I share it to everyone, I am an Army guy, I'm a retired share it to my, to my people, to everyone. You know I, I am, I'm an army guy, I'm, you know, retired officer and all this stuff. I'm not gonna talk shit, if you know, just for talking shit sake, all right, well, I mean you do say go army, beat navy.

Speaker 4: 1:01:01

So I mean but no, the reason I'm saying this, we're trying to motivate each other. I said from the get-go three and a half years ago and freaking, jay, jayman, is like, hey, I want to talk to you on the phone, let me talk to you. And then I took that phone call that I wish I should not have taken and I took that red pill. Okay, and it hasn't been different since. All right, but still, what I'm trying to say here, we're trying to motivate each other. Create this military tribe outside of the uniform and all of this stuff. All right, you never know who you're gonna connect with and it's gonna open up some door for you or whatever. Okay, anyway, just what I'm what I would add to something. Just one second here, jay, and then we'll go to prince and everybody else and share the, the, the link and how to get to compass. The only thing I will plug in, and I will say it again and again we are in 2025.

Speaker 4: 1:01:55

If you're talking to a mentor or if you're looking for a job, we are in 2025. As of June 2nd, we're in the second half of 2025, which means we're closer to 2050 than we are to 2000,. Which means what? Okay, start leveraging what you have access to right now ie, ai and everything. If you're going to talk to a mentor and you haven't leveraged, don't just show up to your call and say I need direction for what to do. Or if somebody says, hey, I have a PMP voucher to give out to you guys and somebody says what is PMP? Or hey, I'm interested in cybersecurity, and Jay says I have Splunk, and somebody will type in the chat what is Splunk? Wasted opportunities, okay. So, prince, you have a question.

Speaker 6: 1:02:46

Well, thank you, Not so much of a question, but go, Navy beat Army. Oh my you.

Speaker 6: 1:02:51

Not so much of a question, but go Navy, beat Army. Oh my God. Yes, I was at the summit and, like everyone has said, especially what Jennifer just said, it was good, great information, especially the starting of on the whole disability process, then worked on how to use that information to acquire a home and then how to not just acquire a home but also make money off of that. And I mean it was just from the beginning and I did retire from the Navy back in 2021. And I've been following up now here and there and I've been following ArtNoun here and there and I mean and other resources that I've had the opportunity to go to.

Speaker 6: 1:03:38

I honestly believe that summit was by far the best and they had lots and lots of great information. I'm a little bit bummed because I was on the phone and having an issue getting the information to fill out the stuff to request whatever I wanted, but despite that, I still believe that I've gotten lots of information from there and was able to share with a lot of other people that will be joining and have joined, I believe. So, again, thank you for the great information and keep up the good work. Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate you. The only thing I would like to add here for everybody that's having so more right now about this summit.

Speaker 4: 1:04:09

Again, thank you for the great information and keep up the great work. Thank you, appreciate you. The only thing I would like to add here for everybody that's can or having so more right now about this summit again, um, when jay and buddy and everybody will try to talk about it because again it's a lot of muscle movements in there or pieces moving, things like that. You know, just just follow act now on linkedin uh or jay or something like, and we will post about it. We don't do anything. This is not a secret society. There's no ring knocking here. There's no secret handshakes or anything like that. Okay, Just go ahead and do it and later on basically do whatever. Paris. So we have three Paris, Carl and Tara, and then we'll just move on to the rest of the festivities afterwards yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:04:54

So for those who are not tracking, we'll give out the corsair information and then we'll go over how to get access to your career compass account right after we speak with these three.

Speaker 15: 1:05:02

So just just hold tight, we got you I also want to say thank you for the summit.

Speaker 15: 1:05:08

Um, I'm a military dependent, so I found out about ACT NOW through my parents.

Speaker 15: 1:05:12

My dad is a NIGMI veteran and my mom's a military spouse, so kind of being able to attend the summit while I'm a dependent some of it doesn't really apply to me personally. I was still able to take a lot of the information that was given and kind of add it to like my future plans for what I want to do when I have more financial stability, especially with the renting out the garage spaces and turning those into, like a, livable spaces to, you know, be able to just form more income for, like you know, the term Generational wealth. So it helped me, like really define a lot of like who I want to be and where I want to be in the future. So I just think that it's a. This program is really amazing and I'm very glad that my parents were able to find it and everyone here was able to find it, so that they could really move forward and, you know, just have the support and the community that they need to get to where they want to be.

Speaker 3: 1:06:16

Absolutely what is your goal. What are you trying to do?

Speaker 15: 1:06:19

Currently. I've just recently graduated, so I'm still Congrats, all right, awesome, thank you. So I'm working out kind of shifting gears. So I'm working out kind of shifting gears. I went to school for animation and when I first entered school the COVID was happening. So it was like crazy. And after that I graduated and the climate in the animation industry fell off, especially with the advent of AI and all that. So a lot of studios, you know, were floundering to adapt. So I really want to move forward and learn more about kind of blending my artistic skills with tech to be able to have more stability in the future, while still, you know, pursuing what I love in the future, while still, you know, pursuing what I love.

Speaker 3: 1:07:11

All right, can you message me in my LinkedIn? Just type in call, just say C-A-L-L, and I'll jump on a call with you. We'll do a discovery to figure out what in your career path is aligned. And I think there's some things that I definitely have from you UI, ux based, other opportunities to kind of tap into your creative side and we can do a call and we can figure that out Cool.

Speaker 4: 1:07:33

Cool, thank you. The only thing I would just add to you, because now you're a dependent, you're discovering stuff. Your parents are helping you. Try to start writing a little bit about what a dependent we get a lot of conversations sometimes and questions hey, can my dependent do this, can my dependent do that? What can they do? Maybe you can have a little niche segment to start writing about you being a dependent and taking advantage of what your parents or your dad's service allowed you to do and how can you give back to the community this way? Just a thought.

Speaker 8: 1:08:03

That's a great idea.

Speaker 3: 1:08:04

Well, we got you Paris, All right.

Speaker 4: 1:08:09

Carl, you're on the call caller with Jay Salters.

Speaker 17: 1:08:13

Can you guys hear me, all right we can hear you, yes sir.

Speaker 17: 1:08:15

All right man. So I just wanted to tell you guys thanks for the summit man. That was a really great opportunity for me to get a lot of information that I really needed, especially with the benefits and the housing and financial stuff. That was really great. And actually, just by attending these meetings every single week I've been doing this for a couple of years and just hanging out with you guys, I took advantage of the Coursera you know, got, got a certification through that as well to add to the certifications I already had prior to knowing about education, got a job through it and, I think, posted it on linkedin about that job. Yeah, yeah. But you know I've I've gained and lost jobs through the time that I've been with you guys and I've always come back to the same spot and said let me just go back to act now and figure out what's next for me and how to use the resources. So, like, I got the job and I'm back now in school um, I'm actually using it to search for scholarships to pay for the rest of my school stuff, but I'm going to find it. But I would say that if you get a chance to just jump in feet first and take advantage of all the resources that are here. It's phenomenal Even just connecting with other people.

Speaker 17: 1:09:24

You know, throughout. You know Act Now education on LinkedIn. That's your network. You know, use them, connect with them, talk to them. You know things like that and that's what really got me this job, because somebody was like, hey, I saw you on the Act Now education thing and I was like OK, cool. And his friend was a recruiter and he was like, hey, let's talk. You know, I got positions open at data center. So I was like, all right, cool, and we talked. In less than a week I had an interview. So take advantage of it, jump in and see what you can do, but connect with me, connect with anybody else. I'm always here to share information and whatnot, but definitely if you get a chance to jump in.

Speaker 3: 1:10:01

Absolutely. I appreciate it, thank you. While we have that thought process for the scholarship, I did want to put something out, so the next thing I'll be working on which is a pretty big to do is looking for veterans that want to become teachers. If you think you're someone that wants to go down this route, we are trying to get your degree paid for, and so there's a certain amount of money that we're getting in for a scholarship that helps vets become teachers, kind of like the Troops to Teachers movement right, that's gone away, but there's a lot of good quality in being able to raise the next generation and teach them, right, and so if that's something that you're interested in, please message me the word teacher on my LinkedIn. Just put in all caps and I will definitely follow up with you once we get it solidified. But that's the next thing that's coming down the pipe and I plan on running that pretty shortly. So cool, all right, we have Tara.

Speaker 4: 1:11:00

Yeah, Tara, what's up?

Speaker 18: 1:11:03

Well, hi everyone. I just want to say thanks for the summit too. I was there. I was actually about to turn off my LinkedIn, because sometimes LinkedIn feels good to me and sometimes it doesn't, but I decided to stick with it. And then I saw the summit and I think I'm kind of in this time period where I'm like where's my life going and what am I going to do with my career? So I saw just the like poster for the summit and it was like I T-shirts and you could be a winner or whatever, and I was like let me check this out.

Speaker 18: 1:11:35

I got out of active duty army. I transitioned to the air force later on in 2018. And I was kind of like going through that stuff and I wasn't sure if any of them really had anything to offer in the sense of like. I felt like I was making connections, but they weren't long lasting connections. And when I came to the summit, I felt like there was real viable information there. It really just changed my heart and my mind towards like that directed or military directed things. So it was just really cool to come and hear everything.

Speaker 18: 1:12:10

Even though I felt like I knew some things, there was a lot of things I just didn't know and a lot of things I've been scared of. But I think this also empowered me to be, like, you know, to look at my co workers who were like prior military to, or people who are being laid off or people who are still uncertain about their career, kind of like me and be like hey, listen, like have you seen this act? Now, you know, education like cohort, like it's pretty awesome. I mean, I took screenshots of stuff that I'm like giving to co workers and I'm like check this out. Also sign up for, like the Saturday, you know, like meetups, like come on, check it out, like see what it's all about, and I think it's giving people new life about things out there that are military, directed in a different way. You know it's for me, I feel like it's an uncertain time and you just don't know like what's going to happen, and it makes you feel like you got your battle buddy next to you that's really looking out for your best interest at heart. So I can really truly appreciate that.

Speaker 18: 1:13:08

So I got off those call with just a new like way of thinking about life, a new fire for, like man, I'm about to get these thirds, you know, and some new processes that were like, okay, they gave me the avenues of approach out to me on LinkedIn. He's like, hey, there's like, you know, like military mentors and stuff like that. I was like, cool, cool, cool, you know. Like I have a young baby, so things have just been difficult. I just finished my master's degree and I'm sitting around here like would I even get this master's, you know, and things like that.

Speaker 18: 1:13:40

So I think it just gave me a new thought process about life, about where I need to be going, about the community that's surrounding me, that's really looking out for me. But it also gave me that. It ignited this fuel in me. That's like I also need to be empowering, like my fellow veterans, my, you know, just the military community that I'm still around, that I'm still in currently like with the Air National Guard and stuff like that. So appreciate you all for taking the time out of your Saturdays where you should be relaxing and chilling and hanging out with your family to come and to really pour into your military family. I cannot tell you thank you enough. Yeah, that's really all I had to say.

Speaker 3: 1:14:22

We appreciate you and thank you for sharing that. Look, this is what the community is all about, and absolutely everything you said is is is facts. This is how we're trying to support and this is the way that we feel is best suited, and so you may get what you need out of this call right and you're able to lock things down and then get yourself settled, and then a few months, or maybe a year or two down the road, things change. You need to come back. This is what we're here for. So please, please, please, let us know. You know we're here to support other people know about what we do, but here's one thing I want to do. Let me I don't wish that we're going to switch over, we will. I want to give a shout out to Kevin. So, for those who don't know, kevin and we had a couple of people that just volunteer Tom, kevin, rick a lot of folks that just give their own time. We don't ask much of them, but they just come up, show up for us every day, just like we show up, and so we really appreciate it, and that's what makes this community awesome. But Kevin just won an opportunity to get some certifications to support because he was helping people become like a male mentor. He told us he didn't want the certifications. Not saying he didn't need it. He's like, hey, I don't want the certifications. Not saying he didn't need it. He's like, hey, I don't want the certifications. Just give it to some of my mentees on Mill Mentor that those acts and that type of like thinking about others is the quintessential thing that we want people to understand about ACT. Now, education, it's never about what we do. It's about how we make an impact and, collectively, how we can make an impact on others.

Speaker 3: 1:15:55

I've learned long ago. I've knocked out I mean, for those who don't know my background, I was a chief petty officer in the Navy. I have over seven warfare devices. I've done a bunch of stuff in my career and a bunch of accolades to prove it. But what the Navy has taught me early in my career that I don't really necessarily like, I don't rest on those laurels like that, that doesn't really do anything for me. But the minute that I pour that into somebody else and they're able to get something from it, um, that's what's driving right. I'm a.

Speaker 3: 1:16:23

I'm focused on like, uh, a leadership and service right and being able to support people and their objectives, and that helps me, you know, conquer my day, and so, understanding that this is what this community is about, please, like I said, do yourself a favor, you know, take note, touch base with people, connect, don't be afraid to reach out, touch base with people and talk to them about what you got going on, so that we can continue to grow the community and share. We have something really big in the works and hopefully by next year we can make the announcement. But things are changing folks in a good way, a really good way, and so I want to share one thing. So here, if you want to write a review, please write a review for us. Like I said, we use this as ammunition to help us get other opportunities or act now, and then now we'll go into the final portion, which is how to get access to all of our resources in Coursera and stuff like that. Right, and so, yeah, like I said, we, we will be um, we are a much better organization with people like Tom Kevin, rick, anwar Abinall, like a lot of folks that are stepping up to help us out, and it just makes that much of a difference. There's no way that we can do this by ourselves, especially as a nonprofit. We'd be struggling if we didn't have such great volunteers supporting All right.

Speaker 3: 1:17:49

So if you want access, let me share the link for Coursera first. So if you want access to Coursera, work with Vets Transition Support, which is another organization who actually put us on quite some time ago. Great organization. They provide free certifications, they do lean Six Sigma certifications and they also do what's the other one called? It's kind of like the, it's like the workforce, one like the like safety, like I forgot what it's called safety certification, but they do that. They cover those. The safety certification. It's the OSHA. Thank you, yeah, I was throwing a blank there. I might need to get my head checked again. But yeah, the OSHA certifications. And so if you're definitely interested in that, tap in.

Speaker 3: 1:18:40

But here is the link for the Coursera. I'm going to share it again. And the way that it works is you have to verify you are a part of the military community first and then, once you're doing, once you've done that, it takes about a week or two, sometimes sometimes three if the back and forth, but once you get that, you get an account. Why do you need a Coursera account? Um, coursera is an awesome opportunity because they have over 12,000 courses you can learn as you go, you can do on your own pace, and a lot of the organizations have different certifications that are like connected to it. So, like google released a bunch of certifications, they have a handful that they want folks to take advantage of so that if they're trying to apply for a rule in google role in google, they can directly use that as experience so that they can help get you into a position.

Speaker 3: 1:19:33

Ibm has certifications, so you have Google IT support, google cybersecurity, ibm cybersecurity there's a lot of different ones Data science, data center I mean data science ones there's over 27 different ones. And then also on top of that there the certificates not all of them, but some of them are worth college credits up to 201 quality and I heard that I shouldn't raise my hand uh, hurt my chest really bad. Uh, 201 college credits um, that you can earn all for free. Now think about how much it costs to get an account or whatever like that. But if you do the math on college credits and like if you're taking Google IT support and I think that's worth 12 college credits or maybe eight college credits, those are classes you don't have to take if you're in school. So take advantage of that. Make sure you tap in, get your transcript set up so that you can be able to take advantage of that on Credly, and then go from there. All right, uh, set up so that you can be able to take advantage of that, incredibly, and then go from there, all right. So that's that. I shared the link, so just make sure you look back at the link.

Speaker 3: 1:20:39

The next thing that I want to share with you guys is how to get access to the career compass, and I'll show you how to get access first, and then I can kind of just walk over what career compass is so you can see it real fast. Um, also, uh, while I have, you guys make sure you sign up for our newsletter. Um, we're we're going to be bringing some fire into our newsletter, so as soon as you come to our act now, education websiteorg, where, uh, you can sign up for our newsletter. But our newsletter, like the first one, went out and it was legit. Team put a lot of energy and effort on it, felt like it took us a year to make it, but they did a, they did their thing on it and so it's really good. But you come in here and you click on this button right here to access the career compass.

Speaker 3: 1:21:24

The career compass is a tool that aggregates a lot of our resources. Now, mind you, like I said, we're all volunteers, so we try to keep it as up to date as possible with new resources and some of the links may not work, so give us some time to kind of fix those. But for the most part it does what it needs to do, it gets the job done and it helps you. People have gotten jobs specifically off of this platform, and so what you want to type is you want to come in here, click on that button and say, hey, have you attended the weekly rundown? You click yes, my computer is actually slow today, let me close some of this stuff out, but normally a screen pops up and you'll enter your information.

Speaker 4: 1:22:10

I'm going to have to refresh it. We'll check it. It's maybe internet.

Speaker 3: 1:22:13

It's okay, give it some time my internet is moving as fast as I am. There we go. Hey, what's the code? What's the code? I got a bullet. Hold on a second folks. I'm grabbing the code here. All right, so the code for this week.

Speaker 4: 1:22:49

It's 8602630. Yeah, so every code for this week it's 860-2630.

Speaker 3: 1:22:52

Yeah, so every week the code changes. So you need to get this completed by Tuesday, folks, by Tuesday, because then that's how you get your account. A lot of people sometimes don't receive any messages, don't receive anything, but your account is created. So you might want to just check and I'll show you how to do that. But 860-2630. It'll be in the chat so you can pull it from the chat as well. But you come to this page and you click on that. If everything works well, it'll take you to this page. If not, you will see another page that says sign up for weekly rundown.

Speaker 3: 1:23:29

You might just need to change your browser, add your cookies, whatever you need to do, but you fill this information out, all this information you need in here. I just remembered Tom was talking about. This LinkedIn thing is incorrect, but make sure you put your LinkedIn title so we can update that, but put if you're overseas or not overseas, just put NA. But if you're overseas, but put if you're overseas or you're not overseas, just put na. But if you're overseas, put where you're located from all this information your email, your phone number, ethnicity, all this stuff is stuff that you know we use internally. We do not share your information with a third-party source. No one can pay us to get your information, we just use it to. If there's an opportunity, I will reach out to you. This information where it's talking about your age, race, ethnicity, your service and stuff like that, we share that with our sponsors, but not not individually. We share it collectively. So we say this is what the breakdown looks like. You know, maybe 45 percent of our community is from 32 to 85 years old, and so that's the kind of information we share with them. And so, just so they know who they're supporting and what it looks like, everything in here needs to be filled out. So unfortunately it does take some time, but give yourself some time to be able to do this.

Speaker 3: 1:24:39

Put your desired salary, what type of job you want, if you have a clearance or not. And the reason why we ask you this is because we're directly connected to employers and I always, always, always always get employees hitting me up asking me if they have somebody for a job. Speaking of which, if you're a full stack developer just like this is a key example if you're a full stack developer that don't mind living in the maryland area, there is a job for you. You must have some experience. You can't be brand new making anywhere from 200,000 sorry, yeah, 200,000 to 240,000. You do, I believe, have to have a clearance. I'm waiting for the PD, but you do have to have a clearance. But they are paying really well anyway.

Speaker 3: 1:25:23

You fill out this information, you put your resume in here. If you have one or you just work on one, you can come back and upload a new resume if you don't like the resume that you currently have and you want me to look at a new one when I start doing outreach. And then, for the information that you're interested in, you already got this coursera. You guys won't need to necessarily splunk, but if you want to do the service to success cohort, which is our next cohort, you click this in here and we will add you to it. I'll send you a message saying, hey, our cohort starts this day, these are the times, this is the, the breakdown, and then go from there.

Speaker 3: 1:25:56

Now, if you want to donate, please feel free to donate.

Speaker 3: 1:25:59

This is going to probably change here shortly so that we can separate what the donation looks like, meaning a lot of our community donates money, but we want to make sure that it goes where you want it to go, and so we're going to create, probably something that says donate to certifications or donate to a single Well, I don't know how we're going to do it, but we're trying to do stuff to make sure that it aligns directly with certain activities that we do rather just overall, collectively, but we feel that would be good.

Speaker 3: 1:26:27

And then you click authorize and submit, and that's it. That will give you access to this platform. Now you have to go through this platform in order to get access to this. It's called CareerFlow, but please keep in mind, don't set up an account until we give you one, because it's going to be connected to us. If you set up an account now, it's not going to be connected to us. And so we work with the folks at CareerFlow to do this work, with the developers and the owner to create this, and so what we did was we took CareerFlow, added our swag to it and turned it into Career Compass. This is specifically only on the Act Now education side of the house.

Speaker 3: 1:27:07

And so you won't be able to see this on anywhere else. So you have the resume builder, uh, which helps you build resumes. You can build a base or you can have a tailor-made resume. You can manage your resumes a bunch of different things in here that you can do. It's all free. Um, wait, how do I close this? Can I not close this? Oh, it's just going over the benefits. Yeah, it just talks about the different benefits of like writing it, and they do. It's an ai, ai-driven algorithm that kind of helps you tailor your resume so you can actually take the job description and it will write your resume based off of that, or at least tell you what the separation is, and so you see the percentages and the scores. This lets me know what resumes are good, what resumes are not, which ones I need to improve on, and so on and so forth. And then it has the tailor-made resumes and it has a breakdown for there. So you have that. Now.

Speaker 3: 1:27:54

The job tracker is something that's in-house. You can move jobs here, you can add jobs here, and then you just keep track of what you're doing and how you're doing it and when you're doing it, and it's free, and so that aspect, right. If you're looking for jobs, you come down to where it says organization and click on jobs. This has, uh, I think close to 19 million jobs in here. Do keep in mind it does get refreshed. Some of these jobs do get taken, it is updated. So if you run into a job that's no longer available, just know that there are jobs still on here that are um, um. It's just pretty dynamic because the the API that we pull from changes every day, and I was at 21, 20 million now, but, um. So if you're looking for a job, you say project management. When you just say project, whatever, and then it comes in here and searches okay, these are the amount of jobs that's in here and these are locations, so you can search by location or the type of thing and then you can add this to your tracker. So everything that we do is with you in mind. So this is not something where we do like. This is directly connected to whatever the site is, and so if you are applying for this senior associate opportunity and you press apply, it will take you directly to the site to apply for that role, right, and so we're not trying to play the middleman, we're just trying to be able to give you resources that are really going to make a difference.

Speaker 3: 1:29:17

Okay, then we have our resources in here, which is the tab that has all the resources in there from us, and so you'll learn more and hear more about from what we have. But essentially we have the Act Now tab, which is the first one. We have the apprenticeships certification discounts. The reason we put this out is, if you are trying to pay for certification and you're not waiting, or you don't want to wait and you just want to have a price off, we will use our nonprofit price to get your cert voucher, unless you decide to take one of our courses and get it for free. So it's up to you.

Speaker 3: 1:29:52

But we wanted to provide people with opportunities. So certification, childcare, clothes makeover, cyber IT, which covers definitely over 50 certifications out there for free from different organizations. You just click on it and you can see all the different types of organizations that provide free certifications and opportunities. You got entrepreneurship in here holiday interview prep, job boards, a bunch of job boards. So not only the ones that we have, but you have more job boards in here that you can kind of search from. So all this stuff is just meant to be tools that you can use and help you out. And then it connects to your linkedin. So you definitely want to make sure you have it connect to your linkedin. You add the um extension, it tells you what's good, what's bad, what needs to be improved, and then it also takes your contacts right, and so if you have contacts on linkedin, you can now import them in here and it makes it a lot easier. So you know who's who, who you're reaching out to and what that looks like.

Speaker 3: 1:30:53

Give you an example If I go to my LinkedIn and then I am trying to reach out to my network right, I have 15,000 connections there. Ain't no way I know 15000 people directly and I don't know exactly what that looks like, right. And so if I'm trying to, you know, let me find somebody that I don't know. This person right here, right, francesca Graham. I don't necessarily know her, but let's say she's a recruiter or she's a hiring person, or maybe somebody want to collaborate recruiter or she's a hiring person, or maybe somebody want to collaborate. If you have the career flow on here, what will happen is there'll be another tab that pops up. I'm not sure why it's not popping up. Of course it doesn't want to show up, but I want to show it, let's see. But even if it shows up it doesn't show up, it's usually right here and I just click on that tab and it allows me to say that this person does this. Um, there it goes, took some time, so I can say this person is a recruiter, candidate, colleague, whatever it is, and then it automatically go into my database.

Speaker 3: 1:31:59

So really cool, really great, easy to do, um, and I will highly recommend you use it. Other than that, folks, I mean some of this other stuff is there. There is a premium version. Just so you know, this is not the premium version. This is like the act. Now let's get you in the door model, but if you want to pay for the premium version, go right ahead. It allows you to do multiple resumes and do other stuff, but, like I said, we don't want to offer you anything that costs. So you have the, get an indoor model here, but if you want to drive the mercedes version of this, you can go ahead and do so for like 20 dollars, um, so have at it. Other than that, uh, I think that is it. What questions do you guys have for me? Let's go back any questions, all right.

Speaker 19: 1:32:52

Well, it's been real, it's been fun okay, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a question I was about to end it.

Speaker 3: 1:33:00

No, go ahead. It's probably. Somebody says 20 a month, like I think it's like 8, 8, 99 for the week or something like that. I don't know, don't quote me on it, but I know like it's not. It's it's not super expensive. It's not like it's not like, oh my god, it's like $8.99 for the week or something like that. I don't know, don't quote me on it, but I know it's not super expensive. It's not like, oh my God, it's going to kill me. But AI resume writer. And, like I said, there's other resources on there that you can find as well. But go ahead. What's your question?

Speaker 19: 1:33:22

All right. So when I go into the website I don't get that screen you showed me. I get a picture of like a dashboard. Have I? Have? I already done all the all, the one you just showed with the blue screen where it says what position your information, ethnicity all that Does it say career compass at the top. I'm sorry, tell me again.

Speaker 3: 1:33:45

Does it say career compass at the top?

Speaker 19: 1:33:47

I don't know. Let me go and pull it up again. I was busy trying to listen to you and do that real quick, and then I got lost, so hold on.

Speaker 3: 1:33:56

If it doesn't say career compass, you have a normal account and then if you have a normal account, then we have to get that ported over. It says act now. Education community. At the very top left hand corner. Does it wait? No, I think you're in a total different you're not on what? Is the link what is it? What is the actual url that you're on?

Speaker 19: 1:34:21

it says communityactnoweducationorg. Community slash group. Slash act dash now dash education. Slash private dash group.

Speaker 3: 1:34:31

Yeah, that is a completely separate. That's just a group. The research that I showed you you have to type in career flow to get access to it. Oh, okay, and so if you already have access to that, that means you most likely do have an account on a career flow. So you would have to use your same email and then go to career flow, put in that email account and create a password and then it'll automatically port you over to your your career flow account. All right. So career flow is different than career compass, all right.

Speaker 3: 1:35:04

No, no, no, I'm sorry, career flow is career compass, but I know this is super confusing, but the way that it works is we create your account so that it comes directly to us. It is on CareerFlow platform, so if you don't have an account through us or you didn't submit to have an account through us, then you're going to get a CareerFlow account, which is completely different from what I just showed you. And so that's why we say for people just to submit with us that you want a career flow account, career compass account, we create it and then you have one, and then when you do finally log in, you'll have access to that, and so it is on the backend of career flow, but career compasses is what we do.

Speaker 19: 1:35:46

Okay, All right, I think that was clear as mud. Thank you, jay All right Awesome Valencia.

Speaker 12: 1:35:54

Hi, jay, I was just wondering if this all would apply to dependents. Absolutely Okay, career Compass Coursera, all of that.

Speaker 3: 1:36:05

The Coursera so back. Well, the Coursera is not supposed to, but we are going to be running a program where it does, and so, understand, I think we're the only program or organization that's actually going to be running a dependent Coursera. But the catch is you have to do with your parents, and so you got to get mom dukes or your pops to be trying to get the it certification with you. Uh, and that's the way that we're kind of going to run, run that or some other family member that's military okay.

Speaker 18: 1:36:36

So I would have them sign up as well and we would kind of like take it take it together. Yes, and together.

Speaker 3: 1:36:43

Yes, but it would kind of commute family bonding and frustration with computers and learning stuff. So it's good to have that conversation so you can be like, hey, can you tell me about the modem that you, whatever, I don't know, I'm just trying to think of stuff, but yeah, that yeah, okay, cool, thank you absolutely. Yes, ma'am, how can I help? You're on the line with Jay. Hi, can you hear me okay? Yeah, we can.

Speaker 11: 1:37:17

Okay, so I apologize. I'm new to this, so I graduated a couple years ago with my master's degree. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for the GI Bill, so I now have like a decent amount of student loans. Do you have like any programs or resources that I can probably tap into to maybe like reduce the student loans or I'm still here, don't worry.

Speaker 3: 1:37:44

I'm trying to think there are programs. What state are you in? I'm in Connecticut. Are you, are you? You say you're a veteran. Yes.

Speaker 3: 1:37:52

Okay, so the big plus um, within each state there are programs related to the veteran community specifically, and so most of the time when you have like the student loan aspect, especially if you're working in that state, the state may have an opportunity for you to get your loans paid off. I'm not sure what Connecticut has, because I don't know many people that live up there and it's very cold, I'm just joking, but for the most part, yeah, look up CT veteran benefits and then that'd be a good place to start, and then usually they have some type of center that can kind of like help you understand what aspects are out there. Now, aside from that, depending on the type of work that you do, there are programs that will pay for your loan, but it's usually has to do with service. So, like, if you're a teacher, if you are becoming a like federal government which is kind of shaky right now but there are a couple of programs in there. So really would just depend on what do you want to do, do you? Are you currently employed?

Speaker 11: 1:38:56

Yes, I am. I work as a nurse case manager actually.

Speaker 3: 1:39:01

OK, then I would have to look into that. I don't have enough information on, like, the medical field. I know everything is expensive for you guys and your career Obviously working off that degree is extremely expensive. So let me look into that. It's taking me some time but I could probably pull some information to see what that looks like. But I would probably say your best bet is your state and then expanding out from there. I appreciate it, thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:39:27

Absolutely no worries. All right, folks, when am I at? There we go. So thank you for tuning in.

Speaker 4: 1:39:38

The only thing I could add for the last one, the last lady, maybe I don't know. If you're disabled, you said you're a veteran. If you have a disability rating, if you're 100%, there's that total and permanent discharge program between the VA and the Department of Education. You can apply to Yep very true. Unfortunately I'm not disabled. I didn't sign it.

Speaker 3: 1:40:06

How long were you in the military? Eight years. Ma'am, what is your disability rating? I'm not disabled.

Speaker 3: 1:40:16

You need to message me, get on LinkedIn and just say all caps, just say J, so that I know that we need to have a conversation. Everyone this is just for everyone. We are definitely leaving money on the table when it comes to the things that we do in our service. Now, granted, not every single person feels like or may feel like they've. They've acquired things that make them disabled, but understand that your body will eventually break down, acquired things that make them disabled, but understand that your body will eventually break down, and some of those causes are due to what you've done in the time that you've served. If you are missing out on being able to articulate that, for the betterment of you, that's what congress sets money aside for. That's why we have money set aside for to be able to support you. So understand that, whether you hurt your pinky toe a long time ago or whether it's a more serious, there are things and not everything is physical right. Some are definitely mental, um, and I know a lot of people who left the military because of the just craziness that they had to deal with, and so understand that.

Speaker 3: 1:41:28

If you're trying to um, you wasn't at the summit, were you? I could just tell you that, yes, he loved. Oh, all right, well, I got you, I got you, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna get you straight, um, but definitely just just type in j. So I know that you, you're a phone call that I need to make asap and I need to connect you with a few people, um, so hopefully we can get you a percentage. It doesn't have to be a hundred percent, but a percentage is better than none. Even if it's 0%, that still provides you with some benefits that you don't have. So I'm going to make sure we do that. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 1:42:01

Absolutely, there we go Um I have a question. Yeah, uh, hold on. We have Melissa, then Joel and then Paula. Hi, how's it going?

Speaker 12: 1:42:17

I'm sorry. I was writing some stuff down and I misheard. Someone asked about if you were a dependent and you wanted to take a certification and I believe you said that the person had to take a certification and it's. I believe you said that the person had to take it with you. The military person.

Speaker 3: 1:42:37

Yeah, so like if you are dependent, if you are like, say, the person is in between 18 to, you can be an adult. We are doing a program where it's kind of like parents and their children. Okay, where it's kind of like parents and their children. Okay, so it's not spouses.

Speaker 3: 1:42:55

No spouses count too. Yeah, that's what I said, so you don't have to be the sorry. Thank you for correcting me. You do not have to be the actual active duty member. It could also be a spouse, so, but it has to be either the mother or the father or stepdad but it has to be someone else with the, the, the, the child doing it, the son or daughter.

Speaker 12: 1:43:17

Right, but so like if I wanted to get my certification, my husband doesn't have to do it with me.

Speaker 3: 1:43:22

Correct, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no no, no, sorry, Sorry only for dependents. Okay, I misunderstood, thank you. Absolutely All right.

Speaker 5: 1:43:36

Joel, yeah, right here, thank you. I just wanted to inquire about the certifications. Are the Eventbrite things that we signed up for? Are those more like classes, or are those to go more in depth about these certifications and how to acquire them?

Speaker 3: 1:43:52

No, those are, of course. That's Coursera. That is essentially just how to learn about a particular topic. There's certificates that are on there, from Google certificates and like IBM and Salesforce, and they do, yeah, so they have a handful of different certificates in there. I think they may have one or two certifications, but the courses are pretty lengthy. Some of them are lengthy. You can knock some of them out, like maybe anywhere between two to 16 weeks, just depending on what you're doing, but those are, like I said, offered to you at no cost.

Speaker 3: 1:44:58

Okay, perfect, now would you know of any way where we'd be able to get our certifications SecPlus, cafs, cysa, even your CSSP, through Boots to Books? Actually, boots to Books is actually doing a certification giveaway right now for $1,000 certification. It doesn't necessarily have to be a tech certification, it could be any certification, and so, if you're interested, you can look at my recent linkedin post. I think two days ago, three days ago, we had boots to books a thousand dollars, reach out to them and apply to that so that you can get a certification for that. But there are multiple opportunities, multiple avenues. It just depends on which one you want to take okay, now for the career compass.

Speaker 5: 1:45:23

That's something you said to uh email you about or sign up on our on our own.

Speaker 3: 1:45:29

Uh, no, we just walked through the process on how to sign up for it, so you would just have to just do that, okay. Thank you. All right.

Speaker 4: 1:45:35

Hey, Jay.

Speaker 8: 1:45:36

I believe Joel's talking about the vets and tech uh event right.

Speaker 4: 1:45:43

Yeah, they had a sec plus um class that just opened up in.

Speaker 9: 1:45:48

August, I believe.

Speaker 3: 1:45:48

Okay, I appreciate it, joel. Joel, yeah, if you're talking about I thought she was talking about corsair if you're talking about, yeah, those are certifications and that's best in tech, and so I would just bug steve marlo as much as possible. Um, I think he put his contact information in the chat. Make sure you reach out to him so that you are abreast of what happens. I'm going to be real with you, steve marlo, uh, and the classes that they offer and everything that they do, those things fill up really fast, so don't waste any time. Like, definitely reach out and be like hey, I'm interested in this, what's the timeline for this, or do you have any availability? His, that's his full-time role, whereas this is definitely not my full-time role, doing Navy stuff all most of the time. But, yeah, definitely read out to reach out for him and those certifications, they'll tell you what the requirements are, but you just fill out with the form, whatever they need, and then go from there. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4: 1:46:43

I put it in the chat.

Speaker 3: 1:46:45

Yeah, also shout out to Dave Dave, is he? Yeah, also shout out to Dave Dave, is he's been like Dave's like? Why? Why is Jay shouting me out? But Dave has been volunteering and supporting the military community in so many different ways. He's been supporting multiple organizations, and so it's individuals like you guys that really make the difference. So please, please, understand that it's not only what you take is what you give back, and Dave has not asked anybody for anything. He's been through our services success cohort, phenomenal at what he's done, and so it's awesome to have people like that. So, if you want to volunteer, observe what people are doing and then do what they do.

Speaker 4: 1:47:26

Can I add something here, jay? I said it maybe a couple of years ago and I haven't said it since. So for some of the people who might push and we appreciate that, don't think we're demeaning by that when we talk about this I had a sergeant major in the Army and the guy was talking to his, especially his senior NCOs, and he would say I know it's an analogy and taken from some self-help book or something like that, he would say I know it's an analogy and, you know, taken from some self-help book or something like that. He'd say don't bring me the monkey, bring me the monkey and the banana. Don't bring me your problem, bring a problem and a solution. Somebody would show up to him.

Speaker 4: 1:48:03

So I made you, we have this issue and he's like, okay, what are you going to do about it? You're a senior NCO, what are you going to do about it? You're a senior NCO, what are you going to do about it? And if you need my approval, give me the banana, ie the solution, and I'll give my approval if needed. Meaning like David, annabelle, you know, kevin, and things like this. You know they just show up and they identify a niche or some need and they just give it. We, everybody who says, hey, I'm excited, I want to volunteer, I see what you guys are doing, I appreciate what you're doing, I want to volunteer. We cannot tell you what we need, because we might not know it, but you might identify something and somebody will just get involved. All right, thank you that's that.

Speaker 3: 1:48:45

That's that.

Speaker 4: 1:48:46

Act now and act now I mean, that's how I felt in the trap and God took that red pill Because I was just showing up and volunteering information. And then he's like hey, can I give you a call? What's your phone number?

Speaker 3: 1:49:02

Yeah, and then we got Randy too. I don't know if he was on this call, but we got the Marine saying look, we're expanding, but I think that's it. Folks, um, we appreciate having you on the call. We will be right back here next week, same time, same back channel. Um more resources to go. So please let people know, write reviews. Did you have something?

Speaker 13: 1:49:27

yes, I did so. Um, I came on and this was, I think, the second week in june, in june, and I, um I wanted to get the coursera course and I just never got, um any verification back. So I don't mind doing it again, obviously that that's why I'm back, but I didn't want to confuse the process or anything by actually, you know, doing it all over again because I didn't get. I didn't get a number for my Coursera.

Speaker 3: 1:50:01

So are you a veteran military spouse. What are you? No, I'm, I'm a veteran. Ok, so you and you reached out to Vets and Vets, Vintech VTS, and they hadn't asked you to provide documentation proving that you're a veteran. No. Okay, do this Message me on LinkedIn and just put in caps just you, just Paula, yeah, no one else. Just message me. Put all caps, coursera, and I'll get your account today okay, thank you. And one other thing the the splunk. Is that?

Speaker 3: 1:50:42

explain it to me, because I'm in confusion with that one we're gonna work this coursera first and then we're gonna get get you on Splunk. But Splunk is another database for training. It's mainly focused on being able to aggregate data and how to manage data, and there's different certifications and opportunities in there, and so we can get you access to a Splunk account. You can take the 22 courses and if you complete the 22 courses, we will give you a certificate certification, sorry, they have five certifications that you can earn um, and the training is all provided you can do at your house, from the labor, from the, from leisure of your home. So it's a great organization and if you look up jobs related to splunk, there are quite a few few, and so that's what splunk is, um, but it's a great opportunity okay, thank you, that's all I have okay, all right folks.

Speaker 3: 1:51:31

I have a question, joe what's up? I've been trying to go. I can't breathe, folks. My lungs are hurting. Now go ahead. Go ahead. What you got, what you got, bill oh, okay.

Speaker 7: 1:51:41

Um, yes, I I attended a couple of weeks ago and I want to give it some time before, you know, attending again, so I didn't attend last week. I attended during the summit two weeks ago and stayed the whole time and you know, even through the whole chaos at the end, running out of time and so forth, I got the code and went through the whole website and did not hear back for the splunk.

Speaker 3: 1:52:14

You know, being able to access the online courses? Okay, Did you get access to your career flow, career compass? Yes, Okay, Message me Splunk. Just type in Splunk so I can look into it. I think there might be something. But, um, yeah, just just you, bill this, just you message me, spunk, and I'll take a look at it. Um, I won't probably be able to get it to today, um, but I'll definitely get to it by the end of next week. Before before the next session Cool. Yes sir.

Speaker 3: 1:52:45

So yeah, I got to definitely lay down, but I hope you guys all have a good one. I will see you next week when I feel a little bit better. But yeah, we're back at it, and so have a great rest of your weekend and see you next Saturday.