Out of Line Ep. 17 | Why 98% of Companies Get Veteran Hiring Wrong | Chip Mardis

Tiffany Scott your friend said what to you?

Chip Mardis Well, I I got a buddy of mine. His name's Alan and Alan he's he's a dear friend. I can honestly say I love this dude. And

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis he he's been a mentor to me. We we ran into each other accidentally while when I was a HR director for for a pretty big company. And he's he's the Yoda of putting teams together. and he goes, So how's it going? I was bringing him up to speed on the business and he goes, interesting. Well Well, Chip, you know, you you're you're really you're really not an entrepreneur. You're not you're not and I go, Well, yeah, no no kid, but I kinda shared that

Tiffany Scott Now,

Chip Mardis with you before.

Tiffany Scott wait, was this as you are are starting or after you start? Either way is bad, but when did he tell you this?

Chip Mardis about two weeks ago. Yeah, he's only about two weeks ago. And I go, yeah, no, no crap, Alan. You know, why did you call me? Did to pick me up and dust me off or just to submerge me? He goes, no. He goes, no, you're in the right place

Tiffany Scott my gosh. That's

Chip Mardis in the right y you know, your passion drives you, that's who you are. You you

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis eat, drink, and sleep who you are, and you're about the most authentic guy for all all the positives and negatives. He goes, the good news is your business partner. And I and I go, Amy and he goes, Yeah, Amy. He goes, She she is a true entrepreneur. She's a true she's driven.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis She's out she thinks outside the box. She drives you crazy. She she has

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis the ability to go ahead and bring order when it's necessary, but otherwise she's got a thousand things on her plate. And you know, sh she can maintain for a while, but she'll get bored. And I go, Well, thank God for that.

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis So when I say Amy, that's my daughter. So this is a

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis This is somebody who I five years ago I don't think we could have been in a room for as long as an hour and today we we we spent spent hours.

Tiffany Scott Wow, that's interesting.

Chip Mardis It's very cool. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott So why so why is that and what is different now?

Chip Mardis Well, for one thing, we're four thousand miles apart. So she's parked in

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis s she's parked in Spain and running operations for the company.

Tiffany Scott Wow, cool.

Chip Mardis Yeah, so it's you know, when when when this this virtual world really took off, it just opened up an incredible world of, you know, potential

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis and and we've taken full advantage of it. So yeah, so she shifted her hours a little bit so she's able to be on the clock, you know, in a in America, but at the same time she has her life over there. She absolutely loves and I'm afraid I've lost

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis her to to Spain and and the whole lifestyle over there. So

Tiffany Scott So how did she end up over there and what part of Spain? That's fascinating.

Chip Mardis Yeah. sh she's in Granada, Spain.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis she coming out of college, she joined Teach for America. she

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis thought she was gonna go off to some far distant land and they parked her in inner city Philadelphia as a Spanish high school teacher. And

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis and she just loved, loved, loved the the the the challenge. She loved the kids. and then then covet hit and she had four years

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis under the belt, and you've heard us from so many. educators, you know, it it just everything went south. And she did it for I

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis guess a year, year and half in COVID. And finally, about her fifth or sixth year, she says, I can't take it anymore. So she packed it up at the end of her school year. She moved down here, ran an Italian restaurant for for a year

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis she earned money at money. And she took off about three years ago, four years ago. Yep. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott Wow. That's amazing. Man, that's a lot of guts good for her. That was very cool.

Chip Mardis Yeah, sh yeah, yeah, she's gets her brains from her mother, I guess her passion from me, but she's very very Yeah.

Tiffany Scott That's a good combination.

Chip Mardis Well without without without question.

Tiffany Scott we have to unpack your whole your whole history too and then kind of put the puzzle pieces together with how your daughter got involved. Well, well, we've s we've had a s you know, our journeys have been similar. We started our businesses about the same time. I think you were a little bit longer than

Chip Mardis Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott I. And we've had this crazy roller coaster of experience with founding our own companies. And I feel like, you know, that's what really pushed me. Not push me, I didn't have to g get pushed, but when when, we were talking last time and we were kind of all right, maybe commiserating, maybe, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were anywhere.

Chip Mardis We were commiserating, yeah. That's a good word for it.

Tiffany Scott it's just so relatable. And we're both in the middle of our store of of our next chapter, right? We're like in the middle

Chip Mardis Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Scott of it. We have these successful careers behind us, and that's what has led us to be able to open our own business. But I think, it's one thing to talk about somebody to talk to somebody who's on the other side of it. It's another to talk to somebody who's in it and who's building. And there's so many people out there in the same position. And I think it's a very lonely place to be when you're an entrepreneur. You know?

Chip Mardis Yeah.

Tiffany Scott that's where I thought Just getting a little raw and talking about your experience and the successes you've had too have been incredible. I just thought that would be such a great, you know, we to share with people. and then and then we'll watch you we'll watch you flourish, you know? We'll see the success.

Chip Mardis thank you.

Tiffany Scott But I see I think we're both on the other s the other side of gaining momentum, which is exciting. So but what's what's interesting about you too, Chip, is you are not like the rest of us who kind of got sucked into staffing at a young, dumb age. You were like, I'm all in after you had like you came in late to start this business. And that takes guts, not just starting your own business, but getting into staffing. So just walk us through your whole, background and story. What did you do before? And man, what had you take the leap into this?

Chip Mardis Yeah. Yeah, well I don't don't I d I don't know if it's guts or or what's a pure stupidity one of the two. But I my my wife always says, you know, land the airplane. Well I I haven't even started taxing the airplane when she's telling me to shut up, so I'll try to be brief on it. But I I went into the military after college. they paid for my school. I wasn't on a on a on a Ratzi scholarship. I always wanted to serve. I came from a military background. My father was a mil was a was

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis a World War II pilot. my kid brother

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis followed me into the Air Force. but anyways, so I I went in and I had a a really terrific career in terms of I got a wada out wada out of it. I did exactly five years. had the opportunity of called up for Desert Storm and

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis and was not that I I didn't do anything very you know very heroic. It was very, very very very very very not non heroic. but long story short, when I got out I got out of the military because I wasn't sure that I wanted to do it for the next twenty five years.

Tiffany Scott Hm, got it.

Chip Mardis I truly loved it. I loved the camaraderie. people that I was in service I'm still friends today. My battalion commander

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis is still a mentor of mine. He's a retired two star. and so they've these guys have always stayed in my life.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis so but I wanted to I wanted to get out. And and and my battalion commander said, look Martis, you're an idiot for getting out, but if you get out here here's the deal. you got a year and a half window. If you don't screw it up, I I I can get you back in. And I said sir I said sir

Tiffany Scott good.

Chip Mardis bless you. Thank you. So With that couragement, I got out I took a job, it was misrepresented, I was lied to, and and locked stock and barrel. I moved to Houston, Texas, and had the worst job in the world.

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis And so I went from being an army captain to being on my hands and knees in distribution centers taking taking little widgets

Tiffany Scott jeez.

Chip Mardis and put it, yeah. And it was just like, this is crap, you know.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis So so that was my first experience of looking at military personnel in particular junior military officers as a talent base that people can leverage. yeah, they

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis they leverage. So fortunately I had built a relationship with a previous company that I had interviewed and it was the old Mate apartment stores. And Mate Company

Tiffany Scott okay.

Chip Mardis I went to work for the Caldor Division. It was a mass merchandising discount store. And I was the first junior military officer they hired. Went into the distribution centers, operated in the DCs, and then I then I was brought or I was introduced there, and then I was brought into HR, where I was hired. They had just been purchased by May Company, and they were going through this massive change. And I thought this was what corporate America was about. And and every day we we relocated in one year we relo relocated like three hundred and fifty executives into the corporate office in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was bizarre. And so I go, this is this is pretty cool. I can do this. So I was tapped to be the first ever college recruiter. And it was a very,

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis very structured college recruiting. And I had a young face and I looked younger than I did. And the kids that I was recruiting were only four or five years younger than me. So I thought this is this is awesome.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis But the program did it didn't exist. And I had to go out there and represent the cavalry division. I didn't know what the hell

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis I was doing. You know, but we we killed it. We we crushed it. I I

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis said, look, this is program doesn't even exist. It doesn't even exist, but I'm telling you to be the first ever. And it really resonated with the kids. and it was just we we had almost a hundred percent offered a higher ratio. We

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis did that for for four straight years, just killed it, and then on the off seasons I became a recruiter and and this, that, and the other thing. Fast forward, incredible time period. I'd still be there today, honestly. but the company got into they g they got into in the into challenges that the retail world was a crap show then and it remained it. So I shifted and I took a job with the limited. I went out to to to Ohio. I did that for 10 years with the Limited, then went over to DSW. I was the head of head of all the recruiting for that company. I I did a little bit of consulting, helped five below get launched. And then finally I went into a company called Catherine's was the old charming shops, and I became the first ever chief human resource officer, and it was just

Tiffany Scott great.

Chip Mardis a magical magical experience. But that story just continues. Merging acquisition, merging acquisitions.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis And we ended up after eight years of being there, it was just a it was truly magical. we did the culture was in insane, it was terrific. We had 95% retention in our office.

Tiffany Scott Wow. Wow.

Chip Mardis And every place I went in all these companies, I brought in military officers and NCOs.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis And then when I then when I got to Catherine's, we started introducing people for the stores organization, and that story continued. So fast forward, I told you you were gonna ask why I'm telling the story.

Tiffany Scott No, good.

Chip Mardis so so we get merged, we we I get put on the street. I a series of of jobs that was I was looking to replicate, and I I I just I just didn't. So finally I was I was hired by an organization that was running call centers placing military spouses for work. And they needed a head of HR, so I came in and I did that. And e even then I didn't see the potential being utilized and and leveraged the way it could be based on relationships and culture. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis another gentleman who I've who I kno who I've known for you know thirty, thirty Some years he actually got me into the business. We decided to get together and we launched an organization to focus on the staff augmentation business and utilizing

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis military spouses for. And lo

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis and behold, we got real lucky and we landed a a three year contract with a company called Sencora. Sencora is the Old Americans Bergen company, which is right there in your backyard in Philadelphia. And

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yep.

Chip Mardis over and over over a three year period we put almost a thousand military spouses in into the into those areas. It was supporting the rollout of oncology drugs. And we I I felt we all fell back onto what we were best at. And that was matching a military spouse with this job. And it required empathy, people who cared. I mean,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis I you know, God help it if you were sick and you were going through cancer treatment, how you would have to go ahead and navigate yourself through the morass of know this healthcare industry. So everybody we hired, we we looked with the the lens of this has to be a terrific person. This has to be a

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis person that's going to show up, come to work. And the contract was for anywhere from four to six to eight months. Some people be were able to convert. So

Tiffany Scott Okay. Yeah.

Chip Mardis we got to know really, really well. And the the military spouse community is extremely underserved. They s they suffer almost a forty percent unemployment. They're out in the middle

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis of places that man BFE that nobody there's just no work, right? And

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Right.

Chip Mardis so so we were able to get on virtual calls and and they worked from home. And it was absolutely tremendous. But you know, all good

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis things come to an end. That contract ended after three years and I found myself wanting to take the business in a different direction. I wanted to expand. I came out of retail, so I wanted to be able to differentiate and have multiple lines of business. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis like a cr like a crazy fool, I launched my business and Well United became reality about eighteen months ago. So yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott It's awesome. So so w tell us about your business now. because I know that's a whole story in itself.

Chip Mardis Yeah, yeah, yeah. you'll learn learn a lot about yourself, that's for sure. I am one hundred percent committed on our value proposition, which makes us different than most headhunting agencies and staff augmentation groups is that we know our population and we have the ability to go ahead and to tap into this market, unlike most people can do.

Tiffany Scott And you're still focused on military. You're fo and spouses spouses and military veterans, That group. Perfect.

Chip Mardis Yep, exactly. Yeah. Yep. So we we support transitioning service members from all five branches of service. and our our sweet spot and our backbone continues to be military spouses.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis so yeah, I've we we originally jumped into the deep end pursuing one line of business and

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis after after a whole lot of money and a whole lot of effort, it didn't

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis exactly tap out the way we wanted it to. so we I so I kind of fell back on on you know, what are we best at? Where where can we make some traction? Where where can we build this brand? Where can we extend ourselves? And we fell back into areas that veterans are best known for. And that is leadership, management, and a combination with skilled trades. So

Tiffany Scott Okay, yeah, yeah.

Chip Mardis yeah, so that's where we're we're we're operating.

Tiffany Scott That's great. Now you so you're eighteen months in did you form the company with your daughter because you referred to her as your partner. So how did that transpire?

Chip Mardis It's it's under Blue United LLC, Blue United Sourcing L L C is owned by me because it's veteran, but

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis but she's you know she she's an equal partner.

Tiffany Scott Yeah. and I I've met her I met her once before. do you remember that? Yeah. And

Chip Mardis Yeah. Yeah, I do, yeah.

Tiffany Scott it seems like you guys do have very complimentary skills. how do you kind of divvy up the responsibilities?

Chip Mardis if there's any aspect where I don't want to embarrass myself, I let her run with it.

Tiffany Scott Very self aware. Hmm, that's good.

Chip Mardis If there's anything technical in nature, I let her

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis take the lead.

Tiffany Scott That's great that you work so well together now. you said before we couldn't be in the same room like now we work so well together. So what changed? And I know the Spain, obviously Spain house, but still like it's you're still running a business together. That's still that's a lot of interaction.

Chip Mardis Yeah. yeah, yeah. I will be very time time curves off the edges.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis we we we we we both are not the same people we were when I raised her under under our roof. Yeah. we I mean we laugh. I coached her softball

Tiffany Scott Age of maturity and yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Chip Mardis teams, I coached my my my son's baseball team and so I was always kind of you know, I I I was always kind of I won't say large in charge, but you know, and I mean we yeah, yeah. Ex

Tiffany Scott Yeah, you stepped into the boss, right? Yeah.

Chip Mardis exactly. but

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis yeah, well life left me when she went to college. What she did at college and learned at college, I just, you know, I I I can't can't even discuss and the same thing with my son too. So I

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis I served a purpose. I I got him through high school and gave him

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis a room. And once they went to college, they became their own people. So it's just incredible. So

Tiffany Scott That's awesome. I've I I think it's fantastic that you guys have partnered and and to see that you've found like, like I said, kind of starting to find that groove. Takes a while. I know I had to do the same thing. I totally had to like, I rebranded everything.

Chip Mardis But yeah.

Tiffany Scott I mean, you know, you know, my background story, but I my what I originally intended was just to be a lead gen company. And now I'm like this full-blown sales practice. Like it's totally different than what I had envisioned, but you let the market tell you. what it what they want, you know, what the market wants is where you have to go. but then combined with what you're best at, you can be an expert in one thing, maybe, maybe, maybe two, but not everything. So I think you kind of learning through that is, you know, s is gonna be so valuable for you guys going forward. What are your thoughts on that?

Chip Mardis takes you so it takes you so long to get there too. I mean, you know, I

Tiffany Scott Yeah. It does.

Chip Mardis I I I I kind of stepped I ever hate my baseball analogies, but I kind of stepped up stepped at a plate with a with a full count, right? It's like

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis I I knew what I was best at. So I'm looking for this fastball on the outside of the plate, you know,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis where I where I could pull the ball. And I I I I got I got nothing but curved stuff right down the middle and I just kept swinging and swinging and swinging and kept going

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis back to the plate. And it the the light finally came on. And I I'm I'm involved with a business-to-business development group that is is kind of my tribe. It's an outside group and they have just been incredible to support me. And you know, I was on the recruiting side, I was in the talent acquisition side in corporate. That's

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis all I did. I didn't have to sell, I had to sell the opportunity, but I didn't have to sell myself. And I didn't, and the opportunities were the line from my head and to my heart, so it was always so easy to do.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis this is all relationship driven. Just like you and I. It's been a r it's been a relationship. And I was I was trying to be transactional. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis And I wasn't selling anything. And it wasn't

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis until I, hey, you're trying too freaking hard, let your hair down. Be who you

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis are. People are gonna you know, people are gonna like you hopefully, like minded

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis people. And that's when I started seeing the success starting. but I still find it very, very hard to do. I'm not entrepreneur, I'm really not.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis I just this is who I am and it it's tough, you know. So

Tiffany Scott I think you're probably pulling from your recruiting days. I know I did. because it's the same thing with it's it's sales. And I think to be an entrepreneur, I mean, I'd say for me now is like ninety percent it's gotta be about the sales and the business development,

Chip Mardis Yeah.

Tiffany Scott And if you don't feel natural about it, and I think I went through that too. I think it I think part of it too is being transactional is like I don't know if desperation's the right word, but like you're just like the urgency I think to close. You just gotta close, right? Like why is it so difficult? Why does it take so long? because you have nothing you don't have anything to fall back on. Like So the slow way

Chip Mardis You don't you don't know you're you're

Tiffany Scott is like that sucks.

Chip Mardis Yeah, you are so vulnerable. You're you're your backside

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis flapping in the wind and and everybody's looking at you, right? Everybody's looking at

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis everybody's and you brought other people along, including your family, into this voyage. And yeah,

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis where we're, you know, when when you were in the staffing organization and I was in in retail, especially as a you know, as I was climbing the ladder, now I'm part of the executive group, I'm leaning back on all my experiences of what I did as I was going up through the line. So I could lead people and and motivate them and share them with with my you know my lessons of leadership and how to recruit and what's best at. And

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis it's hard enough teaching, you know, people that may look at the hey boomer, shut up. You know, you know what the hell you're talking about is bad enough about that, which I never ever played that card, right?

Tiffany Scott No.

Chip Mardis but but that's hard enough. But then to be able to You're kind of cursed because you were successful at an organization. It got taken away

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis from you due to no fault of your own. And now you're cast into this other situation. And it's just you know, I I've had a lot of people, you know, ankle pecking at me. Why don't you just call it quits? Why don't you just come on, come on down here and live with us? You know, you you you know, you don't have to be doing yeah, I do have to be doing this. I do

Tiffany Scott Yeah. I know.

Chip Mardis have to be doing. is what I wanna do. I don't wanna retire. I don't golf.

Tiffany Scott Good for you.

Chip Mardis I don't fish. I I you know I I like my some some of my toys, but I like being relevant. Is that corny? I don't know.

Tiffany Scott no, I think that's I think that is inspirational, honestly, because how easy would it be for you to just go back to a nice, cushy, regular paycheck? But

Chip Mardis pretty nice right about how and and and and unfortunately I mean come

Tiffany Scott Here we are.

Chip Mardis on let's let's you know to be honest with you you know I don't I don't those opportunities aren't there but that that were once there I don't care I don't care what anybody says there is a the grain of America and you know that's reality I don't I don't moan in it I don't cry in it do I think I can outwork any you know most other CHROs Yeah, but you know, this

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis is their time in a box too. So I you know, I I don't

Tiffany Scott There you go.

Chip Mardis I don't bemoan anything, but the reality is those jobs aren't there. And this opportunity's in front of me and I believe I have the capabilities of putting lots of veterans and spouses to work and that means it's very,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis very rewarding for me to be able to do that. So

Tiffany Scott I love that and I love, you know, just how you said you want to feel relevant. I think that is, you know, I can relate to that as well. You know, you just feel like you're filling a v a gap that there is in the in the emplo whole employment industry. I mean, forty percent of unemployment for military spouses, I mean, that's that's you know, definitely something that we should be paying more attention to. And I think it's great that you've decided to take that on. And

Chip Mardis Well.

Tiffany Scott so when you, you know, talk a little bit about your you know, you talked about empathy and how you recruit a little bit differently. What does that look like? And really what does this make you guys different? and what does it take to have that empathy? and why is that important?

Chip Mardis Well, you loaded a lot into that little box there.

Tiffany Scott I sure did. I think it's just all about understanding really what sets you apart from other

Chip Mardis Okay.

Tiffany Scott businesses out there.

Chip Mardis All right, so I I guess maybe three things. So it it it goes back to I've done it.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis so you're gonna hear my my friends and people in corporate are so tired of hearing this story, but it but it's absolutely true because most Americans don't have a clue or they know anything about this. Less than two percent of all Americans have any relationship with the military. Less than two percent of spent any time in the military,

Tiffany Scott Mm. Wow.

Chip Mardis been active duty, have been a reservist, have been a veteran. National Guard, anything in all five branches of service, leaving in Chips perspective

Tiffany Scott wow, that's so low.

Chip Mardis in Chips perspective, ninety-eight percent of corporate America is clueless what veterans can do and military spouses.

Tiffany Scott Yes. Yeah.

Chip Mardis Okay. so it starts with that. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis me going through this experience myself where I love the military, very similar to What a lot of retiring ball, you know, professional ball players go through, or I mean, you you you name it, any any profession that's very unique, that when it's taken away from you because you retire or you're not you don't have the skill set anymore. you know, there there there's a there's a a massive need to be one a part of something. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis At my advanced age, I can tell you there has been nothing in my life that can replicate the camaraderie that I had on my five years of active duty. There's nothing

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis been. And I had a smidgen of that. Okay. Imagine a guy who went in at 17, didn't go to college, then retired in their late thirties, early forties, married their high school sweetheart. I know t dozens and dozens of people like that, and all they know is the military. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis for twenty two years. They had a roof over their head. They were paid. They knew what they were going to pay. They knew whether the military took care of their pay, told them what to do, allowed them

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis to advance, educated them, and certainly didn't get rich, but they were they provided enough pay if you advanced to take care of your family. So they

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis can't replicate that. That's all they know. All right. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis my experience there is I can relate to that. So that's the first piece of it. I also had a very difficult transition. My transition was, I told you, it was misrepresented. So then all of a sudden,

Tiffany Scott Okay. Yeah. Right.

Chip Mardis I end up getting placed into human resources where I went kicking and screaming. Like back then, I'm so old, it was called personnel. All right. And I was signed in their personnel department. And I'm going, personnel? And anybody in the military will know that's S1. That's like administrative weenie stuff. thought I'm an an operator.

Tiffany Scott no. Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis guy. You know, I'm I I lead people. I lead troops, right? no no no no you're gonna lead this program. You are gonna you have to you are gonna lead people. All right I was able to do that. The second thing is by being inside of corporate I was all and I and I had credibility there because fortunately I Was blessed of having an organization that took care of me, dusted

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis me off when I screwed things up, allowed me to be myself, really allowed me to be myself. I had some great mentors.

Tiffany Scott It's great.

Chip Mardis And and I shared with them what a junior military officer could do. And then

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis all of a sudden, from the executive committee came. We want more chips, God help them all. But no, we want more JMOs. We want more NCOs. So we were we were in a massive expansion. So we were opening up distribution

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis centers. We want junior NCOs, non-commissioned officers, sergeants, and we want officers in these distribution centers. And then I did it

Tiffany Scott That's great.

Chip Mardis and then I did a gig out there and I opened up distribution centers and I was the HR guy out there. So at one time, well over 50% of our management team were junior military officers and NCOs.

Tiffany Scott Wow,

Chip Mardis And that my operators were

Tiffany Scott that's fantastic.

Chip Mardis yeah, so the name just began and then I brought them into the home office, and then they were doing traffic

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis and logistics, and then they were doing merchandising, and then they were doing

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis global sourcing, and I and I rinsed and repeated that every place I went. So

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis to fast forward less than eight years ago, my my my my really dear friend, and he was a one of my squad leaders who ended up retired from the United States Army after 34 years. He was a Chief Warren Officer Five, the highest ranking officer. He left the military. We went full circle. He came to work for me in Philadelphia for Catherine's as my director of training and development. Now that

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis that that was the full that's the full gig, right? So I

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis n I know and and the other thing was too that I was able to be the the the godfather of these guys and gals

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis coming in. Okay. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis when they ran into a a hard headed ins hard-headed boss who didn't understand the relevance of how you're gonna take an an army warrant officer who on a boat guy and make

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis him your director of training and development, that doesn't make any freaking sense. You're in a fashion design retail. I go, just let me figure it out. He was the most beloved guy in the world. Okay, because they're adaptable, they're smart, they're mission oriented, there's a need, they're

Tiffany Scott Yeah. yes. Yes.

Chip Mardis gonna fill the need. Okay, same thing with

Tiffany Scott Yes.

Chip Mardis the buyers. They were all they worked great. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis I was I was the godfather for these guys come in to take take the leaders that they that that they work for. And when there were times that they were having difficult transitions, that they used lots of acronyms and weren't inserting themselves quick enough into the civilian sector, I could kind of ease that over. So

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis that would that was the third part. And the second part. And then the third part is now that I'm on the other side. I know the need exists because of those statistics I just shared with you. And I

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis have been blessed through a lot of hard work of breaking into a couple of companies that are embracing the the great opportunity that military people can bring.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis this is a incredibly

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis untapped marketplace that I can get these guys to you. So maintenance managers, maintenance supervisors, techs,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis engineers, nuclear engineers, chemical engineers, you name it, right?

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis so so that's that's kind of a very, very long-winded story. But yeah, that that's

Tiffany Scott No, that's great. Where are you finding your clients and candidates? Is it nationwide? Are you focused on smaller pockets? Like how are you even knowing where to lock?

Chip Mardis Well well you you you you know better than I do. we have as I I will say that you know we are starting to become an emerging business. You know, our stories landed on on a on a on a good footer, so we're starting to really take off. But the opportunities that I have right now are the businesses that I've broken and to grow them and continue to earn their businesses. That's what I wanna do. And I

Tiffany Scott Mm. Got it. Yeah.

Chip Mardis lose I lose that. I lose that sometimes. I I become a a shotgun where I really ought to be a sni sniper and just, you know, walk

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis up. But to answer your question, I don't have the luxury of saying I'm only gonna hunt in the Fortune 500 groups.

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis I I I was preach that for a lot of years and I don't buy it. I I just don't buy it. so we are supporting like a Jason Littman. Jason opened up some doors for me. on some smaller business. This business to business group has opened up doors. And and we're we're experiencing and and finding areas that I didn't even know it exist. So we we've broken into IT and we're supporting some of these smaller smaller run organization MSPs that they need cybersecurity guys or they need data processing

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis guys or y you know they they need help desk people and we have kind of broken into that and that's pretty cool. and it's just

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis grown it's grown organically because of introduction, introduction introduction from from a from a Jason. so that's it it's been pretty much word of mouth. i it it has been based on guys that have been former military officers have gone into corporate America and have recognized the merits of hiring fellow, you know, JMOs and and and NCOs. So that's been a big piece of it. But mostly it has been picking up the phone and just selling, selling, selling and saying, hey look, I I got

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis something really unique. Can I take thirty minutes and if there's an opportunity for you? And hopefully you your your your argument's compelling enough that they're gonna want to take a chance on you and give you a shot. And then and then all this work's taking place. If you don't deliver, who gives a crap, right? And that's where that's where Amy comes in. That's where Shannon,

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis who who's another active duty or a military spouse who who works with us. She's an incredible recruiter and is Amy's right-hand person. She

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis she is delivering and and other military spouses. So yeah, we we gotta deliver. You got you gotta deliver the freight once it

Tiffany Scott That's fantastic. Yeah.

Chip Mardis happens.

Tiffany Scott You know, i I've talked about this before and what I never understood on the c and maybe you could speak to this because you were on the HR side. Like I don't know why you wouldn't

Chip Mardis Okay.

Tiffany Scott want to just give almost every company like yours a shot. I mean, just showing me some resumes, there's n that's non committal. You know, if you don't like you said, if you don't produce the resume. Like w what is such the big deal about taking a meeting with a staffing service and seeing what they have to offer? Cause I know if if it were me and I'm biased because I've been in this, I've been on the other side for twenty five years. But

Chip Mardis Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott like I I never understood the objections that we would get. Except if it was like you're too expensive, we're doing you know what I mean? Like they're like the basic ones, but you don't want to see a resume from me?

Chip Mardis Yeah, well, I I I a thousand percent agree with you and I I I I believe I treated outside agencies as business partners and I I always took audiences and I was all I always felt I was very,

Tiffany Scott good.

Chip Mardis very, very respectful of it. He here's here's the harsh reality though, is that every HR director, every chief human resource officer they have blinders on and their blinders are often within the four walls of that of that company. And

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis there there's only so many hours in the day. There are is only and unfortunate

Tiffany Scott Yeah, I get that.

Chip Mardis yeah I get that but it's it's still not a it's not a warranted

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis you know excuse. Here here here's here's the harsh reality about most HR people. It it's the exception, I believe, rather than the rule, than for somebody who wants to look past their own experiences and take a chance on having a conversation with a guy like me or with somebody else that says,

Tiffany Scott Mm-hmm.

Chip Mardis This really, really sounds great, but I have not experienced that. And it goes back to that ninety-eight percent deal, right? So

Tiffany Scott Right. Yeah.

Chip Mardis y so eighty, ninety percent

Tiffany Scott Well I think

Chip Mardis of HR people have never experienced hiring a junior military officer. And the thought

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis of doing it. is so overwhelming it's like, my God. And then there's all these there's also all these stereotypes, ignorant stereotypes that people

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis have no clue. I mean I, you know, we go on about that too. So yeah.

Tiffany Scott Yeah. And you forget,

Chip Mardis Yeah.

Tiffany Scott like it's been a long time since I was in that seat, but I still was always so blinded to why won't you just look at a resume? Just like look at the resume. It's a fur it's free. So it's just a pet peeve of mine, Chip. So

Chip Mardis Well well we share we share that pet, Peve. Let me let me let me tell you. Especially when especially

Tiffany Scott Ha ha ha

Chip Mardis when you spend so much time talking about the attributes. But you know, t today

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis today even going back, you know, from five years ago when I went when I was sitting in some of those seats, the you know, the the marketplace is just so filled with noise. You can't turn on LinkedIn, you can't turn social media

Tiffany Scott I know.

Chip Mardis on.

Tiffany Scott So but yeah. You're good.

Chip Mardis Do do you do you sor sorry do you do you think that's one of the reasons why programs like yours podcasts have become so incredibly valuable and there's been such a a draw to them because real we're having a real conversation.

Tiffany Scott think it's I think there's a demand for connection and I think there's a demand for validity like so what I mean by that is you know I could p fine I could post a picture, I could post a really thought provoking paragraph, but you don't see me. You don't see my personality, you don't see who I really am. And I think people are yearning for that trust in people. So that's why I made the switch. That's why well, I started doing this for a couple I never thought I was gonna do a podcast. I had somebody approach me about it and I was like, I don't know. It's like it's up in the back of your head, you know? Like everyone's writing a book now too. And like it's such a pipe dream. But it's been a phenomenal experience. And I when I went started going through my transition, like I knew you know, we were I had some I had a rough time in my last employer and like I was looking for something a little bit more meaningful. So this is gonna sound so vain. So I started being doing TikToks, right? But it was like,

Chip Mardis Yeah.

Tiffany Scott I don't know, I was just looking for something else, like another connection. And it actually worked out. And I realized the power of how how your personality can can speak for you. And speak for your brand. So I just became very a big compon a big supporter of personal branding. And I carried that over into my scout. it's also good for building relationships and just again the credibility, you know, and either people are gonna

Chip Mardis Sure, sure.

Tiffany Scott like you or they're gonna hate you. But I'd rather them judge me on who I really am. and although you see the G rated version, Of me, PG sometimes. Like this is pretty much who I am. Like I when I

Chip Mardis Yeah.

Tiffany Scott do these podcasts, you know we didn't prep for this, you know?

Chip Mardis No, no.

Tiffany Scott I'm like, just show up and we'll just chat like we always do.

Chip Mardis Yeah, this is terrific.

Tiffany Scott cause I just never want to be ingenuous. Ingenuine? Disgenuous? Disingenuous. I because I never want to be disingenuous. Yeah, thanks.

Chip Mardis Dis dis disingenuous? Disinje disingen Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott So does that I don't does that answer your question? That was my long n long winded answer now.

Chip Mardis It's par n no, no. No, that's per it's perfect. You're you're terrific at it. You're really great.

Tiffany Scott thanks. Well, I think that so and that's another reason like why I like, you gotta come in because you've such you you're so energetic and very charismatic and I think very likable. And you know, you should have stuff out there. Like people should be getting to know you and seeing what your personality is like. I mean, just just looking at like a picture of someone on a LinkedIn page and their work history, it's just doesn't speak enough to, you know, again building that trust. Yeah. So when you look back, One of the things you said I wanna just dig into for a second is your one company had ninety percent retention rate. Like we gotta get into that. Like how is that how many employees did you have? And like how do you think that you accomplished that? I mean, that's just an incredible number.

Chip Mardis I if if anybody from Catherine's is listening, you know I'm telling the truth. it was the it was one of the highlights of of my career, not only because it was my first

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis time being a the head of head of HR, but again, somebody took a chance on me. Fred, thank you. and it was a scenario that was perfect for me. It was messed up,

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis we weren't making money, we

Tiffany Scott Land.

Chip Mardis didn't have we didn't have any talent. and I couldn't screw it up any worse than it was. So

Tiffany Scott my gosh.

Chip Mardis it wasn't that bad, but it was it was an organization that was would was not performing at the level that it needed to be. It was the it was the the pygmy of the the big beast. It was a little ugly stepchild. it was a very anybody in fashion will we be able to relate to this, it was not a very sexy brand. It was an extended plus size businesses. that you know people didn't naturally you know find it you know really I don't know attractive to be able to work in. And I went in there with just, hey, this is opportunity, right? Going back to my calendar days, this is opportunity. Come here, join a great team. We're gonna be hardcore from the beginning. We're gonna build a culture that is going to be magnificent. And Basically, I came in two months after the corporate office relocated from Memphis, Tennessee, and nobody came. Out of out of a corporate office of like 90 people, and they made offers to like 50, I think six or seven came. And fr completely rebuilt rebuilt.

Tiffany Scott Wow. So you had to rebuild, completely rebuild? Wow. Jeez.

Chip Mardis And again, I didn't do anything by myself. I was blessed with an incredible boss. She was a president. Carol was new there and she took a chance on me. We had a chief financial officer who's lives in Philadelphia, one my dearest friends, Brett. Brett was the CFO who ended up becoming my the president and we we did it together. But it started with these guys because they they saw look, we had two choices. We can either fall in line like all the other retailers do, and we can we can dummy this down and take all the labels off and just sell under one. sell under multiple brands, which is not a brand, as you know, and just buy everything from the market, or we can

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Chip Mardis go all in on doing product development. Everything was bought off

Tiffany Scott Hmm.

Chip Mardis the street. Well, I I had been in product development fashion design businesses,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis being at the limited and the limited two and justice and all that stuff.

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis So so so so here's our CFO who had n who hadn't been all at it had been as exposed to starting this thing from scratch. He goes, we can either go this way and we can manage expense control out of this mess and do it within six months, or we can give ourselves two and a half win two and a half years and we got a runway, but we're gonna have to invest four times as much and we got to go back to the flagpole and get more money. And I I I remember weighing in, I said, I'm not so sure it's gonna take that long. And he and he goes, that means if you can find the people. And Carol

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis said, and if we can find the talented people. And you know, I Bill, I I bit off a lot and I can show it. I go, now we're gonna find it. And sure enough, we went from being

Tiffany Scott Well.

Chip Mardis seventy, seventy five percent buying off the streets to we were we were individually product development product with in about eighteen months. And we went from los

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis we went from losing like five million dollars to make in five million. We did a $10 million

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis swing in in in in in a year. And within with

Tiffany Scott my gosh.

Chip Mardis within within two years, we were in in terms of volume and profitability, we were the we were the most profitable organization of of charming shops at that period of time. Yeah. Yeah, it was incredible.

Tiffany Scott Wow. So what I heard is a couple of things. One is it seemed like senior leadership, anybody who was involved was on the same page. Like you guys all had your goals aligned, it seemed, like of what you needed to do

Chip Mardis And particularly

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis when you're doing international global smart, we had none of that. We had we had to build it from scratch. All of

Tiffany Scott Oof. Scratch.

Chip Mardis our buyers bought from the market.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis Nobody knew product. So we we s we so immediately we had to analyze who's staying, who's going. Who's on the

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis who's on the bus, who's off the bus, who's on the who who what seat of the bus are you gonna sit on? And we

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis and we went to town and it started with attitude and it started with culture. This is the year that Moneyball came out. I don't know if you remember that movie, Moneyball, where

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis it was all statistics based on the Oakland A's and everything. Well, again, base baseball dude, right? So we went

Tiffany Scott Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chip Mardis I I went all the way, I I made the We had the executive committee read the book. We took them to the movies. We we we came back and we

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis we went to the bar and we talked all about what what what we saw and and then we had town hall meetings and then we we had a we we had a quarterly briefing that was it it's an all it's an all new ball game, Catherine's version. And we took out a local elementary school and we had the meeting like a nine inning. baseball game at this elementary ball ball field. We had the

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis elementary kids come in. We every inning in the game was presenting,

Tiffany Scott Live it.

Chip Mardis you know, HR, we are the umpires. We are to be seen, not heard. We're there to keep the games playing honestly, op

Tiffany Scott Hmm, okay.

Chip Mardis openly. Okay. We play by the rules. We're here to keep we're the honest brokers. The merchants were the pitchers. The the designers were the catchers. And and and everything else. So every inning of the game, then we had fun in between. But anyways, that's that's the type of culture building that we did.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis And it just went rampant. And

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis we were we were an incredible story. The buyers sat right next to the designers, the designers sat next to the global sourcing, completely vertical. They were all working together.

Tiffany Scott Wow.

Chip Mardis And it was it was gosh darn magical. And if you ever think that you're in charge

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Sounds like it.

Chip Mardis of, yeah, if you ever think you're in charge of anything, you're you're you're you're crazy, right? Even spiritually. If you think we're in charge of anything, we're not. The rug was pulled out from underneath us and we were merged with another organization,

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis and we no longer exist. So made four.

Tiffany Scott Yeah, I know. It could be a over in a flash. Yeah. I think we've both experienced

Chip Mardis Forty forty.

Tiffany Scott that.

Chip Mardis Yeah. there's there's people that you know, t I it I don't go a week without hearing from somebody that's the best place but I'd still be there. Yeah, we would all still be there. So yeah.

Tiffany Scott Wow. What a great s comeback story. So what how are you are are you building your business similarly now? Trying to build that same type of culture? Is there anything that you've overlapped? I know with a smaller team it can be different, but are you starting that now?

Chip Mardis Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis Where you can share these stories or

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis sh or where with the vending community. I try to influence companies that I'm supporting, but you can't replicate it. It's a it's it's

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis it's it's it's it's completely different organization. What I can do is impart my enthusiasm and me sweating the details and preparing my candidates to be absolutely as best as they can. When you and I wrap this up, I'm talking to a a a vice president candidate for a nuclear engineering. You know, so so, you know,

Tiffany Scott Wow. Cool.

Chip Mardis I we get to do that sort of stuff. So you don't you don't lose any of those types of things. But yeah.

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What would you say if you could start your business over, or what would you do differently?

Chip Mardis I absolutely would have gone and and focused my efforts on things that I knew instead of taking a major gamble and a belief of of of a of a career field or an industry that I truly knew n very little about.

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis I I think I had the the executive head on a little bit too much that I was going to go with my my my head and my my heart said it could work. But I had no clue on what that marketplace was like and how incredibly

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis challenging it is to break into.

Tiffany Scott Yeah. What advice would would you give to somebody starting a business now? What are like the couple of top, you know, two or three things they should be considering?

Chip Mardis We we we had a a line we had a line in in in in retail cash is king product is queen right cash is cash is king.

Tiffany Scott yeah. Okay. Yes.

Chip Mardis and you know I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna we're going to you know I I I was a career HR guy. I was a cost center and incredibly, incredibly sensitive to it that every place I went, my my departments were going to be a profit center, not a cost center.

Tiffany Scott Got it. Got it.

Chip Mardis I did not carry that on into being a quote entrepreneur. I was so

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis committed on setting this thing up right. I built I built well you got another lot in in in retail. You never built a church for Easter Sunday. I I should have built it for the confessional.

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis So I

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis I w I w I went all in where I really didn't need to. And now I'm back

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis and I'm backing up a little bit. But you'll live and learn, it's not a big deal, right? So yeah.

Tiffany Scott Right. Right. Right. Yeah. I I know. And and and the way you think setting it up right, like you said, you know, you had a pivot and it

Chip Mardis Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Scott turns into something different. So I get that. I get that.

Chip Mardis Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Scott So what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?

Chip Mardis Be absolutely be yourself. Don't try to be somebody that you aren't. be true to yourself. I I've learned more of that in the last two or three years doing this stuff.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis You you find out what's really, really important to you.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis you know. Leaders, people who care, passionate people. I don't give a darn what you say. If you're a

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis professional football player and you retire, you are gonna be that professional person and you're always gonna see yourself first as being this ball player. I went through it too, and I was chief human resources officer of the greatest company I thought I'd ever work, and I'd still be there. Well, I'm not there anymore. Okay, and

Tiffany Scott Yeah. Yeah.

Chip Mardis my my boss isn't there anymore, and my boss's boss isn't there anymore, and you know what we've all So be true to yourself. That

Tiffany Scott Mm-hmm.

Chip Mardis that title does not make Chip Martin's vice president of human resources does not make me Chip

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis who's RJ's dad and Laura and Amy's dad and husband of Laurie, right? That's so

Tiffany Scott Right. Right. Right.

Chip Mardis I'm a thick head. I'm a real I'm a real slow burn and learn on that. And it's in this advanced age. I'm I'm I'm getting it. And

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Scott I know you do you kind of ride that high of like you're being you're in the success and nothing, you know, you don't think about it going away. You just don't. You you know, even where we are today, you don't think about that. You just you're in the

Chip Mardis No.

Tiffany Scott moment and but that's I think really important. And I don't know, like, is that advice that you can just take? Or is it a vi or is do you have to learn that? I think many of us have to learn it, unfortunately. I I really do.

Chip Mardis there you you you're you you really do. So I'm gonna this is gonna sound it's it's gonna sound like this is a setup because it's not, but I I I am gonna pivot. So what we're describing right now as of that, you know, I saw myself as a corporate vice president of human resources, and you saw yourself as a chief operatic and the CEO of of your organization. I am doing this right now with our military veterans. And our military spouses. not only am I looking to place these guys with with with corporations that they're gonna have a second career and work for another 25 years and make a lot of money

Tiffany Scott Mm-hmm.

Chip Mardis and be really, really successful. And not only am I gonna be the guy that's gonna sell with when w to to corporations that know these guys have skill sets that you're other people, they have loyalty, they are smart.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis They are mission oriented. They will do what they they care. They want to be there. And the way that we do this is that not only do I place people, but I have I have paired and partnered with an organization called Civilian Ready. So it's Blue United and Civilian Ready. And Civilian Ready is a is a group that's owned by a guy by the he Created a gentleman by the name of Eddie Dunn. He's a retired master sergeant in the Army.

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis And Eddie has created this transitional program, a holistic program that takes our veterans, we run them through cohorts, and

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis they, when they take off their uniform for the last time at 22 years, they know that Lieutenant Colonel Jones. Is always going to be a field artillery officer in the army. But as he transitions to go run the marketing department for ABC Company, he's not turning his back on Lieutenant

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis Colonel Jones in the United States Army. He's not leaving that behind. It's all coming with him. And

Tiffany Scott Yes.

Chip Mardis there is a huge crisis going on in the military today and in a world that we are losing, we are losing twice as many people, veterans. That have gone to the dark side than we

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis l than we lost in the entire time during the 18 years that we were at war in the desert. And it's because

Tiffany Scott Mm. Yeah.

Chip Mardis of this losing this purpose, losing these communities that we're talking about. And this the the the what we're trying to do is making them better, but making life easier for them, making their their family's life easier and their spouse's life easier. So this whole transition. Again, back to this holistic conversation that you had right when

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis we first started. and a a a funnel of talent that's coming into the coming in into the workforce. So we're we're we're working it in our own very small way, but hopefully we're building it at it that it can scale. And he's got huge experience working in some very, very large organizations this way. And he rolled out very similar programs. So we got a lot of stuff going on right now, a lot of different areas. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Scott That's great. Yeah. Why do you think those programs are, you know, are not flourishing more?

Chip Mardis From a holistically standpoint, from a mental standpoint, none of them are doing it. None of them are doing it. At least that I

Tiffany Scott Mm.

Chip Mardis I can understand it. The military does a great job of supporting their transition. It tells them how to get the medical. It tells them how to write a resume. It gives them the basis of this is how you need to go find yourself a job. It does not deal with what does it emotionally feel like when I take the shoulder pads off, when I take the uniform off, when I'm turning my equipment back into

Tiffany Scott Right.

Chip Mardis you know, you know, i in in the wholesale sales. So yeah, you name it. it's a completely different approach. And Eddie is is coming from the again, from the head and from the heart on this thing.

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis And this is what's so been so terrific with us. So yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Scott That's fantastic. Well, I l I've always respected what you've what you've done in your career, especially your service. I think that we should all be paying a little bit more attention and supporting organizations like yours. And you know, especially when you talk about the military spouses. you know, I've talked to others before, but you're the first one who's ever given me that statistic. Where do you find Where do where can candidates find you? How can they apply or you know, can they just call you even if you don't have something open? What's the best process?

Chip Mardis go to our website. It's blue united sourcing.com. please join our talent network. It's right there and we will be in touch. We do not we we we do not we do not d depend on logarithms and and

Tiffany Scott Okay.

Chip Mardis okay we talk to people every one of our people we we we speak to people can call

Tiffany Scott good.

Chip Mardis me directly and schedule an an

Tiffany Scott Yeah.

Chip Mardis an an appointment My my email i i is on there. They can schedule an appointment with me. I will talk to any any folks that are going through through transition. I can speak to them about putting them through one of our civilian ready transition programs 'cause it it's gonna not look it's not gonna look tomorrow what it looks like today. It's gonna be significantly larger and we are seeking, you know, a lot of Business partners is going to go ahead and continue to sponsor us. But we're excited about where the next step may may likely take us. Yeah. But

Tiffany Scott That's fantastic. Well, I will link everything that you're saying too. So that'll be that

Chip Mardis Okay, terrific.

Tiffany Scott should be available everywhere. Well, Chip, I have had fun again talking with you. And yeah,

Chip Mardis Thank you, Tiffany.

Tiffany Scott and I'm excited to get this out because I think more people need to know who you are, who your company is, what you do, and how different you actually are. I think you're making and going to make a huge difference. So thank you so much.

Chip Mardis You are very, very well with it's been really, really terrific. Thanks so much for the invite. And this has been a lot of fun. It's been

Tiffany Scott You got it.

Chip Mardis very easy. Have a good one.

Tiffany Scott Thanks, Chip.