How an Iraq Veteran Turned Service Into Entrepreneurship

And not 11 happened while I was in Basie.

When we were told about it, as troops, we didn't know if they were joking or not. They load up all of us troops and take us back to the barracks. When the trucks actually showed up, that's when we knew something had happened.

That was kind of a heads-up to like, hey, some serious, maybe a foot, life or ever changed on that day. Roger Lee Ward III is a veteran entrepreneur and business mentor, the founder of Great Day Moving in the visionary behind Great Day Services.

After serving in Kuwait and Iraq, he built a business focused on restoring trust to the moving industry and empowering entrepreneurs through proven systems. You transition into the Army,

and they give you a four to six to eight-month

basic training plus AIT, right, advanced individual training. But in order to go back into civilian life,

“where's the training there, especially as an infantry guy?”

There's a lot of direct responses that you're taught that you should unlearn before you go and try to reintegrate to society. Because those responses, they really can get you in a lot of trouble. AIT is about to take over all these blue-cut,

early white-collar jobs. So the question is, how quickly are you willing to adapt to it? Re-invent, it's not over, I'm telling how we're... The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Hi, and welcome back to another episode

of "Living Your Legacy Podcast." I'll be your host today, Jay Slangen, and I'm sitting down here with a guy that's served and I heard you did some combat time, right? Yes, sir.

Yeah, tell me a little bit about that. Well, I was in the Army for five years from 2001 to 2006. Okay, and 9/11 happened while I was in basic. Wow. And from there, I was deployed to Kuwait,

and then a subsequent time in 2003, we did the invasion into Iraq, and then another 12 months after that, as a peacekeeping tour. Okay, wow, so we just have a moral day. And everyone, just remember where they were at 9/11.

Right, so you're in basic training? Yes, sir. Tell us a little bit about that.

“Like, what was the feeling when that happened in basic training?”

And your superiors, I mean, it must have been a whole lot different than a lot of other people, experience. I would agree, we were actually on a range, and it was odd to say the least, mostly because when we were told about it,

as troops, we didn't know if they were joking or not, because they play like psi-op games with you to try to mess with your mind and get you to react in order to give you different situations. Okay. And so we didn't know if they were joking or not.

Yeah. We kind of thought, I know that you could be like, man, that would be a sadistic joke. They do sadistic jokes all the time, in order to get your mind in a different state of combat. Of course, that's like, I did wilderness for a training,

and they just put you through some mental things of like, hey, it was just a thunderstorm, and everyone got, you got 20 people that just got hit by lightning, you know, getting that mental state. Right, right. So, so there is that kind of scenario,

and we didn't know how to take it until they called in the truck and said, because we were infantry, so you walk everywhere, or march, you march everywhere. If it's 20 miles that way, we're marching 20 miles that way. When the captain came out, he said, listen,

I'm going to have the cattle truck show up, and that's literally a cattle truck, that they load cows onto, they load up all of us troops, and take us back to the barracks. When the trucks actually showed up,

that's when we knew something had happened, because it was the first time in basic training that we didn't march to wherever it was when we were going. That was kind of a heads-up to like, hey, some serious, maybe a foot, and then when we got back to the barracks, they wheeled in the TV and turned it on, and we watched it.

And it was about three o'clock that afternoon that that happened, but yeah, life forever changed on that day.

Yeah, it's amazing back then where everything wasn't so instant.

You know, right, I had the same kind of situation where, you know, I heard, and then it wasn't too hours later when I saw,

“you know, so there's that time of disbelief, right?”

I was actually, I was living the whole summer in New York City, that summer, and then, and I have leading kayaking trips,

like a couple times a week, because they just paved that bike path, right? And, you know, and I was like, you know, I've seen your in college, and it was kind of happening down in the Twin Towers, because there's lots of concerts, right? Sure. So, yeah, a few times a week, right?

Then I take the train home, and then I did my semester abroad in Australia, right? So, like, end of August, and I'm just, no, no, early September, and I'm just meeting my host mother, and it's like,

our first weekend out, and she's into music, she brings me out to a club

where, you know, her boyfriend was playing, right? So, I met this fun bar, it was crazy, because I mean, I'm in the bathroom, it's maybe like two in the morning, right? And I'm in Melbourne, Australia,

“and I remember 'cause the bathroom walls are all grass, you know?”

Wow. It's like, fake grass, like turf, right? And then these guys come in, and they're talking about, oh, like a plane just crashed into the Twin Towers, that they're just talking, and then I'm watching my hands. I'm like, I just came from New York, you know, I'm thinking,

like, a small crop duster, a personal plane, you know?

Right. Right. Right. Right. Like, some small thing, I was just like, we need to talk about, you know? And then, like, we go home, right? And then, yeah, those, those images completely changed, but that is the time, it's not instant, you know? It's not like everyone's on Twitter or actually just see it's instantly, it's, it's that time of getting in your thoughts and

everything, you know? You know, seeing is believing, because when you actually see it, you're like, wow, that, that really happened. Yeah. Right. You know, I don't, I don't think it. There's ever been a moment like that today. Like, they, they do say, oh, you remember where, you know, when you heard Charlie Kirk,

was assassinated, but for me, not, not the same, not the same, not the same at all.

Yeah. And then you're out there for, for how long? And, and does, does this kind of

“impact your, what, what, what will kind of segue into what, what you do, right?”

Does, does that impact kind of coming out of your time in the, in serving? Does that impact kind of what you do? So, not necessarily, now I'm a mover. Okay. So, at the end of the day, I want to help people create, you know, or I spent the last 20 years moving, let's say that. Yeah. And then moving, like, what do you mean, moving? Like, a, like, a moving company. Okay. And so it's called great day moving. And it's a franchise system. But the idea is to help

entrepreneurs coming out of the military or just veterans that are coming out. Transition into an entrepreneur, a lifestyle. And so helping them find the business that they would like to get involved in. And then, you know, helping them identify their strengths and placing them in something that would actually help them grow. And they would be able to control their time and control their ability to make money. Okay. And so, so a lot of people

when they come out of the military, I'm sure that they're confused. Almost like when sports stars go out of sports, it's like, what is there after serving life look like? Right. So, do you help them connect with like their passions and, and all that? Right. Okay. So, you got a lot of confused people and you help them find their, their, their passions and what they want to do. You help them access money because I heard that there's a lot of access to different

funds that they can tap into. There's a lot of different programs that are out there available through the VA, and other veterans organizations that can help entrepreneurs get started in business and then continue to grow it as well. Yeah. So, they don't teach you how to access these funds. They don't teach you how to access the funds. More so the biggest thing that I saw when I was starting when I had transitioned out of the military was that I wanted, I would have appreciated

to have someone that knew the ropes, if you will. Yeah. And then, were able to tell me how to do what to do, when to do, where to do, because, you know, I went, I went from or into the military directly out of high school. At the end of the day, that's a very formatted program. Yeah. Then you go to the military again, a very formatted program. Then you get out and hey, the world is your oyster. You can do whatever you want. That's awesome. In a lot of ways,

but in another way, you really need some rigidity as far as structure to be able to get to being successful. Yeah. Because they only give you like an eight hour class. Kind of like,

“I don't even remember it. To be honest, that's how sad it is. Okay. There is a transition period,”

but again, you transition into the army, and they give you a four to six to eight month basic training plus AIT right advanced individual training. But in order to go back into civilian life, where is the training there? Because a lot of those skills aren't going to, not even the skills, but there's a lot of things that you need to unlearn, especially as an infantry guy. There's a

to society. Because those responses can get you in a lot of trouble. I'm sure it's confusing,

“and I'm sure that a lot of people appreciate you helping them out, right? I mean, it's almost”

like, I wish I had someone, a lot of businesses and a lot of, you know, we talked to a lot of social workers as well, right? That start their own kind of counseling service, right? But it's

always that question of like, oh my god, I wish I had someone like that, you know, when I came out of

this, right? So is that how it all kind of started for you? And it is. So from that idea, in figuring all the stuff out for business that I needed to for myself for a great day moving, I realized that there is a massive gap in the entrepreneurial community for people that want to go out and be successful in business versus they don't have the bridge to go, hey, this is what I want. This is where I'm at. How do I bridge that? Yeah. Well, there's, there's a lot of different

things. There's a lot, there's many questions that you could ask, and each one of them depending on where you're at in your journey. That's worth a lot if you could just make a phone call to somebody

“and go, hey, man, I'm having a problem with this out of the other. What do you recommend? When you”

were in this situation, what was the out? What was the solve? Yeah. That five-minute phone call,

I have spent three months on that five-minute phone call because I didn't have anybody about it to call, so I had to figure it out, screw it up, and then learn from that and go the right way. So you have seven options, you choose three wrong ones before you get to the fourth right one, and then you're like, dang, man, I'm already thinking about the time, effort, energy that you wasted, whereas if you just had that person that you could call and they could just tell you the right answer,

how much time an effort and energy would you have saved there? And do you think it's more popular today? Because back then entrepreneurship was like, what is it? But now it's so popular with you got TV shows, you got all these people on YouTube and social media being like, oh my god, do this that? So do people come to you now? And they know, like, wow, entrepreneurs were the hot stuff is, and like, are you busier now than you were back then? Or is there kind of a change in mindset?

Both. So yes, busier now than it was back then, in a different way, because now I'm more coaching people versus actually in the business doing a move, but on the flip side of that, the work is still there. And I don't want to be like one of those, like YouTube guru kind of guys, you know, what we're into is service-based businesses. I'm like, sorry, I'm not like one of those Miami people that you had to stop your interview because they have a different fake at

you make it in their Lamborghinis, you know? So you know, one of those YouTube guys in the Lambos. You know, a lot of the courses or things that you can get into nowadays,

“people want to, hey, this is what you need to do. This is what you can do. They're not actually”

going to come and help you accomplish anything. Yeah. And with we have a process, you got steps. Right. And not just that, I'm willing to come get my hands dirty and help you build your business, help you build. Because not your business, it's your life. Yeah. It's not just your life, it's your wife's life, it's your kids' life, it's your financial future. And in that stability, you're able to really be secure and then grow into who you are, going to become, who you wish you

could be. And all of that starts with that very first thing that we all started with, which is

I need financial stability before I can start thinking about those other things on the hierarchy of needs. Does it make sense? So kind of like, are you a role like an accelerator, like a start-up accelerator for people that are coming out of the army? Because you had kind of gone through the steps, not from a VC investment standpoint, but kind of more of like, hey, I wish I had someone there. I've been through, you know, the ups and downs and the hardships of start in my own company.

Right. And I know that, you know, there's a lot of dudes just like me coming out of the army. So it's almost like an accelerator, but from a different kind of perspective. They're motivated, right? Yeah. They have an idea of what they want. Now, we need to figure out if that idea works with their personality and works with their motivation and works with an actual game plan that they can implement. And once all those come together, we've got a recipe for success.

Nice. Now we just need to implement and make it happen. And tell what kind of business does have you help people create? Anything from a tree company to dog boops, Goobin? Okay. Moving company. It'd be busy here, cleaning company. Yeah. Painting company. Okay. Long hair. So a lot of blue collar work. And then it's a service based industries. Yeah. That's the idea behind it. I mean, oh, yeah. Yeah. You beat me to it. And yeah.

A eyes about to take over all these blue collar jobs. And so many people are concerned about

are going to be in three to five years. That's the entire world is going to be different in three

“five years. When you have a robotic dentist, when you have a robot that is doing your heart surgery,”

when you have a robot that is driving us all everywhere, things are going to change. Yeah. The world is really in a massive time of change right now and people are so behind the AI curve. It's crazy. They're not paying attention. But it's going to be very difficult for AI to get into your HVAC system up into the walls and make that repair and on the roof. Yeah. I mean, AI is just completely changing knowledge base industries, right? Especially like the legal industry,

right? Just having their associates, right? These kids, it's so hard for them because they're

coming out of college. And yeah, they've had the time with AI and stuff. Knowledge based industries

is is dying quickly or changing quickly, right? Sure gardening and all that, but they're going to have the room above the lawn. You know, it's for perhaps. But at the same time, do you think how many robots that's going to take to build and deploy? I heard a guy talking about, you know, hey, here's a doctor. This doctor went to school for 10 years to become a specialized, whatever he specialized in, right? Okay. Well, if I have a robot and I can upload a file

and that robot can perform that surgery perfectly based on that file that he downloaded in three seconds. Yeah. Where's the doctor at? He's out of a job, brother, because this is going to take him

10 years to learn it, where this robot can learn every surgery out there. I got up, just changed

the file out. Now, he's a professional heart surgeon. Yeah. He's a professional. That's that's a matrix thing. And that's the point. Yeah. This is where we're really at with technology. So the question is, how quickly are you willing to adapt to it? What industries are going to be sticking around and what industries are no longer going to be there where they allow them to go. There's a people willing to get their hands dirty. That will be, you know, the leaders of the future business

is that we're going to need. It is. It really is. If you're willing to get your hands dirty, yeah. You can make a lot of moving company, right? Lifting. And yeah, sure. You're going to have an army of robots that they're going to be inviting in the house. But I'm in service companies

“also. You want that personality. This is your stuff. Personally, this is your personal touch, right?”

All right. Well, you're from, how was this shooting go? You just did the shooting, right? You just shot your episode. How did all go? It was great. Jason was real easy to get along with. He said a little tense up front, you know? Yeah. That's part of life. But as we got to talking, you know, I relaxed a little bit. It was good. They asked a bunch of great questions. And hopefully, able to bring some insight to people and hopefully help people in the future. I mean, there's a lot

of veterans out there coming out of the military and looking for help just like the services that you offer. And I highly recommend to listen to his episode. You can get a lot of good advice. And how do people find you? So people could find me. I've got a book coming out. Oh, yeah. That was about that. Well, so many terms in my life. I was telling people a story about, you know,

“one or two things that I'd gone through or seen done. And, you know, hey, you should write a book.”

Well, I'm 44 years old now. And I'm looking around. And now I have kids of my own. And as I'm looking around, I'm like, well, maybe I should write a book. There's a lot of wisdom in there. There's a lot of nuggets. It's not, it's not geared to any specific group. But I really want to put down stories and nuggets that people can read and gain years of understanding in a few pages. And that wisdom hopefully can change their life again. If you can make a five-minute phone call,

and that would help you to save three years of your life. How valuable is that phone call? Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to do in the book. Read the book. Understand that you can learn some things just through other people's experience. That's also why you're here. Yes, sir. Size success TV. It makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. And that's the ultimate that I'm trying to play here to use these two together to promote and then help again. Veterans make

that transition. And then become the fabric of the United States, which is the backbone of America entrepreneurs. Oh, yeah. And so how do they find you? So you could find us on gradedaymoving.com. You could find us at Facebook, which is you can go to gradeday service. You can go to gradedaymoving. Okay. You can go to there's Tulsa or Kansas City right now. And we also have a LinkedIn,

All the stuff is going to be linked into that book. You don't know. I love it. So here we got a

“mover and a doer. And yeah. So if you are looking for his kind of services, it seems like he can”

really help you out. But thank you for joining us, Roder. And it's been a pleasure of speaking to you.

Yes, sir. And thank you guys for joining us also. And hope to see you guys again.