ZeroMils

This 3rd of 12 monthly snapshots from our“Year in Review” as we celebrated our 2nd anniversary all over the country and made connections to create a #Military Thriving movement touching CA, NC, WI and MI — all places we will be back in 2025. Photos from March 2024: 1) Meeting with Assistant Secretary DOL VETS James Rodriguez and Neighborly? leaders -Brad Stevenson, Brian Wieters and Lou Schager, CFE 2) CEO Kevin Schmiegel keynote at Viasat Transition Conference in San Diego and standing alongside fellow Marine Veterans Bridget Guerrero, CBCP and Queta Rodriguez; 3) NOVA VetNet event hosted by ThunderCat Technology; 4) Grand Opening of Hope For The Warriors? Military lounge at Jacksonville NC airport; 5) Easter Run in Wisconsin where Laura Schmiegel and I met with Kurt Rosenthal and leaders from Trident Maritime Systems.

“The most brilliant strategy won’t lead to success unless it’s executed effectively.” – Bill Gates This week I met with a dozen different stakeholders in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. And we put the pieces in place to execute a strategy that we launched at Georgetown less than a month ago. It culminated yesterday at H-E-B’s Operation Appreciation Summit, where their senior leadership team and Johnny Mojica brought together 14 best in class nonprofits. The theme of H-E-B’s Summit — “Innovation through Collaboration.” A perfect way to describe what is needed to create Military Thriving communities here in Texas — with the promise of collaboration between the public, private and nonprofit sectors that sparks innovation, change, and growth. And I got to hang out with good friends Sean and Mary Passmore, and catch up with #changemakers like Lisa Hallett, Shannon Razsadin and Bonnie Carroll. One consistent thing about these #leaders is they all think strategically and they #execute. It doesn’t get any better than this! Happy #ThrivingThursday with ZeroMils.

Military Times is helping spread the news about our #MilitaryThriving movement! Thanks to Wells Fargo, CVS Health, National University, and all of of our partners for supporting the national Change Forum at Georgetown last month — and supporting what’s to come in 2025! Military Thriving is coming to a community near you. Article in comments below ??

Time passes by in the blink of an eye. 11 years ago at the Bush Institute, a small group joined forces to what we were doing to create a “Military Friendly” movement with the collaboration of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Today we met to discuss the need to create a #MilitaryThriving movement with ZeroMils’ commitment to support every organization and leader who wants to collaborate to do the same.

This 2nd of 12 monthly snapshots from our“Year in Review” we capture several more of the 70+ #MilitaryThriving engagements and major events we participated in across 20 different states throughout the year. In helping connect more than 100 corporate, foundation, and nonprofit partners, we impacted tens of thousands of Veterans and their families. Photos from February 2024: From NACVSO Conference, Soldiers to Sidelines Gala, and organizing a Ukraine Civ-Mil State Visit in Washington DC — to Military Thriving engagements in Phoenix with entrepreneurs and philanthropists and in Dallas Fort Worth with wear blue run to remember — we laid the foundation for what’s coming in 2025. #ActionsSpeakLouder #MilitaryThriving #MondayMotivation

Sometimes as a Veteran owned small business, you need to get a head start on the work week. ZeroMils is “on the move” to Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio for meetings with Neighborly, the Bush Institute, H-E-B and several other corporate and nonprofit partners that are joining forces to create #MilitaryTnriving cultures and communities in Texas. Happy Sunday y’all! #ActionsSpeakLouder #OscarMike.

“Strategy without execution is hallucination.” I’m no Einstein, but since leaving active duty 15 years ago, I’ve learned one thing: Actions speak louder than words. The secret to making vision = reality isn’t about what you say — it’s what you do. You can’t just dream big. It’s about translating big ideas into actionable solutions at the local level. ZeroMils shared our strategy to create a #MilitaryThriving movement less than a month ago at Georgetown. Achieving our goals won’t be easy — but it won’t look much different from the “Military Friendly” movement we started at Hiring Our Heroes and the “Service to Bridge Divides”movement we started at Operation Gratitude. The hard work starts now. Execution is everything.

This week — during National Veteran Small Business Week — our CEO Kevin Schmiegel was featured as one of “25 Notable Military-Connected Entrepreneurs Making A Difference In Their Communities” in Military Entrepreneur Magazine. Thanks to THE ROSIE NETWORK for featuring 25 leaders who are “transforming their experiences into successful ventures while giving back to veterans, military families, and their local communities. Their resilience, leadership, and commitment are inspiring a brighter future for us all.” #MilitaryThriving

On November 9, we celebrated the newest graduates from our Military Spouse Leadership Development Program. Along with our virtual ceremony, we also held a special virtual reception, A Day with Leaders, where graduates could network with top leaders within the military community. We'd like to thank everyone that participated during the events and especially to Vehicles For Veterans PenFed Foundation, Lockheed Martin, Navy Federal Credit Union and Newrez because their sponsorship and support brought another cohort in 2024. Graduation: Kevin Schmiegel, Veteran, Chief Executive Officer at ZeroMils Mrs. Sharene Brown, Spouse of the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Fadoua Harrabi, 2023 MSLDP Alumni Mateo Rogers, 2024.2 MSLDP Graduate A Day with Leaders (Leaders in our community): Christine Grady Janet Sanchez Corie Weathers Krista Simpson Anderson Leslie Janaros Heba Abdelaal Michelle Aikman Lydiah Owiti Staci Holt