Connecting with Kevin Ed. 9

Welcome to the 9th installment of "Connecting with Kevin". As you may have noticed, it has been a while. I'm allowing myself some grace, as things have been a little crazy the last few months.

Connecting with Kevin was always a way to...well...connect with my followers through fun stories, anecdotes, life updates, and other nonsense I found amusing. My PhD in overthinking causes me some problems in what is newsletter worthy and what isn't. Perhaps I need to underthink it. With that said, moving forward, we'll start releasing this newsletter at the beginning of every month. That should help me to determine content.

With that said, here are a few life updates.

Happy 2nd Birthday to SME&U !

This past June 1st, we quietly celebrated the two year anniversary of SME&U. I say quietly because there is simply too much going on to make it a priority. Once things settle down, I'll probably take a minute to appreciate the moment.

I know there are statistics out there about small businesses failing within their first year. I feel extremely blessed and fortunate to be entering into year-three with some strong momentum and loyal clients who make my job so much easier. If you're reading this, and don't really know what I do, allow me to re-introduce myself.

SME&U is a national, niche staffing firm specializing in both consulting and permanent placements in Accounting, Finance, Tax, and Audit. I have 18 years of experience in this space, primarily with three of the nation's largest staffing firms. I left the "agency" space because I wanted to give my client's more of my time, and have the freedom to choose to whom I give that attention. I like to say that I can handle your personnel issues with a personal touch.

You won't be getting loads of spam from me about the top 20 candidates, articles you don't care about, and more noise in your mailbox. We all get too much of that. I'm pleasantly persistent, allowing you the space to do your job knowing that "I'll be here" when you need me.

Here are a few of the roles we have filled recently:

Director of Treasury

Senior Director of Finance

Senior Financial Analyst

Corporate Controller

Tax Consultant

Accounting Consultant

To be fair, I would say my specialty has always been permanent roles within the range of $120k-$200k. My consulting specialty has been in the space of interim talent to fill gaps, acquisition integration work, ERP optimization, and individual contributors that can basically help in a variety of areas, a swiss-army knife, if you will.

If you're reading this and have hiring needs, you can always reach me at [email protected]

HOOYAH, NAVY!

If you read the very first Connecting with Kevin, you'll know that my youngest son, Xavier, signed up to join the Navy. As a complete outsider, let me tell you the process for anything related to the military is complete chaos, AT BEST. I don't mean that as a derogatory statement, as I completely understand the need to keep things "in-house". As a born-planner, it is maddening.

We went from thinking he wouldn't be home for Christmas to thinking he wouldn't be home for his birthday (Feb), and then finally getting his official ship date to leave for boot-camp (late March). Each time, I would just shrug my shoulders and wait to see what happened. As late March approached, he shaved his own head, cleaned up his room, and spent time with friends and family.

As someone with some military family history, but no real-life experience, the process has been mind-blowing. While on Spring Break, we got a 16 second phone call from him that he was safe, and that we would hear from him in 2-3 weeks. No time-frame for that call, literally zero heads-up that he'd be calling, and only a rough idea of what might happen next.

We were surprised to learn that he joined the 900 division, called the "Triple Threat Unit". This unit is compromised of a band, a choir, and an armed drill team. When we learned that Xavier had been selected for this unit, we were a little surprised as the only singing he had done was Rage Against the Machine in the shower (yikes), sixth grade violin, and I'd never seen him tossing around any fire arms.

During our first phone call, he explained that he had been selected for the drill team, and not only would he be performing at boot-camp graduations, but also that he'd be marching in a Memorial Day Parade in Naperville, IL. One of the benefits of boot camp being at The Great Lakes Naval Station was that we are close by, and could see him in this parade. There were many recruits that wouldn't be able to see their families due to travel/distance.

Prior to Memorial Day, we got the call that Xavier was a "Sailor". This is a boot camp call made after passing his final assessments, exams, and tests. He took off his "recruit" hat, and was given a "Navy" hat. Mom cried.

We had zero expectations of the Memorial Day parade. The plan was to attend the parade and concert afterwards, where he would be performing. Since his division was early in the parade, Mom and Sister walked over to see him practice his routine. After about 20 minutes, the drill instructors allowed the sailors with family in attendance to visit with their families. That was unexpected, but we got a good 45 minutes to talk to Xavier, meet his drill instructor and fellow sailors he had mentioned in previous phone calls.

Through Facebook groups, we had connected with a few families that couldn't attend the parade, but asked us to add their name to a sign that Cynthia Hicks was making for the unit. While talking to Xavier, he took the poster and walked it around to each Sailor mentioned, and showed it to them. The official Navy photographer grabbed a picture of that and posted it on the official Navy recruits' Facebook page. Pretty neat experience.

At the end of the newsletter, I'll add in a few pictures from the parade.

This week he will graduate from boot camp. While he does not have official orders yet, we know he will be going to "Nuke School" in Charleston, SC at some point in the near future. For those of you that know me well, South Carolina is one of my favorite places on earth. We are looking forward to his next step in this journey. Proud is an understatement.

Thanks for reading! See you in early July!