1st Veteran Interview Eric Martindale: From IED to Media Omnichannel Guru and how this Niche can increase sales for your food and beverage brand

📢 HAPPY VETERANS DAY!!! "Special Segment Launch: Military Veterans in Civilian Life!"

📢I talk🎙️with Eric Martindale Founder & CEO of Elite Commerce Group in the Greater Philly area. 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂  😁

Learn how to leverage Amazon to Sell Retail and Learn tricks for CPG on Instacart!

WATCH ON YOUTUBE! 📽 🎞 
https://youtu.be/TMlJ2JeZ-Co

Learn how Eric transitioned from Executive Officer of the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion to Founder and CEO of a game-changing technology for CPG companies selling online.

We discussed his transition from military to civilian life, the impact of elections on military operations, and the importance of discipline. 

Eric shares his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, his journey into entrepreneurship, and how he navigates the Amazon marketplace with his agency. 

Eric discusses various aspects of retail media, focusing on strategies for increasing product turns in stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts. They explore the significance of digital marketing in the beverage industry, the role of demos, and the challenges of mistrust in retail media reporting. 

Eric shares insights on the transition from military to civilian life, emphasizing the importance of creating a new identity and the realities of job searching for veterans. The discussion concludes with reflections on how military experience shapes leadership in business.

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Transcript

00:00:10:00 - 00:00:34:11
Jessie Ott
Welcome to Thursday, Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. My name is Jessica. The host of this podcast, which is all about beverage innovation. I talk with innovation pioneers from agriculture to glass. Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe to be notified of all new episodes. Hello everybody. This is Jesse R and I have Eric Martindale here today.

00:00:34:11 - 00:00:58:09
Jessie Ott
I'm super, super, super stoked. He's founder of Elite Commerce Group and former marine. And he is the first guest that I have that is in this new series that I'm going to be, recording and sharing with you stories of people who have been in service and then have gone back to civilian life and actually has, has had their own success.

00:00:58:10 - 00:01:06:08
Jessie Ott
And so I'm super pumped that Eric was able to make it today, and he is launching this new segment. So hello, Eric.

00:01:06:09 - 00:01:09:09
Eric Martindale
Hey, thank you for having me excited.

00:01:09:11 - 00:01:20:02
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No, this came together really quickly. And so I know you're on the road a lot, so I appreciate you being able to kind of give, give an hour or so to to kind of come in and talk with me.

00:01:20:04 - 00:01:22:03
Eric Martindale
Yeah I'm looking forward to it.

00:01:22:05 - 00:01:24:13
Jessie Ott
So where are you calling from?

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:33:11
Eric Martindale
Eastern Pennsylvania, a little bit north of Philadelphia, about an hour north, just outside of a, a small city called Bethlehem.

00:01:33:13 - 00:01:52:12
Jessie Ott
Okay, interesting. Nick. Well, we just had a big election, right? And so, I know Pennsylvania is a is a really, major state one way or the other. So did you have a lot of people come into your house that telling you how to vote?

00:01:52:14 - 00:02:09:20
Eric Martindale
Yes, it is. Pennsylvania is a, war zone in that regard. And yeah, absolutely. People knocking on the door and signs and, it's crazy. So, I am definitely glad that's behind us.

00:02:09:22 - 00:02:13:13
Jessie Ott
Do you feel that helps the people.

00:02:13:15 - 00:02:28:10
Eric Martindale
The people banging on the door? No, I, I do not. I, I think people generally know what they're going to do, you know, six months a year out from the election and that stuff is just noise. I don't understand why people do it, to be honest with you.

00:02:28:11 - 00:02:42:11
Jessie Ott
They say it helps. I mean, I know that, Kamala, that that side is really excited because they had a lot of people in the streets. And I'm just like wondering if that's going to matter, because I think to your point, they already had made their decision.

00:02:42:13 - 00:02:43:00
Eric Martindale
Yeah.

00:02:43:03 - 00:02:48:06
Jessie Ott
But you know, one way or the other. Well, well, whatever side you're on, we'll get through it.

00:02:48:08 - 00:03:07:23
Eric Martindale
Yeah. You know, it's always that way. You approach an election and you really, really want your side to win or, or you're terrified of the other person. And then, you know, you get up the next day and you feel really great or really horrible, and then an hour later, you realize that's exactly like it was the day before.

00:03:08:00 - 00:03:08:13
Eric Martindale
Yeah.

00:03:08:15 - 00:03:23:17
Jessie Ott
So, yeah, that's true. I, I do say that, one thing that relates back to the beverage business is the tariffs that he, that Trump put on previously. It killed a lot of businesses. It hurt us badly.

00:03:23:19 - 00:03:25:02
Eric Martindale
Yeah. Tariffs are tax.

00:03:25:04 - 00:03:32:16
Jessie Ott
So hopefully you know that doesn't happen again. But what are you going to do about I can't do anything about it.

00:03:32:18 - 00:03:52:00
Eric Martindale
Just to just adjust. You know, no matter no matter who gets in and that that, you know, the one thing I like to think of is everybody's in the same boat, you know, for the most part. So whatever, whatever gets implemented, we, we kind of all have to deal with it across the board. So, but, it hurts.

00:03:52:02 - 00:03:58:09
Eric Martindale
But I think as long as it hurts everybody equally, you know, you all adjust and and there's this goes on.

00:03:58:15 - 00:04:11:15
Jessie Ott
I'm not speaking from the marine experience that you have. What does elections well how do they affect you. Is that does that affect you guys maybe a little bit more on the military side than the civilian side?

00:04:11:17 - 00:04:42:09
Eric Martindale
Yeah. When you're in so when, when you're on active duty, it's, there are, you know, every, every president will come in and they'll implement policies and they're, they do change. They change the way you operate. They change. You know, it's it's a little bit different than having a job where you go home at the end of the night and maybe even a little bit, and you have your own space when, when you're on active duty, you really the government kind of owns you.

00:04:42:13 - 00:05:04:07
Eric Martindale
And it sounds like it matters what you do on your own time. And, there really you really don't know your evenings or your weekends and, you see those policies pushed down very directly. So it it almost doesn't even matter. You know who who you wanted to win, whether it was your side or the other side.

00:05:04:09 - 00:05:18:15
Eric Martindale
There's going to be things that are pushed down. And change is always painful. So, whether it's changing one or not, we, you know, it's we're creatures of of habit. And, yeah, it definitely makes a big difference.

00:05:18:17 - 00:05:26:05
Jessie Ott
Okay. I was thinking about,

00:05:26:07 - 00:05:49:00
Jessie Ott
So, my, only my I didn't serve my dad did. He was in Vietnam. He was in the ninth and Infantry. Right in the middle of the jungle. Got Agent Orange all the things while, but, I was thinking about, like, in, in the CIA, and I don't know if this is what I've read, or what.

00:05:49:00 - 00:06:10:07
Jessie Ott
Anyway, so they push down like, hey, whatever you write, we can the you never know, the president could read it, and I'm just. And it was like one of these pressure down things of like, you might be able to have your dossier read in front of the president or whatever. Is it is there anything similar to that in the military?

00:06:10:09 - 00:06:15:13
Eric Martindale
Jesse, where where did you said that you reference the CIA?

00:06:15:15 - 00:06:38:08
Jessie Ott
Yeah, like in the CIA, they have, I just I don't know, I guess I read it somewhere where it's like, oh, you know, hey, if you're, in, you know, whatever country and you're reporting on XYZ, you never know, right? It like, it's like the president's might read it on his desk or his her desk.

00:06:38:08 - 00:07:02:04
Eric Martindale
Yeah. Well, that that was, Yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's why I asked, that I was really curious that you that that is, very, very accurate. So I didn't know if you had some kind of personal experience there, but, there there have been Marines court martialed for what they put on Facebook. You know, it's not the same as a, as a dossier, but, absolutely.

00:07:02:04 - 00:07:24:12
Eric Martindale
Every you're responsible for everything you say, everything you do or fail to do. So it doesn't matter if you're on your personal time. You are you are beholden to the the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice and, it's almost like when when you joined the military, you give up. You give up your rights as a citizen in a sense.

00:07:24:14 - 00:07:46:05
Eric Martindale
And you you agree to be placed under the UCMJ. It's like a different it's a different set of laws. And, you can be you can be adjudicated for almost anything. There's no there's really no you might have personal time, but but you're still but you're still under the authority of the, of the military and and how.

00:07:46:05 - 00:07:55:21
Jessie Ott
Is that said in fear to install like as a fear tactic, I think. Isn't it really just. And they want you to behave.

00:07:55:23 - 00:08:43:20
Eric Martindale
It's it's order. It's it's order. You know, if you look at the UCMJ, it's it says right in the beginning to promote good order and discipline and he if Vietnam. I mean, what a what a great example. What what a what a conflict. But those, those guys, your, your dad and those people went through something that that is just un, I think unimaginable, you know, just reading about it and then having, having some experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and then reading and studying and training, you know, in regard to what happened in Vietnam, you especially after going through modern combat, you look back and have this, this moment of, oh,

00:08:43:23 - 00:09:06:20
Eric Martindale
wow, they they really went through some things. And you can imagine taking a force in a, in a, you know, country like, like ours and then putting them in a conflict like that and saying, well, you can kind of do what you want to do. No, people would just run. So everything in the military is is about order and discipline.

00:09:06:22 - 00:09:24:13
Eric Martindale
And they really, you know, having being able to look back, it really kind of has to be that way. You know, you really can't have an effective force where you say, hey, if you want to go, go if you don't, don't if you want to, you know, if you want to go into into this combat scenario, do it.

00:09:24:13 - 00:09:27:14
Eric Martindale
If you don't do anything so well, it's.

00:09:27:14 - 00:09:29:01
Jessie Ott
About saving lives, right?

00:09:29:01 - 00:09:45:14
Eric Martindale
It's yeah. Yeah. 100% so and and that's, that's not to say that every, every conflict we, we should have been and that is that I'm not say that at all. Right. I'm just saying if you're going to do it, you know, really has to be a system of of order and discipline of order.

00:09:45:14 - 00:10:06:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah. And that makes sense. I, I do think that, I know I can't live by that many rules, I wouldn't fit. I wish I had it after high school. I think everybody should go spend a year in the military to live somewhere else in the world. I don't care what it is, but people need to grow up faster, and I think that's one way to do it.

00:10:06:13 - 00:10:25:17
Jessie Ott
I was not emotionally ready for all this college crap and all this other stuff, and I feel like it was a wasted year that I could have actually learned. Like, it'd be great if they would teach us finances and teach us, like real things that mean something, not how to write a sentence, you know? Yeah, like it'd be so great.

00:10:25:17 - 00:10:47:01
Jessie Ott
I think, we'd be a different country, and I think we'd have different points of views. Because if you think about the rural counties, like I'm from a small town of a thousand people, maybe on a good year and, and, and, you know, a lot of people don't have the opportunity to travel or get out or go go to another country.

00:10:47:01 - 00:11:05:23
Jessie Ott
I mean, I lived in France for a year. I lived in New York, I lived in Atlanta, I've lived in Fort Lauderdale, I've lived now. I've been in Dallas. So, you know, I've been able to experience a lot of different perspectives of people from all over the world. And I think that shapes you, certainly. And your perspective, because you're not in this just one place where, wherever that is.

00:11:06:01 - 00:11:07:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:11:07:05 - 00:11:26:14
Eric Martindale
Or that. Yeah, that certainly. I you lived in France for a year, I think just living overseas, you know, regardless, military, you know, business school, whatever it is, is more really formative experience. I think everybody should do that. Or at least travel as much as possible.

00:11:26:16 - 00:11:51:01
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I mean, I got to experience some really eye opening things, like being with, like, my friends were from Sweden, Norway, England and obviously France. I lived with French, roommates and whatnot, but like, they're like, hey, just get your country back in gear because your, your economy's, you know, hurting us, you know? And I'm like, okay, I'll get right on that.

00:11:51:03 - 00:12:11:17
Jessie Ott
Yeah. You know, and just that whole thought process of how people are educated in Europe versus the United States, it's it's we're viewed as a, as, you know, what we are. But like, it's just different. It's different living in it and learning in it, then being outside and seeing it as what it is, you know.

00:12:11:19 - 00:12:14:13
Eric Martindale
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you 100%.

00:12:14:15 - 00:12:35:13
Jessie Ott
And my German friends, it was the ten year, reunification party. And so we had a party and like, it was just so surreal to think about what they're feeling at this moment, you know? Yeah. And that was just like, you can't. That's just amazing life experiences.

00:12:35:15 - 00:13:04:06
Eric Martindale
You know, it's it's really interesting too. We're we're, we're very, in, in America, we're very culturally, sort of siloed in a sense where yesterday during the election, I had people I had people messaging me from New Zealand, Canada, India, you know, who are watching our election. I've never watched any of theirs. And it's not that they're not important.

00:13:04:06 - 00:13:15:22
Eric Martindale
They're very important. But we they tend to be very, be, globally aware and, and we tend, we think we are we're not as as much as we think we are.

00:13:16:00 - 00:13:17:05
Jessie Ott


00:13:17:07 - 00:13:18:09
Eric Martindale
So.

00:13:18:11 - 00:13:40:08
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No, it's true, it's it's true. And I, I, you know, for me, I guess we have, different experiences. You, you had the military kind of the business or spiritual side of the experience. Did you live abroad in Iraq? You mentioned Iraq and or, Afghanistan.

00:13:40:08 - 00:14:04:21
Eric Martindale
And I so I did deployments there and there. So there's a yes and no answer there, but I did deployments to Iraq. I did one to Afghanistan to do one in Macedonia. The the experience is much different than living like you did. I got a little bit of that in my deployment to Macedonia was during peace time.

00:14:04:21 - 00:14:33:02
Eric Martindale
So that was different. And then, we actually in the beginning in Iraq, we borrowed something from Vietnam, actually called, Combined Action Platoon, which became, mobile training teams. But we we were my platoon was nested with an Iraqi battalion. And so that was a, you know, not the same as, as living abroad the way you did.

00:14:33:02 - 00:14:59:02
Eric Martindale
I think you learn things and people speak more freely, probably the, you know, the way you live. But I think I got a little bit of a, a taste of that being nested with or embedded with, Iraqi, military for a little while, where you, you really, you know, you make friends with people and they start to speak more openly and they say things they wouldn't have said in in other instances.

00:14:59:04 - 00:15:02:13
Jessie Ott
So you mentioned you started with the reserves.

00:15:02:15 - 00:15:04:06
Eric Martindale
I did. Yep.

00:15:04:08 - 00:15:12:09
Jessie Ott
Is that something you did like early on and then did you were you in school at the same time or going to work or.

00:15:12:11 - 00:15:23:12
Eric Martindale
Yeah, I, I actually was in the reserves while I went to the, while I was in college and, and I did work as well. I worked full time, so I was extremely busy.

00:15:23:16 - 00:15:26:19
Jessie Ott
Oh, wow. Amazing.

00:15:26:21 - 00:15:54:07
Eric Martindale
That was it was a hard four years. Didn't have the typical college experience. And my last semester of school, I was set to graduate in December. The, the year when 901 happened. So I didn't know what I was going to do at an already going to officer candidate school, but I, I really was hesitant about signing a, an active duty, contract.

00:15:54:07 - 00:16:04:16
Eric Martindale
And then I wonder what happened then I just said I have, you know, have to and it's similar. I mean, pretty much everybody who joking around that time had that was their experience of.

00:16:04:18 - 00:16:34:01
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I'm were reading about it a whole lot of people signed up after that. All ages. Yeah, yeah. Which is good. And I know that recruitment is down and they're they're really challenged with that. And you know, and I think about my nieces and that that age, you know, there and then even there is thought around when, you know, we're pretty much close enough to the same age.

00:16:34:03 - 00:16:57:06
Jessie Ott
Very there's pot around whatever people are doing it. I feel like it's like a part of their culture, now. And it's just so mainstream with the, the smokeless tobacco stuff and all that. And I'm wondering if that has something to do with it, because you can't have had had anything to do with it, right, to to actually enroll or enjoy the military.

00:16:57:07 - 00:16:59:22
Jessie Ott
So I'm just wondering, it.

00:17:00:00 - 00:17:30:22
Eric Martindale
You can get a waiver and I didn't I was never a recruiter, but I did, in ROTC, Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, where I had a, I had a role where I was kind of would interact with, officer recruiters in my area. So I got to know the process pretty well, although I don't know what's really changed over the last eight years, but, at the time, at least, you could get a waiver for,

00:17:31:00 - 00:17:35:20
Eric Martindale
What would I care what they called it? But it was very, very minor use.

00:17:35:22 - 00:17:37:13
Jessie Ott
Okay.

00:17:37:15 - 00:18:00:08
Eric Martindale
The word escapes me, but it was very, very minor use, like one, 2 or 3 times. And now, like you said, it's it's very true. Now, now it's in, you know, THC is made its way into beverages, which it boggles my mind. And beverages that are sold in retail stores, micro doses, which is that happen very quickly.

00:18:00:13 - 00:18:05:15
Eric Martindale
I think. But that might have a lot to do with it.

00:18:05:17 - 00:18:28:23
Jessie Ott
Yeah, that's and you know, when we were talking earlier about rules and they own you and all the things like kids don't want that, they don't want that discipline. And, you know, it's just it's just it's and it'll be interesting to see how, how how the, you know, recruitment goes. I hope it goes well. But I think, you know, it's not it's certainly not a lifestyle for everyone.

00:18:29:01 - 00:18:47:23
Jessie Ott
But you know, I think it I think it's good. Like I said, I wish I had served at least a year and just understand it and and have a different perspective. I was talking to another gentleman at the Food Institute, and he was saying something similar, but they should go work with a farmer.

00:18:48:01 - 00:18:49:03
Eric Martindale
Oh, and.

00:18:49:05 - 00:18:59:23
Jessie Ott
Live on the land and learn what it's like to be to have crops and animals and the whole, the whole bit like that's your food source. Yeah. That's important.

00:19:00:01 - 00:19:42:04
Eric Martindale
You know, it's it's interesting. That's a really good point. But I think and you brought up, you know, THC use as has become extremely mainstream. Some just culture has changed so much. And if you think about it, we're extremely, affluent and comfortable culture. We don't think of ourselves that way. But like a kid that's brought up now, most kids don't have most kids, at least in my world, in my sphere, really don't have they don't work or they do a little bit and maybe, you know, just they feel like it, then they don't.

00:19:42:04 - 00:19:50:17
Eric Martindale
And they quit. But I remember as a kid, like everybody had a job, everybody worked their summers.

00:19:50:19 - 00:19:55:00
Jessie Ott
You got the tassel, you know, everybody did.

00:19:55:02 - 00:20:16:14
Eric Martindale
You know, it's interesting. I don't know if you remember this. I'm not going to remember what it was called, but there was a sitcom based off of, a guy who didn't get it. This was in the 90s, early 90s, maybe late 80s. There's a sitcom based off of a guy who didn't get a job out of high school, and he basically lived off of his parents.

00:20:16:14 - 00:20:38:01
Eric Martindale
And it was such a mockery. But now that's that's just very normal. Normal? Haven't figured out what I want to do yet. It's very normal. At the time, it was like, oh, my gosh, what a crazy idea. This guy, this guy graduated from high school and didn't get a job. But where we were in a very different world than we were back then.

00:20:38:03 - 00:20:39:12
Eric Martindale
That's true world.

00:20:39:14 - 00:20:43:07
Jessie Ott
I'm going to have to Google that and figure that out because I, I don't remember.

00:20:43:09 - 00:20:44:12
Eric Martindale
I'll email it to you.

00:20:44:16 - 00:20:45:09
Jessie Ott
Okay.

00:20:45:11 - 00:20:52:05
Eric Martindale
I'll email it to you. It was you you'll recognize at least the actor in it, but.

00:20:52:07 - 00:21:06:14
Jessie Ott
So yeah, you joined after 911 and then did you, did you join a specific, area of interest for you, like, engineering or computers or, you know, what was your specialty?

00:21:06:16 - 00:21:33:23
Eric Martindale
Just like engineering, I was I was a combat engineer, so, I was, I was a an engineer in the reserves, and then, I went on active duty. I, I stayed with the same MOS or job. Now it's a combat engineer, so it's I always say it's not a real engineer. I don't have an engineering background. It, we had, like the there's a couple of, different things you could do with that.

00:21:33:23 - 00:21:59:03
Eric Martindale
In the, in the Marine Corps, there is a construction side, which I didn't do. And then there's a, mobility and counter mobility side, which you can look at that in terms of, mine counter mine, explosive is we had early on in the conflict, we had a big part of the, the IED or roadside bomb fight that that kind of changed as, as we went through.

00:21:59:03 - 00:22:04:17
Eric Martindale
But that's that's what I did both in the reserves and on active duty.

00:22:04:19 - 00:22:11:16
Jessie Ott
So what? I mean, what does that entail? Like what was like, what would you can you describe like a day.

00:22:11:18 - 00:22:31:03
Eric Martindale
Yeah. Well, my first deployment I was a I was a platoon commander, I was a lieutenant. And we what we did the entire deployment was we we went out, I would take the platoon out and we would search for, buried weapons caches. Believe it or not, we did. We did a lot of sweeps for IEDs as well.

00:22:31:05 - 00:23:06:10
Eric Martindale
Okay. But the number one thing we did was we went and we looked for buried weapons caches because when, when the Iraqi military withdrew early on in the conflict, they buried everything they took great big, you know, dozers and, you know, equipment. And they would dig holes and they would bury missiles and rockets and mortars and mines, or they would put it in a pile, stack it, and then make a like a big mountain over it.

00:23:06:10 - 00:23:42:11
Eric Martindale
It was it was kind of crazy, but the country was just loaded with weapons and explosives and they were being used to make those, IEDs or or roadside bombs or improvised mines. Land mines. And so our job was to find them and, get rid of them, destroy them. And then sometimes, again, we would, we would take, mine detectors, which look like metal detectors, and we would sweep for we'd sweep the, you know, sides of the roads and things like that for, for, improvised explosive devices.

00:23:42:13 - 00:23:54:08
Jessie Ott
Wow, that's really cool. I know there's a movie about that. And it involves, I think, some dogs that they were, they had trained some dogs to do the same thing. Did you guys have animals or dogs with you?

00:23:54:08 - 00:24:08:06
Eric Martindale
Yeah, dogs. We definitely had dogs early in the conflict. They weren't very good as as we we went on, they got better and better. Yeah, yeah. My my detection or bomb detection dogs. Yeah.

00:24:08:07 - 00:24:20:23
Jessie Ott
That's pretty incredible. So and you kind of did that then for your, for your, the term that you or contract, you called it that you were you served with the Marine Corps.

00:24:21:00 - 00:24:38:10
Eric Martindale
Yeah I did that my first deployment. Then I deployed again you know kind of worked my way up. And that was a a company executive officer on my second deployment. So that was a little less I was a little bit less out there in, in the field. I did, I did operate, but it was a little less.

00:24:38:10 - 00:24:44:15
Eric Martindale
And then I went back to Afghanistan as a company commander. We were out. You're out all the time. Again.

00:24:44:17 - 00:24:52:03
Jessie Ott
Okay, interesting. But yeah, it's a tough job and it's a very important job.

00:24:52:04 - 00:24:57:18
Eric Martindale
It's. Yeah, it's it's rewarding. For sure. Yeah.

00:24:57:20 - 00:25:12:06
Jessie Ott
And so when did you know that you were kind of at the end of your service. It was a moment in time or was it a family decision. Like what, what kind of how does that what's that process like?

00:25:12:08 - 00:25:32:08
Eric Martindale
It was I think all of those things that you mentioned, I, I got a, a very rare assignment at the University of Pennsylvania in Villanova at the very end. It was very competitive. I never thought I was going to get it. And and that's kind of home for me, you know, born in, in Philly.

00:25:32:08 - 00:25:53:06
Eric Martindale
And then just kind of, you know, slowly, the family moved a little bit north away from the city, but that that was home for me. And, very difficult to get that job at all, let alone for at an Ivy League school, let alone at the exact place I wanted. And it was just the stars aligned. I'm.

00:25:53:08 - 00:26:17:01
Eric Martindale
I almost like this. Can't this can't be real. I there's no way I got this job. And then when I got there, I thought about. I really thought about, thought about getting out, but I, I went through a divorce there, and my next, I have kids, and my next assignment was going to be a hardship tour I owed.

00:26:17:04 - 00:26:42:09
Eric Martindale
You know, that's not a hardship tour. Which means the next one needed to be, Which means I was either going in the Marine Corps. That means Japan or 29 palms, California, the desert. And I wasn't going to be able to take my kids with me. So I ended up getting I ended up starting a business while I was at UPenn, and one of and and then just transition from there.

00:26:42:11 - 00:26:46:19
Jessie Ott
So, what were you teaching?

00:26:46:21 - 00:27:13:01
Eric Martindale
Military science, which, that was where I mentioned earlier, running the, the marine option in ROTC or Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at those schools. There's a broader program run by a marine colonel. And then, he's over the Navy and the and the Marine Corps, and then the Marine Corps was was mine for, for him.

00:27:13:03 - 00:27:36:14
Eric Martindale
So there's there are a lot of things. There's there's a training element, there's, you're assisting with, recruiting and an entry into the school, and then you teach military science, which is it? Which is an actual college course. So depending on what school you went to, there may have been one. But there are a number of schools that have an ROTC agreement with the government.

00:27:36:16 - 00:27:46:04
Eric Martindale
It's a it's a literal contract. And the part of that is there's a military science course. That's time. So I taught that course.

00:27:46:06 - 00:27:56:07
Jessie Ott
That is really cool. And so, you transitioned, you said you started a business so that you started the business that you're doing now.

00:27:56:09 - 00:28:22:11
Eric Martindale
T yeah, I didn't look like this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It evolved. It being I started, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, but I had done a lot of travel. You know, we spoke about traveling in. I had opportunities to bring things back, like, you know, rugs from the Middle East and carvings, carvings and statues and all kinds of stuff.

00:28:22:11 - 00:28:43:11
Eric Martindale
And I always I was always very, very attracted to that. And so I thought, I'm going to import and export. And I did I started doing that. I got myself into, you know, various agreements. I got myself into one where I had an agreement to move a certain amount of, of product for a company out of Australia.

00:28:43:12 - 00:28:59:10
Eric Martindale
And I got myself into a bind and I turned to Amazon. And this is a, you know, kind of the early days of Amazon and just I mean, it clicked with me right away. And I knew right away like, this is this is what I want to do.

00:28:59:12 - 00:29:07:22
Jessie Ott
That's awesome. So do you want to kind of talk a bit about what your company does and how you work, how you work with brands.

00:29:07:22 - 00:29:32:19
Eric Martindale
And so yeah, we're we're by our DNA. You know, that was me back then. Now now it's an agency. And by our DNA, we're an Amazon management agency and we focus on, food and beverage, CPG. We have we do have other accounts now, we've a lot more than, than I would have said about two years ago, but our core is is CPG.

00:29:32:21 - 00:30:07:16
Eric Martindale
And, you know, grocery, grocery adjacent. We do skincare hair care as well. But, we've really leaned into retail media over the last about three years. Retail media would be your, your Instacart and, your, your Whole foods.com, basically what we're doing with retail media is we're using digital platforms to drive retail sales. So if you look at Amazon like a channel, it's a very important channel, but that it's very straightforward.

00:30:07:16 - 00:30:35:09
Eric Martindale
This is what we're doing. We're building a channel out of Amazon. Retail media is very strategic because we're we're not really building Instacart for the sake of building Instacart. We're building out Instacart so that we can reach in and influence actual brick and mortar retail accounts. And there are a lot of platforms to to do that. I think we're on like 2027 now, 27 different platforms, retail, media platforms.

00:30:35:11 - 00:31:04:13
Jessie Ott
So let's walk through an example because I'm, I'm, I'm not clear and, I'm not clear on how this works. I have beverage, let's say I have, you know, beverage in the can for pet. Whatever it is, it doesn't need to be alcohol. I don't it doesn't matter. So do I come to you and say, hey, Eric, can your company help me get this merged and all these different channels?

00:31:04:15 - 00:31:29:18
Eric Martindale
We're we're a little bit later in this stage than that. And I'll give you two examples if I can share, food and beverage brands. Velocity is really what, what I'm focused on. It's not getting into the store. It's keeping the store or growing, getting more SKUs in there or, and I'm not working with the buyer or category manager.

00:31:29:20 - 00:31:56:12
Eric Martindale
I'm. I'm, I'm driving sales, driving shelf turn. So in a couple of scenarios would be, let's say you have that four pack of beverage and your whole Foods and your buyer, it says, I need four turns per skew per day or per week, you know, per store per week. And you're at two and your viruses, you really need to increase these terms.

00:31:56:14 - 00:32:25:08
Eric Martindale
You can there's over 500 Whole Foods location. So you can't really effectively demo. You probably can't afford most most smaller brands can't afford to hire a team to demo at all of those locations. But they can come to me and say, what can we do digitally? And we can we can increase those turns through Whole Foods media. So we can we can keep that account alive.

00:32:25:08 - 00:32:38:18
Eric Martindale
Or the second scenario would be, okay, I'm in an innovation set. I don't know if. Have you done that. Heard much about those different retailers will have a temp. It's a temporary.

00:32:38:18 - 00:32:40:09
Jessie Ott
Interested in it though.

00:32:40:11 - 00:33:00:12
Eric Martindale
Yeah. You know it's it's really thrilling. It's a it's a new thing that's spreading very quickly. But retailers are saying, all right, we want to have we want to have new inventory. We want to have the fresh, hot new things, but we don't know what's going to work. And you know, that shelf real estate is yeah, it's really valuable.

00:33:00:17 - 00:33:18:17
Jessie Ott
It's whatever you do for just this is your innovation space. Come here and look and see what's new because you have I remember being in the Navy stores in Virginia Beach and, and these these they'll come in and go, well, we're just checking out the shelves to see what's new, because the buyer at the time would always try new things.

00:33:18:19 - 00:33:23:17
Jessie Ott
And so that is just so exciting. I'm calling it that. And.

00:33:23:19 - 00:33:44:11
Eric Martindale
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, retailers are getting very kind of, scientific with it where they'll take a certain amount of shelf space and say, all right, we're going to bring new brands into this shelf space. They're going to get 90 days. And if they sell well enough, we'll keep them. We'll give them, we'll move them into the center of the store.

00:33:44:13 - 00:34:11:18
Eric Martindale
So for that, for that 90 days, the brand sprouts is a big one. Sprouts has an innovation set. Fresh thyme has one. There's so many. Wake Fern is starting one. But let's say sprouts. You get that four pack of drinks at sprouts and you have 90 days. Now there's 410, I think sprouts location. So how do you make it so well enough in 90 days to get that permanent spot over in the beverage set?

00:34:11:20 - 00:34:32:22
Eric Martindale
And that's where, you know, I can come in and say, all right, I can hit this with the Spark Sprouts RTD account. I can target it with, with Instacart. And now, yeah, I'm, I'm only Instacart might be 10% of your sprouts shoppers and sprouts are RTD. Might you know which advertise on sprouts.com. That might be another 10%.

00:34:33:00 - 00:34:52:04
Eric Martindale
But we can really, really drive hard in that 20% to kind of manipulate sales data. And then the buyer doesn't know the sprouts buyer doesn't know or care. They just know stuff is coming off of the shelf fast enough for it to make sense at sprouts. And then they they give them that full time placement.

00:34:52:06 - 00:35:00:21
Jessie Ott
Okay. So when you when you say Whole Foods Media can you can you explain what that means?

00:35:00:23 - 00:35:28:17
Eric Martindale
Yeah. If you for Whole Foods you're, you're actually shop if you want to shop for delivery and I'll probably if I could take a step back and just say in retail media were generally targeting shoppers who shop online for retail fulfillment. So if on Instacart, I'm pulling up my, you know, my Instacart screen on the on the browser, typing in what I want and submitting that order digitally.

00:35:28:23 - 00:35:59:23
Eric Martindale
But then somebody is actually pulling that product off of a retail shelf. So I'm influencing the retail, that retail account. So Whole Foods Media, if you look at Whole Foods, how does that happen. How does that digital shopping and retail brick and mortar retail fulfillment work. It's on Amazon.com. And Whole Foods has an ad platform where I can I can advertise on Amazon.com for that Whole Foods delivery, if that makes sense.

00:36:00:01 - 00:36:22:10
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. It's it's it's it's interesting to to learn about a new part of the business. You know, it's and it's important it's, it's how brands are gonna, you know, ride or die, right? Right. I mean, especially this is such an exciting time. I think, in not just the beverage industry, which I'm in, there's a lot there's innovation everywhere.

00:36:22:12 - 00:36:25:05
Eric Martindale
It. Oh, man, it's moving fast, isn't it?

00:36:25:07 - 00:36:45:05
Jessie Ott
It's moving fast. Moving fast. It's just it's such a fun. I mean, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing because I love it, you know? And I love food and I love beverage. But beverage is my primary, you know, industry that I know. And you want everybody to win somehow because they don't need to be they don't need to be one to many.

00:36:45:05 - 00:37:01:22
Jessie Ott
They just need a few. You're right, you know. No, not everybody wants to be a Diageo or being. You don't need two. Right. So how do you view how do you help those brands that you know to navigate that. And I think that's what you guys are doing. And it's really interesting. And that's yeah.

00:37:01:22 - 00:37:02:22
Eric Martindale
You know.

00:37:03:00 - 00:37:04:09
Jessie Ott
What.

00:37:04:11 - 00:37:05:08
Eric Martindale
What was it.

00:37:05:10 - 00:37:09:00
Jessie Ott
20% of the the whole picture is a lot.

00:37:09:01 - 00:37:37:13
Eric Martindale
It is. And, you know, let's say you could in theory, if you kind of think of how the math plays out, maybe you could in theory on that sprout set. We've had brands do this where we're getting two thirds of their total sales in that innovation set through those 20% of shoppers. So it's 20% of shoppers, but it's not like we're just influencing 20% of their sales.

00:37:37:15 - 00:38:00:16
Eric Martindale
We've carried those innovation sets through with, you know, these these retail media platforms. We in fact, that specific scenario gave you the Sprouts innovation set. It's it's like fish in a barrel. I mean, if a brand will listen to it, they can commit a little bit of budget to, you know advertising budget. We can almost certainly get them full time placement.

00:38:00:17 - 00:38:01:01
Eric Martindale
So it's.

00:38:01:01 - 00:38:03:05
Jessie Ott
Possible that but it's really.

00:38:03:11 - 00:38:27:19
Eric Martindale
Replace those demos. I, I don't want to come across like I'm saying, oh demos are terrible. Especially for, you know, beverage. And when food products demos are super powerful and they're really good, it's just they're very effective. It's just that that they can do what they can do. They can get your, you know, customer to taste the product for the first time.

00:38:27:20 - 00:38:33:21
Eric Martindale
What they can't do is give you a sustainable ROI over time.

00:38:33:23 - 00:38:35:09
Jessie Ott
Not like you can't get.

00:38:35:13 - 00:38:56:07
Eric Martindale
I can't reach into the store and make that connection with a customer. So I think there's a there's a really good marriage of the two of those. And then trade promotion in the store. There's a, there's a really good combination of those. But it should be a combination, I think. And not and not, you know, I know what I know, and that's what I'm going to do.

00:38:56:08 - 00:39:05:08
Jessie Ott
Are you finding that this is common knowledge or or brands are aren't aware of it?

00:39:05:10 - 00:39:05:22
Eric Martindale
No.

00:39:05:22 - 00:39:09:02
Jessie Ott
It's, owners of brands.

00:39:09:04 - 00:39:35:05
Eric Martindale
It's, I would say fewer brands. I think a lot of brands know what Instacart is now, and and what they'll do is they'll go in and they'll turn in an auto campaign, turn on an auto campaign. And let it run, which is really just barely scratching the surface of what retail media can do. But there are an awful lot that, that don't.

00:39:35:07 - 00:39:55:04
Eric Martindale
And there's a lot of, for whatever reason, I don't know where it comes from, but there's a lot of lack of trust in reporting. Like, you know, you have a company like Instacart or Whole Foods, and they're telling you that you're getting this many sales, you know, this many clicks and this many sales. They don't get away with, you know, just worrying about data.

00:39:55:04 - 00:40:36:02
Eric Martindale
But there's so much that, you know, mistrust out there for these platforms. And it's always around reporting. I don't I can't trust the reporting. I can't trust reporting. I think companies of that size, they're not they don't make their money by defrauding, by defrauding companies. They're in fact, every single one of them. When I've gone to the, you know, gone to the to those, so to speak, and said, hey, can you break down how your reporting works to ever they always are able to tell me there or maybe not the, you know, an account manager at the bottom, but if you press it, they will unpack for you exactly how the reporting works.

00:40:36:04 - 00:40:40:18
Eric Martindale
So I don't know why. I don't know why there's so much mistrust out there.

00:40:40:20 - 00:40:41:07
Jessie Ott
Interesting.

00:40:41:07 - 00:40:46:03
Eric Martindale
And they do understand what retail media is. And what they don't.

00:40:46:05 - 00:40:56:12
Jessie Ott
Now, do you can you do retail media, with alcohol, given the the laws and the challenges and that.

00:40:56:14 - 00:40:57:05
Eric Martindale
You certainly.

00:40:57:05 - 00:41:00:03
Jessie Ott
By state, state to state, I mean, it's different.

00:41:00:05 - 00:41:25:20
Eric Martindale
You certainly can you can do it through Instacart. Instacart. Well, you know, they have for it's I would say it's as a rule of thumb, these delivery platforms can deliver alcohol. They just have to check, check it. So the the person that drops you know, delivery person, that's it has to check an ID. But yes, you can you can absolutely work with alcohol.

00:41:25:22 - 00:41:50:06
Jessie Ott
And just say, well, hopefully my listeners will contact you to reach out and learn more about this channel, because I think it's really cool. And I never thought about it because I'm not, I don't think I mean, I'm kind of old school brick and mortar, you know, thinking. And I'm not I'm not a savvy, you know, online, in that regard.

00:41:50:06 - 00:42:02:14
Jessie Ott
So, I know that, you know, as close as I could get to what you're doing is being an Amazon affiliate. Yeah. And I'm not even a good one of those. Not yet. Anyway.

00:42:02:16 - 00:42:27:19
Eric Martindale
That. I mean, you know what, though? You look at some of the the the what I would call maybe analog programs, like, like trade promotion, in-store trade promotion. That makes my, you know, makes my head or I have a friend who who does that. That's what he does for brands named Fred Schrader. Which could be an interesting person for you to have here, but that's all he does is, is trade promotion.

00:42:27:19 - 00:42:29:00
Jessie Ott
He he makes it.

00:42:29:02 - 00:42:47:16
Eric Martindale
He makes it, you know, a site and, it, as much as he tries to explain to me what he does, I get it. It's just we can't all be an expert in, you know, 50 different things. So I, I we all have our lane and, and, you know, we all have lots of things we can't do.

00:42:47:18 - 00:43:13:19
Jessie Ott
That's for sure. Well, and if you don't have time. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and when you look at the most successful people, I mean just think about a musician, for example, I mean like the Eagles, you know, many times they've played the same songs over and over and over and over and over, you know, but that's what works.

00:43:13:21 - 00:43:18:08
Jessie Ott
You got to be really, really, really skilled at something to really make it work.

00:43:18:10 - 00:43:46:23
Eric Martindale
Yep. You know, that's so funny. You said that. I listen to a podcast yesterday and it was two, two actors and they were talking. They're they're pretty well known. I won't say you know who they were, but they were talking about how bad, celebrities are at sports. And they were they were saying that's, you know, this is they throw their whole life into acting and they good acting school and they don't play a muslim, don't play sports in college or high school or whatever.

00:43:46:23 - 00:44:00:00
Eric Martindale
They're acting. That's what they do. That's what they're good at. They're very good at it. But I think to your point, that's just the the less you do of everything else, the better you could potentially be at in your lane.

00:44:00:02 - 00:44:25:18
Jessie Ott
Yeah for sure. And I'm not very good at that. There's this word my wife likes to use. It's called focus. And it's really hard for me. I'm a high visionary, so I'm always. And I, you know, visionaries and analytics people, worse problem solvers. Right? So we're always trying to find a solution or figure things out or you know, or for me, I'm always thinking about the next the next thing.

00:44:25:18 - 00:44:36:00
Jessie Ott
I can't tell you how many businesses I've thought of. And then they happen and I don't do anything about it. So I'm not doing that anymore. I'm doing something about it.

00:44:36:02 - 00:45:03:10
Eric Martindale
There's a, actually a phrase I heard, and I've I've been is just as guilty of that. I think any entrepreneur is right. Yeah. You know, you're you're, you have ideas or that shiny object, but, I saw something I heard said a while ago that stuck with me. As entrepreneurs are the only bridge builders that change the direction of their bridge multiple times before they get to the other side.

00:45:03:12 - 00:45:20:17
Eric Martindale
And I've definitely done that in business where, this thing is, you know, this is going to be so hot, and then you start driving into that thing and then something else. I'm really learning now at the library. This is what I do. I do need to get this bridge to the other side.

00:45:20:19 - 00:45:46:10
Jessie Ott
But, yeah, it, that's interesting because, when you start a business, it what ends up happening isn't necessarily what you started with, right? Yeah. Because you have to ebb and flow through the market demand, you know, like, we I had the guys from speakeasy on. They've been bought out by Flavia, now, but, they, they had a whole different vision of what they wanted to do.

00:45:46:10 - 00:46:08:19
Jessie Ott
And by talking to people and learning, they've they've, you know, kind of ebbed and flowed throughout and, and, and did a great job. I'm just looking that got bought out. So, you just never know. Like if when you start what, what's going to happen. And I think that's the scary that's the scary part. But it's also the exciting part, right?

00:46:08:21 - 00:46:09:23
Eric Martindale
Yeah.

00:46:10:01 - 00:46:12:10
Jessie Ott
You have an idea. Let's see where it goes.

00:46:12:11 - 00:46:33:20
Eric Martindale
There's yeah, there's definitely a balance right? I mean Amazon is a is a classic example of they have a culture of R&D. And they always say Jeff Bezos. She should always say test and learn, test and learn, test and learn. So like he has this bridge going to the other side. But then there's also these little tests, you know, along the way, he's constantly doing these little, little tests.

00:46:33:20 - 00:46:44:18
Eric Martindale
So it's a balance I guess. Right. You know, where you have to double down on what's working for sure. But you also have to be testing the other opportunities out there.

00:46:44:20 - 00:47:04:07
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Because the last thing you want is to, to, age out of whatever the product cycle is and not have another plan. Right? I mean, you mean when you think of companies, I mean, Sears, for example, who would have thought when we were kids, Sears would not be?

00:47:04:09 - 00:47:27:07
Eric Martindale
Yeah, but they didn't, you know, they didn't exactly. Like you said, there is no adjustment. You know, it's Sears was Sears to the last four and JCPenney is in Clover. You remember them? They were all, you know, just the JCPenney still around, but they haven't. There's been no innovation, unfortunately.

00:47:27:09 - 00:47:51:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah. And when it happened, it was a little late, to the game. I know, you know, J.C. is based here in Dallas, and they've tried they hired a guy from Apple to reinvent the stores. And, you know, it's just, even I think Macy's, you know, because everything's online, it's it's a struggle. It's just a different, you know, way.

00:47:51:16 - 00:48:19:12
Eric Martindale
And, you know, they were late. They were a lot of those retailers were late to the, even online. Yeah. You mentioned a good point. You're either going to be digital, you're going to lean hard in the digital, or you're going to create an experience where people want to be in that store, and you have a lot of this department stores that did either they were or they kind of really half heartedly did digital or they were really late to the game, like, like series.

00:48:19:14 - 00:48:37:21
Eric Martindale
Sears has a marketplace, Macy's as a marketplace. But they were just so late to the game. They didn't want to they didn't want to do that. And then they innovate hard enough for that in-store experience. So yeah, I don't I don't know I'm popular for Macy's but we'll see.

00:48:37:23 - 00:48:38:20
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:38:20 - 00:48:41:14
Eric Martindale
You don't see any there. Still there's still.

00:48:41:16 - 00:49:10:14
Jessie Ott
Yeah they're big here. And and you feel good when you walk in the stores. You know I worked at the, Macy's in New York City when I moved out there. Yeah. Yeah, it was interesting. I worked in men's, clothing, like, Not not not that suit and tie kind of stuff, but, like, the casual wear and jeans and whatnot.

00:49:10:16 - 00:49:17:00
Jessie Ott
But, yeah, it's it's definitely an interesting, experience. And it's, it's part of our culture, too, I think.

00:49:17:01 - 00:49:24:21
Eric Martindale
Yeah, especially that one. Right. I was in there a couple months ago. There's a that is an interesting just an interesting store.

00:49:24:23 - 00:49:38:21
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I would have customers that would fly in for the weekend from England just to go shopping in United States, because it's cheaper to fly to us. We'll stay in New York, buy a bunch of clothes and fly back.

00:49:38:23 - 00:49:40:02
Eric Martindale
Really?

00:49:40:04 - 00:49:42:12
Jessie Ott
I don't know if that's the way it is now, but yeah.

00:49:42:12 - 00:49:57:03
Eric Martindale
Well, I know there was a time where, like, like Levi's, which is not a particularly expensive brand in the US by any stretch. Or was extremely expensive in India. So I guess the same principle.

00:49:57:05 - 00:49:58:10
Jessie Ott
Yeah. That's. Yeah.

00:49:58:12 - 00:50:04:17
Eric Martindale
Yeah, it might have come down a little bit at this point, I don't know, but it's interesting.

00:50:04:19 - 00:50:34:11
Jessie Ott
So I want to shift the the conversation slightly here. You know, as you're a veteran of the Marine Corps, what I've talked to other veterans that I've been, going to have on the, on the podcast and whatnot. And I know there's other veterans that have podcasts that talk about this. So, I just want to touch a little bit on it and the importance of how, how you get from military life to civilian life and how the government is doing it.

00:50:34:13 - 00:50:44:14
Jessie Ott
Are they doing enough? Is there is there things that can be done to further help that transition, like what is your kind of thought process on it?

00:50:44:16 - 00:51:09:04
Eric Martindale
Well, you know, a lot of thoughts on this. I don't you know, what? I was in the, in the Marine Corps, you hear things like, you know, our our troops should be paid more. We should be doing this. We should get, you know, health care for life. And I never subscribe to that. And I still honestly, I think when you when you do, I'm not saying that there aren't things missing for sure.

00:51:09:04 - 00:51:34:17
Eric Martindale
I think there are some very good VA hospitals and some that are not very good, but I don't think it's necessarily a problem with the VA. I think it's more localized. That's just my opinion. But you know, we we you join the military. It's there's a lot in it for you that's not pay. There's a lot. There's a there's there's I got a lot out of that besides pay.

00:51:34:17 - 00:51:55:04
Eric Martindale
And I'm very grateful for that experience. So I don't feel like, you know, troops are out there being missed, mistreated or not taken care of enough. It is hard when you're if you're 19 and you join the military and you decide to, you know, have kids or whatever, it's very hard. But it's also hard in the civilian world to be 19.

00:51:55:04 - 00:52:00:16
Eric Martindale
And, you know, right. You know, it's it's just hard. It's just hard in life.

00:52:00:17 - 00:52:07:02
Jessie Ott
It's it's it's a hard. Yeah. It's a hard shell. It it is, it's a lot 100%.

00:52:07:04 - 00:52:33:15
Eric Martindale
But in terms of transition, I just had this conversation yesterday. But when you go into the military, there's so much of your identity that they hand you you wear that, you wear a uniform, you wear rank like your rank is part of your identity. There are people who know, you know, you're hey, this this guy grows in charge by the rank.

00:52:33:17 - 00:52:54:09
Eric Martindale
The way you speak, the things you can say, the things that you do when you walk past somebody. What you have to say when you walk past an officer or you know, senior enlisted person, your job, your job title. You asked me right away, what did what did you do? There's so much identity, the identity that you draw automatically.

00:52:54:09 - 00:53:16:17
Eric Martindale
And then when you get out, it's you lose all of that. You. And that's why you have you have some people in the military. That's all they they just keep bringing it back to the, to the military. And I think it's because they, you know, there's so much identity there. And, and that my point is that creating that new identity has to be very, very active.

00:53:16:17 - 00:53:36:18
Eric Martindale
And it's on us. We don't like to say that we want to put it on other people, but we have to figure out who we want to be. And now if you look at business, this is where I would say if somebody out there is in hiring, I would be really careful about saying, well, we support, we support our, our veterans.

00:53:36:18 - 00:54:10:21
Eric Martindale
We, you know, in the hiring process. In reality, a lot of times what that looks like is we hire veterans. Well, you're if you hire a veteran, that's great. But most organizations do that because they get somebody who's vetted and they've been not in committing crimes for the last, you know, ten, 20 years. And, you know, because you can't and so it's not like a gift, you know, and so as a when you're in, when you're in active duty, when you're in the military and you're getting out, you're like, oh, all these organizations, they support veterans.

00:54:10:23 - 00:54:30:12
Eric Martindale
Well, they hire veterans because they there's a there's a vetting process in the military, but it doesn't mean you're going to you're not going to be gifted with your new life like you are going to have to work. You're going to have to start out like, anybody else you're going to have. There's a transition. You might take a pay cut.

00:54:30:14 - 00:54:55:03
Eric Martindale
That that is not uncommon. So I, you know, who who does that fall on? I'm, I'm not sure exactly, but I think we have to be realistic when we make that transition that we're not. You're not just going to get out and your life is just going to level up and things are going to get easy because, well, I'm, I'm bringing this military experience and I've had leadership and now I'm going to get paid a whole bunch of money.

00:54:55:03 - 00:55:15:17
Eric Martindale
That's it's not that is not always the case. I think it's probably if anybody has the burden of doing a better job, it's probably the military itself in just preparing, you know, people for what? What is it really going to be like when you get out?

00:55:15:19 - 00:55:25:00
Jessie Ott
Yeah, especially if you get in at 19. You're just a kid, and now you're 45 and you're like, you know, it's a big transition.

00:55:25:02 - 00:55:47:12
Eric Martindale
Yep. You're oh you're 100% right. You don't know anything else. You know, you walked in and you're told what to say, what to wear, what to do, what your job is going to be. And then you're first in that, that a lot of the learning that you had to do, if you, if you weren't in at a much younger age, you're doing it as, you know, that 45 year old.

00:55:47:14 - 00:55:56:17
Jessie Ott
So has your military experience and background influenced the way you manage and the way you run your business?

00:55:56:19 - 00:56:20:07
Eric Martindale
Definitely. You know, I, I'd say I've had so many people say, well, business must be so much easier. You know, you're you're I got I was a major, you know, led, units of hundreds of people. And I've had people say, well, business must, must be so much easier for you. Well, some things have been easier, and some things have been harder.

00:56:20:09 - 00:56:44:06
Eric Martindale
Because I did not have those experiences in, in business. I mean, I, I, I was that not I was a 45 when I got, I was 39, but or 38, but I had those, I didn't come up in corporate America. I still never have. I've never worked in corporate America. So some of the systems that are out there, I didn't learn.

00:56:44:08 - 00:57:05:15
Eric Martindale
I still don't know what to do when I still have to ask people like when somebody like an employee does something like what? What can I do? What what? You know what? I don't want to fire this person, but this was unacceptable. I don't know what I can do. I know what I could do in the in the Marine Corps as a captain, but I can't rely on that here.

00:57:05:15 - 00:57:28:10
Eric Martindale
Or so they're just things. But, you know, I've had to learn and ask for help with and then other things like, like leadership and making sure that, you know, motivating, the team and, there are systems I've, of course, brought with me, you know, that, that, that, I think are unique to the military. So it's been a mix, I think, to answer your question.

00:57:28:12 - 00:57:52:16
Jessie Ott
Yeah, that's really interesting. I, I'm thinking, thank God you didn't have corporate experience because it's not there's no there's no hard and fast rules. There's not a lot of employee support in a lot of cases. So, you know, you know, I don't think you missed out on anything. I think if you can surround yourself by the people that can answer those questions and then that's that's that's what you do, right?

00:57:52:17 - 00:58:14:06
Jessie Ott
Interesting. My biggest takeaway from all of this, my background experience is like, what kind of CEO or what kind of leader I'm going to be and how I'm going to treat employees and, and how I want to invest in them, you know, and make them be their best selves, not just for work, but for them. And nobody really does that.

00:58:14:06 - 00:58:21:11
Jessie Ott
And so that's kind of, to me, what's important, based on my experience that I've had.

00:58:21:13 - 00:58:44:23
Eric Martindale
You know, that's super interesting. And, well, I think that's a hallmark of a good leader, though it is to be is to know could be able to go back and do your, your path and say that person I want to I want those traits and this other person I want those. Whereas we, we hear a awful lot about like don't be a toxic leader.

00:58:44:23 - 00:58:59:01
Eric Martindale
Don't be. Well, yeah, of course not. But who do we want to be? You know the way, right? We we've all the things that we, we shouldn't do. But what are the things we should do to be that really that net positive leader. That's an interesting perspective.

00:58:59:03 - 00:59:26:00
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's that's just super important because as an employee, you want your employer to believe in you and you, you put everything into it. Right? And it's just that, that give and take is just so important. And I think that companies aren't prepared and they don't understand, like, how that works. And certainly there are some and I'm sure there's a lot of great innovative companies that do that, you know.

00:59:26:00 - 00:59:41:00
Jessie Ott
But for me, in my experience and I, I'm not saying I had a bad experience everywhere I went or anything like that. I'm just saying I, I'm going to, like you said, take that experience and, be somebody different or, you know, evolve into something different.

00:59:41:02 - 00:59:44:08
Eric Martindale
Yeah, yeah. Create your own identity, right?

00:59:44:09 - 00:59:45:03
Jessie Ott
Yep.

00:59:45:05 - 00:59:47:05
Eric Martindale
Leadership identity.

00:59:47:07 - 01:00:15:00
Jessie Ott
So this has been awesome. I thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your service. Thank you. I'm so thankful that you had time to sit down with me today and, and talk to your experience in life and your service at the Marine Corps. And, you know, I, I'm really excited about this segment, and I'm super pumped that you were able to kind of lead us and we were able to pull it off before Veterans Day, so I can get it, get it ready.

01:00:15:02 - 01:00:22:10
Jessie Ott
And, with that, I guess we'll say, Happy Veterans Day. Yeah. So the kids that. God bless our troops. All right.

01:00:22:12 - 01:00:27:16
Eric Martindale
Yeah. That's right. Thank you for having me, Jesse. I, I very much appreciate it.

01:00:27:18 - 01:00:30:01
Jessie Ott
Great. Thank you. Bye bye.

01:00:30:03 - 01:00:31:14
Eric Martindale
Bye.

01:00:31:16 - 01:00:34:13
Jessie Ott
Produced by Fedora Productions.