This episode of Mission Transition has Corey talking to retired Army Colonel Trina Rice regarding her military career, her transition to civilian life, and her experiences as an entrepreneur.

Key Topics and Themes:

• Career and Leadership: After a 30-year military career with roles in human resources, recruiting, and talent management, the speaker transitioned to becoming a franchise owner of Express Employment Professionals in Virginia. She credits mentorship as the most significant contributor to her development as a leader.
• Challenges of Transition: The speaker identified the loss of structured routine—specifically the lack of a "must-do" daily schedule—as a primary challenge when transitioning out of the military.
• The PACE Plan: The speaker emphasized the importance of a PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency) plan for all service members. She applied this framework to her own transition, allowing her to pivot between business ventures and geographic moves when initial plans were disrupted.
• Entrepreneurship and Service: The speaker balances two professional endeavors:
  • Express Employment Professionals: A franchise focused on workforce development that allows her to serve veterans and military families by connecting them with meaningful employment.
  • Tohi Retreat: A business focused on providing a space for women to find their "center" and replenish themselves socially and professionally.
• Advice for Transitioning Service Members:
  • Patience: Do not rush the transition process; recognize that it is a "one-and-done" experience that requires careful, metered execution.
  • Networking: The speaker stressed that on the civilian side, "who you know" is often more critical than "what you know," and advised building a network while still serving.
  • Perspective and Humility: Veterans bring valuable traits like hard work and mission accomplishment to the workforce, but she advised against overestimating how easy the civilian world will be or how much one's military skills are automatically understood by civilians.

This episode of Mission Transition between Corey and guest Langley Barth features a discussion on military transition strategies, introducing a new free tool called Civilian Compass designed to assist veterans in finding fulfilling post-military careers.

Guest Background and Mission

• The guest is a Navy veteran and product marketer who has been helping veterans navigate their transition for years.
• Motivated by his own experience and a desire to help others avoid the uncertainty he felt, he began providing support through word-of-mouth and volunteering with organizations like ForBlock and the Veterans Beer Club.
• He created Civilian Compass as a free, user-friendly software tool to scale his support for veterans and streamline the transition process.

Key Transition Advice

• Embrace Exploration: Instead of defaulting to what they are already qualified for, veterans are encouraged to conduct a broad range of conversations to "try on" different career paths.
• Use Data to Make Decisions: The guest suggests rating these conversations to identify which career paths provide the best energy and fit, helping veterans see the "signal through the noise".
• Lean into Your Strengths: Veterans should utilize their "bias for action," rely on the network of veterans who have already transitioned, and maintain consistent follow-up to build lasting professional relationships.

The Civilian Compass Process

• Phase 1 (Discovery): Users answer intake questions to narrow down interests and conduct informational interviews with other veterans.
• Phase 2 (Gap Analysis): The tool helps users analyze job descriptions by "stoplight coding" their experience (green for match, yellow for related, red for gap) and determining what skills are actually necessary versus what can be learned.
• Phase 3 (Application): The final phase focuses on the application process, leveraging the network built in earlier phases and preparing for interviews through AI-assisted story banks.

The guest emphasizes that it is never too late to pivot or pursue a new career, and he remains committed to keeping the platform free and unbiased to ensure veterans receive genuine, helpful guidance.

On this episode of Mission Transition, Corey Hopkins sits down with Francine Juhlin, a retired Army aircraft electrician whose more than 30-year career spanned the Navy, Army, and government contracting. After a career-ending ankle injury in Iraq forced her into an unexpected transition, Francine faced the loss of her military identity, unhealthy habits, and a serious health crisis—but those challenges ultimately led her to discover a new sense of purpose.

Francine shares the six-step process she developed to create meaningful personal change, drawing on her experience as a change management specialist. She also discusses her work as an author, children’s educator, advocate, and creator of the Clarity Starter Room. For Veterans navigating transition, Francine offers practical advice on networking, embracing setbacks as “data,” and remembering past victories as a foundation for future success.