Jocko Underground: What's Up With Military Recruiting, Recruiting Videos |
11:20 Share

This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 159 sitting here with Echo Charles and we've got some questions and some answers for the people. Cool. Let's get into it. We ready? Okay. Good. First question. Hello, sir. I recently retired from the National Guard. I was a very successful recruiting leader, even after COVID. All my success came from using your leadership concepts. As I'm trying to figure out my next step, I can't help to see on the news the recruiting issues our military is having. I believe the answer is in leadership.

I'm sending this, I'm sending the message because I would love to be able to impact this need and need guidance on how or where to start. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Right on. First of all, I'll say this in the past couple days, maybe past week or so recruiting numbers are back up. So there's some new leadership in the military. There's some new leadership in the government. And it seems like that is helping our recruiting numbers.

So it seems like we're moving in the right direction there. But that being said, I'm sure if you were a good recruiter while you were in, I'm sure you'd still bring some value. And so what I would do, honestly, is look for job opportunities in that environment. So I real quick went to USAjobs.gov. There's a website where you can apply for civilian jobs. And there was a bunch of jobs on there.

training officer. These are civilian jobs, training officer for the National Guard, human resources assistant. What does a human resources assistant, you think they do? Recruiting has got to be in there. A public affairs officer for the National Guard needed. Again, these are civilian positions that you could get into as a government employee, working with the National Guard as a public affairs officer. So think about that. If you're working public affairs and you're

Out there, what are you doing? You're basically, you can do a lot of recruiting. And then there's a bunch of other ones. I mean, there's the intel officer mechanic, like, you know, target repair. There's a bunch of other types of jobs. But what I'm saying is you retired from the National Guard. There are opportunities to still work inside the system. So in the SEAL teams, like at TRADET, we have like a deputy ops guy that's a civilian. Mm-hmm.

So he was in the teams, most of the times he was in the teams and retired from the teams and then gets a job as a civilian. So that way, because military people move around so much, you need some continuity there. You need someone there that has eight, 10 years worth of knowing the training sites, knowing the issues we're going to face, knowing how to deal with this, that, and the other thing. That's why you have these civilians. It's the same thing in basic SEAL training. There's civilians that work there that keep the continuity together. So

That's what I would do if I were you. I would look for recruiting type jobs if they come up, but also just public affairs jobs, training officer jobs, human resources jobs, because I think all those would probably lend you to an opportunity where you'd be able to carry on your career in the National Guard, but as a civilian. So that's what I would do. Thanks for your service. Go get some. How often do you see like a...

military videos on TV you what do you mean by military video on TV, you know like recruiting, you know You know, I don't know cuz I don't watch a lot of TV starting even know if they do they have recruiting things on TV I'd have to go to YouTube and watch them. Yeah, like I I know that hmm. I'm thinking back. I

The UFC would have a lot of cool. The UFC did some Marine Corps stuff and some Air Force stuff and some National Guard stuff. Yeah, yeah. Some of the Army stuff is really good from a video standpoint. But I don't know. I always felt like

Sometimes those videos can be real compelling. They look like blockbuster movies and it's kind of like, because I don't know, when I was young, when it came down to joining the military, it was kind of like that was the feel where it's like, yeah, you can go and go on these. Well, they're getting back to that kind of recruiting now too. Yeah. Because for a while, the recruiting videos were not very.

They were recruiting. I don't know who they were trying to recruit, but they wouldn't recruit a dude like me. Right. Like I joke about it, dude. When I showed up to a recruiter, when I realized you, oh wait, you'll pay me money to carry a machine gun. Sign me up. I'll go right now. What? Right. Let's go. So, but if they would have showed me the, like some of the advertisements from a few years ago where it was like weird, like,

They weren't talking about being a warrior. They were talking about being something else. As I've said, I didn't become a ballet dancer. The reason I didn't become a ballet dancer isn't because they didn't have good ballet recruiting ads. It's because I didn't want to be a ballet dancer. I wanted to carry a machine gun. So when I saw ads for guys carrying machine guns,

Sign me up. If you show me an ad for somebody that's not carrying a machine gun, why would I go there? You don't show me that. I don't want to be a cook. Like you could put a cook, a chef thing, advertisement on the TV. I don't want to be a chef. I don't like cooking. It's not speaking to you. No, it doesn't speak to me. And by the way,

If you showed me, here's what you could do. You could trick me, right? You want me to be a chef? So you show like a guy walking through the kitchen carrying a machine gun. I'd be like, whoa, whoa, wait a second. That could be cool. So I go sign up. Now you got me there and you hand me a spoon and a bowl. A knife. And a knife. And you're like, okay, you're going to do food prep. Dude, I don't want to do that. So now I'm pissed.

I want to carry a machine gun. You showed me a person who's got a machine gun in the kitchen. I thought that was what we were doing. I thought there was people that needed to get whacked in the kitchen. No, they don't. We're making soup. No, I don't want to make soup. So I think they're doing the right thing now. You want to show someone carrying a machine gun going to war because that's what you are trying to recruit. Not trying to recruit a ballerina or a chef. Now, if you want to be a cook in the military, cool. You can go and apply. That's a nuanced job.

And you can learn that skill set if that's what you want. Good. Because now if you sign up to be a cook in the Navy, now you get on the Navy ship and they're like, oh, cool. Here's what you'll be cooking. You'll be cooking all this breakfast and it's cool. Man, you'll learn to cook really well for massive amounts of people with troubling circumstances. Because you don't always have all the supplies you need. You got to figure out how to make things work and you're on a ship. And there's like, right? So you become a good cook if that's what you want to do. But you got to be real with what you're doing.

That's my point. You got to be real with what you're doing. Yeah, that makes sense. It feels like if someone's advertising wanting to recruit a cook or chef and they advertise the guy with the machine gun. Right. And they get you in there and you go in there expecting the machine gun, expecting all this stuff. You get the, you know, the ginsu knife and the spoon and the bowls and stuff.

it feels like that that restaurant might not be as successful. - Oh no, they're gonna have problems with me. - They're gonna have some problems with you and everyone else like you that kinda come in. - Yeah, 'cause they recruited a bunch of people. - The wrong people. - They got me and Tony Afrati in there. They're telling us to make salad, right? Ain't happening, bro. - Exactly right. - Ain't happening. - Meanwhile, they needed, what's the guy at Diners, Drive-Ins and Dimes? Guy Fieri, Fieri, whatever. - Yeah, they need that guy. - They need that guy. - Dude, that guy likes to cook, bro. I don't like to cook. - Oh yeah, all day. - I've given up on the whole,

You know, for a while, it was like, oh, you know, maybe cooking, you know, like barbecue and stuff. It seems like a cool thing to like to do, right? Yeah, sure. You know what I mean? Yes, I do. People are like, oh, it looks like fun. It's fun. Hey, the barbecue, we're going to get some stuff. For a while, I was like, okay, well, it seems like this is supposed to be fun. Yeah. It's not fun for me. It's not my thing. It's not my jam. I'll eat it.

You know what I'm saying? You don't say. Like, Lake Babin comes to my house and spends three hours prepping fruit. Prepping, hell yeah. Or John Dudley. John Dudley be prepping food 48 hours in advance. Squared away, dude. Next level. Tastes delicious. I'm totally down for that. Yeah. But I don't want to do it. Not because I'm lazy, but I don't get any, I don't, it doesn't make me feel good. That's not your job. I would, I get as much gratification from making a ham sandwich as I do from making a,

Good steak, but by the way, my ham sandwiches are good. They take me three minutes. I'm sure they're my steak is not that great My wife makes a prime rib. Hmm takes her a few hours to make the prime rib. It's good man It's really good But if I was left to my own devices I would never have prime rib because I'm not gonna take four hours to prep and do all the stuff It's not we are yeah, so yes, so the point being even me I

Not in the military. Probably past any kind of military age as far as being in my prime. Are you thinking about getting in the game? No, no, no. What you're hearing is me saying sometimes when I'd watch those videos. Oh, yeah. You get fired up. It was mainly the Army, if I'm not mistaken. Marine Corps doesn't play around either. Marine Corps does a great job. In fact, I think it's Army and Marine Corps.

- Yeah, sure. - Those videos were like, okay, and they'd have different messages, you know, like go on a mission, be elite, travel the world. They were all like really legit videos. To me, as a customer or an avatar, as they might say. - They almost got you. - It were, it was working.

That kind of PR slash advertising slash marketing, whatever, was working. These other videos that you're referring to, I've never seen in real life, but I've seen on the internet. I've seen these guys, they'll talk about them. Yeah, because people were putting, they were juxtaposing a Russian recruiting video and the American recruiting video. And the Russian recruiting video was recruiting hard-

That is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen,

Go to JockoUnderground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms so we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko podcast, which will remain as is, free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of others.

sponsors, and we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we're building a website right now,

Where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you. It's jacounderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email assistance at jacounderground.com and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.