#204: Are Green Berets America's Best Entrepreneurs? Retired Green Beret Ben Harrow

Green Berets are trained to solve problems that don't come with instructions. Green Berets build trust where none exists. Green Berets lead small teams in uncertain environments. Green Berets adapt when the plan falls apart. Those same qualities that make exceptional Special Forces soldiers also make exceptional entrepreneurs. For Green Berets their next mission begins the day they leave the Regiment. In this episode, Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ sat down with Retired U. S. Army Captain and Green Beret Ben Harrow https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-harrow-02052399/ during the 2nd Annual Stars and Stripes Classic https://greenberetfoundation.org/stars-and-stripes-classic/to discuss transition from Special Forces to entrepreneurship and why so many members of the Regiment are uniquely equipped to build successful businesses after service. Drawing from his experiences leading in combat, recovering from catastrophic injuries, and building businesses after military service, Ben explains how the qualities that define a Green Beret - adaptability, resilience, disciplined execution, and solving complex problems with limited resources are the very same traits required to succeed in business. We discuss the realities of building scalable organizations, developing repeatable systems, hiring the right people, and learning when to lead from the front and when to empower others to take ownership. We also explore the changing landscape of the Special Forces Regiment as a new generation of leaders emerges without the combat experiences of the Global War on Terror. Ben shares why preserving the culture, brotherhood, and lessons learned from previous generations has never been more important, both inside the Regiment and long after service ends. Finally, we discuss the importance of the Stars and Stripes Classic and why events like this help preserve the team room. The uniforms may come off, but the relationships, shared experiences, and commitment to one another remain. For Green Berets, that brotherhood becomes the foundation for new missions, new businesses, and new opportunities. QUOTES “The leadership had never really experienced combat.”“That same sense of brotherhood that we felt playing college lacrosse, the only thing closest to that was being on an ODA.” “Your country has asked you to do some pretty amazing things in your career. Now have you ever thought about running a company?” “Part of the reason you’re selected is to be that adaptive thinker and say to any problem you come up to “I’ll figure it out.”“Never lead off with no.”“You have to bring people in that are willing to get after it.” “I don’t want to lose to Navy.” “It’s just background noise.” HIGHLIGHTS 0:00 Introduction2:23 Welcome to the Stars & Stripes Classic4:49 The status of the Special Forces Regiment10:04 Special Forces Entrepreneurism20:35 Character Matters The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by OneBrief https://www.onebrief.com/; enabling military leaders to make innovative, informed and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman command wins wars. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://www.instagram.com/greenberetfoundation/ on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802, read on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/the-jedburgh-podcast/, and watch the full video version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  Green Berets are trained to solve problems that don't come with instructions. Green Berets build trust where none exists. Green Berets lead small teams in uncertain environments. Green Berets adapt when the plan falls apart. Those same qualities that make exceptional Special Forces soldiers also make exceptional entrepreneurs. For Green Berets, their next mission begins the day they leave the regiment. From the second annual Stars and Stripes Classic, I sat down with retired US Army Captain and Green Beret Ben Harrow. We discussed entrepreneurship and why so many members of the regiment are uniquely equipped to build successful businesses after service. Drawing from his experiences leading in combat, recovering from catastrophic injuries,

• 0:44Fran Racioppi?

  and building businesses after military service, Ben explains how the qualities that define a Green Beret: adaptability, resilience, disciplined execution, and solving complex problems with limited resources are the very same traits required to succeed in business. We discussed the realities of building scalable organizations, developing repeatable systems, hiring the right people, and learning when to lead from the front and when to empower others to take ownership. We also explored the changing landscape of the Special Forces Regiment as a new generation of leaders emerges without the combat experiences of the global war on terror. Ben shares why preserving the culture, brotherhood, and lessons learned from previous generations has never been more important, both inside the regiment and long after service ends.

• 1:29Fran Racioppi?

  Finally, we discussed the importance of the Stars and Stripes Classic and why events like this help preserve a team room. The uniforms may come off, but the relationships, shared experiences, and commitment to one another remain. For Green Berets, that brotherhood becomes the foundation for new missions, new businesses, and new opportunities. The lessons learned in Special Forces were never meant to stay on the battlefield. They're meant to build leaders who continue solving problems, strengthening community, and making an impact in everything they do. The Jedberg Podcast is brought to you by OneBree, enabling military leaders to make innovative, informed, and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman command wins wars. Follow the Jedberg Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website,

• 2:14Fran Racioppi?

  and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show you why America must continue to lead from the front no matter the challenge.

• 2:23Fran Racioppi?

  Ben, welcome back to the Jedberg Podcast.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me. It's great to be back here. I'm glad that we're able to do this again. Last year, when you and I had our reunion, as we talked about, since it had been almost 20 years since I last saw you in Iraq, it was an honor to be on. Love chit-chatting with you and glad we could do this more often.

• 2:43Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, this has been an exciting opportunity, I think, when we talk about the game writ large, the Stars and Stripes Classic, its ability to bring people together, and its ability to really have conversations about what does it mean to be a Green Beret? What does it mean to be in Special Operations? And really serve the regiment, but also serve each other, and then rekindle some of those relationships? Because obviously, some things have changed for some of us.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 3:10Fran Racioppi?

  As we talked about last time, we were joking before that, your episode actually just went out.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Just in time for us to film Ben and Fran 2.0.

• 3:22Fran Racioppi?

  But that was by design, because we had to space those out, and that was one of our teasers for coming into year two. But I wanted to talk about entrepreneurism with you because we got into it in our last conversation after we kind of told your story, and we talked a lot about resiliency and adaptability, and your, really, I'd say willingness, yet unwillingness to be, to have this life-changing experience that was then going to keep you down.

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 3:51Fran Racioppi?

  And you went out and you found your own way to regrow bone in your legs, and you told doctors how this can be done. And when we think about what our Special Forces are asked to do on a daily basis, well, they're asked to do seemingly the impossible, often with very little guidance and direction, yet only an end state. And I think about the career that you've built since your retirement as an entrepreneur in various industries. And I always go back to what I tell my team at FR6, our security and operations company, which is, we don't do everything, but we can do anything.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:27Fran Racioppi?

  And that means that you're going to have to find solutions to complex challenges and stuff that you may not know how to do or what to do. So I figured we'd really kind of dig into that for a couple of minutes because we are at an inflection point also as a regiment and as an army writ large, where we have an entire GWAT generation that's retiring.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Which is very interesting to think about, right? Of how it's kind of flip-flopped where, and I was talking to one of the guys on the team who I played lacrosse with at college, and he's playing today, where when we were team leaders in the Special Forces Regiment...

• 5:02Fran Racioppi?

  Which feels like yesterday, by the way.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  Dude, it does. It really does. For the most part, the leadership had never really experienced combat, like how we did on the ground. And you have these leaders that are battalion commanders and regiment and group commanders, and they never really experienced the same level of combat that we in Iraq or even in Afghanistan had experienced, where now you have this inversion where the leadership in the SF Regiment has all this combat and GWAT experience, and guys are coming through and they've never fired their weapon like in combat. They don't really know what it sounds like for something to snap over their head and realize that you're getting shot at. So it's an interesting dynamic going on right now in the Special Forces Regiment.

• 5:47Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, you talk to guys in the infantry now, and I'm like, what do you mean you never shot a tow missile in combat?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Right?

• 5:54Fran Racioppi?

  It's like the first thing out.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  I mean, I remember, maybe we talked about this before, but during our left seat, right seat ride, you and I were, I was driving in your Humvee while you were sitting shotgun, and I was behind you in Iraq, and the 50 cows going off, you're calling in Apaches to rocket some IED emplacers, and this is like day two for me in Iraq. And I'm like, all right, this is, we're doing it. This is it.

• 6:18Fran Racioppi?

  Welcome to the party.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, it's just, it's a different onflicks now. I mean, we could talk about this too. It is a different type of warfare, so to speak, with drone warfare, you know, watching that on, I see that all the time on Instagram and just thinking, oh my God, like, it is so different being an infantryman or even, you know, a Special Forces soldier, I can imagine now with drones. I mean, that's just a whole nother level to it, right? So yeah, it's an interesting dynamic with the regiment. Just want to circle back on something that you were talking about with it being the second annual Stars and Stripes Classic. You know, it's such an interesting dynamic of being a college lacrosse player, and then also from the Special Operations community. Both worlds are so small, where everybody knows everybody,

• 7:02Speaker 01

  and to mesh those two together, it's really such a special event. And I was talking last night with two of the guys playing that are, one just graduated the Q course, one is in the Q course, and, you know, talking to me and some of the older guys, it was just such an interesting dynamic that, you know, we all know the same people. Like, we're playing the name game from the lacrosse world of, oh, you played at UVA? You're assistant coach we played with, right? And then still within the Special Forces world, and we're just saying that he felt so lucky to be on this team and chosen to play today because that same sense of brotherhood that we all felt playing college lacrosse, the only thing closest to that was being on an ODA. And then for some of us that are out now, and some of us that are not in ODAs anymore,

• 7:45Speaker 01

  to still kind of combine this lacrosse brotherhood, Special Forces feel, there's really nothing like that, and it's just such a unique dynamic and experience. So that was just pretty cool to hear from their perspective.

• 7:57Fran Racioppi?

  I think it's important that we maintain that, I won't call it the team room feel, but the bond.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:05Fran Racioppi?

  You know, post-service.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:06Fran Racioppi?

  Because as you look at this generation that's getting out, I mean, all these guys, some of them are veterans and they're out, you know, and there's guys like us who are starting to build those next careers, those next phases in our life. Well, they're all, it's going to end for all of them.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Everyone hangs the jersey up someday, sooner or later. For some people, it happens sooner than you planned. Others, maybe it happens on your timeline, but everyone hangs up the jersey eventually.

• 8:30Fran Racioppi?

  So you got to figure out what's next. And I think when we look at our transition out of Special Forces, I think we do a good job in understanding that there's other opportunities. I think we can do a better job in coming together as a community. And we have so many guys who get out and they say things like, oh, I'm going to go hunting fish. Oh, I'm going to move in the woods and I'm going to go do nothing.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  I'm just going to make leather-made goods and belts. Yeah.

• 8:54Fran Racioppi?

  And it's like, hey, look, that's great, but we can do more.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:58Fran Racioppi?

  You know, your country has asked you to do some pretty amazing things in your career. Now, have you ever thought about running a company?

• 9:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:06Fran Racioppi?

  You know, you don't have to be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, where you're going to have an idea that's going to change the world. But there's a lot of folks out there who can do what I call non-sexy businesses.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:18Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, we work in security and facilities operations. We hang security cameras, we run cable through conduit and dig holes, but we're in a business that's not that sexy, but everybody needs it, and it's only getting bigger every single day. People are always going to need to run facilities and have mechanicals and plumbing. And that's where we've tried to really get involved as a business. And so I tell guys, you know, you can run a construction company. You can run a lighting company. You could be an electrician and start a really successful business doing that. You've been spending the last couple of years running a jet company.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:55Fran Racioppi?

  So in your opinion, when you look at the entrepreneurial mindset that comes out of special forces, what do you see?

• 10:03Speaker 01

  Well, it's funny. I think maybe you and I were talking about this at practice yesterday and I was talking to some of the other guys when it comes to transition. I think that the entrepreneurial mindset, if you're going to overlay that with what the Green Beret mindset is, I mean, it's almost like circle on circle, right? Of being a adaptive problem solver, understanding, all right, what's my, where do I need to go? What's my end state? And then I'll have to figure it out and I can figure it out how to get there, right? Whatever your problem is, I can solve it for you. You want me to start up a jet business? Yeah, I can do that. You want me to create a security business? Sure, not a problem. You want me to figure out business and mergers and acquisitions or be a consultant? Sure, maybe there's a little bit of like a lead time to learn the lingo in the business, but I can do it. I'll figure it out.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  And I think as an SF guy, that's part of the reason why you're selected and some of the training you get is to be that adaptive thinker to any problem you come up to, I'll figure it out, you know? In our business, I've always said to internally, never lead off with no. Your answer should never just be no. If they want to fly into a no name airport in the Dominican to go pick up a member of the wedding party, which is something that I actually had to arrange, okay, we'll figure it out. Not, no, I don't know how we're going to get the lights turned on and make contact with whoever's running the airport. I speak a little bit of Spanish. The guy that I work with was Cuban, like, we'll figure it out. We'll make this airport open, right? And we did. And that was, you know, something that we're like, just another day in the jet business is, you know,

• 11:31Speaker 01

  going to go pick somebody up in the middle of the DR for a wedding. Yeah, it's, I think it's just that Green Beret entrepreneurial mindset. It's very similar when it comes to solving problems and just mission planning.

• 11:42Fran Racioppi?

  Well, you gotta bring people in who are willing to get after it too. And when we talk about building our team, I think you get super spoiled being a Green Beret. And, you know, and whether, and I would even say in a lot of respects, just being in the army.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 11:56Fran Racioppi?

  You know, you're.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  You're with other people that want to be there.

• 11:59Fran Racioppi?

  Exactly.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  It's, it really is a pain managing people and that is part of being a leader. Probably like the, the not sexy part of being a leader is the, the managing employees with the day to day.

• 12:08Fran Racioppi?

  That's the hardest thing we do.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 12:10Fran Racioppi?

  People.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  And motivating people that maybe you're, here's the honest truth. You're not dealing with the same caliber of person that you were as you were a team leader on an ODA. All 12 of us want to be here. All 12 of us want to suffer together. All 12 of us want to, you know, figure out the problem and solve the mission and do great things. That's not always the case in the civilian side. You have great employees and I've experienced great employees and great leaders in the civilian side that want to be there with you, want to motivate you, want to lead you, enable you. And then also having employees that want to be there, want to listen to you, want to be led by you, want to roll their sleeves up. It's just not as, as many of those as, you know, we experienced as, as SF guys or even in the army.

• 12:51Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah. When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Beret's mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us.

• 13:23Fran Racioppi?

  I think that it's critically important to develop your own assessment and selection process. When you start to build your own company, when you start to look for your team, because you want people who have like mindset, maybe different experiences, but like mindset. And if you look at the business evolution and you go through your phases, you've got your startup phase and your growth phase and your kind of sustainment phase. You, what got you here isn't going to get you there.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 13:52Fran Racioppi?

  And always being cognizant of where are we in our business lifecycle? Where are our challenges? What is the type of person that I need to come in at the right time? Because sometimes you can take people in and you're just not ready for them.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:05Fran Racioppi?

  You know, but always assessing that and understanding who's, just like we did in special forces. When, when is the right tool? What is the right weapon system for this application?

• 14:15Speaker 01

  And you know, sometimes, sometimes the people that help you start the business aren't the people that are, should be there to help you run and continue the business, right? You know, something that we did as a company in the very beginning in the startup phase, you know, when we had to go hire pilots for clients. In the beginning, it was really just like one interview and great, like you're hired. But as we continue to grow, we realized and falling back on some of my, my military experiences, we created a board system and gates, right? Of the HR lady will have the initial conversation with them and reach out. Then that's one gate, you know, all right, you pass, you pass her kind of inspection. Then now you go to like a pilot panel and it'll either be myself and the chief pilot and maybe another member of the executive team and hear it out.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  And once we bless off on him, then we'll take them to finally like, we'll, we'll put maybe the best three candidates that we found in front of the actual client and then have the discussion of like who they like and who we like and make it more of a formalized process. So yeah, it's a, once again, the entrepreneurial mindset of as an SF guy, you know, in the beginning, it's kind of just patching it together. But eventually there comes a time where you need to standardize everything and have SOPs. Everyone understands, you know, I'm going to use a business term, KPIs. We just call it kind of like task and purpose, you know, end state. So yeah, once again, very, very similar, combining the two.

• 15:35Fran Racioppi?

  But when you talk about managing the operation, there's no better people to be able to do it. And that's one of the things that we've looked at is, all right, if I can take somebody into the organization who generally understands, how do you build operating procedures? How do you implement it? How do you hold people accountable? You know, are all things that are transferable from your time, whether in, in the army, in the military, you know, in the special forces teams? Because you don't need everyone to be an accountant.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:03Fran Racioppi?

  You know, you don't need someone's command and understand, well, this is how we do marketing and this is how we write a business plan. Like, you know, look, we can Google some of that stuff to be quite honest with you.

• 16:10Speaker 01

  Nowadays, it's called chat GPT.

• 16:12Fran Racioppi?

  Right, yeah.

• 16:14Fran Racioppi?

  But what we've got to be able to do is how do you task organize? How do you actually understand? How do you build a process that's repeatable?

• 16:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:22Fran Racioppi?

  That's scalable, where you can bring people into that process and they can quickly come up to speed. And so working through those challenges is all things that you learn when you're sitting in front of an indigenous force on the other side of the world, trying to figure out, how am I going to teach this person how to shoot and do basic combat lifesaver tasks?

• 16:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, it's like being in Afghanistan and trying to train the security force, but also understanding that, all right, you know, maybe some people should be responsible for this task and some people are responsible for this task. Just like how we are as an ODA, you have your, you know, your alpha, your 180, your fox, your bravo, your trolley, your delta. And understanding like everyone, everyone has a certain task. But at the end of the day, everyone is conducting themselves and conducting the operation and doing their tasks in order to support the main effort, right? The commander's intent, right? And that really just goes back to knowing how to write a mission, proper mission and statement, proper commander's intent. In the business world, that's just called your business plan, right? And understanding that everybody understands the business plan, the company mission statements and how we're going to get there.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  And it's up to the leader to every day reinforce that. Every day live that, every day to show that and every day ensure that every member of the company knows this is a mission statement, this is the kind of the commander's intent. And this is where we want to go as a company, whether that's an aircraft company or a security company, right?

• 17:41Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah. Well, that mission and the values becomes the foundation.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah.

• 17:45Fran Racioppi?

  You know, once you have everyone aligned to that, now it's easier to start to make progress and then build the accountability, ownership and then empower others.

• 17:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:54Fran Racioppi?

  To go out there and do. I think one of the big things that I've had to learn, especially as we've scaled, I mean, a year ago, it was me and one dude.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:03Fran Racioppi?

  And we've got like nine people now who work for us every, every given day. And, you know, that's been hard for me as the founder to relinquish certain things.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 18:14Fran Racioppi?

  And understand that we might actually take a step back here while I have to invest in bringing people up to speed, training them, dedicating time that I might not have.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:25Fran Racioppi?

  Necessarily, but am I willing to and take a small step back to take a big step forward as we bring people up to speed?

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Well, there is the, that's the strategic vision of a, right? As a leader of like, all right, maybe I have to push pause on. Business development and bringing in new clients and I can still work on the day to day and I'm also going to train who I think is going to come up and relieve me in that position. Once they're up to speed, then we can push the gas pedal again and try and bring in more clients because I can handle, you know, you can now handle more business development and meeting prospects and potential clients because you know, and you have, you're very comfortable and you can sleep well at night knowing that the guy that you brought in to help replace you for the day to day, he's kind of got it, right? And I remember the same thing for us at, when we started Pamjets was, I mean, it was

• 19:14Speaker 01

  like four of us just in this tiny little room that we were basically leveraging from another charter company to allow us to use the room. And it was like, all right, who do we call? You know, like, what do we do? Who do we reach out to with a jet? And once we started to bring planes on and we had to slowly build up the team, not only was I trying to bring in new business and new business development, but I was also, you know, doing like typing up itineraries and crew reading flight plans, right? Of like making sure this was good before it gets blasted off to the chief of staff or the executive assistant of whoever. Now eventually the right thing is as a company, you grow and you can scale and you know, at the end of the day, the president of the company probably shouldn't be doing that. You know, something's wrong. He should know about it, absolutely, and should know what right looks like, but should he

• 19:58Speaker 01

  be constantly writing the flight plans and the itineraries and emailing the executive assistants? Probably not. Something's definitely wrong there, right? It's the delegation piece that we know from the military.

• 20:07Fran Racioppi?

  Well, if it makes you feel better, I spent the summer digging holes to run conduit to pull cables.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Well, you're still in the growth phase, right? You're still in the growth phase.

• 20:15Fran Racioppi?

  While on the phone talking about RFPs and business development and directing how we're going to go after hits while I'm pouring concrete into a hole and putting buckets of water on it so that it's a little slimmer. So I totally get it. All right. So the game's going to kick off here in a couple of hours.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:34Fran Racioppi?

  We could have more of these, we should have more of these business classes, but from, for sure, Ben, it could be, it could be good.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  I should start charging.

• 20:40Fran Racioppi?

  This is a YouTube endeavor. But the game's going to kick off here in a couple of hours. We had, we were out at practice. You know, this team, I think is a lot different than the team last year, but when you look at the character of the guys who are here, you know, what are you seeing?

• 20:56Speaker 01

  Well, I think that the, the character of the guys this year is the same as last year of guys just that love playing the game of lacrosse, wanted to come together and be part of this amazing event. I will say maybe the caliber and the quality of the player that we have this year is a little bit higher than last year. And part of that too, is I think that we just had more time to recruit and guys after last year, it was bad taste in their mouth losing nine, seven, like nobody wants to lose, I don't want to lose to Navy, I hate Navy. I obviously don't want to lose to the SEALs, you know? But I think that they, they took that, they remember that sting of getting punched in the face and losing nine, seven. And I know the guys are playing back at brag and a lot more serious just because they had the time to prepare.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  And then I know that we did a very good job of reaching out and having the ability to do more of, I think of a formal recruiting process of who played lacrosse. I was so surprised at how many lacrosse players we have in the special forces regiment after the fact of people reaching, oh my God, I played college, how do I play next year? You know? So I'm really excited to see how we do this year versus squids. And I have good, high hopes for us. I think that we're a little bit younger, which is always great. We're quick and we like to move the ball in transition, just from what I saw in practice. And I mean, we just really moved the ball well. So I think we're going to have a really good showing today.

• 22:15Fran Racioppi?

  I agree with you. The feel, the feel, I told Mike Rabel, the PLL founder, I had a chance to sit down with him a little bit ago.

• 22:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:22Fran Racioppi?

  And I said, they feel loose.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:25Fran Racioppi?

  Like last year, there was a lot of tension there. It was nervousness. This year, it's like, we got a job to do, let's go.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I think the good thing too is that there are a lot of veterans from last year, from last year's team on this year's team. So being in like the hubbub of, you know, the PLL and playing in the big stadium, which is amazing. I mean, I remember that in college, playing in some of the big games and you can get caught up in the crowd. It's as you get more used to it and you become a seasoned player, it's just background noise and you're able to kind of tune it out and just focus on the game and, you know, the controllables, you know, putting out maximum effort, controlling the things I can control and, you know, just playing balls to the wall. Like those are things you can control and not focusing so much on the crowd and the noise and just the spectacle of all of it, right?

• 23:10Fran Racioppi?

  Well, you're going to be out there on the sidelines, you're going to be helping out the coaching staff for this game. So we're going to let you get on your way, but I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me. It's always awesome to catch up, get your insight. We got a lot, like we said, a whole generation of guys who are looking at that transition pipeline. And if we can do anything to support them, you know, maybe a sit down for every little bit and sharing some insight that, you know, we might have through some, through some of the struggles that we continue to go through on a daily basis.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, man. I mean, I would love to do something like that with you. It'd be great for us to do maybe like a round table or something just for you and I being SF guys and starting businesses and running businesses, being able to pass on just some knowledge of, look, I did a lot of stuff and it didn't work, but I did some stuff and it did work and I'll tell you what not to do and what to do. Yeah.

• 23:55Fran Racioppi?

  I'm still doing those both on a daily basis.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Learning every day. I'm still learning every day.

• 24:00Fran Racioppi?

  Awesome, man.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 24:03Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Rychowi. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Extra Threads. Send your comments and inquiries to [email protected]. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel, and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces and their families.

• 24:48Fran Racioppi?

  Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.