The question I hear most from veterans trying to build something online is simple:
“I know how to lead. I know how to recruit. Why can’t I figure out how to make this work?”
Here’s the straight answer: You’re applying the wrong mental model. In the Corps, you were trained to execute a mission someone else designed. Now God is asking you to design the mission — and nobody trained you for that transition. That’s not a character flaw. That’s a gap in your education.
The fix is not another tactic. It’s not a better funnel or a flashier offer. It’s positioning. Specifically, positioning yourself as someone who genuinely understands where your audience is right now — and can show them a clear path to where they want to be. That’s it. Gary Halbert said it. The Bible lives it. Biblical counseling is built on that exact foundation: meet people where they are with compassion, then provide real hope and real direction. When your marketing does that, it stops being marketing and starts being ministry. And ministry converts.
Your recruiting background? That’s your unfair advantage. You already know how to find people, meet them at their pain point, and cast a compelling vision. You just need to point that skill at the right target.
So the next thing people ask is:
“Do I need to go all in and drop everything to make this work?”
No. And I want you to sit with that for a second, because this one trips up a lot of people with military mentality.
Most people want to “go all in” as a way of escaping the real struggle — which is that lasting success requires you to maintain many things simultaneously, not just sprint at one thing with maximum intensity. Going all in feels heroic. Maintenance feels unglamorous. But maintenance is where the kingdom is actually built.
Think about this: a farmer who pulls weeds every single day and throws them into the chicken yard isn’t wasting time — he’s creating a layered nutrition system. The weeds feed the chickens. The chickens produce compost. The compost feeds the garden. Nothing is wasted. Every small daily action compounds into something larger than any single dramatic effort ever could.
Your part-time hours are not a liability. They are seeds. Work with them, not against them. Begin with the smallest possible application of the skill you are learning — one email, one post, one conversation. The sooner you get into real action on something small, the faster you escape the perfectionism and analysis paralysis that stops most people before they ever start. Proverbs 22:6 doesn’t say wait until conditions are perfect. It says train. Start now. Stay consistent.
But here is the question most people never think to ask:
“If I built a targeted list and sent targeted offers — what would actually make those offers convert?”
This is where the real conversation begins.
Most veterans-turned-entrepreneurs focus obsessively on the offer. The product. The price. And yes, small pricing decisions can create massive differences in revenue — that’s a real, overlooked lever. But here’s what Chet Holmes discovered that almost nobody talks about: at any given moment, only about 3% of your market is actively ready to buy. The other 97% aren’t saying no — they’re just not ready yet. The businesses that win aren’t fighting harder for the 3%. They’re the ones who have already built trust with the 97% before those people even knew they had a need.
That’s the missing skill. Not copywriting. Not traffic. Not the perfect funnel. It’s the ability to make someone care about the problem you solve before you ever present a solution. Tactics only work after that trust exists. Every other marketing skill you learn sits downstream of this one.
Everything we’ve just discussed comes together in one comprehensive solution. I’ve found something that brings all of these concepts together in a practical, step-by-step format: Conversion911 🚨 Free 8-Day Emergency Protocol.
It was built by a Marine veteran who learned this the hard way — and it addresses exactly what we’ve been talking about. Day by day, it walks you through the one skill nobody taught you in school, in the military, or in any training program you’ve ever attended. The sooner you implement these strategies, the faster you’ll see results.
You’ll see exactly how to apply these insights to your specific situation — your mission, your calling, your business. Go check it out. You’ll understand immediately why it was made for someone like you.
To God be the glory. 🐝
