This episode of On Point features West Point graduate and technology entrepreneur, Ben Faw. As co-founder of AdVon commerce, Ben helps the company to harness proprietary software to create value in e-commerce. He has expertise in consumer internet with a focus on tech, e-commerce, and media.
This episode of On Point features West Point graduate and technology entrepreneur, Ben Faw. As co-founder of AdVon commerce, Ben helps the company to harness proprietary software to create value in e-commerce. He has expertise in consumer internet with a focus on tech, e-commerce, and media.
Prior to AdVon, Ben served as a platoon leader and executive officer in the 25th infantry and was Co-Founder at BestReviews. Ben has been published by the Harvard Business Review, CNN, BusinessInsider, and many more.
In this episode, Ben talks about his journey to West Point, experiences in his military career, and following his interest in the business world. He provides some blunt advice on what it’s like being an entrepreneur, and shares insight about the importance of having a team around you that you can go to war with, learning and growing in everything you do.
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"At the end of the day, it takes a different form factor right? In the business world you're not in a uniform. But, I will tell you, if you consistently show up at the right places and you consistently show up early and you're consistently hyper prepared, you will probably succeed in whatever you put your mind to in the private sector and with your transition and everything else." - Ben Faw
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(01:07) Interest in military and business
(01:49) What led to West Point
(02:48) Focusing on economics studies
(04:00) Mentors
(05:35) AAR Segment and postgrad life
(06:58) Post grad journey
(09:10) Career path and entrepreneurship
(12:15) LinkedIn Experience and concept of sales
(14:51) SitRep - AdVon Commerce
(16:56) Getting back to entrepreneurship
(18:50) Building teams
(23:25) Future of AdVon
(26:00) SOP - Help along the journey
(29:20) Habits for success
(31:55) Giving Back - Advice for younger vets interested in starting a business
(34:55) Parting Advice
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West Point Association of Graduates
[00:00:00] Narrator: This episode of on-point features, west point graduate and technology entrepreneur, Ben Faw. As co-founder of AdVon commerce. Ben helps the company to harness proprietary software to create value in e-commerce. He has expertise in consumer internet with a focus on tech e-commerce and media. The former platoon leader and executive officer, and the 25th infantry talks about his journey to Westpoint experiences in his military career, and following his interest in the business world. He provides some blunt advice on what it's like being an entrepreneur.
[00:00:38] Tim Hsia: Welcome to OnPoint. I'm Tim Shaw, class of 2004,
[00:00:42] Lance Dietz: and I'm Lance Dietz class of 2008.
[00:00:45] Tim Hsia: And today we are joined by a very special guest Ben Faw class of 2007. Ben, how are you?
[00:00:51] Ben Faw: Great. Thank you, Tim. Thanks Lance. Excited to be here.
[00:00:54] Tim Hsia: So we're going to go through a bunch of different topics, but first I want to get to how you first became [00:01:00] interested in the military and then business.
[00:01:02] Ben Faw: Yeah. So I think for me, Tim, the interest in the military I'll blame on reading too many books as a, as a young person in particularly probably age like four to 10, when there's still the ability to build impressions and then the interest in business. Similarly, I was actually selling some bottle caps when I was about four or five, you know, just the idea of creating value, engaging with people, commerce.
[00:01:27] Ben Faw: Those things were, were intriguing to me and I got that taste and, uh, found it enjoyable. And what led you to west point? Yeah, so I think for that one, it was really a combination of things. At the time, you know, clearly a lot of the books I read were about military history, for whatever reason, those were books I got into.
[00:01:49] Ben Faw: And a lot of those people, whether it be Eisenhower and MacArthur patent had gone to west point. So that was one, I think, thread that kind of planted those seeds. [00:02:00] Another thread was, you know, coming from a place where there was a lot of scarcity, the idea of free college and not understanding anything about financial aid, knowing you actually got paid to go.
[00:02:11] Ben Faw: There was certainly a factor. And then the idea of service being a part of something bigger than myself, the idea of learning something about leadership. I think each of those threads was interwoven in the final decision for me to kind of make that the only place that I applied to in me was my first choice.
[00:02:26] Ben Faw: Um, as I was kind of going through the, those processes and
[00:02:30] Tim Hsia: at west point you studied econ. What made you decide to focus on econ
[00:02:35] Ben Faw: closest thing to business? I mean, at the time, I think it was about the closest Tim, but that's a really good question. I did look at a couple of other things. Um, for me, I think it was the thread, the being close to business.
[00:02:48] Ben Faw: The, um, the kind of track of that particular program that the whole social sciences program had just a good track of putting people into good, both military [00:03:00] careers, as well as kind of private sector careers from, from what I could tell. And I kind of had this view that I would either, um, and this gets into some other things we may cover later, but I kind of have this view of either going into.
[00:03:12] Ben Faw: Uh, longer-term military career. I'm probably getting out at the five-year market and felt like econ would be good positioning for either pathway. That was kind of the, the big decision. And I actually enjoyed like, particularly courses around finance and economic growth. I thought that stuff was frankly very interesting.
[00:03:28] Ben Faw: And still it's still funded. During
[00:03:31] Lance Dietz: your time at west point, was there a particular professor or instructor either in econ or I guess otherwise that you got to know well, became a mentor influenced you and kind of what you did after school or even, um, like
[00:03:44] Ben Faw: at school as well? No. I had a few professors that I was, I certainly respected and learned a lot from, I wouldn't say that anyone in particular have this like hugely outlandish impact or influence on, on decisions I made.
[00:03:59] Ben Faw: Either there [00:04:00] or later in terms of the kind of academic faculty that taught me, I liked Amador. Garate quite a bit. He was my economic growth professor civilian, and then I like Spencer , who was my advisor for like, uh, econ. And he was involved with the social forum and he's back there now. I think there's an academy professor and there was a guy named Thaddeus Underwood who taught maybe Mac.
[00:04:23] Ben Faw: It was actually very cool as well. I've kept in some touch with, but, um, not a lot of other professors on the other hand, Dean Newman, who was a bit of a controversial figure to some while, while I was there, that you may recall, Lance was the, um, special forces branch representative, um, for my yearling, I think plebe healing and junior year, he was, uh, incredibly infantry.
[00:04:50] Ben Faw: An incredible encourager and supporter of kind of all my pursuits. And I, I still just think the world of him and who knows if I would have had the successes, um, [00:05:00] even remained at west point without some of the different steps. He took to be a real encourager and supporter and advocate for me,
[00:05:07] Tim Hsia: let's get into our first segment AR or for our non-military listeners after action review.
[00:05:13] Tim Hsia: Then where was your head at, in regards to post-grad life? Did you know what you wanted to do? The
[00:05:18] Ben Faw: great question, Tim. I knew I was going to the army because that was a hundred percent slated on you. I mean, I branched infantry, which made sense and was where I wanted to be. And I was excited about that. I think if you'd asked me upon graduation, what do you is going to happen?
[00:05:32] Ben Faw: It would have been well, and I'd done selection for special forces as a cadet. My view was go back into that community and, um, likely, you know, at least give, give it my best shot to, to make it. Cohort of people in terms of kind of the special forces world, and then, you know, at least try to get a slot for, for the long walk and, and pursue that path.
[00:05:54] Ben Faw: If it works, you know, from a health injury and performance perspective. If, if that. [00:06:00] You know it playing out. I think that the default amount was always back into something in business. Having had done some things in business, in high school and through my childhood. So I was kind of the, the two paths for me, it was, was always a question of no one serves in the army, you know, forever.
[00:06:17] Ben Faw: Right. Everyone has a retirement date or, or you pass while in service or whatever it might be. So I think for me, it was always business will be a part of this story at some point, is it five years, 10 years, 20 years. I didn't know at the time
[00:06:30] Tim Hsia: and then walk the listeners through your post-grad journey.
[00:06:32] Tim Hsia: And how did you get to where you are today?
[00:06:35] Ben Faw: Thanks Tim. It's been a rather wonky, strange ride that I'm still not sure completely connects on a perfect thread, but maybe in like 50 years, I'll look back and say it does. But the, the, the short version is, you know, there've been trees, schools, ranger, school airborne school did a year in Northern Iraq.
[00:06:53] Ben Faw: Um, it was in Hawaii with 25th, went to the army Corps of engineers. As a generalization ended up, I was [00:07:00] going to transition. Now I'd saved up a bunch of days of bleach did an internship in investment banking, summer 2011 at UBS. Don't really recommend for everyone to use their leave for a 90 hour workweek that Lance is familiar with, but it worked for me that helped me probably in a big way, overcome, uh, well sub 4.0 GPA at west point to still get into some what I consider to be very fortunate slots of business schools.
[00:07:26] Ben Faw: But I actually worked at Tesla motors between that final army. After UBS. And before going to Harvard business school for business school, um, internet LinkedIn went back full-time to LinkedIn on the side, was working on this project. Best reviews that we were working on is, um, last semester of business school went full-time with that.
[00:07:46] Ben Faw: We then sold that to Tribune publishing, which was super fortunate because we were bootstrapped and didn't have venture capital dilution moved to an advisory role there that was in 2019 started, um, and, and have built out this, this company here [00:08:00] at Von calmer. And then we actually sold the remainder in the kind of final transaction for best reviews.
[00:08:06] Ben Faw: Given we had just sold a portion initially, and that all wrapped up late 2020. Um, and so it's been quite an interesting kind of path, but I find founding something and trying to grow it from relatively nothing to something is a very interesting and, um, unique, like.
[00:08:27] Tim Hsia: I want to drill down or peel the onion on a few of what you said.
[00:08:31] Tim Hsia: It seems like you went from big, big company all the way to start your own company, army UBS, Tesla, best reviews. Advani. Did you plan it that way or is that just how, like, you kind of gradually realized that I'm an entrepreneur and this is what.
[00:08:49] Ben Faw: I really did think I was an entrepreneur, but at the same time at business school, I learned a lot of how much, I didn't know which I continue to find.
[00:08:57] Ben Faw: At least I think you and I, both Tim fund every [00:09:00] incremental day, month, year, and work in an industry is really just an opportunity to better become acquainted with the fact that you don't know anything about anything. And, um, it's incredibly humbling, uh, in general, but what I think I took away from business school is, or one of, uh, of many hundreds of takeaways was the idea that like, thinking that I've got this great idea in my head, and I know enough about an industry and all these things to go start something and succeed.
[00:09:27] Ben Faw: Is incredibly low probability. I don't know anything about anything. So this best reviews thing, maybe it goes somewhere. Maybe it doesn't, but the timing was wonky. I'd already signed with LinkedIn, but 10, we were getting some traction and look, I probably didn't have the confidence in my own abilities to start something maybe that was accurate or maybe there was a competence, confidence, disconnect.
[00:09:48] Ben Faw: I don't know. I would say I would love to have been able to start something out of business school and have gone. Full-time. And if I'd done some of the best reviews probably would have been for two witches from a, um, a lot of levels, but [00:10:00] learned a ton of things. And actually understood something, some tiny fraction of something about digital marketing, which before I knew effectively, nothing about, and a little bit about lead generation conversion optimization, these things that I knew, nothing about coming into to business school and business school didn't teach me those technical skills, but I think taught me a lot of how to leverage them.
[00:10:22] Ben Faw: And so for me, LinkedIn was actually a great stepping stone to be then comfortable. Best views had gotten enough traction my level on the risk profile factors in here, Tim. And I think you think about this a lot too. Like for those that aren't super familiar, there's this thing called VIX, which is effective as idea of volatility and in black Shoals, which thinks about where an auction should price.
[00:10:42] Ben Faw: If an option has no volatility, it has no. And if it has massive volatility has massive value. And I think what I've been trying to do in real simple terms is get as far out on the risk curve, into the most volatile place I can possibly go because your expected return in [00:11:00] theory over time is highest there.
[00:11:02] Ben Faw: And I think the money thing is what people often think about. And they're missing the big picture, which is learnings, growth, friendships. Just like a, if you'd want it to do some, you know, really, really soft undergraduate program and some really, really soft version of RTC, guess what? You're not going to walk away the same level of friendship and camaraderie because you haven't done anything hard, but if you seek out the absolute hardest possible thing, even if you fail at it, you've tried.
[00:11:29] Ben Faw: And if you can do it with great people, you're probably going to walk away with some amazing friendships on.
[00:11:36] Tim Hsia: Looking at your LinkedIn background and through conversations with you over the years, it feels like at LinkedIn, you also picked up not just some knowledge around industry, but, uh, potentially sales.
[00:11:47] Tim Hsia: I know that a lot of veterans, including myself when we're in the military, or even when we're at west point, sales is a dirty word. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on just the whole concept of sales and learning about it.
[00:11:58] Ben Faw: Great point, Tim. I [00:12:00] came into LinkedIn. I think with some possibly God given natural ability as sales, but no formal training, no formal experience.
[00:12:09] Ben Faw: Yeah. Selling a bottle cap as a kid or a gourd counts for something, but it's not much. And, um, when you don't fully understand the product, you have no business selling it. Well, I learned the product, um, that I had at LinkedIn and had some incredible people around me, but there were probably. 20 or 30 people who were just incredibly helpful LinkedIn and helping me learn the ecosystem, the product, and how to tell a story.
[00:12:32] Ben Faw: And a credible, also a concise way, but the learnings there and just that company and platform were amazing to me. I just can't say enough nice things about them. And I would say coming from Tesla, even though it wasn't in sales, there was tech and supply chain. It did help as well with getting out of a military cultural mindset because it's such a different culture and into a business.
[00:12:51] Ben Faw: And sales mindset and, and yeah, I would say, look, sales for me, growing up was like, you, people would use cars with like, you know, that car has been through a flood [00:13:00] and you don't know about it and they know about it. And it's like all this information disconnect. I think sales have sophisticated technology and software products, and even some of the advertising products is much different.
[00:13:10] Ben Faw: You're not selling snake oil and selling, you know, sleazy used cars and it's quite technical. If you really are an expert on the product and understand what the offering is, you may have told many, a person we are not a good fit for you. Sorry, but you, you, you shouldn't purchase this product. You shouldn't do this.
[00:13:27] Ben Faw: And those who do it's, this is what this product might be able to do, but you don't make some promise you can't deliver. And I think those things are certainly, well, I think sales is incredibly important. No, no product sold itself. It's not the infantry of the business world, but it's not, not the infantry because it is in many ways that that tip of the spear, that without it, you, you know, you're not probably going to have much.
[00:13:52] Ben Faw: Our next
[00:13:52] Lance Dietz: section is the sitrep or the situation report. And the first thing I'd like to ask you just about what you're doing now. So about [00:14:00] ad Von commerce, how did that come to be? And for those that don't know,
[00:14:04] Ben Faw: yeah. We're going to use that most on this. We'll probably have no idea about, and that's great, but the highest level that is probably all that most new knows we help businesses, particularly those that are.
[00:14:14] Ben Faw: Um, editorial content grow commerce revenue streams, and, and the that's the simple and important version of takeaway. I think, to back up on why it came about, you know, we built best reviews and along the way, realized, wait, all of these publications are falling short when it comes to what they could do in, in commerce.
[00:14:33] Ben Faw: And we partnered with some, we clearly sold the one and, um, learned a ton along the way. And realized, wait a minute, I can probably start something that leverages some of these lessons. And so I guess if we go back a little bit, I was saying how I learned how little I knew along the way of learning, how little I knew.
[00:14:51] Ben Faw: I learned that other people knew even less. And if I can share some of the like one or 2% knowledge I have of the a hundred percent about kind of [00:15:00] editorial, calm content needs. Then, and other people are at 0.1% or even zero. There's actually a value prop there where, where I can, um, build tools, products, software services, that can actually be a value add.
[00:15:14] Ben Faw: And it's kinda cool to, you know, the, the world of kind of digital content and in journalism is under intense pressure and headwinds. And, and if you think of a lot of work in, in terms of the summer boat thing, a lot of the work we've done, we have. Directly impacted quality, independent journalism, being able to continue to exist.
[00:15:33] Ben Faw: And so I think for those of us that value, you know, the Republic or the democracy, depending on how you think about it, those, um, those are things that are important. Um, I certainly don't think many would view, um, some, the other countries as truly having an independent press and we have a whole lot more people in PR than journalism today.
[00:15:52] Ben Faw: But those that are in journalism, we need some of those to remain. I believe in like a few years
[00:15:56] Lance Dietz: ago. Uh, chatting, you were kind of [00:16:00] yet I think to start add on, but we're doing and, and still are, I think doing some advisory work for various companies, I'm curious, like what led you to hop back into the founder boat?
[00:16:11] Lance Dietz: You, I guess, touched on this a bit earlier, but versus staying in advisor and growing that sort of business. How did you, um, find your way back into starting from
[00:16:21] Ben Faw: the starting line? I've just now probably actually fallen in love with the process. Um, for, for those that don't know him in Tim does the, the world of entrepreneurship is, is generally, um, kind of getting up in the morning.
[00:16:34] Ben Faw: I personally like to do exercise first every single day, no matter what, and then getting ready to get punched. And you just don't know where, right. Is it. Is it like right in the stomach? Is it coming at you? The shins? I don't know, but like, you're going to get punched as a, as an aggressive entrepreneur. I would say almost every single day.
[00:16:54] Ben Faw: And by that, I mean seven days a week, not five. I didn't truly love it. I enjoyed it. [00:17:00] I learned a lot from it. I gained from it, but I think, um, as I advised a bunch of companies, I realized I'd actually prefer to be the one getting punched rather than watching you get. And that's not to say that's right.
[00:17:12] Ben Faw: For most people actually advise nearly everyone to avoid entrepreneurship at all costs because it is an incredibly uncertain, painful, and, um, you know, just an incredibly challenging and unlikely way to, to succeed or spend time. If at some point in time, you can fall in love with the process. And the process is generally speaking pain.
[00:17:35] Ben Faw: I think that it may be the, a place worth spending a little bit of time. And I just, the advisory stuff, I still do some I'm very picky with the projects I take on, but I just, I want to be in the fright. There's an infantry coming through, I
[00:17:50] Lance Dietz: think. So I'd like to ask you next about the team and add bond. So.
[00:17:56] Lance Dietz: Uh, very few times. Do you really get to pick [00:18:00] those you work with, I know we didn't in the military, LinkedIn, you didn't maybe a bit of best reviews, but very curious to hear like, kind of how, as the founder you went about building this team or thinking about this team, which I think you're still building, but kind of how you're approaching.
[00:18:16] Ben Faw: You know, what I saw at best reviews is one higher where you're like, you know what, we're going to kind of make an exception. This person's like a little bit toxic, but they're like, you know, credentialed or their resumes really strong. Or we think it'll increase enterprise value or wrong. 100% wrong. 100% of the time cancer as we can see from like humans.
[00:18:40] Ben Faw: Right? You don't need. Cancer and 7,000 places to kill you one place and just give it time. It'll spread, it'll grow, it'll kill you. It'll just kill you. You know, we learned these things and, and I've made infinitely different mistakes and more mistakes and the same mistakes again on a lot of places. But [00:19:00] I think generally speaking, we've avoided cancer at Advani and even like with the early.
[00:19:06] Ben Faw: You know, signs of it. We, we were incredibly proactive to prevent that. And again, back to LinkedIn, they had a rule in the sales org. We will not hire cancerous people and I'll give a lot of credit to, um, uh, Chicago. And you might know, um, who used to run the sales or who had instituted that. So for, for those who get into those seats and you get so fortunate, Lance, to your point, that you can pick the team, you go to war with, or go into the, you go to market motion with which might be.
[00:19:35] Ben Faw: To pick the people that you want to be with. Right. Pick the people you're going to learn from you're going to teach them. They want to grow. They want to learn. If not, it's not worth it. Even if the numbers are good, because a toxic cancerous person can, can make you not want to come to the office. And that's no matter how much money you're making, it's, it's not going to be, um, fulfilling and in, in my, in my limited experiences.
[00:19:56] Ben Faw: And so, uh, yeah, I, I think a ton about who we're [00:20:00] selecting. Who I'm spending my time with. I think more about it probably every day than I did the day before. Hopefully everyone gets a chance at some point to, to pick, to pick these people. And then I would say the challenge and the thing we have to be honest with yourself as the business, you start, if you are so fortunate to start one, and if it succeeds at.
[00:20:16] Ben Faw: Not everyone's going to grow at the same pace or into the roles of the future. So I feel super fortunate. My co-founder is ironically one of, um, Tim Shaw, um, young cadets when it was a, I believe Lieutenant Shaw leading, uh, or cadet, Lieutenant Shaw, leading a platoon at. Um, whose still lives just to give Tim even more props.
[00:20:39] Ben Faw: Cause they'll never do it for himself. My co-founders still lives, but Tim Shaw has them, which was every night before you go to bed, drink glass of water every morning, before you start anything exercise or whatever you drink, another glass of water. And, um, this guy lives, but, uh, everyday still. Um, but, but the cool thing for me is I've worked with.[00:21:00]
[00:21:00] Ben Faw: My co-founder actually trained together for selection for special forces. We attended at Bragg together. And so we'd actually known each other almost 15 years when we started this. Had we been like hanging out every day? That whole time? No, but there's a bond for. For all of us that have been through these sorts of experiences, whether it be ranger school or whatever, that's incredibly helpful.
[00:21:23] Ben Faw: And then just aligning on kind of values and stuff. And, you know, you could ask him, there was some tests I put him through. Um, and of course he put me through tests as well to kind of understand. You know, where are you going to break? What's going to break you. What's important. What do you value? Do you want to work a hundred hours a week?
[00:21:40] Ben Faw: Do you want to work all day Saturday? Do you, what do you do that when there's emergency? Do you do it under no circumstances? What are these red lines? And I think we nailed a lot of those things, which once you have that co-founder cohesion, I think you're way more capable of growing a business, succeeding as a business and also creating and growing a culture that you can [00:22:00] actually feel.
[00:22:01] Ben Faw: No, that's
[00:22:02] Lance Dietz: amazing. I'll definitely drink my water before I go to bed tonight. Last question I have for you been looking into the future with Mon very curious, what you want to build, what this becomes, what you hope for the rest of the team in sort of
[00:22:17] Ben Faw: this endeavor. Yeah. I mean, there's a bunch of stuff we can't share for a bunch of reasons what you get, but I can share a couple of things.
[00:22:25] Ben Faw: We've been super fortunate to have been able to give back. And Tim knows a little bit about this, but I think for me building an empire, creating a bunch of kind of, um, money and bank accounts, like relatively minimal. And so I think the thing I'm already most proud of that I know is just in its early innings, is there's a culture of that in the company where in our, in our case, uh, a meaningful percentage of our revenues is, um, is given to a number of different, um, philanthropic causes.
[00:22:56] Ben Faw: Some of which are, are very connected to better. [00:23:00] And all are connected to kind of relieving pain. Uh, so that's something I'm super proud of. I think disability to grow people. We have people who've been with us from the beginning. We have people who, who have grown immensely professionally, personally, financially inside the.
[00:23:17] Ben Faw: Those are things we can always strive for. And, um, we talk about not having, uh, uh, any glass ceilings and I'm not putting people on governors. I think those are things that I want to remain. If I'm fortunate to be involved with a company a long time, I want them to remain though beyond I want them to remain and people who leave the company and go other places and build and start other businesses before.
[00:23:38] Ben Faw: There's nothing more frustrating to me. And it's probably one of my few kind of grapes for the army. Military is if I'm the most talented person I should be promoted, not tomorrow, not next year. Now in these small businesses, when you're starting them in building that DNA, you can actually do that. I think it's unbelievable to allow people to truly be rewarded and [00:24:00] be able to respond to those incentives in a way that encourages and guides performance.
[00:24:04] Ben Faw: And allows for frankly, a little bit of fairness, a little bit of meritocracy and a little bit of economic opportunity for people who wouldn't have it otherwise, because they don't look the right way for the big company. They're, um, they're not brought up in culture the right way. And so they're just screwed in a bunch of these settings changing.
[00:24:21] Ben Faw: That is something that I find phenomenally rewarding. And, um, I don't think there's, you know, we have several people on our team who just wouldn't have had the same success in almost any other.
[00:24:32] Tim Hsia: Let's get into the next segment, the SOP or standard operating procedure, a common theme with this podcast is the adoption of, if you want to go fast, go alone.
[00:24:41] Tim Hsia: If you want to go far, go together, who are some mentors or books or movies, or even Harvard business school, west point classes that have helped you along this journey,
[00:24:51] Ben Faw: all of them have helped in some way or another. And that might sound funny, but I think this stuff, so. If I started calling out [00:25:00] specifics, it would take literally the rest of this podcast and several more days to list them all.
[00:25:04] Ben Faw: But I'll, I'll highlight like just a couple of points that I think were super meaningful. My boss in the army that allowed me to take, you know, basically 90 days of. To do a banking, internship, UBS, like these, these, these little points in time, right? Moments in time where one small decision, I think like reverberates the, for the rest of your life, if not, um, beyond like, if I hadn't done that internship and hadn't had the experience and credibility in that differentiator on my resume and application packet, given my GPA from west point, I don't think I would have necessarily gotten into the business schools that I did.
[00:25:41] Ben Faw: And if I hadn't gone to as business schools, like the whole trajectory. You don't co-found best reviews. You don't have this impact. You're not able to give back. You're not able to help these veterans, um, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I think there's these like snippets in time where opportunities present themselves to people that work really hard.
[00:25:59] Ben Faw: [00:26:00] You just have to seize that moment. Was it fun to use my vacation days to do nothing but grind? But did it get me someplace? I want it to be yes. And I'm grateful for that boss. Ironically, I just saw him a week ago who took that chance and said, Hey, this kid's working hard. He's going to transition. I'm going to help him along the way.
[00:26:17] Ben Faw: So that those people that helped along the way and took a chance. The people at UBS, uh, Chris Abbott actually is a P guy. Now he took a chance and got me into. You have is an air force veteran, not a west point guy, gab it's a one actual time so far in my career that a veterans taking a chance on me in the private sector.
[00:26:34] Ben Faw: And, uh, you know, I just couldn't be more grateful. So there's, there's too many, but I would, I would just say when people offer to help that legitimately can take them up on it, thank him for it over and over. I can't tell you how many times I've think these different people who've been helpful and it's still not.
[00:26:50] Ben Faw: And I'll never make it right, but you can at least make sure you haven't been ungrateful. Um, so for me, it's, it's all of it. It's the professors at each stage. It's the bosses. There's too many [00:27:00] to get specific on, but I would say that I'm, I'm super grateful for them all. And, um, the one idea I would have is as you get into certain parts of the journey, if you're not reflecting on them in some form of journaling, you're probably leaving value on the table.
[00:27:14] Ben Faw: And that I owe to my classmate from west point's father Scott snuck. Who's. Professor at HBS who reminded me to, this is probably a good tactic because I wasn't doing it business school. So I'm grateful for that particular thing. I think I got maybe two X out of HBS, but I would have gotten if I hadn't started that process and been reflecting every day for the vast majority of my time.
[00:27:35] Ben Faw: Now
[00:27:36] Tim Hsia: it's apparent that nobody that's been on the podcast sits down all day and watches, TV. How are you changed? Get better at being a better leader, entrepreneur. What are some of your core habits that have helped make you successful?
[00:27:48] Ben Faw: So I think there's, there's a long list there too, but if I were to break it down into like these really, really simple things, it's, um, the, the kind of body mind spirit concept.
[00:27:57] Ben Faw: Right? So for me, that the body thing that we talked about [00:28:00] earlier, it's like everyday starts with wellness. That doesn't mean you're doing like a a hundred mile marathon, but for me every day, we'll start with exercise. You know, every day we'll start with meditation. So to me, that's kind of body mind and, um, and, and, and some prayers, I think for those that have no religion, that could be irrelevant, but there's some form factor of, of some sort of spirituality that if you want to achieve your maximum potential, let's just say, X is where you, where you are today.
[00:28:28] Ben Faw: You think 10 X might be possible. I don't think you'll find anyone who doesn't have some sort of body mind, spirit integration, practice, et cetera. And it's probably. Um, and I think we can go back quite a ways in history and find that trend line repeats itself, generally speaking, over and over again, and that religion might be, or spirituality might be something that's very unconventional.
[00:28:48] Ben Faw: It might be this, this meditation practice, but there there's something there. I think at least in like 99 K 700. So for me, it's yes. It's morning exercise. It's a meditation. It's generally speaking, healthy, [00:29:00] eating, drinking a lot of water to try to follow Tim Shaw's example. Probably not enough, but I, I get at least my like 10, 15 glasses.
[00:29:07] Ben Faw: Um, it's healthy eating. It's trying to get sleep. It's taking vitamins. I think you have to bring all that stuff to the table. Then being discreet about what you don't do. Just being completely Frank. I don't own a TV. I don't own a microwave. I don't watch TV. I don't follow sports. Generally speaking, I follow the market.
[00:29:23] Ben Faw: Uh, follow-up business. I read business books and, um, I work generally speaking English mostly until I stopped to read different things that are, um, you know, probably somehow connected to, to work in some way or another and then try and get sleep and go do it again and again, and, and just relentlessly push forward.
[00:29:42] Ben Faw: It's not for everyone, but, um, I think that if you want to try to get, you know, from X to 10 X it's, it's probably to your point, it's not watching a lot of. And, um, it's not just like in the sleep hanging out, it's probably called getting really, really focused and then being [00:30:00] absolutely relentless about moving towards, you know, whatever those goals.
[00:30:04] Ben Faw: And as we
[00:30:06] Lance Dietz: near the end of the podcast, the last segment is called giving back. Lets us end on this question essentially, which is core to the on point podcast. Curious if you have any advice for younger veterans, those getting out of the military or those interested in starting their own business someday, what advice you might have.
[00:30:28] Ben Faw: Yeah. I mean, it's the simplest advice you'll probably ever hear, but I think it's still super valuable and you'd be surprised how far it'll get you there. This thing, when I did selection for special forces, um, that was kind of a tweak on a, on an army concept. It was, um, never be late, never be light and always look cool.
[00:30:48] Ben Faw: The tweak, I think is probably. Built off of that concept of right place, right time, right uniform that I think some of us might've heard it at west point in the army. It seems really, really basic at first. [00:31:00] And then when you really start digging in, you realize those are the fundamentals that drive everything and they're actually all that matter.
[00:31:07] Ben Faw: And so at the end of the day, it's, it takes a different form factor, right? In, in a business world. You're not in a uniform, but I will tell you if you consistently show up at the right places, And you consistently show up early and you're consistently hyper prepared. You will probably succeed in whatever you put your mind to and in the private sector and with your transition, everything else, when you show up a little bit late, a little bit, you know, into the concept of being light is a reference to a rucksack being light, right?
[00:31:39] Ben Faw: You show up a little bit on pre. You bring, didn't bring all your gear. Like, you know, you got a big meeting with, um, someone to help with your transition or interview. You didn't really read about the company in advance or seek out through your network, people to prepare you like, right. You're you're not prepared.
[00:31:55] Ben Faw: So, you know, have you really, do you really deserve it? Have you earned it? Probably not. And, um, I think if you [00:32:00] do those three, though in your you're showing up early, you're showing up fully prepared. You're in the right mindset. There's there's a lot that's possible, particularly in a like pretty employee friendly market.
[00:32:11] Ben Faw: Those three traits are vital and they take different form factors that eventually becomes, maybe do want to be an entrepreneur to your point earlier lands. Well guess what the first person in the company is probably you as the founder or co-founder. So these are the things that are going to allow you to succeed.
[00:32:30] Ben Faw: You're gonna have to be able to battle through a lot of non-structured investor. You know, if you don't show up, you don't show up prepared and ready to grind. I don't know many entrepreneurs. Who've had a lot of success who we can't nail those three over and over and over again,
[00:32:45] Lance Dietz: and then wish we had a lot more time.
[00:32:46] Lance Dietz: Unfortunately we don't. Uh, but this has been a fantastic before we let you go
[00:32:53] Ben Faw: one, any
[00:32:54] Lance Dietz: last advice or thoughts for the audience and to, uh, where can people find
[00:32:59] Ben Faw: you if they want to get into. [00:33:00] For you and Lance just, couldn't be more grateful and, um, you know, big fans of, of everything you've done for physio.
[00:33:06] Ben Faw: I said, don't know, my, my first memories of Tim are looking across the battalion at west point at this, you know, gathered, just had a reputation. Um, and then, you know, seeing him next in the, in the, in the business world, when he was at Stanford, it was. Phenomenally exciting to know that some of these people who I never thought I would probably be anywhere near, I could actually hang out with and learn something from staying close within the last really 10 plus years is, um, something I just couldn't be more grateful for it.
[00:33:40] Ben Faw: It's kind of proved to me that the power of the long gray line is very different. Then I think many other, um, experiences, institutions, et cetera. And it's something that you can't put a price tag on. And I think the same as set for Lance, we haven't had as much time together yet, but I'm just super grateful for what you're doing for [00:34:00] this work.
[00:34:00] Ben Faw: And for the other work that you do look, I'm happy to, um, be helpful to people. That have like a very, very specific interest or passion in something right around, you know, the e-commerce meets media intersection. Um, we are hiring and we're very veteran friendly. We have, I think actually maybe more west points percentage wise than almost any other company and kind of the tech startup world that, that I'm aware of at least.
[00:34:25] Ben Faw: And we hope to keep it that way, to the extent we can. Um, but LinkedIn is probably my preferred platform. I'm there. Pretty pretty user-friendly platform for those that are, are not already intimately familiar with it and a minimalist shareholder now, too. It's not, uh, I certainly don't own the company.
[00:34:44] Ben Faw: Yeah. The only, the only thing I, I think would be like parting advice would, um, I think I would say to really anyone, if you really want to do entrepreneur. So be it it's going to most likely be an incredibly hard, but if you, if you don't want to do it, I do think at least, you know, having been [00:35:00] around Silicon valley world part of the time and Tim as well, you can get drug into like, that's the only cool thing to do.
[00:35:05] Ben Faw: And if you're not an entrepreneur, you're not cool and not, not this or not that to do. What's right for you. I think for a lot of people, the corporate path is an incredible path for a lot of people, staying in the military can be an incredible path. And so I, I generally steer a lot of people. Who who are, who are wanting to hear one thing, I kinda tell them something they don't want to hear, which is the army is incredible for like real healthcare, um, that that's fully funded and for, um, job security and things that they're just completely absent when you leave.
[00:35:38] Ben Faw: You know, I, I would also say that the, um, the, the world of like being able to spend time with your family and that sort of thing. Don't underestimate how good the army is or big corporations, right? Like there's something special to be said, if you've got a wife or, or right. Any sort of spouse or partner, whatever they are, you've got this significant person in your life or, or, and, or [00:36:00] kids or family that you really care about.
[00:36:02] Ben Faw: Entrepreneurship is the last place you should go. If those things matter a lot to you for most people, because it's going to be incredibly difficult, that there is no such thing I think is entrepreneurial work-life. You try to integrate them. And I think as most entrepreneurs now, and Tim knows quite well, cause he's not in, you will fail over and over and over again to properly integrate them.
[00:36:24] Ben Faw: Don't like to discourage people, but I do like to be realistic because it's not, it's not helpful to get into something and not going as wide open for those that choose that lonely, um, incredibly painful road. Welcome to the. Awesome. Thanks,
[00:36:38] Lance Dietz: Ben.
[00:36:41] Narrator Thank you for listening to OnPoint. Please take a moment to rate and review the show.Wherever you're listening. It really helps us out. We'll see you in the next episode.[00:37:00]