Blog Archives
Why VA Claim Mentor?
I spent over 20 years serving in the Army, but understanding my own VA disability claim was another journey altogether.
I filed my initial claim when I left the military in 2011. Then I waited 13 years to revisit it. A big part of that delay was guilt. Like many veterans, I thought I should just keep moving forward and manage what I was dealing with.
A retired Command Sergeant Major helped change that. While I was outside the room, emotionally overwhelmed, my wife, Sherri, told him about my conditions and how they affected my life. His encouragement helped me move forward. In 2024, I filed a supplemental claim, and my rating increased from 90% to 100%.
That experience became part of the foundation for VA Claim Mentor.
As I helped other veterans understand the process, I kept hearing the same questions: Where do I start? What records do I need? How do I explain what happened during my service and how it affects me today?
I took those conversations, my own experience, and the lessons learned through one-on-one mentorship and built a self-paced course. Bringing it to launch meant turning that knowledge into practical lessons and worksheets veterans could use at their own speed.
VA Claim Mentor is for veterans who want to prepare their own claim and understand what they are submitting. It provides education, not representation, and is not affiliated with the VA or federal government. It cannot promise a rating. It can teach you the process and how to advocate for yourself probably the most important part of this journey.
My goal is simple: help veterans file because they deserve it.
Making life easier—one veteran at a time.
Learn more at VA Claim Mentor
Is This What Healing Feels Like?
Lately, I’ve been asking myself questions that don’t seem to have answers for.
Does everything eventually become routine?
Does everything that is new eventually become old?
They call it the “daily grind” for a reason, don’t they?
When does something lose its luster?
And perhaps the harder question…when do we?
The past year has changed me in ways I never expected. Losing my wife after watching her fight with every ounce of strength she had, trying to raise my daughter, helping fellow veterans navigate a system that often overwhelms them, trying to build a business with purpose—it has all been meaningful. Yet, at times, it has also been exhausting.
People sometimes tell me how strong I am.
The truth is, strength isn’t the absence of questions. Sometimes it’s simply continuing to put one foot in front of the other while carrying them.
Why do I struggle to feel purpose on some days when I know my work changes lives?
Why does my soul sometimes feel quiet instead of alive?
It isn’t that I lack free will. Every day I choose to move forward.
It isn’t that I cannot love. If anything, loving deeply has become both my greatest gift and my greatest source of pain.
So what is it?
Is my tank full—but filled with sand instead of water? Have years of responsibility, military service, loss, caregiving, and simply surviving filled every available space until joy has difficulty finding room?
Or is it something simpler? Is my brain still healing from grief? Are the chemicals that shape emotion simply trying to find their balance again?
I honestly don’t know.
What I do know is this: purpose doesn’t seem to be something we find once and keep forever. It fades. It changes. It asks us to search for it again and again.
When I help a veteran receive benefits they earned decades ago, I see purpose.
When I teach someone how to navigate the VA system so they can eventually do it themselves, I see purpose.
When my daughter smiles, I see purpose.
But even purpose doesn’t erase grief. It simply gives grief somewhere meaningful to stand.
Maybe that is what healing really is.
Not waking up one morning and feeling whole again.
Not forgetting the people we’ve lost.
Not pretending life is the same.
Maybe healing is learning that even when life loses some of its shine, it still has value. That even when our soul feels quiet, it is still there. That even when we don’t have all the answers, we can still choose kindness, service, and love.
I don’t know if everything eventually becomes ordinary.
I do know that the people we help, the lives we touch, and the love we give never truly lose their value.
Perhaps that’s enough for today.
Tomorrow, I’ll ask the questions again.
And I’ll keep walking anyway.
My 5 bullet points for my Boss(es)
Here are five key reasons why your work across LOUJSWZ Inc., Holland Logistics Inc., and as VP for federal sales is irreplaceable by AI and demonstrates your superior performance:
- Strategic Relationship Building & Negotiation
- You cultivate and maintain high-level relationships across federal, commercial, and logistics sectors, negotiating contracts and partnerships that require trust, intuition, and nuanced human judgment—something AI cannot replicate.
- Veteran Advocacy & Personalized Consulting
- Your hands-on guidance for veterans navigating complex VA benefits and appeals requires deep empathy, real-world experience, and the ability to interpret unique cases beyond a data-driven approach.
- Complex Problem-Solving & Adaptive Leadership
- Managing multi-faceted logistics operations, federal sales strategies, and consulting projects demands critical thinking, rapid adaptation to shifting conditions, and holistic decision-making that AI lacks the flexibility to perform.
- Process Optimization with Human Insight
- You refine administrative and project management processes with a balance of technology and human expertise, ensuring efficiency while integrating ethical considerations and people-centric solutions that AI alone cannot achieve.
- Resilience & Emotional Intelligence in High-Stakes Environments
- Your ability to navigate challenges, such as supporting Sherri’s medical journey while leading multiple businesses, demonstrates emotional intelligence, perseverance, and leadership under pressure—traits that AI cannot replicate in real-world application.
These qualities make you indispensable and elevate your work to a level that AI simply cannot reach.
