“Veterans, writ large, miss being in the military because of that sense of community and a greater pruprose. In that sense, politics is a perfect fit for veterans: you work hard with a group of people to solve problems, and make a difference and serve your country; the mission statements are perfectly aligned. The thing that I think gets hard for a lot of veterans getting into the political space is that in order to get elected you have to be able to go out and tell a community of people why you're so great and why they should vote for you. Veterans as a group are a little more reserved about that."– Kate Kranz

Kate Kranz is the Director of Women's Initiative at Veterans Campaign, a non-partisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage, mentor and prepare veterans, transitioning service members, and other members of the military community for a "Second Service" in civic and political leadership. She started out at the Naval Academy, and served as a Naval Flight Officer for 11 years. She is finishing up a Masters of Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University, and a Master’s of Administrative Leadership from Oklahoma University.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of the Veteran's Campaign and what they do
• How veterans can work with Veteran's Campaign
• In what ways veterans would enjoy the world of politics and what might be more challenging
• How Kate figured out what she wanted to do after an unexpected transition to a civilian career
• And much, much more…

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QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Related Links

• Kate's company, Veterans Campaign: http://www.veteranscampaign.org/
• Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/
• Homefront Rising - encourages and helps military spouses to run for office
• Service 2 School - free help for any veteran to get into your ideal college or graduate school program
• American Corporate Partners - free mentorship for any veteran pursuing a career in business
• Vets for Diplomacy
• Hill Vets - increasing veteran involvement in government and advocacy
• Vet Tech Trek - VetTechTrek runs immersive recruiting events for veterans and their spouses.

Show Notes

• 2:02 - Kate's background
• 2:52 - An overview of the Veteran's Campaign and what they do
•  3:56 - How veterans can work with Veteran's Campaign
• 6:08 - What Kate's day-to-day life looks like
• 10:40 - In what ways veterans would enjoy the world of politics and what might be more challenging
• 13:43 - Kate's decision to leave the military
• 19:33 - How Kate figured out what she wanted to do after an unexpected transition to a civilian career
• 24:33 - The most surprising aspect of Kate's transition to civilian life
• 30:10 - How people on active duty can start preparing right now for their eventual transition to civilian life
• 33:00 - Final words of wisdom