Episode 90 Transcription

Welcome to Episode 90 of Behind The Mission, a show that sparks conversation with PsychArmor trusted partners and educational experts. 

My name is Duane France, and each week I'll be having conversations with podcast guests that will equip you with tools and resources to effectively engage with and support military service members, Veterans, and their families. You can find the show on your podcast player of choice or by going to www.psycharmor.org/podcast. 

Thanks again for joining us on Behind The Mission. Our work and mission are supported by generous partnerships and sponsors who also believe that education changes lives. This show is brought to you by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem, specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory that's free to individual learners as well as custom training options for organizations. 

On today's episode, I'm having a conversation with Mark Harper, CEO of we are the mighty, a digital publisher entertainment lifestyle company, creating authentic content that celebrates the military community. Mark joined the us air force after commissioning through ROTC. And for most of his air force career was the VO flight commander for the first combat camera squadron, deploying twice for operation Iraqi freedom and operation enduring freedom. After leaving the air force in 2007, mark held numerous marketing and business development positions in the entertainment you can find out more about mark by checking out his bio in our show So let's get into my conversation with him and come back afterwards to talk about some of the key points.

DUANE: Mark, it's great to be able to connect with you and share the work that you've built, that we are the mighty, but before we get into that, it'd be great to hear the journey, from being an air force officer to a leader of one of the leading military media brands, telling the stories though, who.

[00:00:13] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Yeah, that was an interesting transition. So I kind of went into the air force kicking and screaming, and I don't often like to admit that. I had joined the air force, pre nine 11, and it was at the time, a way to, yes, join the military, but it was also to kind of help with paying for college, did ROTC upstate New York at a school called Rensor Polytechnic Institute.

I get into the military. I absolutely fall in love with. so much different than ROTC. and part of the reason why I kind of went in kicking and screaming is because I had done this background in video production, animation, web design. That wasn't really common. I think for what my track would ultimately be, which is a communications officer.

And right as I was entering the military, I had one of the cadre from the detachment, pull me aside and I said, now Lieutenant Harper, you got a gift for storytelling, and I think you think you're not gonna be able to utilize that in the military. It's there. You just gotta look. There's something for everyone in the military.

Just look around, apply yourself and, try not to get in too much trouble. So I go in, I start making,really kind of dumb. Animations for morale videos that was largely just poking fun at senior management. And instead of getting in trouble, I kept getting told to do more of them. So if it was like a big commander's call or if it was a dining in or a dining out, or someone was retiring, we had a two star who was PCSing.

I got, asked to create something for his like fare. dinner and, at one point, this Colonel grabbed me and said, you know, you really should be, doing combat camera. And I said, yeah, that sounds great. That's a, absolutely what I should be doing. What is combat camera? the wheels got put in motion.

And the reason, the reason why I said it, I went in, kicking and scream and then did fall in love with the military is because my initial assignment, this one, where I was making all these videos and animations, was a deployed communications, team lead And, shortly after finishing my tech school going in, the towers went.

And my squadron the very next day, because we were a team that was specifically built for exactly this fly in, build up,build up a base, structure, communication wise, bring everything in the whole squadron. Deployed the very next day, except for a handful of us, me being one of the elses too green.

And I really started to get a taste for what the ops temple was, why we were here. Our mission watching the country galvanize around this moment in time, really drove into me this, love and an fitting infection for the military. Cut back to me going over to combat camera. I went to combat camera deployed a handful of times, got to tell stories from inside the military on a global scale.

Ran some incredible teams in Iraq and then out of, uh, JBU Africa for operation enduring freedom. And it was just getting to the time for, my next PCs when I had to make the decision of continuing on as a communications officer that was now going to go enter back into. What a generalized, officer would do in that, world.

And it was probably go run up a, a computer land somewhere in a base or security, with respect to it. And my other opportunity was just to blindly move to Los Angeles and see if I could parlay this story of, being in the entertainment industry. So I took that opportunity at that unique moment in time when I came out to.

and I kind of bounced around Los Angeles trying to find my way. I had a great story. This compact camera thing really opened up a lot of doors. and ultimately I had some really unique experiences, both on the,the studio side of the entertainment world. I worked for paramount pictures. I worked on, star Trek, transformers and GI Joe on the marketing side.

One fun little fact is I used to run. Optimist Prime's MySpace page. So I'm dating myself right there. But,that was very unique. I moved over to this company called Technicolor. they're a massive post production company, everything to do with, set to screen. So I got to see the entertainment world from.

Studio from postproduction and the kind of the business side of things. And then, David gal started this company called we are the mighty, it hadn't even launched yet. David Gill is a former head of MTV films. He made all the films that I grew up with, jackass franchise, election, varsity blues, Napoleon dynamite, Kings of comedy, and 20 some odd other films.

But he didn't see a place where there was a platform for the military community to tell their stories. And so in 2014, I joined his team right before we flipped the switch on and started the actual website itself. And. Starting from scratch there. Building a brand in entertainment was something that had not happened before.

task and purpose launched two months after we did, military.com had been around, but they weren't really diving into some of the real story driven,Types of opportunities that were out there in our community and the idea and the DNA behind where the mighty was to create an MTV for the military community and to see what could bubble up in terms of what gained popularity on our, website and through our social media.

[00:05:04] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: And to see if we could continue laddering that up into the podcast, TV film, easier said than done. But that was the initial, ethos that kind of built the company. And I'm proud to say that. Now what, eight years later, we have two shows under our belt. We've got two Emmy nominations. We've accumulated, millions of uniques a month and a couple months ago we were acquired by a company called recurrent ventures, and we now make up the largest portfolio of, military, digital audience out there with, we are the mighty task and purpose, the war zone.

And then our two events, the military influencer conference and military spouse Fest. It's been a wild ride and now we're starting a new, we're starting a new chapter.

You know, and I think that's, one thing is you had mentioned, we are the mighty and some of the others, like military.com has always really been the, these are the facts or like just reporting, whereas there's always deeper stories. And that's one thing that I've always valued about.

[00:06:02] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: We are the mighty. That, there is a measure of depth to it, There is a measure of going, deep into the stories. But it's interesting for me really, about how, that choice that you parlayed, the work that you enjoyed doing in the military, into your post military life. that's not typical, not a lot of veterans wanna do that, but you've been able to find some success.

[00:06:22] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Yeah, it's no easy task. Right? In fact, I hid from everyone. I, I could, while I was walking around, Hollywood, after a while, the business side of it didn't really understand why a military veteran could be useful. I was useful a paramount for being a quote unquote, military advisor on those films.

Although transformers didn't really need much military advising. As much as they had Michael bay and the air force behind him making that. but when it came to, other companies and other opportunities I was applying to, it didn't really resonate and it was at a weird timeframe where, um, half the time I would completely leave that off of.

Who I was and what I was doing out there. The other half of the time, I leaned in really hard with combat camera and it was a very interesting, thing that no one had ever really thought about in the military combat photojournalist. And what were they really doing out there? And how is that different from public affairs and how does that feed into the greater mission if they got that far in their thinking, but it was a great conversation starter, but still one, it was hard to translate. And when I met David Gail, it really took everything I had ever been built to do and rolled it into a great opportunity to help him build that brand.

[00:07:25] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: Now I think that's, again,the story of perseverance. All of the ingredients were there, but it took you, like you said, it's been eight years, you know, the better part of a decade just to get from this place of, I want to help service members, veterans and their families tell their stories to where you're at now, sort of on the cusp of some really great things.

moving forward. I is, we've talked about, we are the mighty and the work you're doing, sharing the stories of those who serve. What can you tell us? About we are the mighty as a media organization. and you've mentioned a couple of different things that you do the shows, but obviously also the articles and things like that.

[00:07:58] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Yeah. So primarily, we are, the mighty is,a digital publisher that is 90% of, what we do generating content every day, telling anywhere from nine to 12 stories, Putting and posting these across social media outlets. and it's something that we have found is crucial to helping tie the military community together platforms with which to tell and share our stories.

We've watched unfold online, where we will put, a post up, maybe to take,something from today, the highest ranking us military officer in world war II. Isn't who you think. So that goes online, that goes on Facebook. and then a conversation starts to unfold inside the comments and people pulling each other into the conversation.

Do you remember this? Hey, you remember this? And it's really this kind of amazing thing to watch as our military community. either pulls out some nostalgia or is, talking about ways to help each other. the brand at this point has become,more of a celebration of service.

You touched on that military.com is resource based and news, you know, straight reporting. we filled this gap of entertainment, lifestyle. And just overarching celebration of people who put the uniform on and everyone who supports that, that particular mission and all of our content is grounded inside of that.

and like you said, that. Is absolutely the out front piece, but it's also developing this network, this community, and generating these conversations. the idea of, it may not be who you think. I think you and I talked about, Eric Maki, briefly, he wrote a piece where we are the mighty about how Winnie the poo was created by a veteran, trying to explain PTSD.

and I use, I share that article with people. And it seems like on the surface, it's an entertaining piece, but also it generates a lot of important conversations that can lead to some very real places.

[00:09:49] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Absolutely. And there's no shortage of those. Did you know that this was grounded in some sort of like military, Culture history trivia, et cetera. One of those two shows I had mentioned earlier was called meals, ready to eat, where we went around the world. And we, created this show where the military and food culture overlapped and it aired on, uh,streaming platforms.

And it broadcasted on PBS here in Southern California. And it now streams in every VA across the us. And it's really cool to go into a VA and actually see it up on, on a screen. but it, there were just a lot of like little elements of overlap that you just don't realize in your everyday life that were grounded inside of the military community.

 and I think in, and again, this idea of the efforts that you and your team have of bringing it out front, I'm certain can be very, rewarding for you. Recently we are the mighty partner with the folks, the military influencer conference to build on a national conference for military owned brands.

[00:10:49] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: You talked about that briefly. there has been some success with military influencer conference in the past, and you probably have some big plans for it in the future.

[00:10:57] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Yes. So the brilliant mind behind the military influencer conference is Cortez Riggs, an army veteran. who invited us, Al us being, we are the mighty to the very first,military influencer conference, back in 2017 in Dallas. And it was primarily created as a conference to pick up the Baton as it were from a S a, a, conference called digital military expo.

And it was, USA's way. bringing military publishers in, together to meet each other and to talk about things happening in the space and to learn more about kind of USA as a through line through that. I think each of the sites catered to an audience in some way, shape or form that overlapped.

As that sun Cortez started,the military influencer conference and it was focused on, still connecting these individuals in the space, but also on entrepreneurship. There really wasn't a place for, for those who were maybe outside of like bunker labs, et cetera, to come together and, share, their pain points and what they were working.

And, come up with a way to drive a, a network, maybe talk about employment inside of that education, et cetera. And so Dallas was the first kind of big official misc followed by Orlando 2018. And we started, layering in saying we now, because we acquired the military military conference in late 2020, we started layering and adding some additional structure inside of employment, entrepre.

to social impact and each year we've added an additional layer to it in 2019 in DC, adding education and wellness. The pandemic presented a real challenge. I think to every event out there and Cortez came to us and said, I've found myself trying to recreate. We are the mighty and all the times that are outside of the military, I includer conference keeping a conversation, going building audience, building awareness and continuing to connect people.

[00:12:52] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: And that with the pandemic, he said, this presents an opportunity here for us to come together and do a very strategic partnership. as we move through 20 20, 20, 21, at the very end of last year, we finally, um, ink to deal together where, military influencer Congress would now roll underneath.

We are the mighty and now we're set for our 2022. In Las Vegas, end of October 26, through 29th, major pillars were hitting employment. Whether that's across entrepreneurship or job seekers, education, social impact, we're gonna tackle some benefits in wellness and the way we see this event,growing, Over the next few years is really taking each one of those five tracks and flushing them out even further so that there'll be tenants that touch upon them at every MICC.

And there may be an opportunity to have MICC at a couple different, iterations across the year, and maybe even turn some of them into specific summits. but what we find that we're creating here is a way to bring the community together. I like to say there's something for everyone inside of this.

this particular year, we've got, a veteran comedy night, that's being set up. We've got,our keynote speakers. We've got Rob Regal coming to do a fireside chat. There's a lot of trips that are happening around it. And there's some incredible mill spouse, activations that are happening each evening as well.

[00:14:12] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: In addition to the tracks that are happening during the day. So it's really growing leaps and, bounds. And, what you'll see. there's gonna be, some very specific growth in this over the next few years, as we really take this whole thing to the next level, the dream behind all of it was to create a south by Southwest for the military community.

And this is kind of the beginning of doing exactly that.

[00:14:32] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: You know, I think that's a, obviously a really, great vision, events are awesome. Especially now that we're coming out of the pandemic. But these big events are really good. they're great for inspir. but then is you described how Curtis was saying, then what, What happens the other 361 days of the year, so to speak. and I think that's really where it, when I saw that we are the mighty and the military influencer conference was emerging. I was like, that's a really great idea because you have the big event, but then also you have the ability to ensure that the ripples of that event continues throughout the year.

[00:15:05] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: Absolutely. we find that they all kind of interweave with each other when done. Right. And so we're excited now we're a part of this much larger,organization, this constellation of digital publishers and tying a thread through line through each one of these, it's just gonna help strengthen the community as we.

Continuing to build these tracks out and we continue to deliver, better experiences through the military influencer conference and beyond.

[00:15:29] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: again, I've said it a number of different times, huge fan of what we are the mighty is doing. If folks wanted to find out more about, we are the mighty maybe look at, if they missed the military influencer conference this year, in and plan on attending, future events, how can they find out more about what you're doing?

[00:15:46] mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: We can go to military influencer.com for everything, military influencer conference related. And then, um, we are the mighty.com has a never ending supply of content across many different verticals. And, we will continue to be publishing these great stories, both written and video, for many years to come.

[00:16:04] duane--_11_09-22-2022_164509: That's great. I will make sure that the links to, to both the military influencer and we are the mightier in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, mark.

[00:16:11]mark-harper_1_09-22-2022_154509: That's great. Thanks a lot.

Once again, we would like to thank this week’s sponsor, PsychArmor. PsychArmor is the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory that is free individual learners, as well as custom trading options for organizations. 

I'm glad that we've been able to share the work that mark and we are, the mighty are doing to tell the stories and create community among the military affiliated population. There are so many different ways for veterans to remain connected to military culture after their time in service, either near total, I've continued to work with and for service members and veterans constantly, since my retirement from the army in 2014 and in a tangential way, carrying on what their post-military lives largely separate from their time in the service. One of the first things that I'd like to point out is Mark's own transition story, which I think mirrors that of many who served and not just in today's generation of service. 

Mark talked about how, when he went to Hollywood, sometimes he would highlight his military experiences and other times he would downplay it. Consider how unique that might be when changing careers, if you work for a while in the it industry, and we're looking for a job in sales, you may not necessarily promote your it experience if it wasn't relevant, but you wouldn't downplay 

But mark seemed to have had experiences where highlighting his military service was a hindrance to his goals. As we've often discussed military service has its own unique culture and being a member of an immersed in that culture develops an identity in someone essentially, mark was denying a part of who he was because of the negative attention that it brought and the obstacles that it created towards achieving his goals. 

That's probably something that many veterans and perhaps military spouses experience. A form of discrimination towards them based on their previous affiliation with the military. Whether leaving the military to become a teacher or a minister or any other career 

Many veterans might experience the same situation. Thank you for your service only go so far. And when that sentiment starts to actively work against you, maybe you adapt by not making so much of it. Completely understandable, but also a situation that may be uniquely experienced by the military affiliated population. 

The other thing that I'd like to talk about is we are the Mighty's goal of integrating live events with ongoing engagement to build a sustainable As I mentioned in the conversation, events are great, especially after the COVID 19 pandemic, gatherings are so important to Events can motivate us, inspire us, We can learn from them and they can be catalysts for amazing Way back in episode five, we featured a conversation with doctors, Heidi craft, Ted boner, and Kai hunter on firearms and suicide prevention. I know for a fact that their work together was sparked by an American association of suicidology conference in Denver. 

One because I was there. And two, because a project that I'm particularly proud of was developed after connecting with another colleague, Dr. Shauna Springer at the same conference, or to put it another way, think about a concert or a musical performance, many enjoy going to concerts or performances By their favorite artists. It's a big deal. Something you plan for something you look forward to and experience with the group of like-minded individuals. But you don't get to be a fan by going to one concert. You listen to the artists music before and after the And sustainable community is not built on a single 

I use the analogy of drum beats, a single event. Like the military influencer conference is a huge drum beat. It takes a lot of time to plan, to produce and to put on, but then it's over and everyone goes back to their lives. The reverberation of the drum beat Dies away. 

The only way that drumbeat keeps going is if there is a consistent drum beat and that's the goal of, we are the mighty to have the big event, to motivate the community, to bring them together, to celebrate, inspire, connect, and learn, but then also to have the ongoing engagement that we'll continue that celebration to pair action with the inspiration and to put the knowledge gained to meaningful use. 

I look forward to seeing where we are, the mighty goes in the With the combination of the military influencer conference And their ongoing work. So I hope you found my conversation with mark beneficial. If you enjoyed it, let us know, pop a review in your podcast, player of choice, or send us an email@infoatpsycharmor.org. We would appreciate knowing that you're listening, what you think and what you would like to hear about in future episodes. 

For this week’s PsychArmor Resource of the week , I'd like to share the link to the PsychArmor course Leadership Skills That Drive Impact. This is precise what mark and the team that We Are The Mighty talk about. This course is designed for community leaders who are interested in learning how to use collective impact principles to foster collaboration and increased impact for service members, Veterans, their families, and their caregivers. You can find a link to the resource in our show notes.