About this episode
What is your personal brand? In this episode, Head of Field Strategy Kyle Simpson sits down with Eric Stetson of FourBlock, an organization that bridges the divide between the business community and veterans entering the workforce after serving, to discuss how to build your personal brand, authentically connect with people to build your network, and how to overcome objections. Learn more at https://www.fsthrive.com/ and https://fourblock.org/.
Transcript excerpt:
[00:00:00] Kyle Simpson: Welcome to our next FS Thrive episode of the Fireside podcast. I’m Kyle Simpson, Head of Field Strategy at FS Investments. And on today’s episode, I sat down with Eric Stetson, the Director of Engagement and Enrollment at FourBlock, FourBlock Bridges—the divide between the business community and veterans entering the workforce.
[00:00:25] Kyle Simpson: I’m really excited for you to hear today’s conversation because Eric has helped countless veterans prepare for situations that directly translate to your role as financial advisors. Things like developing your authentic brand and cultivating a business network and building high performing teams. We had a wide ranging conversation. Eric is a wealth of knowledge and experiences. We’ll definitely have him back on the podcast. So, we hope you enjoy today’s episode. And here’s Eric.
[00:01:03] Kyle Simpson: So, let’s start with, because I was introduced to you through Bill Mann, who is a colleague of mine at FS. So why don’t you give me your back story because I think I know enough of it to be dangerous, but I’d love to just hear what got you to FourBlock.
[00:01:21] Eric Stetson: Yeah, absolutely. So, grew up in the, outside Philly, in Haverford and I went off to college, Lafayette, and I always knew I wanted to be a leader in the Army. My dad had been in the Navy, older brother was Air Force and so I chose Army and I wanted to lead. So that’s why I went to college to get a college degree so I could be an officer in the Army.
[00:01:42] Eric Stetson: Now I had some interest in biology and science also, and in people and I had traveled as a young boy, and so I think that piqued my interest in people and societies. I ended up majoring in Sociology because the Biology got way too hard, like all the pre-Med stuff, and I loved all the environmental stuff, but I didn’t like the all the pre-Med stuff. And so I switched to Sociology, and Anthropology, which actually I think helped with my career in the service because in the service you traveled to other countries and you want to start with, some existing knowledge. And so served in the Army for a long time. I was an artillery officer, was in for almost a quarter century. And the latter half of my career was really about people development, team development, organizational development and helping people be the best they could be. I was blessed to finish a career, producing officers for our army, at the University of Illinois or ban Cpan, where I finished my career.
[00:02:34] Eric Stetson: And then came back to the Philly area, hometown, and my parents are here and when we got out of the service, I say we, because my wife was married to the service for 16 years plus also, we had a choice. We could stay in Illinois, go back to Arizona or come to Philadelphia. And so, we chose Philadelphia. I thought I have a lot of good connections in the area.
[00:02:54] Kyle Simpson: Is she from Philadelphia?
[00:02:55] Eric Stetson: No, she’s from Phoenix, Arizona.
[00:02:56] Kyle Simpson: Oh, so you compromised on Philadelphia?
[00:02:58] Eric Stetson: We compromised on Philadelphia, yeah.
[00:03:00] Kyle Simpson: Which is what most Philadelphians tend to do is, there’s a, there was a joke I heard when I first moved to Philly, because I grew up in Florida. And when I got up here eight years ago, someone said, yeah, my friend is from the west coast and his wife is from New Jersey. And so, they compromised and moved to Philly and I feel like that’s the story for anybody who’s from Philadelphia is you can leave, but it always brings you back.
