From Chief to "Just" Jaimee: Soul Searching & Taking Your Shot

In this episode of Exit Buddy: Veteran Stories to Guide You, Air Force veteran Jaimee Freeman shares her recent military transition experience—shedding her Chief identity for "just" Jaimee after 28 years of service. Jaimee reveals how she pivoted from linguist to Pentagon event planner, turned down a lucrative job upon transition (not allowing fear to make her rush into something), and used networking, skill-building, and a bold proposal to land her dream SkillBridge internship at National Geographic.

Chapters

• 02:57 Military Beginnings and Linguist Life
• 04:05 Pivot to Event Planning
• 09:12 Insights from an RV Adventure
• 11:24 The Courage to Turn Down a Job
• 13:33 SkillBridge with National Geographic
• 18:06 Shedding "Chief," Becoming Jaimee
• 20:05 Finding Identity and Purpose

Key Takeaways

• Start Soul Searching Early: 3-4 years out from transition, make sure you’re asking yourself questions like, What makes me happy? What do I really want to do? And what do I need to do to get there?
• Prepare for a Shift in Identity: Start practicing who you are outside of your rank before your military exit. Jaimee began signing her emails "Jaimee" while still in uniform because she knew one day she would be out of the service and just Jaimee.
• Say No to Fear: Sometimes fear of uncertainty can make you want to accept a job. Pause and really ask yourself if it’s what you want. Jaimee felt that fear, but courageously stuck to her plan instead of rushing.
• Jaimee’s Three Keys to Success: Build your skills, network, and take your shot!

Follow us for more veteran stories to guide your transition journey, and text this episode to a fellow service member who’s ready to design their next chapter. Until next time, keep taking your shot!

Visit us at https://exitbuddy.buzzsprout.com to learn more about the show.

Have feedback or questions for us? Email us at ashleyjones.creative@gmail.com.

Transcript

Kathleen Smith 00:27
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Exit Buddy: Veteran Stories to Guide You. This is Kathleen, and today I'm flying solo, and I'm thrilled to introduce you to someone that I actually met on LinkedIn, because we were both networking, networking, networking on LinkedIn. And then I thought she would be a really great volunteer at BSides Charm, and she was game. So we have Jaimee Freeman. She is an Air Force veteran of 28 years of service and now exploring a new chapter with National Geographic. Jaimee, welcome to the show.

Jaimee Freeman 01:04
Thank you, Kathleen. Yes, and of course I would. I love that opportunity. And networking, networking, networking. I couldn't say no to helping. It was great, but thank you.

Kathleen Smith 01:15
Yes, and it was great to see your shiny face in a sea of black T-shirts. That's what it was. So take me back to your days growing up on a farm in Arizona that eventually led to your military journey. I understand that you didn't have a TV but you did have a National Geographic subscription and a desire to learn a new language.

Jaimee Freeman 01:41
I did, yes. So I was born in Wilcox, Arizona, a small town of 4,000 people, and I have six siblings, and my dad had a farm. Dad and Mom had a farm, and this was a you-pick farm. We worked on the farm. We had no TV, mainly to keep us on track with farm production, but we did have a subscription to National Geographic, and so we'll talk about how that comes full circle. But during my childhood, I had a lot of interaction with customers that would come to the farm, just a lot of people from different parts of the world. Most of these people lived in Tucson and Phoenix that would come to Wilcox. But I remember a Lebanese family who always came, some Indian families who came. I just got this exposure from different people coming in. And I remember thinking about the Air Force and hearing that I could learn a language, and I was like, yes, I'd love to do that, because I was just curious. I was young, didn't know a lot about the world, and was curious. So that was actually the motivation for joining the Air Force: to learn a language.

Kathleen Smith 02:43
Learn a language. I haven't heard that. I heard see the world, but I haven't heard learn a language. So talk about your linguistic career. Were there any defining moments, and actually, which languages did you learn?

Jaimee Freeman 02:57
So I first learned Vietnamese. I fell in love with it. I started doing some amazing work. I actually had an opportunity to go to Vietnam and look for MIAs with a team. So that was really cool. And then I got out of active duty, and I went into the Air Force Reserve, which I have totally loved, and they gave me the opportunity to learn Arabic. So in my Arabic work, I was able to do a lot of counterterrorism work, a lot of fulfilling work to keep our military members safe around the world. So that was really fulfilling. And then I ended up going to graduate school in Cairo, Egypt, which was also really eye-opening. And I learned a lot. And I was grateful for that opportunity because I was a reservist. So I went over there during my off time of not drilling.

Kathleen Smith 03:44
Wow, sounds like just really great opportunities. So in our pre-call, you sort of talked about making this conscious effort to pivot. So tell me about filling in these sort of gaps in your skill set that led to you having an event planning role at the Pentagon.

Jaimee Freeman 04:05
I interviewed for a position. So I was at the unit level for 20 years of my career. So I interviewed for a Pentagon position with the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. So it was Kaleth Wright at the time, and I interviewed with his exec, and then they brought me into the Pentagon, and I interviewed with him, and he was like, Jaimee, you're hired. And he said, you are going to be one of the execs. And they started talking about the job, and I just kind of piped up. And I said, project management is really my strength. And they said, oh, well, then I think you should be the special events planner. And I was so thankful that, one, I spoke up, and two, that Chief Wright was knowledgeable enough to know, like, this girl has talents and that I'm going to utilize, and I'm not going to stick her into this exec. I'm going to stick her into something that I think she can excel at. And so for the next two years, I planned events, and really that's a lot of project management, and I started thinking about it, especially after COVID. I thought, I do not want to be—I loved intel, but I think I don't want to be working in the future in a SCIF. So how can I pivot my career and use some of my skills and market myself in another way? So that's what I started doing. I started marketing more of my project management, event planning, which led me to another job, which led me to another job, and then finally, my last role. And along the way, I got better at event planning. I got better at project management. So it was a conscious effort in my mind of like, I want to pivot, but then I also need to make sure that my resume is now focused on this new pivot. And that was hard because I was a linguist in intel. I had to just mention that in a resume. I couldn't really create a resume that was linguist focused. I had to create a resume that was events focused, that was project management focused. Through those years, I was able to pivot and say, I'm going to do this because this is what I enjoy.

Kathleen Smith 06:08
And career pivots are very interesting, and I've done several in my career, and it's fascinating that you really do have to rebrand yourself. You really do have to repackage yourself. And kudos to you for doing that during your military career, because a lot of people talk about having to do it after their military career, and pull things out. And so give us an example. It sounds like during COVID, you had to not only do an event, you had to do a virtual event, like many of us had to do. I remember pivoting all of our events to virtual during COVID, and that was very interesting. So there's event planning, and then there's event planning for the first time during a pandemic, virtually for the military. I'm sure there's a variety of your skill sets that you had to draw from.

Jaimee Freeman 07:00
Well, the event that you speak of, the virtual event, was a virtual dinner that we had to plan. And the reason it was—it was the 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year awards for the Air Force. And I don't know how many years they had done the actual dinner, but that had been going on. The award had been going on with sponsorship and/or collaboration of AFA Air Force Association since 1968, I believe. So it was an event every year that was so important to the Air Force because they were recognizing their 12 airmen who had done exceptional things that year. And so I just remember during COVID, one of the team members on the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force staff said, well, what if—I mean, we're gonna have to cancel it. And in my mind, I was like, we can't cancel this. Like, this is something we've done every year. And so I had seen another exec do something small scale on a virtual event, and I thought, we're gonna have to do this virtual dinner over Zoom. And that's what we did. So I had a great team. We shipped meals over to the airmen all around the world. We got the Secretary of the Air Force on, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on. We got the Chief Master Sergeant, Jo Bass, who was hosting it. We got everybody on, and we celebrated these airmen. We even had an intermission with Max Impact. They had recorded like entertainment. Now it wasn't the most ideal—I know a 100% in-person dinner would have been so much more fulfilling, but it was what we had to do. And I was proud of our team for being so creative and actually making that happen. And I think the 12 airmen were thrilled that they got that recognition.

Kathleen Smith 08:42
So let's talk about your military transition, because it was rather recent. It was very fresh in your mind. You had your retirement ceremony in May, and then what you've been sharing all over LinkedIn lately, it was a 31-day RV trip with your family. So first, some highlights from your trip, but also I would assume that this quality family time really sort of impacted the decisions that you were going to make, as far as your transition.

Jaimee Freeman 09:12
It did. Thanks for asking. It's something I love to chat about, because we had so much fun. So yeah, my husband suggested an RV trip around the US. Now, mind you, we didn't own an RV. We didn't know really anything about it. So we started our journey, and we grabbed the kids. It was perfect. It was summer. I was on leave, and we headed up to Connecticut, then Maine, and we went over to New York, then Niagara Falls, then we headed to South Dakota. We dropped the rig because it was so big. And then we headed over to Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. And then we went back and picked up the rig in South Dakota, and came home. And we just saw—we saw six national parks. And it was just such a great time with the family. And I'd known that I value family and time, but while I was on that trip, I read a book called The Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom, and it really talks about how you divide your time and your values. And I think during being on the RV trip, reading this book, realizing like that is my value, my family. So how am I going to live authentically to my values of spending more time with my family? Family and time with my family is definitely a value that I'm going to make sure in retirement I do more of.

Kathleen Smith 10:38
Awesome. So kudos to you on that too. So I understand in your transition timeline that you may have turned down a job offer that would have changed the way that you did your transition. And I wanted you to share a little bit about that, because I know that it is sort of that gut check for a lot of veterans when they're transitioning to take that first offer, to jump at the first thing, because they think it's a great thing. But a statistic I throw out all the time, which has been tried and true, is from the Department of Labor: over 80% of veterans leave their first job out of the military because it was the wrong decision. Tell us a little bit more about the courage to make that call.

Jaimee Freeman 11:24
So this was probably early spring. I got a call from a wonderful friend I know, and for a wonderful company. And she said, hey, Jaimee, I think there's an opportunity for you to do event planning for this company. And the pay was great. I even met and it sounded so exciting. And she's like, we really need you, so you're gonna have to kind of, if you can, maybe accelerate your transition. And for a moment, Kathleen, I thought about it, and I came home and I was like, wow, Joel, like, maybe this opportunity is it? And just like, my husband's great, he just asked me questions. Like, is this really what you want? Are you? How do you feel about accelerating your transition? And actually, Kathleen, the reason I was considering this was because of fear. It was because of fear of saying, I need to take the first thing I get. It's enough money. I'm not going to have enough money, so I need to make sure I get this. And I need to make sure I line everything up perfectly, and maybe even if that means quickly running through things to do it. And I realized that I was actually considering it and kind of thinking that it would be a good idea because of that. So I pulled myself back and said, stick with your plan, Jaimee. Your plan was to—you have it all mapped out. You got your VA, your time with your family this summer, your SkillBridge, which at that time I hadn't really nailed one down. Stick with your plan, and do not let fear of the unknown dictate what job opportunities you're going to take. Because I didn't know that statistic, Kathleen, actually, but I have heard a lot of my friends come from their first job, and like, no, no. I mean, it paid a lot, but I did not like it. I wasn't happy, and I couldn't do it. Like, I've heard that over and over. So for me, it was like, okay, I've learned that. Let me just rewind and think about that a little more.

Kathleen Smith 13:15
So you're currently in SkillBridge, but I had never heard that you could do SkillBridge with National Geographic. So tell us a little bit about SkillBridge with National Geographic, and a little bit more about advice to people pursuing their dream opportunity with SkillBridge.

Jaimee Freeman 13:33
So, well, I'm the first for Nat Geo. I don't think people knew they could do it, and I think that after now that I'm in it, I think that they're going to be more open to other opportunities for other SkillBridge members. But yeah, so I am on the photobook department. So it's an incredible opportunity. I'm learning so much. I love the organization. I love the people that I work with. And so essentially, I'm on the photo design portion of the photobooks. So the books that are like 100 Places You Need to Visit, or Adventures of a Lifetime, the coffee table books, that's the department I'm in. It's just been wonderful. I'm soaking it all in. I grab my coffee, my Nat Geo coffee every morning, and I walk around and it's fantastic. I really feel like there's three things that got me to the point where I could—that I mean, other than the amazingness of Nat Geo and just them taking me on, right? The first one, there's three things, and I always say it's building a skill. Then the second one is networking, networking, networking. And the third one is taking your shot, really. And that first one, building your skills. So a while ago, when I was in the Pentagon, I read a book called Designing Your Life, and it talked about different career paths that you can take, and that there are a lot of fulfilling aspects of life, but you can land your dream job if you develop the skills. So at that time, I was working on event planning, so that was one of my skills. I had just picked up photography by buying a professional used professional camera, taking a manual class, so building those skills for that opportunity, right? If I wasn't a photographer, and if I didn't have some of that project management experience, I don't think I would have been a good fit. During my LinkedIn journey, probably about three or four years, I met a girl named Martha McPhee, and she is an event planner. She's amazing. She's a wonderful human being, very generous with her time. And she actually was like, Jaimee, hey, about four years ago, maybe three, she said, Jaimee, you want to get on a Zoom and we can chat? And I was like, yes, that would be amazing. So we chatted, and we kept in touch, and over the years, we kind of just touched base. And she asked me, Jaimee, where are you going to do SkillBridge? And I said, Martha, I really, really want to do it with National Geographic. And she's like, wow. Like, that's great, Jaimee. She said, I have a contact. Why don't you send me an email and I will reach out to this contact. So networking—like I wouldn't have been able to even have that contact or known Martha without networking on LinkedIn, right? So I go back and I thought, and that comes to the third thing that I say is taking your shot—like I could have gone back and written Martha an email and said, hey, Martha, I love this opportunity. But I thought, what can I create that can articulate to National Geographic some of my skills and what the program is? So I ended up working over two weeks on a proposal that explained what SkillBridge is, showing my pictures, telling my story, and that was my shot, right? Like that elevator pitch that people say to get ready with your elevator pitch, that was it, right? So I needed to make sure that I was ready and I could articulate and show that I could fit in. I was part of this because a military linguist, that was—if that was it, they probably would have said no. So I sent it to her, and she sent it to Walt Disney, who owned the Walt Disney SkillBridge program. I talked with them. They connected me with National Geographic contacts, and here I am. So yeah, thank you. Thank you for preaching the networking.

Kathleen Smith 17:23
My pleasure, because it's definitely something that is not taught or shown in the military. So definitely, definitely doing the networking. So let's talk a little bit more back to the Jaimee rebranding, and you had to shed your chief mentality, or your chief identity, the persona, the uniform, the way you speak, and you became Jaimee. So how did you navigate that? Was it, lay whippity doo dah? I mean, the fairy godmother came along and hit you on the head, or was it a sort of step-by-step process that you did?

Jaimee Freeman 18:06
It was definitely a process, and I think I started it about five years ago, of who I am. Yes, I am a military member. Yes, I'm in the US Air Force. Yes, I'm a chief. But what else is part of my identity? And part of that was photography, part of that was my family. Part of that was the activities and hobbies I do outside of the military. And I started kind of thinking through that. I think this is really important for all military members, but specifically enlisted E-9s, because you can get up to a point where you are a chief or you're a command chief. But if you're not developing those skills, or even kind of identifying those skills that you have, it's going to be very hard to translate that on the outside, right? So hey, if you're—I'm a command chief, like, you go tell National Geographic, or you tell any company, I'm a command chief, like I take care of people. That is not a skill, and that is what your identity was in the military, and that's what you did in the military really well, but that doesn't translate to the civilian world. So I feel like to transition and to kind of find those opportunities, you have to figure out who you are outside of being Chief Freeman. And I think that took me a while, but I've always practiced it by—people, I signed my name, my email, Jaimee on emails, like even in the military. I thought I had to think outside of that, because I knew that one day I would be out of the service and just Jaimee.

Kathleen Smith 19:45
Just Jaimee. That's great. So what would be—it sounds like you have a lot of really great advice, and it's been great that you've shared so much of it here. But what is one last piece of advice you haven't shared that you would really love to impart on the transitioning service member who may be listening?

Jaimee Freeman 20:05
Well, it's probably a little bit more of the same: finding your identity, finding your skills. Those two as you transition, and start early, right? Find out what you want to do. Some serious soul searching. What makes you happy? What do you really want to do? And start that early, right? Start that three, four years out. What do I really want to do? What do I need to get there? And when you can do that, I feel like your transition is going to be a lot easier. Also, I really relied on the people who I saw that transitioned how I wanted to transition. So I have a friend. Her name is Shamika. She got out and started a master's, and now is on to her PhD. She took time, and she'd always just say, I'm taking this year. I'm taking this year to figure out—she was in school. So she had that time, but I felt like that was the way that I want to transition, is giving myself time. Not everybody's in that situation or can financially, but if you can, don't let fear make you rush into something. Take your time, figure it out, and then those—when things start coming to you, it'll become much clearer why you did that.

Kathleen Smith 21:31
Jaimee, this has been great, and it's always great to see you. So thanks so much for sharing your story, and thanks so much for joining me today.

Jaimee Freeman 21:39
Thank you, Kathleen. I really appreciate you and all you do for our veterans.

Kathleen Smith 21:44
Always great to talk to an inspiration and an inspirational person who talks about their passion. And I love Jaimee's story, talking about her passion of seeing the world, meeting new people, realizing that she had a passion for photography and then being able to take her shot and put together a proposal to get her dream job as a SkillBridge intern at National Geographic. What a story? So that's it for today. Be sure to share our episode with your fellow service members. Hit follow for more stories and keep carving out your own path. See you next time.