Michael J. Penney

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SOFREP: Five Veteran-Owned Groups Making the World Better (2018)

On Veterans Day, November 11, 2018, SOFREP published “Five veteran-owned groups making the world a better place,” by Joseph LaFave. The first group on the list was the Five Paragraph Business Plan, Michael Penney’s company.

What the article said

LaFave opened with the reason for the piece. Veterans Day, he wrote, is the one day a year the country should come together to celebrate the work service members do to make the world a better place, and for many veterans that commitment to service continues after they take off the uniform.

His entry on Michael’s company read:

This business is the brainchild of Michael Penney, co-host of the now-on-hiatus podcast Cigars and Sea Stories.

Joseph LaFave, SOFREP, November 2018

LaFave described the Five Paragraph Business Plan as an organization that helps veterans, and civilians, start their own small business of any type. He called Penney, a former Marine and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, a longtime advocate for veteran-owned small businesses, and wrote that the Five Paragraph system brings the theories of military operations planning to the civilian world.

The other four groups on the list:

  • Force Blue, founded by Jim Ritterhoff and Rudy Reyes
  • Team Rubicon, founded in 2010 by two Marines, including Jake Wood
  • Black Rifle Coffee Company
  • Final Salute, founded in 2010 by Army veteran Jasmine Boothe to support homeless women veterans and their children

Why it mattered then

The company Michael was listed with says a lot. Team Rubicon and Black Rifle Coffee were national names, and SOFREP is a special operations news site. Leading that list on Veterans Day put the 5 Paragraph method in front of a large veteran readership.

The entry also marks a shift. In 2016 and 2017 he was introduced mainly as a podcaster. Here, Cigars and Sea Stories is “now-on-hiatus,” and the Five Paragraph Business Plan is the headline. The podcast had built his name in the veteran community. The planning system was now the work he was known for.

Looking back

Two names on this list connect to other parts of Michael’s story. Rudy Reyes had been a guest on Cigars and Sea Stories, as HuffPost noted in 2017. Jasmine “Jas” Boothe created the animated comedy Discharged, in which Michael voiced the lead character, Axel.

Read the article on SOFREP

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.

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DISCHARGED: Michael Penney Voices Axel in Animated Comedy (2018)

In the spring of 2018, the animated comedy DISCHARGED was set to premiere at the 13th Annual Hoboken Film Festival in Greenwood Lake, New York, on May 20, 2018. According to Heroes Media Group, it was one of the 10 percent of 1,500 submissions selected. The lead character, Axel, was voiced by Michael J. Penney.

The show

The show’s website summed it up in one line:

A mismatched quartet of not-so-honorably discharged veterans unleash the good, the bad and the dark side of patriotism on Hollywood.

DISCHARGED official site

Axel is at the center of it. The site describes him as a hyper-masculine Marine combat veteran who struggles to find work after leaving the military, then lands a lucrative deal as a Hollywood stuntman. He hires a crew of fellow veterans as his management team:

  • Major, his bodyguard and a former officer, voiced by creator Jas Boothe, an Army veteran
  • Jesus (pronounced “Hey Zeus”), his agent and a no-nonsense ex-drill sergeant, voiced by Army combat veteran Jonathan Lopez
  • Brandon, his best friend, personal assistant and the resident “POG,” voiced by Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient Earl Granville

The cast is made up of veterans, and the show pokes fun at the rivalries between the branches while showing the bond that holds them together.

Why it was made

Boothe told Heroes Media Group she got the idea in 2016, while up late watching Adult Swim and noticing how much relief she found in humor.

I wanted to help others through humor.

Jas Boothe, Heroes Media Group, April 2018

For Michael, the part fit. Axel’s story, a Marine combat veteran trying to find his place after the service, was one he and many of his podcast guests knew well.

How it did

By 2019, DISCHARGED was on the festival circuit, and coverage of a screening at Webster University reported that it won the Best Pilot category at the 2018 Hoboken International Film Festival. IMDb lists it as a 2019 short and credits Michael J. Penney as an actor.

Looking back

Their paths crossed more than once. Both made Dwayne Paro’s 2017 HuffPost list of veteran entrepreneurs to know. In January 2020 he interviewed her about DISCHARGED on his 5 Paragraph show.

Michael interviews Jas Boothe about DISCHARGED on the 5 Paragraph channel (January 2020).
Visit the DISCHARGED site (archived)

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.

Work with Michael

Marine veteran, TEDx speaker and author of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan. Bring him to your stage, wear the gear, or catch him live.

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Get the 5 Paragraph Business Plan
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American Grit: Grunt Style on Cigars & Sea Stories (2017)

On December 6 and 7, 2017, American Grit, the lifestyle publication tied to the Grunt Style apparel brand, ran two posts in its “Grunt Style Professional” series. Each one wrote up a Cigars and Sea Stories episode with a Grunt Style leader as the guest.

Dan Alarik: hustle

The first post covered Grunt Style founder Daniel Alarik. It describes Cigars and Sea Stories as “hosted by Marine veteran Michael Penney and Jeremy Paris,” and says Michael and Jeremy’s questions walked Dan through how “hustle” became a successful business, including the highs and lows of Grunt Style’s early years.

The write-up pulls out a few lessons from the interview:

  • Hustle means going out and getting it. Dan tested whether people would buy a product before spending money on anything fancy.
  • Sell. The post quotes the line that if you are not selling, you are not in business, you are just busy.
  • Stay humble. Before a Las Vegas trade show, Grunt Style was close to shutting its doors. The goal was $6,000 in sales. They came away with $6,200.

The post also mentions Alpha Outpost, Dan’s monthly gear-box company.

Tim Jensen: from carpenter to Grunt Style

The second post covered Tim Jensen, then Grunt Style’s chief operations officer. It opens:

Tim is joined by Bennett Tanton and Michael Penney both fellow infantry Marines and founders of the extremely successful Cigars and Sea Stories podcast.

Team AG, American Grit, December 2017

The post credits Bennett’s reconnaissance background as essential to the show’s growth. Then it tells Tim’s story: a union carpenter in Chicago who left at 31 to use his GI Bill, earned a degree in “creating video games,” and took a job folding shirts at Grunt Style. He rose through the ranks from there, and became known for his “Violent But True Bed Time Stories.”

Why it mattered then

Grunt Style was one of the biggest veteran brands of the time. Its own publication spending two posts on Cigars and Sea Stories episodes said a lot about where the show stood by the end of 2017.

The original audio players did not survive a later site migration, so the episodes cannot be played from these pages. The write-ups are still up.

Read the Dan Alarik write-up
Read the Tim Jensen write-up

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.

Work with Michael

Marine veteran, TEDx speaker and author of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan. Bring him to your stage, wear the gear, or catch him live.

Book Michael to Speak
Shop the MJP Store
Get the 5 Paragraph Business Plan
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Change Your POV NIW009: Michael Penney on Whitetail Deer Hunting

On November 29, 2017, the Change Your POV podcast posted episode NIW009, “Michael J Penney of Cigars and Sea Stories Talks Whitetail Deer Hunting.” It was his second time on the show. The first, about a year earlier, was about his deployments and his drive to add value. This one was about deer. It runs just over an hour.

What the episode covered

The host introduces Michael with real warmth:

This week on the podcast we’re joined by my old and close friend Michael J. Penney.

Change Your POV NIW009 description

The description sums up who he was by late 2017:

  • A Marine combat veteran with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan
  • A foreign weapons instructor, a Police Advisor to the Afghan National Police, and a trained designated marksman
  • A serial entrepreneur, or “Vetrepreneur,” and the published author of the Five Paragraph Business Plan
  • A co-host of Cigars and Sea Stories, which the host calls one of his favorite podcasts

Then it gets to the point of the episode:

Penney is also an avid outdoorsman, hunter and lover of all things venison.

Change Your POV NIW009 description

The host credits Michael for getting him hooked. Michael shared the first deer he killed in North Carolina with him, and the host says Michael is in many ways “responsible for my obsession with deer and deer hunting.” On the show they talk about how Michael’s season was going, “extreme” tactics for calling in whitetail deer, and a range of other topics. The description admits that list runs all the way to how you handle nature’s call in the woods.

Why it mattered then

Most of Michael’s appearances in 2016 and 2017 were about service, transition and business. This one shows another side of him: the hunter and outdoorsman, swapping tactics with a friend. For listeners who knew him from Cigars and Sea Stories or the 5 Paragraph Business Plan, it was a looser, funnier hour.

It also shows the friendships behind the work. The host is not just booking a guest. He is talking with the man who got him into the woods.

Looking back

The same description that calls him a published author and podcast co-host also calls him an avid outdoorsman. This episode is the public record of that side of him.

Watch the episode on YouTube

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.

Work with Michael

Marine veteran, TEDx speaker and author of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan. Bring him to your stage, wear the gear, or catch him live.

Book Michael to Speak
Shop the MJP Store
Get the 5 Paragraph Business Plan
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CentSai: Jobs After the Military, a Marine Starts Podcasting

On November 10, 2017, the personal finance site CentSai published “Jobs After the Military: How One Former Marine Started Podcasting,” by Kara Perez. The profile followed Michael from the Marine Corps through a rough transition to the podcast he built with another veteran.

What the article covered

Perez starts with his service. Michael joined the Marine Corps in August 2004, served with a 7th Marines weapons company, and spent nearly eight years in uniform. She notes that he had lost fellow service members, been mortared, and missed a sniper’s shot by inches, and that he had a lot of adjusting to do.

The article traces the next few years:

  • Two years teaching combat marksmanship at Quantico
  • A move to Massachusetts and classes at UMass Boston, switching from engineering to business entrepreneurship
  • Feeling isolated in New England, and a first business with a fellow ex-Marine that failed
  • Leaving school in his junior year to start a business and move to North Carolina

The turn came at the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, which he described as “an entrepreneur boot camp for veterans.” After 45 days of correspondence work and nine days in person, he used his failed company as the base for a new plan. It won him the “Most Outstanding Venture” award.

I had the best business plan and the best presentation.

Michael Penney, CentSai, November 2017

Cigars and Sea Stories

Perez tells how the podcast started. Michael and Bennett Tanton, a former reconnaissance Marine and U.S. Army infantryman, were smoking cigars in Olympic Park one evening when they came up with a show about veterans “adding value to the world.”

Michael was open about the numbers: about $6,000 for the website, about $10,000 in start-up costs in all, and around $1,250 a month in overhead. He told Perez he wanted Marines to see the show as credible, so he did not want it lost in sponsored content. He was also building a section of the site for the 5-Paragraph Business Plan.

Why it mattered then

Most coverage of Cigars and Sea Stories was about the guests. This piece was about the founder, and it was honest about failure, money and isolation. That made it useful to any veteran weighing a business of their own.

The article ends by calling him a veteran for life, building a world for other veterans every day.

Read the article on CentSai (archived)

This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.

Work with Michael

Marine veteran, TEDx speaker and author of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan. Bring him to your stage, wear the gear, or catch him live.

Book Michael to Speak
Shop the MJP Store
Get the 5 Paragraph Business Plan
Watch Live