Michael J. Penney

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Appearances

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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.

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Bunker Labs RDU Muster 2017: Veteran Founders Meet in Cary

On September 21, 2017, Bunker Labs RDU held its second annual Muster, a one-day startup conference for veteran entrepreneurs, at MetLife’s office in Cary, North Carolina. It was part of the national Muster Across America series. According to the WRAL TechWire recap, it sold out, drawing 250 attendees, 75 percent of them veterans, with more than 75 veteran-owned businesses represented.

Michael was Bunker Labs RDU’s program director at the time; podcast bios from 2016 and 2017 describe him in that role, helping veterans with business creation. He says he spoke at the Muster and helped coordinate it. The published coverage below does not list him by name.

What was on the program

A preview by Bunker Labs RDU executive director Dean Bundschu said the event was hosted by the MetLife Veterans Network, and that active-duty, National Guard and reserve service members could register for free. The recap, written by Bunker Labs RDU community development director Jim Roberts, laid out the day:

  • Opening remarks: Larry Hall, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
  • Morning keynote: venture capitalist and Vietnam-era veteran Art Pappas, on turning military leadership into private-sector success.
  • Hiring panel: Scott Moody of K4 Connect, Tim McClain of MetLife and Ted Studdard of Home Depot.
  • Lunch keynote: former Baltimore Ravens player Marques Ogden.
  • Featured speaker: Daniel Alarik of Grunt Style, which Roberts called the most anticipated appearance of the day.
  • Closing remarks: NC Representative Holly Grange of Wilmington, a veteran and entrepreneur.

A startup pitch contest closed out the competition side. Josh Robertson of Ryker USA took the top prize for his FistGrip product, and Ed Hall of Petrics in Wilmington, a Navy veteran, finished second.

Why it mattered then

Roberts wrote that grants and donations from JP Morgan Chase & Co., MetLife, the Wege Foundation and Grant Thornton had put Bunker Labs in North Carolina on a path to sustainability in its second year. He also noted the competition: some 35 entrepreneur support organizations worked the Triangle. A sold-out room with a strong veteran turnout was proof that the program was reaching the people it was built for.

Looking back

That December, American Grit wrote up a Cigars and Sea Stories episode with Grunt Style’s Alarik, co-hosted by Michael. The work behind events like this one, putting veterans with business ideas in a room with investors, mentors and each other, fed straight into the 5 Paragraph Business Plan.

Read the recap on WRAL TechWire (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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Dwayne Paro Podcast Episode 029: Michael Penney (2017)

On August 7, 2017, Dwayne Paro posted “Episode 029 Michael Penney” of his podcast. Paro is a veteran empowerment coach and writer. Earlier that year he had put Michael at #10 on his HuffPost list of veteran entrepreneurs to know in 2017. The interview runs about 35 minutes.

What the episode covered

The episode description gives one of the most complete versions of Michael’s service record from this period:

  • 3/7 Weapons Company: two deployments to Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005/2006 and 2007.
  • Quantico: he reenlisted during his second tour and transferred to Quantico as an instructor. He became a certified combat marksmanship coach, trainer and instructor trainer, a formal school instructor, a school-trained designated marksman and a foreign weapons instructor.
  • 1st Battalion, 5th Marines: a third combat tour, leading a section of advisors through Kajaki and Sangin, Afghanistan.

After two wars and eight years as an infantryman and weapons instructor, the notes say, “Michael left the Marine Corps as a Sergeant.” They describe him in 2017 as an entrepreneur and public speaker.

The rest of the notes cover what came next. He co-founded Cigars and Sea Stories in 2015, a podcast about veterans who are adding value to the world. In March 2016 he gave his TEDxRaleigh talk, “What’s Your IED.” And he was working as program director for Bunker Labs RDU:

Michael now supports fellow veterans seeking the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Episode 029 description

Why it mattered then

Paro’s audience was veterans working on their own next chapter. Michael was a useful guest for them because his path showed up in the record step by step. Infantry, instructor duty, advisor work overseas, a hard transition, then helping other veterans build businesses at Bunker Labs.

The episode also closed a loop. Paro had written about Michael from the outside in February. In August he had him on to tell the story himself. The HuffPost list had introduced Michael as a podcaster and marksman. This conversation filled in the rest: the Marine who trained other Marines, then went home to help veterans build businesses.

Looking back

A month later Bunker Labs RDU held its second annual Muster conference in Cary, North Carolina, during Michael’s time as program director. The notes from this episode remain one of the clearest public summaries of his service record.

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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The Havok Journal: Flags Over Ramadi (2017)

On June 9, 2017, The Havok Journal published “Flags Over Ramadi,” a personal essay under Michael Penney’s byline. The editor’s note framed it as the story of one Marine who fought in Ramadi and his reaction to seeing the black flag of ISIS flying over the city. The Havok Journal ran it again on June 9, 2024.

What the essay covered

It opens at a post on the northern entry control point to Ramadi, behind an M240G machine gun. An Iraqi police officer fires warning shots at an oncoming car. As Michael leans out to see what is happening, a sniper’s round punches a hole in the sandbag next to his head.

Two weeks into my first deployment I had experienced my first close call in combat….it would not be my last.

Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”

From there the essay turns to a flag. On the day he graduated boot camp, a flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol, and his family gave it to him. He carried it in his ruck on every mission, training or patrol, through two deployments to Ramadi and a third to Kajaki/Sangin, Afghanistan.

He describes training with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines at 29 Palms, California, preparing for “nothing but Ramadi,” and learning to look at the fight from the enemy’s side by “turning the map around.” In 2005 his team was sent to the government center in the heart of the city. He climbed a bullet-riddled staircase to the roof and ran his flag up the pole.

Raising that flag was a simple gesture but it meant so much to me and the Marines with whom I was serving.

Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”

The other flag

The essay then faces the black flag that later flew over Ramadi. He condemns ISIS’s cruelty, but writes that he did not take the city’s fall personally. His mission as an infantryman had been to remove Saddam’s regime. He says he is not an expert on geopolitics. What he does now is help train the people still serving. He tells readers not to ask his opinion of the new conflict, but to ask how to prepare the next generation of warriors.

Because other wars will be fought and other flags will be flown over Ramadi.

Michael Penney, “Flags Over Ramadi”

Looking back

This is one of the few pieces where Michael writes about Ramadi in his own words and in detail. The flag, the rooftop and the near miss are the kind of ground truth that later went into his speaking and his writing about service.

Read the essay on The Havok Journal

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

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5 Paragraph Business Plan: Michael Penney’s Book Released (2017)

On April 14, 2017, Michael J. Penney published 5 Paragraph Business Plan: The Action Oriented Business Management Tool For Leaders. The first edition is a 91-page paperback in an 8.5 by 11 inch format, published under the 5 Paragraph Business Plan imprint (ISBN 978-0692885895).

What the book is

The idea is simple. The military has planned missions with the five paragraph operations order for generations: Situation, Mission, Execution, Admin and Logistics, Command and Signal. Michael took that format and turned it into a way to plan a business. Each paragraph becomes a section of the plan, so the person writing it moves from the problem, to the goal, to the steps, to the resources, to who is in charge and how the team communicates.

The book’s current Amazon description puts the problem it solves this way:

Most businesses do not fail because they lack talent. They fail because they lack alignment.

5 Paragraph Business Plan, Amazon description

The description says the plan is meant to be a living document, not one written once and forgotten, so leaders, managers and frontline teams stay pointed at the same objective. It lists what readers learn to do:

  • Build a complete business plan using the 5 Paragraph framework
  • Improve communication and accountability
  • Align leadership and operational teams
  • Adapt quickly to changing conditions
  • Create a repeatable planning and execution process

Each major section of the book matches a companion audio tutorial at 5Paragraph.com.

Why it mattered then

Michael had been building toward this for years. As early as 2015 he was writing about using mission planning to start a business. By November 2016, podcast hosts were introducing him as the creator of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan, and his day job at Bunker Labs RDU was helping veterans plan and launch businesses. The book put that method on paper in a form any veteran, or any civilian, could pick up and use.

It also spoke a language veterans already knew. A Marine who has written or received an operations order does not have to learn a new system. They only have to point a familiar one at a new mission.

Looking back

By late 2017 hosts were calling him a published author of the Five Paragraph Business Plan. Amazon now lists it as part of the 5 Paragraph series, alongside his later book DOMINATE: The Special Operations Way To Win In Business.

See the book on Amazon

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