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.
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.