On August 6, 2020, Michael J. Penney was the guest on season 1, episode 3 of Veteran Nation w/ SGT & Skipper, an original series on the NRN+ network. The live show ran about an hour.
About the show
The episode description introduces the hosts and their purpose:
Michael “SGT” Bluemling, Jr. and M.T. “Skipper” Arthur come together to co-host an energizing, entertaining show while bringing real answers to real challenges veterans face when transitioning to civilian life.
Veteran Nation episode description
Bluemling already knew Michael. He had hosted him six months earlier, in February 2020, on his own podcast.
What the episode covered
The show is about transition, and Michael’s story is a transition story. The description introduces him as “Michael J. Penney of 5Paragraph.com and the “5 Paragraph Business Plan.”” It then covers the same ground as his other 2020 interviews:
- Two deployments to Ramadi, Iraq, with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, in 2005-06 and 2007
- Reenlisting and moving to Quantico as a weapons instructor
- More than eight years in the Corps and an honorable discharge as a Sergeant
- A new life as an entrepreneur, author, speaker and business development professional
- His March 2016 TEDxRaleigh talk, which the notes say “has cultivated many wonderful relationships between veterans and business leaders”
His third tour, to Kajaki and Sangin, Afghanistan, with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in 2011, is not in this description, but it is part of the record he shared on other shows that year.
Why it mattered then
A show built around “real answers to real challenges” was a good fit for someone who had made the move from infantry to business and had written a plan to help others do it. The 5 Paragraph Business Plan gives a veteran a planning format he already knows from the service.
Looking back
Michael returned to Veteran Nation two years later, in September 2022, when the show was hosted by M.T. “Skipper” Arthur and TC Pearson. A longer, full repost of this 2020 episode is also on YouTube.
The network’s own description says NRN broadcasts the “values of faith, family, and freedom.” The live stream runs about an hour. The full repost, posted on August 22, 2020, runs about two hours and 14 minutes.
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.