Adam Stark: Building the Future by Connecting Veterans to Careers in Construction

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio Beyond the Uniform Series. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Adam Stark, a special operations veteran entrepreneur, author, and founder of jet Dot build, a technology platform helping construction teams bring greater clarity and collaboration to complex projects. Adam is also the host of the Veterans Who Build Show, where he shares the stories of military veterans who have successfully transitioned into careers across construction, real estate, engineering and the built environment. Through his work, Adam is helping veterans recognize the incredible value they bring beyond the military service while building stronger leaders, healthier teams, and thriving communities. Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam Stark: Thanks so much, Trisha. It’s always funny to hear my bio from someone else, but I do really appreciate that great introduction. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. No problem. I pride myself on giving you something that you wouldn’t normally give to yourself. So that’s my gift to you.

Adam Stark: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, Adam, tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Adam Stark: Yeah. So as you outlined, coming from military service and starting my civilian career in the built environment, so working for builders, I kind of recognized in that transition. In hindsight, after a few years, a few things. One was how difficult it was and is generally speaking, I think most, if not all veterans can relate transitioning military to a civilian life. Then second was kind of finding a new purpose in civilian life. Uh, so that journey and hearing other veterans talk about their journeys led to everything that you had just mentioned, which is, uh, building my business, which is jet build, uh, technology platform helping, uh, builders, generally speaking. Uh, and then second was that passion project that I have going, which is the veterans who build show, uh, and happy to kind of dive into whichever angle you’d like me to dive into first. Uh, but that’s kind of like a broad overview in terms of how I got to both initiatives, um, and what they are, broadly speaking.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Awesome. Well, I can’t wait to take a deeper dive into both of those areas. Um, first, I’m curious because I’m guessing that a lot of people who are listening today don’t immediately think about construction, engineering or even real estate as a career for those coming out of the military. Um, why is the built environment such a great fit for veterans?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So for whatever it’s worth, I didn’t upfront think of that as an avenue either. It simply just happened. You know, networking with people looking for what I would do next. And, you know, things fell into place. And again, this is all kind of a hindsight realization where especially in construction. So if you’re on a development architect, engineering, uh, construction itself, of course trades. So basically working on job sites, working on projects, uh, hence the built world built environment. Um, if you’re involved in that, the reason that I see and, you know, all the guests that I interview on my show, uh, connectivity from service to civilian workforce, which is, you know, built environment is a few things. One is, it’s, you know, it’s literal manual labor. I mean, you’re literally physically on job sites walking around doing things, swinging hammers. If you’re, you know, in that capacity, uh, you’re. Two, dealing with a lot of different teams from a lot of different companies also in person on the job site, there’s a lot of chaos that occurs naturally because again, these are different companies. They have different, uh, you know, uh, perspective roles, uh, purpose on the job. So you have to really be able to coordinate what ends up being an intense environment schedule, you know, intensive. A lot of money’s on the line. People have a lot of, uh, emotions involved, of course. Um, and those are the kind of areas that, you know, we see translating into the built environment in a very direct way. And especially, you know, we had some guests who were CBS prior, uh, who did something in an engineering capacity. I mean, those are literal translates, you know, translations into the built environment.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, they’re the only ones I’m just saying.

Adam Stark: Right.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Cbs are definitely in the construction business. Um, what tell me more about your transition. So special ops to entrepreneurship. What was that transition like for you?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So I really find that being 1 to 1. And generally speaking, a lot of the translatable skills that I refer to, you know, as it relates to built environment or entrepreneurship as well, uh, is all these soft skills, uh, versus being a hard skill, you know, I guess that’s pretty obvious, but it’s really the soft skills that don’t necessarily come to people’s minds. Uh, you know, service members, veterans, employers, uh, as it relates to, you know, bringing what you learned in a military environment into your roles today. So in particular for entrepreneurship, I mean, it’s almost all entirely grit. I mean, if you’re going to quit easily, then it’s, it’s not the place for you. If you’re going to get, you know, upset and knocked down real quick and easy, it’s not a place for you. I mean, it’s almost the expectation of failure, the expectation to have, you know, plan B, C, D, E, F, G, etc., and then continuing to iterate. So, I mean, for me at least, a significant, meaningful takeaway from special operations is the understanding and ability to adapt, adjust and continue to move. Move forward accordingly with what you have, making decisions, living with those decisions, and again, just continuing to adapt, uh, as things evolve. So that’s really kind of like the core, uh, element soft skill that, that I bring to civilian life.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Uh, for those who are listening today that are maybe even thinking about hiring a veteran, what would you say to them?

Adam Stark: I think the key element, and I’m also saying this, uh, from listening to tons of veterans specifically in this angle, again, on, on my show, the veterans and build show, uh, the key element, I think is to provide that veteran with a set of goals or a set of criteria, a set of KPIs, key performance indicators that they can, uh, understand, digest, and then work toward as it relates to progression in whatever it is that they’re doing. The reason I say that in particular is if you look at military structure, its set so that you have a means and methods toward progression. So if you join a civilian workforce, a civilian role, and it’s just like a blanket, you know, clock in and out, and here’s what you’re doing per day, and there’s no sense of higher purpose or sense of growth or sense of progression. That’s, that’s where it’s very easy for veteran in particular to get lost in. I mean, quite frankly, I think that’s just good advice for any, you know, any employer or manager.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. Yeah. Wow. That that right there is a great nugget. Thank you for sharing that. I’ve never heard it spoken quite that way. And that’s really going to sit with me. Thank you for that. I want to dive a little deeper into jet dot build. I want you to tell me more about what you’re doing in your business, in the way of communication, visibility, decision making. Tell tell us what you’re doing there.

Adam Stark: Yeah. So at its core, nothing is supposed to be revolutionary or change how people are used to working. The idea and concept is to essentially provide builders. Whether you’re a real estate developer, whether you’re a general contractor, a trade, a design build firm. It’s to provide you with a holistic solution project controls that will just help simplify what you’re doing day to day, all of industry standards, whether that be from a financial perspective, project planning, setting up your budget, setting up your pay apps, how you’re running that process, whether it be hosting your drawings, allowing teams to collaborate in one place, whether it be construction operations or your RFI, your submittals, your schedules, your specs, and then wrapping that all together to be a unified operating layer. And what I mean by that is a lot of these teams have pointed solutions. Some of them have legacy solutions which are really expensive and don’t give good support. So our goal is to give you a modern tech stack. So simplify what you’re doing, which is the first thing I said. Second is to reduce your overhead. So very cost effective because modern technology allows us to be three is to provide you human support. So you have a dedicated account manager. And then last but not least, in indexing all of this information across all the stakeholders, jet operates as your essentially AI powered operating layer. So all of this data gets ingested, and then you can speak to it to provide you with information according to your projects and portfolio that’s hosted on jet. And when I say that specifically as it relates to AI, there’s no guesswork. It’s not going to, you know, the internet, it’s not going to Google, it’s not going to, it’s just pulling from your project data that’s hosted in jet. So therefore it’ll be real and usable.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. All right, so I get that construction, real estate engineering are great clients for you. Is there a particular size or a particular like deeper dive industry in each of those that jet works better for?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So we work across every vertical. Though to answer your question, it’s anything that’s commercial grade. So, you know, if you’re doing like a single family home or you’re remodeling an area of a specific building like that, we’re probably not for you just given the, the, you know, kind of breadth of our solution. So, so long as you’re doing ground up or if you’re building a lot, so you could be doing a dozen homes, for example, if you’re remodeling apartments in an entire high rise building, for example. So, so long as there’s scale, which is what I mean by commercial. And then in terms of like vertical or specifics of industry, I mean, we’re doing everything from data centers to hospitals to schools to apartment buildings. So again, it’s just scale is really the key, uh, kind of, you know, ICP ideal customer profile.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Um, if folks are interested in getting to know more, learning more about jet dot build or connecting with you, where’s the best place to do that?

Adam Stark: So I’m very active on LinkedIn. You can find me there, right? Search Adam Stark. There will probably be more than one, so search jet build. Adam stark. However, the algorithm will bring you to me, though. You’ll see, of course, I’m connected with jet build as well as the veterans who build Joe. That’s how you know it’s me. Uh, and then secondly, to learn more about jet directly, uh, our website has tons of good information jet dot build. So it’s not.com. The dot build is the domain so easy to remember once you understand that. So jet dot build.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. Thank you for that. Okay, let’s talk about your show. I’m really excited about this topic and I know you are too. So the veterans who build show, where did it come from? How did it get started?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So basically what happened was like going back to that kind of over origin or overview that I gave of myself is, uh, at some point, uh, relatively recently, I would say like about five years ago, maximum, uh, I kind of realized that after listening to other veterans through other mediums, i.e. other podcasts, YouTube, whatever it is in person. I was realizing that listening to their stories and what they went through, whether it be transition period or military civilian life, whether it be what they’re doing today in terms of, you know, civilian careers, if it was they built a business how they, you know, dealt with whatever, whatever hardships they had and just their stories in general. I realized over time, I was kind of, you know, piecing together things that related to me and my story and then realizing how helpful it was to have a relatable person going through similar stories and things and, you know, elements in life. Uh, and that was kind of my aha moment, which was to say, okay, hearing other veterans talk about their stories. Plus, let me tie in in particular the industry that I’m in because I believe it to be a great, uh, you know, new purpose for service members or veterans as they are in the civilian workforce.

Adam Stark: And that was kind of my aha moment. Like, okay, I love talking to veterans. I love the majority of my friends are veterans, if not all of them essentially at this point. Um, you know, career is life, right? That’s all I do is, is build and be in this industry. So why don’t I piece the two together, have fun with it. Uh, and basically, you know, over time, I started the show about, I think it was two and a half years ago at this point, or maybe two years ago, something like that. Um, we’ve grown to, uh, a million or over a million at this point. Views views on YouTube, 2 million views across all of our social channels. Um, and really just the feedback that I get from veterans that I interview is, is what helps me continue, uh, you know, interviewing and pushing out content because, uh, they’re all super appreciative, which makes me very appreciative of hosting them and sharing their stories.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. So I know it’s not just veterans that are listening or watching your show on YouTube. You’ve got a million views out there. What, what is it that your show is giving back to the community? What are they finding in the shows that you’re doing?

Adam Stark: Yeah, so the purpose and the arch of the show is as follows. I mean, first and foremost, it’s the honor stories of veterans. So honor life stories. So the way we run the show is childhood to where they’re at today. Uh, so beyond anything beyond anything else. My goal with that up front is to just here’s, you know, a content here. Here is your life story you can share with your family essentially. Um, that’s like first and foremost. Now beyond that to like, you know, really answer your question in particular in that life story, what we identify is one, you know, the story of transitioning from military to civilian life and hindsight advice, too, is the story of using and translating skills, military to built environment, uh, and hindsight, hindsight advice. So in that kind of package, I’ll call it, uh, it allows for service members, veterans, employers in the industry to hear and understand. Oh, okay, that sounds cool. That sounds neat. That sounds like it’s a fit for me. That sounds like I want to do it. Uh, Employers. It will be. Oh, now I understand soft skills which are, you know, objectively harder to train, find, teach, etc.

Adam Stark: well, why don’t I just pull from this huge demographic of people who already have all these embedded soft skills, and I could always teach and train the hard skills in short manner. So the goal is twofold. One is for kind of what I mentioned earlier was service members and veterans to potentially help them find new purpose in civilian life. Uh, and then two is for employers to hear how veterans are, you know, building our built environment and therefore seek service members and veterans for their workforce, which I’ll add as a final kind of kicker here. Uh, anyone in industry will know this is, uh, there is a massive, massive workforce issue gap, whatever word you want to use their need in construction in the trades. And it’s only growing, uh, especially with the retiring workforce. And therefore it’s like this compounding issue where workforce is needed, a lot of workforce is retiring, and you just have this massive necessity for hiring. So back to the veterans who build trail, I hope that will serve also as like a plug in, uh, to close some of that gap.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s very interesting. I, because I’m not in that space, I didn’t realize that there was such a big gap. And it, it sounds like it’s a kind of a generational gap where we, the older generation who was typically doing this work or, or leading this work at some point, um, is retiring and we’re not seeing as many people coming in to the trades. Mm. Yeah. Wow. Okay. You said something that stuck with me when you, when I first asked you about, uh, what’s the purpose or you gave the purpose of the show and you talked about being able to record their story. And you and I even talked about this before in our first conversation about creating community through storytelling. Why do you think hearing another veterans story can be so powerful for someone who’s preparing to leave the military or reinvent themselves afterward.

Adam Stark: I think it completely. And again, this is my take. People can disagree and do whatever you want with it. Just my take is it completely is the relatability factor. Meaning if you know somebody, you know, I’m not a doctor. If somebody who’s a doctor talks about their experience becoming becoming a doctor, I mean, I can’t relate. I have nothing to do with medicine. So I think that relatability element really allows people to embrace what they’re hearing, even if it’s just in pieces, because they’re typically, you know, again, against the breadth of, uh, you know, service or veterans who have a varying of service service types. So I mean, there’s always going to be someone who you could relate to more Navy Marines, uh, you know, Air Force, whatever it is, uh, Army, uh, so you could always find someone who you think you had a similar background to with whatever it may be, and then kind of pull that relatability from their story and apply it to yourself. That’s, that’s at least how I, uh, you know, came to the realization just again, through my own experience in that capacity.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I think that’s, you’re, I believe the same thing. So I think you’re right. I think that we’re looking for that me too moment or gosh, I’m not alone moment. And I can relate to you not just the service, but you prior to service, the way you grew up and what your backstory is, I think is so important. And I love that you’re capturing these stories and so many other service members before us who have now left this planet as it is today, didn’t tell their story. And we’ve lost so much history because it’s not there. So thank you for creating this capsule to, to capture the stories of these service members. Um, another thing from our prior conversation is that you always ask your guests about their wellness practice. Why is that such an important part of leadership? Why do you ask about that?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So another one of these, uh, you know, just coming from my own experience, uh, scenarios where it led me to being intrigued by how other people, uh, perceive and, you know, practice wellness, generally speaking. So, you know, I had the, you know, typical finishing service with a bunch of just bodily ailments and injuries and such. And what I realized is if I’m injured, uh, it’s very hard to focus on anything else. It’s very hard to achieve, to strive toward. I mean, you’re just, you’re just in a bad mental state, generally speaking. So I, you know, made my own mission, I’ll call it, to ensure that I understand how to just treat my own body and, you know, mental state in order to therefore be an entrepreneur, for example. Um, so that’s the background behind the why and then hearing how other people, you know, again, just embed wellness, whatever that means for them into their, you know, crazy, crazy life in terms of, you know, just time, right? How do you, how do you allocate time toward it? Um, I just find it to be interesting and good, uh, relatability insight for other people.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Have you told your story, Adam?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So I’ve been, uh, I’m frequent on on podcasts. Uh, okay. You know, it’s really funny about that question though, is, uh, I’m like terrible at it. I mean, like, this is I don’t like to. And that’s what’s really funny is, uh, is, um, I realized like the hypocrisy in that, uh, but I also realized that that’s not great. So meaning it’s, it’s, it’s good to be able to talk about your experience and it’s good to, you know, in a, um, uh, what’s the right word there? Um, but it’s, it’s healthy to, uh, and it’s very helpful, especially if it’s, you know, if you’re going through hardships for one reason or another. Um, so, you know, I do, I do recognize the hypocrisy in that, in that dynamic. Um, I’ve recently gotten a bit better. Um, but I, I more appreciate or like a conversation type dynamic versus a telling dynamic.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I, and I, I agree with you there as well. It’s hard to be on the other side of the microphone or the other.

Adam Stark: Side.

Trisha Stetzel: Of the screen telling your story. Right. Um, but I, I appreciate you answering that. And I don’t, I don’t see anything wrong with feeling that way. I, I love that you’re able to have people on who can tell their stories. And when you’re in a position and you’re comfortable, then you tell parts of your story and maybe someday someone will, um, host you on your own show. I’m just saying.

Adam Stark: Right. Exactly.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, another big topic, and this is one that really hit home for me when you and I had our initial conversation, is that you had mentioned you wanted to highlight more female veterans working in construction and the built environment. Um, why one, I’m curious about that. And two, why is that representation important? And what opportunities do you see for women in those industries?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So I mean, first of all, there, like just there’s like no women in the built environment in general. I mean, if like, you could obviously break this out into specific categories. So like construction for one, I mean, like just very few. Um, and then again, you just go to these other categories, like maybe there’s more in architecture. Anyways, through my experience and it’s just like general, like understanding, you just don’t come across women very frequently. Um, in terms of military Representation. Um, I don’t, I don’t know what it is or isn’t. All I know is that I am trying to find women to provide variety in our storytelling. Um, that said, I think for, for women in particular, um, one, it’s, it’s, it’s hard. Um, it could be hard industry to get involved in because it is so male dominated. So it’s almost like fraternal in that sense. Uh, though I think it’s very fun in that sense, meaning, you know, the guys per se will appreciate the fact that there is actually women involved in whatever process that exists in this, uh, in this industry.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So all the women veterans out there who are listening today that are in the construction and built environment, you got to reach out to Adam so you can get on the show. I’m just saying, please.

Adam Stark: Please, I’m trying.

Trisha Stetzel: I would, I think that’s fantastic. So, um, Adam, are you looking for? I mean, outside of my joke. Are you looking for guests for your show?

Adam Stark: Oh, yeah. I’m always. I’m always open. The criteria is, uh, very easy. It’s. They do serve. Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Next question. Uh, are you in the built environment? And you know, what I keep saying is it’s it’s generally loose in the sense that, uh, you know, again, construction, uh, real estate architecture, engineering. Uh, so it is pretty technology in the space. So it is pretty broad. So those are the really the two criteria. Uh, and, you know, obviously you want to, you want to share your story that’s, uh, you know, a given. So that’s really just the criteria only that.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Awesome. So Adam Stark is on LinkedIn. You need to look for jet. Jet dot build so you can find the right. Adam Stark he’s looking for guests for his show. And the criteria is not that hard. Looking ahead, Adam, what excites you the most about the future of both jet Dot build and the veterans who build show and the impact you hope you’ll have on the veteran community?

Adam Stark: Yeah. So with jet, uh, AI is the answer. Uh, so what AI has allowed us to do, uh, is essentially increase our output. And I mean, when I say output, you know, we’re a technology company. So that’s like computer engineering, right? So it’s like code to improve and enhance our product. So the advancement of technology, advancement of AI has allowed our engineering team to do 100 X. And it’s absolutely incredible. It’s mind boggling. It’s not something you could have understood by any means, like three years ago, maybe even only two years ago. And it only continues to get better. So that’s really exciting for us. Um, so that’s on the, on the jet side. On the veterans who build side. Um, you know, there have been a few, uh, national builders who have, uh, begun initiating interest in sponsoring the show, and why I’m excited about that is a few things. One is the goal is twofold. One, of course, it’s to therefore, you know, use that capital injected in the show and grow accordingly in terms of reach, ability to interview more people, so on and so forth. But on a more, uh, I’ll call it a better answer to, you know, directly answer a question. What the sponsorship will provide is connectivity with these national firms have, I say, national purpose because their presence across the country to start building programs for them to recruit, hire and retain veteran workforces. So that’s that’s the true goal of the show, is connecting with these national firms, leverage the knowledge base that we’re building to therefore create programing around, uh, recruit hire and retaining veteran workforces and hopefully plug in some of that workforce gap that exists.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t wait to see the future of both of these things. Your business, jet Dot build, as well as the Veterans Who Build show. Where can listeners find the show?

Adam Stark: Oh yeah, we’re on. We’re on all platforms. Um, full episodes release on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Um, and then shorts will be everywhere. So, you know, Facebook, Instagram, uh, recently TikTok, um, x, I mean, really just all, all the social platforms is you’ll be able to find shorts, which gives you, you know, a nice kind of like understanding taste to see what story you want to listen to and then maybe dive into the full, full episode. Uh, but you’ll find us, the veterans who build show on any of those socials.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Thank you for all of the amazing work that you’re doing. Gosh, uh, did you know that it was going to be this big when you first started?

Adam Stark: Well, you know, I hope to have a million subscribers versus the million views. But no, I didn’t have any expectations because, you know, again, the core. The core mission was just having conversations that I like to have anyways. Uh, and the fact that it’s grown to something, uh, is really energizing. So that’s really pushing me to just continue. Uh, so it’s really exciting. It’s, uh, it’s a really nice feeling.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I bet. Okay, you guys, you need to go subscribe, not just go views.

Adam Stark: Please. Yes. That helps.

Trisha Stetzel: Right here. Uh, all right, as we wrap up our conversation today, I have one last question for you. If a veteran who’s listening today is wondering what comes next after military service, what piece of advice would you leave them with?

Adam Stark: It is so easy. Go. Go on LinkedIn. Choose if you want focus, which I recommend. Focus on an industry, a company type, something that will give you kind of a filter per se. Go on LinkedIn, search within that focus within that filter for companies who like find people within those within those companies, potentially veterans in those companies really easy to do, right? It’s all just searching on LinkedIn, connect with them and ask them to have a conversation with you. Right? Start networking, start picking their brains, start understanding how, uh, you know, you can get involved in that company, how you can get hired, how you can advance your career, or you can find your new purpose. Uh, I am positive they will be willing to have a conversation with you, and you never know where that will take you.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my God. This is not the first time that I’ve heard that. Start networking before you get out. Start networking before you get out. I don’t think the internet existed when I got out. I’m just saying we barely had a computer in our house.

Adam Stark: It’s an amazing opportunity. It’s the way you do it from your phone. You don’t. You don’t need to. You do it anywhere from your phone. It’s very, very easy.

Trisha Stetzel: It is absolutely. Gosh, Adam, this has been so fantastic. All the nuggets. I’m so excited to see where jet Dot build goes, I can’t wait to hear the next series or episode that you have for the Veterans Who Build show, and I’ve really enjoyed our time together today. Thank you for being here with me.

Adam Stark: Likewise. Thanks so much for for having me on, Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Adam and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more of old business minds just like yours and your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.