I'm Lang.
I went to the Naval Academy and spent just over five years as a Surface Warfare Officer, about two and a half of them at sea. First an amphibious transport dock out of Norfolk, then Navigator on a ballistic missile defense destroyer out of San Diego. Two deployments, one off Libya, one running missile defense in the South China Sea during COVID.
I was about 80% sure I'd stay in for a career. Then I hit a command with a culture that wore me down, and the fix was supposed to be my next set of orders. I got my first choice. I got there and found I'd traded one bad culture for another.
Somewhere in there I stopped wanting the career I'd planned, and it took me a long time to say so out loud.
The conversation that started this
At a Fourth of July party, an older guy who'd been in the Navy asked if I was planning to stay in. I told him I didn't think I was. It was the first time I'd said it to anybody.
He took me to lunch a week later. Gave me two books and three names, and made a point that hadn't occurred to me: figuring out what you want to do next is mostly just talking to people already doing it.
That's the whole beginning. One person asking a direct question and then not letting it drop.
What I got wrong first
My mentors told me defense program management was where my experience fit and where the money was. So that's what I told people I wanted. It felt like a costume every time I said it, and it took me a while to understand that the discomfort was information.
What actually worked was volume. I set a goal of three new outreaches a day and got nothing back for two weeks. I kept a spreadsheet: name, company, how I knew them, what they did, and a rating out of ten for every conversation. Eventually I sorted it and the pattern said something I hadn't been able to say myself. Tech. Marketing and product management. San Diego.
It took two years. Civilian Compass is that process built into software, so it doesn't take you two years.
Now
I'm a Staff Product Marketing Manager at Intuit, where I built the product marketing function for the Pro Tax business from the ground up. I've got an MBA from UC San Diego's Rady School of Management, and I run the San Diego chapter of the Product Marketing Alliance, the largest PMA chapter in the world.
I've taught for FourBlock for three years, which is also where I went through the program myself. My biggest takeaway from it was that not every veteran needs to become a program manager. That idea is most of why this platform exists.
I live in San Diego with my wife, two kids, a dog, and five chickens. I lift, I watch the Steelers, and I read more fantasy and sci-fi than I probably should. Turns out location really was the variable I wasn't willing to move on.
Veteran community
- FourBlock - presenter and instructor, three years
- Civilian Compass - founder
Product marketing
- PMA Launch Conference - Chair
- PMM Jam - participant
- San Diego PMA chapter - founder and leader
Podcasts
- Product Marketing Adventures
- SaaS Therapy
- In the Booth with Garus Booth
Coming up
- Veteran podcast appearance, booked
If you've read this far and ever want to get my attention, know that I am physically unable to leave a message about the Pittsburgh Steelers unanswered.
If you want to talk, I host office hours every week.