The Finding Your Second Service (FYSS) Program is an online executive coaching program for military-connected aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and nonprofit leaders who want help finding their second service.
Below you will find a sample of FYSS Module 1 which consists of three lessons to help you start on a strength-based journey to discovering your second service. The full FYSS program is available in our Second Service Foundation Mighty Network application, and is only available to selected applicants.
We strongly encourage you to apply for the full version of FYSS so that you get the full benefit of the online modules and coaching experience. Plus, the Second Service Foundation will provide you with access to take the CliftonStrengths® assessment (a $20 value).
Learn More about the Application and Program Standards here.
Understanding Ikigai helps us broaden our perspective, and we realize that while “good ideas” are often “what the world needs,” they may involve tasks that we don’t love or perform well. This is why many entrepreneurs, though they have a passion, become frustrated when they discover it is not something they can easily get paid for.
Ikigai is a concept that has become widely known as a framework for how to live and work in a way that leads to more happiness and fulfillment. It means “Reason for Being.” After studying hundreds of happy elderly residents in the Ogimi Village of Okinawa, author Hector Garcia discovered that these residents lived out a combination of important components, resulting being happier, fulfilled, and actually adding to the longevity of their lives—a “state” of achieving Ikigai. While most of the Western world chase money, passion, or just a profession, Ikigai teaches that work doesn’t have to only be about income, but can (and should) bring joy.
More specifically, we can find our own Ikigai by answering four questions:
What do you love?
What are you good at?
What does the world need?
What can you get paid for?
Understanding Ikigai helps us broaden our perspective, and we realize that while “good ideas” are often “what the world needs,” they may involve tasks that we don’t love or perform well. This is why many entrepreneurs, though they have a passion, become frustrated when they discover it is not something they can easily get paid for.
Reflect on the seasons of your “first service.” Pause on the marking moments and experiences that made you come alive.
CliftonStrengths® Founder Don Clifton wrote that talents are your “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior.” They are the innate abilities you can productively apply. During the video, Corie and Matt discuss several examples of talented individuals, athletes, and musicians. To turn raw talents into strengths, you have to invest in them. Over the course of the Finding Your Second Service program, you will identify your talents and learn how to leverage those talents as you move forward on your entrepreneurial journey. In order to identify your talents, complete the Discovering Your Why questions below.
Answer the following questions. Your answers will be incredibly helpful as you start to narrow down how you will describe your strengths. Remember, we aren’t just looking for “I love cooking”; we are hoping to describe “why.”
What activities bring you joy? This is the “Passion” area of Ikigai where what you are good at meets with what you love. These are tasks or experiences that, when you finish them, you feel satisfied, proud, excited, or accomplished. It could be sitting alone with your to-do list, after a conversation with people, strategizing or planning into the future, or something else entirely. Don’t forget to think into your past, maybe even before you joined the military lifestyle.
What tasks or experiences do you find yourself losing track of time? This could be working alone, reflective thinking, or talking with others, but try to narrow down what exactly you are doing when you find yourself “in the flow.” For example, if you are sitting at your desk, are you losing time researching, organizing, planning, or something else?
What do others say you do really well? Think about what your colleagues, family, and friends would say you do really well. Not sure? This is a chance to ask for feedback and bring others into your journey.
What tasks or experiences from your first service did you feel exceptionally good at? What did others come to you for? What do you wish you could have done more of? Think about keywords that showed up on evaluation reports or were verbally shared with you by others (e.g., love of details, admin, competitive drive, people skills).
Looking for talents on our own through reflection and feedback from others is certainly a great start, however, there are great and effective tools that can help us put a name to our strengths. Being able to name our strengths is not only helpful for identifying them in our daily life but especially important when we need to communicate and collaborate with others.
There are two assessments, built on the same foundational principles, that we recommend. Second Service does not profit from these assessments, but sees them as a tool for taking your entrepreneurial journey to the next level. If you apply and are accepted into the Finding Your Second Service Program, you will have access to the CliftonStrengths® assessment and your top 5 themes for free. If you chose not to apply, we encourage you to take the Stand Out Assessment linked below. Keep reading to learn more about each strength-based assessment.
“Stand Out Assessment” is a free 15 minute assessment created by Marcus Buckingham that “reveals how others experience you, in a personalized report with practical coaching insights.” Marcus was one of the early leading contributors in Gallup’s focus on strengths in leadership and work. The Stand Out Assessment provides a high-level look at what roles most likely fit your strengths.
The CliftonStrengths by Gallup is our recommendation. As part of the Finding Your Second Service program, you will receive a code to access the CliftonStrengths® assessment and your top 5 themes at no cost to you. This assessment takes 30-45 minutes to complete, and you must do it when no one can interrupt you as you only have 20 seconds to answer each question. The assessment is 177 paired statements, and you choose which statement best describes you. The assessment measures your unique talents — your natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving — and categorizes them into the 34 CliftonStrengths® themes.
At this point, you can choose to take the Stand Out Assessment or apply for the full Finding Your Second Service (FYSS) program. If selected to participate in FYSS, you will receive access to the full four-module online program, the FYSS Community, a code to complete the CliftonStrengths® Assessment, your assessment results, plus an exclusive FYSS workbook with activities and guides to help you understand and apply your strengths to your life. In addition, you will also receive a one-hour executive coaching session after you complete the online course.
Find answers to the most asked questions about the Finding Your Second Service Program.
Don’t see your question below? Check out the expanded FYSS Frequently Asked Question page.
The first portion of the Finding Your Second Service program is four hours of curated content from our team of Executive Coaches. During the curriculum, you will be expected to take the CliftonStrengths® assessment. The second portion of the program will include live one-on-one coaching with a member of our Executive Coaching team. Our coaches will review your assessment results with you, as well as discuss the reflective homework assignments completed during the first portion of the program.
This is an online program, so it goes wherever you are! There are no physical meet-ups for this course, so geography is not a concern for Participants.
This program is completely free to our participants, thanks to sponsorship by the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families. While it is an exclusive program that requires application and acceptance, this career-coaching program is given at no cost to our Participants.
Absolutely! This program is for entrepreneurs of all stages, whether you are in ideation or have been in business for years. Our esteemed coaches will meet you wherever you are in your entrepreneurial journey.
Absolutely! This program is for entrepreneurs of all stages, whether you are in ideation or have been in business for years. Our esteemed coaches will meet you wherever you are in your entrepreneurial journey.
There are four hours of videos throughout the program, which is self-paced. The expectation is for you to complete the digital coursework and schedule your coaching session with one of our executive coaches within a two-week period. The scheduled coaching session(s) may fall outside of the two-week time frame based on availability.
