(Click here for Part One of the Interview with Jake Wood, Cofounder and CEO of Team Rubicon, an incredible organization that serves communities by mobilizing veterans and first responders to continue their service by leveraging their skills and experience to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises, his phenomenal book ‘Once A Warrior’, and how they partner with brands like Home Depot, Under Armor and T-Mobile to help communities across America.)

Afdhel Aziz: Thank you for sharing that. Please tell us about your book and what prompted you to write it?

Jake Wood: As we approached the 10-year anniversary of Team Rubicon, I reflected on how far we had come from an original team of eight and thought it was time to share the story of the organization and my personal journey in the military and my own transition. And as a dad to two daughters, I knew this was a story I was going to have to share with them in the future.

Once a Warrior is a narrative on the true cost of war for those who returned home – and at a time when our country is more divided than ever, I wanted to share a story of hope with my fellow Americans. My goal is for readers to walk away from this book understanding the potential that our military veterans returning home from war have for society – we currently have over 10 million veterans across our communities in the U.S. that we can turn to and leverage their unique skills. After a volatile election and one of the most chaotic years in recent memory, including a pandemic and an historic hurricane season, many Americans are wondering what the future of our country holds, and I want people to believe our best days are ahead of us.

Aziz: I encourage everyone to read this book! Please tell us about the Team Rubicon brand and what it stands for?

Wood: From the beginning we wanted Team Rubicon to stand for something. We took a lot of pride in developing a brand that had attitude, that was distinct, and that would speak to our people.

We’ve always thrown around words like gritty and tenacious, and sought to reflect those attitudes in our external images and messaging. But we also wanted to reflect the tenderness and selflessness that defines our volunteers – people who are literally flying to communities they’ve never been to help people they’ve never met. And I think we have struck that balance well, because we were once told that our volunteers were a bunch of “Compassionate badasses.”

I thought we were getting the brand and culture right when I saw the first Team Rubicon tattoo inked on a volunteer’s arm. I knew we were getting it right when I saw the second, and the third, and the tenth, and the hundredth. It was at that point that I knew we hadn’t just built an organization, but a way of life that defined who our people were. That was powerful.

Aziz: Powerful indeed. Finally, who are some of the brands you’ve partnered with and who are some you think would be a perfect fit?

Wood: At the end of the day, we’ll cash anyone’s check (well, almost anyone’s), but we’ll only partner with companies and brands that align with our culture and values, and where there’s mutual benefit. That’s not always easy to find.

An example of an incredible partnership is one we currently have with UnderArmour. Our relationship with UnderArmour started when their founder, Kevin Plank joined us at our Hurricane Harvey response. After our first phone call he literally said, “I want to see your operation on the ground, like, tomorrow.” He was there the next day. That bias for action has come to define our partnership with UA.

Since that initial relationship, we have continued to expand our partnership with UnderArmour’s presence via mobile locker rooms at local operations, brand partnerships with Dwayne Johnson and Lindsay Vonn, and continued support across both of our organizations.

In other partnerships we have worked with mega-brands like T-Mobile, who was the leading sponsor of the 2017 World Series. In the aftermath of storms like Harvey and Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico, T-Mobile wanted to do more than just sell data packages to baseball fans. We partnered with them on #HR4HR, or Home Runs for Hurricane Relief and raised over $2 million that fall.

In other situations, the alignment is more organic. Take our partnership with The Home Depot. Home Depot has a long history of engaging in disaster relief because of their line of work and have also contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to veteran causes. So there are plenty of reasons why The Home Depot Foundation is one of TR’s longest-standing corporate partnership.

At the end of the day, we want our partners to see us as truly that, partners—thought partners, employee resource partners, and marketing partners.