Wasilla Chamber of Commerce honors military during special luncheon

An annual tradition of the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce is to pause for a while to honor the men and women who are serving or have served the military with a Military Appreciation Lunch.

“The Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce hosts our Military Appreciation Luncheon so we can take a moment to thank and show our appreciation for those who have served, those who are currently serving, and those who have chosen this road ahead of you,” said Brain Heddings, Chair of the GWCC at the luncheon, held on May 21, 2024. “The military is a large part of our community, especially here in the (Mat-Su) Valley, as well as the entire state of Alaska. There are many veterans that we can count on as business leaders of the Mat-Su Valley, and we greatly appreciate every one,” he said, thanking attendees for honoring the military members and veterans in attendance.

“Each service has a proud history and a distinct mission that fulfills our country, and keeps our country safe throughout the world,” Heddings said before observing a moment of silence for the military members, past and present.

Guest speaker for the luncheon was Dr. Sean McPeck, founder of Tier-1 Veterinary Medical Center in Wasilla. He served as a Sniper, Team Leader, and Veterinarian with US Spec Ops Command in the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, and spoke about how his military experiences helped establish his small business.

“One of the things I became accustomed to in the military was everybody we knew was replaceable. Everybody was going to get orders and leave or get ranked up. So what did we do that was so important, that we keep that integrity in there was cross-training.” Dr. McPeck explained that every procedure was written down, kept in training manuals or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) so if a team member was leaving, the next person could come in and take on the job, know what to do, something he carries into his business model.

“One of the things I found is that if you don’t have your processes in SOPs, where somebody can come in and immediately see who to contact, what goes where, and that person leaves, gets sick, whatever it is, you lose that person, it can impact your business to a point of failure.”

He also spoke about toxic cultures in workplaces that he observed as he was working in different veterinary clinics, with some people giving wide berth to technicians, and leaders not willing to counsel toxic behaviors out of fear of losing someone.

“It becomes very toxic because the leadership is unwilling or scared to counsel someone, talk to someone, or do corrective training, so that person becomes a grenade. You get new people in, and all of the sudden, that people don’t want to be there,” he said, adding that often what happens is people either go to a new job for the culture or the pay.

Dr. McPeck said another thing he has carried over is the rank systems used by enlisted and officers in every branch of service. He told attendees that he took the rank structure from the military, realizing that the pride he felt when he would earn promotions was an extrinsic motivator for himself and he sees it within his staff.

He used the example of a brand-new technician at his facility is only able to perform one task-cleaning kennels. And they wear a different colored set of scrubs so everyone can see who that person is, and it serves as a motivator.

“They don’t want to be different; they want to rank up. Once they do rank up and get the same color scrubs as everyone else, there’s an incentive there, wanting to be part of the team.” Dr. McPeck explains that as new staff members learn new and necessary skills, they earn chevrons that everyone understands, making it easier for other veterinarians to know who what can do, thus making a more efficient team.

He said the importance of what he learned and carried over from the military-always training, always learning, and always working towards a goal-has been vital to the success of his business.

“If you have goals, you work hard and you achieve. That has allowed me to continue to grow without becoming stagnant.”