Transition Drill

Paul Pantani
  • 5.0 (43)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Transition Drill is hosted by Paul Pantani, a retired law enforcement Commander with over 30 years of service. Each episode features conversations with guests, including veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, as well as police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, sharing their transition journeys and lessons learned. Topics include military-to-civilian career readiness, mental health, trauma, PTS, and success strategies.

  1. 229. I know it’s Only Rock n’ Roll, but I’m a Navy SEAL | Electric Mud Singer and Guitarist. Marc Hansen

    10H AGO

    229. I know it’s Only Rock n’ Roll, but I’m a Navy SEAL | Electric Mud Singer and Guitarist. Marc Hansen

    Marc Hansen, a former Navy SEAL, in Episode 229 of the Transition Drill Podcast. This time, explore identity after service for veterans and first responders, navigating the shift from team structure to self-directed responsibility. You’ll hear Marc Hansen on choosing a renewed mission through music after the SEAL Teams, and what it takes to own your transition without drifting. Marc Hansen served six years in the Navy and has been out about ten years. He’s direct about what changed him most: once you’re out, it’s on you, and that responsibility hits different than anything inside the military system. A turning point shows up early. Midway through his first deployment, Marc was already thinking about getting out. When he returned, he learned his younger brother was injured in training and didn’t make it through the pipeline. Marc made a decision in that moment: when his time was up, he was getting out and they were going to rock and roll together. That choice connects to the way he defines “success” in music: writing songs, playing them live, and hearing a crowd sing them back. The conversation also gets into the family context. Marc describes a home where service was normal, with a mix of Navy and first responder work across siblings, and a longer thread of Navy service in earlier generations. He’s from Staten Island, talks about growing up in a tight neighborhood, and how that environment shaped him before the military. Before the Teams, he aimed at art school, attended FIT in Manhattan, then shifted toward work, travel, and eventually committing to BUD/S. He doesn’t romanticize it. Swimming didn’t come easy, he struggled, and then found a partner dynamic that helped him perform beyond what he expected. The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. Follow the show and share it with another veteran or first responder who would enjoy this. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com EPISODE BLOG PAGE AND CONNECT WITH MARChttps://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com/post/transition-drill-podacst-this-former-navy-seal-is-a-rock-n-roller-electric-mud-marc-hansen SPONSORS: GRND Collective Get 15% off your purchase Link: https://thegrndcollective.com/ Promo Code: TRANSITION15 Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10 Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10

    1h 51m
  2. Control the Narrative: Preparing Your Career Story Before Military or First Responder Transition

    4D AGO

    Control the Narrative: Preparing Your Career Story Before Military or First Responder Transition

    In Round 104 of the Tactical Transition Tips on the Transition Drill Podcast, transition doesn’t just test your resume, it tests your reputation, especially if you’re a veteran or first responder whose career can be judged by optics instead of context. If you don’t own your story with calm clarity, someone else will shape it for you, and you’ll be stuck responding instead of leading. In this Tactical Transition Tips episode, you’re going to look at a transition stressor that rarely gets talked about early in a career: the “trailer” you tow into every interview, background, lateral process, and post-service environment, even when you did your job professionally for years. In high-liability professions, being cleared doesn’t always mean being untouched, and pieces of your history can linger through investigations, complaints, policy reviews, rumors, or public attention. This isn’t about spinning your story or pretending nothing happened. It’s about being prepared to explain your career with accuracy and credibility, without defensiveness, over-explaining, or blame. Your narrative already exists. The only question is whether you take ownership of it before someone else reads it back to you in a hiring process. You’ll hear what “control the narrative” actually means in practice: clear facts, clear outcomes, and clear lessons, delivered with professional tone, because credibility lives in how you carry the explanation, not in a perfectly polished line. Close Range Group (transitioning within a year): Own Your Story Before Someone Else Does — Identify the moments that could raise questions and write a factual explanation: what happened, what the outcome was, and what you learned. You’re doing this now so you don’t get forced into a reactive, emotional explanation when the stakes are highest. Medium Range Group (transitioning in 3 to 5 years): Choose mentors who will vouch for character, not just skill — Build relationships with people who’ve watched how you operate over time, then tighten your habits in writing and communication so your reputation holds up even when something gets read out of context. Long Range Group (transitioning in a decade or more): Live like everything is reviewable — Operate with discipline and professionalism now, because most career damage comes from patterns, and patterns are what people use to decide whether they trust you later. Get additional resources and join our newsletter via the link in the show notes. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com EPISODE BLOG PAGE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com/post/tactical-transition-tips-control-the-narrative-career-story-for-veterans-and-first-responders SPONSORS: Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10 Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10

    22 min
  3. How Waiting for Reassurance and Permission is Holding You Back in Making Decisions

    5D AGO

    How Waiting for Reassurance and Permission is Holding You Back in Making Decisions

    If you’re someone who keeps waiting for reassurance before you move or make a decision, this Mindset Debrief episode is for you. It addresses the pattern and shows how it turns capable people into hesitant decision-makers. You’ll see what it’s costing you in momentum and self-trust, and you’ll leave with a practical way to act while uncertainty’s still present. A lot of people assume they’re delaying because they’re being careful. The research points to a more uncomfortable driver. Avoidance often shows up as emotion regulation, not bad time management. When a task or decision stirs up tension, the brain looks for quick relief, and delay becomes a short-term mood fix. Reassurance works the same way. It can lower anxiety for a moment, but it teaches you to treat discomfort as a problem that needs to be removed before you’re “allowed” to act. In clinical research, excessive reassurance-seeking is tied to worsening depressive symptoms and strained relationships, partly because it can pull other people into a loop that never really resolves the fear underneath. This gets louder when you’ve got a low tolerance for uncertainty. Intolerance of uncertainty reliably predicts higher anxiety, and it pushes people toward behaviors that feel safe in the moment, like checking, overplanning, and seeking repeated confirmation. In decision-making research, that “safety behavior” can backfire by keeping you dependent on certainty you can’t actually secure. Springer So this episode draws a hard line between two things that get confused: information and permission. Information helps you make a better call. Permission is emotional outsourcing. If you can’t tell the difference, you’ll keep collecting opinions long after you’ve already got enough to decide. We talk through what reassurance-seeking looks like in real life at work and at home, why it feels responsible, and how it quietly trains you to distrust your own judgment. Then we shift the standard you’re using. You’re not waiting for confidence. You’re waiting for discomfort to go away. It won’t. The move is learning to decide with it still there, and to treat self-trust as something you practice, not something you earn from other people. Share this episode with someone who could benefit from the information. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com SPONSORS: Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10

    14 min
  4. 228. Navy Diver’s Career Ending Injury: Identity Loss and Civilian Transition Struggle. Tommy McConnell

    12/29/2025

    228. Navy Diver’s Career Ending Injury: Identity Loss and Civilian Transition Struggle. Tommy McConnell

    Episode 228 of Transition Drill Podcast explores identity loss, career-ending injury, and post-service reinvention for Navy Divers and military professionals navigating an unexpected transition. You’ll hear Tommy McConnell on the psychological crash that followed his 2018 diving injury, and what it actually took to rebuild purpose, competence, and direction after the uniform came off. Tommy’s story begins well before the injury. He walks through his decision to join the Navy, shipping to boot camp in May, 2011, and earning his place in the Navy Diver community. He explains the pride that came with mastering a demanding craft and the quiet confidence built through repetition, competence, and trust in teammates. That foundation carried him into real-world operations, including the high-profile F/A-18 recovery mission in the Persian Gulf, where technical skill and discipline mattered more than recognition. In 2018, everything changed. A career-ending diving injury shut the door on Navy diving and forced a transition he wasn’t mentally prepared for. Tommy shares his blunt story of what came next. He describes a bad period after leaving the Navy marked by depression, loss of identity, and a sense that the skills that once defined him no longer had a place. Like many veterans and first responders, he struggled with the silence that follows service, when structure disappears and no one is telling you where you belong next. What makes this conversation valuable is how specific Tommy is about climbing out of that hole. He didn’t reinvent himself from scratch. He leveraged what he already knew. Drawing on his dive background, he entered the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle industry, first as a contractor operating UUV systems, then progressing into a role with a San Diego-based company where he now trains and mentors other UUV operators. The work restored competence, responsibility, and a sense of contribution. At the same time, Tommy revisited something he had put on hold while on active duty. He resurrected his clothing brand, 15 Fathoms, not as a hobby but as a deliberate reclaiming of ownership and identity outside the Navy. This episode speaks directly to veterans and first responders facing forced transitions, medical retirements, or identity loss after service. Tommy’s experience shows that recovery isn’t about finding something entirely new. It’s about reconnecting with what you already know, taking responsibility for your next chapter, and rebuilding purpose one decision at a time. The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. Follow the show and share it with another veteran or first responder who would enjoy this. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com EPISODE BLOG PAGE AND CONNECT WITH TOMMY: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com/post/transition-drill-podcast-tommy-mcconnell-navy-diver-veteran-career-ending-injury-medical-separation SPONSORS: GRND Collective Get 15% off your purchase Link: https://thegrndcollective.com/ Promo Code: TRANSITION15 Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10 Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10

    1h 59m
  5. Preventing Transition Overload for Veterans and First Responders: Exit Strategies for Civilian Life

    12/25/2025

    Preventing Transition Overload for Veterans and First Responders: Exit Strategies for Civilian Life

    In Round 103 of the Tactical Transition Tips on the Transition Drill Podcast, some mornings you wake up and you’re already behind, not on tasks, but in your head. The list isn’t a list anymore. It’s a pile. Career decisions collide with money decisions. Money decisions collide with family pressure. Family pressure collides with location, timing, and the question you keep dodging: what happens when your current lane ends. This episode is about transition overload, what it actually is, how it sneaks in, and why it’s dangerous even when you’re still performing well. Transition overload isn’t being busy. It’s too many major decisions competing for the same mental space at the same time. When that happens, you don’t just feel tired. Your judgment gets less accurate. You start bouncing between tasks, chasing quick relief instead of clear outcomes. You either rush decisions to collapse the pile, avoid decisions by staying in research mode, or do a little of everything and finish nothing. The point here isn’t to grind harder. It’s to protect decision quality. Because the quiet risk of overload is the quiet decision. The one you make just to reduce uncertainty. The one that turns into a path you didn’t fully choose. This episode breaks down the difference between pressure with order and pressure without order, and why the second one feels endless. It also gives you three practical moves based on your timeline, so you can keep your transition deliberate instead of reactive. Close Range Group (transitioning within a year): Sequence Your Transition, Don’t Pile It. Pick one primary lane for the next 60 to 90 days and put everything else in maintenance mode so you stop burning bandwidth on competing priorities. Medium Range Group (transitioning in 3 to 5 years): Reassess Your “Wish” List. Write out the expectations you’ve been carrying and renegotiate what still fits so you don’t build a future plan around an outdated version of yourself. Long Range Group (transitioning in a decade or more): Put Buffers in Place to Avoid Panic Choices. Build financial, skill, and personal buffers now so future decisions don’t get made under threat when timelines change fast. If you’ve felt friction instead of focus, this episode will help you spot what’s happening and slow the pile down before it shrinks your options. Get additional resources and join our newsletter via the link in the show notes. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com SPONSORS: Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10 GRND Collective Get 15% off your purchase Link: https://thegrndcollective.com/ Promo Code: TRANSITION15

    21 min
  6. Stop Letting Past Pain Define Who You Are and How You Live Your Life

    12/24/2025

    Stop Letting Past Pain Define Who You Are and How You Live Your Life

    The Mindset Debrief: Gaining perspective on what hits you hard and not making it your identity Pain has a way of hanging around longer than it should. Not because you want it to, but because it keeps offering itself as protection. One hard hit turns into a default posture. You start bracing early. You assume the worst faster. You call it boundaries, but it can turn into walls. You call it self-awareness, but it can turn into a script that plays before anything even happens. In this episode, we’re looking at the difference between pain as a teacher and pain as an identity. Pain can sharpen judgment, clarify what you value, and show you what you won’t tolerate again. But if it isn’t processed, it doesn’t stay in its corner. It leaks into how you speak, how you trust, how you handle stress, and how people experience you in a room. It can start to feel like control, even when it’s costing you more than it’s protecting you. This episode offers specifics about what it looks like when pain becomes personality, and what changes when pain becomes perspective. Perspective doesn’t erase what happened. It organizes it. It puts the experience in the right place so it can inform decisions without running them. You’ll hear the shift in the questions too. Not “What did this do to me,” but “What did this teach me.” Not “How do I make sure this never happens again,” but “How do I move forward without carrying this into everything.” Information is also presented regarding personal responsibility without pretending pain didn’t matter. Explanation isn’t exemption. At some point, what happened to you can’t be the reason you stop working on yourself. We’ll talk about how processed pain sounds different than unprocessed pain, how absolutist thinking narrows the future, and why maturity often looks like catching old reactions before they become default. If you’ve felt yourself tightening up, getting more guarded, or living like your hardest chapter is the whole book, this episode is built for that moment. Share this episode with someone who could benefit from the information. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com SPONSORS: GRND Collective Get 15% off your purchase Link: https://thegrndcollective.com/ Promo Code: TRANSITION15

    13 min
  7. 227. The Marine Corps: An Escape from the Streets, Jail, and Death. Now he's a Comedian. Michael D'Angelo

    12/22/2025

    227. The Marine Corps: An Escape from the Streets, Jail, and Death. Now he's a Comedian. Michael D'Angelo

    Michael D’Angelo, a Marine and now Rapid Fire Comedy Tour, in Episode 227 of the Transition Drill Podcast. This episode traces Michael D’Angelo’s path. Today, he's a comedian and the founder of the Rapid Fire Comedy Tour, but his life went from a chaotic childhood in Las Vegas to a deliberate decision to leave everything familiar behind and join the Marine Corps. It is not a redemption arc built on hindsight or polish. It is a clear account of how instability, exposure to violence, and constant proximity to bad outcomes shaped a young man who knew early that staying meant losing.Michael grew up in a home defined by addiction, financial collapse, and constant movement. His father went from successful construction business owner to struggling laborer. His mother drifted in and out, leaving long stretches of absence and unpredictability. By elementary school, Michael was changing schools almost every year. By middle school, the streets had become his community. Not because he wanted crime, but because he wanted connection, structure, and a sense of belonging that wasn’t available at home.The turning point came on the Fourth of July when a street fight escalated and Michael was slashed across the face with a straight razor. Thirty-two stitches later, the scar became permanent. The lesson was immediate. Staying meant prison, death, or something close enough not to matter. Within months, he left high school, earned his GED, and walked into a recruiter’s office with one objective: get out.His entry into the Marine Corps was fast and imperfect. He took the first contract available, asked few questions, and left home at seventeen. Boot camp was not a shock. It was stability. Regular meals, sleep, expectations, and accountability. For the first time, life made sense. The Marine Corps didn't go as he had planned.This episode matters to veterans and first responders because it shows how early environments shape risk tolerance, decision-making, and identity long before a uniform is involved. Michael’s story isn’t about being saved by service. It’s about choosing structure when disorder becomes the default, and accepting responsibility before the cost becomes irreversible. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com EPISODE BLOG PAGE AND CONNECT WITH MICHAELhttps://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com/post/transition-drill-podcast-from-chaos-to-comedy-the-marine-corps-saved-his-life-michael-dangelo SPONSORS: GRND Collective Get 15% off your purchase Link: https://thegrndcollective.com/ Promo Code: TRANSITION15 Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10 Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10

    2h 15m
  8. What Follows You After the Uniform: Career Transition Advice for Veterans and First Responders

    12/18/2025

    What Follows You After the Uniform: Career Transition Advice for Veterans and First Responders

    In Round 102 of the Tactical Transition Tips on the Transition Drill Podcast, your transition doesn’t begin with paperwork or a final day on the job. It begins much earlier, often quietly, when structure starts doing more of the work than intention. For people who built their identity inside disciplined professions, the danger isn’t failure after transition, it’s drift. Old habits. Old circles. Old coping mechanisms that no longer fit the life ahead, but remain familiar enough to feel safe. This episode focuses on one critical idea: if you don’t deliberately decide what you’re leaving behind, it will follow you forward. Careers built on structure, hierarchy, and mission provide a powerful container. When that container loosens or disappears, responsibility shifts inward. Without planning, the same discipline that once kept everything aligned can dissolve into complacency, isolation, or reactive decision-making. This episode breaks transition preparation into three distinct timelines, recognizing that preparation looks different depending on how close someone is to leaving a structured career. Each group is given a specific focus designed to reduce risk, preserve identity, and support long-term stability beyond a uniform, badge, or rank. Transition Group Guidance: • Close Range Group (transitioning now to within 12 months): Audit What Still Pulls You Backwards. Identify people, routines, and environments that undermine progress, and create distance now so they don’t quietly shape your next career. • Medium Range Group (transitioning in 3–5 years): Build a New Tribe Before You Need It. Begin forming relationships outside your current organization so support, mentorship, and perspective already exist when the transition begins. • Long Range Group (transitioning in 10+ years): Decide Early Who You Refuse to Become. Establish clear identity guardrails and small daily habits that prevent long-term drift into bitterness, stagnation, or unhealthy metrics of success. This episode isn’t about motivation. It’s about awareness, discipline, and ownership. Transition outcomes are rarely determined at the moment of exit. They are shaped years earlier by the decisions people make when no one is forcing them to prepare. This round lays out how to do that work early, deliberately, and without drama. Get additional resources and join our newsletter via the link in the show notes. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST: IG: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/ WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/ SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER: https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#about QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: paul@transitiondrillpodcast.com SPONSORS: Frontline Optics Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://frontlineoptics.com Promocode: Transition10 Blue Line Roasting Get 10% off your purchase Link: https://bluelineroasting.com Promocode: Transition10

    22 min
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5
out of 5
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About

The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Transition Drill is hosted by Paul Pantani, a retired law enforcement Commander with over 30 years of service. Each episode features conversations with guests, including veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, as well as police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, sharing their transition journeys and lessons learned. Topics include military-to-civilian career readiness, mental health, trauma, PTS, and success strategies.

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Pantani
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    368
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Paul Pantani
  • Show Website
    Transition Drill

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