Robert Graves

Robert is a 10-year Marine Corps veteran who prides himself on living with the Marine Corps values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment. Growing up an athlete and an entertainer, Graves found himself with the ability to be a natural leader on the court, in the military, as well as around his peers and community.  

Resilience and determination are the foundations of who he is today. Believing that the greatest lessons learned are after a loss, he uses all aspects of life as tools for learning and teaching. He believes that there is a direct connection with the belief in oneself and the ability to succeed, and even though no outcome is guaranteed, he knows that the thrill is in the fight–and the fight is in the mind.

"If you can learn something from a mistake, it wasn't a failure... it was a lesson"

The fight to succeed has become Robert’s life story. With a firm belief that if there’s a will–there’s a way, he has accomplished many great achievements, such as authoring "How to Grow a Beard: A Military Transition Guide back into Civilian Life,"  which contains the cumulative lessons learned from the 6-year transition of trying to fit back into the world that he once knew, while trying to simultaneously figure out how to work in the civilian sector.  The book's release caught attention of many other vets with similar stories of struggle, loss-of-identity, loss-of-hope, confusion, celebrations... and the more veterans Graves ran into with these incredible stories of their own transitions, #YearOfTheVet was born. 

The book, combined with the podcast that gives open floor to share their own lessons learned to the vets who've already gone down their own roads of struggle, caught the attention of the California Disabled American Veterans... and in the Summer of '17– Graves was awarded the Outstanding Veteran of the Year! "The fight isn't for my benefit anymore... I do this to pull the rest of my veteran family up with me!"

"I don't want to be on my Yacht alone" - Lorenzo McNulty

Graves has earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from University of Maryland-Aldephi, Master’s degree in Sports Psychology from the California State University, Northridge, as well as received the Director’s award and graduated with Honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in his studies to become a Certified Hypnotherapist.  Currently he is studying for his Masters of Business for Veterans (MBV) at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and working to obtain his Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) certification.