Commission Express Founder Leverages Skills Honed through Military Service to Empower Franchisees and Clients
- Commission Express co-founder President and CEO John Stedman enlisted in the Marines in 1966 and served as a helicopter door gunner during the Vietnam War.
- Stedman worked on presidential aircraft as a member of Marine Helicopter Squadron One and, as a civilian, on Air Force One.
- His veteran-founded franchise, Commission Express, helps ease real estate professionals’ cash flow challenges by purchasing their sales commissions at a discount prior to their closings.
John Stedman remembers his father’s reaction when he told him he’d enlisted in the Marine Corps. It was 1966, and the U.S. was escalating its involvement in the Vietnam War.
“When I graduated from high school in ’66, everybody was going to go to Vietnam unless you could get a deferment. And up where I was from, in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, most of us couldn’t afford to go to college, so it was just a matter of time before I got my brown envelope in the mail with my draft notice,” Stedman says.
“My dad was a lumberjack and I was helping him in the woods. When I told him I’d joined the Marines, he said my life expectancy just went up quite a bit,” Stedman says, chuckling. “I told him, ‘I guess you don’t think much of me in the woods.’”
A Veteran-Founded Franchise
Stedman proved his dad right, surviving a perilous tour of duty as a helicopter door gunner during some of the deadliest days of the Vietnam War. His four years in the Marines “probably had more to do with what little success I’ve enjoyed than anything else,” he said in an interview published by the nonprofit Lutheran Military Support Group, which he co-founded.
Today, Stedman leads Commission Express, which he founded in 1992 with a Navy veteran, the late Joe Giovannelli. The partners, both real estate brokers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, sought to provide a solution to cash flow challenges faced by agents and brokers. Their mission: “to empower real estate professionals by providing fast, reliable access to the income they’ve already earned.”
Their pioneering business model is based on a specialized form of invoice factoring that involves the purchase at a discount of earned sales commissions prior to real estate closings. The veteran-founded franchise has advanced more than $1 billion in real estate commissions during its 30-plus-year history, and has almost 40 franchise locations across the U.S., with prime territories available.
Veterans in Franchising
As veterans, the Commission Express founders were in good company when they began franchising in 1996. Although military veterans make up about 7% of the U.S. population, they account for 14% of franchise owners, according to the International Franchise Association.
Franchising appeals to vets for several reasons – and vice versa. Skills and traits honed in the military contribute to veterans’ success in franchising. These include the following, according to a Forbes article:
“Years of leading teams under pressure translate directly into managing staff, building trust and motivating employees. The operational discipline instilled through service mirrors a franchise’s playbook-driven systems, allowing veterans to follow proven processes while knowing when and how to adapt. The ability to make sound decisions in complex, high-stakes environments helps navigate the inevitable challenges of business ownership.”
High-Stakes Environments
Following boot camp, Stedman trained as an aircraft hydraulics mechanic with the CH-53 Sea Stallion, the U.S. military’s largest helicopter, and the AH-1G Cobra helicopter. Then came his orders for Vietnam.
Stedman was assigned to Marine Light Helicopter Squadron 167, which played a critical role in top-secret “Prairie Fire” missions that involved dropping reconnaissance teams into enemy zones. He served as a door gunner on the UH-1E Huey gunship. “That was probably some of the most exciting flying that you could possibly do in those days because we’d put those teams in, and lots of times those teams would make contact with North Vietnamese troops and we’d have to pull them out under fire,” he says.
Looking back on his combat experience, Stedman acknowledges the danger. “But when you’re young, you’re invincible. You never really think about it. I never thought about it too much until I got home. And, you know, until after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall was built. And I know quite a few boys on that wall. That’s when you get the jitters. I could have easily been there.”
After almost a year in Vietnam, Stedman learned he was being transferred back to the U.S. to join Marine Helicopter Squadron One, or HMX-1, which was in charge of presidential aircraft. That transfer probably saved his life, he says. “We were starting to lose crew after crew on a lot of the missions that we flew. The North Vietnamese were starting to come down from up north, and they were getting a lot smarter in how to handle us.”
Champagne at the White House
Back stateside, life couldn’t have been more different. Working on the president’s aircraft was prestigious and brought perks, including being invited by President Nixon to the White House Christmas party. “Most of us had never drank Champagne, but after about three glasses, we were rocking and rolling.”
After four years in the Marines, Stedman decided not to re-enlist. He took a civilian job at Andrews Air Force Base working on Air Force One. But his priorities were changing; he had met the woman who would become his wife (together above).
Stedman also had started forging a new career path. He was attending college classes at night on the GI Bill, earning his associate’s degree in real estate management and obtaining his real estate license.
Now married for 54 years, John and LaVonne Stedman (above) have three daughters and four grandchildren. One of their sons-in-law is a Commission Express franchise owner.
To learn more about opportunities with the veteran-founded franchise, visit Commission Express.
