Veteran-created business teaches self defense in Cedar Park

CEDAR PARK, Texas - In Cedar Park, there is a thriving veteran-created business that's now nationwide. It specializes in teaching people self-defense skills.

It's called Sheepdog Response. Ju Jit Zu training is just one part of the overall mission of the business, which is to train people to defend themselves and their families by whatever means, from the time when trouble starts, until the police arrive.

Firearms training is a primary focus, which Sheepdog Response does in Cedar Park, and across the country.

There are other businesses covering everything from nutrition, mentorship and a gun store to security consulting. All of this was the vision of Tim Kennedy, a Green Beret who joined the Army after 911.

It was quite the transition from firefights in Afghanistan to entrepreneurship in Central Texas, and Kennedy credits much of this to his training in the Army.

"The military gives you leadership, they teach you how to communicate effectively, the processes the military just hands you are the things Fortune 500 companies try to train their execs through trial and error over countless new people. Fail...try....fail...try the military hands that to you," said Kennedy.

Kennedy said his path to success was not easy, and while he stuck with something he knew, making it happen required a lot of self-belief.

"With discipline and intention, work hard consistently over time, you'll be far ahead of anyone else. With a little hard work applied consistently over time, nobody can keep up with that," said Kennedy.

Most of the 30 full-time staff are veterans, as well. 

Director of training Iako Kilili said a successful transition from military to civilian begins with having your own plan.

"The absence of direction causes lots of vets to spiral down. What am I going to do with my life? Everybody says they can't wait to get out, but when they do, they don't have a plan, that's where the spiraling begins," said Kilili.

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Something else, he said vets need to recognize, is differences between the military work culture and civilian culture in the workplace.

"We are built for mission first, but civilians don't feel that way. Civilians are 'I'm here 9 to 5 and that's it.' That's hard for military people because they're about getting the mission done regardless of the time. That's the thing we have to get over. I'm only working from this time to that, the rest of the time is for me. That's the hardest transition, they'll look at co-workers, and they're like, 'why don't you care about this as much as I do,'" Kilili said.

Completing the mission certainly drives Tim Kennedy. During his deployments he had been blown up, shot at, and lost friends in combat.

One last bit of advice he has for vets who are struggling is to try to learn from their failures.

"These are lessons that transcend service, but it's prevalent in the military because we never want to fail, and when we do fail, we address it and there are systems in place for us to look at what happened in a mission, and we look at what we did right and wrong that we address the improvement category and fix it. If you do that in your life, home, marriage, in business, come on man, the sky's the limit," said Kennedy.

For more information about Sheepdog Response, click here.