Folds of Honor CEO Lt. Colonel Dan Rooney Joins the Zeigler University Guest Speaker Series & Is Presented With a $50,000 Donation

Folds of Honor CEO Lt. Colonel Dan Rooney Joins the

Zeigler University Guest Speaker Series & Is Presented With a $50,000 Donation

The Zeigler University Guest Speaker Series today welcomed Lt. Colonel Dan Rooney as its latest special guest speaker. Rooney joined TeamZeigler at the Zeigler Honda Locker Room at 3:30 p.m. and discussed his journey to starting Folds of Honor, an organization dedicated to helping veterans and their families with their education. After the presentation Zeigler CEO Aaron Zeigler presented the nonprofit with $50,000 to help further its mission.

 

KALAMAZOO, MICH. (November 13, 2023) Today Zeigler Auto Group welcomed Lt. Colonel Dan Rooney as a special guest speaker for its latest installment of its highly successful, and long-running Zeigler University Guest Speaker Series-which invites entrepreneurs, athletes, innovators and leaders across different industries to share their stories and points of view with the Zeigler team.

Lt. Colonel Rooney is the only person in the world who is a F-16 Fighter Jet Pilot for 23 years and PGA Golf Professional. He has three combat tours, is a two-time Top Gun recipient, has spoken twice for the USA Ryder Cup Teams, is a USA Today best-selling author, a People Magazine Hero of the Year, aa ABC World News Person of the Year and has the USAF Distinguished Service Medal. 

In addition to these impressive accolades, he is the Founder & CEO of Folds of Honor,  a nonprofit whose mission is to help veterans and their families reach their dreams through education. The organization has helped over 44,000 military and first responder families with nearly $200,000,000 in life changing scholarships.

"It was an honor to welcome Lt Col Dan Rooney to Zeigler University Guest Speaker Series!  Col Dan is a living example of To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected! It was awesome hearing his journey and impact he is making with Folds of Honor.  What a great way to recognize and thank Team Zeigler Veterans and family members!  We are thankful for each and every one of them!" 

Mike Van Ryn, Director of Talent Development

The accomplished Lt. Colonel shared several principles throughout the afternoon that have helped him gain success in his personal and professional life. One of the biggest themes was his faith in God and the concept that everything is synchronicity-nothing is a coincidence. He shared an acronym CAVU which is ceiling and visibility unlimited, and related to a gift with every day being unlimited in terms of opportunities.

However, in order to take advantage of these synchronicities or opportunities, you must always remember to "slow down to speed up," so you can give yourself a chance to be strategic about what you do with your day and routine. In doing this it's also important to keep the concept of Occam's Razor in mind.  In simplest terms this problem-solving principle is grounded in the idea of keeping things as easy as possible. With everything you do ask yourself how does this task fill these three things: passion, aptitude, impact--which he described as the trinity of life. This is important because we will generally default to our internal programming, which he explained using a quote from Archilochus: "We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training."

Besides this, four main concepts have been important to ensure his training is always up to par with life's most difficult situations. "Our lives are defined when things don't go our way, that's when our life's legacy is defined."

The first one is a daily morning prayer. For him having a higher power in his life to help him navigate his choices has been instrumental. The next concept was "staying ready so you don't have to get ready," this is to make sure you can take advantage of life's synchronicities or opportunities. The third one he described as "dropping your dark visor down,"which was his way of saying you need to cut out negative people from your life. 

His final one was "go before you are ready." This one was how he decided to start Folds of Honor. Although he did not know how he was going to accomplish this massive goal, he got up each day ready to put in the work. He talks about getting shut down by Anheuser-Busch when looking for funding for his organization. However, he never gave up and went back every six months for three years. Today Folds of Honor has been Anheuser-Busch's official charity for over 13 years with $28 million in scholarships awarded. They have also given 51,000 scholarships since 2007 with $240 million in educational impact. The organization allocates a whopping 91 cents out of each dollar to fund scholarships.

 

Towards the end of his presentation, Rooney spoke about the concept of "Divine Echo," meaning what you give comes back. Although, sometimes it feels difficult to be in service to others or help, when we need help ourselves, it's important to do it anyway. This will empower you and help you manifest what you want out of life. During this time he called his 10 year old daughter Devon on stage who told a story of always putting God first, others second, yourself third in order to thrive in life. 

Lt. Colonel Rooney closed out the presentation by saying, the best way to get through things is to "Fly into the Wind," which he meant as a way to face your fears and tackle the obstacles you need to tackle head on. It is also the title of his USA bestselling book, written to help support the Folds of Honor mission. 

Zeigler Auto Group CEO Aaron Zeigler presented Folds of Honor with a $50,000 check during the Driving Vision Podcast hosted by COO Sam D'Arc. 

 

About Zeigler University 

Zeigler University is an internal leadership and development program within the Zeigler Automotive Group organization dedicated to attracting, training, and retaining the best talent in the industry.

The program includes one-on-one mentoring, strategic recruiting; and programs such as the Zeigler University Speaker Series which focuses on bringing in entrepreneurs, athletes, innovators, and leaders across different industries, to share their stories and points of view with the Zeigler team. Past celebrity guest speaker appearances include Grant Cardone, Bill Rancic, PJ Fleck, and more.

About Zeigler Auto Group

Zeigler Automotive Group is one of the largest privately-owned dealer groups in the U.S. with 84 franchises across 41 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Vehicle brands represented include all of the domestic and the majority of the imported manufacturers.

Besides its extensive automotive portfolio, the organization owns and operates Zeigler Motorsports, an 85,000-square-foot motorsports dealership and action park, offering 19 different powersports brands, plus its own onsite restaurant: Trak Houz Bar & Grill. Additionally, Zeigler Motorsports houses the Elevate Leadership & Team Building Academy, an executive training company.

The Kalamazoo-based dealer group also owns and operates Zeigler Pre-Owned of Chicago, three Byrider franchises, three finance companies, several insurance firms, and a leasing firm.

Founded in 1975, the organization employs over 2,500 people, ranking among the top 1% of automotive dealers in the nation with estimated annual sales of $2.2 billion for 2022.

The family-owned and operated company is well known for its commitment to both customer service and employee satisfaction. Zeigler is regularly recognized as one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work for in the Nation, also earning similar accolades in Wisconsin, Chicago, and Michigan. Besides these prestigious accolades, Zeigler is also one of Glassdoor's 100 Best Places to Work in the U.S. for 2023, and among Glassdoor's top 10 U.S. companies for work-life balance.