In this NAWBO TED‑style talk, retired U.S. Marine Vernita Stevans shares her personal journey from a small‑town, horse‑riding girl to a Marine Corps Master Sergeant and later founder of Paradigm of Possibilities. She recounts how a Marine recruiter’s comment about few women in the Corps sparked a personal challenge that drove her to enlist, confront racism, gender bias, and physical obstacles, and achieve notable roles such as drill instructor, internal‑affairs investigator, and congressional liaison. Retiring at 22, she faced the uncomfortable transition to civilian life and founded her own company, choosing a name that reflects the belief that possibilities arise when one changes perspective. Stevans introduces the “cleaning your lens” metaphor, likening the need for self‑reflection and focus in entrepreneurship to clearing a dirty eyeglass lens. She emphasizes the importance of self‑belief, resilience, and taking moments to rest and reset, especially for small‑business owners juggling personal and professional demands. The talk highlights the value of mentorship and community support through NAWBO/NABO, the necessity of confronting unconscious bias, and the power of collaborative possibilities. Concluding with a challenge, she urges the audience to encourage and inspire one another, adopt the vision of an owl, the agility of a gazelle, and the soaring spirit of an eagle, reminding them that cleaning their lens truly changes their view.
Chapters
Good evening. How's everybody doing? Good. Can you hear me okay? Yes. All right. So, 2PLLc, let me talk about that for a moment. So, 2PLLc stands for Paradigm of Possibilities. I stand here before you today, every bit of 5'2 on a good day, as a retired United States Marine. So, when I tell you— thank you. So, I want to talk to you a little bit about my journey and how I decided to start this company, Paradigm of Possibilities. At a very young age, I'm a small country girl who grew up riding horses. I was a tomboy because I only had my uncles and my cousins, which were all males, to play with. And I remember a junior in high school, a bunch of recruiters came in and every branch of service was there and they wanted you to join and they told you why their service was better than the other one, right? And I remember walking up to each one of them, listening to their stories, because I had family members from all different branches that, you know, served in different branches. But I remember walking up to that Marine recruiter and I said, what makes you so special? And they said, well, we're an elite fighting force, but I'm going to tell you, we don't have many females. in our service. And this was late '89, you know, early '90s. And he said, and many females don't make it. And when he said that to me, I saw that as a personal challenge to myself. And so I told him, I said, I bet you I can. So that was my journey to start to say, I can do it. I know that something is possible because I believe that I can do it within myself. I know this is what I can do. And so, I wanted to join so bad. I graduated high school at 17 years old. My parents wouldn't sign for me. My dad was mad when the recruiters would call and say, I tell you she's not coming. I would sneak on the phone, you know, the old phones, and get caught, right? And I would sneak and go run and I said, yes, I am joining. Right? Yeah. Because I really wanted to do it. So I went to college for a while. And when I was old enough to sign up for myself, I joined the United States Marine Corps because that's what I wanted to do. But let me tell you, it did not come without sacrifice, without hard work, and without many challenges that faced me every single day of my life. I had to deal with different things during that time that varied from racism to the size that I was, to the fact that I was a female in a majority male fighting force. Again, I was daily put in the position to figure out, can you do it? Can you succeed? As small business owners and entrepreneurs that sit in here today, you are well aware of what that feels like when somebody asks you that question or gives you the look of intention as if, can you do it? Can you make it? Will you succeed? So every day I had to look in that mirror and remind myself that I can do it, that I can make it, and I will succeed. So I went on and I retired right at 22 years. And I retired with some great experiences. I had an opportunity to be a drill instructor, a formal school instructor, I worked for the IG, and I was even selected to work for Congress before I retired. That was a great accomplishment in my life because not many people had that opportunity. And I wasn't an officer, I was an enlisted Marine. I retired as a Marine Corps Master Sergeant, which that just opened up in 2008 to where they allowed enlisted to apply, because at one time that was only afforded to officers to work around members of Congress. So I was very fortunate and felt very blessed to be able to work in that type of environment. But with that, I took all of those experiences and I brought them with me. But I came into a very uncomfortable place because now I'm retired and I'm in a new world that I'm unfamiliar with. Some of you all may— can agree with me in that moment. Some of you may be on career number 2. You may have, like Karen, you may have left something you know and something you worked in for 15 or 20 years, and you decided to take that step and that choice, right, to go out on your own and start something for yourself. And that's what I had to do. I had to stump out of that comfort zone and everything that I knew and decide to do something for myself. And through that process, I was trying to figure out, what am I going to name this company? What is it going to be? And as I went through the dictionary and I was looking at words because I wanted something that would speak to me and speak to what I believe to be true, I thought about the paradigm. I thought about how things are possible if you just set your mind to it. That's right. So what does that have to do with cleaning your lens? Well, let me tell you, it has a lot to do with cleaning your lens. Because see, throughout my career and the different things that I did, I had to change the way I saw things. I had to change the way I interact with people. I had to change the way I involved individuals and the way I actually responded to things. So When I look, or when I ask you to think about a lens, I want you to think about something. All right, we know the lens is located in the eye, right? We know that it changes as we focus, and we know that what it does is that it clears a way for us to see an object. Well, people like me that have these spectacles on, we can't always see if they're not on there, can we? Right? So there are different things available for us So that we can have a clear vision and a clear view, whether it's getting some glasses, getting some readers, you know, they got the fancy ones now, you can't even tell that it's bifocals going on up here, right? But we figure out a way, and every now and then the lens gets dirty and we have to clean it. That's the same way with us as small business owners and entrepreneurs. I want to talk to you about yourself because in the process of building your business and your brand and being that workaholic and that individual that you are, sometimes we lose focus of ourselves. We forget about ourselves. But I'm asking you in this moment to remember yourself. And to remember that person that sits next to you. And when you see them feeling down or being in that moment, I'm asking you to encourage them, to say something that may just lift them up or make their day. I'm asking you to take away that disadvantage of letting that first impression be your lasting impression, because we don't know what they had to battle to get in front of— in through that door to stand in front of you in that very moment. We don't know what they had to encounter to be with you on that special day in their lives, or when you walk in and you give that proposal and you perceive that that individual is not engaging or they don't care. Maybe they do. Maybe they need that moment. So let's give them that opportunity to clean their lens. Take their glasses off, rest their eyes for a moment, right? I have my son here with me tonight. He's a gamer. I have to tell him, put the thing down. I know your eyes is hurting, right? Take a rest, close them for a minute. I asked the eye doctor, is this killing his vision? Is it making his eyes worse? You know, we gotta put it down for a moment. Well, sometimes we have to do it. Sometimes we have to put down the phone, close the computer, and take care of yourself. Don't forget to self-reflect. Don't forget to remember why you are where you are. Don't re— don't forget to remember why you at this point in your life, in your career, because you chose to be there. Don't forget to believe in yourself, because I'm here to tell you that Anything is possible. It might hurt a little bit. You might be tired. You might be broken. You might be busted some days. I remember crawling through the mud. All right? It's not just the wonderful uniforms that we see on TV and everybody standing there, right? Oh, I still remember it now. All right? It's not always just that. Yeah. It's making that sacrifice, being away from your family. Here's the key. You all do it every day as small business owners too. Don't lose sight of that. Some of you are up at 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning worried about what's going to happen the next day, trying to figure out how you're going to get your child picked up or make it to the next meeting or make the next board call or when the next proposal is due. Oh, by the way, it has It has to be on recyclable paper. That's something I found out. And I was like, you have got to be kidding me. I have to get special paper to turn this in? And oh, by the way, don't mail it in, walk it in. So come an hour early. So see, it's a learning process and it's uncomfortable. But just like with your vision and your lens, some of us are nearsighted, farsighted, Right? Little cataracts going on, some astigmatism. And we're from different areas. But that's also in your business and your growth. We're all at different points in our lives and in our businesses. We're at different points of growth. And I'm going to tell you, since I have been a part of NABO, it's been wonderful. I have great— met some amazing ladies. Because as a new business owner, and we just hit our 1-year mark this month. I have had the opportunity to have some great mentors and individuals that have helped me out of some moments where I was straight stressing because I didn't know. You don't know what you don't know. Being able to take that moment and contact someone and reach out and say, Okay, they're asking me for something with the insurance. I don't know what I need. What I need? Okay, don't worry about it. I got it. Where they're asking me for this, you know what? Don't worry about it. I got it. Right? That's what possibilities are. We make possibilities for each other. None of us can be where we are alone. I truly believe that it's one team and one fight. If we start looking at things through a lens of clarity, instead of looking at ways to separate one another, We will get a whole lot further. Let's not forget, we all have our own unconscious bias. We have different beliefs, backgrounds, things that we believe to be so, right? It doesn't make it right or wrong, it just makes it different. But if we know ourselves and we know who we are and who we bring to the table and we're all right with that, we can still make anything possible. So within my company, that's what I believe. So when I walk into a place or I walk into an office, I let individuals know that your business, your company, your program can change if you believe that anything is possible. I would like to leave you all with this. First off, I challenge you. 'Cause that's the Marine in me, right? I challenge you to encourage one another, and I challenge you to inspire one another. I challenge you to not give up on yourself even when you feel like you can't make it. Tonight when you leave here, I want you to have the vision of an owl. I want you to have the view of a field like a gazelle. And more importantly, in your business and as you grow, I want you to soar like an eagle. And my only ask is that you remember that cleaning your lens truly does change your view. Thank you. Thank you.
