Meet Frank Demith

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Frank Demith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Frank, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I believe that a person’s sense of purpose is something that changes as we age and keep moving forward in our life. When I was in high school, I felt that my purpose was to become a professional musician, but as time went by, I eventually came to the conclusion that I needed to be a leader in the Army. I served on active duty in the Army for twenty-eight years. Once I had retired from the Army I worked as a civilian contractor for fourteen years before retiring. I eventually ended up realizing that I needed to write books.
My sense of purpose reflected what I believed to be important at that time in my life. When I was young, I focused on becoming the best musician I could be. After joining the Army, I shifted my purpose to become the best leader I could be, and when I finally retired from working as a civilian, I eventually became an award-winning author.
The transition to becoming an author came at a time of enormous self-doubt and depression for me. Many people might ask, “how can that be? You were retired.”? What many people don’t understand is you have to plan for retirement just like any other job change and I didn’t do that.
The first five or six weeks of retirement went well. I had a list of “honey do” things around the house. Each day I focused on knocking out a few of the tasks on the list. I was keeping busy, but I didn’t have a plan beyond what was on the list. When all the items on the list were completed, I was like a ship without a rudder going around without any guidance.
I woke up one day and made a pot of coffee. I sat down in front of the television and turned on my computer. I spent the day watching old movies and shows that were almost all reruns. “I’ll just take one day off” I said to myself. “I will do something tomorrow.”
One day turned into two days and then three days, a week, and then a month. All along I felt like I was losing another little piece of myself every day. I just couldn’t lift myself out of the funk I had gotten into. I was lost and without a purpose. For the first time in my life, I had no idea what I was trying to accomplish. Nothing mattered to me, and I just didn’t care.
Just before the end of the year I was surfing the internet and saw a post from a friend about a challenge that was being run by a group of veterans. I clicked on the link and signed up without even reading the description of what was expected. The challenge was to start shortly after the end of the year, so I still had a few days. When I went back to the registration site I was shocked by the number of daily requirements.
The challenge was sixty days long with no breaks. There were six required domains that had to be completed each day and if you could not complete any of them you had to start all over again at day one. It was the coldest months of the year, and we were being required to run or hike every day, and it had to be done outside. We also had to read a book from cover to cover every week.
I wanted to quit before I even got started, but I had never quit anything before. I went down to a local gym and got a membership. I went back home and found eight books that I wanted to read.
I woke up the next day and began day one. Sixty days later I had lost thirty pounds and four inches on my waistline. I felt better than I had for years and was running again. My entire outlook on life had changed from depression and malaise to laser focused and fully engaged. I made a list of things that I wanted to do and at the top of the list was, “Write a book”.
I didn’t just want to write any book; I wanted to write a book with a meaning. I had worked on a team that developed the Army Interpreter/Translator program and always hoped somebody would write a book about what those soldiers did for our nation. Nobody had done so, and I figured if nobody else would do it I would. I took it a step further and decided to write a book that people who had not served in the military would be able to easily follow. In doing so I hoped to show others what our servicemembers experienced when they deployed to a foreign country during a time of war.
I sat down shortly after completing my sixty-day challenge and developed a storyline and an outline for the book that took me roughly a week to complete. Once that was done, I sat down and wrote for the next ninety days, usually writing one thousand to fifteen hundred words a day. I didn’t second guess myself or do a single revision. I sent the manuscript off to a publisher. Two months later my book was submitted for a book award and named the best military book in 2023 by the International Impact Book Awards.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I was born and raised in a suburb on the southside of Chicago. My father worked in a steel mill and my mother worked in a factory that made springs. My grandmother from my mother’s side shared a room with my younger sister. We were probably considered a lower middle-class family, but it never felt like we were in need of anything.
I joined the Army after graduating from high school. It seemed to be the best way to eventually get a college education since I didn’t qualify for any scholarships and my parents could not afford to pay for a college education. I went to basic training at Ft Leonard Wood two days before Thanksgiving. There weren’t many high school graduates joining the Army in the mid 70’s so I was offered an opportunity to attend the United States Military Academy after completing ten months of studies at the Army Preparatory School. I jumped at the chance and graduated in 1983.
I was commissioned as an Air Defense Artillery officer and served on active duty until 2007 when I retired from the Army. I spent many years at the Pentagon as an officer and then as a contractor. I was one of the individuals who actually enjoyed working in the Pentagon (for the most part). I found it interesting to be working on things that would have a positive impact on individuals out in the field force.
I am married to my best friend in the whole world and we currently live in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. My wife likes it here because we are close to northern Virginia but not stuck amidst all the people and traffic.
I have completed my second book in the series, and it is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2025. I am currently working on book three of the series and have a rough outline written for book four. I envision writing at least four additional books to close out the series. When the series is complete, I will find something else to write about because I am a writer and that is my new purpose in life.
God bless all our veterans and those currently serving our country in the Armed Forces. Never give up and keep moving forward. HOOAH! PTB83.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I can attribute my ability to reach my goals to three qualities: determination; empathy; and mental focus. All three of these qualities were ingrained in me by my parents at a very young age. Most of the time my parents integrated these three qualities into sports.
All the neighborhood kids played baseball in the spring and summer, football in the fall and hockey in the winter. My dad would always say the same thing regardless of which sport I was playing. “If you want to be good you have to focus on the game and never give up.” He also told me to never be overly happy with a victory especially when it is a team sport. Winning was important but you could win without having to rub your opponent’s face in the fact that they lost.
My dad’s advice stuck with me through everything I did from playing a musical instrument to doing well in school. When I graduated from high school and joined the Army, I was surprised how easy it was to apply the same approach to basic training and advanced individual training. My biggest challenge came when I entered West Point.
The daily requirements were daunting, and the classes required studying. I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to play lacrosse in my first year. That turned out to be a mistake even though I really enjoyed being able to play a sport at a division 1 intercollegiate level it proved to be more than I could handle. My grades were not acceptable for me, so I stopped playing after my first year and was able to work my way back to the middle of my class rankings by the end of my senior year.
I do the same thing now when I write. I focus on what I want to get across to my readers and then I sit down and write what I see unfolding in my mind. I use an outline when I write, and each chapter has a few key points that I want to cover. I think that using an outline allows me to focus more clearly on each specific highlight.
My advice to anyone starting out on their journey would be to do what seems best for yourself. Everybody is a different person and only you know what fits for what you want or need to do. There are probably thousands of books out there that advocate for a certain method to get to where you want to be but none of those books are written specifically for you. It might take some time, but you will figure it out.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

My dad worked in a steel mill in Chicago for more than twenty-five years. When he reached twenty years the company gave him a gold pin that my mom had made into a ring for his birthday one year. My dad gave me his ring before he passed away.
When I feel overwhelmed the first thing, I do is take a look at my dad’s ring to remind me that there are other people who are doing much harder things than me. That helps calm my mind.
Feeling overwhelmed is a form of stress. The key for me is taking note of everything I need to do and then trying to compartmentalize the tasks. I look at the tasks to see if there are any on the list that can be completed quickly. I do those first and it helps lessen the stress by being able to cross things off the list. Then I move on to any tasks I think are short term requirements that need to be done in the next seven to ten days and work on them next in order of their precedence with respect to time.
As the tasks continue to be dropped off the list the stress continues to ease until the list seems to be more manageable. If I become bogged down on any particular task I go back to my dad’s ring and remind myself that others are doing far more difficult things than me. There isn’t anything you cannot accomplish if you put your mind to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.frankdemithauthor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankdemith/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554827339385
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-demith-0736b617/
• Other: [email protected]