When last we spoke with Pace Duckenfield, he was on the cusp of retiring from a long and decorated military career and he was weighing how he might use his skills and experience in the private sector. He kept his roots in Georgia but has still found ways to branch out. Find out how finding gratitude for one path ending and another beginning is the key to moving on.
When last we spoke with Pace Duckenfield, he was on the cusp of retiring from a long and decorated military career and he was weighing how he might use his skills and experience in the private sector. He parlayed the cybersecurity skills he gained in the Army into a stable day job, but he’s most passionate at this point about the business he has started with his brother through the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) program. Though he kept his roots in Georgia for continuity for his wife’s job and community they have built for their daughters, he has still found ways to branch out through the new strategy consultancy.
In this episode, find out from Pace how finding gratitude for one path ending and another beginning is the key to moving on…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.
About This Episode’s Guest
Pace Duckenfield is a retired Major from the U.S. Army who served four overseas tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, who is co-founder and CEO of DX3 Strategists where he leverages his extensive background in military intelligence and cyber security to guide and manage the firm’s overall operations and to assist its private sector and government clients. He lives in Georgia with his wife, two daughters, and bearded dragon, El.
For Pace’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to Intelligence Quotient.
Pace Duckenfield: At the end of the day, I want to hone some of my skills and do something that's different. And then you find that there's a niche or, or some specialty that you didn't even know that you had. that you can leverage and enjoy. And it's hard work. It's harder when you're trying to work for yourself or support a business, but the rewards are great.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: When last we spoke with Pace Duckenfield, he was on the cusp of retiring from a long and decorated military career, and he was weighing how he might use his skills and expertise in the private sector. He kept his roots in Georgia, but has still found ways to branch out. Find out how finding gratitude for one path ending and another beginning is the key to moving on…on today's Roads Taken with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley.
Today, I'm here with my friend Pace Duckenfield, and we are going to have a Roads Taken Revisited because, believe it or not, Pace was one of my very first guests in our first season and more than four years ago. And so, Pace, thank you so much for coming on because we have a lot of talk about. You were on the cusp of retirement and now we need the update. So thanks for being here.
PD: Oh, absolutely. Leslie. And thank you. And I just want to say it's an honor to be with you again. And I want to say your work is legacy. And this is like truly living history to speak with you and reflect on the greatest adventures and discoveries of life that we find when we take the road less traveled.
LJR: Well, you have taken some well-traveled roads, and we were able to talk about that last time with your very long and meritorious military service. And when we did speak, you were about to retire from the military, I think. Lots of different ideas of what might transpire for you, given your cyber and intelligence background, and even looking at geographical questions. So fill us in, what paths have you taken and what's life been like since at least one phase of retirement started for you?
PD: Exactly. I'm glad you mentioned that one phase of retirement because you know the word in Spanish for retirement is jubilation like jubilation. So it's really quite apropos because it's been the end of one road and another one and so it's really good that I had that opportunity because almost four years on now it's really been a great journey.
I can't believe how quickly time has passed, but the one thing, the one takeaway I'd say is that after this time, there's a feeling of gratefulness because when you're moving on from one thing that you that you've been used to for so long, there can be some trepidation and there was a little bit of that on my part. Of course, there's a lot of happiness and looking forward, but I had been able to make a good positive move into cyber security and actually been working at a place for three years now called By Light. And in short, I do cybersecurity in the cloud. And I know all of us probably heard the cloud environment and just like in any it environment. It's the same thing except it's remote from where you are located and it's a little less secure. So the kind of work I've been doing in short centers around what they call GRC: governance, risk and compliance work. Just like in any business, there are a lot of compliant things that you have to adhere to laws and regulations and policies. And it's really, you know, pretty boring stuff, but it's really important. So that's what I've been doing in my, I would say my day job. But the thing that's really driven my passion has been to try to move into starting a small business. And that's kind of the thing that I guess keeps me. focused and not just kind of doing what I call the revolving door where you go from one type of work into something similar. And I've just been trying to expand on doing something different.
LJR: Yeah. Because you talked to us about training and thinking about yourself as a lifelong learner and figuring out where you needed to grow to give you the most opportunities. So I'm sure that you've been doing that, and I'd love to know, kind of with this small business, where are you pushing the margins of what you've already known into something new in that? Because I know you are.
PD: Well, absolutely. Because like you said the ongoing life learning that came from the Work I was doing when I was leaving the military the cyber school, US Army cyber school. And we use this this thing called Bloom's Taxonomy that some people in education might've heard of. And, you know, you all have some degree of information or background. And then as you go up towards the top of that pyramid, if you think of that structure at the tip top, you're a creator. And just like yourself, you know, you're a content creator, so not just being an analyst or an expert kind of in the middle, you're at the doctoral level, so to speak. And I wouldn't say I'm there yet, but, you know, I didn't have any specific training in business, but an opportunity afforded itself through, I think, called the Service Disabled Veterans Own Small Business. SDVOSB, which is something that veterans who have some rating disability rating can apply for through the Small Business Administration. I did that and essentially I'm trying to bid on some contracts, whether they be government or private sector. So that has been a lesson in itself because there are a lot of administrative things in business. I mean, everyone looks at the end result, whether it's a restaurant or a website, and you get really excited and say, well, I want to go into business. But there are many facets day to day, boring things that you have to take care of to run a business, your accounts being separate from your personal accounts and everything else. And so that's where I am now. And actually my brother, David, who's also a Dartmouth grad, my elder brother, Thomas, who had a SDVOSB previously, he encouraged us, that is David and myself, to start our own.
So we called it DX3 because it represents the three Duckenfield brothers. And so we established the website. And at this point, as I said, I'm just trying to move forward and work on some different contracts. And essentially what I'm doing is taking experience I've had before—that we all have, if we look back at it—and essentially like being a strategist, a consultant, so to speak, and there are three things we try to do to support entities: in helping them with their innovation they're creating and then prospering with their ideas. So, you know, transforming their ideas into reality, trying to find a base for them to launch their ideas off of. And that's where they leverage us because The SDVOSB has a set aside. There are set asides for small businesses and so we can help them get into the markets that might have been more difficult for them to get into previously.
LJR: Great. And that's broad spectrum. It could be a number of verticals and things that people are doing. It doesn't have to be military related.
PD: Exactly. Right. Okay. Right. And that's another growing point because you have to find out a lot about things that you're not an expert in. It requires research and that kind of keeps me interested because I'm grateful for the work I have. I enjoy it. But at the end of the day, I want to hone some of my skills just like you have done and do something that's different. And then you find that there's a niche or, or some specialty that you didn't even know that you had that you can leverage and enjoy. And it's hard work. It's harder when you're trying to work for yourself or support a business, but the rewards are great.
LJR: And I think the last time we talked Pace, you had been considering a move back to the DC area, which is your home, but I know that you are still in Georgia. So where was the thought process about that since you were going to be venturing into your own thing and yet wanted a stable kind of nine to five. How does how does the geography change (or not change) come about? What's the process there figuring it out?
PD: Well, you know, that's a great question because I guess it was a kind of a confluence of different things that occurred one being that I didn't necessarily have to move for work, not just because of COVID, because a lot of things had been going remote. I mean, even my work at the end of my military career, we moved to a hybrid type of situation. But I do work remotely. But the thing is that we had, you know, established some friends here and kind of community and my wife's work was here. So we kind of went over things and decided what would be a good thing. We didn't shut the door and say never because you just don't know. But for the time being, and now it's been, you know. Almost a decade that we've been here four years now, almost since, well, three years since I've come out of the military. So at this point, everything is, is good. So we're just staying put, but we're always looking, you never know where you could end up. And you know, that sometimes it's not even just in the United States. I mean, there might be some places you might want to go and visit, have another home in, and so that's, you know, we're keeping things open. But that it just kind of worked out that career wise, it wasn't necessary and there was no stress on it and I have family in DC, so I visit at this juncture. We're not going to just move back.
LJR: And I think another area of growth for you has been probably on the, the younger side of our children in our, to, to our classmates, but now she's not so young.
PC: Yes. Two daughters Kendall and Quinn, 10 and nine now. So they're, you know, getting towards the end of the elementary school, getting ready to go to middle school. So time has flown. I mean, cause four years ago, they were just, you know, leaving kindergarten and everything starting elementary school. So time is really flown. And that's another aspect too, that keeps you involved with all their sports activities and extracurricular activities. And there's a sense of wonder and questions and it keeps you on your toes. And at some point, the way things go, I know probably I'm not gonna be able to answer all their homework questions because, you know, things move quickly. But especially in this digital age, they just pick up devices and just like innately know how to use them. So I think we're seeing evolution and progress. But yes, so I stay quite busy with them.
LJR: Yeah. So evolution seems to be the watchword for you. And I would love to know, as you've been thinking about your post military evolution, are there things that either come more easily because of that background for you or you're longing for? Kind of where does the military fit in your whole sense of nostalgia or gratitude that you've already talked about? Like, where do you, when you think about that time? What are the, what are the words that come to mind with this?
PC: Well, I think the biggest one is working in chaotic situations, but not so like I'd say the analogy of a duck, you know, you're just paddling like mad underneath the water, but you're calm and unruffled, at least on the surface, you're looking like that. And, and that's just the way life is. So, and within the military, we're working a lot of times in chaotic situations and you take individuals who don't consider themselves heroes or anything, but when you're in certain situations together, you can do things that you wouldn't necessarily have done on your own. So the group dynamics is probably the biggest thing that I miss. But I do like having some other freedoms like growing my hair out as you can see. But I would say that that's, that's the biggest takeaway is the teamwork. I know that might sound kind of ordinary takeaway because, you know, you can have teamwork in many different aspects in many different ways people serve, whether they're Peace Corps, something like that, you know. It's just the camaraderie. If you played sports, it's very similar. So, yeah,
LJR: No, it doesn't sound ordinary. And I think it sounds just right. And particularly poignant since you are trying to make a go of it as a kind of sole business owner or a kind of pair with your brother or is it all three of you or just the two of you?
PC: My brother, Thomas, he's the one that first had the service disabled veterans on small business for a few years and he was…He's working out of the DC area, McLean, Virginia. And he had found out how to get it established. And then later on mentioned it to myself and David—David being the Dartmouth 88 grad. And so my brother, Dave and I went after establishing our own and we each have our own now. But we're, you know, trying to grow them individually and, and collaborate together.
LJR: Oh, that's nice. Like interdependently and all that. And I'm sure your skill sets kind of overlap and compliment one another as well. So it's nice to be able to put something to one brother and that's great.
So all of these things are kind of the vocational aspects of a first retirement and now you're living another vocational life, if you will. But there are still…I would put you in the retirement phase because you get a little bit more flexibility to figure out what those hobbies are going to be that may last you a lifetime. So what is it that you've been kind of filling that, that less than vocational side of your life?
PD: Well, I would say some things that I liked to do before, but just didn't have enough time. I mean, if I could. I guess if I had a dream hobby that I could do, I'd like to have like a large aquarium, you know, built into the wall in a house or something like that. But those things are, of course. And they're much more difficult to maintain than you probably want. But when I was last speaking to you, I was, one of my dreams was to have a small plot of land, just enough to maybe have some small farming type thing. And, and realistically now looking at that, it's a lot to maintain acreage. I wouldn't mind having a larger plot of land, but I'd say the one thing I'd really like to venture into is horticulture. There is a very detailed class called Master Gardener class here in Georgia. The state having a lot of agriculture, a lot of states having agriculture. They have a very serious types of studies for that, but I'd like to pursue that. It's like getting a certification in it. It takes a few months to go through the class. And then once you do that, because of the level you've attained. It's, it's sort of like, I wouldn't say like being a park ranger, but you help with teaching others, there are different conferences and things you go to. And that seems like something I just like to do in the long run because, you know, you're growing things helping others do that as well. And it may be something that we have to do going forward here with, you know, changing environments and so forth as well as space. So I would see myself getting involved in something of interest like that. And maybe that could help with, you know, future colonies outside of this planet.
LJR: I love your big thinking, Pace. I love it. But, you also said aquarium, and I know it's not water that this little guy needs. Big guy, I should say. So, our guests can't see, but I was just privy to seeing the fact that you have someone next to you. Can you tell everybody?
PD: Yes. So, I have a bearded dragon, he’s El. He's about one or two years old this October. (LJR: Good.) And he was literally maybe a couple inches when I got him. He's about 18 inches now or about a foot and a half or so. So, and they're pretty calm. I mean, they're, are originally from Australia and so they live in the desert environments and they become kind of bonded to you, similar to a dog, but they're a little bit different. But…
LJR: He does look a little bit bonded to you.
PD: And he'll sit right here on my shoulder. Oh, yeah. He'll stay right there.
LJR: So I think it's probably a good dream hobby to be thinking of the giant aquarium or terrarium in the wall. But the menagerie has started, so we'll see.
PD: Exactly. Yeah.
LJR: So. It seems like you're growing your own, you know, whether it's acreage or not, you, you have quite the mix going on. Where do you find the energy, Pace? You're always full of it. So what's the secret?
PD: Well, you know, the thing is you know, it really kind of goes back to when I look back at it, our experiences at Dartmouth, and I would say all these different hobbies and drives really come from that experience because we're there in this unique environment. Every time I go back, when I went back for our 25th, it was just like entering a different world and it's…even with all the new buildings and everything, it's just a beautiful place. So. I think in that environment where we were, we had to be creative because we're in a place that didn't have a lot of things like large cities. Although we could, you know, take a short drive to major cities. And that creativity and the energy that we had there kind of becomes, you know, part of you. And I would say, of course, it's things that we all have personally, our personalities and so forth.
But I do find that, you know, having a daily exercise regime helps a lot. And I do a boxing training, not fighting, cause I'm not trying to get any concussions or anything, but that helps tremendously energy wise.
LJR: What drew you to boxing?
PD: Well, you know, I was always admired boxers and any kind of sport where you had a mixture of skills, similar to like gymnast, you know, you have, you're doing a lot of different things using strength, flexibility, endurance. There's not just one thing. You can have someone who is stronger physically in boxing, but it comes down to the skill of that fighter. And you can look through history and you can see even though there's their weight categories, there's no height category. So if you're the same way you can be against someone who's really tall and you think that there would be a mismatch, but it's amazing how that works out. So it's just kind of the physics of it, jumping rope, the type of different exercises that you do. They combine a lot of things in the impact on the joints is minimal compared to a lot of heavy impact type other sports. So…
LJR: As long as there's nobody making the impact come at you.
PD: Well, yeah, exactly. I'm talking purely about the training. I mean, it is, of course, you know, it has a history of sad occurrences and violence in the ring and things that have occurred. So with all these concussion type things now, it's not something that's looked upon as safe. But the training in itself is great.
LJE: Yeah. The underlying stuff.
PD: Yes.
LJR: Yeah. Well, good. Well, you look healthy and seem full of the energy that you've always had, so there's something to it. Love it.
PD: Oh, well well, I just wanted to say that, you know, I really take my hat off to you, Leslie, because what you are doing here, like I said, I can't overstate. I was a history major. And if I were to think of a project that could be done, a unique original work, you know, I couldn't have thought of anything better than what you're doing. And this is something that's going to be going on for centuries and beyond our lifetime. And I can just imagine someone in Baker Library a hundred years from now or later. And I hope they listen to this segment because you're capturing the individual elements of our lives, the day to day things that we don't talk about, and it could be inspiring to someone. And it's also something that is a legacy for our families. So I think it's a great use of the technology and this platform. And I'm glad to be part of it. I look forward to doing another interview at some point.
LJR: Yeah. On the eve of our 50th, if not sooner.
PD: Yes. Right.
LJR: But I do love it, Pace. And I love the fact that you have been able to be a string on this from the beginning. And I do hope that there are many more chances for us to all collectively hear each other's stories. And as you say, whether it be something momentous or something pretty quotidian, I think it's just good for us to all know, like, we're out here doing amazing things, even if they just are the day to day.
PD: Yeah, right, right. Yes.
LJR: All right. Well, it's been a pleasure to talk with you. Thanks so much.
PD: Likewise.
LJR: That was Pace Duckenfield, a retired major from the U. S. Army who served four overseas tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, who is co-founder and CEO of DX3 Strategists, where he leverages his extensive background in military intelligence and cybersecurity to guide and manage the firm's overall operations and to assist its private sector and government clients. He lives in Georgia with his wife, two daughters, and bearded dragon, El.
Just as Pace finds much to be grateful for in his life, we're grateful to all of you who keep tuning in to our show. Please do consider liking, rating, and reviewing our show in your podcast app, and/or telling friends that they can find our full archive at roadstakenshow.com so they can hear all of the stories with my guests and me, Leslie Jennings Rowley, on Roads Taken.