I sat down with Joe Jones, who joined the Coast Guard because of a TV commercial. He was a junior in a farming town in north central Kansas, saw Lou Gossett Jr. tell him to be part of the action, and got on the delayed enlistment program before he finished high school. He runs HR recruiting and corporate development at Canadian Solar now.
The part I didn’t expect is how much of his week goes into local politics. Joe calls himself an apathetic citizen for his first years out of the military, until a friend got heated and told him he didn’t get a voice on his community if he wasn’t involved in it. Now he block walks, and once a month he drives down the Gulf Freeway to a reserved room at a Mexican restaurant where people in politics hold small town hall meetings. Nobody at his company asked him to do any of it.
We also got into the Coast Guard cutter that stationed him in Omaha, the college the GI Bill paid for, and the plant his company runs in Mesquite that outgrew its first building. When I asked him where somebody starts, he didn’t complicate it. “Start by simply going to a meet and greet.”
I still don’t know whether one guy showing up in one county adds up to an industry that can talk to the people writing its rules. That’s what we’re trying to find out.
Chapter
00:00 – Introduction and the 50 cal bottle openers
03:00 – Meeting your state representative, and an idea for member roundtables
06:10 – Why the Coast Guard, and where it sent him
10:56 – Getting out, college, and finding recruiting in Houston
13:36 – Chasing a client into a career at Canadian Solar
15:16 – From apathetic voter to block walker
17:59 – Where to start: meet and greets and local political clubs
21:42 – Who shows up at these luncheons, and one veteran’s advice
23:36 – Politics, Texas manufacturing, and the next grid crisis
29:07 – Zig Ziglar and helping enough people get what they want
Resources
People & Organizations
Kevin Doffing (LinkedIn)
Project Vanguard (Website - Newsletter - Podcast - LinkedIn - YouTube)
Joe Jones (LinkedIn)
GI Bill and other VA education benefits (Website)
US Coast Guard Training Center Cape May (Website)
Company & Industry News
Canadian Solar Announces U.S. Module Manufacturing Facility in Mesquite, Texas
SEIA and Wood Mackenzie Solar Market Insight Report, Q2 2026
