Militaryfares.com President Scott Lara

Militaryfares.com President Scott Lara was working at the Kmart camera department when his supervisor asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Scott replied that he had no idea. His supervisor said “Well, join the Navy and see the world!”

Scott DID enlist, serving from 1979 to 1988 as a radar man. Scott never traveled much as a young man but the Navy took him to Spain, Italy and France and would infect him with the travel bug.

He says he loved every minute of this time in the Navy but decided to leave because it was really tough on his wife and young children.

When he left the Navy, he took a job as a healthcare industry lobbyist. His boss also owned a travel agency. When the travel agent left Scott said “put me in coach”. He won a flip phone and in the early days of YouTube he began posting videos of cruises he was taking with his family. His channel exploded to over 1.2 million views. Scott also provides “insider” advice through his website Cruisegenius.com

Last year, Scott was hired as President of Militaryfares.com – his “dream job”. Militaryfares.com was founded in 2002 by military members and their families. It is now the leading travel agency for active and retired service members. Military families and Veterans can view domestic and international options at their website. They work with over 650 airlines and 300,000 hotels to secure discount travel for active duty military members and Veterans. Scott says they are also able to help military members who need to book last minute flights due to a change of station or deployment.

His advice to other Veterans making the transition to the civilian world is “Sometimes you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. You HAVE to be a self-promoter.” He also highly recommends taking advantage of LinkedIn’s free one year premium business subscription for Veterans.