James Govoni: Continues to Serve The Country In Multiple Ways through Entrepreneurship

Mass shootings are occurring at an alarming rate and ending in horrific misery, all while appearing endemic in 21st-century America. While the legal system, various legislative bodies, and society as a whole grapple with how to address the disturbing mass shooting phenomenon – food and beverage, entertainment business owners, and educational establishments may find themselves questioning the potential impact of mass shootings from both a public safety and risk management standpoint. Leaving aside the larger societal debate underway about gun regulation and ammunition restrictions, this piece offers some insight into those issues.

According to the FBI, a “mass shooting” is defined as any incident in which at least four people are killed with a gun.1 When compared to previous years, the year 2023 has seen a record high amount of mass shooting occurrences and victims. The trend line predicts that 2023 will be an exceptionally difficult year, especially given that the majority of mass shootings have traditionally occurred in the second half of any given year. Furthermore, studies show that mass killings (even those without the use of firearms) are not limited to major cities.

With that being said, Jameson Govoni of The Sentinel Foundation, Program Executive for an active shooter program, and Alcohol Armor is the change that the country needs. Although throughout his adolescence, he was a troubled teen, Jameson had an intrinsic urge to make a difference and concluded that after 9/11, the military was his calling. Encouraged to enlist in the military, Jameson joined the Green Berets and served his country for years. 

Militant Made

Throughout his time in the service, he picked up a plethora of talents that would help him in building the fundamentals for his future efforts. Pursuing his passions, Jameson planned to utilize his military expertise, resources, and strengths to become a successful entrepreneur after he was discharged. In doing so, he went on to co-found a slew of successful organizations throughout the years. His start-up’s principal purpose is to address pressing societal concerns. 

The Sentinel Foundation

The Sentinel Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the global issue of child trafficking. The Sentinel Foundation took shape with one objective in mind: to put a stop to the global exploitation of underage children, in addition to providing preventive procedures implemented into our educational systems for the safety of all. While the cause is familiar, their (Jameson Govoni and Glenn) approach to achieving it is.

Nonetheless, The Sentinel Foundation Operations Unit targets elusive child traffickers utilizing highly adept tactics to locate and exploit their victims. Their high success rate of targeting traffickers is because of their global field experience. They are familiar with the landscape, how predators prey on victims, and how to prevent them. 

In fact, their distinct approach, experienced employees, cutting-edge technology, and deep domain knowledge are all critical elements in apprehending the criminals who prey on the innocent. Their tactical training manpower, technology, law enforcement backing, and, most importantly, their determination to see it through have contributed to their climbing success.

Whereas The Active Shooter Program focuses on combating school-related violence, with a particular emphasis on active shooter situations. Additionally, Alcohol Armor aims to promote responsible drinking by making alcohol accessible. The invention became popular and has since been approved by many partygoers, college students, and social drinkers around the world.

Join The Jameson Govoni Journey

For now, please get familiar with Jameson Govoni and all of the heroic business ventures he’s a part of in creating change in our country. Take a look at our interview with him here.

• Hey Jameson! First and foremost, thank you so much for your service! You are appreciated. Let’s jump right in! For those wanting to get familiar with you, please tell us who Jameson is and where it all began for you.

Born and raised just North of Boston, on the North Shore of a town called Beverly with a great family, I loved it there. Growing up, I was definitely a rambunctious kid, had a lot of energy and didn’t necessarily put it into the great places. You know, fighting, drinking, partying and all those things, right? I had no intentions of going to college, and it just wasn’t in my future. Then 911 happened and completely changed the landscape of our country. And then my life specifically, I remember when it happened, I was in high school, I was like, “I don’t know what I need to do, 

But I want to go and get involved with fighting, whoever just did that.” So I signed up right then and there, but I had a year to wait to hit 18. I joined the army and had a contract to go to the 101st Airborne Infantry, and about a year after I left, I was in Iraq. So, what I set out to do, I was actively doing. As a soldier, everything clicked for me with all of that energy I had, and ADD – whatever you want to call it, the army just allowed me to put my energy to good use. I was a great soldier. 

While I was in Iraq, I came back; I was like, “What am I going to do next?” And a lot of people were getting out and going to college; I was like, No, I still have more to give. I signed up to volunteer to be a Green Beret, which I completed, So I spent the rest of my time in the Seventh Special Forces Group. Then, at the end of my career, this ties into Alcohol Armor, which we’ll talk about a little bit. I helped set up the Special Forces surveillance program, in which we use all of the tools at our disposal to teach special operations soldiers how to conduct surveillance and find hard-to-find terrorist cells around the world. That’s where I met Glen, who’s the Co-founder of Alcohol Armor; his background is one of the best at open source targeting, scraping the dark web for information and then helping us use that to find individuals. So yeah, that’s my background in my military career. Now, I live in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. I have a wife, two beautiful daughters, and three dogs, and yeah, life’s VERY GOOD.

• In true hero fashion, you are always finding new ways to give back, whether in the form of supporting others or through your own organizations. As a result, following your departure from the military, you have become an enthralling entrepreneur. With that being said, can you tell us a little bit more about your businesses and their inspiration? And if anyone wants to know, how can they be a part in helping to be a part of that change?

Yeah, no, absolutely. So, after getting out of the military, I was a contractor. I was an instructor, teaching for the military and getting paid for that. It was great – I really loved what I was doing because I was teaching surveillance, but I was still kind of missing that call to serve, and so was Glen, whom I spoke about earlier. So Glen calls me up. Well, you know, I’m doing my thing. I think I’m having fun making money. He’s like, “Hey, he’s like, do you want to go help me find this guy? He’s a former American citizen; he now lives down in central South America. There is no information on the last five years on this guy, but the agency who tasked him with this knows that he’s still there. He’s like, “Do you want to come with me and help find this guy?” And I’m like, ‘Right, what’s the pay? What’s our top cover? And he’s like, ‘yeah, no pay, no top cover, we’re just gonna go and do what we do”. And I’m like, “Alright, cool. Well, when are we leaving?” 

So you know, me and Glen, we go get on a whiteboard, figure out the network analysis, figure out all of our information available, and we just started getting to work. Then we go on this trip, and we end up finding this guy. Within a month’s time, we located this guy. We work with the host nation’s government, and they develop the case. But at that point in time, me and Glen knew that we needed to start our own organization that goes and finds these guys or these cells that traffic children. So that was the start of The Sentinel Foundation, which I’m still a founding member of with Glenn and still part of.

To be honest, that is my true north. That is my purpose. It is to help the helpless around the world, and we do that actively. That was the start of The Sentinel Foundation, and that will tie into the for-profit company Alcohol Armor. We didn’t know it at the time while we were on that mission, and we were undercover that we were doing R&D for Alcohol Armor. So you know, we were undercover, you know, having to blend in with these bad guys. So, of course, we’re drinking because we don’t want them to think we’re narcs. Right? We’re drinking, we’re getting into it, and the next morning, our hangovers were so bad. Then that’s when we had to go do our work. We’re like, man, we need to have a product, or we need to have something that helps curb these hangovers. So, at that point, we started trying everything we could. Milk thistle, asparagus extract, everything that is now in our formula for Alcohol Armor, we started back then unknowingly that we’d create Alcohol Armor. 

So, the stories are kind of intertwined in that way. But yeah, so that was back at the end of 2016, early 2017. So Sentinel Foundation has now been going very strong, growing every year. And then in 2022, we started Alcohol Armor, met with a chemist and said, “hey, here’s all of the ingredients that we use. It works great for us, and they are like, Oh my god, you guys have an incredible formula”. So we launched at the beginning of this year, and it’s doing great – growing on Amazon Prime, but a portion of the proceeds go to Sentinel Foundation. It may seem crazy, like how child trafficking and hangovers tie together, but that’s the story of how it came to be and how we make sure that the profits will go back into Sentinel Foundation.

• That’s amazing! So, you mentioned partnering with Amazon. Alcohol Armor is currently available to the public and can be shopped on Amazon Prime.

Oh yes! We’ve officially launched January, and it’s actually Prime Day right now. We are actually having a great day so far. But you can get it on Amazon Prime, or you can get it directly from our website, AlcoholArmor.com. Additionally, we are at all of the Coyote Ugly locations in the States, so you get it there. Most importantly, we’re getting ready to roll out mass distribution, so we’ll be at some retail stores, some convenience stores, and we’re very, very excited with the growth.

• Could you tell us more about some of your various businesses, including the start of Sentinel Foundation, The Shooter Program, and Alcohol Armor, their inspiration, and how one can help to be a part of the change?

Yeah. So for that. I mean, it’s such a complicated thing. But I think the easiest way, and it started: I actually went to the White House in 2018-2019. I forget all of these years are running together at this point. But we briefed the education administration, and they love this program. So I want to say they’re, you know, they are moving opprobrium forward from a federal level to give funding around some of these systems. I know those are in place, but I’ll follow up with you on some links that kind of show that and some of the processes there where people can if they want to be involved and push it forward.

• With your mission being to bring awareness to various societal issues, do you have any advice or tips for readers?

Yeah, for sure. Specifically at The Sentinel Foundation, we are, I think, one of the premier at counter trafficking around the world just based on our backgrounds. Everybody’s former Special Operations Intelligence Analysts, so if that’s a cause that moves you, I mean, donating is one of the biggest things that keep foundations running. So, for any foundation or cause that you want to support, do your research. Find out what foundation you think has the best steward that has the most impact, and then consider making a financial contribution. But as far as if you want to get hands-on involvement, that’s fantastic. You have to find a cause that moves you, right? That is fulfilling for you to be a part of because everyone does their nine-to-five resident job. So if you’re going to help with the cause, it’s going to be after work, it’s going to be the weekend. So it has to be fulfilling, right? 

So find one that you believe in like that. And if you do want to be hands-on, you have to think about how you are adding value to that organization. We get all of these emails all of the time, “How can I help?” and we absolutely love that people want to help. But outside of financials, if you do have something tangible out there, “Hey, I can give five hours a month, donate my time for graphic design.” That right there is such a big benefit to some organizations. So think about how you want to help and what skills you have, and then volunteer your time at first. And if you like the organization, they like you, then it could turn into a paid position, or you could get to do more hands-on work. So I would just find a cause that you really like, find a way that you’re going to help, whether it’s financially or what skills you have to offer and then offer something specific.

• In addition to being a veteran and serial entrepreneur, you’re a devoted husband and father. How do you balance all those hats so well? 

It depends on who you talk to; my wife may have a different view of my balance. But I think that is the keyword, and it takes serious focus and awareness to actually realize the balance. I have to be like, “Hey, I was heads down for four days making a proposal or doing XY and Z. I need to be mindful that hey, the next few days, I have to put in the time and be present with my family. One of the things that’s so good about what I think about veterans and military members is that it’s ingrained in us. We get to the finish line. Once we know that that’s the target, we just do it. 

So we get tunnel vision, and we don’t get over it until we complete something. But that mindset is counterproductive when it comes to balance. So I’m so target fixated, I forget that, like, oh my god, I got my daughters, I got my wife, I have my dogs, like I have stuff that I have to do that is critical. You have to enjoy life while you are working. So, for me, I had to almost reteach my mindset that, hey, don’t get to the finish line. Every day is your own fresh start. Do work, do family and get through it the best way. Don’t just race to the end. So, I think mindfulness is the most important in order to balance family and work.

• Amazed by all of your accolades thus far, I’m eager to know what’s next for Jameson Govoni in 2023. 

I think the most exciting thing as far as Alcohol Armor is, you can expect to see us on shelves, whether it’s at convenience stores near you, at bars, at liquor stores, we’re going to be sold here. So, while you’re thinking about going to have a couple of drinks, Alcohol Armor will be available for you to try, and it’s going to work. So, I’m very excited for us to get into retail for the second half of this year. For the Sentinel Foundation, it is growing immensely. This year, we’re starting to focus on domestic, not just international rescues, and we’re going to help train law enforcement with some of our technology, some of our ability to help investigations, and we’re going to provide that to law enforcement partners. So Sentinel Foundation is going to continue to have a huge growth year, and we’re going to tie it from domestic all the way to the international side. So, there is a lot of work to be done but very fulfilling work, and we couldn’t be more grateful to be in this position.

• Lastly, is there a message that you’d like to leave with viewers? 

Whatever it is that you’re excited about, make a step towards it right now and knock it out! Don’t wait till next year; don’t let the procrastination monster win. Make a plan. Don’t make it too big; say, “Hey, I’m going to start by doing this.” And then the next day or that night, take one step to get further along. Just don’t don’t wait because it’ll just never happen.

James Govoni of The Sentinel Foundation 

Address –
210 Delburg St
Davidson, NC 20836
Phone – (855)-276-6787
Media — Amberle@thefeaturepresentation.com
——————————————————————