One of the first questions Rex Powers is asked when people learn that he worked in explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) during
his military career is, “Do you still have all your fingers?”
The answer is yes. He has much more than that, thanks to his years spent in both the Air Force and the Army.
“I loved the military,” says Powers, the oldest of five kids, who enlisted in the Air Force in 1973. Initially, he wanted to go into pararescue, but he cross-trained in EOD, and his primary military profession became disarming explosive devices and bomb disposal. After the Air Force, he joined the Army Reserve for 15 years.
“As I got older, it was more difficult to keep up with the young kids,” he says. He did, however, stay involved with many veteran initiatives. For instance, he’s working on building out a digital platform for Corvette enthusiasts who support veterans.
Eight years ago, Powers, 71, began playing around in the domain world as an investor and purchased a lot of domains, including letsgolive. He started trending in the live content world the day Facebook Live went live.
“I said, ‘This is a game changer,’” Powers says. “It was and continues to be.”
An innovative growth strategist, his passion is to help businesses, particularly nonprofits, grow.
“Nonprofits tend to be driven by purpose, as they should be, but they often fail because it takes money to do good things,” says Powers, who lived in Arizona for several years but moved back to Indiana with his wife, Barb, in November 2022. He now owns 
Muncie Digital Media, a community-centric ecosystem that allows people to engage on their own terms with like-minded people. Muncie Digital focuses on what is specific to the community. By leveraging digital ways to reach more people and create more opportunities for job training programs, Powers hopes to create career pathways for veterans.
“You have to figure out where the dots are before you can actually think about how to connect them,” Powers says. “This has been a matter of identifying lots of dots in the Muncie market.”
Powers has made a living helping people find their career paths. As an executive recruiter, through the years he built four recruitment companies. In fact, he’s the only recruiter who has placed 1,463 individuals over a 40-year career at a 1.6-to-1 interview-to-hire ratio. This is because he does his due diligence and gets to know all about the company.
“Muncie Digital is about building a website that brings value to the community,” Powers says. “For instance, with Muncie Jobs Today we can come in and do a live job fair with Muncie employees. With Muncie Mayor Live, the mayor will have his own talk show. This all can be replicated in places like Carmel and Westfield, but we’re starting here.”
As for veteran initiatives, they will always be front and center in Powers’ life.
“I’m a very pro-military person,” he says. “I’ll do anything to help a veteran.”
For more information, visit munciedigital.com.
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