Podcasts about Fort Carson

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Welcome to the Storm's short-form, news-focused podcast. Don't worry, I still write long-form newsletters. Paid subscribers can leave a comment in the article below, or by joining The Storm's chat (also below). I'll respond to some comments in the next episode, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 16.Transcript updateFollowing up on yesterday's feedback, there are now two transcripts available for each podcast:* Substack's transcript: This transcript is auto-generated when I upload the podcast file to Substack, which is the platform that hosts stormskiing.com. This one is cool because you can click on any block of text and the audio will jump to that point in the conversation. Click the “transcript” button above to access. * Zoom's transcript: Zoom automatically generates this transcript as I record. It should be more or less identical to Substack's transcript, but with names attached to each quote block. The downside of this transcript is that you can't teleport to that point in the pod by clicking on the text block, as you can with Substack's. Another downside: the timestamps are off, since I typically start recording prior to the start of the podcast. I'll work on cleaning this up.So until the robots get smarter, we're stuck with two different transcripts. Both are auto-generated, and I don't proofread either one, as that would be the fastest way to make sure my quick-turnaround, up-to-date podcast turns into a slow-turnaround, out-of-date one. My hope is that Substack will soon hire or invent or weld from raw iron a robot that's smart enough to know who's speaking when. I'll just keep following the robots around and using their hyper-intelligence until they decide to kill me.The Zoom transcript (click “transcript” above for the Substack transcript, which will zoom to any point in the video when you click on the associated text block; timestamps below DO NOT MATCH THE VIDEO)Stuart Winchester: Welcome to The Storm! I'm your host, Stuart Winchester. It is Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, and I am very excited today to bring you a conversation with the General Manager of Monarch Mountain, Colorado, Chris Haggerty. Now, I've never featured Monarch either on the long-form pod or on the short-form pod.00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:11.000Stuart Winchester: There's never really a reason behind that, other than this is just kind of when it happened. If you run an area, a ski area anywhere in America, I do want to talk to you. I've just never had the opportunity to feature Monarch before, so we will talk about Monarch in just a little bit here.00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:27.000Stuart Winchester: Part of the reason why we're talking about Monarch is because they were one of two Western Mountains to this year join Snow Operating's Snow Pass. Now, the Snow Pass, if you missed the news, it works a lot like the Indy Pass or the Mountain Collective Pass, where you get two days each.00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:37.000Stuart Winchester: at a set number of ski areas. In this case, it's planned to be 14 ski areas for the 2026-27 ski season. And…00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:45.000Stuart Winchester: That product went on sale last Tuesday. I had Snow Operating CEO Joe Heschen on the podcast to talk through it with us.00:10:45.000 --> 00:11:01.000Stuart Winchester: Couple days later, I got an email from Snow Operating saying, Hey, guess what? Our first round of Snow Operating and Snow Triple Play, which are two different products, and I'll explain the difference in a moment, sold out. So we're taking it off sale. We're putting it back on sale next Monday, September 21st.00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:13.000Stuart Winchester: at 10 a.m. Eastern. It will be $349.99 for Snowpass, and $184.99 for Snow Triple Play. Still a pretty good deal. Those products at full price.00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:24.000Stuart Winchester: the prices that Snow Partners gave me, and they anticipate selling both products through Christmas Eve, December 24th, just like they did last year with the first season of the Triple Play.00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:40.000Stuart Winchester: They, the final prices they anticipate will be 3 99 99 for snow pass and 1 99 99 for snow triple play. So you get a nice little discount, particularly with the snow pass, $50 off if you buy it in the next round. So let's talk a little bit about the snow pass because.00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.000Stuart Winchester: When this product debuted.00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:53.000Stuart Winchester: I… I've been saying for years, there's 4 national ski passes, right? There's obviously Epic and Icon, and those have some season pass unlimited tiers at certain mountains.00:11:53.000 --> 00:12:08.000Stuart Winchester: And a limited number of days at other partner mountains. And then you have Indian Mountain Collective, which essentially worked the same way, 2 days at each ski area that is on their roster. Uh, Mountain Collective is more expensive, tends to be your bigger, more high-end resorts, Snowbird, Jackson Hole.00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:23.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, Sun Peaks up in Canada. And Indy tended to be the lesser-known ski areas, but still some really dynamite stuff there, and a lot more ski areas. Mountain Collective always has around 30, and Indy is more like 250, not counting their cross-country.00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:36.000Stuart Winchester: ski areas. So, I always thought there was probably room for a fifth national pass, but I wasn't sure, and as time went on, and more and more mountains joined multi-mountain passes.00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:37.000Stuart Winchester: I…00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:41.000Stuart Winchester: I thought, okay, maybe there's not room for a fifth national pass. Maybe everyone who's…00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.000Stuart Winchester: who wants to join a pass has, because I know Indy, uh.00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:58.000Stuart Winchester: Now, I'm not saying they don't have standards, but they'll let just about anybody on the pass just to help them get that exposure and that national marketing. But Snow Operating, the outfit that owns Mountain Creek in New Jersey and the indoor big snow ski area in New Jersey, they launched.00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:15.000Stuart Winchester: their Snow Pass, and it's a pretty good roster. Here, I'm gonna share my screen for those of you watching on video, and if you're not watching on video, don't worry, I'm gonna talk through it. So, here's the Snow Triple Play East roster, and here's the Snow Pass roster. Now, the Snow Pass has 14 ski areas on it.00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.000Stuart Winchester: And you get 2 days at each ski area.00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.000Stuart Winchester: The Snow Triple Play has…00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:27.000Stuart Winchester: 23 total ski areas on it, and you get 3 days total.00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:43.000Stuart Winchester: across all 23 ski areas. That's why it's so much less expensive. The most days you can use at any ski area is 2, so you can't buy this as a 3-pack Force A Gore Mountain, alright? So, that's the first important.00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:59.000Stuart Winchester: distinction is that Snow Triple Play is a much more limited basket of days. You also don't want to assume that they have the same roster. Just because something's on Snow Pass doesn't mean it's on Snow Triple Play, and vice versa. Snow Triple Play right now has a pretty…00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:15.000Stuart Winchester: Big roster that I wish was on the, uh, Snow Pass, because it has Jiminy Peak in, uh, Massachusetts, and also Cranmore in New Hampshire, which is jointly owned. It has Platykill up in the New York Catskills.00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:30.000Stuart Winchester: It has all these summit ski areas around Quebec. It has Bromont, one of the great eastern townships ski areas. Uh, so that's Snow Triple Play. Snow Triple Play does not have anything in the west. It's all east. It's all east coast, either eastern Canada or eastern New York.00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:45.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, Snow Pass has… it's a pretty interesting roster, and it's a great roster for a very particular type of skier. Now, it does have two ski areas in the West, uh, Snow King, which has been controversial, I'm gonna set that aside, and Monarch, which we'll talk about in a moment.00:14:45.000 --> 00:15:00.000Stuart Winchester: The core of the Snow Pass, and the reason why it makes sense, is because of the south to north line of ski areas that it offers. So if you buy the Snow Pass, again, goes back on sale for $349.99 next Monday, September 21st.00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000Stuart Winchester: You would get two days each at Bel Air, which is in New York's Catskills.00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.000Stuart Winchester: Gore.00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:16.000Stuart Winchester: higher up in the Adirondacks, and Whiteface, which are all owned and run and operated by the state, all fantastic ski areas. So it's 2 days at each of those, that alone would be worth $350.00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:33.000Stuart Winchester: Then you add in the fact that you get two days at Mountain Creek, which is right there in New Jersey, uh, two days at the indoor snow dome, big snow American dream. Uh, if you have kids, two days at Butternut and two days at Mount Southington in Connecticut. Uh, Butternut is in Massachusetts. They're both day drive distance from New York City.00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:42.000Stuart Winchester: Let them wander around, let them explore. They're both, uh, especially Butternut. It's very up-to-date, very modern lifts, very, very well-run ski area. So…00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.000Stuart Winchester: You have a really great little, you know.00:15:46.000 --> 00:16:03.000Stuart Winchester: 5, 6, 7 ski areas that really make sense. Now, Ski Martok doesn't really make sense. It's all the way up in the middle of nowhere in the, in the Atlantic provinces in, in Canada. Uh, and, and Pleasant Mountain makes less sense. It's, it's up in Maine and, uh, harder to get to from, from the folks who would likely buy this as.00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:13.000Stuart Winchester: But what you have to ask yourself is, okay, the snow pass, that's a pretty good deal, right? It's $349.99 for 2 days each of 14 mountains. Then you look at Indy.00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.000Stuart Winchester: And Indy Pass is 254.00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:34.000Stuart Winchester: uh, alpine ski areas, and it just went off sale for $429 for the base pass. So, it would be 2 days each at all of these, and the… the plus pass, the ND plus pass, was $469. It had no blackouts. Now, the other thing to know about Snow Triple Play.00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:50.000Stuart Winchester: and snow passes, there are a lot of blackouts, okay? So, a lot of these are holidays, you probably expect that. Uh, you know, here I see Big Snow, Oak Mountain, Plattekill, a lot of holiday blackouts, Butternut holiday blackouts, Gore, uh, Bel Air. Bel Air, though, you want to stop.00:16:50.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: Bel Air is blacked out every Saturday and Sunday. That's a big deal, because when do you probably want to go to Bel Air if you're someone skiing around with your little kids? Probably on a Saturday or Sunday. So, you want to be really careful and really look at these, uh, these blackout dates before you pull the trigger.00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.000Stuart Winchester: on the snow pass. So…00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000Stuart Winchester: So if you have a snow pass, I I'm calling it.00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:18.000Stuart Winchester: A national pass, kind of, uh…00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:24.000Stuart Winchester: out of anticipation, right? It's more of a, I think they'll get there, sort of designation, because right now.00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:40.000Stuart Winchester: it's not really a national pass, right? You have one small skier in Wyoming, one small skier in Colorado. Is someone who lives in New York's metro really going to travel to Colorado just to ski that because they have a snow pass, right? Because it's not cheap to get up to Colorado.00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:56.000Stuart Winchester: And there's a lot of much bigger mountains out there. So… so I think that Snow Pass, much like Indy did when it started in 2019, will grow into a national… a true national pass. Uh, for now, just based on the reputation of the operators, uh, the fact that I think that they will be able to grow this thing, the fact that I…00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:11.000Stuart Winchester: know their relationships with folks all around the country, and how much folks like working with them, I am assuming that this pass will grow up, and if it does, Monarch will be the OG Western partner. So, let's talk more about Monarch now, and I'm gonna bring.00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:13.000Stuart Winchester: Chris Haggerty in.00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:17.000Stuart Winchester: And we will, uh… Chris, how you doing?00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.000Chris Haggerty: I'm doing well today, Stuart. How are you?00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:37.000Stuart Winchester: I'm doing great. All right, you passed the sound check, so I'm going to give you an intro here. Joining us now is the general manager of Monarch Mountain, Colorado. Monarch has six chairlifts serving 1,017 acres of terrain, including the 377-acre no-name expansion that opened last winter.00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:44.000Stuart Winchester: Monarch's 10,727-foot base elevation is the third highest in American skiing.00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:59.000Stuart Winchester: Prior to taking the top job at Monarch in 2024, he spent 21 years as general manager of Mountain Creek, New Jersey. Chris Haggerty is my guest. Chris, welcome to The Storm. Awesome to connect with you. I've really been wanting to spotlight Monarch for a long time now, and I'm so hyped we get to.00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:10.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah. Thanks for having me, and I'm excited to be here and chat Monarch. It's a special place, so excited to share some discussion about it.00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:23.000Stuart Winchester: So, the New Jersey to Colorado pipeline is maybe not necessarily a well-trod one, although there are a surprising amount of IntraWest vets working in the ski industry because of its relationship with IntraWest, but talk to us about…00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:40.000Stuart Winchester: Getting to Monarch, and you were taking over for Randy Stroud, super experienced guy, he was retiring, uh, he'd been there 23 years, a decade as GM, and he stayed on, I believe, for, for a year. So, talk to us about going from New Jersey, where they have a lot of snowmaking, because they have to.00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.000Chris Haggerty: Mmhm.00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:47.000Stuart Winchester: to Monarch, where they have no snowmaking, and just what that adjustment period was like, and how you settled into the role.00:19:48.000 --> 00:20:07.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, just a quick story is that, you know, as you mentioned, I was at Mountain Creek for a long time, and, you know, really where I found my love for the ski industry, and after college, I had taken a trip out to Colorado and got my first taste of, like.00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:12.000Chris Haggerty: the Rockies, right? So it's always been something in the back of my mind. Um…00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:28.000Chris Haggerty: And I ended up stumbling upon Monarch. I hadn't been to Monarch before, and I was like, oh, this place looks pretty cool. It definitely screamed the ski independent. I definitely wanted to.00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:50.000Chris Haggerty: you know, if I was going to relocate, wanted to find an area where the resort and the local community both had that kind of just feeling of community and stuff. So a monarch was it. And I was blessed to step in after Randy Stroud, and we shared a season together. So I got to learn a lot of institutional knowledge from him.00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:58.000Chris Haggerty: Um, but also bring my viewpoints coming from New Jersey in an area where, you know, we're not…00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:15.000Chris Haggerty: maybe blessed with natural snow. Um, so last year was, like, a challenging winter, and, um, I was ready for it, because I was like, man, 120 inches, like, if you gave me that in New Jersey, we'd be celebrating for years, right? So, um, you know, just kind of a unique perspective, but…00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.000Chris Haggerty: um, definitely happy to be here, and just pumped to keep the Monarch kind of spirit going forward.00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:37.000Stuart Winchester: So you've been there for a couple years, one full year as GM, and one of the… there's been tons of stuff coming out of Monarch, it's amazing for a small ski area, which is why I wanted to get you on. So you recently joined the Snow Pass, one of two Western partners to join the Snow Pass, which gives pass holders.00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:34.000Chris Haggerty: Thank you.00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:54.000Stuart Winchester: Two days at Monarch. I don't think there's blackouts on that, but correct me if I'm wrong now. Now, Multimon Pass has been around for years and almost everybody in Colorado is on either Epic or Icon if they're large and if they're small, a lot of them have joined Indy. So the option has been there for years.00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:00.000Stuart Winchester: Why was it finally time for Monarch to join a multi-mountain pass, and why the snow pass?00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:15.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, two parts there. I think on the, I mentioned it before, we're ski independent as our tagline, right? Part of independence is like the definition is freedom.00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:11.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.000Chris Haggerty: Right? Like, you make your own choices. You do what you wanna do.00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:31.000Chris Haggerty: we've been approached in the past for IndyPass, and, you know, it wasn't right for us because it kind of went against our spirit of being independent. Like, we want to be able to work with who we…00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:43.000Chris Haggerty: who we choose at any given moment, um, and that just isn't something that, um, is available through the Unipass, so… so we've passed on that. Um, we were even approached about it this year. Um…00:22:43.000 --> 00:23:00.000Chris Haggerty: As far as Snowpass goes, they respect that. They're all about, hey, you want to work with XYZ Pass, go for it. And obviously, I've spent some time working with the Snow Partners group.00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:05.000Chris Haggerty: You know, from my perspective, that group is all about, um…00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:17.000Chris Haggerty: you know, rising tides lifts all boats, right? And, um, you know, for me personally, they've opened doors for me, right? And helped me throughout growing in my career, so, um…00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:40.000Chris Haggerty: We're down.00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:52.000Stuart Winchester: I want to share, because you've sort of created your own… I'm sharing my screen now, if you can see that, and hopefully the folks watching can as well, and if you're listening, I'll talk through it. So, Monarch has…00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:46.000Chris Haggerty: Thank you.00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:07.000Stuart Winchester: not joined a pass, necessarily, but you've kind of built your own pass, and what I have on the screen right now is a list of Monarch's reciprocals, and it's a pretty amazing pass all in and of itself, so if you buy a Monarch season pass, which I believe now is, what, $6.59, less if you renew.00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:24.000Stuart Winchester: It comes with a lot of reciprocal days. Some of the big ones that people probably are really attracted to, 3 days at A-Basin, 3 days at Copper. Now there's blackouts on that, but still, it's freaking Copper Mountain. Uh, 3 days at Purgatory. And then, uh, 3 days each at all of the Mountain Capital Partners-owned skiers, which Purgatory.00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:08.000Chris Haggerty: Mm-hmm.00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.000Chris Haggerty: I'll do that.00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.000Chris Haggerty: Yes.00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:39.000Stuart Winchester: Also, Arizona Snowball. And there's a bunch more. I don't want to list them all, given our time constraints here today. But talk about this reciprocal program, because essentially, you're saying you're going to give pass holders of all these mountains.00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:34.000Chris Haggerty: Yes.00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:38.000Chris Haggerty: Sure.00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:46.000Stuart Winchester: free visits to Monarch in exchange for your pass holders getting free visits there, so…00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.000Chris Haggerty: Oh.00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:44.000Chris Haggerty: Yes.00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:52.000Stuart Winchester: whatever you did or didn't like about IndyPass, it does pay per visit, so what was attractive about.00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.000Chris Haggerty: Just a second.00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.000Stuart Winchester: this, and why did it make sense to do these free visit exchanges with other ski areas?00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:15.000Chris Haggerty: We look at it as other skiers are not our competition, right? There's 350 million people roughly in the United States. Less than 5% actually ski or snowboard, right? So there's a lot of people out there that just need to be introduced into the sport.00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:17.000Chris Haggerty: Um…00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:23.000Chris Haggerty: rather than trying to fight for visits between resorts. So… so one of the things is just…00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:39.000Chris Haggerty: How do we get more people skiing and snowboarding, which is obviously a huge conversation you could talk about forever. But with this one, it's just like, hey, these are other resorts that are interested in also giving their pass holders as well as ours.00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:10.000Chris Haggerty: allow our pass holders to try each out while still knowing that, like most people that have a copper pass, they're not migrating to Monarch because they came here for two days.00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:28.000Chris Haggerty: they're bought a Copper Pass for a reason, they love that, and they're like, yeah, if I could get two days over at Monarch, cool. Same thing with our Monarch guests, like, they… they… they love Monarch, they want most of their days to be here, and if we could break it up for them, um, you know, a couple times a year, or they could go to A-Basin and Copper, then.00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:17.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:37.000Chris Haggerty: That adds a lot of value to them and gives them that flexibility to move around and go where it works for them.00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:52.000Stuart Winchester: You know, Monarch is small by Colorado standards, but it always surprised me to see that it actually does have a pseudo national following. And I get emails from people all over the country that say they buy the Monarch Pass because it gives them all those reciprocals and they come out and they like to support the small ski area.00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:59.000Stuart Winchester: I want to get your take on something here, Chris. I'm going to share my screen again, and I want to share a chart that I made.00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:14.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, so, so this is a chart of Monarch's skier visits since 1997, up to 2024 to 25, right? And I've compiled these from all kinds of different places, and I have a little bit of a gap there. But as you, as you see right here, they've been going steadily up, right?00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:29.000Stuart Winchester: So, so you were averaging below $200,000 for most of the, of the 2010s, you know, much lower some years, and now you're pretty steadily adding, averaging over $200,000. Now, last year, I don't have your numbers, I'm, I'm sure that they were, uh, pretty bad, but.00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.000Stuart Winchester: You know, in relation to what your past numbers were.00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:35.000Stuart Winchester: So here's my question.00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:48.000Stuart Winchester: Monarch was supposed to be one of the ski areas that got squeezed out by Epic, squeezed out by Icon. That was one of the big worries. Uh, independent ski areas can't compete. We're seeing the opposite, because I've put some things on this timeline.00:27:48.000 --> 00:28:04.000Stuart Winchester: So, for example, 2007, IntraWest buys Steamboat. Uh, 2008, the Epic Pass launches. 2009, Powder buys Copper. Uh, the Mountain Collective launched in 2012. Uh, Mountain Capital Partners bought Purgatory in 2015. Powder bought Eldora the following year.00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:21.000Stuart Winchester: Uh In 2017, Alterra combined Steamboat and Winter Park in 2018, they launched the icon pass. Uh And then we had the 20% epic price cut in 2022. So all these things you think, ok, Vale and Alterra putting their mountains on sale. These are big world famous mountains, Steamboat Vale Mountain.00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.000Stuart Winchester: Monarch must be getting crushed. No, it's not. Why?00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:45.000Chris Haggerty: I think it's a couple of reasons. Number one is we've just stayed true to who we are. And as the population has grown in the front range, like since 2010, Denver and Colorado Springs have grown by about 20%.00:28:45.000 --> 00:29:00.000Chris Haggerty: Right? So there's just more people, um, that are finding Monarch, and they're, they're like, wow, we like this, this is what we want. You know, you also throw in the fact that, um, I-70, for those in Colorado, are pretty familiar with, like, the traffic that is.00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:50.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:17.000Chris Haggerty: created there on the weekends and it's not for everybody. So thankfully the drive to Monarch currently is a pretty attractive one, a lot less traffic. And I give credit to our ownership group, our current ownership group. They bought the resort in.00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:33.000Chris Haggerty: 2002. And part of it was, you know, a little bit of a passion project. Right? Like, they had come here and just really liked the vibe at Monarch and and wanted to protect that. And what they've been able to do is, number one, protect it.00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:53.000Chris Haggerty: Um, by not selling, you know, to, to one of the larger players, um, to just investing into our, our core, um, like deferred maintenance projects and those types of things, and then being really committed to the no name project, which we talked about and, and making sure timing was right on that and.00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:11.000Chris Haggerty: Um, that we were a healthy company before we jumped into that, so we didn't need a lifeline from, you know, someone else. So, um, there's kind of a lot of pieces that go into it. Um, and it's also worth noting that, like, our pass holders, like, and I think this goes to the growth, like, once people find us.00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:25.000Chris Haggerty: Um, our pass holder, uh, renewal rate is about 85% every year. Um, and the industry standard, depending on where you, you know, who you ask, it's somewhere between, like, 55% and 62%.00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:42.000Chris Haggerty: Um, and, and most of the 15% that we lose as we've dug into it is because of, uh, we have a lot of season pass holders from Fort Carson, um, military base outside of Colorado Springs, and they've just moved out of the area, right? So, um, I think our growth is partly due to, like.00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:35.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:49.000Chris Haggerty: Once people come here and they discover it and they love it and they just keep coming back and we're just building upon that.00:30:49.000 --> 00:31:06.000Stuart Winchester: So you have owners that are willing to invest and that's really important. And Randy Stroud, I interviewed him, not on the podcast, but just for an article a couple of years ago. And he told me, and I'm not sure if this ended up being true, but their intention was to pay for the entire no name expansion in cash, including a brand new SkyTrak.00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:22.000Stuart Winchester: triple chair, or Doppelmayr, I can't remember what it was offhand, but regardless, it spoke to a very stable operation. Now, meanwhile, you still have some pretty old lifts, some pretty old infrastructure on the front side of the mountain, and recently Monarch's.00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:36.000Stuart Winchester: Master Development Plan was accepted by the U.S. Forest Service, which, for the listeners, just means that they said, okay, we'll let you consider doing these things on a project-by-project basis in the future. I have a lot of questions about the Master Plan, but first.00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:52.000Stuart Winchester: I want to focus on one that you called out, that Monarch Mountain called out in its first blog post announcing acceptance of the Master Plan, and it was about snowmaking. And Dan Torsell, the longtime GM of Ski Cooper, told me a long time ago when he came on this pod that.00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:04.000Stuart Winchester: that Ski Cooper and Monarch were the only big lift-surf ski areas in Colorado that don't have snowmaking. I think Silverton is too, but that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. So, uh, you have it in your master development plan.00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:19.000Stuart Winchester: to a sort of rudimentary snowmaking system that would allow you to open early. But, this is a quote from your blog, quote, Before anyone panics when they read about snowmaking, let me assure you that Monarch is committed to remaining 100% all natural.00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:37.000Stuart Winchester: Snowmaking has been a part of our previous MDPs, Master Development Plan, and we have chosen not to implement it as we truly believe that natural snow provides the best skiing experience. This continues to be the case as snowmaking is in the plan to cover all bases, but we will not implement anything unless Mother Nature gives us no other choice.00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:40.000Stuart Winchester: Care to expand upon that at all?00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:53.000Chris Haggerty: Definitely. And yeah, and we are committed to that. And I actually, last summer, I spoke in front of some of the locals and pass holders, and when I let them know that we were committed to.00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:43.000Stuart Winchester: Or elaborate.00:32:53.000 --> 00:33:09.000Chris Haggerty: 100% all natural. That was the loudest cheer we got all day. So, like, that's what our, that's what our guests want. That's what we want. Um, as far that, you know, snowmaking has come a long way, and, and it is a necessity for a bunch of resorts.00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:19.000Chris Haggerty: Um, we're not at that point, um, and we're gonna push as far as we can, um, leaning into, like, snow farming and everything else before we ever, um.00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:35.000Chris Haggerty: have snow… have snowmaking. But, you know, in the Master Development Plan, it's in there because, like, part of putting things into that document is because it's a conceptual document. It's, like, it's designed to be a 15-year document. If it's not in there.00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:51.000Chris Haggerty: The Forest Service really doesn't even consider something. So if 15 years from now we're like, we need to put snowmaking in and it's not in there, we'd have some challenges. I will say our base elevation being basically 10,800 feet.00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:02.000Chris Haggerty: has helped us out, right? Like, as weather patterns has changed, and temperatures have rised, and winters are, you know, different every year, um…00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:13.000Chris Haggerty: we've been pretty lucky because of that base elevation, where we're… we are seeing snow, where other resorts are seeing some of that other precipitation falling, right? So, um…00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:30.000Chris Haggerty: you know, and then I mentioned the snow farming, like, we're… we're gonna do everything we can, like, on that side of things, right? And that's all the way from, like, fences strategically placed throughout the mountain, whether they're permanent or temporary, to catch the snow when the winds are coming from whatever direction.00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:47.000Chris Haggerty: And we do early season, we take the snow in the parking lots and we plow it all up and get it into one of the corners and then our groomers take it from there and start to build our base in the base area. So we have some different techniques to try to insulate us as much as possible.00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:53.000Chris Haggerty: And we're going to keep going that way as long as Mother Nature allows us to.00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:09.000Stuart Winchester: So snowmaking, it sounds like, is Monarch's emergency parachute. Meanwhile, there are a lot of big chairlift upgrades outlined on the master development plan. So Monarch has had substantially the same footprint for decades until last season's snowmaking upgrade.00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:24.000Stuart Winchester: And like I said before, more and more skier visits, and you were still running, with the exception of the 1999 Pioneer lift, the quad that was put in, with a lot of older double chairs. So Breezeway is a 1968 hall, Garfield is a 1969 hall, Panorama is a 1980 hall.00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:40.000Stuart Winchester: Tumbling as a 1981 hall. Those are all doubles. Now they've all gotten new drive terminals. So I understand they're, they're more modern in their actual functioning than, than in their look. However, the capacity is probably not a whole lot more than maybe it would have been. The master development plan proposes.00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:43.000Stuart Winchester: Replacing all of these with.00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:54.000Stuart Winchester: is advanced of a lift as a high-speed quad. Now, I realize you wanna… maybe the same reason as somebody… you say high-speed quad because you can always take it down, easier to go down than up, but talk us through…00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:05.000Stuart Winchester: your lift upgrade plan, and whether you think that high speed would be good for Monarch, or if you think that maybe fixed grip is the way you want to stay.00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:09.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, fixed script is, you know.00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:24.000Chris Haggerty: Well, let me back up. A lot of that is in there because it's got to be in there if we choose to do that. And with no name opening, there's a lot of unknowns as far as, like, how is that going to change skier traffic around the mountain, right?00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:41.000Chris Haggerty: One of the things we worked with the SE group, so they're, you know, a company that helps ski areas, right, with all sorts of development projects, big and small. And one of the things that they do is they do this density analysis, right? And it's a complicated, you know.00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:57.000Chris Haggerty: Analysis that takes on a lot of different data, but basically it's like they look at your uphill capacity based on the speed of the lift, the size of the lift, the length of the trip up, the time, and then what terrain it accesses from that lift.00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:14.000Chris Haggerty: And, like, an optimal score where, like, you have, like, perfect harmony from uphill and downhill is, like, a hundred percent. If you're below that, you're actually putting fewer people up the hill, that the downhill terrain can handle.00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:34.000Chris Haggerty: Monarch, in our current state, sits at a 56%. So basically, like, when you ski the runs at Monarch, even on our busiest day, because of the capacity that we have at our lifts, like, you have, like, semi-private runs, right? If we were to do all of our lift upgrades in the 2025 MDP.00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:49.000Chris Haggerty: we would actually get to an 84% density analysis. So even still, you wouldn't feel overcrowded on the runs. So knowing that, we're like, wow, well, we don't need to right away push for any kind of high speed lifts.00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:58.000Chris Haggerty: Um, and in fact, again, things that our guests like about them is twofold. Number one, it's like…00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:11.000Chris Haggerty: that slow metering from a fixed grip lift just adds, like, this extra time, right? Like, part of why we ski and snowboard is because we like to just disconnect, right, from reality for a little while and, like, be out in nature and, like.00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:21.000Chris Haggerty: you know, our guests like taking a step back and slowing things down here, and it feels like things are just moving a little slower. And second, one thing that we feel is like a…00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:36.000Chris Haggerty: a strong differentiator for us is, um, having a fixed grip lift. Our lift operators have to be at, like, the load point, and, um, you know, bumping the chairs and helping our guests on, and.00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:40.000Chris Haggerty: It's this, like, human interaction piece that, like.00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:56.000Chris Haggerty: You don't get everywhere else, especially with some of the newer lifts where, you know, it's everything's so automated, um, which has its value, but for us, again, with who Monarch is and taking that step back in time a little bit like that, that face-to-face interaction.00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:14.000Chris Haggerty: like, so many of our reviews are constantly calling out our lift operators, like, oh, yeah, I remember so-and-so, like, he's awesome, he helped me on, or he just said hello, or he remembered what kind of skis I'm wearing, or told me about this secret powder stash, which… another benefit of a slower uphill capacity is, like.00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:23.000Chris Haggerty: Monarch, even though it's smaller in size, doesn't get tracked out. Like, you get powder turns at the end of the day on a powder day.00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:34.000Stuart Winchester: So the, I'm gonna share my screen to, to talk about this next bit. So those are the lift upgrades that you're proposing. There's also two, and I'm, I, so for those watching.00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:49.000Stuart Winchester: On YouTube or stormskiing.com, I have the master development plan, conceptual plan up. There's also two infill lifts. Okay, so there would be this planned NNB lift, which is a redundant lift in the No Name Basin expansion. This is the new lift that opened last year. And then there's this…00:39:49.000 --> 00:40:04.000Stuart Winchester: Plan, divide, express. So, again, it's two more lifts on the same footprint. And I didn't see in the master plan, maybe I missed it, that you do have all this cat skiing terrain over here, so…00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:10.000Stuart Winchester: So, talk us through the logic of putting in more lists to serve the same amount of terrain, and if you've considered.00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:18.000Stuart Winchester: moving lift surf skiing into the cat skiing, as Targi did with its peaked mountain expansion a couple of years ago.00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:37.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, so no name is actually was a part of our cat skiing terrain. So we did take a little bit of that. That redundant lift out there is just because we'll see what happens, how many people just access the terrain and no name. And if we ever need a second lift there, then.00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:24.000Stuart Winchester: Hmm. Okay.00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:55.000Chris Haggerty: um, we'll consider it. As far as further into cat skiing terrain, um, you know, our current MDP outlines our next 15 years, so we're not looking to push any further into that. Um, we also have, um, the Mirkwood terrain, which is a little bit of a hike-to terrain.00:40:55.000 --> 00:41:04.000Chris Haggerty: Um, between, like, the front side and no name, and we get… that's… that's the area we most commonly get asked about a lift, and uh…00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:12.000Chris Haggerty: I will tell you from my, uh, initial conversations with owners, it's… it's not a, um…00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:27.000Chris Haggerty: the answer isn't no, we're not putting a lift there, it's a expletive no, we're not putting a lift there. Um, we take pride in having, like, being a small mountain, but still offering, like, all these other things, right? Which one being hike to terrain, um, which is pretty cool for…00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:31.000Chris Haggerty: a small mountain like this. And then that, um…00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:41.000Chris Haggerty: the Divide Express, right, that would get us all the way from the base area to the summit on the front side. Um, that… that is one that we've, you know, had some…00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:55.000Chris Haggerty: serious discussions about, and, um, you know, it probably… number one, it would just, you know, allow guests to not have to take two lifts to get to the… to the summit on the front side. Um, but also, if we…00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:06.000Chris Haggerty: explore, um, summer operations in the future. You know, having a high-speed, you know, detachable lift gives you more flexibility to do that.00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:13.000Chris Haggerty: So that kind of, you know, would add into that if we get to that point.00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:24.000Stuart Winchester: So let me ask a stupid question, because that's what I'm here for. So Garfield Lyft, as I said, was built in the 60s. Pioneer Lyft came along in 1999. So I would have thought, okay, they cross over each other.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:41.000Stuart Winchester: Because they, they retroactively built Pioneer and didn't realize it. Uh, I would have thought, hey, the master plan is an opportunity to straighten those out so they don't have to cross over each other. Maybe I'm overthinking it and it's not that complicated, but, but talk about this interesting crisscross pattern you have here and, and why that's where Garfield and Pioneer are slated.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:25.000Chris Haggerty: Mm-hmm.00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:45.000Stuart Winchester: to continue to exist, even if you were to upgrade their lifts.00:42:47.000 --> 00:43:05.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that I have the best answer. We do have a proposal to shift the base of the bottom terminal of Pioneer uphill a little bit, just because the terrain is a little more desirable there. And obviously, if we needed to add the Divide Express, we need to open that area up.00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:06.000Chris Haggerty: um…00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:21.000Chris Haggerty: but other than that, right, we just kind of… we like the terrain that they serve right now, we don't really have a better spot, so the lifts crisscrossing wasn't like a, oh man, we need to change this. It wasn't something that we were focused on solving, um, in a way.00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:24.000Chris Haggerty: I think it's kind of a little cool, I guess.00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:40.000Stuart Winchester: I do like criss-crossing lifts, so I'm glad we're doing this one a video, because every time I bring this up, I get tomatoes thrown at me. Uh, Monarch skier visits have gone up and up, as we said. However, as they've gone up and up, there's still nowhere to stay on the mountain. There never has been. Uh.00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:51.000Stuart Winchester: a philosophical choice? Is that just a practical matter of, hey, the Forest Service owns the land at the base? Is it both? Talk us through why there's nowhere to stay at Monarch as a drive ski area only.00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, there's a couple of reasons.00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:02.000Chris Haggerty: And, you know, one of them, again, I'll say our pass holders and our guests, like…00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:18.000Chris Haggerty: are pretty vocal about not wanting that, right? Like that's what separates Monarch. We're not that resort that has the big base village. And again, that's not to knock those resorts. I think that that's, you know, I've gone to those resorts as a guest. I think it's awesome.00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:38.000Chris Haggerty: I think another side of it for us is we're really focused on our community, right? We're a small mountain ski area and there's a small mountain community 15 miles from where we are that has a really cool, the town of Salida has a really cool downtown, a main street.00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:52.000Chris Haggerty: Um, with a ton of restaurants, a ton of mom-and-pop-owned shops, right? And, um, you know, we're our largest, uh, driver for winter visits, and, and, you know, um…00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:01.000Chris Haggerty: in the wintertime, and we want to make sure we embrace that community. If we moved a village up onto the mountain, like.00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:16.000Chris Haggerty: Salida is going to suffer. All those guests now are going to stay in the lodging up at Monarch versus in town. And we want to be good community partners and be like, no, here, you guys should be the ones to have lodging. And we live.00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:35.000Chris Haggerty: all of us live in the community as well, and we want to see those restaurants, you know, stay active all year round, the mom-and-pop shops, like, you know, thrive. So part of it is just, like, wanting to be a part of something bigger, right, in that larger community, rather than.00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:38.000Chris Haggerty: moving everything up to… to Monarch.00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:53.000Stuart Winchester: So if Snowpass skiers do decide to come out and visit Monarch, they'll stay in Salida, most likely, and drive up that day. So leave us with this, Chris, because Joe Heschen, the CEO of Snow Partners.00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:58.000Stuart Winchester: Said we get so caught up on stats, but stats aren't aren't always the thing and and.00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:04.000Stuart Winchester: when you look statistically at Monarch, it's 1,100 vertical feet.00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:21.000Stuart Winchester: Lift serve drop. That's 25th in Colorado. Uh, 1017 acres that ranks 17th in Colorado is bigger than Aspen Mountain. I'll point, I'll point out, uh, it's 308 inch average annual snowfall is good, but it's, it's good for ninth best. It has the third highest base, as I said, but the 12th highest summ.00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:28.000Stuart Winchester: It has those older lifts in a state that has 120 high-speed lifts, and there's nowhere to stay on the mountain, so…00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:34.000Stuart Winchester: I'm just stating those facts, right? So what's your pitch to someone to come.00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:37.000Stuart Winchester: use that snow pass, and try out Monarch.00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:44.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, the big one is to start with, we're 100% natural, right?00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:59.000Chris Haggerty: you want natural snow, it is a definitely a different feel, even as good as snowmaking is these days, like, come check it out. And this, and the second part is, um, the people that are at Monarch are a unique group, right? Like, we're, we're.00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:18.000Chris Haggerty: past the characters, whether you work here or you're a guest here. And, um, we're looking out for each other, right? Like, it's not, um, it's not judgmental, like, no matter what you show up wearing or what your ability is, like, we just want everyone here to have a fun day on the mountain.00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:37.000Chris Haggerty: whether you're the extreme person out in the cat skiing terrain, hiking Mirkwood, the Never Ever, or the SnowTuber, which I love SnowTubers, you know, I think that's who we all are at our core. Um, you know, it's just… it's just a cool vibe that you gotta just come check it out, and our track record's saying that.00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:40.000Chris Haggerty: People love it once they find it. So give it a shot.00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:51.000Stuart Winchester: I'm always telling my readers that these old lifts, these hauls, these riblets, they're not gonna be around for a whole lot longer, right? There's still hundreds in operation, but they don't last forever.00:47:51.000 --> 00:48:08.000Stuart Winchester: And the best thing you can do to memorialize them, you can't really preserve them forever because they're functional machines, right? But go ride them. And right now, Monarch, along with Lost Trail, is probably the best place in the West to go and ride all Old Hall Liftley. And I understand, again, they've been updated.00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:23.000Stuart Winchester: But the aesthetic is similar. So, alright, Chris, look, I gotta take my own advice and get out there and ride those hauls with you this winter. It was really great to talk to you. I really appreciate you coming on. I can't wait to catch up and hopefully make some turns together this winter.00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:27.000Chris Haggerty: Yeah, thanks a lot for the time and look forward to seeing you out here at Monarch.00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:29.000Stuart Winchester: All right. Talk to you soon. Thanks so much, Chris.00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:30.000Chris Haggerty: Thank you. Bye.00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:47.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, that was Chris Haggerty, the General Manager of Monarch Mountain. That was really fun, I'm really glad that he came on. Uh, Randy Stroud, just to be clear, the former GM, it's not that he ever didn't want to come on the podcast, it's just that.00:48:47.000 --> 00:49:00.000Stuart Winchester: I covered Monarch in a different way for the story about the expansion. So he was very good to the storm as well. I do want to tell you that today's podcast is brought to you by Profile Search International.00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:08.000Stuart Winchester: If you want to find a great leader for your mountain team, I want to introduce you to the pros at Profile Search International.00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:18.000Stuart Winchester: They are the ski industry talent acquisition experts, and they are the only executive search and recruitment firm in the entire world that is 100% focused on the ski industry.00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:31.000Stuart Winchester: ProfileSearch has used their intimate understanding of skiing and related industries, and of available candidates worldwide, to place hundreds of transformational leaders at the best and most progressive ski areas over the past 30 years.00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:44.000Stuart Winchester: Profile Search has offices in the US and Canada. They find and negotiate with the right leaders for your team, which sometimes you don't even know that you need in this era of online everything and big data. You can reach Profile Search.00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:59.000Stuart Winchester: Directly at ProfileSearch.com, where you will find their email or phone number. You can also send me a note. I will be happy to connect you directly with this expert team. My email address is skiing at substack.com. Alright, we are going to wrap up today.00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:05.000Stuart Winchester: With some reader reaction to yesterday's podcast on…00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:22.000Stuart Winchester: with Midwest skiers, Matt Zabranski, and there wasn't a lot of feedback. I think, number one, because the Midwest doesn't get as much feedback in general, but also because I published this one pretty late, I think I put it out at 8 or 9 at night, and so folks may just have not had a chance.00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:27.000Stuart Winchester: really process it yet. So…00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:30.000Stuart Winchester: Nell says…00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:41.000Stuart Winchester: Midwest Skiers, meaning MidwestSkiers.com, Matthew Zbrensky's site, is a regional treasure. The ride-throughs are so thorough, and what Nell means by that is.00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:52.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, Midwest Skiers puts up on their YouTube channel a, hey, look, here's the trail map at, say, Trollhagen, Wisconsin. Here's all 32 trails, whatever it is.00:50:52.000 --> 00:51:03.000Stuart Winchester: and then it rides the reach for the GoPro, and tells you about them, and gives you a really specific breakdown, uh, with some great graphs. So the production quality is really, really good. So, I second that now. Really good.00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:15.000Stuart Winchester: breakdowns of the ski areas from Midwest Skiers. Eric Morris says, great Midwest content, it'd be great to talk to the Dean of Southern Skiing, Randy Johnson, who wrote Southern Snow, the new guide to winter sports.00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:31.000Stuart Winchester: Couldn't agree more, Eric. If you know him, I would love an introduction. I am not acquainted with Mr. Randy Johnson, but I would love to meet him, as the South has certainly been an undercovered region from my point of view, and not on purpose, just because there's…00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:44.000Stuart Winchester: a little different culturally than the rest of the United States from a ski point of view, and I have not sunk as far of roots in there as I would like to, especially since I'm not too far from those ski areas. There was also…00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:47.000Stuart Winchester: We're not getting as much action on the chat, but here's one.00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:57.000Stuart Winchester: question on the chat, and this is not to do with the podcast from yesterday, but I want to talk about it a little. What will it take for Vail Resorts to turn around? That's from Saurabh Jain.00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:06.000Stuart Winchester: And commenter Slappy said, redefine what success looks like and suspend the dividend and stock buyback. Of course, those last two may be non-negotiable.00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:24.000Stuart Winchester: I'm not going to get out of my lane and talk too much about dividends and stock buybacks, though I do like stocks and follow that world nominally. It's certainly nothing that I'm an expert to speak on. What Vail needs to do to turn around, I think, is very simple, and I've said this many, many times.00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:25.000Stuart Winchester: And I've written about it.00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:37.000Stuart Winchester: many times, and we've talked about it on the podcast many times, is they need to treat every single ski resort like it's Vail Mountain, and every single guest like they're the President of the United States. They…00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:40.000Stuart Winchester: They need to make sure that.00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:48.000Stuart Winchester: the experience of a lifetime ethos is transferred to any Skiera, whether it's Beaver Creek.00:52:48.000 --> 00:53:03.000Stuart Winchester: or it's Mad River, Ohio. And that has not always seemed to be the case since Vail Resorts purchased Peak Resorts in 2019 and sort of doubled the size of its owned resort portfolio within a year's span. Now.00:53:03.000 --> 00:53:08.000Stuart Winchester: Certainly, Vail has recently recommitted to.00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:11.000Stuart Winchester: To that sort of quality, and we'll see how that plays out.00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:13.000Stuart Winchester: I think…00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:19.000Stuart Winchester: maybe a little more shuffling with the Epic Pass, uh, maybe a higher-priced.00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:22.000Stuart Winchester: Full pass to to.00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:37.000Stuart Winchester: help traffic some of the more popular ski areas, and maybe some more options. They do a really good job, actually, with the Epic Regionals, with the Tahoe Local, the Northeast Local, and the Summit County Local. So, I think Vail's done a nice job with that. And I think…00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:45.000Stuart Winchester: From my experience, Vail executives, and I've hosted many of them on this podcast. They're very receptive to criticism.00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:47.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and they are…00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:53.000Stuart Winchester: Willing to listen and change and evolve. I'm not sure.00:53:53.000 --> 00:53:57.000Stuart Winchester: If that always comes through.00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:04.000Stuart Winchester: Outside of direct lines of questioning, if that makes sense. So, so the, the owning of mistakes and saying, okay, you know what?00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:19.000Stuart Winchester: we messed up because Paley Peaks was only open 25 days a year in 2021, or whatever it was. There was a year when a lot of its Midwest ski areas were extremely restricted, or the COVID restrictions and everyone else, but the local ski area operators there.00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:24.000Stuart Winchester: we're out competing them. Uh, you know, when Vail first bought Wilmot, Wisconsin.00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:27.000Stuart Winchester: In 2016, there…00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:38.000Stuart Winchester: their… or maybe that was 2012. They bought Afton Alps, Wilmot, and Mount Brighton in some order, two of them in 2012 and one in 2016. Anyway, there was a great article I read that said.00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:49.000Stuart Winchester: what Wilmot skiers can expect, and Wilmot's a small ski area outside of, well, it's broad, it has a lot of lifts, outside of Wisconsin and Chicago, uh, Milwaukee and Chicago.00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:56.000Stuart Winchester: And what they said was, we're gonna bring Western standards to the Midwest, right? And that was very out front. Dale spokespeople were saying that.00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:11.000Stuart Winchester: You never hear them say that anymore, and it's not clear that that is the standard, and I had a very nice time at Wilmot when I went two years ago, and super friendly staff, and all the lifts were running, even though clearly they didn't need to be, because it was a Monday, and hardly anyone was there, so I'm certain they were.00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:19.000Stuart Winchester: losing money on that day, and yet they still did their best to provide an experience. I'm just not…00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:21.000Stuart Winchester: It's just not always…00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:31.000Stuart Winchester: super clear throughout the portfolio, particularly in the Lower Midwest, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, uh, in some of the Pennsylvania ski areas, Mid-Atlantic.00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:36.000Stuart Winchester: that that this is their operating philosophy. So I think that.00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:38.000Stuart Winchester: I think Vail's better than most…00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:49.000Stuart Winchester: than you would think, scrolling through social media. Uh, in general, I've been to pretty much every Vail resort in North America, other than, I think, the two in Missouri and Paoli Peaks.00:55:49.000 --> 00:56:07.000Stuart Winchester: And I generally have a really good time and a positive experience, and I find the staff friendly, and that's a super important thing to me. I love that Vail puts bars on all the lifts. I love that they're focused on safety in general, that they help police speed. As someone who skis with my kids, that's important to me.00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:13.000Stuart Winchester: So I generally have a pretty good experience. I think…00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:29.000Stuart Winchester: there's a little too much gum in the machine, maybe, when it comes to communicating these things and owning and correcting mistakes. So, anyway, with that, I will leave Vel alone for today, and you're probably wondering why I haven't yet covered the new Slate.00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:44.000Stuart Winchester: of proposed board members by Oasis Capital for Vail Resorts. I don't want to get too into the weeds on stock stuff, but I do have some thoughts on that. I want to wait till I have a little bit more time to break it down.00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:50.000Stuart Winchester: So I thank you for coming today. I hope you enjoyed that podcast episode.00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:58.000Stuart Winchester: If you are not already subscribed to the Storm Skiing newsletter, please click over to stormskiing.com and subscribe.00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:14.000Stuart Winchester: That will come right to your inbox. It is not only podcasts, I do a ton of writing. And if you want to upgrade to a paid subscription to the Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast, that will give you everything below the paywall, which is a lot of really deep analysis.00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:29.000Stuart Winchester: that I do on the lift service ski industry, particularly in North America, and especially in the United States. Also, if you're a paid subscriber to The Storm at stormskiing.com, that is the only way to interact with the podcast, because I'm only reading comments from the.00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:30.000Stuart Winchester: Previous.00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:47.000Stuart Winchester: Day's podcast and only paid subscribers can comment. Only paid subscribers can join the chat, which is the second way that they can interact with the podcast. If you want to rep the storm, we have a swag store. You can buy shirts, hats, et cetera, at stormskiing.myshopify.com.00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:48.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:52.000Stuart Winchester: Please follow me on YouTube. YouTube is…00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:55.000Stuart Winchester: Where we will increasingly.00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:02.000Stuart Winchester: It'll be increasingly important to us, and right now, we don't have that many subscribers there. Uh, everything is going there, but it's just not…00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:12.000Stuart Winchester: made it into the cultural fabric of that site just yet, so please follow me at Storm Ski Journal on YouTube. Also, Instagram, which I post on more during the winter season.00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:27.000Stuart Winchester: I will be back tomorrow, or I'm scheduled to be back tomorrow, with, and this is one a lot of people have asked me for, a conversation with the general manager of what I think was perhaps the most improved ski area in the country last year, Camelback.00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:38.000Stuart Winchester: Pennsylvania. If you're rolling your eyes, if you live out west, I encourage you to tune in anyway, because the story of Camelback is a really good story of how do we do things wrong?Stuff referenced in the pod:Monarch's amazing season pass reciprocal network:A full breakdown of Monarch's U.S. Forest Service masterplan:Conversation with Snow Partners' CEO Joe Hession: Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Tonight's guest, Tim, lives in Florida, but he was born and raised in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania where he did an extensive amount of hunting, fishing, and trapping. At a young age, Tim joined the U.S. Army and served as an infantryman. While he was serving our country, at Fort Carson, in Colorado, he had his first of 4 Bigfoot sightings. When he had his first sighting, he observed a family of Sasquatch, at a distance, through the optics of a missile-guided anti-tank system that was mounted on the armored personnel carrier he was in, at the time. Little did he know, that was going to be the first of a series of sightings he'd have over the years. We hope you'll tune in and listen to him talk about that first sighting and the other 3 he went on to have, including the time he wound up merely feet from a dangerous-looking Skunk Ape.If you'd like to purchase a copy of John Reiner's book, titled “Crouching Behemoth: Quadrupedal Sasquatch: Eyewitness Accounts and More,” please visit…https://www.amazon.com/Crouching-Behemoth-Quadrupedal-Sasquatch-Eyewitness/dp/B0F1ZCJW7ZIf you've had at least one Sasquatch sighting and would like to be a guest on the show, please go to BigfootEyewitness.com and let me know. I'd love to hear from you.If you'd like to help support the show, by buying your own Bigfoot Eyewitness t-shirt or sweatshirt, please visit the Bigfoot Eyewitness Show Store, by going to https://Dogman-Encounters.MyShopify.comI produce 4 other shows that are available on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't checked them out, here are links to all 4 channels on the Spreaker App...My Bigfoot Sighting https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-bigfoot-sighting Dogman Tales https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dogman-tales--6640134Dogman Encounters https://www.spreaker.com/show/dogman-encounters-radio_2 My Paranormal Experience https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-paranormal-experience Thanks, as always, for listening!

The Department of War released the third batch of files related to unidentified flying objects and unidentified anomalous phenomena on Friday. In one file, it reveals details about a 2022 sighting where five U.S. Army members at Fort Carson described seeing an object that was “roughly the size of a large jet and resembling an angular, non-symmetrical potato” behind the Cheyenne Mountain. Musk became the world's first trillionaire following the successful debut of SpaceX, which went public and began trading on June 12 under the SPCX ticker on the Nasdaq in what is the largest initial public offering in history. SpaceX opened with shares priced at $135 apiece and closed the session with shares at $161, pushing the company's valuation above $2 trillion. The U.S. is getting ready to take on Paraguay at SoFi Stadium with the 2026 FIFA World Cup officially underway. NTD spoke to local Los Angeles residents who attended watch parties at the FIFA Fan Festival and West Hollywood World Cup Free Fan Zone to see who they are supporting and what their predictions are for the game.

Welcome back to the Colorado Business Podcast. In this episode we sit down with Michael Simler, a former major crimes detective who is completely revolutionizing transportation at Fort Carson. Michael shares how he transitioned from taking down international cartels to launching the Carson Connector, a massive microtransit network that scaled to over 400,000 riders in just 18 months.We dive deep into the concept of extreme ownership, the complex logistical challenges of military funding, and the deeply personal legacy of service that drives his mission every single day. This conversation is a masterclass in leadership, carrying a heavy burden, and solving high stakes problems.Subscribe to the channel for more interviews with top business leaders and innovators across Colorado.

Matters of conscience, Part 1: In part one of this two-part series on matters of conscience, Josh Jackson talks with CH(CPT) Chris Erickson, USA, an active-duty Army chaplain serving with 1-41 Infantry Battalion at Fort Carson, Colo., and LTC Lee Robinson, USA, an Army aviator and West Point professor who directs the American Politics Program.   Together, they examine how Christian military leaders can think through gray areas of faith and profession when the Bible does not seem to give a simple, direct answer. Rather than focusing only on what is legal, the conversation explores how leaders can ask what they should do in a given moment.   This episode is worth hearing if you are trying to navigate the space between religious liberty, leadership responsibility, and wise judgment in uniform.   This is Lee's third time as a guest on OCF Crosspoint. While it isn't necessary to listen to his previous interviews, consider listening to both episodes since Chris and Lee will reference them at a few points. Listen here:  Navigating the wall of separation between church and state    Faithful Leadership: You won't get this perfect—and that's OK    Questions answered and themes covered in this interview include:    How should a Christian military officer discern whether something is a matter of conscience?  A matter of conscience is defined less by the specific decision and more by the process used to reach it. Lee explains it as an area where civil authority does not dictate the outcome—something shaped by personal conviction, informed by reason, study, and Scripture. Chris adds that leaders must go beyond asking "what is legal?" and instead wrestle with "what should be done?" These situations often arise in gray areas where Scripture does not give explicit direction, requiring leaders to arrive at a decision they can be "fully convinced" of in their own mind (Romans 14:5, ESV).    Can a Christian military officer share their faith when asked about their leadership philosophy?  Yes, with important nuance. When a soldier asks about a leader's philosophy, that question opens a door the leader didn't force open. Chris argues that a soldier-initiated question is meaningfully different from a leader promoting religion unprompted. Lee's experience illustrates the tension: he shared Scripture-rooted principles without explicitly connecting them to his Christian faith, largely because other soldiers were present. Chris challenged that, arguing honest answers—including the faith source—aren't coercion. Both agree the key questions are: Who started the conversation? Is this a public or private exchange? Could sharing be perceived as using rank to promote belief?    How should a Christian officer respect religious differences while staying true to his faith in a diverse unit?  Chris argues that a leader needs a settled "theology of approach" before they are ever in the moment, working out in advance what he or she believes about expressing and sharing faith, and about respecting others' spiritual accountability. Romans 14:12 (ESV) anchors this: "Each of us will give an account of himself to God." Every soldier is individually accountable to God, not through their commander. Lee adds that religious pluralism is "our greatest moral argument to the world," and leaders who model genuine respect for diverse convictions honor that. The practical test: Am I seeking to provide comfort and care, or to promote my faith?    How should Christian officers balance faith expression with leadership responsibility and authority?  A key theme is the distinction between expressing faith and promoting it through authority. Chris stresses that using one's position to promote religion undermines true religious freedom, while sharing personal beliefs appropriately can be part of authentic leadership. He encourages leaders to examine their "why", whether they are seeking to influence belief or simply being transparent about what shapes them. Lee adds that leaders must consider how their actions affect unit cohesion and perception, especially in public or group settings, requiring leaders to think through factors like environment, audience, and intent rather than relying on rigid rules.    Is it appropriate for a Christian commander to pray with troops after a tragedy?  Lee shares a vivid example from combat after two soldiers in his company were killed by enemy fire. Standing before the formation, he had not planned to pray, but seeing their faces, he believed they needed more than facts. Before praying, he told them that if they were not praying people, he respected that and they did not have to participate. He then offered a non-denominational prayer for the families, for one another, and for the actions ahead. Lee says he would make the same decision again—though he never prayed once as a battalion commander, relying on Chris for that function. Chris frames the moment plainly: "You were not seeking to promote your faith. You were seeking to promote comfort." In his view, stepping in to provide comfort through personal belief is "good leadership"—not an attempt to advance religion.    What is the difference between expressing Christian faith in uniform and using military authority to promote religion?  Chris argues that Christian leaders do not need to eliminate religion from their lives or silence themselves, but they do need to examine why they are doing what they are doing. The problem is not faith itself but using authority to promote faith. That distinction matters for commanders and chaplains alike. Chris pushes back on the idea that chaplains automatically have broader permission simply because of their role. The goal should not be to pressure others into belief, but to offer comfort, care, counsel, wisdom, and support. A leader may share from personal belief but must not use official position to advance religion as such. 

Hosts Janis Putelis, Randall Williams, and Seth Morris interview Olympic biathlete Paul Schommer and his coach, Matt Emmons, about competing in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, look back 20 years in another edition of Throwback Thursday, and chat with Wildlife Officer Deme Wright about life as a game warden and her work around the Fort Carson poaching investigation. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hunters Brief Show Notes – Week of January 22, 2026 Below are the stories covered in this week's Hunters Brief, with links to the original sources for further reading: House votes to lift Boundary Waters mining ban — Associated Press via ABC News: “House Republicans seek to overturn a 20‑year mining moratorium near Minnesota's Boundary Waters”. Colorado halts wolf releases after new mortality and federal pressure — Pagosa Daily Post / Colorado Newsline: “CPW suspends wolf releases; nearly half of reintroduced wolves have died”. CPW staff threatened after mountain lions euthanized — Colorado Sun: “Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff and commissioners face threats after lethal mountain‑lion response”. Bronze ram stolen from KUIU headquarters — CBS Sacramento and KCRA: “Thieves steal life‑sized bronze ram statue from KUIU's Dixon headquarters”. Interior adopts ‘open unless closed' public‑lands policy — Outdoor Life and GearJunkie: “Secretarial Order 3447 makes hunting and fishing the default on public lands”. Missouri expands coyote hunting methods — Missouri Department of Conservation: “New rules allow night vision and thermal imaging for coyotes Jan. 1–Sept. 30”. Missouri revises deer seasons and CWD management — Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation: “Missouri approves 2026‑27 seasons and pauses targeted CWD removals”. Active‑duty soldiers convicted in Colorado poaching case — Denver Gazette: “Two soldiers and an accomplice fined for poaching six mule deer near Fort Carson”. Third man pleads guilty in Montana elk poaching ring — Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation: “Third defendant pleads guilty in multi‑county Montana elk poaching case”. USDA launches New World Screwworm Grand Challenge — U.S. Department of Agriculture: “USDA announces $100 million challenge to combat New World Screwworm”. These notes are provided for listeners who want to delve deeper into the stories discussed on the show. Thanks for tuning in! @HuntingStoriesPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to be a guest?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hunting Stories Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sponsors: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vortex Optics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Redemption Hill Church is in a new location and new building south of the airport - near Fort Carson and Peterson Space Force Base. Today on Preachers and Preaching Jeff Anderson introduces Redemption Hill and Pastors Ross Jagers and Al Barrera. Formerly Circle Drive Baptist Church, hear about the history, vision, and preaching ministry of Redemption Hill - including their current series in Genesis! https://www.redemptionhill719.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Thanksgiving from Crosswalk Colorado Springs! Pastor Jeff shares Thanksgiving devotions from four area pastors: Pastor Matthew Morton of Cross Fellowship Church, Youth Pastor Brandon Anderson of Vista Grande Baptist Church, Pastor Darren Melugin of Mountain View Bible Church, and Chaplain (Col) Chris Archer from Fort Carson.” www.vgbc.org www.mountainviewbc.org www.crossfc.org www.fortcarsonchapels.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You will notice a beautiful church building right off the north gate of Fort Carson – Cheyenne Mt. Pres is seen from S. Academy Blvd. and Hwy 115.“A community of grit and grace.” Preachers & Preaching introduces Pastor Matthew Capone. Jeff and Pastor Matthew talk about recent preaching series from the life of Abraham as well as Romans. www.cmpc.church See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TWTDNH is a truth-telling podcast on domestic violence, trauma, and systemic injustice. If you've survived abuse, loss, or institutional neglect—or work in these spaces—we're seeking collaborators and experts to help amplify unheard voices.

Jeff is joined by Former garrison Commanders of Fort Carson, including Bob Mclaughlin of Mt caramel Veterans Service Center, Joel Hamilton of Fort Carson School District, Brian Wortinger of COS Utilities, and Nate Springer of Care and ShareSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How embarrassing. Our show-biz president's glorious $45 million military parade – fssssst – fizzled. The gods rained on it, the thing dragged on, and Trump himself kept nodding off in his chair. Sad.What his show needed was some of the reality-TV drama that defines this president. For example, he could've had a phalanx of food trucks rumbling down the street, being chased by hundreds of hungry US soldiers, waving empty plates and chanting, “Feed the Troops!”Besides being entertaining, that spectacle would've brought long-overdue public attention to an outrage that really rankles rank-and-file soldiers – namely, hunger. Yes, the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget that overflows with waste and boondoggles for corporate contractors actually leaves military families struggling to have enough to eat, much less being well-fed.Indeed, about 25 percent of service members are so poorly paid and poorly served on US Army bases that that they are officially “food insecure,” relying on food stamps and local food pantries for their bare bones nutritional needs. Last November, for example, it was reported that the base dining hall at Fort Carson, Colorado, was serving a miserly “meal” consisting of one slice of toast and spoonful lima beans. Some bases are only offering gas-station-style grab-and-go snacks.More scandalous, soldiers have a $460 “food tax” automatically deducted from their meager paychecks each month to pay for food. But the Army brass quietly diverts two-thirds of the soldiers' money to other purposes – which they won't disclose.Congress knows about this and does nothing. Trump doesn't even want to know. And Pentagon honcho Hegseth is lost in the fog of his own incompetence. To help raise awareness and Hell, go to FeedingAmericaAction.org.Do somethingWant to support veterans and fight for justice with them? Here are two orgs we love:* Common Defense* About FaceAlso, here are some graphics from The Poster Project that you can share and use as talking points:Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Crosspoint Highlights: Big ideas, short episodes … for your busy schedule Guests: Joshua and Lindsey Bowen From Episode 54: “The importance of small group fellowship.” Listen to the full episode here.    Highlight Summary: In this Crosspoint Highlight, Joshua and Lindsey Bowen reflect on the lasting impact of biblical community, mentorship, and servant leadership during their time in the military. They share how their early experiences in a diverse OCF small group at Fort Carson shaped their spiritual maturity and inspired them to pour into cadets at West Point years later. From late-night Bible studies to one-on-one mentoring moments, Josh and Lindsey offer a deeply personal look at how fellowship across generations can transform lives and prepare future military leaders for both spiritual and professional challenges. Find an OCF group near you Find out more about Christian mentoring   Key Takeaways: Intergenerational fellowship fosters growth: Being surrounded by older couples in their Fort Carson group helped Josh and Lindsey mature spiritually and understand what Christlike leadership looks like in marriage, military life, and beyond. Mentorship happens in everyday moments: Watching how mentors cared for their spouses, shared struggles, and modeled vulnerability left a deep and lasting impression on the Bowens—one they now strive to replicate. Leading means serving: As small group leaders at West Point, Josh and Lindsey invest time, energy, and emotional bandwidth into cadets—not just during Bible study, but through desserts, coffee chats, and showing up when it matters most. Spiritual black holes are real: Without proactive preparation, cadets can find themselves spiritually adrift after graduation. Josh shares candidly how his own post-academy faith stagnated, and how he now helps cadets plan ahead to avoid the same pitfall. God equips those He calls: Lindsey never saw herself in women's ministry or spiritual mentorship—until someone invited her. Now she thrives in that space, walking alongside young women facing challenges she never imagined when she was in their shoes.

A HUGE RAID IN COLORADO SPRINGS FINDS DRUGS, GUNS AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS And some members of the military from Fort Carson, either partying or working as security at what is being called an "underground" nightclub, though I'm not sure exactly what that means. More than 100 people who are in the country illegally were swept up in the raid that also found drugs and guns. This was a DEA investigation in cooperation with ICE, so it wasn't JUST about finding people in the country illegally. I've got someone from the DEA on today at 2:30 to find out more details.

Travis Wilson is a Native of Wichita Falls, Texas and has lived in various other states to include Alaska and Oregon. In 1993 Travis Graduated from East Anchorage High. He attended Wentworth Military Academy for one year before deciding to enter the Army in 1995. In 2001 Travis left the Army to attend Boise State University and study Exercise Science. In 2003 He reentered the Army to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course. At the end of 2005 Travis Graduated the Q course and was stationed at Fort Carson's 10th Special Forces Group.

Register here for the live online event to learn about ‘Cleveland's Amazing Cash Flow Opportunities' on Thursday 3/20. Keith discusses the potential elimination of property tax, highlighting its impact on home affordability, rent stability, population influx, and retiree financial relief. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis supports a constitutional amendment requiring 60% voter approval to abolish property tax.  Hear about the broader economic implications, including the potential for increased sales tax and widened wealth inequality.  GRE Coach, Naresh, analyzes the impact of federal layoffs on the DC housing market, predicting a decline in home values and increased private sector job opportunities. Both emphasize the importance of the BRRRR strategy for real estate investors. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/545 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching:GREmarketplace.com/Coach Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai    Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, there's a proposal to eliminate the property tax. Is a Washington DC real estate crash upon us, then a terrific guest and I are talking about the future of interest rates in inflation. And finally, an event you won't want to miss all today on get rich education.   Speaker 1  0:23   Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests and key top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with get rich education podcast, sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Corey Coates  1:09   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education. You Keith,   Keith Weinhold  1:25   welcome to GRE from Fort Carson, Colorado to Carson City, Nevada and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you are in for another wealth building week at get rich education. I don't like to predict interest rates, because it's really hard to do. But it does get interesting today, because our guest says that he will with his tight read on the economy, this is a unique time, perhaps in my entire life, where we have more new policies shaping the economy and real estate. Then, anytime I can remember, policies are made by politicians, but we don't get into the politics here, rather the policies and how it affects you and her. Any of these policies spicier than this one from earlier this month. Be mindful that this voice is from a person that made his name as a real estate investor.    Donald Trump  2:29   I also  have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America. We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security. And I think we're going to get it one way or the other. We're going to get it. We will keep you safe. We will make you rich, and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before. It's a very small population, but very, very large piece of land and very, very important.   Keith Weinhold  3:17   Yes, the long time New York City Real Estate Investor there has gone well beyond Gotham now with plans to expand America's real estate empire, if you will.   Is this imperialism or America First policy? Or is it abject comedy? I guess that it could be all three. I'll let you decide. Well, the federal policy shakeups like that, also what they seem to be doing are emboldening others, including at the state level, where Florida, interestingly, recently proposed eliminating the property tax, taking it to zero. What is property tax free? Real Estate coming to you as well. Let's look at the prospects for this and what the effects would be of eliminating the Property Tax with some things that you probably never thought about before, and yes, your mind might shoot ahead. You might anticipate saving 1000s in lost tax dollars every year, even saving over 10,000 bucks a year per single family home in high tax areas. And you know, property taxes, sharpest critics, they say you have got to get rid of this thing, because you basically just endlessly rent your house from the government, and the rent goes up every year, and so therefore it's like forever rent that you have to pay. What's even worse is that the. Amount of property tax you pay is based on your homes or your apartment buildings market value. Well, because the government prints so much money and creates inflation that pumps up all the housing values, many of which are fake, inflated gains, and then your property tax goes up based on this phantom gain. And we've really seen that over the last five years, both real gains and Phantom gains. And then, plus, of course, each full dollar that you earn from your work right now is already taxed, say, down to just 70 cents, is what you've got left over. Well, then your 70 cents is further whittled down by property tax and all the other taxes that you have to pay out of that currently, all 50 states have a property tax every one of them, and you might already know that property taxes, they're basically highest in really two main places. When we look at property tax as a percent of your income. Those places are Texas and the Northeast, where they're upwards of 4% even 5% in fact, it's more than 5% of your income every year that goes to property tax in the state of Maine, but it's 4% or more in a number of states. And of course, if you don't pay them every single year until you die, the government will repossess your home from you. And almost 5 million Americans lose their home every year, many of them to this tax foreclosure. And in the US, the property owner pays the property tax, of course, but effectively, renters do too, because as landlords, we pass it along to tenants. It's embedded in that market rent amount, all right. Well, can we end the property tax? Well, former presidential candidates like Ron Paul and Herman Cain have proposed it. They didn't get elected. Texas has discussed it a lot, but yeah, it's Florida that has newly and boldly proposed eliminating the property tax. And like falling dominoes, if this gets abolished in one state, it increases the chances that more will follow. And Florida is a big state, the third largest in population. Well, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came out and said this, taxing land and property is the more oppressive and ineffective form of taxation. That's what he said. Now let me tell you why he says that before we look at the chances that property tax will be eliminated, DeSantis says it's oppressive, because look see, you can personally dodge your income tax by making your paycheck smaller, although that might not be desirable, you sure could, and you can certainly avoid sales tax by consuming less, but see there is no escape from property tax. That's the oppression that's being referred to here. Let me tell you where we're at with eliminating the property tax, and then what the absolutely Titanic impacts of this would be DeSantis goes on to say, property taxes are local, not state. So we'd need to do a constitutional amendment which requires 60% of voters to approve it, to eliminate them, which DeSantis supports, even to reform or lower them. Right? But he goes on to say this, and here we go. We should put the boldest amendment on the ballot that has a chance of getting that 60% that's the end of the quote. Okay, so that's what it's going to take to eliminate property tax in Florida, where, if it happens, it could be a model for other states to follow, like we're seeing a little bit with the zero income tax states. All right, here's what I think would happen if they were eliminated. First home affordability would massively improve, skyrocketing property values. So many more people could afford the lowered monthly payment without property tax making prices soar, especially the values of lower price to median priced homes. They could really bring those into the affordability range, and they are the exact ones that make the best rental properties. What about rents? If property taxes went to zero, rents would stay stable. Landlords would do little or nothing to drop them. That's just how it works when people are already used to paying a certain price. Also population influx to the affected area. I mean that population influx that already works for states in attracting residents. That have zero state income tax, it would with property tax too. I mean that would clearly be desirable for people to own property tax free homes, especially in the beginning, before this settles in and those home prices soar. Also, retiree financial relief would take place. Those people on fixed incomes would really be helped. But you know what would not happen with governments slashed property tax revenue. They couldn't reduce their spending proportionally. I have no faith that they could. They would have to get their income from elsewhere and see shifting away from property tax over to beefing up your sales tax, that would hurt poor people the most. For example, in Florida's case, it's been studied, and they discovered they would have to increase their sales tax from the current 6% up to 12% to maintain the same services. Can you imagine 12% sales tax, and another effect of abolished property tax is that wealth inequality would widen because the property owners are the ones that benefit the most. So those are the big effects. But look, there are more problems eliminating property tax, that means the areas would need to find another way to pay for schools and roads and parks and local services like police and emergency responders. Maybe some of that stuff could be privatized. But if the tax, if that were just shifted away from local government and that went toward state and federal government, well, then local control would be lost. So that is a really undesirable side effect. But as a real estate investor, come on. The prospect of an abolished property tax that has got to excite you. I wouldn't count on it happening anytime soon, but now you know more about the prospects for it happening and what the impact would be with an elimination of property tax.    coming up soon. Here on the GRE podcast, what the Bible says about money when Pastor John joins us, it's going to be a show unlike any we've ever done before, and maybe will ever do again. You might not be a Christian or religious at all, but this is still relevant to you, because the Bible is the top selling book in the history of the world, and it has an indelible influence on the people around you. The book the Bible, says some things that make you wonder if wealth accumulation is even virtuous. We're gonna face those verses head on and get pastor John's insights there. That's a really anticipated show. I'm also gonna ask him what other religions have to say about money. Also some well known guests down the road here on the show, including the get rich education debut of Laurel Langemeier and more. LAUREL she was known as the millionaire maker since back in the days when a million dollars was actually a lot of money. To be sure that you don't miss these upcoming episodes on your pie catching device, hit the Follow button right now while it's on your mind and you'll be all set. Let's meet with this week's guest.   This week's guest is a familiar one, because he's on Team GRE, yeah, it's an in house chat with our super helpful investment coach. What he does is he helps you devise your big picture real estate strategy all the way down to connecting you with the exact right property addresses. He does that free at GRE marketplace business speaker Jim Rohn said, formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune. He's got both with an MBA from Duke. Then he worked at both banks and financial publishing companies before landing here at GRE in 2021 but importantly, for years now, he's been an active real estate investor, just like you and I are. Hey, a big welcome back to the show. Naresh Vista,   Naresh Vissa  14:13   hey, thanks for that wonderful, wow, amazing introduction, and thanks for having me back on. It's been a few months.   Keith Weinhold  14:20   Yeah, we haven't heard from you since October here. So what's going on in the real estate and economics world? From your vantage point, everyone's got a different slant on it based on what they see.   Naresh Vissa  14:32   There's a lot happening. As you know, Keith and our listeners, I'm not sure if they're following, but we're seeing tremendous, tremendous changes in the financial markets in general, and the financial markets include the real estate markets, and the impact is going to be widespread for better or for worse, I think, for better over the long haul. So what I'm talking about right now is, for example, interest rates, mortgage rates, home value. Use inflation, those are all very important parts of the economy. And we have this new government department called Doge, the Department of government efficiency. And Doge has gone in. And I loved your newsletter where you talked about Doge a little bit, and the walk that I took, as you called it, the awkward walk with a box full of your stuff or something like that. The sure, because I've been fired before. Yep, yep, it's happened to me once too. I took the awkward walk with the box of of random stuff. Yeah, lots and lots of of layoffs are happening within the government. The private sector continues to lay off people as well, like it usually does, and this is a big deal. The reason why it's a big deal is because aggregate demand. I don't want to say it will be killed, but we're already seeing an impact on home values in places that are very dependent on government workers, places like Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, there's actually a 10% year on year decline in home values in those areas. I don't know if you knew about that, Keith, but that's been the impact, and that's based off of the February statistics, the February numbers. So we've seen a decline, and that decline will likely spread to other areas that are dependent on federal workers, or where federal workers make up a good chunk of the local economy. I bring this up because we have providers in Maryland who we work with, who GRE has worked with for three or four years now, and they're seeing somewhat of a decline in the area as well. Because just you don't have to work in DC to be a federal worker. You can work in a major city like Baltimore or in a suburb in between Baltimore and BC. So we're seeing somewhat of a decline in our investors have all of a sudden gotten interested in investment property in the Maryland area because they knew, hey, we know GRE works in the Baltimore operates in the Baltimore area, and just want to scope out some homes. So previously, two years ago, three years ago, when list price was not negotiable. Now all of a sudden, the sellers are open to offers when there was no budging on offers three years ago. So I bring this up because the Department of government efficiency, I believe, to my knowledge, we're up to six figures. More than 100,000 workers have either been laid off or taken the buyout package, so we're somewhere in the six figures of people who got that now, they do have eight months severance. But with that being said, you would think that most humans, they'll immediately start looking for the next job. They're not gonna just enjoy for eight months and then scramble to find that next job. So this is having a widespread impact on housing, home values on it's going to have an impact on interest rates. We're seeing that interest rates are coming down, and if there's any sign, which I don't think there is, but if there's any sign of a recession, if there's any sign of bleeding, then the Fed is going to start cutting interest rates again. So I think we saw peak interest rates a few months ago, those interest rate values, those mortgage rates, aren't going to be going back up anytime soon. We know that almost it's almost a fact that we know that, because the Fed is not going to be raising rates, the most punishing thing they can do is just keep rates steady for a long period of time. But I didn't anticipate that later this year, they're going to start cutting again because of these widespread mass layoffs.   Keith Weinhold  18:32    And of course, Washington, DC is essentially ground zero for these federal layoffs. Federal jobs account for about 25% of DC jobs. You the listener, probably find it to be no surprise that that is the highest in the nation. But of course, this can also affect private companies, those private companies that have federal government contracts as well, and Naresh, before we open it up to the nation, we just think about DC. Do we have any idea of what properties are going to be hurt the most? A lot of times you might think of that in the case of what is the income range of these federal employees that are being laid off now, a lot of them are probationary employees, meaning that they're in their first year of employment.   Naresh Vissa  19:19   Well, it's a huge mix keep. That's a really good question, because I think a broker, like a real estate broker who's trying to sell will try to beef up the price and say, Oh, this doesn't affect us, and this only affects very high income folks. Well, that's the fact of the matter. Is there, if you work for the federal government, you're not necessarily ultra high income or ultra high net worth, you get the perks, and you get perks of working a government civil servant Job while taking somewhat of a lower pay. So it's actually a mix, because you have people in the first two years of employment. So the youngsters. Now, those aren't your homeowners, though, the 2223 24 those. Just say the people in their mid 20s, they're not the homeowners, they're the renters. So you can expect them to leave. They'll probably if they can't find a job, which it's going to be much harder to find a job in that DC area, they may move to Philadelphia or New York or California or wherever they can find a job. They'll just get up and move and move, and that's one of the benefits. I did that when I was in my early and mid 20s, many times where I just packed up and moved. I was more than happy to do it. So they're not your homeowners, but the homeowners are going to be the people who are getting laid off. So there are mass layoffs happening right now, and those people are homeowners, and then the people who are taking the buyout packages very likely, because they're either approaching or at retirement age, and it remains to be seen whether those people it's like a retirement gift, like, Hey, this is a great party. You know, getting eight months of free pay. Like, that's pretty amazing and happy retirement. Or maybe folks were like, they didn't say for retirement all that much, and they were planning to work another 10 years. Those are the people who could be sellers. Bottom line is, when you have this amount of mass layoffs, and we're seeing it in the data, there are more homes for sale today in that DMV area. I By the way, I used to live there. I used to live in in Maryland, great. More homes for sale today than I believe in the lab, definitely over the last five years. And it could be even over the last 15 years, to my knowledge.   Keith Weinhold  21:29   And for those that don't know DMV, that means Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, that area, yep. So   Naresh Vissa  21:34   there are more homes for sale, and the home values actually are now. This is a crazy thing. The home values in on average are back at 2020 levels. So basically, the peak of 2020, is what the home values are at today. And just my prediction. I don't think it takes a genius to predict this, but the layoffs are just getting started. They're just scratching the surface, and they're going to continue, because this Doge is a an 18 month program or an 18 month project. It's supposed to, it was called the Manhattan Project of our time. So they're just scratching the surface. And I'd expect home values in those areas to continue to fall. And you're gonna see it's not immediate. It's not like there are mass layoffs one day and then home values fall the next month. A lot of these effects, we won't start seeing them where the DC area won't start seeing them. 678, months down the road,   Keith Weinhold  22:27   Doge is more than just a meme coin. Now our own in house investment coach, Naresh Vissa and I are talking about the state of real estate today. More we come back, including nuracious thoughts on the future direction of inflation. This is Get Rich Education. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold   you know what's crazy? Your bank is getting rich off of you. The average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back, no weird lock ups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing. Check it out. Text family to 66866, to learn about freedom family investments, liquidity fund again. Text family to 6686    Hey, you can get your mortgage loans at the same place where I get mine, at Ridge lending group NMLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than any provider in the entire nation because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. You can start your pre qualification and chat with President Caeli Ridge personally. Start now while it's on your mind at Ridge lendinggroup.com that's Ridge lendinggroup.com   Jim Rickards  24:34   this is author Jim Rickards. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream.    Keith Weinhold  24:49   welcome back to get recidiation. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, it's an in house chat with our own GRE investment coach, Naresh Vissa. He's been talking about the fallout on DC area. Jobs with the regime shakeup that we had in the White House starting earlier this year. And Naresh, I know that you have some thoughts about what this can do to the future direction of inflation. Tell us about it.    Naresh Vissa  25:12   Well, the first thing Keith is, if you look throughout history, or even your lifetime, what we saw from 2021 until today, really, because inflation is going up. I don't want to say it's going back up, but it is going up. We've seen an inflationary cycle that I've never seen in my lifetime. It's worse than any short term inflation cycle that this country has faced, at least in my lifetime. And I was born in the late 80s, let's just say 1990 and moving forward. So I bring that up because this is some pretty bad inflation that the world and that the United States has seen, and we don't need to get into all the details about how it happened or the mistakes that were made at the time when the Fed should have started raising rates, when the government should have stopped spending. That's all history. Moving forward, I'm actually very optimistic now that we've actually reached peak inflation. And when I say peak inflation, I mean during this micro cycle where inflation has gone back up from a 2.4% rate to a 3% rate. I think that's the highest we're going to get during this micro cycle. It did reach some I believe it was above 9% in 2022 yes, we're definitely not going to going to reach that. But 3% is still too high for the Federal Reserve. It's still too high for Americans. It's a major reason why Americans went to the voting boots and or the ballot boxes and made the decisions that they made because of inflation. It's the most important issue on most Americans minds. And I bring this up because I'm very optimistic that we've seen this 3% peak and that we're going to be going down moving forward because of the first half of this interview, the fact that all of a sudden, it is a sudden thing, because a lot of people weren't expecting this, I was, but a lot of people weren't expecting these mass government layoffs. And these mass government layoffs, they hit corporations. They hit private businesses. Anyone with a government contract is going to be hit anyone who was profiting off of waste, fraud, abuse, which you'll be surprised how many private and many times this is legal, like it's legal waste, it's legal abuse, and all of a sudden those checks are going to stop coming in, or the way of doing those business practices are going to stop because the government is clamping down on it. Why? Because it's taxpayer money, and taxpayers are upset. So the pullback or the elimination of waste, fraud, abuse, is definitely a good thing, but also the mass layoffs, we're going to see a decrease in aggregate demand. And when we see a decrease, I'll just say demand. I mean, that's more common, so we'll see a decline in demand. So when there's a decline in demand, what happens? Prices go down, and we're already seeing it. There's already proof of it. I already I brought up the housing market in the DMV area, and I can also tell you oil prices, for example, which is one of the main drivers of inflation, oil and gas energy prices one of the top three drivers, along with government spending. So you got mass layoffs, which will kill a lot of that aggregate demand, you have the oil, gas and energy, and then the reduction in government spending. So all that combined is going to lower inflation, going back to the energy prices, oil is down for really since the inauguration. That trend should continue, given the policy change, and that drives it drives inflation, it drives deflation, it drives pricing, because any good that you need, it's probably going to be transported with the use of energy the microphone you're using, Keith, how was it shipped? Maybe in a truck, and the truck is powered by fuel, or maybe something was sent in an airplane or in an actual ship. All that requires energy and fuel. So if you can lower energy costs, then we're going to see a continued decline in inflation, and energy costs continue to fall, continue to plummet. So I think this is good for inflation. Yes, it is. There is pain. We talked the first entire half of this episode on layoffs. Layoffs are they're painful. Taking that Walk of Shame is painful. There is going to be pain. But at the same time, remember, there are more than 10 million available private sector jobs, and we already have more than a million jobs that are opening up as a result of investment within the United States since January, 20 of this year. We have companies like Apple. We have Taiwan, semiconductor, Eli Lilly, the list goes on and on and on, of major corporations, big corporations, mid sized companies, who are opening up more operations within the United States. So the private sector jobs, which are really the innovative, long lasting jobs, they are growing there is just a tremendous. To opportunity, especially for young people. If I was young again, I wouldn't want to work for the government. I'd want to go work for one of these companies, where they're essentially going to be recruiting and begging youngsters to come work for them   Keith Weinhold  30:12   to corroborate nourishes lower inflation expectations. Since the beginning of the year, we've had a fairly sharp decrease in bond yields now. GRE listeners know by now that mortgage rates somewhat move with Jerome Powell's federal funds rate, but they're more closely tied to bond yields, specifically the yield on the 10 year T note. Okay, so then what makes the 10 year go lower? Hence, mortgage rates along with them, that is lower inflation expectations in a slowing economy. And another reason that bond yields and hence mortgage rates with them, fall, is when people sell stocks and make a flight to safety into bonds, that pushes up bond prices and lowers bond yields. So again, those are two factors that move bond yields and, resultantly, mortgage rates. And that's what has been happening.   Naresh Vissa  31:08   absolutely. And the important thing to remember something you touched on and what I talked about earlier, which is, yes, there is going to be a reduction in federal government and federal government jobs, and I think this is going to pass on to states as well. I think many states, in fact, I know that many states, even blue states, are taking a look at their books and saying, hey, you know what? We should be making cuts too. Because states, they operate on much tighter budgets, whereas the federal government, they basically have access to a printing press. State governments do not so the point that I'm making here is that, yes, it's painful. We're going through some pain right now. The DMV area is going through some pain. The stock market has gone through some pain. The Crypto markets have gone through some pain. Everyone's gone through some pain, but they say no pain, no gain, and the jobs are being transferred, as I brought up earlier, from the government sector to the private sector, and the private sector is where we can see tremendous, tremendous growth. Look at GRE for example, we're a private company, and we've seen tremendous growth, right? Tremendous growth in just innovation and and our services and our offerings. Now, imagine a bigger company that, and how much growth they can have. I think overall, I'm very optimistic and about inflation coming down, hitting that 2% target by the end of this year. In fact, I think it'll hit that 2% target a few months before the end of the year. And once we hit that target, then the Fed is going to start cutting rates again, and there's a chance that they may even start cutting rates before we hit that 2% target. I don't think they should. I thought they made a mistake doing that last year when they started cutting, when inflation hit 2.4% I think or two and a half percent, they started cutting again. I think the inflation rate has to hit actually 2% across the board, and then they can start with their gradual cutting. So if somebody asked today, hey, narration, which many do as, hey, how low do you think interest rates are going to go this year? My answer is not very low. This here, you'd have to have a cataclysmic Black Swan event, which it's called Black Swan because none of us can predict it, none of us can see it. So you'd have to have an event like that for the Fed to just basically slash rates overnight, which I don't see anytime soon. The other most popular question I've gotten this week is, are we going to go into a recession? You know, it seems like the world is falling apart and world war three and and stocks are tanking, and crypto is tanking, and this is tanking and that's tanking. This is when people told me a few weeks ago, actually. And my answer is, No, I don't think we're going to see a recession unless there's a black swan event. But I don't think so. And the reason is because of the tool that the Fed has. The Fed can cut, cut, cut. That's one of the Ben now, if we were at low interest rates, if we were at, let's say, historic low interest rates, and we were in this situation today, I would be very pessimistic and say it's not looking good. But any sign of a recession, the Fed is going to act at their next meeting. They won't even need to call an emergency meeting. They'll act at their next meeting, whenever that may be, they'll act and start cutting rates, and that's going to quickly stimulate the economy and get investors like our folks, because that's going to affect the bond yields, that's going to affect the mortgage rates, and investors are going to jump in to buy real estate, and people are going to jump in to buy discounts in the stock market, et cetera, et cetera.   Keith Weinhold  34:44   To your point, thank goodness the Fed has some ammo. Since the federal funds rate is about 4% they do have some ammo, and they can cut that rate down. You can imagine if the Fed funds rate was zero, like it was a few years ago, and they couldn't make cuts because they don't want to. Make it negative. So Naresh and I here talking about a number of forces that are largely outside your control. So these are the sort of things you can keep your eye on. However, there is something you can do that's very much in your control, and it happens this Thursday, where you can join Naresh and a co host on our upcoming live event. Tell us about it, Naresh.   Naresh Vissa  35:22   well, like you said, it's this Thursday, we're going to be talking about the BRRRR strategy, which has become the most popular real estate investment strategy. GRE has seen in its existence. Our investors are almost hooked onto this burst strategy. We're going to talk more about it on the webinar. Burr stands for buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat, and we'll get into all that in the webinar. It's a great way to build equity in a property very quickly, and to use that equity towards your down payment, so that you're not paying that standard, traditional 20 to 25% down. Some of our investors have done BRRRR's in markets like Tennessee, where they put zero down, or where they even made money on the if you want to call it the flip, so we're going to be talking about them. It's specifically geared towards we've done a burr event before on the Memphis, Tennessee market. This is a burr online event that covers the Cleveland, Ohio market, and that's a market that we have not touched on much here at get rich education, we've promoted some properties here and there. It's a really popular market, and it's a state that is growing and looking if someone were to ask me, Hey, Naresh what's the one state that you think can become the next Florida. And we've covered Florida here before. I live in Florida. Politics aside, Florida has boomed Since 2020. Or so. The number of how you can judge a state's growth is by its GDP numbers. And most importantly, are people moving there? That's the key. Are people moving there? And I would say Ohio is that next state where I think many people in the Midwest are going to say, hey, you know what, I want to go move there, because they're looking to make a lot of changes that are pro growth, that are pro real estate, including potentially eliminating the property tax, school choice programs there. That's huge for kids, universal school choice, and, most importantly, potentially eliminating the income tax now, these are all long term plans. It's not happening anytime soon, but those are the visions and the goals for Ohio, and I think they're going to happen by 2030 I would expect many of these plans and policies to happen. And what that means for real estate is it's going to boom because people are going to move to Ohio because of that, there aren't a lot of states that offer no income tax. So those are my thoughts on Ohio, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that on the webinar.   Keith Weinhold  37:50   Many expect Vivek Ramaswami to be the next governor of Ohio. If that comes true, Vivek has a lot of the same pro business policies that Ron DeSantis does in Florida, for example, Ohio has a high population, a stable population, America's seventh largest population, and a slow growing one with a great diversity of industry there in Ohio and Cleveland.   Naresh Vissa  38:15   So Keith, we have we're approaching record numbers of registrations for this event. We still have room for several more people. So I highly recommend people go to GRE webinars.com. That's GRE webinars.com. You can register for the event. It's going to be fun. All of our webinars recently have been a ton of fun. We've gotten great feedback, a lot of engagement. I think you'll learn a lot for sure. So I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there.    Keith Weinhold  38:42   Your co host, Phil, was on last week's show with us, both you and Phil, we'll be talking about this burr live event in Cleveland. I really suggest you, the listener, attend live. You might get a better Property selection that way, and you'll surely be able to ask questions, and sometimes with the other participants, they ask a really good question that you had not even thought of previously. It's our live burr event for Cleveland cash flow properties. You the listener probably remember when Phil was here last week, we gave an example of where you can get eight to one leverage and up to $500 cash flow on a single family home in Cleveland. I really recommend that you attend, and you'll be hearing more from the race, then you can sign up at GRE webinars.com We'll see if we break that record of, I think, 538 registrants last webinar that we had late last year. Do you have any last thoughts about the event? Naresh,   Naresh Vissa  39:41   like I said, before our events have it's free to attend. That's the first thing. You don't need to pay us anything. But we sell out these events. So I highly recommend that people go once again to GRE webinars.com. We can only hold a certain number of people. It's a few 100 people. So we want to sell out again. We hope you can. Join us and you will not regret I think you're gonna really like the Cleveland market. We're gonna talk more about that, the Ohio market in general. And I think folks are really, really gonna like this strategy. I know a lot of you have invested in Burt, in other markets, or have been researching Burr and you really like what you hear this is the market. I think that you should pay really, really close attention to our team is really strong there. Phil's team, really strong, very honest. They're quick, they're reliable. So if you've had a bad experience doing a burr elsewhere, I think you'll have a better experience with our team over here.    Keith Weinhold  40:35   We'd call it a sellout crowd, but you don't have to pay anything. We'd call it a standing room only crowd, but you don't have to stand up. You can sit down and enjoy it from the comfort of your own home this Thursday at 8pm eastern at GRE webinars.com. Thanks for coming on to the show. Naresh,    Naresh Vissa  40:51   thanks a lot, Keith.   Keith Weinhold  40:57   Yeah, strong insights from our own new race today, inflation expectations cut back and forth like a knife with big policy decisions on layoffs and tariffs and more tariffs on lumber and gypsum board. I mean, they are two of the major inputs that can increase the cost of homes. Gypsum board just means drywall tariffs, slow trade, less fuel is used to ship things like we touched on. And a lot of people ask, well, doesn't an economic slowdown mean lower prices, but yet don't tariffs raise prices? Well, you got to take on that from Naresh today. Now, sometimes I am asked, where is the real opportunity in today's real estate market? I've been a guest on other business shows lately, and I've been asked that question, where's the opportunity in today's real estate market? And I've got two answers. If you have more money and less time. Go with new build properties, because builders are still awarding you with massive rate buy downs, often to near a 5% mortgage rate. They are buying it down for you, but instead, if you have less money and more time, because you have to wait a few months for a rehab, then go with the burr strategy. That is the other opportunity. It's going to give you a higher return than new build in most cases, because what you get is in improbably high leverage along with strong cash flow. And those are two notions that typically don't go together. Well, on Thursday, we're bringing that to you with our live event. I mean, is there a more seasoned pro with the burr strategy in the entire nation than one co host for the event? Phil and then the mind spring of knowledge and ideas from Naresh as the other co host, and they're both active investors themselves, bringing you the opportunity in Cleveland in just a few days. And of the hundreds of registrants, not all of them attend live, but do attend live. If you can give yourself an advantage, you can be connected with available properties conducive to the burr strategy. If you're interested, or maybe you're just more interested in how it all works one last time it is GRE 's live event for Cleveland's amazing cash flow opportunities this coming Thursday, the 20th at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific, healthy real world monthly rents that are more than 1% of the purchase price single family properties, many for under 100k in investor sweet spots. It's free to attend. It's from the comfort of your own home. Registration is still open at GRE webinars.com until next week. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Speaker 2  44:04   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host, is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  44:28   You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info, oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access, and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers, it's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters, and I write every word of ours. Myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream. Letter, it wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text GRE to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text GRE to 668666.   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, getricheducation.com.  

Jeff talks with Nate Springer about how Care and Share is helping families put food on the table when it really matters. Nate also talks about his experience as Garrison Commander a Fort Carson and why food struggles even affect our service men and women. That and more on this Friday edition of Crosswalk Colorado Springs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode, we welcome two distinguished leaders, COL Caryn Vernon and COL Sabrina Thweatt, both serving as Medical Brigade Commanders. They share insights into the challenges and rewards of leadership in Army Medicine, their journey to command, & how they balance high-stakes careers with family life. From leading teams in complex environments to prioritizing personal well-being, these accomplished officers provide invaluable leadership lessons and career advice for aspiring leaders, working parents, and military professionals. A Virginia State University graduate, COL Thweatt holds M.S. degrees in Human Resource Management (University of Maryland University College) and National Resource Strategy (National Defense University). She has served as Chief of Staff, Medical Readiness Command, East, and previously commanded Troop Command, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the 10th Field Hospital, Fort Carson. Her key roles include Deputy G-1, 44th MEDCOM, Chief, Personnel Services (Task Force 44, OIF 08-10, Iraq), J1-Chief, JTF Cap Med, Deputy G-1, Europe Regional Medical Command, Brigade S-1, 30th MED BDE (Germany), and Deputy Commander, Task Force Medical Afghanistan (Bagram). She also served as Executive Assistant to The Surgeon General and CG, U.S. Army Medical Command. Her military education includes AMEDD Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, CGSC, The Eisenhower School, and multiple HR and healthcare administration courses. Her awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Legion of Merit (1OLC), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (4OLC), Army Commendation Medal (7OLC), Army Achievement Medal (2OLC), and multiple campaign and service medals. She is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit and serves as the 70F Consultant to The Surgeon General. A University of Arizona graduate, COL Vernon earned an M.A. in Health Services Management (Webster University) and an M.S. in Strategic Studies. She has held diverse leadership and operational roles, including Evacuation & Treatment Platoon Leader (261st ASMB, Fort Bragg), XO, 2nd ACR Forward Surgical Team, Commander, C Co, 702nd MSB (Korea), S3, 261st ASMB (OIF 2004-2005), Ops Officer, U.S. Army Special Operations Command Sustainment BDE, J4 Health Service Support Division (Joint Staff), Plans Officer, 1st MED BDE (Fort Hood), Battalion Commander, 232nd MED BN (JBSA-Fort Sam Houston), and Commander, MEDDAC Fort Knox & Ireland Army Health Clinic. She most recently served as Director, Strategic Initiatives Group, Office of The Surgeon General before joining the 44th Medical Brigade. Her military education includes U.S. Air Force Air War College, CGSC, Medical Strategic Leadership Program, and Joint Medical Planners Course. Her awards include the Legion of Merit (2OLC), Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (8OLC), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (4OLC), Army Achievement Medal (4OLC), and various campaign medals. She holds the Expert Field Medical Badge, Parachutist Badge, Army Staff Identification Badge, and Joint Staff Identification Badge. She is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit and holds the AMEDD 9A Proficiency Designator. COL Vernon is the 70H Consultant to the Army Surgeon General. Tune in for an inspiring conversation with two outstanding commanders!Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are the guests and host's alone and do not reflect the official position of the Medical Service Corps, the Department of Defense, or the US Government. All information discussed is unclassified approved for public release and found on open cleared sources.For more episodes listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube @ Be All You Can Be MSC For more information, suggestions, or questions please contact: beallyoucanbemsc@gmail.com

Today we sit down with Joseph Zolper from the Road Home Program. Joseph discusses his military transition and how he overestimated how easy it would be. After landing a job, he found himself trying to fill a void that could only be filled through helping veterans. He eventually found the Road Home Program and all the stars aligned. Listen in as he talks about their program and the amazing impact and results they are having helping those in our veteran community.Joseph Zolper grew up in suburban Chicago, earned a BS from Illinois State University, and was commissioned from Army ROTC as an Infantry Officer in 2015. He served with 4ID, out of Fort Carson, CO, and deployed to Afghanistan in 2018-19, earning a Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman Badge. Following his military service, Joseph worked as an Operations Manager at Amazon, leading a Military Employee Resource Group. This passion for supporting the military community brought him back to Chicago to the Road Home Program, where he is the Manager of Veteran Outreach & Networking. At Road Home, he continues his service to the military community by bringing needed mental healthcare to veterans, service members, and their families.#vetsos #vetsospodcast #military #militarylife #transitioningmilitary #militarytransition #militaryspouses #militaryspouse #militaryfamily #militaryfamilies #militarycommunity #militarysupport #militaryveterans #vets #veterans #veteran #veterantransition #transitioningveterans #veteranservices #honorveterans #veteranswife #supportourveterans #veteransupport #veteransusa #veteranshelpingveterans #careerchange #transitioningservicemembers #linkedin #sof #coastguard #navy #spaceforce #marines #army #nationalguard #airforce #usmc #usmcr #us #usa #education #podcast #entertainment

This episode continues a theme of bringing on guest's who crossed paths with Alex in the Army and helped shape his perspective on human performance. SGM Jaime Espinoza's career started with troubles involving weight gain, mental health, alcohol abuse, and more. But thanks to help from several people along the way (some human performance professionals, but also just fellow soldiers) he managed to overcome those hurdles and excel professionally. He joined us to talk about how, and how lessons he learned in the process can help improve outcomes for people experiencing the same challenges. Sergeant Major Jaime Espinoza is a native of Azusa, CA. Upon enlisting in the Army in August 2006, he attended basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, followed by advanced individual training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. After completing advanced individual training, he was awarded the MOS 35F Intelligence Analyst. His assignments, in ascending order, were with HHC 2-6 IN, 2 BDE, 1st AD, Baumholder, GE; Bravo Company, 304th MI, Fort Huachuca, AZ; HHD, 525th MP BN, Guantanamo Bay, CU; HHC, 4 BDE, 1st CAV DIV, Fort Hood; HHT, 1-9 CAV, 1st CAV DIV, Fort Cavazos; HHC, 4th BDE, 1st CAV DIV, Fort Hood; HHC, 3rd BDE, 4th ID Attached to Foundry Fort Carson, CO; Delta MI Company, 299th BEB, 4th ID, Fort Carson, CO; HHD, 1ST IO CMD Land, Fort Belvoir; United States Special Operations Command (USASOC). He has deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom(OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). He served in a variety of leadership and technical positions, including Junior Analyst, Targeting Analyst, S2 NCO, ASAS-L Master Analyst, Special Security Representative, Detainee Mail Analyst, S2 NCOIC, Senior Intelligence Sergeant, Platoon Sergeant, First Sergeant, Operations NCO, Observer Controller and Trainer, Foundry Instructor, Operations Sergeant Major. SGM Espinoza's military education includes the Joint Special Operations Forces Senior Enlisted Academy (Class 74). Other schools include the Small UAV Course, Army Basic Instructor Course, Foreign Disclosure Officer Course, Military Police Pre-Service Course, Army Space Cadre Basic Course, Master Fitness Trainer Course, Critical Thinking Course, Integrated Data Sources and Enhanced Analytics Course, Information Operations Capabilities, Application and Planning Course, Army Operations Security Program Manager / Officer Certification Level II Course, Anti-Terrorism Officer Basic Course Airborne Course and SERE course. He holds an Associate of Arts degree in Applied Sciences in Intelligence Operations from Cochise College, a Bachelor of Arts in History with a concentration in Military History from Southern New Hampshire University, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from New England College. SGM Espinoza's awards and decorations are the Meritorious Service Medal (2nd Award), Army Commendation Medal (7th Award), Army Achievement Medal (6th Award), Army Good Conduct Medal (6th Award), National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (1 Campaign Star), Iraqi Campaign Medal (2 Campaign Stars), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal,Humanitarian Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal (2nd Award), Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (5th Award), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (3rd Award), NATO Medal, Luxembourg's International March of Diekirch Medal, Presidential Unit Citation (2 nd Award), Meritorious Unit Citation (3rd Award), Army Superior Unit Award. He has earned the Parachutist Badge, Army Basic Space Badge, Canadian Jump wings, Italian Parachutist Badge, German Bronze Parachutist, Polish Parachutist Jump wings and Netherlands Parachutist Jump wings, Norwegian Foot March Badge, Driver's badge with wheel and track clasps. SGM Espinoza is a recipient of the Military Intelligence Corps Association Knowlton Award.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the eighty-first episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.' Hosted by COL Ricky Taylor, the Commander of Ops Group (COG). Today's guests are the Commanding General and Division Command Sergeant Major of the 4th Infantry Division, MG David Doyle and CSM Alex Kupratty.   This episode was filmed on Veterans Day during a decisive action training environment rotation at the JRTC and aired on Thanksgiving Day. Veterans Day, celebrated annually on November 11, honors the service and sacrifices of all U.S. military veterans. The date reflects the historic moment of 11:00 AM on November 11, 1918, when the armistice ending World War I took effect—symbolizing peace after immense sacrifice. Originally known as Armistice Day, it was renamed in 1954 to recognize veterans from all conflicts. Veterans Day not only commemorates those who have served but also emphasizes the ongoing need for service to the nation. It serves as a reminder of the dedication required to protect freedom and the responsibility to support those who have borne the burden of safeguarding it.   The 4th Infantry Division, also known as the “Ivy Division,” has a distinguished history dating back to its establishment in 1917 during World War I. Its nickname and patch, featuring four ivy leaves arranged in the Roman numeral “IV,” symbolize tenacity and endurance, as ivy clings to any surface, just as the division perseveres in all missions. The division's motto, “Steadfast & Loyal,” reflects its commitment to excellence and reliability in combat. Known by its call sign “Ivy,” the division has played pivotal roles in major conflicts, including the D-Day landings at Utah Beach during World War II, extensive combat operations in Vietnam, and deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, the 4th Infantry Division continues to serve as a premier mechanized infantry unit, exemplifying innovation and adaptability on the modern battlefield.   In this episode, we discuss critical preparations for large-scale combat operations, emphasizing the importance of mastering fundamental warfighting skills and leader development. The team highlighted the need for proficiency in combined arms maneuver, sustainment, and reconnaissance, while stressing a return to basics like fieldcraft, effective communication, and the disciplined use of warfighting functions. With the modern battlefield presenting challenges such as contested environments and the need for reduced electromagnetic signatures, the integration of multi-domain capabilities was identified as essential for mission success and survival in combat.   Leader development and training management were also prominent themes, with a focus on prioritizing training to build cohesive, resilient formations. The importance of equipping junior leaders to certify and lead their units was emphasized, particularly in addressing gaps caused by rapid promotions and personnel shortages. Prolonged field exercises were cited as effective for exposing soldiers to realistic combat conditions and building operational endurance. Additionally, we discussed adapting reconnaissance strategies to align with structural changes, encouraging creative task organization and leveraging tools like small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) to enhance situational awareness. These insights reflect a comprehensive approach to preparing for the complex demands of LSCO.   Part of S01 “The Leader's Laboratory” series.   For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast   Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.   Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.   Again, we'd like to thank our guests for participating. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.   “The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

Welcome back to another episode of The Hunt, Lift, Eat Podcast! Join Luke Cox, Kerri McAllister, and our special guest, Mike Herne. Mike's a career military man stationed at Fort Carson, and despite still being on active duty, he's made a name for himself in the hunting industry. From his military background to his involvement with Black Rifle Coffee and now working in community marketing for Born Primitive, Mike's journey is a unique one.In this episode, we're diving into how Mike transitioned from the military into the hunting world, the challenges he faced, and the lessons he's learned along the way. Whether you're gearing up for your first hunting season or looking to build your own path in the outdoor space, this episode is packed with valuable insights.We'll also talk about Mike's unforgettable mountain goat hunt in the deadly Maroon Bells, the extreme terrain that pushed him to his limits, and how he overcame his fear of heights on some gnarly cliffs. Plus, we'll touch on the importance of skill development, networking, and how to break into the hunting industry.Get ready for some real talk, plenty of laughs, and a deep dive into what it really takes to make it in the hunting and outdoor space. Let's jump into it!mike_herne on InstagramWebsite: www.huntlifteat.comGive us a follow on YouTube @huntlifteatofficial and be sure to subscribe so that you do not miss an episode!Please drop a follow on IG @thehuntlifteatpodcast and @huntlifteatofficialDrop us rating and review on Apple & Spotify!

CSM Alex Kupratty, 4th ID and Fort Carson senior enlisted leader joins the NCO Journal podcast to discuss his article based on a new program he designed to bring Soldiers in to talk about their professional issues and creative ways to solve them.

Chaplain Paul Lynn retired as a Qualified U.S. Army Family Life Chaplain, which is an above-and-beyond counseling skill identifier. He was a cohort leader of eight peer chaplains in the eighteen-month Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy at Texas A&M -- Central Texas with over 500 clinically supervised hours. Since graduating in December of 2018, Chaplain Lynn has provided thousands of hours of counseling, trauma and marriage therapy, coaching, and training to military members, families, and now civilians.Additional information is that I grew up in Scranton, PA and married a girl from Hershey. We're together for 31 years in July. She has a Doctor of Ministry, DMin. from Denver Seminary in Leadership and is an Upper School Dean for Covenant Christian Academy in Harrisburg, PA. We have 5 children; three are adults now, and 2 still in school. My military career as a U.S. Army Chaplain, would be the focus of our time. We were stationed at Fort Liberty, NC, Fort Richardson, AK, Fort Carson, CO, Fort Cavazos, TX, and lastly Fort Huachuca, AZ. We are now settled back into civilian life in the greater Harrisburg, PA area.Contact Paul Lynn:1. My book, "Resilience Unlimited, How to Always Find Your Best Path," found on Amazon and every major book seller.2. My team and I at Trekk Unlimited provide Resilience Training in person or on-line, counseling or coaching, as well as Certification to be a Resilience Unlimited Trainer. My website is: www.trekkunlimited.com. "Find Your Best Path"3. I write a weekly resilience blog called RUnlimited: 4 Resilient Points in Under 300 Words. It features a resilient quote, a current news article on resilience, a resilient point to ponder from my book, and a resilient vocabulary word.Dr. Kimberley Linert Speaker, Author, Broadcaster, Mentor, Trainer, Behavioral Optometrist Event Planners- I am available to speak at your event. Here is my media kit: https://brucemerrinscelebrityspeakers.com/portfolio/dr-kimberley-linert/ To book Dr. Linert on your podcast, television show, conference, corporate training or as an expert guest please email her at incrediblelifepodcast@gmail.com or Contact Bruce Merrin at Bruce Merrin's Celebrity Speakers at merrinpr@gmail.com 702.256.9199 Host of the Podcast Series: Incredible Life Creator Podcast Available on... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/incredible-life-creator-with-dr-kimberley-linert/id1472641267 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DZE3EoHfhgcmSkxY1CvKf?si=ebe71549e7474663 and on 9 other podcast platforms Author of Book: "Visualizing Happiness in Every Area of Your Life" Get on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3srh6tZ Website: https://www.DrKimberleyLinert.com The Great Discovery eLearning Platform: https://thegreatdiscovery.com/kimberley

Chaplain Dawn Dimick is the first woman to study military chaplaincy in BYU's graduate program. Her journey began when she enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2013 on a prayer, and in need of money for school. She later received undergraduate degrees from Utah State University in International Studies and Religious Studies, with minors in Russian and Military Science. She went on to receive a Master's Degree in Chaplaincy from Brigham Young University, and now happily serves the Soldiers of 6-17 Aviation Combat Support Unit in Fort Carson, CO.Chaplain Jenna Carson is the first female military chaplain endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.She is a chaplain and officer in the United States Air Force and currently serves as chaplain at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi where she provides spiritual care for  Airmen, Guardians, Marines, and Sailors. She earned a BA from Brigham Young University and a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.Chaplain Dawn Dimickhttps://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/4/2/22991301/first-woman-student-military-chaplain-brigham-young-university-faith-religion-lds-church-missionChaplain Jenna Carsonhttps://www.thechurchnews.com/23283247/chaplain-latter-day-saint-military-air-force-jeremy-jaggi-jenna-carson-byu-harvard/38.9.7 Latter-day Saint Chaplains, Church Handbook  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/38-church-policies-and-guidelines?lang=eng#p753

Being a life-long blind person I have never served in the military and thus only understand the military way of life vicariously. There is reading about it, of course and there is talking to military people about their lifestyle. Today you get to hear a conversation not only about military life, specifically the army world, as it were, from a 20-year career soldier, Chase Spears who recently retired from the military as a major in the army. Chase grew up always interested in the news and what was going on in the world around him. He attended college, both undergraduate studies and later graduate work at universities in Tennessee. Along the way an army recruiting officer persuaded him to join the army. By that time, he was well married to a woman who, surprising to him, supported his decision to leave college and join the army. Chase's telling of this story is wonderful to hear. As you will see, he is quite the storyteller.   He and I talk a great deal about the world of a soldier, and he puts a lot of things into perspective. For those of you who have served in the military much of what you hear may not be totally new. However, since Chase served in public affairs/relations duties throughout most of his army career, you may find his observations interest. Chase and I had a good free-flowing and informative conversation. I personally came away fascinated and look forward to talking with Chase again in the future. A few months ago, Mr. Spears retired and entered into a doctoral program at Kansas State University where he is conducting research concerning how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. You will get to hear a bit about what he is finding.   About the Guest:   U.S. Army Major (Ret.) Chase Spears is first and foremost a Christian, Husband, and Father to five children who help to keep him and his wife young at heart. Having grown up with a passion for news and policy, Chase spent 20 years in the Army as a public affairs officer, trying to be part of a bridge between the military and the public. He merged that work with a passion for writing to become one of the Army's most published public affairs officers, often to resistance from inside the military. Chase continues that journey now as a doctoral candidate at Kansas State University, where his dissertation research explores how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. His other writings focus on topics including civil-military dynamics, communication ethics, and the political realities of military operations.   Ways to connect with Chase:   LinkedIn/X/Substack/Youtube: @drchasespears www.chasespears.com   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi there and welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. And we have a I think really interesting show today are interesting episode we get to chat with major retired Chase Spears. I've been saying ret all morning because he's got Rhett in parentheses. And I didn't even think about it being not a name but retired. But anyway, that's me. Anyway, he has been involved in a lot of writing in and out of the military. He was a major military person for 20 years. He's now in a doctoral candidate program, Kennedy C candidacy program. And my gosh, there's a lot there, but we'll get to it also. Major Rhett major Chase spears. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Chase Spears ** 02:13 just thrilled to be with you, Michael. Thanks for having me. Now   Michael Hingson ** 02:17 that now that we've abused you with Rhett, but that's okay.   Chase Spears ** 02:20 I think God worse. Well, there   Michael Hingson ** 02:22 you are. And by your friends, I bet. So that's what really makes them more fun. But we're but I really am grateful that you were willing to come on and spend some time with us. Why don't we start I love to, to start this way to give people a chance to get to know you. Why don't you tell us some about the early Chase spheres and growing up and all that stuff?   Chase Spears ** 02:44 Well, it's yeah, it's been quite a journey. I grew up in the southeast us My family was out of Florida. And when I was a teenager, we ended up moving we went out to Texas, which was really just kind of a an entire change of culture for us. If you can imagine going from the kind of urban parts of Florida that are really highly populated a lot of traffic, a lot of tourism, a lot of industry. And we went up to North Central Texas in my teen years. And if you can imagine going from from that, you know, Florida to a town of about 9000 people it was a an oil and agricultural cattle town, and Graham, Texas and it was really kind of a culture shock at first, but turned into some of the best and most formative years of my life where I I really learned the value of hard work working on the fields with my dad really got to kind of connect with nature and just taking some gorgeous sunsets in the evenings out working in the fields enjoying the views of the wildlife Hall. I was out working. But one thing that I did learn from hard manual labor, was it made sure that I kept on track for college. And so I ended up going to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1998. Right after I graduated from high school, I was homeschooled and met my Hi my sweetie there, Laurie. We were married by senior year we decided neither one of us we wanted to graduate and leave the other one behind. So we got married start a family pretty young afterwards. Went on to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville afterwards because I thought, hey, I want to work in journalism. And it'd be great to have a master's degree in journalism to prove my commitment to the field make people take me seriously. And it was during that time that I ran into an army recruiter while I was working my part time job at a law firm. I was working at the courthouse one day filing paperwork. And this gentleman and I just struck up a conversation in an elevator he was there in his full dress uniform was very impressive to me as a civilian at the time. And so I started asking him questions about what he did. In what army life was like just trying to be friendly, conversational, I was genuinely curious, though I was not looking for a military career. Well, as a good recruiter does, he managed to coax a phone number out of me. And seven months later there I am raising my right hand, swearing into the army in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we were in the army for 20 years, we moved to several different parts of the nation, we've landed in northeastern Kansas, just on the outskirts of the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area. And now we're kind of starting a new phase of life after the army enjoying being kind of planted Gayndah. Watch our kids grow in a smaller community. And we're excited about what's next. So   Michael Hingson ** 05:42 what is the postdoc? Where are the doctoral degree in, that you're seeking.   Chase Spears ** 05:47 So I am in a program entitled leadership communication. But I'm kind of a misplaced public policy scholars what I've learned, but the faculty there have been so wonderfully gracious to me, and I've been very supportive of my research agenda. So I'm a career communicator. In the army, I was a public affairs officer. So everything I did was about stuff like this. I didn't community engagement, I did interviews, I was did social media strategy, I was part of the bridge that the military tries to build between it and the public, which is incredibly important in our form of governance. And so I love all things communication. And I also love team leadership, small organizational leadership, I had the chance to, to lead teams, I had the chance to lead a company while I was in the army, so fell in love with that. So when I saw a degree program that merged both of those, you know, they had me at hello, I was a sucker from the get go when I saw the marketing. So I applied and they very kindly accepted me. So I've been studying leadership communication, but my research agenda is actually more in the policy realm. My dissertation work is studying how did we come to this concept that the military isn't a political and air quotes institution, when it is funded by the government when it is commanded by elected leadership? When when we exert our national will, on other nations with it there absolutely political connotations to all of that. And And yet, we kind of say the opposite. So I was curious, I was like, this would be something fun to explore, how did we How did we get to where we believe this in spite of what we do? And so that's what my research Jind agenda is all about. And I'm having a lot of fun writing.   Michael Hingson ** 07:37 Well, and I guess we could go right to why well, so why do you think the reason is that we are not a political but we say we are? Oh, are you still researching it to the point where you're not ready to answer that yet? Well, I   Chase Spears ** 07:57 have, I have some theories and what I believe are pretty educated guesses. I'm trying to make sure that I don't bore your audience going too deep in the weeds on this. It's really kind of comes out of the Second World War. When you look at the history of the United States. Traditionally, we are a nation, our ancestors were part of a nation that were really cautious about the idea of having large standing military forces during peacetime. Because there had been this historical observance over hundreds of years, particularly in Europe, that large forces during peacetime ended up causing problems for society and the nations that bred large armies inevitably found ways to use them, that might not always be to the benefit of the populace. So we come out of the Second World War, and the nation has decided we're going to become the global military superpower, we didn't want to be caught off guard again, like we were for what Germany had done in the years after the First World War. And we also have a rising Russia, we need to counter that. So we decided as a nation, yeah, we will become a global, permanent, large, highly industrialized, highly institutionalized force. Well, how do you gain public support for that when the public has traditionally for hundreds of years been very, very suspect of that and very much against it? Well, Samuel, in walk Samuel Huntington, a brilliant political scientist who writes the book, the soldier in the state, and in it he proposed a theory of military supervision in which officers would abstained from voting and then over time that grew legs into Okay, well, now we're just not involved in politics and then in time that grew legs into where a political, but if you go around the force and ask most people what that means, if you ask them to define that word, few would actually be able to define it. It's one of those kind of discursive terms that we've come up with kind of like for the public good. Well, what is for the public good? Can you actually define that, and it's largely often in the eyes of the beholder. So that that's where I believe it came from, I'm still doing quite a bit of work and reading in that. But historically, it's very fascinating to see where we've come and just 70 years on that topic. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 10:25 And also, we're in a phase of all of that, where it seems to be at least that it's changing and morphing again, I mean, with what's happened in the last seven years in this country, and the, the lack of desire for discourse, the the desire on some people's parts to really involve the military and a lot of things. It seems like we're possibly changing again, or perhaps even strengthening the military in some way. And I'm not sure what that is.   Chase Spears ** 11:04 We there's really kind of been somewhat of a public backlash, the last, I'd say, five to 10 years, we saw an increasing comfort with military members publicly advocating for political policy for political parties, which is absolutely within their constitutional right to do, George Washington himself said, we did not lay aside the citizen to assume the soldier. But again, that that discourse coming out of the Second World War, really kind of conditions the American public to think that when you're in the military, you do give up your rights to expression that you do give up your rights to citizen agency, and, and, and meaningful involvement in civic processes. And while we do rightly give up some expressive rights, and that is captured and codified in military regulations, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there's some legitimacy to that argument. But I would say, you know, if you're, if you're holding a ruler in your hand, the regulations kind of restrict us somewhere between the two and three inch mark on the ruler, whereas the perception that's just kind of come out of the repetition of these terms and ideas is more that we're up around the nine or 10 inch mark on the ruler, if that makes any sense for you. So we we've seen in the last few years, more military people being willing to get involved politically, and there has been somewhat of a backlash to it. And therein is the problem. You if you're going to hold to a belief to a doctrine to a discursive claim, then you have to match it. And the military is really kind of at a point right now they have a decision to make, are we going to hold on to this discourse to this idea? Or are we going to acknowledge that? Well, the regulations are much less restrictive than what people have been led to believe? It's it's a tough spot to be there's not a perfect answer, to help the institution requires cracking down on constitutional freedoms. And well, what is the institution there to serve? So it's a very sticky issue?   Michael Hingson ** 13:11 Well, it does seem to me that in no way, because the person becomes a soldier. And even in their oaths, do they give up the right to be a citizen of the country? So I'm with George Washington?   Chase Spears ** 13:26 Oh, absolutely. No, I am with with George Washington himself, you know, the greatest American? And I think we would, it's a, it's a good reminder of the importance of knowing our history and knowing where we came from. It's in my interviews with military members on this topic. In my research, I'm finding that that like me, most of them were just kind of told these things verbally. They were never pointed to the actual rules. They were never actually pointed to the actual laws. I only know the regulations because I have a personal fascination on the topic. And I went and looked them up. But no one ever told me where to find them. That was research on my own team and figure out where do I look for this. So it's, we really need to do better, nationally, to know our history and know where we came from.   Michael Hingson ** 14:14 We do have a really interesting paradox in the world, because we've gotten in the last two government administrations, to different views of not only how to govern, but to a degree how the military needs to be a part of it, and that's gonna not be very helpful to things either.   Chase Spears ** 14:34 Absolutely. The the military at the end of the day is controlled by the Civilian governance. Now. I'll acknowledge that General Mark Milley didn't really seem to think so and there have been other figures in military history who MacArthur being one of them who who seemed to challenge who was actually in charge of the military. But at the end of the day, constitutionally, we We are governed by by civilians. And that that is right, that is proper any anything else would be a coup and you don't want that. So we, it comes down to how does the military try to hold a consistent line? When you have governments that change every two to four to eight years and have drastically different perspectives on policy? How do you as a military hold an even keel and another wise stormy sea. And in previous generations, we had senior general officers who were pretty good at that they were pretty good at saying, regardless of what the ship of state is doing, the ship of military is going to remain on a heading to serve everyone. And there's been somewhat of a lack a breakdown of discipline at the senior ranks in the last probably 10 years, that's really kind of shuttered the ship of the military. And I think the current some of the recently promoted, general officers understand that I think General GA is the new Chief of Staff of the Army, I think he understands that and he's trying to do some things to reintroduce some stability, but it's a hard thing.   Michael Hingson ** 16:16 Yeah. And the other part about it is that the military, in some ways is a part of society. So we've had things like the whole Don't Ask, Don't Tell dealing with LGBTQ types of issues. And, and of course, even women in the military, and there's been a lot of things that haven't necessarily been as visible as they have become, and are issues that we are starting to face and deal with more. But it seems to me that the military, like it or not, is part of society. And we do need to recognize that collectively, as well.   Chase Spears ** 17:02 We were absolutely drawn from society. We serve society, we exist, you know, for the protection of society. But I will say there's one thing that's all always kind of set Western militaries apart a little bit, and the US military hails from that Western tradition of understanding that just because society chooses to take a move in one direction, doesn't necessarily mean that it's in the national security interest of the United States for the military, to follow suit. And then there's kind of a reason that the military has always tried to, in some way, set itself apart, of acknowledging that there's some things that society will do or want to that are affected by the times as Shakespeare himself noted, there's always a tide in the affairs and man, the tide comes in the time tide goes out the the, the winds shift. And but one thing that was said at the military part was this idea of, at the end of the day, if it's a societal change that enables us to better defend the nation, then that's the direction we'll move. If it's a societal change that could potentially be a friction point or cause additional challenges in securing the nation, we might, we might think on that one a little bit harder, we might be a little more a little slower to adopt that. And we've seen that has kind of broken down the military is very much going out of its way to be reflective of society. And in some ways that can be good in some ways that's caused additional unnecessary frictions to the force and is rightly being having questions asked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:45 And that's where having good solid leadership in the military at the highest echelons, has to be an important part of it, because that's where ultimately, the direction that the military goes, is at least in part, going to be authored. Yes, there is a civilian government that and civilian commander in chief, but still the military leaders have to really be the ones mostly to figure out where the military should go in terms of policies and how it deals with different issues or not, I would think.   Chase Spears ** 19:27 And the key word that you hit on there, Michael is leadership. Back a few months ago, I wrote a piece that was published by real clear defense called seven new things the new Sergeant Major of the Army could do to restore trust in the force. And the argument that I made his predecessor was one who was very kind of reactive to the, to the whims you might say, of a the younger generation of soldiers. He was very much all over Twitter about telling me your issues. Let me get involved in your issues. And he was, in some ways a very divisive, senior official in the military. And I equated it to you, you want to look at kind of the British constitutionalist position, the British Crown, if you're looking overseas, it has traditionally been something that it's kind of the rock, unmovable, unshakable, the parliament will do what parliament will do that the Tories and Labour will do what they will do, but the crown is unmovable the crown serves all. And that's kind of something that the military reflected, and I call out to the new rising generation military leaders to remember that, to remember that we don't own this, we owe nothing in the institution, we all leave it one day, as I left it a matter of weeks ago. All I have are my memories and and hopes that I was able to leave some things better than I found them and that the people I served that I hope I served them well. But at the end of the day, we hand it off to someone else. And it's so important for to have good leaders who recognize that we we steward the profession, that we we want to do the best we can with it in our time, and recognize the decisions that we make, will impact those who serve long after our time and do our best to hand it off in the best possible condition that we can for them. Because then to the to society, we returned. And then we depend on this who came after us for our national defense. And so it's the steward mindset to me as key.   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 Yeah. Well, and going back a little bit. So you're in graduate school you got recruited in and accepted and went into the military. What did you do? What was it like when you first went and that certainly again, had to be quite a culture shock from things that you would experience before? Ah,   Chase Spears ** 22:02 yeah, I figured absolutely was you'll never forget your first shark attack at basic training for for anyone who's unfamiliar with that, it's when you once you've done your initial and processing there, whatever base you get your basic training at, for me, it was Fort Jackson in South Carolina. And then they eventually buss you off to your your training companies, which is where you will actually conduct your combat training. This is after you've received your uniforms and done all your finances, paperwork, and life insurance and all that. And then the buses stop and the drill sergeants, they're just there waiting for you. And it's a moment you never forget. And of course, you jump off the bus and they're giving you all these commands that they know it's impossible for you to, to execute to any level of satisfaction. And then when you fail, as you inevitably will, you know, the entire group just gets smoked over and over and over again. And I remember that moment just having that realization of I have not in Kansas anymore, like the next next few months of my life are about to be very different than anything I've ever experienced. And it was it absolutely was. I got through that. And I think the first thing that was really kind of shocking to me be on to the training environment was the use of last names. So yeah, I go by chase my friends call me chase people who know me call me chase. I'm I'm not hung up on titles. I'm a simple guy. In the military, you are your rank and last name. I was specialist Spears sergeants First Lieutenant spears or LT Captain spears, major spears. And I remember at my first unit, there were other other people who in my unit there were the same rank as me. And so I thought were peers I'd call them by their first name. And they never gave me problems about it. But our higher ups would you know, people have rank spears, we don't go by first names spears. And I never I never 20 years and I still never really adjusted well to that I learned how to how to keep myself from getting as many talking to us about it over the years is I had in previous times. But that was a culture shock. And, and just the the constant what we call the military, the battle rhythm, you know, civil society would call it your work schedule, while in the military. It never really ends your day start very early. You have physical training that you're doing with your unit at 630. Depending on what unit you're in, you may be off at a reasonable time in the late afternoon, early evening, or you may be there. I've remember staying at work one night till 4am Just because the boss gave us a job to do. Frankly, it was an unreasonable job. But he gave us a job to do and an extraordinarily tight deadline and it took us till 4am to get the job done and And I was at work by 630, the next morning. So you never, ever really do get used to that in some ways, because you kind of come to accept it. But it's been really eye opening to me in the last nearly three months now that I've been now, looking back and having some control over my schedule now for the first time in 20 years, and realizing, wow, that was such a foreign existence I lived. But when you're when you're swimming in a fishbowl, you don't know you're wet. So every time you do adapt to it, but it's been neat being on the other side and realizing, you know, can kind of breathe in and start to have some say over what a schedule looks like, because I'd forgotten what that was, what that'd be like.   Michael Hingson ** 25:44 But as you rose in the ranks, and I assume took on more responsibility, did that give you any more flexibility in terms of how you operate it on a day to day basis.   Chase Spears ** 25:56 It all depended on the position, there were there were some jobs I had, where were, regardless of the rank, I had flexibility. And then there were other jobs, where I absolutely did not even as a major want, there was a job that I had, where the boss was very adamant. This is the time you will be here and you will be sitting at this desk between these hours and you are authorized authorized is a big term in the military culture, you are authorized a 30 minute lunch break period. And you will be here until this time every day. And this was when I had you know, I think I was at my 1718 year mark. And I remember thinking to myself, golly, do I need to ask permission to go to the bathroom to see, it seemed I didn't. So it really kind of depended on your job. There's a perception a lot of times that the higher you go in rank, the more control you have over your life. And I observed that the opposite is actually true. The higher you go, typically, the more the more demands are placed on you. The more people are depending on the things that you're doing. And and the bigger the jobs are. And the longer the days are was my experience, but it had been flooded depending on what position I was in at the given time.   Michael Hingson ** 27:17 Now, when you first enlisted and all that, what was Laurie's reaction to all of that.   Chase Spears ** 27:23 I was shocked. She was so supportive. She actually grew up in an Air Force household. And so she knew military life pretty well. Her dad had been been in, he spent a lot more time in the air force than I did the army. And then even after he retired from the Air Force, he went on and taught at the Naval Academy as a civilian. So she is just always had a level of familiarity with the military as long as she can remember. She joked with me that when she got married to me and then had to give up her dependent military ID card that it was kind of a moment of mourning for she didn't want to give that thing up. So one day, there we are Knoxville, Tennessee, and I approached her. And I'm trying to be very careful, very diplomatic, very suave, and how I bring it up to her and let her know I've been thinking about the army. And I'm kind of curious what she might think about that. Because it'd be such a drastic lifestyle change from everything we've been talking about. And I was bracing for her to look at me and be like, are you insane? And instead, she was like, Oh, you won't get in the military. And I get an ID card again. Yes. She was she was supportive from from Jump Street. And so you talk about a wife who just was there, every minute of it, and loved and supported and gave grace and rolled with the punches. milori Did she was absolutely phenomenal. Though, I will admit when it got to the point that I was starting to think maybe 20. I'll go ahead and wrap this up, because my original plan had been to do 30. But when I started talking with her about that she was she was also ready, she was ready to actually start having me home regularly for us to be able to start making family plans and be able to follow through with them. Because we had the last three years we had not been able to follow through with family plans, because of the different positions that I was in. So she was very, very supportive of me joining and then she was equally very supportive of me going ahead and and calling it calling it a day here or the last just at the end of this year. But what a what a partner could not have done it   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 without her. So where did she live when you were going through basic training and all that.   Chase Spears ** 29:46 So she stayed in Knoxville for nonGSA. Yeah. And then from there, she actually ended up moving up to her dad's and his wife's place up in Maryland because my follow on school after base See training was the Defense Information School. That's where all the Public Affairs courses are taught. And it's so happens that that is located at Fort Meade, Maryland, which is just about a 45 minute drive traffic dependent from where her dad lived. So while I was in basic training, she went ahead and moved up there to Maryland so that while I was in school up there, we could see each other on the weekends. And then from there, we didn't have to go back to Tennessee and pack up a house or stuff was already packed up so we could get on the road together there to wherever our next duty station was. And it turned out funny enough to be Colorado Springs, Fort Carson. And here's why that's funny. When, when I approached Laurie, about joining the army, one of the things that she was really excited about was seeing the world if you're in the military, you get to see the world, right. And my first duty assignment was the town that she had grown up in, because her dad had spent the last few years of his career teaching at the Air Force Academy there on the northern end of Colorado Springs. So so her her dreams of seeing the world with me, turned out that our first tour was going to write back home for her.   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 Oh, that has its pluses and it's minuses.   Chase Spears ** 31:17 Yep. So it was neat for me to get to see where she had grown up and learn the town little bit.   Michael Hingson ** 31:23 I've been to Fort Meade, and actually a few times I used to sell technology to folks there. And then several years ago, I was invited to come in after the World Trade Center and do a speech there. And so it was it was fun spending some time around Fort Meade heard some wonderful stories. My favorite story still is that one day somebody from the city of Baltimore called the fort because they wanted to do traffic studies or get information to be able to do traffic studies to help justify widening roads to better help traffic going into the fort. So they call it the fort. And they said, Can you give us an idea of how many people come through each day? And the person at the other end said, Well, I'm really not sure what you're talking about. We're just a little shack out here in the middle of nowhere. And so they ended up having to hire their own people to count cars for a week, going in and out of the fort was kind of cute.   Chase Spears ** 32:23 Well, there's quite a bit of traffic there. Now that basis when   Michael Hingson ** 32:26 I was then to there wasn't just a little shack, of course, it was a whole big forest.   Chase Spears ** 32:32 Yeah, yeah, it's I was back there. Golly, I want to say it wasn't that long ago. But it was about five years ago now is back there. And I almost didn't recognize the place. There's been so much new built there. But oh, I know, as far as army assignments go, it's a it's a pretty nice place.   Michael Hingson ** 32:50 Yeah, it is. And as I said, I've had the opportunity to speak there and spend some time dealing with folks when we sold products and so on. So got to got to know, people, they're pretty well and enjoyed dealing with people there. They knew what they were doing. Yeah,   Chase Spears ** 33:07 yeah, that's a it's a smart group of people in that base.   Michael Hingson ** 33:10 So you went through basic training and all that and what got you into the whole idea of public relations and what you eventually went into?   Chase Spears ** 33:20 Well, I had studied in college, my undergraduate degree was in television and radio broadcasting. My master's was in journalism, I'd grown up kind of in the cable news age, and the at the age of the emergence of am Talk Radio is a big, big tool of outreach. And I grew up thinking, this is what I want to do. I love communication. I actually thought it'd be really neat to be an investigative reporter on if, if you remember, back in the 90s, it was this big thing of, you know, Channel Nine on your side, yeah, had this investigative reporter who tell you the real deal about the restaurant or the automotive garage. And I always thought that would be amazing, like what a great public service like helping people to avoid being ripped off. And so I wanted to be a news. I'm sure you're familiar with the Telecom Act of 1996. That That caused a tremendous consolidation of media for your audience who might not be familiar with it. It used to be that really, if you had the wherewithal to buy a media station or a television station or radio station, you were unlimited in what you could you there were limits, I should say on what you could buy, so that you couldn't control too much, too much media environment, the Telecom Act of 1996, completely deregulated that and so large media companies were just swallowing up the nation. And that meant there's a tremendous consolidation of jobs and the my junior year in college. I was in the southeast us at the time at Lee University. Atlanta. Nearby was our biggest hiring media market, my June Your year CNN laid off 400 people. So I could tell really quick, this is going to be a chat and even more challenging field to break into than I thought. And that's why I ended up working part time in a law firm was in, in Journalism School. Afterwards, because I was looking great. I was looking for a backup plan. I thought if journalism doesn't work out, I also love the law. It'd be nice to get some experience working in a firm to see if I want to go to law school. So it was a natural fit for me when the army recruiter started talking to me. And he was asking me what I was interested in. And I told him, Well, here's what my degree is in, here's what my career plan had been, here's who I really want to do with my life. And he said, we have public affairs, I said, What's that? It turns out, the military has radio stations, and they have television networks and you PR, I had no idea. I was a civilian. And I was like, Well, that sounds good. And so I thought, yeah, sure, I'll I will enlist for that come in, do one four year contract, I'll build a portfolio and and then I'll be able to take that portfolio out into the civilian realm. And hopefully that will make me more competitive for a job in the news market. And of course, a couple of years into that. I was in Kuwait deployed to camp Arif John. And my brigade commander sat me down to lunch one day, and made it very clear that he expected me to apply for Officer Candidate School, which was nowhere on what I was interested in doing was nowhere on my radar, I applied, I really didn't have a lot of confidence. I thought, I looked at officers and I thought they were people who are way, way more intelligent than me, way more suave than me. And I really didn't know if I'd get in, well, I got in. And after I commissioned officer candidate school is about like basic training all over again. So that was fun. And I ended up being assigned to a combat camera unit. And then afterwards, I was able to put my paperwork in to branch transfer right back into public affairs, it was a perfect mess was everything I wanted to do. I didn't get to work in news directly. I wasn't a reporter. But I got to work with reporters, I got to be an institutional insider and help facilitate them and help to tell the stories of what some great American patriots were doing, and wanting to serve their countries. And so it was, for the most part, more often than not, it was a really, really fun way to earn a living living.   Michael Hingson ** 37:34 I collect as a hobby old radio shows I'm very familiar with but back in the 40s was the Armed Forces Radio Service, then it became Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. And so I'm aware a little bit of, of the whole broadcast structure in the military, not a lot, but but some and know that that it's there. And it does, I'm suspect, a really good job of helping to keep people informed as much as it can as they can with the things that they have to do in the world. It's   Chase Spears ** 38:04 definitely it's a comfort over the years, if you're spending a lot of time overseas to have kind of that that taste of home and our forces network does a really good job of that letting I think we're starting to see some debates inside the military. Now. What do we want to continue of it? Because now information is so ubiquitous, if you will, you can pull it down, you can stream whatever you want, wherever you are in the globe. So I kind of wonder in the next 1020 years, will it still be a thing, but during my early career during my early deployment before he could stream stuff, it was really cool to have an AFN radio station to tune into is really cool to have an AFN television network to tune into to be able to get a taste of home. That was much a comfort,   Michael Hingson ** 38:52 right? Yeah, it is. It is something that helps. So you can't necessarily stream everything. I spent a week in Israel this summer. And there were broadcasts I could get and pick up through the internet and so on. And there were stuff from here in the US that I couldn't get I suspect it has to do with copyright laws and the way things were set up but there was only so much stuff that you could actually do.   Chase Spears ** 39:20 And what a time to be in Israel you will I bet that trip is even more memorable for you now than it would have been otherwise.   Michael Hingson ** 39:27 Fortunately, it wasn't August. So we we didn't have to put up with the things that are going on now. But still Yeah, it was very memorable. I enjoyed doing it. spending a week with excessively over there and got into getting to meet with with all the folks so it was definitely well worth it and something that that I will always cherish having had the opportunity to do get   Chase Spears ** 39:51 for you. If it's on my bucket list. I've always wanted to spend some time over there.   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 Hot and humid in the summer, but that's okay. Let's say but they love breakfast. Oh, really? So yeah, definitely something to think about. Well, so you, you joined you got you got the public relations, jobs and so on. So how did all that work for you over? Well, close to 20 years? What all did you do and what, what stories can you tell us about some of that?   Chase Spears ** 40:25 It was it was fascinating. It was fascinating because everything that I got to touch was, in some way a story. And so my first job was in radio and television production. I did quite a bit of that in Kuwait. And it was actually there that I got my first taste of crisis communication, and I was immediately addicted. Do you remember back in? It was December 2004. Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the Army you have not the army want or might wish to have it another time? Yeah. I was there. That that was uttered in camp you're in Kuwait. And that was such an interesting moment. For me in terms of a story to tell. I was with the 14 Public Affairs Detachment we were deployed to camp Arif John to provide public affairs support for for Third Army's Ford headquarters. This was back during the height of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so there's a lot of military going over there. We were part of that. And I remember hearing this tasking that had come down that the Secretary of Defense is going to come out here is going to do this town hall meeting with the troops. There's going to be no question that you can't ask. You're going to be allowed to say anything you want to say to the Secretary of Defense, nothing's going to be scripted, nothing's going to be put through for review. And by the way, 14 pad you guys are going to make sure that it can be televised live back to the United States. And so here I am thinking what can possibly go wrong. And so we helped we all the event, Secretary Rumsfeld hindered and handled it really, really well. They set up this big, you know, fighting machinery display, they're in a in a big aircraft hangar epic camp bearing which is in northern Kuwait, just not too far south from the Iraqi border. And he gets up he gives the speech. He's well received by the troops. And it goes to the q&a part. And soldiers were asking him all sorts of questions. Most of them are jovial, you know, hey, when when do we get to go to Disney World, stuff like that. They were kind of big jocular with them.   Michael Hingson ** 42:42 Seems a fair question.   Chase Spears ** 42:44 Yeah, you know, I felt them right. And so finally, this one guy, I'll never forget his name, especially as Thomas Wilson from the 2/78 Regimental Combat Team. Tennessee National Guard asks him a question about when are they going to get the body armor that's needed? And in true Rumsfeld style, he's he says, Well, I'm not quite sure I understood the question. Can you ask it again, which is a great technique. He used to buy him some time to think the answer. And then it came back after the second question. And the whole hangar about 1000 of us in there. It was hast. I'll bet you could have heard a plastic cup hit the floor at the back back of the room. I mean, everyone was like, what? Oh, no, what just happened? What's about to happen? And Rumsfeld makes that remark, you go to war with the army have not the one you want or need. Yeah. And and then the questions went on. And there was not be after that. There was no awkward moment for the rest of the time. And I and I thought, wow, that could have gone south. But it didn't cool. It was just it was neat to watch. I was running the television camera that caught the moment. I was in the room. And so we me and my sergeant had to stay up there the rest of the day because there were some other television network interviews with other officials that we were running the satellite transponder for. And it was a long day our commander was kind of being a jerk to us. So by the end of the day, we were tired we'd been up there sleeping on cots for a couple of days, we were kind of just ready to get back to data camp Arif, John to our beds and put the whole mission behind us. And then we drive to three hours through this pouring pouring rainstorm in Kuwait, and a Canvas side Humvee that's leaking. All you know, water just pouring into this thing on us. So we're done. We're done. We're done. We're like, we just want to get a bed. We get back to our base. We're offloading all the equipment, putting everything away. And at this point in time, I forgotten about the moment earlier in the day when that question was asked, and I walk in and there we had this wall of televisions you know, tracking all the different news networks back in the US and on all of them Their Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the army have not the army won or wish to have another time. And at that moment, I was like, it's about to be an interesting few weeks around here. And it turned out, it turned out indeed to be an interesting few weeks, an interesting few months. And I got to be on the front end of what the public affairs response to that looks like. And I can tell you, I've never seen armored vehicles flow into a place as quickly as they did in the following month. So the power of a message transmitted is a real thing. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 45:39 so whatever happened to specialist Wilson?   Chase Spears ** 45:44 I don't I don't know. I know that news coverage. When that news reporters were asking that very question and coverage that I saw said, Oh, his unit, his assured that nothing bad will happen to him. He was a national guardsmen, so he kind of fall under a different, different command structure than us. From time to time, I have wondered that and I've tried to look him up online, and just try to find out what happened to the sky and what was life like for him? I'd love to talk to him and ask alright, what was it like, man, what is your unit do? But I, I have no idea. I can't find him. I presume he's gone about his life and doesn't want to be famous about it. But it also goes back to National Guard culture versus active duty culture. We talked earlier about the citizenship aspect. And the National Guard gets that way more than the active component. At the end of the day, they demobilize. And they go home. Right, you're running into the same people you serve, with the church, at the grocery store, at the grocery store, at the PTA, places like this, some of them might be your neighbors. And so they have an entirely different outlook. This is what they do to serve the country when needed. And then they go on about their lives. I don't think you would have seen an active duty soldier ask that question. I really don't because the culture is so so markedly different. And there's a level of kind of freedom of thought and expression, present that guard that that is much more lacking in the active component.   Michael Hingson ** 47:19 Should there be more freedom, in that sense in the active component? Or do you think that it's really appropriate for there to be the dichotomy that you're describing?   Chase Spears ** 47:32 And the act of force you need discipline? You need a discipline force, who, when they're given a lawful order, will carry it out hastily, because lives could hang in the balance. That's absolutely important, and we can never lose that. But sometimes we can use discipline I say sometimes, often, more is the more appropriate term often we confuse discipline with silence. We confuse discipline with a lack of willingness to ask tough questions. We confuse discipline with just saying Yes, sir. When you know, in the back of your mind, there might be something you need to dig into more. We we need, unfortunately, since the end of the Second World War, going back to my comments earlier about this large, industrialized, institutionalized force we have it breeds careerists. It breeds a mindset that's fearful to ask tough questions, even if you know they need to be asked. Because you want to be promoted. Right? You want to get assignments, right. And it breeds a culture where you really are much more timid. Or you're much more likely to be timid than someone who's maybe a reservist or National Guard member. We need people who will ask tough questions. We don't need indiscipline, we don't rush showmanship, we don't need people who are being performative just to be seen. But there are valid questions to be asked is, you know, is US defense policy? Better set for a 400? Ship navy or a 300? Ship? Navy? That's a valid question. Is it better for us to use this route of attack versus that route of attack? Given the Give Me Everything we know, those are valid questions. We need people in the military who who are willing to be critical thinkers, and there are a lot of extraordinarily brilliant people in today's armed forces, as there always has been. But there is on the active duty side a culture that works against original thought and that's really to our detriment. And I think the manner in which the evacuation of Afghanistan ended is one more blatant indicator of that.   Michael Hingson ** 49:48 It was not handled nearly as well as it could have been as we have seen history tell us and teach us now   Chase Spears ** 49:56 Absolutely. i It broke my heart. I'm A veteran of that conflict I'm not one who cries easily, Michael but I can tell you that morning when I saw the some of the images coming out of cobbles especially there's a video of a C 17 cargo jet taking off and people literally hanging to and falling to their deaths. Just i i fell off, I fell off my on my run into a sobbing human being on this on the ground for a little bit it is there's a lot to process and it has continued to be a lot to process. And there again, there's a great example of why you gotta be willing to ask tough questions. There was no no reason at all. We should have abandoned Bagram and tried to evacuate out of downtown Cabo. But that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 50:52 Well, speaking of you, I understand that you weren't a great fan of jumping out of airplanes, but you got used to doing them? I   Chase Spears ** 51:01 sure did. Oh, yeah. I always thought that would just be something that no, I don't want to say no sane person would do. I mean, I enjoy watching skydivers, I think it's really cool. And obviously, they're saying, I never thought I'd be among them. I thought, Nah, that's just something, I don't think I'm gonna do that. And when I was an officer candidate school, I was roommates with a guy who had been to Airborne School earlier in his career. And he was like, man, don't do it. Don't let him talk you into going to Airborne School, though, you'll be stuck at Fort Bragg, you'll just you'll be broke all the time, you'll be hurting all the time, the army takes the fun out of everything. And he's right. To an extent the army does take the fun out of most things that touches. But I got to my first unit as an officer. So I'd done enlisted time for three years, then I went to Officer Candidate School. And then my first job as an officer was at the 55th combat camera company, which is not a full airborne unit, but it's a partial airborne unit. And they had a hard time keeping enough active duty paratroopers on hand. And so I remember day one, when I was in processing the unit, there are all these different places you go, when you're in process, you gotta go see the training room, and you got to go see the administrative room, and you got to go see the Transportation Office and all these places, and they're just checking your paperwork. And so I see the training room, and there's the sergeant in there. And he's looking through my list. And he's asking me all these questions, you know, when was your last PT test? Where's the last physical, you know, making notes on me for the unit record? And then he says, Do you want to go to Airborne School? And without thinking, I said, Absolutely not. I have no interest in going to Airborne School. And his reply to me was go ahead and get an airborne physical. And I thought, There's no way I'm ever getting an airborne physical because I'm not going to Airborne School. So a few weeks later, I'm in the unit, I'm more comfortable. And I'm across. I'm in a different office across the hall from where this guy worked. And I'm joking around with this other sergeant. And I'm like, sir, and you're just such a cool guy. Like you've got all together, you're, you're like everything I want to be when I grow up. What how do you do it? He said, Well, sir, you got to go to Airborne School. That's step one. The other guy across the hall ever hears that, you know, mouse ears, I don't know how. But he darts out of his office across the hall into this opposite we're in, looks me straight in the face and said, Did you say you want to go to Airborne School? Like no, is not what I said, I absolutely have no interest. I'm not going to Airborne School. And he again replies with schedule your physical. And I thought, I'm not going to disappoint me scheduling a fiscal. So I get back to my office that later that day. And I thought this guy is not going to give up. So I came up with this brilliant plan. It was smart, smartest plan you'll ever hear of, I'm going to pretend I'm going to get my airborne physical and then he'll forget about me, leave me alone. So I called him and said, Hey, Sergeant, what's the phone number I have to call them schedule an airborne physical and it gives me the phone number and the the name of the person to talk to and I said, Great. I'll talk to him. There were two or three other lieutenants set to show up to the unit next in the next month. So I thought he will assume I'm getting a physical which I'm not getting and there's other guys will show up and he will convince them to go and I will fall off his radar. I was incorrect. That was a bad bad miscalculation on my part, you might say a flawed operation   Michael Hingson ** 54:39 with your the and you were the one who was talking about brilliant people in the army Anyway, go ahead.   Chase Spears ** 54:43 I know I know. Right? Yeah, I am a paradox. And so that within an hour I get an email from him with my he's already put me in for school. I already have orders generated to go to jump school. And then he calls me he's like Hey, by the way, your report in like three weeks, I need your physical as soon as you can get it. And I thought this guy, I told him I'm not going to Airborne School. Well, at the same time, our unit commander was a paratrooper, and he loves jumping out of airplanes. And I had two or three paratroopers in my platoon who were underneath me. And I thought, There's no way I can go now. Because if I, if I get the commander to release me, one, I'll lose face with the old man. And I'll lose face with the troops that I lead because the soldiers have to compete for this. They're just giving it to me. And so I went, protesting, kicking, screaming the whole way. I hated ground week. I hated tower week. And then they put took me up to the 250 foot tower and dropped me off the side of it under a parachute. And I loved it. I was like, Oh, this is fun. I actually asked if I can do it again. And they said, they don't get what's right. So the next week, we go into jump week in there I am in the back of an airplane, and it comes to my turn to get up and exit it. And I do, and I get to the ground and I survive. And I literally just sat there and laughed uncontrollably because I couldn't believe I just jumped out of a plane. And it was my first of 40 jobs. So I was I was absolutely hooked from that moment on.   Michael Hingson ** 56:20 And what did Lori think of that?   Chase Spears ** 56:23 She was a little bit surprised. She She again, was supportive. But she was surprised she never thought it's something that I would take to and it ended up being a great thing for us. Because having been on jumped status, it opened the door for me to request the unit and Alaska that we ended up going to for six years, you had to be on airborne status to be able to go to that job. And so had I not going to jump school, I would not have qualified to go into Alaska for that particular job. And so it ended up being a wonderful, wonderful thing. But I would have never guessed it, it just it's another one of those poignant reminders to me that every time that I think I've got a plan, it's God's way of reminding me that he has a sense of humor, because what's going to work out is always going to be very different from what I think.   Michael Hingson ** 57:10 And you help Laurie see the world. So well worked out. Absolutely.   Chase Spears ** 57:15 Yeah, she we never, we never got to spend time together overseas. But Alaska was an amazing adventure. And, gosh, if if no one in your listeners haven't been there yet to go see a Sunday?   Michael Hingson ** 57:29 Yeah, I went there on a cruise I didn't see as much as I would have loved to but still, I got to see some of them. It was great.   Chase Spears ** 57:38 It's nothing like it. No. Now you   Michael Hingson ** 57:42 as you advance in the ranks, and so on you, you started being in public relations, being a communicator, and so on. But clearly, as you advanced, you became more and I'm sure were viewed as more of a leader that was kind of a transition from from not being a leader. And just being a communicator and doing what you were told to be more of a leader, what was that transition like?   Chase Spears ** 58:07 That was another one of those things that I would have never seen coming. After I did my three years as the spokesman for the Airborne Brigade. In Alaska, I ended up becoming the deputy communication director for US Army, Alaska, which was the highest army command there in the state responsible for 11,000 troops and their families in multiple locations. And I remember one day, my boss came to me and saying, hey, the general is going to give a speech to the hockey team at the University of Alaska, about leadership. And so I need you to write it. And I looked at him and I said, boss, all right, whatever he told me to write, but the general has forgotten more about leadership than I know, like, how do where do I start with this? And I don't remember the exact words, I think it was something to the effect of, you're smart, you'll figure it out. And so I put together a speech, it was by no means anything glorious, but it was the best I had to give that moment in time and what leadership was fully convinced that I was not one. And then over time, I there are people who spoken to me at their headquarters who called out leadership that I didn't see they were pointing out influence that I had there pointing out people who I was able to help steer towards decisions that I didn't realize that I didn't know and it made me start looking back in other parts of my career and realizing, Oh, my goodness, I actually led that team. This man actually looks to me for decisions. I actually I am a leader, I had no idea. There's something I always thought if if you were in the military and you're a leader, you were some grand master, you know, like, like Patton or Eisenhower and I didn't think think myself anything like that. And so finally, in 2015, I was offered A chance to take command of a company which in civilian terms, that's kind of like being the executive director, if you will, of an organization of 300 people. And I was so excited for it. Because by that point in time, I finally made the mental transition of saying, I'm not, I'm not merely a communicator, communicating is what I've done. But occasionally it's I've worked on delivering us on passionate about, by came to realize, I love that so much because communicating is a part of leading and, and I, I am a leader, it's just something. Looking back. Of course, my life has always been there, I just never knew it. I never saw it, I never believed in it. And so by the time I was offered the chance to command, I was very excited for it, I was very eager for it, because I realized this is going to be an a wonderful adventure getting to lead a team at this level of this size. And it was the hardest job I ever did in the army, and the most rewarding. I don't know if you've ever watched any of the Lord, Lord of the Rings movie. But there's this moment where Aragon is being chided, is set aside the Ranger Be who you were meant to be to be the king. And that meant that came back to my mind several times I had to challenge myself that just because I only see myself as a communicator all these years doesn't mean that I can't do other things. And so it was a joy to actually walk into that. Believing is not easy. There's there are a lot of hard days or a lot of hard decisions. Especially when I was a commander, I agonized every decision. So I made because I knew this will have an impact on a person, this will have an impact on a family this, this will change the directions and plans that people had. And so it's a heavy weight to bear. And I think it's good that those kind of decisions come with weight. And I would question someone who who can make those kinds of calls without having to wrestle with them.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:01 When you look at all the things that you've done, and the work that you do, and the work that you did, at the end of every day, or at some time during the day, I know you were pretty busy. But did you ever have the time to just kind of sit back and reflect on how did this go today? How did that go? What could have been better? Did you do any kind of introspection? Or did you feel you had time to do that?   Chase Spears ** 1:02:24 I didn't really feel I had time. And it would be easy for me to blame the unit, it'd be easy for me to blame people. But that responsibility rests with me. It's a discipline that I didn't develop until way too late in my career. And I eventually did develop it, I eventually came to realize the importance of reflection of introspection of taking a mental inventory of what I've accomplished I didn't accomplish and what I can learn from it. But it was sadly something that I didn't do as much as I should have. And I didn't do it as early, I was really, really bad at assuming well, because the unit needs this right now. I can't take care of this thing that I need to take care of that will that will allow me to be the leader that I need to be you know, I get in a car, someone slams on my car, and I need to get them to take care of it. Why don't have time unit Scott has to have me We gotta move on. Well, I've got six screws in my left hand and my left shoulder right now because I was always too busy to listen to the physical therapist and take care of myself, you know, the unit needs me the unit needs me the men need me. And so it, it was a hard, hard learned lesson. The importance of sitting back and reflecting is something I wish I would have learned much sooner. But once I did, it served me well. And it's a discipline that I still practice now.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:46 Yeah, yeah, it's, I think a very important thing. And a lot of things can can stem from that. What's the best position your favorite position in the army and why?   Chase Spears ** 1:03:59 The best thing I ever got to do is company command. And it's hard to say that because it's really it's really closely tied with being a brigade director of communication. And t

In this episode of Resilient and Rowdy, host Jess welcomes Sean Ambriz with a unique Army combat experience. Originating from Los Angeles, California, Sean joined the military as an MP, but his career took unexpected turns, including roles as a medic, SRT NCOIC, and marksman during deployments in Afghanistan. Sean shares his journey from combat experiences, dealing with PTSD, to writing a book that chronicles his story and honors his fallen comrades. His book aims to support and inspire others through his detailed accounts of historic battles and personal growth. Now serving as a senior enlisted advisor at Fort Carson, Sean remains an advocate for mental health and resilience, continuously offering support to those in need. Sean has many accolades including the Presidential Volunteer Service Medal, Purple Heart, and two Bronze Stars with valor.  Check out his book: https://mentormilitary.com/products/ghosts-of-the-valley Follow Sean: www.instagram.com/chief_pinkmist  Follow Resilient & Rowdy: www.instagram.com/resilient.rowdy 

Joe's interest in the military was tied to his experiences with his Dad in the outdoors and participating in Boy Scouting. It was further fueled by popular movies and documentaries he saw in his childhood. Joe had an indirect route to the Military Academy. Enlisting in 1996 and serving as a soldier in support of West Point prior to being accepted as a New Cadet in 1997. Joe initially suffered from overconfidence in the skills and abilities that got him to West Point and an underappreciation for the amount of work he'd have to invest in himself to build the skills necessary to succeed. Joe would also struggle to learn how to and prepare himself in a way that allowed him to be smooth in the moment of execution. Joe would graduate West Point in 2001 and commission as an Armor Officer. He would serve at Ft. Riley, Kansas and deploy to Iraq in 2003 and 2005. Command a Tank Company in South Korea. Serve as an instructor at the Maneuver Center of Excellence. Deploying to Afghanistan in 2012 to serve as a Brigade S3 for the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan. Served at Fort Carson, Colorado and Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington as a Field Grade Officer before deploying to Saudi Arabia in 2019 to serve as an Advisor for the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Joe would serve as the Deputy Director for Exercises for I Corps at JBLM, Washington for three years before retiring in 2023. Joe talks about his experiences learning from the past, preparing for the future, and trying to live in the present. This is his story. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joe-harrison0/support

This is a very special and personal episode for me. I want to introduce you to Nate Zayonc, a young man whom I am very proud of. His life was not in the most positive place a bit more than a year ago, but now he is thriving as a private in the U.S. Army. Nate was a top distance runner on the cross country and track teams at Bear Creek H.S. where I helped coach him. His desire was to run in college and then professionally. However, his life at home was difficult, and in fact he did receive a partial scholarship offer from UConn, but his parents for whatever reason never told him about it. Actually, his parents were an aunt and uncle who had adopted him. His biological mother was 14 when she had him and hasn't been in his life since he was a toddler. Nate was also born with fetal alcohol syndrome, which led to him having behavioral issues growing up. His father was 18 at the time and subsequently served time for statutory rape and is currently imprisoned on another charge. Nate's adoptive parents weren't great about supporting his running career, and after an incident with another boy on his high school team, they prohibited him from running during his pivotal senior year. Nate had told me that when he hit his 18th birthday, he planned to move out of the house, even though he had nowhere to go. This is where things got interesting. In today's society, and especially in public schools, insanely, it is frowned upon for an adult to show concern for a struggling young person who is not their own. A Bear Creek H.S. teacher reported me for offering to aid Nate, and I was immediately fired and all the athletic director and principal would tell me was “I don't know.” I only later learned that it was because I'd offered to help Nate out of his dilemma. At that point, there was no reason not to invite Nate to move into my spare bedroom in the basement. My original thought was that he would only be there for a few months until he left for Army basic training. We immediately got him back onto the track team so he could do what he liked best for the remainder of his senior year. The best part of Nate staying with me was watching him thrive in a positive environment for the first time. I've jokingly called it my late life fatherhood because all of a sudden, I was driving him all over and helping him in various ways to navigate his new independence. Following his basic training and subsequent stationing in Arizona, he has been assigned to Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs. What has been a pleasant surprise is that he is now home on most weekends, and we have bonded over everything from running to our common love of sports. He jokingly tells his fellow soldiers that he is staying with his stepdad. He's very proud of his status in the Army and is strongly considering going for Army Ranger school. And I'm proud of him, too. I likely forfeited my coaching career to give him this opportunity to live in a more positive home, but I have zero regrets about that. I don't understand why any school district would not support an educator being willing to go above and beyond for a student in need. My bottom-line message is to get involved when there is a young person in need – the rewards go both ways! I really hope you will enjoy this very special chat with a young man who is going to do great things and who has become like a son to me.Nate ZayoncInstagram @nathanzayoncBill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor and @coachstahlYouTube We Are Superman Podcast

Joining me today is Army Retired CW3 Jaime Hernandez. Jaime was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico and graduated from Ponce High School in 1989.  He attended Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico pursuing a degree in Accounting.  He enlisted in the Army as an 11B and went to basic training at Fort Benning, GA in 2002.  His first assignment was to B Company, 2/35 Infantry at Schofield Barracks, HI, and deployed to Afghanistan in 2004.  In 2008, he reclassified to MOS 88N Transportation and went to Fort Eustis, VA for training.  After being promoted to E-7, he again deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.  During that deployment, Jaime applied and was accepted into the Warrant Officer program.  He graduated from the Warrant Officer course in 2013 and was next assigned to the 4th ID at Fort Carson, CO.  He was next assigned to Camp Casey, South Korea in 2016 followed by an assignment to Fort Hood, TX.   He completed a Bachelor's degree in Transportation and Logistics management from American Military University in 2018, and then deployed to the Arabic peninsula in 2019.  Jaime was promoted to CW3 and was assigned to his final duty station back at Fort Eustis.  He retired in 2022.

Join us as we dive deep into the fascinating world of Army healthcare with our special guest, CW3(P) Goldie Cooper, a seasoned 670A Health Service Maintenance Technician. Learn about the critical role these experts play in ensuring that medical equipment is battle-ready and operational, saving lives both on and off the field.

Thomas Quinn offers lessons learned from a remarkable military careeer, from Penn State ROTC to Germany, Fort Carson, ATEC and DARPA. Along the way we discuss Hands on Leadership (3:50), the Fulda Gap (17:25), Fort Carson (22:15), the Officer/NCO Partnership (26:50), LTG Caldwell (28:40), Combined Arms Operations (34:10), DARPA (37:35), and Advice to the Troops (42:30). Donate to the Ranger Scholarship Fund Intro and Outro music from the brilliant licks of Kenny Kilgore, Low Riders and Beautiful Rainy Day. 

The Joint Readiness Training Center is pleased to present the fifty-first episode to air on ‘The Crucible - The JRTC Experience.' Hosted by the Commander of Ops Group (COG), COL Matthew Hardman. Today's guests are two seasoned, former command sergeant majors, CSM(R) Adam Nash and CSM(R) Curt Donaldson. CSM(R) Nash is the former 4th Infantry Division Command Sergeant Major. CSM(R) Donaldson is the former 75th Ranger Regiment Command Sergeant Major, known as the Regimental Sergeant Major.   The 4th Infantry Division is a division of the United States Army based at Fort Carson, Colorado and was established in 1917 as a key member of the American Expeditionary Force for World War I. They have the Hollywood call-sign of “Iron Horse,” but are commonly called “Ivy Division,” and the motto of “Steadfast & Loyal.” The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as Army Rangers or simply as Ranger Regiment, is the premier light infantry unit and special operations raid force within the United States Army Special Operations Command. Their lineage dates back to Roger's Rangers during the French and Indian War in the 18th Century. Their motto is “Sua Sponte” or “Of Their Accord,” with their daily greeting of “Rangers Lead the Way.”   In this episode we discuss warfighting on the modern battlefield, the process of developing junior leaders, and the need to focus leaders on combat mindset. Specifically we talk changing our units' fighting spirit from focused on garrison life to preparing for war. The modern Soldier's mindset must embrace the warrior spirit as it is vital to success on the battlefield. Every Soldier from the individual rifleman in a fire team through to the staff at brigade, must change their mindset from “going to JRTC” or “going to the range” to “going to war” because that mindset is what's going to win the day. Senior leaders have to prioritize establishing and maintaining a leader development program within their units. This includes mentorship between non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers, especially as it applies to standards.   Part of S01 “The Leader's Laboratory” series.   For additional information and insights from this episode, please check-out our Instagram page @the_jrtc_crucible_podcast   Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest warfighting TTPs learned through the crucible that is the Joint Readiness Training Center.   Follow us by going to: https://linktr.ee/jrtc and then selecting your preferred podcast format.   Again, we'd like to thank our guests for participating. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us wherever you listen or watch your podcasts — and be sure to stay tuned for more in the near future.   “The Crucible – The JRTC Experience” is a product of the Joint Readiness Training Center.

Major General Dave Doyle and Command Sergeant Major Alex Kupratty from the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, Colorado join Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Becker and Mr. Rich Creed from CADD to talk about how to train for multidomain operations. They talk about the first two principles of training as found in FM 7-0, encouraging creativity, and the role of senior leaders in prioritizing training.

Major General Dave Doyle and Command Sergeant Major Alex Kupratty from the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, Colorado join Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Becker and Mr. Rich Creed from CADD to talk about how to train for multi-domain operations. They talk about the first two principles of training as found in FM 7-0, encouraging creativity, and the role of senior leaders in prioritizing training.

Josh became infatuated with the military and flying after watching “Top Gun”. Josh did everything he could to learn about aircraft and to prepare to become a pilot, including participating in the Civil Air Patrol. Josh needed glasses to correct his vision so becoming a pilot wasn't feasible, but it didn't stop his desire to serve. Josh enlisted in the Infantry with the goal to apply to West Point and to enter the Academy. When he reported to his first duty station at Joint Base Lewis McChord he told his chain of commmand his intentions and his company commander supported his ambitions. Nine months after reporting to Joint Base Lewis McChord Josh would be reporting to the United States Military Academy Prep School and West Point the year after. Josh would graduate West Point and commission as an Armor Officer; serving in South Korea, deploying from Fort Carson with the 3rd ACR to Iraq, and later to Kuwait as a staff officer in the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC). Josh would leave the military upon the completion of his initial military service obligation and began a journey of discovering his passions for elevators, photography, serving others, and Artificial Intelligence. This is his story. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joe-harrison0/support

Major General David Doyle, Commanding General, 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, joins Leader Up for a second time to discuss a variety of leadership and leader development topics. Talking points include the critical role of Army Civilians and the importance of their professional education, the Ivy leadership methodology used within the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, the significance of maintaining a positive climate and culture within an organization, Maj. Gen. Doyle's personal insights on mentoring and feedback, and more. Learn more about the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson at: https://home.army.mil/carson/units-tenants/4th-infantry-division Maj. Gen. Doyle previously joined Leader Up in episode 34 to discuss Strategic Leadership. For questions, suggestions, or feedback, write us at usarmy.leavenworth.tradoc.mbx.armyu-amsc-podcast@army.mil To learn more about the Army Management Staff College, visit our website at https://armyuniversity.edu/amsc No DOD or U.S. ARMY ENDORSEMENT IMPLIED. Any references to commercially available products or works are used for research and educational purposes only. Mention of any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, or the United States Government. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not state or reflect those of the United States Government and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. The mention of companies by name is solely for the purpose of representing educational framework and should not be implied as endorsement. Music: "Army Strong" composed by Mark Isham, arranged by Hector Munoz.

The 41st Chief of Staff of the Army, General Randy A. George makes his first appearance on the podcast for a great discussion about leadership, his vision, and the lessons he's learned over the course of his four-decade career. General George and Joe cover a lot of ground in this episode, discussing topics including:Encouraging professional discourseWhy leaders need to ask questionsThe training management program that's in the Chief's crosshairsWhy great leaders are great editorsWhat transforming in contact looks likeHow General George recharges his batteries after a long dayThe importance of professional boundariesWhat topics General George wants leaders to write about....and more!General Randy A. George assumed duties as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army on September 21, 2023.George commissioned from the U.S. Military Academy in 1988 as an infantry officer. He served as a lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division and deployed in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. George received his Master of Science in Economics in 1999 from Colorado School of Mines and then served at the National Simulation Center in Fort Leavenworth before attending the Command and General Staff College.In 2001 George went to Italy and served as the executive officer of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. He was later executive officer and then deputy commander of the brigade, during which time he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Returning to the 101st Airborne Division in 2004, George commanded 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment and deployed a second time to Iraq. He then went to United States Naval War College as an instructor and then student. He deployed again as part of the initiatives group for the commanding general, Multi-National Corps-Iraq in 2007.In 2008 George returned to the 4th Infantry Division, where he commanded 4th Brigade Combat Team and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Following command, he was a fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations, chief of the strategic policy division for the Pakistan-Afghanistan coordination cell on the Joint Staff, executive officer to the 33rd Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. He later returned to Fort Carson as the deputy commanding general (maneuver) of 4th Infantry Division.George took command of the 4th Infantry Division in June 2017. In this role he deployed again to Afghanistan. His most recent command was of I Corps at Joint Base Lewis McChord, after which he served as the senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense.He is married to his West Point classmate, Patty. They have two children, Grant and Andrea.Special thanks to this week's sponsors!Veteran-founded Adyton. Connect Leadership With Action Across Distributed Formations With Mustr by Adyton. Mustr is your digital knife-hand for daily and rapid personnel accountability, real time response data visibility, and automated reporting. Learn more about what Mustr can do for your formation here! My favorite coffee is veteran-owned Alpha Coffee and I've been drinking it every morning since 2020! They make 100% premium arabica coffee. Alpha has donated over 22k bags of coffee to deployed units and they offer a 10% discount for military veterans, first responders, nurses, and teachers! Try their coffee today. Once you taste the Alpha difference, you won't want to drink anything else!  Learn more here.   

"My running talent has taken me to so many places. I've come to this country, I became a citizen, and that's an opportunity that a lot of people don't have. And I got it, and I'm very thankful for that. That's why I feel it would be a great honor for me to make the Olympics. That's why I keep pursuing that dream. And I know it's going to be valid one time." My guest for today's episode is Elkanah Kibet. The 40-year-old was in third place by 15 seconds going into the final mile of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials but a charging Leonard Korir managed to catch him for the final spot that will likely go to the Paris Olympics. Kibet finished fourth in 2:10:02 – which set a new U.S. masters marathon record. He was so gratuitous after the race and handled the fourth place finish with so much humility. It was remarkable. Kibet has improved as a marathoner in his late 30s and isn't ready to call an end to his Olympic dreams. He'll be 44 at the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and he's already planning the road there. When he's not running in the early or late hours of the day, he is a husband and a father of three. He also works a full-time job in the U.S. Army as a financial comptroller in Fort Carson, Colorado. He has a tremendous pride for this country. He shares his story of coming from Kenya and all of the opportunities that America has given him, which is why he doesn't hesitate to represent the red, white and blue at a World Championships and has done so four times in his career. We know the guys who make the Olympic team. Let's not forget the hard work of those who come close. Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Guest: Elkanah Kibet | ⁠⁠⁠@airbornrunner on Instagram⁠⁠ Time Stamps: 04:45: His thoughts on placing fourth at the Trials. 06:33: What was going through his mind as third-place finisher Leonard Korir went by him during the race. 07:55: Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympics, where he will be 44 years old. 08:59: Breaks down his race and how he was able to move up throughout the race. 12:32: Shares about moving to the U.S. on a scholarship, joining the army after finishing college, and how he was able to continue training while working full-time. 16:50: What running for the U.S. means to him. 17:36: His desire to bring a medal home to the U.S. next year. 19:30: How shoe technology has helped him stay consistent. 21:14: How he manages his training load around working full-time. 23:41: How splits runs into singles/doubles + his focus on recovery. 25:04: His relationship with his coach.  28:09: How he balances training while working for the army + getting deployed.  32:25: How long he plans on continuing to run competitively for.  36:59: What's next for him. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

How flattering it is when amazing Osteopathic Physicians call US to be on the podcast!  In today's episode, we welcome Dr. Mary S. Doellman, a board-certified otolaryngologist and allergy physician (ENT) with Phelps Health in Rolla, MO. As an active duty physician, she served as chief otolaryngologist in Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and as a staff otolaryngologist at Fort Carson in Colorado.Dr. Doellman speaks not only about her passion for fungi, but gives us a detailed window into a specialty unique for its blend of surgery, medicine, complex pathology, and longitudinal care. She  covers the topic of her rural and military upbringing and how this guided her path into similar circumstances in her professional career.  She  gives pertinent advice to female osteopathic physicians on how to succeed as a woman in medicine, specifically in a competitive surgical specialty.   The interview highlights Dr. Doellman as  a strong example of how dedication and persistance can allow an individual to carve a path straight through the heart of medicine to acheive their dreams. We know you find her as inspiring as we did!

First off, Merry Christmas! The guys kick off this special holiday episode with Christmas vibes! From a holiday song to discussing their Christmas memories as they've transitioned from junior enlisted to senior enlisted Sailors. Oh my, how time changes things. Damon and Damo reminisce about their grandmothers who are no longer here. Remember, to cherish your family and cherish these moments. The guys play a round of “All I Want For Christmas.” A lot of new movies have premiered that are worth a little conversation about. Are there any good ones? Are there any really bad movies that were recently released? The rapper, Scarface just did a Tiny Desk concert, accompanied by Mike Dean that provided another classic hip-hop moment for Mr. Brad Jordan. A listener asked for thoughts on why people commit acts of stolen valor. Damo asked if he was wrong about a particular decision he made (or didn't make) on his last duty day. Go Navy, Beat Army - but we gotta win one? What happened to eNAVFIT? On a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, military housing, BAH, and military came up. The guys decided to address the commentary from that conversation. Damon asks Damo what is his “first take” as a brand new father. Is Navy Federal favoring White applicants over African American applicants for home loans? Do we have time for some end-of-the-year “Do Betters”? What's this story about a Soldiers on Fort Carson not being able to make appointments before 0900? An update from the last episode regarding the Squadron Commodore of PHIBRON 5 clears up a lot of speculation.  Remember to follow the ‘Permission to Speak Freely' podcast on TikTok, Facebook, Discord, Instagram, and Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube.   Keep up with the ‘Permission to Speak Freely' podcast on our social media and YouTube - https://linktr.ee/Ptsfpodcast     Links and more from this Episode:   Restricted Hours on Fort Carson - https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/11/29/fort-carson-officer-restricts-hours-mental-health-care-and-other-services-make-time-physical.html   PHIBRON 5 Commodore fired - https://coronadotimes.com/news/2023/12/06/navy-squadron-commodore-fired-after-thanksgiving-eve-dui-hit-and-run/   Second Drill Sergeant found dead in 8 days - https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/12/18/second-fort-jackson-drill-sergeant-found-dead-base-month.html?utm_content=buffercc952&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR2JVyRkFLIxmUX3YGUF9nyg7dKUKg0FC4lgQ69l6i8ccUI1UD8vx18GI6o_aem_AcThacBMkKI2gDCUcJDcDJ8xIWWtq8WVsj1RDmBL4aDgxxtug_ssstropS4mabo5rdc     Damo's Book of the Week:   Talk Like Ted (Carmine Gallo) - https://www.carminegallo.com/books/talk-like-ted/   Additional Credits: PTSF “Theme Music” - Produced by Lim0   Intro Music:   Artist: Robin Thicke Song: Merry Little Christmas Album: A ROC Christmas Label: Roc Nation Records LLC   IMPORTANT: The holidays aren't happy for everyone. It's okay if you aren't feeling your greatest this season. Please remember that if you are thinking about harming yourself or others, reach out and talk about it. The following are resources if you are considering self-harm or having suicidal ideations:   National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK(8255) Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988 Crisis Text Line: Text CONNECT to 741741   Contains an excerpt of The Joe Budden Podcast, Patreon exclusive episode, “Freezer Burn.”

In this episode of The F.I.T. in Faith Podcast, host Tamra Andress sits down with special guest Ryan Griffis, also known as "Mr. Griffis." Ryan, an active-duty soldier, shares his powerful journey from struggling with mental health issues and a lack of faith to becoming a beacon of hope and inspiration for millions on social media. He candidly discusses how his faith transformed his life, leading him to use his platform to address the mental health crisis within the military community and beyond. Together, they explore the intersection of faith and mental health, the importance of authenticity, and the impact of Ryan's remarkable journey on both soldiers and civilians. Join Tamra and Ryan as they unmask the challenges and triumphs of mental health and faith in this compelling episode.   Meet Ryan Griffis: Ryan Griffis, known as MRGRIFFIS, has taken the social media world by storm with his incredible story and inspiring content. With millions of followers across various platforms, Ryan recently graced the stage at EYA (Embrace Your Ambition), captivating the crowd with his powerful message. His audience spans across upcoming social media influencers, veterans, law enforcement, mental health advocates, teachers, youth, nurses, students, and proud Americans.Under the brand name MRGRIFFIS, Ryan represents proud Americans who are willing to break long-standing stigmas in the world. He emphasizes the importance of speaking up about our problems, dismantling the notion that vulnerability is a weakness. Ryan's mission is to be a beacon of light in someone's darkest days, spreading the understanding that "it's okay to NOT be okay."Beyond his online presence, Ryan's brand seeks to shatter barriers and create a supportive community. His commitment to raising awareness about mental health and advocating against suicide has earned him a dedicated following. As an active-duty soldier in the United States Army stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, Ryan draws from his personal struggles with mental health and PTSD to inspire others facing similar challenges.Ryan Griffis's determination to make a global impact and amplify important messages has solidified his position as a remarkable social media star. Through his engaging content, energy, and motivation, he continues to inspire millions while advocating for mental health and promoting a sense of community and support.To connect with Ryan Griffis and experience his motivational content, visit his website at https://mrgriffis.com   Where to Find Ryan: The Rise of Mr. Griffis Documentary: https://youtu.be/eOq5YP8I9Io TikTok: mrgriffis http://www.tiktok.com/@mrgriffis YouTube: Ryan Griffis (MrGriffis) http://youtube.com/@mrgriffis Twitter: mrgriffis93 http://www.twitter.com/mrgriffis93 Instagram: mr.griffis https://Instagram.com/mr.griffis Facebook: mrgriffis https://www.facebook.com/MRGRIFFIS93 Clapper: mrgriffis93 https://newsclapper.com/MRGRIFFIS93?is_invite=1&r=mPbk9GbkJa&c=in&m=co   Where to Find Tamra: ⁉️ Have a faith & or biz question you'd like to have me answer? Feel free to write it, along with your honest review on Apple Podcasts - I'll share you and give you the answer in an upcoming episode!

In Episode 27: UFOs Over Fort Carson, we are joined by Tom, a young army veteran who has become a line haul trucker for Target. During Tom's time serving the country, he was hit with an IED blast. He shares with us about his experiences overseas in Afghanistan, how he began trucking, and his run-in with some strange UFOs above Fort Carson in Colorado. We hope you enjoy the show! KEEP US FUELED: buymeacoffee.com/hammerlane EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FOOD: www.preparewithhll.com LEAVE A VOICEMAIL: 515-585-MERK(6375) EMAIL US YOUR STORIES: hllpodcast@protonmail.com Website: www.hammerlanelegends.com Gear: https://www.hammerlanelegends.com/gear YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC5TWlB5Yqx8JlQr3p3bkkMg Facebook: www.facebook.com/hammerlanelegends Instagram Desktop: www.instagram.com/hammerlanelegends Instagram Mobile: @hammerlanelegends Twitter Desktop: www.twitter.com/HLLPodcast Twitter Mobile: @HLLpodcast Produced by: Jack Merkel Follow Jack on Instagram @jack_theproducer

After the arrests of Michael Corbitt and Freddie Glenn, Colorado Springs and Fort Carson could rest easier. The murders of Daniel Van Lone, Winford Proffitt, Karen Grammer, Winslow Watson III saw a conclusion.  The murders of Jerry Romisch and Milford Abramson are still unsolved.  If you have any information about these murders - contact the El Paso County Sheriff's Office at 719-390-5555.  The story of Linda Abramson - https://gazette.com/news/lindas-world-murder-boxes-of-cash-tax-evasion-prison/article_498fbb57-4994-5b79-a136-54bc15017431.html —— Ways to support your favorite podcast: Join My Patreon Family! Subscribe to Military Murder Premium on Apple Podcast! Rate/Review the Show! Tell a Friend about Military Murder —— Thanks to Today's Sponsors: Ritual! Visit ritual.com/military10 for 10% off during your first 3 months.  June's Journey! Download “June's Journey” on the Apple App Store or Google Play!  Third Love! Visit thirdlove.com/militarymama for 20% off your first order! HelloFresh! Visit HelloFresh.com/militarymama65 and use code “militarymama65” for 65% off plus free shipping! ----- Military Murder is a military true crime podcast that focuses on murders committed by military members, veterans, and sometimes their family members.  ---- Follow on social: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mamamargot  TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@militarymargot  Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/militarymurderpodcast  Discussion Group: https://facebook.com/groups/militarytruecrime  Email: militarymurderpodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1975 murders appeared random and unconnected: a cartel-style murder of a Fort Carson soldier (Jerry Romisch), the execution of a veteran leaving work (Daniel Van Lone), the kidnapping of a waitress after work (Karen Grammer), the stabbing of a soldier looking to score drugs (Winford Proffitt)…but then…a break in the case. Part 2 is available right away for patreon and Apple Premium subscribers. It will be available to everyone March 6. —— Ways to support your favorite podcast: Join My Patreon Family! Subscribe to Military Murder Premium on Apple Podcast! Rate/Review the Show! Tell a Friend about Military Murder —— Thanks to Today's Sponsors: June's Journey! Download “June's Journey” on the Apple App Store or Google Play!  Third Love! Visit thirdlove.com/militarymama for 20% off your first order! HelloFresh! Visit HelloFresh.com/militarymama65 and use code “militarymama65” for 65%l off plus free shipping! ----- Military Murder is a military true crime podcast that focuses on murders committed by military members, veterans, and sometimes their family members.  ---- Follow on social: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mamamargot  TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@militarymargot  Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/militarymurderpodcast  Discussion Group: https://facebook.com/groups/militarytruecrime  Email: militarymurderpodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to another interview on Unlocking Your World of Creativity. We had the pleasure and honor to sit down and speak with Major General Robert W. Mixon, Jr. In the US Army, General Mixon commanded the 7th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, Colorado. He has served in executive leadership positions in both for-profit and not-for-profit companies prior to starting his own leadership company, Level Five Associates, in 2014. He is also the co-author of a best-selling book on Amazon, “Cows in the Living Room: Developing an Effective Strategic Plan and Sustaining It” and the author of “We're All In: The Journey to a World-Class Culture”, which became a "Best New Release" on Amazon in 2017. In today's episode: Major General Mixon breaks down his 6 key principles of success in leadership The value veterans bring to the workplace General Mixons company, Level Five Associates and how his time in military service developed the insights, discipline, and vision necessary to transform capable people into unsurpassed business leaders.6 Principles of SuccessAzimuth - A term learned in the military. It's your cardinal direction for the organization, for the team. You set the azimuth, which includes your mission intent. Listen - Becoming more effective listeners. Trust and Empower - Empowerment is the embodiment of trust. But if we don't nurture that aspect of our culture, then we'll end up with an environment of distrust, which is toxic. Do the Right Thing When No One is Looking - “As we say, at the Pentagon, that briefs well, but it's very difficult to do because we have to value the process over the outcome and do the right thing.” When in Charge Take Charge - It's not being loud and profane and directive. It's being calm in the chaos.Balance the Personal and Professional - Taking your careers very seriously, your mission very seriously, but not taking ourselves that way. Promoting balance among each other. It's not all about time with work life. It's about having the values that you really believe in guide your actions, and that's where balance lives.“The plan is a basis for change. And if we are not adaptive as leaders, as organizations, and we are rigid in our fixation on the plan, then I think our chances of success are very low.”Value Veterans bring to the Workplace a sense of duty, a sense of doing what needs to be done. They're reliable. They're gonna be used to getting the mission accomplished. Sometimes when it runs beyond five o'clockThey're going to be team players. They understand that there's no eye in team.After General Mixon left military service, he continued to support and work for veterans with disabilities, mental health challenges, and has worked extensively in nonprofit work. Two organizations he is privileged to be a part of are:

On today's ZBT we've got 3 rounds in the magazine ... Round 1: Update the safety brief: 8,000 soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division swarmed a hill in Fort Carson, Colorado only to find themselves tear gassed to oblivion. Round 2: An investigation: Was an National Guard soldier lied to by his friend when said friend claimed to be a Marine? The investigation is on going. Round 3: Bad Ass of the Week: WWII veteran who was once in a Nazi POW camp turns 100 years old and gives some sage advice about life. SUPPORT THE SHOW: WhistlePig: Get your bottle at https://barstool.link/WPZBT or at a local retailer.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/ZeroBlog30

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives, the guys start the show off talking about what they have been up to and the upcoming ADCC! Then, a US Army Sargeant, stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, decides to go turkey hunting but ends up seeing a Bigfoot instead. Next, a listener writes in with terrifying encounter with the Greys when abducted at a friends house. After the break Cam brings up some strange tales/legends of missing treasure, pirates and more. Hidden treasures aren't just for pirates, movies, and pirate movies—there's actually treasure buried all over, including here in the United States. While some buried treasures have been found, there's still plenty out there just waiting to be discovered by metal detector, shovel, or puzzle-solving mind. Are you brave (and patient) enough to venture out in search of lost wealth?  Finally, another listener writes in with a strange portal sighting in Philadelphia. All of this and more on this installment of Expanded Perspectives! Show Notes: ADCC ( Abu Dhabi Combat Club)  When Bigfoot Stalk Elk, Hunters Beware! Sponsors: HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/EXPANDED16 and use promo code EXPANDED16 for up to 16 FREE meals and 3 FREE gifts! America's #1 Meal Kit. Lumi Labs: Microdose is available nationwide. To get 30% off your first order just go to Microdose.com and use the code EXPANDED Want to Share Your Story? Email: expandedperspectives@yahoo.com Hotline: 888-393-2783