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Inspiring People & Places: Architecture, Engineering, And Construction
Bill Squires, now serving as Chief Venues and Operations Manager for the New York, New Jersey Host Committee for the FIFA 2026 World Cup, has built a remarkable career shaped by discipline, service, and an enduring passion for leadership. His journey began when he found his calling as a Navy pilot, a foundation that continues to influence his approach to managing complex operations and teams. Today, he remains connected to the Naval Academy, mentoring the next generation of leaders and carrying forward lessons in accountability, teamwork, and resilience. Transitioning from employee to consultant and later founding his own company, Bill has leveraged a powerful professional network to take on some of the largest events of his career. His insights on leadership draw deeply from both his military service and his time in sports, where the field has taught him as much about character and composure as it has about competition. After surviving a near-death experience with COVID, Bill's perspective on life and leadership has deepened even further, now guided by gratitude, purpose, and a desire to help others step into the best version of themselves.Key Points From This Episode:How he found his calling to serve as a Navy pilot. Some leadership lessons from the Navy that Bill applies to his work in the stadium business. Becoming a consultant after working as an employee. Starting his own company and drawing on an incredible network.Advice to anyone looking to become someone new. The biggest events of his leadership career.Quotes:“Being decisive is a great leadership quality that I wish more people had.” — Bill Squires “Get a job, but still continue to chase your passion. Don't give up on it!” — Bill Squires “I'm a leader by example. It's not so much about what I say, but it's more about what I do.” — Bill Squires “Be grateful for everything. Even the tough times in your life, because the tough times in your life make the good times in your life even better.” — Bill Squires Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:Bill Squires on LinkedInWilliam D. Squires Columbia UniversitySurvival ThinkingMake Your BedSports Business JournalMetLife StadiumNew York New Jersey Host CommitteeSomething More - A Servant Leader's Journey From Enlisted Guardsman to Electrical Tradesman to Executive o the Largest Entertainment Facilities in the WorldLeadership Blueprints PodcastMCFAMCFA CareersBJ Kraemer on LinkedIn
A Note from James:Wisdom Takes Work is Ryan Holiday's fourth book exploring the Stoic virtues, and this time he's taking on the big one — wisdom. His earlier books on courage, temperance, and justice were all great conversations, but this one hit me personally. I've often thought I had wisdom, only to realize later that I didn't — or at least not as much as I thought.Ryan's writing blends ancient Stoic philosophy with modern life in a way that feels both practical and timeless. We talked about how wisdom isn't something you possess; it's something you practice. It's not about having all the answers — it's about asking better questions, learning through experience, and staying humble enough to admit what you don't know. Ryan's back on the show — probably more than any other guest — and each time, I walk away seeing the world differently.Episode Description:James sits down with bestselling author and Stoic philosopher Ryan Holiday to discuss Wisdom Takes Work, the newest addition to his series on the cardinal virtues. Together they unpack what “wisdom” really means — not as a static trait, but as an ongoing practice of curiosity, humility, and doing hard things.The conversation ranges from the limits of AI (“great at knowledge, terrible at wisdom”) to the importance of reading history, counting names on a plaque instead of trusting bad data, and learning by doing. Ryan also shares new insights from his upcoming biography of Admiral James Stockdale, and how the act of challenging himself as a writer mirrors the Stoic pursuit of wisdom itself.What You'll Learn:Why wisdom isn't about knowing — it's about learning, questioning, and doing.How AI amplifies knowledge but can't replace human judgment or discernment.Why experience, pain, and humility are necessary ingredients for growth.How Ryan's research on Admiral Stockdale is changing his approach to writing and life.Practical ways to cultivate wisdom — from reading and travel to mentoring and open-mindedness.Timestamped Chapters:[00:00] Introduction: The difference between knowledge and wisdom [02:54] A Note from James — Why wisdom is the hardest virtue [05:37] AI's limits and the danger of overconfidence [08:57] “Wisdom takes work”: Stoic principles in action [11:35] The verbs of virtue — acting with courage, justice, and discipline [13:12] Ryan's AI experiment and the Naval Academy plaque [16:10] Knowing what you don't know — humility as wisdom [18:30] Parenting, ego, and learning to argue less [22:00] Why age doesn't guarantee wisdom [25:10] The trap of resisting change and staying “the smartest person in the room” [27:00] Adapting to new generations and ideas [31:00] Is wisdom a talent or a learned skill? [34:00] How books and mentors shape a wise mind [37:00] Raising curious kids in the age of MrBeast and AI [40:20] Teaching curiosity and lifelong learning [42:25] Practicing wisdom: reading, travel, and mentorship [47:00] Learning by doing — the pain and reward of hard work [50:20] Writing, research, and the lesson of David McCullough [53:07] Why Ryan's next book is his hardest yet — Admiral Stockdale's story [55:50] Finding new mentors and growing past your comfort zone [57:14] Living the Stoic life — success, service, and perspectiveAdditional Resources:Ryan Holiday – Wisdom Takes WorkRyan Holiday's other Stoic virtue books: Courage Is Calling Discipline Is Destiny Right Thing, Right NowAdmiral James Stockdale – U.S. Naval Academy BiographyRobert Caro – Working: Researching, Interviewing, WritingDavid McCullough – Truman and John AdamsRyan Holiday's The Daily Stoic Podcast – SpotifySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Don Baldwin, retired from Michelin, talks about the origins of NACFE, why he put his personal stamp on starting NACFE and the fuel agnostic Challenge Bibendum. He also talks about the importance of passion in your work, the value of bringing unbiased information to decision makers and the need to establish some guiding principles for your life. He comments on his role as a recruiter/interviewer for the Naval Academy and where he thinks the trucking industry is today.
Dive into the phenomenal 35-year aviation career of Greg Hansen (USNA '82), a former F-14 Tomcat pilot, Topgun student, and legendary Topgun instructor, who finished his career as a FedEx 777 Captain. In this full-length episode, Greg shares unbelievable, high-stakes stories from the height of the Cold War and his time flying with the US Navy's best. - Topgun Inside Track: Learn what it was like to be a "stash Ensign" at Topgun right out of the Naval Academy, getting an early look at the world's elite fighter tactics. - Constant Peg: Hear the full story of flying against live Soviet MiGs (MiG-23 Flogger & MiG-21) at the secret Constant Peg program and the incredible small-world reunion that happened years later. - The SU-15 Intercept: Greg recounts being scrambled in his F-14 off the USS Ranger in the Sea of Japan to intercept a Soviet SU-15 Flagon, narrowly avoiding an international incident. - Carrier Night Ops Disaster: The heart-stopping story of a catastrophic night carrier landing pattern, an EMCON transit (limited electronic emissions), and the near mid-air collision in the landing groove that confirmed the mantra: "The boat is trying to kill you." F-14 vs. A-4: A technical comparison of the A-4 Skyhawk and the F-14A Tomcat behind the boat, and how he learned to fly the challenging TF-30 engines. FedEx & The F-16: Greg discusses his transition to the FedEx 747, the eye-opening flight into Kuwait City post-Gulf War (flying through oil haze), and his short but intense stint flying the F-16 in the Michigan Air National Guard.
You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for November 6, 2025. 0:30 We take a look at Speaker Mike Johnson's warning that today’s Democratic Party has been overtaken by an ideological movement far removed from its working-class roots. Once the party that called itself the party of the middle class and moderation, Democrats have shifted so sharply to the left that traditional voices are nearly extinct. 9:30 Plus, we cover the Top 3 Things You Need to Know. Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi will not run for another term in Congress. The FAA is ordering 40 of the biggest airports in the country to begin restricting flights. The US Supreme Court ruled that the federal government does have the right and the power to insist only biological sex can be listed on US issued passports. 12:30 Get Prodovite Plus from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 13:00 We unpack Ronald Reagan’s iconic declaration that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” then contrast it with Mamdani’s modern-day claim that “there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.” If you want to see what happens when government tries to solve everything, look at cities like New York, San Franscisco, Chicago, and Portland. Skyrocketing taxes, tent cities, rampant crime, and deepening inequality despite billions in government spending. 16:30 American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson react to the stunning — but not surprising — election of Zoran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. The Mamas discuss the fiery tone of Mamdani’s victory speech, where he quoted socialist figures like Eugene V. Debs rather than American founders, and how his words reflect what they see as a deeper ideological shift in American politics. If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question, go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com/mamas and click on the Ask the Mamas button. 23:00 We discuss the surge of over 35,000 Americans applying to become “Homeland Defenders” — a new initiative under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the Department of Homeland Security. The goal? Strengthen the nation’s immigration system by ensuring that only those who meet legal standards are granted entry or benefits. 25:30 We Dig Deep into one of the most shocking takeaways from the week’s elections — the erosion of political accountability. We reflect on a time when personal misconduct or moral scandal could end a political career, pointing back to Gary Hart’s downfall in the 1980s as a stark contrast to today. From Zoran Mamdani’s incendiary rhetoric, to Virginia’s new attorney general Jay Jones and his disturbing text messages, to Mikie Sherrill’s Naval Academy cheating scandal, and even an admitted illegal immigrant elected mayor in St. Paul, the discussion paints a picture of a political culture where outrage no longer matters — at least, not for one side of the aisle. 32:00 Get TrimROX from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20. 32:30 We turn to Clearwater, Kansas, where Mayor Joe Sabalas, a non-citizen permanent resident from Mexico, has not only served as mayor—but was just reelected. Even more troubling, records show he voted illegally in U.S. elections multiple times, leading to felony charges of election perjury and unlawful voting. 35:30 Plus, a new Christianity Today report shows Gen Z now leads all generations in church attendance, and that's a Bright Spot. This hunger for truth and spiritual grounding contrasts sharply with the moral confusion shaping politics and culture. It looks like Gen Z realizes that the next generation’s hope isn’t found in movements or ideologies, but in the gospel itself. 40:00 For the sixth straight month, U.S. Border Patrol has reported zero illegal immigrant releases into the country—a stark contrast to the 150,000–200,000 monthly releases under the Biden administration. Trump looked at all the people coming across the border and said, "Whoa!" 41:30 And we finish off with a story about Abraham Lincoln and a letter that was discovered earlier this year that shows his character. Follow us: americangroundradio.com Facebook: facebook.com / AmericanGroundRadio Instagram: instagram.com/americangroundradio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Overview Join Dr. Susan Yoshihara for a lecture, reception, and signing of "Women, Peace, & Security in U.S. Security Cooperation." About the Lecture: The authors of this groundbreaking book explore the origins, rationale, and evolution of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) efforts in the context of US security cooperation. Focusing on real-world policy and practice, they draw on cases ranging from post–World War II Japan to contemporary Ghana to demonstrate how including women in security cooperation efforts, while not without challenges, has improved operational effectiveness across the US military, built better security relationships, and advanced civil-military relations and human rights. About the Speaker: A faculty member at IWP, Dr. Susan Yoshihara, is founder and president of American Council on Women Peace and Security, a non-partisan, nonprofit think tank in the nation's capital advancing peace and security for women, their families, and communities through education, on-the-ground engagement, policy analysis, and advocacy. Dr. Yoshihara was a senior advisor on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) to NORAD and USNORTHCOM, and WPS Advisor to Defense Security Cooperation Agency and University, where she led the team that integrated the requirements of the WPS Act of 2017 into education and training for the U.S. security cooperation workforce. Dr. Yoshihara participated in UN negotiations on development, security, and human rights as part of civil society, served on the Holy See delegation and advised the UN Security Council. She served twenty years as a U.S. Naval Aviator, leading helicopter combat logistics missions in the Gulf War and humanitarian assistance and search and rescue missions in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Dr. Yoshihara holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, M.F.A. in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, M.A. in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School, and B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy. This is her third book. **Learn more about IWP graduate programs: https://www.iwp.edu/academics/graduate-degree-programs/ ***Make a gift to IWP: https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=18
If you're curious how podcast interview marketing really works, what drives entrepreneurial success, and why relationships and adaptability matter more than ever, this conversation is a must-listen!Glenn Harper and Julie Smith sit down with Tom Schwab, the founder and chief evangelist of Interview Valet—a company that's helping entrepreneurs and thought leaders amplify their message through targeted podcast interviews.The Entrepreneur's Mindset: "I know what I want out of life and I'm just saying a job is not going to get me there. I'll work really, really hard, but I want to have more control in my life." - Tom SchwabIn this episode, Tom Schwab shares stories from his diverse journey: growing up in the Midwest, learning lessons in entrepreneurship from his grandfather, caddying at country clubs, and even running nuclear power plants aboard an aircraft carrier after graduating from the Naval Academy. Tom discusses how these experiences shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, how relationships serve as the ultimate currency, and why being psychologically self-employed is vital for team building.We talk about the origins of Interview Valet, the evolution of marketing through podcasting, and how AI is changing the game—and ask Tom to break down exactly how his company connects clients to their ideal audiences. He also gets personal, highlighting the mentors who've impacted his trajectory, the mindset necessary to pivot and grow, and what “retirement” means for a true entrepreneur.This episode is brought to you by PureTax, LLC. Tax preparation services without the pressure. When all you need is to get your tax return done, take the stress out of tax season by working with a firm that has simplified the process and the pricing. Find out more about how we started.Here are 3 key takeaways:Relationships are the ultimate currency: Tom Schwab credits his grandfather's example for teaching him the lasting value of genuine connections in business and life.Entrepreneurship is an evolution, not a revolution: Whether you're born with the drive or are shaped by your environment, adaptability and curiosity open new doors and opportunities.AI is a tool—amplify your brilliance, not your noise: Embrace technology as an amplifier for your message, but remember that effectiveness still comes down to authentic engagement and adding value.Running a business doesn't have to run your life.Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it's easy to be so busy ‘doing' business that you don't have the right strategy to grow your business.Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for successOur clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper &...
In this episode of the Anchored Podcast, Jeremy is joined by Tim Feist, founder of Feist Stone. They discuss his experience at the Naval Academy as a midshipman and professor, his passion for history, and the moment that led him to begin stone carving. They explore the significance of stone carving as both an art form and a spiritual discipline, and the importance of stone carving in the ancient world. They also reflect on the role of education in fostering creativity and craftsmanship, and the impact of art on education.
The path to progressing as a leader isn't always linear. SUMMARY Col. (Ret.) Mike Ott shows how a childhood dream can evolve into a lifetime of impact—from commanding in uniform to leading innovation in healthcare and national defense. Hear more on Long Blue Leadership. Listen now! SHARE THIS PODCAST LINKEDIN | FACEBOOK MIKE'S LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS A leader worth his or her salt should be comfortable not being the smartest person in the room. Striving for a lack of hubris is essential in leadership. Setting a clear vision is a fundamental leadership skill. Moving people without authority is crucial for effective leadership. Resource management is key to achieving organizational goals. Acknowledging what you don't know is a strength in leadership. Effective leaders focus on guiding their teams rather than asserting dominance. Leadership is about influencing and inspiring others. A successful mission requires collaboration and shared vision. True leadership is about empowering others to succeed. CHAPTERS 00:00: Early Inspiration 06:32: Academy Years 13:17: Military Career Transition 21:33: Financial Services Journey 31:29: MOBE and Healthcare Innovation 40:12: Defense Innovation Unit 48:42: Philanthropy and Community Impact 58:11: Personal Growth and Leadership Lessons ABOUT MIKE OTT BIO Mike Ott is the Chief Executive Officer of MOBĒ, a U.S.-based company focused on whole-person health and care-management solutions. He became CEO in April 2022, taking the helm to lead the company through growth and operational excellence following a distinguished career in both the military and corporate sectors. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Mike served as a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves before shifting into financial services and healthcare leadership roles including private wealth management at U.S. Bank and executive positions with UnitedHealth Group/Optum. His leadership ethos emphasizes alignment, acceleration, and human potential, building cultures where teams can thrive and leveraging data-driven models to improve health outcomes. CONNECT WITH MIKE LinkedIn MOBE CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org Ted Robertson | Producer: Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Ryan Hall | Director: Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor: Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer: Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org ALL PAST LBL EPISODES | ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS OUR SPEAKERS Guest, Col. (Ret.) Mike Ott '85 | Host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99 FULL TRANSCRIPT Naviere Walkewicz 0:00 A quick programming note before we begin this episode of Long Blue Leadership: This episode will be audio-only, so sit back and enjoy the listen. Welcome to Long Blue Leadership, the podcast where we share insights on leadership through the lives and experiences of Air Force Academy graduates. I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Today, on Long Blue Leadership, we welcome Col. (Ret.) Mike Ott, Class of 1985, a leader whose vision was sparked at just 9 years old during a family road trip past the Air Force Academy. That childhood dream carried him through a 24-year Air Force career, culminating in retirement as a colonel and into a life of leadership across business, innovation and philanthropy. Mike is the CEO of MOBE, a groundbreaking company that uses data analytics and a revolutionary pay-for-results model to improve health outcomes while reducing costs. He also serves as a senior adviser to the Defense Innovation Unit, supporting the secretary of defense in accelerating commercial innovation for national security. A member of the Forbes Councils, Mike shares his expertise with leaders around the world. A former Falcon Foundation trustee and longtime supporter of the Academy, Mike has given generously his time, talents and resources to strengthen the Long Blue Line. His story is one of innovation and service in uniform, in the marketplace and in his community. Mike, welcome to Long Blue Leadership. We're so glad to have you here. Mike Ott 1:29 Naviere, thanks a ton. I'm glad to be here. Naviere Walkewicz 1:31 Yes, yes. Well, we're really excited. I mean, you're here for your 40th reunion. Mike Ott 1:35 Yeah, it's crazy. Naviere Walkewicz1:37 You came right in, and we're so pleased that you would join us here first for this podcast. Mike Ott 1:39 Right on. Thanks for the time. Naviere Walkewicz 1:41 Absolutely. Well, let's jump right in, because not many people can say at 9 years old they know what they want to do when they grew up, but you did. Mike Ott 1:48 Yeah. I guess some people can say it; might not be true, but for me, it's true, good or bad. And goodness gracious, right? Here for my 40th reunion, do the math team, and as a 9-year-old, that was 1972, And a lot was going on in the world in 1972 whether it was political unrest, Vietnam and all of that, and the Academy was in the thick of it. And so we had gone — It was our first significant family vacation. My father was a Chicago policeman. We drove in the 1968 Buick LaSabre, almost straight through. Stopped, stayed at a Holiday Inn, destination Colorado, simply, just because nobody had ever seen the mountains before. That was why. And we my parents, mom, mom and dad took myself. I have two younger sisters, Pikes Peak, Academy, Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge. And I remember noon meal formation, and the bell going off. Guys at the time — we hadn't had women as cadets at that point in time — running out in their flight suits as I recall lining up ready to go. And for me, it was the energy, right, the sense of, “Wow, this is something important.” I didn't know exactly how important it was, but I knew it was important, and I could envision even at that age, there was they were doing good, Naviere Walkewicz 3:21 Wow. Nine years old, your family went on vacation, and it just struck you as this is important and something that I want to do. So what did that conversation look like after that experience that you had as a 9-year-old and kind of manifest this in yourself? How did that go with your parents? Mike Ott 3:36 Well, I didn't say too much about it, as I was in grammar school, but as high school hit, you know, I let my folks know what my plans were, and I had mom and dad — my mother's still alive, my father passed about a year ago. Very, very good, hard-working, ethical people, but hadn't gone to college, and we had been told, “Look, you know, you need to get an education.” They couldn't. I wish they had. They were both very, very, very bright, and so I knew college was a plan. I also knew there wasn't a lot of money to pay for it. So I'm certain that that helped bake in a few things. But as I got into high school, I set my sights. I went to public high school in Chicago, and I remember freshman year walking into my counselor's office, and said, “I want to go to the Air Force Academy,” and he kind of laughed. Naviere Walkewicz 3:21 Really? Mike Ott 3:22 Well, we had 700 kids in my class, and maybe 40% went on to college, right? And the bulk of them went to community college or a state school. I can count on one hand the number of folks that went to an academy or an Ivy League school or something of that. So it was it was around exposure. It had nothing to do with intelligence. It was exposure and just what these communities were accustomed to. A lot of folks went into the trades and pieces like that. So my counselor's reaction wasn't one of shock or surprise insofar as that's impossible. It was, “We haven't had a lot of people make that commitment this early on, and I'm glad to help.” Naviere Walkewicz 5:18 Oh, I love that. Mike Ott 5:19 Which is wonderful, and what I had known at the time, Mr. Needham... Naviere Walkewicz 5:23 You Remember his name? Mike Ott 5:24 Yeah, he was in the Navy Reserves. He was an officer, so he got the joke. He got the joke and helped me work through what classes to take, how to push myself. I didn't need too much guidance there. I determined, “Well, I've got to distinguish myself.” And I like to lean in. I like a headwind, and I don't mind a little bit of an uphill battle, because once you get up there, you feel great. I owe an awful lot to him. And, not the superintendent, but the principal of our school was a gentleman named Sam Ozaki, and Sam was Japanese American interned during World War II as a young man, got to of service age and volunteered and became a lieutenant in the Army and served in World War II in Europe, right, not in Asia. So he saw something in me. He too became an advocate. He too became someone that sought to endorse, support or otherwise guide me. Once I made that claim that I was going to go to the Academy. Naviere Walkewicz 6:30 Wow. So you mentioned something that really stuck with me. You said, you know, you didn't mind kind of putting yourself out there and doing the hard things, because you knew when you got to the top it was going to feel really great. Was that something you saw from your father? Was that something, there are key leaders in your life that emulated that? Or is that just something that you always had in yourself? Mike Ott 6:51 I would say there's certainly an environmental element to it — how I was raised, what I was exposed to, and then juxtaposition as to what I observed with other family members or other parts of the community where things didn't work out very well, right? And, you know, I put two and two together. y father demonstrated, throughout his entire career what it means to have a great work ethic. As did mom and, you know, big, tough Chicago cop for 37 years. But the other thing that I learned was kindness, and you wouldn't expect to learn that from the big, tough Chicago cop, but I think it was environment, observing what didn't occur very often and how hard work, if I apply myself, can create outcomes that are going to be more fulfilling for me. Naviere Walkewicz 7:48 Wow, you talked about kindness. How did you see kindness show up in your journey as a cadet at the Air Force Academy? Or did you? Mike Ott 7:58 Yeah, gosh, so I remember, started in June of 1981, OK, and still connected with many of the guys and women that with whom I went to basic training and all that. The first moment of kindness that I experienced that it was a mutual expression, but one where I recognized, “Wow, every one of us is new here. None of us has a real clue.” We might have some idea because we had somebody had a sibling or a mother that was in the military or father that went to the academy at the time, but none of us really knew, right? We were knuckleheads, right? Eighteen years old. Maybe there were a couple of prior-enlisted folks. I don't recall much of that, but I having gone to a public high school in Chicago, where we had a variety of different ethnicities. I learned how to just understand people for who they are, meet them for who they are, and respect every individual. That's how I was raised, and that's how I exhibited myself, I sought to conduct myself in high school. So I get to the Academy, and you're assigned, you know, the first couple three nights, the first few weeks before you go to Jacks Valley, you're assigned. It was all a alphabetical, and my roommate was an African American fellow named Kevin Nixon. All right, my God, Kevin Nixon, and this guy, he was built. I mean, he was rock solid, right? And he had that 1000-yard stare, right? Very intimidating. And I'm this, like, 6-foot-tall, 148-pound runner, like, holy dork, right? And I'm assigned — we're roommates, and he just had a very stoicism, or a stoic nature about him. And I remember, it was our second night at the Academy, maybe first night, I don't quite recall, and we're in bed, and it's an hour after lights out, and I hear him crying, and like, well, what do you do? Like, we're in this together. It was that moment, like we're both alone, but we're not right. He needs to know that he's not alone. So I walked around and went over his bed, and I said, “Hey, man, I miss my mom and dad too. Let's talk. And we both cried, right? And I'll tell you what, he and I were pals forever. It was really quite beautiful. And what didn't happen is he accepted my outreach, right? And he came from a very difficult environment, one where I'm certain there was far more racial strife than I had experienced in Chicago. He came from Norfolk, Virginia, and he came from — his father worked in the shipyards and really, really tough, tough, tough background. He deserved to be the Academy. He was a great guy, very bright, and so we became friends, and I tried to be kind. He accepted that kindness and reciprocated in ways where he created a pretty beautiful friendship. Naviere Walkewicz 7:48 Oh, my goodness. Thank you for sharing that story. And you got me in the feels a little bit, because I remember those nights, even you know me having family members that went through the Academy. There's just something about when you're in it yourself, and in that moment, it's raw. Mike Ott 11:13 Raw is a good word. Naviere Walkewicz 11:15 Oh, thank you for that. So you're at the Academy and you end up doing 24 years. I don't mean to, like, mash all that into one sentence, but let's talk… Mike Ott 11:22 I didn't do very much. It was the same year repeated 24 times over. Like, not a very good learner, right? Not a very good learner. Naviere Walkewicz 11:30 Yeah, I was gonna ask, you know, in that journey, because, had you planned to do a career in the Air Force? Mike Ott 11:36 Well, I didn't know, right? I went in, eyes wide open, and my cumulative time in the Air Force is over 24 but it was only it was just shy of seven active duty, and then 22, 23, in the Reserves, right? I hadn't thought about the Reserves, but I had concluded, probably at the, oh, maybe three-year mark that I wanted to do other things. It had nothing to do with disdain, a sense of frustration or any indignation, having gone to the Academy, which I'm very, very proud of, and it meant an awful lot to who I am. But it was, “Wait, this is, this is my shot, and I'm going to go try other things.” I love ambiguity, I'm very curious. Have a growth mindset and have a perhaps paradoxical mix of being self-assured, but perhaps early on, a bit too, a bit too, what's the word I was thinking of? I wrote this down — a bit too measured, OK, in other words, risk taking. And there were a few instances where I realized, “Hey, man, dude, take some risk. What's the downside? And if it isn't you, who else?” So it was that mindset that helped me muscle through and determine that, coupled with the fact that the Air Force paid for me to go to graduate school, they had programs in Boston, and so I got an MBA, and I did that at night. I had a great commander who let me take classes during the day when I wasn't traveling. It was wonderful. It was there that I was exposed to elements of business and in financial services, which ultimately drew me into financial services when I separated from active duty. Naviere Walkewicz 13:17 Well, I love that, because first you talked about a commander that saw, “How can I help you be your best version of yourself?” And I think the other piece of financial service, because I had to dabble in that as well — the second word is service. And so you've never stopped serving in all the things that you've done. So you took that leap, that risk. Is that something that you felt developed while you're at the Academy, or it's just part of your ethos. Mike Ott 13:41 It developed. It matured. I learned how to apply it more meaningfully at the Academy after a couple, three moments, where I realized that I can talk a little bit about mentoring and then I can come back to that, but mentoring — I don't know, I don't recall having heard that term as a mechanism for helping someone develop. I'm sure we used it when I was a cadet at the Academy and out of the Academy, and having been gone through different programs and banking and different graduate programs, the term comes up an awful lot. You realize, wow, there's something there helping the next generation, but also the reciprocity of learning from that generation yourself. I didn't really understand the whole mentoring concept coming out of Chicago and getting here, and just thought things were very hierarchical, very, very command structure, and it was hit the standards or else. And that that's not a bad mindset, right? But it took me a little while to figure out that there's a goodness factor that comes with the values that we have at the Academy, and it's imbued in each one of you know, service excellence, all of those pieces. But for the most part, fellow cadets and airmen and women want to help others. I mean, it's in service. It's in our DNA. Man that blew right past me. I had no idea, and I remember at one point I was entering sophomore year, and I was asked to be a glider instructor. I'd done the soaring and jumping program over the summer, and like, “Hey, you know you're not too bad at glider. You want to be an instructor?” At the time, that was pretty big deal, yeah, glider instructors. Like, “Yeah, no, I'm not going to do that, you know? I've got to study. Like, look at my GPA.” That didn't really matter. “And I'm going to go up to Boulder and go chase women.” Like, I was going to meet women, right? So, like, but I didn't understand that, that that mechanism, that mentoring mechanism, isn't always bestowed upon a moment or a coupling of individuals. There are just good people out there that see goodness in others that want to help them through that. I had no clue, but that was a turning point for me. Naviere Walkewicz 15:56 Because you said no. Mike Ott 15:58 I said no, right? And it was like what, you know, a couple months later, I remember talking with somebody like, “Yep, swing and a miss,” right? But after that, it changed how I was going to apply this self-assuredness, not bravado, but willingness to try new things, but with a willingness to be less measured. Why not? Trust the system. Trust the environment that you're in, the environment that we're in, you were in, I was in, that we're representing right now, it is a trusted environment. I didn't know that. And there were a lot of environments when I was being raised, they weren't trusted environments. And so you have a sort of mental callous mindset in many ways, and that that vigilance, that sense of sentinel is a good protection piece, but it prevents, it prevents... It doesn't allow for the membrane to be permeated, right? And so that trust piece is a big deal. I broke through after that, and I figured it out, and it helped me, and it helped me connect a sense of self-assuredness to perhaps being less measured, more willing to take ambiguity. You can be self-assured but not have complete belief in yourself, OK? And it helped me believe in myself more. I still wish I'd have been glider instructor. What a knucklehead. My roommate wound up becoming one. Like, “You, son of a rat, you.” Naviere Walkewicz 17:29 So tell me, when did the next opportunity come up where you said yes, and what did that look like in your journey? Mike Ott 17:36 I was a lieutenant. I was a lieutenant, and I was looking for a new role. I was stationed at Hanscom Field, and I was working at one program office, and I bumped — I was the athletic officer for the base with some other folks, and one of the colonels was running a different program, and he had gotten to know me and understand how I operated, what I did, and he said, “Hey, Ott, I want you to come over to my program.” And I didn't know what the program was, but I trusted him, and I did it blindly. I remember his name, Col. Holy Cross. And really good guy. And yeah, I got the tap on the shoulder. Didn't blink. Didn't blink. So that was just finishing up second lieutenant. Naviere Walkewicz 18:26 What a lesson. I mean, something that stuck with you as a cadet, and not that it manifested in regret, but you realized that you missed that opportunity to grow and experience and so when it came around again, what a different… So would you say that as you progress, then you know, because at this point you're a lieutenant, you know, you took on this new role, what did you learn about yourself? And then how did that translate to the decision to move from active duty to the Reserve and into… Mike Ott 18:56 You'll note what I didn't do when I left active duty was stay in the defense, acquisition, defense engineering space. I made a hard left turn… Naviere Walkewicz 19:13 Intentionally. Mike Ott 19:14 Intentionally. And went into financial services. And that is a hard left turn away from whether it's military DOD, military industrial complex, working for one of the primes, or something like that. And my mindset was, “If I'm not the guy in the military making the decision, setting strategy and policy…” Like I was an O-3. Like, what kind of policy am I setting? Right? But my point was, if I'm not going to, if I may, if I decided to not stay in the military, I wasn't going to do anything that was related to the military, right, like, “Let's go to green pastures. Set myself apart. Find ways to compete…” Not against other people. I don't think I need to beat the hell out of somebody. I just need to make myself better every day. And that's the competition that I just love, and I love it it's greenfield unknown. And why not apply my skills in an area where they haven't been applied and I can learn? So as an active-duty person — to come back and answer your question — I had worked some great bosses, great bosses, and they would have career counseling discussions with me, and I was asked twice to go to SOS in-residence. I turned it down, you know, as I knew. And then the third time my boss came to me. He's like, “OK, what are you doing? Idiot. Like, what are you doing?” That was at Year 5. And I just said, “Hey, sir, I think I'm going to do something different.” Naviere Walkewicz 20:47 Didn't want to take the slot from somebody else. Mike Ott 20:49 That's right. Right. And so then it was five months, six months later, where I put in my papers. I had to do a little more time because of the grad school thing, which is great. And his commander, this was a two-star that I knew as well, interviewed me and like, one final, like, “What are you doing?” He's like, “You could have gone so far in the Air Force.” And I looked at the general — he was a super-good dude. I said, “What makes you think I'm not going to do well outside of the Air Force?” And he smiled. He's like, “Go get it.” So we stayed in touch. Great guy. So it had nothing to do with lack of fulfillment or lack of satisfaction. It had more to do with newness, curiosity, a challenge in a different vein. Naviere Walkewicz 21:30 So let's walk into that vein. You entered into this green pasture. What was that experience like? Because you've just been in something so structured. And I mean, would you say it was just structured in a different way? Mike Ott 21:48 No, not structured. The industry… So, I separated, tried an engineering job for about eight months. Hated it. I was, I was development engineer at Ford Motor Company, great firm. Love the organization, bored stiff, right? Just not what I wanted to do, and that's where I just quit. Moved back to Chicago, where I'm from, and started networking and found a role with an investment bank, ABN AMRO, which is a large Dutch investment bank that had begun to establish itself in the United States. So their headquarters in Chicago and I talked fast enough where somebody took a bet on me and was brought into the investment banking arm where I was on the capital markets team and institutional equities. So think of capital markets, and think of taking companies public and distributing those shares to large institutions, pensions funds, mutual funds, family offices. Naviere Walkewicz 22:48 So a lot of learning and excitement for you. Mike Ott 22:51 Super fun. And so the industry is very structured. How capital is established, capital flows, very regulated. We've got the SEC, we've got the FDIC, a lot of complex regulations and compliance matters. That's very, very, very structured. But there was a free-wheelingness in the marketplace. And if you've seen Wolf of Wall Street and things like that, some of that stuff happened. Crazy! And I realized that with my attitude, sense of placing trust in people before I really knew them, figuring that, “OK, what's the downside? I get nipped in the fan once, once or twice. But if I can thrust trust on somebody and create a relationship where they're surprised that I've trusted them, it's probably going to build something reciprocal. So learn how to do that.” And as a young fellow on the desk, wound up being given more responsibility because I was able to apply some of the basic tenets of leadership that you learned and I learned at the Academy. And face it, many of the men and women that work on Wall Street or financial services simply haven't gone to the Academy. It's just, it's the nature of numbers — and don't have that experience. They have other experiences. They have great leadership experiences, but they don't have this. And you and I may take it for granted because we were just four years of just living through it. It oozed in every moment, every breath, every interaction, every dialog, it was there.But we didn't know it was being poured in, sprinkled across as being showered. We were being showered in it. But I learned how to apply that in the relationships that I built, knowing that the relationships that I built and the reputation that I built would be lasting and impactful and would be appropriate investments for the future endeavors, because there's always a future, right? So it wasn't… again, lot of compliance, lot of regulations, but just the personalities. You know, I did it for the challenge, right? I did it because I was curious. I did it because I wanted to see if I could succeed at it. There were other folks that did it simply because it was for the money. And many, some of them made it. They might have sold their soul to get there. Some didn't make it. Maybe it wasn't the right pursuit for them in the first place. And if I go back to mentoring, which we talked about a little bit, and I help young men and women, cadets or maybe even recent grads, my guidance to them is, don't chase the money, chase the environment, right? And chase the environment that allows you to find your flow and contribute to that environment. The money will come. But I saw it — I've seen it with grads. I've seen it with many of the folks that didn't make it in these roles in financial services, because I thought, “Hey, this is where the money is.” It might be. But you have to go back to the basis of all this. How are you complected? What are your values? Do they align with the environment that you're in? And can you flow in a way where your strengths are going to allow success to happen and not sell your soul? Naviere Walkewicz 26:26 Yeah, you said two things that really stood out to me in that —the first one was, you know, trusting, just starting from a place of trust and respect, because the opportunity to build a relationship faster, and also there's that potential for future something. And then the second thing is the environment and making sure it aligns with your values. Is that how you got to MOBE? Mike Ott 26:50 Yeah, I would say how I got to MOBE, that certainly was a factor. Good question. Naviere Walkewicz 26:57 The environment, I feel, is very much aligned Mike Ott 27:00 Very much so and then… But there's an element of reputation and relationship that allowed me to get there. So now I'm lucky to be a part of this firm. We're 250 people. We will do $50 million of revenue. We're growing nicely. I've been in health care for four years. Now, we are we're more than just healthcare. I mean, it's deep data. We can get into some of that later, but I had this financial services background. I was drawn to MOBE, but I had established a set of relationships with people at different investment banks, with other families that had successfully built businesses and just had relationships. And I was asked to come on to the board because MOBE, at the time, great capabilities, but struggled with leadership during COVID. Lot of companies did. It's not an indictment as to the prior CEO, but he and the team struggled to get through COVID. So initially I was approached to come on to the board, and that was through the founders of the firm who had known me for 20 years and knew my reputation, because I'd done different things at the investment bank, I'd run businesses at US Bank, which is a large commercial bank within the country, and they needed someone that… They cared very little about health care experience, which is good for me, and it was more around a sense of leadership. They knew my values. They trusted me. So initially I was asked to come onto the board, and that evolved into, “No, let's just do a whole reset and bring you on as the CEO.” Well, let's go back to like, what makes me tick. I love ambiguity. I love a challenge. And this has been a bit of a turnaround in that great capabilities, but lost its way in COVID, because leadership lost its way. So there's a lot of resetting that needed to occur. Corpus of the firm, great technology, great capabilities, but business model adaptation, go to market mechanisms and, frankly, environment. Environment. But I was drawn to the environment because of the people that had founded the organization. The firm was incubated within a large pharmaceutical firm. This firm called Upsher-Smith, was a Minnesota firm, the largest private and generic pharmaceutical company in the country, and sold for an awful lot of money, had been built by this family, sold in 2017 and the assets that are MOBE, mostly data, claims, analysis capabilities stayed separate, and so they incubated that, had a little bit of a data sandbox, and then it matriculated to, “Hey, we've got a real business here.” But that family has a reputation, and the individuals that founded it, and then ultimately found MOBE have a reputation. So I was very comfortable with the ambiguity of maybe not knowing health care as much as the next guy or gal, but the environment I was going into was one where I knew this family and these investors lived to high ethical standards, and there's many stories as to how I know that, but I knew that, and that gave me a ton of comfort. And then it was, “We trust you make it happen. So I got lucky. Naviere Walkewicz 30:33 Well, you're, I think, just the way that you're wired and the fact that you come from a place of trust, obviously, you know, OK, I don't have the, you know, like the medical background, but there are a lot of experts here that I'm going to trust to bring that expertise to me. And I'm going to help create an environment that they can really thrive in. Mike Ott 30:47 I'm certain many of our fellow alum have been in this experience, had these experiences where a leader worth his or her salt should be comfortable not being the smartest gal or guy in the room. In fact, you should strive for that to be the case and have a sense of lack of hubris and proudly acknowledge what you don't know. But what I do know is how to set vision. What I do know is how to move people without authority. What I do know is how to resource. And that's what you do if you want to move a mission, whether it's in the military, small firm like us that's getting bigger, or, you know, a big organization. You can't know it all. Naviere Walkewicz 31:30 So something you just mentioned that I think a lot of our listeners would really like, would love a little bit to peel us back a little bit. You said, “I know how to set a vision. I know how to…” I think it was move… Mike Ott 31:45 Move people without authority and prioritize. Naviere Walkewicz 31:47 But can we talk a little bit about that? Because I think that is really a challenge that some of our you know younger leaders, or those early in their leadership roles struggle with. Maybe, can you talk a little bit about that? Mike Ott 32:01 For sure, I had some — again, I tried to do my best to apply all the moments I had at the Academy and the long list of just like, “What were you thinking?” But the kindness piece comes through and… Think as a civilian outside looking in. They look at the military. It's very, very, very structured, OK, but the best leaders the men and women for whom you and I have served underneath or supported, never once barked an order, OK? They expressed intent, right? And you and I and all the other men and women in uniform, if we were paying attention, right, sought to execute the mission and satisfaction of that intent and make our bosses' bosses' jobs easier. That's really simple. And many outsiders looking in, we get back to just leadership that are civilians. They think, “Oh my gosh, these men and women that are in the military, they just can't assimilate. They can't make it in the civilian world.” And they think, because we come from this very, very hierarchical organization, yes, it is very hierarchical — that's a command structure that's necessary for mission execution — but the human part, right? I think military men and women leaders are among the best leaders, because guess what? We're motivating men and women — maybe they get a pat on the back. You didn't get a ribbon, right? Nobody's getting a year-end bonus, nobody's getting a spot bonus, nobody's getting equity in the Air Force, and it's gonna go public, right? It's just not that. So the best men and women that I for whom I've worked with have been those that have been able to get me to buy in and move and step up, and want to demonstrate my skills in coordination with others, cross functionally in the organization to get stuff done. And I think if there's anything we can remind emerging graduates, you know, out of the Academy, is: Don't rely on rank ever. Don't rely on rank. I had a moment: I was a dorky second lieutenant engineer, and we were launching a new system. It was a joint system for Marines, Navy and Air Force, and I had to go from Boston to Langley quite often because it was a TAC-related system, Tactical Air Force-related system. And the I was the program manager, multi-million dollar program for an interesting radio concept. And we were putting it into F-15s, so in some ground-based situations. And there was this E-8, crusty E-8, smoked, Vietnam, all these things, and he was a comms dude, and one of the systems was glitching. It just wasn't working, right? And we were getting ready to take this thing over somewhere overseas. And he pulls alongside me, and it's rather insubordinate, but it was a test, right? He's looking at me, Academy guy, you know, second lieutenant. He was a master sergeant, and he's like, “Well, son, what are we going to do now?” In other words, like, “We're in a pickle. What are we going to do now?” But calling me son. Yeah, it's not appropriate, right? If I'd have been hierarchical and I'd relied on rank, I probably would have been justified to let him have it. Like, that's playing short ball, right? I just thought for a second, and I just put my arm around him. I said, “Gee, Dad, I was hoping you're gonna help me.” And mother rat, we figured it out, and after that, he was eating out of my hand. So it was a test, right? Don't be afraid to be tested but don't take the bait. Naviere Walkewicz 35:46 So many good just lessons in each of these examples. Can you share a time at MOBE when you've seen someone that has been on your team that has demonstrated that because of the environment you've created? Mike Ott 35:57 For sure. So I've been running the firm now for about three and a half years. Again, have adapted and enhanced our capabilities, changed the business model a bit, yet functioning in our approach to the marketplace remains the same. We help people get better, and we get paid based on the less spend they have in the system. Part of some of our principles at MOBE are pretty simple, like, eat, sleep, move, smile, all right. And then be thoughtful with your medication. We think that medicine is an aid, not a cure. Your body's self-healing and your mind controls your body. Naviere Walkewicz 36:32 Eat, sleep, move, smile. Love that. Mike Ott 36:35 So what's happening with MOBE, and what I've seen is the same is true with how I've altered our leadership team. I've got some amazing leaders — very, very, very accomplished. But there are some new leaders because others just didn't fit in. There wasn't the sense of communal trust that I expected. There was too much, know-it-all'ing going on, right? And I just won't have that. So the easiest way to diffuse that isn't about changing head count, but it's around exhibiting vulnerability in front of all these folks and saying, “Look, I don't know that, but my lead pharmacist here, my lead clinician here, helped me get through those things.” But I do have one leader right, who is our head of vice president of HR, a woman who grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, who has come to myself and our president and shared that she feels liberated at MOBE because, though this firm is larger than one that she served as a director of HR, previously, she's never had to look — check her six, look right, look left and seek alignment to ensure she's harmonizing with people. Naviere Walkewicz 37:49 Can you imagine being in an environment like that? Mike Ott 38:51 It's terrible, it's toxic, and it's wrong. Leaders, within the organization, I think you're judged more by what you don't do and the actions that you don't take. You can establish trust, and you will fortify that trust when you share with the team as best you can, so long as it's nothing inappropriate, where you made a mistake, where we went wrong. What did we learn from that? Where are we going to pivot? How we're going to apply that learning to make it better, as opposed to finding blame, pointing the finger or not even acknowledging? That happens all the time, and that toxicity erodes. And regretfully, my VP of HR in prior roles experienced that, and I don't have time. Good teams shouldn't have time to rehearse the basic values of the firm. We don't have time the speed of business is like this [snaps]. So if I can build the team of men and women that trust one another, can stay in their lanes, but also recognize that they're responsible for helping run the business, and look over at the other lanes and help their fellow leaders make adjustments without the indictful comment or without sort of belittling or shaming. That's what good teams, do. You, and I did that in the Air Force, but it is not as common as you would think. Naviere Walkewicz 39:11 20 we've been talking about MOBE, and you know, the environment you're creating there, and just the way that you're working through innovation. Let's talk a little bit how you're involved with DIU, the Defense Innovation Unit. Mike Ott 39:21 Again, it's reputation in relationships. And it was probably 2010, I get a call from a fellow grad, '87 grad who was living in the Beltway, still in uniform. He was an O-5 I was an O-5. Just doing the Academy liaison work, helping good young men and women that wanted to go to the Academy get in. And that was super satisfying, thought that would be the end of my Reserve career and super fun. And this is right when the first Obama administration came in, and one of his edicts and his admin edicts was, we've got to find ways to embrace industry more, right? We can't rely on the primes, just the primes. So those were just some seeds, and along with a couple other grads, created what is now called Joint Reserve Directorate, which was spawned DIUX, which was DIU Experimental, is spawned from. So I was the owner for JRD, and DIUX as a reserve officer. And that's how we all made colonel is we were working for the chief technology officer of the Defense Department, the Hon. Zach Lemnios, wonderful fellow. Civilian, didn't have much military experience, but boy, the guy knew tech — semiconductors and areas like that. But this was the beginning of the United States recognizing that our R&D output, OK, in the aggregate, as a fund, as a percentage of GDP, whether it's coming out of the commercial marketplace or the military DoD complex, needs to be harnessed against the big fight that we have with China. We can see, you know, we've known about that for 30 years. So this is back 14 years ago. And the idea was, let's bring in men and women — there was a woman in our group too that started this area — and was like, “How do we create essential boundary span, boundary spanners, or dual-literacy people that are experiences in capital markets, finance, how capital is accumulated, innovation occurs, but then also how that applies into supporting the warfighter. So we were given a sandbox. We were given a blank slate. Naviere Walkewicz 41:37 It's your happy place. Mike Ott 41:38 Oh, super awesome. And began to build out relationships at Silicon Valley with commercial entities, and developed some concepts that are now being deployed with DIU and many other people came in and brought them all to life. But I was lucky enough after I retired from the Reserves as a colonel to be asked to come back as an adviser, because of that background and that experience, the genesis of the organization. So today I'm an unpaid SGE — special government employee — to help DIU look across a variety of different domains. And so I'm sure many of our listeners know it's key areas that we've got to harness the commercial marketplace. We know that if you go back into the '70s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and creation of the internet, GPS, precision munitions and all of that, the R&D dollars spent in the aggregate for the country, 95% came out of DOD is completely flip flopped today. Completely flipped. We happen to live in an open, free society. We hope to have capital markets and access a lot of that technology isn't burdened like it might be in China. And so that's the good and bad of this open society that we have. We've got to find ways. So we, the team does a lot of great work, and I just help them think about capital markets, money flows, threat finance. How you use financial markets to interdict, listen, see signals, but then also different technologies across cyberspace, autonomy, AI. Goodness gracious, I'm sure there's a few others. There's just so much. So I'm just an interloper that helps them think about that, and it's super fun that they think that I can be helpful. Naviere Walkewicz 43:29 Well, I think I was curious on how, because you love the ambiguity, and that's just something that fills your bucket — so while you're leading MOBE and you're creating something very stable, it sounds like DIU and being that kind of special employee, government employee, helps you to fill that need for your ambiguous side. Mike Ott 43:48 You're right. You're right. Naviere Walkewicz 43:49 Yeah, I thought that's really fascinating. Well, I think it's wonderful that you get to create that and you just said, the speed of business is this [snaps]. How do you find time in your life to balance what you also put your values around — your health — when you have such an important job and taking care of so many people? Mike Ott 44:06 I think we're all pretty disciplined at the Academy, right? I remain that way, and I'm very, very — I'm spring loaded to ‘no,' right? “Hey, do you want to go do this?” Yeah, I want to try do, I want to do a lot of things, but I'm spring loaded. So like, “Hey, you want to go out and stay, stay up late and have a drink?” “No,” right? “Do you want to do those things?” So I'm very, very regimented in that I get eight hours of sleep, right? And even somebody, even as a cadet, one of the nicknames my buddies gave me was Rip Van Ott, right? Because I'm like, “This is it.” I was a civil engineer. One of my roommates was an astro guy, and I think he pulled an all-nighter once a week. Naviere Walkewicz 45:46 Oh, my goodness, yeah. Mike Ott 45:50 Like, “Dude, what are you doing?” And it wasn't like he was straight As. I was clearly not straight As, but I'm like, “What are you doing? That's not helpful. Do the work ahead of time.” I think I maybe pulled three or four all-nighters my entire four years. Now, it's reflected in my GPA. I get that, but I finished the engineering degree. But sleep matters, right? And some things are just nonnegotiable, and that is, you know, exercise, sleep and be kind to yourself, right? Don't compare. If you're going to compare, compare yourself to yesterday, but don't look at somebody who is an F-15 pilot, and you're not. Like, I'm not. My roommate, my best man at my wedding, F-15 pilot, Test Pilot School, all these things, amazing, amazing, awesome, and super, really, really, happy and proud for him, but that's his mojo; that's his flow, right? If you're gonna do any comparison, compare yourself to the man or woman you were yesterday and “Am I better?”. Naviere Walkewicz 44:48 The power of “no” and having those nonnegotiables is really important. Mike Ott 45:53 Yeah, no, I'm not doing that. Naviere Walkewicz 45:56 I think sometimes we're wired for a “we can take on… we can take it on, we can take it on, we can take it on. We got this.” Mike Ott 46:03 For sure. Oh, my goodness. And I have that discussion with people on my team from time to time as well, and it's most often as it relates to an individual on the team that's struggling in his or her role, or whether it's by you know, if it's by omission and they're in the wrong role, that's one thing. If it's by commission, well, be a leader and execute and get that person out of there, right? That's wrong, but from time to time, it's by omission, and somebody is just not well placed. And I've seen managers, I can repatriate this person. I can get him or her there, and you have to stop for a second and tell that leader, “Yeah, I know you can. I'm certain that the only thing you were responsible for was to help that person fulfill the roles of the job that they're assigned. You could do it.” But guess what? You've got 90% of your team that needs care, nurturing and feeding. They're delivering in their function, neglect, there destroys careers, and it's going to destroy the business. So don't, don't get caught up in that. Yeah. Pack it on. Pack it on. Pack it on. You're right. When someone's in the crosshairs, I want to be in the crosshairs with you, Naviere, and Ted, and all the people that you and I affiliate with, but on the day-to-day, sustained basis, right to live, you know, to execute and be fulfilled, both in the mission, the work and stay fit, to fight and do it again. You can't. You can't. And a lot of a little bit of no goes a long way. Naviere Walkewicz 47:40 That is really good to hear. I think that's something that a lot of leaders really don't share. And I think that's really wonderful that you did. I'd like to take a little time and pivot into another area that you're heavily involved, philanthropy side. You know, you've been with the Falcon Foundation. Where did you find that intent inside of you? I mean, you always said the Academy's been part of you, but you found your way back in that space in other ways. Let's talk about that. Mike Ott 48:05 Sure. Thank you. I don't know. I felt that service is a part of me, right? And it is for all of us, whether you stay in the military or not. Part of my financial services jobs have been in wealth management. I was lucky enough to run that business for US Bank in one of my capacities, and here I am now in health care, health care of service. That aligns with wanting things to be better across any other angle. And the philanthropic, philanthropic side of things — I probably couldn't say that word when I was a cadet, but then, you know, I got out and we did different volunteer efforts. We were at Hanscom Field raising money for different organizations, and stayed with it, and always found ways to have fun with it. But recognized I couldn't… It was inefficient if I was going to be philanthropic around something that I didn't have a personal interest in. And as a senior executive at US Bank, we were all… It was tacit to the role you had roles in local foundations or community efforts. And I remember sitting down with my boss, the CFO of the bank, and then the CEO, and they'd asked me to go on to a board, and it had to do with a museum that I had no interest in, right? And I had a good enough relationship with these, with these guys, to say, “Look, I'm a good dude. I'm going to be helpful in supporting the bank. And if this is a have to, all right, I'll do it, but you got the wrong guy. Like, you want me to represent the bank passionately, you know, philanthropically, let me do this. And they're like, “OK, great.” So we pivoted, and I did other things. And the philanthropic piece of things is it's doing good. It's of service for people, entities, organizations, communities or moments that can use it. And I it's just very, very satisfying to me. So my wife and I are pretty involved that way, whether it's locally, with different organizations, lot of military support. The Academy, we're very fond of. It just kind of became a staple. Naviere Walkewicz 50:35 Did you find yourself also gravitating toward making better your community where you grew up? Mike Ott 50:41 Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my dear friends that grew up in the same neighborhood, he wound up going to the Naval Academy, and so we're we've been friends for 50 years. Seventh grade. Naviere Walkewicz 50:53 Same counselor? Mike Ott50:54 Yeah, no. Different counselor, different high school. His parents had a little bit of money, and they, he wound up going to a Catholic school nearby. But great guy, and so he and I, he runs a business that serves the VA in Chicago, and I'm on the board, and we do an awful lot of work. And one of the schools we support is a school on the south side, largely African American students and helping them with different STEM projects. It's not going to hit above the fold of a newspaper, but I could give a rat, doesn't matter to me, seeing a difference, seeing these young men and women. One of them, one of these boys, it's eye watering, but he just found out that he was picked for, he's applying to the Naval Academy, and he just found out that he got a nomination. Naviere Walkewicz 51:44 Oh my goodness, I just got chills. Mike Ott 51:46 And so, yeah, yeah, right, right. But it's wonderful. And his parents had no idea anything like that even existed. So that's one that it's not terribly formal, but boy, it looks great when you see the smile on that kid and the impact on that individual, but then the impact it leaves on the community, because it's clear opportunity for people to aspire because they know this young man or this young woman, “I can do that too.” Naviere Walkewicz 52:22 Wow. So he got his nomination, and so he would start technically making class of 2030? Mike Ott 52:27 That's right. Naviere Walkewicz 52:28 Oh, how exciting. OK Well, that's a wonderful… Mike Ott 52:27 I hope, I hope, yeah, he's a great kid. Naviere Walkewicz 52:33 Oh, that is wonderful. So you talk about, you know that spirit of giving — how have you seen, I guess, in your journey, because it hasn't been linear. We talked about how you know progression is not linear. How have you grown throughout these different experiences? Because you kind of go into a very ambiguous area, and you bring yourself, and you grow in it and you make it better. But how have you grown? What does that look like for you? Mike Ott 53:02 After having done it several times, right, i.e. entering the fray of an ambiguous environment business situation, I developed a better system and understanding of what do I really need to do out of the gates? And I've grown that way and learn to not be too decisive too soon. Decisiveness is a great gift. It's really, really it's important. It lacks. It lacks because there are too many people, less so in the military, that want to be known for having made… don't want to be known for having made a bad decision, so they don't take that risk. Right, right, right. And so that creates just sort of the static friction, and you've just got to have faith and so, but I've learned how to balance just exactly when to be decisive. And the other thing that I know about me is I am drawn to ambiguity. I am drawn… Very, very curious. Love to learn, try new things, have a range of interests and not very good at any one thing, but that range helps me in critical thinking. So I've learned to, depending on the situation, right, listen, listen, and then go. It isn't a formula. It's a flow, but it's not a formula. And instinct matters when to be decisive. Nature of the people with whom you're working, nature of the mission, evolution, phase of the organization or the unit that you're in. Now is the time, right? So balancing fostering decisiveness is something that that's worth a separate discussion. Naviere Walkewicz 54:59 Right. Wow. So all of these things that you've experienced and the growth that you've had personally — do you think about is this? Is this important to you at all, the idea of, what is your legacy, or is that not? Mike Ott 55:13 We talked a little bit about this beforehand, and I thought I've got to come up with something pithy, right? And I really, I really don't. Naviere Walkewicz 55:18 Yeah, you don't. Mike Ott 55:19 I don't think of myself as that. I'm very proud of who I am and what I've done in the reputation that I have built. I don't need my name up in lights. I know the life that I'm living and the life that I hope to live for a lot longer. My legacy is just my family, my children, the mark that I've left in the organizations that I have been a part of. Naviere Walkewicz 55:58 And the communities that you've touched, like that gentleman going and getting his nomination. I'm sure. Mike Ott 56:04 Yeah, I don't… having been a senior leader, and even at MOBE, I'm interviewed by different newspapers and all that. Like I do it because I'm in this role, and it's important for MOBE, but I'm not that full of myself, where I got to be up in lights. So I just want to be known as a man that was trustworthy, fun, tried to meet people where they are really had flaws, and sought to overcome them with the few strengths that he had, and moved everything forward. Naviere Walkewicz 56:33 Those are the kind of leaders that people will run through fire for. That's amazing. I think that's a wonderful I mean that in itself, it's like a living legacy you do every day. How can I be better than I was yesterday? And that in itself, is a bit of your living and that's really cool. Well, one of the things we like to ask is, “What is something you're doing every day to be better as a leader?” And you've covered a lot, so I mean, you could probably go back to one of those things, but is there something that you could share with our listeners that you do personally every day, to be better? Mike Ott 57:05 Exercise and read every day, every day, and except Fridays. Fridays I take… that's like, I'll stretch or just kind of go for a walk. But every day I make it a moment, you know, 45 minutes to an hour, something and better for my head, good for my body, right? That's the process in the hierarchy of way I think about it. And then read. Gen. Mattis. And I supported Gen. Mattis as a lieutenant colonel before I wanted to and stuff at the Pentagon. And he I supported him as an innovation guy for JFCOM, where he was the commander. And even back then, he was always talking about reading is leading none of us as military leaders… And I can't hold the candle to the guy, but I learned an awful lot, and I love his mindset, and that none of us can live a life long enough to take In all the leadership lessons necessary to help us drive impact. So you better be reading about it all the time. And so I read probably an hour every night, every day. Naviere Walkewicz 58:14 What are you reading right now? Mike Ott 58:15 Oh, man, I left it on the plane! I was so bummed. Naviere Walkewicz 58:17 Oh, that's the worst. You're going to have to get another copy. Mike Ott 58:22 Before I came here, I ordered it from Barnes & Noble so to me at my house when I get home. Love history and reading a book by this wonderful British author named Anne Reid. And it's, I forget the title exactly, but it's how the allies at the end of World War I sought to influence Russia and overcome the Bolsheviks. They were called the interventionalists, and it was an alliance of 15 different countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, U.K., Japan, Australia, India, trying to thwart, you know, the Bolshevik Revolution — trying to thwart its being cemented. Fascinating, fascinating. So that's what I was reading until I left it on the plane today. Naviere Walkewicz 59:07 How do you choose what to read? Mike Ott 59:10 Listen, write, love history. Love to read Air Force stuff too. Just talk to friends, right? You know, they've learned how to read like me. So we get to talk and have fun with that. Naviere Walkewicz 59:22 That's great. Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, the last question I'd like to ask you, before I want to make sure you have an opportunity to cover anything we didn't, is what is something you would share with others that they can do to become better leaders? Maybe they start doing it now, so in the future, they're even stronger as a leader. Mike Ott 59:42 Two things I would say, and try to have these exist in the same breath in the same moment, is have the courage to make it try and make it better every day, all right, and be kind to yourself, be forgiving. Naviere Walkewicz 59:59 That's really powerful. Can you share an example? And I know I that's we could just leave it there, but being courageous and then being kind to yourself, they're almost on two opposite sides. Have you had, can you share an example where I guess you've done that right? You had to be you were courageous and making something better, and maybe it didn't go that way, so you have to be kind to yourself. Mike Ott 1:00:23 Yeah, happy to and I think any cadet will hear this story and go like, “Huh, wow, that's interesting.” And it also plays with the arc of progress isn't linear. I graduated in '85 went to flight school, got halfway through flight school, and there was a RIF, reduction in force. And our class, our flight class, I was flying jets, I was soloing. I was academically — super easy, flying average, right? You know, I like to joke that I've got the fine motor skills of a ham sandwich, right? You know, but, but I didn't finish flight school. And you think about this, here it is. I started in 1981 there were still vestiges of Vietnam. Everyone's going to be a fighter pilot. Kill, kill, kill. Blood makes the grass grow. All of that was there. And I remember when this happened, it was very frustrating for me. It was mostly the major root of frustration wasn't that I wasn't finishing flight school. It was the nature by which the determination that I wasn't finishing was made. And it was, it was a financial decision. We had too many guys and gals, and they were just finding, you know, average folks and then kicking them out. So our class graduated a lower percent than, I think, in that era, it was late '85, '86, maybe '87, but you can look at outflows, and it was interesting, they were making budget cuts. So there was a shaming part there, having gone to the Academy. Naviere Walkewicz 1:02:02 And knowing since 9 years old. Mike Ott 1:20:04 Right, right, right, and I knew I wanted to go the Academy. I'd like to fly, let's check it out and see if it's for me. I would much rather have been not for me, had I made the decision I don't want to do this or that I was just unsafe and didn't want to do it. The way it turned out is, and this is where I learned a little bit about politics as well. In my class, again, I was very average. Like, nobody's ever going to say, like, yeah, I was going to go fly the Space Shuttle. Like, no way, right? Very, very average, but doing just fine. And a lot of guys and gals wanted to go be navigators, and that's great. I looked in the regs, and I learned this as a cadet, and it's helped me in business, too. If there's a rule, there's a waiver. Like, let me understand the regs, and I asked to go to a board. Instead of just submitting a letter to appeal, I asked to go to a board. And so I went to a board of an O-5 five, couple of threes O-4 four, and ultimately shared the essence of why I shouldn't be terminated in the program. And son of a gun, they agreed, and I still have the letter. The letter says, “Recommend Lt. Ott for reinstatement.” Nobody in my class has that letter, nobody makes the appeal. And I'm like, I'm going downstream. I'm going downstream. And that's the Chicago in me, and that's the piece about… but also move forward, but forgive yourself, and I'll get to that. And so I, I was thrilled, My goodness, and the argument I had is, like, look, you're just not keeping me current. You put me in the sim, and then you're waiting too long to put me in the jet. The regs don't allow for that. And like, you're right. So I'm assigned to go back to the jet. My pals are thrilled. I'm going to stay in the same class. I don't have to wash back. And then I get a call from the DO's office — director of operations — and it was from some civilian person so the DO overrode the board's decision. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. Naviere Walkewicz 1:04:12 You were so high, you did all of your work. And then… Mike Ott 1:04:15 Yeah, and then heartbreaking and frustrating, and I guess the word is indignant: anger aroused through frustration. In that I figured it out. I knew exactly what's happening. I made the appeal and I won. And it wasn't I was expecting to be assigned to fly a fighter. It was like, “Just let me, let me express the merits of my capabilities. It's how the system is designed.” The son of a gun, I jumped in my car and I ran to base and I waited and reported in. He didn't really know who I was. That's because he didn't make a decision. It was just it was that decision, and that's how life comes at you. That's just how it is. It isn't linear. So how do you take that and then say, “Well, I'm going to be kind to myself and make something out of it.” And he went through, you know, a dissertation as to why, and I asked him if I could share my views, and it's pretty candid, and I just said, If my dad were something other than the Chicago policeman, and maybe if he was a senator or general officer, I wouldn't be sitting here. That lit him up, right? That lit him up. But I had to state my views. So I knew I was out of the program. Very, very frustrating. Could have had the mayor of Chicago call. Didn't do that, right? Like, OK, I understand where this is it. That was very frustrating and somewhat shaming. But where the forgiveness comes in and be kind to yourself, is that I ran into ground. I ran into ground and drove an outcome where I still… It's a moment of integrity. I drove an outcome like, there you go. But then what do you do? Forgive yourself, right? Because you didn't do anything wrong, OK? And you pivot. And I turned that into a moment where I started cold calling instructors at the Academy. Because, hey, now I owe the Air Force five years, Air Force is looking for, you know, things that I don't want to do. And thank goodness I had an engineering degree, and I cold called a guy at a base in Hanscom. And this is another tap on the shoulder. Naviere Walkewicz 1:06:24 That's how you got to Hanscom. Gotcha. Mike Ott 1:06:27 There was a friend who was Class of '83, a woman who was in my squadron, who was there. Great egg. And she's like, “Hey, I was at the O Club.” Called her. I said, “Hey, help me out. I got this engineering degree. I want to go to one of these bases. Called Lt. Col. Davis, right? I met him at the O Club. I called a guy, and he's like, “Yeah, let's do this.” Naviere Walkewicz 1:06:44 Wow, I love that.. Mike Ott 1:06:46 It was fantastic So it's a long winded way, but progress isn't linear. And progressing through that and not being a victim, right, recognizing the conditions and the environment that I could control and those that I can't. Anything that I could control, I took advantage of and I sought to influence as best possible. Ran into ground and I feel great about it, and it turns out to be a testament of one of my best successes. Naviere Walkewicz 1:07:17 Wow. Thank you for sharing
Time for a Tuesday edition of Glenn Clark Radio, a busy show ahead as we react to the Ravens making another trade yesterday as they deal for Titans DE Dre'Mont Jones, opening night in college basketball, the Orioles officially introducing Craig Albernaz as manager and so much more. We'll start with the Ravens at 11:15am as we catch up with PressBox Ravens beat reporter Bo Smolka as we do every Tuesday, we'll get his thoughts on the TNF over the Dolphins last week, look ahead to Sunday in Minnesota vs the Vikings and the chances we see any more trades before the 4pm deadline after the Dre'Mont Jones acquisition yesterday. Then at 11:35am, we will check in with the Naval Academy and their Senior Snipe Brandon Chatman as we dive into Navy football's 7-1 start, and how they're going to bounce back against Notre Dame this Saturday night. At 12:05pm, we are going to head down to College Park and check in with Maryland Men's Soccer Head Coach Sasho Cirovski as the Terps are still unbeaten to this point in the season with one regular season game remaining before the Big Ten Tournament. Plus, it's a Tuesday so we'll talk some Fantasy Football with PressBox Fantasy Analyst Joe Serpico at 12:20pm to see who we need to be adding off the Waiver-Wire this week in order to make a playoff push!
Naval officers explain how the Adaptive Rapid Engagement Squadron (ARES), a Midshipmen-led research and development team at the U.S. Naval Academy, has participated in competitions like the Squad with Autonomous Teammates – Challenge to test and prove new techniques, tactics and procedures relating to the adoption of emerging technology like drones, AI and electronic warfare in simulated modern combat situations.
Hosts Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas of the "Mind Over Murder" podcast celebrate Halloween with a reading of "The Monkey's Paw," the horror classic by British author W.W. Jacobs, the writer who taught us all to be careful what we wish for. This bonus episode of "Mind Over Murder" originally ran on October 20, 2022.The Monkey's Paw by William Wymark JacobsDifferent versions are available.https://www.kyrene.org/cms/lib/AZ01001083/Centricity/Domain/2259/The%20Monkeys%20Paw%20-%20text.pdfSound effects by Zapsplat.Follow Othram's DNA Solves: You can help solve a case. Help fund a case or contribute your DNA. Your support helps solve crimes, enable the identification of John & Jane Does, and bring closure to families. Joining is fast, secure, and easy.https://dnasolves.com/Join the discussion on our Mind Over Murder and Colonial Parkway Murders pages on Facebook.Mind Over Murder on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindoverpodcastColonial Parkway Murders Facebook page with more than 15,000 followers: https://www.facebook.com/ColonialParkwayCaseYou can also participate in an in-depth discussion of the Colonial Parkway Murders here:https://earonsgsk.proboards.com/board/50/colonial-parkway-murdersMind Over Murder is proud to be a Spreaker Prime Podcaster:https://www.spreaker.comVirginia Gazette: 35 Years Later, Victims' Families in Colonial Parkway Murders Still Searching for Answers, Hope DNA Advances will Solve Case By Em Holter and Abigail Adcoxhttps://www.dailypress.com/virginiagazette/va-vg-colonial-parkway-murders-anniversary-1024-20211022-76jkpte6qvez7onybmhbhp7nfi-story.htmlMedium: The Colonial Parkway Murders — A Tale of Two Killers? By Quinn Zanehttps://medium.com/unburied/the-colonial-parkway-murders-a-tale-of-two-killers-1e8fda367a48Washington Post: "Crimes of Passion"https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1997/08/15/crimes-of-passion/0a38e8f9-6d04-48e4-a847-7d3cba53c363/Feature article in the Daily Beast: "Inside the Maddening Search for Virginia's Colonial Parkway Serial Killer" By Justin Rohrlichhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/what-happened-to-cathleen-thomas-and-rebecca-dowski-inside-the-hunt-for-the-colonial-parkway-killerCitizens! Check out our new line of "Mind Over Murder" t-shirts and other good stuff !https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mind-over-murder-podcast?ref_id=23885Washington Post Op-Ed Piece by Deidre Enright of the Innocence Project:"The FBI should use DNA, not posters, to solve a cold-case murder" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/25/julie-williams-laura-winans-unsolved-murder-test-dna/Oxygen: "Loni Coombs Feels A Kinship To 'Lovers' Lane' Victim Cathy Thomas"Loni Coombs felt an immediate connection to Cathy Thomas, a groundbreaking gay woman who broke through barriers at the U.S. Naval Academy before she was brutally murdered along the Colonial Parkway in Virginia.https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/loni-coombs-feels-a-kinship-to-colonial-parkway-victim-cathy-thomasYou can contribute to help "Mind Over Murder" do our important work:https://mindovermurderpodcast.com/supportFour one-hour episodes on the Colonial Parkway Murders are available on Oxygen as "The Lover's Lane Murders." The series is available on the free Oxygen app, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon, and many other platforms. https://www.oxygen.com/lovers-lane-murders Oxygen" "Who Were The Colonial Parkway Murder Victims? 8 Young People All Killed In Virginia Within 4 Years" https://www.oxygen.com/lovers-lane-murders/crime-news/who-were-the-colonial-parkway-murder-victims Washington Post Magazine: "Victims, Families and America's Thirst for True-Crime Stories." "For Bill Thomas, his sister Cathy's murder is a deeply personal tragedy. For millions of true-crime fans, it's entertainment." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/07/30/feature/victims-families-and-americas-thirst-for-true-crime-stories/Daily Press excellent series of articles on the Colonial Parkway Murders: "The Parkway" http://digital.dailypress.com/static/parkway_cottage/main/index.htmlColonial Parkway Murders website: https://colonialparkwaymurders.com Mind Over Murder Podcast website: https://mindovermurderpodcast.comPlease subscribe and rate us at your favorite podcast sites. Ratings and reviews are very important. Please share and tell your friends!We launch a new episode of "Mind Over Murder" every Monday morning, and a bonus episode every Thursday morning.Sponsors: Othram and DNAsolves.comContribute Your DNA to help solve cases: https://dnasolves.com/user/registerFollow "Mind Over Murder" on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderOverFollow Bill Thomas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillThomas56Follow "Colonial Parkway Murders" on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColonialParkwayCase/Follow us on InstaGram:: https://www.instagram.com/colonialparkwaymurders/Check out the entire Crawlspace Media network at http://crawlspace-media.com/All rights reserved. Mind Over Murder, Copyright Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley, Another Dog Productions/Absolute Zero ProductionsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mind-over-murder--4847179/support.
Newt talks with former Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly about his book, “Vectors: Heroes, Villains, and Heartbreak on the Bridge of the U.S. Navy.” Modly discusses his tenure as Acting Secretary and insights into the challenges facing the U.S. Navy. The son of Eastern European immigrants, he shares how his parents' experiences helped shape his views on America and his decision to serve in the U.S. Navy. He reflects on the transformation of Hungary post-Iron Curtain and the importance of a strong U.S. military. Modly highlights the need for a national maritime strategy and addresses the Navy's current challenges, including shipbuilding and financial audits. He emphasizes the importance of effective leadership, communication, and agility in military operations. Modly also offers advice to Naval Academy graduates, urging them to focus on their commitment to the Constitution and the people they lead.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Children often feel mixed emotions when a new adult enters their lives. They wonder if they can trust them, laugh with them, or look up to them. A common mistake step-parents make is expecting respect right away without considering how the child feels. My guest today, Brother Harold Gretzky, shares his experience with blending families. He also shares how his experience serving in the United States Navy taught him lessons in honesty, integrity, and transparency that can help anyone navigate relationships and life challenges.Early Childhood Memories (00:06:34 – 00:15:07)· Brother Gretzky shares several memories from his childhood. He grew up near a Cold War missile base and strawberry farms, and he fondly remembers family stories about his grandfathers.· He talks about the family's move from Queens to Michigan, which brought them to an engineering town because of his father's invention in bowling technology with the Brunswick pin setter. · Brother Gretzky recalls riding his red Schwinn bike and attending Catholic catechism, even though he sometimes would have preferred staying home to watch his favorite cartoons.Sailing & Family Bonding (00:19:13 – 00:24:19)· A major part of Brother Gretzky's youth was competitive sailing. His father built a sailboat from scratch, a symbol of both ingenuity and family teamwork. · He describes their weekly Sunday races, his father's growing skill as a skipper, and how sailing became their main outlet. It also taught important life lessons, like sportsmanship and perseverance.Learning Accountability and Command through Navy Life (00:25:44 – 00:41:00)· Brother Gretzky's time at the Naval Academy and on submarines shaped his views on leadership and responsibility. · He shares dramatic moments, including surviving storms at sea, handling reactor crises, and receiving critical instructions from commanding officers. · These experiences gave him a deep respect for command responsibility and the importance of owning mistakes, both in the military and later in civilian nuclear work.The Power of Honesty (00:43:16 – 00:46:38)· Brother Gretzky shares one of his core lessons: when something goes wrong, bring it forward. He learned this principle under high stakes on submarines and in nuclear power.· As he says, "If you're honest with yourself, there's always hope." He applies the same mindset to everyday life, including home mishaps and personal relationships.Stepfatherhood & Parenting Wisdom (00:48:07– 00:49:31)· Reflecting on his years as a stepfather, Brother Gretzky openly shares the ups and downs of blending families. · He advises that the title "dad" must be earned and that stepfathers should not get caught up in labels. · Brother Gretzky expresses pride in his three adult stepchildren's successes, crediting their achievements to a nurturing yet realistic approach to parenting.“Don't get wrapped up in expecting a stepchild to call you ‘dad' because that isn't the truth. The title ‘dad' has to be earned. That was the mistake we made at first. When we first got married, we went through some rough spots. I am so pleased that I now have a great relationship with my three stepchildren, and that they've all grown into such amazing adults.” - Brother Harold Gretzky.
Brandon Tseng is the President and Cofounder of Shield AI, a defense technology company he established in 2015 with his brother Ryan Tseng, specializing in AI-powered autonomous systems for military applications, including the V-BAT drone deployed in operations like those in Ukraine. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and Harvard Business School with an MBA, Tseng served seven years in the U.S. Navy as a SEAL and Surface Warfare Officer, with deployments including Afghanistan in 2015, where he witnessed the need for AI in warfare. Under his leadership, Shield AI has raised over $1 billion, achieved a multi-billion-dollar valuation, expanded globally, and focused on ethical AI for national security. Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI for 2025, Tseng has testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on technology innovation and serves on the Board of Directors for the C4 Foundation, supporting Navy SEAL families. He advocates for public-private partnerships in defense, advancing AI to protect warfighters, and securing U.S. leadership in autonomous systems amid global competition. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Join the Waitlist - https://theglacierapp.com/waitlist https://americanfinancing.net/srs NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.327% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-781-8900, for details about credit costs and terms. https://betterhelp.com/srs This episode is sponsored. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/srs and get on your way to being your best self. https://calderalab.com/srs Use code SRS for 20% off your first order. https://shawnlikesgold.com https://helixsleep.com/srs https://ketone.com/srs Visit https://ketone.com/srs for 30% OFF your subscription order. https://patriotmobile.com/srs https://ROKA.com – USE CODE SRS https://simplisafe.com/srs https://tractorsupply.com/hometownheroes https://ziprecruiter.com/srs Brandon Tseng Links: X - https://x.com/brandontseng2 X - https://x.com/shieldaitech Shield AI - https://shield.ai TIME 100 AI Profile - https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305863/brandon-tseng Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week Dr. John McManus joins in to talk about how WWII films have evolved over time, including our picks for best and worst movies ever made about the war.About our guest:John C. McManus is Curators' Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). This professorship is bestowed by the University of Missouri Board of Curators on the most outstanding scholars in the University of Missouri system. McManus is the first ever Missouri S&T faculty member in the humanities to be named Curators' Distinguished Professor. As one of the nation's leading military historians, and the author of fifteen well received books on the topic, he is in frequent demand as a speaker and expert commentator. In addition to dozens of local and national radio programs, he has appeared on Cnn.com, Fox News, C-Span, the Military Channel, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, Netflix, the Smithsonian Network, the History Channel and PBS, among others. He also served as historical advisor for the bestselling book and documentary Salinger, the latter of which appeared nationwide in theaters and on PBS's American Masters Series. During the 2018-2019 academic year, he was in residence at the U.S. Naval Academy as the Leo A. Shifrin Chair of Naval and Military History, a distinguished visiting professorship. His current project is a major three volume history of the U.S. Army in the Pacific/Asia theater during World War II. He is the host of two podcasts, Someone Talked! in tandem with the National D-Day Memorial, and We Have Ways of Making You Talk in the USA alongside Al Murray and James Holland. John C. McManus is a native of St. Louis. He attended the University of Missouri and earned a degree in sports journalism. After a brief stint in advertising and sports broadcasting, he embarked on a literary and academic career. He earned an M.A. in American history from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D in American history and military history from the University of Tennessee. He participated in the University of Tennessee's Normandy Scholars program and, in the process, had an opportunity to study the battle first hand at the Normandy battlefields. At Tennessee he served as Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society, where he helped oversee a major effort to collect the first hand stories of American veterans of World War II. Making extensive use of this material, as well as sources from many other archives, he published two important books, The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II in 1998, and Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II in 2000. Shortly after the publication of Deadly Sky he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of U.S. Military History at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (at the time known as University of Missouri-Rolla) where he now teaches courses on the Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, American Military History, and the American Combat Experience in the 20th Century. He is on the editorial advisory board for World War II magazine and Global War Studies. In 2004 he published a two volume series on the American role in the Battle of Normandy. The first book, The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion was released in June 2004. The second book, The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944, the American War from the Beaches to Falaise was published in November 2004. In 2007-2008 he published four new books.
“If you could live anywhere, would it be a charming town where college football and Navy pride collide?” That's just one of the thought-provoking questions Sandy and Tricia dive into as they kick off this lively episode of The Sandy Show!
From the Pentagon on 9/11 to keeping service members safe through timely innovation, Dave Harden ‘95 embodies what it means to run toward the fire. SUMMARY In this episode of Long Blue Leadership with host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99, hear how adversity, gratitude and courage forged a leader others would follow anywhere. From his harrowing experience during the 9/11 attacks to overcoming childhood adversity and pioneering innovation in the Air Force, Dave Harden shares practical lessons on gratitude, resilience and the importance of running toward challenges rather than away from them. The conversation emphasizes that true leadership is forged in the fire of adversity and that gratitude can transform hardship into fuel for growth. SHARE THIS EPISODE LINKEDIN | FACEBOOK DAVE'S LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Leadership is about how we respond in crisis. Everyone has a personal story of 9/11. Muscle memory from training prepares us for challenges. Gratitude shifts our perspective from burden to opportunity. Looking up fosters hope and gratitude. Gratitude can transform lives and relationships. Innovation is crucial for effective leadership. Courage is a choice we make every day. Hardships prepare us for future leadership roles. True leaders run toward the fire, not away from it. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction to Leadership Lessons 01:28 The Impact of 9/11 on Leadership 09:40 Overcoming Childhood Adversity 14:27 The Power of Gratitude 16:56 Innovation in the Air Force 24:43 Transitioning to the Private Sector 31:16 Courage and Leadership Choices ABOUT DAVE HARDEN BIO Dave Harden is a Class of 1995 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, where he earned his B.S. in electrical engineering and began a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He went on to serve at the Pentagon as chief of strategic prioritization for the Air Force and later as the chief architect and chief operating officer of AFWERX, the service's innovation accelerator. Building on that experience, he founded and now leads Outpost Ventures (also known as “The Outpost”), a firm dedicated to guiding dual-use technology companies across the so-called “valley of death” from promising concept to real nation-scale impact. At Outpost Ventures, Harden leverages his deep experience in national security, technology transition and strategic decision-making to help entrepreneurs navigate both government and commercial ecosystems. His blend of military leadership, innovation acumen and venture focus makes him a valued partner for founders tackling the toughest problems at the intersection of defense and industry. CONNECT WITH DAVE LinkedIn Outpost Ventures CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org Ted Robertson | Producer: Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Ryan Hall | Director: Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor: Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer: Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org ALL PAST LBL EPISODES | ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS TRANSCRIPT OUR SPEAKERS Guest, Dave "Big D" Harden '95 | Host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99 Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:12 Welcome to Long Blue Leadership, where we explore the lessons of leadership through the lives and stories of Air Force Academy graduates. I'm your host, Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. My guest today is Dave Harden, Class of 1995. Dave is widely accepted in the Long Blue Line community for his leadership, service, business acumen and his willingness to run toward the fire. Dave Harden 0:35 When bad things are happening and fires are burning around you, you won't even think for a second, “I need to help someone. I need to do the thing.” Naviere Walkewicz 0:46 From his time as a C-17 pilot to his work at the Pentagon and in the private sector, David's faced both personal and professional moments that shaped not just his career, but his philosophy of leadership. In our conversation, we'll talk about three transformative moments in his journey — from being just 400 feet away from impact during the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, to overcoming hardships in his childhood, to his work pioneering innovation at the highest levels in government and business. Along the way, we'll hear about the meaning behind his call sign, “Big D,” and engage in practical leadership lessons that have transformed his life and can transform yours. This is a conversation for cadets, aspiring leaders, seasoned business professionals and lifelong learners alike, because leadership isn't just about what we do; it's how we respond when the fire is burning right in front of us. Dave, welcome to Long Blue Leadership. Dave Harden 1:38 Thanks for having me on today. I'm excited to be here. Naviere Walkewicz 1:41 We are so excited, and I think this is going to be a real conversation that's extremely practical for our listeners, but we're going to jump into a really important moment, and this is one that encourages so many people — 9/11. Can you talk about that experience with us? Dave Harden 1:57 I've been able to speak over the years post the event. Talked to 15,000 people about 10 years after the event and have been able to share this story many times over, and I'm glad to be able to share it here with us today. Everyone knew what happened — kind of the Twin Towers. The first story comes out. I was busy in the thralls of my job at the Pentagon. Actually getting stuff out for President Bush, for him to make statements to some of my work in the Baltics at the time. So I wasn't really paying attention kind of to what was going on at the World Trade Center. Kind of knew what was going on. My beautiful redheaded wife, Angie, was coming to pick me up. So at the time, we had a young daughter, and she was pregnant with what would be my son, but we didn't know that at the time. So she was supposed to pick me up from the ultrasound, and so I rushed outside, and I don't remember the exact timing. Maybe she's supposed to pick me up at 9:15, 9:30, is right around, as we know now, when the plane would come into the Pentagon. So I'm out on the south bridge of the Pentagon, and it winds up being on the side of the impact of the plane would come in. And standing out there, I remember looking, it was a beautiful day, quiet, and if you remember, not a lot of people, there wasn't a lot of videos — not a lot of people actually saw the plane impact. And so those things you never forget. So that day, standing out there, I saw this plane coming. But we're by Reagan National Airport, right? So you're thinking that another plane's coming into Reagan. No big deal. I'm waiting for Angie to pick me up. She winds up being about five, 10 minutes late, and in hindsight, she always said, “If because I was late, you lost your life, I would never forgive myself.” And so I watch the plane come in, and then all of a sudden, it's like, “Holy crap! This plane is pointed right at me.” And so as it's coming straight in, I start running over the bridge. Little did I know Angie was just driving under the bridge at the time. So the plane comes over the top of her car, and as the plane impacts, if you remember, it kind of like actually careened, bounced into a 45-degree angle and then hit the building. So I'm running off the bridge. I'll never forget the sound, the flames, the searing heat as I was kind of running off the bridge, as the plane came in. And you could hear the engines spooled up, because if you remember, kind of like, obviously the terrorists are full throttle. And I remember looking in and seeing the people in the window, and I can't imagine their emotions and what they were going through in their final moments of life. So the explosion happens, I'm running off. I then run back into the bridge, go back into the building, really not thinking, and just like, you know, you're like, “How can I help?” So there's fire, there's smoke, and so we just start trying to get folks out and they start setting up kind of triage stations, both inside the courtyard, you know, at the Pentagon, and on the outside. So do that about 45 minutes, like, an hour helping out. And then enough people got me to kind of stabilize, you know, the situation. And so then, you know, I'm in the mission of finding my wife. So I was fortunate to kind of find her in the parking lot, you know. And obviously we have a moment. And it was interesting, because from her vantage point, she just was kind of blocked by the bridge. She saw the plane, and then they just saw the explosion and the fire, and so she thought I was dead. Naviere Walkewicz 6:03 I can't imagine how she was feeling at that moment. Dave Harden 6:06 So she takes Madison out. She's holding Madison, and she just starts bawling. She's like, “I just lost my husband,” right? And it's amazing, because Madison, who's, I guess, 2 years old, goes, “Mommy, it's OK. God will take care of the fire. God will put it out.” And the power of the words of a 2-year-old, kind of, in that moment, she's like, “All right,” you know, she took a deep breath, like, “Hey, I gotta get my act together.” We're able to get back kind of together, but we live like maybe an hour from the Pentagon. The car was there. We could take all these people, it's chaos, as you can imagine, it felt like a war zone that was just happening. And we get flooded with calls and, this was back — maybe not as much good telecommunications. We're flooded with calls and people. So because of all the adrenaline, everything that happened that day, we finally had a moment to break down, right? And we're just tearing up and crying and in that moment, just such a sense of gratitude for not only being alive, but for my family, for everything that kind of this nation represents, right? It's just a moment that kind of brought everybody together, and everyone has a 9/11 story. Everyone says, “Here I was, or there I was,” on 9/11. Naviere Walkewicz 7:30 After running across the bridge, like when you saw it coming, obviously you're like, “I need to not be in its path.” Can you remember what in you said, “Turn around and go back.” Was it just your background in the military? Like, “We don't run from we go help.” Can you remember? Dave Harden 7:50 It's hard to remember. I think it's instinct in the moment, you know? But I also think for listeners today — and today is about thinking through all those moments, and saying what are the muscle memories of running into the fire that gets you maybe more prepared for that moment? Naviere Walkewicz 8:10 So you don't freeze. Dave Harden 8:12 So you don't freeze. I think the Academy helps prepare you for those moments. What you go through — through hardships, and your personal hardships and childhood can help you through those moments, right? So many things make up someone's journey and the fabric of their lives, and who makes them themselves. And you don't always know if you'll have the courage in that moment. You don't always know if you'll have kind of what it takes. But I think, along the way, you can have a muscle memory that prepares you for that, right? And so, you know, might be something — you're overloaded with academics at the Academy, right? It could be you're having a personal crisis, you know, could be in your family. It could be external. It could be, literally, you're getting shot at, right? But I think it's kind of transforming the mentality, or a victim mentality, of, “I have to. This is a burden” to “I get to.” It's not saying, “I have to” anymore, It's saying, “You know what? I'm so thankful that I get to,” right? I get to solve this problem, right? “I get to — I'm lucky that I'm here at the Academy, and I have 25 credits, and I gotta take all these classes.” It's hard to think like that. You're like, “Oh, woe is me. This is such a burden. Oh, this is problem at work. Oh, someone died in the family, there's a crisis.” You have cancer, right? Think about all the things that impact our lives, that are hard. And if we're able to say, “You know what…” Start that muscle memory like, “You know what, I get to overcome this, I'm going to learn a lot going through this hardship, through these tough times. It's going to make me different. It's going to make me stronger. It gives me that instinct and that character.” And when you have enough of those muscle memories, then I think what happens in the moment is you're ready. Naviere Walkewicz 10:04 Yeah, you act. Dave Harden 10:05 You act. Naviere Walkewicz 10:06 Did you develop that as a child — that muscle memory, you think? Or what was that like for you then? Dave Harden 10:19 So I was very fortunate. I'll preface this with: I have a family that adopted me, but my early childhood was not a silver spoon. A lot of people look at my life today and they say, “Oh, you were given something. It was easy.” A lot of people feel like that, you know, someone made money. They got inheritance from the family. You know, all those things. Naviere Walkewicz 10:39 Right. The easy way, right? The easy button. Dave Harden 10:41 The easy road. Easy street. Naviere Walkewicz 10:43 Yes, you push the button, and it was… yeah. Dave Harden 10:44 So I would say that there was no yellow brick road to this path. And so I was actually born in Avignon, France. And so my birth father was French, my birth mother was American. I don't speak a lick of French, so that's a side note. And so I wind up born a U.S. citizen. Come back to the U.S. when I was 2 — they split up. And, you know, unfortunately, my birth mother just wasn't well and wasn't able to love me, maybe you think like a traditional family. So I suffered extreme abuse as a child, and so much so that the state had to come in at 6 years old and take me away. My original foster parents told me, you know, I think I knew 12 letters of the alphabet at that time because I wasn't going to school; I wasn't doing the things that most kids kind of get to do. If you look at the history of what I went through in the beginnings of my life, normally, that doesn't lead to success. So a lot of people over the years have asked me, “Dave, what was the difference? How'd you come out of that differently?” And you don't always know in the moment, right? You think about it, you reflect all the things that came through. And for me, as I reflect, there's an unyielding faith in God. And I think, as I reflect — some people call it the universe, and I want to be respectful about how people view the energy that we get to experience and the faith that we have. But for me, what I figured out is, I was able to look up when all hell is breaking loose, when your life seems like it's in shambles, when things are going wrong, how do you have a glimmer of hope? Naviere Walkewicz 12:54 You look up. Dave Harden 12:55 You look up, right? And what does that mean? Looking up changes your gratitude, your centeredness, and it shifts from a “why me” conversation — “Why is all of this happening to me?” Right? “I'm a bad person. I fail. Things are going wrong. Things are blowing up. Someone just died. I'm getting shot at. I have too much academics. I just lost someone close to me in my life.” But if you can go from like, “Why me?” to “What if? What if things get better?” Naviere Walkewicz 13:45 How did you do that as a young boy? I mean, I'm thinking, you know, 9 years old, you know, you're still learning about yourself. You had maybe a foster family that showed you and displayed maybe some love. Is that where you learned to look up, or was it just something in you, and that was just the way that — I know you said faith. Dave Harden 14:03 Yeah, I think it's both. I've had deep analysis on nurture versus nature and I think it's a little bit of both. My foster parents went on to adopt me, and they come from a Depression, kind of post generation, right? And so I think what they were able to give me is enough structure and safety to become the person who I could become. And I think you need that safety and structure to start with, and then I could learn the things about gratitude and self-esteem and love, right? And those were innate with me. Each of us have this creative being, and we want to see it become alive. But if it gets squashed, If we don't believe in ourselves, if we don't look up, then we're just confronted with all the stuff in front of us. All the crap, all the fire, all the burning in our lives, in our businesses and in our workplaces. And I think going through that experience helped me learn to transform that thinking so that we look up and we look beyond. Naviere Walkewicz 15:23 When I'm looking at you right now, you know how, as we age, we have like lifelines on our face? And when I think about people who tend to look down, their face kind of shows it. But what I see in you when I look across right now are the lines that show that you have looked up. I see when you smile, it is so like, etched in your face, like in a way that is like joy. And I really do think you live that way. How do you share that gratitude and what has been innate in you that's been ignited with others? How have you helped others find that, whether while you're a cadet or in business, etc.? Dave Harden 15:57 Yeah, that's a great question. Everyone says I have about 300% more energy than most people. Naviere Walkewicz 16:02 I know, I'm trying to hang. I'm trying to keep up with you here! Dave Harden 16:06 I think that's one way, right, is again, you'll hear me say it over and over again. It's gratitude. Do you wake up in the morning and say, “Hey, what are the three things that I'm just freaking thankful for?” Because it's so easy — you listen to news, it's heavy. It's just, everything's heavy, right? And so I think living a life of gratitude transforms everyone's life and allows you to be a different person, allows you to create those muscle memories that allows you to do something. It's interesting — I get asked a lot of questions, especially having kind of this, you know, successful investment and business career, having flown C-17s, having done AFWERX — I think maybe we'll kind of dive in that a little bit. I've had all these eclectic kind of backgrounds and experiences, and they're like, you know, “How'd that happen? How'd you go from this to this, to this, to this?” And, you know, it's interesting. I think it just winds up, you know, running towards the problem. And I've had people say that over and over again: “You're just a person that, man, I just feel like, you know, you'll always run to the fire.” And so, I think when you do that over and over and over again, then it just transforms the way you think. You're willing to overcome, and hey, “I'll take on this bureaucracy. I'll take on the Air Force and transform it. Naviere Walkewicz 17:26 Is that where Big D came from? Dave Harden 17:28 It is. So are we gonna have a side shuffle here? Alright. We'll have a side shuffle. As you know, we can dive into it more. I had this opportunity, because of the business background and all these — right moment, right place, right time, had the great honor of being able to build from the ground up with a bunch of other amazing, talented people, what's now known as AFWERX. And that wound up being the anchor innovation arm for the Air Force to bring in new technology and transform the way we're doing business as a service. So that was amazing. We did a shark tank called Spark Tank at Mark Cuban, George Steinbrenner in there. Transform the culture, identify innovation superheroes, is what we call it. Naviere Walkewicz 18:19 I love that. Dave Harden 18:20 So, where's your cape? Where are you innovating? How can we go make that happen quicker? And that's what we were able to do. But it was funny when we kind of started, you know, I was like, 30 days — they wanted to facilitate all the four-star generals in the Air Force in this, like, 30-year planning. So I was only supposed to be at the Pentagon for 30 days… Naviere Walkewicz 18:40 And you're a reservist during this, right? Dave Harden 18:42 I'm a reservist during that time — lieutenant colonel reservist. And so I wound up… this turns into four years now of my life. I get sucked back into the five-sided building, which was a great honor. But as you know, it's a lot of like, you know, cyber locks and behind-closed-doors kind of stuff at the Pentagon. Everyone goes to their little room and cubicle, and that's where your magical work happens. So here's this business guy who happens — I liked to wear flight suits as much as I can. Every once in a while they make me wear blues in the Pentagon. So, walking around the five-sided building. Well, as you can imagine, cell phone service is not the best at the Pentagon. So, you can imagine, I'm trying to connect businesses. I'm trying to think about different ways to do stuff, right? So that's not sitting at my desk working on the NIPRNet. Naviere Walkewicz 19:38 There's no magic happening from your seat in the cubicle. Dave Harden 19:40 So, I'm wandering around the halls, and I have to, like, triangulate — “Where the hell am I going to get a cell phone signal?” Might be the courtyard. I've got my hand in the air. If I put aluminum foil on this, you know, the little longer thing. There's one window by the second corridor, you know? So anyhow, that's the exercise. So literally, for like, six months, every month, without fail, someone's pulling me into their office because I'm not following protocol. Naviere Walkewicz 20:14 Oh my goodness. You're like, “Do you know what I'm standing up?” Dave Harden 20:16 Didn't care. They didn't care. They're like, “You're screwing off. You're doing other stuff. You're doing outside business. You're always in the hall. You're never at your office.” You know, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” right? So I just got read the riot act. “Terrible officer not doing the things you're supposed to be doing.” A maverick. So anyhow, eventually all these big things started happening. We're transforming the way the Air Force Association… Naviere Walkewicz 20:49 The light goes bing. Dave Harden 20:51 Right. And, like, these new capabilities, and I'm like, actually connecting people, like, I pull people by their office and say, “You need to walk down to this other corridor. Meet this person.” Because this is the connection we need to get stuff done. Now we're just running around the halls of the Pentagon, either on the phone or shuffling people around, and eventually they're like, “Oh, wow. This is making a difference. Things are happening. And so in that process, I got the call sign Big D, which, on this podcast, could be funny. So we'll keep it PG-13 here on this network. But you know, it was for the deal making. So it's like they knew that big deals were gonna get done with Big D because I was gonna be on the phone, come hell or high water, I was gonna be in the halls of the Pentagon making it happen. Because it was too important. It was too important to get technology quicker out that people needed. Naviere Walkewicz 21:54 Why did you feel that way? Dave Harden 21:55 So many transformative things kind of in my life come back to service. So I remember, I was actually flying in Afghanistan, C-17. I'm sure you know. Afghanistan is a big bowl, so you gotta get over the 24,000-foot mountains, dive in really quickly. And so at the time we would do that with night vision goggles. You try to find a couple little infrared lights in the basin somewhere, coming down really quick and hoping you find them and you're landing in the right spot. And so, pretty intense environment, as you can imagine. And a lot of threats coming in and coming out. So triple-A. Folks, you know, with Toyota pickup trucks with missiles on the back, launching off the shoulders. And so, leaving out of that bowl, we wound up being a target, like sometimes you are. But on this day, as we were kind of turning out, we have kind of a missile warning system that's in the middle and so it starts going off and kinda tells where, in general, it's coming from. But basically, you know maybe it's a false alert, but more than likely not, it's something's coming at you. So what happens next is kind of like super-slow motion, like you're watching a movie, and so it's like, Fourth of July. Because you have a bunch of systems on the plane, so you have flares, and so it's like, boom. So now it's super bright, and you're taking the actions you need and have kind of been trained to do. But there's some additional systems on there. So they have added basically a laser system, and the laser system is trying to find the warhead, mess up the guidance system, because it's looking for your engines, it wants the heat on the engines. So this is all going on but it happens really quick, but it happens really slow when you're in the moment. And so I just remember when it happened, it's super quiet on the flight deck. Because you have load master, you have another pilot, you have the crew. Essentially, you have three seconds between knowing whether you're alive or you're dead. And so you can imagine the moment when all this stuff goes off, and in the back of my mind, it's essentially a three-Mississippi count. So you go “one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi,” and you're either alive or you're dead. So that quiet moment in between is quite the reflection of life. I'm here with you today, so obviously all the stuff that was supposed to work, worked. And in the reflection of that moment, that technology, which was developed years before, saved my life. And yet, we were stuck and faced a bureaucracy that took five years, 10 years to get technology to the front that had bloated requirements and just outdated acquisition processes. And so I was motivated to say, “We have to do something different to get that technology to the front line, to save lives and the work that people do every day to transform the way they get to do business.” And so that's always been the driving force. It's been my driving force to this day, was that that technology to our nation quicker must be accomplished, and the way you do that is you identify the innovation superheroes inside our service and in our businesses and in our entrepreneurs that can be brought together to bring about that change. Naviere Walkewicz 26:04 So that's really incredible how a moment in time literally had set the stage for your passion. You were leading AFWERX, you got it across the line, and amazing technology has been made available to our warfighters, to our processes. Why did you then — or maybe it's on a grander scale — move into the private sector, where you're actually doing this, still with the same kind of vision of what you're trying to accomplish, but without maybe some of the red tape? Why did you move on from AFWERX? Dave Harden 26:38 That's a great question. So I love this because I love the concept of the airman citizen. I think it's really important, because I went to pilot training. So in pilot training, we're all competing, like, you know, “You gotta be No. 1. You get the plane you want.” You know, all this stuff. A lot of ego flying around, right? And then there's this group, and they were, like, kind of little bit older. Like, “Oh, I'm in this Guard unit, and as soon as we finish pilot training, I'm gonna fly a C-130. I'm gonna fly this...” They already knew what they were gonna fly. I'm like, “How the hell?” I didn't know about the Guard and Reserve. I knew nothing about it, right? Naviere Walkewicz 27:20 Wow OK. That's true. Many people don't know… Dave Harden 27:22 Already in service, right? And it was this amazing discovery. One, they became, like, my best friends. I'm like, these are really cool people. But it was the beginning of this journey. It was like an enlightenment of this airman citizen, like I could still serve our country, right? And so I did wind up going into the Reserve, flying out Charleston, South Carolina, flying C-17s while I did business. So I was able to grow all the stuff I did in business and consult the oil industry and write books and speak around the world and run tech companies while still serving and contributing to the nation. And so I just wound up with a unique skill set — kind of business and military and bringing that all together at a moment in time at the Pentagon. And so that all came together and it was a natural extension. And then say, “OK, we've built this kind of ecosystem. How do we now go on the outside and help cut through the red tape? How do we bring capital. How do we identify the entrepreneurs and take this amazing land and amazing minds that we have and turn them towards our nation's most challenging problems and run towards the fire?” That the nation needs to survive for our children, our grandchildren and the democracy that we hold dear. And so I was grateful for each of those chapters, right? I was grateful for the chapter to build something; I'm grateful for the chapter now in the business world to make a difference. And I see that manifest in different ways. You and I earlier, we're kind of talking a little bit — on the business end there's hardships, there's difficulties, there's fires. And you hear that phrase all the time: “All we do is put out fires all day.” So that's a little bit different context. But sometimes there's bigger fires, you know. I remember we were faced — we lost a $9 million contract. And its people's lives, you know? There are single moms that work for you, and there's, you know, people that you've been loyal to the company for a long time. And sometimes just businesses don't become feasible. So you have a big fire. The landscape transforms. COVID hits. The timing just changes and is off. And so we sat in that moment, and it's emotional, because you're like, “I gotta let 25% of the company off. It's gonna impact families. It's gonna impact lives. And I remember this day, part of our culture was being grateful, being thankful. And you lose track of that because the budget, make payroll, all the all these business things, you know? How's this gonna look? The ego here, right? All these emotions come in, and then taking that moment to take a pause, to look up, to realign, to give thanks, and then to lean into that fire. I remember we kind of gathered up, and I said, “You know what? This is gonna be hard, and people gonna be let go. Can we take a moment just to — there's so many people in here that have stepped up last minute, made things happen, been a part of your life.” And that next hour where people just sat around the table and said, “You know what? John did this for me. Lori did this for me. Man, you know, they stayed up all night and kind of got this proposal done.” Someone's like, “Oh, I needed a surgery and my doctor sucked. They were personally there for me and helped me with that.” It was an hour of gratitude that even in the despair, even in the business environment of having let people go, there was a sense of like culture and gratitude and awareness that doesn't make it easier — you know, you lose your job. It doesn't make some of the fires easier to put out, but we leaned into the fire in a way that helped us get through it from a business perspective. And I always remember that moment, because it really… we just took that step back and it transformed the entire conversation. And so for listeners out there: I say whatever you're going through, you have that same opportunity to take a step back, to have that moment of gratitude, pause and then lean in like hell. Solve that problem. You have an opportunity to really solve what's in front of you, to run into the fire. It might be drastic like 9/11. Like, we're saving somebody's life. But it might be something smaller, but equally as meaningful. Naviere Walkewicz 32:42 I'd like to ask you something because based off of something you said earlier, and I think it was this whole concept of gratitude and having gone through, many hardships in your childhood, in business, etc. How have you been able to stay— and maybe humble is not the right word — but you seem really rooted. It's not about position or title. You seem just really rooted in a humanity and caring about people. Am I right in seeing that? And how do you do that? Dave Harden 33:12 Well, thanks for feeling that energy and then responding to it and asking me that question. At the end of day, it's about relationships and connections. And you're right. That comes from early childhood, right? When you have the experiences that you had, for me, I knew more than anything, that family was important for me. In fact, that was part of my decision, like at the Naval Academy, because it's like, I think I like my time at Naval Academy. I don't know if the Navy would just be a higher negative impact on family. Naviere Walkewicz 33:43 Because you'd be underway for months. Dave Harden 33:45 Right. For a year, or whatever. So I think, imagine making that decision at 17. Because that thought was always there. I think Angie is swinging by for the 30th reunion here at the studio here in a little bit. So I have a beautiful red-headed wife that we've gone through ups and downs, gone through challenges, right? But here we sit at 30 years… Naviere Walkewicz 34:13 Congratulations, that's amazing. Dave Harden 34:14 Yes, thank you so much. It's an inspiration for me, right? Because her parents got married at the Cadet Chapel. A little tie back here to the Air Force Academy. We got married three days after graduation. So, you know, I don't know. Maybe that's cliche, but maybe it's kind of a need and a legacy thing which I lean towards, right? And so my kids inspire me every day. You know my wife inspires me every day. Meeting you and the connections and relationships that I get to get across business, across being in the trenches, being in those fires, forge the relationships, that go across boundaries. And too often times things are transactional. It's like, “Hey, I'm in this position,” and then you have their phone number and their email, and then they change positions, and you never hear from them again. And that's not what life is about. That's not the richness of life. That's not how you inspire people. You inspire people by connecting with them and being thankful for them, right? And so that inspiration comes from my childhood, from seeing death firsthand, from losing people in my life and being able to say, “You know what, if we can transform, if we can pause, if we can look up, right, and see the faith and the ‘what if' and not say, ‘Why is this happening to me? But what can I do with it? What can I do for others? How can I connect in a meaningful way?' you will transform your life, you'll transform your leadership, and you'll transform the people around you, because they'll be inspired to be superheroes in their own right. Naviere Walkewicz 36:03 Well, I certainly believe I could probably foreshadow what you might say in this next one. But I want to ask you this because, you know, there's something about putting into practice what you say, and obviously it has served you well in all facets of your career. What are you doing every day, Dave, to be better, whether it's in leadership, it's in relationships, but what are you doing personally every day to be better? Dave Harden 36:29 You know, I think I have a core philosophy. And you might have heard it before. Can I get better by 1% today? So if you wake up in the morning and you're like, “Can I get better by 1% today?” What does that mean? How do I do that? And I think it starts at the beginning of the day by saying… It's easy to be like, “Oh, I'm running late. My alarm went off. I'm tired. I gotta do laundry. I gotta get this job. I gotta get the kids. You gotta… Stack it up and you're like… You can be overwhelmed. The news. You know, something just happened. Within the first 30 minutes, you're overwhelmed for your day. Your day's done. Naviere Walkewicz 37:16 Right. Go back to bed. Try again. Dave Harden 37:18 It sucks. Why me? Fires are burning all around me. Naviere Walkewicz 37:20 Where do I go? Right. Dave Harden 37:23 So even if you just take a couple minutes and you're just like, “What are the three things that I'm thankful for today?” it recenters your gratitude journey, right? And then throughout the day, I call it the gratitude debrief. And if you're familiar with anything that's like fighter pilots after your mission— what did we learn? And, you know, getting after that, but a lot of people don't have a gratitude debrief. And what I described for you in that business crisis, what I described for you sitting there with your family after — my family after 9/11, it was a gratitude debrief. What went right today? Who did I appreciate that I need to thank? I guarantee if you come at it from that perspective, you're going to see more opportunity. People are going to want to do business with you, because you're the type of person that is grateful, and they want to reach out, they want to network for they want to do that one other thing, right? And when you're in that mental space, when bad things are happening and fires are burning around you, you won't even think for a second “I need to help somebody. I need to do the thing.” And at that moment when it becomes instantaneous, when it's the thing you just do, you know you're centered in that place of gratitude. Naviere Walkewicz 38:55 So Dave, thank you for sharing that — what you're doing every day? What about what some of our listeners, no matter where in their journey they are… You know, we talked about the pause, look up. But what can they be doing every day to be better? Dave Harden 39:08 I think you get back to what we were talking about earlier, which was kind of that stepping into the fire, that leaning in. And I think you know what I've learned, and at the end of the day, what our listeners can take away is, at the end of the day, courage is a choice. I think courage is actually a choice, because you're building all these… I gave you some tools, muscles, and you just don't know what's going to happen in that moment in time. But in that moment in time — there's a great book that I just thought of. It was called Moments of Truth. It's a great book, and it talks a little bit about your brand, your business brand, and it's really built with all these little moments of truth, right? Because it could be your interaction. It could be we came out on the airline today for the 30th reunion So, how did that customer in a certain, you know, interaction? Did they solve my problem? Did they lean in? Did they take care of me? And each of those moments of truth add up to a brand. You, the listeners, have to decide what's their brand going to be. Is it going to be running towards the fire or running away from fires? So whether it's a real fire or proverbial fire, you're going to be ready for that moment. At the end of the day, that's what we believe. Your hardships in life, your Academy experience, your service, your business life, if done correctly, prepare you for and allow you to lead others through. Naviere Walkewicz 40:54 This time together has been… it's inspiring me. I mean, I have just felt the energy and I felt your hardship and how you continue, how you put into practice, your pause, your look up, you know, be grateful. And I want to tell you I'm grateful for you in this time we've had today, because it's been… it really has made a difference, and I'm looking forward to debriefing tonight when I fly home with my son about what went right today. So thank you for that. I think that's really useful. Dave Harden 41:18 Awesome. Thank you so much. Yes, I appreciate it. Naviere Walkewicz 41:20 Absolutely. Well, as our conversation with Dave Harden comes to a close, I'm reminded that leadership is often forged in the fire. Dave's journey from the Pentagon on 9/11 to overcoming adversity in his childhood to pioneering innovation in some of the toughest environments reminds us that true leaders don't run away from the fire. They run toward it. Dave's story reminds us that hardship is inevitable, but gratitude transforms hardship into fuel when you meet your next fire, literally or figuratively. Pause, look up, give thanks and step forward. We know that's how leaders grow in the Long Blue Line, and how you become the kind of person others want to follow anywhere. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Long Blue Leadership. I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Until next time. KEYWORDS Leadership, 9/11, gratitude, innovation, Air Force, personal growth, adversity, private sector, courage, resilience. The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation
Excellent Executive Coaching: Bringing Your Coaching One Step Closer to Excelling
Jim Delaney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Traction AI, a go-to-market partner for founders navigating the early stages of growth. What lessons from military leadership carry over into building a high-performing startup team? Why do so many founders struggle with go-to-market execution — and how can they fix it? What does "RevOps" actually mean for an early-stage company? How can a founder align product, marketing, and sales without overhiring or burning cash? What advice would you give to leaders who are stepping into the CEO role for the first time? Jim Delaney Jim Delaney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Traction AI, a go-to-market partner for founders navigating the early stages of growth. A former U.S. Naval Officer and National Security Agency team lead, Jim spent the first chapter of his career in national defense before transitioning into the private sector, where he worked as a senior executive for JPMorgan Chase and on the executive leadership team at Dun & Bradstreet. He then worked for various venture capital and private equity firms as a portfolio CEO for various portfolio companies and led two technology companies to successful exits — Marketwired sold to Nasdaq and Sysomos sold to Meltwater. With over 30 years of experience scaling data and SaaS businesses, Jim brings a rare blend of operational rigor and servant leadership to the startups he supports. He holds a degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from the Wharton School. Excellent Executive Coaching Podcast If you have enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. We would love for you to leave a review. The EEC podcasts are sponsored by MKB Excellent Executive Coaching, which helps you get from where you are to where you want to be with customized leadership and coaching development programs. MKB Excellent Executive Coaching offers leadership development programs to generate action, learning, and change that is aligned with your authentic self and values. Transform your dreams into reality and invest in yourself by scheduling a discovery session with Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC, to reach your goals. Your host is Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC, founder and general manager of Excellent Executive Coaching, a company that specializes in leadership development.
The Thompson Show – October 17, 2025 (WWCR 4840 kHz) Back home in southwest Michigan after a week on the road, Todd returns to the airwaves sounding a little under the weather but fully in fighting form for a wide-ranging episode that blends nostalgia, tribute, and a passionate defense of exploration, courage, and country.
Give us about fifteen minutes a day, and we will give you all the local news, sports, weather, and events you can handle. SPONSORS: Many thanks to our sponsors... Annapolis Subaru, the SPCA of Anne Arundel County, Interim HealthCare of Annapolis, and Hospice of the Chesapeake, Today... A somber report from the Naval Academy, a last-minute Navy football win, a major local grant to fight hunger, 16 fast talks lighting up Maryland Hall, and a fan-favorite baseball spectacle headed to Bowie—those stories and more are waiting for you on today's Eye on Annapolis Daily News Brief. DAILY NEWS EMAIL LINK: https://forms.aweber.com/form/87/493412887.htm Ann Covington from CovingtonAlsina is here with the Monday Money Report! The Eye On Annapolis Daily News Brief is produced every Monday through Friday at 6:00 am and available wherever you get your podcasts and also on our social media platforms--All Annapolis and Eye On Annapolis (FB) and @eyeonannapolis (X) NOTE: For hearing-impaired subscribers, a full transcript is available on Eye On Annapolis.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 3: 5:00pm- During last night's gubernatorial debate, Jack Ciattarelli called out Mikie Sherrill for not being transparent about why she wasn't allowed to walk at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony. A montage reveals that she has changed her story about the Naval Academy cheating scandal three or four times since September 26th! 5:15pm- Breaking News: New York Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted by the Department of Justice for mortgage fraud. 5:30pm- Abbreviated Show: Listen to the Philadelphia Phillies on 1210 WPHT!
The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (10/09/2025): 3:05pm- New Jersey Gubernatorial Race: On Wednesday, Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill went head-to-head in their second and final debate before election day on November 4th. 3:30pm- Congressman Dan Meuser—Representative for Pennsylvania's 9th Congressional District—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss the ongoing government shutdown and the historical Gaza peace agreement the Trump Administration has brokered between Israel and Hamas. 3:50pm- The Phillies defeated the Dodgers 8-1 last night—keeping their season alive. But Matt reveals he wasn't watching the game. Instead, he was watching Daniel Day-Lewis's new film, “Anemone.” Justin believes this is further proof that Matt is an “Ivy League weirdo.” Plus, during last night's debate, Mikie Sherrill mentioned President Trump over a dozen times! 4:05pm- Complete Embarrassment: Far-left Katie Porter—the front runner to become the next Governor of California in 2026—had a complete meltdown after a CBS reporter asked her about her strategy for winning bipartisan support. Porter insisted she didn't need the support of Trump voters and then abruptly ended the interview—explicitly complaining about being asked too many “follow up” questions. Porter, a former congresswoman and accolade of Elizabeth Warren, lost her 2024 race for U.S. Senate. Now a new video has surfaced of her screaming and cursing at a staffer! Plus, who was a worse Batman—Porter (who dressed up as the Gotham superhero for Halloween) or Ben Affleck? It's close. 4:30pm- On Thursday, President Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting where he signed a proclamation preserving Columbus Day—stating: “Columbus Day—We're Back, Italians!” 4:45pm- New Jersey Gubernatorial Race: On Wednesday, Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill went head-to-head in their second and final debate before election day on November 4th. During one notable moment, Ciattarelli pledged that his top priority as governor will be to provide tax relief for New Jersey residents—meanwhile, Sherrill said her top priority would be suing the Trump administration. 5:00pm- During last night's gubernatorial debate, Jack Ciattarelli called out Mikie Sherrill for not being transparent about why she wasn't allowed to walk at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony. A montage reveals that she has changed her story about the Naval Academy cheating scandal three or four times since September 26th! 5:15pm- Breaking News: New York Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted by the Department of Justice for mortgage fraud. 5:30pm- Abbreviated Show: Listen to the Philadelphia Phillies on 1210 WPHT!
Lead by 3 - Leadership with Simplicity A New Direction brings you an in-depth conversation with retired Naval Academy alum Steven Mays, author of The Power of 3: Lessons in Leadership. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the endless “leadership frameworks,” this episode is a breath of clarity. Steven cuts through noise using a foundation rooted in three—three pillars, three practices, three indispensable commitments. It's concise, potent, and built for people who lead under pressure. In The Power of 3, Mays doesn't shy away from the harder side of leading. He explores how despair, unmet expectations, and human frailty challenge even the best of intentions. But he also shows how effective leaders engage in three core acts: assist (serve those you lead), inspire (ignite purpose and vision), and depend (trust and rely on others). That last part may surprise you—he makes dependence not a weakness but a leadership strength. These themes are not abstractions; they're revealed in stories, real tension points, and situations you'll recognize. On our show, I'll push Steven to unpack exactly how those triads work in everyday leadership life. How do you “assist” without overstepping? When your team's morale is sliding, how do you “inspire” in a real, not canned, way? And when things go sideways, how do you lean into “dependence” without losing authority or credibility? We'll also dig into the internal life—how love, despair, and disappointment show up in your leadership—and how to structure your guardrails to stay steady even when people around you aren't. Make plans to join us and capture insights to lead yourself and others. Whether you lead a small team, a department, or your own personal mission, this isn't just another leadership talk—it's a chance to recalibrate how you lead from the inside out. Steven May's book, "The Power of 3: Lessons in Leadership" is a very quick read, but there is elegance in simplicity. And that is what this book brings. The idea that learning to lead does not have to be difficult. What Steven Mays gives us is how in the power of 3 we can learn to lead and lead well. As with any great book he starts with the three fundamentals. Honesty, Courage, and Talent. Don't be fooled by the word "honesty" because he gives it a different definition. And it all starts with an honest self-awareness of where are really. Then he moves to courage, which again he breaks down into 3 ideals...Accept it, Fix it, or Leave it. The least important of these three fundamental principles? Talent. As Steve Mays reminds us that leaders are not born, they are made if they have the right tools. The book is filled with lessons of threes that he puts into triangles and demonstrates that The Power of 3 and the strength of 3 can be used to build successful and great leaders. While it is only 50 pages long if you dig deep into the simplicity of The Power of 3 you will discover more depth than you can imagine! Get you copy of the Power of 3: Lessons for Leadership by Clicking Here. Enhance Your Audiobook Experience with Zoundy! If you're an author or narrator looking to produce high-quality audiobooks with ease, Zoundy is the ultimate tool you need. Designed specifically for audiobook creation, Zoundy delivers crystal-clear sound, seamless editing capabilities, and professional-grade production tools—all in one intuitive platform. Whether you're recording your own book or refining your narration, Zoundy ensures every word is heard with perfection. And here's the best part: As a listener of A New Direction, you get an exclusive deal! Head over to zoundy.com/jay and use the code JAY25 at checkout to unlock special savings on your audiobook production. Don't settle for anything less than studio-quality sound—power up your audiobook journey today with Zoundy! AND Linda Craft Team, REALTORS located at 7300 Six Forks Road in Raleigh North Carolina, they have been serving the Research Triangle Park area...
Ochelli Effect 10-7-2025 SNAFU NEWS After 3 quarters of 2025 Under GOP TRUMP style regime by Proxi Project 2025 Rule in what was once America, Am I NOW allowed to ask when or if Trump accepts Blame??Seems like NO.Shooting for No More News Speak!Let's get to a couple, three things ...---TODAYTROOPS are being deployed and already active in select cities near you.Memphis, Los Angels, Portland, (GOP FAV) Chicago, DC, and we can all assume many more will become domestic training grounds or staging areas for Wars on The Alleged Enemy Within. Unless I am misreading intent and statements made by those who currently hold, enable, and support Those in Power?Senator Shifty Vs. AG BLONDIEPam Bondi, Adam Schiff spar at Senate oversight hearinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knPQUHJbAywBlumenthal and STOLEN VALOR has been at issue as Bondi attacked him when she felt questioning her integrity was happeningSIMPLEBlumenthal said some places he was a Vietnam Vet, and It Turns out he was a veteran in The Vietnam Era, which was either a mistake or intentional lie to gain more credibility in his political post-service ventures dating back to at least 15 years ago. No NEW WARS? well those boats and new attacks on a foreign nation seem to be a new war or at least a new theater of war in The Drug War. Do we need to see in a crystal ball where the war goes next?White House rebukes ‘egregious' court order blocking troop deployments amid Portland unrestThe ruling is "one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen," Stephen Miller saidhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-slams-egregious-court-order-blocking-troop-deployments-amid-portland-unrestTrump's National Guard Moves Are Part of a Dangerous Plan, California AG Warnshttps://www.kqed.org/news/12058799/trumps-national-guard-moves-are-part-of-a-dangerous-plan-california-ag-warnsCulture WarsRenewed Drug warsWar against "The Left"Rumors of Civil WarsWars of words by the best words from all STABLE Genius mouths?Is Orwell smiling over the Nobel Peace Prize demands of The POTUS?ARE You With THEM, or WITH THE ANTIFA Terrorists? As we approach Halloween Time, Is Santa still in charge of Christmas? As of October 7, 2025, it has beentwo years since the Hamas attack on Israel.1,321 days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.In Orwell's 1984, Oceania is in a state of perpetual war with the other two superstates, Eurasia and Eastasia, though the specific enemy frequently changes to maintain a state of perpetual conflict that uses up surplus resources and keeps the population impoverished and ignorant. Oceania is at war with both Eurasia and Eastasia, but it is unclear which is the primary enemy at any given moment, as the state's allegiance shifts and is presented differently in propaganda.Trump, Project 2025 and ‘Culture Wars'https://www.factcheck.org/2025/10/trump-project-2025-and-culture-wars/---MEDIA MAYHEMBy The Way, There is a Supermoon coming in October. The U.s. Government Big Beautiful Showcase Shutdown is already in progress, and Yes Bob Barker The Alleged actual opposition is already neutered.Ochelli has to at least mention the off-cycle 2025 (S)election effecting Jersey, Right?So in some places character is a throwback issue, 90s 70s 60s or the rest of American history style , but only in off Presidential decisions and aside from midterm Years? Or is this just more Dirty Jersey Purple State Madness that gets as personal as anybody can and happens to invole another embarrassing Italian?How Mikie Sherrill's Navy records could impact the N.J. governor's racehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY4Gxf-KZ54Calls for criminal investigation into release of Mikie Sherrill's military recordshttps://abc7ny.com/post/calls-investigation-release-mikie-sherrills-military-records-amid-ugly-nj-governor-race-jack-ciattarelli/17882493/A NARA standard behavior may ne responsible for influencing the NJ Gov. selection 2025 as (R) Jack Ciattarelli vs. (D) Mikie Sherrills gets a bit of an old school shake-up because A Former Navy Helicopter Pilot, congressmember, and war veteran was barred from walking in her 1994 Naval Academy graduation for failing to report classmates who had cheated on an exam. There are allegations that her opponent in the current very close race may have been involved with leaking personal records that were made available by NARA in violation of the 1974 privacy act.That should have prevented the politician from being Doxed in a by a federal agancy. This allowed public view of information that should have been redacted and has been cited as opposition research to litigate her candidacy in the court of public opinion. Social Security Numbers, Insurance Details, Addresses of The Candidate and family members have now been disseminated.THERE WILL NOT BE AN ITALIAN POTUS IN CHUCK"S LIFETIME AND BEYONDCiattarelli doesn't have a clear meaning in Italian, seems to be of southern Italian origin, and may simply be a name that is just meant to be a name. CH A TER L LEE 40 Presidents have Dollar Coins and only dead POTUS was eligible when the program for the Gold Metallic color series was being minted and ended. H.W. got a special made after , but Obama, Trump, Biden, Clinton, Carter, and W could be added later by acts of congress. Rush announce reunion tour five years after the death of drummer Neil Pearthttps://apnews.com/article/rush-reunion-tour-neil-peart-new-drummer-anika-nilles-9527015b58124236e8f9413dd074db77?Trump says he'd consider Ghislaine Maxwell pardon and mentions Diddy in same breath as Epstein pal: ‘Have to take a look'https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-talks-diddy-ghislaine-maxwell-211721407.htmlAnother Ochelli Prediction that will fall down the memory hole, When the Crypto-Media scheme is revealed, It will be a mad dash to figure out who lined who's pockets.TRUMP/Ellison is just one portion of the multi-layered, multi-generational Dynasty we are witnessing as it is born and becomes the future Borg.Media world rocked as Bari Weiss takes over CBS News as editor-in-chiefhttps://www.foxnews.com/media/bari-weiss-joins-cbs-news-editor-in-chief-paramount-buys-free-press-150-millionDavid Ellison And Bari Weiss Tell CBS News Employees Of Their Goal To Restore Trust; Read Their Notes To Staffershttps://deadline.com/2025/10/read-bari-weiss-david-ellison-notes-cbs-news-1236571011/Move over, Murdochs - a new family dynasty is shaking up US mediahttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4qwwk0g0yoSeymour HershIS TRUMP IN COGNITIVE DECLINE?The view from inside is that the president has been slippinghttps://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/is-trump-in-cognitive-decline?Kakistocracy is a thing even if the population thinks it's winning. Neofascism may have multiple colored horses in the derby.---PSUEDO or NEO RELIGION If Propaganda falls on the Internet, Does Everyone Hear it?In the Bible according to MAGA...Trump plans aid package for US soybean farmers while seeking trade deal with Chinahttps://apnews.com/article/trump-china-soybean-farmers-trade-war-aid-1a848735ba89c2673d44489eea5a0e35AI ‘Text With Jesus' app is exploding despite concerns of possible blasphemyhttps://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/10/06/ai-text-with-jesus-app-is-exploding-despite-concerns-of-possible-blasphemy-1590395/Trump: Hamas agreeing to important things, Gaza peace within reachhttps://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/415918New generation of militias steps out of Hamas's shadow to fill Gaza power vacuumhttps://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/10/07/new-generation-of-militias-step-out-of-hamass-shadow-to-fill-gaza-power-vacuum/Hijacked alternative media of the past co-opted perfectly. Funny Ochelli gets no credit for telling the future just rage from those who believe he was out to get their heroes and only THEIR HEROES. Sad to say he was out to expose all of the One party Grifters, but it doesn't matter when you punish an honest analyst, so long as the reckoning is due.Manosphere Influencers Who Boosted Trump Are Now Cooling on Himhttps://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/theo-von-joe-rogan-manosphere-influencers-trump-1235441563/ Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson's Conspiracy Theories Totally Wreck the Credibility That Alternative Media is Trying to Gainhttps://www.mediaite.com/opinion/candace-owens-and-tucker-carlsons-loony-conspiracy-theories-totally-wreck-the-credibility-that-alternative-media-is-trying-to-gain/ There's that Trump Trojan Horse AgainLouis C.K.'s Saudi Arabia Defense Is Terrible https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/10/07/louis-ck-saudi-arabia-defense-terrible/TIT-FOR-TAT TAC TOE?Jack Smith Faces Arrest Calls Over ‘Arctic Frost' Investigationhttps://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-faces-arrest-calls-over-arctic-frost-investigation-10838199---WORTH REPEATINGThe Umbrella Man (2018)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmNJuJzdVLUCredit to Jimmy James for sending me this failed propaganda message in a bottle-neck for much more than the a metaphor in the metadata corrupted by but not owned by metaverse.---NOT QUITING AS LONG AS YOU KEEP US GOINGBE TBE THE EFFECTListen/Chat on the Sitehttps://ochelli.com/listen-live/TuneInhttp://tun.in/sfxkxAPPLEhttps://music.apple.com/us/station/ochelli-com/ra.1461174708Ochelli Link Treehttps://linktr.ee/chuckochelliAnything is a blessing if you have the meansWithout YOUR support we go silent.---NOVEMBER IN DALLAS LANCER CONFERENCEDISCOUNT FOR YOU10 % OFF code = Ochelli10https://assassinationconference.com/Coming SOON Room Discount Details The Fairmont Dallas hotel 1717 N Akard Street, Dallas, Texas 75201. easy access to Dealey Plaza
Kelly Salmons is a #1 best-selling author, speaker, and coach of empty-nesters. She is a visionary entrepreneur, educator, and former Naval Officer who now dedicates her life to helping women thrive in their next chapter through The Nest Evolution.After decades of leadership in the military, education, and wellness sectors, Kelly discovered that the transition into the empty nest wasn't an ending—but a powerful beginning.Today, she helps women reclaim their identity, embrace their purpose, and designmeaningful lives beyond motherhood. Her diverse background includes serving as Dean ofAcademics at a K–8 charter school, launching global STEAM education initiatives, and owning a fitness center that empowered hundreds of women. With a B.S. in Oceanography from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master's in Educationwith a STEM emphasis, Kelly blends strategy and soul in everything she does. She lives in Naples, Florida, with her husband David, two soaring daughters, and two lovable dogs. Kelly believes midlife isn't a crisis—it's a calling.http://thenestevolution.com/
In this inspiring episode of The China Shop, host Kyle is joined by Bear Goes Long, Mike (Purdue), and special guest Cam, a Navy veteran turned eight-figure trader and investor. Cam shares his remarkable story: growing up dirt-poor on a North Carolina tobacco farm, escaping through military service as a corpsman and Naval Academy grad, and rejecting post-Navy contracting traps. Post-grad school in business analytics and economics, Cam dove into trading in 2016, starting with iron condors, evolving to a rules-based system emphasizing risk management, probabilities, and a four-layer plan blending stocks, options, and real estate. He details his obsession with hedging (gold, treasuries, VIX triggers), a simple stock screener for quality undervalued momentum plays (e.g., AMD shorts, ASML longs), and diverse businesses like billboards, laundries, and rentals. With transparency on wins (300% annual returns post-COVID resets) and losses ($190K on ADBE), Cam emphasizes escaping the financial system, helping vets through causes and his trading room, and avoiding greed. A must-listen for traders, vets, and aspiring entrepreneurs on building wealth with discipline.Subscribe, share, and join the trading conversations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Discord!Sponsors and FriendsOur podcast is sponsored by Sue Maki at Fairway Independent Mortgage (MLS# 206048). Licensed in 38 states, if you need anything mortgage-related, reach out to her at SMaki@fairwaymc.com or give her a call at (520) 977-7904. Tell her 2 Bulls sent you to get the best rates available!If you are interested in signing up with TRADEPRO Academy, you can use our affiliate link here. We receive compensation for any purchases made when using this link, so it's a great way to support the show and learn at the same time! **Use code CHINASHOP15 to save 15%**Visit Airsoftmaster.com to support one of our own!To contact us, you can email us directly at bandoftraderspodcast@gmail.com Check out our directory for other amazing interviews we've done in the past!If you like our show, please let us know by rating and subscribing on your platform of choice!If you like our show and hate social media, then please tell all your friends!If you have no friends and hate social media and you just want to give us money for advertising to help you find more friends, then you can donate to support the show here!Cam:Cam is a Navy veteran & management consultant turned 8 figure investor & trader. Trading let him retire at 35 & be able to support and provide for his family forever. Now he wants to help others escape the financial system and live the way we were meant to live: free. His system is a rule-based design that can be used for long term investing, swing trading or option selling on any schedule.Follow Cam on TwitterJoin Cam's Trading CommunityPerdue:Meet Perdue, a resilient and successful small business owner who wears the hats of a dedicated father and husband with pride. Perdue's journey hasn't been paved with ease; instead, he is a testament to the belief in hard work, discipline, and the doggedpursuit of one's goals.Perdue is not just a successful business owner; he is also a seasoned trader with a diverse set of strategies. Countless hours spent backtesting and refining these strategies reflect his meticulous approach to trading. His dedication to mastering the craft positions him as a valuable contributor to the trading community. As a firm believer in the "Grind," Perdue chose to embrace putting in the work and serves as a example of how dedication and self-belief can propel you to great heights.A self-taught, no-nonsense trader, Perdue is unwaveringly supportive, but he doesn't sugarcoat the truth. His belief in discipline and hard work is not only evident in his own journey but extends to his interactions with others. When Perdue recognizes these qualities in fellow traders, he goes above and beyond to offer support, especially when they are navigating through challenges.Follow Perdue on TwitterNothing Left but Ashes - Book LinkBear:Bear made the transition from investing to trading at the beginning of COVID. After initial success with options, he quickly learned that his luck was greater than his skill and shifted his focus to futures. Bear has fully embraced the role of emotions and mental capital with the mindset that trading futures is purely an internal struggle that rewards patience, calm, bravery, focus, passion, and commitment. Beyond markets Bear finds joy in his community as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.Follow Bear on TwitterAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Craig Eaton, Former Brooklyn GOP Chairman, joins John Catsimatidis & James Flippin as they substitute for Sid Rosenberg, to talk about the New Jersey governor's race. Eaton expresses confidence in Jack Ciattarelli's campaign, highlighting several controversies surrounding opponent Mikie Sherrill, including her stock trading violations and her alleged involvement in a cheating scandal at the Naval Academy. Craig also discusses key issues like electricity costs and how Ciattarelli, a New Jersey native with extensive local experience, contrasts with Sherrill in addressing these problems. The conversation underscores the importance of the upcoming election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Trump administration has frozen $18 billion in federal funds for the Hudson River Gateway tunnel and the Second Avenue subway extension, citing New York's diversity, equity and inclusion requirements. Meanwhile, a New Jersey teenager has been charged with murder after allegedly ramming his SUV into two girls on bicycles, killing them both. At LaGuardia, two Delta jets clipped wings in a low-speed collision that injured one flight attendant. And in New Jersey, leaked Naval Academy records of Rep. Mikie Sherrill are roiling the governor's race as she blames her opponent Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration. WNYC's Mike Hayes has the latest.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 1: 3:05pm- According to a report from The New York Post, both of Mikie Sherrill's children were admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy—but did they receive special treatment to gain admission? The school has a 9% acceptance rate. 3:30pm- “The C-Word” podcast with Lena Dunham is coming to Audacy soon—Rich suspects many of his audience members will find this news relevant as the two shows are virtually identical. PLUS, a lot of people believe Dunham's podcast is scalable! Whatever that means….
The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (09/30/2025): 3:05pm- According to a report from The New York Post, both of Mikie Sherrill's children were admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy—but did they receive special treatment to gain admission? The school has a 9% acceptance rate. 3:30pm- “The C-Word” podcast with Lena Dunham is coming to Audacy soon—Rich suspects many of his audience members will find this news relevant as the two shows are virtually identical. PLUS, a lot of people believe Dunham's podcast is scalable! Whatever that means…. 4:00pm- Brent Sadler—Senior Research Fellow for Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology in the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to break down Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's new combat directives to senior military officials. During a speech from Quantico, Virginia earlier today, Hegseth memorably declared: “Simply put, if you do not meet the male level physical standards for a combat position, cannot pass a PT test, or don't want to shave and look professional—it's time for a new position.” 4:30pm- From the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders lowering the cost of pharmaceuticals and vowing to use technological innovations, like artificial intelligence, as well as increased federal funding to defeat childhood cancer. 4:40pm- While speaking with the press, President Donald Trump said the U.S. is likely to experience a government shutdown at midnight on Tuesday—noting that Democrats won't agree on a continuing resolution (CR) and are demanding government-provided healthcare for migrants residing in the country illegally. President Trump said if Democrats remain unreasonable, he will use the shutdown to make permanent cuts to the federal workforce. 5:00pm- Mike Opelka joins Rich for The Drive at 5—where they attempt to define “scalability,” listen to new Zeoli show jingles, and discuss Kamala Harris's new book (no, Mike didn't buy it, but he did slow down the audio book and make her sound drunk). Plus, The View's Sunny Hostin says she doesn't understand why physical standards should be important for those serving in the United States armed forces! She wants fat troops!? Speaking of which, someone has leaked KFC's eleven secret herbs and spices! You can find Opelka here: https://pureopelka.com. 5:30pm- Free Speech Under Attack in England: Armed British police arrested a blogger named Peter North at his home for posting a “F*** Hamas” meme on X. 5:40pm- In a conversation with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison alarmingly revealed he'd like to centralize data for total surveillance: "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly watching & recording everything that's going on." 6:05pm- While speaking with the press, Congresswoman Maxine Waters said that Democrats are “demanding healthcare for everyone.” Does that include migrants residing in the U.S. illegally? 6:15pm- Entertainment Update: Matt says Leonardo DiCaprio's new film, “One Battle After Another,” is good but centers around political violence in America—which makes it a tough watch at times given the recent news cycle. Plus, when will the next James Bond be named? 6:30pm- On Tuesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued new combat directives to senior military officials during a speech from Quantico, Virginia. Hegseth memorably declared: “Simply put, if you do not meet the male level physical standards for a combat position, cannot pass a PT test, or don't want to shave and look professional—it's time for a new position.”
Today, on Karl and Crew, we discussed the impact of the gospel on our lives and how it literally changes everything. Rear Admiral Carey Cash joined us to discuss how the gospel impacts the men in the armed forces. Rear Adm. Carey Cash has served as a chaplain to the Marines and is currently a deputy director of Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation, command chaplain to Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David, Maryland; deputy command chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy, and, most recently, commanding officer, Naval Chaplaincy School in Newport, Rhode Island. He also wrote the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” You can access the interview with Adm. Carey Cash at the time stamp: [04:16 ]. We were then joined by several familiar faces this morning to discuss how the gospel has impacted their lives. The following guests joined us today, and you can see the timestamps listed for each guest: Phil Kwiatkowski is the President of the Pacific Garden Mission, and he is also a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI) [18:21 ] Dr. Jim Coakley is a professor of Bible at MBI and is a current elder with 180 Chicago [22:18 ] Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a speaker, author, pastor, and encourager dedicated to helping others, committed to the next generation, and empowering leaders [31:55 ] Chris Baker is the founder of INK 180, a tattoo ministry that reaches those who have been branded against their will, such as sex-trafficking victims. [40:31 ] Dr. Samuel Naaman is the professor of Intercultural Studies at MBI and the vice president of Call of Hope, which reaches muslims for Christ [49:47 ] Dr. Richard Blackaby is the president of Blackaby Ministries International [01:00:23 ] J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author [01:08:30 ] Arlene Pellicane is a speaker, author, and host of the Happy Home podcast [01:17:36 ] Dr. Bill Thrasher has served on the faculty of MBI since 1980 and is the lead professor in the Master’s Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at MBI [01:26:04 ] Dr. Tim Kimmel is one of America’s top advocates speaking for the family today and is the founder and director of Family Matters [01:35:43 ] Greg Dempster is the Founder and Director of ChristLife ministries [01:42:30 ] You can hear the highlights of today's program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. Karl and Crew airs live weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. Central Time. Click this link for ways to listen in your area! https://www.moodyradio.org/ways-to-listen/Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Give us about fifteen minutes daily, and we will give you all the local news, sports, weather, and events you can handle. SPONSORS: Many thanks to our sponsors… Annapolis Subaru, the SPCA of Anne Arundel County, the Annapolis Sail and Power Boat Shows, Interim HealthCare of Annapolis, and Hospice of the Chesapeake, Today... From a tragic scooter crash under investigation and a $40,000 scholarship surprise in Pasadena, to the Naval Academy's rankings jump, Tesla's mall makeover, and a vintage market with food and live music—catch all the details, dates, and where to be on today's Eye on Annapolis Daily News Brief. Daily Newsletter Subscription Link: https://forms.aweber.com/form/87/493412887.htm The Eye On Annapolis Daily News Brief is produced every Monday through Friday at 6:00 am and available wherever you get your podcasts and also on our social media platforms--All Annapolis and Eye On Annapolis (FB) and @eyeonannapolis (TW) NOTE: For hearing-impaired subscribers, a full transcript is available on Eye On Annapolis.
Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too. Here’s a sample episode recapping four takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Radical Leftwing Violence President Donald Trump meets with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and addresses the press on multiple issues. The hosts analyze Trump’s remarks, including his blunt assessment of rising left-wing violence and his warning that radical rhetoric from Democrats is fueling domestic terrorism. The discussion shifts to the U.S. economy, highlighting a surprising 3.8% GDP growth in Q2, record-high stock prices, and falling interest rates. Clay and Buck break down how lower mortgage rates could unlock the housing market and why economic growth—not spending cuts—may be the only path to balancing the federal budget. They also touch on Elon Musk’s prediction that AI-driven innovation could help offset ballooning deficits. Phony Comey The conversation zeroes in on James Comey, the former FBI Director, as reports suggest possible criminal charges for lying under oath before the statute of limitations expires. Clay and Buck revisit Comey’s controversial role in targeting General Michael Flynn and his history of aggressive prosecutions, including the Martha Stewart case. They stress the importance of accountability to prevent the U.S. from descending into “banana republic” politics. Autism and Tylenol Dr. Mehmet Oz, now serving as CMS Administrator under President Trump and HHS Secretary RFK Jr., joins the show to discuss groundbreaking developments in autism research, including promising results from leucovorin therapy for children and emerging concerns about acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy. He emphasizes transparency in government health data and warns against overusing medications during pregnancy. The conversation explores the alarming rise in autism rates—now estimated at 1 in 31 children—and potential environmental and lifestyle factors, including allergies, chemical exposure, and older parental age. Dr. Oz underscores the need for urgent research and public awareness, noting that autism prevalence has increased fivefold in 25 years. Nerding Out with Ryan In-depth political analysis with guest Ryan Girdusky, host of It’s a Numbers Game. The discussion kicks off with the New Jersey governor’s race, where New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli is gaining momentum against Democrat Mikie Sherrill. Despite Democrats’ historic voter advantage, recent polls show a tightening race, fueled by Sherrill’s controversies—including a viral debate stumble and a resurfaced Naval Academy cheating scandal from 1994. Girdusky explains how skyrocketing electricity costs, driven by data center energy demands, have become a top voter concern in both New Jersey and Virginia, shaping campaign strategies. The conversation shifts to Virginia’s gubernatorial showdown between Republican Winsome Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger. Sears is focusing on cultural issues like transgender participation in women’s sports and locker rooms, while Spanberger avoids clear answers, offering vague responses that Clay and Buck criticize as political double-speak. The hosts argue that Democrats in purple states often run as moderates but govern as progressives, warning voters about the stakes in these off-year elections. Next, attention turns to the New York City mayoral race, where progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite according to betting markets, despite a crowded field including Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams, and Curtis Sliwa. Girdusky predicts Mamdani’s win could have national implications for Democrats in the 2026 midterms, as his far-left policies on policing and immigration could become a liability for the party’s brand. Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8 For the latest updates from Clay and Buck: https://www.clayandbuck.com/ Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Social Media: X - https://x.com/clayandbuck FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/clayandbuck/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ClayandBuck TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@clayandbuck YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the President authorized to blow up boats and kill suspected drug smugglers? Beth speaks with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about Trump's use of military force to strike vessels in the Caribbean Sea without due process, trials, or congressional authorization. The Senator explains why these extrajudicial killings violate constitutional war powers and put America at greater risk internationally. Why aren't Republicans checking executive overreach? Senator Van Hollen describes how the GOP has become a "rubber stamp" for Trump, abandoning its constitutional duty to provide checks and balances. From dismantling congressional war powers to remaining silent on due process violations, he explores what it means when an entire party contracts out its judgment to one person. What levers does Congress actually have right now? As the government funding deadline approaches, Van Hollen discusses the Democratic strategy of "creative confrontation" - from showing up at ICE detention centers to challenging book bans at the Naval Academy. He explains why he won't give Trump a "blank check" even from the minority, and what safeguards against illegal withholding of funds could look like in any budget deal. Ready to go deeper? Visit our website for complete show notes, exclusive premium content, merchandise, chats and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (09/26/2025): 3:05pm- A new report from the New Jersey Globe suggests NJ gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill wasn't allowed to “walk with her graduating class in wake of a Navy Academy cheating scandal.” What was her exact role? New Jersey voters deserve transparency. 3:10pm- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now calling for a criminal investigation into the release of Mikie Sherrill's military file. Rich notes that her record release and the NJ Globe report are entirely separate stories—as Democrats attempt to muddy the waters. 3:20pm- Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. In a post to social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 3:30pm- Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton. 3:50pm- Things just keep getting worse for Mikie Sherrill—now her husband is also ensnared in the Naval Academy's massive cheating scandal! 4:05pm- Dr. Wilfred Reilly—Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University & Author of “Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss Major League Baseball adopting artificial intelligence to determine strikes. What impact will AI have on commercial trucking and other blue-collar jobs? Plus, are sex robots inevitably a part of our future? 4:30pm- Dr. Victoria Coates—Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation & former Deputy National Security Advisor—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss President Donald Trump's visit to the United Nations earlier this week where he implored Europe to stop buying Russian oil as it's being used to fund Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. Plus, the city of Philadelphia—the birthplace of freedom and individual liberty—is planning to fly the flag of Communist China. Dr. Coates is author of the book: “The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win.” 5:05pm- Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. In a post to social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 5:30pm- Flashback: Some of James Comey's worst lies—including while under oath, testifying before Congress! 6:05pm- Assata Shakur—a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973—has died in Havana, Cuba of age-related health complications. She had been placed on New Jersey's Most Wanted List. However, mainstream media has simply described her as the “godmother and aunt of rapper Tupac Shakur.” 6:25pm- Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie, “One Battle After Another,” releases today—and it's getting rave reviews. While promoting the film, DiCaprio revealed prospective agents wanted him to change his name to “Lenny Williams” when he was first breaking into Hollywood. 6:40pm- REPLAY: Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in ...
Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 1: 3:05pm- A new report from the New Jersey Globe suggests NJ gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill wasn't allowed to “walk with her graduating class in wake of a Navy Academy cheating scandal.” What was her exact role? New Jersey voters deserve transparency. 3:10pm- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now calling for a criminal investigation into the release of Mikie Sherrill's military file. Rich notes that her record release and the NJ Globe report are entirely separate stories—as Democrats attempt to muddy the waters. 3:20pm- Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. In a post to social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects this Department of Justice's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 3:30pm- Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton. 3:50pm- Things just keep getting worse for Mikie Sherrill—now her husband is also ensnared in the Naval Academy's massive cheating scandal!
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4: 6:05pm- Assata Shakur—a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973—has died in Havana, Cuba of age-related health complications. She had been placed on New Jersey's Most Wanted List. However, mainstream media has simply described her as the “godmother and aunt of rapper Tupac Shakur.” 6:25pm- Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie, “One Battle After Another,” releases today—and it's getting rave reviews. While promoting the film, DiCaprio revealed prospective agents wanted him to change his name to “Lenny Williams” when he was first breaking into Hollywood. 6:40pm- REPLAY: Jack Ciattarelli—Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey—joins The Rich Zeoli Show and reacts to a new report alleging Democrat Mikie Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy graduation ceremony because of her involvement in a widespread cheating scandal. Sherrill claims she never cheated—she merely covered up for cheating. Ciattarelli adroitly notes: if Sherrill will cover for cheaters in the Naval Academy, she'll cover for cheaters in Trenton.
Send us a textBuckle up—this one's going to piss some people off. Peaches, Trent, and Aaron sit down with Arvis Owens, a Naval Academy grad and former officer who had his career torched by a broken system. From botched carrier landings to fighting false accusations, Arvis lays out how the Uniform Code of Military Justice turned into a political circus where accusations = convictions and careers burn for headlines. The crew rips into toxic training, third-party harassment nonsense, and the absurd reality that you can be innocent and still lose everything. This isn't a pity party—it's a call to action. If you're thinking about joining, already serving, or just want the unfiltered truth about how the military polices itself, this is the episode you can't ignore. Grab your popcorn, sign the damn petition, and maybe don't leave your office door closed ever again.- Petition Link: http://www.change.org/UnjustUCMJ- Theresa's Evidence Link: https://www.theresatapestries.com/false-accusations⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Special Warfare selection and Peaches' intro 03:30 – Meet Arvis Owens: From Beaumont to the Naval Academy 06:00 – Carrier landings, failure, and finding another path 07:30 – The accusation that destroyed everything 12:45 – How politics hijacked the UCMJ 19:30 – Good order and discipline—or fear and intimidation? 24:15 – New UCMJ laws and the insanity of “three-potato” stares 31:40 – Incentives to accuse: PCS, VA claims, and payouts 37:00 – Bystander training, Green Dot, and $1.6M of garbage 46:00 – Arvis' petition and what real change looks like 54:30 – Article 134, speech, and the First Amendment clash 01:05:00 – Cameras, common sense, and fixing a broken system 01:10:00 – Closing: Protecting the future force
Join Jim and Greg for the Friday 3 Martini Lunch as they dig into the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, troubling new polling on political violence, and dueling allegations of scandal in the New Jersey governor's race.First, they break down the charges against Comey and the background leading to the case. They also consider how former President Trump's public demand for the Justice Department to prosecute Comey and others just days ago could impact the legal battle.Next, they analyze a new survey showing nearly 30 percent of lefties aged 18–39 believe violence can be justified to achieve political goals. More than 10 percent of moderates in that group agree, along with 15 percent of left-leaning voters aged 40–59. All conservatives and older moderates are under 10 percent. Jim explains why this result is troubling for two big reasons.Finally, they unpack the heated feud between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the New Jersey governor's race. Records reveal Sherrill was barred from walking at her Naval Academy commencement for refusing to cooperate in a major cheating investigation. Sherrill is mad because those records were supposed to stay private but a federal agency allegedly passed them along to a Ciattarelli ally and failed to redact very sensitive information about Sherrill. Please visit our great sponsors:Formulated for men, Caldera Lab upgrades your skincare routine. Visit https://CalderaLab.com/3ML and use code 3ML for 20% off your first order.Sponsored by Quo, formerly known as Open Phone: Get started free and save 20% on your first 6 months and port your existing numbers at no extra charge—no missed calls, no missed customers. Visit https://Quo.com/3ML
Lio0nel talks about James Comey, the former FBI head and "architect of Crossfire Hurricane," has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two felony counts: lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Lionel argues this indictment is not just a headline—it is history and a vindication for patriots who maintained that Russia Gate was a lie and the FBI was weaponized against President Trump. Lionel explores how the indictment proves President Trump was correct that the deep state had targeted him. Also discussed: The controversy surrounding New Jersey gubernatorial nominee Mikie Sherrill and her Naval Academy cheating scandal, raising questions about the morality of protecting friends versus upholding the honor code. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of The MisFitNation, host Rich LaMonica welcomes USMC Veteran John Bruggeman, a retired Marine Corps Infantry Officer, Naval Academy graduate, and leader in both military and civilian life. John shares his 20+ years of service in the United States Marine Corps, his transition into the technology industry, and his mission today with Living Free 2gether—an organization dedicated to building strong communities through faith, fellowship, and service. From leading Marines in combat to guiding teams in business and now mentoring through community service, John's story is one of resilience, leadership, and legacy.
Thursday's 9am hour of Mac & Cube saw Wimp Sanderson, former men's basketball coach at Alabama, tell us what will be key in the Alabama-Georgia game, and his thoughts on Bruce Pearl's retirement & Stephen Pearl's future at Auburn; then, Billy Liucci, executive editor of TexAgs, says why people are extra high on Texas A&M, what players you need to keep your eyes on, and ultimately how he sees this game playing out; later, Cole & Greg breakdown Tennessee vs. Mississippi State; and finally, we have a story about a player transferring out of the Naval Academy for the wildest reason. "McElroy & Cubelic In The Morning" airs 7am-10am weekdays on WJOX-94.5!!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Colonel Art Athens joins the Be Worth* Following podcast to share his insights on all things leadership, especially the cultivation of talent. And to be sure, he's sharing with us from a wealth of experience. Over the course of more than 30 years in the Marine Corps, Colonel Athens held command and staff assignments across all four Marine Aircraft Wings. He also served as an instructor and Academic Dean for the Marine Corps' equivalent to the Navy's “Top Gun” school. Following his military career, he became the Naval Academy's first Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership and later served for over a decade as the Director of the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership. He also served as Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and was selected as a White House Fellow under President Ronald Reagan. In this episode, you'll discover why Colonel Athens talks about Dixie cups and crystal glasses in relation to leading well. You'll see how attending a rainy high school soccer game significantly shifted one of his relationships up the chain of command. And you'll hear why benches and bullpens are important concepts in how we think about developing those we lead. Notable links: Guest: Colonel Art Athens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/art-athens-b210559/ Host: Tim Spiker: https://www.theaperio.com/tim-spiker The Only Leaders Worth* Following video series on Right Now Media: https://www.theaperio.com/right-now-media-series The Only Leaders Worth* Following book https://tinyurl.com/TOLWFbook The Only Leaders Worth Following book Discussion Guide: https://www.theaperio.com/discussion-guide-the-only-leaders-worth-following The Aperio: https://www.theaperio.com/
Ever wondered what really happens behind closed boardroom doors when leaders are faced with uncomfortable truths, especially when speaking up could cost them their job? This conversation isn't just about corporate buzzwords or performative change. It's an unfiltered look at how fear quietly shapes decisions, and how a handful of micro-courage moments can actually flip the script for whole organizations. If you think courage at work is all about bold speeches, think again. There's a twist here that might just change the way you see your own leadership, and what's possible for your team. Ready to find out what most leaders are missing (and why it matters now more than ever)? In this episode, you will be able to: Discover how cultivating courage in the workplace can unlock bold decisions that drive real growth and innovation. Learn strategies to overcome fear in leadership that empower you to lead with confidence and authenticity. Build people-first cultures that inspire loyalty, boost morale, and create teams ready to tackle any challenge. Master emotional intelligence and respectful communication to transform workplace relationships and fuel collaboration. My special guests are Kristen Kavanaugh, Mike Randolph Kristen Kavanaugh brings a wealth of real-world leadership experience shaped by roles that truly matter, from her time as Senior Director of Inclusion, Talent, and Learning at Tesla to her service as a Naval Academy graduate and veteran. As Founder and CEO of The Agency Initiative, Kristen focuses on helping leaders and organizations step up with courage, not just when it's easy, but when the pressure is on and the stakes are high. She's also served as Vice Chair for the Department of Defense's first-ever Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, showing her commitment to building workplaces where everyone can thrive. Mike Randolph is the Co-Founder and COO of The Agency Initiative and a strategic leader with expertise in operational effectiveness and holistic people development. Most recently, Mike held a senior position at YETI, leading and designing Talent Experience programs. Prior to that, he led the Talent Management and Leadership Development organizations at Tesla where he integrated courageous leadership practices into the people systems and programs that accelerated growth. The key moments in this episode are:00:05:17 - Understanding Fear in Leadership and Organizational Culture 00:07:04 - Fear-Based vs Courageous Leadership: Lessons from Tesla 00:10:05 - The Impact of Fear-Based Leadership on Organizations and Society 00:13:11 - The Normalization of Fear and Surveillance in the Workplace 00:15:53 - Leadership Examples Challenging Toxic Normalization 00:17:17 - The Business Case for Protecting Rights and Embracing Diversity 00:19:11 - Leading with Empathy during Crisis and Uncertainty 00:23:02 - The Agency Loop: Courage as the Fuel for Authentic Leadership 00:25:55 - Cultivating Agency, Authenticity, and Growth in Leadership 00:28:00 - Building Courage and Resilience in High-Speed Environments 00:31:00 - Listening to Understand: A Foundation for Authentic DEI Efforts 00:33:00 - Addressing Burnout and Learning Agility in Today's Workforce 00:35:00 - Embracing Curiosity and Courage to Drive Inclusive Leadership 00:38:42 - The Importance of Diverse Leadership Reflecting Customer Needs 00:40:29 - Navigating Cultural Differences and Building Peace at Tesla 00:42:18 - Anchoring Leadership in a Shared Mission to Overcome Conflict 00:44:08 - Courageous Leadership Amid Fear and Toxicity in the Workplace Connect with Kristen Kavanaugh and Mike Randolph Follow on Instagram at @courageoverfearbook, @mikerandolph.official, and @kristenkavanaugh.official for updates and community engagement. Purchase the book at courageoverfearbook.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joe Lynch is the Head of Customer Success at Dandy, where he leads teams that help dental practices thrive through digital transformation. Before Dandy, he built his expertise in healthcare strategy and operations at Bain & Company, advising Fortune 100 companies on Go-to-Market and Post Merger Integration. A graduate of the Naval Academy and Columbia Business School, Joe also served 7 years as a U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer, where he led special operations teams and defused bombs underwater and on land. Outside of work, he's a father to two girls, an avid squash player and runner, channeling the same energy and focus into parenting and sports as he does into his career. meetdandy.com Join Dentaltown! dentaltown.com
In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the upcoming MBA admissions season. This week, Dartmouth / Tuck, IESE and Imperial Business School have their Round 1 application deadlines; Duke / Fuqua is scheduled to release its interview invites for its Early Action Round. Graham noted that our second livestream AMA is scheduled for this Tuesday on YouTube; here's the link to Clear Admit's YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/cayoutubelive. Graham then highlighted the ongoing September series of admissions events. The third session is on Wednesday, and includes Berkeley / Haas, INSEAD, London Business School, Michigan / Ross and UNC / Kenan / Flagler. Signups for this series are here: https://bit.ly/cainsidemba We then had a detailed discussion on the recently released 2025-26 MBA rankings from LinkedIn and Bloomberg / Business Week. Graham noted two recently published MBA admissions-related tips that focus on completing the business school application data forms, and whether it is advisable to skip the GMAT or GRE and seek a test waiver. We continued our series of profiling star MBA professors. This week we feature two professors from Columbia Business School and Northwestern / Kellogg. We then discussed our first student-focused Real Humans for this season, from UNC / Kenan Flagler. Finally, we had our first class profile to review, from the Duke / Fuqua Class of 2027. For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected three ApplyWire entries: This week's first MBA admissions candidate graduated from the Naval Academy and was a division 1 athlete. They appear to have a very decent career in the navy. Unfortunately, they have a low GPA and a modest GRE score. This week's second MBA candidate is from Mexico and targeting Dartmouth / Tuck and several Canada-based programs. They are a chemical engineer graduate with several years of business experience. The final MBA candidate has recently had a fourteen-month break from work. They also want to waive the GMAT. They do appear to have strong prior experience and academics, but we caution against the waiver. This episode was recorded in Paris, France and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who've been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!
America enters a new age of political violence, student shot after mistaken ID mishap with officer during Naval Academy lockdown, and paying kids to stay off their phones.
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