Ep 90 Tales of Leadership with David Vardeman

David Vardeman is a U.S. Patriot. Over the last ten years, David has developed a deep understanding of service, sacrifice, and selfless giving to both the US Military Active Duty and US Veteran Communities. His tireless work is for the benefit of those in need. He has had direct access to both active duty and retired Flag Officers at all levels, but he has really found a calling to help military of all positions and experience levels. His deep knowledge on multiple military verticals allows him to listen to an individual, regarding what is important to them, rather than any personal agenda. He specializes in all military health issues, military occupational transition, and military historical preservation. Currently, David has little free time, but the rewards he gets from helping others brings unmatched spiritual satisfaction. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Tells the Leadership podcast. This podcast is for leaders at any phase on their leadership journey to become a more purposeful and accountable leader what I like to call a pal. Join me on our journey together towards transformational leadership.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right team, welcome back to the Tells the Leadership podcast. I am your host, josh McMillian. I'm an active duty Army officer. I have over 16 years of leadership experience and I'm a leadership coach for both the Army and then outside the Army, and I am on a mission to create a better leader what I like to call a purposeful, accountable leader or a pal and my vision is to end toxic leadership by promoting transformational stories and skills. And on today's episode I am bringing you one of the best well-connected men in Washington DC, david Farnham.

Speaker 2: 0:59

David is a US patriot, developed a deep understanding of what it means to serve, sacrifice and have selfless actions giving to both the US military, active duty and the veteran communities as a whole across the OD. He has tirelessly worked for the benefit of those who need it. He has had direct access to both active duty and retired flag officers at all levels and he really found a calling in helping military of all positions and experience levels. He has a deep understanding and knowledge base on the multiple military verticals, allowing him to listen to an individual regarding of what's truly important to them, rather than having a personal agenda when it comes to his leadership and service. He specializes in military health issues, military occupational transition and military historical preservation. Currently, david has really zero free time and you're going to hear that through everything that he is doing, but his level of sacrifice and commitment to this country is unwavering. I don't think I've had anyone on my show that does so much for so many people, and does it because he chooses to, not because he needs to, because he doesn't, but he does it because he wants to make this country a better place for you and me. So let's go ahead and let David into the podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:34

David, welcome to the Tales of Leadership Podcast. Brother, I'm excited to have you on, but how are you doing?

Speaker 3: 2:41

I'm doing great. I'm really excited to be here and I really love your channel, and all the different guests you've had in the past have been incredibly impressive, and you know you got my buddy, Robert, coming on next, so you know I got to set the stage right and give a little competition, so we're going to have a great conversation. I look forward to you know today and being with you.

Speaker 2: 3:03

You know I was thinking about that today. I was kind of reflecting on this journey because I've been podcasting now for almost a year and three months and just all the awesome people that I've gotten the opportunity to talk to that I would not have normally had the opportunity to talk to if I didn't put myself out in this forum and a lot of that came through some of the conversations that we've had and those should have been podcasts by themselves, because we I think we've had like two hour phone calls yeah, yeah, they've been great and really, uh, you know, enlightened in terms of what our expectations are for today, but also you know how we can have a better impact today as well.

Speaker 3: 3:40

So I think they were a great, uh, you know, starting starting point for both of us.

Speaker 2: 3:44

I'm going to start off with a quote, because Vice Admiral Sally O'Hare stated that you are the most military connected individual in Washington DC that she has ever met and I want to set the stage is like listeners, be ready, because David does everything and it's almost to the point of where I don't know how you're doing all of that. It's just one person, but I'm excited to kind of dig into all that. A great place to start is maybe just provide a quick overview to the listeners of who you are.

Speaker 3: 4:18

Again. My name is David Vardaman. I'm a national commercial banker. In terms of my job, I'm helping the not-for-profit community from coast to coast, but during my volunteer time I'm totally dedicated over the last 10 years to the US veteran community and that includes joining different veteran service organization boards. I currently sit on seven of them. I sit on the Association of the United States Navy Navy League of the United States Navy, safe Harbor Foundation, the National Coast Guard Foundation, warriors Ethos, wounded Paw Project, international Leadership Foundation.

Speaker 3: 4:57

I'm on two national task forces American Legion, small Business Task Force and the Citizen Warrior Coalition. It's the reserve organization and different, all the different branches of the reserves that we support. So that is a pretty hefty lift right there. But I also support 40 veteran service organizations philanthropically, as well as 10 traditional, not for profits that in different ways tie into the military community, such as cancer research et cetera. So I'm extremely busy in terms of my volunteerism, intertwined with my national mission, with my work. So everything is all together, but it's all very focused on helping the US veterans, helping the active duty, making their lives better every single day.

Speaker 2: 5:44

Veterans helping the active duty, making their lives better every single day.

Speaker 2: 5:46

I love it because it's all connected and I would love to kind of take it and it's not even including what you're doing or you plan to do in 2024, because you're helping build the Navy Museum right now, which is a multi-billion dollar project within DC.

Speaker 2: 6:00

So I truly mean this is that I'm humbled to have you now as a connection and, you know, hopefully after this podcast we continue to grow as a friend, cause I know that I'm going to be able to learn a lot from you and when I move up to the big house one day or the Pentagon, I'm probably going to get a chance to see you, probably pretty frequently. But it's truly amazing, just all the things you listed, and I always prep every single one of my podcast episodes. It's usually straightforward you know someone you know they go into a career and they enter, they have a challenge and then they reinvent themselves and they do that transition to whatever the passion is. They find that passion. But you, man, are doing so much and it's truly inspiring and, I think, a great way to start because you work with so many patriots across all of DOD defining what leadership is to you, and I'm really curious too how has that changed with some of the caliber of leaders that you're around every day?

Speaker 3: 7:03

Yeah, I thank you so much because leadership is very complex to me and you and I talked for a long time about this because, you know, putting it into words is very complex, so I decided to write it down so you know, we could, we could get it and it would be coherent. And so I'm going to just read what I stated in terms of what I feel leadership is. Just read what I stated in terms of what I feel leadership is. Leadership based on my last 10 years in the field, helping everyday active duty and US veterans in need continues to develop and grow. Based on multiple verticals.

Speaker 3: 7:34

I am an expert. My viewpoints of leadership has to do with being the right person at the right time, based on one's skills and experience to execute the task successfully in front of them. But, most important, have the confidence of those who are looking to you to lead. Courage, sacrifice, vision, accountability, character, and then the execution will define you as a leader on each task throughout one's life.

Speaker 2: 8:06

You listed so many different types of values through there and I love that of how you kind of started it off with being the right person at the right time In leadership.

Speaker 2: 8:20

The more I go down this journey and General Petraeus, when I had him on, really highlighted this fact is that there's not a set strategy that you can always use to be successful in every job. It's really tailored towards the environment you find yourself in, the team that you're on. You know where I work within SoCal. My leadership style is completely different than how I was when I was a company commander and I was commanding 250 people, because the level of maturity within the organization. I can be more of myself and less stoic is a good way of kind of saying that. But my core values still hold true and I think that that's one of the critical things within defining leadership is defining who you are and how you show up, and you do that, I think, by those core values, the things that you just stated and listed out, because those ring true throughout your entire journey. How you show up is different and that is really hard to describe.

Speaker 3: 9:23

You could do a cookie cutter version of what is leadership, look it up in the dictionary and say it and move on with the conversation.

Speaker 3: 9:30

It's much more difficult to say what are the aspects that you're going to need for the rest of your life to be an effective leader. And again, the courage, sacrifice, vision, accountability, character is exactly what you were talking about in terms of your transition from a 250 to what you're doing now. And one of the really great aspects is your life will change dramatically pretty much every seven years. You're going to be sort of a different person every seven years, or it's going to be six years too, right, but you're going to have different tasks and different responsibilities and through that maturity, you're going to have different leadership challenges that are going to face you, and whether or not you can live up to that and execute is going to be based on your core values. Like you said and that is really what I've learned over the last decades of service and working is that you will change. Your responsibilities are going to change. Recently, we had a death of one of the executive directors and then one of the not-for-profits I listed.

Speaker 3: 10:30

I never in my life thought I was going to have to take over a not-for-profit because I'm handling the finances and take care and sort of run the thing. But I had to take on the leadership role based on my experience and based on the character of the need. And if I didn't do it, who else was going to do it? So it isn't a lifetime commitment, but it is something that I had to execute at the moment and that was on top of everything else I'm doing right, but it just had to be done. So somebody has to step up and lead and take care of transactions, based on your skillset and based on your capability to execute and then allowing people to allow you to do that leadership. It will bring it all together into a really nice experience.

Speaker 2: 11:10

I think one of the critical characteristics that defines I always call a pal or a purposeful, accountable leader, and to me that is someone who leads with transformational leadership styles and is a servant leader transformational leadership styles and as a servant leader but one of the key characteristics that I've kind of always noticed within leaders is that ability to be unreasonable or bold and, like what you just said, is that you stood up in a time of turbulence of where most people probably would not have raised their right hand to kind of fill that role, but you understood that your skill set, you're the right person for the right time to fill that void. That's awesome connection it's accountability.

Speaker 3: 11:49

Like I, I knew I could handle the accountability of the task and it's so important the leader to to do those tasks that do fit into your skill set and not try to do something and try to be the all great leader of you know and handle everything, because different people have different skill sets that far that you should be a follower and not necessarily the leader at all different transactions that you know need to be done.

Speaker 3: 12:14

So I do not jump in on every single thing, but this was when I felt like I needed the accountability and the group needed the protection and I needed to do it. So sometimes you do need to take a step, but then you take a step back when you're no longer needed, and that's part of leadership as well I have a concept.

Speaker 2: 12:32

We haven't even got any questions up so far. Right, I call it the rule of sledgehammer, um, and as a leader, being a sledgehammer, and? But you're not always applying that type of mentality, you only apply that?

Speaker 2: 12:44

mentality when you need to, because you'd still need to hold your team accountable. But when they get to a certain point of where they're stretched beyond their capacity, that's when the leader steps in and they have a sledgehammer mentality. They break through that obstacle or whatever mental barrier the team's in and then they hold their team accountable. All right, figure out a system or a process that will not allow that to happen again and give the ball back to their court. You, kind of like, just slowly sink away back into the shadows.

Speaker 3: 13:14

And what you're saying is great, because that applies to both the civilian leadership as well as military. It is really. You know some great stuff and you know I think that's what I was doing on this particular but. But you know we've learned that you have to do that all throughout the different transactions that you may be leading, whereas push, pull back and make sure that people are still with you through the whole process, because you don't want to alienate somebody you know during the process and lose their insight just because you're pushing everything forward, right? So I try to. I try to balance and be soft and, you know, and tough all at the same time with with everybody I deal with. I do make mistakes, and so that's being a real leader, I think, is not only allowing mistakes, but also making them yourselves, because how are you supposed to grow with more mistakes, right?

Speaker 3: 14:05

so I made all the mistakes in the world, and so I think that I think that um, in terms of the military and how that ties into the military is I was like we were discussing back in you know the 2014 13 15 range, when they when, when it was open with the us army and the navy were talking about allowing their people to make mistakes but not holding them to an accountability where it ruins their career or ruins their esteem.

Speaker 3: 14:31

And so I think that we need to sort of get back to those conversations with the military and how we're treating people as they come through in their 20s. You know, everybody in their 20s mess up, right, and everybody in their 30s have their moments, right, so their leadership moments when they want to be a little bit more aggressive, right. So I think that we, as leaders, and also the flag officers all the way down to the you know, the colonel level and major level, we all have to like think about, you know, how do we want to discipline? How do we want to discipline, how do we want to bring these young people up in a way that we do not knock themselves down to the point where they become unconfident or that second guess their good intentions and good decisions.

Speaker 2: 15:19

There was one organization that I worked for and it was a hands down one of the best jobs that I've ever had in the Army. And I say that because the Army gave me keys to a Humvee and I had no one supervising me and I was in Fort Polk, louisiana. It's been right now, but we'll just say that there may or may not been some mudding. That happened in Fort Polk, right. That was such a beautiful example when we were talking on the phone of failing and then understanding that the importance of failing and me now having a master's degree in engineering, I see even more of a correlation. Is that what is engineering if it is not to fail, fail small and fail quickly, so then you can identify the problem, isolate it and improve and grow. And what the Army does, or at least you know. When I was in the operational side, especially at those CTC rotations, they did a really good job of stretching a brigade combat team to the point of failure because they wanted to take you to the point where you were going to fail. You know, mentally, physically, logistically, so you could identify those issues, those pain points of where hey, this is why you failed. So when you go, actually deploy, if you were going to Iraq or Syria or wherever, you would not experience that same type of negative event when it actually mattered. And we would do a really good job of capturing those lessons learned all the way at the platoon to a brigade, after action review and capturing those feedbacks.

Speaker 2: 16:55

But I think what you just said is that leaders nowadays at least what I've seen is they're afraid to give the authority to their subordinate leaders to make those types of decisions because they kind of want to hoard them, and I see that a lot within that. The acquisition field is that you know, the bureaucracy that we live in gives leaders a tremendous amount of power and when you have that power it's very hard to give it away. But to be an effective leader you have to be able to do that and with that there's going to be failure and there's going to be a lot of it. But as long as you don't violate a core value of your organization, of what you're trying to build within the culture and the climate, I think it's it's it's OK to allow that individual to fail because at the end of the day they're being fortified through fire, they're going to come out stronger, they're going to become a better individual and you're grooming the future leaders in your organization.

Speaker 3: 17:55

What are you saying? You're saying that they're training. You trained before you went. There were seeds and so you were prepared and you had the failure here. That's the same in all the different elements, correct?

Speaker 3: 18:06

So why not push them? Why not allow them to fail and learn and grow and develop as an individual, Because these are the future leaders of our nation, and if we do not allow them to understand that they not only have to learn through trial and error, but the people coming after them have to learn through trial and error. So how are we going to build a really strong culture when we're not allowing people to embrace their own potential and also push their own potential? So I think this is exciting if we can get the thought process back to where we were five or six or seven years ago, when we were really pushing that element of allowing people to grow and develop and fail and continue to move and forge forward. And so that is sort of an off topic of leadership. But something very important to what we're doing is not only in the civilian world, but also in the in terms of the mentor civilian world, as well as what's going on in the military.

Speaker 2: 19:08

So I think as well. I was just saying this is why I love talking to you, because, like, we haven't literally gotten to any of the questions that I've written down, but every time I talk to you you fire me up because we share the same passion. And yesterday I took a test the resiliency-based leadership program. I got certified on that last night. It's a four-hour exam, yeah, and the dude at the end is like how do you feel? He's like I feel fired up because we're talking about stuff that I love. So I'm going to shut up so we don't derail the conversation, but I would love to kind of get into. You know where your leadership journey started, starting off at James Madison university. You graduate through there and then you enter the banking field, and I think you started off with like 54 employees is when you first entered in the banking.

Speaker 3: 20:00

When I entered banking and you know, I did it because I had to get health insurance and then, you know, I did it because I had to get health insurance and then, you know, things just progressed very quickly and then I ended up, you know, leading and growing as an individual national banker and leading the nation and commercial banking and different in a different company that I was working for at that time. So I really became extremely good at what I did, you know, during my independent sales. It's a sort of an independent sales national commercial banking relationship manager type job. And so then I went to.

Speaker 3: 20:48

Capitol Hill and then I started managing lots of different people in terms of starting a private banking initiative. And then, when I was on Capitol Hill, I worked with Muhammad Yunus and others on microlending. The only reason I bring that up is, you know, there could be a government shutdown coming up. Yeah, we started the microlending program for the capitol police and the architect of the capitol. So I was really involved with you know how do I help people and that really brought my patriotism back. You know, because I grew up as a navy, with a navy family, and it was very, very patri, very patriotic.

Speaker 3: 21:23

And you know, then I got on Capitol Hill and I actually started wearing my American flag that you see over here on my lapel, because I wanted people when they came to Washington DC and came to the Capitol, they would see that people are patriotic and, you know, really loving their country, and so that started it all back and then sort of the rest is history when I left because then I joined a private business bank and I began my work with the Wounded Lawyers and with Navy Safe Harbor and it just sort of snowballed from there to what it is today. And so it's 10 years of a lot of hard work. It's 10 years of really dedicated day-to-day, you know, face-to-face interaction with veterans and senior leadership of the Army, navy, air Force, marine, coast Guard, all the way down, you know, with the American Legion, down with the, you know, infantry, and so it's really encompassed the entire military community. There is not one branch I do not help more than the other branches. There is not one branch I do not help more than the other branches and I'm very, very dedicated to making people's lives better and I did that through a lot of hard work, trial esteems of both a soldier or a sailor and or young people coming up in all of life, but let's just focus in on the sailors and the soldiers the three critical elements of esteem I decided I had to tackle and that was personal spiritual esteem, occupational esteem and physical fitness esteem I decided I had to tackle and that was personal spiritual esteem, occupational esteem and physical fitness esteem.

Speaker 3: 23:09

And so by focusing in on those three esteems in terms of what I wanted to accomplish, I was able to build a network of 40 to 45 veteran service organizations that sort of encompass one of those values and they encompass them in all different ways, encompass one of those values and they encompass it in all different ways. And it allowed me a really strong focus of what am I doing, why am I doing it and how am I leading, you know, to help as many people as I possibly can. And it really has blossomed into something extremely special and once in a lifetime I can honestly say that I'm the top national banker in military affairs in the nation. I can say that with all due confidence because I don't know how to be close to what I'm doing, but it's very strategic and it's very smart and it's all tied into a leadership concept of how do you be one person and impact as many people as humanly possible. And I can dive deeper into that if you have questions regarding those esteems and what I'm really an expert on at this time.

Speaker 2: 24:14

Yeah, I know, when we were talking before is that something very similar that I have about, you know, having fulfillment in life between work, work, family, self I I joked with you before is that I'm just a simple infantryman and I keep everything. Kiss, keep it simple, stupid, right is that to me? Anyone that you know that I work with, and especially with me, you have to be able to have a harmonious life between work of what, uh what occupational family, which I think falls within that personal space and then spiritual and then and self um, which which is you, you know right, like you have to be able to to serve yourself.

Speaker 2: 24:56

And when I was always in the zone or switched on, I had a healthy balance between all those. It wasn't perfectly balanced, because life is never balanced in that way and it's always seasons of life. Maybe our occupational is going to require more time, maybe our spiritual is going to require more time because we're going through a challenging situation and we need to turn to Christ, or maybe someone else needs help and we have to be able to do that. But walk me through. How did you develop those three pillars, that framework?

Speaker 3: 25:30

I think I was seeing what was struggling with that on a day-to-day basis and of course you have the elephant in the room is the suicide prevention.

Speaker 3: 25:39

I specialized in that for five years and that's sort of how I sort of encompassed these three because I saw, after those five years of really digging deep and trying to do my very best to help people, I found that I have to help all the other organizations and groups to help them in order to get a maximized effort out there with different ideas and different techniques in order to help US veterans in active duty have a better, healthy day-to-day life. Okay. So then I said, okay, what is one of the big stressors that we all go through through life, from 20, whatever 18 to maybe 65, and that's occupational and esteem. You know, do you feel good about your job? And then I was thinking, when the people are transitioning out, are they having a good experience? And I found out that you know eight out of nine veterans that leave only last in their first job for nine months. Right, yeah.

Speaker 3: 26:38

Well, instead of, you know, just preaching it, I actually engaged in practicing. You know, just preaching it, I actually engaged in practicing. I joined Warriors Ethos, which is a military transition group that is run by Jared Shepard and General Clark and Medal of of a US veteran transitioning into the workforce. And how do I make their journey better and how do I make it more comfortable in terms of their transition? And am I there? What's even more important, am I there after the nine months? Okay, Because that's when the trouble begins on suicide prevention, okay, they're all happy, they got their first job, okay, but then they find that that isn't the right fit, that isn't the spiritual fit, that isn't giving them the physical fitness ability that they're looking for, correct, so they become out of balance, and so we have to be there for them when they become out of balance, to get them back on the track where they're more comfortable in terms of what they want to do with their life, because I guarantee you they're more focused nine months after than they are, right, when they get out.

Speaker 3: 27:51

And one thing I do want to say is I deal with flag officers from four stars all the way down to infantry, and everybody's anxiety is consistent. I talk to four stars that are about to get out who say the same stick as an infantry guy about to get out. You know, maybe the infantry guy is a little bit more anxious about getting that first job but their anxiety levels, everything about their purpose, everything about their contribution to the nation is all very similar and we have to be much more in tune with that and be able to really be patient with them and be really focused on helping them during that time. So I think that explains sort of why I got into the occupational esteem issue. I do help groups like Boots to Books out in California.

Speaker 3: 28:39

I'm interested in a lot of different organizations throughout the nation, hiring Our Heroes with Admiral Adam Rock.

Speaker 3: 28:47

You know there are different people that I want to help, but so I'm very in tune with this whole issue and how the different programs are going.

Speaker 3: 28:54

I do believe in all the different programs and they all sort of serve a different purpose, which I think is really fascinating, and how we get the best practices of all of them is something I need to work on in the future, but right now I'm just focused on making a difference in occupational transition and this will help save lives. Somebody who has a purpose, somebody who is in tune with what they want to do with the rest of their life, will really help guide them to the spiritual softness that will help them you know, help them with some of their negative feelings. I can get more into that whole other issue because that's a very deep one, but but these are the things that I'm doing to try to help veterans on the occupational side. On the physical fitness side, I join energies with groups like Warriors Rising and also Catch a Liftoff. These different groups give veterans an opportunity to regain their health and physical fitness through different programs that bring them up in terms of it's always better.

Speaker 3: 30:07

Don't you feel better when you're working out and you're not overweight? I mean, I do like I'm dying, to start 100%.

Speaker 2: 30:15

I'm like a diva those snicker commercials. If I don't work out in a day I just I get sassy. That's the best way to define it.

Speaker 3: 30:22

And then you know, for me, I've been working so hard on this veteran state. I think I've been like doing and going to these dinners and drinking and eating.

Speaker 2: 30:29

You know, you blow my mind every day on linkedin, you post this amazing picture of an amazing event gala that you're always attending. I'm like I think david is the most interesting man in the world, like those commercials. It's like that's you.

Speaker 3: 30:46

It's like it, it it's been a very wonderful, intense, you know, like heavy weight gaining last two weeks, and so you know I'm also in tune with. You know I have to be physically. You know you have to practice.

Speaker 3: 31:02

I have to be on point with my occupation. I have to be physically fit and then I also have to work on spirituality and the spirituality elements. And then I also have to work on spirituality and the spirituality elements. I deal with taps and I, you know, in terms of the Gold Star Bereavement programs throughout the nation and I try to build people up through Navy Safe Harbor Foundation and the Warrior Games and making people who are injured feel better about themselves and community.

Speaker 3: 31:30

So there's all sorts of different spiritual and I also have become extremely experienced spiritually because of this experience, because I've had all sorts of wonderful interventions, you know, in terms of my experience in helping people and where that has led, and it's only made me super strong spiritually because there's no question in my mind that we're being watched and that our actions are being changed. So I think, um, I think that really is inspiring in itself. So, you know, believe in the um. We believe in the spiritual, occupational, physical. If you try it, as, as you know yourself, you're going to find out how hard it is to really balance all three and we have to put that in perspective with somebody who is out of balance and what they're going through, and be empathetic and engage, and that is what I've been doing the last 10 years in terms of trying to create programs and support all these different, 40 different VSS in order to make a really powerful, impactful difference for as many lives as I humanly possibly can.

Speaker 2: 32:34

I think that's one of the most impactful missions that you're currently on is the suicide prevention within the US military, because that is something that is near and dear to my heart, because I've had more friends that I can count that have committed suicide, because I've had more friends that I can count that have committed suicide. And it always is through those transition points, and it's just the same in the battlefield. What is the most dangerous time in a combat operation is those transition points when you're entering or you're exiting or you're transitioning from offensive to defensive operations. That's when darkness can creep in, that's when the enemy gets a vote, because that's when you're most vulnerable.

Speaker 2: 33:16

And we need more people like you that are willing to use the resources that they have for good and help save lives and to, kind of, you know, shape this even more powerful. How many soldiers and don't don't take this as a quote, cause this probably isn't spot on, but it's pretty close Did we lose in Iraqq and afghanistan? You know the 20 plus years? Yeah, like between six to seven thousand. Now do the math and I'm sure you're a banker, so you probably do the public math on this one 22 veterans a day for that 20 plus years committed suicide that's over 160 160,000 soldiers that could have been maybe not all of them we could have helped, but a good portion of those can.

Speaker 2: 33:58

That's what I do. What I do is because I believe that if I can help show leaders a better way to lead, with a servant leadership style that uses meekness as the power within leadership and you don't always have to be an alpha, then maybe that can touch someone's life and save someone's life, because everything rises and falls on leadership. I love how you talked about that is that you had to learn to lead yourself with this framework practice what you preach before you go, start to talk to other people, because that is absolutely essential, because you show up authentically and if you weren't practicing what you're preaching and you weren't giving that type of advice or guidance, people would see through that. They would see that you weren't your authentic self. So I love that.

Speaker 3: 34:47

I love everything you're doing with that Everything I'm doing is totally authentic, because what am I gaining? I'm not gaining financial wealth. It's all about doing and being a patriot to the United States. That's what it's all about. I mean, we live in the best country in the world. We have to. We shouldn't be going through 22 a day, right? So we have to think about. And there was a very famous man. He asked me what was the number one best practice? There is no one number one best practice.

Speaker 2: 35:16

No, there's not.

Speaker 3: 35:17

Every individual is so unique and this is not something I wanted to learn. Okay, you know, when you're diving into the topic, you want to save lives, you want to stop it right, but every soul is so unique that it's very difficult to identify. I'm on Navy Safe Harbor Foundation Board. We recognize the number one wounded warrior out of the 10,000 throughout our nation and one of them suffered with PTSD. But they were put at the very pinnacle of the United States Navy.

Speaker 3: 35:50

You know that person, tragically, and I was always worried about that person because they were put at the very pinnacle of the United States Navy. That person, tragically, and I was always worried about that person because they were over emotional and I was like, why are you hugging everybody? It was just sort of strange and I was like I was a little worried about him and he did commit suicide two years later and he was the pinnacle. Ok, he was the person that we all said was the very, you know, the fine recovery, OK, so, so it's very hard to like pinpoint and say this person's healthy, this person is not. What we can do is create better environment and better programs that make it easier or or bring purpose or commodity. You know when you're all together you know, bring the camaraderie the camaraderie.

Speaker 3: 36:33

Thank you, I was just bringing everybody together, you know, in a common good, and I think we're getting there and I think we're doing better. And one thing I do want to, you know, state with regards to suicide with women. Right, women's numbers were going up and up and up and the reason was not because they were in combat, right, the reasons was the PTSD in their childhood was being triggered by events that were taking place in their workplaces, in the military. Okay, so there were flashbacks and bad elements. So how do you identify that? And how do you identify that in the military, right? So I think this issue is so much more complex and so much more difficult and so much more challenging for individuals getting involved in it.

Speaker 3: 37:19

Saying I want to make a difference, right, in all intentions, right, I think sometimes we have to really think about how we can impact. That impact may be helping TAPS, it may be helping Headstrong, it might be helping some other group that is researching also the fight-flight syndrome, which is being studied right now in intense that, you know, getting better research on that. So we can maybe detox people when they come out of the military in order to protect them in terms of their own harm to themselves. So all of these things, intertwined, need to be done more effectively. Now that we know so much more, does that make sense? That is a toffee right there, what I just said. That is a really difficult thing for us to pull together and be able to execute. But the time is over for you know, like you know people doing push-ups 2,200 a day or. The time for that is over. The time for action and time for us to engage with the education that we've learned over the last 10 years needs to begin, and so I challenge, I challenge the VA and other you know, people of power that you know. If you want to make a difference, we have a lot of great programs and research, and how do you identify an individual In the Headstrong at a national gallery?

Speaker 3: 38:41

A guy threw himself off the building and somehow survived, and they put these guys up on stage and say why did you commit suicide? But he said the said the better. The world would be better off if I'm not here, and that has always stuck in my head. You know in terms of where somebody's mind is, you know when, when they do the ultimate deed, and and can we touch more of those people because he regrets doing what he did. So if people regret, you know afterwards what he did. I've never heard somebody say I wish you know I'm happy with what I did and if they could see the impact it has on the families, like I can't even tell you all the debridement programs I've started to help the family members of the suicide because they're devastated. Okay, so I think that's where we have to have better education in lines, even underneath everything you know somehow.

Speaker 3: 39:31

I think you know the Coast Guard with their mental resilience program. Mental resilience is code for suicide prevention, but they try. They're doing wonderful work with the chaplains and trying to get you know at least the stigma of discussion lowered, and so they're probably the best group that I've seen in the different verticals engaged right now in trying to address the issue. But it's still complex and I've just gone on and talked about it for a while because I've been working on it for 10 years. But don't underestimate, if you want to get involved in this topic, if you want to really make a difference in this topic, how much you have to learn in order to have your skill set and your talents put in the right place within this extremely complex, but we do. I totally believe we have to bring this 22 number down because it has not changed one bit since I started 10 years on the process. So obviously maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe obviously the nation has to do something better, but it's very, very complex.

Speaker 2: 40:44

All right, team, let's take a quick break from this podcast and I want to personally invite you to our private Facebook community that I call Purposeful Accountable Leaders, or PALS, and PALS is a community dedicated to inspiring and developing servant leaders by sharing transformational stories and skills Exactly what tells the leadership is all about. My goal is to build a community of like-minded leaders that can share lessons learned, ask questions and celebrate wins when it happens. And my mission in life is clear I will end toxic leadership by sharing transformational stories and skills, and you will find countless transformational leaders in this group, many of them I have had the honor to serve with in the military. If you want to find a community that can help you grow both personally and professionally, we would love to have you. You can simply search Purposeful Accountable Leaders on Facebook or click the Leadership Resources tab in the show notes to join. I am looking forward to seeing you guys and continuing to grow together on our leadership journey.

Speaker 2: 41:46

Back to the podcast. Well, I think you hit the nail on the head is that everyone uses these, I think, for selfish purposes, like when the ice bucket challenge came out for ALMS, right Like, everyone was on social media and they were doing all these ice bucket challenges and the pushup doing 22 a day, but you lose the true purpose of it is that you're challenging someone to do something and then they're looking at it from a more selfish lens, um, in terms of like the social media following the dopamine clicks that we're going to get for the likes that we're going to put in there. But people have times, they have talents and they have treasures. We all have those. How can we leverage our time, our talents and our treasures to actually make a difference? And to hit your note, what you just said is there are so many resources out there and ways to actually put resources in people's hands that are in that dark space, but we're focused more on promoting just a concept 22 pushups a day to bring awareness. Okay, we've got awareness, bro. What are you doing?

Speaker 3: 42:53

I think we have plenty of awareness.

Speaker 2: 42:55

Yeah, so every time, like one of my friends would always like tag me in one of those, I would just never respond, but it was like cause I'm using my influence that I have limited and some of the talents that I possess that's God given to make a difference. You know, it's the whole purpose of doing this podcast is like I'm hoping to reach people out there and build better leaders and the same thing. What you're trying to do and people.

Speaker 3: 43:19

People struggle with their spiritual esteem, but, um, you know, when they may say you know, the world is better off with them. No, without them. With them, but, um, the world is not better off without you, because each individual and each spirit brings, you know, uniqueness and perspective. And they have people who love them, and their family, and and and people who love them in their workplace and in their lives, and to and to turn their head on the bag or to turn their, their thought process away from that and into something dark, you know, is something that they should really consider what their actions will lead to, if, if they can. And so there, there, there, there becomes the medical part where, where you know, the medical people have to have their, have their place right. They need to have these people possibly looked at and spoken to professionally in order for them to work through the things I just stated right. And so everybody has their role in place and we have to be sure to provide the proper medical and psychology support to these individuals that are in need.

Speaker 3: 44:27

And, trust me, when I visited the different posts throughout the nation I won't say which branch, but as I visited the post, people will come up to me in the strangest moments and say you know what my staff is really struggling because of ADLC? And these are not combat staffs, these are people that have to deal with the public in emergency situations, right, so it's across the board. I find and so that worries me a little bit that it's not this whole concept, that it's PTSD, brain trauma. You know veterans that are over, you know fighting ISIS, it's people throughout the entire military for different reasons, and how we begin to really address that is something that will only strengthen the United States military and strengthen the individuals. You know, somebody who has personal esteem, spiritual occupation, physical, is a lot stronger individual than somebody who's struggling in all three right. So I think if we can build people and build the soldiers and the sailors with that type of attitude, you've got a really powerful force coming at whoever you're going after.

Speaker 2: 45:42

That framework. We just circled back to it and that is a critical piece. And I've seen, I know of general officers that's committed suicide.

Speaker 2: 45:51

I know of majors and colonels who've had mental breakdowns like hiding under their bunk in a training situation because they just did not want to be found, and I know that. But because we ask so much, our, our nation's greatest resource and it's the men and women who serve and and you are one of those, I would consider you, you know, a patriot, who who serves our country. We ask so much and we often give them so little in terms of resources to actually accomplish the mission, and it's so they kind of give you kind of a brain. Um, to frame my current job that I'm in right now, my team of three people is managing 34 acquisition programs, which is just insane when you think about, you know, po Aviation in Huntsville, alabama, pmuas has 36 or 34 programs and that's a 360-man person organization.

Speaker 2: 46:49

I have three people and I manage 34 programs, but I do it for such a unique organization that I will find a way to yes, we will find a way to yes, and that level of time that it takes to do that and be intentional, you lose yourself. So you have to have a framework that you can balance yourself with. Yours and mine is exactly the same. Mine's a little bit more rudimentary because it's more basic. I keep in that kismet, but I love that. But I'd love to kind of steer it now to your philanthropic philosophy. So what is a philanthropist, first of all, and then what drove you to serve so deeply within the veteran community?

Speaker 3: 47:30

Really, I've been trained with a very I've been mentored by some of the great philanthropists of our time. Jack London, you know, helped me, guide me in terms of how he guided CACI, in terms of their sponsorships and what they do, and so he helped guide me. And what's great about mentorship is you know, you listen to all what they say and then you sort of do what you want to do, but you take in their efforts and their knowledge. So I didn't do exactly what he said, but it gave me a framework to do it. You know, maybe 70% of what he said right or 80%, and that really helped me. So, getting mentorship on terms of when everybody's coming after you for money, you know how to balance and make decisions that will make everyone feel good about you, know your contribution but also maximize your capability Right. So without him I would not have been able to execute the last five years as efficiently as I have. So he passed away.

Speaker 3: 48:33

He was the chairman of the board of CACI and a billionaire and just a wonderful man, and now his wife, dr Jennifer Lunden, is running his philanthropic work now. But he really helped guide me. So does that answer the question of how, like I got started and you know the guidance of how to distribute the funding and that's a small piece of what you know. That's sort of a piece of what I do. But now I'm more of a proactive action individual engaging in the not-for-profits and what I've been doing lately is helping them with grant work. So you know I can help them with their grant work, which will provide them much more money than what I could provide philanthropically myself.

Speaker 3: 49:20

So I'm sort of taking it to another whole level in terms of volunteers, where I'm getting them the opportunities based on the different opportunities throughout the nation for their particular mission and I'm helping them with their grant work, and that is much more beneficial than than my actual philanthropic work. The philanthropic work helps certain little needs that are needed throughout a year for an organization, but it doesn't make the organization if that makes sense. What does?

Speaker 3: 49:49

make sense is more of the grant, providing an annual income that they'll get from that is far greater than anything I could give. So that's sort of my growth as a leader is learning that piece and being able to expand my model of how to assist people outside of just, you know, my time or treasure, right. So I'm doing a lot more than just philanthropic work. It's far, far greater than that, and also the contribution of the knowledge of how a not-for-profit works is very beneficial.

Speaker 2: 50:25

That's another thing too, is that? So this is just another resource that a veteran could be listening to, of trying to figure out for transition purposes. I've seen now working with so many organizations that develop material solutions for military problems. That are veteran companies and they're all amazing people, but of those it's hard. It is hard for a new company to to start with the level of resources that are required for a small business to kind of stand up and and get going. And I think about, like how many small businesses fail? Um, and I think through the lens of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur usually fails three or four times before they finally hit their stride and become successful.

Speaker 2: 51:12

You know, fail small, fail often and grow every single time. So I love that concept of that. You're providing another amazing resource for the veteran based kind of communities and I think what 40, over 40 programs right now or organizations Right right?

Speaker 3: 51:30

I help a lot of different programs. That's crazy and they're all amazing and they're all very different and they all engage in one of the three aspects we were talking about. Yeah, you know, dear to my heart, you know, due to the fact that people do, there's also the there's also, I'm sorry, there's also the transition into, into entrepreneurism. I'm very involved with groups like Veterans Growing America and the American Legion. I'm working extremely hard on the GI Bill to expand that to entrepreneurial funding. So I'm working with the American Legion on that right now in terms of legislation. So, you know, it's all it's all about. How do we, how do we make the experience of people who don't want to go the traditional route and get the resume and you know, go what if? What? If a young man wants to get out and go and start his own business, Well, how are we going to help him on that, Right? So I'm working really hard on trying to provide verticals that will allow them to explore and fail right, but also explore and um and try the different elements of entrepreneurism that they want. Um, because entrepreneurism really is a key to the veteran community, because you guys are great at starting businesses, because when you get out. You want your mission and you want your purpose to be part of something that is useful to the nation.

Speaker 3: 52:55

Whether it's Don Neal Jones, you know, Veterans Growing America, right? He was a command sergeant major for the United States Army and now he's. Now he pulled all these people together and they're all. They're all selling their goods and they're all veterans, right? Well, this, these are wonderful concepts and and and and.

Speaker 3: 53:14

The possibility of entrepreneurism needs to become more real and more a little bit more easier access to capital that's something I'm working really hard on with the American Legion, Okay. And we're coming up with really unique ideas, because if we can do the PPP loan and give out a trillion dollars, we can come up with a concept that uses cash as collateralization to help businesses get money. So these are but not have risk to the banks and the people in the different groups that are borrowing money. So these are concepts that we have to work on and try to make happen for the young people coming out that want to start their own business. So I want it to be an equal element Start your own business. We want to go through the traditional route of getting a job. It's up to you, but we will help you one way or the other that would be the ultimate goal.

Speaker 2: 54:04

You made a beautiful transition because I was going to ask you walk me through some of your current efforts that you have with the american legion but I want, I want to say I want to say that I am going to have to pick up my, my, my game when it comes to serving.

Speaker 2: 54:22

So my wife and I, I break my. So the three areas that we talked about work, work, family, self. I take it even further and you're going to love this. I call it the seven F's right. So fun, friends-filled, finance, fitness, faith and family.

Speaker 2: 54:37

We set a definable spark matrix every single year. That's 10 years out. So long-term vision for our family, and every year we have communities that we want to serve. So Arlington for this year, I would year we have communities that we want to serve. So our LinkedIn for this year. I would love to take my family to go hang reefs so I can help connect the head, heart and the liver.

Speaker 3: 54:56

I just did a reef for.

Speaker 2: 54:58

I did, and I was peanut butter and chili. I'm living vicariously through your LinkedIn, but I'm going to have to.

Speaker 3: 55:08

That was a great, once in a lifetime moment.

Speaker 2: 55:11

Yeah, and I knew that was. I think we talked on the phone right before that event. You didn't know necessarily what was going to happen.

Speaker 3: 55:18

Yes, I didn't know. I didn't know I was going to lay a wreath among the sacred steps of the tomb of the unknown soldier, that's amazing. Yeah, it was really once in a lifetime. And again it's participating, it's action, it's dedication to one's nation. These things do not happen and they are not given to people that aren't engaged.

Speaker 2: 55:39

So if you want to make a, difference.

Speaker 3: 55:40

You got to get out and you got to stop complaining about how bad something, some conception about how bad things are. They aren't bad at all. When you go to the Arlington National Cemetery and you see all the people that served, all the people that passed away due to their service, and honoring them, you'll have a whole different perspective of how great our nation is, because it is the greatest nation in the world.

Speaker 2: 56:07

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3: 56:09

No, no, no.

Speaker 2: 56:10

That was done. I had a very humbling experience when I first joined the military and I blessed and cursed, I guess, in the way of the platoon that I took over in Afghanistan. My first interaction with them was at Sergeant Rodriguez's memorial and if you've ever attended a service member's memorial and garrison, it is a very emotionally charged fair. Now do that in a combat zone. It is a whole other level.

Speaker 3: 56:43

And.

Speaker 2: 56:43

I didn't even know the platoon that I was going on, but I saw the company commander in tears, barely being able to talk, the platoon leader in tears, barely able to talk, 120 barrel-chested freedom fighters that I probably didn't have any headspace and timing to really understand how great those men were at that moment in time, just on their knees.

Speaker 2: 57:05

And then when I went through that, it changed me. It changed my whole life of how I viewed leadership, because I was coming in that role of having a very selfish mentality of how can I do as good as I possibly can so I can go serve as a platoon leader in 75th Ranger Regiment and go do all these things that I wanted to do? And that moment it stopped me in my tracks and made me think about I'm here to serve, so how can I serve this team the best possible way that I can? And being able to go to Arlington, I think, for my family would probably be able to do that same connection, because it's hard to show that to people who don't understand or live. You have to see it and it is.

Speaker 3: 57:55

It is an amazing sight and every, every american should have together we talked a little bit um yeah, about shared experience and and the loss of shared experience and how that's affecting our nation.

Speaker 3: 58:06

Yeah, and you know that's another whole topic, maybe for another day, but yeah, but that, but I think you're sort of tapping into that. You have to have that shared experience that you had with those, those soldiers on the battlefield. Um, you know, my shared experiences is seeing families, you know, on their knees because their, their child, committed suicide and they sent them off to the army, or they feel their own guilt, and family guilt, of what occurred. Okay, so all of these things are intertwined in terms of service and learning through experience, and also learning by not being selfish and embracing all the different groups throughout the nation and treating them all your brothers and sisters, because we all are.

Speaker 3: 58:51

We all are. You know all souls and within the vehicle and we're, you know we start and we finish right. So there's absolutely nothing to be um jealous about. You know, I did talk to you a little bit sally and I talk about jealousy and how that affects leadership and you have.

Speaker 3: 59:07

You have to rise above it but you also have to be aware of it because it can be damaging toward your greater good. The people that are possibly jealous of me have they done anything to help anybody other than themselves? Probably not right, but they can cause damage towards all the good that I'm doing. So I cannot ignore it. And a lot of people say, just ignore those people, they don't know what they're talking about. Well, you know and have overcome them. I've overcome them through hard work and showing people what I'm doing, and when they see that the jealousy sort of goes away and admiration and more dignity come in sort of goes away and admiration and more dignity come in.

Speaker 2: 1:00:12

I think every episode has a theme. Every person that I get to talk to and just listen to their incredible story has a theme, and yours, I would sum up, is character and consistency. That you have an unwavering character because you know who you are and how you want to show up and what the changes that you want to make. And you are consistent, and throughout your you, you were consistent. You said something there, too, that that I think this, this nation, needs to hear more of is that we're all one team, one fight. It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your socioeconomic background is we are all Americans and put any of us in a country that does not like Americans and they would treat you exactly the same, and I really wish that we had. I don't know if I'll get in trouble for saying this, but mandatory service requirements.

Speaker 3: 1:00:59

No, I'm all into it Me and. General McChrystal, we're all into it Because you're not allowed. Don't go there, go back a shared purpose.

Speaker 2: 1:01:09

But I've worked with some amazing people throughout my time in the military and one thing that was never brought up was race never brought up. You could be with uh refugees from different companies, who are different countries, who came to serve here because they wanted to come from haiti. I had several soldiers that were from or ha, haitian, directly from Haiti, some of the best soldiers I've ever had hands down. I had immigrants from Vietnam could be in my formation. I've had people from the inner city of Chicago and Detroit and I had good old farm boys from Nebraska, but everyone came together. And why did they come together? Because they had shared suffering and pain, but they also had a shared purpose and I think as a country, we're kind of missing that. And then and the unfortunate thing about most of the time of when we do truly come together is through a tragic event. So think about, like 9-11, of that camaraderie that we had about being an American Well, that required a deep sacrifice to this nation to get back to that.

Speaker 2: 1:02:12

And I'm hoping that we don't have to go to that level to recreate that bond. But what you just said, this country and honestly this world, just needs to hear more of that type of message.

Speaker 3: 1:02:24

And the Rookie of the Year for the Baltimore Orioles. Al Bunbury, he played with Cal Ripken, won a World Series in 1968. He was possibly the first platoon leader in Vietnam African-American in 1968. And he stated that. You know exactly what you stated. He said there was no racism. I was just in charge of getting these boys home alive, that's all he said.

Speaker 3: 1:02:52

So you know this is a timeless gift that you know the military gets that 1% of seeing everybody as equal and seeing everybody for their character and their ability to protect one another and not race. My growing up in DC sort of spoiled me, where I've been with the different races and nationalities of the entire world all the time, so that's never really been part of my vocabulary. But again, if we had shared experience, if everybody did have to pull together at the age of 18 and 19, we would have a stronger sense of self and also a stronger sense of national pride.

Speaker 3: 1:03:35

And I see it in Greece. I see it in different countries throughout the world where service mandatory. You see it in Israel, you know where service mandatory is mandatory. So this is not something we have to do in terms of military only. We can also do it for you know, serving in your community or serving yeah, 100%. Yeah, maybe at a different state, you know, but serving community and all doing it together is one.

Speaker 3: 1:04:01

So that is something that I do endorse as well, only because I know the shared experience will make our nation stronger and it's not to put a burden on these and a young person. They will get paid to do it right, you know. Just have that option to have that shared experience would really help bring everybody together instead of continuing to have those people being pulled apart based on something that isn't relevant toward national survival right.

Speaker 2: 1:04:33

I wanna tell you that, looking at the clock, I can't believe it's already an hour. And we've talked about this is that we would be able to do a podcast recording for probably over two hours and rival Joe Rogan right, I have a hard stop at 715, but I don't want this conversation to end because I have so many dang questions that I haven't even been able to bring up, so I'll pose this one. Walk me through some of the awesome projects that you're working in 2024 that's coming up.

Speaker 3: 1:05:02

Well, 2024, I'm going to be working with the American Leasing on the GI Bill and the Advocacy Capital for the for entrepreneurial veterans as a pilot program and sort of taking some of the concepts that we learned in PPP program and discussing those throughout the Legion to construct realistic legislation. That would not be presented by me, of course. It would be presented by professional people that lobby these different laws. But we're working on that. That's really interesting. I'm working on the Navy Museum Project. It's a billion-dollar facility off the wharf. I'm working very closely with your friend and future friend, robert Irvine, who is also deeply involved with that project.

Speaker 3: 1:05:50

But I'm doing a lot of fundraising for them and determined to make that impact as well as I can do. With regards to that and it's really dear to my heart with the family being Navy in the past the Citizen Warrior Coalition is for the reserve, so we'll be helping the reserves and educating businesses on the law, on what they can do and how they hire and how they have to keep them hired, and also, you know, no negativity toward their employment and their obligations to the nation. So we have to do a better job globally over the entire nation in the Army, navy, air Force, marine for retention purposes, which are critical to the preparation and preparedness of our nation's military in terms of conflict. That just goes without saying.

Speaker 3: 1:06:37

So I'm going to be working on that really hard. I'm working on the Wounded Paw Project. It's an anti-dogfighting ring and people might say, how's that military? Well, it's tied with human trafficking and every negative thing you can think of in society is tied to that type of activity. So it brings me back to law enforcement, which I was involved with in the past, and a lot of other. Fbi, CIA.

Speaker 3: 1:06:59

And it will help me educate myself more on the whole topic of human trafficking and how the military is trying to combat that as well. And then, finally, I'm going to well, I'm working on two more American GI Forum. I'm going to be working really closely with them, with their initiatives throughout the year, and of course, I'm on the Kuskar Foundation Board. I'll be working with them with the mental resilience programs, with the senior leadership there as well as the board, and trying to make a difference again with helping people before they become critical and trying to identify them before their mental problems become more serious.

Speaker 3: 1:07:39

And I'm trying to to curve and come up with some really good best practices to spread throughout all the different branches. So that is some of what I'm going to be doing next year, which is new, which I'm very excited about. I still have all my other traditional things I'm doing, but it's going to be really busy, right, but I wouldn't want it any other way and this is what I really want to engage in and I'm passionate about making a difference. I do blend this in with my full-time job and I'm going to be really focused on that as well next year, but I think that it's going to be a great 2024, because all these initiatives are so special and needed and I think I'm going to make a really strong national impact.

Speaker 2: 1:08:23

So I'm moving more from local, you know, helping out like local groups and to really engaging in national issues yeah you, you let me know if you need any free service and I'm going to get the mcmillian clan out there and go help you. Uh, because that's one thing I want to get my daughter more involved in, because she's already a little natural leader, so it's safe to say in f and fy24.

Speaker 2: 1:08:44

I guess I've been conditioned to say that now, uh, 2024, you're not really doing a whole lot right? No, I'm joking, that is incredible man. Your dedication to this country is inspiring and I always kind of go back to that John Quincy Adams quote of the definition of inspire, and I'll have to look it up. But if your actions inspire others to do more, be more, become more than your leader, and you are the epitome of everything that is good within this country.

Speaker 2: 1:09:14

And I think you said it before and this was in the opening notes as well is that you're a patriot to this country, and I think part of being a patriot and living in the greatest country in the world is living in a free country, being able to say what you want, be able to do what you want, be able to start a business because you have the ability to do that. I think freedom is such an important trait and characteristic that our country has that has to be protected, and I'd love to turn it over to you because I know you prepared a comment on this, defining what freedom is.

Speaker 3: 1:09:50

This is my freedom means statement.

Speaker 3: 1:09:54

And it was created for Marty, and Marty and James Feltz, both Army. One was an Army colonel, the other was Army Special Forces, green Beret. Sorry, but these are two great Americans and I dedicate them to you, pam, and I dedicated them to you, and I dedicate this to all the different veterans throughout the nation. This is for you and this is what freedom means to me, but it also is totally dedicated to all of you. Freedom means we live in the greatest nation representing freedom. America loves a winner, america loves the underdog, america loves the comeback kid, and we all have fallen into one of those categories, regardless which category you are in. All Americans have the freedom to find the strength inside themselves to go on the personal journey or the pursuit of happiness. One, then, will find the strength inside themselves to achieve their own personal understanding of freedom. May God give strength to our active duty. May God give strength to our US veterans to protect all Americans'. May God give strength to our US veterans to protect all Americans' pursuit of happiness to protect all Americans' freedom.

Speaker 2: 1:11:14

I love that, brother. That's amazing. I usually do a final show segment that I call the Killer Bees, but I don't want to take away from that amazing kind of definition of freedom that you kind of summed up. That's beautiful and I think that's an absolutely great way to end the show. But before we do, what I'd love to ask is one of those killer bee questions is how can our listeners find you and how can they add value to you, because I know you're doing so much, but how can they find you and how can they add value to your missions that you have going?

Speaker 3: 1:11:46

on. You can find me on LinkedIn, David Vardaman. You'll see my face, just the same one that you use for the promo. I think the way you bring value is. I need support in terms of just spiritual and good wishes, because a lot of what.

Speaker 3: 1:12:04

I do is sort of baked in now in terms of my actions. What I need is A lot of what I do is sort of baked in now in terms of my actions. What I need is, you know, people that recognize and appreciate the effort and if I can get more people like that and that would just build that. Everybody needs a little inspiration or a little thank you once in a while. We don't need them very often, like I don't think Joshua and I need it very often, but just every once in a while. You know it just makes the world of difference. And you know my getting the GI Forum, the American GI Forum. You know selecting me and allowing me to carry their wreath on Veterans Day. You know on the. You know on the sacred ground of the unknown soldier was really really special towards. You know, on the sacred ground of the unknown soldier was really really special towards. You know making my year and also making all the hard work I do worth it.

Speaker 3: 1:12:56

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I'm sorry but yeah, walking those sacred steps, very, very few civilians will ever walk it, and so for me to be honored to do that, you know that is. That tells me that I'm doing everything right. That tells me that you know anybody if I can do it. Anybody can be a US patriot and really deliver what the country needs. And do not do not think that you are too busy, do not think that you are too caught up in other important matters. There's nothing more important. There is nothing more important than giving back and doing the very best for your nation. That will define you, that will live on with you for the rest of your life. So don't throw that opportunity away.

Speaker 2: 1:13:42

Engage it, david. This has been an absolutely phenomenal podcast and I did have a hard stop at 7.15. But I will tell you that I didn't even get to a fraction of the. An even better place because we do live in the greatest country in the world and, trust me, because I've seen some of what the worst humanity has to offer, and a lot of the problems that we have here are so minute and fractions of what we deal with that I'm blessed and honored to now have you as a friend brother, so thank you for everything that you do.

Speaker 3: 1:14:34

Thank you too, and what you're doing with the podcast is absolutely amazing and I think you're on pace to just make a huge difference and allow the really great Americans to be on, and people should be looking out every week for your videos. And you know, I had to make it a little difficult for Richard in the next show.

Speaker 2: 1:14:55

You got to give me some inside baseball questions to ask him.

Speaker 3: 1:15:00

I'll email those to you, but he's a great American. Your next show is going to be absolutely stunning.

Speaker 2: 1:15:05

I love it really. Well, hey, have a great night, david, and I look forward to talking to you in the future. All right, team, it's time for our after action review. That was a phenomenal episode with David and it's just inspiring to hear everything that he is doing and the impacts that he is making at a national level.

Speaker 2: 1:15:27

And you heard some of the efforts of FY24, 2024 that he's gonna be doing. It's just inspiring and it always goes back to a quote and I was able to find it from John Quincy Adams If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. And he is a leader because he embodies that type of selfless service to this nation. So what is the first key takeaway? The first one I have is find your formula. So we talked about personal, occupational, spiritual and having those buckets in life to be able to find fulfillment. But I shared mine, which was work, family, self. And then, to take it even further, I break those down into seven critical areas that I have for my life, which I call those the seven F's, or the pillars of my life. And it's all based on freedom, and we'll get to that here in a second. But it's all based on freedom at the top. Fulfillment finance. But it's all based on freedom at the top Fulfillment finance, family, fitness, faith, field, which is my career and fun. And all those feed into my freedom goals and I have a 10 year freedom goal that I have with my wife, going through the smart filter of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time based and shared, because I share it with the woman that I love and that keeps a thread when life gets crazy right. Because we have work issues, we have family issues, we have self issues and unless we can have a formula that allows us to work through that, we're never going to truly gain momentum and continue to move forward. That's all life is. It's just moving forward. But to do so you have to have those threads that allow you to move forward. And his framework is beautiful and he also connected that with how he does business. He doesn't do business with people that don't have those types of threads or commonalities within his life, that don't have those types of threads or commonalities within his life, and he also finds those people who need that in their life to make change, and one of the occupational ones that we've talked about, that is where you know veteran suicide is highly prevalent. Why? Because that's when it's a transition point of kind of what we've talked about. So the first key takeaway is find the formula that works for you and then continue to develop it.

Speaker 2: 1:17:53

The second one is consistency and character, and that was the theme throughout this entire episode, with David starting off as a young banker all the way now to doing everything that he does as a senior vice president and every nonprofit organization that he works for and all the other veteran communities that he helps. Two things were true Consistency. He didn't get to this level of success or significance, I would argue to say, because of luck. He did it through years and years and years and years of showing up and being consistent with his actions and what we always go back to the concept of rad. He was routine, he was accountable and he was disciplined because he knew where he was wanting to go, because he had perspective, he had alignment between his head, heart and hand. And then the most important one is character Deeds, not words. Doing what you say you're going to do, being a person who can be value added to the organization, but also a high degree of character and very reliable. And if you can do those two things, if you can be consistent and you have a strong character, then you're going to see success. Regardless of what you're wanting to do, wherever you're listening, whatever your profession is, you have consistency and you have character, you're going to see growth in your life. And the last one is make a difference. We talked about that towards the end.

Speaker 2: 1:19:29

We all have talent, we all have time, we all have treasures three T's that I always like to throw out there and I learned that from Jerry St Pierre that I had on my podcast episode. But there are so many resources out there right now that you can do to make a change in whatever you want your life to have meaning and passion and a purpose. For me, it's saving veterans lives, and I do that through using my influence and my platform to help build better leaders. Show you a better way of doing that, that there's a transformational, servant way of being a better leader, and it goes back to a quote that I found developing this AAR from John F Kennedy. Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. We all have an opinion and 22 pushups a day is great for bringing awareness to soldiers, veterans. But we all have time, we all have talents and we all have treasures that we can actively go, act and make a difference, and that's what I'm challenging you to do have talents and we all have treasures that we can actively go, act and make a difference, and that's what I'm challenging you to do. Whatever your passion and your purpose is in life. The time is now. Go act, take your time, take your treasures, take your talents and go make a difference in this world. Make it a better place.

Speaker 2: 1:20:41

Hey, team, do me a favor If you like this episode, share this podcast with someone that is a leader within their own right and again, I see everyone as a leader.

Speaker 2: 1:20:50

So share it with everyone that you know, because you have to lead yourself first and make sure that you go with whatever platform you're listening and you give this a review. I don't care what you review it, it just helps me within the algorithm. But, if I can tempt you, leave a five-star review please, if you're getting any value from the content and finally support the show. And you can do that by going to McMillianLeadershipCoachingcom and clicking the leadership resources tab. You'll see all the different articles that I've written. You'll see all the different podcast episodes that I've done, and I've also started doing new podcast episodes on my website at McMillianLeadershipCoachingcom and writing a blog article for each one of my podcast episodes that air. So I'll have done a deliberate AAR. You can go to that website when this episode airs and be able to read through it so I can distill down all the wisdom that David was able to share in a very short, concise manner. Hey team, I'm your host, josh McMillian, saying every day is a gift. Don't waste yours. I'll see you next time.