I recently read a book that I love: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.
I've read a lot of books on productivity, and this is by far one of the best I've read. Because it takes a completely different approach to our view of time and how to get things done.
In this episode, I go through a tactical list he includes in the book about 10 Tools for Embracing Your Finitude. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.
Why Listen:
Billy is a professional golfer, the first Naval Academy graduate to earn a PGA TOUR card, which he has done for the last seven years. The more I learn about Billy’s journey, the more I’m blown away by what he achieved. In a field that is crowded and incredibly competitive, Billy has succeeded despite having five years where - instead of focusing 100% on golf like his peer set - he was serving in the military.In this interview we talk about cultivating a mindset of excellence - even though serving as a Surface Warfare Officer didn’t directly relate to his aspirations as a golfer - he focused on it 100% and did the best job he could. We talk about making sacrifices and how to balance that with being present with one’s family. We talk about what life is like on the PGA Tour and more.
About Billy:
Billy Hurley III was a member of the victorious American team in the 2005 Walker Cup and served as captain of the 2004 Palmer Cup Team. He won seven collegiate golf titles at the Naval Academy, was named 2004 Patriot League Player of the Year and was ranked the #6 best amateur in the world. Billy was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Surface Warfare Officer for five years. After his Naval service, Billy turned his focus to golf. He earned his place on the Web.com Tour in 2011, finishing the season in 25th place and becoming the first Naval Academy graduate to earn a PGA TOUR Card. He has continued to be a strong competitor on the TOUR, winning the 2016 Quicken Loans National – a Tiger Woods-hosted tribute to military personnel. With the win, Billy qualified for his first PGA and Masters Championships.
Normally on the show I interview a military Veteran about their civilian career: what they do, how they got there, and advice for others seeking to do the same.
Today's episode instead is a book review of a book I just finished that has helped me in my career, and I hope it helps you as well: Masters of Scale.
Matt brings the perspective of what I'd call a midlife entrepreneur, someone who had decade in the military almost a decade of experience a couple degrees before he founded a company and I just always love hearing those stories. His company uses blockchain. So we talk about that how that impacts his business. What that industry looks like, like might be appealing to our listeners, he talks about COVID and how it actually helped him grow as a company in an unexpected way, a very atypical story. He talks about managing cash flow to the day predicting when he was going to run out of money and it's the pandemic he talks about playing Super Mario Brothers as an analogy for keeping a company alive and up leveling, I talked about over communicating in a crisis how Navy pilots are like entrepreneurs, how you figure things out and supplement your knowledge in whatever career you do. He talks about how in career in life, it's a game of at bats not batting average really great point that I'm still thinking about. And he talks about how we're migrating from in person not not migrating from in person to digital but connecting the two and really forward looking thought of where the industry is going.
Why Listen:
In 3 years and 333 episodes, today’s conversation is the highlight of my time with Beyond the Uniform. More than anyone else I have witnessed, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are doing the most to elevate the civilian world’s understanding of military Veterans and what they bring to the table. In this conversation we talk about what it is like for Jocko and Leif to work together now, out of uniform. We also talk about what it was like starting their company, Echelon Front… and it’s not as easy as I had thought it would be. We talk about their newest initiatives - EF Overwatch and EF Legion, incredible recruiting resources for the military community. We talk about career transition advice and mindsets to keep and tweak and more.
About Jocko:
Jocko Willink is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, Dichotomy of Leadership, host of the top-rated Jocko Podcast, and co-founder of Echelon Front, where he serves as Chief Executive Officer, leadership instructor, speaker and strategic advisor. Jocko spent 20 years in the SEAL Teams, starting as an enlisted SEAL and rising through the ranks to become a SEAL officer. As commander of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser during the battle of Ramadi, he orchestrated SEAL operations that helped the “Ready First” Brigade of the U.S. Army’s First Armored Division bring stability to the violent, war-torn city. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War.
Jocko returned from Iraq to serve as Officer-in-Charge of training for all West Coast SEAL Teams. There, he spearheaded the development of leadership training and personally instructed and mentored the next generation of SEAL leaders who have continued to perform with great success on the battlefield. Jocko is the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and numerous other personal and unit awards.
Upon retiring from the Navy, Jocko co-founded Echelon Front, a premier leadership consulting company, where he teaches the leadership principles he learned on the battlefield to help others lead and win. Jocko also authored the Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual, a New York Times Bestseller, and the best selling Way of the Warrior Kid children’s book series.
About Leif:
Leif Babin is a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, co-author of #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, and co-founder of Echelon Front, where he serves as President/Chief Operating Officer, leadership instructor, speaker, and strategic advisor. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Leif served thirteen years in the Navy, including nine in the SEAL Teams. As a SEAL platoon commander in SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, he planned and led major combat operations in the Battle of Ramadi that helped the “Ready First” Brigade of the US Army’s 1st Armored Division achieve victory. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War.
Leif returned from combat and became the primary leadership instructor for all officers graduating from the SEAL training pipeline. There, he reshaped SEAL leadership training to better prepare the next generation of SEAL officers for the immense challenges of combat. During his last tour, Leif served as Operations Officer and Executive Officer at a SEAL Team where he again deployed to Iraq with a Special Operations Task Force. He is the recipient of the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and a Purple Heart.
Upon his departure from active duty, Leif co-founded Echelon Front, a premier leadership consulting company that helps others build their own high-performance winning teams.
Normally on the show I interview a military Veteran about their civilian career: what they do, how they got there, and advice for others seeking to do the same.
Today's episode instead is a book review of a book I just finished that has helped me in my career, and I hope it helps you as well: Masters of Scale.
In this episode I provide a high-level summary of the book, Rocket Fuel. This is a book for anyone interested in leading a 50+ person company, or for any entrepreneur looking to scale their company. You can find a copy of the book at https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Fuel-Essential-Combination-Business/dp/1942952317
In this episode I provide a book review of Atomic Habits by James Clear. This is a FANTASTIC habit relevant to any career path (as well as your personal life). It efficiently explains incredible tactics to employ to build habits that will get you where you want to go, and destroy the habits that keep you from getting there.
In this episode, I provide my key takeaways from a book a recent guest recommended to me; WHO not HOW. It is a book all about the fact that, when presented with a problem, we often think: how can I solve this? Instead, the book talks about shifting to a "who can help me solve this" mindset. By finding a WHO who has a network and area of expertise to solve your problem, you free yourself up instead to operate in your own particular zone of genius.
Why Listen:
KC overlapped his time in the military with his time at NASA having over 20 years at each of those organizations. Although his childhood aspiration was to become an astronaut, and he got to the final stages of that process, he ended up starting a company called Athlete Foundary. I love their mission because it's aimed at helping children of any zip code and background fulfill their dream of becoming collegiate athletes. By leveling the playing field and making it clear what process people need to follow to become a collegiate athlete, he's helping hundreds of 1000s of people across the United States. This is a great episode for those of you interested in entrepreneurship. It's also great to see how someone is having a positive impact on the world after the military service, and also hearing about his experience at NASA.
About KC:
KC Chhipwadia is the CEO and Founder of Athlete Foundary. For the driven middle and high school student athlete, Athlete Foundary improves the odds of her achieving her dream to become a collegiate athlete, regardless of zip code, by providing a first-of-its-kind athletic and academic unified plan, integrated with qualities collegiate coaches actually value so they can track, build, and communicate a better journey to collegiate athletics. KC served for 20 years as a Senior Human Spaceflight Engineer at NASA Johnson Space Center, supporting over 50 Space Shuttle missions. He also served for over 20 years, both active and reserved in the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, including deployments to Iraq looking for our missing-in-action, and Afghanistan with Naval Special Warfare.
Why Listen:
Today's interview is a different story than I've heard before. Because Justin didn't found a company, he was working at a company called Intuit, getting a lot of experience in product innovation. He was contacted by a company right when he was starting his entrepreneurial journey about having the possibility of him taking over as CEO. It's a path that I haven't heard of a lot. He's done well at tripling the size of this company in those two years. Even though at that time the pandemic started and he lost a third of his revenue overnight. I love this conversation. Keep an ear out for when he talks about it. He took action while on active duty, earning his MBA and volunteering so that when he got out of the military, his resume had mostly non-military items, which was an impressive idea. I learned a lot from Justin; he seems like a natural coach, and I'm personally looking forward to keeping in contact with him and continuing to learn from his example of leadership.
About Justin:
Justin Wells is the CEO at Interlaced.io. It's a 50-person IT services company in San Diego. They provide premium IT managed services, essentially enterprise-grade IT programs and fractional IT departments with Apple Cloud and networking expertise. Justin started at the Naval Academy, after which he served in the Navy for ten years as a Naval Aviator. He earned his MBA from UC San Diego, focusing on innovation strategy, business development, and growth partnership. Interlaced.io was founded in 2009. Justin took over as CEO two years ago, tripling the company's size over that time through organic growth and a recent acquisition.
