Latest / The Whitfield Report / TWR Monday | Jeff Clark Shares Insights on Leadership, Writing, Interviews, and More!

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TWR Monday | Jeff Clark Shares Insights on Leadership, Writing, Interviews, and More! · The Whitfield Report

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Now broadcasting from the Next Gen. conservative studio in
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sunny South Florida, bringing you the latest in politics,
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current events and pop culture. This is the Whitfield Report
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with Sam Whitfield. All righty everyone, and welcome
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to the Monday edition of The Whitfield Report.
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And I am joined here by a a bit of a legend in the author Slash
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podcasting space Mr. Jeff Clark, who is the host of the Course of
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Action Podcast and he's also a an author.
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I did not realize until a couple minutes ago that you had already
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published a book, but that's very instinct.
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So folks, I really don't do much background research on my guests
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before I have them because I I like to allow them to, you know,
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talk about themselves. So First off, Jeff, welcome to
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the program and it's an honor to have you and.
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Appreciate it. Appreciate the awesome intro,
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man. I'm I don't know if I'm a
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legend, but I I certainly appreciate it.
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Well, let me put it this way. Course of action.
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I was thinking of this today. There are three podcasts that I
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really never make sure I miss. One of them is the Fake Untitled
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Podcast, which is hosted by a friend of the show Craig.
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The next is the All In podcast, which is hosted by David Sacks
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and a couple of the venture capitalist podcasters out there.
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And then your podcast, which I just started listening to at the
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end of 2023, has kind become a go to for discovering new
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authors. So.
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Thank you. I I'm pretty impressed.
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But Jeff, why don't you just begin to by telling us a little
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bit about your background just in general, How did you, you
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know, get started in podcasting and just your background in
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general and right? Well, I did.
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I did 12 years on active duty in the Air Force.
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I worked in logistics in the medical field and then I I
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medically retired in 2017. I had a broken back and broken
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shoulders. So they they they medically
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retired me and had me go my own way.
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And then I came back to government service about seven
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months later, and I worked as a search and recovery specialist
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and an operations officer on the civilian side.
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And I've been doing that ever since.
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I recently just switched the job over to data analytics,
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something a little less physical that I really enjoy.
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And as far as the podcast goes, and I really appreciate you
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being a avid listener man, because as you know, it's, it's
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difficult in the podcast space sometimes to try to keep things
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going. But I started that.
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It was kind of an idea back at during COVID.
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I really wanted to do something that was creative, but also
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allowed me to kind of reach out and talk to people and still
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form some relationships and learn.
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Because it was going to be we didn't know how long it was
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going to go on for. But I thought if I started, it'd
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be a good way of still talking to people and expanding, you
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know, how you advertise. And I had.
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I had my book that was going to be coming out and I really just
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jumped into it. Now, I'll say this, I bought the
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equipment to do the podcast, and then I waited probably eight or
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nine months before I actually kicked it off because I just
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kind of had the hesitancy of what if I failed, if it sucks,
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you know? And I was a little afraid of
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that. And then I finally just dove in
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because I had a whole bunch of people who were like, dude,
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that'd be awesome, you know, book me as your one of your
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guests. And I had I had 10 guests like
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immediately. So I just dove in and did it.
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I had no idea what I was doing. Learned a ton of lessons along
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the way. And what you see today is a lot
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of lessons learned, a lot of help from other people getting
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some tips and tricks here and there and just constantly
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learning. I think we're on like we're in
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the 80s on episodes. I think like 8384.
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By the time people hear this, I think, and you know, it's just
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been a it's been a fun ride. I've enjoyed it a lot.
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Yeah, I've been podcasting really since, like, I was a
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teenager, right? And I started way back in 2008,
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really before people even knew what podcasting was.
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And even now I'm still learning, you know, about podcasting, even
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though I've been in it, just because I find that the format,
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you know, kind of keeps evolving.
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When I started podcasting, it was more like of a it was
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basically Internet talk radio, basically.
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And that's how a lot of people, myself included, were doing the
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show. And then Rogan kind of flipped
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the script by doing just long form interviews and
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conversations. And so when I moved to Florida
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in 2014, I kind of retired my old brand and started being more
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long form type podcasts. And yeah, I mean it's ever
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changing and I mean I just turned 29, but I mean now there
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are even kids like younger than me who are just doing podcasts
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from their phone now and it's it's kind of crazy.
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So you know and like you said, you just kind of have to jump
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into it and you know, just from your guest list, I mean I'm I'm
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impressed with some of the guests you've had on.
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I mean I I just, I I tweeted this at you the other day.
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I just listened to your podcast with Brian Andrews and Jeff
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Wilson, who, you know, I just started reading the the Tier one
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series last year and people are like, wait, you just, you just
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now started reading the the Tier one series?
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And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean I've seen it around, but there
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have been a bunch of authors that, you know, because I was in
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college for so many years, I had to kind of way and they were one
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of them. But I'm glad I got into them.
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And you've also had Brad Thor on, which you know, I can't
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imagine that's a, you know, that's no small feat to get
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someone, someone like Brad on your podcast, so.
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Well, you know, I'll give Brad some credit.
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Like, he was certainly open to doing it.
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I had made good friends with his publicist, so I know him.
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I knew him well enough to to ask.
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And I just said, you know, what are the chances the bride would
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do it, You know, because I don't see him doing a lot of podcasts.
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I don't think he you really need to.
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But I said what would be the odds of of getting him and and
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Kyle Mills on and he was like e-mail me about a month before
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their book releases and we'll set it up.
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And I was like cool. So I did and Brad had no problem
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with it. It was a quick 45 minutes and
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afterwards he was like, I can't believe it went by that fast.
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You are an excellent host. So I was like it was it was a
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great, it was awesome. And Brad's one of my favorite
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authors, so it was kind of like one of those.
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If I if I got him to be on the show and then I had was forced
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to shut the podcast down the very next day, I'd be OK with
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that. Yeah, Brad.
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What? Brad was my favorite for a long
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time. However, I I have to say that
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once Jack Carr kind of came on the scene he he replaced both
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Vince and Brad. I was like my all time favorite.
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I still remember you know back back when Ryan Stack before he
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was an author he did the the the Vince Flynn you know Mitch rap
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fan website. And I remember he posted about,
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you know this, this new author, Jack Carr, who was coming on the
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scene and you know, no one knew about the Terminalist.
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And then I remember I I got the Terminalist.
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I think the week it came out and it blew me away.
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I I think I finished that book in like two or three weeks.
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It was amazing, but minus one or two things that I've, you know,
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disagreed with grad on. I've always respected him as an
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author and it's awesome that you were able to have them on SO.
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Yeah, he was. He was incredible.
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Kyle Mills was incredible. Don Bentley, I love, you know,
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Brian Anders and Jeff Wilson, I've been on several times.
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I'm going to have them on again this spring with their new book
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and we're going to talk a little bit of how they're jumping into
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the Tom Clancy series. So I'm looking forward to that.
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Those guys are great dudes. So just podcaster top to
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podcaster, What do you think your biggest challenge has been
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in regards to doing your show? My biggest challenge, I think
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it's probably time because you got to edit and get the episode
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ready. It's going to be kind of that.
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It's got to live up to my own standards of quality.
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So when I when I pull up an episode and I'm done, I save it
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and I get it, and then I build the actual template for what
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it's going to look like and I save it in the file and then I
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come back to it later. And then that's when I add the
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intro and I edit and then I double check the audio and all
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that. I think that's probably the
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biggest one because I got to have time to do that.
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So you dedicate at least an hour to recording and then at least
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another hour to two hours to edit, put it together, export
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it, and then upload to YouTube, Spotify and all that.
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So it's time really is it's it's a very time consuming endeavor.
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It it's always I've noticed too the the behind the scenes stuff
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that people don't really take into account.
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You know, same time is the. Biggest challenge?
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Yeah, same thing with writing. You know people always see the
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end product, you know or I guess in this case listen and or watch
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the end product. But they don't take into
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consideration all the time that you have to spend with booking,
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you know finding guests in the 1st place or you know editing
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and doing post production which you know now is a little bit
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easier with certain tools out there.
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But you know it, it's still, it does take some time if you're
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pre recording and even on if you live stream, you know afterwards
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you've you've got to make sure that you know the stream
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completed and uploaded properly and all that jazz.
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So out of all the guests you've had, which one were you most, I
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guess surprised you're able to get or I guess I don't want to
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ask you too much of A gotcha question, but which one has been
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your favorite so far? Oh man, I I wasn't really that
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surprised to get any of them because a lot of the people that
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I've asked have been super open to do it.
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So there wasn't really any pushback any.
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I've only had one guest and I actually never had her on, but I
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only had one person who asked me what in kind of the early stages
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of the show, like how many people follow you, how many
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listeners do you have, blah blah blah.
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I've only had one person ever asked for that and when I told
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her and I just told her the honest truth, she said I'm
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growing. It's nothing impressive right
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now. And she said I'm going to have
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to pass. It's not the right, it's not the
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right demographic for me, which I thought was was baloney, but
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that's another that's another argument.
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But it was her way of saying you're not big enough for me and
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I'm fine with that. It's you know, I didn't want her
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on after that as far as I was concerned.
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So I've. Had no, I've Oh no, go ahead.
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Well, I've had. I hadn't really had a surprise
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guest as far as those who wanted to do it, because everybody I
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pretty much asked said yes and was was in an agreement to do
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it. They were excited about it.
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Yeah, I mean, I've only had one. I've only had like I think 2
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guests who kind of, you know, said the same thing.
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You know, you're you're not big enough for you know, this isn't
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this isn't the right podcast where I was kind of like are Are
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you sure? But you know, at least you make
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the offer, you know Tab Mall, you know and and that does
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happen. And then you know on the flip
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side I've had you know guests who I I was a bit surprised that
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they would come on because I didn't think they would be big
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enough to you know want to come on the podcast Steve Stratton
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being one of them. You know Steve as you know has a
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a fairly big reputation in our field of riders.
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And so when someone suggests that he come on to the podcast
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and I was like really you think Steve would come on to my
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podcast and they said yeah and invite him on And he was, you
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know he's been great. He, he's very down to earth.
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And we did a podcast last week and I was surprised at you know,
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just how open he was to talking at different things and it
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ended. Yeah, Steve.
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'S a good dude. Great.
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Episode So. Yeah, I love Steve.
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Yeah, so then as far as writing goes, I guess, how did you, you
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know, go down the path of becoming an author and what not?
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So I I really told myself that one day I was going to write a
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book and I didn't really know what of.
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And then I had a lot of success in the military and post in my
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civilian career for the military, I had a lot of success
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in doing a lot of things. And I kind of just said, you
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know what, I think I'm going to finally take that jump when I
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was finished with my master's degree.
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I didn't wasn't going to school or anything like that at the
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time. So I thought, you know, now
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would be a great time to jump in into a project like that that
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could potentially take several years.
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So I really just kind of jumped in and I started writing and I
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had a leadership book and then I had a fiction book that I was
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working on kind of at the same time.
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And I was just kind of doing what I could, what kind of
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motivated me and what kind of influenced me.
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And I would bounce back and forth to two projects.
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And and then I met. I met some publishers, I met
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some agents and some other people, and I started getting
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feedback from them. And then that's when I pursued
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getting one of those published and getting some interest
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drummed up in them. And that's when I ran across my
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publisher, Tactical 16, which focuses on publishing military
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books. And I talked to them.
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I get I pitched them the idea and they they loved it.
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And it wasn't done. Like, I only had probably 1/3 of
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it finished my leadership book. And he was like, when you're
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done with it, send it to me. I want to read it.
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We're going to read it over and then, but we're really, really
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interested in it. So I finished it up like six
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months later and sent it to him and they sent me a contract.
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And then from there I said, OK, if I do a fiction book, I do
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something that's necessary, like a leadership book, then I'm
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going to do something fun, which is, which is fiction, which is
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what I really wanted to do. So I've been pursuing fiction
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ever since and gone to some conferences, learned a lot, and
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I think that's probably where, well, I know I'm going that way,
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direction next. It's just a matter of time, I
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think, before you see something else with my name on it.
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Yeah, so you have you have here these Truths, which is your
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nonfiction book. Yep.
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The old guy right here. Oh, very nice.
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Well, it's my display only because it's got an error on it,
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but I'll take the sticky note off and then there it is very.
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Nice. And yeah, I mean I'm looking at
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your website you've, you know we just mentioned Steve he he loved
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a very nice review of your book. So what made you decide to, I
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guess, want to write a a leadership?
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Well, in 2019, I was the Air Force civilian supervisor of the
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Year, and that was a really, really big award.
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And they kind of turned the light bulb on in my brain and
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said, you know, when I looked over that package and looked at
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the awesome things that people wrote about me, I just said I
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really owe it to the people who helped, you know, push me to
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this level, that I do something to thank them.
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And I didn't want to do something useless or just walk
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around and hand out thank you cards or anything like that.
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I really wanted to kind of do something kind of in their honor
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and I wanted to do like a lessons learned and I was real
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passionate about leadership then and I still am.
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But I really felt like that was a good way of getting that out
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and and and kind of saying some of my lessons learned.
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And from a well, a lot of times you see those kind of books from
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people that are CEOs, former presidents, military generals
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and all that stuff. They all have a status that to
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the normal everyday human being is not obtainable or it's not
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something that they're aspiring to be, you know.
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So there's a little bit of a disconnect, you know, and I
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thought, well, you know what? I'm a little bit more of a
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common man. I have not been in some fancy
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military position. I'm not Aceo or anything like
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that. So why don't I put out something
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that is a little bit more down to earth, truthful and honest,
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and people can take it or leave it.
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So that's really what I did. I just took that honest and
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truthful approach to leadership. And in the book I expose my
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flaws. I say what I did and didn't or I
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did well and I didn't do well. And I just kind of lay it all
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out there and it's all based around an algorithm, which I
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call the leadership algorithm. And that's effort plus process
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equals progress. And if you follow that?
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That's kind of the gym that you need to, you know, to be a
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successful leader, and success depends upon what you're looking
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to get out of it. But that's it kind of in a
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nutshell. It's something I'm super proud
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of, I guess still get asked about it to this day.
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So I definitely think it's had an impact on people's lives,
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which is the whole point in the first place.
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That's awesome. I haven't read it yet, but I
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might have to pick up a copy my myself.
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One thing I have. Here, send me your address
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offline in the e-mail and I'll send you a signed copy.
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Oh, I I I'd be honored. Thank you.
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One thing I noticed off the top of my head, it doesn't seem like
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it's very thick. It seems like it's relatively
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thin. And I actually kind of take that
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as a as a good thing because as someone who I didn't major in in
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business, I took a lot of business courses in college and
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there were a few leadership books that were very they were
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good, but they were thick and they kind of drawled on and you
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don't, you don't seem very egotistical at all.
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I've noticed that a lot of people in the business, in
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leadership world, sometimes they do seem a bit egotistical and
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you know, their books are thicker because of it I guess.
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Yeah, I like to ramble on. I wanted to be straight to the
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point, no frills. It's nothing super fancy.
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It's just a little over 200 pages.
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It was longer and I cut some stuff out, but kind of felt like
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was didn't really get to the point as well as I liked it to.
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And there's a lot of my back story in there, kind of how I
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grew up and things like that. That kind of almost made it more
22:32
of a leadership memoir. So I cut a little bit of that
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out to you because people don't want to hear about my boring
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life necessarily. And I wanted to give people
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something that they could just they could just open up and flip
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to a page or to a certain chapter and they can just learn
22:45
about a certain subject and and then they can move on.
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So I wanted it to be concise and and short and sweet and to the
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point and packed full of good knowledge and and things that
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take away. So yeah, it's not super thick,
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but I I again, I'm not a I'm not a long winded guy when it comes
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to talking about myself. I I you definitely seem, you
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know, interesting to to me though, so I I do think you know
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a memoir in the future might be worthwhile so.
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Never know. Yep.
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Now as far as your fiction writing goes, I'm seeing a lot
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of different series. So have you released anything
23:34
yet, or is your fiction mainly a work in progress right now?
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Yeah, fiction is a work in progress.
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We got the first book Acts of Lies is with with an editor and
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we're working on getting that kind of finalized and then that
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will go out on submission. I've got a lot of good feedback
23:57
from it. So I'm really hopeful that it
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will attract some attention with publishers and with some agents.
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So I'm super pumped about that one.
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And then of course I got the second book in that series, The
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Enemies Within is in progress. I'm probably about 40% done with
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that. And then when I have some off
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time, I work on other projects like Haunted and Between the
24:24
Lines of War and a novella series of God called Conditions.
24:29
So I'm kind of working on it's it's in a way I want to always
24:32
be writing something. So when you send a book off to
24:34
the editor, you don't want to, you don't want to touch it.
24:36
You want to just let them have it.
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So in an effort to put that aside, I I I moved on to some
24:43
other things And then you get a bright idea and say, hey, this
24:45
would be a cool idea. It doesn't fit my current
24:48
project. So let me let me start something
24:50
new over here and just put it on the back burner.
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So all those projects I kind of have in the works, none of them
24:56
are completed except for acts of lies.
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And you know, I just want to keep writing, keep working on
25:01
stuff, and it might be years before you see anything from me,
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but you know what you'll have. You'll have stuff in the queue
25:08
for when you're ready to go. Yeah, that's that's always
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something good to have. You know, it's always good to
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have multiple coals in the fire. So I don't want to assume
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anything, but it sounds like you're going with the
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traditional publishing method. What made you decide to go down
25:33
that route and have you ever considered self public
25:39
publishing some of your work I? Haven't really considered
25:45
self-publishing yet, just because I really want to give
25:49
the traditional publishing a shot and I want to see if I can
25:54
get a agent or a big publisher to sign on.
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And I think, I think for me, at least for me, I don't want to
26:04
necessarily like sell myself short.
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And I'm not saying that people who self published have done
26:09
that. I'm not saying that at all.
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But I don't want to sit around and self publish and push push
26:15
my book and push my projects and and then wonder, what if I would
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rather submit to a big publisher, submit the agents and
26:23
have them tell me no. And then all the same time I'm
26:27
learning more about publishing and then I decide to self
26:30
publish and and go that route. I'd rather go about it that way.
26:34
There's some people who don't want to do that.
26:35
They want to go, they want to go straight to self-publishing,
26:38
They want to control everything. They want to advertise, they
26:40
want to do all the work and they want it to be theirs.
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And that's totally cool. I think that's awesome.
26:45
There's a plenty of self publishers or self published
26:49
authors that are incredibly successful and I tip my hat to
26:51
them. But I do.
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I do want to see if I can get attention, and I think I will,
26:57
Yeah, Based on some of the feedback I've gotten and some of
27:00
the people that are supportive of it, I'm going to give that a
27:04
shot 1st and and then we'll see what happens.
27:07
That is very understandable and very admirable as well.
27:12
I just, I ask because I, you know, most of the other guests
27:17
I've had have been in publishing both Steve and Eric Bishop, both
27:27
friends of the show. When I first had Eric on the
27:32
show, when he first released The Body Man back in 2021, he, you
27:39
know, he went through a traditional Hubble, sure.
27:42
And then they went out of business.
27:46
So he started his own imprint and you know, so most of the
27:57
people I've talked to have actually gone the
28:01
self-publishing route. So it's always interesting to
28:04
talk to Someone Like You who has gone the traditional route.
28:08
And, you know, I'm just always curious to find what people's
28:14
motives are for doing that. Yeah, I guess we'll see what
28:18
happens, man. But yeah, I think the big
28:20
motivation is, yeah, you want to, you want to Share your
28:23
story. That's my big thing.
28:25
You know, I don't care too much about the money because I have a
28:29
good job and good benefits and all that stuff.
28:31
Now my wife works and she makes plenty of money too.
28:34
So that's not a driving factor. But certainly sharing my story
28:37
with a mass audience is something that I desire and I
28:42
think the way to do that is with a bigger is a with a bigger
28:45
publisher, obviously. So we'll see how it goes.
28:48
You might have to be one of those things that I eventually
28:50
have to self publish and if I do, I'll I'll come up with a big
28:55
marketing plan and I'll push it as hard as I can and use word of
28:58
mouth and all that fun stuff. My grand my grandfather was a
29:06
published author. He wrote two business leadership
29:09
books back in the 80s, and he retired.
29:14
He he has since passed. But like I'm sorry, two years
29:20
ago I was talking to him about some of my reading projects and
29:25
he actually encouraged me to self publish.
29:28
He was in his 80s but he, you know, he kept up on, you know,
29:33
current technology and he was very sharp until the very end.
29:39
And he was like, you know, I know people said that this
29:43
Kindle self-publishing thing was a drag, but I I think it's
29:48
actually worth looking into. So, you know, that's what I did
29:53
kind of, you know, secretly. And I released my first novella
29:59
back in July. And it's been a, not a huge
30:04
success, but a moderate success. I'm kind of a bit surprised at
30:09
how many. Well.
30:10
You've done more than what other people have done.
30:12
A lot of people would quit and they wouldn't do it.
30:15
So I mean you know, you're successful in the fact that
30:18
you've you've actually published something and it's like I said,
30:21
a lot of people will doubt themselves and they'll they'll
30:23
quit or and they'll just put it on the back burner and say I
30:26
won't do it, I'm afraid so. Well, and kudos to you for doing
30:29
it, man. Well, and I mean, I would say
30:30
the same thing to you for podcasting.
30:34
You know, there are a lot of people who they start a podcast
30:38
and they think they're going to be Joe Rogan or Adam Corral or,
30:45
you know, name your big name. They they think that they're
30:48
going to be that guy overnight, right?
30:51
And good luck. Yeah, you you can't.
30:57
Even if you do go with like, even if you have the most fancy
31:01
setup, even if you go through, you know, it's funny because
31:07
there are also podcasting companies out there too, that
31:10
you can sign with. And you know, even if you sign
31:16
with, even if you sign with one of those, it it doesn't really
31:21
matter if you don't. Even if you have a good show,
31:24
there's a grind to it. You just have to keep putting
31:27
out episodes and that's all there is to it.
31:35
At the end of the day, you just got to keep grinding.
31:40
Yeah, I agree. So another thing that I kind of
31:45
find this thing is I was listening to your show with Eric
31:49
Bishop and one of the things that he brought up was the fact
31:55
that most authors will not read their book after they publish it
32:01
or or after they finish it. And I'm kind.
32:05
I don't know how you are. But with with the exception of
32:08
editing, I'm kind of the same way with with podcasts.
32:14
After I finish editing, you know, an episode or you know,
32:20
making clips, I'll post it and then if I listen to the episode,
32:25
it won't be for like another six months or you know, even a
32:30
couple of years down the line. And same thing with with my
32:35
book. I I've read it for a little
32:37
references for continuity for my sequel, but other than that I
32:43
haven't listened or read any of my previous projects, so I find
32:48
that to be interesting. Yeah, I I do listen to the
32:53
podcast because, and I hate for it to sound conceited or
32:59
anything, but I listen to it just because I bring guests on
33:03
to help promote them. And if I listen to it and I get
33:07
an extra view, then it helps spread, you know, spread it out
33:11
there. So I definitely put it on.
33:13
I put it on my phone, on Spotify and Apple, and then I put it on
33:16
my computer, on YouTube and you know, I'll, I'll listen to it or
33:21
I'll just let it stream while while I'm working on something.
33:24
But the book, I haven't really gone back and read the book.
33:29
There's something about reading my own work and hearing it in
33:31
my, like, my own voice that's kind of, I don't know, I have
33:37
used it as reference. And I've been on podcasts before
33:40
where I actually had to break it out and kind of flip through a
33:43
page and be like, yeah, OK, I didn't remember saying that.
33:47
Yeah. But no, I'd like to read for
33:50
pleasure, and I just don't know if I like reading my own work
33:52
like that. Necessarily so.
33:55
That's kind of, that's kind of how I feel with with podcasting
33:59
for the most part. There will be an episode or two
34:01
where I will listen to, you know an episode with with Steve or
34:08
you know Someone Like You or even Eric where I'll I'll listen
34:12
to the episode just because I I love the guests so much.
34:15
But generally, if it's if it's just me and my coast, like
34:20
covering the political news of the week, you know, I hear my
34:24
own voice regularly enough, just in my own head.
34:30
I don't, you know, it's kind of like watching a movie you've
34:35
seen over and over again. You can almost kind of predict
34:38
what you know the next scene is going to be.
34:41
So I guess I'm kind of the same way, but so I guess, I mean, I
34:55
don't know where we want to take this.
34:58
I guess what else is on the horizon for you as far as
35:02
projects go, anything that you're looking to accomplish in
35:07
2024 and beyond? Well, I really hope to find a
35:12
home for Acts of Lies, and hopefully that'll be a multiple
35:20
book deal to where I can tell. I can tell I have three books in
35:25
the series that I have planned out with Abigail Stevens, my
35:28
protagonist, and if I can land a home for for that to tell that
35:34
story in 2024, that would be a big deal.
35:37
Whether it'll publish in 2024, I don't know, but if I could at
35:41
least land an agent or land a book deal in 2024, that would be
35:45
ideal. And then all that time,
35:49
continuing to work on the podcast and get some of those
35:53
other projects done. You know, I'm really, I'm really
35:56
excited about my haunted book. And that's just a working title,
36:01
but it's a very primitive book. It's about two guys that go out
36:05
in the Montana wilderness to do some elk hunting like they do
36:08
every year, and they kind of run across some dangerous stuff,
36:13
some trafficking rings, some connections to politicians and
36:18
connections to their own past. They don't realize that's a very
36:22
primitive book. I'm trying to use like no
36:26
firearms in it and focusing more on the hand to hand combat and
36:32
survival of things, which I think is really, really cool,
36:35
really interesting to me. And then Between the Lines of
36:40
War, which is a really cool book that I guess I kind of just
36:44
started recently. It's more of a first person type
36:50
of book. And this is going to be a very
36:52
more of a traditional thriller when it comes to kind of what,
36:58
how, how I'm approaching it. And I mean instead of doing
37:00
third person, I'm doing first person.
37:02
It's going to be, from the view of a journalist who has kind of
37:06
claimed this term, clandestine journalism.
37:09
And he is investigating, you know, further than the most, you
37:14
know, most journalists, when I investigate, they can do their
37:17
research and they come up with a really good headline where he
37:19
wants to come up and he wants to do research and investigations
37:23
and come up with the stories that are not being told.
37:25
The stories are trying to be hidden away in the closets and
37:29
the skeletons and need to stay there.
37:31
And he wants to reveal kind of the truth.
37:33
And I think that's really cool because there's not a lot of
37:38
organizations and people out there right now that are trying
37:40
to find the real truth. They're just taking the the
37:44
opinions of the media and the opinions and sayings of our
37:46
politicians and they're saying OK, it must be the truth and and
37:50
we know that it's not. So that's something I really
37:53
want to explore and kind of expose that and the dangers kind
37:56
of behind it and some of the corruption has that's going on
37:59
in in Washington. So those are those are kind of
38:03
some of the things I want to work on in 2024 and complete
38:06
some of those projects and then start finding home form.
38:09
Who, who are your inspirations for?
38:13
You know, write writing, favorite authors, anything like
38:18
like that. Well, I I love Tom Clancy.
38:25
I think everybody, everybody does.
38:27
He's kind of our godfather. I love Clancy.
38:31
I love Flynn. I love Brad Thor.
38:35
He, he's one of the guys who really kind of got me back into
38:38
reading for pleasure was when I picked up Brad Thor's Full Black
38:44
and Mike Madden. If I had to pick an author.
38:49
And as my absolute favorite, I would say Mike Madden, because I
38:52
read his first book, Drone with Troy Pierce, back when I was in
38:58
the military and it really got me back into reading for
39:01
pleasure again. And that's when I, when I got
39:05
back into Clancy, got back into Thor and all of them again love
39:10
Jack Carr. Andrews and Wilson are huge.
39:13
I've been on a Mark Greeny kick lately just because I think he's
39:18
one of those very talented. The guys that are going to be
39:22
when he retires. I think he's going to be
39:24
considered a generational talent and he's going to be considered
39:28
like the Clancy of like our lifetime because I think the way
39:33
he crafts a book and the intelligence that he has that
39:38
goes into it, I think it's just very, you know, Mark Grady is
39:42
very, very gifted and so, but there's a tons of tons of
39:47
people. I like Aima Adair, Steve
39:48
Stratton, Eric Bishop. There's a there's a guy by the
39:52
name of Richard Maverick who has some really cool ideas.
39:55
I'm trying to get him to publish more because he's got some
39:58
really cool stuff. Tons of people.
40:01
Claire Eisenthal Right now, she's a sweetheart.
40:06
I love Claire. And she has a book called The
40:08
Rising Order, which is really incredible, and we've been some
40:11
stuff lately, some IT lives and all that.
40:15
She. Actually just followed me on
40:17
Twitter and I I haven't yet but your your podcast with her is
40:24
actually in my up next queue so I I find that kind of funny that
40:30
the same day she follows me your podcast popped up in.
40:38
My up. Next queue so.
40:40
You'll like it. You'll enjoy it.
40:41
Yeah, I think one of the other things about your podcast that
40:46
is so good, and maybe it's it's partial because of the format,
40:53
I'll I'll admit. But like, I've listened to your
40:56
episodes out of order and even with a lot of interview
41:00
podcasts, you can't necessarily do that.
41:08
I've noticed you kind of should listen chronologically, but like
41:13
I've, I've jumped into, you know, just your podcast based on
41:18
some of the guests that you've had on.
41:19
And I think that really, that's really interesting how the way
41:26
you ask, you know, questions, you've made it pretty accessible
41:32
for people to just jump in wherever so.
41:37
Yeah, I tried really hard and thank you for the compliments.
41:40
I tried really hard to not date the show, and I tried not.
41:48
I tried not to, you know, say the date in it at all.
41:51
I tried not to make it sound too relevant to a time period.
41:57
That way you can you can pick up any episode and you can turn it
42:00
on and listen to it. And yeah, you might find out in
42:03
there somewhere that I'm talking to a guest who has a book that's
42:07
releasing soon. And that's fine.
42:10
But the content and what we talked about, I wanted to come
42:14
from a from a place where I'm talking to a subject matter
42:17
expert. They are an expert in something.
42:21
So let's pick their brain and let's, let's kind of not
42:24
justify, but let's reinforce why they wrote this book and what
42:28
did they do to find out about it.
42:30
Like you know, TR Hendricks, he's done a lot of survival
42:34
stuff. He has a big background in
42:36
security. So when he wrote The instructor,
42:41
you know, he has a lot of background in that.
42:43
So it's like, well, let's talk about all that.
42:46
Let's talk about your military career and kind of what led you
42:48
up to writing this book, because I want to tell your story.
42:52
And then for people that are listening, I want them to listen
42:55
to that and go, OK, this guy did this, this and this, and he has
43:00
this background similar to mine. Well, maybe I can do it too.
43:02
And then you've you've you've done something more than just
43:05
entertaining people. You've you've changed our life.
43:09
Yeah, I I definitely find that insightful.
43:14
You know, knowing nothing about Andrews and Wilson.
43:17
I I didn't know that they were both.
43:21
I don't know if they were both on a submarine.
43:23
I think. I think it is Jeff the you know
43:28
submarine engineer I I can't remember I want.
43:32
To say that was, I think that's Brian.
43:34
OK. Yeah, I think, I think it is
43:37
Brian, but. Brian's a submarine guy and
43:40
Jeff's the surgeon. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
43:43
I I think that I think just learning that is fascinating And
43:47
then it kind of makes sense because, you know, you can tell.
43:51
Oh, well, that makes sense that, you know, based on this
43:55
character, one of them, you know, would be a surgeon.
43:59
Yeah, they. Got the background for sure.
44:01
To do a lot of the stuff that they've done and write the books
44:04
that they've written. So I've heard nothing but good
44:06
stuff from some people who have had first look at their Tom
44:12
Clancy book that's going to come out this spring.
44:16
And they've said nothing but rave things about it where it
44:19
might be one of the best post Clancy books that they've
44:25
written so far. So this will be, this will be a
44:28
big deal. And it's like the 40th
44:29
anniversary of the Hunt for Red October, I mean.
44:32
Yeah, yeah, I I it's been a year or so since I've read The Hunt
44:39
for Round October. But I just finished Patriot
44:42
Games, and that book, for being published back in the 80s holds
44:48
up extremely well. Plus, I mean, I know that some
44:55
people give, you know, the movies a hard time, but I
45:01
definitely think that that the Patriot games is one of the
45:04
better Harrison Ford movies out there, actually in my.
45:08
Yeah, I liked him in it too. I think movies deserve a certain
45:12
amount of criticism because, you know, they do have to cut
45:16
Connors a little bit. And you know, for as long as
45:19
Clancy, you know, writes a book, you can't fit that into an hour
45:23
and a half movie. You just can't.
45:24
So that would be awful hard to do.
45:28
But I thought they did. I thought.
45:30
I thought several of his movies did pretty good.
45:32
They did a pretty good job. What what do you think of what
45:36
did you think as a Clancy fan of the of the Jack Ryan series on
45:42
Amazon? I enjoyed it.
45:45
I thought it was. I thought it was good.
45:47
You know, they obviously had to kind of update it to a little
45:53
bit more modern, but I thought John Krasinski did a really good
45:56
job playing Jack Ryan. I thought it was.
46:00
I thought it was pretty good. I really did.
46:02
I mean, there's some, there's some issues with it.
46:04
But I mean for being a mainstream show, I thought.
46:08
I thought I was good at entertaining.
46:10
Yeah, I was actually kind of surprised at.
46:14
I was kind of surprised at how good it was.
46:17
Was it perfect? No, no, I it wasn't perfect.
46:21
I definitely think that, you know, if anything, that proved
46:26
that John Krasinski, I think could be a serious actor.
46:29
You know, he was famous for doing in The Office for all
46:32
those years, and a lot of people were kind of like, come on,
46:37
you're telling me that Jim from The Office is going to be
46:39
playing Jack Ryan, But no, he he pulled it off, I thought.
46:44
He did good, though. Yeah.
46:51
And then you mentioned that you're doing a book about
46:55
political journalism. And I am kind of curious.
47:01
We don't have to go down this rabbit hole if you don't want
47:04
to, but I'm kind of curious, I guess what are your, I guess,
47:11
political beliefs or something? If you don't want to answer,
47:16
that's fine, but I'm kind of curious.
47:18
When your. What?
47:21
So I would say I'm a I'm a big believer in in freedom.
47:29
So I'm a believer in in in less government oversight in our
47:34
lives. There's obviously some smart
47:36
places where we need to have government intervene for our
47:40
safety and for our prosperity. But I do believe that there's a
47:46
point in time where the government gets too involved in
47:48
our lives. And I'm not.
47:53
I'm a, I'm a registered Republican.
47:55
But I I believe that my life does not have to be just avoided
48:02
down to a certain political party.
48:04
And I don't have to believe every single last thing that the
48:07
Republican Party believes in. I do not have to do that.
48:10
It's it's there's no rule book or anything like that.
48:13
There's no code of rules that you sign when you come up and
48:16
you register to vote. You just pick a party and I
48:19
think the cool thing in that is you have the freedom to still
48:24
believe in what you want to believe.
48:26
You do not have to be brainwashed by your party and to
48:28
believe in every single last thing.
48:30
And again, this is my opinion, So people that are listening,
48:33
this is my opinion, you do not have to agree with me, that's
48:36
perfectly fine. But I believe that they
48:39
shouldn't be involved in in this much of our business.
48:41
And I think if they're going to be involved in our business that
48:44
much, then I think we should have a say, a larger say and how
48:48
they spend our money on taxes. You know, like if you're going
48:51
to tax us, I think we have a we deserve a larger say.
48:54
And we didn't send you to Washington to get rich.
48:57
That goes for all of you, every, every single one of you.
49:00
Members of Congress, the president, vice president, don't
49:03
care what party you are in. We didn't send you to Congress
49:07
and to Washington to get rich. We sent you there to legislate
49:10
and to help, you know, help us be the freest country in the
49:14
world for a reason and not to be greedy and all that stuff.
49:18
So I believe in freedom. I believe in the freedom to
49:21
choose and the freedom to live my life how I want to.
49:23
As long as I'm not causing harm to other people, I think I
49:27
should be allowed to do that. And when when too much
49:31
government intersects with that ideal right there is when I have
49:35
a problem. I I pretty much have the same
49:40
values. I mean, I would consider myself
49:42
a kind like a right leaning libertarian, but like I'm not.
49:47
I'm not far right either. I don't really care what people
49:51
do in their personal life, so long as you know you're not.
49:56
Me neither. Like, if you want to do do
49:58
whatever you want to inside your home, As long as you're not
50:01
like, personally, like trying to bother me, and you're not trying
50:04
to rub it in my face, you're not trying to change my life because
50:07
of what you believe in, you could do your own thing.
50:10
I don't care. You're not going to hear a
50:11
complaint from me? Yeah.
50:13
One thing that I am kind of curious about, this is something
50:18
I've kind of experienced is after after the pull out of
50:26
Afghanistan, which in my opinion was more or less disastrous.
50:34
I don't know if Biden is, you know, entirely to blame.
50:38
I think that there were logistics.
50:41
You know, I I think blame can kind of be shared equally maybe
50:48
among the administration. One thing that I one thing after
50:55
that that kind of worries me is I'm hearing people talk, oh,
51:00
well, we need to go into Ukraine or we need to, you know go into
51:04
Israel and you know back the Israelis in Palestine.
51:08
I'm very pro military and I'm very pro veteran and I do
51:14
believe that we have a place to help the world when we can.
51:23
But after being in the Middle East for 20 years militarily and
51:32
really having very little to show for it, I'm a little
51:38
hesitant to say that we should maybe send troops back over
51:43
there or over to Ukraine. And it's wild because some
51:47
people who I respect have said, Oh well, you're just like an
51:52
anti war hippie or you're wishy washy.
51:56
And I and I'm like, well I'm not, I'm not a veteran.
52:00
I never served. But you know, I know veterans
52:03
who have had their limbs blown off or or have post traumatic
52:09
stress disorder and who have and who have suffered.
52:11
And it's really difficult for me to look at them and then look at
52:18
what happened in the Middle East and say, yeah, you getting your
52:23
legs blown off was worth it. Because I'm not so sure.
52:28
In the end it was. And I just, I have a difficult
52:33
time with the idea that we that we should go back to war.
52:37
So I'm just kind of curious. I hate to ask a bit, but as a
52:42
veteran, what is kind of your opinion on military action these
52:46
days? I think we have to stop being
52:50
the world's police. We have a lot of allies and I
52:55
think that's great. I do, and I want to protect
52:58
those allies. But I I have an issue with us
53:03
constantly getting involved in every single little thing
53:07
because it almost comes across like we're bullies.
53:10
You know, And you know, because they're talking right now that
53:15
there's a potential conflict in Yemen with the with the with the
53:18
Houthis or whatever hoofs or whatever they call themselves,
53:21
that terrorist group. And then China and Taiwan, you
53:26
know, they could do something. So then, you know, so then we
53:28
have Ukraine that we're helping be involved in, and then we have
53:31
a potential conflict in Yemen, and then we have a potential
53:34
conflict in Taiwan. And then of course the whole
53:37
Israeli thing is going on. So at what point in time do we
53:41
say we're stretched a little thin, We can't keep doing this.
53:45
One of our other big allies is going to have to step up and
53:48
take over and and and be the lead on these things because I'm
53:55
not anti war by any means. And I think there are, there are
53:58
places where we need to go and we need to you know, you know,
54:02
kick ass and take some names. But I also think that we don't
54:07
necessarily need to be the world's police all the time and
54:12
we need to, we need to empower our other allies to get involved
54:17
at our same level. If you look at the amount of
54:20
money that we spend in NATO and the UN and all that, we spend
54:23
all this money up here and everybody else is down here.
54:26
I think it a more of a fair share, more of that peanut
54:29
butter kind of spread is like, OK guys, if we're going to do
54:33
this and we're going to be in the United Nations and we're
54:35
going to be NATO, we all need to be on the same level.
54:40
And maybe we need to start sharing this a little bit
54:43
because we can't just keep getting involved in every single
54:46
little thing because our one for one, our military can't sustain
54:50
it and our military industrial sector can't keep up with the
54:54
production of it if we're in four different wars.
54:57
I mean, and that's a that's a recipe for loss.
55:00
And I don't. I don't want to lose any more of
55:03
my brothers and sisters over something that is unnecessary.
55:08
Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I and thank you
55:11
for answering that. I know that that can be kind of
55:15
a tough question. But no, I mean I just wanted to
55:19
ask because I mean I'm a civilian.
55:22
Like I said I, you know, I have immense respect for the military
55:26
but I've never served. I'm not I'm not anti war.
55:30
But you know these days according to who you talk to, it
55:34
kind of see some people have suddenly labeled me as being
55:38
anti war and I'm like no, I'm not anti war.
55:41
I just don't want to see, you know, I want to see minimal
55:46
casualties. Sure.
55:49
Yeah, I think everybody does so. Yeah, well, anything else you
55:58
want to promote or? I see you have a ton of links
56:01
here on your page. It seems like you do some work
56:07
with veterans as well, so yeah. I'm always trying to promote
56:12
veterans, veteran owned businesses, so I post a lot of
56:15
that stuff on my social media. I think the biggest thing is
56:20
people can go to my website, jeffclarkofficial.com and that's
56:24
where all of the good stuff is. My social media, my projects
56:29
that I'm working on, podcast episodes.
56:32
And I think that's that's really kind of what if I promote
56:35
anything, I'd like to promote the website because that's kind
56:37
of my catch all for everything to go to find out more about me.
56:41
Yeah, it's a great website. Well, thank you.
56:44
So, so I definitely recommend that people go there and you
56:50
know check out the podcast as well.
56:52
It's it's great and I'll have the links to all your stuff in
56:57
the description and I I would love for you to come back.
57:03
You know, once your books are, you know, close to coming out
57:07
and sure what not. So yeah, I'd.
57:11
Be happy to. Yep, and we might get you on the
57:15
live podcast here soon as well, so would love to have you on for
57:20
that as well. Yeah, we'll.
57:22
Do it. Anyway, folks, well, I guess
57:28
that's all we have for today. I want to thank everyone for
57:31
listening and thanks Jeff once again for coming on and we will
57:37
talk at you down the road on Wednesday.
57:40
And until then, God bless, God save this great nation and God,
57:45
freedom, legacy in that order. Thank you.
57:51
Thanks for listening to the Whitfield report on the NGC
57:55
Network. Please visit Sam's website at
57:58
www.thesamwhitfield.com and support Sam on
58:04
patreon@patreon.com/whitfield Report Until next time.
58:10
God bless God, save this great Nation and God, Freedom, legacy
58:16
in that order.