Latest / Unstoppable Success Podcast / 11 - From Combat to Community: Unleashing the Power of People-First Leadership with The MisFitNation's Rich LaMonica

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11 - From Combat to Community: Unleashing the Power of People-First Leadership with The MisFitNation's Rich LaMonica · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leaderships of Life.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Influential leaders and their game-changing insight.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm familiar with CEO and Founder of Leap Tier Success.com.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have entrepreneurs, leaders, and CEOs.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: We have unstoppable and their careers in life.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We believe.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: We have their careers successful.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're life with the life of the people.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around to the end of the show and we will share with you how you can be our next guest.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's be unstoppable.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everybody.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast, where we hear from influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jacqueline Strominger, your host, and today I want to welcome my amazing guest, Rich Lamarica.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is that am I saying that right?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm like, oh, so just a little bit about Rich.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: He, okay, you guys have to understand he is just one amazing rock star.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Besides being a motivational speaker and an author and an army veteran, but that's a key part.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: 22 years veteran in the United States Army.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for your service.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You were, he was deployed on multiple occasions in support of the global war on terrorism.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was during his career he evolved as a leader of people.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: His education came from great mentors who showed him how to take care of people.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: He retired in 2015 and went through an entire year of self-reflection as he transitioned to civilian life again.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Those 365 days from retiring to finding a job taught him valuable lessons about transition.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this has powered his drive to help other veterans as they go through the transition and any other roadblocks they are hitting.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, a great motivational speaker mindset.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely again, thank you for your service and welcome to the show, Rich.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like huge, like you've done awesome things.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I I'd love to hear.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you sharing your bio, you had great mentors and you became the leader.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really curious what were some of those mentors and how did they help transform you into the leader you are today?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my first mentor, I'll always tell this, it's my dad.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he taught me from even when we were young, we didn't know we were being taught because we were just uh young kids, and we thought whatever dad said was blah blah blah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's it was like Charlie Brown's teacher talking to him until until I started to need the things he was saying to me, and all of a sudden there's something in the back of my head, hey, wait, I've heard this before, I've heard this before.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I hear it?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd pick up the phone and call, hey dad, didn't you tell me this one time before?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he'd go through it again and tell me.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even to this day, he's 84 now.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll still call him every couple days to make sure one, he's doing good, and two, just to keep his mind going, I'll ask him questions, uh, just advice.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I don't really need it, I ask him just so he can still give me that advice and still feel like he's part of the team, part of the game.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the best mentor.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first mentor I had, and he's always the best.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's so great.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautiful.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Once I went in the army, my first platoon sergeant was uh Sergeant first staff sergeant, then Sarge First Class, Humberto Lopez.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh great man, he was hard on us, and there was a time in the army when you were allowed to be hard on soldiers, and every day he taught us valuable lessons, both mentally and physically.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you to leave work every day, he made us do 10 pull-ups, 10 dips, and 10 push-ups every day.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what we did all day, you had to do it every day just to get your mind right to leave.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everything had to be cleaned.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Every he sent me to my first leadership school and didn't inspect my gear because he wanted me to learn lessons.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I got there and I failed the first inspection.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I called him and said, You set me up for failure.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I set you up for success.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now you know what right looks like, so get it right.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he hung up.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to help me, he just told me to get it right and hung up.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned right there, and he taught me people first at that point.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's people first, but meshing first, and people always, and he was always there for us.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even if he couldn't be in the woods with us when we came back from the woods, he would have a spread of food for us, he'd have all kinds of food for us when we came out of the woods for 30 days, just so we'd have real food after 30 days of eating dehydrated food, and he'd made sure we had everything we ever needed.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: We never wanted for anything, plus he always had it for us.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's actually beautiful.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, do you still end your day with 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 10 dips?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't do pull-ups as much anymore since I really messed up my shoulder really bad during a lot of those deployments.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I lose feeling in my arm real quick.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I do a lot of push-ups and and dips, but not pull-ups.
• 5:18
  unknown: Not pull-ups.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Those are off the table now.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, but that's people first is so important.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so how do you how does that trans translate into that?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you take that today in what you do?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: In all aspects of my life now.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a day job, which where I still am able to train soldiers right here on uh Fort Campbell, Kentucky in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I get to do that daily.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So my job there, I put not just the client, which is the soldiers first.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I make sure they get all the training they need so they are able to occupy operate on the modern airland battlefield, as well as my one.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have one worker, I make sure he has everything he needs to be successful as well.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So people first there, and then of course, for my show, like when you came on my show, the show is about you, it's not about me.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's it was about Jacqueline when you came on here and leaped to your success.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were on, it was all about you, and the whoever was calling in or uh asking questions in the chat, it's about them asking you, and I'm just like just I guess cheerleader in the in a sense at that point.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then for my schooling for my PhD, it's that's more focused on me.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the client in that one because I have to get it right or I'm gonna fail.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm people first in that one.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but the idea of people first though, it's and I I have to say, I really want to applaud you and really seriously, big kudos to you for something that you just said.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: The soldiers are your the client is the soldier, the and and I say that because they're not people it's how you treat them.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're it's what the you treat a client with respect.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: These are people that you're you want to do the best for, definitely, which is really amazing because I always feel that that we need to look at all of our team members or in and our companies, like they're not our employees, they're our partners, right?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: They're our team members.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You treat them like my team member here, Jake.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: He he's also now the host of my Tuesday show, Jake Holland.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So him and my brother, uh, since they were always in the chat and they would always like moderate my chat, so I wouldn't have to.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what, boys, you guys do that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you have your own show?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just be in the background helping you.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they both jumped at it now.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I empowered them to do their own show and have fun doing that and get some of their uh anxiety out of them, get some of the like Jake's PTSD gets added to him by being able to talk to people.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an awesome, it's a win for us.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is what that's really great.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So speaking of what you just said, you're empowering your you empowered them.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you feel that you also take that empowering to your clients and to the soldiers to help them become empowered?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: By doing the research on the subject I'm training them on, I empower them to take that knowledge and take it forward with them in order to come home and make sure they're the people that they are leading and the people that they're being led by all come home as well with the knowledge I give them.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you when you think to what you're giving in the knowledge?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: How does that make them feel about themselves and about being part of this team?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think for the most part, most of them feel more enlightened when they get the knowledge from us.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: As long as we are prepared, then they will be prepared.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we give them a top-notch of product and we give them everything we know to that day of what's going on.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: We provide them all that, and that builds them up that we have the respect for them to give them the best and not just rest on things that happened maybe 10 years ago and teach them that.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: We teach them on things that are happening today so that they can further that development as they move forward.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So really bringing out their strengths and weaknesses and helping them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're thinking about that part and helping them take that wisdom, what do you think is working as a team and working on each other's strengths?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: How do you help them see that?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's usually we when we get to help them is when we do the practical test.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: We take them out and we actually test the test all the application, put everything into application that we just taught them on uh on maybe a slideshow or in the classroom.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: We make them actually put it into practice.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when they do that, you can see their eyes open and the bright eyes come on.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, they did teach us this, and this is easy.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as hard as it looks in that video.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy out here because they explained everything to us, and now we're able to teach not just those around us, but maybe others that we meet when we go overseas.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's yeah, that's actually really nice.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking about what you're doing and creating leadership and what and the leadership that you have brought to the table.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: How do you think and what do you think is a great way to cultivate high performance in an organization?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And what are some strategies that you could share to ensure success?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: In order to cultivate high performance, you gotta first, like we said earlier, build that respect amongst the whole team and make it like a family.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you treat everyone like you want to be treated and show them and don't try to hide knowledge you have, anything you hide, you can't take it with you when you go, when you leave, or when you, God forbid, pass away.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: You pass that knowledge so you're training the next you or the next person above you.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's who you're training.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're not training, you're not doing anything, and you're gonna hit that ceiling in your career at some point, and the person you're training has to take over and jump over you, maybe climb the ladder.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing in the military.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was always taught from Herberto Lopez all the way up to Doug Jones, uh, Sergeant Major Jones, Sergeant Major Smith, everyone they all taught me the same thing.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: You got to make the next you.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is to make the next you and the next me.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll take that challenge.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave everything I knew to them to make them me or better.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And to see where they are now, those after I retired, they're still in.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It just makes my heart beat a lot faster, and I get very happy.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's really great.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's I think that's a concept that that I will be the first person to share.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like back in my early days of leading, of having a team, it was about me and like my career.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't until I went to a Dale Carnegie class and I learned that what you just said, where they hire people that are smarter, help people take your place because that's what you want to do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then my leadership changed because it was like something that because I was never taught to me that way either, but just I had to think about my the career.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: But it's amazing when you think about creating that family to empower people so that that they really want to work together, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It took me I didn't learn uh that really well until probably halfway through my career.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: About eight years into my career, I was in the the hard times of the army where everything was uh just point, click, and do, and then 9-11 happened.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you had this flip, and now we're at war.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're at war from 9-11 to the end of my career and beyond.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: But in that time, you get a whole new batch of people that came in military, so you had to start to learn people and learn human human dynamics and learn that social intelligence and be able emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and learn how people tick.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't lead you one way and everyone else the same way.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have to lead each person individually in order to get to that one goal for all of us.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it took me a while to learn that, but I think I've got that down pat now.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you think helped you get there?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think when I got that cornucopia of two soldiers, and no two of them were alike, no two of them were from the same backgrounds, and what worked with uh soldier A did not work with soldier B, C, or D.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had to step back and say, How can I make this work and still be fair to all of them?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It took a little practice, but learning to have them all do the same thing by giving them different direction, it worked out different motivation and direction.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you think it's so it's more the way that you communicated?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: You learned to that we that that each and every one of us, even though we have two ears, we hear things differently.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just like kids, if you have two kids in your house, they both won't listen the same way, right?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta learn that you may be able to yell at your son one way or son A one way, son B, you can't, because that one will just break down or start throwing things at you.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta do things differently to get them motivated to do the right thing.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I learned with the with soldiers and now with the kind of peers and counterparts I work with now.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's really amazing how obviously emotional intelligence help helps us lead because we need to learn about the people in that.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's very interesting to see how that level of communication is so important.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So speaking of that type of communication, and I'm sure this is probably pretty powerful within the military, is to share the vision of what your clients are doing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And how much do you how much do you think sharing that vision creates an impact on what they do and how they operate?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think it'd probably a very high percentage of people that succeed more when we tell them success stories of those we've been with before or of those who went through our peers classes in other places, they lighten up and they start to actually take notes.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: They start to think outside of the box that they've taught been taught the whole time.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: You have to do things this way, and then we can show them a different way to do it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: This might work better in your situation because you have this type of vehicle, this type of uh weapon system.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you should think differently and it'll work because it worked for this person, this person.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can call them and ask them, and that just broadens their horizon now because social media you can connect with anyone anywhere at any time, and soldiers are they are that generation now, so they point and click everything, and you can see them all over social media doing TikToks and whatever, and that's their life.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't my life coming in the army, but heck, we didn't have internet half my military career, so it was a totally different animal.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: My two sides of my military career, and I like to look back at the dinosaur age, my first half, and then the high technology age of the second half, and now it's just amazing what we have in the military and the whole world for that matter.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, we're talking to each other over some crazy systems here where we can talk anywhere in the world to each other, like we're sitting next to each other, so it's an awesome thing that we can do this and connect and be able to show what we're doing to the whole world to make everyone succeed and maybe be a little better tomorrow.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's really that's it's a great way to look at the way technology can be, but I have to ask, so what do you think because you said you didn't have the internet?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you like how do you think the for lack of better words, social media either plays a positive role in leadership or a negative?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where do you think it it sits?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's hard for the young leaders not to find that happy medium.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: So some of them will go all in on you on social media and say a little too much on there about what they're doing or what bothers them at with their job, where they should probably just stay in the center and say, This is how I would do things, and maybe this will maybe influence someone else who maybe's a higher person or say that person that maybe has their head on straight.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to them, see what's really going on at the grassroots level.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think where boots are on the ground, and then maybe we can have a sit-down and talk.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I think too many of them get caught up in trying to get the likes and uh follows, whatever, at the lower level, where they're saying things they shouldn't be saying or doing things they shouldn't do while in uniform or whatever, and maybe swelling the name of their unit, whereas the person in the middle is the one that's actually doing the right thing and not getting those likes and follows, but someone's actually watching them and saying that that's the person I want to lead my soldiers.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So in that regard, it's thinking about obviously the pros and cons, not necessarily things that people could do differently.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to share thinking of doing things differently.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a time that you can think about or share that where you faced a big resistance or maybe it was a failure, and that you had transformed that into a leadership win?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes, uh December 31st, 2010.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I go back to November of 2010.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was in Kandahara, Afghanistan with my platoon, the Misfits.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we got the name Misfit Nation for the show.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I had a hodgepodge soldier in that platoon.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were from all over the battalion, people that either were new or maybe they didn't fit into the role that was going on in their platoons now.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So they came to my platoon to be part of the QRF and the base security.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I had one soldier, young NCO, who really wanted to go back to his original unit because they were really getting hammered hard over there.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: They were getting hurt.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of guys we were losing a lot of dudes over there, and he really wanted to go.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept telling just do your job here, do your job here, do your best here, and we can try to get you there.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: But both of us had the same mentality, so it was the two rams hitting each other all the time until finally he just went, Oh, we had to give him to that platoon because they needed him, they really needed him bad.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then on December 31st, he was on a mission and we lost him.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of the platoon he was loved in aren't my platoon, everyone loved him, and they were distraught.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the air came out of the platoon, and it was at that moment I had realized I couldn't mourn, I couldn't do anything.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had to take care of them.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had to sit back, had to write his eulogy, I had to give the eulogy in front of all the command and all the soldiers in the battalion while still leading my whole platoon and make sure for the next four months they didn't wind up on CNN, and they all made it home whole.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was the only soldier I ever lost in combat.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and this was my only soldiers I had to deal with that directly with.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So getting them all leading them all to victory and getting them all home by April, and then staying in touch with them till now.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's 14 years later now.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're still in touch with each other, we still check on each other, we still became that family just by stepping up and leading in that moment.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: That and that was a big pivot point for me from going hard charger to trying to stand back, lead, and be the dad to them as we went through it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I can only imagine how well respected you are with them, and and likewise, that's gotta be being strong during a time when it's so hard for everybody else.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a huge it's a huge lesson, but it my god, like I can't Rich, I can't even imagine like just the the strength that it took to do that and how beautiful you are as a person to be able to do that for your team and also to respect the person who was lost, and even just sharing this you can feel it like you just wish he hadn't gone.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it was rough, it was a rough time.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Sergeant Michael Beckerman was his name uh from uh the greater St.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Louis area, St.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Genevieve, uh Missouri.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't meet his mom until almost four years later.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I met his mom.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I met her in Gatlinburg, uh Gatlinburg, Tennessee, right after my last day of active duty.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I met her down there, her met, and we we had some drinks at a Mexican restaurant, and then me and one of my one of the misfits, we went on a 12-mile hike the next day.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh and in his honor, and she was at the finish line for us.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been friends ever since then, me and her.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's so nice.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's interesting when you think about, and we talked a little bit about this before when I was on your show, and even now, we've talked about leadership today, and I and speaking to you and thinking about our with leaders in the world, if you could wave the magic wand and give the biggest advice to people that are rising up in the ranks or to the people that are out there now, what's missing in leadership, and what would you tell them to do today to be a better leader tomorrow?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would tell them, especially if they're rising and they want to be in politics or they want to be in the political stre uh spectrum.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: In the morning, wake up looking in that mirror, and you talk to that mirror you'd want to be talked to, to be spoken to.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And don't just speak to your base because your base might just be 30% of the people out there.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Speak to that mirror like it's a hundred percent of the people.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: What does Neighbor on your left and your neighbor on your right really want to do in life that you can help them with.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what being a true leader is, not just leading the people who are donating or donating to you, lead us all.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just try to fill that one cup when you have all these buckets that you need to fill around you.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people in my book, 13 Step Guides to Success, you got to start cleaning up at home.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have the election next week, and everyone wants to vote next week because it's the presidential election.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: You need to vote in all the local elections.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what leading is.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Local elections is what matters.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: 1600 Pennsylvania, that's a circus, really.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to really say what goes on there because we really don't know at our level.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: We do know what goes on when we walk out our door.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I pay my taxes on my house, I pay the tax on my car, I see my city, I know what's going on.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I know the leaders here are doing right for the whole community, the whole county.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then we can grow from there.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Once you fix that and clean that, then we can worry about everything else.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you not to vote next week.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely vote.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, go vote.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care who you vote for, but vote.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have it, use your voice and don't come out on to Wednesday and cry if you didn't vote.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll just laugh at you wish you didn't vote.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So many so important and such a great message.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that looking in the mirror, and I love that filling buckets because it's it's the it's not about the one person you can help, it's about the many.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can, but if you can help one person, make the difference for the one, but try to spread it to the many.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking about leaders today, what do you think?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because you you see it from a different perspective being in the military.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's very different from I think leadership in, for lack of better words, civilian world, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's very different.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to the people on the civilian side?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Here's one lesson that we do so well in the military that you really need to take into lessons in civilian.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think we went over this a little earlier, people first.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Learn that people are first.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: The big contract will be there.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be there.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if your product is good because your people are good, that contract will come to you.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: If your people are not happy, they're not good because you're not taking care of them, that contract's gonna go away.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna go to another company or another organization that has that contract full of people who are leaders.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: People leaders, people who are important to the people who are leading them.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you are so high up where you don't recognize what people are doing for you, you're gonna lose control and you're gonna lose all those major bids or major contracts, and your company is not gonna do as well.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a civilian, we like to make sure we everyone on the team knows the mission, everyone knows every aspect of the mission, and we get able to step up.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I fall down, the guy right below me can take over my job.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm expendable at that point.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing should happen in the civilian world, corporate world.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: If the junior manager falls, the person right below him should be able, team leader should be able to come up.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: If the mid-manager, junior manager should move up, and so on and so forth.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: No one should be able, no one should be a one-stop shop for a one-stop point of one, single point of failure, I guess.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: There should be no single point of failure, and a lot of corporations do that now.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually really it's uh you just said something that a couple of things that just you know, I as people are as listeners are listening to this couple things.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows the mission.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Really key.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Know the mission, make sure everybody knows it in your company.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I preach that to the choir.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: I help people write their mission, help people redefine their mission.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Know your mission, don't just write it, live it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right, live it, right?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're on that same page there.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want to finish each other sentences, and then and not having that single point of that no one single point of failure, knowing that people giving people and empowering them to step up and to learn is so key.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Decisions and not worry about uh ramification, right?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: They know that you'll take you'll you'll have their back and then you'll help them fix it if there's something happens that is astronomically bad.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: But you should be able to be work as a team to get over that if you work as a team all the time.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: And again, another key point working together as a team, knowing almost make sure you know the mission, know your people, put them first, know who they are so you can speak their language to them and the words to how you communicate and operate as a team, because we all know the acronym together, everyone achieves more, what is just so important.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: So you have you already have an amazing legacy as an amazing lead leader, but where do you see your legacy now?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And how and what are you doing to continue that legacy day to day?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think the continuing my legacy now is the show is a the big thing for me, the misfit nation.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think by able to bring in great people like you and authors and other veterans on there to share what they're doing in this world and how that we can make things better.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember at the end of the show, I asked you three to tell us three things to make the next day better for people.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do that with every guest, and that's been 450 episodes.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's 450 uh nuggets of knowledge that have come out of people that if even like we said earlier, if we touch one person, if one person per show got that knowledge and went on to be successful, we're doing great things, and my legacy builds that way.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm known for that, that's awesome.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm known for my military career, that chapter of my life, awesome.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: If everything I've done in my life is built up, and seeing people succeed that I've talked to, that's good for me.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Seeing my daughter succeed, seeing her write her second book now, that's it, that's my legacy right there.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's really great.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So as a leader, and you I know that you're always studying, but what are you working on as a as a leader and how are you challenging yourself to grow?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, right now, my PhD is my big uh study focus right now.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's in homeland security.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm in my dissertation process right now, and that's a major point of my daily, daily, weekly, monthly life right now.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it helps to have my brother and uh Jake take that Tuesday show.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it gives me an extra day to study.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also, I guess I'm I never considered myself a learner, but I as I look from if I can step back and look at myself, I see myself as a lifetime learner because I've learned throughout the 22 years of my career.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned from that 365 days of sitting on the couch drinking beer with my dogs, trying to find a job, not what works and what doesn't work.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then I learned when I got my master's at Georgetown.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I and then I said I was told there I should not go further because that's about as good as I am as an academic.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, All right, challenge accepted.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I went for my PhD and here I am.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I that's I like to lead by that way, saying there's no challenge I can't take.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you challenge me, I'm gonna go for it.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you say, hey, let's walk from here to St.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, it's gonna hurt.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's gonna hurt, but I'm gonna try, I'm gonna do it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it may be very painful.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I may be in the hospital for a couple weeks after, but it's gonna happen.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: So something you just said, I I have to ask, and because I'm curious about this.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think it's I think it happens with a lot of people in some different ways.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, kudos for going to Georgetown and getting your master's and now moving on to P to get your PhD.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's huge.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think would have happened and would it have been different if somebody had said, oh, you can keep going.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can continue on.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You've got it.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the wherewithal to go get your PhD.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you would was it the challenge, or would it have you would you still have gone for it if somebody had said that to you?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I probably wouldn't have gone for it so quickly.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: I probably would have sat back and thought it through and and ended it.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I graduated in May during uh COVID, and by September I was already accepted into Liberty University for the PhD.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I I said, okay, that's a good challenge.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go for that.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I did it, and my wife's like, what are you doing?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I I got the challenge and I gotta take accept that challenge.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: So click on my bio, it says challenge accepted, and I do it.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: So just from the standpoint of a leadership, because you're thinking about that, how do you take that where maybe somebody could do more?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how would you challenge them to go big?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I tell them to to stop minimalizing every minimalizing themselves.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be minimalistic to about yourself.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Don't I like to tell people when they come up to me and say, I'm they always say, I'm not the smartest guy, I can't do this.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I said I I've watched you for over a year.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you're capable of, I know you're way capable of way more than you're doing right now.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love you to show the client how capable you are so I'm not the one telling you they can tell you.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that pushes them to greatness right there.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: So now if you were to go back to the person at Georgetown and who said, Oh, you're done, like your education, you're at you've reached the top.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to them to maybe flip the switch and say, here's what you should say to people?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would tell them first, thank you.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for uh motivating me.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then second, you should probably try a different approach to people and say, maybe fix this and go for this.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Fix this approach to your education and do this, instead of saying you're done, you're you hit your peak, or this is as far as you should go.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: I always feel that's one of the things that if we as leaders could lift people up, and there's so much greatness in each and every one of us.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I and Rich, I wanna really just thank you for being the leader who you are, which really helps bring out that best in other people and bring out their strengths and let letting people go to go bold, to go big, to be, as we say, unstoppable.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: So what do we what would out of all the lessons that you've learned, what is like the biggest thing that you could share that has made you be the unstoppable rich?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think one thing I learned is to if you fail, get up, and if you get mad, get over it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep getting up and just you can't stay mad forever.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just gonna hurt you more than it hurts the person or people or thing you're mad at.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: So get over it and move forward.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned that from Colin Powell.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: General Colin Powell said that uh get mad, get over it, don't sweat the little things, and that's how you laugh.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta live your life.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta live look big and live forward, and you'll you'll be fine.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Rich, I have just loved our conversation.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I please share with everyone where they can find you, connect with you, how they can get a hold of you.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because people seriously, if you're listening to this, go connect with Rich.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Follow him on The Misfit Nation because it truly is inspirational.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: But how can they find you?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: If they go to my website, themisfitnation.com, all my contact information is on there.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's even like a contact us email thing on there.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I usually answer within uh probably 30 minutes.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: If my boss doesn't like it, but I answer it pretty quickly.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, because I don't I want that connection.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you email, you take the time to email me, I should email you back.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that way I one, I don't forget, and two, you get knowledge that I'm there for you, and all our social media stuff is on there as well.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Rich, I really want to thank you for being on you and again, and thank you for your service and all that you are doing and helping create great leaders out there because we all know we could use more great ones.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast, and thank you all for listening and hope you all have a great day.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jacqueline Strauminger, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, Influential Leaders and Their Game Changing Insights podcast.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a successful CEO, entrepreneur, or leader in your industry and you have insights you would like to share, we want you to be a guest on this program.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: So please visit go.leapteursuccess.com slash podcast.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if you haven't gotten something out of this interview and you'd like to share the episode on social media, just go ahead and take a screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on social.
• 34:21
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• 34:34
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• 34:38
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• 34:42
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• 34:47
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• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Readings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show.
• 34:52
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• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: You want to know more about the podcast or about Leapture Success?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just go to the website leapsuccess.com or follow me, Jacqueline Strominger, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Plug in my name, Jacqueline, that's J A C L I N Strominger at T-R-O-M, I and G-E-R.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: And follow me on all the socials.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for listening, and remember to be on