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Christie Hutcherson · Calm Under Fire

• Col. John Boggs: Well, welcome to Calm Under Fire. I am Colonel John Boggs, U.S. Marine Corps retired and president of Fortitude Consulting. Fortitude is an executive leadership development and coaching firm. And today we have Christy Hutcherson. Now, Christy works in environments where uncertainty, risk and rapid decision making are part of the daily reality. Through her work in security, logistics and strategic operations, She helps organizations navigate complex environments where preparation, discipline, and leadership matter. Today, we're talking about leadership under pressure, especially when responsibility, security, and uncertainty all intersect. Christy, welcome. Christie Hutcherson: Thank you so much. so happy to be here today. Col. John Boggs: Well, I am truly thrilled to have you here today. What a topic. But okay, can we start? Can we just jump right in? Christie Hutcherson: Sure, let's do it. Col. John Boggs: Perfect, perfect. Okay. Yeah, Christy, your work operates in environments where uncertainty is constant. So how does that kind of pressure shape leadership? Christie Hutcherson: You know, I think that's such a good question. Especially, like you said, the environment that we work in, it's rapidly changing and evolving every second. seconds sometimes, unfortunately, can cost lives or assets. And the ability, first and foremost, I think one of the most important things any leader could do is listen. I think that skill set is missing so much in leadership. It's really listening. And then hearing what's going on on the ground, whether it's with a client or whether it's in a hostile environment, being able to understand the situation around you, and then being able to be calm in your decision making, right? Chaos is not a good thing when it's in the security world. You need to come from a place of centered calmness, but how do you get that? And that is from preparation. With our teams at Kennedy International Logistics and Services, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is to be a strong leader and to be able to make those type of rapid decisions and Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: be a leader to the, whether it's the teams on the ground or the clients or whatever that situation looks like, is you have to be prepared. And we look at scenarios. We don't just look at what might happen. We look at what is going to happen. Because fundamentally, something's going to go wrong. I can't think of a time really where anything perfectly went off without a hitch. And so we train and we operate out of all of the what ifs. Col. John Boggs: Wow, okay, you got it. You can't stop there because you just Christie Hutcherson: Yeah Col. John Boggs: said beyond beyond what might happen. I mean, that's that's profound. How do you how do you guys prepare for that? What are you doing? Christie Hutcherson: So collectively, our team has a plethora amount of experience in different areas and different sectors, but those sectors cross-pollinate with each other. And so we've been able to uniquely bring in individuals with all these different mindsets on how they function. And we don't live in a silo, so we bring everybody to the table. And each unique challenge that our client brings us, we put them in front of us. And we look at the scenario and how we have to execute that. And then everybody has an idea and says, okay, well, this is perfect. This is the perfect scenario. However, this is going to go wrong. And then Lawrence will say, well, you know what? You might not have thought about this. This could go wrong in this scenario. So it's Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: a team effort. And we're only as strong as the team that we decide to put around us, right? And so that goes back to also your vetting. I think it's so important to vet. the individuals who are going to come to that table that think tank within your company and Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: be able to think outside of the box and have solutions, but then also be able to train our operators or those on the ground who are actually going to execute that in the different scenarios that might happen and are going to probably happen. It's about being proactive. There's way too many companies that I've seen, they're constantly Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: reacting. I don't mean to pick on anybody when I say this, and there's so many different scenarios that I could give. So Kennedy International, our company, we have a big umbrella, and we have different sectors of what we do. One of those is private security. And if security breaches your perimeter, your security has already failed. What you and your plans you put in place have already failed because we didn't think outside the box of all of the what ifs. And the perfect example is recently what happened in Washington DC. You can have all of the best trained individuals, but if they did not train for the right scenario or more importantly, you didn't hire the right individual with the right psychological mindset where they were fully engaged and understand that a threat can happen at any second, you don't relax in those situations. And so, We pride ourselves on the team and those individuals that we actually hire to do the job itself. And then lastly, I'll say not every single person is the best for that position. So we make sure that whoever we plug in to whatever operation we're doing, whether it's hostile environment, natural disaster, close protection, contested logistics, our team has the right, not only the physical training, but also the mental acuity to be able to do that task. Col. John Boggs: Hmm. All right, that's this is this is fantastic So your teams are very well prepared. They're very well trained. So tell me about the leadership of those teams Where are they at in this thing? Christie Hutcherson: Yeah, you know, and that's the thing is the leadership that we bring in, these guys have been on the ground. They're not, you know, maybe they've done it. They've actually been there, walked that they've failed, right? We want to, we want to hire people, especially leaders and team leads who have failed multiple times. Because another thing is, is people think failure is a negative failure is not failure is a positive thing. That's how we look at it. Because when you fail, you learn. and then you learn what didn't work. But then you can apply what does work and you typically won't go and do that same thing again and you have knowledge and wisdom from that. We always tell our teams, please fail, but fail faster. Col. John Boggs: Wow, fail faster. I love it. I love it. So, okay. Are there typical areas where you expect failure, where you expect them to fail and you focus in on getting them past that? Can you tell us about that? Christie Hutcherson: Yeah, you know, we approach every challenge that we're going to have failure in that. You know, again, you're fooling yourself if you think that you have perfection and you live in utopia because we just don't live in that operational environment. We already know something's going to go wrong. So what we want to do is again, with our leadership, we train for the scenarios. We actually physically train for different scenarios. It's real world application in a training environment. And that's what we pride ourselves on because we don't want failure to happen to our client. So we take then absorb that prior to anything happening. We run the scenarios real time, live before we send out the individuals to do whatever task it is that we're doing in the, whether it's hostile environment, close protection, all of these different areas that we work in. Col. John Boggs: Okay, so leaders. The leaders maintain their clarity through their training. Christie Hutcherson: That's correct. And it's constant. A lot of companies, they'll send out people once a year on training or every six months. Training is daily in our organization. There's always something going on, always some type of training. Even the highest levels. I will tell you, our CEO of our company, I literally have a hard time shackling him to his actual desk. I swear everyone, I'm like, need to fall on chain around him. because he loves being in the field. He came from somebody who came up in the ranks, highly trained, in the field, doing complex operations. And so that's his passion, that's what he loves to do, and he's very good at it. And so he loves to be out in the field. He will pop in on a job, and it doesn't matter where in the world. He just got back from doing something in the Middle East, showed up with his team, and his team didn't know he was coming. But that's what he does. And it's not because he doesn't trust his team. It's because he wants to see firsthand what's going on. And then if he sees something or he might be even betraying but he always says, I've not stopped learning, Christie. And that's our philosophy. You can never stop learning. You can never stop growing. And you can never stop getting those skillsets. And it's because we cultivate that culture in our company. It makes everybody else want to do better, want to strive better. It's almost a competition. It's like, okay, when am I going to learn today and how much better am I going to hone my skills? Col. John Boggs: What behavior, what leadership behavior creates stability in a high risk situation? What kind of leadership behavior creates stability? Christie Hutcherson: You know, that's a great question. Being calm, calm under pressure first and foremost, you really do need to be calm under pressure. But how do you become calm under pressure? It's because you've been there, you've had these scenarios possibly thrown at you, you've had life events and experiences that helped you become calm in your decision making. But it's also a behavioral trait. Not everybody has that skill. And I think it's really important as a leadership team that when we put a team leader in that position who are going to have to make sometimes life and death situations, we want to make sure that we've tested for those type of behavior traits that they can become under pressure. I always say, you know, not everybody's born to be a leader either. It's some I believe it's a gift from God. Sometimes you. But that's okay, everybody has a different skill set that you are just naturally adapted to. And so we wanna try to nurture those, identify those individuals and then help them under those situations, figure out the best way to make those decisions being calm. Chaos can lead to disasters as we all know, you are in the military and it's so important. that the training and the preparation are behind those leaders because when something does happen and go wrong, their training has been able to adapt them and their behavior traits to be able to make calm, collective decisions. Col. John Boggs: Wow. So now there's a difference. There's a difference between projecting confidence, I'll call it that. I'm projecting, I'm confident, I'm calm, and maintaining composure. There's a difference between projecting confidence and maintaining your composure. And I really say calm. How do you think that distinction, well, tell me, what do you think about that distinction? Am I wrong? I mean, it's okay if I'm wrong. been wrong many times, most of the time. Christie Hutcherson: No, I love the saying, people say, fake it till you make it, right? And no matter what you do. Col. John Boggs: Exactly. Christie Hutcherson: I don't think really you can really truly fake an innate confidence, right? Some people do project confidence, but it's a false confidence. Again, I think that just goes back to the environment that you've created around you, the leaders that you've created around you, the scenarios that you've placed yourself in. your education, your training, and your life experiences. Through all of those things in your story, it's what's developed you and made you confident and mature of where you are at the time. And you just have to understand how to identify that in individuals. And then once you identify that, more importantly, is how do you draw that out of them? And how do you mentor and make them even better and stronger? Col. John Boggs: Well, you know, you said this is rolling around in my head now because your training must be all it is, as you said, it's basically not nonstop. Excuse me. to overlay what you're doing and how you expect your leaders to operate, it almost seems as though if leaders in almost any industry operated in the same fashion, they would be so much further ahead. Well, can you, where does trust come in? Where do you trust people to, particularly the leadership? If the team is always looking to the leader, And you have highly trained and highly capable teams that could probably function without leadership for quite some time. But still that leader plays a part. And trust and responsibility, trust, accountability, responsibility always comes to mind. How do your leaders show that? How do they show that in working with their teams? Christie Hutcherson: Our leadership team has a philosophy that not one person is above the other. So we pride ourselves in embedding ourselves with the team. And I'm going to be honest, it doesn't matter if you're a janitor or if you're a senior level management. We get into the trenches with our teams. And when you operate from that mindset, it automatically builds trust. because we don't feel like we're above. I might have a title of a CEO or COO, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: but I checked that ego and I checked that title because at the end of the day, we're one team, we're one company, and we have one mission. And when you portray that to everybody throughout your company, it's almost like a force multiplier and people get... excited about that because they don't look at you. look to you as a leader and they respect you, but they know Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: that you're coming from a place where you don't feel like you're above them or better than them. And I think that that's a really important lesson that most companies could learn is the culture that you set is setting the standard across the board of how everyone's going to operate. And again, you know, I've been, this is true story. Just last week, I grabbed a toilet brush and I was in the bathrooms and I was scrubbing a toilet because it needed to be done. And you know what? It's okay. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but that's the kind of, the culture that we want to have. It's like, you know what? We're all in this together. And you know what? We have a great team around us. And it shows in our client reviews, it shows in the work ethic, it shows with how we accomplish our tasks. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: and we get five star reviews from our clients and we get repeat business because at the end of the day, the type of business we're in, we're not out there advertising. It's really word of mouth and for the most part, and it shows because our team is constantly putting their best foot forward because they've looked to the leadership. They know they can trust us. They know we've got their backs and they know we're actually accountable also not just to ourselves, but to the CEO, but we're also accountable to our team. if that makes sense. Col. John Boggs: It does make sense. You've described the leader that sees the piece of paper, the leader just bends down and picks it up and throws it away and doesn't think anything of it. So what leadership behaviors quietly weaken a high, they weaken in high pressure situations. What are those, the leaders that just don't cut it? What are their behaviors? Yeah. Christie Hutcherson: Undermining. I think one of the worst things in corporations is undermining or gossip. That breeds a very bad vibe in your company and it also breeds mistrust. We identify that very quickly in our organization and we just don't tolerate it. We want to have everybody understand that they have value, they have worth. And if there's a mistake that's made, you need to go to that person. We don't go behind and talk about X, Y, Z, and we certainly don't air our dirty laundry out. And those are qualities that are not good for anybody, whether it's a leader or not. So we will identify that pretty quickly. And like a cancer, we've got to cut it off, cut it out, and remove it. Col. John Boggs: Do your, does your leadership, do they train? How do they train? How do they stay? I mean, you clearly, I mean, you clearly, you read clearly nonstop, but what do you expect of your leaders? How do they stay sharp? Christie Hutcherson: We do exactly what everybody in our whole company does. Again, we all are required to do the same thing. And so that again goes back to breeding accountability, trust. Everybody understands what our mission is and Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: they understand that to have that mission and be able to complete those missions, you have to have certain training. Now I'm not saying like, you know. the secretarial staff isn't going and they're not training on the weekends with, you know, firearms unless they really want to, we Col. John Boggs: Yeah, I got you. Christie Hutcherson: actually offer that. But everybody has training that they have to do. We have a 19 point onboarding process and it doesn't matter if you're a 1099 with our company or you're a executive assistant or janitor, you're going to go through the exact same process that everybody does. And there's clearances and all sorts of things because of the work we do. And so, Everybody understands that nobody is above here or down here. Everybody's going to be consistent with what they're doing, what their requirements are. And I think that removes all of this animosity or that backstabbing behavior or that non-commeradery within companies where you divide, right? I've seen so many times, I'm sure you have Colonel Boggs, is that silo. Like the accounting department isn't gonna go talk to the sales team. The sales team isn't gonna go talk to the operations department. We don't have that culture. It's like we all come to the table. There's no silos because everybody knows everybody came from the same start. Col. John Boggs: that's so marine of you. Christie Hutcherson: Hahaha! Col. John Boggs: I'm sorry. That's one of the things the Marines are, we were very proud of is we all start the same way. I mean, everybody. So. Christie Hutcherson: You know, that's exactly right. We all put our pants on the exact same way every single day. Some people put on a skirt, others will put on pants, but at the end of the day, we are all the same. We just have different talents. For me personally as a COO, I've had a lot of different hats and I've worn a lot of different job titles, right? And I've been in the room with presidents and I've been in the room with, you know, Janitors and I can tell you we all are Just humans right trying to do the best we can the difference is some of us have different education some of us have different backgrounds and experiences some of us are military and Nobody is above anybody else. We all have something that we can bring I have learned Honestly, I have learned some of the most important valuable lessons from the most unexpected places a school bus driver you know, who's taking children every day, whole busload of children and dropping them off. And I think when we start getting into a mindset that we can't learn or we're better or that person because of their job title or what they're doing for a living, that they can't teach us something, I think that that's failure fundamentally. And... I embrace it. actually go out purposely to try to look for other individuals, have different walks of life or philosophies, so I can learn something new. And sometimes I can take that back into our company culture, and it's very, very valuable. Col. John Boggs: Wow, this is just an amazing company. It's just amazing. So when leaders are operating in an uncertain high risk environment, which you do all the time, what do they need to remember most? Christie Hutcherson: or training. Col. John Boggs: their training. Can you tell us more about that? Christie Hutcherson: Well, again, it depends on which way we're talking, but I'm going to talk about close protection for a second or contested logistics. Any moment, at any second, something can go bad very rapidly. And if something goes bad very rapidly, can cost lives in those particular scenarios. And so when our teams are on the ground, it's extremely important that they always fall back, first and foremost, on their teammates. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: Right? They have to rely on the team around them. And everybody has a role and they know what their role is and their positions of where they're supposed to be. Because if they don't and they're not where they're supposed to be, that could be catastrophic, including costing a life. And so our teams operate at that high function all the time and they're always turned on. And I think that that's probably one of the most important things that they can do from a collective leadership role on the ground. is making sure everybody has the plan, they know what the plan is, they know how to execute that plan, and more importantly, Colonel Boggs, when something goes wrong, because it's gonna, how are they going to, as a team, function together quickly to move to protect the asset that we were hired to do? Col. John Boggs: Okay, I have to say this again, because what you said was so profound. You said when something goes wrong, because it's gonna. I mean. That right there is, if everything goes great, fantastic. But we're not planning that everything is gonna go great. Christie Hutcherson: No. Col. John Boggs: Everything's gonna go sideways. This is, I love this. This is fantastic. is, needless to say, this is a world where I have come from and I've lived in where, know, let's hope things go well, but the reality is it's all gonna go crazy. So what do we do next? But... Christie Hutcherson: You know that old saying, you plan for the best, you you hope for the best, but you plan for the worst, right? And you know Col. John Boggs: Absolutely. Christie Hutcherson: the worst, unfortunately, sometimes comes along. And if our mission goes without a hitch, we get that executive home or that high net worth client home and they're back to Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: their families, we did our job. If we get that humanitarian aid or that military equipment from A to B and without a hitch, we've done our job. But nine times out of 10, something's going to go wrong. And sometimes Colonel Boggs is not. something that is a disruptor like somebody trying to attack or a violent situation. Sometimes it's as simple as somebody didn't, the car or the tractor trailer or the railroad or the cargo ship didn't show up on time, but we have a timeline, right? But it's a trickle down effect, right? If that doesn't get on that cargo container today and it doesn't arrive in XYZ port, number one, it's gonna cost XYZ dollars, right, because it didn't show Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: up on time and now it's a trickle down effect. Typically there always is. So we always want to plan, okay, if that scenario happens, how are we going to mitigate that? How are we going to get it around? I'll give you a real world example. We were, the company I used to work for, we had a project, we were helping with the logistical and the troop drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan under Obama. And Pakistan had closed the borders. And it was a temporary close, but they closed the borders. And we still had to get on, Operation, you know what that means. And so we had some critical supplies that had to get around and go around Pakistan and get through Dubai and then to where it needed to go. Well, they were charging some ridiculous amount. I think it was $110,000 an hour or something like that, right? For Col. John Boggs: Bye. Christie Hutcherson: every time there was a delay. So we have to look forward and our teams have to look forward and plan for those scenarios. And again, You hope everything goes right, but it's always being able to look ahead, look forward thinking, and what are we going to do? And I'm not saying we always get it right, because Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: we don't. I'd be lying if I told your audience, you know, we did. But we do the best we can to plan for almost every scenario and our teams understand that. And they're Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: trained on that because we brief them. So they get briefings every day. So when our teams are out in the field, whether in the Middle East or wherever they are, They get briefed every day and then they also brief us. What are you seeing on the ground? Has something changed? Has the environment changed? Has the weather changed? So there's all of these different scenarios we're constantly looking at and tracking so Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Christie Hutcherson: we can adjust in real time. And lastly, one thing that's unique about Kennedy International Logistics and Services is that we have here in Naples, Florida, an incredible operations command center. It is the exact same technology, the exact same equipment that both law enforcement and military installations use for real-time operational crime centers. We actually met with all of their vendors and literally took their equipment and were the first privatized company to do this. And we created a half a million dollar facility. So we in real time, whether it's personnel, human assets, cargo, super yachts, whatever, fill in the blank, it doesn't matter what it is. We can track in real time. And so that's part of our arsenal. Why did we do that? Why did we invest in that? Because it helps protect our clients and their assets and their personnel and make sure that we know where everything is at all the times. And it helps us to be able to change rapidly in any environment. Col. John Boggs: Wow. So Christy, for organizations and leaders thinking more seriously about readiness, security, and leading effectively in uncertain environments, what's the best way for them to connect with you, to learn more about you, to learn more about Kennedy International? What's the best way for them to connect with you? But before you do that, I'd like for you to tell us a little bit more just about Kennedy and just You were right there. Could you tell us a little more about Kennedy and then how do they connect with you? Christie Hutcherson: Thank you, Colonel Boggs. So Kennedy International Logistics and Services, it's kind of like the umbrella company. We have nine offshoots of that. The CEO of our company, 26 plus years in the private security realm. He's from London, England. He's been trained at some of the best elite places. I'm not going to get into that. He doesn't like me talking about his background. He's very humble. I've been in the defense contracting and military space from the private sector side for 17, 18 years. And so we saw a gap. And that's a gap in security, how all of that works. And again, whether it's Overwatch, whether it's camera systems, whether it's personnel, assets movement, contested logistics, secure logistics, investigations, we took that and we put it under one umbrella. And we filled in all of those gaps. And if you're interested in finding out how we can protect your people, your assets, and what matters most to you, You can simply go to contact at Kennedyint.com, contact at Kennedyint.com, or you can go to our website Kennedyint.com. There's phone numbers on there where you can reach out. Me personally, if you want to email me directly, mine's a little bit longer of an email, but it's Kennedyinternational at protonmail.ch. That's Charlie Hotel. And we'd love to have a private conversation with you. We operate with serious discretion and we take every single client's needs very seriously. And more importantly, there's not a one size fits all kernel box, whether it's a site, whether we do agriculture right now, we're looking at an ag site, we protect farmland, there's food security issues. There's a lot of things that people don't think about that need to be secured. And we have thought about how to do that to mitigate risk as best possible. So if you want to reach out to us and have a private conversation, please feel free to do so. We'd love to talk to you. Col. John Boggs: Could you give me your email address one more time? Christie Hutcherson: Yes, my personal email address is Kennedy International at proton.ch. Yes. Col. John Boggs: Okay. All right. That's Kennedy International at protonmail.ch. Christie Hutcherson: Yes, sir. Col. John Boggs: Christy, thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate this. This has been wonderful. And let me just say this about that. that is Christy talked a lot about the preparation and training and not assuming anything. Let's please let's catch that she didn't assume anything. Everyone gets trained and in the world that I work in with leadership development, there's a lot of assumptions that go on up there folks. We assume a person can do the job. Why don't know it was an assumption. Remember an assumption is a truth that has no facts to back it up. So Christie assumes nothing Kennedy assumes nothing. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're serious about readiness, security, and leading effectively in uncertain environments, these are the folks to talk to. Christie's the person to talk to. And you will do yourself a very good favor. Hey, that's it on this end. Remember, leadership is too important to get wrong. It is. It just is. So ladies and gentlemen, that's it on this end. I'll see you on the next go. That's it out here.