May 23, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode, Adam delves into attitude, inspiration, and becoming delusional positive. He shares a few personal tales and achieving a supportive mindset, tailored to the challenges in our industry. He addresses imposter syndrome, emphasizing a positive attitude and childlike confidence. A few insights on career advancement, interview mastery, and resilience stop by too. He highlights the importance of vulnerability, learning from failures, and the role of external motivation and mentorship. The episode wraps up with leaning on your network by brining your family, friends, colleagues and the Network along for the journey. This is a great episode to re-cage your gyros and get ready for a great summer run!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Welcome back to another episode of the PilotNetwork podcast.
I'm your host, Adam.
This is the place where we connect the aviatorswith tools, resources, and stories to help them
navigate their careers and lives.
So I was doing a lot of thinking.
For those of you listening to the pod, a lot ofyou might know that I've been recovering from
shoulder surgery.
An idea came up to me because you know, you'resitting around the house, you're not flying
(00:39):
airplanes, you're not getting out of the houseas much, you can't even drive a car.
You get into a maybe a little bit of adepressive state, right?
I mean, that was what was happening to me.
And I had a little bit of a moment.
And that moment was funny enough brought on bymy kids.
(00:59):
So I have two daughters for those who don'tknow and a lot of you who out there who may
have kids or daughters might be obsessed with acertain Disney series or movie series called
Zombies.
I think there's three of them now or something.
I've never seen one of them all the way fullythrough, at least not one sitting.
I've probably seen them all just by the factthat they watch it enough where I've been in
(01:23):
and out of the room to see the whole movie.
The other thing they do all the time is theylisten to the soundtrack and they have this one
song that they really love that I never reallypaid much attention attention to.
And it's called Exceptional Zed.
And my daughter and I were down here in thepodcast studio doing a couple things.
(01:46):
And she was playing with some of the equipmentand she said, can we listen to some music?
So I threw it on YouTube in the background,kind of the playlist and she wanted me to hear
some stuff.
And I listened to the actual lyrics of the songfor the first time and inspiration struck.
Guess the the muse was available for me to tapinto.
The idea of what he's going through in thismovie is he's kind of down on himself.
(02:10):
He's got this interview or something coming upand he doesn't think that highly of his
accomplishments, his achievements, and he'sreally nervous that he's gonna bomb this
interview, right?
Well, instantly I thought of all of us who gothrough the airline interview process or the
Garden Reserve interview process, or we'retrying to get into the Air Force Academy, or
just trying to get that first flight job thatwe've ever had.
(02:30):
And we're not super confident, we kind of havean imposter syndrome feeling.
I know I've had that in the past.
Sometimes we have it all the time just at TPN.
There's times where I get on the microphone andsome of you might say this is correct, but
total imposter, get that imposter syndrome.
And it was there and then that the idea and theold cliched chat of attitude or cliched phrase
(02:58):
that we have heard a million times all of us isattitude is everything.
Man, it just ton of bricks.
Does that translate well?
Talking to those recruiters at airlines, peopleare constantly transitioning out of the
military whether it's go straight civilianworld through retirement or separating
completely, or they're moving up from theirregional job into something that they want to
(03:20):
call their forever gig.
And sometimes we just, we don't have thatultimate confidence.
We don't have that attitude to walk in to theinterview or the place that we're going to be
where we're going to chat with these people,meet with these people that might be able to
quote unquote change our lives.
We lack the attitude, the confidence to be ableto go in there and know that we're gonna nail
(03:45):
it and that it's their loss if they don't giveus the job.
So there's a couple of lyrics in there that hitme.
If you wanna be exceptional, then you gotta bethe best version of yourself.
So that power of positive delusion, if you wantto call it that.
If you're not confident in your ability tospeak in front of people like a recruiter, or
(04:06):
if you're going to a guard interview and you'rereally nervous because it's the one place you
want to be, or it's your first low time gig andyou feel like holy cow, I've never actually
flown anything other than a couple studentsaround spinning holes in the sky doing steep
turns.
Knowing that prepared for this opportunity andthat you can do this and that this isn't some
(04:26):
mistake, that you're there for a reason, thatthey want you in their organization.
And having that attitude, that power ofpositive delusion, you are the person that they
need to succeed.
So that attitude, that mindset shift.
So it's funny because with my daughters we talkabout this a lot and they'll get down on
(04:48):
themselves for a few seconds but we give themthat little pep talk or say you got this or
maybe give them a little bit of a build up inconfidence and the next thing you know they're
off and running and they're not afraid ofwhatever they're gonna do that day.
Just like when kids start a new sport, they'rekind of nervous, they're a little excited but
they don't have that confidence to go into it.
So you kind of kind of build them up andsometimes it just takes a little spark and off
(05:10):
they go and you don't have to worry about anyof it yourself.
I think that we as adults, we have to have someof that childlike mentality and realize that we
can tap into those things that we don't thinkwe're good at, but maybe we're good enough to
highlight the other things in our life thatmake us exceptional and make us able to go out
(05:30):
there and get those opportunities, takeadvantage of those opportunities that are given
to us.
Well, there is, I don't want to get too muchinto the movie because I don't know it that
well, but I think there's some other thingsthat we can pull from the idea of attitude is
everything and being an exceptional Zed to helpus get to where we want outside of just the
(05:53):
thought of attitude is everything kind of drilla little deeper.
So an idea that I had for this was kind ofattitude as kind of a career multiplier.
So, I'll put this back in a story that Iactually did on the podcast with my friend Pat.
We were flying and we had a, we were flyingformation in the KC-one 35.
(06:15):
He was in the other airplane and we had apretty major emergency going on in our
airplane.
And at the time I remember it was a year afterthe Shell seventy seven accident that occurred
over in the Afghanistan theater where everybodyunfortunately lost their lives and they tried
(06:36):
their best but were not armed with some of theinformation that would help them.
Think of that when I got into my emergencybecause it was a similar situation where we
didn't really know all the details to getourselves out of it.
If you want to go back and listen to that, youcan type in the search Adam is scared or Adam
and Pat are scared or something like that andthat emergency story will come up and you can
(06:58):
check that out.
But in this case, one of the things that Ididn't have all the information, I wasn't I
guess prepared.
I don't know if anybody really is to handle itor so I thought.
But that idea of training kicked in and I gotmy stuff together in a sock real fast and
(07:21):
started delegating the duties that I couldn'tdo and then handling the aircraft best I could
to get out of that situation, put the jetsafely back on the ground and everybody was
okay.
Airplane didn't have any bent metal except forthe broke part, which was jack screw in the
flap and caused asymmetric issues.
So what I'm going after here is my bad day gotturned around pretty quick at the end of it,
(07:46):
you feel relieved, pretty excited that you gotthrough it, you have a little bit of a letdown
after that.
But my attitude at that time was I can handlethis because I have no other option than to
handle it or else, well, who knows where we'dbe.
The context of that story is to promote thefact that you've trained for what you're going
(08:10):
to do next.
You just don't necessarily know that becauseyou don't look at it like that.
You don't look at the fact that you've burnedholes in the sky teaching brand new students as
a CFII.
That has prepared you for the next step in youraviation career.
You just look at it as maybe, hey, I'm teachingthese people how to fly safely and that I'm
gathering an occurring time to get my nextposition.
(08:33):
What we tend to forget is that is practice forthe next phase.
Obviously it's in the cockpit and flying theairplane, but all those interactions are reps
that you're getting and they're different repsthan you would get if you weren't talking to
those people that you can use when you go intothat next that phase that we're not used to
which is that interview.
(08:54):
This also goes in the guard and reserve.
We just have to look like holy cow, man, Ihaven't done an interview in so long.
I don't really know how to handle it.
You do.
You just haven't had the practice.
You haven't had the foresight to kind of letthat training come out.
I think there's a quote here that I kind oflike that ties in with this.
There are people who make things happen andpeople who watch things happen.
(09:18):
And then there's people who wonder whathappened.
We want to be those people who make thingshappen, right?
And this is our opportunity to make thingshappen as we go out through our career, take a
few seconds to realize that we're constantly inthat preparation mode to get to that next
phase.
And the way we can do that is by tying in allthe other stuff in our life to realize those
(09:38):
are just reps to get us ready.
When we talk to our spouse or talk to ourfriends.
Yeah we might be having fun but if we're havinga serious conversation or we're doing something
that's more formalized, that's a chance to trya new tactic to prepare us.
So when we go through interview prep or we goto a conference, we have some of those practice
reps down and we can feel more confident inthat role.
(10:01):
Like you're gonna be there, you're eager tolearn and all that kind of good stuff.
And then when you go into the actual interview,eagerness will show off.
The other thing that we've talked about on thisshow, you've probably heard plastered
everywhere else through interview preps orforums or the TPN Facebook group or whatever it
might be is airlines want somebody who standsout for their brand.
(10:26):
They want people who can represent that companystrongly.
That's what all that practice is what all thatmindset's about.
So when you are able to confidently speak infront of somebody, you don't have to be the
world's greatest order, but what you do need tohave is that confidence in yourself that makes
that interviewer eager to get you into thecockpit, get you in the sim and start training
(10:52):
so they can put you out on the line becausethey want you as that brand rep.
They wanna be they wanna fly with you.
They know that you're gonna show off the thegood things about the company because you
represent them, same with the guard, and thatyou fit in with the culture and the type of
people that they hire at that airline or thatguard unit, that reserve unit or whatever the
case might be.
(11:13):
It also shows how you might bounce back fromadversity.
Maybe you have a hiccup in the sim phase, maybeyou fail a checkride at your reserve unit,
maybe you took a little longer to get to solothan you thought you were going to.
Those are all okay as we progress through ourcareer.
It's just a matter of rehacking that mindsetand going okay, I had a I had a little verbal,
(11:34):
I'm gonna take maybe a minute or two or an houror maybe even a day and rehash that in my mind,
and then I'm gonna drop it and move on.
For those of you who are golf fans, and ifyou're not, I'll explain.
There is a golfer out there named ScottieScheffler.
Scottie Scheffler is the number one golfer inthe world right now.
He just won another major championship, and hehas openly stated that golf is not a very
(12:00):
satisfying sport because they always want tofinish number one.
They always want to win the tournament andthat's not that it's pretty rare actually.
Even the best golfer percentage wise in theworld, Tiger Woods at one time, didn't win
every golf tournament.
He was as close as anybody ever came, but hewas still pretty far away from that number.
Well the same thing goes when we're flyingairplanes or getting on to that next phase of
(12:21):
our career is how do we bounce back from thatadversity?
Sometimes that adversity is through no fault ofyour own.
We haven't really seen this in the industry upuntil recently with some furloughs that have
happened with some companies that have had someeconomic troubles.
How do you bounce back from that kind of stuff?
And that is something that shows that attitudeis everything mindset, that ability to handle
(12:48):
those adverse situations, whether they're inyour control or not, that you're able to handle
them, move on and then teach somebody else someof that information so they can be a little bit
better.
Okay, so how do we kind of model this as someof us are through their mid or later phases in
our career?
(13:08):
For those next generation pilots that arecoming up or people who just started in the
legacy carrier major airline industry, or whofound a niche and want to stay there, but they
want to move up in their company.
I think the way we can do this internally isit's kind of like my daughters listen to that
song.
They believe Zed is exceptional, right?
(13:29):
The exceptional Zed song that I talked aboutbecause he believes that he's exceptional.
So we need to believe that we're exceptional atwhat we do to promote that within others.
I'm not saying be arrogant or have hubris aboutit.
What I am saying is if we're confident in ourabilities, which most pilots are, it rubs off
on others.
And when we transition off the flight deck tobe confident in stuff that is important and
(13:56):
life changing and can help you move forward inyour career.
Whatever route that might be is a great way tomodel and mentor that to others.
And I think that attitude is trainable thisway.
Sometimes we have a bad day.
I know that just with this little shoulderthing that I got going on, that I've had a few
rough days because a few setbacks here andthere.
(14:17):
I'm not progressing as fast as I want to in myrebuild.
But the reality is, is I have to retrain myselfevery morning when I get up that okay, today is
going to be better than it was yesterday, I'mgoing get a lot more done.
At other times, it's like maybe there's notmuch that I can do physically or even mentally
because I'm burned out, I'm tired or whateverthe case is.
Then I take that attitude and apply it towardssomething else.
(14:40):
Do something that's going to give me thatpositive feedback and keep that loop going.
Maybe it's just playing with my kids or gettingoutside and going for a walk and listening to
some podcasts that I really like or anaudiobook or spending some time working on the
stuff that I know that I can that I can domeditating, whatever your thing is, that is the
thing that if you spend a little time on thereand change that mindset, you can get back and
(15:05):
you can train that attitude to change.
I know that I go through this daily, sure a lotof us do and sometimes you just don't even
realize that.
I think that as we do that our work ethicchanges, our mindset delivers a more positive
outlook and something we can achieve.
This isn't about goal setting or any of thatstuff.
I'm not even trying to get into mindset shift,I'm just saying how this can affect us and move
(15:28):
it towards that very narrow space of careeraspirations within aviation and how we can
apply it on a day to day basis to get ourselvesready for that next phase, whatever that phase
might be.
The other thing when we talk about thatattitude and mindset is that vulnerability is
(15:51):
okay.
Showing a little bit of vulnerability preferredand you'll hear this interview prep with the
guys at Spitfire or wherever you would go oreven if you talk to just your friends is that
we're gonna have to admit to mistakes and thoseare vulnerabilities.
To say that you're invincible or ironclad andthat you never screw up is, well it's not true,
(16:12):
number one.
Number two is showing that you're a vulnerableperson but that you respond well to those
vulnerabilities and that adversity reaction oradversity learning that you had, that is the
stuff that can set you apart, not just what'son paper.
So the last piece of this is in the military,especially in the fighter community, you earn
(16:39):
your call sign, right?
I've earned a couple different ones in thetankers we don't necessarily have call sign or
naming ceremonies.
But I've earned a couple that are prettyentertaining for most.
I will gladly buy you a beer if you wanna hearany of those stories.
But to get back to the song and the wholeimpetus and why this podcast came about was
(17:04):
this guy, Exceptional Zed earned this idea fromall of his friends and schoolmates as
exceptional was not by accident.
He earned that because he was doing all thesegood things that other people saw and they
recognized before he did that he was capable.
(17:24):
And sometimes if we're on that other end and wesee somebody who's doing the right thing and
doing it well all the time, they need to hearit from outside.
A little external motivation can go extremelyfar.
I just had this with a good friend of mine whogot hired at American.
He was a little not nervous, well maybenervous, but not extremely confident in his
(17:50):
abilities to interview correctly, or he thoughtthere was a correct way to interview.
And he told me straight up that going toconferences was just something he didn't enjoy,
because that's not his scene, that's not whathe does well.
I said, that's totally okay, that's right, likewe're all different, of course, maybe that's
not your jam you know you're more introvertedor whatever the case might be.
(18:12):
What I wanted him to understand was he didn'tneed to be a master at any of this stuff.
But just to have that ability to be confidentin himself that when he did speak that people
were listening, And they thought, well this guyknows what he's talking about.
He would be a great person to fly with, a goodrepresentative of our company, or somebody that
(18:33):
we can look to when times get tough.
And sure enough, he a CJO.
In fact, he got a CJO at TPNx.
So that was really cool for me to see a friendgo through that process and go through it
rather quickly to understand that that attitudechange, having that call sign attitude, like he
earned the right to stand up and be heardbecause people respected what he had to say.
(18:56):
And most of us were all in that boat.
Having a little, I mean, listen, I'm sittinghere talking in front of a microphone to people
that a lot of you I've met, some of you Ihaven't, and maybe some of you think I'm a
windbag and full of nonsense, and that's fine,I understand that.
(19:16):
And some of the other folks, you know mepersonally, you've seen stuff that I've done
and you understand or know that I might have alittle knowledge to impart.
And it's my duty, as it's all of our duties, tomentor that next phase because there's some
young folks out there who wanna get into thiscareer field, who wanna follow in our
footsteps.
And at the Pilot Network we say pay it forwardfrom the aspiring to the retiring.
(19:41):
It is our job to make sure that we continuethis aviation journey that we're on and pass
that ideal on to younger folks so they can kindof fall in our footsteps of aviating safely and
then also enjoying the career field so whenthey look back and say yep, you know that was
(20:02):
really worth everything I put into the career.
And we just sometimes have to change ourattitude.
Might be a little perspective change, but whenwe have that attitude shift, we can really
start to see that.
So kind of in closing here, I learned a tonjust from listening to my daughter's song and
seeing how they have taken some little thingsthat my wife and I have done and going into the
(20:29):
great big world that they don't know a wholeton about yet experientially, and having that
little bit of confidence takes them to the nextlevel.
I mean sometimes it doesn't always work, but alot of times it does and when we see that
flourish it's really great for both of us to gosee that.
And when we get to see people in the pilotnetwork do that next step because a little
confidence they gained through mentors that areout there, it's the same ish feeling.
(20:56):
Obviously family is different but that'ssomething that we love to see and we hope
continues and grows as we do all these awesomethings as a collective.
The next piece that I want to touch on brieflyis in this we always talk about the networking
(21:16):
piece, network is your net worth or whateversayings you like is your crew, whether it's
family, friends, whoever, your network TPN oryour network within your squadron or military
or your regional carriers or who you've metthroughout training in your life that aren't
necessarily your close friends, and thatcommunity that surrounds you, they keep you
(21:36):
grounded while you're out there flying theline.
And as you move through your career, you canlean on those folks to help push you to that
next next precipice, get you past thatchallenge or obstacle that you may not realize
is actually in your way.
And if it is, we're here to help.
That's what we should be doing as people who'vebeen there before.
(21:58):
Believe in yourself.
Attitude really is just everything.
Even when you're not winning every day,training yourself to understand that the
setbacks will help you grow more than thevictories ever will.
Well, I love having the opportunity to chatwith the network more directly and we're doing
(22:18):
that right now on TPN Pro.
I've got a podcast that's being assembled outthere that I think is gonna be really cool with
a lot of inputs from the network directly.
I'm hoping that we can put some actual audiosegments and video maybe even video segments
now that we've got our YouTube channel startingto grow and up and running again, and get that
(22:40):
information out to everybody.
So that's a little teaser that should be out,know, who knows, maybe a month or so once we
start collecting all the data and all thepoints that people are making.
And if you're interested in getting involvedmore, we're going to be doing actual no kidding
(23:01):
meetups.
We've been doing this for a while, we took sometime off but we've got the hanger flies, we
gotta have the little TPN corny lingo becauseyou know we're a bunch of pilots and that's
kind of fun.
So we're doing our hanger fly series again, Ithink next month we're looking at June 11 and
the cities are not totally announced.
(23:23):
I know Milwaukee, I will be having one inMilwaukee.
The location is to be determined that we'll goout in TBN Pro first and then we'll put it out
to the masses probably about a week before.
So if you're in town or if you're interested incoming out, hit us up.
To do that, go to the pilotnetwork.com.
You can hit all our socials right there.
(23:45):
You can find out what's going on by joining ournewsletter, or you can directly email us at
heyguys@thepilotnetwork.com.
We'll get back to you.
If you got any ideas, for the podcast that youwanna talk about, I'm all ears.
I love hearing from the network.
It drives me.
And as always, keep the shiny side up, greasyside down.
(24:05):
Fly safe, everybody.
Welcome back to another episode of the PilotNetwork podcast.
I'm your host, Adam.
This is the place where we connect the aviatorswith tools, resources, and stories to help them
navigate their careers and lives.
So I was doing a lot of thinking.
For those of you listening to the pod, a lot ofyou might know that I've been recovering from
shoulder surgery.
An idea came up to me because you know, you'resitting around the house, you're not flying
(00:39):
airplanes, you're not getting out of the houseas much, you can't even drive a car.
You get into a maybe a little bit of adepressive state, right?
I mean, that was what was happening to me.
And I had a little bit of a moment.
And that moment was funny enough brought on bymy kids.
(00:59):
So I have two daughters for those who don'tknow and a lot of you who out there who may
have kids or daughters might be obsessed with acertain Disney series or movie series called
Zombies.
I think there's three of them now or something.
I've never seen one of them all the way fullythrough, at least not one sitting.
I've probably seen them all just by the factthat they watch it enough where I've been in
(01:23):
and out of the room to see the whole movie.
The other thing they do all the time is theylisten to the soundtrack and they have this one
song that they really love that I never reallypaid much attention attention to.
And it's called Exceptional Zed.
And my daughter and I were down here in thepodcast studio doing a couple things.
(01:46):
And she was playing with some of the equipmentand she said, can we listen to some music?
So I threw it on YouTube in the background,kind of the playlist and she wanted me to hear
some stuff.
And I listened to the actual lyrics of the songfor the first time and inspiration struck.
Guess the the muse was available for me to tapinto.
The idea of what he's going through in thismovie is he's kind of down on himself.
(02:10):
He's got this interview or something coming upand he doesn't think that highly of his
accomplishments, his achievements, and he'sreally nervous that he's gonna bomb this
interview, right?
Well, instantly I thought of all of us who gothrough the airline interview process or the
Garden Reserve interview process, or we'retrying to get into the Air Force Academy, or
just trying to get that first flight job thatwe've ever had.
(02:30):
And we're not super confident, we kind of havean imposter syndrome feeling.
I know I've had that in the past.
Sometimes we have it all the time just at TPN.
There's times where I get on the microphone andsome of you might say this is correct, but
total imposter, get that imposter syndrome.
And it was there and then that the idea and theold cliched chat of attitude or cliched phrase
(02:58):
that we have heard a million times all of us isattitude is everything.
Man, it just ton of bricks.
Does that translate well?
Talking to those recruiters at airlines, peopleare constantly transitioning out of the
military whether it's go straight civilianworld through retirement or separating
completely, or they're moving up from theirregional job into something that they want to
(03:20):
call their forever gig.
And sometimes we just, we don't have thatultimate confidence.
We don't have that attitude to walk in to theinterview or the place that we're going to be
where we're going to chat with these people,meet with these people that might be able to
quote unquote change our lives.
We lack the attitude, the confidence to be ableto go in there and know that we're gonna nail
(03:45):
it and that it's their loss if they don't giveus the job.
So there's a couple of lyrics in there that hitme.
If you wanna be exceptional, then you gotta bethe best version of yourself.
So that power of positive delusion, if you wantto call it that.
If you're not confident in your ability tospeak in front of people like a recruiter, or
(04:06):
if you're going to a guard interview and you'rereally nervous because it's the one place you
want to be, or it's your first low time gig andyou feel like holy cow, I've never actually
flown anything other than a couple studentsaround spinning holes in the sky doing steep
turns.
Knowing that prepared for this opportunity andthat you can do this and that this isn't some
(04:26):
mistake, that you're there for a reason, thatthey want you in their organization.
And having that attitude, that power ofpositive delusion, you are the person that they
need to succeed.
So that attitude, that mindset shift.
So it's funny because with my daughters we talkabout this a lot and they'll get down on
(04:48):
themselves for a few seconds but we give themthat little pep talk or say you got this or
maybe give them a little bit of a build up inconfidence and the next thing you know they're
off and running and they're not afraid ofwhatever they're gonna do that day.
Just like when kids start a new sport, they'rekind of nervous, they're a little excited but
they don't have that confidence to go into it.
So you kind of kind of build them up andsometimes it just takes a little spark and off
(05:10):
they go and you don't have to worry about anyof it yourself.
I think that we as adults, we have to have someof that childlike mentality and realize that we
can tap into those things that we don't thinkwe're good at, but maybe we're good enough to
highlight the other things in our life thatmake us exceptional and make us able to go out
(05:30):
there and get those opportunities, takeadvantage of those opportunities that are given
to us.
Well, there is, I don't want to get too muchinto the movie because I don't know it that
well, but I think there's some other thingsthat we can pull from the idea of attitude is
everything and being an exceptional Zed to helpus get to where we want outside of just the
(05:53):
thought of attitude is everything kind of drilla little deeper.
So an idea that I had for this was kind ofattitude as kind of a career multiplier.
So, I'll put this back in a story that Iactually did on the podcast with my friend Pat.
We were flying and we had a, we were flyingformation in the KC-one 35.
(06:15):
He was in the other airplane and we had apretty major emergency going on in our
airplane.
And at the time I remember it was a year afterthe Shell seventy seven accident that occurred
over in the Afghanistan theater where everybodyunfortunately lost their lives and they tried
(06:36):
their best but were not armed with some of theinformation that would help them.
Think of that when I got into my emergencybecause it was a similar situation where we
didn't really know all the details to getourselves out of it.
If you want to go back and listen to that, youcan type in the search Adam is scared or Adam
and Pat are scared or something like that andthat emergency story will come up and you can
(06:58):
check that out.
But in this case, one of the things that Ididn't have all the information, I wasn't I
guess prepared.
I don't know if anybody really is to handle itor so I thought.
But that idea of training kicked in and I gotmy stuff together in a sock real fast and
(07:21):
started delegating the duties that I couldn'tdo and then handling the aircraft best I could
to get out of that situation, put the jetsafely back on the ground and everybody was
okay.
Airplane didn't have any bent metal except forthe broke part, which was jack screw in the
flap and caused asymmetric issues.
So what I'm going after here is my bad day gotturned around pretty quick at the end of it,
(07:46):
you feel relieved, pretty excited that you gotthrough it, you have a little bit of a letdown
after that.
But my attitude at that time was I can handlethis because I have no other option than to
handle it or else, well, who knows where we'dbe.
The context of that story is to promote thefact that you've trained for what you're going
(08:10):
to do next.
You just don't necessarily know that becauseyou don't look at it like that.
You don't look at the fact that you've burnedholes in the sky teaching brand new students as
a CFII.
That has prepared you for the next step in youraviation career.
You just look at it as maybe, hey, I'm teachingthese people how to fly safely and that I'm
gathering an occurring time to get my nextposition.
(08:33):
What we tend to forget is that is practice forthe next phase.
Obviously it's in the cockpit and flying theairplane, but all those interactions are reps
that you're getting and they're different repsthan you would get if you weren't talking to
those people that you can use when you go intothat next that phase that we're not used to
which is that interview.
(08:54):
This also goes in the guard and reserve.
We just have to look like holy cow, man, Ihaven't done an interview in so long.
I don't really know how to handle it.
You do.
You just haven't had the practice.
You haven't had the foresight to kind of letthat training come out.
I think there's a quote here that I kind oflike that ties in with this.
There are people who make things happen andpeople who watch things happen.
(09:18):
And then there's people who wonder whathappened.
We want to be those people who make thingshappen, right?
And this is our opportunity to make thingshappen as we go out through our career, take a
few seconds to realize that we're constantly inthat preparation mode to get to that next
phase.
And the way we can do that is by tying in allthe other stuff in our life to realize those
(09:38):
are just reps to get us ready.
When we talk to our spouse or talk to ourfriends.
Yeah we might be having fun but if we're havinga serious conversation or we're doing something
that's more formalized, that's a chance to trya new tactic to prepare us.
So when we go through interview prep or we goto a conference, we have some of those practice
reps down and we can feel more confident inthat role.
(10:01):
Like you're gonna be there, you're eager tolearn and all that kind of good stuff.
And then when you go into the actual interview,eagerness will show off.
The other thing that we've talked about on thisshow, you've probably heard plastered
everywhere else through interview preps orforums or the TPN Facebook group or whatever it
might be is airlines want somebody who standsout for their brand.
(10:26):
They want people who can represent that companystrongly.
That's what all that practice is what all thatmindset's about.
So when you are able to confidently speak infront of somebody, you don't have to be the
world's greatest order, but what you do need tohave is that confidence in yourself that makes
that interviewer eager to get you into thecockpit, get you in the sim and start training
(10:52):
so they can put you out on the line becausethey want you as that brand rep.
They wanna be they wanna fly with you.
They know that you're gonna show off the thegood things about the company because you
represent them, same with the guard, and thatyou fit in with the culture and the type of
people that they hire at that airline or thatguard unit, that reserve unit or whatever the
case might be.
(11:13):
It also shows how you might bounce back fromadversity.
Maybe you have a hiccup in the sim phase, maybeyou fail a checkride at your reserve unit,
maybe you took a little longer to get to solothan you thought you were going to.
Those are all okay as we progress through ourcareer.
It's just a matter of rehacking that mindsetand going okay, I had a I had a little verbal,
(11:34):
I'm gonna take maybe a minute or two or an houror maybe even a day and rehash that in my mind,
and then I'm gonna drop it and move on.
For those of you who are golf fans, and ifyou're not, I'll explain.
There is a golfer out there named ScottieScheffler.
Scottie Scheffler is the number one golfer inthe world right now.
He just won another major championship, and hehas openly stated that golf is not a very
(12:00):
satisfying sport because they always want tofinish number one.
They always want to win the tournament andthat's not that it's pretty rare actually.
Even the best golfer percentage wise in theworld, Tiger Woods at one time, didn't win
every golf tournament.
He was as close as anybody ever came, but hewas still pretty far away from that number.
Well the same thing goes when we're flyingairplanes or getting on to that next phase of
(12:21):
our career is how do we bounce back from thatadversity?
Sometimes that adversity is through no fault ofyour own.
We haven't really seen this in the industry upuntil recently with some furloughs that have
happened with some companies that have had someeconomic troubles.
How do you bounce back from that kind of stuff?
And that is something that shows that attitudeis everything mindset, that ability to handle
(12:48):
those adverse situations, whether they're inyour control or not, that you're able to handle
them, move on and then teach somebody else someof that information so they can be a little bit
better.
Okay, so how do we kind of model this as someof us are through their mid or later phases in
our career?
(13:08):
For those next generation pilots that arecoming up or people who just started in the
legacy carrier major airline industry, or whofound a niche and want to stay there, but they
want to move up in their company.
I think the way we can do this internally isit's kind of like my daughters listen to that
song.
They believe Zed is exceptional, right?
(13:29):
The exceptional Zed song that I talked aboutbecause he believes that he's exceptional.
So we need to believe that we're exceptional atwhat we do to promote that within others.
I'm not saying be arrogant or have hubris aboutit.
What I am saying is if we're confident in ourabilities, which most pilots are, it rubs off
on others.
And when we transition off the flight deck tobe confident in stuff that is important and
(13:56):
life changing and can help you move forward inyour career.
Whatever route that might be is a great way tomodel and mentor that to others.
And I think that attitude is trainable thisway.
Sometimes we have a bad day.
I know that just with this little shoulderthing that I got going on, that I've had a few
rough days because a few setbacks here andthere.
(14:17):
I'm not progressing as fast as I want to in myrebuild.
But the reality is, is I have to retrain myselfevery morning when I get up that okay, today is
going to be better than it was yesterday, I'mgoing get a lot more done.
At other times, it's like maybe there's notmuch that I can do physically or even mentally
because I'm burned out, I'm tired or whateverthe case is.
Then I take that attitude and apply it towardssomething else.
(14:40):
Do something that's going to give me thatpositive feedback and keep that loop going.
Maybe it's just playing with my kids or gettingoutside and going for a walk and listening to
some podcasts that I really like or anaudiobook or spending some time working on the
stuff that I know that I can that I can domeditating, whatever your thing is, that is the
thing that if you spend a little time on thereand change that mindset, you can get back and
(15:05):
you can train that attitude to change.
I know that I go through this daily, sure a lotof us do and sometimes you just don't even
realize that.
I think that as we do that our work ethicchanges, our mindset delivers a more positive
outlook and something we can achieve.
This isn't about goal setting or any of thatstuff.
I'm not even trying to get into mindset shift,I'm just saying how this can affect us and move
(15:28):
it towards that very narrow space of careeraspirations within aviation and how we can
apply it on a day to day basis to get ourselvesready for that next phase, whatever that phase
might be.
The other thing when we talk about thatattitude and mindset is that vulnerability is
(15:51):
okay.
Showing a little bit of vulnerability preferredand you'll hear this interview prep with the
guys at Spitfire or wherever you would go oreven if you talk to just your friends is that
we're gonna have to admit to mistakes and thoseare vulnerabilities.
To say that you're invincible or ironclad andthat you never screw up is, well it's not true,
(16:12):
number one.
Number two is showing that you're a vulnerableperson but that you respond well to those
vulnerabilities and that adversity reaction oradversity learning that you had, that is the
stuff that can set you apart, not just what'son paper.
So the last piece of this is in the military,especially in the fighter community, you earn
(16:39):
your call sign, right?
I've earned a couple different ones in thetankers we don't necessarily have call sign or
naming ceremonies.
But I've earned a couple that are prettyentertaining for most.
I will gladly buy you a beer if you wanna hearany of those stories.
But to get back to the song and the wholeimpetus and why this podcast came about was
(17:04):
this guy, Exceptional Zed earned this idea fromall of his friends and schoolmates as
exceptional was not by accident.
He earned that because he was doing all thesegood things that other people saw and they
recognized before he did that he was capable.
(17:24):
And sometimes if we're on that other end and wesee somebody who's doing the right thing and
doing it well all the time, they need to hearit from outside.
A little external motivation can go extremelyfar.
I just had this with a good friend of mine whogot hired at American.
He was a little not nervous, well maybenervous, but not extremely confident in his
(17:50):
abilities to interview correctly, or he thoughtthere was a correct way to interview.
And he told me straight up that going toconferences was just something he didn't enjoy,
because that's not his scene, that's not whathe does well.
I said, that's totally okay, that's right, likewe're all different, of course, maybe that's
not your jam you know you're more introvertedor whatever the case might be.
(18:12):
What I wanted him to understand was he didn'tneed to be a master at any of this stuff.
But just to have that ability to be confidentin himself that when he did speak that people
were listening, And they thought, well this guyknows what he's talking about.
He would be a great person to fly with, a goodrepresentative of our company, or somebody that
(18:33):
we can look to when times get tough.
And sure enough, he a CJO.
In fact, he got a CJO at TPNx.
So that was really cool for me to see a friendgo through that process and go through it
rather quickly to understand that that attitudechange, having that call sign attitude, like he
earned the right to stand up and be heardbecause people respected what he had to say.
(18:56):
And most of us were all in that boat.
Having a little, I mean, listen, I'm sittinghere talking in front of a microphone to people
that a lot of you I've met, some of you Ihaven't, and maybe some of you think I'm a
windbag and full of nonsense, and that's fine,I understand that.
(19:16):
And some of the other folks, you know mepersonally, you've seen stuff that I've done
and you understand or know that I might have alittle knowledge to impart.
And it's my duty, as it's all of our duties, tomentor that next phase because there's some
young folks out there who wanna get into thiscareer field, who wanna follow in our
footsteps.
And at the Pilot Network we say pay it forwardfrom the aspiring to the retiring.
(19:41):
It is our job to make sure that we continuethis aviation journey that we're on and pass
that ideal on to younger folks so they can kindof fall in our footsteps of aviating safely and
then also enjoying the career field so whenthey look back and say yep, you know that was
(20:02):
really worth everything I put into the career.
And we just sometimes have to change ourattitude.
Might be a little perspective change, but whenwe have that attitude shift, we can really
start to see that.
So kind of in closing here, I learned a tonjust from listening to my daughter's song and
seeing how they have taken some little thingsthat my wife and I have done and going into the
(20:29):
great big world that they don't know a wholeton about yet experientially, and having that
little bit of confidence takes them to the nextlevel.
I mean sometimes it doesn't always work, but alot of times it does and when we see that
flourish it's really great for both of us to gosee that.
And when we get to see people in the pilotnetwork do that next step because a little
confidence they gained through mentors that areout there, it's the same ish feeling.
(20:56):
Obviously family is different but that'ssomething that we love to see and we hope
continues and grows as we do all these awesomethings as a collective.
The next piece that I want to touch on brieflyis in this we always talk about the networking
(21:16):
piece, network is your net worth or whateversayings you like is your crew, whether it's
family, friends, whoever, your network TPN oryour network within your squadron or military
or your regional carriers or who you've metthroughout training in your life that aren't
necessarily your close friends, and thatcommunity that surrounds you, they keep you
(21:36):
grounded while you're out there flying theline.
And as you move through your career, you canlean on those folks to help push you to that
next next precipice, get you past thatchallenge or obstacle that you may not realize
is actually in your way.
And if it is, we're here to help.
That's what we should be doing as people who'vebeen there before.
(21:58):
Believe in yourself.
Attitude really is just everything.
Even when you're not winning every day,training yourself to understand that the
setbacks will help you grow more than thevictories ever will.
Well, I love having the opportunity to chatwith the network more directly and we're doing
(22:18):
that right now on TPN Pro.
I've got a podcast that's being assembled outthere that I think is gonna be really cool with
a lot of inputs from the network directly.
I'm hoping that we can put some actual audiosegments and video maybe even video segments
now that we've got our YouTube channel startingto grow and up and running again, and get that
(22:40):
information out to everybody.
So that's a little teaser that should be out,know, who knows, maybe a month or so once we
start collecting all the data and all thepoints that people are making.
And if you're interested in getting involvedmore, we're going to be doing actual no kidding
(23:01):
meetups.
We've been doing this for a while, we took sometime off but we've got the hanger flies, we
gotta have the little TPN corny lingo becauseyou know we're a bunch of pilots and that's
kind of fun.
So we're doing our hanger fly series again, Ithink next month we're looking at June 11 and
the cities are not totally announced.
(23:23):
I know Milwaukee, I will be having one inMilwaukee.
The location is to be determined that we'll goout in TBN Pro first and then we'll put it out
to the masses probably about a week before.
So if you're in town or if you're interested incoming out, hit us up.
To do that, go to the pilotnetwork.com.
You can hit all our socials right there.
(23:45):
You can find out what's going on by joining ournewsletter, or you can directly email us at
heyguys@thepilotnetwork.com.
We'll get back to you.
If you got any ideas, for the podcast that youwanna talk about, I'm all ears.
I love hearing from the network.
It drives me.
And as always, keep the shiny side up, greasyside down.
(24:05):
Fly safe, everybody.
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