April 23, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, Adam provides a debrief of TPNx 2025 and announces exciting plans for TPNx 2026. He shares insights into the aviation industry, highlighting American Airlines CJOs and unique opportunities attendees had at TPNx. The discussion includes the exclusivity of tickets, volunteer opportunities, and tips for maintaining proper conference etiquette. Adam offers advice on vendor conduct and effective networking strategies. He also shares a personal update about his upcoming work absence and previews upcoming TPN events, emphasizing the network's robust online presence. The episode concludes with closing remarks and a look ahead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Hey, what is up network?
It's Adam back at you.
So, we just had TPNX and I figured we should doa look a little a post mortem.
I like, you know, the debrief.
We'll use the flying vernacular, a quickdebrief of TPNx twenty twenty five in
Minneapolis.
And then we're gonna go into something a littlepersonal.
So this won't be very long of an episode justto give you something to chew on over the week
(00:39):
after TPNx.
Awesome.
It was awesome.
It was a little smaller than I think we wereexpecting as far as attendees.
But to be honest with you, after we talked to abunch of not only airline employees,
recruiters, people who are kind of back officeadmin, and a lot of our vendors, that seems to
(00:59):
be what we're good at.
That seems to be our niche and what peoplereally want to take away from TPNx.
It allows for more intimate, a lot moreopportunity for people to have those real
conversations, actually do real networking.
And just talking to one particular higher upfrom American, said you guys have found your
(01:19):
niche.
And to grow it any larger, you would end uptrying to turn yourself into some of those big
conferences that are there with our affinitypartners.
That's not us, that's what they do and they'reoutstanding at it.
That's not what we do, we're not built likethat.
Like one of the things that we do at TPNxthat's probably a little bit different than a
(01:40):
lot of other conferences is we have socialevents that are not enormous, and they're not
off sites.
Like there's some people who do that andthere's some companies that follow around these
conferences and they don't necessarily show upto the conference to acquire new business or to
(02:01):
showcase what they're doing.
They have their own off-site stuff, which isfine, that's what they do.
And some of the vendors that actually come,they have their own off-site as well.
We'll have happy hours that are built rightinto the conference on-site and invited to the
attendees that show up to TPNx.
And what I've noticed is, so like Flexjethosted on Tuesday night, Aviation Retirement
(02:27):
Strategies and Turbine Capital on Wednesdaynight, and then ProFlight on Thursday post
conference.
And then Spitfire, always, just kick in.
They they kinda took the reins over, saved theday on Wednesday to kinda keep the party going,
and then Thursday they were there as well,know, rallying up the crowd doing what they do
(02:47):
best, and and that's kinda showcasing how to beyour best self.
Anyways, it's cool because the conference isintimate, smaller, attended, so we can kind of
move that part.
It's like a mobile party unit, it just kind ofmoves around.
Some people go off and do their own things,know, right after the exhibit floor closes, but
(03:08):
a lot of people stick around.
And the other thing that's really cool isbecause we have that, is the recruiters who
people want to talk to tend to stick around aswell for a libation or just to chat and see
what's going on, talk with old friends, allthat kind of stuff.
And I know that happens at some otherconferences, but it's so unique and like that
(03:29):
word intimate just kept coming up all the timeby people.
So I that to me that was one of the coolestparts of TPNx twenty twenty five, and I it's
something that we're gonna continue to do.
By the way, TPNx twenty twenty six is inDallas.
It's going to be in May of twenty twenty six.
We are tentatively tentatively shooting for thefirst week.
(03:52):
I don't know if that's gonna definitely plan itpan out that way, but just keep your eyes and
ears open.
You can go over to the pilotnumber.comcenterfor the newsletter.
That will keep you in the know.
So that was a nice sweet little plug for thenewsletter right there that I did in case you
weren't aware.
We do have some other stuff that's gonna becoming out as well.
So stay tuned for that, should be really funsummer for the pilot network and for all the
(04:16):
networkers out there.
Alright.
So this is so that's kind of the some of thethat was one big thing that I like.
Now yeah.
Here, let's let's hit some of the otherhighlights.
Maybe I buried the lead here.
American, awesome.
They offered 18 CJOs.
I believe it was out of 19 or 20 candidatesthat they interviewed, 18 got jobs.
(04:40):
All 18 were Spitfire Elite.
Interview prepped and taken care of, workedthrough Spitfire.
So congratulations, Spitfire.
Congratulations to American.
But most of all, congratulations to the CJOholders at American putting all that effort in,
getting the interview.
They also three of those were volunteers.
(05:02):
One was a returning volunteer, two one is sortof a returning volunteer, and the other was a
new one, but a good friend of the pilot networkfor many, many years.
It was so cool to see that.
I'm very excited that we got to be a part ofthat, brought a little tear to my eye, saw some
lives change.
That's super exciting to be part of that fromthe perspective of this dude who started a
(05:27):
Facebook group, you know, twelve, fifteen yearsago no, twelve years ago.
Coming up on yeah, coming up on thirteen yearsago.
Awesome stories.
It was neat to see.
It it is the absolute pinnacle of your careerwhen you can get that kind of job.
Some other cool stuff, there were some otherfolks who got jobs that we didn't know about
(05:48):
necessarily until a little bit later or who hadthe opportunity for jobs.
For instance, I I do know of two companies whoeither conduct an interview there or who sent
somebody off to interview almost immediatelyafterwards and get them on property as fast as
can because they were just awesome at what theydid meet and greet wise.
(06:10):
So that is one of the things.
So when you go to other conferences, theyprovide so much there's a lot more stuff
vendors, sometimes recruiters than TPNx willprovide.
I will not argue that that is a guarantee whenyou go to Women in Aviation or OBAP or
whatever.
(06:31):
They're they have they're larger significantly.
Their organizations are are quite large.
It's pretty cool.
Pretty cool to see.
I've been to a couple of them and and they'revery fun.
I enjoy them immensely.
I enjoy the networking.
One of the thing that's different here isbecause of the type of pilot that's in the
pilot network.
Yeah, we have some new new like interestedpilots or or low time folks, but that's not
(06:54):
where we kinda that's not where we make ourhay.
We have many transitioning military pilots andwe have a growing number of folks who are kind
of at that past like a thousand hours, not inthe military.
And there's still maybe a little low time, butthey have opportunity to go out and do a little
bit more with their career than some of the lowtime folks.
(07:16):
And some of our vendors have noticed that andmentioned it to me.
Also a lot of the recruiters have keyed in onthe caliber of attendee that comes to the pilot
network experience, expo, whatever you wannacall the access, that's what it is to you.
Anyways, I love that because this gives therecruiter a chance to have a, like we were
(07:38):
talking about intimate conversation that Iguess, an intimate setting for a good
conversation between them and a qualifiedcandidate is something that might be, that
happens at other conferences, but has a moreunique opportunity at the Pilot Network at TPNx
because there's just less people, and theydon't feel like they have to rush.
(08:03):
It's a casual setting.
So those are the things that we're going toharp on for next year, and really hammer in our
marketing to everybody out there.
And to be honest with you, we're only goingsell X amount of tickets, so we're going to
sell out, And when we sell out, that's it.
We're not gonna open up more.
We don't have space for more.
That's just the way that that's going to work.
(08:25):
So those opportunities are gonna be limited.
But that's the way we wanna keep it.
Keeps that pay it forward mentality of, hey,somebody got that experience, they can pay it
forward to somebody else.
You know, we wish we could have everybody inthe world there, it just doesn't work like
that.
It also kinda keeps that squadron barth feelfor the military folks and the non military
folks to get that experience that they maybenever had.
(08:47):
And just to have that setting of casualprofessionalism, being able to have a real
conversation that lasts more than five minutesor a resume grab.
There's the meet and greets sometimes go on alittle longer.
There's just there's a lot of opportunity outthere to do that kind of stuff.
So we look forward to seeing everybody who notonly attended this year, but our volunteers,
(09:09):
the recruiting teams, new recruiting teams whowant to join us, more vendors who who like the
cut of our jig or jib or whatever, who want tocome be part of TP NEXT twenty twenty six.
If you're hearing this, you're you're in thesound of my voice and you're interested somehow
in getting involved, whether it's attending,being a vendor, being a recruiter,
(09:31):
volunteering, just hit me up at heyguys@thepilotnetwork.com.
We'll put you in the right position, put you inthe right place.
The volunteer places are gonna be extremelylimited.
We are trying a system where we're gonna turnover a lot of the returning volunteers, so new
fresh faces get opportunities to go and be partof the event in the space of looking for career
(10:00):
broadening jobs essentially.
So it's gonna be cool to do that.
I'm looking forward to meeting some new folks.
I really like the volunteers we have there,super hard charging.
You're gonna have to meet a certain criteria toget in, the criteria I make.
But Kevin who runs our volunteer group has avery high bar and you have to meet that if you
(10:24):
want to participate, but the opportunities forvolunteering are giant.
We like to have our volunteers get more thanthey give, that's the pay it forward mentality
because once we do that, that's how Matt and Ifeel, They're they're gonna do it ten ten x not
only at the conference but beyond, and waybeyond, and they're gonna be able to change
(10:45):
lives and all that cool stuff.
So anyways, on to some of the so that that'skind of the headline, but the so a couple funny
things that happened at the conference.
I I I'm gonna give you a couple faux pas stuffthat maybe you don't wanna do in in the in your
future at conferences.
So one, if you get a meet and greet at any oneof these conferences and you show up and you
(11:11):
don't have a ticket, just pay for it.
Say hey, I made a mistake.
Don't try to argue your way out of not payingfor a ticket.
If you somehow got a meet and greet online in aback channel way, whatever it was, you're there
to hopefully get a job.
Well, I'll tell you right now is the conferencehosts and the recruiting staffs work very very
(11:34):
hard together and they work really well to puton these shows and make it look flawless and
seamless and all this stuff and giveopportunities to the people who attend.
And when you try to take that slot away and youtry to circumvent the system, they know and
they're not gonna look kindly upon that.
I will also tell you for those of you who havemeet and greets or possible interviews or
(11:57):
whatever, our resumes are portrait and onepage.
That's an aviation resume.
That's pretty much a resume across the board,that's what I know to be an aviation resume.
You can talk to Carolyn Kitchens who's a pilotnetwork support staff person, somebody who is
one of our writers on TPN Pro.
(12:21):
She also does resume writing, she'll tell youthat it's one page and so will everybody at
Spitfire Elite and so will check and set and sowill every recruiter, and so will everybody
else you talk to.
So one page, one page, one page portrait, neverlandscape.
Alright.
Attitudes, so many positive attitudes there.
The one or two negative attitudes are singledout and known very well, in a setting where
(12:45):
everybody's really excited and happy to bethere.
Don't be that person.
Yes, that did happen.
And yes, they were singled out.
They might have even been kind of laughed at bythe recruiting force.
I hope that person learned a lot of somethingand they're gonna come back next year with
fresh face, positive attitude, a little humbledand say, I'm ready to go and crush this and
(13:09):
move forward in my career.
Okay.
Number two.
It is kinda cool to have something neat.
I got a business card that was essentially adip, hot sauce dip recipe from North Carolina
that I'm really excited about using.
Kind of a cool thing, right?
(13:30):
That is sort of memorable.
It's also kind of memorable to offer it andsay, hey, I've got this dipper.
Are you interested if you meet a recruiter?
But it's not something to just give out.
It's kind of ask first, know, maybe they're notinterested or you know, that's not their thing.
So I was interested like, yeah, give that tome, I wanna make In fact, I might even make it
(13:51):
tonight.
I don't know.
We'll see.
If it's got a set, then it's got away fromtomorrow, but whatever.
With that said, having a business card that'skind of memorable, not hey, I'm a pilot.
Well, we're all pilots.
But if you have something on the outside andthat's your business card, that's really cool
to be able to give that business card tosomebody and be like, oh, you're a, let's say
in my case, a voice actor.
It's kind of memorable, a little different thaneverybody else.
(14:14):
To give somebody a chocolate bar with a goldenticket wrapped inside of it, that's also has
your resume folded up.
Cool idea.
Not a great one to give to a professionalrecruiter.
Might wanna ask about that before you go in.
And yes, that may or may that did happen.
(14:37):
I'm not gonna name names and name airlines, butthat did happen.
There was some laughter shared.
Another lesson learned per chance, perhaps.
But either way, you should be memorable, butnot in the way that's still like beyond silly
(14:59):
memorable or for bad reasons.
Think I think that's what we kind of collapsedinto or put together by those two examples.
Another thing, if you're gonna go to aconference as a vendor, or you want to vend and
create relationships, all for it, go do that.
Go do them at every conference.
If you want to have an off-site during theconference and that's something that you think
(15:22):
is gonna benefit your business, go have at it.
If you want to, I don't know, push yourcompetition a little bit.
And you have there's two bag companies at aconference.
We had two shirt companies, three actually, allthree awesome.
That's great.
(15:42):
But if you're gonna go to one of theseconferences, do not go to a conference and try
to subvert buying a ticket and then try to goin and attract clients doing that.
That's just tacky and not professional.
That will get known throughout the conferencespace, especially if you're in the interview
(16:04):
prep world.
So I wouldn't suggest doing that if that's whatyour plan is.
For instance, I'll give you a for instance inour world.
So when I went to Papa last year with my wife,which was really, really, really fun, we had a
great time.
We were gonna come up with this plan to do agiveaway to for a free TPNx ticket and hotel,
(16:26):
which we did this year.
It was really cool.
Glad we got to do that.
But I wanted to do it because I my braindoesn't work right or something at the
conference.
You don't give away your own conference ticketat another conference.
That's just I don't know.
I don't what I was thinking.
It's kinda stupid.
It's rude.
I was being rude.
(16:48):
So we didn't do it.
Smart move.
Glad we didn't do it.
And I would never do that again.
It kept a great relationship with our Papafriends who are awesome, happy to have them,
every conference forever, and our LPA friends,same thing.
OPAP wasn't able to attend this year.
They're always welcomed.
Same with women in aviation.
I believe we'll have the Dallas chapter therenext year.
(17:09):
Preflight camps, love to have the folks fromNGPA, the ninety nines, Sisters of the Sky.
Let's see.
Am I forgetting anybody else?
And then our military squadrons out there.
If you're interested in recruiting at TPNx, wehave a really good deal for you.
Like, hit me up.
I can't I don't wanna give it away over theairways, but we want you to come Fort Worth,
(17:29):
Dallas, if you're in the region.
By the way, there's a million and a half gardenreserve units.
Let us know.
We we wanna work with you.
Anyways, okay.
So all that is is some of the stuff that we sawat TPNx twenty twenty five, TPNx twenty twenty
six in Dallas in May.
It's gonna be very exciting.
Looking forward to having the same friendlyfaces and more coming back and enjoying the
(17:54):
ever fun intimate setting, and uniquelydifferent pilot network experience and expo,
Dallas Twenty Twenty Six.
Alright.
Cool.
I think that's a good snapshot of some of thestuff that happened.
Again, 18 CJOs, which per capita is the mostper conference.
So that's kinda cool.
(18:15):
Humble brag, not really humble brag, a coolbrag that we get to say.
Okay.
Totally shifting gears here.
I'm gonna start a little serious.
I don't know how bad or how hard this is gonnabe for me to do so.
Please give me some grace.
I I don't deserve any, but if you guys wannagive me some grace and gals wanna give me some
grace out there, appreciate it.
I am I'm having a pretty massive shouldersurgery on Friday.
(18:41):
And it has taken me out of the flight deck,it's taken me off of flying status here.
Well, pretty soon I'm exhausted my sick leavebefore I'm on disability.
It basically hit to the point where it was hardto carry bag like just little, there was little
turns and tweaks and stuff that really startedbothering my shoulder.
And now it's kind of always sore and alwaystired.
(19:03):
I guess that's pretty norm for what I've gotgoing on in the shoulder area.
Anyways, I wanted to kind of talk about whatI'm in currently doing.
So at this point, I'm exhausting my sick leave,which is essentially the idea in our company is
you exhaust your sick leave and then I havesome other, there'll be some other enhanced
(19:26):
disability sick leave pieces to that puzzle,and then I will go out on disability for a
period of time.
Now, I can't get into a ton of the specifics ondisability and how it works within my company
because that's just not what can't do that.
Sorry, wish I could.
(19:46):
Other guys could if they wanted to.
That's just not what I have a good relationshipwith my company.
I wanna keep it that way.
I like my job.
Love my job.
So I wanna stick around for a while.
With that said, I want to talk about some ofthe other stuff, mental and emotional pieces,
because it is a little bit scary.
You start doing some financial planning, youthink about, my gosh, I got to go do this and
(20:10):
that, Making sure I get my paperwork done.
And there is some amount of paperwork andmaking sure that you hit right timelines.
I've had return to works before from beingmilitary, on military leave for an extended
period of time.
Heard this is a little bit more challenging andcan be a little bit more, a few more hoops to
jump through to make sure it's right.
With that said, I kind of wanted to share someof my thoughts and experiences I go through
(20:34):
this.
With this surgery I've got on Friday, I'mactually pretty excited because of the kind of
pain and issues I've been having in the area.
It'll be nice to have that over and movingforward with.
I'm not real sure how long it's gonna take toget better because kind of once they go in,
then we're gonna know how much damage there wasdone and how much stuff they got to correct.
(20:57):
That said, it could be who knows?
I can't really get into the number because Idon't really know it yet.
Once I know a better idea of how long it willtake, then I will be able to work backwards
from that and figure out, okay, I'm gonna goback to I don't know when I'm gonna go back to
work, but I'll start PT at this point, postsurgery, and kind of that process.
(21:18):
Now, I don't need to get into all the detailsof that because everybody else understands.
They've been through.
They've been through something like this intheir life, they've seen somebody.
So what I wanna talk about is kind of myrelationship with how I'm going back to work,
kind of going through the process of becauseI'm gonna miss my medical, I'm not gonna be
able to get my medical this next go around.
(21:40):
I'll to wait until I think my medical is due inJune June first, so I won't be able to get
that.
So I'm gonna have to let that lapse.
I'm gonna talk to my AME, and I'll keep you inthe loop with my AME discussion.
In fact, maybe maybe I can bring him on and wecan talk about this directly.
I think it'd be kinda cool, maybe maybe usefulto you out there.
(22:03):
So that's that's one piece of the puzzle.
The other is kind of that return to work stuff.
And then just knowing that there are optionsout there to help you as far as depending on
the company, I can't speak for any othercompanies.
We have a very good one in a essentially aninsurance plan that I bought into when you
(22:24):
first get there.
I think almost everybody in our company issigned up for it.
And it's very valuable, helps up to two yearsthroughout your career and you can use it more
than twice up to the total time, I believe.
Again, I'm getting smarter on this.
I've been reading more and more, so I'll havemore to share.
(22:45):
But anyways, I'm I'm not gonna do this everyweek, but I will do pieces here and there.
And then there are questions, want if peoplehave ideas or questions about what I'm going
through, and they wanna ask specific stuffcompany related, they can get ahold of me and
I'll talk to them personally.
But if they have at large more less in-depthquestions or even just you know 35,000 foot
(23:11):
view, happy to happy to discuss that on hereand share my story with because I mean I'm not
going through it like I don't know if somethinglife threatening cancer or some some sort of
heart issue or anything like that.
It's just just a shoulder muscular tendonsurgery.
It's it's it's run of the mill as you can getwith still a lot of pain and whatever in there.
(23:37):
But it's nothing that's going to take me outforever.
You know, it's just a matter of rehabbingcorrectly and doing all the musculoskeletal
stuff that we've all faced in broken bones,whatever.
So I'm not I'm not too not too worried aboutthat.
But it does open up the opportunity to talkabout medical and being out for a while and how
(24:01):
that works, and answer any questions anybodyhas out there.
Maybe you can do a live, something live and Ican record that too.
You know, that'd be a lot of fun for me.
Anyways, yeah, so 2025 awesome.
2026 will be great.
Gonna have a little procedure done here shortlyand gonna be sitting out for a bit.
(24:21):
And we'll go from there.
If you have any questions at all, you wannachat with Matt or I, and you wanna talk about
anything or stuff we talked about the episodeor anything else that's going on within the
world of the pilot network or aviation atlarge, just hit us up at hey guys
@thepilotnetwork.com.
I will tell you the chapters program, we had aTPN hangar fly in San Diego in March and it was
(24:45):
a banger.
Went off huge.
We will be doing one in June, so probably midJune, early June, I'll be able to actually
kinda leave the house, move around a littlebit.
I'm gonna need to get out and grab a grab abeer.
So we're gonna be doing one in Milwaukee at aminimum.
I don't exactly have the date, I wanna say it'sthe twelfth, but I'm not entirely sure yet.
(25:05):
And that might flex just because of, I don'tknow if I'm maybe able to drive or even go sit
at a bar or anything like that.
So we'll adjust but look for it in June,there's gonna be a Milwaukee hanger fly.
We're hoping to do that jointly with San Diegoand possibly Tampa, possibly New York, possibly
a couple other places if we can get in Phoenix.
(25:28):
So we'll see.
Hopefully, we'll be able to get that going.
It'd be really cool if we had, you know, ten,twelve people at each one of those places, 60
people doing a mini TPNx at the same time.
Oh, man.
It's exciting to me.
Anyways, I'm rambling again.
Hey, ThePilotNetwork.com.
Go check out the pilotnetwork.com if you wantto join our email list, chat directly with us
(25:48):
on the socials, can find us there.
Find out any information on TPNx twenty twentyfive or any of our other things.
If you wanna go buy some cool merch from TPNx,we've got a bunch of stuff on there as well.
And as always, keep the shiny side up and thegreasy side down.
Fly safe, everybody.
Hey, what is up network?
It's Adam back at you.
So, we just had TPNX and I figured we should doa look a little a post mortem.
I like, you know, the debrief.
We'll use the flying vernacular, a quickdebrief of TPNx twenty twenty five in
Minneapolis.
And then we're gonna go into something a littlepersonal.
So this won't be very long of an episode justto give you something to chew on over the week
(00:39):
after TPNx.
Awesome.
It was awesome.
It was a little smaller than I think we wereexpecting as far as attendees.
But to be honest with you, after we talked to abunch of not only airline employees,
recruiters, people who are kind of back officeadmin, and a lot of our vendors, that seems to
(00:59):
be what we're good at.
That seems to be our niche and what peoplereally want to take away from TPNx.
It allows for more intimate, a lot moreopportunity for people to have those real
conversations, actually do real networking.
And just talking to one particular higher upfrom American, said you guys have found your
(01:19):
niche.
And to grow it any larger, you would end uptrying to turn yourself into some of those big
conferences that are there with our affinitypartners.
That's not us, that's what they do and they'reoutstanding at it.
That's not what we do, we're not built likethat.
Like one of the things that we do at TPNxthat's probably a little bit different than a
(01:40):
lot of other conferences is we have socialevents that are not enormous, and they're not
off sites.
Like there's some people who do that andthere's some companies that follow around these
conferences and they don't necessarily show upto the conference to acquire new business or to
(02:01):
showcase what they're doing.
They have their own off-site stuff, which isfine, that's what they do.
And some of the vendors that actually come,they have their own off-site as well.
We'll have happy hours that are built rightinto the conference on-site and invited to the
attendees that show up to TPNx.
And what I've noticed is, so like Flexjethosted on Tuesday night, Aviation Retirement
(02:27):
Strategies and Turbine Capital on Wednesdaynight, and then ProFlight on Thursday post
conference.
And then Spitfire, always, just kick in.
They they kinda took the reins over, saved theday on Wednesday to kinda keep the party going,
and then Thursday they were there as well,know, rallying up the crowd doing what they do
(02:47):
best, and and that's kinda showcasing how to beyour best self.
Anyways, it's cool because the conference isintimate, smaller, attended, so we can kind of
move that part.
It's like a mobile party unit, it just kind ofmoves around.
Some people go off and do their own things,know, right after the exhibit floor closes, but
(03:08):
a lot of people stick around.
And the other thing that's really cool isbecause we have that, is the recruiters who
people want to talk to tend to stick around aswell for a libation or just to chat and see
what's going on, talk with old friends, allthat kind of stuff.
And I know that happens at some otherconferences, but it's so unique and like that
(03:29):
word intimate just kept coming up all the timeby people.
So I that to me that was one of the coolestparts of TPNx twenty twenty five, and I it's
something that we're gonna continue to do.
By the way, TPNx twenty twenty six is inDallas.
It's going to be in May of twenty twenty six.
We are tentatively tentatively shooting for thefirst week.
(03:52):
I don't know if that's gonna definitely plan itpan out that way, but just keep your eyes and
ears open.
You can go over to the pilotnumber.comcenterfor the newsletter.
That will keep you in the know.
So that was a nice sweet little plug for thenewsletter right there that I did in case you
weren't aware.
We do have some other stuff that's gonna becoming out as well.
So stay tuned for that, should be really funsummer for the pilot network and for all the
(04:16):
networkers out there.
Alright.
So this is so that's kind of the some of thethat was one big thing that I like.
Now yeah.
Here, let's let's hit some of the otherhighlights.
Maybe I buried the lead here.
American, awesome.
They offered 18 CJOs.
I believe it was out of 19 or 20 candidatesthat they interviewed, 18 got jobs.
(04:40):
All 18 were Spitfire Elite.
Interview prepped and taken care of, workedthrough Spitfire.
So congratulations, Spitfire.
Congratulations to American.
But most of all, congratulations to the CJOholders at American putting all that effort in,
getting the interview.
They also three of those were volunteers.
(05:02):
One was a returning volunteer, two one is sortof a returning volunteer, and the other was a
new one, but a good friend of the pilot networkfor many, many years.
It was so cool to see that.
I'm very excited that we got to be a part ofthat, brought a little tear to my eye, saw some
lives change.
That's super exciting to be part of that fromthe perspective of this dude who started a
(05:27):
Facebook group, you know, twelve, fifteen yearsago no, twelve years ago.
Coming up on yeah, coming up on thirteen yearsago.
Awesome stories.
It was neat to see.
It it is the absolute pinnacle of your careerwhen you can get that kind of job.
Some other cool stuff, there were some otherfolks who got jobs that we didn't know about
(05:48):
necessarily until a little bit later or who hadthe opportunity for jobs.
For instance, I I do know of two companies whoeither conduct an interview there or who sent
somebody off to interview almost immediatelyafterwards and get them on property as fast as
can because they were just awesome at what theydid meet and greet wise.
(06:10):
So that is one of the things.
So when you go to other conferences, theyprovide so much there's a lot more stuff
vendors, sometimes recruiters than TPNx willprovide.
I will not argue that that is a guarantee whenyou go to Women in Aviation or OBAP or
whatever.
(06:31):
They're they have they're larger significantly.
Their organizations are are quite large.
It's pretty cool.
Pretty cool to see.
I've been to a couple of them and and they'revery fun.
I enjoy them immensely.
I enjoy the networking.
One of the thing that's different here isbecause of the type of pilot that's in the
pilot network.
Yeah, we have some new new like interestedpilots or or low time folks, but that's not
(06:54):
where we kinda that's not where we make ourhay.
We have many transitioning military pilots andwe have a growing number of folks who are kind
of at that past like a thousand hours, not inthe military.
And there's still maybe a little low time, butthey have opportunity to go out and do a little
bit more with their career than some of the lowtime folks.
(07:16):
And some of our vendors have noticed that andmentioned it to me.
Also a lot of the recruiters have keyed in onthe caliber of attendee that comes to the pilot
network experience, expo, whatever you wannacall the access, that's what it is to you.
Anyways, I love that because this gives therecruiter a chance to have a, like we were
(07:38):
talking about intimate conversation that Iguess, an intimate setting for a good
conversation between them and a qualifiedcandidate is something that might be, that
happens at other conferences, but has a moreunique opportunity at the Pilot Network at TPNx
because there's just less people, and theydon't feel like they have to rush.
(08:03):
It's a casual setting.
So those are the things that we're going toharp on for next year, and really hammer in our
marketing to everybody out there.
And to be honest with you, we're only goingsell X amount of tickets, so we're going to
sell out, And when we sell out, that's it.
We're not gonna open up more.
We don't have space for more.
That's just the way that that's going to work.
(08:25):
So those opportunities are gonna be limited.
But that's the way we wanna keep it.
Keeps that pay it forward mentality of, hey,somebody got that experience, they can pay it
forward to somebody else.
You know, we wish we could have everybody inthe world there, it just doesn't work like
that.
It also kinda keeps that squadron barth feelfor the military folks and the non military
folks to get that experience that they maybenever had.
(08:47):
And just to have that setting of casualprofessionalism, being able to have a real
conversation that lasts more than five minutesor a resume grab.
There's the meet and greets sometimes go on alittle longer.
There's just there's a lot of opportunity outthere to do that kind of stuff.
So we look forward to seeing everybody who notonly attended this year, but our volunteers,
(09:09):
the recruiting teams, new recruiting teams whowant to join us, more vendors who who like the
cut of our jig or jib or whatever, who want tocome be part of TP NEXT twenty twenty six.
If you're hearing this, you're you're in thesound of my voice and you're interested somehow
in getting involved, whether it's attending,being a vendor, being a recruiter,
(09:31):
volunteering, just hit me up at heyguys@thepilotnetwork.com.
We'll put you in the right position, put you inthe right place.
The volunteer places are gonna be extremelylimited.
We are trying a system where we're gonna turnover a lot of the returning volunteers, so new
fresh faces get opportunities to go and be partof the event in the space of looking for career
(10:00):
broadening jobs essentially.
So it's gonna be cool to do that.
I'm looking forward to meeting some new folks.
I really like the volunteers we have there,super hard charging.
You're gonna have to meet a certain criteria toget in, the criteria I make.
But Kevin who runs our volunteer group has avery high bar and you have to meet that if you
(10:24):
want to participate, but the opportunities forvolunteering are giant.
We like to have our volunteers get more thanthey give, that's the pay it forward mentality
because once we do that, that's how Matt and Ifeel, They're they're gonna do it ten ten x not
only at the conference but beyond, and waybeyond, and they're gonna be able to change
(10:45):
lives and all that cool stuff.
So anyways, on to some of the so that that'skind of the headline, but the so a couple funny
things that happened at the conference.
I I I'm gonna give you a couple faux pas stuffthat maybe you don't wanna do in in the in your
future at conferences.
So one, if you get a meet and greet at any oneof these conferences and you show up and you
(11:11):
don't have a ticket, just pay for it.
Say hey, I made a mistake.
Don't try to argue your way out of not payingfor a ticket.
If you somehow got a meet and greet online in aback channel way, whatever it was, you're there
to hopefully get a job.
Well, I'll tell you right now is the conferencehosts and the recruiting staffs work very very
(11:34):
hard together and they work really well to puton these shows and make it look flawless and
seamless and all this stuff and giveopportunities to the people who attend.
And when you try to take that slot away and youtry to circumvent the system, they know and
they're not gonna look kindly upon that.
I will also tell you for those of you who havemeet and greets or possible interviews or
(11:57):
whatever, our resumes are portrait and onepage.
That's an aviation resume.
That's pretty much a resume across the board,that's what I know to be an aviation resume.
You can talk to Carolyn Kitchens who's a pilotnetwork support staff person, somebody who is
one of our writers on TPN Pro.
(12:21):
She also does resume writing, she'll tell youthat it's one page and so will everybody at
Spitfire Elite and so will check and set and sowill every recruiter, and so will everybody
else you talk to.
So one page, one page, one page portrait, neverlandscape.
Alright.
Attitudes, so many positive attitudes there.
The one or two negative attitudes are singledout and known very well, in a setting where
(12:45):
everybody's really excited and happy to bethere.
Don't be that person.
Yes, that did happen.
And yes, they were singled out.
They might have even been kind of laughed at bythe recruiting force.
I hope that person learned a lot of somethingand they're gonna come back next year with
fresh face, positive attitude, a little humbledand say, I'm ready to go and crush this and
(13:09):
move forward in my career.
Okay.
Number two.
It is kinda cool to have something neat.
I got a business card that was essentially adip, hot sauce dip recipe from North Carolina
that I'm really excited about using.
Kind of a cool thing, right?
(13:30):
That is sort of memorable.
It's also kind of memorable to offer it andsay, hey, I've got this dipper.
Are you interested if you meet a recruiter?
But it's not something to just give out.
It's kind of ask first, know, maybe they're notinterested or you know, that's not their thing.
So I was interested like, yeah, give that tome, I wanna make In fact, I might even make it
(13:51):
tonight.
I don't know.
We'll see.
If it's got a set, then it's got away fromtomorrow, but whatever.
With that said, having a business card that'skind of memorable, not hey, I'm a pilot.
Well, we're all pilots.
But if you have something on the outside andthat's your business card, that's really cool
to be able to give that business card tosomebody and be like, oh, you're a, let's say
in my case, a voice actor.
It's kind of memorable, a little different thaneverybody else.
(14:14):
To give somebody a chocolate bar with a goldenticket wrapped inside of it, that's also has
your resume folded up.
Cool idea.
Not a great one to give to a professionalrecruiter.
Might wanna ask about that before you go in.
And yes, that may or may that did happen.
(14:37):
I'm not gonna name names and name airlines, butthat did happen.
There was some laughter shared.
Another lesson learned per chance, perhaps.
But either way, you should be memorable, butnot in the way that's still like beyond silly
(14:59):
memorable or for bad reasons.
Think I think that's what we kind of collapsedinto or put together by those two examples.
Another thing, if you're gonna go to aconference as a vendor, or you want to vend and
create relationships, all for it, go do that.
Go do them at every conference.
If you want to have an off-site during theconference and that's something that you think
(15:22):
is gonna benefit your business, go have at it.
If you want to, I don't know, push yourcompetition a little bit.
And you have there's two bag companies at aconference.
We had two shirt companies, three actually, allthree awesome.
That's great.
(15:42):
But if you're gonna go to one of theseconferences, do not go to a conference and try
to subvert buying a ticket and then try to goin and attract clients doing that.
That's just tacky and not professional.
That will get known throughout the conferencespace, especially if you're in the interview
(16:04):
prep world.
So I wouldn't suggest doing that if that's whatyour plan is.
For instance, I'll give you a for instance inour world.
So when I went to Papa last year with my wife,which was really, really, really fun, we had a
great time.
We were gonna come up with this plan to do agiveaway to for a free TPNx ticket and hotel,
(16:26):
which we did this year.
It was really cool.
Glad we got to do that.
But I wanted to do it because I my braindoesn't work right or something at the
conference.
You don't give away your own conference ticketat another conference.
That's just I don't know.
I don't what I was thinking.
It's kinda stupid.
It's rude.
I was being rude.
(16:48):
So we didn't do it.
Smart move.
Glad we didn't do it.
And I would never do that again.
It kept a great relationship with our Papafriends who are awesome, happy to have them,
every conference forever, and our LPA friends,same thing.
OPAP wasn't able to attend this year.
They're always welcomed.
Same with women in aviation.
I believe we'll have the Dallas chapter therenext year.
(17:09):
Preflight camps, love to have the folks fromNGPA, the ninety nines, Sisters of the Sky.
Let's see.
Am I forgetting anybody else?
And then our military squadrons out there.
If you're interested in recruiting at TPNx, wehave a really good deal for you.
Like, hit me up.
I can't I don't wanna give it away over theairways, but we want you to come Fort Worth,
(17:29):
Dallas, if you're in the region.
By the way, there's a million and a half gardenreserve units.
Let us know.
We we wanna work with you.
Anyways, okay.
So all that is is some of the stuff that we sawat TPNx twenty twenty five, TPNx twenty twenty
six in Dallas in May.
It's gonna be very exciting.
Looking forward to having the same friendlyfaces and more coming back and enjoying the
(17:54):
ever fun intimate setting, and uniquelydifferent pilot network experience and expo,
Dallas Twenty Twenty Six.
Alright.
Cool.
I think that's a good snapshot of some of thestuff that happened.
Again, 18 CJOs, which per capita is the mostper conference.
So that's kinda cool.
(18:15):
Humble brag, not really humble brag, a coolbrag that we get to say.
Okay.
Totally shifting gears here.
I'm gonna start a little serious.
I don't know how bad or how hard this is gonnabe for me to do so.
Please give me some grace.
I I don't deserve any, but if you guys wannagive me some grace and gals wanna give me some
grace out there, appreciate it.
I am I'm having a pretty massive shouldersurgery on Friday.
(18:41):
And it has taken me out of the flight deck,it's taken me off of flying status here.
Well, pretty soon I'm exhausted my sick leavebefore I'm on disability.
It basically hit to the point where it was hardto carry bag like just little, there was little
turns and tweaks and stuff that really startedbothering my shoulder.
And now it's kind of always sore and alwaystired.
(19:03):
I guess that's pretty norm for what I've gotgoing on in the shoulder area.
Anyways, I wanted to kind of talk about whatI'm in currently doing.
So at this point, I'm exhausting my sick leave,which is essentially the idea in our company is
you exhaust your sick leave and then I havesome other, there'll be some other enhanced
(19:26):
disability sick leave pieces to that puzzle,and then I will go out on disability for a
period of time.
Now, I can't get into a ton of the specifics ondisability and how it works within my company
because that's just not what can't do that.
Sorry, wish I could.
(19:46):
Other guys could if they wanted to.
That's just not what I have a good relationshipwith my company.
I wanna keep it that way.
I like my job.
Love my job.
So I wanna stick around for a while.
With that said, I want to talk about some ofthe other stuff, mental and emotional pieces,
because it is a little bit scary.
You start doing some financial planning, youthink about, my gosh, I got to go do this and
(20:10):
that, Making sure I get my paperwork done.
And there is some amount of paperwork andmaking sure that you hit right timelines.
I've had return to works before from beingmilitary, on military leave for an extended
period of time.
Heard this is a little bit more challenging andcan be a little bit more, a few more hoops to
jump through to make sure it's right.
With that said, I kind of wanted to share someof my thoughts and experiences I go through
(20:34):
this.
With this surgery I've got on Friday, I'mactually pretty excited because of the kind of
pain and issues I've been having in the area.
It'll be nice to have that over and movingforward with.
I'm not real sure how long it's gonna take toget better because kind of once they go in,
then we're gonna know how much damage there wasdone and how much stuff they got to correct.
(20:57):
That said, it could be who knows?
I can't really get into the number because Idon't really know it yet.
Once I know a better idea of how long it willtake, then I will be able to work backwards
from that and figure out, okay, I'm gonna goback to I don't know when I'm gonna go back to
work, but I'll start PT at this point, postsurgery, and kind of that process.
(21:18):
Now, I don't need to get into all the detailsof that because everybody else understands.
They've been through.
They've been through something like this intheir life, they've seen somebody.
So what I wanna talk about is kind of myrelationship with how I'm going back to work,
kind of going through the process of becauseI'm gonna miss my medical, I'm not gonna be
able to get my medical this next go around.
(21:40):
I'll to wait until I think my medical is due inJune June first, so I won't be able to get
that.
So I'm gonna have to let that lapse.
I'm gonna talk to my AME, and I'll keep you inthe loop with my AME discussion.
In fact, maybe maybe I can bring him on and wecan talk about this directly.
I think it'd be kinda cool, maybe maybe usefulto you out there.
(22:03):
So that's that's one piece of the puzzle.
The other is kind of that return to work stuff.
And then just knowing that there are optionsout there to help you as far as depending on
the company, I can't speak for any othercompanies.
We have a very good one in a essentially aninsurance plan that I bought into when you
(22:24):
first get there.
I think almost everybody in our company issigned up for it.
And it's very valuable, helps up to two yearsthroughout your career and you can use it more
than twice up to the total time, I believe.
Again, I'm getting smarter on this.
I've been reading more and more, so I'll havemore to share.
(22:45):
But anyways, I'm I'm not gonna do this everyweek, but I will do pieces here and there.
And then there are questions, want if peoplehave ideas or questions about what I'm going
through, and they wanna ask specific stuffcompany related, they can get ahold of me and
I'll talk to them personally.
But if they have at large more less in-depthquestions or even just you know 35,000 foot
(23:11):
view, happy to happy to discuss that on hereand share my story with because I mean I'm not
going through it like I don't know if somethinglife threatening cancer or some some sort of
heart issue or anything like that.
It's just just a shoulder muscular tendonsurgery.
It's it's it's run of the mill as you can getwith still a lot of pain and whatever in there.
(23:37):
But it's nothing that's going to take me outforever.
You know, it's just a matter of rehabbingcorrectly and doing all the musculoskeletal
stuff that we've all faced in broken bones,whatever.
So I'm not I'm not too not too worried aboutthat.
But it does open up the opportunity to talkabout medical and being out for a while and how
(24:01):
that works, and answer any questions anybodyhas out there.
Maybe you can do a live, something live and Ican record that too.
You know, that'd be a lot of fun for me.
Anyways, yeah, so 2025 awesome.
2026 will be great.
Gonna have a little procedure done here shortlyand gonna be sitting out for a bit.
(24:21):
And we'll go from there.
If you have any questions at all, you wannachat with Matt or I, and you wanna talk about
anything or stuff we talked about the episodeor anything else that's going on within the
world of the pilot network or aviation atlarge, just hit us up at hey guys
@thepilotnetwork.com.
I will tell you the chapters program, we had aTPN hangar fly in San Diego in March and it was
(24:45):
a banger.
Went off huge.
We will be doing one in June, so probably midJune, early June, I'll be able to actually
kinda leave the house, move around a littlebit.
I'm gonna need to get out and grab a grab abeer.
So we're gonna be doing one in Milwaukee at aminimum.
I don't exactly have the date, I wanna say it'sthe twelfth, but I'm not entirely sure yet.
(25:05):
And that might flex just because of, I don'tknow if I'm maybe able to drive or even go sit
at a bar or anything like that.
So we'll adjust but look for it in June,there's gonna be a Milwaukee hanger fly.
We're hoping to do that jointly with San Diegoand possibly Tampa, possibly New York, possibly
a couple other places if we can get in Phoenix.
(25:28):
So we'll see.
Hopefully, we'll be able to get that going.
It'd be really cool if we had, you know, ten,twelve people at each one of those places, 60
people doing a mini TPNx at the same time.
Oh, man.
It's exciting to me.
Anyways, I'm rambling again.
Hey, ThePilotNetwork.com.
Go check out the pilotnetwork.com if you wantto join our email list, chat directly with us
(25:48):
on the socials, can find us there.
Find out any information on TPNx twenty twentyfive or any of our other things.
If you wanna go buy some cool merch from TPNx,we've got a bunch of stuff on there as well.
And as always, keep the shiny side up and thegreasy side down.
Fly safe, everybody.
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