#71 Robert Irvine: Serving Leadership, Life Lessons, & Philanthropy

Robert Irvine is a world-renowned chef, successful entrepreneur, and unwavering champion for our nation's military. As the beloved host of Food Network's hit series Restaurant: Impossible, he has transformed the lives and fortunes of countless struggling restaurateurs in nearly 300 episodes and counting. With a diverse portfolio, including Robert Irvine’s Public House in Las Vegas, Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine at the Pentagon, FitCrunch protein bars, Robert Irvine Foods' restaurant-quality dishes, and Boardroom Spirits, producing Irvine’s Vodka and Irvine’s American Dry Gin, he's well-versed in running prosperous businesses. Robert's philanthropic dedication shines through his various enterprises, with a portion of their proceeds benefiting the Robert Irvine Foundation, established in 2014 to support our servicemen, women, and first responders through initiatives like service dog training, mental health services, mobility devices, and more. His selfless contributions have earned him esteemed civilian honors, such as Honorary Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy and the Medal of Honor Society's Bob Hope Award, in recognition of his service on multiple USO tours. Beyond his iconic role on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert has graced a multitude of TV shows and delights audiences with Robert Irvine LIVE, an unpredictable interactive cooking challenge performed in packed theaters. An accomplished author with four cookbooks to his name, his latest release, "Overcoming Impossible," delves into business leadership, drawing from his extensive entrepreneurial experience. 

Connect with Robert Irvine:

-Website: https://chefirvine.com/
-LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gNQRiZQB

🫡 My Why: I’ve seen the cost of poor leadership — how it can destroy morale, break trust, and in the worst cases, lead to lives lost, including through suicide. That’s why I’ve committed my life to helping others lead with purpose. Through Tales of Leadership, I share real stories and actionable insights on how to overcome adversity and become the kind of leader people remember for the right reasons.

👉🏽Leadership Resources: https://linktr.ee/talesofleadership

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Tales of Leadership podcast.
This podcast is for leaders atany phase on their leadership
journey to become a morepurposeful and accountable
leader what I like to call a pal.
Join me on our journey togethertowards transformational
leadership.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Team.
Welcome back to the Tales ofLeadership podcast.
My name is Josh McMillian.
I am an active duty Armyofficer.
I've been in for over 16 years.
I am an Army leadership coach.
I own my own leadershipcoaching called McMillian
Leadership Coaching, and I am ona mission to end toxic
leadership and I plan to do thatby sharing transformational

(00:43):
stories and skills.
And on today's episode I have aphenomenal guest I truly honored
and privileged to bring onRobert Irvine.
And Robert is a world renownedchef, successful entrepreneur
and an unwavering champion forour nation's military.
And before I read his bio, justknow this he is the real deal.

(01:06):
If you can support him and hismission, it directly goes to
helping soldiers and theirfamilies.
So if you can do so, do sobecause it's close and near and
dear to my heart.
But as a beloved host of foodnetworks, hit series, restaurant
and possible, he hastransformed the lives and
fortunes of countless strugglingrestaurants in nearly 300

(01:30):
episodes and counting, with adiverse portfolio, including
Robert Irvine's public house inLas Vegas, fresh kitchen, robert
Irvine and the Pentagon, whichI'm excited to go eat someday
and fit crunch protein bars, bythe way, which I always eat when
I'm going and I'm traveling,because it is the best freaking
protein bar out there.

(01:51):
Robert Irvine foods, restaurantquality dishes and boardroom
spirits, producing Irvine vodkaand Irvine's American dry gin.
He's well versed in runningprosperous businesses.
He has so many differentbusinesses that are highly
successful.
Robert's also a philanthropist,dedicated to sharing his

(02:13):
resources and proceeds in theRobert Irvine Foundation,
established in 2014 to supportour service member women and
families and first respondersthrough initiatives like service
dog training, middle healthservices, mobility devices and a
significant amount ofadditional resources that I just

(02:34):
don't have the time to read offbecause we would be here
forever.
His selfless contribution hasearned him esteemed civilian
honors, such as the honorablechief petty officer of the
United States Navy and the Medalof Honor Society Bob Hope Award
in recognition for his serviceon multiple USO tours.

(02:54):
Beyond his iconic roles onrestaurant impossible, he has
graced a multitude of TV showsand delights audiences with the
Robert Irvine live events thathe has and unprecedented
interactive cooking challengeperformed in park themes.
He's an accomplished author,with four different cookbooks to

(03:16):
his name and his latest beingOvercome Impossible and that is
a great book, by the way, somake sure you go read it, which
delves into leadership, and itis a phenomenal book.
So, without further ado, withprobably one of the longest bios
that I've read, let's bring onRobert in bottom line.
He is a purposeful, accountableleader and always stay at the

(03:37):
end, and I will give you the topthree takeaways that I learned
from Robert in this episode.
Let's go ahead and bring him on, robert.
Welcome to the Tells theLeadership podcast.
How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'm doing great Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's an honor and a privilege it really is to
get to talk to someone who hassuch a long journey in
leadership, and when I waspreparing for this podcast, I
was kind of blown away witheverything that you've done
since the age of 15 till now, ofjust your service to the
country as a whole.
So, again, it's an honor and aprivilege.

(04:10):
So I would love to maybe juststart from the point of
introduce yourself to ourlisteners, even though that you
really don't need anintroduction.
But if you got an opportunityto introduce yourself to the
world, how would you do it?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Hey, I'm Robert Irving, a guy who makes eggs.
People say a celebrity chefthis and celebrity chef that and
, to be honest with you, I don'tfeel that.
I don't feel like a celebrity.
I'm not enamored with thefanfare of people.
To me, celebrities are peoplethat put on the cloth of our

(04:47):
nation or fight fires or wear apolice officer's uniform with
doctors, nurses, teachers.
They're what I call celebrities.
So for me, I always say I'mRobert Irving, I make eggs.
That's exactly what I say, andpeople will say oh yeah, you
make great eggs.
I've been fortunate enough tomake a great living but also

(05:09):
affect a lot of change inpeople's lives based on those
eggs.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, so you have a really long history when it
comes to leadership, fromjoining the Navy when you were
15, which I really want to jumpinto to where you're at now of
working at a very like strategiclevel and working with a lot of
strategic level leaders.
How would you define leadershipin your own words?

Speaker 3 (05:34):
So leadership for me?
That's a great question, josh,I'm going to call you Josh.
I don't like Joshua.
It's too long for me.
Josh, I like it Even thoughit's your name, joshua.
Josh is good.
Look, leadership to me comes infour parts.
There's first of all which isthe most important part, and I
think we've forgotten about it,but it's called empathetic

(05:56):
leadership.
What does it actually mean?
It means that you have we have5,368 employees.
I need to understand every oneof them.
What makes them tick.
Empathetic leadership is reallyabout knowing that Johnny has
an autistic daughter and Melissahas a mom with cancer, and so

(06:18):
on and so forth, andunderstanding what it's like to
walk in a day in their lives andwhat they deal with before they
get to you at work.
That's empathetic leadership.
It doesn't mean you're beingsoft.
It means understanding thepeople that actually work
alongside you.
Number two is egos, and, as achef, chefs are the worst

(06:41):
because they have big egos.
You have to lose your ego, andso do the people that work with
you.
There has to be no egos inbetween, and I'll tell you for a
while later.
Number three is trust, andnumber four is authenticity,
because if you're consistent inwho you are good, bad or

(07:02):
different.
At least you're consistent.
But if you throw in the otherthree things I just mentioned
there, the pillars of success,then you can actually be
successful based on the peoplethat work with you.
Look, there's no I in team, andyou've heard that a thousand
times.
But I think people forget, evenin the military, the older guys,

(07:26):
the Sergeant Majors, thegunnery sergeants, the mass of
gunnery sergeants all thempeople when they joined it was
hard as nails.
There was no empathy, it wasjust get out and get it done,
get it done dirty.
We're in a different part ofthe world right now.
Right, because our youngergeneration are not as tough as

(07:51):
nails, they're not as giving andthoughtful as our older
generation.
And, by the way, our oldergeneration meaning me, are not
as thoughtful as the greatestgeneration in World War One,
world War Two, vietnam, korea,etc.
Etc.
So I think time has changed,our world has changed and we

(08:13):
have to adapt in that leadershiprole.
The way the world has changed.
Yeah, and I don't think manycompanies have.
I can.
I can name five that have doneand I still continue to make
that journey Walmart, americanAirlines, nbc, universal,
comcast, all these big Fortune500 companies are actually

(08:34):
starting to take care of thepeople, as is our military, for
the first time in history.
So, therefore, pillars ofsuccess that I really count on.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I love that, so, part of like throughout my journey
of being in the military, I'vealways been in combat arms,
majority of my career, at least,in the infantry, and the one
thing that has shown greatleaders from extraordinary
leaders, is their ability toconnect with people.
And the best way to connect, Ithink, is what you just said,

(09:07):
empathetic leadership.
But I kind of like to find itas being meek in a way of being
able to connect with someone andlisten.
But when you actively talk orwhen you speak, people listen to
you because you can.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
I would, I would go one step.
I would go one step back fromme.
I would say humble.
I like that.
Leadership is is humbling.
Why?
Because we're nothing, and Iuse this all the time.
And I was just with Flo Groberg, who is a great friend of mine,
medal of Honor recipient, andleadership is I was with 41

(09:40):
Medal of Honor recipients butleadership is you know exactly
what I just said.
Would you march up that hilllike Woody Williams and Irijima,
and then turn around and whostood with you?
Is it the whole company or isit nobody there?
And that's based on leadership.
Because if they don't like you,good luck.

(10:00):
Yeah, but if they love you,every one of them will be there.
And I liken this to the band ofbrothers and all the, all the
old timers, the Bill Garnier'sthat never left each other.
Yeah, and to me, in the moderntime, not just military, and
it's very hard because on theoutside world is the doggy dog

(10:23):
world.
They don't care, they'll sampleover you and we're not used to
military folks like you and Iare not used to that.
We used to got your left, gotyour, got your right, got your
front, got your back and we'reall good right, so that when you
transition out it's differentand you have to understand that.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I think that's one of the.
The biggest issues, at leastwith military officers or
military soldiers who transitionout of the military, is losing
that connection and not I reallyfeel like that is one of the
biggest issues that suicide isso high within the ranks of
military is that transition outinto the civilian world.
They lose that connection andthat lack of purpose.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
What you're saying there, the lack of purpose,
right, yeah, and we?
It's so funny because suicidepeople use this number of 22,.
I don't know where they getthat number from, because it's
so wrong.
It's more like 55.
Yeah, and suicide.
So we just had an event atspider mountain and one of our,
one of our foundation programsis mobility devices.

(11:28):
So not only I boss wheelchairsthat stand up and whatever, go
up and downstairs and bring youto a high, high, high level, but
with with bikes to get peopleout of four wars.
Veterans need a purpose aboveself, like they had in the
military, and the more we findthose purposes, whether it be,

(11:49):
you know, reuniting the bravethat's another one of our
programs reuniting with peoplethat you served with, so you can
get that.
Michael Grinston, sergeantMajor Army, said it really well.
You know, know your squad, knowyour people, get up, pick up
the phone, get amongst them, getthem out of the four wars to

(12:09):
give them purpose, bring theminto foundations, because they
have so much veterans, have somuch to offer.
But you're right, when theytransition out, they're lost
because we're not used to to.
I don't know I'm going to usethis, but it really kind of
doesn't say it.
We're not used to.
Ncos are used to thinking ontheir own feet and doing what

(12:31):
they do.
That's why military is so goodacross the board.
The NCOs think smart and theyact quickly Soldiers, sailors,
airmen, coast guards, men,marines and space force.
Now you know, unless you're inthat NCO position, we are always
used to doing as we're told.
Yeah, until you get to that NCOrank and you're saying, okay,

(12:53):
now we're going to do this.
And I think when you retire andyou have to do those things now
it's not just thinking, it's.
I always say when I hire people,you have to be you worth your
weight and cold.
In other words, I don't care.
If you want a million dollars,I'll pay you million dollars,
but you have to bring in three,yeah.
So it's not about the pay, butit's about you actually getting

(13:17):
out and doing what you were,what you're used to doing, which
is leading people.
And they just finish with witha lot of naval folks in Norfolk
with with the present.
So I'm friends giving and Igive the same speech to the
young sailors Use the militaryas much as they're using you.
Go to school, get, get.

(13:37):
You've got, you've got all thistime in the military that you
could be studying and Using thatfor when you get out.
Because the more education youget in While you're in the
military, the more money youmake when you get out.
And we don't hire A Militaryfolks just because they can cook
or they can drive tanks or theycan fly planes.

(13:58):
We buy them for the.
We buy them and I say that in aspecific way.
We buy them because of theirleadership abilities.
Yeah right, and that's whereyou know An E3, e6, whatever,
and they get X amount.
But when they get out, ifthey're good leaders, it's
triple the amount of money.
And I just saw one of my dearfriend, doc Scott stalker.

(14:23):
Master guns used to be seniorlisted the space force, senior
listed to Cybercom and all theseother things Doing amazing
because he took the time tonetwork number one but also took
his time in the military to usethe military system.
Very some good and good for himbecause they're using him and

(14:44):
his intelligence and he usedthem.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
So I am unashamed about that.
So I learned something a coupleyears ago.
It's called the armycredentialing program.
The army will pay you up tofour thousand dollars a year for
continued certifications, soPMP or whatever it is.
There's no add, so there's nonothing.
The army will give you this.
So there's tools out there, andI fully agree if we're not

(15:07):
growing, we're stagnant.
We always have to be movingforward because life's a journey
and that's the way I've alwaysviewed everything.
But I would love to start onyour leadership journey because
the Navy is something that'snear and dear to my heart.
My niece is stationed at WalterReed right now, which is
awesome, and it's crazy to mebecause I feel old and my sister
joined the Navy when she was 17.

(15:28):
But you joined the BritishRoyal Navy Royal Navy when you
were 15 years old, and thequestion I really want to ask is
how was that phone call withyour mom?
So when you were?

Speaker 3 (15:39):
it wasn't a phone call.
It wasn't a phone call.
So well it was, but not thatwhat you think.
So my mother would catch thebus eight o'clock every morning
opposite my house to go to work.
I would then wait, even go toschool, or so she thought.
When she got on the bus and thebus pulled away, I would be
walking to school, quote unquote, and I would double back and

(16:01):
sit and drink beer with myfriends in the house my dad's
beer.
So one day she phoned the houseand I picked up the phone and
that was kind of the demise ofme and she walked me to the
recruitment office.
I'd already been a secret atfrom the age of 11.
Wow, so I was used to go towarships and marine bases and

(16:23):
being underway and all thosethings that the secret it's dead
.
And I was a really good.
I was the youngest pettyofficer as a, so it's almost
like ROTC Don't want to have abetter word here in this country
and I would go away and I.
It was my highlight.
And then I, when I did go toschool, I had a headmaster by
the name of David Botfish whosaw that the school was not a.

(16:48):
It was important, but he was asenior tutor, but it was
important school but it wasn'tgood for me.
So he was sending me away.
We were very poor family.
We didn't have any money.
Our food was two slices ofbread, butter and sugar and on a
Friday Maybe fish and chips andSaturday a curry.
So we didn't have much moneyand he got the school to pay for

(17:11):
me to go away to a Schoolabroad on a, on a cruise ship,
for a couple of weeks, a coupleof weeks Camping, you know.
So he always got me out,knowing that I I love sports, I
love woodwork, I love history,but I wasn't very good at
anything else and he knew that Iwas sitting.

(17:33):
Talk to him, you know more thanI talked to my dad, actually.
And he was the one that saidyou know, you got to focus, you
got to do this, you got to dothis.
But my mother took me to therecruitment office because she
was fed up with me.
The maths and English test wasone being the highest, five
being the lowest.
I got five, five because I wasa little dummy.

(17:55):
And they said well, we got somenew.
So you're not gonna be a pilot,you're not gonna be a doctor,
you're gonna be a cook and I'dalready been in a home economics
class from 11, because it wasme and 30 girls in his class and
I thought, oh, I get agirlfriend, forget the food.
But I fell in love with food.
So for me, when they said that Iwas like you know, I just got

(18:19):
my goal of this is what I wantto do cook it seemed like a
great way, even though my dadhated it because it's
subservient to him.
He was an army guy.
My brother was a Special airservice, so it was very
subservient for me to go andcook.
I didn't talk to me from theage of 15 to probably 18, almost

(18:40):
18 because of that.
Then I became the the flag ofsupport with the two star
admirals cook and Admiral Warsawwas his name and I took care of
him and his wife In a householdright up to HMS victory, which

(19:01):
in Portsmouth Dockyard, andevery every day I would make his
breakfast, that he would go tothe office He'd worked or 12 and
he want to go sailing.
So I used to go sailing withhim from 12 midday to 4 every
day and then I cook his dinnerand it was a great.
It was a great experience forme Because I'd already been on a
warship, I've been on to theforklings, I've been on HMS

(19:24):
Apollo, I'd done all that flagof support with.
Came next then the RoyalBritannia.
So I had a really Interesting.
You know, I had some good whatwe call sea daddies, you know,
guys that took you under thewing and showed you and told you
and taught you what, what wasright, what was wrong.

(19:46):
And I remember in the earlydays I would get paid.
It was 500 pounds a month,which was about 900 dollars at
that time and I wasn't young, Iwasn't old enough to go drinking
, but I did with the guys and Iwould call my mother and say I
need some money every month TillI realized that there was.

(20:09):
You know, drinking with theseold guys was great, but it
wasn't get me anywhere, eventhough I was great.
In my day-to-day world of youknow, I ran the wardroom on a
warship.
I was the person responsiblefor afternoon teas on the
warship and it started.
We were in the forklines and itstarted with me asking the

(20:31):
skipper a commander, can I, canI do afternoon tea for you guys?
Cake, scones, sandwiches, tea,you know that kind of thing.
And he said yes, just for thewardroom, 22 officers.
And I said no, for the shipscompany, 240 men.
We didn't have women on warshipsin England at that time.
Yeah, and he said yes.

(20:53):
I said, well, then the officershave to go to the main galley.
All right, they have to mixwith a crew.
It has to be one.
And then days it wasn't.
It was like them and us.
There was no camaraderie, notlike today.
And it worked and we that teaand coffee and cakes and
sandwiches made us such a greatcrew because we bonded over you

(21:17):
know, 30 minutes in an afternoonand basically when we were
underway, from two to four thechefs had off, so we go to in
bunks, listening music, whatever.
I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to create something,which we did, and it's still in
the Navy today the afternoon tea, and it was a great thing for
me from a morale standpoint tomake sure that Officers and

(21:43):
enlisted guys could cohabitateand there was still a fine line
of you know who's in charge, ofcourse, but it was a better
respect and a more mutualrespect because again I go back
to empathetic leadership theyUnderstood each other and and
talked about families and thisand this.
It wasn't always work.
Yeah, so I think that was ahuge part of me becoming A good

(22:09):
leader was listening.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
All right, team, let's take a quick break from
this podcast and I want topersonally invite you to our
private Facebook community thatI call Purposeful accountable
leaders, or pals and pals is acommunity dedicated to inspiring
and developing servant leadersby sharing Transformational
stories and skills exactly whattells the leadership is all
about.
My goal is to build a communityof like-minded Leaders that can

(22:36):
share lessons, learn, askquestions and celebrate wins
when it happens.
And my mission in life is clearI will end toxic leadership by
sharing Transformational storiesand skills, and you will find
countless Transformationalleaders in this group, many of
them I have had the honor toserve with in the military.
If you want to find a communitythat can help you grow both

(22:57):
personally and professionally,we would love to have you.
You can simply searchpurposeful accountable leaders
on Facebook or click theleadership Resources tab in the
show notes to join.
I am looking forward to seeingyou guys and continuing to grow
together on our leadershipjourney.
Back to the podcast.
So the course is a leadership,but that's what I'm gonna call

(23:17):
it the four pillars that youtalked about being able to
connect.
I think you covered two ofthose as managing egos between
the officers and the NCOs andthen building trust.
And the only way I see that youcan actually build trust is
going through a crucible eventor just spending time or having
frequency with people.
And then the army I'm biasedtowards the army, I love the

(23:39):
army.
Right Is that we're focused onthe system and that system is
you, it's the person, it's theperson on the ground that's
operating the equipment.
And what I've learned, at leastfrom our army side, is
everything's very technical,it's it's driven, but focused on
like systems.
So the, the battleship is thesystem, and a lot of times it
used to be that people weren'ttaking care of properly.

(24:01):
They viewed them as kind oflike an object, maybe to to man
the system.
And with the army, the army'salways done a phenomenal job of
taking care of the people, but Ithink the Navy's getting around
that now, just at least with myknee.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
I disagree with that.
I disagree with it.
I think.
I think all the forces havebeen terrible about taking care
of the men and women.
Yeah, only this year, throughGeneral George, general CQ Brown
, general Sam, admiral Frangeli,frangeli, only now we're
realizing, in my opinion, right,and I and I travel 345 days a

(24:38):
year, 150 of those just in basesaround the globe Afghanistan,
iraq, poland, spain everywarship.
I just come off the ice in thehour.
I Think now we've reallystarted to understand the value
of people.
Hmm, and only now, right,because you're right there, the
army and I spend most of my timewith the army, the US Army,

(24:58):
right now, yeah, have done for14 years with general McCombill
and All the previous chiefs andvices and all that kind of stuff
, john Campbell, who are amazinghuman beings, but it was always
about 18 years of war and and,and you know, let's get the guys
, let's give them tanks, let'sgive whatever they need, right,

(25:20):
yeah, but we've never thoughtabout food, sleep, um I.
Families they always thoughtabout families, I'll rephrase
that, but they never thoughtabout the operational tempo of
what we've been through.
Right, the operational tempoactually is destructive to the

(25:42):
family, to the life, to theresiliency and the readiness of
the force.
And I can tell you, and allhonesty, this year has been the
first time and I've been tryingfor 14 years to modernize the
food service, which then helpsto sleep and helps the fitness,

(26:05):
helps the readiness, helps there.
All of that across the jointforce and we're finally getting
there.
So for me it's about, you know,the chower holes and the.
We have a problem withrecruitment.
The Marine Corps just dipped inthere with 24 people more than
they should have this year,which was great, but everybody

(26:25):
else has failed in theirrecruitment.
Yeah, and it bores down tohousing, money, food, tempo, all
the things that the outsideemployees or employers, I should
say are offering.
You.
Look at McDonald's they'remaking $27 an hour right now to

(26:46):
put hamburgers in wrappers.
Right, you got a soul juice, 19years old, or a sailor, 19
years old, on an aircraftcarrier sending, you know, a
$200 million jet off.
What other fortune 500 companywould ever allow that 19 year
old to have that power?
None, I can assure you.
So we want to make sure thatthe pay is consumer with.

(27:09):
Look, we don't join the militaryfor pay.
We join it because we'repatriotic and we want to serve
our country right, first andforemost, but we also have to
make sure that the housing isgood, the food is good, the pay
is in line with outside.
The tempo is, you know and Isay this now as we just extended

(27:31):
the four for another threemonths the ice and the how is
out in the Mediterranean.
So we've got to really makesure that, you know, a military
is taken care of in a waydifferent than we used to before
.
I mean, it used to be thinkingabout the Second World War and
Vietnam and years away.
Right, most of our deploymentsare, unless you're special

(27:53):
operations, you know, seven tonine months, normally, hopefully
just seven.
But the way the world is rightnow it's kind of slightly
different because we've got apolice officer in a lot of
places.
But I think to compete and takecare of our people is the
forefront of our leaders today,the whole process.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
I think that's one of the hardest things to do is to
find balance, at least in themilitary, from work, family
itself.
That's the hardest thing.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
There is no balance.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, that's a word that should be thrown out.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Because people say to me youknow how do you balance, you
know work and life as an Apersonality, or somebody wants
to get things done.
There's no such thing.
Yeah, my wife travels 150 daysa year.
I travel 345 days a year.
She meets me in the middlesomewhere.
If I'm in Iraq, she comes toIraq.

(28:50):
If I'm in that, she'll come tothat.
I think if you really want tomake meaningful change and it's
not for everybody, by the way,right, not everybody can do what
you do or I do or other peopledo we have to find your own
purpose and once you find thatpurpose, you dictate what, what

(29:11):
your life's going to be.
And for me, it's giving serviceto those that were the class of
our nation first responders,because they put their life on
the line every day and theirfamilies that support them, that
suffer and sacrifice.
And, as I just said to you, Iwas with the folks in the eyes
and the how.
I was on the eyes and howunderway when she was on her way
to the Mediterranean.

(29:32):
Then I just fed the familieswith the president and first
lady two days ago and to havethe families come to me and say
well, thank you for you know,taking care of our husbands and
wives, and it's very special tome, that's what God put me on
this earth for to serve thosethat serve.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
I love that because too many one of the one of the
big things that I love aboutthat is the families, because
that is the one thing that Ifeel that a lot of people forget
is that they also serve.
I remember when I was a companycommander, we were on the 24
hour be prepared to deploy.
Our battalion was in Iraq andSyria at the time and we were on
the 24 hour call and for thatyear I had to maintain that

(30:18):
level of readiness.
The soldiers were alwaystraining, we were always doing
stuff, but the families were theones who had the share that
brought, because the fathersweren't there for their kids
birthdays.
Sometimes we weren't there forsome holidays because we had to
go do training missions, and Ifeel that the families are the
ones who suffer the most and alot of the times at least where
I'm at is, I've gotten better atunderstanding their seasons of

(30:39):
life not necessarily balance,but their seasons in life where
we have to be so intentional andlaser focused, because we have
that purpose of what you talkedabout, and being able to
understand that purpose gives methe ability to be in the moment
and understand what I need totackle, but that's the most
important thing that I love thatyou're really taking on is
finding that harmony betweentaking care of the family and

(31:03):
then taking care of the soldier,because if I know my family is
taking care of I can be more inthe moment and I can be more
towards the mission.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
So true, and that's what I said to all.
The leadership is, you know wegot one in four military
families of food insecure.
How can that be in the UnitedStates?
Military, that's great.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
And for me.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
I'm tackling that personally with a lot of other
folks, not just me but so thatwe know the families are good,
that the men and women andspouses of each other can really
focus on what they're doingwhile they're deployed, because
there's nothing more destructiveto a mission than people not

(31:47):
being fully vested becausethey're worried about their
families.
Yeah so yeah, it's important.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
So kind of going back to your leadership journey, you
finish your time, transitionover to the US.
When did you come over?
Was it 1996 or 97?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
1996, I came here and it was funny.
I came to the state.
I was in Jamaica before.
I got a job putting two hotelstogether and, whilst I love
Jamaica, it was probably one ofthe toughest things I've ever
done, because I took two majorhotels the International, the
Intercontinental Hotel at MalazBeach and the Hyatt and I built

(32:27):
them, or put them together asone hotel.
Oh wow, which was a year worthof strife.
And you know you're working ina foreign country.
I was the only Caucasian, therest of the folks were Jamaican.
And you know it would rain.
I never get this.
It would rain my first coupleof weeks there.

(32:48):
It would rain and nobody cameto work, but I still had 2000
people in the hotel and they'dbe fed.
And I got with some of my what Icall leaders in the culinary
world in the hotel.
One of them was called Joppy,one was JP and I said, well, so

(33:10):
what's the problem?
Tell me why you can't get towork.
And it was well, we have towalk.
There's no buses.
We have to, you know, come fromhere, there and everywhere.
So I went to the generalmanager, a French guy who's
since passed away, blessing, butI said, look, we need to put on
some bus services.
We need to get these folks towork, we need to help them.

(33:31):
There was no healthcare, therewas no dental care and I managed
to get all three of those.
And once and again I go back tothis empathetic leadership.
You've got to listen tounderstand, because you could be
angry, but I listened to whatthe problems were and I fixed
the problems.

(33:51):
There I got up.
It was amazing because I wasthe outsider coming into a
country that was not mine.
The locals were not taken careof, so they didn't care.
They come to work when they youknow and then you know soon
come, as the saying goes.
They didn't come and I wasthere alone and once I fixed

(34:14):
that problem, having understoodthe problems, then nobody was
away from work.
It was easy.
But again, we go into nobodylessons and that's the strongest
thing we can do is listen.
Then you have to decipher whatis true and what's memory, what

(34:35):
is real and what's not real.
And once you get through thatand you fix the problems and the
people see that you're tryingto help them, my God, it was
unbelievable.
I had the best year ever.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I took.
That was a lesson that it tookme so long to understand is like
taking tactical pauses.
I always thought to be a leader,you had to be decisive and when
something was to happen, I hadto just act and go and move
forward, like always moveforward.
And until I was really aseasoned company commander and I
had a lot more authority undermy belt, leading like 240

(35:06):
soldiers which still to this daywas, hands down, the best job
that I ever had, because Iwasn't just leading the soldiers
, it was leading their familiesand then running the FRG, and
just being able to be connectedand actually make an impact on
people's lives was awesome.
But what I learned in that timeis that you had to slow down,
especially in those moments, andwhat is facts and what is not,

(35:30):
and then learn and listen andfind out what the core problem
is and when you understand whatthe problem is, go and attack it
.
And that's what I've seen as atheme throughout this episode so
far is that you've alwayschased hard things, but you've
been able to listen to thepeople, take care of the people
and find out what that problemis and then solve that problem,
which is funny because it's inall your TV shows too, like
Restaurant Impossible, likethat's the same thing.

(35:52):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know I was.
Look, I think right now we havethe best leadership in our
military we've ever had.
Look, cq Brown and I was withBrian Fenn, socom commander
yesterday, shane Shorter, theSergeant Major, and they are
really caring about people.

(36:15):
When I was in the Navy and whenyou were probably in the Army,
you couldn't go up to a fourstar and say, hey, sir, I'm
having a bad day, right, theyjust didn't do that.
Nowadays, there's so muchaccess.
Yeah, and I use this becauseBrian Fenton is all about people
, cq Brown is all about people,general George is all about
people.

(36:36):
That's why I see this enormous,enormous earthquake of change in
the taking care of people whichI am.
You know it took me 14 years toget to this point of banging my
head on a wall and bangingdoors Right, and we're finally
getting there with thisleadership that is starting to

(36:58):
say you know what?
You're absolutely right whenyou take care of people.
And they knew all along andthey've done it in their
commands, but it was, it wasportioned in their commands or
ships.
You've got great leaders andyou've got lots of great leaders
and I think now the mandate ofchange is happening and you'll
hear a lot more about thatcoming into 24.

(37:20):
And I love that because all I'vedone, all my career, is take
care of people, and I love notonly on TV shows but in real
life.
Yeah, and I want to make surethat if you're less fortunate,
we can help you in some way,shape or form, even if you know,
my foundation is all aboutmilitary and first responders.
But last night on social mediasomebody was asking me for help

(37:42):
and it's amazing and you canread it.
They're homeless, they have nofood, they have no, and just a
whole community of social mediacame together and found the
answers for them.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
I love that Right, and I think that's what I'm
thinking.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I'm fed up of the divisiveness of, you know,
whether you're a Republican or aDemocrat.
I did saw that, look, look, weare America's.
I say this, you know, when wetalk about America's game being,
you know, the Army, navy, airForce, whoever gets to the
finals, you know that'sAmerica's game, we are America

(38:19):
People, even people say, well,why do you care?
Well, I'm a citizen for 22years.
I care.
I dropped my Englishcitizenship to become an
American citizen because I livehere, I work here, my family's
here, and I get fed up with.
You can have a differentopinion, you don't have to agree
with me, but I don't have tofight, and you know and do all

(38:41):
this about it.
We can have an intelligentconversation about what needs to
happen.
There are people less fortunateand we need to figure that out,
and that's been through time,it's not just, it's not just now
.
How do we really make changefor everybody?
Not just, not just becauseyou're in the military, but it
helps with.
You know, we can't hit ourrecruitment goals because

(39:05):
obesity is in every state.
So if we hire somebody inOklahoma, in Kentucky, in
Alabama, in, or even fromEngland, for example, or Ghana
or whatever, which is happeningright now.
We have to make sure that weextend the training program so
we can get them fair.
Why are we doing that?

(39:25):
Why are we not fixing that?
You know, why are we notopening gyms to 15 year olds for
free?
Why are we not all those thingsthat I work on on a year round
basis, not just a military, sowe can pull and educate?
And programs like this help.
And you know why they help?
Because youngsters listen andwe say look, here's what I did

(39:49):
in the military and here's whatI did when I came out.
And this is what we forget.
We can talk about this as yourjob going into military, but if
you stick it for this amount ofyears, this is what you get at
the end training and theopportunity to do something
greater than yourself in themilitary, then greater than

(40:10):
yourself when you come out.
And for me, that's arecruitment tool of and I say
all the time on the stuff I dohey, the military gave me a
foundation of all those thingswe talked about, but also it
gave me a purpose to go out intothe world.
And look, I cook, as I said, butthere's nothing more great than

(40:33):
a plate of food or a cup ofcoffee to get conversations
started.
I don't care whether you're ahead of state, and I cook for
every head of state in the freeworld and sat around a table and
say, hey, listen, let's, let's,let's take this and let's talk
about this and whatever.
And food is a great equalizer.

(40:53):
We got to eat to live and wegot to live to eat.
So, whether you're on abattlefield having a hot dog or
a piece of chicken or an MRE, oryou're in a state banquet with
the president and you know everyhead of state, we got to
understand, and food makes iteasier to understand even in
your own families, where, whereyou may know, not where you may

(41:18):
not know, because we think aboutphones nowadays.
Kids are on the phones all day.
We don't know what they're upto.
We don't know my kids come inmy house, the phones goes in the
basket and this is itconversation, and I think we've
lost that in the world.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Alright team.
Let's take a quick break fromthis episode and I want to share
a leadership resource with you,and that is the resiliency
based leadership program.
Rblp's vision is to create aworldwide community of practice
committed to building andleading resilient teams.
So why do you need to build andlead a resilient team?
Resilient teams are the key toindividual and organizational

(41:55):
growth, regardless of being inthe military or in the civilian
workforce.
One collective teams allows forexponential growth and the
teams ability to overcomeadversity, adapt and, most
importantly, grow.
And in bottom line, up front,resilient teams are just
stronger together.
And here's the fact 99% of thepeople who take that course

(42:15):
recommended to others, and I'mone of them.
I would just completed mycertification and I highly
recommend this.
And the great news is it's mostlikely free to you.
And if you're in the military,it is a 100% free to you.
And if you want to learn more,you can look in the show notes
for this episode and find thelink and use the discount code

(42:36):
J-M-C-M-I-L-L-I-O-N, and that isalso in the show notes.
Back to the episode 100%.
So I work in SOCOM right now.
General Thitten, the commanderfor SOCOM, has three key pillars
People number one, win, numbertwo and then transform, and I

(42:59):
love that because it follows therule.
Because I'm an infantry guy,I'm sure you spend a lot of
people time around the military,so I like to.
I call it yes, keep it simple.
Stupid People win.
Transform and if we can, if wecan, help take care of our
people.
And fitness is one of the mostcritical ones, and I agree with
you and that's why, when Ireached out to you is like those

(43:20):
fit crush bars that you makeare awesome, because every time
that I travel and I'm not lyingevery time that I travel I
always grab those becausethey're perfectly balanced right
between fat, protein andcarbohydrates for my macro diet,
like it's easy to eat.
But in the military I rememberbeing in Afghanistan they would
give us these MREs and in thesefirst strike bars and all that

(43:43):
is is like, yeah, it's reallyhigh calorie, it's very dense,
but it's not good food for you.
So, being able to fuel theperson because if you can fuel
the person, then we can win andthen we can transform it
together as a team, and I lovethat.
Being able to build and teardown cultural divides and how
you connected food with one ofyour key pillars of maintaining

(44:04):
and building trust, that itbrings us all to the table, and
then that's how we can actuallybuild.
Trust is sharing.
You know, a cup of tea which Ihad the pleasure of doing when I
was in London, which wasawesome, by the way.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
It's funny because because Brian Fenton, so you're
in Tampa, is that?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
where you live.
So I live down in Fort Belvoirright now in the DC.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
So I'm there all the time.
But so come Tony Thomas.
I've been working with TonyThomas way before General Clark
and General Clark and then nowBrian Fenton Again, all three
great leaders, and phenomenal.
And again, you look at, you lookat transforming.
I was there yesterday atSilicon giving away some turkeys

(44:47):
with Kroger, which is great,but getting to meet, you know,
some other folks that were therein big meetings and they listen
, and special operations, takingnutrition to a whole different
level with no meal, and someother things that we're doing
there.
But, you know, leadership is isreally interesting to me

(45:08):
because there are differenttypes of leaders.
There are those that lead byfear, which, by the way, are,
you know, somewhat in, in, indecline right now, because fear,
because fear is not good.
It is good in some situations,but not good for leaders,

(45:31):
because you want to adherepeople towards you or be
empathetic towards people.
And I think that change ishappening, although, you know,
it's just interesting to me.
I lead my team of six, almost6000 people.
I don't give them schedules, Idon't give them time off, I
don't give them.
I give them a mission.

(45:51):
I don't tell them how to do themission, but I give them the
expectation of what I want.
So if you and, by the way, whenI say don't give them time off,
if you want four weeks off,josh, you make sure that one of
the other guys has got your loadand I hold them accountable and
vice versa.
That's what I mean by I don'tgive them time off they have

(46:13):
plenty time off, obviously, butbut I don't give them specific.
You know it's two weeksvacation a year.
When I go on vacation, I take agroup of people with me because
I like my team around me.
They're my friends, they're myteam, they're families.
We have built 11 tremendouscompanies because of that

(46:33):
philosophy and leadership isthose things we talked about,
the trust and all that.
And one thing I've learned andit was a big change for me was,
just because you own thecompanies, it's your money.
It doesn't mean you're right.
I can set the vision and theexpectation, but the journey to

(46:54):
get to that expectation isreally the teams.
So every year, every year inJanuary January the fourth and
fifth we get the team together,top 60 leaders, in a room, and
we talk about the past year,what went right, what went wrong
, what we didn't achieve, ifanything, and then what's the

(47:15):
next year going to bring.
And I think it's reallyinteresting.
I just sit and listen.
I do the opening remarks, butthen I sit and listen because we
have these guys and girls thatdo amazing things.
I've always looked the last day.
For example, this morning, youknow you talk about big crunch.
We just launched a wafer bar onAmazon, which is unbelievable,

(47:38):
but I just finished this morninga chocolate mint wafer bar and
told the team it wasunbelievable.
They do it, I taste it.
We're in our fourth iterationof it and I finally passed it
this morning, just like the RTDsand all the other things.
So I'm very heavily involved inthe alcohol, the food, the
clothing and we make clothingfor special operations socks,

(47:58):
underwear, t-shirts, long shirts, all that kind of stuff and
everything's made in the US, bythe way, which is great.
So, and everything that we do,a portion of all that goes into
our foundation, robert IrvineFoundation, to make sure that we
can do those dogs andwheelchairs and bikes and all
those things that we do and itwill never be enough, because I

(48:21):
always want more, and it's notabout more business, it's about
more money to be able to do morethings with less fortunate
people.
Yeah, serve your purpose on thisearth.
Yeah, it's just crazy.
If you had said to me 10 yearsago you'd be this heavily
involved, I would have probablylaughed at you.
Even though we've been doing it, I didn't realize where we are

(48:43):
at this point, and that isreally changing lives.
Just through food, through dogs, through bikes, mobius devices
and the people I get to meet andinteract with, whether you're a
cleaner, a road sweeper, a fuelattendant, a president, a king,

(49:04):
a queen, they're all the sameto me.
They all are gone at the samerespect because they're human
beings.
And I think, if we understandthat, you can learn something
every day from someone.
It doesn't matter how muchmoney they have, how big a house
they have or not.
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah, some of the greatest wisdom that I've
learned from people are peoplethat you wouldn't think have
that much influence.
They don't have all thematerial possessions, but
they've had that experience andthat experience is critical
because they've lived through itand they can share their wisdom
with you.
And I'm telling you, I workwith some of the best treasures
that this country has to offerand I always think about what is

(49:48):
the greatest resource thatAmerica has.
It's the people, it's the sonsand the daughters that raise
their uniform and, yes, theyserve in the military
temporarily, but when theytransition, guess what?
They're still serving thecountry and they're making
organizations better.
I'm sure you have a lot ofveterans that you absolutely
love that work within yourorganization.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Yeah, they have a lot to offer and the family's
behind them.
They're like closest andtightest friends, our military,
and I mentioned that a dozen ofthem on this call that I call
every day.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
So I would love to transition now to some of the
philanthropical work that you doright now in the Robert Irmbein
Foundation, because that isabsolutely incredible, and I
know you do a lot of events inthe DC area, so I'm excited to
go to some of those with myfamily in the near future.
But what inspired you to takeyour influence that you built

(50:42):
over time and then just reallydive into that of focusing on
and building the Robert IrmbeinFoundation?

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Well, I think for years and years I give lots of
money to different charities andsaw some of the work they were
doing the Harrison EastwoodBuilding Houses and USO and
Fisher Foundation and all thosekind of people taps and I wanted

(51:11):
to offer something different.
I think all these foundationsare great at what they do
because they fulfill somethingthe government can't fulfill or
won't fulfill, whichever way youwant to read that.
So I wanted to really focus onmental and physical health way
before anybody else did Right2014, I was hit hard the mental

(51:34):
health and there were somepeople out there doing it.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn'tthe first, but I was one of the
first to really focus withBoston University Hospital on
and because of my wife, who is aprofessional wrestler, and the
traumatic injuries that theysuffer from TBI and PTS and then

(51:58):
firefighters, I decided thatwe'd start our own foundation
after many years supportingother foundations based on
mental and physical health.
So in 2014, we started it andhere we are, you know, 10 years
later, and originally it wasreally just to pass through
money to other foundations, andthen I started to feel that

(52:20):
nobody was doing what I felt wasneeded.
I love it.
You know the programs.
So we started running a coupleof programs.
They took off and then we keepadding more.
So we have Breaking Bread forHeroes, which twice a week
around the world, no matterwhere it is Afghanistan, iraq,

(52:41):
poland, spain, syria and here inthe United States we do two
dinners a week.
Whether I'm in them or not, wedo two dinners a week just to
take care of people and let themknow that we care.
So we have that Breaking Breadfor Heroes.
We are reuniting the brave,which is putting back together

(53:05):
folks that have served togetherand then since lost contact and
all that kind of stuff.
So we just put 750 firstbattalion fifth Marines a week
in San Diego with their spouses,all fully paid for, and then
went to Camp Pendleton, had abig dinner for a thousand and

(53:26):
accumulated in as much in twomiles and putting a memorial on
top of a hill and dedicating itto the 250 folks that dedicated
back.
Really, I've got to tell you Idon't think I stopped crying for
a week.
I don't think I stopped cryingfor a week and just listening
and the spouses listening andthe Gold Star families together.

(53:48):
It was just very special.
And then we have Amobius, wherewe Piece, where we put
wheelchairs.
I boss, dean Cayman, whocreated the segue, created the.
I bought stands people up eyeheight, goes up now stairs on
its own.
You know we, we have a programthere.
We have ten of those away lastyear.
We have now a bike which Italked about earlier.

(54:13):
There's 220 double amputees anda warm terror and We've this
week gave two of these bike at25 grand a piece that they can
get out.
So, spite spider mountain, thisweekend they just had a big, big
get together of Veterans and wegive these two bikes away and

(54:36):
they go at 45 degree angles 20miles an hour.
So if you double amputee, yourlegs go in the front.
It's like a trite kind of thingand we're looking to continue
to actually build teams of, Imean a vehicle and and coast
guardsmen that are we can putinto adaptive sports, just like

(54:57):
the warrior games and thevictors games and right.
So we're looking to do thatright now For 24, which I'm
really excited about.
Being a fitness guy, I know wehave the dog dogs where we we
train dogs from puppies forpost-matic stress.
We put we put Dogs into firetrucks, dogs into fire houses

(55:20):
and it's so funny because on theEisenhower, there's actually a
dog now, a welfare dog.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Oh well, yes.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
It's a test the first time, but I gotta tell you it's
working tremendously.
So we do an awful lot of that.
Then we give grants andfamilies and all those kind of
other things that if you go on.
Robert Irvine foundation org.
You can see what we do, buteverything we do from a
financial standpoint Television,liquor, all those things a

(55:46):
portion of all those proceeds gointo the foundation so it can
and do great things.
So, friends, giving for thepresent, we just we take care of
that feeding For our families.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Personally especially .

Speaker 3 (56:01):
We just lost five Special operations guys on the
160th idea work very closelywith us Special operations
warrior foundation, bothpersonally and from the
foundation standpoint to takecare of them also because I
think you know they're there,what they do for us is something

(56:24):
really special.
So I work very closely withtaps tragedy systems program for
survivors around the globe.
So we're really busy.
It's not, it's not, but it'snot work.
It's the labor of love.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Yeah, you're not busy .
The way I look at it is successor significance, and you in
your chasing, significance, notsuccess.
You're not busy when you lovewhat you do.
So I want to try to stay withinan hour and I'll tell you that
I didn't even get to half of thelist of questions that I wanted
to ask you.
But, looking long term, likefive to ten years, where do you

(56:58):
want to take your foundation orthe purpose that you have on
this earth?

Speaker 3 (57:03):
I think it's really interesting because we are at
the point of our companies doingreally well.
At some point they're gonnasell and I think I've already
started to.
You know, I don't, I do TV andI I do a lot and I travel a lot.
I think for me, the, thecompanies, are set on solid
footings.
For me it's all about thefoundation and how do I, how do

(57:28):
I make that impact bigger?
And I think that's where thenext five years for me is.
I'm 58 years old.
I see the foundation continueto grow with these programs.
I talked about the sports teamsthere, the Getting the people
out of the four wars, continuingto modernize or help modernize
the military feeding platform.

(57:48):
That's my biggest focus rightnow.
Of anything Is how do we getbetter nutrition to the
servicemen and women and alsothe families right, whether it
be in the exchanges or theconversaries.
We're building a restaurant ofthe future for for eight fees
right now, which I'm reallyexcited about, which will, which

(58:09):
will come out its first place.
Will will premiere open inFebruary of next year.
We already started Fort Jacksonwith the drill instructors
Carter dining facility ingrab-and-go, which is hitting
out the park numbers Great,fresh food and and and saving

(58:29):
money, which is people don'tthink great food and saving
money go together, but theyactually do.
So I see a lot more of that,more Interaction with the joint
force again on that platform.
That's my.
My biggest thing right now,josh is is feeding of our
military and Take care ofveterans.

(58:49):
So I think the next five yearsis gonna be more of that and the
more.
The more we grow in my Forprofit side, the more we grow in
the nonprofit side.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
I love that brother.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
It's time for our final show segment that I like
to call the killer bees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the tales of leadershippodcast Be brief, be brilliant,
be present and be gone.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Question one what do you believe separates a good
leader from an extraordinaryleader?

Speaker 3 (59:25):
empathy.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yeah, number two.
What is one resource that youcould recommend to our listeners
?

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Overcoming impossible , a book that I wrote in
February.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger
self if you go back in time,what would it be and why?

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Listen, think act.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
All right, last one.
So how can our listeners findyou?
And then how can they add valueto your mission?

Speaker 3 (59:53):
So they check us out on Robert around foundation org
on Twitter.
I write myself at Robert Irvineon Instagram is at Sheffer of
mine and Listeners can help bythe donating money, donating
time, showing up, volunteering,and that's not only for us,
that's for any nonprofit.
But I will say this we are aunique organization that does

(01:00:17):
things differently, that's forsure.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
I love Robert.
This has been incredible,brother.
Thank you so much for spendingan hour with me and walking
through something that I'mdeeply passionate about, and we
need more people like you,people that are filled with
purpose, that are using theirtime, talents and treasures to
make a difference in this world.
So thank you, team.

(01:00:40):
What a phenomenal episode withRobert Irvine, and there's so
many takeaways, and I'm honestwhen I say this is I didn't even
get to a percentage of thequestions that I wanted to talk
about.
But Robert has such anincredible journey and I will
tell you just like I did in theopening If you can support any
of his missions, the proceeds goto these veteran Organizations

(01:01:04):
and nonprofit companies that arejust phenomenal, so make sure
that you support him.
Next time you're on a businesstrip or a road trip with your
family, go try a fit crunch bar,because they're freaking
delicious I can promise you that.
So, alright, after action,review Top three things.
I'm gonna try to keep it shortand sweet.
The first one is focus onpeople.
We talked about the four levelsof empathetic leadership and we

(01:01:28):
can kind of quickly reviewthose, because I think that is
Powerful.
So the first one is empatheticleadership.
Second is managing egos.
Third is building andmaintaining trust.
And number four is beingauthentic.
Focusing on people incorporatesall of those Empathetic

(01:01:48):
leadership, managing egos,building trust and maintaining
trust and being authentic.
When we can focus on the people, we can have extraordinary
results.
And that is what separatesordinary from Extraordinary that
ability to focus on people.
And so often in this world weare focused on the process or

(01:02:09):
the outcome and we try to chaseresults, and when we're doing
that, we're moving a hundredmiles an hour and we forget
about the people to our left anda right and that are in front
of us and behind us, the people.
They make no mistake about it.
If you are in a leadership role, you are not doing the majority
of the work.
Most likely it's your team andit's your people.

(01:02:29):
And if you can invest in yourteam, your people, you can
inspire them with your actions,your words and your deeds.
You are going to be able tomove from good to extraordinary.
Why?
Because you put in that littlebit extra effort to try to get
to, after to some of thosepillars or the courses of
leadership that Robert likes totalk about, and you're being

(01:02:49):
authentic along the way.
Number two is Find your purposeand then attack.
I've shared throughout severalpodcasts of how I think you can
find your purpose in life.
But just know this balance isnot achievable in life.
You are never going to be ableto be in a perfect, balanced

(01:03:12):
life because Life gets a vote,the enemy gets a vote.
Murphy's law will kick in.
Mike Tyson right.
Everyone has a plan until theyget punched in the face.
No matter how good of a planyou have, it never Survives.
First contact.
So always go back to whatgeneral Patton talks about a
good enough plan Violentlyexecuted is way better than a

(01:03:35):
perfect plan Executed maybe inlike two weeks or something like
that, and that's not an exactquote.
But that's the purpose.
Right, find what your purpose isin life and then aggressively
Attack it.
And don't worry about balance,because balance is a lie.
You can have seasons of life,right.

(01:03:55):
You can be focused on yourfamily because your family needs
that.
You can be focused on your workbecause your work needs that.
And you can be focused onyourself because maybe you need
that.
And I like to think of itthrough a normal day, right?
A normal day for me is I get upat four in the morning.
Yes, I get up at four in themorning, but I do it because I'm
purposeful, it's a purposefulact, and then I focus on myself

(01:04:18):
until 7 30, and then I come homeand I get ready to go to work
and then I'm at work Purposefulin the army from eight until
that mission is complete, mostlikely five o'clock in the
evening, and then I transitionhome and I have time with my
family and then I purposefulwith my coaching company, my
podcasting, my journaling and myreading, and in those time bins

(01:04:40):
I Serve myself, because if Ican serve myself, I Can serve
others.
And it all goes back to thatpurpose of find your purpose and
attack.
My purpose is to grow and bethe best possible leader that I
can so I can impact as manylives as possible.
But, as I believe, throughleadership we can inspire and

(01:05:02):
change others, and maybesomething that I say, my words
or my deeds, something that I do, will help someone in a dark
place and hopefully save somelives, and that's the whole
reason that I do what I do.
That is my purpose on earth isto end toxic leadership and
promote transformationalleadership by words and deeds

(01:05:25):
and sharing stories.
Right with you.
Number three Key takeaway is bea connector, and I love how
Robert talked about in the worldright now, where we're in,
there are so many differentthings in life that can put us
in silos or bins the way we look, how we believe, if we're

(01:05:46):
Republican or a Democrat, if welike the color blue, right, it
doesn't matter.
There are all these differentthings that divide us, but at
the end of the day, we all shareone common thread right, and
there's always a thread andleadership, which I absolutely
love, because there's a startpoint and there's an end point.
That's life.
But we're also all humans.
We're also on this earthtogether.

(01:06:08):
We need to learn to worktogether and that's what makes
great leaders from Extraordinaryleaders that a little bit extra
right learning to work together.
Getting back to what the coursesof leadership is Building and
maintaining trust.
Hey, team, do me a favor if youlike what you heard, make sure

(01:06:29):
you share this podcast, makesure you give it a five-star
review, whatever platform you'relistening and, most importantly
, make sure you support the show, and you can do that by going
to MacMillion leadershipcoaching Dot-com.
You can see all the differentleadership Sources that I've
been able to write in terms ofblogs and all the other podcasts
and I just actually starteddoing a new feature.

(01:06:50):
So if you go to MacMillionleadership coaching right now
and you listen to this podcastor you go read the after-action
Review, there's another blogthat I have broken down from
this episode really Distill someof the key facts that Robert
who shared, and that's a brandnew service that I'm bringing to
you guys Absolutely for free,because I'm not doing this for

(01:07:11):
money.
I'm doing this to make betterleaders and show you that you
don't have to be an a-hole Rightto be a good leader and build
connections with people and, asRobert likes to say, be humble.
You can be a great leader andbe humble and still have a huge
impact on Other people, thisorganization and then just a

(01:07:33):
plan in the whole be a lightbringer right.
Stop bringing darkness intothis world, because there's
enough darkness.
Let's start bringing lighttogether.
As always, I am your host, joshMacMillion, and I'm saying
every day is a gift.
Don't waste yours until nexttime.