Cleared For Takeoff

Most people know Mount Everest as the tallest mountain on Earth.

Ryan Rivard knows it as a teacher.

Before standing on top of the world, Ryan experienced rock bottom. He battled addiction, lived out of his car, and fought to rebuild his life one decision at a time. Years later, after becoming sober, building a successful marketing agency, raising four children, and reclaiming his relationship with his father, he pursued one o...

We spend years learning technical skills, building expertise, and chasing success.

But what if the thing that determines your success isn't what you know—it's how you manage yourself?

In this episode of Cleared For Takeoff, Charles sits down with international keynote speaker, executive coach, and emotional intelligence expert Rich Bracken to explore why EQ has become one of the most valuable leadership skills in today's world.

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Dr. Paul Nystrom has spent more than two decades treating patients in emergency medicine, serving alongside Navy SEAL teams, working with SWAT units, and helping save lives in some of the most critical situations imaginable.

But after years of practicing medicine, he's become increasingly convinced that many of the biggest health challenges facing Americans today aren't caused by a lack of medication—they're caused by lifestyl...

Matt Vincent is not your average guest. He's a two-time World Highland Games Champion, a former Division I athlete at LSU, a content creator, coach, entrepreneur — and a man who has faced the kind of losses that break most people. Nine knee surgeries. Chronic pain. The end of a career he didn't see coming. The collapse of an identity he'd spent 20 years building.

In this deeply honest conversation with Charles Eide, Matt pulls...

What separates successful people from everyone else? According to Dr. Dave Martin, it comes down to one thing: wisdom.

In this episode of Cleared For Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with one of the world’s leading Christian success coaches for a powerful conversation about mindset, growth, habits, failure, faith, mentorship, and building a meaningful legacy.

Dr. Dave Martin shares his journey from growing up in poverty in rural...

What if burnout isn’t caused by working too hard… but by doing the wrong kind of work?

In this deeply personal and thought-provoking episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide travels to Tennessee to sit down with leadership expert, bestselling author, and Working Genius creator Patrick Lencioni.

Known for bestselling books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Ideal Team Player, Pat has spent decades helping or...

David Fhima has built a global reputation for creating unforgettable restaurant experiences—but his story goes far beyond hospitality.

Born in Morocco and sent to boarding school at just seven years old, David’s early life was defined by chaos, displacement, and resilience. After eventually finding his footing in Europe, he made his way to the United States, where he worked his way up from a prep cook to owning and opera...

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles sits down with Rob McClanahan, a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that stunned the world and captured gold in one of the most iconic moments in sports history.

Rob shares never-before-heard stories from behind the scenes—what it was really like playing under legendary coach Herb Brooks, the grueling preparation that pushed the team beyond their limits, and the mental t...

In this episode of Cleared For Takeoff, Charles sits down with Andy King—one of the most recognizable figures from the Fyre Festival—to uncover the full story behind the headlines.

Andy takes us deep into his 35-year career as a world-class event planner, from producing multi-million dollar experiences for companies like PepsiCo to becoming America’s first corporate concierge. But the conversation quickly turns to ...

Jerrid Sebesta had what most people would call the dream—he was a well-known TV weatherman, recognized in his community, financially stable, and on track for long-term success. But behind the scenes, something felt off.

In this powerful conversation, Jerrid opens up about the internal struggle that led him to walk away from his career at its peak, and the identity crisis that followed. What unfolds is a raw and deeply human st...

In today’s world, we communicate constantly — through texts, emails, social media, and messaging apps. But despite all of this communication, many people feel more disconnected than ever.

In this episode of Cleared For Takeoff, Charles sits down with Renée Marino, bestselling author, global keynote speaker, and communication coach, to explore why authentic human connection is becoming harder in the digital age.

Renée shar...

Most personal development focuses on thinking your way through problems.

But what if the real answers aren’t in your thoughts—they’re in your nervous system?

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles sits down with leadership coach Keith Mercurio for a deep conversation about human behavior, leadership, and the unseen forces shaping our lives.

Keith works with high-performing leaders who have already achieved s...

What if the biggest performance advantage in business had nothing to do with strategy — and everything to do with your health?

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Jason Kunz, keynote speaker, safety expert, and performance practitioner, to explore how physical, mental, and emotional health directly influence leadership performance.

Jason shares the moment he realized health was non-negotiable whi...

Discipline is easy to talk about, but much harder to live.

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Dan “Big D” Sachkowsky, a serial entrepreneur who has built, scaled, lost, and rebuilt businesses while developing a reputation for discipline, resilience, and no-nonsense leadership.

Dan shares the story of making nearly $4 million in profit by age 24, only to lose it all after chasing the wrong ...

Many leaders believe growth comes from doing more: more customers, more projects, more opportunities.

Greg Heinemann learned the opposite.

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Greg shares how applying the 80/20 principle completely reshaped his business. After analyzing the math behind his customer base, he discovered that nearly all of the company’s profit came from a small percentage of customers, while the majority of acc...

PR used to be about press hits. Now it’s about what the machine says is true about you, and whether people trust you when it counts.

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide talks with Kristi Piehl, CEO of Media Minefield and author of Flip Your Script, about how public relations has evolved in the AI era, and why leaders can’t afford to be passive about their digital presence.

Kristi explains how Reputation E...

This episode looks a little different, and that’s the point.

Host Charles Eide pulls together four leadership themes that have repeatedly surfaced across Cleared for Takeoff and genuinely changed how he leads:

1) Personal Branding (Reputation):
Charles reflects on lessons from Maha Abouelenein and others that reframed “personal brand” as something much more practical: your reputation. If you’re not intenti...

Stem cells get called “God cells” for a reason—and in this episode, Seth Berge makes the science understandable.

Seth explains what stem cells are (your body’s repair system), why healing slows down as we age, and how regenerative therapies can support recovery by addressing the root cause instead of just masking pain. Charles and Seth dig into the real-world use cases people care about most: joint pain, cart...

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Jason DeRusha — a longtime journalist turned talk radio host and digital creator — to unpack what’s happening to trust, truth, and storytelling in modern media.

Jason shares what’s changed inside newsrooms over the last 20+ years, why local news often feels less ideological than national outlets, and how bias shows up most in which stories ge...