Leading with Grit: From the Naval Academy to Newark's Frontlines | Frontline Voices - Talks from the Hoover Institution

Episode Transcript
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[MUSIC]

>> "Iron" Mike Steadman (00:10):
Welcome to Frontline Voices, a podcast series brought
to you by Stanford University's HooverInstitution, exploring leadership,
service, and solutions to some ofour nation's most pressing issues.
I'm your host, Iron Mike Steadman,a Marine Corps veteran and
former Hoover Veteran Fellow.
In this inaugural episode,I'm joined by Gregory Eason,

(00:30):
a Hoover veteran, fellow alumni,Naval Academy graduate, and
former naval officer working to provideaffordable housing solutions in
his hometown of Atlanta,Georgia through real estate development.
I brought on Gray to help introduceme to you all our listeners.
As a host of this series,I think it's important you have
an understanding of the lensthrough which I approach life and

(00:51):
see the world based off of someof my own lived experiences.
We discussed the theme ofnormalizing excellence and
what it realistically takes to raise and
maintain standards of excellence,however we define them in our own lives.
I open up about being raised ina single parent home without a father,
the realities of young men who grewup in environments like mine, and

(01:12):
despite a challenging childhood, how Istill managed to persevere through it all
to become a successful entrepreneur andchange maker.
I know this is going to be a bit differentfrom some of the shows you typically find
on Hoover's portfolio, butI'm excited to hear your feedback and
look forward to knowing what you think.
So enjoy.
Greg, my brother, so happy to have you for

(01:34):
this inaugural episodeof Frontline Voices.
How's it feel to be guest number one?

>> Gregory Eason (01:42):
Absolutely feels good, I'm glad that the platform is here and
I'm excited to see where you take it and
the things that we'll learnabout you in today's session.

First,
I wanna just acknowledge StanfordUniversity's Hoover Institution for
allowing us to have this platform tointroduce a new lens of commentary from
American veterans and those of you outthere on the front lines talking our
world's most pressing issues andreally excited to do this.
It's been a while since I've.

(02:16):
I don't want to say hosted a podcast,but yeah, actually that's what it is.
It's been a while since I'vepersonally hosted a podcast myself.
I kind of took about a year anda half break and
it feels good to kind of shake the cobwebsoff and get back in the fight.
And, you know, for this inaugural episode,
I wanted to bring Greg on because Greg andI have both had the privilege of being

(02:37):
alumni ofthe Hoover Veteran Fellowship Program, and
I just thought it'd be great to have Gregon here to help introduce me to you who
are listening that might not befamiliar with kind of my background and
why I'm hosting this platform inthe first case, and also why I'm so
excited about the program in general andsharing these voices and sharing this

(02:59):
commentary that we're going to be able tobring to those of you that are tuning in.
So, Greg, let's start by just kind ofhaving you introduce yourself first.
What even brought you to be a part of theVeteran Fellowship program in the first
place, and then I'll let youtake the reins and interview me.

Yes, absolutely.
I'm Greg Eason.
And truly what brought me tothe Hoover Veterans Fellowship
program is first, Mike Steadman.
But secondly, my commitment andpassion to providing
affordable housing withchurches being the conduit.

(03:39):
In 2022, I got back to Atlanta and
I was working as a realestate development manager.
And as I continue to be a part ofthe Men's Ministry at my local church and
then branch out to ministries andthe churches that are a part of our
conference in the AME church, a lot ofpastors started to come up to me and

(04:01):
say, hey,my church has underutilized land.
And we know that there'san affordability crisis.
And for some flavor in Atlanta, if you'rea child born into poverty in Atlanta,
you stand a 1 in 20,1 in 20 chance of escaping poverty.

(04:22):
And so that's less than 5%.
And it's the worst chances of escapingpoverty out of any major city in
the United States.
And poverty is often defined by thedivine, the environment that you live in.
And what we've seen inAtlanta is a lot of intense,
what people call capital,a affordable housing,

(04:43):
which is where you havea concentration of low income housing.
And that hasn't been fruitful forthose communities.
And so what we've seen iswe are able to tie housing
into some of those greater personal goals.
At the Naval Academy, we called itthe three missions, the Mental,

(05:06):
the Physical and the Moral.
Well, when you have a churchright by your housing,
the church helps to providea lot of that mental and
moral compass forthe people who are in the housing.
And we believe that when churches havethe economic resources to do good,
positive outcomes will follow.

(05:27):
And the Hoover Institution hasbeen a very good place for
me to kind of workshop the problem thatwe're solving and band together with other
people in the space who are trying tosolve the problem of affordable housing.

That's amazing.
And I can't think of anything thatcan destroy someone mentally,
physically and spiritually as being whatwe call housing insecure these days.
And, you know, there's a stereotypeof like the homeless veteran, but
it's a real thing, you know, andI've been surprised even in, you know,
my understanding what housing insecurityis because you go to a place like

(06:08):
the naval academy, you serve your country,become an officer, and.
And you assume that the homeless veteranis on drugs or something like that.
Life's, you know, people get laid off,people go through divorces.
They have all kind of issues andit just destroys them.
And so I think it's great about whatyou're doing, and I think it's a real

(06:29):
problem, particularly, you know,as the cost of living continues to rise,
especially in our inner cities, andpeople are just trying to make it.
So I'm really glad to have you on here andeven unpack that a little bit more.

Absolutely, but I would like if you could tell me a little bit
more about your upbringing andyour background and kind of.
Let's go all the way back to before youdecided to go to the naval academy and
kind of what were the things that,you know,
shaped you into the person whowanted to attend a service academy?

That's a great question, so I was born and
raised in Tyler, Texas.
My mom, Willeen Steadman,I have never met my dad, so
I believe his name's Carl butI was raised in a single parent home,
had a loving, supporting family,grandparents or grandmother.
You know, my grandfatherpassed away before I was born.

(07:28):
And that church family, St.Louis Baptist Church,
my grandfather was a pastor andso he pastored at St. Louis.
And so we had a strong churchcommunity there in Tyler.
And so when I was a little boy growing up,you know,
deacons from the church would come pickme up and take me to get a haircut.
And I know that sounds kind of, I cannotstress even now, kind of looking back on

(07:49):
it, it makes me a little bit emotionalbecause just being a young man growing up
in that environment, nobody wants tosit at the barbershop with their mom on
Saturday morning, you know,especially getting those.
First, few haircuts, etc.
And so to have men inthe community kind of step up.
And many of them wereactually military veterans.
Wilbur Chris from the Korean War was one.

Yeah.

Sadly, he passed away, I think, back in 2017,
but he come pick me up, take me,get a haircut and stuff like that.
And so community was alwaysa part of my upbringing.
But I bounced back andforth between Tyler, Texas,
where my grandma lived, and my aunts,and uncles, and Brian, Texas,
where I actually ended upgraduating high school.

(08:34):
So I spent two years in Tyler,then I spent.
Sorry, four years in Tyler,then four years of Brian, Texas,
then four years in Tyler, andthen four years of Bryan, Texas.
And mainly,it was because of my mom's job.
She was a special education teacher,
worked her way up tospecial education director.
And then we had to bouncearound a little bit.

(08:56):
Growing up and not having that kind of,you know, father figure in the house, you
start to create your own kind of versionof different males that you look up to.
And a friend of mine wasnamed Jason McKinley, and
our parents worked together in Bryant.
And when Jason was a senior,I was a freshman in high school, and
he decided to jointhe military after graduation.

(09:18):
And so because I looked up to Jason andhe literally taught me how to shave,
you know, when he decided he wantedto go to the military, I said,
I want to go to the military.
But my mom growing up and,you know, being an educator,
it was real important forher to push me to go get my education.
And so that's how I discovered about,you know, rotc,

(09:39):
started doing some research there.
Texas A and M was in our backyard andhad the Corps of Cadets.
And then I got exposed to the NavalAcademy just by a random, you know,
English class where our teacher madeus present our kind of five and
ten year plan.
And I was a sophomore at the time.
And the person that went ahead of me,you know,

(09:59):
he talked about this thingcalled the Naval Academy.
And at the time, I was standing upsaying I was gonna go to Texas A$M,
do the Corps of Cadets.
Back then I wanted to be a Navy SEALeven though I couldn't swim.
But once I found out aboutthe Naval Academy, I got curious.
He just so happened to have a brochure.
He let me take it home.
And then that's how I kind of fell downthat rabbit hole of the Naval Academy.

(10:21):
People ask me this question a lot, though,about what led me to do military service.
And I think for me at the time, you know,it was an Aspirational identity.
Right.
And I think it even applies to my boxingbackground where there was a poster of
like, you see the Special Forces,you see the Marines and the Navy SEALs,
and you're like, I don't knowwhat they have, but I want it.
It just looks so confident, right?

(10:43):
And you can see it.
And then you're like,I want to get what they have.
And so you start doing your research andyou end up joining the military.
And then one day you look up andyou become that Marine infantry officer,
you become that kind of combat veteran.
And it's all very surreal now.
But that was one of the things is,you know,
I didn't grow up with a lot of confidence.
Yeah, I grew up being labeled at risk,youth, you know, fatherless home,

(11:07):
all those different things.
But there was something about thatservice member that eluded confidence,
even though I had never met him.
You see the posters, whatever.
But then you start to go to the events,the college events,
you start talking to recruiters andthey kind of have a swagger about them.
Yeah, actually, the Marines,Marines are suited and booted.
And so I wanted that.

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And that's what kind of nudgedme to go down that pathway.
I will say too, I grew up andwith my mom and my sister, and
my sister did end up going to college,she went to UT.
But yeah, I grew up in a single parenthome seeing my mom fight like hell to keep
us out of trouble and, you know,on the straight and narrow path because in

(11:49):
the environment I was in,there wasn't too many male figures around.
Everybody I knew would live withtheir grandma, their aunt, you know,
my high school basketball coach, CoachJones, him and I are like this, you know,
because it really was like, I, I, I don'tknow how to say this is my first time
trying to articulate this, but like one tomany, essentially what it was, you know,

(12:12):
you had a lot of fatherless athletes,fatherless kids at my high school.
But our coach, you know,he was like a father figure to like 50,
especially on the basketball team, becauseyou had freshmen, you had sophomore,
you had, you know, jv,and then you had varsity.
And we all looked upto him in that regard.
And so seeing that kind of being exposedto that early, that feeling of like,

(12:33):
you're responsible forother people, you know,
you're responsible for your community,whatever that community is.
That's how I grew up.
And so that's kind of been a corepart of my philosophy in life.
I call it lifting as I climb andmy mom, you know,
she was a big part of that as well.

Yeah, and since we're on the topic of having
a male role model, even though, for you,
you didn't have the father in the home,what would you say to.
To, like, as a younger self,to your future self, when you think about,

(13:14):
you know, having a family,I mean, you turned out excellent.
You didn't have a father in the household.
But, like, can you express some ofthe things that you probably wish you.
You could have learned from the father or,you know,
is there any things that you kind of dealwith today that you feel like would have

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been different if you hada father in the household?
Because I know that's a lot of.
That's a situation that sadly, a lot ofyoung men in America are going through.

Yeah, man, it was hard because you see potential
in yourself in the absenceof the validation, you know.
So, like, I didn't grow up makingthe best grades in school.
And I know that's going to shock a lotof people seeing the fact that, like,
I went to the Naval Academy, and then Iwent on to go to Rutgers, get my master's,

(14:12):
and then being a Hoover veteran fellow.
But, like, I was never recognizedacademically, you know, and
at a certain point when I decided Iwanted to go to the Naval Academy,
somebody told me it wasn't happening.
They said, you don't have the graceto get in and stuff, etc.
And so that's where, again,I credited to my mom, who just.
She put the I believe button in me at avery early age that anything was possible

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and would always nudge me on that.
But now that I'm older and I look back,one thing I'm very cognizant of
now is being weary of labels that are puton you that you didn't put on yourself.

Absolutely.

And to be honest, it's something that I'm struggling with,
I'm still working past these debt today.
You know, my coach calls it cutting wires,you know, because it's almost like this
operating system has been put in you,you know, and I.
The terms at risk, youth, you know,people like you don't belong here.
Pedigrees andall these different things, right?

(15:10):
And so, you know,we're going to get into it, but
you end up having this kind of like,imposter syndrome.
And at the time, like, I think one ofmy superpowers is I'm just very driven,
you know,sometimes tunnel vision wise, though.
It's like I put a goal, andI just freaking plow through, you know,
because if I stop to think aboutall that other stuff, you know,
it's only going to slow me down.

(15:32):
But growing up, like,I did not have the confidence, you know?
And I would just say to myself,first of all,
you got to surround yourselfwith the right people.
Now, I know that sounds cliche.

Absolutely.

But, you know, they call me Iron Mike, so I got to say,
iron sharpens iron.
But it's so true, you know,because you, you know, this theme,
even today's episode, is about normalizingexcellence when you're around other people
that aspire to, you know,be the best or are pushing them.
Themselves, it's gonna rub off on you, butsometimes you just gotta see that right?
Now, I was very lucky early on that,like, again,

(16:08):
I have my mom there, so she helped me to ahigher standard than a lot of other kids.
They didn't have a standard.

That's sad, yeah.

But surrounding myself, iron sharpens iron,
seeing what's possible.
And I think the other thing too is.
And I deal with this in Newark.
Right.So if you would have told
me before I moved to Newark anda kid had it rough, right?
I would kind of,kind of pat him on the back.
It's okay, man, you got this,et cetera, et cetera.
And there's still a little bit of that.

(16:39):
But I, I really don't jump in andsave too many people.
I try to empower them to save themselvesby teaching them how to accept their
current reality.
Admiral Stockdale talks about the stock.
You know, the Stockdale principle,I think, sorry, Jim Collins coined it,
the Stockdale paradox, where you acceptyour current reality, except the brutal

(17:01):
facts of current reality, but have faiththat things will work out in the end.
And sometimes we're in these environmentswhere it seems so impossible, you know,
like it's a herculean lift to get into theNaval Academy or go to college anywhere,
you know, to hit that score on the sat,but accept your current reality,
it's like, hey, you might notbe where you want to be yet, but

(17:23):
if you keep showing up, you keep doingthe work and you have faith that
things are going to work out long run,that belief that triumphs everything.
And so I try to empower kids in myimmediate circle to just kind of,
you know, hey, I know life is hard.
I know you don't have allthe resources and, you know,
you don't have a lot of money and stuff,et cetera, but it is what it is, you know.

Yeah. >> "Iron" Mike Steadman
sounds harsh, but it's truth.
Because for us out here in this world,man, especially me,
you being entrepreneurs,nobody's saving us, it's hard.
Yeah. And I also think, you know,
having the ability toshow up every day and
follow a course of action whenyou don't see an immediate

(18:08):
result is something that is reallygoing to be a defining factor.
And whether you achieve, like,excellence or whether you stop before,
before you see it.
So I think, you put it perfectly,you gotta see your current circumstances,
number one, andoftentimes they're not gonna be great.

(18:31):
And then number two,
you gotta decide that you're gonna dealwith those set of facts and make a plan.
Even though you don't havecertainty of outcomes, which,
you know, that's, that's not,that's not an easy thing to do.

Yeah.
And I can definitely say that I do feelthe benefit of having male figures around,
because even in the absence of it,cuz I did it the hard way, right?
I didn't have any.
And you know, when I was going throughthe infantry officer course in the dead of
winter, when I was in Afghanistanin the dead of winter.
Right.
That softness was kind ofripped out of me, you know.

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And then I become an entrepreneur and
you get punched in the faceas an entrepreneur.
Right.
And part of you is like, dang, man,
I wish I would have had thattension when I was younger.
I wish somebody would have kind ofinstilled that in me when I was younger.
And I'm, I'm still where I am today,you know, because of my family and
the support that they put around me.
But I definitely, like, there'sa certain kind of toughness I think that

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I missed out on by not having that fatherfigure in the house, if I'm being honest.

Yeah.
And it's someone that I grew upin a two parent household and
sometimes it's not thatyou have a dad that's
just telling you, hey,you need to be tough and
not have any feelings andyou just need to suck it up.

(20:02):
But it's your dad as a male,your dad is giving you your
default settings of how youapproach problems and like,
you kind of hit the nail onthe head with confidence.
Like seeing my dad being, you know,a successful pastor, which Pat,
all pastors are entrepreneurs,but he was a full time pastor and

(20:27):
most pastors have to work,you know, job and
then come to pastor because mostchurches aren't able to, are,
aren't large enough for you to dothat as your day in and day out job.
But kind of seeing the way he approachedthat subconsciously gave me a set
of kind of like a default principlesof how to approach life successfully.

(20:52):
And, you know,something that I hope, you know,
other other young men can have,even though, you know a lot,
sadly aren't able to,you know, experience that.

And I have to imagine at least having your dad
in the house had to provide a certainlevel of benchmarking so you like,
you knew what was possible for you,you had something to look up to.
Whereas for me it was, I didn't know, youknow, it was like, it's like Star Wars.
It's like the future's blurry, you know,And I think that's even what they kind of
hint at in, like, the movie is like, youdon't know what you're going to become.

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You don't really haveanything to benchmark off of.
You've got all these kind of different.
You got coaches, you've got pastors,you've got teachers and stuff, etc.
But at the same time, you don't have thatone definitive to kind of look up to and
be like, I can be like that.
I want to be like that.
And so throughout my life, you're kindajourneying, and it's unfortunate, right?

(21:50):
Is you start to put peoplein a father figure role.
That.
It's not that, though.
You get what I'm saying?
And you gotta have the mental awarenessto separate that and be like,
this is my teacher.
This is my coach.
This is my X, Y and Z.
You know, Uncle Phil,Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
You know, there's a lot of stuffonline where people say, like,

(22:11):
people don't know how many kidsUncle Phil raised, you know,
because we were living vicariouslythrough, you know, Will Smith.
You know what I mean?
Looking at Michael, Phil andsome of these other television characters
that represent the father figurekids like me didn't have.

Yeah, and I guess the kinda wrap it up, when you say,
you look at other people andthen you got to realize,
no, this is a teacher, know this isa coach or even this is an uncle.
The thing about having a fatherthat's yours is it's a certain

(22:53):
level of ownership andcommitment that most of the time only
somebody who's that's their blood andthat's their DNA is gonna fulfill.
And I guess if you don't have that,you look for it in some and someone else.
They can be like a fractionalfather in certain instances.

(23:15):
But, you know, like, growing up,you know, if my dad said he was going to
pick me up from, you know,football practice, like, it was there.
Honestly, growing up,it was a shock to realize how many people
didn't keep their word because mydad said he would do something.
You know, it's.

(23:35):
It's not even a question.
So kinda that level of certainty,
I think it can't be understated
in the ability to have that growing up.
But if you're okay withjump into a thing that

(23:59):
we that we have of normalizing excellence.
Where did that come from?
And I guess at one point inyour journey post-military,
did you feel like excellence wassomething that you had to normalize?

(24:21):
And I guess what kindabrought that about in you?

So excellence is one of my favorite words.
It's one of my favorite words cuz me,it represents an aspirational identity.
It's not that you'reguaranteed to get there, but
it's something that you'restriving to get to.
And I have this termcalled uncommon humans.
And the first time I got exposed touncommon humans was at the Naval Academy.

(24:47):
You're sitting in the classroom andone of your classmates got papers all
over the place, and he's sitting inthe back of the class and stuff, etc.
But then you come to later find outthat he's graduating number one
from the Naval Academy.

Absolutely.

And he's captain of the hockey team,
and then he's gonna go off and be a NavySEAL or pilot or something like that, and
he's also a aerospace engineer, andthen you go on to Rhodes Scholar and
all this other stuff, right?
In the environment I grew up in,I didn't get exposed to that.
I was in regular classes.
But because my mom wasa administrator at my high school and

(25:23):
I said I wanted to goto the Naval Academy,
she knew how important it was toget that AP on your transcripts.
And soshe was able to get me into AP classes,
even though technically Ididn't have the grades for it.
And I didn't really know muchabout AP in the first place.
But that classroom was radicallydifferent than the classroom

(25:44):
that I was in previously, andI got a little whiff of it there.
But when I got to the Naval Academy,it was kinda like the next level.
And so then once you start gettingexposed to these things and
you move out through your career,being an infantry officer or
graduating Academy in general, peopleare getting out, going to get their MBAs.
They're going to grad school, and they'regoing to all these different things.

(26:05):
And you can feel a little bitof imposter syndrome, too,
because part of you is like, man, theseguys are so special, that, and ladies.
And what do they have that I don't have,and stuff, etc.
And so rather than kinda feelinglike the woe is me kinda mentality,
I start to try to mimic the behaviorsof people I aspire to be like,

(26:25):
habits from here, habits from there, etc.
And it was really me about kinda takingownership of this concept of excellence
and what it means to be excellent.
And even though I might not always feel itinside, I'm gonna strive to achieve that.
And then the concept of normalizingexcellence is sometimes you just need to
see other people or

(26:45):
be exposed to other people toknow certain things are possible.
So for example, when I was at the NavalAcademy, I made up my mind I wanted to be
an infantry officer, but I didn't see anyinfantry officers that looked like me.

Yeah, yeah.

And the first two African American infantry officers] I met,
Cedric Jefferson and Maurice Chapman, Iremember when they walked in to Dry Dock,
which was the restaurant wehad at the Naval Academy.
And these were my superheroes.
I might as well have seen LeBron.
But once, and I already, again, youalready know what's possible within you,

(27:22):
but you just kinda hitthe I believe button.
You're hitting the I believe button,but then you see it and it's boom.
Or when I was at a entrepreneurevent a couple years ago, and
it was by the Institute of Veteran andMilitary Families and
was held in New Jersey, and they had asession about growing a scaling adventure.

(27:45):
So I walk in that session andthere's four PhDs that look like me.

Wow, yeah.

Instantly, what do you think I want?
I want a PhD.

Absolutely, yeah.

You know, because just kinda getting exposed to that and so
to kinda bring it all full circle,it's just a aspirational identity.
It's so powerful to me,because we all know how hard it is to
keep striving in the faceof constant adversity, but
it's just a way to think aboutkinda life and pushing ourselves.

And I think one of the things that I pointed out from what you
said about normalizingexcellence is not the times that
you don't get to it,where you use that to define you.
But you're a boxer.
If you're in the fight andyou're trying to be excellent,

(28:39):
eventually it's gonna become a habit,and it's not gonna be a steady state.
It's always a fight.
But the ability to wake up every day andkeep fighting to be excellent
seems to be a part of your character andalmost a part of your DNA.

Yeah, and the other thing was, it's all nice and dandy
to talk about this when we're sitting inthe ivory towers at these nice schools and
whatever.
But when you're building a venturefrom scratch and you're walking around
confident, acting as if,people looking at you like you're crazy.

Absolutely, yeah.

You ain't got no customers, you're going from zero to one.
But that doesn't mean thatwe have to show up raggedy,
that doesn't mean that wehave to not try our best.
And so it's, yeah, man, I don't know.
It's just a powerful concept to me, and
I think it's something Iwant to write about more.

(29:39):
But it's just, I don't know, man.
I think for me, again,when I think about my background,
I really didn't hear the word excellence.
Nobody really pushed me that way.
But being at the Naval Academy,being exposed to so many amazing humans,
people that are doing great things inthe military, out of the military and

(30:00):
stuff, etc.,I just decided I wanted what they had.
And it's crazy to say this on thisplatform when y'all are probably
looking at us.
You're like,both of y'all went to the Naval Academy.
You both veteran folks.
What are y'all talking about people had?
But you,We know imposter syndrome is real, and
when you grow up witha chip on your shoulder,
and that's what I'm struggling with now,Greg, is letting go of the chip.

Yeah, and when you kinda dive into the imposter
syndrome, when you're doing what,
when do you feel the imposter syndrome?
And then the chip on your shoulder,I guess, is how it presents.

(30:44):
So I can, what situations do youfeel the imposter syndrome, and
then in your actions,how does that present?

So I have a peak performance coach.
Her name is Melissa, and I meet with herat the start of every week on Mondays.

Yes.

And I was telling Melissa, so much of what we do,
especially at this age, I'm 37.
I do a lot of things off of instinct, but
that instinct has been built up over time,so whether I come up with a plan and
then I start executing the plan,and then I trust the plan.
When I am off,I start second guessing everything.

(31:23):
It's like,why am I going down this rabbit hole?
Did I make a mistake?
And sometimes it could be somethingsimple as trying to get a new client.
Or it's been a while since you'vegot clients, because very passive
about entrepreneurship, I do businesscoaching, I do a bunch of other things.
Or even a funder for Ironbound, right?
It just feels like the world is squeezingon you and everything is hard, and you.

(31:45):
You don't feel confident.
It's like the opposite of beast mode,essentially.
That's what she said.
She's like, when you're feeling like that,you're not feeling like you're in beast
mode, versus when I'm hitting everything,get that workout in in the morning.
I'm feeling good.
Challenges that are coming up, right?
It's like, it's not throwingme off my game because I'm.

(32:06):
I'm focused, I'm executing, you know, butit's like two different kind of feelings.
But when I'm not feelingsuper confident and
I still have to show upthat imposter is in my ear.
He's like, you don't have an mba.
You know, you, You.
I think there's an author,I forgot her name.

(32:26):
Psychology, she calls it parts wheresometimes we will be stuck from
something that happened in our childhoodthat we're still carrying with us today.
So like that teacherthat tells you you're not
good enough to get into the Naval Academy.

a situation andyou get rejected for something.
Now that's taking you back,despite all the progress you've made,
despite your age, with a single word orphrase, somebody has kicked you back,
you know, 30 years.
And so it's that andbeing aware of that, you know,
anytime I'm operating atthe edge of my own competency,
where I'm having to constantly havingthese mental talks in my head.

(33:04):
You got this, Mike.
You got this.
Yes.
And so, yeah,I think we haven't delved into ironbound,
but ironbound is a not for profit.
And you interact with youth in Newark,New Jersey, and you teach them boxing.

(33:25):
But also, I know being not being confidentin a boxing match can get you hurt.

Correct. >> Gregory Eason
let's say you have a new personthat comes into Ironbound, and
they want to learn how to box,but they're not a boxer.
How do you get them to overcometheir imposter syndrome,
to be able to perform inthe ring when you have,

(33:55):
quote unquote, live rounds coming at you?
So I think that's what's so powerful about boxing,
particularly for the young men andwomen that we serve.
Because, you know, how many peoplecan play on a basketball team?
Like 15, maybe.

Yeah.

You know, then you talk about football and track and
some of these other sports,but in Newark, New Jersey,
where Ironbound Boxing is located, youknow, you got 50,000 kids running around.
You know,there's not enough programs for them.
And so think about the kids thatare not going to be playing basketball,
running track, etc.
And, you know,I was not a star athlete growing up, so

(34:33):
I didn't have people in my ear tellingme I'm great, pumping me up, etc.
You know, and I definitely Wasn'tgetting it in the classroom.
So where did that confidence come from?
Grace of God, you know,essentially, right?
But in Newark, you got those young men andwomen, they're in the same situation,

(34:54):
you know,they're living in the projects, right?
They may ormay not come from a two parent household.
Finances are tough, right?
And then now they're having to gothrough life and the same thing,
not really getting itdone in the classroom.
They are searching for confidence.
And what we do with Ironbound,that kid walks in the gym,

(35:15):
they might not know how to box andstuff, etc.
But it's like that analogyI gave at the beginning.
Who does the boxer represent?
You know,what does it mean to be a champion, right?
That is an aspirational identitya lot of these kids were looking for.
They didn't know jack about boxing,but they know if I go in a boxing gym,

(35:35):
I might get what they have.
That's the same thing that ledme to box at the Naval Academy.
I wanted what they had, right?
That naval academy boxer,that brigade champ, etc.
So you help kids get confidence throughsmall and incremental progress.
You know, they come in one day,they can't even keep their hands up.
Then you teach them a basic boxing stance,

(35:56):
Then you teach thema couple little things,
and now they start to make progress,et cetera, et cetera, and it's addicting.
And then they get used to making progress,right?
And then you go from never boxing to nowthey're sparring for the first time and
then they get better at sparring,they get more confidence.
Now they want to get the firstboxing match, right?
So it's like a building process, right?

And, and one of the cool things you said was they get used to
making progress and going offthe theme of normalizing excellence.
Would you almost say excellence?
Because excellence is an abstract term.
But would you definethe verb of excellence

(36:39):
is getting used to making progress or
is that, is that not how you view it?

No, I think, I think there's definitely a progress to it,
but maybe even with that,right, it's like success, right?
How do you define success for yourself,you know, especially as an adult when,
you know, you ain't getting on panels and,you know, the,
the days are over of the metals andthe shiny objects and stuff, right?
Like, you don't get rewarded for doingyour job, Essentially, some people do, but

(37:10):
for most of us, right, we get up everyday, we attack it, we attack it,
we attack it.
And sometimes the only people that knowhow hard we work or the only people that
recognize our efforts are our immediatefamily and team members, etc.
And so, for a lot of listeners out theretrying to define what success means for
you and your professional career andyour business with your project, you know,

(37:32):
it's on you.
Just like excellence is,like what does excellence mean to you?
You know, I know what it's not.

for kids.
It's not going to the gym.
It's not doing your row work.
It's not skipping, you know,your nutrition and your meals.
It's not listening to your coach.
That's the opposite of excellence,you know, So
I think it's a little bit abstract, butI will say I know it also gets a bad rap
at times because it feels like,I don't know, sometimes people.

(38:03):
If you throw excellence around people, italmost feels like you're talking down to
them, because people start to project andthey start to look at themselves and
what they don't have, you know, andit can seem like you're kind of putting
these people on a pedestal while you'rethumb of your nose down at us over here.
Yeah.
And I think that's a great segueinto breaking the chain and

(38:27):
kind of redoing the wiring in our heads.
And so, I mean, I would assume if.
If you are in a situation andyou may feel maybe so
distraught that you can't evenhave the concept of excellence
being talked about around youbecause your circumstances are.

(38:51):
You're just trying to make it tothe next minute, to the next meal,
to the next night.
What are some tools andframeworks that you
have as it relates to kind ofbreaking the chain of maybe like,
we call it the mundaness or mediocrity.

Yeah. And
I want to define even breaking the chainfor a lot of people because we're using
a lot of lyrics that y'allmight not have heard of,
you know, some music and stuff, etc.
But it's essentially like dropping a chip,you know,
breaking the chain is dropping a shipon your shoulder, like nobody cares.
So what?
You know, you're grown now.
All that stuff that happened to you inchildhood, for a lot of us, it's like,

(39:36):
you know, you've had a lot of experiencenow, but still carrying this weight.
And so, you know,you talk about frameworks and stuff.
Like, I think back when I was moved.
First moved to Newark, so
I got to bring people up tospeed on this because I know we.
We kind of start riffing, butI have to bring you all up to speed.
When I was at the Naval Academy,I got exposed to the sport of boxing and
I became a three time national boxingchamp, two time most about boxer,

(39:58):
captain of my boxing team.
I tell people I didn't winthree national championships
boxing a bunch of midshipmen.
I spent a lot of time in inner city boxinggyms in Baltimore, D.C, New York City.
And the reality of the day was that thekids in these gyms did not have the same
possibilities in life for those of usthat were coming out of the academy.

(40:20):
So Naval Academy, you box, but yougraduate from a world class institution,
you serve your country as an officerin the military, and then you get out,
start your own business, work in corporateAmerica, go to grad school, et cetera.
That is not normal ininner city amateur boxing.
So when I graduated from the academy,after I served our country,
I relocated to Newark, New Jersey, whereI started the Ironbound Boxing Academy.

(40:45):
And during that time Iwas running a boys home,
essentially at a privateschool in St Bennett's Prep.
Sorry, at a private school inNewark called St Benedict's Prep.
I was a glorified house parent.
So I ran a residence hall with 70teenage boys, primarily black and
Latino, living in the heart of Newark,New Jersey.

you know what they were doing?
They were going to Harvard,they were going to warden, right?
They're doing all this other stuff and I'mgetting knocks on my door at 12 o'clock in
the morning, waking me up to go,you know, put out some nonsense, right?
And I was not printing money,I'm still not printing money.
A drastically different world, you know.
And I just kind of hadthis vision in my mind.

(41:25):
I want to start this, you know,free amateur boxing program.
And people would tell me,like, what are you doing?
You know, and this is early on,early on, right?
Like ironbound was like grassroots.
We're still grassroots, but I'm talkingabout table and chair grassroots.
Because we didn't have a boxing gym.

(41:45):
I used the residence hallto train kids how to box.
I train them out from in the grass,I train them in the residence hall and
stuff, etc.
So I'm hitting that I believe buttonbecause I have this vision of
what's possible.
But my immediate peer group,my peer circle, they didn't have.
They didn't see the vision yet.
You know, they were just supportingme because of our background,

(42:06):
our service together and stuff, et cetera.
But I'm sure deep down they'reprobably thinking like, yo,
is Mike going through it?
What's he doing?

What is he doing?
Over time, I approached the city ofNewark about starting a free gym in town.
I asked for a space.
I said, if you give me a space,we'll outfit it ourselves.
And that became, you know,the Ironbound Boxing Academy.
But like, those early on messages,I'm telling you,
the imposter syndrome was real.

(42:35):
You know, I felt like I was missing outon life, and I was really contemplating,
like, did I make the right choice?

Yeah.

Because when you do go down this pathway,
we talk about change makers.
Right.And so this is who we're going to
be targeting.
You know, a lot of on this podcast.
Teachers, you know, people working in,you know, economic development,
you know, people working onthe front line of health.
Right.
These aren't always glamorous jobs, andpeople are getting older, you know, and

(43:03):
just the reality of what comes with that,because sometimes you can be benchmarking
against other people intheir professional careers.
This person is making halfa million dollars plus a year.

over here working ina classroom somewhere, right?
Those things are real.
And, you know, it affects people,and it's something that can be real,
just like real challenging.
But, you know, thankfully, again, just hitan I believe button and I believe button,
and you fast forward now, you know, 10years later, people start to see some of
the progress we made with Ironbound, youknow, the Dick Sporting Goods Foundation.

(43:36):
You know, we've gotten support fromthe UFC and some of these others.
I've been able to be on, you know,national television a couple times, but
that's later.
Like, that's 10 years down the line.
That wasn't, you know,those first couple years.
And it was very, very challenging,you know, to not to stay,
keep myself motivated.

(43:57):
Yeah.
And I think one of the.
The hidden things about,you know, giving back is.
And there's a book ina movie called Bonhoeffer,
But Deirdre Bonhoeffer,20th century theologian,
he also during World War II,returned to Germany

(44:21):
because he didn't believe thatwhat was going on there was right.
And he ended up dying ina concentration camp.
But he wrote a book calledthe Cost of Discipleship.
And basically he says, like when you're
called to do something great, basically,

(44:44):
oftentimes it kind ofthe requirement is death, but
is sometimes that deathisn't always like physical.
But, you know,the nicest house is the biggest car,
the most expensive, you know, shoes and.
And watch to.

(45:07):
To truly make a differencein people's lives.
And, you know,being a son of a pastor, you know,
when you're making a difference,
it doesn't always come with a rainbow anda pot of gold.
At the end of it.
But when, when you typically when peopleask, you know, hey, hey, how's Mike?

(45:32):
Or, you know, they'll say,he's a good man.
He's a decent man.
And, you know, that's kind of some ofthe best compliments that you'll get.
So yeah, we call those eulogy virtuesbecause I think a lot of times
people can spend their careers tryingto get cloud on LinkedIn, right?

They got all the different resume stuff,
but at the end of the day,when you're dead and gone,
that's not what people kind of talk about.
You know, they talk about the impact andstuff you made.
And I think even a lot of peoplelistening to this podcast and
people even interested in what we've beendoing with the veteran fellowship program,
you know, they're going to be leaning moretowards impact because I think that's just
something that I see with a lotof transitioning veterans.

(46:13):
You get out of the military,you've been kind of very mission driven.

Absolutely.

Working on stuff bigger than yourself.
And it's like, how do you kind of findthat way, you know, in civilian world?
But at the same time,people are getting out.
They have families, they have kids, theyhave things that are responsible for so
staying true to yourselfwhile also making sure, like,
your basic needs are being met.
And, you know, everything was gettingamplified, even going back to, you know,

(46:39):
we're talking about before,because when I was building Iron Bound,
social media was alreadykind of out in existence.
But think about over time,it was really taken off.
Yeah, so people are you're constantlyseeing what other people are doing while
you're sitting there dealing witha disgruntled parent in Newark for
a free program for us.
Like a free program for a free program.

(46:59):
Yeah.People call your phone all day, every day.
You're like, is this it?
Is this, you know,this is what I signed up for.
But I think it's just the reality of,like, what it takes, you know,
And I've had to.
I mean, you talk about keepinga free boxing gym open in
the middle of a global pandemic in Newark,New Jersey.

That has to be tough.

Talk about nobody was coming.
Newark was a ghost town.
People think I call myselfIron Mike because I act,
because of my accoladesin the boxing ring.
No, I start calling myself Iron Mikebecause I had to give myself a pep talk
when the NBA got canceled.
And I knew it was a rap for ironbound.
No businesses fell forprimarily two reasons.

(47:45):
Number one, no market need, which meansno one's buying what you're selling.
And number two, they ran out of cash.
And virtually overnight, there wasno market need for boxing anywhere.
And the reality that we were going to runout of cash was very real, you know, and
at the time,
my income was earned teaching boxing tocompanies in the New York City metro area.

(48:06):
So I had a social enterprise.
Right.I had the for
profit model on site boxingclasses in New York City and
the nonprofit,the Ironbound Boxing Academy in Newark.
And so seeing both of those things justwiped out, man, it was very, very rough.
And I had to give myself a pep talk,get up off the canvas, literally and
physically and get back in the fight.

(48:27):
And I was able to do some things.
I taught myself how to podcast,hence how we're here today.
You know, I started helping otherpeople podcasts as a way to earn income
for myself.
And I got exposed to somedifferent business models,
profitable business models that I wasable to grow in and serve the veteran
entrepreneurial community,which I'm very passionate about now.

(48:48):
Helping what I call underdogs andmisfits, enjoy and
succeed in business while still carryingthat legacy forward with Ironbound boxing.

Absolutely, and then you have a final concept that
I want you to dive into,talk about the gap and game.

So Dan Sullivan and
Benjamin Hardy,Dan Sullivan's this world business coach.
He's been doing it for like 50 years, runsan organization called Strategic Coach.
And then Dr.Benjamin Hardy is a writer,organizational psychologist, et cetera.
They came together to write thisbook called the Gap in the Gain.
And Dan Sullivan had beenteaching this concept forever.

(49:32):
And essentially what it talks about issometimes we can ignore the progress
we've made by focusing on the gap,which is we're here, but
where we wanna be, we're still not thereyet, and it still seems so far away.
And sometimes when you look at it andrealize that you can instantly fall into

(49:53):
kind of some self loathinginstead of looking behind you and
recognizing how far you've come.
You know, when you think about evenus right now being on this platform,
when I think about where I came from,to be here today doing
the things I'm doing,I would have never imagined in my life.

(50:14):
I never imagined I wouldbe an entrepreneur.
That wasn't even like I sawentrepreneurship growing up, but
nobody called it entrepreneurship.
It was just, to be quite frank,a bunch of failed businesses.

Yeah.

You will see people in your family,
my mom had a flower shopshe was trying to do.
She had some other stuff she was tryingto do, but it was more survival mode.
Anything else, it wasn't thriving.
People were just doing stuff just tokeep the lights on and pay the bills and
feed me and my sister.
You know,I never viewed that as entrepreneurship.
So, like I didn't want no part of that.
But versus kind of what I'm ableto do now, I just, it seems so

(50:49):
beats are quite frank, impossible.
And I have to remind myself thateven now I'm recording this podcast
in the co-working space in Harlem,cuz of rally entrepreneurships.
I have a co-working space here,not my fancy desk setup like I had before,
mainly because one remote work is here.

(51:10):
So I'm kind of moving aroundjust a little bit more.

it's like 6 o'clock everybody'sgone from the office.
So I'm here solo dolo gettingthis podcast done, but
that's the reality of what it takesto see it as an entrepreneur.
And I'm very blessed to be able to ableto do this because I've gone through
pandemic.
Then we had some people sayit was a session or not.

(51:34):
Now you got AI here taking jobs left andright.
Yeah.

You're constantly kinda having to bobble and weave and
stay in the fight.
But I'm here.

And I also think one concept in the gap in the game is that
there's a level of gratitude thatyou have from noticing that.
I mean, you aren't where you started.
Right.And, and that should be gratitude.
But looking forward isa level of faith and

(52:05):
hope that you're gonna get there one day.
But what, what are your thoughts onhow gratitude can be a tool that
helps you appreciate where you are andmotivate you to move forward?

Listen,
I write in my journal every daythree things I'm grateful for.
99.9999% of the time I woke up.

Yes. >> "Iron" Mike Steadman
every day I woke up to seeanother day because sadly,
even from our peers at the naval camp,we've got people that are no longer here.
You know, had people that didn't comeback from Afghanistan with us, you know,
family members.
You know,I lost my uncle at the end of 2023, and,
you know, he would always reachout to me on Veterans Day,

(52:53):
you know, and when I,you know, even going back, I.
My boxing matches my freshman year,my mom had a.
My sophomore year, my mom had a stroke.
So she's been bedridden and
paralyzed ever since I was a sophomorein college at the Naval Academy.
Right.

(53:14):
So when I was fighting andcompeting, I'm competing for
the national championship, I had to findpeople to call that I could just talk to
when I Came back from Afghanistan.
Right.
Didn't have that father figureto pick up the phone and call,
I had to call peers from the academy andstuff like that.
And to still be standing heretoday past all that, right,

(53:36):
That's a huge accomplishment.
You know,even more recently I did something.
And again, as for the listeners, you'regoing to hear a lot of stuff, you know,
as we continue with this series.
But I, last year I completeda trip to Everest base camp.
So I went to Kathmandu,completed the nine day trek,
got a photo I'll probablyshare with everyone.

(53:59):
But that was so far away from anything Iwould have ever imagined growing up as
a child, you know, And I completed thatand you can't take that away from me.
I've also done Machu Picchu, I've doneall these other things that are amazing.
But again, I just have to remindmyself and be grateful, you know,
that I was able toparticipate in those things,
that I took action in those things,that I got those things done.

(54:19):
You know,even with the Hoover Institution,
got to travel to Tbilisi,Georgia with my cohort.
I would have never gone to Tbilisi.
But again,that theme of normalizing excellence.
Ever since that trip,I keep pushing the limits of travel.
Last, over the holidays,came back from Vietnam in Thailand,

(54:39):
my first time going out there.
But I'm so interested in seeing theseother parts of the world just because I
got exposed to it.
And so that's my new normal, you know,and that wasn't always the normal.
And so, yeah, just trying to practicegratitude in everything that I do.
Yeah, and I think the gratitude it's such

(55:00):
a big piece because even in America and
I know we have a ton ofvolatility at home overseas,
but even the gratitudeto being a country where
your hard work can leadto a better outcome for
you your family and, andyour community is something

(55:25):
that I think no matter how muchstrife there is in America,
is something that youhave to be grateful for.
I traveled to other countries and
seen how hard it is if youdidn't grow up in the right
class of people there, there's no way for

(55:49):
you to go from being an innercity kid to becoming Iron Mike.
So, yeah, I think the,the gratitude piece is huge.
And also on the health piece andI grew up in, in church in,
in the south, and when old motherof the church would get up and

(56:11):
say, you know, I thank God fora reasonable portion of life,
health and strength,you know, the older I get.
And you see, you know,like, life happens and,
you know, certain people you wentto school with aren't here or
certain diagnosis that are things thatpeople will have to battle until the end.

(56:34):
And you just realize how, how blessedyou are to have the opportunity to,
to do a couple of things you said,like to fight, to try to be excellent,
to try to, you know, to breakthe chain of whatever we had to do and
our limitations from the past,and to realize there's a gap and

(56:56):
a gain and we've come far, butwe still have a bright future ahead and,
and the gratitude canhelp us achieve that.

Man, 100%, and I hope our listeners out here,
one of the reasons, again,we want to do this podcast is just kind of
set the stage by introducing you allto me as the host of the series.
Because, you know,even what we talked about,
this concept of normalizing excellence,I think we started with one what
is the reality of growing up withouta positive male figure in the household?

(57:28):
And you don't got to be a rocket scienceto see that a lot of young men and women,
right, are lost out there, butparticularly what's going on online on
these platforms with, you know, and inany society, right, that's very volatile
when you have a lot of young menlacking guidance, et cetera, et cetera.
And so by some of the work I'vebeen able to do in Newark, right,

(57:49):
I can bring an interesting perspective andalso my lived experiences
of what that entails, but then also justkind of take off our armor a bit for
those of you that are listening, thatare veterans, that are kind of probably
dealing with a lot of the stuff thatwe talked about about that transition,
you know, staying the course when you'retrying to be a change maker, you know,
when you're trying to do a social good forthe community and still keep the lights

(58:13):
on, look after your family and stuff,et cetera, and also stay appreciative when
it feels like, you know, just thisworld of, like, constant uncertainty.
And so we're real honored to kind ofhave you here with us on this journey.
And again, we're just getting started.
This is just episode one, butI wanted to expose you all a little bit,
kind of where I'm coming from and some ofthe lens and the place I'm sitting as I'm

(58:35):
going to help to kind of guidesome of these conversations.
And I also know that a lot of you thatare tuning in are either friends of
the Hoover Institution oryour veterans that are heard about this
program calledthe Veteran Fellowship Program and
you're interested in applying andso we really want you to do so.

(58:56):
We want to encourage you to do soso you can get exposed to
other veterans like Greg and I as wellas you know the amazing resources that
the Hoover Institution provides throughthe Veteran Fellowship Program.
And sowe'll leave a link in the comment section.
You can go to hoover.org/vfp andapply from there.
But also we'll have some moreinsights to follow later.

(59:22):
But I think for this inauguralepisode I think we did a great job for
all you that are tuning in,we appreciate you.
Until next time.
Peace love.
Have a great
rest of your
weekend.

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