Have a Tisue John Tisue

I’ve spent the last 10 days sponsoring team Ireland for the Women’s Military Soccer World Cup. Today Darren Cody, the head coach for team Ireland spent an hour to talk about his experience coaching, leading in the Irish Army, and we share some of our favorite moments during the team’s first 10 days in the United States. These past 10 days, I’ve been included in all of the Irish events and it’s truly been a great last few days in the United States as I get ready to head out to Africa for six months.

Today, Command Chief Master Sergeant Daniel Guzman joined me for a 90-minute podcast. It’s my 32nd birthday which means it’s been exactly one year since I posted my first podcast. Chief Guzman has been the Command Chief at Fairchild Air Force Base for almost 18 months and is set to be the Command Chief at Elmendorf this Summer. He currently has 25 years in active duty and we talk about some of the lessons and experiences he’s gained in those years. Chief values being available for Airmen and being the voice for Airmen during meetings with senior leadership. He pointed out that we can’t assume everyone has a mentor or coach and we need to coach those people. We talk about how he worked 12+ hours at Lakenheath and burnt himself out as a Senior Master Sergeant and after a PCS to Langley he realized he was the only one working past 1700 and that he needed to rearrange his priorities. He suggested I read the book Go-Giver and that book highlighted that the most successful people are willing to share their secrets with others, I try to get Chief Guzman to share as many of those secrets as I can within these 90 minutes.

Episode #17, I spoke to SMSgt Mark Castleberry, Fairchild’s Top 3 President of 2021. Mark and I were not too familiar with one another when he agreed to be on this podcast. I have only heard great things about him from other SNCOs and leaders around the base. I first met Mark at a Top 3 meeting and it was memorable because he was able to call just about everybody in that room by their first name, to include my own. Learning someone’s name is one of the most fundamental things you can do when trying to gain influence and I had to ask Mark about the effort and deliberateness he makes on learning names. We talk about why connecting people is important to him and I ask questions to share insight on what it would be like for anyone who is interested in running for a private organization council position.

For episode #16, I spoke to Fairchild’s Career Assistance Advisor, MSgt Erica Northam. I met Erica during my first month here while organizing the Airpower Leadership Academy. Our Command Chief suggested I get in contact with her, but I didn’t want to include her at first, because I assumed that the base Career Assistance Advisor would try to make the program into something too professional or require more organization than I believed to be necessary. I quickly realized, I was dumb for making that assumption and Erica has proved to be one of the best decisions for the program. She is an expert in networking and knows a majority of the Airmen on base. We talk about the influence she’s had on Airmen’s careers, her own podcast, “Refuel Team Fairchild,” and a variety of other topics to include, Airpower Leadership Academy.

For my first guest here at Fairchild AFB, I spoke to SMSgt Brandon Geeslin, who goes by Goose. Goose is a member of Security Forces and leads 180 people every day. I met Goose through the Air Power Leadership Academy here at Fairchild in September of this year. He is the one person in the class room that nobody seems to mind when he starts to share a lengthy story. He holds the attention with each person every time he begins to share one of his stories. I ask him to retell some of my favorite stories he’s shared with the class. We later talk about the Natural Law. The Natural Law is an influence concept that suggests people only take action or change their behaviors when they can see exactly how it is in their best interest to do so. Guiding people to help them see how their actions or a behavior change is required is a difficult task to accomplish. This conversation is about 3 hours in length and we talk about a cluster of different topics. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Now, enjoy the story of Goose.

Morgan Weibel and I got to Kunsan Air Base around the same time in the Summer of 2020. MM is one of the first USMC air traffic controllers to work at Kunsan with the Air Force and acquire ratings across the entire facility. Before starting my podcast, I had all the equipment ordered and Sgt Weibel thought it was an interesting hobby that I was getting into. He always showed an interest in being a guest and we finally found a time to make it happen. We talk about the difference between the USMC and USAF and his experiences working with the Air Force for the last twelve months. We talk about our branches of services, some things he would change, and we also just talk as two friends would.