John talks with Christian "Boo" Boucousis — former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot, CEO of Afterburner, behavior specialist, leadership keynote speaker, author of the best-selling book, The Afterburner Advantage: How a Small Team of Fighter Pilots Transformed 3,500 Companies and Helped an NFL Team Win the Super Bowl, host of The Few Leaders podcast, and devoted dad. Through Afterburner, "Boo" helps individuals and organizations turn intention into reality with less wasted effort. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - Intro [01:23] - Christian's bio and background [03:39] - Going from fighter pilot to business leader [04:47] - The air show that shaped Christian's life purpose [05:32] - Being diagnosed with ADHD and how it affected him at school [06:38] - Why he transitioned from fighter pilot to entrepreneurship [07:16] - Discovering Afterburner and eventually taking it over [08:48] - Afterburner's coaches are fighter pilots from around the world [09:45] - The two core roles of Afterburner [10:47] - Busy vs. effective and why people avoid thinking [13:00] - Missionizing your life instead of simply making to-do lists [16:28] - The ORCA method: Objective, Result, Cause, and Action [19:31] - Creating habits & avoiding all-or-nothing thinking [21:54] - The Plasma ball brain analogy [24:57] - How small daily actions expand your comfort zone over time [27:24] - The myth of big wins [29:53] - Celebrating wins in a meaningful way [33:54] - Christian's transition from military life to civilian life [35:33] - Balancing his ambition and time with kids NOTABLE QUOTES: "If you have some real clarity around your intention, the path looks after itself." "The problem is, it's really easy to be busy and go nowhere." "That's something that a fighter pilot is trained to do: understand that your job is to hit a target, not to go flying." "Missionize your life." "To missionize your life means every day you have to have a mission. You have to achieve something. And then, when you know what you want to achieve, you can work backwards and prioritize the work. Understand: is this a distraction, or is this focusing on what matters? And you start to reduce the noise each and every day. Otherwise, you're just looking for something to do." "Well, humans are engineered to be busy, and as a result, we reward effort and find work. And then, when we start to get into those paradigms of laziness or procrastination, that's usually the byproduct of too much work, or not knowing where to start, or not really understanding why the work is important and why should I bother." "Habits are just doing something regularly and committing it to motor memory, so you don't have to think about it. It becomes an unconscious behavior." "The habit isn't the goal. The habit is the small thing that just gets you moving towards the goal." "The habit you want to instill is the habit of movement, not the habit of going to the gym." "Your whole life begins to become what it is you identify yourself as in the future." "When you win, you release dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. It's the byproduct of success, which is why successful people seem to be so incredibly busy and not make it feel like work, because they're busy winning. They're not busy doing work." "Even when you have a bad mission, you debrief, you learn some really great things, and that's a win." "It's not the quantity of time that you have with your children; it's the quality of time." USEFUL LINKS: https://callmeboo.com/ https://www.christianboucousis.com/ https://www.afterburner.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-boo-boucousis/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/afterburner/posts/?feedView=all https://www.instagram.com/christianbooboucousis/ https://www.facebook.com/christian.boucousis https://www.facebook.com/AfterburnerIncPage https://www.youtube.com/@afterburnerinc CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen X - https://x.com/johnhulen YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX_NchE8lisC4NL2GciIWA EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/