Keith Hoskins
Blue Angel Pilot who played football at Missouri Western State University 

Eleven million spectators experience the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Air Show each year. In 1971, one of those spectators was five-year-old Keith Hoskins. As the F-4 Phantom jets flew overhead, he told his dad, “I want to be a Blue Angel.”

Nearly three decades later, that dream came true! His Navy career included serving as Commanding Officer for Naval Air Station Pensacola, where he provided leadership oversight for more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel. Today, Captain Hoskins serves as Executive Vice President of Branch Operations for the largest credit union in the world - Navy Federal!

You will learn incredible lessons in collaboration, character, and why compartmentalization isn’t always a bad thing.

Maryanne Miller
Retired Four-Star General who played softball at Ohio State University

In the history of the United States Air Force, 225 people have achieved the rank of four-star general, only five of them women. Recently retired General Maryanne Miller may have the most fascinating story of them all. In the fall of 2001, Miller had submitted her retirement paperwork when she watched in horror as terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Without hesitation, then Lieutenant Colonel Miller made a life-altering choice to pull her retirement paperwork. She served 19 more years and rose to become, at the time, the highest-ranking woman in the United States military.

In this candid conversation, you will learn how to leverage your weaknesses properly, and we will reveal the biggest mistake people make as they seek to climb the ranks.

Kyle Carpenter
Medal of Honor Recipient who played football at King Academy

On November 21, 2010, Carpenter, a U.S. Marine Lance Corporal, was posted on a rooftop in Afghanistan when a Taliban grenade landed between him and a fellow Marine. Without hesitation, Carpenter jumped on the grenade, saving his best friend but sacrificing himself. After flatlining three times, undergoing 41 surgeries, and spending three years at Walter Reed Medical Center, Carpenter ran the Marine Corps Marathon. “The more I fought for my future instead of against my past, the more I realized that there wasn’t just life for me on the other side of this – there was life for me in the middle of it,” he said, “The smallest of steps eventually completes the grandest of journeys.”

In 2014, he became the youngest living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military decoration.

Dana Barnes
Senior Vice President of Palo Alto Networks who was a member the Naval Academy football team

When you play for Navy, in any sport, the most important thing you can do is beat Army. The rivalry is real. It makes each one of them better. Dana Barnes, Senior Vice President of Palo Alto Networks and a former member of the Naval Academy Football team, asks: Do you value your rival?

His past leadership experience includes Microsoft’s Vice President of State and Local Government and leading operations for Microsoft’s National Security Group. “Coaching youth sports taught me that I do not know it all,” Barnes said, “In my transition to Palo Alto Networks, I knew my job was to listen, learn, and create an environment that is conducive for my teammates to succeed.”

In this episode, you will learn that leadership is not confined to when you’re in charge. Leadership is when you reach out first to connect and engage with your team.