Tales of Leadership
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Tales of Leadership
E71 Robert Irvine
Robert Irvine is a world-renowned chef, successful entrepreneur, and unwavering champion for our nation's military. As the beloved host of Food Network's hit series Restaurant: Impossible, he has transformed the lives and fortunes of countless struggling restaurateurs in nearly 300 episodes and counting. With a diverse portfolio, including Robert Irvine’s Public House in Las Vegas, Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine at the Pentagon, FitCrunch protein bars, Robert Irvine Foods' restaurant-quality dishes, and Boardroom Spirits, producing Irvine’s Vodka and Irvine’s American Dry Gin, he's well-versed in running prosperous businesses. Robert's philanthropic dedication shines through his various enterprises, with a portion of their proceeds benefiting the Robert Irvine Foundation, established in 2014 to support our servicemen, women, and first responders through initiatives like service dog training, mental health services, mobility devices, and more. His selfless contributions have earned him esteemed civilian honors, such as Honorary Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy and the Medal of Honor Society's Bob Hope Award, in recognition of his service on multiple USO tours. Beyond his iconic role on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert has graced a multitude of TV shows and delights audiences with Robert Irvine LIVE, an unpredictable interactive cooking challenge performed in packed theaters. An accomplished author with four cookbooks to his name, his latest release, "Overcoming Impossible," delves into business leadership, drawing from his extensive entrepreneurial experience.
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You're listening to the Tales of Leadership podcast. This podcast is for leaders at any phase on their leadership journey to become a more purposeful and accountable leader what I like to call a pal. Join me on our journey together towards transformational leadership.
Speaker 2:Team. Welcome back to the Tales of Leadership podcast. My name is Josh McMillian. I am an active duty Army officer. I've been in for over 16 years. I am an Army leadership coach. I own my own leadership coaching called McMillian Leadership Coaching, and I am on a mission to end toxic leadership and I plan to do that by sharing transformational stories and skills.
Speaker 2:And on today's episode I have a phenomenal guest I truly honored and privileged to bring on Robert Irvine. And Robert is a world renowned chef, successful entrepreneur and an unwavering champion for our nation's military. And before I read his bio, just know this he is the real deal. If you can support him and his mission, it directly goes to helping soldiers and their families. So if you can do so, do so because it's close and near and dear to my heart. But as a beloved host of food networks, hit series, restaurant and possible, he has transformed the lives and fortunes of countless struggling restaurants in nearly 300 episodes and counting, with a diverse portfolio, including Robert Irvine's public house in Las Vegas, fresh kitchen, robert Irvine and the Pentagon, which I'm excited to go eat someday and fit crunch protein bars, by the way, which I always eat when I'm going and I'm traveling, because it is the best freaking protein bar out there.
Speaker 2:Robert Irvine foods, restaurant quality dishes and boardroom spirits, producing Irvine vodka and Irvine's American dry gin. He's well versed in running prosperous businesses. He has so many different businesses that are highly successful. Robert's also a philanthropist, dedicated to sharing his resources and proceeds in the Robert Irvine Foundation, established in 2014 to support our service member women and families and first responders through initiatives like service dog training, middle health services, mobility devices and a significant amount of additional resources that I just don't have the time to read off because we would be here forever. His selfless contribution has earned him esteemed civilian honors, such as the honorable chief petty officer of the United States Navy and the Medal of Honor Society Bob Hope Award in recognition for his service on multiple USO tours. Beyond his iconic roles on restaurant impossible, he has graced a multitude of TV shows and delights audiences with the Robert Irvine live events that he has and unprecedented interactive cooking challenge performed in park themes.
Speaker 2:He's an accomplished author, with four different cookbooks to his name and his latest being Overcome Impossible and that is a great book, by the way, so make sure you go read it, which delves into leadership, and it is a phenomenal book. So, without further ado, with probably one of the longest bios that I've read, let's bring on Robert in bottom line. He is a purposeful, accountable leader and always stay at the end, and I will give you the top three takeaways that I learned from Robert in this episode. Let's go ahead and bring him on, robert. Welcome to the Tells the Leadership podcast. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an honor and a privilege it really is to get to talk to someone who has such a long journey in leadership, and when I was preparing for this podcast, I was kind of blown away with everything that you've done since the age of 15 till now, of just your service to the country as a whole. So, again, it's an honor and a privilege. So I would love to maybe just start from the point of introduce yourself to our listeners, even though that you really don't need an introduction. But if you got an opportunity to introduce yourself to the world, how would you do it?
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm Robert Irving, a guy who makes eggs. People say a celebrity chef this and celebrity chef that and, to be honest with you, I don't feel that. I don't feel like a celebrity. I'm not enamored with the fanfare of people. To me, celebrities are people that put on the cloth of our nation or fight fires or wear a police officer's uniform with doctors, nurses, teachers. They're what I call celebrities. So for me, I always say I'm Robert Irving, I make eggs. That's exactly what I say, and people will say oh yeah, you make great eggs. I've been fortunate enough to make a great living but also affect a lot of change in people's lives based on those eggs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you have a really long history when it comes to leadership, from joining the Navy when you were 15, which I really want to jump into to where you're at now of working at a very like strategic level and working with a lot of strategic level leaders. How would you define leadership in your own words?
Speaker 3:So leadership for me? That's a great question, josh, I'm going to call you Josh. I don't like Joshua. It's too long for me. Josh, I like it Even though it's your name, joshua. Josh is good.
Speaker 3:Look, leadership to me comes in four parts. There's first of all which is the most important part, and I think we've forgotten about it, but it's called empathetic leadership. What does it actually mean? It means that you have we have 5,368 employees. I need to understand every one of them. What makes them tick. Empathetic leadership is really about knowing that Johnny has an autistic daughter and Melissa has a mom with cancer, and so on and so forth, and understanding what it's like to walk in a day in their lives and what they deal with before they get to you at work. That's empathetic leadership. It doesn't mean you're being soft. It means understanding the people that actually work alongside you.
Speaker 3:Number two is egos, and, as a chef, chefs are the worst because they have big egos. You have to lose your ego, and so do the people that work with you. There has to be no egos in between, and I'll tell you for a while later. Number three is trust, and number four is authenticity, because if you're consistent in who you are good, bad or different. At least you're consistent. But if you throw in the other three things I just mentioned there, the pillars of success, then you can actually be successful based on the people that work with you. Look, there's no I in team, and you've heard that a thousand times.
Speaker 3:But I think people forget, even in the military, the older guys, the Sergeant Majors, the gunnery sergeants, the mass of gunnery sergeants all them people when they joined it was hard as nails. There was no empathy, it was just get out and get it done, get it done dirty. We're in a different part of the world right now. Right, because our younger generation are not as tough as nails, they're not as giving and thoughtful as our older generation. And, by the way, our older generation meaning me, are not as thoughtful as the greatest generation in World War One, world War Two, vietnam, korea, etc.
Speaker 3:Etc. So I think time has changed, our world has changed and we have to adapt in that leadership role. The way the world has changed. Yeah, and I don't think many companies have. I can. I can name five that have done and I still continue to make that journey Walmart, american Airlines, nbc, universal, comcast, all these big Fortune 500 companies are actually starting to take care of the people, as is our military, for the first time in history. So, therefore, pillars of success that I really count on.
Speaker 2:I love that, so, part of like throughout my journey of being in the military, I've always been in combat arms, majority of my career, at least, in the infantry, and the one thing that has shown great leaders from extraordinary leaders, is their ability to connect with people. And the best way to connect, I think, is what you just said, empathetic leadership. But I kind of like to find it as being meek in a way of being able to connect with someone and listen. But when you actively talk or when you speak, people listen to you because you can.
Speaker 3:I would, I would go one step. I would go one step back from me. I would say humble. I like that. Leadership is is humbling. Why? Because we're nothing, and I use this all the time. And I was just with Flo Groberg, who is a great friend of mine, medal of Honor recipient, and leadership is I was with 41 Medal of Honor recipients but leadership is you know exactly what I just said.
Speaker 3:Would you march up that hill like Woody Williams and Irijima, and then turn around and who stood with you? Is it the whole company or is it nobody there? And that's based on leadership. Because if they don't like you, good luck. Yeah, but if they love you, every one of them will be there. And I liken this to the band of brothers and all the, all the old timers, the Bill Garnier's that never left each other. Yeah, and to me, in the modern time, not just military, and it's very hard because on the outside world is the doggy dog world. They don't care, they'll sample over you and we're not used to military folks like you and I are not used to that. We used to got your left, got your, got your right, got your front, got your back and we're all good right, so that when you transition out it's different and you have to understand that.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the. The biggest issues, at least with military officers or military soldiers who transition out of the military, is losing that connection and not I really feel like that is one of the biggest issues that suicide is so high within the ranks of military is that transition out into the civilian world. They lose that connection and that lack of purpose.
Speaker 3:What you're saying there, the lack of purpose, right, yeah, and we? It's so funny because suicide people use this number of 22,. I don't know where they get that number from, because it's so wrong. It's more like 55. Yeah, and suicide.
Speaker 3:So we just had an event at spider mountain and one of our, one of our foundation programs is mobility devices. So not only I boss wheelchairs that stand up and whatever, go up and downstairs and bring you to a high, high, high level, but with with bikes to get people out of four wars. Veterans need a purpose above self, like they had in the military, and the more we find those purposes, whether it be, you know, reuniting the brave that's another one of our programs reuniting with people that you served with, so you can get that. Michael Grinston, sergeant Major Army, said it really well. You know, know your squad, know your people, get up, pick up the phone, get amongst them, get them out of the four wars to give them purpose, bring them into foundations, because they have so much veterans, have so much to offer. But you're right, when they transition out, they're lost because we're not used to to. I don't know I'm going to use this, but it really kind of doesn't say it. We're not used to.
Speaker 3:Ncos are used to thinking on their own feet and doing what they do. That's why military is so good across the board. The NCOs think smart and they act quickly Soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guards, men, marines and space force. Now you know, unless you're in that NCO position, we are always used to doing as we're told. Yeah, until you get to that NCO rank and you're saying, okay, now we're going to do this. And I think when you retire and you have to do those things now it's not just thinking, it's.
Speaker 3:I always say when I hire people, you have to be you worth your weight and cold. In other words, I don't care. If you want a million dollars, I'll pay you million dollars, but you have to bring in three, yeah. So it's not about the pay, but it's about you actually getting out and doing what you were, what you're used to doing, which is leading people. And they just finish with with a lot of naval folks in Norfolk with with the present. So I'm friends giving and I give the same speech to the young sailors Use the military as much as they're using you. Go to school, get, get. You've got, you've got all this time in the military that you could be studying and Using that for when you get out. Because the more education you get in While you're in the military, the more money you make when you get out.
Speaker 3:And we don't hire A Military folks just because they can cook or they can drive tanks or they can fly planes. We buy them for the. We buy them and I say that in a specific way. We buy them because of their leadership abilities. Yeah right, and that's where you know An E3, e6, whatever, and they get X amount. But when they get out, if they're good leaders, it's triple the amount of money. And I just saw one of my dear friend, doc Scott stalker. Master guns used to be senior listed the space force, senior listed to Cybercom and all these other things Doing amazing because he took the time to network number one but also took his time in the military to use the military system. Very some good and good for him because they're using him and his intelligence and he used them.
Speaker 2:So I am unashamed about that. So I learned something a couple years ago. It's called the army credentialing program. The army will pay you up to four thousand dollars a year for continued certifications, so PMP or whatever it is. There's no add, so there's no nothing. The army will give you this. So there's tools out there, and I fully agree if we're not growing, we're stagnant. We always have to be moving forward because life's a journey and that's the way I've always viewed everything. But I would love to start on your leadership journey because the Navy is something that's near and dear to my heart. My niece is stationed at Walter Reed right now, which is awesome, and it's crazy to me because I feel old and my sister joined the Navy when she was 17. But you joined the British Royal Navy Royal Navy when you were 15 years old, and the question I really want to ask is how was that phone call with your mom? So when you were?
Speaker 3:it wasn't a phone call. It wasn't a phone call. So well it was, but not that what you think. So my mother would catch the bus eight o'clock every morning opposite my house to go to work. I would then wait, even go to school, or so she thought. When she got on the bus and the bus pulled away, I would be walking to school, quote unquote, and I would double back and sit and drink beer with my friends in the house my dad's beer. So one day she phoned the house and I picked up the phone and that was kind of the demise of me and she walked me to the recruitment office. I'd already been a secret at from the age of 11. Wow, so I was used to go to warships and marine bases and being underway and all those things that the secret it's dead. And I was a really good. I was the youngest petty officer as a, so it's almost like ROTC Don't want to have a better word here in this country and I would go away and I. It was my highlight. And then I, when I did go to school, I had a headmaster by the name of David Botfish who saw that the school was not a. It was important, but he was a senior tutor, but it was important school but it wasn't good for me. So he was sending me away.
Speaker 3:We were very poor family. We didn't have any money. Our food was two slices of bread, butter and sugar and on a Friday Maybe fish and chips and Saturday a curry. So we didn't have much money and he got the school to pay for me to go away to a School abroad on a, on a cruise ship, for a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks Camping, you know. So he always got me out, knowing that I I love sports, I love woodwork, I love history, but I wasn't very good at anything else and he knew that I was sitting. Talk to him, you know more than I talked to my dad, actually. And he was the one that said you know, you got to focus, you got to do this, you got to do this.
Speaker 3:But my mother took me to the recruitment office because she was fed up with me. The maths and English test was one being the highest, five being the lowest. I got five, five because I was a little dummy. And they said well, we got some new. So you're not gonna be a pilot, you're not gonna be a doctor, you're gonna be a cook and I'd already been in a home economics class from 11, because it was me and 30 girls in his class and I thought, oh, I get a girlfriend, forget the food. But I fell in love with food.
Speaker 3:So for me, when they said that I was like you know, I just got my goal of this is what I want to do cook it seemed like a great way, even though my dad hated it because it's subservient to him. He was an army guy. My brother was a Special air service, so it was very subservient for me to go and cook. I didn't talk to me from the age of 15 to probably 18, almost 18 because of that. Then I became the the flag of support with the two star admirals cook and Admiral Warsaw was his name and I took care of him and his wife In a household right up to HMS victory, which in Portsmouth Dockyard, and every every day I would make his breakfast, that he would go to the office He'd worked or 12 and he want to go sailing. So I used to go sailing with him from 12 midday to 4 every day and then I cook his dinner and it was a great. It was a great experience for me Because I'd already been on a warship, I've been on to the forklings, I've been on HMS Apollo, I'd done all that flag of support with. Came next then the Royal Britannia. So I had a really Interesting. You know, I had some good what we call sea daddies, you know, guys that took you under the wing and showed you and told you and taught you what, what was right, what was wrong. And I remember in the early days I would get paid. It was 500 pounds a month, which was about 900 dollars at that time and I wasn't young, I wasn't old enough to go drinking, but I did with the guys and I would call my mother and say I need some money every month Till I realized that there was. You know, drinking with these old guys was great, but it wasn't get me anywhere, even though I was great.
Speaker 3:In my day-to-day world of you know, I ran the wardroom on a warship. I was the person responsible for afternoon teas on the warship and it started. We were in the forklines and it started with me asking the skipper a commander, can I, can I do afternoon tea for you guys? Cake, scones, sandwiches, tea, you know that kind of thing. And he said yes, just for the wardroom, 22 officers. And I said no, for the ships company, 240 men.
Speaker 3:We didn't have women on warships in England at that time. Yeah, and he said yes. I said, well, then the officers have to go to the main galley. All right, they have to mix with a crew. It has to be one.
Speaker 3:And then days it wasn't. It was like them and us. There was no camaraderie, not like today. And it worked and we that tea and coffee and cakes and sandwiches made us such a great crew because we bonded over you know, 30 minutes in an afternoon and basically when we were underway, from two to four the chefs had off, so we go to in bunks, listening music, whatever. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to create something, which we did, and it's still in the Navy today the afternoon tea, and it was a great thing for me from a morale standpoint to make sure that Officers and enlisted guys could cohabitate and there was still a fine line of you know who's in charge, of course, but it was a better respect and a more mutual respect because again I go back to empathetic leadership they Understood each other and and talked about families and this and this. It wasn't always work. Yeah, so I think that was a huge part of me becoming A good leader was listening.
Speaker 2:All right, team, let's take a quick break from this podcast and I want to personally invite you to our private Facebook community that I call Purposeful accountable leaders, or pals and pals is a community dedicated to inspiring and developing servant leaders by sharing Transformational stories and skills exactly what tells the leadership is all about. My goal is to build a community of like-minded Leaders that can share lessons, learn, ask questions and celebrate wins when it happens. And my mission in life is clear I will end toxic leadership by sharing Transformational stories and skills, and you will find countless Transformational leaders in this group, many of them I have had the honor to serve with in the military. If you want to find a community that can help you grow both personally and professionally, we would love to have you. You can simply search purposeful accountable leaders on Facebook or click the leadership Resources tab in the show notes to join. I am looking forward to seeing you guys and continuing to grow together on our leadership journey.
Speaker 2:Back to the podcast. So the course is a leadership, but that's what I'm gonna call it the four pillars that you talked about being able to connect. I think you covered two of those as managing egos between the officers and the NCOs and then building trust. And the only way I see that you can actually build trust is going through a crucible event or just spending time or having frequency with people. And then the army I'm biased towards the army, I love the army.
Speaker 2:Right Is that we're focused on the system and that system is you, it's the person, it's the person on the ground that's operating the equipment. And what I've learned, at least from our army side, is everything's very technical, it's it's driven, but focused on like systems. So the, the battleship is the system, and a lot of times it used to be that people weren't taking care of properly. They viewed them as kind of like an object, maybe to to man the system. And with the army, the army's always done a phenomenal job of taking care of the people, but I think the Navy's getting around that now, just at least with my knee.
Speaker 3:I disagree with that. I disagree with it. I think. I think all the forces have been terrible about taking care of the men and women. Yeah, only this year, through General George, general CQ Brown, general Sam, admiral Frangeli, frangeli, only now we're realizing, in my opinion, right, and I and I travel 345 days a year, 150 of those just in bases around the globe Afghanistan, iraq, poland, spain every warship. I just come off the ice in the hour. I Think now we've really started to understand the value of people.
Speaker 3:Hmm, and only now, right, because you're right there, the army and I spend most of my time with the army, the US Army, right now, yeah, have done for 14 years with general McCombill and All the previous chiefs and vices and all that kind of stuff, john Campbell, who are amazing human beings, but it was always about 18 years of war and and, and you know, let's get the guys, let's give them tanks, let's give whatever they need, right, yeah, but we've never thought about food, sleep, um I. Families they always thought about families, I'll rephrase that, but they never thought about the operational tempo of what we've been through. Right, the operational tempo actually is destructive to the family, to the life, to the resiliency and the readiness of the force. And I can tell you, and all honesty, this year has been the first time and I've been trying for 14 years to modernize the food service, which then helps to sleep and helps the fitness, helps the readiness, helps there. All of that across the joint force and we're finally getting there. So for me it's about, you know, the chower holes and the.
Speaker 3:We have a problem with recruitment. The Marine Corps just dipped in there with 24 people more than they should have this year, which was great, but everybody else has failed in their recruitment. Yeah, and it bores down to housing, money, food, tempo, all the things that the outside employees or employers, I should say are offering. You. Look at McDonald's they're making $27 an hour right now to put hamburgers in wrappers. Right, you got a soul juice, 19 years old, or a sailor, 19 years old, on an aircraft carrier sending, you know, a $200 million jet off. What other fortune 500 company would ever allow that 19 year old to have that power? None, I can assure you. So we want to make sure that the pay is consumer with.
Speaker 3:Look, we don't join the military for pay. We join it because we're patriotic and we want to serve our country right, first and foremost, but we also have to make sure that the housing is good, the food is good, the pay is in line with outside. The tempo is, you know and I say this now as we just extended the four for another three months the ice and the how is out in the Mediterranean. So we've got to really make sure that, you know, a military is taken care of in a way different than we used to before. I mean, it used to be thinking about the Second World War and Vietnam and years away. Right, most of our deployments are, unless you're special operations, you know, seven to nine months, normally, hopefully just seven. But the way the world is right now it's kind of slightly different because we've got a police officer in a lot of places. But I think to compete and take care of our people is the forefront of our leaders today, the whole process.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the hardest things to do is to find balance, at least in the military, from work, family itself. That's the hardest thing.
Speaker 3:There is no balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a word that should be thrown out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. Because people say to me you know how do you balance, you know work and life as an A personality, or somebody wants to get things done. There's no such thing. Yeah, my wife travels 150 days a year. I travel 345 days a year. She meets me in the middle somewhere. If I'm in Iraq, she comes to Iraq. If I'm in that, she'll come to that.
Speaker 3:I think if you really want to make meaningful change and it's not for everybody, by the way, right, not everybody can do what you do or I do or other people do we have to find your own purpose and once you find that purpose, you dictate what, what your life's going to be. And for me, it's giving service to those that were the class of our nation first responders, because they put their life on the line every day and their families that support them, that suffer and sacrifice. And, as I just said to you, I was with the folks in the eyes and the how. I was on the eyes and how underway when she was on her way to the Mediterranean. Then I just fed the families with the president and first lady two days ago and to have the families come to me and say well, thank you for you know, taking care of our husbands and wives, and it's very special to me, that's what God put me on this earth for to serve those that serve.
Speaker 2:I love that because too many one of the one of the big things that I love about that is the families, because that is the one thing that I feel that a lot of people forget is that they also serve.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was a company commander, we were on the 24 hour be prepared to deploy.
Speaker 2:Our battalion was in Iraq and Syria at the time and we were on the 24 hour call and for that year I had to maintain that level of readiness.
Speaker 2:The soldiers were always training, we were always doing stuff, but the families were the ones who had the share that brought, because the fathers weren't there for their kids birthdays. Sometimes we weren't there for some holidays because we had to go do training missions, and I feel that the families are the ones who suffer the most and a lot of the times at least where I'm at is, I've gotten better at understanding their seasons of life not necessarily balance, but their seasons in life where we have to be so intentional and laser focused, because we have that purpose of what you talked about, and being able to understand that purpose gives me the ability to be in the moment and understand what I need to tackle, but that's the most important thing that I love that you're really taking on is finding that harmony between taking care of the family and then taking care of the soldier, because if I know my family is taking care of I can be more in the moment and I can be more towards the mission.
Speaker 3:So true, and that's what I said to all. The leadership is, you know we got one in four military families of food insecure. How can that be in the United States? Military, that's great.
Speaker 2:And for me.
Speaker 3:I'm tackling that personally with a lot of other folks, not just me but so that we know the families are good, that the men and women and spouses of each other can really focus on what they're doing while they're deployed, because there's nothing more destructive to a mission than people not being fully vested because they're worried about their families. Yeah so yeah, it's important.
Speaker 2:So kind of going back to your leadership journey, you finish your time, transition over to the US. When did you come over? Was it 1996 or 97?
Speaker 3:1996, I came here and it was funny. I came to the state. I was in Jamaica before. I got a job putting two hotels together and, whilst I love Jamaica, it was probably one of the toughest things I've ever done, because I took two major hotels the International, the Intercontinental Hotel at Malaz Beach and the Hyatt and I built them, or put them together as one hotel. Oh wow, which was a year worth of strife. And you know you're working in a foreign country. I was the only Caucasian, the rest of the folks were Jamaican. And you know it would rain. I never get this. It would rain my first couple of weeks there. It would rain and nobody came to work, but I still had 2000 people in the hotel and they'd be fed.
Speaker 3:And I got with some of my what I call leaders in the culinary world in the hotel. One of them was called Joppy, one was JP and I said, well, so what's the problem? Tell me why you can't get to work. And it was well, we have to walk. There's no buses. We have to, you know, come from here, there and everywhere. So I went to the general manager, a French guy who's since passed away, blessing, but I said, look, we need to put on some bus services. We need to get these folks to work, we need to help them. There was no healthcare, there was no dental care and I managed to get all three of those.
Speaker 3:And once and again I go back to this empathetic leadership. You've got to listen to understand, because you could be angry, but I listened to what the problems were and I fixed the problems. There I got up. It was amazing because I was the outsider coming into a country that was not mine. The locals were not taken care of, so they didn't care. They come to work when they you know and then you know soon come, as the saying goes. They didn't come and I was there alone and once I fixed that problem, having understood the problems, then nobody was away from work. It was easy. But again, we go into nobody lessons and that's the strongest thing we can do is listen. Then you have to decipher what is true and what's memory, what is real and what's not real. And once you get through that and you fix the problems and the people see that you're trying to help them, my God, it was unbelievable. I had the best year ever.
Speaker 2:I took.
Speaker 2:That was a lesson that it took me so long to understand is like taking tactical pauses.
Speaker 2:I always thought to be a leader, you had to be decisive and when something was to happen, I had to just act and go and move forward, like always move forward.
Speaker 2:And until I was really a seasoned company commander and I had a lot more authority under my belt, leading like 240 soldiers which still to this day was, hands down, the best job that I ever had, because I wasn't just leading the soldiers, it was leading their families and then running the FRG, and just being able to be connected and actually make an impact on people's lives was awesome. But what I learned in that time is that you had to slow down, especially in those moments, and what is facts and what is not, and then learn and listen and find out what the core problem is and when you understand what the problem is, go and attack it. And that's what I've seen as a theme throughout this episode so far is that you've always chased hard things, but you've been able to listen to the people, take care of the people and find out what that problem is and then solve that problem, which is funny because it's in all your TV shows too, like Restaurant Impossible, like that's the same thing. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:You know I was. Look, I think right now we have the best leadership in our military we've ever had. Look, cq Brown and I was with Brian Fenn, socom commander yesterday, shane Shorter, the Sergeant Major, and they are really caring about people. When I was in the Navy and when you were probably in the Army, you couldn't go up to a four star and say, hey, sir, I'm having a bad day, right, they just didn't do that. Nowadays, there's so much access. Yeah, and I use this because Brian Fenton is all about people, cq Brown is all about people, general George is all about people.
Speaker 3:That's why I see this enormous, enormous earthquake of change in the taking care of people which I am. You know it took me 14 years to get to this point of banging my head on a wall and banging doors Right, and we're finally getting there with this leadership that is starting to say you know what? You're absolutely right when you take care of people. And they knew all along and they've done it in their commands, but it was, it was portioned in their commands or ships. You've got great leaders and you've got lots of great leaders and I think now the mandate of change is happening and you'll hear a lot more about that coming into 24.
Speaker 3:And I love that because all I've done, all my career, is take care of people, and I love not only on TV shows but in real life. Yeah, and I want to make sure that if you're less fortunate, we can help you in some way, shape or form, even if you know, my foundation is all about military and first responders. But last night on social media somebody was asking me for help and it's amazing and you can read it. They're homeless, they have no food, they have no, and just a whole community of social media came together and found the answers for them.
Speaker 2:I love that Right, and I think that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3:I'm fed up of the divisiveness of, you know, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. I did saw that, look, look, we are America's. I say this, you know, when we talk about America's game being, you know, the Army, navy, air Force, whoever gets to the finals, you know that's America's game, we are America People, even people say, well, why do you care? Well, I'm a citizen for 22 years. I care. I dropped my English citizenship to become an American citizen because I live here, I work here, my family's here, and I get fed up with. You can have a different opinion, you don't have to agree with me, but I don't have to fight, and you know and do all this about it. We can have an intelligent conversation about what needs to happen. There are people less fortunate and we need to figure that out, and that's been through time, it's not just, it's not just now. How do we really make change for everybody? Not just, not just because you're in the military, but it helps with. You know, we can't hit our recruitment goals because obesity is in every state. So if we hire somebody in Oklahoma, in Kentucky, in Alabama, in, or even from England, for example, or Ghana or whatever, which is happening right now.
Speaker 3:We have to make sure that we extend the training program so we can get them fair. Why are we doing that? Why are we not fixing that? You know, why are we not opening gyms to 15 year olds for free? Why are we not all those things that I work on on a year round basis, not just a military, so we can pull and educate? And programs like this help. And you know why they help? Because youngsters listen and we say look, here's what I did in the military and here's what I did when I came out. And this is what we forget. We can talk about this as your job going into military, but if you stick it for this amount of years, this is what you get at the end training and the opportunity to do something greater than yourself in the military, then greater than yourself when you come out. And for me, that's a recruitment tool of and I say all the time on the stuff I do hey, the military gave me a foundation of all those things we talked about, but also it gave me a purpose to go out into the world.
Speaker 3:And look, I cook, as I said, but there's nothing more great than a plate of food or a cup of coffee to get conversations started. I don't care whether you're a head of state, and I cook for every head of state in the free world and sat around a table and say, hey, listen, let's, let's, let's take this and let's talk about this and whatever. And food is a great equalizer. We got to eat to live and we got to live to eat. So, whether you're on a battlefield having a hot dog or a piece of chicken or an MRE, or you're in a state banquet with the president and you know every head of state, we got to understand, and food makes it easier to understand even in your own families, where, where you may know, not where you may not know, because we think about phones nowadays. Kids are on the phones all day. We don't know what they're up to. We don't know my kids come in my house, the phones goes in the basket and this is it conversation, and I think we've lost that in the world.
Speaker 2:Alright team. Let's take a quick break from this episode and I want to share a leadership resource with you, and that is the resiliency based leadership program. Rblp's vision is to create a worldwide community of practice committed to building and leading resilient teams. So why do you need to build and lead a resilient team? Resilient teams are the key to individual and organizational growth, regardless of being in the military or in the civilian workforce. One collective teams allows for exponential growth and the teams ability to overcome adversity, adapt and, most importantly, grow. And in bottom line, up front, resilient teams are just stronger together. And here's the fact 99% of the people who take that course recommended to others, and I'm one of them. I would just completed my certification and I highly recommend this. And the great news is it's most likely free to you. And if you're in the military, it is a 100% free to you. And if you want to learn more, you can look in the show notes for this episode and find the link and use the discount code J-M-C-M-I-L-L-I-O-N, and that is also in the show notes. Back to the episode 100%. So I work in SOCOM right now.
Speaker 2:General Thitten, the commander for SOCOM, has three key pillars People number one, win, number two and then transform, and I love that because it follows the rule. Because I'm an infantry guy, I'm sure you spend a lot of people time around the military, so I like to. I call it yes, keep it simple. Stupid People win. Transform and if we can, if we can, help take care of our people.
Speaker 2:And fitness is one of the most critical ones, and I agree with you and that's why, when I reached out to you is like those fit crush bars that you make are awesome, because every time that I travel and I'm not lying every time that I travel I always grab those because they're perfectly balanced right between fat, protein and carbohydrates for my macro diet, like it's easy to eat.
Speaker 2:But in the military I remember being in Afghanistan they would give us these MREs and in these first strike bars and all that is is like, yeah, it's really high calorie, it's very dense, but it's not good food for you. So, being able to fuel the person because if you can fuel the person, then we can win and then we can transform it together as a team, and I love that. Being able to build and tear down cultural divides and how you connected food with one of your key pillars of maintaining and building trust, that it brings us all to the table, and then that's how we can actually build. Trust is sharing. You know, a cup of tea which I had the pleasure of doing when I was in London, which was awesome, by the way.
Speaker 3:It's funny because because Brian Fenton, so you're in Tampa, is that?
Speaker 2:where you live. So I live down in Fort Belvoir right now in the DC. Okay.
Speaker 3:So I'm there all the time. But so come Tony Thomas. I've been working with Tony Thomas way before General Clark and General Clark and then now Brian Fenton Again, all three great leaders, and phenomenal.
Speaker 3:And again, you look at, you look at transforming. I was there yesterday at Silicon giving away some turkeys with Kroger, which is great, but getting to meet, you know, some other folks that were there in big meetings and they listen, and special operations, taking nutrition to a whole different level with no meal, and some other things that we're doing there. But, you know, leadership is is really interesting to me because there are different types of leaders. There are those that lead by fear, which, by the way, are, you know, somewhat in, in, in decline right now, because fear, because fear is not good. It is good in some situations, but not good for leaders, because you want to adhere people towards you or be empathetic towards people. And I think that change is happening, although, you know, it's just interesting to me.
Speaker 3:I lead my team of six, almost 6000 people. I don't give them schedules, I don't give them time off, I don't give them. I give them a mission. I don't tell them how to do the mission, but I give them the expectation of what I want. So if you and, by the way, when I say don't give them time off, if you want four weeks off, josh, you make sure that one of the other guys has got your load and I hold them accountable and vice versa. That's what I mean by I don't give them time off they have plenty time off, obviously, but but I don't give them specific. You know it's two weeks vacation a year. When I go on vacation, I take a group of people with me because I like my team around me. They're my friends, they're my team, they're families.
Speaker 3:We have built 11 tremendous companies because of that philosophy and leadership is those things we talked about, the trust and all that. And one thing I've learned and it was a big change for me was, just because you own the companies, it's your money. It doesn't mean you're right. I can set the vision and the expectation, but the journey to get to that expectation is really the teams. So every year, every year in January January the fourth and fifth we get the team together, top 60 leaders, in a room, and we talk about the past year, what went right, what went wrong, what we didn't achieve, if anything, and then what's the next year going to bring. And I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3:I just sit and listen. I do the opening remarks, but then I sit and listen because we have these guys and girls that do amazing things. I've always looked the last day. For example, this morning, you know you talk about big crunch. We just launched a wafer bar on Amazon, which is unbelievable, but I just finished this morning a chocolate mint wafer bar and told the team it was unbelievable. They do it, I taste it. We're in our fourth iteration of it and I finally passed it this morning, just like the RTDs and all the other things.
Speaker 3:So I'm very heavily involved in the alcohol, the food, the clothing and we make clothing for special operations socks, underwear, t-shirts, long shirts, all that kind of stuff and everything's made in the US, by the way, which is great. So, and everything that we do, a portion of all that goes into our foundation, robert Irvine Foundation, to make sure that we can do those dogs and wheelchairs and bikes and all those things that we do and it will never be enough, because I always want more, and it's not about more business, it's about more money to be able to do more things with less fortunate people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, serve your purpose on this earth. Yeah, it's just crazy. If you had said to me 10 years ago you'd be this heavily involved, I would have probably laughed at you. Even though we've been doing it, I didn't realize where we are at this point, and that is really changing lives. Just through food, through dogs, through bikes, mobius devices and the people I get to meet and interact with, whether you're a cleaner, a road sweeper, a fuel attendant, a president, a king, a queen, they're all the same to me. They all are gone at the same respect because they're human beings. And I think, if we understand that, you can learn something every day from someone. It doesn't matter how much money they have, how big a house they have or not. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some of the greatest wisdom that I've learned from people are people that you wouldn't think have that much influence. They don't have all the material possessions, but they've had that experience and that experience is critical because they've lived through it and they can share their wisdom with you. And I'm telling you, I work with some of the best treasures that this country has to offer and I always think about what is the greatest resource that America has. It's the people, it's the sons and the daughters that raise their uniform and, yes, they serve in the military temporarily, but when they transition, guess what? They're still serving the country and they're making organizations better. I'm sure you have a lot of veterans that you absolutely love that work within your organization.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have a lot to offer and the family's behind them. They're like closest and tightest friends, our military, and I mentioned that a dozen of them on this call that I call every day.
Speaker 2:So I would love to transition now to some of the philanthropical work that you do right now in the Robert Irmbein Foundation, because that is absolutely incredible, and I know you do a lot of events in the DC area, so I'm excited to go to some of those with my family in the near future. But what inspired you to take your influence that you built over time and then just really dive into that of focusing on and building the Robert Irmbein Foundation?
Speaker 3:Well, I think for years and years I give lots of money to different charities and saw some of the work they were doing the Harrison Eastwood Building Houses and USO and Fisher Foundation and all those kind of people taps and I wanted to offer something different. I think all these foundations are great at what they do because they fulfill something the government can't fulfill or won't fulfill, whichever way you want to read that. So I wanted to really focus on mental and physical health way before anybody else did Right 2014, I was hit hard the mental health and there were some people out there doing it. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't the first, but I was one of the first to really focus with Boston University Hospital on and because of my wife, who is a professional wrestler, and the traumatic injuries that they suffer from TBI and PTS and then firefighters, I decided that we'd start our own foundation after many years supporting other foundations based on mental and physical health. So in 2014, we started it and here we are, you know, 10 years later, and originally it was really just to pass through money to other foundations, and then I started to feel that nobody was doing what I felt was needed. I love it. You know the programs. So we started running a couple of programs. They took off and then we keep adding more.
Speaker 3:So we have Breaking Bread for Heroes, which twice a week around the world, no matter where it is Afghanistan, iraq, poland, spain, syria and here in the United States we do two dinners a week. Whether I'm in them or not, we do two dinners a week just to take care of people and let them know that we care. So we have that Breaking Bread for Heroes. We are reuniting the brave, which is putting back together folks that have served together and then since lost contact and all that kind of stuff. So we just put 750 first battalion fifth Marines a week in San Diego with their spouses, all fully paid for, and then went to Camp Pendleton, had a big dinner for a thousand and accumulated in as much in two miles and putting a memorial on top of a hill and dedicating it to the 250 folks that dedicated back. Really, I've got to tell you I don't think I stopped crying for a week. I don't think I stopped crying for a week and just listening and the spouses listening and the Gold Star families together. It was just very special.
Speaker 3:And then we have Amobius, where we Piece, where we put wheelchairs. I boss, dean Cayman, who created the segue, created the. I bought stands people up eye height, goes up now stairs on its own. You know we, we have a program there. We have ten of those away last year. We have now a bike which I talked about earlier. There's 220 double amputees and a warm terror and We've this week gave two of these bike at 25 grand a piece that they can get out.
Speaker 3:So, spite spider mountain, this weekend they just had a big, big get together of Veterans and we give these two bikes away and they go at 45 degree angles 20 miles an hour. So if you double amputee, your legs go in the front. It's like a trite kind of thing and we're looking to continue to actually build teams of, I mean a vehicle and and coast guardsmen that are we can put into adaptive sports, just like the warrior games and the victors games and right. So we're looking to do that right now For 24, which I'm really excited about. Being a fitness guy, I know we have the dog dogs where we we train dogs from puppies for post-matic stress. We put we put Dogs into fire trucks, dogs into fire houses and it's so funny because on the Eisenhower, there's actually a dog now, a welfare dog.
Speaker 2:Oh well, yes.
Speaker 3:It's a test the first time, but I gotta tell you it's working tremendously. So we do an awful lot of that. Then we give grants and families and all those kind of other things that if you go on. Robert Irvine foundation org. You can see what we do, but everything we do from a financial standpoint Television, liquor, all those things a portion of all those proceeds go into the foundation so it can and do great things. So, friends, giving for the present, we just we take care of that feeding For our families.
Speaker 2:Personally especially.
Speaker 3:We just lost five Special operations guys on the 160th idea work very closely with us Special operations warrior foundation, both personally and from the foundation standpoint to take care of them also because I think you know they're there, what they do for us is something really special. So I work very closely with taps tragedy systems program for survivors around the globe. So we're really busy. It's not, it's not, but it's not work. It's the labor of love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not busy. The way I look at it is success or significance, and you in your chasing, significance, not success. You're not busy when you love what you do. So I want to try to stay within an hour and I'll tell you that I didn't even get to half of the list of questions that I wanted to ask you. But, looking long term, like five to ten years, where do you want to take your foundation or the purpose that you have on this earth?
Speaker 3:I think it's really interesting because we are at the point of our companies doing really well. At some point they're gonna sell and I think I've already started to. You know, I don't, I do TV and I I do a lot and I travel a lot. I think for me, the, the companies, are set on solid footings. For me it's all about the foundation and how do I, how do I make that impact bigger? And I think that's where the next five years for me is. I'm 58 years old. I see the foundation continue to grow with these programs. I talked about the sports teams there, the Getting the people out of the four wars, continuing to modernize or help modernize the military feeding platform.
Speaker 3:That's my biggest focus right now. Of anything Is how do we get better nutrition to the servicemen and women and also the families right, whether it be in the exchanges or the conversaries. We're building a restaurant of the future for for eight fees right now, which I'm really excited about, which will, which will come out its first place. Will will premiere open in February of next year. We already started Fort Jackson with the drill instructors Carter dining facility in grab-and-go, which is hitting out the park numbers Great, fresh food and and and saving money, which is people don't think great food and saving money go together, but they actually do. So I see a lot more of that, more Interaction with the joint force again on that platform. That's my. My biggest thing right now, josh is is feeding of our military and Take care of veterans. So I think the next five years is gonna be more of that and the more. The more we grow in my For profit side, the more we grow in the nonprofit side.
Speaker 2:I love that brother.
Speaker 1:It's time for our final show segment that I like to call the killer bees. These are the same four questions that I ask every guest on the tales of leadership podcast Be brief, be brilliant, be present and be gone.
Speaker 2:Question one what do you believe separates a good leader from an extraordinary leader?
Speaker 3:empathy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, number two. What is one resource that you could recommend to our listeners?
Speaker 3:Overcoming impossible, a book that I wrote in February.
Speaker 2:If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self if you go back in time, what would it be and why?
Speaker 3:Listen, think act.
Speaker 2:All right, last one. So how can our listeners find you? And then how can they add value to your mission?
Speaker 3:So they check us out on Robert around foundation org on Twitter. I write myself at Robert Irvine on Instagram is at Sheffer of mine and Listeners can help by the donating money, donating time, showing up, volunteering, and that's not only for us, that's for any nonprofit. But I will say this we are a unique organization that does things differently, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I love Robert. This has been incredible, brother. Thank you so much for spending an hour with me and walking through something that I'm deeply passionate about, and we need more people like you, people that are filled with purpose, that are using their time, talents and treasures to make a difference in this world. So thank you, team. What a phenomenal episode with Robert Irvine, and there's so many takeaways, and I'm honest when I say this is I didn't even get to a percentage of the questions that I wanted to talk about. But Robert has such an incredible journey and I will tell you just like I did in the opening If you can support any of his missions, the proceeds go to these veteran Organizations and nonprofit companies that are just phenomenal, so make sure that you support him. Next time you're on a business trip or a road trip with your family, go try a fit crunch bar, because they're freaking delicious I can promise you that.
Speaker 2:So, alright, after action, review Top three things. I'm gonna try to keep it short and sweet. The first one is focus on people. We talked about the four levels of empathetic leadership and we can kind of quickly review those, because I think that is Powerful. So the first one is empathetic leadership. Second is managing egos. Third is building and maintaining trust. And number four is being authentic. Focusing on people incorporates all of those Empathetic leadership, managing egos, building trust and maintaining trust and being authentic. When we can focus on the people, we can have extraordinary results. And that is what separates ordinary from Extraordinary that ability to focus on people. And so often in this world we are focused on the process or the outcome and we try to chase results, and when we're doing that, we're moving a hundred miles an hour and we forget about the people to our left and a right and that are in front of us and behind us, the people. They make no mistake about it. If you are in a leadership role, you are not doing the majority of the work. Most likely it's your team and it's your people. And if you can invest in your team, your people, you can inspire them with your actions, your words and your deeds. You are going to be able to move from good to extraordinary. Why? Because you put in that little bit extra effort to try to get to, after to some of those pillars or the courses of leadership that Robert likes to talk about, and you're being authentic along the way.
Speaker 2:Number two is Find your purpose and then attack. I've shared throughout several podcasts of how I think you can find your purpose in life. But just know this balance is not achievable in life. You are never going to be able to be in a perfect, balanced life because Life gets a vote, the enemy gets a vote. Murphy's law will kick in.
Speaker 2:Mike Tyson right. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. No matter how good of a plan you have, it never Survives. First contact. So always go back to what general Patton talks about a good enough plan Violently executed is way better than a perfect plan Executed maybe in like two weeks or something like that, and that's not an exact quote. But that's the purpose.
Speaker 2:Right, find what your purpose is in life and then aggressively Attack it. And don't worry about balance, because balance is a lie. You can have seasons of life, right. You can be focused on your family because your family needs that. You can be focused on your work because your work needs that. And you can be focused on yourself because maybe you need that.
Speaker 2:And I like to think of it through a normal day, right? A normal day for me is I get up at four in the morning. Yes, I get up at four in the morning, but I do it because I'm purposeful, it's a purposeful act, and then I focus on myself until 7 30, and then I come home and I get ready to go to work and then I'm at work Purposeful in the army from eight until that mission is complete, most likely five o'clock in the evening, and then I transition home and I have time with my family and then I purposeful with my coaching company, my podcasting, my journaling and my reading, and in those time bins I Serve myself, because if I can serve myself, I Can serve others. And it all goes back to that purpose of find your purpose and attack. My purpose is to grow and be the best possible leader that I can so I can impact as many lives as possible. But, as I believe, through leadership we can inspire and change others, and maybe something that I say, my words or my deeds, something that I do, will help someone in a dark place and hopefully save some lives, and that's the whole reason that I do what I do. That is my purpose on earth is to end toxic leadership and promote transformational leadership by words and deeds and sharing stories. Right with you.
Speaker 2:Number three Key takeaway is be a connector, and I love how Robert talked about in the world right now, where we're in, there are so many different things in life that can put us in silos or bins the way we look, how we believe, if we're Republican or a Democrat, if we like the color blue, right, it doesn't matter. There are all these different things that divide us, but at the end of the day, we all share one common thread right, and there's always a thread and leadership, which I absolutely love, because there's a start point and there's an end point. That's life. But we're also all humans. We're also on this earth together. We need to learn to work together and that's what makes great leaders from Extraordinary leaders that a little bit extra right learning to work together.
Speaker 2:Getting back to what the courses of leadership is Building and maintaining trust. Hey, team, do me a favor if you like what you heard, make sure you share this podcast, make sure you give it a five-star review, whatever platform you're listening and, most importantly, make sure you support the show, and you can do that by going to MacMillion leadership coaching Dot-com. You can see all the different leadership Sources that I've been able to write in terms of blogs and all the other podcasts and I just actually started doing a new feature. So if you go to MacMillion leadership coaching right now and you listen to this podcast or you go read the after-action Review, there's another blog that I have broken down from this episode really Distill some of the key facts that Robert who shared, and that's a brand new service that I'm bringing to you guys Absolutely for free, because I'm not doing this for money.
Speaker 2:I'm doing this to make better leaders and show you that you don't have to be an a-hole Right to be a good leader and build connections with people and, as Robert likes to say, be humble. You can be a great leader and be humble and still have a huge impact on Other people, this organization and then just a plan in the whole be a light bringer right. Stop bringing darkness into this world, because there's enough darkness. Let's start bringing light together. As always, I am your host, josh MacMillion, and I'm saying every day is a gift. Don't waste yours until next time.
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