#41: Brigadier General Joe Berger — On Empathy, People First Leadership, and Being a Beginner

June 17, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Brigadier General Joseph B. Berger III graduated from the U.S Military Academy at West Point in 1992 and was commissioned into the Military Police Corps, where he served as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Battalion Supply Officer and Adjutant.

The views expressed on this podcast and page are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or endorsement of the US Army, DoD, or the US Government.

Brigadier General Joseph B. Berger III graduated from the U.S Military Academy at West Point in 1992 and was commissioned into the Military Police Corps, where he served as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Battalion Supply Officer and Adjutant. Brigadier General Berger was subsequently selected for the Funded Legal Education Program and received his juris doctor from the George Mason University School of Law.

Brigadier General Berger currently serves as the Commanding General of the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, located on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. His previous assignments include: Commander, United States Army Legal Services Agency and Chief Judge, U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals; Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Army Cyber Command; Chief, Investigations and Legislative Division, Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison, Washington, DC; Chief, Plans Branch of Personnel, Plans and Training Office, Office of The Judge Advocate General, Washington, DC; Staff Judge Advocate, Joint Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Deputy Team Chief and later Assistant Director, Multi-National Force-Iraq; Group Judge Advocate, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Chief, Criminal Law, United States Army Air Defense Artillery Center and Fort Bliss, Fort Bliss, Texas; Chief, Legal Assistance, later Administrative and Operational Law Attorney, 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Germany.

Brigadier General Berger’s operational deployments include OPERATIONS RESTORE HOPE (Mogadishu, Somalia) and JOINT GUARD (Kosovo), and multiple tours in support of both OPERATIONS ENDURING FREEDOM (Afghanistan) and IRAQI FREEDOM / NEW DAWN (Iraq).

Brigadier General Berger holds a Master of Laws in International Law (LL.M) from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (Distinguished Graduate) and a Master of Science in National Security Strategy from the National War College (Distinguished Graduate). His military awards include the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Valorous Unit Award (Somalia) and the Presidential Unit Citation (Joint Task Force Neptune). He is authorized to wear the Combat Action Badge, the Parachutist’s Badge, the German Parachutist’s Badge (Fallschirmspringerabzeichen), and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

Brigadier General Berger and his wife Brenna are the proud parents of two adult children. On this episode, we discuss the Army JAG Corps, the impact his wife and kids have had (and continue to have) on him, overcoming adversity, and much more!

During this episode, we discuss:

3:30 – Introduction to the Army JAG Corps

8:15 – What life was like growing up for Brigadier General Berger

10:45 – People that impacted him the most growing up

13:00 – What he’s learned the most from his children

14:30 – The power of humility and being open to learning

15:14: – How he is different now from how he was growing up

18:45 – How failure, mistakes, and adversity have shaped him the most

23:35 – He does an autopsy on his own success and provides us advice on how to succeed

29:51 – Somalia Deployment – The Battle of Mogadishu (portrayed in Black Hawk Down)

37: 53 – What he believes are some of the commonalities between those who sustain excellence over time

44:31 – His views on work/life balance

50:14 – His views on servant leadership, one of the four pillars of the Army JAG Corps

53:27 – Examples of servant leaders that he has seen

59:00 – His impressions on Admiral William McRaven

1:02:20 – Questions from Army Lawyers (judge advocates) in the field

1:23:00 – Lightning Round Questions

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

Brigadier General Berger recommended the following books during this interview:

The Road

By McCarthy, Cormac

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

By Larson, Erik

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#40: Spencer Kupferman (3 x CEO) — On His Father, Adversity, and Leading as an Introvert

June 15, 2020 by Cal Walters in Leadership, Intentional Living

Spencer Kupferman currently serves as CEO at Milwaukee-based PKWARE an Award-Winning Data Security software solutions company.   In addition, Spencer supports Thompson Street Capital Partners portfolio companies working closely with their tech-enabled software practice as an Executive Advisor.

Spencer Kupferman currently serves as CEO at Milwaukee-based PKWARE an Award-Winning Data Security software solutions company. In addition, Spencer supports Thompson Street Capital Partners portfolio companies working closely with their tech-enabled software practice as an Executive Advisor. Spencer most recently served as CEO of Cloud Daddy, recognized as a Top 10 Storage Startup ’19 by crn.com, the world's most secure and easy-to-use Amazon Web Services native data protection platform for backup, disaster recovery and infrastructure management.

Prior to Cloud Daddy, Spencer was President & CEO of Global Software, Inc., the global leader in corporate performance management (CPM) reporting solutions. Spencer spearheaded the revolution of the Spreadsheet Server platform as it took the market by storm. Spencer led the company through two successful nine-figure transactions to market leading private equity firms, Thompson Street Capital Partners and TA Associates. Spencer holds a BS in Kinesiology from the University of New Hampshire where he was a member of the men’s basketball team and an MBA-Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. Spencer, his wife and 3 children reside in Scarsdale, NY.

On this episode, we discuss Spencer’s incredible father Ron Kupferman, who was the founder of Global Software, Inc. It was neat to hear Spencer reflect on the impact his father has had on him. We talk about his most important leadership attribute, how failure and adversity have shaped him, this concept of hard work vs. talent, and much more.

Spencer recommended the following books during the interview:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

By Jim Collins

Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition (Collins Business Essentials)

By Moore, Geoffrey A

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#39: Greg McKeown (NYT Bestselling Author) — On Essentialism, Negotiation, and Legacy

May 28, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people and teams break through to the next level-and others don't. The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown's New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people and teams break through to the next level-and others don't. The definitive treatment of ...

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people and teams break through to the next level—and others don’t.

The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

McKeown is the CEO of McKeown Inc. His clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!. His writing has appeared or been covered by The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month.

McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR, NBC, FOX, and as a regular guest on The Steve Harvey Show. Entrepreneur voted his interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.

As an accomplished public speaker, Greg has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world including in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Singapore.

Highlights include speaking at SXSW, interviewing Al Gore at the Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and receiving a personal invitation from Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, to speak to his Annual Innovation Conference.

McKeown challenges conventional wisdom in a unique and engaging style from the first moment to the last instant. As the event organizer at Greater Public said after McKeown addressed their 1,000-person conference, “I have been part of this event for 16 years and McKeown is the best speaker we have ever had!”

McKeown is an active Social Innovator. Serving as a Board Member for Washington D.C. policy group Resolve and as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. He has also been a speaker at non-profit groups including The Kauffman Fellows, Net Impact and Stanford University: he recently gave back to Stanford University by co-creating a popular class called, Designing Life, Essentially.

He serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He recently moderated a session at the “Summer Davos” in China called, “Unpacking Social Innovation Models for Maximum Impact”, served as a panelist at the “Sharpening Your Creative Edge” working session at the Forum.

Prior to this, McKeown collaborated in the research and writing of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives.

Originally from London, England, McKeown now lives in Calabasas, California with his wife, Anna, and their four children. He did his graduate work at Stanford University.

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Follow Greg’s important work at GregMcKeown.com or on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

On this episode, we discuss:

some of my journey with Essentialism,
part of the genesis for Greg writing Essentialism,
why so many of us focus on non-essential things,
what he calls the “success paradox,”
the social pressure to do more,
how to say “no,”
how to negotiate and acknowledge trade offs,
Greg’s perspective on The Great Reset due to COVID-19,
what he would change about the book, and
his views on legacy

Episode Transcript

Greg’s new podcast Essentialism with Greg McKeown launches in June 2020. Check it out!

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#38: Jon Gordon (Bestselling Author) — On Staying Positive, Self-Belief, and the Comparison Trap

May 24, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 20 books including 8 best-sellers: The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean and his latest Stay Positive.

Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Los Angeles Dodgers, Campbell’s Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, Miami Heat, The Los Angeles Rams, Snapchat, BB&T Bank, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, West Point Academy and more. Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams.

Jon has two new books coming out this year, The Garden and Relationship Grit. The Garden is an enlightening and encouraging spiritual fable that reveals the 5 D’s that can sabotage us and a proven plan to help us overcome and win the battle in our mind. Rooted in Jon Gordon’s faith tradition, this fable is a different kind of book than his previous business fables. However, in his familiar trademark style, he takes a complex subject and simplifies it to help people take action and improve their lives.

Everyone will struggle with fear, anxiety, or stress at some point in their lives, and everyone will have to overcome these challenges to create the life they were meant to live. Given that there are many contributing factors that influence how we think and feel, Jon wrote this book to share how the power of love, encouragement, truth, faith, and belief can be part of the solution.

In Relationship Grit, Jon and his wife, Kathryn, reveal what brought them together, what kept them together through difficult times, and what continues to sustain their love and passion for one another to this day. They candidly share their mistakes, decisions that almost destroyed their marriage, and successes so you can learn from their experiences and make your relationship stronger.

Connect with Jon on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube.

Episode Transcript

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#37: Juliet Funt (CEO of WhiteSpace at Work) — How to Combat Overload and Overwhelm

May 13, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Juliet Funt is the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps organizations, their leaders and employees flip the norms of business in order to reclaim their creativity, productivity and engagement. With thought-provoking content and immediately actionable tools, she has become a nationally recognized expert in coping with the Age of Overload in which we all live and work.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and overloaded with what seems like busy work? Ever wonder whether there is a smarter, healthier, and more sustainable way to work? If so, you are going to love my guest on the podcast this week.

Juliet Funt is the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps organizations, their leaders and employees flip the norms of business in order to reclaim their creativity, productivity and engagement. With thought-provoking content and immediately actionable tools, she has become a nationally recognized expert in coping with the Age of Overload in which we all live and work.

Juliet helps professionals learn the pivotal difference between activity and productivity. She teaches them a streamlined method for personal process improvement – leading to more creativity and engagement. She helps executives, managers and teams answer the critical question “What thoughts deserve my full attention today?”

Juliet regularly wows audiences as a high-impact, high-energy speaker, including multiple speeches at the Global Leadership Summit. Yet her deeper mission is to show organizations how WhiteSpace® can change the negative patterns and behaviors that prevent them from achieving optimum results. Her clients include a number of Fortune 100 companies and span a wide array of industries, from financial services to technology, manufacturing to the military, and executive workshops to audiences as large as 7,000.

Incredibly intuitive, Juliet successfully blends highly customized content with a keen understanding of clients’ needs in her programs and consulting work. With a unique blend of charisma, humor and tough love, she has the uncanny ability to connect with people at all levels, compelling them to make real, lasting change. Yet beneath her powerful assets, she is both authentic and accessible. As a busy corporate speaker and consultant, business owner, wife, and mother of three young boys, she practices on a daily basis the WhiteSpace® concept she shares with clients. Juliet Funt is a force for change in organizations around the world, helping them find their WhiteSpace, recharge their people and reclaim their passion for work. Juliet is a graduate of Northwestern University.

On this episode we discuss [time is from audio version]:

Her journey and how this concept of WhiteSpace was conceived [4:00]
- “We have a very passionate belief that there is an element called white space that is missing from work, and white space is the time—the open, thoughtful time that used to exist in between things.”
Discovering the beauty of white space late at night when her children were very young [5:45]
- “What I found was that trapped in that really dark, white space, all sorts of interesting things started happening because I couldn’t use a fix of any kind of activity to get my brain distracted. I felt feelings. I designed products. And I clarified things in my marriage, and I gave myself executive feedback.”
Even though people agree that busy work is a problem, why are we not making more progress in this area? [7:25]
- “There is a worship of busyness and a fear of openness. The fear is that openness equals nothingness. The fear is that when you are not being active you are not being productive.”
- “That all speaks to an enormous lack of trust in the value of thinking.”
Quantifying the negative impact of busy work on organizations [10:30]
- “We usually see about one million dollars of annual waste for every fifty people in a group.”
- “It exhausts people. It keeps them farther away from the meaningful work that inspires them.”
- “Strategically, it creates enormous amounts of re-work and wasted time.”
- “A Bloomberg article just came out that said that 45% of workers are burned out 6-8 weeks into COVID, and the work day is 3 hours longer.”
How to begin shifting to a more productive way of working [15:15]
- “A mindset shift if more important than a tactical shift.”
- “Common sense and common practice are two different things.”
- “The most important mindset that you are going to want to start talking about is called a reductive mindset.”
- “A reductive mindset is mathematical. This sense of removing items. Most companies and organizations have an additive sense. They just add and add and add.”
- “Where can you cut? Where can you strip? Where can you delegate . . . postpone? Where can you consolidate? Where can you take reporting that was weekly and make it monthly? Can you take monthly and make it quarterly?”
Thoughts on a reductive or additive mindset in the military [20:00]
Distrust vs. trust of white space in leaders [22:30]
- “What if my mind knows where it is heading? What if my mind is chewing on something, cooking something, that is eventually going to pop into a relevant business contribution?”
Whether white space is urgent [24:00]
- “White space can be recuperative or constructive . . . that recuperative white space is pretty urgent.”
How to make emails and meetings more productive [24:30]
- “90% of the time email is a request for action and not a request for observation.”
2D vs. 3D communication and communication mediums [28:15]

During the interview, Juliet offered the opportunity for your team to take the following survey to assess how each member is doing.

Watch this video to learn more about the great work WhiteSpace at Work is doing:

Visit WhiteSpaceatWork.com to learn more about the great work Juliet and her team are doing.

Connect with Juliet by sending her an email at juliet@whitespaceatwork.com or follow her on LinkedIn or Twitter. Juliet tweets @whitespaceatwrk.

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