Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James

I recently interviewed Deborah Lee James on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: Our guest today is the former Secretary of the Air Force. Deborah Lee James was only the second woman ever to lead a US military service and is one of only two women to ever serve as Secretary of the Air Force, where she oversaw an annual budget of more than $139 billion and nearly 660,000 airmen. Secretary James is also the author of the book, Aim High: Chart Your Course and Find Success. Secretary James, thank you for joining us.

Deborah: Thanks for having me, Adam. It's great to be with you.

Adam: Great to have you on. You grew up in Rumson, New Jersey, and you did your undergrad at Duke before studying international affairs at Columbia, and ultimately working as a congressional staffer for a decade in different roles on the House Armed Services Committee. Can you take listeners back to your early days? What experiences and lessons shaped your worldview and shape the trajectory of your success?

Deborah: Well, going back to the early days is always kind of a fun thing, particularly when there are young listeners, Adam, because many young people, in particular, look at someone who has had a rather storied career and they assume that everything was planned out perfectly. And first, you did A and then you did B. And of course my story, and I think most people's stories, are diametrically opposed to that position. So it all started for me at a time when my number one goal was I wanted to get out of New Jersey and I wanted to see the world. I wanted to travel, I wanted to do something exciting. And my earliest dream really was to be in the State Department. I wanted to be a diplomat and live abroad in different postings every three years and represent the foreign policy of the United States. So that was my dream. And as you mentioned, I took international affairs, I took politics, I took history, I studied foreign languages, I became fluent in Spanish, and I had various study abroad opportunities. And I even had a fantastic internship with the State Department in Lima, Peru when I was in graduate school. So consequently, when I moved to Washington and applied for the Foreign Service, I thought I had everything that a 22-year-old could possibly have, in terms of having a good background to be a young diplomat. But upon applying for Foreign Service, regrettably, they didn't pick me. Now, who knows why whoever knows why you don't get a job. But when you don't, you have to deal with it. And what I did at the age of 22, was I literally crashed, I went to bed for about a week and I cried. And I thought my whole life was over because I had spent so much of my young life preparing for a singular dream. But, of course, one has to have a job eventually. So you get out of bed and you carry on and I started applying elsewhere. And I got rejected by many agencies of the U.S. government. Finally, I got one and only one acceptance. And that was with the Department of the Army, which was believed may not be my heart's desire, I had no experience with the military or no exposure all say with the military, but at least it was a job. So I joined the Army as a civilian, and just decided, it was not my heart's desire, but I'm going to throw myself into it and do my very best, which is what I did. But then about three months into it remarkable things started happening for me. The first thing that happened was, who knew this was really interesting work that I was being assigned in the army, I was looking at trade-offs between investing in this capability and what would it do for the Army versus that capability in that investment. And every morning, I remember waking up and reading the Washington Post and the headlines of the day were all about the Cold War and the U.S. military overseas. And I literally could imagine a piece of my work being in those headlines. So the work felt really purposeful. And it was very interesting. The second thing was a fantastic team. I fell into a great group of people who were all a lot older. Most of them were men. Most of them were uniformed military, so very, very different from me. They were experts in their field, and yet they took me under their wing. We had camaraderie, we had fun. I learned a ton from them and I was able to immediately contribute to the team because I did have some, coming right out of school, excellent research and writing skills. So even though you may be junior, and whatever your endeavor may be, you certainly have certain strengths. And I'm a big believer, we have to play to our strengths. The third thing was a great boss, again, I got lucky. So he was, as I looked back, my first mentor in life, who not only gave me great advice but also opened some doors for me, which is what I think the best mentors are able to do expose people to experiences that open some doors that they couldn't open for themselves. One of those doors was the House Armed Services Committee. So I left the army after about a year and a half. And that's when I joined the committee. And I was able to find new mentors. Over the 10 years, I was able to learn a lot about not just the army, but the entirety of the military, particularly budgets, policy matters, and military personnel and compensation issues. That was my bailiwick, my focus area back then. And again, through those mentors and through networking, which now included congressmen and senators, I was able to continue to broaden myself. So you see, it was really one thing leads to the next and 25 years later, I became the Secretary of the Air Force, and was actually able to have a bilateral discussion. A discussion with the then Secretary of State. And I had this overwhelming desire to get off my talking points and instead say to John Kerry, then the Secretary of State, thank you so much for rejecting me from the State Department 25 years ago because I can't imagine that my life could have been more purposeful, more exciting. That I could have had such an impact if I had joined the State Department rather than the way my life worked out, meaning focusing on the military. So, so often, I'm a big believer, we always need to plan A, we need to have a plan of where we want to go in life, and we need to track that. But be prepared to pivot to plan B and plan B could be the best of all.

Adam: I love it. You shared so much wisdom there. First and foremost, setbacks will happen, and failures will happen. It's about how you react. You can sulk, you can stay in bed for a week, as you did. But ultimately, you have to get out of bed, you have to bounce back. And in your case, what you thought was this big tragedy turned out to be a huge blessing. Sometimes what we perceive to be devastating blows to our lives to our careers, are the best things that could happen to us. It's all about how you react. Keep your mind open. You spoke about the importance of developing core skills, research, and writing skills that you developed early on in your career, you didn't know that they would ultimately propel you to rise in the way that they did. But having those skills are essential to your success. We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. You can spend your entire life worrying and fretting about all the things in life that you're bad at. And if you're intellectually honest, there are lots of things that you're bad at. But play to your strengths. Focus on what it is that you're great at, and lean into your superpower. The power of mentorship, optimizing mentor-mentee relationships. One last thing you shared networking, going out, and building new relationships. To that end, how can anyone develop new relationships and become better at networking?

Deborah: Well, I would say number one is you just got to do it. Now those of us who are good at it, probably do it in the regular order. And we're doing it at all times. Even when we're not consciously thinking about networking. We do it simply because we have curious minds. And we like people and we want to hear about people's stories and get to know them better as people, and in so doing we'll probably learn a bit about their careers, their endeavors, their hobbies, etc. So do it is one thing, even if you don't like it. This is where maybe you have to force yourself a little bit knowing that a best practice and I think most leaders would tell you that networking is very, very important. And by the way, Adam, I may be a little bit unusual. In this case, I told you I sent many resumes out when I was rejected by the State Department and finally got one acceptance from the Department of the Army. I can honestly say that thanks to my mentors and thanks to the network that I valued over time, and kept in touch with. In other words, I never put out a resume cold again, ever in my whole life. One job led to the next or a member of my network or a mentor steered me in a direction that made a connection for me, which then parlayed into a job. And I just want to point out that door opening is, I think, very, very important, but it is insufficient by itself because obviously, a door has to open. And then you have to have the courage to walk through it, which is not always easy. And then thirdly, you have to perform, you have to create a body of work, a body of accomplishment, you need to get things done. So that's important too. After doing it, just simply put yourself out there. I would also recommend, as a general proposition, to talk less and listen more, draw people out. Nobody likes somebody who constantly brags about themselves. And even though most of us I think, try to be humble about it, it's, I think, much more effective. And I know I find it much more interesting to draw someone else out about their background, their career, their likes, dislikes, where have they lived, et cetera, et cetera. So talking less and listening more would be another pointer.

Adam: Great leaders are great listeners. Great leaders ask great questions. Everyone likes to talk about themselves. So if you don't know what to talk about, talk about the person to who you're talking to.

Deborah: That's right.

Adam: You rose within an area of the government that is heavily male-dominated. What advice do you have for women in male-dominated industries, on how to rise within their careers and how to ultimately excel professionally?

Deborah: I have both a son and a daughter and I give similar advice. To my son, by the way, I think part of what I'm about to say may be special for women. But the advice I'm about to give I hope works for men and women quite well. The first is to play to your strengths. But always recognize that you're not an island. And it's all about teamwork. So you have to have a good team around you. And you have to value that team and not be competitive with that team. Rather, you need to complement each other on a team. So as I said, everybody has strengths. But not everybody is good at everything. In fact, no one is good at everything. And this is where maybe it takes a little bit of practice, but you got to look at yourself in the mirror, and be self-aware enough to know what those strengths are, and what those strengths are not. And obviously what the strengths are not. That's where the team gets involved. So now here comes something a little bit specific for women. I think we women, for whatever reason, culturally, et cetera, et cetera, if there is a job description out there, and we're going for this new job, and let's say there are 10 requirements or 10 experiences that the hiring authority wants you to have had, let's say we've had seven or eight of the 10. But there are two or three experiences that we haven't had. All too often we women have the tendency to worry about the two or three that we haven't had and apologize for the fact that, well, we haven't had this experience, but we'll work really hard. And we'll study up and give it our all instead of leading with the fact that we have solid experience in the seven or eight qualities that you're looking for. And talking primarily about those men, I think seem to do this better than we women. And what I try to tell women is you got to flip that on its head, you've got to play to your strengths, lead with your strengths. Don't ever lie about things that you're not strong at. But don't emphasize them. A job interview is an opportunity to put your best foot forward in an honest way. So play to your strengths. But always make sure that you do it within a great team. I've mentioned also the importance of getting things done, you have to whether you're a man or a woman, if you're in an environment where almost everybody else is of the opposite gender, you will be accepted for the most part. Assuming you get things done, assuming you pull your weight, assuming you contribute in the ways that you are expected. Having worked a lot of my life with the US military, we have gradually integrated women now into every single specialty within the armed forces. And you can imagine there's a lot of questioning, can women pull their weight? Can they get the job done in some of these job categories? And eventually, as long as the woman has the right qualification and does the job, the men become her greatest advocates because what they ultimately want is they want comrades, they want people who are going to contribute to the overall unit and get the job done. And then the third thing again, communication skills are crucial for men and women and that means being excellent in the spoken word. Understanding your audience and how you communicate with different types of people is sufficiently brief, but having enough proof points to demonstrate your point so persuasive verbal communication is crucial. As is written. Being a clear, concise writer is very important. Don't forget about the listening part. All too often, if we do forget that at least 50% of effective communication is listening with intent and listening, instead of thinking about what you're going to say next, truly listening to the person who is communicating with you, and that also leads to empathy. And then the last point I'll make on communication, is I think we women have to be even more careful than men do when it comes to verbal communication and how we talk to people. Because men who may be raised their voice a little bit, or occasionally will say a bad word or tell something that's slightly off color, I think that still skates by in our society better than if bad words come out of the mouth of a woman or if a woman is raising her voice. If the tone of voice becomes shrill or things of this nature, it just seems to wear much more poorly in the workplace.

Adam: I want to dive into some of the tips you shared, which are really universally applicable. Self-awareness is essential to success, essential to effective leadership, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who complement you. Going back to a key theme of our conversation, a key theme of this podcast, a key theme of what I try to share with all audiences I speak to, most people in life are bad at most things. We're all good at a few things, we all have one thing about us that makes us special, that makes us different, that makes us unique. Lean into it, own it, identify your strengths, and own them. Communication is essential to the power of listening, and empathy, it is critical to be effective as a leader, and critical to being able to connect with anyone and everyone around you. And if you're male, if you're female, if you're somewhere in between, if you have that trait, if you have that skill, if you're an empathetic person, lean into it, own it, don't run away from it. That's incredibly valuable.

Deborah: I couldn't agree more. And another piece of advice I always try to give people is the idea of learning, evolving, and reinventing back to the question of what makes people successful. Lifelong learners tend to be much more successful in life than people who have a particular skill. But they allow that skill to atrophy that they don't constantly look to read or constantly look if you're a technical person to get additional certifications or consider taking a few extra courses in school, or there are all kinds of ways volunteer for that extra assignment or for that rotational assignment on the job to broaden your experience. So this is another way for people to continue to build their portfolio and with a bit of luck, they'll have fun because there'll be exposed to new things. And if you've got that curious mind, that's another thing I find the best leaders are always curious, they're always wanting to learn. It's not a chore to have to learn or to read a book of interest. These tend to be as I said, the most successful people, at least from my experience with those that I have dealt with and met.

Adam: Yeah, Deborah. I cannot agree with you more. A key observation from my interviews with hundreds of America's most successful leaders, the best leaders are lifelong learners. It's a combination of curiosity and humility, understanding that no matter how much success you've enjoyed, to continue to enjoy success, you need to continue to grow you need to continue to learn.

Deborah: So true.

Adam: What advice do you have for men on how to become more effective allies?

Deborah: Well, after the ‘me too’ movement broke into the headlines, I found that many men who had been mentoring women, as well as men, had the tendency to pull back and not want to mentor women as much because they perceived or they feared that they could be possibly accused of something going down the line. And boy, every time I perceived that this was happening or sometimes some of my colleagues would come right out and say it to me. I would essentially plead with them and argue with them that it was the wrong approach. That men mentoring women is one of the best ways to be an ally, one of the absolute best ways. Almost all of my mentors in life have been men, and where would I have been without them? So what I always suggest is just use good common sense and do what you would do with a female mentee the same as you would do with a male mentee. So in other words, don't come up with the role of, well, I won't take a woman to dinner, but I will take a man to dinner, take them all to dinner, but just don't drink excessively, for example. So use good common sense. Don't meet at your private home for heaven's sake. Would you do that with a man? So again, it's not that hard if you just think of good common sense approaches, but for heaven's sake, be an ally, and continue to mentor women and help them learn and help them grow.

Adam: I love it. You led the Air Force under extremely difficult circumstances, with political dysfunction in Washington, the acceleration of terror in the Middle East, and sexual assault in the military coming to a head. How did you leave through these challenges and crises? And what advice do you have for leaders on how to lead effectively during times of crisis, uncertainty, and change?

Deborah: Yeah, that's a really important point, it's an important question. And every leader is going to eventually come upon a crisis of some sort. So here's what I suggest on that is the definition of a crisis almost always is you've got to act quite quickly. It may not be that you have to act today. But you probably don't have a whole year to think about it. So you must first know what your spectrum of action means and the timeframe for action needs to be. Do you have a day? Do you have a week? How urgent is it? Make sure that you're clear on that so that you are acting in a timeframe that will have the appropriate impact, positive impact, upon, hopefully, lessening the crisis or resolving the crisis. The second thing is within the timeframe that you have, investigate as much as you can. So if you have a day, you've got to load yourself up with briefings. And you've got to figure out as much of the data as you possibly can. If you have a week, that gives you a little bit more time. But first, you have to investigate. The second thing I would tell you is, you're going to have to come to a point that, particularly if you're a public figure as I was, you're going to have to communicate because people are going to be all over you for information. So in a crisis, even though you never have enough information, even though you don't know everything you want to know, you have to be prepared to tell people, here's what we know, here are the key things we don't yet know. But oh, by the way, we're going to find out because here are some of the steps we're going to take in order to further investigate the situation and stand by because we will be back to you with additional information. So you have to be prepared to give the press, give the Congress, give the American people, give the members of the Air Force who are going to be clamoring for information, you got to be prepared to give them as much as you possibly can. And that's the communication phase. And that's continual, you have to do it constantly. You can never over-communicate in these ways. And then there comes a point where you have to do the third phase, which is activated. So okay, what are we going to do? What are we going to change? What are the new policies? What are the new programs that we're going to put in place? How are we going to be different going forward? The fourth phase I always talk about is what I call iterate. Because no matter what your first plan of attack is, you're not going to get it completely right from the start. If some ideas won't work, get rid of them. Other ideas will come to the forefront that you didn't have originally someone will bring them forward, and activate those. So the iterate phase is important too. And then last is follow-up. You have to keep after it. You have to measure the data and measure the improvement that hopefully, you're making. You need to be talking to people around you at all times. So I faced, for example, a crisis in our nuclear enterprise when I was a brand new Secretary of the Air Force. And it had to do with the cheating scandal of young people in their 20s, who were standing watch on the most catastrophic weapons in our inventory, our intercontinental ballistic missiles. And I had a million questions. My God, if they're cheating on a test, does that mean they don't know their jobs? Does that mean the nuclear enterprise is unsafe? Could we have an accidental launch? I mean, I had all of these questions, but eventually, my briefings went before the press. Here's what we know. Here's what we don't yet know. I did a full investigation myself. Meanwhile, I had a huge team around me they were also doing various levels of investigation and come to find out that these young people in large part, cheated on these tests because they were trying to get 100. So getting a 95% on the test wasn't good enough, because only those who received 100, month after month, test after test, would get promoted. So it turned out, that doesn't excuse the failure of integrity in this case. But it does explain that we had the wrong incentives in place for our training program for these very important officers. So the way I found that out, by the way, was doing focus groups, not just with the generals, and the colonels and the senior people, believe me, they never brought that up. But these young people who were in the community, and I got that from my own investigations and my own talking to people at all levels within the organization. So you need to, in the follow-up phase, continue to talk to the people continue to measure progress, and continue, as the leader, to put your time into the matter. Because if you're putting your time into a particular matter, everybody around you is going to put time into it too, because they want to be prepared for you when you call that meeting. So follow-up is really, really crucial.

Adam: A lot of really important points there. You can never over-communicate, period. Be prepared to pivot. Get to the truth. Your assumptions could be right, or they could be wrong. And the only way to know is by getting to the truth. Put your time into getting personally invested, roll your sleeves up, and lead by example. If you're not diving in personally, are other people going to or other people are going to be invested?

Deborah: Right? You summarize that very well, Adam. I agree with all those points. 

Adam: Thank you, I appreciate it. You had such a high-pressure job. One of the highest-pressure jobs one can think of. You're dealing with issues of enormous consequence. You are managing a budget larger than the GDP of more than 120 countries, life and death issues. How did you manage the pressure and anxiety that was inherent in your job? And in your experience, what are the keys to performing under pressure?

Deborah: Yeah, so the way I did it was for my highest pressure endeavors, which to me, were my engagements with the U.S. Congress. And that pains me a bit to say that, but the political environment has become so vicious. And it has become a gotcha atmosphere up there, that this was, believe it or not, more stressful than the nuclear enterprise project. By the way, the nuclear weapons were safe and secure. And there are many, many checks and balances. So that was never in question. But of course, as a new Secretary of the Air Force, I had to become convinced of that myself. So dealing with Congress was very, very hard. And so the way I would do it is there's no substitute for good old fashioned prepare, prepare, prepare. You got to know your stuff better than, hopefully, the other guy knows his or her stuff. So prepare, prepare, prepare. We would do practice sessions before a big hearing where other people would roleplay and pretend that they were various congressmen and senators and ask me questions. And then I would, again, practice my responses. So preparing and practicing was the way that I was able to bring my stress level down on some of these very highly anxious efforts. And then I will tell you, I think we all demonstrate anxiety or the way we react to pressure is a little different. Some people explode and get abusive to other people, or they raise their voices, or maybe they go super quiet, or they change their behavior in some way. For me, my anxiety, and my pressure would always come out at night. So this would be when I would try to sleep. I would go to bed at the normal time, and of course, my mind would be going round and round. And I'd be replaying in my head things that I did or should have done in the day that has just passed, and making lists in my head about what I have to do the next day. Now, of course, I'd already made those lists on paper. So this was, in a way, completely unnecessary. But it's hard to control the mind. So I would say, I don't know that I have a good solution for that. But I have tried meditation. I know that helps a lot of people. If your stress level comes out at night, and if you're like me and sleep becomes difficult, meditation works for some people. I will admit it didn't really work for me. Having regular habits and going to bed at the same time. These are all available in books that I read, and I'm certainly no sleep expert, getting regular exercise, which I did try to do even in this very busy job of being Secretary of the Air Force.

Adam: It's really hard to do and I think you shared something really important which is that there's no silver bullet. There's no formula that's going to work for everyone. But the most important thing you need to do is be aware of it and be aware of the fact that anxiety is real and pressure is real. And by identifying that, by understanding that you might be in a position where you're going to be susceptible to pressure to anxiety, you need to address it. And you need to try to find ways to address it that are going to work for you. And what works for you might not work for the next person. But try new things, don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, and keep trying things until you find what works for you.

Deborah: Right. And maybe one other point to add on to that is being Secretary of the Air Force was the best job that I've ever had, or probably ever will have. And these highly stressful points that would keep me up at night, as I've just described, maybe that was 10% of my experience. 90% of my experience was fantastic. Even though a lot of it was very challenging, and could be emotional. Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy, for example, meet with families of the fallen those who die in combat or in training accidents overseas and who come home via Dover Air Force Base. And we go up there and we meet with families. So there are emotional pieces to the job and there are very challenging pieces to the job. And there are very risky reputational pieces to the job. But what I wanted to say really is 10% of it for me. I will give the estimation was really, really grueling, high, high anxiety unpleasurable completely lacking any pleasure. If it's only 10%, that's probably doable. If the rest of the 90% is really purposeful, you feel good about your contributions and you enjoy your work, enjoying your work is crucial. By the way, we all spend so much time on the job, if we don't enjoy what we're doing, it's an unfortunate life to lead if all you're doing is working for the paycheck and not for feeling the purpose and feeling the enjoyment and the camaraderie of the people and the teamwork. But if you find yourself in a situation like this, where it is such a grind, and it's so grueling. I have a six-month rule. I give it six months, and for six months, I do my best to see if I can fix it. If I can fix it by having certain conversations with certain people to try to clear the air or try to get on a different playing field, if you will, or try to better understand the strategy of the group because maybe it's me that's out of sync with the strategy of the group. I give it six months and I do my absolute best. And if I cannot get it resolved, I don't let it go on any longer, I start looking. I have started to look for my next opportunity. Because again, I don't think anybody or any organization has the right to suck your life's blood out of you and make your working life lacking all enjoyment.

Adam: I think that's really, really good advice. And I think that everyone listening should take that advice and extend it to their personal life as well. If something isn't working for you and your personal life, don't let it linger. Don't let it consume you. Don't let that be the final call. Look for change, embrace change, and understand that there could be an alternative out there that's a lot better. And it starts with acknowledging that you're not enjoying what you're doing, whether it's personally or professionally. And recognizing that if you can't fix it, maybe it's time to move on.

Deborah: Right? I totally agree. And when it's family issues, boy, is that even more difficult, though, than when it's professional issues, because with family relationships, there are blood ties, and yet, there's probably not a listener out there that hasn't had a difficult relationship with their spouse or their child or their mother or father or sibling. And we've all got something and how we deal with that. Again, it's not one size fits all, and there's not a single way to do it. And there are times when you absolutely have to cut ties and that's the hardest thing of all, but if someone is abusive, if someone is bringing you down through criticism or through put-downs for making your life miserable, you have the right to save yourself. You have the right to have a good and enjoyable life. And so sometimes that hard decision has to be made.

Adam: You can't change the people around you but you can change the people you're around

Deborah: And you can change yourself. And that's what boundaries sometimes is all about.

Adam: Absolutely. Debbie, what can anyone listening to this conversation do to become more successful personally and professionally?

Deborah: Well, I'm a big believer in, and this is frequently said, but it's not always followed, and that is, put people first. So as a leader, we all worry about strategy, we worry about technology, we worry about the vision, we worry about our organizational constructs. And yet, if we're not mostly, and first and foremost, concerned with the people issues, I think we're not going to get it right in our organization. And I say this because people are the ones who create and execute the strategy. They're the ones that are either going to react well or poorly to the organizational construct. They build the technology that we need. So the people are the backbone of all of these elements that leaders focused on. And so we got to get the people part of it right. There's no question in my mind. I'm serving on various boards, I consult and I'm involved with a lot of different companies. And I'm still very involved with the government. I chair the Defense Business Board, which is a volunteer board that gives advice. We're all business people giving advice to the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary on business matters in the Department of Defense. Everybody's in a war for talent, everybody is worried about either the graying of the workforce or massive retirements that are coming. Or how are we going to attract science, technology, engineering, and math skills? And even more specifically, how are we going to get people who understand AI and machine learning? So once again, we're in this country very much in a war for talent. And if we're not focused on that as the top thing, and how we are going to make sure that we get the talent, nurture the talent, develop the talent, ultimately retain the talent, then we're missing the boat and pay and compensation benefits. This is table stakes nowadays. If you don't have that in a competitive fashion, you're nowhere, but it's way more than that. Now, it's the quality of the experience that people have in the workplace that tends to retain them. It is the quality of their immediate supervisors that tends to retain them. All of these things go into putting people first

Adam: Secretary James, thank you for all the great advice and thank you for being a part of Thirty Minute Mentors.

Deborah: Thanks so much, Adam. I enjoyed it.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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