#186: Robin Siegfried is the former Co-Owner & CEO of NORDAM, which stands for Northeastern Oklahoma Research, Development, & Manufacturing. Chances are if you have ever flown on a plane you have interacted with many of NORDAM’s products even if you weren’t aware of it.

NORDAM is a top choice for engineering, manufacturing, maintaining, and repairing components for business jets, commercial aircraft, and military warfighters around the globe. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, NORDAM is one of the world’s largest independently owned aerospace companies, employing 2,500 stakeholders across multiple facilities in North America and Europe. Through more than 50 years of experience, they are aligned to meet the growing needs of the defense and space markets with cutting-edge solutions that drive aerospace forward.

Robin grew up in Tulsa and after college at OU ventured into building NORDAM into what it is today. Through persistence, problem solving, hard work, and relationships he traveled all around the world growing the company.

On the show he shares his journey of how he did just that, building relationships, leadership, working from your strengths, eating sushi in Japan, surviving multiple aviation crashes, getting Bob Stoops to OU as a Regent, a million dollar bet, hunting adventures all over the world, being a dad, and much more.

Be sure to check out his book Stay On Fire.

Enjoy the show!

https://books.google.com/books/about/Stay_on_Fire.html?id=bq-yzgEACAAJ

#185: Bubba Cunningham is the University of North Carolina Director of Athletics. Under his leadership, the athletic department has accomplished numerous academic and athletic achievements.

The Tar Heels have won 22 national titles and made an additional 14 runner-up finishes. More than 3,500 student-athletes have made the ACC Academic Honor Roll -- which requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better for the year. The Tar Heels finished in the top 10 of the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup nine times, including a 7th overall finish in 2023-24. He also has been committed to upgrading facilities to give student-athletes the best experience possible, overseeing more than $220 million worth of projects during his tenure in Chapel Hill.

Cunningham’s leadership has also extended outside of Chapel Hill as he has served on numerous NCAA committees over the last two decades. He is the past president of The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and sits on the board of LEAD1, an association representing the ADs from the NCAA Division I FBS schools. In 2019, he worked with the Atlantic Coast Conference to lead the launch of the ACC Network that fall. 

He earned the 2019-20 AD of the Year Award from The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). In 2020, he was named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and in 2022 was named to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Board of Directors. He also is currently serving on the ACC Autonomy Committee and was the Chair of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee in 2024.

Cunningham is in his 22nd year as a Division I director of athletics. He came to Chapel Hill after spending the previous six years as the director of athletics at the University of Tulsa, where he guided the Golden Hurricane through its initial move to Conference USA and spearheaded a $60 million athletics initiative. He also served as Ball State University’s Athletic Director from 2002-2005.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Notre Dame and worked in Notre Dame’s athletics department from 1988-2002. A former member of the Irish golf team (1982-83), Cunningham served as Notre Dame’s Associate Athletics Director for finance and facilities from 1995-2000 and was the Associate Director of Athletics for external affairs from 2000-02.

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#184: Kevin Deshazo is the Co-Founder of BETTER and a partner at global leadership development firm GiANT. He works with some of the best leaders, teams, and organizations in the industry of sports on mindset, leadership, and performance.

A sought after speaker and consultant, he has presented on more than 400 college campuses, dozens of fortune 100 companies, and headlined top conferences and conventions. Places like OU and Florida State football, Nike and ESPN, and the CFP to name a few.

Kevin is the author the besting book Keep Chopping Wood: an ordinary approach to achieving extraordinary success, as well as iAthlete, and his newest book Into the Storm: How to Turn Adversity Into Your Advantage.

For more on Kevin check out kevindeshazo.com and bebetterleaders.com as well as all social media platforms. 

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#183: Pat Chambers is the Florida Gulf Coast University men’s basketball head coach. He is the former head coach at Penn State and Boston University, as well as the associate head coach at Villanova.

Pat did not know he wanted to be a college basketball coach. For the first 8 years out of college he started in business and was quickly very successful. However, a near death experience helped him find clarity in his purpose and passion to coach basketball. Within a few years he found himself helping build Villanova into a basketball powerhouse. After their run to the final four in 2009 he took the job as the head coach at Boston University. In just 2 years he led the Terrier's to the NCAA tournament and was given the opportunity to lead the Penn State men’s basketball program. After 9 seasons at Penn State,  he now leads the FGCU men’s basketball program.

On the show he shares the impact of his family and parents, experiences playing college basketball, getting into coaching, power of perspective, courage, faith, purpose, passion, his pillars of excellence and much more.

For more on Coach Chambers check him out on social, as well as FGCUatheltics.com 

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#182: Daniel Lamarre is Vice Chairman and former CEO of Cirque Du Soleil. As CEO he guided the organization through a period of astounding growth and then brought it back to life during the massive upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Daniel joined in 2001 as president of new ventures, Cirque Du Soleil had two thousand employees and seven shows in performance. Five years later he became chief executive and the company grew to five thousand employees and forty four shows around the world. At it’s peak Cirque had annual sales of $1 billion, profit margins of twenty percent, and fifteen million people attending its shows per year.

Daniel's strengths of using creativity, his laser like focus, building relationship, finding positive solutions, and exceptional negotiating skills enabled him to lead the organization to put together one of a kind shows such as Michale Jackson’s “One” and the Beatle’s “Love”, which was the only show ever agreed upon by the iconic group.

Before Cirque Daniel worked with TVA Broadcast Group, NATIONAL Public Relations, and Burson Marsteller.

In 2012 he collaborated on the creation of C2MTL Conference, a one-of-a-kind coming together of the creative and business elite of the world. It is a platform for exploring creative answers to commercial questions. In line with his belief that without creativity, there is no commerce.

He has been honored with Doctorates from McGill University, and his alma mater the University of Ottawa.

For more on Daniel and his book check out daniellamarre.ca as well as the links below. 

Enjoy the show!

Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Balancing-Acts-Unleashing-Power-Creativity/dp/1400223024 

#181: Chris Haack is the University of Georgia Head Men’s Golf Coach. Haack has coached the Bulldogs to two national championships (the only two in school history), eight SEC titles, 67 team tournament titles, and virtually every squad and individual records.

Under his tutelage, 27 Bulldogs have accumulated 63 medalist titles. Thirty-one of his players have rolled up 70 All-America honors, while 33 have earned 73 All-SEC certificates. He also has coached 19 Scholar All-Americans. Eleven of Haack’s pupils have amassed 44 PGA Tour wins and, all told, his former players have earned more than $200 million at the pro level. He also shares coaching a young Tiger Woods before his UGA days. 

Haack was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2012, the GSGA’s Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Better than all of the accolades he shares how he cares and pushes his players to be their best, as well as how he has built, established, sustained unprecedented success with the Georgia Bulldog program. 

Enjoy the show! 

#180: Taylor Edge is the Founder and CEO of Season Builder. The Season Builder Foundation's mission is to help students and young adults define direction and equip them to pursue it with purpose.

Taylor is the creator of the Season Builder framework as well as former college athlete, successful entrepreneur, corporate employee, UAH Men’s and Women’s Basketball Character Coach, public servant, worship leader, technology consultant, head coach, author, and inspirational liver of life.

He is a follower of Jesus, passionate encourager, problem solver, self leadership coach, and mentor that has been called to facilitate, inspire, remind, and empower transformation in the next generation.

Taylor has been married to his beautiful wife Mindy since 1996. They have two sons, Stuart & Austin, and live in Madison, AL.

For more info on Taylor, Season Builder, the Coach Edge App, and his book, More Than A Believer,  check out seasonbuilder.org and the link below. 

Enjoy the show!

Book:
https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Believer-Practical-Transformed/dp/1791627684/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 

#179: Admiral Mike Manazir is a retired US Navy Admiral who is a Top Gun fighter pilot and instructor who commanded the aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz, an F-14 squadron, and a Carrier Strike Group.

He completed 15 overseas deployments, qualified in the F-14 and the F/A-18 and has flown 3,750 fighter hours with 1,240 arrested landings on multiple aircraft carriers. He also completed five tours in the Pentagon culminating in his role as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Warfighting and he is now an executive with a Fortune 100 aerospace and defense company.

On the show Admiral Manazir shares his story from attending the US Naval Academy, to the split second decision of having to eject out of a jet, to commanding an aircraft carrier in a typhoon, and much more.

For more on his bestselling books, newsletter, and much more check out mikemanazir.com amazon, and all social platforms. 

Currently he has a Lead From the Heart Series book promotion going on that is posted in the link below. 

Enjoy the show! 

Lead From The Heart Promo:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6P57VHL?binding=paperback&qid=1724005240&sr=8-2&ref=dbs_dp_awt_sb_pc_tpbk 

John Rossman is the author of four books on leadership and business innovation including the best seller The Amazon Way and Big Bet Leadership. He is an early Amazon executive who played a key role in launching the Amazon marketplace business in 2002. Today he is a leading keynote speaker on leadership for innovation and transformation. John is an operator and builder whose love is diving into business problems and customer needs, designing innovative solutions and business models, and creating durable enterprise value. He has served as the senior technology advisor at the Gates Foundation and senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile.

 His new book, Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era, is an actionable playbook for senior leaders to succeed at complex transformations.

 John is the founder of Rossman Partners, a strategy & leadership solutions firm.

#177: Mike Morrell is the UNC Asheville men’s basketball head coach. In 2023 he was selected as the Big South Coach of the Year and led UNCA to a Big South Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. 

In the last two years the Bulldogs are one of the winningest programs in college basketball. In 2023 he guided UNCA to a school record 27 wins. 

Before moving to Asheville Coach Morrell coached alongside Shaka Smart at the University of Texas and VCU. 

Prior to that he coached at Charleston Southern, Clemson, and King College. 

On the show Coach Morrell shares his story of growing up, playing college basketball and golf, getting into coaching, doing your job, incremental growth, relationship excellence, the skill of following directions, confidence, building an environment, and much more. 

For more on Coach Morrell and UNCA check out uncabulldogs.com

Enjoy the show!