Meikles & Dimes

Ty Detmer changed the game of football. As a junior at BYU, Ty threw for 5,000 yards and 41 touchdowns, setting 42 NCAA records and tying five others. The highlight of the season was beating the #1 ranked Miami Hurricanes, who were also the defending national champs. In that game, Ty threw for 400 yards and three touchdowns. At the end of the season, Ty won the Heisman Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in college football.

For his college career, Ty set 59 NCAA records and tied three others. His ability to accurately pass the football was unprecedented, and played a pivotal role in the passing revolution in football. And in 2012, Ty was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ty continued playing football beyond college, spending 14 years in the NFL where he mentored players such as Brett Favre and Michael Vick.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Maybe no football player has ever been so successful while also being so often mistaken for an equipment manager. But as Ty said, a little bit of toughness and a little bit of grit can go a long way.

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Ingrid Price, Special Counsel for Covington & Burling, advises clients on national security matters, including cross border investment, supply chain security, and public policy.  She has successfully represented numerous clients in gaining regulatory approval across various technology sectors, including AI, mobile applications, software, telecommunications, and robotics.

Prior to joining Covington, Ingrid clerked for Chief Judge James E. Baker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. She also served as in-house counsel at Amazon Web Services before returning to Covington as Special Counsel.

Ingrid is a graduate of Stanford Law School and the University of Cambridge.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• When it comes to investment in technologies that are relevant to national security, such as AI, quantum computing, integrated circuits, or even collecting sensitive personal data, the U.S. government wants to ensure that’s its interests are protected, so it was interesting to hear how Ingrid helps companies navigate that investment process.

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Jeffery Thompson is the director of the Romney Institute of Public Management at the BYU Marriott School of Management. He was raised in Boise, Idaho, and graduated from BYU with a BA in Japanese and a Masters degree in business. Jeff then earned a PhD in organizational behavior, with an emphasis in ethics, at the University of Minnesota, and then taught for four years in the business school at Miami University of Ohio prior to returning to BYU.

Jeff’s research focuses on organizational ethics and meaningful work. And in 2009, Jeff and his coauthor, Stuart Bunderson, published a paper that went viral in the academic world, and has been cited nearly 2,000 times. Much of our conversation today revolves around findings from that work.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Jeff found that the zookeepers he studied, consistent with others who have found their calling, have three things in common: First, they do work that has an other-orientation, a sense of service. Second, they embrace, and leverage, their own unique gifts. And third, they describe a sense of destiny, as if it were fate that had led them to their position.

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Admiral McRaven is a four-star admiral who oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden; his forces were responsible for the capture of Saddam Hussein; and he also led the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, who was held hostage by Somali pirates (which became the basis for the blockbuster movie, Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks).

As commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, Admiral McRaven led a force of 72,000 men and women and was responsible for conducting counter-terrorism operations worldwide.

After his military career, he served as chancellor of the University of Texas System, overseeing 14 institutions, 220,000 students, 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, and staff.

In 2014, he gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas that went viral, titled, “If You Want To Change The World, Start Off By Making Your Bed.”  

He is also the author of several books, including Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations and the New York Times Bestseller, Make Your Bed.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• When Admiral McRaven asked his Master Chief how to earn the respect of the soldiers, he responded: “Work hard. Come early. Stay late. Work on the weekends.”

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Alfred Grace is the President of the Polynesian Cultural Center on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Alfred grew up in New Zealand and then moved to Hawaii for an engineering apprenticeship and later attended BYU Hawaii. He had hoped to become a tour operator for New Zealand, but ended up working for the PCC, where he then became president. The PCC is one of Hawaii’s top destinations, having served more than 40 million visitors since opening in 1963.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• When Alfred became president of the PCC, the goal was to attract as many customers as possible. But COVID gave them a chance to reassess their strategy, and they realized that maximizing attendance put too much stress on the infrastructure and the employees, which in turn reduced the satisfaction of the guests.

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Harry Reynolds has negotiated and drafted deals and contracts for A-list celebrities, Grammy-award winning artists, YouTube stars, music producers, record labels, video game companies, television and film writers, directors, and actors. Prior to coming to Reynolds & Associates, Harry worked in Los Angeles as an entertainment associate at Greenberg Glusker.

Harry received a perfect score on the ACT college admissions test, attended college on a full-ride academic scholarship, and graduated from Stanford Law School.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Harry didn’t want to be a famous artist for a living, so he chose a career that allowed him to be adjacent to creativity. And now he represents some of the top artists in the world.

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Craig Lavoie is a trial lawyer and litigation partner who has been recognized as one of the leading litigators in America, and as a top lawyer under 40.

Craig served as trial counsel for Vanessa Bryant in her landmark civil rights victory against the LA County Sheriff’s and Fire Departments for their improper photos of the victims of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, and seven others. 

Following Craig’s closing argument, the jury delivered a verdict in favor of Vanessa Bryant and awarded her and a co-plaintiff $30 million in damages for their emotional distress.

Other significant representations for Craig include:

• Lead counsel for Berkshire Hathaway in a billion-dollar dispute with Pilot Corporation 

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Litigation is like the debate Olympics. It’s a team sport. It’s often irrational to take cases to trial. And there’s nothing like giving a closing argument.

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Justin Tozer is a math and science prodigy who grew up on a farm where formal education was all but prohibited. Yet, somehow Tozer would make his way to the world’s most prestigious firms, first in Silicon Valley and later in Los Alamos at the world’s preeminent scientific lab.

Yet no professional accomplishment compares to the countless lives Tozer has saved, changed, and enhanced.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• How Tozer tutored college students

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In this episode we discuss several families in Idaho Falls that Tozer impacted, many of which he impacted profoundly and privately, in ways that I had never heard of until now.

In this episode we discuss one of Tozer’s favorite topics: nuclear power. And though we talk about fission, radiation, criticality, positive reactivity, and other topics that many of us aren’t familiar with, Tozer describes everything in plain English, because he’s a master teacher. And the episode is fascinating. I learned more about nuclear in this one hour interview than I’d learned in my whole life.

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