NOT YOUR AVERAGE OPERATOR

Have you ever ask yourself the following questions:

If the answer is yes, then listen as the boys  welcome back their favorite psychologist, Dr. Erin  and discuss and share examples of personal and team success while also maintaining the importance of aligning a positive significance with those around you.

We realize this can be a continuous  and daunting challenge, but with some of the framework and suggestions from Dr. Erin and the NYAO team, we can all conduct an honest assessment on our current paths, identify how we can add or subtract certain layers, and progress into a well balanced state that’s supported by strong healthy values and character traits.

To learn more about yourself and how to identify some of your strengths and areas that need improvement, you can visit the following link and take the character test for free:

Viacharacter.org

Please reach out to us directly to share your story or if you have questions for us or Dr. Erin.

Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Raf “Tio” Espinosa

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Mike

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LISTEN IN ON:

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“For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know”

~ Theodore Roosevelt ~

History. We all know the saying that if we forget it, we are doomed to repeat it.

This episode has a large piece on finding and cherishing amazing, living history. This is an uplifting conversation, full of laughter.

Mike was privileged to participate in a charity event. Operation Once in a Lifetime hosted their annual major trip to Washington DC. As a volunteer supporting the event, Mike was lucky enough to meet some of the heroes who have gone before us. He paid his respects to fallen comrades at Arlington, and heard stories about- and directly from- some of the “Greatest Generation”.

You’ll hear about a Korean War veteran who only told his family that he “played a lot of baseball” while he was deployed to the peninsula during the war. At his funeral they heard a citation that shocked them- heroism that they had never heard of was attributed to their quiet family man.

What is it that we most admire about these people? The quiet professionalism? The focus on resilience and the character ethic?

Let us know what it is that touches you most, what it is that draws your admiration when you think of the people you most respect.

Rafael “Tio” Espinosa

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Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Mike

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In the last few days, the world has bared witness to the disheartening images and videos of the fall of Afghanistan. The Taliban have all but reclaimed the country, along with massive supplies of weapons, vehicles, ammunition, and aircraft, while thousands of NATO troops, innocent civilians, and Afghan allies struggle to evacuate from Kabul Airport.

The questions on everybody’s mind, especially for Afghanistan veteran’s and their families are:

“How and why did it happen this way?”

“Was it all for nothing?”

“Could this have been done differently?”

Listen in as OEF veterans Mike and Raf, along with OIF veteran Melon, discuss and share their thoughts on these recent and ongoing events.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the military members who are currently in harm’s way of evacuating international citizens and to all the hopeful and brave Afghan civilians who are attempting to flee the tightening grip of the Taliban Regime.

Everyone is having a rough time with this, feeling strong emotions of sadness and anger. We would love to hear your thoughts and perspectives, but also, we’d like to ask that you reach out to the veterans of this conflict and check in on them. Never forget.

Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Raf “Tio” Espinosa

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Mike

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LISTEN IN ON:

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APPLE PODCASTS:

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Resiliency is like a muscle, and it needs to be exercised constantly and diligently. Similarly, resilience is composed of two elements. That is, to be resilient is to develop the skill to withstand discomfort. And the second element is an organism’s ability to spring back into its previous shape.  The boys felt compelled to circle back and have an open discussion about why resilience is something they practice as often, and as consistently as possible.

The people of the world at large, are in varying degrees of pain and strife. More importantly, the skill of resiliency is one of our most effective tools in withstanding those challenges and bound forward in our personal journey. Exercising resilience is unique in the method that it’s approached by every individual. What may work for you, might not work for someone else.

Raf attested to a multiple day fast to help his mind focus on a laundry list of tasks he needed to complete to put out his best resume and applications for highly coveted aviation careers. Melon is continually observing his surroundings and forcing gratitude for the things he cherishes the most; which is a constant reminder that even in his worst days, there are others who would wish they were in his shoes. Mike continually falls back to some of his darkest and toughest moments in the early stages of his career. Long exhausting and psychologically uncomfortable days that stretched into weeks that taunted him with the option to quit. Yet, he dug in, hunkered down and kept moving forward. Now, looking back, those moments have been a constant source of inspiration when tackling current and new struggles.

Please share your thoughts about this episode and let us know what tools you use to exercise resilience. We encourage all of our listeners to reach out to us with your own stories. We love reading your insights, feedback, and how we can add more value to your day.

Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Raf “Tio” Espinosa

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Mike

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LISTEN IN ON:

SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6cQyL6nPDxPNFz4p8RN5PQ?si=Pm-chuufQGSYdcflJ5Xq0Q

APPLE PODCASTS:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-your-average-operator/id1522297477

“Never starve your people of food or compliments”

– Colonel Brewster (Tour of Duty TV series)

“Praise from the praiseworthy is high praise indeed.”

– Heath Bartlett

We have all seen or received both highly effective and highly ineffective feedback. What is it about the very impactful feedback that makes a difference?

Raf has just returned from his most recent deployment and is enjoying well-earned family time, so Mike and Melon share their insights in the area of optimizing performance when delivering feedback. We will all have occasions in our personal or professional lives where we need to help others increase their output or execution. It could be at work, a sporting team, or in the family environment.

Main areas covered:

– Give assurance and confidence

– Build personal and team pride

– Develop a sense of accomplishment

– Praise in public, criticize in private

– Positive v negative

– Public v private

– General v specific

– Earned v unearned

– Professional v personal

– Requirement to include steps for improvement- the “How”

– Proximity in time

– Credibility of the assessor

We have appreciated each and every piece of feedback we have received over the past 55 episodes, as we are striving to improve and to provide quality content for you. Please share this widely in your community and feel free to reach out to your team:

Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Raf “Tio” Espinosa

[email protected]

Mike

[email protected]

LISTEN IN ON:

SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6cQyL6nPDxPNFz4p8RN5PQ?si=Pm-chuufQGSYdcflJ5Xq0Q

APPLE PODCASTS:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-your-average-operator/id1522297477

It’s not every day you have the opportunity to meet a best friend from across the globe that you have never met before, but that is exactly what happened this past week.

In this episode, Mike and Melon, sitting side-by-side, discuss their week together and reflect on their adventures and discussions. What they come to realize is that after a year of discussing framework and being open to new perspectives on the podcast, it all began to unfold right in front of them.

Some examples came directly from Annie, Melon’s vision impaired daughter, who challenged herself daily. She braved through some high surf at the beach, literally demonstrated blind faith in Mike throughout a tree top climbing course 25 feet in the air, and then proved that she could still fight in the event of a zombie apocalypse in her first time trying Virtual Reality.

There are also some great stories of meeting Heroes Media Group owner Adam Bird for the first time, meeting fellow veterans Bruce and Sione, teaching some Aussies how to fire weapons to perfection for the first time, and also a humbling visit to Arlington national cemetery where Mike shared some history and introduced Melon and his family to some of his fallen teammates.

As we have said before, life does not always revolve around work, titles, or constantly impressing everyone. We all need friends and moments like these to realize what truly matters in life.

Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Raf “Tio” Espinosa

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Mike

[email protected]

LISTEN IN ON:

SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6cQyL6nPDxPNFz4p8RN5PQ?si=Pm-chuufQGSYdcflJ5Xq0Q

APPLE PODCASTS:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-your-average-operator/id1522297477

HEREOS MEDIA GROUP

https://www.heroesmediagroup.com/

In part 3 of 3 of this series, the team welcomes back senior trauma nurse instructor Mark McCarthy to cover the crucial points of critical incident learning.

After taking the time to review and dissect critical points in incident debriefing (1/3) while identifying crucial decision points (2/3), it is imperative that we then figure out how to implement what we have learned into our daily processes to minimize failures and maximize fluidity and confidences.

Listen in as the team covers multiple processes and approaches to how you can apply such as:

The team are very grateful to Mark for bringing this area into focus. His experience and mastery of these topics have already made a difference to the team and our audience. Please share it widely and let us know how you approach this area. Your insights could help others in our community deal with a breakdown safely.

Rafael “Tio” Espinosa

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Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Mike

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This is episode 2, of a 3 part mini-series on Critical Incidents.

Mark McCarthy, senior trauma nurse instructor, rejoins us for the follow up to #52- Critical Incident Debriefing.

“We see the world not as it is, but as we are…”

During Critical Incidents, decisions are genuinely life or death, so the quality of those decisions, and the ability to find the safe path through is of prime importance. Mark’s medical ER experience again resonates with Mike, Raf and Melon, with their backgrounds in combat, special forces and aviation. The depth of these parallels are some of the most surprising elements of this episode.

The Irishman leads the conversation over the following areas:

Thank you for your ongoing support into our second year. Please leave a review, share with your network, or leave a topic you’d like us to explore.

Rafael “Tio” Espinosa

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Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Mike

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The boys are launching their first multi-episode series- which is on the topic of Critical Incidents.

Melon met Irishman Mark McCarthy on a rugby pitch in 2012 but there’s more than just rugby banter in this episode. Mark, a senior trauma nurse instructor in the Middle East, shares his experiences and insights from the ER with Mike, Melon and Raf.

Mark and the NYAO team discuss:

Mark reveals procedures and protocols developed over a life time of high stress, life or death medical scenarios. He talks about the importance of gaining consensus on what happened, and techniques he uses to establish this baseline. Mark covers Dr James Reason’s Swiss Cheese model for analysing and preventing the “organisational accident”- which both Raf and Melon have used extensively in aviation incident investigation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model

Mark refers to this Critical Incident Debriefing Tool:

https://debrief2learn.org/pearls-debriefing-tool/

This episode is a lot more than just theoretical, and Mark shares from his own lived experience of having seen a critical incident take a rapid turn for the worse and explains the fundamental lessons he learned that day.

Thank you very much for the kind reviews and suggestions you have sent in. Please let us know if you have an area you would like us to explore.

If you are getting something out of it, please consider sharing our podcast into your network.

Rafael “Tio” Espinosa

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Paul “Melon” McFadden

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Mike

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The boys talk and share personal anecdotes on the current state of the withdrawal of coalition forces in Afghanistan, and the impact it’ll have. Mike and Raf both have spent a considerable amount of time, and felt it was a good natural discussion to opine on. The boys then transitioned into a tougher conversation. They shared personal stories of witnessing bullying, being bullied, or being bullies themselves, and more importantly discussed the everlasting impact of experiencing any of those events. They all agreed that the impact and scars left from some of these life altering events are still impacting their lives as adults. Put yourself in their shoes, and think back to a time you played either role? Are those moments still affecting you? Would you have done it any differently?  Like everything, there is a human cost, and it’s in this episode that the boys wanted to explore that. Please share and leave us a Thumbs Up and Review!

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