Leadership Lessons From a Fighter Pilot with Tammy Barlette
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“We make more progress when we amplify our strengths instead of working so hard to fix our, weaknesses.”
— Tammy Barlette
Building a Supportive Team Culture
- Encourage diverse communication methods for idea sharing.
- Create an environment where sharing personal stories and challenges is valued.
- Emphasize the importance of recognizing individual talents.
Embracing Vulnerability in Leadership
- Advise leaders to show their human side, especially during uncertain times.
- Promote honesty and openness in leadership to foster trust and open dialogue.
The Impact of Engaged Leadership
- Focus on direct, personal communication within teams.
- Encourage non-digital communication methods like face-to-face talks.
- Demonstrate genuine care for team members' personal and professional well-being.
Innovating Workplace Communication
- Implement "No Email Fridays" to encourage more personal communication methods.
- Useful for improving connections in remote and hybrid work settings.
Expectation Management and Strategic Preparedness
- Stress the importance of clear communication of expectations.
- Implement contingency planning for unexpected business challenges.
Proactive Preparedness for Challenges
- View contingency planning as a tool for staying present and focused.
- Prepare for all scenarios, including minor issues like technical difficulties in virtual settings.
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Mike Goldman: Today, we're talking to US Air Force pilot. Tammy Barlette. She retired in 2018 as a Lieutenant Colonel. She then became a professional speaker and founded Athena's Voice, a speaking business featuring female military pilots from around the United States. She's also the founder and CEO of
Crosscheck, a mindset and mental performance coaching business for aviators, helping pilots increase confidence and improve performance. Tammy has a master of arts and in Christian ministry, is the mother of three and is married to a US federal agent. So I probably need to be careful what I say. I met Tammy about a year and a half ago at a speaking organization we're both a part of, I loved her message and I knew she'd be great for the show. Tammy, welcome aboard.
Tammy Barlette: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited about it.
Mike Goldman: you know, I try to, or I will continue to try to have a kind of non traditional leadership folks on. Tammy's actually our second fighter pilot, believe it or not. I had not too many weeks ago, a basketball coach on. So I think it's always great to get a perspective from outside of the business world, although Tammy's doing, you know, a little bit more and more in the business world, but getting that perspective outside the business world, I think is so great.
So that all being said, Tammy the first question I always like to ask is, you know, this show is all about building great leadership teams. So what do you think is the most important characteristic of a great leadership team?
Tammy Barlette: Well, I think that hands down it's empathy. I think it's really important that we try and understand that our leaders try and understand their people and our people try and understand our leaders. And we, you know, care about what's going on inside their minds because, you know, people will often work much harder for someone who they know cares about them and cares about their perspective, even if they don't take their perspective and their ideas all the time, just that concern for what people think is important.
Mike Goldman: And in fact, I was just having a conversation with a CEO client a little earlier today who doesn't have that problem, but one of the members of his team, she's kind of like a bull in a china shop and that empathy doesn't shine through and it's wreaking havoc with parts of the team.
So, so very relevant. And, if you're that client listening. You heard it again. Empathy is important. Coach her on that. So Tammy, thanks. Tell me, I want to go back before we get into some leadership and leadership team lessons. I want to hear a little bit more about your background.
So tell us a little bit about where your desire to become a fighter pilot. When did that start? How did that start?
Tammy Barlette: When I was in high school. You know, you obviously start thinking about where do you want to go to college, if that's one of your dreams and what do you want to be. And I think it's really difficult at that age. I mean, even as a freshman in college, you know, what do you want to be? Oh, I don't know. You know, I haven't really explored the world yet, but when I was in high school, I had this desire to be in the military, but I didn't know anyone in the military.
All I had just seen these movies and, you know, you see bootcamp and, but something in my heart just said, I want to serve. And I just. I love serving other people and I love our country. And I really appreciate kind of, you know, being tough and going through difficult things because I think we come out on the other side as better people.
So what I did was I started looking into joining the military and I looked into Air Force ROTC at the University of Minnesota, because that's where I was going to school. And you know, one of the questions they always ask you know, when you are interested in Air Force ROTC is, do you want to be a pilot? And that question honestly surprised me, which might seem silly looking into the Air Force, but I thought pilot. That sounds amazing. Yeah. I want to do that. Cause I had never met a pilot, let alone a female pilot and I'd never considered it. But the thought of having my office be up in the sky, you know, as someone who grew up, you know, riding roller coasters and climbing trees and doing gymnastics, I thought.
I can keep doing this cool stuff when I get to be an adult. And that's where it kind of stemmed from it going into the, you know, the military wanting to serve my country, but then going, yeah, I'll be a pilot.
Mike Goldman: I love the idea of I can have an office in the sky. That's really cool.
It's
Tammy Barlette: beautiful
Mike Goldman: I remember years ago, I was married a few years and my wife and I went to play paintball. And there were two guys right in front of me and I was hiding and they were right in front and I got up and shot my gun but missed them both.
They were right in front and they just killed me inside of two seconds and I'm the opposite of you. I remember telling my wife at that point, I said, if somehow they ever reinstate the draft and I've got to go to war, I said, just remarry. Remarry because I think I'm gone in minutes. So that's not me.
Although flying sounds kind of cool. So tell us a little bit you know, I know you were in the Air Force for was it about 20 years give us kind of the short version of kind of where you were stationed and what role you played, what that looked like for you.
Tammy Barlette: Yeah. So when I first got commissioned, so I graduated college and got commissioned as a second Lieutenant and there was a backup in pilot training. So I spent about nine months at Scott Air Force base, just outside of St. Louis, I was attached to a C 21 squadron where I just got to, you know, kind of hang out and help them whatever they needed help with.
And then I showed up at pilot training in March of 1999 down at Laughlin air force base in Del Rio, Texas. And pilot training was a year long. And then I got assigned immediately as an instructor pilot in the T37, which at the time was the basic trainer. So basically taking people off the street, if you will, and turning them into pilots because we would teach them landings, installs, and aerobatics, and instruments, and formation.
So when they were done with that airplane, even though they moved on to another aircraft before they got their wings. They were pretty much a pilot at that point. So that I did that job for three years. And then I went to fly the A 10 Warthog. I went to training in Tucson at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
And then I was assigned to Korea at Osan Air Base, which was an amazing assignment. I didn't want it. It was one of those jobs I thought, oh I don't want to go there. But then when I went there, it was really great. And then I came back to Tucson again, and I had cervical spine reconstruction in 2006.
So then I separated and went full time into the Air National Guard, flying the MQ one predator, which is a remotely piloted aircraft where, you know, I was sitting in a trailer in Tucson, controlling aircraft that were either in Iraq or Afghanistan. And then after that, I got an exception to policy or a waiver for my spine surgery.
So I could go back and fly High-G aircraft. And I ended my career flying full time for the reserves in the T or instructing in the T-38 Talon, which is like a little fighter trainer. And that's where I retired
Mike Goldman: Okay. And Did you actually see combat?
Tammy Barlette: You know, that's an interesting story because after spending 20 years in the military, you would think I would have deployed. But what happened was it's just the progression of my career and the timing of it. I never actually deployed because when 911 kicked off, I was an instructor pilot.
And my wartime peacetime mission was exactly the same. So I stayed instructing and, you know, sending, you know, a lot of my students went out into the world and deployed in their aircraft. And then I was in the A10 in Korea, which we didn't deploy from Korea because it, you know, we fly on the demilitarized zone up on the border.
It's considered a combat mission. And then when I got back from Korea, my squadron was deployed. The one that I was joining, they were deployed and they were finishing up the deployment. So they came back and I was now part of their squadron. And then that's where I had the surgery and transitioned into unmanned platforms.
In the remotely pilot aircraft world, only a few people are forward. They do the launches and recoveries of the aircraft and the whole rest of the squadron and the pilots are stateside flying the aircraft. And so I saw a lot of the war, but I wasn't physically there. And then like in my last six years, I was instructing so.
Mike Goldman: I also know everybody's got a call sign and yours is G, right? Tell uswhat's the story behind your call sign of G?
Tammy Barlette: Yeah. Well the full call sign is actually G spot and it comes from a flying story. The shortest version of the story is when I was rolling in on a guns pass in Korea, I used my G meter as my distance from the target to shoot, which obviously it doesn't work, doesn't work that way, but we had recently got the heads up display upgraded and I just.
My brain was on overdrive and my brain, grabbed the wrong number. And I came off the target, not shooting. And I told my flight leader, he's like, okay, let's wrap it up. Let's head home. And I'm like, no, we were in the middle of an exercise. So it's like a fake war. And I said, we need a 50 percent hit rate to be successful.
That's I got just got zero. So we did it again. I rolled into the target, the same thing happened. And I shot anyways, because I knew that there was nothing wrong with my system. I knew everything was fine. Come to find out the distance I was using was, it was not the distance. It was the G meter. So, you know, it makes me sound silly, but that's usually all fighter pilot call signs typically come from a mistake you made.
So they thought it would be funny to name me G spot, which was a little bit shocking. You know, even though I was 10 years after the first woman fly to fighter jet. I was still looking back. I was still kind of on the front wave of it. There weren't many of us and I wasn't in that squadron to prove anything.
I was there to fly jets and if that's what they wanted to name me, then whatever let's just go for it. And it was fine around the squadron. It was actually it was pretty funny. I mean, if you can just, you know, let go of, you know, all those things you could be, might be concerned about with a call sign like that, but it was outside the squadron where it actually was a little bit bothersome, you know, you're telling your, your mom, what your call sign is, or you're at the officer's club getting introduced to the wing commander's wife, you know, people go, Oh, what did you do?
And, you know, that was where it was a little bit brutal. But the truth is, is that those kind of things culturally change takes time and I'll tell you about two years ago, I went to an A10 squadron and the guy, the squadron commander said to me, Hey, what was your call sign? And I said, well, what was it?
Or what is it? And he said, well, both I said, well, it's G now, but it originally it was G spot. And his reaction told me enough. He literally looked at me and went, what? They named you that, and it just shows that, you know, it changes. You just can't change, flip a switch and have it change overnight. So, I think that ties into leadership as well, because changing culture is really important, but you cannot make the significant shift overnight, you have to slowly, you know, make these steps towards making a change.
Mike Goldman: Really important. And I know I've heard you talk about kind of somewhat related to that. I've heard you talk about social risk and the courage and the importance of creating a friendly environment to kind of take that risk. Talk a little bit about what social risk means and how you help people become more courageous to come out and talk about some of those things that are important to talk about.
Tammy Barlette: Yeah. I think that in any organization, people need to be authentic and they need to ultimately be vulnerable, especially in dangerous environments. Like the one that I worked in, we can't be hiding things and we have to be able to ask our questions. So what the social courage thing is basically.
I'm someone who clearly is willing to put my life on the line. I would be considered courageous by many people, but if you categorize. You know, social courage is something different. I don't have as much courage in that area. You know, the kind of thing where I've been afraid in the past to raise my hand and ask a question, you know, go around the squadron.
After we come back from a flight, I overhear people talking about some mistake that somebody else did. And I think to myself, oh my gosh, I could have done that. You know, or do they talk about me like that? And it would cause me to not ask questions, not you know, be confident in my answers when I did.
And so the truth is you need to create an environment. I mean, it's both sides. It's the people in the organization needing to be brave and bold, but naturally we all have different limitations on how brave and bold we're going to be socially. So I think it's up to our leadership teams to meet those people halfway on the other side and make sure that they have an environment where people feel that they can ask questions. For example, if you're someone who says, if you have a question, no question is dumb. Just ask it, you know, if somebody else probably has that question. That's very valid. But when you turn around and say, but there really is dumb questions, guess what?
Now your people aren't going to ask the questions. And I think it's also in little areas, little comments, like, I can't believe you didn't know that. You know, little things like that make it for people who are thinking about asking a question, go, okay, I don't want to get criticized like that. So it's up to leadership to create environments where people, you know, feel they can ask questions.
Cause all of us have strengths in different areas. So my strength might be, I might be really good at understanding how to execute a guns pass, but I'm not very good at air to air. That's okay. Somebody else might have a strength elsewhere. So I should be comfortable asking questions in an area I'm not comfortable in.
Mike Goldman: So, what are some of the other things in your, I imagine in your career you have worked with leaders that probably made you very uncomfortable asking the dumb question or admitting a mistake and others that made you more comfortable.
Oh yeah.
So in addition to not saying things like there are dumb questions and even if you say that tongue in cheek it sends a message, right?
What are some of the other things leaders should think about that might make a difference there? Because I think we both agree that if you've got folks on the team, whether you're a pilot or whether you're a head of marketing, if you've got folks on the team that are not speaking honestly and being vulnerable, you're gonna miss out on the value that person really has to offer.
So what else have you seen that leaders do that help create more of that friendly environment.
Tammy Barlette: Yeah. You're right. Because there's a lot of strengths that people have that if they're quieter. You might not ever hear what they have to say. And that means that your team is not operating at its full potential. So how do you get those people out? I think that it's important that you don't always have people sit in huge groups and ask their questions.
You know, you have, you create smaller places where people can speak up sometimes one on one. And we all know that it's important for us as leaders to show vulnerability and open that door. So that our people can go, oh, well, she's made a mistake too. I'm so glad she makes me feel like I'm normal.
You know, we need to share these instances where, you know, when I share the story about when I got to pilot training, I found myself surrounded by mostly men with engineering degrees who wanted to fly since they were three. I was none of those things. And I almost refused to raise my hand in class, even though I knew better.
But you know, you want to create an environment where people don't feel that, or maybe they don't want to, like I said, not this larger group, you find a place where I would go after, and I would talk to somebody I knew. I could trust and ask them the questions. Now that's not ideal, but if you can create an environment where people have different options of places, they can speak up and again, add in that you share your vulnerability, it makes people feel like, okay, it's okay for me to ask this question and not get hammered for it.
The other thing that plays into that is that it's really important that we recognize people's strengths because they're finding that we make more progress when we amplify our strengths instead of working so hard to fix our, you know, weaknesses. I mean, you still need to address your weaknesses, but your team is going to perform better when you tap into everyone's strengths and recognize those.
So we don't need to keep beating people up for their weak areas.
Mike Goldman: I love it I love all, you know, all three of those ideas, if I'm counting it right, like, you know have different methods, smaller groups, one on one was kind of the first thing I took from that. The second is being vulnerable yourself, you know, and, you know that, and that's one I really want to hit on because I think that's so important.
I can remember right after the world shut down for COVID, there were leaders that I talked to. No one knew what, you know, everybody was freaking out. It was a brand new situation for everyone. And I had leaders that felt like when they were on zoom calls with their teams, when zoom was still kind of a new thing for a lot of people, they were on zoom calls with their team, they felt like they needed to put the superhero cape on.
Where everything is okay. Everything's going to be okay. I'm okay. My family's okay. Let's get down to work. And what they realized is by them putting that superhero cape on, which they thought was the right thing to do as a leader, what it resulted in was everybody else feeling afraid to share some of the crap they were going through because they thought they had to be as strong as the CEO.
And when the CEO kind of came out and said, we're having a tough time too, you know, I'm not sure what, you know, my kids are supposed to be in school and they're doing this and, you know, and, you know, I'm not sure what's going on with our vendors or the supply chain and not that you want to curl up and cry in the corner as a leader and freak everybody out, but if you could be honest and vulnerable, other folks around are going to do the same.
So I love that point. Your third point about leveraging strengths, you know, absolutely. So all important and I want to talk a little bit about teams because that's what this show is all about is a better leadership team. And to make sure we're talking the right language, and we talked a little bit about this right before we hit record in business, we call it a team.
It's a marketing team. It's a sales team. It's the executive team, whatever it is. What, what's the right language to use in, in air force speak. There are probably just like there's different levels of teams in a. business. What, what, what's the right word in Air Force speak for a team?
Tammy Barlette: Yeah. Well, you can still call it team, you know, obviously the concept is the same and it's, but in the air force, you know, you have flights, it's the, that, that would be like the smallest of the organizations. I don't know. It depends on, depends on the, like the organization, how big it is, but say typically 30 to 50 people.
I don't know. There's flights. And then a couple of flights together make a squadron and then a couple of squadrons together make a group and a couple of groups make a wing. And typically a wing is like the highest level at a base, generally speaking at an air force base. Like the wing commander has the most people.
But yeah, I mean, you can, you still use the word team. I mean, even in the flying world, we in the eight, ten specifically, you know, we fly, you know, we have flights of two, sometimes four ship formations, you know? So there's just lots of different ways that teams are put together in the air force.
Mike Goldman: are you typically working with, with the same squadron or the same flight? Is it the same people or does that change very often?
Tammy Barlette: Well, squadron would be the word I would use the most as far as, you know, I, you work with people in your squadron and it does. I mean, it depends on how you want to look at it. It does stay the same, but you got to remember that people move around every two to three years, depending on the organization. So that piece of it changes, but there's continuity that that's there.
You know, there, there is constant change, but it's not like everyone swaps out at the same time, but there's definitely people moving and shaking. And that's a lot of why you have to have continuity and little things like. Continuity binders. What does that mean? It means like when I became the squadron programmer in charge of squadron scheduling, I sat down and there was a book that said, what do you do?
Oh, every day you do these things every week, you check these things every month, you check these things. And we had a file that if we had edits to it, we would edit it as we go so that it was always up to date. And the next guy could just come in and pick up the job. You know, I mean, there was still more to learn besides the continuity binder, but when I got out of the military and I was working with some organizations, one thing I, I discovered was that this isn't that common.
So for example, I was working with an organization which was struggling when they had somebody who was a really good coach in their gym become a manager. They're like, well, they struggle. I'm like, well, where's your, what's, what does your training plan look like? Can I see it? And they're like, what do you mean?
Like, well, I mean, like it should tell you all the things they need to learn to be a manager because being a coach is very different than managing. The other coaches and doing the schedule and like, Oh, we just do on the job training. Like, well, how do you know that all of your gyms have the same? And that's, you know, these people just assume they have leadership skills, but you have to teach people how to be leaders.
There's nothing wrong with that. There's, I think there's very few natural leaders out there. And then people get selected for these upper, these positions. And they think they just are supposed to know. And then they're in this place where they're like, wait, I should know this. So I don't want to ask this.
But I've never been taught this, but they're not teaching me. So it's
Mike Goldman: Yeah, well, what just hit me is this metaphor of imagine, imagine. You're in the Air Force and it's like, you know, you know, go, go get in your plane and go fly like, well, how do I do what we do on the job training that doesn't work, but, but it's, you know, but that's obvious. You certainly wouldn't do that as a fighter pilot, but why do we do that in our companies?
Yes, maybe it's less dangerous than having someone go up
But, but we do that in our companies all the time. So, so I love that. And, and yes, there are companies that have, I think, a business version of that continuity. What'd you say it was? Continuity binder. It, it's probably, you know, where are your standard operating procedures?
Where are your job descriptions and your job scorecards? And so many don't do that. And, and it's so important. So, so in addition to having that continuity binder and, and, you know, quote unquote, standard operating procedures. What have you seen? And, and we'll, I'll use the word squadron, you know, in, in the place of teams for this, what, what did you see in the air force?
What did the best leaders do to help you feel like more a part of a team versus a whole bunch of individuals?
Tammy Barlette: Well, I think that one of the biggest things is they actually talk to
Mike Goldman: No, get out of
Tammy Barlette: leaders. I, yeah, I know. Crazy. Yeah. I know a squadron commander who actually implemented no email Friday. And so you couldn't communicate via email like it. Was an automatic reply. This is no email Friday. Call me if you need something or come to my office just to encourage that interaction because just
You know, talking to someone and actually I would say more so listening when you, when you go around to your people and say, Hey, how's it going?
You know, and you, you get to know them, like, listen to what they say. It's not about you talking, it's about you listening. And I think that's super powerful. The leaders who pay attention to their people. Now you can't, I get that. You can't know everybody in every detail about everybody, depending on the size of your organization, but at some level, if you, if your organization is so big, you can't do that, then you at least need to do that for your, your first, those next level leaders.
And they need to do it for their next level leaders so that everybody in the organization feels like. Somebody above them cares about them and what's going on in their world, because despite the fact that we think we, you know, work is work and home is home, they're interconnected and how we feel at work affects us at home and how we feel at home affects us at work.
Mike Goldman: And all of that becomes way more important in this. World of remote work and hybrid work. I love the idea of some of my clients have no meeting Fridays, which was more about them being able to get some work done and not be sitting in meetings all day, but I've never, but no email Friday. I love the idea of pick up the phone or if you are in an office, come, you know, knock on somebody's door.
You know, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see emails go back and forth. For hours, that could have been a two minute phone conversation, you know, and just getting to know each other. So I think, I think that, that, that's great. Are there any other big kind of lessons, lessons from, from the Air Force leadership lessons or, or, or lessons in becoming a better team?
Other lessons from the Air Force that that, that you have seen apply well to business.
Tammy Barlette: Yes. I think this is not only applies to business, but it applies to life in general. It's something I think that impacts us all the time is expectation management. Like what do you actually expect of your people? I mean, even if you think about in your. Into down to the smallest level of like in your family, you know, if you miscommunicate, what did you each actually expect, you know, or, you know, in your business, what did you think was going to happen?
And we think that it's clear that our people know what we want, but it's not always very clear. So when there's a breakdown in communication, I think one of the first things we need to do is stop and go. What did I expect? And like, and then ask that person who didn't meet the expectations. What is it that you were trying to meet?
Because maybe those didn't marry up. Because if you think about in the flying world, we're flying four jets at 400 knots, sometimes three feet apart. We all have to know exactly what to do, what to expect, whose role is what, or there's going to be some super dangerous situations. So the expectations are very clear.
You know, when I give this signal, you do that. When this happens, you do this. You know, if, if we had to, we talk about contingencies, which is, I think a lot of things that people don't deal with. Contingency planning, I thought was something everybody did come to find out it's more what pilots do. So what do I mean?
We have our plan. We go through what our plan, our ideal plan would be. We set usually three objectives that are measurable. So when we get done, we can go, did we actually meet these objectives, but we also address contingencies. We usually pick one emergency that, Hey, if this emergency happens, this is how we're going to handle it.
Or, you know, let's say weather rolls in over our target area or, you know, somebody gets shot down. How are we going to handle this? So how does that apply to business? I think what needs to happen is we need to be much more prepared for the What IFs. And sometimes people will say to me, well, Tammy, you can't prepare for everything, all the what ifs.
And that's 100 percent true, but you shouldn't prepare for none of them. So how do you decide? I think that going through the, the what ifs, meaning like when you lay down at bed in bed at night and whatever it is, that's keeping you up about your business. It's something you need to, you need to actually fully what if through, okay.
So if this scary thing in my mind happens in my business, what am I going to do? And I'm not talking 60, 000 foot view. I'm talking like details as if it happened, what are you going to do? And then, you know, eventually over time you do this, you do one or two of these at a time, you'll build up an arsenal of ways to deal with these what if situations so that when.
The challenges come up and they absolutely will, and they will be bigger than you expect them. You're more mentally prepared to handle any challenge, even if it's the one you didn't plan
Mike Goldman: I love that because a company is always, what do we need to do to make this happen? What do we need to do to launch this new product or to grow revenue by 25%? But, but you're right. It's not very often. They're like, okay, what, what are the, what ifs, what, what are the things, you know, what if the economy goes South?
What if the world closes down again? What if a brand new competitor, you know, comes in and kicks our butt? So, so I love that and I used to talk to clients about and I'm stealing this from someone. I read this in a book. I just don't remember what book, but the idea of, you know, at the end of a, an initiative or, a, you know, or a project, very often people do a post mortem.
Let's talk about what worked. Let's talk about what didn't work. But the idea of doing a pre mortem, like before you do it, if this went south, if we failed, Why might we fail? And let's talk about that now, which is your idea of what ifs. So I love that, and most leaders are not doing that
Tammy Barlette: right. Well, some people think that it's a pessimistic view and I disagree with that because if you go into something with, with in the back of your mind going, well, what if X happens, you, you are not fully in that. Project that moment because you have a little bit of your brain going, Oh crap, what if now, if you in advance go, okay, let's say this X thing happens, we have a plan.
You can now invest everything moving forward because you're not worried about, well, what if, what if, what if that's not in your mind anymore. So I think it's really important that it's not a pessimistic view, it's preparing, you know, and, and making yourself more present in the moment, which we all are learning is one of the biggest things we need to be
Mike Goldman: And it gives you the confidence that as a team we'll figure it out. We can, cause we've thought about this stuff. Love that.
Tammy Barlette: Yeah, absolutely. And it can even go down to the smallest thing. Like for example, what are you going to, what are you going to do if you're leading a huge meeting over zoom and your internet goes out? Do you actually have a plan? A lot of people worry about that, but they don't actually have a plan. So I'll tell you, like, you gotta, you gotta name your person who's going to pick up the reins.
So it's not just something random, like who's going to pick up the reins. And here's what we're going to talk about. This is my plan. So, you know, in case my internet fails for me, when I give a keynote virtually. I worry about that, but in order to take that stress away, I actually pre record a fully, like a full keynote, like with what I would wear, the background, everything.
And I upload it to a private YouTube link and I send it to him. I say, if we lose the internet, this is my presentation. Go play
it.
Mike Goldman: That's brilliant. I love it.
Tammy Barlette: Now it's extra work, but it shows that you care, right? I mean, you care about this.
Mike Goldman: Tell me, tell, tell me a little bit about the transition from Air Force. To speaking and coaching. What, what, what drove that?
Tammy Barlette: Well, it was my husband's idea. A couple of years before I retired, he had came up to my desk and he said, cause I was sitting right here studying at this desk, not in this house, but somewhere else. But anyways, he came up, he said, I know what you're going to do when you retire. And I was really curious.
I thought, well, what am I going to do? And he looks at me and he says, motivational speaking. And I've told this story a million times, but it's how it all started. Cause I literally got a little bit nauseous and was like no, that's not going to happen. I don't want to be on stage, especially don't want to be a state on stage alone.
I love being part of a team. But over time, I realized that You know, there's not a lot of women out there sharing our stories and people just quietly go off into the night and move on to the next thing, which is fine. But then we're kind of seeing the same things over and over again. And I'm learning that, you know, people still to this day are like, wait, You did that.
And I'm, I'm like, yeah, you can do it too. And so there's, there's a lot of power in seeing is believing. So although a lot of things impacted my decision to take the stage, it was, it was really when I learned, or I shifted it to being, you know, it felt very selfish of me to not share my story when it could be helpful to others.
So when I learned that it was more self less to be on stage to help others, that's the perspective I have. So I'm, I'm. I got up on stage to speak and share my story and my perspective so I could help other people. And that's the only reason I'm up there. And it's, it's pretty powerful. And then the coaching thing, I, I really just enjoy making a positive impact in people's lives.
And so I shifted into Mental performance coaching for aviators, because I truly believe to the bottom of my heart that if professional athletes are investing heavily in mental performance coaches, our pilots and military as a whole, but our pilots, they need civilian pilots too. I mean, they're literally putting themselves in danger.
They need to be on their game because like, I like to say, you can't just pull over on a cloud. You have to be able to handle whatever comes your way, whatever moment that happens. So that's kind of that short that I guess it was a long transition, but
Mike Goldman: And, and tell me a little bit more about, about Athena's Voice.
Tammy Barlette: Athena's Voice grew out of basically me seeking out some advice from a friend of mine who is already on the speaking circuit and she said, you know we need to get more people out there sharing their stories and so the idea of again having a group not doing something alone was appealing to me and It's just as motivating for me to get so it's it's I should back up and tell you what it is It's it's a it's basically a speaking business where we have Military female, female military aviators who are all professional speakers with different backgrounds and different stories that go speak in different organizations at conferences and etcetera.
And it's just nice to get all these ladies stories out there because they're very powerful and they can be life changing. And I, I love getting them out there as much as I love getting them to go out and speak. Like when I. Get one of them booked. I'm like, yes, your story's incredible. I can't wait for you guys to hear it.
You know, cause it's really, the ladies are really amazing. And actually, in fact, a lot of them were like me, they didn't really, where they were like, nobody wants to hear my story because when you surround yourself with people that are like you, you know, you're, we're surrounded by fighter pilots. It's not a big deal.
They don't, these ladies don't realize. How incredible what they have done is, so I want to
get
Mike Goldman: And what, what types of organizations do they and you typically go out and, and speak to?
Tammy Barlette: Oh, I mean, there's, I mean, it's really a vast, a lot of, a lot of businesses, banking businesses. I've spoken to a lot of police forces and a lot of times when these big companies have women's events. And now I want to make it clear though, that I don't want to pigeon hole Athena's voice into speaking to women only, because I think it's important that, you know, men and men speak to both men and women, women need to speak to both men and women.
And there's something to be learned, but we do obviously get hired a lot to speak to like. The women's organizations within businesses, and then it'll expand from there. Once they hear these women's stories and like, Oh, you have to speak at our conference. You have to speak at our, you know, symposium or whatever it might be.
Mike Goldman: Amazing. So Tammy, if someone wanted to find out more about, you and your, your coaching, is it just for aviators or, or is some of your coaching bleeding over into things outside of the flight world?
Tammy Barlette: No, that's a great question. That all comes down to my, the advice I was given as, as a young business owner to start with something very specific, specific fractal or specific, you know, audience and expand. So the answer to that question is. The business was created to focus on aviators because clearly that's my specialty.
But mental performance coaching and the training I have is really applicable to anyone. It's really all about, you know, having, shifting your mindset to a place that will make it your performance. Much more improved. You'll be more focused, more confident, and just more ready to move forward. And that's applicable to whether you're an athlete, you're running a business or you're flying a
Mike Goldman: Beautiful. So if someone wanted, and I'll put all this stuff in the show notes, but if someone wanted to find out more about you or, and or more about Athena's voice or cross check, any of those things, where, where, where should they go?
Tammy Barlette: So me particularly I would find me on LinkedIn. So I'm on LinkedIn and I post regularly there. I post with intention, not for attention. So I might not post a ton, but I want to make sure it's powerful and meaningful when I put it out there. As far as websites go, AthenasvoiceUSA.com is if you need it, if you want a speaker from our lineup and that's Athena is in the goddess of wisdom and war and voices and speaking Athena's voice, usa.
com. And then the last one for my particular aviator mindset coaching and the, of course, I'm, I'm actually launching a course soon on confidence in aviation. Just go to TammyBarlette.com.
Mike Goldman: Well, if you want a great company, you need a great leadership team. Tammy, thank you so much for helping us get there. This was, this was great. Really appreciate you coming on the show.
Tammy Barlette: Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you for having me.