Heroes in Business - Danelle Barrett, US Navy Rear Admiral, Author Rock the Boat

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

What one thing the Military can Teach Us. Danelle Barrett, US Navy Rear Admiral, Author Rock the Boat is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and famous celebrity host of the Eliances Heroes Show broadcast on am and fm network channels, online syndication and TV streaming.    

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. That's right. Again, and welcome back to the show. What a way to start the morning when we had Billy Morrison, the guitarist for Billy Idol. So make sure that you check out Eliance's dot com. E-L-I-A-N-C-S dot com. We have interviews of people that are making a change, helping others, bringing joy to others, making a difference in the world.

And you can, too, because that's where we unlock the secrets with our interviews. And I'm very honored today to have with us Danelle Barrett, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. And we're going to talk about her book in a minute, but you can reach her at daniellebarrett.com. That's again, daniellebarrett.com. You can see below the link so make sure you type that in because we're going to talk about what she's doing now and also to what she created so welcome to the show very honored that you're here today oh thanks no it's my honor to be here David I mean

really exciting thank you but it's because of people like you that we're even allowed to do this show and have the freedom to be able to do it. So thank you again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the freedom. In fact, let's talk a little bit about that. Do you think it is freedom that something that someone could take for granted, having not known what having not having freedom is? Yeah, it's really interesting you bring that up, because that's a even in my retirement, I spoke about this, why it was so important. You know, we swear an allegiance to protect and defend our Constitution, not to a person, not to a thing that's different or political party. And it's so important because that protects those freedoms. And, you know, all of us in the military would give our life to make sure that someone can have the right to free speech, for example, even if they express themselves in a way that

we don't particularly agree with or like, it doesn't matter. The fact that we want them to express themselves and have that freedom forever is so important. And, you know, we've seen that now with, honestly, the Taliban taking over in Afghanistan, how freedoms supplied previously are now being denied again, and how horrible that is. And we do take it for granted in this country, particularly if you haven't lived anywhere else or gone anywhere else where your freedoms are restricted. People just sometimes have no idea how lucky we are here. As flawed as our country is, sometimes it's a wonderful place. And we have a wonderful set of basic core values and tenets that keep our democracy moving forward and we just got to protect those at all costs. And I think we see how fast things can move on a dime

if we're not continuing protecting the freedom, right? Things can change. we've seen in the news we're changing overnight yeah absolutely and you know particularly now in the age of the internet second right David news travels fast good and bad and bad information can cause people to be influenced in certain ways and behave ways that they may not have before and it's we can't ever let that allow us to question our core freedoms, though, and stay true as a nation to what we believe in, our freedoms to be religion, freedom of speech, assembly, all those things are so important. And we're going to talk about your book soon, but I think it's important for our viewers and listeners to get an idea of the rank that you had in the military. So can you please

do a brief overview for those of you that may not be so familiar with it? And also too, is how you went to achieve such a high ranking and the amount of dedication? Because again, those of us that haven't do it, we have no idea. Yeah, no, I'll tell you, a lot of it is luck, too, and people looking out for you. I've had great mentors my whole career. So I was an admiral in the Navy, a one-star admiral, and they go all the way up to four stars. So one-star admirals are getting coffees for four-star admirals. That's how you can think about it, right? But once you go up the ranks, you know, there's officer and enlisted ranks. And enlisted ranks go up to Master Chief in the Navy.

That's a very high-rank equivalent of Admiral to the enlisted folks. And then the admirals are, you know, you go up from Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander and Captain, and then you make Admiral if you're lucky. And I was very, very lucky. I'll be honest with you. On any given day, the wind could have blown someone else's direction, and another great officer could have been picked, and that would have been great for the Navy too, you know, so I just feel really blessed to have been selected and people looked out for me,

David, the whole time through, I mean, you know, what they say about a turtle on a fence post, they didn't get there by themselves, right? Well, I was that turtle on the fence post. I had tons of people who were great mentors and great leaders gave me opportunities and let me fail and let me learn from failure and to move on from that and I was just very blessed yeah and when it was announced and when you found out that you achieved this ranking well what kind of feeling is going through your mind and body um you just feel really grateful I will you, my first feeling was just grateful because like I said, it could have been one of, you know, maybe 30 other officers that day and

the wind could have blown someone else's direction and it would have been them. And, and then you feel a sense of responsibility, like, okay, now I'm given this, you know, being able to breathe some rarefied air, honestly. And, and what am I going to do with that opportunity? How am I going to use my couple years as an animal? Because you have a limited shelf life, you know what I mean? And how am I going to use those years to accelerate change, to be transformational, to pick the hill I want to die on that will make a difference before I make my exit? So that's the kind of thing you shoulder a responsibility not to just let status quo move on, but to do something that will make a difference for our military. I think you bring up a great point.

You're right. It's a certain period of time. It's not going to be forever and ever and ever. What can I do? And I think that's such a important, valuable, valuable advice. And again, we have with us Danelle Barrett, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. And we're going to talk about our book now, Rock the Boat, Lead Change, Encourage Innovation, and Be a Successful Leader. Make sure you go to danellebarrett.com. We'll have it on our website. We'll have it below. If you're watching, listening, wherever you are, make sure you go check out alliances.com because you're listening to me david cogan host of the alliances hero show so make sure you go to alliances and we'll have the link on there

for you to be able to go to her site and get the book um so danelle talk to us about the the key takeaways of the book uh first of all please share with us maybe the first key takeaway that you'd like somebody to have yeah so I wanted the book to be sort of like a conversation like we're having now like just with a cup of coffee with your mentor and you know the practical things that you want to take away and go and do something with you know a lot of leadership books are really lofty and they'll have like mathematical formulas in them which I don't know about you but they make my head want to explode when I

see that happen right because you, leadership is not about formulas or all that crazy, you know, kind of trying to make gravitas to it. It's basically, you know, you know, empathy and good, you know, being attuned to other people and being having a vision. And so in the book, I really just want it to be a conversation. So there's basically three kind of tenets that run through the book is, you know, inspire and connect people because you need to do that as a leader. You need to be inspirational in the way that Walt Disney was, for example, or Elon Musk or those people. You have to have a bold vision. And then you have to be able to connect people to help you because you're never going to do it by yourself. You have to have a

team around you that's way smarter than you that's going to get you there, right? And then you need to take away, in my opinion, three positives from any bad thing that happens because bad things are going to happen and you are going to stumble. And it may be a personal failure or a professional failure. You can't beat yourself up about that. You got to just keep going and pull the three positives out of there. OK, what was the good out of that? And move and focus on that, because that'll have the people around you focused more optimistically as well. And then lastly, don't be a jerk. I mean, I can't say it any more clearly than that. But I mean, you know, we've all worked for the jerk, right? And most times they don't know that they're even a jerk. That's what makes them a jerk,

even worse. Jerk to the 10th degree, right? They got their PhD in jerk. And so you just always keep your behaviors in check, keep your humility in check, you know, all those things that, you know, how you want to be treated. It's kind of the golden rule, you know. It's not rocket science. It's, you know, I say it's so easy a monkey could do it, and honestly, it is. You know, you just have to really stay grounded to your core values, your moral compass true, you know, your vision, and take care of the people. Danelle, you spent 30 years in the Navy. 30 years in the Navy 30 years if you look back on your career within the Navy 30 years what would you say is is maybe one of the single ones

what I know that looks impossible I only look 22 I know that seems impossible because I only look 22. Whatever but you started the movie at five years old, right? I mean, it works. I don't even know. Go ahead. It recruited you at five. That's right. One, you know, there's got to be particularly one memory that just stands out the most for you, becoming so vivid in that.

What is that? for you becoming so vivid in that? What is that? Well, I'll tell you, I mean, there was a couple things. The one thing that I find most important is not to focus, like a lot of people focus on like what their terminal pay grade was, like making animal. And believe me, that's really significant. And I'm very grateful. But for me, it's like small moments that are more impactful than I remember. It's like somebody who comes up to you in a store and says, Hey ma'am, you don't remember me, but you're the reason I stayed in the Navy or you gave me a second chance when nobody else would. And those kinds of moments are the ones that,

you know, really recharge your batteries and say, okay, man, I did the right thing from a leadership perspective. But then from like a supporting the nation perspective, my tours in Iraq and supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and then Operation, supporting Afghanistan operations too, those were pretty significant. And we did some relief operations in Haiti that I felt were really, like we really, I really felt like we were making a difference on the ground there. So those kinds of tours, I always found really rewarding and I'm really grateful to be able to participate in. How have you seen things change from when you started?

I mean, 30 years, it's definitely not the same from when you first started. Talk to us about what you've seen the change and the biggest change that you predict or see in the future. Right. So I've seen big changes on the human front and the technology front. So on the technology front, you know, we're faced with a world where we have exponentially accelerating and converging technology that is making warfare completely different. You know, when you can have things influenced just by words and social media and get people to react in a way that you don't have to shoot a weapon anymore. I mean, that's pretty scary. We need to figure out how we're going to manage that in a world that that is the reality, right? And then just the advances in technology when it comes to be able to connect and communicate

and all those kind of things. And then on the personal side, you know, I saw a lot of changes in just how folks of different backgrounds, genders, racial categories, and things like that were treated. When I first came in, things were way different from when I left and much better and much improved. And there was people really got what was needed to be changed. And not that it's perfect because it's not. It's a reflection of society and society is not perfect, but it certainly has come a long way and we're much more inclusive.

And that diverse force makes us a much more lethal, capable warfighting force for the nation. It's just amazing to see how well that's come along and it'll continue to do well. What about as far as, and we've got time, and I think this for our last question, and it's very important in that, is what do you see that parents can do now to instill into their children to grow up, be good citizens, help others? I mean, like you've done again for 30 years, protecting the country. Danielle, what would you say that they could do to instill the right things like what the military has instilled with those that are part of it? Yeah, I think parents can do probably more than they do now with making sure that we're a very individualistic society. You know, it's like, hey, get out there, get your degree, make a lot of money, do this, excel, be number one, whatever. And a lot of what I think that we need to also focus on is how we're making somebody else more successful than us.

You know, why can't that be the focus? Because if everybody does that, then everybody wins. Right. than us. You know, why can't that be the focus? Because if everybody does that, then everybody wins, right? And so focus on how you can make yourself successful, great, but how do you make somebody else, a peer, a subordinate, more successful than you? And how do you volunteer yourself and your service and your talents? Not all the time, because we have busy lives, I get it. But you know, how do you contribute back to the greater good? How do you look at the greater good before you look at what's best for you? And it's tough in our society because everything in our society is focused on being number one, right? Second place is the first loser and all those things, right? But it really is important to focus on, you know, what are those core values that keep us strong as a nation and

that we have to protect and that we have to have all of our citizens contributing, you know? have to have all of our citizens contributing you know awesome and incredible well danielle you encourage others to rock the boat and become a successful leader that's the hero 30 years in the military that's right make sure you get her book rock the boat believe change encourage change, encourage innovation, and be a successful leader. Go to daniellbarrett.com, D-A-N-E-L-L-E-B-A-R-R-E-T-T.com. And of course, we'll have on our website at Alliances. This has been David Kogan with the Alliances Bureau Show. Thanks, David.