Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Elizabeth McCormick: From Unemployed to Black Hawk Helicopter Pilot and Keynote Speaker

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Elizabeth McCormick came home reeking of tomato sauce from her pizza job, feeling miserable as usual. But that day, she resolved that if her then-husband could serve in the army, so could she. This bold decision led to a fulfilling career as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. Despite a career-ending injury, she reinvented herself and entered the corporate world before transitioning into public speaking. In this episode, Elizabeth shares her incredible journey of breaking free from stagnation and taking action despite uncertainty. You’ll learn important lessons about choosing who you want to be and overcoming the subconscious blocks holding you back.  Elizabeth McCormick is a former U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot turned global motivational speaker. She is a recipient of the Congressional Veteran Commendation and a number one bestselling author of The P.I.L.O.T. Method. In this episode, Ilana and Elizabeth will discuss: - Elizabeth’s journey from unemployed army wife to decorated helicopter pilot - Believing in yourself despite the nay-sayers  - The importance of visualizing success - Taking action despite uncertainty - Choosing how you show up - Surviving a helicopter crash - Elizabeth’s discovery of speaking opportunities - How a career-ending injury became her best gift - Overcoming the subconscious blocks holding you back  - Confidence and energy management for personal and professional growth - And other topics… Elizabeth McCormick is a former U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot turned motivational speaker. She is the bestselling author of The P.I.L.O.T. Method and has launched a series of business success books titled Soar 2 Success. Elizabeth is an award-winning sales consultant and a founding member of the John Maxwell Team of certified speakers. She has consistently booked 100+ engagements per year and spoken at the leadership, sales, and safety-related functions of renowned brands like Coca-Cola, Sherwin Williams, and Oracle, among many others. She serves on the Board of Directors for Grace After Fire, a non-profit organization empowering women veterans. In 2011, she was honored with the Congressional Veteran Commendation. Connect with Elizabeth: Elizabeth’s Website: https://yourinspirationalspeaker.com/  Elizabeth’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilotspeaker/  Resources Mentioned: Elizabeth’s Book, The P.I.L.O.T. Method: The 5 Elemental Truths to Leading Yourself in Life! https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Method-Elemental-Leading-Yourself/dp/1629030082  The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential by John C. Maxwell  https://www.amazon.com/15-Invaluable-Laws-Growth-Potential/dp/1599953676 

If you want to be really, really, really inspired, learn to break barriers, learn to build your confidence and to really create that amazing energy in yourself. And you want to hear from somebody who's created incredible boundaries and just leaped in her career again and again. I want you to meet Elizabeth. I've been listening to her public speaking, and I urge you to take a look because it's incredible. But I want to dive right in. Elizabeth, thank you for coming to the show. Glad to be here. She is a former U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot, badass on a whole different level. She does a lot of inspirational, motivational, public speaking,

really specialized in leadership and sales and safety. You've worked with John Maxwell team, right? And seriously, like Elizabeth, it's just an incredible honor. I have to ask, how did you even get to be in the Army as a Black Hawk pilot? That's just not something that you hear every day, right? And usually what happens is they see me and they're like, wait, you, you were a helicopter pilot? I think I don't exactly look like one anymore. But yeah, really, I fell into it. I was an unemployed military wife. I had five years of college, almost three degrees. I was unemployed. The only job I could get around the military base was working in a pizza place. And I was miserable in my marriage. So when

everything is not going right, I'm sure some of the listeners have had those moments, right? Where just everything feels wrong. And that's where I was. And I had never felt that way before where I was just completely stuck. I had to really come home smelling like tomato sauce from working in a pizza place. I'm sitting here going, I did five years of college for this. The marriage wasn't working out great. And I was just really miserable. And so one night I remember turning in like two in the morning, just gotten home from closing the pizza place because we had dine-in and carry-out. So I looked at him and I went, you know what?

If he could be in the army, because I was coming to find out he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. So I thought if he could be in the army, I could be in the army. This can't be that hard, right? So that was it. I decided to join. I didn't say I was going to be a helicopter pilot. I didn't even know what jobs they had in the army.

So I had to go onto the base and I knew with my college, I could go in as an officer. So I interviewed officers and all the officers I interviewed all said, if I had to do it over, I'd go warrant officer flight training program and fly. And I was like, what's that? I just had no, no idea. And so it was a lot of research and went onto the flight line because I was a military wife. So luckily I had access.

Of course, it was a little more open base back then than post 9-11, right? It's a lot more restricted now, but I was able to go onto the base. I went to the flight line, I walked in and I said, I think I want to do this. Can you help me? That's an incredible story, Elizabeth. Oh my God. So I want to go there for a second because first of all, many people will stay in the stuckness for a long time, right? So first of all, just deciding that you want to get out of the stuckness is a big decision and the ideas will always be there, but action is what makes you stand out from others, right? Like you actually did take the action, which is the hardest thing.

I think your misery has to suck more than the risk or the discomfort of taking action. And I mean, it really was like, it was the point I knew I had limited options. I was still trying to like make the marriage work, thinking the military would bring us close together. Just a little newsflash did not work. Military is not kind to marriages and families. It can be really tough. It would have been easy to stay stuck, but I was so miserable being stuck that it was more uncomfortable being miserable than taking action. Does that make sense? Yeah. But take me there because I have to hear how it went. So you're

deciding that this is what you want to do and it's crazy enough anyway, but now you're literally taking action towards this thing that you don't even know what it is exactly. And that's again, you're saying yes first and then figuring out the how, which is incredible. So talk to me a little bit. I truly believe that when you commit to something, your awareness shifts in a way that suddenly opportunities come into you. It's not that they weren't going to come to you before, you just weren't going to see them because you hadn't committed and made that commitment. So you make the decision and you figure out the how. No one invented something without making a decision to invent something. No one built a business without making the decision first. Not everyone knows all the how.

I think we sometimes get stuck having analysis paralysis and we want to know every single step of every single thing we have to take. We have to have the entire business plan written. Okay, some of it you do, but you need to have all these things, these situations, when this happens, this will happen. And sometimes just the decision itself opens the doors. I think this is one of the most important parts. And I want to make sure you guys hear this because seriously, this is really, really an important distinction, Elizabeth. The decision always comes first. One of the favorite quotes that I think you mentioned in one of your talks is what you do today defines tomorrow, right? And it's just so fundamental for

you to realize that, let me start tomorrow, let me start tomorrow, let me postpone this a little bit. That is not what's going to drive this. It's actually those, like you said, I made the decision, I don't know exactly the how, but I have to see the progress in this uncertainty. And I think this is where you shine. You shine in the uncertainty. Well, when you make decisions, you can shine in shine, right? But if you stay in the uncertainty, you don't shine so much. But for me, I talk about in my presentations and my speeches that everything you do today determines your tomorrow. You decide today. And I think a lot of people,

now that I'm through flight school, I can see it through the lens of flying a helicopter, but it actually takes more fuel for the helicopter to stay in one place and hover than for it to move and have movement. So because it uses the aerodynamic and inertial forces and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we won't go there. But it actually takes less fuel to have motion and movement than to stay in one place. So think about that when it comes to life and business. How many times are we like, we know we should do something, but we're staying in one place and it actually consumes more energy. I'm getting chills. That is so good because it's so true because the clarity will come from action,

not just thinking about it, dreaming about it. But when we're in this dreaming thing or in the stuckness, it's just all consuming. So you're deciding to do this. You go to flight school and there's probably some stories there too. Just a few. As somebody that has been in the Air Force, I'm sure that is full of stories as well. But again, it's never an overnight success, right? You don't wake up one day and you're a Black Hawk, super incredible pilot. What brought you there and how did you not give up along the journey? So first I had to go to the recruiter.

The recruiter said, no, you can't do this and tried to dissuade me. And I had to push back and keep questioning him and pushing and questioning and pushing. And finally it came out that he didn't know how to do the paperwork. It wasn't gender bias. It wasn't anything else. He just didn't know how to do the paperwork. As a recruiter, he didn't get the credits and the points for bringing in an officer. So he didn't want to know how to do the paperwork. So I sat in the office, I read the regulations and I did his paperwork. There are times when you have to take the action. It wasn't my job, it was his job. But if he wasn't gonna make it happen, I was gonna make it happen. And that wasn't comfortable for me. And I'm sure the listeners are like,

well, she's a helicopter pilot. Of course that was comfortable. That was no problem. She walked in there. And what everyone listening, what you don't know is that I grew up so shy. I would not call my own hairdresser for an appointment. I was horribly, painfully, awkwardly shy. I got out of my shell a little bit in college.

I did had some leadership roles and played college volleyball and was on student government and some different things there a little bit. It still wasn't comfortable. But my mission, what I wanted to do, the vision of myself flying was bigger than being shy. And I really, truly believe that in this life, you get to choose who you are. You get to choose who you are and how you show up in the situations you're in. But it requires you to be the pilot in command of you, right? There's no autopilot. And we were talking earlier, Alana, about people getting stuck.

Well, when they're stuck, they're in autopilot, right? They're only reacting to the things that are happening to them, not proacting to what they want to do and where they want to be. Oh, that is so strong. And you're literally talking about being the pilot of your life. If this is not going to take you closer to your goal, you're going to need to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to get closer to your goal. So you do that and you fill up your own paper. Oh, and back then it was carbon paper and a typewriter. And if you made one mistake, you had to start over and start the whole thing over. So I'm like feeding it in and I'm not a good, great typer then or now.

And I'm feeding it in and I'm like pecking one at a time what I needed to do to make it happen. But I did it and I got the paperwork done. And then they're like, okay, now you need to go take your flight physical. And so I went to the flight doctor and he looks at me and he's like, little girl, don't you know flight school is hard? I'm like, I have an appointment. This is what I'm supposed to do. Let's just do the physical. And we did and I passed. And then I went to take my testing and they were like, young lady, don't you know flight school is really hard? I'm just like sitting there thinking in my head, I'm thinking, well, I took calculus five. I'm pretty sure I can handle a standardized test. Like just bring it on. Let's just do it.

And so every step of the way though, somebody else was, they believed it was hard. And because they believed it was hard. Ooh, hear this. They believed it was hard. They tried to make me believe it was hard. And you don't have to believe what other people believe. You don't have to. You get to choose. That is the most empowering thing in the world, is that you get to choose what you believe at the fundamental, elemental kind of level. You get to choose. And that's so strong because when you don't believe, guess what? It's not going to become your reality because then you don't take the action.

You don't do the things. That belief is actually really fundamental. And you could be swayed. If you don't have a firm belief in who you are, how you want to show up, what you want to accomplish, your goals, your dreams, your future, your legacy, and it can change.

I'm not saying it can't change, but what happens is we can be easily swayed in a different direction. And nothing swayed you for some reason, which I'm still like, it's pretty incredible. Because again, people will try to put their beliefs on you, right? You want to start something, they will squash it because they're afraid. It's not on you. They're afraid. And that's the biggest thing is that you're starting to listen to people who haven't done it. So they're putting their beliefs on you or they're putting you in some kind of category and saying that you can't do it. So it's really about how do you keep on bringing that belief in yourself, right? That

energy to keep on going, that confidence that, you know what? I'm going to show up all in and let's see, right? So you somehow brought that belief somehow. Looking back, it's easy to like see the steps I did in the moment. I'm just stubborn. No, I want to do this. Like, you can't tell me, no, I'm going to do this. I'm showing up. Just give me the test. You know, I was just like 23 years old and stubborn, but it wasn't comfortable being stubborn and talking back and speaking up to people in authority. It wasn't comfortable for me at all. But again, that belief was what was driving me. So the first time my packet went to the Pentagon for the selection board, it did not

get accepted. It wasn't that it didn't get accepted. They didn't have any spots. So it was just kind of timing wise. And so then I got nervous because your packet only goes up twice. So then I'm in the next month and my packet goes up and I found out via Telex. Remember the Telex dot matrix machines that came through? I found out via Telex, Prefax. I found out that there were two spots in the nation and I'd gotten one of the two spots. Now, I got to tell you, if I had known there were only two spots, I might have been a lot more timid and nervous in those situations. I wasn't meant to know there were only two spots. I was just meant to believe in the vision that I had of who I could be and where I could be.

That's incredible. And you're right, because that might have taken away from you even trying, but you get this thing and you start flying. Share with us, and with a caveat, I did hear some of your stories, but share with the listeners. You've had a few serious moments. When you fly, there's some life and death situations that you make decisions in a very different way than in other places. Can you share a story? Oh my goodness. How about I share one I haven't shared in my speeches? After I finished flight school, drew a flight instructor who didn't believe women should fly. That's a whole nother story. But finally got through and finished flight school.

And I got to my first duty assignment at Fort Drum, New York, which is 23 miles from the Canada border in the Adirondack Mountains, upstate New York, snows every month but July. It was cold. And the first snowfall of the year, you have to be qualified with a flight instructor so that you know how to land. So much like blowing sand, blowing snow, you can get into the whiteout blinding situations. So there's a couple, two to three different landings, typically three landings we would do.

And we had to show proficiency before the flight instructor would sign us off and we could start flying missions in those. And we had to do the beginning snowfall of every year. So we were doing the snowfalls and they call it snow qualifications. And we had to do the beginning snowfall of every year. So we were doing the snowfalls and they call it snow qualifications. And I'm doing the first one. And it's during the day, all good, pretty easy during the day, not too hard. But then the next day we all came in late

and did it under night vision goggles. Night vision goggles is one of the most difficult flight modes to fly anyway. Adding in blowing snow when you have a limited focal length and view through toilet paper tube goggles is extremely difficult, extremely difficult. And then our building was all whited out

and there was a whole line of pilots, like three companies of pilots all lined up, each with our own flight instructor doing qualifications. And we were literally in a line and the flight instructor would come in and he'd say, send the next one. And we'd come running out with our gear and the other pilot would hop out and we'd hop in and we'd plug into our headset, our radios. And then we would so we could be up on comms first and then you'd get in and strap in. And so I did mine. I got in, plugged up, talked to Chief Santos, was our instructor. I get in, we go up, we do our three landings, all good. And as we're coming back now,

and mind you that all the lights are out because we're flying in our night vision goggles. So the airfield is pretty much pitch dark, just ambient light. And we're coming in and he calls the next pilot. Well, the next pilot's Brian. He's, you know, coworker. And so Brian comes in and I hand him the cable for the headset he plugs in, make sure he gets in. And after he gets in, I walk away and out of the rotor wash, right? That's been in the whole time.

And I go walking away and they pick it up and they go off to do their landings, which isn't too far away. It's in the, like in between the taxiway and the runway. And there's a grassy area that snow builds up and snow drifts. They go over to land in this. And as I'm walking away, all I hear is whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. And the first blade hits the ground and the blades get torn apart and feed through the engines. So you can hear the engines eating pieces of the blade as the aircraft rolls. So not only do I hear it,

like that first blade hitting and then instantly the other three blades hit. And as I'm walking away, as the two blades hit and then the rotor and everything else. So as I'm walking away, I hear the sound and instantly I see pieces of debris flying alongside each side of me. So these pieces of debris are flying and I'm like, oh my gosh. So I just start running into the building because it's pitch dark that I don't know if they get able to call the radios or what and go in and tell them, hey, you need to call rescue. We've got a class A incident. A class A is a damage of over a million dollars or loss of life. And so they call instantly. Everything stops. It's like everything goes in super slow motion. So flashing forward, they were okay. Fortunately, the Black Hawk is one of the most survivable

helicopters that the Army has. They found out later in the investigation that as they were coming down to hover and blowing the snow out, they had slightly drifted laterally. One of the wheels hit a small slope ditch, and it just created a critical rollover point and had crashed it. Literally, it was like the movies, but except without the explosion, right? Normally, it's like the hero walking away and the explosion in the background. I'm walking away and these pieces are flying. And I'm like, oh my gosh, could have been me, this close, a piece of debris could have hit me, this close. And you know, and this was just in training. We trained as if it was for real, but it was just a training mission. Wow. And literally getting chills. That is incredible.

And again, it's about coping and being able to think when things are coming at you, right? And when things are scary and still being able to operate, which is interesting. You have to be able to function and react. So training, as if it's for real, helps you on a day-to-day basis. So if you're listening, you're like, wait, what does this have to do with me?

Well, when you have opportunities, don't phone things in. Do things as if they were real. Do it as if you needed to do it. Do it as if that customer was in front of you when you're practicing a conversation or a role play or setting intentions. So do things as if they were real, because someday they could be. And the truth is, I'm sure you use that too, or at least I assume visualization is a big tool that I don't know if I knew about it. And I wish I knew better when I started my career, but

it has become one of the most important skills and ways of training for me. Because the truth is, when I visualize something, I will visualize standing on a stage. I will visualize what I'm going to say. I will visualize a crucial conversation. I will visualize a presentation. And the reason is because, again, you build this muscle memory that you just talked about, Elizabeth, because when I eventually come into that situation, as far as I'm concerned, I've already been there.

So now it's just about going back to it. And that's a big difference than doing it for the first time ever. So it's a big one. What's coming up for me right now is I hear a lot of people say that they're afraid of failure. I think just as important

is people are afraid of success because they haven't visualized it. They don't know what it looks like and they don't know how much their life could change because it's change. So it's really whether it's fear of failure or fear of success, they don't think of it. I'm not afraid of success,

but they're afraid of the changes that might happen because of that success. And it can be a subconscious block that holds people back and keeps them stuck. I agree a thousand percent. So many people that we talk to, they don't even realize they have these blocks. But suddenly when you're starting to understand it better, they're afraid of what the family will say and they're afraid of how it's going to look like and what will the neighbors think and what happens when you have more money?

And what happens when you have reputation? How will their workload change? Will I have to work? Or will I want, how will it affect my family? There's so many things. You mentioned earlier, I'm a big student and get mentored by John Maxwell. I'm on his faculty for his certification program.

And one of the things he said in his book, The Invaluable Laws of Growth, which is one of my favorites. He says, when you get the life of your dreams, it is different than you ever imagined because where you are is different and it changes your perspective on things. So it's different than you ever imagined. When you get the life of your dreams, it's better than you can ever imagine because it's where you're going. And when you get the life of the dreams, it could be worse than you ever imagined because it brings out a different type of person. When you're successful, people that want things or are trying to scam you or different things, right? Because success can sometimes bring money

and that brings out a different quality of person. And he said, the biggest thing is, is visualize all three. How can you eliminate that fear that's holding you back around all three? It's like, okay, what's the worst thing that can happen? What could happen that I'm not thinking about? What's different?

What's the best? We tend to go just to the best, right? But when we also prepare ourselves for the worst and the different, we don't go into it so ill equipped. This is so strong because if I'm looking back a decade ago, and I'm sure you're going to say the same, I would not be able to even envision or dream of what I have right now because it kept opening different doors that I couldn't even fathom that that could be my life. And I think there's a brilliant quote that says you always going to overestimate what you can do in a year. So you keep on being disappointed in yourself, but then you underestimate what you can do in a decade to never get started.

And to me, that's brilliant because if I would have known that this can be my life in 2024, why would I not start this? But I didn't. So I think that's an interesting realization too, Elizabeth. But I want to also take you there because a lot of people, again, and I'm sure there's a thousand stories that we can keep on talking about, but you reinvented yourself. You took all this incredible knowledge experience that you've had, and then you needed to reinvent yourself again. And you became this incredible public speaker, keynote speaker, writer of books.

How do you even go from one to another? Again, the fear. Talk to us a little bit about it. Well, I didn't at first. So I was injured during Kosovo peacekeeping operations, and they ended up medically retiring me. So I ended up losing my flight career, could not fly anymore. You wanna talk about stuck. I was depressed. I was down. I was not in a great place emotionally

or physically at that point. And it was May, 2001. The timing of it, I was a single parent. The unit I was with ended up going to Afghanistan. I would have had to have gone to Afghanistan. I would have had to have sent my daughter to live with my ex-husband, who I affectionately now call the starter husband. I would have had to have sent her to live with him.

At that time, when I got out of the military, he sued me for custody. So he very easily could have used that to take custody away. And a month after September 11th, I met my, I call him the keeper husband. So I have the keeper husband now. You know, everything just happened for a reason. At the time, in the moment, I was horribly depressed on losing my flight career. Within six months after September 11th happened and everything started shaking out, I went, I have been given the biggest gift. Sure, if I had still been in, I definitely wouldn't have gone.

I wouldn't have tried to malinger or get out of my duty. That's what we trained for and we signed up for. But what a gift I'd been given to be able to maintain custody of my daughter and meet the man I'm now married to 22 years, right? So, I mean, just everything happened for a reason at that time. But being physically injured, emotionally distraught at that time, I could not have walked onto a stage and given a speech. Because when you step onto a stage,

you have to be comfortable in your own skin and know who you are. And it can't be therapy. And I needed therapy. I think I spent the first year and a half out of getting out of the military, working in a corporate job. I was on autopilot, took care of my daughter, dropped her at daycare, went into work, punched the clock, did my work, came home, and started all over again. I had very little awareness of myself because I was in that place of self-protection because of everything I had gone through. So I think that's the first thing, respecting that when you need that.

I couldn't move. It wasn't that I was paralyzed. I just needed to emotionally and mentally heal. Now it's more like PTSD. Oh, yeah, that's probably what I had, even though it wasn't a combat injury. I definitely had the symptoms. First of all, it's fascinating because I think you can go down the downhill spiral

really quick. And it's pretty interesting how we tend to forget all our achievements suddenly and go into this, how did this happen? I lost everything. But I think also what you mentioned is how fast we go into this area of just sleep through life, you know, and just go through the motions, which many people will make a long lasting career doing that. That's the majority of Americans or, you know, anybody in the world, right?

Sleep through life. And this is their life. This is the best version of them. They're just in survival mode. What's interesting is why did you decide to take yourself out of the survival mode? Sometimes it's time. But then what happens is you get into the habits. You get into the habits of doing that. And so I think assessments are good,

education, attending a motivational speaker speech, listening to podcasts, like doing things that push you out of your comfort zone and show you what your potential can be, I think is how we can really move. For me, at some point, I was just like, okay, enough. It's time to take some action. It's time to move. I started doing some other things. But also for me, the some point, I was just like, okay, enough. It's time to take some action. It's time to move. I started doing some other things. But also for me, the big impetuous was I wanted to be a better person for my daughter. That's what really got me to change. It wasn't just about me. She was five when I got out of the military.

And I wanted to be better for her. And sometimes it takes that getting out of ourselves to get out of the military and I wanted to be better for her. And sometimes it takes that getting out of ourselves to get out of our own way. That to me is like really good. Oh my God. Because what you're saying, and I think that's really, really important on, you know, on so many levels. I mean, one that comes to mind is I love Brene Brown's vulnerability. And I will say you can't be vulnerable when you're in the downhill spiral. You need to heal yourself before you can actually really go deep there and really tell those stories. I think sometimes you're just so consumed with it that you can't even breathe, which at least it was for me. And I think the other element that

you shared is that for me, I remember for the first time I had all the time in the world to be with my kids and I wasn't present. And I was so embarrassed that I finally not flying. I finally have the time. I finally can do it. And I'm so in this downhill spiral and it's all consuming that I can't even be the mom that I meant to be. How is that even possible? And that creates even more layers of embarrassment and disappointment in myself where I couldn't even be vulnerable. I was in survival mode.

How the heck do I get out of this situation, right? I'm going to add to that. I think when you're in that spiral, it has to get to the point where you're vulnerable with yourself before you can be vulnerable to others. Vulnerability requires you to do some inner work, like some inner thinking and time away. I think what happens, we get so busy. We're so busy. I'm busy working. I'm busy with the kids. I'm busy that we don't listen to our inner voice and we don't honor our inner self that's like screaming sometimes to get out, right? But we're stuck in the spiral of all these other things. So I think it starts with being vulnerable within ourselves and not hiding to ourself.

That's a really important one because we're not honest with ourselves first, within ourselves and not hiding to ourself. That's a really important one because we're not honest with ourselves first, right? And I think that's a hard one because it's driven people. Again, everybody in this podcast will, by definition, will listen, they'll be driven people. And again, the interesting with driven people is that we tend to, okay, so we'll get more information or we'll do more things or we'll throw more spaghetti on the wall and we're going to do the

do-do-do. But the truth is we didn't even stop, reflect, look in the mirror and say, what on earth am I doing with my life? And, you know, I think that honestly is really, really hard because we don't want to look in the mirror. The mirror is painful. But you somehow look in the mirror and you decide to create this incredible life that now is inspiring thousands of, I don't know how many people and through the books, even millions. How did that even become a reality? So I was working in a corporate job. I was in my third different corporation and I'm in that one. And this one is finally close to home. I'm like not having to commute.

And it's only like 10 minutes from my house. It's amazing. I'm able to get involved with my kids and PTA and added my son into the mix along with my daughter. And so I'm getting involved in the school and the community more because I'm actually home in a decent hour. And the community found out I was a helicopter

pilot. And they're like, wait, you were a helicopter pilot? And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, would you come speak at our career day? There's a whole page in a school's yearbook that I don't even, my kids didn't even go to that school. There's a whole page in the yearbook about me. Okay. They asked me to do the career day and then Boy Scouts and then Girl Scouts and then youth groups and then church groups and then church youth groups and then women's groups. And I'm getting all these phone calls and I am working in a corporate job. So I'm turning a lot of them down. Sorry, I'm booked was my key phrase.

Like, sorry, booked. Can't make that happen. Sorry, booked. And I did some when I could, but not too many. And I just told stories of what's bicycle like, what's flying a helicopter like, what was the process? What did I need to get? And encouraged STEM, you know, education and things like that. And so my phone rings, I'm on the phone one day and they're like, we'd like you to speak. We have a luncheon, it's on this day, this time.

And I was like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm booked, right? It's during the day, during the week when I'm working. And they're like, well, we'll pay you. I'm like, shut the door, I could get paid? I've been doing all these for free. I had no idea that there was a whole industry and business and I could be doing this and getting paid. I'm like, wait, wait, how much will you pay me? And they're like, we'll pay you $500 for a 30 minute lunch. And I'm like, Ooh, I could take a vacation day for that.

Right? So I took a vacation day, did that one. And then what happens? My phone keeps ringing. People keep calling me, asking me to come speak. And this time they're offering me money, right? So I'm like, huh. And my keeper husband at the time, you know, is involved with all this. And he's like, you know, you're really good. You could do this. And I was like, I'm getting paid in a corporate job with great benefits and I'm good. I don't need to do that. Three months later, January 2009, what was the economy like January 2009? Right?

Not great. So January 2009, the company I was working for has a division level meeting. Our entire division, 250 people, our CEO from Sweden comes in, puts a PowerPoint up, slide one, state of the economy. Right? Slide two has four words on it. You're all laid off. He laid off 250 people with a two-page PowerPoint. Everybody is screaming, crying. And I'm sitting there going, I know what I'm supposed to do. I know what I'm supposed to do. Sometimes the knock on the door is a little louder than others. So I'm like, I know what I'm supposed to do. And then they came to me and

they're like, hey, we need your help with your job. We need your help closing the plant, but we don't want you to travel anymore. You have to use this new website called Skype, right? It was new back then. And so I was home every day. And so I was able to work on my book and work on my website. And I was able to say yes to speaking engagements because I knew my end date too. So it was really, truly organically that it happened and by divine. It really was another blessing in disguise. Ah, that's incredible. And again, people that will check out some of your videos, et cetera, like we'll know exactly why that continued. But for me, it's like seriously, like really inspiring because usually you learn about people and you're like, okay, this is cool,

but this is like, okay, this is cool, but this is like, okay, let me check another one. Let me check another one. So that was incredible. But I think, again, it's another testament to you, Elizabeth, because again, most entrepreneurs, they'll try it for a little bit. They will not make it work, right? That just stats, right? And they'll close shop in a few years. And you've been doing this in such a beautiful success and inspiring so many people. And now you're continuing with this online course, which we'll talk about and all these things. You just continue pushing and pushing. It's incredible to watch. Thanks to a coach that I hired for a while, I had an epiphany. The epiphany was every day I got in my way, I'm not helping somebody. And if I'm not helping someone with a message that's supposed to help someone, then I'm hurting them because I'm not using my gifts the way they were meant to be used. So I hit the ground running. I know I'm so fully committed to that. I am not here to hurt people. I'm here to help people with the stories of what I went through. Like, why did I go through

all that? Why did I go through all that stuff in the military? Everybody's saying, no, I was stalked. I was physically abused by another pilot for a while. I mean, I went through so much stuff. We could say another word, but I'll keep it clean. I went through so much stuff when I was serving in just shy of eight years that I could not figure it out. I am not a drama queen. I am a get in, get out, get done.

I am direct to the point. Let's not play around. Let's make things happen. Let's help people. Let's do things. Let's take action. Why was all this happening to me? Oh, 15 years later, this is why.

Because what would I be talking about? How would I be relatable if it was all went easy? How could I help people? How would I know how to persevere and be resilient and be able to reinvent myself when things go wrong? I wouldn't be equipped to do any of the things. That's so powerful, right? It's the muscle you had to build. Yeah. What you do today builds your tomorrow. It's just that. And I think this also is such an important piece because when we're in this downward spiral, we have all these challenges or we get failures and

rejections. We don't realize this is exactly the muscle we need to build in order to create the leader that we want to become, in order to inspire more people, in order to have a bigger story, right? Like that's the muscle that needs to be built. There's a reason for it. So I love it. I truly believe that everything you, the listener, I'm talking to you, everything you go through equips you for something else. It doesn't feel like it in the moment. It's sticky. It's hard. It's icky. It's not great, right? It's not great when you're in the midst of it. But someday you'll look back and it might be for me, like the military injury, six months, the stories for speaking 15 years. It might be a long time, but it's going to help you in another way in your future. Which is so powerful. It's incredible. So Elizabeth,

now you took it even a step further and you created an online course, which again, you're giving it away because you want to inspire more people. You want to help more people. Like you're endless. It's just incredible to watch. Can you share a little bit about it? Because we want to make sure that listeners can go there and check it out. So I do sell it on my website for $99. But the link that's with this podcast, and if you want to hear it, it's SOAR, S-O-A-R, like flying, SOAR, yourlife.com is the link. I put it together. It used to be a text opt-in that didn't work internationally

during the virtual, during the pandemic when I had to, we all had to pivot and reinvent. So now it's in an online course. And the best part of it is what's called the confidence boosters. So it's three strategies on how you can boost your confidence and equip yourself

so that you're more resilient in the face of negativity and change. Those kind of coping skills, they're not teaching in schools. So if you're listening, you have kids, definitely do the confidence boosting activities with the children or youth in your life. They need it, but adults need it too.

So I do these in a lot of workshops at different companies that hire me because we're not equipped to be able to handle things. This could be required learning in schools. I would be happy. I don't own any of it. I've had to discover those when I was in flight school and every day the flight instructor tried to fail me. And I mean, every day he tried to fail me. So I had to find ways to show up at my best self,

even in the face of that adversity. And so now I've moved those over into an online course. My youngest helped me do some of the partner activities. There's some partner activities in there, but it's walks you through, stop the video, do this, come back, you know, it walks you through what to do. So those are the confidence boosters.

There's a handout and a download with a handout on how to shift your energy when you're feeling stuck. And it's 30 ways, none of them cost money. So how do you just shift your energy? There's a speech in there, the closing, my closing keynote story about almost crashing the helicopter in a real life mission.

That's in there. And then coming up, I'm working on content now. Coming up, there's going to be a module on work-life balance because I feel like that gets people stuck. They need help with that. And the last one will be attention, focus, and being present. We were talking earlier about parenting and how to be more present, right? So how can you be more present? Because I think that's one thing as pilots we got really good at. We're present with our work, not always good at home, but we're right. I wish we'd learned that in school instead of all the names of all the dinosaurs. I think there could be some advantage there. But seriously, I just love also that your kids are seeing their mom like this. That's incredibly inspiring. But there are kids, of course, they hear us all the time. But it's funny because my daughter

is now has a very good job and is doing very well. My son's 19 and he's in a gap year right now looking at what he's going to do next. But my daughter's 28. And so she has a great job. And she's so funny to hear her in scenarios and different in her talk to me after a day at work and hear the things she says. And I'm sitting there going, yep, I've said that tick. Yep, she got that from me. Because if I say it to her, she's like,

I'm responsible. I get credit for my own work and my own job and who I am. I'm like, you are right. You do. But it's funny how some of my words are coming out of your mouth. They absorb it. They totally absorb it. I love it. So we do have a tradition, Elizabeth. It's almost an advice to your younger self, but really what is a big lesson that you wish somebody would have told you? And it doesn't matter what age, it could be a decade ago, it could be a few decades ago, but what is one advice that now that you look back, you wish you knew or somebody would have told you? When I was in all those situations, I didn't realize what I was doing and everything. I think now with hindsight, you get that awareness of what

it was. And it's actually tying into the next book I'm writing right now, which is just fly and fly as first lead yourself. So I think that would have been my advice is when they, other people told you it was hard, don't worry about what other people believe. Find your own motivation for you. People ask me a lot, who are your mentors? Who are your role models? I was like, nobody, nobody. I was in flying helicopters when less than 1% of the army pilots were women, less than one. Like I very rarely saw one. So I had to be my own role model and find it within me when I couldn't find it from others. And I wish I had understood that and trusted that more and listened to my own voice more and not tried to always look for somebody

else's. Oh, that is so nice, Elizabeth. I think one of the things that takes time to realize is that when you're willing to continue when most others stop, this is where you're going to live a life most will only dream of. You literally live that because when you break barriers, there's just not a lot of people to look at. And that's what you created. Incredibly inspiring. So Elizabeth, seriously, it's such an honor. Even though I looked at all your videos and everything, you know, it's just even better in real life. It's just so beautiful to hear your story,

to hear how you look at things. To me, your story is incredibly inspiring. And you guys listening to this, you specifically, I want you to go into the website, look at the online courses. Everybody needs more confidence. Everybody needs more energy and to shift their energy. And really, I don't even believe in time management as much as energy management. Like if you can actually manage your energy in a different way, everything else just falls into place. Everybody has the same 24 hours. So I just love everything you shared, Elizabeth. That was an incredible conversation. Thank you.

My pleasure. My pleasure. I'm happy to be here. And I still truly, please take advantage of the online course. You can give it to family members, people that have children. I think we definitely need to equip our children to be more resilient and confident because

then they're not persuaded and swayed into doing things that they shouldn't be doing, right? Because they know who they are. So I really strongly encourage you to go to soaryourlife.com. That's S-O-A-R, right? Like flying, yourlife.com and take advantage of the online training I've got there for you. Thank you so much for coming to the show a little bit. My pleasure. you