Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Steve Swift On How to Create a Career of Service EP 53

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

Captain Steve Swift discusses how to create a career of service to others and how he did so through a 30-year career in the military and now as a running and triathlete coach. Careers helping people come in all shapes and sizes. You can get hands-on in a healthcare or emergency services job, think your way around problems as a social worker or lawyer, or create broader benefits for society in a career such as science or engineering.  Like this? Please subscribe, and join me on my new platform for peak performance, life coaching, and personal growth: https://passionstruck.com/. Creating a Career of Service Thank you for Watching the Passion Struck podcast. In this powerful interview, John R. Miles and Steve Swift discuss Steve's 30-year career of service as a submarine and intelligence officer. His time working at CENTCOM and his lessons learned along the way. We dive into why he went to the Naval Academy and his experience as a Blue and Gold officer helping guide prospective candidates into becoming a Midshipman. He goes into his tips for them, what they should focus on during high school, and their preparations for getting a recommendation. Steve and John discuss his participation in the Frogman Swim that strives to build national awareness of the Naval Special Warfare community and support the Navy SEAL Foundation, whose mission is to provide immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and their families. Lastly, we discuss what it takes to achieve peak performance and his suggestions on sleep and training to achieve it, how he trains elite triathlon and marathon athletes for the USAT triathlon nationals and Boston marathon. New Interviews with the World's GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message! Show Notes 0:00 Show Intro 5:30 Steve's journey to the Naval Academy 10:11 Why he pursued submarines 13:28 His transition to the intelligence community 17:25 The key lesson he would teach today's Midshipmen 20:00 The keys to getting into a service academy 28:52 His journey to the Frogman Swim 34:30 How you can support the Frogman Swim 38:04 His running and triathlon coaching tips 43:02 Key steps to achieve peak performance 45:32 The importance of your sleep ENGAGE CAPT STEVE SWIFT (USN Ret.) Steve Swift is a USAT triathlon coach and RRCA run coach who has coached over 100 athletes. He retired with the rank of Captain from the Navy Submarine community with 30 years of service. He also retired as a Defense Intelligence Agency team lead, where he worked at the Central Command in Tampa, FL, where he was a lead planner. He has served as the U.S. Naval Academy Blue and Gold Officer for the past 19 years for the Tampa Bay area, guiding 1000s of applicants over that time. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has completed 6 Ironman races and 33 marathons. * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-swift-1767068/ *Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamswift87   ENGAGE WITH JOHN R. MILES * Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles * Leave a comment, 5-star rating (please!) * Support me: https://johnrmiles.com * Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m​. * Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles​ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles JOHN R. MILES * https://johnrmiles.com/my-story/ * Guides: https://johnrmiles.com/blog/ * Coaching: https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ * Speaking: https://johnrmiles.com/speaking-business-transformation/ * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_struck PASSION STRUCK *Subscribe to Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-passion-struck-podcast/id1553279283 *Website: https://passionstruck.com/ *About: https://passionstruck.com/about-passionstruck-johnrmiles/ *Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast *LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passionstruck *Blog: https://passionstruck.com/blog/      

for peak performance, I mean, a lot of it is the consistency. So especially for endurance events, you know, and it's true in life, right? I mean, anything that you build a habit on. So like, if you want to lose weight, well, yeah, I always tell people, I'm not a certified nutritionist, but if you shoot for about a half a pound a week,

which is 1500 to 2000 calories, you know, you're not dieting, you're making it a goal. You're making it in a bite-sized type of consistent goal. If you do that every week, a half a pound a week, and a half a year, and 26 weeks, you're going to lose 13 pounds. So that's a similar type of thing. For coaching for athletes, a lot of it is consistency, especially endurance events, because you have to build up the load that your body's able to handle.

Then we're going to have some step back weeks as well, because we don't want to overload people and over train and things like that. But that consistency is key. And people that say, well, I'm going to take a month off. I'm just going to take a week off after your big event. Most of the elites in the pros do that. After that big event, you've got to let the muscles kind of recover a little bit. Consistency is one of the biggest things.

Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and growth seekers of all types to the PassionStruck podcast. Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi industry CEO, Navy veteran, and entrepreneur on a mission to make passion go viral for millions worldwide. In each week, I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing high achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons to become an action-struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener.

Like giving you tips, tasks, and activities, you can use to achieve deep performance and for two, a passion-driven life you have always wanted to have. Now, let's become passion-struck. Welcome to episode 53 of the Passion-Struck Podcast. Dr. P. Z. Pierce once said, if God invented marathons to keep people

from doing something more stupid, craftalons must have taken them completely by surprise. Such a good lead in for today's episode with Captain Steve Swift. Steve is a certified USAT craftalon and RRCA certified running coach who has trained over 100 elite athletes, coaching many Ironman status, and even more who have qualified for the Boston Marathon.

He retired with the rank of captain after serving the United States Navy for 30 years in the summering community. He then served his country, working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he retired from as a lead planner for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida. He also spent over 19 years serving as a blue and gold officer for his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy. And Steve has completed six Iron Man races and 33 marathons. And today we will discuss his path to the Naval Academy. What led him there?

Why he ended up picking the submarine service? Where that led him to in his military career? Why he moved to Tampa Bay, joining the inaugural Frogman Swim that benefits the Navy Seal Foundation, where he is one of only two athletes who has completed that swim every single year and then on to the selection criteria for the Naval Academy. How he has helped thousands of aspiring midshipmen to get into the Academy.

And we also talk about his current career as both a triathlon and running coach. Great episode today. Can't wait for you to hear it. Now let's become passion struck. Steve, it is so great to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining. Thanks for having me, John. It's a I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. Well, I see already you've got two of my favorite things in the background. One is obviously a go navy sign right there and then the other is given work in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The fact that the light in one last year was huge and let's hope we get a repeat. Yeah, no, it's two things I'm very passionate about. Obviously

my navy background and serving for 30 years. And of course, I've been a long time Tampa Bay, lived here for 26 years almost now. And became Tampa Bay Lighting fan back in 1996. So yeah, I've got, I like to say to tell people I'm a half season ticket holder, but I'm a full season playoff ticket holder. So I'll be heading to the game tonight. If you want to see me down in Mammalaya Arena. Well, I'm reaching that point where I grew up in Pennsylvania for most of my childhood, but I'm reaching the point coming in December where I've lived here longer than I will have lived in Pennsylvania. So I got to figure out this team

allegiance, but it would be hard for me to leave my Philadelphia teams. Oh it's time. It's time. Well, I thought a good starting point so that the listeners could get a better understanding of you and your background might be the choice that you made, which was a similar choice that I made coming out of high school and what led you to make that decision to go to the Naval Academy instead of taking an alternate route and going to a typical university? Oh, thanks, John.

It's kind of a little bit strange because I was actually kind of a band geek in high school. The full, you have the full, the Coke bottle of glasses and, you know, kind of, I probably grew up a little later than it seemed like. And I tell the story a lot because now I'm the, I'm the area coordinator for Bull and Gold Officer. So I get the opportunity to tell, tell my story about how I went to the nail Academy. And it's not always the kid you think that's gonna go. For me, you know, like I said, I was a band geek.

I did a little bit of sports. I ran a little bit. I rode crew one summer. I think I got my varsity letter in bowling of all things. But I was really big in the band and the band side. And so I thought I was going into music. And then I got so close to the music industry. And I realized that they don't really make a lot of money. And it's very challenging. And it's very political at times. So I was really good in math and all that. So talking to my guidance counselor, my guidance counselor showed me the list

of the top engineering schools. And there was these Academy things, the Naval Academy and West Point and Air Force. And so I kind of shifted gears between my junior and senior years. I was relatively late compared to these days. I want them to tell kids that they should be applying. And so I applied all the academies,

I applied to all the ROTC scholarships available. I was all in to serve my country and got accepted actually all the academies and all the ROTCs that I applied for. And I of course chose the best at the United States and able academy. So that's how I ended up going there. Well, I happen to see that you graduated with what I think is one of the toughest degrees coming out of the Academy. At least the way mine worked, my mind works,

electrical engineering is probably one of the most difficult topics that I had. When I was there and I made the colossal mistake of I was trying to take an easier load, and so I decided to try to do electrical engineering during summer break. I was also in the state of I was trying to take an easier load. And so I decided to try to do electrical engineering during summer break. And trying to cram electrical engineering into a five week course was was quite challenging. What led you down that path of becoming electrical engineer because I know you commissioned as a Samariner. And for you, was that kind of a means to an end to getting the summer in community? Actually, I think I was one of those guys

where I've kind of keep eruptions open and then you know, make the best decision. That's kind of how I chose the categories. I think in the beginning, I see you're here, the nail academy was like fourth on my list, but then I talked to more people and realized the nail academy had the most diverse career paths. You could do the army stuff in the Marines, you could fly. I didn't know that

you could fly in the Navy, I guess it was before top gun came out. And so I realized you could do almost everything that the other services within the Navy. And so same thing for choosing my major, I was like, well, I'm really good in math, you know, and this engineering thing seems pretty good. Double E seems like an electric engineering seems like a good strong background for things. And of course, you can't spell geek without double E,

as we say. So, I was always that kind of that geek guy, that math guru type of guy. So, that's really how I decided. I was still, I was still keeping my options open. I mean, I think, youngster year or sophomore year, I was, I was still thinking Marines or Surface or, or even a backseat because I had the big Coke bottle of glasses. So I was always going to be a backseater. And so really, I think he just set me up. And then some reason just happened to be what I had

I'm choosing. It really wasn't a means to an end. Cause I really kind of wanted to fly. But if they had a LASIK or the PCD type, or not the PCD, the eye surgery that they do nowadays for students, I probably would have been a pilot, I think. But I'm choosing some re some Marines being kind of technical and doing all that.

So it seemed like a good fit at the time. The listeners who aren't familiar with the Naval Academy and the submarine community, when you and I were both going through and those who preceded us, you could get drafted into the submarine community, whether you wanted to or not. And so I know some people were afraid to have a class

ranked too high because they were fearful. They'd go submarines, whether they wanted to or not. But many graduates that I talked to talk about, Admiral Rikover, his interviews. Obviously by the time I went through a 93, he had retired long before that. But you were a few years ahead of me. Did you did you have to go through the Rick over interview sessions? No, I actually I missed the Rick over

by a couple of years. Actually, I had Admiral McKee and although I'm from my engineer who was a class of 82 guy, I'm bored. My first submarine, He was actually went through the Rick over. So I think so in between 82 and 87 is when Rick over stepped down from there. Although I do remember that everyone, McKee, he was a little short man and he was behind a desk with these two Lieutenant commanders and civilian clothes staying next to him. They looked like they were about six foot nine each and you know big huge guys and I was I'm not sure which one was more intimidating that the two huge authentic commanders

or the little four star admiral sitting behind his desk. And first question asked me was, why'd you get a D and E341, you know? And I'm like, because it was really hard class. And, you know, it's like, but that's probably not the answer he was looking for. So, so probably to have the full rig of experience, but it was stressful enough at the time. You know, for those who aren't familiar with summer in life, I was

not a Samaritan, but I had the opportunity to go on rear-port, asked hackboats when I was in. What for you were some of the things you liked best about that community? Well, as probably any community, it's probably the people. I mean, you know, the guys you served with, I mean, you know, I have a, you know, I have a district list just for the officers that I served with during that time, you know, the JOs. And we've gotten together over the years. In fact, one of the guys, I was traveling up North Carolina and he lives in North Carolina. So we went for a ride for 30, 40 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And I mean, just, it's kind of like a little bit like, you know, the your plea beer roommate

or your plea company, your roommate, your freshman year at the Naval Academy. I mean, you're really tight with those guys. So I'm still, in fact, one of the, one of the guys married my sister. So I guess I'm pretty tight with him too, you know, because now he's my brother-in-law. So I'd say that's probably the biggest thing

is really the people. Of course, people always ask, are you claustrophobic and how can you deal with being submerged for that long? But I always tell them that, hey, you're working too hard to even notice that kind of stuff. It's probably still one of being on a carrier, though, or other communities where you're fearful of something, but you just work it too hard when you sleep, you sleep hard, and things like that. Starting, it's probably been a decade ago now that they started to let females on submarines. Is that on both the fast attack and the boomers or is it relegated just to the boomers?

Yeah, they started off with just the boomers. They kind of had to refit a little bit on some of them, but now it's gone full bore. You know, both the boomers, the ballistic missile submarines as well as the facetac submarine. So, yeah, women first class was 2010. I know we had actually one woman here from Wastley Chapel who was in that first class of women that won submarine. So they're well under their department head tours and probably approaching exo tours now for that first class, which is pretty cool.

And then you came out of the, similar to me, you came out of the military and during your career, you ended up getting pulled back in around 9-11, I think. So for you, was that a deliberate choice to get back in or were you recruited? How did that manifest itself? Funny story, you know, as these all always are, I was, I got out after seven years. I did my initial submarine tour. I taught up at submarine school up in Gretton, Connecticut, and I got out, moved to Florida. I was with a, you know, corporate company,

and I was actually at a trade show in Jacksonville. Obviously, I was in civilian clothes and some guy in civilian clothes walked by and he said he was in the Navy and I said, I used to be in the Navy and you know, good salesperson, you know, you're talking to him a little bit and then coming to find out he was the Reserve Intelligence Program Officer. This was in 1998, so about three years before 9-11. So I ran into him and he started to talk to me about coming back in and once I get over the fact that Intel was not a warfare specialty at the time, and I could still wear my submarine pen

and I didn't have to wear something like weird on your collar like the supply officers and the medical field. It took about two years, but I finally came back in in 1998. And then, as we say in reserves, you're there in case you need, in case they need you. So I was a full up round ready to go on 9-11. I was recalled, you know,

when the first wave of folks being recalled, and I spent three of the next five years back on active duty here at Central Command and Tampa and and I'm making a couple deployments there so but that's what our reserves are for and that's you know taxpayers that's that's what everybody should be proud of because that's what reserves do they're there just in case you need them and right class we were ready to go and fall up rounds. One for those who might be listening, we're not familiar with Tampa. We have McDill Air Force Base, and on that, we have two of the major commands,

one being Special Operations Command, and the other being Central Command. And Steve, could you tell the listeners a little bit about what the mission of Central Command is because it's probably been the most active command for the past few decades. Yeah, unfortunately, unfortunately, it has been very active. So, since command, basically, they have a responsibility for military operations within the

central command theater, which is used to be 25. Now, I think we're down to 20 countries within the Middle East. So, we used to have the Horn of Africa, but that went to Africa, and once they stood up, I'm African. And so we have the, you know, the military responsibility within that area. So it's headed up by a four-star, that four-star actually reports into the Secretary of Defense. So direct report, all the combat commands. And then they have subcommands, unified commands under them. So like NavSent is Navy Central Command. They're based out of Bahrain, so whenever you hear of our forces out there.

So, and then there's our sent for the marine sites. They're all three star commands, the underneath the four star. And they actually deploy the forces. So central command is really kind of the higher headquarters, and they kind of direct the strategy and everything there. And it's a normal structure like within the military

where J1 is admin, J2 is intelligence, J3 is operations, J4's logistics and J5 is planning. So within all that, that's how they inform the commander, the four star, and kind of tell him what's going on and how to direct the forces up there in the central command, AOR, which is area of responsibility. Yes, and if I have a correct,

our current Secretary of Defense repaired General Lloyd Austin, I think was the commander of St. Compton. Correct. Yeah, he was a chief of staff there as a one-star. And then he became the, actually I think when I end up retiring out of Central Command as part of DIA, he was the commander

just left. They're just retired just before I left. I briefed him occasionally. I was usually in the cheap seats in his office, not at the big boy table because that's usually for the one, two, and three star generals and admirals. But I did brief him a couple of times from the cheap seats. Before the list are one of the things that I like to do is to get the guest to share some of their secrets to leadership, to understanding their self-narrative, their passions, etc.

So, you know, as you think about this military career that you had, and let's go back to the Naval Academy days, if you had the opportunity to go back and give a four-stall lecture, which is something they invite guests from many disciplines to come back in and talk to the mid-shipman, what would that be on? I'd probably be about really mentoring. I mean, leadership is the mentoring. I mean, that's kind of what I've done my whole career. Everybody thinks of a leader, someone that sits back and yells at people and maybe when you're younger and then you become older, you just direct people to do things, but true leadership comes down to the mentoring and the

coaching of your people because you're not just coaching and mentoring people to do their current job. The coaching them to be good leaders. So you really need to be mentoring people. And typically we see a span of direct reports as eight to 12 people. So you need to kind of be with those people and be spending your time with them as far as how are they leading their downstream. And of course, we always have this dichotomy

of managing versus leading. So we always try to, we always say the wordotomy of managing versus leading. So we always try to, we always say the word leading as opposed to managing, which sometimes in the corporate world, and I have a lot of corporate experience as well. They use a term management, but I would always turn that over to say leading it because managing a bunch of spreadsheets and a bunch of people is a whole different thing.

They're actually leading people to lead others. And so that's kind of the key, especially as you move up in chain of command and responsibility, and you've got downstream leaders that are there, even then you guys start mentoring them as far as how to mentor and coach their leaders to downstream other folks. So that's really, I think, one of the things I would talk about,

I'd probably use a bunch of examples around that, as I moved up in different areas, you know, specifically like when I was CEO a couple of reserve units, you know, had some junior leaders and they were more of the yelling type and all that. And so we had to, you know, sit down and talk about that as like,

hey, is that the best way to motivate your people? And then it probably wasn't. And so they kind of modified things. And that's probably one of the things I think pride in. It's still on Facebook. I have a lot of people that used to work for me or work side by side with me. And they still we still kind of stay in touch with stuff

and still laugh about some of the things. And some of the C stories that we used to have out there. If someone is interested in going to the Naval Academy, you mentioned that you're part of a blue and gold officer and many people might not understand what that is. So can you kind of walk a listener who might have a son or daughter or could be the son and daughter who's interested in going to a service academy and the importance

of blue and gold officers and coordinating with them if you want to spot it at one of the academies. Well, definitely. Your bull and gold offer isn't going to make you a breakthrough however they can mentor and coach you on the way to do the right things. Probably the best thing is to be thinking about it early. Don't wait to your last second kind of like me a little bit.

I was just fortunate because I had the good grades and all the activities and things like that. But the first thing I would say is, it's kind of like three secrets. You want to have good board scores, SATs, ACTs, taking really take them off them. Well, that's true of any school. Then you want to have as high a class rank as possible.

So we always tell kids, number one is great, number 500, not so good. So you want to be really in that top 10 to 20% of your class at best. Really, it used to be 20%, but even now a day it's kind of pushed more people towards the top 10%. So you kind of have to start that as a freshman because a lot of times we'll have students

that come up to us through junior year and they'll say, I really screwed around my first two years of high school, but I'm not motivated. It's like, it's tough to move that GPA up to 1% to us their junior year and they'll say, I really screwed around my first two years of high school, but I'm not motivated. And it's like, it's tough to move that GPA up, which corresponds to your class rank. But the third thing and the thing that really

probably sets you apart with the academy application versus regular schools, I should say normal schools, is that being involved with extracurricular activities that demonstrate leadership or have the potential to demonstrate leadership. Because if obviously if you're a freshman, and you're a freshman on the track team, you're probably not thinking to be in the team captain yet. But if you have the passion to be

and you have the interest in that sport and you do well at that sport, then you're gonna have those leadership opportunities as you grow, become your junior and senior year. Like for me, like I said, I was a band geek. I was in marching band and become a drum major of a 225 person marching band by my junior year, and then my senior year, I was the head drum major.

That was my leadership experience, checkmark, in the block for the nail Academy. So we don't tell people what you have to do, but you have to do something as much as possible that will eventually allow you to demonstrate some leadership potential in those leadership positions in high school. And that's really what kind of sets

the nail academy application apart from those other schools that aren't really maybe looking at quite the leadership potential piece. Because obviously with the nail academy academy we're looking for future leaders to lead young men a woman you know and our Navy and Marine Corps. Okay and if someone is interested in doing it they also have to realize that they're gonna need to go to either their congressman or senator and that's another thing that they're going to want to start pretty early on because that takes some time to go through adding a view cycle as well.

So I would probably have gone through it myself. I recommend that they start that process very early as well because the more you can get to know, either that Senator, Staff, or Congress member, Staff, the better opportunity you're gonna have to make an impression. Exactly, what we recommend folks do is a lot of the congressional staffs now, they'll have a congressional academy day. And in fact, for example, we just had one,

don't wanna get into politics, he wants to be Congressman Franklin here. Actually, Nate look at me class 86, Scott Franklin became the congressman in my district. So he actually had an academy day, Congressman Franklin here, actually Nate look at him in class 86, got Franklin, became the Congressman in my district. So he actually had an Academy day just like the previous ones before him, where they get out 100 or 150 students show up to find out more about the academies across the board. Of course, he was probably the best Congressman to have respect at one of these because since he wasn't Bullen Gold Officer, at one point, he really understood

what was going on. So it was kind of nice to have someone with actually retired military officer with Bullen Gold Officer experience. But so those congressional Academy days highly recommend a student go to them as a freshman sophomore in junior, and then they should formally contact the Congressman or Congresswoman's office probably about April, May of their junior year as they go into the

senior year. And that's usually when the congressional office is start to, you know, to start talking to the new students, because before that, they're still dealing with the ones that are graduating the year before. And just one misnomer, I always have to say, you don't need to know your congressman or your senator or, you know, vice president of the president if you're looking for those nominations as well and everybody's eligible to apply for vice presidential nomination as well. It's really the staffs that put that together. So it's there there really isn't this you know kind of the old maybe maybe 50 hundred years ago a good old boy network where you have to know your

congressman and that's the only way you're going to get into the nail academy. It's truly based on merit now. I mean, they're going to look at similar things that we look at and then also, you know, they're looking at other things, well, we're looking at community service too. So they're looking at a lot of things that we look at as well. However, they have like a usually a panel of maybe three to ten people sitting on that panel for most of them, some with Academy experience, some with military experience, or just some with civilian experience,

and they're asking all the questions about how they wanna, you know, why they wanna go to the Nail Academy, why do they wanna be coming off, certain things like that. So it does benefit to get in early, specifically at the end of their junior years, is probably the best time to formally engage.

Yeah, no, I'm sure most of the listeners don't realize that. I think it was in 2017 or 2018, US News and report came out and ranked the Naval Academy of the Top Public Institution in the country, which I thought was a great accolade and it has some of the best engineering programs in the country and maybe the top cyber or information warfare program in the country, given it's importance going forward. Yeah, there's a ton of accolades. We're usually top five in engineering schools across country.

Like I said, the number one in the public schools, probably one in the dean of academics. One of the things he always is really big on is that we have the highest retention rate among engineering schools that are greater than 50 people. I guess there's a couple of really small boutique engineering schools, but of ones that are greater than 50 people, we have by far the highest retention rate.

And it's kind of funny because maybe old school days you thought about, you know, they used to be, you know, on induction day and we first started your freshman year, you know, looked at a lot, looked at the right one of you three isn't gonna be here. And those days are gone. I mean, they really, the nail Academy admissions tries to take the right people and then keep them there.

So recently, we're in the 85, 86, 87%, even 88% range over the last 10 years as far as retention rate goes. I'm sorry, that's graduation rate, not even retention rate. After the first year, it's still very high in like the 92% rate, which is pretty impressive, considering there's a lot of yelling going on that first year, and a lot of challenges that a lot of high school students didn't have beforehand. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that 70% of individuals who do personal development masterminds and one-on-one coaching benefited from better work performance, increased communication skills, and overall better relationships. And we at PassionStruck are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource

to help you unlock your hidden potential. Because people doing great things in business and life are just like you, only they've had a coach along the way. And we've got that cover too. Let us show you the systems and frameworks that we teach both minded individuals to help them step into their sharp edges, execute on their passion journeys and get predictable results time and time again.

Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now and let's get igniting. I'm going to transition here a bit. So I remember you and I having a discussion and you told me that you were getting back into swimming and happened to run into a mutual friend of ours who kind of suggested that you might want to swim a little bit farther and for a different type of cause. So I was hoping with that as a lead in, maybe you can explain that story and then we'll talk about this next topic.

Oh, sure, I was running, I got back in the long distance running and probably 2000, I should my band geek title and started running marathons and that little injury for one year. So I was like, I should probably a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit more like and nine and that summer I met this guy, John Doolittle, who actually is a seal. But he went to the Air Force Academy, which is kind of unique in itself.

And we used to have a course that we swam out on base there on McDill Air Force Base. It's a half mile course around some posts and booze and stuff that he had kind of created. And maybe not created, but just found. And so I actually swim like two laps and he'd be passing me on the third lap. He was, because he's the first nail loss

or ever swim in the English channel, which if I remember right, is 28 miles. So very impressive, a swimmer, open water swimmer, tremendous guy. And he came to me and he's like, I were having this 5k swim across Tampa Bay. You should do that. And I'm like, I barely swim a mile and a half at this point. Iron Man distance is a 2.4 mile. So I'm working up to that for my first time, which I still was at the time very daunting.

And I'm like, you want me to swim twice that distance across an open Bay of water in January when it's cold water? I'm like, what are you smoking? And he's like, oh, no, no, you can do it. It's it's actually was to support Dan Kinozen who's an able-candy classic of three who on his third day in country in Afghanistan stepped on a land mine and lost both of his legs. So that first year was to directly all the money, was to support his family that had happened in September of 2009. So John's talking to me in about October timeframe, and I'm just like, you're just smoking crack

because there's no way that I'm gonna be able to do that or anything. So, you know, then I did my Iron Man, and so now I, which is 2.4 miles, so I'm like, well, maybe I can go ahead and get out another 0.7 miles. I don't have to bike and swing a bike and run after it. And I have to just deal with the cold water. So that first year I remember it was on January 2nd. So you had to be careful around New Year's Eve because you want to make sure you're still good on the next day. So that morning, it was 39 degree air temp, a little bit unusual for Tampa,

it was that cold. And the water temp was 55 degrees. And John, being the seal, wore just a pair of Speedo's and a neoprene cap. Because most of your heat comes out through your head. So wore a neoprene cap with just speed is on, which speed is in 55 degree water is cold. Yeah, even for a guy who's sweating the English channel,

because English channels usually about 59 to 60 degrees and you have to swim that, they call bare, you know, bare breasted, they put that oil on them and iodine and stuff like that. And so John did it that way. I did it with my wet suit on, of course, because I wasn't sure I'd make it without the wet suit. And we swim across that day.

And that event now has become, I believe it's the sixth largest open water swim in the country, 12 years in a row now, raised last year, or $750,000. So it's total, it's raised something like $5,000,000, $6,000,000, probably total for the Navy SEAL Foundation. So it kind of shifted from that initial seal to the Navy SEAL Foundation.

And I was not a SEAL, and I switched to intelligence and reserves, but I supported those guys. SEAL, when they make their decision to become a SEAL, they know what they're doing. They know the risks involve a spouse, a wife, you know, when they marry into a seal, they kind of have some idea of what's going on and some of the risks, you know, that they're involved with their husband. But as a child of a seal family, they don't have any choice in the

matter. So one of the things that the Navy SealAL Foundation does, every SEAL that's killed in action, the guarantee that student can go to college, no matter what if they want to. So that's really what I initially got sucked in because it's a little bit of swimming. But now I'm still not one of the faster swimmers because I'm a really a runner and a cyclist by trade. But I do this swim every year.

And maybe I've got enough to about 50% on the swim, but I'm typically one of the top five or top 10 fundraisers for the cause. And fortunately, I have a lot of old Navy rich guys, so they support me pretty well in the endeavor as time goes on. And the event is called the Frogman Swim. And as you said, it's been going on for 12 years now.

And I think you're one of only two to three participants who's actually done it all 12 years. Yeah, I think. Correct. Yes, actually, we had three, but one of the one of the slightly older gentlemen, he had a medical issue this year, and I could not participate. So it leaves myself and Chris Quilty,

another nail-camerist graduate class of 89. I'm sure John would have done it every year, but John was still an active DDC on. He disappeared for a couple of years, didn't tell us what he was doing, didn't even know he was gone, because that's what seals do. So John has swam it every year

since he's, every year that he is here, but he missed a couple of years early on. So the only reason I'm one of two is because I just happen to be here, when people like John are off still serving and still fighting the fight against terrorism at the time. One of someone's interested in actually swimming it, I hear that when the signups go live, even though it's in January and even though it's a five-case swim that in a matter of minutes, most of the slots are taken up.

And I think that's because you have to keep it at a certain size because with each swimmer there needs to be a boat that's going alongside or a canoe or something. Yep, yeah, everybody has to have a kayaker or a paddle board, even John do a little, being, you know, as great as he is, has to have a paddle board or a kayaker. It's kind of funny that my kayaker just happens to be,

she's actually the brother of a West Point grad. So she kind of knows service and she became my kayaker back in the beginning and she actually moved up the buffalo. She flies down every year just she became my kayaker back in the beginning. And she actually moved up the buffalo. She flies down every year just to be my kayaker still. So I like to say, maybe I'm one of two or three people that have swam in every year. But she's the only kayaker that's kayaked every single year. So she's one of one. So it's kind of cool that she got recognized for that here at the 10 year,

for doing 10 years. And so yeah, it actually, if you're interested in swimming it, you have to reserve, I'd say put it on your calendar right now, August 6th at 0700, so 7 o'clock AM, put it on, it will probably sell out in about 10 to 15 minutes, which sell out is kind of a mess and over, because of course you're expected to raise probably about $2,000, minimum a person for the Navy Seal Foundation.

So you have to remember, yeah, it's a phenomenal swim and an event there, but the real reason is the Navy Seal Foundation. And if you're a good swimmer, but you're not sure about the overall event, I would highly recommend that you go volunteer for the event and go there and try to make sure you're at the start line to see the ceremony that happens ahead of time.

And you will be moved. There's not a dry eye in the place when they start naming off all the names of all the seals. That have been killed in action since 9-11. It's unfortunately too many names, but it's a very impressive event. And if you're on the fence about swimming, you'll be swimming with the next year. I can almost guarantee that. And I understand now that it's expanding outside of Tampa Bay. So where else could people sign up in the future?

Yep, actually, it's so it's kind of like taking the Tampa Bay model, you know, the success here and to continue that. So it starts up and actually started a few years ago up in Boston as well, and then in San Francisco. And then I think there's some talk about doing it down in Virginia, Maryland area as well, but I don't think that's happened yet, but definitely Boston, I think it was just had the third year. So I know we had some people up there for that and San Francisco. I've kind of, I thought about doing the other ones, but then as what we call it, a streaker, I don't want to have to go to the people that donate so well for me every year. I didn't have to want to go to them for other events as well along the same vein. So I kind of decided to stick with the Tampa one for now.

Maybe I'll go up someday and do it, but I'll stick with a Tampa for now for me. And I wanted to spend some time now talking about what you do now for living, which is your coach. You're also still doing triathlons. And as I understand it, you help people with competitive running, and you also help them prepare for triathlons. Do I have that correct? Yes, although I would say it probably is not my line of work.

I would say it's a heavy hobby at this point because I don't know how triathlon and running coaches make money as to pay the bills because fortunately I'm retired and as I always tell the younger folks especially saving invest well when you're young, that certainly helps because it actually is a reserve, you don't get paid for your military time until age 60. So I do not have that military pension coming in for another four or five years. But yeah, as a coach, that is correct. So I mean, I've kind of created Team Swift, a little bit maybe egotistical to use your last name and your company name, but I figured Swift

was a good moniker for running and coaching. So I went ahead and used the Team Swift. And then I have about three running coaches that currently kind of under me. And we support the Brandon Running Association runners. And we have for Trial Flong, we've got here, the Fish Ock Tri Club is a member of that and coach some folks out of there.

Well, one of the biggest Trial Flong clubs in the country is Mad Dogs, which is based off St. Pete. I probably don't do as much with them as I should, but it's a little bit of a drive from Brandon over to St. Pete. So, but coach a couple folks are there as well. And yeah, it's probably the number one thing I always sit down in the beginning with people is, you know, what are your goals? So, some people's goals like, I want to go to the Olympics someday. Well, let's see if that's realistic. You know, you're 56 years old, might be able to pass your prime. That might not be a very realistic goal.

But we sit down with people and determine what their goal is. Because some people want to go, I want to go to Kona. Kona is the world championships for Iron Man. Okay, well, let's sit down and see where you're at for that and see if that's realistic. So that's probably the number one thing that I try to stress to folks is, hey, what are your goals? And sometimes that changes over time because sometimes people, okay, I just want to run three times a week for three miles and not feel like I'm going to die, right? So that's a goal, you know, for some people, that's a goal. And so I'll provide a accountability for that. And then eventually, then they do that for a while. They're like, well, I want to go out and run a competitive 5K.

Okay, so now we're talking a little bit more about time. So a competitive 5K, we're going to have to introduce more speed work into the program. You know, we're going to have to maybe do some temple work. We might have to start introducing intervals. Again, depends on the physiology of the person and a little bit underage. We're not gonna take someone a little bit older

and just start hammering intervals out, doing 200 and 400 really. So, and then triathlon, obviously a lot of runners since I deal with a lot of runners, they kind of move over a triathlon and notoriously not very good swimmers, just like I was kind of in the beginning. And so you have to work on technique heavily in the beginning.

Yeah, I'm not going to swim coach somebody to be at an national level, but I'm certainly certainly good enough for for people who are beginning because I kind of remember that when I was kind of beginning. I mean, obviously the nail-cabby we had to swim. I was never going to set any record, but I think I was a good solid D plus A minus person. You got the Naval Academy, so, but that doesn't quite get it done when you're in competitive field. But I'll take a lot of those,

just beginning swimmers that, they can't even breathe properly to start, and we work on the drills and things like that, just to get them down to where they feel comfortable in the water, because then you also have to take it from the pool to the open water. So I have coached some pretty high level slimmers

and then they realize that, hey, when you got an open water, there's no black line on the bottom of the pool and there's things that touch me every once in a while. You know, the seaweed and I see fish and other maritime life and wow, it's really dark out here. And so you have to, that's a different type of coaching because you got to get them more to open water and feel comfortable in the open water

before that first race. Because I have seen people where they just totally freak out. And that really set you up for a bad day because the swim's almost always first in a triathlon. And so you got to make sure they have at least an efficient swim. So you gotta get wet before the race begins. So you gotta go out and swim and get that done

before you start the biking and running. Well, one of the things I like to cover with the podcast are our suggestions about achieving top performance, whether that's you're trying to be, you know, a top runner, a top performance, whether that's, you're trying to be a top runner, a top athlete, or whether you're just trying to take your career to the next level. From being in coach with these athletes,

from at health and wellness standpoint, what are some of your biggest advice points, things that they can do to put themselves in a better place? Yeah, for peak performance, I mean, a lot of it is the consistency. So, especially for endurance events, and it's true in life, right?

I mean, anything that you build a habit on. So, like, if you wanna lose weight, well, yeah, I always tell people, I'm not a certified nutritionist, but if you shoot for about a half upon a week, which is 1500 to 2000 calories, you're not dieting, you're for about a half a pound a week, which is 1,500 to 2,000 calories, you're not dieting, you're making it a goal. You're making it in a bite-sized type of consistent goal.

If you do that every week, a half a pound a week, you know, and a half a year and 26 weeks, you're going to lose 13 pounds. So that's a similar type of thing. For coaching for athletes, a lot of it is consistency, especially endurance events, because you have to build up the load that your body's able to handle. Then we're gonna have some step back weeks as well,

because we don't wanna overload people and over train and things like that. But that consistency is key. And people that say, well, we're gonna take a month off. It's good to take a week off after your big event. Most of the elites and the pros do that. After that big event, you got to let the muscles kind of recover a little bit, but consistency is one of the biggest things. Another thing I say all the time to my folks is hard on the hard days and easy on the easy. So what that means is

if you have a hard day with a temple run or intervals and especially in running, you do that hard. All out hard, you know, is maximum you can do whatever the workout is for that day. But then in the easy days, you gotta go easy. That doesn't mean go, you know, moderate plus and a lot of people get into this rut where they are running like the same paste all the time. So we want hard on the hard days and really easy on the easy days. So like a lot of elite and pro athletes, pro runners, they may be running at a five minute, five 30 pace for their races, but they're gonna do their easy runs

at like eight, nine minute miles, which blows away most of the people like Hoag's, they're like, well, that's what I run for easy paste. Well, maybe you should run even slower because the pros were doing that pace for the easy pace so there's a lot of that you know higher than the hard days and easy on the easy and then that that consistency those are probably two of the things I preach as a coach to people and also the the easy and easy days that help prevent injury because if you're always trained hard highly increases your risk for injury,

especially in running. The other sports a little bit as well. I mean, if you always swim hard, you risk more shoulder injuries, but usually triathlates aren't swimming as much as, like the folks you're seeing on the Olympic trails right now. They're doing 60,000 yards a week. Elite triathlons are probably only doing

in the 12 to 15,000, maybe 20,000 years a week. What's your feedback and recommendation on sleep cycles if you're trying to achieve that performance as well? Yeah, for sleep cycles, it's especially like, yeah, most people like coach have jobs, right? So they got fit in all this training on top of other normal jobs. So sleep is very important. It's part of that rest cycle. People, I'll tell

people if you're getting only five hours of sleep and you're getting up early to go for that workout, you're probably better off just sleeping in and getting the extra hours of sleep or two that allows. I mean, people don't realize that elite athletes, they sleep nine, 10 hours a day. You know, they sleep their normal night at night and then they do for a heavy workout in the morning and they think at a one to two hour nap and then they do another heavy workout in the afternoon. That's their job though, they have that. We all have, or most folks like us, you know, have other jobs and that sleeps like it was so important and a lot of people try to chins on it and it ends up biting them in the butt. Yes, and that's regardless of whether you're an athlete

or you're just trying to achieve peak performance in your career, folks that I ever in the research I have done indicate that only about 1% of all humanity is able to function at a five-hour sleep cycle and the majority need seven to eight yet. When you think about time management, so do people allocate that amount of time to sleep and over time, it has a tremendous impact through my research on how you're gonna perform

your cognitive abilities, everything else gets hampered over time. So I think it's similar to what you were describing with the weight loss and trying to take the microsteps, you know, to me, consistency of sleep is similar because your body tends to get in the habit of being in that window and the more that you can accomplish that, based on, you know, the research I've done, the more effective you're going to have at having a good sleep pattern, which your point is so vital, whether it's peak performance or for something else you might want to do.

No, exactly. And if you don't get enough sleep, then you're tired the next day. So then you eat more crap. And then you don't achieve your goal of getting leaner. And then you don't perform as well. And the same thing for your regular job and being a high performance leader. And if you don't get enough sleep, then you're more cranky, you yell at people, and you're not as effective as a leader, and all that kind of stuff. Exactly what you're saying. Yes, and for the listeners who are out there

who might be interested in inspirational, craft-leaf story, we did a podcast earlier in the year on a lady named Sydney Hooper, who is from Canada, and Steve, she actually came down with pain-carrot a cancer, she was a triathlete, and then did this surgery called the Whipple surgery where they take out your bubble. I think they take out your bottle duct, your paincreas, calf your stomach, calf your intestine, and she was only three

months removed from that surgery still on chemotherapy, and she did the Whistler Mraath on chemotherapy, and she did the whistler, rapidly. And she remembers going into it that she thought she would never finish. So her first thing was, can I just get out of the water? And then she got out of the water, and they were able to complete the bike

with about five minutes of despair. And she said, once you do that, she ran and walked the rest of it. But to this day, I think she's the only person who's ever done full Iron Man while on chemotherapy. So it was a pretty inspirational. And now she is a coach similar to you, and that's what she's dedicating her life to do

is to help others reign to do Braffelons and full triathlons. So great. Yes, I know. Yeah, that's outstanding. There's a lot of stories out there just with people who, you know, persevere. I mean, John Blaise was a famous person probably back in the late 2000s where he had ALS,

which of course is a death sentence two to five years. And what he always wanted to do, the Iron Man Kona, which is very difficult to get it to. So I've never qualified for Kona, I've been pretty close and he ended up choosing him as, you know, because he had a limited time and he ended up doing it the next year with all the problems and unfortunately, passed away about two years after that. But yeah, so now they have something called the Blazeman role and even professional athletes will roll across the finish line and what's called the Blazeman role to honor him because of his dedication and from the challenges that he had from doing an Iron Man with that affliction. Well, that is an amazing story and I'm going to have

to look that up on YouTube so I can actually see some of these athletes do that role. I did want to give you before we're done a chance to give a shout out. So if someone was interested in contacting you, whether it was to learn more about the Naval Academy, or they have a passion about trying to become a better runner or be part of your coaching practice, where can they reach you at? Sure. Probably the easiest place is on Facebook at Team Swift. There's a couple British ones over there, but don't worry about that. Look for me in the runner. Or anything, I use my Naval Academy email address for everybody. So it's sswift at 1987.usna.com. And I respond everything there with fairly quickly. And for both Naval

Academy and coaching stuff. And I just, one other thing is like a folks looking, you know, when you're getting ready to retire out there, you know, combine your passions. I read that somewhere along the way. And so that's what I kind of do. I try to take all my Navy and Naval Academy stuff and my triathlon and running and all comes together. And it's a phenomenal experience

and it makes you a better leader and and makes you better, a better leader and a better mentor and coach for people. Well, I think that's a great point to end on and it goes right in line with what we're trying to do here with the Passion Struck brand and obviously this podcast. So Steve, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show and giving all these bits of wisdom for our listeners and watchers at the Digest. Thank you. Thanks, John. Oh, Navy. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden

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listen to us every Tuesday and Friday for even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us. you