The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Building Resilience for Hybrid Success: Anchored in Adaptability by Raymond D. Kemp Sr.

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Building Resilience for Hybrid Success: Anchored in Adaptability by Raymond D. Kemp Sr. https://amzn.to/3vPrbX2 Kemp-solutions.com Unlock the power of resilience with "Building Resilience for a Hybrid Success: Anchored in Adaptability" – a game-changing guide by Raymond Kemp, a retired Navy Fleet Master Chief. Dive into the proven strategies drawn from his three decades of molding resilient service members. Building resilience in your organization is about mastering the basics, and it's simpler than you think, transcending gender, generation, and ethnicity. Let Kemp’s legacy of transformation inspire you to empower your team for unshakable success. Get ready to lead with unwavering adaptability and take your organization to extraordinary heights. Cultivate loyalty and tenacity within teams Harness attitude, belief, and character for leader development Construct a robust leadership pipeline Embrace self-leadership for personal and team growth Foster collaboration, accountability, and delegation Champion open communication and visionary leadership Embody authenticity and celebrate collective success Ignite your leadership journey with Kemp's sage counsel, and empower your teams for resounding success. Grab your copy now and embark on a transformative path of leadership excellence. Raymond D. Kemp, Sr., an American patriot appointed by President Biden to serve on the American Battle Monuments Commission, embodies leadership in every sense of the word. With a lauded 33-year career in the U.S. Navy, he shattered glass ceilings to retire as the first Black person selected to the position of Fleet Master Chief of Naval Forces Europe and Africa. His resilience against all odds has been acknowledged by the Office of the President of the United States and is reflected in his numerous awards, including the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medals, and the Navy Combat Action Ribbon.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. I'm Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There you go.

Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate you guys coming by. As always, the Christmas show family loves you. It's the family that loves you but doesn't judge you, at least not as harshly as your mother-in-law. She never liked you anyway. But refer to the show to your family, friends, and relatives, and her, and maybe she'll like you more.

Go to goodreese.com, 4Chest, Christmas, linkedin.com, 4Chest, Christmas, Christmas 1 on the TikTok, the big LinkedIn newsletter, the 130,000 LinkedIn group over there, and all the other places you find us on the internet. I'm always excited to have military folks on the show, at least the ones from the U.S. military. Why don't you have Russian military people on? Well, they're the second worst military in Ukraine, and most of them are dead by now.

So there you go. But they'll have a new set next week so that's why the russian military isn't on and i'm not welcome in russia after just saying that and i'm gonna check the my tea so we have an amazing gentleman on the show with us today and i'm always excited about this because we talk about leadership and if you're not familiar our our the reason our military is one of the number one militaries in the world is because number number one i don't know why i'm repeating that, but it sounded funny in my head. You know, we're just the greatest country in the world, of course, whatever that means.

But also, we train really well and we have incredible leadership training that goes through all the ranks of our military. And so I'm excited to have military folks on and talk about leadership. He's the author of the newest book that just came out, November 4th, 2023, Building Resilience for Hybrid Success Anchored in Adaptability. Raymond D. Kemp Sr. joins us on the show today, and we're going to be talking to his knowledge and experience, and he'll be imparting it all to you. And by the end of the show, you will know stuff that you never knew before and be smarter or else. Raymond D. Kemp Sr. is an American patriot appointed by President Biden to serve on the American Battle Monuments Commission.

He embodies leadership in every sense of the word. With a lauded 33-year career in the U.S. Navy, he shattered glass ceilings to retire as the first Black person selected to the position of Fleet Master Chief of Naval Forces Europe and Africa. His resilience against all odds has been acknowledged by the Office of the President of the United States and is reflected in his numerous awards, including the Legion of Merit, Meritus Service Medals, and the Navy Combat Action Ribbon. Welcome to the show, Raymond. How are you? Motivated, prepared to serve. Glad to be here, Chris. There you go. And it's an honor to have you, sir, as well. And thank you for your

service. Give us your dot coms. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? Yeah, RaymondKemp.com. You can find, it's my webpage. On all social media, I'm Raymond D. Kemp. And on LinkedIn, same thing, Raymond Kemp, Fleet Master Chief is how you can find me there. There you go. So give us a 30,000 overview. What's inside your new book, Building Resilience for Hybrid Success? Sure. So from the 30,000-foot level, Building Resil success is, it isn't just about weathering storms.

It's about learning how to dance in the rain. And that's what the book is really about. The ABCs of leadership I developed throughout my career and shared on aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers, and certainly in my last tour, being attitude, belief, and character. It's my firm, firm belief, Chris, that if we have the right attitude, because our attitude determines our altitude, belief system is locked in place that is in ourselves and in the mission, vision, guiding principles of our organization, and then operate in character. There's nothing that we can't achieve. And so the ABCs of leadership, I tap into in the book as well. And just the insight of a person who walks on water is different than what most people might

be expecting. There you go. Resilience. And what was the thing you said? Operating character. We'll get back to that in a second. But in the meantime, give us a rundown in your words of your background, some of the things you did in your life. What made you join the military and led you down that pathway? Sure. So I had an uncle who was in the, he was retired. He was starting the Marine Corps, retired from the Air Force. And when I was a kid, every morning during the summer times, when I stayed at his place, all my aunts, the seven of them would go off to work and he'd be at home telling me to go outside and pick up them twigs underneath the tree, bring in baby carrots from the garden. I thought that's the job I want. And so I realized that there was that was my first introduction to there is a way to retire and retire early.

And so I did. I scored well on the aptitude exam. I decided to join the Navy because the recruiter was the most diligent and pursued me the hardest. And that was that was my reason for going. But let me tell you, when I started, it was far from the party that I thought it was going to be. I didn't just miracle my way 20 years later to retire. And it was a tough time, 86, a lot of discrimination and craziness going on. Probably won't get into it on this podcast unless you want to, but I had a really forehead to forehead interaction in a very racially discriminative environment and this guy thought that he was sending me down a pathway that

was going to be the end of me uh and it turned out to be the best thing that ever could have happened and rode through the ranks in the navy what we do we test you know for our aptitude on our profession and then we get evaluated on our behaviors and the way we are able to comply and be creative. And through that process, I've stationed on a number of aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers, did 19 years on sea duty, which means not necessarily just on ships, but in an environment where I could be immediately deployed to counter an action against our nation. For example, 9-11.

Working my way through the ranks, I made it to the rank of Master Chief, which is the highest enlisted rank. And then I went into leadership. And so I became a Command Master Chief of a guided missile destroyer, an aircraft carrier, and ultimately the Fleet Master Chief of Navy Europe and Africa. Now, among that pathway, various different leadership courses to include the Army Sergeant's Major Academy. So imagine a Navy dude, you know, big blue is what they used to call me, walk around the Army Sergeant's Major Academy, but very welcoming environment. I think at the

highest levels amongst the elite, we are very welcome. Though we may banter heavily between each other, when we're serving and learning in an environment like the Sergeant's Major Academy or in the combat zone, we're together, one team and one fight. There you go. So you went through a lot of resilience training as you were getting in the military and coming up. So some of the things you talk about in your book. Yeah, definitely a lot of resilience experience. As much training as I probably could have wanted. Technically training.

You're right. Yeah, sucking up buttercup is a way to train, I guess. There you go. That was a piece of it. And so what do you think was in your character that led you to leadership? And some people, they may step aside and, I don't think leadership's for me or they don't take on that mantle. What enticed you to want to take on that mantle of leading?

It goes back to this town just outside of Oklahoma City, El Reno, you know, where my mother's family is from. My grandmother told me once, she said, you know, you have the ability to pay attention. Very unusual how you notice things that are small. My mother, on the other hand, was telling me, because I went to a school on the west side of Oklahoma City, and born in the 60s, raised in the 70s, east side, west side was a distinguishing point for, it was a racial divide. So I went to school on the west side of town, the only black kid in the school. And I mean, at every level, not the mailman, not the yard dude, certainly not the teachers and the Episcopal church I was going to.

But what happened was my mother said, you're as good as any of them. So I began to believe in myself pretty early. And so I joined the Navy and moved on. Three days into boot camp, they asked, does anybody want to be a squad leader? And I was like, shh. And they were like, hey, man, what are you doing? You know, the Navy stands for never again volunteer yourself. What are you doing? Nobody tell me that. I put my hand up and became a squad leader responsible for, you know, 19 other knucklehead recruits

going through this sailorization process, teaching civilians how to be sailors. And that means that not everybody knows they're left from right when somebody's yelling at them. Not everybody, you know, knows, you know, not to walk like a robot, you know, when they're marching, if they've never marched before. And so the pushup machine was always ready. And the leader, of course, always has to do pushups for everybody else. So because I believed that I had a special way to pay attention to things, and I believe that I was as good as anyone else,

because those seeds were planted in me early, and I was a pretty good athlete, more than pretty good athlete, then I felt like there was nothing I couldn't do. And I always felt like, you know, as a team captain growing up, I understood what it meant to take up for that lineman that missed the block or take up for that cornerback who just got toasted for the second time for a long touchdown. I knew when I joined the Navy, I know how to help people. And so my leadership journey began there. So four days in up until the last day of my, you know, three decade long, three decades plus career, I was responsible for somebody else. There you go. So do you believe in servant leadership?

Is that type of leadership you? I do. I believe in servant leadership. I also believe that leaders are born and made. Oh, really? There are. Absolutely. I think there are some people who just have the natural skill to stand in the gap when there is trouble and to run towards the fire when that thing is most hot. I also know that there are some people that don't. And those who don't can be taught the skills and the skills and the mindset to take a step towards it and through the appropriate amount of sets and reps and they can run towards it. And certainly modesty. Now, I want to say humility because that's pretty popular these days. You know, you want to be a humble leader, blah, blah, blah.

I can't be overly humble believing that somebody is more important than me. I can be modest and immodest, but I am altruistic by nature and I would encourage all leaders to be that way. A rising tide, Chris, floats all boats. Be the damn tide. Be the damn tide. I like that. I say that all the time, the rising tide, but I don't do the be the damn tide part. I like that. I'm going to have to put that on a cup. So it sounds like your mother believed in you and she instilled in you very early that belief in you that you were exceptional and you could go places and you were just as able-bodied as anyone else. No one was going to hold you back and I love that. One thing you mentioned that I thought was really interesting, you mentioned earlier as we got into it, operating in character. Tell us what that means.

You know, many of us feel like we have to jump into character to behave in certain environments. And in authentic leadership, that's not an option. Because you may forget to discern character you you may happen upon a group that is not necessarily your normal you know crowd and if you're operating authentically then you are able to display a high level of character at all times when i say character i mean that you're behaving in such a way that it doesn't matter whether someone is watching or not. You're behaving in such a way that it's just your natural response to challenges and celebrations. And your character is that reputation that precedes you before you go anywhere. So character is crucial to good leadership. So you've got to have that foundation where you've built yourself a good character, you model it stay in it 24 7 you're not just wearing a mask of like when you need to do the pr

you're you're putting it on in front of the employees right and i and i'm one of those folks and i think it might be in a pretty small group that believes this chris that sometimes you can have a misstep that a misstep that is tragic and then recover from that. So character is not something that is either you got or you don't. I mean, you can build that foundation and then stand on, and with the right foundation, you can put anything on top of it. So I think we're in lockstep on that. I agree with you. You know, we've talked about in the show where,

and in my book about how people, sometimes CEOs for companies lead by pr and you know it's just like i'm gonna put a pr notice out that says we're building an honest trustworthy integrity company here and we're that's what we are and then you know you find out he's stealing i don't know staples staples from the back room or something and everybody goes you're full of shit as carla would say in that bit. And they try and lead by that PR statement, and

then you watch what they say, don't watch what they say, watch what they do. And I think people in the military, or whether they're military folks, or whether they're your employees, or whether they're your children. My parents are great parents, but they would tell us, don't lie.

And then when we'd catch them in a lie, we'd be like, you're full of shit. Yeah, I think you're right. Being able to live that out. And regrettably, there's some organizations that, whether it be the c-suite as a whole or one person in there who is having who's writing out this glorious culture culture should be this and culture is top down i firmly believe that but climate climate grids is bottom up and so if the culture doesn't match the climate and by that i mean when somebody drives up and they pull into their parking spot at their workplace, their thought is on their frontline leader, not on some Gucci PR statement that's been written and publicized and amplified someplace. They're thinking about that first point of contact.

And that's the climate. And so if the climate and culture don't match, no matter what the PR is, that person will respond, you're full of shit if you're not looking it up. This is what I love about this show is because I learn stuff and I have epiphanies. I've never heard anybody talk about the climate before, but I love that, what you're talking about. Let's flesh that out some more because mostly we talk about culture, which I think, as you mentioned, is top-down. Tell us more about climate.

How do you cultivate that or develop that? Or is that just a natural byproduct of the culture that maybe you see as an entrepreneur or CEO? No, I'll tell you. I'll use a Navy example. I reported to a ship, and they've got these bedrock rules of behavior, and here's how the ship is supposed to behave and so forth. And the next thing you know, what I realized when I attached there is that that place was a damn soup sandwich. I mean, people were running amok. They were led astray. It was all kinds of craziness going on. I was like, what in the world is happening here?

Now, the person in charge had laid out these rules, but the folks weren't just living by that. And I thought, well, where's my insertion point? Because I was a senior leader at the time. Where's my insertion point? And what I found is I went in and I was, I don't know if you remember that show where the millionaire would come in and act as if the owner of the company was the undercover millionaire, right? Undercover CEO or something like that. Yeah. And so that was me. And so I was putting on, you know, the poopy suits and, you know, doing all the grunt work.

And people had no idea that it was actually me. And once they found out, they were like, man, this guy is legit. And I started talking to them about, well, hey, what do you think? You know, what is this? What is this? How can we be doing business better? And I think it's these days we would say you want to have a psychologically safe workplace, an environment where people can speak out loud and not

feel like they're going to get doo-dooed on just because they have an idea that's ridiculous. And what happened is that that insertion point for the climate, from my perspective, again, that first point of contact that people have, when they realize that they had a voice, they realize that somebody cared about them and they could feel it. Because the old saying is people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Well, you've got to display that care. And once that happens, that is where the real change in the climate can take place. And so in this real life story, and I'm just leaving a bunch of names out of it, what happened is making an insertion point at that frontline leadership level for the climate. What that did is that it changed the attitude of the sailors that were coming back and forth to work and the civilians, as a matter of fact.

And so once that took place, we were able to start pushing the civilians as a matter of fact and so once that took place we were able to start pushing the climate towards the culture which again is written in that pr statement someplace we started pushing the climate towards that and just created that space where people believed and that whole one team one fight mentality came to life and the next thing you know it was one of the best places to work as an enemy and so was the failure then that there was just a pr statement for culture and maybe the leader the ceo absolutely wasn't living it and then when you came in as the leader you're working all the the grunt jobs you're you're you're you're down there on the ground floor i think a lot of people

in the in our military leadership you know they're taught to work all the jobs, even if they're our top brass, so they can show that, you know, they understand everything. But so that really helped match it up is by being the leader and matching the culture with the or matching the climate with the culture made all the difference. That gives me a lot to think about after this. Yeah. You know, to your point of when it comes down to people knowing all the jobs, it's hard to give respect to a job you don't understand. and I would walk into the spaces that sailors would never expect us to walk into, whether it be the trash room or whether it be the space where, you know, the pit snipes or you're working on the engineering auxiliary equipment and so forth. And we would spend time not just, I mean, standing in the trash room, which is imagine what that's like and tossing stuff, you know,

into the machines and talking, having real conversations with the sailors. And that made a humongous difference. And so as there are C-suite members that are certainly listeners and others, anyone in the leadership role, I would encourage them just to understand those positions as much as logical, those positions of those folks that report to you so that you can appreciate them and give honor to those positions. Because that's where respect is earned respect is earned you know i i saw this the other day someone wrote on facebook they they said respect is given what was the second part of it i can't remember but i i corrected them and i said no respect isn't earned dignity or boy i can't pick

this up from my memory but but basically respect is earned. So yeah, you have to earn respect. Courtesy is given. So I can be courteous and respectful to people, or courteous and nice to people and give them parlance or whatever, but they don't earn my respect. I think the other one was trust and it has to be earned. And so yeah, respect has to be earned. I see a lot of that bantering around nowadays that you know i i deserve respect there's a lot of deserving in the world that i hear about a lot of title i am somebody there's a whole lot of people believe in

you know the internet machine that they are somebody and now you got to earn that thing it's not freely given yeah it's like we say to some of the folks who apply to the show we're like you're not as interesting as you think you are which is me but you know i just started my own show so i could get on one so that's how i got that's the truth be the truth we all know that for 15 years so you you mentioned you touched on open communication and having an environment or culture and climate where people can be, can share ideas, can speak up. I, you know, that was one of the things I built into my culture early on from the book, The Fifth Discipline. I forget Peter, is it Peter Singe? And so I built culture into

my companies early on from the get-go as an entrepreneur and understood the difference was, you know, and I realized I wasn't the guy who was the purveyor of all the greatest ideas in the world. That ended really quick after a short while. And so being able to have an environment where one of the rules we had was the only stupid question is the unasked question. And to never shame people if they ask questions, even if, you know, they didn't pay attention in training or the question is dumb, like you mentioned earlier. Things like that. One of the other things you talk about, I don't know if you feel free to expand on that if you like, but I also like to hear your ideas on visionary leadership as you talk

about in your book. I'd say that just kind of go back to creating a room for innovation is the importance when it comes down to building trust, the importance that when you give someone a voice, that allows them to collaborate sometimes, maybe even reaching across a space that they don't necessarily work in regularly. That creates room for organizations to be innovative. And it also creates loyalty. know that I'm being heard, that I am valued and cared for, that I'm more likely to give you all I got to give and stay with that organization. As long as I believe in that PR statement and being lived out the character of the CEO. When it comes down to that innovation piece, that is really, really important in the environment that we're in now. You and I are about the same age or are the same

age. And when we are thinking back to, when I think back to my youth and as we, you and I were growing up, I remember folks saying, hey, you need to go do this thing. And okay, was, roger that, was the only two words I had. There wasn't a whole lot of, well, why do I have to do it? Why this and so forth? And as I grew into leadership, I mean, I know, Chris, I can imagine the number of times either we said or we heard, you always asking why. Just do it because I said so. I said, jump, you say how high. And what I discovered when I moved into leadership is that the only people that were truly offended by people asking why were those who don't know why.

And so my perspective is, along with Simon Sinek's book, which I really jumped on 2009, 2010 or so when I went to my guided missile destroyer. I don't mind telling you the reason that we're doing that. I want you, I want things to be predictable because you're more at peace when things are predictable. So we're in combat. I need you to know, hey, here are some things we can expect and be prepared for. There you go. Preparation is everything. I think that's what makes our military so great is you guys train for so much stuff.

And you train for the ifs, ands, or buts and all sorts of fallout that can happen. And I think the other thing that makes our leadership great in our military and it was i i joked about the russians earlier but the russians i never really looked at the the stacking of the management the leadership structures and and stuff between the russian and the u.s military until we've had you know people like yourself on and the ukraine war really like just tore the the russian military's veneer of of being the second most powerful military in the world to being the second most powerful military in ukraine is stole that from a state department guy but seeing their leadership structure was just abysmal i mean i really never looked at it until

the russian war and and and and correct me how i'm not sure i have it said right but the one thing about our militaries is you teach everyone a level where if there's if there's a loss of command of the command sequence in any of the teams, the team leader of whatever is left over can take over and make decisions on the ground or in real time. They don't have to sit around and go, we should probably wait for a cable from the Pentagon or something.

You're very right. In our command structure and across the services, I've observed it. Of course, I'm a sailor. I spend a lot of time with the Marine Corps as well as a a lot of time with the Marine Corps, as well as a tiny bit of time with the Army. And that's absolutely true. The person who is in command is sharing enough of all that he knows at the unclassified level, of course,

with those folks, you know, plus one, up one, down two. And so in the event, you know, something happened to, say, a commanding officer or sergeant major, then the person, you know, behind them can stand into the gap and continue to press on, particularly in a combat environment, press on in the fight. But administratively, that is crucial as well. Otherwise, if you have a single point of failure nothing works as far as i'm concerned yeah and you know in a single point of failure like everything can come apart at the wheels and you know we've heard so many stories on the show and there's so many stories i'm sure in life and tv movies about how you know when the command is taken out that you

know our soldiers you know rise to the leadership level and they save the day. There's all sorts of probably purple hearts and stories behind those sort of events. And so I think equating that into teams of your company as well, you know, you mentioned telling people the why as to how things are done. That was the other thing I used to have that sometimes used to annoy my employees is when we train them or they would ask questions about something like, or whatever it was, we would train them on the why. So here's how you do this or operate, say for example, this machine. And

here's why we do it this way. So they would not only understand the command, they would understand the reasoning behind it. And part of the reason we do that is because I'd want them to innovate. So if they looked at it from their different paradigm or perspective, they could go, why do we do it this way? Maybe there's a better way to do it. And then we wanted them to have that open environment where they could come to us and go, hey, Chris, your way of doing things is stupid. Here's a better way of doing it.

And I wouldn't egotistically go, well, this is my way or the highway sort of thing. I'd be like, yeah, wow, you just saved me X number of bucks. That piece right there. So just another quick story. And I love telling sea stories because they're just all true. There's a submarine deploying in an area underwater. And they have a device, a connector that is broke and this is a not quite mission critical device but it's critical and so they you know to order a new piece it's you know 10 15k

to have that brought out to them in the environment they were in just wasn't that just wasn't logical wasn't feasible they were They were just going to have to do without. It turns out there's a cook and a secretary or an administrative person who were having lunch with an engineer, and the engineer mentions this problem. The administrative person says, man, I just ordered one of those pieces for the guys in this other shop. I bet you they could. It's a 3D printer, by the way. He said, I bet you one of those pieces for the guys in this other shop. I bet you they could. It's a 3D printer, by the way.

He said, I bet you they could make that. Sure enough, you're just in an environment where people, one, understand the why, the mission why. Two, they understand their own individual workplace why. And then their individual why as a person on board the ship, realizing that they have got to be part of every solution. And so just on that knowledge, that comfort in offering a solution, they were able to save tens of thousands of dollars and get that critical piece of equipment going. That only happens when leaders do the same thing you did. Let me tell you how to operate it. Let me tell you why we operate it. Because oftentimes people close to the problem

have the solution. It's just whether or not they're able to voice that solution. It was a great system and not shaming people. A lot of people, they don't want to point out anything like, hey, this could be done better. They don't want to ask questions. I always learned that having that environment of asking questions, the only stupid question is the unasked question. We'd shame you if you didn't ask the question because usually that person would end up be the one

breaking the $30,000 machine because he missed something in training or whatever. You're like, I really wish you would have asked this, how you didn't, you know, he missed something in training or whatever. And, and you're like, I really wish you would have asked us, you know, how you didn't understand something. Although I, the joke I had for earlier, we were talking about is I usually ask employees to do things and every now

and then somebody will be like, well, I don't really want to do that. And I'm like, I don't think you understood. I was asking to be nice. It really is. I just wanted to get your buy-in. But now that we've established that's not your interest, it's hilarious. Every now and then, you know, little finger-to-forehead reminders are important. Got to keep them in line.

Got to keep them in line. So you offer a lot of stuff on your website. Tell us what some of your services and offering are and stuff you do there. Well, the primary thing I'd like folks to know that I have to offer is keynote speeches on leadership and a couple of courses that I think would be essential for leaders, whether they're at the executive level or at the mid-level leadership. One is the creating a psychologically safe workplace. Super important that we're able to do that, as we discussed earlier, particularly when it comes down to innovation. Bridging the generational gap is also something that as some of the boomers are aging out and we're making our way towards the end of our careers, but still hanging on to duties and responsibilities of those who are in charge, the ability to communicate across those barriers as well. There's been a bit of a racial and ethnic challenge across our nation, I would say over the last, probably since the last 10, 15 years,

there's been some challenges. And during our previous president's term, there was a desire to stop being what we call politically correct. And depending on how people define that to me, politically correct, politically correct means to treat people with dignity and respect and when you're not, you know, not shaming someone for doing something wrong, then that to me is kind of the appropriate way for loyalty to be built within an organization. And so the mission behind Chem Solutions is my desire is to change the world kind of plain. But I want to change it from the workplace outward. So if we have people accustomed to being treated with dignity and respect and that dopamine, serotonin, brain release that you get from that, you're going to want more of that at home in your community. And then we change the world.

And so my offerings are keynote speaking and then courses and training opportunities for leadership. Maybe I should change my paradigm to dignity is given, but respect is earned, maybe? I don't know. What do you think about that? I'm really curious. I think that's A-way. I hadn't heard it that way. That's A-way. Yeah, because the other one was

courtesy is given. Courtesy should be probably in the same synopsis as dignity, but I'm not sure I'm going to get some KKK guy in the South to agree with me on that one. I love them dudes, man. There's nothing like dealing with somebody you know is opposed to you. That's true. I love that. I'll have to work on if it's

dignity or courtesy. I think courtesy and dignity should be the same, but I don't know. I guess both you could interpret any way you want. I group them closely. There you go. So anything more on your website, your services, your consulting, your coaching that you want to plug out on? You know, at this moment, those are the three things I'd like folks to know. If they're looking for a different way to accentuate, you know, the great ideas that their employees have, reach out to me and I can absolutely help you, you know, tap in with your communication to those folks and create space for them to feel heard and inspired to be part of the solution within their organization. There you go. I love what our military does. The more I studied it, when I was finishing up my book, Beacons of Leadership, one of my friends that I game with who was in the army turned me on to the army's be no do leadership training

and I started really digging through military training and getting exposed to it and I was just like holy crap we build amazing leaders and you know it's it's sad to me that more people from the military aren't brought into the public sphere of leadership you know we have the high amount of homeless vets and stuff like that and suicide rates. You know, these folks operated billions and billions of dollars worth of machines, probably trillions at this point. And we're entrusted with that. And the leadership skills that are taught in our military to everyone is extraordinary. I mean, it's a wonder every CEO in corporate America is from the military. Well, or at least have an advisor, you know, who can help them with their

perspective because, you know, even still, you know, only 1% of our nation has the opportunity to serve and serve well. So I think that when it comes down to, you know, the transitioning and I, and I will take some of the fault too, just because even in the highest level of leadership, I probably could have done a better job of helping people understand that these leadership skills are going to transition into corporate America and you will have the opportunity to be an asset there. And when I look back on my career, particularly the last probably seven years, I think, man, I could have done a little better job of that. Yeah. Well, there's always ways we can always improve as leaders. That's what makes us great is we reflect on that and go, okay, so how can we do better today? So Raymond, it's been an honor to have you on, wonderful to have you on, and you've given me

some epiphanies to think about. I've got to remember the rising tide lifts all boats, so be the tide. That's the line I got to remember. And then the climate versus the culture, et cetera, et cetera. So there you go. Thank you very much for coming on, sir. the tide that's the line i gotta remember and then the climate versus the culture etc etc so there you go thank you very much for coming on sir my pleasure my pleasure chris i really enjoyed it i look forward to next time thank you oh your dot coms as we go out too oh yeah it's raymondkemp.com also you can find me at raymonddkemp on facebook and instagram and raymondkemp on linkedin there you go order of the book, wherever fine books are sold. I love leadership books.

That's like my favorite thing in Audible. They come out November 4th, 2023, Building Resilience for Hybrid Success, Anchored in Adaptability by Raymond D. Kemp, Sr. Thanks, Amonis, for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisvoss, linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfoss, chrisfoss1 on the TikTok. Watch for this on the LinkedIn newsletter

and all those places we are on the internet. Be good to each other, stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time.