Two Peas in a Podcast

Episode 116 - Stephanie Goetz

Stephanie Goetz is an award-winning former news and sports anchor at NBC, CBS, and ABC, a businesswoman, executive communication & leadership coach, philanthropist, TEDx speaker, and professional pilot. She is the founder of Goetz Communications and currently flies the Bombardier Global 6000 for one of the most prestigious private jet companies NetJets.

Stephanie and her husband are deeply committed to building up and empowering the next generation of professionals and aviators. She has done extensive work with Imagine Thriving, OBAP, NGPA, Women in Aviation, and Luke Weather Flight Academy. Today Stephanie is one of the main pilots flying the famous "Pink Jet" and inspiring the next wave of women in aviation.

To connect with Stephanie please reach out to:

https://stephaniegoetz.com/

Broadcast on:: 25 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Stephanie, you are absolutely incredible, and there are so many things that you do, so at the end of the day, and first and foremost, I just really want you to know that we appreciate you sharing your valuable time with me and our audience, so thank you for being here. I'm happy to be here, Igor, this is amazing. Now, Stephanie, tell us who is it that you are and what do you do? Well, multiple things. I didn't expect to be like this, but I am a very multifaceted woman. I started out in broadcast and then went to become a business owner, which I had no idea that I would do, and then also didn't know I'd become a pilot, and now I'm an aviator and fly professionally fly jets, pistons, everything in between. And it's, I think for me, what kind of sums me up is someone who's just trying to get the most out of life and follow every single passion that I have, and do it to the fullest and do it in the best way possible. I love that answer, because that just speaks to the heart of what you do, which is a little bit of everything. Now, everyone's journey into media and broadcasting is a little bit different. How did you find yourself in that realm and in that world? It was something that I stumbled onto, actually. It wasn't something that growing up I wanted to be, and it was this big dream, which I think is a good message to people, especially youngsters that don't know what they want to do, that they feel like they have to decide it at 18 years old, which is asking a lot of people who are just getting out into the workforce to know what they want to do for the rest of their life. But how I found broadcast is that, first of all, growing up, I either wanted to be a professional tennis player or a professional singer or actress. So I loved theater. I've been singing since I could talk. And I've been playing tennis since I could walk pretty much. I feel like. So those those pieces of competition and excellence have always been a piece of me, but I knew that that was probably going to be a dream that I would be hard to pursue as it is. And I have so much respect for those that are able to chase that dream because it is a small percentage of people who actually make it a great career. Throughout my life growing up, I was working in my dad's pharmacy and he's a pharmacist. He did it for like 40 plus years and had a great career of it. And I loved working out as a clerk and as a kind of a pharmacy tech and everything in between. And I loved connecting with people. I loved the industry of medicine. I loved being able to help and help people's lives enhance them greatly. But I went to my first chemistry class in college and I was like, is this Greek or is this a different language or something this feels completely foreign and now I have about six more years of this. There's no way that I'm going to continue to do this as a short sighted 18 year old does a U dropout. And so I had like one day to switch my major and figure out what I wanted to do. And I knew that I loved sports sports is always a part of me and it's such a big piece of me and always has been. And I also knew that I was great at performing and I was good at telling a story. And so that's where sports broadcasting came in. And so I went into broadcasting. Unfortunately, my parents, they thought I was going to have a great career in the medical field and I then go to be a writer. I don't think they were pretty excited about that, but they were so supportive of me and everything that I did. And so I went into broadcasting and had a long career or early part of my career. It was 10 years at ABC NBC and CBS affiliates all throughout the Midwest and I covered everything from news to sports to like everything that you can possibly imagine. Now, I did want to do sports full time, but the jobs were really in broadcast in news because there's more jobs. And so I went into the news side and then did sports, fill in anchor and sideline reporting and still got to do all the sports side of things but had a really good career as a newscaster on the news side of things. And I'm really grateful for that because I was able to hone my skills in storytelling and in influence and in presence over 5000 newscasts and dozens and thousands of other stories over that amount of time that I felt that that was really the place I was supposed to be even though my path. I wanted to be a certain one. It ended up working out the right way. Tell me about some of these favorite memories that you had at the news stations and at the sporting events because I'm sure that, you know, your memories filled of just incredible achievements of being on the sidelines and in front of a lot of people at some of the biggest events that you could ever imagine being in. Yeah, the energy at those events is palpable and you just can't help but get caught up in it, but you have to be unbiased and you have to make sure that you tell the story the right way. And on both sides and aren't too much of a fan girl because people will see that in your reporting. And so you have to be able to separate that as well to be able to be an effective newscaster and sportscaster. One of my favorite stories of all time was way back right in the beginning of my career as around 2006 2007 and I was in Minneapolis at the time working in a sports department down there. And that was before iPhones. Okay, so everyone has to remember the time before you could just get your script on your phone or pull up Google stats or something like that. That didn't exist. And so I went in for the day down into the sports department at the ABC station that I was working out there. And I, they said, oh my goodness, okay, this we're getting really close. The twins are going to clinch the division and I was so stoked. I was so excited. And they're like, but we need the scripts to be brought down into the locker room to the news anchor right now. Can you go do that and like the hard copy scripts. And I was like, you don't have to ask me twice. Of course I will. And so ran down to the twin stadium at the time it was in the Metro Dome, which is basically a giant concrete dome. Or concrete base with with a bubble dome in Minneapolis that has since been torn down. But I went to that and brought them down to the to these sports anchor. But as I was going into where he was located guess where he was. He was in the locker room where all of the champagne is being sprayed and everything and all the celebrations are happening. And I'm like, I'm going into this very interesting environment and have to run across the locker room to go deliver the scripts to him. And I walk in and they just turn like, Hey, and they're spraying champagne everywhere. We've all seen the photos of and the video of when, when a baseball team clinches the division or wins the World Series or anything and it's just amazing mayhem. And I'm like, immediately just get showered with champagne and beer and everything in between that they're just celebrating and I'm running across the locker room and I give them to the to the sports anchor. It's an incredible mentor of mine. He's like get over here and then you have like Tory Hunter and and Juan Rincone and all these Justin Moore known all these amazing players like, Hey, get out of the locker room. You're fine. You're fine. We'll get you. We'll get you a towel or something. The most amazing experience of that was getting to talk with these guys on a normal, every day, you know, person level because typically we're interviewing them and we're the media and they are the person that we're interviewing. But it was it was this time that we kind of all let our guard down and we weren't there. We were there to have interviewed them eventually. But at the moment we got to just celebrate because, you know, they were our team too. And it was an incredible time to just have these conversations and be a part of that celebratory moment with them. And you get to do that as a newscaster and a sports caster a lot being on the sidelines when they get like the game winning touchdown or when they like score the winning bucket. It's it's just it's it's electric and there have been a couple of other times too when I was sideline reporting where the team that I was covering, they end up winning, you know, at the last second and then everyone rushed the court. And then you're having to find the person you need to talk to and do that real quick and make sure that that people can actually hear what you're saying because there's, you know, so many people are just going wild in the audience that are now all around you. So I think that those are the most amazing stories and then some of the other stories that were the most impactful were the ones that were individual stories that no one knew about unless we brought them to light as a newscaster as a journalist. Your job is to hold the powerful accountable and also share the stories of those who cannot share their stories the underprivileged, those who are silenced that's that's our job is to bring those stories to light. And I had the opportunity to do that in both news and sports to share these very powerful stories that were hidden in silence, and that we were able to bring forward and actually enact change because of it and you just, you get to be a part of history every day you get to be in people's lives and it's an incredible responsibility that you have to tell their story the right way, the respectful way, while also bringing the facts forward whether they're good or not you have to bring forward the truth. And that was really incredible responsibility and honor that I felt really grateful to have for a decade. Yeah, and I have so much appreciation for the specific way that you talk about this because based on where social media is today where you have short clips and you have quick snippets that I mean just drawn 10 or 15 seconds of someone's attention. I think a small part of the media that's being lost is this ability to share amazing stories, share this human connection, especially with, you know, for you in your 20s having these experiences with pro athletes, having these experiences with people who you look up to where at the end of every single conversation you understand, just like you, they're just a human being in this weird situation just because they are so good at one specific thing, whether that's playing baseball, whether that's doing whatever their craft is. And I think a lot of that sometimes gets lost and we put celebrities on a weird pedestal where we almost look at them as they are larger than life, rather than hey, there is a human being with an individual story behind them and just like every single one of us they are flawed. What was the pressure like, especially in your 20s, knowing that, you know, you are in your first decade of this important job, and you are speaking to people who have a lot of media obligations and at the same time are very, very visible publicly, making sure that, you know, you're asking good questions and making sure that you're staying as unbiased as possible to be able to cover the story as well. Yeah, I feel that I was very, very lucky to grow up with a family that was very, very communicative and very open and had tough conversations at the dinner table with respect and without people getting all frustrated and leaving the table or something like that. It was, was this, this beautiful discourse that we could have, and I credit that a lot to my mom. She has always been exceptional at asking really good questions, and she is so curious. So she was a fifth grade teacher for years she was also an LD EBD so learning disabled and emotional behavioral disordered children, a teacher for them, which she had to deal with some very challenging situations for years. Or as the, with the children going through difficult situations, she would help them through that and that was, I mean, incredible work for teachers on every level but especially those in that area of education. And so she always was very good at being curious and asking good questions and she did that with me, and she did that with her whole family. And that and also me being from Minnesota and all my family in western North Dakota cattle ranchers and just good salt of the earth people that I would always go out and visit I just got used to being very straightforward up front and seeing everyone as simply a human. That's all going through the human condition just like I am, and so I would talk with them with reverence and respect but it wasn't, I didn't have the fear of talking to them like oh they're incredible celebrity or they are a world leader or they were someone very important. I had the respect, but I also knew that I was the mouthpiece to tens of thousands or eventually even millions of people so it was very important for me to get the job done and do it with respect and I just got to also see them as you know that person sitting across from me at a diner or something. And so when I did that that also brought their walls down because they saw that I was a human across from them as well. I also made sure to always, I had to come in with no agenda I never did because I was just too naive probably at the time to even know what that was. And so I just came in straight forward with I need to know the information from your perspective. I also have to fact check that with the other information that I have to make sure that that's accurate and you might say one thing, but the reality is this and I have to decipher what I'm going to eventually put in the story. And so I always tried to make sure, always that it was, I had all the information I possibly could use all the resources at my disposal and used also all those in the newsroom and their expertise and their viewpoint or their, their, their take on it to help me develop the best story possible. But it wasn't, you know, luckily at the local news level. It, it isn't that, it isn't, it's not that level of bias, you know, now as you get higher up in different networks, there can be a slight bent in the media we all see it to a degree. But it's a little bit different the local news of you have more of that autonomy, which is good. Yeah, I love that. And the specific piece of the way that you talk about your childhood that I find so much value in is that I always talk about this as kind of being the outsider. And a lot of the culture that we brought over was just a little bit different than what you see in a standard American home, specifically we had a unique perspective on having tough conversations, like you would always talk about politics. You would always talk about things that people are interested in and are debated in in the news, even with children around. What were the topics of some of the biggest conversations in your home that kind of gave you this perspective on adults just being human beings, who are the exact same way, like having their own thoughts, not necessarily knowing the right or wrong, and just having an opinion and being able to decipher the world of information that is out there today. Yeah, well, I think from a young age, I just found that the adult table was more interesting, you know, hanging out with the kid table, but I was like, no, I want to go sit with the adults because they're more interesting and more fascinating. From a young age, I had to grow up very quickly. And so my viewpoint was a little bit changed. So growing up, I had two older brothers that were star athletes looked like Abercrombie models were just like the most popular kids in our school. And they were three years older than me and then five years older. They were both athletes. One was on scholarship playing tennis in Wisconsin. And then my parents, my mom, my mom, a teacher and my data pharmacist. So it was this beautiful kind of white picket fence family that was really authentic as well. And so, but we had to start having tough conversations early on, because when I was 12 years old, my oldest brother Brandon died in a car accident suddenly when he was driving home from helping out at the pharmacy. And then that totally wrecked our entire. Well, I should say it, it was sent shockwaves through our family and through our entire community of Red Wing, Minnesota, a small town that I absolutely love just on the banks of the Mississippi in Southeast Minnesota, about an hour south of Minneapolis. And it was something that was, it shattered the what we thought our life was going to be. It shattered a lot of other people's lives as well, because they saw that this can happen to these people, this can happen then to anyone. And so that was a very, very difficult time and the conversations at the table at the dinner table then were very real. They were, how are we doing? Are you okay? Do you need help? Do you need support? What can we do today to help you out? And, and really got into the nitty gritty because we had to. And for me, it was never, never running from something that was never an option for me. I always, when I wanted and needed to face something that I was going through and to this day that I am going through, I just walk through the fire and it's, it's the best and most efficient and quickest way through, I've found. But it also helps you, you know, really heal your family and your lineage when you start to do the work. When you actually start to face the issues that you have, the trauma that you have received and the way that that it kind of has tentacles years later and, and bubbles up in the way you respond to people or the way you see yourself or the way you see your life or the way that you have relationships or who you choose to be in your life can all be affected by traumas that you have not faced. And so my, my mom was always very, very, very good, especially at that and my dad too, about having these conversations because they wanted to make sure we are okay. Sadly then, my only other sibling, five years later, he was struggling with mental health issues and he was the star athlete on, on his tennis team in, in Green Bay in college, but he took his life at the age of 19 and I was just going into my senior year in high school. So that was a whole different ballgame altogether to not only lose my only remaining sibling, but in that manner and also someone that I had gotten so close with over the five years in between those two losses. Kam and I were just, they were like this we're like best buddies and work like, had such an incredible bond. And that was really hard and really difficult to lose him. And so it was this journey afterwards that you know myself and my parents went on together and continually always, you know, continually do as you're always developing and growing. But it was particularly tough in those years after that and I went off to college. I'm surprised I even did well in college. I mean, to have had that tragedy twice. And then I had lost a couple of very close family members and aunt grandparents soon after that. So it was just an immense amount of tragedy over a handful of like five years before I was even 18 years old. And so the conversations were critical to have. And also the disagreements were important, but also to know that just because we disagree on something doesn't mean that we can't still love each other and doesn't mean that we can't still respect each other's opinion because I'm going to have a different viewpoint from you from someone else and vice versa. And we have to respect that. We can still love them and still respect them and actually be curious because sometimes we actually get changed by someone else's opinion versus being so closed off. So I think that was the important thing growing up and that's continually been important in my life. But that curiosity, hands down made me a far better journalist than almost anything that I learned in school, which was part of my learning in school certainly, but that innate curiosity is critical for a great journalist. Stephanie, I am so sorry for your losses and your family losses because I know that these tragedies are sometimes things that families don't get over and I know that that road to recovery must have been such an incredibly difficult one that a lot of people just don't even talk about. Thank you appreciate it. Yeah, and what's really, really sad about a lot of families where tragedy does strike is that the members are not able to get through it for the rest of their lives now from everything you shared. So obvious that the incredibly close network of the support system that you guys had in place helped each of you deal with it and was definitely something that carried all of you forward together. What are some of the other techniques that you used by yourself to make sure that you are mentally clear and mentally staying as positive as possible, knowing that, you know, these terrible things did happen, but they don't define the rest of your life. And that's really to make more of it rather than just, you know, sit and solve for the rest of your life on the bad things that have happened. Yeah, definitely. It's, it's, I think everyone has a journey that they go on in their own way, and we, what I've found is you take little pieces from, from all kinds of people and all kinds of teachers and advisors over the years and make your own way of getting through something. You choose to do it, which is the best way, but some people really get stunted and so when you choose that it's this beautiful mix of, of growth and, and powering through. You know, a lot of it for me was, was realizing that, although this is something that happened to me. As Victor Franco, the famed psychologist, has said in kind of paraphrasing is essentially, you know, maybe 10% of life is what happens to you, but 90% more is how we react and how we respond it's like, we have these things happening to us. But what do we do in response to them. And so for me, I decided to, to, to dive in and face it and figure out why do I feel this way, why do I respond this way, why do I have these fears. Why do why can I not get past this one thing right now and let's move forward with that. Certainly, I am the biggest proponent for talking to someone who is seasoned professional at this so I'm talking to a therapist or counselor. They're just like a coach. Any great athlete has more coaches as they get into their career and get more elite. And so I think if you want to be elite, have someone you can talk to who's a coach, psychologist, a therapist, or whatever you want to decide to do or who you want to talk to on that. It's also very critical that you cannot just think you can do it alone. Because, I mean, it's the whole adage that if you have a dream that you did on your own and accomplished just on your own, there's literally no one else who helped you. You didn't dream big enough. That's not a really great dream then. We can all maybe do a little bit on our own, but it is amazing what we always need others for our next rung in the ladder to get higher. We can't do it alone. And so for me, I innately and kind of naturally did this and now I recognize it and have the awareness that I do this is that I always seek out people who are further along in the journey than I am to help me out. And so I had people around me who had either gone through it. I mean, there were very few because it is rare, thankfully, I don't wish this on anyone to go through such tragedy. But those who had experienced lost who were three, four, five years down the line or reading books on that or talking to psychologists. And that was really very, very supportive, but then just having people who are there who've never experienced it, thankfully, but they're there to help you and support you. They're there to just listen and they are there to just be with you. That was so important. Plus, when we get in this time where we're really struggling, it's hard to reach out because that's the barrier to care is just being stuck in our own muck and not wanting to reach out. But I always had this something more in me that always pushed me to reach out or to make sure that I had this lifeline of people and others around me to support when I was at any low point that I was. Today, I think I'm very grateful that I've built a network of people around the world. Like, when people, when I've moved to different communities, they're like, well, it's going to be a tough adjustment getting into the community. I'm like, well, I have community in like almost every major city in the world, I feel like, because I love people. And I feel like this comes from my grandfather, who was just the, he was a farmer, and he was just always a guy chatting everyone up at the general store out on the farm passing, stopping and passing people on the gravel road. That was him. And I know that that spirit lives on in me and my family that we just love to chat. We just love to have a good conversation. And to me, there's, you could have all these things taken away from you, but you still will always have people and community as long as you have them in your life and will reach out to them. When I was going through also all the challenges of the loss, I think a big piece of it is you start shifting your mindset to what's really important. So instead of getting caught up in all the high school drama or college drama, I was just grateful for a roof over my head. I was just grateful to have food on the table. I was just grateful to have family. And so all that other stuff just fades away into the background and what really matters, then sticks. And what I was learning later in life is that when I didn't realize until now, is that actually from a very early age, I developed intentionality with my life very early, because I knew that it could be taken away from me immediately. Whether that is someone that you're close to, or whether that's the loss of a dream, or a physical ailment or a health issue that you no longer, you now can no longer pursue your dream. You potentially can, but it's going to be hard. And that's a major loss. That's grief. And so for me, I always started out, you know, even 12, 13, 14 years old, not knowing it, but learning it later on was that I am living a very purpose driven life, because I don't know if I'll have tomorrow. And so that's something that that has then built and blossomed into this multifaceted, very long career, or very multifaceted career, because I don't want to be unhappy with what I'm doing. And I want to do what I'm supposed to do on this Earth, which changes sometimes 10 years or five years later or two years or two months and making sure I'm listening to that and moving into that. Yeah. I love you so much as a person. And one of the biggest characteristics that I find in the most, I mean, incredible people in my life and the most incredible people that I ever come across is this ability to go through the fire and find their purpose, because in those moments of sadness in those moments of, you know, going, why is this happening to me? The best of the best, find the true purpose of their life, find their next mission and find a reason to live and do incredible work. And, as said, as your story is, one of the most important things that I want to make sure that people take away is that you spend the rest of your life not being a victim of the things that have happened to you. And you have this incredible mindset, and I'm just so, so proud and so happy of all of the things you have accomplished since then, literally by not giving up, by going, I'm going to make this work. Because I can only imagine how incredibly difficult that journey was. Yes, definitely, definitely. And I want to say too, the, you know, through all of this, it was not doing it alone and also making sure, like, you know, that as I was going through this, I was connecting on the spiritual side to my faith. That was really, really important and knowing, you know, for me, God was a really critical piece in getting me through all of this and all the faith community and doing it in a very real way. And there, there's a, there's a, you know, kind of a way of seeing things that I think is really helpful for those to not be a victim, but instead be empowered is that you can go through the fire and not smell like smoke. So you can go through the challenges of life without telling everyone that you're, you're, or complaining about something or being woe is me. Yeah, there are days where you're down and you're sulking and you got to have people close to you. But when people hear about myself or my family's story or anyone who's gone through something and they're like, I would have never imagined that. It's because we don't smell like smoke, we choose to move forward, we choose to not let that fire linger on us, and we choose to step into the next possibility of what's possible, and knowing that that doesn't define us, but it certainly refines us. Because I would not be the person I am today without the challenges and the tragedy that I've gone through, because I wouldn't, I don't think I would be as deep and well rounded without knowing the depth of pain and suffering and challenge that we can all go through. It just refines you into a different person. I love that. And that's literally one of my favorite phrases, pressure makes diamonds. I mean, the best of the best are shaped by terrible things happening and just having this incredible attitude. Now, for a lot of people, that would be their dream goal of living high up in this broadcasting space being on TV, being on sidelines of great sporting events. But a 30 year old Stephanie knew that there was more to life than just doing that. Where did your journey take you next? Yes, my journey next took me to a place I never would have imagined what I did is I chose to learn and listen to what my, like what my intuition was saying, I really want. As broadcast as I was getting to 8, 9, 10 years in, there was a piece of me that was dimming and I didn't know what it was. I didn't understand it. I was scared. I was like, okay, is this. What am I going to do next? I thought I'm supposed to stay in the same career 30 years. My parents did, and they loved it. So I should stay here, right? Well, that light kept dimming a little bit more and more. And I didn't know why, but what I realized later, as I discovered and as I decided to seek out why I wasn't feeling as fulfilled in broadcast anymore, I was realizing that what really fulfilled me was freedom. Freedom over my time, ownership over the content that I created out of what I put into the world. And I had no idea that that's part of that as being a business owner. And I had started a nonprofit about two or three years before I left broadcast. That was all in after the tragedy of losing my brother to taking his life. I started a nonprofit called the Guess Mental Wellness Initiative, and eventually it was called Imagine Thriving. That put mental health professionals in schools, just like school nurses, and now they're a part of the school system and they're there full time. We also brought awareness to kids struggling with mental health issues and brought awareness to families and people in school and everything. And we would pay for some of the costs for counseling appointments. Well, with that, I had to do a lot of talking and communicating and kind of evangelizing for this cause. And also, I was like, you know, business developing, but not making any money because there was no money. It was all volunteer. But I had no idea that I was building something that eventually would end up be similar to building a business. And so as I was thinking about, what am I going to do here? And I loved the nonprofit work. I loved what I was building there. But I just didn't want to be at a desk every day. I wanted to have a little more freedom than that. And I was ready to do something different. A lot of people, they would stifle that and shut that down. And for me, remember that intentionality with what I had learned over the years. After so much loss, I was like, I can't live like this. I would much rather take the risk and take a leap of faith. And maybe make less money for a little time or figure it out. Then be unhappy and know that and always wonder what if. So I wanted to do something in the speaking, motivating and coaching space. And so I told someone who I was very, very close with at the time. I said, I want to do this. And they said, well, then you're going to go for it. And all I needed was like that one vote of confidence to move forward. And so all everything started lining up after that, even though it was a ton of work. I spoke to people in the space that were smarter than me and further along. And I said, how do you build a business in speaking, in coaching and in motivating teams and people. And they kind of gave me the formula of what they had done. And I just ran full board it. I ended up leaving broadcast in 2016 and started that full time. Now, I had no like no job prospects when I when I left broadcast because I couldn't just build my client base at the time. And so I decided to build up a runway of finances and money to live off of like squirreling away little amounts of money, like six months before I left broadcast. I would I saved up, you know, maybe 10 or 12,000 dollars. I was very fortunate to do that. But I was like, this is what I'm going to live off of for the next X amount of months and I'm going to hustle. And so I had no one to fall back on. I didn't even have health insurance. I don't think it was a big leap of faith, but I was committed to doing it. And I was like, you know what, worst case scenario, what's going to happen? Okay, this won't work out and there will be a job in PR or marketing or some communications within a large company. So I decided to take the leap and I did and it was the greatest, greatest gift that I ever did that. And so that, you know, spiraled and blossomed into a full time business in executive coaching fortune 500 executives at top companies in the world and top executives in the world on their communication, their presence and also media training and then speaking on resilience and empowerment and helping people level up and go to that next stage in their life. And do what I've done to take that risk because the greatest risk is sitting down and not taking one and living a mediocre life. And, and so I was able to do that with a lot of work, the first year and a half is just a grind. You're just, you're just heads down working the whole time. But then little by little as I get more referrals and more references and build my, my name in the space, I've been able to just sit back and sit back a little bit and have the good work that I've done reap the rewards of that and have great clients come back and have referrals come back. It feels like such a blessing with a ton of hard work mixed all in there. Yeah, I love that story because this is a story of entrepreneurship that is just such an important one for people to hear. Hey, you don't always have to know exactly where you're going. All you have to do is just take the next step. Let me ask you this stupid question because I have no idea like what the right answer here is. But what is it that that voice inside us that tells us, Hey, this idea is something that could turn into whatever it's going to be that keeps us pushing forward keeps us doing the things that we do kind of every day because I find myself in this weird category of kind of doing the exact same thing as you were. I just go, we're building this platform and I have no idea what it is that it means. All I know is that we get to do good for people who are coming on the show and who are listening to the show. And I don't necessarily know or have an idea of what that looks like a year from today. All I know is that the hard work in the meantime is producing good results for other people. Yeah, you know, I would say what that is, is your intuition and your inner knowing that I feel it comes from a higher space for sure. That says, keep going. And then our mind comes in and it goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay, whoa, okay, this is scary. Why are you doing this? Put the brakes on. And thank you, amygdala. Thank you, brain for wanting to protect me from, you know, centuries ago from a bear that was jumping out of the bush when we were going to grab berries for sustenance. We don't need you to protect us in that way anymore. But that's what we've been conditioned to do for centuries. And now it's pulling us back from actually doing the great things that we're supposed to do. And I think those who can tap into and really listen to their inner intuition and their knowing, that's very powerful. And what I, what I try to encourage people to do is like, just take a step back, let the mind chatter, step that aside for a second, and sit back and just really sit with yourself and go. So imagine a time in a space that you're in that money is not an object. Like you have all the money that you need. You're comfortable. That's not the issue. You have a roof over your head. And you have those who love you and are around you and actually want you to do exactly what you want to do. What would you be doing? Don't let the mind come in and say, well, well, I don't know. I mean, that would be hard. And I, and I don't know if I have time or this. Okay. Nope. Just step back. What would you be doing with your life? And when we start to actually write that down and actually run towards that, guess what happens? The things that don't matter, they get pushed to the side. There's a great TED talk about prioritizing and time and time management. And one of the things that she talks about in there is that what you prioritize is what will succeed. So when people ask me, like, how do you do all of this? You fly airplanes, you have a business, you, you did broadcast. I also sing occasionally in Las Vegas professionally when I can. I love tennis. What don't you do? Is there really a question? I'm not very good at gardening. And I have a lot of respect for those that do. So I'm just going to put that out there. But you can't do it all at once. It's impossible for those that are like, oh, I can have it all at once. Well, I don't know how many hours in the day you have, and you must have great assistance in those working alongside you. That's, that's a whole different thing once you get to that level of success. But for those of you who are doing it more solo, you, you, you have to prioritize. So when I wanted to, when all of a sudden, as I know, we'll talk about, as I got into aviation, and I started to get that spark and get introduced to it, there was, I couldn't just have a full time business and go get my pilot's license. So something had to come off the plate. And I like to actually talk about instead of like all the things we have to do as a plate, it's a bowl. Because plate, you can like keep piling stuff off on like, you know, 100 feet tall. At some point, when you fill up a bowl with enough liquid, guess what happens? It spills over. There is no other room. And that's our, our life. At some point, there's not enough room to fit something else in there. So what did I have to take out of the bowl? I had to take off like 25% or 30% of my clients, which I could have been working 24 hours a day because I had clients in Singapore, in London, in New York, in Austin, Texas, and everywhere. And so I had to pull that back to then fill it up with the aviation water, water of life, I would say. And so that's really important. The other piece to all of this that you talk about is like you, you're moving forward and doing something with this podcast, which by the way, I think is phenomenally remarkable because the people that you get on here are such, they're such gems in the world. And then you get, you ask them, you know, tough questions, but once that bring out this sparkle and this life in them that help others. So I've just really loved listening to it. And great people that you've, yeah, it's amazing. It inspires me. But you're doing something that I believe the most successful people do well. And this is what I do as well. You build the plane while it's flying. Because a lot of people, what they do is they say, okay, I've got to have my five year plan. I've got to know how everything looks. And if I want to do this event and I want to put this on and make this amazing. I'm going to have to make sure I have all this lined up and X and Y and this and this and I know, oh, it's not lined up. So I'm not even going to start when this is something that's happening a year from now. And it's like, I will put on that event six weeks from now and we will make it work and we will have it sold out because it's going to work. There's no other option and we're going to build the plane while we're flying, but not everyone's like that. A better way and even even another way of putting that is that those who are successful. It's not like we don't have fear. It's not like we just don't question ourselves. It's that we just do it scared. Like, for sure. We're like, that's interesting. Okay, well, there's fear again. Okay, great. Elizabeth Gilbert puts this brilliantly in her in her book, Big Magic. She says, listen, when she's writing books and, you know, she wrote, you pray love that, you know, world's bestseller and is just an icon in the writing world. She says, when she sits down and writes a book, she's like, yeah, of course, fear is there like it almost always is. And it might even be greater sometimes as we do more because we might have more to lose or we might feel like are we going to do the next biggest thing. Instead, she says, I see it as this. Fear, it's in the car riding along. Okay, it's coming along for the journey. It's like, there's really no way I'd like to kick it out, but, you know, it eventually just gets back in. But that's fine. It can be in the car. It can be hanging out. It can put its hand out the window. It can relax. It can, and it can even change the radio station. But it cannot drive percent. I'm driving. And so those who are successful go, I know it's going to be around me because like my brain is, you know, and my, you know, primitive self is trying to save me from like failure or not looking great or whatever it is that that is very first world problems. Instead, they say, I'm going to do this because I feel in my knowing and in my intuition, I'm supposed to be doing this. Something's pushing me that says, you have to do this, and I'm going to follow that and listen to that more and let the chatter just kind of be what it will. And then when they step into that, great things happen. Everything, like synergies happen and things come together that they couldn't have ever imagined. And there's a lot of times where there's things that will happen and that will come like from your podcast or things that people are building that you can't imagine because you don't even know what it looks like. So let yourself experience the magic. Let yourself move forward and step into this as best you can. I love that message so much because this is literally the conversation that I have with my wife, almost on daily basis. And she'll ask that specific question of like a year from now. Where is it that you're going? And the answer that I give is always just that I don't know what I'm building. But all I know is based on the type of person I am, based on the work ethic, based on the thing that we're doing, there is no way that I'm going to fail because I will find a way to make this work. And I will always find something good that comes out of this. And I feel like every single person who's a leader who is a high achiever has this attitude of like, I'm scared, but I will figure it out. I don't know the path, but there is a path here. And I feel like this speaks to exactly what you were talking about with going into aviation of. I don't exactly know where this is going to take me, but this feels like the next best step. And I'm going to chase it with everything I have. Absolutely. Where did aviation take you? Because at the time that you were a coach and you were so successful running your own business, I'm sure that when you told people like, hey, I'm having an idea of being a pilot. I'm sure that your husband, I'm sure that people in your circle were like, Stephanie, this might be a messed up, like, don't do that. Well, here's what's interesting. When you start to take those crazy, amazing, wild steps forward, people, you actually start teaching people how to see you, and you start teaching people how to treat you. I love that. And they just got used to me being like, taking this great big risk and going, well, of course, that's just Stephanie doing what she's doing. And so they were just kind of used to it at that point. Now, I never, ever imagined I would be an aviator. This was never something on my radar. But back in 2014, when I was a newscaster, I got a call out of the blue from like an 80 year old flight instructor who said, you should do a story on aviation. And I was like, that would be great. Cool. I'm always looking for a story. I had no idea I'd be flying the airplane. So he throws me in the left seat of a Piper Archer, just like any good flight instructor does. He said, this is how you use the controls. This is how you use the throttle. This is take off. This is the air speed that you need for take off and pitch and all of that. And I barely understood what he was talking about, but I did understand pretty well as we were having to do radios, which is some of the hardest thing that new students will do is talking on the radio to air traffic control. I was like, oh, this just feels like broadcast. This is not that bad, but I just have to say more specific things. And so as we taxi out, we get to the runway and I push the power up. We get to flying speed and I pulled a yoke back for the very first time ever at the controls of an airplane. I'm thinking, where in the hell has this been all my life? And who has been hiding aviation from me? Like, who has not been telling me about this incredible world? Well, I knew nothing about it. No one in my family, immediate family is an aviator. We drove to every family vacation to Western North Dakota, basically, in my childhood. So there was no flying. I went on a commercial airplane like a handful of times prior to that point, but I really had no exposure to aviation. Interestingly, though, looking back, I had plenty of exposure to it. I just always counted myself out because I didn't think I was good at STEM, math and science. I had done stories with the Blue Angels. I got to fly in a blackout helicopter. I got to fly in World War II bombers. I mean, aviation was around me as a newscaster, but I counted myself out because I thought, "Oh, I'm just a writer and I'm just a storyteller. I can't do that." But until I actually got exposed to it and thought, "Well, I can do this. I have great eye-hand coordination through sports and video games and growing up with brothers." It was something that was very innate and very natural to me. Learning the aerodynamics systems, all of that knowledge, that's just like I learned things up to that point. Why couldn't I do that? So the aviation bug hit me very hard and that spark was lit inside of me immediately. Now, it takes a lot of money and a lot of time out of your day to pursue your pilot's license. And for me, I had neither. And so it was kind of this like, "That was fun, pipe dream, and we'll see what happens." Serendipitously, about within the same month, I met a gentleman randomly out in Fargo, North Dakota, who was out when I met him. We start hanging out, and over the months we start hanging out. He is a pilot, a private pilot, and has his pilot's license and has his own airplane. And we start hanging out, I get to fly with him in his airplane, and we start dating and now he's my husband. I love that. And he has been my flight instructor through basically almost all of my primary ratings and even through one of my jet type ratings. And yes, we're still married, which to most people is like a massive feat because they're like, "I would never be able to learn from my husband or my wife because it's just, there's too much." But for us, it was this incredible journey together as a couple where when we were in the flight deck, he was not my husband and I was not his wife or not boyfriend, not girlfriend. He was my flight instructor and I was his student. And so I saw him and respected him in that light and didn't bring all the baggage that couples can in there. And we also just, without having to say it, we always have had this communication that is very, very respectful of each other and not raising our voices even though we want to. But we don't want to diminish our relationship by talking like sharply to each other. And so we've always kept that as a couple and that has kept that sanctity, I think, too of our relationship. But certainly it helped the flight instructor and flight student relationship because then I could learn from him and it wasn't like, "Oh, my boyfriend's telling me this," or all of that that can come with your significant other. So it was incredibly remarkable and now he and I fly together on all kinds of adventures today. But as I got into flying and got that bug, it wasn't actually until five years after that initial flight that actually pursued my pilot's license because I was starting a business. I was like, "I don't have time for this and this isn't going to be possible to do." But that fire was there and I was getting to do it a little bit on the side and getting to fly a little bit with my boyfriend at the time and now husband in his plane. But then it was 2019 where I said, "I want to be flying a jet. I want to be flying the airplane. I want to be doing this and I want to have that freedom." And he's like, "All right, let's go for it." So in a year and a half, with my full 75% business of coaching, I went for my private pilot's license, instrument rating, commercial for both single and multi-engine. CFI, which is flight instructor, MEI, multi-engine flight instructor, and a jet type rating in about a year and a half. Wow. I just didn't stop. Anyone who goes through flight training knows that it kind of sucks. It's tough. It's difficult. You're always pushing yourself. You feel, on a lot of days, you don't feel very smart and then you don't feel like you can fly the airplane. And then the next day you're like, "I got this. I'm king or queen of the world." And it's just very up and down time. And I just think I wanted to get through the pain quicker. Of all the ratings, all of the written tests, all of the oral exams, and all of the practical tests. I feel like that fire burning inside of you for years before actually set you on this path of going, "Hey, I'm going to get there no matter what it takes." And for whatever reason, the best of the high performers have this ability to go, "Hey, it's great that I'm doing something else." But this thing is important also, and I can get both done as long as I can figure out a way to find enough time and to make sure that this happens. Tell me about the freedom that you feel in the air knowing that when you're looking down, like not a lot of people get this experience of being disconnected from the bullshit of social media, the cell phones, the everyday life and the nine to five in the office and the freedom that you feel up in the air. Yeah, I know it so well and I feel it so much because I know what it's like to not even know anything about aviation and that even hardly, you know, barely exists because I hadn't been around it. And so now that I get to fly jets, piston aircraft, I even have my seaplane rating, which is a whole 'nother level of excitement, enjoy the land on water. And all of a sudden you're a boat and just get to kick off your shoes or not even fly with shoes. I mean, it's just such an amazing experience. That, to me, is like the true definition of freedom. Also being able to go where you want, when you want and bring friends along for the journey. What I also think it is, is this incredible ability that I get to do to introduce and expose others to aviation. So I do a lot of work with women in aviation and underrepresented communities in the space, in the aviation community, because like I never knew about aviation until someone introduced me. And so I feel it's really important to do that for others and to show them what's possible and to show them they can achieve anything that they put their mind to absolutely and have great people around them and great support. You can really do anything. And so for me, having that feeling of being able to just fly and go wherever you want and have that peace and that freedom, it's like nothing else. I love that. I love that answer. Now, tell me about specifically women in aviation. Is it as much and as simple of a solution as female empowerment and knowledge, just for women to know that these opportunities exist? Or what is it that's holding women back from pursuing the aviation field from what you've seen? It's a very, very multi dimensional answer that certainly I, I can say from my perspective, but not being the, the, you know, sensei or overall, you know, expert on this, but from what I've seen from where I sit, is that there's many, many factors. The first of all, 6% of the industry in aviation is made up of females, the rest is meant. And it's just traditionally been that way. Maybe part of it is, of course, women weren't even to able to fly in combat until a few decades ago. And so women weren't getting into aviation and military and a lot of military pilots went to airlines and once they retired from the military and so you have a lot of that funnel. There's, you know, for whatever reason that women hadn't pursued it over the years, what has helped it now is that we just have more awareness of everything now, whether that's through television. Social media is a huge help of this to show girls like, look at this, there's a woman flying a plane and she can do it just as well as a man and a better, an exceptional flight instructor or anything. So it's, I think that that has been a big catalyst for young girls and women and any walk, you know, of females that they can absolutely do this because they see others doing it, you know, you see it and you can become it. There's other, there's other pieces too of that encouragement around around STEM. I mean, traditionally STEM. Still, there's fewer women than men that go into that side of the world as well. And with aviation being heavy in science and math, if they're not interested in that, they might think, I don't want to get into this. When, you know, someone like myself, I didn't realize that that's a piece of it, but it's so much more than that. And that feeling of adventure and weightlessness and freedom is such a bigger piece of it and you can learn the science and math of it. So what I, what I think it, it's evolving into is it's showing everyone that aviation is not only science and math heavy, but it's also this incredible space for adventure and self actualization, continuing to challenge yourself and push yourself past limits that you had on yourself or even break through your own glass ceiling that you put on for yourself, which I certainly did for years, and knowing that you can achieve really anything. I also think it has to be a space that is welcoming to all walks of life. So we need to make the flight deck a place that is professional and respectful and doesn't marginalize women or minorities of any type in the industry. And so that talk and that communication in there should be a fun but professional space and I'm seeing that more and more and more. I fly the global 6000 for the world's largest private jets company and I see more and more that people are just there to be safe. I had delivered great service, passenger and an owner service, but they're respectful and you can joke around and you don't have to do it marginalizing someone else. And as you're seeing more females in a space you're also realizing to those different needs so a woman, if they're going to go on maternity leave we have to support them on that if they're going to be leading up to that that's going to be also a different challenge that a man's going to have. Meeting women where they're at, meeting men where they're at and knowing that it has to work together. It can't just be like men against women or women against men. I've never, ever believed that we can, you can't do it alone and we have to do it together because at the end of the day the airplane doesn't know if you're male or female. It just knows if you're a good pilot or not. And so I see time and time again that men and women are equally exceptional pilots and there are all kinds of walks of life that aren't great as well it doesn't. It's not gender specific or skin color specific or anything like that. And the more women that we have in the flight deck the more African Americans, the more Latinos the more Asian pilots that we have the more people that that look different in the flight deck the safer of a flight deck it will be as well. Because diversity in the flight deck is not only the right thing to do and it certainly is the right thing to do. But it also is the safe thing to do because diversity of perspective creates a safer space if they see something that the other wouldn't because they didn't come from that background. That creates a much safer flight deck and we need to continue to make that a welcoming space for everyone. And I have so much respect and appreciation for exactly why you're such a gem of a human being because you just want hey, I did this incredible thing me getting here isn't enough. I'm going to bring other people with me and I'm going to open a pathway for other people to know that this path exists and to have an easier way of getting here. Now before we let you go for the day there is one thing that we have to talk about because it'd be a shame if we don't mention it and it's the pink jet. Tell me about the pink jet and tell me about where this idea came from because it's such a powerful one and it's such a cool way to spread a really good message. Yeah, the pink jet is such a dream to fly and be a part of the nonprofit. I was very fortunate that I got introduced to aerial angels which is the operator of the pink jet. She was a year by a former US Air Force fighter pilot and she said you have to get involved with this organization. And what this is is the jet the pink jet is an L 39 Elbatross a military trainer jet that many of them trained fighter pilots wanted to become fighter pilots in the eastern block of Europe and in Ukraine to become fighter pilots and in many cases in some countries they'll use them for a trainer or use them for their actual combat aircraft. And so we felt that we wanted aerial angels the nonprofit wanted to use this beautiful machine powerful fast sleek tandem military trainer jet for good. And so the founders, Steve and Jamie Oakley said, we want to raise breast cancer awareness inspire early detection and support those who've lost loved ones to disease but also those who are going through it themselves. And be the speaking of hope of resilience of strength and compassion. And so the jet is 100% pink like every the underside, the gear, they landing your doors like like everything on the jet is pink. And even myself when I fly it, I wear a pink flight suit. So I love it because even seeing pictures of you at the event educating girls and educating young women about what it means to be an aviation is such a rewarding experience sitting on the other side of it going. This really shows that there are incredible human beings out there just trying to do good for the world and just trying to share their message of bringing up a community whether that's any health, breast cancer awareness or any other mission that you pursue. Yeah, I love it I feel so honored to be a part of it because it kind of has this multifaceted mission where it's all around raising awareness for breast cancer. We have breast cancer survivors or those who are going through chemotherapy at the time that will come up in with their head wrapped during a wig and say, I am currently going through this. And you're just like, your heart just drops and you're like we're doing this for you, you know, we are doing this for you and your loved ones and those who've gone through it. And then there are those who run up to the jet and they're a little five or six year old girl and they go the pink jet and they run all across the ramp to us and they see, you know, dozens of aircraft on either side and they're not looking at any of those. But they're coming to the pink jet and they see it as a symbol of empowerment and, and it is, I think one of the great messages of this airplane is also that you can be both. You can be fabulous and fierce at the same time, you can love pink and girly things and be an exceptional aviator. It's not like they're mutually exclusive. And so when we can start to get past this idea of exactly what anyone looks like in any industry and start taking them out of the box and the pigeonholing them into what we think they are and accept them for who they are. That's where we will thrive on all levels throughout the world is accepting people for being multifaceted and being both or being multiple things, because then that's who they are there to identity and then they can also be better as a pilot and aviator, you know, a mechanic everything in between and really make the world a far better place. And this speaks to exactly why you're as incredible of a human being as you are. You are both fabulous and fierce. You have already accomplished so much. And at the same time, every single thing that you touch is meant to empower other people to do their best work, open doors for other people to pursue opportunities and be able to do even a small bit of the things that you've already accomplished. Yeah, that's the goal. Stephanie, you are an absolute rock star. And I'm so, so grateful for having had this opportunity to hear a part of your story and to share it with our audience. Thank you so much, Igor. I've been honored to be on the podcast with all these incredible people that have been on before me and I just feel very humbled to be here. So thank you so much. Yeah, we just love you so much. And we literally cannot wait until the next time you join us again. Thank you for being here. And thank you guys for listening. We'll see you next time. [BLANK_AUDIO]