Loree:

I’m really excited to talk with Waldo Waldman today, an Air Force pilot; we welcome Air Force as well as all services on the podcast.

I love it. All right, I’d like to start by asking about when you were a child, when was the first time that you really realized that you could influence other people?

Waldo:

I’m an identical twin, which a lot of people don’t know, I don’t really go into too much detail in on my speeches, but I really need to… there’s no better person in your life who you can influence or be influenced by some somebody, than your twin. And Dave is my best friend. But he is the only person jumping in front of a train other than my son and wife, but he’s the only person however, I’d want to throw in front of one at the same time. And so having somebody that you trust implicitly, who has your back is really so important in life and having that was critical. And so Dave and I would compete as you can imagine, siblings, you know, identical twins are like mirror twins, actually. So we look exactly alike, but just slightly different. But he is my best friend. And so as we did sports together, as we studied together, as we had friends together, as we negotiated trading baseball cards, and negotiating who’s going to ride the dirt bike for that last segment before we had to head home, you learn about, you learn about connection and inquisitiveness and compromise. And a lot of those things are part of marinating the state of relationship. And I learned that through my twin brother, I probably did develop some bad habits along the way with him because I’ve gotten through, gotten away with more than I should have with somebody else. But really, that type of influence was really, really critical to me. And was instrumental in my success and ability to overcome a lot of adversity because no, it’s not flying solo starts with your relationships, right?

Loree:

Yeah, that’s amazing that like right off from the very beginning, you you were part of a team. So not many people have that advantage growing up. So how about role models when you’re growing up? Who did you look up to for leadership?

Waldo:

So I also had an older brother Steve. He’s six years older than me. I was the baby of the family and also had an older sister Leslie and she was kind of like the mother hen. And my older brother was an influencer in my family as well. My dad was a workaholic, old school, my dad’s 91. My mom’s 86. They’re like Archie Bunker in the youth, you know, from back in the day. Yeah. But my dad was, was old school. And I wish I could say he was a mentor of mine. He did influence the family a ton, but my brother was around a lot more than my dad. So I remember him taking me out. Delivering papers, right? I was just telling this to my wife. He was up at the crack of dawn delivering papers. He would take us with him once in a while. He was always out there in the great South Bay in Long Island hustling, hustling, hustling. That was his favorite word. I remember in baseball and soccer he’s always saying hustle, hustle, hustle. He was just a great role model to have as a young kid, and he was a much better communicator than I was and my twin brother, for that matter. He could schmooze. He was a people person. And I honestly didn’t have that skill set. I didn’t really develop it until even after the military. So I’d say my older brother was one of my first role models. And there are others in the military, you know, from the Air Force Academy, Angel Diaz freshman year, doing the physical fitness test. He grew up in New York, Long Island where I grew up. Now I’ve never forget, by the way, I don’t even share a lot of these stories and you bring them up to me, which is awesome. I was getting ready to do the basic training that Pft, the physical fitness test. And he came up to me, Latin guy, Angel Diaz from Puerto Rico. And he’s like, he’s like, Cadet Waldman. He’s like, you remember where you’re from? You’re a Long Island or you’re in New York, you don’t forget that when you’re walking around, you’re competing against these, these other losers in your class, represent, you know, he just fired me up and, and he had this swagger about him. A charisma, a leadership skill set that just had me enthralled. He was the first and I don’t know if I’d ever find anybody other than him that influenced me and really had that type of mentorship and impact on me for the four years at the Academy, and I watched everything he did the year before he graduated, he was just a great human being. I try to keep in touch with them. I don’t, I did just connect with him on I think either LinkedIn or social media. And I do connect with a lot of the academy guys, even from the BD classes, but he’s a hard guy to get ahold of. I haven’t been able to formally reach out to him. But yeah, you can remind me I’m maybe I’ll try to reach out again, Loree?

Loree:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s so funny. My last role was at Facebook, and I’m still like, wait, wait, there’s people who aren’t on Facebook. But yes, many, many people are not on social media. So I get it. It’s really interesting to hear how he motivated you with that is almost like an us versus them like he was tapping into what like that commonality between the two of you and that heritage, almost of both coming from the same place and the things that really made you proud use that to motivate you to run faster than everybody else. And I think it’s interesting to see how, you know, we joke about the Air Force and the Navy and the interservice rivalry, but you know, we’re all on the same team. And I used to always joke with my family that like, really the only thing that I think is going to unite us as globe is if we had an alien invasion. Only thing that will get us all to work together. But you know, the Coronavirus didn’t. So I don’t know maybe if an alien invasion would either.

Waldo:

Yeah, but it’s the Coronavirus is as close to an alien invasion as we’re gonna get. But let me tell you, even with an alien invasion, I think you’re gonna find folks who are going to, quote unquote hoard like they did toilet paper back in the beginning. Yeah, going to be people who out for themselves not being team players. They’re going to be folks that that are willing to not be that person that you could depend on.

Loree:

Right.

Waldo:

So I guess any type of stressful environment… we learned in combat, you learn that when you’re under the gun and under pressure, it separates the adults from the children.

Loree:

Yeah.

Waldo:

And I do think the pandemic in many ways is dividing us in some ways, but it’s really forcing ourselves to really find out what matters and why we have meaning to our mission. I like to call it the why before we fly, you know, really deep, really deep. And it’s a blessing in disguise. And I really hope and I know you do as well, that that we are a better country a better world because of it, but it’s taking a lot of breaking bones and resetting.

Loree:

Yeah, yeah, that’s a good way to put it is painful, but better in the long run. So you mentioned the advice from your brother to hustle, hustle, hustle, any other leadership advice that you’ve really appreciated either growing up or as an adult?

Waldo:

Well, my dad always said ‘do it right the first time or don’t do it at all.’ Do it right the first time or don’t do it at all. He had attention to detail. He was a mechanic, blue collar and I remember he would teach my twin brother and I how to put together things; we had adirt bike we really I love speed. I love you know, I gotten of course it was a car at that it was an F 16 right. So yeah. Honda’s to Lockheed Martin jets but he was always about do it right put the effort in show up he said ‘you hang out with garbage you’re going to become garbage.’ Be careful who you spend time with on the weekends. He was always assessing who he was spending time with my buddies is like you really want to hang out with that guy. But Cody does much to your own beat, don’t be a yes man. You know be independent, be a leader, not a follower and all those things through his example and his words. Those also influenced me and that was very, very powerful. So I had good friends growing up, but I wasn’t one of these Mr. Social butterflies, like a lot of other folks. I’d rather have a few very close friends and then a bunch of casual acquaintances. And it is that way for me today. I will never sell out my values. What’s important to me just to be like, you know, call me in New York or a fighter pilot or intense but I talk about being a wingman and never flying solo because I want to be that reliable, trusted partner. Yeah, I the one who has your back the one that you could trust implicitly.

So I learned that in early age, I was very cognizant of it growing up even in high school and at the Academy. And I believe in standards, high standards that you emulate to others and others emulate to you. So I teach this to my nine and a half year old son about emulating those standards. If he asked to emulate those things that he wants his friends to emulate compassion, friendliness, kindness, inquisitiveness, you know, all those things that you’d want from somebody who’s a buddy of yours. But those are key, then obviously, so many folks in the military, as you know, are going to influence you people that were the least likely to show me compassion and empathy. Or some of my commanders who were just great, great human beings would I remember showing up late to a flight one day and instead of reprimanding me for being late is like, this guy’s name was psycho Lieutenant Colonel Pat white. And he said, Hey, Waldo, you know, is everything okay? At home? Do you need a day off? What’s going on? Is everything all right? This isn’t like you. I never, never forgot that. It’s a story that I do share my keynotes. He treated me as a person.