From NASA Engineer to Blue Origin Astronaut and CEO

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Ernest, what's up? Look, when you think about discovering small brands what store pops in your mind? Well, it should be Walmart Seriously, Walmart has thousands of small brands and they're all in one place Just go online or in store, discover and shop It could not be easier Every one of these brands has a real story and real people behind it They're true American success stories and you can find them all at Walmart Discover thousands of small brands at Walmart.com today.

0:58You worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. When traveling for events or festivals throughout the country, every dollar matters. We compare flights, prices, hotel rates, and restaurant options. So why wouldn't we compare rides? Personally, I always check lift before booking a ride. Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check lift could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience.

1:37Save money. Check lift. Today's episode is brought to you by ChatGPT for Business. As a listener of this podcast, you're looking for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for Work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more.

2:17So how is it for you to go from being an employee to being an entrepreneur? You know, I feel like my strength in this situation is knowing that there's so much that I don't know. Like when I was an employee, when I would go to work every day, all I wanted to do was be respected for the things that I know. And as an entrepreneur, all I want to do is go out and speak to people and tell them that I don't know. so that I can be made better by the things that they know. That is my goal. Just be able to listen and support and have people improve the things that I create. That's on a personal level as an entrepreneur, but you're also the CEO.

3:02Yeah. And so there's people that are relying on you for their leadership. So walking into that role, how has the dynamics been for you? You know, like I shifted when he asked me that question because the question really strikes at home because I spent so many years as a woman professional just wanting to be seen as being good enough and when I let go of that I realized that my strength is being authentic and being empathetic and when I took a step back I was crowding out the sun because I was trying to always lead and be strong and all this other stuff and so when I said to the team for both businesses a I want to make space for you to bring your gifts that's really when I started to see exponential growth so I have this concept of 80 20 you hire somebody 80 % for the things on the resume that you know that they can't that they can do and the 20 % that they could bring to the table that you haven't discovered yet and you cultivate that person and they will take you to places that you never you never knew that you would go so So let's talk about going to space.

4:10So what is the program that you're going out of space? How did you get involved in that? And are you just going up, coming back down? Is there observation that you're going to be doing when you're up? Like what's happening with that situation? So I'm going to be flying to space on the new Shepard vehicle with Blue Origin. We will be coming up and we will be coming back down. And I'm excited about that. How long will you be out of space? The total trip, so the round trip is roughly, I don't know, less than an hour. And it's about 10 minutes of microgravity. 10 minutes out of space. Yes. So 25, like 20 minutes coming up, 10 minutes out of space, then 20 minutes come back down.

4:51I think so. And I think we got to fix our hair before we can get out. So there's some time there. Sure. Well, look, so I will be the first to tell you that I never thought that I was going to be leaving the Earth's atmosphere. I don't even like turbulence on commercial flights. And so for me, this is a try it before you buy it situation where I get to try space in a controlled scenario. Once I started working at NASA and meeting amazing astronauts, I never thought that I could be them. And this is what I like about life and karma in the world is like right when you think that you can't be something, life will show you that you can.

5:29and I said to myself many years ago, one of these years I'm going to apply to be a NASA astronaut. I'm going to go to the International Space Station. And somehow I managed not to do it for year after year after year and all of a sudden have the opportunity to be a Blue Origin astronaut. And my goal is to complete this. And if I like it, which I'm probably going to love it, I'm going to turn around and I'm going to apply to be a NASA astronaut. What's the preparation like for this? I remember, maybe it was last year, they had Michael Strahan, and he was going through it. They had to take some time off from Good Morning America.

6:05What do you have to do? What are they putting you through to get you prepared for this moment? So they have a training program in their facility in Van Horn, Texas, that's mandatory. But in addition to that, you can do a host of other things. And so I'm participating in a microgravity flight. I'm looking to fly on a fighter flight with jets like real fast like to go fast I'm looking to do a high-altitude skydive and then in addition to that for me this is about bringing it home right there are so many people my family are like what is NASA doing for me what's space doing for me like why does any of this matter and so I've been reaching out to organizations hbcus in high school so that i can either fly a patch for school or do experiments like i would like to partner with an hbcu and do an experiment on orbit right or fly a sensor i really want the outcome of this to not be oh you know like that's like 10 minutes i want it to be this was something that made me believe or inspired someone to believe that they could reach for the stars and realized that it was only the beginning.

7:16To take this flight, I know it's expensive. So were you chosen? Did you have to apply to become one of the blue astronauts? Or was there a sponsored event? Like, okay, this is the person we're putting forth as our choice. Yeah, it was really cool. I got a call out of the blue from this lady named Nancy Conrad. and it just so happens that that first day when I was at NASA when I had a badge and I was excited to be there I met Nancy Nancy is the wife of Pete Conrad who's an Apollo astronaut I remember seeing her and being like wow like one day I hope to speak with her fast forward right over a decade she's calling me and she's like look there's this mission coming up I think you'd be a really really good fit how about you apply this time I didn't say no I put my application forward and it happened to work out that I was in the position to join the crew now back to the money thing even if I had it I don't know if I'd want to spend it and the reason for that is there's a lot of support for space and for science right and a good old African proverb it's like if you want to go you know fast go alone if you want to go far go together so i went out to sponsors and i said look i want to know if you're going to back me on this flight and they have and so i'm getting ready to announce some significant brand partnerships but we really are going to challenge the way that people look at going to space and i'm excited to have amazing brands behind me to do it earners what's up look when you think about discovering small brands, what store pops in your mind?

9:01Well, it should be Walmart. Seriously, Walmart has thousands of small brands and they're all in one place. Just go online or in store, discover and shop. It could not be easier. Every one of these brands has a real story and real people behind it. They're true American success stories and you can find them all at Walmart. Discover thousands of small brands at walmart.com today. Ernest, what's up? Look, So building wealth isn't just about making money. It's about knowing where your money is working for you. That's why we partnered with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little.

9:37Their free Empower personal dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. When traveling for events or festivals throughout the country, every dollar matters. We compare flights, prices, hotel rates, and restaurant options. So why wouldn't we compare rides? Personally, I always check Lyft before booking a ride.

10:14Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check lift could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience. Save money. Check lift. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. Chat GPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in Chat GPT.

10:50This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using Chat GPT for Work. Download the Chat GPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.