1943 – Achieving Peak Performance with Mach 2 Consulting’s Anthony Bourke

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1:05With us right now, it is Anthony A.B. Burke. Anthony, you are the founder and CEO of Mach2 Consulting. You are a fighter, pilot, keynote speaker, and an avid entrepreneur. You've had a number of successful exits. Anthony, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Josh. Happy to be here. As a fellow military veteran business owner, I always love when we can just find great folks that have worn the uniform and now have taken their military experience and career and transformed that into making an impact in the entrepreneurial world. Anthony, could you tell us a bit about the work that you do and who you serve?

1:46Well, if you're talking about Mach 2 Consulting, I am a keynote speaker who speaks 40 to 50 times a year around the general subject of peak performance. Essentially, how is it that fighter pilots achieve peak performance in a very rapidly changing complex environment flying jets? And how can you, as a business person, as a human being, use some of these same tools and techniques to achieve peak performance in what we know is a very rapidly changing and sometimes a challenging environment in business and in life? Well, I would imagine that today, that is a very, I'd say, sought after message. And what you share is, well, let me ask you it this way.

2:32What you do is not about, you know, this, you know, I live in a van down by a river and, you know, you're just, it's about motivation. Can you tell me a bit about when you're brought into organizations, what their goals are with your engagement and what your goals are typically? Yeah, fair enough. Yes, I do have some stories about overcoming adversity, as I think we all do. But I would say I'm hopefully very inspirational. But I'm also offering companies tools that I learned in the military as a fighter pilot and as a leader that they can apply in their business. So ideas around leadership, teamwork, communication, discipline, execution, team alignment.

3:20and I've just developed a new speech around safety as well, which we call the chain of events leads to the scene of the accident. So, for example, a typical speech might offer me introducing what I call is the feedback loop of regular briefing and debriefing. And Josh, I know you're a former naval journalist, and so you probably understand this, and most of your audience does too, but the idea in briefing says, you know, you may be the best and the brightest fighter pilot in the world. You could have the greatest ideas or tactics or plans in your head. But if you haven't found a way to communicate those great plans, your great ideas to the people who are going to be flying with you, or of course in the business world, the people who are either working for you or with you, then all of your ideas will be for naught because you'll be flying solo and so will your wingman.

4:11And that's why when fighter pilots get ready to fly any kind of mission, whether it's a one-hour training mission or a six-hour combat mission, even though we've been preparing for hours for our missions, or just like so many of your viewers, in many cases, you've been preparing for days or even weeks for your missions just before we get ready to take off. or maybe better put in your language, just before you get ready to execute your day, your week, your key client meetings and events, fighter pilots always sit down and hold a briefing to ensure that when we walk out the door, jump in our cockpits, put on our helmets and start engines, that we are going to be aligned, that we're going to be flying in formation, that we're going to execute at the highest possible level.

4:58And I think in both of our worlds that the mission is going to be safe. So I love talking to business folks about the power of briefing, how fighter pilots use it to drive better results in our world, and how business folks can use the same tools. And then I love talking about this concept of debrief. And Josh, debrief essentially says, you know, I really don't care how good we think we are. I don't care how well we planned. I don't care how good our technology is. And I really don't care how well yesterday's mission went. The fact is, at the end of the day, at the end of the mission, no fighter pilot has ever flown the perfect mission.

5:38And I think it's probably fair to say that none of your viewers will ever have the perfect day, week, customer interaction, project, or event. And that's why when fighter pilots are done executing our missions, we always, always, always call timeout and hold a debrief. so we can learn from both the mistakes and the victories of today's mission, and we can continue to improve as individuals, certainly as a team, and maybe most importantly so as leaders, we can find a way to call time out at the right time, create a safe environment, and solicit the honest feedback we need to keep us ahead of the threats, ahead of the competition, and ahead of the inevitable change that will continue to come our way.

6:23So, Josh, that maybe is one little snapshot of some of the messaging that I share with my clients. Yeah, I appreciate it, Anthony. And you know what I'm really curious about are folks that apply to go to fighter pilot school. And I'm curious about what they what might show up in the application process or the interview process or during school, the personality traits or the soft skills that may be a requirement to excel in that kind of an environment. and I'm particularly curious about the people who don't make the grade and why is that? Yeah, boy. I would say that the military, and now I'm talking about the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps when we're talking about fighter pilots, have invested heavily in trying to figure out what are the key traits that makes an effective fighter pilot today.

7:22And quite honestly, those traits may be slightly different than what made a great fighter pilot in World War II or in Vietnam because technology has changed so dramatically. But they have a very effective screening process, battery of tests, written tests, some interviewing process. And they finally get to a point where they say, okay, you 100 people seem qualified. We're going to send you to Air Force pilot training. And then you get to Air Force pilot training, obviously, you need to become an officer first. And you can do that in a number of different ways. You need to fit into the military structure.

8:01Just being a great pilot isn't going to make you a great military pilot, because you have to be able to play by the military rules. And then when you finally get to Air Force pilot training, you know, it's, you can expect that somewhere between a third or a half of your class will be washed out by the end of a year. Wow. Yeah. And so that's pretty challenging because what they're really trying to say is, you know, do you have what it takes, not just to fly military aircraft, but to get along in our type of environment and work in a way that is conducive to success and being a team player. And so there are all kinds of things they puts you through.

8:46And I've always said the secret to success in pilot training, and you may have heard Navy SEALs or other special forces say this, cooperate and graduate. You know, you're going to get knocked in the jaw a few times. You're going to get beat up. You're going to feel terrible sometimes. You're going to feel like you're never going to succeed, but just keep going. Never quit, never quit, never quit. And you'll probably make it to the other side. I would imagine that this topic comes up from time to time when most people think of their exposure to those who are fighter pilots. Sometimes I think we might be thinking of Top Gun and, you know, you've got Goose and Maverick and these personalities and kind of this hot shot persona.

9:27How different is the reality versus Hollywood's portrayal of fighter pilots? Yeah, fair question. And I would say like in any organization, you have a wide range of personalities. I would say that pilots in general are somewhat aggressive in their personality, meaning they like to get things done. They like to have their world organized. They like to know what's happening. They like to have a plan and they like to execute that plan. But, you know, quite honestly, some of the best fighter pilots I've ever met, and I would say this in general in the military, are quite humble. They're quite understated.

10:09And they're not always that, you know, cocky maverick type of character that is so great in movies, but maybe isn't always the most effective leader or pilot. So, you know, these are people that have a good, reasonable intelligence. I'm not saying they're the smartest person in their class. They have some pretty darn good hand-eye coordination. They have very good perception of three dimensions, So not just one or two, but three. They can think rapidly on the fly. They can process information quickly and they can make decisions. And I'd say those are really the qualities. And my favorite fighter pilots are people that are humble and yet confident and that you can trust.

10:55And that probably translates pretty well in business as well. Yeah, I was just gonna say that those sound like incredible traits for a leader. And speaking of leaders, In your work, you have such an active speaking schedule that you likely have a lot of time to have intimate conversations with top-level leaders today. And I'm curious what pains or gaps or maybe things that are coming up lately that you hear a lot that seem to be trending in terms of the things that concern leaders today. Anything come to mind? I'd say some of the biggest things I'm hearing today are hiring and retaining great people.

11:37We've got a bit of a culture coming on, certainly people under 30 that aren't sure that they really want to work in an office. They think they may be able to live anywhere in the world. And that may be true in some organizations. I wrote an article just before the Super Bowl that said, would you bet on a team to win the Super Bowl who was training virtually? And it's my personal belief that the best teams in the world don't train virtually. They don't work virtually. They come together at least a few days a week and are working in an environment that shares a culture, that develops mentorship, that builds a culture of winning.

12:24and you may be able to build a great team virtually, but I'm not sure you're gonna be a world champion. So finding and retaining good people seems to be an issue that's on the minds of a lot of CEOs. And then obviously just dealing with a rapidly changing global economy where do we put our eggs? Where do we focus? Because things are changing so rapidly, we need to stay ahead. And then the other one I'm hearing a lot about is how do we incorporate AI in our world? Where does it fit? Is it right? Are we going down a dark path? Where do we use it? Yeah, yeah, AI is so tricky. I hear this a lot that if you're not using AI, you're likely behind.

13:08If you're using AI, you may be misusing it. So be very careful, but you can't ignore it. Anthony, tell me about your ability for speaking. You're either how someone would engage you. Do you or your team do anything besides keynote speaking? And if so, how else can you help? yeah uh well the easiest way to find me is you can google my name which i think is up on the screen anthony burke uh spelled b-o-u-r-k-e or my company mock to consulting mock as you know m-a-c-h is the speed of sound mock one is the speed of sound mock two is as fast as i've ever gone in the airplane that you see behind me the f-16 so twice the speed of sound about 1500 miles an hour or 20 miles a minute.

14:01That's really, we use that normally when we're running away from somebody, when we really want to get the heck out of Dodge. So mock2consulting.com. I'm also represented by many speakers bureau or agents in the industry who I've been working with for over 25 years. So I'm pretty easy to find. As far as speeches today, I do everything from 18-minute TED Talks to 45 to 60-minute traditional keynote speeches. I do a number of programs that are 90 to 120 minutes, interactive programs. We don't go into breakout rooms, but we engage the audience in a way that they're not just receiving information one way.

14:41They're making some personal commitments to themselves, to their teammates, and as a company. I love those programs. And then I do half and full day consulting engagements around my topics as well. Yeah. Yeah. AT &T, Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Boeing, Bridgestone, Cisco, Home Depot, Hyatt, McDonald's, Napa. It is quite a laundry list of who's who have already engaged you. Your website, once again, mock2consulting.com. Anthony A.B. Burke, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your message and making a great impact in the world. Josh, really great to spend time with you, and I hope our paths will cross again soon.

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