Words from the Wise Podcast

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If leadership feels heavier than it used to, you’re not imagining it. The breakneck speed of change, the endless noise of social media, and the rapid rise of AI are pushing both teams and their executives into survival mode.

In this episode, Gary Wise sits down with Fay Niewiadomski—world-renowned culture transformation strategist and CEO of ICTN—to get brutally honest about what drains modern leaders, what restores them, and why chasing the illusion of "success" can quietly bankrupt your energy.

Gary and Fay dive deep into:

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Sleep can fall apart quietly, then everything else follows: mood, focus, discipline, relationships, and the ability to handle stress without blowing up or shutting down. That’s why this conversation with Tim Thomas from Breathwork In Bed hits so hard. We get real about what drains us, what restores us, and how the smallest daily practices can create a massive return when life gets loud.

We talk about “doing generosity wrong,” where you give with an invisible expectation and end up resentful or burned out. Tim breaks down a better way: build...

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You can hear it in my voice when I tell this one. The USS Belleau Wood out of Sasebo, Japan was my first command, and it took a kid with a GED, a chip on his shoulder, and a lot of bad habits and forced him to grow up fast. I’m talking steam ship life in the pit: heat, watch rotations, casualties, sarcasm, pride, and that brutal reality that nobody cares how tough you act if you can’t stand the watch and carry your weight. 

I walk through how I sho...

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A single DNA match can turn a lifetime of questions into one hard choice: do I really want to know the truth? I’m Gary Wise, a Navy veteran and high school NJROTC teacher, and I’m continuing my adoption journey with the part that shook me most, finding my biological father after reconnecting with my biological mother.

After years of searching, I learn there are two possible fathers, and one possibility forces me to confront fears about identity, character, and what it means to come from a complicated past. I talk...

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A calm sea story is never the real sea story. One heavy roll can turn a ship’s mess decks into a wrecking yard, and the next minute you’re welding tables together because hundreds of people still need to eat. That’s the energy Rob McDaniel brings to this conversation, raw Navy truth with the kind of humor you only earn after you’ve lived it. 

Rob is one of my former shipmates from USS Ogden, and we start where every real origin story starts: high school confusion, money pressure, and the s...

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This is the 100th Episode for the Words From The Wise Leadership Podcast! 

A lot of people think a military career starts with a plan. Androcleas 
"Lefty" Eleftheratos's starts with survival. He’s a rural North Carolina kid who drops out of high school, works to help his mom keep four kids afloat, gets into trouble, and then takes the one off-ramp that can reset a life fast: joining the U.S. Navy.

We go from Great Lakes boot camp to an overseas assignment in Sasebo, Japan, where frie...

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The moment you retire, the pace changes and not in a gentle way. One day you are moving at Navy speed with a mission, a watchbill, and a team that needs you. Next, the calendar opens up, the phone goes quiet, and you have to figure out who you are without the title. We sit down with retired Command Master Chief Jason Brown to talk about that whiplash and what he wishes more military transition programs said out loud about identity, purpose, and the emotional and spiritual tax of starting over.

...

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He signed up chasing a straightforward goal: become a firefighter, earn college money, and build a future. What he got instead was a 36-year journey that ran through the Army National Guard, Navy boot camp in San Diego, damage control maintenance on small ships, a pre-commissioning build, a destroyer deployment in a world that was rapidly changing, and eventually the kind of senior enlisted leadership where you answer for everything the crew does. 

We’re joined by retired Master Chief Dylan Inger, a leader who’s lived the full arc from junio...

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A single Google search at midnight finally returned what years of searching never did: a post titled “Baby Boy Leishman,” written by the birth mother who never stopped wondering. Gary Wise and Teri Leishman share the full adoption reunion story from both sides, including the reality of a closed adoption in the 1970s, the fears that come with reaching out, and the moment a photo on the internet made the connection undeniable.

We talk about what it’s like to grow up knowing you’re adopted while still feeling the “missing chapter,”...

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She started beauty school at 16 to get out of high school. Then life hit hard: a family breakup she never saw coming, a teen pregnancy, and an adoption that left scars nobody around her knew how to talk about. And somehow, Teri Leishman still kept moving forward. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, we walk through the real mechanics of reinvention: the messy choices, the lonely seasons, and the moments when you realize you either rebuild on purpose or you repeat the same pain.

We trace Teri's path from Utah to...

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He joined the Navy to stop sitting in classrooms, then the Navy sent him to years of school anyway and that’s where the real story starts.

I’m back with my shipmate and one of my favorite Chiefs, Nick Riggs, to walk through a full Navy career arc: high school uncertainty, choosing the service, surviving the training pipeline, and learning what “ready to roll” really means when you’re forward deployed. Nick breaks down what it’s like to come up as a Fire Controlman, how hands-on maintenance finally makes the textbook...

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She shows up in Maryland at 21 with big dreams, a Tanzanian upbringing, and a problem a lot of immigrants recognize instantly: the U.S. system does not always “translate” your education the way you expect. Nelle Kigembe turns that moment of confusion into action, and within months she’s taking the ASVAB, shipping to Great Lakes, and learning English while learning Navy language. The result is a 22-year journey that ends with her retiring as a U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer.

We trace the whole arc, from joining alongside her si...

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A three by five card was all my parents got when they adopted me: teenage mother, premature baby, three and a half pounds, and almost nothing else. I grew up loved, but I also grew up with a quiet, constant message ringing in my head: you’re different. That one word can shape how you attach to people, how you handle conflict, and how hard you chase belonging, even when you can’t explain why.

I walk you through my adoption story from Utah, including the LDS faith lens my family used...

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Your body can be exhausted while your mind keeps sprinting. That gap is where stress turns into insomnia, jaw clenching, doom thinking, and feeling disconnected from the people right in front of you. I’m Gary Wise, and I sit down with Tim Thomas, a veteran of the Australian Armed Forces who worked alongside special forces teams and spent time in the early underground era of mixed martial arts before stepping into a high tempo military career.

Tim shares what selection, deployment cycles, and military culture taught him about identity, belonging, an...

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A single phone call can reroute your entire life, especially in the Navy. We share the true story behind how I got handpicked orders to the USS George Washington, the forward-deployed nuclear aircraft carrier in Yokosuka, Japan, and why the road there started with a major shipboard fire and a deep-dive investigation. From my years at Afloat Training Group San Diego, I learned how carrier readiness really gets built: damage control training, firefighting standards, drill packages that actually work, and the uncomfortable truth that complacency can hide inside “normal” until it doesn’t. 

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55% of adults are struggling and not receiving treatment, and the scariest part is how easy it is to miss the moment when someone needed us to lean in. I’m joined by Justin Goodman, an insurance industry leader and mental health advocate, for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to support people without pretending we’re clinicians or having the perfect words ready. He shares the personal turning point that pushed him into this work, including chronic pain, addiction risk, and the intervention that changed his life. 

We also get s...

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Judas is one of the most recognized names in history, yet most of us never stop to ask a simple question: if the crucifixion is essential to Christianity, was Judas Iscariot destined to betray Jesus, and if so, what does that mean for free will, guilt, and redemption? We wrestle with that tension alongside Ocala author Steve Marks, whose faith-based fiction novel Judas Otherwise reimagines Judas with a backstory, real motives, and a human struggle rather than a cardboard villain. 

We also talk about the courage it takes to stop hiding c...

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Ocala is growing fast, and the veteran community is changing with it. That sounds like opportunity, until you realize how many veterans still fall through the cracks between “here’s a number to call” and actual help that shows up. We sit down with Navy veteran, father, nonprofit builder, and serial entrepreneur Chad Walker to talk about what happens after the uniform comes off and why follow-through matters more than good intentions.

Chad walks us through his path from a rough high school track to walking into a Navy recruiter’s office...

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Trust is getting harder to hold onto, and it’s not just because people disagree. In 2026, AI-generated content, deepfakes, and polished “thought leadership” have made a lot of listeners wonder: is any of this real, and who is actually behind the message? I sit down with Gabrielle Dolan, a global authority on authentic storytelling and the author of Story Intelligence: The Craft of Authentic Storytelling Made Smarter With AI, to unpack what leaders can do when credibility feels fragile.

We dig into why storytelling is not a soft skill or a perfor...

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A Hollywood career can look like the dream while quietly draining the life out of you. We sit down with Preston Zeller, an award-winning filmmaker and growth leader, to talk about the moment he realized the “successful” path wasn’t making him whole and what it took to rebuild his faith, his work, and his sense of purpose.

Preston walks us through growing up with music and storytelling, getting indoctrinated into film culture, and then colliding with the realities of the entertainment industry: politics, image, and the pressure to chase power instea...

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He helped test the hardware that made Mars landings possible, then turned around and started helping leaders land the hard stuff in their own minds.

We sit down with John Mollura, a former NASA contractor and test operations engineer who spent years in mission-critical environments, including testing the giant airbags used to land Mars exploration rovers. John shares what that work really looked like, how an unexpected resume detail led him into test operations, and why high performance can still come with anxiety, imposter syndrome, and a constant need to “prove” your...

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Coaching sounds simple until you try to turn it into a real post-military career. Ronnie Netter comes back on the mic to talk with us about life after service, finding a calling, and what it looks like to take years of Navy mentorship and translate it into civilian coaching, leadership development, and consulting without feeling fake or salesy.

We get straight into the hard parts: coaching is sales, time has a price, and veterans often struggle with charging for something we used to give away for free. We break down why...

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She wanted overseas orders and got Camp Lejeune. She wanted aviation and landed in engineering utilities. And somehow, that’s exactly why this conversation works: it’s an honest look at how a young Marine turns disappointment into direction without losing her edge.

We’re joined by Ashley Smith aka "Smitty", one of my former NJROTC cadets, calling in from Marine Corps schoolhouse as a water purification specialist. We talk about switching schools, finding the right NJROTC program, getting reset in rank, and learning to earn trust the slow way through standa...

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A single phone call can be the difference between burning your life down and finally growing up. I’m Gary Wise, and I’m telling one of the most personal stories I’ve ever shared: my relationship with my little sister Kristina, from childhood closeness to years of conflict, and the grief that followed her death.

I walk through my background as an adopted kid who moved constantly, the money stress that shaped our home, and the choices I made as a teenager that pushed me out of school and out of my...

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One risky moment can break your body, and a single email can build your future. Jason Brown joins me to trace a Navy journey that starts with a teenager from Southern California who knows he needs a way out and a way up, then turns into a decades-long lesson in resilience, mentorship, and leadership under pressure. If you care about Navy career development, military mentorship, or what it really takes to grow into a senior enlisted leader, this conversation hits home fast.

We talk about the unglamorous but decisive stuff: learning...

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The Navy rarely follows the plan you had at 17, and John Lukosus is living proof. We sit down as shipmates and walk through a career that starts in the engineering spaces as an undesignated fireman, then pivots hard into the Master-at-Arms world when family reality hits and the stakes suddenly feel personal. Along the way, we unpack what “watchstanding” really teaches you about leadership, why mentorship matters more than motivation speeches, and how one good chain of command can change the entire direction of a sailor’s life.

From the post-9/11 force...

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Boundaries are not about being harsh, they’re about being clear. I’m back with part two of our conversation on setting effective boundaries that protect your time, your sanity, and your relationships, while still helping the people around you grow. If you’ve ever felt stretched thin by constant requests, constant problems, or constant emotional pressure to say yes, this one gives you language and structure to say no with purpose.

We dig into “strategic non-intervention” and why safe failure is a gift, not neglect. I share how grit is built thro...

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Your calendar is not neutral. If you do not set boundaries, somebody else will gladly spend your time for you. I sit down solo to get honest about where I still struggle: going all in, saying yes too fast, and letting work expand until it fills every gap in the day. Boundary setting is not about being cold or selfish. It is about self-leadership, protecting your energy, and making sure your time lines up with your vision and long-term goals.

We dig into decision-making fatigue and why leaders and parents become...

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A Navy career can look clean on paper while feeling brutal on the inside, and that gap is where this conversation lives. I sit down with Master Chief Dean Howell to talk about what it really takes to grow from a young sailor trying to keep his head down into a senior enlisted leader who has to carry a command, a family, and his own mental health at the same time.

Dean walks us from Louisiana to Texas, through a college detour, and into the Navy just as the world changes...

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One bad decision can derail a life. One good mentor can reroute it. Gary sits down with retired Master Chief Tyrone Jiles to trace the real path from Rayville, Louisiana to the highest enlisted levels of Navy leadership, with the messy middle included: family loss, growing up without a clear blueprint, and choosing the military for structure and a shot at something bigger. 

We talk through the early Sailor years that most people romanticize, then tell the truth about what actually matters: discipline, relationships, and learning lessons like money management before y...

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Some careers are straight lines. Terence Harmon’s is a fight through storms—boot camp setbacks, a fraternization hit that torpedoed his first run at MA, a year in Gitmo during riots—and a steady climb back built on mentorship, discipline, and no-nonsense leadership. We dive into how a country kid from Talladega found his footing on a destroyer, got his pride checked by a tough BM2, and turned into the kind of deck plate leader who lifts standards and people at the same time.

From Japan port ops and the immedi...

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What does it take to fix a system that keeps letting kids down? We sit down with Dr. Nelva Lee—healthcare executive turned education reformer—to map a practical path from broken metrics to better lives. Her story runs from directing patient advocacy at a major health system to founding a medical interpreting trade school, and now to a statewide campaign for Georgia’s superintendent of schools. Along the way, she learned how to coach under pressure, where bureaucracy hides waste, and why fundamentals beat fads every time.

We start with the ba...

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A small-town country kid from deep East Texas—near Beaumont and Jasper—joins the Navy in 1986 as an undesignated fireman and steps aboard the legendary USS Midway in Yokosuka, Japan. What follows is a 22+ year career defined not by flash, but by quiet competence, decisive action, and an unshakable commitment to taking care of people.

Brian Nelson rides out a brutal typhoon that warps hangar bay doors on Midway, transitions to amphibious ops on the young USS Germantown (where Marines bring discipline and heavy gear), stands post as a gate guard at N...

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What does it really take to grow from an 18-year-old radioman into a Command Master Chief trusted to steady a carrier crew? We sit down with retired Master Chief Shaun Brahmsteadt to map a 35-year journey packed with hard choices, honest mentorship, and the kind of leadership that delivers results when it counts. From a tiny Northern California town to Cold War boot camp, from a sub-chasing shore billet to first deployments, Sean shares how curiosity, discipline, and humility turned confusion into competence—and competence into command trust.

The story shifts co...

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History isn’t background noise here; it’s the compass. We open by connecting Cold War alliances to today’s fault lines, then ride along as David Cano—retired Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman—shares how “sailor first” shaped every step: enlisting three months before 9/11, stabilizing patients in Iraq’s trauma bays, and learning that prevention is power when you’re safeguarding a ship’s water, food, and heat stress programs.

From Okinawa to Al Asad, then outside the wire in Helmand as an IA, David pulls back the curtain on what high‑tempo service r...

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What happens when you hate running, but choose obedience anyway? That’s the spark at the heart of this conversation with faith-first performance coach Chris Avery — a man who ran a marathon with zero training, logged a mile a day until it became years, and is now mapping a 12,000-mile mission to run the perimeter of America. The story isn’t about superhuman talent; it’s about ordinary action empowered by faith, forgiveness, and a stubborn loyalty to purpose.

We trace Chris’s path from addiction to sobriety, through marriage and fatherhood...

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Stress doesn’t start at the crisis point; it starts the moment the phone lights up. We open with the real baseline most of us carry—pings, expectations, and a mind that wakes up in the yellow—and then lay down a clear roadmap to navigate the day without losing yourself. Drawing on years of Navy leadership and today’s classroom realities, we use the Operational Stress Control colors to name what you’re feeling and the simple stress equation—pressure minus perceived capability—to show where to intervene.

From there, we unpack four...

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A wound left untended doesn’t just hurt—it starts to steer. That idea threads through a gripping conversation with author, speaker, and publisher Athena Dean Holtz, whose journey spans Scientology, pioneering PTSD advocacy, a booming publishing house, and a long season of spiritual abuse that cost her marriage, company, and community. What emerged on the other side is a hard-won clarity about discernment, forgiveness, and the everyday mechanics of spiritual warfare.

We start with the early days of Point Man Ministries, where Athena helped bring PTSD into the light for vete...

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A kid from Staten Island walks three miles to a Navy recruiter after a jobsite blowup and ends up a warrant officer, a chief engineer, and finally a financial advisor. That’s not luck—it’s discipline, mentorship, and a lot of deckplate reps. Gary sits down with his shipmate Jody Schilling to trace the full arc: boot camp in Orlando, Treasure Island A School, meeting a destroyer in Bahrain, and learning damage control fast under real pressure. Along the way, Jody owns his missteps, turns NJPs into fuel, teaches DC indoc, and earns...

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When emotions run hot, one choice can change everything. Gary Wise lays out a clear, battle-tested way to slow the moment, tell the truth about what you feel, and make a response you won’t regret tomorrow. Drawing on decades of Navy leadership, teaching, fatherhood, and faith, we unpack why emotional intelligence matters more than ever in a world of constant comparison, instant judgment, and phones that never sleep.

We break down a simple playbook you can use under pressure: name the emotion with honesty, create a pause through prayer or re...