Be more in life. Become legendary. Join on a journey of become more!
Be more in life. Become legendary. Join on a journey of become more!
Mike Lerario, Greg Walker, and Chuck Ritter introduce the concept of Objective Arete. We discuss the idea and the philosophical roots of 'Arete' in classical Western philosophy and how we can use it for modern personal growth. Objective Arete aims to create a community and provide a mindset and toolsets that help individuals in various domains of life, including mental, physical, social, and professional development. The founders share their backgrounds, reflecting on their journeys from military service to forming this self-development platform, emphasizing the importance of intentional self-improvement and learning from failures. The episode also highlights the importance of mentorship, community support, and the project's holistic approach to achieving personal fulfillment and resilience.
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Website: www.objectivearete.com
Youtube: www.youtube.com/@ObjectiveArete
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Website: https://bethefulcrum.com/
email: mike@objectivearete.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-lerario-mld-343b994/
Mike: Hey, welcome. My name is Mike Lerario and I know exactly what you're thinking right now. Oh my God, another podcast. It's like you can't walk anywhere without bumping into another podcast. But I think as we stand here in Southern Pines, North Carolina in November of 2024, if there's something that doesn't jump out immediately at you, it's the power of new media and the power of the podcast.
To get out a message. Aside from all of that, here's what we want to do. We want to help you with new thinking, through new media, and the power of Arete. Which, my first question to our guests today is, how the heck do you pronounce that correctly? Because you look at that word, and you might go, Arete? Arete?
So, real quick, let me jump in here. Which one of you guys wants to enlighten us? How do we pronounce the name of this podcast.
Greg: I've always said it is arete. I don't think the pronunciation is that pivotal. I think it's really the meaning behind the word, but I've heard multiple uses of it. I've
Chuck: only heard it in the context that we're using is arete.
You know, there's arete, which is stop in French, or there's also an arete, which is a mountain feature. But for what we're using them for, there's usually an accent at the end of the E. So arete, I think it makes sense.
Mike: Those great answers you just heard came from Greg Walker and Chuck Ritter, the founders of Objective Arate.
And we'll dig into that a little bit more, but the whole idea here is we're going to help you come up with the tools that will get you to where you want to be. And it doesn't matter what the domain is, because there's a bunch of them we're going to talk about. That's the point of this podcast. That's the point of everything that is wrapped up in Objective Arate.
All right, So, Greg, we now know how to pronounce it. But what does it mean? What is Arate?
Greg: Arate starts in classical western philosophy. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. I think
Mike: you're pronouncing that wrong. Isn't it Socrates?
Greg: Which is a very complicated concept to really grasp. But it's within your relationships.
It's personally, it's professionally, it's physically, mentally. And that's one of those things that we don't really have a word for in English, which is why Arete is really what we've come to focus on for this project here.
Chuck: I actually hadn't really thought too much about this word until Greg brought it to my attention about a year ago.
And he brought this concept of what we're doing now. This is an interesting word. Let me look into this. And as I started researching it, like you said, it's, it really has its roots in old Western philosophy, but you really start seeing it first in the Iliad and the Odyssey. You're talking about, you know, maybe 800 to 500 BC.
And you start seeing it with your, your big philosophers. And then you see it in, in Stoicism, which is interesting because Stoicism came from the Cynics where, you know, Aristotle and Plato, they had a different mindset, a little bit, but then you start seeing it in the Bible and the New Testament and Buddhism.
It's this, it's this concept of excellence that's not just being good at something. It's a concept of excellence that has this overarching theme of being balanced in some type of virtue, which is unlike a value, which is something that drives you internally to do something. A virtue is something that you work through using habit.
And you balance that. It's got some kind of access, some kind of deficiency in order to have a positive impact externally. It has to be a true virtue. It's something that you do that's good that has that good impact externally somehow. And I think that that's cool. It sets it apart from just this, this concept of excellence or being good at something.
It's, it's really the art of being a good human being.
Mike: Cool. I think that, uh, what you just described there, the two of you, I mean, the fact that it covers this expanse of history and this expanse of different perspectives, I There's something, there has to be something about it then that is more, let's say, universal than just some one concept or one perspective.
If you find it in the Bible and you find it in the teachings of Aristotle, if you find it in the teachings of the Stoics and the writings of the Stoics, well then what does that say? It means that there's something about it that's so human that it crosses all those boundaries and yeah, that's awesome, man.
What was the French word you used earlier? Arette. Arette. Yeah, stop. See? Okay. Stop. That's better. Well, you know I'm a big fan of balance, and we'll get into that later at some point in time, but uh, alright, so we know how to pronounce it, we know where it comes from, and what it is, but Chuck, what's the objective of Objective Arte?
Chuck: Well, Objective Arte is obviously the name of the podcast, it's also the name of the thing, or the entity, that That we're creating, which was Greg's concept. It's been something he's been playing around with for a while. Probably a couple of years. The way he explained it to me, I'll let him jump in there in a minute.
But what we're trying to achieve is, we want to offer something, a community, a way that we can all continue to grow. It's really a We're on our our journeys. We don't claim to be the best leaders. We don't claim to be experts at too much. We have some expertise in some areas. We have a lot of expertise in failing at certain things.
And I think Elon Musk said it best recently. It was like, well, failure is irrelevant unless it's catastrophic, right? You use that as a springboard of being legendary. So we want to be able to offer. You know, we've got a lot of experience. Greg, you know, he's a West Point grad. He was a special forces officer.
I've spent 27 years in special forces, but what we have is it's not us. We have a network of very highly successful people like you, CEOs, sports psychs, you know, people that are experts in physical fitness. We're always on our journey to learn. So we want to. We want people to join us on that journey, join us on our journey as we continue this never ending cycle of going from incompetence to competence and just embracing that, right?
And I'll turn that over to Greg to add on to that because he's got a
Mike: So Greg, are you going to be the one yelling at us on these episodes or making us do burpees? Which one of you guys is going to be That's kind of
Chuck: more my thing, right? That's not my expertise. I got a little bit more, I got a little bit more like angst and anger sometimes.
Greg: I mean, I think Objective Verite is our effort to document our own journey as Chuck described it and share that with other people. Uh, because, as you put, it's a lot of these problems I think that we face in life, these hurdles, they're somewhat universal. It may not be exactly the same, but if we can find the tools and resources that can help people, document those, and then refer to them.
In some ways, it's selfish. I think that we're looking to do that for ourselves, but I would, I missed that aspect of the military in transition, and that's where this concept really came from, was it was meant to be more of a peer mentorship concept, where everybody has different skill sets and experiences.
And so how do you leverage those? How do you document those? How do you use those as you move forward in life? Because otherwise it can seem very isolating. You feel like you're the only one with this problem. You're the only one that struggles to get out of bed in the morning. You're the only one that hates your job when it's just not realistic.
It's not reality. And it takes kind of being exposed to these different things before I think you really garner a better understanding and can apply those lessons. To better your own position and become a better person in the long run. I feel like constantly we're choosing between like a life self comfort and a life self character.
And it's an amoral decision. Like there's nothing wrong. Morally or ethically with either. But if you want to, you live a life of, of character and improve the kind of person you are. I think that that's sometimes hard to understand how to get there, but also why some of these experiences matter. And so, even in my own life, I feel like a lot of the more challenging times that I've had have also been the most developmental.
And what I, in retrospect, regret is not documenting them the way that I feel like I should have. And so that's really our effort here. It's like, how do we document all these things? How do we collect and share these experiences from a multitude of people, from a multitude of backgrounds with different perspectives?
And that was really the, the initial concept.
Chuck: Hey, I'm Chuck Ritter with objective RTA with a quick note from a few of our sponsors who support, allow this show to thrive first, Crispine Consulting. Crispin Consulting is operated by our incredible podcast host, Mike Lerario. Mike is the author of two books, Leadership in Balance and Management in Balance, both based on his fulcrum centric model.
Both books are available on Amazon, and I highly recommend them to any up and coming or experienced leader. They are great, short reads that provide novel ways to reach your fullest potential as a leader. Check out Leadership in Balance and Management in Balance on Amazon. Or go to the Crisp Be Consulting website@www.be the fulcrum.com.
Also, the Project Sapt podcast Project Sapt is hands down the best law enforcement and military community podcast out there. It's produced and hosted by Army veteran current law enforcement officer and author. I'm a coff. Aiman also serves as the Editor in Chief for Objective RT, and he has over 100 published articles on various sites, such as the Havoc Journal, which is also one of our sponsors.
Check out Aiman's work on the Havoc Journal, and check out the Project Sapient podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. And back to the show.
Mike: Yeah, well, I think it, um, there's a lot out there that I've read, that I've discussed with other people. One of the guys who does this best, Joe Birely, from the Green Notebook guy, right?
He talks about the fact that you need to read, write, and reflect, and I think that's so fundamental to growth, right? The other piece that's missing from all that? Is having someone who can coach you or guide you along in that journey. Like your awareness of something that happens to you and the impact of it is one thing, but somebody else's interpretation of it because of their filters, their experiences.
Is I think something that most of us can benefit from but we never know how to get it where to find it And if i'm not mistaken, that's going to be one of the things about this podcast and your program even larger Is to connect people with other people create a network that can help them make sense of their experiences And operationalize them, right?
I'll use that word operationalize. So we're not just going to talk about stuff We're going to talk about how stuff matters and how those become tools For success to get us to where we want to be.
Chuck: Yeah. We want to build a community. It's one of the foundational aspects of this whole concept, but someplace where we can all go and share.
Our failures as well. What have we tripped over? Not, not be judged. We go in there. We talk about our successes. We lift each other up. We share experiences and all these things that we've learned something that worked for me. It's probably not going to work for you or for Greg. And I think that sometimes this is paradox in my mind.
It's like, okay, well, would I go back and change anything that I failed at life? And then, okay, with my son, if I'm not allowing him to fail at these things, but I think there's a lot of it. There's a lot of benefit in failing vicariously through others too, so you can kind of see it, like, okay, well obviously I'm not going to do it exactly the way they did it, but there's some principles in there that I can use.
Mike: Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, you know, how much of what we've learned in our own lives has been because of failure or watching other people fail. Was it Nelson Mandela's side? I never lose, I either win or I learn. I think that's a great philosophy to bring through all of this. It sounds very, if he, if he didn't think about it, if he had known it, he was thinking about this, right, when he said that.
Chuck: They can't just spell the same thing over and over again. Because that's ridiculous, right? Like, no. They told me that this is fine. Okay, well, there's some common sense there, too.
Mike: Okay, so we know, Greg, you came up with the initial idea. Um, was it from a, you woke from a dream some night, and you were just like, you know, when you were falling, or you were running, you couldn't get away, or was it just like, you screwed up a batch of beer, or something, you guys were brewing over there at Hatchet, or, what happened?
What was the catalyst for this?
Greg: It came from realizing I, I didn't have a great grasp on my own personal priorities. So I was running hatchet at the time, much as I could. I was working a full time job to try to get that where it could be a full focused effort. Just gotten out of the military a couple of years ago.
And, and timing wise, I just found out I'd lost a friend in Afghanistan who had stayed in. And so I was in this very dark place for me. That I was really struggling with, and through working through that and reflecting on it months later, I was able to really come up with this concept where it's like, hey, if I had something like this, maybe that would have helped me navigate that situation.
And maybe if there was something like this, it would have produced something that would have helped other people as well. And so that was. We'll say the catalyst for it initially, and so I reached out to a couple of buddies that I was in third group with, and we started this concept where we'd meet once a week, and we had kind of a checklist of things about different aspects of life, what our goals were, and how we were investing ourselves and our time into those different things, but it just, it wasn't structured enough to the point where it was getting documented, and it turned into something that was just unsustainable, and so this is another attempt at that same concept, I would say.
Okay. We need much more deliberate documented fashion in a way that actually brings more resources to the table.
Mike: Yeah, that's great because I think a lot of that we do in life just happens to be the way life happens, right? It's happenstance, I think is the right word for that. But when we bring intentionality into it, there's so much more we can do and so much more we can do with it.
And so thank you for bringing intentionality to this great concept. You've got great hair, great facial hair. Makes me wonder, is that what attracted Chuck to you in this thing? Because Chuck's got this thing for great hair. He's actually attracted to
Chuck: me. He came to me with this. So it was my still fabulous hair and no facial hair.
Mike: There'll be time for that.
Chuck: It's coming. It's coming. I'll be out of the military very soon. There's a beard in the future, I promise you. But real quick, one of the things, if I could go back in time, we're talking about all these failures that maybe we shouldn't undo. But if I could go back in time, the one thing I would do differently is I've always been into self development, but more intentional self development, like right now, I, I come here and I use the brief labs, which we're recording in the brief lab right now, use their quiet workspace next door for three to four hours, we can just get away and just intentional self development, whether it's school or reading or whatever.
I wish I would have batched that time when I was younger in life and just dedicated that time to some kind of self development instead of yeah. You know, we got, in the military, we got random acts of training, which may lead to a desired instinct. You're doing something cool, but it's not really according to a plan.
You also got random acts of life. I feel like I was probably doing random acts of learning or random acts of self development, and I wish that it would have been more structured. And I'm trying to get that in my son's head, you know, but of course, he's a teenager. He's like, ah, I know everything.
Mike: Yeah, I've known you for 11 years now and I'd have to say you don't give yourself enough credit with that statement you just made because I've known you to be somebody who's incredibly intentional.
You are, you're more intentional in the study of doctrine and, and uh, the warrior craft. Uh, soldierly crafts than most anybody I know. To listen to you talk to, well, when we were, when we were in Florida with the Philadelphia Phillies, right, in spring training, I marveled at the conversations you were having with the strength conditioning and physical therapy guys there for the Phillies and how you had them just totally captivated with your stories about how intentional you were with your recovery Getting blown up once and getting shot twice and all the surgeries you've had.
And so I think, um, give yourself a little more credit there, brother. You're a, you're an incredibly intentional person, but, uh, Always be better.
Chuck: And I wasn't always like that. When I go back to my younger, the younger Chuck, he probably wasn't. Wasn't quite as intentional. Yeah, or intentionally stupid. Maybe.
I don't know.
Mike: Okay. Um, all right. So how are we going to do this together? Are we going to do this individually, separately? What do we, how do we achieve the goals here? I mean, what, what exactly long term, big picture individually? What are the goals we're talking about and how we're going to get there, right?
What do you think?
Greg: I think that's the crux of the issue, because it's a very dynamic problem that is one of those things that we're on our own path. We don't have, I would say, all of the answers, but what I do think we have is a series of resources. And that's one of the things I actually liked about the military, and critique on myself, I left the military with a lot of resources and tools that I had learned and had practiced over the years.
That I didn't always follow after I left, whether it be physical fitness or professional development on your own, all of those things. And I think that that is one of those aspects of life that I needed to invest in more deliberately. And so when we think about it in terms of what we're trying to achieve here, community is at the.
The very foundation of this, and so we're looking to do that in a way that's approachable and the way that is relatively inexpensive so that people can actually, it can be a sustainable aspect of people's lives. So we're talking about more of an online presence, whether it's a portal and a subscription where you can join this community and get feedback and get direct access to all these differently resources and people.
We're also talking about those tools, whether that's a nutrition plan or a physical fitness plan that you can develop and tailor to your own needs classes as far as some of the people we were talking to in regard to how do you do nutrition? What is mental resiliency? How do you invest in yourself? It could be as simple as a reading list, but that's kind of what we're talking about, which is why we focus on the podcast, the website.
The blog that we're talking about, and then just trying to bring all that together in a concerted effort that makes sense.
Mike: So we're talking, this is a, use the word holistically, when we first started talking, this isn't just a one aspect, one element, one size fits all. What you're trying to do, if I understand you, is you're trying to cross domain, cross person, cross personality, find the tools that help people grow and achieve what it is they're trying to achieve.
So I wouldn't, I wouldn't say necessarily achieve, achieve excellence. Because it may not be excellence that you're trying to achieve, right? It may just be stability that you're trying to achieve. Fulfillment. Fulfillment. Right. I mean, right? That's, so that to me is another thing I think is brilliant about this program, this project you guys have put together.
Chuck: Because fulfillment's personal. And like, what is success? Well, success Like for this, right? We said, well, we're not defining success as trying to make a huge profit off this success for us is okay. We have a positive impact and we've invested X amount of money and in 3 to 5 years, we've helped 150 people.
That is success for us, right? Because that leads to the fulfillment of what we're trying to do. And we're better people for it. I mean, one of the things we did with our initial investment, one of his was building objective art a library of books that we didn't have. And yeah. Again, it's, it's, it's almost selfish, like Greg was saying, because we get to learn these things and we get to share them with other people, which is pretty cool, but we also, you know, we built a model, you know, you have your model with.
Yeah,
Mike: let's talk about the model.
Chuck: So. And we have domains and then we have certain virtues that we're trying to, trying to balance, but the domains, because it is holistic under, under Arate, we said, okay, well, as, as we were iterating, like, what does that actually mean? So we came up with a number of things.
We said, okay, we're going to focus on, we're going to bend these things, these topics, self Arate, understanding yourself, truly being self aware, knowing your personal values, your traits, good and bad. What virtues do you want to work on in life? Who do you want to be in the ideal world? How do you operate?
Like, what's your decision making? Are you, do you have more of a bias for action? Do you have more of a bias for sitting back and thinking? And being okay with yourself. And then figuring out what it is that you want to do and want to be. And then, and moving towards that with the honesty of who you actually are too, right?
Because we're all different and sometimes we we view ourselves a little bit differently because of a little elevated ego. We all do that. All of us in this room. Be there from time to time. We've gotta be self conscious of that. But going into like the spiritual element, which is not just We're not talking about really religion, that can be anything, maybe you're a Buddhist, you know, maybe Maybe, you know, you're a Muslim, maybe you're a Catholic.
Maybe you're an atheist, but something that drives you externally outside yourself Right? That really gives you that internal, intrinsic motivation to go be a better human being. Not just, I'm doing all this because I want to die on my deathbed with two million dollars and a bunch of trust fund stuff for my kids.
Like, no, no, like, really, what are you doing for society? What are you doing for something outside of yourself? The physical aspect, you know, mental orate, social, professional, financial, and an interesting one that we were reiterating on back and forth, what did we call this last one? We decided on fortitudinal orate, which is everything.
Yes, you get the mental and physical, but really like that internal belief and self efficacy where you can overcome any obstacle. You have the ability to where mentally and physically, you know that no matter what stands before you, you're going to use that as a springboard to success and being legendary.
Mike: Sounds a bit like grit. Thank you for coming up with a word other than grit.
Chuck: Yes. Overused. I mean, it's a good word. Yeah, yeah. But a little overused. Well, when
Mike: I, where I grew up, that was a pejorative for somebody who grew up in the country. And, uh, you know, but I, I love the concept. And all the stuff that's been written about it, but fortitudinal, all right, it sounds a little bit more,
Chuck: you know, I mean, there's a word I hadn't, I don't think ever came out of my mouth before we're doing some research and we're talking cause we did a lot of, we've done a lot of iteration on this and I don't even know how we found that word.
We're just looking at like, okay, what's, what really described what we're talking about? And I think it was actually Greg that was like, that's a really weird sounding word. And we're like, that's it. That's, that's what we're looking for.
Mike: Intestinal fortitude is a phrase that I grew up with as well. Like people talking about, like, you know.
Do you have the stomach for hard times? Can you get through any of these problems? Resiliency, grit, I mean, let's, we can unpackage that. But I think if, if I was counting properly, was that eight domains that you mentioned?
Chuck: Yeah, total. Under, underneath the, I think self will continue to be its own separate thing and not everything else falls under it.
But it would still make sense if everything fell under that too. So, but yeah, right now it's, it's eight.
Mike: What makes you guys feel like that you're the, the vessels to carry this message or the, the oracles, probably a better word, to present this message to people? What do you think? What, what is, what is about you and your experiences that make you fit to be the people to bring this to the communities that we're trying to serve here?
Greg: I think with some irony, I don't feel like we are qualified. And so I really hope that whatever we present, people look at it with a critical mind and come to their own conclusions. And so I feel as though we are somewhat suited for this role in that we're not coming or presenting any of this information as though that it's irrefutable or that it's the only answer that's going to work in a certain situation.
And so I think that that is is relatively healthy. I think that that might be something that can resonate with people. And I think that that's probably an important aspect of this. I don't expect anyone to just outright trust us. I want them to look into it and come to their own conclusions
Chuck: and what Greg's not saying here is that he does have a pretty significant background.
He was. West Point graduate as you were as well, right? Which obviously we know still
Mike: had the horses.
Chuck: Yeah, I always make fun of West Point like he's, you know, pompous officers riding white horses around because I didn't go to West Point obviously, but you know, West Point graduate also a chemical engineer and we sometime talking about chemical engineering.
Mike: I'm getting in now. That's why the beer.
Chuck: Yeah, right, right. Chemical engineer process. Also, he passed special force selection, became an army green beret, and that's how we met. He was captain in the company I grew up in, Charlie company, third battalion, third special forces group. But, you know, he got out. He didn't go right into brewing.
He did some other things. He was working for, you know, he was working at almost an executive level,
Greg: a steel company. Is that correct? I was the project manager for a. A company that specializes in direct reduced iron. So they do, uh, it's think of it like big iron manufacturing. So they refine iron ore so that it can be used in electric arc furnaces.
Chuck: Went back to school, got an MBA equivalent and then got out, decided to be an entrepreneur and start hatch a brewing company here locally. Was it four years ago? Five years now, five years. So there's a lot of failures in there, a lot of successes, but there's a lot to learn there too, right? I'm more ignorant of the business side of the house.
That's where I learned from Greg. Right.
Mike: You didn't learn any of that from me? Yeah, I did. Well, we'll
Chuck: get into that when, you know, when we start talking about why I'm qualified because I'm just going to say, like, look, you should believe everything I say.
Mike: Yeah.
Chuck: I learned from Mike Lerario and obviously that was the only education I need, right?
Mike: There's plenty of people out there, I'm sure, when they hear that, they'll go, this guy's going to fall flat on his face if he learned from Mike Lerario.
Chuck: Hey, I'm Chuck Ritter with Infective Arte with a quick note from a few of our sponsors whose support allow this show to thrive. The Havoc Journal is known as the voice of the veteran community.
It's an online journal that has content for everyone. It's my go to source for news, fitness, and leadership themed articles. They've even been nice enough to let me publish a few articles on their site. I generally start my day reading news articles on the Havoc Journal to get motivated for what's ahead.
Check them out at www. havocjournal. com Ayman Kafil, our amazing editor in chief at Objective Arte, is also an accomplished author. Not only has he published well over 100 articles, he recently wrote a book entitled The Resolute Path. The Resolute Path is a collection of all of Ayman's articles, poems, and stories over the years from his perspective as a survivor of multiple civil wars, an immigrant to the United States, his time in the military, and his current role as a law enforcement officer.
Iman has an incredible story and great insights into mental performance, training, and how to be a better human being. You can find The Resolute Path at Amazon. It's an amazing read, and I highly recommend it for anyone. And back to the show.
Mike: Okay, so real quick, for our listeners who don't know, I'm going to cover, um, Greg and Chuck's bio background.
So Greg, he's the owner and operator of Hatchet Brewing Company, and it's a craft brewery in Southern Pines, North Carolina, and I can tell you from personal experience, it's very delicious beer. He's also the co founder of Objective Arete. Which is a veteran owned self development company, and that's why we're here.
That's what we're talking about. Served in the United States Army, Infantry, and then Special Forces Officer. Bronze Star Medal, Ranger Tab, Special Forces Tab, Combat Infantryman's Badge. He's received his MBA from the, uh, Quinatic School of Business and Technology, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from my alma mater, the United States Military Academy.
Chuck Ritter, on the other hand, still on active duty, but soon to retire. A sergeant major in special forces. Started out in the infantry. He is, uh, still stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, formerly Fort Bragg to most of us. Uh, he will retire here soon, as I said. But he's co founder with Greg of Objective Arete.
He's, uh, previously served in the, uh, Pineland Underground podcast, which I hope some of our listeners out there are familiar with. You guys did a great job with that. Silver Star, Bronze Star with V, Army Commendation Medal for Valor, which I think I told you you didn't know this before. That's known as the Green Weenie by the Vietnam era.
Guys, three Purple Hearts, Triple E Valor and Courage Award. Most importantly, you have the National Defense Service Medal and Air Assault Badge. We cannot forget the National Defense Service Medal, or what we used to refer to as the Every Asshole in the Army Medal. People
Chuck: outside the military
Mike: probably won't get the humor in that, but it's pretty funny.
I think it's funny, right? Getting your BS in strategic studies from Norwich University, and one day, you're going to be where I was last night, Duke University, in the MBA program.
Chuck: Hopefully, yeah. I'm going to apply here pretty soon. I'll finish up my Norwich degree at the beginning of the year and apply for Duke.
You know what, I've heard
Mike: of this new program called Objective Arete, which might help you get to what you need to do to get into the Duke MBA program. Yeah, well hook me up with those guys. I'll do my best, but I was there for a basketball game last night with my grandson. So, okay. So Chuck, what makes you unique to work on this?
I mean, you've got, you both have impressive bios, there's no doubt about it, but what brings you to the table thinking that you're going to be able to help anybody beyond yourself?
Chuck: Yeah, so I have a very interesting background where I feel like I have been successful in the military, but I didn't start out that way, I just, I was a little hoodlum.
If you've ever, like, read any of the articles I've written, I talk about how I had a 70, 000 credit card fraud charge, I failed my first drug test for the military before, you know, I could even join the military, failed bowling class in college.
Mike: Wait, wait, wait, you failed bowling?
Chuck: Failed bowling class, yeah.
I got a D. Did you? Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. I, yeah, well I failed.
Mike: No, I'm just wanting to remind you that I am better than you Yeah, okay, that's good.
Chuck: Uh, when I joined the military, my PT score was so bad that I don't know how I passed basic training. You have to have a 180 to pass. I got a 94 out of 300 total points.
It's the whole, you can walk, but it's not recommended on the two mile run. I took that to heart and I, I did pull off like a 24 minute two mile, which is amazing. But somehow I ended up passing and because people. invested in me and mentored me when I got to my first unit, I ended up turning out pretty decent, right?
So I'm, I'm a big advocate for I just self development like we're doing here, but also that mentorship, that coaching, but that community of people too, and realizing that no matter where you're at in your life, how bad you think that you are, how much you think that you suck, anybody can change a faulty mindset.
Sometimes it takes a massive ego check to make that happen, but we can all become better. And even if we are doing relatively good, we can, we can be better. So. At this point in time, I have a lot of experience in the military, but three years ago, you, you helped me stand up a consulting company, Crispin Consulting, or I'm sorry, your, your company's Crispin Consulting.
I didn't help you stand that up, I set up Lycos Group with the sole intent of, let me learn more about what it's like outside, so when I get out of the military, I'm better prepared, you know, it took me all these jobs, I got to see some bad businesses, I got to see some, some good, some very good businesses in the inside and outs of these companies and learn that, man, the more I learned about it.
The business world, the more I know that I'm wholly ignorant on that type of stuff. I mean, I was having some conversations yesterday with some career marketers, and even after those, I was like, man, I'm still just, I understand it, but still, wow, there's so much more to learn.
Mike: And again, I would say, because I was there watching you go through this as part of this journey, and some of the things you said too, Greg, I think that, you know, it's easy to take for granted, you know, our lessons, which came out of the military, And we take them into a different environment, the business world, uh, it's easy to forget or to take for granted the power of some of those lessons.
The key, I think, is being able to say, okay, I know these things, how do they apply in this world? And so it's always taking yourself to where you need to be, or in our case, taking our clients to where they want to be, not trying to drag them back to where I used to be. Right? You know, if I was a former action guy, or if I was, you know, doing something cool in the military.
It might be interesting for my clients to do burpees or to hear war stories, but it doesn't get them any further or any closer to where they need to be. Something as simple as the after action review. Man, I have helped so many companies, I think, just by teaching them how to do after action reviews, not only when they fail, but when they succeed.
And I think to, to me, like, pro uh, Objective Erratae is kind of like a after action review in progress. It's like that cycle, the performance cycle. You gotta plan, prepare, execute, and learn. And you guys are helping people throughout that whole cycle, and you're helping them across eight domains. Uh, I'm really excited about this.
I, I'm, I'm, I'm just feel like I'm hugely fortunate to know both of you and, uh, to be able to host this podcast.
Chuck: Yeah. And we know one size doesn't fit all too, so just something that worked for us might not work for everybody, but I think we, in that community we're talking about, we also want it to be okay to disagree with each other too.
Like, Hey, let's, let's have conflicting points of views and let's, let's discuss those and hash those out and. And be able to discuss an idea without accepting it, right? Like, okay, well, this seems like something I don't agree with. But let's, let's take, let's put our biases to the side. Let's have a discussion.
Maybe you can take something from that. Whatever it is, right? I always think that that's cool. I always learn a lot when I talk to somebody that I know I'm going to disagree with. I'm like, you know what? I still disagree with some of this. But some of that stuff is actually something I need to think about.
Mike: Yeah. So, Greg, let me ask you, how would you address someone who comes to you skeptical of this concept or skeptical of a couple of military guys? Uh, helping them out with whatever their problems are, whatever their issues are.
Greg: I mean, I think that, that I would welcome that skepticism 'cause I feel like they're gonna take a much more critical approach.
And just like Chuck said, it takes that, that feedback of from perspectives, you don't have to really refine and understand your own. Opinions, your own conclusions, and so I would absolutely welcome those types of personalities to this endeavor, this journey, and I think that in the same spirit, even if they may not agree with what we're saying, or they may not agree with our background or respected my or even find anything that truly resonates with them.
I think that it's one of those different perspectives that could help them on their own journey, which is still our intent. Like, I don't care if you agree with us or disagree with us. If you feel like you're aligned with us, even in our own values, if there's something we can do to support you and other people on their own life's journey, that's exactly what we're trying to do here.
That's the fulfillment. I think that we get out of this
Chuck: and we're not trying to sell the secret to success, where there's there's no lack of people online that that will charge you money to sell you the secret to success. Like, you know, in a week or two, you're probably not going to learn what's going to make you better in life.
It's going to take a lot of hard work. And we know that, yes, since we're not selling that, you know, we're, we're not going to, we're not going to get rich off this thing because this is what people want. We're not going to offer that, but because it's authentic and it's valid, and it's just joining us on our own journey too, I think that that's going to resonate and it will make an impact with us and with other people.
And we're going to learn just as many, much from other people. I mean, recently I was working with the minor league team from the Phillies and I started, I was like, Hey, look, I could sit on that side and learn just as much, if not more from you than, you know, whatever. But I've been asked to come here and, and speak.
So I would like to do that. And we did like when I was done with my piece, I sat there and learned a ton and it was pretty awesome.
Mike: So you're saying if there's no magical elixir, what the hell are in all those crates outside here marked Greg and Chuck's magical elixir?
Chuck: Oh, yeah, you don't want to, that's, that's not supposed to release that yet.
Yeah. That's a hatchet brewing dance card at the same time. Yeah. That's, it's going to be a competition. Like you sign up for the newsletter and if you drink that, you can skip all of this.
Mike: Wow. Okay. More to come. More to follow. Thank you all for joining us today for the very first episode of the Objective Arete podcast.
I'm your host, Mike Lerario. Our guest today, Greg Walker, Chuck Ritter, they are the founders of Objective Erratae. And as we move along together on this journey, our intention is that you'll learn something, you'll meet people, you'll examine your life in a way perhaps That you haven't before and with all of that, you'll get to a place you really want to be a better human, a more productive human, higher understanding of yourself and the people around you.
And that's really what this is all about. So if you don't mind, share and like this podcast, tell all your friends about it and we'll be back next episode where our guest is this incredible expert. I don't want to give too much away here, but his name is Mike Lerario. I know a little bit about the guy because I've known him all my life.
And we've got a great list of guests lined up to help you on your journey as you achieve Arte.