Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy sixers podcast network
Speaker 1: Search seventy sixers podcast wherever you get your pods, clapping
Speaker 1: and plenty of cheering noises you'd find perhaps in a
Speaker 1: place like the locker room of an NBA arena, but
Speaker 1: not these days, and not for over a month. Instead,
Speaker 1: these are the sounds that greeted a couple dozen healthcare
Speaker 1: workers from the Cleveland Clinic when they arrived at a
Speaker 1: New York Presbyterian Hospital location last week. New York City,
Speaker 1: of course, is the eye of COVID nineteen storm, and
Speaker 1: earlier this month, as the forecast grew more and more
Speaker 1: grim and a surgeon cases threatened to slam America's largest
Speaker 1: metropolitan area, the faculty and residence of New York Presby's
Speaker 1: Emergency Medicine Residency program took part in what else a
Speaker 1: zoom call. So, without any more ado, this is Captain
Speaker 1: Robert Nusson. Thanks. I appreciate your time. I appreciate everybody
Speaker 1: being here, and it's truly an honor to me. What
Speaker 1: a time of service for you guys, So thank you.
Speaker 1: You'd only have to be paying a little bit of
Speaker 1: attention to the news to begin to comprehend the kind
Speaker 1: of massive pressure confronting hospital emergency impersonnel these days, a grueling, relentless,
Speaker 1: exhausted gut punch packed with equal parts duty, defeat, and fear.
Speaker 1: Grappling with these emotions was the focus of Rob Nuson's
Speaker 1: talk with the New York Presbyterian staff. I hope my
Speaker 1: lessons from seal training and war can help you in
Speaker 1: this moment. For three decades, Rob Newson served and protected
Speaker 1: this country on the front line of battles and behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. His skills in crisis management strategy ultimately took
Speaker 1: him as far as the White House until he decided
Speaker 1: to return to civilian life within the past year. In
Speaker 1: other words, he has the exact type of perspective that
Speaker 1: any person, business, or government would benefit from in the
Speaker 1: midst of a volable global pandemic. If you're an ear
Speaker 1: resident or a doc, you're a little bit left to
Speaker 1: center like me. I've spent thirty years in eighty seal,
Speaker 1: almost three years of my life overseas in the fight.
Speaker 1: I have feared for my life, and I've worried over
Speaker 1: my family back home. I know what you were feeling.
Speaker 1: I've been where you are. I want to do this.
Speaker 1: I was made to do this, but I'd rather not
Speaker 1: die doing it. So you see we have a lot
Speaker 1: in common. How did Rob Newson, two months before the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen outbreak hit the United States wind up with
Speaker 1: the seventy six Ers. I'm Brian Seltzer, and on this
Speaker 1: episode of the broadcast, I talked with Newson about his
Speaker 1: path and his new role as the Sixers vice president
Speaker 1: of Strategy and Vision. Hey, out there, seventy six Ers
Speaker 1: pod people, hope you and all your peeps are staying safe,
Speaker 1: smart and healthy. Captain Rob Newson's resume, in short, is
Speaker 1: totally ridiculous. Here are some of the highlights from his
Speaker 1: bio on the website of the Honor Foundation. Thirty years
Speaker 1: as a Navy seal, launched six new military organizations from scratch,
Speaker 1: spent fourteen years as a strategist and was deployed to
Speaker 1: fourteen different countries on five continents, led counter terrorism missions,
Speaker 1: and was the director of the White House Military Office
Speaker 1: and all he was responsible with the White House was
Speaker 1: overseeing these things called Air Force one, Marine one, and
Speaker 1: Camp David. Rob Newson also decorated with the Bronze Star
Speaker 1: for acts of heroism, acts of merit, or meritorious service
Speaker 1: in a combat zone. In review, you could say that
Speaker 1: Rob is one accomplished dude. How the heck did Rob
Speaker 1: Newson end up with a job in professional basketball? And
Speaker 1: how the heck with the seventy six or so fortuitous
Speaker 1: to bring them on board just as a global crisis
Speaker 1: was beginning to emerge, Let's find out, Rob, before I
Speaker 1: brought you on. I just finished reading through some of
Speaker 1: the highlights of your career track record. I mean, I
Speaker 1: gotta say, it seems like such a compelling and fascinating
Speaker 1: and fulfilling journey. How would you describe kind of where
Speaker 1: life has brought you up to this point. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: you know, it was an honor and a privilege to
Speaker 1: serve as a Navy seal for almost thirty years and
Speaker 1: then go into being a government senior executive for a
Speaker 1: year working in the White House on the military side.
Speaker 1: So it's it's been such a treat to you know,
Speaker 1: where the nation's cloth and serve the nation. And really
Speaker 1: I'm grateful not on only for that experience, but for
Speaker 1: the skill set I think we've developed in the seal community,
Speaker 1: and especially in my background, which is really about team's
Speaker 1: leadership and culture, and so that that was the foundation
Speaker 1: that I think brought me to the seventy six ers.
Speaker 1: I certainly want to get into unpacking how your professional
Speaker 1: and personal experiences have shaped the skill set that you
Speaker 1: can now bring to the seventy six ers, But I'm
Speaker 1: sure a lot of fans would love to know for
Speaker 1: as much as you're able to bring us up to speed,
Speaker 1: just on you know, how the people in the front
Speaker 1: office are doing, how you guys are managing communicating these
Speaker 1: days and staying on top of obviously overseeing what needs
Speaker 1: to be overseen for a professional basketball team, but just
Speaker 1: the day to day lives of people going through something
Speaker 1: like this. Yeah it you know, right after I think
Speaker 1: it was March eleventh when kind of the world blew
Speaker 1: upright the season went into hiatus, and it was a
Speaker 1: NonStop kind of crisis management for the first week or so, Um,
Speaker 1: what are we going to do from taking care of
Speaker 1: the people's perspective who needed to be in self quarantine,
Speaker 1: what was going to happen with work and coordination? And
Speaker 1: so that turned into kind of marathon zoom sessions with
Speaker 1: different executives and different meetings, and um, that lasted for
Speaker 1: two or three weeks and it's settled down now to
Speaker 1: a normal work rhythm. But it's it's and it's all virtual, so,
Speaker 1: you know, executives pulled together and then we have meetings
Speaker 1: with our folks throughout the week on Zoom and really
Speaker 1: it's been fascinating to see the you know, the two
Speaker 1: main themes from the organization have been how are we
Speaker 1: getting better? And are we ready? And so it's all
Speaker 1: been about taking this time to improve um processes and
Speaker 1: product on the organizations side, and then supporting the players
Speaker 1: so they can continue to stay in shape and prepare
Speaker 1: and are we all going to be ready when whenever
Speaker 1: the season starts up again. In some ways, it's so
Speaker 1: fascinating because at least on our side, speaking to what's
Speaker 1: been going on on the business side, it's like this
Speaker 1: opportunity certainly would never want to see it come at
Speaker 1: the expense of the health and well being of people
Speaker 1: around the world, but it has lifted the curtain back
Speaker 1: on how things are done, what's the most efficient way
Speaker 1: to do things? How can we maximize every opportunity to
Speaker 1: get the best possible output at whatever it is we're doing,
Speaker 1: whether it's creating a piece of content or trying to
Speaker 1: provide the best infrastructure possible for the most talented basketball
Speaker 1: players in the planet. Yeah, this, you're right. We wouldn't
Speaker 1: wish this on anybody, but you know, you find you
Speaker 1: find your opportunities in crisis. And one of the opportunities
Speaker 1: I think the organization is really grasp onto is is
Speaker 1: how do we make improvements? And we have we have
Speaker 1: this time where we're not constantly traveling for games or
Speaker 1: preparing for the next game, and we've got time to
Speaker 1: sit back and really be positively critical of how can
Speaker 1: we get better? And I really enjoyed that aspect as
Speaker 1: well as just watching leaders lead. They're taking care of
Speaker 1: their people, they're engaging, they're trying to give a sense
Speaker 1: of both purpose and safety in a time of uncertainty.
Speaker 1: So it's that's been really enjoyable too. You lude to
Speaker 1: some of the stops you've made of the course of
Speaker 1: your career with your work with the Navy, Seals, Department
Speaker 1: of Defense, fourteen countries in the White House, and that
Speaker 1: phrase that you touched upon, crisis management, diving into that
Speaker 1: immediately when the pandemic really erupted in the second week
Speaker 1: of March. What have you learned throughout your life about
Speaker 1: what's essential to managing a crisis. Yeah, I think there
Speaker 1: are several aspects that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Speaker 1: In crisis. Is not to be consumed by just the
Speaker 1: chaos of it all right, I mean, the noise can
Speaker 1: get so loud, the confusion can be overwhelming, and part
Speaker 1: of it is a two step process. One you have
Speaker 1: to focus on the thing that's right in front of
Speaker 1: you and really not get distracted by anything else that
Speaker 1: you know, your task list can build and build and build,
Speaker 1: and if you step back and look at it, it
Speaker 1: can seem overwhelming. It's just eating the elephant one bite
Speaker 1: of the time to stay in the moment and take
Speaker 1: care of what you need to take care of. And
Speaker 1: then the second piece of that is also lifting high
Speaker 1: enough that you're not seeing the madness and you know,
Speaker 1: just the crushing activity that you have to take care of,
Speaker 1: and you're looking over over the next ridge line and saying, okay,
Speaker 1: how do I as I'm taking care of the moment
Speaker 1: and piece by piece moving forward where are we headed?
Speaker 1: And again, the organization, I really enjoyed watching them tackle
Speaker 1: both the immediacy of activity and thinking about what chart,
Speaker 1: what course they're charting to get to the new normal,
Speaker 1: because it's not going to We're not going to go
Speaker 1: back to what we used to know. I think it's
Speaker 1: going to be something else, and so that takes some
Speaker 1: planning and vision to get there. Did you find yourself
Speaker 1: having to walk a line or figuring out well, here,
Speaker 1: I am. I would want to say at that point
Speaker 1: in time, back in March, what about two months on
Speaker 1: the job and trying to get a feel for brand
Speaker 1: new people that you're working with while also trying to
Speaker 1: lean on experience that I mean, listen, this is something
Speaker 1: I was thinking about before doing this interview. Any person, company, organization,
Speaker 1: country like could probably use someone Um with your experience
Speaker 1: and perspective, let alone a professional basketball team. So how
Speaker 1: did you try and pick and choose your spots or
Speaker 1: get involved in some of these conversations. It was really funny,
Speaker 1: Um we were you know, we're kind of feeling our
Speaker 1: way through that and Elton. Elton brought me on because
Speaker 1: he cared about teams, leadership and culture and thought it
Speaker 1: was a great fit. But as you go into new organization,
Speaker 1: a huge part of that is learning and you know,
Speaker 1: not just because you understand leadership. Applying it an entirely
Speaker 1: new arena is absolutely humbling and daunting, and so there's
Speaker 1: there's an aspect of learning that for me in in
Speaker 1: professional basketball, you know, is kind to go on forever
Speaker 1: that it's amazing what what people are doing and how
Speaker 1: much knowledge is out there. Really, the crisis opened up
Speaker 1: that that window that I think I could jump in
Speaker 1: a lot faster than I would have and kind of
Speaker 1: thrown into the middle of working with our coronavirus task
Speaker 1: Force and kind of pulling people together in a time
Speaker 1: of uncertainty. That kind of I think accelerated my introduction
Speaker 1: to the organization ROB before the coronavirus became a global pandemic.
Speaker 1: What was your position supposed to entail with the seventy
Speaker 1: six ers. It was really there's two parts of it.
Speaker 1: My title is vice president of Strategy and Vision, and
Speaker 1: so in that part, it's it's related to leadership, innovation, culture,
Speaker 1: and providing structure around that. So I'm responsible for a
Speaker 1: culture initiative we're calling Championship DNA, but it's it's really
Speaker 1: about being intentful about building the right kind of culture
Speaker 1: that will support winning multiple championships UM. The other piece
Speaker 1: is integrating the best ball operations innovation efforts. M seventy
Speaker 1: six ers is known as an innovative organization from so
Speaker 1: many aspects, but it's it's providing structure and attempting to
Speaker 1: maximize innovations across the organization. And then the third piece
Speaker 1: is about leadership development and decision making and how I
Speaker 1: can support the senior leaders in the organizations as they
Speaker 1: lead and they're doing a great job of that. And
Speaker 1: then that's so that's one side that really fits under
Speaker 1: that that strategy and vision bucket. And then the other
Speaker 1: side is leading the Athlete Care department, which consists of
Speaker 1: medical and performance UM. Great great leadership there with Scott
Speaker 1: Epsley and Lorna Torres, and I'm I'm learning from them
Speaker 1: on what their business is about and just providing a
Speaker 1: little bit of structure and organizational leadership on top of
Speaker 1: that so that they can focus downward on all the
Speaker 1: great stuff they're doing. I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: an appropriate type question to ask, but was you thinking
Speaker 1: immediately when you could see perhaps on the horizon that
Speaker 1: this outbreak was making Twitter United States? Were you saying, man,
Speaker 1: I just left thirty years of service, putting my life
Speaker 1: in danger. I'm looking forward to this new civilian lifestyle
Speaker 1: professional basketball team, and I just can't escape this whole
Speaker 1: crisis thing like it keeps following me. Or on the
Speaker 1: other side, were you kind of energized by it in
Speaker 1: some way? Yeah, it was both. It's a great observation
Speaker 1: on your part because it was. It was truly both.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought I'd left that behind, whether it
Speaker 1: was kind of terrorism or kind of managing daily christ
Speaker 1: in DD and really excited for some new and then
Speaker 1: the crisis hits. But you know, there's muscle memory and
Speaker 1: the fire that that you've built up over managing a
Speaker 1: career that and so it just clicks in. It was
Speaker 1: so familiar and so natural to be in that spot.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, I'll be happy to return back
Speaker 1: to a different world of professional sports and me learning
Speaker 1: at the at the knee of people who really know
Speaker 1: the business. Amen to that. Why don't we get into
Speaker 1: your path? How did you end up on and this
Speaker 1: is probably something you could talk about for a long
Speaker 1: period of time, but how did you end up getting
Speaker 1: involved with serving the country? I um, I was fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to receive a Naval ROTC scholarship the University of Kansas,
Speaker 1: and really my motivation was I would pay for college,
Speaker 1: and you know, I didn't want to to ask my
Speaker 1: parents to help out too much. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: the nation stepped forward and said, sure, we'll pay for
Speaker 1: your college and it you know, in return, you uh,
Speaker 1: you spend four years in the military. And so that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of the path I started. And then as
Speaker 1: I looked at what was available in the Navy, I
Speaker 1: was a little bit concerned because nothing would really lit
Speaker 1: my fire. And then I discovered the Navy seal community
Speaker 1: and was fortunate enough to get selected and go to
Speaker 1: seal training and get through and you know that that
Speaker 1: just started one great assignment after another for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1: As you retrace your steps, do you always feel like
Speaker 1: you've had a sense of obligation service due to the
Speaker 1: country those types of things. No, you know, as I said,
Speaker 1: it started out as I wanted to pay for college,
Speaker 1: and so those first four to seven years I kind
Speaker 1: of expected, Okay, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna do my
Speaker 1: part and then I'll see what else is available. And
Speaker 1: I think most guys going into the military kind of
Speaker 1: kind of think that way. I don't think too many
Speaker 1: people come in thinking I'm going to do twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty years of service, um. But somewhere around the seven
Speaker 1: to eleven year point, UM, you know, it struck me
Speaker 1: that um, I was called to serve and that was
Speaker 1: incredibly important to me. And the type of service, you know,
Speaker 1: changes from being in a in a frontline operational unit
Speaker 1: to to being a kind of an operations guy that
Speaker 1: helps those guys and then moving up the leadership chain.
Speaker 1: But it was it was always about both serving the
Speaker 1: nation and as as importantly serving those around you to
Speaker 1: help the team move forward. Well if one with Rob
Speaker 1: Newson in just a moment, but we all know that
Speaker 1: life these days is anything but normal or conventional. We
Speaker 1: see so many businesses, companies and services out there trying
Speaker 1: to do just a little bit more to make your
Speaker 1: life a little bit easier. At Wendy's, they've got you
Speaker 1: for breakfast, lunch, at dinner, and everything in between. Whether
Speaker 1: it's starting your day with their new delicious breakfast menu
Speaker 1: or ending it with a cool frosty Wendy's are open
Speaker 1: to serve you. Swing by the drive through or get
Speaker 1: your go to meal delivered today. Back to my chat
Speaker 1: with Rob Newson, I saw the link to a video
Speaker 1: conference you did back on April the first, or sometime
Speaker 1: at the beginning of April, end of March with faculty
Speaker 1: at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Cornell, obviously right at
Speaker 1: the epicenter of our nation's coronavirus outbreak. And I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna get this wrong. I thought I wrote it down
Speaker 1: the exact wording, but I didn't. But at some point
Speaker 1: during your introduction, you said, you know, whether it's being
Speaker 1: a Navy seal or being an ear doc on the
Speaker 1: front line of something like trying to contain COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of cow boy that we have
Speaker 1: in ourselves, where you're drawn and you feel this calling
Speaker 1: to selfless acts that you're being asked to you to serve,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, you don't want to die
Speaker 1: doing it. And I thought that was a really interesting
Speaker 1: way to put into context what people who are working
Speaker 1: their way through this crisis right now have in relation
Speaker 1: to military service women and men. Yeah, I had it
Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to be asked to talk to the
Speaker 1: EUR residents and faculty and the reason why they wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to somebody like me was they're thrown into
Speaker 1: the breach, and it was it was a little bit
Speaker 1: new to be both at not only to save lives,
Speaker 1: to put your life at risk as well. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this. Of course it applies to
Speaker 1: our amazing health workers across the nation, but I think
Speaker 1: it applies to almost all of us where we've we're
Speaker 1: faced with a broader per to protect ourselves and to
Speaker 1: protect others, right, and so we're doing things that that
Speaker 1: you'd rather not do. You know, people don't wear a
Speaker 1: mask on their face to protect themselves. That's to protect others.
Speaker 1: And it's heartening to see people UM kind of embrace
Speaker 1: this broader service and responsibility to to the rest of
Speaker 1: the world to to try to you know, defeat this
Speaker 1: this virus in a in a timely and efficient way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was interesting to and again, my better
Speaker 1: half's ear docs, so we talk a lot about the
Speaker 1: similarities between UM seals and ear docs. We are we
Speaker 1: are a bit of cowboy and buccaneer in us that uh,
Speaker 1: that are drawn to UM the close end fight and
Speaker 1: you know, running to the sound of the guns or
Speaker 1: the accident for as many details as you're able to offer,
Speaker 1: Would you mind giving an overview of the tours and
Speaker 1: perhaps some of the missions that you were part of
Speaker 1: where you had to serve, what you might have been
Speaker 1: involved with, for again as much as you're able to share. Yeah. So, UM,
Speaker 1: my early career is kind of focused on the Pacific.
Speaker 1: UM mostly a West Coast Navy Seals, so deploying to
Speaker 1: Guam and the Philippines and then UM after nine to eleven,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of deployments. I went to to
Speaker 1: Bosnia and then Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan almost two years and
Speaker 1: Yem and all of that was kind of focused on
Speaker 1: counter terrorism and hunting terrorists. A lot of my background
Speaker 1: is in strategy and UM designing kind of the hunt.
Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough to be UM to help start
Speaker 1: one of our our premier seal organizations that is the
Speaker 1: targeting engine for the Seals, and so we put all
Speaker 1: our intelligence capabilities together to help UM fine and point
Speaker 1: the Seals in the right direction for their missions. And
Speaker 1: so that that was unique and special and I think
Speaker 1: helped me throughout my career because it was really about
Speaker 1: working with subject matter experts where I'm not the expert
Speaker 1: in any of these areas, but it's how do I
Speaker 1: help lead and pull them together? And that's been very
Speaker 1: useful as I've worked with athlete care and amazing people
Speaker 1: with medical and performance that are the experts, and I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to provide communication and leadership so that they
Speaker 1: are better able to do their great work on a
Speaker 1: way smaller and certainly far less significant scale. I felt
Speaker 1: that when I first started traveling in my job with
Speaker 1: the seventy six ers. You know, you get to go
Speaker 1: to twenty seven, if I'm not mistaken, other cities in
Speaker 1: the country, and you just get a better feel for
Speaker 1: what's out there, and how did your tours and seeing
Speaker 1: the world better inform the way you view things and
Speaker 1: look at things? Um well, certainly I think you know,
Speaker 1: going into the developing world a lot you you you
Speaker 1: have an appreciation for how wonderful America has it, and
Speaker 1: the United States is truly blessed in so many levels.
Speaker 1: So you get to see a level of um suffering
Speaker 1: in humanity that that is daunting at times, but you
Speaker 1: also get to see a great human spirit in people
Speaker 1: who are fighting and overcoming those circumstances and it. You know,
Speaker 1: we've worked with partners around the world, and so some
Speaker 1: things transcend cultures and ethnicity and it's just about you know,
Speaker 1: trying trying to do the right thing and work with
Speaker 1: a group of people to to move things forward. So
Speaker 1: it you know, teamwork and um leadership I think kind
Speaker 1: of transcend. Thats another lesson that that around the world
Speaker 1: people want a place to belong that they want to
Speaker 1: they want to be able to take ownership and lead
Speaker 1: and follow as as best they can. One of the
Speaker 1: positions that you previously held was the director of the
Speaker 1: White House Military Office. I mean, listen, I'm posing for
Speaker 1: saying is I'm trying to think of how to articulately
Speaker 1: the question. I mean this is it's it's the White House.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's almost like a part of someone's imagination
Speaker 1: at times. There's this, uh certainly just the stature of it, um,
Speaker 1: the importance of it that you think of growing up
Speaker 1: as a kid. And then you know, if you visit Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. You walk past and like your mind kind
Speaker 1: at least for me, runs wild about the the importance
Speaker 1: of that institution. What was it like for you being
Speaker 1: such a career military service person to be presented with
Speaker 1: the chance to serve in the White House. Well, there's
Speaker 1: so there are several aspects of that. One is just
Speaker 1: the gravitas of the building, you know, what an honor.
Speaker 1: And every day I walked around there, I try to
Speaker 1: remind myself that, you know, not too many people get
Speaker 1: to be on the inside walking around the White House,
Speaker 1: and so you stopped to take it all in, every
Speaker 1: every step I took. It's amazing place. You know, um,
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, you know, a Roosevelt, all
Speaker 1: of them walking around, Franklin Roosevelt. You know, they were
Speaker 1: standing right here. So that's an amazing piece. And then
Speaker 1: working in the White House Military Office, it was it
Speaker 1: was an absolute amazing organization of top notch professionals. You know,
Speaker 1: these are people at the at the absolute height of
Speaker 1: their profession, whether it's the Air Force pilots that are
Speaker 1: flying Air Force, one of the Marine Corps pilots, the
Speaker 1: Army Transportation Unit, um, the communications guys who are just phenomenal,
Speaker 1: and really the White House Medical Unit and the Navy
Speaker 1: mess were phenomenal as well. And that was kind of
Speaker 1: my introduction to executive Medicine, which I'd offer that that's
Speaker 1: kind of what the seventy six ers medical Department is doing,
Speaker 1: as well as providing executive medicine to the players, And
Speaker 1: so it was it was a nice way to see
Speaker 1: what tremendous service and professionalism is all about. Is that
Speaker 1: ever something that you have an idea that's coming, you know,
Speaker 1: when you think about what you're doing, how you're advancing
Speaker 1: in your career. Does it ever? Do people have a
Speaker 1: sense Maybe it's a different case by case. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, at some point I might get a
Speaker 1: call from sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, well, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I I'm a strategist, you know, by training and bent
Speaker 1: and so I had my eye on the National Security
Speaker 1: Council and eventually hoping getting to work there's a military
Speaker 1: guy and that didn't work out, and it was kind
Speaker 1: of a surprising call as I was retiring to go
Speaker 1: and be a civilian in the White House Military Office.
Speaker 1: I you know, there's just like the seventy six ers,
Speaker 1: there are opportunities that I drove of that just kind
Speaker 1: of happened, and you got to jump at them. I
Speaker 1: think that leads to a nice segue, I've taken up
Speaker 1: a lot of your time already. But the opportunity with
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers, how did that come about? Well, so
Speaker 1: there's a great organization called the Honor Foundation, and it
Speaker 1: is a it's a transition academy for seals and other
Speaker 1: special operations personnel absolutely tailored to, you know, elite military
Speaker 1: guys that are getting out of the Navy and or
Speaker 1: the military. And these guys have spent their entire career,
Speaker 1: you know, in an elite force. Being the best that
Speaker 1: they can be is both daunting and scary, and it's
Speaker 1: an unknown aspect to transition into civilian life. And so
Speaker 1: the Honor of Foundation was designed to be that bridge.
Speaker 1: And so I was in in the White House and
Speaker 1: I took a leave of absence because I had a
Speaker 1: PhD that that I had too long delayed getting done,
Speaker 1: and I took a leave of absence to finish that up.
Speaker 1: I let the Honor Foundation know that I was interested,
Speaker 1: and the seventy six ers had somehow become affiliated and
Speaker 1: new about the Honor Foundation, and so they reached out
Speaker 1: the Honor Foundation and we got connected that way, and
Speaker 1: then it was just an opportunity I couldn't couldn't refuse.
Speaker 1: Was there something that clicked you felt with you and
Speaker 1: Elton when you guys first started talking. Yeah, immediately, you know,
Speaker 1: we our conversation revolved around culture and what culture was
Speaker 1: and how you build how you intentionally build culture. It
Speaker 1: was about leadership and kind of Elton's philosophy and the
Speaker 1: need for um, a little bit of structure around all
Speaker 1: those things, you know, not allowing them to happen without thought.
Speaker 1: And so we clicked around those conversations, and you know,
Speaker 1: we Elton's just a fascinating guy to get to get
Speaker 1: to meet and engage with, so he and Alex Rucker
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Vice presidence. I had a
Speaker 1: ton of interviews with those guys and came away thinking,
Speaker 1: this is a great organization. It's a great team of
Speaker 1: people who care about each other. And so that's what
Speaker 1: really drew me to the organization. I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back when with time to the call that you had
Speaker 1: with the faculty at New York Presbyterian. And one thing
Speaker 1: that stood out was you kept referring to and you
Speaker 1: can correct me if I'm wrong with me, it seemed
Speaker 1: like you kept referring to what they were up against
Speaker 1: trying to help contain and mitigate the threat of COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen as quote unquote the fight. And I feel like
Speaker 1: that's a concept that could apply to perhaps any part
Speaker 1: of anyone's life. It could be on the front lines
Speaker 1: in the Middle East, it could be in an emergency room.
Speaker 1: It could be for a professional basketball team trying to
Speaker 1: ultimately fulfill its goal of bringing a title back to
Speaker 1: the city of Philadelphia or something like that. As that
Speaker 1: notion of trying to persevere through the fight, that ideal
Speaker 1: is that something you feel has been consistent as part
Speaker 1: of your outlook, something that's been alluring to you throughout
Speaker 1: your life and career. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's really They say that that seals aren't made, they're
Speaker 1: kind of uncovered, but the you know, the crucible of
Speaker 1: seal training is really about never quitting and and leaning
Speaker 1: into the fight. And I tell you, everybody in the
Speaker 1: nation today is facing some kind of fight, right or
Speaker 1: there's massive unemployment, there's unknowns around every corner, health fights,
Speaker 1: and so it I think it applies to a lot
Speaker 1: of people on how you get through it, how you
Speaker 1: maintain an attitude that isn't that that is positive and
Speaker 1: focused on the right things instead of the negative aspect
Speaker 1: of what you're dealing with. Captain Rob Newson, amazing story,
Speaker 1: outstanding stuff, a privilege to be able to speak with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much and terrific to have you now
Speaker 1: part of the seventy six as family. Thanks Brian. I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled to be here and can't wait to get back
Speaker 1: on the court again. Rob Newson, the new vice president
Speaker 1: of Vision and Strategy for the seventy six Ers, just
Speaker 1: an awesome, awesome story of service and now he of
Speaker 1: course is providing the Sixers with invaluable and timely perspective
Speaker 1: and leadership. That'll do it for this episode of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: Hope you found it insightful. Keep checking our seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: podcast network feed for fresh content throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the week. The seventy Sixers GC podcast crew of head
Speaker 1: coach Jeff Terrell and Alexanderste's Bernstein have got arguably the
Speaker 1: best NBA two K League player on the planet on
Speaker 1: their latest episode of the podcast. That would be radiant.
Speaker 1: You don't want to miss that. Plus we have new
Speaker 1: episodes of Coach Check the official podcast of the seventy
Speaker 1: sixers gee League affiliate, the Delaware Bluecoats, and Tom's Talks.
Speaker 1: Our new pod with the Man, the one on only
Speaker 1: radio voice the seventy six ers, Tom McGinnis, out later
Speaker 1: this week, So again check the feed. Brian Seltzer saying
Speaker 1: so long for now. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay
Speaker 1: smart out there. Talk to you next time. See it.