168: John Foley: Former Blue Angel Pilot, Keynote Speaker, High Performance Expert, Glad To Be Here Mindset, and Founder of John Foley Inc. talks about what it took for him to earn his place among the Blue Angels and flying a jet in the movie Top Gun, as well as what Glad To be Here is all about.
John Foley
How exactly did guest John Foley become a Blue Angel and what was his motivation? “Blue Angels are Navy fighter pilots. So, we come from the instructor ranks usually. Bottomline is, we fly jets off aircraft carriers. That was always my dream as a little boy. I remember, Mark, 12-years-old, my dad took me to an air show. Now I love my dad. He was my hero, right? He takes me to this air show. He was an army officer and an engineer. So I thought that is what I’m going to be in life. He takes me to this air show. I will never forget this day. I’m looking up in the sky, and I see these six magnificent blue jets. You know how you just feel it? You don’t just see them, you can feel it?”
On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with John Foley, Former Blue Angel Pilot, Keynote Speaker, High Performance Expert, Glad To Be Here Mindset, and Founder of John Foley Inc.,who talks about the path to becoming a Blue Angel and the qualifications. “First thing is. You’ve got to go to college, right, and there are different routes, ok? Because you need to become an officer and then get a pilot’s slot. There are a couple ways to do that. For me, I went to Naval Academy.”
What You Will Learn:
What is the second step that got John Foley to Blue Angel status? “You go into flight training and you’ve got to do as well as you can and typically you are not sure which airplane you are going to fly. Blue Angels need to fly fighters or tactical aircrafts. You’ve got to get your butt in a tactical aircraft, an F-18, something like that. That is what I did. I actually flew a 7s off the carrier Enterprise. I flew in the movie Top Gun. Did you ever see the movie Top Gun? I did some of the real flying in that.”
John Foley discusses the Fleet Replacement Squad. “You go fly jets off of aircraft carriers for about three years. That is the fleet. That is going out there doing the real thing. We have a saying, if you are still alive after three years, you have figured something. Out of that pool of people, then you usually go to the instructor ranks. So, you go to Top Gun. You go to what is called the Fleet Replacement Squad. That is where you train people, not how to fly but how to fight the airplane. That pool of people, those instructor ranks those people that are really doing the job in the fleet. They get to apply to become the Blue Angels, and it is a selection process and at the end of the day it takes about a year or two and the team picks its own replacements. It is one of the things in the entire Navy where the replacements are picked by the current team, not by Washington.”
Did he every encounter anything where he had to eject or his teammates had to eject? “The good news for me is, I didn’t have to eject. But, three times I wanted to and I couldn’t, and what I mean by that is, there is an ejection environment which, which means you have to be at a certain altitude, a certain air speed. You don't want to be inverted 50 feet off of the ground. When you eject, you just become a dot. The thing is, you have to be in a certain envelope.”
Just how dangerous is being a Blue Angel? “Priority is safety. As, you are looking at that and it is extremely safe what we do. I did that, ok. You are just on the edge. So when you are on the edge, and you know this in your life, you know this with climbing. Is climbing dangerous? The question I would ask you. How many people have died trying to do Everest, which you are going to do?. With your mind set on that, I guarantee it is the same flying the jet.”
What does fear and uncertainty mean to John Foley? “I actually believe uncertainty has opportunity in it. On the same side of the coin, it has challenges in it. The first thing to address what is going on in the world today is, first off, compassion and awareness. There is some tough things out there. Black Lives Matter. You and I played ball. We know what it is like when you are a team, alright? You don’t know the color. I didn’t, of the skin of the person next to me. They were just a person. They were teammates.”
Things are Coming From You
Things are coming from you not at you. “If you think the world is coming at you, like COVID, and it is going to get you, you’ve got to deal with fear, ok. Because fear is an outside force coming at you that you don't have control over. Bingo. Right? So, what I try to do when I talk to the companies I speak with, the people I speak with is that we have to understand how we perceive. How does the mind perceive the outside world? First thing is, the truth is, it is coming from you. So you do have some power and some control.”
The Makings of a Great Leader
During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, John Foley also discusses the power of viewing things from other people’s points of view. “Instead of trying to be right, who cares about being right. Can I see the world through her eyes? If I can do that, it is actually called exchanging yourself for others, there is a technique on that, then you start to become more aware.”
Links to Additional Resources:
Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com Emilia’s Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/ John Foley website: JohnFoley.com Glad To Be Here website: GladToBehere.comHe's the oldest American to stand on top of Mt Everest from the North and from the South. This guy is a real life Indiana Jones, always pus
Bill Burke - a real life Indiana Jones
The power of curiosity. Dr Lara Pence helps change lives to be the best version of ourselves...
Jerry Schemmel: Plane Crash survivor, NBA broadcaster, cyclist across America & author. This guy is living the 9 lives of a cat. Incredible.
Benjamin Breckheimer: Former Staff Sargent who was blown up by an IED, then overcame his injury plus divorce and suicidal thoughts to regain
Lakpa Rita Sherpa: He has summited Everest 17 times and was the first Sherpa to ever climb the Seven Summit. Fascinating story
Rob Urbach: CEO of the Famous Iditorid Race in Alaska. Incredible tale of a Husky dog race covering 938 miles in unreal conditions. The ulti
Mike Schauch: Hear an amazing story about a guy who followed his heart to find the right karma in Nepal and pay it forward. Incredible tale.
Steve Porino: As a member of the US Ski Team to being the lead announcer for downhill racing on NBC plus calling the Tour De France, Steve h
Don Dow: My former teammate from the University of Washington describes how he had to make a pivot during Covid and adjust his Event Plannin
As a child, Dung Duong fled Vietnam, lived in refugee camps, was jailed, and found himself homeless before immigrating to the United States
Brian Von Herbulis: 17 years as a special opps leader in the Marines, this all star now empowers people to unleash their potential through o
Benjamin Alexander: From being an international DJ to trying to make the Jamaica Olympic Ski Team. What are the odds?
Kevin Sorbo is an American Actor who has appeared in over 65 movies plus numerous TV shows including playing Hercules which lasted 6 years
Kevin Richardson is a former Husky Football player who had aspirations of playing in the NFL but never happen and took him 33 years to move
Mike Marolt adventurer, has climbed and skied down multiple 8 Meter Peaks on over 40 expeditions including the crown jewel, Mt Everest
Hilaree Nelson is a world class adventurer, mountaineer & high altitude ski who has been the first woman to climb Mt Everest + Lhotse within
Former Heisman Trophy winner, Danny Wuerffel was not only an amazing quarterback for Florida back in the day but has taken that same drive a
Derek Abby is the CEO and President of Project Recover. He is a badass Marine who combined his service with education to get his PhD in lea
Never Give Up, Never Quit... Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure that he would become another statistic when, during his third tour o
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money