In this episode of Long Blue Leadership, Christian Evans shares his journey from a jovial cadet to a dedicated leader focused on uplifting others.
SUMMARY
Christian reflects on transformative experiences during his time at the Air Force Academy, the importance of mentorship, and the impact of community engagement. Christian discusses navigating career transitions, the power of giving back, and the significance of leading with love. He emphasizes resilience, personal growth, and the need to engage the next generation of leaders.
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TAKEAWAYS
- Christian emphasizes the importance of humor in leadership.
- Transformative experiences can lead to personal growth and leadership development.
- Mentorship plays a crucial role in guiding younger generations.
- Navigating career transitions requires building a supportive network.
- Giving back to the community enhances personal fulfillment.
- Engaging the next generation is vital for sustaining leadership values.
- Resilience is key to overcoming failures and learning from them.
- Leading with love fosters a supportive environment.
- Personal growth is a continuous journey influenced by experiences.
- Finding avenues to contribute to the community is essential for leadership.
EPISODE CHAPTERS
ABOUT CHRISTIAN EVANS
BIO
Christian Evans is a Business Development Executive at Olsson where he leads sales and growth efforts in Texas and Colorado. Christian previously worked as Managing Partner of Greenwood Capital lower middle market PE firm, Wealth Advisor at Morgan Stanley, Capital Markets Sales Manager at Highland Capital Management. Prior to joining Highland, he worked as an associate on the Banking, Investing, and Lending team at Goldman Sachs. Christian started his professional career in the United States Air Force as a space operations officer at Cape Cod AFS, MA and an acquisitions program manager at the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, CA.
Christian is an active leader in the Dallas community sitting on the Visiting Nurses Association of Texas Board of Directors on the finance and development committees and on the Friends Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy on the Development committee. Christian is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and The Real Estate Council.
Christian is a 2008 Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy where he majored in Management. As a Cadet, he competed on the Fighting Falcon football team, served as President of the Tuskegee Airmen Club, and became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Incorporated. He completed his MBA at the SMU Cox School of Business in 2017. Christian is married to Dr. Candace Evans and they enjoy their time with their son, Cash.
- Copy courtesy of the U.S. Air Force Academy Association of Graduates
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
SPEAKERS
Guest: CHRISTIAN EVANS ’08 | Host: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz ’99
Naviere Walkewicz 00:00
Welcome to Long Blue Leadership, the podcast where we share insights on leadership through the lives and experiences of Air Force Academy graduates. I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of ’99. For Christian Evans, USAFA Class of 2008, the journey was arduous, and even now, though he's dedicated himself to a life of lifting others up, he still thinks of himself as a work in progress, becoming the model for grace, giving back and leadership that he is today. Christian, thanks for being here today.
Christian Evans 00:28
Thank you so much for having me. Truly honored and flattered to be here.
Naviere Walkewicz 00:34
What were you like growing up? — I guess maybe is the first question.
Christian Evans 00:38
I've always been a jovial person. I've always had a sense of humor, and I've always kind of been a strategic thinker, if that makes sense. So, while I was somewhat the life of the party to a certain extent, or someone on the team that would galvanize the teammates, it was mostly through humor or engaging outside of anything serious, because everything's so serious, right?
Naviere Walkewicz
Right.
Christian Evans
So, growing up and even at the Academy, I always kind of used humor as a way to put myself out there, so to speak, right? To kind of get people's moods to calm down. Yeah, I just always was more focused on what I was doing, and never focused on “I should be leading in this space,” outside of just knowing if you do well in school, get good grades… All right, that's leadership by doing. “I'm in NHS, I'm in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I'm doing all these service things. And even though I'm not the president or vice president, I'm still active, serving a greater purpose.” So, yeah, growing up, I was a good kid, liked to have fun, maybe a little crass at times.
Naviere Walkewicz 02:05
Your sophomore year, you know, your three-degree, you kind of had this decision point. What was it that helped you make that decision? Was there an incident? Was there a moment? Was it just a path you were on?
Christian Evans 02:20
There was definitely an incident. At the end of our sophomore year, we did not have the season that we wanted as a football team, so the night of the game, after the game, I was still underaged, and I drank alcohol and the Academy found out about it. And so, I had to go through that rehabilitation process, which wasn't fun. I think it was six months where you're restricted to the base. At that point, that's when I said, “OK, this isn't a civilian school. You’ve kind of got to button it up here if you want to stay and actually get something out of it.” So that next year, I made a point during summer school, and even that summer as a cadre for basic, to just really apply myself and try to see, “All right, if I actually apply myself and lead and maybe not make everything a joke, will you see real outcomes?” And I think that's where my first experience of really being able to affect younger cadets and/or younger grads and their experience with the Academy. Because as a basic cadet cadre, I really went out of my way to try to look out for our basics in a way that typically doesn't happen during basic training. And it is what it is, right? Basic training is not summer camp, so it's got to be tough, it's got to be hard. But I definitely — and I think if you ask my basics — I definitely went into the situation with the idea of making it hard, but fair, but also making it enjoyable and something that's worth remembering. And so experiencing that as a cadet and really seeing, “OK, yeah, you're pretty good at this thing, you can motivate people, and you can make them feel good about themselves, and you could help them when they need it, and not make it hard for them to get where they need to go, kind of thing, and really enable them.” That was a great experience for me, and kind of carried into the next year. I got on group staff; I learned that the more that you lean in, there are actual outcomes that come out of it, and you're able to have a positive impact on other people, which, to me, gives me — that's where I get energy, and I feel good about myself. Outside of how I feel about myself is how I can help other people to accomplish whatever it is they kind of want to do.
Naviere Walkewicz 05:04
Wow, it sounds like you took an incident that happened to you all the way back in basic and you found a way to turn it around, to make sure that another basic didn't have to go through what you did. And you probably didn't even realize it at the time when you're going through that self-discovery as a leader and applying yourself, but can you think of a story of where that came into play? Like when you were a cadre for a basic, was there ever a time where you were able to make a difference for a basic that you weren't able to have made for you?
Christian Evans 05:34
Absolutely. One of the things I did — and this is an easy one — was when there was someone that needed meal replacements for whatever reason, or was still hungry at the end of the day, I would help get food and sustenance to them, whether they played sports or not. Obviously doing it for the football guys so that they could maintain weight for when the season starts. But when other non-football people mentioned that they were still hungry, the food was making them upset, things like that. Yeah, I would get them what they needed, right? And I think for that, they felt like somebody cared. I will say, as a cadre, I think the best thing I could have done was just make it a memorable experience through the experiences, right? Like I said, I'm into humor. I like to have fun, and to me, basic training as a cadre was like being a stand-up comedian with the built-in audience, you know? So, I would do bits with the kids, not kids, but they were kids. I would do bits, you know? I would have fun, but within that, it would always be kind of a bigger picture.
Naviere Walkewicz 06:49
Well, I think that's fantastic sharing a bit of your personality, and I think that's also part of leadership, because when we think about what how people lead, it's usually from what they learn from others. So, being able to see that you can be human, and you can use humor, and you can still affect a mission, and especially — maybe people bring in their best self, because they didn't feel that they had to be so fearful, right? I don't know, maybe you touched them in that way.
Christian Evans 07:17
I hope so. Because there was still a lot of fear, I imagine, left in the basic squadron.
Naviere Walkewicz 07:24
Yes. Well, it led me to something you we talked about because you said you had indifference even your senior years. But there was a theme through that as well. You talked about being able to help others, so maybe talk through what you've learned about yourself as a leader in this space of helping others. Has there been a moment in your career now, whether through in the military, or when you transitioned out, where you saw that coming into play more?
Christian Evans 07:49
It's something that I feel is evergreen, for me, is I'm always kind of thinking about, “How can I have an impact on the community around me?” Most recently, since transitioning from active duty into the private sector, I learned a lot. I didn't know much about the industry I was going into that being finance, I was blessed with an opportunity to do an internship with Goldman Sachs during my transition period, while I was still active duty. This was before they had the program they have now, the skill bridge program. I went into a very complex situation with very little information, and going through that process, I was able to reach out to a lot of people to help fill the gap. No. 1, most of the people that I found myself talking to and that had built networks within Goldman and other financial institutions were Navy and overwhelmingly Army grads. So, at that point, and I like that it says Long Blue Leadership, because the Long Blue Line is what we were all sold on coming here, whether you played sports or not, Just about anybody you asked that have made the transition from active duty into a new industry or career that requires a little bit of advocacy and understanding, and people doing some recruiting and all those things — how much it means to have somebody that you could call and learn things that you just don't know. My transition, learning the industry, learning the different steps that you need to take to get to different parts of the industry — I started just documenting resources, built out my network so the people that had helped me and kind of poured into me and mentored me, tried to stay in touch. That is something that I'm pretty good at, is just meeting people and turning a casual introduction into some type of meaningful relationship. And so, when I got a few years in and did my MBA, and kind of went through my process, I put together a one-pager, two-pager, and shared it with the number of younger grads at the time that I kind of adopted as mentees. They were just young grads, or young cadets, in some cases, that had an ambition and that wanted to do something that they didn't really know much about. Being able to give them that information to fill the void earlier in the process — maybe they've got a few years left in the Air Force. OK, they could start preparing themselves through certain things, getting involved in certain organizations. I thought if I could get this information to them earlier, well they could start preparing more for making that transition. And so, after doing that, and over the years, they made it their own thing, and now they have matriculated to some of the top business schools, law schools in America. And so, for me, that showed me the power of “when you learn, teach; when you get, give,” right? I heard that quote a number of years ago. That kind of was something that, after doing that and seeing the outcome, and especially now when I look back, that started maybe, let's say, eight years ago. Well now guys are starting their own funds, and they're working at multiple investment banks and consulting companies, and to me, that was more rewarding than even the accomplishments I had made in my transition. So, I feel very blessed to have been able to do that. But, you know, I definitely, over the time, have made it a mission of mine to ensure that I'm pulling the younger grads in the direction that they want to go, and doing it a little bit earlier in the cycle so that they could get better prepared.
Naviere Walkewicz 12:25
This is really fascinating. What makes you care in this way?
Christian Evans 12:29
At my first base was my first real interaction with the AOG and actual alumni. I got to meet real grads. One in particular was a gentleman, Al Fullerton. I think he was a 1963 grad, and he was medically discharged before he was able to serve. However, he was a grad, and he stayed connected to the organization. And my buddy, Evan Dadoski, who — he would get us to those AOG meetings, and when I and when I had those experiences and when I had the experience with Al, and he would give his time to me, Evan, Brian Campbell, Adam Hood, like go have lunch with us. Got to meet with Flash Wiley while I was up there, you know, Nate Dial went and got his master’s while he was up there. And we would go have coffee and get to talk to him and interact with him. And I said, “Man, there is some richness to this,” but those were just really individual connection points. It wasn't like a critical mass, but it did pique my interest in saying, “Oh, there is a richness in a younger grad getting to know a more seasoned grad, or the intergenerational interactions that a lot of times we don't get for whatever reason.”
Naviere Walkewicz 13:57
So, you started seeing and feeling the effects of the Long Blue Line?
Christian Evans 14:01
Yeah, absolutely. It was really just the thought of trying to maximize the talent that God gave me, and in doing that, you can't be indifferent and be a great leader. You can't be indifferent and be the best that you can be.
Naviere Walkewicz 14:19
Certainly, doesn't hurt to be kind of engaging with the vision for where our association’s going and to your point, what does your impact look like within there?
Christian Evans
Sure.
Naviere Walkewicz
So, what has that look like, and how has that shaped you as a leader? Do you feel like those are one in the same, like you bring your leadership to it in the way that you are, or has it changed you this kind of service as a leader?
Christian Evans 14:43
Yeah, if anything, I learned that if you do have a passion for how things should be, if you lean in, you galvanize the troops, so to speak, and/or try to find leadership opportunities within the multiple organizations that interact and do things for a cadet. And for grads, find those because it's been very beneficial to me as I have come onto the board and seeing, OK, something like the next generation.
Naviere Walkewicz 15:12
So, can you talk a little bit more about this Next Gen group?
Christian Evans 15:16
Yeah, absolutely. There are certain periods as graduates, where we have big decisions to make, and as an association, the more that we're engaged and helping you to solve for those decision problems, so to speak, the more you'll feel the value was served to you to engage. So, that kind of spurred a conversation with Nate Dial. And, you know, we always kind of have strategy sessions here and there about all kinds of stuff. But in this situation, it was, “Hey, how can we kind of solve for this young alumni or emerging leader alumni engagement?” Because the numbers speak for themselves — it's extremely low. If all grads are engaging at 10%, if you graduated after ’95 it's less than 10%. So, Next Gen kind of was born out of that. And so, we started thinking about, “We've still got a lot of people engaged from our previous classes.” And so, I thought if we created some type of working group to start thinking about what can we do to provide this value proposition to that demographic of graduates that are historically disengaged? And engagement is not money, right? It's just showing up to alumni events or coming back to the Academy at any point or whatever, going to a game when the Academy is playing close to you, things of that nature. So that's where we got to the Next Gen. group.
Naviere Walkewicz 16:54
I mean, I think a theme that's been woven through this with you has been, in your journey as a leader, really leaning in. You know, it seems like when you've had these moments of decisions, of applying yourself, you have these continuous wins that seem to have continued to fuel that desire to make further impact and others. Would you say that's accurate?
Christian Evans 17:20
Absolutely. You know, wins have a way of building on themselves, and losses due too. So, incremental big win, small wins — I'm just trying to win. So yeah, to me… and even in the face of a loss, you're still winning, because it's an opportunity to learn, right? I'm sure it's a common theme, but it's true. We all have experienced failure. Nobody wants to talk about it, but everybody experiences it some way. How do you deal with that failure? We talk about resiliency at the Academy, you know? We talk about integrity a lot. We talk about service, we talk about excellence, but we don't talk about failure necessarily, because we're Academy grads. We don't fail, right? We don't fail. But it's true: Even in failure, you're it's an opportunity to win, and the more wins you kind of put together. They cascade, and they grow into great things. And that's kind of where I see, at least my growth and development has been through just a cascading of small, big, intermediate and honestly, putting myself out, taking myself out of my comfort zone, see where the chips fall.
Naviere Walkewicz 18:44
Well, we'd like to hear what your leadership lessons and takeaways are, because there have been really a lot of moments in here that I think everyone has been able to kind of see themselves in, right? You've had moments where you've had to kind of pick yourself up, even when you weren't sure what that looked like, and you did. What, what might you leave with our folks?
Christian Evans 19:04
You know, we go through a lot of leadership training, so it's like a leadership podcast to teach me what I've been training for, for it feels like our whole adult life could seem redundant sometimes. So, I'm not going to give anybody a nugget that they might not have heard before, but something that I've tried to do that maybe, when I think about leadership, has helped me to approach it in a different way, is to always think about leading with love to a certain extent. I don't mean that to be mushy, I mean that to be sincere. Always go into a situation thinking about the person you're dealing with, as opposed to yourself. Little things like I said, we've got a lot of technical and structured education about what leadership is, but how do you actually execute and effectively live it? So for me, it's a very selfless kind of approach. But I always say, “Lead with love,” and that's what I'll continue to do, right? But I don't have any groundbreaking nuggets. I don't think about leadership all the time. It's just in me, right? I think it's in all — most — of us, they made sure of that. But sincerely, leading with love, because there are other obvious nuances and principles to leadership, but to me, that's the one that gets lost the most in translation, sometimes.
Naviere Walkewicz 20:40
Can you share a moment when you led with love and it was maybe a moment where you wouldn't have expected that's the way that you could actually solve something?
Christian Evans 20:53
I wouldn't say I have a specific instance. It's just who I am. So, I don't really have an instance. I think every time that I get the opportunity to be in a leadership situation that's at work, in my day job, that leadership looks a little different than leadership in an AOG board capacity, or leadership in other board service that I do around the town of Dallas, or really leadership within your own peer groups, right? It's just a part of who I am. So I don't necessarily have a specific situation. It's just most of the situations where I found myself having an opportunity to actively lead other people, I try to make sure that I'm implementing that, and I think most people that have gotten to work with me would attest to it.
Naviere Walkewicz 21:57
Well, I can validate that certainly. Just in our interactions together, I think I've seen you lead with love, and it's because you put the human aspect in. How can I help you? — is really how it translates across, and I think that's very powerful. It's maybe not something that people think about, but it's probably highly effective. But even more so, it's incredibly, probably fulfilling.
Christian Evans 22:19
Yeah, I would say one thing I learned is, I don't need much help. I'm gonna go figure it out. But there's a lot of people that don't have that same personality type, and so I think that's important when they don't, is that you can be somewhat of a force multiplier for them, using Air Force speak.
Naviere Walkewicz 22:39
I think it's wonderful what you're leading and you're passionate about, and it, again, dovetails from, I think, all of your experiences, of always wanting to make something better than what you had had to go through or experienced in life.
Christian Evans 22:50
You had told me to repeat this, but I had said if you would have asked just about anybody that knew me as a cadet and young officer, if Chris Evans — because I didn't become Christian until I came as a civilian, and everybody's Chris — but yeah, Chris Evans is on the AOG board. They'd say, “No way, no way.” So, I think the Academy, we've all had our experience with maybe getting broken down, whether it's basic training, whether it's your first year, academics. I would say, it started for me during basic training. Growing up and coming into the Academy, I thought of myself as a pretty good kid. You know, I focused on school first, athletics second, and I had a lot of success in those two spaces. I was blessed to be recruited to the Academy to play football. However, I did have a little intellectual curiosity about what the place was all about. Coming on my recruiting visit, seeing the training going on, it definitely piqued my interest. But when I got here and went through the Prep School first, I actually somewhat enjoyed that experience. Basic training at the prep school was hard, but it definitely tests your mettle. And after maybe that first few weeks and thinking that I might quit, having a few conversations with people back home, definitely made the decision that I came here for a reason I was going to see it through. That was challenging next year, during basic training, matriculating into our first — or four-degree year, and I had a very catastrophic event happened with my family where my grandfather was tragically murdered by my uncle — I mean, to be transparent. When we were preparing for this, you mentioned, “Oh, you've gone through some traumas,” and I never really thought about it as a trauma, but it definitely was one. And I would say, through the healing process, I connected with a very great chaplain we had here who took a lot of time to help me heal. However, he could only do so much because I had a lot of work to do for myself. I was blessed to be able to travel and play as a freshman and so in that, between going through what I went through in basic training and then the culture of the football team of somewhat really focusing inward, it definitely helped to lead to a general indifference about maximizing my time at the Academy and focusing on things that may not have been as value add to the bigger picture of being here, if that makes sense. So, from a leadership perspective, in my sophomore year, I had to make a serious decision, like, “If I'm going to stay here, well, what am I here for? Am I going to maximize my time, or am I going to keep goofing off and trying to live like I'm at a civilian school kind of thing?” And so, I did make a conscious effort then to kind of lock in, but still, a young athlete that had a lot of distractions around them, there was still a lot of room to grow. And as I went through my cadet time, I would say, definitely found the beginning of my pride in this institution. Nothing like graduating and have the president call your name, right? That was probably one of the cooler experiences. I would say that was the genesis of my indifference towards the bigger picture of what the Academy represents. But in that, I did come to a few moments where I realized that “Hey, you're really wasting your time here if you're going to continue behaving and really thinking about the Academy from a selfish lens.” That just goes to show it's OK to grow up. The Terrazzo-gap doesn't still have to exist. We could all kind of give back to our organization in ways that we're comfortable with, but you just got to find the avenues to do it.
Naviere Walkewicz 27:27
Well, when I think of the Next Gen community, what excites me is I think about the two cadets that I have at the Academy, and it's the Next Gen community that's going to be their mentors when they graduate. So, when you think about that, it really puts it in perspective.
Christian Evans 27:41
They’ll also be their commanders too.
Naviere Walkewicz 27:43
That's right. Well, Christian, it's been a pleasure having you on Long Blue Leadership. Thank you so much for being here today.
Christian Evans 27:49
Thank you again for having me and thank you to the whole team that makes this podcast happen. I know there's a lot of work that goes into it. Thank you for having me.
Naviere Walkewicz 28:01
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Long Blue Leadership. The podcast drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on all your favorite podcast apps. Send your comments and guest ideas to us at social media@usafa.org, and listen to past episodes@longblueleadership.org
KEYWORDS
Leadership, mentorship, personal growth, Air Force Academy, community impact, resilience, humor in leadership, self-discovery, transition to civilian life, alumni engagement.
The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation
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