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Frank Carone

Episode: 48

Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we’re joined by Frank Carone, ranked as one of the most powerful people in New York. Frank Carone has spent his life navigating law, politics, and business at the highest levels.

He built one of Brooklyn’s top law firms and has advised some of the most influential leaders in the country, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whom he served as Chief of Staff. Frank now leads Oaktree Solutions, a strategic advisory firm, and is the author of Everyone Wins — a book on creating outcomes where relationships thrive and no one loses.

In this episode, Frank shares what it takes to lead in complex spaces
and the difference between power and influence. If you’re leading in high-pressure environments or want to see what servant leadership looks like when the stakes are real, this episode is for you.

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Frank Carone's Intro

0:07
Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we're joined by Frank Coron. Ranked as one of the most powerful people in New

0:13
York, Frank Coron has spent his life navigating law, politics, and business at the highest levels. He built one of

0:20
Brooklyn's top law firms and has advised some of the most influential leaders in the country, including New York City

0:26
Mayor Eric Adams, whom he served as chief of staff. Frank now leads Oak Tree Solutions, a strategic advisory firm,

0:33
and is the author of Everyone Wins, a book on creating outcomes where relationships thrive and no one loses.

0:39
In this episode, Frank shares what it takes to lead in complex spaces and the difference between power and influence.

Welcome Frank Carone

0:48
Frank, thank you for joining us on the Servant Leadership Podcast. Uh, thank you so much, Chris. is great

0:54
to be here and I'm looking forward to having a robust discussion with you. I'm going to start us out with an

Frank's Career Journey

1:01
interesting one. I was reading something online about you and you were rated one

1:07
of the most powerful people in all of New York in 2025. Uh which that doesn't

1:13
come by accident. Talk about your journey to become one of the most powerful people on a significant report

1:20
that came out. Well, first don't believe everything you read. Second, it's embarrassing for me to even

1:26
comment on something like that. I can't I'll just talk about my career and why

1:32
that perception uh exists that reporters uh wrote something like that. You know,

1:43
Democratic Party for many many many many years through three different county leaders. Um, and Brooklyn, you know, is

1:50
the largest Democratic county in the United States of America. So, it's not insignificant. Senator Schumer, head of

1:56
the one point head of the United States Senate, Kim Jeff, the leader of the

2:01
House of Representatives, stem from Brooklyn, the mayor of city of New York, the attorney general of the state of New

2:08
York, all come from the burrow and the burrows of Democratic organization. So,

2:14
it started with sort of my my role there. Um, and then running and, you

2:20
know, early on getting behind Mayor Adams and and being part of the team that ran his campaign at a high level

2:26
and then he asked me to be chief of staff at a Met game right after the primary out of the blue. Um, and then

2:33
accepting uh, and making changes in my career to do that, which was the one of the greatest privileges of my life uh,

2:40
serving as you know, one of the leaders of New York City, the period that I did. So those I guess those positions and my

2:48
openness with the press um I' I've always believed to be as transparent as possible and understand it's you know

2:54
it's all business bad good articles I guess led to that perception and hopefully I'd like to think some of the

3:00
the you know accomplishments along the way that I helped facilitate uh just

3:06
only added to that reputation and but there's many extremely talented people

3:11
who you never heard of their name in New York who are much more significant than I am. But anyway,

Servant Leadership Perspectives

3:16
well, you've been a part of advising uh some of the most influential leaders throughout New York and in the broader

3:23
area. How how do you see servant leadership show up? We talk about servant leadership a lot on this podcast

3:29
and you're seeing the behind the scenes of real leadership. You know, it's a we really should talk

3:35
about that term a little bit. It's a I I've sort of read significantly over my

3:42
adult life about servant leadership and I think it probably started when I had

3:47
the opportunity to uh participate in officers candidate school in the United States Marine Corps and that is the

3:53
quintessential servant leader. Marine Marines teach leading from the front.

3:59
You know, you you don't ask any of your um you know, subordinates to do what you

4:04
yourself cannot do and not are willing to do and and in fact do and serve or the greatest sacrifice of all is laying

4:10
down your life for what you love and believe in. And that is the true essence of serving um at its hardest core

4:17
example. So I I really learned that term and that we embodied it in the as an

4:23
officer of the United States Marines um when I was attended Quanico, the school in Quantico. Uh and then of course my my

4:31
faith or my life raised as Roman Catholic um there's many examples

4:36
throughout biblical you know literature about serving and leading at the same

4:42
time. And then leading is not about dictating bossing. It's about, you know, listening,

4:49
sacrificing, uh, and really that that listening, uh, with great empathy has sort of really

4:56
one of the main tenants throughout my book, everybody wins. Uh, everyone wins. And so I it's a it's a it's a terrific

5:04
term. I think it should be used more often and it it doesn't necessarily

5:09
suggest one type of career or another. Just just means leading with humility.

5:15
uh and with uh integrity I think. Yeah. Well, thank you for your service

Writing The Book - "Everyone Wins"

5:20
as well. One of the things that I find so interesting is when people think of leadership, uh often what they think

5:27
about is somebody at the top who has extreme power and they lead a lot of

5:34
people and take massive hills and are hard charging people. uh you alluded to

5:39
this book you wrote, everyone wins, and it's quite the opposite in some ways of

5:46
uh one solo leader doing everything on their own. It's more about the whole. Talk about talk about the book, how it

5:52
came about, and really just share with our audience your heart behind the book. You know, it's you just there is a sort

6:00
of debate playing out politically now and culturally throughout the United States and even even now in a New York

6:05
City uh Democratic primary for mayor between socialism, capitalism. I think

6:12
there's a misnomer that successful entrepreneurs or or capitalists

6:18
succeed by hard charging as you say and take no prisoners approach. And that

6:24
only applies to the effort they bring to the table which is constant

6:30
um and uh you know just centered around enormous work. But you do not get that

6:37
type of success without the help of others, without cooperation from others. And you don't get that without listening

6:44
and aligning your interests with others which is what we we talk about in the book. And that's really the uh what

6:50
drove us to write the book the first version. Uh when I was you know

6:56
partnering with the team at Abrams Fenerman when I joined the firm they had about 30 30 40 lawyers. When I left the

7:03
firm uh to go be you know take the job as chief of staff to Mayor Adams we were

7:08
at 140 lawyers approximately. So we we my my my my co-author who I have to just

7:15
talk about a little bit because it's relevant to how we came about writing the book and to answer your question more specifically Russ Prince who is a

7:22
prolific writer and speaker on business on family offices on alignment and I was reading a book called Bargaining

7:29
Brilliance by Lewis Schiff and in this prologue he talks about one of his mentors this recluse named uh who lives

7:36
in a compound in Connecticut named Russ Prince and Russ grew up in this gritty

7:41
neighborhood called Canarcy, Brooklyn, exactly where I grew up, and had a in

7:47
incredible childhood, learning how to negotiate in the schoolyard, the oldfashioned way. But I saw that and I

7:56
immediately emailed Russ. Oh. And he responded within a minute. We met and we became friends and colleagues ever

8:01
since. To this very day, we collaborate extensively. So we talked about our

8:07
interest and we had a few speaking engagement together and decided to write um the first version which was sort of

8:15
after you know kind of after him and I were working on some of the uh speeches I was giving on negotiation at the time.

8:22
Uh and then we we were we were discussing the successes

8:27
of this process and how it's teachable, learnable, but we need now to sort of uh

8:32
fine-tune it a little for version two and show the the reading audience really

8:38
how it worked for us in real life um with with with empirical evidence. So

8:44
that led to the second version and we did it fairly quickly, a couple of months, you know, we we had our our

8:50
manuscript and we would both of us I I took a few chapters, he took a few chapters, we would edit each other's

8:55
work and that's how we did it together. Uh and that was really the the purpose behind it and it was a labor of love,

9:01
you know, something that was very natural to us. It's it's not something that I read about, study about. It's

9:07
just us being our authentic selves. you've had to make a lot of hard decisions uh over the years and and I

Making Hard Decisions

9:14
know you go into this when you speak, but at at the same time, some of those decisions weren't necessarily what was

9:20
best for you personally career-wise or in unique situations. Talk about some of the hardest decisions you've made that

9:27
required you to put the needs of others in front of yourself. Really, really the hardest decisions I I

9:33
I had to make. And remember, I I usually I'm representing someone, an

9:39
organization, an individual, a not for-profit, a municipality. So, first and foremost, my

9:46
responsibility as a lawyer, as a consultant, as a strategist would be to service the need of the client that is

9:52
paying me to do so and with with fidelity and, you know, good faith and fair dealing. So I never think about

10:00
myself in those contexts and and I don't really engender clients that are

10:05
opposite of my core belief system. It's just the way na nature takes its course.

10:10
So usually I'm somewhat aligned with the the position I'm I'm representing. But

10:16
sometimes not. I should say there are exceptions to every rule. And as a as a lawyer, particularly when I was practicing criminal defense work in the

10:22
early 90s, you you represent your client zealously. But those that sort of impact

10:28
me personally were the ones that I had to sacrifice the time away from family to be honest with you. And when I again

Becoming Chief of Staff For N.Y. Mayor

10:34
I used my recent example agreeing to chief of staff to the mayor, I knew I

10:41
could not do this for a long period of time. So I told the mayor the day that I I did it I would work six months in transition to build the team, build a

10:48
culture for the team and then one year as chief of staff and I resigned the day I was hired. So he asked me in June of

10:55
21 and I said okay I'll take it until January 1 23 December 31st 22. So that I

11:05
knew to do properly required a 24 hours 7 days a week commitment for 18 straight

11:10
months. So I moved away into an apartment in Midtown away from my family. Of course I saw them now and

11:16
then but I was really focused on the job. So that was a difficult decision to sacrifice the time away from my family

11:23
on top of my busy career to begin with which you know I had to sacrifice some important family time and I would not

11:29
suggest individuals do that. That was my decision. I don't regret it. I you know

11:34
decision was made at the best at the time but that was to to truthfully answer your question that was probably

11:40
the most difficult. Well, and you had some amazing influence during that stint

Staying Grounded During Times of Crisis

11:45
uh and made some great decisions that impacted a lot of people uh especially around New York behind the scenes. I

11:52
don't know if people realize the craziness that happens. How you even

11:57
alluded to it's 24/7, you know, for that whole year and a half like it's just always on. Talk about how do you stay

12:04
grounded during times of crisis and when just everything is coming at you? uh cuz

12:09
people don't see that you know I I President Trump I I saw a

12:15
quote from him on somewhere in social media it was him speaking and I think he

12:21
said he was talking about you know mental illness and depression and I think he said the the cure for

12:28
you know self-esteem issues depression he believed was work hard it kind of just puts you in a mindset of focus on a

12:35
goal so I stay grounded by keeping myself goal oriented and I there's no

12:40
time to think of anything else when you're goal oriented because you have a mission. We're going to take this hill. What do we have to do to take this hill

12:47
and then we have to execute and then when that hill is taken there's always another hill somewhere else to take metaphorically. So you know that's how I

12:54
do it. I just stay goal oriented and it keeps me extremely focused and you know

13:00
I have a ability to kind of compartmentalize things and I just focus on the task at hand and everything else

13:06
just melts away. You've built some absolutely amazing teams like when you were at city hall

Building Solid Teams

13:13
also now with what you're doing at Oak Tree Solutions like you've built some extremely successful teams and it's not

13:21
dumb luck that you're good at building teams. What's what do you look for in leaders and how do you actually build a

13:27
really solid team? Yeah, it's great great question and as chief of staff, I remember the first day

13:33
in what there's a room called the cow, the committee of the whole upstairs in city hall and we were wearing masks. It

13:39
was still sort of coming out of the pandemic. It was still uncertainty in New York City. People don't realize just

13:45
the short time ago uh how far New York has come where tourism was, you know,

13:51
uncertain, office buildings were empty, Broadway was suffering, crime was seemed to be out of control, there was a

13:58
shutdown and mental illness, you know, space for those who needed the treatment the most. Uh there was, you know, laws

14:05
that were promulgated before we came into office that hurt the uh the city

14:10
specifically. There was a migrant crisis. So what we did to sort of deal

14:15
with those was create a team that for the most part uh did not implode but

14:23
worked without ego. very hard to do and I'm not saying we did it perfectly but day one I held up a book called the

The Culture Code

14:29
culture code and we talked about a place where ideas could exchange but when we

14:36
leave the room the decision is made as as one and also

14:41
another one called ego is the enemy by Ryan Holidayiday I don't remember author of the culture code and you know these

14:46
are difficult things to do put your ego aside particularly in government because

14:51
there's very little upside side when you take you know experimental decisions or

14:57
creative decisions and a lot of downside when you make a mistake. So many of those who work permanently in in

Overcoming Fear That Paralyzes People

15:04
government um are nervous about doing things out that hasn't been done before

15:10
or outside the box or quickly for that fear of that criticism. So there's that

15:15
fear that paralyzes people and it was my job to create a team that there was a

15:22
ability uh to make mistakes, a comfort zone to make mistakes, but always with a northstar of doing something. And that

Significant First Year Accomplishments

15:30
team accomplished great things that first year, including the first ever uh

15:36
privately funded soccer stadium in Queens, which had an infrastructure, you know, component to it, you know,

15:42
environmental cleanup. uh significant growth for infrastructure, plumbing,

15:47
roads, 2500 of units of affordable housing, a development in Kips Bay,

15:53
Midtown, which was a previous administration had it earmarked for a garage, a sanitation garage, which now

16:00
is a life science pavilion and hub uh through on the CUNI space. several

16:07
billion dollars together cooperating with Governor Hokll and her great team and secretary to the governor Karen Kio.

16:14
We put an incredible bid together to win the Democratic National Convention although we lost to Chicago even though

16:20
we had a much superior bid but getting that together in two months quickly. Um uh and I could go on and on and on on

16:26
and on with incredible incredible initiatives that the team did with this

16:32
with this sort of embracing the culture of doing things. I would come I would

16:38
start a meeting with we're doing this. Let's figure out how now let's debate to do it and everyone had an opinion

16:44
whether we should do it. We when I was there, we were focusing on the rebuilding of the BQE

16:51
training folks for dyslexic training and I could go on and on and on and on. But

16:56
you have to create an environment for that that doesn't penalize mistakes,

17:01
doesn't penalize people taking the initiative. You cannot and you that stems from the leaders and really was

17:07
the mayor and myself at the time and thereafter the the team has been terrific as well

17:13
and they they deserve a lot of respect. uh for the accomplishments. You're going to hear soon about some crime numbers

17:19
that are at the historic lows, not over last year, better this year in recorded

17:25
history. So that happens with the culture that I know you speak about a

17:30
lot and your other guests and I know you, you know, believe that and sort of

17:36
fits into the servant leader mindset, but it's that's it's cultural. So important to have the right culture, you

17:43
know, weeding out toxicity and in ego. Hard to do, but you have to do it like

17:48
anything else consciously, measurably, and really um think about it

17:54
every single day. It it is so hard to do. And I I really like the analogy that you used earlier or the

Navigating Risk Taking - Follow Your Heart

18:00
example where in politics you often find uh politicians who if they take a risk

18:07
that they think is a good risk, the downside could be detrimental to their whole career. And so often you just see

18:14
kind of uh the safest decisions possible. you know, as as our leaders

18:19
who are listening to this episode and to the podcast in general, uh, are

18:24
navigating life, a lot of them are in situations where they probably have amazing ideas or amazing things they

18:30
want to do, but those risks they're thinking could be detrimental to their career or it could absolutely tank their

18:36
company or hurt the people around them or whatever it is. How do you even

18:42
navigate like that? What advice do you have for people in those situations?

18:47
You know, easy, very easy. First of all, follow your heart at all times without

18:53
fear. Uh, do not be afraid of criticism. If you're not receiving criticism, you

18:59
are not doing anything of substance. And there's a word in politics that is infectuous. It's called optics. You hear

19:05
it all the time. I remember very often uh lawyers each agency has lawyers and

19:13
as much as they're you know do really God's work there's sometimes could be

19:18
the reason for delay because of not the law optics how someone is being viewed

19:25
and I can't tell you how bad that is for citizens and for people to to get

19:31
results from their elected officials from their bureaucrats that work on their dime as taxpayers

19:38
uh not so they folks could just do you know do nothing and be concerned about how they're being perceived and it's a

19:44
perfect example doesn't matter agree disagree on this example the Elon Musk

19:50
decided to volunteer his time president and and work on something called doitz right and what is the concept there

19:58
rooting out inefficiencies who could argue with that it's inarguable everyone that you must do that in every facet of

20:05
life. And what did he get for that? Maybe he said things that were inflammatory, maybe he didn't. Putting

20:11
that aside for a moment, doesn't really matter. The core mission for anyone reasonable, logical sees rooting out in

20:19
an efficiency from a third party. You must do that. It's we we require it of

20:24
our not for profofits. I know your experience in not for profofit space. You we require them to have, you know,

20:29
outside auditors. Why? So they could root out inefficiencies and corruption. So he did that and what did he get?

20:37
Nothing but critique, nothing but animosity uh for what he believed doing the right

20:42
thing. And I suggest and I submit do not be afraid of that.

20:48
Do not be afraid of that. I I mean I've taken my share of articles from press

20:54
and I take I hold it with a badge of honor. Uh when people I love and respect

21:00
tell me I'm doing something inappropriately, I'll listen. when when strangers do, I I I could I don't know

21:06
that I could care less. It is hard because you people in general get put in these situations where from

Doing What You Know Is Right

21:12
the outside it feels like the world is just against you, right? And it's

21:18
sometimes hard to figure out, okay, what is the the true north star that I'm trying to work towards? Uh you you've

21:24
talked a lot about goals and ambitions and just continuing to push for what you know is right.

21:31
It sounds so easy to say, right? But you've lived through having to do that.

21:36
Uh when when people deal with that struggle of like we we know what we should do, but we just don't have it in

21:42
us to do it. How do you encourage them to kind of get back on the track that they know they should be on and follow their heart?

21:48
You know, it's a a great question and you know, I don't want to sound flippant and I don't want to make it sound easy.

21:54
You're right. Uh, and I, you know, for me, again, growing up in gritty neighborhood Karsi, learning from the

22:00
schoolyard how to survive and going through United States Marine Corps, taking my share of lumps sort of allowed

22:07
me me to have a certain perspective. And what is that perspective? I I'll share it. Uh, I share this with the press once

22:13
upon a time uh, when they were asking me a similar question. You know, I had a grandfather who fought in the Battle of

22:18
the Bulge and in the Ardans forest below zero

22:23
temperatures fighting against Nazi Germany. I had an uncle who was like an older brother to me who had a disease

22:29
called cystic fibrosis, my grandfather's son, and he had a lung taken out at 16 years old. And I don't know that he ever

22:36
had one clear gasp of air ever in his life. I would and every night we'd have

22:43
to pound his back to give him the therapy to pull out the uh the mucus.

22:48
Yet I don't know that I've ever saw him without a smile on his face, without a positive attitude. My grandfather out of

22:54
the Battle of the Bulge, I don't know if I ever heard him raise his voice. So I think to myself, I'm not in in the

How To Keep Perspective When Being Criticized

23:02
subzero weather fighting a war. I am not

23:07
struggling with a life debilitating disease. What the hell do I care about? A little

23:12
bit of criticism or a little bit of difficulty along the way. You know, I feel grateful that I have the life that

23:20
I have in the greatest country in the world in one of the like I said before, New York City where I could have

23:25
anything I want within five minutes. This is a privilege and you must think that way. And that

23:31
would be the advice I would give folks to have some perspective. If you don't have it and if it's hard, volunteer with

23:37
someone who has. go to sp speak to veterans, you know, speak to those that

23:42
suffered catastrophic uh disease or loss in their life and use empathy to have

23:48
perspective. And then when you sort of lay that against what you're really doing, you'll realize it's a grain of

23:55
salt. So that's what I do and that's it works for me. Uh not easy. We have

24:00
emotions, we have egos, we have anger. all need work like anything in that's

24:06
worthwhile in life and at the end of the day just have courage that's all you know it's this two will pass I I love

Personal Examples Of Servant Leadership

24:14
that the empathy helping shape perspective I think is spot on uh one of the things you talk about kind of your

24:22
upbringing and also going into the Marine Corps there were people who modeled servant leadership for you uh

24:28
well before you became a great example of a servant leader right who were some of those people and how did they

24:34
influence you into the person you are today? You know, I I I'll give I'll share two

24:39
examples. I've had I've had the good fortune of, you know, many adult men who

24:46
I I I watched I tried to emulate who spend some time with me, including my

24:52
dad, my grandfather. I mentioned uh I I there were two pivotal points in my life that always jump out at me and everyone

24:59
has their own. I remember my baseball coach in Canari High School, Bobby Napo.

25:05
Uh I was I loved baseball, was fairly decent player, and going to him one day

25:11
saying, "Coach, you know, I'm going to take the civil service exam. I think it was at that time was maybe applied to

25:16
fire department." And I, you know, I thought it was a very honorable, you know, terrific thing to do. And he said

25:22
to me, you know, why would you, you know, you're such a smart guy. You you could do many things. You know, why

25:28
immediately limit yourself to to to one. And I paused for a minute and I was

25:33
like, I never really thought of, you know, my future in that perspective. And

25:39
for whatever the reason at that moment, that triggered something in my mind that the world's a little bit of a larger

25:45
place to think of. And the second um there was a recruiter for the Marine

25:51
Corps named Captain Samuels who when I applied for officer candidate school I

25:56
was disqualified because I listed correctly on my application that I had

26:03
asthma as a child and it was an automatic disqualification. I didn't know. And you

26:09
know he he called me up. He didn't hesitate. He didn't complain. He said,

26:15
"We're going to appeal. We're going to beat this. You and you're going to be a Marine." And just that conviction. And

26:22
sure enough, we did. And I did. And it was that

26:28
conviction that also spoke to me. So, there's many more, but just two in the

26:33
interest of time, just two quick ones I thought I'd share. Those are both great. And now you're in

Encouraging Servant Leadership In Others

26:38
a position where you are those examples for many younger leaders, especially around the city of New York, right?

26:44
There's people, young leaders, trying to step into a space of influence. How do you encourage them to navigate this and

26:51
really become the person they were made to be? I try to do this with my 22-year-old son

26:57
who like me at his age would see someone very successful and right away want to

27:02
either get discouraged because how on earth am I ever going to get that far? um and therefore then you then you you

27:09
for sort of freeze and do almost nothing. So that is a huge mistake. You you must do it in steps. First yearly we

27:17
go back to what we said earlier goal setting. Then you break the year down. I do this every year myself to this very

27:22
day at 56 years old. What do I want to accomplish for the year? Then break it down quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily.

27:28
So I have a road map just for that year. You put a couple of good days together, you have a good week. A couple good

27:34
weeks together, you have a good month. Couple good months together. you had a great year. Put a couple good years together, even if there's some up and

27:40
downs, you have a great career. So, you cannot think, you could project that far ahead, but then you'd have to really

27:46
bring it back to I don't like to go more than one year in advance and think about

27:52
the next step, building blocks. Um, you know, I remember they used to read a

27:57
phrase in the Bible about building the house uh from stone versus straw or or

28:05
versus sticks. And when the winds come, the straw and the sticks blow away, but the the strong foundation remains.

28:12
Similarly when you for your career you must do things in small steps uh and

28:18
stay focused on those small steps and before you know it time goes by very very quickly and you have a body of work

28:24
behind you. So I I my suggestion would be don't project more than a year but do

28:31
what you promise yourself to do and even if you fail here and there get back to it. So that's would be my my advice for

28:38
young people. That is so good. Uh, Frank, I want to finish with 10 rapidfire questions where

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

28:44
I hit you with questions and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, I'll try.

28:50
Who's the first person you think of when I say servant leadership? Oh, Jesus.

28:56
Five words the most describe you? Uh, authentic.

29:02
Uh, rough uh uh sense of humor. That was more than

29:09
put that as one. Humor. Uh I New York

29:15
and Italian. I love that. Favorite book or movie?

29:21
Favorite book? Uh Godfather. The movie was great, but the book was way better.

29:28
Favorite movie? I'm gonna also say The Godfather. Favorite food? Italian food.

29:34
Favorite thing to do in your free time? Elf. What's a surprising fact about you?

29:41
Surprising fact about me? Oh, I don't know. Um, I collect comic books.

29:49
All right. Favorite place you've been. Oh, favorite place I've been? Probably

29:59
Tuscany. I half wondered if you were going to say New York, but favorite place you wanna that you want to go that

30:05
you haven't been. Germany. What's the best advice you've ever

30:11
gotten? Whatever decision I make will be the correct one. Needs context. If you if I have a few

Whatever Decision You Make Is The Right One

30:18
moments, I'll share. But yeah, go for it. When President Clinton was elected 1992,

30:24
we downsized the military. my class to go to naval justice school and the basic

30:30
school in the Marine Corps to continue my career as a JAG officer shrunk down to almost nothing. I would did not have

30:36
a job and have a place to live. Um, and I was in a little bit of limbo. So, a

30:43
year went by, I started working as a lawyer in several firms around the clock, including a criminal defense firm

30:49
doing arraignments at night. ultimately offered me a partnership and uh I at the

30:56
same time got a call from a major who said, "Lieutenant, we have six seats available, four lawyers. We're going to

31:04
draw straws. If your name is selected, are you ready to deploy next week?" I said, "I'm ready." I'll call you back.

31:10
Calls me back, tells me my name is not selected out of the six. And the next

31:15
time they're going to draw straws will be six months from now. Very I can't. So I could not take a real position

31:21
anywhere. I could not start I I didn't have any money to live on. So I I worked

31:26
really really hard that summer and they offered me a partnership in the criminal defense firm. So I went to a mentor of

31:32
mine and I said, "What should I do?" He said, "Well, whatever you do will be the right choice." I and at first I was

31:38
like, "Well, what kind of advice is that?" But then I realized it's brilliant because whatever I decide, I'm

31:44
going to make the most out of it and not look back. I chose to put in for a uh

31:49
honorable discharge, wrote a letter to the Secretary of Navy except the partnership in the criminal defense

31:54
firm. My life went another direction. I never looked back once. So,

31:59
whatever decision you make, it'll be the right one if you make it so. Wow, that is great advice. Well, Frank,

32:05
I'm so thankful you were willing to be on the podcast. I know our audience will love getting to know you. Uh for those

Who Will Benefit From The Book - "Everyone Wins"

32:11
that are wondering about the book, can you close us out talking about who should buy the book and what they should

32:17
do to do that? And anyone who has a a goals that necessitates dealing with other people,

32:24
which is almost everything. And anyone who does not have a significant network to speak of. And those who maybe

32:30
struggle with conflict and you know always feel victimized

32:36
should read the book and realize there is a methodology and a pathway for achieving your goal by directly aligning

32:43
with others and not sacrificing anything. And negotiation is not a zero

32:49
sum game. That is a misnomer. It's incorrect and we need to disabuse the

32:54
audience of that. And and just so listeners know too, this is not just theory. This is practical pointers,

33:01
practical tips that they can take. So, thank you, Frank. I'm so excited for people to listen to this and I really

Closing

33:07
appreciate you being on. Thank you for having me, Chris. Anytime. Thank you for listening to this episode

33:13
of the Servant Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment

33:19
below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to never miss an

33:25
update. Be sure to check out the servant leadership podcast.org for more updates and additional bonus content.

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