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Listen "Unlock Your Vision and Achieve High Performance: A Conversation with Jeff Eschliman"
Episode Synopsis
On this episode of the Circuit of Success, Brett Gilliland interviews Jeff Eschliman, a veteran of 30 years of combat and corporate experience. Jeff shares his story of how his upbringing and military service shaped his leadership style and how he uses his mindset to overcome fear and anxiety. He also shares his tips on how to create a life of harmony in a chaotic world.
https://youtu.be/ltbAofDwM9o
Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] Well, to the circular of success, I host Brett Gil, Gil, and today I've got Jeff Esman with me. Jeff, how you doing? Outstanding, sir. Awesome. Well, it's good to be with you today. Where are you? Where are you calling in from, from again? I forgot to ask you that. At Phoenix. Phoenix. Just got the phone, uh, CL client in.
Yes. The desert's covered today. Don't I warm? It's, I bet it is warm, man. It's crazy, crazy there. I know, but they, but they always say it's a heat, right?
Jeff Eschliman: High heat. It is. Definitely that so
Brett Gilliland: is another. Exactly, exactly. Well, you are a guest that I'm excited to have on, on here today. You got, uh, uh, 30 of experience, experience from, uh, combat in Iraq.
Uh, all the way corporate board boardroom, you're a sought laughter X for building and scaling results driven teams, uh, and your leadership style characterized by as bi personal development can, [00:01:00] can see and uh, tenacious work ethic, which I love. Uh, uh, so I'm excited to talk about that. But that, but if we can't, let's start with, what I always start with is what's made you the Manan you are today?
No. You don't just, just go to Iraq in the boardroom and room and all the things mentioned, uh, without a backstory. And so I'd love to hear that. Right.
Jeff Eschliman: It, it really starts, you know, from a pretty, I was pretty fortunate to have a great upbringing, folks that had instilled really good core values in me, but I was a little bit of a, a wallflower, uh, before going into the service.
And when I went into the service, it was really, really life-changing for, for me. It took, you know, all those fundamentals that I've learned from my folks. And it really, it really shaped who I was going to be and then ended up being extremely pivotal through my entire leadership development and career.
It, it, [00:02:00] it was really back to my, my father was a house here locally and so I grew up residential home job sites here in the valley and that's really where. I think those core values came into play with the leadership skills that I learned in the military.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Did you know you wanted to go into the military an early age, or what, what made you join the Milit military?
Jeff Eschliman: I, I just referred to it as a calling, so I, I felt something in, in my heart that said I wanted to serve and I, I didn't wanna do the typical four year stint. And so anything that you were gonna sign up for, at least in the Army in the era when I joined, had to be combat related. And my dad was a a US Marine Vietnam era, even though he didn't go to Vietnam.
And he always told me either go in the Air Force or go in the Navy, cause he'll teach me something. And so [00:03:00] of course I joined the army.
Because it was the two year stent and I figured, you know, I would, I would get what I was expecting out of it. Well, obviously I ended up getting, I ended up getting way more than, you know, what I had bargained for. But that, those experiences, Brett, that that was like the, The forge, right. Of shaping who my, or what my personality and characteristics would.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. You know, I'm always fascinated. I, I love the military. I'm actually, in fact, I, I can look right now from my view, my view here, see Scott Air Force Base, I can't see it cuz of the trees, but no, right where it's at. So we, so we have one of the, the biggest, best, best air forces in the country right here, up the road from my office and, um, But, but, but what I'm sitting there with, with, and I've talked to military people cause the problem growing up, you know, my kids growing up in a mil military, bay town as well as well, that you get really good friends and then they leave you, [00:04:00] right?
They leave you about every third or fourth year. And it's tough. It's tough. And so I always, I always joke when I'm military guy or guy, I'm like, I don't wanna be that friends with you because you're just leave me again, again in three years. And so we joke around about that. But my point to this is, I, I love the goal military.
From what, from what I've learned, I, I draw the wisdom that they share with me. From a businesses standpoint is military. There's, there's clarity. We know the mission, we know why we're going there. So there's clarity. There's a plan, right? We show up, show up, game plan on what we're gonna do. We practice a game plan.
Plan. Oh, by the way, oh by the way, we game plan again, and then we execute. And, and, and I think you can take that, that from, to your point here, the, you know, from Iraq to combat to, to the boardroom, always. The things I like to draw parallels to is that they're so clear on where, where they're going, right?
They know, they know the plan. And what if, what if I do a business standpoint, no matter what I did for a living, if I had cl there was a plan, I [00:05:00] practiced, I practiced and I executed it. How would life look, look for me as a business owner.
Jeff Eschliman: Absolutely. And, and then I think the piece that I would add to that, that was really pivotal for me was the teamwork piece, right?
And so the military gave me two different things. One, it gave me an inner confidence that there was nothing that I couldn't, that decide that I could accomplish personally and then do it. And especially the physical part of. But it was also mental, right? Because a big part of any physical journey is the mental piece, right?
If you've ever ran a marathon, anything like that, you know about mile 19, it is no longer physical. It's, well, it is physical, but it's mental as well as physical, right? And the other piece would be the teamwork and seeing teams work together in that fashion and at that level. That is another thing that I was able to take [00:06:00] into my corporate life that really made me successful in the very beginning stages.
Even being a superintendent out on the job site where I was literally running work before I became an executive, and I was getting all these folks that showed up on the job site to play at a higher level.
Yeah. So
Brett Gilliland: when you talked mental and. What, what came to my mind when you were talking, talking about that, is fear and, and the, the min is, I can't imagine being on that airplane lying, knowing I'm gonna war. Right, right. Because you're in the marathons and I know in a marathon I'm gonna run. I'm, I've never ran a marathon, but if I did, I did.
I could run, I put my preparation in. But at the end of the day, this not my mentality, mentality, but hey, I could, could stop if things went south, right? But in military, I'm getting dropped, dropped off to a world war. You can't just be like, oh, sorry guys, not feeling it today. I'm out. Right? I'm going, where are [00:07:00] bombs blowing?
There? Are there are guns being fired? Walk us through that mint side for you on that, that plane, and knowing where the hell you're going. Yeah, and
Jeff Eschliman: I'll, I'll take it even one further than the plane flying over. It was, I, I drove an armored personnel carrier, so I crossed across the border from Saudi Arabia in Iraq, and that was literally the most terrifying experience I've ever had in my life.
And my biggest fear heading into that, Brett, was that I was gonna fail. Right. I was worried that I was gonna fail my team. So there was me and three other people on this armor personnel carrier, or the broader team being the United States Army, or the broader team being my country that had sent me over there on a mission.
And so what I tell people about the experience, or just this experience in general is I had to be [00:08:00] bigger than I was capable of being individually. Right. And that's where you get that lift up. When you're a part of a team or you're a part of a mission that is well articulated and important, and I'll tell you how that translates into my life after I got out of the service, and we can go there if you want, but you know, I, I've had a period in my life where I wasn't making very good choices and I had to fix a lot of things.
One of the things is, At one point in my life, I was more than a hundred pounds overweight. And the the reason I tell you that is to tell you that I used running to fix as well as my mindset to fix that problem. Huh. So I ran, I don't know, probably six, seven or eight marathons. I ran one ultra marathon.
Wow. And my mindset going into any one of those, Is that I will never, right. Not a, I mean I'm not a big Goggins fan, but you know, like that mindset [00:09:00] about you're going into a particular situation and it does not matter what your mind tells you that your body is capable of. I'm not gonna stop that. I think that Marathon was
boy.
But it's a, it's a knowing. That's what I refer to it. That, yeah. Like, I'm not gonna stop. And, and that was a really early seed of that, was that military experience.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So how do you do when you're, you're, you're going Saudi Arabia, Arabia, Iraq border. You're, you know, you think about, you said you know your team.
That's, that's with you. You're in the military, you're to country. It's a lot of weight. Right? And so talk to the man listening to this as that's walking to the boardroom room right now. And they've got those fears because of this presentation. They've gotta gotta give or they got that client, client or whatever it may be.
https://youtu.be/ltbAofDwM9o
Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] Well, to the circular of success, I host Brett Gil, Gil, and today I've got Jeff Esman with me. Jeff, how you doing? Outstanding, sir. Awesome. Well, it's good to be with you today. Where are you? Where are you calling in from, from again? I forgot to ask you that. At Phoenix. Phoenix. Just got the phone, uh, CL client in.
Yes. The desert's covered today. Don't I warm? It's, I bet it is warm, man. It's crazy, crazy there. I know, but they, but they always say it's a heat, right?
Jeff Eschliman: High heat. It is. Definitely that so
Brett Gilliland: is another. Exactly, exactly. Well, you are a guest that I'm excited to have on, on here today. You got, uh, uh, 30 of experience, experience from, uh, combat in Iraq.
Uh, all the way corporate board boardroom, you're a sought laughter X for building and scaling results driven teams, uh, and your leadership style characterized by as bi personal development can, [00:01:00] can see and uh, tenacious work ethic, which I love. Uh, uh, so I'm excited to talk about that. But that, but if we can't, let's start with, what I always start with is what's made you the Manan you are today?
No. You don't just, just go to Iraq in the boardroom and room and all the things mentioned, uh, without a backstory. And so I'd love to hear that. Right.
Jeff Eschliman: It, it really starts, you know, from a pretty, I was pretty fortunate to have a great upbringing, folks that had instilled really good core values in me, but I was a little bit of a, a wallflower, uh, before going into the service.
And when I went into the service, it was really, really life-changing for, for me. It took, you know, all those fundamentals that I've learned from my folks. And it really, it really shaped who I was going to be and then ended up being extremely pivotal through my entire leadership development and career.
It, it, [00:02:00] it was really back to my, my father was a house here locally and so I grew up residential home job sites here in the valley and that's really where. I think those core values came into play with the leadership skills that I learned in the military.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Did you know you wanted to go into the military an early age, or what, what made you join the Milit military?
Jeff Eschliman: I, I just referred to it as a calling, so I, I felt something in, in my heart that said I wanted to serve and I, I didn't wanna do the typical four year stint. And so anything that you were gonna sign up for, at least in the Army in the era when I joined, had to be combat related. And my dad was a a US Marine Vietnam era, even though he didn't go to Vietnam.
And he always told me either go in the Air Force or go in the Navy, cause he'll teach me something. And so [00:03:00] of course I joined the army.
Because it was the two year stent and I figured, you know, I would, I would get what I was expecting out of it. Well, obviously I ended up getting, I ended up getting way more than, you know, what I had bargained for. But that, those experiences, Brett, that that was like the, The forge, right. Of shaping who my, or what my personality and characteristics would.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. You know, I'm always fascinated. I, I love the military. I'm actually, in fact, I, I can look right now from my view, my view here, see Scott Air Force Base, I can't see it cuz of the trees, but no, right where it's at. So we, so we have one of the, the biggest, best, best air forces in the country right here, up the road from my office and, um, But, but, but what I'm sitting there with, with, and I've talked to military people cause the problem growing up, you know, my kids growing up in a mil military, bay town as well as well, that you get really good friends and then they leave you, [00:04:00] right?
They leave you about every third or fourth year. And it's tough. It's tough. And so I always, I always joke when I'm military guy or guy, I'm like, I don't wanna be that friends with you because you're just leave me again, again in three years. And so we joke around about that. But my point to this is, I, I love the goal military.
From what, from what I've learned, I, I draw the wisdom that they share with me. From a businesses standpoint is military. There's, there's clarity. We know the mission, we know why we're going there. So there's clarity. There's a plan, right? We show up, show up, game plan on what we're gonna do. We practice a game plan.
Plan. Oh, by the way, oh by the way, we game plan again, and then we execute. And, and, and I think you can take that, that from, to your point here, the, you know, from Iraq to combat to, to the boardroom, always. The things I like to draw parallels to is that they're so clear on where, where they're going, right?
They know, they know the plan. And what if, what if I do a business standpoint, no matter what I did for a living, if I had cl there was a plan, I [00:05:00] practiced, I practiced and I executed it. How would life look, look for me as a business owner.
Jeff Eschliman: Absolutely. And, and then I think the piece that I would add to that, that was really pivotal for me was the teamwork piece, right?
And so the military gave me two different things. One, it gave me an inner confidence that there was nothing that I couldn't, that decide that I could accomplish personally and then do it. And especially the physical part of. But it was also mental, right? Because a big part of any physical journey is the mental piece, right?
If you've ever ran a marathon, anything like that, you know about mile 19, it is no longer physical. It's, well, it is physical, but it's mental as well as physical, right? And the other piece would be the teamwork and seeing teams work together in that fashion and at that level. That is another thing that I was able to take [00:06:00] into my corporate life that really made me successful in the very beginning stages.
Even being a superintendent out on the job site where I was literally running work before I became an executive, and I was getting all these folks that showed up on the job site to play at a higher level.
Yeah. So
Brett Gilliland: when you talked mental and. What, what came to my mind when you were talking, talking about that, is fear and, and the, the min is, I can't imagine being on that airplane lying, knowing I'm gonna war. Right, right. Because you're in the marathons and I know in a marathon I'm gonna run. I'm, I've never ran a marathon, but if I did, I did.
I could run, I put my preparation in. But at the end of the day, this not my mentality, mentality, but hey, I could, could stop if things went south, right? But in military, I'm getting dropped, dropped off to a world war. You can't just be like, oh, sorry guys, not feeling it today. I'm out. Right? I'm going, where are [00:07:00] bombs blowing?
There? Are there are guns being fired? Walk us through that mint side for you on that, that plane, and knowing where the hell you're going. Yeah, and
Jeff Eschliman: I'll, I'll take it even one further than the plane flying over. It was, I, I drove an armored personnel carrier, so I crossed across the border from Saudi Arabia in Iraq, and that was literally the most terrifying experience I've ever had in my life.
And my biggest fear heading into that, Brett, was that I was gonna fail. Right. I was worried that I was gonna fail my team. So there was me and three other people on this armor personnel carrier, or the broader team being the United States Army, or the broader team being my country that had sent me over there on a mission.
And so what I tell people about the experience, or just this experience in general is I had to be [00:08:00] bigger than I was capable of being individually. Right. And that's where you get that lift up. When you're a part of a team or you're a part of a mission that is well articulated and important, and I'll tell you how that translates into my life after I got out of the service, and we can go there if you want, but you know, I, I've had a period in my life where I wasn't making very good choices and I had to fix a lot of things.
One of the things is, At one point in my life, I was more than a hundred pounds overweight. And the the reason I tell you that is to tell you that I used running to fix as well as my mindset to fix that problem. Huh. So I ran, I don't know, probably six, seven or eight marathons. I ran one ultra marathon.
Wow. And my mindset going into any one of those, Is that I will never, right. Not a, I mean I'm not a big Goggins fan, but you know, like that mindset [00:09:00] about you're going into a particular situation and it does not matter what your mind tells you that your body is capable of. I'm not gonna stop that. I think that Marathon was
boy.
But it's a, it's a knowing. That's what I refer to it. That, yeah. Like, I'm not gonna stop. And, and that was a really early seed of that, was that military experience.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So how do you do when you're, you're, you're going Saudi Arabia, Arabia, Iraq border. You're, you know, you think about, you said you know your team.
That's, that's with you. You're in the military, you're to country. It's a lot of weight. Right? And so talk to the man listening to this as that's walking to the boardroom room right now. And they've got those fears because of this presentation. They've gotta gotta give or they got that client, client or whatever it may be.
In God we trust