Speaker 1: Something you should go Something you should know is brought
Speaker 1: to you by genesisgoldira dot com. That's also something you
Speaker 1: should know. You can put your retirement plan. I'm the
Speaker 1: gold Standard. Learn more and get a free gold and
Speaker 1: Silver guide at Genesis gooldr dot com. Excited to visit
Speaker 1: with a pretty awesome lady right now. Michelle Mace Curran
Speaker 1: is the second woman in history to serve as a
Speaker 1: lead solo pilot for the US Air Force Thunderbirds, and
Speaker 1: she's got a brand new book out. It's called The
Speaker 1: Flip Side, How to Invert your perspective and turn fear
Speaker 1: into your superpower. This looks fantastic. How long does it
Speaker 1: take to write a book like this?
Speaker 2: I have been working on it for almost exactly three years,
Speaker 2: from the time I started the book proposal to the
Speaker 2: time it released just a couple of weeks ago. So
Speaker 2: it is not a quick process.
Speaker 1: And I think this book can help a lot of
Speaker 1: people as they're trying to navigate their way through life.
Speaker 1: Who would you say is the ideal person to read
Speaker 1: this book?
Speaker 2: I love the question because I think people assume it's
Speaker 2: for other pilots. They assume it's for military enthusiasts, and
Speaker 2: I wanted to write it for your average person who
Speaker 2: is facing some sort of obstacles where things feel uncertain.
Speaker 2: And so when I close my eyes and you know,
Speaker 2: my team is like, who's the customer avatar, I'm like,
Speaker 2: it's like the thirty five year old mom who's been
Speaker 2: out of the workforce raising her kids for a few
Speaker 2: years and is coming back as they go to school
Speaker 2: and feels all this self doubt and imposter syndrome because
Speaker 2: she's been out of the game for a while and
Speaker 2: it feels scary and she has that low level anxiety.
Speaker 2: Because that is really just a good example of the
Speaker 2: kind of relatable stuff that's in the book. It's framed
Speaker 2: around these pretty insane stories from the cockpit, but the
Speaker 2: lessons that are pulled out of them are for situations
Speaker 2: exactly like that, those times when we let that fear
Speaker 2: stop us and we take it as a stop sign
Speaker 2: rather than just data that our brains is giving us
Speaker 2: that's often misinformed. And so I wrote it for your
Speaker 2: average person who struggled with those feelings of self doubt,
Speaker 2: of fear, of you know, wanting to feel comfortable rather
Speaker 2: than going after this thing that's probably going to push
Speaker 2: them to grow.
Speaker 1: I love that. And many times we have crossroads in
Speaker 1: our life. When you're graduating as one of those, but
Speaker 1: when you're getting married, maybe taking a new job, maybe
Speaker 1: move into a different community. When these things are happening,
Speaker 1: you want some help navigating your way. And I think
Speaker 1: this book, The Flip Side, might actually be able to
Speaker 1: help people make better choices when it is a crossroads
Speaker 1: in their life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I do a lot of keynote speaking, and
Speaker 2: I share very similar themes and stories during my speeches,
Speaker 2: and it's really been amazing and eye opening to me
Speaker 2: to have everyone from high school girls at a leadership
Speaker 2: conference that that was the target audience coming up to
Speaker 2: me afterwards, to very experienced male leaders in the corporate
Speaker 2: world coming up to me after a speech and being like,
Speaker 2: I feel like you wrote that for me. I've been
Speaker 2: feeling that so many points during my career, during my life.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm about to graduate, it's scary, I'm about
Speaker 2: to retire, it's scary. I'm about to be a leader
Speaker 2: for the first time. It's scary. And so it is
Speaker 2: not for a specific age, a specific demographic, It's for
Speaker 2: really that human experience I love that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make it easy to find to copy
Speaker 1: this book. I'll throw a link to it. But if
Speaker 1: I don't talk to you about the Thunderbirds, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get run out of town. You were a pilot for
Speaker 1: the US Air Force Thunderbirds. What is it like being
Speaker 1: a pilot? You guys all work in symphony, You're all
Speaker 1: like working together. I've seen you at the air show
Speaker 1: here in Sioux Falls. It's amazing to watch. What is
Speaker 1: that experience like to be a part of that?
Speaker 2: It is quite a unique honor to be on the team.
Speaker 2: And I actually slew the Suo Falls air show in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, so I've been there and done that show
Speaker 2: and great town. I'm from Wisconsin originally, so I always
Speaker 2: like to get back to the Midwest. But it is
Speaker 2: such an extreme example of trust and teamwork at the
Speaker 2: highest level. And people see us, the pilots, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of as the face the team out there doing
Speaker 2: these maneuvers, and they look deptifying from the outside. It
Speaker 2: really comes down to just an insane amount of discipline
Speaker 2: and repetition we practice at the highest level. I would
Speaker 2: compare it to a professional sports team, you know, We're
Speaker 2: out there all year round doing repas after repens the reps.
Speaker 2: Sometimes during training season when air shows aren't happening, we're
Speaker 2: flying ten times a week and it is just doing
Speaker 2: it again and again and again until you can't get
Speaker 2: it wrong. But then you have one hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: people that make up that team, and you know, ninety
Speaker 2: something of those are maintainers that make sure the jets
Speaker 2: aren't like the best working condition, and we literally trust
Speaker 2: those people with our lives, right, like, if something were
Speaker 2: to break on the jet and the type of flying
Speaker 2: that we're doing, it could have catastrophic results. And so
Speaker 2: it is the highest performing team I've ever had the
Speaker 2: honor being a part of. And just the trust and
Speaker 2: the shared mission and the work ethic of being on
Speaker 2: the road almost two hundred and fifty days a year
Speaker 2: doing about seventy air shows per season is just something
Speaker 2: that a lot of people don't get to see behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, and it is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So I actually saw you fly because I
Speaker 1: was at that air show. And we don't have one
Speaker 1: every year, but we do have another one coming up
Speaker 1: this year twenty twenty six, So folks get ready for
Speaker 1: another amazing Sioux Falls air show.
Speaker 2: Please the Thunderbirds will be there.
Speaker 1: I hope so too. I don't know if they've announced
Speaker 1: who's going to be here yet. It's always an amazing
Speaker 1: lineup and every time the Thunderbirds are here, it's always
Speaker 1: one of the most amazing pieces of the air shows.
Speaker 2: It is quite the spectacle. If you've never seen it,
Speaker 2: it will make you feel very proud and patriotic and
Speaker 2: just like supportive of the military and the precision that
Speaker 2: we're able to deliver.
Speaker 1: Michelle, thank you so much for taking the time to
Speaker 1: chat with us. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Our guest has been Michelle Mace Curran and she's got
Speaker 1: a new book called The Flip Side, How to Invert
Speaker 1: your perspective and turn fear into your Superpower. It's available
Speaker 1: now and I've got a link to it at Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com slash Sunny Radio and Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: Sioux Falls News. Something you Should Know. Something you Should
Speaker 1: Know is brought to you by Genesisgoldira dot com. Put
Speaker 1: your retirement plan on the gold Standard. Get a free
Speaker 1: Gold and Silver guide now at Genesisgoldra dot com.