All About Skills!

In this short (7 minutes) episode, Charlie Jett discusses the importance of information validity to the Critical Thinking process. In short, if you want to think critically, your information needs to be reliable and accurate.

General Charles C. Krulak served honorably in the United States Marine Corps for 35 years and I’m proud to say that he is my US Naval Academy classmate in the great class of 1964. General Krulak’s military service brought him into wartime combat roles in Viet Nam and operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He is the recipient of many awards including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Sil...

Former Illinois Lieutenant Governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti, is a wife, working mother of three, and an attorney by trade. The daughter of a Cuban refugee and an Ecuadorian immigrant. she grew up in humble beginnings in Florida – attended university in Florida and earned her law degree at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Her early private law practice focused on victims of housing discriminati...

Coaches Tom Anstett and Tom McCormack have a combined 92 years of coaching experience, having developed winning programs in major high schools in the Chicagoland area. Together they embody the qualities of coaches and teachers that constitute winning programs that not only provide victories but lay solid foundations for the lives of their players. Late last year, Coach Anstett and Tom McCormack pu...

Natalie’s career has taken her from Silicon Valley to the Fortune 100 and into entrepreneurship, but being raised in Republic, OH (population 600) is where she learned her greatest leadership lessons. Natalie uses these lessons from small town living to help leaders and organizations create big success in the world. In addition to being a 10-year 4-H member and repeat State Fair champion in...

John Dalton was our 70 th Secretary of the Navy, serving from July 1993 until November 1998. John is my US Naval Academy classmate – the great class of 1964 and a fellow nuclear submariner. John H. Dalton John attended Louisiana State University before going to the Naval Academy, graduated with distinction and entered the US Naval nuclear power program. He served in the nuclear submarine force unt...

Christine Davies  is the Founder and CEO of Poligage – the world’s first online marketplace for public policy insights and government affairs and services. Poligage helps companies and organizations find the expertise they need, right when they need it. Christine has built her 20-year career around the intersections of the public and private sectors, with leadership roles in the government,...

From humble beginnings, Jeffrey Shaw became one of the most preeminent portrait photographers in the United States. His on-location style and fine craftsmanship made him the go-to photographer for families of C-suite executives of Anheuser-Busch, Twitter, and many others, Supermodel Stephanie Seymour, news anchors Jim Nantz and David Bloom, sports icons Tom Seaver, Pat Riley, and Wall Street execu...

Jim Ginsburg is the founder and president of Cedille Records, a classical label he launched in 1989 while an entering law student at the University of Chicago. Cedille is focused on recording classical music produced by artists and composers in Chicago. He has produced 21 Grammy Award nominations and 7 Grammy Award winners and was nominated for “Producer of the Year, Classical” in 2019. In 2009, t...

Miguel Cervantes starred in the lead role of Alexander Hamilton in the four-year run of the musical “Hamilton” in Chicago. Now he returns to Broadway where he will again be the lead in that popular musical. Hamilton will reopen in early September at the Richard Rogers theater. Miguel and Charlie talk about the importance of the critical skills in the performing arts and what it takes to become suc...

Debbi McCullough is from New Zealand and now lives in Wisconsin. She is an Internationally Certified coach under the name, Hanging Rock Coaching. She offers a hybrid of communications coaching, positive intelligence coaching, and customized training to help replace her clients’ fears  – – – with courage—and joy. Debbi is a prime example of someone who knows the power of the...

Ina Pinckney is the Breakfast Queen! INA was the Chef/Owner of INA’S, an American Food restaurant and a pioneer in the West Loop Market District, that closed at the end of 2013.   She is a frequent and welcomed guest on radio, local news and cable TV, has done interviews on shows in the U.S., Canada and Germany and appeared in a national Quaker Oats commercial as herself – the Breakfast Queen. Art...

Dr. Clark ‘Corky’ Graham, is the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit LET’S GO Boys and Girls Inc. Dr. Graham received a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1969 and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the US Naval Academy. He retired as a Captain following a 30-year career with the U.S. Navy as a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer. Following his Naval career, Dr. Graham joined Northrop Grum...

Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School. Dorie Clark – #1 Communications Coach i...

Christie Hefner is no stranger to leadership. She graduated Summa cum laude from Brandeis University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After free-lancing for the Boston Phoenix for a year, she joined Playboy Enterprises in Chicago where she became President in 1982 and Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer in 1988. Christie is the longest serving female chief executive officer of a pu...

Amy M. Gardner, JD, CPC, ELI-MP Amy brings to Apochromatik a unique track record of working with law students as dean of students at a top 5 law school and a successful career practicing law, first as a Skadden litigation associate and later as an associate and then partner at a mid-size Chicago firm.  In addition to countless hours completing stand-alone coaching trainings, she is a graduate...

Captain Charlie Plumb graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis and went on to be a  fighter pilot  flying the  F-4 Phantom jet  on 74 successful combat missions  over Vietnam . On his 75th mission, with only five days before he was to return home, Plumb was  shot down, captured, tortured, and imprisoned  in an 8-by-8 foot cell. He spent the next  2,103...

Ted Dysart is Vice Chairman of the premier executive search firm, Heidrick & Struggles. He discusses the Critical Skills, the Executive Search profession, and the application of Critical Skills to Executive Search. You can access the Heidrick & Struggles website by clicking HERE.

Mark Herschberg is the author of The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You .   From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia. He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Prog...

Natalie Cordone and Kevin Kelly are professional performers having performed for over 20 years off Broadway, with major symphonies, and in television and film. In 2018 they were tired of witnessing universities churn out students – many of whom had incurred six-figure college debts for their four-year performance-based degrees. Seeing these young people with immense talent but struggling with the...

We have a wonderful guest today. And she’s a coach! An energetic and dynamic success coach. Heather Vickery shares her strategies to help her clients move their personal lives and businesses so that they can create and support lives that they absolutely love. In just a few minutes after meeting her, you know that she cares about improving your quality of life – both business and personal. She has...

Coach Pat Sullivan has dedicated his career to inspiring people, helping them to discover and capitalize on their personal strengths. In more than four decades of collegiate and high school coaching, he touched thousands of lives and impacted a new generation of leaders who today succeed in a wide range of business and civic capacities. Coach Sullivan retired after 34 years as a teacher and men’s...

Today, we are very fortunate to host the founder of a highly successful networking group that specializes in connecting you to your next career opportunity – Mr. Marty Gilbert! Specifically, Marty is an EXPERT in the job search process! In 2010, Marty founded the NorthShore Executive Networking Group, and today over 8,000 single contributors, managers, directors, Vice Presidents and C-Level...

In this episode, Charlie Jett discusses Field Studies in depth. Field Studies were highlighted by the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, “Teaching the SCANS Competencies” as an effective means of teaching the Critical skills. Field Studies are conducted by a team of students and focus on issues identified by local area businesses or community service organizations...

In this episode, Charlie Jett discusses the importance of work-based learning for disadvantaged youth as well for the health and well-being of the US economy. He discusses different kinds of work-based learning programs such as tours, job shadowing, mentorships, internships, registered apprenticeships, cooperative education, service learning and field studies. He stresses the importance of work-ba...