In this episode, Erick Rheam interviews Army West Point XC/Track & Field Hall of Famer Mike Bernstein about his journey at West Point and at the top of the collegiate distance running world.
Mike Bernstein shares with Erick his decision to go to West Point and how he proactively wrote letters to the head coach at West Point to secure his spot on the team. He recounts how he went from walking in his first XC meet in high school to becoming All-American collegiate athlete.
Mike is a West Point graduate and former US Army Captain with decades of expertise in corporate finance, supply chain and contract manufacturing.
At West Point, he was the team captain of the cross country and track teams and a 3-time All American.
Known for his strong work ethic and track record of outperforming expectations, he won six individual Patriot League titles and was the 1994 Patriot League Individual Cross Country Champion and the 1995 Patriot League's Outstanding Indoor Male Performer.
After graduation, Mike continued to compete at the highest levels for the US Army World Class Athlete Program while earning his MBA from Colorado State. In 1996, he became the first soldier to win the Army 10-miler, running the distance in 47:59 and breaking the course record.
He also placed 5th at the US Nationals 5k in 1997 and 6th in the US Nationals Indoor 3k in 1998. He qualified for and competed in the US Olympic Trials where he placed 21st. In 2019, Mike was inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame.
Mike served in roles in corporate finance and supply chain at storied food companies such as Mars, Campbell Soup, and Kellogg’s.
He left the workforce a decade ago to focus on raising his two boys while his wife traveled extensively for her job. During that time, he became a prolific investor in several emerging technology companies, and an active real estate investor.
He lives in Lake Forest, IL with his wife Roxanne of 28 years – also a West Point graduate -- and their 2 sons.
In this episode, Erick Rheam interviews former collegiate coach Ron Bazil about his 34 year experience coaching men and women cross-country and track and field programs at a very high level.
Coach Bazil recounts his philosophies and methodologies as he evolved throughout house career coaching athletes at three different universities.
He discusses his intentionality with creating a sense of normalcy and community for his athletes at the United States Military Academy so that they could navigate the chaos of cadet life, while still competing at a very high level.
Coach Bazil started his career as Head Track Coach and Assistant Dean of Students in 1968.
Bazil spent nine years at the helm of the Adelphi Track Program, achieving some of the most remarkable results in the school’s athletic history.
During that time, he continued to serve as Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Dean of Men, before being named Director of Athletics, Intramurals, and Recreation in 1972.
In 1970, Adelphi won its first national title in the outdoor (college division) mile relay. The following year proved to be the most significant as the mile relay team not only captured its first NCAA Indoor Title, but also established world records for the mile relay on two consecutive weekends.
That same year, the men’s 880 yard relay and the 4x400 relay won the Championship of America at the Penn Relays. In 1978 the women would also capture this prestigious title in the 4x100 relay. From 1970-1975, the men’s track team captured a total of five NCAA individual outdoor titles, two NCAA outdoor meet records, and two individual indoor national titles. Bazil and his relay team put Adelphi on the national stage, culminating in a feature article in Sports Illustrated magazine.
Bazil had forged his winning formula during his 16 years as the head coach of the cross country and track and teams of the US Military Academy at West Point. During his tenure at Army, Bazil molded his men's and women's teams into nationally competitive programs
Army men were introduced to the Patriot League in the spring of 1992, and the cross country team took home the title in the fall of 1993. They went on to take sixth at the NCAA championships that year, and Bazil also took home the District II NCAA Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year title.
Both the men's and women's cross country teams took home Patriot League championship titles in the fall of 1994, and the men came into the 1995 season with a 12-race winning streak behind them. For that effort Bazil was again named Patriot League Coach of the Year.
He held Patriot League coaching honors every season from 1992-95.
The men's indoor track team went undefeated with a 5-0 record in 1994, and the outdoor team checked off their third straight league championship. Bazil left Army with a combined track and cross country career record of 304-116-2 for dual meets and 13 conference championships.
Bazil elevated the Tulane track and field team into a nationally prominent program after his arrival in 1995. Bazil produced 12 All-Americans to include one realty team, eight NCAA national qualifiers, a sprint medley relay team ranked in the top-10 nationally, 64 individual Conference USA champions, the 1996 Conference USA Freshman of the Year in cross country, and the Outstanding Performer at the Conference USA Indoor Championship in 1997. His athletes have also rewritten the Tulane record books by establishing dozens of new school records.
Perhaps Bazil's greatest accomplishment came during the 1998 cross country season. He guided the Green Wave men to four team titles during the season and qualified as a group to the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time in school history by virtue of a runner-up finish to eventual National Champion Arkansas in the South Central District Championships. He also had an individual qualifier on the women's side.
Accomplishments
In this episode, Erick Rheam interviews Dr. Peggy DeLong.
Peggy describes the tragedy she experienced with the loss of her fiance and father and how she learned the power of gratitude and how to leverage it to help her cope with her loss and find a meaningful and joyful life on the other side of it.
She outlines five gratitude steps to take to experience tremendous transformation and manage a chaotic life:
Finally, Peggy invites everyone to take her Five Day Gratitude Challenge.
Dr. Peggy DeLong is a professional speaker, psychologist, and author, known as The Gratitude Psychologist.
She teaches people how to harness the power of gratitude to build resilience and cultivate joy to live their best lives, especially through difficult times.
She does this through keynote speeches, psychotherapy, on-line courses, books, and bracelets.
Peggy is the author of:
She is also the owner of LOVE in a Bracelet, where she designs bracelets for coping with grief and loss, mental health, and inspiration.
She hosts women’s weekly wellness walks and hiking events for connection, spiritual growth, and the healing power of nature.
She is the mother of three young adults, all in college, and the wife of an Air Force Veteran and 6th grade science teacher. When she’s not focused on her businesses, you’ll find Peggy in the mountains, downhill or telemark skiing, kayaking, hiking, or mountain biking.
In this episode, Erick Rheam discusses why it’s critical to work within your natural rhythms and why it’s the best way to ensure you move the needle in your pursuit of significance while taming the Beast.
In his book, Rise Above Chaos, Erick outlines the seven elements of the perfect day. These elements are a set of daily habits that, when applied, will provide a vehicle to significance and a natural insulation from the influences of the Beast.
Element #2, Manage Your Energy prescribes six principles of managing your energy on a daily basis to match the energy of The Beast. One of those principles is working with your natural rhythms. Erick describes three ways to do it so that you may be intentional on how you approach each day that ensures success.
In this episode, Erick Rheam the importance of being intentional with your self care during your various phases of life.
As you navigate life’s daily challenges, it’s important to be intentional with critical resources needed to tame the Beast and remain aligned in body, mind and spirit.
This is why Erick unpacks his thoughts on how to manage life in a very healthy way by having these seven elements in what he calls his “Go Bag” for life.
In this episode, Erick Rheam discusses how to manage your comfort zone in times of change.
Whenever something changes in your life, stress can attack your comfort zone causing you to go into survival mode and maybe act out of character or navigate your world in an unhealthy way.
Erick unpacks three activities you can do to help you navigate change in your life in a much healthier way so that you can grow your comfort zone and retain healthy relationships as well.
In this episode, Erick Rheam discusses the need to pivot when something is not working or you’ve grown beyond it.
Change is our constant companion. Life demands that we evolve and change as things change around us; however, it can be hard to change and it’s not always clear when it’s time to pivot away from something that’s just not working.
Erick unpacks three things to consider that will help you make the necessary pivot and what to do when you decide to pivot from a key area in your life.
In this episode, Erick Rheam probes the issues with being a perfectionist in your life.
Many times we’re held back by our expectations of what success should look like in our lives. How many times have you abandoned a dream or a project, because you didn’t feel good about it or you didn’t feel ready? Could you be a perfectionist?
Erick unpacks the problem with perfectionism and explores why all of us have some degree of perfectionism in our lives and why it’s important to overcome up so that we may rise above the chaos.
In this episode, Erick Rheam challenges you to live your story.
We’re taught to live a certain story and often we do everything that’s expected of us only to find out we’ve been living someone else’s story and others' expectations of us. Erick debunks that way of thinking by sharing his four key pillars to living our own story:
In this episode, Erick Rheam interviews Rise Above Chaos student Ken McCoy about his experience with the RAC system and how it motivated him to leave his job and start his own business.
Ken describes his experience going through RAC workshop and the vision exercise that planted the seed that would ultimately lead to the decision to leave his job two years later and embark on his new journey owning his own cybersecurity.
Ken shares the role his wife, Tepi, played during the process and what life is like now for him as he starts this new phase.
Ken McCoy is the founder of Confiance Cybersecurity, a Colorado-based consulting company that believes a strong cybersecurity posture isn’t just for large corporations with unlimited budgets and large teams of IT professionals.
Confiance Cybersecurity offers a variety of cybersecurity services such as Cyber Resiliency Assessments, customized training, program and policy development, and third-party/supply chain risk assessments. Ken spent 32 years in the Information Technology field before starting Confiance Cybersecurity.
Ken and his wife Tepi live in Northern Colorado where they have raised four daughters. They love spending time in the mountains, camping, fly fishing, traveling, and generally spending time outdoors. Ken is an avid fly fisherman and spends time volunteering for Platte Rivers Veterans Fly Fishing, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Veterans through the sport of fly fishing.