Episode 13: Tactical Dinner Parties with Nate Palin
In episode 13, I chat with Nate Palin while he chokes down a year-old Diet Mountain Dew and talks about his career in the tactical training space.
Nate has decided he isn't a great chef; he's a decent dinner guest, but he excels at hosting 'dinner parties' in the tactical realm. He sets the table and makes sure the best people fill those seats.
Nate is a coach, speaker, author, veteran, and father of one. He served as a leader in the 2nd Ranger Battalion for seven years before transitioning to strength and conditioning.
Throughout five combat deployments in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, Nate experienced the military’s performance shortcomings firsthand. He observed the need for enhanced physical training to better support mission-critical tasks.
He began his coaching career in 2010 as the owner of The Movement Project LLC, an entrepreneurial personal training effort, then narrowed his focus to tactical strength and conditioning as a performance specialist for EXOS in Washington, DC, in 2012.
Nate coached Special Operations Forces at Joint Base Lewis-McChord from 2015 to 2018 before leading the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) Tactical program, where he co-authored Preparing for the Army Combat Fitness Test for Human Kinetics.
Nate was an adjunct professor for CalUPenn’s tactical strength and conditioning graduate program and recently served as Director of Education for the FitOps Foundation.
He collaboratively launched The Initiative, a physical and psychological health and performance collective that empowers military, fire and rescue, and law enforcement professionals through coaching, education, and consultation.
So what? Now what?
Nate speaks to putting the brakes on letting best be the enemy of better, and the fire service can undoubtedly take a lesson from that.
Get in touch with Nate:
https://natepalin@gmail.com
https://www.thestrategicinitiative.com
While you're on the ][ website, check out the sleep module from yours truly!
https://www.thestrategicinitiative.com/azs-course
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natepalin
https://www.instagram.com/strategic_initiative
Grab a free PDF and subscribe to the newsletter!
http://www.firerescuewellness.org/pdf
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Annette Zapp: 0:02
Thank you for joining me on the Fire Rescue Wellness podcast. I'm your host AZ. I find the research and resources and then provide the fire service with the so what? Now what? To ensure the health and well being of every member of our profession. Together, let's thrive! Hey there, everybody, it's AZ once again with the Fire Rescue wellness podcast and I am here on episode 13. It doesn't seem possible that we're already on episode 13 Holy cow. And I'm here with my friend Nate Palin. Nate say hello to the podcast people. Hello podcast people. Oh, such a good Hello. You know, Dr. Forbes episode just came out today. And it was so funny. He says, Hello, everyone. I was like Forbes, we gotta get fired up. All right, you need some pre workout to go with this creatine? More caffeine, more creatine. That is the answer. I always start every podcast with a just a little snippet about how I know somebody. And so Nate and I met each other in 2019. Back when he was the tactical Manager at the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and I was a baby presenter at the tactical conference. So we go way back to to 2019. Nate Rapid Fire question round, are you ready?
Nate Palin: 1:26
Interrogation? Go for it.
Annette Zapp: 1:29
I know you guys can't see it. But the bright, bright hot light bulb is over his head right now. Who is Nate Palin?
Nate Palin: 1:40
That's a great question. First and foremost, actually, let me back up. You can ask questions rapidly. I guess that doesn't mean I have to answer and rapidly but fair, not a year ago, I kind of went on that self discover in so this year has been a year of discovery and prioritization. And so I think when I think about thinking about thinking, myself, definitely first and foremost a father. That is by far, top priority. And I don't want to say it's how I define myself, but it's definitely how I assign value to other components in my life. Beyond that, and tightly tied to it is CO parent. Author of words that will probably never be read, cuz they're probably not worth publishing. And I would just say, proponent of all things that move the, quote, tactical health and performance field forward. Right now I'm trying to figure out which hats that means i where best to best do that. We don't have to spend this 45 minutes figuring that out, but when I do figure it out, I'll let you know because that's probably the professional answer to the who is me?
Annette Zapp: 3:06
I just thought of something and I probably should have prepped you for this. So you can totally say no.
Nate Palin: 3:15
What? It doesn't have to do with jail time? It might. Okay.
Annette Zapp: 3:20
Can you rap about Nate Palin on the spot?
Nate Palin: 3:27
No. Because I have a rule that I do not wrap when drinking.
Annette Zapp: 3:34
Oh, are you drinking?
Nate Palin: 3:36
Well, it's 10 past noon ANNETTE It is flat. I'm certainly drinking.
Annette Zapp: 3:47
So of course you all can't see what's happening.
Nate Palin: 3:53
That's disgusting.
Annette Zapp: 3:54
He hates the Diet Mountain Dew and he knows it's my favorite thing in the world. And so he grabbed one out of his refrigerator. But the joke's on him. This is a diet dew that's left over from when Vernon and I visited a year ago. Of course, it's gonna be terrible. You finish that? Finish it right now.
Nate Palin: 4:12
That's rough. Am I gonna start? Am I gonna start glowing green full disclosure. I've never had diet dew until this very moment.
Annette Zapp: 4:22
And you started with a flat crappy one. That was such a mistake. All right. While you enjoy your refreshing diet dew, question number two. Okay, what sets your soul on fire?
Nate Palin: 4:36
Oh, boy. I mean, I feel like it's a little early to disclose her name, but just Oh my Lord. This is not a relationship podcast. Well actually it is because it is relationships that set my soul on fire. So without a doubt what fuels me Is is building and I don't want to say maintaining because that has like a weird connotation to it. But like building and stoking is maybe a better term, just genuine relationships with badass people, of course, like yourself. And I think that's what gravitates me toward the tactical human health performance world is that there are so many badass people here, so many incredible relationships with all different types of dynamics. And it absolutely sets my soul on fire to continue to stoke the flames of these incredible relationships.
Annette Zapp: 5:41
I see what you did there, you used stoke and flames on a fire fighter podcast. Way to go. Speaking of relationships, I forgot to tell you before we started recording, the big meaty human says to tell you Hi.
Nate Palin: 5:56
The BMH says Hi? Him and I still need to set up a time to talk.
Annette Zapp: 6:01
That's probably never going to happen. Because he's just not that great with scheduling things.
Nate Palin: 6:06
I'm just going to show up at his doorstep and jump into his arms for the second time this year.
Annette Zapp: 6:13
You guys make it awkward. Okay, last Rapid Fire question. How are you changing the world?
Nate Palin: 6:23
I feel like that ties into how I think I'm changing the world by creating a platform that allows folks who actually have the power to change the world to change it. So I definitely figured out at some point, that I'm not really the best of chefs, I can be a decent dinner guest, but I'd rather be the host. So you know, I love to I guess sit down, set the table, invite the right people into the room, divided accordingly between the adults and the Children's table. And I'll let you decide which one you get to sit at. I will say both of them are serving adult beverages, so don't worry about it. But I think that's how I guess I'm changing the world. With my role at NSCA, currently with the Initiative, whatever I you know, step into next will hopefully kind of follow suit of just being able to leverage my only actual superpower, which is my network.
Annette Zapp: 7:32
That is an amazing answer. And I did not know where you're going with that. But you, you nailed it. You nailed it. Well, and that's a great segue. It goes right into what my first question was going to be. You know how you tend to surround yourself with people that have kind of your same philosophies. Same values, echo chamber, echo chamber echo chamber. And it's really interesting. Nate and I are not an echo chamber. We disagree about stuff all the goddamn time.
Nate Palin: 8:04
And we don't want yeah, we do. Here.
Annette Zapp: 8:07
We do not make stuff we don't fight. But it's like, here's one of the ones that I'll bring up a topic or seminar or something right?, and I'll say, I'm not loving this. Like, I don't think that this is the right platform or speaker or education for the fire space and Nate will shoot back: All education is good education. If we're helping firefighters, we're doing the right thing. And so can you. And I think you're right, I just don't want to like admit it all the time. But can you talk to us a little bit about that philosophy, how it's there's very much inclusion of educating in the tactical field. Go.
Nate Palin: 8:54
It's funny you bring this up because my my buddy David Peterson just sent me a text about how he has purposely been following different social media accounts that run contrary to his circle and his own beliefs as a way to kind of challenge himself and expand his his mindset. And I absolutely love that. And it definitely, I think relates to this question. I think what's really tough is I mean, it's right. It's literally a deeper philosophical question of like ends justifying the means, versus the means in itself. But I think sometimes we get a little bit too wrapped up in ideology and control and owning both the process and the outcome. And it can put us at odds with things that are still effective. So it's the old, you know, don't let best be the enemy of better. So there's often times where let's say you're asked to present somewhere and you might not completely aligned with the event, or the attendees or the host or whatever it is. But Michael Question always back to you is, is at the end of the day going to move the needle in a positive direction, neutral or negative for the folks that you actually aim to serve. Because if the answer is positive, and that takes you, you know, swallowing some degree of self righteousness, then I think it can still be worthwhile. Now, we don't want to totally sacrifice like our character and run completely contrary to what we believe in. And so obviously, we all have kind of our left and right limits. Certainly with the initiative, we have said no to certain entities. Even if we thought it could provide part of a solution to the tactical professional, which we hate to say no in those circumstances, but sometimes we just can't get on board enough with the delivery, you know, to get behind it. And so you're always weighing definitely pros cons of both. And, but what we have to be careful of is just not overlooking that, that net positive, it does have value. To be my own devil's advocate, as I'm saying that what you also have to be careful of is, you are sort of by proxy endorsing the platform that it's delivered on. So say some group says, Hey, Annette, we want you to come present. And you're like, who this group, I cannot get on board with what they're about. But they want my content to reach their audience and their audience is big. So okay, there's a net potential positive there both for you and for your audience. However, now you're lending your credibility, your legitimacy to that platform, basically, inherently, even if you don't vocally proclaim it. And so, you know, in lending that can that ultimately do more harm than good when they start to host other things that you don't necessarily agree with? Or their internal messages when you don't necessarily agree with? So there's no perfect cut, dry, easy, clean cut? Answer. But what I will say more often than not, things land on the fringes, and they're probably worth at least exploring, beyond our initial gut knee jerk response. I will say, in working with Vernon in particular, like, Vernon is passionate and emotional, and he he can be quicker to say no. And I have learned to really, like respect that and under like, I guess what I'm what I I tend to think things through which I think has value. But I also think that your gut is you're speaking for a reason. Doing don't look past that reason, keep it in your ear, even as you start to look at things a little less emotionally, and a little bit more logically. So it's like our it's like that comic we follow with like the heart and the brain.
Annette Zapp: 12:57
I love that. I love that. I do want to talk about the initiative. But before we get there, so press pause on that for one second. So knowing what we know, that education might not necessarily align with, say, our values as educators, or businesses or entities, how would you suggest to a fire department who certainly doesn't have a level of expertise in these types of services? How, how would you suggest to a fire department to sort of sort through the bucket? if you will? How do they do that?
Nate Palin: 13:41
I would engage a third party that doesn't necessarily have a vested interest that goes beyond the betterment of the field. So you know, that's where you can reach out to an organization like a national Strength Conditioning Association, or any of the other type of governing bodies that don't don't necessarily care if they make money off of your situation, but they're probably willing to offer some level of free consultation. It's definitely something that while I was there, I did for like, FDM why we did it for a lot of military entities. But, you know, a lot of times we might be part of the solution. But even when we're not, we're happy to talk about kind of the best route. And so we can provide a little bit of a less biased, but also a very informed third party perspective. And then beyond it, I can connect them to other folks who'd be willing to do the same. So certainly, some consultation services are going to come at a charge. But I think there's plenty out there that don't that are still extremely credible. Or even if they do charge in the long run, it's going to lead to a better solution. And so it's worth the investment. Like have somebody who can professionally vet the potential of what's out there before you just go ahead and pull the trigger on it.
Annette Zapp: 14:57
Yeah, there's there's The pervasive attitude within the fire service and also in law enforcement that something is better than nothing. So doing having someone come and talk is better than nothing, or having someone come and give a an exercise class is better than nothing. But I have seen a few cases where that absolutely isn't true. And so that's actually a, it's a really great suggestion, kind of reaching out to a third party that's not invested in the process. For some perspective, that's a great idea.
Nate Palin: 15:34
I know plenty of folks who have been part of a great solution, who their first order been business had to be unraveling the damage done by a previous party that had no business providing services. So you're right, something is absolutely not always better than nothing, especially when it turns off the personnel that you're trying to provide for, from engaging in future services, I think we see it the most and more on the mental health side of things, than we probably do the physical side of things. I think with physical, it's pretty easy for somethings better than nothing. I think for mental health, if you have the wrong practitioner or provider, it can really just reinforce an already existing stigma. And that can be extremely difficult to overcome.
Annette Zapp: 16:22
Agreed, I truly feel like you can try CrossFit and say, it's not for me, but I can try another type of exercise. But once you try a mental health provider and invest that time, sometimes it's very difficult to then go back and say this one didn't work, but I'm going to try again. But that's that's what we should be doing. But it's more difficult with mental health. I'm really glad you brought that up. So now we have another topic. But first, the initiative. Tell me Well, first of all, I'm thrilled to be involved with the initiative. It is it's super cool. I love the philosophy. I'm gonna say it wrong, but is it we can't lose if we want you to win.
Nate Palin: 17:08
Pretty clever, right? You can't, you can't compete with us if we want you to win. can't
Annette Zapp: 17:13
compete with us if we want you to win. I love it. And so a little bit over a year ago, Nate and Vernon came together and formed the initiative. And again, I was super honored to be invited to collaborate on it kind of on the ground floor. But why don't you tell the listeners because I have a variety of types of listeners, I do have firefighters, I do have professionals, I do have administration? Why don't you tell them a little bit about the initiative, and sort of what types of services that you provide?
Nate Palin: 17:48
Yeah, I mean, so our goal is to reconcile this discrepancy between a very idealistic approach that tends to be generated from health and performance professionals to a often ugly reality. That is, you know, the tactical environment. So whether that landscape is existing within military law enforcement, fire and rescue, we would almost argue doesn't necessarily matter so much is just understanding the reality of what folks are facing and how that can create quite a barrier between your, you know, ideological health and performance approach, and what they're able to action in real life. So the way we do that is primarily through education, at a variety of levels in a variety of ways. And so we have remotely delivered content that are basically self paced courses, we have an extremely extensive and holistic certification, that covers a little bit of everything, we kind of break it into three parts, which is the purposeful application of and accounting for stress. Whether that stress is applied through, you know, intentionally through training or whether that stress is being accounted for because it can't be avoided. And then a second part of it is about how to handle that stress to drive favorable adaptation, which sometimes is, as you would say, surviving, sometimes it is thriving. Sometimes it's dying a little bit less than you would have without some coping mechanisms. And then the last part of it, which I think is the most important, definitely the part I'm most passionate about, is where we account for the human element. So doing, you know, hey, we have stress, we have overcoming stress, but how do we actually do that in real life? And so that's part of what we navigate within there too. And then we also have many courses that are specific to different components such as the one that Annette you did on sleep. We have one on Nutrition. And then most importantly, in my mind, recently, we released one on mental health, delivered by clinical psychologist Alexis ganz. And the idea behind it is, whether you're trying to help yourself, whether you're trying to help your peers, whether you are a leader that is trying to change organizational climate, we provide solutions within that course, you know, for how to handle it, how to best go about business. So that's kind of where we're at right now with a remote platform. And then we also do in person workshops. These can exist at a variety of levels. So we could come in, for example, recently, we will work with a Special Operations Forces unit, and deliver directly to the end user. But we're also in talks with other organizations for delivering directly to the staff that support the end user. So that's something we've definitely navigated is again, going back to the adults table and the kids table, is, instead of talking so much out of both ends of our mouth, and trying to address say, both the firefighter and the coach, or other practitioner leadership that support them, we're kind of talking I guess, more at the adults table with the hopes of engaging leadership, engaging the coaches, and then often what we found is that they want to take our message, and either have us deliver it or they can deliver it themselves to the folks that they care for. So yeah, the remote assets. And then in person assets are the two kind of primary ways. And then we also do a good chunk of consulting in different avenues with different folks from kind of anything and everything, whether we're talking X's nose, I just had a call the other day about managing interdisciplinary teams, the list goes on.
Annette Zapp: 21:52
So as you were talking about the variety of services that you offer at the Initiative, what came immediately into my mind was, there are other classes for end users that last somewhere between 32 and 40 hours. And some of those classes teach the end user how to program for their peers, and how do fitness evals for their peers, and so on and so forth. What makes your course different than those courses?
Nate Palin: 22:26
Yeah. So I mean, the the easy answer is that we customize. So we base the content of our course on the needs of the people that we're talking to. So it's not a prefab decisions already made. Let's make a bunch of assumptions type, of course, for everything that say the practitioner course, because it's an example of that. And I certainly helped to push it at volume to a variety of entities. For everything that is the greatest part of it has always been and I've literally read 1000s of reviews, the instructors, instructors, instructors, instructors, not the content, it's who's delivering it. And so part of that is because the instructors have credibility in the space. But the other part of it is that they're able to adjust based on what's right in front of them. So the best instructors take that NSCA created content. And I don't want to say manipulate, but they adjusted just enough to better suit, whoever it is they're working with. And what is always cited as people's favorite part is nothing that's within all of this pages of content, it is a conversation they had in the parking lot. It is something that an instructor delivered personally to them that showed them how to do something better that they were struggling with, right? So it's always that human element that you can't prefab that makes a core so valuable. And so with ours one, we wanted to make sure that the content was adjusted to actually fit the needs of who we're working with. And then to make sure that whoever we employ to instruct is also the best person to deliver that content not just from a subject matter expert perspective, but also cultural competency, right. So their ability to communicate effectively, to whatever entity entity it is that they're talking to. So I think those are the two main things. The other thing is what we saw with the practitioner course, for example is it worked really well when it was part of a bigger picture solution. So a great example is like Fairfax fire. You know, you have professionals on the ground. You have a strength conditioning coach who also leads the program. You have a peer level kind of coordinator that oversees the different peer trainers, you have a dietician, you even have physical therapy and other mental health sets, things like that, that are accessible at various times. So that course coming in is part of a much bigger solution versus just a flash in a pan. And so those courses can ignite a movement sometimes, but there still has to be somebody there to continue to lead the charge. So there were times where honestly, I almost felt guilty having a place, you know, perform one of our NSCA courses, because I knew that there wasn't really anything else necessarily behind it to support it and keep that ball rolling. So with the initiative, that's part of the conversation we have is, hey, leadership, how is this part of a bigger solution? How else can we be involved? How else can we help them leverage other assets that provide services that maybe are beyond our scope, to make sure that again, they keep that ball rolling, and they keep that program building because 30 to 40 hours of which attendees are going to remember 30 minutes to four hours worth. It can be effective, but not as a standalone.
Annette Zapp: 26:11
And I think that that's the one of the biggest mistakes we make within fire, especially everything is a 40 hour solution. If you want to go learn how to operate the the fire engine, 40 hour class, if you want to learn how to extricate from automobiles, 40 hour class, if you want to learn how to design a health and wellness program and coach all the people and do all the testing and 40 hour class and human performance and health and wellness is not 40 our solution. And so the message, in case you weren't listening super carefully, the message is there that pure fitness trainers can be fabulous force multipliers, but really to get them to the level they need to be to the level your personnel deserve, there has to be a professional in place to supervise them.
Nate Palin: 27:04
Yeah, without a doubt. Now without a doubt, they're I think they can be great, as you said, I love the term force multiplier, you know, an extension of a primary asset, but we see it to the army loves to do the same thing. I was just talking to somebody about you know, Army Marines, everybody has their their master courses, which are one to two to a maximum of three weeks, there's no way you can generate a master within three weeks, you know, and then beyond that, those folks come back and you're, you're, you're better candidates to actually lead the lead the charge, you're going to be so overwhelmed with other tasks, that they're probably not even going to be able to really, you know, give the health wellness piece the time and effort it deserves, because they're probably also your best insert, you know, job here. So for the military, that might also be your best Breacher, it might also be your best, you know, leader, like there's so many competing tasks, competing demands, versus have somebody at the helm, who lives and breathes health and performance, and all kinds of roads go through them.
Annette Zapp: 28:09
So one of the things that I wanted to make sure and hit with you today, you gave a talk at the tactical annual training in August, you gave a talk to end all talks. And it was called when your crown grows thorns. And I'm just I'm gonna let you tell the people about your talk, where it came from, and kind of what it meant to you, and then sort of the reverberations from it afterwards. Ready, set, go,
Nate Palin: 28:42
Where it came from. It was absolutely born out of my own ignorance. I didn't go as far as to say like, reckless, irresponsible ignorance. So both with myself and with the people I coached. So, you know, during my time at a group, for example, there were plenty of situations where like, the hairs on my neck stood up when engaging with somebody in terms of like, there's something here that they need that goes well beyond my scope of practice. But what I didn't have or know or quite honestly care to take the time to do was figure out how to best hand them off like one how to engage them in the moment in an effective way to how do I hand them off to somebody who's truly an expert. And you know, these are around things like mental and emotional health. And it's definitely one of those terms that as soon as you say it in any weight room that I've pretty much been in in recent years, which is many, a lot of coaches are instantly like turned off and standoffish. So in I saw it not only with the people that we were coaching, I saw it with other folks in various staffs where I've worked. And then kind of the final breaking point was, was seeing it, but certainly choosing ignorance with regard to myself. And so, you know, over the years to give a short version, this escalated and got to a point where it was impossible to ignore, because it very, very greatly affected my own life. So what I wanted to do was, was turned that, you know, very weak period of my life, you know, recent adulthood into a positive. And so wanted to kind of find some power, you know, within that emptiness. And so, what I started to do was get informed, certainly, through some resources, in fact, that you that you had mentioned to me, but to try to figure out like, one, how do I solve this for myself? How do I get comfortable engaging, others who I see are experiencing something similar. So again, that the whole thing was born out of, I guess, my inability to step into my own shit. And also watching other people step into theirs and not lend a hand, because I didn't think that it was my hand that they needed. So what I've come to realize is, I'm exactly what they needed, because I'm somebody that they trusted and that they had a relationship with. And it's that relationship that matters most. And so no matter how we engage with somebody who needs some sort of help, we're all equipped to provide it, it's just a matter of at what level with which we're, you know, we can appropriately do so. So the idea behind the talk, as well as the idea behind the course, is essentially that no matter where you stand in relationship to somebody, if you do have a relationship, then you also have a responsibility to help them. And it doesn't mean that I'm going to go buy a black leather couch and sit them down on one end of it and sit down in the other and provide counseling that's well beyond my scope of practice. But what it does mean is, I need to know somebody that does have that black leather couch. And I need to have some sort of procedure in place to introduce whoever I have a relationship with who might be struggling to a more qualified asset. And that was, you know, I guess, probably emotionally, hopefully, emotionally because it felt emotional, you know, delivered with a Texas sized belt buckle. But that was the idea behind it is that we all have a responsibility. And it's time for us to accept that welcome that take it on, versus continue to ignorantly shun it, like many of us have.
Annette Zapp: 33:08
And I know you, your message was very clear, but I do know, you got some pushback, I think on LinkedIn afterwards, like you have no business talking about this, this isn't in your lane. And and I think you handled that really well. But I think the message that we need to send is that we all have business talking about this because we have to normalize a conversation.
Nate Palin: 33:30
Yeah, what I'll say is, like, you know, I think it was one naysayer, and I think they were probably just trying to be contrarian, but basically it was like, she was just say me, but just said we, basically anyone who's not an actual mental health professional has no business engaging in this, you know, Lane, which there's there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. So I don't think it's worth arguing now. But what I'll say is, the positive fallout from it has been overwhelming. I still I've there are three that I won't name just to keep their privacy, but three major entities have reached out since and said, Hey, we're taking steps to start a program. Can you help advise on some of this? Here's some of what we have going can we review this? You know, and I continue to get texts from people who have similar ambitions, kind of inspired by the talk. So I definitely feel good about where it landed the clarity of the message and kind of the call to action. And I think a lot of people not even I think I know a lot of people are finally taking action now in the same breath. I know a lot of folks still are not. And hopefully, you know, we can continue to to share this message and try to push more people in a better direction.
Annette Zapp: 34:54
I 100% agree. So tell them Me, Nate, what is next on the horizon for Nate Palin? Anything exciting going on? Or status quo? What do you got.
Nate Palin: 35:08
I mean, I've got an awesome week trip coming up. For personal reasons, I'm gonna gonna head down through New Mexico and Arizona see a lot of friends do a lot of biking, hiking, eating of good food and having a great conversation. So that's on the immediate horizon. Recently, I've started to engage with a whole lot of incredible people who I cannot believe are generous enough to give me their time, but they are, most of them are even running overtime on these calls. Just kind of discussing the lay of the land and tactical as I sort of figure out, you know, continue to run absolutely in conjunction with Vern in the initiative. But also try to kind of get back to being a part of a team, being a part of a bigger entity, you know, certainly something bigger than myself while we continue to build the initiative. And so I'm just having a lot of calls around sort of the tactical landscape, as I would call it. And then where my very strange background and set of skills might best the, you know, part of a potential solution.
Annette Zapp: 36:18
Any chance you're seeing Rob Hartman on that trip?
Nate Palin: 36:20
100% chance, I'm gonna see Rob. Rob, cheers with this diet dew to you!
Annette Zapp: 36:26
Yes. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT... this is mission critical, do not take that flat diet dew and try to load it off on Hartman.
Nate Palin: 36:35
That is a diet dew not?
Annette Zapp: 36:38
That is solid advice.
Nate Palin: 36:39
Stop here? Because that's half gone. What if I stop here? And I fill it up with something else? Then can I deliver it to Rob?
Annette Zapp: 36:48
It's still not gonna be very good, because you're... here we are. We argue about fundamental things. All right. If the listeners would like to reach out to you afterwards, social media handles email, if you want to, or the website for the initiative. What have you got?
Nate Palin: 37:09
Yeah, so my personal Instagram is @NatePalin, but you're mostly just going to see probably pictures of my kid and my dinner. Also @strategic_initiative on Instagram. Definitely LinkedIn is probably where I am most active. So again, you can look up Nate Palin on there. Luckily, I have a unique enough name. That's that's pretty much the handle anywhere you go. Best place to reach out to me for any type of professional engagement, if you want to set up some type of call, et cetera, is also going to be on LinkedIn. So I'll give you that rather than giving you my personal email at this time. And then the strategic initiative.com is going to be the best place to go to see all things initiative and then there's contact forms from there if you want to follow up with any additional inquiries.
Annette Zapp: 38:04
And if you want to see the course by AZ or Megan Lautz or the mental health course, all of those are there, as well. Yes. All right. Well, Nate, this has been a pleasure as always, is there anything that you want to leave the people with take
Nate Palin: 38:21
Take the initiative?
Annette Zapp: 38:24
Oh, snap. All right, take the Initiative! For now. This has been AZ and Nate Palin and we are officially... out!
