active CEO Podcast #68 Abraham Kamarck Leadership Lessons From The Sky

Abraham Kamarck – Founder True Made Foods

On this episode of the active CEO
Podcast, Craig Johns speaks with Abraham Kamarck about leadership lessons from
the sky, being a Naval Aviator, transitioning from the Navy and how a dislike
to ketchup led to creating True Made Foods. We also dive into air speed is life
and altitude is life insurance, learning to say no, understanding the cultural
environment you work in, and placing family at the core of the story.

Abraham Kamarck – Leadership Lessons From The
Sky

Abraham Kamarck is a design
thinking professional who makes cool products, starts movements and changes
behaviour. He is a former Seahawk Helicopter pilot on counter-narcotics
missions, business mentor and judge of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan Arab
Region. With a zest for launching multiple businesses in challenging
environments, Abraham has lived and been an entrepreneur in more than ten
countries including Bulgaria, Ghana, Jordan, Egypt and currently the USA.

Abraham has studied a BA
East Asian Studies from Vanderbilt University and an MBA in Business
Administration and General Management at the London Business School. His career
commenced as a US Navy Naval Aviator and Division Chief for the US European
Command, before moving out of Defence Forces to become an independent
consultant, CEO of Viomel Limited, Director of Innovation Coexist Foundation,
Principal of Maendeleo Ventures LLC and is currently the CEO and Founder of
True Master Foods.

Abraham talks about:

• Growing up in Washington DC and Brooklyn, with diverse cultures, people and food.
• “Moderation in all things including moderation”
• Being a fox and not a hedgehog.
• Remain calm, composed and focused during very complex and high-pressure situations.
• How to process a lot of information very quickly and get to the most important things first.
• Aviate, navigate, communicate.
• Prioritising information as a senior executive or an entrepreneur
• You have got to realise what is going to kill you, and focus on it first.
• The importance of having a “tool program”.
• Not being prepared for transitioning out of the Navy.
• The core for doing well in business as a start up is saying no!
• Starting True Made Foods at 38 years old with four kids.
• Being an entrepreneur and working with the culture in Qatar.
• No one is really disrupting ketchup yet.
• Will it pass the five year old test?
• Why Amazon and e-commerce are valuable for start-ups.
• The pro’s and con’s of having co-founders.
• How to figure out that work life balance and get it right?

Active
CEO Performance Tip

CEO Flow – It’s the psychological state
that we need to get ourselves into where we have an out of body experience,
because everything happens so effortlessly. If you’ve planned, prepared and you
put yourself in a state where you feel like you are living what you are about
to say, then you are more likely to get into that flow state. When you are in
flow, everyone engages and connects with you.

Tweets

“The more people working for equity and not salary
the better your company is going to do.” The importance of
co-founders, with Abraham Kamarck, on the
active CEO Podcast.

“A lot of my aviation training works well as an entrepreneur. In both
cases you are basically trying not to die the whole time. You basically use the
same strategies. How to process a lot of information very quickly and get to the
most important things first? When you are falling out of the sky you don’t have
time to spend time figuring out what is happening with the aircraft. You have
to identify the problems immediately and fix or save yourself. ” Focusing on
what will kill you first, with Abraham Kamarck, on the active CEO Podcast.

Resources Mentioned in this show:

Abraham Kamarck LinkedIn
Abraham Kamarck Facebook
Abraham Kamarck Instagram
True Made Foods www.truemadefoods.com
True Made Foods Facebook
True Made Foods Instagram
NRG2Perform www.nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn