Cleared For Takeoff

In today’s world, we communicate constantly — through texts, emails, social media, and messaging apps. But despite all of this communication, many people feel more disconnected than ever.
In this episode of Cleared For Takeoff, Charles sits down with Renée Marino, bestselling author, global keynote speaker, and communication coach, to explore why authentic human connection is becoming harder in the digital age.
Renée shares how unconscious communication habits — like firing off quick texts or emails without thinking about tone or intention — often lead to misunderstandings and damaged relationships.
She also introduces two powerful questions that can instantly transform how you communicate. Whether you're sending an email, writing a message, or having a conversation, these questions help ensure your communication aligns with your intention and builds stronger connections.
Throughout the conversation, Renée explains why presence, eye contact, and authenticity still matter deeply in leadership, business, and everyday life — and why no technology will ever replace genuine human connection.
If you want to become a more thoughtful communicator, a stronger leader, and someone who builds meaningful relationships, this episode is for you.
 
In this episode you'll learn:
Two Questions That Can Transform Communication
The Illusion of Digital Connection
The “iPhone Effect”
Unconscious Communication Causes Problems
Authenticity Builds Trust
Human Connection Will Always Matter
Meet Renée:
Renée Marino is a bestselling author, global keynote speaker, and communication coach who helps individuals and organizations reconnect through authentic human communication.
She is the author of Becoming a Master Communicator and speaks to audiences around the world about presence, connection, and intentional communication in leadership and relationships.
Before becoming a speaker and coach, Renée worked as a Broadway performer and actress, including appearing in the film Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood. Today, she combines her performance background with communication training to help leaders and professionals communicate with greater confidence, authenticity, and impact.

Most personal development focuses on thinking your way through problems.
But what if the real answers aren’t in your thoughts—they’re in your nervous system?
In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles sits down with leadership coach Keith Mercurio for a deep conversation about human behavior, leadership, and the unseen forces shaping our lives.
Keith works with high-performing leaders who have already achieved success but want to unlock another level of awareness and influence. His work focuses on helping people understand how their early experiences, emotional patterns, and internal programming affect the way they lead, make decisions, and show up in the world.
Together, Charles and Keith explore:
Why so many leaders spend their lives trying to be “impressive”
How childhood experiences shape 80–90% of our personality
The difference between thinking your way through problems and understanding your nervous system
Why the world often acts as a mirror for what we still need to heal
How self-awareness unlocks the next level of leadership
This conversation moves far beyond traditional leadership advice and into the deeper internal work that shapes how leaders think, react, and influence others.
If you’re interested in leadership, personal growth, and understanding what truly drives human behavior, this episode will challenge the way you think about success and self-development.
 
Meet Keith Mercurio:
Keith Mercurio is a leadership coach who works with high-performing executives, founders, and leaders seeking deeper levels of self-awareness and influence.
Rather than focusing on traditional leadership frameworks alone, Keith helps leaders explore the internal patterns that shape how they think, react, and show up in the world. His work centers on understanding how early experiences, emotional responses, and the nervous system influence decision-making, relationships, and leadership.
Through coaching and guided exploration, Keith helps already successful leaders unlock a deeper level of authenticity, clarity, and personal growth—allowing them to lead with greater impact.
 

What if the biggest performance advantage in business had nothing to do with strategy — and everything to do with your health?
In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Jason Kunz, keynote speaker, safety expert, and performance practitioner, to explore how physical, mental, and emotional health directly influence leadership performance.
Jason shares the moment he realized health was non-negotiable while working inside 3M during the pandemic, where he witnessed how the nervous system of a leader becomes the nervous system of the entire organization. That insight reshaped how he thinks about discipline, habits, and the responsibility leaders have to care for themselves.
The conversation dives into practical strategies leaders can implement immediately — from tracking health data and stabilizing blood sugar to managing stress through breathwork and building environments that support better habits. Jason also shares his personal routines for staying healthy while traveling, the change equation that drives real transformation, and why many business leaders struggle to sustain energy despite professional success.
At its core, this episode is about understanding that leadership performance begins with personal health. When you manage your energy, habits, and environment intentionally, you become more stable, focused, and effective — not just at work, but at home as well.
If you want to perform at a higher level in business and life, this episode offers a practical roadmap.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The information provided in this video is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The hosts are not licensed medical professionals. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice based on content you've seen here.What to expect in this episode:
The Nervous System of the Leader Becomes the Organization
Awareness of Self Isn’t Enough
Health Data Drives Better Decisions
Environment Shapes Behavior
The Change Equation Explains Why Transformation Happens
Travel Doesn’t Have to Destroy Your Health
Breathwork Can Instantly Regulate Stress
Food Is Fuel
Leaders Must Model the Behaviors They Expect
Success Means Showing Up for the People Who Matter Most
Meet Jason Kunz:
Jason Kunz is a keynote speaker, coach, and trusted advisor who works with organizations to reduce serious injury and fatality (SIF) risk, strengthen leadership capability, and improve operational performance.
He is the founder of The Kunz Company, where he helps leaders move beyond traditional safety and health practices toward modern, high-trust, learning-focused approaches that support safer, more engaged, and more effective workplaces. Jason was recently recognized by the National Safety Council as a 2025 Rising Star of Safety, honoring his work advancing serious injury and fatality prevention, modernizing safety leadership, and improving worker engagement across industries.
Before launching his speaking and advisory business, Jason spent 15 years at 3M, serving in technical, sales, and leadership roles while partnering with teams across global manufacturing, industrial, and commercial environments. Throughout his career, he has delivered keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions for more than 25,000 people across 36 countries.
Jason is also a co-author and contributing architect of new ASTM standards focused on employee engagement and serious injury and fatality prevention. His work blends Human & Organizational Performance (H&OP), operational leadership, and over a decade of qualitative research and practitioner insights.
He holds both CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist) and CSP (Certified Safety Professional) designations. Jason lives in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area with his wife, Malia, and their young son, and spends much of his time helping leaders operate at their highest level — both professionally and personally.
 

Discipline is easy to talk about, but much harder to live.
In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Dan “Big D” Sachkowsky, a serial entrepreneur who has built, scaled, lost, and rebuilt businesses while developing a reputation for discipline, resilience, and no-nonsense leadership.
Dan shares the story of making nearly $4 million in profit by age 24, only to lose it all after chasing the wrong version of success. What followed was a complete reset. Through bankruptcy, rebuilding, fatherhood, business exits, and even a life-altering heart episode, Dan learned that achievement alone does not create fulfillment. Purpose does.
Together, Charles and Dan unpack what discipline actually looks like in daily life, why confidence without structure falls apart, how leaders sabotage growth by crossing lanes in business, and why coaching, mentorship, and accountability are often the shortcut most people avoid.
This episode also explores the difference between being a boss and being a leader, how culture is built through core values, why consistency matters more than obsession, and how to let go of control so teams can truly perform.
If you are a founder, business owner, leader, or someone trying to level up your life, this conversation will challenge the way you think about success, responsibility, and the habits required to build something that lasts.
In this episode you'll learn: 
Discipline starts with desire Dan explains that discipline does not begin with routines or rules. It starts with wanting something deeply enough to commit to the work required to earn it.
Achievement without purpose will always feel empty Making money, buying things, and hitting milestones did not fulfill Dan. He realized real satisfaction came when success stopped being about him and started being about impact.
You do not just go through hard things — you can grow through them One of Dan’s biggest messages is that adversity becomes valuable when you pull the lessons from it and use them to change how you lead, build, and live.
Coaching and mentorship accelerate growth Dan is direct about the value of learning from people who have actually done the work. In business, the shortcut is often found in the guidance of someone who has already used the shovel.
Confidence is not enough without discipline Confidence may tell you what is possible, but discipline is what makes progress repeatable. Success comes from preparation, daily habits, and showing up consistently.
Leaders must stop crossing lanes A major theme in the episode is that business owners stay stuck when they refuse to let others own their roles. Sustainable growth requires structure, trust, and clarity.
Strong culture starts with core values Dan argues that companies do not build high-performing teams by hiring for skill alone. Great cultures are built by hiring, rewarding, and firing according to clearly defined core values.
Personal responsibility changes everything Excuses and blame keep people stuck. Dan believes growth begins when leaders fully own their choices, their outcomes, and the role they play in both success and struggle.
Meet Dan "Big D" Sachkowsky:
Dan “Big D” Sachkowsky is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and business mentor known for his direct approach to discipline, leadership, and personal responsibility. Over the course of his career, he has built and sold multiple businesses, experienced both major financial success and devastating setbacks, and used those lessons to help other entrepreneurs create businesses that actually support the life they want to live.
Today, Dan works with business owners and leaders who want to grow with more structure, clarity, and purpose. His message is rooted in lived experience, not theory, and centers on discipline, resilience, coaching, and the belief that true success comes from impact, not image.
 

Many leaders believe growth comes from doing more: more customers, more projects, more opportunities.
Greg Heinemann learned the opposite.
In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Greg shares how applying the 80/20 principle completely reshaped his business. After analyzing the math behind his customer base, he discovered that nearly all of the company’s profit came from a small percentage of customers, while the majority of accounts were draining resources.
The solution required bold leadership.
Greg ultimately fired nearly 200 customers, restructured the business, and made difficult personnel decisions to refocus the organization on its most valuable opportunities. The result? Within 12 months, the company nearly tripled EBITDA without meaningfully increasing revenue.
Greg and Charles dive into the real lessons behind that transformation, including why revenue can be misleading, how leaders must develop the courage to make difficult decisions, and how focusing on your most valuable opportunities can unlock exponential results.
The conversation also explores how Greg’s perspective evolved after exiting the business world. Today, he spends his time helping pastors and ministry leaders through outdoor experiences that allow them to recharge, refocus, and return to their work with renewed clarity.
This episode is about more than business strategy. It’s about leadership, courage, priorities, and learning to focus on what truly matters.
In this episode you'll learn:
The 80/20 Principle drives business reality. In most companies, a small percentage of customers generate nearly all the profit while the majority consume resources without meaningful return.
Revenue can hide real problems. As Greg explains, “Revenue is for vanity, profit is for sanity, and cash flow is reality.” True business health comes from profitability, not top-line growth.
Courage is required to implement strategy. Knowing the math is one thing. Acting on it often requires difficult decisions like firing customers, restructuring teams, and eliminating distractions.
Focus creates competitive advantage. When teams stop chasing small opportunities, they gain the capacity to deeply serve their best customers and win larger, more meaningful opportunities.
Leadership is about enabling others to succeed. Great leaders shift from trying to score every goal themselves to creating the environment where the entire team can win.
The 80/20 principle applies beyond business. Greg eventually realized that the same principle applies to life. The things that matter most are rarely the things that take up most of our time.
Meet Greg Heinemann:
Greg Heinemann is an entrepreneur, investor, and business strategist known for helping companies unlock growth through the 80/20 principle.
Early in his career, Greg acquired and led a manufacturing company where he applied the Pareto Principle to dramatically improve profitability. By focusing the organization on its most valuable customers and eliminating distractions, the business nearly tripled EBITDA without increasing revenue.
After exiting part of the company, Greg shifted his focus toward mentorship, investing, and ministry. He is the founder of Full Buck Adventures, a nonprofit that provides pastors and ministry leaders with outdoor experiences designed to help them rest, recharge, and refocus.
Greg is passionate about helping leaders make courageous decisions in business while staying grounded in what matters most in life.

PR used to be about press hits. Now it’s about what the machine says is true about you, and whether people trust you when it counts.
In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide talks with Kristi Piehl, CEO of Media Minefield and author of Flip Your Script, about how public relations has evolved in the AI era, and why leaders can’t afford to be passive about their digital presence.
Kristi explains how Reputation Engine Optimization (REO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are reshaping visibility, why credible earned media still matters (maybe more than ever), and how to create consistent “breadcrumbs” that protect your brand and legacy over time.
They also break down real-world crisis lessons: what happens when leaders wait too long to respond, why “no comment” is still a comment, and how to balance authenticity with message discipline without becoming a “vanilla” version of yourself.
If you’re a founder, executive, or leader trying to grow trust, attract talent, and stay resilient when things go sideways, this is the PR reality check you need.
In this episode, we cover:
PR today is about message alignment: ensuring the message created is the message received, and that leaders/brands are understood in a positive, credible light.
AI changed the game: visibility now depends on what generative search tools summarize about you—meaning consistency, recency, and credibility matter more than ever.
REO + GEO: your reputation must be actively managed across websites, social, earned media, and thought leadership so the “machine narrative” matches the real one.
Humans still win: AI can help start drafts and organize ideas, but it can’t replicate lived experience, emotion, or true insight—what actually earns trust.
Silence expands the damage: in a crisis, waiting creates a vacuum where the public fills in the story for you. “No comment” is still a comment.
A practical consistency baseline: take one external-facing action per month (podcast, article, interview, blog) to keep your narrative current.
The 1-3-5 LinkedIn rule: 1 post/week, 3 comments, 5 likes—simple, sustainable, and effective for leaders building digital presence.
Authenticity isn’t oversharing: it’s knowing what you stand for and showing up as the real you, while still being thoughtful about brand risk and context.
Digital leadership + digital legacy: what you publish becomes the trail people use to decide whether to hire you, trust you, invest in you, or follow you.
Learn more about Kristi:Kristi Piehl is the CEO of Media Minefield, a national public relations and reputation management firm known for helping leaders and brands earn credible media coverage, build authentic executive presence, and navigate high-stakes moments with clarity. A former investigative journalist and Emmy winner, Kristi founded Media Minefield in 2010, turning a career disruption into a mission to modernize PR with strategy, truth, and trust at the center. She is the author of Flip Your Script, a playbook on using social media for good, digital leadership, and building a legacy through the stories we choose to share.
 

This episode looks a little different, and that’s the point.
Host Charles Eide pulls together four leadership themes that have repeatedly surfaced across Cleared for Takeoff and genuinely changed how he leads:
1) Personal Branding (Reputation): Charles reflects on lessons from Maha Abouelenein and others that reframed “personal brand” as something much more practical: your reputation. If you’re not intentional about what people find when they look you up, someone else will write that story for you. And as Maha says, “silence doesn’t scale.”
2) Identity (Beyond the Role): After decades building a business, Charles shares what it looks like to untangle identity from title, achievement, and work. From purchasing a ranch to rethinking what success actually means, this section explores why fulfillment can’t be tied only to performance, and why leaders need a grounded identity outside the grind.
3) Clarity (The Leader’s Job): Clarity is a retention strategy. Charles shares what he’s consistently hearing from job candidates: “I’m unclear about my future.” Drawing from leadership insights (and a Jim Rohn reminder to “study yourself”), this segment is about simplifying your message, repeating it, and leading from a place of internal clarity.
4) People Decisions (Protecting Culture): Performance matters, but culture is the multiplier (or the destroyer). Charles reflects on how one toxic high-performer can spoil a team, and why leaders have to make the hard call sooner than they want to. The takeaway is simple: your culture isn’t a department—it’s everyone’s job, every day.
This is an episode about leadership in the real world: reputation, identity, clarity, and the choices that shape your team. If you’re building something, leading people, or trying to become more intentional about how you show up—this one’s for you.
 
In this episode you'll hear:
Personal brand is reputation. If you don’t curate what people discover about you, they’ll fill in the blanks themselves.
Consistency compounds. Like the gym, you won’t see results immediately, but staying consistent builds trust and momentum over time.
Identity must extend beyond work. Achievement fades fast if it’s the only place you source meaning or confidence.
Clarity reduces burnout and increases retention. People leave when they can’t see their future. A leader’s job is to create and repeat clarity.
Study yourself to lead better. Self-awareness and reflection create the internal clarity required to lead others well.
Value drives pricing power. Price is a measure of value, and clarity on differentiation makes pricing easier to communicate.
Culture beats performance (when evaluating people). A toxic high-performer can create long-term damage that outweighs their results.
Culture is everyone’s job. It’s the “weather” of the team—created and reinforced through daily behavior, not posters on a wall.
Investing in yourself is portable. Personal growth is a skill you can take anywhere, in any season, in any role.
Learn more about Charles Eide:
Charles Eide is the founder and CEO of EideCom, an event production company known for executing complex, high-impact live experiences with exceptional care, creativity, and precision. He is the host of Cleared for Takeoff, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, leaders, athletes, and high performers to unpack the lessons behind building great teams, strong cultures, and enduring businesses. With more than two decades of experience growing an organization from the ground up, Charles brings a builder’s mindset to leadership—focused on clarity, people, and continuous improvement both inside and outside of work.

Stem cells get called “God cells” for a reason—and in this episode, Seth Berge makes the science understandable.
Seth explains what stem cells are (your body’s repair system), why healing slows down as we age, and how regenerative therapies can support recovery by addressing the root cause instead of just masking pain. Charles and Seth dig into the real-world use cases people care about most: joint pain, cartilage degeneration, shoulder tears, and avoiding major surgeries like knee replacements.
They also tackle the ethical question head-on. Seth walks through how modern regenerative products are sourced from screened, donated birthing tissue (most commonly the umbilical cord’s Wharton’s Jelly), why it’s considered immunoprivileged, and how the U.S. processing and sterility standards differ from the “go overseas” era many people remember.
Plus, Seth opens up the business side: how he built a nationwide concierge model, why dinner seminars still convert, and what he’d tell any high-performing salesperson trying to find the right industry and mentor.
 
In this episode you'll learn:
Stem cells = your body’s repair system. They’re “undifferentiated” cells that can communicate with your body and support tissue repair.
Aging reduces both quantity and quality. As you get older, you have fewer stem cells—and the ones you have aren’t as effective.
Wharton’s Jelly is the “gold” in the umbilical cord. Many commercial regenerative products focus on the umbilical cord’s Wharton’s Jelly, which contains valuable regenerative components.
Ethics clarified: Modern sourcing is not fetal/embryonic—it’s donated birthing tissue from healthy, screened mothers with strict collection and processing standards.
Local injection vs. IV: Local injections target a specific injury/joint; IV therapy is used more systemically for inflammation, organ health, and some people’s longevity protocols.
The goal is root-cause healing, not temporary relief. Seth contrasts regenerative therapy with symptom-focused options like cortisone shots.
Regenerative medicine’s “next frontier” may be organ regeneration. Seth references the direction of research and the potential for lab-grown organs using a person’s own cells.
Business insight: Seth scaled access and education with a nationwide provider network and “one-to-many” dinner seminar marketing—then expanded into distribution for clinics.
 
Meet Seth Berge:Seth Berge is a regenerative medicine educator and stem cell industry leader with nearly a decade of experience helping people understand and access modern regenerative therapies. He’s the founder of Regenerative Revival, a direct-to-consumer concierge model that coordinates treatments nationwide, and he also works with medical providers through his distribution and manufacturing network—helping clinics source products, communicate clearly with patients, and build sustainable regenerative medicine programs. Seth is known for making complex science approachable, with a mission centered on education, access, and helping people find alternatives to surgery and long-term pain management.

In this episode of Cleared for Takeoff, Charles Eide sits down with Jason DeRusha — a longtime journalist turned talk radio host and digital creator — to unpack what’s happening to trust, truth, and storytelling in modern media.
Jason shares what’s changed inside newsrooms over the last 20+ years, why local news often feels less ideological than national outlets, and how bias shows up most in which stories get covered (and which ones never get pitched at all). They dig into the algorithm-driven reality of the digital era: echo chambers, tribalism, and the uncomfortable truth that many people think they’re informed because they scroll headlines.
The conversation also shifts into leadership and personal growth: why it’s a strength to be challenged, how to balance entertainment with meaningful conversation, and the moment Jason realized he was “treading water” and needed a new challenge — even if it meant leaving a job he loved. They close with what legacy really means: being a good friend, a good father, and someone who brought joy while modeling that people with different opinions can still talk and respect each other.
In this episode you'll explore: 
The algorithm is in charge now
Big media and local media aren’t the same game. 
Media bias shows up most in story selection
People crave being right 
Curiosity is a competitive advantage 
Growth sometimes means leaving comfort. 
The best leaders invite challenge — real strength is staying open when someone on your team proves you wrong
Meet Jason:Jason DeRusha is a media veteran with more than two decades of experience in journalism and storytelling. Known for his sharp curiosity and distinct voice, Jason spent years in local television news before making a major leap into talk radio and digital content. Today, he blends facts, nuance, and humor to spark smarter conversations — while using his platform to highlight community, local businesses, and the ideas that bring people together (even when they disagree).

How do you go from survival mode at 15… to building a company that supports global product launches in 52 countries?
In this powerful conversation, Charles Eide interviews Jay Strommen, the “man behind the curtain” who helped Apple scale its iconic retail experiences—starting with one table, one bold yes, and one life-altering moment: Steve Jobs walked up, inspected the build, and said, “It’s good.”
But this episode isn’t just about brand-name wins. Jay opens up about the childhood trauma that fueled his drive, the internal “not good enough” story that followed him even through massive success, and the personal transformation that changed how he leads today.
You’ll hear what he learned from building relationships with leaders at brands like Disney, Nike, and Nordstrom—and why the best leaders don’t lead with numbers… They lead with intention.
In this episode you'll learn:
Curiosity is a leadership superpower. Jay’s “be curious” philosophy becomes the bridge to trust, influence, and better decision-making.
Empathy isn’t fixing—it's sitting with someone. He explains compassion as the ability to make people feel seen without trying to solve them.
Relationships beat transactions. Jay built long-term trust before he “had anything to sell”—and that trust became his unfair advantage.
The real flex is reliability. “We say yes when others say no” only works if your team consistently delivers under pressure.
Success won’t heal self-worth. Even at the peak—big revenue, big projects—Jay realized achievement doesn’t automatically create peace.
Belonging scales performance. The strongest cultures “don’t make it personal”—they rally around solving the problem together.
Lead with intention, not numbers. Numbers matter, but when you start with a number, people become transactional. Start with values and support, and the number follows.
About Jay Strommen:
Jay Strommen is a business builder and relationship-driven leader known for helping iconic brands bring retail experiences to life at massive scale. He played a key role in transforming PD In-store from a legacy printing company into a global execution partner supporting high-stakes product launches, complex deployments, and “impossible” timelines—earning trust with teams inside Apple and beyond.
Jay’s story is defined by contrast: early hardship and survival, followed by building a high-growth company—while learning that external success doesn’t automatically create internal peace. Today, he speaks openly about leadership, intention, curiosity, and the responsibility leaders have to create a true sense of belonging for the people they serve.