Hello, world, and happy holidays to you and yours from the Discover Your Talent podcast team.

Our gift to you this week is three encore interviews of some of the most popular shows from the last 12 months.

We hope you enjoy them, and we look forward to sharing the journeys of more fascinating guests in the coming year.

My father, David, and Mom Joanne had me, and then three other siblings, Dan, Laura, and Mark.

One of the things that all of them taught me was the importance of perseverance and determination,

the will to succeed at whatever you put your mind to.

And we would always challenge one another to be the best that we could be.

I'm delighted to bring you our featured guest, Colonel Christopher D. Kalinda.

Welcome, Colonel.

Thank you very much, John. I appreciate you having me.

Well, it is our pleasure.

Are you using your talents doing work that you love?

Oh, absolutely.

All righty.

We want to hear the whole story.

Christopher D. Kalinda, Ph.D., is the founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy, which helps non-profits and small businesses maximize their impact by getting the three big things right, leadership, culture, and strategy.

Colonel Kalinda led the only counterinsurgency effort in the 17-year war in Afghanistan who motivated a large insurgent group to

stop fighting and eventually join the government. His team was so effective that Chris was handpicked

to rewrite the entire strategy in Afghanistan. He served as a personal advisor to three four-star generals

and was picked to be the Secretary of Defense's representative in exploratory

talks with the Taliban. He was awarded the Department of Defense's top civilian award for his work

on strategy. He now helped small businesses and nonprofits to get the big things right.

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