700: Keith Hawk & AJ Hawk - Conscious Competence, Delusional Confidence, Stacking Days, After-Action Reviews, Taking Big Risks, The Power of Compounding, and Modeling High-Standards

**Ryan Hawk** (0:00)
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Welcome to The Learning Leader Show presented by Insight Global. I am your host, Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Go to learningleader.com for show notes of this and all podcast episodes. Go to learningleader.com.
Now on to tonight's special episode. Every 100th episode I record with my dad and my brother today. We are celebrating episode number 700 Incredible. My dad, Keith Hawk, also known as Pistol, spent decades leading sales teams at LexisNexis, and has taught leadership in public speaking to audiences all over the world. He's also a best-selling author of multiple books including Get Real Selling. Pistol has that rare ability to be both universally liked by all and 100 percent respected. It's really cool. My brother, AJ Hawk, was an All-American linebacker at Ohio State where he won a national championship. He was drafted fifth overall by the Green Bay Packers. He played 11 years in the NFL, won a Super Bowl and was voted captain with the Green Bay Packers, and retired as the franchise's all-time leading tackler. Now, you see him every weekday on ESPN as a co-host of the Pat McAfee Show.
During this special celebration of 700 episodes, we discussed the power of delusional confidence, and why this is one of AJ's best attributes. Then, my dad's framework for being a consciously competent leader, and why vivid clarity is vital. We also each shared the biggest risk we ever took. We talk about big inflection point moments in our lives, and we ended as we always do with a draft. This one got a little weird. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy as we celebrate episode number 700 It's my dad, Keith Hawk, and my brother, AJ Hawk.
Pistol, AJ, it's number 700 Thank you for being here. Give me an update. It's been two years, September 15th, 2024 since the last time we recorded Pistol. I'll start with you because I know AJ said that you already scripted this entire thing out. What have you been up to for the past two years? Give us an update.

**Keith Hawk** (3:57)
You guys should know by now, I don't go by script. I have a set list.

**AJ Hawk** (3:59)
Okay. Well, what's on the set list then?

**Keith Hawk** (4:02)
The last two years, I've been spending about five months a year in Florida. That's actually a little longer than the last two years.
These days, I will talk to a couple of old LexisNexis people probably through the course of the day for one reason or another. I'll go to my spin class and get my cardio out of the way early. Then I'll go to the golf course and play 18 holes. I walk and then I have time leftover to do any other errands, duties I have and occasionally help people on something they're doing in their work, whoever that might be. All right.

**Ryan Hawk** (4:32)
AJ, how about you?

**AJ Hawk** (4:34)
A lot of the business as usual or what I was doing two years ago, I guess I've been joining the Pat McAfee Show every day, five days a week and then now we travel a decent amount, especially during the football season. We get to go do sideline passes, different things. We're watching a lot of the college football playoff games. That's been awesome. Going on site, doing shows, different things like that. Then as far as back home, just raising the four kids, I'm helping coach three different football teams right now. That's a little bigger commitment than I thought, but it's been fun. It's been awesome. Want to continue to keep doing what I'm doing, absolutely.