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Matthew 'Whiz' Buckley    

Decorated Navy TOPGUN fighter pilot; C Level Executive; Founder No Fallen Heroes Foundation

Matthew 'Whiz' Buckley is a highly decorated former Navy fighter pilot and TOPGUN graduate who went from the front lines to the front office. He helped run a multi-billion-dollar Wall Street firm and became CEO of a $25M financial media company he started at the age of 38.

He founded the No Fallen Heroes Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to healing our heroes with psychedelic assisted therapy. Whiz is a best selling author and his most popular book is 'From Sea Level to C Level: From the Front Lines to the Front Office'. He hosts the MAX Afterburner podcast which is ranked in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally.

An internationally recognized speaker, Whiz has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies as a speaker and executive consultant including McKesson, AT&T, Oracle, Fidelity, Capital One, and Cisco. He's the only speaker in the world who can bring his own fighter jet to provide a once in a lifetime experience.

Speech Topics


Superior Execution with a Corporate Battle Rhythm

Duration: 60 minutes

Organizations and teams plan. They have a plan to plan. 'Death by planning.'

But as GEN George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."

Discover the proprietary, combat and business tested process Whiz uses to plan quickly that also ensures plans are successfully executed with precision and accountability.

Key Takeaways:

  • PACED
  • Plan, Adjust with Red Team, Communicate, Execute, Debrief
  • Red Team
  • If you don't Red Team the plan before you execute, someone will gladly do it for you - your enemy, the competition
  • Debrief
  • Learn why the debrief is REQUIRED to improve future execution and learn HOW to do it right

The AART of Leadership

Duration: 60 minutes

Authority. Accountability. Responsibility. Trust. These components are required in order to lead high performing teams and organizations. In this powerful and direct presentation Whiz will engage and challenge everyone from the newest employee to the leadership team.

Using poignant examples from Wall Street to fiery crashes and mishaps aboard aircraft carriers, Whiz demonstrates the MUST HAVE requirements to be an effective leader and shows what can happen when these traits are lacking.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Four Required Traits
  • Improve the execution of your team immediately by ensuring alignment with AART
  • "I got it"
  • 3 simple words your team needs to say - and mean - to change your culture and improve execution
  • Decision Time for the Team
  • Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Debriefing

Duration: 60 minutes

High performing teams have one thing in common – they strive for continuous improvement. After every mission – combat or business – Whiz gets together behind closed doors and knocks out what’s called a ‘nameless and rankless’ Debrief. No punches are pulled and the team figures out what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to happen to improve current and/or future execution.

Key Takeaways:

It’s Not Who’s Right…It’s What’s Right

  • The Debrief is like Vegas and Church – what goes on in the Debrief stays in the Debrief and it’s an environment where the team is free to share where they’re falling short without fear of reprisal

Inside Out Criticism

  • The ‘Boss’ leads the debrief with ‘inside out criticism’ which lowers the barriers to communication and allows the entire team to share their observations

Lessons Learned

  • The deliverable of the debrief are critical lessons learned to improve execution, shared across the organization

Defeating Your Enemy with the Red Team

Duration: 60 minutes

In this powerful keynote Whiz shares a critical part of his proprietary planning process that most organization never do – and that’s why they fail. Before stepping to execute a mission – business or combat – Whiz gathers squadronmates or co-workers to act as the ‘enemy’ to attack his plan. This exercise makes the plan even tighter and increases the probability of success. If you don’t Red team your plan before you get airborne, someone else will gladly do it for you – the enemy.

Key Takeaways:

“Murder Board”

  • Discover why the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) calls this process a “Murder Board”

We’ve Met the Enemy – and it’s Us

  • A recurring reason organizations fail during execution is because they didn’t think like the enemy during the planning process

Contingency Plan Now – Or Pay later

  • The time to think about what you’re going to do when something goes wrong is not when something goes wrong. Whiz demonstrated how contingency planning will end ‘fighting fires.’

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