Good morning, everybody. This is Stephen Hartz here with H and H Impact, starting our fourth podcast today. And I have with me Charles Hall.

Hey, Charles. Hey, Steve. I’m pretty excited about this journey that we’re on with podcast.

We’re enjoying a winter wonderland here in Leavenworth. It’s beautiful here and excited just to spend some time with you talking about the journey. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.

I’d like to give everybody Happy New Year. You know, we kicked back off our podcast as we started the new year. We took a little bit of break, some time with our families and everything.

How was your holidays, Charles? It was relaxing, full of family and skiing, great outdoors. And as the beginning of the year starts off, Here we go, 100 miles an hour. Absolutely.

Yeah, it was. Holidays were a great time. We got time to spend time with family.

We had some friends come in from Columbia, got to do trip to New York. Yeah, you hit New York City. That was awesome.

New York City, you know, during Christmas time, it’s always amazing. Just the lights, the decorations, you still have all the crazy chaos. But it was.

It was fun for the family. I was completely envious as I called you from the slopes of Whistler. As you were just in the city.

It was just. I’d rather be where I was. No, I. Careful how you articulate Whistler in Christmas time.

And the snow is. It’s hard to beat. Absolutely hard to beat.

But. Well, listen, I’m looking forward to kicking off our fourth podcast and the third podcast. You had the opportunity to interview me, learn about my history and my background.

And this podcast, it’s my opportunity to get to interview you, learn about your history, your childhood, and kind of what got you into healthcare. I’m looking forward to it. Epic.

Yeah, it’s good to kind of reflect on all these years, how the heck we got here and maybe where we’re going. And so the path kind of talks about who we are today and where we’re going. Absolutely.

And, you know, it was interesting, you just recapping in my podcast with you just, you know, the things you realized as a child that you did, and they’re like, why am I here? And it was fun. It was fun to reflect on that. And I’m looking forward to getting to learn about you.

Little announcement on our side on H and H Leadership Solutions. We’re excited that we have an upcoming. Really? Launch of a new company for us.

You want to talk about that a little bit, Charles? Yeah. I’ll kind of set the table here. Both Steve and I are kind of rooted also in ems.

My father was a paramedic, and I remember going through first responder course in high school, and then as a hospital corpsman on the ambulances and a history within EMS and around ems. And as Steve and I started working together, EMS was just a cornerstone of all that we’ve done, and it just kind of made sense, too, Steve. Well, I agree.

And then, as you know, when we’ve been doing this for the last several years, we sit there and look at what other things our clients needed. And EMS was a constant challenge for a lot of our rural hospitals. And as we started diving into that and we had the opportunity to be the managing partner for nimsma, that led us into more EMS work.

And then it just kind of evolved from there. And so I think in our next podcast, we will be talking much more about our EMS future and everything. But, yeah, it was a nice.

I’m excited about that. It was a great announcement to get that kicked off. And now I’m ready to learn about you.

Well, good stuff. I’m excited about our future and where we’ve come and where we’re going. Really talks about the expertise of our past and how we came together.

Absolutely. So I’ve known you really kind of going back 2019, when you and I had the first opportunity to get together, but obviously your story goes way farther, longer than that. You know, I like to say you’re the oldest, but really is.

You’re only a year older than me. Wow. But why don’t we start.

Tell me. Start from your overall, just kind of a review of your resume, who you are and where you’re from. And then let’s kick off into your younger years.

Yeah. I’ll start off by saying in the level that I have no idea, if I go back 20, 30 years ago, that we would be here today doing the work that we’re doing. I’m very supported in my family life.

Great wife and three kids, parents full of love all these years. And so the journey is, I would call a curveball always, and adapting and moving forward. And it’s just been.

It’s just been an amazing journey over these last. Well, I guess I’m 50 and you’re 49 again. Yeah, 49 and a half.

I’m here. I hit my 50 in May. Well, I grew up kind of divided between two big states, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

I grew up in two families there, my mom and my father. When I was young, kind of went different ways a bit, and we became A Brady Bunch family for a bit. And I have quite a bit of siblings and enjoyed a childhood full of a lot of sports, a lot of faith, and a pretty loud family who really enjoys our time together.

And I can’t say, Steve, back then, I was a great student. Not at all. I’m pretty pleased that I made it through high school.

Just say it that way. But it was a great childhood, filled with love, yet maybe lack of focus. I think as a younger man, I think many of us can relate to that.

But when you talk about big family, I’ve gotten a chance to meet most of your family. When you say big family, how many brothers and sisters do you have? I have four brothers, three sisters, and all on their right successful, amazing journey across the United States and many of them around the world. And so it’s been pretty awesome to see where they’re going and how our relationship still stands strong.

That’s awesome. And then growing up in New Mexico and Wisconsin, I’ve been to both places. I mean, two really, really different locations.

If you had to pick the thing you like most about New Mexico and the thing you like most about Wisconsin, what do you think those would be? Yeah, New Mexico. I was born in New Mexico and I did my early childhood there through third graders, something thereabouts. And move.

Moved up to Wisconsin and then in high school, moved on back to New Mexico. For those who haven’t been to New Mexico, absolutely beautiful state. Big, wide open skies with mountains.

It’s a little drier than I like, but I. I enjoyed outdoor sports and motocross and all that fun stuff. And living in. In Wisconsin, a very small town, a very farming town, I got to really grow up in the rural, rural environment.

And somewhere in that journey, I’d say, really because of the ruralness, I’m country. I love it. Buckle boots kind of guy.

And very much enjoyed that diversity that I experienced in my youth. Well, you know, it’s. My parents also, when I was in high school, got divorced and I stayed in the same area.

But when I grew up, I was traveling all over the world. You know, when you were younger, as you’re traveling between the two states, your mom and dad and. And you have that opportunity to experience two different lifestyles.

You know, it’s. It’s different. You know, it’s.

I think about New Mexico and when you talk about motocross in the open country, as a kid growing up mostly in cities, I never got to experience that. And so, like, when I go out to New Mexico now or Colorado and Those places and you see the openness. It’s amazing.

It’s just there’s a sense of freedom there, whether you have it or not. It feels like there’s just so much openness There is. And so it sounds like that’s an invite.

That’s what I heard. So we’re here in Washington state and it sounds like I have to teach Steve how to ride a motorcycle. So let’s make that occur.

That’ll be exciting. A good journey in the backcountry. Yeah, I would enjoy trying that out.

I was a road bike guy for many, many years, but I never got the opportunity to ride motocross, so. But all right, so we’ve learned a little bit about your childhood. Let’s fast forward.

You’re in high school. You know what ultimately led you to join the Navy? You know, I early alluded that maybe I wasn’t the most focused student, played quite a bit of sports. So when I got out of high school, I attempted to survive.

That’s a good word, survive. Various jobs, trying to understand what life is without maybe college or any advanced education. And so I quickly realized a car payment, insurance, living, food off of, you know, five, ten bucks an hour probably wasn’t going to be worth my while and enjoyed the idea of medicine or healthcare or something of that nature and joined the Navy as a hospital corpsman.

Very at the bottom. E1 went to boot camp in Chicago in the Great Lakes and was pretty excited when they sent me to corps school there in San Diego. And I can tell you there was three huge manuals on paramedicine and what that looks like and what I needed to do, go into the hospital, be in the field and so forth.

And as I looked at those three books and knowing that I wasn’t the greatest student, that was my first biggest academic challenge. And I watched and Steve, you know, this journey, attrition or fallout from life, I watched a lot of folks not make it through, which put them on a ship in San Diego, scrubbing floors and painting halls. And that was inspiration enough for me to actually do quite a bit of all nighters to study and to pass.

And so it was probably my first experience on learning to learn. That’s awesome. You know, the Corps min rate in the Navy HM rate is unique because, you know, it’s one of the largest rates in the Navy.

When you come in as a corpsman, you can go in a million directions. You can go into dental, radiology, all these different things. You can be stationed to a hospital, stationed to a Ship.

You know, when you became a corpsman, how, how did your, I guess, evolution within the corpsman rank develop? Would, did you select what you wanted to do? Were you told what you wanted to do? I, I know the, the saying the needs of the Navy represents probably 90 of what happens to us, but how did your, your evolution into what you did in the core develop? That’s a great question. I’ll say that I have themes throughout my whole life of circle of life, things that just brings it all back around. And
I remember when it came to selection day in San Diego after graduation, of course, school, it was done off of rank.

And so they put all of the billets on the board, and whoever was first in the class gets to pick second, third, fourth. And I made it to seven. So I was like, okay, that was pretty cool.

And I was really exploring one of two locations for different reasons. San Diego is a beautiful, beautiful town. And that all made sense to me.

And you’re going to giggle, Millington, for a whole different reason. I have my youngest brother, who I’m 19 years older, was just born. And so that was very attractive to go home and spend time with my youngest brother.

And so when it was my time to pick, it was a God moment. I’m a guy who researches a lot. And I looked up at the board and what I saw was Oak harbor, which is a circle of life moment.

And I said something, because I said it out loud. I said, newport, Rhode Island, But I didn’t even know where Rhode island was. I didn’t know nothing about it.

My heart was set on San Diego and Millington. And when I said it, it definitely was a God moment because it propelled my career like no other. And so, you know, Rhode island, absolutely.

Home of the Naval War College. It’s where surface warfare officers go to train. Spent many a time there.

Great place to be. Absolutely wonderful. I spent five years right there on the water.

Now, that sounds pretty exciting. And then you go a little bit further in the barracks with the cafeteria a mile away. And so it was for, for a young corpsman, a young sailor, a wonderful experience.

I think I was living off of 500 bucks a paycheck and so trying to survive with the car payment and whatnot. But in the, in the Navy or in the Corps, you, once you get to your station, you’re assigned, so it’s not much of a choice. So I was so blessed to be put in the records department the first.

And this is not electronic medical records. That was in a day. This is for a Year filing record chits.

And where’s the record, where’s the record, where’s the record? And so eight hours a day, all we did was file chits for the first year. Yeah, that’s. I remember that I have my encyclopedia, healthcare record volumes, five lunches, two books worth.

Yeah, I can imagine that was not a bad way to start the. Oh, it was a motivating way to get out of there. Exactly.

And so the sexy side of healthcare at the time for a young man is let’s jump on the ambulances. And so EMT and paramedicine and all that other stuff was a potential journey. And so you applied, applied, applied, and once you were accepted, one chance to get in.

So I got in. And so back in the day where hospitals had ambulances and the ambulances were deployed, that’s. That happens today in the more rural environments, but not as common as the urban.

We had the bat phone in the er and so when the bat phone rings, you jumped on the rig and off you went and, and brought the patient back. And so that was my first true exposure to ambulance world and the ER world. And the hospital core is pretty awesome because you work under the physician’s license.

So the stuff I was able to do then, I’m not able to do now as later on I became a nurse, but from suturing and delivering meds and was a pretty awesome way to begin a medical career. That’s phenomenal. And so from Rhode island, what was your next step after that? Did you immediately start that transition to college or did you have another tour? How’d that journey? Well, I mentioned a little bit of lots of circles of life, but also God moments.

And so I get to Rhode island and Rhode island, as you stated, was home of the War College and ois, but it was also naval preparatory school there. And at the time a program called Boost. Do you remember Boost? I remember Boost.

And Boost was designed to help sailors advance in the Navy through education into the officer ranks. And it wasn’t really designed for those who were high academic achievers. And so I got exposed to it, some of my buddies began to go through that.

And so that exposure led me to raise my hand and apply. And so this was a 10 month course of academics. And if you made it through that course, then you got a full ride scholarship to a school of your choice with a Navy ROTC program.

That’s phenomenal. I remember Boost. And then they had a few other programs, STA21.

And I think that was one of the awesome things about The Navy Admiral Borda, right? Yeah, Admiral Borda, yeah. He was the one who was the strength team in the Admiral program. Team in the Admiral program.

And he was a phenomenal leader in so many ways. But then you look at that program to give sailors opportunities to advance. So then you get selected and then what made you choose your college? So somewhere before the Internet as the Internet, somewhere in that you requested schools.

And so I took, I think about two, three weeks off and I did a 30 state tour and just went to school after school, after school and tried to figure out what I wanted. And University of Colorado was awesome. Salt Lake, University of Utah was amazing.

Arizona and even Florida schools and whatnot. And what I was actually looking for was a top school because I got a nursing scholarship. And so I looked at those schools and believe it or not, the greatest university of all time, Washington State University, came up as number four or five of those schools.

And that was located Washington State near the Idaho border and the Idaho, Washington State, Rockies and rural environment. Back to the roots. And it was perfect.

It was four seasons. You saw the mountain, you saw the countries. It all made sense to me.

And so I got there on a Saturday morning, first time in Washington State, and started school on Monday. And it’s been impactful all our life. This is our third time living in Washington State.

This is where we’re raising our family. It’s just a beautiful state. It is.

I know a little bit about at least the ROTC program now. We had a helicopter pilot who ran the ROTC unit maybe seven, eight years ago that we. And my admiral came and we spoke to the rot.

Been there. So I’ve been there and. But you were blessed to get there.

This is great. Now nowadays the ROTC program is part of, I believe, University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. But it covers them.

And you’re right, it’s easier to say Washington State University, but the reality of it is the program is out of University of Idaho and it’s a joint unit between Washington State and University of Idaho. And those majority of those classes at the time are held in Idaho, which is about seven, seven miles away. And so many of my naval sciences courses were taken at Idaho.

And then these were 5, 5:30 in the morning, a couple of times a week in uniform, PT in the whole nine yards. So we were, we were still tied full time to the military, to the Navy, while going to school, while still reporting. So yeah, I, it was a beautiful area when we were out there, but I. You did some education out there, didn’t You.

We did, yeah. We were doing some training. But I. What I found interesting about it was I, you know, I’m like, hey, this is Moscow, Idaho.

Yeah, no, it’s Moscow. Moscow, Idaho, or whatever. But beautiful place.

So you completed your time there. I would imagine, even today, you know, the nursing corps is mostly made up of females. And I would imagine going through the Rothi program, as you transitioned, you had to be probably, what, one of three, four males in your class, or were you a half and half class? So in Washington State, at the Washington State University, there’s.

You’re there at the Pullman campus. I always call it the promised land. It’s one of my favorite places on this planet for a thousand million reasons.

But the second half of the four years was up in Spokane, and that was at a joint school between Gonzaga, Washington State University and Whitworth University for the nursing program. And there you had about 100 folks in your class. You’re right.

I think there was four or five gentlemen in there. And that’s where I got the first taste of what nursing was about. I got exposed to the nursing philosophy and the patient centeredness and so forth.

I was there in that leadership world because of the military. So it kind of propelled me into student government, student president, the college president, student president there, and was able to really understand college dynamics and how that works. The academic side, the importance of that, got exposed to the professors and the leadership of the university.

So more and more because of those experiences. I can’t tell you how important and valued I experience I had at the greatest university of all time, Washington State University. And you’ll hear me say that nonstop, because it’s that important to me.

No, I think our college years meant a lot to us. Like for myself, Virginia Tech was amazing. Blacksburg, Virginia, will always hold a special place in my heart.

You know, we can obviously argue the merits, but we know that you are the better. But, you know, so I would imagine as you completed your program, similar to the core, you know, you get your class ranking, you have your list of places you can go. So how did you choose your first assignment out of college? What I’ve learned over the years is, you know, there’s different exposures, different experiences that you can get.

And so I looked at Washington, D.C. bethesda Naval Hospital, and I vibed for that position to go out there back then and probably still true today there for either physicians, young physicians going through med school, or nurses, there are some great training places to do it.

San Diego was one of them. Jackson, Norfolk, And Bethesda Naval Hospital. So I went out there for a summer to do an internship at Bethesda, which really set the table for me coming back.

And even through those years, because you were a Navy and you say, hey, Charles, you don’t have ship time. So I’ll talk a little bit about a circle of life moment. So one of those summers I was on the amphibious ship would be island.

Oh, yes. That’s a circle of life that will continue to repeat in my life. And so we got to go out and do some sea trials.

So more than a day, more than an hour, and some spend some time in learning about ship dynamics in the medical bay and whatnot. And so a pretty awesome experience. But it kind of set that table for moving my back, my way back to the east coast to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where in that world, pretty awesome.

They have a very robust onboarding program, so you get a taste a little bit of everything. The inpatient side, the er, the ICU for, I believe it was like, six, eight weeks thereabouts. And so I started out as a cardiac nurse.

And so this was cardiac recovery, cardiac icu, and really got to see how this all works. Both from the retire, the retired veterans on the active duty that had some challenging moments, and that was back in 2002. So, you know, nursing to me is similar to the Corps in the Navy because, you know, a nurse is a nurse.

But there are so many different paths and avenues to go down in nursing, you know, from quality and safety to surgical to NICU to PACU to all these different approaches. Did you have a choice or were you kind of like, shh, kind of shepherded into a direction? I think when you join the service, you have a certain level of flexibility that you must accept when you go into the military or into the Navy itself. And so you vibe.

Vibe is a good word for what you want to do, but also two things. Influences. Navy Nurse Corps leadership is a cornerstone of our profession, of our nurse profession.

And so raising nurses are extremely important and doing it the right way. So they had your best interest in the building and developing you in mind. And so there was a very big stepped program.

You got a chance to go to a bunch of different floors. So you’re right. I spent quite a bit of time in the ER and the ICU as I got more experienced.

But what was really unique about that time, 2002, 3, 4, 5, and 6 that I was there is that was the Afghanistan and Iraq war time. And so game. Game changers.

Much of the Hospital was deployed out to the field, out to both of those theaters. And in this case, initially I was not, which left me as a junior nurse, one of the only nurses there when all the reservists came in. And so we were actually shuffled to much of the inpatient ICU floors where we cared for all the injured and so those that came in and very powerful experience for myself, humbling experience.

You saw young men, 18, 19, 21, 20, 21 year olds come in, is still unconscious many times without, without a limb or definitely traumatized physically and mentally. And being there as their family came in at the bedside and still hearing and feeling, I can taste it and hear it, the night terrors that these young soldiers and sailors had, very eye opening, very impactful for who I am and who I am today to do that. But that, that wasn’t what anybody expected when you join in.

But it’s the mission. And so I’m, I’m defined by that as we think about my patriotism in service and so forth. Just caring for those who really fight for our freedom.

Well, and I know during that period of time, you know, you had the two separate campuses. You had Walter Reed, the Army’s main medical center. You had Bethesda, the Naval Medical center.

And they were transitioning. Walter Reed was moving over to Bethesda. You had the sound up.

So unfortunate. Yes, so, so unfortunate. And then the standup of the Wounded Warrior Barracks where a lot of the patients were coming through.

And I, I had spent time at the Wounded Warrior barracks. And it’s amazing the mission that you guys had to do, especially during that period of time, because the volume that was coming and again, it’s, it is very hard to prepare for. But you, you know, when you look at it and kind of going back to your ship time with the, the Whidbey Islands, you know, the Navy also has two big hospital ships, the Comfort and the Mercy.

Did you ever get opportunities to go down and visit any of those ships or see those ships? Yeah, so we had a secondary deployment platform and mine was the Comfort. The hospital ship Comfort, it was out of Baltimore at the time. And so you would do some training evolutions on it just in case it was deployed.

And so I think it was 2005. I’m on the floor, I’m at work and my CNO chief nursing officer, Admiral gave a call down and I’m a young nurse. I properly answered the phone, yes, ma’, am, how are you, ma’? Am.

And the common statement is I need some volunteers. That’s A giggle. Yeah.

So you’re thinking volunteer, be voluntold. And so I’m like, you know, I’m Joe Navy. And I’m like, absolutely.

What do you need, ma’? Am? Thinking that I can run up, I can attend something, I can do something. And if I remember correctly is. Well, thank you, Lieutenant.

Yeah, I think it was Lieutenant at the time, Lieutenant hall, you’ll be deployed tomorrow. And so, and this was the just. We just finished having Hurricane Katrina and humanitarian mission, and the ship was getting ready for deployment.

And so I was part of that deployment. But in the second statement, this was August of, I think, 2005. I just got married in July 2005.

So she knew that, and she’s like, awesome, thank you. I think it’s important to tell you you may want to assure your wife is okay with this. I thought that was a courtesy, because it was just a courtesy.

And then the next day we deployed. And what was interesting about that is we made it down to Mississippi, not really understanding Hurricane Rita. And Hurricane Rita was on its way in.

And so we were there in Mississippi, you know, doing care for those. Got hit pretty hard by the masses, bringing them on ships and caring for the injured and the ill. And then we had to go back out to sea because Rita was coming in.

And I have pictures somewhere of the radar map where we’re in the eye of the storm with Katrina, with the comfort in Rita coming in. And it was 30. You.

You’ve been on ships a hell of a lot more than I have, but, you know, 25 to 30 foot swells. Yeah, everybody is into their racks, the bulkheads and the floors. You were having these major sways where you have medical and boat equipment bolted the wall that were coming out and actually crushing and breaking people’s bones.

And so I was part of the casualty receiving the ER of the ship. And so that was my shift. And so we would have to try to backboard people that were injured on the ship and bring them the medical bay.

When you have the walls swaying. How would you articulate that with those big swells inside? Yeah, you know, if you’ve ever been on a ride where it sways far to the left and far to the right, where you can literally almost stand on the wall. That’s right.

It gets that way. And like on a combat ship, like when I was on a destroyer, we have a metal rope that goes around the bridge and you would clip in. So if you were swaying too far, like, you would literally, you know, you’d be weld in because you were a swole.

Yeah. Or a service war officer to start with. And so I, I had a couple of those experiences.

And I. I remember the Katrina evolution well, because, I mean, we literally deployed a flotilla down to. A flotilla is like a whole battle group. Like, I mean, it’s.

It’s every ship we had pretty much we were sending. And I knew that I was in the Navy. Yeah.

But, you know, between the big deck and fib, between the Comfort, you know, and. And to give some. Some context to it, like, imagine taking an entire hospital and putting it on a.

On a ship structure. I mean, you have the ed, radiology, pharmacy, surgical center, ors, dental. You had everything under the sun.

And the idea is that you could plant these ships wherever is needed because, like, for instance, during Katrina, not only did you have the flooding, you had the loss of electricity. All the hospitals in that area in New Orleans and those parishes were without power. And so having to take care of the civilian population, the military population, is a challenge.

And so between the Comfort and then he had another big deck amphib ship out there, and I don’t remember if it was the WASP or the Baton, that’s another, like, helicopter carrier, and they have another whole hospital inside of them. And so I remember during that evolution, the Navy helicopters were sitting there rescuing people from their roofs and stuff, taking them out to the ships and. And trying to do that, as well as transporting critically care patients out to Comfort.

I did not have the opportunity to land on the Comfort during that deployment. I had done a mini deployment with the comfort, like in 07, but we did the same Central America. It was.

It was Central America, and we were doing. It was for a hurricane relief relief in off the coast of Nicaragua. And so it.

But it’s incredible to see how they get the ship, get everybody on there and to Charles Point. It’s very little notice. A day is a grace, sometimes it’s hours.

But to load an entire ship full of people with all their gear, all their equipment, and then get underway, it’s phenomenal to watch and see the power of how we can bring things together to help help our nation in need. And so, I mean, that’s awesome. You brought up something, though.

I’m gonna. I’m gonna pivot real quick. So you’re.

You’re in the Navy, you’re just getting married, and congratulations. You’re going on deployment. Right.

So you finish up your deployment. So talk to me a little about your. Your marriage.

I know your wife, Aubrey, Aubrey’s Navy nurse, as well. Awesome in so many ways. Tell me how you guys met and then, you know, what was the next stage after you guys finished up? You know, getting married and everything and you’re coming back from deployment.

How did that life transition for you? You know, I, I really thought I was going to retire. I love the Navy. I was Joe Navy.

I was all in. I got married and I’m also 10 years in when I got married, maybe maybe nine years in thereabouts. And I met my wife, I was a training officer for one of the departments at the hospital.

And so she came in and I was the training officer and getting her orientated and we met her and it. I’m also a big fan of Chicago, Chicago Cubs specifically. And so they were off to the World Series and so there was definitely some game watching parties.

And so I invited her to join a party that nobody attended, which we’ll call that our first date and a pretty exciting moment. And from there we got to know each other and ended up getting married in 2005. And I’ve been in the service long enough to know it’s difficult to have double active duty, double active duty spouses and how hard it is to build a family off of that.

In the meantime, our first daughter started to come along the way she was. My wife was on the platform for Djibouti, Africa for deployment, and I was on the platform for Afghanistan, Iraq, for the sandbox. And somewhere in there, it was another God moment, that family first, we, we’ve done our service and we wanted to build our family, especially with our new daughter Isabella.

And from that point on, it just kind of started to pull me in a place of a calling to advance my degrees. And so we chose to leave the military unexpectedly, meaning it wasn’t in my plans. It just, it just evolved in that direction.

And I got out in 2006 and I was a stay at home dad, believe it or not. I mean, well, let’s quantify that. You might have been a stay at home dad, but you were also pursuing your master’s at, you know, one of the top universities in the world, you know, especially on the medical side.

So tell me about your time at the incredible university Johns Hopkins. Well, I have to give a lot of kudos inside the Navy. When I was there at Bethesda, the greatest university of all time, Washington State University, one of my professors says, you know, you’re part of also our nursing profession.

I need you to go join Sigma Theta Tau, which is honor society of nursing somewhere in D.C. so I joined it at Georgetown.

And I can’t tell you at that time that I was going to pursue advanced education with a master’s. Those leaders in our profession at Georgetown really sculpted my, my brain as I spent six years with them in and out, month after month, learning about our profession. In fact, I became for I think about three years, their honor society president there at Georgetown.

And they pushed me into pursuing my advanced education. And so, yeah, John Hopkins had a great program. It was a dual master’s program, master’s in business administration and health systems management.

And I got out of the service, and for two years straight I went to school and was a stay at home dad and went to Baltimore. We bought a tiny little boat, an apartment, a boat, an apartment, sailboat, and learned how to sail, but lived in Baltimore during the week and a little bit with my daughter on the boat. And when we graduated, we always wanted a raise, our family in Washington state and make our way back.

And so graduated at John Hopkins in Baltimore with 2 degrees and started to pursue what a civilian life was like in healthcare, which was completely different than the military. Well, and you think about, you know, you talk, we mentioned it a few times in the podcast about the circle of life. You know, when you think about, you’re out of high school, probably not the strongest academic, as many of us were not, but then to go from there through the enlisted ranks, then to the officer ranks, but
then to one of the premier universities in not just the US but in the world, to that level of academic is phenomenal.

It’s a true testament to resiliency and, you know, tenacity. And so you do this, you go to Washington, you’re starting your civilian career. Definitely a change, I would imagine, you know, different type of uniform to wear every day, probably not having to salute the chief of nursing at your new hospital, but talk about that transition and your first, first experience into the civilian world as a nurse.

The. The table was set. I had two offers.

So again, circle of life moment about to come off. I had the director of operative services at Seattle Children’s Hospital as an offer, and I had a director of emergency and trauma services at a trauma facility in Seattle. And so there was a fork in the road moment.

And so circle of life comes. You just go back to your roots as a corpsman. I was also a scrub tech in the OR and in the surgical clinic.

And so I had both of those experiences deep under my belt. And so it was, I’m just going to follow my roots. And my roots was emergency medicine.

And so I Took that role. And for the next seven years I was a trauma director building ERs, freestanding ERs, redesigning ERs between the state of Washington, Texas and Arkansas. And so never thought that journey was going to occur, but I identified today and will always identify, one, as a nurse and two, as a ER nurse.

It’s just how my eye sees life because of that and it’s what I saw in the military transformed in what I was able to do in the civilian world and to really see the country on how healthcare is built in the urban and in the rural settings and contribute to that level of impact. I mean, it’s awesome because we look at the ED in so many ways and it’s a challenging place to be. I mean, you never necessarily know what you’re going to get into.

And so as you left there, what was your first assignment when you got into senior leadership? Yeah, I’ll introduce a few more kids into my picture. And so we initially talked about Isabella or Bella and becoming a father. The greatest love that a dad can have is kids.

And so I was probably working 70, 80, 90 hours plus doing a couple all nighters every week in one of the ERs in one way or another. And my wife very prominently said, now you have your third. And so I have two daughters, Bella and Elin, and now my son Weston.

And so very impactful statement. It might be time to be a little bit more of a father. And so she’s right, 100% right guiding force in my life.

And so we started pursuing something a little bit different out of Texas. And so I entered the chief nursing officer ranks and learned what it meant to run a hospital from a nursing point of view and more circle of ice stuff. And it got sent off to College Station, Texas.

So now I can say in some ways gig em and go Aggies. And so one of our favorite places to live, College Station was just spectacular. Just because of the patriotism, the school and everything in between.

Oh yeah. And for those who, who know Texas A and M, you know, there’s so many awesome things about it. If you’ve never had a free birds burrito or ever been to the Dixie Chicken, you know, there are staples with the tastes a.

Yeah, it’s, it’s a unique place. I got a chance to go there when I was in college. My college roommate sister was going there and back in the, when they actually used to do the big bonfire and it was, oh, it was a great place.

So you know what’s interesting is you, you transition through your time in Washington, you’re down into Texas, you get into the leadership ranks. You know, being a leader in healthcare as a clinician is different than those who come in simply on the administrative route. It’s a different perspective, I would imagine, because, you know, as administrators, they, they learn how to administrate within the healthcare system and they learn how to run hospitals.

But being a clinician as an administrator and learning that side of it’s got to be different because your view on patients and view on providers is shaped differently. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. And I think you nailed it there.

The industry, if I remember correctly, somewhere around 6, 5, 6, 7% of healthcare administrators, hospital administrators, are clinicians, either nurses or providers. And there’s definitely a learning curve. What I’ve learned over the years from a hospital administrator, a CEO, is we live in the gray.

Yes, there’s ethics and there’s black rules and white, but thinking outside in business and being creative, nursing is very much an algorithmic process built. And so I’m very much a process individual. But those were a transition in my mind on how, how to move from a clinical mindset, a process mindset, into the gray of thinking outside the box.

And so big learning curve, big learning curve. And so for Arkansas world and acquisitions and trauma centers and multi hospital systems, through all those years, much of what I learned was you have specialties in the service that are your expertise. Yes, you know a lot about it.

But deference means giving it to those experts to help guide the hospital, partner with them, even though you carry that knowledge. And so early on it was easy for me to make decisions across the hospital because I knew, but sometimes that was sheltering of the other leaders. And so the transition was to empower those who had that role and to collaborate with them moving forward.

So pretty big transition for me through those years from Texas, Arkansas and back to Washington state. So when you think about that period of time when you were making that transition, I know you had mentors, we’ve all had mentors that kind of help guide us on our path, teach, we learn from, we learn the good, we learn the bad, all those type of things. Is there any one or maybe two particular mentors that you can that come to your mind immediately that you’re like, man, my journey was made so
much better, or my education was improved by X, Y or Z.

Anybody in particular that comes to mind? I’d hate to leave anybody out. I’m blessed to have people who have guided me and who have brought me to different places, who’ve recovered me when I got brought to my knees in one way or another. And so I’m, I’m fearful of forgetting anybody.

But I do want to do a couple shout outs. Larry Rogers, Commander Gearing, Sharon Eichler, Ronnie Eichler in a millisecond. Sherry Welch, Denton Park.

All really big figures in, in my life that even to this day, many of them is just a strong bond and blessed to do that, to spend time with them and, and to learn from them even to this day. And without them, no doubt in my mind, I would not be here with you today. Oh, that’s.

It’s awesome. And yeah, there’s in no way you’re able to encompass everybody who’s made an impact. But I’ve had the opportunity to meet the Eichlers.

I truly enjoy going out to their farm and spending time with them. Great people. I think that’s one of the great things about as we develop as leaders, as we develop in our path, the people that have helped us.

You know, I look in my, my past like Vice Admiral Vitaly. That’s right. And avophilion.

And, and those individuals that have impacted me and, and you know, the ones who, when you step out of line, have no problem kind of yanking that chaining like, hey, you got to get back in here. It’s. It’s an awesome aspect to have when you’re, when you’re maturing.

So let’s fast forward real quick. You and I meet in 2019 as we were. My firm, my prior firm, Coors, was doing a search for a CEO in, in Washington State.

And that’s where you and I had the first opportunity to meet, talk about that journey. And then from there we’ll dive into how that led to H and H. Yeah.

Sheryl Kors, big shout out there. Also a big blessing in life. You know, Coors, you, Cheryl, all, all played a very pivotal role during the Washington State CEO years.

It’s kind of where I got exposed to consulting quite a bit as you were in our facilities and providing resources and consultative services and recruitment services and whatnot. That’s where our relationship started to be exposed. And you know, in the meantime, at Washington State, at, at my last facility, a deal that I made with my wife was when our kids get to high school, we stop.

We stop. We put. We plant roots.

And I couldn’t be more blessed to be planted roots in Anacortes, Washington. And so we made that shift to consulting. And that was a circle of life moment.

Meaning I never anticipated that. I kept Saying no to offers to move and go to different places. And it kept pushing me to partner up with you and to learn consultant services, recruitment, leadership, advisory.

And so I think we discovered something pretty awesome as we partnered about four years ago. Yeah, I think, you know, as you were transitioning into the consulting world, we were working up in Alaska and I remember you and I sitting on the pier there as we had observed like the landslides that were falling onto the railroad tracks. And we just started talking and I think that it really worked well because, you know, what I did well and what you did well merged together to kind of bring a company
that, you know, in my experience is unlike any other.

You know, there are companies out there that do recruitment, companies that do leadership, that do consulting. But to bring all aspects of together and to be able to tie it into a nice bow, I thought was really, really well done. And then, you know, from that period of time, we, we dove into some clients that we’re still working with today.

You look at Melissa Memorial Hospital in Colorado, Cascade Medical center up in Leavenworth, Washington, where we are today, and it’s just blossomed over the last two years as your mind company. But that four years of us working together, developing this process is really defined. And I’m so excited to look at where we’re going in the future.

You think about we’re getting into our third year. We have a phenomenal team. Our team’s only going to grow and get bigger.

What are you looking forward to as we get into 20, 26 and beyond? Well, I’ll put some shout outs to you, Steve. Blessed brotherhood. Blessed brotherhood is probably hand in hand the things I think about.

And so we’re. We’ve learned to run a business together. We’ve learned to complement each other.

I’m odd by what you bring to the table and the man that you are and the leader that you are. And it’s really impressive. We’re in the, what we call the suck on a regular basis.

And so the level of handoff back and forth and unfortunately some of that’s under a bunch of tension and focusness. Just blessed to have you in our lives and to partner with you on this journey. So pretty stoked about that journey.

I think when I reflect on the last couple years, I don’t think we ever thought we would be where we are today, having the impact across the United States as we are right now, traveling from one place to another and being exposed to great leaders, CEOs, nurses, boards, you name it, providers. And so as we Think about these next steps. We just want impact.

And that’s why H and H Impact this podcast is named, is we want to have impact on regions, on communities, with people. And I’m looking forward to our travels across the states, from D.C.

to Texas to Colorado to East coast to west coast and so forth. And the people we get to meet and the partnerships that we get to have, the dances that we get to play. It’s absolutely amazing.

And, and, you know, you said it earlier, but I. It’s the impact we get to make across the country with all our, our clients and, and their customers, their patients, you know, their, Their local clients. I’m excited about the coming year. I think we have a lot going on.

We have, you know, new podcasts coming out every. Every couple weeks, and it’s going to be exciting. We had a lot to accomplish in 2026 and beyond, and I’m looking forward to the impact that we will make with our clients and in rural healthcare.

Lots of opportunities. We’re looking forward to getting out and seeing our constituents, so to speak, as we move across the country. But thank you so much, Charles, for taking the time today to kind of tell us more about your story and really deep dive on your background and past.

I know in our coming podcast we’ll have more funny stories and our histories will constantly come back around. That’s the fun part, but. Awesome.

Thank you so much. Awesome. Thanks, Steve, for the time this morning.

And. And you’re. You’re making your journey back home, back to the east coast, the left coast.

Yep. Yeah, it, uh, hopefully I’ll get out of here. We did, uh, get 24, 4 inches of snow up on the Cascade Passes over the last two days.

Beautiful place to be at, but, yeah, I’ll make it home tonight. And again, thank you everybody for listening to the H and H Impact. And Charles, awesome job today.

Thank you so much.