Welcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I break down the key learnings so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Brett Baer. He's the chief political anchor of Fox News Channel and executive editor of Special Report with Brett Baer, which airs live every weeknight to millions of viewers. Now there's a lot we could say about the world of politics and media. But one thing's for sure, there's never a dull moment. In Brett's world, things are always happening and always changing. And as the anchor of a live news program, he has to be ready for anything. So how does he do it? Well, as you're about to hear, Brett keeps his eyes and ears open all the time. He is always asking questions, always listening, always tuned in to what's going on around him. That kind of attendee mindset can help you too. And I think you're going to learn a lot today by hearing how Brett works and leads. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Brett Baer. You know, when I was doing my research, I had a lot of fun watching a lot of your clips, but one that really stuck out for me was the interview you did with the Dalai Lama. And I couldn't believe it. When you asked him if he'd ever seen catty shack, I mean, that was amazing. Tell us that, tell us that story. The Dalai Lama was in Washington, DC, and they called and said, would we like an interview? And we said, of course, definitely. So we went over there. I met him who's a fascinating character. And we talked about everything from China to all of the spiritual, you know, consciousness and what he recommends. And it was at the end of the interview about 20 minutes. And I thought to myself, this is the only time I could do this. I might as well do it. And so I said, have you ever seen the movie catty shack? And he said, what? I said, catty shack, the movie. He's like, no. I said, are you a golfer? He said, no, I played badminton. And I said, so you're not a big hitter, the Lama? And you know, my friends died laughing. And in fact, at the time, the PGA, I have a bunch of buddies on the PGA tour, Graham McDowell and others. They were on a rain delay. And so that went viral and they all were passing it around of the Dalai Lama talking about catty shack. I love it. I don't know what possessed you to ask that question, but I'm glad you did. Now in June of 2023, Fox News aired a highly acclaimed conversation you had with Donald Trump. I'd like you to walk me through your process of how you get prepared for a conversation like that. Donald Trump's probably one of the toughest interviews to prepare for him. And it's kind of like nailing jello to a wall. He says a lot of different things. And it's tough to get in to follow up. What I do to prepare is I have a great research team. And we look at all of the answers that he's had in the past about similar subjects and try to murder board out where we think he's going to go as far as the answer. And when that happens, it leads to a follow up. One of the things I learned about interviewing over time and a good friend of mine was the late Tim Russert who told me listen, Brett, it's not about the questions. It's about listening to the answers. What's the story from that interview that you haven't told before? I said on camera at the end of the interview, Mr. President, do you feel like you were treated fairly? I said, yes, Brett, I think it was tough affair. And afterwards, the camera stopped and he said, you know what, Brett, that was really good for me. I think I did really well. It's really strong. And I said, well, Mr. President, well, let the viewers decide. I'd love to do it again sometime. And he then started talking about golf and playing golf. And so everything was fine. About a week later, his legal team and others may have said there were things said in that interview that could be problematic. And that's when he did an interview with Newsmax and called it nasty and that I was in a bad frame of mind. So he was very happy with it right afterwards. Not so much later. I think one of the reasons why the interview was so highly acclaimed is you really asked him some very tough questions. And it was a very fair interview. And you really asked him why he had had so many people at work for him that didn't support him now and lied, fired all these different people and stuff. You're not afraid to push at the heart issues. How did you learn to do that in a way to keep everything moving forward in your job? Yeah. Listen, I'm not trying to do these gotcha questions. I'm trying to present questions in a way where the politicians get off their talking points. In other words, I don't want to get them to a road, an off ramp that gets them to their stump speech. I want to have answers that elicit different questions that people go, wow, I 've never heard that before. Or wow, how is he going to answer that? And I thought I couldn't do it in a tough but fair way, but also in a respectful way. That's not attacking, but it's more presenting. I think it comes off OK. I mean, I had an interview with President Obama in the White House three days before Obamacare passed. And I knew he was going to try to filibuster and take a lot of time. And he did exactly that. I mean, the first answer was about five minutes long. And the second answer was three minutes. And behind the camera was a guy with the Obama administration with a cell phone that was taking back from 20 minutes, like going backwards. So I had to have the sense to say, listen, I've either got to interrupt politely or I'm just going to get rolled in this interview. And basically one of the biggest questions I wanted to get to was, Mr. President, will you be able to keep your doctor under this plan? And that obviously lasted for many, many years afterwards. You know, Fred, when you do an interview like that with Trump or Obama, do you go back and watch the interview and then assess your own performance and say, OK, here's how I can up my game? 100% and I'm always trying to look to see how I can do something better, how I can present better. Like I said, I have a couple of people I always looked up to. Tim Roster was one of them. Britt Hume, my mentoring friend, growing up, Peter Jennings, and I would study really all of them to see little things that I could pick up that would make me better. Well, we've been talking about presidents and you've written a series of great books, your three-day series that focuses on the pivotal moments where a president's decision really affected the history of the world. I'd like to ask you what would be one key leadership insight you've learned from your study of, let's say, Franklin D. Roosevelt? Each one of the presidents that I studied and kind of wrote about had some major crucible in their life that they had to get over and that made them better people for Dwight Eisenhower. It was about growing up in Adjec, poverty, really, in Kansas. For Ronald Reagan, he had an alcoholic father, tough start, obviously FDR with his polio and his stricken knee couldn't walk, but he got over that. Ulysses S. Grant had some really, really hard times and essentially was selling firewalls wood on the side of the road. I think that determination and grit to get over your past is one thing that I see across the board. Each one of these men that I've written about, by the way, had really strong mothers and they were really maternal, tough women that made them who they are. I also think that the ability to communicate what they are thinking about the issues of the day. The ability to concisely say what they meant was a trait that each one of them had. In a different way, Reagan was obviously a much better communicator than all the others, but they did all possess that quality. Fast forwarding to our more recent presidents, what would you say would be the single biggest leadership trait each one of these presidents would have? Starting with Obama. Yeah, Obama had the ability to communicate in a way that touched people across party lines. I think there were a lot of Republicans who at the beginning were just proud of the country that we had gotten to this point and he had electrified the electoral population. I think that that enabled him to get elected. I don't think it enabled him to govern that well. He was not a great consensus builder or a guy who worked across the aisle very well. I think George W. Bush had the ability to not worry about polls and in the midst of the Iraq War, decided to really hold the line even though his poll numbers were going really south. That standing on principle, looking back despite the fact that the Iraq War will always be looked at questionably, he will get some points in history's eyes for doing what he believed. Donald Trump was so unique in his ability to talk to the everyman that, I'll tell a quick story, David. I covered in the 2016 election, I took 37 Ubers in swing states and I'd get in to the Uber and I'd say, "Hey, listen, at the end of the ride, you mind telling me who you're going to vote for?" And 36 out of 37 said Donald Trump and I said, "You know, and I'm talking every nationality, every race, every all different." And I said, "Why?" And they said, "Because both parties suck and we want somebody that can kick the table over and do something different." And I saw that in union workers who were really attracted to what Trump was saying. And here's this kind of billionaire guy who flies around in a plane with gold plated bathrooms identifying with really blue collar workers. And that was his magic. He still may have some of that magic despite all of his legal troubles. We'll see. How about Joe Biden? Joe Biden has just a history, a history of service, you know, 55 years in office. And so over that time, he became this affable character. He was, "Oh, it's Joe." And as vice president, he was kind of the guy that Obama looked to deal with Congress. I think that he was the moderate choice in that election because Bernie Sanders was not acceptable to the Democratic Party. So he became the default choice and the party rallied around him. He is not a great orator, as we've seen, and his over years has declined in that ability. But his history was a consensus builder. Now I think you could say he's governed a lot more left than people thought he would at the beginning. And we'll see where it goes from here. You may have already answered this question by the fact that you had those 39 U bers and you asked everybody who they were going to vote for. They all said Trump, almost everyone said Trump. And now you've got this podcast where you really try to tap into the top issues that are on the minds of the voters. And this idea, Genesis, from those Uber conversations, and what are the top things that are on the minds of voters today? Yeah, that's a great question. I think you're a pro of podcasts. I am just a new recruit. But I have two. I've got the All-Star Panel podcast where we talk about the issues of the day, and then I have this other podcast called Common Ground where I bring left and right together to talk about big issues that they can agree on. And really that started from writing about Eisenhower, who was our most bipartisan president, who in his farewell speech said, "We should first agree to what we agree to left and right and then disagree about what we disagree about." And so that was the genesis of the Common Ground podcast. I think the issues that most drive Americans are the ones that we talk about every election. The pocketbook issues, the issues around the kitchen table, making the bills, inflation is a huge driver of motivation for folks, how they feel about what they're paying for. If their dollar goes far or doesn't go far, that's the main driver. I think that other issues that are driving people can be characterized as wedge issues, but abortion, other big things that can be motivating to one side or the other. I think that the economy, though, overall is the issue that most people care about. What do you think integrity comes into play now? When I was coming up growing up as a kid, that was just something that everybody always talked about. Here we've got both Biden and Trump with potential integrity issues, Biden with the Hunter Biden story and Trump with all these indictments. How important is integrity today? I think it's important if this election turns out as it looks like going into this with Biden and Trump again, I think it'll be fascinating because you're right, they both have big vulnerabilities. I do think it matters. I think that people want a choice. They want to look up to the White House. Both sides have dug in so far that the other guy is the worst. The other guy is the devil that you don't want. That's what elections have become. It's not we're going to vote for the integrity and greatness of this guy. We just don't want that other guy. Look at this guy. That's really a change. I think that should somebody get in the race or somehow rise to that occasion, there is a hunger for that. I hear it across the country. It just hasn't materialized in candidates that we're choosing. How do you think that's really come about, Brett? You've been in politics and studied politics for years. How did we get into this state where we have these two people the best our country has to offer? No, isn't it something? I mean, 300 million people in America and it's potential that we're going to have another election like we did last time. I think that politics is so ugly sometimes and with social media and with such invasiveness in people's lives as a result of it, there's not a lot of hunger to get involved. It's much easier for a CEO, a business person who's successful to say, "Why do I want to subject my family to that?" We as a country have to admire the people who do and recruit a different breed of candidate. I think that there are candidates who potentially could rise to that occasion, but in this environment so far it hasn't happened. Have you ever wondered what David is thinking as he interviews our guests each week? Or have you been interested in hearing David's take on some of the questions that he asks his guests? Well, I do and I know a lot of you do too. My name is Koolah Callahan and together with David, I host the three more questions podcast that airs every Monday. These episodes are just about 15 minutes and in them, I asked David three questions that dive deeper into the themes of his episode with his guests. David shares incredible insights and stories from his career leading young brands and all of his answers are super practical and inspiring. Like this great insight, David shared in one of our most recent three more questions episodes. What I think you have to have, whether you're an entrepreneur or you work on the company side, you have to bring daily intensity to your work. You got to go to work every day with just daily intensity that you are out there to get things done and you're going to make it happen and you know that unless you execute something, it's not going to happen. The one thing about entrepreneurs is you don't stay an entrepreneur for very long if you don't execute, if you don't get something done. You cannot wait for somebody else to do it for you because you got to do it. And I think if you're in a company and you take that same kind of mindset to work every day, that same kind of daily intensity, I think you can be very, very successful. Get the three more questions podcasts in your feed each Monday and dive even deeper into the episodes you know and love. Just subscribe to How Leaders Lead wherever you get your podcasts. You know, I understand that debate nights bring out the most butterflies for you. You know, we all have these moments as leaders. How do you work through the butterflies and that anxiety it creates? So I've been doing it for a long time. I think I've done eight or nine GOP primary debates and I'm getting ready for another one here and I guess I welcome the butterflies because my day to day, you know, I talked to two to three million people at night, but the butterflies haven't been there for a long, long time and the red light goes on. But in a big moment when you have tens of millions watching 10 million, 20 million in our biggest debate in Cleveland and you have to organize eight people on the stage. You know, there's a lot happening all at once. So when the butterflies come, I kind of am grateful to them because I think this is, you know, you're in the game. I've talked to some sports people, Tom Brady and Steph Curry and they said, yeah, the big moments you just absorb them, you soak them up and I feel the same way. You know, I feel like that's a moment where I'm blessed to be there. So take a deep breath and make it up. Well this has to be a real butterfly moment with you. A how leaders lead podcast with trying to hold them back. You know, there are times when the candidate attacks the moderator, you know, what advice can you give to other leaders about staying grounded in those kind of 10 situations? Because it happens to all of us, whether it's an investor, an analyst, a franchisee, or somebody in your own company. I would say get above that moment, don't fall for going down and swinging down like that. I think calmness and the ability to get through an attack like that in a calm way is a good thing to do. So distraction and going someplace else, for me, it would be to go to another question, to go to something else. I think, you know, in that moment as a moderator, I'm trying to be someone who steers the questions to try to get answers from candidates so that voters have a better choice. I'm not trying to be the story, right? So I'm trying to be less of a figure. I think it might be different if you're trying to confront somebody who's coming at you in the company, et cetera. I'm trying to diffuse at those moments and get to substance. I think in how you talk, in tonally deal with things, how you talk about it, does fact how somebody reacts to it. Now here you are this highly accomplished award-winning broadcast journalist. What are your thoughts about the state of journalism today? I think it's fairly depressing. I think there are fewer and fewer news outlets that are focused on news and more and more of partisan sides. Fox clearly has an opinion side that is right leaning and they do a great job, much like a news page and opinion page. We have that separation. I think there are fewer, fewer news shows that are left because people see clicks and views based on the partisan approach. If I had a magic wand, I would make more special reports. I would make more efforts to try to go down the middle. I think also the thing that's a little depressing is local news, both newspapers and television seem to be taking it on the chin. You try to call balls and strikes fairly on both sides and I think that's why you are so popular. Does it bother you that the, perceptually, the opinion arm of Fox so outweighs the Fox News division? I've been there 26 years. That has been the case since day one when Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes founded the network. They started it saying that facing media who were saying that this is never going to work, it's a niche business. They're never going to succeed. It turned out that the niche was half of the country anxious for an alternative to what people were seeing through the eyes of maybe liberal journalists who were sometimes expressing themselves through their news stories. I think that if I can keep it down the middle, if I can do things like the interview with Trump that occasionally the mainstream media says, "Wait, this is really good." Or break stories that others then chase us on, which we do all the time. Have a great stable of reporters and correspondents who are doing stuff that other networks and other newspapers end up chasing, then that's how we deal with it step by step. But I agree, it gets a lot more attention to the opinions on, and it's always been that way. How are you taking the lead to build the capability and credibility of your news organization? I encourage correspondents and reporters to enterprise stories, to break stories. I provide as much leeway and support as I can, and I'm trying to do big news making interviews that get attention, make news, and put the Fox News brand, the news side of the house out in the atmosphere. The more that I can do that, the better it is. Confirmation bias is a challenge for any leader these days. How do you keep your own in check? Yeah, so we always do a self-look and to make sure that we're doing things not from one side, but to make sure that each side has a say. We have a really rigorous script approval process on my show so that we make sure that it's not just one-sided on some issues. When I took over from Britt Hume, he said three things. The show is not about you, the show is not about you. Elections matter. He also said, whatever you do, make sure that the other side, whatever side that is, gets a fair shake. That's what I'm trying to do. The shifting gears now, Britt, I'd like to take you back a little bit. What's the story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader that you are today? When I was 13, I decided that I wanted a moped when I was 15. My parents were not going to get me that. I decided to create a lawn company. I mowed lawns and I mowed a ton of lawns. I had 10 lawns in a weekend. My parents were saying, "You don't do anything but mow lawns." They said, "But I want that moped." By the time I was 15, I bought the moped by myself as a result of the lawn business. I think dedication, looking at something that you want, putting horse blinders on, and trying to get that. I also understand in my research that you were a bartender at Applebee's. What did that teach you about leadership? At the time, I was local TV in Beaufort, South Carolina, a place called WJWJTV. It paid about 15 grand a year. Not only did I bartend at Applebee's, but I delivered food. I would report during the day. I was the reporter, the photographer, the cameraman, the editor. I would put it all together and then I would put the tape on a plane to Beau fort from Hilton Head South Carolina at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. I had to deliver the tape. It would fly to then Beaufort, South Carolina. Then I would start delivering food, and then I would bartend in the evening. When I would deliver food, I would show up at the door and they'd say, "Wait, aren't you the reporter on channel six?" I'd say, "Yes, did you order the calzone?" Then I would finish that and I'd go bartend. I think bartending, for anybody who has not bartended, is a great profession to be able to talk to people, to be able to listen to them. I think it made me a better interviewer in the long haul. Plus, I can make some drinks. Like we talked about, you've written these great books on presidents and their pivotal moments. Looking back on your career, what do you think was the pivotal moment for you? Your big break. First of all, I did small market TV around the country. I was at CBS and Raleigh, WRAL. This startup, Fox News Channel, reached out to my agent at the time and said, " We'd like to have him be the Atlanta Bureau guy." I thought, "Oh, they want to get me in for an interview?" He said, "No, based on your tape, they want to hire you." The Atlanta Bureau for Fox started in my apartment with a fax machine and a cell phone. 26 years ago. That was the big break, but then the biggest break in Fox was at 9/11. I was covering Atlanta and the Southeast and South America. The first plane hit in New York. They said, "For me to back up up in New York, I went to get a plane." The second plane hit, they said, "Get in the car and drive." We started driving from Atlanta. The third plane hit, they rerouted me to the Pentagon. I started doing live shots outside the burning Pentagon that night for Fox affiliates around the country. I never left. I became the Pentagon guy soon thereafter, traveled with then- Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. They moved me from Atlanta to DC and I never went back. That was the biggest break inside Fox. You had 11 trips to Afghanistan, 13 to Iraq. What did you learn as a war correspondent in covering that news, which was obviously many times horrific? Yeah. One, I learned the service and sacrifice of not only the men and women he served, but their families back home. David, I have so many stories about amazing men and women who were out there in the midst of that. We were getting in C-17 flying from, somewhere, it's a UAE, Doha, maybe Qatar. I was flying into Afghanistan. I got on the C-17 and we took off. This pilot tapped his jacket three times. We were coming in and landing and he tapped his jacket again. I said, "Is this some kind of…" and I was up in the cockpit for the entire thing. Is this some kind of signal to your copilot or something? The guy said, "No. When I take off and land…" And he pulled out a picture of his two-year-old daughter. He said, "I just want to touch you when I take off and land." So many stories like that about that service that changed the perception of the military. When I covered the Pentagon, I had a different look through those eyes. Man, that is a very powerful story. You're in an industry where things just turn on the dime. It is news. How do you prepare for the unexpected? Yeah. So day to day, just by doing all these stories and seeing everything that's happening and doing it again and again and again, repetition that helps in preparation. It's kind of like osmosis. You're doing it every day. But what I think the best shows that I've ever done are the ones where we rip up the rundown five minutes before the show and do the whole thing live because some event is happening, something's going on. And so with training of having done that now for 15 years in the agriculture, I 've kind of taught the people around me to be really agile and they know that my preference is to do the breaking thing, do the thing that's making the news right then. And that's where viewers get the most out of the newest stuff coming in. So over time, that's what happens. What's the best show you've ever done? I did a show over in Iraq in Baghdad and there were mortars coming in into the green zone, but we continued the show. And I think just from a visual standpoint, that was a really amazing show. We had to mid-show evacuate into the embassy, but we kept it going. We kept rolling. We kept the live feed going. And that was a really exciting show. The best interview I've done, I've done a lot of presidents and those are big moments, but I was in Havana, Cuba and I was covering Elian Gonzalez, the kid from Florida, I came over and they were trying to get him back. But I was in Havana and we had finished up for the day and on the back porch of the hotel in Asiudal, there's this big porch that overlooks the malachon, the water there . And there was a guy sitting smoking a cigar and drinking a margarita. And I went up and it was Jimmy Buffett. And I said, "Mr. Buffett, what are you doing here?" He was there for a music festival. I said, "I'm a huge fan. I've got my crew here. Could I ask you a few questions?" And he said, "Yeah, you can. If you smoke a cigar and drink a margarita." And I said, "Absolutely." And so that was one of the best interviews and prop two than I've ever done. That's great. You know, being on television as long as you have, and you mentioned this earlier, the red light goes on. Okay? And you don't have the butterflies every day. You do it day in and day out. How do you push yourself to innovate and do things that you've never done before? It can get stayed if it's in this blueprint. And so what I'm trying to do every day, I'm talking to my producer, in fact, when I get off this, I will have a conference call. And we'll talk about what we could do differently today based on the news that 's happening. And really the best thing about my job is that it's different every day. It depends on what the news provides. It's not about top down. This is what we're going to cover that's about bottom up. This is what's happening. And obviously there are stories that we've had planned for a long time that we 're going to try to get in. But if something else is bubbling up, that becomes the story of the day. So I think innovation comes in believing that the news could drive the brand and not the brand driving the news. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Brett Baer in just a moment . You know, it's clear that Brett is a great listener. That's a habit I see time and time again and strong leaders. And that's certainly the case for Rob Light. He's the managing partner of creative artists agency. His ability to listen to his clients has been the force behind some of the biggest moments in his career. You have to learn to listen. It's not saying listen and learning to listen and finding the tools to get people to talk is a real skill. And I think great leaders have that ability to really hear what their staff and their associates are saying, can hear ideas, can get people to communicate and then take that information and use it in a way to help their companies grow. Go back and listen to my entire conversation with Rob, episode 57 here on How Leaders Lead. You know, obviously you're a leader. You tried different things and done many different things based on the news and what's happening. There has to be a broadcast. I'm sure where things don't go as planned. Can you share one of those stories and how you handled it? Sure. Yeah, I mean, it happens frequently. You know, sometimes you get gremlins in the equipment and I'm sure I'm trying to log on here. I had an issue. So, I mean, it happens. And so you roll with the punches. We've had machines crap out mid show that the story just ends and it just comes back to the reporter who's shocked, you know, and then you have to do a Q&A right away instead of the piece that was going to run. So you kind of roll with the punches. There are other times where interviews don't go like you planned and you kind of have to, I think the best thing to do is to bring the audience in and say that didn't go like we thought or this is really not going well technically. We're going to take a break and try to get back, you know, so that the audience doesn't think you're trying to pull something over on them. You just bring them in and say, hey, this is screwed up. We're going to figure it out. Get back. Once again, honesty is the best policy. 100%. You know, every leader needs truth tellers around them. Who are yours and how do you lean on them to give you honest feedback? Number one is my wife, a wife Amy, grounds me every day. She says, yeah, that didn't really work or no, that's not going to, that doesn 't fly or that tie is a non-starter. You know, something, yeah, she'll always ground me. My kids ground me too. So family, I think it's important and you know, they're used to being on TV for this many years. Also, you have to have close folks around you who are not afraid and you have to empower them to be able to be not afraid to say, boss, this is not what we should do. And here's why. You know, writing this presidential series, Eisenhower was the best at being able to have people that disagreed and they would disagree in front of him and then he would make a decision. And when Kennedy came in to take over, he said to Kennedy, listen, you want this discussion. This is the National Security Council. You want this debate. And Kennedy said, no, I have my brother. It's fine. It's just me and my brother. So what happened was, you know, the Cuban Bay of Pigs happens and the entire first part of the Kennedy administration is consumed by this. And after that happens, the first person who calls is Dwight Eisenhower. And there's this picture of them walking up the path at Camp David. And Kennedy turns to Eisenhower and says, boy, you know, this is a lot tougher than I thought it was. And Eisenhower turns to Kennedy and says, with all due respect, Mr. President, that's what I told you six months ago. And so that ability to have people argue in front of you and not be afraid to confront you, you have to be able to empower them to do that so that they can. If you look at Fox today, Brett, what's your number one leadership challenge? Number one leadership challenge is to get good people going forward. We have a great stable of people, but we need to recruit the young people who want to be from a news perspective in the news. I think perception is a big challenge. We talked about it earlier that, you know, Fox gets painted with a broad brush, that it's just this right wing Republican network. And so I think that that's a challenge, but not as big as recruiting the next talent and figuring out how to do that. So we've created systems where we have interns that become junior reporters, that become into the system. So we're trying to create our own farm league of talent to come. That's been so much fun. And I want to have some more with my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? Okay. What's one word others would use to describe you? Dedicated. What would you say is the one word that best describes you? Committed. Who would play you in a movie? I would like Pierce Brosnan with a couple extra pounds. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be? Well, I would like to hit it like Roy McElroy. You and me both. Your biggest pet teeth is probably procrastination. You grow up in Atlanta. So you're from the south. What's your favorite southern phrase? All y'all. What the hell's that mean? How are all y'all doing? All y'all out there. Whenever you put all y'all, you know that you're deep south. That's something most people don't know about politics. That honesty actually matters. And it's more about honesty with individuals. That they have to believe that what you're saying is from you, not from some manufactured pundit. Your best day ever. I mean, the birth of my children, my wedding, best day ever. Probably the day that my son Paul got out of heart surgery for the first time and I brought him home. Awesome. If I turn on the radio in your car, what would I hear? Probably Morgan Wallen. I'm into a country right now, but I have eclectic mix. And what's something that few people would know about you? You know golf is obviously something that people would know about me, but it is a passion. And if I have extra minutes in the day, I'm chipping and putting, trying to get better. That's why you're a scratch golfer or close to it. I've seen that. I've seen that first chance. I'm trying to keep up with you, David. So just a few more questions for you. You know, your family motto is gratitude. How'd that come to be? Well, as I mentioned before, my oldest son Paul was born with five gender heart defects. We didn't know at the beginning. He was a perfect pregnancy. He came out, was a little pale. It did some tests and it turned out his heart was pumping the wrong way. So he had to have eight hour surgery that we worked his heart the size of a wal nut and the surgeon kind of made these changes to his heart moving arteries, the size of angel hair pasta around so that his heart could work. So part of the fix was a donated aorta to make his heart work. So it didn't grow with him. So he had to have every time it grew another surgery. So he had four open heart surgeries, ten anterior plasties. And so that's where gratitude came from. Each time we got home. He is now 63. He is on the golf team, the varsity golf team. He plays basketball and I look up to him. You know, I'm 5'11". So it's we've come a long way from that early hospital room. That's great. And I understand that your family and he leads the way you raise money for that hospital that has helped him so much. What have you learned about leadership just from Paul? It's just a powerful thing to be able to take what you've been through, which is a traumatic thing and own it. And he does. He talks about it now and we have charity events where he gets up and speaks to a room full of 800 people about his experience and to be able to use that and to help somebody else. My wife is now the chair of the foundation ward at Children's National and has raised $500 million in a campaign for that hospital. So the first night when we had Paul in the hospital, my father-in-law turned to me and said, "You know what? You've found your cause. This is why people go to these events. This is why they buy the trip. They don't want to buy. They signed a football from somebody they don't know. This is why you do it." And we did. We had found our cause and we never looked back. So I think finding what you want to support. You should have something that they do and this is our something. You're in this 24/7 job. You have all this stuff going on in your personal life while you've obviously grown in your career and continue to do great things. How have you navigated all that goes on at home and work? My late friend at the Pentagon, Jack and Quethi, he was ABC News. Pentagon correspondent. He went to the same college, Paul, and I was working, traveling with him with Secretary of Rumsfeld, and he said, "Listen, Brett, this is fun. We're going to go do a lot of things and this is we're going to travel the world. But understand that when you go home, hang your coat and hang your job at the door." And I said, "That's a little tough to do, Jack." And he said, "Trust me. If you can do it more and more, you're going to realize that those moments are the ones not just that traveling with your kids or going someplace, the moments where you hang up your job at home are the moments that you're going to cherish." He died and he accident some six years after that. And I remember those words to this day. "I try to do it. It's tough. We're a little too connected, David. We've got too many devices that can get us. But I really do try to hang up the coat and the job at the door." Good advice. Two more questions and I'll let you go. You've accomplished so much already. What's your unfinished business, Brett? One, I'd like to moderate a general election debate. I have not done that as of yet. I'd like to do that. Two, I'd like to do some long form pieces that are one issue specific so that you spend an hour really digging in. I've done a few of them, but I really like that format. And three, I'd like to be back to a true scratched offer. Last question. What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone who wants to be a better leader? I'll go back to what I really tell classes who ask me about journalism, how to do what they do. It follows with leadership as well. And that is you don't know how you're going to get there. You have in your mind that you want to be someplace. But let's say it's a car and you're driving on a road, you don't have any headlights and it's pitch black outside. There's no street lamps, but you can barely make out the side of the road. You don't know how you get there, but you're still going forward. And then eventually you get use of one headlight. You can see more. And then two headlights. And then you get high beams and you can see a little bit more. And before you know what, the sun's coming up over the hill and suddenly you see a little bit more of the hill and then you're there. But you didn't really see how you were going to get there. So I guess it's keep driving even though you don't know the specifics of how you're going to get to the thing that you're going to get to, but keep driving. Well, Brett, you know, we talked about the butterflies you get before the debate. I have to tell you doing this interview with you. I had a few butterflies because I know you are the consummate interview. Oh, no, it was a lot of fun having you on. And I appreciate everything you do for Fox and for our country and just you being the great person you are. I just for all our listeners out there, I mentioned to Brett once that my dad was a huge fan. So he gets in the studio, has this coat and tie on and does a recording a video for my dad. I sent it to my dad and he shows it to everybody. And he's 94 years old and that was one of his highlights. That's awesome. Thank you very much, Brett, for just being who you are. David, it's great to be with you. I love this podcast. You know, I love talking to Brett because I mean, come on, who else in the world is going to quote, "catty shack" to the Dalai Lama, but all joking aside, I love seeing how Brett approaches his work. I mean, right after we finished our interview, he was about to hop on a call with his team to see what they might need to adjust for that night's show. He always has his antennae asking questions and really listening to what people have to say. He wants to make sure he has a pulse on whatever's happening. That kind of a tinnitus makes Brett an outstanding journalist and an outstanding leader. But here's the thing, even if you're not breaking news live in front of millions of people every night, the same is true for you as a leader. Your world is constantly changing. You got to be aware of it. What's on people's minds? What's shifting? What's the overall climate for your team, your culture, your industry? When you keep your eyes and ears open like Brett does, you'll know and that awareness can help you be more agile and more responsive through whatever ups and downs you face. So let's talk about a way that you can apply this concept. This week, grab a small notepad or maybe use your phone and just go through your day like a journalist would. Jot down the small details you noticed. Ask questions whenever you can, like Brett did during his Uber rides. Then get your team together and ask what you might need to do differently based on what you're seeing. That attendee mindset is key if you want to stay agile and responsive and ready for whatever's happening in your world. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is that great leaders keep their antennas up. Coming up next on how leaders lead is our quarterly best of episode where we pull together the top insights from the last three months of podcast episodes. It's the best way to wrap up your year and set yourself up for a fantastic 2024 . Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I may get a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. Thank you. Thank you. a lot of people. a lot of people. [BLANK_AUDIO]