Michelle 'Mace' Curran

And then it became my singular focus on how I can make that happen.

That's such an interesting question because that's one of those titles that I always felt a lot of imposter syndrome around.

And it's because I didn't stay in the Air Force long enough to be what the Air Force talks about as like leadership, like a squadron commander.

Right.

Right.

Like I would have I left at 13 years had I stayed in for probably two more years, I would have gotten into a position like that.

But I left before that.

And so I had so many moments where I was a leader, even if it wasn't at that level in that title.

Right.

Like I was a flight lead in formation.

Right.

I was a mission commander putting 60 aircraft in the air and I'm the one in charge of that entire thing.

I go to the Thunderbirds and for two years, my title is the lead solo.

And so it's funny because from an outside perspective,

I was leading in so many different ways.

And when I was in that role, when we took off and I was the mission commander or the flight lead or the lead solo, I very much was empowered to be the decision maker to execute as the leader.

But I had a harder time kind of identifying as a leader in general, right?

Like when I'm not officially in that role.

And I don't think it was until almost when I left the Air Force and I started to interact much more with the civilian world where people would always refer to my leadership and refer to me as a leader.

And I was like, wait, is that true?