This post is dedicated to my son, Sebastian… I love you Bash the Brave. He and his sister are the real reasons I wrote Rebel Leaders GSD.
Most leadership books start in boardrooms.
Mine started in a Starbucks.
With a pencil case.
A sugar packet.
And a 6-year-old kid trying to feel brave.
That’s Sebastian in the photo.
My son.
He was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a toddler.
At the time, I was juggling special operations deployments, a senior federal leadership role, a crumbling system I was trying to fix from the inside, and the kind of pressure you don’t talk about because you don’t have time to.
There was no roadmap for any of it.
One afternoon, sitting at a sticky Starbucks table, I cracked open the iPad and started sketching a little superhero called Bash the Brave. That’s the orginal drawing of the character in the picture.
He carried insulin in his pocket.
He carried fear in his gut.
He still stepped up anyway.
He still found a way to GSD—Get Sh*t Done.
That comic wasn’t just something to cheer Sebastian up.
It was a rehearsal for real life.
For him.
For me.
It was leadership reduced to its purest form:
Courage when you’re scared. Direction when you’re lost. Action when the stakes hit home.
A crayon and a cause.
That’s where Rebel Leaders GSD really began.
What that has to do with you.
If you’re leading a team, raising a kid, starting over, or trying to keep your head above water while everything around you keeps catching fire… you don’t need more “inspiration.”
You need something real.
You need:
- clarity
- tactics
- a way to lead when the mission is personal
- a framework that doesn’t collapse under pressure
That’s why I wrote Rebel Leaders GSD.
Not to build an empire.
Not to sell a mindset.
But to create the field guide I wish I had when my kid was sick, my teams were burnt out, my leadership chain was AWOL, and the only thing I had left was my own damn spine.
This book came from those moments—
From Sharpie sketches at a Starbucks.
From a father trying to show his son what brave looks like.
From the truth that leadership isn’t a title. It’s a series of decisions when life stops giving you easy ones.
REBEL MOVE:
Whatever battlefield you’re on—parenting, burnout, leadership, grief—don’t wait to feel “ready.”
Make your own Bash the Brave moment.
Draw something.
Write something.
Start something.
Tell the truth you’ve been avoiding.
Lead from the mess.
Not after it.
Inside it.
Through it.
Someone else needs that map out.
If this story hit home, the book will hit harder. Grab Rebel Leaders GSD on Amazon.
Also check out the real effects of tech failues have on those with Type I Diabetes here: When Tech Fails