260: How Taking Chances Can Make You Luckier w/ Sid Balman, Seventh Flag author [K-Cup DoubleShot]

Sid Balman, author of Seventh Flag, due to be published in October 2019, is a former Pulitzer-nominated national security correspondent and specialist in behavior-change communications. Sid has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo for news outlets like UPI and Time magazine, and travelled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions. With the emergence of the Web and the commoditizing of content, Sid pivoted away from journalism and moved into the business side of communications. Over two decades, he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as communications chief for the largest consortium of U.S. international development organizations, led two successful progressive campaigning companies and launched a new division at a large international development firm centered on violent radicalism and other security issues on behalf of governments and nonprofits. A fourth generation Texan, Sid is a climber, surfer, paddler and benefactor to Smith College and lives in Washington DC. with his wife, three kids and two dogs. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: If you want to listen to Sid’s entire interview tune in to T4C episode #257