Tactical Harmony

In federal service, I learned to care without falling apart.

You pour everything into a case. Months of work. Sometimes years.

Then it does not get prosecuted.

Here is the lesson. Give everything to the process. Detach from the outcome.

I call it strategic detachment. I carried it out of federal service and into corporate and entrepreneurship.

You pour yourself into a project, a pitch, a team member’s development and still don’t get the result you wanted.

Your effort was not wasted. You never owned the outcome.

Here is what you own.
➡️ Your preparation.
➡️ Your integrity.
➡️ How you show up when it goes wrong.

Give everything. Detach from the rest.

A sense of peace that’s hard to put in words.

No stress.
No rush.
No noise.
No drama.

Just a loyal soul and her human livin’ life in the Montana mountains.

And sometimes we take goofy selfies sticking our tongues out - b/c why the hell not.

This is your sign to slow down today and really take it in.

Life is short and even shorter for our four legged friends. So squeeze em’ tight.

The “small” moments make up the majority of your life.

Don’t let them pass you by.

With love,
Rebecca and Ivy

“Will you even be fulfilled here?”

That’s what one company asked me in an interview after I left federal service.

Translation: You’re overqualified.

I’ve heard every version of this over the years and I’ve watched countless federal agents, national security professionals, and government employees face the same thing when they transition to the private sector.

You spent yearssssssss making high-stakes decisions.
Leading teams. Protecting people. Running ops.

And now someone’s questioning whether you can handle a corporate role?

It stings. I get it.

But here’s how to push through:

→ Reframe “overqualified” as “ready to contribute at a higher level.” You’re not too much. You’re exactly what they need, they just don’t see the translation yet.

→ Stop shrinking your experience to fit a job description. Translate it. Crisis leadership becomes change management. Investigations become problem-solving. Interrogations become negotiation.

→ Find the leaders who value what you bring. Not every company will get it. The right ones will. I found it and so will you.

→ Remember: their hesitation is about them, not you. They’re worried you’ll leave, get bored, or outshine them. That’s their insecurity talking.

Bet on yourself anyway. If they can’t see your value, build something that does.

You didn’t bust your butt in government service to shrink yourself for a job that doesn’t deserve you.

What’s the most frustrating “overqualified” comment you’ve heard? 👇

“Why did you leave NCIS? You were so close to retirement.”

I get this question constantly. So let me answer it here, publicly. Because this decision really does look different for everyone.

It wasn’t one dramatic moment. It was a slow drip.

Around 2018, I felt an intuitive nudge. I dismissed it every time.

“What else would I do?”
“I have to hit my 20 years.”
“I need that federal retirement.”

My skills were criminal investigation, national security, and forensic science.
What do you do with that outside the badge?

Then I read one line in a book:
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲.

You ever hear something a hundred times and it doesn’t land?
Then one day it hits completely different. That was my moment.

It might not sound profound to you. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

I wasn’t unhappy at NCIS. I loved my career and I loved serving our U.S military + warfighters.

But I knew I wasn’t staying. That season was closing and I felt it in my bones.

So I built a framework to navigate the exit. The same one I now share with clients. Then I made the leap.

Today I run my business, Tactical Harmony. I speak on stages, coach leaders and ambitious professionals, and host a podcast about defying the ordinary.

If you feel that nudge and keep dismissing it, stop dismissing it.

Your next chapter is waiting for you to finallyyyyyyy listen.

What’s one thing you’ve been dismissing that keeps coming back? 👇

Get after it.

I’ve worked protective service operations for former US presidents and high-ranking military officials.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps as an example - Leaders whose safety was my responsibility.

And the biggest lesson from those assignments had nothing to do with tactics.

It was this: The best leaders don’t need to be the loudest in the room.

When you’re protecting someone at that level, you see how they operate behind closed doors. No cameras. No speeches. Just them.

The ones who commanded the most respect?

→ They listened before they spoke.

→ They stayed calm when everyone else was reacting.

→ They made decisions without needing to explain themselves twice.

→ They treated the person holding the door the same as the person across the table.

Rank didn’t make them leaders. But their presence sure did.

I carried that into every squad I led, every investigation I ran, and now into every room I speak in and conversation I coach in.

Leadership isn’t about the title on your door, friends.

It’s about how you show up when no one’s watching.

TrustCon 2026. San Francisco. My 4th year in a row.

Four straight years speaking at TrustCon, and I’m still fired up.

Year one, I trained on moving from federal government to the private sector. How I did it. How you can too.

Since 2024, my focus shifted to offline harm.

Here’s what trust and safety teams face:

- Online threats don’t stay online.
- They spill into the real world.
- You need to see them coming or respond fast.

That’s where my background comes in. Nearly 15 years as a federal agent taught me how to assess threats, read behavior, and protect people when the stakes are real.

Now I bring that into a room full of professionals doing critical work.

If you work in trust and safety and want to sharpen your approach to offline harm, I’ll see you in San Francisco.