By Joe Byerly
In August of 2013, I hesitantly posted my first blog post on From the Green Notebook. I remember the moments after I hit the publish button – nothing happened. I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but in my young and naive mind, I believed that my musings would automatically go viral simply because I posted them on the internet.
However, that wasn’t the case. Nobody showed up.
After staring at the statistic that showed “0 views” for some time, I slid into the DMs of Steve Leonard (aka Doctrine Man) and asked him to share my post if he thought it was good. He graciously shared it with his over 10k followers (His platform has since grown to over 190k). Then, the hits slowly started to trickle in. As I continued to publish more and he shared more of my work, the audience grew, and so did my confidence.
To be honest, some of my early posts weren’t that great. They sucked. Thankfully Steve chose not to share them. Looking back, I believe he was trying to protect me from the online mob.
Yet, he kept encouraging me.
On August 4, 2014, he sent me this message: “Joe – you should never give up… you won’t hit one out of the park every time. You’re doing good… just keep pressing.”
And so I did. I’ve been pressing for the past 10 years.
This week Steve announced that after 16 years, he plans to retire the persona of the masked crusader as he moves forward in his life. His impact on the military and my life has been immense.
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During those initial online interactions, Steve taught me a valuable lesson about leadership: the importance of looking down the ladder. It is easy to solely focus on our own promotions and advancements without considering those who are following behind us.
Steve not only looked down, but he also reached down and helped pull me up. He shared his platform with me when he didn’t have to.
I have never forgotten that lesson.
Over the past decade, FTGN has transformed from being solely my blog to becoming our blog, an open notebook for the whole military profession and civilian leaders alike to share their lessons. We have a great team of mostly junior and mid-level leaders who work behind the scenes, recruiting, writing, editing, posting, and sharing. One aspect that I am extremely proud of with our team is that we have played a role in amplifying the voices of numerous leaders in the military. We have tried to replicate what Steve did for me in the early days of FTGN.
Therefore, on behalf of everyone at FTGN, I would like to express our gratitude to Steve Leonard for setting an example of the importance of writing, sharing ideas, and not taking ourselves too seriously. Most importantly, thank you for teaching us the significance of looking down the ladder.
Joe Byerly is a squadron commander in Germany. He is the founder and director of From the Green Notebook.
