Team-building firm training better leadership habits enters its next stage

Benjamin “Jake” Higginbotham, armed with a highly decorated career in the U.S. Air Force, including Special Operations leadership roles in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan, had his pick of places to work at when he retired from the military.

Born in Texas, Higginbotham’s last post was in Pearl Harbor, where he was the senior enlisted leader in a cybersecurity unit. He and his wife fell in love with Hawaii. But the couple has since moved quite a distance, to the west coast of Florida, for Higginbotham’s next career chapter — where he will be a civilian for the first time in nearly 30 years. Higginbotham is now COO of Game On Nation, a Bradenton-based leadership development and team-building company with clients from Lakewood Ranch to Los Angeles.

“I had lots of other opportunities, but I wasn’t passionate about them,” Higginbotham says, referencing potential consulting gigs outside Washington, D.C. in cybersecurity and tech. “I’d been in every kind of military training there is, but when I saw Game On, I knew this was different. And I really wanted to work for a small business. I love the human condition. I love the challenges that come with leading, inspiring and building teams. I love building better teams.”