February 19, 2025 • 32 mins
Law enforcement officers often face an identity crisis when transitioning to the private sector. Colin Whittington shares valuable insights on skills that transfer outside the badge and emphasizes the importance of preparation, networking, and self-belief for a fulfilling career post-law enforcement.
• The journey from law enforcement to the private sector
• Leadership impact on the officer's career perspective
• Importance of skill development like resume writing and interview preparation
• Identifying personal passions and transferable skills
• The significance of networking in job searching
• Taking proactive steps and starting early for a smooth transition
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates,
where leaders find the insights,advice and encouragement they
need to lead courageously.
Travis Yates (00:11):
Welcome back to the show.
I'm so honored.
You decided to spend a fewminutes with us here today and I
have been waiting for thisguest for some time.
We had a few scheduling hiccupson my part, but, man, I am so
honored that we have ColinWinnington here today.
He's the best-selling author ofBeyond the Thin Blue Line, he's
the CEO of Recruiting Heroesand he was the 2019 Virginia
(00:35):
Deputy Sheriff of the Year.
Colin is an internationalspeaker and a leading advocate
for America's veterans and firstresponders in their transition
to the private sector.
Colin, how are you doing, myman?
Colin Whittington (00:48):
I'm good, travis.
Thank you so much for having meon.
It's a real honor to be hereand, to everyone watching, it's
so nice to have a few minuteswith you all today as well.
Travis Yates (00:55):
Yeah, man, I always enjoy what you have to
say and you're such anoutside-the-box thinker and a
leader and I had to expose youto our audience here.
I think they're going to bereally interested and I think
you have a very unique story.
You made the decision in 2022to leave law enforcement.
Kind of back us up I know youhad a career several years
(01:15):
before that.
You were very successful inwhat you did.
I believe you retired as asergeant, left the Reserve
Sergeant, so you had a lot ofexperience but kind of back us
up to the decision you made tojump into this new venture,
which we're going to get to herein a few minutes.
Colin Whittington (01:29):
Yeah, so I served in law enforcement for
only about seven and a half toeight years or so and, like you
said, it was a really successfulcareer.
I got promoted to sergeantreally young I was only about
like four and a half years in,gotten a couple of life-saving
awards, got deputy of the yearfor the whole state, like you
mentioned and actually had testson the lieutenant's process as
well, and I think I was eitherfirst or second on the list to
be promoted to lieutenant.
But just like a lot of youngofficers today, I just started
(01:51):
realizing that my heart wasn'tin it anymore.
The law enforcement professionhas taken it on the chin pretty
hard in the last four or five,even 10 years or so, and law
(02:19):
enforcement is obviously anidentity-def and it's an all
consuming career as well.
So it was just it was a lot ofthings.
Honestly, it wasn also madesome good decisions as well and
in the years since just havebeen working with hundreds of
law enforcement officers andveterans with their transition
as well, and trying to provide aservice that I think is really
lacking, especially in the lawenforcement community.
Travis Yates (02:37):
No man, I think you nailed it and I think I
don't want to put words in yourmouth, but I think you speak for
so many people and I hear frompeople almost daily and what
happened is the you didn't leavethe profession, the profession
left you right.
You were promised a bill ofgoods, you were promised a
mission oriented focus and whathappened you know, and I don't
blame.
I want to be very clear andI've said this before.
(02:58):
I don't blame any outsideentities for what has occurred
in this profession because,quite frankly, we've always had
outside entities that didn'thave our mission in mind and
tried to derail us from ourmission, whether that's the
media or the activist or thecrazy lady at your city council
meeting or whatever it was thatwas.
I mean, for 30 years, with mebeing in the profession, I saw
(03:19):
that the difference was in thelast decade is our own
leadership bent the knee towardsthat and the profession changed
because of it.
Your law enforcement agencydoesn't get worse because of
somebody outside the lawenforcement agency says it
should.
It gets worse because theleaders inside the agency agreed
to make it worse.
And we could spend many, manyhours on that.
(03:39):
So I think it's very, veryimportant, but I think which
which your move was so valuable?
Because I think there's a lotof people that are maybe in a
similar position as you, butthey don't feel like they have
the skills or ability to do that.
It's a very fearful thing toleave a government job where
security is king.
Not everything else is great,but security is pretty premium,
(04:00):
and I have often said this,colin, and I want to hear your
take on this.
I've often said that theleadership within law
enforcement plays a role inmaking law enforcement believe
this is all you can do.
What's your take on that?
Colin Whittington (04:14):
Oh, 100 percent.
It's absolutely a leadershipissue.
You know I do help veterans aswell, but honestly, the military
does a decent job with helpingtheir people transition.
They have their own transitionassistance program.
There's nonprofits that do workin that Law enforcement.
We really don't do anything Inmy business.
I actually created a half-dayclass where I go to law
enforcement agencies and teachtheir officers skills like
(04:36):
resume writing, interviewing forjobs, salary negotiations and
things like that.
At least nine, if not nine anda half, out of 10 agencies tell
me to get lost when I presentthe idea to them and it's not
because they don't trust me oranything else like that.
They come back.
They actually write me back andsay Colin, thank you, but we
don't want to teach our officersthese skills because then
they'll just leave.
So my response is that's aterrible way to look at the
(04:58):
thing.
I think that that class shouldbe for anybody in law
enforcement, but if that'sreally your stance, at least
make it for the retirees.
And even then they're like no,we don't want to teach these
people these things.
And these are people who haveserved law enforcement.
They've served the communitiesfor 20, 30 plus years and really
deserve to have a successfullife after law enforcement and
our leadership is activelymaking decisions to try to
(05:21):
prevent that.
And it's just, it sickens me alot of times because again,
these people have sacrificed,you know a lot.
You know emotionally,physically, relationship-wise,
financially.
And the fact that agenciescan't even be bothered to put on
a course like that just showshow we're actually standing in
our officer's way.
A lot of times it's sad to see.
Travis Yates (05:39):
Yeah, I just want to reiterate for our audience
because I think sometimes theyhear me speak about these
leadership issues and especiallythose outside law enforcement
are thinking well, there's noway this can be true.
Colin just said that nine tonine and a half out of 10
agencies are rejecting any typeof things he has to offer, which
as far as providing additionalskills or mentoring officers and
things like that.
(06:00):
That is absolutely true.
I actually heard this just lastnight.
That that is absolutely true.
I actually heard this just lastnight.
Just for the record, thispodcast is dropping this week
but I'm probably home by now,but I'm stuck in Joplin,
missouri, in a snowstorm in ahotel right now.
So I was with a group ofofficers just last night and I
had someone tell me that.
I had someone tell me that whenthey went to their chief and
said chief, and this guy had 25years on and he said chief,
(06:23):
chief, god is calling me outsidehis profession to go do this or
that, the chief didn'tencourage him.
The chief got mad, and I hearthat all the time.
In fact, there's officerslistening to this right now that
are inside agencies, that aredoing other things outside the
agency, whether that's a sidebusiness, or they're building
their own skills or even a hobby, and their department is
(06:45):
actively going against them intrying to do that.
And, by the way, I don't haveany reason or even know why that
is happening, other than thesickening cowardice,
narcissistic type of leadersthat are permeated so many of
our agencies.
And it really is sickening,right, colin, when you say nine,
nine and a half half out of ten, because I'll tell you right
now, I always encouraged peoplearound me to do these type of
(07:10):
things.
In fact, my mantra to rookieofficers was always okay,
congratulations for being here.
Now, while you're here, beginworking on your next career,
because one of the one of thebeauties in law enforcement is
you could be retired at 50, 55or 60 and you've got a long life
to live.
Do not leave this job after 20,25, 10 years without any other
skills in this job.
(07:30):
And they kind of look at mekind of weird, because we lie to
them.
Call it in the academy.
The indoctrination starts inthe academy because we do this
big pitch of oh man, you couldstay here 20 years and then
never work a day in your lifeand you're retired.
This and that and that is a liebecause, first off, you're not
going to live off that pensionand, second off, who wants to
not work after 20 years?
(07:50):
You want to at least dosomething that you enjoy or
something that you love, and sowe should be encouraging people
to build those skills because,colin, I think you're going to
agree with me on this.
When you do that, that makesyour department a better
department, does it not?
Colin Whittington (08:03):
Absolutely so.
I'm actually on March 31st.
My second book is actuallycoming out.
It's called the Thinning BlueLine.
It's all about the vacancycrisis in law enforcement and
one of the things I talk aboutin there is that retention is
far more important thanrecruiting.
In my opinion, retention iswhat's killing law enforcement
right now and the idea that ifyou're teaching your officers
these skills, that they can makethem successful after law
(08:26):
enforcement, that if you believethat's actually just like
hurting your vacancies, you'reso wrong.
If you're going to treat yourofficers really well and treat
them so well that you actuallyhelp them to do very well in
their next career, imagine theimpact that's going to have on
your recruiting.
You're going to have youngpotential officers see your
agency as one that actuallygives a crap about your officers
, which is going to drive inapplication numbers so much more
(08:47):
than agencies that are tryingto hold on to their officers for
dear life and not actually tryto improve their life or improve
their career.
It's a very it's currently it'sa very short-sighted view of
the problem.
They see me coming in andteaching, or anyone coming in
and teaching this subject, aspeople leaving.
They're not thinking about thelong-term where you can actually
use that as a recruiting toolto say, hey, we actually care
(09:11):
about our officers.
We care about them so much thatwe want them to be successful,
even once they're long gone fromour agency, and rightfully so.
Officer wellness has become abigger topic in the last couple
of years.
It's still not the way it'ssupposed to be, but what I
always say to chiefs who turn medown is like okay, you claim to
care about your officers.
If you only care about themwhile they're serving a need for
you and filling a seat in youragency, you don't actually care.
The way you show you care aboutsomeone is that you care about
(09:34):
them even when they're no longerserving a need that benefits
you.
That's when you really showthat you care about somebody,
and providing a class like thator resources like that is how
you would actually show yourofficers you give.
Travis Yates (09:47):
No, you nailed it and if anybody listening out
here that has an open mind, ifyou want to improve retention,
colin just said the single thingyou should do is care.
That's it.
Stop with your program.
Stop with your checkboxtraining.
Stop with you saying you're forwellness because you've
implemented some program fromsome organization inauthenticity
(10:12):
.
Colin and the vast majority ofcops I talk to will say, oh yeah
, my chief or my sheriff says hecares or says patrols the
backbone of the profession.
But we all know different,because actions speak louder
than words and we've got a lotof work to do and I'm glad we
talk about this and people saywell, travis, you're being
negative or calling or beingnegative.
We can't fix this withoutspeaking about the problem.
You know you're not going to goto the doctor today and the
doctor's going to immediatelygive you some medicine.
(10:32):
You're going to go.
Hold on, why are you giving methis medicine?
He's going to talk about theproblem.
We want the best law enforcementhas and we want the best people
coming out of law enforcementto then embed in the private
sector, because there's someincredible skills and talents
that law enforcement can provideyou.
To go into the private sector,colin, talk about some of,
because I know one of thehurdles.
People listen to this and Ithink we've all battled this.
(10:53):
When you stay in this cultureof law enforcement, you're made
to believe man, this is who youare, this is your identity, this
is all you can do and you'vegot to get past that because if
you retire and you're not pastthat, you see, you either see a
miserable human being or you'llsee them work in bank security
somewhere because they've beentold this is all they can do,
(11:19):
nothing against bank security.
But I got a feeling that wasn'tthe end.
Go for that person when theystarted law enforcement.
So explain the specific skillsets that we have the privilege
to learn in law enforcement thatcan transition easily into the
private sector.
Colin Whittington (11:30):
Yeah.
So there's two things I usuallyhear from law enforcement
officers who come to me to helpthem with their transition.
The first one is that they feelthey're absolutely not a fit
for anything in the privatesector.
They have no transferableskills Absolutely false.
The second thing they say isthey feel they can only be
successful in security orinvestigative type of positions.
Again, like you said, there'snothing against those type of
roles.
They're fantastic, you can dovery well in those type of
(11:51):
positions.
Again, like you said, there'snothing against those type of
roles.
They're fantastic, you can dovery well in those type of
industries.
But there's a lot of cops whojust want to be done with that
part of their life.
They've served 20 or 30 yearsand they want to go on to
something different, and theyabsolutely should.
There are so many transferableskills that you've gained during
your law enforcement careerthat absolutely translates so
phenomenally well.
You think of things likeproblem solving.
Communication is a huge one.
This younger generation can'ttalk worth a crap because they
(12:13):
live behind their phones, theylive behind their screens, but
you as an officer, you're goingon calls for service every
single day and having to buildrapport with complete strangers
in just seconds and if you don'tdo that well it can get violent
really fast.
So your communication skillsare phenomenal.
Teamwork is a huge one.
Coaching and mentoring Ifyou're an FTO big skills.
You can highlight there yourability to problem solve and
(12:34):
coach and mentor FTO sergeantsanyone who's ever led a team or
a unit or a program are actuallyprogram managers as well.
We don't use that term in lawenforcement project management
or program management but thoseare absolutely huge terms in the
private sector and the skillsthat you have in law enforcement
translate so well to thoseroles.
Again, back to thecommunication side sales.
(12:55):
A lot of cops could dophenomenally well in sales
because of your ability to buildrelationships and build rapport
with people.
That's absolutely a skill thatsalespeople need.
I got into recruiting again,nothing to do with law
enforcement but my skills thattranslated so well from law
enforcement do phenomenally wellin recruiting as well.
And there's no limit to whatofficers can do and I really
(13:19):
encourage them to pursue whatthey're passionate about, to
actually go after something thatbrings them fulfillment,
because when you leave lawenforcement, like I said earlier
, it's a very identity-definingcareer.
It's all you are.
When someone asks you who youare or what you're about.
You say I'm a cop.
That was my answer.
When you go to the privatesector, you're not going to
really say if someone asks you,tell me about yourself.
Your first answer isn't goingto be I'm a financial banker or
(13:40):
I'm a software engineer.
It's going to be somethingdifferent.
But when you're in lawenforcement, the first thing you
say is a cop, then maybe family, whatever else.
So when you leave that identityto find a career, you need to
try to find something thatbrings you fulfillment and
passion as well and also,hopefully, pays you well too,
and that's very possible.
Travis Yates (13:59):
Yeah, I mean, and you deserve it.
If you spend, if you put upwith what you have to put with
the law enforcement, you shouldspend the second half of your
life doing something you'repassionate about, right, and if
you get paid for it, that's abonus.
And easily, colin, that's whatyou're here for.
You're here to mow that passionwith a salary that can
supplement you as you move on.
And if anybody's wondering well, I don't know what my passion
(14:20):
is, I don't know what my purposeis, well, it's easy.
Answer this question If moneywas no option, if time was no
option, if resources were nooption, what would you like to
do?
Answer that question and thengo pair up a job or a salary
that can meet that goal.
And I think one of the reasons,colin, we see so many people
kind of afraid to get out ofthat bubble you said most cops,
(14:40):
and it doesn't.
It doesn't surprise me, becauseI see a lot of officers that
will retire for a year or twoand boom, they're right back at
a sheriff's department.
They're right back and doing abackground investigator job.
You know, because there's fearthere.
Right, this is a skill set theyhave and there's fear to enter
into other skill sets, but youknow you mentioned a lot of
skills they already have thatprivate sectors are looking for.
I'll mention a few others man,decision making, working without
(15:03):
close supervision, stress, youknow making decisions.
Under stress I mean the skillsets in law enforcement.
The private sector, I would.
I would assume part of what youdo call it is informing the
private sector of why they needthis type of skill set, is it
not?
Colin Whittington (15:19):
Yeah, absolutely so.
My business really has twofunctions.
The one side we have workedwith candidates to help them
really articulate their skillset and make sure that they can
highlight themselves as good aspossible.
The other side of my businessis I'm actually working with
companies around America thatwant to hire veterans and first
responders.
So I reach out to thesecompanies and the big part of my
pitch, basically, is explain tothem what they have to gain by
(15:41):
hiring law enforcement officers.
A lot of companies haveincentives to hire veterans,
which is awesome.
I love that there's not reallythe same emphasis currently to
hire law enforcement or firstresponders.
So what I do is I try toeducate what they have to offer
and what they have to gain byhiring a law enforcement officer
.
Right now, job hopping is sucha common thing in the private
sector people switching jobsevery six to eight months.
(16:03):
For the most part, cops aren'tdoing that.
When they go find a companythat treats them well, they're
going to stay for the long termand you can somebody on who can
really, you know, be a problemsolver, who can take a new skill
that they're new to but reallyrun with it and do phenomenally
well.
So educating companies aboutwhat law enforcement officers
have to do is a huge part ofwhat I do every day as well.
Travis Yates (16:24):
So if someone is listening to this and they're in
law enforcement regardless oftenure, you know I'm not
retiring enforcement regardlessof tenure.
You know, hey, I'm not retiring.
And one of the issues that thateven I experienced was when it
comes to retirement planning oror a second job is, as you go,
wow, I'm going to be here forthe next 25 years, 30 years, 20
years, I don't need to thinkabout that.
And, of course, I would alwaystell them oh, no, no, you need
to think about that now, youdon't.
(16:45):
Whatever you're doing here.
Let's say you love workingtraffic collisions okay, well,
in the private sector, how canyou use the skills and the
training and expertise you'rebuilding to transition that?
Oh, you could work for aninsurance company, you could
work for attorneys, you could doall these other things.
You get to take the skill setin the private sector and I
always tell them when you'refalling in love with a certain
(17:06):
segment of law enforcement,that's what you want to eat and
breathe.
I believe every law enforcementofficer I certainly hope I
would always try to find outwhat they love within the
profession and drive them there.
That's how you're going to getthe best productivity and that's
what's so great about theprofessions.
There's so many different jobswithin the job and then I would
tell them okay, now that you'relearning this, always be
thinking about how you can takewhat you're learning outside.
(17:27):
And so, regardless if you'vegot a one year on or 30 years on
, what is the one piece ofadvice you would tell them right
now, if they're listening.
Colin Whittington (17:35):
Basically what you just said start early.
One of the biggest mistakes Isee officers make when they
reach out to me is that theyhave waited far too long to
start thinking about what theywant to do next.
It's not uncommon for me totalk to people who've already
resigned or retired or arewithin a few weeks or months of
retiring, and that's prettyscary because, I will be honest,
the job market right now isbrutal.
(17:56):
It's really rough and it'sprobably going to get worse when
the people who are leaving thefederal government end up trying
to get into the private sector.
That'll make it morecompetitive.
When AI takes over more,there'll be less jobs
potentially as well.
So the private sector is verychallenging, so I need everyone
to start the process early.
You don't have to be applyingfor jobs, but do simple things
(18:18):
like make sure your resume is upto date and as strong as
possible.
We don't use resumes in lawenforcement much, but they are
essential in the private sector.
If you need help with a resume,I'm happy to help you out with
that.
Linkedin and networking is socrucial.
Nowadays.
It's really who you know, notwhat you know.
So if you're not on LinkedIn,get onto the platform.
If you are on it, try to buildyour network as much as you can,
and this shouldn't be aboutgetting like a ton of followers.
(18:39):
It isn't an Instagram orYouTube kind of deal.
But if you go to a trainingevent or a conference across the
country and you meet somebodythere even if they're a cop as
well connect with them.
Don't just exchange businesscards, but also connect on
LinkedIn and keep theconversation going, because five
, 10 years from now, that personmight be the VP of a company
you want to work for and you canrefer back to meeting him or
her at this conference andthat's a great icebreaker and a
(19:02):
great way to get yourself intothe door with an organization.
So start building that now,because building a network takes
a lot of time.
It's not something you can doin your last month in law
enforcement and think it's goingto pay off in the long run.
You need to do it immediatelyand start that process now.
And, like you said as well,travis, start thinking about
industries that might align withyour interests One thing I have
(19:23):
my candidates actually do.
It sounds kind of dumb, but itworks amazingly well Write down
10 to 15 job duties, assignmentsor things that you did in law
enforcement that you reallyenjoyed.
These shouldn't be job titles.
It shouldn't be like policeofficer or sergeant.
It should be things like Ienjoyed financial crimes
investigations, I enjoyedmentoring, I enjoyed firearms.
Take that list of 10 or 15things and go onto job boards
(19:47):
like LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn jobs, you don'tactually have to search for a
job title.
You can search for a skill oran interest.
Let's say you go onto LinkedInright now and type in the word
firearms and that's all you putin there.
It'll show you every job in thecountry that has the word
firearms listed somewhere in thejob title or job description
and what you can do is slowlystart doing research onto
companies and job titles andindustries that have that job
(20:10):
interest that you have and startseeing what are these companies
looking for for candidates thatthey're trying to hire, because
you might find out that youhave a lot of the skill sets
they're looking for.
But you might also notice thatthere are some things that
you're currently lacking maybe atraining program or a
certification.
And let's say you're two yearsout from leaving law enforcement
and you look it up and you see,oh okay, I'm seeing that for
every job that has firearmslisted or most jobs have
(20:31):
firearms listed they want thistraining or certification.
It takes six months to complete.
Now you have a game planthrough final two years in law
enforcement that you need to getthat certification done.
That way, when it comes time toapply, you're not just a cop,
you're a cop who also has thisamazing certification under his
or her belt, and that will makeyou so much more competitive in
the private sector.
Travis Yates (20:51):
Yeah, and I think that's really great advice
because at the core of it is, ifyou're not sure, if you're not
sure what to do, education andtraining can only assist you.
In a private sector I didsomething very similar, calling
five years out from retiring.
I didn't necessarily know whatI wanted to do, but I knew I was
probably five years out and mydefault was just education and I
(21:11):
already had a graduate degree.
So I went out and worked on mydoctorate and it took me about
five years and so I got mydoctorate about three or four
months before I retired.
But it seemed like a huge thingto do at the time.
But when I think back to it Igo man, if I would have waited
until I retired to do that, itwould have been five, because
(21:32):
that was almost a full-time jobin itself.
It was very, very difficult forme because I'm old and not that
smart and I hadn't been inschool in 20 plus years, and so
obviously things have changed.
But I think back to myself Ididn't even know I was doing
something the right way.
But, man, if I would havewaited until I retired, I went
oh, now I need to go get someeducation, or now I need to go
(21:53):
get some training.
It just becomes more difficultbecause you know first off
you're going to have if you haveto work, then you have to work
a new job.
Now you're going to school.
If you're just going to school,that's all you're doing.
That's not really the life Ithink most people want, and it
probably benefited me more thanI knew at the time, and I think
that is excellent.
(22:13):
Advice is just start.
It doesn't have to be adoctorate degree or whatever
specific training that you mayneed.
And I tell you, colin, I wantto encourage people listening to
us.
For me, it has been veryenjoyable to actually learn to
do new things right.
For 30 years I sort of was inthe bubble of sort of singular
things, and there's so manythings you get to learn and do,
(22:36):
whether it's marketing or sales,or learn how to do graphics or
webs whatever it is you want todo as far as your business goes.
For me, it's been veryenjoyable almost a second lease
on life to actually beginlearning new things, and I think
most people would find thatvaluable.
I just think they have toovercome their fear of going.
Oh my gosh, I don't know how todo this.
(22:57):
Well, the beauty of beingretired is you get to go learn
that.
You have time to learn that.
Would you agree with that?
Colin Whittington (23:03):
Absolutely.
I always tell this story.
So I started my business in2022.
I have, to this day, not takena single business class in my
entire life.
You know, I've never just myfirst time running a business
and it scared the crap out of mewhen I first started as well.
And then same thing withwriting a book.
I was never a big writer beforeI wrote, published my first
(23:23):
book.
But what's the cool thing isyou don't have to know every
single answer when you first getstarted.
I am still, two and a halfyears later into my business,
learning something new everysingle day.
Every day I'm making mistakes.
Every day I'm learningsomething new, but every day I'm
improving as well.
So just take small steps, youknow.
Take, take the chance on whatyou want to do.
If you want to start a business, go for it.
It's much easier than you think.
If you want to write a book,definitely go for that, because
(23:45):
it's also a whole lot easierthan you would think.
And just take small steps everysingle day.
For me, people ask me how I hada chance to write a book while
running a business, while doingwhatever else I'm doing in my
life, and I tell them it's 500words Every single day.
I write 500 words, no matterwhat.
Every single day.
For the past two years, I'vewritten 500 words.
Some days those 500 words arecomplete garbage.
(24:06):
Other days it's awesome.
And it's amazing how writing 500words, which takes 20, 30
minutes maybe, at the end of ayear, you have over 100,000
words written down, which isenough for at least a book, if
not two books, depending on howlong it is.
And it's amazing how that canreally snowball on you.
And that doesn't mean you haveto do it writing, but do
something every single day.
(24:27):
Find some time in your day towork towards your dream.
I think a lot of us spend somuch time working on our jobs
that we forget to spend timeworking on ourselves.
So make the time to reallyfocus on what you want for your
life and what's going to bringyou happiness and fulfillment in
the longterm, and spend, evenif it's just 20 minutes a day
making small steps towards it.
(24:47):
It's amazing how much thosesmall steps can snowball over
time.
Travis Yates (24:51):
It is man and you spend your career being told
what to do.
Go to this call, do thisinvestigation, and when you get
to step away from that and thendo what you want to do, do what
you love to do.
The biggest hurdle and I wouldjust encourage people is to
start.
That's the biggest issue ispeople are fearful to start.
(25:12):
You just have to start and then, once you start, like you said,
dedicate the time to it eachand every day.
I never had a planning calendar.
When I was in law enforcement,I was always told what to do.
My calendar was set for meright and, especially at the
command level, it was really setfor me by other people and I
was just had to go to from me tome or this and that.
(25:33):
But you know, you sat down andyou preplan your day and you
look at your week and you, justlike you said, you schedule an
hour a day to write Right, andyou either I either write no
words or I write a bunch ofwords, but it's scheduled each
and every day Just similar towhat you would do with anything
else, whether it's fitness oranything else, and for me that's
enjoyable, but I think it'sscary for people because for
(25:54):
most of their lives in lawenforcement they've been told
what to do.
And I would just say you justhave to start and I think we've
pretty much covered what holdsfolks back.
But do you have any other ideason the biggest hurdle?
Because you hear from a lot ofthese folks in law enforcement,
right, you hear a lot of excuses.
You hear what's holding themback.
What are the few things thatyou keep hearing sort of over
(26:15):
and over?
What is sort of keeping peoplefrom doing this?
Colin Whittington (26:18):
Yeah, I think the fear is a huge thing.
A lot of people really haveself-doubt.
It's amazing because we can runtowards gunfire and feel so
confident about what we're doing.
We can run towards gunfire andfeel so confident about what
we're doing, but when it comestime to putting yourself out
there for a job, all of a suddenwe retreat back and get you
know very much, much morenervous than we would in a in an
active violence situation.
So just having the self-beliefto put yourself out there and to
(26:39):
show companies and recruitersand hiring managers that you are
the best fit for a job is soimportant.
This is not the time to bemodest.
When it comes time to trying tofind a job in your desired
industry, it's not a time to bemodest.
This is a time to really showwhat you've done and be
confident with your answer.
You don't have to be a cockyjerk about it, but you can be
like yes, I am a great fit forthis job and here's why this is
(27:00):
what my experience has taught meand this is what I can bring to
your organization.
I think that is huge.
I think that is huge.
I think also just having an openmind to see what else is out
there.
Again, if you want to go tosecurity and investigation type
of roles, that's awesome, that'sgreat, you can do very well in
those industries.
But if you are done with thatpart of your life, don't feel
(27:20):
like that you have to stay inthat industry because that's all
you can do.
Be open to other ones, becausethere are so many cool
industries out there that youmay not even have considered
before.
But take the chance and lookinto that.
But still, some of the biggesthurdles still, unfortunately,
are things like resumes.
Resumes are an Achilles heelfor a lot of law enforcement
officers.
We just historically, have allsucked at resumes.
(27:40):
I've written resumes now for, Ithink, over 600 cops now.
Travis Yates (27:44):
Well, you just stole my thunder because I was
about ready to say I bet mostcops I'm guessing I bet most
cops listening to this don'thave a resume.
Colin Whittington (27:52):
Yeah, I would say at least half the cops
I work with don't have resumes,and the ones that do have ones
that are old as can be like 20years old, or ones they put it
when they needed to put in for apromotion or a transfer.
That's maybe the only resumethey have, and I've written
resumes from entry or justpolice officers, patrol officers
, all the way up to deputychiefs and chiefs, and they,
(28:13):
honestly, they all are equallyterrible.
In a lot of ways it's uh, it'spretty amazing and again, it's
just cause we don't use it inlaw enforcement.
You have no reason to be goodat that skill because you
haven't done it before.
You know.
It's just not not not somethingthat a lot of cops are good at.
So I do have a free resumetemplate and also a guide on my
website If you ever want tocheck it out.
It's completely for free.
If you do need professionalhelp as well, I'm a professional
(28:35):
resume writer.
Anyone listening to Travis'sshow will get 25 percent off.
So just mention Travis's nameand you'll get 25 percent off
any service as well.
Travis Yates (28:44):
Well, and Colin, I want to give everybody an
action step, because don'tlisten to this and just blow it
off.
Well, I've still got a long.
Do this one thing Just get withColin and get your resume done,
even if you've got 10 years ofretirement, 20 years.
Get it done, because if youbuild the foundation of it,
(29:04):
colin, you can then build onthat foundation as your career
marches on.
It's almost impossible to endyour career and have to start a
resume from scratch becauseyou're not even going to
remember half of the things thatyou did right.
So at least get the resume done.
He just gave you the discount.
Let him know you listened tothe show.
(29:25):
I'm sitting in your mind, colin,because I was arrogant and I've
sent my resume a few places,but I've become to.
I figured out, you know, a fewa few months ago.
Okay, I'm probably going tohave to swallow my pride and get
this done, even though I thinkI know how to do it.
But you, so you're going to getmine soon.
So follow up with Colin, get atleast get a resume done.
You can ignore everything elsewe said I hope you don't, but
(29:45):
get your resume done, becauseyou may even be able to use that
on the job as well, so it'simportant to have that.
Colin, where can they find youat?
What's your website?
Colin Whittington (29:52):
social media , kind of give all that, yeah,
so I'm very active on LinkedIn.
So it's just Colin Woodingtonis on LinkedIn.
I'm very active there.
My website is recruiting heroesLLCcom.
That's my business website.
I also just started a YouTubechannel, which I'm very new at,
so give me a little time to getthe videoing and the lighting
all figured out, but that's theRecruiting Heroes show on
(30:14):
YouTube as well, and I put out aton of free information all the
time on the Recruiting HeroesLLC.
I put out a blog as well, soyou can subscribe to that.
And then on LinkedIn, I'malways posting free content as
well and, like I said, I do haveservices that cost money, but I
put out a ton of free resourcesand things that could really
benefit you as well.
So do check those out, becauseI spend a lot of time on it and
(30:37):
I just love it.
I give so much stuff away forfree because I just love helping
my brothers and sisters in blue.
Travis Yates (30:44):
Caller Winnington.
Man, this went by like a flash.
This was pretty cool.
I hope you come back on.
I so appreciate what you'redoing for veterans, for law
enforcement, even for theprivate sector.
It was so needed.
Your niche is just.
I think it's a game changer andI just can't thank you enough.
Please, if you're listening, atleast reach out, touch Collin.
(31:05):
You don't have to pay any money.
Follow him, get his information, get the resume done and keep
following him because, trust me,this is going to save you down
the line and because your secondhalf of your career, your
second half of your life trustme, from someone doing it is so.
It's just.
It's just a.
It's a better life.
It's so different when you getto actually do completely your
(31:26):
passion, completely your love.
Because the truth is, colin,many of us went into law
enforcement.
That was our passion, that wasour love.
But let's face it, life changes.
You change.
20 years later, that's probablynot your passion or your love
for most people, but you willstay for however long you need
to stay.
So it's time to make thatchange.
Colin is a guy to reach out toColin.
Thank you so much man, thanksTravis, thanks for having me on
(31:49):
and if you've been watching, ifyou've been listening, thank you
for doing that.
We'll see you again next week.
And just remember lead on andstay courageous.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you for listening to Courageous
Leadership with Travis Yates.
We invite you to join othercourageous leaders at
travisyatesorg.
Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates,
where leaders find the insights,advice and encouragement they
need to lead courageously.
Travis Yates (00:11):
Welcome back to the show.
I'm so honored.
You decided to spend a fewminutes with us here today and I
have been waiting for thisguest for some time.
We had a few scheduling hiccupson my part, but, man, I am so
honored that we have ColinWinnington here today.
He's the best-selling author ofBeyond the Thin Blue Line, he's
the CEO of Recruiting Heroesand he was the 2019 Virginia
(00:35):
Deputy Sheriff of the Year.
Colin is an internationalspeaker and a leading advocate
for America's veterans and firstresponders in their transition
to the private sector.
Colin, how are you doing, myman?
Colin Whittington (00:48):
I'm good, travis.
Thank you so much for having meon.
It's a real honor to be hereand, to everyone watching, it's
so nice to have a few minuteswith you all today as well.
Travis Yates (00:55):
Yeah, man, I always enjoy what you have to
say and you're such anoutside-the-box thinker and a
leader and I had to expose youto our audience here.
I think they're going to bereally interested and I think
you have a very unique story.
You made the decision in 2022to leave law enforcement.
Kind of back us up I know youhad a career several years
(01:15):
before that.
You were very successful inwhat you did.
I believe you retired as asergeant, left the Reserve
Sergeant, so you had a lot ofexperience but kind of back us
up to the decision you made tojump into this new venture,
which we're going to get to herein a few minutes.
Colin Whittington (01:29):
Yeah, so I served in law enforcement for
only about seven and a half toeight years or so and, like you
said, it was a really successfulcareer.
I got promoted to sergeantreally young I was only about
like four and a half years in,gotten a couple of life-saving
awards, got deputy of the yearfor the whole state, like you
mentioned and actually had testson the lieutenant's process as
well, and I think I was eitherfirst or second on the list to
be promoted to lieutenant.
But just like a lot of youngofficers today, I just started
(01:51):
realizing that my heart wasn'tin it anymore.
The law enforcement professionhas taken it on the chin pretty
hard in the last four or five,even 10 years or so, and law
(02:19):
enforcement is obviously anidentity-def and it's an all
consuming career as well.
So it was just it was a lot ofthings.
Honestly, it wasn also madesome good decisions as well and
in the years since just havebeen working with hundreds of
law enforcement officers andveterans with their transition
as well, and trying to provide aservice that I think is really
lacking, especially in the lawenforcement community.
Travis Yates (02:37):
No man, I think you nailed it and I think I
don't want to put words in yourmouth, but I think you speak for
so many people and I hear frompeople almost daily and what
happened is the you didn't leavethe profession, the profession
left you right.
You were promised a bill ofgoods, you were promised a
mission oriented focus and whathappened you know, and I don't
blame.
I want to be very clear andI've said this before.
(02:58):
I don't blame any outsideentities for what has occurred
in this profession because,quite frankly, we've always had
outside entities that didn'thave our mission in mind and
tried to derail us from ourmission, whether that's the
media or the activist or thecrazy lady at your city council
meeting or whatever it was thatwas.
I mean, for 30 years, with mebeing in the profession, I saw
(03:19):
that the difference was in thelast decade is our own
leadership bent the knee towardsthat and the profession changed
because of it.
Your law enforcement agencydoesn't get worse because of
somebody outside the lawenforcement agency says it
should.
It gets worse because theleaders inside the agency agreed
to make it worse.
And we could spend many, manyhours on that.
(03:39):
So I think it's very, veryimportant, but I think which
which your move was so valuable?
Because I think there's a lotof people that are maybe in a
similar position as you, butthey don't feel like they have
the skills or ability to do that.
It's a very fearful thing toleave a government job where
security is king.
Not everything else is great,but security is pretty premium,
(04:00):
and I have often said this,colin, and I want to hear your
take on this.
I've often said that theleadership within law
enforcement plays a role inmaking law enforcement believe
this is all you can do.
What's your take on that?
Colin Whittington (04:14):
Oh, 100 percent.
It's absolutely a leadershipissue.
You know I do help veterans aswell, but honestly, the military
does a decent job with helpingtheir people transition.
They have their own transitionassistance program.
There's nonprofits that do workin that Law enforcement.
We really don't do anything Inmy business.
I actually created a half-dayclass where I go to law
enforcement agencies and teachtheir officers skills like
(04:36):
resume writing, interviewing forjobs, salary negotiations and
things like that.
At least nine, if not nine anda half, out of 10 agencies tell
me to get lost when I presentthe idea to them and it's not
because they don't trust me oranything else like that.
They come back.
They actually write me back andsay Colin, thank you, but we
don't want to teach our officersthese skills because then
they'll just leave.
So my response is that's aterrible way to look at the
(04:58):
thing.
I think that that class shouldbe for anybody in law
enforcement, but if that'sreally your stance, at least
make it for the retirees.
And even then they're like no,we don't want to teach these
people these things.
And these are people who haveserved law enforcement.
They've served the communitiesfor 20, 30 plus years and really
deserve to have a successfullife after law enforcement and
our leadership is activelymaking decisions to try to
(05:21):
prevent that.
And it's just, it sickens me alot of times because again,
these people have sacrificed,you know a lot.
You know emotionally,physically, relationship-wise,
financially.
And the fact that agenciescan't even be bothered to put on
a course like that just showshow we're actually standing in
our officer's way.
A lot of times it's sad to see.
Travis Yates (05:39):
Yeah, I just want to reiterate for our audience
because I think sometimes theyhear me speak about these
leadership issues and especiallythose outside law enforcement
are thinking well, there's noway this can be true.
Colin just said that nine tonine and a half out of 10
agencies are rejecting any typeof things he has to offer, which
as far as providing additionalskills or mentoring officers and
things like that.
(06:00):
That is absolutely true.
I actually heard this just lastnight.
That that is absolutely true.
I actually heard this just lastnight.
Just for the record, thispodcast is dropping this week
but I'm probably home by now,but I'm stuck in Joplin,
missouri, in a snowstorm in ahotel right now.
So I was with a group ofofficers just last night and I
had someone tell me that.
I had someone tell me that whenthey went to their chief and
said chief, and this guy had 25years on and he said chief,
(06:23):
chief, god is calling me outsidehis profession to go do this or
that, the chief didn'tencourage him.
The chief got mad, and I hearthat all the time.
In fact, there's officerslistening to this right now that
are inside agencies, that aredoing other things outside the
agency, whether that's a sidebusiness, or they're building
their own skills or even a hobby, and their department is
(06:45):
actively going against them intrying to do that.
And, by the way, I don't haveany reason or even know why that
is happening, other than thesickening cowardice,
narcissistic type of leadersthat are permeated so many of
our agencies.
And it really is sickening,right, colin, when you say nine,
nine and a half half out of ten, because I'll tell you right
now, I always encouraged peoplearound me to do these type of
(07:10):
things.
In fact, my mantra to rookieofficers was always okay,
congratulations for being here.
Now, while you're here, beginworking on your next career,
because one of the one of thebeauties in law enforcement is
you could be retired at 50, 55or 60 and you've got a long life
to live.
Do not leave this job after 20,25, 10 years without any other
skills in this job.
(07:30):
And they kind of look at mekind of weird, because we lie to
them.
Call it in the academy.
The indoctrination starts inthe academy because we do this
big pitch of oh man, you couldstay here 20 years and then
never work a day in your lifeand you're retired.
This and that and that is a liebecause, first off, you're not
going to live off that pensionand, second off, who wants to
not work after 20 years?
(07:50):
You want to at least dosomething that you enjoy or
something that you love, and sowe should be encouraging people
to build those skills because,colin, I think you're going to
agree with me on this.
When you do that, that makesyour department a better
department, does it not?
Colin Whittington (08:03):
Absolutely so.
I'm actually on March 31st.
My second book is actuallycoming out.
It's called the Thinning BlueLine.
It's all about the vacancycrisis in law enforcement and
one of the things I talk aboutin there is that retention is
far more important thanrecruiting.
In my opinion, retention iswhat's killing law enforcement
right now and the idea that ifyou're teaching your officers
these skills, that they can makethem successful after law
(08:26):
enforcement, that if you believethat's actually just like
hurting your vacancies, you'reso wrong.
If you're going to treat yourofficers really well and treat
them so well that you actuallyhelp them to do very well in
their next career, imagine theimpact that's going to have on
your recruiting.
You're going to have youngpotential officers see your
agency as one that actuallygives a crap about your officers
, which is going to drive inapplication numbers so much more
(08:47):
than agencies that are tryingto hold on to their officers for
dear life and not actually tryto improve their life or improve
their career.
It's a very it's currently it'sa very short-sighted view of
the problem.
They see me coming in andteaching, or anyone coming in
and teaching this subject, aspeople leaving.
They're not thinking about thelong-term where you can actually
use that as a recruiting toolto say, hey, we actually care
(09:11):
about our officers.
We care about them so much thatwe want them to be successful,
even once they're long gone fromour agency, and rightfully so.
Officer wellness has become abigger topic in the last couple
of years.
It's still not the way it'ssupposed to be, but what I
always say to chiefs who turn medown is like okay, you claim to
care about your officers.
If you only care about themwhile they're serving a need for
you and filling a seat in youragency, you don't actually care.
The way you show you care aboutsomeone is that you care about
(09:34):
them even when they're no longerserving a need that benefits
you.
That's when you really showthat you care about somebody,
and providing a class like thator resources like that is how
you would actually show yourofficers you give.
Travis Yates (09:47):
No, you nailed it and if anybody listening out
here that has an open mind, ifyou want to improve retention,
colin just said the single thingyou should do is care.
That's it.
Stop with your program.
Stop with your checkboxtraining.
Stop with you saying you're forwellness because you've
implemented some program fromsome organization inauthenticity
(10:12):
.
Colin and the vast majority ofcops I talk to will say, oh yeah
, my chief or my sheriff says hecares or says patrols the
backbone of the profession.
But we all know different,because actions speak louder
than words and we've got a lotof work to do and I'm glad we
talk about this and people saywell, travis, you're being
negative or calling or beingnegative.
We can't fix this withoutspeaking about the problem.
You know you're not going to goto the doctor today and the
doctor's going to immediatelygive you some medicine.
(10:32):
You're going to go.
Hold on, why are you giving methis medicine?
He's going to talk about theproblem.
We want the best law enforcementhas and we want the best people
coming out of law enforcementto then embed in the private
sector, because there's someincredible skills and talents
that law enforcement can provideyou.
To go into the private sector,colin, talk about some of,
because I know one of thehurdles.
People listen to this and Ithink we've all battled this.
(10:53):
When you stay in this cultureof law enforcement, you're made
to believe man, this is who youare, this is your identity, this
is all you can do and you'vegot to get past that because if
you retire and you're not pastthat, you see, you either see a
miserable human being or you'llsee them work in bank security
somewhere because they've beentold this is all they can do,
(11:19):
nothing against bank security.
But I got a feeling that wasn'tthe end.
Go for that person when theystarted law enforcement.
So explain the specific skillsets that we have the privilege
to learn in law enforcement thatcan transition easily into the
private sector.
Colin Whittington (11:30):
Yeah.
So there's two things I usuallyhear from law enforcement
officers who come to me to helpthem with their transition.
The first one is that they feelthey're absolutely not a fit
for anything in the privatesector.
They have no transferableskills Absolutely false.
The second thing they say isthey feel they can only be
successful in security orinvestigative type of positions.
Again, like you said, there'snothing against those type of
roles.
They're fantastic, you can dovery well in those type of
(11:51):
positions.
Again, like you said, there'snothing against those type of
roles.
They're fantastic, you can dovery well in those type of
industries.
But there's a lot of cops whojust want to be done with that
part of their life.
They've served 20 or 30 yearsand they want to go on to
something different, and theyabsolutely should.
There are so many transferableskills that you've gained during
your law enforcement careerthat absolutely translates so
phenomenally well.
You think of things likeproblem solving.
Communication is a huge one.
This younger generation can'ttalk worth a crap because they
(12:13):
live behind their phones, theylive behind their screens, but
you as an officer, you're goingon calls for service every
single day and having to buildrapport with complete strangers
in just seconds and if you don'tdo that well it can get violent
really fast.
So your communication skillsare phenomenal.
Teamwork is a huge one.
Coaching and mentoring Ifyou're an FTO big skills.
You can highlight there yourability to problem solve and
(12:34):
coach and mentor FTO sergeantsanyone who's ever led a team or
a unit or a program are actuallyprogram managers as well.
We don't use that term in lawenforcement project management
or program management but thoseare absolutely huge terms in the
private sector and the skillsthat you have in law enforcement
translate so well to thoseroles.
Again, back to thecommunication side sales.
(12:55):
A lot of cops could dophenomenally well in sales
because of your ability to buildrelationships and build rapport
with people.
That's absolutely a skill thatsalespeople need.
I got into recruiting again,nothing to do with law
enforcement but my skills thattranslated so well from law
enforcement do phenomenally wellin recruiting as well.
And there's no limit to whatofficers can do and I really
(13:19):
encourage them to pursue whatthey're passionate about, to
actually go after something thatbrings them fulfillment,
because when you leave lawenforcement, like I said earlier
, it's a very identity-definingcareer.
It's all you are.
When someone asks you who youare or what you're about.
You say I'm a cop.
That was my answer.
When you go to the privatesector, you're not going to
really say if someone asks you,tell me about yourself.
Your first answer isn't goingto be I'm a financial banker or
(13:40):
I'm a software engineer.
It's going to be somethingdifferent.
But when you're in lawenforcement, the first thing you
say is a cop, then maybe family, whatever else.
So when you leave that identityto find a career, you need to
try to find something thatbrings you fulfillment and
passion as well and also,hopefully, pays you well too,
and that's very possible.
Travis Yates (13:59):
Yeah, I mean, and you deserve it.
If you spend, if you put upwith what you have to put with
the law enforcement, you shouldspend the second half of your
life doing something you'repassionate about, right, and if
you get paid for it, that's abonus.
And easily, colin, that's whatyou're here for.
You're here to mow that passionwith a salary that can
supplement you as you move on.
And if anybody's wondering well, I don't know what my passion
(14:20):
is, I don't know what my purposeis, well, it's easy.
Answer this question If moneywas no option, if time was no
option, if resources were nooption, what would you like to
do?
Answer that question and thengo pair up a job or a salary
that can meet that goal.
And I think one of the reasons,colin, we see so many people
kind of afraid to get out ofthat bubble you said most cops,
(14:40):
and it doesn't.
It doesn't surprise me, becauseI see a lot of officers that
will retire for a year or twoand boom, they're right back at
a sheriff's department.
They're right back and doing abackground investigator job.
You know, because there's fearthere.
Right, this is a skill set theyhave and there's fear to enter
into other skill sets, but youknow you mentioned a lot of
skills they already have thatprivate sectors are looking for.
I'll mention a few others man,decision making, working without
(15:03):
close supervision, stress, youknow making decisions.
Under stress I mean the skillsets in law enforcement.
The private sector, I would.
I would assume part of what youdo call it is informing the
private sector of why they needthis type of skill set, is it
not?
Colin Whittington (15:19):
Yeah, absolutely so.
My business really has twofunctions.
The one side we have workedwith candidates to help them
really articulate their skillset and make sure that they can
highlight themselves as good aspossible.
The other side of my businessis I'm actually working with
companies around America thatwant to hire veterans and first
responders.
So I reach out to thesecompanies and the big part of my
pitch, basically, is explain tothem what they have to gain by
(15:41):
hiring law enforcement officers.
A lot of companies haveincentives to hire veterans,
which is awesome.
I love that there's not reallythe same emphasis currently to
hire law enforcement or firstresponders.
So what I do is I try toeducate what they have to offer
and what they have to gain byhiring a law enforcement officer
.
Right now, job hopping is sucha common thing in the private
sector people switching jobsevery six to eight months.
(16:03):
For the most part, cops aren'tdoing that.
When they go find a companythat treats them well, they're
going to stay for the long termand you can somebody on who can
really, you know, be a problemsolver, who can take a new skill
that they're new to but reallyrun with it and do phenomenally
well.
So educating companies aboutwhat law enforcement officers
have to do is a huge part ofwhat I do every day as well.
Travis Yates (16:24):
So if someone is listening to this and they're in
law enforcement regardless oftenure, you know I'm not
retiring enforcement regardlessof tenure.
You know, hey, I'm not retiring.
And one of the issues that thateven I experienced was when it
comes to retirement planning oror a second job is, as you go,
wow, I'm going to be here forthe next 25 years, 30 years, 20
years, I don't need to thinkabout that.
And, of course, I would alwaystell them oh, no, no, you need
to think about that now, youdon't.
(16:45):
Whatever you're doing here.
Let's say you love workingtraffic collisions okay, well,
in the private sector, how canyou use the skills and the
training and expertise you'rebuilding to transition that?
Oh, you could work for aninsurance company, you could
work for attorneys, you could doall these other things.
You get to take the skill setin the private sector and I
always tell them when you'refalling in love with a certain
(17:06):
segment of law enforcement,that's what you want to eat and
breathe.
I believe every law enforcementofficer I certainly hope I
would always try to find outwhat they love within the
profession and drive them there.
That's how you're going to getthe best productivity and that's
what's so great about theprofessions.
There's so many different jobswithin the job and then I would
tell them okay, now that you'relearning this, always be
thinking about how you can takewhat you're learning outside.
(17:27):
And so, regardless if you'vegot a one year on or 30 years on
, what is the one piece ofadvice you would tell them right
now, if they're listening.
Colin Whittington (17:35):
Basically what you just said start early.
One of the biggest mistakes Isee officers make when they
reach out to me is that theyhave waited far too long to
start thinking about what theywant to do next.
It's not uncommon for me totalk to people who've already
resigned or retired or arewithin a few weeks or months of
retiring, and that's prettyscary because, I will be honest,
the job market right now isbrutal.
(17:56):
It's really rough and it'sprobably going to get worse when
the people who are leaving thefederal government end up trying
to get into the private sector.
That'll make it morecompetitive.
When AI takes over more,there'll be less jobs
potentially as well.
So the private sector is verychallenging, so I need everyone
to start the process early.
You don't have to be applyingfor jobs, but do simple things
(18:18):
like make sure your resume is upto date and as strong as
possible.
We don't use resumes in lawenforcement much, but they are
essential in the private sector.
If you need help with a resume,I'm happy to help you out with
that.
Linkedin and networking is socrucial.
Nowadays.
It's really who you know, notwhat you know.
So if you're not on LinkedIn,get onto the platform.
If you are on it, try to buildyour network as much as you can,
and this shouldn't be aboutgetting like a ton of followers.
(18:39):
It isn't an Instagram orYouTube kind of deal.
But if you go to a trainingevent or a conference across the
country and you meet somebodythere even if they're a cop as
well connect with them.
Don't just exchange businesscards, but also connect on
LinkedIn and keep theconversation going, because five
, 10 years from now, that personmight be the VP of a company
you want to work for and you canrefer back to meeting him or
her at this conference andthat's a great icebreaker and a
(19:02):
great way to get yourself intothe door with an organization.
So start building that now,because building a network takes
a lot of time.
It's not something you can doin your last month in law
enforcement and think it's goingto pay off in the long run.
You need to do it immediatelyand start that process now.
And, like you said as well,travis, start thinking about
industries that might align withyour interests One thing I have
(19:23):
my candidates actually do.
It sounds kind of dumb, but itworks amazingly well Write down
10 to 15 job duties, assignmentsor things that you did in law
enforcement that you reallyenjoyed.
These shouldn't be job titles.
It shouldn't be like policeofficer or sergeant.
It should be things like Ienjoyed financial crimes
investigations, I enjoyedmentoring, I enjoyed firearms.
Take that list of 10 or 15things and go onto job boards
(19:47):
like LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn jobs, you don'tactually have to search for a
job title.
You can search for a skill oran interest.
Let's say you go onto LinkedInright now and type in the word
firearms and that's all you putin there.
It'll show you every job in thecountry that has the word
firearms listed somewhere in thejob title or job description
and what you can do is slowlystart doing research onto
companies and job titles andindustries that have that job
(20:10):
interest that you have and startseeing what are these companies
looking for for candidates thatthey're trying to hire, because
you might find out that youhave a lot of the skill sets
they're looking for.
But you might also notice thatthere are some things that
you're currently lacking maybe atraining program or a
certification.
And let's say you're two yearsout from leaving law enforcement
and you look it up and you see,oh okay, I'm seeing that for
every job that has firearmslisted or most jobs have
(20:31):
firearms listed they want thistraining or certification.
It takes six months to complete.
Now you have a game planthrough final two years in law
enforcement that you need to getthat certification done.
That way, when it comes time toapply, you're not just a cop,
you're a cop who also has thisamazing certification under his
or her belt, and that will makeyou so much more competitive in
the private sector.
Travis Yates (20:51):
Yeah, and I think that's really great advice
because at the core of it is, ifyou're not sure, if you're not
sure what to do, education andtraining can only assist you.
In a private sector I didsomething very similar, calling
five years out from retiring.
I didn't necessarily know whatI wanted to do, but I knew I was
probably five years out and mydefault was just education and I
(21:11):
already had a graduate degree.
So I went out and worked on mydoctorate and it took me about
five years and so I got mydoctorate about three or four
months before I retired.
But it seemed like a huge thingto do at the time.
But when I think back to it Igo man, if I would have waited
until I retired to do that, itwould have been five, because
(21:32):
that was almost a full-time jobin itself.
It was very, very difficult forme because I'm old and not that
smart and I hadn't been inschool in 20 plus years, and so
obviously things have changed.
But I think back to myself Ididn't even know I was doing
something the right way.
But, man, if I would havewaited until I retired, I went
oh, now I need to go get someeducation, or now I need to go
(21:53):
get some training.
It just becomes more difficultbecause you know first off
you're going to have if you haveto work, then you have to work
a new job.
Now you're going to school.
If you're just going to school,that's all you're doing.
That's not really the life Ithink most people want, and it
probably benefited me more thanI knew at the time, and I think
that is excellent.
(22:13):
Advice is just start.
It doesn't have to be adoctorate degree or whatever
specific training that you mayneed.
And I tell you, colin, I wantto encourage people listening to
us.
For me, it has been veryenjoyable to actually learn to
do new things right.
For 30 years I sort of was inthe bubble of sort of singular
things, and there's so manythings you get to learn and do,
(22:36):
whether it's marketing or sales,or learn how to do graphics or
webs whatever it is you want todo as far as your business goes.
For me, it's been veryenjoyable almost a second lease
on life to actually beginlearning new things, and I think
most people would find thatvaluable.
I just think they have toovercome their fear of going.
Oh my gosh, I don't know how todo this.
(22:57):
Well, the beauty of beingretired is you get to go learn
that.
You have time to learn that.
Would you agree with that?
Colin Whittington (23:03):
Absolutely.
I always tell this story.
So I started my business in2022.
I have, to this day, not takena single business class in my
entire life.
You know, I've never just myfirst time running a business
and it scared the crap out of mewhen I first started as well.
And then same thing withwriting a book.
I was never a big writer beforeI wrote, published my first
(23:23):
book.
But what's the cool thing isyou don't have to know every
single answer when you first getstarted.
I am still, two and a halfyears later into my business,
learning something new everysingle day.
Every day I'm making mistakes.
Every day I'm learningsomething new, but every day I'm
improving as well.
So just take small steps, youknow.
Take, take the chance on whatyou want to do.
If you want to start a business, go for it.
It's much easier than you think.
If you want to write a book,definitely go for that, because
(23:45):
it's also a whole lot easierthan you would think.
And just take small steps everysingle day.
For me, people ask me how I hada chance to write a book while
running a business, while doingwhatever else I'm doing in my
life, and I tell them it's 500words Every single day.
I write 500 words, no matterwhat.
Every single day.
For the past two years, I'vewritten 500 words.
Some days those 500 words arecomplete garbage.
(24:06):
Other days it's awesome.
And it's amazing how writing 500words, which takes 20, 30
minutes maybe, at the end of ayear, you have over 100,000
words written down, which isenough for at least a book, if
not two books, depending on howlong it is.
And it's amazing how that canreally snowball on you.
And that doesn't mean you haveto do it writing, but do
something every single day.
(24:27):
Find some time in your day towork towards your dream.
I think a lot of us spend somuch time working on our jobs
that we forget to spend timeworking on ourselves.
So make the time to reallyfocus on what you want for your
life and what's going to bringyou happiness and fulfillment in
the longterm, and spend, evenif it's just 20 minutes a day
making small steps towards it.
(24:47):
It's amazing how much thosesmall steps can snowball over
time.
Travis Yates (24:51):
It is man and you spend your career being told
what to do.
Go to this call, do thisinvestigation, and when you get
to step away from that and thendo what you want to do, do what
you love to do.
The biggest hurdle and I wouldjust encourage people is to
start.
That's the biggest issue ispeople are fearful to start.
(25:12):
You just have to start and then, once you start, like you said,
dedicate the time to it eachand every day.
I never had a planning calendar.
When I was in law enforcement,I was always told what to do.
My calendar was set for meright and, especially at the
command level, it was really setfor me by other people and I
was just had to go to from me tome or this and that.
(25:33):
But you know, you sat down andyou preplan your day and you
look at your week and you, justlike you said, you schedule an
hour a day to write Right, andyou either I either write no
words or I write a bunch ofwords, but it's scheduled each
and every day Just similar towhat you would do with anything
else, whether it's fitness oranything else, and for me that's
enjoyable, but I think it'sscary for people because for
(25:54):
most of their lives in lawenforcement they've been told
what to do.
And I would just say you justhave to start and I think we've
pretty much covered what holdsfolks back.
But do you have any other ideason the biggest hurdle?
Because you hear from a lot ofthese folks in law enforcement,
right, you hear a lot of excuses.
You hear what's holding themback.
What are the few things thatyou keep hearing sort of over
(26:15):
and over?
What is sort of keeping peoplefrom doing this?
Colin Whittington (26:18):
Yeah, I think the fear is a huge thing.
A lot of people really haveself-doubt.
It's amazing because we can runtowards gunfire and feel so
confident about what we're doing.
We can run towards gunfire andfeel so confident about what
we're doing, but when it comestime to putting yourself out
there for a job, all of a suddenwe retreat back and get you
know very much, much morenervous than we would in a in an
active violence situation.
So just having the self-beliefto put yourself out there and to
(26:39):
show companies and recruitersand hiring managers that you are
the best fit for a job is soimportant.
This is not the time to bemodest.
When it comes time to trying tofind a job in your desired
industry, it's not a time to bemodest.
This is a time to really showwhat you've done and be
confident with your answer.
You don't have to be a cockyjerk about it, but you can be
like yes, I am a great fit forthis job and here's why this is
(27:00):
what my experience has taught meand this is what I can bring to
your organization.
I think that is huge.
I think that is huge.
I think also just having an openmind to see what else is out
there.
Again, if you want to go tosecurity and investigation type
of roles, that's awesome, that'sgreat, you can do very well in
those industries.
But if you are done with thatpart of your life, don't feel
(27:20):
like that you have to stay inthat industry because that's all
you can do.
Be open to other ones, becausethere are so many cool
industries out there that youmay not even have considered
before.
But take the chance and lookinto that.
But still, some of the biggesthurdles still, unfortunately,
are things like resumes.
Resumes are an Achilles heelfor a lot of law enforcement
officers.
We just historically, have allsucked at resumes.
(27:40):
I've written resumes now for, Ithink, over 600 cops now.
Travis Yates (27:44):
Well, you just stole my thunder because I was
about ready to say I bet mostcops I'm guessing I bet most
cops listening to this don'thave a resume.
Colin Whittington (27:52):
Yeah, I would say at least half the cops
I work with don't have resumes,and the ones that do have ones
that are old as can be like 20years old, or ones they put it
when they needed to put in for apromotion or a transfer.
That's maybe the only resumethey have, and I've written
resumes from entry or justpolice officers, patrol officers
, all the way up to deputychiefs and chiefs, and they,
(28:13):
honestly, they all are equallyterrible.
In a lot of ways it's uh, it'spretty amazing and again, it's
just cause we don't use it inlaw enforcement.
You have no reason to be goodat that skill because you
haven't done it before.
You know.
It's just not not not somethingthat a lot of cops are good at.
So I do have a free resumetemplate and also a guide on my
website If you ever want tocheck it out.
It's completely for free.
If you do need professionalhelp as well, I'm a professional
(28:35):
resume writer.
Anyone listening to Travis'sshow will get 25 percent off.
So just mention Travis's nameand you'll get 25 percent off
any service as well.
Travis Yates (28:44):
Well, and Colin, I want to give everybody an
action step, because don'tlisten to this and just blow it
off.
Well, I've still got a long.
Do this one thing Just get withColin and get your resume done,
even if you've got 10 years ofretirement, 20 years.
Get it done, because if youbuild the foundation of it,
(29:04):
colin, you can then build onthat foundation as your career
marches on.
It's almost impossible to endyour career and have to start a
resume from scratch becauseyou're not even going to
remember half of the things thatyou did right.
So at least get the resume done.
He just gave you the discount.
Let him know you listened tothe show.
(29:25):
I'm sitting in your mind, colin,because I was arrogant and I've
sent my resume a few places,but I've become to.
I figured out, you know, a fewa few months ago.
Okay, I'm probably going tohave to swallow my pride and get
this done, even though I thinkI know how to do it.
But you, so you're going to getmine soon.
So follow up with Colin, get atleast get a resume done.
You can ignore everything elsewe said I hope you don't, but
(29:45):
get your resume done, becauseyou may even be able to use that
on the job as well, so it'simportant to have that.
Colin, where can they find youat?
What's your website?
Colin Whittington (29:52):
social media , kind of give all that, yeah,
so I'm very active on LinkedIn.
So it's just Colin Woodingtonis on LinkedIn.
I'm very active there.
My website is recruiting heroesLLCcom.
That's my business website.
I also just started a YouTubechannel, which I'm very new at,
so give me a little time to getthe videoing and the lighting
all figured out, but that's theRecruiting Heroes show on
(30:14):
YouTube as well, and I put out aton of free information all the
time on the Recruiting HeroesLLC.
I put out a blog as well, soyou can subscribe to that.
And then on LinkedIn, I'malways posting free content as
well and, like I said, I do haveservices that cost money, but I
put out a ton of free resourcesand things that could really
benefit you as well.
So do check those out, becauseI spend a lot of time on it and
(30:37):
I just love it.
I give so much stuff away forfree because I just love helping
my brothers and sisters in blue.
Travis Yates (30:44):
Caller Winnington.
Man, this went by like a flash.
This was pretty cool.
I hope you come back on.
I so appreciate what you'redoing for veterans, for law
enforcement, even for theprivate sector.
It was so needed.
Your niche is just.
I think it's a game changer andI just can't thank you enough.
Please, if you're listening, atleast reach out, touch Collin.
(31:05):
You don't have to pay any money.
Follow him, get his information, get the resume done and keep
following him because, trust me,this is going to save you down
the line and because your secondhalf of your career, your
second half of your life trustme, from someone doing it is so.
It's just.
It's just a.
It's a better life.
It's so different when you getto actually do completely your
(31:26):
passion, completely your love.
Because the truth is, colin,many of us went into law
enforcement.
That was our passion, that wasour love.
But let's face it, life changes.
You change.
20 years later, that's probablynot your passion or your love
for most people, but you willstay for however long you need
to stay.
So it's time to make thatchange.
Colin is a guy to reach out toColin.
Thank you so much man, thanksTravis, thanks for having me on
(31:49):
and if you've been watching, ifyou've been listening, thank you
for doing that.
We'll see you again next week.
And just remember lead on andstay courageous.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you for listening to Courageous
Leadership with Travis Yates.
We invite you to join othercourageous leaders at
travisyatesorg.
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