August 4, 2025 • 55 mins
Randy McCoin, is a proud U.S. Army soldier of 26 years and founder of the McCoin institute. Randy knows the struggles of attending college while being a full-time soldier, as it took him 13 years to earn his undergraduate degree. Since then, he has earned a Master of Education from Pennsylvania State University, a graduate certificate in International Student Services from Western Kentucky University and a graduate certificate in College Advising from Columbia University. His passion is to help people, the organization and he loves to witness others achieve their greatest potential.
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-LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/e4bbBM7c
🫡 My Why: I’ve seen the cost of poor leadership — how it can destroy morale, break trust, and in the worst cases, lead to lives lost, including through suicide. That’s why I’ve committed my life to helping others lead with purpose. Through Tales of Leadership, I share real stories and actionable insights on how to overcome adversity and become the kind of leader people remember for the right reasons.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah.
So I think you know we, asleaders whether you're an
officer, enlisted or just in thegeneral public you know we have
to acknowledge that we have toevolve.
You know the leader that I wasas a young corporal is not the
leader that I was or am as aSergeant Major, and I think a
lot of times, you know, we tellpeople like at the Sergeant
Majors Academy, when I was aninstructor there that hey,
(00:22):
continue to do what got you thusfar, because obviously you're
doing something right, and Ithink that statement is good
when we're talking about, likeyour daily activities, your
habits, like getting up earlyreading books, and you know
those type of things seeking outleadership opportunities.
But as a leader, though, wehave to change and adapt the way
(00:44):
we lead.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You're listening to the Tells the Leadership podcast
.
This podcast is for leaders atany phase on their leadership
journey to become a morepurposeful and accountable
leader what I like to call a pal.
Join me on our journey togethertowards transformational
leadership All right team.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Welcome back to the Tales of Leadership podcast.
I am your host, josh McMillian.
I'm an active duty army officer.
I am an army leadership coach.
I am the founder of McMillianLeadership Coaching but, most
importantly, I'm on a journey tobe a better leader and I bring
people on this show to help megrow personally as a leader and
to truly understand what itmeans to be what I like to call
(01:30):
a purposeful, accountable leader.
And my mission is to end toxicleadership by promoting
transformational stories andskills.
And on today's episode, I'mbringing you a transformational
leader, a true servant leader,randy McCoy.
You a transformational leader,a true servant leader, randy
McCoy.
He is a proud US Army soldierwith over 29 years of service
and the founder of the McCoyInstitute.
(01:50):
Randy knows the struggles ofattending college while being a
full-time soldier, as it tookhim 13 years to earn his
undergraduate degree.
Since then, he has earned amaster's of education from
Pennsylvania State University, agraduate certificate in
international student servicesfrom Western Kentucky University
(02:11):
and a graduate certification incollege advising from Columbia
University.
His passion is to help people,is to help soldiers, to help
service members, and he doesthat and fills that out every
single day.
He is a purposeful, accountableleader, and I'll tell you right
now the world needs more peoplelike Randy.
(02:33):
As always, stay to the very endand you will get the top three
takeaways that I have, and youcan go to
McMillianLeadershipCoachingcomIf you're listening to this
episode.
I have did a blog articleaccompanying this podcast
episode that distills down thekey points.
So if you don't have 45 minutesto listen to an episode, you
can take a quick read that'lltake you five minutes and get
(02:55):
the key takeaways from thisepisode.
Let's go ahead and bring onRandy.
Randy, welcome to the TalismanLeadership Podcast.
I know we said it before, buthow are you doing Good?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
I'm honored to be one of yourguests.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, brother, you've been someone that I've known
for a while at least bysupporting this whole platform
that I had, and I thought it washumbling when I went to Fort
Benning now Fort Moore and I wasat the PX.
I think I forgot something andI ran into you there.
It's truly a small world and Iknow you're still in the
(03:31):
military and you're still fullwith purpose, so your time is
valuable and I genuinelyappreciate it.
Thank you, I appreciate youhaving me here today.
Yeah, so I always love startingoff with the same question,
because I have people frommultiple different backgrounds,
but just setting the frameworkof how you would define
(03:52):
leadership through the years ofservice that you've had.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
You know, first of all, I would say that we, as
military leaders and leaders ingeneral, we make leadership
complicated, and it's really notthat complicated.
To me, leadership is a simpleand I know you've used this word
before is love, but I thinkit's about caring.
You have to care, you have tocare about the mission, you have
(04:20):
to care about your subordinates, their families.
It's as simple as a four-letterword.
Whether you use love or care,that that is what leadership is.
I mean we can put all these bigdefinitions on it, the army, I
mean there's probably a thousanddifferent definitions of
leadership online.
You can research that and I'm ina doctorate program right now
with the university of tennesseeat chattanooga and you know
(04:41):
most of my bringing up wasfocusing on certain leaders and
their qualities and aspects oftheir way of leading.
You know people like Patton andGeneral Petraeus and people
like that, but leadership reallyjust comes about caring about
the people that you work withyour co-workers, your superiors
and, of course, yoursubordinates.
You know the chief of the ArmyReserve a few years ago, before
(05:04):
he took over, General Lucky.
I don't know if you know who hewas, but when he took command
of the Army Reserve he said look, as long as you're living the
Army values and doing what'sright per the Army values, I've
got your front, I've got yourflank and I've got your back and
that always stuck with me.
So it's just about caring.
It's really just that simple tome.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I think I made a post a long time ago or it was one
of the episodes that I did whereI broke down the word meekness,
because I think you and I sharethat is that at the base or the
core of my leadershipfoundation is what I term the
word meekness, but I pulled itfrom a biblical aspect of how,
(05:45):
how Jesus kind of led uh withbeing meek and then breaking
down that word.
What does it mean?
It's not weakness, it's engaged, listening, it's evaluating the
moment, your surroundings, andthen keeping a servant's heart,
understanding that acronymsright Hugs, uh, humility,
understanding and then gratitude.
And if you can keep thosethings centered in you, you'll
(06:07):
show up authentically and you'lldo your best and at the end of
the day, you'll inspire otherpeople around you to do their
best.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And I love that.
I totally agree.
And when we, when we as leaders, in my opinion, when we show
that we are human beings and wehave weaknesses, all of us do
right.
I don't know of anybody thatdon't have a weakness.
Our subordinates are the peoplewe work with.
They gravitate to us more andthey want to accomplish more for
us because they know we'rehuman.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, I am probably fraughtwith more faults than most, and
it's definitely gotten betterthroughout the years, but I
would love to kind of tailor itback to starting off your
leadership journey.
Where did it start for you?
Did it start by joining themilitary, or did it start before
(06:55):
that it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
actually started before that and I'm glad you
asked it that way, because in1991, when I started high school
, I made the choice I think itwas a good choice to join the
JROTC and back in those days youknow JROTC has a different
flavor now but you know it waspretty much like being in the
Army.
I had two post-Vietnam StarMajors, post-vietnam Fullberg
(07:20):
Colonel, infantry type.
Well, actually all three ofthem were infantry type and you
know haircuts Infantry type.
Well, actually all three ofthem were Infantry type and you
know haircuts, uniform.
It was like being in the Armyand I did what back then we
called it the Ranger team butnow it's called the Raider team.
So I think I was put in theleadership early on and you know
, of course, looking back, evenbeyond that, I think I
(07:41):
gravitated to some leadershippositions.
But I think it was really inJRTC where I took on those
leadership roles and sought outleadership opportunities.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Those leadership opportunities?
Did they come natural to you?
I guess, from a standpoint, iswhen I was first starting out
and I really did a deep dive inall the different experiences I
had all the way till gradeschool and I never truly
understood that I wouldnaturally gravitate towards
leadership positions and I feltthat I it wasn't me who was
(08:13):
choosing, that, it was otherpeople who were choosing me for
that billet Um, if that makessense and when?
When did you actively realizethat, hey, like I, I am a leader
that other people like respect?
I honestly, I think it was myrealize that, hey, I am a leader
that other people respect.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I honestly think it was my senior year.
By the way, I was adepartmental honor student from
my high school for that program.
But I think it was my highschool year when I had made the
decision to go into the Army andthe leaders of RJRTC had picked
me to be Battalion XO.
But I said, hey, I don't wantto be a Battalion XO, because
(08:47):
Battalion XO is not with SoldWill Cadets.
At the time I wanted to be acompany commander and that's
when I realized that I wanted tobe with the troops.
I wanted to be with thesoldiers, the people who you're
leading on a day to day and youknow, don't join the Army.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
That's the one thing that I miss.
Now I don't know if you knowthat or not, but, like I
transitioned over toacquisitions, so I'm doing cost
schedule and performance,focusing mostly on robotics,
which is very humbling becauseit's the cutting edge of where
we are within warfare.
But the one thing that I missmost is being around soldiers.
My favorite job in the worldwas being a company commander,
(09:30):
and I always say that I had ablessing to do it twice.
That was hands down my favoritejob.
And if you could tell me, hey,you can go be a company
commander again, I would do itin a heartbeat because I love
being around soldiers.
And let's talk, through thatdecision, of what inspired you
to actually join the military.
I know you joined rotc, butwhat was that uh inspiration for
(09:52):
you to?
To look at this as a careerfield?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
yeah, well, first let me say I think you were double
blessed as a company commander,because you were a company
commander with the ramrods dudeI want to get into that?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
yeah, I saw your platoon sergeant time and I was
like man, it's a small world.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, very much, it very is no.
So so my older my, so my dad,was in the marines for 16 years
and and let me go back realquick and bring me back if you
need to uh, so my dad was frombeckley, west virginia.
Oh, that's our connection, yeah, and so you know, I think
that's where I, you know, fromour family, we get our work
ethic and it just really drivesyou, gives you a grit, you know,
(10:29):
being from a descendant fromWest Virginia, it really drives
you who you are.
So my dad had a third gradeeducation, but when he went in
the Marine Corps, they, you know, on his 214, when we buried him
in 2015, I talked about how theMarine Corps had got him
through grammar school, but I'lltell you and the McCoy
Institute, which we'll talkabout more later, I'm sure
(10:51):
that's not named after me.
I'm not that self-centered toname something after me.
That's named after my dadbecause my dad was a lifelong
learner, even with a third gradeeducation.
He's probably the smartest manI've ever known and I'm in a
doctorate program and I stillthink he was smarter than I am.
So he was the Marine Corps for16 years and two of my older
brothers were in the Army.
(11:12):
One was in the Marine Corpslike my dad, and the other one
was in the Army and served inDesert Storm.
And even with all that, I stillthink that my drive or desire
really came from my mom and thereason I say this because I
remember as a little boy.
Chattanooga used to be known forhaving the grandest Memorial
(11:34):
Day parade.
I guess it's coming up herethis coming weekend in
Chattanooga.
It used to be the largest.
I don't know if it still is ornot, I need to look into that,
but my mom would take me to that.
You know, you'd have jetsflying over, you'd have all
these big.
So I think that's really whereI got my sense of patriotism
from was my mom, and at age 82,because she's still alive and
(11:55):
maybe she'll see this video orhear the podcast, I don't know,
but I tell you my mom she wasborn in 1941, just days before
December 7th, and I think, as alittle girl growing up in that
timeframe, my mom right now, ifyou told her to go and take on
the Russian military at the ageof 82, she would do it.
(12:16):
She's that much of an American.
So I think that's whatinitially got me into the
service to serve initially.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I love that connection to West Virginia and
I was going to bring that upbecause I was curious of where
that was.
So Beckley, west Virginia Igrew up in I don't even know if
you know where this is at or not, but Fenwick, west Virginia,
which is just outside ofRichwood and Summersville.
So from Summersville I thinkyou jump on 64.
I can't remember it's been awhile or 19.
(12:45):
And then you can get intoBeckley probably 40 minutes
driving through Fayetteville.
That's a different level ofAmerica, if no one's the.
And I love that connectionbecause I also have a deep
connection with my father andthat's where I think I get all
(13:09):
my work ethic.
He was a coal miner, still is,gets up at three every morning,
works and gets home maybe fouror five in the afternoon, still
cuts grass and goes and cutsgrass for his neighbors, some of
his elderly neighbors.
He's just a better man thanI'll ever be and it's just a
different level of grit and workethic that I've shared and I'm
(13:31):
hoping I can instill that in mykids.
We're actually going back homenext week to hopefully go spring
gobbler hunting, take the kidsfor the first time.
So I'm pumped about that.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, I mean honestly and shamefully.
I admit I have not been back inmany years to West Virginia.
I never actually lived there,but I, now that I'm retiring or
we're going to be retired nextmonth, I definitely want to plan
to get up into the mountainsand see that beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
If we ever get an opportunity, I would love to
take you trout fishing.
Um, we can go up to theMonongahela National Forest
where the cranberries are.
It's really close to my houseOnce you're retired and maybe we
could plan like an actualfishing trip.
That'd be awesome.
That sounds fun.
So kind of tailoring it backtowards that inspiration to join
(14:16):
the military.
When you joined the military,what were some of your initial
thoughts and just experiences atthat junior rank before you
really made more of like asenior non-commissioned officer?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
You know, I loved the Army and I still love the Army
to this day and I got out.
So I got out of the Army as astaff sergeant in 2001, in June,
with the hopes of going toChattanooga State and obviously
you know, 9-11 happened.
And so my reserve side, I mean,when I left active duty I went
into the reserves because I saidI'm going to continue to do
this, even if it's on thereserve side, because I love the
(14:51):
army that much.
But then 9-11 happened and thenmy two days later my reserve
attachment got called up to FortCampbell where I spent the next
two years and even though I wason the reserve books for like
the next eight years, all thattime pretty much was active duty
.
It was either mobilized Iraq orAGR time period in 2008.
I refried it.
(15:12):
I don't know if you know whatthat means or not, but I refried
it, released from active dutyand came back on active duty and
went to on active duty rolesand went back to or went to
Korea where I was a platoonsergeant.
But but my first, my but myfirst duty station was Fort Drum
and it was just fun Highintensity training in the early
90s, mid 90s.
(15:32):
10th Mountain only had twobrigades.
We were constantly training,constantly going.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
You would not be disappointed that it is still
that exact same way.
Three brigades, now 2-2, movedto I can't think of the new
installation's name Fort.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Johnson.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And that they are there supporting the other
brigades that rotate throughJRTC, but they also help augment
.
I have done more JRTC rotationsand we shared that too because
I was an OCT, but 10th Mountainhas not changed their op tempo.
I've done more live fireexercise with that organization
(16:12):
and I am a T at it.
So when you were transitioningthrough the ranks, in terms of
just leadership skills that youhad, were there any specific
skills that you picked up alongthe way that you thought were
the most valuable, specificallywhen you were starting off at a
junior rank and then you startedto transition to more senior
(16:33):
ranks?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
yeah, so.
So I, I think you know we asleaders whether you're an
officer, enlisted or just in thegeneral public you know we have
to acknowledge that we have toevolve.
You know, the leader that I wasas a young corporal is not the
leader that I was or am as aSergeant Major, and I think a
lot of times, you know, we tellpeople, like at the Sergeant
Majors Academy, when I was aninstructor there, that hey,
(16:56):
continue to do what got you thusfar, because obviously you're
doing something right.
And I think that statement isgood when we're talking about,
like your daily activities, yourhabits, like getting up early
reading books, and you knowthose type of things, seeking
out leadership opportunities.
But as a leader, though, wehave to change and adapt the way
(17:17):
we lead, and you know I didlisten in one of my favorite
podcasts that you did isobviously with General portray
us, because he promoted me startfirst class in iraq.
But you know he talked abouthow, um, he has no set
leadership style and I reallyappreciated that and it really
opened my eyes and made mereflect.
Uh, because you know, back inthe older days we had directing,
(17:39):
participating and combinedleadership, and I would like to
say that I was combined.
I think most people would say,oh, I'm combined because it
sounds good.
It's like a little bit of both,but I was probably less
directive and more participative.
I'm the type of leader that Itry to get in there and do the
work with my soldiers orsubordinates, be a teammate.
But that's not always the smartanswer, right, because
(18:01):
sometimes, and especially as youmove up, you know when you're a
first sergeant you probablydon't have the time to
participate as much.
I'm not saying that most firstsergeants or company commanders
don't want to participate.
I mean, I'm not sure.
As a company commander youwanted to get out there and do a
lot of stuff with your platoonsand squads.
But if you're doing that daily,are you really leading your
(18:22):
company Right?
So you know, that's the thing Ithink is you know early on I
was definitely moreparticipative type of style.
I don't even think we use thoseterms anymore in leadership for
the army, but that's the way,that's what it was when I first
came in.
But I'm just saying we have toevolve as leaders and if we
don't, I think we're going tofail.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, I love this quote by Ralph Nader and always
sticks with me is that thefunction of a leader is to
produce more leaders, not morefollowers.
And when I had General Petraeuson the, by the way, that was
just extremely humbling Reachingout to him and him actually
(19:06):
being on the podcast, not from astandpoint of like any type of
following that I would get, butjust to learn from one of the
most influential militaryfigures of our times, which was
super humbling.
And I agree with you when hetalked about his leadership
philosophy, that he didn'treally have one, that he and I
kind of boiled it down toleadership intelligence.
He had the leadershipintelligence to understand what
(19:26):
he needed to do to be successful, not just as an individual but
as a team and an organization,and he adapted that with the
tools he had in his rucksack,based on the operational
environment that he found itself.
And I mean I wish I would haveheard that a long time ago,
because I thought we had a setleadership style and this is my
leadership style and I'm goingto go out forward and I'm going
(19:48):
to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, that really that episode you did with him,
and when he made that comment Iwas like man, that's really
impactful.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
So kind of continuing with your military service,
because I know education issomething that is near and dear
to your heart, is near and dearto your heart.
Did you have any challengeswhile you were in the military
actively of pursuing any ofthose advanced educations as a
soldier?
And then what are some of theresources that you used and have
used?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Well, first of all, what I would say is you know,
when I first came in in 1995,going to school as an
infantryman was not a thing,right, it really wasn't.
It wasn't.
It was your thing.
Right, it really was, it wasn't, it was you.
Your job was to go to the range, it was to do pt.
Uh, it was to run faster, itwas to run harder.
That strong ranger, yeah, yeah,you know, it's what we did.
(20:36):
But I will say this and I don'tknow which battalion commander
it was, because I'd like to givehim credit but he did set up a
one of our down periods.
He set up for JeffersonCommunity College in Watertown
to come in during lunchtime andgive us a composition 101 class.
So that was really my firsttaste of a class in the military
(20:57):
.
And I like to tell people myjob as a soldier always came
first, always.
So I may have two masters and Imay have two graduate
certificates, but I never putany of that before my job as a
soldier.
Now I'll say this in today'sarmy, I think having college
education, whether it's oneclass or a degree or whatever,
makes us a better soldier, makesus, uh, ready tonight, the so.
(21:23):
What worked for me readytonight, the.
So what worked for me?
It was taking one class at atime.
I took one class at a timebecause I think soldiers can
overload themselves.
If you're trying to do your jobas a soldier and you're trying
to take two classes, that's alot right.
But so it took me 13 years toget my uh four-year degree and
after that I got selected to goto the Start Majors Academy as a
(21:46):
student, and there, at UTEP,university of Texas at El Paso,
they offer graduate degrees atnighttime, so two nights a week,
in addition to the start majorscourse load, which, if anyone's
listening doesn't know, ispretty academic and strenuous.
So I can.
In 10 months I earned mymaster's of public
(22:06):
administration.
And then in 10 months.
That's a lot of work, a lot ofwork.
Then I got selected for thefellowship at the academy and
earned a master's of education,and that's what led me to kind
of doing what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So what inspired you and inspires you to continue
down that path of education?
Because I have that same drive.
I just don't.
I literally don't have the time, because something would have
to give within my current role.
It would either be my job,which is absolutely no-fail job,
or my family.
(22:42):
So everything I want to do is abucket list item.
I plan to do that later.
But what keeps you driven to goafter these master's degrees?
Because I'll tell you I'm goingto be honest with you when I
went to the Naval PostgraduateSchool and they forced me to get
a systems engineering degree,when I thought I was getting an
MBA and I have a criminalpsychology bachelor's degree, I
(23:05):
avoided math like the plague,because not because I'm stupid,
but because I just did not wantto do it, and I was like I'm
never getting another degree.
But now I find myself wantingto go get a doctorate degree,
but specifically like inleadership studies, because that
fascinates me.
But what has kept you motivatedjust to pursue this high level
(23:25):
of education?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Well, I want to hit on two things with this.
One is I want to go back tobalance here in a minute, but
what drives me personally isgoing back to my dad.
So initially, when I joined thearmy out of high school, my dad
, he said and I knew my parents,you know they were from West
Virginia right, he did not havethe money to send me to the
University of Tennessee atChattanooga, which I think it's
(23:49):
kind of interesting.
Now it's full circle, becausenow I'm doing my doctorate there
, which is interesting.
So I have all of my GI Bill andI feel like my dad would be
looking at me right now andsaying hey, randy, you have this
educational benefit.
Why are you not using it?
Why are you not betteringyourself?
And that's truly why I'm doingit.
(24:09):
I don't care for the title ofdoctor, I really don't, and
humbly, I'll tell you justrecently, during my transition,
because of the things I've beenbeen over doing over the last
couple years, people are seekingme out.
I never thought in a millionyears that this young guy from
chattanooga would be offered tobe flown to the university of
florida for a job interview.
(24:31):
Oh, wow, yeah, and now I Ipulled my name out of the uh
list of contestants for thatposition.
Now I pulled my name out of thelist of contestants for that
position but still I went downthere and did a five-hour
interview with a certain officeand it was just humbling and I
thought I did really well.
But after doing more reflectioncame back to Columbus, fort
(24:53):
Moore, and I was like you know,I need to be here right now.
And then another opportunitywas presented Because I'm also
teaching classes at GeorgiaMilitary College here in
Columbus, and anotheropportunity opened up for me to
take a full time position at theColumbus location and I
actually submitted myapplication and then, like two
or three days later, I withdrewthat application because I'm
(25:16):
like right now I'm in thisdoctorate program and this
doctor it's only going to takeme just a little bit over a year
because of my two graduatecertificates.
So that's why I want to go backto this word balance.
So what is that balance?
And because everybody loves tothrow around this word balance
and I even at the start majorsacademy, when I was instructing,
I I would try to get our smallgroup to talk about what does
balance mean.
I would try to get our smallgroup to talk about.
(25:36):
What does balance mean?
Because balance to you as a dad, what you, you know you may be
doing 50, you know 80% of yourwork, 10% to this you know
business, a podcast, leadership,school that you have, and then
the other 10% goes.
I don't know what yours is, butI'm just giving an example.
But you know that that may bewhat you think is right, but
(25:57):
what right for your, yourchildren, or what is right for
your spouse and we.
A lot of times I don't think weknow that we get the balance
wrong until it's too late.
But that's what drives me.
So, going back to the originalquestion, it's, it's really
because my dad would be.
Look, I think he's saying to melike you have this benefit, the
gi bill, why are you not usingto further develop yourself?
(26:17):
Because my dad continued toread books, whether it was a car
manual or a magazine, or lawnand garden or whatever it was,
until he died.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah, my grandfather.
He would sit there and he woulddo Sudoku, sudoku, puzzles and
puzzles and read Western books,I think all the way up till 89
years old, right before hepassed away, all the way up till
89 years old, right before hepassed away.
But he was one of the sharpestmen that I knew and he would
always just keep himselfentertained.
And I love how you went to theword balance, because you and I
(26:48):
see it the same way, and I don'tthink balance is achievable and
I say this from a standpoint isthat if we always try to chase
balance, then we're chasing thatmoment in time of where we're
comfortable.
But life isn't like that,because we always have bins that
are overflowing.
And I break it down, kiss, keepit simple.
(27:10):
Stupid is that work, family,self, so we always have to go to
work.
There's something that we haveto get paid for or we want to do
family and self, self-care.
And I just break it up intothose allotments and I actually
did an assessment, exactly whatyou just talked about, and I'm
about 60-30-10.
60% goes to the Army on anormal day of my time, 30% goes
(27:34):
to my family and then 10% goesto myself.
But it wasn't like that before.
It was 60, 35, 5, with 5 beingmy family, and that's when I
realized I have to back off,because this is the most
informative years for my kidsand I don't want to miss that,
because I'm trying to chase mypassion, which is leadership,
(27:55):
and that's hard to realize.
I was able to do it because Ihad an accountability partner,
which was my wife.
I kind of call it myaccountability tree, someone
who's like deeply rooted, thatjust doesn't want to hear
anything and will keep you on astraight and narrow, but that
that's hard to do.
How, how, how did you identifythat?
The, the work-life balance orunderstanding, when you become
(28:20):
unbalanced in a certain area andyou have to reevaluate?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
well.
So so much like your, yourspouse, your wife.
So for me I call it a circle oftrust.
And to me my circle of trust ison about five people, right,
and what I do is is when I'mtrying to take on this doctor,
so when I was deciding about thegeorgia military college
position, the university offlorida position, that both of
those positions I would haveloved, is when I'm trying to
take on this doctorate, so whenI was deciding about the Georgia
(28:45):
Military College position, theUniversity of Florida position,
that both of those positions Iwould have loved and this
doctorate, I run those by thosefive people and I say, hey, this
is where I'm at, this is wheremy mind is.
And I'll tell you, being herelately, thinking about thinking,
metacognition, reflection, andwe always think those are great
things but I'll tell you herelately, for somebody who's made
decisions for 29 years andadvised commanders on on making
(29:05):
decisions, on you know, what Ithought was the appropriate
decision.
Man, it's hard, it's hard tomake those decisions.
So I rely on those, uh, my,what I call my circle of trust,
to help me, uh, to make surethat I'm not overburdening
myself.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I love that man Circle of trust.
It's really it's like anindividual mastermind or
accountability group that youcan vet and validate your
decisions on.
That's awesome.
I want to go to back tosomething that you talked about
before, and it was the GeorgiaMilitary College.
So I know that you do a coupleclasses I think it's Leadership
(29:43):
201 and then Leadership 101within that class.
What are some of thefundamentals that you're
teaching in that class thatcould apply to leadership?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
anyone who's listening so the first one is
leadership and college success.
So really the only thing thatone is getting after is college
success what will make yousuccessful in college.
And one example of that wouldbe a lot of students going like
first generation collegestudents don't know what it
means.
When we talk about instructorhours, you know certain
(30:16):
demographics in our countrythink oh well, that's
instructor's hours, that's timesthat you don't bother them,
right.
But that's not the case.
That's the time when you'resupposed to go bother them and
say, hey professor, heyinstructor.
I don't understand this concept, I don't understand this theory
.
And that's their office hours.
That's when you're supposed togo see them.
(30:36):
So we go over that and it'sreally just setting the students
up for being successful collegestudents and it's really a fun
course.
The other course is basicallygetting after being a creative
and critical thinker, which wevalue in the military.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I think critical thinking that was something that
you talked about before of whyit's so important to the
military is that it helps bridgethe gap between theoretical and
problem solving If that makessense, like book answers versus
actually being a problem solver.
Some of the material that Itook, like software coding and
all that stuff, I will never use.
But what I did learn was how tocritically think through
(31:17):
problems and if you've everheard the term engineering be
verification, validation and thebridge of kind of like making
decisions, I think education,from that standpoint, helps us
be a more critical thinker or,at the end of the day, a problem
solver, and that's whyeducation I agree with you
wholeheartedly is so vitallyimportant within the military,
(31:40):
because it teaches our youngservice members how to think
through problems that you maynot truly get any experience
with, even going through realworld events, but going through
these complex ideas it rewiresyour brain in a way of
critically thinking throughissues.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, and one of the ways I get after that in the
course I lead is group work.
So a lot of times what I'll dois I'll have the student write
down their answer, what theirbelief is, or whatever the
answer, what they believe theanswer is to the problem on a
three by five card and then thatway I know what they were
initially thinking and then I'lltell them share that with your
classmate, and then I'll putthem in a larger group and then
(32:23):
sometimes I'll even divide themand I will get them to go on the
opposite side of what theybelieved about a topic.
And now they have to argue, uh,the the opposite of what they
believed, to try to get you know, open their mind.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
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That was what I had to do thatexercise in college, and I hated
that exercise the most becauseI was dead set on like OK, this
is my thought.
This is the way that I see thisproblem.
Oh, now you have to flip that.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, it challenges us.
No, no one wants to, you know.
Challenge, you know, challengeyour beliefs.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
So some of the roles and titles that you had before
we get to the McCoy Institute Iknow you were up with.
So were you a platoon sergeant?
And to you before you were anobserver, coach, trainer or how
did that work for you?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, so I was with the.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I think you probably came, if I'm guessing, right
after I left to to.
I was with them for 2010 to2012.
I was with them for 2010 to2012.
And I was on that 2011 tour toAfghanistan and I was platoon
sergeant for half of that andthen the other half I was the
battle NCO in the battalion talkand then, when I came back from
(34:26):
that deployment, sergeant MajorTagg, who ultimately made it up
to be a four-star nominativesergeant major, he moved me in
to be the first sergeant of theFord support company.
I don't know what it was whenyou were there.
I think it was Fox company 201.
I don't know if it was stillthe same when you were there.
But and then, immediately afterthat, I was only back there for
(34:47):
like six months and you know HRCwas well, this is when the
brigade you were at Fort Knox.
Right, I've been to Fort Knox.
You were at Fort Polk.
Yeah, I was at Fort Polk, orJohnson, now, yeah, yeah, okay,
yeah, get it straight, but I wasat that time period that the
brigade, 3rd Brigade, 1st ID,was at Fort Knox.
Ah, okay, and so when I, aboutsix months after being back, we
(35:11):
had a meeting with thelieutenant colonel that was over
the infantry branch there atHRC and I had come down on
orders initially to go to NTCand, you know, I said, hey, you
know, I want to go to anotherdeploying brigade.
This is what I want to do on adeploy.
And this lieutenant colonel waslike well, I'm sorry, you've
been selected to be an OC andthat's it.
And I had no interest in goingto NTC and that's it.
(35:36):
And I had no interest in goingto NTC.
And he said, look, and this iswhat he told me he said, look,
it's probably a good thing thatwe selected you to be an OC.
And I didn't kind of know whathe was laying down at the moment
, but at that time HRC wasactually selecting people to be
OCs, octs, and so then I said,well, can I at least go to Fort
Polk at the time versus NTC,because I'm not a desert person,
I'm just not.
(35:56):
And he says, well, we can dothat for you.
And so they sent me to FortPolk, now Fort Johnson, task
Force 2.
And about four months later myname popped out on the E8 first
round list.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
So that is a small world, um.
So I think delta company wasdingo company when, when we were
going through, alpha companywas wolf company, bear, cobra
we're all named after animalswhen we were there.
And then hsc was hawk company,but I did my oct time first and
it was funny because mine wentum the same way.
(36:32):
I had a meeting with Branch atthe Maneuver Center of
Excellence after I was finishingthe captain's career course and
I was in.
I just, you know dead set.
Just got back from 2-2 brigadeout at Fort Lewis, under 4th
Battalion, 23rd InfantryRegiment, deployed to
Afghanistan during a combatdeployment.
I was, I was all motivated.
I went in there with themindset that I'm going to be the
(36:55):
very last person that branchtalks to, because they're going
to remember me.
Horrible decision, and ifanyone's listened to that, never
be the last person, cause thatbasically means all the slots
were filled when I went.
They're like all right, well,you have two options.
You can go be an eyeballinginstructor or you can go to a
CTC rotation.
Uh, it's like well, I'vealready been a platoon leader.
(37:19):
I don't want to learn, and, asbad as that sounds, to be a
better platoon leader, I want tomove forward and learn how to
be a company commander.
So if I have to choose, I willchoose a CTC.
And then I chose Jared TC and Ialso fell in under 2-2 or Task
Force 2 as well.
So I was there as a platoonwalker for six months and then I
(37:43):
transitioned.
I got lucky.
I was able to do a companywalker I think I was Yankee 0-2
for about 18 months.
I think I had like about 26rotations roughly between that
and being in 2-2, but that setme up for success of being a
company commander because I sawall these different leaders come
through.
(38:03):
I call it Clint Eastwood thegood, the bad, the ugly of how
to be an effective leader, andit was really cheating in a way.
So when I was able to take overa company I had all the answers
to the test.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, I totally agree and you know I've often tell
people that.
You know, when I was Yankee 3-0November, that I could tell
from my first engagement withthe company, from when we'd
first go meet them you probablyremember doing that I can tell
by the unit units disciplined,how well they were going to
perform throughout the rotationand and that really impacted me.
(38:38):
So when I went out and did moreleadership positions that's why
I was like discipline,discipline, just discipline,
initiative.
You know, like when you hadunits that came in where we're
in, where soldiers weren'tstanding at progress for their
soldiers or ncos, just kind ofborderline disrespect stuff,
that unit was probably going tobe crappy.
If I'm being honest, when youhad units that came in there and
(39:00):
they were, you know, uniform,looked good, equipment looked
good, all that stuff, they weregoing to do pretty well in the
rotation.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
So the next thing I want to kind of transition to
because I could keep goingthere's so much stuff that I
want to kind of transition tobecause I could keep going.
There's so much stuff that Iwant to pull from there.
But the mccoy institute, walkme through you, forming that,
the vision, the mission of, ofwhat you wanted to achieve with
the mccoy institute.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So so I formed it because, you know, counseling
and mentoring soldiers and goingthrough education myself, you
know, like I said early on, itwas a struggle because people
didn't know, you know, theoptions or opportunities to go
to school and so, you know, Ithink I figured it out and when
I was counseling my platoons andmy company on going to school,
(39:50):
my subordinates, you know, Ijust kind of just honestly, I
just fell in love with it.
It's mentoring at its finest orleading, and it's fine, I don't
know what to call it, but I justfell in love with that process
of coaching, mentoring,developing other people.
So, you know, that's when I,you know, I looked at my dad
being a lifelong learner, I said, hey, I'm going to name it
(40:11):
after him and basically, theMcCoy Institute, really all it
is is a community of practice.
It's a community of practicethat shares the latest trends
and the best practices and it'sreally for those people who
support, like the people at theeducation office or the you know
the the education office at amajor university like the
(40:32):
University of Florida it'sreally for those individuals to
earn these certificates, uh, sothat they can better advise our
veteran uh server and ourservice members and our military
connected students on careerand educational opportunities,
whether it's using their tatuition assistance or the gi
bill or looking at differentprograms.
(40:54):
You know some of the new stuffout there.
Some people don't want to getdegrees anymore.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
They want to get these micro certificates and you
know I can't argue against that, because some of these micro
certificates like you can get acoding certificate from the
University of Texas at Austinfor about six months and be very
marketable.
There are so many, so manydifferent academic educational
(41:19):
benefits and programs that areout there.
I will tell you, though, thatI've noticed, at least over the
past two years, that they'restarting to dwindle in a way,
and like a specific example youshared one on LinkedIn not too
long ago, but one that comes tomy mind is the Army
credentialing program.
The Army used to give $4,000 ayear with no ad, so to go pursue
(41:42):
whatever certification you wantand I was able to get the RBLP
certification through that butnow they're changing it to where
it's no longer a $4,000 a year.
I think it's $1,000 a year isthe max, up to $4,000 for the
lifetime of service.
So things are constantlychanging, and I say that from a
(42:03):
standpoint that it's awesomethat you have the McCoy
Institute that provides, orweaponizes, all of that to
service members who want to gopursue education, because, to be
honest, we are only going towear a uniform for a very minute
period of time within our lives.
Even general officers, they'rein for what?
37 years, you're probably goingto have another job afterwards,
(42:26):
at the end of the day, andthat's such a small percentage
of people who make it to thatlevel, and could you share some
key initiatives or projects thatyou're currently working on
within the McCoy Institute?
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah.
So one thing I think I'd liketo share, and hopefully the
listeners will share, is so onthe McCoy Institute website,
mccoyinstitutecom, there's alink where service members or
veterans, marines, soldiers,airmen, whatever can take a
(42:59):
self-paced course, and thatcourse is free as of right now.
First of all, since 2011, upuntil now, I've never charged
for anything, so all of this iscoming out of my pocket, but
maybe someday when I'm out ofthe Army, I'll charge for some
of the more professionalcertificates, but this
particular certificate collegesuccess for military connected
(43:20):
students and veterans willalways be free.
That is my mission, because Iwant soldiers to be able to log
on there, marines log on there,airmen log on there, guardians
log on there and take thatcourse, and basically it goes
over things like how to use yourTA for being successful in
college, how to use your gi billwhen should you use your gi
(43:40):
bill, when should you not use itthose type of things.
So it's really good for somebodywho has never been to college,
or maybe maybe they'retransitioning back into college.
Maybe they went to school as acivilian, now they're a service
member and they're wanting to goto school, and they don't know
exactly.
It irritates me when I find astudent at the PX or club in
(44:00):
sales or a club team and I'mlike where's the education
office?
And they have no clue.
They don't even know who theireducational counselor is.
So one of the things that talksabout in there is building
connections.
Relationships matter and ifyou're going to go to college,
you know, build a connectionwith your professor or your
instructor early and often, youknow, don't call on them the
night before you need them,because now it's too late, right
(44:22):
?
So that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
There's a quote by Winston Churchill that I love
that we make a living by what weget.
We make a life by what we give,and I generally believe, by
giving it, and thank you forthat.
I know it's not easy, so I doleadership coaching 100 percent
free, and it will always be freefor for service members, no
(44:47):
matter where, wherever I go withthis.
That's something that is deeplypassionate, at least from my
perspective, and the world needsmore people like you, randy,
that are willing to make thosetypes of sacrifices to make this
world a better place.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
It's time for our final show segment that I like
to call the killer bees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the Tales of Leadershippodcast.
Questions that I ask everyguest on the Tales of Leadership
podcast Be brief, be brilliant,be present and be gone.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Question one what do you believe separates a good
leader from a great leader?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I think it goes back to what I said initially Be
willing to care and take action.
We make leadership complicated,but I don't think it's
complicated at all.
Just have a willingness to care.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
And once you see a fault or whatever, take action
to correct it.
Second question, and this isprobably going to be a hard one
for you, because I know you'regoing to have so many that come
to mind If you could share oneresource with our listeners to
help them grow their leadership,what would it be?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So the one I want to talk about is the DOD.
I'm going to give you a website,wwwdodmoucom, and what that is
is it's a way for people tovalidate that the school they're
going to is regionallyaccredited, and that's important
.
Regional accreditation isimportant, and when I advise
(46:15):
students or veterans, I want tomake sure you know there's some
nationally accredited schoolsthat are great schools, and
institution and learning islearning, in my opinion.
But if you're going to spendyour time, spend your GI Bill,
spend your tuition assistanceand your energy, I think you
should be spending it onsomething that's going to be
(46:35):
able to transfer to other majoruniversities like the University
of Alabama, the University ofFlorida, the University of
Tennessee, and so that meansthat your schools really need to
be originally accredited, andyou can validate that by going
to wwwdodo-u dot com, and it's agovernment website, uh, and all
(46:56):
you gotta do is put the schoolin there and it'll search.
It'll show you all the schoolsin the country and it'll tell
you if it's a for-profit school,it'll tell you if it's a public
school, it'll tell you if it'sa private school.
It'll tell you how manystudents are going to that
school using their gi benefits,uh, so that's a resource I'd
like to share with your audience.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
That's awesome.
I've never heard of that, sothat's definitely a new resource
that hasn't been shared on this, so that's great.
Question three if you could goback in time and give your
younger self a piece of advice,what would it be and why?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I wish I would have fallen in love with learning
earlier.
I really I mean in high school.
I did well in high school butand I got through high school my
main focus was JROTC, of course, but I wished I would have
applied myself more or earlierin my academic journey in life.
I'd probably be somewheredifferent than I am now.
Not that I'm not disappointedon where I'm at, but I just wish
(47:50):
I would have fallen in lovewith learning earlier.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
I think we all can set a path.
I always go back to Proverbs 19, 21.
Don't quote me on that.
I might be wrong, but we allestablish our footstep, but the
Lord's kind of determined ourpath and I don't think there's
anything wrong with the paththat you're currently on,
because I genuinely believe thatyou're the right man for the
job to help make a change whenit comes to academics and
(48:16):
education within the military,and you're getting ready to
transition now from over 26years of service, I believe, 29.
29.
I don't want to cut you short.
Wow.
So that's humbling in itself.
And now you're getting ready todo this full time and I'm
excited to see where that goes.
And the last question is howcan our listeners find you and
(48:38):
add value to your mission?
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Yeah, so most, almost all, almost all social media
platforms Facebook, linkedin,please like and follow.
Instagram, twitter like andfollow, share those with people
who you think might need some ofour resources, and the more
they share, the better it helps.
The McCoy Institute mission andvision.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
Yeah, randy, this has been an amazing episode, long
overdue.
The next time I go to FortMoore which I'll probably be
going to the Maneuver Center ofExcellence soon I look forward
to catching up with you, brother.
Yeah, please hit me up.
Have a great night, all right.
(49:21):
Thanks, all right, team.
It is time for our after actionreview.
That was a great episode withRandy.
It's funny that I'm constrainedby time.
I get off work at six o'clock.
I went to my kid's soccer gameseven o'clock to eight filming
this episode, and I get up at 4every morning to go back to work
.
I'm constrained by time.
I wish that I had the time,like Joe Rogan, to film a two to
(49:43):
three-hour podcast.
If you're listening to this, Idon't know if you feel the same
way wish I did, because I haveso many questions that I didn't
even get a chance to ask Randy.
But he is a true, purposeful,accountable leader.
He is a servant leader.
So it's time for our afteraction review.
(50:05):
What are the top three takeawaysthat I pulled from this AR?
I would love to hear yours aswell.
So the first one that I haveand that we share is love of
defining that as terms ofleadership.
I think love comes down to oneword and that's meekness.
Meekness is defined as we breakthe word down.
(50:26):
It's not weakness, it's engaged, listening, it's evaluating the
moment and it's keeping aservant heart.
At the end of the day, leadersthat can do those things and
lead with hugs which is kind ofa weird acronym, but hear me out
humility, understanding,gratitude and a servant heart,
then they can show up authenticand they can inspire other
(50:46):
people.
And we both share that.
We both come from combat armsand we both have walked the same
path.
We've literally been in thesame battalion and served in the
same organizations.
So the next key takeaway that Ihave is grit, and I think grit
is one of those words that iseasy to define but it's truly
(51:09):
hard to master.
So if we want to break downwhat the word grit truly means,
I've done this, you're welcome.
I've created an acronym for it.
It starts off with guts.
It takes a leader who has theguts.
And number two, it takesleaders who have a resilient
spirit.
And number three, it takesleaders who have integrity.
(51:32):
And then, number four, it takesleaders with tenacity to make a
difference.
Hard things happen.
Leadership is not easy.
It is filled with obstacles.
It is filled with minefieldsand you need people that have
grit, who had hard work, ethic.
(51:52):
And that was connected throughour shared experience of West
Virginia.
If you've never been to WestVirginia the theme of the state
if you drive in you'll see thebig sign wild and wonderful.
It truly is wild and wonderful.
It is an extremely rural statewith some of the most majestic,
beautiful landscape that you'llever see.
(52:14):
The rolling hills of Appalachiais home to me.
I feel home when I'm there.
I love bluegrass, I love all ofit.
I'm actually getting ready togo back next weekend with my
family to go trout fishing andspring gobbler hunting, which
I'm really excited for.
But what you don't see is thegrit that people have there,
(52:37):
because it is a different typeof life that most Americans
never experience.
I grew up in a single familyhousehold.
My father was a coal miner.
He worked almost every singlehour.
I never really got a chance tosee him that much until I got
older and my parentsunfortunately got a divorce.
(52:59):
I grew up in a povertyhousehold of where we had a lot
of our basic needs met throughhunting deer meat trout, which
was great.
I had a beautiful childhood.
I loved my childhood, but it'sa different level of grit that
people have there and that'swhere that shared experience has
.
So number three is criticalthinking.
(53:20):
Leadership at its core comesdown to the acronym always talk
about T-ball.
Thoughts shape beliefs, beliefsdrive our actions and actions
define our legacy.
Critical thinking is part ofthat, because if we want to
solve complex problems, we haveto have the ability to actively
(53:41):
listen, understand our options,weigh those options to mitigate
risk and then to move forward.
And through education, which isone of Randy's passions in life
, you learn how to criticallythink through problems.
And it's not necessarily theeducation that is going to
change your trajectory in life.
(54:02):
Right, getting a degree, gettinga bachelor's degree, having a
master's degree, has given memore opportunities, but what
I've learned out of thoseopportunities is to critically
think.
And systems engineering was oneof the best ways, because you
view problems differently.
Now and now I view problemsdifferently and the critical
thinking skills I've learnedthrough academics I apply in
(54:26):
real world scenarios.
All right, team, do me a favor.
If you like this podcast, makesure you share this episode,
make sure you rate it, give me afive-star review, make sure you
leave a comment.
If you follow me on socialmedia.
Go toMcMillianLeadershipCoachingcom.
You can find additionalresources, and I do this all for
(54:48):
free, because I want you to bearmed with the best information
possible to be the best leaderpossible.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Be a purposeful, accountable leader Be a leader
that this world needs.
Speaker 3 (55:00):
As always, I'm your host, Josh McMillian, saying
every day is a gift.
Don't waste yours.
I'll see you next time you.
Yeah.
So I think you know we, asleaders whether you're an
officer, enlisted or just in thegeneral public you know we have
to acknowledge that we have toevolve.
You know the leader that I wasas a young corporal is not the
leader that I was or am as aSergeant Major, and I think a
lot of times, you know, we tellpeople like at the Sergeant
Majors Academy, when I was aninstructor there that hey,
(00:22):
continue to do what got you thusfar, because obviously you're
doing something right, and Ithink that statement is good
when we're talking about, likeyour daily activities, your
habits, like getting up earlyreading books, and you know
those type of things seeking outleadership opportunities.
But as a leader, though, wehave to change and adapt the way
(00:44):
we lead.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You're listening to the Tells the Leadership podcast
.
This podcast is for leaders atany phase on their leadership
journey to become a morepurposeful and accountable
leader what I like to call a pal.
Join me on our journey togethertowards transformational
leadership All right team.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Welcome back to the Tales of Leadership podcast.
I am your host, josh McMillian.
I'm an active duty army officer.
I am an army leadership coach.
I am the founder of McMillianLeadership Coaching but, most
importantly, I'm on a journey tobe a better leader and I bring
people on this show to help megrow personally as a leader and
to truly understand what itmeans to be what I like to call
(01:30):
a purposeful, accountable leader.
And my mission is to end toxicleadership by promoting
transformational stories andskills.
And on today's episode, I'mbringing you a transformational
leader, a true servant leader,randy McCoy.
You a transformational leader,a true servant leader, randy
McCoy.
He is a proud US Army soldierwith over 29 years of service
and the founder of the McCoyInstitute.
(01:50):
Randy knows the struggles ofattending college while being a
full-time soldier, as it tookhim 13 years to earn his
undergraduate degree.
Since then, he has earned amaster's of education from
Pennsylvania State University, agraduate certificate in
international student servicesfrom Western Kentucky University
(02:11):
and a graduate certification incollege advising from Columbia
University.
His passion is to help people,is to help soldiers, to help
service members, and he doesthat and fills that out every
single day.
He is a purposeful, accountableleader, and I'll tell you right
now the world needs more peoplelike Randy.
(02:33):
As always, stay to the very endand you will get the top three
takeaways that I have, and youcan go to
McMillianLeadershipCoachingcomIf you're listening to this
episode.
I have did a blog articleaccompanying this podcast
episode that distills down thekey points.
So if you don't have 45 minutesto listen to an episode, you
can take a quick read that'lltake you five minutes and get
(02:55):
the key takeaways from thisepisode.
Let's go ahead and bring onRandy.
Randy, welcome to the TalismanLeadership Podcast.
I know we said it before, buthow are you doing Good?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
I'm honored to be one of yourguests.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, brother, you've been someone that I've known
for a while at least bysupporting this whole platform
that I had, and I thought it washumbling when I went to Fort
Benning now Fort Moore and I wasat the PX.
I think I forgot something andI ran into you there.
It's truly a small world and Iknow you're still in the
(03:31):
military and you're still fullwith purpose, so your time is
valuable and I genuinelyappreciate it.
Thank you, I appreciate youhaving me here today.
Yeah, so I always love startingoff with the same question,
because I have people frommultiple different backgrounds,
but just setting the frameworkof how you would define
(03:52):
leadership through the years ofservice that you've had.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
You know, first of all, I would say that we, as
military leaders and leaders ingeneral, we make leadership
complicated, and it's really notthat complicated.
To me, leadership is a simpleand I know you've used this word
before is love, but I thinkit's about caring.
You have to care, you have tocare about the mission, you have
(04:20):
to care about your subordinates, their families.
It's as simple as a four-letterword.
Whether you use love or care,that that is what leadership is.
I mean we can put all these bigdefinitions on it, the army, I
mean there's probably a thousanddifferent definitions of
leadership online.
You can research that and I'm ina doctorate program right now
with the university of tennesseeat chattanooga and you know
(04:41):
most of my bringing up wasfocusing on certain leaders and
their qualities and aspects oftheir way of leading.
You know people like Patton andGeneral Petraeus and people
like that, but leadership reallyjust comes about caring about
the people that you work withyour co-workers, your superiors
and, of course, yoursubordinates.
You know the chief of the ArmyReserve a few years ago, before
(05:04):
he took over, General Lucky.
I don't know if you know who hewas, but when he took command
of the Army Reserve he said look, as long as you're living the
Army values and doing what'sright per the Army values, I've
got your front, I've got yourflank and I've got your back and
that always stuck with me.
So it's just about caring.
It's really just that simple tome.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I think I made a post a long time ago or it was one
of the episodes that I did whereI broke down the word meekness,
because I think you and I sharethat is that at the base or the
core of my leadershipfoundation is what I term the
word meekness, but I pulled itfrom a biblical aspect of how,
(05:45):
how Jesus kind of led uh withbeing meek and then breaking
down that word.
What does it mean?
It's not weakness, it's engaged, listening, it's evaluating the
moment, your surroundings, andthen keeping a servant's heart,
understanding that acronymsright Hugs, uh, humility,
understanding and then gratitude.
And if you can keep thosethings centered in you, you'll
(06:07):
show up authentically and you'lldo your best and at the end of
the day, you'll inspire otherpeople around you to do their
best.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And I love that.
I totally agree.
And when we, when we as leaders, in my opinion, when we show
that we are human beings and wehave weaknesses, all of us do
right.
I don't know of anybody thatdon't have a weakness.
Our subordinates are the peoplewe work with.
They gravitate to us more andthey want to accomplish more for
us because they know we'rehuman.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, I am probably fraughtwith more faults than most, and
it's definitely gotten betterthroughout the years, but I
would love to kind of tailor itback to starting off your
leadership journey.
Where did it start for you?
Did it start by joining themilitary, or did it start before
(06:55):
that it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
actually started before that and I'm glad you
asked it that way, because in1991, when I started high school
, I made the choice I think itwas a good choice to join the
JROTC and back in those days youknow JROTC has a different
flavor now but you know it waspretty much like being in the
Army.
I had two post-Vietnam StarMajors, post-vietnam Fullberg
(07:20):
Colonel, infantry type.
Well, actually all three ofthem were infantry type and you
know haircuts Infantry type.
Well, actually all three ofthem were Infantry type and you
know haircuts, uniform.
It was like being in the Armyand I did what back then we
called it the Ranger team butnow it's called the Raider team.
So I think I was put in theleadership early on and you know
, of course, looking back, evenbeyond that, I think I
(07:41):
gravitated to some leadershippositions.
But I think it was really inJRTC where I took on those
leadership roles and sought outleadership opportunities.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Those leadership opportunities?
Did they come natural to you?
I guess, from a standpoint, iswhen I was first starting out
and I really did a deep dive inall the different experiences I
had all the way till gradeschool and I never truly
understood that I wouldnaturally gravitate towards
leadership positions and I feltthat I it wasn't me who was
(08:13):
choosing, that, it was otherpeople who were choosing me for
that billet Um, if that makessense and when?
When did you actively realizethat, hey, like I, I am a leader
that other people like respect?
I honestly, I think it was myrealize that, hey, I am a leader
that other people respect.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I honestly think it was my senior year.
By the way, I was adepartmental honor student from
my high school for that program.
But I think it was my highschool year when I had made the
decision to go into the Army andthe leaders of RJRTC had picked
me to be Battalion XO.
But I said, hey, I don't wantto be a Battalion XO, because
(08:47):
Battalion XO is not with SoldWill Cadets.
At the time I wanted to be acompany commander and that's
when I realized that I wanted tobe with the troops.
I wanted to be with thesoldiers, the people who you're
leading on a day to day and youknow, don't join the Army.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
That's the one thing that I miss.
Now I don't know if you knowthat or not, but, like I
transitioned over toacquisitions, so I'm doing cost
schedule and performance,focusing mostly on robotics,
which is very humbling becauseit's the cutting edge of where
we are within warfare.
But the one thing that I missmost is being around soldiers.
My favorite job in the worldwas being a company commander,
(09:30):
and I always say that I had ablessing to do it twice.
That was hands down my favoritejob.
And if you could tell me, hey,you can go be a company
commander again, I would do itin a heartbeat because I love
being around soldiers.
And let's talk, through thatdecision, of what inspired you
to actually join the military.
I know you joined rotc, butwhat was that uh inspiration for
(09:52):
you to?
To look at this as a careerfield?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
yeah, well, first let me say I think you were double
blessed as a company commander,because you were a company
commander with the ramrods dudeI want to get into that?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
yeah, I saw your platoon sergeant time and I was
like man, it's a small world.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, very much, it very is no.
So so my older my, so my dad,was in the marines for 16 years
and and let me go back realquick and bring me back if you
need to uh, so my dad was frombeckley, west virginia.
Oh, that's our connection, yeah, and so you know, I think
that's where I, you know, fromour family, we get our work
ethic and it just really drivesyou, gives you a grit, you know,
(10:29):
being from a descendant fromWest Virginia, it really drives
you who you are.
So my dad had a third gradeeducation, but when he went in
the Marine Corps, they, you know, on his 214, when we buried him
in 2015, I talked about how theMarine Corps had got him
through grammar school, but I'lltell you and the McCoy
Institute, which we'll talkabout more later, I'm sure
(10:51):
that's not named after me.
I'm not that self-centered toname something after me.
That's named after my dadbecause my dad was a lifelong
learner, even with a third gradeeducation.
He's probably the smartest manI've ever known and I'm in a
doctorate program and I stillthink he was smarter than I am.
So he was the Marine Corps for16 years and two of my older
brothers were in the Army.
(11:12):
One was in the Marine Corpslike my dad, and the other one
was in the Army and served inDesert Storm.
And even with all that, I stillthink that my drive or desire
really came from my mom and thereason I say this because I
remember as a little boy.
Chattanooga used to be known forhaving the grandest Memorial
(11:34):
Day parade.
I guess it's coming up herethis coming weekend in
Chattanooga.
It used to be the largest.
I don't know if it still is ornot, I need to look into that,
but my mom would take me to that.
You know, you'd have jetsflying over, you'd have all
these big.
So I think that's really whereI got my sense of patriotism
from was my mom, and at age 82,because she's still alive and
(11:55):
maybe she'll see this video orhear the podcast, I don't know,
but I tell you my mom she wasborn in 1941, just days before
December 7th, and I think, as alittle girl growing up in that
timeframe, my mom right now, ifyou told her to go and take on
the Russian military at the ageof 82, she would do it.
(12:16):
She's that much of an American.
So I think that's whatinitially got me into the
service to serve initially.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I love that connection to West Virginia and
I was going to bring that upbecause I was curious of where
that was.
So Beckley, west Virginia Igrew up in I don't even know if
you know where this is at or not, but Fenwick, west Virginia,
which is just outside ofRichwood and Summersville.
So from Summersville I thinkyou jump on 64.
I can't remember it's been awhile or 19.
(12:45):
And then you can get intoBeckley probably 40 minutes
driving through Fayetteville.
That's a different level ofAmerica, if no one's the.
And I love that connectionbecause I also have a deep
connection with my father andthat's where I think I get all
(13:09):
my work ethic.
He was a coal miner, still is,gets up at three every morning,
works and gets home maybe fouror five in the afternoon, still
cuts grass and goes and cutsgrass for his neighbors, some of
his elderly neighbors.
He's just a better man thanI'll ever be and it's just a
different level of grit and workethic that I've shared and I'm
(13:31):
hoping I can instill that in mykids.
We're actually going back homenext week to hopefully go spring
gobbler hunting, take the kidsfor the first time.
So I'm pumped about that.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, I mean honestly and shamefully.
I admit I have not been back inmany years to West Virginia.
I never actually lived there,but I, now that I'm retiring or
we're going to be retired nextmonth, I definitely want to plan
to get up into the mountainsand see that beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
If we ever get an opportunity, I would love to
take you trout fishing.
Um, we can go up to theMonongahela National Forest
where the cranberries are.
It's really close to my houseOnce you're retired and maybe we
could plan like an actualfishing trip.
That'd be awesome.
That sounds fun.
So kind of tailoring it backtowards that inspiration to join
(14:16):
the military.
When you joined the military,what were some of your initial
thoughts and just experiences atthat junior rank before you
really made more of like asenior non-commissioned officer?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
You know, I loved the Army and I still love the Army
to this day and I got out.
So I got out of the Army as astaff sergeant in 2001, in June,
with the hopes of going toChattanooga State and obviously
you know, 9-11 happened.
And so my reserve side, I mean,when I left active duty I went
into the reserves because I saidI'm going to continue to do
this, even if it's on thereserve side, because I love the
(14:51):
army that much.
But then 9-11 happened and thenmy two days later my reserve
attachment got called up to FortCampbell where I spent the next
two years and even though I wason the reserve books for like
the next eight years, all thattime pretty much was active duty
.
It was either mobilized Iraq orAGR time period in 2008.
I refried it.
(15:12):
I don't know if you know whatthat means or not, but I refried
it, released from active dutyand came back on active duty and
went to on active duty rolesand went back to or went to
Korea where I was a platoonsergeant.
But but my first, my but myfirst duty station was Fort Drum
and it was just fun Highintensity training in the early
90s, mid 90s.
(15:32):
10th Mountain only had twobrigades.
We were constantly training,constantly going.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
You would not be disappointed that it is still
that exact same way.
Three brigades, now 2-2, movedto I can't think of the new
installation's name Fort.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Johnson.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And that they are there supporting the other
brigades that rotate throughJRTC, but they also help augment
.
I have done more JRTC rotationsand we shared that too because
I was an OCT, but 10th Mountainhas not changed their op tempo.
I've done more live fireexercise with that organization
(16:12):
and I am a T at it.
So when you were transitioningthrough the ranks, in terms of
just leadership skills that youhad, were there any specific
skills that you picked up alongthe way that you thought were
the most valuable, specificallywhen you were starting off at a
junior rank and then you startedto transition to more senior
(16:33):
ranks?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
yeah, so.
So I, I think you know we asleaders whether you're an
officer, enlisted or just in thegeneral public you know we have
to acknowledge that we have toevolve.
You know, the leader that I wasas a young corporal is not the
leader that I was or am as aSergeant Major, and I think a
lot of times, you know, we tellpeople, like at the Sergeant
Majors Academy, when I was aninstructor there, that hey,
(16:56):
continue to do what got you thusfar, because obviously you're
doing something right.
And I think that statement isgood when we're talking about,
like your daily activities, yourhabits, like getting up early
reading books, and you knowthose type of things, seeking
out leadership opportunities.
But as a leader, though, wehave to change and adapt the way
(17:17):
we lead, and you know I didlisten in one of my favorite
podcasts that you did isobviously with General portray
us, because he promoted me startfirst class in iraq.
But you know he talked abouthow, um, he has no set
leadership style and I reallyappreciated that and it really
opened my eyes and made mereflect.
Uh, because you know, back inthe older days we had directing,
(17:39):
participating and combinedleadership, and I would like to
say that I was combined.
I think most people would say,oh, I'm combined because it
sounds good.
It's like a little bit of both,but I was probably less
directive and more participative.
I'm the type of leader that Itry to get in there and do the
work with my soldiers orsubordinates, be a teammate.
But that's not always the smartanswer, right, because
(18:01):
sometimes, and especially as youmove up, you know when you're a
first sergeant you probablydon't have the time to
participate as much.
I'm not saying that most firstsergeants or company commanders
don't want to participate.
I mean, I'm not sure.
As a company commander youwanted to get out there and do a
lot of stuff with your platoonsand squads.
But if you're doing that daily,are you really leading your
(18:22):
company Right?
So you know, that's the thing Ithink is you know early on I
was definitely moreparticipative type of style.
I don't even think we use thoseterms anymore in leadership for
the army, but that's the way,that's what it was when I first
came in.
But I'm just saying we have toevolve as leaders and if we
don't, I think we're going tofail.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, I love this quote by Ralph Nader and always
sticks with me is that thefunction of a leader is to
produce more leaders, not morefollowers.
And when I had General Petraeuson the, by the way, that was
just extremely humbling Reachingout to him and him actually
(19:06):
being on the podcast, not from astandpoint of like any type of
following that I would get, butjust to learn from one of the
most influential militaryfigures of our times, which was
super humbling.
And I agree with you when hetalked about his leadership
philosophy, that he didn'treally have one, that he and I
kind of boiled it down toleadership intelligence.
He had the leadershipintelligence to understand what
(19:26):
he needed to do to be successful, not just as an individual but
as a team and an organization,and he adapted that with the
tools he had in his rucksack,based on the operational
environment that he found itself.
And I mean I wish I would haveheard that a long time ago,
because I thought we had a setleadership style and this is my
leadership style and I'm goingto go out forward and I'm going
(19:48):
to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, that really that episode you did with him,
and when he made that comment Iwas like man, that's really
impactful.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
So kind of continuing with your military service,
because I know education issomething that is near and dear
to your heart, is near and dearto your heart.
Did you have any challengeswhile you were in the military
actively of pursuing any ofthose advanced educations as a
soldier?
And then what are some of theresources that you used and have
used?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Well, first of all, what I would say is you know,
when I first came in in 1995,going to school as an
infantryman was not a thing,right, it really wasn't.
It wasn't.
It was your thing.
Right, it really was, it wasn't, it was you.
Your job was to go to the range, it was to do pt.
Uh, it was to run faster, itwas to run harder.
That strong ranger, yeah, yeah,you know, it's what we did.
(20:36):
But I will say this and I don'tknow which battalion commander
it was, because I'd like to givehim credit but he did set up a
one of our down periods.
He set up for JeffersonCommunity College in Watertown
to come in during lunchtime andgive us a composition 101 class.
So that was really my firsttaste of a class in the military
(20:57):
.
And I like to tell people myjob as a soldier always came
first, always.
So I may have two masters and Imay have two graduate
certificates, but I never putany of that before my job as a
soldier.
Now I'll say this in today'sarmy, I think having college
education, whether it's oneclass or a degree or whatever,
makes us a better soldier, makesus, uh, ready tonight, the so.
(21:23):
What worked for me readytonight, the.
So what worked for me?
It was taking one class at atime.
I took one class at a timebecause I think soldiers can
overload themselves.
If you're trying to do your jobas a soldier and you're trying
to take two classes, that's alot right.
But so it took me 13 years toget my uh four-year degree and
after that I got selected to goto the Start Majors Academy as a
(21:46):
student, and there, at UTEP,university of Texas at El Paso,
they offer graduate degrees atnighttime, so two nights a week,
in addition to the start majorscourse load, which, if anyone's
listening doesn't know, ispretty academic and strenuous.
So I can.
In 10 months I earned mymaster's of public
(22:06):
administration.
And then in 10 months.
That's a lot of work, a lot ofwork.
Then I got selected for thefellowship at the academy and
earned a master's of education,and that's what led me to kind
of doing what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So what inspired you and inspires you to continue
down that path of education?
Because I have that same drive.
I just don't.
I literally don't have the time, because something would have
to give within my current role.
It would either be my job,which is absolutely no-fail job,
or my family.
(22:42):
So everything I want to do is abucket list item.
I plan to do that later.
But what keeps you driven to goafter these master's degrees?
Because I'll tell you I'm goingto be honest with you when I
went to the Naval PostgraduateSchool and they forced me to get
a systems engineering degree,when I thought I was getting an
MBA and I have a criminalpsychology bachelor's degree, I
(23:05):
avoided math like the plague,because not because I'm stupid,
but because I just did not wantto do it, and I was like I'm
never getting another degree.
But now I find myself wantingto go get a doctorate degree,
but specifically like inleadership studies, because that
fascinates me.
But what has kept you motivatedjust to pursue this high level
(23:25):
of education?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Well, I want to hit on two things with this.
One is I want to go back tobalance here in a minute, but
what drives me personally isgoing back to my dad.
So initially, when I joined thearmy out of high school, my dad
, he said and I knew my parents,you know they were from West
Virginia right, he did not havethe money to send me to the
University of Tennessee atChattanooga, which I think it's
(23:49):
kind of interesting.
Now it's full circle, becausenow I'm doing my doctorate there
, which is interesting.
So I have all of my GI Bill andI feel like my dad would be
looking at me right now andsaying hey, randy, you have this
educational benefit.
Why are you not using it?
Why are you not betteringyourself?
And that's truly why I'm doingit.
(24:09):
I don't care for the title ofdoctor, I really don't, and
humbly, I'll tell you justrecently, during my transition,
because of the things I've beenbeen over doing over the last
couple years, people are seekingme out.
I never thought in a millionyears that this young guy from
chattanooga would be offered tobe flown to the university of
florida for a job interview.
(24:31):
Oh, wow, yeah, and now I Ipulled my name out of the uh
list of contestants for thatposition.
Now I pulled my name out of thelist of contestants for that
position but still I went downthere and did a five-hour
interview with a certain officeand it was just humbling and I
thought I did really well.
But after doing more reflectioncame back to Columbus, fort
(24:53):
Moore, and I was like you know,I need to be here right now.
And then another opportunitywas presented Because I'm also
teaching classes at GeorgiaMilitary College here in
Columbus, and anotheropportunity opened up for me to
take a full time position at theColumbus location and I
actually submitted myapplication and then, like two
or three days later, I withdrewthat application because I'm
(25:16):
like right now I'm in thisdoctorate program and this
doctor it's only going to takeme just a little bit over a year
because of my two graduatecertificates.
So that's why I want to go backto this word balance.
So what is that balance?
And because everybody loves tothrow around this word balance
and I even at the start majorsacademy, when I was instructing,
I I would try to get our smallgroup to talk about what does
balance mean.
I would try to get our smallgroup to talk about.
(25:36):
What does balance mean?
Because balance to you as a dad, what you, you know you may be
doing 50, you know 80% of yourwork, 10% to this you know
business, a podcast, leadership,school that you have, and then
the other 10% goes.
I don't know what yours is, butI'm just giving an example.
But you know that that may bewhat you think is right, but
(25:57):
what right for your, yourchildren, or what is right for
your spouse and we.
A lot of times I don't think weknow that we get the balance
wrong until it's too late.
But that's what drives me.
So, going back to the originalquestion, it's, it's really
because my dad would be.
Look, I think he's saying to melike you have this benefit, the
gi bill, why are you not usingto further develop yourself?
(26:17):
Because my dad continued toread books, whether it was a car
manual or a magazine, or lawnand garden or whatever it was,
until he died.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah, my grandfather.
He would sit there and he woulddo Sudoku, sudoku, puzzles and
puzzles and read Western books,I think all the way up till 89
years old, right before hepassed away, all the way up till
89 years old, right before hepassed away.
But he was one of the sharpestmen that I knew and he would
always just keep himselfentertained.
And I love how you went to theword balance, because you and I
(26:48):
see it the same way, and I don'tthink balance is achievable and
I say this from a standpoint isthat if we always try to chase
balance, then we're chasing thatmoment in time of where we're
comfortable.
But life isn't like that,because we always have bins that
are overflowing.
And I break it down, kiss, keepit simple.
(27:10):
Stupid is that work, family,self, so we always have to go to
work.
There's something that we haveto get paid for or we want to do
family and self, self-care.
And I just break it up intothose allotments and I actually
did an assessment, exactly whatyou just talked about, and I'm
about 60-30-10.
60% goes to the Army on anormal day of my time, 30% goes
(27:34):
to my family and then 10% goesto myself.
But it wasn't like that before.
It was 60, 35, 5, with 5 beingmy family, and that's when I
realized I have to back off,because this is the most
informative years for my kidsand I don't want to miss that,
because I'm trying to chase mypassion, which is leadership,
(27:55):
and that's hard to realize.
I was able to do it because Ihad an accountability partner,
which was my wife.
I kind of call it myaccountability tree, someone
who's like deeply rooted, thatjust doesn't want to hear
anything and will keep you on astraight and narrow, but that
that's hard to do.
How, how, how did you identifythat?
The, the work-life balance orunderstanding, when you become
(28:20):
unbalanced in a certain area andyou have to reevaluate?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
well.
So so much like your, yourspouse, your wife.
So for me I call it a circle oftrust.
And to me my circle of trust ison about five people, right,
and what I do is is when I'mtrying to take on this doctor,
so when I was deciding about thegeorgia military college
position, the university offlorida position, that both of
those positions I would haveloved, is when I'm trying to
take on this doctorate, so whenI was deciding about the Georgia
(28:45):
Military College position, theUniversity of Florida position,
that both of those positions Iwould have loved and this
doctorate, I run those by thosefive people and I say, hey, this
is where I'm at, this is wheremy mind is.
And I'll tell you, being herelately, thinking about thinking,
metacognition, reflection, andwe always think those are great
things but I'll tell you herelately, for somebody who's made
decisions for 29 years andadvised commanders on on making
(29:05):
decisions, on you know, what Ithought was the appropriate
decision.
Man, it's hard, it's hard tomake those decisions.
So I rely on those, uh, my,what I call my circle of trust,
to help me, uh, to make surethat I'm not overburdening
myself.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I love that man Circle of trust.
It's really it's like anindividual mastermind or
accountability group that youcan vet and validate your
decisions on.
That's awesome.
I want to go to back tosomething that you talked about
before, and it was the GeorgiaMilitary College.
So I know that you do a coupleclasses I think it's Leadership
(29:43):
201 and then Leadership 101within that class.
What are some of thefundamentals that you're
teaching in that class thatcould apply to leadership?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
anyone who's listening so the first one is
leadership and college success.
So really the only thing thatone is getting after is college
success what will make yousuccessful in college.
And one example of that wouldbe a lot of students going like
first generation collegestudents don't know what it
means.
When we talk about instructorhours, you know certain
(30:16):
demographics in our countrythink oh well, that's
instructor's hours, that's timesthat you don't bother them,
right.
But that's not the case.
That's the time when you'resupposed to go bother them and
say, hey professor, heyinstructor.
I don't understand this concept, I don't understand this theory
.
And that's their office hours.
That's when you're supposed togo see them.
(30:36):
So we go over that and it'sreally just setting the students
up for being successful collegestudents and it's really a fun
course.
The other course is basicallygetting after being a creative
and critical thinker, which wevalue in the military.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I think critical thinking that was something that
you talked about before of whyit's so important to the
military is that it helps bridgethe gap between theoretical and
problem solving If that makessense, like book answers versus
actually being a problem solver.
Some of the material that Itook, like software coding and
all that stuff, I will never use.
But what I did learn was how tocritically think through
(31:17):
problems and if you've everheard the term engineering be
verification, validation and thebridge of kind of like making
decisions, I think education,from that standpoint, helps us
be a more critical thinker or,at the end of the day, a problem
solver, and that's whyeducation I agree with you
wholeheartedly is so vitallyimportant within the military,
(31:40):
because it teaches our youngservice members how to think
through problems that you maynot truly get any experience
with, even going through realworld events, but going through
these complex ideas it rewiresyour brain in a way of
critically thinking throughissues.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, and one of the ways I get after that in the
course I lead is group work.
So a lot of times what I'll dois I'll have the student write
down their answer, what theirbelief is, or whatever the
answer, what they believe theanswer is to the problem on a
three by five card and then thatway I know what they were
initially thinking and then I'lltell them share that with your
classmate, and then I'll putthem in a larger group and then
(32:23):
sometimes I'll even divide themand I will get them to go on the
opposite side of what theybelieved about a topic.
And now they have to argue, uh,the the opposite of what they
believed, to try to get you know, open their mind.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
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Back to the show.
That was what I had to do thatexercise in college, and I hated
that exercise the most becauseI was dead set on like OK, this
is my thought.
This is the way that I see thisproblem.
Oh, now you have to flip that.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, it challenges us.
No, no one wants to, you know.
Challenge, you know, challengeyour beliefs.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
So some of the roles and titles that you had before
we get to the McCoy Institute Iknow you were up with.
So were you a platoon sergeant?
And to you before you were anobserver, coach, trainer or how
did that work for you?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, so I was with the.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I think you probably came, if I'm guessing, right
after I left to to.
I was with them for 2010 to2012.
I was with them for 2010 to2012.
And I was on that 2011 tour toAfghanistan and I was platoon
sergeant for half of that andthen the other half I was the
battle NCO in the battalion talkand then, when I came back from
(34:26):
that deployment, sergeant MajorTagg, who ultimately made it up
to be a four-star nominativesergeant major, he moved me in
to be the first sergeant of theFord support company.
I don't know what it was whenyou were there.
I think it was Fox company 201.
I don't know if it was stillthe same when you were there.
But and then, immediately afterthat, I was only back there for
(34:47):
like six months and you know HRCwas well, this is when the
brigade you were at Fort Knox.
Right, I've been to Fort Knox.
You were at Fort Polk.
Yeah, I was at Fort Polk, orJohnson, now, yeah, yeah, okay,
yeah, get it straight, but I wasat that time period that the
brigade, 3rd Brigade, 1st ID,was at Fort Knox.
Ah, okay, and so when I, aboutsix months after being back, we
(35:11):
had a meeting with thelieutenant colonel that was over
the infantry branch there atHRC and I had come down on
orders initially to go to NTCand, you know, I said, hey, you
know, I want to go to anotherdeploying brigade.
This is what I want to do on adeploy.
And this lieutenant colonel waslike well, I'm sorry, you've
been selected to be an OC andthat's it.
And I had no interest in goingto NTC and that's it.
(35:36):
And I had no interest in goingto NTC.
And he said, look, and this iswhat he told me he said, look,
it's probably a good thing thatwe selected you to be an OC.
And I didn't kind of know whathe was laying down at the moment
, but at that time HRC wasactually selecting people to be
OCs, octs, and so then I said,well, can I at least go to Fort
Polk at the time versus NTC,because I'm not a desert person,
I'm just not.
(35:56):
And he says, well, we can dothat for you.
And so they sent me to FortPolk, now Fort Johnson, task
Force 2.
And about four months later myname popped out on the E8 first
round list.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
So that is a small world, um.
So I think delta company wasdingo company when, when we were
going through, alpha companywas wolf company, bear, cobra
we're all named after animalswhen we were there.
And then hsc was hawk company,but I did my oct time first and
it was funny because mine wentum the same way.
(36:32):
I had a meeting with Branch atthe Maneuver Center of
Excellence after I was finishingthe captain's career course and
I was in.
I just, you know dead set.
Just got back from 2-2 brigadeout at Fort Lewis, under 4th
Battalion, 23rd InfantryRegiment, deployed to
Afghanistan during a combatdeployment.
I was, I was all motivated.
I went in there with themindset that I'm going to be the
(36:55):
very last person that branchtalks to, because they're going
to remember me.
Horrible decision, and ifanyone's listened to that, never
be the last person, cause thatbasically means all the slots
were filled when I went.
They're like all right, well,you have two options.
You can go be an eyeballinginstructor or you can go to a
CTC rotation.
Uh, it's like well, I'vealready been a platoon leader.
(37:19):
I don't want to learn, and, asbad as that sounds, to be a
better platoon leader, I want tomove forward and learn how to
be a company commander.
So if I have to choose, I willchoose a CTC.
And then I chose Jared TC and Ialso fell in under 2-2 or Task
Force 2 as well.
So I was there as a platoonwalker for six months and then I
(37:43):
transitioned.
I got lucky.
I was able to do a companywalker I think I was Yankee 0-2
for about 18 months.
I think I had like about 26rotations roughly between that
and being in 2-2, but that setme up for success of being a
company commander because I sawall these different leaders come
through.
(38:03):
I call it Clint Eastwood thegood, the bad, the ugly of how
to be an effective leader, andit was really cheating in a way.
So when I was able to take overa company I had all the answers
to the test.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, I totally agree and you know I've often tell
people that.
You know, when I was Yankee 3-0November, that I could tell
from my first engagement withthe company, from when we'd
first go meet them you probablyremember doing that I can tell
by the unit units disciplined,how well they were going to
perform throughout the rotationand and that really impacted me.
(38:38):
So when I went out and did moreleadership positions that's why
I was like discipline,discipline, just discipline,
initiative.
You know, like when you hadunits that came in where we're
in, where soldiers weren'tstanding at progress for their
soldiers or ncos, just kind ofborderline disrespect stuff,
that unit was probably going tobe crappy.
If I'm being honest, when youhad units that came in there and
(39:00):
they were, you know, uniform,looked good, equipment looked
good, all that stuff, they weregoing to do pretty well in the
rotation.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
So the next thing I want to kind of transition to
because I could keep goingthere's so much stuff that I
want to kind of transition tobecause I could keep going.
There's so much stuff that Iwant to pull from there.
But the mccoy institute, walkme through you, forming that,
the vision, the mission of, ofwhat you wanted to achieve with
the mccoy institute.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So so I formed it because, you know, counseling
and mentoring soldiers and goingthrough education myself, you
know, like I said early on, itwas a struggle because people
didn't know, you know, theoptions or opportunities to go
to school and so, you know, Ithink I figured it out and when
I was counseling my platoons andmy company on going to school,
(39:50):
my subordinates, you know, Ijust kind of just honestly, I
just fell in love with it.
It's mentoring at its finest orleading, and it's fine, I don't
know what to call it, but I justfell in love with that process
of coaching, mentoring,developing other people.
So, you know, that's when I,you know, I looked at my dad
being a lifelong learner, I said, hey, I'm going to name it
(40:11):
after him and basically, theMcCoy Institute, really all it
is is a community of practice.
It's a community of practicethat shares the latest trends
and the best practices and it'sreally for those people who
support, like the people at theeducation office or the you know
the the education office at amajor university like the
(40:32):
University of Florida it'sreally for those individuals to
earn these certificates, uh, sothat they can better advise our
veteran uh server and ourservice members and our military
connected students on careerand educational opportunities,
whether it's using their tatuition assistance or the gi
bill or looking at differentprograms.
(40:54):
You know some of the new stuffout there.
Some people don't want to getdegrees anymore.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
They want to get these micro certificates and you
know I can't argue against that, because some of these micro
certificates like you can get acoding certificate from the
University of Texas at Austinfor about six months and be very
marketable.
There are so many, so manydifferent academic educational
(41:19):
benefits and programs that areout there.
I will tell you, though, thatI've noticed, at least over the
past two years, that they'restarting to dwindle in a way,
and like a specific example youshared one on LinkedIn not too
long ago, but one that comes tomy mind is the Army
credentialing program.
The Army used to give $4,000 ayear with no ad, so to go pursue
(41:42):
whatever certification you wantand I was able to get the RBLP
certification through that butnow they're changing it to where
it's no longer a $4,000 a year.
I think it's $1,000 a year isthe max, up to $4,000 for the
lifetime of service.
So things are constantlychanging, and I say that from a
(42:03):
standpoint that it's awesomethat you have the McCoy
Institute that provides, orweaponizes, all of that to
service members who want to gopursue education, because, to be
honest, we are only going towear a uniform for a very minute
period of time within our lives.
Even general officers, they'rein for what?
37 years, you're probably goingto have another job afterwards,
(42:26):
at the end of the day, andthat's such a small percentage
of people who make it to thatlevel, and could you share some
key initiatives or projects thatyou're currently working on
within the McCoy Institute?
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah.
So one thing I think I'd liketo share, and hopefully the
listeners will share, is so onthe McCoy Institute website,
mccoyinstitutecom, there's alink where service members or
veterans, marines, soldiers,airmen, whatever can take a
(42:59):
self-paced course, and thatcourse is free as of right now.
First of all, since 2011, upuntil now, I've never charged
for anything, so all of this iscoming out of my pocket, but
maybe someday when I'm out ofthe Army, I'll charge for some
of the more professionalcertificates, but this
particular certificate collegesuccess for military connected
(43:20):
students and veterans willalways be free.
That is my mission, because Iwant soldiers to be able to log
on there, marines log on there,airmen log on there, guardians
log on there and take thatcourse, and basically it goes
over things like how to use yourTA for being successful in
college, how to use your gi billwhen should you use your gi
(43:40):
bill, when should you not use itthose type of things.
So it's really good for somebodywho has never been to college,
or maybe maybe they'retransitioning back into college.
Maybe they went to school as acivilian, now they're a service
member and they're wanting to goto school, and they don't know
exactly.
It irritates me when I find astudent at the PX or club in
(44:00):
sales or a club team and I'mlike where's the education
office?
And they have no clue.
They don't even know who theireducational counselor is.
So one of the things that talksabout in there is building
connections.
Relationships matter and ifyou're going to go to college,
you know, build a connectionwith your professor or your
instructor early and often, youknow, don't call on them the
night before you need them,because now it's too late, right
(44:22):
?
So that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
There's a quote by Winston Churchill that I love
that we make a living by what weget.
We make a life by what we give,and I generally believe, by
giving it, and thank you forthat.
I know it's not easy, so I doleadership coaching 100 percent
free, and it will always be freefor for service members, no
(44:47):
matter where, wherever I go withthis.
That's something that is deeplypassionate, at least from my
perspective, and the world needsmore people like you, randy,
that are willing to make thosetypes of sacrifices to make this
world a better place.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
It's time for our final show segment that I like
to call the killer bees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the Tales of Leadershippodcast.
Questions that I ask everyguest on the Tales of Leadership
podcast Be brief, be brilliant,be present and be gone.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Question one what do you believe separates a good
leader from a great leader?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I think it goes back to what I said initially Be
willing to care and take action.
We make leadership complicated,but I don't think it's
complicated at all.
Just have a willingness to care.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
And once you see a fault or whatever, take action
to correct it.
Second question, and this isprobably going to be a hard one
for you, because I know you'regoing to have so many that come
to mind If you could share oneresource with our listeners to
help them grow their leadership,what would it be?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So the one I want to talk about is the DOD.
I'm going to give you a website,wwwdodmoucom, and what that is
is it's a way for people tovalidate that the school they're
going to is regionallyaccredited, and that's important
.
Regional accreditation isimportant, and when I advise
(46:15):
students or veterans, I want tomake sure you know there's some
nationally accredited schoolsthat are great schools, and
institution and learning islearning, in my opinion.
But if you're going to spendyour time, spend your GI Bill,
spend your tuition assistanceand your energy, I think you
should be spending it onsomething that's going to be
(46:35):
able to transfer to other majoruniversities like the University
of Alabama, the University ofFlorida, the University of
Tennessee, and so that meansthat your schools really need to
be originally accredited, andyou can validate that by going
to wwwdodo-u dot com, and it's agovernment website, uh, and all
(46:56):
you gotta do is put the schoolin there and it'll search.
It'll show you all the schoolsin the country and it'll tell
you if it's a for-profit school,it'll tell you if it's a public
school, it'll tell you if it'sa private school.
It'll tell you how manystudents are going to that
school using their gi benefits,uh, so that's a resource I'd
like to share with your audience.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
That's awesome.
I've never heard of that, sothat's definitely a new resource
that hasn't been shared on this, so that's great.
Question three if you could goback in time and give your
younger self a piece of advice,what would it be and why?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I wish I would have fallen in love with learning
earlier.
I really I mean in high school.
I did well in high school butand I got through high school my
main focus was JROTC, of course, but I wished I would have
applied myself more or earlierin my academic journey in life.
I'd probably be somewheredifferent than I am now.
Not that I'm not disappointedon where I'm at, but I just wish
(47:50):
I would have fallen in lovewith learning earlier.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
I think we all can set a path.
I always go back to Proverbs 19, 21.
Don't quote me on that.
I might be wrong, but we allestablish our footstep, but the
Lord's kind of determined ourpath and I don't think there's
anything wrong with the paththat you're currently on,
because I genuinely believe thatyou're the right man for the
job to help make a change whenit comes to academics and
(48:16):
education within the military,and you're getting ready to
transition now from over 26years of service, I believe, 29.
29.
I don't want to cut you short.
Wow.
So that's humbling in itself.
And now you're getting ready todo this full time and I'm
excited to see where that goes.
And the last question is howcan our listeners find you and
(48:38):
add value to your mission?
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Yeah, so most, almost all, almost all social media
platforms Facebook, linkedin,please like and follow.
Instagram, twitter like andfollow, share those with people
who you think might need some ofour resources, and the more
they share, the better it helps.
The McCoy Institute mission andvision.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
Yeah, randy, this has been an amazing episode, long
overdue.
The next time I go to FortMoore which I'll probably be
going to the Maneuver Center ofExcellence soon I look forward
to catching up with you, brother.
Yeah, please hit me up.
Have a great night, all right.
(49:21):
Thanks, all right, team.
It is time for our after actionreview.
That was a great episode withRandy.
It's funny that I'm constrainedby time.
I get off work at six o'clock.
I went to my kid's soccer gameseven o'clock to eight filming
this episode, and I get up at 4every morning to go back to work
.
I'm constrained by time.
I wish that I had the time,like Joe Rogan, to film a two to
(49:43):
three-hour podcast.
If you're listening to this, Idon't know if you feel the same
way wish I did, because I haveso many questions that I didn't
even get a chance to ask Randy.
But he is a true, purposeful,accountable leader.
He is a servant leader.
So it's time for our afteraction review.
(50:05):
What are the top three takeawaysthat I pulled from this AR?
I would love to hear yours aswell.
So the first one that I haveand that we share is love of
defining that as terms ofleadership.
I think love comes down to oneword and that's meekness.
Meekness is defined as we breakthe word down.
(50:26):
It's not weakness, it's engaged, listening, it's evaluating the
moment and it's keeping aservant heart.
At the end of the day, leadersthat can do those things and
lead with hugs which is kind ofa weird acronym, but hear me out
humility, understanding,gratitude and a servant heart,
then they can show up authenticand they can inspire other
(50:46):
people.
And we both share that.
We both come from combat armsand we both have walked the same
path.
We've literally been in thesame battalion and served in the
same organizations.
So the next key takeaway that Ihave is grit, and I think grit
is one of those words that iseasy to define but it's truly
(51:09):
hard to master.
So if we want to break downwhat the word grit truly means,
I've done this, you're welcome.
I've created an acronym for it.
It starts off with guts.
It takes a leader who has theguts.
And number two, it takesleaders who have a resilient
spirit.
And number three, it takesleaders who have integrity.
(51:32):
And then, number four, it takesleaders with tenacity to make a
difference.
Hard things happen.
Leadership is not easy.
It is filled with obstacles.
It is filled with minefieldsand you need people that have
grit, who had hard work, ethic.
(51:52):
And that was connected throughour shared experience of West
Virginia.
If you've never been to WestVirginia the theme of the state
if you drive in you'll see thebig sign wild and wonderful.
It truly is wild and wonderful.
It is an extremely rural statewith some of the most majestic,
beautiful landscape that you'llever see.
(52:14):
The rolling hills of Appalachiais home to me.
I feel home when I'm there.
I love bluegrass, I love all ofit.
I'm actually getting ready togo back next weekend with my
family to go trout fishing andspring gobbler hunting, which
I'm really excited for.
But what you don't see is thegrit that people have there,
(52:37):
because it is a different typeof life that most Americans
never experience.
I grew up in a single familyhousehold.
My father was a coal miner.
He worked almost every singlehour.
I never really got a chance tosee him that much until I got
older and my parentsunfortunately got a divorce.
(52:59):
I grew up in a povertyhousehold of where we had a lot
of our basic needs met throughhunting deer meat trout, which
was great.
I had a beautiful childhood.
I loved my childhood, but it'sa different level of grit that
people have there and that'swhere that shared experience has
.
So number three is criticalthinking.
(53:20):
Leadership at its core comesdown to the acronym always talk
about T-ball.
Thoughts shape beliefs, beliefsdrive our actions and actions
define our legacy.
Critical thinking is part ofthat, because if we want to
solve complex problems, we haveto have the ability to actively
(53:41):
listen, understand our options,weigh those options to mitigate
risk and then to move forward.
And through education, which isone of Randy's passions in life
, you learn how to criticallythink through problems.
And it's not necessarily theeducation that is going to
change your trajectory in life.
(54:02):
Right, getting a degree, gettinga bachelor's degree, having a
master's degree, has given memore opportunities, but what
I've learned out of thoseopportunities is to critically
think.
And systems engineering was oneof the best ways, because you
view problems differently.
Now and now I view problemsdifferently and the critical
thinking skills I've learnedthrough academics I apply in
(54:26):
real world scenarios.
All right, team, do me a favor.
If you like this podcast, makesure you share this episode,
make sure you rate it, give me afive-star review, make sure you
leave a comment.
If you follow me on socialmedia.
Go toMcMillianLeadershipCoachingcom.
You can find additionalresources, and I do this all for
(54:48):
free, because I want you to bearmed with the best information
possible to be the best leaderpossible.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Be a purposeful, accountable leader Be a leader
that this world needs.
Speaker 3 (55:00):
As always, I'm your host, Josh McMillian, saying
every day is a gift.
Don't waste yours.
I'll see you next time you.
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