Welcome And Guest Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Insights podcast with Co-Financial Group as your sponsor, and I'm your host, Chad Co. Success in leadership isn't just about the decisions we make today, it's about the legacy we build for tomorrow. On this show, we talk to the leaders from around the country who are open to sharing their wisdom and insights to help us become better. Dr. Josh McConkey is known nationwide as the McGyver Doc, is a combat-deployed med commander, an emergency room physician, an emergency physician as well, who built his reputation on solving the unsolvable in the most unforgiving environments on earth. From battlefield medicine in Iraq to high-stake emergencies at home. He's the leader people turn to when chaos demands clarity, courage, and creativity. A Pulitzer Prize winner, no, Pulitzer Prize nominated author and 2025 Kelly Award winner, Dr. McConkey blends real-world grit with heart-driven purpose through his books, be the weight behind the spear and the heart of a leader. His mission is simple: to rebuild resilience, restore authentic leadership, and empower the next generation with the character and confidence our world desperately needs. I'm looking forward to having a beautiful conversation with the doctor today and learning so much about combat, leadership, and how we can all become better people. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Doctor.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Thank you very much. I appreciate the very warm introduction.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Well, you have quite a background and as a MacGyver of medical and so many other things, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to diving in and hearing a lot about it today. So let's just get started with We Can.

Rural Roots And Joining The Military

SPEAKER_01 1:52

There's a history that you have. How did you get into this? Was it out of college you wanted to become a doctor and then get in the military? How does this whole thing even start for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So I grew up in a very rural small town. You know, it was pretty sheltered. My dad was a railroader, my grandfather and my great-grandfather was a railroad were railroaders as well. So just wanting to get out and see the world, I could not be contained. So being the math and science nerd, I loved medicine. My stepmom was a nurse, heard so many just crazy stories as a kid growing up. I wanted to be a part of that. So went to medical school. I went to a small school in western Nebraska, Shaddern State College. If there's any football fans out there, they know who Danny Woodhead and Don BB are. That's Shadron State College. And once I got to medical school, I took a direct commission into the military. You know, I was born in the 70s. I'll be 49 this year. And I grew up watching Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Deer Hunter, all those movies. And so I always had a tremendous amount of respect for Vietnam veterans, and I wanted to serve. So when I got into medical school, I took a direct commission into the medical service corps. And then when I graduated into the medical corps, and it's been almost 25 years now of you know military and emergency medicine. I've I've been very blessed to be able to pull those two together.

First Days In Iraq

SPEAKER_01 3:16

So so one day you have to get on the plane, go to Iraq, and you're going to be a medic taking care of soldiers, and you're dealing with a team of people that I'm assuming is relatively large. Maybe describe what that looks like and what it feels like for the average human being.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Watching all those movies growing up, those are iconic scenes when Charlie Sheen gets dropped into with his unit in you know in Platoon. And for me, I came in in a C-130, you know, combat landing into Aliyasalim airport in in the Kuwait first. And that's where they do like a they basically get overhead and then they do an increasingly tighter spiral to like stick the landing so that you're not coming on a big glide slope because there's people shooting at you and anti-aircraft weapons. So, you know, that was just very surreal. The day I landed in theater, they shot down one of our helicopters, and I was the medical director for Medivac and was scared out of my mind. So had a good conversation with my cousin, who's an 18 Delta, a special forces operator, name is Zach. And it's like, Zach, oh man, I'm I'm in trouble here. I think I'm gonna get killed. And he just had some great advice for me that once you kind of get over that fear of death, it's not that you're suicidal, you just don't really care if you live or die anymore, and then you get the mission done. It's it's a very unique experience that has really shaped who I am from here on out.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I want to talk a little bit more about that if we can. Yeah. So I talk a lot about mindset, and this is the first conversation I've had with someone that's in military that has to decide about death. So I talk to people about winning or losing a race or a tennis match, but not about life or death. So he shares with you at this pivotal time about death, and you said what? You accepted it, you breathe through it.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

What do you do? It took a good two weeks where there was a lot of time with the chaplain, and I wrote some letters home to my family, you know, cried into my pillow a couple of times, just mortar fire coming in, and just a lot of chaos. And then my cousin just had those great words. He's like, Listen, you are you're in it now, and you can you can whine and die like you know, a little puss, or you could just have the best adrenaline uh rush of your life, saddle up because you're flying Menevac. If you get killed, you are literally flying into the face of death at the point of injury to rescue men and women that have taken bullets for this country. So there's there's no better way to go. And once you embrace that and you just I have faith, you know, I put my faith in God and said a lot of prayers, and it just once you unburden yourself from just that fear and you're just like, listen, I'm doing some great things here. I believe in what I'm doing, and I'm here for for these men and women. Hey, there's no better way to go. Once you learn to just release and then just focus on the mission, it's it's it's it's a live or die. It's it's very simple. So you just take care of people and they're shooting down helicopters. They lost eight in the two-week span. Again, they shot one down the day I got there. The pilot survived, it was insane. They had set they had sought off the tail rotor on the uh the Blackhawk, and it actually kind of went to a spiral and rolled down a sandbank and absorbing the energy. They lived. So I did their flight physical on them to get them back up in the air. And just the stories, it was unbelievable. And that, you know, for me, I was a young captain straight out of residency and puts things into perspective real quick. I have a very full appreciation of life.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Okay. So you said something there that I want everyone to hear. You helped them with the physical so that they could go back in the air.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

How many people are in a helicopter crash and have to go back up in the air and do it again?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Like, like what unfortunately, unfortunately, not many because the majority of those are fatal. But this particular incident, you've got your you know, your your crew chief and your your flight medic and two pilots. The the one pilot was a chief warrant officer, chief CW5, just crusty. He's angry, he's pissed off. He's like, God damn it, give me another helicopter. You know, I'm just like, this dude is crazy. And the other pilot was a first lieutenant, and he just his eyes were just white as saucers. I mean, just like, hey, you you okay, man? It's uh we still got a lot going on here. We we got to get back up in the air. And you know, uh, he had some time to decompress, spend some time with the chaplain and myself, and you know, he he was good to go. But as you can imagine, you just get blown out of the sky, and then all right, time to get back up there. You you can imagine how hard that is.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

No, I can't imagine. And I don't know if I want to imagine you were there, you did it. Now, in industry leader insights,

Leadership Lessons In Combat

SPEAKER_01 8:24

you are now young. How old are you at the time?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

20, 29, 30-ish.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

So you're seeing how would we call I don't want to call it real men, but you're you're you're you're you're working with people that are at another level of doing something that very few people have the chance to ever do. What type of leadership lessons did you learn being around people that are adrenaline driven, full of action, carrying guns? Like, what did you learn how to communicate and and how to be as a person that you carry with you today, even?

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So for me, I really pulled on a I'm a huge military history buff. And for me, there's Major Winters, was one of the commanders of Easy Company in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. If anyone has seen the HBO series Band of Brothers. And so I really tried to model myself after that. And obviously, there's the books and there's a lot of interviews with with Richard Winters himself during the course of the filming. And tried tried to lead like that, try to lead from the front. You know, I I I could have, as a medical director, just kind of hang back at the FOB, like the forward operating base and been a little fob it, you know, people just kind of hanging out at the at the fob and not going outside the wire. And for me, when you're talking to these flight medics and you're doing run reviews and and I wanted them to know that I was willing to put myself in the same situation because I wanted to know what they were going through. So I flew those missions. And, you know, that's that's that that's what Richard Winters was all about, leading from the front. Don't ever put yourself in a position to take, you know, from people underneath you under your command. And, you know, I carried that. I took command at Andrews Air Force Base in 2022 and served for three years for command there at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC. And all of those lessons come into focus when you're leading men and women. And I learned a lot. And, you know, just you learn from people in history. You you learn from bad leaders too, because I saw plenty of bad leadership, and you're just like, don't be, don't be that person, right? So you learn the good and the bad.

The Chaplain And New Perspective

SPEAKER_01 10:33

So, what's one great story that you like to share at the dinner table that you just carry with you has kind of helped make you become the person you are today?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Well, boy, there's so so many stories. I think just the time that I I sat down with with the chaplain, it was just so so the the the Medavac compound was was uh uh on the other side of the base. This is in uh Alas um this was at Camp Anaconda, all right, in Balad, Iraq. And so I had my own little Humvee. I would drive over to the Medevac side and they had a flight day once a week. And then I flew some of the, I flew one air assault, I flew with some of the other squadrons as well. And and things were were very stressful. You know, I had been married previously, it wasn't a great relationship, you know. She was a good person, just that clearly wasn't going to be work out for me, you know, living under these types of conditions and just learning so much more about myself. Basically, her father was vice president of a very, very large bank that everyone would have heard of. And they're their focus just a lot more on some material things. And for me, when you see men and women dying over here, at the end of the day, nobody really cares how big your house is or what kind of car you drive or how much money you make. It's like, are you taking care of the people around you and do you want to live or die? And it just changed my outlook so much. It it was a it was a huge mental shift for me. The chaplain would literally come out to the Medevac compound because I flew on Sundays and he held, he held in like mass right there at our at the Medevac compound. And I just remember chatting with the chaplain's assistant. And he, you know, he's like, hey, yeah, you know we're out here for you, right? And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, we know you're going through a lot. And it just having that guidance and good people around you. That's what I call the weight behind the spear. It's my personal leadership ethos and title of the book. But you just surround yourself with good people. You know, my chaplain, friends, colleagues, your family, my mentors throughout my life really carried me through that. And it was a good example for the book, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Well, we're going to talk about the book in a few minutes, and I just put it up here so people could start searching for it and finding it.

Bringing Combat Calm To The ER

SPEAKER_01 12:43

But what's crazy is how now that you're done, what was it like for you to be able to leave there and get back to your home where you're now in a you're you're what are you an emergency room doc? And now you're in crisis every day, seeing people scream in pain and come in and wait and do. I would imagine that your experiences now helped you become one of the better, more empathetic leadership in and emergency room doctors.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Well, I I've been very fortunate. I think most members of teams that I work with, because we have a great team of healthcare professionals and physician assistants and nurses and lab technicians, just learning how to lead under those conditions makes the chaos of an emergency department. When you put that into perspective, uh, people get they get fired up, they're scared, people are dying, there's you know life and death decisions. And I kind of calm people down. They're like, why are you so just calm all the time? It's like, hey, listen, hey, listen, nobody's shooting at us, there is no incoming border fire, there's no snipers in here. It's good. We're fine. Everything's gonna be good. That's just that's just you just make decisions off incomplete information. You make the best decision you can at the time, and you don't beat yourself up about it. You do your absolute best. And sometimes you have no information. I mean, it's it's amazing what people will not tell you about themselves when they come in in a life-threatening condition, and I'm making decisions that will like help them live or kill them, and they'll just forget to tell me that they're on dialysis, right? Like, you know, do you have any medical problems? No. Well, that's a dialysis shunt in your arm. Are you on dialysis? Oh, yeah. Okay, so you have kidney failure. That's actually really, really important to know. So it's just c it's just constant chaos in the ER. And being able to thrive in that and just be comfortable with chaos, it is very helpful for my job now.

PTSD And The Hard Transition Home

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Do you have any PTSD from your past?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

You know, I I'm sure I do. It's something that it was very difficult to talk about a lot of those things for the first several years. I mean, it's been 17 years now. And when I came back, especially as a reservist, I was in the National Guard. You are literally in combat taking care of guys that are just blown up, missing limbs. And they literally have two questions when you take care of them like this. You know, the first question is generally is is my genitalia still there and is my buddy alive? And they've they're they're they're just completely blown up, they're dying, and their pain is five out of ten. And then you come back to an emergency department and you see a 12-year-old kid with an ingrown toenail, and you're running a pediatric code next door, and the baby doesn't make it. I mean, this is literally like two weeks after coming back from combat. And it's two or three in the morning, we're all crying, we walk out of the room, and this mom and this kid are just screaming at us, like, I'm like, hey, listen, we just had a pediatric death, we need a little bit of time. And they said, I don't care. We were here first because his ingrown toenail was like a 15 out of 10 on the pain scale. And I'm like, listen, like you just got blown up, you're missing your limbs, you watched your buddy die. That's a 10. And you know, one is this kind of hurts. Like, what's your pain scale? Oh, yeah, it's a 15. You're like, Oh my goodness, I I can't do this. Like, I literally threw the mom out of the emergency department because she was so horrific. I mean, just had no compassion for this family and the baby that just died. And so you try to put that together, like, how do you reconcile that, like being in combat and now dealing with this? So I actually met my wife now, also, who's amazing. And we moved overseas to New Zealand for a year, where I worked in a small rural emergency department and played soccer at Rotorio United, and really helped me kind of get back into uh a good mindset to be able to return to the kind of chaos here in the United States working in an emergency department. And I've done very well since. But it was a very, very hard transition and that mental health component of returning, like it gets talked about, but but really not enough. And it's hard to explain to a lot of people, but I certainly did.

The Mental Health Crisis And Gen Z

SPEAKER_01 16:52

So our next topic that we could just kind of slide into, it's something I feel very strongly about, and I know you do, is as we transition in this emergency room world, the PTSD, the combat, the leadership, the calmness, the the irrational behavior from others, no compassion. This is what we're hearing. It's mental health. And it really at the end of the day, right, it's how we respond to all the mental health that's out there. And people don't have a label on them that says, you know, bipolar, borderline, no compassion, mean, cutting, angry liar, jealous. And so, how are we going to deal with the mental health in society today? And what are some of the things that you're doing from your from from your side of the table?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So, mental health is pretty abysmal. The care for that in a lot of states. I know here in North Carolina, they're they're woefully lacking in mental health resources. And we're at really kind of where the rubber meets the road there, or doesn't, just the younger population has grown up in just such a much different world than we did. And when you we tell those stories, oh, well, back in my day, we did it's not helpful. So this is the generation, this is the COVID generation, that last half of Gen Z. And they've they've never known life without an iPhone and instantaneous access to information and social media, and then helicopter and lawnmower parents, right? So that combination right there, everyone grew up with the trophy, everyone's special, everybody's a winner, and the parents just made sure there are no obstacles in their path. So they don't know what to do with adversity, they don't have the resiliency skills, they lack a lot of leadership and communication. And as a result, there is a huge mental health crisis, and that's how it all comes together. So I see the anxiety, the depression, the suicide. And then as a military commander, I was dealing with the same thing because now I have all these 18 to 25-year-old kids with the same issues that are in the military. And it's actually quite shocking. And so, how do you reach them? How do you communicate? And as a leader of any organization, you have these age of individuals in your organization. How do you deal with them? How do you deal with these mental health issues? So that's one of the reasons that I wrote the book. And then as an emergency physician, I had that unique opportunity to sit down and I get to chat with them and ask them about their life and why are they anxious and depressed and you know, try to get those resources that they need with mental health. And, you know, some of it's medication, some of it just really needs a lending, compassionate ear. But it's a huge problem in this country. And once you realize that everybody has a breaking point, even special forces. So I worked with combat search and rescue, PJs, I mean, some of the toughest, strongest individuals physically and mentally on planet Earth, they still have suicides in that population. So everybody has a breaking point. So the best thing you can do is develop that support structure behind you, that weight behind your spear. That's teachers, coaches, your family, volunteers, coworkers, you know, just develop those relationships around you. So when times get tough, you have something to lean on.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Do you think that people with mental health know or think that they have mental health? I know that people that have anxiety have anxiety, and I know that depression is depression. But I think that there's people out there that that don't take the time to realize how they impact other people and how they go through life with their personalities that are non-flexible and and sharp. As a matter of fact, we're going to get to it in a little bit, but I think the reason people don't tell the truth is because of the consequences of the person they're going to tell the truth to.

unknown 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

But sometimes the truth hurts, and then and then you have to deal with the wrath of how someone else is going to react to the truth.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah. So that's that's the one of the interesting things is when you see like the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and like these manic episodes, they they literally have no idea that everyone else looks at them as crazy. So it's it's whatever you're comparing yourself to. Maybe you're just hanging out with only crazy people and they all think it's normal. But it's it's a challenge for them to recognize that they even have that mental illness. Because if they don't think it's a problem, they're not going to take the medications or they're not going to go to counseling. And I see that time and time again. It's kind of one of those vicious cycles where they're in and out of menstrual institutions and in and out of jail. It usually ties itself a lot to substance abuse and alcohol abuse because they're really self-medicating without even realizing it. But it's it's a huge problem. It's something I deal with every single day. So that's it's a change.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

So

Tough Love, Boundaries, Accountability

SPEAKER_01 21:31

on this program, let's talk about how to solve the problem or what we could do, or baby steps for the listeners to be able to help those people that might need help and either know it or don't know it. So, what are some of your ideas on how to help shift and turn the negative into a positive?

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Well, a lot of families cope ineffectively with that mental illness and they become enablers. So I see that time and time again with their children or with other family members. Where they just kind of allow themselves to be used and abused, and they'll make those excuses and there's no accountability. At some point, you know, you have to step up and you have to have that tough love. Have those interventions, get those group of people around them, say, hey, listen, we love you, we care about you, you're off your rocker, and it's it's it's it's you got to go this way or you're done. You know, it's and that's difficult at times to set those boundaries. And that's what I see with families that really struggle is they don't set the boundaries, they don't have that individual take the accountability and get them that help. They just continue to enable it. And eventually they crash and burn every time. It always ends miserably. It's either death or suicide or drunk driver and killing a family. It's just horrible things in 25 years. But it's a big challenge. But, you know, people aren't like as a family, when you when you with those individuals, I mean, you're not, you're not, don't have that victim mentality and don't enable. You know, you can do something about it. You can get them help. And whether they take it or not is one thing, but you have to be able to set your boundaries.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Fantastic. The boundaries, that's a whole nother topic. It's it's not easy. Mental sharpness is not easy. Philosopher notes with Brian Johnson writes a ton of books or summarizes a lot of books on mental health and how to prosper. And I just I was talking to Jason Dunn yesterday. He runs a hundred mile races. Wow. And I'm like, isn't it just easier to quit at five miles? I mean, my brain runs on a treadmill. I'm like, I think I'm just gonna push the stop button. And the way he's trained his brain is he doesn't have the vocabulary, the word stop. He just figures out how to keep going. And and there's so many people out there like that where it's like their brain, they've learned how to brain hack to keep going and to become better. And and in my case, I share with people I grew up in special ed, my third grade classroom was three kids, me, a teacher, cattle prod, padded walls, and no desks. And I don't know how I got there, but it was a lot of years ago. I'm in my 60s, and that's just how I was for six months, right? There was a it was part of my life. And the idea around this is how do you overcome and look forward to become a better person than to look backwards and say, these were all my adversities. You know, mom who was drinking, a dad who was uptight and worked a lot uh really hard. But you again, you have to figure out how to move forward and be your best self. And I think that everyone has a responsibility to do that in society. And I think a lot of people don't take the time to do that.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Yeah, well, that's that's having that resiliency. So that's that's fantastic. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah, so that's my story. And again, I don't think I was put on the earth to be an ultra marathon runner, but maybe I was put on the earth to be one of the better podcasters out there to be able to have really good fun interviews.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, you know, everybody's got a role, everyone has a set of skills. You know, people that you know, like volunteering, coaching in in Little League or your church or your school, if you don't like working with people, you just go to an animal shelter. You know, those animals can be emotional support animals for somebody. So there's always someplace out there in organization that needs your skills. So everybody, everybody matters.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Okay, so everyone buckle

When Integrity Costs Millions

SPEAKER_01 25:10

up. We have a lot more really good stuff coming up, but this is one of them. So doing the right stuff is easy when it's cheap and there's no consequence, but integrity is proven when it costs you something. And you can look at this in so many different levels. And so maybe we could touch on this for a few minutes. What are your thoughts around this and how does it impact everybody?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Well, that was a big life lesson for me in owning a business in Texas where we're making great money, things are going well, and then there's some discrepancies with accounting. And I hired a forensic accountant, and we start finding $130,000 over charging and payroll, and then $90,000 for some lawsuit from some other random business that had nothing to do with us whatsoever, and asked some questions. And the CEO who had the majority ownership, you know, initially offers me a bribe. He's like, hey, listen, don't worry about it. Here's $3.4 million, just walk away. He he wrote everything up, he's had attorneys, right? The non-disclosure agreement, all that garbage. And I told him, I was like, Listen, I am a colonel in the United States Air Force. I will not compromise my integrity for a frickin' penny, not one. And so I did the right thing. He tried to bankrupt the company, he ran it into the ground, refused to pay bills. He just stole $650,000 out of the bank account to for his back management expenses. The judge made him put it back. I filed a lawsuit, got a temporary restraining order. But before we could get it to trial, COVID hits. I couldn't get a court date. He wouldn't make any distribution, so he just bled us all out and starved everybody. I spent $250,000 in legal expenses in six months. And then he started threatening the family. I literally bailed to Australia for a year to get away from him. I worked at Flanders University there in Adelaide, Australia. And at the end of the day, just COVID saved him. We couldn't get the court date. He starved us out, and I lost $5 million. So, you know, it's all paper money, anyways, the way I look at it. But I did the right thing, and you just can't control other people, unfortunately. There's just crazy people out there, but I can control how I respond, and I will not compromise my integrity for a penny. So yeah, integrity is extremely expensive. But I look at myself in the mirror every single day. I feel pretty damn good.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

My dad, my dad financed a business and similar story in terms of the fake receivables. And the personal guarantee was 800,000. So he was out over a million, and he walked around for years in a state that he couldn't get himself out of. It was so hard on him in his senior years. How did you overcome that? I get that you know your brain hack is oh, it's paper money. But in reality, you were partnered with someone that you believed in, and together you were going to build. You're a colonel in the military, and he chose you as a partner. You chose each other. How were you really dealing with this? And and and how many days a week are you in therapy?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yeah. Yeah, for me, it's one of those life lessons where that's on me. I did not do my due diligence. I mean, I I certainly looked up a lot of things. I probably should have done a lot more. Had I found all of his lawsuits in Louisiana and Arizona at his other businesses and knew what a shady, I mean, he's not even he's a physician, he's not even board certified or anything because they kicked him out of residency. So these are things that I mean, I don't know how I would have even found that out at the time. So that's all you should protect information. But knowing what I know now, there were clearly red flags, and I should never have been in business with him. So that's on me. That's again, that's I can't control other people. There's bad people out there, and it's my job to sift through that. And so I assure you, uh I will not be having another business unless I one have majority ownership, because that's the other lesson, the laws in Texas. If you are a majority shareholder, you can literally do anything, absolutely anything, unless you can get it to trial. And if the other guy has a ton more money than you, then they just bleed you out and starve you. So that's unfortunately how it works in America. But I learned that lesson. So, you know, it's it's about who you choose to surround yourself with. And I did the right thing. I stood up for myself and I refuse to be part of that, and I got punished financially for it.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Well, let's

The Lottery Win And Purposeful Giving

SPEAKER_01 29:25

uh talk about the next thing then, because you bought the lottery ticket. Yeah. So you bought the lottery ticket, you won. You're gonna share with us the story, but I have a feeling that the timing of the lottery ticket winning was coincides with maybe some of the shady business that was done that you needed help with.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

This is a crazy story. I mean, you almost wouldn't. If I had I not lived it myself, I don't even know if I would believe it. So you go through all the pain. And like I said, I have a strong faith, and I have a wife and three kids, and you just those nice learning lessons. And my my my son Luca, the year before, won the integrity award at school. And I'm like, gosh, that's maybe maybe I'm doing something right here. He's seeing this and he's learning. So four years after that complete disaster, we're back in North Carolina, and I dropped off my son Gabriel at gymnastics. And right there in the in the in the parking lot, there's a gas station. And I go over, fill up with gas, and they they they have posted up there the the lottery. There's always the Powerball and the Mega, whatever. Those are impossible to win statistics on that. I'm I'm a math nerd, right? But the Carolina Cash 5 is is more reasonable, and it's up to $1.5 million. So I actually that they they they have online accounts. So I create an online account, it bought a ticket, didn't win, and rolled the numbers forward to Thursday, and then Friday morning, we're it's chaos, right? We're trying to get kids ready for school, put on your shoes, brush your teeth. Did you make your lunch? Like, ask, and there's a weird email that comes in and it says, you know, log in and we need your social security number. I'm like, what? A total scam. No way. But you look at the email. I mean, it's it says North Carolina Educational Lottery. Like, I don't know. I I so I came to my computer, I logged into the online account, and sure is I mean, just there is a tremendous amount of money. I'm like, whoa, my else, but would you would you come look at this? And she's just staring at the screen, she's like, that's not real. I'm like, I I don't know, I think it is. So I filled out the information on there, and then an hour later, I get an email. Hey, come on down to Raleigh, pick up your check. I'm like, no. So it didn't hit me until I get to the lottery claim center. And there's like some bulletproof glass, and it's all secured. And I I fill out a little sheet of paper and I slide it across, you know, under underneath the bulletproof glass. And then she turns to a phone, she's like, Hey, the online lottery winner is here. I'm like, whoa, whoa, this is this is real? I'm like, holy cow! And they badge you through one door, and then there's another secure door, and then you sit there in the lottery room with you know, the all the stuff on the walls, and they bring a big cartoon check, and it's just this is insane. I can't believe this is happening. But for me, I I really felt like it was like some divine intervention there where man, I got put through the ringer, I did the right thing, I got completely destroyed financially. But hey, you passed the test, so there you go. And it was it was pretty surreal.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

And is this $350,000 before tax or after tax?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Yeah, so it was the the total was $757,000 because the one catch was I had to split it in half. So somebody else had the same numbers, which is a bummer. So I got after taxes, like $540,000. And you know, we we started a nonprofit organization and have done some great things with the book and the children's book series and things. So, you know, we're we're trying to make a difference with that money. I came from nothing, like I said, my dad was a railroader, so I I realize how much crazy money that is, but I'm not motivated by money back in my time in Iraq. It's it's really about what's your purpose in life and and what are you doing to make your community around you better? So that's what we did with it.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Okay, so behind your shoulder, it looks like it might be some Pulitzer Prizes or some little trophies.

Books, Foundation, And Community Impact

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Before we get to your book, we have a few minutes, of course. Share with us a little bit about those behind your shoulder. Those looking. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Well, I've got some some new 2026. I got three Telly Awards this year. That was for our TV show with Teen Kid News, COVID generation. So that did really well. Just talking about mental health in the COVID generation and the books. That's The Heart of a Leader. That's book one in the children's book series. And that book is how we teach this next generation leadership skills. And so if you go to Lovelittle Leaders.com, that takes you right to Amazon for the children's book and wait behind the spear, W-E-I-G-H-T, waitbehind the spear.com will get you to the adult book. I did get a Pulitzer Prize nomination, which was which was very nice. But that just trying to get people to engage their communities. That's being the weight behind the spear. Teachers, coaches, volunteers, and families. And I just realized as a military commander, if you're trying to teach this at age 20, that's really hard. There's a lot of yelling, there's a lot of push-ups. We need to do this much earlier than that. And so that's why I wrote the children's book series with Joe Jakobedic and amazing Disney, Disney awarded illustrator. So he literally did work with Lilo and Stitch and Little Mermaid. So Joe Jakobedic, him and I teamed up for this children's book series, and it's won a ton of awards. The Mom's Choice Awards got a gold stamp there, and just trying to make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

And you're still young enough that you have a lot of years ahead of you to continue to make even more differences.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

I hope so. I hope so. I'll be I'll be 50 next year, which sounds insane. But yeah, I I plan on being around for a while.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Let's talk about the weight behind the spear. I know that it's a book that's also dear to you. Share with us a little bit about it, where people could find it, and one or two insights from it, if you will.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Yeah, so it's available on Amazon. We've got the audiobook, the ebook, and the paperback. And that book is just my call to action. Everyone has a has skills, everyone has things that they can bring to their community. Teaching, coaching, volunteers, you know, like families, those things are so critically important that everyone matters. What they do every single day matters. So be a part of something or get behind someone that matters. Be the weight behind the spear in your community. If you go to weightbehind the spear.com, W-E-I-G-H-T, waitbehind the spear.com. You can learn more about that and learn about our foundation as well, the Weight Behind the Spear Foundation. And we're just trying to do some great things here in North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

How

Fundraising And Disaster Relief Lessons

SPEAKER_01 35:45

are you raising money for the foundation?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Well, there was a an ad campaign, a lot of phone calls, dialing for dollars early on. Most people are very familiar with what happened to Western North Carolina with Hurricane Helene, just biblical level destruction, rains, and flooding. And so we we raised quite a bit of money there and were able to contribute to Samaritan's Purse, which is a fantastic organization with the grams. You know, you have Franklin and Edward Graham. They were able to use that for some of the rebuilding. I went and toured the facility and got to meet with them and was really proud of that. You know, so we've made a lot of contributions in Western North Carolina. And right now, I've been so busy with work and other things. Always love to raise more. You know, if you go to waitbehind the spear.com forward slash foundation with a capital F, I would love more donations. It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah. So I had a charity from 2000 to 2020 called Special Kids Network. And we did golf outings, poker events, and other miscellaneous events. Raised about five million dollars. Whoa. So I could share with you how in my world I did the Ronald McDonald House charity, and I thought, wow, I'd like to have a charity one day with one celebrity. And over the years, starting in year two or three, people started to come in my life to help me build it and promote it. By the end, not by the end, for 17 years, we had about 45 celebrities that would show up at the golf outing, 300-person golf outing. And again, it was like the right people showed up at the right time to make the magic. And as COVID came, I exited, I transitioned it. And now as a charity auctioneer, I'm raising money through Bitcoin.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

And that's a great idea. Oh, thanks for that. Congratulations. That's amazing.

Sports, Travel, And Closing Messages

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Thanks. So as we just transition for the last minute or two, uh, do you have any hobbies that you do between being the emergency room medic, the military, the foundation? What's one or two things you like to do when you're not working?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Love sports. So for for me right now, it has been an amazing month. So I've got my pin on here. Which side is that on? This one, yes, it's Carolina Hurricanes, Stanley Cup champs. Very excited about that. The World Cup is going on right now. I did play soccer growing up, played a little bit in New Zealand, and actually went to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. So my wife and three kids, we do love to travel, and I love sports. So I try to find excuses to put those two together. And you know, almost 50 now. I don't get to play a lot of soccer myself now, trying to keep my knees intact. I can still outrun a bunch of 20-year-old kids on the fitness test for the Air Force, but yeah, it's uh sports is our outlet.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

I absolutely love that. And before we transition out, I'm Chad Co. Co-financial group running Leadership Insight Podcast. As a company, we help people to get to retirement and stay comfortably retired. We use the Abundant Life Roadmap to do that, which is focusing on your values and your goals, creating a plan so that you can implement. And if you go to cofinancial.com, you could download my free book on the website, Your Financial Dream House. So I want to thank everyone for being here. If you like it, please subscribe, like, and share. And again, thank you so much, Doctor, for being here today. It was absolutely wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Thank you very much.