# 122: Joshua McMillion - Do Good Work

In this solo episode of Tales of Leadership, Joshua McMillion challenges listeners to stop waiting for the "right time" and start doing the work they were created to do. If you've ever felt busy but unfulfilled, capable yet stuck, this conversation will help you find the clarity to move forward with purpose. Joshua introduces a practical leadership framework built on passion, purpose, and precision—showing how each one plays a critical role in becoming the leader you're meant to be. Drawing from his own experiences, he shares how journaling, reflection, and intentional action shaped both his personal mission and the vision behind Tales of Leadership.

The episode also explores how identifying your unique strengths can help you make a greater impact in the lives of others, while offering a military-minded perspective on overcoming obstacles that block, redirect, or challenge your path. Joshua leaves listeners with practical reflection questions and actionable steps to lead with greater clarity, conviction, and purpose. This episode is a reminder that meaningful leadership doesn't begin with a promotion or permission—it begins the moment you choose to do good work where you are.

Tales of Leadership is a leadership platform dedicated to developing Purposeful Accountable Leaders (PALs) through real stories, shared experiences, and practical insight. Each episode breaks down the decisions, failures, and defining moments that shape leaders in the arena—offering honest, experience-driven lessons you can apply immediately. It’s built for those who want to grow with intention, elevate how they lead, and make a lasting impact—because leadership isn’t about rank, it’s about responsibility, and the greatest leaders live by one principle: deeds, not words.

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Every day is a gift. Don’t waste yours.
 — Joshua K. McMillion

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Welcome to Tells of Leadership. Our mission is simple. To develop a better leader by arming you with the tools required to lead with purpose, integrity, and accountability. This podcast is designed to do one thing. Help develop a more purposeful and accountable leader, what I like to call a path. Leaders who are in the arena making tough decisions, lifting others up, and choosing people over their own egos. Through real stories and conversations with leaders who have walked that path. Powerful leadership lessons, you'll gain the wisdom needed to tackle any obstacle this world can throw you. If you're ready to step into the arena and become the leader your team, your family, and your community need, you're in the right place. This is Tells of Leadership.

Mission And Why Leadership Matters

SPEAKER_00 1:40

All right, team, welcome back to the Tales of Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Josh McMillian, and I am on a journey to become the best leader that I possibly can. And I am going to share with you insights from purposeful, accountable leaders or pals, those who lead with intention, integrity, and make an impact, and also my self-studies through my leadership habits, my journaling experiences, all through the lens of my own leadership journey. So we can go on this journey together. So here's my why it's important to always talk about I've seen the cost of poor leadership, how it can destroy morale, break trust, and in worst case, lead to a loss of life, including through suicide. That's why I'm committing my life to helping others lead with purpose. And through Tales of Leadership, I will share real stories that are actionable and insightful on how you can overcome obstacles and become the kind of leader people remember for the right reasons. And here are a couple of free resources. If you're new, you can go to Linktree slash Tells of Leadership, and everything is there. All the episodes that I've ever filmed, all the podcast articles, all my social media links, everything is there. It's a one stop shop, but I'll kind of point you to a couple quick ones. You can go to Tells of Leadership.buzzsprout.com and you'll be able to find the full transcript to this episode. And you can also go to McMillian Leadership Coaching.com slash Tales of Leadership to find a specific article on this and the uh podcast episode that we're filming right now with a summary, a one pager, if you will, after action review of the key points distilled down in less than a five-minute read. And I do that because I know all of our time is important and valuable. And as always, stay to the very end and I'll provide you what I think the final thoughts are and three powerful questions to reflect on for today's episode, which I'm calling doing good work. Life requires action, but more importantly, it demands precision and purpose. The truth is that most of us are waiting for the perfect moment, that right opportunity, or someone else's approval to begin to chase our dreams. But here is something that everyone needs to hear. You do not need that. What you need is clarity and why you're here and the courage just to start moving forward. Purpose isn't some magical word. And I'm if you can read countless books on this topic, it's what gets you up early and pushes you to stay uncomfortable. With it, we live a life full of joy,

Doing Good Work Starts Now

SPEAKER_00 4:14

charisma, and conviction. And we have energy that becomes contagious to other people. And without it, we live a hollow, irritable, and cantankerous life. I love the word cantankerous, and I don't know why. There are countless frameworks or books that help you discover what your purpose is. And some of them I've done myself and I've done several articles on this. But my goal with this episode is simple. I just want to motivate you to go take action, do something meaningful with your life, not for accolades, not for applause, not for recognition or fame, but because the world needs more purposeful, accountable leaders right now, willing to go do good work. And here's a quote by Mark Twain: The two most important days in your life is the day that you're born and the day you find your why. So let's start off with defining our purpose. I believe purpose is one half of the equation to live a fulfilled life. The other half is passion. So let's break that down. Passion is your emotional fuel, it's what excites you every day, it's what stirs your soul. It's that fire you feel when you're doing something that you absolutely love. Think back to those moments in your life where time seemed to just disappear. You lose yourself in the task of just doing things. Odds are you're doing something that you love. That's your passion. Purpose, on the other hand, isn't something that just shows up. And that's the fickle nature of finding your purpose. It's not going to come knock at your door and say, hey,

Passion And Purpose Create Fulfillment

SPEAKER_00 5:54

I'm here. This is what you're meant to do on this earth. You have to go seek it. And more often than not, you will discover it through stumbling and through failure and through the hardships of life. For me, it revealed itself through my military journey and exactly through those times that I just explained. I found deep purpose in leading our nation's sons and daughters. But drilling down even more, I found fulfillment in coaching and mentoring others, helping people lead with charisma, integrity, and having a servant heart. That's what fires me up every single day. When you align your passion with your purpose, you unlock fulfillment. But first you have to name it. So ask yourself, what do I want to be remembered for? So Frederick Nietzsche has a great quote He who has a why to live can bear almost anyhow. And I want you to think through this equation for me. So I kind of gave you passion and purpose, but there's another one that we actually need to have. And it kind of goes to the next topic of understanding our assignment, but it's precision. Passion plus a purpose plus precision equals fulfillment in life. And those are big, broad terms, but we need those in our life to take purposeful action to do good work. Today's show sponsor comes from 10th Mountain Whiskey and Spirit Company. They are a philanthropic award-winning craft distillery located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. For being a listener of TALS of Leadership, you'll get 10% off on any order using the promo code PandoCommando when you place an order at 10th Whiskey.com. Both of those are in the show notes, so you'll be able to find them. 10th Mountain Whiskeys and Spirit Company honor heroes and they craft legacy. I've commanded two organizations in the 10th Mountain, and both of which are very deeply impactful to me. This is a company that I stand behind. And if you're looking for a great bottle of bourbon, look no further at 10th Mountain Whiskey and Spirit Company. Back to the show.

Sponsor Message And Discount Code

SPEAKER_00 8:03

So the next one is to understand your assignment. Once you've defined your purpose and you found joy in those daily tasks, begin to understand why you're on this earth and how you can actively go take inspired action, do something great. What I mean by understanding your assignment is what unique strengths and gifts do you possess that gives you an unfair advantage? If you can't align those God-given talents with your why, that's when you become dangerous. Not to others, but to anything that stands in your way of making a difference. All those obstacles. And remember, obstacles have four key definitions, at least through the eyes of the military, to block, turn, fix, or

Find Your Assignment With Precision

SPEAKER_00 8:51

disrupt. Understand the obstacle at your 12 o'clock that you're getting ready to face. And then when you understand your why, it's so much easier to overcome those. In the military, we plan around two possibilities. The most probable course of action for an enemy based on patterns that we know. And then the most deadly course of action, the one that would be disruptive and devastating for us to execute our mission and actually accomplish our key tasks and our primary in state. The same concept applies in life. What's the most dangerous thing you can do? The bold, the disruptive move that aligns your passion plus your purpose and the strength that you have, the unique strengths to create a maximum impact. That's your assignment. For me, the realization came after COVID. I began journaling daily, unpacking what I was passionate about, what gave me life and how I could serve others. That's how TELZA leadership was born. Now I have well over 10,000 downloads, which is absolutely humbling. My assignment became clear help others become the best leader that they possibly can. What I like to call a purposeful, accountable leader or a pal. And why is that? Because I see the damage that poor leaders can do. It breaks morale, just like I said at the very beginning. And at worst case, it costs lives. I believe strong leadership can stop that. And here's some things that I've learned. We do not set our calling. The calling finds us. Your assignment will evolve. Mine is still evolving constantly. I'm constantly iterating on the TELSA leadership framework, tinkering with the images, all of those things. And that's okay. Right now I'm exploring a partnership with uh Renaissance Reliability and their nonprofit unturning steel, which helps transitioning veterans into leadership roles in U.S. manufacturing. Why? Because it aligns two of the biggest passions that I have: helping service members transition and rebuilding American industry, which is awesome to think about. Your assignment may not be fully clear yet, and that's okay. But ask yourself a couple powerful questions. What daily actions bring you most joy and fulfillment? What organizations or effects align your strengths? And what I mean by your strengths, things that you're just naturally good at. How can I apply my purpose and my passion to impact those around me? And here's a great quote by Pablo Picasso, kind of just to bound this all together. The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away. So this was a short one. Here are my final thoughts or after action review on this one. All you need to do is take action and create alignment in life. Focus on three things. First, understand what you're passionate about, then define your purpose, your deeper why. Why are you wanting to go through this wilderness journey? When you do those things, you begin to find fulfillment. From there, go seek your assignment. Go find something to do that will make an impact. Go make inspired change. That's the work you're uniquely equipped to do. The actions that align your strengths, they serve others, and they still bring joy to you. If you can do those three things passion plus purpose and

Final Thoughts And Reflection Questions

SPEAKER_00 12:32

finding your assignment or having precision, you're already living a life of impact. Remember, this isn't about chasing perfection because that is a dopamine-in-fueled rat race. We are focusing on growth. We're focusing on it's about doing the next right thing and becoming the person that we are fully capable of becoming. That's what it all comes down to. Doing good work every single day consistency. So here are some after action review questions for doing good work that you should spend some time on after listening to this episode. The first one is your unique strengths. What unique strengths do you have that give you an unfair advantage? And are you using them? Number two, what is your current assignment aligned with your passion and your purpose? Do you need to pivot or are you in the right place? And then the last one, what's one action that you can take this week to lead with greater clarity, conviction, and care? All right, team. Shorter episode. That's okay. Uh, this was just uh something that was sitting on my heart that I wanted to get out called doing good work. And I think it's good too to break these up into a little bit shorter episodes, especially when I do two uh one hour, two hour interviews with purposeful, accountable leaders. But do me a favor if you like the content that I'm putting out there, it would be a huge help to me. So much value if you could make sure that you do the following four things. Number one, make sure you like, share, and subscribe this podcast wherever you listen. You can listen on any major podcast platform. Leave me a review, send me feedback. I absolutely love that because I need to know what other leadership content I can push out there to you guys. And if you have good guests that you would like for me to interview, I'm always open to that. And honestly, I've gotten to a point now where growth, most of the people that are coming on the show uh are being recommended to me, which is awesome because now I have the space to kind of really vet people that I want to have on the show. Number three, go follow me on social media. You can

How To Support The Podcast

SPEAKER_00 14:50

find me anywhere at tells of leadership.com. And if you would like to support the show, you can go to tells of leadership.buzzsprout.com and you can donate or support the show. All proceeds go back into this podcast directly. I'm not doing this for profit. I make zero money out of this. I want to provide you free leadership resources and content so you can go out there and be the best purposeful, accountable leader that you are capable of being. And as always, team, I'm your host, Josh McMillian saying every day is a gift. Don't waste yours. I'll see you next time.