Take Ownership, Embrace Hustle with J Reed Durand
In this episode of Keep Hustling, host Aaron Gordon sits down with J Reed Durand, a highly accomplished Army veteran and leadership expert. Drawing on 40 years of military and professional experience, they dig into the realities of leadership, personal growth, and change management.
J Reed shares hard-won lessons from his journey, including the shift from being led to leading, the power of owning your own development, and his practical Three C’s framework: confidence, capabilities, and capacity. The conversation explores the challenges and rewards of adapting to change, the role of discipline, and the courage it takes to step into leadership. Through stories of multiple relocations and varied career assignments, he offers clear, usable advice for anyone who wants to grow and help others grow. Lasting change, he stresses, starts with ownership and consistent training. The episode closes with a favorite motivational line that captures the heart of the discussion: “We don’t rise to the level of our aspirations, we fall to the level of our training.”
Listeners walk away with actionable insights on leadership, self-improvement, and preparing for change, all in the spirit of Keep Hustling
Get To Know J Reed Durand
J. Reed Durand rose from Private to Chief Information Officer through four decades of frontline leadership in one of the world’s largest and most complex institutions, the U.S. Army. Across dual military and civilian careers he guided personal, team, and enterprise level transformations while refining practical, field tested approaches to change in high stakes environments.
After retiring twice he stepped back to examine the patterns behind successful continuous change. From that reflection came the Train to Change series, which blends leadership, psychology, philosophy, and organizational behavior into grounded, immediately usable strategies for personal and professional growth. His first book, Train to Change Phase One Self Mastery, is available worldwide. The follow on eBook, Train to Change Realism, advances the series into Phase Two.
Reed’s work bridges theory and lived experience. It offers audiences a disciplined yet deeply human approach to self mastery. His core belief is straightforward: lasting transformation begins with taking ownership of your own development. He helps others understand change, prepare for it, and turn it into a catalyst for growth in an increasingly complex world.
As a change practitioner, years spent in varied roles and locations around the globe, paired with related education and training, gave him a practical understanding of self improvement, goal setting and achievement, continuous process improvement, and leadership. Along the way he developed and refined a repeatable methodology that he consistently applied to his own growth and career. He also used this hybrid approach to initiate, plan, organize, direct, and sustain large scale organizational changes that affected hundreds of thousands of Soldiers, employees, and leaders across the Army.
After his second retirement he distilled those lessons into a self improvement series published with the freedom of an independent author. The insights apply to anyone managing change, regardless of background, location, or destination. In short, this approach works.
3 Key Listener Takeaways
1. Stepping Into Leadership: The conversation centers on the pivotal moment when someone moves from being led to leading others. Drawing from military experience, J Reed explains that real leadership means accepting accountability, embracing influence, and owning team outcomes. Even small leadership opportunities can open the door to growth and new possibilities.
2. The Three C’s of Sustainable Growth: One of the strongest ideas shared is the framework of confidence, capabilities, and capacity. Building self-awareness, pursuing deliberate training, and developing the ability to perform consistently form a practical blueprint for effective leadership and continuous improvement in any environment.
3. Adaptability Over Comfort: A recurring theme is the necessity of change and the danger of getting too comfortable. Embracing constant learning and adaptation, whether driven by technology or life shifts, keeps you relevant and successful. Accepting the flow of life and training for change becomes a clear roadmap for maintaining momentum and thriving in uncertainty.
Show Overview
00:00 Gratitude to a veteran
03:44 Promotion to Sergeant
07:58 Reflecting on a 40-year Army career
11:36 Balancing Confidence, Capability, and Capacity
14:30 Building Confidence for New Routines
17:10 Adapting to tech changes
22:05 Inspiring next-gen leadership
23:32 Assessing Your Current Situation
26:48 Training for Personal Change