Miles Welch on Leadership, Resilience & Rebuilding After Losing Everything | The Austin Moss Show Ep.15

What happens when you lose the title, the stage, the platform — and have to rebuild from scratch?

In this episode, Austin sits down with leadership coach Miles Welch to unpack a journey that spans dropping out of high school to follow the Grateful Dead, serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, leading at one of the largest churches in the country, and eventually losing it all during a painful life reset in 2020.
Miles shares how failure in Colorado forced him into humility, how he learned the difference between authority and influence, and why leadership is more art than science. He breaks down his core framework around entropy — the idea that everything drifts from order to chaos without outside energy — and explains why leaders are that “outside energy” in businesses, marriages, and teams.
From flipping an 80% pastoral failure rate to an 80% success rate, to rebuilding his life from a basement during COVID with the mantra “Do what you can do,” this conversation is a masterclass in resilience, identity, and high-level leadership.

Key Topics & Timestamps
00:00 – Not a faith podcast… but leadership is layered
Setting the tone: business, performance, and purpose.
05:00 – Falling in love with leadership in the Marines
Authority vs. influence. Why real leadership requires choice.
10:00 – From stripes to servitude
Why nonprofit and church leadership can be harder than the military.
14:00 – Failure in Colorado & confronting ego
Journaling, humility, and becoming the kind of person people trust.
20:00 – The Entropy Framework
Everything moves from order to chaos without outside energy.
Leadership is the energy holding strategy, teams, health, and marriage together.
24:00 – Solopreneurs vs. Executive Teams
Why small operators need accountability — and 30+ employee companies need trust and bench strength.
28:00 – Blowing up his life in 2020
Divorce, leaving church leadership, moving into a basement during COVID.
31:00 – “Do what you CAN do”
The whiteboard mantra that rebuilt everything.
36:00 – Solving COVID for a city in one weekend
How preparation + courage turned into Miles’ first coaching client.
40:00 – Flipping an 80% failure rate to 80% success
Why leadership training beats theology alone.
43:00 – Imposter syndrome reframed
It’s not that you shouldn’t — you’re just new.
48:00 – The coaching industry problem
“It’s theory until you have a client. It’s a hobby until you get paid.”
1:01:00 – Resilience Formula
Building anything is 10x harder than you think.
In the end, you will prevail — if you don’t quit.

Miles Welch is a leadership coach and founder of Northstar Training. A former Marine, pastor, and executive church leader, he has spent decades building and training high-capacity leaders. After a major personal reset in 2020, he transitioned into executive coaching, working with solopreneurs, construction firms, and enterprise teams to build healthy leadership pipelines. He is currently scaling a coaching firm built on real-world operator experience.

Connect with Miles Welch:

Website: https://northstartraining.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themileswelch/

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