What Do You Stand For When No One’s Watching with Joseph

What does it really cost to live by your values when the world rewards shortcuts and noise? We invited author and broadcaster Joseph M Leonard to unpack honor, integrity, and the daily decisions that reveal who we are at work, at home, and in public. Instead of treating values like abstract ideals, we trace how they show up in hiring, leadership, parenting, creativity, and the way we navigate pushback. The conversation pulls no punches: presence beats constant scrolling, judgment requires consistency, and pride turns toxic when it hardens into hubris.

We explore the difference between healthy pride and the ego that refuses correction, drawing on stories, books, and music that keep these themes grounded and relatable. Joseph’s take is practical and challenging. If you want a team you can trust, be the person who tells the hard truth early. If you want kids with grit, model boundaries and delayed gratification. And if you feel stuck, start with a mirror: where are your actions out of sync with what you claim to value? The fix is not grand gestures but small, repeatable choices that compound into character and credibility.

You’ll also hear candid thoughts on technology’s grip on our attention, why your circle shapes your future, and how to reset when life gets complicated. We close with a simple prompt: choose one value to live more deliberately this week and one daily action that proves it. If this conversation moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find thoughtful, value-driven leadership. Then tell us: what value are you choosing, and what will you do about it today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Values Agenda
• 2:00 Meet Joseph M Leonard
• 3:55 Honor And Integrity Under Pressure
• 6:45 Values At Work And In Business
• 10:40 Karma, Character, And Consequences
• 17:30 Pride Versus Hubris
• 22:15 Misquotes, Morality, And Judgment
• 27:50 Phones, Distraction, And Discipline
• 34:10 Parenting, Boundaries, And Entitlement

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:07

Dearless fellows, do you know we talk a lot about success, growth, impact, but we don't always talk about the values that quickly shape how those things happened. Honor, integrity, sexual disabled. For some, they are abstract ideas, but for others, they are tail decisions. And tonight's conversation is all about what it actually looks like to live by values in an eisy and fast-moving project. So, hey there this is. Welcome back to another powerful episode of My Makes Machine. I'm your host, Eric, and this is the space where we explore with the clarity, leadership, inner alignment, and also not just about the achievement. And today I'm joined by a lovely guest. Please welcome Joseph Leonard. So welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06

Yes, thank you. First things first, indeed, Joseph M. Leonard. It looks French. It's not Lennard, it's Leonard without an O. And I have to use my middle initial, Joseph M. Leonard, again without an O, because there is a Joseph Leonard out of South Carolina. I'm in Michigan. And also I wanted to joke, Mind Meets Machine. Well, what are you gonna do today? Because my mind is like a machine. Only problem is it's stuck in first gear most of the time. Always good to start off with a joke.

SPEAKER_01: 1:46

Exactly. Exactly. And dear listeners, I believe you have on this week with whom we are talking today. And there'll be a lot of fun, a lot of discussion. But before that, I'll quickly help you with who we are. So Joseph is the number one best-selling author of Terror Strikes, coming from a city near you, and the host of Christie, the journalist, politics podcaster. So his work stands writing, broadcasting, public conversations rooted in the honor, integrity, and personal responsibility. And in this episode, we are exploring like how value-driven thinking shows up in the leadership, creative and romantical resilience, especially when the war feelings divided back. Yes, yes, recall that, right? So why do you wait? Let's get started and welcome to the show again. So Joseph, like when you look back over your writing, your public work, what personal value has guided you the most?

SPEAKER_00: 2:57

Like even when it uh made things harder rather than easier, as a yeah, well, having honor integrity sometimes does make life a lot harder. You know, liars cheat often get ahead by lying and cheating. Right. And indeed, my bio, honor, integrity, patriotism. I didn't choose those words. Those were chosen for me, about me. And I was so taken aback by Don McCauley of the author show saying that about me. I said, well, that's obviously my bio line now. But yeah, you know, living by sets of principles and values do make it harder to get by at times because people want to cut corners, they want to lie, they want to cheat, they want to steal, they don't want to earn things, they don't want merit, they want theftocracy, kleptocracy, mobocracy where they can vote other people's money into their pockets, you know, those sorts of things. And as more and more of them start to outnumber the productive members of society, people would recall Ann Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged. And Atlas is shrugging.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

And that's powerful because the values often reveal themselves. Like most clearly, when they are there's a kind of cost attached to them. Talking about a conception or the misconception, you say very common. Like a common belief today is that the values are very private and it shouldn't mix with the business, leadership, and also very creative work as well. So, from your experience, where does that idea fall short?

SPEAKER_00: 4:49

If you have no honor in your personal life or business life, you're not going to have it in the other, most likely. And eventually, yeah, lying and cheating and stealing, you could get away with for a while, but eventually, usually it catches up with you. And another book that comes to mind too is people are believing in delusion, as George Orwell said in 1984. When people prefer lies, they hate the most those who are truth tellers.

SPEAKER_01: 5:25

And so values don't disappear when we ignore them, like uh, they just operate.

SPEAKER_00: 5:32

Right. No, I would say they don't disappear, and a greater sense and greater need for positive values, positive principles, a positive morality, and all my books deal in life and living and that trying to sew good into the world, as well as my Christitutionalist podcast, about you know, trying to put good into the world. And you don't have to be Christian, you don't have to be religious at all of any kind to accept and understand and appreciate the concept of karma. If you put out good, right, there's also the old adage, show me your friends and I'll show you your future, right? You put out good and you surround yourself with good people, good things will happen likely for you, which is not to say ever, bad things do happen to good people, as in terror strikes coming soon to a city near you book goes into. You know, bad things happen to good people at times. That doesn't make you a bad person or necessarily everyone around you bad. You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if you put out bad, you're likely to get bad. You surround yourself with ne'er to wells, criminals, thugs, liars, and lunatics, then don't be surprised when that's what consumes your life. You try to sell good, put out good, you're likely to get it back in return. That sense of karma. And again, you don't have to be Hindi or religious of any kind or Buddhist to understand and appreciate that concept and positive morals, positive values, positive principles. As a song, Rick Springfield is one of my favorite artists. And yeah, I know. I wish I had Dissi's girl. I hate that song. To me, that's the worst song he's ever made. But without that clever, catchy song, he would never have gone on to the long career he's had in music, though. That was, of course, his first ultra big viral, we would say in today's terms, right? Type hits. But he's got a song on an album called Karma, called Prayer. And it's one of the lines is you know, every bit of love I give to another, you know what I believe? It comes back to me. And also I s I send a prayer to heaven for the chance to be a better man than the man I see, presumably looking back in the mirror when we look at ourselves. And I ain't a saint, but to this I swear, I send a prayer, right? Make me better. I know I'm not, no one is perfect, no such thing as perfect on this fallen world. We're all human, frail, and flawed. And as long as we recognize that, like in my CTP book and CTP version of the series, I'm up to four in the Christitutionalist politics series of books that goes with the Christitutionalist podcast show. Anger, pride, and humorous. Well, you should be a proud person. You should be proud of being a good person. You should take pride in a job well done at work and actually earning your pay, right? You should be proud of little Johnny hitting a walk-off home run at Little League. You should be proud of little Sally getting all A's on her report card and maybe scoring the winning goal at soccer. And maybe the only goal, right? Soccer's so damn boring. One nil. She scores the one goal in the game, and they win. Damn right you should be proud of her. But if you're prideful all the time, that's the actual sin of hubris. There is a big difference. Little P pride, big P prideful hubris is the sin. That's where the danger lies. Kurt just released a book today, Complicated, about human nature, the human condition, the fourth in my life and living series of books about that. And I I lost my train of thought now. But I go into these sorts of things. Life is difficult, it's complicated. We're complex creatures. Not everything will go your way, but try to put out good, you'll get good bad. I talk about the issue and the distinction between pride and hubris and positive values. It's God didn't screw up these things. Man did. We screwed that up. The commandment isn't thou shalt not kill, it's thou shalt not murder innocence. Because there are all kinds of instances in there where it talks about a killing is okay. That's not murder of innocence. Matthew 7, condemn not lest ye be condemned, because there are 12 scriptures that tell you to judge biblically. Remove the log from thine own eye. Judge yourself and others. Don't be a hypocrite on the same set of values and principles. But man, we have we have bastardized all these phrases like the cine hubris to be pride. No, there are times to be proud, but you can't be that way all the time. And that's in my latest book, Complicated, uh, where I say I have the character contemplating that, right? Being prideful. There are people who don't have enough negative in their own personality, they suffer the cine hubris. You should be critical and pessimistic about yourself at times. That's where the humility comes in and understanding you could be better, you should be better, you should want to do better. And back to that Springfield song, prayer. I send a prayer to heaven for the chance to be a better man than the man I see. Another line in the song is put your hands on me, right? Mold me, make me better. I ain't a saint, but to this I swear, I send a prayer, help make me better.

SPEAKER_01: 12:54

And it's very true that it's uh if you do good, good when you come back to you.

SPEAKER_00: 13:00

If you do bad, definitely the time. Yes, bad things happen to good people. We were all given by God, regardless of your religion or none at all, yeah, free will. And some people I call them the mass holes, the masses of asses, you know some miserable, miserable all the time, and they want to spread their misery. Their only joy seems to come from tearing others down, right? You have the free will to choose to be an evil SOB. Don't be.

SPEAKER_01: 13:40

Exactly, exactly. It's it's all about the circle of life. Uh obviously, it comes back to you. It's like the circle. Whenever you start, it'll definitely come back to the circle.

SPEAKER_00: 13:50

It's like my mind, like a machine stuck in first gear. My my circle took a crazy wiggle deviation somewhere. It doesn't seem to circle back. It veers off somewhere. I thought like like a car that went off the road somehow.

SPEAKER_01: 14:12

So and and like um about the root causes and the digital patterns, like uh why do you think that so many people really disconnected from the honor and integrity today, even though even though they still talk about that?

SPEAKER_00: 14:29

Well, I mentioned a couple books, so let me mention a song. The Who, Eminence Front, right? It's an Eminence Front, it's a put on, and that's exactly what is with a lot of people. It's a facade, right? It's all a game, it's all a con, it's all a scam. What angle can they play to get something out of you?

SPEAKER_01: 14:56

And that gap between the words and action creates the confusion, you know, especially for the younger generations watching what actually gets rewarded.

SPEAKER_00: 15:06

So yeah, yeah. Get the hell off these damn things all the time and actually get out and experience some life. Get some wisdom. You can't get wisdom, you can't learn from mistakes if you don't go out and accidentally make some mistakes. That's called learning. That's an education, that's part of life. Yeah, as well as I go go into a couple of my books, bullying, right? Online now, there's all kinds of cyberbullying. Well, I'm sorry, it's not nice, it's not good, it's not wonderful, and to what degree it matters, of course. But a little bit of bullying, I'm sorry to say, is good for a lot of people because I hate to break it to people. Life out there ain't fair. And the sooner you discover that, the better off you'll be. And you're not going to discover anything sitting your ass on your goddamn couch all the fucking time on these phones. I apologize for the language, get a little excited sometimes. I I totally agree.

SPEAKER_01: 16:16

So, yeah, because when I when I compare myself. So, first of all, and definitely I'm not against any of the generation. I do respect the boomers, I respect the boomers, millennials, Gen Z, Alphas. I don't respect anyone.

SPEAKER_00: 16:30

There's good and bad people in every gen. There's good and black bad males, there's good and bad females, there's good and bad young people, there's good and bad old people. There are bad apples in the police departments, but majority of them are great people looking to serve and protect. So there's good and bad in everything, and that's why you cannot judge everyone on their cover. Martin Luther King Jr., content of character, and understand everyone is entitled to a bad day. If your first impression of someone might be a wrong impression, they may be having a bad day. You need to get to know their character before really judging them. Back to condemn not lest ye be condemned, for final judgment is for the Lord.

SPEAKER_01: 17:26

Yeah, and and for with this, uh with this episode, also, I'd love to uh say this to all we parents as well. Like, because why I'm saying this, because I often have seen uh right the the very younger generation right now, what is happening is the young kid, the young kid who used to be like in class one or two, uh third standard also sometimes, uh they used to cry. They say, No, no, no, I need this, I know this, this, this, and all.

SPEAKER_00: 17:57

So when their parents give them the phone, mobile phone to placating, placating and appeasement. And yeah, there's it's bad to be a helicopter parent all the time, but it's also bad to not be a parent. Spare the rod, spoil the child. Now, I'm not advocating beating children when I say that. We're talking sensible, reasonable logic. The point being there has to be discipline, or an unruly child grows up to be a spoiled bastard with an entitled or victimhood mentality who has no real concept of what life's really about. They just expect things to always be given them, like their parents always kept giving every time they would whine. Here's some candy, here's the phone, here's the whatever, just shut up and leave mommy and daddy alone. Yeah, that's not parenting, that's coping out.

SPEAKER_01: 19:01

Exactly. Exactly, and that's that's not a very good idea because if you if you compare, like if I compare myself only, so I'm I'm the 90s kid, and I I never had that opportunity to I never had that opportunity. I'm joking. It's it's totally okay. No, no, it's totally okay. Like, I'm the 90s kid, and I never got by the opportunity to have the mobile phone and everything. So when I get into class 11 standard, then I had it because I need to communicate with my parents. I need to communicate because I was staying somewhere else. For the for the the users needs to be understood, and it is it is not yes, definitely you are giving the mine for two to give away young that kid just to make taxes, exactly, exactly, but that's not gonna do good for. Okay. So please avoid that and give them something to learn from. Allow them to play. Just go around with their friends. Yeah. Get them some good things to learn. Uh, and that that will help their brain to get something to learn and a lot of things to grass as well. Because the kid that ages something, whatever we learn, it stays till the day we die.

SPEAKER_00: 20:28

Yeah, our formative years are called that for a reason when we're young. And I see a big difference. Now I turned 63 this year. The difference between my phone and my sister's phone, who is only seven, just seven years younger than me, but when I was married, I still wear my wedding ring, but I'm divorced. My ex-wife is 13 years younger than me. The difference between my phone and what I use it as a phone and as a texting device. I don't have a bazillion apps. I don't have every meal I've ever eaten in a version of a photo on this thing, right? I may have 10 photos on there total. 10 apps that I barely touch. It's a phone. It's supposed to just be a phone. And texting is good, but I, you know, even at 63, I'm a former IT guy, so there's that too. So I've always had to be up on tech. I find I've become far too uh attached to it. And if I leave the house, oh my god, do I have the leash right with me? What what if somebody, what if, you know, the likelihood someone really needs to get a hold of you for something so important that it can't wait a couple hours is slim. But yet we act like, oh my god, there's an emergency every five seconds, and I've gotta have that so every five seconds I can answer it.

SPEAKER_01: 22:10

Exactly. But this or on a personal level, like uh what do you think are the signs that El San one that they are living out of alignment with their own principles?

SPEAKER_00: 22:23

Okay, perfect example. This was years ago. I went to a hockey game. I used to play hockey growing up, so I went to a Red Wing game. This is back when both my parents were alive. We went to a Red Wing game as a family, and you know, in the section we were in, woman behind me, clearly on a date with someone, the whole damn time she's staring at the phone. You're at a game or you're at a concert. Put the fucking phone down. Pay attention to what's pay attention to your date. If I were that, if if this would have been a woman I would have been on a first date with, I would have abandon I would have abandoned her. I'd have left her. Find your own way home. You need a lesson.

SPEAKER_01: 23:19

Yeah. And the self-awareness is very critical because uh misalignment often shows up emotionally, therefore it becomes kind of visible externally. Very true. And I also found the practical practicality like uh if someone wants to realign their life or maybe the work with their values, where should they start without reading over it?

SPEAKER_00: 23:47

Oh, I got they should start by reading all my books, of course. Sure, don't you? Right, I've got I'm nearing a dozen books now, all in one way, shape, or form, both the fiction and nonfiction, about life and living and positive values, positive morals, trying to put out more good so you get more good back. But as they say, hey, if it right, and here's another one: a short story, a lasting legacy. This is the hard copy version. But hey, if you don't make sales calls, you don't make sales, as the saying goes, right? So yes, go to josephmleonard.us slash shop. Amazing. Or find or find Christitutionalist podcast, 25 plus audio platforms. It's on BitChute, Brighton, YouTube, Rumble, and Dailymotion in France. Find that too.

SPEAKER_01: 24:52

Amazing, amazing. So also about like uh when we're talking about this, this two words often comes to my mind is like one is the setback, and another is kind of you can say sustaining conviction, right? So staying value-driven is not so very easy, especially when criticism or pushback comes. But how do you personally handle the doubt or maybe resistance as well?

SPEAKER_00: 25:22

Yeah, well, again, we should all have a hint of negativity and pessimism and a willingness to question ourselves. That's again the sin of hubris. Too many people have no ability to self-reflect, they have no ability like the song Prayer or Michael Jackson's. I'm looking at the man in the mirror and I'm asking him to change his ways. It starts with you. You have to look back on yourself. What are you doing right? What are you doing wrong? And again, you could be one of the greatest people on the planet, give all kinds of money to charity, you know, help rescue ducks that have fallen into a sewer line or what, but everyone's entitled to bad days. So you should have days where you go and look in the mirror and be critical of yourself and ask, am I really doing enough? You know, or am I trying too hard? is also a valid question to ask oneself. Again, this is a fallen world, and we are all human, frail, flawed, and imperfect. We all have room for improvement. I'm the guy I with a Christian show, the previous Pope Francis. I coined the term nincum Pope for him. Like Nincom Poop. I called him the Ninkum Pope because to me he was more interested in worldly communism than biblical community. Biblical community is free will. We choose, we want to be our brothers and sisters and keep sisters keeper and to take care of widows and orphans. But the Bible also says, as do many other religious texts, I don't mean to make this just about the Bible, there is a difference between who those who are unable to work and those who are unwilling to work. It's why Jesus said the poor will always be among you. That's a human nature statement. There will always be some lazy SOBs who don't do anything to help themselves and expect everyone else to give them things and take care of them. You have no obligation to that person. People who are trying and not succeeding if you can help them out, you do have an obligation from a moral standpoint, religious or not. So that we can make this a better place. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 28:09

And give up uh I I'm I'm the diehard fan, so uh I really feel bad for Chester. Like he's not he's no more, but uh his songs are something I always remember. Like uh so uh so it's a very uh famous song, it's the MBN uh where Chester sings a bit Mike song, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 28:33

From the same album that Numb is on, I believe, right? Numb is also there, yeah. All their songs are like uh on my books, Life and Living. Exactly. Some days are good, some days are bad. So you can be up, you can be down, and sometimes those are only seconds apart.

SPEAKER_01: 28:56

It's also very clear that one thing I don't know why it doesn't even matter how hard I try. Keep that in mind. I mean it's so so relative, and uh it's so and if I don't know if it goes to LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_00: 29:14

But but the life lesson there is not give up. The life lesson is keep trying, and again, you learn through trial and error, you learn through mistakes, you learn who other value principled, positive, moral people are that you can trust, and you learn who the people are you cannot trust and cannot rely on, and you get yourself in trouble. Again, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. Surround yourself with a bunch of ne'er do wells. Don't be surprised if you wind up in cuffs and in prison.

SPEAKER_01: 29:53

Exactly, exactly. So uh, so yes, all loves to the Lincoln Park and the Dean, Chester. I really love you. Mike, you are the greatest. So I'll definitely uh I I love it because uh they're also coming to India this time and they have the concert.

SPEAKER_00: 30:11

They are they're doing the another modern group I like that's kind of has a hard edge to them, like Mike Park is Disturbed. I love Disturbed Five Finger Death Punch. Yeah, they've got a song that sometimes if I'm feeling they got a song called Wash It All Away, right? As I I get so angry with how pathetic a lot of people are, and the song is you know, here waiting for someone to wash it all away. And I have days like that, you know. God, this place is so messed up, blow it all up, wash it all away, start over again. This is a failed experiment.

SPEAKER_01: 30:59

Exactly. Amazing. So uh for the listeners who feels kind of mentally exhausted and morally conflicted right now, what typically one question they can ask themselves tonight to reconnect with who they really want to be?

SPEAKER_00: 31:17

What is that? Great question, and I deal in a lot of my books about suicide prevention, because the question is that we all well, unless if you suffer the sin of hubris, most people at some point in their life ask, is my life worth anything? And my answer to that is yes, it is. I don't care who you are, unless if you're you know a major evil SOB. But as they say, even Hitler loved dogs, he was great for animals. Every person usually has some uh remedial residual value to them of positivity, and you may not look in your mirror and recognize I like to say it's a wonderful life, the movie that comes on Christmas time every year. You're not gonna have a a clearance come down and show you your life and the important points of hey, you did this and it really mattered. Some people's that's a movie, it's dramatic. Your life isn't gonna be that dramatic, but a bunch of little things add up and matter. My latest, not my latest book, actually, in the book of Kennedy Project Carpidum, I talk about Osiris, right? The Egyptian god and the weighing of the feather against the heart and the soul, whether you get into the afterlife. Do you have enough good deeds? Did you do enough good to outweigh any negative or bad you did? What is the sum total of your life? But we as humans, imperfect and flawed as we are, often focus too much on the negativity. And you know, it was a I shouldn't have helped that person, I didn't, or this, that, the other thing. All the good things you did that were little, you don't recall those. It's the bad things that nag us. Amazing, amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 33:39

So um Dose of the Human Psychology, psychology one-on-one. So where where can listeners find your books, your podcast, and your yeah, several places.

SPEAKER_00: 33:50

If you're on Link Tree, I'm J Leonard Detroit. Again, Leonard without an O. It's not French, it's not Lonard, it's Leonard without an O. The letter J for Joseph, Leonard without the O, Detroit for the city of Detroit. I'm in a Detroit suburb. I'm that on most social media platforms. Link tr.ee slash J Leonard Detroit will show you most of my links. I have josephmleonard.us, I have terror strikes.info, I have an everybody wiki page, uh uh, you know, all that stuff, of course. So you you can usually find me somewhere. Amazon, of course, tinyurl.com. I use that link shortener service. I love that service because links get too long. Tinyurl.com JLD for Joseph Leonard Detroit, tinyurl.com JLD on Amazon. Real easy to remember that. That'll take you to my Amazon author page, and you can buy the book that it just dropped today. You can get it before anybody else has it.

SPEAKER_01: 35:16

So sorry, what I do is I'll put all the links into the show notes for your easier friends. And if this conversation resonated with you, take a moment after this episode to reflect on one value that you want to live more deliberately this week. Small, consistent actions shape the character more than the grand statements.

SPEAKER_00: 35:42

Yeah, amen. Absolutely, absolutely. And the way my OCDADHD brain works, I already mentioned a couple books, I mentioned a couple movies, I mentioned a couple songs. Now, since we were talking self-reflection, you mentioned reflection. Now I've got that, I can't think of who did it, but reflections, oh, the Supremes, reflections, reflections, oh, the way life used to be. Now I got Motown in my head.

SPEAKER_01: 36:11

Amazing. Dennis is I mean, it was really fun. And thank you so much, everyone, for joining and for listening as well. So share this episode with someone who values the thoughtful conversation with this whole uh see you next one. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00: 36:29

Yeah, share it with people you love and annoy the people you hate by sharing it with them too. Great, amazing denises. Thank you. Take care, God bless.