Nick Black is the founder and CEO of GoodUnited, a former Army officer, co-founder of Stop Soldier Suicide, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a UNC Distinguished Alumnus.
Nick focuses on a cost most leaders refuse to calculate: isolation.
What happens to your people when no one is checking on them?
After deploying 27 months in combat with the 173rd Airborne, Nick watched one of his soldiers survive war and then lose his life weeks after returning home. That experience reshaped how he thinks about leadership, connection, and responsibility.
In this conversation, Nick explains why isolation is the common thread behind many of the losses he has seen, both in combat units and inside organizations, and why the peer group surrounding people is not a culture perk but a lifeline. He also shares what it took to carry mission driven urgency from the battlefield into the nonprofit world and then into a scaling company.
For leaders who want to protect their people and not just manage them, this episode offers a more honest standard for what leadership actually requires and what it costs when it is missing.
Find episode 513 on The Leadership Podcast, on YouTube, channel @theleadershippodcast, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Watch this Episode on YouTube | Nick Black on The Leadership Cost of Isolation
Key Moments
[05:43] How 9/11 changed everything for Nick
[10:54] The moment that led to Stop Soldier Suicide
[15:01] What every leader needs to know about mental health
[16:34] The balance between reflection and dangerous isolation
[19:27] Leading people vs. taking care of people
[20:49] The biggest leadership lesson learned outside the military
[22:43] Bringing military training discipline into business
[24:04] Why onboarding is where most companies fail
[26:15] What “taking the hard road” actually looks like on a resume
[27:14] Why offensive linemen make better leaders
[29:07] How a lifetime of service shapes who you become
[32:35] Closing thoughts on leadership and mental health
The Leadership Podcast is sponsored by W.S. Darley & Company.
Founded in 1908, Darley remains a family owned and operated business, providing the highest quality equipment solutions to our country’s warfighters and firefighters.
Learn more at darley.com and darleydefense.com
Memorable Quotes
"When in doubt, lead the way. That has yet to steer me wrong." Share on X "Isolation is your enemy. Never allow yourself to sit in a room with your thoughts." Share on X "Give that friend a call — your strongest friend, your quietest friend. Let them know you're still in their corner." Share on X "Mission first, people always — and the only way you get the mission is through your people." Share on X "Find ten people that can do the work of a hundred." Share on X "You don't need to go be an Army Ranger. Show me how you got out of your comfort zone, took something on, and didn't quit. It could be anything." Share on X "Go find your passion and then go serve it." Share on X "If you can't laugh at yourself, you're not being honest with yourself — and I don't think many people are going to follow you." Share on X "The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to, because if you're really doing something worthwhile, I think you'll be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side." — George Lucas Share on XExplore the full archive at www.theleadershippodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts!
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Good United Website | goodunited.io
- Nick Black LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/nick-black-7658ab37
This was the most meaningful interview for me. Connected with parts of my own experience. I love how he connected leadership to suffering, not success and how leaders can and should reduce unnecessary suffering. There was a sense of moral urgency (because people are depending on us more than we realize}.
He answered deeper questions:
:
“What do we owe each other?”
Are we paying authentic attention to people’s actual lives or just treating belonging, community and peer support as “nice-to-have” culture initiatives?
Enjoyed how he connected historical events, military service, personal loss, and organizational leadership through a single lens: whether people feel alone or connected.
Throughout his life he has stepped toward people who were scared, isolated, or struggling. His leadership style deserves much respect for me anyway because it’s less self-focused and more character driven. Great leadership is more than motivating people, improving performance or scaling culture.
Thank you!