Boyd Melson, born to a Louisiana Creole Catholic father, and an Israeli-born Jewish mother, whose parents survived the Holocaust, grew up as an Army brat in Brooklyn, New York. He has built his life on a foundation of discipline, service, connections, and the pursuit of knowledge.
A proud graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Boyd honed leadership and resilience skills that continue to shape his approach to coaching and advocacy. He furthered his education with a Master’s degree in Psychology from Harvard University, focusing on human behavior, emotional resilience, and the power of transformation through adversity. This academic background equips Boyd with the tools to help clients unlock their potential and achieve personal growth.
Boyd is currently a Doctoral student earning his degree in Organizational Change and Leadership. He also holds an MBA from Touro University International and Graduate Certificates from Harvard in Topics in Human Behavior as well as Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership. Boyd is a graduate of the Army’s Command and General Staff Officer Course. He is an Iraq War veteran and serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve. His sense of duty led him to terminate his 2018 United States Congressional campaign to volunteer for deployment by switching deployment slots with a fellow officer.
Athletically, Boyd was a Collegiate National Boxing Champion, a member of TEAM USA’s National Boxing Team, the World Military Boxing Champion, and Team Captain of the 2005 U.S. World Boxing Team, where he placed 5th in the world. He was also an Olympic Alternate, a multi-time Army and Armed Forces Boxing Champion, and, professionally, he earned the Junior Middleweight World Boxing Council United States Championship. Boyd is a Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
Boyd’s professional boxing career was highlighted by his nonprofit, TEAM FIGHT TO WALK; he donated 100% of his boxing earnings to spinal cord injury research, and his story was featured on HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Boyd also had a stellar corporate career as a medical device sales representative, consistently outperforming his quotas while at Johnson & Johnson.
In addition to his formal education, Boyd is a Certified Emotional Intelligence Life Coach, specializing in guiding individuals to enhance self-awareness, communication, accountability, and emotional strength. Beyond his coaching practice, his leadership and dedication to service earned him the role of World Boxing Council (WBC) Ambassador of Peace, reflecting his commitment to fostering understanding and positive change globally.
As a board member and ambassador for organizations like Give an Hour, Sport Philanthropy Network, and BOXER Inc., Boyd actively works to support mental health, community development, and the prevention of violence. His unique combination of academic expertise, life experience, and advocacy sets him apart as a coach and leader.
Company: Raindrops Mindset LLC
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Boyd Melson: Raindrops Mindset LLC approaches life through biomimicry, using the nature of water to interpret your given state of being (gas, liquid, solid) and illustrating how water transforms daily—just like the story you write for yourself. Biomimicry is the process of observing how nature accomplishes its goals, with humans then imitating that process to solve human problems. I have learned my approach through many different chapters written into my story.
When I listen to my clients, the information they receive in response comes from a Mindset Coach with the following life experiences: growing up in America as African American and European Jewish while having a complexion lighter than Golden State Warriors Point Guard Steph Curry; growing up with a Louisiana Creole Catholic father and an Israeli-born Jewish mother whose own parents survived the Holocaust in Poland; growing up as the child of a career Army soldier; going to West Point; discovering boxing at 18; becoming a Collegiate National Champion at 19; falling in love with a quadriplegic woman at 21; serving a career in the Army between Active Duty and the Reserve; becoming an Amateur World Champion; boxing for TEAM USA; becoming Team Captain of the U.S. World Team five years after I began boxing; turning professional as a boxer while serving as an Army Officer in the Reserve and working for Corporate America—because I promised my friend I would never give up on helping her walk again, so I donated every penny I earned through boxing to spinal cord injury research; running for United States Congress only to voluntarily terminate my campaign to deploy to Iraq; earning my MBA while boxing for Team USA; going back to school at 40 to earn my Master’s in Psychology from Harvard with two Graduate Certificates in Topics in Human Behavior and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership; now, almost in my mid-40s, beginning my Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of Southern California; certifying myself as an Emotional Intelligence Coach; traveling to Israel to do necessary work among Muslim, Jewish, and Christian youth through boxing to build unity; volunteering to speak at impoverished public schools; and speaking to audiences such as GOOGLE and U.S. DELTA FORCE.
I live with eternal gratitude and experience great pleasure in sharing with others how much I appreciate them and the little things they do. I am highly aware that I am privileged to experience life in a body with a complexion that America labels as “white”, to be in a man’s body, to live in America, and to be healthy. For whatever reason, I am able to live in America never being recognized by appearance as Jewish, and I live in America never being recognized by appearance as someone with a good deal of West African heritage.
I have come to understand that my life’s experiences are not ordinary, and I have gained perspectives from an extraordinary life. These experiences have served as the foundation for my Raindrops. In my spoken-word music album RAINDROPS: Changing Your Life’s Weather, available on Spotify, I say that I do not have the right or wrong answers. What I do have are highly unique experiences that shape the Raindrops I offer to inspire and invoke future thought and present introspection.
I have one last thing to say, and it just is what it is. Someone had to be created with the greatest ability to connect on a soulular level with an audience through their spoken-word. For every possible human ability that exists, there is a human who excels at that ability beyond all others. Maybe I decided that this would be my gift before I came into this body, or maybe the gift was molded by my experiences in this lifetime. But for whatever reason, I am the human being who was given this gift. You will understand after we speak—not by me telling you, but by how you realize you are feeling during and after our communication.
I was not given this gift for myself, so please use what was given to me so that I may help you help yourself live the joy and completeness you yearn for.
Can you share a time when your business faced a significant challenge? How did you navigate through it?
Boyd Melson: Right now, my business is facing a challenge as it is a relatively newly launched business. As I have begun my official professional Mindset Coaching career, I have to attract clients. You attract through inspiring curiosity about the product, which is me in this case. You spend the time to expand your model of thought to incorporate the perspectives of your desired clients so that you serve as the archetype that they imagine would serve their given need. You tell them and then you show them. In the space I operate in, potential clients have certain traits they are looking to confirm to ensure the product they are buying fits their imagination. Here, a Mindset Coach is the product. A potential archetype would include the following traits: educated, achiever, mentally strong, in shape, tough, compassionate, empathic, and so on. I have to present the product, me, in ways that show that I possess these traits. How do I meet that challenge? Being published in this article helps inspire curiosity about me and gives implied power to me as a Coach. Expanding my echo chamber through social media and LinkedIn affords me opportunities at no cost; it allows me the ability to share information that shows I am a product that possesses these traits, as opposed to me only saying it. It allows me to be represented in more than one place at one time. Figure out the specific traits that a consumer wants in their product and never stop spending time showing these traits and the effects these traits have, as opposed to you being the one saying them. I am the Mindset Coach who was a World Military Boxing Champion, multi-year member of TEAM USA, Army Officer, Iraq War veteran, Scholar-Athlete Awardee, Non-Profit(s) Board Member, Mental Health non-profit Ambassador, Steve Harvey Youth Mentorship Camp Mentor, WBC Boxing Champion, West Point and Harvard graduate that is now working on my Doctorate. These are all variables that influence my desired end state for my business, which is me helping people help themselves, as their Coach. My experiences check off the boxes for what traditionally qualifies someone as a Coach, but I know this: potential clients do not. Figure out a way to show your personal relationship to each of the traits your potential clients are looking for in a product. Use technology and props wherever you can and wherever appropriate to show the effects of your product’s traits. For me, as I am fortunate to have this tool, typing the name “Boyd Melson” into Google or YouTube will provide mountains of information to show about the product, which is me. My job is to best expose potential clients to this information, and doing so creates the best opportunity for me to overcome this challenge.
How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success?
Boyd Melson: This is a giggling-type question. I would imagine this response may not sit as well with readers who follow certain religious philosophies. The best part here is that if I am wrong, my belief system will only help my brain with how I process failure-induced pain. I am only going to speak for me, so as not to potentially offend different belief systems and philosophies. Ready? Here it goes. I chose to put my light back into this density of existence for a purpose. I need to grow. I made the arrangements with my parents and other lights before we incarnated, and my arrangements were to help me grow. The only way you grow is by tearing your muscle fibers. You can’t grow in paradise; you can understand that something is painful, but you cannot feel it, so it does not create the same effect. I live as true to my heart as I can, knowing that every single thing that is happening to me in my life helps feed information into my system. It is up to me to process that information and find the light, find the growth, remind myself that I chose this, and now I compete to find out why. Why did I choose this to help me grow? I have realized a good place to look to figure out what your growth-intention was this time around is by going through your life to recognize your behaviors that results in your pain repeating itself experientially. I believe that my own intention was to expand my compassion. I asked for that, so I chose to enter the body of an Israeli-Jewish mother whose parents survived the Holocaust and a Louisiana Creole Catholic daddy who grew up under Jim Crow oppression. I believe I asked to expand my compassion, so my story led me to meet a woman who is quadriplegic, fall in love with her, spend 6 years as a couple, experience more heart-pain in my early 20s than I would ever care to, for I was a young man who couldn’t get his girlfriend up and out of a wheelchair, and this can be very hard to bear. You see, I have spent a lifetime trying to create what I envision, and it was made apparent early on that achievement is hardly isolated; achievement involves working together. Working together involves humans, and humans make mistakes. I make mistakes. I believe in human beings and their capabilities, as much as I believe in the Creator of Everything, the Source of Light. I can feel how the pain I have experienced through my story with my friend has helped expand my compassion, preparing me to be able to believe in your light no matter your storm. Most importantly, my “apparent failures” have expanded my capacity for forgiveness, which is the greatest gift I could give myself and others.
How do you build a resilient team? What qualities do you look for in your team members?
Boyd Melson: This is an open-ended question. I would ask one question, and their response will inform the rest of our discussion. My question is “What are your traditional behaviors when you care about something enough?”
How do you maintain your personal resilience during tough times?
Boyd Melson: Philosophy for Life: You have to let yourself be a little crazy on purpose so that you never really go crazy. I also remind myself every day that I asked for this, now reframe the pain, and find the light. Through introspection, my go-to is, “Is this a first-world or third-world problem?” Will this problem result in sickness, injury, death, homelessness, hunger, thirst, etc.? If the problem does not threaten any of these experiences, then I automatically allow myself to release it. I say the sentence “This is a First-World Problem” when it is, and that sentence instantly shifts my mind.
What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain focus during a crisis?
Boyd Melson: Connection—I connect with myself by talking out loud and populating what I am experiencing and how it is affecting me with as many words as I can, to allow for accuracy. Often, the greatest stress inducers are thoughts about events that are not happening at that moment. You need to hear what you are thinking because if you keep it inside, that possession will alter the words you say to yourself, deceiving you and creating anxiety. I also do this all the time. I legitimately begin giggling at myself because I know that no matter how unfortunate a moment may be, I am responsible for creating this moment for myself. When a crisis hits the team, the first thing I do to help manage stress and maintain focus is SHOW UP. I SHOW UP. Your presence during stress and a crisis could be the determining factor that governs how well someone else is experiencing that crisis. You show up, you show up to listen; if you have nothing to say, then just show up and listen. When you care enough, listening will guide your behavior. I proudly completed my Master’s in Psychology recently at Harvard, along with a Certificate in Topics in Human Behavior from Harvard, and I had the privilege of taking a course titled “Grief”. The number one factor that helps people who are experiencing grief is their support system: you showing up.
How do you communicate with your team during a crisis?
Boyd Melson: During a crisis, when options permit, I prefer to communicate in person. With few exceptions, it is never more important to communicate in person—if possible—than during a crisis.
What advice would you give to other CEOs on building resilience in their organizations?
Boyd Melson: Upon your understanding of said crisis, and after you understand—yet still before you choose to move—CHECK YOURSELF. What emotional state are you in, how is your water? How has this crisis just affected your state? Did things just heat up, and do you feel your emotions being fueled by your passion? Do you feel like you are a storm that is going to erupt? Perhaps what you now understand has shut you down, brought your energy down, made you want to recluse, made you fearful, or made you start to freeze over, immobilizing your problem-solving abilities. However, perhaps this is not your first rodeo. You were on your way, leading and flowing smoothly before you came to understand this crisis, and perhaps your experience has created a current for you where a crisis such as this has no effect on your flow.
Introspect before action. Understand that if you were to open your mouth at this moment, would what you say be beneficial toward leading through the crisis, or do you need to weather your current state a bit more before you begin leading others through the crisis? If you are caught with your pants down during this crisis—meaning you were caught unprepared—then experiencing anxiety may be an effect. Think about how well you have led others through a challenge while you yourself were possessed by anxiety. How well were you able to assess potential solutions offered to you by your staff? How quickly did you become irritable during communication? How would managing your anxiety prior to leading through the crisis affect how well you received input from members of your team?
The first pillar of Emotional Intelligence is Self-Awareness. When a crisis first happens while you are in charge and you just become aware of the crisis, make sure that you are good for yourself first—because nobody on the team will be good for you thereafter if you are not good for yourself first.
How do you prepare your business for potential future crises?
Boyd Melson: This is largely dependent upon the Emergent Strategy you have already employed. When there is a crisis, effective communication is paramount. What small daily practices do you promote in your organization that help create an environment where employees feel confident and safe communicating with their peers during a crisis? What small daily practices do you promote in your organization that inherently require teamwork and communication? What small daily practices do you promote in your organization that make an employee feel safe sharing personal issues with their fellow employees? What small daily practices do you promote in your organization where no employee ever feels alone during a crisis? All of these practices require thought, and when small daily practices are exercised routinely, you may create a company with an Emergent Strategy already capable of handling future crises.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about leadership in times of crisis?
Boyd Melson: I have learned that you do not want the time of a real crisis to be the first time you or your team ever experience a crisis. The same backbone that gets you through crisis time gets you through non-crisis time—EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION, both non-verbal and verbal.
