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Veterans know how to lead. The lessons we learned in the military form the foundation for bigger successes in business, entrepreneurship and community.
Host John S Berry, CEO of Berry Law, served as an active-duty Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with two deployments and retiring as a Battalion Commander in the National Guard. Today, his veteran led team at Berry Law, helps their clients fight some of the most important battles of their lives. Leading successful teams in the courtroom, the boardroom, and beyond, veteran leadership drives the firm’s rapid growth and business excellence.
Whether building teams, synchronizing operations, or refining tactics, we share our experiences, good and bad, to help you survive, thrive and dominate.
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[00:00:00.000] - General Laster
No one ordered them to do this. They did this completely on their own. Big Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. didn't know anything about it. But they decided that they wanted to do something for Christmas of 1947. Now, this is right after the war. The kids that were in poverty then, many of them were war orphans, and their moms just couldn't make ends meet, much less putting a gift under the Christmas tree. So several months prior to Christmas, in 1947, they went out into the community. They collected toys; their wives made Raggedy Ann dolls. Then on Christmas morning, 1947, they got into their dress blue uniforms, and they went out into the community distributing those toys that they had collected and the dolls that their wives had made to economically disadvantaged children.
[00:00:56.050] - John Berry
Welcome to Veteran Led. Today's guest is CEO of Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation, Lieutenant General (USMC, retired) James Laster. Some of General Laster's most notable assignments in his 38 years in the Marine Corps are Commander of 3rd Marine Division, Chief of Staff of the United States Special Operations Command, and Director of Marine Corps staff, amongst many other positions. Most importantly, he started off as an Infantry Officer. Welcome to the show, General Laster.
[00:01:35.980] - General Laster
Well, thank you, sir. Thanks, John. I appreciate it. I appreciate everything that you and your firm have done for me working through my Veterans disability package. You did a great job. Thank you.
[00:01:49.730] - John Berry
Well, thanks. It's such an honor to have you on the show. After 38 years of military service, you continue to serve as the CEO and President for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. For a lot of us, 38 years of service is a lot. Why continue to serve? And why continue to serve at such a high level?
[00:02:09.430] - General Laster
Well, that's a great question. When I was getting ready to retire, I wanted to do something that made a difference. I used to work for a boss, an Army General by the name of Scaparrotti, General Curt Scaparrotti, who said, "Whatever you do, make it matter." That was his theme every day in Afghanistan. And so I didn't want to just go to work for any corporation or company just to make money. I wanted to do something that made a difference, and in particular, made a difference in someone's life. I thought maybe education would be the right ticket for me. And I was actually looking at some programs where they teach you to be a school superintendent or a school teacher, and then they will place you. I was looking at a couple of different fast track programs like that. Then the opportunity came about where the board of directors of Marine Toys for Tots Foundation reached out to me and said, "Would you consider throwing your name in to be the next President CEO of this organization?" I thought about it, and I thought about all the great things that this program does to reach less fortunate children across the nation, and I said yes to that.
[00:03:28.890] - General Laster
It literally It took me about 24 hours to make the decision that this was the right fit for me, and I'm glad I did.
[00:03:35.920] - John Berry
I'm excited to get into the storied history from helping World War II orphans to Walt Disney. It's a great story. But I want to go back a little bit further to your father. He continued to serve his community after getting out of the military. Set that example for you as how Veterans should behave in their community after their time and services done.
[00:03:59.170] - General Laster
He had already gone to college, had a pharmaceutical degree, and was working as a practicing pharmacist in a drug store, and then decided that he wanted to go into the service, so he enlisted in the US Navy. Of course, they immediately put him in charge of pharmacies. He spent a year in Turkey. He traveled a lot, and he ended his career in charge of the pharmacy at then Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, which is now the joint medical Walter Reed facility. That's what he did. He was always a great--he since passed--but he was a great patriot. He loved this country. He loved all the services. But I remember he told me, he said, "You know what? If you're going to go into a service, I'd like to see you be a Marine."
[00:04:53.410] - John Berry
That opportunity to become a Marine Corps officer presented itself through New Mexico Military Institute. So please take us through that.
[00:05:02.820] - General Laster
That's correct. I was always interested in being a Marine, but then my senior year in high school, I played football, and I received a call from the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute, saying that they had seen some game films of me playing. I was a quarterback and a punter, and they were interested and wanted to know if I'd be willing to come out and finish my last semester senior year in high school at New Mexico Military Institute, go through their spring training, and then start my junior college career the next fall. And so that's what I did. But I also really thrived in the leadership part of being a leader in the Corps of Cadets of New Mexico Military Institute. I eventually became a Cadet Officer, a Troop Commander, Company Commander there at the institute. I was able to balance. As you know, John, being a college athlete yourself, in many colleges, that's what they focus on is the athletic piece of it. But I was able to balance that.
[00:06:16.010] - General Laster
I gave as much time in being a cadet leader there as I did in the athletic piece of it. I think that really helped me.
[00:06:25.250] - General Laster
Then one day, I ran in to a Marine officer recruiter on campus from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the rest is history, so to speak.
[00:06:36.060] - John Berry
What a lot of people don't understand is New Mexico Military Institute, as a junior college, has had phenomenal football teams, has won national championships, even won recently. Some of the great players include Roger Staubach. You got the opportunity to play football and learn leadership. That pushed in the Marine Corps. I similarly received a football scholarship to New Mexico Military Institute. But because I went there for two years of high school, I knew I did not want anything to do with... Well, I wanted to enjoy college. I ended up going to school on the East Coast.
[00:07:08.020] - General Laster
I can't say enough about New Mexico Military Institute. That really gave me the foundation of leadership and taking care of people, what I call engaged leadership, that served me well for over 38 years in U.S. Marine Corps.
[00:07:23.900] - John Berry
You find yourself transitioning to this role as CEO and President of Toys for Tots. Tell us a little bit about the origin story of this great organization.
[00:07:34.480] - General Laster
Well, it all started in 1947 in Los Angeles. There was a small reserve unit there, what we call today as a mobile training team, mobile training unit. It was led by then a Marine Reserve Major, Bill Hendricks. These Marines and Bill Hendricks, they were concerned with the level of poverty around in their community of Los Angeles. Now, keep in mind, no one ordered them to do this. They did this completely on their own. Big Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. didn't know anything about it. But they decided that they wanted to do something for Christmas of 1947. Now, this is right after the war. The kids that were in poverty then, many of them were war orphans, and their moms just couldn't make ends meet, much less putting a gift under the Christmas tree. And so several months prior to Christmas, in 1947, they went out into the community. They collected toys; their wives made Raggedy Ann dolls. And then on Christmas morning, 1947, they got into their dress blue uniforms and they went out into the community, distributing those toys that they had collected and the dolls that their wives had made to economically disadvantaged children.
[00:08:59.880] - General Laster
It didn't take very long, within a matter of months, before other reserve units across the country started to hear about what they had done. Another interesting fact is Bill Hendricks, as a civilian, was in the film industry, and he was friends with Walt Disney. As the story goes, he and Walt were meeting one day. I think it may have been over lunch. He was telling Walt what they were doing. He says, "You know what? We don't what to call this thing. We don't have a logo." Walt Disney, literally, by his own hand, drew the three little train cars and wrote in there "Toys for Tots". Then it was Walt Disney who actually drew and developed the first poster that the Marine Toys for Tots program used. Bill Hendricks is known to this day as our father. He later retired as a Colonel, a Reserve Colonel, and even got an Oscar for doing a documentary on the U.S. Marine Corps from World War II. But it's Walt Disney who gave us our name and our logo.
[00:10:07.750] - General Laster
Of course, to this day, we maintain a very strong relationship and partnership with the Disney Corporation. They're great partners.
[00:10:17.210] - General Laster
About a year later, this would be about 1948, what the reserve units were doing got the attention of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Clifton Cates. General Clifton Cates says, "This is a wonderful community action program. It keeps Marines tied to the general public and their communities." He said, "I'm going to adopt this program. I'm going to make it an official activity of the U.S. Marine Corps, and I'm going to make it a mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve." From that point forward, it just took off and spread to where 20 years later, all Marine Reserve units were mandated that they would have a Toys for Tots program. Then it was in the early 90s is when the Marine Corps decided that they really should have a foundation, a 501(c)(3), that provides oversight for the program. That's when they asked a retiring General Officer, Lieutenant General Terry Cooper, who was getting ready to retire, if he would establish the foundation. He did.
[00:11:31.670] - General Laster
He got us incorporated here in the state of Virginia. Then the foundation has continued to grow and prosper and be the overall oversight of the program, still supported by the Marine Corps reserve.
[00:11:47.850] - General Laster
But the other thing interesting that occurred in the 90s was we opened the aperture to allow civilians to volunteer and run campaigns for us, so to speak. To this day, like last year, for example, there was only about 130 Marine reserve units running campaigns, so 130 Marine reserve campaigns across the country. But we had a total of 864 campaigns. All the rest of those were civilians. Now, many of them were Veteran Marines and Veterans from other services. The Marine Corps League is a big supporter of ours. But we are huge across the nation, a huge network, and a distribution network as well. We operate in all 50 states to include Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. From 1947 to what we are today, and we had our best year ever this past year, we reached 10.3 million children, and we're very, very proud of that.
[00:12:56.250] - John Berry
It's not just the toys at Christmas time. There are some other programs as well. There are some profound statements that I believe you made that said, Look, this is a message of hope for struggling families and children, and children are tomorrow's leaders.
[00:13:13.350] - General Laster
Before I became the CEO, the CEO before me was Lieutenant General Pete Osmond. He had the foundation from 2008 to 2019. A couple of years into his being the head of Toys for Tots, he started a literacy program because he knew that literacy was the foundation of everything of a child. It also can help children pull themselves out of poverty. And so he started a literacy program where we would collect and distribute books to different organizations, Title I schools, and so on. And when he gave up the foundation to me, when he passed the colors to me, my first day on the job was 1 January, 2020. I thought we could probably do more. I called in the staff and I said, "Look, kids don't stop being in need after Christmas. So let's take the literacy program. Let's use that as a model and see what other things that we could do to reach and help less fortunate children year-around, not just during Christmas time." The staff started looking at some models of what else that we could do.
[00:14:43.170] - General Laster
Then, of course, as you know, just a few months later, the pandemic hit. I called them back in.
[00:14:49.980] - General Laster
I said, "Let's see what we've got now, because right now kids are scared, families are scared." To make matters worse, all the schools have sent them home, so they've lost that support structure. Some of the children that we're interested in, their families may have been laid off from work, which makes matters even worse. So we got to do something. Now, during this period of time, there were literally calls by some people to us to maybe take a knee during 2020 and not have a program, a Toys for Tots program. I got with my colleague who is the Commander of Marine Forces Reserve, Lieutenant General Dave Bellon at the time. I told him the situation, and he and I together said, "Heck no. We're US marines. We're going to accomplish the mission. We can operate in this environment." And we did. We came up with programs in the spring of 2020 to reach out and distribute books and toys and games to children. We found out that many Title I schools were continuing to use their school busses to deliver school lunches to kids.
[00:16:09.380] - General Laster
Because in many of those schools, that school lunch, or in some cases school breakfast, was the only meal an economically disadvantaged child would get.
[00:16:20.260] - General Laster
We decided, Okay, we'll give them books and games and things to send with the school busses when they feed them their lunches or breakfasts. The American people really responded to that. We did that in the spring of 2020, and that gave us the idea to continue with those programs after Christmas. We also came up with concepts of touchless distribution of toys and books. In the campaign of Christmas of 2020, since the pandemic was still surging across the country, we would have families register online. We would issue QR codes so that all they had to do was drive up to a distribution point. We would scan the code. We would know exactly how many children, their ages, genders, and so on. We would already have their toys and books prepackaged and just put them in the trunk of their car. That was so efficient that even now, with the pandemic over, we still use that process today. It was the pandemic that really gave us the idea that there's a lot more we can do, and we can do it more efficiently.
[00:17:39.520] - General Laster
Part of that is reaching out to kids. Our new motto now is to be a year-around force for good.
[00:17:48.480] - General Laster
We've established foster child programs. We're working with big city police departments. Tucson, Arizona, was one of our first to do this with, to reach out and support foster families and children at risk, which police departments really have their...they know where those children are, and they've been a great help to us. That's what happened during that period of time and what caused us to expand, which has been very helpful, which I think has been very helpful to children year round, especially those at risk.
[00:18:26.920] - John Berry
You have the logistical tail on all this. As a general officer, you understand the importance of logistics in warfighting. But in this type of service, you think of all the volunteers that it takes just for the Toys for Tots Christmas time to get all the toys, to get them distributed. I think the last day is usually what, December 12th or something, that you can get the toys in because they got to get to the kids on time. Now you've moved into literacy, foster care, and other opportunities to help children. It seems the logistical requirements must just continue to grow.
[00:18:58.700] - General Laster
That's correct. It's a huge network and partnership with corporations. We rely on the general public bringing us toys, new unwrapped toys, and we need them to be unwrapped so we can make sure they're appropriate, and so we can tie them to certain age groups of children. That's the reason they need to be new and unwrapped. But we also rely on the general public to just make monetary donations. If a particular campaign in a part of the country comes up short in their collection of toys, we can then go out and purchase toys and ship them to them. Then the other aspect that we rely on greatly is our corporate partnerships and those who are very generous with their gifts in kind. Hasbro Toys is a huge one. Legos. Legos gives us millions of dollars worth of Lego sets every year. I love Legos because they teach. They teach cognitive skills. I met with the CEO of Legos USA up in Hartford here not too long ago. He said there's also studies that say they help in emotional development because, as you know, many of those Lego sets are pretty complicated.
[00:20:20.560] - General Laster
I don't know if I could put together some of them.
[00:20:23.030] - General Laster
It normally takes other brothers, sisters, mom, and dad to chip in and help put together those sets. That brings the family together, which is good for the emotional well-being of children. We are blessed to have some wonderful corporate partners that help us in this endeavor year-around.
[00:20:46.380] - John Berry
Well, and you don't just help with the emotional well-being of the families that you help--you help with the emotional well-being of all involved. I believe I was reading something like the logistics of this is 10,000 children, or I'm sorry, 10 million children, 24 million toys, books, gifts, et cetera, and the number of volunteers who get to get involved in their community and help this is what? 24,000, is that right?
[00:21:13.650] - General Laster
51,000 volunteers. We capture that. In January, we have all our coordinators send in After Action Reports that goes into our overall yearly audit and so on, so we can determine exactly what what we did and how we did it. We require them to put how many volunteers they had, and it all totaled up to just close to 51,000 nationwide.
[00:21:40.160] - John Berry
You see the numbers just continue to grow. Where do you attribute that growth to?
[00:21:45.330] - General Laster
I think when the general public sees what we do, they want to be a part of it. I think just being part of an organization that's tied to the U.S. Marine Corps as an official activity, I think, is it's very appealing to most people. I think that's what it is. We run it like a Marine program, very efficient, very professional. I'm a little bit biased, but it's all true.
[00:22:15.960] - John Berry
Well, the Marines are amazing marketers. When the army is reaching out saying, We want to pay big bonuses, come get your education, we'll pay for school, the Marine Corps says, Why should I let you join my Corps? There's something special about the Marine Corps marketing that seems to work. I would point that out that even if it's a different organization, when you think back to the the important messaging that gets out there is that this is a hearts and minds campaign, and not just for the children who are future leaders, but I think for all of the leaders in our community to step up and to help and to get involved and to give back. You've got a hearts and minds campaign. You're helping disadvantaged families. You're creating goodwill toward the Marine Corps, and it's not just for warriors, it's for community leaders. There are Marines who go in who don't just want to be warriors. They want to give back. They want to serve.
[00:23:11.250] - John Berry
This opens up that message that says, there are other ways to serve your community. You don't have to be an infantry soldier, even though that's what General Laster wanted.
[00:23:21.390] - John Berry
But in all seriousness, this is a great messaging that shows we give back to the community, and we only take America's best. I mean, such a great, great message. How do you ensure that you maintain the integrity of that message? I'm sure a lot of people want to partner. There are a lot of volunteers, and you have to say no from time to time.
[00:23:45.970] - General Laster
Actually, John, we very seldom say no. If someone wants to reach out and help, there's a mechanism for them to help. Now, for our coordinators, those that are considered the official coordinators head of their campaign, we do do a background check on them. We make sure that they are who they are and they're good people and no problems with law enforcement or anything. But everyone, and I appreciate what you just said a few minutes ago about you can serve in a lot of different ways. You don't have to necessarily wear a uniform. I think that's the other thing that appeals to folks out there who maybe didn't have a chance or an opportunity to serve in uniform. There's plenty of ways to serve. Just being involved in your community as a leader or volunteering to help others is serving, in my opinion. My hats off to those people that do that. The vast majority of those 51,000 volunteers were folks who fall into that category.
[00:25:02.520] - John Berry
That's a testament to the great leadership, the Marine Corps, but more importantly, your leadership--getting those volunteers. It's easy when someone has to do something. When you're in the military, you're ordered to do things. You don't get to say, Well, I really don't want that mission. But with volunteers, especially volunteers who are not in the military, it's a different game. It's a different game of influence. It's a different game of understanding that there may be some volunteers that fall off. There may be some that it's not going to work out because we can't guarantee that they're going to show up at formation 0500 this morning. We have to anticipate that there may be attrition. All the things that you do, continue to bring the volunteers back in larger and larger numbers. That takes us to the after action review. Your best and worst examples of leadership. I ask for three. I don't ask for names. But if you could tell us, in forming General James Laster, who were the greatest examples of leadership and who were some of the worst examples of leadership that you learned from?
[00:26:10.410] - John Berry
Once again, not names, but just examples or character traits.
[00:26:13.920] - General Laster
Okay. Well, I've always said that the mark of a great leader is someone who really knows themselves. They know what their limitations are, they know what their abilities are, and who strives every day to just be a person of integrity and a person of character. It's also someone who knows their people, knows their personal and professional goals and inspirations, and is not afraid to sit down what we call in the Marine Corps, kneecap to kneecap, look them in the eye and exercise, engage the leadership and help them to achieve those goals. I also attribute good leadership as people who know their stuff. Brilliance in the basics is one of my things that I like to say, and to be just an overall force for good. That's where I had a General Officer mentor once that says, As a General Officer, you really now are a force for good. And your job now is to open doors for people, to help people, to inspire. And so that gave me the theme for Toys for Tots, be a year-round force for good.
[00:27:40.360] - General Laster
And so that's what a great leader is. I've worked for several. To become a General Officer, you have to have also a lot of joint service.
[00:27:50.690] - General Laster
In other words, serving and joint commands with other services and leaders. You said not to use names, but I'm going to use a couple if it's okay. When I was in Afghanistan, that was a tough year. It was in combat. I was very, very fortunate to have two great leaders during that time General Rodriguez, U.S. Army General, and General Scaparrotti. It was General Scaparrotti who, first of all, both of them, I mean, every one of these little things that I just said about what makes a great leader. They just exuded all of those things. They were very personable. They were very open. Their door was always open. They were a mentor and a friend. Even when things got bad, they would step forward and take responsibility for what their units and command did or failed to do. They didn't blame anyone else. It was their fault. It was their responsibility. They were wonderful men during a very tough year. Another gentleman who I worked for after Afghanistan when I was the Chief of Staff of U.S.
[00:29:09.820] - General Laster
Special Operations Command, was Admiral Bill McRaven, U.S. Navy CEO, famous special operator. He was the one that led the raid that got Bin Laden.
[00:29:21.720] - General Laster
He will go down as one of the best leaders I've ever been around. Very personable, inspiring, smart, would listen, which is probably one of the best traits that I could say of any leader, is to keep your mouth shut and just listen. Listen to people, listen to what advice they have and recommendations about how to do things better and more efficient. He was wonderful at that. He just made you feel good. You feared disappointing him. That's the mark of a great leader. Now, some of the bad traits, and I'm not going to mention any names here, but I've known people that, first of all, some of these folks, you wonder where they got, how they became a leader in the first place. I think they're less and less now, but those who isolate themselves, close themselves off to other people. A good leader is someone who, when they come into the headquarters or come into the office, even in a civilian capacity, walk around and see people and talk to them.
[00:30:45.110] - General Laster
They know people. Remember my first little edict here was know yourself and know your people. There are people in leadership positions and management positions and corporations who don't do any of that.
[00:31:02.160] - General Laster
They walk in, they walk into their office, they turn their computer on, they don't get to know the people around them, they don't try to assist other people or to help them. They don't get to know their families or know anything about them or their families. And so those are bad leaders. Leaders that don't set an example or set a poor example, whether it be by dress, whether it be by how they speak, just how they treat people. Talking down to people is a horrible trait for a leader or anyone in a management position. A leader is someone who inspires and takes care of people and helps people to be the best that they can be. That's what a leader does.
[00:31:51.610] - John Berry
Absolutely. You mentioned a lot of officer leadership. There's an NCO you mentioned in a previous podcast that's been on this podcast that is very well known as a leader, and that's Sergeant Major John Wayne Troxell, also a great leader. I'd love to hear about a great example of NCO leadership that has influenced you as well.
[00:32:11.370] - General Laster
Well, Troxell, I can use him as an example. He was General Scaparrotti's Senior Listed Advisor, our Command Sergeant Major in Afghanistan. He always had all of our backs. He always tried to be where General Scaparrotti couldn't be. And he would go out and do battlefield circulation, and he would kneecap-to-kneecap discussions with junior enlisted people and NCOs and so on. He would bring that information back to us as the senior leadership to tell us what was really happening on the ground. He was also a man who would...he could read people very well. He knew when you were having a bad day, and he'd just come in and sit next to you and say,"Sir, is there anything I can do to help? Can I take something off your plate?" That's the mark of a good NCO, a good senior NCO like Troxell. A good NCO helps leaders lead by leading up. And what I mean by that is you offer to take things off their plate. You come in when no one's around, you shut the door and say, "Sir, could I ask you, or Ma'am, could I ask you to reconsider this?" And so that's the mark of a good NCO--someone who's always there with you, that's beside you, who's loyal as the day is long, which is what Troxell was.
[00:33:52.030] - John Berry
Thank you so much for that great NCO example, General Laster.
[00:33:56.210] - General Laster
I have a lot of joint time, and I spend a lot of time to include in combat with men and women from all of the services to include the U.S. Coast Guard. I will tell you that our nation couldn't be in better hands with those young men and women that are around the world right now, making sure that our way of life is protected and that we remain free.
[00:34:23.960] - John Berry
How can people who want to get involved with Toys for Tots get a hold of the organization and begin the process?
[00:34:32.420] - General Laster
Well, there are several ways, but what I would say is just go online and go to ToysForTots.org. If you want to volunteer, the website will navigate you to being able to volunteer in your area, or if you just want to click on it and make a monetary donation, that's greatly accepted and appreciated it as well. And so that's the best thing I could say is just go to our website. But also in a storefront and you see a Toys for Tots box, think about going into the store, whether it be Walmart or Barns & Noble or what have you, and purchase a toy and drop it in the box for us. That's also very much appreciated.
[00:35:22.630] - John Berry
Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we pursue our mission of promoting Veteran leadership in business, strengthening the Veteran community, and getting Veterans all of the benefits that they earn. If you know a leader who should be on the Veteran Led podcast, report to our online community by searching @VeteranLed on your favorite social channels and posting in the comments. We want to hear how your military challenges prepared you to lead your industry or community, and we will let the world know. And of course, subscribe and join me next time on Veteran Led.