222: How to Rise Up & Rebalance Life and Identity after a Police Career, w/ Doug White

Blue Grit Radio: Improving Police and First Responders of Life through Mindset, Wellness, Leadership

Sometimes you read a phrase, a sentence a story and you get hit. With an idea, with resonance. With jarring feelings - with feeling seen. I had many of all those moments reading veteran and retired law enforcement officer, Doug White's book - Hiding in Plain Sight. Although we are quite different people with quite different experiences, Doug's ability to write and share those lessons hit home.

While reading his book on a flight across country for a speaking engagement (where I would also come to meet Doug in person), I sat upright in my seat on the verge of boisterous laughter and on the verge of tears (but I didn't want to be "that guy" on the plane in either form). I felt myself melting in his accounts of hard times on traumatic scenes- thinking of my own such events. I felt myself gritting my teeth and white knuckling the book pages as I read about how he was targeted and put through an administrative ringer.. which hit home in its own ways for me, too.

If you are a first responder, servicemember, or truly anyone who has danced with doing too much for others and paying the consequences, this book (and interview) is for you.

I am grateful to have gotten to read, meet, know, and call Doug a friend and peer in these efforts of supporting first responder resilience and culture.

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Doug White is a veteran, retired law enforcement officer, author, and speaker who spent over 30 years in service—first in the U.S. Air Force, then as a sheriff’s deputy in Florida.

Today, he’s the founder of Tell This Story, a platform dedicated to helping veterans, first responders, and their families find purpose, healing, and growth—ensuring they, their loved ones, and their communities get the best versions possible.

Doug is the author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Truth About Trauma, Service, and the Way Forward and the host of the Tell This Story podcast. Through raw storytelling, hard-earned wisdom, and a powerful shift from a mission-first to a family-first mindset, Doug is redefining what it means to thrive after service—advocating for personal growth and the demonstration of moral courage in leadership through authentic connection with those who have stepped into the light and those still hiding in plain sight.

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