Driven By with Sam Coates: Recent Episodes

Sam Coates

Sharing experiences, insights, and the drivers behind why my guests have built what they have built and how this applies to what drives you.

Hey Everybody, my guest this week is entrepreneur and founder of Alma Del Jaguar McCauley Williams.

This episode was a blast.

McCauley, a former corporate attorney and C.E.O. of Bluenote Bourbon and he went all in on this new tequila company earlier this year.

As McCauley says, we’re overloaded with options as consumers, and authenticity and transparency matter more now than ever. McCauley has put everything he has into this company and then raised several million dollars and found one of a kind production partner in Mexico.

This is a great episode that covers:

A deep dive into the spirits business- the past, present, and future
Why some believe tequila will pass vodka as the U.S.’s most popular spirit
Building everything from the ground up with extreme detail and why that matters
Plus, much more.

Please enjoy this week’s episode with McCauley Williams!

Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mccauley-williams-6667953a/
https://www.almadeljaguar.com/
https://time.com/6276345/tequila-us-popular-climate-change-impact/

My guest today is Bill Proctor. Bill is the President of Nexair. Nexair has been one of the largest independent packaged gas distributors in the United States and has a rich 73-year history. In early 2023, Nexair was acquired by Linde, the thirty-three billion dollar global multinational chemical company.

Bill remains president through this acquisition. Nexair is a great American success story that embodies risk, entrepreneurship, generational ownership, talent development, execution, and much more.

Please enjoy this week's episode with Bill Proctor and if you like this episode tell a friend!

Links:

https://www.nexair.com/

https://www.linde.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-proctor-39825114/

Hey everybody,

I hope you're having a great summer.

Today's podcast is one I produced for one of the largest privately owned orthopaedic organizations in the United States. Campbell Clinic is based out of Memphis, Tennessee, and has been a leader nationally and internationally in orthopaedics since 1909.

And my guest this week is their Chief of Staff, Dr. Frederick Azar.

I'm choosing to release this interview on this podcast because Dr. Azar is straight to the point. He speaks to the power of a rich 114-year history, the benefit of staying private and maintaining control of their operation, everything that a physician must do to keep the patient first, and how robotics, ai, and innovation are influencing the field of orthopaedics, plus much more.

Dr. Azar attended the University of Notre Dame and received his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Tennessee- Campbell Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and biomedical engineering and a fellowship in sports medicine at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Azar is the past president of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, a member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, a Member of ALSAC St. Jude Board of Directors and Governors, a team physician the Memphis Grizzlies, the University of Memphis, American Professional Soccer team 901 FC, plus much more.

Please enjoy this week's episode with Dr. Frederick Azar!

Links:
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/practice-consolidation-private-practice-departures-skyrocketed-during-covid-19
https://www.nba.com/grizzlies
https://www.campbellclinic.com/
https://www.campbellclinic.com/about-campbell-clinic/campbells-operative-orthopaedics/
https://www.memphis901fc.com/
https://www.aaos.org/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-now-and-future-of-orthopaedics/id1689297666

Hey Everybody, I hope you're having a great start to the summer.

My guest today is Oscar Subrats; a previous guest suggested Oscar, and the more I looked into him, the more I was interested.

Oscar is the President of College Prospects of America, a company that has helped over 35,000 students get an education and play college sports in the United States. Many of these students are international students, and as you'll hear, Oscar grew this company into Mexico and Latin America. According to NCAA, over 20,000 international student-athletes are competing at NCAA schools.

Oscar has lived the same experience and opportunity he speaks about in this conversation. He's also an author and recently released a new book called Closing Intelligence.

This is a great episode that covers the following:

The biggest mistake that American parents/ kids can make when they don't think they need to promote themselves to play college sports
Why international students succeed and how their mindset can be more resilient since they have no plan b
The power of getting an education in the United States plus much more

Please enjoy this week's episode with Oscar Subirats!

Links:

https://cpoaworld.com/
https://www.amazon.com/CLOSING-INTELLIGENCE-Others-Life-Business/dp/B0BRQCD4JX
https://closingintelligence.com/
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/3/21/international-student-athlete-participation.aspx#:~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20international,and%20competing%20at%20NCAA%20schools.

My guest this week is the CEO of the nation’s largest three-service municipal utility service Doug McGowen. Former Top Gun Pilot, Navy Captain, City of Memphis COO, (plus more stops along the way) and now CEO of MLGW. I’ve heard many times that Doug simply knows how to get stuff done so it was a privilege to record this with him. His reputation did not disappoint. This is a great episode that covers the following:

How you bring urgency, transparency, and accountability to transform performance under a government owned system
The threat and consequences of an insufficient workforce and what to do about it
Why Memphis is one of the greatest cities in America

Plus a whole lot more Please enjoy this week’s episode with current MLGW CEO Doug McGowen! Links: https://www.axios.com/2023/03/18/technical-worker-shortage-trade-education-construction https://www.mlgw.com/about/execs_presidentceo https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcgowen-09223229/

Who would have thought an English mid-19th-century sport would empower inner-city students to overcome? My guest today is Shane Young. Shane co-founded Memphis Inner City Rugby and is a former Teach for America Educator. After working in the inner city school system and knowing there had to be a new way to additionally transform lives, Shane and his co-founder launched Memphis Inner City Rugby from scratch. As you'll hear in this interview, they've put everything they've had into this work. This work has evolved to way more than just Rugby. Their work provides mentorship, job creation, nutrition, counseling, transportation, and much more. There are 11,000,000 children in poverty in the U.S.A, and this organization knows how to reduce that number. On this episode, you'll hear:

Why some non-profits become a shell of what they once were as they scale. How to fight against it
Why and how Rugby transforms lives and helps girls and boys overcome the opportunity gap
The unrealized opportunity that the U.S.A. Rugby has to accelerate the transformation of lives across the U.S.A.
Plus much more

Thanks so much for tuning in and as always if you like this episode, please share and tell a friend! Please enjoy this week's episode with Shane Young! Click here to see more about Memphis Inner City Rugby

My guest today is Candace Steele Flippin, DM. Candace is currently the chief communications officer for Acuity Brands- a 4 Billion dollar revenue organization, and previously served as Chief Communications Officer of First Horizon Bank, a 3.49 Billion dollar revenue bank. Acuity has 11,500 employees, and First Horizon has 7,000 plus employees. She also has her Doctor of Management from Case Western Reserve University out of Cleveland, Ohio. Candace is on this podcast because I want to understand what works and what doesn't work when you're communicating with 10k people and do that in a way that's actually effective. This podcast turned out to be so much more. You'll hear everything from:

Why her parents never held back the dreams and ambitions of her and her siblings growing up after they were raised in the Jim Crow south
How generations change and how this affects work and what people want- what works and what doesn't, bringing people together to make sure people do great work and take care of the customer
Helping women grow and get the jobs they need, not staying stuck, and addressing pay parity

Please enjoy this week's episode with Candace Steele Flippen! If you like the show, please tell a friend! Click here to see more about Candace and her work. Links:Candace- https://www.linkedin.com/in/candacesteeleflippin/ https://www.acuitybrands.com/ https://www.firsthorizon.com/ https://case.edu/ https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/The-Jim-Crow-South.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_generations https://www.adp.com/resources/articles-and-insights/articles/p/pay-equity.aspx https://www.candacesteeleflippin.com/

My guest this week is Memphis Fire, Chief Gina Sweat. Chief Sweat was selected to be the first female director of fire services in Memphis, TN, and there were only a handful of female fire chiefs nationally when she was selected. The world of fire departments is changing. Chief Sweat says in this episode 80% of their calls are medical, so gone are the days when you are only going to fight fires. This is a great episode that covers the following:

What it's like living with the responsibility of 1600+ firefighters that put themselves in harm's way every day
Getting scrappy and looking for new ways to tackle old problems and getting creative with funding and grants to get your people what they need
Remembering the tragedies and those that gave their lives just doing their job
What the future of fire departments look like and why they must innovate to add value to the communities they are apart of
Plus a lot more

Please enjoy this week's episode with Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-sweat-4625b382/
https://archive.commercialappeal.com/news/government/city/strickland-names-gina-sweat-citys-first-female-fire-director-26dfbef7-76dd-280f-e053-0100007f1d74-361905801.html/
https://apnews.com/article/15e06ad3778f4ee88b67a1bdbbc97c29
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2022/08/23/funeral-held-memphis-fire-department-driver-killed-crash-david-pleasant/7877457001/

My guest this week is John Carroll. Lately, I’ve wondered how do you confidently promote a city with significant issues. John is behind the highly successful grassroots nonprofit Choose 901 and City Leadership out of Memphis, TN. What started as a bootstrapped nonprofit over a decade ago has now evolved into one of the top promotional brands in Memphis, TN. National Center on Charitable Statistics, 30% of nonprofits fail to exist after ten years. Given that this nonprofit was bootstrapped and now operates on a 2 million dollar annual budget, this would be a meaningful conversation. This is a great episode that covers the following:

The power of social media and attracting talent to a city you love and need to fill jobs in
Redefining progress- do we understand the problems clearly, and Are we making progress on those problems?
Building a grassroots organization and becoming an expert to others around the United States
The fragility of a first-generation college student
Plus a lot more

Please enjoy this week’s episode with John Carroll! Links:John Carroll- https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncarroll77/ The fragility of a first generation college student- https://eab.com/insights/daily-briefing/student-affairs/33-of-first-gen-students-drop-out-within-3-years/ Choose901- https://choose901.com/ City Leadership: https://www.cityleadership.org/ Top promotional brands: https://www.instagram.com/choose901/ According to this source: https://nanoe.org/nonprofits-fail/#:~:text=The%20real%20data%20from%20National,of%20a%20strategic%20plan%2C%20among

My guest today is Will Chase. This is the second time Will is on this podcast. I’ve heard great feedback about his episode #62, so check it out.

This episode will be different and much shorter, and I am looking forward to it.

Full disclosure, I was hired to produce work for this venture and this interview. But I was not hired to release it here on my podcast. That was my choice because Will knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship and the changing landscape of banking across the United States of America.

Will is underway raising funds to recapitalize a successful local community bank and take it to new heights.

I’m releasing this episode because it speaks to the changing landscape of banking. In 1990, there were just under 14,000 community banks in the USA, and as of June 2020, just over 4,200

This is a great episode that covers the following:

Why does the movement of capital change when community banks are gobbled up
How do you build a bank of service first while leveraging modern and innovative technology
What’s the pride as an investor of a community bank when you’re connected to that community, and why this matters
Plus, much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Will Chase!

Links:

Will- https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-j-chase-jr-671a318/

Just under 14k- https://www.ft.com/content/4face0c6-c1fb-47af-972b-8749e92b4baf

Today- https://www.kansascityfed.org/ten/2021-fall-ten-magazine/in-evolving-landscape-community-banks-remain-vital-to-customers-and-the-economy/

My guest today is Bob Fockler, former investment banker turned Community builder and asset allocator.

Americans gave away just over 484 billion dollars last year, so I wanted to know what this looks like when it's done right.

Bob is currently the President of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, which, as he says, is a billion-dollar financial institution.

This is a great episode that covers:

Running a non-profit like a business and why that matters to steward capital well.
Paving your own path and leaving investment banking to take on this city's community foundation and why he never looked back
Generational giving- who does well and what happens when it blows up
Plus, much more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Bob Fockler, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis!

Links:

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/#:~:text=Americans%20gave%20%24484.85%20billion%20in,a%204%25%20increase%20from%202020.&text=Corporate%20giving%20in%202021%20increased,a%2023.8%25%20increase%20from%202020.&text=Foundation%20giving%20in%202021%20increased,a%203.4%25%20increase%20from%202020.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-fockler-a5b418a/

https://www.cfgm.org/

My guest, today for the 2nd time, is Youth Villages CEO Pat Lawler.

When someone has led an organization from less than 100 kids a year, a handful of staff, and evolved into an impact of more than 32,000 kids a year and over 3,600 staff and counting, they are going to have something to say that’s important to listen and learn from.

It’s energizing how a dream can start small, with focus, resiliency, passion, and leadership, it can evolve to be a national thought leader decades later and just getting started.

Children’s behavioral health and crime are crucial to our communities and the cities we live.

It’s a privilege to release this interview on my podcast, where you will learn:

What it takes to make a culture permeate all the way down to the front line
Why being a front-line leader matters and the value it gives you to your organization
How their recent national intercept recognition opens up even more tremendous opportunities across the United States
Plus, much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Pat Lawler!

This podcast was recorded for my work for Youth Villages on their own podcast Stronger Than You Think. So please check that out if you like this interview. This episode was such a great interview. I wanted to release it here on my podcast.

Links:

https://youthvillages.org/

Intercept recognition- https://youthvillages.org/youth-villages-intercept-program-model-receives-well-supported-designation-from-family-first-clearinghouse/

My guest, today for the 2nd time, is Youth Villages CEO Pat Lawler.

When someone has led an organization from less than 100 kids a year, a handful of staff, and evolved into an impact of more than 32,000 kids a year and over 3,600 staff and counting, they are going to have something to say that’s important to listen and learn from.

It’s energizing how a dream can start small, with focus, resiliency, passion, and leadership, it can evolve to be a national thought leader decades later and just getting started.

Children’s behavioral health and crime are crucial to our communities and the cities we live.

It’s a privilege to release this interview on my podcast, where you will learn:

What it takes to make a culture permeate all the way down to the front line
Why being a front-line leader matters and the value it gives you to your organization
How their recent national intercept recognition opens up even more tremendous opportunities across the United States
Plus, much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Pat Lawler!

This podcast was recorded for my work for Youth Villages on their own podcast Stronger Than You Think. So please check that out if you like this interview. This episode was such a great interview. I wanted to release it here on my podcast.

Links:

https://youthvillages.org/

Intercept recognition- https://youthvillages.org/youth-villages-intercept-program-model-receives-well-supported-designation-from-family-first-clearinghouse/

My guest today is Frank Cianciola. I’m fortunate to interview many people across the country for the corporate interviews I produce. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that if something works in one market, those principles will work in every market.

It’s an absolute pleasure to release today’s episode with Banking entrepreneur and industry veteran Frank Cianciola. Frank is the Founder of Bank3, headquartered out of Memphis, TN, and this isn’t Frank’s first rodeo. This is the third bank he has run after two other successful exits. You’ll hear on his latest bank how he took a struggling bank with less than 20 million in assets and today is at 425 million and shooting for 1 billion.

In this episode, you will hear:

Living a life as an underdog and loving the fight
Putting it all on the line in your 40s when you’re given an opportunity to run your first bank
How to pick talent and empower them to provide a level of service that a big bank can’t
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Frank Cianciola!

Links:
Frank Cianciola- https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-j-cianciola-04113118/
Bank3- https://www.bank3.com/

My guest today is Duncan Williams. I wanted to have Duncan on this podcast because What started as a small regional municipal bond firm in 1969 grew to be one of the largest female-owned bond broker-dealers in the United States. In addition to this work, this family has a strong presence as a holding company in farmland, apartments, and senior living facilities in the southeastern part of the United States.

This is great story that shows what one generation's risk and sacrifice can do for communities, people, and opportunities decades down the line.

In this episode, you will hear:

Choosing not to sell the family business when unexpected events hit your family
Building a holding company- how to pick the right people, give them what they need, and get out of their way
How to build a brand- watching some of the best companies in the world and how they build theirs and learning from them along the way
A passion for jobs- the new world order, and making sure people get what they need to flourish in the communities you are apart of
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Duncan Williams!

Links:

Duncan Williams INC- https://duncanwilliams.com/
Duncan Williams- https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-f-williams-33972aa6/
bond broker- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bond-broker.asp
new world order- link- https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/

My guest today is Scott Felsenthal. I wanted to have Scott on this podcast because he and his family are obviously doing something right. Only 3% of companies make it to the 4th generation, and their company Whitmor is one of them. Scott is the CEO of Whitmor, and it's a privilege to have him on this podcast.

Whitmor started in Brooklyn, New York, in 1946; over 75 years later, it is running strong.

This is a great story that goes deep into this family's history of:

Evolving from a manufacturer to an importer when Walmart changed the game, they, like many others, had to stay alive.
Choosing not to take private equity to preserve their control for future generations of their family
Building a company that connects the story of what they do to its own people to navigate the great resignation among the workforce
Strategic acquisitions that continue to position the company in a strong position
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this episode with Scott Felsenthal!

Scott Felsenthal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottfelsenthal/
Make it to 4th generation- https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/smith-family-business-initiative-at-cornell/resources/family-business-facts/#:~:text=About%2040%25%20of%20U.S.%20family%2Downed%20businesses%20turn%20into%20second,Businessweek.com%2C%202010).
Whitmor: https://whitmor.com/
Great resignation: https://fortune.com/2022/07/21/great-resignation-40-percent-want-to-quit-where-are-they-going/

My guest today is Eric Barnes. Eric is the CEO of the Daily Memphian, the largest single market digital-only local news site in the United States.

Starting his career as a staff reporter and worked his way up as an editorial assistant, editor, publisher, and now CEO, Eric has seen the downward spiral of traditional print firsthand and the digital growth of how news is consumed.

What's fascinating about Eric's past is that he started working as managing editor of the internet division in the late 1990s
Fast Forward 20 years later, and the Daily Memphian is the largest single market digital-only local news site in the United States.

I hope you enjoy this episode with Eric, where you will hear:

Why growing up in a blue-collar town never leaves you. How this has shaped his career and his ability to lead as an operator
How he saw the shift to desktop in the late 90s and how traditional print has declined from its heyday. What New York Times got right and most everyone else didn't
What can happen when you go for something big with ample capital- how the Daily Memphian was launched and what it did from the start to build traction
Why a local newspaper matters and how it's success affects the future of a city
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this episode with Daily Memphian CEO Eric Barnes!

Links:

Daily Memphian launched- https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2018/jul/16/the-daily-memphian-to-launch-in-fall-as-citys-definitive-news-source/

Traditional print declined- https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/04/12/gannett-newspaper-print-days/

My guest today is Tim Belk. Tim, his wife Sarah, and his children operate Wild Hope Farm out of Chester, South Carolina. This is a fantastic episode about leveraging your skill sets to make a true family affair. As Tim says, while being CEO of Belk, he and his wife Sarah were like two ships passing in the night. This organic farm allowed them to do something together and leverage her idea of becoming an organic farmer and his experience as a retail operator and CEO.After the Belk Family sold their department store with close to 300 locations and 25,000 employees that had been in their family since 1888, Wild Hope Farm was started.The organic food market is robust, and as you’ve heard in previous episodes of this podcast, farming isn’t easy.This is an excellent episode with Tim where you will hear:
‍

How to assess a market, start a farm like this from scratch- from idea to planning to execution and all the lessons learned along the way
The power of community- why the Belk Family has always committed to their community and how they are doing it today with organic farming and healthier lifestyles
Building an incubator of farmers- making change by attracting people passionate about the cause and giving them what they need to send them out and succeed on their own
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Tim Belk!

Links:
‍
Wild Hope Farm- https://www.wildhopefarm.com/
‍CEO of Belk- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belk
‍Organic farming: https://www.sare.org/publications/transitioning-to-organic-production/what-is-organic-farming/

My guest today is Mason George. Mason is an entrepreneur and business executive with IMC Companies. IMC Companies was started by his Father, Mark George, 40 years ago with just one driver. Today, it is one of the top Intermodal Carriers in the United States. At close to a billion dollars in revenue, it’s quite the story to take a company from one driver to where it is today.

Our supply chain is more critical today than ever before. The United States is the largest importer globally, and it’s no secret that there have been many challenges with how goods come to the USA and how they move throughout the rest of our country. This interview is much more than just about this company and what success looks like.

I had a great time with Mason, and this is a great interview where you will hear:

The skillsets it takes to take a company from one driver to over a billion in revenue.
Being all in with your capital and time while inspiring people to build something they are proud of
Hard lessons learned and how these painful experiences teach you how to operate better
The future in trucking. Are autonomous trucks worth it? How their techniques are being used to accelerate the movement of drayage across the USA
Building technology from the bottom up versus others doing it from top-down and why they have an advantage
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Mason George!

‍

Links:
https://www.imcc.com/

https://www.ttnews.com/top100/intermodal/2021

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268184/leading-import-countries-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20U.S.%20were,about%202.41%20trillion%20US%20dollars.&text=Import%20and%20export%20are%20generally,a%20country's%20imports%20and%20exports.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-27/supply-chain-shortages-are-at-historic-levels-will-they-peak-before-christmas

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2021/05/11/the-autonomous-truck-revolution-is-right-around-the-corner/?sh=1f886d1e2c96

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-george-61004588/

My guest today is Rick Spell. Rick is the owner of Spell Restaurant group. Before acquiring and operating restaurants around the Southeastern United States, Rick spent decades building a highly successful career as an investment banker for Morgan Keegan (now Raymond James).

Rick employs over 500 people through their ownership group. As you may know, currently, more than 11 million jobs are open, and over 6 million people are unemployed around the United States.

This is an excellent episode with Rick where you will hear:

While his career trajectory changed when he went back and graduated after dropping out of college
What he learned from Allen Morgan, the CEO of Morgan Keegan- what happens when you determine if someone has talent, put them in a position to use it, and give them a platform.
Buying a restaurant chain out of bankruptcy- why corporate spending can tank a restaurant group
Developing people and building a bench. How he develops and moves talent across the southeast within his restaurant group
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Rick Spell!

Links:
unemployed

Jobs open

spell restaurant group

Morgan Keegan

My guest this week has a story that’s nuts!

So far in my life, I have yet to meet someone who has overcome more obstacles in their life to become an entrepreneur in the United States and benefit from capitalism.

My guest this week is Sandra Xing. Sandra’s parents were taken away by Mao Zedong’s red party when she was 8. She raised her brother and herself. She witnessed her Mother be shamed and punished because her family came from the Black party. Eventually came to the United States when her sister declined the opportunity.

Sandra came to Atlanta and worked every job you could imagine from babysitting, to cleaning dishes, to working in a warehouse; she eventually founded her first company and now she owns three companies.

This is a tell all episode where you will hear: * What Mao Zedong’s leadership was like in the People’s Republic of China in the 1960’s * How she went from making 1 dollar a month in China to working in the United States * How she started her first business with no credit and only $4,000.00. The difficulty of starting your own and how she got through it * Why she’s using the money she’s earned to give back * Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Sandra Xing!

Links:
Sandra Xing
Mao Zedong

My guest today is PGA Tour Champions Golfer Doug Barron.

Doug turned pro on the PGA Tour in 1992, played for nine years, and then was out of the game professionally for seven years. In 2019, when everyone thought he was crazy, Doug flew to Europe, qualified, and finished 5th at the Senior British Open. Since then, he has won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in 2019 and The Shaw Charity Classic in 2021, also known as the Champions Tour Workhorse…

Whether you’re a golfer or not, this is a great episode where you’ll hear Doug cover:

“They have to beat me too” how Doug thinks about the legends he plays with and how he stays locked in on his game
Raising money from friends and going all-in at 50
Forgiving yourself and playing your game. How hard lessons learned don’t have to end that way.
Why he’d give anything to play one more round with his Dad
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Doug Barron!

Links:
5th Place Finish at Senior British Open

Champions Tour Workhorse

Dick’s Victory:

Shaw Victory

Doug Barron

My guest today is Will Chase. Will is the former CEO of Triumph Bank.

Triumph Bank was started right before the Financial crisis of 2008 with just a few million dollars and sold for over 130 million dollars. The number of new banks opening around the United States has drastically changed since the 2008 financial crisis, and I wanted to find out why. This episode will give you much more than that and the future of banking.

This is a great episode that also covers:

What it actually looks like to quit your job at 50 and go all in a start-up bank even when you don’t know if you’ll make it
How to win in the service industry when big banks keep acquiring market share
Being 5 million dollars in the hole and working your way out of it after the 2008 financial crisis
Why it makes no sense to start a bank anymore
Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Will Chase!

Links:

https://money.cnn.com/2015/07/29/investing/dodd-frank-new-banks/#:~:text=Only%20three%20new%20banks%20have,agency%20that%20approves%20new%20banks

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/financial-crisis-review.asp

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/simmons-first-doubles-up-in-tennessee-with-two-bank-acquisitions#:~:text=The%20%2423.3%20billion%2Dasset%20Simmons,%2C%20Tennessee%2C%20for%20%24146.3%20million.

My guest today is Steve Glenn. Steve is an entrepreneur and CEO of Plant Prefab. After closing its series B round at $30 Million, Plant Prefab is locked in on changing the game of how homes are built... Plant Prefab is backed by high-profile investors, including Amazon, Asahi Kasei, Gerdau Paris Ventures, and Obvious Ventures. They recognize the massive market opportunity that Plant Prefab is capitalizing on.

We all know the pain points. There’s an undersupply of homes, rising material costs, increasing construction timelines, lack of subcontractors, harmful environmental impact, I could go on.

This interview is a great episode where you will hear:

The challenge of wedding profit and purpose when what you need to do is scale

The good, the bad, and the ugly of an achievement personality. How this has shaped who he is today and Steve’s own entrepreneurial journey

A deep dive into why their solution solves critical issues and the impact for the future

Who is James Rouse? His influence, his story, and how his impact even lives on today

Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Steve Glenn!

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveglenn/

https://www.plantprefab.com/

https://www.plantprefab.com/press-center/Plant-Prefab-Announces-$30-Million-Series-B-and-the-Opening-of-a-Second-Factory

https://obvious.com/

https://www.aboutamazon.com/

https://www.asahi-kasei.com/

https://www2.gerdau.com.br/paris-ventures

Short homes: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/america-is-short-more-than-5-million-homes-study-says.html

James Rouse:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/james-w-rouses-legacy-better-living-through-design-180951187/

Market and opportunity- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817317344

The future: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/02/08/the-future-of-real-estate-is-modular/?sh=67c2f19873ec

Who says crowdfunding has to be sketchy? There's a new way to access investment opportunities since the jobs act of 2012, and this real estate family is bringing direct access to the marketplace.

My guest today is Adam Kaufman. Adam is the co-founder of ArborCrowd. Based out of New York City, ArborCrowd is the only commercial real estate crowdfunding platform backed by a publicly-traded mortgage REIT. Arbor Realty Trust.

This is a great conversation with Adam where you will hear:

What's the history of crowdfunding? Did you know that the Statue Of Liberty was the first crowdfunding project on record?
Why things have changed and where it is headed, how they are giving people a chance to have equity where previously only institutional capital could access
The lessons learned in the 2008 financial crisis and why their experience and hard lessons learned set them apart
Building a platform from scratch
And more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Adam Kaufman!

Links:
Crowdfunding
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp

Jobs act 2012:
https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/jobs-act.shtml

Linked in:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkaufman1205/

https://www.arborcrowd.com/

https://arbor.com/

Hudson- statue of liberty
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21932675

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off 2022 than with an interview like this!

My guest today is Mason George. Mason is an entrepreneur and business executive with IMC Companies. IMC Companies was started by his Father, Mark George, 40 years ago with just one driver. Today, it is one of the top Intermodal Carriers in the United States. At close to a billion dollars in revenue, it’s quite the story to take a company from one driver to where it is today.

Our supply chain is more critical today than ever before. The United States is the largest importer globally, and it’s no secret that there have been many challenges with how goods come to the USA and how they move throughout the rest of our country. This interview is much more than just about this company and what success looks like.

I had a great time with Mason, and this is a great interview where you will hear:

The skillsets it takes to take a company from one driver to over a billion in revenue.
Being all in with your capital and time while inspiring people to build something they are proud of
Hard lessons learned and how these painful experiences teach you how to operate better
The future in trucking. Are autonomous trucks worth it? How their techniques are being used to accelerate the movement of drayage across the USA
Building technology from the bottom up versus others doing it from top-down and why they have an advantage
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Mason George!

Links:
https://www.imcc.com/

https://www.ttnews.com/top100/intermodal/2021

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268184/leading-import-countries-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20U.S.%20were,about%202.41%20trillion%20US%20dollars.&text=Import%20and%20export%20are%20generally,a%20country's%20imports%20and%20exports.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-27/supply-chain-shortages-are-at-historic-levels-will-they-peak-before-christmas

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2021/05/11/the-autonomous-truck-revolution-is-right-around-the-corner/?sh=1f886d1e2c96

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-george-61004588/

My Guest today is Garrott McClintock. Garrott is the COO of AcreTrader. AcreTrader is a hot new start-up out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, that recently finished a series its 12 Million Dollar funding round. AcreTrader matches investors with farmland while giving Farmers the land they need to grow their operation.

Did you know that In 1935, there were 7 million farms, and now there are only 2 million in operation?

What’s changed? Why is farming so hard? What is often hard for farmers to grow their operations? What’s the fulfillment a farmer feels by growing the crops that drive our world today?

I had a great time talking with my long-time friend Garrott McClintock. Garrott is a 5th generation farmer, and I wanted to have him on this show where you’ll hear the following:

What’s in the DNA of a Farmer? The fulfillment they feel with the work they do The non-linear path his own career has taken The barriers he and his team break down The future of farming- growing demand, decrease acreage, and lower number of farmers And More!

Please enjoy this week’s conversation with Garrott McClintock!

Links:

AcreTrader.com

My Guest today is Gary Wunderlich. Gary is an entrepreneur and investor. At the age of 26, Gary founded Wunderlich Securities and he and his team turned Wunderlich into a national full service and investment banking firm. 400+ employees and two decades later, Wunderlich Securities sold to B. Riley for 67 Million Dollars.

In 2020, Gary Co-Founded Live Oak Merchant Partners. Since the founding Live Oak has launched four SPACS (also known as blank check companies) where they are investing in biotechnology, innovative semiconductors, mobility and motion technology, and environmental sustainability. Just wait, as you listen to this interview you’ll hear how Gary plans to roll out 1 to 1 and a half SPACS a year moving forward.

I had a great time with Gary where you’ll hear:

The impact of having strong advisors when you’re 26 and naïve
Managing through chaos and why he’s more comfortable that way
Investing in the future- his process, deal flow, and the value of each of his investments and what they have to get right to succeed
The joy of pouring into other entrepreneurs when you know what they’ve been through
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Gary Wunderlich!

Links:

https://www.liveoakacq.com/
https://navitassemi.com/
https://danimerscientific.com/

Before we get started, I want to share a few things about the value with this week's episode.

Over the last 20+ months, the world has been in a unique place. There's been a record number of people quitting their jobs, and our country's supply chain has been challenged in extreme ways. Even with these challenges, there are men and women across the United States committed to buckling down and producing the things we utilize daily. Even with all of these obstacles, there has been tremendous demand and increased opportunity.

My guest today is Andrew Green.

Andrew Green is CEO of Parkway Products. Parkway is a national injection molding company across the United States and Mexico. After spending the first 16 years of his career with the multi-billion dollar publicly listed company Sonoco Andrew decided to take a different path where he wanted to take some risks and become a CEO one day.

This is a jam-packed high-value episode where you'll learn:

What it's like having a significant life experience and re-evaluating is this the path you want to be on the rest of your life.
What about the people that have a passion for manufacturing. Without us, the service economy wouldn't exist.
There's a benefit of being backed by private equity. When the model works, you can't grow fast enough.
Adapting to change. Why robotics and automation creates more opportunity for those willing to learn and evolve
And much more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Andrew Green!

Links:
https://www.parkwayproducts.com/
https://www.sonoco.com/
quitting their jobs: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/11/15/weve-become-a-nation-of-quitters-44-million-americans-left-their-jobs-in-september/?sh=55ab01b6893e
supply chain issues: https://www.businessinsider.com/supply-chain-crisis-when-it-will-be-over-end-2021-11
injection molding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_moulding

My guest today is Sam Sawyer. Not many would leave their career at the top of their field to launch a startup disrupting the space they once built their career in. After leaving Dallas, Texas, and working for Silicon Valley Based ZeroDown Sam launched Archetape, where he is Founder and CEO. After an early-stage investment round by Mucker Capital, Sam is building out Archetape and growing it throughout the Southeast U.S.A. Sam believes the future of residential real estate will continue to change dramatically and disrupt the old way agencies do business.

I had a great time with Sam where you’ll learn:

Contrary to standard behavior- why you’re better positioned to take risks and build companies in your 30’s and 40’s versus playing it safe
What makes a great early-stage investment relationship. Why Mucker Capital is a great partner and what they do to invest in and deliver value to their founders
Why raising too much funding can crush you.
The impact of Zillow and how this transformed the industry
First Principles thinking and why this drives how they build this company
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Sam Sawyer!

Links:
https://www.archetape.com/

https://zerodown.com/

https://www.mucker.com/

https://www.zillow.com/

https://www.ycombinator.com/

First principles- https://medium.com/the-mission/elon-musks-3-step-first-principles-thinking-how-to-think-and-solve-difficult-problems-like-a-ba1e73a9f6c0

Sam twitter- @samHsawyer

My guests today are Patrice and Jerry Thompson. Patrice and her family own and operate the legendary Four Way Restaurant out of Memphis, TN. The Four Way attracts visitors from all over the world. In addition to being known for its famous soul food, the Four Way is also a place with rich history and significance. In this interview, you’ll hear how Martin Luther King spent a lot of time at the Four Way during the civil rights movement. Additionally, this restaurant has seen guests such as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner, The Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many more.

This interview is a great episode where you’ll learn:

The Four Way is much more than only a restaurant. 75 years later, you can see the pride, the vision, and the sacrifice generations prior have made to get the Four Way to where it is today.
Why the Four Way was a place of love and community during segregation and how it remains that way today
The challenges of running a restaurant during a labor shortage and the Covid-19 pandemic. How they’ve learned to pivot and adapt to make it through
Their vision for the future and how they want to see their once-booming area return to what it once was
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Patrice and Jerry Thompson!

Links:
https://thefourway901.com/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/
https://www.graceland.com/about-elvis
https://www.arethafranklin.net/
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/ike-and-tina-turner
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-Jackson

My Guest today is Harry Smith. Harry is an author, former public accountant, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Can you imagine moving to a new city at the age of 37 and taking over one of the largest private companies in that city while it’s facing chapter 7 bankruptcy?

After growing up in Florence, Alabama, Harry was recruited to Memphis, TN, to take over Schilling enterprises. As of 1980, Schilling Enterprises ( real estate, HVAC, trucking, automobile sales, and the auto parts industry) had over 100 Million Dollars in revenue with over 1,000 employees. After large contracts with Ford Motor company created significant consequences for Schilling Enterprises, Harry led the turnaround effort, saved Schilling Enterprises, and turned it into a successful ownership group that acquired and sold automobile dealerships.

In Addition to his work with Schilling enterprises, Harry also owned Schilling Farms (448 acres outside of Memphis, TN and partnered with and later sold to Boyle Investment Company), was a partner in Circle Y Saddles (the largest saddle manufacturer in the U.S.A.) and much more!

This is a fantastic episode where you’ll learn:

Why growing up with a single mother taught him entrepreneurship and work ethic at a young age
What he did to survive when taking over a company in dire straits.
How to buy it right. How he analyzed and acquired underperforming businesses and turned them into valuable assets
Why his success boiled down to the importance of him finding the right partner
Why He’s grateful for second chances
And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Harry Smith!

Links:
https://www.amazon.com/Driven-Deliver-Harry-L-Smith/dp/1936670399
https://circley.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company
https://www.visitflorenceal.com/
https://boyle.com/
https://boyle.com/communities/schilling-farms-community/

Driven to Deliver

My guest today is Andy Cates. Andy is an entrepreneur, investor, and community activist.

Here’s a little about Andy...

Founder and CEO of RVC Outdoor Destinations
Managing Member of the Value Acquisition Fund
Founding Chairman and President of the Memphis Fourth Estate (Daily Memphian)
Founding Chairman of the Soulsville Revitalization Project (one of the largest inner-city revitalization projects in the United States)

With several others responsible for bringing the Vancouver Grizzlies Franchise to Memphis, TN

And more!

I had a great time with Andy where you’ll learn:

What it’s like living with the fear of failure, but why even the best hitters are still able to have a few losses
How he assesses opportunity early and his process in picking talent and building things from scratch
What he’s learned about crossing racial lines and building trust and getting stuff done
Where he’s failed by not growing opportunities fast enough
And more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Andy Cates!

Links:

https://rvcoutdoors.com/
https://www.valfund.com/
https://memphisfourthestate.org/
https://soulsvillefoundation.org/
https://therookiewire.usatoday.com/2020/07/03/history-on-this-day-nba-approves-the-move-of-the-grizzlies-to-memphis/

My guest today is Karen Carrier. Karen is an artist, chef, and entrepreneur. Karen began her career in New York City after dropping out of college and enrolling in culinary school. She got her start working with Chef Susan Trilling, and the rest is history. Karen is nationally recognized by publications such as New York Times, Food and Wine, National Geographic, Garden and Gun, and more. Karen has been invited twice to cook at the acclaimed James Beard House in New York City. Karen has served as a personal chef for Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmush, and more.

I had a wonderful time talking with Karen where you’ll learn:

Once an artist, always an artist. Why she didn’t conform and has always pushed the envelope
The relationships that shape you early on and how this impacts your craft
Even after four decades in how she has hustled to survive the Covid-19 pandemic
From concept to execution, how she launches her restaurants
Celebrity or not- we’re all the same, and how she’s confident with her craft. “This is what you do; this is what I do.”
And more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Karen Carrier!

Links:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000464/- Jim Jarmush
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000129/- Tom Cruise
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000338/- Francis Ford
https://www.nytimes.com/- NYT
Garden and gun- https://gardenandgun.com/
food and wine- https://www.foodandwine.com/contact
James Beard- https://www.jamesbeard.org/
susan trilling- https://seasonsofmyheart.com/
national geographic- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Karen Carrier: https://www.lebonappetit.org/karen-b-carrier

My Guest today is Hilliard Crews. Hilliard is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Hilliard left his family's business and started MCR safety in 1974. As of 2019, MCR had sales of 255 Million dollars worth of Personal Protective Equipment. You may not know that Hilliard's first year in business, he made just $3,000 and got a job working at night at a truck line to supplement his families income. Hilliard and MCR Safety averaged more 80% growth compounded annually for his first ten years in business.

In addition to founding and selling MCR Safety to Bunzl Corporation, Hilliard also is the largest shareholder of Triumph Bank, a real-estate developer, venture capital investor, and philanthropist.

I had a great time interviewing Hilliard, where we discuss:

The fun you have when you find what you're good at and the market rewards you
Why leaving a family business can be a good thing and what it took to get MCR off the ground
How he won with service and why he's adamant about continuous improvement
The impact of selling through distributors and why he couldn't have grown this quickly any other way
How he is using his family office to accelerate the pace of change for causes he cares the most about
And more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Hilliard Crews!

RESOURCES:

https://www.mcrsafety.com/

https://www.bunzl.com/

https://triumphbank.com

My Guest today is Scott Sauls from Nashville, TN. Scott is the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Prior to moving to Nashville, Scott served on staff under Tim Keller in New York City at Redeemer Church.

You may ask, what prompted me to ask a pastor for the first time on this podcast? I wanted to have Scott on this podcast because I heard that when he moved from New York City to Nashville, Christ Pres had many people leave. As Scott described it, this was a rebuilding effort. Several years in, Christ Pres has grown and planted multiple campuses around the city of Nashville, TN. In addition to this, I found Scott's leadership style unique since Christ Presbyterian gives away over 40% of their income each year.

This was a fun conversation where we cover:

What a rebuilding effort looks like and what to expect
His own struggle with approval. What he has learned to lead by principles and not by politics
Why leading a large Church teaches you your limitations. Why the needs are overwhelming and what this has taught him about control
What he's learning about planting campuses in the 5th most diverse city in the United States and how to give people what they need
Building an organization bigger than yourself. What he is doing to make succession a smooth process
And more!

Scott's also the author of five books, and you can find those here: https://scottsauls.com/books/

Please enjoy this week's episode with Scott Sauls!

My guest today is Steve Nash. Steve is the founder of Advance Memphis. Advance Memphis was founded over 20 years ago when Steve had it on his heart to help men and women find financial stability through work. There was no elaborate plan, and Steve’s work started when he left his job and drove his grandmother’s Toyota Camry picking up people and driving them around the City of Memphis to find work. Currently, 34 Million people are living beneath the USA poverty line.

I am blown away by Steve’s persistence, honesty, hope, how he talks about his neighbors, and more.

This episode was a one of a kind where we cover:

What dyslexia has taught him about having perseverance and resiliency
Since bootstrapping Advance in 1999, what are the deeper needs someone must have to get and keep a permanent job
What He has learned from Youth Villages and their $3 Million dollar effort to reduce crime in a large urban area
Why hard questions must be asked
And more!

Over the last year, I’ve admired the uniqueness human beings have, and the different causes people dedicate their lives to. This episode won’t disappoint. To help you understand some things referenced in this interview, my guest today is out of Memphis, TN. The zip code discussed is 38126, and it is the poorest financial zip code in the State of Tennessee; in 1999, it was the 3rd poorest Urban zip code in the nation. I hope this helps as we move through this conversation.

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Steve Nash!

RESOURCES

https://www.advancememphis.org

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748‍

https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Feel-Unlocking-Emotions-Ourselves/dp/1250212847

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

Hey Everybody, I’m doing a re-release this week. I am going to air one of the episodes I have heard the most feedback from since this one was released on the last day of 2020.

My Guest today is Jean McGhee. Jean and her Husband Shawn acquired Hollywood Feed in 2005, and it is the fastest-growing pet retail store in the Country with 106 stores. As you know, the Covid pandemic caused many changes, but one of those is a significant increase in the amount of Pet Owners around the USA. Currently, 67% of households have a pet in the USA, and that number is only expected to increase.

This is a great episode where we cover:

Who says you can’t go from a stay at home to a fast-growing start-up
Why the pet industry follows the human heart
Building a company of talent and helping people find their role to succeed
Why pet adoption matters
And more!

Please enjoy this week’s conversation with Jean McGhee!

https://www.hollywoodfeed.com/

My guest today is James Maclin. James is out of Memphis, TN, where he is the founder of M&M Enterprise, a multi-family real estate company. Before founding M&M Enterprise, James spent 20+ years working for the extremely successful Mid America Apartment Communities. Mid America was founded by Memphian George Cates and is an incredible success story.

On this episode with James, you’ll hear:

Going out on your own isn’t easy- what he would do differently and what has been better than he expected
Building up not out what can happen when a City continues to revitalize within
The power of transparency- what happens when a Government, Press, Business, or any system operates transparently and not in the dark
The power of relationships- the impact that George Cates has had on his life and career
And More!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with James Maclin!

My Guest today is Garrott McClintock. Garrott is the COO of AcreTrader. AcreTrader is a hot new start-up out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, that recently finished a series its 12 Million Dollar funding round. AcreTrader matches investors with farmland while giving Farmers the land they need to grow their operation.

Did you know that In 1935, there were 7 million farms, and now there are only 2 million in operation?

What’s changed? Why is farming so hard? What is often hard for farmers to grow their operations? What’s the fulfillment a farmer feels by growing the crops that drive our world today?

I had a great time talking with my long-time friend Garrott McClintock. Garrott is a 5th generation farmer, and I wanted to have him on this show where you’ll hear the following:

What’s in the DNA of a Farmer? The fulfillment they feel with the work they do
The non-linear path his own career has taken
The barriers he and his team break down
The future of farming- growing demand, decrease acreage, and lower number of farmers
And More!

Please enjoy this week’s conversation with Garrott McClintock!

https://www.acretrader.com/

My guest today is Brent Beshore. If you haven’t heard of Brent before, I bet you’ll be impressed with his story. After starting and acquiring companies in his 20’s, he now is CEO of Permanent Equity, where he and his team currently own 11 plus companies and oversee the deployment of 300 million dollars in capital. Brent and his team believe in owning companies for the long run hence the name Permanent Equity. This conversation is about much more than just business.

I had a great time with Brent where we cover:

His own transformation after a breaking point in his late 20’s
Why for him, life is a gift, not a game
How the once in a lifetime opportunities he has experienced drive him to create those for others
Why they are building educational systems inside their companies to give people the ability to advance their own value to the world
And more!

https://www.permanentequity.com/

My guest today is Dr. Dennis Black. Dr. Black is one of a kind. I heard of Dr. Black from a listener to this podcast, and once I heard how established he is as an accomplished researcher and award-winning physician while also being an avid fan of Bonnaroo- I couldn’t resist asking him to be on the show.

I had a great time with Dr. Black where we cover:

The time when he wanted to be a mad scientist as a kid, and he lit a desk on fire
The patience and persistence of a researcher
Why he loves pouring into students finding their way
How research is changing and why data is being used to proactively solve problems
And more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Dr. Dennis Black!

Dr. Black is currently the scientific director of the Children’s Foundation Research Institute (CFRI), The Buckman Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Finally, he is the co-owner of the Memphis-based music label Black and Wyatt Records.

Links:
https://www.blackandwyattrecords.com/
https://www.lebonheur.org/publications/delivering-on-a-promise/fallout/profile-dennis-black-md
https://www.bonnaroo.com/

My guest today is Ken Masterson. You may know Ken from FedEx, where he built the legal department and was the General Counsel for FedEx from 1979 - 2005. Ken tells a one-of-a-kind story when Fred Smith wanted him to build a value-added legal department. But Ken didn’t stop there; when Ken retired in 2005, he founded Masterson Farms, where he and his team are dedicated to breeding, raising, and developing the finest western show horses available where he is working today with his wife, Marilyn.

This episode is a great conversation where we cover:

Why his parent’s work for civil rights In Missouri taught him to take risks for causes, he believes in
Why the thought of failure doesn’t bother him when the cause is worthwhile
How his work today still operates off of the principles he learned at FedEx
How Covid taught him to slow down and enjoy the farm and cut down the excess busyness of life
And more!

Last but not least, you can find Ken at mastersonfarms.com

So please enjoy this week’s conversation with Ken Masterson!

RESOURCES

https://abjets.com/
www.mastersonfarms.com

Over the last several weeks, my team and I have had the pleasure of taking my podcast and using it to come alongside and help organizations tell their story to their own people through their own private podcast channel. By creating an exclusive podcast channel for the organization and all of its associates, we help them build further engagement.

This work has been a ton where I prepare by understanding the following:

What makes the company unique?
What's their position in the market they are in?
What's made them successful?
What are the challenges they face?
What are the ups and downs the organization has overcome along the way?
Where are they headed?
What changes are they making?
I interview their own associates and uncover what makes them successful and why they are committed to the organization, and these are produced into weekly episodes.

This work informs and brings together the entire organization to make it more informed and connected to continue to meet their customer's needs and improve buy-in. Our content is engaging and authentic to make it worthwhile for people to listen to it in an already busy week.

One thing that is very clear right now that everyone is running lean. Even the organizations that have only accelerated because of Covid-19 are understaffed, and hiring new talent is challenging. The companies we work with want their people to know they are valued, and they want effective ways of distributing important information.

Consistency matters to me with this podcast, and I have new interviews starting at the beginning of May. I have taken a few weeks off my personal podcast due to a heavy travel schedule recording all of this work.

Be on the lookout soon for new episodes. If you'd like more information on what my team and I are doing above, then go to www.drivenbyproductions.com.

Have a great week,

Sam

My guest this week is Kat Gordon. In her mid 20’s, Kat opened Muddy’s Bake Shop thinking it likely wouldn’t make it. Thirteen years later, Muddy’s is one of the top bakeries in the United States.

This pandemic has been incredibly difficult for businesses across the country, and Muddy’s is no exception. Muddy’s completely shut its doors for several weeks before reopening one of its locations, but things are not as bad as they may sound for Kat. This episode may take a different turn than you expect!

Download this episode if you want to learn more about:

Taking advantage of a do-over
What’s something I care so much about that I’m willing to be bad to be good at it
Thinking about selling
What it’s like when you start to break down
How to make significant changes
Feeling alive again
How the pandemic can jumpstart change
Taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity
And more!

I had a great time recording this episode with Kat. Happy New Year to you and yours!

RECAP

4:27 Making people feel special and loved

6:28 After the pandemic

6:57 What happens when water isn’t flowing in?

7:15 Starting to break down

10:28 Should I sell the bakery?

11:50 How to think about making major changes

13:00 How to do visioning

14:25 We all have great advice for ourselves that we don’t take

15:49 Low stakes way of me playing with the future

19:20 The fact that I didn’t want to pick up that vision again

24:13 How the pandemic can jumpstart change

24:00 What’s most important

25:00 When the world shifted I knew what we needed to do

27:00 I wanted people to feel that they were at my house

34:10 Game over if your burned out in first month

39:35 The difference between receiving a compliment and someone telling me how to live my life

41:00 Doing stuff for the sake of others

50:00 Creativity thrives with boundaries

56:45 Take this once in a lifetime opportunity

RESOURCES

https://www.muddysbakeshop.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is Pat Lawler. Pat is the CEO of Youth Villages. Founded in 1986 with the merger of two Memphis-based residential campuses, Youth Villages is now a nationally recognized leader in the field of children’s mental and behavioral health. From the early days of serving just 80 children a year, we’ve since grown to help tens of thousands of children, families and young people annually, with a complete continuum of programs and services across 24 states and 100 locations.

RECAP

3:00 My Father, where did this come from?

4:56 What drew me in?

6:39 You don’t want to sell tools do you?-- intro?

7:35 Gone back to school

8:13 Drawn to the kids with the biggest problems

8:50 Driven to get to the root

9:15 How to help people with the biggest problems

9:49 What caused these conditions?

13:37 Generational change. Always sticking up

15:27 Learning to be a good parent. Ups and Downs

19:07 Commitment to overcome what comes your way

19:56 Persistent until we get your support

20:50 Research, data, exhaust all options- no turning back

21:20 Not be deterred

21:38 The hardest thing is to change the way people think

22:25 Obsessive compulsive gene

23:05 Thousands of kids and families

24:18 The burden- the passion, the drive, the momentum, the enthusiasm, and the excitement

25:00 Clearly defined and measurable goals, hold accountable, talk experts and data

25:42 Relentless drive to make things better for other people

27:09 Horrible abuse, neglect that scars young people

28:20 Your passionate

29:28 Not now, maybe later. Failure with young people, what did we learn and do it differently learning and experience

31:30 We all need a support system- family is critical and data

32:50 They asked me to quietly close it down-- intro? 33:06

36:20 Pivot, change to support families

39:30 Peer group is key creating change

41:00 I couldn’t do other work

41:20 For the bad there is a thousand more good. Balance work and personal life

42:50 Be open to change, open to where other people are coming from, bring people along slowly, engaged in the process

48:45 The courage to try it

49:05 Committed and passionate- small steps impact their life

50:41 I don’t want to hear about your successes, I want to hear about your failures

57:29 Scaling that problem

56:14 Memphis, TN Murder rate is a serious problem

58:53 Data collecting around the country and scale. Meet needs and replicate it

1:00:13 Make it a safe place for people to live

1:00:55 Deaths across the country are overwhelming/ safe place for kids to grow up in

1:01:43 If people don’t have the opportunity to earn money they turn to crime

1:02:15 Very few cities have put together a comprehensive plan

1:03:55 I know we can do it. We will learn lessons align the way

1:04:51 Giving people hope and meaning into their life

1:07:40 we had passion but no expertise. We needed advice and counsel. These supports could read a balance sheet, help organizational chart, forecast a budget, could help us solve that specific problem and raised money before

1:10:14 Just excited today as I was 41 years ago and I still have that passion and commitment

1:11:00 Moving the organization forward. We need to identify the people that need us

1:12:18 We need to understand the capacity of the problem and scale it to meet the needs

RESOURCES

AB JETS
Youth Villages

My guest this week is Dr. Tracy D. Hall. Tracy is the President of Southwest Tennessee Community College out of Memphis, TN. Regardless of whether you live in Memphis or not, this is an important conversation that applies all across the country.

We talk about education, changing the narrative, the importance of stem education, why community colleges matter, and more. When DR. Hall took over Southwest TN Community College, Southwest had a graduation rate of 5%. Under her leadership, Southwest TN was awarded the prestigious national bellwether award in the category with Redesign, Reinvent, and Reset.

I wanted to have a conversation with Tracy because when I heard her speech when she was named the new President, she was very straightforward. She was honest about the reality but also hopeful about what her new community college could be. Additionally, we discuss:

Why she hates the term at-risk students
How she is living out the dreams of those before her
How to do more than talk and get stuff done
The future of community college education and how they are adapting to the marketplace
And more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Tracy Hall!

RECAP

1:52 First generation college student

2:28 My mother told me the difficulty of navigating college

3:45 Homecoming Queen

4:35 Growing up in a home with a single parent teen mother

5:30 A lot of my life she has lived vicariously through me

6:14 Living out the dreams of others before me

6:48 Grit and Grind that’s my mother

7:09 How hard she worked

7:19 Defying the odds and stereotypes

7:35 We’ve never lived our lives off of someone else’s standard

10:05 My mentor and the path of teaching

11:18 Moving up through the ranks

11:33 Other people that shaped me

12:35 They didn’t have fancy backgrounds but they were College Presidents

13:16 Start preparing yourself

14:55 Everything in my past prepared me for today

16:14 Now I understand, I didn’t see it

19:04 That’s what drives me when you count me out

20:09 I don’t desire the limelight

20:30 I’m used to being ignored

21:43 Driven to find students marginalized

22:21 Labeling people and their potential

22:46 They don’t have to be A students

23:23 People will limit you based on your zipcode

28:14 They don’t realize their potential

30:47 During those years, we’re supposed to tell them they do matter

36:44 Owning our role in the problem

38:38 What small tweaks can do

41:26 Getting things done

42:02 Politics play a role, we move slow

43:19 When people are in need they don’t need help 6 months from now

49:35 Systems thinking

50:20 Taking a risk on something that may not work

52:16 Strategic risks

59:07 Battling covid

1:01:23 Positioning southwest for the future

1:03:23 We’re not going back to the way the world was before

1:06:05 We can’t let you stay in your comfort zone

1:06:51 High Skill, High Wage, Family sustaining

RESOURCES

AB Jets
Southwest Wins Prestigious National Bellwether Award

My guest this week is Geoff Calkins.

This episode is a fun and valuable conversation where we cover:

Discovering his love for stories while battling leukemia as a kid
What it took for a major career change: Leaving the law firm then ending up in Anniston, Alabama
What sports can do for a city
How he learned to write
Finding your voice
And more!

After starting his career as a lawyer in Washington DC, Geoff made a major career change, attending Columbia's School of Journalism. Geoff's first job led him to Anniston, Alabama, then to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and finally, Geoff came to Memphis, TN, in 1996 as the sports Columnist for the Commercial Appeal. Geoff now is the lead columnist for the Daily Memphian and also hosts the Geoff Calkins Show. Geoff's been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by Associated Press sports editors, and he's also received many more awards.

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Geoff Calkins!

RECAP

1:40 I had a much harder edge when younger

2:18 You don’t have to wake up and destroy someone everyday

2:36 I’m best suited to celebrate life where I can

2:52 People in Memphis need more lifting up than crushing

3:02 Mitch Albom- transcendent life lessons

4:00 What you learn child 8 of 9 being flexible

4:25 I pursue stories I write as aggressively as needed

4:40 I have a chip on my shoulder about the city of Memphis

5:00 Cities dismissed by people that live there

6:00 Evolution of Memphis sports

6:25 Why did you move to Memphis?

7:15 Fred Smith

7:57 I’ve been lucky to be around for so many things to write about

9:30 What sports can do for a city

10:53 Leukemia as a kid and everyone died at that time

12:50 Poodle tails

15:12 That was the expectation

15:14 I never worried about money

16:00 We were all trying to prove ourselves all the time

16:40 It’s hard to figure out what you want to do with your life

18:00 I didn’t know if it was going to work

18:15 As it was unfolding it was messy

18:57 Harvard builds a cushion

22:39 You’re better at what you like

23:09 I like people’s stories

23:57 I like being in the spotlight

28:15 Baseball players mooing

29:53 The changes of journalism

31:30 Everyone finds their own voice

32:28 Some of it feels forced

34:10 Stealing people’s ideas

35:50 How data drives stories

36:38 Stories changed with Covid

39:04 The odds of daily memphian making it

41:18 Raising the bar

42:00 Consequences of a roll up

47:15 The world is not waiting on me to get here

50:10 at the end of the day your judged on your clips

56:51 Before you have kids

58:00 side hustles

1:05:38 I have some insecurity of my work

1:09:00 The stories I want to write

RESOURCES

https://dailymemphian.com/authors/gcalkins@dailymemphian.com
http://www.afterthejumpbook.com/about-geoff/
https://www.radio.com/929espn/podcasts/the-geoff-calkins-show-20398
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is University of Memphis Head Football Coach Ryan Silverfield.

For those who live in Memphis or follow U of M Football, do you remember when Ryan was named interim head coach and how he made it known he wanted the job? He didn’t hold back. He went all-in, letting everyone know. I have been looking forward to this conversation, and I am glad to release it to you this week.

During this conversation, we cover:

From sleeping on cots at Hampden-Sydney to being the head coach at Memphis. It hasn’t been easy
How to have confidence in communicating what can be when you can’t guarantee the outcomes
How to frame setbacks
Why character matters
And more!

Ryan began his coaching career at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla, after an injury. He then coached at his alma mater Hampden-Sydney, then was the Head Coach of one High School, followed by 4 Universities and two NFL teams, where he then landed at the University of Memphis before being named Head Coach in 2019.

Please enjoy my conversation with Ryan Silverfield.

Have a great week!

RECAP

2:38 Unemployed is apart of the business

2:47 It is okay to admit this is what I want

2:51 Show your vision. How this can work and come together.

3:12 I was their 7th interview

3:26 You have to prove it every year

4:11 People see your genuine enthusiasm for what you want

4:40 why and how is this going to be successful

5:02 The tomorrow diet

5:34 How things work and how will we have success

7:07 The path has been difficult

7:41 It’s all about how I react

7:53 There are times I have thought about quitting

8:15 How can we continue to get better

8:30 Attach it with mindset

8:40 All in

9:19 Couldn’t get a job

10:30 What could make me different? I’ll die trying

11:12 I want them to have success for everything they say they want

14:44 Confidence for the plan in place. But I still fail

15:33 No one will compete higher for the standard than I am

16:00 Not everyday will be perfect

17:10 How to read people

17:30 High character

17:53 Best opportunity to have success, high character. Judge character listen a lot. What are they telling me?

19:35 What makes them tick?

20:00 Not everyone has a perfect background

20:30 Detailed, charismatic, caring, high energy, talk to others that worked with them.

22:13 How to process setbacks

23:25 How to handle the media

24:07 What can I do better?

24:22 How can I improve the culture/ not play calls

25:00 Tune out the outside noise

26:10 Are we making a difference in those guys lives?

26:50 We will be judged on wins, but swing the axe

RESOURCES

https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/
https://gotigersgo.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/ryan-silverfield/1869

My guest this week is Otis Sanford.

This episode is loaded with experiences, insights, a deeper understanding of how journalism works and where it's headed.

We talk about when he fell in love with journalism, political machines, why he doesn't mind criticism, the funniest story he has covered, the politician who didn't take things personally, and all of the journalism changes and more.

In 1975 Otis became the first male African American reporter for the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion ledger. Otis then would be the Assistant City Editor for the Pittsburgh Press, deputy City Editor of the Detroit Free Press, and the Commercial Appeal's Managing Editor with a few other titles along the way :). He has also served as the chairman of the Mid America Press Institute. He was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. In 2011 he joined the University of Memphis Department of Journalism Faculty, where he is the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Economic and Managerial Journalism. Otis currently writes a weekly column for the Daily Memphian.

Please enjoy this week's episode with Otis Sanford!

Have a great week!

RECAP

48 Seconds: First Male African American to work at the Clarion Ledger

1:14 Como, Mississippi growing up on the farm

1:53 The impact of cotton

3:31 Wanting to get off the farm

4:01 Father loved newspapers

4:47 Reading to my father

5:12 Fell in love by doing that

5:51 I first wanted to be a reporter at 12 years old

7:40 Looking up to Hank Aaron

7:51 The changes with the delivery of Journalism

8:18 Why print was the dominant way we got our news

9:46 Now a days its two days old because of deadlines

11:23 the impact of change of advertising budgets

15:53 It was a daily experience being able to read

19:47 How to compete in this digital age

20:17 How to communicate differently whether tv and radio

20:55 Be a good storyteller if you want to be an opinion journalist

21:45 Bob Woodward- He has the ability to get people to tell him anything

25:56 Good editor who was patient with me

30:42 How I created my leads

38:51 As long as your reading I’m fine with being criticized

41:24 Don’t make the same mistake twice

45:33 How people view race through their own lense

45:38 Why newspapers are influential

59:00 The mark of a good political leader

1:00:00 Any criticism I do it’s policy not personal

1:04:50 Growing up as a child of segregation

1:06:58 When social justice became part of my DNA

1:08:40 Growing up and that drove me

1:10:28 Importance of my parents support

1:13:01 My family wouldn’t let me give up

1:16:05 Don’t accept excuses just do it

1:18:51 How Phil Trenary crossed racial lines

1:22:23 As long as you care

1:23:15 I’m always trying to keep calm

1:34:31 I’ve stopped telling people the printed newspaper will be round for my whole lifetime

1:37:12 The demand of news will continue to grow

RESOURCESMatt Haaga State Farm

AB Jets

Otis Stanford Bio

My guest this week is Kent Ritchey.

For over 50 years, Kent has been in the automobile business. Kent’s company, Lander’s Auto Group, has 15 Automobile Franchises with over 450 Associates in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

I wanted to have this conversation with Kent to understand all the changes taking place with the automobile industry and how he adapts to them. Additionally, we discuss:

Checking your ego and going from an owner to a salesperson when you need a job
What he’s learned about people and what they want after 50 years of selling automobiles
What’s ahead with electric and autonomous cars
How the USA compares with China and India with automobile sales
How he navigated the 2008 Financial crisis right after he bought his first dealership
And more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Kent Ritchey!

RECAP

Show Notes:

1:01 The love of basketball, competing, and Hendrix College

2:30 The challenge of being Married while being a College Athlete

5:12 Growing up in the auto business

6:07 Only as far as word and credit will take you

6:42 The most important things: stress, cash, and people skills

7:42 2008 Financial Crisis

8:36 Covid similar to now

11:01 New blood coming into organization

11:26 Buying money losing dealerships

12:03 Mr. Penske had Unwavering discipline and unwavering consistency

12:39: Have a plan, execute that plan, know what everyone’s role is in that plan

12:45 Too many people spend too much of their life getting ready to get ready

13:28 Lack of drive, personal discipline, and expectations

14:33 Convinced key people with equity position

15:55 Ups and Downs

16:08 Greatest fear is the unknown

17:54 Still learning like my first day in college

20:22 Failure is our greatest teacher

22:00 I wasn’t getting ready to get ready

23:18 Absolute refusal to take no for an answer

23:45 So afraid of failing

24:19 Ability to relate to people

24:57 Positive attitude, goals and objectives, path to get there, measured, and compensated

25:20 talented people once they make money leave them alone

26:30 This is what I enjoy and this is what I do for a living

26:33 Do whatever it takes to sell the car and our volume went up exponentially

34:01 Electric and autonomous vehicles here to stay

35:16 Someone has to be looking beyond the horizon

37:25 Building scale

39:39 Two or one will rise to the top and one will be an equity partner

44:10 What auto sales looks like in india and china

48:40 We don’t take dividends until debt is done

50:19 I think people can only do two to three things. We won’t fix all overnight. But we can do one today and never have to do it again.

58:50 Don’t hide, don’t sweep under the rug, get to the root of the problem, solve it. First loss is the least loss.

1:01:12 You better ask people exactly what they want. People have to tell you.

1:04:20 What would you do if you had to start over tomorrow?

1:05:20 Find something you are passionate about

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm
AB Jets
Lander Memphis

My guest this week is David Jordan. For close to 26 years, David has been leading Agape Child Services out of Memphis, TN. Agape serves approximately 3000 children and families each year by loving families and fighting poverty.

I wanted to have a conversation with David to understand the challenges of poverty and what it takes to succeed in getting out of poverty. Additionally, we discuss:

· That point when you want to throw in the towel

· The impact of Covid-19 and poverty

· Pivoting the organization to be proactive versus reactive

· The power of trust when building relationships

· And more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Davin Jordan!

RECAP

Show Notes:

1:29 Aggressive with the mission

1:41 Pivoting Covid with 130 staff

2:09 Being with each other and connecting

4:17 What it takes to keep the relationship

4:36 Where are our families at? What do they need?

4:36 What are your needs?

4:36 How have they changed?

4:36 How do we advocate on your behalf?

5:25 Two generations of fighting poverty

7:06 What is braided funding?

8:42 Relationships critical to any work

11:12 What’s working well and what’s not

13:13 Addressing barriers that prevent you from being successful

15:54 Am I good enough?

17:01 That’s where your jet fuel comes from

17:24 Your life experience is your greatest teacher

18:11 I would not have scripted this for my life

20:22 Seeing outside of yourself

23:33 Strongest sense of calling I have had

24:46 Being proactive versus reactive

28:01 Circumstances have their place

28:40 Circumstances to not need to define my future

30:13 Generational change requires a generational commitment

31:43 If you don’t know who you are you don’t know where you are going

32:25 Going deep in the communities you’re in

32:25 Keeping the voice of your people at the center

34:03 The Pandemic has backed up poverty

35:11 The significance of MLK

36:34 2.8% of people in poverty actually excape

36:34 Systemic poverty

39:49 How trauma happens

42:54 Judgement creates a divide

44:00 Why $15 an hour is important

53:17 People’s God Given desires

57:00 70% of people work here because of their own experience

1:04:50 Evidence of what you’re doing is working

1:12:22 My Job is to continue to change

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/
https://agapemeanslove.org/

My guests this week are Wiseacre Brewery Founders Davin and Kellan Bartosch.

Davin and Kellan launched Wiseacre in 2013 and it has been a huge success. They quit their jobs, found a partner, took out personal loans and have built one of the most well known craft breweries in the Southeast. After one year of opening, their Tiny Bomb beer won the Bronze Medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2014.

I wanted to have a conversation with Davin and Kellan to learn how they have generated such momentum in a crowded craft beer market. This conversation doesn’t disappoint. We cover:

Going all in at the beginning
Building Wiseacre their way
Living with challenges and ambiguity
Their plans for growth
And more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Davin and Kellan Bartosch!

RECAP

45 secs Beer critics

2:00 You can’t please everyone

3:15 Taking things personally

4:09 Where it started

6:34 The PitBull Named Carlito

10:15 When Tiny Bomb Hit It Big

12:35 Why Memphis Water Matters

14:33 Something Always Goes Wrong

15:02 Founding Brewmaster loves lager and that drives it

15:38 Leveraging their relationship

18:31 Passion can lead to bad decisions

21:37 How to grow a craft brewery

22:18 Doing the job I did before except doing it for myself

22:22 Quantifiable goals and how to measure them

24:13 The power of design

24:50 We both took out two loans each

25:38 Good debt and forecasting money

28:55 Our experience and our instincts got us through

30:18 Telling stories

32:00 I’m better at working by myself than with other people

33:25 Now we’re just reacting

34:05 Cast the vision and what do we need to change to become that vision

35:03 Get going in direction and others execute

37:45 I’m more focused than I was at the beginning

41:00 We’re in a crunch right now

45:07 We have to be okay with grey area

58:00 Natural Progression

59:03 Our identity is Memphis

1:01:01 Approach things with a sense of humor

1:03:10 Be willing to put your time in

1:04:10 Lessons learned from upbringing

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
AB Jets: https://abjets.com/
Wiseacre Brew: https://wiseacrebrew.com/
http://rachelbriggs.com/

My guest this week is Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.

You may know Director Rallings from leading the Memphis Police Department. After announcing his retirement for the year 2021, I wanted to speak with Director Rallings to understand what it felt like when he accessed and walked with protesters off the Mississippi River Bridge in 2016. This is a replay of an episode that was recorded in the summer of 2020.

In this conversation, we discuss:

The principles that he has lived by throughout his life
What a global perspective teaches him about the City he leads
How to have context for the big picture when you're thinking about specific challenges
And more

Please enjoy my conversation with Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.

1:40 Family, Dignity, Respect, and Loving People

1:57 Being Responsible for one’s own actions

3:08 Why discipline matters

3:39 Only two things I wanted to be: a soldier and an officer

4:36 Parents didn’t want me to join

7:20 The sacrifice others have made

7:35 What others have done for me

8:41 What a true global perspective gives you

12:24 George Floyd

12:41 Actual facts about law enforcement

15:00 Soldier for life

16:45 Look at the whole body of work

21:29 I have a long way to go

24:10 I am not going through anything anybody else hasn’t

24:40 Criticism has few terrors for a man with great purpose

26:30 If it’s good to my boss it’s great to me

27:17 You can’t do it all

28:23 Drown out the noise and do the work

29:44 Only hear because of the grace of God

30:04 Love yourself

33:20 President Obama I made a mistake every day

36:20 Getting in harms way

40:36 Negative Media

42:41 Transitioning career and getting to know Mike

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm

AB Jets

Memphis Police Department

Hey Everybody- As I mentioned last week, while I get ready for the new year- I am resharing some of my favorite episodes from 2020 for January while I get ready for this year. Who would have thought almost one year later we would still be where we are with the Covid 19 pandemic. I reached out to Cathy to get an update on where things are now almost one year later with their work. She said that in 2019 the mid-south food bank provided 15 Million meals. IN 2020, they provided close to 42 Million meals. They have close to tripled their distribution since the beginning of Covid 19.

Mid-South Food Bank based out of Memphis, TN. Mid-South Food Bank is a part of Feeding America, a nation wide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community based organizations. Forbes ranks this as the second largest charity by revenue.

In this conversation, we talk:

what food insecurity looks like
what it takes to make this incredible work happen
the importance of community, and more.

Please enjoy my conversation with Cathy Pope.

RECAP

1:33 Starting a new organization

2:47 How feeding America works

3:38 The similarity between a hurricane and a pandemic

5:25 Pushing you at a faster pace

6:15 The impact of underemployment and food consumption

13:00 What ramping up looks like

15:00 How the pandemic pushed production in a positive direction

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm
AB Jets
Mid-South Food Bank

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be replaying some of my favorite episodes from 2020. I hope you enjoy these episodes and Happy New Year!

My guest this week is Isaac Bruce. Isaac was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2020. Isaac played college football for the University of Memphis and was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 2nd round and had a 14-year career with the Rams. Isaac was known for his work ethic.

This episode is for you if you want to learn more about:

How those closest to you notice your gifts
The Ups and Downs of the ride
Copying other’s moves and making them work for you
Embracing your gifts and putting in the work
Transitioning to a new chapter of life
And more!

I had a great time recording this episode with Isaac. Happy New Year to you and yours!

RECAP

1:40 The excitement of being in the hall of fame

2:18 When the hall of fame became a thought

3:30 Football it’s what we did growing up

4:26 When you know your gifts are noticed by others

4:50 An athlete having the choice to embrace the gifts you have and put in the hard work

5:25 Seeing people’s moves and copying them

6:07 Ups and downs along the way

6:44 Never lose sight of the end goal

7:25 Getting all the juice out of it

8:12 Preparing for the next phase of your life

9:20 Keeping the same principles

9:48 Importance of parents

12:00 Being there for family

12:47 You can’t start with the how

RESOURCESMatt Haaga State Farm
AB Jets

My guest this week is Kat Gordon. In her mid 20’s Kat opened Muddy’s Bake Shop thinking it likely wouldn’t make it. Thirteen years later, Muddy’s is one of the top bakeries in the United States. This pandemic has been a massive issue for businesses across the country, and Muddy’s is no different. Muddy’s completely shut its doors for several weeks and has opened one of its locations back, but it is not as bad as it sounds for Kat. This episode may take a different turn than you expect. Download this episode if you want to learn more about:

Taking advantage of a do-over
What’s something I care so much about that I’m willing to be bad to be good at it
Thinking about selling
What it’s like when you start to break down
How to make significant changes
Feeling alive again
How the pandemic can jumpstart change
Taking advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity
And more!

I had a great time recording this episode with Kat. Happy New Year to you and yours!

RECAP

4:27 Making people feel special and loved

6:28 After the pandemic

6:57 What happens when water isn’t flowing in?

7:15 Starting to break down

10:28 Should I sell the bakery?

11:50 How to think about making major changes

13:00 How to do visioning

14:25 We all have great advice for ourselves that we don’t take

15:49 Low stakes way of me playing with the future

19:20 The fact that I didn’t want to pick up that vision again

24:13 How the pandemic can jumpstart change

24:00 What’s most important

25:00 When the world shifted I knew what we needed to do

27:00 I wanted people to feel that they were at my house

34:10 Game over if your burned out in first month

39:35 The difference between receiving a compliment and someone telling me how to live my life

41:00 Doing stuff for the sake of others

50:00 Creativity thrives with boundaries

56:45 Take this once in a lifetime opportunity

RESOURCES

Muddy’s Bake Shop
Matt Haaga State Farm
AB Jets

My guest this week is Jean McGhee. Jean is one of the owners of Hollywood Feed – the fastest-growing pet retail store in the country with 110 stores across the U.S. Jean and her husband Shawn purchased Hollywood Feed in 2006. Before purchasing Hollywood Feed, Jean was a stay-at-home mom. Through this conversation, you'll see that Jean doesn't get caught up with numbers and scale. You'll see how she sticks to what she loves and how this serves the public.

This episode will expose you to everything you need to know about:

Confidence
Importance of single-sex education
Aligning strengths within a partnership
Living through when a key person leaves
Building an ecosystem of talent
The humbling early days
The deeper "why" behind her work
And more!

I had a great time recording this episode with Jean, and I hope it impacts you as much as it did me. Happy New Year to you and yours!

RECAP

2:08 Being a stay at home Mom

3:43 Her husband always thinking big

5:05 Pet Industry follows the human heart

7:34 When you’re young your impatient to find the right answer

8:40 Our job is to help people find their role to succeed

11:08 There is a bias of women in the workplace

12:58 Diverse perspectives create the most value for our company

14:30 First principles- avoid the rabbithole

23:12 No passion it doesn’t last

26:40 We’re going to recover

39:50 If you work hard and you’re focused you will succeed

41:20 Your spouse cannot be your business mentor

41:55 My dad’s answers are the simple ones

43:29 The eternal optimist

59:48 If you aren’t someone else is

1:06:00 We don’t need the whole piece of the pie to be successful

1:12:08 Why pet adoption matters

RESOURCES

Hollywood Feed

Matt Haaga State Farm

AB Jets

My guests this week are Jim and Amy Yurchenco. Jim and Amy have both live and work in Palo Alto, California. Jim was the first employee for worldwide engineering firm Ideo and Amy, most recently as a software engineer for Intuit. In addition to their professional careers, they have canoed the Mississippi River and hiked tens of thousands of miles in 10 different countries (Wales, Turkey, Spain, Scotland, Slovakia, Japan, Italy, France, Australia, USA). In case you didn’t know it is 24,000 miles to travel around the world! Their mileage is incredible.

It’s no secret that this year has taught us how much we value the outdoors, silence, nature, and adventure. This is a fascinating conversation where we discuss:

how to prioritize what matters most to you and live it out
the lessons you learn by spending extensive time in the back country
what it is like paddling the Mississippi River from start to finish
Living differently than your peers
Life is shorter than you think
Each of their different perspectives about work
No one starts as a master builder
If you’re willing to fail you’re willing to learn
how every adventure ads up
Leaving your mark on the world and more!

This conversation was a blast to have, and I am excited to share this week’s episode with Jim and Amy Yurchenco with you. For more information on Jim and Amy you can check out their website here: http://doingmiles.com/about-us/

RECAP

1:32 Daily rhythms of an active lifestyle

5:31 Enjoy practicing my craft

6:36 Fell in love with a shared passion

9:49 Sunday tradition, hiking every week sun up to sun down

10:26 Completely changing our environment

11:00 How much we don’t know

12:37 Natural World was not created for us

16:12 The river is so much bigger than you are

19:02 Software development pays the bills

21:22 Career advancement was not important to me

26:32 I drew the line with work and non work

31:14 Compounding miles

31:32 No one starts as a master builder

44:59 By the time you’ve reached stress your prepared

48:44 Passion for getting as much out of life as possible

51:22 Riding for the joy of riding

52:00 Knowing when to turn back the risk is not worth

55:07 Not failure, I just learned it won’t work

56:36 We were prepared for whatever could happen

1:01:34 People who died always prepared for the expectations they expected

1:02:22 What’s the opposite of the desired outcome I want

1:13:54 Clarify what’s necessary and what’s not

1:16:55 Life is shorter than you think

1:17:15 trade offs for what you value

1:21:36 How do you make your mark on the world

RESOURCES

http://doingmiles.com/about-us/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My Guest this week is Shawn Askinosie. Askinosie Chocolate is a small batch, award-winning chocolate factory located in Springfield, Missouri. They source 100% of their beans directly from farmers. Shawn travels to Ecuador, the Philippines, and Tanzania to source cocoa beans for his chocolate. This allows the chocolate to be traced to the source and labeled authentic single origin.

Their mission is to serve their farmers, their neighborhood, their customers, and each other. The company is currently sustainably feeding over 1,600 students per day in Tanzania and the Philippines without any donations. Askinosie Chocolate has also been featured in Forbes, NYTimes, WSJ, MSNBC, Oprah Magazine, and numerous others.

Shawn has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Missouri- Columbia and Missouri State University. Askinosie Chocolate has received 3 Good Food Awards, considered the Oscars of food, 6 silver awards from the Specialty Food Association; and 7 International Chocolate Awards.

During this episode, Shawn boldly opens up about changing careers, past experiences that shaped his future, threats of having a driven personality, simple living, strong relationships with his farmers in developing nations, facing dark seasons of life, marriage, changes of life, and more.

This episode covers helpful insights, but more about life in its raw for and how to live it in a meaningful way. Available now- I hope you enjoy it!

RECAP

0:28 My grandparents were huge inspirations to me in starting my chocolate business about 14 years ago, and they have long since died, but they were farmers, they were very kind, patient, sweet people, good hearts, lived a very simple life on a small farm, lived on that farm, same place for over 65 years

7:05 Some goals in terms of top line growth, but really it has more to do with cash flow and debt reduction and pay for people and stuff like that.

10:17 It’s been there and you've just seen it escalate or maybe as you've been given more opportunity or more blessing, however you would want to define that

11:18 The trap is, especially for hard-driving entrepreneurs, for people who have a social justice equality mindset, and what I mean is that if we're not careful, we fall into the trap of overwork, and we tell ourselves for years that it's okay and we justify this over work, because we see that the end result is good

16:24 I've been doing that for seven or eight years now in the mornings, and I rarely change it up, and that's the first most practical thing

18:11 Which is how I begin my morning, and that really, I think, sets the tone

25:10 I made a ton of money, I was a sought after lawyer that I could pick my own cases, and so that level of quote, and I really do mean success prompted me to start asking this question, well, maybe I need to think about this hurt in my life, the sorrow, this heartbreak

27:40 Then this kind of paradox, this mystery occurred, which was this really tightly wound, hard-driven, hard-charging lawyer who had to know the answer to everything

31:40 It can be a very scary place, and I know you would probably say, Well, I didn't really figure it all out, I didn't have the seven-step process, but how are you able to kinda keep all the balls in the air, I guess, for those five years as you went through that season

39:12 I think is this that you described is a pathway, and so I would say that it doesn't always have to be that way, but I think in the pathway of... Let's call it in the pathway towards spiritual maturity that we need to experience those doorways, those pathways in order to reach an understanding that we don't need those anymore in order to experience non-duality, so once we can reach a place of understanding and awareness of the non-dual nature of our soul.

RESOURCES

https://askinosie.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnaskinosie/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is JP Dinnell. JP is from Northern California, enlisted in the Navy out of High School, served as a U.S. Navy Seal for 10 Years, and is now with Echelon Front, teaching leadership development and organizational management worldwide.

We talked life's highs and lows, life transitions, and everything in between. This episode is a great perspective on making the most out of your current situation by taking it one day at a time, giving up good for something great, knowing what truly moves you, taking action, and fighting complacency.

Additionally, we cover:

Checking your ego in all of life
What limits people and teams
Putting back together a marriage
Getting back on the path
Faith
And more!

RECAP

8:12 The guys I trained him in MMA with, I was really close with them, they really helped me with my transition out of military, just having that friendship and that camaraderie and that brotherhood again, when you're sweating and training hard with somebody and you're fighting and believing, and you're literally, you're so exhausted, your bodies are picking you back up and getting back into that five to train and you're doing the same for them

11:13 When you're driving to do something and you're pushing hard, you have to be comfortable doing that by yourself, because not everyone's gonna see the same picture that you see, not everyone's gonna believe in the level that you believe it

11:46 You also have to have the understanding that if other people don't see what you see, that's 100% your fault, because that means that you haven't cast the vision of your belief on to them so that they understand what you're fighting for

14:03 But I had a fire within me to provide for my family and to serve my clients unlike anything else, and so when you can find something that provides that to your stand-by, because it's gonna be fun and it's awesome

42:36 Well, there's times that she would get us kids up at 3-34 in the morning, get us ready for the school day, we would go to the gym with her, we would go into the nursery that wasn't open and we would sleep there while she would teach classes

46:55 A lot of individuals have a hard time checking their ego, they have a hard time showing humility, and we'll have companies bring us in and they're like, Hey, if my team would just take ownership

49:29 they don't understand the priorities, they don't understand the mission, people interpret your mission, your message the wrong way, and then when that happens, decentralized command never works

57:35 And so for me, building a team that can go out there and execute, it's not about me, it's about what they're doing, but it's all on me to get them to that level as a leader

1:03:25 I appreciate it, and that makes me feel good about sharing that story I'm always wary of doing a Podcast just because I'm kind of like why would anyone want to listen to me?

RESOURCES

https://echelonfront.com/jp-dinnell/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiahdinnell/
https://twitter.com/JPDinnell
https://www.instagram.com/jpdinnell/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is Warren Doyle. Warren holds the informal record for hiking the Appalachian Trail the most times. That number is 18 times. Yes, he has hiked 18 total times from George to Maine, which is 2,190 miles and typically takes 5-7 months to complete. In 1973, Warren set the unofficial endurance record of hiking the trail in a record time of 66 days.

Since then, Warren has gone on to start the Appalachian Trail Institute, which teaches and equips hikers with the training they need to have a better chance at completing the trail. The trail has a 75% failure rate.

This conversation is much more than just about hiking the Appalachian Trail. It also covers, What drew him in early on, going against the grain, how the trail changes you, the power of nature, how society can conform you, dancing, joy, and more. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode, and I hope this episode gives you more clarity on the power of nature, being tested, and much more.

RECAP

17 Seconds: Don't know whether I would call it struggling, I was wondering, that's a little bit different than struggling

2:04 I decided to go on and covered and remove myself from the society that I was being conditioned for to fit in and remove myself to some place where I could look back in and get an unbiased on prejudice, undisciplined motivated viewpoint of the world.

4:10 The expectation for our first generation working class, college-educated people is to become a member of the middle class, and basically the middle class expectations was to get educated, to get a job, to find someone, to marry someone, to start a family with sub on and to buy a house, and to work and be a responsible husband, father until you retire, and then hopefully to be able to hang on somewhat comfortably until you die

6:29 I wanted to see not how much I could take, but how much I could give up how much I could give up of the cultural conditioning that I had had up to that point in time in my life

8:45 So everything has to be done intrinsically, there's no extrinsic motivation to do the trail, no one has ever gotten rich doing the trail, but now the trail, if you allow it, if you humble yourself to it

12:02 I never really wanted to be an administrator. I've been director of a few things, but sometimes you have to report to people on a college level who have no idea about teaching and effective teaching, and they've just risen up to their highest level of incompetence

13:45 another good thing that you can't change the trail

17:47 . I sit in the front of the class, but when I got into middle school, if I raise my hand and set the right answer, I would be be little or even beat up on the playground by bullies

22:21 he would listen to people and he would listen to their posts their dreams and their frustrations and their anger, and he would write these beautiful poems of their thoughts

49:34 you should go to see people who have been successful at something that you wanna try to do

RESOURCES

http://www.warrendoyle.com/
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/don-west-1906-1992
https://mercuryontherun.com/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is Clark Butcher. Clark is back on for a part two episode. Last week we left off at what happens when you go all-in on your business, and it burns down one month after starting. This week, we will dive into what it is like to build a high-touch retail store. This episode is an in-depth conversation on what it looks like to make a brand and build a successful small business that reaches far more than just a local market. Additionally, it is fascinating to hear how Covid 19 is affecting the cycling industry. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode.

RECAP

1:12:26 Yeah, there was nerves to it for sure, I didn't have any overhead, I just sold my home and fancy car and all that stuff, I don't need any of that furniture and stuff.

1:15:27 It was so intense to pull up and see that happen, and while, yes, that was only my business for 28 days operating for the last 60 days in my life, I had moved gravel, I had cleaned, I'd help life floors, I had painted, I had stressed on getting vendors like, dude, there were so many things.

1:23:15 Service... Man, I'm glad you asked that. That's the one thing we did.

1:25:05 Like the store's tiny. So we got to build a rapport with you and build a relationship with you, and you did not get that anywhere else.

1:27:35 But it's one that I wake up fired up and I wake up typically most creative.

1:38:06 So one is obviously the only way a partnership or a team works is somebody else has a strength or your week, or somebody else has a strength that complements your strengths, that's the only... It's really the only way to look at it

2:00:00 Every single day, victory is open, 30 minutes before we open, we have a mandatory sit-down meeting that's where everyone brings their note pads, that's where we delegate tasks for the day, that's where I cover who's coming in and what's going on.

2:01:32 I've never seen this many people on this bike lane out front, I believe we're about to crush it.

2:19:33 And while yes, I was a 100% freaking out

2:40:16 I'm not gonna waste anyone's time or energy, and by then it was a very seasonal thing at that price point

2:45:09 So it is hard to swallow. I gotta get that out. It was tough to spend that kind of money and that kind of energy, and all those articles came out on pedal town and the cool stuff we were doing, and to have to close it regardless of what is a success financially

RESOURCES

https://victorybicyclestudio.com/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is Clark Butcher. Clark is a cyclist and owner of Victory Bicycle Studio. I wanted to have Clark on the show for a few reasons. First, I read earlier this year when he was asked how he thinks about Covid-19 and how it affects his business, he answered they would continue to serve and deliver a customized service to his clients and focus on that. In other words, it struck me that he was playing offense when it was common to think defensively.

Secondly: Why cycling?

What has he learned about the sport?

What are some of the drivers that make you love the sport?

What can anyone learn about endurance sports?

Why are these things pertinent to what he does today?

And more.

This week's episode is the first of two episodes where next week, we take a deeper dive into building a business and all the ups and downs along the way.

RECAP

0:45 Difference between riding and training, both are great, I found out too late on that both are equally important, you gotta ride and you also have to train

1:59 How can you talk about that kind of ruthless sense of being competitive in ambition when it comes to cycling and training

2:00 I was never the strongest, but I consistently place higher just because I could read the race and understand it

5:35 Did you ever think about quitting early on?

11:19 For years, it was work, I don't believe in work smarter not harder

12:00 Early on, I would never have figured out where I was supposed to land and how this business was supposed to play out

12:43 control the controllables

15:16 It's a lot of strategy and it's a lot of paying attention at the end of the day

28:11 Because I could at least put that to practice immediately, and selfishly, I was pumped to learn stuff and I could apply it literally immediately on the bike or in my diet

28:31 I studied it because I enjoyed it

33:46 And then that's where it took some time, it took about a year of dilly dally and other little goofy jobs

40:46 Okay, so I learned to listen, and that's where I learned to be polished

45:35 You use a human emotion piece, you use in the life experience piece, and then you go all in on that business

1:00:00 Yeah, 28 days and store burns down

RESOURCES

https://victorybicyclestudio.com/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

This week's guest is Matt Cook, Matt is currently the VP of Engineering at Tilled; before that, he launched his own startup, and before that, he was head of platform for Shipt. As you may know, Shipt was started in 2014 and was acquired by Target in 2017 for $550 Million Dollars. As you know, we live in a growing gig economy where people get to work in flexible ways that were not possible before. This is powered by technology, consumer needs, and how platforms bring together service fulfillment quickly, trackable, and cost-effectively. Even if you are not interested in how businesses like this scale and what it takes for them to operate well, you can still learn many things that can be automated with your own day-to-day experiences and where the world is continuing to move from a technological perspective. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode with Matt Cook.

RECAP

00:12: The first real interest I had was the game StarCraft as a predecessor to world to Warcraft, the really popular modern game. But yeah, it was a real-time strategy game. It required a lot of keyboard usage and there were just a lot of variables, you built up an army and attacked other players

9:09 My challenge would be to take it one level further than wherever you're comfortable now, so let's say, for example, maybe you're comfortable with Microsoft Excel and inputting some data and maybe generating a chart, I take that one level further

13:03 All of you guys and girls data ambitious, and does that ambition or drive carry over to other things, there's... It merely just this engineering and creating possibilities where there's currently no possibilities

13:21 certainly the best engineers I've worked with at their core are very curious, and so the idea of taking a challenging problem and solving it, just bringing into the light a solution

15:35 Just whatever your current problem is, take that to someone who's got a technical background and really just brainstorm homes, get in front of a white board and map out how long is the process we'll get 17 steps

16:52 You get obsessed with what the problem is, they can really use their creative energy to devise solutions that you wouldn't have actually described as the business owner.

18:12 You really have to push yourself to stay focused on the product and even sometimes make sub-optimal in engineering decisions, because at the end of the day, if you don't make a product that users love

21:22 What you measure improves, so if you tell the team consistently, hey, here's what we're measuring is our conversion rate on the funnel, if you give that data back to the people who are actually building the product, they'll find all kinds of creative ways

24:42 I get pretty obsessed with whatever the problem is that's the most valuable to the company, and so I really tend to focus on whatever kind of the biggest fire is

40:03 One of the key moments in ship's trajectory taking off, I was actually Amazon purchasing Whole Foods

47:13 one of the changes that it's just hard to understand until you experience it, but the company is constantly changing, so the things that you did to launch one city, they don't want to launch five as you have to adapt

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

Did you know that there are currently over 81,900 missing American Service Members around the world? Why does this matter? Why is this important? What does it take to identify and bring home Service Members? Why is closure essential, and how do these experiences affect us today? We cover all of this and much more.

These service members served our country, sacrificed their lives, and they haven’t yet come home. Today’s episode is about a group of men and women from all over the world that dedicate their work to finding these service members and bringing them back home to their families and much more.

My guest today is Justin LeHew, who is Chief Operations Officer of History Flight. If you missed last week’s episode, go back to last week’s episode, and hear my first conversation with Justin LeHew, Retired Sergeant Major with the United States Marine Corps. I hope this episode impacts you as much as it did to me. If you want to learn more about History Flight and to support them go to historyflight.com

RECAP

00:05: You never leave a fallen comrade behind. I grew up with people in hometowns that were still missing

2:24 I went from a failing high school kid to reading everything I could get my hands on as it related to my profession

3:01 I know it succeeded so we can get past the personalities that are here

9:34 To be able to do this in the second version of my life

11:41 Do not question why they are asking me. Be grateful they are asking me. Because they are asking you for something that you may not see that they may need. And they may not know what they need until you get there.

12:10 I have to learn in a rapid manner

17:48 There are other countries that do not care like this. They do not care about bringing people home.

20:43 Do what you can do during your time for what you are responsible for. You may not be able to fix everything. But if you can walk away saying you left it better than when you found it.

24:50 We are not going to quit

29:00 The best way I can honor my buddy

32:34 My hardest days someone put their arm around me

34:42 How can I make the pages come alive?

37:59 The mission doesn’t stop because Covid is here

55:08 One of the most functioning clocks you have ever seen

RESOURCES

https://historyflight.com/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

My guest this week is Retired United States Marine Sergeant Major Justin LeHew. This episode is the first of two conversations with Sergeant Major (Ret) LeHew. The second one will be next week and also including the organization that he leads today.

Sergeant Major (Ret) LeHew has been awarded the Navy Cross, The Bronze Star. He is also known as the Hero of Nasiriyah for his work taking part in the 507 Maintenance company's rescue operation, including Jessica Lynch in 2003. I quote: “Under constant enemy fire, he led the rescue team to the soldiers. With total disregard for his own welfare, he assisted the evacuation effort of four soldiers, two of whom were critically wounded,” LeHew’s Navy Cross citation reads.

In 2010, Sergeant Major (Ret) LeHew was honored by the Marine Corps with an obstacle named in his honor at Parris Island, South Carolina, called LeHew’s Challenge. Every recruit, both male and female, hears from their drill instructors about the heroism displayed by then Gunnery Sergeant LeHew.

It was a privilege to have this conversation with Sergeant Major (Ret) LeHew. We discuss topics such as: why he from a young age knew he wanted to serve in the Military, why the Marine Corps prepares you for any situation, what drives him, how our world and war is evolving today, why nothing new is under the sun, lessons learned about building a family with a demanding calling, why we’re all equal as human beings, and more. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode. And, thank you to every person serving our country, protecting us, keeping us safe, and sacrificing your own life for our good.

RECAP

5:45 My Father stormed the beaches of Normandy

9:38 I thought my dream was over

13:18 My mom didn’t know what I wanted for myself. I wanted the harshness.

13:57 You want to throw your life away in the Marines?

24:11 The Marines had a way looking at who you are and making the best out of your shortfalls.

27:11 I’m dealing with a different generation with the same problems my Dad did. They are the same motivators.

32:56 Tenacity happens when you know the deeper why. Quitting a calling is not an option. Stay on the path.

42:30 What you get when you take a personal interest in someone else

49:07 What is my drive?

54:45 Look at another human being first before you layer anything else on them.

59:18 Military gives you a set of skills to be successful at any level.

59:57 You have to remove the distractors

1:10:00 You rapidly execute when you know what you need to do

1:19:31 Why do African Americans go to war and then get persecuted when they get home?

1:28:19 We’re dealing with extremities on both sides right now.

1:37:48 There is a big way every 20-25 years

1:50:06 You don’t badmouth the home team.

2:05:36 When we have to face a problem unlike any in the past. There are no knew problems. Open up the book and see how someone else solved it.

2:22:51 You try to do the best you can with what you have at that time

2:40:21 Marriage is not easy

2:49:49 Don’t give time to distractors

RESOURCES

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/06/29/hero-of-nasiriyah-set-to-retire-after-thirty-years-of-service-to-the-corps/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_LeHew
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

Educational inequality is a significant problem today. Last week’s episode covered what it takes to make a positive impact on this problem. When you think about childhood education, you also understand the importance of the child’s development as a person. Teachers are crucial in how this happens, and this work is more than just teaching curriculum.

This week I am releasing the 2nd part to the series with Larissa Gregory. Larissa is over social-emotional learning for Memphis Teacher Residency and is trained in Educational Psychology and much more. I enjoyed this conversation learning more about educational inequality, getting to the root of what a child needs to grow, why teacher burnout is so high, addressing this to create better long-term engagement and more.

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode also consider how things we discuss here affect our society today.

RECAP

8:41 The quality of education you receive can depend on the zip code you’re in

9:31 How tax dollars affect education

10:05 The effect of Covid and how this plays out in poorer zip codes

16:56 You have to challenge the way things have always been done

21:48 How to create a safe space for someone to learn

23:30 How this works in your brain

27:16 Challenge your frameworks

28:17 The less stable the environment the harder it is

29:15 Why you need to get to the root cause

30:41 Why we need to invest in educators

RESOURCES

https://memphistr.org/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

As of 2019, the gap is increasing between rich and poor children with the quality of education that they receive in America. This week’s episode features what it takes to make a positive impact on this problem.

A couple of the top leading factors of crime are education levels and family structure. It’s been discussed on this podcast on previous episodes. Go back to episode three with City of Memphis police director Michael Rallings.

This episode is with David Montague, who led the effort in 2009 starting the Memphis Teacher Residency Program out of Memphis, TN, where he is still executive director today. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the initial need for this work, how it came together, challenges faced along the way, what types of teachers succeed in this work, successes experienced, the job still to be done, and more. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode.

RECAP:

04:07 And at that time, I didn't have a job. I didn't know what I was coming back to Memphis for. And I remember vividly praying and saying, "Lord, show me the biggest need in our city, and I'll give myself to it for the rest of my life."

8:02 I woke up in the middle of the night sobbing and uncontrollable cry... I'm not talking about just tears in my eyes. I'm like, I'm heaving. I'm groaning and with these really like... And it was almost like an out-of-body experience where I was... I remember thinking like, "What are you doing, David? Pull yourself together." And yet I couldn't keep myself from this wailing.

09:56: Yeah. But man, that is not the only experience in my life like that, but one of the lessons from that, I think is like how good a humbling is.

18:27 And a theme that comes up often is the destructive power of self-interest, and that it is our self and our self-interest that pits us at odds with what God's vision for His creation would be.

28:00 Educational inequality is the single greatest social justice and civil rights issue in America today. And so one of it is just that to live in a city where there is such a disparity, we think is an injustice.

31:23 We would say, "Proximity matters," and whoever is closest to the child is the one that can make the biggest difference. And outside of the family, the teacher is the one that has that sort of close, personal, regular contact, and that's why we focus on recruiting very, very high-capacity, high-potential people, training and supporting them really well, and then staying with them for years in the classroom so they can be the best teacher possible.

33:02 Not terribly, not at the school level for a couple of reasons. The schools that we're wanting to serve typically have the highest teacher attrition rates of any of the schools in the city, so we don't have any sort of mandate requirement contract from the district that they have to hire our teachers.

34:23 Well, I got a lot of thoughts on that. First of all, I would say the work in schools that are historically marginalized, low income, in low-income neighborhoods, the work is very, very difficult.

37:17 Faith is incredibly important in this work because if I'm a person of need, insecure and needy, and I go into places of scarcity, I can't last for very long.

RESOURCES:

https://memphistr.org/
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
https://abjets.com/

This week's episode is going to have a different twist to it than the previous weeks.

A few days ago, an article came out where JP Morgan(one of the world's largest banks) told a portion of their staff that they must come back to the office. This report said that through internal data collection, they saw decreased productivity on Mondays and Fridays and worries that remote work is not a substitute for organic interaction and creates missed learning opportunities for younger people.

This article got me thinking about previous episodes that we have had on this podcast where Covid-19, relationships, work from home, development, engagement, and community have come up during each conversation.

I thought it would be helpful to publish one episode with combined clips where this topic is addressed, and overall themes are exposed.

It's fascinating to think about all the technological advances that we have today and what's ahead for our world, but how some things don't change. These are our need for community, relationships, encouragement, accountability, motivation, connection, and more. I hope you enjoy this week's episode.

00:39 Well, I think there are several factors there. The big question I have, and I think a lot of people do is, "What happens to mentoring and culture and training in a digital business environment?

00:39 And I think CEOs are wrestling with this. I had one tell me 30 days ago, he said, "I'm really concerned about my young people," his twenty-somethings. "How do they learn the company culture? How do they learn who we are? They graduate from college, and next thing you know, their whole business is done on a screen."

01:52 I think that's missing right now, and I think it'll continue to be a shortfall from a digital office world although I do think that it's a part of the future.

09:09 Yeah, I'd love to know in those companies, you just mentioned if their C-suite people are all working from home. Are their R&D people working from home? My guess is that there are probably the C-suites in that office [chuckle] because there's enough stuff going on that they've gotta talk to each other

18:35 We're in the first inning of a nine inning baseball game here. We haven't gone through... We've gone through a quarter working from home, not even a year, not a budget, we haven't set a budget or missed a budget yet. And I think some of what we are missing is the personal interaction and the coaching opportunities

19:51 Now, that said, what you said is right. I lived in a big corporate enterprise where we had quarterly meetings, and we had meetings, 'cause we've always had these meetings, and I suspect that a lot of that has gone away, as it should have.

22:08 One is that this COVID-19 has taught us that people really wanna have contact with other people, a lot of the face-to-face and interpersonal interaction. Informal interaction, is a critical piece of the experience. People may not have recognized and understood how profound that was

23:11 One of the lessons we've learned is, "We're gonna keep some advising services online after this is over." And so we I think have learned on both the ends that human contact is critical, people need to have contact with one another, but there are things we can transition online for support that really helps students that have a lot of demands or working excessive hours and need to have access simplified.

JP Morgan Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/at-jpmorgan-productivity-falls-for-younger-employees-at-home?srnd=premium
Matt Haaga State Farm: https://www.matthaaga.com/
www.abjets.com

My guest this week is Ken Utech. What happens when you spend close to 40 years traveling the country and working with close to 1,000 businesses, organizations, individuals, non-profits, and more. You learn about how we as people operate and how to address things as they are, get to the root cause, and work through them. I have yet to hear where a conversation like this will not apply to any person’s situation or life.

Ken and the Utech Group have served and impacted organizations as large as the United States Army and other Billion-Dollar Organizations to large private companies, family businesses, non-profits, religious organizations, and much more. I am glad to release this week’s episode with Ken Utech.

Episode Recap:

05:46: When you think back on your career and you look at what you're doing today and what you're focused on for the future, what are the top three or four things that hold either a leader back, an employee back, or someone back within their family? What are those things that you see most frequently?

08:27: Can you give some real practical examples of what it looks like within an organization or within an individual where there's tension, where change is not happening, and then what the process looks like to come in and to actually unlock that and to create improvement and to address those fears and those control issues?

6:03: What kind of work do you start doing to create change with the decision maker, and how do you get them to see what would be a better way of doing it?

14:04: So it seems like it's pretty messy to go through this process. Is that right?

21:02: What would you say to someone that's wrestling with how they're trying to understand their emotions?

27:31: So from an individual perspective, you've talked about fear, you've talked about control, you've talked about scarcity, when it comes to limited beliefs, how do those affect a leader or an individual or anybody listening to this, regardless of what they do professionally?

30:17: You said, it almost cost you your marriage. What did that look like for you when you were working those hours? And then you also knew things were not the way they should be with your marriage, but you know, I would just guess that you suppressed that realization. How did that play out in your life?

37:24: I've heard this mentioned a lot, and I'm curious to know your take on it. But, in the Bible with Luke 4:24, I've heard this from people that would claim Christianity, and I hear this from people that claim not to be Christians, but they say that no prophet is accepted in his home town.

If you celebrate Labor Day, I hope you had a great long weekend. My editor Kyle Cummings (who does an awesome job) and I were both traveling this week, so I am relaunching one of the most downloaded episodes to date. The Momentum That Builds a $200 Million Dollar Company with Mike Bruns.

I have received lots of feedback about this episode and how much you enjoyed it. I spoke with Mike last week and he mentioned that the things we talk about in this episode are the most common topics talked about when he speaks or when he meets with people when they are trying to learn from him and his experience. One of the many things that stuck out to me personally is how he talked about some of these lessons he learned took him 4-5 years to grasp and act on them. If something sticks out to you, I hope you are encouraged by this podcast.

Listen to this week's episode with Entrepreneur Mike Bruns. Mike founded trucking company Comtrak with one driver after working for three bankrupt companies prior. Twenty-three years later, Mike sold Comtrak with $200,000,000 in revenue and 1,500 employees.

My conversation with Mike is unconventional and engaging. It's not your typical business conversation. Mike talks about getting scrappy, how we as people develop, the driving force behind opening up 21 locations, how much money is enough money, the importance of philanthropy, how he wants to make an impact, the aspects of life that won't change, what makes a bad acquisition and much more.

If you like the show, please share it with your friends and leave a review.

My guest this week is Peter Abell, the CEO of Memphis Symphony Orchestra. I’ve heard about how much transformation MSO had undergone over the last few years. Today we’re talking about deeper reasons that push you into your interests, how to transform a struggling non-profit, the X-factors that create a significant impact, how a symphony drives the classical music within a city, how to step back and look at challenges differently, how to adjust when COVID-19 affects your organization, how to address your need for control, the feeling when you know it’s going to be hard, and more. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode.

EPISODE RECAP

My guest this week is Peter Abell (1:07)
You went to the University of Tennessee, right? (2:56)
This is the third non-profit you’ve been affiliated with? (3:58)
What is it about non-profit organizations that you’re attracted to? (5:36)
When you talk about the “double bottom line” and the “chief people gatherer”, you talk about opening up to the process. What specific shifts have you learned to make that were difficult and/or you’ve come to appreciate? (9:08)
What is the best way to operate where you’re respecting the board but also your own personal thoughts about where the organization needs to go? (13:24)
The things we enjoy as citizens in this city (and the same for orchestras all over the country and world), the foundation of the arts or music in that area is done by the symphony. So when people have events in the city, they draw off the symphony and that’s a lot of overhead. But when the money was raised, it gave you, the board and the team freedom to start doing the deeper things. (20:40)
So what made this happen was you coming on after some dark times, the relationship with the donor and his large commitment jumpstarted this? (28:26)
When the donor called you and asked if you could make this work, what did that feel like? (32:45)
You talked about the internal piece, but in a non-profit space what have you learned that your people need the most to be able to navigate these difficult seasons? (34:43)
Have you been through a season where there was someone who reported to you, was key to the organization but it wasn’t working out? What have you learned regarding that? (37:37)
What do you think gives you contentment in this season to wake up each day and keep charging forward with optimism and confidence? (43:27)
Can you talk a little about February and March when COVID started to be taken more seriously - what did the emotions feel like initially and what are your plans for growth after this season? (52:21)
What’re you excited about once this passes? (58:41)
From a family perspective, how have you learned to operate with so much ambiguity but also what that looks like at home? (1:00:17)

RESOURCES

podcast.sampcoates.com

My guest this week is Tom Kadien (1:07)
Tom, what made you want to take over UMRF Ventures after retiring from IP? (3:07)
Can you talk a little bit about your perspective of work - from a financial standpoint, there’s no need for you to have to work. But it sounds like there’s a core belief about work that you have. (4:12)
Can you talk a little about the value that a Memphis alum may not understand about the benefit of UMRF Ventures? (6:53)
How would you recommend a student take full advantage of their time at the University of Memphis? (9:35)
From your perspective starting from the ground up and taking on responsibility after responsibility, how did you take on your own tempo of urgency and how did you approach that with your team? (13:13)
Do you feel like because you are competitive you could have had the drive toward anything or was there anything particular about IP that kept you engaged? (16:10)
How old were you when you ran into bad bosses, how long were they over you and can you give some advice or perspective if someone may have a bad boss? (18:02)
Sounds like you wanted to be part of a team or culture and you started getting more opportunity - it wasn’t a specific strategy or work focus? (19:58)
From a corporate standpoint, were there any hard times from a family perspective moving your family around the world and having a very fast paced lifestyle? Are there any life lessons you can pass on? What did you learn that served you well? (21:11)
It sounds like you and your wife really communicated and had mutual buy in and agreement (25:30)
When you would take over a department or portion of the company, what would be your mindset or perspective on coming in and getting the area into the place you wanted it to go to (27:40)
How did you learn how to worry about the things you need to worry about and let go of the things that weren’t important? (31:06)
Can you talk a little about how you’ve learned to handle mistakes or hard lessons learned throughout your career? (33:54)
Can you talk a little about the next 10-15 years with virtual working, do you see any long term change happening to corporate America? (37:10)
Can you talk about how you learned how to accept or handle issues that threw you off guard? (41:44)
Did it ever feel weird or embarrassing flying company or private planes? (46:14)
I thought it was really interesting that you were on the board at Sherwin Williams and they bought Valspar. What was that acquisition like on the board? Can you talk a little about mergers and acquisitions - when they go well, when they do not go well? (48:31)
Could you give 3-5 bullet points on why a lot of deals don’t work out? (51:49)
So is it really three main things - the forecast on sales and ROI, the leadership and the cultural identities. Could you boil it down to that? (53:12)
On a deal that size - $10 million - how long does a conversation take place? (55:13)
From a personal standpoint, what are you most looking forward to over the next 10 years? (57:35)
Last question - when you think back on your career, are there a few principles or values you want to pass on? (59:40)

RESOURCES

podcast.sampcoates.com

Good morning Sara and Cam. Cam - what was it like volunteering and leaving your job to join R.E.P? (2:12)
When you said, “I know that was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life”, what did that mean? (4:45)
Sara, how long have you been involved in R.E.P and what made you want to go all in on this organization? (6:15)
Cam, when you first started were there any moments where you were like, “Why am I doing this?” (8:17)
From a generosity standpoint, it’s hard enough to start a business from scratch. I’d imagine it’s even harder to start an after school refugee program from scratch since it’s not for profit. What was it like raising money for that? (10:16)
I hear you and your commitment - working for free and working out of belief. Sounds like Memphis Leadership Foundation has been a meaningful relationship, is that true? (13:47)
Sara, what drew you to this work early on? (14:25)
Cam can you talk about what it’s like to take a risk to go on a journey that is rewarding but also very hard? (15:50)
Can you talk about challenges with Mama Ruth coming over here? (18:16)
Can you talk a little bit about the core fundamentals that R.E.P believes in? (21:37)
Mama Ruth sounds like a tough lady! How does it work to work together with 3 passionate people? Can you talk about the good lessons and tough lessons learned? (23:49)
R.E.P is almost 20 years in. What does it look like now and what are you shooting for next? (28:24)
What other lessons have we not talked about that are worth sharing? (32:04)
So you came in and had a 5 year plan, but we’re close to 20 years in. Things don’t always follow the schedule. So is the takeaway that you need to know the end road and it’ll be a windy road to get there? (34:10)
I’d love to close by learning a little more about the characteristics of the refugees that you see (36:47)

RESOURCES

Refugee Empowerment Program

Listen to this week's episode with Entrepreneur Mike Bruns. Mike founded trucking company Comtrak with one driver after working for three bankrupt companies prior. Twenty-three years later, Mike sold Comtrak with $200,000,000 in revenue and 1,500 employees.

My conversation with Mike is unconventional and engaging. It's not your typical business conversation. Mike talks about getting scrappy, how we as people develop, the driving force behind opening up 21 locations, how much money is enough money, the importance of philanthropy, how he wants to make an impact, the aspects of life that won't change, what makes a bad acquisition and much more.

1:03 I'm going to be the smartest 90-year-old you know
1:49 Transitioning from trying to make Friday's payroll
3:30 Industry experience is less important than raw talent
3:57 Daily habit- make my morning rounds
5:50 Mistake of hierarchy that organizational chart determines one's value
9:13 Empathy whether necktie or uniform on
11:30 No smoke-filled room
13:00 Working for 3 Bankrupt companies shows you what not to do
13:20 Trucking was immaterial for what I did for a living
13:36 I knew what buttons to push
17:21 Take the person for what their value is. You can't take a chainsaw to someone
20:23 Changed from doing everything to letting people do things better than me
23:50 We learned the most from mistakes
25:00 Examples how to make the best out of mistakes
26:05 Let's give the mistake the biggest wow factor they have ever seen
26:29 Enough money is enough money
27:44 Most conservative trucking company in the business
32:00 Where I learned to scrap
34:54 How we decided where to expand locations
37:02 Didn't care about size
37:17 I had to run ahead and see what we were doing next
37:47 Create new challenges for people
38:17 Working in a dying industry sucks
42:28 My greatest joy was taking someone and reinventing them
48:16 I didn't plan beyond a year
50:33 Technology creates opportunities today, but some things don't change
52:42 Even if I wasn't first I could react because I had the best people
57:46 What does well run look like?
59:33 Revenue hides sins
1:00:57 What acquisitions to stay away from
1:03:09 How to move on after selling
1:07:00 Importance of Philanthropy
1:10:19 Helping others created buy-in with employees
1:17:40 How to buckle down during a setback
1:24:30 Going backward to appreciate going forward
1:27:11 Humility is the secret weapon

My guest this week is entrepreneur Carolyn Hardy. The first episode I released for this podcast was with Carolyn, and that episode is one of the most downloaded podcast episodes to date.

If you listened to episode 1, you will hear how Carolyn said that her purpose has now shifted to help open more doors that should have been opened by now. I felt it was best to have a second conversation to understand better what she was saying in detail. Thankfully, Carolyn agreed to have this conversation.

This episode is a straightforward conversation in which Carolyn discusses the racial challenges that she encountered throughout her educational and professional career, the lack of follow-through or lip service that can occur with corporate diversity initiatives, what needs to change to make them effective, and more. This episode challenged me to think about my own mental frameworks and the difficulty that certain people have to endure to advance forward.

2:38 Target on your back
2:50 Don't give people ammo
5:02 Don't let someone run you out
5:26 Forced to be perfect
7:45 Who don't you leave?
10:02 Someone you would hate to lose
11:04 Mindset
17:50 Don't let them get in your head
21:16 Always doing business a certain way
26:00 Gatekeeper
26:50 Skilled workforce
29:31 Education
30:25 Equal Opportunity
30:33 No Lip-service
31:34 Starts at the top
33:28 Diversity on corporate boards
38:05 Why do we keep doing the same thing over and over again
41:08 What creates sustainability
45:58 Smile, shake hands, then be sent to the gatekeeper
46:20 Life is too short
47:12 You can't take it personally

This episode is brought to you by Matt Haaga with State Farm Insurance. Call Matt today at 901-443-4655, or email Matt at matt@matthaaga.com to see how he can help with your auto, home, renter's, business, and life insurance needs. Matt is licensed in the states of TN and MS.

My guest this week is Chris Canale. Chris founded Old Dominick Distillery four years ago, and Old Dominick produced its first batch of whiskey in 2016. This episode is a fun and straightforward conversation that goes into this history of 150 years of family business history – what it's like running a start-up company during COVID-19, what it’s like finding enjoyable work, unique and fun personal and family experiences during the pandemic, what it’s like going up against the big players in the Spirits business, and more.

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode. And as always, if you like the episode, please leave a review and share it with your friends.

How to gain perspective during Covid-19 (1:50)
How Covid-19 is accelerating change (5:40)
This too shall pass (7:12)
Getting aggressive (7:25)
Silver lining (8:40)
Tough times (9:20)
What running a distillery looks like (12:36)
Self-awareness 15:24
Family Business 17:57
Finding enjoyable work (20:15)
Don’t dwell on mistakes (27:23)
Humility (29:28)
Authenticity (35:23)
Big Players try to eat you alive (35:46)
Customer Service (38:22)
Growing into new markets (42:40)
Planning 12 Months out (48:19)
Family experiences during COVID-19 (51:54)

This episode is brought to you by Matt Haaga with State Farm Insurance. Call Matt today at 901-443-4655, or email Matt at matt@matthaaga.com to see how he can help with your auto, home, renter's, business, and life insurance needs. Matt is licensed in the states of TN and MS.

This episode is brought to you by Matt Haaga with State Farm Insurance. Call Matt today at 901-443-4655, or email Matt at matt@matthaaga.com to see how he can help with your auto, home, renter's, business, and life insurance needs. Matt is licensed in the states of TN and MS.

Episode Links:

Drew Holcomb on Ramsey Network's EntreLeadership Podcast
Drew Holcomb's Website
Drew Holcomb - Facebook
Drew Holcomb - Instagram
Drew Holcomb - YouTube

Memphis Travel

This episode is brought to you by Matt Haaga with State Farm Insurance. Call Matt today at 901-443-4655, or email Matt at matt@matthaaga.com to see how he can help with your auto, home, renter's, business, and life insurance needs. Matt is licensed in the states of TN and MS.

Church Health Center

This episode is brought to you by Matt Haaga with State Farm Insurance. Call Matt today at 901-443-4655, or email Matt at matt@matthaaga.com to see how he can help with your auto, home, renter's, business, and life insurance needs. Matt is licensed in the states of TN and MS.

Michael Dunavant, US Attorney of West Tennessee, discusses how he found his calling, what keeps him moving forward, how he and his team represent the people of West Tennessee, his thoughts about the murder of George Floyd, and his plans for making West Tennessee more safe.

Fred Jones, founder of the Southern Heritage Classic, discusses how to think about taking risks, the importance of community and celebration, having a vision and enduring through negativity and cynicism, systematic challenges, key people that helped him along the way, the importance of mindset and faith, and more.

Isaac Bruce, Super Bowl Champion and 2020 Hall of Fame Inductee, discusses when he knew he had a chance at something special, the rollercoaster of emotions, family, faith, his goal to be an NFL owner, and more.

Drew Holcomb on Ramsey Network's EntreLeadership Podcast

Dr. David Rudd, President of the University of Memphis and US Army Veteran, discusses "knowing your why", innovation, data, growth, values, time management, transforming an organization, what he would tell a student who had the opportunity to attend the University of Memphis or a prestigious institution such as his own alma mater, his involvement with Penny Hardaway's hiring, and more.

Michael Rallings, Memphis Police Director and US Army Veteran, discusses his service in the US Army, 30-year career with the MPD, perspective on duty and service, how to think about data, what he was feeling during the 2016 bridge protest, thoughts on George Floyd, and what we need to do to improve our community.

Cathy Pope, CEO of Mid-South Food Bank, discusses her diverse career, the importance of family, work ethic, relationships, leadership, adversity, and much more.

Entrepreneur Carolyn Hardy discusses her all but easy career path before acquiring her first company with high-interest money, living out her purpose, family, career advice, and much more.