Go All 1N Podcast
Go All 1N Podcast: All 1N. Every Day. No Excuses.
Hosted by a driven blue-collar entrepreneur, Jake Fine and a Notre Dame football alumnus and NFL veteran turned business leader, Braxston Cave, this podcast is for those who know the value of hard work, resilience, and going all in on what matters most. From the RV factory floor to the football field and beyond, we uncover the stories, strategies, and mindsets of those who hustle to turn challenges into opportunities and dreams into reality.
Powered by the Be Better Brand, each episode delivers authentic conversations, actionable insights, and inspiring guests who prove that greatness is built, not given.
Subscribe now and join us as we GO ALL 1N—because better is always possible.
Go All 1N Podcast
From Command to Culture: How One Leader Changed an Organization Ft. Bill Coughlin
Ep. 76 From Command to Culture: How One Leader Changed an Organization Ft. Bill Coughlin
Leadership isn't just a professional endeavor—it's a deeply personal journey of growth, adaptation, and self-discovery. In this revealing conversation with Bill Coughlin, we explore the remarkable evolution of a leader who transformed from an ambitious young manager focused solely on climbing the corporate ladder to becoming an empathetic, people-centered leader with lasting impact.
Bill's candid reflection on his "horrible" early leadership style sets the stage for a powerful story of transformation. The turning point came through his 25-year mentorship with Joe Gillum, who delivered the wake-up call that would forever change Bill's approach: "You're going to drop like a rock when you reach the top because of how you treat people."
The conversation takes us through Bill's extraordinary experience during 9/11 as part of United Airlines' response team. Being on the only civilian aircraft in American skies the day after the attacks, escorted by military jets to Newark, and spending 21 days at Ground Zero working with grieving families profoundly shaped his perspective on leadership and humanity.
Perhaps most fascinating is Bill's central role in transforming Lippert's corporate culture. Walking into an environment where a vice president's greeting was "go out there and F-ing lead," Bill helped establish core values and shift from command-control management to trust-based leadership. His philosophy—creating workplaces where people "get to" rather than "have to" work—offers practical wisdom for leaders at any level.
Throughout our discussion, Bill weaves together professional insights with personal values, showing how his Irish Catholic upbringing in a family of 14 children, his faith during crisis, and his 40-year marriage provide the foundation for his leadership principles. His approach to balancing high-stress careers with intentional family time offers a refreshing perspective for today's busy professionals.
Whether you're an aspiring leader or a seasoned executive, Bill's journey reminds us that leadership excellence comes not from titles or achievements but from earning trust, maintaining integrity, and focusing on what people do right rather than wrong. Subscribe now and join our community of leaders committed to making a positive difference in both business and life.
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Yeah, one of my roles at United I was on what we call a go team. So anytime there was an aircraft incident, there was a certain number of people 13 people that would go to that incident. Right, and we would work with family members and we would so. But 9-11 was very different for us. We had two aircrafts that went down, one in the tower, one in Shanksville, pennsylvania, and what was so different is that back then, if you think about it, we had pagers. We didn't have cell phones that we walked around with, so you had a pager with you when you got that 911, we always had to have a bag with us and you'd go to the airport and you'd get on the airplane and off you'd go to the incident.
Speaker 1:Well, at 9-11, everything was grounded and so we were out of Chicago and we had to take whoever right thought that they could handle it and come with us. And we had to build a different team and we got on an airplane. The day after, on 9-12, 8 o'clock in the morning, we were the only airplane in the sky. You guys and we were off to Newark to go meet with family members and we were surrounded as we left O'Hare and got over Lake Michigan, we were surrounded by four aircraft, four military aircraft that escorted us right to Newark Airport.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to the Go All In podcast. I'm Jake Fine and I'm Braxton Cave and, as promised, we are bringing you guys another special guest and here today. I am not going to go too deep into his introduction and bio, because we're going to let him walk us through that. To go too deep into his introduction and bio, because we're going to let him walk us through that. But this man has been, over the last 10 years, a great mentor to me, a colleague, a business partner, but, most importantly, over the last 10 years, it's been really cool to call him friend. And so, without further ado, mr Bill Coughlin, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Brax. Jake, good to be here. Glad you're here.
Speaker 3:So tell us a little bit about Bill.
Speaker 1:So a little bit about Bill. So Bill currently is married to my wife, lisa. We're going to celebrate 40 years this year, so pretty excited about that. We have five wonderful kids and three of those children are married a couple grandkids and one on the way. So just had four of our five kids home for Easter, so it was fun to have them in the house. And yeah, I've worked currently at Lippert here out of South Bend, but I've spent time with United Airlines 22 years with United Airlines. Um, spent eight years with a company called Mossberg and company with was a commercial sheet fed printer in South Bend and, uh, joined Lippert 11 years ago and it's been a it's just been a fun ride for the last 11 years.
Speaker 1:So I grew up in the Chicagoland area with 13 brothers and sisters. Mom and dad had 14 kids in 16 years. So the oldest, my oldest brother, jim, was 16 when my youngest sisters were born. The last ones were identical twins and my dad said when they started to come in twos, it's time to shut that thing down. So yeah, it's how we grew up Big family, big Irish Catholic family and just a lot of fun, still super close. And so, yeah, it's how we grew up Big family, big Irish Catholic family and just a lot of fun. Still super close and so, yeah, family is super important to us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so you know Bill's daughter, rose, and I went to school together. We were the same class and so I've known Bill for a long time and have always thought so highly of him a long time, um, and I've always thought so highly of them. And then once I got the opportunity to really get to know him when I started working at Lipper um, it's just been an incredible 10 years for me and and, uh, you know a lot of people talk about you know we talk a lot on this podcast about leadership and what that looks like and and you know the different fronts whether it's family business you know Bill's done it at a high level for a long time, and so I'd love to hear you walk us through that journey, starting at United Airlines and kind of your path there. I know you work in multiple different roles and then also, while you're on that, tell us about your mentor that you had while you were coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I spent like I said. I spent 22 years at United Airlines and I changed jobs every two years at United. But, to be honest, I was a horrible leader early on. To me it was about moving up in the company as fast as I could, making as much money as I can, trying to support right. I was newly married, knew we wanted to have kids, I wanted to support my family and um, and I was fortunate because United saw some potential in me but also saw that I was going down a bad path. So, because I would push people, I mean I would. I was going to get by everyone, so I would step over whoever I was. It was all about me.
Speaker 1:And so so I was introduced to a gentleman by the name of Joe Gillum, and Joe Gillum was an outside consultant to United and he took me under his wing and the first time I had to sit with him he asked me what's your goals? And I said well, my goals are to move up, make as much money as I can. He goes, good for you. Where are you going to get to? I said to the top man, I'm not going to stop till I get to the top. And he goes oh, good, good, I think you'll get there. I go well, good for you, I'm sure I will get there. And then he said you know what's going to happen to you when you get there. I said what's that? He said you're going to drop like a rock. And I said why would you say that? And he said it's because of how you treat people. He said it's all about you. And then in those difficult times you'll be fortunate that in difficult times people will hold you up. They won't walk away and watch you drop.
Speaker 1:And so I worked with Joe Gillum for 25 years. He knew my wife, he knew my kids, I knew his family. I mean, we had a great, great, great relationship. And the only reason I tell you it was only for 25 years is after 25 years Joe was out in North Carolina to do a speaking engagement and didn't show up and he had died in his sleep the night before. And it was right then that I decided I wanted to take all the things that he had taught me and I was going to go in and just share the same message with everyone I could. And so that's how I got myself into leadership development.
Speaker 1:So my ride at United I was successful because I had a guy like that that constantly worked with me, right, and I could pick up a phone at any given time and call Joe and ask him what do you think of this, what do you think of that? And he would gut, check me or he would say, well, go try it and then come back and tell me how it went right, he didn't sit there and give me answers, he would just challenge my own thought process. So and many times you realize that a good coach doesn't give you the answers, he just asks you a lot of questions. You have the answers, right. So so, yeah, he was a, yeah, a great, great guy, right.
Speaker 1:So, and I would say, another leader for me is obviously my parents. I mean my parents. When you have a house full of kids like that, everyone had jobs, everyone worked together, your family members were your best friends. I mean, that's the way we were raised and it was all about working hard, right, put your head down and just go to work. So I've had a great career and, yeah, a lot of it because of people like that that right just gave to me yeah, so so two decades united airlines.
Speaker 3:You, you know, we all lived through 9-11. You really lived through it. I lived through, yeah can you?
Speaker 1:tell us through, walk us through that story and what your role was at that time yeah, one of my roles at um, at united I was on what we call a go team. So anytime there was an aircraft incident, there was a certain number of people 13 people that would go to that incident. Right, and we would work with family members and we would so. But 9-11 was very different for us. We had two aircrafts that went down, one in the tower, one in Shanksville, pennsylvania, and what was so different is that back then, if you think about it, we had pagers. We didn't have cell phones that we walked around with, so you had a pager with you and when you got that 911, we always had to have a bag with us and you'd go to the airport and you'd get on the airplane and off you'd go to the incident.
Speaker 1:Well, at 9-11, everything was grounded and so we were out of Chicago and we had to take whoever thought that they could handle it and come with us. And we had to build a different team and we got on an airplane the day after, on 9-12, 8 o'clock in the morning, we were the only airplane in the sky. You guys and we were off to Newark to go meet with family members and we were surrounded as we left O'Hare and got over Lake Michigan, we were surrounded by four aircraft, four military aircraft that escorted us right to Newark Airport. That was a life-changing event. We got on the ground. There were people all over with right, ak-47s and everything strapped to them. You didn't know what was happening.
Speaker 1:Next, we set up at a Hilton right outside the airport and we started to meet with family members. Right that came. There were a couple of us that went to Ground Zero just because we had an aircraft there and at that time you didn't know what was really left or what they had. And it was, yeah, it's an event that you would never forget, right, if you were there. And I worked with a lot of different family members, right, that lost loved ones, and it was very different because usually we would. Either it was an aircraft issue that we had, it was a problem where it was pilot error, and in this obviously everyone knew before we even got there that right they were hijacked and they didn't have a shot.
Speaker 3:So, and you were there. You were at ground zero. For how long?
Speaker 1:21 days. 21 days I was there. I was one of the guys that was there the longest. So there were some people, like I told you, we grabbed some others that thought they could help and wanted to go work with families, but when they got there and saw the devastation and then and then you meet with someone just lost a loved one, it's, it's. You have to be skilled at it, right, and you don't have to have answers, but you have to be a darn good listener, right, and have a lot of empathy for people. So, so we had team members that were there to work with family members that we ended up saying just go in your hotel room and don't come back out. There was no way to send them back home, but there was no way you could put them in front of family members, right? So that was, um, it was crazy time, yep, still to. Still to this day, all these years later, on 9-11, I still hear right from friends of mine that were right in New York with me, right at Ground Zero.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and then shortly after, that is when you transitioned away from United right From.
Speaker 1:United, right, yeah, yeah, to be honest, it was right. After that, when I was out in New York, I got a call because I had been in South Bend for a couple of years working for United. And here in South Bend I sat on an advisory board for the Center for the Homeless and I met a gentleman, a local guy, that owned a business here, and he had called me after 9-11 and asked if I would come and work at his company. And I told him I was at ground zero, working with families, and he said, hey, give me a call later.
Speaker 1:And so when I got back off that airplane after 21 days, I was on a team of 13 people that was looking at the industry, looking future of United Airlines, and I was met by my boss and told, as I got off the airplane before I even got home and saw my wife, hey, your job's been eliminated, we'll find something for you, but you're not going to be doing that job any longer. And I was like, all right, I'm going to go home. And then Bob was one of the guys that I called and said, hey, how serious were you about that opportunity? And so, shortly after 9-11, I left, I joined a company here and I moved right back to South Bend. I joined a company here and I moved right back to South Bend.
Speaker 3:What was the transition like from working United Airlines kind of a high stress, especially in the end, very high stress to transitioning to Mossberg?
Speaker 1:What was that like? So there was a transition there. There was another company that I worked with called Corporate Services, and I worked with them for two years and that was setting up a care center for them, a call center. They were a fulfillment company here, local, and so I helped them set up a call center. After two years of doing that, united called me back and said, hey, would you come back and work with us? So I went back to United for five years and ran five different call centers for them, and then it was after that that I left Because those call centers for them.
Speaker 1:And then it was after that that I I left because those call centers they had unionized. And after they unionized, united actually shipped the work out. It went to India and it went to the Philippines, and so we shut down. Out of 17 call centers that we had, we shut down 15 and we only had two left. They wanted us to move back to Chicago and my wife and I four of our kids were in high school at that time and we said, no, we weren't going to move once they were in high school. So so then that's when I went to work for Mossberg.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so you know, you and I we just get to start working together, and at that time, you know you were the what we like to call the OG when it comes to leadership development at Lippert. And so talk to us about, when you came over to Lippert, what your role looked like. What did the company look like at that time as compared to where we're at today?
Speaker 1:You can't even compare what Lippert was like 11 years ago to what it is today. Honestly. I mean, when I came in, it was truly to work on leadership development and we had a gentleman there, a guy by the name of Mike Gardy, who was a one-man show at that time, and so he brought me into this division and he introduced me and I'm not sure if I can, but I think I can say it on here. So I go into this room and there was a vice president sitting there and two general managers and I was introduced. Hey, this is Bill, and he's going to be your leadership director, right? And this VP looked and he said oh, you're going to be a leadership director, huh, well, go out there and F and lead. And he pointed out to the plant and I looked at this guy and I was like. So I walked up to his desk and I put my hand out to shake his hand. He looked at me and he said what are you doing? I said well, usually when I meet someone, they stand up and shake my hand. This guy grabbed my hand, shook it like I was a three-year-old kid and threw it to the side. He goes no, like I told you go out there and F and lead and I was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing here?
Speaker 1:Long story short, that guy over the years ended up being just right, great friends. But that's where we started, right. And now you would never see that at our company. It's unbelievable, right. People buy into what we're trying to do and where we're trying to go and the community service that we give. But it was tough sledding at the beginning. Right for our company and you really. Honestly, you just had to look at who were those early adapters, who were the people that wanted to buy in, who knew that there was a better way to lead than just a command and control screaming at people right and it's not that they were bad people.
Speaker 1:It's just that's how they got responses. They got people to do what they wanted them to do. So it was, yeah, those were some pretty crazy times early on. So I mean, back then we didn't, we didn't have what we call core values, we didn't have a mission statement. I asked.
Speaker 1:I asked the COO at that time, on my second day in the company. I said do you have a mission statement or a vision statement? He goes what I said like a mission statement. He goes well, I can tell you we're on a mission. I go oh good, what is it? He goes to make as much money as we can. I was like that's not what I'm looking for, right? So then I talked about value system. I said do you have any core values? He goes I can tell you what we value. I said what's that? He goes making as much money as we can.
Speaker 1:But at United we had core values. At Mossberg they had core values and I just gave them as samples of them and I said hey, this is what I'm talking about, and the timing was pretty cool, because the executive team had gone to Chicago to do a strategic planning meeting and they came back after four days and that COO threw a sheet of paper out in front of Mike and I and said hey, these are our five core values. I don't know what you guys are going to do with them, but there they are. And to this day, those are still the five core values, right, of our company and people. They know them, they live by them. So it was right. It's been a pretty cool journey that we didn't change and get rid of things and reshuffle the deck. I mean, it's still how it started. It started.
Speaker 1:So it's crazy when you have those words written down yeah, you just live by them. And you know, jake, it's funny because at the beginning there was no definition around them. Like one of our core values was passionate about winning. Well, if I talk to the four of us, what's winning? We all might say something different right. I might say getting home to my family on time. You might say making sure my team members are, you know, safe. Brax might say making money. Right. So every one of us in here might say passion about winning. Winning is different. So, but once we got definition behind it, then people started to buy in and they understood it Right. So, and that was with all of our core values.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and I I've told the story on the podcast before about how, you know, obviously there was a lot of skepticism when this first kicked off and you had to live through. You know you're moving a ship at this point right and that takes a long time and you know, I felt like, you know, I was, you know, a year and a half after, kind of when this all kind of kicked off. You know, a year and a half after, kind of when once this all kind of kicked off, and so I, you know I wasn't there from day one of the culture journey, I would say, but very early and I've told this story before I feel like we really noticed the culture shift and change when our CEO really dug his heels in and said, hey, this is, this is real, we're going to live by this. And when we had senior level leaders say nope, yeah, and he said okay, then it's time for you to move on, absolutely that opened so many eyes.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he made tough calls at the highest level of the organization and then people knew, ooh, I better get on board. This is serious and many times that's what you need to change culture or to really get a message point to people. Lead by example.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So building culture. What does culture really mean to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does culture really mean to me? I think there's a lot of different. There's right ways to do business and wrong ways to do business, and I say it and it's not a tagline, but I want people to come to work because I get to go to work there, not I have to go to work, and I believe there's so many people that wake up every day feeling like they have to do it, and you don't get the best out of people when they feel that way. So you have to build an environment to me, that values people, makes sure they feel that they're trusted, they can trust their leadership. I mean, we changed names of. We don't have employees, we have team members, because if I say that you're my employee, it's like I own a piece of you, right. But if I say we're team members, it's like we're in this thing together, right, and everyone just has a different role to play on the team. So so culture to me is designing an organization where, where people feel valued, appreciated and they want to come in, they want to do their best, and I believe that's most people want to, right. But but many times we miss the mark on letting them know how much we appreciate what they bring to the table.
Speaker 1:Right and I also feel this in many organizations we don't hold people accountable the way we should, right? We say, man, I want to tell Brax Right what's wrong with him, but he can't handle it. No, maybe it's me that can't handle Right Having a difficult conversation. So, as leaders, number one failure of any leader and Joe taught me a long time ago is not holding people accountable. That's when you start to fail. Yeah, so that's, you know? That's sort of a snapshot of how I see a culture yeah, right.
Speaker 3:So I mean and bill and I have learned this together it's.
Speaker 3:It is extremely hard to change culture and no matter how well you think you're doing at it and making the right decisions, like you know, people are people and everyone has their own view of what is a good work, environment or culture, and so you try your best and I think the biggest thing is just being consistent every day and not flip flopping all over the place and the flavor of the week and this and that, because we've seen that as well. But we've seen it and witnessed firsthand it is really hard to change culture.
Speaker 2:I feel like you have to find the right person too. Can you build the person into the culture? Are they willing to do the work, or is it finding the right person that'll do it? You know what I mean, right? So it's just like first form, how he built, how they built that culture right um, you know, with your guys's core values.
Speaker 2:You know they have the core values in in the room. You know morning meetings, they go over all of them. So but what you guys are doing, it's I mean you, you stamp that. You see, those core values, man, it's like when you go in the bathroom you have something written down in your mirror and you, you know your goals it's just like that so.
Speaker 1:And you have to live them too. Yeah so talk's cheap, but you have to walk the talk. So, and it it's difficult, I mean we've had ups and we've had downs too. So, plenty of them.
Speaker 3:So yeah, looking back over your last you know, let's just use your Lippert career your last 11 years, is there one leadership decision that you can think of, that you're most proud of, or a leadership moment?
Speaker 1:I think if I had to, I would say probably during COVID was a game changer. During COVID we shut down a lot of facilities. I mean, people were going home, right, certain people didn't want to come back into work. We changed right, you had to have a mask and you had to right all the different things. I didn't work on the leadership side. Then I went back to the floor. They needed people to right, go back and do the work.
Speaker 1:And so I think, being humble and doing what you need to do to help the organization out, I mean a couple of times in my career at Lippert, when I was asked to go help out in a certain area, check your title at the door. I mean, just roll your sleeves up and go to work. And so I think that was it gives you a lot of credibility. People were like, hang on, you're doing what you told us right. Because many times I would meet in meetings and talk to people just about right leadership and how do you engage people and how do you, and then to actually, when you're doing it, people took notice and were like, hang on, dude, you're actually doing what you said you would do. And I was like, yeah, so I also talked about that VP right early on in my career.
Speaker 1:A game changer was for me was one day when I went to his office and slammed the door and sort of met him at his level and he was like because I was just passionate and I was so frustrated how he was talking to team members and he was like, dude, settle down. But it turned for us at that point All of a sudden, sudden we became peers and not he was right, he had his title. So that was a, yeah, big change. Right For that relationship.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so flipping from from business world to more of the, you know family faith. You know the real life leadership, we'll call it. You know you've been married almost 40 years, yep, five kiddos. How would you say you balance being present at home with your wife, kids, high stress job.
Speaker 1:What did that look like for you? You know, I would tell you this no-transcript took care of the family and took care of the kids. When I was with united airlines, my first 10 years, I was on midnights and in our first five years of marriage we had four of our kids, four out of our five kids in the first five years. So imagine me coming home at 8 o'clock in the morning after working all night, right, and those kids are up and they're like, right, wow. And Lisa was like, oh boy, here we go. And that was for 10 years. So, and here's the other thing I would tell you, lisa and I I married my wife.
Speaker 1:Our ultimate goal was to raise our kids and see our kids leave right life. Our ultimate goal was to raise our kids and see our kids leave right, and so we wanted, we made sure we did date nights, we made sure that, right, once a week we had our time, because I never wanted to end up having our kids leave and then not knowing each other, and so so to this day, we're empty nesters. We've been empty nesters for quite a while now and, um, yeah, we're, we're looking at that next stage now, of right, what do we do in retirement, where do we want to go? Yeah, we're looking at that next stage now of right what do we do in retirement, where do we want to go? And we're on the same page. So I think it's having balance and understanding, right, what your role is too, but you have to talk about those things as well.
Speaker 1:So sometimes people say that their child is their best friend, and I'm like no, they're not, they're my kid right, they're my child.
Speaker 3:My best friend is my wife.
Speaker 1:I sleep with her, right, I mean that's just. And then she would tell you the same thing if she was sitting here right now, I think too. So, yeah, and there's and it's. We've had some challenges, you know, with with different jobs that I've had, with we've moved a couple of times and moved our kids, and that was not easy. You know, when you pick up and and move to a different state and you have five kids and they come into a new place, a new school, no friends have to build those friends, and then a year later you move again. I mean we had some challenges there as well. So, but we're on the same page and it works out right. You just keep going. So yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:I know you. You and Lisa are, you know, faithful people. What? What role has faith played in your leadership journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, faith is a huge piece of who we are and what we are. We've been very active in our church. You know I told you I'm Irish Catholic, lisa and I. That's how we raised our kids right In the Catholic faith we we have. We're very close with our priest in the last church. We're at very close. We did a lot of things right in the Catholic faith. We're very close with our priest in the last church. We were at very close. We did a lot of things right. We taught some CCD on Sundays, right, and we were in the crazy choirs and things like that. I mean, we were very involved and our kids were involved, right, and that's what we draw on in difficult times and in great times, right, we draw on our faith. So, yeah, and that's the way we were raised. We were raised both of us, and that's the way we raised our kids.
Speaker 1:I mean so listen, if I wasn't a believer, I don't know how I would have gotten through some of the things that I've gotten through. You know, you talked about 9-11 earlier and this is just an example of how I sort of see the world. There was a priest that had a little mass, non-denominational mass for all of us that had been working with these families, and so he opened it up towards the end and he said how are you guys doing? And this one gal that was there, she said well, I have to be honest with you, she goes. I'm not even sure why I'm sitting here with you, because I don't know if there is a God, and when I see all this destruction and all this death and all she goes, I don't get it. Why would he let that happen?
Speaker 1:And the priest that was there said wow, I see it a little bit differently. So what I see is look at all the people that came to help these people out. Look at all the firemen. Look at all the police officers. Look at yourselves, look at all the love, look at the people now that don't see color, that just see human beings and are helping each other. And so it's your perspective, right, how do you see the world? And so so to me, but that comes from your faith too. So, or at least for me, that's where it comes from. So so that's an example of you know sort of how I try and live. And am I perfect? Absolutely not, but I don't believe any of us are perfect right.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean, I tell people often it's like, as a believer, it's one of the biggest you know places of tension, at least in my life personally, of I want to live a life. You know that god has set out for me. And then you bring in the human aspect and you know you always want to live a life. You know that God has set out for me, and then you bring in the human aspect and you know you always want to try and do the right thing and the temptation of, you know, just being a human Right, it's so difficult, yeah, right, and it's the when you're, when you're trying to lead people who may not see the world the way you do, finding common ground with them. I think, as always, like that's the sweet spot of leadership. You can find common ground with anyone.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, faith, faith is a big one especially you know, in our company itself, I think, is it's a, it's a layer of foundation. I would say we're, you know, the only company that I know of in the area, with two, two company chaplains and, you know, a leadership development team of I don't even know what we're at now 11, 14, something like that, more and more. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think all in there's 20 plus people that work on the culture side, right Of philanthropy, of giving back to the community of two chaplains at a publicly traded company. I mean, where do you hear that?
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, it's unheard of. I mean, where do you hear that? Yeah?
Speaker 1:Right, it's unheard of, yeah Right. And then there are all these leadership directors and leadership coordinators that work with people to just try and help them out and, just right, give them ideas and walk them through the difficult things.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:What advice would you give young leaders who are also trying to be, you know, great husbands or great wives?
Speaker 1:I would say my advice stay humble, be honest, earn the trust, earn the trust of your people. Make sure you have integrity, whether someone's watching you or not. Right, and I think it's so easy. There's so many things out there that can take us off of our mark right now. Right, look at social media, look at cell phones. I mean there's so many things that are sitting out there that can always pull us away.
Speaker 1:I mean there's so many things that are sitting out there, that can always pull us away, and so sometimes it's just having that space of just silence, of just getting rid of the noise for a while. I'm a big reader. I never used to be a big reader, but Joe Gillum taught me to pick books up. Like he said, if you don't put anything up here in your head, you have nothing else to share with people. So true leaders are lifetime learners. So I would tell others what are those things that you're reading, to grow and to challenge yourself, and just like you guys are doing right here, looking, how do you become that 1%? How do you challenge yourself? It's easy to just float and just get by, but if you want to be the best of the best, you've got to do something about it, right, so take some action.
Speaker 3:So something that popped in my head um earlier, when bill was talking about the intentional time that him and lisa make for one another. I mean that I I see that in him real life, um, you know there's. You know work can be a grind you know, especially in in the role that bill plays.
Speaker 3:You know it's a a high stress. A lot of people, um, I can always tell when, when he's, you know, burning it there and him and lisa aren't getting their time because he'll call me, be like, hey, I'm taking my bride out of town, I'll let you, you know when I'm back. I'm like do your thing, man. You got to keep mama happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have those break points, right, where, yeah, all of a sudden, and many times it's her that will remind me hey, look, guess what, we're getting out of here for a few days, right, because you're like out of your mind and I'm like, all right, let's go tell her oh really, I'm out of my mind. Well, I got to go to work then, just right, so yeah, so it's, yeah, it's that balance.
Speaker 3:From the business perspective. You know, obviously you've watched, you know the leadership role evolve over time, especially with the different generations coming up. What would you say is you know one piece of advice that you would give the next generation of leaders?
Speaker 1:You know, put your head down and work hard. That's what I would say. Right, I think there's, I think there's a lot of leaders these days that just think they deserve it, they should just get it, should just come to them right, and and they don't want to put in the hard work, they don't want to put in the extra hours. I get it. There's a balance between going to work and being with your family. But I look at work as that's the way I support my family and so to me, yeah, go do the work right. There's a reason we say going to work right, it's not easy. So to me, as a young leader, don't have it in your head that it's an easy ride, that it's going to be easy. You have to understand that if you really want to get it, you've got to put in the work. So, yeah, that's advice I would give them. Right, go get it. So don't wait for someone to hand it to you. Yeah, go get it, so don't wait for someone to hand it to you yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, here's a deeper, maybe a deeper level question.
Speaker 1:But what's one truth you've learned that took you decades to fully embrace? I would probably say earning someone's trust and then keeping it. You work your tail off to earn someone's trust, but you can lose it in a heartbeat. And you can lose it because they hear something about you, or they hear something on the rumor mill or whatever, and all of a sudden they because we're so quick to just buy someone's story. So, yeah, to me it's a never-ending battle to earn the trust of your people and then hang on to it, and it's frustrating at times, for me too, right, because it's almost like you're almost trying to defend yourself.
Speaker 1:And so I would say another thing that for me that's important is know who you are. I don't sometimes worry what people think of me. I mean, I care, I don't want to be known as a jerk, but yet I know who I am too right, and you have to be okay with who you are, because there's plenty of people that right have their own opinion of us and they don't even they've never spent any time with us to know us, right. So so I would also say that, right, at a certain stage, young in my career, I would tell you, and many times even sometimes at this stage in my career I hear people that don't buy in or right or add some hearsay about me and it frustrates me and then I go hang on. I know who I am, I know where my heart's at, I know what my intentions, true intentions, are. So you have to let some of that stuff go too right.
Speaker 3:So I mean, you and I just had a conversation about this a couple weeks ago. Right, you know you earn trust in drops and you lose it in buckets, yep, yep. And it couldn't be more true. And you know there are times when it's something that you have no control over. Right, the rumor mill.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a thing, it's real.
Speaker 1:It is real.
Speaker 3:Yes, Yep. So final question from me. But so when everything else fades, the VP title is gone, the achievements over the years, the applause for the great things what do you hope people closest to you say about the way you led, the way you loved and the way you lived?
Speaker 1:What do I hope they say? Well, one I hope that it right. My family sees me as right, a great husband, great dad, a provider, right someone that right took care of them. I would hope people that I work with not miss me but almost like I do to Joe.
Speaker 1:Joe had such an influence on me I mean, he never worked for the same company that I did but he had such an influence of just being honest and someone of integrity and someone that would hold me accountable and someone that would tell me what I needed to hear not always what I wanted to hear, right and so I hope someday people that I've impacted say, hey, you changed the way I thought, or you helped me out in difficult times, or you gave me some advice that I still use today or I pass on to others. So, yeah, I hope that I'm leaving some nuggets out there somewhere where someone else can take it and reuse it, because that's what I did with that guy. I reused a lot of his material right, because it worked, because I knew that it right, it helped me. So, yeah, that's what I hope happens. Time will tell right, time will tell, time will tell hopefully not too soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hopefully not too soon I mean not real soon, but right jake you got anything before we close out.
Speaker 2:Well, he said he's an avid reader. Now um, one of my questions I do have is what book or books has made the biggest impact on you that you've read?
Speaker 1:I would um on the leadership side. Yeah, the master coach, I think, is one of the greatest, right? Um? Greg thompson that wrote that book. Um, he just, he gives 60 different questions throughout that book. That um, that challenge you and can challenge others, right? He? Um, he always talks about not giving any answers but just asking a lot of questions. Um, I love the stuff that matthew out with. I really enjoy Matthew Kelly, patrick Lencioni. I think he's just wonderful. I mean, there's some of my favorites. I can tell you I have probably 500 books at my house that I've read. I mean, my kids are grown and at the house and they still are like Dad, seriously, another leadership book. I mean, what the hell's the matter with you? I mean, look at that wall.
Speaker 2:So I just have.
Speaker 1:There's so many. There's a. There's a great book called the silent alarm. Um, yeah, silent alarm is a great, great book about not to kill the story, but it's about people that right Are always going to work and it's all about work and it's all about right there title and everything, and and um, and they find out they have an accident and it's a wake-up call. That was the silent alarm that woke them up to say what's it really all about? Because their whole family was leaving them while they were so focused on work and they thought they were doing a great job trying to support their family. So that was a great book for me to go hey, slow down, and you better make sure you take care of home, right? So yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean for anyone that's in the. You know the service industry. Within the last handful of months, bill and I both have read Unreasonable Hospitality, which was phenomenal, and then also the Pursuit of Happiness Yep, happiness Advantage. Yeah, that's what it was, sean.
Speaker 1:Aker is yeah, he's. That's a great. It changes your mindset to focus on what's right and what's positive versus what's negative, and we're bombarded with things that are negative. Right, oh yeah, turn on the news and I mean, that's all you hear.
Speaker 2:Right there.
Speaker 1:But in the last 30 seconds I guarantee you. Watch tonight the last 30 seconds. You'll get one right After that last commercial. One nice little story and then boom, you're done. But you've already been just barraged with what's bad about the world, people, everything. So I stay away from it.
Speaker 2:Shut the news off, right on yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seriously, yep, yeah, I like to you know my leadership philosophy to you guys is really centered around what you do right, not what you do wrong. It's not that I don't want you to improve, but I would tell you this If I continue to tell you what you're doing wrong, eventually you will get the mindset that I can't please that guy and you'll just give up. Right, you'll just be status quo, you'll just get by. But if I, if I, focus on what you're doing right, right, you will long for more of that recognition and you will raise the bar right Because it feels good, and so it doesn't mean not holding people accountable and not coaching them up when they need it. But I focus more on what you're doing right versus wrong, and I've seen many times in my organization it just continues.
Speaker 3:That's huge, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I get the privilege to sit in on in a lot of Bill's meetings that he has with his core team and it's a constant conversation of hey, let's catch people doing the right thing versus the wrong thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's easy to point blame to people and it's even easier, honestly, if you're looking for it, to find good things about them. And man, it was funny when I first got into our care center that we have right now. I'm a big believer that I listen to phone calls, right. We get phone calls from customers, right, and usually they're calling because something's not right, and so I would listen to that call. And then I would call a team member and I'd say, hey, I just listened to your call. Oh, why are you listening to my call? What am I doing wrong? What are you trying to find? What am I doing wrong? What are you trying to find? What am I?
Speaker 1:I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, you did a great job on that call, right, and you defused that person and, by the way, you took care of him and it was awesome and I just wanted to thank you for doing that. And they're like really, I was like yeah, oh, okay, Thanks. And after a while people would now come up to me and they'd go dude, did you hear that call I just had? It was unbelievable, Dude, you got to listen to my call. So at first they were like stay away from my calls and now they're like dude, you should check this one out. It's pretty good and I'm like, okay, I'll check it out. So it works right.
Speaker 3:Yeah you flip a switch, yeah, yeah. So I think society is just, it's trained. So Management, yeah, right, not leadership, no.
Speaker 2:Management.
Speaker 3:To catch people doing wrong. Yep, yep, and it's just the absolute wrong way to go about it. Yeah, yep, it's not leadership. No, no, it's not.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Well, Bill, this has been awesome. Oh yeah, I appreciate you, your legacy, your leadership. You are impacting more people than you know every day and I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yep, thank you. Yeah, you have to stay humble, right, and hopefully it keeps going. So I'm not perfect, I don't right, never seen myself as being perfect, but I keep trying to swing the bat right and help people out. So, yeah, it's fun. Thanks for having me, you guys.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you came Appreciate you you bet, and if anyone's searching for Bill on Instagram, you can find him.
Speaker 2:He's on Instagram. He is on Instagram. Oh, we need your IG handle.
Speaker 1:I am on Instagram.
Speaker 2:I can put his IG handle on Magic Bill.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:It's one of his many talents. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Bill is a magician as well, so what is your Instagram Magic?
Speaker 1:Bill.
Speaker 2:Is that all? It is Magic, bill, or there's some numbers in there? I think there's some numbers in there. Seven. I don't know, I'll pitch it in there.
Speaker 3:He sends me reels all the time. Yeah, it's in there. He knows how to send and receive. That's about where it ends. That is pretty close.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of good things on there though, like I said, I've designed my search feed where I can learn from things on there instead of the bull crap that's on there.
Speaker 1:It's like TikTok's the same way it's all in what you're looking for I don't have a tiktok, yeah instagram's a lot better, I feel yeah, you see, I don't even know how to figure out, how to find it.
Speaker 2:I'll show you I'll put it in there.
Speaker 3:Awesome thanks for listening guys. If you got guys, If you found value in this, please tag us, share it, reach out with questions. We'd love to continue impacting everybody that's listening and we're thankful for all of you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure, till next time See you, We'll see you.
