#272: Ann Rhoades is the founder and president of People Ink, an organizational culture consulting firm focused on helping companies build values-driven, high-performing cultures. A recognized expert in leadership, employee engagement, and customer service excellence, Ann has spent her career helping organizations create workplaces where people thrive and businesses succeed.

Prior to founding People Ink, Ann served as Chief People Officer for Southwest Airlines, Promus Hotel Company (DoubleTree, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, and Hampton Inn), and JetBlue Airways, where she played a key role in building some of the most admired cultures in the business world. She is the author of Built on Values and continues to advise leaders and organizations on how to create lasting cultures built around purpose, values, and excellence. Ann also serves on several boards, including JetBlue Airways, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, HireVue, and the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico.

For more on Ann check out peopling.com as well as amazon for her tremendous book Built on Values. 

Enjoy the show! 

#271: Dr. Henry Cloud is an acclaimed leadership expert, clinical psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, and highly sought-after speaker. He has authored 46 books, including the iconic Boundaries, which have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Dr. Cloud has extensive experience working with CEOs, executives, and leadership teams, helping organizations improve leadership performance, culture, and overall effectiveness. He also founded and built a healthcare company that operated inpatient and outpatient treatment centers across 40 markets in the Western United States, serving as its Clinical Director and principal for 10 years.

Dr. Cloud hosted a national radio show for 15 years, airing in more than 200 U.S. markets, and has been recognized by Success Magazine as one of the 25 most influential leaders in personal growth and development

His newest book YourDesired Future is a five-component framework combining psychology, physiology, and neuroscience principles to help readers achieve their desired future.

Today, Dr. Cloud speaks and consults internationally, bringing together his expertise in leadership, psychology, human performance, and organizational culture to help leaders and teams achieve greater success.

He is also very patient and gracious with me as we had to work through some technical difficulties on this episode. 

For more on Dr. Cloud and his new book Your Desired Future check out drcloud.com as well as social media and where all books are sold. 

Enjoy the show! 

5 Years of the Building Excellence Podcast - Thank YOU!

#270: Eric Konkol is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Tulsa and has established himself as one of college basketball's most respected program builders. He most recently lead the Golden Hurricane to one of their best seasons in program history winning 30 games (second most in school history), reaching the American Conference semifinals for the first time in over a decade, and making a run in the NIT all the way to the championship game.

Since taking over Tulsa in 2022, he has been recognized for his emphasis on culture, player development, and leadership. Before arriving at Tulsa, he spent seven successful seasons at Louisiana Tech, where he won 153 games, led the Bulldogs to six 20-win seasons, captured a Conference USA West Division title, and was named Conference USA Coach of the Year.

More importantly than all of the accolades you will get to hear the real reason why he coaches to make an impact on his players and everyone that is a part of the program. 

For more on Coach Konkol check out social media as well as tulsahurricane.com 

Enjoy the show!

#269: Andy Andrews is a New York Times bestselling author, internationally recognized speaker, and leadership expert whose books, including The Traveler's Gift and The Noticer, have sold millions of copies worldwide. 

Known for blending timeless wisdom with engaging storytelling, Andy has spoken to Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, military organizations, and audiences around the globe. Through his work, he equips leaders to make better decisions, develop lasting perspective, and create meaningful impact in their personal and professional lives. 

Leaders from the world’s top organizations, including four U.S. presidents, regularly seek him out as a trusted resource for unlocking extraordinary results.

Today, he joins us to share practical insights on leadership, success, faith, and the small choices that shape extraordinary lives.

For more on Andy check out andyandrews.com 

Enjoy the show!

#268: Justin Roethlingshoefer is a performance scientist, former NHL strength and conditioning coach, and the founder of OWN IT—an elite health coaching ecosystem trusted by Stanley Cup champions, Olympians, and mission driven leaders such as Brandon Lake & Phil Wickham. 

His life’s work lives at the intersection of data-driven performance and Spirit-led transformation. Holy Health is the most personal and prophetic piece of literature he has published. Fusing science with biblical truth, he redefines health as a holistic act of worship, aligning body, mind, and spirit. Having overcome personal health crises, he provides a blueprint to break the "all-or-nothing" cycle, moving from burnout to overflow.

For more on Justin and his new book check out holyhealthbook.com holyhealth.org & justinroethlingshoefer.com 

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#267: Mark Miller is a bestselling leadership author, speaker, and the co-founder of Lead Every Day. His books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in 32 languages.

Mark’s career at Chick-fil-A spans over 40 years, starting as an hourly team member and becoming the company’s 16th corporate employee. He recently retired as Vice President of High-Performance Leadership, where he was instrumental in building Chick-fil-A’s renowned leadership culture.

For 25 years, Mark led initiatives investing tens of millions of dollars to develop and validate leadership principles across high-performance teams, employee engagement, execution, and organizational culture. His work resulted in globally acclaimed books such as THE Secret as well as Wall Street Journal bestsellers. He’s recognized for translating leadership principles into real-world application and unlocking the potential of executives and teams to create high-performance organizations.

For more on Mark at leadeveryday.com or his personal contact in the show notes. 

Enjoy the show! 

Contact Mark: [email protected] or 678-612-8441

#266: Austen Allred is a technology entrepreneur, education innovator, and Y Combinator founder whose work has influenced the national conversation around workforce development, skills-based hiring, and alternative pathways to technology careers. He is the founder and CEO of Gauntlet AI an intensive AI engineering talent platform that partners with employers to identify and develop elite AI-native engineers. Previously, he co-founded Lambda School, later rebranded as BloomTech, one of the most recognized coding academies of the past decade, helping pioneer income-share agreements and raising more than $100 million from leading investors, including GV, Y Combinator, and Stripe.

Before founding BloomTech, Allred co-founded the citizen journalism platform Grasswire and co-authored the bestselling growth-marketing book Secret Sauce. His perspectives on entrepreneurship, education reform, and the future of work have been featured in publications including Harvard Business Review, The Economist, WIRED, Fast Company, TechCrunch, and The New York Times. Today, he is widely recognized for his efforts to rethink how top technical talent is trained and deployed in the age of artificial intelligence.

You can find Austen on X and Linkedin, as well as austenallred.com.

Enjoy the show!

#265: Lieutenant General (Retired) Mark Hertling served 38 years in the United States Army as a tanker and cavalry officer, culminating as Commander of U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. 

During his military career, Hertling spent 38 months in combat. He served as a major and operations officer of a cavalry squadron during Operation Desert Storm, as Assistant Division Commander of the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003–2004, and later as Commander of the 1st Armored Division and Multinational Task Force Iron in northern Iraq during the 2007–2008 surge. 

After retiring from the Army in 2012, Hertling transitioned to the private sector as a Senior Vice President at a major healthcare organization. He was asked to design and lead a healthcare leadership program, work that led to his first book, Growing Physician Leaders (2016). His second book, If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal, was published by Ballast Books in 2026.

From 2014 to 2024, he served as a senior analyst for CNN. He currently writes for The Bulwark and appears on MSNBC as a freelance national security analyst.

For more on General Hertling check out markhertling.com as well as LinkedIn & Twitter. You can find his book in the amazon link below. 

Enjoy the show! 

Book: 

https://www.amazon.com/If-Dont-Return-Fathers-Wartime-ebook/dp/B0GDJFMF21?ref_=ast_author_mpb 

#264: Chris Garner is a veteran SEC football official, leadership speaker, and author with more than two decades of experience officiating at the highest levels of college football. A graduate of The Ohio State University and former U.S. Navy servicemember, Chris worked his way from Ohio high school football fields to the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference, earning assignments to major bowl games, conference championships, and College Football Playoff contests. 

Drawing from years of making split-second decisions under intense pressure and his sales experience, he shares insights on leadership, accountability, teamwork, and performance in high-stakes environments. Chris is also the author of Whistles and Wisdom, where he explores the lessons officiating has taught him about excellence both on and off the field.

For more on Chris check out garnerleadership.com 

Enjoy the show!