Building Excellence

#207: Ross Bjork is the Ohio State University Director of Athletics. In his first year as AD, the Buckeyes football team won the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship. Additionally, he began a one-year term as president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in June 2024.

Before arriving in Columbus he served as the athletic director at Texas A&M, where he oversaw record-setting fundraising efforts, major facility upgrades, and pivotal hires that elevated the Aggies’ national profile. His leadership is focused on a deep commitment to student-athlete success, both on and off the field. 

With a career spanning over two decades of leadership at top-tier institutions, Bjork’s extensive career in collegiate athletics includes administrative roles at the University of Missouri, University of Miami, and UCLA. 

He served as the Athletics Director at Western Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M, where he was recognized for enhancing academic performance, fundraising, and athletic competitiveness.

Ross earned his bachelor's degree in recreation administration from Emporia State University in 1995, where he was a fullback on the football team, and a master's degree in athletic administration from Western Illinois University in 1996.

He has a great perspective on hard work, persistence, communication, curiosity, building relationships, facing challenges head on, leadership, and much more. 

Be sure to check out Ross on X @RossBjorkAD

Enjoy the show! 

#206: Lieutenant Colonel Todd Beer was the Air Force One pilot for both the President Bill Clinton & President George W Bush administrations, as well as the 9/11 terrorists attacks and many other influential historical moments.

Todd grew up in Indiana and his basketball success earned him an opportunity to play college basketball at the highly coveted United State Air Force Academy. After surviving a plane crash while he was in high school he never had a desire to fly. 

During his time at the USAFA he started over 108 straight games, overcame adversity, grew in courage, persisted through flight school, and competed at the highest levels. All of which were building blocks to a distinguished career in aviation. 

He shares the tense moments on 9/11 when minimal information was at hand to make critical decisions to safely fly the president. Other moments include covertly flying Air Force one into Bagdad for President Bush’s surprise visit and flying Present Clinton right after news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal surfaced. More importantly he shares his story and all of the lessons he learned not just to have a successful career, but also a successful family. 

Enjoy the show! 

#205: Anne Walker is the Stanford University Women’s Golf Head Coach. She has established herself as one of the premier college coaches in the country. In addition to leading the Cardinal to its first three NCAA titles in school history (2015, 2022, 2024), Walker has mentored some of the most recognizable names in the sport.

Stanford has enjoyed unprecedented team and individual success under Walker. The Cardinal has qualified for NCAA Championships in all 11 possible seasons during Walker’s tenure, including seven appearances in the national semifinals, while earning the distinction of being the only program in the country to reach the NCAA match play quarterfinal stage in all nine seasons of the current format.

A three-time WGCA National Coach of the Year (2015, 2022, 2024) and four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2015, 2021-22, 2024), Walker has mentored the likes of Rachel Heck, Andrea Lee, Mariah Stackhouse, and many others, a heralded group that has combined to win three NCAA individual titles, three ANNIKA Award honors, three WCGA Golfer of the Year Award nods and five Pac-12 Golfer of the Year Award accolades.

Under Walker’s guidance, Stanford has captured 44 full-field victories and has produced 33 All-Americans. Stanford has had at least one first-team All-American in all 12 seasons with Walker at the helm.

Anne shares her story of growing up in Scotland, playing golf at Cal, getting into coaching, leadership, character, sustained excellence, focus, and much more. 

Enjoy the show! 

#204: Ricky Dickson is the former CEO and President of Blue Bell Creameries, as well as an accomplished speaker and author with his newest book One Scoop at a Time.

Ricky graduated from Baylor University with a BBA in marketing and journalism. He began his career with Blue Bell in 1981 as a territory manager in Dallas. He transferred to the Fort Worth branch in 1982 and became sales manager. In 1984, he was promoted to San Antonio branch manager. He transferred to Oklahoma City and then to Tulsa when each of those branches opened.

In 1992, Ricky was named assistant Dallas/Fort Worth division manager. He transferred to Kansas City as branch manager in 1993 and returned to Tulsa later that year. He was named Midwest division manager in 1994. Four years later, he became general manager of the Broken Arrow plant but continued to stay involved in sales, particularly with the Walmart account. Ricky was named general sales manager in 2003 and moved to Brenham. In 2010, he was promoted to vice president of sales and marketing and was also appointed to serve as a director on the Blue Bell Board of Directors.

In 2017, he was promoted to company president, and in 2019, he was elected CEO and president of Blue Bell Creameries. In 2024, Ricky received the International Dairy Foods Association Laureate Award for his significant, prolonged contributions to the development and growth of dairy. He was also inducted into the Dairy Products Institute of Texas Hall of Fame.

To find out more on Ricky you can find him on social as well as his website rickydickson.com 

For more on his book One Scoop at a Time check out amazon and where all books are sold as well as the link below. 

Enjoy the show! 

Book:

https://www.amazon.com/One-Scoop-Time-Stories-Lessons/dp/1957616709

Matthew Mitchell is the winningest head coach in the history of the University of Kentucky women's basketball program, a three-time SEC Coach of the Year, and a two-time best-selling author and speaker. 

The foundation for his teams’ achievements is the Winning Tools principles - honesty, hard work, and discipline. Through Mitchell's focus on the fundamentals, he led the program to new heights―seven 25-plus winning seasons, 3 Elite Eights, multiple sweet sixteens, and UK’s first SEC Championship in 30 years. 

Coach Mitchell now leads the Winning Tools leadership platform, sharing the proven value of these principles with executive teams across the country. On the show he shares the Winning Tools, his newest book Ready to Win, his story of growing up, getting into coaching, learning from legendary Tennessee Coach Pat Summit, building and sustaining excellence, and much more. 

For more on Coach Mitchell check out social media and CoachMatthewMitchell.com and for his newest book you can check out readytowinbook.com for extras and bonuses. 

Enjoy the show!

#202: Jack Herschend has served as Chairman, President and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment and its portfolio of theme park, resorts, and aquariums.

Today, Herschend Family Entertainment and its parent company Herschend Enterprises are considered the nation’s largest family-owned themed attractions corporation in the US. Their team of more than 11,000 employees creates, develops, and operates entertainment, tourism, and hospitality properties that currently span 26 locations across the US and British Columbia.

Herschend’s roots date back to 1950 when the Herschend family founded their first attraction, a small cave tour in Branson, Mo., which later expanded into the famed Silver Dollar City®. Operating companies within Herschend Family Entertainment include Dollywood® Parks & Resorts, Silver Dollar City® Attractions, Harlem Globetrotters, Adventure Aquarium®, Newport Aquarium®, Kentucky Kingdom®, Vancouver Aquarium, and Wild Adventures®.

Jack’s intensity and deep caring for people shaped the company culture into what it is today. Jack attended Northwestern University as a wrestler and served as a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps before returning home to focus on the family business. He has a deep passion for personal service and giving and has actively served several Christian ministries including including Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch, Kids Across America and the National Institute of Marriage. In 1992, Jack founded The Gift of Green which has planted nearly 200,000 trees to counter deforestation due to development in the Missouri Ozarks.

On the show he shares his story, growth of HFE, building a business, leadership, encouragement, failures, family, faith, marriage, and much more. 

Enjoy the show!

#201: Michael Alford is the Florida State University Director of Athletics. 

Alford has helped position Seminole athletics among the nation’s elite both in terms of competitive excellence and as influential in the critical issues of the day. He has truly emerged as one of collegiate athletics’ leaders while remaining true to his primary objective – an unwavering commitment to student-athlete welfare.

That commitment has produced measurable results by every metric within a solution-oriented, positive culture that places the student-athlete first in all pursuits. It’s evidenced, in part, by his direction of more than $400 million for projects to improve athletic facilities and fields in just the last three years.

It is clear to anyone that comes to campus as construction on the 150,000 square foot Dunlap Football Center and state-of-the-art improvements to historic Doak Campbell Stadium are fully in progress entering the 2025 football season.

Alford is equally committed to the success of the student in the classroom resulting in the strongest consistent academic performance in athletics department history. FSU student-athletes established an all-time best cumulative grade-point average of 3.250 as a department. Not only that but numerous teams have excelled in their respective sports from football, baseball, softball, volleyball, and many others. 

Over three decades in intercollegiate athletics and professional sports, he has held positions with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Southern California, the Cincinnati Bengals and was Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics at Central Michigan University.

For more info on Michael check out social media and seminoles.com This is a great conversation with an incredible leader. Enjoy the show! 

200 episodes

#200: Jimmy Mellado is President and CEO of Compassion International, a global ministry that is dedicated to holistic child development in partnership with local churches. 

Jimmy is passionate about Compassion’s church-based approach to releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. The son of an engineer, Jimmy spent his childhood in the developing world and saw firsthand the powerful impact thriving local churches can have on their communities, especially in under-resourced environments. 

Before taking office as CEO of Compassion International in 2013, Jimmy served for nearly 20 years as the president of the Willow Creek Association.

He earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. Jimmy is an accomplished athlete who competed in the decathlon in the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games and still retains the national record for his birth country, El Salvador, in that event. 

Jimmy and his wife have three adult children and grandchildren. They’ve been passionate Compassion sponsors since 2005.

Enjoy the show!

#199: Jerod Haase is the former Stanford university head men’s basketball coach. During his time on the farm at Stanford the Cardinal had won 126 games, recorded its best conference finish and most league wins in a decade and earned a postseason berth for the first time since 2015. The 2020 team was set to be postseason bound before the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament.

A native of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Haase attended California in 1992-93, starting 23 games as a freshman and playing alongside Jason Kidd in the backcourt. Haase then transferred to Kansas, where he helped lead the Jayhawks to three consecutive conference titles and finished his career ranked in the school’s top 10 in assists, three-point field goals and steals. Haase started 99 of 101 games at Kansas and scored 1,264 points, averaging 12.5 per game and reaching double figures 74 times. While at Kansas, Haase was a candidate for the Naismith and Wooden Awards.

 Haase was also a first-team GTE Academic All-American as a senior, a second-team Academic All-American as a junior and a three-time academic all-conference pick. The Jayhawks' Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1997, Haase later earned a master's degree in business at Kansas in 2000.

After playing professionally he went on to help as an assistant with his former college coach Roy Williams at Kansas and then North Carolina, before he became the head coach at UAB. 

At UAB, Haase led the Blazers to a regular-season Conference USA championship in 2016 and the program’s 15th all-time NCAA Tournament berth in 2015. Haase compiled an 80-53 overall record in four seasons while improving the Blazers’ win total every year. In 2016 he was tabbed as the Gene Bartow Conference USA Coach of the Year, leading the Blazers to a 26-5 overall record and a 16-2 conference mark while capturing their first regular-season title since 2011.

 In 2017, Haase joined the National Advisory Board of the Positive Coaching Alliance, the organization that uses the power of positive reinforcement to pursue winning and the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports.

On the show you will hear his story, overcoming setbacks, being genuine and authentic, core values, relationships, and much more. 

Enjoy the show! 

Book Link:

https://www.amazon.com/Floor-Burns-Inside-Kansas-Jayhawk/dp/0965839214