The conversation you're avoiding today probably won't be easier tomorrow.

Whether it's an underperforming employee, a struggling relationship, an unhappy customer, or a mistake you need to own, difficult conversations are part of leadership. Avoiding them may feel easier in the moment—but unresolved problems have a way of getting bigger.

In this episode of Built By Mistakes, we talk about why leaders avoid hard conversations, what that avoidance costs, and how to approach difficult discussions with clarity, respect, and the willingness to listen.

In this episode:

• Why avoiding a conversation is still a decision
• How small problems become big problems when nobody addresses them
• Why clarity is better than vague feedback
• How to address behavior without attacking the person
• Why listening matters during difficult conversations
• Why you shouldn't start the conversation when you're angry
• The danger of saving months of frustration for one big confrontation
• Why some of the hardest conversations begin with an apology
• A simple five-step framework for approaching difficult conversations

The takeaway: Great leadership isn't about avoiding conflict. It's about being willing to address reality respectfully, listen carefully, communicate clearly, and deal with problems before they become bigger ones.

Ask yourself one question after listening:

What conversation am I avoiding right now?

Built By Mistakes — Lessons in Leadership, Resilience, and Growth

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

In this episode of Built By Mistakes, we look at one of the most important—and sometimes most difficult—parts of leadership: taking ownership when you get it wrong.

Why is saying “I was wrong” so difficult for some leaders? What happens to an organization when the person at the top constantly shifts blame? And how can owning a mistake actually increase the trust people have in you?

In this episode:

• Why accountability starts at the top
• The difference between owning a mistake and beating yourself up over it
• Why waiting too long can be a leadership mistake
• How to apologize without making excuses
• Why admitting you're wrong can build credibility instead of destroying it
• How strong leaders turn mistakes into better decisions
• Why your team needs permission to challenge you
• The three steps of ownership: acknowledge it, learn from it, and change something

The takeaway: Your people don't need a perfect leader. They need a leader who's willing to recognize a mistake, own it, learn from it, and become better because of it.

Built By Mistakes — Lessons in Leadership, Resilience, and Growth

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

Most leaders think they're good listeners — but there's a real difference between hearing someone and actually listening to them. In Episode 6 of Built by Mistakes, Skip Thompson breaks down why so many leaders "hear" their team without ever really listening, what that costs a business over time, and how to build the habit of actually letting what people tell you change your next move.

This episode connects directly to the last two conversations — you can't delegate well if you're not listening to what your team is actually capable of, and you can't admit you're wrong if you never really heard the warning signs in the first place. Drawing on decades leading crews in the green industry, Skip shares what real listening looks like day to day, and why the leaders who listen best are usually the last to be surprised by a problem.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

 Why do so many leaders hold on to everything themselves, even when it's burning them out? In Episode 5 of Built by Mistakes, Skip Thompson breaks down why delegation isn't about giving up control — it's about building a team that can grow past you. Drawing on decades of leading crews in the green industry, Skip shares what real delegation looks like, why most leaders under-delegate, and how handing off the right task the right way can transform your team. 

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

What if the biggest shift you need to make as a leader isn’t about your strategy or your systems — it’s about your ego?

In this episode, Skip Thompson digs into a hard truth: leadership isn’t about being right. It’s about taking responsibility, listening to the people closest to the work, and being willing to change your mind when reality proves you wrong.

You’ll hear how “needing to be right” shows up on job sites and in offices, why it slowly shuts down honest communication, and how one moment of owning a mistake changed the way Skip’s team brought him ideas and concerns. This conversation is for leaders who are ready to trade pride for trust and control for better outcomes.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

Everybody wants to feel motivated. But what happens when the feeling runs out?

In Episode 3 of Built by Mistakes, Skip Thompson makes the case for the one thing that separates leaders who build something lasting from the ones who just stay busy — discipline.

After 43 years in the green industry, Skip has watched motivated people quit and disciplined people win. He breaks down why motivation is an unreliable foundation for any team or career, what discipline actually looks like in practice, and how leaders can build a culture of consistency that doesn't depend on how anyone feels on a given Monday morning.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

What if the biggest mistake you're making as a leader isn't a bad decision — it's the decision you keep putting off?

In Episode 2 of Built by Mistakes, Skip Thompson gets honest about the leadership trap he fell into early in his career — putting his head down, grinding through the work, and avoiding the difficult issues until they became impossible to ignore. The problem with avoidance? It's convenient. But convenient doesn't make the problem go away. It just makes it bigger.

Skip shares the story of a crew leader who got the work done every day — but was quietly destroying team culture. Skip kept avoiding it. When he finally addressed it, the entire team's demeanor changed overnight. And the person who stepped up to fill that role had been there all along.

Then Skip sits down with a guest who has lived this from a completely different angle — and together they dig into why the fear of failure is the real failure, and what it actually takes to lead through it.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

What happens when a high-performer becomes a leader — and never adjusts their expectations?

In Episode 1 of Built by Mistakes, host Skip Thompson takes you back to a pivotal moment in his career — a Sunday afternoon alone in the office, grinding away, getting madder by the minute that nobody else was there. What he didn't realize yet was that his frustration wasn't his team's failure. It was his.

It wasn't until a leader at a motivational event he almost didn't attend said something that stopped him cold:

"I fired and lost a lot of good people because I expected them to be me."

That line changed everything.

In this episode Skip gets honest about what it really means to lead people — and why the most dangerous thing a high-performer can do is become a leader without ever adjusting their standard.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth

Have you ever looked back at a mistake, a failure, a moment 
you'd do differently — and realized it was the thing that 
actually made you?

Welcome to Built by Mistakes — a podcast about leadership, 
resilience, and growth hosted by Skip Thompson.

With 43 years in the green industry, Skip has led teams, 
built companies, navigated mergers, and made every mistake in 
the book. Now he's sharing the real lessons — not the 
highlight reel. The hard-won truth about what it takes to 
lead, fail, get back up, and grow.

New episodes dropping soon.

🌐 Website: builtbymistakes.com
📧 Connect with Skip: [your email or contact page]
🎙️ Built by Mistakes Podcast — Lessons in Leadership, 
Resilience and Growth