David resumes his conversation with Crystal Hanlon on the systems with which the ‘orange-blooded culture’ at Home Depot is taught and reinforced. Crystal looks back on the biggest mistakes and milestones of her four-decade relationship with the company.

In this episode, David and Crystal Hanlon go behind the scenes at The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer. Crystal is the company’s Culture Officer, who began her journey in 1985 as a part-time cashier at a Houston branch. Over the decades, she steadily rose through the ranks, earning a spot on Fortune Magazine’s list of “Most Powerful Women” multiple times in the process, and proving herself a key witness to Home Depot’s growth and culture-building.

David and Robert “Cujo” Teschner discuss how the debrief process is the cornerstone of a culture of accountability, in the military as much as in the business world. Cujo reveals the two organizations that had the biggest impact on who he is today — and the one problem that keeps businesses from learning how to debrief to win.

David is joined by Robert “Cujo” Teschner — the founder and CEO of VMax Group, and author of Debrief to Win: How America’s Top Guns Practice Accountable Leadership... and How You Can, Too! In this episode, Cujo shares how his approach to culture-building has been shaped by his time as an F-22 fighter squadron commander with the US Air Force and instructor at the USAF Weapons School.

David continues his conversation with William Vanderbloemen. In this episode, William goes into what he calls the ‘archaeological dig’ for his company’s culture, and ponders with David on the processes and merits of rewriting one’s organizational culture.

In this episode, David welcomes William Vanderbloemen — pastor and author of Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest. Equipped with over 15 years of ministry experience and a solid foundation in professional executive search, William is his own leader at Vanderbloemen Search Group, an award-winning firm committed to shaping the leadership and cultures at churches and other faith-based organizations.

The conversation continues on the two most important areas of effective leadership, as backed by the data from Tim’s book and his years of experience in leadership development. Tim and David do a deeper dive on the value of a leader’s emotional maturity, especially in culture-building.

David sits down with Tim Spiker, author of The Only Leaders Worth* Following: Why Some Leaders Succeed, Others Fail, and How the Quality of Our Lives Hangs in the Balance. The book is guided by the principle of Who* Not What, which is that ¾ of a leader’s effectiveness is determined not by what they do, but by who they are. Tim describes the findings in his book as the “accidentally-discovered and rarely-leveraged truth within leadership.”

David and the Blaushilds talk about how to keep the rapid growth of a company like Famous Supply always about the people and the culture. Marc and Brian also affirm the power of transparency in building trust, and they open up about the wisdom they would share with their younger selves.

For the first time in Culture Architects history, David is joined by father-and-son tandem Marc and Brian Blaushild of Famous Supply. Famous Supply is a fourth-generation family business established in 1933, and an award-winning distributor of HVAC, plumbing, and other building products. Culture is this company’s number one priority, as shown through their forty Fundamentals and their system called The Famous Way.