When devotion runs so deep that it overrides discernment, it stops being faithfulness and starts being something else — and for Kerri Roberts, naming that difference has been one of the most significant breakthroughs of her personal and professional life. In this solo episode, Kerri processes out loud something she's been sitting with since a session with her EFT coach Kelly Howe: the concept of the vow of devotion, what it looks like when your commitment to people quietly places them in God's seat, and why she is reframing the work she does from human resources to holy resourcing — serving people through structure, stewardship, and spirit instead of selflessness.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What the vow of devotion actually is — not people-pleasing in the traditional sense, but a deeply rooted, possibly generational pattern where commitment to honoring your word and staying loyal to others overrides your discernment, causes you to attract people who will take advantage, and leaves you genuinely blindsided when those people don't reciprocate; Kerri shares real examples from her client relationships, her team, and her career
2. Why your discernment isn't broken — the revelation Kerri had after years of thinking something was wrong with her intuition: the gifts of discernment, empathy, and intuition were working fine; the vow of devotion was simply running louder, drowning them out, and keeping her committed to relationships and contracts that were no longer in alignment
3. What it means to realize your loyalty to people has been your expression of loyalty to God — and why that is both understandable and quietly misaligned; the first commandment, Kerri's reflection on the Ten Commandments through her church's sermon series, and the moment it took her breath away to realize her devotion was horizontal when it was meant to be vertical
4. What holy resourcing is and why it's reshaping how Kerri leads, works, and shows up — HR as holy resourcing: serving people through structure, stewardship, and spirit rather than through selflessness or scaffolding; the distinction between being the scaffolding for others (which collapses when you withdraw) versus being in your own alignment and inviting others to rise to theirs
5. Where your devotion might be guiding you — and where it might be blinding you — the closing question Kerri leaves with every listener: is your devotion anchored upward, or is it spanning out across the earth to the people, contracts, and commitments you're holding together at the cost of your own alignment?

CHAPTERS:

00:00 This Episode Feels Like an Unfolding, Not a Plan
 00:15 The Session with Kelly Howe That Changed Something
 01:51 Holy Resourcing — Why HR Means Something Different Now
 04:00 The Healing Journey and the Unraveling of an Identity
 06:08 Professional Failures and the Path to Entrepreneurship
 09:38 The Female Leader Who Was Unhealthy and the Career That Didn't Fit
 10:35 Showing Up Masculine — and the Unraveling of That Too
 11:08 Learning to Feel Feelings and Calm the Nervous System
 11:19 The Vow of Devotion — When It First Showed Up and What It Cost
 12:09 The Client Who Asked Her to Turn Herself Inside Out
 13:35 The Team Members She Mentored Instead of Delegated To
 14:10 The Client Who Cut the Contract — and What Kerri Saw in Herself
 16:49 The Revelation — My Discernment Isn't Broken, My Devotion Was Too Loud
 17:23 The Pneumonia Story and What It Says About the Vow
 18:51 Honoring a Word at the Cost of Your Own Health
 20:01 Learning to Let the Intuitive Pings Come Through
 20:45 When God Is Being Protective — Learning to Sit Back and Listen
 20:50 The Moment It Took Her Breath Away — Loyalty to People as Loyalty to God
 21:52 The Ten Commandments Revisited — What It Means to Have No Other Gods
 23:12 Re-Anchoring Devotion Upward — The Reshift Begins
 23:51 Holy Resourcing in Practice — Structure, Stewardship, and Spirit
 24:06 Salt and Light as Company Values — Matthew 5 and What They Mean
 25:24 Not Called to Separate Work from Worship
 26:18 Being a Steward of Much, Not a Scaffold for Others
 27:36 The Science of Vibration — Why Being Your Own Scaffolding Costs You
 29:04 Drop the Scaffolding and Let Others Rise to Their Own Level
 29:26 Where Is Your Devotion Guiding You — Or Blinding You?
 29:39 The Final Invitation — Holy Resourcing as a Foundation for What's Next

When your professional foundation is as aligned as your personal one, the work gets lighter — the free HR Audit will show you where your people systems need attention: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kelly Howe — EFT tapping coach and intuitive mentor; Episodes 48 and 72 of Don't Waste the Chaos (linked in show notes)
• Matthew 5 — Salt and Light, referenced as the foundation for Kerri's company name and values
• The Ten Commandments — referenced through a sermon series at Kerri's Presbyterian church in Hannibal, Missouri
• The HR Easy Button by Kerri Roberts — referenced in episode (link in show notes)
• Mark Twain's Presbyterian church, Hannibal, Missouri — referenced in episode

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-95-when-devotion-needs-discernment-why-loyalty-without-alignment-can-lead-you-off-course

Support the show

Faith-based leadership isn't about putting a Bible verse on your website — it's about whether your faith actually shows up in how you make decisions, how you extend trust, and whether the devotion that makes you a great leader is anchored to God or quietly anchored to people. In this deeply personal episode, Kerri Roberts sits back down with her husband Terry for one of the most honest conversations this show has hosted — covering the evolution of leadership, Kerri's vow of devotion and how it overrides her discernment, Terry's origin story, the role of the Holy Spirit in decision-making, and what it actually looks like to be a good steward of the resources God has given you in business.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why most leaders who say "I can't trust my people" are actually struggling to trust themselves first — and Terry's framework for identifying the behaviors and habits that reveal whether a leader has internal trust or not: do they show up through adversity, do they maintain realistic optimism, and have they created a culture where the team lifts each other up when someone's having a bad day
2. What the difference between command-and-control and trust-and-inspire leadership looks like in practice — drawing from Stephen R. Covey's Trust and Inspire, why true character only shows in the face of adversity, and why micromanaging people who are probably more capable than you is one of the clearest signs of a leader who doesn't trust themselves
3. Kerri's vow of devotion — the deep pattern she is actively working through in therapy and coaching, where commitment to honoring her word and staying loyal to others overrides her discernment and results in over-giving, over-extending, and being genuinely blindsided when others don't operate at the same level; and the paradigm shift of recognizing that when people are in God's seat in your life, you will feel imbalanced
4. Why integrating faith into business is so hard — Terry's direct answer: most Christians think they're stronger in their faith than they actually are, and the distractions (referenced directly from the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis) are so constant that before most people even commit to living their faith at work, the distraction has already set in
5. The three things Terry does to stay grounded and connected — the 5-4-3-2-1 sensory grounding technique he uses to remove distractions and connect to the Holy Spirit, a daily morning devotion using Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, and Romans 12:2 ("Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind") as the scriptural anchor he returns to in every season of hardship

About the Guest:
Terry Roberts is a decorated 10-year United States Marine Corps veteran, licensed mortgage broker, entrepreneur, and Kerri's most-requested returning guest on Don't Waste the Chaos. With a background that spans military service, sales, corporate leadership, and entrepreneurship — and a personal story that includes growing up in poverty, homelessness, and rebuilding from zero — Terry brings a rare combination of hard-won personal perspective and practical wisdom on trust, faith, leadership, and what it means to build something that actually lasts.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Kerri and Terry Are Back — Faith, Leadership, and the Conversations Happening at Home
 01:04 How Leadership Has Changed — From Position and Title to Trust and Influence
 03:28 The Difference Between Corporate Leaders and Business Owners When Stakes Are Real
 04:49 When Stress Leads to Micromanagement — And Why That's Piss-Poor Leadership
 06:34 True Character Shows in the Face of Adversity
 07:20 The Trust Problem — Most Leaders Who Can't Trust Their People Can't Trust Themselves
 09:42 What Faith in Business Actually Looks Like — Doing the Right Thing When Nobody's Looking
 11:38 Kind vs. Nice — Why Clarity and Truth Are an Act of Kindness
 12:04 Kerri's Vow of Devotion — When Commitment Overrides Discernment
 16:48 The New Definition of Balance — Whose Approval Are You Working For?
 17:05 When Devotion to People Puts Them in God's Seat
 19:52 Terry's Origin Story — Disappointment, Homelessness, and How He Built Boundaries
 23:10 The Paradigm Shift — Learning to Trust the Right Things
 25:33 Why Christians Struggle to Integrate Faith and Business
 27:01 The Screwtape Letters — Distraction as Spiritual Warfare
 29:16 How to Practically Remove Distractions — The Holy Spirit and Grounding
 30:44 Terry's 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Meditation Technique
 31:55 Stewardship in Business — Money, Brand, Reputation, and Culture
 33:28 Leadership Is Available to Everyone in Every Position
 34:37 How to Know When Devotion to People Has Become Unhealthy
 35:17 Jesus Calling by Sarah Young — Terry's Daily Devotion
37:14 Navigating More of the Spiritual Landscape Together
43:02 If You Could Tell One Thing to a Faith-Based Leader, What Would It Be?
45:05 Seek God First — The Marriage Triangle and Why Everything Else Falls Into Place
48:46 What Excites You Most About This Next Chapter?
50:24 Hippo Creek Farm Updates — Trails, Pool House, the Fence, and a Community Celebration

When your leadership foundation is built on the right things, your people systems should reflect that — the free HR Audit will show you where yours need work: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
  https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Trust and Inspire by Stephen R. Covey — referenced in conversation on command-and-control vs. trust-and-inspire leadership; link in show notes
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis — referenced as a framework for understanding distraction as spiritual warfare; link in show notes
• Jesus Calling by Sarah Young — Terry's daily devotional practice; link in show notes
• Romans 12:2 — "Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" — Terry's scriptural anchor
• Main Street Summit, Columbia, Missouri — referenced as Kerri's favorite business conference (mainstreetsummit.com)
• Larry Glabe — Terry's mentor referenced in episode
• Hippo Creek Farm — Kerri and Terry's property in rural Missouri

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-94-faith-based-leadership-how-to-lead-with-trust-discernment-amp-devotion

Support the show

Reinvention is rarely elegant — and if you've ever lost an identity you built your whole life around, you know that the path forward doesn't start with a plan, it starts with recognizing that you can't go backwards anymore. In this episode, Kerri Roberts sits down with Matt Vincent — two-time Highland Games World Champion, entrepreneur, author, host of the Not Dead Yet podcast, and founder of the global Not Dead Yet movement — for one of the most honest, energizing, and uncomfortably relatable conversations this show has ever hosted. Matt lost his sport to ten knee surgeries and a total knee replacement, got fired from his day job the following year, and had to build something entirely new from inside one of the hardest seasons of his life. What he built is remarkable — and what he learned along the way is the conversation.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. How Matt navigated identity loss after injury ended his athletic career — the recognition that the best things in your life don't have to be behind you, the moment between surgery four and five when he realized he'd never compete again, and why he leaned into entrepreneurship not from inspiration but from survival — applying the same lessons about delayed gratification and non-judgmental mistake-reviewing that made him a world champion
2. What the Not Dead Yet movement is actually built around — not fitness or entrepreneurship, but the radical idea that the life in front of you matters more than anything you've done yet, that you are not obligated to operate by the rules you've lived by, and that being intentional about the community you choose is one of the most powerful decisions you'll ever make
3. Why viral doesn't always mean valuable — the story of a 4.5 million view post that brought zero aligned followers versus a 3 million view post that brought 40,000 because it was on message; Matt's content rule: if it doesn't speak to a former version of himself, it doesn't go out, because the goal was never more, it was the right people
4. What Maslow and the Uganda mission trip revealed about why Americans are so unhappy — they're trying to skip the middle of the hierarchy (community, belonging, love) and jump straight to self-actualization; the communities in Uganda with no running water who are around the fire every night singing and dancing because everyone is needed, everyone is useful, and no one is isolated the way Americans have become
5. Matt's accountability framework for leaders — being a leader means going first, sharing your failures before being prompted, and being your own best client; if you can't take your own medicine, you can't help anyone else take theirs

About the Guest:
Matt Vincent is a two-time Highland Games World Champion, entrepreneur, author of four books, host of the Not Dead Yet podcast (400-plus episodes), and the founder of the Not Dead Yet movement — a global community and coaching practice built around radical accountability, identity reinvention, and the pursuit of a life that actually feels worth living. After ten knee surgeries ended his athletic career, Matt rebuilt from zero and has since led retreats around the world, served with nonprofits in Uganda, and built a following as raw and real as the message he carries.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Meet Matt Vincent — Two-Time World Champion, Not Dead Yet Founder, Entrepreneur
 01:33 Identity Loss After Injury — The Reinvention Nobody Plans For
 03:48 Ten Surgeries, a Total Knee Replacement, and Realizing the Goalpost Moved
 05:05 Survival Mode — How Matt Pivoted to Entrepreneurship and Why It Worked
 07:31 Not Dead Yet — What the Movement Is Actually Built Around
 09:35 Intentional Community — Build a Lighthouse Loud Enough to Draw the Right People
 11:44 The Content Rule — Make for a Former Version of Yourself, Not for the Algorithm
 13:35 4.5 Million Views and Zero Aligned Followers vs. 3 Million Views and 40,000
 17:38 Why Viral Doesn't Mean Valuable — The Difference Between Noise and Mission
 19:23 AI as a Journaling Tool — Using Pattern Recognition to Surface Your Self-Sabotage
 21:47 The Capitalist Attention Economy — Fear, Scarcity, and What We've Agreed to Watch
 24:12 Peptides, Testosterone, and the "I Don't Have an Opinion Without an Experience" Rule
 31:16 The Maslow Problem — Why Americans Are Trying to Skip the Middle of the Hierarchy
 37:00 The Uganda Mission Trip — Community, Water, and What They've Figured Out That We Haven't
 43:04 Leaders Go First — Being Your Own Best Client and the Accountability Standard
 44:57 Hundreds of Failures — Content, Courses, Books, and What He Learned From Every One
 51:29 Outgrowing Things Without Making Them Mistakes — Marriage, Career, Identity
 53:28 Crystallizing vs. Changing — The Men Who Stop Evolving at 32
 55:50 You Can't Talk Anyone Into It — Be the Change, Prove It's a Safe Path
 57:00 Four Books and a Coffee Table Book Amazon Wouldn't Print — The Publishing Story
 01:13:00 The Uganda Water Celebration — 3,000 People, a New Borehole, and What It Revealed

When you're in a season of rebuilding, your people systems need to be able to hold what you're building — the free HR Audit will show you where the foundation needs work: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Not Dead Yet Life — notdeadyetlife.com | Not Dead Yet podcast (search on any platform)
• Matt Vincent — Instagram and YouTube: @mattvincent / Not Dead Yet Life
• FFTF.org — the nonprofit supporting the Uganda borehole community referenced in episode
• The Fifth Agreement by Don Miguel Ruiz — referenced in conversation about open skepticism
• Naval Ravikant on Chris Williamson's podcast — GLP-1 peptide research referenced
• Matt's books — training books on Highland Games and Strength Lab; coffee table book via notdeadyetlife.com

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-93-reinvention-accountability-amp-the-life-youre-not-done-living-with-matt-vincent

Support the show

The hidden secret to building trust in business isn't a strategy — it's a posture, and it starts with listening so carefully to the people around you that when you show up for them, it feels less like a move and more like a miracle. In this episode, Kerri Roberts sits down with John Hall, bestselling author of Top of Mind, co-founder of Calendar.com, chief strategist at Relevance.com, and Forbes' number one keynote speaker to see, for one of the most practically wise conversations this show has hosted. John is a serial entrepreneur who has built and exited companies, invested in startups that became multi-billion dollar businesses, and developed a philosophy of trust and relationship-building that has compounded across every area of his life.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What content triggering actually is and why it's the hidden secret to staying top of mind — listening to the people around you to understand what's valuable to them, identifying the trigger (a need, a mention, a moment), and doing something specific and meaningful in response; not as a strategy, but as a way of being, because once it becomes transactional it stops working and the people who matter most can feel the difference
2. Why the best way to build trust is to help others succeed — John's principle that when you help someone get their first big client, navigate a hard season, or land in a room they couldn't access without you, that kind of trust compounds; he helped seed the startup weekend that launched Zapier, and years later the founder still shows up for him, because authentic relationship investment doesn't have an expiration date
3. What the culture experiment that finally worked taught John about retention — not Disney World, not ping pong tables, not extravagant perks; the property manager friend with zero turnover who told John his team bonds over the hard stuff and knows their work matters; what people actually want is to feel valued, not alone, and to understand how their contribution connects to something bigger
4. Why being transparent can backfire — and the 90% rule John uses — if you're not 90% confident that being transparent is going to produce a positive outcome, don't; the difference between being honest and being kind, why sharing things in confidence can destroy a relationship even with good intent, and the reframe from manipulative transparency to mutually beneficial transparency
5. John's B-minus speaker insight and what it actually takes to get an A-plus rating — not the delivery, but showing up early, shaking hands, asking what problems people are dealing with before the talk, staying after, and then messaging the organization afterward to ask how he can continue to be helpful; it's the before and after that earns the rating, not the speech itself

About the Guest:
John Hall is the co-founder of Calendar.com, an AI-powered scheduling platform, and the chief strategist at Relevance.com, a content strategy firm, and the bestselling author of 'Top of Mind', a framework for staying relevant, trusted, and top of mind with the people who matter most in your business. With the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, recognition as Forbes' number one keynote speaker to see, and weekly columns in Forbes and Inc., John Hall is one of the most credible and widely-read voices in trust-building, thought leadership, and relationship-driven business growth.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Meet John Hall — Co-Founder of Calendar.com, Author of Top of Mind, Forbes' #1 Speaker
 01:10 John's First Business in College — Real Estate, Listening, and Early Lessons in Ego
 03:44 How John Decides Which Opportunities Are Worth His Time and Energy
 05:49 Content Triggering — The Counterintuitive Secret to Building Trust at Scale
 08:10 Why Trust-Building Has to Be a Personal Posture, Not a Corporate Strategy
 09:11 The Marriage Wake-Up Call — Applying Content Triggering to the People Who Matter Most
 10:44 How John Prioritizes Time for Relationships While Running Multiple Companies
 12:24 Why You Don't Have to Be at John's Level to Do This — It's for Everyone at Every Stage
 13:09 The Three-Priority Night Routine and the Miracle Morning Framework
 14:59 Forbes' #1 Keynote Speaker to See — Why John Says He's a B-Minus Speaker
 17:01 The Before-and-After That Makes You an A-Plus Speaker in the Room's Eyes
 19:10 Helping Others Succeed — The Zapier Origin Story and Why Trust Compounds
 20:36 Kerri Recommends Top of Mind — Culture and Connection in Business
21:14 What Actually Works in Culture — Value, Collaboration, and Not Feeling Alone
23:33 The Holding Company Acquisition Miss — When Excitement Doesn't Equal Alignment
27:44 Why "Employees These Days" Is a Leadership Cop-Out — The Todd Whitaker Lesson
29:14 Failure, Focus, and the One Thing That Gets Entrepreneurs Into Trouble Every Time
31:26 Focus Is the Fix — Kerri's Client Story and John's Confirmation
32:44 Pride, Ego, and the Female Co-Founder Who Became Unstoppable
33:44 Has Being Too Transparent Ever Backfired? — The 90% Rule
37:27 The Difference Between Nice and Kind — and Why It Matters in Leadership
53:07 Don't Waste the Chaos — John's Company Exit, Emma's Story, and the Light at the End

If the trust-building work you're doing with your team needs a stronger people foundation underneath it, the free HR Audit is a five-minute honest look at where to start: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Top of Mind by John Hall — link in show notes
• Calendar.com — AI-powered scheduling platform; calendar.com
• Relevance.com — content strategy firm; relevance.com
• The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod — referenced by John for the three-priority morning routine
• Todd Whitaker — educator, author, and speaker referenced by John
• Zapier — mentioned as a startup John helped seed via a startup weekend

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-92-the-hidden-secret-to-building-trust-in-business-with-john-hall

Support the show

Trust is the currency of your leadership — and if you've had a tough year with layoffs, pivots, turnover, or a tech rollout that didn't land, there's a real chance you've been spending it without realizing it. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts walks through a practical three-part framework for rebuilding trust after a hard season: a leadership self-audit, owning your missteps with transparency, and rebuilding credibility through consistent follow-through. This one is short, direct, and built for the leader who needs a clear path forward before the year ends.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why trust is the single most important lever in your business right now — 65% of employees say trust in their leaders significantly impacts their motivation and engagement (Edelman Trust Barometer); only 21% of employees strongly agree they trust their leadership (Gallup); and companies with high trust outperform low-trust companies by up to 186% (Great Place to Work); if trust has been shaken, performance and culture will follow
2. How to run a quick trust audit on yourself and your team — on a scale of one to ten, how much do your employees currently trust leadership? Where did that number slip this year and can you identify the specific moment? And the team perception test: if you asked three random employees right now whether they trust leadership to do what they say, would their answers match yours?
3. Why transparency is the fastest path back — employees who believe their leaders are transparent are eight and a half times more likely to trust them going forward (Edelman); the three-part script for owning missteps: here's what we underestimated, here's what we learned, and here's what we're going to do differently — no spin, no sugarcoating, because skeptical employees will see straight through it
4. How to rebuild credibility through consistent follow-through — following through on commitments is the number one driver of trust in leadership teams (PricewaterhouseCoopers Trust in Business Survey); credibility is earned in drops but lost in buckets; the practical tools: start with small promises and deliver on them, create visible accountability loops, and track retention rates and productivity data as trust indicators
5. How to energize your team for Q4 and into next year — acknowledge fatigue and normalize it without dismissing it, share a light at the end of the tunnel with a specific end point, focus on one or two wins to finish strong, and give employees something to believe in again by sharing your why for this year and your vision for next

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Trust Is the Currency of Your Leadership — Don't Bankrupt Yours
 01:01 What Trust Actually Is — Integrity, Competence, and Dependability
 01:18 The Data — 65%, 21%, and 186% (Why This Matters Right Now)
 02:53 Part 1 — The Trust Audit: Leadership Self-Audit Questions
 04:25 Team Perception Test — Would Their Answers Match Yours?
 06:20 What Else You Can Do — Town Halls, One-on-Ones, Anonymous Surveys
 07:00 Part 2 — Own Your Missteps: The Three-Part Transparency Script
 08:56 Employees Who See Transparent Leaders Are 8.5x More Likely to Trust Them
 09:14 Part 3 — Build Credibility Through Consistent Follow-Through
 10:10 Following Through Is the Number One Trust Driver (PwC)
 10:34 Credibility Is Earned in Drops but Lost in Buckets
 11:14 Energizing Your Team for Q4 — Honesty With a Path Forward
 12:17 Focus on One or Two Wins and Give Employees Something to Believe In
 12:54 The One-on-One Habit That Leaders Keep Skipping — and Why It Erodes Trust
 14:35 What's One Trust-Building Action You Can Take This Week?
 15:30 Trust Isn't About Being Perfect — It's About Being Believable

If your people systems aren't built to support the kind of transparency and follow-through that rebuilds trust, the free HR Audit will show you exactly where the foundation needs work: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Speed of Trust by Stephen R. Covey and Mark Covey — referenced throughout; link in show notes
• Edelman Trust Barometer — 65% trust stat and 8.5x transparency stat
• Gallup — 21% of employees strongly agree they trust leadership; 23% more likely to offer ideas when trust is high
• Great Place to Work — high-trust companies outperform by up to 186%
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Trust in Business Survey — following through on commitments is the number one trust driver
• HR in a Box Collective — monthly teaching, tools, and Q&A for business owners with 5–100 employees; saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-91-tough-year-at-work-rebuild-trust-with-this-3-part-leadership-framework

Support the show

You're not actually addicted to dopamine — you're addicted to the thing that releases it, and that distinction matters more than most people realize. In this episode, Kerri Roberts brings back returning guest Karen Brooks, MSW, for a deeper and more practical conversation about dopamine, overstimulation, technology dependence, and what it actually takes to change the cycle — for yourself, for your kids, and for the people you lead.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What dopamine addiction actually means — and what it doesn't — Karen debunks the popular phrase and explains that you can't get addicted to a chemical your body produces; what you get addicted to is the anticipation of something that releases dopamine, which is why the gambling analogy works so well (it's not anticipating the win, it's anticipating the act itself, because your brain has already associated the environment with feeling good)
2. The behavioral red flags that signal dopamine-seeking patterns are getting out of control — decreased sleep quality, increased anxiety and what looks like depression, difficulty regulating emotions (Karen's biggest red flag), inability to concentrate, and the quiet pattern of reaching for a screen the moment tension or restlessness rises, without even noticing you're doing it
3. Why doom scrolling is rewiring developing brains — teens' brains are not fully formed, and constant exposure to quick dopamine hits through social media prevents healthy development of problem-solving skills, emotional regulation, and the ability to sit with discomfort; if that starts young, it carries forward into chronic anxiety, chronic depression, and chronic concentration issues in adulthood
4. Why a technology detox doesn't reset your brain — the neuroplasticity reality is that the minute you come back into contact with the stimulus, dopamine spikes again; what actually works is naming the behavior out loud in real time, moving your phone off the nightstand, turning off notifications, and building mindful friction between the anticipation and the action
5. How to move from wanting to change to actually changing — Karen's framework: you have to name the behavior, repeat the alternative action again and again until it becomes routine, and start early with kids by calling out the behavior in the moment so their brains learn to associate an action with a feeling before the habit is formed

About the Guest:
Karen Brooks, MSW, is a speaker, mentor, and the founder of Guided Growth Teen Coaching, a coaching and mental health advocacy practice focused on helping teens, adults, and families navigate emotional complexity, overstimulation, and dopamine-seeking behaviors in a technology-saturated world. With years of clinical and coaching experience working with teens, parents, and adults, Karen Brooks brings rare clarity to the science and psychology of dopamine, addiction, and behavioral change.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Karen Brooks Is Back — Debunking Dopamine Addiction from the Start
 02:03 What Dopamine Actually Does — And What You're Really Addicted To
 03:09 The Subtle Signs That Dopamine-Seeking Is Becoming a Problem
 06:07 Screen Time, Four Hours a Day, and How to Think About It Honestly
 07:07 Technology Isn't Going Away — We Have to Adapt How We Respond
 08:36 How Overstimulation and Dopamine Cycles Are Actually Connected
 10:50 How This Is Affecting Family Relationships — The Dopamine Crash Cycle
 13:29 The Gambling Analogy — It's the Anticipation, Not the Win
 15:04 Doom Scrolling — What It Is and Why It's Rewiring Developing Brains
 18:35 Why Stopping Doom Scrolling Won't Fix the Problem Alone
 19:21 Kerri's Resting Heart Rate, Two Murders on Social Media, and Body Data
 25:38 What Actually Works — Practical Tools Beyond Restricting Screen Time
 27:10 Why a Technology Fast Doesn't Reset Your Brain (and What Does)
 30:44 Move Your Phone, Turn Off Notifications, Name the Behavior Out Loud
 34:06 Alcohol, Weed, Mushrooms — The Pattern of Replacing One Thing With Another
 38:56 How Dopamine-Seeking Affects Identity Formation in Teens and Adults
 41:13 What Hope Looks Like — Neuroplasticity and the Brain's Ability to Rewire
 43:56 How to Move From Wanting Change to Actually Making It
 45:36 Where to Find Karen Brooks and Guided Growth Teen Coaching

When your people are burnt out, overstimulated, and checked out, the problem often starts long before they show up to work — the free HR Audit will show you where your people systems need to meet them: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 �� saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Karen Brooks, MSW — guidedgrowthteencoaching.net | LinkedIn (link in show notes)
• Guided Growth Teen Coaching — teen coaching, mental health mentorship, and family support

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-90-the-truth-about-dopamine-addiction-tech-teens-and-taking-your-brain-back

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DEI programs exploded after 2020, corporate spending on them grew by nearly 50% between 2020 and 2022 (McKinsey), and now DEI-related job postings have dropped 44% in 2023 alone (Harvard Business Review) — so what is actually happening, and what should HR do in the middle of all of it? In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts shares her honest, data-backed take on why she doesn't believe in formal standalone DEI programs, what she thinks went wrong, and what she believes works better — grounded in 20-plus years of representing both employees and employers across organizations of every size.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. The full DEI arc — how corporate spending surged after 2020, why 52% of US employees told Gallup that their company's DEI statements are just for show, and why the current pullback is forcing a real conversation about whether these programs were ever doing what they were designed to do
2. The risks Kerri sees in formal DEI programs — when DEI language becomes politicized and lands HR in the middle of culture war flashpoints, the difference between compliance tools and value statements, and a 2022 SHRM survey finding that 40% of employees say political discussions at work make them feel stressed or anxious — which directly impacts the quality of work they can bring
3. What Kerri believes should replace formal DEI programs — anchoring policies in compliance rather than politics, strengthening non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies that are legally sound and politically neutral, investing in leadership development around empathy and clear communication (the two things employees most want from their leaders, per LinkedIn's 2023 Workforce Learning Report), and embedding inclusion into every HR process from hire to termination rather than siloing it into a separate department
4. How to navigate cancel culture in your business — social media magnifies mistakes, an MIT Sloan study from 2022 found that cancel culture creates reputational shocks that ripple into business performance, and HR's job is not to police every opinion but to ensure workplace conduct aligns with professional expectations through clear communication guidelines
5. Kerri's framework for HR in a politically noisy world — compliant, consistent, and compassionate; what that means in practice, why she doesn't believe HR needs to be political to be effective, and the specific process she uses (including AI in recruitment) that sparked the TikTok post and hundreds of comments that led to this episode

CHAPTERS:

00:00 The TikTok Post That Sparked This Episode — The AI Recruitment Story
 08:09 Why Kerri Struck a Chord — And Why DEI Is One of HR's Hottest Topics Right Now
 09:24 The DEI Arc — From 50% Spending Growth to 44% Job Posting Drop
 10:07 Why 52% of Employees Say DEI Statements Are Just for Show (Gallup)
 10:35 What Employees Actually Want — Fairness, Consistency, and Respect in Action
 11:31 The Risks of Formal DEI Programs — Politicization, Culture War Flashpoints, Groupthink
 12:48 40% of Employees Feel Stressed by Political Discussions at Work (SHRM)
 13:10 What Can We Do Instead? — HR's Practical Path Forward
 13:32 Anchor Policies in Compliance, Not Politics
 13:50 Strengthen Non-Discrimination Policies — Inclusive, Legally Sound, Politically Neutral
 14:23 Invest in Empathy and Communication Training Instead of Mandatory DEI Training
 14:46 Cancel Culture in HR — Social Media, Reputational Risk, and MIT Sloan Research
 16:27 HR's Role Is Not to Police Opinions — It's to Set Professional Expectations
 16:52 A Balanced Path Forward — Embedding Inclusion Into Every HR Process
 17:37 Kerri's Clear Take — Compliant, Consistent, and Compassionate

If your HR foundation is built on compliant, consistent people practices rather than programs that create more noise than results, the free HR Audit will show you where the gaps are: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• McKinsey (2022) — corporate DEI spending grew nearly 50% between 2020 and 2022
• Harvard Business Review — DEI-related job postings dropped 44% in 2023
• Gallup — 52% of US employees say their company's DEI statements are just for show
• SHRM (2022) — 40% of employees say political discussions at work make them feel stressed or anxious
• LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report (2023) — empathy and clear communication are the top leadership skills employees want
• MIT Sloan (2022) — cancel culture creates reputational shocks that ripple into business performance
• HR in a Box Collective — saltandlightadvisors.com
• Salt & Light Advisors weekly newsletter — saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/ep-89-why-i-say-no-to-dei-programs-and-what-hr-should-do-instead

Support the show

If you started a business but aren't paying yourself fairly, you didn't become an entrepreneur — you just gave yourself another job with a shitty boss. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts gets personal about her own experience underpaying herself for the first two and a half years of running Salt & Light Advisors, makes the business case for why owner compensation matters more than most people think, and walks through the practical steps to fix it — starting now.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why small business owners underpay themselves and what it's actually costing — 26% of small business owners don't pay themselves at all, and among those who do, the median salary is around $68,000, well below average corporate executive pay (OnPay Small Business Finance Report, 2023); the hidden costs include burnout, resentment, personal financial stress, and modeling the wrong behavior to your team
2. The three-layer ripple effect of underpaying yourself — personal impact (debt, limited retirement savings, strained family finances; the Federal Reserve reports 37% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing), business impact (fewer strategic moves, inability to invest in tools and resources, less flexibility to step away), and cultural impact (when you normalize self-sacrifice, you risk creating a culture of martyrdom instead of sustainability)
3. Why loyalty to your business doesn't mean self-sacrifice — Kerri's story of being grossly underpaid as an executive while being the catalyst for making a business sellable, sitting at the table when the sale happened and receiving a fraction of the reward, and the mindset shift that followed: you can have loyalty to people who aren't loyal back, and that's on you to recognize and change
4. Practical steps to fix it — audit your compensation against market rates, prioritize owner pay in the budget like a non-negotiable (not rent, not taxes, but your own paycheck), tie milestones to revenue thresholds so there's a clear path and a motivator, and don't share your compensation struggles with your team because it signals you'll shortchange them too
5. The data point that should motivate every business owner — business owners who compensate themselves fairly are 2.5 times more likely to report profitability than those who don't (Small Business Administration performance study); paying yourself fairly isn't selfishness, it's an act of leadership

CHAPTERS:

00:00 The Question That Woke Kerri Up — "How Long Are You Going to Keep Working for Free?"
 01:23 Why Small Business Owners Underpay Themselves — The Common Reasons
 02:12 The Stats — 26% Don't Pay Themselves At All, Median Pay Around $68K
 02:35 The Three Ripple Effects of Underpaying Yourself
 03:44 Personal Impact — Debt, Retirement Gaps, and Financing Fast Food
 05:07 Business Impact — Fewer Strategic Moves and the Team Models What They See
 06:43 Cultural Impact — Martyrdom vs. Sustainability
 07:07 Modeling the Right Behavior — What a Team Member's Social Post Taught Kerri
 08:02 Reframing Loyalty — It Doesn't Mean Ignoring Your Own Needs
 08:16 Kerri's Story — Being the Catalyst for a Sale and Getting a Fraction of the Reward
 10:00 The Mindset Shift — Loyalty to People Who Aren't Loyal Back
 10:55 The Leader Who Offered Their Own Pay — And Why That's a Problem
 11:46 Practical Steps — Audit Your Compensation, Prioritize Owner Pay, Set Milestones
 12:28 Tie Pay to Revenue Thresholds So There's a Path and a Driver
 13:13 What Not to Share with Your Team About Your Own Compensation
 14:07 The SBA Data — 2.5x More Likely to Report Profitability
 14:30 HR in a Box and the Free Weekly Newsletter

If you don't have systems in place to pay yourself consistently or manage compensation for your team, the free HR Audit is a good first honest look at where your people foundation stands: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• OnPay Small Business Finance Report (2023) — 26% of small business owners don't pay themselves; median salary around $68K
• Federal Reserve Economic Well-Being Report — 37% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing
• Small Business Administration performance study — business owners who compensate themselves fairly are 2.5x more likely to report profitability
• HR in a Box Collective — 12-month program with tools, templates, and structure; saltandlightadvisors.com
• Free weekly newsletter — saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/realriskofhidingmoney-n294r

Support the show

When leaders go quiet about money — or about any significant change — their employees don't assume the best. They fill the silence with stories, and those stories are almost always darker than reality. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts opens with one of the most instructive stories she's ever told on this show: the time a company she worked for swapped out Solo cups for branded reusable ones, didn't explain why, and watched the entire organization spiral into rumors that the business was going broke and shutting down within five years. The company was fine. But the silence cost them in ways they never fully measured.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why silence is the real financial risk in business — when leaders go quiet about budget changes, strategy shifts, or staffing decisions, employees fill in the blanks with stories, and Deloitte research shows 86% of leaders agree greater transparency boosts workforce trust; transparent leadership yields up to 30% more trust and 25% higher morale (Marx-Elliot), and happy engaged employees are up to 12% more productive with engaged cultures outperforming others by up to 20%
2. What financial transparency actually means in practice — not sharing every crunchy number, not sharing your EBITDA, but sharing enough to anchor employee trust: high-level revenue trends, margin pressures, budget flexes, and direction, framed in percentages and context rather than raw numbers, so employees can attach to the purpose of the organization and understand where their role fits into the bigger picture
3. How to crowdsource efficiency and lean into a high-involvement culture — organizations with employees who have information and decision-making power see stronger commitment, retention, and higher performance (Financial Times); the practical moves: open forums, cascading check-in meetings, and soliciting ideas with questions like "where do you see smarter ways to stretch what we currently have" rather than a generic feedback box
4. How to communicate change without creating panic — the solo cup story, the offshore hire story, and the hiring freeze example all illustrate the same principle: silence breeds bigger stories, and sharing the intentionality behind your direction — even just the final 10% of context — transforms fear into fuel for creativity, connection, and collective ownership
5. When to use full transparency as a de-escalation tactic — Kerri's counterintuitive move for employees who are always asking for more information than they should have: give them so much information, walk them through every step of the process with such specificity, that they realize you are deeply intentional, have nothing to hide, and they are not going to get the juice they were fishing for — they usually never ask again

CHAPTERS:

00:00 The Real Risk of Financial Silence — What Happens When You Don't Share
 00:47 The Solo Cup Story — How Three Small Changes Turned Into "We're Going Broke"
 03:40 Giving Permission for Transparency Without Sharing Everything
 04:14 Why Transparency Matters — The Data on Trust, Morale, and Engagement
 05:37 The Turnover Tax — Replacing Someone Costs 30% to 200% of Their Salary
 06:13 What Transparency Is NOT — You Don't Have to Share Every Number
 07:03 What Employees Actually Need — Purpose Attachment and Direction
 08:18 Sharing Reality With Calm — "We're in a Lean Season and Here's How You Can Help"
 09:18 High-Involvement Culture — What It Looks Like and Why It Works
 10:57 When CEOs Share Nothing Personal — And What Employees Think About That
 12:24 What Transparency Actually Looks Like in a Termination Conversation
 15:22 The De-Escalation Tactic — Give Them So Much Information They Stop Asking
 16:48 HR in a Box — The Employer Responsibility Checklist
 17:55 Open Forums, Check-In Meetings, and Soliciting Ideas the Right Way
 19:39 Insecure Department Heads — And Why That's a Senior Leader Problem
 21:03 Transparency Beyond Finances — Strategy Shifts, Staffing Changes, Offshore Hires
 26:28 People Don't Need Certainty — They Need Honesty with Context
 27:04 Transparency Transforms Fear Into Fuel

If your people systems are built on clarity rather than guesswork, the free HR Audit will show you where the gaps in your foundation are before they cost you: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• HR in a Box Collective — employer responsibility checklist and monthly group coaching; saltandlightadvisors.com
• Deloitte — 86% of leaders agree greater transparency boosts workforce trust (referenced in episode)
• Marx-Elliot study — transparent leadership yields up to 30% more trust and 25% higher morale (referenced in episode)
• Financial Times — organizations with employees who have information and decision-making power see stronger commitment and performance (referenced in episode)

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/realriskofhidingmoney

Support the show

Your values are only as strong as your hardest day — and if you're being honest, do they actually hold up when revenue is down, a key client is angry, or you're behind on hiring? In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts makes the real business case for authentic company culture (not ping pong tables and slogans), walks through a practical culture audit you can do yourself, and shares the specific steps she used to raise employee satisfaction and engagement data by 18% year over year at a construction firm by doing three things: job descriptions, transparent pay bands, and performance reviews.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why authentic culture actually matters — employees who believe an organization reflects their values are 3.7 times more likely to be engaged, organizations with engaged employees are up to 43% more productive, and disengaged workforces see turnover rates of 48.4% compared to 13.9% in engaged organizations — and why stated values with no real backing breed cynicism, entitlement, and division faster than having no values at all
2. How to establish core values if you don't have them yet — Kerri's practical exercise: think of the employees you could not do business without, write down their character traits, find the patterns, and those are your values; then hire to them, onboard to them, review to them, and if needed, discipline or terminate to them
3. How to conduct a culture audit on your current values — are they still meaningful and relevant? Do they guide real behavior or are they wishful thinking? Use engagement surveys, retention data, performance metrics, and feedback to test whether the actual behaviors in your organization match the language in your core values, and get gut-level honest about where you're out of alignment
4. How to embed values into performance management — the case for values-based reviews alongside output metrics, why a five-point Likert scale beats a three-point scale every time (everyone gets a two on a three-point scale), and the three-step manager training process Kerri used at the construction firm: training on criteria, manager calibration session, then employee rollout
5. What Kerri's Essential Manager Training series looks like — starting at $2,500, one to three tailored 60-minute sessions on topics like giving feedback with confidence, leading through change, or performance conversations that stick, custom-built to your organization's specific culture and values goals

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Your Values Are Only as Strong as Your Hardest Day
 01:22 Why Performative Culture Fails — T-Shirts and Ping Pong Tables Don't Build Trust
 01:48 The Real Business Case for Authentic Culture — The Data
 02:29 What Engagement Actually Translates To — Productivity, Retention, Shareholder Returns
 03:27 The Dangers of Stated Values With No Real Backing
 04:22 How to Conduct a Culture Audit — Start With Core Values
 04:55 How to Establish Core Values If You Don't Have Them (The Character Traits Exercise)
 06:13 Values Must Run Through Hiring, Onboarding, Performance, and Termination
 06:39 If You Already Have Values — Are They Still Meaningful?
 07:12 How Your Values Hold Up Under Pressure — The Hardest Day Test
 08:56 Making Culture Meaningful and Visible — Values in Performance Management
 10:08 Values-Based Reviews vs. Output Metrics — Why You Need Both
 11:10 Real Client Example — Construction Firm, 18% Engagement Increase
 13:00 Why Top Performers Actually Love Performance Reviews
 13:47 Five-Point Likert Scale vs. Three-Point — Why It Matters for Your Data
 16:49 The Manager Training and Calibration Process — How It Works in Practice
 20:06 The Essential Manager Training Series — Starting at $2,500
 22:00 Culture Only Matters When It's Tested — Your Call to Action

If your culture audit reveals gaps in how your people systems are built, the free HR Audit will show you exactly where the foundation needs work: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
�� https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Salt & Light Advisors Essential Manager Training Series — starting at $2,500; one to three tailored 60-minute sessions; saltandlightadvisors.com/contact
• Salt & Light Advisors HR Audit — saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit
• Salt & Light Advisors fractional and project-based HR work — saltandlightadvisors.com/contact
• Word cloud tools — referenced for the core values character traits exercise (search "free word cloud generator")

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/companyculturefailingyou

Support the show