What happens when you hire great people, but still don’t get great results?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Andrew Abraham, CEO and co-founder of Heybuddy, shares how early hiring mistakes forced him to confront a hard truth: talent doesn’t compensate for missing process.

As a young founder building a customer-consciousness platform for CPG and e-commerce brands, Andrew initially believed people were the most critical lever. But after scaling too quickly without operational clarity, he realized something deeper — even star players fail without structure and clear leadership direction. 

Andrew walks through:

• Why process — not people — was the real bottleneck in early growth
• How direct accountability starts with the leader, not the team
• The difference between hiring talent and aligning personnel to the mission
• Why servant leadership creates cultural gravity
• His belief that entrepreneurship is a deeply spiritual journey — and why leaders must listen to their hearts as much as their metrics. 

For leaders building in high-growth environments, this conversation is a reminder: sustainable performance isn’t built on charisma or hiring velocity — it’s built on clarity, alignment, and systems that allow great people to win.

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What happens when a former Wall Street banker trades skyscrapers for a garage — and builds a mission-driven investment bank from scratch?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Matt Plooster, Founder & CEO of Bridgepoint Investment Banking, shares the remarkable journey that took him from billion-dollar transactions at Deutsche Bank to launching a boutique firm with a simple belief: people and culture aren’t just part of the business — they ARE the business.

Matt’s story is anything but typical. A small-town Nebraskan who once walked on to play football at the University of Nebraska, he later found himself on Wall Street working on some of the largest private equity deals in the world. But purpose — not prestige — pulled him home.

In this conversation, Matt opens up about the cultural principles that define Bridgepoint and how investing deeply in people has become his firm’s most important competitive edge.

Matt walks through:

• Why culture is the only sustainable differentiator in high-performance service industries
• The leadership tension between scaling fast and protecting standards
• Why most people problems are really clarity and accountability problems
• The investment resources Bridgepoint makes in its people — from success coaches to supportive chaplains
• How mission, purpose, and trust strengthen both the work and the financial outcomes
• Why gratitude and perspective matter more as the stakes get higher. 

For leaders navigating growth, hiring or culture drift, Matt’s story is a reminder that the real engine of performance isn’t strategy or capital — it’s people who believe in what they’re building together.

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What happens when a leader avoids the hard people decisions—and everyone else quietly lowers their standards to match?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Mike Walrod, founder of Incite Business Strategies and longtime fractional integrator of EOS shares why accountability is one of the most powerful cultural signals a leader sends.

With over 30 years in operations and executive roles, Mike has seen the same pattern across organizations - people issues ignored at the top become performance issues everywhere else.

Through EOS’s “right person, right seat” framework, Mike helps leadership teams confront misalignment, rebuild trust, and reset expectations—often for the first time in years. And when leaders finally raise the bar, the culture responds almost immediately.

Mike walks through:

• Why people issues must be fixed before processes
• How one misaligned leader creates a ripple effect across culture and morale
• Why employees watch what leaders tolerate—not what they say
• How communication breakdowns fuel organizational drift
• Why resetting standards begins with honest, direct conversations. 

Mike also shares how fractional integrators help teams rebuild trust, alignment, and clarity by reigniting honest conversations—often the first candid conversation the team has had in years.

For leaders navigating team dysfunction, misalignment, or cultural stagnation, this episode is a reminder that accountability isn’t punitive—it's cultural stewardship. And culture changes the moment leaders decide to raise the bar again.

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What happens when your culture functions like a power grid — and one small disconnect shuts down momentum across the organization?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Chip Higgins, founder of Bizzics and a former 40-year banker, explores why culture and process failures create more organizational heat, friction, and performance stalls than any financial constraint ever could.

After decades advising owner-managed businesses, Chip noticed a pattern: companies rarely fail from lack of capital — they fail from lack of energy. 

Drawing from concepts in his book The Bizzics Way, Chip explains how culture acts as the “power grid” of an organization, conducting the energy needed for alignment, velocity, and execution.

Chip walks through:

• Why culture acts as an energy system — not a slogan or morale booster
• How one small breakdown in communication or process can cripple momentum
• Why systems fail when people aren’t included early in the design
• The hidden “heat” created when automation solves compliance but undermines execution
• How local ownership can transform process redesign into cultural strength rather than cultural erosion. 

For leaders navigating automation, growth, system rollouts, or operational change, Chip’s insights offer a simple idea: momentum requires energy — and energy only flows through a culture built for connection, clarity, and ownership.

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What happens when empowered leadership goes unchecked - and everyone "starts running with scissors?"

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Joshua Miller, Founder & Principal of Remarkable Foods, shares how his food service consulting work revealed a hidden leadership trap - giving too much freedom without clear frameworks.

Joshua’s journey started with scrambled eggs at age eight and evolved into executive leadership in the food service industry. 

Today, he helps organizations turn chaos into clarity by building cultures where process and empowerment work together.

A great real-world example - a client’s well-meaning efforts to empower leaders & managers led to confusion, overlapping innovations, and operational slowdown. 

Joshua stepped in to help realign, but there was a turning point - a discovery process that surfaced surprising insights through confidential, one-on-one interviews - showing that even in dysfunction, the team deeply respected their leaders, wanted to improve and drive growth. 

Joshua walks through:

• Why process - not people - was a real problem in this leadership challenge
• The downside of innovation without alignment or structure
• How linear thinking can be a leadership asset or a liability
• Why psychological safety and clear feedback loops drive better outcomes
• His reminder that leading others well starts with treating them how you'd want to be led. 

For leaders navigating complex teams or culture drift, this episode offers practical insight into how empowered leadership and intentional process can unlock performance.

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What happens when rapid growth exposes cracks in your structure - and you decide to rebuild from the inside out?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communications at Thrive Agency, shares how his team preserved culture while scaling fast - and what marketing and magic have in common.

Jimi's leadership journey spans from graphic designer to creative director to executive leader. Along the way, he’s stayed focused on what matters most: culture, communication, and connection. 

At Thrive, where industry turnover can reach 50%, his team maintains a voluntary turnover rate of just 5% - a direct result of intentional culture-building and leadership decisions.

When a hierarchical structure started to crumble under the weight of growth, Jimi led the company through a major transformation, shifting to a matrix model. Their approach included an “alpha team,” a communications plan that invited team feedback, and a strong commitment to protecting trust and continuity.

Why setting clear expectations - and setting realistic expectations about the difficulty of change - was essential to success.

Jimi also breaks down his magic-to-marketing framework that taps into core human neurological responses - to drive better connection and communication.

We cover:

• How Thrive maintained stability while transforming operations
• Why matrix teams helped restore trust and clarity internally
• The neuroscience behind compelling messaging—and what magicians know that marketers forget
• How clear expectations and structured pilots kept their culture strong during change

For agency leaders, marketing executives or any team navigating growth and restructuring, this conversation is full of insight - and a reminder that the best culture strategies are the ones that stick when pressure hits.

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What happens when leaders stop pretending and start leading with vulnerability?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, Tucker Graves, CEO and co-founder of Pineapple Academy, shares how his content training company unexpectedly pivoted into the world of SaaS - and the leadership lessons that came with it.

With roots in a multi-generational family business, Tucker brings a grounded perspective on culture, growth, and people. When faced with the challenge of running a company they weren’t fully equipped to lead, Tucker and his co-founder didn’t fake expertise - they asked for help. 

That simple act of vulnerability became a cultural foundation, transforming how they built the team and tackled growth.

Tucker walks through:

• The real impact of process gaps when scaling a company
• How embracing vulnerability helped align their team and culture
• Why honesty builds trust faster than pretending to have all the answers
• The performance formula that guides his decisions - investments come from growth, and growth comes from people.

For leaders navigating unfamiliar terrain or high-impact growth, this episode is a reminder that admitting what you don’t know might be your greatest leadership strength.

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Is bigger always better?

In this episode of Leadership Levers, we sit down with David Mandel, Managing Partner at Emerging Ventures Capital, to explore how culture, capital, and leadership collide in high-growth environments.

David shares his journey from aspiring AI researcher in the 1980s to serial entrepreneur and now venture investor - offering a rare, full-circle view of leadership evolution. 

Having built and exited four underwriting and finance businesses, he’s experienced firsthand how culture can make or break a company, no matter how strong the financials.

His biggest lesson? “We allowed profits to come first.” David recounts a moment when rapid growth overwhelmed his team and degraded performance - serving as a cautionary tale for today’s “scale at all costs” startup mindset. The stress of tripling business volume without the capacity to support it became a cultural breaking point.

Now, as a venture capitalist, he advises founders to be intentional - question growth goals, hire people who match your values, and focus on execution over ego. His cultural formula is simple—but often overlooked: “Hire the best people, let them do their job, and get out of their way!"

Whether you’re scaling a startup or leading inside a mature organization, this episode challenges conventional thinking - and reminds us that sustainable growth starts with culture and people, not capital.

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The relationship between organizational culture and business success has never been more critical - or more complex. How can today’s leaders strengthen culture in ways that drive performance and connection, especially across remote and hybrid teams?

In this Leadership Levers episode, we sit down with Charles Windsor, CEO of Oakwood Systems Group and TalentPort Inc, to unpack the connection between culture, performance, and leadership in professional services.

Drawing on 40 years of consulting experience, Charles shares practical lessons on how culture evolves - and why it must be intentionally cultivated, especially in a hybrid world. 

He explains why culture isn’t just atmosphere - it’s the framework that gives people purpose, fuels innovation, and drives profit.

The conversation takes an interesting turn as Charles details his approach to remote hiring, emphasizing that distributed employees must “put two feet into the business.” He shares the criteria his team uses to evaluate remote fit and how those cultural cues can make or break employee engagement.

Charles shares his philosophy of hiring for attitude over aptitude, why he interviews every candidate, and how his company’s values - risk-taking, community, mindset, and humor - shape performance from the inside out.

His message to leaders is clear - culture is a leadership responsibility, and communication is its most powerful tool. 

“How do you walk the floor digitally?” he asks. The answer, he argues, determines whether your team is simply working - or truly thriving.

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What does it take to build a winning culture - on the court and in the office?

Highlights Covered

• Why process and mindset matter more than results
• How a “Pyramid of Success” model shaped team performance at KU
• The hidden cost of one bad actor on a high-performing team
• Leadership takeaway - be a star in your role, even if it’s behind the scenes
• Mindset principle: Live life in the hills and valleys, not at the peaks or the bottom

 Summary

This episode explores the parallels between elite athletics and business—showing how mindset, culture, and role clarity can determine the difference between mediocrity and momentum.

Will Gladhart is joined by Chris Teahan, financial advisor at Merrill Wealth Management and former University of Kansas basketball player and NCAA national champion. 

Drawing from his time competing at the highest level of college athletics, Chris shares how the lessons of team culture, role clarity, and mindset resilience have shaped his approach to business and leadership.

At Kansas, Chris and his teammates were taught to focus less on results and more on the “bottom half” of their Pyramid of Success - thinking right, acting right, and speaking right. That internal process, he explains, is where culture lives. 

Chris illustrates how one toxic influence can derail even the best team, using a memorable “ice cream analogy” shared by Coach Bill Self - one bad ingredient spoils the whole. The solution? Clear expectations, shared values, and alignment around a common goal.

Today, in a demanding role where he regularly approaches high-net-worth individuals decades his senior, Chris reflects on the mindset that keeps him grounded - living in the hills and valleys instead of the highs or lows. 

For leaders and teammates alike, he emphasizes the power of owning your role, leading with intention, and staying even-keeled through both rejection and success.

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

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