Shift!

Mike Lantz has built his career on the idea that no matter the challenge, you can learn your way out of it. As the founder of trueU, he helps companies solve and learn from challenges so they can keep growing.

In this episode, Mike reflects on his eight years as Chief People Officer at Defenders before founding trueU, explaining how to treat HR as a growth engine and leading CEOs through COVID. He also discusses why AI will free, not just HR professionals, but leaders for strategic work, and what it took to build a business with five kids under six at home. 

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Mike Lantz, founder of trueU

(00:42) Helping businesses solve people challenges

(02:10) From Defenders to starting trueU

(03:54) How HR can be an engine for business growth

(05:23) Wearing every hat in year one

(07:37) Learning your way out of any challenge

(10:38) How AI and technology has reshaped HR

(13:21) Raising five kids while building a business

(16:01) What he’s proud of beyond revenue

(17:51) Making every team member’s tour of duty count 

Connect with Mike Lantz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeclantz/ 

Learn about trueU: https://trueu.com/

Connect with Kendra Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-beutler-32585b10b 

Connect with Jason Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbeutler 

Learn about Robosource: https://robosource.us/ 

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Tommy Martin started in a copy room because he wanted to marry a girl and needed a job. Twenty-five years later, he runs The Tebow Group, where he oversees the Tebow brand and invests in companies using AI as a force for good.

In this episode, Tommy sits down to talk about the shift from being the one who does all the work to empowering people who could do the work better than he does. He also explains how his firm ran client meetings over video in 2008, twelve years before most of the financial industry caught up. And after taking an executive AI course at Stanford, he shares why he believes most AI rollouts fail for reasons that have nothing to do with the technology, and why AI should make people better at their jobs instead of replacing them.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Tommy Martin, CEO of The Tebow Group

(00:41) The journey from copy room intern to CEO

(02:18) Retiring at 35 and finding a new purpose

(05:17) A latchkey kid and a backyard experiment

(09:57) How to let go of doing all the work yourself

(15:03) Using AI to fight human trafficking

(20:12) Winning clients in the 2008 crash

(23:40) How video meetings were before COVID

(26:21) The Courage to Commit

(29:36) AI that magnifies people instead of replacing them

(33:07) What a Stanford AI course revealed about failed rollouts

(35:20) Breaking every job into automatable tasks 

Connect with Tommy Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-martin/ 

Learn about The Tebow Group: https://tebowgroup.com/

Connect with Kendra Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-beutler-32585b10b 

Connect with Jason Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbeutler 

Learn about Robosource: https://robosource.us/ 

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Every industry hits a moment where the old way stops working. Some leaders see it coming. Others get run over.

On Shift!, Jason and Kendra Beutler sit down with business owners and leaders who've lived through a real shift and dive deep into what kept them going to this very day. Subscribe to catch the latest episodes.

Connect with Kendra Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-beutler-32585b10b 

Connect with Jason Beutler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbeutler 

Learn about Robosource: https://robosource.us/