The Top 100 Leadership Insights from Year One of The Learning to Lead Show
Top 100 Insights From Year One of The Learning to Lead Show
A One-Year Anniversary Special
A year ago, I sat down at a microphone with an idea bigger than my confidence: what if the best leadership lessons don't come from a stage or a textbook, but from the people actually living it out? On shop floors. In locker rooms. Behind pulpits. In boardrooms. In the quiet moments no one else sees.
Twelve months and 27 incredible conversations later, I have my answer.
This past year, I've sat across from Marine Corps veterans and Navy veterans, pastors and funeral home directors, martial arts grandmasters and basketball coaches, entrepreneurs and executives, authors and mentors.
Every single one of them showed up willing to be honest about the moments that shaped them,
the crises, the failures, the mentors who spoke truth, and the small daily choices that quietly became a leadership legacy.
I started this show because I believe growth-minded leaders deserve better than surface-level advice. You deserve real stories from real leaders who've been tested and are still standing.
So to celebrate our first anniversary, I didn't want to just say thank you. I wanted to give you something you could actually use.
Below, you'll meet all 27 guests who shaped this first year of The Learning to Lead Show, who they are, what they've built, and the wisdom that's earned them a seat at this table. Then, pulled from every single conversation, you'll find the Top 100 Takeaways from Year One — the best of the best, distilled into the lines and lessons I believe every growth-minded leader needs to carry into whatever comes next.
Read it slow. Come back to it often. And then go lead like it matters, because it does.
Here's to Year Two.
Meet the 27 Voices Who Shaped Year One
Ali Merchant — Author of The All-In Manager: Become a Better Leader Today, Not Someday. Ali's research found that two out of three managers are "accidental" — promoted with no training and no roadmap. He teaches leaders how to build trust, psychological safety, and a feedback-rich culture.
Steve Veale — Executive Pastor at Westridge Church, where most of his team serves as volunteers rather than paid staff. Steve has spent his career proving that influence, not authority, is what actually moves people — and that culture "bleeds" from the top down.
Robert Owens — Vice President of MidSouth Floors, who was handed a company overnight with no training and no playbook. Robert's story includes laying rebar in the mud beside his crew to save a job, and later leading from a literal broom closet after selling his company — a lesson in humility that outlasted any title.
Shon Isenhour — Owner and Founder of Eruditio, a reliability and change-management consultant who teaches leaders the ADKAR framework and the art of storytelling to drive lasting change in organizations that resist it.
M.K. Palmore — Founder and CEO of Apogee Global RMS. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, former U.S. Marine Corps officer, retired FBI executive, and cybersecurity leader at Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks, M.K. brings three decades of leadership across some of the world's most demanding environments.
Ken Wagner — Behavioral leadership expert and founder of Daylight Advisory. Ken teaches leaders that culture isn't a mystery — it's a pattern of reinforced behavior that can be intentionally designed.
Joey Cantrell — Industrial leader with more than 40 years on the front lines of maintenance and operations, starting in a machine shop at age 13 and eventually leading operations at one of the largest aluminum rolling mills in North America.
Bobby Allen — Retired U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Major. Bobby rose from craftsman to Regimental Sergeant Major and now teaches leaders that calm under pressure, seeking responsibility, and truly knowing your people are the real foundations of trust.
Erin Treacy — Former alpine ski racer turned business owner and leadership coach. Erin helps leaders shift from carrying their teams to actually leading them — with more clarity, sustainability, and less burnout.
Coach Jim Johnson — Former high school basketball coach behind the world-famous "Miracle of J-Mac" (Jason McElwain) story. Coach Johnson teaches leaders the power of vulnerability, daily growth habits, and becoming the "Chief Question Asker."
Jay Jacobson — Longtime funeral home director, entrepreneur, and author of Lead by Legendary Example. Jay has led through some of the highest-pressure moments imaginable, including the United Flight 232 disaster response and testimony before the U.S. Senate.
Patrick Erwin — Director of Content & Training at The Maxwell Leadership Foundation and former award-winning high school band director at Hillgrove High School in Georgia. Patrick is the author of I Love This Place and teaches leaders to be both tough and tender.
Dave Pennington — Leadership coach and business valuation consultant. Dave helps leaders find their "80% sweet spot" and build organizations strong enough that they don't depend on any one person — including the founder.
Debbie Simmons — Creator of the "Architecture of Trust" framework and author of The Heart of Legacy and The Perfectly Imperfect Family. Debbie teaches that trust isn't just relational — it's structural, and pressure reveals what you've actually built.
Preston Zeller — Entrepreneur, consultant, filmmaker, and artist. After losing his brother, Preston created a painting every single day for a year — an experience that became the documentary The Art of Grieving and reshaped how he leads with empathy.
Jeff Brown — Founder and host of the award-nominated Read to Lead Podcast. Over more than a decade, Jeff has interviewed some of the world's top leadership thinkers, including Seth Godin, John Maxwell, Simon Sinek, Liz Wiseman, Dr. Henry Cloud, and Stephen M.R. Covey.
Dr. Matt Willmington — Executive Pastor and College Professor who teaches that leadership fundamentals never expire — mission, values, hiring, and onboarding have to be repeated and reinforced no matter how large an organization grows.
Paul Thornton — Author, teacher, coach, and leadership expert with more than 35 years of experience. Paul developed the Directing, Discussing, and Delegating framework that helps leaders adapt their style to the person and the moment.
Tim Harmon — U.S. Army veteran with 20+ years of leadership experience, including Ranger deployments, who has led global reliability implementations at companies including AK Steel, Stanley Black & Decker, and Cooper Tire.
Marianne Renner — Author of Self-Talk and self-leadership expert. Marianne teaches the SEAR framework — Situation, Emotion, Action, Result — to help leaders rewrite the inner narrative that quietly shapes their outer leadership.
Grandmaster Rick Rando — 8th-degree Black Belt and martial arts school leader, and co-host of The Victory Couch Podcast. Rick's philosophy, "What you condone, you endorse," has become one of the most quoted lines from this show.
Trent McJunkin — Leadership coach who rose from shop-floor technician to consultant. Trent teaches leaders the critical shift from being the "hero" who fixes everything to the developer who builds people who don't need one.
Quentin Hodge — Frontline leader and trainer whose two-part conversation centered on integrity, empathy, and emotional intelligence as the non-negotiables of leadership under pressure.
Adam Nemer — Former healthcare executive at Kaiser Permanente, author of Simple Mental Health, and founder of Simple Mental Health. Adam silently battled undiagnosed mental illness for nearly two decades before a five-minute conversation with a leader who cared changed the trajectory of his life.
Jonathan Milligan — Author of Your Message Matters and founder of Market Your Message. A former teacher turned entrepreneur, Jonathan built his business not on extraordinary talent, but on the compounding power of consistency.
Jeff Davis — Founder & Executive Director of Truth in Nature, who walked away from a six-figure corporate IT career to lead a ministry mentoring fatherless boys, now leading roughly 400 volunteers with gratitude, clarity of mission, and faith-fueled courage.
Jim Little — U.S. Navy veteran and manufacturing leader known for turning a failing mill "from worst to first" by refusing to let communication disappear into what his team called "the black hole."
The Top 100 Takeaways from Year One
The best of the best — pulled from every conversation, organized guest by guest.
Two out of three managers are "accidental" — good at the job, promoted, and told to lead with no training. Being accidental isn't the problem; staying stuck is.
Trust is a bank account built on three deposits: care, competence, and reliability. Miss one, and the account never grows.
We can be candid by being clear and direct and being kind at the same time. Be tough on the problem and tender on the person.
Every time you clean a toilet, you are pushing the ministry forward. Every role matters — from the platform to the parking lot.
Culture bleeds, and it runs downhill. If you model it well, your people will lead that way too.
It's never wrong to invest in your people — ever." Results and culture are teammates, not opposites.
Everything moves at the speed of trust. Lose it, and progress grinds to a halt. Earn it, and momentum soars.
Find a mentor who is "safe because I can tell him anything, but not safe because he'll tell me what I don't want to hear." Be tenacious until you find that relationship.
Leadership is forged in hard times, not when everything goes to plan. Crisis reveals character.
Servant leadership isn't a buzzword — it's putting your boots on, grabbing a shovel, and showing up.
Humility is the hidden power of great leaders. Titles fade — integrity sticks.
You don't know what kind of leader you are until the lights go out and the checks bounce.
Leadership is an eternal journey. You never fully arrive.
Storytelling isn't just about telling a good story — it's about unpacking it so others can use it.
It takes 5 to 7 touches before a message truly sticks. Repetition isn't redundant; it's required.
If your change initiative dies the moment you leave the room, it wasn't led — it was announced.
Technology doesn't replace process — it accelerates it. Sensors won't make a reactive team proactive; they'll just help it panic faster.
Great leaders focus on the people responsible for the mission, not just the mission itself. People make the mission possible.
Circumstances matter, but they don't have to determine your future. Take ownership of what comes next.
Trust is built through integrity, not position — admitting mistakes, giving credit, keeping commitments, and staying transparent.
The moments that seem small to you — a note, a conversation, a minute of encouragement — may become defining moments for someone else.
The leaders people remember are the ones who took the time to invest in them.
Reinforcement isn't praise — it's whatever increases the likelihood a behavior happens again. Connect the behavior to its impact; don't just compliment it.
Culture is simply the repeated behaviors a team encourages or discourages over time — which means it can be designed, not just hoped for.
When senior leaders bypass supervisors with quick questions, it can turn into hours of unnecessary scrambling. Align with the leader in the room first.
Your team will never outgrow you. Your growth sets the ceiling for theirs.
Leadership is a double-edged sword — when you grow, your team grows; when you stall, they feel it. There's no neutral.
If you ever stop learning, you're never going to be at your full potential as a leader.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Start with bios, names, and stories — before directives.
Nobody wants to follow the fire chief who's running around screaming that the building is on fire. Calm leaders create confidence.
You don't need a title to lead — but you do need to lead before you get the title.
Real growth starts by developing the people you already have — not by adding more tools, people, or systems.
Burnout is a leadership problem before it's a workload problem. Clarity and support let people handle more than you think.
A well-developed team will always outperform any system you install on top of it.
Five minutes of intentional leadership — "What's working? Where are you stuck? How can I help?" — can change everything.
"Guys, I don't have the answers — but you do." Vulnerability, honestly offered, can unite a divided team.
Become the Chief Question Asker. The best leaders don't always have the answers — they create the conversations that reveal them.
Great moments don't come from luck. They come from preparation meeting opportunity, one rep at a time.
"Leave a profit everywhere you go." Culture isn't built through slogans — it's built through daily behavior.
"You can't get people to follow you for very long with just a title." Leadership isn't declared — it's lived.
Integrity is revealed in two places: the quiet moments no one's watching, and the crisis moments when everything's on the line.
Healthy teams don't exist to agree. The job is to surface disagreement and arrive at better decisions together.
Presence has a cost, and that's exactly why it matters — if you divide your attention, you're not truly present with anyone.
Being a leader isn't about control — it's about drawing the best out of others.
Burnout isn't a badge of honor. Rest makes you a better leader. Filter every opportunity through one question: does it serve the mission?
Skills may get you the opportunity, but character determines your long-term influence.
"My response is my responsibility." Leaders are emotional thermostats — your reaction sets the temperature of the room.
The best leaders are both tough and tender. Too much toughness breeds rebellion; too much tenderness breeds entitlement.
Younger generations don't need funnels of information — they need filters of interpretation, perspective, and wisdom.
Discouragement often comes from misalignment, not weakness — doing too much of the wrong things drains a leader fast.
Aim to spend roughly 80% of your time in the sweet spot where your passion and your strengths overlap.
How are you gonna be successful if you're not even clear about what you need to do to be successful? Clarity beats chaos.
"The more the business is built on you, the less value the business has." Build a team, not a bottleneck.
You don't discover your leadership in calm moments — you discover it under pressure, when you fall to your defaults.
Trust isn't just a value you build with others — it's a structure you rely on internally when things get hard.
Watch your defaults under pressure: control, urgency, over-functioning, and silence are learned patterns, not character flaws.
Pressure doesn't test your intentions — it tests your construction.
Leadership isn't about fixing people — it's about supporting them. "You don't have to fix someone's pain to help them."
Small, consistent actions compound into extraordinary results — a painting a day for 365 days proved it.
Facts inform, but stories inspire. If you want people to follow the vision, learn to tell it instead of bulleting it.
Employees judge leaders by their experience of them, not by the leader's intentions. Close the trust gap with consistency.
Growth doesn't just happen — it requires protected time, intentional habits, and consistent action.
"Books allow you to borrow decades of wisdom in just a few hours." Reading is a genuine leadership competitive advantage.
Intentions don't create change — implementation does. Knowledge without action creates frustration, not growth.
The most consistent traits among great leaders: self-awareness and generosity.
"The mission flows from the inside out, not the outside in." Leaders who run only on pressure eventually pay for it with their peace, health, or family.
Everybody gets paid — the question is in what currency. Volunteers teach you to lead on mission and meaning, not paychecks.
"Vision leaks. You've got to constantly refill it." The fundamentals never graduate.
"Train them to the leader." New hires need training on you — your rhythms, your communication style, and what earns trust fast — not just the task.
Trust doesn't come from what you mean to do — it comes from what you consistently do.
"Leadership is not about being liked. It's about being consistent."
Great leaders adapt: direct when people need clarity, discuss when they need to think, delegate when they're ready to own it.
Delegation isn't abandonment — it's ownership with support: clear expectations, defined outcomes, and strategic check-ins.
"My schedule should never be so busy that I can't engage somebody on a personal level." Relationships are built in small, consistent moments.
Be the filter, not the firehose. Great leaders translate pressure into clarity instead of dumping it downhill.
"If you're not 100% sure you can deliver, don't make the commitment." Broken promises destroy credibility faster than mistakes ever will.
If you interrupt people long enough, they stop talking — and when they stop talking, you stop leading effectively.
"If I'm asking you to do it, I've either done it, or I'm gonna be right there beside you." Lead from the front, not from the office.
Close the black hole — when people raise concerns, circle back within 48 hours with what you can do, what you can't, and why.
Your self-talk isn't private — it's predictive. Your inner narrative leaks into your tone, your reactions, and your relationships.
Separate the facts from the story: "I didn't get the meeting invite" is a fact. "They don't respect me" is a story — and the story is what drives your emotion and your action.
Use SEAR to rewrite the script: Situation, Emotion, Action, Result. Change the story, change the outcome.
"Self-talk is the root cause of 80% of challenges in the workplace."
What you condone, you endorse. Tolerating toxic behavior quietly teaches your whole team that standards are optional.
The standard is the standard, with no exceptions. Clarity is kindness.
Servant leadership requires strength, not softness — serving people means having the hard conversations, not avoiding them.
As you grow as a leader, it becomes less about you and more about your people.
Leadership isn't measured by what you accomplish — it's measured by what your team can accomplish without you.
Heroes fix problems. Leaders prevent them. If your team always needs you, you're rescuing, not leading.
Ask two questions constantly: "What does good look like?" and "What does done look like?" Confusion creates chaos; clarity creates performance.
It's not always about what you said — it's about how it was received. Great leaders communicate better, not just more.
Integrity is what makes you a leader. It's being aligned inside before you ever step into that role.
You can be right and still be ineffective. The goal isn't to win the argument; it's to win the relationship.
Fifteen minutes a day of reading or reflection compounds into 10-12 books a year — and a wiser leader.
"Don't give up. Somebody has to lead — make sure it's someone with integrity."
All it took was a leader who cared enough to notice — and brave enough to act. One five-minute conversation can change, or save, a life.
Most leaders notice when something's off — the gap isn't awareness, it's action. Caring without acting isn't leadership; it's avoidance.
Depression alone can reduce productivity by roughly 35% and lead to five times more unplanned absences. Ignoring mental health means managing symptoms, not solving problems.
"Clarity is kindness." Confused leaders create confused followers.
"Consistency beats talent." The leaders who create lasting impact are rarely the most talented — they're the ones who keep showing up long after everyone else has quit.
What's Next
Year One was built one honest conversation at a time — and I couldn't be more grateful you were on the other end of it, listening, applying, and choosing to lead better because of it.
Year Two starts now. New guests, new stories, and the same commitment: real leadership lessons from people who've actually lived them.
So here's my challenge for you: don't just read this list once. Bookmark it. Come back to it when you need a reminder of who you're trying to become. Pick one insight this week and actually live it out with your team.
Because knowing these lessons isn't leadership. Living them is.
Thank you for a year I'll never forget. Here's to the next one.
Keep learning. Keep leading. Keep making a difference.
Learn | Grow | Lead
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