Colonel Jon "BigDogg" Rhone was born into the Air Force and had the privilege of growing up and being influenced by parents and siblings who loved the Air Force. After graduating from the USAF Academy, he was honored to serve and lead Airmen for 24 years. He hopes to continue serving by enthusiastically unlocking others’ full leadership potential.
Through his experiences and relationships with young servicemembers, He has learned many yearn for a stronger connection to, and with, senior leaders. BigDogg's now building better leaders through his new entity Rhone Coaching & Consulting Group. He is excited to launch his leadership podcast in February. The intent of the “Leadership Domain Podcast” is to provide a forum for world-class leaders to share their lived experiences and professional insight.
Jon hopes this podcast serves as a bridge between leaders regardless of generation labels. While most of the guests and stories are rooted in military service, I believe they are universally applicable to experienced and young leaders in the public and private sectors. You can learn more at his website: https://www.rhoneccg.com/
He is an incredible leader, mentor to many and personal friend. Enjoy this episode.
All the best,
Dave
If you find your niche you can change the world.
For 20+ years Carolyn O'Byrne worked with people supporting their physical and emotional health. About 7 years ago she turned her focus toward truck drivers. Her husband is a second-generation truck driver. His dad passed away hundreds of miles from home from a preventable health condition (when her husband was 20). Carolyn doesn't want that to happen to anyone else, unfortunately, it happens very often.
Overall as a society, our health is more compromised than ever before.
Carolyn works with truck drivers and their families supporting them toward optimal physical and emotional health. Via over the phone coaching, my book, "Gut Instinct," and my online strategies, Driven To Health, Driven To Peace, and Driven To Stop.
Value?
We think we have crazy schedules, try the life of a truck driver. Their schedules change daily. Sometimes they drive in the day and sometimes at night. There are so many factors that go into a truck driver's job and schedule. Traffic, load cancels, delivery and pick up hours, etc. Not to mention the difficulty to be there for their own health and family. It is very common for a drivers' schedule to drastically change at a moments notice.
These avenues bring them to the awareness that it is all about their mindset while educating them on the true path to health. Showing them the power they have to be in control of their circumstances.
Her biggest challenge she has to overcome is herself. She stands in her way. Carolyn continuously tries to reevaluate herself to be sure that she am not the issue at hand.
Carolyn saw that projects would be moving right along then life would happen and it would seem as if someone threw a wrench into her plan and life came to a screeching halt. It would take forever to get her momentum back up and going.
Becoming aware. This is the hardest part. when you are on the inside looking out, you don't see the obstacles. She talks to people about this all of the time concerning their health.
Carolyn loves the people she works with. Truck drivers have a very special place in her heart. Carolyn is excited to bring them the products they need to overcome the many obstacles in their life.
She has found her niche and is saving lives, keeping us safe and taking bold steps to help grow U.S. trucking companies.
In this episode, we are kicking off the new year celebrating small business leaders with BOLD goals for 2020.
Steven Whitney is an energetic inspirational human being. He loves to get other people excited about becoming healthy, re-wiring their brains or simply to go throw a Frisbee. He loves music and is very supportive of the Colorado music scene. Steven has a wonderful dog named Memphis. He loves being outdoors and is an adventure freak. If it's tough he does it. Steven loves to laugh and most importantly love to get other people to laugh. Life is to short to not be living in the present and he just wants to help support people to be comfortable and confident in doing that.
We are ready to release season 4 and we are focused on solopreneurs and entrepreneurs. 2020 is almost here and we will be interviewing BOLD business owners, telling their stories and motivating you for the rest of the year.
It's that time of year again. Work is slowing down and you have time on your hands. Over the next few weeks, reflect on your performance over the last year then focus on the future. Define your BHAG!
https://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/badpartnership.htm
If you're in a business partnership or a longstanding working relationship that isn't working, ask yourself these questions. Then, if you need to change or end the partnership, follow these five steps.
A client, we'll call her Susan, had a business that was struggling financially and operationally. She was totally disgusted because her partner of 10 years was no longer carrying his weight and didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She was so stressed she was seriously considering liquidating the business if things couldn't be changed for the better in a very short time.
What to do? Her first commitment had to be to herself. Susan was able to realize that it was up to her to take command of this situation. She was coached to create some measurable goals with timeframes. She decided she wanted to give the business and her partner one last chance. Susan knew she must bring her partner, and eventually her staff, into the picture in order to get their buy-in.
She created Job Roles for herself, her partner and each of her staff (Office Manager, Buyer and 2 Salesmen). Because of the longstanding relationship between her and her partner, we agreed it was best if I met with the partner and her to present things up to this point. Preparing for this was anxiety-producing for Susan, but also liberating. NOTE: Using a third party (like a coach or consultant) can offer a different perspective to a known problem.
The partner was cordial and listened politely, as had been expected. But, of course, he didn't really GET IT that things had to change. Susan gave it three months under the new plan. Unfortunately, she had to bite the bullet and make the decision to liquidate the business. Fortunately, she was able to see the handwriting on the wall way in advance and gave herself six months to finalize the liquidation. Susan is in the process of purchasing a new business which will be hers alone. She could only do that once she realized she didn't actually need a partner. She had been carrying the business alone for several years anyway.
If you're in a business partnership or a longstanding working relationship that isn't working, ask yourself why you got into the relationship to begin with. Many times people just don't feel ready to take on the full responsibility of running a business so they look for anyone who is interested and willing to work with them. Having the wrong partner is the basis of many partner problems. How to find the right partner is, of course, the topic for another article.
If you can answer yes to one or more of the following it may be time to take command of your business and make the necessary changes.
You're feeling like you're carrying more than your share of the work.
Your partner seems to have lost interest in the business.
You find more and more to disagree about.
There have been changes in your partner's life that are interfering with his ability to function in the business.
Your interest in the direction of the business is different from that of your partner.
Here are the steps I suggest you take if you're seriously considering making changes to your partnership arrangement.
Let’s discuss 5 partnership tips that will remove stress and resolve conflict.
May 21, 2019
It’s vacation time, for you and your employees. (Credit: Lance Asper on Unsplash)
In the next several weeks and months, employees will be taking time off from work for summer vacations.
According to a survey by Bankrate.com, about 38% of employees with paid vacation days plan to use them all this summer. Other findings:
Now is a good time to determine what your company’s needs will be this summer. Also, given the tight job market, it’s a good time to assess your vacation policy.
Here are three questions to ask:
Determine what will need to be done during the time when you/employees are off. Do what’s possible in advance. For me, this always means working double time for weeks in advance to satisfy the work deadlines that fall during my vacation. If possible, discuss with customers and clients about scheduling work after your/your employees’ vacations.
Employees in your company may or may not fall within the survey’s findings mentioned earlier. Make sure you’re covered for any problems that need to be addressed while you are away. This can be done by giving an employee added responsibilities.
Also, see that employees can cover for each other when needed. If necessary, hire temporary workers to fill in gaps in your staffing. With temporary workers, you pay the agency a fee for their services; they remain the employees of the agency. Summer interns may be helpful too.
How many vacation days do you offer? Federal law does not mandate that you give any paid time off, but you’d be hard-pressed to hire and retain good workers without a paid vacation policy. Show more...
“Kids watching television tend to accept it as a reflection of reality anyway,” Dr. David Hill, a pediatrician who is program director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Communications and Media, told Healthline. “Until they’re about 8 years old, it’s very difficult for them to do any significant reality testing. That’s why kids under that age are much more accepting of Santa Claus. Kids already struggle with testing what’s real or not, and then reality television is advertised as being real.”
This is a problem, according to Nancy Molitor, PhD, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, because kids often become desensitized to what they are seeing.
“There is this appeal to these shows that comes down to making people feel superior to others,” Molitor told Healthline. “You see contestants being laughed at, rejected, voted off, made fun of. And watching these shows makes kids feel superior as well. It’s reinforcing all kinds of negative behavior that we don’t want to see in our kids, including relational aggression.”
Today we are going to discuss 2 shows that distort reality and are creating a selfish employee culture
Unfortunately what we believe is reality is actually somewhat scripted to drive emotional responses. As leaders we must notice the signs of unhealthy behaviors and actions within our organization. You need team players, focused on team goals to grow exceptional companies. Do not let your company fall into the trap of reality tv.
Inc. Magazine sat down with Chamath Palihapitiya a former VP of user growth at Facebook. Have you ever created something that you thought would help people, only to discover that it would harm them afterward?
In an unexpected turn of events, the former Facebook executive spoke with the Stanford Graduate School of Business about his feelings of guilt and regret of helping found a company that has been fundamentally detrimental to the way people interact today. Palihapitiya first began at the social media company in 2007, three years after its founding by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. At the time, Palihapitiya recounted that few really considered the negative effects of a platform like Facebook.
But as Facebook's popularity grew, it the negative consequences of constant, excessive social networking became clearer. And the problem became much bigger than Facebook as merely an online platform -- it changed the way people interact on a day-to-day basis and restructured an entire existing social structure, something few people could have foreseen after the advent of texting.
"It literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly where we are," he said. "The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works: no civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth. And it's not an American problem. This is not about Russian ads. This is a global problem."
Over the next 2 episodes, we are going to discuss the impact of social media and reality tv on your company.
We are responsible for our actions. It seems to me that civility is dying in exchange for likes, retweets, and followers. The crazier it is the better.
Trust is the foundation of any great team. If you want to build a successful team you must create an environment of trust. You must be vulnerable and willing to listen and you must eliminate behaviors that force a lack of trust in the organization.
If you don’t trust your teammates or your leadership you are destined to fail.
Today we are going to discuss the five behaviors of a cohesive team and give you some tips on how to build a stronger organization.
The five behaviors of a cohesive team include: Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability and Results
Do you feel like nobody you work with every listens to you? We see it all of the time. Great ideas stifled because someone is afraid to offer their ideas to the team. Company cultures managed by Dominant leaders inhibit the free flow of communication.
Don’t be held back because you are afraid to speak.
Today we are going to discuss how to work with Dominant leaders and be heard.
How can you improve the culture in your organization?
Great salesmen are great communicators. Every good salesperson must be able to quickly assess the environment, understand their client's tendencies and adapt their personality in order for the client to listen.
If you don’t know how to effectively communicate you are never going to be a great leader.
Today we are going to look at the sales process and how your ability to communicate in another person’s type will improve sales and build lasting relationships.
Communication is the key to effective leadership. Do you understand your personality tendencies and how they affect your interaction with others? As I was once told you must know yourself to be yourself. More importantly, you must know how you are perceived by others and how they receive information to communicate effectively.
If you don’t know how to effectively communicate you are never going to be a great leader.
Over the next 4 episodes, we are going to help you understand your personality tendencies, how they impact your culture, your sales team, and your leadership. In the final episode in this series, we are going to provide you with the Five Behaviors of a cohesive team.
There are multiple personality assessments you can utilize to understand your tendencies, but we have found that DiSC is the easiest to leverage with your team, customers and suppliers.
Today we have the privilege of discussing leadership with Gregory “Heady” Coleman.
Heady is extremely passionate about seeing people going further better in their personal and professional lives. In that, he loves growing communities that leads to wins for everyone. Over the last 13 years, He has managed to serve the Oklahoma City Metro area in several capacities while playing an intricate role in the awesome town he lives in Guthrie, Oklahoma; however, He is most proud of the relationships he has built with the great folks in Guthrie and the Oklahoma City Metro.
Heady currently serves as Pastor at NORTHCHURCH Guthrie, where he focuses on his passion of helping people and growing a better community.
He is happily married to the beautiful Bernadette Coleman. Heady and Bernadette have 3 dynamic children that they get the opportunity to raise in their favorite town Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Heady discusses his #gowin philosophy and the importance of understanding everyone's story
Be Bold
Dave
Once you think that you are irreplaceable its time to hang up the cleats and move on to retirement.
Arrogant leaders divide organizations, destroy sustainable growth and are a detriment to the overall mission of any organization. The reality is that everyone is replaceable. Unfortunately, many leaders believe something different. Once you realize that you are only a temporary caretaker for the organization the sooner you can start having a truly positive impact on your team. Today, we are going to discuss some hard truths about leaders and how to really serve your team.
Truth #1: The mission did not stop when I retired from the Air Force. Not only did it not stop, it didn’t even slow down. The great leaders that stepped in to fill my position did an exceptional job. If you are doing your job as a servant leader then you are grooming your replacement. All of my number 2s became number 1s and many continued on too much higher leadership levels in the overall organization. I hope that my leadership provided them some tools that they still use today. Your first tip: Always be grooming your replacement. Be a mentor and enjoy their success.
Truth #2: We are never as good as we think we are. Times change, personalities change and the organizational goals change. We work with many older leaders who “throw shade” on the millennials that work for them. I hate to break it too you, but we were the “millennials” at one point. Those pain in the butt young people who always thought our leaders were crazy. In reality, our leadership or lack thereof creates the problem. Their ideas aren’t wrong, they are just different. The reason they are different is that times change, culture changes and priorities change. Tip number 2: Challenge your younger teammates to fail. Let them try new ideas and be there to catch them when they fall. A leader’s job is not to squash innovation, it is to encourage it, guide the team and challenge old ideas. None of us are as smart as we think we are!
Truth #3: You only deserve a styrofoam cup. If you have not watched Simon Sinek's youtube video discussing leadership you need to watch it. The link will be in the show notes. When you are a CEO, Senior Military Leader or even a Head Football Coach. You get certain perks. I can remember the first time I walked into a room filled with my teammates as a commander. Everyone snapped to attention. People fell over themselves to make sure I was taken care of...Some leaders think that they deserve this response...they do not. The respect is for the position and when you move on it stops. I will never forget walking off of the stage when I relinquished command. I quietly reached for my wife’s hand and left the building. We then headed to Chili’s for a quiet lunch. My son looked at me and smiled. We all knew what had just happened. No fanfare, no parade, I once again became just another officer serving our great nation. I happily grabbed my styrofoam cup and got back to work. Tip #3 Remember you only deserve a styrofoam cup don’t get so caught up in your position that you ever think you are better than your team. You are not.
Being a great leader means you always put your people first. Just because you are in charge you are not funnier, you are not smarter and you are certainly no better than anyone on your team. Your team laughs at your jokes because of your position. You get certain perks because of your position. It has little to do with you. Your job is to always serve your team and put the team first.
Arrogance breeds contempt. Many leaders have learned this the hard way. CEOs accused of insi
In today's episode we discuss tips to improve your growth potential and have some great advice from John Warrillow founder of Value Builder.
To all of you true blue red-blooded Americans out there and more importantly happy Fourth of July to those men and women sacrificing their time to defend our great nation overseas for all you and your family thank you for your service and thank you for your sacrifices have a happy and safe 4th of July.
Today we are discussing Financial Performance. But first, let’s talk about valuations. If you have a business and you want to sell it you will go through a valuation process. A typical valuation process for financial types is the dreaded discounted cash flow...it is not your friend. An accountant will look at your history and discount you value for each year you have been in business. It looks like this.
Now your forecasting 10 years at $1M per year, yet you are only worth $5M to potential buyers. Our process helps you change that number and get the money you deserve for your great company.
Today we are going to focus on 3 areas to improve your financial performance:
You must do #3...end of discussion.
You can increase your revenue a number of ways, but the easiest way is to sell more of your stuff to different people. Same stuff in a different market. Too many businesses get focused on building and selling different stuff, but this kills your profit margin because you become too specialized and every product is different.
Let me explain. If you want to increase your profit margin, you find ways to simplify and reduce costs. Your process needs to be teachable and easily repeatable for your employees. Your product must be valuable to your customers. If you offer too many specialized products your manufacturing costs go up exponentially.
You can also increase revenue by packing products and services which make them more valuable to your consumers. Find ways to differentiate your offering. By differentiating yourself you create a monopoly for your business, make your company more competitive and more valuable to future buyers.
Improve your financial performance by GETTING A BOOKKEEPER, increasing your revenue and increasing your profit margin.
Again, happy 4th of July, stay safe!
Be Bold
Dave
We are back for the new season I have been in the vault, we've been in training getting certified on other things to help you grow your business. We are now value builder certified. If you want to build a business, grow the value, have a great exit and make lots of money Value Builder is your ticket to success. So, in the next few episodes were going to discuss Value Builder in-depth. We're going to provide a webinar here shortly for you to download and learn more about how to create recurring Revenue but let's start by talking about what the heck is Value Builder.
The system developed in math and data now the geek in me loves math and I love data. If you're not making decisions based on data then you are going to fail. Most of the mergers and Acquisitions that we've worked with people have this huge number. There's a value based on discounted cash flow and then there's a value based on Blue Sky. It's hard to quantify your blue sky to others. Value Builder helps owners quantify the gap between cash flow and blue sky.
In today’s episode, we will discuss the eight drivers and provide a general overview of the Value Builder System.
BE BOLD
Dave
Do you have a BHAG? If not, you should. I know that we all love to talk about SMART GOALS
They are the rage, but you can never do anything BOLD with just SMART goals.
John F Kennedy set a goal to put a man on the moon...this is not a SMART Goal
ELON Musk set a goal to build a resuable rocket...at the time...not a SMART Goal
Elon Musk went so far as to fire over 400 employees who could not or would not meet the his expectation for development and production. He is focused on the impossible and he continues to surprise the world.
These Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) push you to innovate. It pushes you to make BOLD decisions and forces you to set and maintain extremely high standards. I mean just think of all of the great things that have been developed because of the space race in the 60’s or all the innovation that has been driven by Elon Musk.
If you want to do great things, I mean spectacular things you have to dream big. Most leaders inherently limit themselves with SMART goals. There is certainly a place for SMART goals, but don’t limit yourself.
So how do you set ridiculous, amazing BHAGs
Once you have your BHAG, leverage SMART goals to set a path to reach your dream. It's just that easy. Now if you don’t develop the path and periodically update you will never reach your goal. So be persistent.
I worked with a team to develop the 1st underground Compressed Natural Gas Storage System. Everyone told us it could not be done. Too many regulations, Too much red tape, everyone else who tried failed. Well we didn’t. We set the Big Hairy Audacious Goal and got to work. We did not listen to the naysayers. I can’t was not in our vocabulary. We found a way to yes. We developed a timeline and got to work. Now, I am not going to lie and say it was easy. It wasn’t. We made mistakes along the way and had to find innovative solutions to solve the challenges.
Here is what I know in my heart. If I can do this, then I know you can too. Never limit yourself, never let naysayers drag you down and never quit.
Be Bold!
Dave