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Dallas Burnett: Hey everybody, we're
talking to Brian Fielkow today.

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What an amazing guy.

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He's a business leader, author, and
safety culture expert who transformed a

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trucking company into a tenfold growth
story, was nationally recognized for his

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just culture and employee-first approach.

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He's got some incredible stories about
turning safety into a true competitive

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advantage that drives profit and loyalty.

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He's got a great new book coming
out called Making Safety Happen, a

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wealth of knowledge and leadership
lessons all over the place.

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You don't want to miss this
incredible conversation

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And it's gonna go and play, bum-ba-da-da,
and so then we're gonna come back in here

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Brian Fielkow: Okay

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Well, thank you, Dallas.

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It's great to be with you.

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I appreciate the invitation to join

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it started within the family really.

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I grew up in a city called Appleton,
Wisconsin, uh, right near Green Bay,

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and my parents were in the

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retail business.

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So they

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had

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several different businesses.

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the one that I worked in, uh,
was, appliances, furniture.

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Th-think about the days before, before
Best Buy, way before an Amazon, right?

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you go to your local store and, uh,

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I started there I was probably eight
or nine years old, wanting to go in,

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hang out with my dad on the weekends.

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I mean, being in retail, your parents
were working, long hours and that

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was a good way to be with them.

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So I

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learned

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a lot about business.

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I learned a

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lot about customers

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and

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service and

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just by watching, and then by probably 10
years old, I was out on the floor selling

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Oh, it was great.

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great.

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I loved it on the weekends.

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A lot of fun

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it was definitely, learning
curve, just know, kind of

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to listen to the customer, to understand
a buying signal compared to somebody

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that really was not there to buy.

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learn a lot of that stuff
being in the front lines and

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watching some of pros do it.

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also learned the difference
between sales and marketing.

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and, I realized over the, pretty
early on that my strengths

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probably were closer to marketing.

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me, trip with marketing,
the skill with marketing is

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drawing people into your orbit.

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and, that, that's something that,
my dad did, like, extremely well.

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would have TV commercials with
just crazy ones, with wrestlers,

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and it, was just great.

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But it, it created a buzz.

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I mean, there, there was a buzz
around that business just because of

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some of the crazy stuff he would do.

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He was really, um… And people still
see on Facebook, remember when?"

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It's like, this is

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40 50 years ago.

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still remember it.

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And,

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you know, I definitely

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learned early on that, creating
that buzz around your business and,

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you know, as long as the marketing

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ties to what you really do, as long as
it, there's a relationship to your value

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proposition, you know, it, it's important
to, to draw the people into your orbit.

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And I, I

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learned that

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early

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on too

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it

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was a

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blast

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Oh, no, it wasn't that.

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It was just hitting an age where
it's time to graduate high school,

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go to college, and move on.

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and so some of the skills I, took,
that I learned over the years, I I

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didn't know I was applying them, right?

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wasn't conscious.

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But after… I went to University of
Wisconsin-Madison, then went to law

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school, uh, practiced law for a while,
and then ultimately got into business.

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And every step of the way,
um, I, applied those skills.

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I mean, I guess one of the things that
people still don't forget is when I

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was in Madison, I was, the president
of the student government, and our

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claim to fame was we convinced Rodney
Dangerfield's production company

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to, film Back to School at Madison.

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and

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that's… And, and people
still talk about that today.

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it's stuff like that.

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it's crazy.

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And that was, by the
way, one of the most fun

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three weeks.

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Um, you know, the stories I could tell

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as an extra, like a walk-on, right?

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Not a speaking part, but an extra part.

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But, I mean, the producer called me
when they were back in Hollywood, you

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know, putting it together, and said,
"By the way, we're gonna put you in

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the credits." And I sat there at the
theater till the end, and there I was.

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I was like

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Yeah.

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Yeah, and Rodney Dangerfield
was on campus, and he was, you

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know he he was a nice guy, but I
didn't know if he really knew me.

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Eight or nine months later, I went
to Los Angeles for the premiere,

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and he came up and it's like he
remembered me, and I was just

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I was

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shocked.

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I

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was

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absolutely shocked.

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He was talking to me like, we were

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old friends.

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"Hey, how you doing?

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long time no see." and

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he… that, that

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shocked me.

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And it was also

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kind of a that, you know, um, no
matter where somebody is, just

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remembering you means a lot.

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I'll never

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forget that, right?

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And that's a lesson I think we

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can all take.

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Yeah, it's just all about throwing
the ball down the field, I guess,

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it… All those experiences

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were fun and they kind of
form you for the future

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the thing about, practicing law
is that I did corporate law.

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I've never set foot

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in, in a courtroom and, uh, hope never to.

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Um, So it was tr- it was contracts,
transactions, business advisory.

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So that was a formative part
of my career because, I learned

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from some brilliant people.

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I was able to watch a lot of great
clients and learn from them, and quite

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frankly, I, was also able to watch some
who may not have made the right moves.

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And, you know, I, took notes
on both sides of the ledger.

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Um,

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and and so It was like, career education,
you just… Y- you-- It was irreplaceable.

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and one of the clients I did a lot of
work for, I was very close to, wound up

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going to work, for them as
their chief operating officer.

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And again, you can't
write this stuff down.

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In other words, if… I look at
my career and I-- it's nothing

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I could've ever scripted.

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you know?

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And, and, and, and that to me is fun.

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um, I, I don't mind,
um, a little randomness.

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I, actually embrace it

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When you're on the outside looking
in at entrepreneurs, you think

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of them as high rollers, right?

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As, as, just,

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we'll roll the dice and see what happens.

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And to a person, the best entrepreneurs

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knew how to manage risk.

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and,

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and I learned that in

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law, right?

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In other words, the the best
entrepreneurs were not the high

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rollers who might have gotten lucky.

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They were calculated, they were
deliberate, they're strategic.

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they understand you can't
necessarily mitigate risk.

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Risk is risk.

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you

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can manage

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it.

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you can put your defenses in place,
and the better you do that, and

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let's not expect perfection here,
but the better you do that, the more

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confident you are in playing offense.

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You've thought about what can go wrong,
you've protected the organization to the

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extent possible, then you can focus on
offense, where I think the people that

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are more of the, the cowboy approach.

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N- I'm not saying it's a bad approach,
I'm just saying it, I could never

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figure out how to do it, it's, not me.

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Um, it, it's, it's the old,

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I guess growing

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up a Packer fan for all those

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y- years right near, right,
growing up right near Lambeau

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Field, the Lombardi defense, the

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Reggie White defense.

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it's like you

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do that and your offense can shine

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in between law and Jetco
was a real important step.

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I went to go work for my favorite client.

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they were a family-held recycling
company, second and third generation.

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And, they brought me in as their chief
operating officer right out of practicing

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law, and I'm like, "Well, if you guys
are willing to do that, I'm saying yes."

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so it… I always wanted to be on
the business side, and so this was

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a great opportunity.

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Um, and, we grew the business.

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Ultimately, it was sold to Waste
Management, and so I moved down

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from Wisconsin to Houston to
help Waste run their recycling

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business from their headquarters.

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I did that for a couple years,
and I learned a lot at Waste.

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It was a great organization, but I still
had this entrepreneurial bug, right?

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And I still wanted to do my own thing.

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And I needed to prove if I could do it.

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The recycling business, I think I
helped make it more successful, but

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let's be real clear, it was gonna
be successful without me, you know?

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I, I needed to prove I
could do it and to myself.

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And so I looked for companies, and
what I was really interested in,

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I was interested in trucking and

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logistics as one option because I
really enjoy the process of taking

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what is perceived as a commoditized
business or a commoditized

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industry and de-commoditizing it,

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right?

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and trucking, if you

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view yourself as commodity, you,
you compete on price, and there's

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probably not a lot of future in that.

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But if you can kinda create a value
proposition, and ours was real simple.

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It was the right people, it was the
newest and best equipment we could

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afford, and it was leaning into
technology, which even early

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on was transforming trucking
and logistics, and now it's

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been a revolution.

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But, so it was a people,
you know, strong on the

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inside,

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unbeatable on the

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outside strategy regarding our people.

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Um, making sure our people had the best
equipment we could possibly provide,

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and then, weaving technology in to
create a value proposition that, that

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we thought would resonate with not all
clients, but with the right clients.

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Oh, 100%, making the leap.

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By the time I left law, I was
pretty comfortable with it.

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I enjoyed practicing it, so was a
level of comfort and security, right?

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Now you're

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going into something that, you know, you
might, uh, succeed spectacularly, and you

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might flame out, and that, that unease,
it accompanies every transition you

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make, whether that's inside the business,
right, moving into a new business

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line, making a significant investment,
transforming the business somehow, or

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whether you're just kind of going from
one business or opportunity to another.

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that it's unsettling, but it
gets your adrenaline going.

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and that's why, again, I would never
tell somebody… Um, I think in one

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of our earlier conversations I was
saying, one piece of advice would

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be ignore the influencers, right?

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There's a million people out
there that wanna tell you what

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to do, how you should live.

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if staying in one place your
whole career fits for you,

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then that's what you should do.

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So I would never… I should never would
never say that anybody should follow my

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career path, but for me, I guess call it a
certain restlessness, a desire to sort of

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go broad, led me to these career choices.

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And I, look back at it and I'm never…
Like I said before, I never could

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have scripted it out, but I'm really
excited it's turned out this way.

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when I moved down to Houston to join
Waste at their headquarters, there

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was I didn't know that how long it
was gonna last, but was no intention

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at that time to say, I'm gonna do
this and go buy a trucking company."

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But I got

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00:19:06,677 --> 00:19:10,076
to the point at Waste where I'm like,
"Okay, great organization, great

246
00:19:10,156 --> 00:19:13,415
people, but I gotta do my own
thing." And then I started to

247
00:19:13,475 --> 00:19:18,015
make a list of what kinds of
industries would be the best for me.

248
00:19:18,115 --> 00:19:21,516
and again, that decommoditization
thing was important to me.

249
00:19:21,975 --> 00:19:27,636
Kinda, kinda finding a business that was
big enough to have some scale, but not

250
00:19:27,796 --> 00:19:29,735
so big that, I couldn't own most of it.

251
00:19:30,315 --> 00:19:35,656
Um, one that was an industry that I,
thought I could learn, again, one where I,

252
00:19:35,697 --> 00:19:41,596
thought maybe, um, tired but not broken.

253
00:19:41,756 --> 00:19:43,756
That's the kind of
company I was looking for.

254
00:19:43,856 --> 00:19:44,235
one that, you

255
00:19:44,255 --> 00:19:45,455
know… I mean

256
00:19:49,919 --> 00:19:50,599
Yeah.

257
00:20:02,543 --> 00:20:03,163
I mean, and the,

258
00:20:03,203 --> 00:20:07,323
owners of this company when I was doing
due diligence are-- they were fantastic to

259
00:20:07,363 --> 00:20:07,803
deal with.

260
00:20:07,863 --> 00:20:07,923
You

261
00:20:07,963 --> 00:20:09,943
could tell the integrity was there.

262
00:20:09,993 --> 00:20:13,593
the main owner took me out for
lunch with three or four customers

263
00:20:13,633 --> 00:20:17,693
on separate occasions saying, "No
script, you ask." You know, in other

264
00:20:17,713 --> 00:20:21,453
words, they threw things wide open
for me, which that that just gave me

265
00:20:21,473 --> 00:20:25,726
such comfort that, you know, I knew
what I was… I knew what was there.

266
00:20:25,726 --> 00:20:28,683
and they were, you know, the primary
owner was in his early sixties.

267
00:20:29,403 --> 00:20:32,993
and, he was just real clear, "I, I need
to double down on my fleet, double down

268
00:20:33,003 --> 00:20:37,603
on my capital, or I need to sell." and
the funny thing is After closing, we

269
00:20:37,623 --> 00:20:41,013
signed a six-month consulting agreement,
and then, you know, he would move on.

270
00:20:41,613 --> 00:20:42,873
Well, he's still there.

271
00:20:43,813 --> 00:20:46,793
Um, yeah, I mean, he's still there.

272
00:20:46,926 --> 00:20:46,966
I

273
00:20:47,066 --> 00:20:47,546
just saw him a

274
00:20:47,606 --> 00:20:48,786
couple weeks ago, just

275
00:20:48,886 --> 00:20:50,106
a wonderful person.

276
00:20:50,906 --> 00:20:51,006
So

277
00:20:51,066 --> 00:20:51,206
our

278
00:20:51,246 --> 00:20:52,466
transition went very well.

279
00:20:52,526 --> 00:20:52,606
We

280
00:20:52,666 --> 00:20:54,386
built a great working relationship.

281
00:20:54,466 --> 00:20:58,866
he taught me and the people that I
brought in so much, and it was…

282
00:20:58,926 --> 00:21:03,636
You know, I've have this belief that
if an acquisition is screwed up.

283
00:21:04,416 --> 00:21:07,816
nine times out of ten, it's
the buyer that screws it up.

284
00:21:07,876 --> 00:21:07,966
And

285
00:21:08,116 --> 00:21:08,496
I promised

286
00:21:08,556 --> 00:21:09,796
I wasn't gonna be that buyer.

287
00:21:10,356 --> 00:21:11,976
Um I mean, a seller can screw

288
00:21:11,986 --> 00:21:12,266
it up

289
00:21:12,296 --> 00:21:12,526
by

290
00:21:13,616 --> 00:21:17,036
misrepresenting, by sabotage.

291
00:21:17,086 --> 00:21:19,586
there's ways to do it, but let's
just, let's not assume that.

292
00:21:19,646 --> 00:21:22,576
Let's assume that the seller
represented correctly, there

293
00:21:22,586 --> 00:21:24,506
was no malfeasance post-closing.

294
00:21:25,086 --> 00:21:27,506
The problem with buyers sometimes
is they're, they're, you're

295
00:21:27,526 --> 00:21:28,626
the smartest guy in the room.

296
00:21:28,666 --> 00:21:29,426
It's my toy.

297
00:21:29,486 --> 00:21:30,886
I'm gonna play with it and break it.

298
00:21:31,326 --> 00:21:32,086
That's insane.

299
00:21:32,136 --> 00:21:35,676
if you buy a good culture, it doesn't
mean that you're gonna keep it

300
00:21:35,756 --> 00:21:36,336
stagnant.

301
00:21:36,376 --> 00:21:40,756
It doesn't mean that, that you're going to
um, just do things the way it always was.

302
00:21:40,796 --> 00:21:42,236
You're gonna change, but it's

303
00:21:42,276 --> 00:21:43,416
gonna be evolution.

304
00:21:43,456 --> 00:21:47,156
You're gonna capture the best of
what was there and then layer in

305
00:21:47,196 --> 00:21:48,416
what you're bringing to the table.

306
00:21:48,796 --> 00:21:52,266
Uh and so I made a promise
to myself that if I had the

307
00:21:52,296 --> 00:21:52,556
chance

308
00:21:52,566 --> 00:21:52,916
to buy an

309
00:21:52,956 --> 00:21:55,826
organization, I would not
be that buyer that, to be

310
00:21:55,866 --> 00:21:58,546
the star of the show, had to
be the smartest guy, in the

311
00:21:58,586 --> 00:21:59,986
process screw up a good thing.

312
00:22:51,660 --> 00:22:55,079
in the very early years, if I
was intentional, it might have

313
00:22:55,120 --> 00:23:00,080
been, um… You know, you're,
you're nervous as a buyer, right?

314
00:23:00,319 --> 00:23:03,740
So it it was some common
sense stuff, treating

315
00:23:03,839 --> 00:23:05,399
people right and that kind of thing.

316
00:23:05,539 --> 00:23:08,719
But it took a couple years
for me to get really strategic

317
00:23:08,819 --> 00:23:10,299
about what is, culture, right?

318
00:23:10,459 --> 00:23:12,418
In other words, you've got a culture.

319
00:23:12,438 --> 00:23:14,458
The question is, is it…
the culture you want?

320
00:23:15,076 --> 00:23:17,235
is your culture working
for you or against you?

321
00:23:17,696 --> 00:23:20,035
So a- as I matured in
the business, it became

322
00:23:20,095 --> 00:23:21,055
real clear to me that to

323
00:23:21,156 --> 00:23:21,336
have a

324
00:23:21,375 --> 00:23:24,295
healthy culture it's values.

325
00:23:24,315 --> 00:23:24,835
It's the value.

326
00:23:24,855 --> 00:23:27,536
It's having value-aligned
people, but that's not enough.

327
00:23:27,635 --> 00:23:29,195
Then you need systems and process.

328
00:23:29,295 --> 00:23:32,488
It's people, systems,
process working in harmony.

329
00:23:32,488 --> 00:23:35,354
And you come across these hur-

330
00:23:35,354 --> 00:23:38,874
hurdles where you may have a productive
employee, somebody that, you like,

331
00:23:38,954 --> 00:23:42,174
somebody that you may even wanna
go have a beer with, but you're not

332
00:23:42,255 --> 00:23:43,534
value-aligned, right?

333
00:23:43,574 --> 00:23:50,314
in our company, if safety wasn't your
core value, safety wasn't in your heart, I

334
00:23:50,354 --> 00:23:53,775
don't care how technically good you were,
you didn't have a home at the company.

335
00:23:54,854 --> 00:23:55,674
and so those are,

336
00:23:55,754 --> 00:23:56,754
like, things that you

337
00:23:56,775 --> 00:23:56,994
sorta

338
00:23:57,074 --> 00:23:57,214
have

339
00:23:57,275 --> 00:24:00,514
to learn that, it's gotta be
leader-driven and employee-owned,

340
00:24:00,574 --> 00:24:01,934
but leader-driven means you've gotta

341
00:24:01,974 --> 00:24:03,834
pull harder than everybody else.

342
00:24:04,174 --> 00:24:07,434
And if you look the other way, everybody
else sees you look the other way, and

343
00:24:07,455 --> 00:24:11,294
they come to the conclusion real fast
that you're not serious about this

344
00:26:01,771 --> 00:26:03,631
there were a few of those along the way.

345
00:26:03,771 --> 00:26:08,451
I think, early on, if I look at my first
three years or so, you give me a metric,

346
00:26:08,561 --> 00:26:14,711
growth, profitability, safety, We were
doing really well, uh, and too well.

347
00:26:14,851 --> 00:26:17,951
In other words, we sort of got complacent
and put our feet up on the desk.

348
00:26:18,051 --> 00:26:22,171
And then we kinda had a string of
incidents and issues, and that brought us

349
00:26:22,231 --> 00:26:26,011
down to earth, which was an, an important
part, I think, of the growth journey.

350
00:26:26,511 --> 00:26:26,721
and

351
00:26:26,851 --> 00:26:27,231
and We

352
00:26:27,271 --> 00:26:28,251
realized that, you know, the

353
00:26:28,291 --> 00:26:32,531
company had grown a lot, and we didn't
have the processes and the systems in

354
00:26:32,611 --> 00:26:34,831
place to handle today and tomorrow.

355
00:26:34,881 --> 00:26:37,221
our processes and systems
were still based on yesterday.

356
00:26:37,961 --> 00:26:39,221
Th-that was a good wake-up call.

357
00:26:39,501 --> 00:26:43,961
but I think, our business
And, the trucking side of the

358
00:26:44,001 --> 00:26:45,021
business, we had two companies.

359
00:26:45,081 --> 00:26:47,311
we had a trucking business and
a freight brokerage business.

360
00:26:47,371 --> 00:26:50,911
In the trucking business, the
truck driver is the heartbeat

361
00:26:51,591 --> 00:26:52,791
of the organization, right?

362
00:26:52,881 --> 00:26:56,211
in other words, y- you have to
have this unconditional respect

363
00:26:56,271 --> 00:26:57,701
for your frontline employees.

364
00:26:58,501 --> 00:27:00,991
and we tried, and we did okay.

365
00:27:01,631 --> 00:27:04,871
But what really changed the game,
the aha moment, is we asked our

366
00:27:04,911 --> 00:27:07,501
drivers to elect a driver committee.

367
00:27:08,631 --> 00:27:10,051
And what they basically did is they

368
00:27:10,071 --> 00:27:13,261
elected their-- people who
their leaders are, right?

369
00:27:13,321 --> 00:27:13,681
Remember, your

370
00:27:13,761 --> 00:27:14,121
leaders

371
00:27:14,141 --> 00:27:16,061
don't necessarily have big titles, and

372
00:27:16,121 --> 00:27:16,761
sometimes the--

373
00:27:17,261 --> 00:27:17,601
when you get a

374
00:27:17,641 --> 00:27:17,941
room of

375
00:27:17,981 --> 00:27:20,231
people with the-- only with
the big titles, you don't

376
00:27:20,261 --> 00:27:21,231
get to the right decision.

377
00:27:21,781 --> 00:27:26,231
So once we elected the driver committee,
we did not make a decision about

378
00:27:26,261 --> 00:27:30,481
the life of a driver, whether we're
talking about pay, work, equipment, et

379
00:27:30,541 --> 00:27:33,581
cetera, without at least the input of
the chairman of the driver committee.

380
00:27:34,221 --> 00:27:40,661
Um, and That, broke down
the physical or metaphorical

381
00:27:41,901 --> 00:27:45,301
window that separates the
office from the front lines.

382
00:27:45,371 --> 00:27:46,151
that is toxic.

383
00:27:46,251 --> 00:27:47,671
that separation is toxic.

384
00:27:48,031 --> 00:27:48,111
when

385
00:27:48,151 --> 00:27:51,531
that came down, driver retention

386
00:27:51,651 --> 00:27:53,671
employee retention skyrocketed.

387
00:27:53,951 --> 00:27:55,110
service  skyrocketed.

388
00:27:55,591 --> 00:28:00,051
We created a sense of ownership, a
sense of camaraderie that wasn't there,

389
00:28:00,071 --> 00:28:05,091
and you couldn't necessarily create
a situation that allowed 150 people,

390
00:28:05,331 --> 00:28:07,611
drivers, to express their voice.

391
00:28:07,991 --> 00:28:08,400
But through the

392
00:28:08,471 --> 00:28:11,841
committee, we gave them a
channel to do it, and especially

393
00:28:11,901 --> 00:28:13,001
working with the chairman.

394
00:28:13,101 --> 00:28:14,581
So something that

395
00:28:14,641 --> 00:28:19,113
sounds so simple because people
sometimes think of committees

396
00:28:19,132 --> 00:28:20,452
as a suggestion box, right?

397
00:28:20,552 --> 00:28:20,652
just

398
00:28:20,792 --> 00:28:21,153
give it to the

399
00:28:21,212 --> 00:28:22,952
committee and hopefully it goes away.

400
00:28:23,412 --> 00:28:24,512
That wasn't what we did.

401
00:28:24,612 --> 00:28:24,733
we

402
00:28:24,773 --> 00:28:27,252
really brought the committee
into the DNA of who we were.

403
00:28:27,952 --> 00:28:31,692
that was a huge sea shift in, how our

404
00:28:31,732 --> 00:28:33,552
culture and how we functioned internally.

405
00:28:33,613 --> 00:28:35,893
And remember, that's what your customers

406
00:28:35,932 --> 00:28:36,672
are buying.

407
00:28:36,732 --> 00:28:36,852
Your

408
00:28:36,873 --> 00:28:38,252
customers, at the end of the day, are

409
00:28:38,293 --> 00:28:41,953
buying not what you do, but how you do it

410
00:29:25,832 --> 00:29:26,092
Yeah

411
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:35,580
I think it's about rhythm, and focus.

412
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,970
I don't remember the exact details, right?

413
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,270
But Pat Lencioni, who is one of my
favorite authors, writes about it where,

414
00:31:42,330 --> 00:31:46,100
You know, one of his books, I guess
you don't have to go past the title of

415
00:31:46,130 --> 00:31:49,662
the book, Death by Meeting, you have

416
00:31:49,702 --> 00:31:50,762
to be intentional about how

417
00:31:50,842 --> 00:31:50,902
you

418
00:31:50,922 --> 00:31:51,822
engage your team.

419
00:31:51,942 --> 00:31:55,942
So, we would have kind of quick standup
meetings every day, what, went right,

420
00:31:56,022 --> 00:31:59,555
what went wrong, where are we what
course corrections do we have to make?

421
00:31:59,955 --> 00:32:04,535
But it wasn't like every day we would
sit down for a marathon meeting, but then

422
00:32:04,575 --> 00:32:07,305
we would make sure that we would have
off-sites, and uh, it was relationship

423
00:32:07,325 --> 00:32:09,705
building as much as it was business.

424
00:32:09,765 --> 00:32:12,694
So in other words, it, was really trying
to focus on making .Sure that we had

425
00:32:12,865 --> 00:32:17,565
a, a cohesive team in place that was
aligned, that had the bandwidth, and the

426
00:32:17,605 --> 00:32:19,825
latitude to do their jobs and execute.

427
00:32:20,315 --> 00:32:23,645
'Cause my, my whole goal in building
the business and I think I proved

428
00:32:23,685 --> 00:32:25,845
it after selling it, was legacy.

429
00:32:26,005 --> 00:32:26,305
I didn't

430
00:32:26,345 --> 00:32:26,685
want a

431
00:32:26,724 --> 00:32:27,965
business that ran around me.

432
00:32:28,045 --> 00:32:28,945
What does Brian want?

433
00:32:28,985 --> 00:32:29,945
What does… No.

434
00:32:30,195 --> 00:32:34,645
I wanted a business where the people, we
taught them how to approach issues, how

435
00:32:34,675 --> 00:32:36,455
to run the business, and then they did.

436
00:32:36,515 --> 00:32:39,405
I remember toward the end of my
tenure there, I was having dinner with

437
00:32:39,435 --> 00:32:42,775
some people, and the old Brian came
out, and I started to get detailed.

438
00:32:42,815 --> 00:32:44,915
And, the woman that ran our
intermodal business said,

439
00:32:44,945 --> 00:32:45,965
"Wait a minute, Brian, stop.

440
00:32:46,485 --> 00:32:47,135
You taught us.

441
00:32:47,825 --> 00:32:49,305
Now let us go do it,

442
00:32:50,025 --> 00:32:53,445
and if we have any problems, we'll
come back to you." I'm like, "Thank you

443
00:32:53,825 --> 00:32:54,005
Well

444
00:32:54,105 --> 00:32:54,425
said.

445
00:32:55,165 --> 00:32:57,981
I'm done." You know, and, and I was at

446
00:32:58,021 --> 00:32:58,101
the

447
00:32:58,121 --> 00:33:00,764
company's month, the company's
fiftieth anniversary.

448
00:33:00,784 --> 00:33:01,844
It's been around fifty years now.

449
00:33:02,077 --> 00:33:05,974
now And, it's the morale and, it's…

450
00:33:06,094 --> 00:33:07,664
I feel like the, it's
the day I walked out.

451
00:33:07,914 --> 00:33:08,714
and a lot of

452
00:33:08,734 --> 00:33:09,094
the stuff

453
00:33:09,154 --> 00:33:13,114
that I know I put in place is still
there, and that that's the fun part,

454
00:33:13,294 --> 00:33:17,034
is I've seen too many companies that
revolve around the, quote, "owner."

455
00:33:17,274 --> 00:33:18,654
I never wanted to be the owner.

456
00:33:18,834 --> 00:33:18,874
I

457
00:33:18,914 --> 00:33:21,074
never wanted the world
to revolve around me.

458
00:33:21,254 --> 00:33:21,734
First of all,

459
00:33:21,834 --> 00:33:22,854
the burden is just

460
00:33:22,874 --> 00:33:23,234
too darn

461
00:33:23,294 --> 00:33:23,594
big.

462
00:33:24,113 --> 00:33:26,274
Um, but you're not really
building anything that

463
00:33:26,374 --> 00:33:26,874
lasts.

464
00:33:27,154 --> 00:33:28,074
And I

465
00:33:28,114 --> 00:33:28,734
wanted something that

466
00:33:28,774 --> 00:33:29,654
was gonna last.

467
00:33:29,744 --> 00:33:30,504
and again, That's where

468
00:33:30,594 --> 00:33:30,734
it's

469
00:33:30,794 --> 00:33:32,714
process, systems, and the right people

470
00:35:04,748 --> 00:35:07,988
There has to be a recognition that
safety is at the foundation of

471
00:35:08,088 --> 00:35:10,188
operational excellence and profitability.

472
00:35:10,238 --> 00:35:13,600
can you imagine a company that's
running poorly when it comes to

473
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:15,898
safety, being productive or profitable?

474
00:35:16,158 --> 00:35:17,738
That, that company doesn't exist.

475
00:35:18,138 --> 00:35:18,388
They could

476
00:35:18,418 --> 00:35:22,080
have a lucky quarter, a lucky year,
but over time, it's not gonna work.

477
00:35:22,183 --> 00:35:26,423
in not relatively recent times, but
let's say in the past fifty, forty, fifty

478
00:35:26,503 --> 00:35:29,202
years, the best example is Paul O'Neill.

479
00:35:29,363 --> 00:35:36,623
Paul O'Neill, uh, became chairman, CEO
of Alcoa, and he told his investment

480
00:35:36,823 --> 00:35:39,443
community in his first meeting with his

481
00:35:39,463 --> 00:35:41,873
investors, "If you wanna
know how Alcoa is doing,

482
00:35:42,463 --> 00:35:45,783
look at our safety statistics." And
some of these people ran for the door.

483
00:35:45,823 --> 00:35:47,273
It's "This guy's crazy," you know?

484
00:35:48,553 --> 00:35:51,033
And Paul O'Neill, by the way,
went on to become George Bush's

485
00:35:51,093 --> 00:35:52,453
treasur-treasury secretary.

486
00:35:52,553 --> 00:35:52,773
I mean, he

487
00:35:52,813 --> 00:35:53,342
was very,

488
00:35:53,733 --> 00:35:55,063
a very accomplished leader.

489
00:35:55,673 --> 00:36:01,833
but but what Paul O'Neill understood
was that if you're hurting people,

490
00:36:02,133 --> 00:36:06,493
your own employees, members of the
public, um, if you're continually

491
00:36:06,553 --> 00:36:09,803
have a continually revolving door
because you can't operate safely, if

492
00:36:09,813 --> 00:36:14,253
you're spending your money cleaning up
the mess rather than playing offense,

493
00:36:14,593 --> 00:36:16,393
you're not building a solid organization.

494
00:36:16,893 --> 00:36:17,173
So

495
00:36:17,273 --> 00:36:17,653
it's that

496
00:36:18,573 --> 00:36:25,493
foundational principle that, that safety
is truly at the core of, operational,

497
00:36:26,113 --> 00:36:27,473
excellence and profitability.

498
00:36:27,873 --> 00:36:30,273
On top of it, of course, it's
the morally right thing to do.

499
00:36:30,333 --> 00:36:33,083
It's one of those where all the boxes
are checked, right It's the right thing

500
00:36:33,113 --> 00:36:35,893
to do, and it's really good business.

501
00:36:35,973 --> 00:36:42,043
And safety outcomes, to put it bluntly,
it's a mirror of leadership effectiveness.

502
00:36:42,573 --> 00:36:44,433
So you know, We weren't

503
00:36:44,463 --> 00:36:44,783
perfect.

504
00:36:44,863 --> 00:36:45,943
We had safety issues.

505
00:36:45,963 --> 00:36:49,663
When we had safety issues, the first place
I would look in the, was in the mirror.

506
00:36:49,743 --> 00:36:54,463
It's like maybe my hands weren't on the
levers, but is there something we missed

507
00:36:54,483 --> 00:36:58,593
in process design, in how we're managing
our people, in how we're communicating?

508
00:36:59,163 --> 00:37:04,293
and and generally, I would find, you would
certainly have the occasional unforeseen

509
00:37:04,373 --> 00:37:09,073
issue, but I would find that most of
the issues revolved around production

510
00:37:09,113 --> 00:37:13,997
pressure, around training, a-around things
like that, that that just symptoms of

511
00:37:14,757 --> 00:37:16,717
things that we could do better as leaders.

512
00:37:16,797 --> 00:37:20,667
So while I'm certainly not gonna
absolve the person whose hands were

513
00:37:20,717 --> 00:37:23,457
on the levers of accountability,
they may be accountable.

514
00:37:24,097 --> 00:37:27,577
If you just hold them accountable and
don't look in the mirror, you're probably

515
00:37:27,637 --> 00:37:29,897
missing eighty percent of the story.

516
00:40:09,234 --> 00:40:09,475
Yeah.

517
00:40:10,974 --> 00:40:11,794
It's hand in hand.

518
00:40:11,895 --> 00:40:19,195
it-- when safety, improves  well,
your, your insurance carriers notice.

519
00:40:19,285 --> 00:40:19,685
that gives

520
00:40:19,745 --> 00:40:21,725
you, more opportunities on your insurance

521
00:40:21,826 --> 00:40:22,145
costs.

522
00:40:22,665 --> 00:40:23,685
Your employees notice.

523
00:40:23,705 --> 00:40:23,825
But

524
00:40:23,895 --> 00:40:25,595
your ladder story is perfect.

525
00:40:25,685 --> 00:40:26,665
it's like, you know, we look at

526
00:40:26,806 --> 00:40:31,725
people wearing their PPE, and if
you're area that requires a hard hat.

527
00:40:32,205 --> 00:40:33,625
you should absolutely wear a hard hat.

528
00:40:33,666 --> 00:40:34,765
I'm not minimizing it.

529
00:40:34,985 --> 00:40:38,165
But how about if we focus on the
steps to prevent something from

530
00:40:38,225 --> 00:40:39,345
falling on your head in the first

531
00:40:39,446 --> 00:40:39,865
place?

532
00:40:40,365 --> 00:40:42,165
So, so you gotta you gotta design the

533
00:40:42,286 --> 00:40:43,525
systems, and then PPE

534
00:40:43,565 --> 00:40:43,885
becomes

535
00:40:43,926 --> 00:40:44,825
your last resort.

536
00:40:44,845 --> 00:40:45,446
And again, it's

537
00:40:45,485 --> 00:40:48,345
important, but a lot of times we
look at it and say, "Well, they're

538
00:40:48,365 --> 00:40:49,705
wearing their vest and their hard hat.

539
00:40:49,725 --> 00:40:53,285
They're okay." But they haven't
thought about design, and that

540
00:40:53,345 --> 00:40:57,325
ladder story is exactly the right
story because you focused on design,

541
00:41:26,647 --> 00:41:27,967
Let me first tell you what it's not.

542
00:41:28,137 --> 00:41:28,977
not academic.

543
00:41:29,017 --> 00:41:30,097
It's not theoretical.

544
00:41:30,137 --> 00:41:33,637
So the whole point of the book
is to bring actionable ideas

545
00:41:33,677 --> 00:41:35,107
to businesses of any size.

546
00:41:35,157 --> 00:41:37,327
You a big budget.

547
00:41:37,677 --> 00:41:41,197
isn't about who's got the
biggest safety department.

548
00:41:41,257 --> 00:41:45,157
Whether you're a, a startup,
an entrepreneurial business, a

549
00:41:45,197 --> 00:41:48,037
large established business, the
ideas in here will work for you.

550
00:41:48,757 --> 00:41:52,867
And the book is organized in these areas.

551
00:41:53,007 --> 00:41:56,107
First of all, we've gotta sort of change
our way of thinking about safety, right?

552
00:41:56,207 --> 00:41:57,686
It's not a compliance function.

553
00:41:58,327 --> 00:42:01,347
Safety and compliance, in
my view, are barely related.

554
00:42:01,537 --> 00:42:03,437
what's the real cost of being unsafe?

555
00:42:03,477 --> 00:42:05,657
It's way beyond your insurance cost.

556
00:42:06,237 --> 00:42:10,377
We gotta change how we think because
once we change what we believe,

557
00:42:10,477 --> 00:42:12,017
then we're gonna change how we act.

558
00:42:12,597 --> 00:42:16,167
Then we're gonna talk about the leader's
role in safety, and we're gonna talk about

559
00:42:16,277 --> 00:42:19,087
not just the… We're gonna start with the
C-suite, and we're gonna make sure that

560
00:42:19,797 --> 00:42:25,447
as executives, we understand that, safety
is part of, uh, enterprise risk  that

561
00:42:25,447 --> 00:42:25,977
that safety

562
00:42:26,017 --> 00:42:28,297
is part of your role of managing, risk.

563
00:42:29,396 --> 00:42:29,587
Then we're

564
00:42:29,616 --> 00:42:30,047
gonna move into

565
00:42:30,077 --> 00:42:34,823
employee engagement, how to get our
employees to, uh, align with where we're

566
00:42:34,863 --> 00:42:38,873
going and how to harness that unlimited
power of our frontline employees.

567
00:42:39,403 --> 00:42:42,203
Then we're gonna talk
about respect for process.

568
00:42:42,213 --> 00:42:46,873
And let's not mistake process, actionable
process with a 600-page handbook

569
00:42:46,943 --> 00:42:48,513
that I guarantee you nobody reads.

570
00:42:48,923 --> 00:42:51,143
We're gonna talk about how you
make process actionable, how

571
00:42:51,243 --> 00:42:55,403
you make it understandable by by
your intended audience, by the

572
00:42:55,463 --> 00:42:56,763
people that need to follow it.

573
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,440
I'll kind of say if your audience reads
at a seventh or eighth-grade level,

574
00:43:01,660 --> 00:43:05,400
and your process manual's written at a
collegiate level, you don't have process.

575
00:43:05,460 --> 00:43:05,480
You

576
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:06,000
have words on

577
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:06,520
paper.

578
00:43:07,180 --> 00:43:07,780
So it's

579
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:08,110
how to get

580
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:09,000
process… It's how to

581
00:43:09,100 --> 00:43:10,820
ingrain it, how to make it actionable.

582
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:17,500
And then we move into accountability,
and what I'll talk about there is that

583
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:21,510
an organization can cause an injury
or a crash as much as an individual.

584
00:43:21,610 --> 00:43:25,863
So a lot of times we'll just blame the
person whose hands were on the levers.

585
00:43:26,010 --> 00:43:29,309
But like I said earlier, we gotta look
in the mirror, individual accountability,

586
00:43:29,420 --> 00:43:31,580
organizational accountability.

587
00:43:31,610 --> 00:43:33,740
And then we're gonna end by
talking about resilience.

588
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:38,220
Even in the best organization, you know as
well as I do, bad things are gonna happen.

589
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:40,140
You can't sweep it under the rug.

590
00:43:40,220 --> 00:43:41,080
How do you learn from it?

591
00:43:41,180 --> 00:43:42,520
how do you listen to the whispers?

592
00:43:42,620 --> 00:43:45,190
how do you build smarter,
stronger organizations?

593
00:43:45,500 --> 00:43:49,934
One, one example I use when I speak,
and it's really a, a tragic situation,

594
00:43:50,034 --> 00:43:57,044
but we had that crash in January of
2025 over  the Potomac the American

595
00:43:57,044 --> 00:43:57,364
Eagle

596
00:43:57,964 --> 00:43:58,134
and the

597
00:43:58,134 --> 00:43:58,624
military

598
00:43:58,892 --> 00:43:59,424
helicopter

599
00:44:00,429 --> 00:44:02,009
And something

600
00:44:02,134 --> 00:44:02,334
that we

601
00:44:02,354 --> 00:44:03,044
should all learn

602
00:44:03,174 --> 00:44:03,314
from

603
00:44:05,005 --> 00:44:06,865
is that between two

604
00:44:06,965 --> 00:44:12,315
thousand eleven and the date of
the crash, that exact same set of

605
00:44:12,396 --> 00:44:14,837
circumstances appeared over eighty times.

606
00:44:15,235 --> 00:44:17,155
It's just that it didn't
result in a crash.

607
00:44:18,155 --> 00:44:18,395
Yeah.

608
00:44:19,395 --> 00:44:23,907
So… And, and but the key is it it
happens in all organizations, right?

609
00:44:24,468 --> 00:44:28,447
You know, very few people will
say that was a shock loss.

610
00:44:28,868 --> 00:44:32,227
Well, if I look deep enough, in most
cases, that was not a shock loss.

611
00:44:32,567 --> 00:44:35,227
It was a predictable surprise.

612
00:44:35,767 --> 00:44:38,308
If you listen to the whispers,
if you listen to the near

613
00:44:38,347 --> 00:44:39,948
misses, if you look at the unsafe

614
00:44:40,007 --> 00:44:44,598
conditions, if you look at the, flaws
in the system, you'll find it, and

615
00:44:44,637 --> 00:44:46,058
that's where you really can prevent it.

616
00:44:46,137 --> 00:44:49,807
But it's a function of leadership,
and not just executive leadership.

617
00:44:49,887 --> 00:44:52,026
Some of your best leaders
are in your front lines.

618
00:44:52,067 --> 00:44:52,887
It's, it, it's

619
00:44:52,926 --> 00:44:54,275
a function of

620
00:44:54,295 --> 00:44:57,465
not just process, but,
unconditional respect for process.

621
00:44:57,985 --> 00:44:59,245
So, e-e-examples like

622
00:44:59,285 --> 00:45:02,575
that, these na- big national news
examples like the crash over the

623
00:45:02,635 --> 00:45:05,575
Potomac, I don't like talking about
those too much because I don't want

624
00:45:05,635 --> 00:45:07,357
to sensationalize such a tragedy.

625
00:45:07,886 --> 00:45:10,505
But a bigger tragedy is
if we don't learn from it.

626
00:45:10,645 --> 00:45:10,865
And I'm

627
00:45:10,925 --> 00:45:11,285
telling you

628
00:45:11,325 --> 00:45:13,645
that at its root, you'll find

629
00:45:13,706 --> 00:45:18,465
those citations, you'll find those
penalties, you'll find those paper

630
00:45:18,526 --> 00:45:22,695
cuts or s- or minor cuts, not paper
cuts, but like minor cuts because

631
00:45:22,755 --> 00:45:25,435
you didn't have machine guarding, and
all of a sudden somebody loses their

632
00:45:25,496 --> 00:45:27,096
hand that means ten people cut their

633
00:45:27,136 --> 00:45:27,977
hand and they got lucky.

634
00:45:28,036 --> 00:45:29,696
you didn't fix the machine guarding.

635
00:45:29,756 --> 00:45:31,016
Now somebody lost their hand.

636
00:45:31,036 --> 00:45:31,937
and you're surprised.

637
00:45:32,016 --> 00:45:32,416
No.

638
00:45:32,477 --> 00:45:32,857
if you have

639
00:45:32,897 --> 00:45:33,317
dealt with the

640
00:45:33,357 --> 00:45:37,358
hand cuts in that unsafe
environment, you might not have

641
00:45:37,377 --> 00:45:38,497
had somebody lose their hand.

642
00:45:38,647 --> 00:45:39,367
it's… That's

643
00:45:39,427 --> 00:45:42,057
the kind of stuff w-we
hit in the book, but in a

644
00:45:42,098 --> 00:45:42,397
way that

645
00:45:42,458 --> 00:45:43,137
people can take

646
00:45:43,177 --> 00:45:44,937
it and adopt it and make it their own

647
00:46:33,854 --> 00:46:37,794
whether you like Alabama or not, Ni-Nick
Saban's the model of that, right?

648
00:46:37,895 --> 00:46:42,145
If you listen to what he would say, he's
"All I knew how to do was, was build the

649
00:46:42,225 --> 00:46:44,005
process and trust the process," right?

650
00:46:44,365 --> 00:46:46,425
It-- the scoreboard takes care of itself

651
00:46:47,185 --> 00:46:47,265
if

652
00:46:47,306 --> 00:46:48,365
you've got the process,

653
00:46:48,585 --> 00:46:48,886
But If you're

654
00:46:48,925 --> 00:46:52,465
looking at the scoreboard without
the process, probably doesn't work.

655
00:46:52,515 --> 00:46:57,414
in the sports world, I don't think
anybody has done a better job

656
00:46:57,515 --> 00:47:00,854
articulating in a way that business
people can learn from, than Nick

657
00:47:00,914 --> 00:47:03,815
Saban on just respect for process.

658
00:47:03,924 --> 00:47:04,244
build the

659
00:47:04,304 --> 00:47:07,924
process, keep refining the
process, but trust the process and

660
00:47:07,984 --> 00:47:09,384
don't deviate from the process.

661
00:47:09,664 --> 00:47:12,784
And it's why you see these organizations,
I mean, A-Alabama under his

662
00:47:12,824 --> 00:47:14,903
leadership, Green Bay Packers, right?

663
00:47:15,584 --> 00:47:20,263
Since Brett Favre took over in 1993,
they've had three quarterbacks.

664
00:47:20,523 --> 00:47:25,054
O-other than, injuries And, you know,
minor, and again, it's the process.

665
00:47:25,125 --> 00:47:30,216
and you have all these wide receivers
coming in that, maybe they didn't--

666
00:47:30,356 --> 00:47:33,696
they weren't big names or anything,
but they became great because

667
00:47:33,736 --> 00:47:35,196
they were in a system that works.

668
00:47:35,736 --> 00:47:38,995
Um, compare that to signing the
free agent in, a bad system.

669
00:47:39,085 --> 00:47:41,605
the free agent might get a
big paycheck, but we've seen

670
00:47:41,646 --> 00:47:43,205
that play out a lot of times.

671
00:47:43,225 --> 00:47:45,234
and, those are-- those analogies work.

672
00:47:45,274 --> 00:47:49,634
It's build the system,
build the team, ingrain the

673
00:47:49,714 --> 00:47:53,625
process, keep refining it, but
That's the only way I know how,

674
00:47:53,685 --> 00:47:55,886
whether talking operations.

675
00:47:55,927 --> 00:47:57,266
And then the scorecard.

676
00:47:57,747 --> 00:48:02,287
Your scorecard, card, namely your
P&L statement, is an outcome of that

677
00:48:40,042 --> 00:48:42,022
if they're really busy, the
first thing I do is tell them

678
00:48:42,062 --> 00:48:44,702
that, "Hey, we, uh, produced an
audiobook, so you can listen to

679
00:48:44,722 --> 00:48:50,202
it on the, way home." Um, but the
thing I'd want them to take away

680
00:48:50,382 --> 00:48:57,102
is that, that if you're a smaller
business, small stature is a virtue.

681
00:48:57,222 --> 00:49:00,322
Small thinking in any size
business is the kiss of death.

682
00:49:00,332 --> 00:49:00,522
So we

683
00:49:00,562 --> 00:49:00,802
gotta

684
00:49:00,822 --> 00:49:02,782
think differently and think big.

685
00:49:02,842 --> 00:49:03,152
And

686
00:49:03,202 --> 00:49:04,032
from there, we're

687
00:49:04,062 --> 00:49:04,682
gonna… the

688
00:49:04,702 --> 00:49:09,982
book's gonna show you as a leader things
you can do, how to engage your employees,

689
00:49:10,282 --> 00:49:11,702
how to build process that works.

690
00:49:12,162 --> 00:49:15,182
it takes what I think a lot
of people overcomplicate.

691
00:49:15,342 --> 00:49:18,072
I'm not saying that this is
easy, that, anybody can do it.

692
00:49:18,132 --> 00:49:22,493
But I'm saying that if you just focus
on the fundamentals in the book, you

693
00:49:22,573 --> 00:49:24,703
will get demonstrable, improvement.

694
00:49:24,893 --> 00:49:27,013
And it's really no different
than the ladder story,

695
00:49:27,103 --> 00:49:28,263
Dallas, that you told, right?

696
00:49:28,783 --> 00:49:32,043
It's those incremental improvements
that all of a sudden pay these huge

697
00:49:32,123 --> 00:49:36,663
dividends, like what you saw on the-- with
the ladder, big gains in productivity.

698
00:49:36,903 --> 00:49:41,863
Um, we had customers find us
because of our safety reputation.

699
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:43,540
not every customer cares.

700
00:49:43,943 --> 00:49:45,763
some customers just want that last nickel.

701
00:49:46,443 --> 00:49:46,745
Fine.

702
00:49:46,843 --> 00:49:47,883
That's not my customer.

703
00:49:47,923 --> 00:49:48,133
I'm not

704
00:49:48,163 --> 00:49:48,573
competing

705
00:49:48,583 --> 00:49:48,673
for

706
00:49:48,703 --> 00:49:49,103
that business.

707
00:49:49,143 --> 00:49:49,353
You can

708
00:49:49,383 --> 00:49:50,313
have it.

709
00:49:50,313 --> 00:49:50,643
but the

710
00:49:50,783 --> 00:49:51,633
ones that

711
00:49:51,723 --> 00:49:55,903
care are the ones that that vet their
vendors, and then I know that I'm

712
00:49:55,943 --> 00:50:00,233
competing with other vendors, other
logistics companies that share the

713
00:50:00,273 --> 00:50:02,433
same values and that do things right.

714
00:50:02,493 --> 00:50:04,463
I'll compete against
those guys all day long.

715
00:50:05,073 --> 00:50:08,413
Not gonna compete against the bottom
feeders that don't do it right.

716
00:50:08,423 --> 00:50:11,543
and so you start to attract
value-aligned customers that feel

717
00:50:11,573 --> 00:50:14,573
the same way, and that's where
I think where the magic happens.

718
00:50:14,623 --> 00:50:18,193
You have the right customers, the
right employees, and, that's how

719
00:50:18,213 --> 00:50:19,793
to build a business that lasts.

720
00:50:19,873 --> 00:50:24,733
And we ultimately sold the business,
and we were able to tie all that to

721
00:50:24,773 --> 00:50:28,193
the buyer, showing the buyer our,
stability and our low customer

722
00:50:28,293 --> 00:50:31,533
churn rate And that low customer
churn rate wasn't because we brought

723
00:50:31,573 --> 00:50:32,793
better donuts than the next guy.

724
00:50:32,953 --> 00:50:35,373
It's because of everything
we've talked about in this call.

725
00:51:21,203 --> 00:51:24,286
the book is available on all major
outlets, so wherever you like,

726
00:51:24,336 --> 00:51:25,997
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et cetera.

727
00:51:26,336 --> 00:51:28,926
the e-book, it's in Kindle
format, Apple Books.

728
00:51:29,310 --> 00:51:30,550
it's widely available.

729
00:51:30,650 --> 00:51:34,541
if people want more than 10, if you wanna
use them for group, for your employees

730
00:51:34,601 --> 00:51:38,680
and for group conversations, you can
just reach out to me, Brian, at Brian

731
00:51:38,740 --> 00:51:42,521
Fielkow, B-R-I-A-N F-I-E-L-K-O-W.com.

732
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:45,320
We've got bulk pricing, a-a-available.

733
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,990
Um, and, we've tried to make the
book as accessible as possible

734
00:51:49,050 --> 00:51:52,552
with, the hardcover, the audiobook,
and then the electronic versions.

735
00:51:53,132 --> 00:51:55,112
And You don't need to read
it chapter by chapter.

736
00:51:55,133 --> 00:51:56,572
It's not meant to be read sequentially.

737
00:51:56,593 --> 00:52:01,031
It's meant to kind of meet you and
find you where you are, meaning that

738
00:52:01,091 --> 00:52:04,271
you find the chapters in the areas
that are the most important to you

739
00:52:04,312 --> 00:52:06,152
today, that's where you should focus.

740
00:52:11,527 --> 00:52:11,787
Yeah

741
00:52:16,565 --> 00:52:16,766
Yeah

742
00:52:29,834 --> 00:52:32,574
well, if we looked at
anybody in time, right?

743
00:52:32,664 --> 00:52:35,925
you're gonna no longer have the chance
to get a guy like Paul O'Neill on, so

744
00:52:35,964 --> 00:52:38,604
that's, that unfortunately is gone.

745
00:52:38,664 --> 00:52:43,073
But I'm… if I could think of, I guess
when I was thinking about this question,

746
00:52:44,133 --> 00:52:47,345
a- again, somebody that you no longer
have the chance to do,  but, I'm a

747
00:52:47,444 --> 00:52:50,224
huge Jimmy Buffett fan, been forever.

748
00:52:50,845 --> 00:52:54,205
And the thing I the thing I liked
about Buffett so much, besides the

749
00:52:54,264 --> 00:52:58,624
fact that I think he was a great
songwriter and a great performer, is

750
00:52:58,685 --> 00:53:00,213
you couldn't put him into a bucket.

751
00:53:00,274 --> 00:53:03,514
He was also a great businessman,
a brilliant entrepreneur, New

752
00:53:03,553 --> 00:53:05,093
York Times bestselling author.

753
00:53:05,494 --> 00:53:10,193
And I love people like that that, you
know, we all wanna put people in buckets.

754
00:53:10,283 --> 00:53:12,043
you're country, you're rock, whatever.

755
00:53:12,903 --> 00:53:16,926
I like people that that avoid the buckets,
that you simply can't put in the bucket.

756
00:53:16,946 --> 00:53:19,666
And I think maybe that's one of
the reasons that I liked him so

757
00:53:19,726 --> 00:53:24,846
much, wa- was just because there,
there was no no rhyme or reason.

758
00:53:24,946 --> 00:53:27,056
Uh, People tried, but they couldn't.

759
00:53:27,117 --> 00:53:31,416
and again, that's the key is people,
anybody, any guest that marches

760
00:53:31,456 --> 00:53:33,996
to their own drummer, that kind of
figures things out on their own.

761
00:53:34,336 --> 00:53:37,496
We were joking before about not
listening to the influencers, right?

762
00:53:37,596 --> 00:53:42,956
People that, that don't… If you meet
somebody that's got all the answers, run.

763
00:53:42,996 --> 00:53:43,536
Run as fast

764
00:53:43,676 --> 00:53:44,216
as you can.

765
00:53:44,456 --> 00:53:47,716
So I wanna, I would love to see
you have more guests like that.

766
00:53:47,767 --> 00:53:48,247
more guests

767
00:53:48,328 --> 00:53:49,807
who have just done it their way.

768
00:53:50,387 --> 00:53:52,927
Um, not the right way, not
the wrong way, but their way.

769
00:54:11,379 --> 00:54:11,819
Thank you