Tales of Leadership
Tales of Leadership is a veteran-owned podcast designed to equip leaders with the knowledge required to inspire others through transformational leadership. If you want to grow your influence and become a purposeful leader, you have found your tribe. Become the leader your team deserves!
Tales of Leadership
Episode 97 with Brent Polhman
Brent Pohlman is an executive leader at Midwest Laboratories, where he has been instrumental in driving a positive impact on the lives of employees, clients, and communities for over seven years. At Midwest Laboratories, Brent is known for fostering a culture of excellence and trust, leveraging core competencies in innovation, teamwork, and dynamic service to benefit staff and partners. A published author with the latest book, "Leaders Look Within," released in May 2023, Brent shares invaluable insights on leading from the heart, coaching others, and nurturing a culture of trust and excellence. With an MBA in human resources and a dual BA and BS in business administration and secondary education, Brent's passion for continual learning and growth as a leader is evident.
Connect with Brent Polhman:
-Twitter: @bpohlman
-Instagram: @bpmwlo
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bpohlman/
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You're listening to the Tales of Leadership podcast. This podcast is for leaders at any phase on their leadership journey to become a more purposeful and accountable leader what I like to call a pal. Join me on our journey together towards transformational leadership. All right, team, welcome back to the Tales of Leadership podcast. I am your host, josh McMillian. I'm an active duty army officer. I am an army leadership coach and I am the founder of McMillian Leadership Coaching, and I'm on a mission to create a better leader what I like to call a purposeful, accountable leader or a pal and my vision is to impact 1 million lives in the next 10 years by sharing transformational leadership stories and skills.
Speaker 1:And on today's episode, I'm bringing you a purposeful, accountable leader Brent Pullman. He is the executive leader of Midwest Laboratories, where he has been instrumental in driving a positive impact on lives, employees, clients and the community for over seven years At Midwest Labs, brent is known for fostering a culture of excellence and trust, leveraging core competencies in innovation, teamwork and dynamic service to benefit staff and employees and his partners. And I will tell you this is that he has such a interesting take on leadership because he inherited that company from his father and I've never had anyone who's been able to do that in terms of that journey. But he also is unapologetic in his faith and who he is and his core values, and he lives those every single day. And, by the way, he's a published author. He just wrote the book Leaders Look Within, which was released in May of 2023.
Speaker 1:He provides an absolutely amazing breakdown of what leadership is and nuggets along the way and always stay to the very end, and I'll provide you the top three takeaways from this episode. Let's go ahead and let on Brent. Brent, welcome to the Tales of Leadership podcast. Brother, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Great. How about you, Joshua?
Speaker 1:I can't complain. I was telling you right after this or right before we jumped on as I went on a run, it's snowing for the first time in Northern Virginia, at least for this year since we've moved. So I just got going on a run in my tank top because I was super excited about trying to do cold therapy. I was like, so I can go on a run and still do cold therapy versus doing an ice plunge today and it was fun, but my fingers are definitely feeling it.
Speaker 2:You should come here. It's below zero and we had nine inches of snow. You fit right in.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I don't know about that. I did an ice bath yesterday and it was, I think, 32 degrees. I just started this too right at the Christmas, so it's not something I've been doing religiously, and I was like, oh, it is cold. Any much colder than this? I don't know if I can do that. So I think a great place to start, Brent, is just take the time to kind of introduce yourself to the listeners. Who are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my name is Brent Pullman. I'm a CEO at Midwest Laboratories and last year I wrote a book Leaders Look Within and I'm kind of promoting that a little bit, because I think we absolutely need more leadership and more leaders across the board, and it's just been wonderful for me to see, at home and at work, leadership principles take effect not only in my life but in the lives of others, and I couldn't be more happier at this moment. It's the way things are really happening. In a world that's full of chaos, we can absolutely we can persevere if we're at, if we're at a good place with our leadership.
Speaker 1:I think a great place that I always love starting off is just setting the bounds of how you, how you define leadership, and that's the beauty about being in podcasting is I can talk to people who have predominantly military backgrounds, people who have more of a faith background or an entrepreneurial background. You're unique in a way, is that you have a. You're deeply rooted in your faith, but you are also a CEO that a business, I think, that you inherited from your father, which is really, I think, inspiring in a way. How do you define leadership?
Speaker 2:It's a great question. I think everyone needs to find leadership for themselves. I didn't realize how personal that is. For me it was really digging deep and I don't. Everyone says they have a why about them. I thought I did, but I really didn't. I didn't go deep enough and it really took some people to really pull that out of me. And once you find that and you start to live it, things really go in a different place and you become such a better person. But it takes time and each person has to. Again, that's the premise for the book is every person. I'm not one to tell you. Here's the 12 steps to effective leadership.
Speaker 1:Everybody has to find that themselves and I think that was true for me too because I tried to find it in books and do all that stuff, but once you find it and live it, it's very powerful, absolutely very powerful two years ago I started this journey of where, hey, I'm dedicating myself to being the best leader that I can, because I'm active duty in the military and I have the honor to serve at the capacity that I am now and continue to lead and serve the country and the men and women that wear the uniform.
Speaker 1:And I started gravitating towards books and I was reading all of these books and they're like, yeah, this is all great, but there was a quote that always kind of resonated back to me of I had a battalion commander tell me after we were in the military, ate up is not a good thing. After we were ate up on a live fire exercise. He's like deeds, not words. And he just walked away. And I think when we read books is that we hear all the right things, but the environment that we find ourselves in life is not a book.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, no, I would. I would say that and uh, for me, um, I, it was really the why and how, and the why and how was um, I'm a person of faith, who, who coaches people up and leads from the heart, so I needed something actionable, and when I say that every single day, then I live it every single day. So the why and how go together and that was really key for me.
Speaker 1:I love that man. So start off with where your leadership journey started. Where do you think that that started?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it started. So, as you said, I'm a second generation owner. Midwest Laboratories. Quick background we do analytical testing in three verticals human health, animal health and agriculture. And environmental. We have 300 employees. We do a lot of testing to get results back to people in three to five days, so we're like a production lab.
Speaker 2:When I took basically when I came back in 2005, I had to really work with my dad and his partners. That was really a hard struggle for 10 years. I didn't know if I was going to make it through that, that piece, only because I wanted to see so much change and I really my dad kept telling me I really needed to learn the business more and more, and he was right. And then, when his partners retired, it was just my father and I. That was a whole, nother few years or period where I wanted to take from my dad everything that he had learned and used throughout the business, because he had built a profitable business. It was amazing.
Speaker 2:And then, how do we take this and move it into the future? And my dad, finally, he did retire in 2020 at the age of 80. And so for the past three years, we have just again experienced tremendous growth. We went from 110 employees to 300. Our revenue has increased every single year and I really attribute it to having strong values and a really strong leadership team in place to facilitate that and really build a culture that is one focused on values and one that services our own employees as well as our clients. And when you do those things again, if you invest in people, you will see a much bigger return than any technology or anything out there.
Speaker 1:From what I found, that's such an interesting point is that your father created this Midwest Laboratories successful company in itself, I think 1975 is when the company stood up Impressive. A lot of entrepreneurs fail, I think, like the stat is like three or four times before you're finally successful at some point. So kudos to you. That is absolutely amazing. And one thing that I was really curious about how do you take your father's vision for his company and then build upon that to continue to grow? Because I don't get an opportunity to with your specific leadership background and I'm very curious of how you did that, staying true to what your father built but kind of adding your flavor to it and incrementally growing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm still working through it. I wouldn't say that I have that all figured out by any means. I think you really again have to really look and see what, what worked, what still works today, because a lot of what worked in the I'll say the 70s, the 80s, does not work today. And the other one I will say is my dad was very much into the day-to-day all the time, so I was really in the day-to-day from 2015 to 2020. It wasn't really till about.
Speaker 2:My leadership team came to me and said hey, we need you to get out of the day-to-day. We are growing so fast. We need someone to be visionary and really go after a new campus and expand if we really want to grow this company. And they were so right. I watched my dad up until the age of 80 stay in the day-to-day. I watched my dad up until the age of 80 stay in the day-to-day and some people and again, I can't argue. It was very successful.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, there's just so many changes and I think COVID even accelerated those changes a lot that you better be flexible, you better have a trustworthy team, you better have all these things in place if you're really going to succeed. So I think the pace or the acceleration of things has gotten even faster, and they were so right. I needed to be out of the day-to-day. I had to trust my people. I was becoming a roadblock when I was in the operations and I think that was the piece that was really. The biggest learning piece for me is get out, let your people take over. If they know that they have, or you have, their back and they have yours, you will go further, faster than anything, like I said. So it's been a wonderful journey, hard but yes, and I learned a lot. I made a lot of mistakes, but I continue to learn every single day with this team.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a beautiful nugget as well is that failure is inevitable.
Speaker 1:No-transcript, that's leadership in a nutshell failing fast and failing small and then incrementally improving every single time. So we're becoming better and better and I love that you have the vulnerability to share that, because that's that's the truth about leadership and entrusting your people. And there's a concept that you shared that is absolutely beautiful and it shows the growth of your company is that when it first stood up, you had to be in the fight in the trenches with the team making sure that the work was getting done and that the mission was being achieved. But as you're seeing growth, you have to separate yourself more of a strategic level lens. And then general portray shared this and it always sticks with me the four pillars of kind of like strategic leadership. You create the big idea, the vision, you communicate it clearly to your team, then you set key metrics to make sure there's a thread that's keeping everyone towards that vision, and then you continually revisit are we achieving what we said we're going to do or do we need to tailor it slightly?
Speaker 2:That was a beautiful definition and I wanted to make sure that I highlighted that. Thank you for the additional comments there, because that's exactly as you were saying that. I was like, yes, that's exactly what was happening, and it doesn't happen over a week. It takes time. I mean I make it sound like this is really fast, but it is a hard. I mean you've got to put that, you've got to have that really strong culture in place, and that takes time and that takes trust and that takes reinforcing. Hence the coaching people up. You've got to coach people up all the time, because it's so easy to fall back into the old ways, so easy.
Speaker 1:One question that I'm curious about, because you said you grew, I think, from like 110 to 300 employees somewhere around there. As you grow, how are you ensuring that you're hiring the right people for the right job? What's that vetting process look?
Speaker 2:like you know, that is tough, you know. I will just say like I think right now we have really gone, even in our interviews is what? What values does this person bring? Do they have strong values set? You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don't have, if you don't want to be part of a team and you don't want to, your values are just not quite aligned or there it's not going to work and that's okay and that, and that's what we've even said. You know we'll figure this out and if it, if it doesn't work, let's help you find the next position or the next job. Maybe that skill set works somewhere else or better suited for a different place.
Speaker 2:But it is a lot of vetting. We try to do that. We try to do a lot of on the experience tasks as well, but really it comes down to working as a team, because that's the only way we're going to get the work done is if everyone on the team really buys in to, as you say, the goals and the objectives and the culture. And I think having monthly meetings. We bring all of our employees together once a month, even though we're operational all the time. They can come in person or they time we we they can do it in person or they can watch it on teams or they can record it.
Speaker 2:But we want people to know what's happening in the company, that what they're doing not only affects the lives of others outside of here food safety, water safety, uh soil, uh crops they making a difference but also for them. They need to understand that their work is valued and that they are valued as a person. People first. So that's the only way that we're going to succeed is people first in our company.
Speaker 1:It fires me up. It really does Every time that I talk to like a civilian leadership. In the military we do the exact same thing and it's awesome to see that in the military we call them all hands, so it's like once a month we bring everyone together and we talk about hey, what did we achieve as a team? And I think that's so important, because if you can't connect that emotional alignment, be like, hey, what are we doing, head, heart, creating that intrinsic motivation to actually go do the work, then we lose our people somewhere along the journey. It almost creates like burnout or just this hustle culture that we're always doing work. But when we take the time to just show our team what we've accomplished, I think that's where it really kind of sets in. And then you are creating that culture and trust of excellence which Midwest Labs probably has, and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me, and I'll give you another one that kind of helps us with the recruiting piece, and this happened last year and I'm still blown away that we can do this. Benefits have always been part of our total compensation and health insurance. Right now, if you're single and not married, your insurance is 100% paid for health insurance. That's unheard of.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last year with all the healthcare costs. Our healthcare costs went up almost 200% and we said we had to do something. We're self-insured. And what we did? Our brokers kept telling us you got to raise deductibles If you're going to meet the cost, you got to keep. You got to the employees got to pay more. Families have to pay more. We said we don't like that, there's got to be a better way. So what we are doing hopefully starting next week we have opened a medical office on site for our employees where they can come with their families. We'll have doctors there three times a week and they'll provide the care at a cash price.
Speaker 2:Because we are going to beat this, this stupid medical insurance piece, because there's no incentive out there to bring costs down. If you work through the insurance company, you work through brokers. Every, everyone wants a piece of the pie. The only way you do is if you own it yourself and you say here's what we're going to pay, here's how, and you find a company that works with. So we always look for like-minded companies outside our industry and we found one here that's going to work with us on that and I am so excited about that. Most people get excited about the business. I get more excited if I can help the employees in some way. Somehow. I think this is a real big achievement for our group.
Speaker 1:I have never heard that before, but that's just a testament to what you just said people first and in the military we say that too. Like people first, mission always, because the greatest national treasure that we have and I genuinely mean this is the men and women of this country. Think about, like of all the innovative capabilities happened over the last decade. Well, it started in the US and it's because we've created that culture of trust and excellence, but we've stayed curious, and when you can take care of your people and you give them that latitude, it allows those values to really just take root and blossom, which that's amazing, man, and I love that, because I think in this world now there's a toxic level of capitalism and don't get me wrong, I think that that's a great thing, but now there's a toxic level of capitalism and don't get me wrong, I think that that's a great thing, but I think there's a toxic level of it where everyone quits viewing people as a person.
Speaker 1:There's a quote out there from Joseph Stalin and I shouldn't quote him on my podcast, but it said what's the difference between one and a million? And talking about people is like it's just a number. So that's the key thing there is not to allow your heart to harden when you take authority, title, position and view people as a as as a person that's a mother, that's a father, that's a husband, that's a son. They have something outside of this work, and are we helping them achieve their full potential, not just at work, but also in life? Because I felt like that's a role that you and I both share, both in civilian world and the military world, is I want to help people become the best version possible that they can be, because, if that's the case, you're going to get a better quality of work out of them and, at the end of the day, you're going to make a bigger impact.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I would agree. And Joshua, I think you said something right there that and maybe you, you helped me. I think I got this from the military. But one thing as a leader that I tried last year I'm still trying to get this year I want to military does that, I believe, does that so well. But if I don't know the names, if I say hey, you or you, or think about it, I went in the corporate world. I went probably weeks or months without even hearing my name being called. But when you hear your name being called, you stop. You stop in your tracks wherever you're at.
Speaker 2:Because, somebody is taking the time to get your attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like hey, that person cares about me. They took the time to at least remember me. One of the things that I would do when I was in company command and I was in charge of my first command 150 soldiers. Second command 250 soldiers. My wife thought it was crazy and everyone else thought it was crazy on my team, but I wrote a handwritten letter to every one of those soldiers either mothers or spouses, you know. If a brand new private joins, well, they're probably not married. So I write a letter back to their mother.
Speaker 1:And we have this group. It's called a family readiness group, an FRG, and it's an outside organization that takes care of the families. Why, if we were to deploy or something like that and that group on Facebook grew from I can't remember what the new name of the base is, but it's because I just took a little bit of time to genuinely care, put my personal touch on something, to show that, hey, yes, I'm your company commander. Yes, the decisions that I make are probably not going to be popular, you're not always going to be like me, but I care about you. And let me prove it with deeds, not words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I really like that. I think there's something to be said about that. The power of that is really. It is something that more again, as a leader, I wish I would have known or embraced even sooner, because there is there's a lot of good things that can happen from that.
Speaker 1:One thing that I would love now to kind of just dive into is how faith has impacted your leadership. And where did you develop that deep level of faith? Because I watch you on LinkedIn all the time. Every morning, super cold, You're out there just inspiring me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it really happened as a result, sadly to say, when my mother passed away in 2017 from cancer. I'll never forget the day. I went for a walk that day and I was like I need to be more intentional about my faith. I had no idea what I was saying, but I just really said it almost as a prayer and said I need to be more intentional Because I knew my mom was a lady of prayer and she had journals. She has hundreds of journals journals my sister and I are going through them now of all the prayers that she wrote down for all the friends and over people at church tonight. I'll never forget that and I thought you know that this is where it starts is with prayer. And then, on her birthday, my dad and I went into this coffee shop in ohio. We were.
Speaker 2:I didn't want my dad to be alone that first year, so we were at a conference. We walk into this coffee shop and there on the wall it said how can I pray for you? And it was this big chalkboard and I thought, oh, wow. I looked at my dad and I said I think mom's trying to tell us something, and so if you walk into our main office. You will see a prayer wall on the side, because prayer is not evasive. Anybody can write something our customers, our clients, our employees and we pray for those petitions of those requests, because again, I think it just shows again that the care, that and faith, when we have faith and we pray for each other and have each other's backs, that says something about a company that is.
Speaker 1:I think you being openly forward with your faith in a company tells me a lot about you, tells me that you're unreasonable in a good way, that, hey, this is important to me, it's a core value that I have. I want this to be part of my company because it is who I am, and I'm going to be unapologetic in a way, but I'm going to do it in a way that's authentic. I don't care what your religion is. Let me pray for you, let our team pray for you, so we can get through that hardship. I love that man prayer wall. I may, I might, I might borrow that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely you can, you can steal it. No, it is, it is. And again, I'm not, I'm not here to force my beliefs on anybody, but I can. Again, you can as a leader, you can support and coach people, but absolutely is a core value. Faith is definitely a core value, personal core value of mine.
Speaker 1:You're. You're also the president and I'm going to mess this, mess this name up. The. Is it the Lictus chapter?
Speaker 2:So Ligatus yeah, it is. Ligatus is an interesting group. It's a made up of Catholic business owners, their spouses and we meet once a month and it is just amazing to come together with other owners and I think that's probably the biggest thing. When can you be in the room with other CEOs from various industries and with your wife to and just have just a normal conversation? It's not about money, it's not about the business. You're just there to support each other and you listen to a speaker once a month gather together. I think it's just a wonderful, just a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2:It's been a wonderful organization for my wife and I to be along to.
Speaker 1:I think when you surround yourself with people like that too, that stretch and push you to be a better version of yourself, that's what I crave most in life, at least where I'm at now. It's not about the number of friends that I have. I guess, in a bad way of saying, is like I don't care about the quantity of friends that I have. What I care about is the quality. Who do I allow in my life that is going to stretch me, to help me grow into a better version of myself, so I can show up in the world and I can be a better version and bring light, which I love.
Speaker 1:That quote from Matthew it's like one of my favorite quotes in the Bible. That's awesome. So another thing that I would love to get in on social media like you are super active in LinkedIn, so I know you probably have an amazing morning routine and one of the bread crumbs that I've learned from amazing leaders you're a CEO, you're an author of a book, you are a servant leader in and outside of your company. How do you find the time to do all of those things?
Speaker 2:Well, I know I drive my wife crazy, but I always like to get up early. Typically I like to get outside and do some type of run or walk or just get outside. Now this is going to be really challenging with being laid up and then, a couple of days a week, I work with a trainer too to get stronger. But I have just found that if you keep as a leader mind, body, soul, spirit you've got to give it physically, you've got to put some strain on your body, body and you've got to bring the energy. That's the only way you'll bring your energy up.
Speaker 2:I'm a big believer in the whoop. I don't know if you have heard of the whoop, but I measure my HRV every single day and I look at that number and I just see where I'm at. Did I get enough? Did I get good sleep? Was it quality sleep the night before? And I'm constantly looking at that uh hrv number. Just make sure that it's too high, because when I first started I was zero to ten and that typically sends. Typically that that number means that I was highly reactive and I was super reactive. So I've gone from being super reactive to super. I would say. Relational relations mean more, much more than being reactive. I catch myself all the time and I'll stop and say, no, I could. I could be reactive right now, but what are the what? Where's that going to take me? Do I really want to go down that path, whereas before I didn't even give it a second thought and I was highly reactive I love that concept of, so I'm going to put it in a military lens where I would raise offensive versus defensive.
Speaker 1:When we're defensive, we're allowing the environment, the enemy, to affect our decision-making, and what we want to do is to get in the mindset of the enemy and affect and shape their decision-making so that they act because they're responding to us, not because we're responding to them. We always want to be offensive in a way, and there was a. There was something that you shared recently and I wrote it down cause it was. It's one of my favorite Proverbs um four, 25 through 16, let your eyes look directly ahead, and then you wrote, towards the path of moral courage and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you, towards the path of integrity. I love every morning that you connect something, a pillar of yours faith and mind as well together, but just, you're showing up in the world and you're being the light on the hill, and I love that Thanks.
Speaker 2:And you said something earlier. You've got to surround yourself with great people my director of operations. She and I, I mean, we constantly pray for each other all the time, and I couldn't find anybody else who I've never worked with, anybody else again, who's so faith-filled and that you could share openly about what's happening. We start the day off, we just text each other How's your day going? I pray for you, you pray for me, and at the end we do an update. Some people do weekly updates, Some are daily updates. We just do it over the phone or hey, what happened today? What were the highs, the lows? And our number one thing is we have to always end on a positive note. So we go into that evening on a positive note, but it's been the best, Like you said, surrounding yourself with just really solid people, morals and core values. That's the key for me too. I can't agree more with you on that too.
Speaker 1:I love that brother. So another thing, kind of before we get right into the book CEO now for a long time. What is one of the biggest lessons that you've learned, or at least taken away, from being a CEO of a successful company?
Speaker 2:I really do think under that people first you've got to find the right people, you got to put them in the right position for success and then you got to build structure and process around that and then bring in. You can then facilitate that with technology so that that people process and technology. I know that's part of the book, but that has just stuck with me and it's really. It is the truth, because I used to get that so mixed up. I used to think you could solve all your problems through technology. I was, and every time I hear this ai stuff I always take a step back. It's going to be good. There's there's good things, there's bad things about ai.
Speaker 2:But hey, start with the people first. You know how is this going to affect our people? What, what? How will it value? How will it benefit our people? What can people learn from this? And don't use the AI. Ai is going to affect our people. Don't lead with AI, because then that's what I keep hearing a lot is they lead with AI and they don't lead with people. Yeah, so I heard a term AI and HI human. I like the HI term a little bit better to human intelligence, so HI, but I keep hearing that but definitely with people first, before you process the technology.
Speaker 1:So I love that Like. One of my focus areas when I was getting my master's degree is human systems integration and one of the concepts in the military, because that's a beautiful blend of engineering or like, if you want to think of it as AI, software and then people. When we develop a product, it's a system of a system, meaning that at the core of whatever we're building is that soldier. That soldier is going to find, fix and finish our enemies on the battlefield because at the end of the day, that's what we do and that piece of equipment needs to enable that person to do their job better. So when I think through the lens of artificial intelligence and the whole umbrella that kind of falls within that, I look at it as a combat multiplier. It's not the solution. It is a solution to empower our people to, at the end of the day, I guess, to make a better product and, in my line of work, to be more lethal, to make sure that every man and woman who serves comes home to their family. Let's start talking about that.
Speaker 1:That book. So what is the title of your book and what inspired you to write it?
Speaker 2:So what is the title of your book and what inspired you to write it? Leaders, look Within. And I started. Mainly it was kind of coming out of COVID. I wanted something to do while kind of the world was happening and I thought there's not really a good leadership book. There was no book on how to deal with COVID at the time and I don't think there's still. I don't know if there ever will be.
Speaker 2:But I started writing it and I had a friend of mine who owned a self-publishing company and she said all you need to do is work with a ghostwriter. So I worked with a ghostwriter to organize my thoughts. And I really did need that to organize my thoughts because I had about 30 different ideas as far as leadership. And they said through the whole process, don't let anybody read your script till you're all the way done. So I filed that to the T. Then I got all the way done and I said, okay, is it okay? If I have, can my wife Michelle read this? And they said, okay, I think we're at a point that she can read that. She read it. And she said this isn't you. And so I took a month and I said I had to think about that and I went back through every chapter and I rewrote the book and what was missing was the faith component. She says what's your faith component in here? And I think it was during COVID.
Speaker 2:I got a little bit scared with all the rioting and it was a turbulent time and I didn't know whether to stick my neck out or not and I was dealing with some things. One of the things that I really that hit me hard during that was our own chamber here in Omaha came out with the CEOs for code and there were 10 checkbox items and they wanted you to check every box, to say that you were going to do these things. And I said hey, look, this diversity, equity and inclusion is not a check box item. You got to figure this out for your for yourself. Yeah, and I'm not checking these boxes because one we're not doing it. Well, we're not. Maybe we're not doing these things, but I'm not promising or doing any of these. I got a lot of pressure from members. I got pressure from the city, but I said I'm not this or doing any of these. I got a lot of pressure from members. I got pressure from the city, but I said I'm not, this is too big. It's not a checkbox item. I'm so glad I never signed that and still to this day I'll never sign those things because those are not checkbox items, and I think that was part of this.
Speaker 2:Leader, look with inside, deep with your values. What do you really value? We're making this stuff so complex and my book is a pretty simple book and leadership is really simple. When we really get down to the basics, it's about respect for one another, and if we have that in our culture, why do we need all these other things? We're going to actually complicate it or make it more complex than it really needs to be, and so that was really one of the things that, as I wrote the book is I want something simple. Maybe somebody who reads this, maybe something will resonate, maybe it doesn't, but that's how you've got to find it in yourself. That's really my whole point of the book is find it for yourself and if you really want it, you can obtain it.
Speaker 1:Team. Let's take a quick break from this episode and I want to share an additional leadership resource with you, and that is one-on-one leadership coaching through McMillian Leadership Coaching. So what do I do? I help leaders discover their purpose, create a long-term growth plan and take inspired action. I believe everything rises and falls on leadership and, regardless of where you are in life, one fact is true you are a leader of others, you are a leader of your family and, most importantly, you are a leader of yourself. To lead others Well, that starts by leading yourself. Well. If you want to learn more, you can go to McMillianianleadershipcoachingcom and schedule a free call today. Back to the episode.
Speaker 1:I love the concept of keeping like a simple book, a simple read, especially nowadays, like with just people's attention spans, I feel that long books that are overly complicated. There's a quote by Brene Brown being clear is being kind, being unclear is being unkind, and I love that, and I always filter everything through my simple infantry brain Keep it simple, stupid, so kiss. Am I communicating this to the clearest possible way that, no matter who reads this book, they can retain this information and then, at the end of the day, go apply it? And and I love the how you brought up, you know diversity, equity and inclusion, because I think that diverse teams are the reason why our army right and our military is so great, because we are a melting pot and there's all these different ways of solving problems, but you can't put a metrics on that and I truly believe that yeah, no, I would say we are more diverse than we've ever been in the history of our company.
Speaker 2:We have every different type of race, religion, nationality, gender. We have it all and we're all respectful. That's what it's all about to me. And you have to build Again. It's hard, but we don't need to complicate it with some checkbox system that says do this 60% here, 40% here.
Speaker 1:That's organic, and so one of my core values you and I share that as respect my top three core values. I call it RID because I'm an acronym mastermind. It's respect, integrity and duty. If I can keep those three things things, no matter where I find myself and whatever leadership role that I'm in, if I continue to embody those three things, I'll always be successful and I'll raise up the level of consciousness of people around me. So I, I love that. Um, I was wondering can you walk me through some other lessons that you found in this book about how to be an effective leader?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the other big themes is self-care. Well, I'll go through the first one. You've got to look deep. You've got to go back we talked a little bit about this See where you are at right now. How did you get to where you are right now and see what shaped you, what sticks now, how did you get to where you are right now and see what shaped you, what sticks, what did you learn from? Maybe there's some stuff buried there that you have to deal with, and I had to deal with a few things there. So you deal with that then self-care I did not. I thought self-care was selfish. I honestly really thought that for a long time. So you have to take care of yourself. You've got to get strong. You have to make it a point.
Speaker 2:For me, it's a daily routine. It turned into a daily routine. I have to get up every single day. I have to get stronger. I have to make sure that I get my 30 to 60 minutes of strength conditioning or cardio conditioning something every single day in order to make sure that I can think at the highest level and bring.
Speaker 2:What I want to do as part of that is, bring my A game every single day to work, because people will see through you. If I come in all flustered or mad or just don't want to talk to anybody, people will see through that and they will see a leader who is not in a good place and soon they are not in a good place too, because they want to be around someone again who's visionary, who they can see, that the company. They have their concerns as well as the company's concerns and they're moving forward. And I have to bring that every single day and I do that again through taking care of myself, eating better from diet, exercise, all those things, because I didn't for a long time In the corporate world I did not take care of myself and I was highly reactive and both at work and at home, and it really has helped me so much when you take care of yourself first, because if you can't take care of yourself first, how can you take care of others. So that's really the lesson there in the book.
Speaker 1:I love that. One of the core tenets that I've kind of thought about is I see leadership in phases and it's a cyclical cycle, but the first pillar stays consistent through every phase and it's self leadership. In order to lead yourself well, lead others well, your family, your community, whatever it is, wherever you find yourself, you have to be clear and present with yourself every single morning, doing the routine things routinely, and I call it RAD. Be routine in your actions, be accountable, set up things that will hold you to that, and then to be disciplined. And if your why is big enough, then it'll demand a response.
Speaker 1:But paying ourselves first is not selfish, and I love how you said that, because it's so true and you shift that paradigm. If I'm spending time for me, I am not being selfish. I am doing it so I can show up in this world as my true, authentic self and be able to tackle the complex problems. Because what I've learned is when you're always reacting. Let's say, you go to bed at 10 o'clock at night and you wake up at 7.30 and you have to be at work at 8.30 in the morning you rush to get breakfast, you rush to get a shower, then you show up at work anxious and stressed, and when someone comes to problems, you're going to be anxious and stressed and irritated with people, versus when I wake up in the morning at four.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do it, I really don't. It's just tough, man, and it doesn't get easier. But I go through the same thing you do of read a book, try to do my prayer every single morning, work out at least an hour and a half every day, and yes, that's tough. But when I'm, when I'm done with those things, I feel absolutely amazing and then I show up to work as my true self with that smile on my face and I'm ready to tackle whatever obstacle comes my way or my team's way. But you have to be OK with that and you also have to find what routines work with you. I'm wondering if there's any advice that you could kind of help shape of when you found your routine. What was that process like?
Speaker 2:It's a good point. Mine was. I learned it through a mastermind, a Sharford mastermind, and it was really I think a lot of it came to. I was journaling but I wasn't doing in a methodical way or like a there was no intention to it, so it really helped me focus. In fact, I have it sitting right here. I have to write an intention for the day. I have to write my top three goals Again, very simple stuff.
Speaker 2:I even have to write what was I uncomfortable with yesterday. I really like that one because it takes the power of yeah, I was really uncomfortable about that and if you write it down, then you can decide do I spend more time on this or do I just let it go? Was it really not that important? But I wrote it down, so I took the power out of it. Top goals, what am I grateful for and where did I win today? I mean, it is just, I have to have that framework. I have to have a book that has those things in it. I try to do it on myself with a blank piece of paper and write it those things every day. I found that's. That's not me. If I have to fill in, if I have to write it down. I answer the questions. It makes it so much easier. I'll go back those things that I was uncomfortable with two or three weeks ago. A lot of them turned into wins, which is amazing to do that.
Speaker 1:That is a phenomenal point. Just to dive in that word uncomfortable. I genuinely believe this. When we put ourselves in situations that force us to be uncomfortable, that's where growth happens. I had the CEO of Mission 6, jason VanCampen, not too long ago he's a retired Green Beret and the concept of deliberate discomfort. When we put ourselves in discomfort, then we are stretching ourselves, but the key is to stretch ourselves within our capacity, because I think a lot of times when we put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation, we stretch ourselves too much and then we just get burnt out. It's doing it within the measure that we can grow to it, but not to the point of where we're going to break, and I love that. Another kind of topic I would like to maybe go through, if you cover it in your book of emotional intelligence, when it applies to leadership how to be a more empathetic leader or potentially even like understanding the emotions of your team members.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, actually people laugh at me now in meetings because, let's say, you walk into a meeting and everybody in the somebody in the meeting says, hey, I think everyone in here deserves a 30% increase in salary. My reactive self would have said what the heck? What's going on here? You know, I would have reacted that way Today. I take a deep breath and they laugh at me. They can actually physically see me taking a deep breath and I'll just say, okay, where's this coming from? What's? What's? What's going on? You know, I take, I take two seconds to control and say, okay, there's some aware. I've built enough awareness to say, okay, there's a reason somebody's asking for this could be that question, it could be something.
Speaker 2:I kind of use the extreme, but it really does help me and people will say, or somebody will say something, they'll see me take a high, they'll see me sigh, or they'll see me take a deep breath because they know I'm pro, I'm a processor, yeah, and they know that processing what's being said and I want to say I want to come, I'm thinking about what I'm going to say, versus getting ready to spew back whatever somebody says and I got a response back for that. I really want to take in and think why. You know what's what's, where's this? I'm trying to do this in two or three seconds. Where is this coming from? Or what's really happening here? Or is this person nine times out of ten? Maybe the person's just not feeling good too. You know, you just, or something happened it personally and it's amazing. I think, and maybe you've, you've.
Speaker 2:I used to believe this was a bunch of hui or fooey, whatever you want to call it. But you can feel the energy in the room and when you walk in, I can definitely see and sit down and say, okay, I'll look at somebody else, say is everything going? Okay? You know how is your know, how is your day going? I try not to be too specific, but you can just tell something's off. And I didn't used to, even I couldn't even fathom thinking that way. So the feeling, the energy in the room is really, it's really big and it really helps direct where that conversation and what that discussion is going to look like and it really sets the tone.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love that and you are spot on that. You can feel the emotions of a room. And I always go back to this one moment in my life because it was crystal clear right before a very large firefight that we got in Afghanistan. You know, when you're in a village, your children are playing, people are attending the chores, their crops, things of that, but right before a firefight kicks off, typically it's like the Wild West All the doors shut and everything goes away. Only the tumbleweeds are out blowing. It's like a stillness overtakes you in the air. What was fresh before now just feels stale, overtakes you in the air. What was fresh before now just feels stale.
Speaker 1:And I think that's true in the business world or in the leadership world too, is that we have to be able to pick up on those emotional whispers with individuals.
Speaker 1:And I think it's being okay to be vulnerable and kind of tapping into that empathetic leadership style of not as sympathetic leadership style, feeling sorry for people, but empathetic, being able to connect to those emotions and being able to help them overcome those emotions. Leadership style is what separates great from extraordinary leaders is their ability to to set up the environment that is conducive for whatever job that they're trying to perform. That emotional intelligence is is awesome, and I love how you develop that tactical patience. I call it kind of like a, a stop, so silence your mind, take a tactical pause, observe your surroundings and then pursue a purpose. I love that concept of like when we find ourselves in a stressful situation just breathe, just take a moment to before you say something that maybe you shouldn't say. And I wish I could go back to my younger self and tell young you know, first, second, lieutenant McMillian to do those things and maybe I wouldn't have gotten in trouble. But yeah, I love that brother.
Speaker 2:I had to write that down because next time somebody asks me, is everything okay? I'm going to say I'm using my tactical patience. Right now I'm going to use that. I'm going to use that term. I love that term because yeah it it is. There is something real to that, absolutely real to it, and I don't think we I don't know about you, but I did not grow up around really great leaders. I don't think in my corporate, corporate world I was around a lot of super reactive people all the time I just didn't know I'd walk into a meeting.
Speaker 2:You just don't know what was going to hit you and I was always on the the defense, as you said earlier. I know it's like, oh, how do I react now to that Goodness?
Speaker 1:still go back to him now of like how much he sacrificed for our family and how great of a man he is today. He is the. I wish that at the end of the day, end of my journey, that I'm half the man that he is, because he is a phenomenal human being and I really mean that. But outside of that, a lot of the coaches that I had and mentors that I had were not the best. One of the mentors I looked up so profoundly quit, you know, coaching our team and went to another county. I didn't really have a role model kind of growing up until I got into the military and then I was surrounded by just truly inspiring leaders. I've had a couple of bad ones, a couple of average ones, but the majority of them were all great leaders and I think that's with any, with any organization. But before we kind of transition to you know where you're, where you're wanting to go, is there any other thing within your book that you would want to share?
Speaker 2:No, I think the last part I would probably add is waking up with a heart of gratitude. You know, every day I wake up with I can take my breath, I have to be. I am so blessed to be in the place I am today, with everything going on. Family is taking care of, you know this. My dad's still living. He's taking, his needs are being taken care of. But I just think I go through my whole list of family and friends and and life in general and just say, yeah, you know, it's a good day to be alive, and it's it's a good day. I'm so grateful for everything that's been given to me. It's, you know, let's take this and move it forward.
Speaker 1:I love that man. And again it goes back to the whole quote Matthew, chapter five, 13 through 16, talking about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And you are doing those two things you are the salt and you are the light and you're continuing to bring it into not only your business but into this world. So thank you for that to this world. So thank you for that so kind of moving forward. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to continue to grow?
Speaker 2:with purpose. Well, I want to build on my father's legacy. That's huge for me. It's kind of funny you would bring this up At 58, I have to. Really. I think about my father and he really.
Speaker 2:The term succession plan really was just not. It brought just a lot of triggers to him. I think on that side, and as well as it did for me, I didn't even want to think about that, but I'm at a point now you know I need to think about that to your point. What's the next five, 10 years look like as a vision? And I actually I get excited now to think about that, because I think employees get very excited if they know in the next five to 10 years, this is where the company's going. That's an exciting thing. This is what we want to strive for and drive to, because I have no plans of selling the business. I wanted to keep it in the family as long as we can. There's always going to be challenges, but if you keep true to the vision, you'll find a way to make it work.
Speaker 2:I think the benefits was a good reminder for me. Hey, we have rich benefits, let's keep them. Let's not throw in the towel. The world tells us to throw in the towel. Costs are out of hand. You just got to turn it over to the employees. No, let's find a way. There's got to be something here. We can keep this benefits package in place and keep our true benefits, because that's the core of who we are. Why would we throw that away, based on what's happening today in the world? So I really like the future, the five to 10 years.
Speaker 2:I could see myself writing another book. In the first book I left out family on purpose because I didn't know how it was going to really come to be it. But family is so important. So my next book, absolutely leadership. Family is a part of your who you are as a leader. So I will write another book, um, and build on the key concepts that I have here and, um, I'm just starting to kind of put the outline together for that as well I think you're absolutely spot on is that family is one of those pillars within leadership or growth of wherever we are, cause everyone has a family, we all.
Speaker 1:There are people in our lives who love us. Maybe it's not like the, the normal definition of a family of where you know I'm married and I have two beautiful children. Maybe it's not that, but you have a family. We all have a family who loves us, and that inspires me is that you're continuing to grow. You have that thirst for knowledge, just to be a better version of yourself, and I would love, right before we get to the last show segment, what advice would you give someone who is just getting ready to start and their leadership role.
Speaker 2:Really, I really try to find out who you are and what you value. I know it sounds really simple, but it does take some work and sometimes, like me, you'll learn I had to get some. I needed help there. I remember sitting with another person for three hours trying to define my why and I couldn't do it in three hours because I had a person willing to challenge me enough to really tell you is that really your why, is that really what you're here? And after that three-hour session I really worked hard to figure out, and I worked with a coach to figure out what's deep inside. What do you truly value the most?
Speaker 2:And then, bring it, because when you can live it, you know it and then you can live it. That's your true self, that's who you are as a leader.
Speaker 1:I love that, brother. That's spot on advice. It's time for our final show segment that I like to call the killer bees. These are the same four questions that I ask every guest on the Tales of Leadership podcast Be brief, be brilliant, be present and be gone. Question one what do you believe separates a good leader from a great leader?
Speaker 2:What's in their heart, Absolutely what's in their heart. If they're too much of the mind stuff they're going to rationalize, they're going to change. It'll be different day to day, but what's in your heart usually stays true. You stay true to what's in your heart.
Speaker 1:I love that, All right. Question two what is one resource that you could recommend to our listeners?
Speaker 2:One resource gosh. There's several resources out there. I used to not be a big believer in these personality tests and things like that. Your strengths start somewhere. Start finding out, start identifying who you think you are. You may not agree with it at first, but at least you'll have some information, some data. I'm a data person too. You'll have some data that you can start to build off of and it'll give you the the tools there to build from. So meet with somebody, find out, even if it's myers-briggs, maybe it's gallup strengths. Gallup strengths is when you can do at your house. You can do it online yourself.
Speaker 1:Just find out what your strengths are spot on um, and I use that within myself, but also in the teams that I lead you can probably guess my yeah, my number one is belief for strength. So I mean absolutely so mine is um competition. Anything that I do, I always like strive to be the best at. That's a downfall and a strength at the same time, uh. So question three if you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Speaker 2:My younger self. This one's hard for me because I don't like to go back in history. But my younger self, just continue to learn and grow on the journey, continue to look forward. That's what I would tell my younger self. Don't get stuck. It's too easy to get stuck for a long time. I'm sure I was stuck for a long time in certain periods of my life. Get out, go, got to keep going the next day. Today you got to live for today and into the future. So be in the present and look to the future.
Speaker 1:I love that, brother. Last question how can anyone who listens to this episode if they want to reach out to you or add value to you or even find your book, how can they do that?
Speaker 2:yeah, uh, on linkedin, absolutely, you can find me. Ceo of your heartcom is my website right now. And, um, if you, if you want my book, probably easiest way go to Amazon and just search for my name. There's not too many Brent Pullmans out there on Amazon, so you'll find it right away. But, joshua, no thanks. Thank you again for letting me be on your show today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brent, it's been an honor and a privilege. I know it's taken a while to actually make this happen and I'm glad that it did. You are a phenomenal leader. Like I said before, you're the salt and the light. Continue to inspire and I continue to love watching you every single day on LinkedIn. Post your inspirational videos. Thank you so much. Have a good day, brother.
Speaker 1:All right team is time for our after action review Phenomenal episode, and I genuinely mean this. All right team. It is time for our After Action Review phenomenal episode, and I genuinely mean this. I am honored to have some of the greatest leaders that this nation has on this podcast and just pull from their collective wisdom. But I'm at a point now within my leadership journey that everything that inspiring leaders do is relatively the same, and I'm starting to learn that everything that I'm going to be sharing and after action reviews are relatively the same at the most point, or I've already shared them throughout the 98 episodes that I've been able to record up to this date but nonetheless still important, still resonates, and the difference is the stories of every leader that I have on.
Speaker 1:So the first key takeaway that I have is take care of your people. This is universal with anyone that I've ever had on, but it's so true. If you are the CEO or you're a founder or you run your own small business, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is your people. And there's a quote from Rob Bailey, the artist Dana Lynn Bailey's husband, I think it's in the Hustle Standard, his album show up and give a damn about people and everything will take care of itself. And that's relatively the quote. Don't say verbatim, but that's the whole purpose of it Take care of your people. If you want to grow your company, your people have to be taken care of and understand it's not about the systems, it's about the people. If you can take care of your people and understand that a system is a system of systems, meaning that your people are at the core and everything that are around them should enhance them, help them and make them a better version of themselves, then you will succeed. But also remember that as you grow in authority, title, influence you're going to be naturally pulled away from your people. And Brett is a CEO of a highly successful company. He makes a point, with over 300 employees, to try and learn their first name. That's absolutely inspiring and you, wherever you lead from need to take that as a lesson so you can implement it in your life. So, number one key takeaway take care of your people. The number two key takeaway that I've learned is to surround yourself with people who will stretch you and push you outside of your comfort zone, and Brent modeled that way with some of the additional groups that he was part of. He's been part of a mastermind group and he puts people in his life that are going to help him grow and be a better version, and I do the exact same thing.
Speaker 1:I have three gentlemen that I meet every two weeks with that we're focused on. We call ourselves shields of freedom, of trying to purposely grow towards one thing in life, and that is freedom, with seven key categories that we are basing that upon. We meet and we push ourselves. We set goals that are smart, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based, but then we add another S to it. S is share it. We share it with each other and, as a result, we're creating a community that holds each other accountable, and it's absolutely essential.
Speaker 1:If you want to gain momentum in life, you have to surround yourself with people who are going to push you outside your comfort zone, because there's going to be things, there's going to be times of where you just won't, don't want to do it. And me, being a father, if I can be vulnerable for a second I understand that and I have a deep level of discipline and fortitude that probably most people don't have. I call it stubbornness. I'm very stubborn. I want to be the best version of myself. So my son and my daughter can see what it means to be disciplined, what it means to sacrifice. So this morning, right, I went on a run in my body armor. I could have went on just a run without body armor, but it was also snowing, they were out playing and I've been doing cold therapy. So you know what I'm going to challenge myself. I'm going to go do a two and a half mile run in my body armor that weighs 16 pounds, and I'm going to do it in a tank top. Why? Because I've been practicing cold therapy and I want to see if I can do it. I want to challenge myself, plus some of my neighbors I just wanted to make sure they knew, right, I'm joking, but that's part of it.
Speaker 1:Surround yourself with people that are going to push you to that next level, because remember this wherever you are in life, the people that you surround yourself with. Let's say that this is the standard that you're trying to achieve. You're here. If everyone is at that standard, you will naturally rise to that standard. But if you're here, the standard's here and everyone else is here, you're only going to rise to the level of the people around you. So find people in your life that are going to take you to the standard or exceed that standard, because that's what we need to be extraordinary. And the last key takeaway is take a deep look inside ourselves and understand that self-care is not selfish and I talk about this all the time, but I genuinely believe it.
Speaker 1:And there is a movement that I've been a part of for a very long time, as long as I can remember, and it's called A Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. Essentially, what it means is that wake up every morning with confidence and with purpose. Every morning I wake up between four, sometimes to 445. I get myself from grace, but the purpose is I try to have a cup of coffee, sit in silence, to focus, to have some affirmations which really is prayer for me, to read, to journal, to go exercise for at least an hour and a half every single day before I show up to work. But I also, at the end of the day, try to journal at least 15 to 30 minutes. And here's a little bonus it's called the rule of 100%. If you spend 18 minutes every single day for a whole year, you'll have completed a hundred hours towards growing at that one thing. At the end of that year you will be statistically in the 95th percentile at that one thing. That's self-development and leadership for me. That's my one thing. I spent at least 18 minutes a day, preferably an hour, between reading and journaling to grow into that.
Speaker 1:But most people would say how do you do that? That's selfish. You're a father, you're in the military. How do you dedicate an hour a day? I do it on my time. My kids are asleep. I do it on my time. I do it in the morning. I do it on my time why? Because my why is big enough. I want to end toxic leadership. Why is big enough? I want to end toxic leadership. I want to show you that you can inspire other people. You can create a culture of trust and excellence by being your true, authentic self, that you can place people over profits and give a damn, and you can still be successful. My why is big enough that it demands a response that I put myself outside of my comfort zone and Brent wholeheartedly embodied all of those things. All right, team, do me a favor If you'd like the content that I am putting out three things.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you for three things.
Speaker 1:Number one, share this podcast episode. Number two, rate it Wherever you listen to this podcast. If it's on buzzsprout to Apple, it doesn't matter, you can find it anywhere. Make sure you're leaving me a comment, if you can, and rate it as. Additionally, you can go to McMillian leadership coachingcom and look at some of the additional blog articles to include this episode. I'll create a blog article for so you can go get additional resources because, at the end of the day, I want to arm and equip you with as much knowledge as possible to go tackle this world and be the best leader that you can. And number three, support the channel. You can do that by going to talesofleadershipcom or go to McMillian Leadership Coaching and find one of the podcast episodes there and find a way to support it. But everything that I make goes back into producing this podcast and eventually I want to create a nonprofit organization and donate all of it away to veteran causes. As always, team, I'm your host, josh McMillian, saying every day is a gift. Don't waste yours. I'll see you next time.
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