166: JD Hilzendager: "Building a Business is More About How You Think Than What You Think"

166: JD Hilzendager: "Building a Business is More About How You Think Than What You Think"

This conversation with JD Hilzendager, COO of ViaOne, is a masterclass in how to think, not what to think when it comes to building businesses. JD breaks down how his team evaluates opportunities across industries, why culture is their true operating system, and how empowering people to challenge decisions leads to better outcomes. From saying “no” to AT&T deals to building companies around passionate operators, this episode explores the intersection of decision-making, culture design, and long-term thinking—all grounded in real-world execution.  👤 About the Guest JD Hilzendager is the COO of ViaOne Services, a private equity-backed organization operating across telecom, healthcare, and multiple verticals. He’s spent over a decade building a system that allows teams to launch, acquire, and scale companies by pairing strong operators with world-class infrastructure and culture.  🧭 Conversation Highlights Building Businesses Without Industry Experience * The “beach ball” analogy: the product doesn’t matter—systems and people do * Focus on core business functions (marketing, ops, finance) over niche expertise  * Pair passionate operators with a strong internal machine  Opportunity Selection & Decision-Making * "Just start” → action creates data, and data informs direction  * Avoid falling in love with the product—stay loyal to outcomes, not ideas * Think in 5–10 year horizons, not short-term wins  The Power of Saying No * Turned down AT&T multiple times due to execution risk  * Refused to let sunk cost drive decisions  * Built a culture where anyone can stop a deal Culture as a System, Not a Slogan * Culture = “common tongue” for how the company operates  * Grounded in frameworks like The 7 Habits and The Four Agreements * Reinforced consistently over years—not a one-time initiative  Team Design & Human Dynamics * Uses tools like Culture Index to map personalities and roles  * Avoids stacking similar personalities (“you can’t have multiple pistons”)  * Designs teams intentionally for complementary strengths 💡 Key Takeaways * Execution confidence > opportunity excitement * The best deals are the ones you can actually deliver on * Culture is built through repetition, not intention * Great teams are engineered, not assembled * Empowered people create better decisions than top-down control ❓ Questions That Mattered *  How do you evaluate an opportunity in an industry you don’t understand?  *  What allows a company to confidently say “no” to massive deals?  *  How do you build a culture where people challenge decisions safely?  *  What’s the balance between speed and diligence in decision-making?  *  How do you design teams that don’t implode under pressure?  🗣️ Notable Quotes *  “It doesn’t matter what the widget is—it matters if you have the right people.”  *  “You don’t have to do the deal.”  *  “I’d rather do no deal than a deal I can’t execute.”  *  “Try to be the dumbest guy in the room.”  *  “You can’t have two people who both want to be pistons.”  *  “Culture is the common tongue of how we operate.”  🔗 Links & Resources * Check out ViaOne Services' Website: viaoneservices.com [https://viaoneservices.com/] * Follow JD on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdhilzendager/]

165: "What Caused AI to Skyrocket in 2026?" ft. Justin Coats

Erik and Justin dig into what it actually means for AI to “become real,” arguing that consumer usage does not equal workplace adoption. The conversation lands on a “pause moment” where organizations are finally forced to address governance, security, policy, and measurement because the tools are now powerful enough to create real operational risk and real operational leverage. 🧭 Conversation Highlights * Justin distinguishes massive user counts from meaningful adoption, emphasizing that most people use AI on free tiers or inside existing apps without realizing it is AI. * Both agree the real shift is B2B and workplace implementation, where adoption breaks down into training, governance, governance-adjacent policy, and data access safeguards. * They compare possible “adoption metrics” like tokens per user versus prompts per week, and weigh what better reflects ongoing, valuable use. * Justin describes where the governance battles are emerging now: permissions, agent access patterns, AI clauses in contracts, and how to build an internal org chart that can manage AI agents like a new 💡 Key Takeaways * “AI is real” is not the same thing as “AI is widely used.” Real adoption shows up when an organization can safely incorporate it into workflows and data boundaries. * The pause is partly rational: once AI is embedded, the limiting factor becomes governance, not novelty or access. * Token usage is a tempting metric, but it can reward inefficiency and does not necessarily correlate with value, especially in consumer scenarios. * The biggest operational bottleneck is org-wide alignment: you can token-max development, but ROI still collapses if the rest of the company cannot keep up. ❓ Questions That Mattered * How do we differentiate early adoption by curious consumers from sustained, workplace-relevant adoption inside organizations? * Which measurement is most honest: tokens per user, prompts per week, time-in-platform, or something else that reflects real value over time? * What does “success” even mean after the novelty phase, when policy, governance, security, and data access are now the gating factors? * Are there governance solutions that can unlock cross-silo collaboration without creating new unacceptable risk? 🗣️ Notable Quotes * “99 % of those 1.3 billion individuals that are using AI currently are just using AI through a free feature, a free account.” * “it’s more than just buy a license and tell people to use it.” * “we’re kind of in this pause moment where organizations, leaders, boards, managers, directors, employees are all identifying, holy cow, okay, the tool's really powerful.” * “You’re as fast as your slowest team.” 🔗 Links & Resources * Listen To Other Episodes Co-Hosted With Justin [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://podcast.languageofleadership.io/categories/i-have-some-ai-questions-with-justin-coats/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1778615049613580&usg=AOvVaw19zB6Lsim10BCSd6xUK0OK]

164: "How Do You Engineer Your Exit Without Burning Bridges?" ft. Alli Murphy

Erik and Alli talk through what “leaving well” really means, especially when the timing is fixed, the relationship matters, and the environment is imperfect. They focus on practical decisions: defining success for yourself, preparing the team and successor, handling notice thoughtfully, and telling truthful information without burning bridges or poisoning long-term career relationships. 🧭 Conversation Highlights * Alli starts with definition: leaving well depends on the person. She encourages imagining your last day and asking what you want to be able to say you did and how you showed up during the transition. * They get specific about the mechanics of leaving well: decide when and how to give notice, avoid doing gratuitous extra work that comes from guilt, and set teams, clients, and the successor up for the * A key tension: candor vs. loyalty, especially in toxic or leadership-broken contexts. They discuss how much to say, what to hold back, and how conversations change once you are no longer the person’s“ * They trade lived examples of preparation and boundary-setting: role-playing the notice conversation, documenting what only lives in your head, and thinking carefully about what feedback is useful vs. 💡 Key Takeaways * Before you plan your exit, clarify what “success” means to you, not to a generic standard. * Leaving well is largely about reducing the pain you create: make sure decisions, context, and knowledge are transferable so people are not stranded after you’re gone. * When you’re unhappy, it is tempting to “tell the whole truth.” The more helpful frame is: what will actually serve the people still doing the job, and what will just satisfy your need to vent or be “w * Your prep time matters. For leaders especially, the work is often more about architecture, documentation, delegation clarity, and scenario planning than just picking a notice date. ❓ Questions That Mattered * If you had already walked away and your last day was over, what do you want to be able to say you did and how did you show up during that period? * What needs to happen so your team, clients, and successor can succeed once you’re no longer there? * If your workplace is toxic or leadership is failing, what is the difference between protecting your people with truthful information and harming relationships or misusing truth? * How much intentional thinking and planning should a responsible leader do, once they know they are leaving, and what should that planning be made of? 🗣️ Notable Quotes * “What does leaving well mean to you? Not to some Forbes article or whatever, but what does it mean to you?” * “They can't fire you for not doing the damn thing.” * “Careers are long. And the opportunity for what's true today about an organization to not be fully true today, let alone be even partially true in three weeks, three, you know, three months, three” * “Why did you do that? Is it your job to tell him anyway? Or if he's not asking for it, is he not going to listen?” 🔗 Links & Resources * Listen To Other Episodes Co-Hosted With Alli [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://podcast.languageofleadership.io/categories/leadership-talks-with-alli-murphy/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1778773607728159&usg=AOvVaw0s3aCUcr-wULSaOADNJhO_]

163: "You Are the Weather on Every Room You Enter" (reflections on Lisa Even)

🧠 Erik’s Take Erik reflects on his conversation with Lisa Even through a practical lens: the ripple effect isn’t a philosophy—it’s a responsibility. What stood out most wasn’t just the idea that every action creates a ripple—it’s that leaders need a way to operationalize that awareness in real time, especially when things get hard. The insight that hit: leadership isn’t about defaulting to positivity—it’s about choosing the right response for the moment. That requires awareness, intention, and the ability to pause long enough to decide how to show up.  🎯 Top Insights from the Interview * You are the “weather” in every room you enter. Leadership starts with recognizing the emotional environment—and deciding what the moment needs.  * Positive doesn’t always mean effective. Blind optimism can erode trust. Sometimes leadership requires matching or redirecting intensity.  * Values aren’t powerful until they’re activated. Identifying team values is step one—honoring them publicly is what creates trust and connection.  * Small actions create compounding ripple effects. A single behavior change (like starting meetings with humor) can shift team dynamics in unexpected ways.  * Culture is just “what’s normal”. If you want to change culture, you have to identify and challenge the everyday behaviors people accept.  🧩 The Personal Layer Erik connects deeply with the tension many leaders feel: You look at your organization—big, complex, slow-moving—and think, “There’s no way I can change this.” But the realization here is grounding: you’re not responsible for changing everything—you’re responsible for your next interaction. That shift removes overwhelm and replaces it with agency. It reframes leadership from a massive, abstract responsibility into something immediate and actionable: * How did you show up in that meeting?  * What did you reinforce as “normal”?  * What ripple did you create in that moment?  🧰 From Insight to Action * Run the “weather check” before key interactions. Ask: What’s the environment I’m walking into—and what does it actually need? * Audit your team’s “normal”. Identify the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that define your culture today.  * Start with one small friction point. Don’t try to fix everything—solve one visible issue (like the “Starbucks problem”) and build momentum.  * Make values visible and actionable. Don’t just talk about them—design moments where people can live them.  * Measure your day by your ripple effect. Not tasks completed—but how people experienced you.  🗣️ Notable Quotes * “In every interaction, you’re creating a ripple—positive, neutral, or negative.”  * “It’s not about always bringing sunshine—sometimes the moment needs something else.”  * “Leadership is moving people in a direction they wouldn’t have gone otherwise.”  * “Culture is just all the ways of being—attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs.”  * “Start small. That first win creates momentum for the next.”  🔗 Links & Resources * Listen to Lisa Even's Episode [https://podcast.languageofleadership.io/158-lisa-even-what-kind-of-ripple-effect-are-you-creating-as-a-leader]

162: Lisa Even: "What Kind of Ripple Effect Are You Creating as a Leader?"

In this conversation, Erik sits down with leadership coach and keynote speaker Lisa Even to unpack one deceptively simple idea: everything you do creates a ripple. From the way leaders show up emotionally to how they engage and adapt culture in real time, Lisa breaks down leadership into something far more actionable—and far more personal—than most frameworks. This episode blends practical tactics with powerful metaphors (weather, energy, waves) and real-world stories that show how culture isn’t built in strategy decks—it’s built in moments. 👤 About the Guest Lisa Even is a keynote speaker, bestselling author, and leadership coach who helps organizations create what she calls a “good ripple effect.” With a background in healthcare operations and team leadership, she now works with organizations like ESPN, SHRM, and Disney, helping leaders: * Build trust quickly  * Show up with intentional presence  * Shape stronger, more human-centered cultures  She’s also the host of the Have a Good Ripple Effect podcast. 🧭 Conversation Highlights * The origin of “good ripple effect” and why it stuck  * Why leadership is less about big vision—and more about moment-to-moment behavior * The “weather analogy” that reframes how leaders show up  * How to manage energy like a finite resource (the $50 energy metaphor)  * Why self-awareness collapses under pressure—and how to rebuild it * The power of identifying and activating individual values on your team * Lisa’s SEA framework: Show up → Engage → Adapt  * Why culture is just “all the ways of being” (and how to actually change it)  💡 Key Takeaways * Leadership is built in micro-moments, not macro-intentions. It’s not about being a “positive force”—it’s about how you show up right now. * You bring “weather” into every room. Your energy shapes the environment whether you’re intentional about it or not.  * Energy is a currency—spend it wisely. Leaders who manage where their energy goes create better outcomes (and avoid burnout).  * Values are visible—if you know how to listen. What people talk about (and complain about) reveals what matters most to them.  ❓ Questions That Mattered * What’s the difference between “being positive” and creating a ripple effect?  * How do you maintain intentional leadership in chaotic environments?  * What does good leadership look like beyond emotion—into execution?  * How do you actually activate someone’s values, not just identify them?  * How can leaders change culture when they don’t control the whole system?  🗣️ Notable Quotes * “Everything we say and do is a ripple—happy or crappy, our choice.”  * “When you enter a room, you’re bringing weather with you.”  * “You can’t use all your energy every day—you have to decide where it goes.”  * “People wear their values on their forehead—you just have to listen.”  * “Start small. Why are you trying to boil the ocean?”  * “Culture is all the ways of being—do we like them or not?”  🔗 Links & Resources * Check out Lisa's Website: lisaeven.com [https://lisaeven.com/] * Follow Lisa on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-even-have-good-ripple-effect-0778b112] * Subscribe to Lisa's Newsletter on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/have-good-ripple-effect-7281008406486781953/] * Subscribe to Lisa's Podcast: Have Good Ripple Effect [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/have-good-ripple-effect/id1737506915]