Servant Leader or Selfish Leader? Coca-Cola’s Culture Secret featuring Mark Whitacre

Servant Leader or Selfish Leader? Coca-Cola’s Culture Secret featuring Mark Whitacre

Who leads, what changes, where does culture show up, when does transformation begin, and why do employees stay when a 17,000-person company chooses servant leadership over selfish leadership? In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Darrell Amy and Larry Levine sit down with Mark Whitacer, Vice President of Culture and Care at Coca-Cola Consolidated and Executive Director of the TFactor Initiative. Mark reveals how Coca-Cola Consolidated is working toward an ambitious vision: developing more than 17,000 servant leaders across every level of the organization—from senior executives to frontline teammates and forklift drivers. At the heart of this mission is a simple but challenging leadership question: Are you serving the people around you, or are you primarily serving yourself? Mark walks through the company’s LEADS leadership model: * Listen at a deeper level * Show genuine Empathy * Advocate for your employees * Develop the people around you * Practice Self-reflection and prayer He also explains how Coca-Cola Consolidated turns its values into visible action through employee chaplains and care partners, a teammate benevolence fund, disaster-response teams, leadership development, servant-leader awards, and community volunteerism. These initiatives have helped create a culture where employees feel known, supported, and valued. While many people initially join the organization because of the Coca-Cola brand, Mark says the culture is what inspires them to stay. The conversation also explores the TFactor Initiative, which shares Coca-Cola Consolidated’s culture-building principles with leaders and organizations around the world. Mark explains how companies can begin transforming their workplaces by shifting from “What’s in it for me?” to “What’s in it for the people around me?” This episode challenges every leader to take an honest look in the mirror and decide what kind of leadership legacy they want to create. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Every leader is either serving others or serving themselves. Servant leadership begins when leaders place the needs, development, and success of others ahead of personal recognition. * Culture must be translated into repeatable behaviors. Coca-Cola Consolidated’s LEADS model gives leaders a practical framework for listening, demonstrating empathy, advocating for employees, developing others, and reflecting on their performance. * Employees stay where they feel genuinely cared for. Benevolence funds, chaplains, care partners, disaster-response teams, and supportive leadership demonstrate that employee care must extend beyond words. * Service becomes contagious. When employees experience meaningful care inside the workplace, they are more likely to serve their teammates, customers, and surrounding communities. * Organizational transformation starts with personal transformation. Leaders change culture by moving from “What’s in it for me?” to “What’s in it for others around me?” QUOTES * “If you're not a servant leader, you're, you're a selfish leader.” * “We should be listening more than we're talking.” * “The more you serve, the more the others around you start to serve.” * “Culture trumps everything.” * “When you go from what's in it for me, when you go to what's in it for others around you, that's transformation.” Learn more about Darrell and Larry. Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/] Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/] Connect and learn more from Mark Whitacre. https://faithdrivenentrepreneur.org/mark-whitacre/ [https://faithdrivenentrepreneur.org/mark-whitacre/] Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING. https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring [https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring] Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now! https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture [https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture] Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople. https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/ [https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/]

Overcoming Business Challenges with AI featuring Nick Damoulakis

In this episode of Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Darrell Amy and Larry Levine are joined by Nick Damoulakis, CEO of Orases, about “culture from the heart” as shared passion, values, behaviors, and norms modeled from the top and lived daily. Nick describes his evolution from a toxic, whip-driven young leader to defining non-negotiables and company values through the DRIVE acronym: demonstrate thoughtful communication, rise to the occasion, integrity all the time, value to the client, and excel at your craft. He explains how culture enabled Orases to adopt AI early (starting with ChatGPT in late 2022), encouraging employees to fail often, fast, and cheap while leaders supported learning.  Nick outlines Orases’s AI journey: fluency, data context and readiness, governance, organizational and change management, reskilling for conflict and judgment, avoiding “AI slop,” measuring ROI, shifting business models, tool/LLM consolidation, and committing to Anthropic, with benefits now emerging and a key turning point when employees proudly showed what they built. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Great culture starts with self-awareness — before you can lead others, you must know your own values and non-negotiables * Culture is a living organism, not a wall poster; it's built through daily behaviors, language, and how leaders react under pressure * The DRIVE framework (Demonstrate thoughtful communication, Rise to the occasion, Integrity always, Value to the client, Excel at your craft) gives a team shared language and purpose * AI adoption is not a technology problem — it's a people and culture problem; fear, sabotage, and confusion are the real barriers * The AI adoption journey follows predictable stages: fluency → data readiness → governance → change management → organization redesign → consolidation → ROI * You can't have AI transformation without organizational transformation * "Fail often, fail fast, fail cheap" — psychological safety is the fuel for innovation * Leaders must help people cross the "valley of death" quickly when jumping to a new S-curve, or risk losing their trust * What used to take 3 years of AI adoption can now be compressed into 3–6 months QUOTES * "Culture from the heart is not something you can just say — it's something you show and feel." * "I led with a whip, not through the heart. I didn't know myself. I didn't know my own values." * "Some CEOs have to go through that journey where they're like, 'I'm the problem.'" * "It's a living organism. You're constantly tested, and the decisions you make — how you react to certain situations — that is the true culture from the heart." * "Integrity shouldn't even be on the list. It should just be a non-negotiable." * "Fail often. Fail fast. Fail cheap." * "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." (on AI slop) * "You can't have AI transformation without organization transformation." * "As soon as they said, 'Look what I built,' and had a smile on their face — we just hit it." * "AI needs context. At the end of the day, it needs context." Learn more about Darrell and Larry. Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/] Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/] Connect and learn more from Nick Damoulakis. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdamoulakis/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdamoulakis/] Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING. https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring [https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring] Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now! https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture [https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture] Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople. https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/ [https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/]

Culture, Purpose, and Leading From the Heart featuring Omid Khalifeh

In this episode of Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Darrell Amy and Larry Levine are joined by Omid Khalifeh, founder and CEO of Omni Legal Group — a premier patent, trademark, and copyright law firm in Los Angeles — to explore building a purpose-driven, heart-centered culture inside an industry known for the opposite. Khalifeh frames leading with purpose as coming in each day to leave the world slightly better than you found it, and explains how the firm ascribes meaning to its work by connecting directly with the smaller, closely held clients it serves.  He describes how personal values — family, faith, and integrity — are intertwined with the firm’s values from the top down, and shares the firm’s signature practice of having young attorneys hand-deliver every cease and desist letter to the post office, a ritual designed to keep them mindful that their words carry real-world consequences for real people, not faceless entities. Khalifeh discusses sustaining a family-community environment, the discipline of protecting the boundaries you set as overhead and pressure mount, the permanent “stain” a compromised decision leaves behind, and the resilience and faith required when the tide gets rough. He closes on legacy — wanting above all to be remembered as a good dad — with a charge to plant seeds whose shade you may never sit under, and to never hesitate to lead from your heart. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Leading with purpose means showing up each day to leave the world slightly better than you found it. * Meaning starts with connection — you can’t advocate for clients until you understand what they’re trying to achieve. * Values flow from the top down; you can’t expect of your team what you aren’t willing to live yourself. * Personal values and company values should be intertwined, not separate sets of words on a wall. * Words carry downstream consequences — hand-delivering every cease and desist letter keeps attorneys mindful they’re affecting real people, not faceless entities. * A family-community culture means knowing how your people are doing at home, not just at work. * As an organization grows, pressure to compromise grows — protect the boundaries you set at the outset. * Fame, money, and possessions are fleeting; the stain of a bad decision is permanent and hard to scrub off. * Be resilient and keep faith — when one door closes, another opens; lead with your principles. * Legacy is about the next generation — plant seeds whose shade you may never sit under. QUOTES * “We come in here every day with an objective to leave the world slightly better than how it was when we entered it.” * “The first step is always that connection, because if you don’t understand what it is that they’re trying to achieve, it’s that much more difficult to try to advocate for them.” * “We can’t expect it of our team if we don’t have those values ourselves. So you have to practice what you preach.” * “These are not faceless entities. These are real people, and there will be consequences for the work that we’re doing here. So never lose sight of that.” * “Always bear in mind that you wanna lead from a place where your values are not compromised.” * “The stain that a bad decision will leave on you permanently is something that’s not easy to scrub off.” * “When one door closes, another one will surely open. Have faith and then push forward, keeping your values front of mind always.” * “Plant seeds whose shade you may never sit under.” * “Don’t hesitate to lead from your heart.” Learn more about Darrell and Larry. Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/] Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/] Connect and learn more from Omid Khalifeh. https://www.linkedin.com/in/omni-legal-group-030aa046/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/omni-legal-group-030aa046/] Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING. https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring [https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring] Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now! https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture [https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture] Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople. https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/ [https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/]

Culture, Discipline, and Leading Through Tension featuring Brian Gottlieb

In this episode of Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Brian Gottlieb, former CEO of several home improvement companies and author of Beyond the Hammer, about building high-performance, heart-centered business cultures. Gottlieb contrasts unconditional love at home with business as a team, where leaders must “prune the bush” because culture is shaped by the lowest acceptable behavior. He discusses balancing people and results through clarity and authenticity, including KPIs as a right for employees, while avoiding overly transactional leadership by focusing on how results are achieved. He describes leadership as honoring the “rubber band” tension between today’s unfiltered truth and future targets, aligning people around roles and vision, and using discipline to drive profit and consistency. He distinguishes technical fixes from adaptive mindset problems, explains culture as how people think, feel, and behave, and outlines his book’s fable-plus-action format, emphasizing leaders’ “echo,” presence, and transferable belief. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Culture is shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior — caring for your team means pruning when necessary * It's not either/or between people and results — great leaders pursue both simultaneously * KPIs aren't punitive; people have a right to know how their performance is measured * Chaos produces revenue; discipline produces profit * Leaders must distinguish between technical problems (fix the process) and adaptive problems (fix the thinking) * Tension between where you are and where you're going is healthy — honor it, don't eliminate it * Belief is transferable — your belief in someone can outpace their belief in themselves * Culture = how people think, feel, and behave; it's driven by how a company hires, fires, promotes, and compensates * An aligned, purpose-driven team can win in any market regardless of external headwinds QUOTES * "Culture is shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior." * "Chaos might produce revenue, but it's gonna take discipline to produce profit." * "It's more important to know the company we're becoming versus the amount of sales that we have." * "We have to honor that tension — that's where growth comes from." * "I didn't build my businesses. I built great teams that built great businesses." * "Discipline is doing the right things, for the right reasons, even when you don't want to." * "Belief is transferable — the belief I had in my son was stronger than what he had in himself, and it transferred to him." * "Culture mindset in business — that's the whole ballgame."Learn more about Darrell and Larry. Darrell's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/] Larry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/] Connect and learn more from Brian Gottlieb. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-gottlieb-bb66094/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-gottlieb-bb66094/] Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING. https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring [https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring] Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now! https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture [https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture] Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople. https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/ [https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/]

Empathy as Leadership Tool featuring Marina Ivanov

In this episode of Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Marina Ivanov, CEO and co-founder of Apex Transit and Logistics. Marina explains leading from the heart as leading from one’s true self, shaped by witnessing both good and bad leadership, and emphasizes empathy as understanding others’ complex situations through curiosity while maintaining boundaries. Describing Apex’s culture, she highlights respect—especially for drivers—and ownership, aiming to change industry bias and create a safe, non-aggressive workplace through clear communication standards and accountability that build credibility. Marina also discusses intuition as a learnable muscle guiding hiring and culture decisions, sharing her growth in confidence as a young woman in a male-dominated industry and the importance of inner work, compassion, and not taking things personally. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Leading from the heart means leading from your authentic self — not following a script or policy, but genuinely understanding the human in front of you. * Empathy is a superpower, not a weakness — when properly harnessed with boundaries, it becomes a magnetic leadership quality that builds deep loyalty. * Respect is the foundation of culture — especially in industries where frontline workers (like truck drivers) are often overlooked or undervalued. * Intuition is a muscle — the more leaders listen to their gut, the stronger and more trustworthy it becomes in hiring, culture, and decision-making. * Credibility is built 360° — it's not just what you say to people's faces, but who you are when no one's watching. * Inner work fuels outer leadership — overcoming limiting beliefs about yourself directly impacts how your team and company show up. * When you pour into others, they pour back — a culture of genuine care creates teams that go above and beyond, even in crisis. * One person can create a ripple — cultural change starts with a single committed leader modeling the behavior they want to see. QUOTES * "Leading from the heart is finding out who you are authentically and then leading from that space." — Marina Ivanov * "It's never gonna be black and white. The heart means you understand the human standing in front of you." * "Empathy to me is leading with curiosity — I know there's more, so I'm curious." * "You can't fake energy. If you show up to them with disrespect, even if your words say one thing, your energy will say something different." * "Intuition is a muscle. The more we listen to it, the stronger it becomes." * "You don't have to wait for anyone to believe in you. You start believing that — and it just ripples." * "When you pour into others, they will pour into you in return." * "Pour into your people. I promise you this — they'll run through brick walls for you." Learn more about Darrell and Larry. Darrell's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/] Larry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/] Connect and learn more from Marina Ivanov. https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-ivanov-4a9144194/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-ivanov-4a9144194/] Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING. https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring [https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring] Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now! https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture [https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture] Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople. https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/ [https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/]