The Human-Centered Capitalist, Megan Gluth - CEO of Catalynt - The Dave Crenshaw Success Show

Episode Transcript
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Megan Gluth (00:00):
Nobody leaves here saying, I didn't have to work
hard. And what's created aboutthat too is like they then only
want to be with other people whoalso want to work hard, but they
understand that it's not justbecause we're all driving
towards the relentless pursuitof cash. In

Dave Crenshaw (00:15):
this episode, you'll get to know Megan gluth,
the human centered capitalist,and you'll hear the story of how
overcoming alcohol addictionhelped her become the award
winning CEO of a nine figurechemical company. I'm Dave
Crenshaw, and this is my successShow. Welcome back, friends to

(00:38):
the Dave Crenshaw Success Show.
This is where I speak to some ofthe most successful people I've
met in my life's journey. AndI'm looking for universal
principles of success that canhelp both you and my family
succeed if it's your first timehere, by way of introduction,
I'm a best selling author. Ispeak around the world of
Fortune 500 companies, and I'vetaught millions of people how to

(00:58):
be successful through my onlinecourses, in particular, my time
management courses on LinkedInlearning. But with this show, I
wanted to do something a littledifferent. I was thinking about
how I could help my children,and I thought I could interview
people that I know and learn howthey became successful, and I
thought you'd enjoy learningalong with them. In particular,
I'm looking to speak to peoplewho have multi faceted success

(01:21):
in many areas of their lives, sonot just career or financial
success, but they have fun andthey enjoy life, and they have a
well rounded approach to life.
And I'm looking for actions thatanyone can take, including you
right now, to become moresuccessful no matter what your
career is, no matter where youare in the journey. So as you

(01:44):
listen to today's episode, lookfor something you can do, an
action you can take today orthis week to make my guest
success story a part of yoursuccess story. Now, before I
introduce this amazing guest, Ijust want to note that we had a
little unavoidable backgroundnoise around her company's

(02:05):
building. We did our best toclean that up, but my apologies
if that adds any distraction.
Now on to my special guest,Megan gluth is the owner and CEO
of catalent, a leading US basedchemical distributor known for
her energetic leadership, Megcombines a creative vision with
a pragmatic approach rooted inher background as an attorney.

(02:27):
She's also the winner of theprestigious Ernst and Young
Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Her commitment to excellence isevident through her extensive
board and committee service. Megenjoys the outdoors yoga and her
roles as wife, mother, daughter,sister and friend. Meg, welcome

(02:50):
to the show today. Thanks somuch, Dave. It's good to be
here. And where are you locatedtoday? I'm just north of
Seattle, Washington today. Nice.
It's such a beautiful area. Howlong have you lived there? I've
lived

Unknown (03:01):
here for a little over 10 years. I think it's about 12
or 13 years now. Oh,

that's great.
Well, you have accomplished somuch in your career, and you've
had such an influence inpeople's lives. And when I saw
your bio and what you hadaccomplished, I really was
excited that you agreed to be onthe show. So thank you for doing
that. Yeah, thanks

Unknown (03:21):
for having me. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. So
I like to ask

every guest, Megan the same question at the
beginning, and it's the questionthat kids get asked at a very
early age, which is, what didyou want to be when you grew up
and when you were, let's say, inyour teens, what was your answer
to that question? You know,

Unknown (03:39):
originally, I think I wanted to just be an adult, to
be honest, like I craved freedomin a way that I think young
people do. You're 16 years old,and that's what you crave. I had
this view of adulthood beingsomething where, like you had
this reckless ability to kind ofdo whatever you wanted to do. So
initially I wanted that. Ididn't think in terms of career,

(04:01):
I thought a lot in terms of theway I wanted to feel, frankly,
but eventually I thought I wouldgo into a career in the
sciences. I really thought Iwould be like a nurse midwife or
something like that. I reallythought that would sit well with
me. And I thought that untilabout 20 minutes into an organic
chemistry class in college, andthen I realized that wasn't

(04:21):
that's not my gifting. So thingshad to sort of rearrange a
little bit. So let's

talk for a second about that desire for for
freedom. What was it about thatthat was appealing to you? Did
you feel like you had a lack offreedom? What was causing that?
I

Unknown (04:39):
think that, you know, I haven't had every child's
experience, but I think thatpart of my life story is
probably really normal, youknow, just this desire to be
taller, to be older, to beadult, to be, you know, sort of
unrestricted by the rules andparameters of childhood. But
running alongside that, I alsohave this. Upbringing in this

(05:00):
childhood that starts in thisplace of I mean, we were poor,
we were below the poverty line,we were on food stamps. We had a
lot of struggle, both in ourfamily and also in a lot of the
families around me, which is notatypical when you grow up in a

(05:21):
sort of a rural, smallcommunity, there's a there's a
lot of that. For people who are,where was it that you grew up? I
grew up in a small town in Iowa,in northeast Iowa, and so I grew
up in a place where, God,there's so many wonderful things
about it. It's an awesome placeto be from. It's also a really
difficult place to be from,because there's a lot of like, I

(05:41):
said, struggle, like people wholive off the the whims of
agriculture and things likethat. It creates like, just sort
of a different kind ofnervousness and anxiety. And so
I think I felt that if I couldjust just be not there, that
things would be better, becausethere's a lot of like,

(06:03):
difficulty in that, there's alot of struggle, there's a lot
of trauma, there's a lot ofhardship. And so I wanted
freedom in a way that I defined,maybe more as like, escape,
anywhere but here, anything butthis.

Yeah, that's really interesting, because I
think there's a choice that alot of people have when they're
in a situation like that. One isyou do what you know, and the
other is that you want to dosomething different than what
you know. And clearly you tookthat second path. So when you
started to form opinions abouthow you could leave that what

(06:39):
options came to mind, like yousaid, you took organic
chemistry. Where did you go tocollege?

Unknown (06:45):
Well, I started at a small college, also in northeast
Iowa. And the thing is, is thatI talk about this like I had
this clear vision for I wantfreedom, and I want, you know,
to do better, and I'm gonna go,you know, study the sciences and
do this. But it wasn't likethat, Dave like I wasn't dealing
with any kind of emotional workaround my childhood, my

(07:09):
upbringing, the environment Iwas in, none of that. I did none
of that. And so what I wasmajoring in, first and foremost,
was avoidance. I spent a lot oftime drinking excessively. I
spent a lot of time being sortof irresponsible around that. My
drinking didn't start off asalcoholism. My drinking started
off as just your standard, like,I'm gonna party instead of go to

(07:32):
work, and then I don't hold ajob, and then I don't pay my
bills, and then I get evicted.
That creates a thing, Dave, thatcreates an energy around your
life. And so that's what I wasdoing, and I was doing some of
that while I was in college. Mygrades were fine. Coming out of
high school, I got into college,but I was not there very long
before they kicked me out,because academic probation is

(07:53):
not a sustainable life path, andit's not something that you're
going to be allowed to doendlessly. And so I own that
that's a huge part of my story,and one that I'm super honest
about, particularly with youngpeople.

Well, I really appreciate your candor. Thank
you for sharing that with us. Soyou said you were put on
academic probation, or were youwere you kicked out of college
because of this?

Unknown (08:20):
First I was on academic probation, and then I got kicked
out. Okay,

and what was the turning point? What was the
moment? If you can rememberwhere you decided, wait a
minute, I need to change thispath that I'm on. I

Unknown (08:36):
did not change my path away from using alcohol to cope
for years after that, but I didchange my academic journey. So
here's what happens when you getkicked out of college, like you
have to get a job. I don't havea rich Uncle Dave. I didn't have
parents who could like fund thatjourney through my youth, like I

(08:57):
had to get a job and I had topay bills and I had to figure
out how to stay in an apartmentand pay the rent. I was evicted
more than once and again, notbecause I couldn't do it, but
because I just, I just wasn'tdoing it. I just wasn't being
responsible. It was a it was achoice. And I can look back on
that now and say a lot ofthings, you know, led to that

(09:18):
and whatnot, but I'm a bigbeliever in just sort of looking
at your life through the lens oftaking responsibility and taking
your own bull by the horns. Andso what I did is I eventually
worked enough at a job thatwasn't going to pay me enough to
ever leave that area. If youwant more freedom, if you want
more opportunity, you're goingto need an education of some

(09:40):
sort. And so I enrolled incommunity college in
Minneapolis. Actually, I leftthat small town, I moved to
Minneapolis and I went tocommunity college because it was
the only place I could get inand I needed to get grades at
this community college for longenough to prove to a four year
university that I could be agood student. In good standing,

(10:00):
and so that's exactly what Idid. I went from that community
college to the University ofMinnesota in Twin Cities, and
then I graduated from theUniversity of Minnesota. So

I want to dig into this just a little bit
more. You adopted thisphilosophy of taking
responsibility for what wasgoing on in your life. What was
the catalyst for that? Can youremember, like, was it a
conversation that someone hadwith you? Was it a thought that
came to your mind? Where did thepoint go to say, You know what,

(10:32):
I'm going to now work hard andI'm going to take this hard
career path through communitycollege to get back on track.

Unknown (10:40):
It was simply necessity and desperation, like I didn't
have anyone to bail me out. Andthis is why sometimes it's
dangerous for us to be separatedfrom the consequences of our
choices and for people toprovide like a mattress at rock
bottom, like it's not rockbottom if there are no rocks.
Dave, like I needed to be in aplace of being desperate and

(11:03):
saying, Okay, I can't get out ofthis community. I can't have the
life that I want unless I'mwilling to do hard things. Ie go
to community college, start allover, take out loans, get a job,
get a second job, like I had todo things in order to make this

(11:23):
happen, and it really was justthe necessity, the desire to not
live like I was living. I thinkthat's more powerful than any
anything anybody said to meduring that time, because I did
have people around me saying,You shouldn't be doing this. You
could do better. You're worthmore. But none of that meant
anything until I felt the fullweight of my own mistakes.

That's beautiful.
I thank you for sharing thatwith us. And you know, I've had
the privilege of interviewingseveral people who had to hit
that rock bottom place and thenthey chose to move forward,
right? Because, again, it'sstill a choice. Some people hit
that spot and they go, Well, Iguess I'm going to stay here.
That's it. I'm done. But youchose to push through that, and

(12:06):
it's truly remarkable,especially knowing now what you
have accomplished with yourcareer, which is an amazing
amount of things. Okay, so wheredid the transition come from
just going through college,community college, into actually
forming ideas that you wantsomething in the realm of

(12:28):
chemistry.

Unknown (12:32):
So I, I went to college. I went to the
University of Minnesota. Ithought I would be a nurse
midwife. I like, I said just oChem wasn't for me. Like it was
like, Okay, maybe this isn't me.
So I ended up getting a degreein history. And there's two
things you can do when you're asenior in college with a history
degree coming at you, and youcan either teach high school

(12:52):
history, or you can go to lawschool. So I took the LSATs and
I got into law school, and Ithought this will be cool,
because I really like to learn.
I learn in my free time. I'm aperson who, if you see me on a
beach, I'm going to read abiography or something like
that. I don't do a crosswordpuzzle. I like to be challenged,
and so it wasn't a stretch forme to want a legal education. I

(13:16):
liked that. I liked thechallenge of it. I got there and
I got accepted. And two weeksbefore law school, I was trying
to shape up my financial aidpackage. And again, I cannot
stress like the lack of likeresources I had to make this
happen. I didn't have enough ofthe standard financial aid
package. I needed some privateloans to go on top of it, and I

(13:39):
didn't have a credit score, asyou might imagine, that would
sustain me being the soleborrower on a private loan, and
I didn't have anybody that Iknew in my family that could co
sign for me, so my friend's dadco signed on my law school loans
for me, and to give everybody anenormity of that, Like I
borrowed over $100,000 for thiseducation, and this man co

(14:03):
signed on my loans, and in sodoing, he changed my life like
it left an indelible impressionon me about what you do when you
yourself are in a place ofhaving arrived, so to speak, and
come through your trials. As

I'm listening to this, I'm just thinking about my
own experience, and there were acouple of moments where someone
who had more resources than mehelped me. I They didn't give me
a hand out, but they did give methe opportunity to make the
money to give back to them. AndI feel like that's really

(14:43):
profound when you have a momentlike that. That's right, I'm
assuming you were eventuallyable to pay him back for that.
Yes,

Unknown (14:52):
I was, and it that's its own feeling, to be able to
pay I mean, I didn't pay himback. He co signed on the loan.
I paid the loans off, and then Isent a thank you note. You know
what I mean, and how do youwrite that thank you note like,
hey, thanks. You changed theentire course of my life by CO
signing on a loan for a kid thatdidn't have a really good

(15:14):
demonstrated track record offinancial responsibility. Like,
it was amazing, but yeah,

yeah, that was a risk 100% he didn't give you
money directly, but he sure puthis money on the line. And I
think that takes guts, and Ialso think that takes insight
and vision to see you as youwould become because of this.
That's right. Oh, that'samazing. Okay, so you went
through law school, so that wasyour initial path. Talk to me

(15:44):
about, like, the early days ofgoing to law school. I mean,
that's a very difficult thing tobecome an attorney. Did you find
it difficult, or was itsomething that you just took to
naturally? I

Unknown (15:55):
actually really, I think, took to the education
naturally. My circumstance wasdifficult. I had my first
partner was diagnosed in mysecond year of law school with
ovarian cancer. And so while Iwas a law student, I was also
taking care of a person who, youknow, was ultimately terminally

(16:16):
ill. And I think that thatexperience. Obviously it changed
me, but it like I can look backon that now. You know, we're a
long ways past this, right? Andso I can look back on that now
and see the richness that thatgave me as a human being. You
get this sorting hat when aperson is terminally ill around

(16:38):
you, like, sorry, my kid isreally into Harry Potter. So
it's like, there's this sortinghat, right? You get these things
that, like, you look at like,this is important. This is not.
This is important. This is notso a lot of the drama in law
school, like, didn't hit me. Thewhole like, where's my ranking?
Like, am I better than mycolleague at this class? What
number am I going to graduate inthe class? Like, none of that

(16:59):
mattered to me. Dave, like Ijust knew I needed to get
through law school. I needed todo it. I needed to get it done,
and I needed to get out and earnmoney. Like that was what needed
to happen, and I was singularlyfocused on doing that. And also
never missing a chemotherapyappointment, never missing a
surgery, and everything else wasjust sort of I couldn't tend to

(17:20):
it. And that ended up giving mesome really cool skills for
later on, because you need thatin business too, to be honest.
Can

you talk to us a little bit about how the skills
of dealing with that have helpedyou in business?

Unknown (17:35):
So I think business offers opportunities for things
to be like, like, for pettythings to come at you sometimes,
right? And I don't mean tosuggest that people and their
problems are petty, or thatbusiness problems are petty, but
like, some things aren't missioncritical, and a really effective
leader knows what is and is not.
And if we're not caring forourselves, and we're not taking

(17:58):
care of ourselves as leaders,and we're not tuned up. We have
a tendency to slip into the rutof following, maybe our
emotional pellets, into thosethings that are not super
important. This experience gaveme sort of the first initial
crash course in learning what inlife is mission critical and
what is not. And when you havethat sorted out, you tend to be

(18:19):
a little bit more relaxed aboutsome of like you truly don't
sweat some of the small stuff.
So again, back to the law schoolexample. I have friends that
were checking at the end ofevery semester, where am I in
the class rank? What number didI graduate? Dave, honest to God,
I have zero idea what number Iwas in my law school class, but

(18:42):
I will tell you this. Igraduated law school in 2008 for
anybody who's of age andlistening to your podcast, who
knows what the economy was doingin 2008 I need you to understand
that over half of my law schoolclassmates lost all their pre
written offers from major lawfirms. They did not have jobs.
But I had a job. I had a jobbecause I had been working my

(19:04):
butt off at that job to keepthat job. And nothing was as
important to me as keeping thatjob, because I had this person
at home, and we needed healthinsurance, like, so in my head,
it was just like I didn't do thelike, what is my rank? Am I
working at the best possible lawfirm. What's she doing? Just
like none of that mattered tome. I was going to keep this

(19:26):
job, and it ended up being like,just an amazingly valuable life
lesson for me.

Thank you for sharing that. What I'm hearing
is prioritization, and when youexperience true life and death
things you know Megan, I'vedealt with some pretty
significant mental healthstruggles in my life that were
life threatening. And when youwork through those, you do start

(19:53):
to become aware of I can'tbelieve I've been spending my
time doing this or that. I youknow, the way I think of it is I
would spend. And you know, 90%of my effort trying to get the
last 10% of result, and it'slike, why am I doing that? I can
be happy with the 90% result andsave myself a lot of stress and
aggravation. Focus on my family,focus on the things that matter.

(20:15):
So what you're talking aboutreally hits home with me. I
appreciate you sharing that. Soyou did lose your wife. Is that
correct? Yes,

Unknown (20:25):
she died that later that same year, and I'm sorry
that happened, you know, thankyou. Thank you. I've said it
before, like when she died, likeall the oxygen went out of the
room. Oxygen is that thing that,like, you know, kind of keeps us
vibrant and keeps us alive. Andwhat I didn't realize or

(20:46):
anticipate was that, again, backto the beginning of the story,
like this, lack of, like, reallyeffective coping mechanisms,
like Dave, I didn't have any ofthose. And I'm glad you speak
publicly about mental health,because I think every one of us
has life challenges, andsometimes those life challenges
take root inside of us in a waythat blooms into something that
can be really, truly, like amental health problem. And for

(21:09):
me, at that time, I guaranteethat I was going through the
kind of grief that led to adepression and anxiety, even a
lot of like a post traumaticstress disorder, there's a lot
of like that around chronic andand serious illness, but it also
took root in me as, like, reallybad alcohol addiction. I say

(21:30):
really bad not you know,everybody defines that
differently, but it felt reallybad for me because I lost
myself, and I lost my selfrespect, and I didn't know how
to do anything other than avoidhow I was feeling. And alcohol,
for me, was like the perfectavoider tool. And so if I if I
was a drinker before that, I waslike a professional drinker

(21:54):
after that, I still didn't havethe ability to not do well at
work and to not give my effortthere, right? So I wanted to do
that, and I knew that you don'tgo to work drunk and you don't
like, you know, I had these likevalues, these promises I made to
myself, and so I didn't, I was areally good employee, you know,
in that respect, and I reallygave my all to my clients and

(22:17):
things like that. But when Iwould get home in the quiet and
not have like, a thing to do. Itwas like, workaholic during the
day, or like, throw myself intotasks as long as I could keep my
mind busy with that. And the lawprovides a really cool
opportunity for your brain toalways be busy, right? It's one
of those high intellect jobs,which I love about it. But I

(22:37):
didn't cope. And then I'd gethome and be alone, and I would
start drinking. And what thatmeant for me is that even if I
didn't want to drink, Dave, evenif I felt like I'm not proud of
how I'm dealing with this, Iwish I was dealing with this
differently, I'd still go homeand drink. It was like a
compulsion, because I couldn'tdo anything else. And when you

(23:01):
feel that you you lose some ofyour dignity, because you're
losing your agency, and you'relosing your own sovereignty and
choice in your life. And so forme, that was really bad.

So how did you turn the corner on that? Megan,
I'm assuming you've done thatnow this is not an issue for
you. So how did you stop being,as you say, a professional
drinker, and start to take morecontrol of what you were doing.
So

Unknown (23:27):
there's a concept saying that when the pain of the
unknown of what it would be liketo not live like this feels like
less than the pain of living theway you are currently living,
you'll take the leap and go intothe unknown. So the pain of what
I was currently living in thatspot again, I'm not I'm not

(23:49):
losing jobs, I'm not beingarrested. I'm not like, you
know, all the things that peoplethink they have to be at in
order to stop drinking, like Iwasn't there. And I like to
share that because I think a lotof people wake up feeling like
total crap every day aboutthemselves, and they've lost
their dignity, and they don'tknow that that's enough, that

(24:10):
feeling like that and feelinglike just trash, and that's how
I felt. It just felt terrible.
Dave, like, what am I that Ican't not do this, that I
abandon every promise that Imake to myself not to do this
like that, whittles away at whowe are as people, and it
whittled away at me. And then italso creates this thing too,
where the thing that I say I'mgoing to do, I cannot do, the

(24:34):
person that I know that I am, Icannot grasp like I feel her
inside of me. I know who Ireally am, and this alcohol
garbage stops me from being her.
That became so painful that thepain that I anticipated in
quitting and I had real pain, Ihad real concern about that. I

(24:55):
did not know how to socializewithout alcohol. I didn't know
how I was going to go to awedding. I didn't know how I was
going. To go camping like I hadreal concerns. What do you how
do you go to a wedding withoutbooze? Like I didn't know, and
that pain of all of thatuncertainty became less than the
pain of what I was living. Andso I took a leap, and I'm lucky

(25:15):
to have been surrounded andcaught and led by a lot of
people who have experiencedtheir own addiction in my life
and were willing to be honestabout that and say, I've been
where you are, and I know how toget out. That also changed my
life.

Yeah, and clearly it worked, because you're so
successful now with what you'reaccomplishing. What was the
first step of that leap? Yousaid you took a leap. What was
that

Unknown (25:45):
for me, that was making a phone call to my aunt and
uncle, who were both at thattime. They had like, 25 years of
sobriety from alcohol, and Ididn't quite know how they did
that, but I knew that they didit. And so I was like, Well, I'm
gonna call them and they'regonna tell me where to go next.
You. Next, and they told me togo to Alcoholics Anonymous. They
told me how to go to AA. Theytold me what would happen there,

(26:09):
and they just told me to go. Andthey later provided a place for
me to live. A lot of peopledon't do this, but I needed a
relocation. I moved to Seattleto be near them, to leave behind
all of my like familiar placesand steps, and they gave me a
place to sort of regroup andstart over and to really work a

(26:29):
program of of sobriety andrecovery. And at the same time
that I was doing that, I met theformer owner of this business
and began working here, and itwas like an amazing life
transformation for me, wow.

So the fact that you made the choice to get sober
actually directly led to thecareer and the company that
you're in. Now, yes, that'samazing. Okay, so how did that
growth start to occur? What werethe first things that you did in
this new area?

Unknown (27:00):
So I was moving out of town, and so I was interviewing
at law firms in the Seattlearea. And I I sent a very simple
text message or email to afriend of mine from law school
that I knew had connections toSeattle, and I said, Do you know
anybody in these law firms? Ijust want to know like, what's
the atmosphere of the firm?
What's the mood like? I want totalk to somebody. And he said, I

(27:21):
don't know anybody in any firmsout there, but I do know a guy.
He runs a chemical business, andhe's really well connected. I'm
sure he knows some people atthese firms, and could tell you
about them. You should just gomeet him nonetheless. And so I
did, and that man's name wasTony, and I met Tony on an
afternoon in his office, and Iwalked in, and he and I sat and

(27:42):
chatted for, I don't know, anhour. We hit it off right away.
We both, I think, share the samecurious kind of mind. We are
highly, you know, just drivenpeople, and we find the same
things funny. So we reallyenjoyed, you know, just 60
minutes conversing together, andwhen I left, we just kind of

(28:03):
left it as he was like, I'msorry, I'm sorry. I don't know
anyone, but it was good to meetyou. And I said same. And I sent
him an email when I got home,and I said, hey, thanks so much
for your time today. It was goodto meet you and whatever. And he
wrote back. He said, onequestion for you, since you're a
lawyer, can you tell me aboutthis, this Affordable Care Act,
stuff that time, you know, therewas Obamacare, or, you know, the
Affordable Care Act and allthat. And I wrote back to him, I

(28:26):
said, this is a complex piece oflegislation, and I can go
through it with you sometime, ifyou want. But what I will tell
you is that if you ever wantanybody good working for you,
you got to give them healthinsurance. So it doesn't really
matter. Does it have a good day.
And my phone rang, like, twominutes later, and he said, You
got to come work for me. Wow,yeah, we have moments in life

(28:47):
where, whether you want to callit the universe or a higher
power or God, or whatever youwant to call it, like, there's
just times where we have thesethings, these doors in front of
us, and you don't know how theyappear, but when he offered me a
job, I just simply said yes, andI don't know why I did, but I
just felt like that's what I wassupposed to do, and that's why I
met him, and that's what I wassupposed to do. So I started at

(29:09):
at that time, the company wascalled TR International, and I
was the company's first generalcounsel, and that's how I
started here. And that was in2012

That's a wonderful story for those who
are not familiar. What does theGeneral Counsel do? What's a day
in the life of someone in acompany like this? So tri,

Unknown (29:31):
as we called it at the time, did and still does a lot
of international business. Sowhat I was doing was a lot of
contract review, a lot of Iwould review and negotiate ocean
freight contracts with majorocean freight carriers. I would
write deals between the companyand its larger customers,
distribution agreements betweenits larger suppliers. I dealt

(29:53):
with human resource matters. Idealt with communicating with
the lawyers that were in chargeof. His estate planning, like I
did a little bit of ofeverything. But what also
started to happen during thattime is that I started to become
involved in the business, and Ireally liked it. And so an
opportunity arose for me to bepromoted, you know, within a

(30:16):
couple years after starting. AndI took that too. But even the
law job was just was fun. It wasfun. No day was the same. What

were those first opportunities to get involved in
the business? I'm curious of howsomeone who's an attorney starts
actually dipping into whateverit was operations. Well, sadly,
I

Unknown (30:37):
think that one of the first places your lawyer gets to
know your business is whenthings are not going right. And
that's true for any businessowner. Usually we get called
into things that are a littlebit broken. And so while there
was a certain amount of what Iwas doing that was preemptive
and was writing contracts andwas sort of laying that out,
there was also a significantpart of what I was doing where
you just had claims for damageson product. People suing for

(30:59):
this. People you know, usneeding to sue someone to
enforce our end of contracts.
There was always that kind ofthing. And I, I'll let you know
that at the time that I cameinto the business, the business
was doing about 40 to $50million a year in revenue. So it
wasn't the bigger you get, themore you have those kinds of
problems, like just that kind ofstuff. And when you're involved
in trying to thread the needleof a lot of people think that

(31:24):
you can just go and file alawsuit, and that's that. But
honestly, in in this businessand in most businesses, what
business owners really want, andwhat I started to want, was a
solution that kept the dealtogether. Let's see if we can
get through this without, youknow, going nuclear and having
everything blow up and get ajudgment, or maybe we're already
halfway there, and we do need tosettle this case for the good of
all and how can we do that in away where everybody feels a

(31:47):
little bit like they they'retaken care of in that? And to do
that, you have to become very,very familiar with the
intricacies of the business. I'mnot doing my job if I don't
understand exactly why a plus bthen equaled C. What

was the pathway?
So you were promoted fromGeneral Counsel to what
position, and then just sort ofshare with us the title
progression to where you becameCEO. Sure,

Unknown (32:14):
I became the President first two years after I was the
General Counsel. Okay, so it wasright to it, yeah, and not an
entirely like uncommon leap.
Lawyers tend to have a pragmatickind of leadership. We tend to
be sort of balanced, and we'retrained to not be super
emotional. We tend to be, if wehave the right charisma for it,
pretty good leaders. And so itwasn't really odd that I would

(32:38):
go from General Counsel toPresident, I understood a lot of
the inner workings of thebusiness, and I just I had some
natural leadership capabilities.
But what was also happening atthe same time is that my
predecessor and the owner of thebusiness at that time was in a
place in his life where he hadbeen doing this for 25 years. He

(32:59):
had founded the business, and hewas looking at what his exit was
going to be. And so as I'mcoming up in my career, he's
kind of in a place where he'shoping to scale back and not do
as much. And so just a couple ofyears after I was the president,
I became the CEO, and that wasbecause I had demonstrated the
ability to lead the business,and he had found someone in whom

(33:21):
he could place his confidence sothat he could step back. How

have you been successful in developing
people's confidence in you, evenfrom the fact that someone co
signed on your loan and thenthat you immediately got this
job for general counsel, andthen you got trusted. Where is
Do you think this is coming fromthat people see that you are
that trustworthy?

Unknown (33:45):
I think that for me, my authenticity is a big plus. It's
like even being on this podcast,Dave like, I could sit here and
try and wax philosophical aboutlike wisdom for people to hear,
but I your listeners willdetermine what's wise. I'm going
to tell you I got kicked out ofcollege, and I'm not going to
sugar coat that, and I'm goingto tell you that I wasn't paying

(34:06):
rent, and I'm not going to sugarcoat that. And I think when
people see you or see me beingreally honest about even the
underside of things, they knowthat if you're going to tell the
truth about that, you'reprobably just a truth teller,
and that who you say you are issomething they can rely on. And,
you know, going back to thebeginning, I said, being from
the Midwest is a great place tobe from, I do have that just

(34:28):
really simple pragmatism. I'mnot so full of myself that I
can't, like, just roll up mysleeves and get in there. And I
think people can feel that. Ithink they can sense that. And
it's true. Like, if you come andlook under the hood of my
leadership, and you talk toeverybody who works here, they
might not like what I have tosay, but they all know that I'm

(34:49):
being genuine, and nobody'sunclear about how I feel about
something. I don't make themguess, and I don't play weird
games, and I think thatengenders trust and confidence.

Yeah. I also think. Because I'm hearing your
stories that that's the resultof coming through adversity as
well. These various anonymousprograms when you have any kind
of addiction, they force you tobe candid with yourself and own
up to the things that you'redoing and to come through that
successfully, just furtheringrains that into someone like

(35:23):
you. I think you already hadthat natural tendency, but now
you live it. You walk that walkin everything that you

Unknown (35:29):
do. Yeah, for sure. I mean, when you're sitting in a
meeting with other people whostruggle with alcohol addiction
and again, I don't know whatyour listeners are going through
right now, but maybe there'ssomebody who's been in there
like nobody cares what you do.
Nobody cares how much money youmake. Nobody cares about any of
your titles. And in fact, youintroduced yourself by your
first name only, like this isnot a place where who you are is
the main event. You're there toget honest in such a way that

(35:52):
you can then heal. And when I'mlearning from that, and I say
learning, because I'm alwaysgoing to be a work in progress,
I hope, is that just by by doingthat, by showing up and being as
real as I can be in a moment, Ithink I give other people, then
permission to do the same, andthen we all can struggle towards
what the successful untying of aknot looks like. And I just, for

(36:14):
me, feel that that works a lotbetter. That's

a beautiful phrase, a successful untying of
the knot. I like that, and Ithink this is a good place to
transition to the concept ofhuman centered capitalism. I
know that that's a phrase thatyou've been described as, as the
human centered capitalist. Whatdoes that mean to you? Megan,
how do you make that happen in abusiness? Yeah, let me

Unknown (36:39):
say that the reason that I've sort of leaned into
this as hard as I have isbecause I've been troubled by
the fact that we're living in abusiness world right now where
we're forced to feel like wehave to separate being good to
people and making money, or welive in a weird shame about our
desire to make money and We wewant to go out and justify like,

(37:02):
Oh, but I promise. I didn't keepit. I gave it all away. And
here's the thing, there'snothing wrong with making money.
So the first part of humancentered capitalism is the
capitalism part. I am anenthusiastic capitalist. I run a
for profit enterprise, and thesingle measure of its success is
whether it's profitable or not,full stop, because if it is not,

(37:24):
then nobody works here,including myself. And if you
can't say that and be proud ofthe fact that I'm making money
in this company, then somethingis fundamentally wrong. And so I
like to be the first one throughthe door saying to other people
in my position, make money, beproud that your business is
making money, and be a firmsupporter, as I am, of American

(37:46):
enterprise, of any enterprise,frankly, that that does that,
because then here's the secondpart of this, the human side of
that this becomes a platform anda place for other people To
create a life path that givesthem dignity and self respect,
which is what I needed in mylife. And we can talk about

(38:08):
giving free snacks and breakrooms and unlimited time off and
work from home and whatever,although we can talk about
whatever that is for people'sbusiness and people should do
what they want to do there. I'mnot here to comment on that, but
none of it matters unless thepeople that work for you have
the opportunity to get promoted,get bonuses, get pay raises,
take care of their family andfeel proud of themselves at the

(38:29):
end of the day, and being humancentered means that you care
about that. You care about theuplift of them, because when you
lift them up and you give them aplace to lift themselves up that
affects their families, theircommunities and our whole entire
world, and we cannot back awayfrom the fact that we're doing a
good deed when we do that.

I love everything you just said. You know my
background. When I first startedMegan was in coaching
entrepreneurs, and I would tellthem, and not just tell them,
but I would see that in general,entrepreneurs are actually very
caring people. They want peopleto succeed. They want their

(39:12):
employees to be happy and theirfamilies to do well. And I
completely agree with you thatwhen businesses are successful
with that mindset, you canchange the world. You can change
the community, and it's a verynoble thing to build these
businesses. But what I loveabout this, Megan, is that you

(39:32):
told your story, and now we havecontext for it. We understand
why you are compassionate,because you needed compassion,
not just from other people, butyou needed to have it for
yourself. Therefore youunderstand this business is a
vehicle to make that happen inthe world. That's right. How do
you do that, specifically on aday to day basis? So profit

(39:56):
first. How are you weaving in?
The the mindset of we're helpingpeople as you're making a
profit. Can you just give us acouple of practical examples of
that? Yeah, so,

Unknown (40:08):
so the first thing that happens here is, I'm not going
to lie to these people. Thefirst thing you do to engender a
workforce that has dignity is totreat them like dignified
people. So I said earlier.
Everybody knows where I stand onsomething. We kind of laugh
about it like nobody's confusedabout what Meg thinks. I don't
do that in a mean, angry way. Idon't anytime my ego is out of
check. That's a check enginelight for me. It has nothing to

(40:30):
do with them. And maybe I need aminute, you know, I just will
deliver this didn't go like itneeded to go, and we need to fix
it like it's all we need to say.
And I trust that we're going todo this, and I get in the ring
with them and when we figure itout. So the first thing is
bringing that level ofauthenticity to the business,
and so that people feel likethey have a leader, that I

(40:52):
definitely have an agenda, Dave,I definitely have a mandate. I
definitely this isn't ademocracy here. I'm running the
show, but I do so in a way thatsays I respect you enough and I
respect your intelligence, thatwe're not going to play weird
games about it. Second thing Isay is that in that I can do
anything with your truth. And soin this business, what that has

(41:13):
meant is that when an employeeis consistently making mistakes
and I know that we're strugglingwith something, instead of,
like, dancing around it, I mightjust say, you have an addiction.
Is there a problem? What are wegoing to do about that? I had an
employee who had a stroke. Icould have sat there and we
could have done the whole thingabout, like, how many days of

(41:34):
PTO you got? You got to fill outFMLA and but I didn't do that,
Dave, because I didn't want herto lose her health insurance. I
didn't want that to get weird,because she was a single mom.
Single mom with two kids, sowhat I said is, we're not going
to be looking after that. Andmaybe I lost a little money on
her. Maybe I didn't, I don'tknow. But the point was, it was
the right thing to do, to saythis place is going to be here
when you come back. And when shecame back, she didn't have all

(41:57):
this baggage of having had toworry about all of that kind of
stuff. She could come here andput her effort into the team and
work. We've had employees thathave tragically lost family
members, and there wasn't moneyfor a funeral. We just paid for
that funeral because we can,because we're profitable
business, and because sometimesdiverting those profits to do
something like that means thatthat employee isn't worrying

(42:18):
about the fact that they andtheir brothers are putting, you
know, ungodly amounts of moneyon a credit card they can't pay
off. We can do little thingslike that. Do you know what
employees who have thatexperience, do they do two
things. Number one, they workreally hard for the enterprise,
because they know, and we tellthem, You're doing this, so the
next time this needs to happenfor a teammate of yours, we got

(42:39):
the money for that too, and theywant to be a part of that. And
the second thing is they go andthey have that spirit of
generosity and that way theywere treated, and that that goes
out in the rest of their lives.
I hear about it all the time. Wehave a rule at this company that
you can use a company creditcard if you're in line at the
grocery store and the person infront of you can't figure out
how to, like, pay the rest ofthat bill. And I'm not talking

(43:00):
about the stories I hear areliterally elderly people on
fixed incomes who are told theygot to put three things back
because they can't afford it.
Well, my employees know thatthey should whip out a company
credit card and just handlethat. But they also know, Dave,
that the reason they work hardhere is so that we can do things
like that. We link those thingstogether, and it creates a group

(43:24):
of people who start to wanttheir own success because they
like the feeling of raises andpromotions and bonuses, and that
makes them feel good. But thenpeople who feel good do good,
and they're going and they'redoing good, and we've just made
it our culture, and it's notfake. It's authentic, because it
starts because we treat themlike that, they treat each other

(43:47):
like that, and then we all treatthe world like that. And it's
been very organic and very, verycool, all the while dodging all
of the conversations about, youknow, whether we have a nap room
or not, like we don't. No, wedon't have a nap room we work,

you know what? I mean? Yeah, those silly little
things that like we check a box,or we're almost virtue
signaling, like we're a goodcompany because we provided a
foosball table. That is not theheart of things. The heart is
what people are really dealingwith on a day to day basis. I'm

(44:23):
over here nodding my head,because this is we agree here,
and I love the way that you'reimplementing this principle of
tying the vision of the businessto their personal visions of how
they want their life to be.

Unknown (44:36):
Yeah, for sure, nobody leaves here saying I didn't have
to work hard, that's the thing.
And what's created about thattoo, is like they then only want
to be with other people who alsowant to work hard. So it's
created a really cool culture oflike, we're working hard, but
they understand that it's notjust because we're all driving
towards, like, the relentlesspursuit of cash. There's no

(44:57):
shame in. Them wanting that nextraise or that next bonus or that
next promotion, but they alsounderstand that, like, listen,
they've each been privatelyhelped in ways that some of them
only them in the company. Know,you know what? I mean, everybody
needs help from time to time,and we not only offer them the
opportunity to sort of get ahand, but then what we're giving

(45:19):
them, Dave, is the opportunityto be part of doing that for
somebody else, even if theynever get to know about that,
too. And that is back to whatyou were saying, like, not a
handout necessarily. Like,that's that's a different thing,
that's a hand up, and it givesthem opportunity to give back at
the same time, and it works forus, yeah.

And what I'm getting from this too, is
there's a high degree ofawareness on your part as a
leader, about what eachindividual actually needs.
Rather than just paintingeverybody with a broad brush,
you're saying this person isdealing with a loss, this person
is trying to accomplish thesethings, and you you customize,
you personalize how you'rehelping people with that. I'm

(46:00):
going to use that to transitionto a question about you. How are
you taking care of you? How areyou having fun and making sure
that you're getting rewarded asyou go through this journey as a
CEO? It's

Unknown (46:14):
a great question. So the first thing is that I'm I'm
having fun because I had acolleague tell me last week, he
phrased it so perfectly, andthis is how I feel. He said I
never realized I was at workbecause I was having so much
fun. I don't feel that way everyday, like some days are just
hard, but I have to be honest,like, I like what I do, and I
would say, like, if I had apiece of advice for like,

(46:35):
business owners, like you reallyif you're going to do this, if
you're going to sit in the topspot, and then eventually I
bought the business. I own thewhole thing. If you're going to
own it, like and run it, you gotto like it. If you don't, you
probably shouldn't be there. Somajority of the time, I'm taking
care of myself because I'm doingsomething that interests me and
I like it. I'm a builder. I liketo create. I like to look for
the next entrepreneurialopportunity, and I like to do

(46:58):
that. So I'm having fun. I'malso, I teach yoga, and so I
have this other side of me,right? I'm a I have a daily
meditation practice. I teachyoga. I engage in practices even
around the way that I eat, thatserve to care for me and to care
for my human frame. Obviously,if you, if you do this, you have

(47:20):
a high degree of stress, and Itravel a lot, much of it
internationally, like I havethings I need to do to take care
of myself. And so I've built alife and a lifestyle around
being mindful of the fact thatthis body needs care and
attention and rest, and the sameis true for my brain. And so I
do prioritize practices for methat happens to be meditation

(47:43):
and yoga as my two primarypractices that sort of feed that
and nourish that. I'm

glad to hear that, and that you have things
where you're taking care ofyourself because you're taking
care of other people, you needto kick take care of yourself as
well. So that's wonderful. Wheredo you see your career five
years from now,

Unknown (48:02):
I don't know, because I'm still just walking through
every door that kind of opens infront of me. You know, when I
bought this business, we weredoing about $48 million a year
in revenue. We now do in excessof $100 million a year in
revenue, and I made twoacquisitions last year. I
couldn't have planned any ofthat out. I could not what I
did, though, was I positionedmyself and my company to be

(48:24):
ready when opportunities come.
And so I don't know what will beput in front of us, but I I know
that whatever I'm doing fiveyears from now, I'm going to be
there wholehearted, or I'm notgoing to be there at all, and I
plan on being here, so I'm goingto be doing whatever it is,
wholeheartedly that's

wonderful. I love everything that you've shared
with us. Megan, thank you forbeing so generous with your
time. So at the end of everyepisode that I do, we like to
summarize action items, the ideabeing that someone's listening
to this, and they go, well,she's a CEO. That doesn't apply
to me? And the answer is no, itabsolutely applies to you. There

(49:02):
are things you can do, and infact, it's the action you take
that's more important than justlistening to this. So what I'm
going to do, Megan, is I'm goingto summarize three actions that
anyone can take, no matter wherethey are in their career, no
matter what their position is.
And then what I'd like you to dois add one action in addition to
that at the end. Sound good,awesome. Okay, so, and there's a

(49:22):
ton in here, but I'm going toshare three that stood out to me
as we were talking. The firstone, I'm going back to your
struggles with addiction and howreaching the bottom was a
turning point for you, and thephrase that you said was, it's
dangerous to be separated fromthe consequences of our choices.

(49:43):
You experiencing the consequenceof your choice led to your
success in the future. I wouldinvite someone listening to this
to look at this in two possibleways. Number 1am, I. Shielding
myself, or too am I shieldingsomeone else from the

(50:03):
consequences of their choices?
And stop doing that? That's ahard thing. That's a hard
action. I'm going to acknowledgethat. But if you can stop doing
that and allow yourself orsomeone else to experience the
consequence of their choices, itcan lead to a turning point in
their life. So I would encourageyou to do that. The second one

(50:26):
is, you know, as you weretalking about the loss that you
dealt with, was that that ledyou to be more aware of what's
valuable. It put things inperspective. I don't think that
someone has to lose a loved oneto have that experience. I think
you can simply ask yourself, ofall the things that I'm doing,

(50:46):
if you took a look at how youspent the 168 last 168 hours of
the week, what are things thatyou're doing that don't really
matter? And eliminate one ofthem and move closer to only
doing the things that arevaluable that matter most in
your life. And then this lastone, you didn't quite say this,

(51:07):
but it's something that Igleaned from your story, Megan,
is look for ways to do good asyou succeed, not when I think a
lot of times we get in the trapof saying, when I succeed, then
I'm going to donate to charity.
The truth is, you are succeedingright now just by listening to
this, just by working in yourcareer. So what are good little

(51:29):
things you can do for yourselfor for others as you succeed,
and think about something youcan contribute this week to make
someone's life better, and thenyou can have an impact in their
life, like Megan is, or thepeople that she's had in her
life that trust her, that gaveher opportunities, you can be
that same for someone else. Sothose are three actions that I

(51:49):
picked up Megan. What's one thatyou would suggest to someone
listening? I

Unknown (51:55):
would say that sort of underpinning all of those is
being the chief truth teller toyourself and your own life, put
crudely, it would be no BS, youcannot do that. You cannot
afford to do that. You have tobe brutally honest with
yourself. And only from therecan you work up and out. You

(52:20):
think that we talk a lot abouthaving integrity and being an
honest person, and all of thatis so needed in in the world
today, but it means nothing ifyou haven't done that with
yourself. And oddly enough,that's the hardest person to
tell the truth to most often.
But I would say that that'srevolutionized my life, and I
continue to have every desire tobe as honest with myself every

(52:41):
day as I possibly can. I love

it. Be honest with yourself. Be the chief
truth teller. Megan, I know alot of people who have listened
to this. They want to followyou. They want to learn more
from you. What's the best placefor them to go to continue
staying in contact with you. You

Unknown (52:59):
can start at my website. Megangluth.com and it's
a great place for just startingyour point of contact with me. I
do work really, really hard toreach back out to people who
reach out to me, particularlypeople who are just in a place
where they need a little bit ofencouragement. I live for those
moments. So start there. You'llfind my contact information

(53:19):
there, and then we can take offright from that spot.

Fantastic. And just to spell that out, that's
M, E, G, A, N, G, l, U, T,h.com, megangluth.com, Megan,
thank you so much for beinggenerous and sharing your story
with us. It's it really has beena pleasure to talk to you today.
I've really enjoyed thisconversation. So thank you very
much. Thanks so much, Dave. I'veenjoyed it too. I appreciate it.

(53:43):
Yeah, and thank you everyone forlistening. Remember, it's not
just about the knowledge thatyou received or the inspiration
that you felt. It's about theaction that you take. So do
something today based on whatyou heard from Megan, and you'll
make her success story a part ofyour success story. Thanks for
listening.

Unknown (54:06):
You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw Success
Show, hosted by my dad, DaveCrenshaw, and produced by
invaluable incorporated researchand assistant production by
Victoria Bidez, Sound Editing byNikic, Wright, voiceover by me
Darci Crenshaw, and the music isby Ryan Brady via pond five

(54:27):
licensing, please subscribe tothe Dave Crenshaw success show
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podcasts. If you have asuggestion for someone my dad
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crenshaw.com and please don'tforget to leave us a five star
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The Human-Centered Capitalist, Megan Gluth - CEO of Catalynt

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Human-Centered Capitalist, Megan Gluth - CEO of Catalynt