September 18, 2025 • 41 mins
Dusty Holcomb’s story begins on a farm, where the simple truth that “cows need milking 365 days a year” instilled an unshakable work ethic. Those early lessons in responsibility and persistence carried into his entrepreneurial ventures as a child—creating a town newspaper at eight and running a landscaping business by eleven. These formative experiences shaped a lifelong commitment to connecting hard work with meaningful purpose.
After spending 21 years at AAA and nearly three decades in corporate leadership, Dusty developed a leadership philosophy centered on “connecting the dots” between what people do and why it matters. He emphasizes that clarity comes first, followed by alignment, and only then can execution succeed. This clarity-first approach helps leaders address common pain points such as feeling isolated, becoming bottlenecks in decision-making, or struggling with gaps between vision and reality.
Throughout his journey, forum groups provided Dusty with critical support during times of challenge and transition. These peer groups not only offered perspective but also helped him refine his own path as a leader. He also draws on timeless insights like Viktor Frankl’s reminder that, regardless of circumstances, leaders can always choose their response.
Today, through The Arcus Group, Dusty is focused on multiplying leadership impact at scale, aiming to empower 100 million leaders around the world. By equipping leaders with the tools to connect purpose, clarity, and execution, he is helping reshape how organizations inspire and engage their teams. His journey serves as both a reminder and a roadmap: leadership rooted in values can transform not only organizations but the lives of the people within them.
Please visit www.internationalfacilitatorsorganization.com to learn more about Mo Fathelbab and International Facilitators Organization (IFO), a leading provider of facilitators and related group facilitation services, providing training, certification, marketing services, education, and community for peer group facilitators at all stages of their career.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Heart of Business podcast sponsored by
International FacilitatorsOrganization, the marketplace
for facilitators.
I'm your host, mo Fatalbab, andit is a pleasure today to have
with us Dusty Holcomb.
He is founder and chiefevangelist for the Arcus Group,
dusty, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you, Mo.
Such a delight to be here withyou today and really appreciate
the opportunity to talk to youabout things that we are both
deeply passionate about.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah well, we have a lot of shared passion, I know
that.
But I want to start with youand your story.
Let's kind of just start withchildhood perhaps.
Where did you grow up and wheredid you go to school?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I grew up in rural East Georgia.
My dad was the county extensionagent for Warren County in the
University of Georgia ExtensionService, so his whole job was
helping farmers be moresuccessful and he grew up as a
dairy farmer.
So my life, my young childhood,grew up around farming, farmers
and all the wonderful lessonsyou learn from that, that
(01:13):
lifestyle, uh.
And then went to school.
I was homeschooled from fifthgrade through uh high school and
then uh college in Columbusstate university.
Uh, before getting uh gettingout figuring out what I wanted
to do with my life, I had noidea.
So I got a business degree andfound that, oh, this is
interesting.
(01:33):
There's an organizationalpsychology component here.
I can go do some cool things,but it all started in the
background of a farm.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I love that you know.
Listen, I've always beenintrigued by what happens when
you have that background.
What are some of the lessonsthat you've grown up with from
having to work on a farm and therigorous schedule that I know
that can have?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You know it's funny you ask that question my dad.
One of my earliest memories,one of my earliest lessons from
my dad and again, you know hegrew up dairy farming and his
lesson to me was the cows haveto be milked seven days a week,
365 days a year.
They don't care if it'sChristmas or Easter or any other
day, and so therefore, if youwant them to take care of you,
(02:19):
you have to take care of them.
There are no days off.
And in that farming lifestylethat mentality has certainly
been pervasive for me and mywork, for good and for bad.
Right, there's there's somedownsides to that, but that was
one of my earliest recollectionsand earliest memories.
And then also just watching mydad serve other farmers Like I.
(02:42):
He was, you know, dairy cattlespecialist, so I remember going
to the farm with him and he was,you know, a dairy cattle
specialist, so I remember goingto the farm with him and
watching him do um, you knowwhen we were castrating calves
or you know all those littlethings that you just, you just
do, and it's just, he just didthe work, whatever it needed to
get the job done.
That would probably be lessonnumber two is whatever it takes
to get the job done, and thatcan be fixing a tractor in the
(03:04):
field where it broke, or it canbe the fun stuff like having a
fish fry for all the farmers.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Those are two great lessons.
Thank you for sharing those.
So do you actually work everysingle day?
You don't take a day off as aresult of that.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, I didn't get had the opportunity to live on
the dairy farm like he did, butthat was the mentality and I am
working hard to be able to shutit off.
Personally, I find myself, Ilove what I do, and so I give
myself that as an excuse.
And then I have a much smarterthan me bride who will remind me
(03:41):
you need to actually refreshthe brain in order to do some
things.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So I'm working on it.
Yeah, now the other thing Ihave to ask you probably are the
first person I've met who hasshared with me that he has
castrated a cow.
So what is that experience like?
I just have to know.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, yeah, I imagine it's not too common of a thing.
Um well, the sound isn't verypleasant because they don't like
it they don't like it.
I can't imagine.
And I wasn't very old, I wasprobably eight or nine, um, and
they do it differently now today.
Uh, back then it was, uh, itwas still a knife.
So, uh, it was.
It was not very pleasant and Iremember thinking the sound
(04:23):
wasn't very pleasant, but it wasjust what we did, just part of
it, so part of the life.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah.
So what were your early jobs?
Entrepreneurial ventures, youknow kind of coming up in school
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You know it's funny, I haven't thought about this in
30 years until you just askedthis question.
We lived in a very small town,population 254.
And my earliest entrepreneurialventure that I can remember is
we had a Mac computer back whenthose were just coming out, and
I made a newspaper because ourtown didn't have one and so
(05:01):
created this newspaper, wrotethis whole thing.
I probably was eight or nineyears old and went and stood by
the post office to sell thenewspaper and I think we sold
four copies the first day from,you know, parents that were
coming in or people coming in.
You know, I think they were anickel, maybe 10 cents a piece,
and I remember thinking, okay,I'm going to have to sell a lot
(05:23):
of these in order to getanywhere.
And then my mom was like, ohwell, you have to make sure
you're paying me back for thepaper.
And that's when I was firstexposed to COGS and I went, huh,
I need to find something withbetter unit economics than a
newspaper in a market with 254people.
But that was the very first oneand then after that it just
(05:45):
became a series of things.
My dad, my brother and I had ourown landscaping company, and it
was my brother and I.
He was three years younger thanme, I was 11.
He was eight.
Dad would drive us to the workand he would drive us on the
trailer.
We do all, unload all theequipment, do all the work.
We had contracts with companiesand with people at 11 years old
and I remember thinking all,unload all the equipment, do all
the work.
We had contracts with companiesand with people at 11 years old
(06:08):
and I remember thinking, allright, this is this is okay, I'm
in control, I'm in charge.
If we wanted to work reallyhard on a Friday night and go
really late so we could have theweekend free, that's what we
did.
Those are.
Those are the two earliestmemories that I have about going
out and hustling to make adollar on my own.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, amazing, amazing.
Those are great stories.
And so then, after college,what was your?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
first job, or what did you do right out of college?
You know, mo, I never reallyunderstood or did the college
experience where you didn't work.
So I started working when I was16, for someone else and at a
men's retail store a high-endmen's retail store and it was
probably the single best giftI've ever been given regarding
work, and the reason is Ilearned how to sell, and what I
(06:57):
learned about sales was not itwasn't about me, it was about
understanding what the customerwas coming in for.
What did they need?
How do you ask questions?
How do you present them withthe solutions that would fit
them?
And so I started doing thatwhen I was 16.
And within a year I became thetop salesperson in the little
(07:19):
small company.
It was like five of us, but Iwas supposed to be the stock boy
, but I loved it, and so I wouldwork there 35 hours a week
until the holidays, and that waswhen I was first introduced to
what it was like to work throughthe holiday season in retail,
and I vividly remember my firstretail holiday season paycheck.
(07:40):
It was $896 for two weeks workthat worked, I don't know.
80 or 100 hours, it was justlike bell to bell every day.
But I worked all through college.
I worked 35, 40 hours a weekand then, when I was in college,
I started working in a callcenter and so my first job out
of college, I was alreadyrunning a call center for a
(08:02):
large bank down in Georgia andgot recruited away to go to an
organization called AAA,american Automobile Association.
Yeah, and I loved it because Iwas thinking, oh, this is great,
they're hiring me, this23-year-old kid who had no
business being here to move acall center from Charlotte,
north Carolina, to Roanoke Ravis, north Carolina, hire 350
(08:25):
people, install the culture.
I was going to be the onlytransplant and I don't know why
they hired me.
I think they were eitherdesperate or blind, I'm not sure
.
But I took it because I was at acompany I loved, because I
thought where else am I going toget an opportunity to come and
do all of this at 23 years old.
(08:46):
And I didn't know anythingabout AAA except for the fact
that it was the gift of mygrandparents gave my mom and dad
every year for Christmas and Ithought was the most lame thing
in the world.
But then I stayed there for 21years because I fell in love
with the fact that every daywhen I went home I knew we
helped people.
We helped people and not injust a metaphorical sense, but
(09:12):
we helped people get off theside of the road.
We helped dads make sure thattheir daughters going to college
were protected All the things.
I've got hundreds of stories.
I loved it and so I stayedthere for, like I said, 21 years
, did every job in theorganization, but it was always
about the service and helpingothers.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And what's one of those stories that you remember
that was meaningful for you?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I've got one that was meaningful from a leadership
perspective and then I've gotone that was meaningful from a
member perspective.
The One of my responsibilitieswhen I was there was to our auto
repair facility.
So we had 40 locations andpeople would come in and get
(10:00):
their cars fixed.
Auto repair is a little bit ofa messy business.
It's low trust and people don'tunderstand.
And I had a customer, a member,call me and say I want you to
know that my daughter went intoyour store in Wilmington, north
Carolina, and I've got a problem.
So I'm immediately going allright, here we go, let me help
(10:21):
you.
I'm here to help, I'm here tounderstand.
He goes.
Here's my problem.
My daughter's experience inWilmington has now ruined her
from being able to go to anyother auto repair shop.
Team was communicative.
They took her out to the shopand explained to her.
You know, I I didn't have toworry that she was getting
(10:42):
ripped off and and and so I Iwas.
I had steeled myself to getlike oh God, we did something
wrong and didn't have that.
So it's just one of many, manystories I would always have on a
AAA shirt and you see somebodyin Target and they go hey,
you're AAA, can you help me?
(11:02):
And we just, we had a lot offun helping people, the
leadership story that's, I think.
Back on we started our owntowing company in Charlotte,
north Carolina, to augment whatour service providers, our
contractors, could do.
So we had a new venture webought all the trucks, I went
(11:25):
and picked up trucks, drove oneback, towed it back myself
because I figured I needed toknow how to do this, drove one
back, towed it back myselfbecause I figured I needed to
know how to do this.
Our very first day of operation, the manager of the fleet that
I'd hired a guy named GeorgeFigueredo.
He and I were down at thedispatch office that we'd set up
and we get a call from ourdispatch center that said hey,
we have a member that has beenwaiting for three hours and the
(11:48):
service provider that wassupposed to go to him has
canceled.
Can you guys go do it Now?
This is our very first day andI looked at George and I said,
well, let's go do it.
And he goes.
Well, you and I both beentrained, but we've never done it
before.
I said, well, between the twoof us, we can go figure this out
.
So we jumped in the truck droveover there.
(12:11):
The member was not happy, asthey shouldn't have been, and I
just said look, my name is DustyHolcomb, I'm the vice president
of member services.
You know we knew that you'dbeen waiting and want to come
out here and make sure this istaken care of.
And and then you know she saidokay, great, here's where I want
to.
And then George and I stoodthere looking at each other for
about five minutes after sheleft and I've like the prayer
was answered, which was pleasedon't let her stay here and
watch us do this, because wedon't know what we're doing, and
(12:35):
she didn't Thank God because westood there looking at each
other going well, we think we'regoing to have to do it this way
.
We figured it out, nothing wasdamaged, but there's just so
many stories.
It was a very blessed time ofmy life.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And that sounds amazing.
And so, after AAA, what did youdo after that?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, after AAA, I left in 2021.
We had been acquired by a muchlarger AAA affiliate and I was
wired in a much moreentrepreneurial mindset.
Our AAA affiliate had been veryentrepreneurial, very lean, and
I'd done a lot of really neatthings.
I had decided I was going totake a year off and then start
my own leadership consultingfirm, because my entire life,
ever since my very first mentorback in the call center days,
(13:20):
had been about serving others.
In fact, greg was a retiredcolonel and had told me hey,
dusty, your number one job as aleader is to ensure that your
people are taken care of,because when you take care of
them, they will take care of thecustomer, they take care of the
mission, and so that had beenmy founding principle and I'd
lived that in the corporateworld for a long, long time.
(13:42):
Well, when I left AAA, I wasgoing to start my own leadership
firm because I wanted to helpleaders and continue that, and I
met some amazing people inKnoxville, tennessee, who are an
e-commerce logistics company,and I think I managed to keep my
promise to my wife about takinga year off for about two months
before I decided to joinRedStag as their CEO and help
(14:03):
them grow and scale, and thendid that for three years and
then after that run was ended,it was like, okay, I feel very
called that now is the season.
Now's the time I get to go tohelp others and serve others as
they grow in their leadershipjourneys and really bring my
personal mission to life, whichis to empower success in others.
I did it for 28 years in acorporate environment.
(14:26):
Now I get to do it in adifferent type of environment
environment.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Now I get to do it in a different type of environment
.
That is amazing.
And at RedStag you were a CEOand I believe at that point you
joined the Young PresidentsOrganization.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I'd actually joined YPO when I was still at
AAA.
I was the president of ourautomotive division.
So 2018 is when I first joinedYPO, and it was active when I
was at RedStag as well joinedYPO and it was active.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
When I was at Red Sag as well, got it and so clearly
you were part of a forum and Iknow it's all confidential.
But you know, one of the thingsthat's important for us on this
show is to sort of highlight,showcase the power of forum, the
effect the forum may have hadon your life in general.
And again, for those who don'tknow, this is a small group of
roughly eight people that meetevery month in a confidential,
(15:14):
structured environment to helpeach other be the best they can
be.
So you joined a forum, what wasthat like?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, there's the forum experience, and either
through YPO or Vistagepreviously, I've had almost 20
years of being in a small groupforum experience and I would be
understating if I said it's beenthe most life-changing part of
my leadership journey, because Idon't know that I have enough
(15:44):
words to put into how powerfulit has been.
So I'll give you two specificstories.
One was with my Vistage group.
I was going through a verytough divorce and you know
Vistage, you know you thinkabout the forum.
It can be all business and itwasn't that at all.
(16:05):
In a season for me of deepstruggle and challenge, I had
people around me who, a cared, basked amazing questions and C
affirmed that, despitechallenges I was facing, I was
still a good human being andthat there were people who cared
(16:26):
about me and cared about me ina way that they would ask this
tough questions.
They were very good at beingkind and not nice and and giving
me the truth that I needed tohear, and so that was a.
That was a transformationalexperience and it wasn't just
about hey, tell me more aboutyour business.
And then, with my YPO forum,who I'm in with one of our, mr
(16:51):
Chuck Hall, actually introducedus.
He's such an incredible leader.
Recently, my forum again allconfidential, but I'll share my
story because it's my own.
It's your story yes, waschallenged with like as I build
my business, and I said, guys,I'm struggling because the
(17:14):
biggest struggle I'm facingright now is I've spent 28 years
leading others and, like I missthat.
I miss the big accomplishment ofthe thing.
And you know, being a coach iswonderful but you don't own the
outcomes.
And I'm really struggling withnot owning outcomes.
And they helped me throughquestions, through helping me
(17:38):
understand, really attune andunderstand that I'm a builder
and that's what I love to do.
And so I needed to recast whatI'm doing, not to be just about
coaching but to be aboutbuilding something.
And then, when I made thatmental shift which I don't know
that I could have done withoutthat input I was able to reframe
(17:58):
my entire thinking and approachto yes, this is what I do, but
here's what I'm building, and itis having people that know you
know you well.
Having people that know youknow you well will challenge you
and they will challenge me andnot let you buy into your own
press copings, as Mark Twainwould say, has helped me become
(18:22):
a better thinker and an evolvedperson to get to places I
probably wouldn't have gotten to.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
That's powerful.
That's very powerful, thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
So let's move on to your Arcusgroup, and you are the chief
evangelist and the founder.
I love the title, so tell usabout that endeavor and what you
all do.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, we started.
You know, I came out with theidea hey, I believe that there's
a better way to lead, I think,when we think about leadership
through this lens of leadingyourself first, that allows you
to lead a team, that allows youto lead an organization.
So, you know, I started withthe idea of, hey, executive
coaching, mentoring, things likethat.
And then, as I've learned as anentrepreneur, you evolve, you
(19:09):
learn.
You know, I started with theidea of, hey, executive coaching
, mentoring, things like that.
And then, as I've learned as anentrepreneur, you evolve, you
learn, you listen to what themarket and what people want.
I started stitching togetherwhat I found to be kind of the
keystone elements of what Ibelieve makes a great leader.
First and foremost, you have tobe willing to lead yourself
(19:31):
first.
You have to be purpose-drivenand value-centric and you need a
system to do that, a system ofthinking, a system of execution,
a system.
And so I realized that as Istepped back and said, okay,
well, what has made others thatI have served successful over
the last 28 years is, okay, Iput together some good systems,
(19:52):
I put together some goodframeworks.
And then I said, well, okay,well, how do we help them do it.
So now we say we'll take thetime to do it, we give people
the time and space to install.
And then the third thing, whichis the thing that you and I are
both passionate about, which isa forum how do you get people
to connect with and have anaccountability partner with each
(20:14):
other to be better that forumexperience?
In fact, just before our chattoday, I was on a call with my
accountability partner walkingthrough some stuff.
So what we're doing at ArcusGroup is putting together
leadership impact acceleratorswhere we bring 12 people, we
give them good systems, we givethem the time and space to
(20:35):
install them and we put themwith like-minded peers so they
can sharpen against and witheach other.
And my vision in fact it's comefrom a conversation that you and
I had previously my vision isto be and build the number one
success platform forpurpose-driven, value-centric
leaders, and I originally wantedto impact the lives of a
(20:57):
million leaders over the next 10years.
And you and I had a chat awhile back and I was like you
know, I think I'm actuallydreaming too small and I had to
go and say well, what doessuccess beyond my wildest
imagination mean?
And I know yours is to have abillion people in a forum.
It's audacious.
(21:17):
It's audacious right.
It's a BHAG and I said I want toimpact the lives of 100 million
and I got to that just by goingwell, if I 10 X my, if I got 10
, if I achieved 10% of that,then that is 10 X what I
(21:37):
originally set out to do.
That's a pretty good number.
So it's not a billion but ahundred million, and it's still
a big number and I had no ideahow I'm going to do it, but
we're going to figure it out butwe're going to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I love that.
I love that.
I love that.
So let's talk about anotheraspect of your life, so we could
get to know who Dusty is,hobbies, what you do.
For fun, tell us more aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, I started.
I like to do hard things, soabout 10 or 15 years ago I
started doing Ironman racing.
Oh, me too.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Really we didn't talk talk about this, but I've
stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It's been a while yeah, I have stopped too.
It's been a while.
My body did not take it.
Uh, I'm a six foot four and youknow 220 pound linebacker size,
but I did do a bunch of.
I did a bunch of iron man, uhraces and did uh some marathons,
and I just love doing hardthings.
So, anything outdoors, anythingthat's going to put me in a
(22:37):
place that's bigger than me,like my favorite spots on this
planet are going to be in themiddle of the back country in
British Columbia or in Montana,on a river, fly fishing on a
boat, in the middle of the oceanwith family.
Those are the places where Ifeel most alive, because I feel
(22:59):
the smallest and for me that'sthe thing.
I, watching the sunrise fromthe back of a horse in the
middle of the British Columbiabush, is probably the most alive
I've ever felt in my entirelife.
So those are the things I liketo do for fun, like to do it
with family, like to we, like tobe out in the boat or just
anything outside.
(23:19):
Anything outdoors, anythingwhere I feel small.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That sounds amazing and British Columbia is stunning
, and one day I'll see thesunrise from a horse in British
Columbia.
Thank you, I know people.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I can make that happen for you, you can make
that happen, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You know, I also fell off the horse in Alberta last
time.
I was at an EO event there andI've been back on a horse since
then.
But it's one of those thingsthat I definitely want to get
back to.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I would love to get back to Ironman racing, but I'm
not sure my body will everpermit me to do it to that
degree again.
Which ones have you done?
I did Ironman Florida.
I did Ironman Arizona.
I did Ironman Lake Tahoe thatrace is now defunct.
I did Maryland and then I didthe Beach to Battleship Ironman
in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Very nice, very.
And then I did the beach tobattleship Ironman in.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Wilmington, north Carolina.
Very nice, very nice, very nice.
How about yourself?
Which ones have you done?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So I finished the Zurich Switzerland Ironman.
And then I was in the Vinemanin California and I broke a
couple of ribs at the bike runtransition.
I had a nasty fall in front ofall my family and friends as I
took a speed bump with one handwaving to them, and so I did
(24:38):
half the marathon and then Icouldn't breathe and I'm like
maybe I shouldn't push it.
So half the marathon I was done.
Turns out, I broke a couple ofribs and the doctor said I was
lucky, I didn't puncture a lung.
So I was done.
Turns out, I broke a couple ofribs and the doctor said I was
lucky, I didn't puncture a lung.
So so that was that.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
So I finished one and uh and uh did not finish the
second, but one under my belt'sgood One's enough.
Yeah, you're.
You're smarter than me.
When I did Lake Tahoe, I uh Iended up having to go to the med
tent afterwards for a few hoursbecause I developed hypothermia
during the race and I was notsmart enough to quit.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
You know, it's really interesting you bring that up
because in training formarathons the one thing that I
always my mantra was you don'tlose unless you quit.
And I think part of the cost ofthat is our mind over.
Our body is so strong we canpush through points of injury
without knowing it.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You really can.
I did two Ironman races threeweeks apart and that was
physically challenging, but itwas the mental challenge on that
second one was I learned a lotabout myself on the backside of
an Ironman marathon, when youjust go to this little dark
place inside your head and youjust put one foot in front of
the other and your mind is somuch stronger than your body
(26:00):
100%.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So that begs the question how do you know when to
quit?
Because I'm not sure I figuredthat one out.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know that I have either, mo.
Honestly, I think I'd like tobe rational.
I'd like to have some sagewisdom.
I don't know, in fact, ifanything, I need to learn that,
because I just don't have a quitbone in my body and there is
probably a better way to do it.
If you figure it out, let meknow, because I don't know what
(26:30):
it is and I'm trying to, as Iget older, become more wise and
maybe become more rational, butI haven't found it yet.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And I mean that in everything, not just in the
marathons or triathlons, rightIn business.
At what point do you say, hey,this business isn't working.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it's a great question.
In fact, it's the conversationI was just having earlier today
with my accountability partner,Mark.
We were talking about thatbecause he's got a project he's
working on and we were talkingthrough okay, what are the
demarcation points where you cansay I'm going to step back from
this, do an evaluation.
If this has happened, we'regoing to go this direction.
(27:10):
If this hasn't happened, orthis has happened, we're going
to go that.
And it was a good reminder tome.
It is like okay, what are thosecheckpoints that you can decide
in advance where you check in?
And I think that, thinking outloud a bit here, I think that's
one of the things that aligns sowell with kind of the
philosophies I have aroundself-leadership is you decide in
(27:31):
advance about what's soimportant and about what's most
important, so that in the momentyou don't get clouded by
emotions or anything else that'sgoing on.
So, thinking through this, I'mgoing to have to put a little
thought into it but being ableto at least decide in advance,
maybe in the business context,what are the markers that must
be met in order to earn theopportunity for continued
(27:52):
investment of time, effort andenergy, what are those things?
I'll have to think about itsome more.
But it's a great questionbecause I haven't found a way to
decode it to a fully rationalresponse.
It's always emotional.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, isn't that interesting.
So back to your purpose andvalues-driven mission.
You talked a little bit about,you know, liking to help people,
but maybe a little bit more whythat matters.
Help liking to help people, butmaybe a little bit more why
that matters to you beingpurpose driven and value based.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Yes.
So for me, it's all aboutfinding a way to connect the
dots, and when I think aboutpurpose driven and value centric
, it's being able to connect thedots between what we do and why
we're here.
And so if you take the effortand energy and invest in
understanding, you know what isthe God-given gift or talent
(28:44):
that you have, what is it youcan do for others that will
create an impact beyond yourself.
And then how do you connect thedots?
And from a leadershipperspective, I think, when we
really flex the muscle andpractice the skill of connecting
the dots for ourselves, that wethen can translate that for
others.
And so when I can help anotherperson to connect the dots
(29:07):
between what they do and whatthey're tasked with doing, and
why the organization exists,where it's going, what the
vision is, what the mission is,etc.
That dot connecting skill iswhere I believe that we can
unlock discretionary effort.
And I think the greatestleaders do the best job of
(29:28):
connecting dots for themselvesand for their teams so that the
teams can make better decisionsand do the work, maybe even
without the leader being there.
In fact, most especiallywithout the leader being there.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I love when I hear somebody say I took a vacation
for a month which wasunprecedented and my team
stepped in.
I never heard from them once.
Oh, they just threw thebusiness by 5%.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, that's when you've arrived as a leader,
right, that's when they'rebetter at it than you are.
And the ability.
It comes down to the ability toconnect dots, though, and the
questions that I always askmyself and ask leadership teams
are question number one why arewe here?
What's our purpose beyondmaking money?
If you can't answer that, howcan you expect your team to?
(30:20):
But if your team can answerthat without you in the room,
all right, you're on the way.
And then it's.
The second question is where arewe going?
And the third question is howare we going to get there?
The plan, and then where I seemost leaders and I struggled
with this for many, many years,and still I think it's one of
the hardest things that leadershave to do is answer what I
(30:43):
would consider the next twoquestions.
Question number four is wheredo I fit in?
And that's that dot connectingquestion for their work, their
effort, their activity.
Where does what I do, how doeswhat I do matter?
Yeah, and how does it connect?
And then the last questionwhere?
And these, these are the oneswhere I find most organizations
(31:04):
fall off what's in it for me?
And it's not just money, infact it's rare.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
It's rarely money yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, it's meaning its impact, its opportunity,
whatever that is, and I thinkthe best organizations, the best
leaders do the best job atconnecting dots, and so when I
think purpose-driven,value-centric it's, how do we
help others connect dots?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, I want to talk more about mentorship and
specifically the one or twomentors that have had the
biggest impact on you.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
A little bit more about that.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I've been very privileged to have a lot of
great mentors.
The first one I've alreadymentioned is Colonel Greg Camp.
And Colonel Camp, retired WestPointer Vietnam veteran, he had
been chief of staff at FortBenning, georgia, and he took a
chance on me.
He saw something and when Ifirst started working for him I
(32:09):
was 21, and really took me underhis wing and helped me
understand what leadership is.
And I'll never forget I hadjust been promoted to assistant
call center manager and he saidI'd like for you to start coming
to our book club.
We do a book club at ODARC 30every Tuesday morning.
I said what time is ODARC 30?
He goes, it's 630.
And he laughed.
I said okay, and there were anumber of other retired officers
(32:33):
and senior enlisted in ourcompany and we would just go in
and talk about a book.
And I remember the most profoundthing, mo, was I got to sit at
the table and contribute as if Ihad the same degree of
experience as anyone else,because I had perspective.
And that's what Greg.
One of the great things thatGreg taught me was experience is
(32:58):
wonderful, perspective iswhat's valuable, and so you have
to be able to share yourperspective and a great leader
listens to and understands thevalue of perspective that's
different from their own.
And the day I resigned fromthat position, I was terrified
to tell Greg that I was leavingBecause he was my mentor and he
(33:23):
just sat there and said, well,I'm not surprised.
And then I had to sit back fora second.
He goes.
I'm not surprised, dusty,because one of the best gifts
and blessings we ever had inmilitary leadership was we knew
that the soldiers that wereassigned to us would only be
with us for a few years and ourmission, our job, was to help
(33:44):
them be successful in achievingthe mission and help them be
successful for their next post.
So I approach every role andperson who's I'm entitled to
serve and care for with themission of helping them be
better for their next thing.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I mean that is beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I was 23.
So I had those lessons at 23years old 21, 22, 23.
I've had a more recent mentorwould be a gentleman by the name
of Terry Dunn.
He was my Vistage chair andjust dear friend for 15 years
and Terry had a remarkable wayof always just asking the right
(34:24):
question and I've actually takenseveral of my favorite
questions which I love to ask.
One of them is a pure TerryDunn, which is what would have
to be different.
So I talk about some situationor something or some challenge
or what would have to bedifferent, what would have to
change in order for the outcomethat you want to be possible.
(34:48):
I love that question.
Terry taught me how to askbetter questions and now I have
mentors like Chuck, who askedexceptional questions, and I've
been very blessed.
The mentors that I have havegiven themselves and of
themselves, freely, with nodesire to receive anything back
(35:13):
other than to contribute tosomeone else.
That's the model that I want tolive in life.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I love that.
I love that.
Well, I would be honored to beone of your clients.
So, on that note, tell me thetarget audience you have for
your groups that you'relaunching, so that listeners who
qualify, who would like tocontact you and benefit from
your incredible story, can do so.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, the target audience is the right leader,
someone who owns outcomes and istransitioning.
They're at an inflection pointin their leadership growth.
They've become the bottleneck.
They're feeling lonely orthey're frustrated that the
team's not getting the tractionthat they want.
So outcome owning leaders andthose are typically in our
(36:02):
groups are going to be founders,entrepreneurs.
You know the hired gun, as itwere, running the business.
They are responsible andaccountable for the outcomes of
the businesses.
You know set to do and thepeople that are doing it.
And you know set to do and thepeople that are doing it.
And you know.
One of the things that we'vedone is we've found that there's
(36:23):
always and I'm a greatsimplifier, I always try to
distill to three things thosethree pain points of loneliness,
of being the bottleneck andbeing frustrated come through
again and again and again.
And we created a leadership gapassessment to help leaders
identify where they are and thenwhat they need to do to get
unstuck.
And your audience could simplygo to leadershipgapassessmentcom
(36:47):
and figure that out.
It's a free test.
They can get the answers anddecode where they are and what
they need to do to get to thatnext level.
So it's loneliness being thebottleneck, and the third one is
a frustration between thevision they have and the results
that are on the field.
There's a gap between those two.
(37:08):
Those are the.
There's a million reasons forthem, but those are the things
that we see time and time again.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Amazing.
And what would be your process,then, for helping those leaders
to overcome their challenges,so to speak?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, the first thing that, from a process
perspective just understanding acall to understand where
they're going, what is it thatthey're facing with?
You know the when you step back, the first thing a leader has
to do is get clear forthemselves, and we often talk
about an execution gap.
Hey, we're not getting theresults we want.
(37:44):
There's something, but it'snever.
It's not never.
It's rarely an executionproblem, it's almost always
upstream from that.
It starts with do we haveclarity and is the team aligned?
And so our process is how do webuild clarity, how do we work
to get clear as leaders?
What is most important, why arewe here, where are we going?
(38:06):
All those things.
And then how do we buildalignment as a team?
Because when we are, we haveclarity and when we have built
alignment, then we can execute.
And then, if we're notexecuting, we're having a
conversation that goes back towhere we misaligned or where are
we unclear.
Now we have to leverage thepoll to make those things happen
(38:26):
.
So that's our process as wewalk through frameworks to help
people get and build clarity,drive alignment and then enable
execution.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Amazing, amazing, amazing Favorite book or
favorite recent book.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
That's a trick, double trick question, because I
just reread it.
My favorite book is Man'sSearch for Meaning, Viktor
Frankl.
Viktor Frankl, what a greatbook.
And I just reread it.
I reread it every year.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Oh, that book had such an impact on me.
What part of that book mosttouches you or most motivates
you?
What about it for those thathaven't read it or don't know
anything about it?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
it's all I can do not to go grab it off my shelf is
the simple framing of theuniquely human attribute is our
ability to choose our response,independent of what's going on
in the world, independent ofwhat is happening in the world
that you cannot control.
What we do get to choose is ourresponse, and for me, that is
the great awareness of theopportunity to have a circuit
breaker that allows us to chooseto be a future forward thinker,
(39:47):
a leader or whatever it is, ora victim.
We get to choose how we respond.
So that's the part and I rereadit every year because it's a
good reframing, and I alwaysreread it through a different
lens than I have before, so I'venever read the same book twice.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Isn't that something?
You're absolutely right, andwhat a great book.
I think it's the Time BetweenStimulus and Response.
Is that the time?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
That's absolutely yes , yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you've inspired, yes.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you've inspired me toreread it.
Thank you, dusty.
Thank you again for being withus and for sharing your wisdom
and your openness and yourhonesty and just great stories.
What a pleasure it has been,and I want to just thank our
audience to listening and towatching and to remind you that
(40:37):
all our episodes are anywhere.
You get your podcasts and, ifyou like this episode, give it a
like so others can find theshow.
Thank you again and have awonderful day.
Welcome to the Heart of Business podcast sponsored by
International FacilitatorsOrganization, the marketplace
for facilitators.
I'm your host, mo Fatalbab, andit is a pleasure today to have
with us Dusty Holcomb.
He is founder and chiefevangelist for the Arcus Group,
dusty, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you, Mo.
Such a delight to be here withyou today and really appreciate
the opportunity to talk to youabout things that we are both
deeply passionate about.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah well, we have a lot of shared passion, I know
that.
But I want to start with youand your story.
Let's kind of just start withchildhood perhaps.
Where did you grow up and wheredid you go to school?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I grew up in rural East Georgia.
My dad was the county extensionagent for Warren County in the
University of Georgia ExtensionService, so his whole job was
helping farmers be moresuccessful and he grew up as a
dairy farmer.
So my life, my young childhood,grew up around farming, farmers
and all the wonderful lessonsyou learn from that, that
(01:13):
lifestyle, uh.
And then went to school.
I was homeschooled from fifthgrade through uh high school and
then uh college in Columbusstate university.
Uh, before getting uh gettingout figuring out what I wanted
to do with my life, I had noidea.
So I got a business degree andfound that, oh, this is
interesting.
(01:33):
There's an organizationalpsychology component here.
I can go do some cool things,but it all started in the
background of a farm.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I love that you know.
Listen, I've always beenintrigued by what happens when
you have that background.
What are some of the lessonsthat you've grown up with from
having to work on a farm and therigorous schedule that I know
that can have?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You know it's funny you ask that question my dad.
One of my earliest memories,one of my earliest lessons from
my dad and again, you know hegrew up dairy farming and his
lesson to me was the cows haveto be milked seven days a week,
365 days a year.
They don't care if it'sChristmas or Easter or any other
day, and so therefore, if youwant them to take care of you,
(02:19):
you have to take care of them.
There are no days off.
And in that farming lifestylethat mentality has certainly
been pervasive for me and mywork, for good and for bad.
Right, there's there's somedownsides to that, but that was
one of my earliest recollectionsand earliest memories.
And then also just watching mydad serve other farmers Like I.
(02:42):
He was, you know, dairy cattlespecialist, so I remember going
to the farm with him and he was,you know, a dairy cattle
specialist, so I remember goingto the farm with him and
watching him do um, you knowwhen we were castrating calves
or you know all those littlethings that you just, you just
do, and it's just, he just didthe work, whatever it needed to
get the job done.
That would probably be lessonnumber two is whatever it takes
to get the job done, and thatcan be fixing a tractor in the
(03:04):
field where it broke, or it canbe the fun stuff like having a
fish fry for all the farmers.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Those are two great lessons.
Thank you for sharing those.
So do you actually work everysingle day?
You don't take a day off as aresult of that.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, I didn't get had the opportunity to live on
the dairy farm like he did, butthat was the mentality and I am
working hard to be able to shutit off.
Personally, I find myself, Ilove what I do, and so I give
myself that as an excuse.
And then I have a much smarterthan me bride who will remind me
(03:41):
you need to actually refreshthe brain in order to do some
things.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
So I'm working on it.
Yeah, now the other thing Ihave to ask you probably are the
first person I've met who hasshared with me that he has
castrated a cow.
So what is that experience like?
I just have to know.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, yeah, I imagine it's not too common of a thing.
Um well, the sound isn't verypleasant because they don't like
it they don't like it.
I can't imagine.
And I wasn't very old, I wasprobably eight or nine, um, and
they do it differently now today.
Uh, back then it was, uh, itwas still a knife.
So, uh, it was.
It was not very pleasant and Iremember thinking the sound
(04:23):
wasn't very pleasant, but it wasjust what we did, just part of
it, so part of the life.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah.
So what were your early jobs?
Entrepreneurial ventures, youknow kind of coming up in school
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You know it's funny, I haven't thought about this in
30 years until you just askedthis question.
We lived in a very small town,population 254.
And my earliest entrepreneurialventure that I can remember is
we had a Mac computer back whenthose were just coming out, and
I made a newspaper because ourtown didn't have one and so
(05:01):
created this newspaper, wrotethis whole thing.
I probably was eight or nineyears old and went and stood by
the post office to sell thenewspaper and I think we sold
four copies the first day from,you know, parents that were
coming in or people coming in.
You know, I think they were anickel, maybe 10 cents a piece,
and I remember thinking, okay,I'm going to have to sell a lot
(05:23):
of these in order to getanywhere.
And then my mom was like, ohwell, you have to make sure
you're paying me back for thepaper.
And that's when I was firstexposed to COGS and I went, huh,
I need to find something withbetter unit economics than a
newspaper in a market with 254people.
But that was the very first oneand then after that it just
(05:45):
became a series of things.
My dad, my brother and I had ourown landscaping company, and it
was my brother and I.
He was three years younger thanme, I was 11.
He was eight.
Dad would drive us to the workand he would drive us on the
trailer.
We do all, unload all theequipment, do all the work.
We had contracts with companiesand with people at 11 years old
and I remember thinking all,unload all the equipment, do all
the work.
We had contracts with companiesand with people at 11 years old
(06:08):
and I remember thinking, allright, this is this is okay, I'm
in control, I'm in charge.
If we wanted to work reallyhard on a Friday night and go
really late so we could have theweekend free, that's what we
did.
Those are.
Those are the two earliestmemories that I have about going
out and hustling to make adollar on my own.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, amazing, amazing.
Those are great stories.
And so then, after college,what was your?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
first job, or what did you do right out of college?
You know, mo, I never reallyunderstood or did the college
experience where you didn't work.
So I started working when I was16, for someone else and at a
men's retail store a high-endmen's retail store and it was
probably the single best giftI've ever been given regarding
work, and the reason is Ilearned how to sell, and what I
(06:57):
learned about sales was not itwasn't about me, it was about
understanding what the customerwas coming in for.
What did they need?
How do you ask questions?
How do you present them withthe solutions that would fit
them?
And so I started doing thatwhen I was 16.
And within a year I became thetop salesperson in the little
(07:19):
small company.
It was like five of us, but Iwas supposed to be the stock boy
, but I loved it, and so I wouldwork there 35 hours a week
until the holidays, and that waswhen I was first introduced to
what it was like to work throughthe holiday season in retail,
and I vividly remember my firstretail holiday season paycheck.
(07:40):
It was $896 for two weeks workthat worked, I don't know.
80 or 100 hours, it was justlike bell to bell every day.
But I worked all through college.
I worked 35, 40 hours a weekand then, when I was in college,
I started working in a callcenter and so my first job out
of college, I was alreadyrunning a call center for a
(08:02):
large bank down in Georgia andgot recruited away to go to an
organization called AAA,american Automobile Association.
Yeah, and I loved it because Iwas thinking, oh, this is great,
they're hiring me, this23-year-old kid who had no
business being here to move acall center from Charlotte,
north Carolina, to Roanoke Ravis, north Carolina, hire 350
(08:25):
people, install the culture.
I was going to be the onlytransplant and I don't know why
they hired me.
I think they were eitherdesperate or blind, I'm not sure
.
But I took it because I was at acompany I loved, because I
thought where else am I going toget an opportunity to come and
do all of this at 23 years old.
(08:46):
And I didn't know anythingabout AAA except for the fact
that it was the gift of mygrandparents gave my mom and dad
every year for Christmas and Ithought was the most lame thing
in the world.
But then I stayed there for 21years because I fell in love
with the fact that every daywhen I went home I knew we
helped people.
We helped people and not injust a metaphorical sense, but
(09:12):
we helped people get off theside of the road.
We helped dads make sure thattheir daughters going to college
were protected All the things.
I've got hundreds of stories.
I loved it and so I stayedthere for, like I said, 21 years
, did every job in theorganization, but it was always
about the service and helpingothers.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And what's one of those stories that you remember
that was meaningful for you?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I've got one that was meaningful from a leadership
perspective and then I've gotone that was meaningful from a
member perspective.
The One of my responsibilitieswhen I was there was to our auto
repair facility.
So we had 40 locations andpeople would come in and get
(10:00):
their cars fixed.
Auto repair is a little bit ofa messy business.
It's low trust and people don'tunderstand.
And I had a customer, a member,call me and say I want you to
know that my daughter went intoyour store in Wilmington, north
Carolina, and I've got a problem.
So I'm immediately going allright, here we go, let me help
(10:21):
you.
I'm here to help, I'm here tounderstand.
He goes.
Here's my problem.
My daughter's experience inWilmington has now ruined her
from being able to go to anyother auto repair shop.
Team was communicative.
They took her out to the shopand explained to her.
You know, I I didn't have toworry that she was getting
(10:42):
ripped off and and and so I Iwas.
I had steeled myself to getlike oh God, we did something
wrong and didn't have that.
So it's just one of many, manystories I would always have on a
AAA shirt and you see somebodyin Target and they go hey,
you're AAA, can you help me?
(11:02):
And we just, we had a lot offun helping people, the
leadership story that's, I think.
Back on we started our owntowing company in Charlotte,
north Carolina, to augment whatour service providers, our
contractors, could do.
So we had a new venture webought all the trucks, I went
(11:25):
and picked up trucks, drove oneback, towed it back myself
because I figured I needed toknow how to do this, drove one
back, towed it back myselfbecause I figured I needed to
know how to do this.
Our very first day of operation, the manager of the fleet that
I'd hired a guy named GeorgeFigueredo.
He and I were down at thedispatch office that we'd set up
and we get a call from ourdispatch center that said hey,
we have a member that has beenwaiting for three hours and the
(11:48):
service provider that wassupposed to go to him has
canceled.
Can you guys go do it Now?
This is our very first day andI looked at George and I said,
well, let's go do it.
And he goes.
Well, you and I both beentrained, but we've never done it
before.
I said, well, between the twoof us, we can go figure this out
.
So we jumped in the truck droveover there.
(12:11):
The member was not happy, asthey shouldn't have been, and I
just said look, my name is DustyHolcomb, I'm the vice president
of member services.
You know we knew that you'dbeen waiting and want to come
out here and make sure this istaken care of.
And and then you know she saidokay, great, here's where I want
to.
And then George and I stoodthere looking at each other for
about five minutes after sheleft and I've like the prayer
was answered, which was pleasedon't let her stay here and
watch us do this, because wedon't know what we're doing, and
(12:35):
she didn't Thank God because westood there looking at each
other going well, we think we'regoing to have to do it this way
.
We figured it out, nothing wasdamaged, but there's just so
many stories.
It was a very blessed time ofmy life.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And that sounds amazing.
And so, after AAA, what did youdo after that?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, after AAA, I left in 2021.
We had been acquired by a muchlarger AAA affiliate and I was
wired in a much moreentrepreneurial mindset.
Our AAA affiliate had been veryentrepreneurial, very lean, and
I'd done a lot of really neatthings.
I had decided I was going totake a year off and then start
my own leadership consultingfirm, because my entire life,
ever since my very first mentorback in the call center days,
(13:20):
had been about serving others.
In fact, greg was a retiredcolonel and had told me hey,
dusty, your number one job as aleader is to ensure that your
people are taken care of,because when you take care of
them, they will take care of thecustomer, they take care of the
mission, and so that had beenmy founding principle and I'd
lived that in the corporateworld for a long, long time.
(13:42):
Well, when I left AAA, I wasgoing to start my own leadership
firm because I wanted to helpleaders and continue that, and I
met some amazing people inKnoxville, tennessee, who are an
e-commerce logistics company,and I think I managed to keep my
promise to my wife about takinga year off for about two months
before I decided to joinRedStag as their CEO and help
(14:03):
them grow and scale, and thendid that for three years and
then after that run was ended,it was like, okay, I feel very
called that now is the season.
Now's the time I get to go tohelp others and serve others as
they grow in their leadershipjourneys and really bring my
personal mission to life, whichis to empower success in others.
I did it for 28 years in acorporate environment.
(14:26):
Now I get to do it in adifferent type of environment
environment.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Now I get to do it in a different type of environment
.
That is amazing.
And at RedStag you were a CEOand I believe at that point you
joined the Young PresidentsOrganization.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I'd actually joined YPO when I was still at
AAA.
I was the president of ourautomotive division.
So 2018 is when I first joinedYPO, and it was active when I
was at RedStag as well joinedYPO and it was active.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
When I was at Red Sag as well, got it and so clearly
you were part of a forum and Iknow it's all confidential.
But you know, one of the thingsthat's important for us on this
show is to sort of highlight,showcase the power of forum, the
effect the forum may have hadon your life in general.
And again, for those who don'tknow, this is a small group of
roughly eight people that meetevery month in a confidential,
(15:14):
structured environment to helpeach other be the best they can
be.
So you joined a forum, what wasthat like?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, there's the forum experience, and either
through YPO or Vistagepreviously, I've had almost 20
years of being in a small groupforum experience and I would be
understating if I said it's beenthe most life-changing part of
my leadership journey, because Idon't know that I have enough
(15:44):
words to put into how powerfulit has been.
So I'll give you two specificstories.
One was with my Vistage group.
I was going through a verytough divorce and you know
Vistage, you know you thinkabout the forum.
It can be all business and itwasn't that at all.
(16:05):
In a season for me of deepstruggle and challenge, I had
people around me who, a cared, basked amazing questions and C
affirmed that, despitechallenges I was facing, I was
still a good human being andthat there were people who cared
(16:26):
about me and cared about me ina way that they would ask this
tough questions.
They were very good at beingkind and not nice and and giving
me the truth that I needed tohear, and so that was a.
That was a transformationalexperience and it wasn't just
about hey, tell me more aboutyour business.
And then, with my YPO forum,who I'm in with one of our, mr
(16:51):
Chuck Hall, actually introducedus.
He's such an incredible leader.
Recently, my forum again allconfidential, but I'll share my
story because it's my own.
It's your story yes, waschallenged with like as I build
my business, and I said, guys,I'm struggling because the
(17:14):
biggest struggle I'm facingright now is I've spent 28 years
leading others and, like I missthat.
I miss the big accomplishment ofthe thing.
And you know, being a coach iswonderful but you don't own the
outcomes.
And I'm really struggling withnot owning outcomes.
And they helped me throughquestions, through helping me
(17:38):
understand, really attune andunderstand that I'm a builder
and that's what I love to do.
And so I needed to recast whatI'm doing, not to be just about
coaching but to be aboutbuilding something.
And then, when I made thatmental shift which I don't know
that I could have done withoutthat input I was able to reframe
(17:58):
my entire thinking and approachto yes, this is what I do, but
here's what I'm building, and itis having people that know you
know you well.
Having people that know youknow you well will challenge you
and they will challenge me andnot let you buy into your own
press copings, as Mark Twainwould say, has helped me become
(18:22):
a better thinker and an evolvedperson to get to places I
probably wouldn't have gotten to.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
That's powerful.
That's very powerful, thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
So let's move on to your Arcusgroup, and you are the chief
evangelist and the founder.
I love the title, so tell usabout that endeavor and what you
all do.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, we started.
You know, I came out with theidea hey, I believe that there's
a better way to lead, I think,when we think about leadership
through this lens of leadingyourself first, that allows you
to lead a team, that allows youto lead an organization.
So, you know, I started withthe idea of, hey, executive
coaching, mentoring, things likethat.
And then, as I've learned as anentrepreneur, you evolve, you
(19:09):
learn.
You know, I started with theidea of, hey, executive coaching
, mentoring, things like that.
And then, as I've learned as anentrepreneur, you evolve, you
learn, you listen to what themarket and what people want.
I started stitching togetherwhat I found to be kind of the
keystone elements of what Ibelieve makes a great leader.
First and foremost, you have tobe willing to lead yourself
(19:31):
first.
You have to be purpose-drivenand value-centric and you need a
system to do that, a system ofthinking, a system of execution,
a system.
And so I realized that as Istepped back and said, okay,
well, what has made others thatI have served successful over
the last 28 years is, okay, Iput together some good systems,
(19:52):
I put together some goodframeworks.
And then I said, well, okay,well, how do we help them do it.
So now we say we'll take thetime to do it, we give people
the time and space to install.
And then the third thing, whichis the thing that you and I are
both passionate about, which isa forum how do you get people
to connect with and have anaccountability partner with each
(20:14):
other to be better that forumexperience?
In fact, just before our chattoday, I was on a call with my
accountability partner walkingthrough some stuff.
So what we're doing at ArcusGroup is putting together
leadership impact acceleratorswhere we bring 12 people, we
give them good systems, we givethem the time and space to
(20:35):
install them and we put themwith like-minded peers so they
can sharpen against and witheach other.
And my vision in fact it's comefrom a conversation that you and
I had previously my vision isto be and build the number one
success platform forpurpose-driven, value-centric
leaders, and I originally wantedto impact the lives of a
(20:57):
million leaders over the next 10years.
And you and I had a chat awhile back and I was like you
know, I think I'm actuallydreaming too small and I had to
go and say well, what doessuccess beyond my wildest
imagination mean?
And I know yours is to have abillion people in a forum.
It's audacious.
(21:17):
It's audacious right.
It's a BHAG and I said I want toimpact the lives of 100 million
and I got to that just by goingwell, if I 10 X my, if I got 10
, if I achieved 10% of that,then that is 10 X what I
(21:37):
originally set out to do.
That's a pretty good number.
So it's not a billion but ahundred million, and it's still
a big number and I had no ideahow I'm going to do it, but
we're going to figure it out butwe're going to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I love that.
I love that.
I love that.
So let's talk about anotheraspect of your life, so we could
get to know who Dusty is,hobbies, what you do.
For fun, tell us more aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, I started.
I like to do hard things, soabout 10 or 15 years ago I
started doing Ironman racing.
Oh, me too.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Really we didn't talk talk about this, but I've
stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It's been a while yeah, I have stopped too.
It's been a while.
My body did not take it.
Uh, I'm a six foot four and youknow 220 pound linebacker size,
but I did do a bunch of.
I did a bunch of iron man, uhraces and did uh some marathons,
and I just love doing hardthings.
So, anything outdoors, anythingthat's going to put me in a
(22:37):
place that's bigger than me,like my favorite spots on this
planet are going to be in themiddle of the back country in
British Columbia or in Montana,on a river, fly fishing on a
boat, in the middle of the oceanwith family.
Those are the places where Ifeel most alive, because I feel
(22:59):
the smallest and for me that'sthe thing.
I, watching the sunrise fromthe back of a horse in the
middle of the British Columbiabush, is probably the most alive
I've ever felt in my entirelife.
So those are the things I liketo do for fun, like to do it
with family, like to we, like tobe out in the boat or just
anything outside.
(23:19):
Anything outdoors, anythingwhere I feel small.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That sounds amazing and British Columbia is stunning
, and one day I'll see thesunrise from a horse in British
Columbia.
Thank you, I know people.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I can make that happen for you, you can make
that happen, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You know, I also fell off the horse in Alberta last
time.
I was at an EO event there andI've been back on a horse since
then.
But it's one of those thingsthat I definitely want to get
back to.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I would love to get back to Ironman racing, but I'm
not sure my body will everpermit me to do it to that
degree again.
Which ones have you done?
I did Ironman Florida.
I did Ironman Arizona.
I did Ironman Lake Tahoe thatrace is now defunct.
I did Maryland and then I didthe Beach to Battleship Ironman
in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Very nice, very.
And then I did the beach tobattleship Ironman in.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Wilmington, north Carolina.
Very nice, very nice, very nice.
How about yourself?
Which ones have you done?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So I finished the Zurich Switzerland Ironman.
And then I was in the Vinemanin California and I broke a
couple of ribs at the bike runtransition.
I had a nasty fall in front ofall my family and friends as I
took a speed bump with one handwaving to them, and so I did
(24:38):
half the marathon and then Icouldn't breathe and I'm like
maybe I shouldn't push it.
So half the marathon I was done.
Turns out, I broke a couple ofribs and the doctor said I was
lucky, I didn't puncture a lung.
So I was done.
Turns out, I broke a couple ofribs and the doctor said I was
lucky, I didn't puncture a lung.
So so that was that.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
So I finished one and uh and uh did not finish the
second, but one under my belt'sgood One's enough.
Yeah, you're.
You're smarter than me.
When I did Lake Tahoe, I uh Iended up having to go to the med
tent afterwards for a few hoursbecause I developed hypothermia
during the race and I was notsmart enough to quit.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
You know, it's really interesting you bring that up
because in training formarathons the one thing that I
always my mantra was you don'tlose unless you quit.
And I think part of the cost ofthat is our mind over.
Our body is so strong we canpush through points of injury
without knowing it.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You really can.
I did two Ironman races threeweeks apart and that was
physically challenging, but itwas the mental challenge on that
second one was I learned a lotabout myself on the backside of
an Ironman marathon, when youjust go to this little dark
place inside your head and youjust put one foot in front of
the other and your mind is somuch stronger than your body
(26:00):
100%.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So that begs the question how do you know when to
quit?
Because I'm not sure I figuredthat one out.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know that I have either, mo.
Honestly, I think I'd like tobe rational.
I'd like to have some sagewisdom.
I don't know, in fact, ifanything, I need to learn that,
because I just don't have a quitbone in my body and there is
probably a better way to do it.
If you figure it out, let meknow, because I don't know what
(26:30):
it is and I'm trying to, as Iget older, become more wise and
maybe become more rational, butI haven't found it yet.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And I mean that in everything, not just in the
marathons or triathlons, rightIn business.
At what point do you say, hey,this business isn't working.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it's a great question.
In fact, it's the conversationI was just having earlier today
with my accountability partner,Mark.
We were talking about thatbecause he's got a project he's
working on and we were talkingthrough okay, what are the
demarcation points where you cansay I'm going to step back from
this, do an evaluation.
If this has happened, we'regoing to go this direction.
(27:10):
If this hasn't happened, orthis has happened, we're going
to go that.
And it was a good reminder tome.
It is like okay, what are thosecheckpoints that you can decide
in advance where you check in?
And I think that, thinking outloud a bit here, I think that's
one of the things that aligns sowell with kind of the
philosophies I have aroundself-leadership is you decide in
(27:31):
advance about what's soimportant and about what's most
important, so that in the momentyou don't get clouded by
emotions or anything else that'sgoing on.
So, thinking through this, I'mgoing to have to put a little
thought into it but being ableto at least decide in advance,
maybe in the business context,what are the markers that must
be met in order to earn theopportunity for continued
(27:52):
investment of time, effort andenergy, what are those things?
I'll have to think about itsome more.
But it's a great questionbecause I haven't found a way to
decode it to a fully rationalresponse.
It's always emotional.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, isn't that interesting.
So back to your purpose andvalues-driven mission.
You talked a little bit about,you know, liking to help people,
but maybe a little bit more whythat matters.
Help liking to help people, butmaybe a little bit more why
that matters to you beingpurpose driven and value based.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Yes.
So for me, it's all aboutfinding a way to connect the
dots, and when I think aboutpurpose driven and value centric
, it's being able to connect thedots between what we do and why
we're here.
And so if you take the effortand energy and invest in
understanding, you know what isthe God-given gift or talent
(28:44):
that you have, what is it youcan do for others that will
create an impact beyond yourself.
And then how do you connect thedots?
And from a leadershipperspective, I think, when we
really flex the muscle andpractice the skill of connecting
the dots for ourselves, that wethen can translate that for
others.
And so when I can help anotherperson to connect the dots
(29:07):
between what they do and whatthey're tasked with doing, and
why the organization exists,where it's going, what the
vision is, what the mission is,etc.
That dot connecting skill iswhere I believe that we can
unlock discretionary effort.
And I think the greatestleaders do the best job of
(29:28):
connecting dots for themselvesand for their teams so that the
teams can make better decisionsand do the work, maybe even
without the leader being there.
In fact, most especiallywithout the leader being there.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I love when I hear somebody say I took a vacation
for a month which wasunprecedented and my team
stepped in.
I never heard from them once.
Oh, they just threw thebusiness by 5%.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, that's when you've arrived as a leader,
right, that's when they'rebetter at it than you are.
And the ability.
It comes down to the ability toconnect dots, though, and the
questions that I always askmyself and ask leadership teams
are question number one why arewe here?
What's our purpose beyondmaking money?
If you can't answer that, howcan you expect your team to?
(30:20):
But if your team can answerthat without you in the room,
all right, you're on the way.
And then it's.
The second question is where arewe going?
And the third question is howare we going to get there?
The plan, and then where I seemost leaders and I struggled
with this for many, many years,and still I think it's one of
the hardest things that leadershave to do is answer what I
(30:43):
would consider the next twoquestions.
Question number four is wheredo I fit in?
And that's that dot connectingquestion for their work, their
effort, their activity.
Where does what I do, how doeswhat I do matter?
Yeah, and how does it connect?
And then the last questionwhere?
And these, these are the oneswhere I find most organizations
(31:04):
fall off what's in it for me?
And it's not just money, infact it's rare.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
It's rarely money yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, it's meaning its impact, its opportunity,
whatever that is, and I thinkthe best organizations, the best
leaders do the best job atconnecting dots, and so when I
think purpose-driven,value-centric it's, how do we
help others connect dots?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, I want to talk more about mentorship and
specifically the one or twomentors that have had the
biggest impact on you.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
A little bit more about that.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I've been very privileged to have a lot of
great mentors.
The first one I've alreadymentioned is Colonel Greg Camp.
And Colonel Camp, retired WestPointer Vietnam veteran, he had
been chief of staff at FortBenning, georgia, and he took a
chance on me.
He saw something and when Ifirst started working for him I
(32:09):
was 21, and really took me underhis wing and helped me
understand what leadership is.
And I'll never forget I hadjust been promoted to assistant
call center manager and he saidI'd like for you to start coming
to our book club.
We do a book club at ODARC 30every Tuesday morning.
I said what time is ODARC 30?
He goes, it's 630.
And he laughed.
I said okay, and there were anumber of other retired officers
(32:33):
and senior enlisted in ourcompany and we would just go in
and talk about a book.
And I remember the most profoundthing, mo, was I got to sit at
the table and contribute as if Ihad the same degree of
experience as anyone else,because I had perspective.
And that's what Greg.
One of the great things thatGreg taught me was experience is
(32:58):
wonderful, perspective iswhat's valuable, and so you have
to be able to share yourperspective and a great leader
listens to and understands thevalue of perspective that's
different from their own.
And the day I resigned fromthat position, I was terrified
to tell Greg that I was leavingBecause he was my mentor and he
(33:23):
just sat there and said, well,I'm not surprised.
And then I had to sit back fora second.
He goes.
I'm not surprised, dusty,because one of the best gifts
and blessings we ever had inmilitary leadership was we knew
that the soldiers that wereassigned to us would only be
with us for a few years and ourmission, our job, was to help
(33:44):
them be successful in achievingthe mission and help them be
successful for their next post.
So I approach every role andperson who's I'm entitled to
serve and care for with themission of helping them be
better for their next thing.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I mean that is beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I was 23.
So I had those lessons at 23years old 21, 22, 23.
I've had a more recent mentorwould be a gentleman by the name
of Terry Dunn.
He was my Vistage chair andjust dear friend for 15 years
and Terry had a remarkable wayof always just asking the right
(34:24):
question and I've actually takenseveral of my favorite
questions which I love to ask.
One of them is a pure TerryDunn, which is what would have
to be different.
So I talk about some situationor something or some challenge
or what would have to bedifferent, what would have to
change in order for the outcomethat you want to be possible.
(34:48):
I love that question.
Terry taught me how to askbetter questions and now I have
mentors like Chuck, who askedexceptional questions, and I've
been very blessed.
The mentors that I have havegiven themselves and of
themselves, freely, with nodesire to receive anything back
(35:13):
other than to contribute tosomeone else.
That's the model that I want tolive in life.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I love that.
I love that.
Well, I would be honored to beone of your clients.
So, on that note, tell me thetarget audience you have for
your groups that you'relaunching, so that listeners who
qualify, who would like tocontact you and benefit from
your incredible story, can do so.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, the target audience is the right leader,
someone who owns outcomes and istransitioning.
They're at an inflection pointin their leadership growth.
They've become the bottleneck.
They're feeling lonely orthey're frustrated that the
team's not getting the tractionthat they want.
So outcome owning leaders andthose are typically in our
(36:02):
groups are going to be founders,entrepreneurs.
You know the hired gun, as itwere, running the business.
They are responsible andaccountable for the outcomes of
the businesses.
You know set to do and thepeople that are doing it.
And you know set to do and thepeople that are doing it.
And you know.
One of the things that we'vedone is we've found that there's
(36:23):
always and I'm a greatsimplifier, I always try to
distill to three things thosethree pain points of loneliness,
of being the bottleneck andbeing frustrated come through
again and again and again.
And we created a leadership gapassessment to help leaders
identify where they are and thenwhat they need to do to get
unstuck.
And your audience could simplygo to leadershipgapassessmentcom
(36:47):
and figure that out.
It's a free test.
They can get the answers anddecode where they are and what
they need to do to get to thatnext level.
So it's loneliness being thebottleneck, and the third one is
a frustration between thevision they have and the results
that are on the field.
There's a gap between those two.
(37:08):
Those are the.
There's a million reasons forthem, but those are the things
that we see time and time again.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Amazing.
And what would be your process,then, for helping those leaders
to overcome their challenges,so to speak?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, the first thing that, from a process
perspective just understanding acall to understand where
they're going, what is it thatthey're facing with?
You know the when you step back, the first thing a leader has
to do is get clear forthemselves, and we often talk
about an execution gap.
Hey, we're not getting theresults we want.
(37:44):
There's something, but it'snever.
It's not never.
It's rarely an executionproblem, it's almost always
upstream from that.
It starts with do we haveclarity and is the team aligned?
And so our process is how do webuild clarity, how do we work
to get clear as leaders?
What is most important, why arewe here, where are we going?
(38:06):
All those things.
And then how do we buildalignment as a team?
Because when we are, we haveclarity and when we have built
alignment, then we can execute.
And then, if we're notexecuting, we're having a
conversation that goes back towhere we misaligned or where are
we unclear.
Now we have to leverage thepoll to make those things happen
(38:26):
.
So that's our process as wewalk through frameworks to help
people get and build clarity,drive alignment and then enable
execution.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Amazing, amazing, amazing Favorite book or
favorite recent book.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
That's a trick, double trick question, because I
just reread it.
My favorite book is Man'sSearch for Meaning, Viktor
Frankl.
Viktor Frankl, what a greatbook.
And I just reread it.
I reread it every year.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Oh, that book had such an impact on me.
What part of that book mosttouches you or most motivates
you?
What about it for those thathaven't read it or don't know
anything about it?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
it's all I can do not to go grab it off my shelf is
the simple framing of theuniquely human attribute is our
ability to choose our response,independent of what's going on
in the world, independent ofwhat is happening in the world
that you cannot control.
What we do get to choose is ourresponse, and for me, that is
the great awareness of theopportunity to have a circuit
breaker that allows us to chooseto be a future forward thinker,
(39:47):
a leader or whatever it is, ora victim.
We get to choose how we respond.
So that's the part and I rereadit every year because it's a
good reframing, and I alwaysreread it through a different
lens than I have before, so I'venever read the same book twice.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Isn't that something?
You're absolutely right, andwhat a great book.
I think it's the Time BetweenStimulus and Response.
Is that the time?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
That's absolutely yes , yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you've inspired, yes.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you've inspired me toreread it.
Thank you, dusty.
Thank you again for being withus and for sharing your wisdom
and your openness and yourhonesty and just great stories.
What a pleasure it has been,and I want to just thank our
audience to listening and towatching and to remind you that
(40:37):
all our episodes are anywhere.
You get your podcasts and, ifyou like this episode, give it a
like so others can find theshow.
Thank you again and have awonderful day.
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