Culture From the Heart

In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Mike Sullivan, president and CEO of The LOOMIS Agency, a Dallas-based challenger brand advertising agency, and co-author of The Voice of the Underdog. Mike believes culture from the heart begins with honesty, intentionality, and leadership behaviors that reflect the values an organization claims to stand for. At LOOMIS, transparency, communication, integrity, collaboration, and hard work create an environment where people can do their best work.

Mike shares how intentional leadership and clearly defined values support a high-performance, high-velocity culture. From documenting the agency's purpose and values to using simple practices like asking, “What's the committed action?”, he explains how communication and accountability help teams move quickly without creating unnecessary confusion. He also discusses his personal leadership journey, learning to manage his reactivity, practice mindfulness, listen more carefully, and recognize the influence his behavior has on others.

The conversation also explores why culture is a powerful competitive advantage. Mike recalls walking away from a significant client opportunity after discovering that the prospective client had treated younger team members disrespectfully. Although the decision meant sacrificing potential revenue, it strengthened trust within the agency. Drawing from his experience with challenger brands, Mike explains why businesses cannot simply outspend their competitors or imitate industry leaders. Instead, lasting differentiation comes from aligning company culture, brand promises, and customer experiences. When organizations genuinely live their values, they build stronger relationships, greater loyalty, and brands that competitors cannot easily replicate.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Culture is defined by actions, not slogans. An honest culture requires leaders to demonstrate their values consistently through their decisions, behaviors, and relationships.
Clarity and communication support high performance. Documenting values, encouraging transparency, and establishing clear committed actions help teams move faster while reducing confusion.
Strong leadership starts with self-awareness. Leaders must recognize how their reactions and behaviors affect others. Learning to pause, listen, and respond thoughtfully creates room for better ideas.
Protecting culture sometimes requires sacrifice. Walking away from misaligned clients or opportunities may cost revenue, but it can strengthen employee trust and protect long-term relationships.
Culture is a competitive advantage. Challenger brands cannot always outspend larger competitors, but they can differentiate themselves through the way they behave, serve customers, and live their values.
Great brands are built from the inside out. When company culture aligns with brand promises and customer experiences, businesses create meaningful connections, stronger loyalty, and lasting differentiation.

QUOTES
“It's what you do, it's not what you say.”
“If it's not written, it's not real.”
“What's the committed action?”
“Culture costs you something.”
“You've gotta stand for something, and if you stand for something, that means that you stand against something else.”
“They've gotta out-think, not outspend the competition.”
“The richer the culture, the more durable the brand.”
Learn more about Darrell and Larry.
Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/
Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from Mike Sullivan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesullivanatloomis/

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION:

Behind every heart-centered company is a heart-centered leader. We want the world to hear their stories. Recognize the leaders building culture from the heart here: 
https://culturefromtheheart.com/NominateYourCEO

Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.
https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring

Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now!
https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture

Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople.
https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/

In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Micah Lacher of Anchor Investments, a Nashville-based real estate investment company pursuing a vision of becoming America’s most generous real estate company, believes culture from the heart begins with truly knowing the people on your team. He sees employees as people first, not simply job titles, and extends that care to their spouses and children.

Micah shares how generosity has become part of both the culture and mission of Anchor Investments. The company connects everyday work to a larger purpose, using business success to support nonprofit and kingdom-focused efforts. The conversation also explores in-person mentorship, learning the work before relying on AI, and using EOS to create structure, accountability, and clear values such as Give It Away, aggressive learning, drive, and team over self.

Micah also explains how his personal story shaped his commitment to generosity. Growing up watching his mother work tirelessly through financial hardship gave him a desire to give if he was ever entrusted with resources. Today, he sees business not simply as a financial engine, but as a calling, and encourages leaders to treat generosity like a muscle that grows stronger through consistent practice.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
People want to be known beyond their job title. Heart-centered leadership means understanding what is happening in employees’ lives and recognizing that work affects their families too.
Generosity can become part of company culture. Anchor intentionally gives to employees, their families, nonprofit partners, and communities rather than treating generosity as something separate from the business.
Connect everyday work to a bigger mission. Employees are more likely to see meaning in difficult or routine work when leaders consistently show them how their contribution creates a larger impact.
Strong culture needs structure and accountability. EOS helped Anchor clarify expectations, organize meetings, establish priorities, and create accountability while protecting the team from constant distractions.
Business can become a platform for purpose. Micah’s perspective shifted from seeing the company merely as a financial engine to viewing the marketplace itself as a meaningful calling.
Generosity grows through practice. Micah describes generosity as a muscle that becomes stronger and more natural the more you exercise it.
QUOTES
“I think human beings want to be known.” 
“We are trying to build a different workplace.” 
“We’re just trying to be radically generous.” 
“You still have to learn how to do the work.” 
“Being generous gives me so much purpose.” 
“The marketplace is a great calling.” 
“Generosity’s a muscle.” 
Learn more about Darrell and Larry.
Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/
Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from Micah Lacher
https://www.linkedin.com/in/micah-lacher-1366151/

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION:

Behind every heart-centered company is a heart-centered leader. We want the world to hear their stories. Recognize the leaders building culture from the heart here: 
https://culturefromtheheart.com/NominateYourCEO

Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.
https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring

Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now!
https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture

Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople.
https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/

In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined John Sansoucie, Chairman and CEO of CogNet, shares what he has learned from growing the business from roughly 67 employees to around 670 while working across continents and cultures. For John, preserving culture through growth starts with communication. Leaders must over-communicate strategy, stay visible, measure what matters, and make sure employees understand both where the company is headed and how they contribute.

The conversation also explores how to build a genuine family atmosphere across cultural and geographic boundaries. John emphasizes listening, participation, and understanding what matters to employees rather than defining culture entirely from the top down. At the heart of CogNet’s philosophy is a simple belief: the people are the product. That means investing in training, development, wellbeing, and long-term relationships while helping American and Indian teams better understand one another.

John also discusses the challenge of maintaining culture while introducing new leadership, new ideas, and AI. Technology can create opportunity, but it can also disrupt the way people work, making clear communication even more important. His advice is to keep a pulse on the people, combine institutional knowledge with fresh perspectives, communicate change repeatedly, and protect the human relationships that made the organization successful in the first place.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Culture becomes more intentional as a company grows. What happens naturally with a small team requires communication, measurement, and leadership involvement at scale. 
Leaders must listen to employees instead of designing culture entirely from the top down. Participation and connection reveal what truly matters to the people inside the organization. 
People are the foundation of the business. Training, development, wellbeing, and long-term relationships are investments in the company's most important asset. 
Cross-cultural leadership requires understanding in both directions. Strong partnerships emerge when employees and customers learn how the other side communicates, works, and lives. 
Outsourcing works best when outsourced employees are treated as part of the client's team. Real relationships, clear responsibilities, and honest expectations create stronger collaboration. 
Growth, new leadership, and AI all require over-communication. When the organization changes, leaders must repeatedly explain where the company is going and why. 
QUOTES
“Our product is our people, period.” 
“Listen a little bit is a big one.” 
“You’ve got to allow both cultures to exist.” 
“We don’t just teach topic. We teach culture and who we are.” 
“This is your team. They just happen to work for me.” 
“Pay attention and keep your pulse on the culture and the people.” 
Learn more about Darrell and Larry.
Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/
Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from John Sansoucie
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-sansoucie-033b20/

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION:

Behind every heart-centered company is a heart-centered leader. We want the world to hear their stories. Recognize the leaders building culture from the heart here: 
https://culturefromtheheart.com/NominateYourCEO

Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.
https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring

Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now!
https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture

Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople.
https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/

In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by RJ Kedziora, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Estenda Solutions and author of Productive Harmony: How to Optimize Productivity in the 21st Century. RJ works at the intersection of software, data analytics, AI, and healthcare, helping build technology designed to improve the health and wellness of others.

RJ explains that technology is ultimately not about technology—it is about people and processes. For leaders and teams to create meaningful solutions, especially in healthcare, they must understand the experiences of the people they serve. Empathy, curiosity, firsthand conversations, and a willingness to continuously learn help employees make better decisions and build solutions that create a greater human impact.

The conversation also explores RJ’s concept of productive harmony. Rather than chasing an unrealistic version of work-life balance, RJ encourages leaders to think about how they manage their energy across work, family, health, and other priorities. Productivity is not simply about getting more done. Sustainable performance requires rest, recovery, movement, good decision-making, and knowing when to step away.

RJ also challenges leaders to rethink productivity in the age of AI. While AI can dramatically increase efficiency, every efficiency gain should not automatically result in employees being asked to do more. Leaders must protect critical thinking, maintain human accountability, and use technology to create capacity rather than simply increase workload.

For RJ, productive harmony means using technology intelligently while preserving the empathy, curiosity, responsibility, rest, and human connection that allow people to perform at their best.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Technology should support people and processes rather than replace the human element behind the work.
Work-life balance is not always realistic; leaders should instead pursue harmony between competing priorities.
Sustainable productivity depends on managing energy, not simply managing time.
Rest and recovery are essential components of high performance rather than rewards for finishing more work.
AI should create greater efficiency and capacity without automatically creating greater workloads.
Human accountability and critical thinking must remain at the center of AI-assisted work.
QUOTES
“Technology is not about the technology, it’s about the people and the processes.”
“Balance doesn’t exist.”
“You need to find the harmony between these different things, different aspects of life.”
“Think about how you can use AI to be more efficient, more effective, and to gain some of that time back.”
“The answer can’t be, ‘Well, now do more.’”
“Use AI to understand the task.”
Learn more about Darrell and Larry.
Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/
Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from RJ Kedziora
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjkedziora/

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION:

Behind every heart-centered company is a heart-centered leader. We want the world to hear their stories. Recognize the leaders building culture from the heart here: 
https://culturefromtheheart.com/NominateYourCEO

Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.
https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring

Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now!
https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture

Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople.
https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/

In this episode of the Culture From the Heart Podcast, hosts Larry Levine and Darrell Amy are joined by Kelly Knight, Integrator and President of EOS Worldwide. Kelly helps lead an organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurial leadership teams gain clarity, strengthen alignment, build traction, and achieve more of what they want from their businesses.

Kelly explains that a strong culture does not happen by accident. It begins when leaders honestly evaluate the culture they have today, define the culture they want to create, and intentionally connect their words, actions, and behaviors to meaningful core values. Without clarity, consistency, and repeatable systems, employees are left to make assumptions about what the organization truly represents.

Throughout the conversation, Kelly shares how EOS Worldwide reinforces its five core values: be humbly confident, grow or die, help first, do the right thing, and do what you say. She also explains how meeting rhythms, storytelling, recognition, accountability, and frequent repetition help transform values from words on a wall into everyday behaviors. 

For Kelly, culture is not simply what an organization looks like. It is what people feel when they are part of the team.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Culture must be created intentionally rather than left to chance.
Core values should be visible through leaders’ words, actions, and behaviors.
Consistent systems and processes help turn values into repeatable practices.
Leadership credibility grows when leaders model the standards they expect from others.
Recognition and storytelling help employees understand what core values look like in action.
Culture becomes sustainable when employees at every level celebrate and reinforce the organization’s values.
Repetition builds clarity, alignment, trust, and long-term cultural consistency.
Leaders can begin improving culture by taking one simple, intentional next step.

QUOTES
Culture must be created intentionally rather than left to chance.
Core values should be visible through leaders’ words, actions, and behaviors.
Consistent systems and processes help turn values into repeatable practices.
Leadership credibility grows when leaders model the standards they expect from others.
Recognition and storytelling help employees understand what core values look like in action.
Culture becomes sustainable when employees at every level celebrate and reinforce the organization’s values.
Repetition builds clarity, alignment, trust, and long-term cultural consistency.
Leaders can begin improving culture by taking one simple, intentional next step.

Learn more about Darrell and Larry.
Darrell’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/
Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/

Connect and learn more from Kelly Knight. 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellypknight/ 

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION:

Nominate Your CEO! Let's recognize the leaders building culture from the heart.
https://culturefromtheheart.com/NominateYourCEO

Ready to begin realizing the full potential of your sales team? Hire Great Salespeople with Confidence. SCHEDULE YOUR EXECUTIVE BRIEFING.
https://sellingfromtheheart.net/hiring

Unlock The Power of Team Growth with Learnit’s Live Training Platform. CLAIM your 45-day trial of unlimited training now!
https://www.learnit.com/lp/culture

Stop gambling on interviews. Combine analytics with a sales recruiting system to screen out non-performers so you only interview candidates that can become great salespeople.
https://hiringguide.salesindex.ai/