Why Most Leaders Plateau: Chris Hallberg on Leadership That Lasts

Summary

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SOFREP Radio – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Why Most Leaders Plateau: Chris Hallberg on Leadership That Lasts
Host: Rad
Guest: Chris Hallberg (“Business Sergeant”)
Date: February 19, 2026
Podcast: SOFREP Radio (iHeartPodcasts)

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, host Rad welcomes Chris Hallberg—veteran, top-rated leadership expert, and author of The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual—to discuss why so many leaders plateau, what makes military-inspired leadership different, and how to build organizations that don’t settle for mediocrity. Drawing parallels between rock bands like Def Leppard, his military background, and his experience transforming businesses, Hallberg shares actionable insights on team culture, accountability, and legacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Consistency, Excellence, and The “Category 5 River” Approach

• Drawing Inspiration from Def Leppard (04:00–05:00):
  Both Rad and Hallberg rave about seeing Def Leppard perform late into their careers, using the band’s consistency and discipline as a metaphor for sustained excellence in business.

  • “Doing all the basics well allows you to go to the next level... You need balance in business, just like you need in life or the great rock show, right?” —Chris Hallberg [04:58]

• Business as a Category 5 River (05:39–08:06):
  Rad describes preferring a business that’s a raging, ever-adapting river over a stagnant pond. Hallberg agrees, emphasizing that proactive movement and adaptation are key to thriving organizations:

  • “No one else is going to do it for you... you’re the one that’s got to put it in motion and then be consistent.” —Chris Hallberg [08:06]

2. Veterans, Work Ethic, and Handling Adversity

• Military Experience Shapes Leadership (09:28–11:25):
  Hallberg explains that success isn’t about chasing money, but about a sense of mission and team—mindsets he now brings into business coaching.

  • “When you write a blank check to the United States government... that says something about who you are as a person.” —Chris Hallberg [09:28]

• Checklists, Calm Under Pressure, and Hiring Veterans (09:45–11:25):
  Hallberg and Rad agree that veterans bring a unique, battle-tested calm to business meltdowns.

  • “When you have a company full of people who aren’t going to get frazzled because they’ve been tested... then you’re probably going to have a pretty chill meltdown.” —Chris Hallberg [10:11]

3. Culture, Accountability, and “Customer Service” for the Boss

• The Bro vs. Friend Analogy (13:50–15:19):
  Rad recounts a Navy SEAL story to delineate between the average “bro” who only does what’s asked, and the “friend” (true teammate) who proactively solves problems.

• Explicit Expectations & Standards (15:19–19:35):
  Hallberg stresses that elite cultures make expectations crystal clear and enforce standards from top to bottom.

  • “Your culture is determined by the worst behavior that the leadership team is willing to tolerate... If you set the standard high and enforce it... it’s offensive to be average.” —Chris Hallberg [19:00]

• Trickle-Down Accountability (19:35–22:32):
  The military habit of pre-emptive accountability is dissected—as is the danger of “slop time” and overcompensation in organizations.

4. Translating Military Lessons to Business

• The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual (23:12–26:45):
  Hallberg shares his motivation for writing a military-minded leadership manual for civilians, highlighting what can (and can't) be adopted from the armed forces:

  • “I wrote the book for people wanting to understand how the military is so great at team building, culture, discipline, accountability…” —Chris Hallberg [24:33]

• Commitment vs. Interest (26:45–29:21):
  Only committed people “find a way through adversity.” Hallberg warns that most companies have too many merely interested (not committed) employees.

• Military Candor vs. Civilian Niceness (29:21–31:06):
  Hallberg praises the military ethic of directness and loyalty, contrasting it with back-channel criticism common in civilian workplaces.

5. Hallberg’s Veteran Training & Placement Mission

• Overview of BizSergeant/Veteran Initiative (31:06–32:50):
  Hallberg describes his business model: training and placing veterans in organizations hungry for leadership.

  • “We actually place veterans after training them in a community... every veteran listening... take the course, join the community, come on in.” —Chris Hallberg [30:55]

• The Value of Veterans in Business (31:09–32:50):
  “If you’re not splitting atoms... a smart veteran can figure out your company in a quarter or two”—veterans’ leadership and adaptability are often unmatched.

6. Leadership Lessons Across Generations

• Teaching Business to Kids (32:50–38:22):
  Both Rad and Hallberg share personal stories about learning business fundamentals from their fathers and teaching “business hygiene” to their own children.

• Letting Your Kids Lead (38:45–41:00):
  Hallberg reflects on supporting his son, Hunter—a top young guitarist—learning how to balance advice with support and not letting his own ego take over.

7. Practice, Process, and Continuous Evolution

• Dedication to the Craft (41:00–46:00):
  Whether it’s music, business, or military service, greatness is achieved through relentless practice and pursuit of improvement.

  • “Doing amazing things... none of that’s by accident. You gotta be super intentional.” —Chris Hallberg [44:27]

• Metaphors for Growth—Butterflies and Snakes (46:00–48:44):
  Rad and Hallberg discuss professional reinvention as periodic evolution: “You shed your skin... get new butterfly colors... every few years.”

8. Success, Failure & Evolving Leadership

• Money is Fuel, Failure is the Real Teacher (48:52–49:42):
  Hallberg observes that wealth without vision leads to misery; it’s failure that sharpens leaders.

  • “Success is such a horrible teacher. Failure... oof, you got somebody’s attention.” —Chris Hallberg [49:42]

• Opt All-In or All-Out; Raising Expectations (49:42–52:41):
  Companies paying above-market rates should expect exceptional performance, and must tie behaviors to results, enforcing standards consistently.

9. Practical Culture Change Tactics

• No Room for Excuses (52:41–57:34):
  Both agree on the need to drive out unproductive behaviors (e.g., "pooping on the company dime") and instill a culture where everyone from CEO to janitor cares about the team’s success.

  • “It’s not about the garbage can. It’s about you saw something that wasn’t awesome, you had a chance to make it awesome and you didn’t take the shot.” —Chris Hallberg [53:10]

• Connect Behaviors to Outcomes (57:34–60:19):
  Hallberg emphasizes linking small behaviors to broader company impacts (like bonus pools and shared profits) to motivate teams.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Consistency and Progress:
  “Doing all the basics well allows you to go to the next level... Let’s just get the whole company six inches off the ground, and then we can move it wherever we want.” —Chris Hallberg [04:58]

• On Military Experience:
  “When you write a blank check to the United States government... that says something about who you are as a person.” —Chris Hallberg [09:28]

• On Culture:
  “Your culture is determined by the worst behavior that the leadership team is willing to tolerate.” —Chris Hallberg [19:00]

• On Directness:
  “Military people will talk shit to your face and be the nicest people behind your back... Most civilian cultures are the opposite.” —Chris Hallberg [29:21]

• On Raising Kids:
  “It’s not what I give them, it’s what I teach them. Expectations are just resentments under construction. Just be supportive.” —Chris Hallberg [38:22]

• On Success vs. Failure:
  “Success is such a horrible teacher. Failure... oof, you got somebody’s attention for a minute.” —Chris Hallberg [49:42]

• On Intentionality:
  “Be intentional. It takes just as long to be awesome as it does to be bad—you’re just investing that time in different activities.” —Chris Hallberg [53:30]

• On Company Culture:
  “If you saw something that wasn’t awesome, you had a chance to make it awesome and you didn’t take the shot. That’s the issue.” —Chris Hallberg [53:10]

• On The “Pooping on the Company Dime” Rule:
  “If you’re going into the bathroom on the clock, you gotta leave your cell phone outside.” —Rad [56:55]

• On Profit and Shared Success:
  “No profit, no profit sharing. If we keep this up, Def Leppard’s gonna play our company.” —Chris Hallberg [59:35]

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Timestamp Highlights

• [04:00–05:00] – Def Leppard, consistency, business parallels
• [05:39–08:06] – Business as raging river (the “category 5” mindset)
• [09:28–11:25] – Military's ethos applied to business leadership
• [15:19–19:35] – Setting and maintaining high cultural standards
• [24:33–26:45] – Military team lessons in the Field Manual
• [29:21–31:06] – Military candor vs. civilian culture
• [31:06–32:50] – Veteran placement and the value of military experience
• [38:22–41:00] – Fatherhood, raising the next generation, stepping back
• [44:27–46:00] – Practice, intentionality, and process in excellence
• [49:42–52:41] – Success, failure, and the “all in/all out” ethos
• [56:55–60:19] – “Pooping on the company dime,” profit sharing, linking accountability to outcomes
• [61:45–62:50] – How to find and connect with Chris Hallberg

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Excellence is a choice reinforced by culture, not just vision.
• Military habits—directness, proactivity, commitment—translate powerfully to the civilian world.
• Leaders plateau when they accept mediocrity and stop enforcing standards.
• It’s not about grand gestures, but about consistent, intentional efforts across the organization.
• Small behaviors—good or bad—compound and set the tone for your company’s culture and results.
• True leadership is about creating teams where everyone feels both challenged and supported.

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Connect with Chris Hallberg and his work:

• Book: The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual
• Website: bizsgt.com
• Free course and veteran community available at bizsgt.com for military veterans seeking a business edge.

Listen to Hunter Hallberg:

• Search “Hunter Hallberg” on Spotify for world-class guitar talent.

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Summary prepared for those who want actionable leadership insights and a candid, energetic perspective on business, military, and life.

Transcript

[iHeart Radio Announcer]

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[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

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[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Come join our sweat sesh on TikTok.

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Health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

I heart Radio.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Brute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.

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You're listening to software radio, special operations, military news and straight talk with the guys in the community.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Hey, what's up? Hello. Is this thing on? I think so. It's your main man, Rad, and I am here and I am with Soft Rep Radio talking with a cool guest and I'm going to introduce you to him in just a second. But first I want to remind you about the book club. That's softrep.com book club. Go check out some cool books curated by those guys and gals behind the scenes and in the special operations world for someone like you. That's right. Read a book. It's good for your brain. And the other thing I'm going to talk about is the merch store. So we have all sorts of cool branded items for soft rep and software.com and softrep radio and we love seeing you guys tag us all over social media picking that stuff up. Please continue to do so. It helps keep the fireplace burning. Yeah, it's natural gas. I know, I know. So listen, I have a very cool guest. Okay, so today, I have Chris Hallberg on with me today and I'm gonna read you a little bit about Chris's bio and we're gonna then say hi to him. So about Chris. Chris Hallberg, CEO and founder, Inc. Excuse me, of BizSargent.com. that's where I'm at on his website. I'm reading his bio. So about Chris. Chris Hallberg, CEO and founder, Inc.com's top 50 leadership and management experts. Number nine in 2014. He's an expert EOS implementer. Go Expand software. Founder, CEO, coach, author of the Business Sergeant's Field Manual. So RTFM for you out there, 20 plus years, helping companies scale through systems structure and leadership excellence. Army National Guard, military police staff sergeant, veteran of nine years of service. Civilian law enforcement officer with six years of service. Welcome to the show, Chris. It's great to finally group up with you today.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Awesome to be here today. Rad. Thanks so much for having me on.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah, you know, when. When your team reached out and said, hey, Rad, we think that you'd be a great fit. And after you guys listen to some other podcasts, I was like, let's have it. I love having those that want to rock out with us on our show. So welcome to the show. And just before, we were talking about Def Leppard. So, I mean, like, it's going to be that kind of show.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Let's do it.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Exactly. And the reason why we're talking about Def Leppard to my fans and to everybody listening is I just took my wife to Vegas the other day and went and saw Def Leppard at the residency for, like, an early Valentine's Day getaway. And it worked out in all aspects of what you would imagine. Def Leppard. Thank you, bros. We appreciate you. Okay. It was a good time. And you said you're Def Leppard fan.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah. Last time they came through Denver, my wife and I went and like, you could just. I watch their YouTube channel, so I see kind of the behind the scenes stuff. And these guys are, what, in their 60s, and they're rehearsing, they're taking care of themselves. They sound amazing. Like, no one sounds as good as Def Leppard this many years in. They put on such a great show

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

and I was really impressed, you know, and I go to so many shows and see so many rock and rollers that I kind of watch guitars and I watch the drums. And, you know, granted, he's the drummer from Def Leppard, only has one arm, so that. That. That kind of throws me off a little bit because he's got pedals. So I'm watching guitar players, man, and they're playing, right? They're not like, they may. Maybe there's a backup track. But I mean, the whole guitar, the whole lead that he was playing in so many of the songs were just like him standing front and center playing the guitar. I was just like, that's what's up, dude. So, you know, just consistency, consistency and consistency. And I'm sure that you bring that to your business mentality.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah, I mean, it's doing all the basics well allows you to go to the next level. So think about this, Rad. I see organizations, they might have a real big strength Let me just talk about, like, it's 10ft off the ground, but part of their company is stuck in the pavement, breaking concrete everywhere it goes. So it doesn't really matter if you have, like, this big strength, if you can't support it with. With holistic, like, excellence. So my thing is, like, let's be a hovercraft. Let's just get the whole company six inches off the ground, and then we can move it wherever we want to. Then we can decide how high we want to go. But you need balance in business, just like you need in life or the great rock show, right?

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah, exactly. And practice and, you know, hitting the wrong chord. That's going to happen in rock, in life and in business. But you can't stop the show. The show must continue. So, you know, you may realize you hit the wrong chord, but maybe the consumer or, you know, the listener doesn't realize it, you know, so, you know, you continue to play through the show like, the show must go on. And I think in business, we do hit speed bumps that are like, you know, did that just happen? What just happened? My whole point of sale software just crashed on me in the middle of Black Friday. Do I freak out? I can't freak out because I got a whole line of customers in my store waiting to pay, and I want all that payment. So I have to, you know, then think strategically. Strategically, like, how am I going to fix the situation? Do I call the point of sale software? Do I just reboot the computer? Do I do all these things and I go through all these, like, emergency checklist to get the point of sale back up and running, to take their money. Right? Because you have to stay. The show must go on. The business has to continue to flow fluidly. And I like to use the reference of a category five river. So I've built my companies and my life's demeanor based off of a Category 5 river. Right? Very challenging, very violent. Lots of things in its way. But what happens is that Category 5 makes its own path down whatever canyon or grand Canyon it's moving through. Whereas you have, like, a pond. And a pond is super deep and stagnant, and it has lily pads. And you're like, oh, that water looks glassy and clean and something I can drink. But when you go to drink it, you see this floating dead deer in it. There's this floating deer in the pond, and there's no movement of water, you know, So I choose to put my business as a Category 5, who's always fresh, flowing, moving the boulders Moving the rocks, making its way through the canyon, creating the canyon versus a stagnant pond that looks enticing but is deep and entangling. And just a trap, like the deer that gets trapped in the pond. You know, some businesses are the deer, they took a drink slip, fell in deep, got tangled in the lily pads, can't get out, they drowned. But a Category 5, if that deer wants to take a drink, he might slip, but he's like, he's going to be going down it. He's going to be like, you know, moving around and, like, getting tumbled and everything. But he might still. Still live. Okay, so that's my business analogy. Is being a category five, just making your own way?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah. I mean, no one else is going to do it for you. Rad. You're the one that's got to put it in motion and then be consistent, right?

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

That's right. You do. You have to say, hey, you know, I'm not going to freak out. I'm going to get these things done. Everybody's looking at me like I'm the expert. So therefore, I look behind me. Like, who are they looking at? Are they. Is this me? Am I the only one behind me now? You know, it's like you. Like you are. You have to be the person now. When someone looks at you, you know, it's like, okay, I'm the firefighter. I'm the chief bottle washer. You know, I'm the janitor, I'm the shipper. I'm all these things in my business. I'm all in one. I have to have all of these Swiss army knife mechanisms as a business owner, because when I'm gone to Def Leppard with my wife, somebody's running my business. I have to have that trust in them. But if they need to call me, I can still help them while I'm on the road or whatever the case is. But there's just so much in business, you know, And I have a lot of listeners that are wanting to be their own business, wanting to be their own self, wanting to grow their beard for themselves and, you know, not have to have anyone tell them, are you gonna cut your beard for the meeting tomorrow? It's like, do I have to, you know, like, be the man of it? So what do you say after being, you know, through all these things, how do you see yourself as, you know, being so successful that we're having this conversation today?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, I think it's a matter of, like, just a work ethic, a personal view. A lot of folks had served in the military. You know, you don't join the military to get rich. Like it's possible, but it's not likely, right? You do it because you serve a higher power. You want to give back. You understand a set of experiences that can only be gained in one place right there. And the people that have family members and people you respect and you look up to, they just kind of roll a certain way. When you write a blank check to the United States government for a number of years, that says something about who you are just as a person. So. So, like as the business sergeant, that's my personal branding that I've had for about a decade and now I have business sergeant this, you know, veteran powered recruiting company and community. I just like to surround myself with those types of people who get it, who care about what we care about and see the bigger picture. And back to your POS example, right? What to do? Well, you got a checklist, right? You got an acronym to what happens and your staff just look at the checklist. So maybe we start with the reboot, okay? If not, we get the little square phone out and we use a calculator. Like, like we're going to figure this out. No one's going to die. You're just buying shit for, for the holidays. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, none of this really matters. I get everyone's excited and, oh, the POS is down and someone's throwing a fit. But like, it doesn't have to be that way. And when you have a company full of people who aren't going to get frazzled because they've been tested, because you hire veterans, right? Then you're probably going to have a pretty chill meltdown versus someone who might need to take a time out and grab some safe space for a few minutes while everyone else melts down. That doesn't sound good.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

You know, my favorite thing to tell my guys is I don't accept shoulder shrugs. And I don't knows. I always tell them that I go, hey, where's this at? They go, And I'm like, I don't accept that. And they're like, well, I don't know. And I was like, I don't accept that. Those are the two things I don't accept. You need to have an understanding of what we're doing here. So I can't have the. I don't know. I can't have the look at me again like, I'm paying you to know I have this investment in you. You got to know. And you've got to know, where's the pencil? Where did I put. Where did I put the pencil last? I don't know. No, go find my pencil and then they'll bring it to me. Here it is. Okay, so you did know you could find it. You could do the detail. Just, you know, it's real easy to say someone else do it. You know, it's real easy to have this shoulder shrug. And I guess I'm only talking about frustrating in business when you know, you are running a business and you have expectations of your staff to complete the job at task, you know, and the same thing, I was talking with a Larry who was a former SEAL Team 3 commander, and he said, rad, I'll tell you a story about business. And it has to do with the teams, and it's kind of like a minute long. So I'm going to go through it. He's like, so here I am, I'm working in the office. You know, we're getting ready to go on a mission, and I'm typing up my mission report and I'm making sure that, you know, everybody's getting their place on the team and their favorite positions. And he's like, you know, and then I, oh, I messed it up. So I ripped my paper out and I crumble it up and I toss it in my trash can. He's like, little did I know my trash can was overflow and it fell on the floor. So I yell at the door, I'm like, hey, hey, bro, will you come in here and take my trash out for me? I'm totally, like, enamored in this mission brief or whatever it is the commander's doing, right? He's sitting there working, and so he's like, yeah, no problem, bro. So then he goes to the next bro in the squad and he goes, hey, bro, go take out the boss's trash, bro. And then that bro goes down the row of chain of command to the last bro. And that bro's looking around to bro someone else. He's like, well, I guess that's me. So he goes in and throws away the captain's. The commander's trash that bro did. So the difference between a bro and a friend is that the friend on the team would have saw that the commander was hard at work already, you know, overwhelmed with what he has to do, and he would have saw the trash can full and he would have threw it away already. So that when the commander ripped that paper out, it would have gone right in the wastebasket. That guy gets to be on point. You know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, hey, you know, Bob always clears out my trash can. He's on point. He likes point. He gets point, you know? So the bro and the friend in business, it's like, are they there just to be the bro, just to collect a paycheck, just to suck up that hourly wage, pooping on the dime until they're told what to do? Or is it someone who's proactive and giving you customer service as the employer because you've hired them and you're paying them? So now as everybody expects me as the. As the. As the business to give them customer service when they pay me. I just paid you $20. I expect customer service. Well, guess what? I just paid you $20 an hour. I also expect customer service from my staff. Yeah. And if that means like, hey, rad, let me get this for you, or hey, rad, let me open the door for you, or hey, let me get this, it's not kissing my ass, it's giving me customer service as the. As the employer, which is what's deserved because I'm paying you so you can't snark at me or get mad that you're not having a break. I'm paying you. Paying you money for your services. As a consumer of your services, you owe me customer service. Five star experience working for me. And so I steal that mindset in my business and I make sure my guys understand that we all work together, but we all work for the common goal of the business. And if I'm in charge of the business or my business partners talking, you guys have a responsibility to fulfill that consumer desire from us as your employer. What do you think about that?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah, I mean, we all work for someone, even if you are self employed. Okay. We all serve someone. No one is alone with everyone serving them. Right. It's a ecosystem. So what I would say to that, Rad, is if that's my expectation of my employees, I'm going to be explicit about that expectation in the ad, in the interview, and then I'm going to enforce that with everyone from the most senior to the most junior. So the neat thing about elite units is they're not easy to get into and they're pretty easy to get out of. So I take that mindset from the military and bring it to civilian business leaders. So when people hire the business sergeant, they're not hiring someone to tiptoe around their tulip field or, you know, lightly engage in their issues. They're hiring someone here to call balls and strikes, say, who owns this? Why are you accepting this? Do you do this all the time? And really just say, okay, really? After that first conversation, like, do we want to be great? Like, really truly elite? Do we want to be a special unit? And if the answer is yes, then you got to stop accepting anything other than a special response. So if we have a core value, right, of we're driven, we always look for an opportunity to be awesome. We don't wait to do stuff right. We see it and we do it. So it's not get stuff done or get shit done. It's get the right stuff done. GRSD is one of my things, because there's a lot of GSD people. But you'd be doing the wrong thing. So what is the right thing? So in your example, just to work with one of my companies, first thing we have to agree to is we're not average. And that's a very average thing. To go find a junior person and then whatever rolls downhill until the task gets picked up. And instead your point, Rad was that first person who came into the CO's office should have just saw that and said, ooh, I got that. You know what I mean? Commander's doing his thing. I got nothing going on. There's a problem. Let's. So my point is, if you have a core value about, see something, say something, always look for an opportunity to improve something. Make it awesome, like, try harder. You know, whatever those ethos are in your. Your culture or esprit de corps, right? The word for it. In the military, civilian world, we call it a culture, right? A vibe of your tribe. And that vibe you described wasn't a super healthy one. I mean, it's fairly common, but it's not special. So the neat thing about business is in the military, they issue you soldiers, privates, airmen, marines, they just give them to you, right? And they're not always a 10 out of 10. And your job is to get them as close to 10 as they're able to, but they're committed for a number of years. And when you have that kind of commitment, we can spend some time knocking off some rough edges and do what we need to do. But in the civilian world, your best person could come in tomorrow and say, hey, man, I'm just not feeling it anymore. Thanks for everything. I gotta go. And then it'll take you years to get back to that same level. So they're not enlisted. You can't send the MPs to go get Somebody, if they're not feeling it, your job is to create an environment where they feel it's so hard they would never leave. And that attracts other, like, unicorns. So, like, at the end of the day, if you want to have a culture, it's determined by the worst behavior that the leadership team is willing to tolerate. It's a standards thing, my friend. And if you set the standard high and you enforce it to that standard, you know, that kind of stuff won't happen because it's offensive to be average.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Right. You know, and I guess the. To bring my point back, you know, full circle, is Larry was just saying, you know, if somebody's doing a little bit more for the boss, it's not like they're sucking up. They're just providing customer service. That's kind of what his whole thought was. It's like, you know, the guy's still on the team, but they may say, oh, Bill, Bob always kisses the boss's ass. It's like, well, no, Bob just understands his position is giving customer service while he's on the clock.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah, it's a good point. At the same time, if he only does it to the CEO, he's definitely kissing his butt. But Bob should see heavy garbage or full garbage cans and always emptying them. So my point is, if it's like a cultural thing, it doesn't matter if it's the new guy's trash can. That same number two, whether it's the CEO or the new guy is going to hand it out. So that's what I'm saying. A great culture. The CEO and the janitor follow the same rules. And just because someone makes 10 times as much money as the corner office is making the shots, they're not any better or worse, a man or a woman. And that's where we get into, like, a real team. And, you know, some of the best officers, right, were enlisted first. Mustang officers consistently, you know, are favored. Like it or not, they know both sides of the coin. They, you know, I mean, that's like, there's a perspective now. We're probably not going to do that because, you know, that's not going to go over well. Why don't we just change it a little bit? Show just a hint of forethought and respect, and they'll love this plan. So, like, it doesn't take much. I think it's just being intentional. But I'm going to go back to, you know, as the leader of the organization, you set the standard, and if. Hey, you. Hey, you. Hey, you and it's just that trickle down accountability is what you're talking about, right? It's like trickle down economics, but a little different. Or let's take the other one, right? Rad. This is like the CEO says, formation 06, don't be late, right? The platoon leader, lieutenant's like, 0530, you know, last thing I want to do is have my platoon be late to this. The company commander's formation, right? Then the platoon sergeant's like, all right, better make it 05. We don't want to disappoint the lieutenant. Then the squad leader's like, my squad's not gonna be late. 4:30, I need to see everybody, right? So the next thing you know, the privates are, you know, they're down there at 0400 waiting for two hours. And then the CEO says, yeah, 06 is now 07, 30, like at the last minute. Like, my point is, if you gotta be there at 6, everybody be there, like by 5:45, no later than 5:45. Then we'll get into formation. There's everyone covering their own butt with a little half hour of slop time. There's no time for the privates to sleep. Like, what are we doing? That happens all the time in the military. There's memes about it, but I think that's the difference between being surrounded by professionals who kind of get it and having to micromanage or project, manage that time slot. Because, you know, three or four people will be late in each one of those iterations. So you have to be several hours early, so you're never late. Versus just having people and trusting, respecting they'll be there a good 15, 20 minutes early. Because that's the rules.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah, just rolling out of your car right to formation, huh? It's like, oh, well, I figured I just wake up and, you know, stand here for the next three or four hours. I mean, that, that is a, that's a fact. We're going to be a half hour earlier than him, half hour earlier than them. It's like we haven't even gone to bed yet. It's still the same.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Might as well just. Yeah, might as well just bring it out there on the formation, the parade ground, to sleep there.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

That's what I'm getting at. It's. That's so funny with your field manual that you wrote. What inspired you to get that out there? You know, 2017 and, you know, when you were writing, what was it that really just moved you to write that field manual?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, if you remember the field manuals. I have a little copy of it right here.

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[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

I heart Radio

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[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

It looks like an fm. You know, it's got the, it's got the beat up camo cover, lots of

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

big, you know, the blown out picture, the, the words and everything. It's like RTFM if you know what that means. Read the field manual. Yeah, exactly.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Fits right into your cargo pocket and your, your cammies. You know, it's got 82 real world lessons and it's, it's, it's basically I wrote the book for people wanting to understand how the military is so great at team building, culture spree de corps, discipline, accountability. So really talk about the great parts of the military and how the US military never been a fighter, a finer fighting force. Looking at the Maduro raid of a month ago, like, wow, that's pretty amazing. Like, you know, 5,300 things had to come true all at the same time to pull that operation off. That like, like that's a display to the rest of the world what happens when you put your mind to something and, and a dictator says I'm right here, come get me. Like, oh, that was a hold my beer moment for jsoc, I think showing everybody what we're capable of. But, but really at the end of the day, all this stuff, even if business isn't what you're doing, isn't life or death. If we just curate a team of people that really want to be there and the impact of what we do as a team is that important, not quite life and death. But we're willing to be uncomfortable to achieve goals together. That's a unit where people will stick around when people are committed, not interested, interested people, as soon as there's some adversity, they'll find something else to be interested in. But committed people, you know, they'll find a way over it, around it, through it, under it. They'll be creative. So I think a lot of folks, 93% of the US population never wore the uniform. Only 7% of Americans are active or military veterans. So I think a lot of people wish they joined, they didn't take the opportunity. So anytime they get to learn like some of the methodology, the, the, the talk tracks, the mindsets I think are really val. So I just extracted the stuff that you won't go to jail for if you, if you do at a civilian business office because I mean you can't really tape your lieutenant to a cannon and shoot it a couple of times, right? That's, you know, HR legal. Not going to join that.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Should we expound on that? Did that happen?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Is that something that hazing is a friendly hazing hazing because we like you stuff is perfectly okay in the military, right? That, that's going to be a permanent scar. Hazing, you know, probably has lost a lot of popularity in the last few decades. But, but, but I digress back to what's important. What civilians want is when you give them that mindset and then you make the mission explicit and you allow people to fully opt all the way in or all the way out. It's this half in, half out that we get in civilian business world. And why 20% of companies, the employees that come to do all the work and the other 80% are just hot and sweaty and look busy. But, but they're tr. Not super productive. When we have an entire organization, or at least 80% of it, are actually here to do the work, enjoy it, are willing to do what's necessary to get it done, be held accountable after action reviews over failures, not hiding mistakes or you know, delegating things all the way down, you know, then it's like, all right, if I'm going to spend eight to 10 hours of my day with humans and the world we live in is freaking crazy. Do I want to go deeper into the delusional make believe this is really not happening, is this happening world? Or do I want to create a stable environment where your word is your bond and we're all committed to this thing. If you see this, you do that and we celebrate, right? And we hold each other accountable. That's a team I want to show up again to tomorrow. Right. Because it challenges me. We're probably all making pretty good money because we're executing well. The world's full of idiots. I don't have any next to me right now. I mean, that feels awesome. So I think people look at the military and you will not find better examples of courage, heroism, leadership in the worst scenarios. But I'll also tell you rad. And I'm sure you've seen this many times and you've heard it many times in your travels. You know, military people will talk shit to your face and they will be the nicest people behind your back in the world. Most cultures, civilian cultures, they'll be nice to your face, but as soon as you turn around, they'll eviscerate you. So the thing about a military culture is you're not. You ever notice that some guy's not around and someone's like, you can't talk about anybody in my circle. I will defend them immediately. We're like, whoa, what just happened right there? But that guy gets around and I will follow him.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yes.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

You know what I mean? So, like just that kind of vibe, bringing that vibe to a civilian company is what I do. And yeah, we're going to have some acronyms. I teach a business operating system called eos. It's a big program. It's out there, been out there for 20 years. I've been teaching it for like 12 plus years. Because the military is just one big system. So ex military folks thrive in high structure, highly curated, elite environments. So that's really what we do. We bring that mindset and the structure. And then with business Sergeant, we actually place veterans after training them in a community. So this course that I've created based on the book I offer for free. So every veteran listening to this bizsgt.com take the course, join the community, come on in. You're welcome. No expectation. Now, if you wanted to get the training and do something with it, we can place you at a veteran friendly company who knows what they're getting, wants what you have. My business partner, Michael Krisila, just got out about a year and a half ago. He spent, what, 23 years in the Special Forces and he was a chief warrant officer. Three an instructor. Special Forces medic is Michael's pedigree. This guy is an amazing operator. He's my integrator, he's my president, and we have the course and then Thursday nights we do a discussion. So just this is What I meant by that, let's have. Look, let's get some real world examples. We're on wellness Wednesdays. We got going on 22 veteran suicides a date. Way too many. So like I had a plant medicine journey a few years ago. Literally saved my life. Rad.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

We could talk about that. Was it ayahuasca?

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

It was ayahuasca, yeah. And, and you cannot get to that stuff and talk therapy, but that's like a can opener, just pulling that stuff out of you for four nights in the jungle of Costa Rica. So. So like, I think what we got going on is, is people really want strong leaders. They're not printing them like they used to. Kids these days are half accountable as they were. Even a gener. Military veterans just have a huge place in business. And it's really exciting to take someone that has years and millions of dollars spent on their project management, linguistics, team building, negotiation, intelligence gathering, you know, I'm telling you, what if you're not splitting atoms, you're not into nuclear fission like brain surgery at your company. A really smart veteran can figure out what your company does in a quarter or two. But your best leader couldn't survive a weekend with one. These guys with, with the, the level of, of elite operating and team building that they have. So like that's what I get fired up about, right is, is is getting these world class leaders into organizations and then watching the halo effect. You put an elite operator with a little business trading into a company and they don't know how to have a bad attitude. They don't know how to be lazy. So when they see this stuff, there's no drill sergeant yelling. It's just like, hey man, that didn't look very cool. Here, let me help you with that. And then I get a call three, four months later. Oh my God. You didn't just fix my warehouse. My entire supply chain has gotten awesome. Do you got any other Creme Berets I can have? Incredible. Yeah. So like we're here for it.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

That's funny you said that and you mentioned Green beret. My father had a master's in business and human resources while he was his Green Beret self. And he was moving towards a doctorate before he passed away. But when I was like 12, 11, he kind of. I didn't realize he was working me into business without realizing it. Okay. So a lot of things I do I attribute to my dad and today's business that I'm in right now, I attribute to him like kind of seating me as a Young man, always being around him and just explaining business and in weird ways. Like, hey, you made grilled cheese sandwiches today, huh? And I was like, yeah. He's like, how much did you make out front? Because the neighbors were selling lemonade all the time and I needed money for cross country ski boots. And he's like, you gotta earn it. And I was like, okay, how am I gonna earn 60 bucks for these cross country ski boots at 12 years old? And so I was like, well, I can make a mean grilled cheese. So I go in, I take the Velveeta, I take the bread, I make a bunch of grilled cheeses and I go outside and I sold them for a dollar a half. So $2 a whole grilled cheese. He came home, he's like, where'd you get 33 bucks? I was like, I made grilled cheese sandwiches and sold them to the neighbors. They all ate them all gooey. And right there at my little table on the sidewalk, it was so cheesy. They'd wait for me to bring them out fresh. So I'd bring them out and everybody just eat them up for a buck a slice or a half of it. And he was really happy about that. But he said, hey, well, you know, The Velveeta was five bucks, right? And I was like, oh, it's not dad 99. It's not like just mine. He's like, you know that I should charge you for the electricity in the fridge and the fridge and the roof that housed the fridge and all these different things. He started that at a very young age with me, to teach me. Everything has a cost in business. Everything comes out of that grilled cheese. But he said, you know, once you pay me back, and he made me pay him back like $12, I got to keep the rest of it. He's like, but I want to tell you something. You just made 20 bucks off of an 89 cent loaf of bread. Five dollar block of cheese, okay? So he saw that in me. And my dad had a vending machine in his armory because all the guys would get home and they'd all decompress. And he's like, well, if I'm going to run this armory here in Utah, I'm going to have a vending machine in here with Coca Cola and some snacks. And so we always had like little snacks in the garage waiting to go to my dad's armory. So what did I do? I said, well, dad's not going to miss these ranch corn nuts, is he? No, I'll just So I start selling the stuff on the sidewalk. And I'm now cutting off the gas station store four or five blocks down the street. So moms are sending their kids over. Go get two Diet Cokes from Rad. Go get me two for a dollar. So my dad comes home, he's like, oh, so you got more things selling, huh? I said, yeah, I just decided to sell some of these inventory items. He's like, well, what'd you sell the Diet Cokes for? First thing he asked me, I was like, 50 cents, two for a dollar. Because the vending machine was 50 cents at the time. He's like, did you not realize that they're 60 cents now? I was like, oh, that's right. They changed to 60 cents. You couldn't just get two drinks anymore for a dollar at the vending machine. So you know, you got 40 cents back and all this stuff. So I had to pay him back the money for the Cokes, plus the money I lost him on the Cokes. Okay? And everything else was still 50 cents. But he was pretty happy that I was doing that. And then flash forward to my skate shop. At 13, 14, I created a skateboard company with my dad and my mom backing me up. They got me a business license I was able to submit to wholesalers. And then I started getting like one or two skateboards. I did get the cross country ski boots. If you're wondering did I ever get those boots, I got them. Okay. And did I ever get the poles? I got them and I put them all together with the skis my neighbor gave me. And I was training for the triath. The triathlon. Biathlon, where they shoot and cross country ski because my dad's buddy was in the Olympics doing it. I thought that was awesome. So, yes, I did get what I was after. I did learn my valuable business lessons from my dad. Green Beret business guy, right? Human resource management leader. And so I just feel that I appreciated that, you know, that education he just brought to me at a young age. Because here I am talking about it today, you know, 40 some years later.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

That's an awesome story, right? So your old man was about fishing lessons, not giving you fish. Right, because he taught you how to fish for yourself. And that's the best give any father obviously could do to their children, right? Not to give them stuff. I have a 21 and 18 year old sons, so I have two boys. And it's important. It's not what I give them, it's what I teach them. So I mean, they're Keeping track of what I give them. Naturally, of course.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

And today I got kids too, you know, I got a 23 year old daughter, a 20 year old daughter and a 17 year old son at the time of this podcast. And you know, all I want them to do is I take my son to work with me in the shops and I teach him the fundamentals of. These are the tongs. And this is the garbage can. Clean up the parking lot. Go around and clean up the parking lot with these things. Okay. Because you know, that's the first impression people pull up. We don't want all that trash in our parking lot. And then it goes further inside the shop. So the hygiene, I teach them hygiene of the business. It's like, hey, these are the fundamentals. We wake up, we shower, we put our deodorant on, brush our teeth, whatever. I don't shave, but whatever. If you shave, you know, the hygiene of yourself, the same thing with your business as hygiene. The must maintains, you know, that's. And so I just want those lessons when I'm done for him on his podcast to talk the same way about me. Okay.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, you could, you could only hope, right, to have that kind of a positive effect on kids. And you know, as soon as you realize as a father or mother that it's not what you want. Right. It's what they want. And your expectations, you know, are just resentments under construction. Just be supportive, you know, having a good human.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

I mean, granted, it's nice when they go do like world class thing. My oldest son, Hunter, Hunter Hallberg, you can find him on Spotify. He won the 2018 Young Guitarist of the Year for the world. So like he is like serious. Yeah. So like Phil Collins from Def Leppard.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Hunter could hang like musically with him like that. That's the level this kid's at. He's got a new song coming out dropping probably in a couple of weeks. But like, I'm just so proud of him. But this kid could solve a Rubik's cube at like 8 or 9 years old. Like, he's just, he's just that kid. But, but you know, hey man, are you releasing music? Hey man, are you interacting with your fans? And it's like for a while there I was like his manager. That didn't go well. That didn't go well because like I saw this, like, oh, you just need to do this, this and this. It's so obvious. But he's the artist, he has a process and it's his career, not mine. So like, in the last few years, I'm way, way in the background. When he was much younger, obviously he needed me to buy him guitars and tune his guitars, carry stuff and do roadie stuff.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yes, exactly.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

And I did all that stuff. But he got to a certain age, he's like, you know, dad, like, really, really appreciate everything you've done for me, but, like, it's time for me to take over, like, you know what I mean? All the business side. It's time for you to just be dad. And I love you and I thank you, but. So that was a couple years ago, and it's been awesome. Obviously, I'd like to see some more productivity. I joke with him.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah, yeah. Like, the mortgage paid, son. Like, pay that mortgage off.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah, being the label. The executive producer.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Exactly.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

But anyways, I just love them and support them and I'm really proud of them. And I'm bragging about him on your podcast today. You know what I mean?

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Should Hunter Hallberg on Spotify? That's great, because if chances are, my listeners already on Spotify, so they can easily look up Hunter H U N T E R Hallberg, okay? And check out his music and his guitar, and I'm sure that he's open to being in a band that can need a guitar player, you know what I'm saying? That needs to rock out. There's tons of that out there. I got lots of friends in the music industry, bro. They're just like. Like you said, you can see certain things that he should do. And he's like, this is how I should do it. And it's like, all right, bro, you're

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

the artist, you know, and the more I stand back, the more he likes it, and actually, it's the better. It's the best for our relationship. So it took a few years to figure that out, but. But I also think, oh, man, this kid, he doesn't need anything from me. He's got everything he needs now. And it's just so awesome to see him, you know, become a man and. And start dealing with some of these things. And, you know, I wish I had a little bit more input, you know, I'm not gonna lie. But it's actually really cool when I don't have any input. He just brings something to me, and it's fully awesome. Like, that blew me away that he shared his new song that he's releasing. I mean, he shot a whole music video and. And basically worked a bunch to get money to pay this actual professional music video guy. And I had no Part of anything. He just showed it to me and I got a little misty just because like I had nothing to do with that. He did everything and it's amazing. People are gonna love it. So super proud. But you know, back to like, doesn't matter if it's family or business. Your old man had the hygiene of the business. Meaning like if people show up and it's dirty and graffiti and okay, we can't raise prices. Like this is right. We're not shooting for dive. That wasn't really what we're looking for. We're more in the mid family friendly price category and. Right. We don't want to attract the wrong people. So the first thing we're going to do is do this right. So like that's the hygiene for the business. Well, you can't be a world class guitar player if you don't spend a couple hours a day running your fingers up and down the, the fretboard. Back to Phil Collin and Vivian Campbell, the two guitar players for Def Leppard, These guys are, every day they're practicing, the band rehearses songs, they sing. Like I said, I watch this behind the scene, but they sound amazing. And like I said, acting tracks. That's them.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

I was watching him play the guitar like we mentioned. I didn't even know your son was rocking out. I mean, I should, but I didn't. On a guitar, you had this, this, this cotton. So when I'm literally watching, you know, the guitar player, I'm watching his fingers and I'm just like, all right, bro. That's going along with what I'm hearing, you know, and either you're really good at doing that, which you could be, or you're doing that. And so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say they're both doing it. And when the bass player is doing the whole bass, it's just him. Like that's what he lives for. You know, he's probably like, you know, you know there's a great artist, Prince. Prince would chew gum during a live TV performance so they could not put a backtrack to him. So if you ever see Prince chewing gum or he has a lollipop in his mouth, it's to prove that he's not faking it. That was Prince's shtick. And he's a great, you know, great, like Dick Clark interviewed him and they're like, so how long have you been playing instruments for? Or like how long you been trying to make a label? And he just goes like, I hold up my hand. He just. Those four fingers. Four years. He doesn't even want. He's so shy. He's just like four years. You guys got go find Dick Clark interviews Prince.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

All right?

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

And you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Because Prince, so shy, but yet so, so professional at the same time. And so such a process for him. Nobody's going to tell him what to do. He didn't want a label that was going to hold him down. Like I would have said, hey son, you're Prince, My son's Prince. You should go to this label. Like, like I'm your dad. You should listen to me and you should do this. He's like, no.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well that's the whole, that's the whole thing. Like an over overpowering dad thinks he knows better. Like I said that I fit that description. At some point in the ark same and kind of realized that and then took a back seat realizing, oh my God, this isn't even, this isn't about me. This is my ego getting in the way. So like it's a, it's a process. But I, I think doing amazing things, none of that's by accident. You got to be super intentional. And what when people, when he was like, oh gosh, 12, 13, when he won the contest, we went to this John Petrucci from Dream Theater had this guitar camp. So all these amazing, amazing guitar players are there and, and my son is just like sticking out like a sore thumb. Everybody's noticing just this kid's talent. And what do you feed this kid? I'm like, oh my God. All the dad, all the other guitar dads were just like, I was like this special thing because of my son and it felt great to my ego. But what I'd always tell people, I'm like, yeah, that's nice. I suppose. Yeah. I'll take a high five for being ultra supportive. But if you realize how much work this kid puts in, like, you have no idea. Like, I'm sure your kid practices an hour a day, you know, like not saying nothing but like I'll, I'll wake up at three in the morning and hear some guitar in the distance. You know what I mean? He's just down there running through the same thing again and again and again. Like, like he plays eight to 12 hours a day.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

It's what he does. Yeah, that's what he does. He breathes to play. Yeah, he literally like needs to do that. Right? You have to. I, I have a friend who's a drummer and he has to. To. He's always like. He's like, when's the last time you played your drums rat? And I was like, oh, the other day. Not true. But he's always just, like, ratting on his little, like, soft kit that he has in his. In his house. He's always just, like, playing on it because he has shows and shows to go and tours and tours. He's always, like, rapping on it. And, you know, I made fun of a drummer for getting blisters. He's like, yeah, well, when you play so much, you get those blisters. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, yeah, but I mean, you're all calloused. He's like, well, when you take a break, dude, and sometimes you want to take a break, you know, you get back on it. You get all ripped up on your hands, but you have to get right back to that calloused because you can't hold your sticks much longer. You know, if nobody's played the drums for a while and you go to a rock show and you see all the vibrations from those sticks going through your hands, it rattles your hands. I'm just putting that out there. And, you know, shout out to my buddy Dan, who's one of the best drummers I've ever top seven drummers in my. In my lifetime. So, you know, you got to have that dedication. And it's a business. Rock and roll is a business, okay? You just have to have the business understanding and the acumen of business, as well as you have to provide if you're the musician, you know, right there. Or you're gonna get taken like Elvis, bro, and you're gonna be just kept in Vegas. You're never gonna see the world. You're gonna be told by some manager that they don't want you over there because it's too dangerous. He's like, well, why don't. Why don't I go to England? How come I'm not in England, Colonel? Well, you don't want to go there, Elvis. You don't want to go to England. He's like, well, I think I want to go to England. Nah, just eat this peanut butter jelly sandwich and shut up. You know, it's like, oh, dude. Yeah, you got to have some understanding, you know, maybe. And Elvis. I think the best time Elvis had was when he was in the military because he got to get out of America. He traveled, you know, so. Wow, man. I guess Elvis is a veteran and also, you know, business rock star. So it Just kind of goes hand with what you're saying. You know, a lot of veterans come out trying to reinvent themselves and you know, it. That's, that's what I call the cocoon method, where you've gone in as this caterpillar and you come out as this butterfly, but then you re cocoon again into a newer, bigger, brighter butterfly with bigger colors. You know, something that's so, like, just flamboyantly colorful because you've just done such a great job cocooning yourself throughout your life. You know, like a snake sheds its skin to become bigger, you know, and then another skin sheds. You know, in business, I find that we shed those skins or we cocoon ourselves multiple times. You know, every two to three years, I find myself with new butterfly colors on my wings.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, I love that. Yeah, it's, it's an evolution, right? You're, you're not the same person you were two years ago, nor would you want to be.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Right.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

And, you know, I'm grateful for all the lessons. Like, I coach a lot of, you know, billionaire deca millionaire type folks are my clients. And money doesn't make you happy. It's just fuel. It's opportunity, it's the ability to do things. But I know a lot of really wealthy, miserable people, and because they've lost their vision, they've compromised two or three too many times and they're just no longer in control or their vision has been hijacked by a bunch of corporate lawyers or, you know what I mean? Like, it's just not fun anymore. So a lot of times I'll take a public company and take it back private. That's a lot of fun. You know what I mean? That's like, it's, it's, it's, it's fun.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Reorganization of it is what it is.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Just be like, not unlike this anymore. This just having to like, not do what I want to do, do what, you know, the investors want to do every 90 days. So we're going to pull this back private and we're going to get rid of all this cultural non fits and we're going to go back to what I started this. And you know what I mean? Like, that's like, oh, that sounds like a mission I want to be a part of because it's righteous and it's getting that founder back in a position of strength. And again, it's really hard to teach people lessons when they're making millions of dollars. Like, success is such a horrible teacher. Failure, on the other hand, oof, you got Somebody's attention for a minute, you know what I mean? Like, the biggest failures I've ever had have been the best teachers for me and the largest successes that I've ever had, you know, they feel good, they're validating. But as soon as you think you got it figured out, that's when the business gods will humble you. Right? And I think that's why you gotta look at this like evolution. I'm going to wake up tomorrow, God willing. And it's a gift. Yesterday, what did I do with that gift? How did I leverage that? What did I learn? Who did I help? How did I get past maybe a weakness and turn it into a strength? So, like, you know, being in an elite unit, being in an elite company, having an elite skill, being a professional athlete, being. Being Def Leppard, being Hunter Hallberg, like, these are all people that have said, I don't want to just do this. I'm going to be here. It takes just as many hours in the day to be amazing than it does to be pathetic. Like, the time invested in success or failure, it's the same time how, how you look at things and your expectations. Once you make agreements with yourself and other people make agreements, my whole thing is like, opt 100% into this or 100% out of this. So I just find that that military commitment that's lacking in the civilian business world, you can get a little bit of that. You really can. And when you have all volunteers and everybody wants it, I also recommend to my founders that we pay people in the 75th percentile. We're going to give you 25% more money, and we're going to expect about 60, 70% more work. And the right people basically can do that deal and they don't have a problem with it. And when there's a waiting list to work at your company, you're not going to put up with any behavior. So when a lot of times I get hired rad, they're not accountable. Like, I can't. Like, I'm paying them all this money and they're not entering, they're not emptying the CEO's garbage can when they clearly see, right. That's a cultural thing. And the next time someone does that, say, did you not see that can? Oh, yes, sir, I did. Well, why is it still full? You know what I mean? Like, right.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

You walked by it five times and

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

I watched you walk by it, said that to the xo, right? The second in command. And then someone else saw the CEO say that to the xo. Okay, that's the game. No full garbage cans around the CEO. So like, if we all play along to that, it's not about the garbage can. It's about you saw something that wasn't awesome, you had a chance to make it awesome and you didn't take the shot. That's the issue. That's what I'm coaching is why is that cool? Well, that's a human. And that human has been told that behavior is acceptable here. If it's not and you don't say anything about it, you've just endorsed it, you've doubled down on it. Now everyone's going to be doing that. So as you know, it takes about 20 years to build a great reputation and about five minutes to lose a really.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yeah.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

So like life, business, whatever we're talking about here, I think this message resonates like be intentional. It takes just as long to be awesome as it does to be bad. You're just investing that time in different activities. But it's the same amount of time. And if you kind of look at things differently, you know, you'll be a lot happier because you'll realize everything is a choice, not necessarily. What happens to you, that's the universe gut checking you, how you respond, that's everything. So you might as well surround yourself with like minded people, have a bigger than us moment and go big because life is short. And you know, maybe you get multiple lifetimes, but let's just assume this is one meat suit, one set of memories, however that works. Like, let's go.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Well, you know, to go back to Hunter, Hunter, the guitar player, your son here, just to kind of like chime in what he's doing, you know, with what you've explained to me is he's leaving a legacy like Beethoven, okay, We all know who Beethoven is, or Mozart. We've all heard of these individuals, but they were so long ago in our lifetimes that their music still today resonates. And it's still out there because of all that hard work, that dedication, that practice, putting it out there, writing down their music so it could be passed forward. There was no Spotify, okay? It was like these papers that didn't get burned during a war somehow made it to somebody's piano and they played it. And Mozart, okay, it was somehow saved and salvaged. That's what I think rock and roll and music does. And like what your son is doing is, you know, we'll be gone, we'll be long gone. He'll be long gone. Not to be weird, but that music, I think, can last forever as long as it's. It's out there. And so that's hardcore right there. And. And props to him practicing so much. And for you, enduring all the practicing in the late nights and the jam sessions and being the rock and roll dad behind the scenes for your boy, and you know, him watching his dad. When you say, like, oh, I don't think it's me. It's probably a lot of you involved in him. When he looks in the. See, when my kids come into my bedroom at night to, like, say goodnight to us and all this, my wife and I, and I'm like, all right, how was your days? Everything? I'm like, all right, now all three of you, go to your room. Because I'm never going to win an argument because I'm talking to each three of my personalities right now. I'm like, you know my triggers. I was like, I'm not going to talk to you, Sidney, because you're like a lawyer. And my son, Alex, I'm not even getting into it. Just you guys go to bed. I love you.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Go to bed. We can't love you tomorrow.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yes, exactly. I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win. Especially against three to one. It's like, oh, we know how dad works. So I love that, though, and I love them. And then one other thing I wanted to speak on is pooping on the company dime. I mentioned it earlier. A lot of folks go to work and they punch a clock in and then they go to the bathroom. I'm like, could you have not gone to the bathroom before you came to work? In my mind, you know? Or like, did you need to eat your lunch as soon as you got here and clocked in? Or could you have ate it in your car on the way here? Why do you come to work and then clock in and then eat or then go to the bathroom? So the rule at our shop is if you're going into the bathroom on the clock, you got to leave your cell phone outside of the bathroom. If it's on the clock, I'm cool. If you got to poop on the dime and you want to go to the bathroom, you got to go to the bathroom. Hey, you're human. Go to the bathroom. Leave your phone in the little cubby on the outside.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Okay.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

But if you clock out, go ahead and take your phone into the bathroom.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

That seems fair. Yeah. They're your rules.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

I mean, 20, 23 minutes later, and they come out of the bathroom, it's like, oh, Are you going to clock back in now? Yeah, I better clock in. Or 23 minutes later, and they were on your clock just scrolling their Instagram in the bathroom. I mean, 20. It goes by. Time flies when you're on that thing, man. So if you're not being productive, you're not providing productivity.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

What.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

What is the point of pooping on the. Come on. Pooping on the company dime? I hope that you out there that poops on the company dime gets your money's worth.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yeah, well, you know who you are. We're talking to you.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Yes, exactly.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, I mean, at the same time, you know, another saying is no profit. No profit sharing. So, like, I'm a big fan of taking, let's call it 10%, putting it into a. A bonus pool, an options pool, restricted stock. Something that's, you know, management's discretion is. Is what I always recommend, because any system can be gamed, right? And then we're gaming an extra thing, which is ridiculous. So that's why I just say the rules are whatever I say they are, and it's a bonus. So my business partner always says that.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

He's always like, well, we'll. We'll see what happens when bonuses come out. That's what we always. We always joke about it around the Christmas time when everyone's looking for their Chevy Chase money. It's like a ham. What? Yeah, I know you're vegetarian, but I got you a ham, bro. Have a nice day.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Well, that's like the fruitcake of the month club when you're expecting a swimming pool, right? That's when we have issues. But I think if what I'm coaching my team is like, all right, we've got a bonus pool, a pile of awesome. Is it a huge stack of awesome because we've been disciplined and focused on doing the right things all year, or is that a tiny little pile of awesome? Because we haven't been awesome. So I like to take, like, your example, and I'd just be like, all right, so anytime we're, like, spending 26 minutes, you know, pooping at the job, like, that's a detracting behavior that's taking money away from this net profit because we're raising our labor costs because we're paying for stuff, we're not getting it right. We're getting doom scrolling and pooping. Which is great, of course. Both of those things together. Sublime, of course, but not in an environment where your impact isn't being met, just your expenses being met. So, like, every time, you know, no profit, no Profit sharing. So, like, every time this happens, the bonus pool gets smaller. So, like, if. If your little girl is not going to get the Barbie Corvette, most things are like five, six hundred bucks now, because I am doom scrolling and pooping for four days a week, totaling two hours worth of unproductive pooping. Like, you're not going to get a bonus to get her the thing that she wanted. And my daughter isn't going to get her toy because you can't clock out and poop at the same time. So, like, when I tie the behavior to the result, people will stop doing the bad behavior when they realize what is actually happening. So that's the neat thing when we can say, hey, this week we had very productive pooping. The numbers were good, the customers were happy. Like, we put a bunch of money into the bonus pool this week. You guys, if we keep this up, Def Leppard's gonna play our company.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

I'm telling you, that's what's up. Full circle. Full circle, bro. That was perfect. Perfect. Full circle. Def Leppard, you have impacted me. I just want to say, if they listen to this Def Leppard, I'm flattered. Okay. They did look at my story on Instagram, though, so I was. I took a screenshot of their blue check mark name next to it. So that was a very cool thing to be Def Leppard, you know, my whole life listening to them. So. And the fact that we rock and roll, too, and your son rock and rolls. It's been such a great conversation talking with you today, Chris, and you've just really had cool insights and demeanor, and I can see why people are looking to you to come into their business and help, you know, ramp them up and. And just give them that esprit de corps, which is, you know, that culture that they're looking for, which they don't realize. And that's why they call you, and that's why they reach out to you, and you're like, hey, what's up? What can I. How can I help you today? Do you have too many people pooping on the diamond here? Everyone's gonna laugh. But is it true? You know, and it's like, what if you took three minutes each away from everybody and put it back to productivity? Would that go into the awesome pile? You know? And so, again, I'm really flattered that you and your team wanted to be on the show today. And, you know, you get paid thousands of dollars to go and speak to these companies, and we've had you for an Hour. So I just want to let my. My listener know that we've had you for an hour and this is great. And if you want to reach out to Chris and his team. Right, it's at. Is it Sergeant Biz or Bizarre? Let me read it again real quick here. Tell me the name of your website.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

It's. It's Business Sergeant. Just throw that into the Google. The shortened web address is wwbizsgt.com because ain't nobody got time to spell out business and sergeant.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

No, but you can say sergeant. Hey, what's up, Staff Sergeant. Well, you've been wonderful, and I think that anybody that's interested in having you and your services should just reach out directly to you. You know, we just had a great conversation. There was no other intention except just two dudes meeting each other for the first time and having a conversation, talking about Def Leppard, rock and roll and business strategies. And that's what this was right here. All right, so, my listener, I hope you can take some kindness out there in the world and just, you know, exude some of that talk to people with a different tone, you know, just put yourself in their shoes sometimes, you know, and just. And just. And just realize we all come from somewhere different and quit pooping on the dime so much, guys. Come on. Dude, I wish that was a job.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Profitable, profitable, productive. Pooping the triple the three P's. Okay, good.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Let's trademark that. Well, well, thank you so much. And again, the name of your field manual. Say it for me.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

Yep, the business sergeant's field manual. Military grade business execution without the yelling

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

and push ups that will be put down into our dissertation down there. And we'll also have a hyperlink to bizsargent.com so that folks can just click on that. And I just want to thank you again for being on the show.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

My pleasure, Rad. Thanks for having me on your program. I really enjoyed my morning with you.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Well, that's great. And I'm so glad that we got this opportunity. And I think Lyndon, who put us all together, shout out to you for arranging all the emails and the back and forth and being like, rad, I got you. And flexibility. Thank you for your flexibility, Lyndon. And thank you again, Chris. And on behalf of Brandon Webb and behalf of Callum, my producer and myself, and. And Guy, our editor, and everybody involved with Soft rep, you know, Logan, everybody out there that makes this ship go, I appreciate you. And I'll continue to hold the compass while everybody else rows. Okay? I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I row actually. I play the drums on the ship. I like to play the drums. You know, someone's got to do it.

[Chris Hallberg (Guest, Business Sergeant)]

More cowbell, right? We need some more cowbell.

[Rad (Host of Soft Rep Radio)]

Man, did I just listen to Blue Oyster Cult last night? So that's so great. All right, well, we can keep talking and we will when he comes back on my show. You're always welcome back, Chris. So thank you so much for bringing positive light to us today. And again, if you're my listener out there and you want to learn more about this or you're watching this on YouTube, go check out bizsargent.com type it in Google and you'll find the link or just click down below. And my name is Rad and I love hosting the show and thanks to Brandon Webb and everybody else and we're saying peace. You've been listening to Soft Rep Radio.

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