How To Grow Your Team And Scale Your Business (A Coaching Session)

Summary

EntreLeadership: "The Key to Leveling Up Your Leadership Team"

Date: July 29, 2026
Host: Dave Ramsey (Ramsey Network)
Guest: John Felkins (Head Coach, EntreLeadership)
Featured Leader: Jessica Rohrs (Executive Director, Family Crisis Centers, Iowa)

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Main Theme

This episode delivers an inside look at what it takes to grow leadership within a scaling business—specifically how to develop leaders who reflect your organization’s values and vision. Through a coaching conversation between John Felkins and Jessica Rohrs, the discussion centers on real-world strategies for nurturing effective middle managers, investing in relationships, and fostering a culture anchored in core values—not just processes or training modules.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Leadership Challenge: Growing from Within

• Jessica’s Context: Jessica leads Family Crisis Centers, a nonprofit serving trauma survivors across Iowa. With around 60 statewide employees and a structure that includes both executive leaders and (often first-time) middle managers, she grapples with:
  • Building leadership bench strength internally
  • Budget stewardship around professional development
  • Training leaders to lead others (not just “putting them in a role and letting them go”)
  • Overcoming geographic separation (rural, dispersed teams)

2. The Limits of Formal Training

• John Felkins’ Core Principle:
  • “The answer isn’t some big leadership training or fancy curriculum. It’s actually a lot simpler and a lot more personal than most leaders expect.” (Dave Ramsey, 00:17)
  • Training matters, but personal connection is irreplaceable:
    • In-person time (“sitting kneecap to kneecap”) builds trust and impact, especially in emotionally demanding roles.
    • Quote: “It’s just an investment of time.” (John Felkins, 05:54)

3. Overcoming Remote and Rural Team Challenges

• Current Practices:

  • Monthly in-person meetings
  • Weekly group Zoom calls for technical and emotional check-ins
  • Limited one-on-one relational time due to travel, workload, and geography

• Opportunity:

  • Leveraging technology while recognizing its relational limitations
  • Planning intentional, proactive in-person visits far in advance
  • Making connection a non-negotiable calendar item

• Quote:

  • “If you're not intentional as a leader, you can just be caught in the weeds...as the calendar gets full, that's not the thing that goes to the wayside.” (Jessica Rohrs, 16:30)

4. Reinforcing Vision and Core Values

• Frequency Matters:

  • Jessica’s org reviews vision and values during annual strategic planning
  • John recommends more frequent touchpoints:
    • Weekly or monthly all-team meetings—even if virtual
    • Rotating meeting focuses: team celebrations, business updates, core value deep-dives
    • Using tech (video, email updates) to cast vision consistently
    • “As soon as you start to get sick of hearing yourself say it, you're starting to say it enough.” (John Felkins, 08:51)

• Celebrating Core Values in Action:

  • Publicly acknowledging when staff embody core values
  • Not just private praise, but sharing wins to shape team norms

• Quote:

  • “One way that you can pour into your middle managers is catching one of them doing something right and then celebrating that in front of everybody.” (John Felkins, 09:27)

5. The Power of Personal Care: A Leadership Story

• John’s Heart Attack Story:

  • October 2022: John suffered a heart attack during a budget meeting.
  • Daniel Ramsey (senior leader) showed up at the hospital, not only assisting immediately but sitting with John’s son during the crisis—demonstrating genuine care.
  • Memorable Moment:
    • “The thing that impacted me so much was not that Daniel was there in that moment, but my son was sitting in the waiting room…Daniel sat with him that day. And I'll never forget that.” (John Felkins, 14:10)
  • Tangible care engenders loyalty and a culture of real support.

• Jessica’s Connection:

  • Leaders who are present and caring—even at a personal or family level—drive retention, commitment, and resilience.

6. Leadership Requires Intentionality

• Proactive Scheduling:

  • “I need to be putting in the calendar for when I'm going to see everybody two or three months in advance…” (Jessica Rohrs, 16:30)
  • John: Don’t shoulder leadership care alone; equip your whole leadership team to do the same, spreading the responsibility.

• Empowering Your Team:

  • Final reflection: You don’t directly build the business—"you grow people that build the business.” (John Felkins, 17:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The answer…is actually a lot simpler and a lot more personal than most leaders expect.”
  —Dave Ramsey (00:17)

• “It’s just an investment of time.”
  —John Felkins (05:54)

• “As soon as you start to get sick of hearing yourself say it, you're starting to say it enough.”
  —John Felkins (08:51)

• “The loyalty that I have to Daniel as a leader is unquestioned.”
  —John Felkins, after recounting Daniel’s personal support during his heart attack (14:58)

• “You don’t build the business. You grow people that build the business.”
  —John Felkins (17:38)

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:05 — 02:11: Jessica describes her nonprofit, staff structure, and leadership challenges
• 03:43 — 05:11: The struggle of geographical spread; virtual meetings vs. relational touch
• 05:54 — 08:51: John’s approach to vision casting, frequency, and reinforcement of values
• 09:26 — 10:11: The importance of public celebration and recognition for reinforcing culture
• 12:35 — 15:10: John’s heart attack story and the lesson in authentic leadership care
• 16:30 — 17:38: Jessica and John discuss intentional scheduling and delegation for relational investment

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Actionable Takeaways & Leadership Principles

• Focus on cultivating relationships and spending meaningful, intentional time with your team—especially those new to leadership roles.
• Reinforce vision and values frequently (weekly/monthly), not just during annual reviews.
• Celebrate team members’ embodiment of values publicly to set team norms.
• Leadership is distributed: empower other leaders to also invest time and care.
• Leadership loyalty and retention are won through genuine care, especially in life’s toughest moments.
• Be proactive—schedule team touchpoints months in advance to guarantee relational investment.

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Episode Wrap-Up

Dave Ramsey closes with this central wisdom:
"Building a team of rock star leaders doesn't happen by accident. It requires building relationships. It requires intentionally sharing your vision and your values as often as possible." (Dave Ramsey, 17:53)

Whether you lead a business or a nonprofit, the team’s success hinges on relationships, shared purpose, and leaders who care—because leadership at every level is built one intentional moment at a time.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

How do I build strong leaders that lead my business like I would? That's the question Jessica Rohrs asked when she sat down with head coach John Felkins for a live coaching session. And if you're trying to scale a business, you've probably asked something similar. Most business owners are used to leading a team, but leading leaders is a whole different ball game. And the answer isn't some big leadership training or fancy curriculum. As John explains to Jessica, the solution is actually a lot simpler and a lot more personal than most leaders expect. Let's get to it.

[John Felkins]

Well, Jessica, thanks for coming and hanging out with us today.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah, absolutely.

[John Felkins]

Tell me a little bit about your business.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Well, Family Crisis Centers is a nonprofit that is statewide in the state of Iowa.

[John Felkins]

Okay.

[Jessica Rohrs]

I've been in nonprofit leadership for about 15 years, been in the executive director role for about three.

[John Felkins]

Okay.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Have been with family crisis centers for about 10, have about 60 people who work for us across the state of Iowa. And we're really there to serve victims and survivors of violent crimes.

[John Felkins]

Wow.

[Jessica Rohrs]

So domestic violence, human trafficking, burglary, kidnapping, child abuse. When a loved one loses somebody to a murder homicide, we're there for them to. Yeah. Just really walking alongside people who are in grief after violence.

[John Felkins]

So tell me, what's the big challenge that you're trying to tackle right now?

[Jessica Rohrs]

I would say the big challenge, and really why I'm here at the conference today, is how do we really grow our leaders from within? You mentioned the money that you have to bring in.

[John Felkins]

Right.

[Jessica Rohrs]

And we're so thankful. We live in a very generous and giving community that really supports our mission. We want to be good stewards of the dollar. And, of course, professional development is always being a good steward of the dollar. But really, how do we use our funds wisely but still invest in our people? And so really just trying to figure out how do we develop some sort of internal training curriculum or how do we. How do we not just put somebody, maybe, in a leadership role and say, okay, great, go. You know, how do we really build them up to be successful in that.

[John Felkins]

Right.

[Jessica Rohrs]

And maybe looking at that middle management level. So we have a director of operations who is supervising just our programmatic staff, as well as a leadership team of an HR director, director of financ, finance, director of marketing. So have that leadership base, and then it goes to our middle managers who are really overseeing those different programs. So it's oftentimes their first experience with leadership. They're probably there because they've shown the skills. They know how to do the work, they have good values, and so they have all those things. But it's just sometimes those first lessons of, oh, leadership, is it glamorous? Maybe?

[John Felkins]

What? Right.

[Jessica Rohrs]

I know. I think those are the things of how do we build you up to ensure that you just know how to maybe pour into other people, live out our core values, because those get hard when situations get hard.

[John Felkins]

So how often are you seeing them? They're once a month.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes. Yes. And our director of operations sees them more. And then our middle managers have a team of probably 15 people under them as well. Each one of them, each one that are trying to see the teams that are travel that they have to travel to see.

[John Felkins]

What are you currently trying?

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes, a lot of probably trial and error, but I think we've learned just relationships are impactful. So how do we spend a lot of time with them, supporting them? I think the other challenge is that they're spread out across very probably rural geographic region.

[John Felkins]

How often do you get to see them, like face to face?

[Jessica Rohrs]

I would say probably once a month. And then their supervisors are seeing them more. But I would say that's another challenge of that too, is just how do you build those relationships when you can't be one on one with each other as much?

[John Felkins]

Okay, that's, you know, we're kind of spoiled because we're all in one building. And so I want to be careful not to make it sound like it's easy to do, but that once a month time seems like that's challenging to really be able to sit with somebody and talk through everything that they're facing. Do you have any other channels of communication? Do they do weekly reports or do you have online meetings that you do or anything else?

[Jessica Rohrs]

We do every week. We have kind of a zoom meeting where our people are dealing with trauma every day, which is hard, too, because the support needed then also increases.

[John Felkins]

Sure.

[Jessica Rohrs]

You know, they're sitting in a trial with somebody with a child who's been sexually abused, and it's like, I just need someone to talk to. So we have a weekly time where people can jump on zoom and really talk those things through. So thankfully, the virtual world has, you know, really increased and made that easier for us. But you don't get a. Those are great for the more technical things, but it's probably that relational thing of, you know, how's your family doing? What other. That type of thing you don't really get virtually.

[John Felkins]

Yep. What would it look like to actually get them to come? Can they come to you?

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah, absolutely.

[John Felkins]

How often does that happen now?

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah, I would say they're coming to our building probably once a month as well.

[John Felkins]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[John Felkins]

So that's. Are you hitting. So are we doubling up? Is that twice a month that you're getting together or.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes, hopefully, as our. If our schedule is aligned.

[John Felkins]

Yeah.

[Jessica Rohrs]

But it's also just kind of managing that those day to day needs as well.

[John Felkins]

I love that you want to do training, but there. That still isn't the same as sitting with somebody kneecap to kneecap and building the relationship with them. And it's just an investment of time.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Absolutely.

[John Felkins]

It's just an investment of time.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah.

[John Felkins]

How frequently are you able to cast vision for the whole team and reinforce the core values by talking through those? Well, first, maybe let me ask you, do you have those things written down and shared with everybody on the team and how frequently do you review those things?

[Jessica Rohrs]

I would say we're reviewing them. We do our strategic planning once a year and reviewing strategic plan and so at that same time reviewing those core values and how we're living out those core values. So I would say we're revisiting them often.

[John Felkins]

Okay.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah. What do you suggest there?

[John Felkins]

So I was just gonna say to you, we do that every week.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay, tell me more, what's your. How do you go about that?

[John Felkins]

Yeah, so we have a. We have an all team meeting.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

Every week.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

Now the reason that I hesitate to say that is, is because we're not all spread out all over the state. So the thing that's important is to think about the principles and then apply them to your process. Because I wouldn't try and say to you, you need to bring your whole team together every week and put them all in the same room. Because you just can't do that. You're spread out over all these locations. But I'll tell you what we do and then maybe we can talk through what from that. Can we glean. Right.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes, please.

[John Felkins]

So every week we get together and as the month goes by, we kind of hit on different. So I'm not saying that every week we have a whole session on just core values, but every month we do. And as we go through the month, we'll do things like one week is going to be about celebrating team members and maybe it's new team members and we pray for them as they join the team or we celebrate, you know, you've been here a year, you've been here 5, 10, 15, 20 years, we do those kind of celebrations. And then one of the other weeks in the month Is, hey, we're going to deep dive on something that's going on in the business. So this part of the company, they're going to explain, this is what we're doing. This is our new thing. This is the plan that we're working on. And also here is how it's going. We're actually behind here, or we're ahead here, and we talk shop. And the whole team knows that this part of the company is, you know, this is what they're going after. And this is kind of the update on that. And our leadership team talks about that, not just Dave and Daniel.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

Dave is there less now, and Daniel runs the majority of those meetings.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

Daniel or a board member, you know, so somebody from the senior leadership team. And then one of the other things we do is pretty much every month we hit one of the core values.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

And I will say from your seat, I can appreciate that that's going to get repetitive. But as soon as you start to get sick of hearing yourself say it, you're starting to say it enough.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

Because it just leaks. People just forget that stuff. And then you hire new people. And I understand you're spread out, you're in a lot of different locations, so it's going to look different for you than it does for us. But you could do that via a zoom link, you know, a zoom meeting, or even just a recording that you send out or an email that you send out. But they really need to hear from you and your heart. This is the North Star. This is where we're going. This is why it matters. Then the other thing that we do that I think could be really valuable for you is we celebrate when one of our team members lives out our core values.

[Jessica Rohrs]

I love that.

[John Felkins]

So one of your middle managers, you want to pour into them. One way that you can do that is catching one of them doing something right. And then celebrating that in front of everybody. It's one thing to go to their office or have a conversation with say, you know, Jim, I just love that you did this. You know, you went this extra mile. You. You did whatever it was. But to celebrate that person in front of the whole team.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah.

[John Felkins]

Then everybody sees what you're looking for. Everybody sees you celebrate that person. It isn't necessarily the same thing as being able to sit with them kneecap to kneecap and build a relationship. But I'm sorry to say, I'm sorry, not sorry that it's a both and situation.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes.

[John Felkins]

Right from you, your heart, your vision. They need to know that North Star. And they need to be reminded of the why. Because, gosh, what you do is tough. It's tough work. It's tough emotionally. I imagine the hours are crazy sometimes. That really is genuinely very tough work. And being really tied to the why has got to be the fuel in their fire to keep people going. And then knowing that they have an environment that's safe and they have leaders that care about them. You know, it might sound funny, but I remember, you know, I've heard pastors say it many times at church. You spell love, T, I, M, E. And you know how we grow people is by just loving them.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, yes.

[John Felkins]

And we can't substitute anything but spending time with them.

[Jessica Rohrs]

I love that. I think probably one of the biggest lessons in leadership is figuring out that it's actually about just caring for your people. So, yeah, I love how you say that. And I love how you say the North Star. I think that's a really good reminder too.

[John Felkins]

We'll get right back to our episode, but first, I want to talk about company culture for a minute. A vision statement is important, but it's not a company culture. Friday pizza parties aren't either. Your company culture is what your team feels like when they work there. And there's something that I've learned. Overwhelmed leaders create overwhelmed teams. And if you're constantly reactive, buried in your inbox, and running from meeting to meeting, that stress eventually becomes your culture. That's why I love Belay. Belay matches you with executive assistants who can take those repetitive day to day tasks off your plate and help you get some margin back in your calendar. And margin matters because when leaders finally have space to think, communicate clearly, and cast vision, healthy culture gets built on purpose, not by accident. And look, I know the people at Belay. I know Tricia, their CEO and her leadership team, and they want to help you. And right now, Belay has a free resource for you. It's called Culture Clarity. And you can download it for free by texting ENTRE to 55123. That's ENTRE 255123. Now let's get back to our episode.

[Jessica Rohrs]

What would you say throughout maybe your career was something that maybe a leader did for you that was so impactful?

[John Felkins]

I think my challenge with that question is thinking, which one? Because a lot of leaders have done a lot of things. But I'll tell you a story. Okay, so October 14, 2022. I was in a budgeting meeting.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Okay.

[John Felkins]

And I had a heart attack at the office.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow.

[John Felkins]

In the meeting, in the Meeting.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Wow.

[John Felkins]

And before it was over, the, you know, the emergency services people were there, and they looking at me on the floor, And I said, Mr. Felkins, you're having a heart attack. And, you know, that wasn't on my bingo card for the day, but I was there. I'll tell you one funny thing, too. I was there in the emergency room while they're getting me ready for surgery, and I had a fitness tracker on my arm, and they couldn't get it off. And they said, what is this? How do you get this thing off? And they weren't panicking, but they were asking me. And I'm like, I don't know. I have other things on my mind right now. And I kind of turned my head for whatever reason, and I looked, and Daniel Ramsey was standing in the hall, and I said, he wears one. He'll know how to get it off his arm or my arm. And so they said, come here. And so then he comes in, and he takes it off my arm, and he goes back out. And they asked me. They said, who's that? I said, that's my friend from work. And I don't know why I did it, but I said, and I work for Dave Ramsey, and that's his son. I just felt like it was a good time to brag, you know, as I'm getting ready to go into surgery, and these two nurses stopped and looked at me, and they both said, we hope you're paying cash today. And they thought they were real funny. But anyhow, I go in, and they take good care of me. But the thing that impacted me so much was not that Daniel was there in that moment, but my son was sitting in the waiting room wondering if his dad was going to live or die. And Daniel sat there with him for hours while I was in surgery. My wife was out of town, and she was racing back to be there, but my son was by himself. And Daniel sat with him that day. And I'll never forget that. And Daniel didn't do that to manipulate me or anything. He did that because that's how he cares for me and for everybody on our team. I mean, that just blew me away. And now, like I said, he didn't do it to manipulate me. But the loyalty that I have to Daniel as a leader is unquestioned.

[Jessica Rohrs]

I think that shows a lot of how we, as leaders need to show up. You talk about retention and all those different things, those are solved once people feel loved and cared for outside of work. We focus a lot on that. We offer services to businesses locally. And we tell them, if your people aren't dealing with crisis outside of work, they can show up better for you at work.

[John Felkins]

Absolutely.

[Jessica Rohrs]

And so it's just those humbling moments as a leader of the audit can wait. The donor can wait. You know what truly needs the attention?

[John Felkins]

Yeah. I've talked to a lot of people in your role that are executive directors of nonprofits, and they say the crux of the whole thing is their team. Is your team 100% paid, or do you have volunteers?

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes, we do have some volunteers, especially that work at our thrift store. So we have a thrift store that the proceeds come back into the operating budget. So we have some volunteers.

[John Felkins]

Yeah, you know, I understand that, you know, some are paid and some aren't paid, but in today's work environment, kind of everybody's a volunteer.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

[John Felkins]

Because they can go someplace else if they want to, Right?

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes.

[John Felkins]

Let me ask you, just as we're talking about this, is there anything that comes to mind that you think, you know, I could do this, or we. We could do this to. To just spend more time with our. Our folks?

[Jessica Rohrs]

I think just being more intentional and proactive. I think if you're not intentional as a leader, you can just be caught in the weeds and caught in the fire and just going from one thing to next instead of stopping and saying, when's the last time I looked at those core values? Or when am I going to, you know, the different towns to see people? And so I think that's what's sticking out in my mind is I need to be putting in the calendar for when I'm going to see everybody two or three months in advance so that as the calendar gets full, that. That's not the thing that goes to the wayside.

[John Felkins]

Yeah, I think that would be fantastic. And I would also encourage you. Don't. Don't take that all on yourself. You know, absolutely. Do what you're talking about. But then talk to your leadership team and say, y', all, this is what we need to be doing. We all need to pour into our people. I'm going to be doing this, and I really am asking you and expecting you to set intentional time apart because you can't do it all yourself.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Felkins]

But it sounds like you've built a good leadership team, and with them, I think you can probably get to that next level of leadership and invest in them like you want, because at the end of the day, you don't build the business. You grow people that build the business. And that's what you need to do.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yes, absolutely. That's great.

[John Felkins]

Thanks for coming and hanging out with us.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Yeah, thanks for having me. I love talking to you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jessica Rohrs]

It was nice to meet you.

[John Felkins]

That's awesome. Yeah.

[Jessica Rohrs]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Building a team of rock star leaders doesn't happen by accident. It requires building relationships. It requires intentionally sharing your vision and your values as often as possible. That's how you create leaders who think like you, who make decisions like you, who run your business the way you would, even if you're not in the room. But the best leaders I know aren't just pouring into others. They have other people pouring into them. It's why we have an entire team of coaches ready to help you overcome your challenges and grow your business. Just like John did for Jessica. Just click the link in the description to schedule your free 30 minute consultation. Call today. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share and subscribe for more real world content. I'm your host, Dave Ramsey, and this is entree leadership.