Jake Blanchard has spent his career parachuting into organizations, fixing what's broken and moving on. From an unpaid six-month internship at St. Luke's that turned into a career, to consulting for billion-dollar companies, to now leading OEM sales for a cutting-edge cybersecurity firm, Jake has built a career around solving problems others can't see. In this episode, he breaks down the most common leadership and communication failures he encounters across industries, and what actually separates high-performing teams from stuck ones. He also shares why his best advice to anyone starting out is simple: be a professional at whatever you do, even if it's stocking shelves.

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:35] Jake’s current projects

[00:06:27] Growing up in Louisiana, moving to Alaska & losing his accent in speech therapy

[00:11:44] Following a girl to college, switching majors, and landing on supply chain

[00:13:47] The unpaid six-month internship that launched his career

[00:15:36] Why Jake realized he is a great contractor and a terrible employee

[00:17:18] Consulting for UCLA Medical Center & seeing his son for only 70 days that year

[00:22:03] The wake-up call: overweight, burned out, & unable to enjoy being a father

[00:26:20] Running to the stop sign every day and rebuilding his identity

[00:27:36] Getting tapped out by a 15-year-old in jiu-jitsu and deciding to come back

[00:31:00] Why most businesses run like a sitcom built on miscommunication

[00:36:47] The leadership trap: why top-down decision making slows everything down

[00:46:38] The Five S framework & why sustain is always the hardest step

[00:52:21] Setting a minimum standard for yourself and rebuilding self-trust

[00:57:23] What the best leader Jake ever worked for did differently in every one-on-one

[01:01:00] Living & what you are actually trading your time for

[01:07:48] Kaizen, the Toyota production system, and empowering the people doing the work

[01:15:25] Time collapsing: why the best investment is finding someone with the experience

[01:21:50] Final advice: pick a thing and decide to be a professional at it, whatever it is