Leadership Thoughts

07/31/2026

Picture a Friday night football game. Nobody in that stadium is paid to
be there, and everybody is giving everything they have.

That's buy-in. On Monday morning, most of it gets left in the parking lot.

Dave Garrison ran companies on four continents and wrote The Buy-In
Advantage. On this week's Leadership Unlocked, he tells Dusty Holcomb
something worth sitting with: buy-in costs nothing, and most
organizations still don't have it. Not because leaders are bad. Because
nobody ever taught them how.

He also names the habit that kills it fastest. Walking in with your own
finished idea.

Full episode here: https://arcq.us/4cdoa4V

Podcast Episode · Leadership Unlocked: How Leaders Win in the Era of AI · July 29 · 41m

07/23/2026

We keep hearing AI changes everything. Kurt Luidhardt agrees. He also thinks it makes one thing matter more than ever.

He helped elect a president and more than 100 members of Congress. His take on the AI era stuck with us. The systems, the IP, even the book you wrote all drop in value when AI can recreate them instantly. The one thing that keeps rising is your relationships.

You can't outsource a warm introduction to a machine. Trust still moves through people. That is the whole idea behind return on relationship capital, and it might be the most important thing a leader invests in right now.

Listen to the full episode:

Dusty sits down with Kurt Luidhardt, entrepreneur, political strate...

07/16/2026

Most of us were taught that "personal branding" is just self-promotion. Bryan Wish makes a compelling case that it's the opposite.

On this week's Leadership Unlocked, Bryan and Dusty Holcomb dig into why, as AI makes expertise easy to copy, the person behind the work becomes the thing people trust. It's not just for CEOs. It's for anyone whose name is on the work, from sales to law to the family business.

The reframe worth sitting with: people choose who they trust as much as what they buy.

Listen to the full episode:
YouTube: https://arcq.us/44CFtZ8
Spotify: https://arcq.us/4w7iRMv
Apple: https://arcq.us/4wpTWEd

Dusty sits down with Bryan Wish for a thoughtful conversation about...

07/09/2026

Most leaders think their job ends the moment they hand something off. It doesn't.

On this week's Leadership Unlocked, I talked with David Stupay, a five-time CEO whose path runs from a homeless shelter to a year in East Africa to executive search. His take on delegation is worth the listen. Handing off a task doesn't hand off the responsibility. You still own moving it from here to there.

One story sticks. David asked a bishop for a sink and got one with no running water. Turns out specificity is a leadership skill.

Links to listen are below -

07/03/2026

Think about how many small windows you get in a day. The red light. The line at the store. The minute before a meeting. What do you reach for?

This week on Leadership Unlocked, George Bryant hands Dusty Holcomb one of the sharpest lines we’ve had on the show: most people spend their whole life avoiding the one relationship they’re guaranteed to keep, the one with themselves.

His point for leaders is simple. You can’t build real connection with your team if you’ve never built it with yourself.

Worth the listen this week:

Podcast Episode · Leadership Unlocked: How Leaders Win in the Era of AI · July 1 · 1h 9m

06/25/2026

You sit down with AI, type "do this for me," and what comes back is fine. Not wrong. Just not what you would have done. So you close the window and figure the tool is overhyped.

On this week's Leadership Unlocked, I name what's really going on: you're running the most capable tool you've ever held like software, when you already know how to lead it. You do it with people every day.

The whole reframe fits in four words you can try in your next session: "what would you propose?" Stop commanding it. Start developing it.

Listen here:
https://arcq.us/3QjnL9G
https://arcq.us/4eJL0lq
https://arcq.us/4eJJKic

Dusty goes solo to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions lead...

06/19/2026

Ever notice the line outside your door? Same questions, slightly reworded, and nothing moves unless it moves through you.

That’s not a sign you’re needed. It’s a sign you’ve been seeing for people instead of helping them see.

This week on Leadership Unlocked, Dusty Holcomb shares a reframe a CEO gave him in one word: the blacklight. Your job isn’t to hand people the answer. It’s to help them see the dots already on their page. He closes with a simple rule you can run in your very next conversation: ask three questions before you give one answer.

Listen here:

Podcast Episode · Leadership Unlocked: How Leaders Win in the Era of AI · June 17 · 18m

05/22/2026

New conversation just dropped on Leadership Unlocked, and it's one I think every business owner needs to hear.

I sat down with Alex Goldfayn, who has spent years helping companies grow revenue 15 to 30 percent without selling harder. His whole approach comes down to one habit most leaders skip: proactive outreach.

One more call. One more “how can I help you.” One more “what else do you need from us.”

That's it. Simple actions, done consistently, that compound into real growth.

We talked about why the first call is always the hardest, why three calls a day beats any marketing campaign, and how the best companies make this stick when most others fail.

If you lead a team, give this one a listen.

🎙️ Link in comments.

05/19/2026

She runs a strong company. Smart team. Profitable. She wanted to know where to go with AI.

She said: "Every time I think about AI, I keep going back to what I already know how to automate. I struggle to get my brain to the next level."

I hear this constantly from senior leaders right now.

Here’s the thing: she doesn’t have an AI problem. She has a framing problem.

Most people are using AI like a search engine. Type in a question, get an answer, move on. That’s using a calculator to do arithmetic. You can do that. The tool is capable of so much more.

The shift that changed everything for me: stop telling AI what to do. Start asking what it proposes.

Ask it: “Here’s the problem. How would you solve it?” Then watch what happens.

It comes back with options you hadn’t thought of. It asks you clarifying questions. It surfaces the gaps in your own thinking.

That’s not a new skill. That’s the same skill you’ve used to lead people for 20 years. You just haven’t applied it to the tool yet.

MIT says 95% of companies have seen zero ROI on AI. The leaders who are different aren’t more technical. They’re just better at leading.

Full piece is in this week’s newsletter. Link in comments.

What’s working for you with AI right now? I’m genuinely curious.

05/14/2026

I was running a division of several hundred people. Growing business. Good team. And I was completely, quietly falling apart.

Not in a dramatic way. In that way that high-achievers fall apart. I just kept carrying more. Every decision came to me. Every fire was mine to put out. I told myself it was because I cared.
It wasn't. It was three stories I'd been telling myself for years.

1) The Hero Myth: If I step in, it gets fixed. Reality: every time you swoop in, you teach your team they can't handle it.

2) Imposter Syndrome: One day they'll figure out I don't belong here. Reality: 71% of US CEOs report this. It doesn't disappear when you earn the title. It intensifies. And research from MIT Sloan shows the leaders who experience it most actually outperform their peers under pressure by 13%.

3) The Help-Asking Taboo: Asking for help is weakness. Reality: Harvard Business School research shows that people who ask for advice are perceived as more competent, not less. Especially on high-stakes decisions.

A mentor finally put it plainly. "Why are you stealing opportunities from your team?"

Episode 60 of Leadership Unlocked is about these three stories, the research behind them, and a 20-minute audit that helps you start putting them down.

Listen here:
https://arcq.us/4flSqNr
https://arcq.us/3PBlNRv
https://arcq.us/42yefC4

Honest question for the leaders here: which of these three shows up most for you at work right now? The comments are open👇