116: The Core Values That Built a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Brand w/ Kris Lindahl

In this episode of the No Limit Leadership Podcast, Sean sits down with entrepreneur, real estate leader, and bestselling author Kris Lindahl to talk about how adversity shaped his leadership philosophy and why core values must drive culture.

Kris shares how growing up with hardship built the mindset that helped him become one of the top real estate leaders in the country. He explains why desire, personal development, and intentional culture-building are the foundations of sustainable success. The conversation also explores how leaders can build organizations where high standards and supportive culture coexist.

This episode is a masterclass in leadership, growth mindset, and building teams that develop people—not just performance.

Guest

Kris Lindahl

Founder, Kris Lindahl Real Estate
 Author of Arms Out
Creator of the Guaranteed Cash Offer program

🌐 https://krislindahl.com

📘 https://armsout.com

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/krislindahl

Timestamps

00:00 – Why culture and values matter in leadership
00:36 – Introducing Kris Lindahl and his entrepreneurial journey
02:00 – How childhood adversity shaped his leadership mindset
05:20 – The role of experience and wisdom in leadership growth
07:00 – Why desire is the foundation of personal and professional development
11:00 – The mindset shift that separates growth-oriented leaders
12:40 – How choices shape our outcomes in life and business
16:30 – Creating a competitive yet supportive company culture
18:30 – Why core values must drive hiring and leadership decisions
23:00 – The importance of developing the whole person, not just the employee
27:50 – Scaling culture as an organization grows
30:30 – Self-evaluating leadership through core values
34:20 – Protecting culture and making difficult leadership decisions
38:30 – Lessons from adversity and losing his father at a young age
40:40 – Passion, ignoring noise, and focusing on purpose
42:00 – Final leadership insights

Connect with No Limit Leadership

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 https://www.nolimitleadership.com

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 https://www.seanpatton.me

No Limit Leadership is the go-to podcast for growth-minded executives, middle managers, and team leaders who want more than surface-level leadership advice. Hosted by executive coach and former Special Forces commander Sean Patton, this show dives deep into modern leadership, self-leadership, and the real-world strategies that build high-performing teams. Whether you're focused on leadership development, building a coaching culture, improving leadership communication, or strengthening team accountability, each episode equips you with actionable insights to unlock leadership potential across your organization. From designing onboarding systems that retain talent to asking better questions that drive clarity and impact, No Limit Leadership helps you lead yourself first so you can lead others better. If you're ready to create a culture of ownership, resilience, and results, this leadership podcast is for you.

Transcript

Sean Patton (00:00)
Many leaders talk about culture and values. Few actually build organizations around them. In this episode, I sit down with entrepreneur Chris Lindell to unpack how adversity shaped his leadership philosophy, why core values must drive culture, and the mindset shift that separates people who grow from those who stay stuck. If you want to build leaders, not just teams, this conversation is for you.

Sean Patton (00:36)
Welcome to the No Limit Leadership Podcast. I am your host, Sean Patton, and I'm very excited to have Chris Lindale with me today. He's a nationally recognized entrepreneur, real estate leader, and bestselling author. After starting his career during the housing crisis, Chris rose to become Minnesota's number one real estate agent and went on to build Chris Lindale Real Estate into one of the top real estate teams in the country. He's the creator of the Guaranteed Cash Offer program, which has helped over 30,000 homeowners to sell their homes quickly and with certainty. He's also known for his bold marketing, his

philanthropic work. And what I'm excited to talk about today is let's go leadership values that guide both his company and his life. Chris, thanks for being on today,

Kris Lindahl (01:14)
Thank you, Sean. Yeah, I've got a big introduction to live up to here, so we'll see how it goes.

Sean Patton (01:20)
What

do we try to do? I try to do my guess, I live with a high standard to live up to as the rest with my wife, I try to keep it low for myself, but not really fair. Well, Chris, is really interesting. We kind of prepped for this. Then I got a hold of your book Arms Out, which we will definitely tag. And you have such an interesting story. And I was just talking with a CEO yesterday and

We were talking about how it's so interesting how successful leaders in companies, successful entrepreneurs and business owners often have this history or this background, this formative year shaping that sort of sends them on a trajectory away from the mean. And yours is no different. So tell me a little bit about how your upbringing molded and shaped your worldview.

Kris Lindahl (02:07)
Yeah, think, you know, I think it, one of the interesting things about how I grew up is when I was younger, I thought like, like a lot of people do, like what's wrong with me? How do I overcome all these things? And it's, it's interesting because a lot of the things that happen as I was growing up in my childhood actually ended up being the greatest gifts of my life.

But at the time, of course, like anyone or all of us, you know, feel and believe, like that hard stuff that we go through when we're in that moment, we're always like, like, you know, what's wrong with me? How am going to get through it? This sucks. This is tough. And unfortunately, that's actually where the growth comes from.

And so there were so many things along the way that I had to overcome and now looking back, like those were just opportunities to get me ready to become the leader that I am today and that I will be in the future. And so super grateful for a lot of the things that I had to go through, because I think it's super important to go through tough stuff to sort of get to that next height on the mountain per se.

Sean Patton (03:06)
That is such a wise perspective that I feel like just comes over time and with experience and with intention of, in the moment, this is awful, this really sucks, but would you call it, is it faith? Is it perspective? Is it trust that the growth or the development is happening for you? Like, how would you describe the right approach when you're in those seasons?

Kris Lindahl (03:29)
Yeah, I think, well, when you're in those seasons, you don't know what you don't know, of course. And obviously the beautiful thing about life is hindsight, right? So looking back and going, knowing what I know today, this is what I likely should have been doing or thinking then. And so you're always, you know, I think so often people are always looking in their rear view mirror, right? And they're kind of going like, I could have done this, I should have done this, I ever got here, like all these other things. I think what you said at the beginning there was

I think the most important part, which is the sort of the wisdom or getting more wise or growing. We often talk about this inside of our brands, which is like the time in seat, right? So the amount of time that you have doing certain things, like over time, like you just gain more knowledge and more information. The more that you see things, the better that you understand yourself. And I think that that's...

the most important piece of this journey that we're all on, whether this is entrepreneurship, leadership, parenting, relationships, friendships, whatever it may be, the more time that we have, the more wisdom that we gain. And I always found this interesting. I have a lot of amazing mentors that are, a lot of them are significantly older than I am. And I always, I always scratch my head.

how much they knew about business and about certain situations that I would have going on inside of our brands. I would go, gosh, like.

they really have a ⁓ good idea of what's happening, even though they're totally removed and don't have a lot of information. And I started to realize like it really comes down to you just see a lot of different things. And there are a lot of patterns that you start recognizing. And I think that starts all the way from childhood. Like there are certain things that happen. There are certain ways that people behave and respond to things. And the more experience that you have, the more you start to pick up on those things and go, ⁓ this looks...

oddly familiar to something else that I've been through in my life. I most of the time it's not the same types of things over and over again, but they look oddly familiar, right? And so you're just a little bit more prepared each and every time that something shows up in your life.

Sean Patton (05:28)
Mm-hmm.

think that's absolutely true. And my experience of that would be that it does take intentional effort or reflection on those things to kind of get those lessons, right? Like, because certain people will go through those and not grab those lessons, right? Not look for the pattern, not connect the patterns and not do that. And they're just like kind of moving through life, know, unconsciously and unintentionally. And so what I'm hearing from you is that

The lessons are there, the patterns are there. There's in everything you're doing. But it takes a bit of a focus or maybe it's a almost a widening of perspective, right? Because I know for me, I just maybe speak personally, maybe I'm interested to hear your take on this. I know my biggest growth edge over the last 10 years as an entrepreneur since I got in the military, has been I came out, I was just like,

I was used to like, here's the mission, focus and just go. Like blinders on, go hard, doesn't matter what's happening. When things look like hell is falling out, the answer is just go harder in this one direction. And I had developed that because of my experience into a bit of a superpower, but a double edged sword that then caused me, when my first business failed to go through panic attacks and health issues and all those things. And I wasn't getting those lessons. And it was almost like,

when I was able to release that and open that up and not feel like I have to control and drive everything that I started having those, I started to see those patterns and I was able to operate from a different place. Did you have a similar experience or was yours different in this regard?

Kris Lindahl (07:03)
Well, yeah,

that I'm glad you brought this up because there are some other things that, you know, as I was listening to you there that, are really important. think the first one is desire. Right. Do you have the desire to grow? Do you have the desire to learn? Do you have the desire to want more?

Because some people don't and that doesn't mean that's wrong. It just means that that's not what their priorities are And so so for me I happen to have this really high desire to continue to grow to be the best that I could be to pour into others and Lead by example not by words and I think a lot of times people that are in leadership roles try to lead by words Right. We're gonna do this. You're gonna do this. It's gonna be this it's gonna be that

And so I choose to lead by actions. Everyone sees how Chris shows up every day. Chris should not have to say anything to inspire other people to want to be better, to want to grow. And I think that that's a critical piece of this. Now, the second part to that is if you have the desire, then it comes down to the learning aspect, the personal development.

that investing in yourself and wanting to be a better human being for your personal life, for your professional life. And I think that that's also a really critical component of all of this. And then third, I think it is getting yourself into your genius, right? Patrick Lincioni is a great leadership author and coach and his working genius.

initiative is really smart because it focuses on getting people to what their genius is. And so some people, their genius might be

discerning everything in the world. Like how do I improve this? How do I improve myself? How do I improve others? How do I improve other businesses? How do I improve different marketing strategies, sales, ops, finance, and on and on on. But for others, that might not be their genius. That might be a frustration. And so I think all of these play a role in this. It's a layered approach to this development and this growth that isn't, you can't point at just one thing, but it definitely starts with.

Do you have the desire? Do you want it? Right? And I think back to, you know, my days of competitive sports and being a player and then shifting to a coach and, you know, you can only help people that want to be helped. I know that I can't motivate anyone to do something. They have to want to do it themselves. And so these components of this entire, you know, this entire journey we're all on are super important. And if you're missing one, any of those,

Like you can run into some serious problems and that's where you have, you know, burnout or you have boredom or you have people that just totally end up checked out. And I think you saw a lot of this over the last several years where people just sort of been checking out and they're not engaged and they're not dialed in and you had a lot of work from home. Then you've got hybrid, then you've got your, there's a series of over-corrections here and all of those external things are,

are the result of the lack of the focus of the things that I just said in that layered approach. And I think the more that you focus on becoming the best human that you can be, the better your life gets, right? I had a conversation yesterday with a newer, higher level salesperson inside our organization.

And he had, I love this, he took AI and he took a picture of himself and he took a picture of himself with very little clothes on and he's like, I need to lose weight. And so he put it in AI and said, what will this look like when I lose 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds, right? And so it gave him different versions of like what his physical appearance will look like as he starts to get more dialed in with nutrition and exercise and all the things that we know we have to do to get

in a better, healthy state. And I told him, said, hey, you know what I love about this? I love that you're starting to explore, get curious, and ask the questions. Because I know from my own journey, when I start to verbalize things and start to share it, talk about it, know, words are so powerful, and he's starting to take the actions. And so that example right there is someone that has high desire.

Right? He is doing things. He is exploring things. He is wanting to improve his life. And those are the types of people that you can really help get to the next level when they want it for themselves first. And I love having an organization and a community surrounded with people like that, because those are the people that continue to win in life.

Sean Patton (11:06)
me.

Hmm. Sounds like that is a key character trait. And I wanted, I want to this desire to grow or this, you know, almost perspective around, you know, what am I actually capable of? And I have my own sort of like worldview or set of values to me that creates to me as sort of a, an inherent moral obligation to do set, to do that. I'm wondering what your take is on

I imagine there's some people who maybe no matter what kind of effort or new information they get, maybe never get there. Some people were sort of just like, know, nature versus nurture, right? Like just born that way, like ready to go from the beginning. And then there's this vast majority in the middle. feel like as people, as human beings, we're so malleable based on our experiences and our perspectives and how we get influenced. And when someone's kind of in there like, yeah, this sounds great, Chris, but like, you know.

I don't know, the market, taxes, mortgage rate, whatever that is, is like coming out of their head like I'm busy. where we focus our attention becomes our future, right? Like that guy you talked about, he's focusing on what the future could look like and he allows them to go there. What sort of value or worldview would you give to the people that are in that middle to help them move?

toward establishing a worldview or a value system that starts to lean into what am I capable of.

Kris Lindahl (12:41)
Yeah, ⁓ that's a great question. Obviously there's a lot to that, right? I I know that I was born with certain gifts, but I also know that there are life experiences that happened for me that helped me become who I was. Now, I also realized that those life experiences could have resulted in a lot of different directions. And one of my favorite images that I just, it's like ingrained in my head that has been posted forever and ever and ever, it's...

It's two individuals, one is laying underneath a bus bench and one is sitting on a bus bench, more professional. And they both say my dad was an alcoholic. Right? And so, so I think the way that things show up in our life, they don't happen to us, they happen for us, I think is a really important component of all of this. Because if you're open to the lessons, right, things are going to show up differently for you. If you're not, if you're, you know,

why is this happening and there's all these reasons and everything else. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough to grow. I think, now this is easier said than done. I realize that there are certain people that have been through things that are simply really hard to get over. I get it. I mean, there's a lot of different levels of trauma and I'm hardly discounting that there are some super big challenges and things that people have been through in life that are really tough. I can only speak from really what it's been for me. And I think one of the really important things in my life,

And I believe in just fundamentally like to the core is choices. Like I believe that we all have choices that we get the opportunity to make. Right? And so in life, the choices that we make then determine the outcome and the places that we end up. And so for me, I know that the choices that I made growing up, like of constantly wanting to grow, constantly wanting more, you know, leaving and going to all these different personal

development events and just challenging myself and putting myself in vulnerable situations to really try to grow and be better. Those were decisions that I had to make because I had a high desire for who I wanted to become. Now, of course, I know this too. Everyone always compares what the final result is of like, ⁓ they finished the marathon in less than four hours. But if you would have showed them the training regimen that they had to go through to get under four minutes,

Most people have said, way. A lot of people think it's just putting shoes on and start running, right? And so you see this, know, this culmination of 20 years of personal development to, you know, a lot of people, when they come inside of our organization or they get a chance to connect with our leaders, you know, one of the first things that becomes very noticeable is how different the human beings are inside of our brands. Well, the reason that it's that way is because it starts with me.

Right? It starts with me and the leaders inside of our organization are reflection of the choices that I'm making. Right? And so that is a critical component of this entire thing. Now, did I have some gifts when I started? Yes. Did I have choices to move forward and grow and invest in development or also do nothing? Right? So I had choices both ways. And I think every day that we wake up, we each get to make decisions on what we want our path to be.

for the day, for the week, for the month. And we can also have a perspective of, challenging things are happening, we can't get through them, we don't know what to do, or we can flip our mindset and go, hey, these things are happening, it's an opportunity for me to grow, I'm gonna power through and I'm gonna find a way to get there. Right, and so I think we all have different ways and different paths that we can go on, but for me,

fundamentally believe that it starts with choices. That's it, hands down. the moment, like a good example, the person I just mentioned inside our company, using AI and wanting to get more in shape and healthier, that starts with a choice. He made a decision and a choice that he doesn't want to feel and look that way any longer. And once you make that choice, that's where things start to change. And so I'm a huge...

Sean Patton (16:15)
you

Kris Lindahl (16:35)
I mean, I can't tell you from all the things that I've been through and that I've seen, the number one thing that I think matters more than anything else is just the mindset of like, I'm going this direction today and I am unapologetically on this relentless pursuit to change who I am. And I think everyone that does that, I mean, you're gonna crush it. It's like another book by Lynchione actually.

Ideal team player, right? And so ideal team player that the three main components of hiring are hungry, humble, smart, right? And that desire is that hunger, like, do you want it? Do you want to get after it? And so we have a ⁓ highly competitive environment that's surrounded with people that want to be better and want growth for themselves. And that type of environment is not for everyone. It's fast pace.

Sean Patton (17:21)
Mmm.

Kris Lindahl (17:25)
It's super competitive, but everyone wants the best for one another. But the standards are so high. And why are the standards so high? Because the standards I have for myself are higher than anyone can ever impose on me.

Sean Patton (17:30)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that. I love how you brought up there at the end, you've created this organization that is high standard, highly competitive, but also supportive. I'm wondering, you know, a lot of times, maybe a perception is around those two things are opposing, right? Like, how do you have a highly competitive, pushing type organization? And you think about a lot of companies where it's like, it's up or out, dude, and it's doggy dog, you're trying to steal each other's leads or trying to whatever. It's like,

And then you have this, we're all in this together, but everyone's kind of letting each other off the hook. And there's the kind of low standards and everyone just feels good. And everyone's being nice instead of kind to each other, right? Just like placating each other. But you've been able to create an organization that fuses two together. And I'm sure that's a, that's a culture that a lot of leaders listening would love to create. So how do you, do you, how do you create the, the get in, in a synchronize those two kind of

apparently opposing cultural views.

Kris Lindahl (18:35)
Yeah,

no, you're right. mean, I think that, you culture, I mean, is everything. And it can go a lot of different directions. I'm a huge sports fan. And I'll give you an example. Like, you you look at any teams that win championships, their culture is why they're winning championships, not their talent. Because when you get to the elite level, everyone has the talent.

Right? They all have the talent, but cohesively are they all moving the same direction with the same belief system? Which is critical. I mean, I'll give you an example. I have a friend that played for the Indianapolis Colts when they won the Superbowl with Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy was coach. Tony Dungy's culture system and core values is family. Forget about me. I love you. Right? And so that is what everyone had to follow, had to believe that was their culture.

Right? And so the culture is the biggest, most important piece of this. And so we will not hire someone for talent. We are going to hire them for core values first, talent second. Everyone talks about core values. Most people don't follow them. Right? And they, most of them, most...

Organizations don't even have the right core values. They're not constantly looking at them. They're not constantly revisiting them. We're not constantly talking about them. They're not elevating people up in their team. They're not writing people pips or asking people to leave that no longer fit the core values. Most people don't, they just don't follow the core values or even worse, their core values that were ripped off of Google or AI or somewhere else.

and they're thrown on a wall that no one knows what they mean and no one knows what they are. Right? So you have to have an organization where everyone understands what the core values are, what the belief system is, and those two, if you have the right core values and the right culture, that can coexist with a highly competitive environment and people that have high drive and want more. And so I think also it starts with me as the leader and the founder of

What securities do I have within myself? I think a lot of leaders, I've seen this over and over again, that are afraid to hire people that are better than them in certain areas or more intelligent than them in other areas. They have a fear.

of bringing someone in like, if I bring this person in, you know, they're going to take my stuff and leave and go here and do this and do that, or I'm not going to be able to retain them. And I know that the, the, the tenacity that I have for my life is I will never let someone else like pass me by. Like I am always going, like I said earlier, the standards I have for my life are so high that I will constantly be in the driver's seat of my growth. And I want to be around other runners that want to run with me.

But the one thing that everyone knows is I hope you can keep up. Right, I hope you can keep up. But I am not afraid to hire A players inside of our organization. I want genius level human beings that have a high desire for growth in their personal life. And then that translates and shows up in their professional life. Like if you're great personally and you don't feel like you have to put on a mask to go to work, like you're gonna crush it. And so for us, getting those core values right is super critical.

Sean Patton (21:18)
Mm.

Kris Lindahl (21:42)
And then once you have that culture and you have that momentum, other people want to be a part of that because they walk in and go, this just feels different here. This is what I've been looking for. Right. And when you get everyone going the right direction, things really start to elevate and it just ends up being a really special place. And for us, know, our core values are let's go. Right. So it's learning, empathy, tenacity, staying positive and owning it. Right. So, and let's go is, uh,

is a statement that I've used from day one. Like, I'm like, let's go, let's go. Like, I'm constantly like, let's keep running, let's keep going. And so everyone knows that and everyone knows what that means. And we're constantly bringing up, I mean, it's in ⁓ company meetings, we're highlighting people inside the organization that are exemplifying our core values, that are activating them, we're talking about them. But that starts with me.

That starts with me and the accountability that I have to have for myself. Like I have to follow the core values just as much as everyone else. I'm no better than anyone else. Like I have to follow the core values. And I think that's when you start to get an organization that can do amazing things in the world, just like sports teams that win championships. It's getting crystal clear and honed in on your core values. And most people don't spend the time on the core values or they have a lot of growth.

or they have a lot of challenges and lot of setbacks, and they don't go revisit their core values to make sure that they're still a fit for the mission that they're on.

Sean Patton (23:09)
Hmm. You know, one thing you said there that I'm a strong believer in, but I don't see in the marketplace, in my estimation enough, is your belief around that human development growth is in totality as opposed to this is professional development versus personal development that as we get better as human beings, we show up better at work.

And I see so many leaders, especially in larger organizations, That it's almost like, well, is that our role? Is that too personal? are we gonna talk about, you know, is it gonna be an HR nightmare to talk about anything outside of just here are your metrics and here's your job performance. So how as a leader, if we're in that sort of culture how can we start to communicate?

that as a value and get buy-in to see, I see that when done right, for-profit business leadership and employment can be a path to greater fulfillment in life.

Kris Lindahl (24:06)
100%, yeah. You know, one of the tests that I always like to do is ask people that are around, for example, if you have someone in your organization, whatever position or role they're in, if you went and asked their friends and family, if they have a spouse, like, what are they like in their personal life? Like, the more that I, the more that I,

can hear from others that are around those individuals tells me everything that I need to know about the path that they're on. I'll give you an example. There are so many influencers and entrepreneurs that claim to be the greatest thing in the world, but their personal lives are a total train wreck. And if you went and talked to anyone around them, they would tell you so many different things and what they're putting out.

online and everything else and I just never want to be that person and I don't want anyone in our organization to be that and so I think that really honing in on that personal aspect of it is so critical because listen if we're winning at a super high level inside of our brands but we have people inside of our communities that aren't great people personally the professional success isn't worth it like I want people

Sean Patton (25:14)
Mmm.

Kris Lindahl (25:16)
that are living a totally fulfilled life, personal first, professional second. And so like, but it requires, it requires a different level of focus and a different type of conversation that you're inviting people inside your organizations to. Right, when you unapologetically are saying, hey, I need you to take this time with your family. Hey, I need you to put yourself first. Right, it requires a.

Let's basically requires leaders inside of organizations to be unselfish, right? To be unselfish and allow people to focus on their personal growth first. And if you can have, and if you're open-minded as a leader to that, the growth that that individual is going to have professionally is gonna be far greater if you start foundationally with the personal stuff first. And I think too many people make the mistake of

Sean Patton (26:07)
you

Kris Lindahl (26:08)
We only talk about professional. We only focus on professional. We only do this. We only do this. And they don't touch the personal side. And I think that's just a really big mistake. Cause you're right. Like this is like the more of this coaching and professional and personal development and all these other things that we work on every day, it does set up for a ⁓ world-class life done right. And so I love, you know, I just have so many success stories and I'm such a fan of this because I've seen how well it works. Like I love watching.

human beings grow. It's why, you know, mean, growing up, I wanted to be a teacher. That's what my degrees are in. I'm a coach every day. And so anyone that's a coach or a teacher, like they love watching that growth. And so watching people sort of grow into, you know, this amazing human being and flourish is such a rewarding thing. And then I think as leaders, like that we don't take credit for that. They're the ones that made that happen, not us.

Sean Patton (27:02)
This is...

Kris Lindahl (27:02)
We maybe were a facilitator

or a guide at certain points or we shed a light on certain areas. But back to earlier, like that desire, that individual made a decision to do that. And so sometimes I find myself standing in the back of the room, watching other leaders present, watching others inside our organization and just watching the growth that they've had. And it's like one of the most rewarding things in life is watching others grow.

Sean Patton (27:14)
you

I agree 100 % and that's to me the power of true leadership at its core. That's why I'm so passionate about that because I do believe that what you just described is true leadership. It's pursuing your own version of greatness to empower others to chase their own.

Kris Lindahl (27:49)
Yep, that's right.

Sean Patton (27:50)
And so that is amazing to hear. I'm interested now as you've had greater and greater success, your organization continues to grow. You've gone from a top producer, sort of individual contributor as a real estate agent to now broker and continue to grow your brand and the other things. How has, if any, has your view on your core values?

on let's go of learning, empathy, tenacity, staying positive, generosity and owning it. However the years are as you gain more wisdom, is your perspective shifting on those?

Kris Lindahl (28:25)
Yeah, that's a great question. I think we were just like most organizations early on, we didn't put enough emphasis on the core values and quite frankly, we had some that weren't quite right that we had sort of outgrown. I mean, think core values, when we were a team of two or three, a couple of assistants and a couple of support staff is very different than hundreds and hundreds of people. And so the complexity

of growing to hundreds, thousands soon of staff, like, that's hard to do, right? That's hard to do because you have layers and layers and layers of people and process and systems and it gets more complex. And it becomes more critical that the core values are felt throughout the organization. And so you have to be more diligent.

in highlighting the core values and talking about the core values and making them a focus. You know, I'll give an example, like our last state of the company, I invited everyone in our organization to analyze themselves and to give themselves basically a report card, if you want to call it, or a scorecard, or there's different ways to describe that, where they got to self-report how they felt they were doing.

when it came to our core values. And so everyone got to rate themselves on each one of them. And what I did is I invited everyone in to what leaders do inside of our organization. We evaluate talent, we evaluate people based on our core values. And so instead of continuing to evaluate everyone, you know, as a leader and then an individual one-on-one,

I invited everyone to do it together and say, you know, if you're open to growth and you're wanting growth and you're wanting promotions and you're wanting more, this is the first thing that your leader is going to do. They are going to look at our core values and they're going to evaluate one by one. Like, and that's how we're going to determine what the next steps are on your growth plan and your trajectory. And so everyone did it. Everyone followed through and everyone, and I think some people realize there's some spots where like,

They're flourishing, like they're crushing it. And there are other areas like, there's some room for improvement, right? And I heard stories and people shared with me like, hey, I've really lost focus on the learning. I've been doing so much focus on tenacity and doing these things that I'm not learning as much and I need to dedicate time to do this. And so it was good reflection. And I think that the reminder for everyone is like, our core values don't mean that every single person in the organization is, you know, running all of them wide open every single day.

Right? I mean, there are days where I fall short, we all fall short. But it's, it, these are guiding core values of like, okay, what direction am I headed? Like it's the, this is the North star of everything that happens inside of our communities. And I think the more that you talk about that, the more that you connect with one another, the better it gets. And then, and I think it's also like having that vulnerability of like, fell short today and owning it, like owning that outcome. mean, it's.

It's like the, you know, extreme ownership book of like really taking that, you know, taking that to heart of like, you know what, I fell short here and here's what I'm going to do about it. And here's what's going to happen moving forward. And I'm going to hold myself accountable to not have a slip up like this again. And so I think the more that you talk about it and normalize it that it is very common to have like on a winning team that's winning at a really high level to have a set.

of core values that everyone believes and leaning on those. we made, I'll give an example, like we made some really difficult decisions with some people that have made, that had a lot of impact inside of, you know, our brands. And we asked them to leave and we helped them get to where they're going next. Very challenging. We put core values first, revenue second.

And I think most people put revenue first, core value second. And at the time, those are really difficult decisions to make. But now looking back, everyone's like, those are the greatest decisions to make. And I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't change anything that we did again. And you hear these stories from all these top organizations. mean, sports is a good example. mean, look at how many times you've had someone, a player that's a problem in the locker room.

Sean Patton (32:29)
Mm.

Kris Lindahl (32:42)
that a team decides to get rid of and that team gets way better after they made that decision. Right? And so, I'm just a huge fan of protecting those core values and that really ultimately controls what your culture is gonna be.

Sean Patton (32:47)
Mm-hmm.

Man, I pulled out a few ⁓ great lessons. I just want to highlight from what you said. What I heard you say is, sort of your wisdom around this using values and as the company grows, where things like it's important to reevaluate on a regular basis, the values and if they still align with the organization and the mission and where you're headed. And so there's like, they're not just set it and forget it for 20 years.

And then I also heard there that as your organization gets bigger, you need to be even more intentional about doubling down on creating a culture where values are the foundation. You need revisit them even more and with more intentional systems. As leaders, what I heard you talk about there was a constant self-

awareness and self-evaluation, checking yourself against those values so that you can recognize, in this season, maybe I do need to double down tenacity and maybe generosity goes down, but that I'm aware so that I know as I come out of this, can flip the script a bit. So there's like a ⁓ self-accountability and awareness there. And then the final point which you laid out was basing, staying at the organization and

Kris Lindahl (34:02)
That's right.

Sean Patton (34:11)
further opportunity and promotion primarily on value fit and growth as opposed to the revenue-based metrics or profitability. Did I capture those? Because there was so much gold in there, I want to make sure I captured them. Yeah.

Kris Lindahl (34:21)
That's right. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And I think,

you know, the one that we haven't spent a lot of time on, which I think is also important to talk about is how you onboard, right? How you onboard, you know, new, you know, new humans into your communities, like, right? So I know that the way that you onboard someone is ultimately gonna decide like what their experience is going to be.

Right? So that starts with like, you know, how do you ⁓ evaluate talent? Right? And so I think having a dialed in journey mapped out, right? And so you hear customer journeys and, and employee journeys and you got to map this out of like, what do you want the experience to be for someone that implies, applies inside of your organizations? And so it starts there because like, cause not only do you have the growth happening within, but you have, you know, one of our

like obligations as a growing brand, is to continue to raise the collective IQ of our brands. And so we have to consistently bring in others that want to level things up, but also be super protective that you are not going to bring someone in that's gonna derail the culture or the core values. And so we say no to way more people than we say yes to. That for a lot of other organizations are probably A plus players.

Right? But they don't fit what we believe in and what we follow here. And so we're super protective. And then also that competitive culture that we have, we challenge people, right? There are oftentimes that we obviously be in a sales and marketing organization. We have a lot of people that come in that interview, that are interested, but they're not fully confident in themselves.

And what's crazy about that is that when you ask them a question like, hey, when's the last time that you bet on yourself that you went all in that it didn't work? And it's always worked for them. But they're not fully bought in, they're not fully committed, they're not 100 % confident, and we just don't believe that they have the tenacity or the owning it component to really hit the growth that we see within them. And we let them know that. We say, hey, now's not the right time.

Like you don't believe in yourself and we cannot change that for you. Right? And so protecting that piece of it, I think is super critical and putting that message out there, putting your core values out there, putting your mission out there, and then highlighting others, right? Highlighting others in the organization, like, Hey, you remind me of Sean. You remind me of this person. You remind me of that person, like letting them know, like this person started here and they didn't have any of these things. And now they're this. And so you have these.

case studies and you have this success stories that you can show. And so when we're having conversations with people that are trying to fight to get inside of our communities, we're letting them know, hey, you have a lot of the right things that this person has, but if you're not all in and ready to make a decision right now, and you don't know 100 % that this is the best thing for you, now's not the right time.

And so we'll let them know that. I think as leaders, we have this responsibility to continue to bring in fresh energy, fresh information and knowledge and wisdom to continue to grow the organization. And every time that we do that, we have amazing humans that come in that just bring fresh information, fresh energy, and that just, we continue to reculturize the organization with the same core values and standards.

Sean Patton (37:46)
Hmm. Chris, I love hearing where your organization is at and your vision for where it's headed and how to cultivate that. It's such a great story. There's so much gold in what you've said today. And we touched on it, but in your past, you mentioned the alcoholic father. You grew up with an alcoholic father. You grew up with a father who passed early.

And one of the more touching moments at the beginning of your book was how there was an older letter he had left for you and written when he was going off to Desert Storm in case something happened. And you read that in a different circumstance than I think that letter was originally intended. So I'm wondering if you look back and you Chris now wanted to say something to that teenage

Chris, that younger you that hadn't done this but wanted it and had gone through so much tragedy, what words would you tell Chris, young Chris?

Kris Lindahl (38:40)
Yeah, no, that's a great question. You know, I think there's a couple things. Obviously, like losing my dad in high school is a tragic event, it's super challenging. I was fortunate to have a mom that was able to help me get out of my way when I was younger, and especially have an alcoholic father. And so I think the thing that really comes to mind for me is passion. And I think too many people...

are doing things that they don't love in life. And I always had a passion for teaching and helping others, right? Always, from day one, like I always, because if you, know, especially my like arms out book, I really talk about some of these coaches and teachers that I had along the way that poured into me at moments where I needed them. If they didn't pour into me in those moments, I would not be here this way today.

Right, and so if I can be that gift for someone else, whether it's on this podcast, it's someone that's listening or watching, or it's someone inside of my organization, like I know that I am doing the right things in life when I can help other people get to where they wanna go. And I think that starts with passion, right? It's like people follow energy, right? And so like when you're passionate about something, other people wanna be a part of it.

They're like, gosh, like this person's doing this, this person's doing that, like I love this. I think that the passion piece is most important. But then I think second is you have to tune out the noise. Like there are a lot of people that when you put yourself out there that are gonna try to tear you down.

They're gonna have stories about you. They're gonna play the telephone game that we used to play in kindergarten, where it started with this and everyone tells the next person, I heard this, I heard that, I heard this, especially inside of industries where there's a lot of different chatter and negativity and all this toxic stuff that happens. You have to tune out that noise. If you're gonna put yourself out there, there are gonna be people.

that think certain things about you. There are gonna be people that say certain things about you. And what I realized in this entire journey is I hear these things all the time that people say about me, is that the only way, the only way to judge any sort of book is by reading it, not looking at the cover. Right? And so, so oftentimes like we will have, you know, I mean, we will have really high performing, talented human beings join our brands.

Sean Patton (40:50)
Hmm.

Kris Lindahl (41:00)
And one of the first things they say every single time, this is a way different environment than what I was told it was. Right? Because I think as a society, we think that if someone is super successful or we see successful brands, that there must be something wrong or something that they skipped or cheated or shortcut that they took.

Sean Patton (41:07)
Mm.

Kris Lindahl (41:21)
or they don't treat their people right, or it feels a certain way, or I heard this, or I heard that, or even worse, someone left that was very toxic from those brands, and then they were the bad apple there, and now they're the bad apple everywhere else, and they say, it's all bad, and Chris is this, and Chris is that, and they're this, and they're that, I heard this, I heard that, and I think you have to shut that down, and then just challenge people. We have a lot of people that come in that ask a lot of questions.

Let them experience the culture for themselves and be the judge of it, not you. Right? And so I think that those are all important things, but it all starts with that passion. Find the things that you love to do. Life's short. Like don't spend time doing things that you don't like and don't love.

Right? We all have choices in the world. Get to a place where you can do things where you really go home and go, I love what I do. Right? And the more that you do that, the better you're going to be personally and professionally.

Sean Patton (42:21)
And Chris, it's not often I get to talk with a leader that I feel like embodies the vision I have, this aspirational vision of what leadership can be and sort of challenge the status quo that is just kind of the way it's always been. And that leadership can be a change for good for others in the world and through business. And I think you're that example. So I appreciate you coming on and sharing your wisdom today,

Kris Lindahl (42:41)
Thank you, Sean, I appreciate it. Thank you.