It’s time to shift the spotlight.
If you are like us, you want to know what is happening in the real economy. Not the economy of derivatives trading, credit default swaps, politics, media or Silicon Valley. On Real Leadership, we spotlight the heroes at the helm of companies who make, move and process things. Leaders in a world that is more pragmatic than pretty, more steak than sizzle, more guts than glory. Discover with us what it takes to lead in that world.
– Real Leadership
Latest Episode
Your Host
Meet Jim Weaver
When he’s not hosting the Real Leadership Podcast, Jim is Chief Executive Officer of The Ōnin Group, one of the largest staffing companies in the United States.
Jim began his journey at Ōnin in 2001 as an account executive in Nashville, Tennessee, and has become integral to The Ōnin Group’s phenomenal growth. Under Jim’s guidance, Ōnin has become a leader in the staffing industry and is recognized as one of Staffing Industry Analysts’ fastest-growing and best places to work. As CEO, Jim’s focus lies in developing smart systems and a corporate culture that boosts employee performance and delights customers.
Meet our latest guest
Doug Hisel
Senior Vice President of Store Operations, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.
What happens when a leader running nearly 660 stores decides the answer is less strategy, not more?
Doug Hisel is Senior Vice President of Store Operations at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. He oversees field operations for the restaurant and retail sides of nearly 660 stores across 43 states. His path started far from the executive suite. He was a college bartender at Ruby Tuesday who spent eight years running independently owned restaurants, and he joined Cracker Barrel in 2007 as an associate manager in Indianapolis after his wife submitted his application for him. Nearly two decades later, he has held almost every operations role the company has.
Doug’s leadership comes down to a lesson he learned in a hotel room with no bed: no amenity matters if you miss the fundamentals. At Cracker Barrel, those fundamentals are hot food, fast, attentive service and overwhelming hospitality. Over the past year, Doug made them the filter for every menu item, communication and new behavior that reaches the field. In his words, it was the least strategy he has ever deployed to the field, and his most successful year as an operator.
In this episode, we cover:
Why the employee experience comes first, and how a decentralized field HR team keeps a read on it
How Cracker Barrel runs a restaurant and a retail store under one roof, and why the two require different skills
The “bed and shower” philosophy: why fundamentals have to hold before anything else gets layered on
How every role, from the host to the overnight maintenance team, understands how it contributes to hot food
Why moving from single-unit to multi-unit leadership was the hardest jump of Doug’s career, and the mentor who told him the truth about it
How he keeps nearly 20 years of experience from turning into “old mixtapes”
Previous Real Leadership Guests Include:
Justin Golden
Today, Justin is CEO of Stephen Gould, the 87-year-old, third-generation family business his grandfather started as a storefront on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1939 reselling boxes, paper bags and twine. Justin now leads a company spanning 40+ locations across six countries, partnering with some of the biggest names in consumer products, tech and retail, and one that’s grown from $500 million to $1 billion in revenue over the last decade and a half.
Robert L. Mason
Robert’s story is a case study in what it looks like to scale a company without abandoning the people who built it — from the original team that’s mostly still with him a quarter-century later, to a leadership decision involving a random drug test that he says taught him the difference between what’s by-the-book right and what’s actually right.
Joseph DeMarco
Joe leads procurement for ABM Industries, a Fortune 500 facility services giant managing more than $1 billion in annual spend across 20,000+ clients. In this conversation, he talks about:
Mark-Hans Richer
What does it take to become the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer at two different companies? Mark-Hans Richer has done it twice — nine years at Harley-Davidson and nine years at Fortune Brands, with a nearly decade-long run at GM in between steering Chevy Trucks, GMC, and Pontiac.
Tiffany Benjamin
Tiffany Benjamin is the CEO of the Humana Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the largest healthcare companies in the country. A Harvard-trained lawyer, she started at a major firm, spent several years as senior investigative counsel for Congress, and rose through Eli Lilly’s legal ranks before an unexpected turn — a corporate secretary assignment she never asked for — pulled her into social impact work for good.
Dan Florness
Dan Florness joined Fastenal as CFO when the company’s run rate was about $250 million. Thirty years later, with the last 11 as CEO, Fastenal does over $9 billion in revenue across 26 countries, and it takes about a week to match a full year of the business he joined. Dan steps down in July, and this conversation captures the leadership philosophy behind that run
Erica Baird
Erica Baird’s path into global industrial leadership is anything but typical. She grew up biracial in a city of 100,000 where there were only five kids like her. Her mother had been disowned for having her. Her father was Muhammad Ali’s bodyguard. She became an engineer because her mom — who had multiple master’s degrees but couldn’t pursue the dream — never got to. And from there, she climbed through Caterpillar and Cummins as the first Black woman in nearly every role she took, all while raising three biological kids, four bonus kids, and fostering 14 more.
Dan Seidel
Dan Seidel spent more than 15 years at Thomas and Betts (an ABB Group company) as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt before moving to Amazon, then Target, and now HelloFresh — first as COO of North America, then Global COO. When he joined HelloFresh in 2024, he skipped the typical executive onboarding and spent his first two months working on the factory floor in Illinois. In this conversation, he breaks down how he’s rebuilding the operation from the inside out — and what it means for the future of manufacturing leadership.
Katie Stratton
Katie Stratton is the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Shipt, the Target-owned retail technology company that specializes in same-day and next-day delivery. Before joining Shipt in 2023, Katie spent nearly 12 years at Meta, joining as the 90th employee in the New York office before the IPO and rising to lead U.S. sales for dining and delivery. Earlier in her career, she honed her craft in the agency world, working with brands like Toyota, Cadillac, and Unilever.
Nathan Fulton
Nathan Fulton started with $5,000, a scrap yard, and the willingness to see what others missed. Today, his precision machining and data center infrastructure companies serve hyperscale operations and some of the largest manufacturers in the country. He’s brought two generations into the business, built a company around customer relationships rather than profit-chasing, and become a vocal advocate for free trade and the future of skilled manufacturing in America.
Katie Distler
At Technimark, Katie drives the company’s sustainability strategy across three pillars—people, planet, and product—with ambitious 2030 targets including a 42% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, zero waste to landfill across manufacturing sites, and ensuring 75% of consumer solutions are recyclable, reusable, or made from recycled materials. The company’s vertically integrated recycling subsidiary, Wellmark, processes nearly 60 million pounds of plastic a year.
Carles Farre
Carles Farré began his career at HP as a young engineer focused on solving technical problems. Over time, his perspective on leadership evolved — especially after spending several years working in remote communities across Latin America. Today, as Division President of HP Solutions Hybrid Systems, he leads teams building the integrated technologies shaping the future of work.
Shawn Khan
Shawn Khan didn’t inherit a company. He didn’t raise venture capital. He bought a small, one-truck delivery business in New York City and rented vehicles daily just to keep it running. Two years in, he was ready to shut it down. Instead, mentorship, disciplined expansion, and long-term thinking transformed that small operation into a national logistics company operating 47 facilities across the lower 48 states.
Zachary Elkins
As COO of LFG Manufacturing, Power Design’s specialty manufacturing division, Zac is leading one of the boldest vertical integration bets in the electrical industry. When COVID-era backlogs pushed switchgear lead times from 12 weeks to nearly two years, most contractors adjusted. Zac and the LFG team invested millions, bought the equipment, stocked two years of copper and steel…and started manufacturing their own.
Tom Shoupe
Tom Shoupe never planned on a career in manufacturing. He started in public service, working in Washington, D.C., far from factory floors and production lines. Then Honda called. At the time, the company was still a young experiment in American manufacturing — betting that people, not just product, would determine its future. Tom said yes to the opportunity.
Jill Wrobel
As EVP & CHRO, Jill Wrobel leads culture, talent, and operating strategy for 15,000 employees across 25 countries at the world’s largest recreational marine company. With an actuary’s mindset and a transformation leader’s heart, she has helped scale innovation across 60+ global brands—embedding continuous improvement, advancing AI-enabled people systems, and guiding complex M&A and organizational change—while championing a culture where performance, resilience, and joy move together.
Teddy Bekele
As Chief Technology Officer, Teddy helped shift a 100-year-old cooperative from projects to products, embed analytics across the business, and deliver more than $80M in annual margin improvement, over $100M in cost savings, and sustainability programs that have sequestered 460,000 metric tons of carbon.
Mike Oakman
Mike is a technology and operations leader with senior roles at RVO Health, SunGard, and Medseek. He co-founded Content Logistix, supports startups through HAILO Ventures, and is now focused on AI market research.
Greg Ramfos
Greg leads 4,000 people across 16 plants and three continents as CEO of DURA | Shiloh. His leadership is grounded in truth, ownership, and leading from the floor—not the boardroom.
Chris Condon
Chris is CEO of Aircon, the company behind Captain Cargo, an AI-powered platform that’s giving small and mid-sized freight forwarders access to tech that was once out of reach.
Chris Cochran
Chris is CEO of FreightWise, where he blends software, service, and strategy to help shippers unlock new levels of efficiency and control. His leadership philosophy? Clarity beats complexity.
Chad Wiegand
Chad is EVP & Chief Risk Officer at Schreiber, where he leads legal, food safety, risk, audit, and culture across 30+ international operations. His leadership philosophy? Growth happens in the gray.
SriRaj Kantamneni
Sri is EVP & Chief Information & Digital Officer at Schreiber Foods. He’s driving digital transformation at scale, leading everything from AI and machine learning to the creation of Schreiber Digital Labs—a tech arm helping partners modernize operations across the food industry.
Jessica Warnke
Jessica Warnke has always been surrounded by trucking, but she never planned on making it her career. Raised in the logistics world, she stepped into her current role as President & CEO of Carter Logistics in 2023. Carter Logistics, a leader in supply chain solutions, serves major clients like Honda and Nestlé and is known for its innovative Shared Milk Run Network.
Rudy Alanis
Rudy Alanis grew up in a family where leadership meant service, purpose, and people. But after 25 years in global HR leadership—working at GE, TE Connectivity, Helix Electric, and now as Chief People Officer at Facility Solutions Group (FSG)—he’s learned that success isn’t just about working hard or getting results. It’s about how you lead people along the way.
Matt Milas
Matthew Milas is a seasoned leader in the aerospace and defense sector, currently serving as President of Defense and Space at Honeywell Aerospace. With over 20 years of experience, he has spearheaded major growth initiatives, securing multi-billion-dollar deals and driving operational excellence across global markets.
Prior to Honeywell, Matt held executive roles at L3Harris Technologies, Raytheon Technologies–Collins Aerospace, and Spirit AeroSystems, where he played a key role in major aerospace programs, including the F-35. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s in international economics from Eastern Michigan University.
Carolyn Comer
Carolyn Comer began her professional journey in the nonprofit sector before becoming Managing Director of Healy Chemicals UK in the mid-1990s. Carolyn joined Shell in 1998, where she held various commercial and leadership roles across Shell’s Downstream marketing businesses, including Global Commercial Lubricants, Specialties, Commercial Fuels, and Marine. Her work spanned multiple geographies, including the UK, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, and the USA.
David Reid
David Reid, the dual-hatted Chief Technology Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at NOV, brings a unique blend of visionary technology and strategic marketing to one of the leading global energy equipment providers. With a background that spans architecture and engineering, David is helping to steer new frontiers in the energy sector.
Matt Silverberg
Matt Silverberg joined Associated Couriers in 2013, transitioning from the non-profit sector, and quickly grew the company’s revenue threefold through strategic acquisitions and diversification. Under his leadership, Associated Couriers became a leader in life sciences logistics, specializing in time-sensitive deliveries for sectors like healthcare. Matt is a strong advocate for conscious capitalism, believing that businesses should prioritize people as well as profits. In addition to his professional achievements, he supports several charitable organizations, including the American Cancer Society.
Chrissy Dunlap
Chrissy joined BirdieBox in 2018 as Director of Business Development, becoming one of the company’s first hires. Initially launched as a golf subscription service, BirdieBox soon evolved into a leader in corporate gifting. Now, as CRO, Chrissy leads the company’s sales and revenue strategies, driving its growth and innovation in the corporate gifting space.
Mike Porter
Mike Porter grew up in rural Ohio, where his family owned a retail bakery company. Heeding his father’s advice, Mike attended AIB International — a respected baking institute — after graduating high school. Mike began his career at New Horizons in 1997 as a production supervisor.
Over the years, he advanced through various leadership roles at New Horizons, including Director of Quality Assurance, Operations Manager, and Vice President of Sales Administration. After an interlude at DuPont, Mike returned to New Horizons Bakery in 2020 to take on his current role as President and COO.
Drew Herpich
Drew was promoted to CCO after joining NTG in 2020 as Executive Vice President, Enterprise Strategy. His extensive knowledge in creating carrier relationships has led a successful transformation of carrier operations creating a flywheel that benefits customers and carriers alike. He reshaped TI & NTG’s value proposition by driving increased coverage of customer freight through various initiatives improving drayage, LTL, final mile and warehousing opportunities. His work seamlessly provides the right solutions for each customer’s unique transportation needs by leveraging a vast carrier network.
Bill Canady
Bill Canady is the CEO of two major companies, OTC Industrial Technologies and Arrowhead Engineered Products. He’s the mastermind behind a business strategy that has generated a $3 billion boost in shareholder value and the author of the upcoming book “The 80/20 CEO.”
Randy Tucker
Randy Tucker is the current Chairman and CEO of Wineshipping and a key board member of the international 3PL, GEODIS. With a knack for numbers and a passion for people, Randy is still pursuing the art of building a perfect culture.
Elizabeth "Bettsie" Norton
”I think that leadership is a virtue that you’re kind of born with. If you are a leader and you know it in your heart, I think you can learn to be great.”
Mike Bartikoski
“The greatest part of servant leadership is listening, hearing what our folks are telling you, and then going out and getting that done so that they can become more effective.”
David Walker
David Walker is the dynamic President and CEO of EBSCO Industries. Leading a global powerhouse with a diverse portfolio that spans industries from Information Services to Outdoor Products, David has taken EBSCO to new heights, solidifying its place among the top privately held firms in both Alabama and the entire United States. With $3.1 billion in annual revenue and a team of 5,000 strong, his leadership is not just about numbers—it’s about creating impact.
Paul Simmons
Paul began his leadership journey in the United States Marine Corps, serving as a Captain before transitioning into the transportation sector. He spent over two decades at Schneider National, where he held key leadership roles in Operations, Customer Service, and Intermodal, ultimately serving as Regional Vice President of Van Truckload and Vice President of Intermodal Operations. His career continued with executive leadership roles at Interstate Distributor and Transport America, where he served as President and CEO.
Since joining WSI in 2019, Paul has played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategy and operational performance, first as Chief Operating Officer and now as President.
Are You a Real Leader?
If you are a top executive in the real economy — like the manufacturing, logistics and food processing sectors — we’d love to talk.
Real Leadership is a platform for you to promote your business and amplify your leadership message as subscribers listen in on a meaningful conversation between our CEO and you. Our goal is to capture legacy career moments for our guests and high-quality, evergreen media content you can leverage for years to come.
We have a thorough guest evaluation process, and you will be joining a select group of world-class leaders.
Real Leadership is a great way to:
Build your personal brand
Promote your company across our listener base
Share your leadership message at a pivotal moment in our industry
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