Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Justin Coldiron. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Justin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America gets almost everything wrong. First, there’s the control. So many leaders are obsessed with controlling their teams (you can see this with the Return-to-Office demands) as opposed to learning more about what their teams want and need. Second, leaders don’t take time to actually get to know their teams. In Corporate America, you’re just a number, sadly. If leaders just took the time to keep their teams happy, they’d notice an increase in performance and revenue. A third miss by leaders is pay. This isn’t always a top priority to most but, if leaders are going to demand things like RTO, overtime, etc. then they need to go above and beyond in compensating their teams. All of these are simple concepts but so many companies miss the mark.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I discovered my purpose in late 2014, just several months post college graduation. The realization that graduating from college, working for the same company your entire career (and moving up within that same company!), and retiring from the same company, just didn’t exist in my generation. Those days were long gone!

After multiple attempts to “make it big” as an Entrepreneur in other startups I Co-Founded, none were as close to me as The Coldiron Hour. None of them quite lit the fire inside of me like The Coldiron Hour. Since 2014, I’ve been frustrated, annoyed, and fed up with the old outdated ways of Corporate America. I think the more shocking thing is that nothing’s changed since the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. So, I decided to go back all-in on The Coldiron Hour in late 2023 (after having started it in 2020 but wasn’t as focused as I should have been on it). Like I said, I was too focused on becoming “big” in Entrepreneurship vs. going after what mattered to me in life. I’m grateful for having realized this.

I’ve worked in Corporate America since the age of 14, technically. I’ve never been part of big C-Level Board, or even a Director (aside from my own ventures I started), but I’ve worked my way up from other positions and have been part of enough meetings in big Aerospace and smaller companies, to know how broken the system is. I’ve had my share of reporting to a CEO, dealing with Directors in Aerospace companies, and navigating the politically charged environments of the Aerospace World (much of my post-college background has been in Aerospace).

Although I’m still working in Corporate America (I feel it’s given me even more fuel to my fire to help all types of companies and leaders), I’m going after this passion; my Purpose. I feel great about the decision and am hoping to help tens of thousands of big and small companies out in the World with their culture and leadership development. I know what companies need to do and I understand what their teams are looking for from their CEO and other leadership teams.

My experience being in Corporate America for nearly 2 decades has given me the skill sets and knowledge of what companies are missing out on when it comes to their teams, their workplace culture, and why they aren’t seeing returning (or as much) revenue as they could. I just get it. I know what it takes to create the best workplace culture and to build a company where your teams actually enjoy logging in getting to work.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

This is my story of pivoting in both business and life; I’m now living it. I experienced the most challenging year of my life all throughout 2022. With the challenges, I also experienced some of the greatest comebacks to ever happen to me, this business being one of them. I realized that The Coldiron Hour is my Purpose in life and that I must focus much of my available time on it. I get excited knowing that I can help companies improve their culture, which in turn, will make the people working in those same companies, happier.

I’m on a mission to disrupt Corporate America and I believe that I needed to break in 2022 in order to make this happen. I’m grateful for my life’s journey and am excited for this next chapter.

Any advice for managing a team?

The best advice I can provide to anyone out there reading this article is to actually get to know your teams. Take time to talk with them, find out their interests, what they like about the company/their role, and what they dislike. This goes one step beyond being a servant leader (which should already be a given if you’re in any type of managerial role).

When you take time to get to know your team(s), you’ll build trust with them, they’ll in turn respect you and actually work harder to ensure things are done correctly. As soon as a team member senses they’re a number, they’ll start doing the bare minimum to get by. And when that happens, you’ve already lost them.

Just be a human with your team. Trust me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecoldironhour.com
• Instagram: @thecoldironhour
• Facebook: @thecoldironhour
• Linkedin: @thecoldironhour
• Youtube: @thecoldironhour
• Other: Rumble: @thecoldironhour, TikTok: @thecoldironhour

Image Credits
Stefan Gustafson