CAPITALISM AT ITS BEST™
These are the stories of the Evergreen® movement.
Evergreen leaders are seasoned entrepreneurs, CEOs and presidents with the vision, creativity, resourcefulness, patience and grit to build and scale a business that will stay private indefinitely. They measure success by how well they deliver on their mission and how well they embody the 7Ps: Purpose, Perseverance, People First, Profit, Private, Paced Growth, & Pragmatic Innovation.
Tugboat Institute® is a membership organization that brings together Evergreen businesses across industry sectors to share best practices and unique insights, and to develop trusted bonds for their respective Evergreen paths.
Publisher
Tugboat Institute Members & Evergreen Thought Leaders
Leidy Klotz is a professor at the University of Virginia and the author of Subtract. His research makes the case that our instinct to add before we ever consider taking away is one of the costliest and least examined habits in business, one that only compounds the longer a company has been building.
In this Tugboat Institute® (https://www.tugboatinstitute.com) Talk, Leidy traces the science behind that instinct, from a Lego bridge his son quietly improved by removing a block, to the deliberate subtraction built into games like Jenga, and makes the business case for treating subtraction as a genuine competitive advantage. For Evergreen® companies thinking in decades rather than quarters, he offers a practical way to ask not just what to build next, but what to prune along the way.
8 Sept 2026
Creating Future Leaders
Tugboat Institute® member Cody Nath, CEO of Refined Technologies, Inc. (RTI) delivers a moving testament to the necessity of knowing and leading the whole person. In this Tugboat Institute talk, Cody shares the heartbreaking story of a beloved colleague, Barry, whose tragic loss catalyzed a fundamental shift in how RTI approaches People First leadership. Recognizing that workplace skills alone cannot sustain a healthy culture, Cody describes the creation of Imprint, a unique leadership development cohort that integrates "The Whole You" framework with immersive wilderness experiences.
By stepping away from the office and into the vulnerability of the outdoors and campfire circle, RTI leaders forge deep emotional connections through personal storytelling, resulting in a high retention rate and an internal network of connected, cultural ambassadors. Cody honors Barry's legacy by challenging fellow leaders to move beyond professional metrics and embody wholeness, and creating their version of Impact that uniquely fits their own Evergreen® company.
18 Aug 2026
How to Engineer Opportunities: Growing People from Strength to Strength
John Gavan, Executive Chair and former CEO of Evergreen® company KPFF Consulting Engineers, offers a roadmap for leadership development through his concept of Engineered Opportunities. John shares his 35-year journey from intern to CEO, illustrating how leaders must adapt as they progress in the organization and move from one role to the next.
John outlines a four-stage career arc—Performer, Leader, Builder, and Guide—emphasizing that growth in leadership requires engineering success for those who follow, rather than just concern with moving oneself forward. Focusing on the later stages of the leadership journey, John draws on Arthur Brooks' research explaining the necessary shift from one of youthful fluid intelligence to one of wisdom arising from crystallized intelligence later in the journey.
Listen to this talk and be inspired to intentionally engineer opportunities for the people you lead.
Who has been a guest on Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Marianne Lewis
Michael Horn
Paul Mears III
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
242,838
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
8 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 68 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
69
Social presence
0
YouTube
86
Engagement
82
Contact Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
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