Gritty Leadership
Claim This Podcastby Bryan Smith
Podcast Overview
<p><strong>Not Your Typical Leadership Podcast: </strong>While the rest of the world obsesses over tech startups and their unicorn valuations, Gritty Leadership delivers something different—real stories from leaders in industries that actually make, move, and power America.</p><p>Whether you’re running a plant, rolling up your sleeves every day on the floor, or steering operations at scale, this podcast is for you.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
9/3/2025
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Recent Episodes
April 27, 2026
Joe Myers - Lighthouse Transportation Services
Joe Myers is the president and partner at Lighthouse Transportation Services, an asset-based freight brokerage headquartered in Covington, Kentucky that has been in business since 1987. Joe grew up in a trucking family, and though he never planned on entering the industry himself, he fell into a dispatcher role through his brother-in-law and never looked back. He spent his first five years out in the field with drivers, tarping and chaining loads in the rain, which gave him a ground-level understanding of what carriers actually deal with day to day. That experience shaped everything about how he leads. When Joe joined Lighthouse in 2017 after a long run at TQL, where he rose to leadership within his first year, the company was doing around $15 million in revenue. Today they're on track to hit $70 million. What sets Joe and Lighthouse apart in a deeply saturated brokerage market is a stubborn commitment to honesty, even when it hurts. Joe's philosophy is simple: answer the phone, tell the truth, and treat drivers the way you'd want a family member treated on the road. He's built a 4.4 Google Review rating, rare for a broker, doing right by carriers and customers alike. He's also not above picking up the phone and cold calling himself, even as president, because he believes that's what the business needs. His approach to managing people is equally adaptable: some team members need tough love, others need an arm around the shoulder, and Joe figures out which is which. He gives his people flexibility on hours and remote work, but holds a firm line on self-motivation and grit as non-negotiables for anyone who wants to thrive in this business. Beyond the day-to-day, Joe is actively working to expand what Lighthouse looks like culturally. He's pushing to bring more women into leadership in an industry that remains heavily male-dominated, and recently launched his own podcast to shine a light on life inside brokerage and give voice to perspectives that don't often get heard. When he's not working, Joe keeps it simple, tossing a football with his two boys, playing board games, and watching Thursday night football with the family. He credits his tireless 79-year-old mother as the model for his work ethic, and describes his leadership style as humble above all else. For Joe, the whole thing comes down to a line he's lived by: hard work beats talent all day long.
April 20, 2026
Mike Bangasser - Best Technology
Mike Bangasser is the owner of Best Technology, a Minnesota-based company that designs and manufactures fully custom surface finishing equipment and chemicals for highly regulated industries like medical devices and aerospace. His background in mechanical engineering, including early career work at Boston Scientific designing laser processes for pacemakers and stents, gave him a front-row seat to how engineers actually want to buy: through research and trust, not through a salesperson showing up at their door. That insight became the foundation for how he would eventually reshape his father's small, regionally-focused business into a multi-million dollar, eight-figure operation with a global customer base. When Mike took over the family business in the early 2010s, he made a bold bet on inbound marketing long before it was common in manufacturing. He committed to building one page of genuinely useful, evergreen technical content per week, not time-stamped blog posts, but timeless educational resources that engineers could actually use to solve problems on their own. The philosophy was simple but counterintuitive: give away the cart, and they'll come back to buy the horse. That content-first approach generated so many inbound leads that Mike needed to hire a salesperson within six months of launching. Today, Best Technology operates with a lean team of roughly a dozen employees, including offshore staff in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and the Philippines, and Mike is already adapting the same content strategy for the AI search era. Beyond the business strategy, what stands out about Mike is the faith-driven culture he's built at Best Technology and the servant leadership philosophy that runs through everything he does. He hires intentionally, often through church communities and career transition groups, and sees his role as a leader less about driving profit and more about putting food on the table for his team. He also volunteers his time building homes in Mexico, an experience that keeps him grounded and motivated. For Mike, leadership isn't about control; it's about stewardship, of people, of resources, and of time, with the belief that how you spend your 24 hours reveals where your values truly lie.
April 6, 2026
Steve Adams - MKS Pipe & Valve
Steven Adams is the kind of leader who makes you want to quit your job and go work for him. As President and CEO of MKS Pipe and Valve, a Kansas City industrial distribution powerhouse that's been running since 1946, Steve took a leap of faith in 2010, trading the corporate finance world for a family business and never looked back. Under his watch, MKS has grown, evolved, and recently expanded with an acquisition in Omaha, all while building a culture so palpable that vendors literally walk through the door and say it feels different in there. Steve runs his company on three core values that are simple, bold, and unapologetically real: One Team, Commitment to Improvement, and, our personal favorite, Give a damn. He's the rare CEO who doesn't just hang values on a wall; he builds his hiring, his accountability, and his entire organizational identity around them. Throw in his adoption of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and a genuine passion for cross-team collaboration, and you've got a leader who has turned a pipe and valve distributor into one of the most exciting culture stories in the Midwest. What really sets Steve apart, however, is his authenticity. He'll openly talk about the loneliness of leadership, the power of therapy, and the humility it takes to admit you were wrong, and then he'll turn around and passionately champion the skilled trades as one of the greatest career paths available today. Steve Adams running a company, coaching a team, building a legacy, and proving every single day that Gritty Leadership is about so much more than the bottom line.
7 total episodes available
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Frequently asked questions
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- What is Gritty Leadership?
<p><strong>Not Your Typical Leadership Podcast: </strong>While the rest of the world obsesses over tech startups and their unicorn valuations, Gritty Leadership delivers something different—real stories from leaders in industries that actually make, move, and power America.</p><p>Whether you’re running a plant, rolling up your sleeves every day on the floor, or steering operations at scale, this podcast is for you.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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