Take Flight

About Take Flight

Sean Sidders, Founder of Mallard Agency, sits down with other Founders & CEOs from across Dallas-Fort Worth to discuss the ups and downs of business leadership. These honest, authentic, and practical discussions will leave you with tangible insights that will leave you feeling inspired, equipped, and encouraged.

Publisher

Mallard Agency

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Mar 2023

Latest episode

24 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

40 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   24 Sept 2026

   What If You Don’t Have It All Figured Out? | Interview With Josh Shorter

   Hosted by CEO Sean Sidders, this podcast features honest conversations with Dallas-Fort Worth founders, entrepreneurs, and executives about leadership, scaling businesses, navigating challenges, and what it really takes to build successful companies. In this episode, Sean sits down with Josh Shorter, founder of Shorter Porter and Shorter Electric, two industrial and commercial contracting businesses he started from scratch. Josh shares how he launched each company the same month his kids were born, how he went from picking up trash himself on a $4,000 a month contract to leading a team of 16, and why he now builds every part of the business in pairs so no single person, including him, is the only backup. They also get into the hardest thing Josh is still learning to let go of, why he would rather pay two great people well than hire ten average ones, and what it looks like to build a contracting brand on trust and transparency without charging extra for it. Josh's advice for anyone earlier in the journey: be humble, ask a lot of questions, and keep going, because the only way to lose is to stop. These conversations are designed to give you practical insights into leadership, growth, and building companies that actually make an impact. Sit back, relax, and let's take flight.

2. 

   17 Sept 2026

   What Does Sustainable Leadership Look Like? | Interview with Tad McIntosh

   Hosted by CEO Sean Sidders, this podcast features honest conversations with Dallas-Fort Worth founders, entrepreneurs, and executives about leadership, scaling businesses, navigating challenges, and what it really takes to build successful companies. In this episode, Tad McIntosh, founder of HumCap, joins Sean to talk about what he’s learned from 25 years in business. Hiring the right people. Learning to let go of the work. Setting clear expectations for your team. And realizing that no one is ever going to care about your business quite like you do. They also get into something founders don’t talk about enough: what happens when the business starts taking more than it should. Tad shares how he’s learned to balance his faith, family, health and relationships while continuing to lead a business more than two decades in. Because the business matters. But it can’t be the only thing that does. These conversations are designed to give you practical insights into leadership, growth, and building companies that actually make an impact. Sit back, relax, and let's take flight.

3. 

   3 Sept 2026

   The Next Chapter of Your Business | Interview with Brandon Thornton

   Hosted by CEO Sean Sidders, this podcast features honest conversations with Dallas-Fort Worth founders, entrepreneurs, and executives about leadership, scaling businesses, navigating challenges, and what it really takes to build successful companies. On the season finale of Founders in Flight, we're joined by Brandon Thornton, president and third-generation owner of a 76-year-old family accounting firm, Thornton Tax and Financial Services in Hurst, Texas. In this episode, Brandon talks about taking on a family business, bringing in two partners, building the right team and finding his place in the next chapter of the company. Brandon shares what he learned from hiring the wrong people, why founders can outgrow the professionals around them, and why choosing the short-term win can create bigger problems down the road. He also gets candid about building a business while trying to be present for his family, and why success means making time to enjoy what you’ve built. These conversations are designed to give you practical insights into leadership, growth, and building companies that actually make an impact. Sit back, relax, and let's take flight.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

266,031

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 59 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

72

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

32

Contact Take Flight

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.