Building a Leadership Team: How Core Values Drive Business Growth and High Performance

In this enlightening episode of The Nathan Newberry Show, successful entrepreneur Jason Pond shares his journey from a one-man Wi-Fi provider to building and selling multiple broadband companies. Discover how identifying core values, developing leadership teams, and committing to personal development created the foundation for his high-performance success.

Introduction

What truly defines high performance in business? According to Jason Pond, founder of multiple successful broadband companies and now a leadership coach, it's "people that are putting in the effort on a daily basis... it's all about consistency over time. If you take consistency over time multiplied by God, you are unstoppable."

In this extensive interview, Jason reveals how he built and scaled his broadband companies from a small-town operation in West Yellowstone, Montana, to a successful business that eventually attracted buyers. His journey illustrates the critical importance of building strong leadership teams, establishing core values, and committing to personal development—lessons that apply to entrepreneurs at any stage of their journey.

From his early days stuffing billing envelopes with his wife to eventually leading a team of over 60 employees, Jason's story provides actionable insights on scaling a business while maintaining a strong company culture. Let's explore the key elements that contributed to his remarkable success.

From Technician to Leader: The Evolution of an Entrepreneur

Like many business owners, Jason began his entrepreneurial journey as a technician—the person doing all the work. After co-founding a broadband service provider in 2002, he eventually bought his own struggling company in West Yellowstone, Montana, a town of only 1,500 year-round residents.

"I handled all the customer support, all the sales, all the installations, all the network infrastructure," Jason recalls. "It was really myself, and I would call friends from my volunteer search and rescue time or fire volunteer time to help me do tower climbs."

This hands-on approach included his wife handling administrative tasks like billing and invoicing: "We would sit around and stuff envelopes once a month and physically mail out stuff. It was really, really a grind."

The turning point came when Jason realized he couldn't sustain this approach:

"I need some help," he remembers thinking before hiring his first employee part-time. This decision started Jason's transition from technician to true business leader.

The Four-Year Technology Cycle Challenge

A particular challenge in the broadband industry pushed Jason to think differently about his business model. He noticed that wireless technology required significant upgrades approximately every four years:

"This iteration inside of broadband wireless was a four-year cycle. Every four years things upgraded, and I'm like, this is crazy. I'm having to reinvest, continue to grow—how do I build this?"

This realization led him to explore fiber optic technology after attending industry conferences:

"If I design this fiber optic network the right way, I never have to put any new infrastructure in the ground. I can just upgrade electronics on either side."

This strategic pivot illustrates an important lesson for entrepreneurs: sometimes the path to scalability requires rethinking your fundamental business model and seeking sustainable solutions that reduce recurring investment cycles.

Core Values: The Foundation of Successful Leadership Teams

As Jason's business grew, particularly after acquiring a company with 16 employees, he discovered the critical importance of understanding and shaping company culture through core values.

"Core values are the core of the business. It's a culture driver, and culture means everything," Jason emphasizes.

However, he cautions against the common mistake of imposing values from the top down: "The worst thing any leader can do is go to a conference, come back and say 'we're changing everything, I learned all this new stuff, let's do it.' People are just going to leave, or they're going to look at them and say 'yeah, yeah, whatever' and go back to doing their jobs."

Instead, Jason recommends a collaborative approach to identifying the values already present in your organization:

"When we bought the company in Hamilton, Montana, we bought a culture. I can't come in here and just start changing things day one. That's going to create a mutiny."

His solution was remarkably thoughtful:

"I took everybody off-site, we bought them all dinner, a catered dinner at a local conference room, and we did a core values building exercise so I could learn what are the core values inside this company—because they're inherent in the company. This company was 20 years old. Other than the previous owner leaving, I was new in here. I had to learn what they were."

Only after understanding the existing values did Jason begin to "shift them and adapt a little bit of the culture into what my wife and I expected to be the proper or the appropriate culture."

The Rowing Team Analogy

Jason uses a powerful analogy to explain why core values matter so much:

"If you're all aligned, you start to row in the same direction. If you're thinking about a rowing team in the Olympics that we just had not too long ago, those rowing teams are in sync, going in the same direction at an immense speed, and it works well. But if one rower was off, even just one person was out of alignment, you're gonna lose the race."

This alignment extends to daily decision-making processes:

"Knowing what the values are helps you drive your decision-making process, knowing who to work with," Jason explains, noting that values can include faith-based principles for Christian entrepreneurs or concepts like respect that may need clear definition within your organization.

Breaking the Insanity Loop: The Power of Personal Development

A pivotal shift in Jason's career came when he sold his company in 2016 and discovered the power of personal development—something he hadn't prioritized during his earlier "grinding" years.

"Prior to 2016, I just didn't read a lot of books. I was busy grinding and working and doing. I didn't know what personal development was," Jason admits.

This realization led him to a profound insight about high performance:

"If you're not doing personal development, you can't be a high performer. You're running in what I like to call the Infinite Insanity Loop."

Jason extends the familiar concept of the "insanity loop" (doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results) by adding a critical third dimension:

"The Insanity Loop is three-dimensional, not two-dimensional, because if you add time to it, the longer you do the Insanity Loop, the narrower that loop goes and the shorter the loop gets, because everybody else is moving along in time without you."

Building Daily Habits for Growth

Jason's commitment to personal development began with establishing specific habits:

1. Morning reading: "5:30 in the morning was that time. It was get up at 5:30 in the morning that way I'm up before the house is up, the rest of the kids. I could get in 30 minutes to an hour of reading in the morning."
2. Podcast listening: "I started listening daily to podcasts. I was listening to Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman."
3. Physical fitness with accountability: After a doctor's recommendation to improve his health, Jason first changed his diet, then added hiking with an accountability partner—his new dog, Oreo. "The best way to start and get into anything is with an accountability partner."
4. Facing fears through professional guidance: Despite being "a C gym student" in high school and having a fear of gyms, Jason hired a personal trainer. "I'd only go to the gym if I was working with the personal trainer... I'm continuing to work through that fear of the gym that I had before because now I actually understand the exercises."

This methodical approach to personal growth mirrors Jason's business strategy—identifying obstacles, seeking expert guidance, and building consistent habits that compound over time.

Keys to Scaling Any Business: Start with What You Dislike

When asked about the most important steps for entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses, Jason offers clear, practical advice:

"The ladder of success is you've got to replace the things you don't like to do first," he explains. "If that's administrative, hire an assistant."

Jason speaks from personal experience, having hired his first assistant in 2019:

"A lot of people get protective over their email. I was one of them, but I hired my first assistant in 2019, and I haven't looked back. I've had an assist—even after I sold the companies, the assistants went with them. I didn't have an assistant for about two months after that before my wife was like, 'For the sake of our marriage, you need to get an assistant.'"

This approach differs from common advice to replace your technical talent first:

"We hear especially from like Dan Martell, he's talking about replacing talent first. You like to do those things though—that's why you got in the business to begin with. If you're in the trades and you like to build houses and you like to do framing, then keep framing. Hire somebody to do all of the estimates, all of the billing, all of the closeouts, all of the stuff that you don't like to do."

The consequence of not delegating these tasks can be severe:

"You're burning the candle at both ends as they say, and that's a bad recipe. Usually ends up in failed businesses and failed marriages."

Conclusion: Consistency, Values, and Growth

Jason Pond's journey from a one-man operation to successful business seller and now executive coach illustrates the power of three interconnected elements: consistent effort over time, clearly defined company values, and ongoing personal development.

His story demonstrates that high performance isn't achieved through sporadic bursts of intensity but through daily habits maintained over years. It shows that successful leadership teams must be built on shared values that are discovered and nurtured rather than imposed. And perhaps most importantly, it reveals that without personal growth, business growth will inevitably stall.

For entrepreneurs at any stage, Jason's experience offers a blueprint for sustainable success: identify your company's true values, replace the tasks you dislike first, build leadership teams that can function without you, and commit to consistent personal development that keeps you from falling into the "Insanity Loop."

By following these principles, you too can create a business that not only grows but thrives—even when you're not personally handling every aspect of its operation.