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.

Joe Myers - Lighthouse Transportation Services

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.

Mike Bangasser - Best Technology

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.

Steve Adams - MKS Pipe & Valve

“From World Record Speed to Next-Gen Drones: The Gritty Journey of Damjan Zabovnik”

What do you get when you cross a speed-obsessed world record cyclist, a love for hands-on engineering, and a bold vision for the future of aviation? Meet Damjan Zabovnik: Slovenian-born inventor, record-setting cyclist, and now the CEO and co-founder of Eivie Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup taking on the vertical takeoff drone challenge with out-of-the-box aerodynamic thinking.

In this episode of Gritty Leadership, Damjan shares how his childhood curiosity evolved into world record-breaking speed bikes—pedaling at 80 miles per hour on pure human power—and how those lessons in grit, failure, and relentless innovation now fuel his quest to build radically new drone technology. We talk hands-on hardware vs software startups, real-life challenges of hardware manufacturing and capital raising, making the leap from Slovenia to Silicon Valley, and the balance of staying human in a tech-dominated world.

Damjan opens up about leadership through setbacks, the engineering breakthroughs driving Eivie's patent-pending drone design, winning a NASA grant, and the grit required to keep going when the odds—and regulations—are against you.

If you care about innovation, resilience, and what it actually takes to pioneer a new category—don’t miss this story.

Damjan Zabovnik - Eivie Corporation

From escaping the former Soviet Union to helping build an 80-person clean energy company, Les Bosnich brings a rare mix of grit, brilliance, and humanity to leadership. In this episode, Les shares how his immigrant story fuels his entrepreneurial spirit, why culture beats perks, and how "growing into bankruptcy" nearly crushed his last venture. We talk about hiring for potential (not perfection), the power of clean process handoffs, and how good leadership—like good soccer—requires the right players in the right positions.

Lev Buslovich - Apadana Energy

Bill Gleason, third-generation owner of Gleason Printing, joins us to talk about running a modern print shop in a digital world. From offset presses to personalized mailers, Bill breaks down what it takes to stay relevant, competitive, and profitable in a traditionally gritty industry. He shares lessons in leadership, smart risk-taking, why “staying in your lane” is a survival strategy, and how printing can still spark pride and impact—especially when it helps a nonprofit raise their next million. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to lead a 14-person manufacturing team with heart, humor, and hustle, this one’s for you.

Bill Gleason - Gleason Printing

Christine Frank doesn’t just lead in a gritty industry—she owns one. In this episode, Christine shares her unconventional journey from fluid power tech to engineer and business owner, navigating global industrial automation, cybersecurity, and the challenge of being a woman in steel-toed industries. We talk about the importance of building trust, showing up, asking good questions—and yes, how not to wear heels to a wastewater plant. If you care about leadership, infrastructure, or avoiding cybersecurity backdoors through your HVAC system, this one’s for you.

Christine Frank - TCIC Inc.

Bryan Smith (@boliversmith) · Zencastr

Bryan Smith (@boliversmith)

Not Your Typical Leadership Podcast: 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.

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.