I have had the great pleasure of interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs over the course of my career. Most are happy to gush about their life’s work. I call these “vaccinated with a phonograph needle” interviews. Some – very few, but some – require generous coaxing to come out of their shells. These I refer to as “blood from a turnip” interviews.
I occasionally interview a man like Erik Therwanger of Prior Lake, Minnesota, who is the founder of Think GREAT. Erik specializes in leadership development, strategic planning, sales performance and goal-setting, and every word he utters becomes part of a crystalline understanding of who he is, what he does, and why he loves doing it. Such conviction is the rare, defining element of the “laser guided” interview.
Erik called me at precisely 1300 hours on a Tuesday.
“Nobody just becomes a Marine,” said Erik. “A new recruit is known as a ‘dirtbag.’ Dirtbags are peeled apart, broken down, and gradually forged into Marines. They learn the Marine Corps' 14 Leadership Traits and 11 Leadership Principles, which give them the foundation for becoming leaders themselves one day. And they also do a whole lot of pushups.
“I went in open contract when I enlisted. The Corps picked out what I was going to do, and that meant I served as an air traffic controller at Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma – the busiest military airport in the world – at 18 years old. It wasn’t just my training that had prepared me for that. The Marines had already developed me into a leader.
“When I completed my tour of duty following the Gulf War, I went to film school in California on my GI Bill. There weren’t many veterans there. A lot of the students didn’t have a full understanding of the military, but nearly all of them were very welcoming and became great friends.
“During my studies I got a post-production job in Santa Monica. This company did all the editing and special effects that go into movies and TV shows, and when they found out I was a Marine Corps veteran they put me in charge of managing their tape vault. (Technically you could say that Will Smith and I worked together on Independence Day – even if he got paid a little more for his role in the project.)
“I married my wife Gina soon after starting my career in the entertainment industry. Gina was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma only ten months later. I left my job in the film industry so I could take care of her, just like I would care for her during her three future bouts with cancer. I couldn’t have been anywhere else during those times. Had I not been there to perform CPR on my wife when she went into cardiac arrest six years ago, she would have died.
“About four years after Gina’s first diagnosis, she became well enough for me to reenter the film industry. I could only find an entry-level position after having been out of the game for so long, but within 18 months I had become that company’s vice president. This was the first time I implemented my three pillars – the fundamental concept behind Think GREAT – and in doing so I raised the company’s annual sales growth by 300 percent.
“The three pillars are the culmination of the character I forged as a Marine, the dedication I learned as my wife’s frequent caregiver, and the skill I earned as an executive business leader. They are universal and will quickly elevate an organization of any size. I’ve taught them to the leadership of several major corporations including US Bank, Sam’s Club, RE/MAX, Thomson Reuters and US Foods, as well as countless other smaller organizations around the country. And the lesson, if followed, always produces the same great results.
“The three pillars are leadership, planning, and sales. The first is the true foundation of growth and success, as it enhances the results of any organization by teaching its leadership dynamic strategies and techniques to inspire, motivate, and influence their team members. Planning looks beyond an organization’s immediate day-to-day needs to elevate its team to new levels of achievement. Selling entails creating the ideal environment for sustainable high performance, and turning a team into the sales drivers needed to accomplish both short and long-term goals.
“In the private sector, too many people become leaders before they’ve actually learned how to lead. My program corrects that by teaching people how to think and act as leaders – and not coincidentally by instilling the same traits which Marines rely on to weather the most harrowing challenges. These are justice, judgment, dependability, integrity, decisiveness, tact, initiative, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty, and endurance – JJDIDTIEBUCKLE.
“For example, I had just finished teaching leadership to 100 of the team members of the Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative in February of last year. It turned out that everyone had their own harrowing challenge ahead of them back then. But not long into the pandemic, the CEO of the co-op called to tell me how greatly my lessons had helped them. Although social distancing had forced all of his team members to operate within a vacuum of supervision, their greater accountability, improved abilities of delegation, and shared vision had actually increased their productivity.
“When I speak in front of a crowd, I always ask if they think their business can become better. Their answer is always yes. But when I ask the follow-up question – how it can become better – there are as many different answers as there are people. It would be difficult to summarize the three pillars over the phone, as I’ve written entire books about each of them, but in essence every one of those attendees’ answers can be traced back to leadership, planning, and sales. Once I have trained their focus on any one of those three crucial aspects to business greatness, it suddenly becomes far simpler for an organization’s team members to work collectively toward common goals.
“I wrote my latest book, The COMMUNICATION Movement, to help people learn the language of success. Now, language is magnetic, but magnetism works both ways: Some words attract, while others repel just as strongly. For example, what does it mean to be an ‘employee?’ That’s just someone who shows up to work for a paycheck. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been using the phrase ‘team member,’ and that’s no accident. It is an empowering title, one which underscores that every member of an organization shares the same goals.
“To that end, an organization doesn’t need managers who do none of the work and take all of the credit. It needs leaders – those who face challenges alongside their team instead of behind them.
“And I love helping people forge themselves into leaders.”
Erik Therwanger offers keynote speeches, virtual courses, one-on-one coaching, comprehensive educational programs, and any other assistance an organization needs to become truly effective as its purpose. You may learn more about Think GREAT and order Erik’s transformative books at thinkgreat90.com.