Building Leadership Infrastructure That Scales - Landon Lynch

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This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Landon, welcome to the show. Good to be here. Thanks for having me. Hey, it's good to have you here, man. So great to connect. I know you and I initially met over in the great Dan Martell's elite coaching program. Quite the community Yeah, exactly. You get enthusiastic folks, to say the least, that are just kind of like, you know, just everywhere, just dripping.

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Yes, yes. He's kind of carefully cultivated the community just like that. And I wouldn't have it any other way because I get to meet great humans like yourself. I know we've gone on to have a conversation about you starting your podcast. So looking forward to diving in that project sooner rather than later. But we had exchanged a few text messages over the past week. It's seen a few posts of mine where looking for podcast guests, our clients are looking for podcast guests. And you said, Hey man, is it a good idea to get on your show prior to me launching my show? And I said, absolutely. So that brings us to today here. This podcast is all about telling people's stories. Um, for context purposes, I always like to go back. to the beginning of the story. Now, the beginning of the story is different for everybody. So you decide where the beginning Mark is for you, but for context purposes, let's help our listeners better understand. Let's back up a little bit and help our listeners better understand the beginning of your story and what really brought you to present day with what you do. I know you've got a pretty incredible business that you thoroughly enjoy doing, but bring us back for a minute Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of somebody, the way that I'm wired, I was always, I'm just pursuing what makes me the most curious. And so that started high school, college, it was like, switched majors, went down the road of a major that people didn't expect, just had to kind of flesh it out. And then similarly, getting through grad school and all the rest, it was just like, Man, I just want to help people get clear. I don't understand exactly what that means yet because I'm a 24 something, but that led me into doing nonprofit work for a while. I started working with boards and via the boards, I get exposed to a whole bunch of people who think really in a large way about the ripple effect of their influence and what kind of impact they could have in the world around them, both through the way they lead people, the way they run businesses, but then also through the way that the finances associated with that could help them write a check that would open up possibilities for the people around them. For me, that was just these big flashing lights of, I want to be able to think about both my experience and my finances and the way that I lead people through those things as the kind of opportunity that could create opportunity for others. That pulled me in to trying to help business leaders.

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and then consulting and helping them getting clear on what are they really in this for? Why did they start? How do they get clear when they're at turning points? A lot of the business leaders that I was working with, I was just trying to help them get clear, like I said. I started putting tools in my tool belt and started looking for all sorts of different frameworks. As we did that, it ended up being helpful and they said, hey, can you come and do something similar with my team? And in that process, I was like, like, I guess this is kind of becoming a business now. So started as a side hustle, trying to help people turn into a business. Now I've got people working with me and along, you know, kind of alongside of me and we've gotten to build it out. So it was, it was conceptualized as you just kind of a side hustle. It was conceptualized as literally somebody came to me and said, hey, I like the way that you speak. I like the way that you communicate. Can we get coffee? I've got a couple of questions I want to run past you. By the time we got done with coffee, it was, can you come to my office next week and maybe we could work through this. I've got a boardroom that we can have and work on. Literally, it was just me trying to help people on a whiteboard and flip charts get You know, but that wouldn't have happened had you not had the desire to see a gap somewhere in the market that you knew exactly what you could feel. I went through a similar experience with the podcasting world. I was like, wait a second. 10 years ago. I go podcast is becoming more and more popular. It's going. It's not going to slow down. people don't know how to start a podcast and they don't, they're not going to stop and go, well, let me just go figure this out. So the gaping hole was creating that solution for them to do that. So you identified that gap and said, Hey, wait a second. I know exactly how I'm going to fill that up and I'm going to do it. through service. I'm going to show up and say yes to these coffee meetings. I'm going to say yes to these lunch meetings that led you to the boardrooms that led you to, well, maybe we can get you on on a monthly basis. Maybe we can get you on in a quarterly basis on here. And then how did how are you able to scale that once that started to gain some traction? Was it from referrals or you just continue to rinse and repeat what you had done as you know, casually just in Yeah, it was for me for the first number of years, it was all almost completely referral basis. So I mean, the great thing about people who are running businesses is they run in circles of people who run businesses. And if somebody finds something that's helpful, they just tell everybody. Like we all like being somebody who can help somebody else get the resources that they need to solve their problem, especially when we felt something similar. And so it's actually amazing. I had a mentor, an early mentor who sat down with me over a breakfast and just said, Hey, if you actually help people solve their pain, if you help people identify and name and solve their pain, your time will fill up fast. So just get like a dog with a bone about just being unabashed about identifying and just naming somebody's pain because it can actually be freedom for them. And when you help free somebody, they want to see everybody else in their world feel Yeah, absolutely. And it's something that becomes extremely attractive for people. So help us better understand. So what does this all mean in layman's terms as far as what you're doing, working with businesses and business leaders to help them run their business more efficiently and improve overall systems? How Yeah, well, I really work on the people strategy part of it primarily. And then I get pulled into organizational strategy and operational strategy kind of on the side almost.

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But I usually start and I work closely oftentimes with growth companies, piggyback companies. A lot of times they're bringing in new founders, CEOs who are taking capital for the first time. The world that these founders are really used to where they can kind of rub shoulders with everybody and be able to lead by just bringing them close or going and working side by side with them for the day. Once you start hitting scale in an organization like that, a lot of times they have to fundamentally change the way they think about leveraging their time and their energy. and what a PE firm is really incentivized to get somebody to do on a regular basis in order to be able to grow an organization, a lot of times conflicts with how the founder has gotten really used to operating and they have to learn how to navigate, build trust with that PE board so they can be successful, but also upskill, adjust some of their frameworks, be able to actually develop successors And then be able to develop a lot of times a leader, a pipeline of leaders in their organization, where when they go to sell, eventually they can look at a potential buyer and be able to point to, hey, look, you know, X percent, 70 percent of our leadership that we're bringing up through is actually brought up through the organization. We have a pipeline. We're able to replicate leaders internally. as opposed to having to go external for leaders. Longevity-wise, the security of the organization, the consistency, the sustainability of operations, if you're able to pull up leaders internally, it's such a better buy for a potential buyer to be able to see a company that can do that. Your multiple increases dramatically. Being able to walk into the middle of that, kind of bridging that gap a lot of times for founders and those executive teams. That's usually where we start. And then we start thinking about how to build those So do you find that a lot of the people that you get the opportunity to work with don't know what they need help with, or do they have a kind of an idea or does that all, are you able to navigate and figure all That's a great question. It's a little bit of both often. A lot of times, founders, they'll have some inkling and somebody will have named something for them along the way. They'll have a couple of things that are almost like their hit pocket, like, yeah, I'm working on myself. See, I fixed my calendar a couple of years ago or whatever.

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And so they'll have a couple of those items that are almost their token pieces. But I usually take, I'll sit down with the founder and I'll take them through developing at the outset what we call a success scorecard. So just what's your definition of success here and then how does that align and where are the gaps between that and the investment thesis that you're being asked to participate in and drive forward. It's in your best interest and outcome to push forward as well. And by the time you get there, a lot of times there are way more gaps than they previously expected. The investment team has a hard time getting them to be able to see those gaps because it looks like they're the new kind of taskmasters in the relationship where I can come in and help them develop their definition of success and then help kind of hold a mirror up for them in a way that builds trust so that they can own it and actually do something with it. As opposed to if it's brought by the investment team, a lot of times it's just, you know, giving them the Heisman and just be like, no, I've got this. I know how to operate. So that's, I mean, we just talk about often the language is like it is just really hard outside of having somebody really close to you like that to know what it's like on the other side of you. It's just unbelievably difficult to do that. And we all overestimate our ability to do it. What's the best part about the job? I mean, my favorite parts off the top of my head are seeing promotions and successions be successful. I mean, last year, I think my highlight of the entire year was a guy I'd worked with for three years since he was an SVP of ops. succeeded and took the CEO role of a company so that a founder CEO could transition off and be the chairman of the board like he was wanting to do and just create that pipeline. But actually we get to see somebody through into the CEO role that they want and then see him thrive and feel like he was set up for success relationally, skills wise. I mean, he just had the team, like the team was behind him because of the way that he led them for the last few years. you know, all glasses in the air. I mean, we're just, you know, my week, Love it. So here we are time recording this episode, beginning of March, 2026 wild, even say it feels like new year's eve was yesterday.

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Um, what are you excited for, for 2026 besides The podcast, I'm really excited about that. I'm excited. I've already been a guest on a few podcasts, so it gets me that much more excited to guest and to facilitate. I love both of those. I've got one engagement coming up that we're getting ready to sign for in the next couple of weeks. And I actually got to be part of that company back when it was founded. And now they're in four cities. And we kind of rolled off for a little while. I always stayed in touch with the CEO, but we're about to roll back on because he needs help scaling kind of his leadership and intent throughout the organization. And so I get to come back into this thing that I got to be a part of kind of that inception and help kind of steer the ship at the beginning. And so getting to lock arms with somebody again after I think the first time we engaged was six, seven years ago. So getting to come full circle and then have a new kind of season with this person, I'm pretty pumped about. Love Well, then it's been great to chat with you and of course, better understand more about your business. I'm excited to get started and dive in with, and we're excited to see what's on the other side of you launching a podcast for your business and your brand. I know we've done a tremendous amount of spend tremendous amount of time in the trenches, strategizing what's possible and what's going to get here and help, you know, 10 extra firm and get you to the next level. I firmly believe a podcast is going to do just that. So I'm excited for that. Stoked to be connected with you. As we wrap things You know, I got one phrase that was hanging kind of over my head over the last couple of days, and I use it a lot with clients, but it's come kind of full circle and kind of top of mind. I just want to make sure that everything that I'm doing is more committed to being useful and helpful than being right. And I think a lot of us kind of sit at that, at that edge and I have to make that decision. And one of those is going to be my goal and like more than anything useful and Well, there you have it, friends. Final thoughts from Landon Lynch. I love it. It's better to be useful than it is to be right. What does it look like for that to show up in your life a little bit more, both professionally and personally? Landon, thanks for your time, my brother. Look forward to working with you.

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I'm really glad we got a chance to have this conversation. I'm sure our listeners found it extremely valuable and are encouraged by it as well. We'll have to have you back on sometime again. Yeah, thanks for having me. Great to be here. Appreciate it. You got it, Landon. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios.