In this special episode, I interview Alex Buggy and John Wayne Walding, from the Best Defense Foundation. together they built the Stronghold program, where special operations veterans spend a week at 10,000 feet in Utah with doctors, NFL players, and operators who’ve already made the transition. It’s peer-led, it costs the veteran nothing, and more...
In this episode, I get into vanity metrics, using a high school friend of mine who took home nothing out of a company doing $3 million with 40 employees. Before he hired me he asked two questions, how much revenue I make and how many employees I have. My numbers were smaller than his, so...
In this episode I break down the X factor of working with a women-owned small business, why they make outstanding teaming partners in government contracting, and the four things I find myself coaching them out of every time.
In this episode I get into what I call putting in the reps. It’s the boring, repetitive stuff almost nobody does consistently, and it’s what quietly decides who wins. I run through the reps that matter in your business, including the one almost everybody quits on way too early.
What do you do with the employee who was perfect for the company you used to run? In this episode, I get into what I call the loyalty trap, the thing that catches a lot of owners between $5M and $10M. The business grew, the skill the job needs grew, and the person you hired...
What would you do with eight hours back this week? In this episode, I interview Luke Thompson from The Operations Guide about the work he has been doing to implement AI in organizations. One of his favorite implementations is an AI agent that wakes up periodically, checks your systems, and then makes decisions and takes...
If I printed 10 capability statements, yours and nine competitors’, then cut off every logo, could you pick yours out of the stack? Most contractors say yes. Most contractors are wrong. In this episode I break down why “we’re different” is the most common claim in government contracting and the least believable one. Quality work,...
In this episode of Game Changers for Government Contractors, Michael LeJeune sits down with Dean Wegner, founder and CEO of Authentically American, to explore the leadership lessons, branding strategies, and entrepreneurial mindset behind building a fast-growing American-made apparel company. Dean shares how his experiences at West Point, Ranger School, and leading soldiers shaped his approach...
In this episode, Michael LeJeune explains why businesses often stall between $1 million and $5 million in revenue, not because the opportunity disappears, but because the founder is still leading like it’s a startup. He breaks down the differences between leading in the military, corporate America, and a growing small business, and why those leadership...
In this episode, Michael sits down with Ben Thompson from The Operations Guide to explore what AI looks like when it becomes part of your business instead of just another chatbot. They discuss building an AI productivity headquarters, connecting tools like Google Drive and Read.ai, using Claude Code and Codex to automate real work, and...