Podcast
Lead yourself well, so you can lead others better.
Join Personal Growth Coach John Ballinger on a journey of self-awareness and leadership that begins with learning to 1st Lead U. With over 35 years of experience, John shares timeless lessons to help you grow your confidence, strengthen your mindset, and lead with purpose.
MEET THE HOSTS
John Ballinger & Douglas Ford
Together, John Ballinger and Douglas Ford bring over five decades of leadership, coaching, and real-world experience to the 1st Lead U Podcast. John, a personal growth coach with 35 years of developing leaders across industries, pairs his practical wisdom with Doug’s strategic insight and business acumen.
Their conversations challenge conventional thinking about leadership, ego, and growth—helping listeners uncover blind spots, expand capacity, and learn what it truly means to lead yourself before you lead others.
Latest Podcast Episodes
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Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn – The Four Fs of Responding – CHART – Ep 333
Pressure doesn’t create your character; it reveals your training. We dive deep into the four Fs—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—and show how these hardwired trauma responses quietly shape decisions, meetings, and culture. Instead of shaming…
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Teamwork At The Highest Level
The holy grail of leadership isn’t a new tool or a louder pep talk. It’s a team that operates with clarity, trust, and speed—especially when the waters get rough. This episode helps leaders create real…
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Transparency: Clear Steps To Transparent Leadership – EP 331 – CHART
Leadership gets messy when silence lets rumors grow. We dig into practical transparency—the kind that earns trust, sharpens execution, and cuts through noise—without veering into oversharing. Starting from the twin meanings of transparency (letting light…
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Leading with Truth: CHART Ep 330
Want to lead with clarity when facts, feelings, and norms collide? We zoom in on truth as a leadership discipline—how to recognize what kind of truth you’re dealing with and how to communicate it so…
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Training – Everyone Needs It to Succeed – CHART Ep 329
Part of the leadership gap facing society today is as much a teaching gap as it is a lack of communication gap. In this episode we discuss how training, grounded in assessments and tailored to…
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Results Require Intentional Communication – CHART – Ep 328
We push past platitudes to the final R—RESULTS—tying identity, emotional intelligence, and clear “turn signals” to real execution. From apprenticeships to role‑flexing, we lay out practical ways to set goals, shift direction without whiplash, and…
