Episode Overview
What happens when you introduce EOS into a business that’s on the edge of collapse, and it completely changes the trajectory of the company (and your career)? In this episode of Real Talk, Mark O’Donnell, Visionary at EOS Worldwide, sits down with EOS Implementer Justin Cook to unpack the story that brought him into the EOS community and the deeper purpose that keeps him energized in the work today.
Justin shares how his leadership journey began in unexpected places, including Apple Retail, where culture wasn’t just discussed, it was taught and embedded. That experience shaped his passion for building values-driven workplaces, and it’s precisely what drew him to EOS: a simple set of tools that helps leadership teams align, execute, and create organizations where people can thrive.
The conversation delves into the moments that make EOS implementation meaningful, from breakthrough team sessions to the emotional shift a founder experiences when they finally have a leadership team that truly has their back. Justin also opens up about the challenges of scaling impact as an Implementer, the tool he’s most excited to share (hint: the People Analyzer), and why having early, honest conversations is one of the most loving things leaders can do for their people.
Key Takeaways
- EOS can turn struggling businesses around fast: Justin shares how self-implementing EOS helped a company swing back into profitability within one year and ultimately achieve a successful exit.
- Core values only work when they’re lived daily: Values don’t become culture by being posted on a wall; they become culture when leaders consistently reinforce and reward them with specific, real examples.
- Specific positive feedback is a culture superpower: Justin challenges leaders to get as precise with praise as they are with criticism, tying feedback directly to core values.
- The People Analyzer creates instant clarity: When teams use this tool consistently, it cuts through confusion and accelerates action around right person/right seat decisions.
- Your ideal clients are driven by mindset: Justin explains why he’s most energized by teams with a “10X mindset” — leaders who set bold goals and then figure out how to make them real.
- Hard conversations are more loving when they happen early: Waiting until trust is broken turns the “three strikes” approach into a formality; early course correction is a gift.
Full Episode Transcript
Introduction + Setting the Stage
0:02
Mark: Hey, Justin — how you doing?
Justin: I’m doing great. How are you doing, Mark?
Mark: I’m doing fantastically well. Thank you for jumping on my LinkedIn Live. This is a spot where we can bring out the fantastic experience of the EOS Implementer community, share stories from our entrepreneurial journeys, and hopefully add value wherever the conversation goes.
Justin: I love it. Thank you for having me.
Justin’s Entrepreneurial Story: From Leadership Support to EOS Breakthrough
1:00
Mark: Why don’t you give us your entrepreneurial story? How’d you get here?
Justin: My journey has been interesting — less “I started a company” and more entrepreneurial in the sense that I consistently found myself in positions supporting leadership and working on leadership teams.
Eventually, I wound up at a security company here in Nashville. The two owners had merged their businesses a couple of years before — and I always tell people they got married without doing their premarital counseling. They weren’t aligned at all, and the business wasn’t doing well. We were bleeding money, and they were on the verge of dissolving the partnership.
They asked me to facilitate conversations to see if the partnership was salvageable — which was not awkward at all as their employee who they could technically just fire. (laughs)
But I had heard about EOS at a conference, and it struck me: if we could agree on the vision, we could use it as a filter for everything else. So I recommended EOS, and honestly, I think they agreed partly to indulge me.
I signed up for Basecamp because if we were going to do it, I wanted to do it right. They weren’t going to pay for an Implementer because it felt like an experiment — but we did it.
Within a year, we’d had a million-dollar swing back into the black. Four years later, we became the largest locally owned commercial security integration firm in Nashville. And they were able to exit in 2022.
Why EOS Clicked: Culture, Simplicity, and Execution
6:10
Mark: What about EOS drew you in?
Justin: Early in my career, I worked at Apple Retail. One thing Apple does really well is culture. I was part of a team that helped open new Apple stores — we’d spend two weeks onboarding new employees, and about a day of that was about products. The rest was culture.
That really stuck with me. I’ve always had a passion for building great workplaces driven by values. And that’s what drew me to EOS initially — the VTO, the clarity, the simplicity.
The leaders had tried other systems, but nothing stuck. When I looked at them, it felt like too much. I have a degree in philosophy — I’m not walking around with high-level MBA business acumen. EOS was simple. Anyone can understand it. Anyone can execute it.
And then once I saw the results, that sealed it: EOS is simple, but it’s not easy. It takes commitment to master the tools — but when leaders commit, it works.
Culture + Core Values: Making Values Real
9:45
Mark: How does your Apple culture experience come out in your EOS work with clients?
Justin: The biggest place it shows up is during quarterly sessions when we review the VTO — especially core values.
I always think we’ll spend an hour on the VTO, and then I spend so much time on core values because I’m constantly challenging leaders: What are you doing to make these part of the culture and language of your organization?
One of my favorite things is putting them on the spot:
“I want a real example for each core value — from someone outside of this room — where they lived it in the last two weeks.”
People tend to give general positive feedback: “You’re doing a great job.” But they give specific negative feedback: “Here’s the thing you messed up.” That imbalance creates a culture where praise feels empty and criticism feels heavy.
So I challenge leaders to get as specific on the positive side as they are on the negative side — and tie it directly to core values.
The Best Part of Being an Implementer: Breakthrough Moments
13:20
Mark: What are those moments where you’re like, “I can’t believe I get to do this”?
Justin: Breakthroughs. Those moments when a team hears each other for the first time… or when someone finally speaks up about how they really feel.
I had a session yesterday where the team was firing on all cylinders — healthy conflict, great listening, strong rocks, and they didn’t rest on their laurels. They kept pushing for better.
At the end of the day, the owner shared — with tears — “I feel like I have a team that has my back.”
Getting to be part of that journey — watching leaders delegate, watching teams step up, watching people truly own the vision — that’s everything for me.
The Hardest Part: Scaling Impact
16:19
Mark: What’s your absolute least favorite thing about being an Implementer?
Justin: I think the biggest challenge is that it’s not really scalable — you individually, me individually. I’m always thinking about how to expand my impact, because that’s what I really want to do.
When I look at my VTO, the first one I did in Boot Camp was revenue-based. And about two years ago, I realized… I’m going to hit it. It’s not going to be hard — it’s just going to take time. But then I started asking myself: What am I going to do to really stretch my impact and expand my impact?
So for me, it’s continuing EOS — and then looking for other opportunities EOS creates: ways to speak, share ideas, and use the massive amount of experience I gain from working with all these different teams, seeing their issues, and seeing how they solve them. I think that’s the hard part… but also what’s going to be a big part of my future.
Mark: That’s something a lot of Implementers have struggled with over the years — myself included. When I went to Boot Camp, I actually had no intention of becoming an Implementer. I just signed up and went.
And my VTO in Boot Camp — this was in Gino’s office at the time — was to have 300 EOS Implementers out in the world doing the work. Of course, I had no idea or intention of becoming the Visionary — and yet my Boot Camp VTO ended up being fulfilled, as crazy as that was at the time.
Justin: That’s wild. You never know how these things work.
Mark: Along my journey, I was working with clients and always trying to tinker, trying to start something new. And when I decided to join the coaching team, it was really me giving up on the idea of scaling an EOS practice.
I tried all sorts of things and finally realized: this isn’t going to work — because you generate so much cash flow by yourself as an Implementer. If you tried to build a business that produced the same level of cash flow, plus the freedom, you’d probably need something like a $30–$40 million business to match it.
I started to realize that… and then I thought, for me, this is really more of a mental thing — I just always need to stay mentally engaged, stimulated, testing, trying new things. Coaching other Implementers gave me that. It was a lot of fun.
So that was sort of my full-circle journey: I want to expand my impact — and I had the good fortune to do that through the entire community.
Justin: That’s exciting to hear because I’m going to be a Sprint Coach for the next Tampa Boot Camp — and that’s a big part of why I’m doing it: how do I expand my impact?
I wouldn’t be here without a handful of Implementers who really poured into me, whether they were part of the coaching team or not. I feel so much gratitude for that — and I want to share that and encourage others. I’m really excited about having that as part of my scaling.
Mark: And scaling doesn’t have to look like building some huge thing. There are lots of ways now to expand your impact — through video content, writing, talks. That’s what I think about more than anything. And EOS is a great complement to that… and the thing that gives you the confidence is: you’ve seen this stuff. You’ve seen the pattern.
Favorite Tool: The People Analyzer
21:10
Mark: What tool are you always excited to teach?
Justin: The People Analyzer.
It’s so simple, and it provides a massive amount of clarity. Sometimes I let teams talk through an issue with a person for a bit during IDS — they go in circles — and then I ask, “Have you run them through the People Analyzer?”
They stop. Everyone takes two quiet minutes. They score the person. And suddenly, the issue is crystal clear.
It’s powerful because it helps teams take action — and it reframes right person/wrong seat as a fit issue, not a moral judgment.
Ideal Clients: The 10X Mindset
30:14
Mark: Who is your ideal client — where it doesn’t even feel like work?
Justin: This was a breakthrough for me after reading 10x Is Easier Than 2x.
I listed all my clients and looked at them through one filter:
- Do they set a goal and figure out how to get there?
- Or do they look at what they’ve done before and use that to define what’s possible?
The clients with the 10X mindset are energizing — I could do another session right after one ends. The ones who want stability can still benefit from EOS, but I sometimes catch myself pushing them toward something they don’t actually want — and that’s not my role.
One of my most meaningful moments was with a visionary who wanted to set a profit-sharing goal. She said she’d be excited to share $100,000. I asked, “Why not a million?” She sat in silence and said: “I don’t think I deserve that.”
That mindset shift changed everything for the organization — they rallied around the goal, started automating, increasing efficiency, and building momentum like never before.
Top Issues Clients Face Today
39:15
Mark: What are the top issues your clients are putting on the issues list right now?
Justin: People. People and people.
- Finding great people is hard.
- The employer-employee dynamic has shifted.
- And as companies grow, they’re dealing with right person/wrong seat — where the seat has outgrown the person.
The hardest part is leaders waiting too long to address it. They avoid the conversation, then suddenly trust is gone and relationships are strained.
There’s also economic uncertainty — but it’s vague. When we boil it down, most issues still come back to people.
Advice to His Younger Self: Be Yourself Sooner
44:36
Mark: If you could go back and visit your younger self, how old would you be — and what would you say?
Justin: Seventh grade.
That’s around when I got the message that me wasn’t what people wanted, so I started putting on masks. My brother was super popular — we couldn’t be more different — and I spent years trying to be someone else.
I’d tell myself: fall in love with who you are. Value your authentic self. You don’t have to be anybody else.
What Justin Reads + The Book That Changed His Life
48:06
Mark: What’s the last book you read?
Justin: I read a lot — but mostly fiction. The last book I read was Blood Test by Jonathan Kellerman. Total mindless thriller.
But the last nonfiction book I read was Unreasonable Hospitality — I couldn’t put it down.
Mark: Favorite book of all time?
Justin: Probably Crucial Conversations.
It changed the trajectory of my life. I’m someone who goes silent during tough conversations — and I used to think that was a good thing. But silence isn’t dialogue. Silence doesn’t get you where you want to go.
That book helped me learn to enter the danger with courage. I even got certified to teach it and took our company through training.
Final Thoughts: The Gift of Early Tough Conversations
54:29
Mark: Any final parting thoughts?
Justin: It’s all in the people component.
We talk about the three-strike rule — but too often, leaders wait until it’s inevitable before they have the first strike conversation. They let it go so far that trust is broken and the three strikes are just a formality.
If leaders could shift their mindset and see the first tough conversation as a gift — “Hey, we want to course-correct because I believe in you and I want you to be successful here” — that’s love for people.
Having those conversations earlier could change the game.
