Building Great Businesses for Greater Purpose:David Beasley’s Journey from Goodyear – C12 Leadership

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotispodi and today’s guest is David Beasley, Chair of C12 Business Forums. They are a Christian business networking and leadership development organization that has been around for nearly three decades. They provide leadership forums for business owners focusing on membership, resources,

and training designed to support mission-focused entrepreneurs. Through David’s guidance, C12 continues to help CEOs and owners combine solid business practices with Christian values, creating workplaces that inspire growth and positive change. Before joining C12, David worked at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, serving as Vice President of Commercial Tires for North America.

where he led P &L initiatives and contributed to significant growth in operational excellence. His experience in managing large teams and navigating strategic business challenges has shaped his approach to leadership. He also helps entrepreneurs discover new ways to integrate faith into daily operations, resulting in inspired leadership strategies and a strong sense of purpose. Now, before we get into all that good stuff,

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per employee per year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, Chair of C12 Business Forums in Northeast Ohio, David Beasley. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

David Beasley (02:13)
Thanks, Anthony. It’s great to be here. Thanks for inviting me to come on board. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (02:19)
So David, you spent nearly 40 years at Goodyear. What initially drew you into that company? How did that opportunity unfold?

David Beasley (02:27)
Yeah, that’s a really good question. You know, I graduated from college in December of 1983 and it was not a good economic time. And ⁓ I had a couple of opportunities. One was Goodyear and just felt like it was a great brand name. And ⁓ they afforded me an opportunity to sell tires in a retail company owned retail store in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Yeah, the rest is kind of history. 40 years later, I retired from Goodyear, but it was an opportunity to grow with a name brand Fortune 250 company that, yeah, it was, it was an opportunity.

Anthony Codispoti (03:08)
So the opportunity

came about in a relatively difficult economic period, ⁓ big brand name. Hey, this sounds like a good way to start my career, but what kept you there so long? There has to be something about that company that held you.

David Beasley (03:20)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you know, I, my degree in, you know, was in management undergraduate, but with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, my whole thought was I’ll go to work for Goodyear. They’ll teach me the retail tire business. Then I’ll go out and start my own Goodyear store, you know, as an independent dealer someplace. And that was really my approach to it. And then

There was every like every two years or less, there was just the next opportunity that Goodyear wanted. So, you know, I just kind of went with each of those opportunities and felt like it was great for my family, for my wife and just continue to go. And as those opportunities progressed and additional responsibilities and challenges that went along with it, I just stood there. But I had no, no.

idea that I was going to spend a career with Goodyear. That was not my intent.

Anthony Codispoti (04:24)
As

you look back over your 40 years there, David, what particular project or role stands out as your favorite?

David Beasley (04:33)
Hmm. Well, probably one was my last role six years as you said, Vice President of North American Commercial. That was a role I wanted the last 10 years of my career and for various reasons it came about when I didn’t think it was going to come about. can talk about that. And then the role before that, when I came back from China, I got the opportunity to lead airships, you know,

be director of airship operations, the Goodyear Blimp, right? And that was like a great opportunity because I was a part of an organization, was ambassadors for a company. And quite honestly, I never had a dissatisfied customer. Anybody that ever got the opportunity to ride on the Goodyear Blimp, and not many get to do that, it was like, they were like, this is great. I can rock this off my bucket list.

So the fulfillment of satisfying people’s dreams, that was equally as fun.

Anthony Codispoti (05:37)
So in that role, your job was what exactly? You’re in charge of how many blimps were there and is it like just a marketing vehicle and that’s kind of the role that you were in?

David Beasley (05:48)
Yeah, no, I was director of airship operations. yeah, there’s three Goodyear blimps, one in Pompano Beach, Florida, one in Akron, Ohio, and one in Carson, California. So obviously strategically located. And the old blimps were getting, they were antiquated and parts were no longer available.

I was on board, I came aboard not because I’m an aviation expert. It was more my business background, high capital project, high investment, because we built, ⁓ discontinued the old ships, built new airships with Zeppelin. It was a joint project to build them in the United States, do ground support equipment, bring in new ground support equipment, update facilities. It was a pretty extensive project.

And with that, worked with the pilots and the crew just to make sure they were in that organization, my responsibility. Those people are really the face and the ambassadors for Goodyear. was making sure the ship was where it was supposed to be. If it was covering a golf tournament or a NASCAR race or doing a charity event rides, whatever it may be, that was my responsibility to not only

get rid of the old ones and build new ones and christen them, but also to make sure the operations continued at the same time.

Anthony Codispoti (07:22)
So as an outsider, how I know the Goodyear Blimp is sporting events, right? See them up in the sky, they’re given the aerial view. Is there another purpose to them or is that the purpose? Like this is a marketing vehicle, put the name out there like a giant floating billboard.

David Beasley (07:38)
It’s a brand building. Yeah. It’s there just to brand build people. People equate the Air Goodyear Airship with Goodyear. And even when through the years companies have had blimps, you know, think maybe some, but I have people say, well, I saw your blimp over, you know, Philadelphia. Well, we weren’t there. It was, they saw somebody else’s, you know, but they equated it because Goodyear, that’s pretty.

That’s pretty strong brand recognition, you know, I mean, and it’s strictly, know, Goodyear provides the airship, they provide the aerial coverage, they provide the pictures like the golf tournament, NASCAR race, college football game. They’ll provide the camera shot down to the production trailer for the network, whoever it may be. ⁓ So, and we do all of that for

Though Goodyear does all that for all those in-game advertisements. know, they pan up and see the aerial coverage provided by Goodyear and then they’ll give a little background to that marketing message. That’s all done like on a barter network. We will provide this if you give us so many. It’s really high value. mean, it’s a big investment, but the return for that advertising is

equally or better actually than what we in Goodyear invest in.

Anthony Codispoti (09:11)
And there are only three blimps, ⁓ Goodyear blimps. And so how far can they travel? You know, you’ve got one in Akron, Ohio. Can it go to New York City? Okay.

David Beasley (09:22)
yeah, they can travel.

Even the one in California will come back to Akron for maintenance and other things. It has to, because of the Rocky Mountains, it’ll go the southern loop down by Phoenix and come north, but they can travel as long as, ⁓ yeah, there’s a ground crew and they’ve…

Anthony Codispoti (09:43)
What’s the greatest

distance it can go without having to land to refuel or whatever?

David Beasley (09:49)
Oh

yeah, yeah, it’s, that’s a good question. I would say probably three or 400 miles. I forget actually it’s been a while, but they can go and yeah, you refuel, but that’s not a problem. And you got to make sure you have helium available because you you have to either.

take helium out, increase the air or increase the helium, reduce the air. you gotta, depending on what you do and for the height you’re flying, you gotta have helium available. But as long as you do that, it couldn’t fly across the Atlantic Ocean, you know, but as long as there’s ground, you know, they can fly a good distance, but it’s not economical. That’s the reason why Goodyear places are more where they’re at.

You know, one in Pompano can cover the southeastern part of the United States, one in Akron, Midwest, Northeast, and then the one in the West covers the West Coast.

Anthony Codispoti (10:55)
And so they stopped to refuel. Are they topping off on helium and what kind of fuel are they using to propel themselves?

David Beasley (11:03)
Yeah, it’s just regular, regular fuel, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (11:09)
It’s like jet fuel or like aviation fuel. Okay.

David Beasley (11:10)
Yeah, Jeff fuel, yeah,

it’s just normal motors and yeah, they top them off. ⁓ Each airship blimp has ⁓ two mast trucks. So they’ll send one ahead to where the destination is. So when it lands, there will be a crew there. It doesn’t need many where they can mast on the…

They can tether on the mast and so it can settle in there and then it’ll stay on that and then the following morning the other one will head out. So they kind of hop skip ⁓ to support one another and the crew does.

Anthony Codispoti (11:54)
Okay,

last blimp question, I swear, but it’s the most important one. How do I get a ride on one?

David Beasley (12:01)
Buy one at a charity event. ⁓ Goodyear does a lot of charity events and they’ll be auctions. That’s the best way to get one. Goodyear will give rides to support wherever they are in the country to support a charity auction event. They’re usually at silent auctions, ⁓ silent events.

That’s the best one. I did ask that a lot. I lost any credit I had. If they called out, would say, Dave, who? We don’t remember you.

Anthony Codispoti (12:28)
So you don’t have a string that you can pull for me is what you’re saying, David.

I bet that you got a long list there.

Who?

So what was the most challenging project that you undertook there?

David Beasley (12:52)
That was the new airships. Yeah, that was it. Building them, I would say even more so. was the change from the ground support equipment, our people and the pilots were used to flying and operating one style of airship, the old blimps to the new one. And for them to change and to learn, many had been…

been there 20 years or more, they’d done something. That was a tough transition for them. That whole change process, right, of ⁓ relearning and what went well on the old one doesn’t mean it’s going to work well for the new airship. That was probably more so than building them and retiring them, although those were challenges there. It was the change process, I would say.

Anthony Codispoti (13:49)
where there’s

some of the pilots and the other crew that maybe didn’t make the transition, they were like, I’m out, like this, I’m not doing this.

David Beasley (13:56)
Yeah,

right. We had some that leave left or retired just saying, Hey, Dave, at this point in my career, I don’t want to totally get it, understand it. Yeah. You know, I just, you know, I’m not interested in investing the time and yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (14:09)
changes heart.

So I want to hear a little bit about the decision to enter the China tire factory market. What was the original vision there? What made this such an interesting idea for Goodyear?

David Beasley (14:31)
Yeah, you know, it was interesting. wasn’t looking for that opportunity. know, I, I, I really wasn’t looking for any opportunities that came up with good. They just kind of came up, you know, just as a side note, I always tell people, you know, the work for me, don’t worry about the next job or do your current job really well. The next job will happen. You know, you don’t have to worry. Don’t plan for it. Don’t orchestrate it. And, uh,

Anthony Codispoti (15:00)
Meaning like some people are sort of like jockeying, positioning for what’s next and maybe losing sight of what they need to be doing right now.

David Beasley (15:10)
Exactly. know, but so, you know, Goodyear came to me at that time. Goodyear was not producing truck tires in China. We weren’t involved in the truck tire market in China. Goodyear was relocating a factory in Northeast China, further Northeast, and it was a consumer tire factory. So you think of consumer tires, auto and light truck tires that we drive around on in our cars and all that.

And there was a decision made, it’s supported by executive management, the board to build at the same time a truck tire factory at this same location and enter the truck tire market in China. And as that factory was being built, they came to me and said, hey, at that time I was kind of known as a truck tire expert in Goodyear because I’d spent so much time in that.

industry market that had come in and run the Asia Pacific truck tire business, get us started in China. And I showed up and my goal was to connect the marketplace back to the factory. was it. But there was no one there. We had one supply chain person that was, we started importing some tires, Goodyear did at that time, and ⁓ just to seed the market. so

built a sales team, built a marketing team, supply chain team, finance team, built all those functional components to support the business organizationally. And also just learning the market, learning the culture. Because the way that the market, the entire market is done in China is totally different than how it’s done in the United States. yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (17:06)
How soon?

How so? How is it so different?

David Beasley (17:09)
So

yeah, no, it’s two-step distribution. We have some of that in the United States, two-step distribution in China. you have, as a manufacturer sells tires to a distributor, a distributor then sells tires to a retailer, but also the distributor actually funds the retailer to get them started. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (17:37)
like the tires are on consignment almost or.

David Beasley (17:40)
Yeah,

consignment, they may even, you know, find them a location, support that, do all of that to get them in business to help them grow and then they’ll have some type of relationship. Versus, and then the retailer then has the relationship with the fleet. In the United States, it’s really one step distribution, manufacturer to the retailer, servicing dealer, then to the fleet. And many times,

the manufacturer has a relationship with the fleet that they drive the fleet to that retail location. So much more sophisticated in North America than what it was in China. And that was a learning for me. You know, that was things I had to learn and yeah, didn’t have that understanding of how the market was done. Had to learn it pretty quick and yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (18:24)
You didn’t know that going in.

How well did it go? Were you guys able to penetrate the market?

David Beasley (18:38)
Yeah, went, yeah, it went well and we were late to the market. Part of my challenge, Anthony, was Goodyear thought at the time, the business case, it was going to grow really rapidly. And I had to go in and say, after investigating some things, being late to the market, some other things that, hey, we can grow, but we won’t grow at the rate that was in the business case.

And that was a little bit of a change, more than a little bit. That was a big challenge for Goodyear because they went in under one assumption and I delivered a message that was different. that was a challenge, Anthony. mean, ⁓ was the hardest time in my career going through those three years in China. But feeling like I disappointed people and needed the

tell the message of what reality was, but the difficulty of the aftermath, once that’s communicated. Yeah, that was a trying, trying time for me.

Anthony Codispoti (19:49)
What was the most difficult part in trying to hit the anticipated numbers? Was it that you just didn’t understand that distribution network at first and so you thought, we’re gonna go sell right to the retailers and you’re like, no, actually our plan needs to change radically and we need to develop a relationship with distributors.

David Beasley (20:07)
Yeah, that was part of it. ⁓ But the other part of it was there was a lot of state-owned enterprises, truck tires manufacturers in China that were state-owned, that were supported by them, that they were going to do whatever. They weren’t going to give up easily market share. That was a part of it. ⁓ They were supported by the government.

right, communist country and all of that, that was a challenge. ⁓ And just the fact that we were late, right? Other people had brands, had reputations, marketing. ⁓ We developed a high quality North American type truck tire. That wasn’t as valued in the Chinese market. ⁓ they weren’t looking at… ⁓

quality. They ran tires to destruction, low acquisition costs versus we sold on total cost of ownership. So you can get that and you can stay with that quality image, but it takes time. It’s not going to be as rapid. It’s going to take time to get there. was those type of things that said, hey, we can grow, we can get there, but it’s just going to take time.

Anthony Codispoti (21:28)
I want to understand more about the difference between the tires themselves. You’re saying that you guys focus more on total cost of ownership, ⁓ Chinese tires, you drive them to destruction. If are people not driving good year tires to destruction? Is there another alternative?

David Beasley (21:45)
Yeah, in the the truck tire market in North America, right, you’ll sell a new tire to a fleet. And depending on how the fleet cares for that tire, it will be retreaded multiple times depending on the type of operation and so rough numbers. If you sell a new tire for $400 and a retread sells for $200, well you

You can buy a new tire for $400, you can buy one of lesser quality for maybe $300, but you can get multiple retreads at half that price of $400 too. So over the life of that whole casing, that original casing of that tire, actually, total cost of ownership is less. The problem is in China, retreading wasn’t there and they didn’t value.

You know, they didn’t value, the fleets didn’t value retrading except in some specialized markets. They just were focused on, I can get this tire at less price than yours.

Anthony Codispoti (22:53)
Was there any thought

about Goodyear shifting its approach to what China was accustomed to?

David Beasley (22:59)
Yeah, certainly there was, but you know, and things have maybe have changed since I left that market back. Well, now it’s been 12 years ago, 13 years ago, but Goodyear’s a quality brand and whether we are in the globe, we wanted to keep that quality brand. Goodyear

had been there in the market on consumer tires. One of the first to enter, we were focused on quality. That was it, premium products. So you don’t wanna downgrade your brand in the consumer market that’s being original equipment on a high-end vehicle in China. ⁓ So there’s a lot of things at play for Goodyear when they make that decision.

point is protecting that brand name is really important. And what’s best ultimately for the customer, right?

Anthony Codispoti (24:00)
Yeah, but you

have an education problem there, don’t you? When everybody is, they’ve just been brought up, they’ve been raised to, you know, find the cheapest tire and just drive it till it splits. And you guys are like, hey, there’s a better way that there’s a knowledge gap there, that education is painful. And how did you approach that? Like, did you find a good mechanism to sort of like train people to understand that there was a better approach?

David Beasley (24:02)
That’s the time.

Well, you had, and you’re right. It’s the training which equates to time, right? It takes time. And yeah, you’d have to give our salespeople, you know, the Goodyear salespeople, the company-owned salespeople tools that help them show, you know, the life of a tire. How many miles you get out of that tire, what’s the life of training once you do retread it, once all that.

some success stories, testimonials of customers in China that have done that, That are now buying good year new tires, and how they’re getting by. So you gotta communicate that and re-educate them and give tools to your salespeople that truly demonstrates that value over time, right? And that fleet ⁓ and having fleets give their testimonials is a big.

is a big powerful tool.

Anthony Codispoti (25:24)
So what was behind the decision to retire and did it happen concurrently with the decision to join C12?

David Beasley (25:35)
Yeah, yeah, no, it’s good question. when I came out of China, they talked about it was a difficult time. And I really was like, God, why did you, why did you send me there? I thought you wanted me to go there was so hard and really, you know, it’s really led to that, you know, God sent me there because I wasn’t really following him. So when I had the opportunity to lead the North American truck tire business,

I just really relished that and

Anthony Codispoti (26:08)
That was when you came back from China. Got it.

David Beasley (26:10)
Yeah, that

was the last six years. Yeah. I came back from China, did the airship operations job, and then led the North American truck tire business. And the last two years, my wife and I were just feeling like God was calling us away from Goodyear, but to what? I wasn’t just going to stop. I wanted to have something to go to. And out of China, I just really had a lot of interest in

glorifying God through my work and how business can really be used as a tool to help people, ⁓ not only spiritually, but emotionally and physically. Business done well can really make an impact in the communities where that business operates. I knew that, I believed it, and just happened to have coffee with a couple guys and a

A person came up and said, hey, I just met the CEO of C12. They’re looking for ⁓ someone to operate ⁓ as a franchise in Northeast Ohio. I’ve been praying about it. Do you guys know of anybody? I didn’t know that C12. And to ask some questions, enough to intrigue. The mission to grow great businesses for a greater purpose appealed to me. And ⁓ just a line with

My personal passion and that’s, yeah, that’s did my due diligence. They did the due diligence on me and came on board. So it was.

Anthony Codispoti (27:49)
So explain more about what C12 is, what it does, who the members are, how you help them.

David Beasley (27:55)
Yeah. Yeah, we work with Christian business owners, business leaders, you know, who run the P &L, you know, control the culture of the company, you know, control their calendar. They’re the leaders of the organization. And we do that to help them grow great businesses for a greater purpose. Well, great businesses. We want every business to be financially strong, to be high quality.

in terms of product, service, ⁓ know, supply chain efficiency, cost leadership, all of those things, high employee engagement. We want great businesses for a greater purpose, and that’s to glorify God. How do you take your faith as a Christian business owner and lead a business well for God’s glory and to, in that process, impact people’s lives?

That’s what C12 is. And we walk alongside in a peer group advisory format. So C12, Christian 12, typically 12 Christian business owners and a peer advisory board. meet once a month, all day. And we ask them not to focus on working in the business, but focus on the business for that one day. And yeah, it’s impactful. There’s a lot that goes into it. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (29:18)
And so what actually takes place in one of these meetings? What are the discussions like?

David Beasley (29:23)
The discussions are great, right? The real value is in accountability and collaboration around great resources ⁓ and great input. So ⁓ we spend the morning going through a curriculum. For instance, last month was around strategic planning, using strategic planning for 2026. Every September, we help the business owner

And these are typically, they can be public publicly held company, but a typical C12 business owners, 20 million in annual revenue. We say it can go down to 2 million and at least 10 employees. The key is you had a leadership team. It doesn’t work for a sole proprietor. And, you know, we, want them to do strategic planning, to lead a team. talked to previous month about cost leadership, not reactively.

managing costs if you’re in crisis or heading to crisis, but how do you manage proactively your cost structure so that you can weather the difficult times that come about in business? We talk about that. We give them tools. That’s part of the morning session. We also talk about how you can minister to your employees, setting up care teams. That really helps the employees.

And it’s not care teams from the leadership team. It’s people that work in the organization that know of issues that people are in crisis. How do you help them care? How does this company care for an employee that needs help? They’re in crisis. And we work with them and how to set up a care team, how to fund a care team. And those are just examples. So that’s the morning. And then the afternoon is…

12 members, every once a month, month out of the year, each member is a focus. They do a business overview of their business, where they stand, look at their P &L and their balance sheet. And they have two questions that they really need help with. And they use the peer advisers as a board of directors, board of advisers to provide input to them that

They have, you know, in their business and their questions and also the members, two members interview that business owner that for that month, their leadership team, as well as their spouse if their spouse wants it. And we provide them feedback on how’s the culture of the organization? What’s your leadership strengths? What’s your leadership blind spots? You know, what, are some things that you really don’t know about the organization, but, should know?

It’s not punitive, it’s there to help the peers to help that business owner. And then we’re also concerned about the leaders, business owners work-life balance. And part of that is self assessments every month that we ask them to do. And then we also ask the spouse, how are they doing at home? How are they loving? So we do that and that’s part of that afternoon session. And then the final hour of the day is,

is open forum. One topic that you need help with that you’ve got 11 other peers at the table that can help give you, maybe they’ve gone through it, they can provide you insights or they know someone or they can just provide your opinion. And then at the end of the day, we say talk is great, but it’s cheap. Doing is better than talk.

what are the one, two or three things you’re going to do between now and the next meeting to help change your trajectory personally or professionally. And that’s the day in a nutshell. There’s a lot of tools done in that. And yeah, I just have the privilege to walk alongside these guys and to help them and men and women, and they wanna get better and lead better organizations.

And then I meet one-on-one coaching with them throughout the month as

Anthony Codispoti (33:42)
Okay. What you’re describing sounds like a fantastic kind of mastermind setup, right? ⁓ I’m wondering how faith gets infused into this process. Is it more of like a subtle undercurrent and because everybody there is of the same belief system, they’re all Christians that you just feel like you’re supporting each other and sort of a, you know, a greater cause and purpose or does some of the coaching

David Beasley (33:48)
Hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (34:12)
actually involve becoming stronger in your faith or is it even goes so far as to here’s how to demonstrate your faith to your employees and your co-workers or kind of help me understand that.

David Beasley (34:28)
It’s all of that. In the morning, we start off every day with a devotional and we’ll pray for people. That month, the business owner, that’s their month. We actually pray for them, pray for their business. ⁓ We have a ministry topic every month that we talk about. We do strategic planning, but it’s based on a balanced scorecard.

right, five elements. That’s revenue generation. We want you to set up goals for revenue for one year, three year, five years, or development, operation management, financial management, but also ministry. What are your goals around ministry for your organization? We want to help you meet those goals. We do that. ⁓ We encourage people.

There is some accountability that makes sure you do what you say you’re going to do. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And yeah, it’s interwoven throughout the day. It’s not separate, but it’s interwoven throughout the day and how we pray for people and one another and care for one another, challenge one another. Hey, what does the Bible have to say about how to handle this employee?

problem that you’re bringing up or whatever it may be. So yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (36:01)
Can you talk more about the ministry component and what that looks like? What does that coaching look like? What does it look like for your members to go and deliver that?

David Beasley (36:10)
Yeah. So, it may be, you know, it may be, ⁓ the ministry portion may be as such as generosity programs. Hey, I want to, my goal next year is to take 10 % of my profits and give them to a charity that will, you know, help others. Christ will be honored, help missions, whatever it may be to, hey, our company will sponsor a mission trip.

and help people in the local community or wherever may do that. We encourage, you know, members to have a chaplaincy program, to have a chaplain wander your shop floor or your office just to develop relationships. People are going through hard times, typically don’t want to share that to the owner or the boss, but someone who’s developed a relationship with, they…

They will share their difficult times confidentially. That person will help them and that’s just there to care for a person. Ministry could be dream manager programs where, you know, the Matthew Kelly’s book around dream manager of, hey, not only people in crisis, but what are your goals? What do you want to do? Well, I want to own a house. Well, let’s get, there’s a lot of you, let’s get a ⁓ mortgage. ⁓

bank or a real estate person to come in and talk about what do you need to do? What are some resources for you to own a house and to accomplish that goal? That’s it. We want to set up a care team. We actually want to care for our people, right? And we want to operate things. And those are just tools that people can use that. And also, like the other thing around Michigan,

Like people want to work for a company that has a purpose. Like be clear on your purpose. What do you want to accomplish, right? And let’s be clear around mission, vision, core values so that you actually live them. Not that there are slogans on the wall, you actually, that’s who we want to be, that’s who we are. And that’s what we do. That’s what we aspire to be, all of those things, you know? So we just help them with that. It’s a journey. You know, it’s not…

Typical C12 member is a member for at least five years. And we have some that have been members for much longer. You don’t graduate, it’s a journey, it’s a way of improvement.

Anthony Codispoti (38:51)
You know, you’ve got a front row seat to what a lot of businesses, business owners are going through. Is there a common thread? Maybe what’s the biggest, most common hurdle that you see business leaders dealing with?

David Beasley (39:05)
Yeah, good, great question. Most of these entrepreneurs, business owners, you know, they’ve started the business. The business is them, right? They know the business in and out. The business then grows and all of sudden they’re the bottleneck because they don’t want to give up anything. They know it and it’s like that transition of

not just being an operator of the business, but actually being a leader of the business. And that’s a tough transition, you know, ⁓ you know, to, to really think about where the business is and strategically to step back and that change of role, Anthony is so hard. Some, some business owners just don’t want to do that. And I just kept my growth cause I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to grow anymore. Okay. ⁓ but

There is a way for you to help and there’s a lot of people that talk about that change, right? That can help you go through that. hey, we don’t make all the right business decisions or decisions in life, but you can adjust, you can improve and you can get there. If that’s your goal, what’s your goal?

Anthony Codispoti (40:22)
You know, it brings up an interesting thought because I talked with a lot of folks and making that transition from founder who’s wearing, you know, 12 hats to now I’m going to build a company that’s got, you know, layers to it, you know, leadership structure, it’s really hard. And it’s not always the case that the founder mentality is the same kind of mentality to continue to lead the company in to sort of that next phase. Have you

identified, are there personality traits that are sort of common amongst the people who are able to make that transition?

David Beasley (41:01)
Yeah, that’s a good question. I know one trade is ⁓ what’s your worth, what’s your identity found in? Some people get worth out of being the CEO, and CEO mean Chief Everything Officer. They know it all, right? And they don’t want to give that up. I get worth in that. It gives me value. Well, okay.

Yeah, I understand that, but there’s a greater value if you can help others feel that and others that take that ownership and work alongside you. Wouldn’t that be even more powerful if you had a group of people in your business that really had equal ownership and got that value from growing the company and knowing it. And for you to see them take on that role.

Wouldn’t that be equally as valuable? ⁓ But that’s a tough transition. Those words are easy, Anthony. I know you know that because you asked the question, but how do you get there? And we’ll help you get there, right? There’s people out there who’ll help you. Not just C12. There’s others that will help you if you want to get there.

Anthony Codispoti (42:20)
David, whether it’s that kind of transition that you’re helping somebody through or something completely different, it’d be really interesting for listeners to hear about, I guess, specific case study. Like, here’s a member, here’s a situation that they had, and here’s how we were able to help them and what the end result was.

David Beasley (42:38)
Yeah, yeah. No, it’s good. I got a member that ⁓ owns five franchises, mortgage banking, mortgage lending franchises. And, you know, he’s like a typical small business owner. He’s never did strategic planning, never had mission vision core values. He just, it was always how am I doing versus last year, right? I’m doing better. Great. Okay. Well,

Last year he became a C12 member and he, along with his leadership team, he worked really hard at developing mission, vision, core values. Didn’t have it. And the peer advisory group really helped him. He would bring his ideas to the group and use them in open forum and they would beat him up, send him back bloodied, I’m being facetious.

And he would come back and over the course of about four months, he really got a mission vision core values that he owned. He owned and not only that, his leadership team owned, It’s part of who they are. And then he did strategic planning, right? What do we want to accomplish? What do we want to accomplish from goals and

What should our focus be on? And they laid those goals out and then looked at ministry. Well, we’re generous, but we really want to focus on these three ministries and put our resources and our profits around supporting these ministries. And now they’re being recognized this year for all their contributions to that community and how they’ve supported that.

And he’s going to be at a national event and will be recognized on stage for just caring for his community and doing that well. And his business is growing. He’s gone through difficult times, but because he’s now focused on things much broader, then okay, if business is tough this month, I didn’t buy my sales gold.

I got other positive things going on here, right? And the people have even greater purpose. And it’s just a great testimony of a guy that he just saw all they need and said, I’m just gonna start putting in the hard work. And he’s being recognized ⁓ next month, just for caring for his employees, caring for people in his community.

Anthony Codispoti (45:20)
And I can see

light up as you talk about that. That’s ⁓ clearly a very rewarding thing for you to witness, be a part of.

David Beasley (45:26)
yeah.

Yeah, and it’s him. know, my goal is just, I have the privilege to walk alongside this guy and see how God works in his life and how, you know, he works in his business and how he leads well. It’s just, it’s a privilege just to be able to sit there and see that work happen.

Anthony Codispoti (45:48)
David, what’s a serious challenge that you had to overcome in your life, whether it’s professional or personal? How did you get through that and what did you learn?

David Beasley (45:57)
Yeah, I’m going to get real personal. When I was leaving Goodyear, my wife, such a wise person, she came to me and said, Dave, you need to get some counseling. If you’re going to help people, I think you got some things that you need to work through. ⁓

And I was like, okay. And we have good friends and they said, you know, spend a week, go out to do an intensive. She, she, I was honored for her to come along. I thought I went because I had an anger issue, not that I outburst. It was more pent up, right? Anger. But what I came to realize is, and still, obviously it’s not a one and done, but is that, you know, I grew up in a, in a performance.

based household. My parents are great people, but like there was a lot of love and appreciation for what I did, what I accomplished. So, I became focused on my worth as a person was what I did. And what I learned going through that counseling was I didn’t have an anger problem. My value was placed in that. And then I started seeing, no,

I serve a God who loves me for who I am, not for what I do. What’s more important is who I am as a person, not the things that I do or my accomplishments. Because those things will go away over time or somebody will do something better, but…

And that was just Anthony, you know, I’m continuing and I encourage because I deal with people that are type A personalities, business owners, right? They’re really focused on results and making things happen. And those are all important. Results matter. No, no. You know, I tell people you can’t have mission without margin. Right. you can. Results matter. We want you to have mission, but.

If you don’t have the margin, won’t have the mission. But at the end of the day, you’re still an individual loved by Jesus, even if your business fails, even if you’re going through difficult times. And for me, that was just a light bulb moment, knowing that here, but knowing it here.

made all the difference in my life. And that’s a big challenge. I tend to fall back in my old ways, but yeah, that’s real personal. yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (48:59)
I want to

explore this for a moment because it’s an interesting point. And as an entrepreneur, a type A person myself, it’s something that I’ve wrestled with. If my wife were listening to this right now, she’d be pointing the finger right at me. And it’s one thing to recognize it up here. And for people who aren’t watching, I’m pointing to my brain, my head. ⁓ But then to be able to embody that in your whole being and in your heart is a different step. You can sit here and say the words. The words are easy.

you know, said earlier, but how did that light bulb moment go from, you know, sort of conceptually I understand that I am more than my accomplishments to actually feeling.

David Beasley (49:40)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. It was in a time of prayer. I I’m a follower of Christ and…

Yeah, you know, I really, it was a time when I was in deep prayer that I really saw and I was struggling with this in my heart.

Jesus smile at me and

that it was a smile of love and it was an experiential in how I experienced it, but that experience changed me. It changed me in a deep way. The God of the universe loves me as a person, as a follower of him. Whether I was or wasn’t, he would still love me.

That changed it from here to here, just seeing that. yeah, it meant all the difference in my life and yeah, what I do today. And I share that testimony. I shared it this past month with my members. Actually, it was last week in our meeting. yeah, I just want people to know that

There is that out there. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (51:25)
Is there any way for you to coach your members in coming to a similar realization? Or do you think they kind of need that same deep prayer spiritual moment themselves to have it go from the brain to the heart?

David Beasley (51:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think it’s each person. It’s that personal relationship, personal experience. I don’t think anybody can do it for you, tell you. I think you gotta experience. You gotta have that self-discovery yourself, right? You’re obviously very good at asking questions. And many times, us as business leaders, business owners,

And one thing I’ve learned that I wish I would have done more is ask good questions, not always be the one to give the answer, tell how things were done. Self-discovery is far more powerful than somebody telling you what to do. If you can ask the right question, ask powerful questions to help people have that light bulb moment, then they own it. Wow, that’s theirs then.

That’s powerful. you know, that is so neat and just having people, you know, ask the right questions. ⁓ If I do that with my members and people I meet, help them see it. Nothing can replace that.

Anthony Codispoti (52:58)
I’m put you on the spot here, because this is a tough one, but what’s the question more people should be asking?

David Beasley (53:04)
Hmm.

I think.

I think the best question is, what? is the reason I’m doing this? What is going to happen if I don’t do this that I know I should be doing? It’s the what question, right? Not necessarily the why. I think the what question will lead into the why, but the what question I’ve learned

Just reading a book called Ask Powerful Questions, you know, and in another book, Spiritual Leadership Coaching, really taught me that that question is really, really so strong because it can’t be answered yes or no. It’s got to be, it’s got to be dug through. ⁓ So yeah, what’s my purpose in doing this?

What am I going to learn from doing this? Just asking that question is so powerful. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (54:27)
Where do you see your work with C12 going here in the future?

David Beasley (54:32)
Well, that’s a good question. mean, God laid it on my heart. I mean, I, know, on the website, we have a vision video. I want to see a hundred businesses in Northeast Ohio get, start impacting, you know, people’s lives. I mean, you think about it, you got a hundred businesses. You got a figure of 20 employees per business.

Those people have got families, those businesses have got customers, those businesses have got suppliers. You’ve talked in hundreds of thousands of lives in Northeast Ohio can be impacted for Jesus Christ just to improve people’s lives. That’s just so, that’s like, that’s my vision. That’s what gets me up in the day to help businesses.

grow and just be a part of that journey. ⁓ that’s where I want to go. And I, I, I can’t do it on my own. can’t be that chief, chief everything officer. I’m looking for people that to, to be at work alongside me, to be fellow chairs with me, to help do that and recruit members. And people would come alongside that want to do that and carry that vision and want to do, build a better business or a great business for a greater purpose.

Let’s do it. And yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (56:04)
What is that marketing process, that growth process, that recruiting of new members? What have you guys tried that’s worked?

David Beasley (56:12)
Well, right now, mean, because I’ve got 12 members and I’ve got what was called a key player group, which is a ⁓ CEO business owner. He ⁓ or she can have a ⁓ member or ⁓ a key player or more be a part of the group. So they go through the same curriculum rather than business advice. It’s more leadership development. And ⁓ so, you know, that…

It’s 12 members getting referrals from them or their key players to talk to other people has really worked. I hold events, like I’ve got an event coming up next Tuesday. ⁓ It’s a no charge event, but it’s for people that either see 12 members or not, it’s open to anybody ⁓ to write a legacy letter, right? To write a letter of blessing to your child, your loved one or children.

you know, we’re going to spend an hour and a half and Blake Berurer, who owns Legacy Letter, is actually going to help us write a letter. What would be more impactful to our children’s lives than to write a letter of blessing to them and tell them how much you love them for not what they do, but who they are and how proud you are of them? And I just…

You know, something I wanted to do. I heard about that and I was like, so we do that and I don’t do that for marketing. That’s a part of it. I do that to help people that really have that need. you know, those, but I, yeah, people get blessed from that and they’ll tell somebody else and we do other things, strategic planning workshops where people can come in, we’ll help them. ⁓

layout a strategy. If they want to know more, we’ll talk about C12 and how that can help them. So it’s events, it’s referrals. I talk to people, you know, all the time. I do the typical marketing stuff, email drip campaigns, and I maybe get one, two people out of that, but it’s really the referrals. People who’s been a part of C12 or know someone that has, it’s seen there’s something

changed in their business, I need to talk to them. And that’s when I talk.

Anthony Codispoti (58:38)
David, I just got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do a few things. First of all, what’s the best way for folks to get in touch with you?

David Beasley (58:46)
Good question. I’m on LinkedIn. Happy to do that. David Beasley, can see me on LinkedIn. I have a website. can contact me through my website and find out more about C12, about me. It’s C, the letter C, 12, the number 12, Northeast Ohio, n-e-ohio.com, C12, n-e-ohio.com.

You can connect with me through that. You can find out more about C12. Those are the two ways to get to know me, ⁓ get in touch.

Anthony Codispoti (59:22)
Great, and we’ll

make sure we include links to that in the show notes. A couple other things before I ask my last question here, just a reminder that Ad Back Benefits Agency provides telehealth counseling and therapy and 190 prescription meds to employees. It’s always free for them to access. And it does so in a way that actually puts more money in both the company’s and the employee’s pockets. Adbackbenefitsagency.com. Finally, everybody listening, if you take just a moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app, we will be forever.

So last question I have for you David, one year from now you and I reconnect and you are super excited. You’re celebrating something big. What’s that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from today?

David Beasley (1:00:04)
Yeah, that’s good. mean, I’m just laid out my strategic plan for 2026, right? And numerically, you know, I want to grow from 12 members, CEO business owners to 24. So that numeric number will save more people, more businesses are being changed and people’s lives are being transformed. that would be it. Our business is

blessing others, ⁓ it would be great.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:38)
David Beasley from C12 Business Forums in Northeast Ohio. I want to be first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

David Beasley (1:00:48)
It’s an honor.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:50)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.