Build a company that runs on its culture, not on you.
You built a good company.
Let’s build a culture that can carry it.
Your company grew.
Has your team grown with it?
Do any of these sound familiar?
- You’re carrying the weight.Everything seems to run through you with little team ownership.
- Good people keep leaving.And you keep training their replacements.
- The same conflicts keep coming back.You’re usually the one who needs to be involved to resolve it.
- There's no one ready to promote.Ready to grow, but the team isn’t ready.
- The next growth decision feels like a guess.No margin or experience to make good growth decisions.
From the night shift to the boardroom.
James spent 35+ years leading large-scale operations, turning around complex businesses, and developing leaders within a Fortune 100 company. Over his career, he led turnarounds in production plants, businesses across 40+ countries, and large-scale operations, including a $1.5 billion international unit with 15,000 team members.
While complex, James found that every level of his career was defined by one thing: his ability to lead and inspire the people around him. His bread and butter is executive leadership, culture, operations, financial performance, and strategic growth.
Because of his influence throughout his career, he is a highly-requested speaker and continues to advise senior leadership teams across the world. At Heritage Coaching, James draws on this real-world experience to help leaders solve difficult problems, align their people and operations, shape their culture, and build organizations built to last.
- 35 yearsReal world experience
- $1.5BBusiness unit led
- 15,000People responsible for
- 40+Countries worked in
- 1988Started career as a night-shift supervisor at Tyson Foods
- Plant ManagerBecame the youngest plant manager in Tyson history.
- PresidentLed 15,000 people and $1.5 billion in business across the globe.
- InternationalLed turnarounds in Brazil and Mexico. Started a business in China.
- CEO, OK FoodsLed the company, shaping culture and performance.
- 2022 to 2025Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company
Guest lecturer in leadership at the university level. Trustee, Ouachita Baptist University, 2014 to 2018. Executive Advisory Board, Hickingbotham School of Business. 40 Under 40 honoree, Arkansas Business Publishing Group.
Coaching that keeps it real.
Real experience.
No new acronyms. No fluff. Just real people who understand the reality of running a business and who understand the value of a partner who is willing to roll their sleeves up and get to work alongside you. We take time to know you and what you’re building, because the best advice comes from people who care how it turns out.
Real people.
You work with James and Justin. No junior staff. No binder. You get two perspectives every engagement: decades of seasoned judgment and fresh eyes on what's changing now. Every recommendation has already been pressure-tested from both sides of the table. And you're dealing with two people who answer their own phones.
Real growth.
No 80-page decks that sit in a drawer. We work in plain language, on your real decisions, and every engagement ends with something you can act on. We measure your culture before we give advice, and again after. You'll know whether it worked.
Three ways we get to work.
All of it runs on one conviction. The leader is there to clear the way for the crew, not the other way around. Servant leadership isn't soft. It's the hardest way to lead, and the only one that lasts.
Let’s TalkEvery company has a culture. Either you built it, or it built itself.
Try this in your head real quick. Name your culture in one sentence. Then list five things you're doing on purpose to build it.
If that was harder than it should be, start here. The Culture Score takes a few minutes and shows you where your culture stands today.
Get your Culture ScoreThe CEO who showed up.
I was a young, brand-new plant manager the day Don Tyson, the CEO of Tyson, walked into my plant. We’d never met. Ten minutes in, I knew he wasn’t there to check a box.
He walked the floor with me. He asked about my family and what made me tick. He’d been paying attention, too. Before he left, he named a couple of things I was doing right. We wrapped up on a shared love: the Dallas Cowboys.
After that, he asked about the Cowboys every time we talked. Then he started inviting me to a game every year.
There wasn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for that man.
That’s where I learned what great leadership looks like. You show up. You pay attention. You make people better. And you build something real with them.
— James Young
Six leaders we love to work with.
- The leader who wants to see his team thrive.The company is good. You want the people in it to be great.
- The owner who can't leave for a week.Every decision still comes through you.
- The foreman who became the boss.You were the best at the work. Nobody taught you how to lead the people doing it.
- The crew that keeps turning over.You're tired of losing good people and not knowing why.
- The second generation.You inherited the name. Now you have to earn the room.
- The owner with no one to talk to.Everybody around you works for you.
This works if you…
- want it straight, even when it stings
- will do the work between calls
- want a partner, not a program
This won't work if you…
- want a cheerleader
- want a binder
- already have all the answers
Your company runs on its culture, not on you.
Your managers make the call without calling you. Your crew knows the standard and holds each other to it. Good people stay, and they bring their friends. And you get your evenings back.
Let’s Talk
Communication & clarityJustin Young
Justin spent nine years building a brand and a marketing team while the company grew from 6 locations to 28. He coaches leaders on communication and clarity, and he sits in on every first conversation.
Two GenerationsFather & Son Firm
Two generations aiming to build something meaningful together and help others do the same. After spending our adult lives building corporate careers, we decided to join together to build a multigenerational business centered on what has always energized us: coaching people, building teams, mastering the fundamentals, and helping others reach their potential.
“It starts and ends with people. You manage tasks & processes. You lead people. Get those backwards and you’ll run a clean operation nobody wants to work for. People don’t follow what you say. They follow what you do. Servant leaders actually serve. They pick up the trash. They know your kids’ names. They lead the way Jesus did: with a towel, not a title.”
James Young