Ep227: TrueSuccess Blueprint - Living Mindfully & Scaling Smart: The Foundations of Sustainable Leadership

In the final episode of Humanergy’s TrueSuccess Blueprint anniversary series, host Mimi Mitrius talks with co-founders John Barrett and David Wheatley about what it really takes to sustain success over decades. They unpack two of Humanergy’s eight TrueSuccess goals—living mindful, purposeful, and balanced lives and maintaining a lean, scalable performance infrastructure—and share how these principles have shaped Humanergy’s 25-year journey.

You’ll hear how balance goes beyond “work-life” to mean optimized living, why Humanergy tracks both too little and too much work, and how the team built systems that support growth without losing their human touch.

Key takeaways:

• What true balance looks like for leaders and teams
• How a “Balanced Chair” framework helps prevent burnout
• Why Humanergy created KPIs for both under- and over-work
• How to build a lean, scalable infrastructure that still supports people
• Practical ways to create a culture of continuous improvement

Perfect for: Leaders, executives, and HR professionals looking to build sustainable organizations that value both performance and well-being.

Listen now to discover how balance, purpose, and smart systems fuel long-term success—and how you can apply the same blueprint in your own organization.

Learn more about Humanergy's work: https://www.humanergy.com

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Transcript

Mimi Mitrius (00:10)
Hey everybody, you are listening to the final episode in our special anniversary series, The TrueSuccess Blueprint. I'm Mimi, and today I'm talking with John and David about two goals that help Humanergy sustain our work for the long haul: living mindful, purposeful, and balanced lives, and maintaining a lean, scalable performance infrastructure.

We'll talk about the habits, mindsets, and systems that have helped Humanergy stay strong for 25 years—and how you can apply them too. Hey John, hey David.

John Barrett (00:39)
Hey, Mimi.

Mimi Mitrius (00:42)
So we’ll jump right in. What does balance look like for each of you, and how do you model it as leaders?

John Barrett (00:50)
So, for me—I know we wrote the word balance because it’s typically what people talk about—but in my mind, I convert that to optimize. Balance, to me, implies this idea of equal or trade-off.

I find it more useful to think about how these various important parts of my life combine together to have the net best overall impact. That means really thinking about the connection and how each area fuels and contributes to my greater good.

I monitor how I’m doing personally—how my family’s doing, how I’m doing with friends, how the team’s doing, how the clients and business are doing. We also talk about the mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects.

I try to notice where one aspect is negatively impacting the greater whole and adjust that—sometimes by dialing it up, sometimes by dialing it down. That’s how I do it personally, and that’s how I think about it personally.

We can talk a little bit, I think we should, about how we do that organizationally as well. But I’d invite Dave to jump in.

David Wheatley (02:57)
Well, if I were to summarize what John’s saying, I’d go to another tool that’s available at Humanergy.com under the “Freebies” dropdown, and also mentioned on episode 46 of the Humanergy Leadership Podcast: The Balanced Chair.

It’s our summary version of what John was talking about. The chair has four legs, and you need something in each of them to be balanced.

The first leg is work—having some meaningful contribution to society.

The second is family, which I label that way, but it’s really about the social connections you have. It doesn’t have to be blood—it’s the people you connect with who maintain your energy and look after you.

Then there’s self, which is about eating, sleeping, and exercising in the right way.

And spirit, which is whatever spirit means to you. Sometimes that’s church on Sunday or temple on Saturday; sometimes it’s going for a run or walking in the woods. It’s that thing that reignites your spirit and energizes you internally—that soulful piece.

Having something in all four of those is what creates balance. If any one starts to dominate, it tips the chair over.

Philosophically, that’s where we’ve stood at Humanergy for 25 years—have something in all four quadrants. Otherwise, you’re useless to us in the work quadrant, because we know the interdependence of those four.

That comes down to a practical level too. We start our monthly Humanergy meetings by asking folks to review mind, body, and spirit. We don’t define it—just, “How are you doing in terms of your mind, body, and spirit?” People reflect differently, but it reinforces that we spend time outside the work quadrant and keep our chair balanced.

Another imbalance I see a lot these days is that people don’t take the vacation that’s due to them. When we started Humanergy, maybe because we both came from a more European model—even though John’s from Down Under—the idea was that taking vacation is good.

We asked, “How much vacation should we have to start with?” and said, “Four weeks,” which is out of the norm for American companies but more in line with European ones. And there’s the expectation that people take it.

We want you to be rested and energized, because that brings a better version of you back to work. Too often, clients give up vacation because they’ve worked too hard. But if you actually maintain that balance and take that vacation, you’ll probably get more work done in less time because of those other things—the legs of your chair.

John Barrett (06:32)
Just to add to what Dave said—yes, we have four weeks in our structure and policy. And what’s really important is that there’s a culture that values asking, “How’s it going in life?”

People don’t feel constrained, guilty, or concerned about taking vacation. In fact, it’s almost the reverse. Maybe, Mimi, you can comment on that.

There’s active encouragement—“Tell us about your vacation! That’s fantastic!” We have clients who’ve never taken more than a one-week vacation in 30 years. And when they finally do take two weeks, they realize it’s qualitatively different. They have enough time to separate and really experience life differently.

The other thing I’d add is, at Humanergy, the more work you do, the more work you get paid for—and everyone loves doing the work. They hate saying no. So we actually have a KPI for, “Are we doing enough work?” and another for, “Are we doing too much work?”

We literally monitor and have a boundary condition for too much work. I haven’t seen that in other settings. It’s important—if balance matters, you have to treat it like it matters. You get what you measure, so make sure you measure what matters.

For us, having mindful, purposeful, and balanced lives is critical to our mission and everything we do.

Mimi Mitrius (10:46)
I’d definitely agree with that. Before I worked for Humanergy, the most vacation time I’d ever had was two weeks. Coming into an organization with a four-week vacation policy—it just spoke to my heart.

I’m a traveler, and it’s important to me. I can tell you that when I come back from a trip, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated. I have so much more to give to the organization than if I only had two weeks—or less, in some cases.

It’s such a misstep for companies to burn people out and not help them live their best lives. How can they possibly give their best to the organization?

David Wheatley (11:47)
It’s about living it too. You asked how we do it, and we live it.

At the end of 2014, I came to the team and said, “I have this opportunity to sail across the Atlantic next year. I’ll be gone for eight weeks.” That’s obviously more than our vacation policy, and I knew it would crimp the organization.

The team’s response was, “What do we need to do to help that happen?” Everything was, “How can we support you?”

Phil, who worked with us at the time, asked, “Can I take care of your inbox?” The beauty of the team rallying around that was that I came back after two months to a nearly empty inbox because the team had structured and supported it.

That’s the payoff of creating a culture where you value the wholeness of people. It was really warming to see that level of support.

By the way, episode 35 of the podcast talks about that trip.

Mimi Mitrius (13:16)
Watching you all live it and walk the walk—it makes a difference. Some organizations have unlimited vacation policies, but their leadership doesn’t take any, so no one else feels they can either.

You get what you model. You guys do a great job modeling vacation, and I appreciate it.

John Barrett (13:48)
Just to emphasize for our audience—this is part of the total TrueSuccess package. It’s vital to a thriving, successful organization.

We sometimes hear people say, “You don’t run a tight ship—people walk all over you.” But yes, you do need good measurement around performance and accountability. None of that precludes enabling people to bring their best selves to work.

“Lean, scalable, mindful, purposeful, balanced lives” could be written as: How do we ensure everyone can bring their best self to work?

If people bring their best self to work, that feeds into how we make a difference, our financial security, our client pipeline, and more. It’s about being wise in how you think and operate.

Mimi Mitrius (15:15)
That’s a great segue into how we ensure our infrastructure stays lean but still supports growth.

Part of that leanness is that when I go on vacation for two weeks, someone else can step in and help cover my role. That’s because we’ve created a symbiotic relationship among teammates.

If you’d like to speak to how we ensure our infrastructure stays lean and still supports growth, I’m sure our listeners would love to hear more.

David Wheatley (15:53)
I’ll push back a little—because we didn’t make sure there was a backup for everything you do. You did that.

You said, “If I want to take two weeks off and there’s payroll during that time, someone has to do payroll.” So you trained Tiffany to do it.

That’s what happens when you have the right people and set clear boundaries—they take ownership. You wanted to be the best version of yourself, so you cross-trained. I don’t remember it being a request.

Mimi Mitrius (16:50)
It wasn’t. It was more like, “I’d like to take two full weeks off, and I want to make sure I still have a job when I get back. So I’m going to make sure all my T’s are crossed and I’s dotted.”

David Wheatley (17:02)
That was early on, so there was still a bit of that old fear—probably a hangover from a previous job. I imagine now it’s more like, “I want to go away for two weeks and make sure the organization runs smoothly while I’m gone,” because you’ve got ownership.

Mimi Mitrius (17:25)
Definitely that. I love working for Humanergy, and I want to take care of it. Part of that care is making sure everything is buttoned up before I go.

John Barrett (17:44)
There you go—you’ve done your job, Mimi. You got the Englishman to share the tea.

David Wheatley (17:44)
(laughs)

Mimi Mitrius (17:55)
(laughs)

John Barrett (17:57)
When we started, it was just Dave and me. The organization was about 90–95% in our heads. As we grew, we realized we couldn’t rely on tribal knowledge anymore.

This “lean, scalable performance infrastructure” was actually an addition to the original TrueSuccess goals. Once our team grew, it became essential to focus on scalability.

We started investing in smart systems, processes, and cross-training that allowed us to grow efficiently.

Before COVID, we saw each other most weeks in a great office, and things happened organically. Now we’re fully virtual, spread across the country. Having a lean, scalable performance structure is a requirement for the other seven elements to work effectively.

One of the strongest things we do is the CI Log—the Continuous Improvement Log. We maintain and evolve our systems as issues arise. When something fails, we fix it, contain it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

That focus on small, ongoing improvements has been a secret to our success.

Mimi Mitrius (22:01)
John, can you give a quick overview of what exactly the CI Log is, for listeners who might want to implement something similar?

John Barrett (22:17)
Sure. In its physical form, it’s a spreadsheet. Anytime something doesn’t happen quite how we want—whether it’s internal logistics, client management, or service delivery—it gets logged.

That includes not only misses but near misses. We capture anything that’s not quite how we want it.

Then we record how we contained or fixed it, and how we’ll prevent it from happening again. Everyone can contribute. Mimi owns it, and we review it monthly to maintain that mindset of continuous improvement.

Mimi Mitrius (23:43)
Exactly. CI stands for Continuous Improvement.

It’s our log of mistakes or near mistakes, what actions we took to correct them, and what we’ll do to mitigate them going forward.

We report out monthly, and it creates a space where it’s not scary to admit mistakes. It’s a safe place to learn in public and hold a standard of accountability.

There’s no blame—it’s simply a report out, and we move on. It’s a very cool system.

David Wheatley (25:00)
To go back to what John said, continuous improvement plays out in real life too.

We had this beautiful office in downtown Marshall. It felt very “Humanergy.” But over time, occupancy went down as people relocated or shifted to part-time. We asked, “Is this still a smart use of resources?”

Through our lean, scalable lens, we decided to let go of the office in 2019 and move fully virtual. That helped us be lean and scalable.

Soon after, Mimi’s predecessor retired. We were about to post the replacement role in Southwest Michigan when we asked, “Why are we limiting it geographically?”

That’s how we found Mimi in Los Angeles. We realized we had the right person—and they didn’t need to be local.

We constantly ask those questions: Is this the best approach now? Every decision ties back to the eight elements of TrueSuccess.

At the time, it didn’t make sense to keep the building, so we made a change—and we’ve succeeded completely virtually since.

John Barrett (27:35)
The takeaway from what Dave said is that all these elements must align—mission, process, structure, culture. Any one out of sync creates a negative impact.

And just to clarify, “lean” doesn’t mean penny-pinching. Lean is about maximizing value.

We eliminate waste wherever we find it, but we invest in opportunities with high ROI. So when we say lean, it doesn’t mean minimal—it means high impact.

We constantly ask, “Should we spend more on this because it will pay for itself?” That’s lean, scalable infrastructure.

David Wheatley (29:52)
That’s a great way to close out this series. Every decision we make can be measured against our eight elements of TrueSuccess.

If it positively impacts the whole, it’s a good decision. If it prioritizes one thing at the cost of another, it’s probably not.

Those eight elements—from positive impact to lean and scalable—are how we ensure we’re moving in the right direction.

John Barrett (30:36)
And that applies both at the micro level—day-to-day—and at the strategic level.

Our TrueSuccess model is the foundation of our annual goals, strategies, key projects, and accountabilities. It shapes every decision we make.

Mimi Mitrius (31:09)
Great. Well, thank you both. This has been super insightful.

That brings us to the end of this special anniversary series. We hope our conversation on balance and infrastructure gave you useful takeaways.

If you haven’t listened to the other episodes yet, now’s the time—because each of the eight TrueSuccess goals is essential, and together they form the blueprint that’s guided us for 25 years.

John and David, thank you for sharing your insights, wisdom, and TrueSuccess goals with everyone listening.

David Wheatley (31:48)
Thanks, Mimi.

John Barrett (31:49)
My pleasure. Take care. Thanks, Mimi. Bye now.