Episode 314 | The Profit Answer Man I Featuring Chris Hallberg
Hire a Green Beret: Why Veterans Transform Your Business (And How to Build Profit-First Leadership)
When most business owners think about scaling their companies, they focus on marketing funnels, sales tactics, and growth strategies. But according to Chris Hallberg, ranked number 9 on Inc. Magazine’s Top 50 Leadership & Management Experts, they’re solving the wrong problem.
“The biggest mistake almost every business owner makes isn’t about marketing or sales,” Chris explains. “It’s about people. And discipline.”
In a recent conversation with Rocky Lalvani, Chris revealed why hiring the right people and implementing the right systems are what actually separate struggling businesses from thriving ones. More specifically, he shared why veterans, and especially Green Berets, might be the secret weapon your company needs.
The Real Cost of Hiring Wrong
Let’s start with the hard truth: You’re paying for your hiring mistakes. And you might be paying for them ten times over.
Chris tells business owners a provocative statement that usually gets their attention: “You’re not paying for bad hires. You’re already paying for bad hires through turnover, lost opportunity, and broken culture.”
Here’s the math. If you hire a C-player for a $100,000 position, the true cost of that mistake isn’t just their salary. Turnover costs range anywhere from 2 to 10 times the annual salary, depending on the role. Using a conservative 5X multiplier, that single bad hire costs your business $500,000 in lost productivity, training, customer relationships, and culture damage.
Now compare that to hiring an A-player. Yes, they might cost 1.2X to 1.6X more. But here’s what most business owners miss: An A-player can do 2 to 10 times the work of a C-player. Even using the conservative estimate, you’re looking at a massive return on investment.
“Everyone says they can’t afford great people,” Chris explains. “But you’re already affording bad people. The question is whether you’re going to be intentional about it.”
Why Veterans Are Different
This is where Chris’s background as a military veteran and founder of Business Sergeant, a veteran-powered recruiting company, becomes relevant. Veterans bring something that’s rare in the civilian workforce: they’ve been through genuine adversity and come out the other side.
“Only 7 percent of the US population has served in uniform,” Chris points out. “And of that 7 percent, only 3 percent are in special operations. So we’re talking about half of 1 percent of the population. These are people who have been selected, trained, and proven in the most demanding environments on Earth.”
But what makes veterans valuable isn’t just their discipline or their work ethic. It’s something deeper.
The Secret Sauce: Perseverance and Problem Solving
Veterans, especially those from special operations, have been forged in environments where quitting is not an option. They’ve failed repeatedly, picked themselves up, and tried again. They understand what true adversity looks like, which means the typical business challenges that derail most leaders feel manageable by comparison.
“They’re well rehearsed,” Chris explains. “They show up every day as an example for others to follow. They don’t quit. They’re creative. They build relationships and alliances. And where you had bad pockets of culture or low accountability, they just lead by example.”
This isn’t theoretical. Chris has seen Green Berets transform companies from the inside out through what he calls the “halo effect.” When you place one of these exceptional leaders in your organization, it doesn’t just change that person’s output. It changes the people around them.
“We’ve had companies tell us they didn’t think a turnaround was possible,” Chris says. “And within a month, the halo effect from having one person of that caliber shifts the entire culture. Not through yelling or theatrics. Just through calm, collected, resolute problem solving.”
Every Veteran Brings Proven Leadership Experience
Even if you can’t hire a Green Beret, regular veterans bring extraordinary value. Chris was an MP (Military Policeman), which trained him in negotiation, decision making, and managing difficult situations. But every military occupational specialty comes with transferable skills.
“It doesn’t matter what you did in the military,” Chris explains. “Anyone who had three, five, ten, or twenty years of experience has already proven they can operate in complex environments with high stakes. They’ve learned how to manage up and down. They’ve been subjected to both world-class leaders and apocalyptically bad leaders, and they’ve figured out how to survive and thrive in both situations.”
This is a skill that business schools don’t teach. You can’t learn it from a case study. It comes from lived experience.
The Problem With Most Business Structures
Here’s another insight from Chris that most business owners never consider: Your company’s profit problem might not be a revenue problem at all.
“I consistently find the same pattern,” Chris explains. “High revenue, low profit.”
The culprit is usually an organizational structure problem. Most visionary founders and CEOs came from sales and marketing. They’re idea generators. They say yes. They shake hands and kiss babies. They’re the ones bringing in opportunities.
But every company needs a counterbalance: the integrator, the chief operating officer, the number two. This person’s job is to say no. Not to stifle ideas, but to protect the company’s profit margins.
“If you have a yes person in the number two seat, you get high revenue and low profit,” Chris explains. “You say yes to every opportunity that comes through the door. Each one has a good story. But if you say yes to all of them, there won’t be any money left for bonuses, reinvestment, or returning money to stakeholders.”
Rocky Lalvani, who has worked extensively with business owners on this exact issue, agrees. “I like to say no, but usually I say no because the math says no. I don’t even have to say anything. What I do is show them the math. If you do this, you’re only going to make this much money and it’s going to take this much work. And they’re like, that’s not worth it.”
Using Math to Make Better Decisions
This brings us to a crucial point: Most business owners are flying blind. They don’t have clear criteria for making decisions.
Rocky has created what he calls a “go/no-go matrix” and even built a calculator that business owners can use to evaluate opportunities. The formula is simple: Input your assumptions about revenue, time investment, and resources required. Let the math tell you yes or no.
“The key is having realistic expectations,” Rocky explains. “Because I can make the calculator say anything I want. That’s why I’ve always been hesitant to give it to people without training. Because they’ll just make stuff up. You have to know that your numbers are actually true.”
This is where the military discipline comes in again. In the military, they do what’s called an After Action Review (AAR) after every operation. What was supposed to happen? What actually happened? What was the gap? What did we learn?
“This is how you get better at forecasting, quoting, and decision making,” Rocky explains. “You do the math on what you expected. You compare it to what actually happened. You figure out where you were wrong. And then you get better at it.”
Building a Culture of Accountability
Chris emphasizes that accountability isn’t something you do to someone. It’s a natural byproduct of having aligned people in the right seats.
“When you have the right people, people who value what you value and care about what you care about, accountability happens naturally,” he explains. “If you can’t hold someone accountable, that’s a signal that you have the wrong person in that seat.”
Using the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), Chris and his clients create what’s called the “hell yeah, hell no circle.” There’s a center circle that says “hell yeah, let’s do that.” There’s the outer circle that says “hell no, let’s not do that.” And in the middle, there’s a circle with flames on it.
“Too many people are in that middle circle,” Chris warns. “They’re not 100 percent either way. They’re trying to straddle the line. And the road to business failure is paved with squirrels that couldn’t decide.”
The Future of AI and Human Leadership
Interestingly, Chris sees artificial intelligence as a tool that can amplify great leadership, not replace it. He uses AI in his recruiting process and in GoExpand, his EOS software platform, to handle repetitive tasks and provide information quickly.
“AI should be adding 20 IQ points to each of your teammates,” he explains. “That’s it. So if you’ve got people walking around at 110 IQ, now you have near-genius level performance. And if you’ve got people in the 120s and 130s, they’re able to do way more complex things.”
But Chris is clear about the limits. “If you’re going to talk about building relationships or the power of discernment, please don’t put an AI agent in charge of important things. It still makes mistakes. The repetitive tasks? AI is better than humans. They don’t call in sick. They don’t get it wrong. But for relationship building and real judgment calls? That’s still human work.”
The Bottom Line: It All Comes Down to People
After more than a decade of coaching leadership teams and building companies, Chris’s core insight remains unchanged: “Discipline once again. Yes is an opportunity thing. No is a protection thing. Having the right people in the right seats. Having systems and accountability. These are the things that turn struggling businesses into thriving ones.”
If you’re a business owner struggling with low profit despite high revenue, if you have high turnover despite paying competitive wages, or if you feel like you’re constantly putting out fires instead of building systems, the answer might not be more marketing or a better product.
It might be better people. Better systems. Better discipline.
And according to Chris Hallberg, starting with hiring a veteran or a Green Beret might just be the secret weapon you’ve been looking for.
Meet Chris Hallberg
Chris Hallberg—known as the “Business Sergeant”—is a top-ranked leadership expert, military veteran, and serial entrepreneur who transforms good companies into great ones, fast. Ranked #9 on Inc. Magazine’s Top 50 Leadership & Management Experts—ahead of Simon Sinek—Chris blends battlefield-tested leadership with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to deliver proven results.
He scaled and sold a startup during the Great Recession at an 8× multiple, built royalty-generating sales systems, and became Colorado’s first EOS Implementer, guiding 100+ teams to achieve 90%+ employee engagement rates and 100+ Best Places to Work awards. Today, he co-builds a $5M AI-driven EOS platform while coaching billion-dollar contractors, national chains, and franchises with a remarkable 85% success rate.
With his no-nonsense, high-energy style, Chris simplifies strategy, strengthens culture, and shows leaders how to drive 30%+ EBIT on predictable systems—making him a powerhouse guest for any podcast.
Links
Website: https://goexpand.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hallberg-01516315/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/GoExpand/61577326657347/#
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goexpandplatform?igsh=MXV5N2I1Mml0MXF4aw%3D%3D
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoExpand
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Music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast
Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.