In this episode of The Last 10%, host Dallas Burnett interviews retired Army Colonel Ken Allard, who rose from draftee to dean of the National War College and later became a TV military analyst and author. Allard reflects on celebrating America’s 250th anniversary and shares pivotal moments shaping his life, including being moved by the Declaration of Independence while studying in Edinburgh during the Vietnam era, his induction into the Army, his OCS experience, and a childhood health crisis amid a polio epidemic that he believes ended through answered prayer. He discusses leadership lessons—clarifying the mission and building trust by learning from the lowest levels of an organization—and describes advising senior leaders during major events like the Gulf War. Allard also speaks candidly about fame, divorce, returning to faith, and his upcoming book, God Kept His Promises, which is centered on his wife, Betsy, ahead of its August release.

Host Dallas Burnett thanks listeners as The Last 10% nears 100 episodes and then announces major behind-the-scenes projects. He shares the rollout of Perforam and plans to combine it with the 1on1's Coaching System into a performance management suite focused on team growth. Dallas also reveals that his team acquired a failing publishing company on July 1, 2025, and has spent 11.5 months rebuilding it, tackling antiquated systems, excessive costs, fragmented accounting, overstaffing, poor collections (including $6.4M in bad debt), and a defeated remote culture. He introduces authorservices.com as the new home for revamped imprints, outlines a story shift toward quality, ethical AI use, and stronger marketing, and describes building a custom ERP, new products, a hybrid publishing partnership launching in the fall, and upcoming tools, including an author publishing app, event app, and marketing education for authors.

If you have been interested in publishing a book or marketing a book you've published, check out www.AuthorServices.com!

Host Dallas Burnett interviews Brian Fielkow, a business leader, author, and safety culture expert, about his path from learning retail and marketing in his family’s Wisconsin stores to corporate law, operations leadership in recycling, and ultimately buying and growing a trucking and logistics company by de-commoditizing through people, equipment, and technology. Fielkow shares lessons on managing risk, building culture through values plus systems and process, and making safety a core value that drives operational excellence, profitability, retention, and customer loyalty, including a pivotal driver committee that gave frontline employees real voice. He outlines his upcoming book, Making Safety Happen, covering mindset shifts beyond compliance, leadership’s role, employee engagement, actionable process, shared accountability, and organizational resilience by learning from near misses and “predictable surprises.”

Connect with Brian = https://brianfielkow.com/