https://johnmurrow.com/blog Writing on leadership, the OOH industry, the veteran transition, entrepreneurship, turnaround and growth, and faith. en-us Wed, 06 May 2026 16:53:01 GMT https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-letter-i-wrote-to-my-younger-self https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-letter-i-wrote-to-my-younger-self Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Faith and Character Forty seven years and a few hard chapters later, this is what I would tell the kid who walked into Pararescue selection in 1979. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-leadership-looks-like-when-the-quarter-is-not-going-to-make https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-leadership-looks-like-when-the-quarter-is-not-going-to-make Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Turnaround and Growth The miss is when leaders show their real character. Here is the playbook. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-board-conversation-i-was-most-afraid-to-have https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-board-conversation-i-was-most-afraid-to-have Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Leadership On telling the truth in front of the people who can fire you. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-tell-private-equity-when-they-ask-about-our-people https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-tell-private-equity-when-they-ask-about-our-people Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Turnaround and Growth Capital allocators ask the wrong questions about teams. Here is what they should be asking. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-quiet-discipline-of-tithing-as-a-business-leader https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-quiet-discipline-of-tithing-as-a-business-leader Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Faith and Character Why I have given a meaningful share of every year for decades, even in years that were tight. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-leader-who-builds-the-org-she-needs-in-three-years https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-leader-who-builds-the-org-she-needs-in-three-years Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Leadership Stop hiring for the org you have. Start hiring for the org you will need in 36 months. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-the-out-of-home-industry-still-gets-wrong-about-its-customers https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-the-out-of-home-industry-still-gets-wrong-about-its-customers Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT OOH Industry After 20 years of selling OOH, here is the customer truth most operators still ignore. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/you-do-not-fix-a-broken-team-by-firing-the-bottom-ten-percent https://johnmurrow.com/blog/you-do-not-fix-a-broken-team-by-firing-the-bottom-ten-percent Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Turnaround and Growth Performance management theater does not save companies. Honest leadership does. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-acquisition-checklist-i-wish-i-had-read-in-2020 https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-acquisition-checklist-i-wish-i-had-read-in-2020 Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT OOH Industry Five years and 46 deals later, here is the practical, unromantic list I would hand my 2020 self. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-tell-veterans-who-are-leaving-the-military-and-going-into-business https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-tell-veterans-who-are-leaving-the-military-and-going-into-business Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Veteran The translation problem is real. Here is how I would frame the move from a uniform to a boardroom. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-thirty-day-test-every-ceo-should-run-on-themselves https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-thirty-day-test-every-ceo-should-run-on-themselves Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Leadership If your business cannot run for 30 days without you, you do not have a business. You have a job. Here is how to fix that. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-day-i-realized-i-was-not-okay https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-day-i-realized-i-was-not-okay Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Veteran I carried PTSD and TBI for 36 years before I knew what they were. Here is what changed in 2024. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-the-46-acquisitions-actually-cost-our-team https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-the-46-acquisitions-actually-cost-our-team Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Turnaround and Growth Roll up math looks clean on a deck. The human cost shows up in the white space between the slides. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/we-do-not-need-a-keynote-speaker-we-need-someone-who-has-done-the-work https://johnmurrow.com/blog/we-do-not-need-a-keynote-speaker-we-need-someone-who-has-done-the-work Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Leadership The professional speaker industry has an honesty problem. Here is what to look for instead. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-quietest-hour-i-ever-spent-was-the-one-i-spent-in-prayer https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-quietest-hour-i-ever-spent-was-the-one-i-spent-in-prayer Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Faith and Character Faith is not a feature of my brand. It is the floor my brand stands on. Here is what that actually looks like. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/right-people-right-seats-and-the-myth-of-the-perfect-hire https://johnmurrow.com/blog/right-people-right-seats-and-the-myth-of-the-perfect-hire Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Leadership Stop hunting for unicorns. Build a team that reliably wins on Tuesday. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-cost-of-building-something-from-nothing https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-cost-of-building-something-from-nothing Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Entrepreneurship There is a real bill that comes due when you start a company in your fifties. Pay it on purpose, not by accident. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-learned-from-46-acquisitions-in-five-years https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-i-learned-from-46-acquisitions-in-five-years Wed, 06 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Entrepreneurship Roll up math is not the hard part. Integration is. Here are the lessons I would write down for the next operator. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-ooh-industry-in-2026-and-where-it-is-going-next https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-ooh-industry-in-2026-and-where-it-is-going-next Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT OOH Industry A 20 year operator's read on consolidation, digital transformation, and the next decade for independent operators. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/buying-the-billboard-business-nobody-wanted https://johnmurrow.com/blog/buying-the-billboard-business-nobody-wanted Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT OOH Industry How a fragmented, unloved corner of OOH became a top ten platform, one cash deal at a time. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-trailhead-model-was-simple-the-execution-was-not https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-trailhead-model-was-simple-the-execution-was-not Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT Entrepreneurship Strategy decks are easy. Closing 46 deals while not breaking the operation is hard. Here is the gap nobody talks about. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-pararescue-taught-me-about-business https://johnmurrow.com/blog/what-pararescue-taught-me-about-business Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT Veteran Special operations training is not a leadership cliche. It is a set of habits I still use every Monday at 7 a.m. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-real-secret-was-never-the-model https://johnmurrow.com/blog/the-real-secret-was-never-the-model Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Entrepreneurship We tell the Trailhead story as 46 acquisitions in 5 years. The truer story is 46 decisions about who we hired and who we kept. https://johnmurrow.com/blog/leadership-is-a-responsibility-not-a-title https://johnmurrow.com/blog/leadership-is-a-responsibility-not-a-title Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Leadership Pararescue did not give me a title. It gave me people I was responsible for. That changed everything about how I lead.