fter World War II, villagers on a Pacific island built bamboo replicas of military airstrips — and waited for the planes to come back. They still wait today. Historians call it a "cargo cult": a community so committed to repeating the rituals of success that they completely lose sight of what actually caused that success in the first place.

This episode is about what happens when brands do the same thing.

Using CrossFit as the central case study — and drawing on the timelines of Kodak, Blackberry, and Blockbuster — Chris Cooper maps out exactly how a thriving, innovative brand calcifies into a cult. The signs are predictable. The pattern is consistent. And the result is always the same: the company stops evolving while competitors do the science.

You'll learn the five warning signs that a brand is heading toward cult status, what the "dark ages" look like inside a company, and why the most dangerous thing a business can do is confuse its method with its mission.

This episode ends with the biggest test facing businesses right now: AI. The companies that are already testing, experimenting, and adapting will be the ones still standing. The ones waiting for things to go back to normal are building bamboo control towers.

If you're a Canadian business owner who wants to grow — not just survive — this one's for you.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Every election, politicians promise to create jobs. There's just one problem: governments can't create real, sustainable jobs. Not in a way that adds value to the economy. Not in a way that pays for itself.

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, Chris Cooper breaks down the fundamental difference between governments that create the conditions for businesses to grow — and governments that try to substitute for them.

The right approach looks like clear laws, enforced contracts, solid infrastructure, and sensible protections. When that's done well, businesses grow. They hire. They pay taxes. They fill the pot that funds our hospitals, schools, and roads.

The wrong approach is governments hiring their way to "full employment." Unlike private-sector jobs, these positions produce no goods, serve no paying customers, and generate no revenue. They consume the pot instead of filling it.

Here's what that actually costs. The Parliamentary Budget Office calculated that the average full-time federal government worker costs $125,300 per year in total compensation — salary, pension, paid time off, and benefits included. The average Canadian individual taxpayer pays roughly $24,000 a year in total taxes. That means it takes about five taxpayers' entire annual tax bills just to fund one government position.

Meanwhile, more than one in five Canadian workers now works in government — and nearly half of all net new jobs created since 2019 have been in the public sector. Chris explains why the bureaucracy almost never shrinks, introduces the concept of More's Law, and makes the case for why your business is more important to this country than you might think.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Most companies reward their best people by promoting them out of what they're actually good at. Your top salesperson becomes a sales manager. Your best developer becomes a team lead. And suddenly you're paying them more to do a job they weren't trained for — while they generate fewer results doing the job they were hired for.

There's a better way. And it starts with understanding the difference between a coach and a mentor.

In this episode, Chris Cooper breaks down the two-track system the best companies use to develop their people from the inside. Coaches help employees apply company standards and perform their jobs better — they're an investment in performance. Mentors help employees build careers and see the path forward — they're an investment in retention.

You'll learn how to identify the right people for each role, how to teach them to transfer their skills effectively (because being great at something doesn't automatically make you great at teaching it), and how to run a 3-month test to measure whether your coaching program is generating a real return.

Chris also covers how to connect your coaching program to the tools from last episode's company college — online courses, drip learning, gamification, and AI — so your college and your coaches work together instead of in parallel.

Plus: two concrete examples of executive mentorship programs that reduced turnover, rebuilt leadership pipelines, and freed up CEOs to actually lead.

If your best people are being wasted in the wrong roles — or quietly looking for the door — this episode is for you.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/