Truth – A Company Culture Full of Gratitude Passion Freedom and Truth E1
Culture Crush continues to highlight leaders and companies that have a great company culture and Ken Smerz, the CEO of Zelus, was a perfect leader and company to highlight for the relaunch of the show. Zelus has grown dramatically over the first three years but at the core, they stay true to their four tenants; gratitude, passion, freedom, and truth. They strive, through all levels of the organization, to be a family that follows these tenants together. Through the conversation, Ken mentions many other “bites” that he uses to lead the company with including communication, mentorship and being care-frontational.
This podcast is full of many “bites” from the company Zelus on how they have grown and maintained their strong company culture. The listeners will want to listen in to hear the bites that can help their company culture as well This is a great podcast to listen to if you are wondering what great company looks like. This podcast is perfect for company leaders that are looking for new ways to strengthen their own company culture. This is also a great podcast to listen to if you are just passionate about good company culture and how to grow and support your company personally.
Resources: Along with highlighting companies with great culture, Culture Crush also tries to provide other great resources and role models through the conversation as well. This episode will mention some amazing resources and quotes from Marcus Buckingham, Jocko Willink, and Michael Gerber.
ZELUS is a leading provider of as-built documentation, 2D and 3D modeling, Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), and Building Information Modeling (BIM) services in North America.
Utilizing state-of-the-art technology—typically laser scanners—they take the physical world and essentially create a computerized “digital twin” to radically improve the construction/building process. The company was founded on a park bench in Phoenix in 2013 and has become the largest and most experienced firm of its kind in the world.
Today, ZELUS clients include Intel, Amazon, Target, as well as many large architectural firms and construction companies.
Ken Smerz is the CEO of ZELUS.
As CEO, he leads the company’s strategic growth and partnerships, oversees team culture and talent acquisition, and guides national expansion efforts.
Follow ZELUS on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
About Culture Crush
Culture Crush is officially relaunched! We are thankful to Debra Caron who launched and hosted the show originally. Culture Crush is back with a new host but the same focus- highlighting what makes a great company culture and how it affects the overall success of a company. 
Culture is not just a tag word to be thrown around. It is not something you throw in job descriptions to draw people to applying for jobs within a company.
According to Marcus Buckingham and Ashely Goodall in their book Nine Lies About Work, “Culture is the tenants of how we behave. It’s like a family creed. This is how we operate and treat each other in the family.”
On this long form podcast we will highlight companies local to Arizona and beyond that are crushing it with great culture!
We will talk with company leaders to learn about real-life experiences, tips, and best practices for creating a healthy work environment where employees are finding joy and satisfaction in their work while also striving and growing within the company.
About the Host
Kindra Maples is your new host taking the lead on the relaunch of Culture Crush! She is spartan racer, past animal trainer, previous magician’s assistant, and has a weakness for Oreo cookie shakes. Her journey working with people actually started working with animals as a teenager (don’t worry we won’t go that far back for her bio).
She worked for over 15 years in the zoo industry working with animals and the public. Her passion of working with animals shifted into working with people in education, operations and leadership roles. From there her passion of leadership and helping people develop has continued to grow.
Then came the opportunity for relaunching the Culture Crush Podcast and she jumped on it. Leadership, growth, and strong company cultures are all areas that Kindra is interested in diving into further.
Shout Outs
We want to thank a few people for their behind the scenes effort in helping this relaunch to come to life. James Johnson with Tailored Penguin Media Company LLC.– It is a small, but powerful video production company with a goal to deliver the very best by articulating the vision of your brand in a visually creative way. Gordon Murray with Flash PhotoVideo, LLC. -Flash Gordon has been photographing since high school and evolving since then with new products that will equip, encourage, engage, and enable. Renee Blundon with Renee Blundon Design – She is not only one of the best free divers (that’s not how she helped with the podcast) but she is great with graphics design and taking the direction for the vision that you have while also adding creative ideas to bring to your vision to life.
These are just a few of the folks that supported the relaunch of the podcast. If you would like to be part of the Culture Crush team or would like to support underwriting the show- please reach out: culturecrushpodcast@gmail.com
