Dakota Rainmaker Podcast Be Kind and Win: Gui Costin, Dakota
8 snips
Mar 3, 2026 
Morgan Holycross, co-author of Be Kind and interviewer, guides a candid talk on leadership, culture, and kindness in the workplace. He recounts leadership missteps and a turning point that reshaped his approach. Conversation covers transforming toxic locker-room culture into high-performance teams, balancing playfulness with standards, and the difference between being kind and being nice.
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Founder Epiphany That Changed Company Culture
- Gui Costin recounts early leadership volatility and an 2011 epiphany that success felt empty and prompted a mission to help others get what they want from life.
- He used Dakota as a petri dish to prove a hard-charging, high-performance culture can be run with kindness rather than harshness.
Words From The Top Shape Culture More Than Toughness
- Leaders often default to harshness believing it forces performance, but Gui argues words and tone from the top define culture and results more than intimidation.
- He emphasizes a 'time filter' for speech so leaders don't let whatever pops into their head shape team behavior.
Coach Who Won By Making Practice Play
- Gui tells a Wisconsin coach story who stopped structured drills and just had players play football in practice, winning 462 games as a result.
- The point: making the work fun and aligning practice with the thing people love dramatically improved performance.
