Building Unbreakable Brands

Building Unbreakable Brands Podcast Transcript
Guest: Tobi Flowers, President and CEO of TraCorp

Meghan Lynch: Welcome to Building Unbreakable Brands, the podcast where we talk to business leaders with a generational mindset. I'm Meghan Lynch, an advisor to family businesses and CEO of Six-Point, a brand strategy agency that helps generational brands honor their past while evolving for the future. Today, my guest is Tobi Flowers, the second-generation President and CEO of TraCorp, a full-service learning and development company with a budget-friendly, enterprise-level LMS. Tobi brings a decade of experience in learning and development, specializing in leading software engineering teams and large-scale projects. Welcome, Tobi!

Tobi Flowers: Thank you! I'm so excited to be here.

Meghan Lynch: Let's start with the basics. Can you tell us more about what TraCorp does and who it serves?

Tobi Flowers: Sure! TraCorp is the creator of one of the most budget-friendly, enterprise-ready employee learning platforms, the TraCorp LMS. Why budget-friendly? Because without accurate, effective content, your LMS is just software. That's where our training and performance consultants come in—to support your learning initiatives with the right content. My dad started TraCorp after working for Honeywell as a principal training engineer. He was part of the early movement to bring training online and realized he might as well build something for himself if he was working that hard. That's how TraCorp began.

Meghan Lynch: So you provide both the platform and the support to help enterprises create effective learning content?

Tobi Flowers: Exactly. The platform is the mechanics—how you get the content to people and report on it. My dad envisioned a "set it and forget it" system where everything from job aids to training could be automated and ready to go. But the real power is in the content. We believe no more than 10% of your L&D budget should go to the LMS itself. The rest should go toward creating content that's accurate, effective, and tailored to your organization.

Meghan Lynch: Do people often overlook the importance of content?

Tobi Flowers: Yes. Companies buy huge libraries—30,000 courses or more—but then no one curates them. It's like giving employees a Netflix queue without any guidance. We suggest having each manager select just five key courses that align with values and goals. That small act of curation makes all the difference.

Tobi Flowers: Leaders also need to be better at saving good content and creating triggers to use it at the right time. For example, a great video on difficult conversations should be automatically assigned when someone becomes a new manager.

Meghan Lynch: Let's talk about succession. How did you transition into leadership, and what lessons did you learn?

Tobi Flowers: I started as an intern in high school, editing audio and working across departments. I had managers who weren't my dad, which helped me earn experience and credibility. When my dad started planning retirement at 65, I had already taken on leadership roles and handled operations during his absences. While our succession was somewhat informal, it was effective. We also brought in a facilitator to navigate more difficult conversations.

Tobi Flowers: Looking back, I would've benefited from a more formal plan: earning equity earlier, reviewing financials, and budgeting for my own professional advisors. I'd encourage founders to help their kids build their own advisory teams—not just inherit theirs.

Meghan Lynch: How is your leadership style different from your dad's?

Tobi Flowers: He focused on keeping the business running steadily and conservatively. I'm more growth-oriented. I want to expand, employ more people, and keep operations calm and stable—even in a cyclical industry like training.

Meghan Lynch: And you lead the company with your husband, Christian. How do your styles complement each other?

Tobi Flowers: We align on values—travel, work-life balance, and calm daily life. I'm the risk-taker and visionary. Christian's the realist who asks the tough questions. Together, our plans end up ambitious but grounded.

Tobi Flowers: We've also started couples therapy proactively. It's helped us communicate better and strengthen our relationship as business partners. I highly recommend it—even before problems arise.

Meghan Lynch: You recently rebranded TraCorp. What changed?

Tobi Flowers: We realized we never really had a brand—it was just functional. Christian and I are motorsports fans, and I started to see a parallel between racing and what we do. We help people get further, faster—just like race teams. The new brand honors my dad's legacy (he raced too) and helps us express our identity: performance, speed, precision, and preparation.

Meghan Lynch: Did that balance between future vision and past legacy happen naturally?

Tobi Flowers: Yes. It felt like a natural evolution. Talking to my dad helped me stay grounded in what we've always done well, even as we evolve.

Meghan Lynch: How do you gather and use customer feedback?

Tobi Flowers: We're a professional services firm—we literally can't do our job without client collaboration. Every project is co-created. And with our LMS, we do 8-10 releases a year based entirely on customer requests.

Tobi Flowers: What's fascinating is when a client admin moves to a new company—they apply our platform in creative ways. It's exciting to see how our tool adapts across industries like hospitality and healthcare. Our super users know how to customize the platform extensively, even without our help.

Meghan Lynch: What lessons from racing translate to business?

Tobi Flowers: Racing teams are businesses. You've got a budget, deadlines, and unexpected conditions—like weather. It's all about preparing for plan A, B, and C and doing your best under the day's circumstances.

Meghan Lynch: Tell us about your partnership with Sabra Cook.

Tobi Flowers: We wanted a spokesperson who could explain technical things clearly and authentically. Sabra stood out—she's a scholarship-winning female driver, excellent at communicating, and an underrepresented voice in motorsports. As a female-owned company, it was important to us to support that visibility.

Meghan Lynch: What are you most excited about for TraCorp's future?

Tobi Flowers: Growth. We've been called the "best kept secret"—I want to shed that label and become a bigger player. Online learning is evolving again, especially with AI. We're at the start of a new chapter, just like when my dad began.

Henry Lynch: Hi Tobi! How does TraCorp help people learn?

Tobi Flowers: We focus on what people actually need to know and design training that's targeted and effective.

Henry Lynch: What's your favorite way to learn?

Tobi Flowers: Through real-life examples and stories. I like seeing how others handle situations.

Henry Lynch: Have you ever driven a race car?

Tobi Flowers: Not exactly—I've driven on a racetrack and ridden in race cars, but my dad sold his car before I could race myself.

Henry Lynch: What do you get when two dinosaurs crash their cars? Tyrannosaurus Wrecks!

Tobi Flowers: That's a good one!

Meghan Lynch: Tobi, thank you so much. If people want to connect, where can they find you?

Tobi Flowers: LinkedIn and Instagram. And you can learn more at TraCorp.com.