E47 The Curious Leader with Dave Loomis

Todd Bertsch and Dave Loomis on the BOLT Podcast

In this episode of The BOLT Podcast, Dave Loomis, founder of Loomis Marketing and author of Customer Outsight, shares powerful lessons from conducting over 10,000 customer interviews. Drawing from decades of experience with Fortune 500 companies, Dave explores how curiosity, empathy, and active listening can transform leadership and organizational growth. Together, we unpack what it truly means to lead with outsight—seeing beyond yourself to better understand, connect, and inspire those you serve.

What we discuss in this episode:

Nonlinear career paths shaping service mindset
Value of executive coaching and accountability
Servant leadership as a growth advantage
Customer Outsight and the four Fs framework
How to plan and run open interviews
Finding gemstones and using AI for analysis
Turning insights into clear messaging and offers
Leadership lessons on integrity and initiative

Dave Loomis’s Bio

Dave Loomis is founder and president of Loomis Marketing, which specializes in voice-of-customer research (VOC), providing consulting on branding, leadership, innovation and digital transformation. Dave has particular expertise in the field of customer insights, both qualitative and quantitative, and has personally conducted over 10,000 customer interviews. During his career, Dave has focused on B2B companies, especially in heavy equipment, building materials, construction, chemicals and technology. He has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies, including DuPont, GE, Goodyear, IBM, ITW, Motorola and Xerox. In 2020 he authored the book Marketing is Everything We Do, and from 2021 to 2023 was the co-host of the B2B Marketing & Sales Podcast. He has just published his second book, Customer Outsight, a how-to manual on how to interview customers.

Dave serves on the Board of Advisors of Flowbird.ai, an AI-driven product for technology developers. He is on the forefront of AI use for market research, assuring its use for efficiency gains and value-added tasks while maintaining ethical practices.

Previously, Dave served as Chief Marketing Officer of Dix & Eaton, one of the country’s largest independently owned public relations firms. There, he helped clients craft their brands and helped individuals proactively manage their public reputations, especially in the digital world.

For 15 years, he worked at the holding company office of NACCO Industries, a $3 billion public diversified public company. While there, he advised the subsidiaries on marketing, wrote the company’s annual report and wrote speeches for the CEO, who was the leader of the founding family. During that time, he also taught branding and consumer behavior at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Dave sees a strong link between servant leadership, empathy, and culture, believing that leaders and companies who are able to shift their perspective to focus on truly helping stakeholders succeed will excel themselves as a direct result. Dave has been a student and facilitator for innovation over many years. He was a founding member of the Berkeley Innovation Forum at the University of California, led by best-selling author Henry Chesbrough. He was a member of the Kellogg Innovation Forum at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, as well as a voting member of the Industrial Research Institute. He has been active with the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at Penn State University. He is well versed in the Appreciative Inquiry method and is certified in a number of assessment methodologies, such as Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory (KAI), Barrett Values, and Process Reengineering.

Loomis began his career in Chicago at Leo Burnett, one of the world’s largest ad agencies. He attended Northwestern University as an undergrad and graduate student, obtaining his MBA from Kellogg, consistently rated as the top business school in the world for marketing.

He’s extremely active in his hometown community of Cleveland, OH where he currently serves on the boards of Friends of Breakthrough Schools and Lake View Cemetery. He formerly served on the boards of Cleveland Playhouse, MOCA Cleveland, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, University School Alumni Association, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2017. His travels take him all over the world, but he and his wife, Dori, have a particular love for all parts of the UK. He has two daughters in the fields of landscape architecture and Pilates instruction.