Hey, this is Corey. Before we start today's podcast, I want to ask you a quick question. Is your life as fulfilling as you thought it would be? I don't know what area of your life that you feel you're falling short. I know I have different areas of my life at different times. Maybe you want to reignite the passion with your spouse. Maybe you want to be able to walk into a room with confidence. Maybe you're trying to achieve some different health goals or trying to be more patient with your kids. I don't know what it is, but what I do know is from coaching one-on-one executives for the last few years, I find myself repeating the same thing over and over. And the reason being is because we are not alone, we're all battling some of these same situations.
So my encouragement to you is join this challenge that I'm launching here in a few weeks where I'm taking a lot of this content that I use with leaders and put it in videos as well as group calls that we can grow through this together. The challenge is called the confident, consistent leader. It will be a challenge over a 30 day period to help you grow head over to my website@corymcarlson.com/leadership to learn more. On to today's episode. Thank you.
Welcome to the win at home first podcast. I'm your host, Cory Carlson. This podcast is where we talk about how successful business leaders win, not only at work, but also at home. On this podcast, we will go behind the scenes with great leaders to hear stories of how they win. Thank you for listening and on to today's episode.
(01:36): Hello, today's podcast with Joe Boyd is a good one because he's very transparent, very vulnerable shares battles with depression that he's had. And I think the things that he shares will help all of us because I know myself, I can ask him the emotional roller coasters and I know clients and friends do as well. He talks about his career and the different steps he's taken. And there's a lot to learn from that. He's been a comedian, he's a pastor, and currently now CEO of rebel Pilgrim, as well as Leadercast. And then at the end of the podcast, we're talking about leading at home from spontaneous for schedule the pros and cons. He also shares his faith journey where he's doubted his faith or his relationship with the church and what that looked like. Awesome episode ton to learn from. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did it on to today's episode.
(02:30): Hello, this is Corey. You're listening to the win at home. First podcast. Today is a fun guest to talk with Joe Boyd who has a very diverse career. Maybe one of the more diverse careers I've ever been, had a chance to talk to somebody from doing comedy in Vegas, to being a pastor, to being CEO now of rebel Pilgrim, as well as you're a few months ago, became CEO of Leadercast. He's also married as two boys who are grown and transition out of the house. And so just a lot of wisdom, Joe, I'm excited to be talking to you today, so thank you very much. Yeah.
(03:05): Thanks for having me. Let's do it
(03:08): Right. Well, what is that key trait to win at work and went home that you found in your life? Yeah,
(03:14): I mean the first thing that comes to mind I guess, is empathy and how that's connected to trust. But, you know, as a, at home, my wife and I got married, we were super young. I was 21, she was 20. We didn't even know how to be adults yet, let alone be married. So, and we we've had compared to others or relatively easy relationship, you know, but early on just little things where we were both sort of selfish and we're, we're thinking of ourselves first and you learn pretty quickly. I think if you want to be in a long-term relationship with someone, part of the secret is putting yourself in their shoes and imagining how they might receive something kind of leading with that whenever you can. And that certainly carried over to how I think about career and work. And I think when I think that's something that builds trust when people see that you're that you take the time to think about them before you think about yourself.
(04:07): Sometimes I know I tend to trust people that I know are doing that with me. So, and that was a, that's kind of the first thing that came to mind. I feel like I can get along with almost anyone, except sometimes I have problems getting along with people that have no empathy, because I feel like it's, and I probably learned it from my faith. I'm sure, but it's, it's grace, right? It's just being able to realize that nobody's got this all together and if you the closer you get to someone that mathematically, you're just going to be with them on more of their bad days, if you live with them or work with them. So those should be expected. And then responding, realizing that whatever's going on. It's probably not about me, it's about that person and how can I help them through this or run away for a couple of days and come back or whatever it is you've got to do. Right. How do you ground
(04:52): Yourself to be in that empathetic position? I mean, you're currently CEO of two, two companies that's a lot. And so some days you're probably just like, Hey, I got a lot more going on than you, whether it's your spouse or it's your employees or it's your two boys. So how do you find that the best way for you to kind of ground yourself and kind of recap?
(05:14): Yeah. I mean, I think that there's a, there's like a big overarching reality. I think I've just, I might be inclined to it more, I've done a ton of like Enneagram work and talk about that on here. And I thought it was Instagram for, for like 14 years. You're very creative.
(05:28): You are the originalist. Right,
(05:30): For sure. And and you know, I I'd have struggled with depression as well, and that's typically kind of married with that personality type, the sadness of that type. And I learned, I learned the Enneagram and this is a very four thing to say, even though I'm not one before anyone else had heard of it, like whenever a Richard wars book came out about it, I, I picked it up, which was like in 98 or 99 or something. So kind of frustrating now that this popular, but yeah, I did all that work. And then, then I got into it even a little more and, and realize, I think my home type is more of a seven and with a self preservation subtype. And I know I'm sorry, this isn't an Enneagram podcast, but what that all taught me is I, I, you know, at my core, I think I do avoid conflict.
(06:16): Even though I have a dark part of my soul and personality with my depression, I am optimistic and I tend to think things will get better. I'm a little bit of a gambler in that I like to take a chance believing something good will happen. And I think that where that has served me with people is when I meet someone new or, or even people I've been around with a long time, I, I have a lot of hope that they could change that our relationship to get better. That, that we're just a day away from when things are going to start to click, you know, and for most, and most of that's just kind of rooted in that I've seen it happen. I've seen people grow and change and or if it's something in me I can grow out of it or you become more mature.
(06:56): So I think kind of going through with a little bit of life with a little bit of optimism and deep, deep belief that people matter more than anything else, it gives me sort of the, that I walk into a room believing that. And I think that's really helpful, especially on the business side and not that you would ask, but the negative part of that is the seven can start to use people as currency. And so if you're not careful, you can start to see your relationships as ways to get what you want, find yourself sort of accidentally and authentically making friends with people to kind of get what you want. But I would say there's that. And then the other part of your questions is what do, what do I do to prepare? And, and that's a little bit all over the place, but it really does kind of come back to the things that helped me stay mentally healthy and balanced.
(07:37): And I've always called it. Long-Term tired. I, I generally like sleep pretty well. I usually get in an hours of sleep at night. I don't wear myself out like so many other folks do in the business world. I just don't typically think it's worth it, but I do get long-term tired. And that's where I just feel like even though maybe I'm resting or even if I'm exercising or eating well, if I haven't had an actual break for months, then I start to become a worst version of myself. So part of it for me has been, and I never really quite mastered the idea of a weekly Sabbath, but every few months to take a week, if I can. And even if I can't take a break from everything to try to take some time away and I tend to come back always a little better, a little more patient with people. So just kind of watching when I'm feeling that sort of long-term weariness and, and making a shift in my schedule.
(08:31): There's a lot, a lot of good things there that I can relate to. I know a lot of listeners do can just from the standpoint, the people that I know, listen, who I hear from on the Instagram standpoint, sit in that number seven, they're the visionaries. They want to avoid conflict. Like you said, they run from pain. There's also a lot of threes, which are the three. So it's it. They also will trade relationships for results in that currency pieces you've mentioned. And so you find some of those high competency, people that are listening to this and providing feedback, and maybe some of them want to raise their hands saying, yes, I would sign up for, I get depressed a lot. But what I do know is that a lot of people get the negative mindsets and they'll probably put it in that bucket before they go all the way into that depression piece. Joe, what are you doing when you find yours, the daily routine that helps you find the hope that helps you. If you find yourself going down that depression kind of path, what are the things you're doing to help you elevate you talk about from a long-term standpoint every few months on that vacation, what is the daily rhythm look like for you? You know,
(09:33): I, I think there's, there's a couple of things, but ultimately it's gonna come down to breaking a cycle. So this also probably isn't necessarily a mental health podcast, but do have anxiety as well. I have the general anxiety disorder and depression that I've treated one way or another, my whole life. And for the last 15 years with the help of some shrinks and medical professionals and trying to figure it all out and it's, it's manageable for me. And it's a little bit runs in my family. And I've seen folks that have a much darker demons than me to face, but it's real with me. And the main thing I've learned is that I get in, I get in destructive cycles in my brain, in my head. And that's where both anxiety and depression for me, stem from the anxiety cycle is, is sort of like thinking of myself in circles that something's wrong or that something's about to go wrong or that no matter what I do, nothing's going to work and kind of getting in that cycle.
(10:28): Usually, you know, if it's a stressful time with business or money or whatever, the depression cycle is similar, but it's more just like, it's the past more right? I've done everything I've done is wrong. It's like I should be in a better place by now. I've wasted years of my life. Like those sorts of like, yeah, yeah, but they're both the same. And I think it's training yourself that there's things you can do to get out of those cycles. And so sometimes I can just breathe and meditate or sit or pray or whatever and, and it eases. And then that, that doesn't always work. And then I have friends that I can call and text and relationships in my life that I can be sort of honest with. And sometimes it'll be hard to make that call, even though I know those people want me to call, so it might take a couple days, but, and it's for me, like I have moved around a lot in my life and I have, I've always been blessed with a ton of friends and, but I have, I'm an only child and I have very few friends that go back to childhood.
(11:25): So one of my very best friends happens to be a therapist. And I've known him since I was 13 and we were college roommates. And so he gets a call once in a while, I guess, I guess some pre-work there. He, he doesn't, it's not really therapy, but he's just being a good friend. But I found for me, it routes me in someone who's known every sort of version of me and every, every step along the way. And that that helps. And then often it can be, you know, my wife, Debbie too, my wife it depends on kind of what's going on, but she can just be the one. And just being with her for a few hours and saying, I had a bad day. Let's, let's go out to dinner tonight or whatever, but finding that way to break, break the cycles.
(12:03): And it's different for everyone I can go on and on. But for awhile it was like reading the right book or listen to certain music. It can be very simple, but the biggest thing is being, self-aware like, I'm in a weird, like destructive, inner dialogue right now that is not helping. Even if my worst things I'm obsessing about are true. The worst thing that could be do is just sit here and worry about it. You know, it's like, it's not helpful at all. So convincing myself of that and then finding a pathway out. And as soon as the cycle breaks, it loses its power. It's like a, it's like water going down a drain. As soon as you plug the drain, it doesn't, it stops. And so it's, but when it's open, it just feels like it's going to keep going. And I
(12:43): Love that phrase of breaking the cycle because as I will talk with, I mean, as I get clients, or even in my own life is you're, you're doing something, you kind of keep doing the same thing, you know, you get, and you don't break the cycle, you don't get up and go try something new. And so just to hear you talk, and I agree there's all kinds of different methods that could help, but to actually do some take initiative, to try something new, to, to break the cycle, even if it's, you know, as simple as driving a different way to and from work or listening to music or whatever, it could be something just to get out of a little bit. And one
(13:23): Of the things I have learned is that the reason you have those cycles is because at some level you like, like it works for you. So I think accepting the fact that there are ways which anxiety serves me and depression sort of served me and had to be willing to take the risk, to lose that. It's a, I always think of the story that in the great divorce is CS Lewis has a demon on his shoulder and the guy is always like harping Adam. And I resonated very much with that story and that the man felt like he would die if the demon was taken off his shoulder. And in reality, what happened was that the man was transformed and the demon was transformed into something good. So I think of that mental image a lot is there's, there's some safety and security and normalcy and like staying the way you are, even if it's sort of destroying you. So if it were just obvious that it was bad, everyone would just break the cycle constantly. Right. There's something in it that's serving you. And so that's the lifelong work I've tried to do is what, what is it about that, that I can sort of find a way to redeem or get past?
(14:27): Is that idea that the known is comfortable. Yeah.
(14:30): Yeah. You feel like you're in control if you're not. Yeah.
(14:34): And so how has, I mean, COVID and quarantine and just all of that. How has that affected you over this last year, year and a half? You know,
(14:43): Emotionally it's been generally pretty. Okay. I am an introvert as well, so first six weeks were great. Sure. I can sit in my house. Sure. But I'm a little bit of an experienced junkie too. So I miss being able to do things and it career-wise for rebel Pilgrim. My company, it was, it was hit pretty hard early on. We had to make some really hard decisions, ended up rebounding pretty quickly, but there was a couple of scary months there. My wife's a travel agent and had built a really successful business or eight or nine years. And then it just all went away overnight. So she spent about six months to cancel. I think she canceled over 70 trips and that's obviously really hard to do when you're commission-based and you're not making anything to do all that work. And so it was a little bit of a wake up call for both of us.
(15:32): And that, you know, when we met, I thought it was going to be a pastor my whole life. And she thought she was marrying someone who was going to do that. And we went through a bunch of career changes, but, and we are certainly not the wealthiest people in the world, but I, I think we thought we were going to be poor our whole lives. So, you know, we were both making okay money for the last couple of years. And, and I think the pandemic scared us straight a little bit on some of that stuff. And just like this could all go away instantly and helped us kind of make some lifestyle changes to help make sure we're being a little more conservative with spending and all that kind of stuff. And so I think it ended up positively redirecting our lives in many ways, even though it was negative circumstances that caused it.
(16:14): But there are things about both companies that I lead with, which would never have happened without that, that crisis. And some like conversations about where we want to go long-term and all that kind of stuff that we probably would've had at some point, but we were kind of, kind of numb to our normal reality. So I think five, four or five years from now, we'll look back on the COVID season and say it was really hard for a ton of people, but for us actually, it helped calibrate and helped us focus on things that we weren't really paying attention to. I mean,
(16:43): Back to earlier, our conversation COVID broke the cycle. I mean, it broke the cycle of some bad habits that we all had. We didn't know they were bad or whatever, but they may have been more materialistic or more focused on some, you know, there's a verse that kind of shook me early on and made use that word because it's in the verse, but it came to mind and Hebrews where it says that God will allow shaking so that the unshakeable will remain and similar to you, Joe, there were things that I was kind of, you know, leaning into a busy schedule and finding my identity, maybe a busy schedule or the approval of others, or maybe money related and all that to get shaken into losing revenue in an empty calendar, kind of woke up to even our own family and reestablishing our roots in what really was important, even from a company standpoint. So absolutely can relate to that piece.
(17:42): Thank you very much for listening to today's episode. I hope you are joining so far before we go back to the rest of episode. I want to share with you my book when at home first, some of you have read it. So thank you very much for others of you. You have not. And I encourage if you're looking for a resource to help you with these times of your work is now in your home and your home is now in your work and what this looks like. This book is being helpful to many leaders like you whores magazine said it was one of seven books. Everyone on your team should read in the book is broken up into four different sections to help you versus about you understand who you are. The second is marriage in ideas and tips to help with your marriage. Third is parenting and the last is work. So these four different sections to help you recalibrate during this time and to help move forward. So if you are needing additional resource, I encourage you to check out my book went home first. It is available on Amazon as well as audible and so on to the rest of the episode. Thank you very much.
(18:50): Being a pastor at one point in your career. And then you switched into the rebel Pilgrim. You've made some Christian movies along the way, and, and now the Leadercast, I mean, a lot of just cool, diverse things. How Joe, have you decided to change careers or what was the prompting that caused you to do that? Because I'll work with individuals, even my own self I've made some career changes, but what has that looked like in your life when you got that itch to go? And how did you discern when was the right time?
(19:22): Oh man. It's Y I definitely had a cycle. I was switching jobs or careers every three years throughout my entire life until 10 years ago, sometimes in the same place, same organization, but I love the beginnings of things. I love starting things. This is very Enneagram Neil, but like, and I think I'm pretty good starting things. I'm pretty good at getting things to a place where they can move on, but I was terrible at finishing things. And it took me a while to figure that out about myself and what that meant was every three years I would, I would, I would take something and get it better, but I couldn't get it to where it needed to be. So go do something else. And I think a lot of it didn't feel like career changes. It just felt like the next thing to do for me early on in my life and the storytelling component of everything I did was always woven in and out of it.
(20:11): And then I grew up in the church and I always thought I would be a preacher basically, and had all the right sort of gifts to do that. And so it was pretty good at speaking. And, but the other parts of church pastoring, I, I wasn't necessarily as, as equipped for. And I think there's an expectation that if, if you happen to be the best communicator on a church staff, you tend to be put in charge and you tend to be, you know, even though we can talk about it and say, oh, he's make jokes about him not being the shepherding pastor type or whatever the reality is that there's still a lot of people that, that wanted that. And probably I wanted to walk to, and I had some theological things early on in my life that you know, you're by the, by the grace of God, you're born into whatever you're born into.
(21:01): And I grew up in a specific evangelical tradition that I'm thankful for and gave me so much good in my life. But as I started thinking for myself, I realized that probably not exactly the tradition I would choose and walking through what kind of Christian man am I, and what do I really believe? And am I really even a Christian? Do I believe in God? You know, these are all very normal questions to ask for me. I was asking them as a senior pastor. So it was my first go round in my twenties as a pastor was, I didn't feel comfortable to ask the questions I needed to ask. And that's a large part of what led to my depression. And so
(21:39): I know you're living a lie at my worst.
(21:42): Yeah. But also even if I felt that I saw all the good that was happening and that I happened to also be very good at it, it would be easy if I was bad at it, but good things were happening. And I was in Vegas and the relationships were being restored and people were getting better. And I couldn't argue with the results of what was happening except that I just didn't wasn't. I just wasn't sure what I believed, but I was teaching people what I was taught to believe, and it seemed to be working. So it was, it was just never having the time to really reflect. And, you know, I'm paying a seven as well as it's in that thinking triad. So I'm pretty driven by my brain where other people were more driven by their gut or their heart. And we will actually think through everything. And the more I thought through my faith, the more confused I got. So ultimately my first big career change was leaving ministry to do comedy, which of course on its surface sounds like a fun, weird jump, but it just happened to be the only other thing I was doing that I could make money
(22:45): And still in front of people because there's
(22:47): Similarities. Sure. Yeah. And it was my hobby. I was doing improv with the second city and was, it was similar to preaching in that I S I had to go through a lot of training. I wasn't great early on, but I also just sort of got it. I kinda, you know, with preaching, I was just like, I just kinda want to do it. You know, I can get better, but I know how to do it. And improv felt that way to me, to so into the ad from overnight, just went to being a preacher, to working at the Rio casino, doing six nights a week, doing shows comedy shows, and then under setting for the second city show. And the
(23:17): Second city is no joke either. So
(23:23): I'm proud of it. It was legit. And then, so that kind of a, some probably we'll call it straight acting. So that, that kind of led into actual, real acting roles and living in Vegas and auditioning in LA. So it's like a three, four hour drive. So everyday doing auditions for commercials and soap, operas, and sitcoms and all that kind of stuff, and started building a little career out of the state dork in Vegas, and then screenwork and LA and, and, you know, so that just sort of felt like, oh, at that point in my life, I was like, oh, I was supposed to be a preacher. I ended up falling into like acting in a comedy and I wasn't getting rich either way. And I'm enjoying this thing a lot more, less existential sort of angst and being funny than trying to save the world.
(24:01): So that felt good and gave me time to actually deal with my faith and think about what I believe and become the sort of Christian I wanted to be. I couldn't have done that with a church job. I don't think ultimately end up moving to LA to pursue that and started writing a movie, an improvised movie to produce so that I could sort of showcase my own acting ability really. And then the middle of all that got got a call from the vineyard church here in Cincinnati, looking for a teaching pastor. And they were, you know, there I'd never been a part of the new church, so I don't know why I've just told them things. That was, that was new to my tradition. It was like, God, God told us, you're the man. I'm like, I don't know.
(24:37): You might want to tell me too, let's see. I don't know how this works, but you know, feeling like we wanted to give church work. Another try and again, the story nights, since to me, I'm always trying to like, I'm a storyteller. So I'm like, yeah, of course, like, you're trying to be a pastor. You go off, you sort of like struggle with it. Kind of, you know, maybe you fail a little bit, you end up in this crazy journey in Vegas and LA for five or six, cheers doing some fun stuff. And then of course, God's going to call you back to the city you started in. And Cincinnati is just all felt perfect, right? You're going to end up a mega church, senior pastor, like you were always supposed to be and came back. And it was a great, it really was a great environment for me to sort of heal in from some of my church baggage. But about three years in England, I had all the same sort of angst around it. So it became the depression started to come back and had the opportunity to step into bigger leadership position there. And ultimately just realized, I think now I know for sure that I'm best for the church and the church is best for me when it's not paying me. And that I'm glad I had that separate run to kind of really for sure figure that out.
(25:38): So it wasn't a necessary thing. It's just more of a call in like elsewhere. Yeah.
(25:43): I think it was a little bit of both still, you know, I was still managing through some, I guess maybe it was about getting in a place to, to not want to fight with anyone over any differences I might hold. And almost anyone in any church is allowed to dissent except the senior pastor. So it was like, yeah. And honestly, I was a teaching pastor. So if I had a couple of years that were a little different, it was fine. But the, the idea of when Dave worked in decided to move on the idea of, of me maybe being a senior pastor there, I was like, I don't, it doesn't feel right without that covering to sort of be the other one, you know, the you're allowed to be the contrary and they sort of pay you to do that. It's always fun to have someone around them.
(26:22): It's a little weird and believes a little bit when that person's in charge. It's just, I don't know the answer is, it was about, it still was about 20% theological, but it was 80% emotional capacity. And just knowing, I just wasn't. Yeah. Ultimately in good Christian language, I wasn't called to it. I wasn't supposed to do it. It was hard at the time because I, again, I was it pretty well, so it's hard to quit things that you're doing well, but yeah, that's all launched, launched the company rebel Pilgrim out of the creative team of the vineyard that they had done like 27 church plants. And they agreed to kind of see us as like a business plan. So they planted us to, and at first we did make several feature films, kind of faith based or faith friendly films. And that ultimately led to a career and helping organizations and companies tell better stories and, and doing a lot of sort of corporate media and video work. So we're celebrating nine years. Wow. And the good thing is, although my job has shifted here and there, I haven't felt the urge to leave in the last nine years. So that three-year cycle was definitely broken in part at this level. I think,
(27:27): No, Jody, I appreciate about that story. And thanks for the honesty. There is, I mean, what I can relate to, and, but I know others can relate to is just, we don't have all the answers, whether it's in our fate journey or it's even our career journey or what are we supposed to do and you know, talking to prospects or clients all the time, or it's like, I think there's more, I don't know what to do. It's like, don't beat yourself up. You don't have to have the answer today. And so I think there's so many people that feel this sense of defeat since they don't have all the answers to their career, they aren't in their ideal job yet. And they, you know, life is not where they thought it would be. And it's this Western American story that we are believe it. We have to have all of our T's crossed. I's dotted perfectly. And if not, well, we missed the boat. We must have not been paying attention to something. And so to hear your story and just, you know, kind of, as you navigate through it, all, that was helpful. And now you got a new assignment as well with Leadercast. Yeah.
(28:30): So a leader cast had been a client of rebel Pilgrim for the last seven or eight years. And had always been one of my favorite clients because I believed in their mission fully, which is to fill the world with leaders worth following and believing that if you know, pretty much, we're all leading someone. And if we can all lead a little better, then it's going to improve lives across the board. It was always fun to do their videos cause they'd have some well known people come in and get to interview them. We always look forward to going to the conferences and interviewing folks for him, became friends with the owner over the last couple of years. And, you know, just sort of like almost some friendly consulting back and forth. And that led to a, of course COVID hit them really hard. And they found themselves in a position without a CEO and having laid some folks off last year and asked if I'd be interested in stepping in to kind of help right.
(29:21): The ship and figure out where it was going. And that quickly led to a discussion of if I'd be interested in, in becoming the CEO. And so I had sort of two things I had to, I wanted to do it because I want to do everything of course. Right, right. Yeah. You want to do it all? So I was like, well obviously my instinct is, of course, yes, I want to do this, but is it the right thing to do? And we had to figure out, I knew I wasn't done here at rebel Pilgrim and I still had more to do, but my day to day responsibilities were changing a bit and did the work to kind of figure out, okay, can some of the stuff I'm doing in the day-to-day here be done by others. And it turns out it can, and it's actually going way better.
(29:58): And I should have done a long time ago giving up some of the things that I let other people do. And you know, I'm still here, but not in the day-to-day. I was, that was an important part. And then the other part, which I'm probably most proud of is realizing I'm actually not as I sit here right now, I don't think I have the skillset to do this. I don't, I think I have half of it. And the half that I have is so queued up and ready for this, I'm going to kill it. Right. Like I was 47, just turned 48. I was like, this is that they talk about when you get to be like, sort of old, but not old yet. Like I'm ready to go learn all this stuff. I still have enough energy to pull it off. I'm like, but there's part of this business.
(30:35): I just, I can't do on like, and it was a lot of the, sort of, as it came to sort of the actual sales of the product and developing that and kind of, even to the point of developing a true solid business plan to get us where we want to go. Cause I'm still, she will, I made it through life without having to write many business plans, even though I've started businesses. But I'm like, I know this needs some of that almost classic MBA kind of stuff that I still feel like I have. And, and my friend Kelly Coker, who had been helping us a little bit with a leader cast on the side had just left a position at a big event company called informa. And so I went to her and said, Hey, like I really want to do this.
(31:17): And she's she was involved in the project already. I was like can we do this together? Cause if we, if you want to do two, then I'm in. And for some reason she said, yes. So it's been great. And she took a president title and I took the CEO title and kind of divided up some of the leadership roles there. So that my focus is on the product, which is the, the event itself, the video, the making sure it's as great as it can be. And then also sort of growth and, and connecting Leadercast is a great brand and figuring out how to take the momentum that leader cast has and what it is and tie it into some other brands and companies and leverage some big partnerships in a way that hadn't been done before. And so, as I lead the business, those are the main things I'm focused on. And then she's able to focus on a little more of the operational and sales.
(32:07): Give a quick plug on the event itself. I would
(32:10): Love to it's the way leader cast works is it's. It happens it's a one day. It's the biggest one day leadership event in the world. When you count up everybody who watches it, it's been in Atlanta for 19 years, but it's moving to Cincinnati, August 11th. And it's, it's an all day event from nine to four 30, there's 12 different leadership speakers all around as different theme. The theme this year is shift. And just looking at, through everything we've been through, we're all in different places we thought we would be. How, how have we shifted philosophy? Our lives, our hearts, our team, our business, to prepare for what's next guy, Roz will be speaking. One of my favorites from has an MBR podcast called how I built this in a book called how I built this rain. Wilson. We'll be talking, ring us from the office.
(32:56): Who's famous as Dwight Schrute, but launched to soul pancake. We talked a little bit about that shift in his life. You probably know our good friend, Todd Henry is speaking and Chuck Mingo and Denny Tato. I got to kind of pack with some of our Cincinnati folks in there and hall, NFL hall of Famer. Chris, Carter's going to talk a little bit about his addiction and shifting through that speaker speakers, very excited about all of them. And then most people though, however, see watch leader cast at a host site. So we have it live. And then it's simulcasts to hundreds of sites around the world where people can watch it that day. And then some of the sites choose to show at anytime over the next year. So they have up to a year to broadcast it basically. So, so it was all happening.
(33:36): Premiering is the word I use premiering August 11th. There'll be folks watching it throughout the year. And then in 2022, the goal is to go back to two. So we'll have one in may and one in October and two each year, people get to connect in with what's going on about half the sites are private companies. So like NASA and apple and places like that will buy a license or two and show it to their, some of their employees. And then some of the products, some of the places are public where they will license the content and sell tickets to their community to come with.
(34:07): Oh, that's exciting. Well, congratulations on getting the role and excited to see what happens and as well as August 11th. So very neat. Before we end the podcast, a couple of questions I wanted to really just talk to you about and dive a little deeper and really how you led with faith at home, being a baster, having two boys, you know, now older and 19 and early twenties. And so how did, how was that when you were raising them and leading with faith? Because that's the part that I think we all want to learn how to do because there's kids that roll their eyes at us and dad not today. And what did that look like in your life, Joe? I mean, I'm
(34:43): Sure it looked different in each stage because I was going through my own faith journey and I really was. So there would be times, especially when they were younger, that I would have firm convictions around something and sort of try to force them to do certain things that I thought were important with faith. But I think what they will remember most is that I led pretty authentically dealing with my own doubts so that I talked with them about that stuff. As soon as they could use words, I told them what I currently believe. And I told them, I'm not sure I probably this in six years or six months, but I think they would say my kids would say the, the centrality of the story of Jesus was always important. And to me, I remember saying over and over, you know, I would never say it this way, but it became about how does what you believe affect the person you're becoming.
(35:35): And in many ways, the fruit of spirit, I can remember telling them many times, like what I would never call for to the spirit. But I would say, you know, if they had a hard day of school or if they failed a test or I said, you know, all this important, but when I look at you, I'm really looking to see if, are you becoming a person of patience and do you know a person of kindness? Goodness, are you developing? Self-Control like, those are the things I look for. And I think our faith can help you find that. But ultimately that's why they're the fruits of the spirit. Right. They're sort of there to show us if this stuff is working or not transforming us. And then yeah, but ultimately I think for better or worse, you know, I never really tried to convince them of much of anything, especially if it was something that I, myself doubted that that didn't feel right. So they I think they have a deep appreciation for the story and person of Jesus and probably pretty mixed relationship with the church just because we were in and out of it. And they saw, they saw all the good things and they saw how it sort of created some torment as well
(36:37): And sharing. I mean, I love the example you gave an asking about the fruits of the spirit are talking like that. But as far as even stories of Jesus, I mean, were you doing devotions or was it just a, come see me preach on Sunday and you'll learn? Or how did that look inside the home?
(36:55): Yeah. We never been very structured in terms of like at all as a family, there's this one Berkman assessment that we took that at one point that measure both my wife and I's structure score from one to a hundred and I was at three and she was at one, they were a four out of 200 and Instructure. So that was never our thing with anything. But, you know, I would, I would tell the stories and I think during their childhood, I was doing a lot of the one man shows around like the gospel, John,
(37:24): Those are unbelievable.
(37:26): Yeah, thanks. And they will come to those and ask questions afterwards. And rather organically. They also went to a Christian high school and and stories. And I would ask them some questions about those. They had some contrarian views to some of their teachers around what the applications were and I encourage them to be vocal about that. I don't know if it's a weakness or not, but in terms of, we just were not and have not been a very structured family. So it doesn't matter what it is. It's, it's, it has kind of went in spurts throughout our, our life. Yeah. And I think, especially I would speak for my wife too. I think in some Christian subcultures, people can beat themselves up pretty hard for that stuff. Just like you can't individually. So I tend to have way more grace for folks that are just like, I just like, we can't figure it out. I mean, I'm, I'm usually going to be the one to be like, it's okay. Like, love your kids. You know, love your kids. Be with them, create time when you're with them and you don't have a plan and maybe something like this will happen, but for us, it just, we're a little non-traditional compared to some other parents probably in our, in our church when we were. Yeah.
(38:29): Yeah. And I think the encouragement for this listeners on that is that there's power in being spontaneous. I'll talk to a lot of people who they're too timid to be spontaneous because they think they're going to be caught off guard or not have the right answer, but they're waiting for the perfect scenario, the perfect response to be structured. Therefore neither happens. You know, they don't have the guts to be spontaneous. They, they, they're putting too much pressure on themselves to be structured and therefore nothing really happens. And it becomes more of this passive environment. So it's encouraging you this spontaneous piece, how you did it for each of us to try and be more bold.
(39:05): And if you're not a spontaneous, then don't be like, I just think, you know, there's some permission to be because people are unique with families are also unique and there are warning signs for all families when things aren't going great for sure. But if overall things are going okay, and people seem to be growing and becoming the sort of people we wanted to become, don't beat yourself up over some form or function that someone else says you should be doing the time to try that stuff is probably when you realize it's not working, like what we're doing right now, isn't actually creating
(39:34): Break the cycle. It's a cycle, Joe. Awesome to have you on here. Thank you for sharing all the wisdom. What's a great way for listeners to get ahold of you.
(39:43): I'm on the Twitter a lot. That's my main social media now. So it's just my name, Joe Boyd. Also on Instagram, if you're interested in the companies, then it's a rebel pilgrim.com is our creative agency and production company. Leadercast.Com is Leadercast.
(39:59): Great. Well congrats and everything going on. Thank you very much for being a part of the podcast today. Thanks
(40:04): For having me, man. I appreciate the opportunity to be honest and talk about this important stuff. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you.
(40:14): I want to thank you for listening to my podcast. When at home first, I am so grateful to hear from listeners like you, that this content has been helpful. So now I would love for you to pay it forward. I want to get this message in the hands of more listeners. We need leaders to be winning both at home and at work, especially during this time. So please take a minute to share this episode with somebody you think would find value in it, as well as rate and subscribe as a thank you, please visit my website@corymcarlson.com to download a free resource that people are finding value in. Thank you very much.
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