The Ryan Leak Podcast - How To Invest In Yourself w/Chad Veach

Episode Date: December 17, 2020

Chad Veach is the Pastor of Zoe Church LA. He also has an incredible podcast called Leadership Lean In with Chad Veach.  Highlights from today's episode: "We have to be afraid of the leader that has a million-dollar dream and a hundred dollar work ethic." "I think greatness has that obsessive gene."  "All of us are born with such remarkable giftings, but work and work ethic is also a gift."   "You reap what you sow. The type of follower you sow is the type of follower you'll grow."  "If Jesus, who is perfect, was submitted to God's authority and was not above submission, we must take a look at ourselves and not think we are above submission to our leaders."  "If you're out of balance right now, you need three consecutive days to get your life back on track."  "Don't give the best part of your day to people. Give the best part of your day to yourself. The greatest investment you can ever make is an investment in yourself." "Your no is greater than your yes."   "Leadership starts with becoming likable. People do not want to follow someone they do not like."    "Rather than being forceful in rooms, be adaptable."  Show notes are available at ryanleak.com/followership.

Welcome to followership with Ryan Leake, podcast design to equip you with the tools you need to succeed in the workplace. On today's episode, I have my friend Chad Veach, author of a brand new book called Help I Work with People. It is a fantastic read. I want you to go to Amazon. I want you to buy it. I want you to get on Audible, get a hard copy, get both, highlight it, underline it. So many practical takeaways. And I'm just honored that he would take time out of his busy schedule to hop on

followership with Ryan Leak. Before we get to that conversation I have with my friend Chad, I want you to know the show notes from today's episode. It can be found on Ryanleak.com slash followership. Again, that's Ryanleak.com slash followership without any further ado. Let's welcome Chad Beach to followership with Ryan Leak. Chad, thank you so much. Welcome to fellowship with Ryan Lake.

How you doing today? Man, thank you so much for having me on. I feel like, man, who are we? You know, years ago, we were just some kids playing basketball after conferences. And now we're some podcasters. Hey, 2020, man. Things have grown, man. What can I say, man?

I love it. Dude, there's a line in your book that made me, I got you on audible because I like listening to you. You're one of the best communicators in the world. And if you're listening to this right now and you want to be encouraged, you want to go listen to a message that's going to bring you hope. I want you to go YouTube chat Vech, and you will find enough fuel for your soul. It will encourage you.

You said something in this book that I thought was so profound. You said some people are naturally gifted, but nobody is naturally great. Oh, dude, I love that. Talk to me about that. When you look at, because some people look at a guy like LeBron James and go, man, he's just gifted. He was born six, eight. But there's so much more than just being six, eight.

You know, I love it. Some people are naturally gifted, but nobody is naturally great. What have you seen in your life experience about people who are truly great? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the old saying greatness doesn't have. happen in a day, it happens daily. It's the daily discipline, the daily decision to apply yourself to your craft. And LeBron James is a great example. You know, right now on the internet, they're getting ready for this, the draft, the NBA draft. And so they're showing, you know, the 2010 draft class. And you see somebody like James Harden or Gordon Hayward and all these guys that are so young

and their bodies are, you know, they don't have muscle on it yet. And they're, you know, be really useful. And what have they added to their craft since being drafted? It takes a lot of hard work to be to be great. I don't care what industry could be the tech industry, the entertainment industry, politicians, lawyers,

doctors, communicators. It just takes, it's what Malcolm Gladwell calls the 10,000 hour rule. You know, you got to really put in time to be great. And that is not, enticing to some.

Some people are driven and they go, I'm going to put my head down, I'm become an expert in my craft, but we have to be afraid of the leader that has a million-dollar dream with a $100 work ethic. It just takes work. It takes the, you know,

the stuff that's not seen, the stuff that's not flashy, the stuff that's, you know, done in the shadows. and the early mornings and the late nights and the phone calls and the audio books and the, you know, constant evaluation. I think greatness has that obsessive gene. So that's what comes to mind when I think about when you say that because I really believe that statement. You know, all of us are born with such remarkable gifting. But work ethic and work is a gift.

Just as the talent is a gift to be. be able to work at it, I think, is just as equal of a gift. No, dude, I, I love that, man. I think it's, you, you, you have had a front row seat to some people that are really great at what they do. And, and you've, you've actually had seasons in your life where you actually follow some of them. Talk to, talk to me about some of those seasons where, and again, now, again, back in day where we were just hoping after conferences, you know, there was a season where you were,

leading and following Judah Smith as one of the campus pastors. There's been a number of men you've submitted to long before you planted a church in Los Angeles. What happened in those seasons that prepared you for your season now, now that you are the guy leading? What did you learn in those seasons of submitting to somebody else's vision, somebody else's mission while God was stirring something new in you. Well, I think that's a great question. I think, number one, you reap what you sow.

That's just the reality in life. You're always going to. So the type of follower you sow is the type of follower you'll grow. It's like it's just about saying that you can't expect loyalty if you are not a loyal person. You can't expect followers if you are not a follower. These are the types of things. like there's always this disconnect with leaders that go, I can't figure out why I can't get my people to do X.

And the reality is, it's because you don't do X. Right. It's always easier to play the blame game. It's always easy to go, but I got to always look internally and going, am I asking people to do things I am unwilling to do? Because if I am,

then I've got to just be okay with going, I might get subpar returns on, this investment because I refuse to be this type of leader. I'm asking others to be. So, yeah, it was a real privilege to serve and work under Judah and to continue that. He is still my pastor. It's one of my closest friends, but I still gladly submit to him, to our board, to our elders, to friend, the family.

And I find such comfort and safety in covering. You know, people that, you know, want to do their own thing and become a lone ranger. And I always think, you know, there's something that has been broken in you or there's something that has been poorly modeled for you to conclude that that is the best way to live. You know, in my opinion, the greatest leader that ever walked the face of the earth is a guy named Jesus. Right. Who says out loud, I don't do anything unless I'm told to do it. I don't see anything unless I'm told to say. So if perfection can be submitted.

Wow. Come on. Dude, you are a person who has always, to me, you've mastered energy. You have found a way to extend 24 hours and somehow turned it into 36 hours worth of connection eye contact, presence. Like your energy, how do you keep up your energy?

I mean, is it diet? Are you running every day? I mean, how do you have so much energy to do a podcast, to write books, to be a leader, to be a family man, to do shows? I mean, you, you, you accomplish so much, but you do it with such a great,

in peace, it's like you're not in a hurry. How do you manage energy? How can a follower manage their energy well? Because I think so many of our listeners, they look at a to-do list, and they just get overwhelmed by it. I don't know what I'm going to do. How am I going to get through the day? And that's how anxiety builds up.

But it seems like you've just mastered energy, man. Give me your secret sauce. Well, I don't know there's a secret sauce. You know, I think what you're hitting on is the struggle for every leader, you know. And by the way, one of the greatest things about time management, energy management, is I always think all I need is about three days to get my whole life back. If anything gets out of balance, if you're out of balance, you're listening right now, that's right.

You need three consecutive days to get that control back. It's like your diet, right? Your diet's out of whack. You're eating too much sugar, sweets, you know, whatever. you give yourself three consecutive days of eating healthy and it's like, well, I got momentum. I don't want that cheesecake. Right. There's about three days of momentum.

Time management, energy management you need about. If our house ever gets out of order, we're traveling, we've had events, conference, whatever, I just need three days to get that house back in order. So I think it's, you know, we can't be overwhelmed because there are seasons and times that life does get out of control. But what you're hitting on here with energy management, I think is something that can really release greater creativity, greater innovation,

greater intimacy, greater connection, greater relationship, greater self-confidence. Early on in leadership, I didn't really get this too well. And so I was like a firefighter running around trying to put out fires. And there's damaging effects of that personally.

You know, you become the empty leader. you become the starving baker. So now there's nothing I put a higher premium on than my energy. It is the number one thing, which some people call it time management, but I like energy management because I'm going to do to work at long hours and work really hard. But, you know, come nighttime, we shut that thing down. Right.

Someone told me this years ago, and I thought it was great advice. He goes, hey, if you like to sleep in, that's awesome. why don't you consider sleeping in on the front end rather than the back end? You know, most people in the morning, they go, oh, I just need another hour of sleep. If I could just, oh, 30 more, if I can get 30 more minutes. Right, right, right. I need 20 more minutes. Why don't you get 20 minutes on the front end?

So you can wake up, you know, another thing to energy management is don't get the, give the best part of your day to people. Give the best part of your day to yourself. the greatest investment you can ever make is an investment into yourself. So are you a morning person? Then don't give the morning away. Are you a night person? Then don't give the night away. Whatever is your prime thinking hour, prime thinking time.

Don't give it to other people. Your no is greater than your yes. And that, if you can learn that, that means number one, you're not ruled by the opinion of others. You know, the people pleaser, which if you are, you're going to just be a firefighter and not a leader your whole life. You're just going to go around setting out fires.

But if you're a leader, then you're okay with that these are the hours I'm available. This is the time I have. My wife and I just got invited, this very sweet couple have asked us, they're phenomenal pastors, and they've asked us to become their pastors. This is a big, I don't take that lightly. I don't minimize that. So the other day, our assistant said they'd like to take you to day. dinner and they want to talk and blah.

So we looked at the counter and just the way it looked, I go, I don't think we could do this for the next three months. You know, I just don't see a really good night for this specific thing. Well, it's a dinner. Yeah, but I got to really manage my home, my life. Whether it's priority. I'm putting, because when I say yes to one thing, I say no to other things. So if I'm going to say yes to something, I've got to calculate that.

And that means I'm saying no to my kids, my marriage, my ministry, my job, my books, my future, my, you know, what we've got going. So I think you just got to really understand what you're about and prioritize your life. And then your know gets really easy. Dude, that, that's so good, man. I love that. I love that. I love that energy management, man. That's huge.

And I think that's going to resonate with a lot of our listeners too. Hey, man, last question. Probably my favorite part of the book was chapter 13, reading rooms, reading people. And I think that that is so, so big for followers, man. I can't tell you how many people I know. They walk into a room and they just didn't read it before they jumped in it. Like they just spoke to. It's just like they just couldn't.

I mean, can you just, even your favorite part of that chapter, can you just talk a little bit about the importance of reading rooms and reading people, especially as a follower? What we're really talking about is having, you know, first of all, an emotional intelligence. Because if you're emotionally unintelligent, then you just, you don't have the capacity or the confidence, the security to read rooms.

because you're so fragile and broken, you don't even want to face the reality of others. And so first of all, you need emotional intelligence. You need to become emotionally healthy, which allows you to become secure and not a me monster. The second thing is reading rooms, you know, just like, have you ever been with somebody that just sucks the air out of rooms? Then you don't even realize it.

Right. You know, but if you're going to be a great leader, leadership is all about others. It's about people, adding value, transferring your belief. I cannot lead people that don't like me. If somebody doesn't like me, I can't lead them. So what does leadership start with? Becoming likable.

You don't like the guy that comes into the room and, you know, is off subject, off color. Mm-hmm. You know, so why do we reach rooms? it's not so that I can, you know, close the business deal alone. I have no chance to add in value to somebody. If I don't first understand where am I, where they? That's good. What's going on here?

What's the agenda? You know, some rooms I walk into, I'm expected to be loud, gregarious, authoritative, a leader. Some rooms I walk into, I'm a nobody. You know, you've got to just, if you're called upon, you're called upon. So I think it's just about not trying to be forceful rather than being forceful, be adaptive. I took so many notes during that conversation. I think he said so many great nuggets there.

The idea about three days, it don't take it about three days to really reset yourself. I think that that's massive. Here's what I want you to think about. I want you to think about when is your prime time thinking time? Like, when is your best energy? And are you giving that time to yourself or are you giving it to others? And what's the balance there? And if you're giving your prime time to others,

then make a plan to devote some more of that time to yourself. And if you're giving it all to yourself, then think about how, okay, like you want to find some really, really great balance there. But here's the deal. You can't give to others what you don't have in yourself. So one of the greatest investments that you can make is first in yourself, so that you have something to give others. Once again, I want you to pick up, help.

I work with people by my good friend, Chad Beach, get it on Amazon, get it on an audible, rate it, review it, share it with friends. And once again, so honored that he would take some time to be with us today. If you enjoy today's episode, if it added value to your life, I want to encourage you to share this episode

with a friend, rate it, review it. Don't forget to subscribe. Bye.