The Rusty George Podcast

Narrator: Welcome to Leading Simple with rusty George. Our goal is to make following Jesus and leading others a bit more simple. Here's your host, Rusty George.

Rusty: Hey everybody. Thanks for listening to Leading Simple. I'm Rusty George. So great to have you with us today. My old buddy, Brad Williams is back with me as our co-host and he and I are going to ping pong back and forth some questions and discussions about leadership lessons for the summer.

Uh, I think you're gonna learn a lot today. Maybe have a few movies or books you wanna check out as a result. Always love talking with Brad. And so this is gonna be a great mid-year conversation for us. Hope you enjoy it.

Well, this month we are sponsored by Stadia. Stadia is a church planting organization that has a mission to plant churches until every child has a church. And you might be somebody out there thinking, I think I'd like to plant a church. Well, now is your chance. We would love to have you be a part of church planting and you can go to stadiachurchplanting.org. You might even be thinking, ah, I'm not gonna plan a church, but I believe in church planting. You can sponsor church planters and give to this great organization, a nonprofit called Stadia Church Planting just by going to stadiachurchplanting.org. That's Stadia, S T A D I A. Make sure that you check it out.

Well, let's get into my conversation with my good friend, Brad Williams, as we decide to mine out some leadership lessons for the summer.

Hey, Brad, welcome back to the show. I'm so glad that we get to hang out together. And I know we're gonna talk about leadership books that we've been reading, but you brought up a topic that probably needs to be addressed right at the beginning. So go for it.

Brad: Yeah. We need to talk, uh, because we're such Laker fans. Mm-hmm, uh, lifelong Laker fans. We have to talk about the, the coaching situation. I wanna know what your thoughts are on coach Ham. And I wanna know what your thoughts are on the team.

Rusty: I'll tell you what I, I, I just feel like we're, we're not in a good place right now. I don't, I like Darvin Ham. I think he's great. I'm afraid though, that this is not the best place for his first job, cuz we're kind of a wreck. Um, I mean I would trade Westbrook. Obviously I would trade Anthony Davis. and I love Anthony Davis mm-hmm , but he can't stay healthy. Mm-hmm and I would let LeBron walk eventually and just fill us up with young talent and draft picks.

And if Darvin can develop that great. But LA doesn't stand for that. We're like the Yankees, we just have to keep throwing money after yeah. After big names, which I don't know. What do you think?

Brad: I, um, I'm always overly optimistic. Anytime there's change with the Lakers mm-hmm at at to a fault, like to a fault. Yeah. I was overly optimistic when we got this team. Yeah. Um, and I'm still. Overly optimistic.

Rusty: I remember that. Yeah, we were, I was helping you move when we found out about Russell Westbrook and you were much more excited about it than I was.

Brad: I, I was, I was, and you know, I don't know what's wrong with me.

It's just ever since I was a kid, whenever the Lakers make change, it's typically good. Yeah. And so I think it's kind of ingrained in my psyche, even if it doesn't make sense, but. I am still optimistic cuz that's just who I am. I can't change that. Um, yes. Yeah. I like what I like what Ham said, uh, coach Ham said about, um, about Russell because Russell needs his ego to be stroke.

Yep. And I think if you're gonna get him to perform, you know, this is, you know, one of the best players in basketball, he did do all the things he, he actually did in the past. He's capable. He's capable if. You approach it from a defensive perspective, there's a chance. And, and I do like the fact that Ham worked with Giannis and understands what a healthy AD means to the team. And hopefully focuses on getting his mind right. Getting his body right. So I, I'm still optimistic. I do agree with you though. We need to, we need to surround them with a lot of youth. It can't be, and this is something that Coach Ham said in this press conference, it can't be, somebody tries, tries to put a cape on to save the day.

Rusty: Yep.

Brad: It has to be everybody contributing. Like everybody, like the teams that are winning now. You know, everybody contributes, even if somebody's a so called star, everybody can, you don't know where it's gonna come from. So-

Rusty: Yeah, I, I agree. I'm afraid what's gonna happen is, is we're gonna keep Westbrook, uh, because he's an expiring contract and we'll trade him at the deadline for some picks, which would be fine.

Mm-hmm this next year's a wash, but next off season. Joe Kitsch is a free agent. Yeah. Zach Levine is a free agent. Uh, there's some, there's some possibilities there. So I don't know. The nice thing is it's LA everybody wants to come to LA, so yeah, we're gonna get people. It's just, will it be a team? Yeah. Which brings up our subject matter for today, right?

Brad: Oh, that's very true leadership. A hundred percent. Yeah. Leadership and teamwork and how it is devalued. Um, so what we're gonna be doing, we're gonna be talking about books. Yes. And I, I love this cuz we were both readers, avid readers. Yes. And almost to a fault. Yes. And, um, so I wanna know, and I know the people listening probably wanna know about some of the leadership books you're reading and I'm gonna share about the some key takeaways from some of the leadership books I'm reading and have.

So, um, do you wanna kick us off with the first book?

So I'll give you the first one and I'm gonna keep it true to what we've been talking about. And, you know, I like to read sports books at night because it disengages my mind and mm-hmm , my wife has HGT on and I read a sports book and we're all happy.

That's right. So, uh, I picked up. I didn't even know this book existed, but it's called blood in the garden, the flagrant history of the 1990s, New York Knicks.

oh, that's all I was concerned at first, but that's a great title. Yes,

it is. It is. And, uh, it's all about pat Riley and the Knicks and just their, their strategy to try to beat the bulls.

And I guess what I love about it is his approach to trying to create. chemistry on their team. Um, you know, when they first started training camp, they went to a, an old gym in South Carolina with no air conditioning and he'd run 'em for th you know, three hours a day to, to kind of build this level of, of comradery and chemistry amongst them.

Um, and then when they were in the middle of a losing. He, he basically detoured the team playing to end up in Reno and gave him each $500, which he commented was so funny. Cuz. They're all millionaires and they're lining up to get their $500 from him. Like he's handing out quarters for the arcade and they were giddy, you know, just tells you what, uh, what a little generosity does.

So, yeah, I I'm loving the book so far. Some of the stories are outlandish, but, uh, I could imagine it has been fun. So some, some good leadership from Riley there, which I always.

that's a good one. That's excellent. Um, mine is my first one is kind of, um, along the same lines in terms of teamwork and kind of in terms of what we're talking about, even with the Lakers, um, how people like the book is extreme ownership, uh, written by, uh, Jacko Willock at former Navy seal.

Mm. I hope I said his name. But I, I love Jocko. I love I listen to this podcast. Um, but the book is an incredible book. It, it is so good. I read it. And then, uh, at, at my place of business where I work, um, we, me and another executive on the team. Um, Read it. And he started teaching workshops. We had training sessions on Fridays, on the book, teaching people, our whole staff principles from the book.

But one of the things that stood out to me the most was, um, this story about, uh, Navy seal. Two teams. They had a bunch of, you know, uh, cadets or whatever they call them. Um, and they had this, this thing where they had to pick up a boat, go into the water, um, come back out of the water. And it was a really strenuous exercise.

And this one team was killing every single time. It was beating everybody else and they did one thing. They stopped everything and they switched leaders.

Rusty: Ah, okay.

Brad: They took the leader from the best team and put him on the worst team. And they took the leader from the worst team and put him on the best team.

Rusty: Oh, oh my what happened?

Brad: And guess who started winning the, the team that was coming in last place started coming in second and first it ended up coming in. First. If I recall the book correctly, they started, I don't know if they, they took first place once or twice, but the bottom line was that team started winning and the winning team started losing.

Interesting. And so it it's it's. It's kind of what we see in society today. People to value leadership leadership is a, um, it's a acumen that is thankless. It's a gift but it's like, you never perfect it. Mm. And it's not, it's not, it's very difficult, but you learn so much from it. Um, but people tend to devalue.

Even leaders tend to devalue themselves and the impact they make on a team. And so good leadership is the key to consistent, consistent success. It's the key.

Rusty: That is so good. And it goes along with a quote I heard. , I don't know. It might have been on a podcast today about the best leaders succeed because they make their team better than they are.

Mm-hmm you think about that? From a leadership perspective, we tend to think of a leader as constantly charting the course and pointing the way and solving the problems. But if you just make every person on your team better, yeah. A they don't wanna leave. And B they make you better along the way.

Brad: that's it.

And that, that you're 100% correct. And we know it cuz we see it. That's why we love sports because it's kind of like, it gives us a glimpse of real life without the consequences of real life. Right, right. So you can see the best teams. That's good. The, the best teams actually, um, the best leaders on the best teams make their teammates better.

Rusty: Yeah. That's really good. Well, I'm glad you brought Joco up because I've been reading, uh, discipline equals freedom. Oh, by Joco as well, willin. Oh, right. And it's kind of like a daily reader cuz you, you know, you can read like one page. And you've got your motivation for the day, and then you, uh, you move along and I asked our leadership team this the other day, um, you know, what's the one thing you need to work on.

And I gave them like five different options and pretty much all of them said I've got discipline. What I lack right now is grit. Hmm. And I think that's kind of what COVID did to us. You know, the last two years have we still have the discipline, we still get outta bed. We still do the job. We just lack that tenacity, that grit, that passion that we once had.

Yeah. That's good. That's true. Yeah. So I I'm kind of zeroing in on that right now. Okay. So I've given you two now, one by accident. so I'll let you go with the next.

Brad: Okay. All right. So the next one, uh, a good friend of mine gave me, uh, it's called trillion dollar coach. I love that book. Yeah, me too. It's a great book.

And for what I do for a living, um, I'm a part of, I'm a director, the director of business development, um, for a company. Uh, and, uh, I work with executives. I work with the executive team and when I had my own consulting firm, the focus of it was. Consult executives, owners and executives. And it's because everyone wins when leaders get better.

But the book, this book like narrowed it down. So if people, if you guys don't know who bill Campbell is, the book is about bill Campbell. He helped build some of Silicon Valley's greatest companies, including Google, apple, and into it. And to create over trillion dollars in a Mar in market value, uh, with all those three comp or four, three companies combined.

So that's over a trillion dollars market value one man. Mm-hmm one man walking with owners and executives. it's, it's an amazing book. Uh, one of the quotes from the book is your title makes you a manager. Uh, your people make you a leader and it kind of goes right along who we're talking about. That's so good.

And you see it everywhere. Like when I worked retail, when I was coming up and working at, uh, bed bath and beyond you, you see it in grocery stores, retail places, leaders don't always have the title leader or boss, or man and leader, our boss, our manager, but you can see it in them cuz they make the people around them better.

Just like we said, mm-hmm ,

Rusty: isn't it funny too? Cuz people know who the leader. Oh, yeah. It doesn't matter if they got the title or not. They knew who they gotta get permission from. It's kinda like at home, you know? Yeah. Dad may be the loudest, but you gotta go get permission from mom,

Brad: you know? Yeah. Uhhuh. No, they, they know, they know leader.

Doesn't have to say I'm the leader. Nope.

Rusty: that's right. Hey, I'm glad you brought up bed bath and beyond because you and I had a conversation one time that I, I thought our listeners would enjoy, uh, tell us about some of the, the funny. Moments when people would try to return things that you knew they had plum used up

Brad: uh, well, you know, this was a very, very, very, very long time ago, but, uh, yeah, cuz bed bath and Beyond's key to success.

One of them back in the day, way back in the day was the fact that they never said, you know, We had to say it like that. Cuz you couldn actually say the word so some people would come back and uh, you know, they would have stuff cuz when you're working at bed, Beth and beyond in the city, you, you get things back that production companies use.

and you know, that they had in mind the whole time that they were gonna return it because you know that they had a budget to try to come in under. And so some things they would get, you know, pillows and bedding and stuff like that. And they'd bring it right back and be like, okay, you gotta be kidding me.

But there are other times where we got some stuff that was stained I don't wanna get too graphic on a podcast. We had some bedding that that was miserably stained. On several occasions. And we looked at the person like, you've got to be kidding me. Like you've got to, you must have lost your natural mind.

Like the audacity like the unmitigated gall we were like, like in our heads, we were like, looking like this. We would call each other, like, come look into this. Come look at this we page each other secret code. So, and so to the front code blue, , you're actually gonna return that cause like it's, some people had nerve, but we take it back.

We would take it back, man. We never said N O and as a result, you know, we return stuff and bought stuff. And, oh, my one thing I learned about that CR all that crazy. You know, I, I like to tie stuff back around to a business principle. Thank you. One of the things I learned bottom line wise was, uh, look at your percentage of returns versus your percentage of sales.

Mm, in everything you do in life, we tend to magnify the negative, but sometimes take for granted the positive. Mm. You know, so yeah, we took a lot of stuff back and we never said no, but at the end of the day we were, we were doing quite fine.

Rusty: That's a good word. Especially for our pastors out there, we all get been outta shape when somebody leaves our church.

But I found myself, I get too worried about the four people that just left and didn't notice the 20 that just walked in. Yeah. So focus on that.

Brad: That's good. It's like you got a 90% retention rate. Yeah. and you worried about the 10? Yeah,

Rusty: exactly. Exactly. Welcome the way my mind works. Hey, let me interrupt for just a second.

Would you help us plan a church? Go to stadia church planting.org today to find out more. All right. Back to our episode. All right. Uh, let's see, I'll go. Um, this is a, uh, book, I have mentioned several times on the podcast and if our listeners have not picked this up yet, and they're just missing. it is called a beautiful constraint by mark Barden.

It's a business book about the beauty of deadlines and of constraints of success. Here's his primary example. The rolling stones are primarily known by Mick Jagger's dancing and it's there's even a song about it. Got the moves like Jagger, right. And. When asked about this guitarist, Keith Richards, who I believe is about 170 years old, at least at least.

Um, he said, you know, Mick didn't create that out of his genius. He created it out of constraints because in the early days, when we were playing clubs, he only had about a three foot square to move within. So he had to get overly dramatic with his movement. Wow. And now it became wow. His signature. Isn't that fascinating?

That is. So his point is when you tell people let's brainstorm, don't tell 'em the sky's the. Tell 'em what could we do if we only had $50 in two weeks and needed to promote this product or whatever, put constraints on it? Yeah. Because the lack of constraints is overwhelming to people. Yeah. So good. And they can't come up with the good ideas.

That's so good. Yeah. It, it is just chalk full of those kind of things. How to lead a good brainstorming meeting. Um, really crazy stories of like, for instance, I'll give you one more. there's a, uh, I'm gonna botch up the details on this, but there's a, a, uh, chicken farm, I think, in the Philippines that they would, uh, you know, raise these chickens.

And they found out that when the chickens were really young, that the Hawks would come down and, and snatch 'em up. So they were losing their, their, their profit, but they discovered that the Hawks don't like the color. . Hmm. So they started painting the chickens blue

until they grill, they, they would get bigger and then the Hawks couldn't carry 'em away. So, you know, there again, a, what can we do if we gotta keep the chickens outside, but we don't want 'em to get, you know, taken away and what do we have? And they came up with this. It's just, you know, little genius stories like that, that you would've never thought of, but wow.

It's a really good leadership book. I know several teams that have gone through and really enjoyed it.

Brad: Well, what I love about it too, is I think that's what, like a lot of especially bigger organizations, they start losing because the smaller organizations have all these constraints. They don't have all the money, they don't have all the freedoms and the networking and the contacts and connections.

Yep. So, They're they're working, you know, with more constraints I saw, um, I go on TikTok, you know, cuz marketing is what I do.

Rusty: Yeah. Cuz you're one of the people, you're one of the kids. I am

Brad: one of the kids. Um, and uh, I go on TikTok and I observe what businesses do and what certain people do. And um, I saw this pastor on TikTok.

Right. And he had a whole bunch of followers. Right. And I'm going like. Like I'm, what's up with this, like, you know, and I listened to him and it was a good word, you know, it didn't wasn't didn't blow my mind, but it was, he was reading the Bible and answering questions and, you know, the comments, but he's was consistent.

And I realized that he more than likely does not have like a huge church. He kind of made this, that for him, you know? And I said, well, what if. A huge church put constraints on themselves and pretended like they didn't have this huge church, they'd be doing stuff like this more. They'd be meeting these kids where they actually are.

Hmm. And I'm like, like, so while you're talking, it's just like, when I saw that, um, I realized that, you know, when you do, like, as you're talking, when you do have those constraints on you. You do open yourself up to discover more things at a higher level and do things at a higher level. Mm-hmm uh, that's why these young hungry companies take overtake the old ones.

Virgin records, um, Steve Branson, he talked about how he beat the big boys with his, with the Virgin airlines. He's like, how do you beat these big airlines? He's like, we're small. We can do what they can't do. They got too much bureaucracy. I could pick people up in limos. They got all this red tape. I could rent something.

And go and grab 'em and take 'em to the airport and get these clients. And they just can't do that. They don't have the bandwidth, they don't have the, the, they have too much red tape in the way. Yeah. Yeah.

Rusty: You know, so to try to protect all the stuff. Yeah, exactly.

Brad: Exactly.

Rusty: That's constraints, man. Really good.

All right. You're up?

Brad: All right. So the next one I have is, uh, And I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but it's, uh, man, Fields's book of manly men.

it's a book about manhood and men being men. Okay. You know? And so, uh, what I love about the book, it starts, uh, with this, um, this verse second, Peter one, five through six. Um, I won't read the whole verse, but the verse talks about moral. More excellence, leading to knowledge and so on and so forth. But he talked about moral excellence in scripture, above in the scripture, meaning that as men, we must dedicate ourselves to a lifelong pursuit of developing traits, habits, qualities, and behaviors that glorify God as his men.

Otherwise we will be ineffective and unproductive. Despite the grace and knowledge we possessed. So it's just a reminder that, you know, as a man, I have a responsibility, you know, my brothers, we have a responsibility. Um, I talk to my sons about moral excellence. I talk to my sons about, uh, building a life that they can be proud of.

Mm-hmm and the book, the book brings, brought out a lot of these principles and things that I try to instill in my boys and other, uh, male friends I have when I ha I have part of a men's fellowship. And we've talked about this too, and it's just a reminder that we do have a responsibility, no matter what anybody says, mm-hmm to.

To provide to help, um, progress and prosper, uh, individuals and the people that we're supposed to be serving our wives and our children.

Rusty: That's really good. And that actually has a daily devotional on you version. Yep. Uh, that one of our mutual friends told me about it's really good 14 day devotional to becoming your most masculine self.

Wow. Uh, it's really good stuff. It's not just about how to punch people and chop wood. So uh, you should, uh, you check it out. It's really good. I'm gonna definitely

Brad: check it out. I'm gonna definitely check it out.

Rusty: Okay. Last one from me. Mm-hmm and this is from my pastor hero. Andy Stanley. This book is getting a little bit of heat right now because he talks about what the church should have done when it came to the political scene during COVID and the book is called not in it to win it.

Oh, wow. It is amazing. And his point is this let's look at the pledge of allegiance. It is. one God under nation. It is one nation under God. That's right. And over the crazy. pandemic. We got outta line and started thinking that our ideology was more important than our theology. Wow. And you know, we, we can all be passionate about our political preferences.

I certainly am, but we salute a higher flag than just the flag of our country, which I love, but we're part of the kingdom of. So we that's right. Put that first. So he, he does a great job of unpacking all that. It's not just a, a rant. It's not just him railing against a political party or particular people.

It's just, Hey, we got something even better. Let's stick by that. I

Brad: love that.

Rusty: Love it. And if I have the guts, Brad, and I'm gonna say it on the podcast, cuz then somebody might actually hold me accountable to it. Uh, I would love to teach my version of that. Wow. In August. So anyway, there you

Brad: go. Well, you have the God given guts.

Rusty: I just need the discipline and the grit right. There you go.

Brad: There you go. There you go. All right. So my, the last one, um, I have is, uh, good or God John Bevere. Mm. And so. It was, this was a great read for me. Um, I loved it. It was, I would say a life changing book. Um, one of the things that, that, uh, I loved about it was the question he posed and the question he posed was as a Christian.

Um, what is like as a Christian, all of us call ourselves saved. Right. But when we think about Jesus, we think about, you know, the call to him as our savior. And a lot of people see Jesus as their savior. And when you focus on Jesus as just a savior, then you, you get all the benefits that come along with being a Christian mm.

You know, eternal life and peace. And you read about all that, but they forget that he is our Lord. And savior. Yeah, it's good. And people don't like to, they, they, they don't like to accept the Lord part because the Lord part requires your behavior to change. Just like you just said that we serve a higher flag.

We salute to a higher, a higher deity, a higher, uh, entity. That's so good. We salute to a higher, no matter what we, we, we salute to some, if we're a Christian mm-hmm , which means that you gotta make a. either. Jesus is your Lord and savior or he's nothing at all. Yeah, it's both. And so if he's your Lord, that means you actually do have to love everyone.

Rusty: That sounds very similar to Stanley's book. That's so good. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. It, it was, uh, it was a great read. I highly, I highly recommend they sound. Yeah, they sound very similar. Tell me the name again. Uh, good. Or God good.

Rusty: Or God. Oh, that's good. I, I love that author. He's the bait of, Satan's probably my favorite book he ever wrote talking about what it means to be offended and how we take the bait of Satan, which we all got offended in 2020.

So yeah, we got another election cycle coming up. Hopefully we can keep our wits about us and recognize God's still on the throne. That's right. This has been awesome. Brad, you came to play today. Good books, man. Yeah. I

Brad: like what man. Yeah, this is, I think, I think we should keep this. We should keep talking about books when we come together.

I like it. Leadership books. I'll

Rusty: give you one movie. okay. This is extra. All right. Top gun Maverick. Oh. Oh,

Brad: come on now. Stop playing. Goodness. Come on now. Stop playing. That was you just talked about manly men. Now you're gonna miss the top gun hyped up.

Rusty: Yes. A leadership masterclass. Oh, I love that movie. So

Brad: great.

No, that was a great flick. Um, my buddy made me go. I wasn't planning on going as soon as I, we went, but I loved it. I loved it. Loved it,

Rusty: loved it. I, I mean, I just think, I mean, it's not gonna win. I don't think it'll win any academy awards and it's, you know, it's not the greatest movie ever produced, but it's like almost the perfect sequel.

Yeah. They could have messed that up so many ways. Yeah. And they had just enough nostalgia and just enough new stuff and just kept it in tune with the first one you wouldn't have even known mm-hmm , you know, almost 30 years have passed since the first one. It, it was, yeah. Oh goodness. More than that. Uh, it was amazing.

I loved it. No, that's a,

Brad: that's a good word. That was a very good movie. It was a good. It was a well done sequel to your point. Yeah. Very well done. Sequel. Yeah,

Rusty: Really good. Brad, this has been so much fun as always.

Brad: Yeah, man. I enjoy it myself.

Rusty: Thank you, brother. Well, by the time this airs NBA playoffs will be done.

Mm-hmm and, um, NBA draft will be over with and we'll be lamenting, whatever Laker team we have left. So yeah,

Brad: you just mentioned two things we have no no part in.

Rusty: That's right! We don't even have a draft pick. Oh my goodness. All right, buddy. Thanks so much.

Brad: All right, Rusty talk to you soon.

Rusty: Well, thanks so much for listening. I would ask you to please leave a review and we will read it and we will draw a winner out of all the reviews left over the summer and give a great prize to at the end of this summer. And so that's coming up here in just a few weeks. So make sure that you leave a review really helps us get the word out about the podcast next week.

Oh, oh my goodness. My LA west coast friends are gonna love this. I got to have a conversation with one of the Dodgers Scouts. This is an individual that goes to high school and college baseball games looking for the next Walker Bueller, the next Clayton K. In fact, he is the guy that discovered Walker Bueller.

So Marty lamb joins us next week to talk about spotting talent and how to find that and make it simple. So thanks so much for listening and as always keep it simple.

Narrator: Take a moment and subscribe to the podcast. So you'll get it delivered every week and subscribe to the Rusty George YouTube channel for more devotionals messages and fun videos. Thank you for listening to Leading Simple.