Episode 200: The Power of Commitment

Darrin Peppard (: 00:01

All right, my friends, welcome into episode 200 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. I am your host, as always, Dr. Darren Peppered, and wow, we did it. 200 episodes of the Leaning Into Leadership podcasts and still going strong, still ranking way up there in the show rankings.

for leadership podcasts and education podcasts. And folks, that's all because of you in so many ways. The commitment that you bring to listening to these episodes, to really picking up the content that I'm working hard to bring to you, man, it just means so very much to me. And I'll tell you this, I I decided that for episode 200,

I wanted to really lean in and talk about commitment. To be honest with you, I struggled with what am I going to do with episode 200. I could not decide how do I want to celebrate this? How do I want to share this with my listening audience, my viewing audience on YouTube? And to be honest with you, I was kind of struck with a thought the other day.

I was on the airline flying home from keynoting a conference in Charlotte and the flight attendant was wearing a pin on her lapel and it had the number 30 on it and I asked her about it and she said, this is my 30 year pin working with American Airlines. And I thought, man, that is amazing. What a commitment.

this individual has made to supporting the patrons, the travelers of American Airlines. And what a commitment American Airlines has made to this individual. mean, her career has been made with American Airlines. And she said nothing but positive things. mean, certainly just asking her about that pin made her reflect a little bit on some of the moments in her career.

And I just really valued that conversation. And so it got me thinking about commitment and about reflection here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. And I want to start with talking a little bit more about commitment and what that really means. And I'll tell you for me, going back to when this show very first launched, our initial episode, episode number one, What Matters in Your Leadership?

th,: 2022

good friend, somebody I learned so much from when I was a school superintendent in Colorado. And I was hooked with having guests on the show from the very first guest, because what I discovered was I was learning as much from my guests as most likely my listeners were learning from my guests. And because I'm in this different space now,

And for me at the time, it was very new being a leadership coach, being leadership speaker, being an author, being a leadership content creator. It was very new and it was an incredible way for me to keep my saw sharp by engaging with these guests. And so I think at that time I was really making a commitment to you, the listener.

that I was gonna bring you quality guests and quality content to help you up your leadership game. That's what I really believed. That's what I really wanted to do. And I genuinely believe through 200 episodes that that is what we have done. The more I think about commitment, I'm taken back to a story. And a couple of times I've talked about it here on the show here not too long ago, I had my friend Bradley Skinner on as a guest.

ens Renaissance Conference in: 2015

One of the things that we did in that particular presentation was talk about how leaders honor their commitment. Leaders follow through on their word. And I shared the story of a gentleman named Alex Sheen. Now, if you know the Alex Sheen story, you're going to love this. If you don't, I'm going to tell it very quickly, but I'll also put something in the show notes so you can go check this out. So Alex lost his father.

to a battle with cancer in: 2012

because his father always followed through on a promise. Alex wrote up a bunch of cards that said, because I said I would on them and handed them to everyone at the service and said, write a promise to someone on these cards and then give it to them and then follow through on that promise. Alex eventually launched

the Because I Said I Would Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that has now become a massive, massive nonprofit organization providing inspiration, providing guidance, providing support, especially in schools and in prisons around what commitment really means. In fact, if you go to becauseicetihwood.org,

You can get 10 of those very promise cards at literally no cost. Bradley and I had reached out to the Because I Said I Would Foundation and said, hey, we're going to do a presentation. We'd like to have enough of these for everyone in our audience. And they sent us a thousand cards.

commitment is not only saying you're going to do something, but it's following through on it. And so for me, when I think about the commitment that I've made to you as listeners here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast, I say right in the introduction, you hear it every week, you may not catch it, but every single week, I say join me every Sunday for leadership insight, inspiration, and a little pep talk to keep you rolling down your road to awesome.

That's my commitment to you that I'm going to bring those things to you every single Sunday. And I will tell you that except for one Sunday, and I'll tell that story in a second, that's exactly what I've done. I have showed up every single Sunday and I hope that I have brought you some leadership insights, some inspiration, and I know I've brought you some pep talks to keep you rolling down your road to awesome. So I want to say this.

I think. In addition to bringing episodes that have come up midweek, I've done a handful of midweek. I'll talk about Todd and Dominic here in a couple of minutes in our midweek or our mid month run that will resume, by the way. I think that commitment to bringing episodes every single Sunday has become something that means so much to me.

People ask me all the time, what's one of the most important things when it comes to being in the space that you're in, the professional development space, the leadership speaker space, content creator space. And I'll tell you, one of the most important things I tell people all the time is you've got to show up consistently. If you can show up every single day, show up every single day. If you can show up once a week, show up once a week. If you can only show up twice a month, show up twice a month, but be consistent.

And so I made a commitment very early on, both to myself, but also to you, my listeners, that I am going to allow for.

this show to show up on a consistent basis every single Sunday.

and a half ago, the summer of: 2023

on the road pretty much nonstop for probably four, five, six weeks and started to not feel very good one day.

I woke up one morning, wasn't feeling very good. By the end of the day, I was in the emergency room, somewhere in the middle of the night. I was in emergency surgery. There was a belief that I had a perforated ulcer.

turned out it was my gallbladder had said, we're done. You and I are going to go our own separate ways, which is fine. But because I was in the hospital for five days, unfortunately, I did not have an episode queued up for that particular Sunday. So folks, that is the one Sunday that I missed out on. That's the one Sunday that I failed to meet my commitment. And it still bothers me.

to this day, it really, really does. I think that, you know, along the way, you know, in addition to, you know, a handful of different challenges, you know, busy schedules, you know, working to find the right guests, that type of thing. And then just finding stuff that I feel inspires me to talk about what's happening on the podcast has obviously been a challenge. But for the most part, I will tell you,

I've been really inspired by so many different guests and so many different topics here on the show. And so when I think about some of the guests that have inspired me, Katie Kinder has to be at the top of my list. And not just because Katie's been a guest on the show twice, but because Katie and I actually made the decision to write our new book, Culture First Classrooms, when Katie was a guest.

here on the podcast. you know, certainly I have found that I'm building relationships with people who have similar mindsets that I hold. I'm building relationships with people who value what my thoughts are and know that I will value their thoughts. And certainly Katie is right at the top of that list. I would add that

you know, for well over a year, every single month, we dropped a middle of the month episode, Dominic Armano and Todd Bloomer and I and we're going to get back to those we really are we both are the three of us rather have been pulled in so many different directions that it has just been extremely challenging to get some time on the calendar where the three of us can

be in front of a camera at the exact same time, but we'll definitely bring that back. And what I really enjoy about that is just, you know, the the genuinely human side of leadership that come from the conversations that I get to have with Todd and get to have a Dominic, certainly have built a great relationship with both of them. And I consider them both to be great friends of mine. But I also find that they are really wonderful leaders. And a big part of why I chose to have those two join me on a regular basis,

especially in a show that I never intended to have a co-host, was because of their perspectives. Todd in a large high school in San Antonio, Dominic in a good size elementary in New York, just really brought a different type of perspective to the show. And it gave us an opportunity to talk about stuff that's current because those two gentlemen are still right there in the chair.

Other guests that inspire me, it's hard to single anybody out because there's so many amazing ones. But I will say having Greg Bennett on the show was absolutely fantastic. Having Greg and his work with his Build a Better Now book. It was inspiring to listen to him talk about his book, but more importantly, some of the stories that he shared.

If you have not listened to that episode, make sure you go back. If you haven't bought a copy of Build a Better Now, you need to do it. It is such a great book. Honestly, I would tell you get the audiobook because then you get to listen to Greg. He's such a phenomenal speaker. He's such a wonderful storyteller. He tells a story early in the book about a truck going off a turnpike and right through the wall.

at Barnes and Noble right where he previously had been standing. And it's a fascinating story. But certainly he tells the story in the book, but he also talked about it on the podcast about keep your eye on the knife. And as somebody who believes so strongly in clarity and intentionality and on leaders really managing their priorities as much as they manage their time, Greg's keep your eye on the knife.

is one of my all time favorite stories to this point in time that has been told here on this podcast. Just a huge, huge fan of Greg Bennett and grateful that I still get to stay in connection with Greg Bennett. Man, some of the others that just really kind of leap to the front of my mind, you know, having people like Lauren Kaufman, who you really talked about that personalized leadership and Bradley Skinner, who was so vulnerable in sharing

his story. Luis Baez who man what an incredible story he is from you know a guy growing up you know in the streets in Jersey to to being such a successful entrepreneur but more importantly being that person who understands why we need to tell our story. Sean Gaylord who I just had an opportunity to spend some time with in North Carolina.

and some of the stories that Sean shared with us were just super, super powerful. Man, just so many people, know, they're just flooding through my mind. Brian Martin, the work of Brian Martin in New York is fantastic. Megan Lawson and Lainey Rowell, mean, just on and on. Charlie Peck, Joshua Stamper. I can't say enough about so many of these incredible

people. And I've built so many great relationships with so many of them as a result of it. And I mentioned Joshua Stamper. So I want to talk a little bit about that. When I think about guests who have inspired me, Joshua and I have done twice where we've recorded an episode together and released it on both of our platforms. I did the same thing with Brian Martin with the shirts or not, not Brian Martin. I'm sorry. Brian Miller with the shirts and ties podcast. You know, just those connections are just

Amazing. And what they create really are opportunities. You know, I think about having Nick Edwards on the podcast quite some time ago, and then the friendship and relationship that Nick and I have developed and the opportunity I have to maybe pour a little bit into Nick, as somebody who's just starting to find his way into speaking and professional development. But but ultimately, I mean, that that led to an opportunity to work with Nick's district.

for an entire school year, which was absolutely amazing. again, obviously collaboration and the opportunities to co-author with Katie were amazing. And a number of people who have reached out to me as a result of listening to the podcast and saying, hey, Darren, I'd love to have you come give my staff a pep talk. Hey, Darren, I'd love to have you come keynote our conference.

You know, we were thinking about you and then we listened to your podcast a little bit more and we said, man, we have got to have you come be a part of what we do here with our organization. And, you know, that's to me, that's, that's a big part of, of just following through with my commitment of showing up every single day, you know, because the platform here that the podcast provides for me and for all of my guests who are a part of the show is to just authentically share.

the philosophy that we have around leadership and to just really build those deep connections with other people. Again, if you're a regular listener, you've heard me say it. If you've heard me speak, you've heard me say it. We're in the people business and we can't forget about that. And something I never expected about this podcast was how that element would become so true and so evident.

You know, you're on a podcast, yes, you're having a conversation, you're recording through a different platform, but the relationship building, when you're genuine and when you're authentic about it, you still find ways to build those relationships. One more I'll share, and this is one, he's been on my podcast, but our relationship started by me being on his, and that's Dr. Frederick Busky. know, Dr. Busky and I now are doing some work together.

in the state of North Carolina, that whole North Carolina mid-level educator group, David James, who's been on the show a couple of times. Again, folks, it gets back to the relationship piece. So where are we going from here? Man, can riff for hours, I think, on the commitment that I feel I'm making to you and the commitment that I appreciate from you.

in showing up every weekend listening to and consuming the content. But I want to talk about where I see this show going. know, a while back, I really started looking deeply at our analytics. And to be honest with you, there was a pretty significant drop in our listening audience. And we probably dropped by about, I'd say 20 to 25 % monthly downloads.

over the course of a couple of weeks or rather over the course of a couple of months. And it made me made me kind of, you know, pause a little bit and think, you know, what's what's going on here? And I wonder where it is that I'm missing the mark. And I started looking back at the guests that I had been bringing in. Early on, I was just kind of grasping at straws for who do I want to have on the show?

As time went along, the show started to really gain popularity and I started getting a lot of solicited opportunities to bring people on the show. So out in the space, if you don't know this, there are companies that actually help get people on podcasts. Podcast promoters essentially is what they are. And it's people who maybe have written a book or people who are, you know, trying to sell a course or people who are

consultants or whatever, right? I mean, there's a lot of different reasons to try to get on podcasts. And I started getting a lot of those requests. And I mean a lot of those requests. And I do follow a process. I don't just, you know, blindly say, yes, I require that people meet with me so we get a chance to get to know each other a little bit and then decide whether or not to have them on the show.

But I was really leaning heavily into those solicited guests. In fact, there's probably close to a year of episodes that are mostly solicited guests. Folks, that's when I started to see the decline, especially in the latter part of that run of people aren't listening as much to the show. To me, what that said was as a listening audience,

I was missing the mark for you. You really want to see, you really want to hear from the people in the space that you're working. Not that you don't occasionally want somebody from a different space in leadership. I've said it many, many times. I believe we can learn from great leaders in all walks of life because leadership is leadership no matter where the medium is, what the medium is that you utilize for it. But it was clear to me.

that what you really wanted was more in that educational space. And so I'm renewing my commitment to you, my listening audience that I'm really going to lean into very heavily, getting those guests that really can help us and really bring that leadership insight, a little bit of inspiration and help me really shape some great pep docs to

keep you going down your road to awesome. So I really do want to acknowledge how much I appreciate not just what was in the analytics. I also had a lot of conversations with people who are regular listeners to the show. I got a handful of emails from people, know, just saying, Hey, I really, you know, I really value, especially here recently, I really value that you are moving back into more educational guests, because I think that really makes a difference for me.

What I've learned, think, as a result of that, and as a result of 200 episodes now, is that we grow personally, our own personal growth.

comes from consistency. You know, to me that that consistency is what commitment is all about. And commitment is what fuels clarity. You know how much clarity means to me. We can't expect people to hit a target if we can't be clear about what it is what that target is. We can't hit a target for ourselves. If we aren't clear about what that target is. I think consistency is what builds trust.

Trust is what builds credibility.

I'm going to go all the way back to a very first start of the show.

I remember members of my family asking, why do you want to do a podcast? I remember my, my business coach asking me, why do you want to do a podcast? And I said, you know, I really feel like this is an opportunity to

further our brand to grow our brand. This is an opportunity to further stamp myself in the leadership space in the education space. And this is a way I believe, to grow and gain even more credibility. You know, writing a book is great. Writing two books is great writing three books is great.

But that isn't what necessarily brings you the credibility. To me, it's that commitment and that consistency. Being really clear about what you care about and then really leaning in and doing it and following through with it. That's what really builds the credibility. And I'm very confident that that is a big part of why you continue to show up, continue to listen.

and continue to enjoy and rate and five star and so forth, the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. So that's my commitment for the future, is to really lean in to educators and school leaders and to do everything I can to serve you through this podcast. Now again, I want it to be about inspiration, I want it to be about insights. I want you

to listen to an episode and say, man, I took away so much. Folks, I got five different messages this week from people saying, holy cow, the value that Ray Hewitt brought in episode 199 was off the charts. Several people who reached out just simply to tell me, hey, I downloaded that email hack that Ray shared on the podcast and it's the greatest thing ever.

Folks, those are the kinds of things I wanna bring to you. I wanna make sure that going forward, we are bringing ways that you could be more efficient, you can be more effective, you can really get that ignition going again and be passionate about what you do because what you do makes a difference and what you do really matters. So I invite you to continue.

To provide that feedback, invite you to continue to listen here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. And I invite you to maybe share with me what your commitment is to making a positive impact in leadership. In fact, let's make that the pep talk this week. As I love to say here on the show, and now it's time for a pep talk.

I've spent this entire episode talking about commitment, my commitment to you, your commitment to showing up and listening to the show. And now let's talk about specifically a commitment to making an impact as a leader.

I've told the story many, many times when I first became a building principal, I thought I had to be everything to everybody. I thought I had to be the superhero. Eventually, I figured out that truly what it means to be a great leader is empowering others to solve their own problems, empowering others to take ownership of the vision and empowering others to find their own road to awesome.

So my question for you today here in the pep talk and to wrap up this podcast episode is what commitment can you make today to positively impact your leadership? Now that might be a commitment that you make to yourself about you. That might be a commitment that you think about making to your staff, to your students, to your family.

But I want to challenge you to make a today that can positively impact your leadership. Hey, that's what I've got for you this week here on episode 200 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Again, I would love to have you engage with us through social media. Please, if you have not yet given us a review on your favorite podcast platform, please do so.

Folks, those reviews, those five star ratings make such a difference in driving the algorithm and getting the podcast in front of more listeners like you who are looking to lean into leadership. Thank you so much, folks. Get out there and have a road to awesome week.