Michael King 0:00
Steve Jobs was fired from his own company. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison in Abraham Lincoln. He failed in business. He had a nervous breakdown and was defeated in eight elections. Now they all went on to experience tremendous success. Now, as an executive coach, I have a legitimate soft spot for leaders that have actually experienced rock bottom, but has embraced honesty. As a society, we tend to move on very quickly from someone who is experienced failure, mostly for the right reasons. However, I am a little different. There’s something so powerful about the next chapter of a leader that knows where they went wrong in the first place, embraces it, and does the work to ensure that it never happens again. I want to be a part of that story. In talking with today’s guests, we’re going to hear about how focusing on what you can do can be the best thing that you could ever do. Welcome to the level of leader podcast. I’m your host, Michael King. I’m an executive coach and founder of teams dot coach. I work with sea level leaders to clarify to expand the vision and elevate performance and elevate their leadership. On today’s podcast, I am joined by miles Welch miles, Welch’s, a leadership coach with amazing experience in business and in the church. I’ve been miles coach for close to two years. And I’ve seen him triple the size of his business and income over the time that I’ve actually worked with him. But more importantly, I’ve seen miles life transform, and I see the effects of that and the leaders that he serves. So everyone, please welcome Myles Welcome to the level of theater podcast. Miles Welch, welcome to the level up leader podcast. It’s so great to have you man.
Miles Welch 1:53
Yeah, dude, awesome to be here. Thanks for having me. So,
Michael King 1:57
we’ve been we’ve been working together now. For for probably, I don’t know, close to a couple years. Yep. And I’ve like literally seen you level up, you know, and go through this just this absolute transformation of actually being a coach, serving the spaces that you’re in leading your life. Well. Talk to me a little bit about like, who is Myles Welch? What do you do? And what makes you tick?
Miles Welch 2:21
Yeah, well, I’m, I’m a California boy, originally, I don’t even know if you knew that. And came over to Atlanta when in 2001. And took a job actually at a church out here, a big old church that that I worked at for 20 years, and transitioned into coaching after that. And dude, I mean, I am a like, I was always more of a leader than a pastor, even when I was in the pastor space. Like, I wasn’t, I wasn’t the dude, you want to show up at your, you know, in the hospital, that wasn’t me. Ever. Never. I was never that dude. I was always more of like, busy, you know, in the, in the boardroom strategy, that those kinds of things I ended up you know, being part of the John Maxwell Leadership Center and actually running that for a while. So I was just always more in the leadership space anyways. And, and so, a couple years back, I made the transition to being a full time coach and helping people run their businesses and their churches and their nonprofits and that kind of thing. That’s kind of who I am. And
Michael King 3:24
that’s amazing. I don’t know if you you know, this, but I was actually what you do know this, actually, we I was in the hospital a couple weeks ago with kidney stones. Yeah. And they come they come over and they’re like, hey, is there any? Would you like to have anybody here? Or is there anybody that anything that we can do for you? And I was like, Well, if there is anybody to have here, just make sure it’s not Myles Welch. Like, when it comes to?
Miles Welch 3:46
Yeah, I’ll show up with my whiteboard and try to like help you, you know, navigate through it as best as possible, which is not what you need in that moment. At all.
Michael King 3:58
No, that’s, that’s amazing. Now, we know, we come from similar backgrounds a little bit like we’ve, you know, I’ve I was in ministry for a couple decades, you were there as well. I don’t really coach tons of churches, I’m a little bit more selective when it comes to, there has to be a really, really strong compelling why I would cross over and help out in that space, not because I’m against the church or anything like that. It’s just when it comes to actually, it takes a really special leader in the church space to actually see progress. Right.
Miles Welch 4:28
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll tell you, I, you know, as, as my coaching practice grows, you know, I get to be a little more selective also, and, and the leaders that I want to work with in the church are building tomorrow’s church. You know, I think there’s a lot of people that that are just kind of trying to do what used to be and trying to, you know, trying to make the old model work a little bit longer, but I really think new things are happening and I think that there is, you know, room for the church in the future and I kind of think what the church is going to be Moving Forward could be kind of cool. And and I want to help young leaders that I think, have a vision for something that’s interesting to me. I want to help them build their thing.
Michael King 5:11
Yeah, that’s, that’s interesting to me, that that actually draws me into something that’s, that’s pretty significant. Because I think that that’s one of the, the areas of being a part of, you know, the large mega church movement for last couple of decades, even even a part of the music industry, the Christian music side of things for a while, you, you kind of get this idea that maybe, maybe it’s this uphill thing that COVID helped push us forward into this post Christian America so much faster. And so the church needs to do something radically different in order for them to get credibility back into some spaces that they might have lost footing along the way. Which would you agree with that? Yeah,
Miles Welch 5:49
totally. I remember, you know, being on the executive team of a huge mega church and all that I remember, I remember I kept introducing ideas to the to the executive room, like, I remember saying, once, guys, I’m not saying the car doesn’t work. I’m just saying there’s 150,000 miles on this thing. And it ain’t the same. Can we just acknowledge that? And there was just like this overwhelming like, no, no, no, this is let’s just keep doing what we’re doing. It works. And, and I do think that COVID has accelerated, you know, for some, the new and I think there’s I like my church clients, I think it’s like 5050, half, are just desperate to get back to what they knew before. COVID. And half, are like, okay, so what do we do now? And, you know, so those are the ones I actually love to work with, and and build with? That’s a lot of fun.
Michael King 6:37
Yeah, you nailed it, the churches that we see moving forward in a way that’s healthy, and is actually they’re actually leaning towards something that’s productive, or the churches that aren’t trying to chase down the identity of what they were prior to COVID. Right, through the churches that are willing to say, let’s build something new and make a bigger impact doing the right thing. Yep. The right thing is hard, right? The right thing causes you to actually recognize that something was wrong in the first place, and that you have to reevaluate and decide true values and true identity and true mission. Right. That gets complicated, doesn’t it? Yeah. And
Miles Welch 7:15
I think the systems that make you successful in one paradigm make you unsuccessful in the next. And so it’s really hard to make transitions. And it isn’t even, you know, anyone’s fault. I mean, just if you think about like Blockbuster to Netflix, we all look at it the now and go Well, that was an obvious change. Well, I think it would have been hard to own all that property. And then tell you it doesn’t matter. I have to believe that that the again, the paradigm that made them successful, was was also the paradigm that that made them unable to make the transition. And I think we give them a lot of flack. I don’t know if any of us were in the boardroom and looking at all that property we just said yeah, um, none of that matters. Now, that would have been that have been a bold person.
Michael King 8:05
Yeah, absolutely. Maybe we could, we could probably talk about church leadership all day long. In fact, we with with teams that coach my company, we’ve been chatting, and also, I’ve been chatting with you a little bit on doing some partnership, collaboration, stuff that’s specifically designed for church leaders. So I’m excited to bounce into that in the future. But today, I wanted to just talk about you, and I want you to bring some I want you to bring some drop some gold on us. To my audience,
Miles Welch 8:33
I’ll try so
Michael King 8:36
at some point in time, you decided there was something that happened within your life, and then you decided, You know what, I have to level up my leadership before I can actually make an impact elsewhere. Talk to me a little bit about what that meant to level up for you and what that looked like.
Miles Welch 8:49
Yeah, man. So I mean, you know, you know, my story and, and the hearing go, so it’s, you know, it was a few years ago, as COVID was landing on all of us, that it became clear that I was no longer going to be working at the church or working as a pastor. Because my marriage was coming to an end. And I mean, like my kids, I lost my career, my community, my marriage. I mean, you just like the number I literally I owned two homes and ended up living in my friend’s basement. And and older gentleman that that was a mentor of mine, very fortunate to have him but but I mean, the the amount of, you know, the amount of leveling down I did to get there was pretty significant. And, and I’m, I’m just I was there and I was in the mess of it. And you know, I had a lot going on, Michael and I remember the first day waking up in that basement, which was incredibly as you can imagine depressed Seeing and and, you know, discouraging and, and my head is spinning about all that I had just last I looked he had a whiteboard in his in the basement and he had taught his, he had adopted kids from Russia and then homeschool them and his basement was kind of the classroom. So there was a whiteboard in there. And, and I remember walking up to the right board. And and I just had I wrote a sentence, and it said, do what you can do. And I underlined can, because there was now so many. There was now so many things I couldn’t do that I that that became an overwhelming thought of all you know, I think it’s easy to obsess over what you can’t do, because that’s where you’re the most vulnerable. And, and I had to train myself to do what I could do so so again, you know, just lost my job, lost my career, lost my family, lost my community, living in a basement. Well, I can heal, and I can I can feel pain and I can heal, I can reach out to people I know. And get advice, I can begin to talk and and literally every day and sometimes hour by hour, I had to go back to that whiteboard. And just okay, what is it that I can do? And, you know, I can get in shape? I can and I just and eventually it was well I can launch a coaching practice. And I mean, there was a there was a moment in there, Michael, where I was, I was literally writing out an application for nighttime stalker at nighttime stalkers, how about the stock shelves, stocking shelves, at a Kroger supermarket, because I just needed to start money. And some of the advice I got was, you know, instead of that you’ve always been a coach, you might as well launch it, and just you’re gonna end up coaching, so just get to the coaching. And, and, and you were even part of that early on. And that’s kind of what I started doing. And, and it was literally a process of every day. You know, I think for all of us in COVID, there was a whole list of things we couldn’t do. But I just began to focus on what is it that I can do. And that’s what I’m still doing today. I mean, I just just you know, I’ve I’ve managed to build an actual coaching practice that actually, you know, I think into two and a half years, I’m I’m pretty grateful with where I’m at.
Michael King 12:38
Absolutely, you’ve, you’ve built something substantial and significant. And you’re making an impact, probably a bigger impact than you’ve ever made before in your life.
Miles Welch 12:46
I think that’s true.
Michael King 12:48
I, I love the statement of do what you can do, I went through a similar process, different circumstances, but very similar outcomes and similar process and getting up and waking, you know, and just realizing that you have to put one foot in front of the other, and you have to move towards the things that are that are fruitful and possible. And that serve you the best because because before you can make an impact anywhere else, you have to be able to lead yourself better than you’ve ever led yourself.
Miles Welch 13:16
And if you focus on what you can do what you can do gross, if you focus on what you can’t do what you can’t do gross. And and so that’s
Michael King 13:25
what I was just going to share too, is that, you know, like part of my job as an executive coach is literally to make your CANDU bigger, to help you see something that you’ve never seen before. And that’s really kind of where you and I we connected was that I saw something fantastic in you. And and you’ve become a really good friend. And I’ve just absolutely, I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve actually talked to other coaches or talked to other leaders. And I’ve bragged about just the trajectory of your life, the potential of where you’re going in your future. But that started with some really, really deep soul searching and high levels of self awareness to knowing what you had to get out of right. Yeah, for sure. That’s amazing. So you’re gonna bring some stuff to us today. But so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about when it comes to, to you as a leader and you as an exec as an executive coach, and that you’re coaching other leaders on how to, you know, up their game, what is something that’s in your toolbox? What’s something that you use regularly, that helps you helps you create next level for other people?
Miles Welch 14:31
Yeah, I think, you know, you talk a lot about superpower, right? I think one of the things that I’ve always been able to do is sit and listen to somebody tell me their scenario, extract the information that matters and then and then chart a course forward for them. And so there that’s kind of you know, we You’ve called it clear path forward. That’s that’s kind of what I, my coaching style is, let me where are you at? What are you? What are you working in, and let me help you chart a course forward. And this has taken on a variety of forms from, you know, I’m working with a lawyer, who he’s risen as a lawyer to lead other lawyers, but he has no experience leading a team. And so I’m coaching him in team leadership. And, and literally just sitting down saying, Okay, you, you need to have a meeting. And in that meeting, you need to invite the team to hey, you know, we’re going to generate 10 new clients, from the ideas in this room, and I’m walking him through, giving him a clear path forward as a leader of that team. And so that’s kind of my coaching with him. And they went and they went and did it. They, you know, his, he got these young junior lawyers together, they, they set a goal, they set a plan, they reach their goal, all of them are thrilled. They’re growing as leaders, he’s growing as a team leader, everyone’s pumped, they’re the they’re the most motivated group of leaders in the whole practice. And, and now we’re, we’re on to Okay, so what’s next? And how do we, you know, if I’m helping him chart a course forward for leading his team, there’s another organization, a church, actually, it’s one of my favorite churches that I work with. They came to me and said, you know, we have multiple 1000 people, but we don’t feel like we have a lot of really authentic followers of Jesus, we have a lot of attenders. And we don’t want to go back to that model. So this is why I like the church because they they’re on the new like, we want, we want something a little deeper than what we had. And so I’ve been working with them since about Easter, to launch a, you know, so I help them define what does it What does What do you mean, when you say follow Jesus, and then I helped them build a strategy to implement that and, and they’re actually test pilot piloting it in the next couple of weeks, and then launching it in in January, and I’m kind of helping them again, just chart a clear path forward for them. And that’s just what I go on and on with those kinds of stories.
Michael King 17:18
I love that I do I do like that. And also on that church side of things. You we talked about just that, that a little bit of that malaise type sickness that churches can feel or that that desire for them to be able to want to be what they were prior to COVID. Right. And so now what you’re saying is that you have this client, that’s literally saying, Hey, man, what we recognize is that this is actually a little bit better. But we want to we want to amplify this.
Miles Welch 17:42
Yeah. And and I love the the leader of that church, because he’s an he’s, he’s old enough to write it out without really changing. And I would imagine, there’s a lot of security in that thought. And there’s a lot of you know, that I would imagine that could be any really easy decision to make, to just kind of write it out, let the next generation figure out what’s next. And he this guy just basically said, I don’t let’s pull it up. Let’s start over what, what’s the future? And I love it. Yep. Yep.
Michael King 18:12
What is the number one problem that you’re seeing right now, in organizations and in churches? When it comes to leadership?
Miles Welch 18:19
Yeah, the the clients that I work with the probably the the number one thing I’m seeing, and I think it’s residual from COVID. And all the changes in in everything. If I could put a word to it, it’s fear. And here’s how it plays out. A lot of my clients did. They’re just, they’re not betting as big in this season, as I think they should, if that makes sense. I think this is a season where the there’s so much opportunity for growth and potential, I think there’s so much potential to leverage what you have, like I like in some ways, there’s just there’s, I think there’s so much we can go do. But I think people are a little bit afraid, particularly the people that they maybe their organizational identity is not as solid. And so they struggle with the new realities. A little bit more than other organizations. But if I could boil it down, it’s fear and it plays out in in, they’re placing smaller bets than I think they should.
Michael King 19:26
Do you think they’re playing? That’s the way it plays out? Yeah. Is that they’re making smaller? Yeah. What’s the what is what is the what’s the cause of the fear? Like where’s this insecurity coming from?
Miles Welch 19:36
Yeah, I to me, I think it’s the, the all the changes from that, that our society has undergone. I think the fear about the economy in the future. I think there’s fear that you know, I think there’s just a lot of there. Our world is not as stable seemingly as it was, and I think there’s some residual from COVID and and all All of that, I think, I think, you know, they’re not that even COVID is over. But I think there’s a lot of trauma that people are working through. And and I think a part of that is just, it’s easy to play smaller bets right now and just kind of play it safe. But I, you know, the clients I’m working with, I’m like, man, let’s let’s, I think it’s an, it’s a really good time to swing bigger, not smaller.
Michael King 20:26
So when it comes to battling this fear, I mean, we recognize that fear and insecurity, that these things are in the water that this is a huge problem. So what do you do about that? Like, what do you do to try to minimize the effects of fear and insecurity within your life organization? Maybe church?
Miles Welch 20:44
Yeah, I think I think within an organization, the more clarified your organizational identity and culture is, the more capable you are of handling an uncertain reality. And so I think organizations, you know, even throughout COVID, that were in a lot of trouble. They weren’t clear on who they were. And then the world changed, and there was just too much there was, there’s too much for them. And for me, I think organizationally, there is a there is a need to be very clear on our vision, our values, what is it? We’re trying to do? What what what problems in the world are we trying to solve? Who are we trying to become? And the more clear you are, the more capable you are of adapting as the world evolves? Yeah, absolutely. Because because I don’t think any of us have, you know, I don’t think any of us can, can predict as well as we used to what the future is going to look like. So you need to get really smart about who you are, so that you can adapt a lot better.
Michael King 21:51
Yeah, there’s this level of fear that pops up in you as a leader, when you recognize that the thing that you’ve been doing for so long no longer is actually landing with an audience, or that the audience was never there in the first place. But when you have all these different moments happening, whether it’s their COVID, or whether it’s their social, economical or political, whatever it is, that’s like flipping your world upside down. There’s this catalyst moment, psychologically and emotionally that reminds you that something’s different. And then you’re able to pause long enough to go, oh, wait, I’m not relevant. And that really freaks people out. Yeah, that’s good. So recognizing, number one is that you’re built for something different. And number two is making those changes to be relevant to the thing that you were meant to do in the first place.
Miles Welch 22:43
Right? And not necessarily, you know, if not necessarily identifying yourself through your product, but rather through your value, so that 100% your products can evolve, as the world evolves, but your value to your customer on the other end doesn’t necessarily change your delivery system change.
Michael King 23:07
And yeah, absolutely. And I think on that same note to your products and your services aren’t your systems and your structures?
Miles Welch 23:15
Right, right. Exactly.
Michael King 23:18
And I think that that’s where people get started get freaked out a little bit is that when, when I start to feel a little bit insecure about my, my efficacy, or my effectiveness as a leader, there’s, there’s a tendency that I actually might go back to my office, and I might, there’s a huge old whiteboard that’s across the back wall in my office in there’s, like, if I want a good day of just self therapy, what might not be effective, because I’m probably what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna probably come back here, I’m gonna look at my systems and my strategies, and I’m gonna start to build a new structure. Yeah, to see if I can improve performance for my organization or whatnot. But the first thing I really need to do is I need to ask that question about relevancy. And making sure that it’s attached to my value. And my values as a leader. That’s a that’s really wise. And that’s really good, right? Yeah. Well,
Miles Welch 24:06
I’ll tell you, in the world of church, if you just think about it, you know, everyone stopped going to church and everyone went online, right? The whole world started going to church online. And so when COVID was kinda all the shutdowns were kind of coming to an end. Everyone’s trying to come everyone, every church leaders trying to get their people to come back. And some see online church as a problem to be solved. Because they’re thinking small, and fear is just getting them back. And some see, like, you know, Some see it as an opportunity to go reach new people with their message. And it’s literally just how small Do you think versus how big you think and I think fear is the thing that that determines whether you think big or small and that’s in in scenarios like that in every industry. I love it. I love it. Yeah. We have,
Michael King 25:01
I’m going to have you on a future podcast, I’m going to dive in a little bit on some of your some of the things that you specialize in in the future. But until then, how would people get a hold of you or find you, if they wanted to be able to track down and just network with you?
Miles Welch 25:14
Yeah, I’d love that. I’ll tell you the best way right now is on my Facebook page miles wealth coaching. I also have a website, Church coach.co, if you’re in the church space that might be more relevant to you. But miles Welch coaching is my Facebook page. And you can like that, follow that and then kind of see, you know, so I have some videos and some content on there. And there’s a way to get a hold of me, I’d love to chat, you can message me there.
Michael King 25:39
Awesome. And for everybody that’s listening, one of the best things that you can do is just to hop on into facebook and join our level up leader group. It’s free and extra miles is actually in that group as well. So all of our all of our content providers are hopping into the community so they can they can interact with you. So, man, you have been you’re a gym. I love working with you. And I love seeing you grow and just absolutely blown this thing up. So congratulations on all the success and I look forward to future conversations regarding leadership.
Miles Welch 26:09
Let’s do it. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.
Michael King 26:12
So thank you for joining us today on the level up leader podcast. If you enjoy the episode, consider leaving a review on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts, it helps to get the word out. And make sure to like, subscribe and follow so you get all of our content. Now Myles shared a story about waking up and writing on the whiteboard, do what you can do. I like the simplicity of this, but also the bold transparency that comes with this as well. So many times it’s easy for us to get distracted and only focus on the things that we can’t do. Myles also stated that if we focus on the things that we can do, the can do grows. So take some time, jot down your can do list. Let’s let this get our focus today. Also share your thoughts on today’s episode in the level up leader group on Facebook miles would love to see you there. A special thank you to our featured artists names without numbers for allowing us to use their music. We decided that we only wanted to feature music that I have produced as a music producer. So that’s pretty great. Thank you guys. Now to find out what we’re up to and everything that’s going on please check us out at www dot teams dot coach and don’t forget to join our Facebook group at WWW dot teams dot coach slash level of leaders
