Jul 14, 2020
"Teamwork makes the dream work," John C. Maxwell. I'm Tara Jaraysi-Kenning and I'm a Tri-Cities influencer.
Paul Casey:
Get your priorities done near the beginning of your day. Research says that between 10 and 12 o'clock is typically the most creative time of the day for most people.
Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience.
Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success.
Paul Casey:
Thank you for joining me for today's episode with Matt Molt. Matt is the lead pastor of New Vintage Church. He's my pastor, and so I brought him on for this special episode. Matt, and what I know about you, because I always ask the quirky question, is you love Star Wars, not just a little. Talk about that.
Matt Molt:
Well, I just had a birthday and most of my gifts were Star Wars related because people know that. I buy my tickets the moment they go on sale for the movies. I got Disney+ so I can watch The Mandalorian and then cancel it when I've watched it all, and I'll re-up it this fall when the new season comes out. So I do love it. I love Costco, Star Wars and Tri-Cities. I really have a passion for all those. Yeah.
Paul Casey:
Woo hoo. Well, we're going to dive in with Matt after checking with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor.
Preston House:
Hi, my name is Preston House and I'm the local owner of Papa John's Pizza, right here in Tri-Cities.
Jesus Melendez:
I'm Jesus Melendez, Vice President and Commercial Lender with Community First Bank and HFG Trust.
Preston House:
When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old, so when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner.
Jesus Melendez:
Small business owners often have a lot on their plate. Employment, retirement plans, payroll, bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life and is motivated by providing people in our community, like Preston, with all the information and support they need, all under one roof.
Preston House:
It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call. No automated prompts, no call waiting. It's just a local business serving another local business.
Jesus Melendez:
For more information on how Community First Bank and HFG Trust can help you get back on track, visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community 1-S-T.com.
Paul Casey:
Thank you for your supportive leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome Matt and ... Welcome, Matt, that sounds sort of funny. You probably had that one happen before as well.
Matt Molt:
Welcome Matt.
Paul Casey:
I was privileged to meet years ago just in passing, but more recently in joining New Vintage Church in the fall, October, and getting to know you on a one-to-one basis, becoming friends. It's been awesome. I know you have a desire to influence here in the Tri-Cities. I have the For Tri-City shirt sold at the church, and great to be able to interview you today.
Matt Molt:
Now, I thought this was going to be an intervention that I was going to do some deep soul work on you, but I guess this is going in another direction.
Paul Casey:
I'm asking the questions now, buddy. So that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of your highlights that has led you to your current position and why you love doing what you do.
Matt Molt:
Sure. So just for context for people, I just turned 50-
Paul Casey:
Woo hoo. Me too.
Matt Molt:
... June 30. And so yeah, now my gray in my beard makes sense. We moved to the Tri-Cities 10 years ago to start New Vintage Church. So back before that, some of the career points were that I worked for my dad in construction a lot growing up. All kinds of different things, mostly brick, concrete, things like that. And then I worked for my uncle for seven years at a used tire store in North Portland. That, I have a lot of stories from. A lot of crazy things. That got me through college. It was called Ed's High Treads. And then I did carpet installation, had my own truck, and then worked for a large retailer in Portland people might not know. But I end up scheduling all their installers, which was a nightmare for carpet companies. So I ended up coordinating, creating an entire department for this big retailer and that was a big learning curve and a lot of fun.
Matt Molt:
And then my passion was always to help young people, so I ended up working for a church in Vancouver, and worked there for 13 years with young people. I did 19 years total of youth work in my life. Seven of it was volunteer and then I got paid, and then felt that internal nudge to go start New Vintage and started trying to think of where to go. We ended up in Tri-Cities and love it here. So that's what got us here. I can tell you what I love about it.
Matt Molt:
I love a couple of things. One, is I think any, no matter what people do for a job, I happen to be a pastor, but I think people are trying to tell a story. So they're trying to say why you should buy this coffee mug or why you should go to this restaurant. And so I'm trying to connect the dots between, essentially, a 2000 year old story of Jesus in the Bible, to a modern culture where everybody has smartphones and try to make it make sense. So for me, I have a real passion of bridging that gap for people.
Matt Molt:
I also, along with that, I love resourcing people. So I love to ... If you said, "Hey, what's a great book on this? Where do I go to get the best Thai food in Tri-Cities," I love helping people find answers. So those are passions for me. And I guess the final thing is I love people. I think people, they're the biggest pain points in my entire life, but they're also the most rewarding things. So I like sticking with it with people and seeing how that works out. Those are what I'm passionate about.
Paul Casey:
That is awesome. And your passion is evident.
Matt Molt:
Oh, good.
Paul Casey:
Well, Ed's High Treads.
Matt Molt:
Yes.
Paul Casey:
Tell me what ... From before you went into the church world, what are some lessons maybe you learned from those first few jobs?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, well, so it was my uncle Ed and myself were the only employees and sometimes we'd have five or six cars at a time going. And man, it was a little bit of a scary neighborhood, looking back. I had people one time come in and start stealing tires. Just open up their trunk, start throwing them in there. I had to go and say, "Hey, I need you to open your trunk," and I start pulling the tires out. And they're like, "What are you doing? Those are my ..." So the confrontation was terrifying. Had a one gal get dumped off, literally pushed out of her car onto our corner, from some really bad boyfriend scenario. So we called for a ambulance.
Matt Molt:
And learning how to open and close, how to be responsible for the money, how to do all of those things, ordering parts. I was literally dumped into the hot water. I was not slowly turned up. So everything was a learning curve for me. And I actually thrive a little bit in that. I'm a kinesthetic learner, you know?
Paul Casey:
Okay. Yep. Hands-on. Yeah.
Matt Molt:
If I can do it, I can learn it. So that gave me a lot of experience. And man, it was hard work. You get dirty working with tires. But yeah, I enjoyed it. It was good, hard work.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. Matt brought up kinesthetic learning. You're either audio, visual or kinesthetic. I'll put this in the show notes, so a free link to one of those quizzes to see which one you are. Most people are visual and then kinesthetic, usually number two, and audio, you podcast listeners, you maybe lean a little bit more toward audio. We'll see when you take the test.
Paul Casey:
So Matt, throughout your journey, you hit some obstacles to success, right? So what's one of the biggest hurdles you overcame in your career?
Matt Molt:
This is easy. I think because I love working with people, I was not good at conflict or conflict resolution. That was a huge hurdle when you're trying to lead people because in small organizations, you can get everybody to think like you or hire the people to think like you, but if you're going to make a difference, somebody told me this, you can either have growth or you can have peace, but you can't have both. So if you're going to have growth, if you're going to grow your organization, you're going to have conflict.
Matt Molt:
And so conflict and learning how to deal with that, I think has been the biggest thing. So our team went through a book called Radical Candor. It's a great-
Paul Casey:
It's a great book, yes. Read it last year.
Matt Molt:
So that became a framework for us to be able to have the tools and common language to go, "When I have a talk with you, I want to have a radical candor talk." And because we had already built the relationship capital, we could then go, "Okay, this is going to be an honest talk." So that was probably one of the biggest learning things for me, and it was terrifying because my personality style is not conflict-oriented. So that was probably the biggest thing.
Paul Casey:
Yeah, that book, Radical Candor, I can picture the quadrants, right?
Matt Molt:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Paul Casey:
The one that's super aggressive. Do you remember the terms in there? There's the super aggressive, there's the passive aggressive, and then there's the milk, toast kind of ...
Matt Molt:
Yeah. There's the X and Y almost axis.
Paul Casey:
Right?
Matt Molt:
And it's less care and more care, and less honesty and more honesty. You want to be in that fourth, final quadrant: lots of care, that allows lots of honesty. But that takes time and investment.
Paul Casey:
It's a great book. We'll put that in the show notes as well. I love how you said growth or peace, never both. And I've heard growth or control, never both. Either way, it's the same. If you want growth, you're going to have to go there. The danger zone.
Matt Molt:
Yeah.
Paul Casey:
Leadership is difficult. So what is your biggest ongoing challenge as a leader? And what's really stretching, it could be stretching you in a great way or at a very uncomfortable way?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. That is a really good question. I would say trying to stay rooted to what I know ... So our cultures learn the terms "essential services," but in our individual lives, because everything's changed so much, I've had to go, "Okay, what's essential or core?" And so for me, in church world, we can't even meet. Again, I know that this is going to get played at a different time, but so we're trying to be creative with online. We're trying to be creative doing some parking lot things.
Matt Molt:
What that has done, is created a real sense of having to go, "What is essential? What is core?" And then the challenge is not just coming down to the bottom, the lowest common denominator, but the challenge is to stay rooted and to pivot. So I feel like for the last four months of my life, it's been, and really for all of my leadership, it's constant agility, constant pivoting. So we can talk more about that if you want to, but learning a few things about that.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. Have you already decided as a team, a leadership team, what's no longer going to be? You know, for the future, there's a new essential, maybe that has emerged?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. We, as a team, when COVID started, I was in Denver and I remember they shut down sports, then they shut down Disneyland, schools, and I went, "Okay, this is going to be ... This is not going to be three weeks and we're done." So we get back into town, meet with our team, and I said, "Look, we're going to plan as if this is going to be a year long before we could ever have business as we know it."
Paul Casey:
You said that right away, in that week?
Matt Molt:
Yes.
Paul Casey:
Wow. That's great.
Matt Molt:
I said, "We have to think, we have to develop our online thing. We have to go figure out how we're going to connect to people that are connected to us, and we're going to have to make that work." So that was a big deal. And then three or four weeks into that, we were exhausted from trying to learn all of that and get better.
Matt Molt:
So then another key moment for us, as a team, was in the morning at one of our staff meetings, on a Monday morning, I said, "Guys, I want us to all take a deep breath. Okay? We're going to change things every week. It could be radical changes, but every week we're going to evaluate because phases could change. Everything could change. So every week I want you to come prepared knowing that nothing is going to stay the same." And so those mindsets, we've kept a lot of things the same, but we have changed and it's helped our team to, I think, manage all the radical shifts that we've just had to be agile with. That's the leadership challenge for me right now. And everybody I talked to, I think, resonates with that on some level, most people do.
Paul Casey:
They do. They do. That agility is so ... What a great skill. Would you say most of your staff has that agility, and maybe there's some that really struggle with that?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. So I try to have people have different skill sets for the different roles they play. Some are very administrative, some are more people-oriented, more upfront sales, can promote. We have a few on our team that are risk-averse and they want things to stay the same. And they actually do really well if we go, "Hey, this is the system," and they go, "Okay, great. I'm going to work within that." But if we change the system every Monday, they have a very difficult time. So it requires a little more time with them, but also continuing to tell them, "Hey, we're going to set this up, but this is going to change next week."
Matt Molt:
But the goal ... That's why I say keeping to the essentials and figuring out, "Okay, what is it we do? What do we want? What's our goal," that helps keep us rooted while we're pivoting. So people who have a hard time with change, they can accept change if they know, "Hey, the goals stay the same." Okay, so we want to impact peoples' lives for the better, that's the goal. How we do that could change every week, but as long as they come back to that, that's, I think, a thing that's helped us.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. That reminds me of Jim Collins years ago, preserve the core and stimulate progress. Right?
Matt Molt:
Yes.
Paul Casey:
These things are bedrock, but these things, these methods, they're probably going to change along the way.
Paul Casey:
If you had a leadership philosophy, Matt, that you would put front and center on a bulletin board in your office, or outside the church, or on a car sticker for all to see, what would those messages say? It could be one or a couple.
Matt Molt:
Okay. I'm going to give you two. I didn't learn a lot about my family history growing up. Well, I did from my mom and dad a little bit, but I didn't know a lot about the roots, and so it's always been interesting to me to go back and try to do research and figure that out.
Matt Molt:
So I decided when we started having kids, which was 25 years ago, I wanted to have a family crest or a family motto. I had heard some families do that. So I just invented one, and it actually served at raising kids pretty well. The phrase there was, that I put on the door, "We are Molts. We finish the job." So if kids started sports or piano lessons or whatever, they couldn't bail out. So they had to count the cost ahead of time.
Matt Molt:
And then probably the more relevant one, Paul, would be, I'm going to steal a phrase from an author I know named Eugene Peterson, he says this, "A long obedience in the same direction"
Paul Casey:
Yes, I've heard that.
Matt Molt:
I think if a leadership principle is to do one thing and just continue to keep doing it, just do it well, get your 10,000 hours in, go for it.
Paul Casey:
Yes. The 10,000 hours to become an expert. Yeah, love that. And that was good parenting advice that Matt threw in there, of have your children count the cost on the front end because you're going to be in this to its conclusion.
Matt Molt:
Right.
Paul Casey:
Well, most influencers I know have a bit of visionary inside them in order to take that next hill. So where do you take the time to dream about the future and what does that look like?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, you had mentioned that this was going to be on there, so I've thought about this a little bit. I think that there is ... I think that they're related, but they're different. I think there's vision and there's creativity and there's inspiration. I think they're different, but related. So I think vision comes at critical moments in your life, and vision doesn't come all the time. So maybe you're going to college and you go, "I could see myself being this." Or maybe it's a career change or your family moves and you go, "This door opens." That's kind of vision.
Matt Molt:
Inspiration though, to me, is kind of like ... So, I love the word inspiration. I actually studied it out, the root word of where it came from. It comes from the word that we get "spire." The big, tall spikes off of a building. And it means to be able to go up really high and see farther than what normal people can see or what you could see at ground level. So to inspire is to see farther ahead and then be able to tell people, "Hey, there's something great up ahead." So to me, I think staying inspired as a visionary leader is the framework that I would put that in. Does that make sense?
Paul Casey:
Yeah.
Matt Molt:
So for me to do that ... Man, I almost crashed and burned. I think I almost burned out about a year and a half ago, and I told some people that I'm close to on our board and some friends, I said, "Hey, I don't think I'm in a good spot." So I actually went and got counseling and took six weeks off, and got some rest and learned some ways to integrate rest into my schedule. Because I'll just keep going.
Matt Molt:
I think creativity, inspiration come out of rest. And I think that vision comes out of just, if sparked, nowhere, or it comes from the universe, or it comes from God. Those moments happen to you, but I think inspiration, generally speaking, comes from rest. And I would say creativity comes not from abundance, but from lack.
Matt Molt:
So COVID has sparked a lot of creativity for me because it's like, "Okay, we have less." So you go, this is ... There's four toys in here, what can we build? And if you had 800 toys, there's less creativity that happens. So anyway, those are my thoughts on that. But rest has been a really key thing for me.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. I really believe that too. I think we get our biggest breakthroughs in life when we have that solitude, that time, that white space. And very few of my clients would say they do a really great ... "I take my breaks every day." I can't think of one of my clients that says that. Or, "I take a personal retreat every week or every month." It's just something that we, as drivers, achievers-
Matt Molt:
Right.
Paul Casey:
... we just keep going. So how can we get inspiration if we just keep grinding?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, I think so one of the practices I picked up on is, and this is going to sound ironic because I am a pastor, but I never really took, in a biblical, to use a biblical word, would be Sabbath, or just in regular leadership, to take a day off. Most people I know that our leaders or influencers don't rest well. And so we always check our phone, we're panicky if we're not checking our phone. And that was me.
Matt Molt:
So I just started to, I forced myself, I think, for mental health reasons and out of some of the counsel I got, to go, "Hey, get it done in five days or six days, and then force yourself to not do it." It was really awkward to do that, but I find that I actually have ... I do better if I come into the week with some rest underneath me, instead of looking forward to the weekend that way. So I have tried to shift my thinking to go, "I'm going to work from a rested spot instead of work and then rest."
Paul Casey:
Yes. Yes.
Matt Molt:
And then the other thing that people don't get, Paul, is that the world's going to keep going, even if you don't go to work today. If you got sick and had to not do the podcast and delay it a day or two, the world doesn't stop. Most of our businesses won't shut down completely. So I think we can build that in, and I think it allows for inspiration.
Paul Casey:
Good stuff.
Matt Molt:
I had to learn that though. I had to pay dearly for that one.
Paul Casey:
Yes. Good stuff. So Tri-City influencers, you heard, inspiration, seeing farther ahead and telling others, like going up the spire of a church building or a temple. Resting from your work, and when I studied Sabbath too, I got that too. It's work from your rest or rest from your work. Right? Most of us think rest from our work, the weekends here. But instead, it's working out of abundance of rest. And that was a great, great study that I did years ago. And then that FOMO, that fear of missing out for influencers. I heard someone say, "No, it should be JOMO. The joy of missing out."
Matt Molt:
Yes. There you go. I like it.
Paul Casey:
That was cool. Well, before we get into our next question on Matt's morning routine, a shout out to our sponsor.
Preston House:
Hi, my name is Preston House and I'm the local owner of Papa John's Pizza, right here in Tri-Cities.
Jesus Melendez:
I'm Jesus Melendez, Vice President and Commercial Lender with Community First Bank and HFG Trust.
Preston House:
When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old, so when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner.
Jesus Melendez:
Small business owners often have a lot on their plate. Employment, retirement plans, payroll, bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life and is motivated by providing people in our community, like Preston, with all the information and support they need, all under one roof.
Preston House:
It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call. No automated prompts, no call waiting. It's just a local business serving another local business.
Jesus Melendez:
For more information on how Community First Bank and HFG Trust can help you get back on track, visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community 1-S-T.com.
Paul Casey:
So Matt, what is your typical morning routine before work or once arriving at work, in a non-COVID sense, that helps you start the day strong?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. Well, sometimes it can vary because I have different appointments or things, but I have a couple of practices. So one, is it's really, this is very spiritual. I drink coffee every morning.
Paul Casey:
I feel like I'm in a sacred space.
Matt Molt:
It is. So French press, Costco, which is the Starbucks espresso blend. I start there. I'm trying to get in a walk in my neighborhood. I live in South Kennewick. So hitting the hills over there is really good inner space for my head. And then I'll do some reading. For me, I read scripture and then I will also try to peek at the news, but I put a limit on it so I don't get depressed. Read a little bit a news, check email. I do a practice ... I realize that this is broader than a Christian environment, but I think it could be helpful and people can adapt this to their own lives.
Matt Molt:
I do two different types of prayer during the day. So in the morning I do what's referred to, in history, as the Lord's Prayer. So it's a very simple prayer. You can look it up on Google, but it's what Jesus prayed. It's short. But each of those pieces are very meaningful to me, and they're helpful, especially the forgiveness part. Because usually in a people industry, I got a lot of people I got to forgive. So every morning that actually really helps me. So that's why I'm sharing that.
Matt Molt:
And then at the night I stop and I do what's an ancient practice, called Examen Prayer, and I just look at the last 24 hours, try to find places to be grateful for, and then to set my mindset to look for blessings or divine guidance or whatever for the coming 24 hours. So those two things have helped me, but it starts in my morning routine. And then I go to work, put on some 80s music and hit it hard.
Paul Casey:
80s music. We could explore that too. Well, you mentioned one of the ways you burn ... You were on the edge of burnout a year and a half ago. One of the things I really appreciate about you is your transparency, Matt. And you had mentioned you also went to counseling during that time because it's a scary place.
Matt Molt:
Yeah.
Paul Casey:
Burnout's a scary place. You've ever experienced it, you don't want to be there. So how do you now stay on this side of burnout during that everyday grind of your people work?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, so when I went to counseling, it was intensive. It was five days, three hours in the morning. Had a lot of problems.
Paul Casey:
Anybody else, listener, has that kind of counseling?
Matt Molt:
Man, it was something else. I had never gone to any kind of counseling.
Paul Casey:
Oh, wow. That was your first experience.
Matt Molt:
Yeah, so I dove into the deep end. At the end of that, the goal that the counselor said, is he said, "Hey, we're going to try to get past this false self and get to the true self. What are you really made of? What are you really supposed to do with life?" And then the key for me, that he comes to the conclusion with me, was my calendar. And that's, I know, a passion for you.
Paul Casey:
Yeah.
Matt Molt:
So the key was to schedule breaks and to schedule work, and then to say no to anything that doesn't fit into that. So the ability to say no is not just innate. As leaders, we're going to keep going. But if you view it through the lens of does that fit into my calendar or not, that is such a tangible measurement of leadership ability and also limitations. And limitations are good. They keep the boundaries on the river so that we don't burn out.
Matt Molt:
So for me, I schedule my weekly day off that I don't do any work. And then I also schedule in evenings for the family. And that sounds cold, like I don't care, but most leaders struggle with having a great relationship with their spouse or their significant other or their kids. And the things that we love, we just assume they're there, but we actually have to plan in what we care about, including our family.
Paul Casey:
Yes.
Matt Molt:
So that has really helped me to keep from burning out, and it's made a huge difference in my life.
Matt Molt:
The other part would be tools I picked up mentally from my counselor. So I'll give you one. He said, "When you get anxious, you got to ask yourself two questions. What am I feeling?" And to try to identify that as a man is, I don't know.
Paul Casey:
What's that? Feeling?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. I did some work on trying to figure that stuff out. But what are you feeling, and then the second question is, why are you feeling that way? Where did that come from? Because for men, a lot of times, it's anger, but anger is a secondary emotion.
Paul Casey:
Yes.
Matt Molt:
What's below that and why am I upset about this? And that actually has kept the anxiety at bay and helped me to go, "Okay, well I can target that. I can work on that area. Or, that's out of my control, I can't work on it. So I'm going to let it go." So that and the calendar have helped me.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. I also struggle with calendar and try and master that. I've also felt the plasticity of, "I got a calendar my family? I don't want them to feel like this checkoff list."
Matt Molt:
You just don't tell them.
Paul Casey:
Yeah. We've had that discussion with my wife. "I don't want to be another thing on your calendar." Right? I'm trying to reframe that by saying, "You're a priority on my calendar, right? I'm putting you in first on that." Sometimes we have to do that, especially if you're driven, a little bit more Type A with your calendar, you're going to have to put in those priorities and then schedule the rest of your week around that. Core values come first, when it comes to time management.
Paul Casey:
I also like the boundaries principle you brought up there. I heard it once said, an early career, you got to say yes a lot because you just got to take opportunities as they come and build more influence, build more opportunities to grow. And then as you mature, you got to say no more. You've got to be more discerning.
Matt Molt:
That's interesting. Yeah.
Paul Casey:
It's a sign of discernment to be able to go, "Nope, that doesn't fit with my personal mission statement or my calendar," and then you just keep doing the best, the things you're are strong at.
Paul Casey:
Family's a big deal. So we've talked a little bit about that just now. How do you prioritize family and still be a high performer at the church? How do you juggle those two things? I know it's a tension to manage, right? It's never a solved problem.
Matt Molt:
Yeah, well, I don't know that every business has this, every business leader would have this availability, but everybody can work on this principally. If I'm sitting down with you for the first time to have a cup of coffee and we're going to meet, and you're a client, or maybe you're looking to go to a new church, for instance, in my world, I would tell you, "Hey, I'm not going to answer my phone unless it's my wife or my daughter." My boys can take care of themselves, they're older and married. But so I set the bar to let people know that if I get my daughter, if she's having car trouble, she gets my attention over you. So I prioritize that that way.
Matt Molt:
And then as my kids have gotten older, we would have, I would have dates with my kids. So on Fridays, it's my date with Abby. So we go get Roasters Coffee or Red Rail. It's her choice. So she just knows she has a regular time with me. She's going off to college, so I'm a little sad talking about it, but that's been really great to just have a routine time. Besides family nights, we'll watch movies together, have dinner. My wife's really good about doing highs and lows at the dinner table. What was great today? What was the worst part? So we have some interaction that way.
Matt Molt:
One thing that I think people don't know how to do with their kids is, the key is, when you're going to have set time with your kids, is don't over-agenda it on your end. What does the kid want to do? Where do they want to eat? What do they want to talk about? I make a rule, there's no discipline or correction in that timeframe. So if I got to tell Abby, "Hey, you got to do this different," different day, Thursday or Saturday, but Friday's her time. That has helped. I do that with my wife, it's a very similar thing, except for the correction part. She does that for me.
Paul Casey:
That's really good.
Matt Molt:
That's kept family first.
Paul Casey:
It sort of reminds me like when you're training a dog, you don't want to say, "Come here," and then hit him on the nose. Right? Then they're not going to want to spend any time with you.
Matt Molt:
That's right.
Paul Casey:
So you got to keep discipline out of the picture because you want them to look forward to that date.
Matt Molt:
Right.
Paul Casey:
And date nights really are special. I also have an 18 year old going off to college, in this weird 2020 year, where they got ripped off of a bunch of stuff, and we tried to make it as special as we could. So those dates now are rich. Look forward to them.
Paul Casey:
Well, influencers aren't know-it-alls, but they're learners. I know you're a learner, Matt. Where do you go for the wisest advice? These could be people here in the Tri-Cities. They could be authors or motivators or ministry professionals. Where do you go for that?
Matt Molt:
Yeah. So real quickly, I think I have a couple different things. So when it comes to people, I have five people that are in my industry, but are farther along. They're different circles, different denominations, even, but all similar in some ways. I contact them regularly, probably once a month, so I have a conversation and I'm very intentional to set that up for myself. "How are you handling this? What do you do with this? Hey, I have this issue; how have you handled this?"
Matt Molt:
And then I do some industry podcasts. I would say there's a guy named Craig Groeschel does an incredible-
Paul Casey:
Love him.
Matt Molt:
... leadership podcasts. Probably one of my favorite, very short 20 minutes. I love this one called Tri-City Influencers. Powerful podcast.
Paul Casey:
Shameless plug.
Matt Molt:
Yes. And then I also give my myself permission to experiment. I'm going to try and I'm going to fail. So that helps me grow on just my personal level. And lastly, is I'm a pretty ferocious reader. So I try to read 26 books a year, one every two weeks. I always buy more books. I always buy 40 books and only read 26 to 30, but I that's how I learn, and I love it.
Paul Casey:
Fantastic. Finally, Matt, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, I would say it's when you are young ... Man, I will tell you what pays off in longterm, is character is the currency that's valued in our culture. So people will pick up on bad character and they will write you off. And so good character pays off longterm. I would say have a long obedience in the same direction. If you go, "Hey, I feel like I'm supposed to be a salesman. I'm good at sales or I'm a business owner," do that. Fail at a couple of businesses, get them out of the way, keep going, do your thing and don't stop.
Matt Molt:
And lastly, I would say that to pour into people, it can't always be about us. Even me, I always want to be a better pastor, a better leader, better speaker, more influential, and I have found that I can't just put all my efforts into getting better. I have to put efforts into other people getting better. So if I invest in others, it kind of raises the water level, so to speak, of all boats rise.
Paul Casey:
Yes.
Matt Molt:
So that those have been keys for me.
Paul Casey:
Fantastic. Well, Matt, how can our listeners best connect with you and the church?
Matt Molt:
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram and then it copies over to Facebook, but I'm not on Facebook as much. So Instagram, it's just Matt Molt, two Ts, M-A-T-T, M-O-L-T. And we'd love to have you follow me or inbox me there if you have any questions.
Matt Molt:
And then our church is New Vintage Church. We're down in the parking lot by the old, where Chuck E. Cheese used to be. We're always open for anybody to come and hang out, and we think we have an amazing gathering there. We're also online, newvintagechurch.com.
Paul Casey:
Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well.
Matt Molt:
Thanks.
Paul Casey:
Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Many of you have heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and if you're like, "All right, I don't want to pay the money for that," well, there's actually a Myers-Briggs-like one called the Neris Type, N-E-R-I-S, Type Explorer. And it's at 16personalities.com. The number 1, 6, personalities.com. There's a free personality test and it'll give you similar results to the Myers-Briggs, but just so you can start talking the lingo, that may be a great way to identify your uniqueness.
Paul Casey:
Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Matt Molt from New Vintage Church for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Tony Robbins says, "Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy, true fulfillment."
Paul Casey:
Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward.
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership, and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward.
Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word "grow."
Paul Casey:
Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.