How a Strong Company Culture Outperforms Big Budgets

[0:00]  so when it comes to growth how much you guys spending a year on marketing to get new students into the body of Faith Lutheran zero uh we we I only to be nice I took out a half-page ad back in 2017 for the golden kns I took out a half page ad I did the same thing for the Raiders their first year here in 2020 and we've never spent you've never seen an ad you've never read anything about fate Lutheran so this is all word of mouth and that's another thing that I think is replicable for other small schools want to get great oh Faith Lutheran they must spend a million dollars you know they're on every bus and they're on the golden kns helmets and you know they're on Allegiance no we you've never seen us it's if you treat people well if you love kids and create a culture where they want to get dropped off number one at 7:30 and they don't want to go home till they get done with

[0:48]  practice or their rehearsal or their club or their activity that's how you win the game because then they tell their neighbors my kid actually likes going to high school first of all Steve I just want to say thank you for coming on the podcast man I'm really excited to be able to share your story just the impact that you've had on me personally about what it means to be a leader who can cast a vision who inspires other people to be better is a huge reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast man so thank you so much for joining us I really appreciate it well you're welcome and I'm sincere when I say I'm honored I feel privileged you're a young man I think man I want to be

[1:34]  like him someday like he he's a leader he brings people together he's an entrepreneur he's a thought leader so the feeling is mutual my friend so Steve just a level set for everybody you are currently the CEO of Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School if you're anywhere in the southwest of the United States you guys are a principal name in the space of Education the things that you guys have been able to accomplish is fundamental I want to talk a little bit about your journey and getting here now I recognize that you grew up with parents parents who were Educators your father actually became a university president so let's talk about how growing up in that environment shaped you as a man and kind of pushed you in this direction to be such a great leader at such an awesome institution yeah thank you and yeah both my parents were Educators my mom uh pretty much a lifelong kindergarten teacher one into the Spectrum and then my dad was in higher ed most of his career and as you noted I think the last 17 as the

[2:21]  president of Concordia University in Wisconsin and so I saw the joy that they had and my dad at one point was you know a teacher and a coach and and my mom a teacher and I I just saw the joy that they had every day and that certainly had had an impact on Me growing up that hey I I kind of want to be like them you know they seem to have joy we weren't the richest people on the block by any stretch of the imagination but you know money couldn't bu happiness and I grew up in a great family and then I had a really influential High School football coach who was an English teacher my senior year and I just wanted to be like him and so when I went to college though I had aspirations to coach at the division one level was really why I went to college and started my coaching career in Texas thinking that might be the best way in high school football there to to work my way up but at the end of the day I I was became a high school English teacher and a high school football coach really because of Dr KT creger uh who had a big impact on me and

[3:09]  I thought I just want to be like him you know he impacted me both in the classroom and on the field what was it about his character Steve that kind of like at a very early age you said I want to be like this guy he must have been an amazing individual he was first of all he was High character you know everything that came out of his mouth was Godly for lack of a better term right but but the other thing I liked about him was he was funny and he was cool and uh he just had a A Love For Us high school kids that was infectious to me and made me want to follow him and I found that in my own teaching and coaching and Leadership if I love and respect a high school or middle middle school kid first they will run through a wall for you they're not interested I'm Dr book and I have CEO I got all these fancy they don't give a flying leap but if you love them first kids are awesome today they they as I said they'll run through a wall for you so I I learned a

[3:56]  lot of that for him because I found as a player I would do anything for that man then my dad hired him uh at the end of my senior year to I was in Portland Oregon to go to Concordia University of Wisconsin where I went and played and then he was a wide receivers coach I was a quarterback so I got to work with him my wife and I took more classes from him in English and uh in college and so I really feel blessed I had a lot of years with him it's incredible to think about how you know a a role model if you will can imprint kind of the destiny in which we follow right by saying I believe in you I'm going to establish a reputation for yourself that you can live up to inspires us to just be a better man and a better human in general yeah I agree and I want to Quick segue one other guy my my eighth grade principal I went to a little Lutheran School in Portland Oregon I was in trouble all the time I wasn't a mean kid but I was shooting my mouth off and shooting spitwads of

[4:43]  people and just doing stupid things always in trouble and on my in my last week of 8th grade in front of the entire class he said Steve book you need to be a teacher and a coach because I saw the way you worked with your interner miral softball team I've never seen that in my life and I thought here's a guy that beat the tar out of me with what he called the Board of Education that hung on his wall but he saw something in me that here I am 60 almost 63 years old and I remember exactly what he was wearing the day he said it because here's a guy that showed me Grace he had to show me a lot of law you know I was in trouble all the time but he showed me Grace and he pointed me to a better future and told me to do something and be something that again in the back of my mind was there from my parents but then he said that I thought man Mr dargs told me I should be a it was very very powerful so you're right even there in a sing single moment in e8th grade in May

[5:31]  in 1976 a guy said you ought to be a teacher and a coach and and it impacted me I'm really interested in this perspective of masculine inspiration I only bring this up because I was having a conversation over the last couple weeks with a friend and we were talking about how some of the most impactful coaches figures that we looked up to in our sporting careers often were the coaches who are willing to be the toughest on us now naturally people say your coach shouldn't be mean to you they shouldn't beat you with the board of education but realistically when you recognize that someone truly believes in you they're willing to put more energy and more stringent I would say parameters around how good you can be do you think that that's a little thing that we've kind of lost in today's generation I I think so but I I also think that's why schools like ours that

[6:18]  still hold kids accountable you know doesn't mean we don't love you in fact as it means we love you it's the same with parents when I hear kids saying oh my parents aren't cool they maybe come home by 11: no no your parents love you that's why they do that they nothing good happens after 11:00 at night with a poorly developed frontal L nothing good so your parents love you and I think that's the thing that I look back on those and I I'll tell you in my early days I was a head high school football coach in Tomball Texas in the mid 80s and when Facebook came around like in 2007 you know 20 years after these players would you know I get a friend request and 100% keen and I would say I just want to start by apologizing I know we were so hard on you guys and we're out there in the Heat and there's fire ants and croads on the field and were screaming at you and beating on you and they're always like what are you talking about like you're the most influential

[7:04]  man even more than my dad and I so I stopped apologizing because you start to realize it's that discipline which means you care because it's easy not to discipline it's easy to just to be the nice guy I always say if you if you want to be a nice guy sell ice cream don't get into leadership don't get into coaching you know because you can't always be a nice guy and if when you love kids in that way though discipline's not pleasant at the time they reflect back kind of go you cared about about me you love me and you held me accountable and I appreciate that how have you held yourself accountable in this maturation Journey right you've had a lot of people pour into you but naturally I think a lot of leaders find themselves at some point in time hitting an inflection point to say everybody else has poured into me now I have to double down on myself and hold myself accountable how have you been able to do this through your maturation Journey well I I don't know what you mean by

[7:52]  holding myself accountable but let me speak to maybe where you're going with this literally this morning I was at a rival Christian School a k to8 School in town because principal said you guys seem to have it figured out of Faith Lutheran could you just come and spend an hour and a half and and let me just ask you question she was particularly interested in how to raise money but also how to shape the culture of a school and so if that's what you're saying how do I hold I have a lot of people because I'm getting older right I do run one of the largest you know Christian schools in the country and people reach out and and I always take their call and when I speak at conferences I I say here's my cell phone number if you're a young leader or an old leader and you need a place to cry to throw a fist through a wall because leadership is lonely and Shakespeare was right when he said heavy is the head that wears the crown I mean listen I'm a confident competitive guy but leadership

[8:41]  is lonely and and it can wear you down sometimes and sometimes you feel like you're on an island you know you have your board they have all themselves to talk about and then you have all your direct reports and you sit there smack dab in the middle with no one you know no true peer and so I've tried to reach out to other school leaders over time and uh I Mentor another young female teacher she's in Minneapolis we meet every Monday at 1:00 same thing I just ran into at a conference she said hey you told me if I ever became a principal you'd bore into me so maybe those are small ways that I'm able to give back if that's what you're talking about and I and I feel honored that people would you know a I always tell them I'm not here I'm not this smart guy that's just going to spew wisdom I want to listen to you more than anything I just want to listen and and then I'm happy to comment on things so there's that element of it but there's also an element that I kind of want to dive into cuz I don't get an

[9:28]  opportunity to sit across from many awesome leaders like you who I have such a personal relationship with but holding ourselves accountable to the highest version of ourselves right is often really tough for a lot of people I had a great guy on the podcast before his name was Jason harusi and his whole concept was called live 100 living 100 at the best partner I can be the best leader the best friend the best sibling XYZ often we live at 86 or 73 and we don't recognize that Delta of living 100 so how do you hold yourself to that 100 level no thank you and and that question I would answer more specifically from uh my faith life you know I think God's created me uniquely and I owe him my aame if I truly believe that that band sent his son to Die For Me on the cross the least I can do is respond to him by living a life that honors him and that

[10:15]  brings bringing my aame to the table every day plus I happen to lead a school that has its its mission statement essentially says we're going to be the best dad gum Christian School in the world and so I don't get to look around and go dang we're pretty good we're we're huge we have all these amazing programs amazing teachers who work for us amazing coaches and we've put together the staff our facilities are first class there are days I would love to pump the brakes and go you know what I think I'm just going to Coast here for a couple years because we push it hard uh here at Faith Lutheran to be better you know we have I'm looking at my office right out on the wall right outside of my office is better today than yesterday because we don't want to rest we don't want to take it easy and I believe that um Jesus actually in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chap 5: 16 say let your light so shine before men that they see your good deeds and

[11:03]  glorify your father who's in heaven so I am appalled when Christian Schools say we're the best kept secret in our neighborhood you should be appalled by that everyone in your neighborhood should know who you are you shouldn't be the best kept secret because God Jesus himself demands us to let our light so shine before people that they see our good works and what Pat Steven Keenan on the back know that they give God the glory and so I'm really driven I think by my faith life I'm old school I don't take a vacation Day on on a day that kids are here I I wait till Christmas or the summer or Easter to use up my 20 vacation days year I'm just I'm just wired that way that old school go to work I come to work sick I you know I I've had some major surgeries they're like oh you're going to be out for six weeks I'm like you're crazy I am not missing school for six weeks and I'm fighting with unemployment or not

[11:51]  unemployment but with disability because they're trying to tell me I can't check by emails from the hospital bed or have to get said are you crazy I'll have way too many I'm not not wired that way to not work so part of it's in my DNA I think it came from my family but I think this notion of wanting to bring my aame every day is really a response to to what God has done for me my mom always said one phrase to me when I was leaving the or leaving for school middle school elementary school she said be a leader not a follower and it seems like in the world today we have a shortage of great leaders who can help everybody recognize how great they are and it seems like you're an amazing one um you know you said something in our previous convers ation and I want to talk about the adversity that you overcame because you said one of the peaks of your career is how you handled the unstability of covid you said leaders are dealers in Hope how

[12:41]  did you kind of hold down the fort and create such confidence and how you navigate such a time of instability yeah boy I'm getting PTSD are you just using the word co uh that was easily the most challenging you know part I think of any any of us who led whether it was business or industry or certainly trying to open schools when you had half the population you know telling me in emails I hope you're rot in prison if you open your school kids are going to die and I had the other half saying if you make my kid wear a mask you know nothing about science and you're an idiot and trying to kind of navigate through that but as I think of that particular question and that particular quote uh by Napoleon bonapart about being a dealer in hope I that was so in my mind especially from March 16th the day that we shut down through the date we finally opened up

[13:28]  which was in August I think it was August 20th we delayed it for a week just making sure we had all the everything in place but every email I would send home because because if you remember when NADA got shut down it was like schools going to be closed for at least two weeks so I would say hey they're saying we're closed for two weeks that means on you know April 3rd we are planning to be back fully and here's what we're going to do if that happens then it would say oh now schools are going to push back till after Easter on April 16th then I'd send out another email not that I wasn't sending him out in between but I always tried to make sure that as I type I realized you know 4,000 parents and 2,000 kids and 200 some faculty and staff are reading this I want to be a dealer in Hope and I don't want to ever be doom doom and gloom listen there was 5% of me inside that I thought I I don't know what's

[14:15]  happening in the world with this Co I may die you know my wife and I talked about that I was 95% sure we were going to be okay but but everything I wrote was always like Hey we're coming back and now they're because as soon as the NAA would say hey we're going to we want spring Sports to start on May 1st I'd send that out hey we're going all in because sports are coming back May 1st so whatever I got and I would always temper it with at the time of this writing this is what the governor saying or at the time of this writing this is what the Nia but I always I've always found myself being by Nature an optimist you know I want to put the best constructions on thing I think it encourages people I think it provides the hope that you talked about and so that that was a time in my life that that quote meant more to me than than ever that that I had to be the dealer and hope among all the fear and the the uncertainty and the Doom and Gloom uh that somebody's got to a be a voice of

[15:03]  reason and B be a voice of Hope setting the tone yeah indeed no question there's a here's an interesting you say that you're an optimist which I completely relate with you know over the last couple years I've gotten a lot of flak for being toxically positive because exactly my reaction which is insane um so what I've had to do is create a framework that everybody can understand to put the sense of accountability and Power in optimism and I call this practical optimism looking at the laying the the field or the laying of the land if you will and having the choice to be optimistic about where we are going because that gives me power what do you think about that element of first of all toxic positivity but the second practical optimism that kind of is grounded in control and Authority I I think the one billionth of 1% of the

[15:52]  people who don't like toxic optimism ought to live on the same island by themselves for the rest of their life and not pollute the rest of us who who see hope in this in this world in this life uh look the other thing and you can read it in good to great leaders are not just dealers in Hope on one hand but we also have to Define reality right that's our job and so I don't ever want to lose sight of reality I don't I love to be transparent you know when I talk to people whether it's our finances here at Faith Lutheran I I want to be fully transparent because again that helps shape reality for people and so I think you can do both and uh and and and remain positive and optimistic even though look sometimes things look Bleak you know in life whether it's rooting for your favorite football team that is a severe Underdog you know going in the

[16:39]  weekend or just you know how we run our jobs or our families and you know where we're positioned in the marketplace and all those things but but I think I've found that again I don't think I have a lot of skills but I think I've done that well I think I've been able to balance the tension between reality you know defining it for people and being transparent but also you know being a dealer in Hope it's incredibly powerful man and I just love like your just grounded philosophy and Leadership is so powerful one thing that you said in our previous conversation was you know you being a quarterback you do not block and tackle right and being the CEO of the organization you also have to put so much trust for everybody in the organization to execute on the vision so what do you mean by you're a quarterback you don't block and tackle when it comes to running the organization today and then want to talk a little bit about

[17:25]  your coaching mindset when it comes to building the team as well yeah I've as yeah you're right I I say that you know blocking and Tack tackling will always win football games uh and and so the people in the trenches here's a perfect example I was in China for seven school days and two weekends this school did we had football games classes were taught Bells rang kids got educated the Cupcake Wars Club went nobody gives a flying leap of Steve book left so another thing I've told myself Keenan is you need as a CEO as a leader as a quarterback you need your people a whole lot more than they need you and I really believe that with every Court so that allows me to flip the organizational pyramid upside down and go hey here I am at the bottom serving you I'm the least important guy here because I can miss three weeks of school nothing's going to change at Faith Lutheran now I I would like to think long term if the voice you know of

[18:14]  me being a vision Caster I call myself uh the cro the chief reminding officer right that I am I am on Mission I talk about Mission all the time and vision I think long term you need the CEO but on on that day-to-day the the the the teaching and learning and running the band and being the football coach and the cool things that happen during the day and after school I I'm really unimportant here and so that's kept me very humble to realize that I do need these people more than they need me if a teacher calls out sick we're dead we have got to get a substitute in there if the gal that answers the phone for us and greets our visitors is not gone we're in trouble if Steve book's gone for two weeks nobody gives a flying leap because I don't I don't do the day-to-day hard work that that I think wins ball games and so I think that does translate I'll switch into kind of your other thing about me being a quarterback

[19:02]  I I think it's similar you know as I think through playing that position in high school and college you know you certainly get way too much uh Glory when you win you know just like you you know here you are talking to me on a podcast trust me there's 239 other studs who could be in studets who could be on this podcast about how did Faith Lutheran become what it is uh and yet I don't want to minimize my role right a quarterback has a role you're kind of directing things but if those five guys don't block the quarterback can literally do nothing if they literally don't block soon as I take the snap I'm going to be sacked right so I just I I think there's some neat parallels between kind of quarterback leadership in the scheme of football and also kind of my role as the head of the school here at fate Lutheran if we could go back in time and we could talk to a younger version of Steve and we could

[19:50]  sit down for five minutes and give him some advice about how he's going to navigate the future of hardship being a great leader leaning into his teammates if you will what advice would you give to him well I I think I I I'd go back to the game of football because I think everything I deal with I I you understand the nature of teamwork right I mean football is the Ultimate Team game with 11 moving Parts on each side of the ball at any one time I think you know when when one person screws up the whole team gets penalized right one guy holds we all get backed up so I can't I have to understand that one person hurting us can hurts all of us equally I think I learned the importance of being on time right I'm a 8:00 7:59 you know I'm going to be the I'm not there at 7:30 I'm not that old yet where I get there an hour before the you know plane leaves I I want to be there early but but I I also am type A and I don't want

[20:36]  to waste a lot of time either uh and how to handle success and how to handle failure I would have made sure Steve pay attention are you throwing your helmet when you throw a pick are you all ticked off when we lose you know whether it's a close game or we got blown out how are you handling W with a win is it all about you is it or is it about the team are you humble in the handshake line with your opponents I mean there's just there's just so much in athletics I think and I'm I'm not downplaying listen I played the clarinet and the band in eth grade I'm proud of that I sang in the choir in high school I learned a lot of great lessons a lot of those are similar football is a little bit unique uh as far as what it teaches you because even at your age you can't play tackle football today I'm going to be 63 next month I can still there's still baseball leagues I can play in there's basketball leagues or you just can't strap that stuff on anymore and so it's a really

[21:23]  unique opportunity that I think because practice is just no fun like practice hurts hurts you know it's no fun to go to practice uh I don't know that it's fun to go to wrestling I don't know it's fun to go to cross country either I'm not suggesting footballs but some sports I like going to baseball practice it wasn't hard we didn't have to run hard I didn't get hit nobody was trying to take my head off and so I just think I think I would have told the young Steve book really pay attention to every minute of this season and you're going to learn Leadership Lessons that cannot be taught in a doctoral program I want to talk a little bit about the idea of a season now I told you about and everybody else on the podcast right I went to baseball or went to college to go play baseball got hurt stopped playing went through an identity crisis and unfortunately gained a lot of weight buried myself in my emotions through Sonic cheeseburgers which was dissed down the street haven't had one since 2012 all the great ones

[22:10]  right but what I had a a really come to Jesus moment if you will with a mentor of mine who said hey Keenan you know you've given so much of your life to being competitively great you wanted to turn pro at playing baseball you're now going to have to choose to go pro in something else for me that was investing my time and all of my knowledge and skill set and tenacity and competitive nature into being great at business you had to make that change at one point in time as well so what is your kind of competitive greatness that you're I would say putting so much of your energy to these days well I I think where it starts is this and and you know look at some point I'm going to retire I'm not getting any younger I I you know in the next couple years I'm going to walk out of here and retire and the one reason I feel comfortable doing that is that I can look you in the eyes I'm doing right now

[22:56]  there is not one ounce of my selfworth that's wrapped up in this job not one ounce of it so it's going to be much easier for me to walk away I don't care about my title I don't care about the power that comes with it the prestige the visibility in the Las Vegas Valley I literally can tell you I don't care because I did not seek this position I did not apply for this job I had a Bard I got to Faith Lutheran as the principal in 2008 because the CEO knew me from just the Lutheran Church is fairly small and he's like you got to come out here okay fine and then when he left in 2011 uh the board came and asked if I'd do this job so this is not an eagle I didn't want this job there are days I wouldn't wish this job on my worst enemy now most of the days I can't believe they pay me to do it but there are parts

[23:43]  of this job that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy so I didn't choose this job this was not my career ambition so I I'm going to have no trouble walking away from me and I guess there's just an internal drive that like you I think came from Sports in in in my upbringing that I just want to win Keenan I've done them both I've lost and I've won I found that I prefer to win I found that there's a direct relationship to how hard I work to better myself to better my organization the harder I work and so that's kind of what gets me up every day and and drives me I want to double click on this title is completely disassociated from me and my personal value as a human now I've talked to a lot of CEOs here and I've asked this question because you mentioned this in our previous conversation a lot of people can't even fathom separating themselves from the title of CEO so

[24:32]  let's kind of break this down and double click on this for a second because we have a lot of younger leaders who listen to this who often identify with me as the founder the business guy the CEO of my team right how do we separate our sense of self-worth from the title that we have in the job that we do well again I I just have to double down on on my faith life I I know first and foremost I'm a redeemed child of God and that's where my selfworth comes from now if you don't have that if you haven't gone down that Faith Journey then I don't know what to say because then the world tells you the opposite was it's all about you and you can be what you want and you're the star and you're the center of the universe and and as cocky and arrogant as I can come off at times in my heart I'm not I'm really a very humble guy I I really I don't I know everyone's name here I don't care what your job title is

[25:20]  I take pride in relationships as you talked about because at the end of the day that's what leadership is all about right you first have to have a relationship before they'll even consider following a vision or a mission and so I think that's really important to me but yeah I just you know I I I I think I'm I'm first and foremost to redeemed child of God secondly I am the husband to my wife of been either dating or married for 42 years been married 37 I guess but I've been faithful and loyal and you know I've shown Fidelity that way I'm a dad that's an important vocation even though my kids are in their 30s and grown and out of the house that I I have my identity are in those things first and uh you know then I'm a you know I'm a Las vegan I'm a Nevada and I'm a citizen in the US th those vocations mean so much more to me and I think I think God's put me in a position to be impactful in those and then

[26:08]  finally in my job the stuff I wake up for that gives me the right to you know have a roof over my head and eat some food in this country so I think I've always had that good priority my my dad I watched him he launched universities all over the world never took a dime he just never cared about money now for him he's a real education entrepreneur maybe I get a little bit you know from him uh but but I just watched him like it the stuff stuff doesn't mean anything to him and I probably like stuff a little bit more I probably drive a little bit nicer car than that he drives uh but i' I've had some really you know the guy who I love and admire the most on this side of Heaven is my dad and I just think I've picked up some bits and pieces from him and it's it's influenced me in that way you know I've heard a lot of really

[26:55]  successful Business Leaders leaders ERS in the community entrepreneurs if you will talk about the most important relationship that you will have in determining your success is the partner that you choose why is the support system so important for somebody who's trying to accomplish such amazing things like you have all right let's first use a football analogy I so far out kicked my coverage when my wife said and and and I'll be candid with you at the time I thought she outkicked hers but very quickly once our first child was born 35 years ago and it just watch the way she mothered the way she ran our house now the way she works she's a leader here at Faith Lutheran she is a remarkable woman that poor girl even you know I'm 35 years old I'm a high school principal in Detroit or or I'm thinking back to let's

[27:42]  go before that I'm in my 20s I'm a head coach in Texas that woman would somehow get a four-year-old a three-year-old and a one-year-old to come to every game she'd chaperone dances with me she's been to proms every one of them that I was ever had to go to as a in in my earlier career a principal and as a coach she was man that means so much to me that that my wife will sacrifice everything she'd rather be doing on a Friday night but I think she like to go to the football games but she doesn't need to go to some band concert of Us kid she doesn't know anyone in the band but I was the principal there she's always gone her support has I don't know what I would do if I went home to an empty house and I didn't have a cheerleader like her you know championing me and and yeah just letting me put in the hours that it takes to be successful as a coach as a principal as

[28:31]  a CEO I mean she's just been I would agree whoever said that I I I can't imagine I would be where I'm at especially emotionally and mentally if it weren't for for picking a really remarkable wife and and let's face it it's a little bit of a crapshoot right you're 22 to 24 years old she's cute you think she's nice you seem to have but do you really know when those kids are born what kind of Mom they're going to be how they're going to love you when things don't go your way and and how loyal and faithful they're going to be to you you know you really don't know as a 22 24 year old so I just praise God all the time that he sent Julie into my life because she's been a key I mean it's just it's so fundamental you know and I think there's a lot of swirling topics on social media about what it means to be masculine today and there's a lot of

[29:18]  ideas that say like hey we should have as many girlfriends as possible in XYZ and it just seems like the wrong the wrong message for sustainability and support in our lives because life is turbulent and you need a partner who can stand next to you in thick anthon no no no that longevity that loyalty over time you know and and my wife and I will laugh sometimes you know we'll have some pretty heated arguments we're like we love each other more than anyone why are we arguing over how much you paid for a gallon of milk when it was on sale is you know it's just we're just so asinine so but but I think it's that you know you kind of build what I would call idiosyncrasy credits up that over time they they're able to live with that occasional blip in your attitude toward them or your you know the way you treat them because they've seen over time there's this consistency and just be

[30:05]  throwing people in and out of your lives I I couldn't live that way and again I think there's a Biblical basis for why I believe what I do but uh but I just think even on a foret forget Christianity forget any religion I I think to your point to to have a mate to have a partner that is just there for you through the thick and the thin and to hold you accountable right and he has to argue back at times right I mean I think that's all part of a healthy relationship High compassion is what we call that right when we love somebody we're willing to hold them accountable to who they can be and sometimes we have to challenge them to say hey you can be better really really important I want to talk a little bit about the number one responsibility of a CEO is to cast a vision so large that highly skilled people can find themselves being successful in the vision that you cast what Vision are you casting for Faith Lutheran and just for the people that you inspire every single day by showing

[30:52]  up and being who you are so I I I noted it earlier in our vision statement I I really really have no interest we're so we're on the same street as a school here in Las Vegas called Bishop vorman outstanding high school you know really dominant Athletics do a lot of things well and when I got here in 2008 first I was a principal at Faith Lutheran at the time and I called the principal at Bishop Gorman and she and I got together and people at Faith Lutheran are like oh you know Bishop Gorman you know they're like first of all nobody intimidates me there's no one in the world that intimidates me and if they're doing some things well let's learn and grow with them now people will say you know even back then like do you want to be better than Bishop Gorman I said I have no interest in my my vision statement isn't to be the best school on walpy that's not the vision the vision here is to be world premere like I want to be the best Christian School in the world I don't

[31:38]  want to be the best Lutheran School in the US I don't want to be the best school in Las Vegas I want to be world premere because I think we not out of ego and arrogance but out of we serve the world's Premier God and I think we owe him our aame every single day when I when we show up and so then let's boil this down into Mission because I referred to myself as a cro so our mission statement that I wrote when I got here was a paragraph long I'm just a football coach I couldn't memorize the thing something about academic excellence in the Southern Nevada Community and whatever so it's four words everyone prepared everyone saved and and I want to make sure that we do the best possible things in the classroom and outside of it to prepare Kids for Life deeper in the 21st century but then 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God desires all men to be saved and so we're in a really unique school that as a Christian School 60% of our kids are essentially unchurched about 30% never go to church

[32:26]  and or go to we have all the world's religions here Hindu Buddhist you know everything that you can imagine LDS to um yeah all the world's religions it's wonderful I I love it about faith Luther and then another 30% of our kids say they go to church once or twice a year probably on Christmas and Easter or one of those so so essentially a large population of un church and that's what really gets my heart thumping is can you do both can you be academically rigorous and excellent in extracurriculars and still not apologize for being a Christian School and if you look back at in the history of like higher ed you know Harvard was only a Divinity School they only did Jesus well and then they said you can't do Jesus well and be academically credible so let's kind of get rid of the Jesus thing and so a lot of schools have sacrificed their Christian Mission on the altar of we can't be good academically and what I

[33:13]  want to prove here at this school what gets me up and gets my heart thumping is we're going to do both we're going to be excellent Athletics we're going to be excellent in the Arts we're going to be excellent in clubs we're going to be excellent in the classrooms our kids going to get in the nation's best schools and we're going to win some games and we're going to be jaw-dropping the Arts and we're going to have so many clubs on this camps and kids are going to be able to find their passion after school and so that's really the vision I think that we're casting and with the word everyone and there also comes you know growth and different types of students we have kids with Down syndrome in our school I'm proud of that I don't just want it's not smart kids prepared smart kids saved I I don't want a thousand kids here like it was because it doesn't say a thousand kids prepared a thousand kids saved right and and at some point we're going to hit a finite number of kids on this physical 50 acre campus so we've launched what we call Flow Faith Luther on online so now there's 8 billion people in the world

[33:59]  six billion are probably connected to the internet any of those people can go to Faith Lutheran so how do we extend our reach even Beyond 2015 South walpi and that's you know that's the other part of the mission that I'm trying to kind of push us through and growth is hard you know schools are easy when you have 100 kids that's why almost every Christian School in the country has less than 200 kids because that's easy to bandage it's hard to work here our teachers have to work hard our administrators work hard our counselors puts a strain on the accounting office and the advancement team I mean the facilities there's a lot of strain but I believe it's it's God pleasing to be excellent and if we can you know if our Excellence attracts people then you know that's really what's going to drive us forward so those are some of the things I think about so when it comes to growth how much you guys spending a year on

[34:47]  marketing to get new students into the body of Faith Lutheran zero uh we we I only to be nice I took out a half-page ad back in 2017 for the golden knights I took out a half page yet I did the same thing for the Raiders their first year here in 2020 and we've never spent you've never seen an ad you've never read anything about Faith Lutheran so this is all word of mouth and that's another thing that I think is replicable for other small schools that want to get great oh Faith Lutheran they must spend a million dollars you know they're on every bus and they're on the golden kns helmets and you know they're on Allegiance no we you've never seen us it's if you treat people well if you love kids and create a culture where they want to get dropped off number one at 7:30 and they don't want to go home till they get done with practice or their rehearsal or their club or their

[35:34]  activity that's how you win the game because then they tell their neighbors my kid actually likes going to high school I don't have to stick a gun to my middle school kid to get them to go to school just it's not rocket science treat kids exceptionally well create a culture where they're loved create a culture where there's opportunities for them to find their passion and hire adults like we have here at our school that generally love these kids and and this is how it happen so it's worked for I'm getting I'm jacked up right now I wish I had a time machine so I could come back and move move here from Detroit a little earlier man I would have loved to go to Faith Lutheran you would have killed here it would have been great it's just so cool because you know we talk about confidence we talk about having a reputation that we can live up to but there's an element of conviction that comes out from people which is the best sales Secret Sauce is we have so much

[36:22]  conviction for what we do here because we have proof by not saying confidence comes from shouting affirmations in the but having a stack of undeniable proof behind us that says we are who we say we are and you are who you say you are based on the proof and the pudding man yeah no no thank you I again I don't think I have a lot of gifts but if you would really hear me go off about faith I mean I have people come up and say like your passion it is evident you're not pretending that you love that place and you love those kids and you love those teachers like and I'm not I don't have to pretend I get every every day and go oh this is going to be awesome I work at the best school in the country and I'm happy to be a you know a really small part of it uh so thank you yeah so here's the other question when you you recently had a conversation where you were I believe at a local casino up at a high floor and you were overlooking Faith Lutheran with a student who graduated in 2011 highly successful

[37:09]  individual and he said oh my gosh Dr book look what you guys have accomplished you had a little bit of a tough time calibrating all the progress and things you guys have accomplished why is it so difficult for someone who's High achiever someone who's constantly pushing the fold forward to recognize the greatness that you guys accomplish every sing single day why does it take a student from 2011 to come back and refocus Dr book yeah yeah thank you for bringing that up that that was a very poignant moment at Red Rock uh just a couple weeks ago but but I also he it at homecoming that kids from like 2019 would be like oh great now you built that and and I'm like that wasn't here when you were here I I think when you're I mean look at a lot of ways I I fly 30,000 fet but a lot of the ways I'm I'm in the weeds and because I keep seeing something better down the road I haven't

[37:57]  had time in my 17 years here to look back and go wow none of this stuff wasn't here I you just when you're in the day-to-day and you're in the moment you're raising money and things are building there's always been a next project at Faith that's why I mean I don't think we've ever gone 18 months without building something in my 17 years here and so it's just this constant progression to getting better uh that's hopefully in retirement I'll be able to look back and say wow God used a real simple guy you know to to help move his ministry forward not by himself there's a lot of heavy lifting that that all 240 people do here every day but I I hope to take some time and breathe because when people like you asked me that question or when that guy said that I thought man I guess we have yeah none of this stuff was here in 2011 you know when I took over and and my predecessor by the way I

[38:44]  have to compliment Kevin dunny he he was a remarkable leader and really got the Tre the uh flywheel right if he was good to great he's really got that thing he and his staff back then got this thing spinning and so we've really been been able to stand on his broad shoulders and candidly the people before him right there someone started this school geart Meyer in 1979 with 43 kids at first Su Baptist Church I mean that took a hero that's a giant on Whose shoulders We Stand today I'll promise you in a lot of ways it's easy to work at Faith Lutheran now than it was when you not even sure if you're going to make payroll every two weeks right and so I look back at the history of our leaders and think God brought each of those people at the right time and you know I I hope I can look back and say you know he he actually used me I think I was I was helpful in pushing the mission forward and so and I think the other thing I

[39:31]  need to say since this may go in public is you have to have a board and Christian Schools especially Lutheran I shouldn't say Christian Lutheran Schools we we're we're German we don't like to spend money we're afraid to take risks and I just really have to give our board a lot of credit for saying sure you want to stick 14y old kids in an airplane and start a flight school a great idea I mean there's plenty of boards that would say are you smoking crack like you're crazy don't don't do that and let's not grow and let's not get big we're going to lose the family fi it takes some courage to say we're not going to lose the family field because we're going to hire people who generally love these kids and that's going to make a big school feel small and it's my favorite compliment I get it every year from some random family oh you know to live by your school Dr Bo feels so small it's like a little family and like we're the largest Christian School in the country

[40:18]  if you throw the Catholic church out the largest and it's not small it's big but when you hire well and you hire people who generally love these kids then it then it feels small so you know one of the turned 34 a couple weeks ago and I was very intentional about thinking about what can I be very intentional about while I'm in this chapter of my life and what I was thinking about was an exercise I always think about 85-year-old Keenan right what is he going to be thinking about 34-year-old me and the one message that I got from talking to Future Keenan was a reminder to enjoy the process the one regret I do not want to get to is me being 60 70 years old and looking back and saying hey we were so focused on the next thing that we forgot to enjoy the journey that actually mattered right and so that's my biggest intention for this year no that's WIS I don't know that I've done a

[41:06]  good enough job celebrating the successes with all of us along the way because again a lot of people every single employee but then you have to had kids and kids used to go here and their families who trust us I there's just a lot of people that have to pour into this place and I'm not sure I've done a great job of celebrating but if I can just talk to our young leaders for one second I mean I think back some of the stupidest things I ever did in my life when when my wife was pregnant with our first child I happened to be coaching basketball in Texas in 1988 it gave me something to do between football and spring football so they made me the varsity basketball coach and we had practice I'll never forget it on Sunday November 28th 1988 I'm at a school of 100 kids do you think winning a basketball game on Tuesday if we don't have practice that night I made my wife in labor with our first trial drive into Houston Texas because I had to get to

[41:54]  basketball practice now I Didn't Do It CU I'm a jerk husband I literally had my priorities screwed up you know we we talk about as a Christian God Family School the problem is when you're in a Christian School sometimes you think that's you're serving God and so I totally got that out of balance and I look back on that moment and I'm appalled at myself I did it with good intentions it wasn't I screw my wife you I've been in labor I know what that's like you can drive down to Houston Texas only 25 miles from here and it wasn't that I wasn't that stupid and ignorant but I honestly thought no I called practice and we have practice tonight and I have to go you know and it's a Sunday night practice over Thanksgiving who cares I don't care if you're the best team in the country you you can afford to give your kids a night off and I would just remind young leaders don't

[42:42]  sacrifice those you love on the altar of working too hard don't get those priorities out of order even if you have no God in your life family job don't screw those up I I regret missing my daughter's you know 8ighth grade play because I feel like I need to be at the district soccer game you know and the grand scheme of life I didn't help them win by being there it's nice to show your support I like to go to things but my family should have taken priority so that would be a piece of maybe advice I'd give to Young leaders yeah I'm reading a book right now it's called buyer time back by an author named Dan Martell CEO is very successful in the SAS space he got engaged to what he called The Love is his life when he was 27 years old and he went so all in on his career 27 28 29 years old by 29 she left him and what he found out was he

[43:29]  was building a life for them that she never even got consultation on and so it's like we have to build the life in collaboration with our partners because often this High achieving mindset especially from the masculine perspective is I'm going to go conquer the world and bring it back to my family but often Conquering the world is not what the family asked for right those are great insights those are great insights yeah so last thing I want to talk about here Steve is where we're going right so you've accomplished a ton in these 18 years and you've been leading the organization right so here's my question for you what are some of the lwh hanging fruit opportunities that you have in front of you as we're kind of tackling the next let's say three four years of Faith Lutheran where we pushing everybody to go well I'll repeat uh number one I really want to push our

[44:15]  online I've had some good conversation with Grand Canyon University if you're not familiar with them they 15 years ago didn't have a single online kid today they have over a 100,000 I said you guys figured it out in the higher ed space nobody's fig figured out in the k to2 space unless it's free so I want to know I need them to help me scale this thing so that that's number one number two we're in the middle of a large building project right now that's going to be about a $50 million stem building for all the science technology engineering and math which will be a twostory 100,000 square foot really state-of-the-art building as I you know a it's what our constituents our board and our faculty want us to build and number two I think as you look at the future I think with technology I think most of us know that the huge percentage of the jobs especially the new jobs are going to be in the stem fields and so I think it's the right thing to do so that

[45:02]  project we're we haven't Broken Ground yet we got the gring permit so I guess we Broken Ground we don't have a building permit and we're still trying to raise money for that because you know 50 million is a lot of money we don't have $50 million in cash line around here at Faith Lutheran so I think those two projects are probably my biggest two as far as what I want to see happen before I retire and hand the the reins over to a different man or woman who's going to be the next CEO and and I'm excited uh I know that next leader is going to be standing on the shoulders of a true giant right who's pushed your organization and just the culture of what you guys have been able to create a faith Luther man so so much farther than I think even you could have fathomed back when you took over in 2011 so the last tradition that we have here on the podcast is our previous guest wants to ask you a blind question now their question was how do you value yourself

[45:51]  each day well I'm a fat tubag so on one hand you could say I must not value myself but on the other hand I eat like a champ so I eat whatever I want it's the beauty of being 62 almost 63 years old I don't my mom's not making me eat my vegetables if I just want pizza that's what I'm eating if I have a drawer full of candy here it is what it is so I probably spoil myself that way by just eating whatever the heck I want uh not that I don't get out and walk and on Saturdays I try to ride my bike up to Red Rock right I mean this body is a temple given to me by God I I have to be a little bit careful uh with it I'd love to live live for another 20 or 30 years uh so yeah I guess I guess that's what I would say uh but again I'm at a phase of my life where I get to do if I want to read a book if I want to watch a

[46:38]  football game on TV when I get home you know if if I want to travel with my wife that's the beauty of being an empty nester you can kind of control your own free time and do whatever the heck you want and I'm selfish enough that I'm willing to spoil myself on different things like that well Steve from the bottom of my heart you are the def of heart and hustle my friend thank you so much for coming on the podcast really appreciate it I'm honored