An Army of Normal Folks - Building Your Bench

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

For "Shop Talk", Coach Bill responds to a listener's question about two challenges that nonprofits face: 1) A declining number of volunteers 2) When to transfer leadership to the next generation. And Bill somehow relates this to football. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with Shop Talk. Shop Talk number 27, Vita Scott. I'd be ringing the bell that you sent, which we really appreciate it, but Alex left it at home. So I can't even ring your bell. So you know, we got a Shop Talk, we got a bell, we should be ringing it now. We even had a listener send us a bell to ring the bell to alert to shop talk and Alex couldn't remember to bring it. Nice job Alex. The reason was actually I was cleaning my car for our guest

I'm picking up tomorrow so I took it out of my car to clean the car and I forgot to put it back in. Was the bell going to upset the guest? I just took everything out of the seats so that I could clean up the car wash like Shop Talk Number 27 should be on forgetfulness, but it's not. Shop Talk Number 27 today is on building your bench. We got to build a bench everybody. So we'll do that right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of La Donia.

I'm Jackson I, King of Capriberg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Montonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. Why can't I create my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with a black powder,

you know, with explosive warheads. Oh my god. What is that? Bullets. Bulls. We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on theHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys,

and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all.

It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's,

to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Estet Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr. and Charlemagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well.

I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I shook up the world. Jane Brown said, said love. And the kid said, I'm black and I'm proud. Black boxing stars and black music royalty together

in the heart of Zaire, Africa. Three days of music and then the boxing event. What was going on in the world at the time made this fight as important that anything else is going on on the planet. My grandfather laid on the ropes and let George Foreman basically just punch himself out. Welcome to Rumble, the story of a world in transformation.

The 60s and prior to that, you couldn't call a person black. And how we arrived at this peak moment. I don't have to be what you want me to be. We all came from the continent of Africa. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[♪ music playing, fades out. [♪ music playing, fades out. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez.

Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba.

Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back everybody. Chef talk number 27, Nobel building your bench. I was sent an email from Keith Valiquette. You think it's Valiquette or Valakette? Valiquette? Valakette. I think you just covered both options though. That's right Keith

Thanks for sending it to us. You sent it to us on November 2nd and he said Bill I really love Sheptalk as I've mentioned before I have a few topics for consideration Large companies are disappearing from our communities or are owned by out-of-state country firms. Out of state, out of country firms. More and more are owned by private equity. I'm also seeing people so busy that they are inwardly focused or focused on getting kids here and there. Those situations are creating more and more challenges for nonprofits in terms of financial

support but also maybe more importantly volunteer support. It's getting harder and harder to find volunteers while more expensive to run our nonprofits. Take insurance as an example. Our rates just doubled and may not want to take on the risk of children and drivers to pick them up so that we can maintain attendance above 90% much better than the schools. We can control some costs by being leaner but volunteers drive down the cost of staff which is huge and hard to get funding for. So what do we do about getting more volunteers and when do you know when it's time, when it's time to step aside and allow the next generation of leaders in our companies and nonprofits take over?

My brother-in-law once told me, you may be standing in the way of someone God is trying to develop and bless. I'd love to hear your thoughts. So I thought about that and I'm like, I don't even know if I have much to offer there. And then I went to an Ole Miss football game and it dawned on me I do

have something to offer on this see here's the thing I've been a Lifeline Ole Miss fan which is over the last four decades basically been an exercise in lost dreams broken hopes and sometimes futility frankly and here's here's why Ole Miss almost always had 11 starters that were just as good as Alabama's and Georgia's and the other teams and likewise we always played even with the national prominent programs in the first quarter, and even maybe in the second quarter, and maybe even in the third quarter. But football is a game of attrition. Football is a game of exhaustion. And what really separates the top 10 blue chip

premium football teams every year from the other teams that are scraping and dragging and trying to get up to that level of competition is their bench. If you don't, if you don't have to play your very best players on special teams and if during the game you can take out your starters to get a quick breather at certain points in the first, second, third quarter, then by the fourth quarter when you're really ready to win the game, your best players are fresh. Your best players don't get hurt as much because they're getting proper rest, they're not having to play special teams. And it's in the,

later in the games, where the lack of having a deep bench actually wins the game. It's not that Ole Miss didn't have 11 great players to match up against the first team of 11 great players, but then as the game wore on, Georgia and Alabama would roll in their second team players and their second team players were almost as good as their first team players. And when Alabama did that and Ole Miss was rolling in their second team players and they were freshmen and not up to the standard of the second team. It's the bench that actually won the game. And this year, for the first time, the depth of the talent at Ole Miss allows when our first teamers need a break or to come out,

that our second teamers are really very talented, almost good and here we are beating teams like Georgia and raising up the ranks to possibly be in the college football playoff and to have a chance at really being among the the the blue chip programs in the country and it's not because we have better coaches and it's not because we have better coaches and it's not because we have better first teams it's because we got a better bench. In my business, 10 years ago I would have said our business was kind of a young company. I was in my mid 40s and all the key people around my company were also in their mid 40s. Well here we are 10 years later and I'm 56.

And all my key people are in their 50s and some in their 60s. And all of a sudden, we've gone from a really young company to one that's looking at aging out over the next 10 years. And it dawned on me, I gotta start hiring some young talent. I gotta start bringing in some recent college grads and some 30 somethings that have got just a little bit of experience somewhere to build my bench Because as I get older and my key people start getting older and we start nearing retirement and it's time to start

Evolving out of the business. We need those young guys to come in to have Some time to tutor them and teach them so that when they get into their 40s, they've got the requisite experience and knowledge that we passed on to them and then we get out of the way. Now the company has another two decade of quality people to run it. But when I got to have those people, if we don't hire them now and teach them and mentor them and foster them and bring them along. So what we're doing is we're building our bench. We're building the second team to become the first team. I think when I think about Keith's email, he asked, how do you know when it's time? When is it time to step aside and allow the next generation of leaders and companies and nonprofits take over? My brother-in-law once told me

you may be staying the way of someone God is trying to develop and bless. And before that he also asks about what do we do about the increased expenses on nonprofits and increased expenses on these things we're trying to do among the army of normal folks all over our country to make life better When we're having fewer and fewer volunteers come along And I think that's it. I think we got to build our bench so Building the bench is this Grow the army of normal folks. Find more people that care about what's going on in society. Encourage them to volunteer. Bring them in and teach them the ropes so that when it is time to step away, your nonprofit

actually becomes better and stronger. We gotta build our bench. And candidly, the army of normal folks is the bench. If you're listening to me today and you're not involved in a nonprofit, or you have time to involve yourself in another profit, or you have friends and family that have big hearts and have passions and have abilities but aren't employing them in areas of need, encourage them, recruit

them, build the bench. Because candidly, we all have a shelf life. We all have a shelf life of effectiveness. We all are going to get older. We are all going to eventually rotate out. And if we haven't done a good enough job building our bench and mentoring and fostering and passing on our wisdom and our experience so that when we do rotate out, they're ready to rotate in, well then whatever we're involved in is only going to be as good as we are able to work and that's not leaving much of a

legacy build your bench because from one Ole Miss fan who suffered three decades of broken hearts and letdowns and miseries, I am seeing the value of what a bench does. It brings you from anonymity to prominence. And I think that could happen in our businesses, in our nonprofits, in our lives. We have to encourage an army of normal folks across this country to continue to get involved, build the bench, grow the numbers, and then imagine what kind of impact we can have. And we can go from toiling and frustration and constant letdowns to success across the face of our entire nation.

By building our bench of an army of normal folks, of volunteers, using their passions and their disciplines and employing those disciplines where they see an area need. The bench, the army of normal folks. That's Shop Talk today. Build the bench. Thanks to our producer, Ironlight Labs. We'll see you next week. Our conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together.

Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Jen Psaki, Estet Herndon.

But we're also gonna have some fun thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee and Charlamagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, 1974. George Foreman was champion of the world. Ali was smart and he was handsome. Story behind The Rumble in the Jungle is like a Hollywood movie. But that is only half the story. There's also James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba. All the biggest slack artists on the planet.

Together in Africa. It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami?

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.