Pete Briscoe Intro

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Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we welcome Pete Brisco. Pete spent nearly three decades leading a thriving

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megaurch in Dallas before walking through one of the hardest seasons of his life that led him into rehab,

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recovery, and ultimately renewal. In this episode, Pete opens up about burnout and what it looks like when

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everything on the outside seems successful, but the inside is breaking down. He talks about the difference

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between achievement and fulfillment, what it means to rediscover your humanity, and how his journey has

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reshaped the way he helps leaders today. Join us as we unpack how servant leadership begins not with performance,

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but with honesty, humility, and the courage to face our reality. Pete, thank you for joining the Servant

Welcome Pete Briscoe

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Leadership Podcast. Hey Chris, and it's so awesome to be with you. Thanks for having me on.

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I think a lot of people will know your name from a variety of different things.

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Uh, and like I told you, I I've known your name for more than a decade now and been following a lot of the stuff you're

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doing. I would love to hear what your journey has looked like throughout the years because you've kind of had many

Pete’s Journey - The Path To Dallas

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different careers over the years. I I wouldn't say many different careers. Um I would I would say like one career

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for the vast majority of it and then um over the last seven years a lot of

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change in my life. So let me give you the 30,000 foot view. So I grew up in uh in England until I was seven. We flew to

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America and immigrated here uh when I was seven because my dad became the

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pastor of a church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That church became a mega church within two or three years. became

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one of the very early mega churches in the early 70s. And so at dinner each

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night, um my dad would throw out something that was happening in the church and say, "So, what do you guys

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think we should do?" And it was a very dynamic and it was a lot of fun. Uh I mean,

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things are fun when they're growing, right? And so it was just growing like crazy. Uh so that's how I grew up. I uh

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went and did my undergrad and my graduate work. And then my wife Libby

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and I moved to Dallas, Texas, where I became lead pastor of a church at 28 in

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North Dallas. Um, and then what happened with our church in Wisconsin then

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happened with our church in Dallas. And it just grew exponentially very quickly. Grew 10 times in 10 years. And um, we

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had our hands full. And I was there, we were there for um, 27 and a half years.

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When I left, one of my friends said, "People have done less time for murder." Which I thought was really funny, but I

The Crash And Burn

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left because I crashed and burned and and it was a very very hard and dark

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season for me and for Libby. And uh for many people around me. Um I had

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fallen into an addiction that no one knew about. Um Libby figured something

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was up and kind of backed me into the corner and I came clean to her. The

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church gave me a leave of absence. I use that time to go to two different rehab

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facilities to get clean and to get sober. I'm uh one day at a time, but

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this weekend I'm hoping to get my seven-year chip. So, I've enjoyed

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sobriety for a number of years now. And my life of recovery has been beautiful.

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My my wife Libby has told me on multiple occasions, if I ever die, um she she's

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probably not going to marry anyone else. But if she ever did, he he would have to be an addict that's in recovery because

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because the stuff that you do when you're in recovery, it's human stuff. It's you come to grips with who you are

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as a person. You come to grips with the deep pain that you've been carrying for a long time and you start to work

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through that and you start to get to the root of things and it's an incredible adventure. I'm I I tell people this all

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the time. Uh after working the 12 steps, I think everyone should work the 12 steps, whether they're an addict or not.

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Um there's three or four steps in that process that are literally the hardest things you will ever do in your life. Uh

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one of them is step four where you you write a searching moral inventory of

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yourself and you basically go through six or seven different categories and um

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and you write down all the crap that you've ever done. I mean, fun, right? I mean, it's just it's so hard. And if

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you're being authentic and honest, it's incredibly brutal. You get done with it

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and you think, "That's the hardest thing I've ever done." And you got step five staring you right in the face. Step five is you now read what you just wrote to

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another person. And you admit all your crap to someone

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else. And um we don't have time for me to go into what that experience was like

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for me. My fifth step was one of the most profound experiences of my entire life. It was an absolutely beautiful day

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for me with a dear friend of mine. Um but anyway, um boy, I'm just kind of

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running all over the place around. But I I I came back from those experiences in

Choosing Sobriety Over Being A Pastor

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rehab and I really realized that I couldn't continue to do my role and stay sober. So, I had to make a decision

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between continuing to do what I'd always done and being a sober human. And Libby

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and I had so many deep conversations about it, but it became obvious what I needed to do. So, I stepped down from my

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role at the church. Um, I stepped down from my role at a media ministry that my

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parents had kind of handed to me to lead. and um we headed off into the

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wilderness in an RV because we didn't have any idea what to

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do next. And so that so you asked how did I get here today on this on this

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podcast with you. That's kind of the journey. There's a lot more to it than that, but it's been it's been a

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remarkable last seven years has been truly remarkable for me. Well, and I know later we're going to talk more

When Success Feels Empty Inside

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about what you're doing today, but I'd love to look back at as you were trying to figure out like

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what do you do? Because on the inside, I know you kind of felt like things were somewhat crashing and burning or you

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just felt lost at certain areas, but from the outside, everyone looking at you was seeing the blessings pouring out

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all around you. You know, even just thinking through what was going on at the church in Dallas, it was growing

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like crazy. people were coming to know Jesus and there was a lot of cool stuff going on. Uh

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and I think a lot of people who might be listening to this might be in a similar experience where from the outside

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things look like they are going really well but inside there's just something eating at them or that they're

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struggling with and they don't have anyone to go to. Uh yeah, how do you encourage people throughout

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that process and what takeaways can people learn from some of what you the hardships you went through?

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Oh man, how many days do we have? I mean, oh Chris, I work with leaders now

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with um marketplace leaders, business owners, seuite executives,

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um academic leadership, all these kinds of um very successful people. And I'm just

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stunned at how many of them are just struggling so deeply internally. Someone

Achievement Is A Science, Fulfillment Is An Art

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once said that there's the science of achievement and then there's the art of

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fulfillment. They're two very different things. So, people can figure out the

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blocking and the tackling. They can go to school. They can go do their MBA. They can figure out how to grow a

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business. They can grow a business. They just discipline themselves. They work really hard. They figure out what the

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secret sauce is. And boom, they do it and they've achieved, right? And they're like, "That was easy. That just kind of

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happened." And then they try to apply the science to their inner world and to

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their relationships. And the problem is fulfillment has nothing to do with blocking and tackling. It's art.

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Fulfillment is individual for every individual. It's different for every

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single person. And so there's so many people out there that are doing well in whatever they've chosen to do with their

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career. And at the same time, they're just dying inside. There's so much

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addiction. There's so much um shriveling

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relationships, especially primary relationships with partners, with their children. Um it's amazing how our kids

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grow up and then they decide to live lives differently than we decided to live and that can create tension in a

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family and a lot of times we don't know how to work through that tension in a healthy way. Um so I'm um

From Speaking To Thousands To One-On-Ones

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I'm I'm really stunned. Uh, I I I used to stand up in front of

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thousands of people and talk and everyone took notes and then everyone talked about how great it was when I was

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done. And that's that can that can get in your head after a while, right? And I

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did it for 28 years. So, um, I loved it. I enjoyed it. I was good at it. It

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helped people. It was all good. Um, I used to stand in front of thousands. Now I sit across from one

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and it's a completely different experience because I've got someone sitting across from me and they're

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sharing what's going on in their world and my heart gets knitted with theirs and I and I want so desperately to come

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into their world with them and help them to navigate what I consider the really

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important stuff which is the art of fulfillment. the art of the art of getting grounded in the life that they

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are living, getting grounded in the relationships that they have um

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while they're continuing to excel at work, which there's the juggling act, right? And um it's it's an incredible

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experience. It's it's been a a huge shift for me. Um, but I I mean I know I

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know so many people listen to your podcast, Chris, so I know a lot of people are listening to me right now. And what I want to say to them is I get

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it what it feels like to have everything look like you are blowing and going on

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the outside. People were obviously shocked when I resigned and um later when I shared that

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I'd had an addiction. They couldn't believe it. They never I mean when you're an addict you hide things really

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well, right? I had hidden it really well. And so, um, it's shocking because everything looked perfect on the

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outside. I know what that feels like. And at the same time to be just dying on

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the inside, just dying. And, uh, you don't have to live that way. You really

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don't. Um, there is a better way to live for sure. Well, a lot of what I I hear and even

How To Understand Fulfillment

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feel myself sometimes is that achievement at first it feels really good and to

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have people look at you and think boy absolutely not just at first like in the middle and

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at the end it always feels good right well and that's where like the achievement drives the fulfillment and

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sometimes it's like well all of a sudden the achievement's not there the outcomes aren't there or even to realize the

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achievement is sometimes meaningless to us, you know, in in the broader scheme of life. And then when you talk about

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fulfillment, how do you even help people understand fulfillment when maybe they've never

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felt fulfilled in their whole life? Oh, man. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of

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people like that, right? And part of it is because they don't understand that it's going to be individualized for

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them. and they and they they might they might even go to church and the pastor stands up and says, "If you want to be

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fulfilled, just write down these five steps to fulfillment and it'll happen for you." Right? And so they get their

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notebooks out and they're writing down the five things and they try to apply those things to their life and there's still no fulfillment because those five

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things, those are science, right? They're do these five things and you

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will get this result. You'll get this outcome. And life like inner life is just not like that. It does. It's not

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remotely like that. It's art. It's different for everyone. And so there are so many people that have never really

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experienced fulfillment because they've never figured out who they are, how they're wired, what is really going to

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click for them. And so, yeah, I I mean, my my process is very detailed and very

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intense, and it's a year-long. And I go one-on-one with someone. I spend two

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full days with them at the beginning of the process. I fly to where they are. I spend two eight hour days with them. We

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spend 16 hours together. I tell them at the beginning, you're about to talk more about yourself than you have in years.

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And I'm just going to keep asking you questions and uh I'm going to learn where you are. And then we're going to come up with some specific steps that

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we're going to start taking that are completely aligned around who you are as a human being. Because I want to help

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you in your humanity. I want you to help be help you be more human. And so we'll

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come up with a plan and then we'll spend a whole year on Zoom calls every couple of weeks working that plan and and in

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that process over time because it's individualized um they can start to experience

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fulfillment and they can start to see how they've been trying to find it in places that are ne it's never going to

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achieve that. And so and I realize not everyone can do one-on-one coaching. I get that. that um there's

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um there's a there's a need if someone is lacking fulfillment, there's a need

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to figure out who you are, figure out what you really want, figure out how you're wired, figure out what your what

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your inner wounds are, figure out what the messages were that you were raised with that have deeply wounded you, like

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deeply wounded you. All these things come together to help make you who you

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are. Um what what I learned my first rehab it was it was incredible moment.

Pete’s Persona Revealed By A Rehab Therapist

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Um we were all standing around um they put emotions on big pieces of paper on the floor, you know, just you know joy,

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grief, sadness, fear, you know, just placards on the floor. And then they told us to go and stand by the one that

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was our primary emotion that day. And I had I had just arrived at rehab as the

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pastor of a mega church. So, I went to the anxiety one. I was

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feeling a little anxiety, Chris, as you can probably imagine. And um and then the therapist went around and talked to

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each of us and she came to me and I was so stressed that eczema had broken out

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all over my face, like my face was peeling away. And she looked at me and

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in in very loving tones, she just said to me, this is in front of this whole room of other people that I'm there

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with. She just said, "Wow, Pete, you wear your emotions on your skin."

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And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I do." And then she asked me a question. I can't remember what the question was. And and

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Chris, dude, my answer was brilliant. Like, I wish someone had been recording

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it because like I would have posted it if someone had been recording it. It was just so good, right? And here was her

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response to me. Her response to me was, "Nice answer, Pastor Pete. I hope I get

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to meet real Pete before you leave. And then she just walked away from me. And I

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just stood there and I'm like, what does she mean? And that was the

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first time I realized that I had a persona that I had been creating for 30

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years that had become so much bigger than who I really was that in rehab I

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couldn't even be who I really was. I was still being Pastor Pete. They had to yell at me because I was like helping

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people with Bible verses in rehab. They're like, "You cannot do that here. Stop." And I'm like, "Got to be me." And

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I And it took me most of rehab to figure out what it even means to be Pete. Like

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real Pete. And I have people now I'll post something on Facebook or something,

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Chris. And I'll have people in the comments say, "Man, I wish you were just like you used to be." And I'll I'll

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write back and I'll be like, I used to be an addict, dying inside. I was lying to my wife. I

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was deceiving everyone around me. And you want me to go back to that because it serves you better? Listen to me. This

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is who I am now. This is what it means to be real now. Who wants to be real with me? You know,

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I'm getting a little fired up. I can't even remember what you asked me. I hope I love that because really you went from

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leading a mega church and working with this ministry where you're impacting millions of people every year, many

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millions of people and they do have this perspective of like gosh, Pete is just feeding into me and I am benefiting so

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much. Then you go on this process of additional self-discovery where really

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it's like gosh, I really need to figure out like who I was made to be and who I am. Yeah. And then you took it a step

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further of gosh, I have been blessed by the last six, seven years that now I

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need to change the message. It's not that the previous message was necessarily bad, but who you were doing

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it wasn't the right fit, right? And now it's like gosh, this is what I was created to do. So talk about the journey

“What I Was Made To Do”

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of now like you going from through this crazy process of rehab to now realizing

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like gosh this is what I was made to do. Boy, it's so complicated. Chris, it's it

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like it's not it's just not simple. Life is not

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simple. It's complex. So if if you were to just ask me straight up um like what

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do you think you were made to do? I think I would still like I'm not just talking about doing the world. I'm just

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talking about like what are you wired to do? Like what are you really good at? I would say I was I was made to stand up

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in front of people and talk. Um because I I it just always works. Like whenever

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I'm up in front of people, it just works. It's like so natural to me. And I've been coaching communicators for

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years now and I I help them see some things and then they still don't do it.

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I'm like, "Why didn't you just do it?" and they're like, "I'm trying." And it and it's hard for me because it it just

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seems so obvious. And so I think that's that's like my sweet spot and I'm not

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doing that now. So like there's grief there because

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man, I used to love preaching. Like, you know, in in my preaching life, I

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preached over 5,000 times. Like it was a big part of my life. Um and I I loved

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it. and and there was part of that was it was my persona that loved it and there was a bunch of stuff with that,

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right? So there's triggers involved and all these kinds of things. U but to this day if you were to ask me what are you

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made to do? I would say I'm going to stand up in front of people and talk. And so there's a degree to which my

Pete’s New Calling - Personal Coaching

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coaching is a way for me. I I realize this is something I feel like I can do that won't bring any all that trigger

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stuff with me because I'm not standing in front of a bunch of people with lights on me and everyone's going, "Ah,

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it's like just one person who's who's saying, "Oh, help me." And that's a

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totally different world, right? And I can enter into that and I can find joy in that and and I can help people that

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way one at a time. And so I'm starting to speak again and uh but now I'm not

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preaching anymore. But I really want to help people in the marketplace. I want to help teams in the marketplace. Uh I

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want to help them rediscover their humanity because I think so much of the marketplace is dehumanizing. We become a

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number in big companies or even in small companies. We can become just basically what our role is. And if we're if we're

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executing it well, we get to stay. And if we're not, we're probably shown the

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door. And that that's a lot of pressure. And so it's a it's a dehumanizing process oftentimes in the marketplace.

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And I just I just so desperately want people to be human again. Like I feel

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like we're losing our humanity. And I think we can see that in in the social media world. We can see that in

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the divisiveness in our nation. We can see it in so many different ways. It's like we've forgotten how to be human.

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We've forgotten how to feel like a human. We've forgotten how to relate like a human. And so, um, so I'm that's

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my goal now is to help people be human again, either in a one-on-one setting or

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in a group setting or standing in front of a group of people. Um, and and that I

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love. And so, yes, it's it's shifted. and I have grief around what I don't get

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to do anymore. And at the same time, um, it's like, okay, well, I'm not going to

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sit here and think back. I'm just gonna look forward and what can I do? And how

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can I help people? How can we help people? It's a really good question. Well, we in the industry like just in

Leadership Should Lift Up The Whole Team

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the workplace setting, you often hear about top down leadership and leadership starts at the top and all these great

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amazing terms that are like take ground and take charge. Uh, one of the things that we constantly talk about here

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related to servant leadership is that everyone has influence. And one of the

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things I think that you do, you kind of see both sides of it because you are working with a lot of corporate

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executives, nonprofit executives, people who are leading things. But yeah, I think part of what you're doing too is

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going into these organizations and helping people realize their own humanity and the value that they're

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adding exactly where they're at and that they matter just as much as the leadership. When you hear kind of some

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of those concepts, how do you approach that when you're stepping into some of these workplace

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settings and working with teams, not just in the one-on-one settings with the top leadership? I I was a basketball player in high

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school and college, and I use that term loosely. I

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I enjoyed it. I made the team and then I got to cheer from the bench. That was my basketball career. But what I love what

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I love about sports and all three of our kids played sports. What I love about sports is is uh just the whole team

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thing and how when teams work like they're supposed to. It's why I love basketball. I think it's the ultimate

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team sport. When when teams play the way they're supposed to, it's just

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beautiful. And if one person isn't playing their role up to their potential, the whole team suffers. And

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and I know this is a very tired analogy and everyone's heard it, but I really love to to see teams that work well

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really together. I I work with um pastor of a large church, one of my clients,

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and I also meet with him and his elders whenever I go to see him. And um we've

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worked together for a number of years and I I tell them all the time, your your elder team is just truly

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incredible. The way they work together, I just love the dynamic. I love the way they listen to each other. I love the

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way they grapple. And whenever I see a team that is just functioning on all cylinders like that,

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it's just so incredibly encouraging. So um all all this to say, everyone on the

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team plays a role. The role is absolutely imperative and uh the best

Servant Leadership - Seeing Your Team As Humans First

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leaders the best leaders know this. The best leaders know that every single

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person that is working towards the vision of the company is an incredibly important piece of the puzzle and and

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they're treated with respect and they're treated with humanity and they're given opportunities to advance if they desire

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to do that. and you know just all the all the things that really good

24:26
companies do. Um it's because they see their people as humans. I really believe that the best companies see their people

24:32
as human beings and they treat them uh with compassion and grace and with

24:38
honesty and authenticity like we should treat every human. Uh, I'm curious and

How Do You Balance Servant Leadership With Burnout

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I've never really thought of this until you're talking about this, but we talk a lot about servant leadership and

24:49
typically I would just ask how you saw servant leadership play out in your roles and throughout this journey. But

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another aspect that I'm really curious of thinking of your story is sometimes when you're leading really

25:01
well from the outside, you are dying on the inside and you're just burning out.

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How do you effectively balance servant leadership and this whole concept of burnout?

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Because you probably don't realize you're burning out along the way until you've really burnt out. Um,

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that's kind of my my guess. And you just end up in a place you're like, how did I get here? Um, absolutely. Yeah.

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How do you balance those two things? Yeah. I've never I've never met anyone who graduated from college and said, I'm

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gonna work until I crash and burn in my 30s. Woohoo. Let's I mean, no one starts

25:39
out that way, right? We we we we give ourselves much more credit for what we're able to do and to carry than is

25:48
wise. And you're right, all of a sudden something hits you from behind and you're like, wait, what in the world?

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And it was staggering to me the first time someone used the word addiction with me.

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Um because an addict doesn't think they're an addict. And you you think, well, I got a problem or I got a sin

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struggle or whatever you want to call it. And um and and I I didn't even know

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like looking back now, I look at it, it's like, oh my goodness, just absolutely quintessential addiction. But

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when you're in it, you don't think that and you you think you're just having a hard time or you're just you just got to

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numb a little bit to get by. You know, it's it's not that big a deal. And you just you don't realize. So it does it

26:30
creeps up on you and then all of a sudden it body slams you and obviously we want to keep people from getting to

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that place if at all possible. So uh ser servant leadership I have a really

Pete’s Servant Leadership Definition

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simple definition of servant leadership. It's overly simplistic but

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uh leadership is just one difficult conversation after another. Leadership is just one awkward conversation after

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another. That's really all it is. What what you are bringing as a leader and obviously you're bringing vision casting

27:04
and you're bringing you're you're bringing a bunch of different things, but at the end of the day, the best

27:09
leaders are the ones that are eager to have the awkward conversations one after another after another. And I I'm looking

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at your face while I'm talking about this and I see your eyes going sideways and I'm imagining that you've got a couple awkward ones that you have to

27:21
have because you're running a company and you you know exactly what I'm talking about, right, Chris? It's like Yeah. the the the the hardest

27:28
conversations end up on your desk because no one else wants to do them and and they're the ones you have to do. And

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and the way that you go about those conversations is is the way that you're serving your people and the way that

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you're leading your people. And it's obviously decision- making. It's all these things. Um but it it's it's

27:48
unnaturally exhausting when your company or your nonprofit grows beyond what you

27:54
thought it was going to grow. and all of a sudden you're scrambling to hire people and to create structures and

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all these kinds of things. Um it's it's an unnatural position for one person to

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be in. I'm absolutely convinced of this. When when I talk to my clients and they tell me the breadth of their responsibilities, sometimes I just have

28:13
to sit back and I'm like, how do you even get out of bed in the morning? Like it's just the weight of it is just

28:20
incredible. And and so I think I think I think we we put too much on ourselves. I

28:27
think and you know we don't delegate the way that we should uh because we tend to

28:32
be a little bit of control freaks when we're when we're the point leader and so we want to control things so we don't

28:38
delegate it the way we should. And I mean there's just there's multiple ways to address the issue, but you got to

28:45
figure out, you know, why you got to figure out why burnout is running you down from behind and about to tackle you

28:51
and it's going to hurt. And it's different. It's different for everyone. Fulfillment is art. These inner world

28:57
things are art. They're not science. Well, and that's where I start to wonder like if somebody came to you 15 years in

How To Ask Questions To Reveal Burnout Before The Crash

29:05
or 20 years in or 25 years in, like before everything before you came to

29:10
your own realization of like, gosh, I need to change something or something's got to change here. It's not working. Uh

29:16
people are slowly burning out in so many cases and not realizing it. And from the outside, when somebody says like,

29:22
"You've got too much going on." the initial thought back might be like they don't understand how much capacity I

29:27
have or they don't understand how gifted I am or whatever the things are how excited I am about my work because it's

29:34
it's truly exciting you know and how do you even start those conversations with people when it's like

29:41
you know sitting there maybe you're like yeah I probably wouldn't have believed it either somebody told me I'd be here

29:47
yeah I I totally I totally relate to what you're saying Chris the the way I start the conversations

29:54
um is is with 16 hours of questions,

29:59
like two full days, call it my my intensive, my on-site intensive. Two

30:04
full days of me asking questions. And I do that for two reasons. One, uh because

30:10
I'm trying to learn my client and you know what their challenges are so I can help. But what's truly remarkable is how

30:17
often as they're just answering my questions, I see light bulbs go on and they're like, "Wait a minute, that means

30:25
X or that means why or maybe that's maybe that's why my wife feels distant

30:32
from me or what." And it's just like they're just they haven't thought about it because they haven't had to. They're

30:38
just grinding. They're just charging up the next hill. And so they haven't even

30:43
thought about it. and just someone just asking them questions. Um, all of a sudden these light bulbs start going off

30:49
all over the place. And so a lot of times I mean I I think I think it if

Advice For Those Struggling

30:56
anyone is struggling I think it would be wise to get with a therapist and say I'm just struggling. I don't know why. I

31:02
mean that's one thing that everyone can do. Um there's coaches like me. There's other coaches out there that can come

31:08
alongside you too. Um there's there's a plethora of resources online now. Um

31:16
know that the the explosion of content is just mind-boggling and negative on so

31:22
many fronts. Um some of it however is really really good and super helpful.

31:28
And so find really really good and super helpful people and learn from them. Um,

31:33
but it comes down to awareness, like being aware that I'm not doing great.

31:40
I know it looks to everyone else like I'm doing great because everything's growing great, but I'm not doing great.

31:46
It's going great, but I'm not doing great. There are different things, right? And uh it and awareness says I'm

31:51
I'm not doing great. The next level of awareness is here are some of the reasons why I'm not doing great. And

31:58
that requires authenticity and honesty with oneself. And we just don't do a whole lot of that

32:04
anymore, Chris. If it's almost like if we're not in therapy, if we don't have a coach, if we don't have someone that's

32:09
come alongside us to help us with these kinds of questions, we just never get around to asking them. And so,

32:17
um, I think it really comes down to awareness, starting to ask the real questions, and then, um, not just

32:24
saying, "Oh, this is overwhelming." Uh, but to actually start to address some of those issues. Um, otherwise you're going

32:31
to get you're going to get blindsided from the backside and your nose will be in the dirt and it'll

32:37
be hard. Really hard. I know. I would. My nose was in the dirt. I remember it. It's not fun. Well, and this is where I

Recovery Is A Journey, Not Instant

32:45
feel like I feel like you could do a whole year's worth of podcast episodes

32:51
on just how do you deal with this and the journey of self-discovery that people are on and the conversations with

32:57
you and then it's like it's not going to be okay, I spent 16 hours with Pete and now it's like I

33:03
figured out everything. It's like it that is the start of a journey that's a lifelong journey, you know, and I I love

33:09
how absolutely you've even talked about some of the stuff you've been through with rehab. It's like you are in the middle of

33:17
continuing to be in the process. It's not like, wow, it's just fixed, you know? It's like you're seven years in,

33:24
which is is amazing, into this awesome journey, and it's going to be hopefully decades more. Um,

33:30
it definitely is more of a journey than like a the quick win that everyone is looking for online, it feels like.

33:37
Oh, dude. Oh, you're so right. There there's a 12step group that we've traveled around the country. We always

33:43
wintered in Tucson, Arizona. There's a 12step group here that I've been going to for seven years when we're here in the winter. And there there are multiple

33:51
people in that group that have been sober for over 30 years. Uh this one one woman has been sober for

33:58
38 years, I believe. And they're there every Saturday. and they're there

34:03
because they want to help other people that are struggling and that are coming into the group. And um and everyone in

34:11
that group will tell you, you know, you're um you're an addict. Um you're

34:17
probably an addict for life, but you're an addict in recovery. And recovery is a

34:23
beautiful way to live. Like an incredibly cool way to live. And yeah,

34:29
it's a lifelong journey for sure. And yeah, you don't you you what what takes

34:34
you 40 or 50 or 60 years to create, you don't dismantle in 30 minutes watching a

34:41
podcast. Like this this takes work like I mean this is a question I ask people

34:47
all the time like are you doing your work? Like whatever your work is, are you

34:53
doing it? And a lot of times I get kind of that look that a dog gives you when they've heard a sound for the first time

34:59
where they kind of tilt their head and they're like, "What?" And and then often other times people will say, "Yeah, I'm

35:05
doing my work. Here's the work I'm here's what I'm working on right now." And it's like growing adults, they're

35:12
doing their work. They know what the work is. They're going after it. They're doing their work. They're not just

35:18
They're not just numbing by working harder. They're actually doing their work. And that's a beautiful way to

35:25
live. And that is a lifelong journey for sure. Doing your work is a lifelong journey. Well, and I think for those that are

35:31
listening to this and they're like, I'm literally I just need to figure out what the journey even looks like, the

35:36
starting point, we're going to throw in some resources where they can just go check out some of the stuff you're doing

35:42
because I know you talk about this, you write about it, you coach people. So, we're going to link to make that easy.

35:47
Uh, okay. Awesome. With our last 60 seconds, I want to hit you with 10 rapid fire

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

35:54
questions. Six seconds each. Okay. The first thing that comes to mind,

36:02
who do you think of when I say servant leadership? Well, obviously Jesus. That's good. Five words that most

36:07
describe you. Alive. Oh, man.

36:12
um kind,

36:19
loyal, growing at peace.

36:25
Love that. Favorite author or book? Oh man, that's brutal. Uh my favorite

36:33
novel is Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. And um it's

36:39
it's a mesmerizing heartthumping last third of that book. And there are very

36:44
few books that literally increase my heart rate. That one did. Favorite food.

36:51
I'm not a foodie. Um so I see it as fuel and sometimes I even forget to eat. Um

37:00
so I but I will say I'll say a good old-fashioned

37:06
um meat and potato uh dinner like you know prime rib or

37:12
something and mashed potatoes. That sounds good to me. All right. Favorite thing to do in your free time.

37:18
I love uh when Libby and I are hiking. We've we've traveled

37:23
for the last six years. We've been to 44 national parks and done some of the best

37:29
hikes in the world. And that's my happy place when we're out hiking and she's

37:35
walking in front of me and I'm watching her ponytail go back and forth as she's striding and we're talking and we're enjoying the nature and that's my

37:42
favorite thing. All right. Is there any surprising fact about you?

37:51
No, I can't think of anything. All right. Where's favorite place you've

37:57
been? Man, these are hard. Chris, you've been a lot of places. Um, okay. I'm just gonna just say that what came

38:03
to my mind. So, Libby and I did the uh one of my bucket list our bucket list

38:09
hikes this last year and it's called Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. Sweet. And it's absolutely

38:16
terrifying. And the the way it worked out because of the weather and everything, we got to the top of Angel's

38:22
Landing and we had the summit completely to ourselves. Um, which uh everyone

38:29
should Google Angel's Landing video and just see what I'm talking about. It's it's 2,000 foot drops on either side of

38:35
a three- foot wide path. It's horrifying and spectacular and that was an amazing

38:41
space. My palms are sweaty just thinking about that. Last three. Is there somewhere you want

38:48
to go that you have not been yet? My my parents did a trip up the fjords in Scandinavia

38:54
um on a little mailboat and I've often thought that I would love to that scenery seems to be something I've never

39:01
seen anything like. So I'll I'll throw that one out. All right. Best advice you've ever received.

39:06
Go to rehab. Love it. And finally, why do you think a podcast on servant leadership is good

Importance Of A Servant Leadership Podcast

39:12
for people to listen to? because leadership is one of the most extraordinarily complex endeavors that

39:20
someone can enter into. And so there's there's literally

39:26
thousands of things to talk about when it comes to leadership. And that it's

39:31
it's inexhaustible as far as the things that you need to learn if you want to be an effective and a helpful leader. And

39:38
so I think everyone should listen to your podcast, Chris. That's what I think.

39:44
Well, Pete, thank you for jumping on. Thanks for opening up and sharing your

39:49
story because I think it is so relatable to almost everyone, if not everyone listening to the podcast. Uh, and at the

39:56
same time, so many people are just living in that life that maybe you were in before where they weren't truly free.

40:01
And so, it's just amazing hearing about your journey. Chris, I really appreciate you having me

Reach Out To Pete If You Need Help

40:06
on. And allow if you're okay with me saying this, please if anyone's listening to me and they they think that

40:13
working with me in a coaching relationship would be something that would be helpful for them. I I'm hoping in the show notes or whatever this looks

40:20
like, you could put my web page and you can just reach out to me. My email address is there on my web page at

40:25
pbrrisco.com and uh just reach out to me and we'll have a phone conversation and we'll see

40:31
if it's something we want to do. Yeah. and we'll make sure that's easy for anyone looking in the description

40:36
wherever you're watching or listening. Thanks again, Pete. Thank you, Chris. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to this episode

Closing

40:43
of the Servant Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment

40:49
below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to never miss an

40:55
update. Be sure to check out the servantleershippodcast.org for more updates and additional bonus