Navigating Leadership Under Pressure: A Conversation with Dr. Josh McConkey
The discussion centers on the profound insights of Dr. Josh McConkey, a distinguished emergency physician and military leader, whose extensive experience in both fields has shaped his perspective on leadership and resilience. Dr. McConkey elucidates the pressing mental health crisis among today's youth, attributing much of it to the societal upheavals experienced during formative years. He emphasizes the imperative for individuals to assume active roles within their communities, asserting that every citizen possesses the capacity to contribute positively to national stability and integrity. Through his book, "Be the Weight Behind the Spear," he articulates the necessity of ethical living and personal responsibility, advocating for a collective effort to foster character and unity in the face of division. Our conversation highlights the crucial importance of mentorship, integrity, and the shared responsibility to nurture future leaders, ultimately inspiring listeners to engage in their communities and lead by example actively.
The podcast features an enlightening conversation with Dr. Josh McConkey, a distinguished emergency physician and military leader, who shares his profound insights on leadership and resilience. Dr. McConkey, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and Telly Award winner, brings over two decades of clinical experience and a decorated military background to the discussion. He reflects on the transformative nature of mentorship in his life, crediting influential figures, including his grandfather and military commanders, for shaping his leadership ethos. The dialogue delves into the critical importance of fostering resilience in today's youth, particularly in light of the mental health crisis exacerbated by recent global events. Dr. McConkey emphasizes that true leadership involves moral integrity and the ability to inspire others through action and example, urging listeners to embrace their roles as catalysts for positive change in their communities. He articulates a compelling vision for nurturing the next generation of leaders through faith, mentorship, and community engagement, reinforcing the idea that everyone has a part to play in the nation's destiny.
Takeaways:
- Dr. Josh McConkey is a distinguished emergency physician and military commander with over two decades of experience.
- In his book, he emphasizes the importance of integrity and resilience in leadership, especially for today’s youth.
- He discusses the detrimental effects of recent restrictive policies on the mental health of young adults.
- Dr. McConkey advocates for community engagement and personal responsibility as foundational to national strength.
- He highlights the necessity of empowering the younger generation to navigate challenges and build resilience.
- His upcoming political campaign aims to promote conservative values and enhance community safety and service.
His website
Transcript
My guest today is Dr. Josh McConkey.
He is a Pulitzer Prize nominee, Telly Award winner, best selling author and nationally respected emergency physician with over 20 years of clinical experience.
A former professor at Duke University, he remains board certified emergency medicine and is known for his calm leadership under pressure, whether in the ER or on the battlefield. With 22 years of decorated military service, Dr.
Josh currently commands the 459th Aeromedical Staging Squadron in the US Air Force Reserves where he leads critical medical readiness and deployment operations. His dual role in medicine and military service reflect a lifelong commitment to service, leadership and resilience.
ublic Schools hall of Fame in:Together they are on a mission to shape the next generation of American leaders through faith, mentioned mentorship and action.
His leadership role, leadership ethos, Be the weight behind the Spear challenges today's leaders to stand in the gap for their communities and be a force of unity, character and purpose in a divided world. We welcome him to the podcast. Well, Josh, it's good to have you on the podcast. How you doing today?
Dr. Josh McConkey:I'm doing very good, thank you very much.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:It's great to have you. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I've been waiting for this for a while. We share a lot of similar values. I think so.
I think we'll have a great conversation.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Yes, sir.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:I'm gonna ask you my favorite question. Ask all my guests, though. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Boy, the best piece of advice. Don't put stock in criticism that you wouldn't from those who you wouldn't take advice from.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Okay, so.
Dr. Josh McConkey:So basically, you know, all these Twitter trolls and all these people, you know, don't put any stock in that criticism. If these aren't people that you wouldn't seek out and seek their advice, then it doesn't matter, right?
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Exactly.
And that's so true because we live in an age now where I think it's really impacting our kids a lot because they get all that feedback and there's no way to filter it in terms of, you know, whether it's good or not. And it can be so destructive. That's really good advice. I like that. I may have to borrow that and.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Say, yeah, please do.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:After a while. Keith as Keith always says. So I'm curious.
Think about your journey and people who've been really impactful for you, who are some mentors along the way for you, or maybe people who inspired you in your journey.
Dr. Josh McConkey:I've had some great mentors in the military. I've had some wonderful commanders. There was a Colonel Petty when I was in Iraq. I was a very impressionable young captain straight out of residency.
And, boy, he had some great words of advice to really shape me into a leader and the commander that I am today. And. And my grandfather had a lot to do, you know, with helping me develop my faith.
When I was a young child, I got into a lot of trouble and literally basically failed out of Sunday school. You know, where you're going through. And for confirmation, you have to memorize all these different passages.
And he really sat me down and just took that personal time with me. And when he did that, I realized how important that was, and. And it had everything to do with my faith right now.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:So that's really powerful. Kind of tell us a little bit about your journey into emergency medicine, into the military service. What inspired you to pursue both of those?
Dr. Josh McConkey: So I was born more in the:That's what I was raised on, watching Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse now, and you saw how the country was really fractured at that time.
And when you see what it's like to fight a war when you don't have the weight behind America's spear behind you, I always had tremendous respect for those individuals, and that's one of the reasons that I served.
And then on the emergency medicine side, I'm an adrenaline junkie, so that naturally gravitated towards the trauma and some of the crazy things that you see in the emergency department. So those two things. I've been very fortunate to be able to put those careers together.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:As you think about the emergency aspect of that, what are some of the things you've noticed and changes in the system now than when you maybe first started out?
Dr. Josh McConkey:So I was lucky enough to be able to work in medicine before electronic health records.
Okay, so back when you used to sit down with patients and spend time with patients and everything wasn't a metric and a box that you're clicking on your health record. So, you know, I spent probably 80% of my time or more physically sitting with patients and talking.
You could fill out a paper chart while you're chatting with the patient. And now it's well, you spend 60 or 70% of your time just on these computers, clicking boxes.
And I understand that, you know, having those records available does lead to some better healthcare decisions when you're like moving around and. Because you kind of fracture that those healthcare decisions amongst different hospitals and providers.
But you've really lost those relationships with patients because you just don't get the time with them. And it's not been fun.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Yeah, I noticed.
I had another guest on who's in the medical profession, says part of the struggle she has is if you get a negative report in your records from a previous doctor, like you're a difficult patient because you won't do certain things with medication. If there's not that conversation with the doctor to kind of get a chance to know you.
You may just get your, all your impression of the patient from the records and not actually from talking to the patients.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Yeah, it's, you know, it can kind of color how you interact with patients and how you kind of have those, especially in the emergency department, where you've got very little time.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Right.
Dr. Josh McConkey:I just, I just do a quick review of that chart before I go into the room.
But if there's a flag that pops up like, boy, difficult patient, or you know, drug seeking patient, it really kind of colors that initial interaction with the patient. It helps you with some decisions, but it probably hurts you in some situations as well.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Right. I can imagine. I'm curious. I love leadership, but tell me what it's like to lead under pressure. And if you're in the er, I'm assuming it's.
It's high pressure. The military is the same thing. What's it like making decisions under pressure?
Dr. Josh McConkey: n combat, I served in Iraq in:Emergency medicine, generally that adrenaline junkie, you're seeking those, those high risk, high reward situations, and you can just think well under pressure. Some people just can't do that.
Now, there is ways in which you can hone those skills and work on those skills, but for a lot of people, you either have those skills or you don't.
And on the leadership side of, on the military side, it's really all those mentors and the things that you've been through in the past all make up who you are as a leader. Now I'm a commander right now in the Air Force, so.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Wow, that's cool. So let's talk about your book, Be the Way behind the Spear. What motivated you to write that book?
Dr. Josh McConkey:So over the past several years, I've just seen some changes in health care and in our military servicemen and women, specifically, as an emergency doctor.
So this generation is a generation that, you know, these young 18 to 25 year olds, we've, you know, had some decisions that were made, some policy decisions that, you know, it's not. Doesn't really good to pass the blame, but here's the facts.
So you shut these kids out of school, you shut them out of church, you shut them out of their communities for several years during their really formative years. And as a result, they've had a significant increase in mental health issues and there's a mental health crisis in this country.
So as an emergency doctor, I see the anxiety, the depression, the suicides, unfortunately. And I see those same issues as a military commander in this age group. They lack resiliency skills. They fold at a moment's notice.
And I just realized that somebody has to do something again, this is what I'm seeing. Otherwise, I just go to work every day and I just feel like I'm beating my head against the wall doing the same thing over over and over and over.
But in writing the book, I felt empowered and I'm getting this message, my prescription to fix that problem. And it's, it's been very well received, so I feel very blessed.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:So I've heard that term before, tip of the spear. What's tip of the spear metaphor for you in the book?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Yes. So that's. So to really understand what it means to be the weight behind the spear, you gotta understand what that spear is, the tip of the spear.
So I've been really fortunate to work with special Operations. I was medical director for PJs like Pararescue, Combat, search and rescue.
And these individuals do crazy things that no one else on planet earth can do.
They jump out of helicopters and airplanes behind enemy lines in the most dangerous environments you can imagine, saving lives and doing great things. I don't jump out of helicopters for the most part, unless I really, really have to. And I don't take lives. I save lives as a physician.
But every one of these individuals has someone in their life that gave them the amazing confidence. It's their teachers and coaches, families, you know, their colleagues around them. That's the weight behind the spear.
And that's what makes these individuals so impressive. And just really those skills that they have, it's all about the weight behind it. And that's the tip of the spear.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:I love it.
You talk about in this book ethical living and personal responsibility and use a lot of personal anecdotes and reflections about how ordinary citizens can contribute to the national strength by supporting leaders and fostering unity. Tell us about some of the anecdotes that you used in a book that really resonated with you.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Oh, boy. So some great stories, you know, you talk about, you know, people recognize good leadership.
Sometimes it's hard to define that until you've seen some really bad leaders.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Right?
Dr. Josh McConkey:And one of the examples, I had a CEO at a hospital. So I had to part ownership in a freestanding emergency department in, in Texas. And the CEO was doing some very, very shady things.
I had actually applied for a national security position on the National Security Council. I do ems, like fema, disaster medicine. I'm fellowship board certified. So there was an opportunity.
And as I applied for that, there's a lot of top secret security questions and all the business issues I knew were clearly a problem. So this CEO man, he was embezzling money.
He, he was writing off a lawsuit that involved some sexual harassment issues from another business, through our business. He was siphoning off money from payroll. $130,000. He overcharged us.
And then at the end, he just straight up stole $650,000 out of the bank account for back management expenses. And you know, I went to him and said, hey, I can't be a part of this. I have a security clearance.
I'm applying for this top secret, you know, level clearance. And he offered me a $3.4 million bribe. So unfortunately for him, he found the one guy on planet earth that would turn down $3.4 million.
Because my integrity is very important to me. I, you know, I told him, listen, I'm a colonel in the United States Air Force. I will not compromise that integrity for one penny.
And unfortunately, he, he went a little berserk. He tried to bankrupt the company. He ran it straight into the ground, literally just to spite me, refused to pay bills.
And, and by the end of it, I found out that he had done this through many other businesses where he, he has them all signed their non disclosure agreements, gives them the money, gives them the bribe, and they all walk away. But he found the one guy that wouldn't do that. So he actually threatened the family. We moved to Australia for a year to get around away from him.
I filed a lawsuit during COVID to stop him from bankrupting the company. But it was right in the middle of COVID and we couldn't even get a court date.
Just unfortunately, it did not work out well for me, and I lost about $5 million. But my integrity is intact.
And, you know, those are just some difficult situations that you have to deal with and know what your red lines are and don't cross them. Don't. Don't compromise your integrity.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:So that's one of the key issues or themes in your book, is true leadership requires moral backbone, integrity. How do you help leaders understand how critical that is to effective leadership?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Boy, it's all about trust. And when you're working with men and women that you're asking to do difficult things, and I've flown in combat.
I flew some medevac missions and one air assault in Iraq.
You know, I didn't have to fly that, you know, as the flight surgeon, but how could I ask my men and women to do those things, you know, those combat medics flying, if I wasn't willing to do that myself and understand what they're going through? So it's all about trust.
And if they see you stepping up and making those difficult decisions and they see where your red lines are and how important you make that integrity and ownership, you know, resiliency, all those types of skills, if you're modeling those and they trust you, you know, you're going to get a lot better results from your people. So it's what you model. They see what you do.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:So you can't teach integrity. Obviously, like, you, like the guy you just talked about, he didn't have integrity. So how do you.
How do you get people who are trying to develop their integrity to kind of pour into that more?
Dr. Josh McConkey:So, you know, with my children, it's just having lived that and talking about things like that at the dinner table, you know, sometimes it's just sitting down as a group, like for my family, you know, we do that the dinner table. We ask about the day, what went well, what didn't go well.
Are there some different decisions that could be made, you know, that would have changed the outcome of that day? You know, doing that with your.
With your colleagues and the people that you're working with, just having that open dialogue and be able to discuss those things. Don't have a big ego. I mean, I let everybody. When I walk into a room, everyone stands to attention. I get salutes. That's great.
We have some customs and courtesies in the military, but I always keep that door open. And individually, please come in, talk to me, let me know if there's something you disagree with. We can talk about it.
If I can't sit down and explain my reasoning to you, then I probably don't have a very good reason. So just having being open and honest and having that dialogue, not having a monster ego, that will help with those.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Let's move on to resilience. I love this idea of resilience. It's been a topic that's come up with a lot recently.
How do you demonstrate resilience and dedication to inspire others in leadership? As a leader, how do you build resilience in your company and your team?
Dr. Josh McConkey:So starting with giving people, you empower them to make decisions, you can't micromanage. You know, in doing that, they are going to make some mistakes. And those are all great learning opportunities.
It's no different than how I think different generations have been raised by parents. So, you know, earlier generations, you did have some helicopter parents that just like to hover and, you know, try to micromanage everything.
Now we have the lawnmower parents. And these lawnmower parents mow down every obstacle in their child's path. And as a result, they, the kid encounters no obstacles.
They don't know how to make decisions. They're not allowed to make mistakes. And so that's why when they come into pressure situations or they're out in real life, they just fold.
They have zero resiliency skills. So you have to allow people to make decisions.
You have to allow them to make some mistakes, do it safely with some guardrails, you know, don't let them make some crazy mistakes that, that, you know, we can't recover from. But if you're, as a leader, if you're micromanaging, then you made a bad decision, you chose the wrong person or you're not developing them.
So you have to take responsibility as a leader and, you know, gotta let them make mistakes. That's how they learn. That's how they build resiliency. You know, that's what they do in basic training. Right.
They break you down and they build you back up. That's. That's what. It's no different in business.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Yeah, my son's in Moto. We talked about his. His basic training and how different that was.
I'm curious, if you run across a generation that has not gone through that, how do you get them to have the courage to go take chance? Because if you haven't done that before, it's not something that's natural to you.
So how do you get a generation, maybe that hasn't experienced that, to kind of do that? Like you talk about, with safeguards in place so that they can build that resilience.
Dr. Josh McConkey:So that, that is definitely the challenge that we're working with right now.
Because right now this is the generation that has not had those, those skills and abilities and you know, had a lot to do with what they were in high school and then early college. They just, it was not good for their mental health and development to just shut them out from everything around them.
So there's an entire cohort that had no prom, no senior sports or senior events, no high school graduation.
And then that same group, there's, there's some of them who didn't even have their college graduations because of some, you know, current events and things that were going on. That's, that's huge. I mean I think about my life and some of those formative, those core memories, right?
You, you take those away from people and wow, that's, we're seeing the result of that now. So that's the challenge.
We have to find a way through their, their, their big tie where their entire identity is tied to social media and this more artificial world. We've got to find a way to get back face to face with them, to get them engaged and get some ownership in whatever organization they're a part of.
They have to have that ownership and feel like they're part of that team. You've got to find a way through, you have to find a way to overcome that or they're just not going to be successful.
So there's definitely a lot of work to do.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:I have kids on both ends of the spectrum.
I have a son who didn't have a high school graduation or a freshman year, normal freshman year of college and a daughter who graduated from college in that, in that Covid year too. So she have a graduation and was kind of virtual. So yeah, I can understand both sides of that coin from personal experience.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Yeah, that whole generation.
So there, there's some great studies that up to 70% of that gen Z, that Covid generation, that last half of Gen Z kind of has a mistrust of their government and institutions for those very reasons. And that's why it's so important to get out there, reach out and touch someone, have some face to face interactions.
We got to build those, build that trust back.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:I love that, I love this quote in your book and I want to get your input on it. You say every citizen has a role to play in the nation's destiny. It's our collective effort that propels us forward.
Tell us More about what you meant by that quote.
Dr. Josh McConkey:That's, that's being the weight behind the spear. What you do every single day matters. People discount their role, right? Oh, national security. Or the government's just going to take care of that.
Or the government's going to solve all these problems. No, no, they are not. It has to be you. It's at the community level. So you need to get out there. Everyone has a different skill.
So some people are really great with people. Some people don't like to work with people. There's something for you.
So whether you get out and coach in little league or you volunteer in your church or your school, or maybe you're the person that doesn't like people go to the animal shelter and work on that because those animals can be emotional support animals for somebody. So there's something. There's so many organizations in your community. We are a social being, right? For thousands and thousands of years.
That's what makes us human. Human. That's our humanity. And it doesn't just go away because we have social media and we shut everything down for a couple of years.
You know, we have to get back to that. People have to know that what they do matters and then empower them to do it.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:What do you say to the person. I've heard this so many times in my life before. I am not a leader. What do you say to a person who believes they're not a leader?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Boy, I had a great question. It was one of my book readings. I was at Barnes and Noble and this guy was just getting ready to start a leadership for business.
He didn't feel like he was ready. And he asked the question, are you ever ready to be a leader? And the answer is no. You're never ready. Like, no one is just born ready to be a leader.
These are skills that do have to be learned and developed. And you have to be just willing. All right, you're not going to be a leader unless you want to be a good leader. And you have to just jump into it.
You're going to make some mistakes, ask a lot of questions, don't have a big ego. You know, learn from everybody around you. That's the bad leaders.
When you think of bad leaders, it's always the people with the big egos that won't take advice from everybody. And they're a big know it all. They don't know their limitations. Those don't make good leaders. So you have to get out there and just jump into it.
And through trial and error, you will become A good leader. Just remember the good leaders, remember the bad leaders, just don't be the bad one.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Right. So you started a foundation based on your name in your book, Be the Weight behind the Spear. What's the mission and vision of your foundation?
Dr. Josh McConkey:So the mission of the Weight behind the Spear foundation is to promote community engagement. It's to that right now we're doing fundraising for western North Carolina, just destroyed by Hurricane Helene last September.
And there's still a lot of damage and there is still a lot of recovery to be done.
So we've been, you know, raising money, promoting awareness, and we've been working with Samaritan's Purse, which is a great faith based organization that does a lot of great things for a lot of areas of the country in the world. But in western North Carolina, they've been very involved and proud to be a part of that.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:That's great, man. So what, what's next for you? You've got the book, you've got the foundation. What's on the horizon that's next for you?
Dr. Josh McConkey:You know, for me, I, I see these bad policy decisions that have been made and some things that I've disagreed with. I, I am gonna. I'm running for politics.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Oh, wow.
Dr. Josh McConkey:I've, I've declared my run for lieutenant governor here in North Carolina and I feel that we need some more, more conservative values, somewhat bold leadership, purpose driven leadership. I just disagree with a lot of the policies, policies that have been made over the past couple of years.
I see the results of that with the anxiety, the depression, the suicide in this younger generation. And we're going to do something about that.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:So here's your chance. What's your, what's your platform you're going to promote in your run?
Dr. Josh McConkey:You know, it's, it's, it's very simple. Security, safety and service. You know, it's a. Security in your community, in your family, in your faith.
You know, parental rights is really big and it's just safety, you know, securing borders. Every state's a border state. I don't think a lot of people realize that.
But all the fentanyl and just some of these illegal substances coming across these unsecured borders, they're doing much better now, thank goodness. This current administration has a much different take on things. It's getting much better. But those don't just stop at the border.
And that's what I see in my emergency department.
I see a lot of overdose deaths and I see how that affects families and just make service, service to your community, you know, first responders, teachers. My wife's a teacher. My mom's a teacher. Education is critically important.
So when you talk just those simple three S's, I think most people can understand that, and it resonates well, and that's what we're going to focus on.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:How do you balance all that you do with your faith and your family?
Dr. Josh McConkey:It's. It's because of the faith and the family, and that. That's what motivates me every single day.
So when I wake up, generally, the first thing I think about is how lucky I am to be alive. I.
I carried body bags off the battlefields of Iraq, and I took care of, you know, some of the men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. I. I feel very blessed to be alive, and I have a family and a wonderful wife and three kids. What can we do to make sure that's maintained?
And so that's what I wake up and try to do every day.
If that takes working long, crazy hours and running a lieutenant governor campaign or getting out there and promoting the book and getting involved in other organizations, doing the nonprofit, I'm going to do whatever it takes. I have. I feel obligated to do things that those men and women can no longer do, and I. I value what they've given to this country. And we're gonna.
We're gonna keep on going.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:If you could speak to young professionals aspiring either in the medical or military careers, what advice would you give them?
Dr. Josh McConkey:America needs you. It has to be you. Just look at yourself in the mirror. That's the only person that's going to solve the problems of this country. It has to be you.
What you do matters every day. Everybody is blessed with certain skills. Use those skills, you know, don't use them to take advantage of other people.
Use them to make this country a better place. Whether that's volunteering or starting a business or, you know, getting involved in your church or your school. There's. We. We need you.
America needs you.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:I love it. I love to ask my guest this other question. This is the bookend of the first question. What do you want your legacy to be?
Dr. Josh McConkey:You know, my legacy. I want my children, I want my grandchildren to just be proud of what I've done.
So when I wake up and, you know, think about them and, you know, the men and women that I carried off the battlefields, you know, we have to leave this country better off than how we found it. And that's more of maybe special operations or military mindset. Wherever you've been make sure it's better than how you found it.
And you got to leave it for that future generation. So I hope my family and I know my children do. I.
My son, actually it was a couple of years ago, but he came home and had won this integrity award at school.
And it, it was really special for me because having gone through that really difficult business, you know, it was a couple years of crazy litigation and literally threatened us. We had to move to Australia. It was really bizarre.
But standing, you know, standing firm and not compromising on that integrity, you know, your kids are watching, they see what you do, and it was nice to see that it's rubbing off on the kids. And that's the legacy that I want to leave is, you know, for. For my children and grandchildren and, you know, everybody else in the country. So.
Well, I think it's going well so far.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Well, good. As we wrap up this conversation, what key takeaways do you want to leave with the audience? Kind of to summarize what we talked about today?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Yeah, just, you know, be the weight behind someone or something that matters. Everyone, you know, believe there's people with different beliefs, there's people that have different priorities, but get out there and get involved.
You know, make your community a better place. Volunteer churches, schools, animal shelters, you know, there's.
There's so many different organizations that need you that what you do every single day matters. So be that weight behind the spear in your community.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Where can people find your book and connect with you on social media?
Dr. Josh McConkey:Thank you. So it's available on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, anywhere we can find books. There's an audiobook, there's an ebook, and then the paperback.
You can learn more at wait behind the spear.com w e I g h t waitbehindthespear.com well, Josh, thanks so much.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:For taking the time for writing this book because I think it's so critical. I love books on leadership, especially, especially ones that focus on integrity and letting everybody know that you are a leader.
No matter what field you're in, no matter what career you're doing, whether you're a stay at home mom, whether you are in the corporate world, you are leading someone, you have influence, because leadership is all about influence. So how do you use your sphere of influence to shape and direct the next generation and your own individual piece in the world?
So thank you for reminding us that we all have an important, critical role to play and the growth of our children, our communities, our families, and our impact.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And thanks for pointing that out. Just in your own household, that is the most important role.
Being a parent, mother, father, that's the biggest role out there. It's the best job.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:You never know if you're raising the next George Washington or not. So you just never know. Well, Josh, thanks so much and blessings on your run for lieutenant governor. Hope to see you soon.
I can say I had him on before he was lieutenant governor.
Dr. Josh McConkey:Thank you very much. I appreciate that. God bless.
Rev. Dr. Keith Haney:Blessings to you.
