Pastor, You Don’t Need an Admin — You Need a Strategic Partner | Ep 24

Pastors often think their administrative assistant is there to manage schedules, track tasks, and handle logistics.

But what if the real opportunity is much bigger?

In this episode of the Breaking 1000 Podcast, Mark Brewer, Jesse Anderson, and Hunter Wilson unpack a leadership shift that can dramatically increase a pastor’s capacity: moving an admin from reactive task manager to strategic partner.

Many growing churches unknowingly cap the potential of the people supporting their leadership simply because they lack context. When pastors begin sharing what’s in their head, what’s in their heart, and what they’re trying to accomplish, an admin can begin acting as an ambassador who protects priorities, tracks delegation, and extends the pastor’s reach.
They break down practical ways to make this shift, including the “review and preview” meeting, why healthy friction can actually protect a leader’s time, and how a short-term experiment can unlock a completely new level of support.

If you want to scale your leadership, protect your focus, and lead a growing church without carrying everything yourself, this conversation will challenge how you think about the admin role.

In this conversation:
- Why most pastors unintentionally underuse their admin
- The difference between a task manager and a strategic partner
- How context unlocks better support
- The “review and preview” meeting framework
- Why leaders shouldn’t track their own delegation
- How to run a simple 30-day experiment to unlock more capacity

Sometimes the leadership multiplier you’re looking for is already sitting right outside your office.

If you have a question or topic you’d like us to tee up on a future episode, email us at hey@readysetgrowchurch.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey Pastor, if you're facing growth challenges right now, you're trying to figure out how to scale, how to align your staff, and really how to get after the work that God's called you to do in that community, we would love to come alongside you. And I want you to know we just opened up a brand new mastermind specifically for churches under 500. And if that's interesting to you, go to ready setgrow.church to find out more information and see if this is a fit for your journey right now.

Why most pastors never unlock this role

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hey my friends, welcome to the Breaking 1000 Podcast. I am your host, Mark Brewer. I've got my friend Jesse Anderson.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

What's up? Special guest.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yes, with an E. That's not an O. And I got Hunter Wilson here with me as well. One of the things that we've recognized in working with uh high capacity leaders, pastors, visionary uh leaders is that they often have difficulty being able to unlock the power of their administrative assistant. And so what ends up happening is they dumb down that position and that role to just be like task management and uh a few scheduling events. And so uh one of the things that you've been expert in, uh, Jesse, is really helping these visionary leaders unlock that role in a very, very powerful way, especially around context. Talk to us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Well, it is really important. I think that the key ingredient for any leader really unlocking what could be out of their uh administrative assistant, their executive assistant, is that they're not giving enough context. It's like this key that unlocks. There's this conundrum that oftentimes high impact, high visionary leaders have, which is I've got this right-hand person, I just don't know exactly how to use them, I don't know what's all inside. Hey, just schedule that meeting with so-and-so next Thursday at three. There's not even a back and forth. It's just literally a request do this thing. Do this exactly like it. And I think on the other side, uh, an administrative or executive assistant is feeling like, I feel like

The missing key: context

SPEAKER_02 2:07

I could bring more to the table, but I don't know how to do it. They feel like I probably could have something to speak into, but I don't really know what. And oftentimes what happens is when they don't have enough context, what they do suggest, the leader kind of goes, you don't really know what's going on over here. So there's this weird kind of translation.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

That adds fuel to the fire of ah, stay in your place. That's exactly stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

That's exactly right. So there's this tension. The admin goes, I know I can help more. The leader goes, I don't think you can. And the times when you've tried, I don't think it's helpful. To me, the thing that would connect the dots between them is more context, more of the leader sharing. Here's what's in my head, here's what's in my heart, here's how I feel about um this meeting, that meeting, what's going on. Here are the things that I'm thinking about on a regular basis. So we've talked about this. There's a lot that a leader can do, but there's a couple different things that are.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah, you know what I think is interesting about this, Jesse, is like there are generational things, like whether you're a boomer or Gen X or uh millennial or whatever. I have found this context issue to be not even a generational thing. I agree with you. It's not even like, okay, like we're all on Basecamp and Asana now, but like pastor, there's no way he's getting on that. Like he uses his yellow paper, like whatever. It's not even like, okay, like the old way treated admins like secretaries.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

You're just saying it transcends all of the generations.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

It is a gap in the where it is a major gap that I've seen where pastors believe that this is the limit of where you're at. That's right. And because they don't understand how I can transition you from a reactive doer to becoming a strategic partner. That's right. You're placing a lid on somebody where it might be double or triple the amount of help they can bring to the table.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Let me let me get practical and give an example here because uh like to help people and just go, okay, so I get it. What are we talking about? So for instance, let's just talk about calendar. Maybe a pastor or a leader comes in and they go, it's after a weekend, right? They've talked with people in the hallway, they've got a bunch of different stuff, and they come in and go, hey, so Thursday at three, Thursday at four, Friday at seven, Monday at eleven, I've got all these meetings, I need to schedule these. What the assistant is sitting there going, is like, wait a second. Thursday is your sermon prep day, and you don't like to be interrupted, and you just gave me three meetings to put on there. But the problem is, is they don't have context of are you just reacting to somebody who hit you up in the hallway and you maybe feel bad about, you know, I've just got to make time and I'll do my message at another time. Or are these like serious conversations that's like this is gonna move something forward that's inside the leader's head? The the assistant

Why friction from an admin is actually helpful

SPEAKER_02 4:54

feels the tension of you've bellyached or that you've been in a place which is, man, I don't like this. I feel like I've overbooked myself.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

And then the assistant's going, I tried, but then you go, I know.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

You know what's interesting about this is this is why I think I would never want to go to having just an AI assistant because it introduces friction, a frictionless process of me going into my bad habits. Interesting. The the friction of booking through another person and then being like, Are you sure? Yeah. I think that's a feature, not a bug. Yeah. Uh because they're protecting you from yourself.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah. Again, if they don't have context though, you're gonna be irritated that they push back. Yeah. You're gonna you're gonna basically be.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

I like stand permission, is what I'm it was what I'm hearing. That's right. I'd like for you to speak into this because I have uh that's right. Scott talks a lot about this, you know, blind spots, deaf spots, dumb spots. Yeah. And so uh being able to unlock this role is an allowance that they have a perspective and can see stuff that maybe I can't in the world.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

I think we talked about this before, but for me, it's not when when we're talking about adding friction, I think it's just almost like a um sometimes when you like close things out on a Mac, they're like, Are you sure? Yeah. And it's like, yeah, I am sure. Just exit out of it, right? I think it's more like that. It's like uh it's a yes but, not a no. Agreed. I don't want to have anybody on my team that's telling me no.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

That's right. I'm laughing about that though, because you know, it also gives you the option to never see this again. And I never do the option to never see it again because I'm thinking, no, actually, I might want it sometime in the future to ask me. And so I never I never kill that. I just allow that to always be a part of it.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And I think that's what it is. And and I want to talk about like where you have these conversations because this isn't just like, hey, by the way, that's right, peeking in, leaning into the door at the office. There is a set time to have these conversations. I want to talk about that. But the yes but is so much more powerful and more helpful because it doesn't put me in a defensive mode. Right. It's like, okay, like, hey, I want you to schedule these three meetings when I usually do sermon prep stuff. Yeah. Absolutely, I can do that. But in the past, you've told me to protect you from that. Are you sure you want to do that? I can totally do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

And or I noticed this on your schedule already, might not remember. Which is totally fine. It's your schedule.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah. But you might want to.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

And I I think that's such a place about how to actually broach this and maybe move into some of the next steps on it.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Yeah. So what I would say is obviously there needs to be a conversation to establish, can we just try something new? And to me, the language of can we experiment and evaluate, and I like a specific time frame. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

So you're bookending it.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yes. So you're basically like, if if I'm an administrative or executive assistant and I'm feeling this tension, I am encouraging them to be proactive and to step up and go, Pastor, I feel like there are ways that I could help, but uh I feel like we're we're it we're disconnected right now. We're not we're not able to do this, and we're not able to figure it out out as we go. So are you willing to for the next 30 days? Can we experiment and evaluate?

Start with a 30-day experiment

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Can we introduce a weekly meeting? I'm gonna bring a tight agenda and be prepared. I'm gonna guide you through it, but I I'm asking for a little bit more information and context. And I also want to bring my perspective so that I can hone what I see and you can tell me real time in that meeting hey, is this, is this, am I on the right track?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So I think that's even such a cool thing that I I know that you teach other admins inside of the program that we're gonna talk about at the end. Yeah. Um that's probably the first experiment that we would go on. That's right. But I even like having that conversation of an experiment uh to start the transition of hey, I'm gonna metamorphosize from being reactive to proactive. That's right. And here's how I'm gonna start. Yeah. I'm gonna have a conversation that's gonna really staple this of like I'm turning into a butterfly. Yeah. Of saying, hey, I'm learning a lot. And what I'm learning about is how to make your life easier, yeah, more frictionless. Yeah. How I can be reading your mind and preparing to help you to achieve the targets that you want to have and alleviate tension from your life. Yes. And so would you be down if I'm learning things that I think could be useful as I'm learning you more, right? Would you be down to go on like short experiments to see if we like it or don't like it? Yes. I would love that conversation. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

And so it starts with let's here's the first one. Yeah, let's set up a time where we can actually begin to talk about context. That's right. So what does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 9:40

That's right. So we talk about uh a tool that I like to call the review and preview meeting. And this is a very simple thing. And really what we're doing is we are going back and we're reviewing the previous week. Um, I think a pro-level move is that every leader knows there are things that will hang up in their schedule and hijack their time and things that they have propensities towards. Yeah. Uh for me, when I've been working with executive assistants in the past, I like to tell them here are the things you gotta watch out for me. And would you ask me about these as a part of our review and preview? You know, d uh, did you have enough margin on your calendar last week? How did you feel? So I noticed you ended up having seven meetings on Thursday. Was that uh did that feel okay? Or was that like it's stuff where I want to be asked those things?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

So the visionary leader is saying,

The review and preview meeting

SPEAKER_01 10:26

here are things that I have a tendency to mess up. Will you ask me about the problem? Will you put this on our agenda? Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Uh and even if it's like, dude, if I don't have an outline for the sermon by Thursday morning, I'm gonna freak out. That's exactly right. So did you did you have enough writing spots on Monday through Wednesday?

SPEAKER_02 10:42

That's exactly right. Okay. So I like the review. And I also like uh for an assistant to be able to check in with a leader and go, how did last week feel to you? Was it awesome? Was it rushed? Were you frustrated? Anything that we need to learn before we go into the next week, that's huge. As also a part of that looking back, I also like to get a context catch up, which is what has happened since we last met? Since we last met, you've had the leadership team meeting, you had four other meetings, you had a couple of one-on-ones with people.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

There's new information that is in the leader's mind and heart that if the admin doesn't have that context, it makes it more difficult for them to forecast and help them set up.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

And always what's in between those meetings, a weekend. So Sunday services, hallway conversations, things the pastor noticed, whatever. We want to capture all that and go, just catch me up. What's what's on your brain?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah, I mean, inside of this, there's so much that could happen inside of this. So, like, for example, we're we're big proponents of Basecamp. Yeah. And what we could do here, just as a example, is uh in the moment, if I'm a pastor, we could have a one-on-one set up or I could direct message you. Yep. I had a hallway conversation with a family, uh, their daughter's getting married. They asked me to do the wedding. Yeah. I'm gonna type it to the admin. Let's talk about a review preview. That's exactly right. Um, hey, uh, I got three tasks that I gotta do. I gotta plan what is the main uh four talks we're gonna do for the next sermon series. It's like, okay, I gotta remember to do that. Yeah. I probably need some one-on-one time with our creative director to really talk through that. I'm gonna just go ahead and do it. Yeah. So you can dump during the week and just be like, can you tell me about all these? That's right. Especially if the admin is not in the meetings where those things happened, where important notes happened, uh, important decisions were made, important action items were given. That's right. That's huge. That's because if there are um well, before we started doing this, there were so many times where we were working with our administrative assistant where they were working off of old paradigms. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I forgot to tell you, three weeks ago, we're not even doing that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Especially in a dynamic organization where changes happen in the whole thing. One week ago, yeah. It's like it's like 24 hours. It's like, you know, the Tuesday Hunter is different than the Thursday Hunter. We laugh about that. Yeah. But I remember for me, I actually had to start putting sticky notes on my laptop, on my desk, in my car to go, hey, did you let Britney know about anything today that happened?

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Stocking up for that media. Yes. And I I love what you're saying. This is important because I think often leaders go, Oh man, this sounds like a lot of work. Sounds like another like uh responsibility. I got to spend three hours a week downloading everything. What I love that you highlighted is it's a quick hit. Yeah, it's a voice text as you're driving home from church going, real quick, Steve caught me and we got to do this. And um, I I think that we need to tighten up on our weekend services. So I just want to make sure in our creative meeting we hit this. And um, I loved the way the message felt, and it was interesting because I changed up my Saturday prep time, and maybe we should talk about doing that.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

I just had a one-on-one with Jesse. Jesse told me that he's gonna turn in that thing by Tuesday.

Why context actually frees the leader

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah. Can you just follow up with him Monday at the end of day? So you can get it.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

So you're getting all of these things out of your mind. And what you said a minute ago is the leaders thinking, man, I gotta do all of this stuff. Well, actually, what you're doing is you're freeing up creative things in your brain because those loops left unclosed are zapping creative energy.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Right. To me, what was one of the most beneficial is I don't I want you to be my ambassador for me and speak for me, represent me. Yeah. And I don't want to track what I've delegated. Yeah. I want you to track what I've delegated. Yeah. And I want you to send them a reminder. That's right. Hunter, so excited to meet with you for your follow-up meeting. Um he told me last time that you were supposed to prepare X, Y, and Z. Yep. Um, just wanted to make sure you're still good on those. Such a great example. I do not want to track what I've delegated, and I don't want you to think I'm micromanaging you. That's right. That's what my administrative assistant does for me. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Then so that's really the review section of the meeting. Then the preview side is let's take a look at the next one. So review is basically what happened that I need to know. That's right. Let's look back, how did we feel about it? Any information. Then as we look forward, it is starting with uh it's kind of a transition. What's on your mind heading into this week? Again, this might be a Monday meeting, and after a weekend, it's like, I've got to make time for XYZ this week. But maybe their calendar is already booked. So it helps to go, I need to make time for this. That helps the assistant to go, I'm gonna problem solve and figure out what meetings can move or cancel or whatever. Just tell me anything that you're thinking about for this week. And then it's really important to review the calendar. Yeah, you've got to figure out how this looks for your leader, because for some leaders, we've talked about this. It's just like, I don't want to do that. It sounds

How an admin becomes an extension of you

SPEAKER_02 15:30

so detailed. But I like the idea of talking through each day and just going, okay, so today you've got a lunch with so-and-so. Um, he sent this, it's in your inbox. Cool. All right. Then when you come back, we've got the team meeting. I've got the agenda, I'll have it printed out for you. Uh any questions that I need to make sure that the team knows about? Cool. All right. So tomorrow when we come in, we've got leadership team meeting. Here's this.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

So the administrator has already done the work reviewing the calendar alone, looking for hot spots.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

And now they're giving a preview to go, hey, this is what there is. And what they're doing is they want to catch those things where they go, so Tuesday, uh, you've got lunch with Tom, and the pastor goes, Oh, no, I'm so sorry. Sunday, Tom grabbed me and he's not able to. So I need you to reschedule with him. And so three minutes.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Those three minutes going through those five days could save you three hours or 30 minutes or all kinds of time.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

I think that's the biggest shift that pastors have to unlock is let's just go through a stereotype, okay? Yeah. Let's say your administrative assistant is uh a 60-year-old grandma who's been there for the church forever, but she's so sharp. Like she's so sharp and she's so helpful for you. Yeah. But she's not like she's not like another executive pastor. Yeah. And I think that's where people glitch in this is you know, this person's not an executive pastor. So what do you mean a strategic partner? Like they don't think like that person. I don't think that's what you need to do. Yeah. I think they you need to train them up to be your ambassador to scale you. That's right. It's an extension of you. That's an organization. Extension of you not creating another executive pastor.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

It's like, oh, it's not another lane, it's an extension of your pastoral reach, your pastoral mind, your pastoral heart.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

If you had another person to uh to monitor all the things that you've delegated, if you have another person to uh clear up obstacles along the way, if you have another person that's helping to represent you to other people, how much more can you do? Yeah because they're an extension of you, not trying to say uh they're gonna speak on stage now, they're gonna do all the executive paths. It's like that's not what we're talking about on strategic.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

What else is in the preview stuff?

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Well, I was just gonna say real quick, I just I'm not a sports guy, but I just had this visual of like, what if a quarterback did not have an offensive line? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're literally they're getting sacked every play and they're literally running all over the place going, right? Man, I just wish somebody would block and tackle for me. Yeah. That's what this can be if you really do this, which but somebody's got to have the context of, and in that case, it's what play are we running? Are you moving left or are you moving right? Because I'm gonna shift where I go. But if your assistant doesn't have that, it's like they're standing on the sidelines going, uh, I wish I could help. I'm over here and I'm available.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Instead of them, the assistant always just being in this role of receiving, you're actually building a system where they're extending your reach. That's right. Instead of just sitting here waiting for you to give them a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

And I I think another important thing on the preview that I'd love for you to talk about is you talked about the more context they have, the more helpful they are. Yes. The less context they have, the less helpful they are. That's right. One of the things that I love that you helped uh to embed into our culture is this idea of targets intentions. Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Yeah, I just think it's a very simple thing. The prompts that we share are just for a leader to actually just write out uh very plainly to them it's intuitive. Maybe to the executive pastor they already know them, but maybe not to that assistant to go, what are the things that I'm personally focused on? What do I want our organization focused on right now? What uh tensions am I, what caution lights am I feeling like we've got to have a solution for? And then what are the things that I'm just seeing and sensing? They're not on a meeting agenda, they're not things that we've got to prioritize in this cycle of work, none of that kind of stuff. That helps so much because then here's

Targets, tensions, and what leaders must share

SPEAKER_02 19:19

what happens. When an assistant knows that stuff of what's in your head and what's in your heart, then they translate that to the calendar and they go, now hang on a second. A couple of weeks ago you shared that these things, I don't see these represented on your calendar. And the way you know if you're prioritizing something is look at your calendar or your budget. But in this case, they're looking at their calendar going, you said these things were priorities. Yeah. I don't see these on your calendar. Or even, for instance, message prep, prepping the sermon. And uh, maybe a pastor's like, man, I've got to have my notes done by Thursday at noon. But they keep on booking up their Thursday morning or their Wednesday afternoon. That may be a priority for them. Hey, I want to get this done. But what they're doing is then they're backfilling with appointments and the assistants got to be able to know, are you trying to get done by Thursday noon? Should we be looking earlier in the week? Yeah. Can we just block your calendar so you never feel like you've got to say yes to people? But going through the calendar uh helps you to reconcile what are your priorities? Are they represented? And it also catches anything. And it's it's also live context extraction. Yeah. Because a pastor might be going, oh man, Thursday is gonna be a tough day. That's a clue. Well, why is that? Is that because it's sermon day? Is that because there's five meetings? Is that because there's no breaks in between? What is it? That's all context for the admin to go, cool. So next week, let's not do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Inside of it, the targets are basically what are you aspiring towards individually? Yeah. So what am I working on? That's right. And then the other side of it is what do I expect the team is working towards right now? That's right. Tensions, I I like to even feel like, where are you glitching right now? Yeah. Right. Where are you glitching yourself and where are you glitching with the team right now? Like, what are you seeing that are issues we need to solve or manage towards? Like, hey, it looks like we're doing that thing that we always do is where we get distracted. We got to make sure that we're not getting, hey, we're doing that thing again where we're moving so fast and we're not communicating. You got to help me on this. Yeah. Um what I found is the more my administrative assistant understands my target's intentions, the better the recommendations are. Yes. That's right. If if they don't know what you're moving towards or trying to run away from intentions, that's right. The better they understand that, the better they'd be like, hey, I had three ideas that we might try on for experiments. What do you think about these three? I'm like, okay, I don't like the third one, but the first two, like, I would have never thought of that. That's really good.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

That's right. What do you guys? So if if there's more uh information we want to share, that's great. But I'd like for even us to uh share with the pastors. Right now, uh I've got a task manager or a calendar person. They can put stuff on the calendar and they can do a What do you perceive an average timeline or normal timeline is that if we go on this journey, I can move from a task person to what you're calling an ambassador? What should a pastor have in their mind about this so that they don't go, well, Jesse said it's 30 days, it could be done in 30 days and we're not there. What should be a more understandable timeline for this evolution?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

So a couple of things that I would say. Again, I think short-term experiment is helpful. Let's get to the end of it and see where we're at. Maybe you find at the end of that experiment, we just don't have the right person. I'm trying and I'm finding that they're just not in the right seat. Okay. Totally doable. Like let's let's be honest. They may not be the right person for you and for the season of leadership. You might also get to the end and go, I don't know that I gave enough permission.

How long does this transformation take?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

And so we're not getting as much. And I want to get that feedback from them. You might also be surprised and go, wow, within about two weeks, they started to ask better questions and give better recommendations. I don't know how long it will take. That's based on the leader and assistant. I think just try a trial phase. Um, and one thing that I would say that we've talked about, this can be very helpful. Sometimes it is helpful to include in that meeting the executive pastor or the driver of your organization, whoever that might be, because sometimes the gap right now is so far from visionary leader to reactive admin that, like the question you're asking is that may take a long time if it's just them two. Okay. But if you add in that third person, sometimes what's really helpful is that there's a translator and there's a middle ground there to be able to uh live in the meeting, be able to reconcile and interpret, or to be assistant.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

That's exactly right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Or even after the meeting, going, okay, so did you hear what he said there? Yeah. Let me just give a little bit of color commentary to what that means. Okay, good. We even experienced that together, uh, working together on a team. It was very helpful because there was a gap there for a season, and it felt like, you know what, we just need a translator to be able to go, yeah, pause. So here, just quick context on that. And then you it's amazing to see for the assistant to go, oh, cool, got it.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

One of the things that I would start with is one of the first indicators I'd look for, because you can't just say, like, give them a toolkit, they'll transform and metamorphosize. That's right. I would want the admin to have a bigger vision to do experiments than me have I'd want to have them to have a bigger vision for this than me have a vision for them to grow. Yeah. I agree with you. Does that make sense? I agree with you. If I'm trying to get them excited about why don't you try experiments on dude, that's a clue. Like, it might be that they're not even open to changing or metamorphosizing. I'd want them to be like, oh my gosh, you're you're you're down to try that. Like I'd want them to be like gung ho about looking for avenues. I think that's a huge thing. Number two is they need exposure to what's possible because this is there is not a lot of modeling of like, okay, just go look what they're doing and let's copy. There's you're right. It is a world of just like, how do they do it?

SPEAKER_01 25:11

I'm doing everything. I'm a pastor right now, and I'm going, man, I want that ambassador. I need it.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

This is not just a uh uh an executive admin or an EA. This is all admins. Anyone that is playing a supportive role through logistics by being an ambassador to the visionary, yeah, whether that's an admin to a youth pastor, whether that is whoever it is, whoever it is. It is the logistical person that is the right-hand person of the visionary. I think there is a toolkit that we can help them with. And Jesse, you built this that is incredible. Can you tell them about the admin challenge?

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, this is a video course and community designed to help move them from reactive admin to strategic partners. So we really feel like there's five shifts that that we say that we can help admins take. Each of those has a teaching and it has three practical tools. And some even have prompts of like, you just learned this. Here's some things that you can go to your leader and say, here's what I'm learning.

The admin challenge and the next step

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Not every experiment is another meeting. Agreed. Um So it's not like I need to add 15 meetings. It is a toolbox. Yeah. And what's great about like a Home Depot is it's you can do it, we can help. It's basically what do you need right now? Yeah. And then we're gonna show you the tool that best helps you to solve that issue right now.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Aaron Powell What we're trying to do in the curriculum is we're trying to, to what you said, uh, put the leadership uh we're trying to put the ball in the court of the admin to go, we're gonna empower you, we're gonna encourage you, we're gonna ask you to step up. Yeah. Um, and so really it's about equipping them. Um, what the leader needs to do is to be open to going on a journey and saying, let's work this out. Experiment. That's right. That's right. Now, I will just one last disclaimer. I think some leaders only want a reactive admin, and that's okay. I'm not gonna sit across the table and argue with you about that. I just had a conversation last week uh in our admin community um with someone who was like, I hear this about strategic partner, yeah, but my pastor doesn't want it.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

That's okay. I I don't really understand that though. Yeah. I would just push back. If I had somebody that I am capping at a five, but they could be at an eight or a nine, yeah. I don't understand why I wouldn't want that. I know. Like I that doesn't that makes no sense to me. Like if I can get somebody that is doubly as good on my team by them being open to trying things out, like why would I not do that?

SPEAKER_02 27:38

This this uh from what I understand, there's a unique season of leadership, there's a unique set of responsibilities, and there's a I really would like to have somebody that when I call, they're not busied up with other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

And the only thing that makes sense to me is if you're in a crazy time right now, I don't want to be going on experiments right now. We're like things are freaking out. Yeah, that can happen. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

It can. Okay, so you've created uh a whole set of curriculum, uh plug and play, uh learn this, do this, activate this uh for administrators, administrative assistants. Yep. And it's not just the one to the lead pastor. This is something that would benefit people at all levels. Right. Uh what if I'm watching this right now, I'm going, okay, well, where's the link or what uh what are we doing about this? Yeah. How can I get that thing?

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yep. It's all at adminchallenge.com. Everything you need there. There's some FAQs, there's even some things there to be able to help you uh make a pitch to your leader who may be like, all right, I'm not sure. Should we invest? Should we not?

SPEAKER_01 28:36

It's funny that y'all are able to secure that uh that URL admin challenge, because think of all the challenges we've had over all the decades of executive leadership, and somehow y'all snag that. That means that means this is something that's very needed. It just has never been done.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Hey, why don't you give us like a final word here? Like, what do you think is like the initial like kickoff encouragement of like, all right, I'm leaving today, what should I do next? What should I be thinking about?

SPEAKER_02 29:03

For the leader or for the admin?

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Do for the leader.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah. I would just say very simply, more is possible. If you're willing to be open to it, and if you're willing to challenge your working assumptions about the person that you currently have, because you probably do have a set of working assumptions, which is I just don't think they could do more. Jesse, I hear this, I love this, but they're not able to. I just have seen time and time again from both sides of the table, more is possible if we're open to it. And what I'm ultimately trying to do is not make the admin's life more fulfilling. I'm trying to help the leader. I'm trying to say more is possible for you. I'm not trying to just say, hey, use them better so that they can love their job more. I'm saying you don't actually realize what you're missing. Yeah. You don't realize that a little bit more context and open-handedness, you don't know what could be unlocked. And so if you're willing to, I mean, even if you're like competitive and you're like, I want to prove you wrong, please prove me wrong. But go on a journey, test it out and do a short-term experiment and see what happens. Maybe you don't have the right person, maybe it's not the right season. Um just experiment because this can make your life better. I think there is an unlocked superpower on your team right now that if you would really analyze and look at it, you could get so much more for your leader.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

So good, super powerful. Hey, thank you for being here today. Absolutely. Very, very helpful. And I think we recognize that for you, uh, Pastor, this could be one of the things that if this gets unlocked, you're moving into a whole new realm uh and leading your team, leading your community, and get after uh Great Commission work. So thanks for joining us here today. If you have a question that you would like us to hit or a topic, you can uh shoot that over to Hey H E Y Y at ReadySetgrow.church. We'd love to uh tee that up. Thanks again, Hunter. Thanks again, Jesse, and we'll see you back here at the Breaking One Thousand Podcast.