SPEAKER_01 0:04

You're listening to the Hanging with the AD podcast, where we break down hot topics in athletic administration and lessons learned through leadership. Now, here are your hosts, Josh Matthews and Don Baker. Welcome to another special edition of the Hanging with the AD podcast. Today we sit down with James Albright. James serves as the director of parks, recreation, and community resources for the city of Ackworth, Georgia, which is northwest of Atlanta. James, thanks for joining us today. Glad to be on the show. Now, James, you recently started a blog called Leadership in Maine. In it, you tackle topics surrounding being a community leader. First, where did the idea of doing a leadership blog originate? And where do you find or collect these topics?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, so this uh concept of the blog was something that was on my heart for years. Um, I think we all have those things that we want to do, and just time gets in the way and uh it just doesn't work out. So, you know, COVID's put a big uh strain on all of us, it's changed our worlds. But one thing that it did was it it freed up some time. Uh, where normally I'm coaching all-star baseball during the summer, it didn't happen. So I was able to sit down and start tinkering with the platform for it and building the social media channels, and it really just finally freed up that time to say, all right, it's it's time to get this done. Um, I'm a big believer. I was born and raised in the Ackworth community. Uh, I've been fortunate to be a product of a lot of incredible leaders that have poured into my life. And it really just kind of dawned on me, I need to share all this stuff that people's poured into my lives in this, and we have an incredible community. You know, Don, you've been a part of this community time at Kennesaw Mountain and still today in your current role. And uh there's just something special about this community, and I felt like we wanted to share that story. Um, all too often, we typically look at the national and state levels to try to solve a lot of our problems, but uh I really do believe that leaders in local communities uh are the biggest impact or change agent that we have.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah, that's great. Uh obviously the reason why we do what we do here on the podcast is to share stories that we're having too. So it's always fun to be able to share our stories and the the stories of others. So that's cool. James, I have to admit, your title, Leadership in Maine, it takes me back home. Uh the main road running through Winder, Georgia is Broad Street. It's not Main Street, but it's Broad Street. Main Street's not far away, but it's right there. But I think of all the old town leaders, and we had some pretty significant people come from Winder, Georgia as well, who resided in that Main Street, Broad Street area from nine to five, day to day after day after day. I mean, just some great leaders there. So I'm I'm really glad you chose this title of Leadership in Maine. And uh also I love the picture on your blog as well. Uh, just just a neat picture there to get people back to that small hometown uh and Main Street. I know we talk about it in politics, Main Street America a lot, but that that blog and your your picture, your logo is great. Tell us the thought, and you did a little bit, but just expand on that thought behind the title Leadership in Maine.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yes, I think it was a play on an intersection, right? I think as leaders and in our growth patterns, we all arrive at an intersection. And I think that intersection and and part of our mission is to inspire a generation of community leaders to make a turn from ordinary to extraordinary. And we all have been at that intersection, and it's really been other people in our lives that have helped guide that right turn, you know. Um, some people stay at that intersection, they're stuck stuck at the traffic light. Um, but I know for me in my world, um, I had a lot of people pour into me that helped help me, uh, they were my GPS that helped me make the right turn on the on the main street. And I think uh I think if we can uh distribute the original and the shared content, we can help people do that. And there's a there's a lot of people that are um uh community leaders. A lot of people don't may not even realize it, but you know, John Maxwell defines uh leadership as simply influence, and that's kind of what we defined uh community leadership is is the ability, and the key part is the willingness. We may have the ability, but the willingness to use our influence, our leadership, uh to better others and the world that we live in. And when you think about the world that we live in, y'all's world is athletic directors, right? It may be a coach and their team, it could be you and your church, it could be you and your city, because communities are essentially a group of people, and all of us have our different communities that we serve, and it may be something as simple as the community we go home to every night, um, our household.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

That that's really good. I recently heard our former pastor, Bryant Wright, uh, he was on a he does a podcast, leadership podcast with his son, and he talked about at some point leaders have to start mentoring younger people. And he said, you know, you get into the mid-40s, and now you have all this experience and you need to give it back, and you need to uh have a heart for mentoring, and and that intersection is exactly that same idea. We we need to be ready for that intersection so we can give back to our community, give back to the next generation of leaders, or our leadership is really worthless, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah, exactly. Um, as somebody that's about to hit 40, uh you start to make that transition. Uh was with a group of guys yesterday, uh, a leadership group I'm in, and we talked about trying to follow people that are a lot further than you in the leadership process. And once you start to get 20 years under your belt in a career and you start to get close to 40, you start to realize the importance of it's your turn to start pouring into other people. Uh because uh whether you think so or not, you are further in that journey. You do have that experience, you do have that wisdom, and realizing that importance of just like somebody poured into you at some point, it's you know, it's your turn to pour into others.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, you're also close to that time where you wake up and something hurts and you say, you know what? I I just I went I just went to bed. I didn't I didn't do anything else. I just went to bed and I got up and I and hurt myself. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Mentally I feel good, but yeah, you get a good day of yard work in and you realize you're getting older the next morning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Now, uh James, you talk about your teachings and lessons coming from the great leaders that you have encountered there in Ackworth. How does the person listening in McKinney, Texas, Jacksonville, Florida, Olatha, Kansas, Santa Ana, California take what you're sharing and apply it to the journey that they're walking?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah, I hope what I think leadership is universal. Sometimes we think it's just applicable in the in the uh business world, uh, but it applies in the classroom, it applies, it applies on the sports field. And I think for me, very intentional when when I write this blog of trying to, and I'll keep the list right there of who we're trying to reach, right? The educators, the small business owners, the community pastors, the public servants, and figure out how each lesson apply to them in their local communities. And hopefully what it does is provide them the encouragement and the inspiration they need to realize they can make a difference. Whatever role you're in, whether you're in a classroom, whether you're out on that sports field, you play a significant role in the development of your community.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

James, I gotta stop and ask for our YouTube uh watchers is that Main Street behind you?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

It is not Main Street. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Okay, well that that would have been apropos, but hey, still you got a you got a great office set up there there with a with a window looking out to the park or whatever. So that's pretty cool. All right, so this the every that there's a leadership lesson in in anything, right? If we want to drill down and we can we can um we can find leadership in anything, but there's a leadership lesson and one of the simplest pieces of your blog, I think. It's how you number them. Because you started with 001, a three-digit designation for your first and then subsequent uh blogs or episodes. Uh I know they're not episodes yet, but uh they are they're just written blogs. Now you're up to 009, which was your uh latest release. You are laying out a vision right away. Leaders need a vision. And and what you're saying through this vision is to the readers hey, I plan on sustaining this for at least 100 episodes, maybe all the way up to 999 episodes, right? Or our editions and our uh journal entries, whatever we want to call them. I know 999 is a lot, but uh we'll say at least you got a vision to get to triple digits. Nice, very, very, very nice job of reminding us that as leaders, we need to have and communicate a vision. So, so great job there.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Thanks. I I appreciate that, but in some ways, that was accountability for me as well. It was to uh, you know, sometimes when you think about and you really wrestle with that stuff, and I'm sure you guys did the same thing when you were developing this podcast, you know, you come in with ambition, you know, and I actually looked at doing two posts a week and I backed off of that right before the launch, and I'm thankful that I did. But I'm also one of those people that it can, as a leader in my personality profile, I want to try to make sure everything is planned and prepared properly before I move forward. And it really just kind of I sat on that for a while. I overthought it. Um, I sat on this thing for six months after the website and the social media was ready to go. And then uh my wife provided some encouragement that kind of got me over the hump there. And I think in the end, it just um, you know, setting that number out there was like this is real. And you're not you're not just settling for nine, um, you know, 52 weeks in a year, and and uh, but ultimately is just to take it step by step. And we talked about that this past week with fundamentals, and just look at one blog at a time, and eventually I'll look back and maybe laugh at this thing when I hit that hundred mark.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

That's that's pretty good. You know, one of the things that I was telling Josh before we started, uh one of the things I have always admired about you, you seem very intentional about everything. Nothing is necessarily just, you know, off the cuff. It's it's it's very uh deliberate and very intentional. You can really see that uh in what you're doing. Now you use a variety of ways to teach leadership in your blog from personal stories to current events uh and even breaking down song lyrics. Uh could you maybe walk us through uh that post that you just mentioned, that that March 1st post on fundamentals, uh, give our listeners a sense of what they're gonna see when they visit the blog.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, so there's kind of two major components of what I do. I either want to celebrate the community, uh the leaders in our community by people and celebrating those people. Was able to celebrate my wife, who I feel like is one of the greatest community leaders that I know because one, she allows me to be the community leader. Um and you guys know from the long hours you work and what you put into your jobs, if it wasn't for her at home, I would not be the community leader that I am. We'll even have a guest blogger program where uh people will be able to celebrate those leaders that made an impact on them and their community and what lessons they learn from them. So, but the other concept is we we talk about leadership characteristics and concepts, and this week we talked about uh fundamentals. So, fundamentals to me are extremely important. I am the director of parks and recreation for the city of Ackworth, but I'm a coach. Like I have coached football, I've coached wrestling, uh, basketball, baseball. Essentially, the 21 years of my adult life, I've been a coach, and I am a firm believer in the fundamentals. So when I kind of sit down and sketch these ideas out for the blog, I really thought about this one. And we really we what we did is we talked about four things is essentially that uh fundamentals require repetition, they require discipline. You can have success, number three, without fundamentals, but that's not always sustainable. And essentially, uh fundamentals take over when when things go bad. And I kind of give in and we can dive into uh each one of those things. But those are the four things they're gonna they're gonna learn about when they uh read this episode of the blog.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

If I may say today is March the 3rd, we're recording it. If you go to James's Twitter, that was tweeted out this morning. So uh love that, love those principles that you are preaching over and over again about um leadership there. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, and it was um, you know, if we want to kind of talk a little bit about, I think there's some important things within the fundamentals. And and you guys have both coached, you've been there, you know the importance of fundamentals. And I think when we talk about you know repetition, um, we talk about in the blog that uh Malcolm Gladwell, if you've ever read read any of his stuff, it is he's a very, very deep and analytical thinker, and he talks about that it takes us 10,000 hours of doing something to become proficient in it. And uh that's kind of crazy when when you kind of think about that. And sometimes fundamentals are not they're not shiny. They can um, you know, it's doing it over and over again. And I I give the experience of uh and I had a buddy of mine uh text me after he read the blog and thought I was being overly critical of travel baseball. And it it was more of uh the negative side of it. It doesn't apply to every single travel coach. There's incredible travel coaches out there, but I see it time and time again in my world where coaches will assemble talent and they'll win short term and they'll do a good job, but they skip a lot of fundamentals in the process. And um, you know, working and developing young athletes is more about it's more about a marathon than it is a sprint. And um we talk about you know that concept, and then there were that fundamentals require discipline, and in kind of thinking through that, success can kind of get in the way of that. And I shared a really good quote, and I wanted to share that with with your listeners, and uh, I'm gonna read it so we make sure we get it right. But uh, if you get an opportunity, it's the Craig Rochelle Leadership podcast, and he interviews John Maxwell, and then John Maxwell is obviously like the guru of of leadership, and he uses this quote, and he says, uh, he was at a conference and a young leader came up to him and says, I want to do what you do. And uh Maxwell said, Well, I've got a question for you. And he says, Would you like to do what I did so that you can do what I do? And that was that was great. And and we kind of talk about that concept in the blog, all of us. And um, I went back and listened to some of your original podcast, and uh Don talked in one of those about, you know, sometimes as an assistant coach, you're not always intended to be a head coach. You're niched as a really good assistant coach, but sometimes uh we can let success do that. And then Maxwell ends up saying, he goes, We see the success of somebody not realizing there was a whole process of daily and the keyword disciplines that got them there. And without those, they would have never had that day. And I think it's easy to look past that sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Yeah, that's one of those things that I was I just finished reading uh Tom Verducci's book, The Cubs Way, about the Cubs breaking the curse and winning the World Series. And late in in that book, when they were uh leading into game seven there, they had this conversation about that something bad is going to happen. Like it just is. And so when it does, we can't panic. We have to fall back on every little thing, you know, that got us there, you know. And that that little I understand what you're talking about, and those that read it, uh they'll see that little the little uh conversation, let's just call it about travel baseball, about assembling that talent and it just being able to press play and then you have success. And that's true. But eventually something bad is gonna happen. And when it does, if you don't have that fundamental foundation in place, then you know you're really kind of spinning your wheels. Now, at the end of uh each post, you leave the reader with a set of questions, uh, which I think is really good. It's a it's a way for them to kind of take a look in the mirror, I believe. Uh, why do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

I do it so that um the readers reflect themselves. All of us are different, we're all wired differently, we all read this thing differently. And I think uh reflection is definitely a good thing. I I I firmly believe that self-awareness is one of the most um important leadership uh characteristics or traits that we can have. And I think the your better leaders, and you see this by the people that you lead, uh, those people that are reflective, those people that are self-aware, that's refreshing to a leader. So I think the more that it challenges the reader to be reflective, to really think about their world and how it applies uh in there is is really big. Um and it's always a good reminder for myself. You know, a lot of this stuff, I want to write this so that my kids can come back and read about their dad one day and the things that he believed, uh the people that inspired him. And I firmly believe that if I can write from that level of uh passion um and emotion, that hopefully one day if if we don't have any followers on social media or you know, we don't add a single subscriber from this point forward, if if I can leave that those letters to them essentially behind, uh then we've I've achieved the the purpose of what the blog's for.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

That's awesome. Now, James, where can people find your stuff? Where can they find the blog and how can they connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

So there's a there's a couple ways. Uh they can go to leadershipandmain.org. Uh we've also got .com and .net, just in case you enter it in wrong. Um up at the top, there's a subscribe tab, and these blogs come out at 7.30 every Monday morning. Uh, but we also have a presence on social media, uh, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well. Um, so if you're on Twitter, you have to search uh Leadership in Maine, but also the handle is Leader Maine, because leadership in Maine when it fits. Uh but love to uh have anyone follow along and uh see if uh they can uh benefit from the journey we're on.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

So James, um it's great to learn about your blog. It's great to have already interacted with it. Uh I can't wait until uh it just progresses even further. I'll let you save maybe the future of it, uh maybe going to a different platform to share whenever that's uh appropriate. But uh before we go, you know, I I we want to give you the chance to share kind of maybe where the Lord's leading you, uh, maybe in terms of what you hope comes from your writing. So just just leave us with your heart of what you hope comes, you know, what the true mission of this is uh at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

You know, you asked a question earlier in the blog about, you know, people around the country and small towns and what they can benefit from it. I just hope that people truly understand their ability to influence their local community. And we referenced this earlier. Um, sometimes at a federal or a state level, you just feel like you're a number. You may not necessarily feel like you can truly make an impact. But man, you think about it, you know, in y'all's world, um coaches, athletic directors, you know, in terms of being able to impact your community, you know, a football program excels and does well, it boosts the uh the morale in a city. You think about it too. You probably have the greatest volunteer resource and army essentially on campus or of any community to serve well. We see it in our community all the time. Uh, between North Cobb High School, Alatoona, Kennesaw Mountain, uh, these are some of our best volunteer resources that we have. You know, they show up to help uh clean up trash after our Taste of Ackworth event. They serve side by side with our buddies in the Horizon program, our athletic program um designed for individuals with special needs. And just hopefully, whatever world you're in, and in this world, in your audience, the athletic directors, the coaches that are listening, is just to hopefully it just provides a little inspiration that maybe they can do a little bit more. Maybe they can go from ordinary to extraordinary, and they have it in them. Uh, it's just whether we have the courage to make that turn or we have the people in our lives. Um, you know, you're the sum of the five people you hang around the most. You know, are you hanging around those those people that uh are going to help you make the right turn uh to extraordinary?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

James, thank you so much for the pleasure of your time today. You have said as a community leader, you're responsible for bettering others in the world that you live in. And you've helped us to do that today using this great resource as we look to grow in the different areas of leadership that we find ourselves in. So thanks again for the time.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yeah, thank you. Uh, you guys are doing a great job with this uh with this podcast. I'm enjoying it. Thanks. We look forward to more of your blog posts. Thank you.