Podcast Episode 138: Episode 110: How To Get Access to Your Leadership

Description

Join Jon, Nick, and Emily as they discuss the details of version 12.4, details on events we are hosting in the coming months and how you can get access to your leadership. 

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome to this episode of Rockcast, the podcast where we take you behind the scenes, and you can find out what's going on with Rock and with Spark Development Network. I'm Emily Forman. I have Jon Edmiston and Nick Airdo here, and we are ready to get you up to speed. Nick, let's start out with a look at where we're at with our current version update. All right. Yeah, we just released version 12.4, and there's a number of bug fixes and features, small little features in there. And then we are now working on 12.5, which may or may not be out soon or before v13. It's kind of a race at this point to whichever is going to be done first. Okay. But until we get to version 13 or 14, each of these mini releases is really packed with bug fixes and mini features, but we wanna change that in the future. Got it. Alright. Well, one of the things we've been trying to put a little focus on this year as well is some of the features inside Rock that you may or may not be familiar with, but that we tend to find might be underutilized as a community. John, what was the one you wanted to bring up today? So the one I was gonna bring up today is probably one that most people are gonna think, no, I use that. But I think it's more that you don't use it fully or you don't know of all the features that it can do. And sometimes I even I forget how powerful it is, and that's the HTML block. Now I know everybody's going, oh, I use it every day, but there are so many features packed in there that were intentionally put there to make your life easier that I don't know if most people know about. Or or if they do, they don't use it. The first one I wanna put out there, which I think almost everybody knows about, but I I definitely see not being used as much as it should, is the cache. You really need to make sure that for a fast performing site that you're using the caching features built into the HTML block. As we go out and look at different sites and we try to do some work to help make them faster, that's one of the easiest ways that we can do that is just enabling the cache on those blocks. If if that cache, because you have personalization, doesn't work for you, then definitely use the Lava cache tags because they can work with personalization also. Okay. But that's an easy feature. I think most people kinda knew about that. The other one I think most people know about but they don't use is versioning. And that is a really, really cool tool, not only because it helps you go back to older versions, but more so because you can use it with date ranges. And so you can say, hey. I want this content to show up, but please don't change make the change until this date. So maybe you have some, , good content up right now. For instance, we're how we're doing it with the conference. There's some changes we want to go live at a certain date. And, instead of waiting for that date and then making the change, we can just make the change now, put a date time on it for it to go live, and it's there. Optionally too, you can put an expire time too. So if it's a specific Easter message you wanna show, you can say, hey, here's a new version of this content, show it on this date, but it expires on that date, and then it goes back to the previous version. Definitely some pretty cool tools there to automate your content. So in terms of, , are Rock websites easy to manage? Yeah. They're really easy to manage if you especially if you use the tools. I think so many people have it in their heads that they have they can't automate this stuff, and they have to go do it manually, because other systems might require that. That's not the case with this. You can easily put dates and times, and you don't have to remember anything. There's even more features deeper into the HTML block in terms of linking the same content across pages. So even though they're different blocks on every page, different instances of the block, you can link those blocks together and share the same content. And that's really awesome for things footers or navs. Now in Rock, you can have the same block on every single zone of a of a site. So that kinda is another way of doing it. But in certain cases, you might want the same content to show up on two or three different pages, maybe the same children's page and youth pages have the same pieces of content and you don't wanna keep them managed separately, you can just link them. Even though they're separate blocks, they share the same content. And as you edit one, it edits the other. Just say a a really ton of features in there and and think there's rocky videos on all that. So, definitely go in there and relearn the HTML block. Wow. That sounds a lot of great help in managing a website. I know so many people have many, many hats that they're wearing and being able to really get those plans put into action items upfront with some of the versioning and other things you're talking about. Seems a a fantastic way to make sure that you're extending what one person or one small team can do. Yeah. And all those features have been there since version one. Well, for sharing about that. Yeah. That's really exciting. And speaking of sharing about things that we may or may not know how to do yet in Rock, the conference is coming up. And this is very exciting because we are going to have an option to be back in person. That's right here in Phoenix, the August and September, and we are going to be gathering as a community to learn what's been going on in the last year and how we've been applying Rock in different ways at different churches, to connect with our people and help move discipleship forward. We're very excited about that. We've had some great responses. There is a modified virtual option for those who aren't able to attend, but we're having really great response, regarding the the in person attendance to that, and we're very much looking forward to this event, no matter how people are able to attend. One caution, though, is that usually registrations are open for, I don't know, nine to twelve months, and you have plenty of time to think about and make those travel decisions and get your ticket purchased. Because of all things COVID and post COVID, that decision had to be put off later than we normally would simply because we didn't know how things were going to be from a facility standpoint and and that type of thing. So there is a much shorter window to book your ticket. And I'm mentioning that because I think we kind of have a a little bit of a habit of thinking that we have plenty of time, but this is going to be, need you to make decisions at a quicker pace. So to help facilitate with that, we do have ticket prices increasing on the July 1. And we have to do that because there are a lot of things that we're committed to to in order to put the event on. So we need as many people to respond and get their tickets purchased as possible before the July 1. So if you've been thinking about it and didn't really realize how time is slipping, make sure you get those tickets booked. And because we're going to be at the Renaissance Hotel for our entire event, we do actually have a room reservation block there as well. And you really want to get your room right on-site because the opportunity for connection is going to be huge with this. There is a discounted room reservation link on our website. We definitely recommend that you book your room and your conference ticket at the same time and, make use of that discount link. Now the discount link also expires because the hotel needs to have those counts in hand as well. So a little bit of urgency, get your tickets purchased, and get your room reservations made. And we look forward to seeing everyone in August. It's gonna be very exciting. Yeah. Looking forward to this. Just around the corner. It is just around the corner. And, also, due to request and demand, we have scheduled a masterclass here in person, the week before the conference. So you can extend your travel and get all your Rock training in in one big swoop, and we think that would be a really fantastic way to set yourself up and your team up for some great Rock experiences in the in the twelve months to follow. Definitely. Sounds a lot of fun. It should be. Alright. We have a really great topic to go over today, and it's something that I think a lot of our listeners work within the everyday course of what they're doing. Not only are they technologists looking to apply new technologies and apply best practices with them to make their organization better, but they need to navigate the communication and the access to leadership in order to be able to apply or try some of these things out. And it's it's just a dichotomy that a lot of people work within and that's normal inside organizations. So we just thought that would be a great topic today to talk about. Yeah. So last time we talked a little bit about people who maybe come from the outside and come in with an expertise that maybe gives them ears or at least a seat at maybe at the leadership table or perhaps even just being able to have exposure to leadership. But many people in the Rock community maybe find themselves in a situation where they don't have that. And so I wanted to kind of give some tips and tricks for that. , my story coming from the external secular world into a large church was more along that path. I didn't come in with everybody knowing my resume. It was definitely a career change, , for me. It was, , a significant reduction in salary, but but really in terms of to just leadership, , I came from working at Honeywell at the corporate level, running teams and working with ecommerce up to the CEO of of Honeywell to, , a week or two later, , basically starting the job with no place to sit. Literally, I sat in the corner of the finance office and except on Mondays when I had to move all my stuff out so that they the the check scanning crew could come in. My first day, they had no computer. They said, hey. , I think there's three desktops in the copy room that are all broken. Maybe you could between the three, you could piece something together. And so that wasn't a problem. But but is and and I was setting up basically computers for other people and doing the website. But there was no access to to leadership necessarily. There was no one to listen. I was just the person to just do whatever technology things needed to be done. My first day, my was a huge success because one person sat outside the, quote, computer room, which was really just a closet, literally, that they had to keep the door open because it was so hot. And he said, hey. For the last year, I've been sitting here, and every fifteen minutes, that modem goes off to download the email. That's how antiquated the systems were. And he says, it's really annoying, it's really loud. Is there anything you can do about it? So I walked in there. I noticed there was an external modem, which is , wow. I've not seen one of those before. And I just looked at it, there's a volume knob on the side, and I just pushed it all the way down to quiet and said, okay. I think it's fixed. And he just thought that that was the most amazing thing. I still have that modem on my desk at at at home. So I didn't come in with with a track record or or anybody who cared about my resume, even though I think the resume probably could could have spoken for itself. So how do you get access to do, , great things, within the organization? And I I feel that's the the best way to do that is to quietly have success. And, you may think that you don't have a seat at the table, but you do if you have a staff meeting. , just you just have to have your ears open. , just put your spidey senses out there and just listen. Listen to what the leadership needs and what their their strategies are and their direction. And then you have to focus on trying to have teeny tiny quick wins that are completely aligned with their vision, not yours. And there's always somebody on staff who wants something to to some help. So find the people who have ministry ideas. There's a lot of people who have administrative ideas, and those are easy, but that's not gonna get you to see at the table. , the senior pastor doesn't care about saving ten minutes from, , Bill who does some other administrative task. That that's nice. You'll get a pat on the head maybe, but you're not gonna get, , a seat at the table if you if you don't work on the things that matter to the senior pastor and to the leadership team. So you have access in those meetings. Just listen to that. Find somebody on staff. For me, it started to to be the the small groups pastor. Small groups is a huge, huge strategy of of CCV, and the small group pastor was overwhelmed. I mean, he had enough, , strategy stuff to do. He didn't he needed help with the systems. That wasn't his background. His background was pastorial. So he was very open to it for assistance, and and I knew that was in the strategy of the church, so I would just go to him and and we'd work together on some very tactical type things to help make his rolling out of that ministry ideas or ministry a success. And the more you get those small little things, you start to get a track record, you start to get to work on bigger things, then they recognize that perhaps you're someone who who can be help more helpful. And next thing , you are at the leadership table. Now that takes, , that could take a couple years, but you gotta get started somewhere. And you have to have, in my mind, you have to do it for the work's sake. Don't do it for the chair at the at the table's sake. that that's just wrong. That's icky. Just have fun and and love what you do and and just want to even even if it's a small thing, just just do it. But I think too often people wait to be invited to the table, and that's never gonna happen until you get a track record. And when people see that, , who you are and and that they can count on you and that you do what you say and that you'll listen and and not push your strategy, but to help push their strategy. I mean, you do that consistently, there's there's no question. You're going to become someone that they rely on and count on, and they're gonna wanna hear more of. Definitely. That's a great story and a great example about how applied effort and consistency really just earn respect over time, especially if you're tuned into the vision of the leadership. Yeah. And I think it goes with anything in life. We always look at the success that's there, whether it's Apple or anything, and we just think, it was always easy for them. , they never had struggles. And, , I can literally remember being underneath a a desk where a new hire was starting the next day thinking and it was a just dusty and just gross, the wires were all mismanaged. And I was I was just under there cleaning, literally cleaning underneath there and making them the wires better, even though it didn't matter. , what and and I was literally thought to myself, , I used to tell somebody who tell somebody who tell somebody to go get this done. And I actually thought this is great because God's resetting my priorities. He's resetting , I I definitely probably had a humility problem coming out of Honeywell. , I I probably thought I was a lot better, a lot hotter stuff than I was. And I thought this is great because god's resetting me. And and I just remember being underneath that desk just thinking, okay. Well, this is humbling, but in a good way. And I just put all my effort into those small things. And over time, I mean, I was surprised when they asked me to join the leadership team that that was a huge surprise to me because I didn't think they would recognize because I just kinda kept my head down. Wow, that's really great advice. Thanks for sharing it. One, I know examples out of our past sometimes can are really helpful because they're applied and easy to understand, but also they tap into a lot of personal things. So thanks for helping package that up in a way that makes sense to a lot of people. And it does seem something that, , the more organizations that that I'm a part of, the more I can see that there's always opportunity. There's always a seat at a table for those who show up and really work to help make make the vision happen and bring it to life. Yeah. And I think I've said it before too. I mean, you went to any one of your senior leaders and asked them, hey, would you be interested in having, , literally an expert in the area of technology come in and help mentor and strategize with you? They would all say yes. So your job is to become that person in their eyes. And that's not something that's gonna come overnight and it's not easy, but , the need is there. You just have to show yourself over time to be that person. And the opportunity in that area has probably never been better than it is now. Definitely, absolutely. So it sounds a great opportunity for all of that to kind of come together and to create, , a good chance for you to apply yourself and see where that goes. Yeah. I think, , going in, we just talked about the conference, this is the perfect opportunity to even go shoulder to shoulder with other people and say, hey, how are you doing that? what successes have small or large successes have you seen? And in a sense, the conference is the world's biggest cheat sheet. You just go and you listen to what other people have done. And again, you now have to apply that to the strategies of your organization. Don't try to push someone else's great ideas or your great ideas on on on another leader. They know what they need. They they are the ones in in commune with God on on the strategy for their church, and you need to tie into that. The last thing they want is someone else giving them ideas. Trust me, they have so many other things on their plate that they just can't handle anything else, but they really need someone to come in and shoulder their burden and help take that up the hill. And if you can come to the conference, hear some of those things, align it with their vision. You have the cheat sheet, you have the recipes, and that's a track record for success. Yes, it is. Although rarely does that strategy time come with the absence of other details. Right? So you have to be able to manage the things that you have to get done on a regular basis. And I think the conference is another good example of that. You'll come, you'll have this little time carved out for the event, you'll get all this information, there will be so much there. And then you'll get back and you'll have all of the things that you put aside in order to attend the conference, and those still have to get done. So then it's the matter of of managing how to do and move both of those things forward at once. Yeah. That's a good point. You can't stop doing what you're called to do too. I mean, it might mean that you have to work a little extra harder to get that seat at the table, but if it's not worth it to you, then don't do it. But if it's worth it to you, and just don't just don't think that life just happens to you. , that's there's there's always people you can point at that maybe came in and got that, but that's not the that's not the what I see. That's not the history of how I've seen it done. Most of the times, it's someone just grinding it out and and just consistency over time. Definitely. Well, thank you for joining us again for another Rockcast, and, we appreciate our audience. We appreciate the community, and we are so looking forward to getting back together with you at the conference here in just a couple of short months. Have a great day, and we'll talk to you next time. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? With managed hosting, churches of any size can get access to Rock's amazing technology, hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. Are you ready to take the next step or share with another local church? Visit rockrms.com/hosting today.