(Photo courtesy of Zoe Church Los Angeles)

With A Little Help From A Friend
An Interview On Effective Communication with Chad Veach (Zoe Church Los Angeles)

By Sarah Komisky

With a Little Help From A Friend

Communicating with others is one area we all agree we could use a little help in and pastor, author, and influener, Chad Veach of Zoe Church Los Angeles makes it look easy. With humor and a genuine desire to listen, learn, and genuinely see people, Veach is making a difference as a leader who is spearheading what it means to lead in love. Upon the release of his newest book release this August, Veach caught up with Marked Ministry’s Sarah Komisky to talk, “Help! I Work With People: Getting Good at Leadership, Influence, and People Skills,” what he has learned from others in this pandemic season, and PJ&J’s (we had to ask!) Stick around and be encouraged in this new showcase interview.

Sarah: Getting into your new book, “Help! I Work With People,” so many of us think that they aren’t leaders or influencers because they don’t have a certain social media following or are in an office or speaking on a stage. How can we come into a realization that we are leaders with the capability to influence others for good right where we’re at?

Chad: By definition, LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE. And, we all have a certain amount of influence whether we realize it or not…our words, actions, attitudes and lifestyle is influencing others. So, we are all leaders. Don’t listen to the lie that you’re not. The average person will influence 10,000 people in their lifetime. So, we need to see that our life has impact!

Sarah: You’ve said, “you can’t lead people you don’t know, and you can’t lead others until you first lead yourself.” Expand on that thought.

Chad: The hardest person to lead is me. Because the challenge in life is to connect “what I know I should do” and actually apply it. The application of knowledge is the challenge. As soon as I figure that out, leading others becomes simple.

Sarah: Getting real, people are scared to interact with others who think and act differently than they do. Since social anxiety is also a reality that many struggle with as well, how can we address the reality of fear before we can develop necessary people skills?

Chad: I think it goes back to us, always. If we are accepting of others and we embrace other worldviews, religious views, etc., then we have to believe others will accept us. It’s a boomerang effect. It’s the golden rule: “Treat others the same way you want to be treated!”

Sarah: During this time of racial tension and social upheaval, you have been intentional as a pastor and as a leader to listen and engage with your community in things like peaceful protests and the Zoe Cares initiative to practically live out love. Share as a leader your heart on what this meant and continue to mean to you?

Chad: I believe actions speak louder than words. A lot of times, people can’t hear what we’re saying because our actions are speaking so loudly! We want to be a church that is out and helping people from a social injustice level, to a practical grocery level. Our job as leaders is to help, to aid… to want more for people than from people. So, we’re trying to do our best to do that.

Sarah: Talking about learning, you have said vocalizing our opinions of others is not what matters and what actually matters most is the way we love, value, respect, and treat people. Therefore, how can lean into kindness in our interactions with others when we are more prone now as a culture to react in anger, judgement, or have a critical response?

Chad: I just think we are so quick to condemn and cancel right now. We’re not listening to the experiences and pain of others. Just because we are listening to others, doesn’t always mean we have to agree. I feel like we will continue to divide if we stay within our camps and can’t lean in with empathy to where people are coming from.  Sure, it is essential that we know what we believe and that we stand for that…Simultaneously, we need to lend a hand and an ear to people who are facing a lot of hardship and turmoil.

Sarah:This new magazine issue theme is called “Revive.” In terms of the culture we are living in and the difficulties we’ve experienced, how can we be proactive in time management and self-care as leaders?

Chad: I think we need to define what the win is right now. What our win was before the pandemic probably looks different than it does today. So, I think we need to lean into the idea of health today.  Our goal is not perfection, its health. So, time management, energy management and self-care is of the essential!

Sarah: You’ve received positive feedback from leading business moguls like Ed Bastian (Delta Airlines), CEO, Kourtney Kardashian, DeVon Franklin, and more. You also have a series on YouTube called, “Leadership Lean In” where you have various conversations with different individuals and influencers. Again, sometimes, we as people can dismiss learning from others who are different or do things differently than ourselves. What did you learn from others who are different than you?

Chad: I think we can learn something from everyone, everywhere. CEO or not, everyone has picked up some gold nuggets along the way.  But, we have to posture ourselves to learn!

Sarah: Taking steps forward in a pandemic, we’ve learned to become socially distant. In your new book release, you talk about being a people person. How do you think we can take steps forward to become “people persons” when we have been fearful and conditioned to stay apart?

Chad: Our saying around here is “quarantined but connected.” So, we just can’t lose our connection.

• Connect on Zoom
• Connect on FaceTime
• Connect however you can…But just don’t become isolated.

Sure, we can’t go to church or concerts right now…But we can absolutely be connected!

Sarah: You’ve done a webinar, have the book launch approaching, and then Zoe Leadership College coming up ahead. In light of these new endeavors, what is your hope for next generation of leaders?

Chad: My hope is that we develop them to go further than we ever did and do better than we ever did. I’ve never encountered a company that has too many leaders. Quite the opposite, the greatest felt need on the earth is leadership. So, our goal is to help develop and release as many as possible!

Sarah: OK, we’re going to end the conversation on a fun note. I know that a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich is one of your favorite snack choices, especially during this recent quarantine time. So, we at MM needed to know, what is your favorite PB&J?

Chad: Wowwwww…yes!

My favorite PB & J is as follows:

• Wheat bread
• Chunky peanut butter
• Grape jelly

Mix the PB and the J together in a bowl. Evenly spread out the goods on both sides of the bread. Put them together. Add some wheat thins on your plate. And boom… you’ve got yourself the best sandwich your taste buds have ever encountered!!!!

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Chad Veach, best-selling author, globally renowned faith figure, and distinguished pastor of Los Angeles’ fastest-growing young adult church (Zoe Church), will release his latest book “Help! I Work With People: Getting Good at Leadership, Influence, and People Skills” on August 18, 2020 (Bethany House; $28.99).  The title is available for preorder now.