Episode 252: The Leader You're Not with Scott Borba

Darrin Peppard (00:00.556)

All right, everybody, welcome into episode 252 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. As always, I am Dr. Darren Peppard. And you know, early in my career as a high school principal, I had this belief that leadership meant being everywhere and doing everything. If there was a problem, I fixed it. If there was a decision to be made, I made it. If there was somebody who needed support, I showed up, no matter what the cost.

From the outside, I know that that probably looked a lot like leadership. But inside, I was exhausted. I was trying to be a version of a leader that I thought people really needed, not necessarily the leader that I actually was. That tension between who we are and who we think we're supposed to be. That is exactly what our conversation today is all about. My guest on the show today is Scott Borbeth.

Scott is a superintendent slash principal in central California, and he's the author of a new book, The Leader You're Not, and why it's just as important as the leader you are. In this conversation, Scott and I talk honestly about identity, about perfectionism, about imposter syndrome, and the freedom that comes when leaders stop trying to be the superhero. You know,

One of the moments that really, really helped me shift this when I was a school leader was when I realized that I couldn't lead well if I wasn't seeing clearly. You know, I was that leader who was just running from meeting to meeting, crisis to crisis, and convinced that being busy was the same thing as being effective. The problem was I wasn't spending enough time where the real work was happening. Now,

But for school leaders, that real work is in the classroom. That real work is supporting your teachers and supporting your students. And that is a big part of why I'm so proud to partner with Digicoach. You see, Digicoach helps leaders slow down just enough so that they can be intentional. So they can actually get into classrooms, capture meaningful observations, and turn what they see into focused

Darrin Peppard (02:26.392)

growth-centered coaching conversations. You see, when leaders have clarity about what's happening in the classrooms that are in their building, they can stop guessing, they can stop reacting, and actually lead with purpose. Because, after all, leadership isn't about doing everything. It's about seeing what matters most and then supporting it well. To learn more, go to digicoach.com and tell them that Darren sent you for some special partner pricing.

Once again, that's digicoach.com. Tell them that I sent you. Now, let's get into episode 252 with my guest, Scott Borba. You're gonna love this conversation. I'll see you on the other side.

Darrin Peppard (00:01.368)

So most of you are aware of this, but for me, especially when I first became a high school principal, I probably struggled a little bit with my identity as the leader of the campus. Most of you heard the story here on the pod many, many times where I felt like I had to be this superhero and I had to do everything for everybody. And I think the reality was that I certainly wasn't leading a whole lot.

And the leader that I was is not who the people needed. But more importantly, it's who I wasn't that was lacking. And that's why today's conversation I think is going to be so special. Joining me on the show today is Scott Borba. Scott is the author of a recent book titled The Leader You're Not and why it's just as important as the leader that you are.

I'm so excited about this conversation. And I'm so intrigued by this book. So Scott, thanks for joining me here on podcast.

Scott Borba (01:04.738)

That's my pleasure Darren, thanks for having me.

Darrin Peppard (01:07.682)

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So let's do this really quick, Scott, just to kind of orient our leaders or our leaders and our listeners into who you are. Maybe just, I don't know, share a little background. Tell us, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you are, what you do, and maybe just a touch of what inspired you to write this book.

Scott Borba (01:26.65)

Alright, Scott Borbus, Superintendent, Principal, the Grand Union Elementary School District in Central California, the Central Valley. It's a small district, rural district, surrounded by agriculture.

serve a predominantly Hispanic Latino population, low income families, hardworking, small district leadership. I love it. It's personal. It's hands on. It's deeply relational. And I love being a small district superintendent. I see everything up close, challenges, breakthroughs, the people, they're around me. mean, right now there's the kindergarten playground right out my back window. Usually there's screaming and laughter in the background, which I love.

And it's that perspective that really helps shape my writing the book on kind of my leadership philosophy. This is my 20th year in school administration, school leadership. And so it's a lot of the hard lessons that I've learned, kind of like what you alluded to. Hold on a sec. There we go.

A lot of what you alluded to in your opening is, you know, trying to be something you're not. And once you figure out the kind of leader you are, how many doors and how many light bulbs turn on and how you truly become effective. so that's why I wrote the book was a lot of those conversations that were deep. I was only having with the people closest to me.

And as administrators, think it could be a very lonely position. Sometimes we don't have people that are very close to us that we're willing to share those vulnerabilities with. And so I hoped my intent with the book was to kind of be that conversation with somebody you deeply trust to hear something like, you know, I struggle with that too.

Scott Borba (03:16.218)

and it's okay and kind of that connecting component of we're all feeling the same way. We all sometimes think we're faking it. We all suffer from imposter syndrome. We all suffer from pursuing perfection when we shouldn't. And so that's really what my intent was behind the book. So was to help support new leaders, to help support people that have been in it for a long time and feel like they're burning out.

you know, being in it for 20 years and still being just as excited about the work as I was 20 years ago speaks a lot to where your mental health is such a big component.

Darrin Peppard (03:52.556)

Yeah, for sure. So I'm kind of curious. mean, there's a couple of pieces there that I'm just intrigued by or maybe want to chase for a couple of minutes. First and foremost, so let's talk about being a principal and superintendent. more common than people realize, but a lot of small districts will have principal slash superintendent. I was fortunate when I went from being a high school principal of, you know,

Scott Borba (04:09.231)

Mm-hmm.

Darrin Peppard (04:19.969)

campus of nearly 1,500 kids, 200 plus adults on campus to a district of 425 kids, two buildings. I think we had three bus routes, pretty small and a lot more intimate. But I had principles in my other two buildings. I didn't have to have that slash. Now let's be honest, when you're in a small district, there's a slash in everybody's job description.

Scott Borba (04:46.972)

That's absolutely good.

Darrin Peppard (04:47.437)

Like that just comes with small districts, right? Like in my district office, I had an HR slash finance director who probably did 100 other things, right? So let's talk just a little bit about that. And then I definitely want to come back to the other thought that I have in my head. But that superintendent slash principal, there are very unique and distinct responsibilities in each job. How do you?

Scott Borba (04:56.046)

That's right.

Darrin Peppard (05:16.737)

balance that in your role.

Scott Borba (05:19.514)

not to, you know, not to go after superintendents, but you mostly are a principal when you're a superintendent principal, right? The superintendent stuff really hits hard when the tough decisions need to be made when you're dealing with board, you know, relations and

Darrin Peppard (05:27.597)

Yeah

Scott Borba (05:35.662)

big time community projects and facilities and the big, the high level things, that's when the superintendent hat needs to be worn. But I would say, I felt like prior to COVID as somebody who's loved being a principal for most of my career, I felt like I was just a principal who didn't have to ask anybody's permission to do what I wanted to do because I was the superintendent too, which was great. And I still love that about this position.

Darrin Peppard (06:02.625)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (06:05.23)

But when COVID hit and all of sudden I had to wear this hat where the buck stopped with me. Like I wasn't a principal who could just say, hey, I'm just doing what my superintendent told me to do. It was, I had to make some really difficult decisions and make sure that those were shared decisions with lots of research and involving the community and the board. And it was a stressful time. so that's where the respect I have for the superintendency is so high because

that is the ultimate decision. And there's some heavy decisions that superintendents have to make when you're dealing with the most treasured possession of people's lives, which is their children. And so that was definitely a learning curve that I had to confront and deal with in my second year in this position as a superintendent principal was, wow, you're not just a principal who doesn't have to ask for permission.

you're person leading a small community and people are looking to you for answers and they're looking to make sure you get it right. And if you don't get it right, you're going to hear about it. And are you okay with that? And so a lot of that also helped shape a lot of the content of my book, right? Was having to confront that, my gosh, am I the right person for this job? Am I equipped to handle these high level decisions and asking myself those reflective questions and finally, you know, getting the feedback and

Darrin Peppard (07:04.301)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (07:27.99)

reflection of saying, you know what, this is where God wants me and this is where I am and this is what I'm going to do and leaning into it.

Darrin Peppard (07:36.237)

Yeah, I think I think you bring up an interesting point there. I was in my third year as superintendent when when COVID came and knocking on our door and actually the the just right before Thanksgiving in 2019, I closed my school for two days because we had like probably 45 % of our students and staff were out sick.

Honestly, probably the first wave of COVID in Colorado had come through already at that point. And we had two days on the calendar, I think for the Thanksgiving week, and I just pulled the plug and just said, you know what, everybody just stay home, get healthy.

Scott Borba (08:05.24)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (08:18.38)

I was concerned even then, you know, I love what you say about, know, in the superintendent role. Boy, when the buck stops with you and you have to make the really, really difficult decisions, and there were certainly some during that window of time, that's when that's when the job really becomes a challenge. Otherwise, a lot of times this and maybe you've maybe you've experienced this maybe you haven't, but at least as a superintendent Colorado, I felt like man as superintendents, we should go to a lot of meetings.

Scott Borba (08:21.114)

Mm-hmm.

Scott Borba (08:45.146)

Yeah. A lot of meanings.

Darrin Peppard (08:46.086)

It seemed like every month we were somewhere, all of us meeting together, all 275 of us or whatever it was. certainly, yeah, when the tough decisions started to come, it was challenging. It really was. And I think it does require that you kind of take a step back and whether you do it on purpose or not, you evaluate yourself as a leader and you question, man.

Am I really the right person for this job? And during that, however long that run was, it felt like 50 years. I think it was, you know, nine months, but it felt like 50 years. Certainly all of us aged a lot during that time. But it takes me back to something I wanted to ask about on another train of thought. You were talking earlier about kind of just that whole being able to

have someone to ask the hard question of you as somebody to reflect on those those difficult challenges. Certainly for me during especially during that that window with COVID there were three or four that I leaned into heavily. Not only to you know, ask Hey, what do you think about here? Or what are you know, what are you guys doing in this situation, but also just the

man, talk me off the ledge because I'm ready to put the keys on the desk and not come back tomorrow. So maybe expand a little bit on that importance because let's be honest, being a principal, being a superintendent can be very isolating. I would think both jobs together, maybe it's even more isolating. How important is that to have that connection with someone, whether it's a mentor or a fellow superintendent, fellow principal, that kind of thing?

Scott Borba (10:14.894)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (10:40.122)

How important is it to have a spouse or a best friend to navigate life? mean, it's equally as important professionally to have somebody that understands your work and your role. Whether it could be a retired superintendent principal, it could be a current one, it could be somebody from across the country, it could be somebody in a neighboring district. I I have...

preached and harped on the importance of joining a network and building a network all of my career. I think back to when I first became a principal, I was 27 years old. I got hired to become principal of two tiny schools and my superintendent had the wherewithal to assign one of the assistant superintendents to each school. So they worked from that school. So I had a built-in mentor at both of those sites.

And I would have never made it. I would have never made it. It was such a schizophrenic position, two totally opposite schools, served totally different clientels. I was just out of the classroom. I wasn't even a vice principal for a year before I became principal of two schools. But those two incredible people.

Darrin Peppard (11:53.484)

Wow.

Scott Borba (11:56.632)

you know, anytime I questioned myself, anytime I just had an idea or a thought or anything, I could run it past them and they would help me process. They would be a great thought partner. so throughout my career, I've always made sure I've had somebody, one that, you know, I'm,

I have difficulty trusting people to let them into that inner circle already, but trying to really find somebody that I can. And luckily, you know, I've got a great support system at home, but I also have a great support system professionally as well that have helped me navigate some difficult times just by being a sounding board or giving me different ideas or whatever I've needed. And so that's, man, it's an imperative, Darren, for sure.

Darrin Peppard (12:41.28)

Yeah, yeah, without question. So let's talk a little bit more about the book here. I'm just really curious. mean, obviously, I'm struck by that title, The Leader You're Not. You know, when I first saw it, I thought, huh, OK, so I'm intrigued a little bit here. What are we getting at? And then obviously, you know, the subtitle talking about why it's just as important to know that as it is to know the leader you are. As somebody who, you know,

it's a leadership coach, a leadership speaker. I talk all the time about, you know, the leader you are trying to become the leader you want to be. This is very much in that avenue, but in a really unique perspective. So just kind of talk about where does that come from? And then I don't know, let's, well, I'll ask other questions about some content, but let's just start with the leader you're not.

Scott Borba (13:39.29)

Right, so kind of the genesis of the thought process behind it, I was doing a Bible study that was called the, oh my gosh, I'm blanking on it now, it was the Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, it was called. And so it was talking about just how important it is to excavate parts of your past, to help you understand some of the dark spots and blind spots in your life that maybe you've never dealt with and shine a light on them and confront them, a lot based in psychology.

But this had a more spiritual lens to it I kept connecting it to my professional life and So then I just started journaling and reflecting on the idea that I was where I was growing spiritually and started journaling a lot of my professional thoughts in that way and Then I did Strengths Finder by Gallup. I brought a coach into our district and they they ran my team through Strengths Finder and

the idea of blind spots, you know, came up, you know, you have these strengths, you have these top five strengths, but there's actually some dark sides to your strengths. You know, if you're highly relational, it means that you're not, you know, something else. And so all these ideas were floating in my head and it just made me really confront that question, which is who've I've been really trying hard to be because I've read books and I want to be like, you know, I've heard San Filippo speak and I've gone to, you know, different presentations and I'm like,

man, I wanna be that, I wanna do that. And I kept feeling like I fell short and then I feel like, man, I'm not enough and I'm not a good leader if I'm not doing all these things and kind of that imposter syndrome started creeping in. And I just said, you know, that's not who I am. This is the leader that I am. Here are my strengths. This is where I can thrive and I trust the people around me to pick me up and support me in the ways where I don't lead.

And so as I started having conversations with other leaders and they were feeling these same feelings that I was feeling and the idea of, love when I wrote chapter three, that one just kind of spewed out on the cost of perfectionism. But all throughout my career, just trying to be something that I really wasn't was this perfect leader, this Facebook leader, right? This social media leader who just, man, you post the perfect image of everything you're doing on your campus and it's like.

Darrin Peppard (15:59.328)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (16:04.826)

but you're not showing the real side of what happens every day and how you come back into your office and you're like, I totally screwed up that conversation with a teacher. I didn't ask enough questions. I was very confrontational because I was dealing with something else two seconds before I talked to them. And so we have these human mistakes that we make. And so really the book just became about capturing all those thoughts, organizing the ideas.

in getting people to become really more self-aware as a leader. And because as I started becoming more self-aware in my own leadership, the response I started getting from the people around me was blowing me away and I was starting to see it because now I was looking at it through this lens of self-aware leadership and servant leadership and, you know, making sure that delegation isn't a bad word and...

You know, how do I deal with criticism? Do I take offense to it? Am I scared of getting feedback because I don't like getting negative criticism? And so if I'm scared of it, am I even asking for feedback? And if I'm not asking for feedback, am I really growing? And so I saw all these barriers of like, wow, I've really not done it as good as I could have for a long time because of all these fears that only I was dealing with.

And so I had to confront them. And once I did, I noticed how much more freeing it was. I noticed how much more enjoyment I got out of the work. And I just became a better leader. I started asking people more questions and went into conversations with this, hey, I don't know everything and that's okay. What do you know about this? the response I got was incredible when I humbled myself to.

to say that I don't have to be the one that has every answer.

Darrin Peppard (18:07.659)

You know, it's it's a trap that I won't say all because that's a Maybe a dangerous term to use but nearly all early career leaders fall into in in some way shape or form I mean you just describe yours I quickly talked about mine at the at the top where just trying to be the superhero to everyone all the time certainly as we

As we mature as leaders, we start to understand the power of delegation. We understand the power of leaning into our strengths and leaning into other people's strengths and letting them do the things that they're gifted to be able to do and also that are part of their responsibilities. I'm curious. There's so much good stuff.

that you just said. I'm trying to narrow in my mind which direction I want to go. I love that you talked about that comparison trap where you called it Facebook leadership where you see all these people and they're doing this, that and the other thing and my gosh I have to be more like that person. gosh I better go get a cart and roll around because apparently that's what you're supposed to do or I got to go do this or I got to do that. But what I really like that you talked about

is that perfectionism and that high cost of perfectionism. When we think we have to be perfect, that just doesn't end well. I'm curious, you kind of talked about this, but maybe if you can go a little deeper, because I think this is something really important for leaders to hear. How did you come to terms with, don't have to be perfect?

and it is okay to not always know the answer. Or what do you tell other leaders in that area?

Scott Borba (20:03.938)

Yeah, I noticed I wasn't growing and progressing as much as I am now because I was striving for this perfect idol of a leader that I'd created in my mind, based on so many things, based on books and speakers and Instagram posts and things like that.

That's a hard transition because I had an epiphany, but my staff didn't. So they still came to me asking me to solve their problems. And I had to start saying, no, I started asking more questions as opposed to, yeah, I'll fix it, because I'm the hero. It turned into, well, what do you think?

Darrin Peppard (20:39.136)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (20:51.115)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (20:54.298)

what can you do? Or is there somebody else on our campus that has a strength there? And so I got much better at asking questions. I mean, I'm definitely not perfect at it yet. I still fall into problem solving mood from time to time. I think I'm wired that way. So it's not natural for me to kind of...

do the judo move and redirect somebody's problem solving back into their court. But what I've noticed, the more I've done it, more I've built leadership. I've empowered my staff to become leaders themselves. They find more satisfaction. Their solutions are often 10 times better than what mine would have been. And so it's just basically you have to get to the point where you have enough humility to say, look, nobody's doing the work perfectly.

Darrin Peppard (21:18.185)

Right.

Scott Borba (21:44.098)

I'm not perfect. And to me, I even got to the point, Darren, when I was ready to just throw the keys across the table during COVID, like many of us were, I had to ask myself, what's my legacy? Where am I most important? And it's with my family. As much as I love this work and it's been a mission for me, the minute I leave this job, I'm replaced by somebody and quickly forgotten by most.

Darrin Peppard (22:12.116)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (22:14.346)

And just kind of swallowing the pill of you're really not that important helped me to step back and be to really focus on being more important where I needed to be, which helped me achieve more balance, which helped me do my job more effectively, which helped me not, you know, loathe Sunday nights, knowing that I was going to have to go to work Monday morning. I love Sunday nights now.

I love coming into work Monday. My Monday mornings feel just like my Friday afternoons do. I love going home to be with my family, but I love coming to work to be with these students and my staff. And I hadn't always felt that way like I do now. And there's just so much more satisfaction when you can finally humble yourself to admit that you're not an important enough person in any organization to say that everything needs to flow through me.

Darrin Peppard (23:08.042)

Yeah

Darrin Peppard (23:12.169)

Right.

Scott Borba (23:12.762)

There were people before you, there'll be people after you. But when it comes to importance and legacy, your family is the only place where you're not replaceable.

Darrin Peppard (23:22.888)

Yeah, no, I love that so much. really do. I also, folks, if you're hearing little bits of sound behind Scott, he said the kindergarten playground is right outside of his office. That was something for me as a superintendent. So my office was connected to our K-8 building. you know, one of, this was great. I had two huge windows in my office. When I was a high school principal, I was like in a cave. There were no windows for my office.

Scott Borba (23:32.026)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (23:50.647)

Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (23:51.839)

Finally, I have these incredible windows and right out the window was the elementary playground. And it was very good at keeping me grounded and reminding me what matters when you're at work and what is it that you're really trying to accomplish. Who are you trying to accomplish it for? I think that's fantastic. So I'm loving here in the kindergarten playground there behind you. I think that's pretty fantastic. Let's do this. Just pick maybe.

Scott Borba (24:08.346)

Absolutely right.

Darrin Peppard (24:19.478)

one more area in the book, one more topic in the book that you think would really be impactful, especially for, let's stay with those early career leaders. I know you love to mentor them, we'll talk about that in a minute, but let's maybe one more area in the book or one topic you talk about that's really relevant.

Scott Borba (24:37.338)

One that just popped into my head, I mean, each of these chapters is, you know, deeply impactful to me, but it was only one of my later chapters on saying no, on how every yes comes with a cost. And, you know, when you're, lot of what I found, not only trying to be perfect early in my career, was I tried to please everybody, right? And try to make everybody happy and quickly realizing that

I said, absolutely impossible, no matter what you do. so understanding that when you say yes to something, it's gonna cost you, it's gonna cost you monetarily, it's gonna cost you time, it's gonna cost you stress, it's gonna cost you something, and that you have to guard your priorities. so saying no is about boundaries and they're not selfish.

It's not selfish to set boundaries as a leader. You have to set boundaries for your school. It's nice when times are great when you can say yes, as long as it's aligned with a vision and a mission that you all have agreed upon as an organization. But yeah, that was that was one that was like, you know, that was hard for me early on. It's something I've definitely gotten better at, much to the dismay of some of my staff, you know, where I I do say no more often. I'm still like to say yes, of course, but

Darrin Peppard (25:59.189)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (26:01.294)

they know to ask the right questions. And they know what to ask for because they know what we're trying to achieve. And so when they come in and they ask, you know, ask for permission or ask for funding or ask to change something, they know when they're going to get a yes from me. And that's, that's helped because we do less better now at this stage in my career where I think I tried to do a lot more early on.

Darrin Peppard (26:04.468)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (26:27.802)

you know, any new program or something would come along, ooh, that looks great, my teachers, I wanna try this, I wanna try this, and you're telling yourself, well, the books I read said, let my teachers, you know, be creative and empower your teachers, and yeah, but if you say yes to everything, all of a sudden, it just becomes a hot mess, you know, and so you have to be the person that sees the whole system, and you have to be able to say yes and no at the right times.

Darrin Peppard (26:46.346)

Yep.

Darrin Peppard (26:54.064)

A very important lesson for leaders is understanding that you will not make everybody happy. One of my favorite quotes Steve Jobs said once, if you want to make people happy, don't be a leader, sell ice cream. That's, yeah, absolutely right. Because that's just the way that it goes. So certainly a good one that you chose there. I love that so very much.

Scott Borba (27:08.162)

I do. Well, cream. I love that one. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (27:20.446)

Man, our time is flying here, but before I get to my last question that I ask everybody, I do want to ask a little bit about some of the mentoring that you do with other leaders, what that looks like, that type of thing. So talk a little bit about how you are mentoring other leaders now.

Scott Borba (27:36.206)

Yeah.

I so I've one I've taught for 12 years at the local university. I teach in the admin program. Teach school law. So I've always that's been fun for me. That's been something that's energized me for the last, you know, little over a decade where I get to help support leaders before they get into the profession. And so that but more recently, this is the third year here in my county. I've chaired what's called the Merced County Principals Network. And I've just, you know, trying to

build a place, a space for leaders to grow and connect and learn with one another because that's something that's like we talked about earlier, just that networking is such a critical piece in terms of burnout that if you're not connected with other leaders, you're probably not gonna last very long. You're gonna become part of that statistic of school administrators last three and a half years or something like that. So.

I don't want that statistic in the county where I live and work. So I'm trying to support principals in saying, hey, let's get off of our campuses once a month. So I have these network meetings one morning a month where I invite some of the best speakers and thought partners and authors from around the country. And so we have folks come and teach and learn and connect with and...

and grow together. And so this the network has grown to about 75 leaders over the last couple of years in a small county like mine. That's it's a majority. It's expanded to include high school leaders. Last year we've actually we're probably moving it in towards less of a principals network and more of a leadership network because I have district office staff that are jealous of the level of PD that their principals are getting. And so everybody wants to learn and grow. And I think that's great.

Darrin Peppard (29:26.727)

Yeah.

Scott Borba (29:29.212)

And so the more we learn from each other and from some of the best speakers and thought leaders in the country, the better we get. I keep learning, you know, 20 years in administration. I love learning. I love writing now. love, you know, I'm working with another colleague of mine on a book about collective efficacy. And it's just, you know, it's, and I'm learning through the process. And it's just anything I could do to support people in this position because the principalship and schools.

and public school employees and the work we do is just so important, man, it's so important. And I hate seeing it get attacked. Just a staunch advocate for our profession and the people within it. And I just want to do my part to make an impact in that area.

Darrin Peppard (30:17.531)

Outstanding. sounds like an absolutely phenomenal opportunity for leaders right there. Man, I should have just asked you how you're leaning into leadership and you could have used that as your answer. That's so very good. But I'm going to ask you anyway, so now you got to come up with another way that you're leaning into leadership. well, there you go. Well, we can count that one if you want. That is how Scott is leaning into leadership right now. So outstanding stuff there,

Scott Borba (30:26.904)

No.

Scott Borba (30:32.023)

gosh, I think that was my answer to that question. No, sorry.

Darrin Peppard (30:45.018)

How do people get in touch with you? How do they find you? do they connect with you? We'll put a link for the book down in the show notes, but let people know how they get connected with you.

Scott Borba (30:55.002)

you

I'm not super active on social media. My kids would call me a boomer even though I'm a Gen Xer. That's another one of the things I had to do for my own mental health was try to stay off of that as much as I could because I would fall into that comparison piece sometimes. I will check my ex profile, Instagram, Facebook. Hopefully you share my email. It's my personal email. Anytime they want to get a hold of me, they can do that.

I'm happy to mentor, support, coach, talk with, be a thought partner to anybody that connects with the work that I've done in my book that connects with anything I've said on this podcast. Yeah, just, it could be lonely. If you do feel alone, reach out. There's a lot of people out here. I'm sure Darren, you would too. But we're here to help, right? We've been there, we've done that, and we've gone through some stuff and we don't want you to go through it alone.

Darrin Peppard (31:47.902)

Mm-hmm.

Darrin Peppard (31:56.051)

Yeah, outstanding stuff, man. This has been such a great conversation. I really appreciate it. I'm glad we finally were able to sit down together and get this done. Just thank you again so much, Scott, for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership.

Scott Borba (32:08.514)

I appreciate you having me, Darren. Thank you so much. It was a great conversation.

All right, folks, awesome conversation there with Scott. I really appreciate him coming and joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Make sure you get down to show notes. Check out the information that's there on Scott make sure you go grab a copy of his book it is really a fantastic book and now it's time for a pep talk alright folks last pep talk of the calendar year and I want to loop back to something I said a few weeks ago I mentioned that

I was going to dive in to daily reflections on gratitude that I had this gratitude journal and I was going to commit to making sure that I write in that journal every single night. Now, here's an update for you. And I told you I was going to do this, right? So here's my update. I have not missed a single night. I have been writing in that journal every single night. So I'm at about three weeks right now, which I know isn't

a tremendous amount, but it's enough to start, think, forming a habit. And what I've discovered, especially over the last four five days, is my writing about gratitude is starting to get much deeper. I think some of the stuff I was writing early on was pretty superficial and just whatever was coming to me off the top of my head. But I'm finding now more and more that

Darrin Peppard (04:47.886)

Through the course of the day, I'm identifying things. Hey, I want to talk about this tonight. I want to write about this tonight when I sit down with my gratitude journal. And instead of just having maybe a paragraph, I'm filling a full page for the most part, almost every single night. You can't say enough, I can't say enough that is, about the power of gratitude. It really has helped me already.

start to be a little more present in moments, especially those moments with my wife, and really being grateful for the moment that I have at that time, not always thinking ahead, thinking about the future, jumping on my phone, those kinds of things. So I told you I'd give you an update. I'm going to give you another one here, maybe a month or so down the road.

But to this point, three solid weeks every single night, writing in my gratitude journal. So my challenge for you, especially as we get to where it's about to be the new year, and I'm wondering what might be something that you'll lean into when we transition into 2026. And I'm not saying a resolution, I'm not saying.

you know, this is gonna be one word or anything, none of those kinds of things. Just simply what might be a habit that you might wanna create as you go into this new year that can positively impact you and the people around you. All right, folks, that's what I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership, episode 252. We will have one more episode in the calendar year.

Episode 253 will be a solo episode, so be looking forward to that. Everybody get out there. Have a road to awesome week.