Leading Saints Podcast

Chad Francom is a bishop in West Valley City, UT. He is also my older brother. I was excited to interview him and hear about what he learned in the last 8 years as bishop. Yes, that right's, he's been bishop for 8 years and counting. He's a remarkable big brother and I am excited to share with you his knowledge in this interviews. Bishop Francom's 5 Leadership Principles: Delegate or Make Auxiliar...

Steve Willis has served in many leadership capacities in the church including Bishop, Branch President, Stake Presidency, and is currently serving as a Young Men’s President.  He has also worked at VitalSmarts, the company behind , Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change and Crucial Conversations, for over 20 years. One aspect that VitalSmarts teaches is how to focus on vital behaviors and h...

Kreig and Sherry Smith are from Overland Park, Kansas. They are preparing to serve a Leader and Member Support mission in the Brazil, Santa Maria Mission on September 7th , 2015. Following his service as a missionary in Brazil, Kreig and Sherry met in a class while attending BYU. Kreig has a Masters degree in Organizational Behavior and Sherry has a Masters degree in Communicative Disorders. After...

How young is too young to have conversations with your children about intimacy and human sexuality? On this podcast, we get the answer from Dina Alexander, President and Founder of Educate and Empower Kids. In the digital age, where a couple of clicks can lead your child to a place he or she shouldn’t be online, it is increasingly important to protect them and educate them about this topic. Dina a...

Few topics are as emotionally charged or require more sensitivity than same-sex attraction. This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of Christ.  - mormonsandgays.org In this podcast, we have an enlightening conversation with...

NetNanny is one of the leading software developers in the fight for protecting families from the harmful affects of pornography. NetNanny is part of ControlWatch which is a pioneer in the industry and has more than a million customers world-wide. They have won countless awards because of their work in protecting families and businesses from the evils of pornography. I got the chance to sit down wi...

Kristen Jenson is the author of Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today's Young Kids. It is her mission to immunize your children against the destructive and addictive dangers of pornography. She currently resides in Richland, Washington. She grew up in the Boston area and later served a mission to Portugal. She is now serving as a gospel doctrine teacher. In this interview we discuss appr...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaVnqaXOL8w&feature=youtu.be The Food Order Reference Guide is a tools used by bishops, branch presidents, Relief Society presidents, or anyone else that is tasked with filling out an LDS Food Order Form. This reference guide is a 8.5" by 11", durably laminated, 3 page guide. The purpose of this guide is to help LDS leaders more effectively feed families and individ...

Steven and Rhyll Croshaw live in Mapleton, Utah and are the founders of SA Lifeline, a non-profit organization that helps individuals and couples struggling with pornography or any other type of sexual addiction. They have authored many books and speak around the county (including at UCAP Conference) about the pressing need for greater awareness and education of the negative effects of pornography...

“Come down”—this is a phrase very commonly found in the scriptures. It is often used in the context of a request to a leader—requesting they “come down” from their mountain or from whatever state they are in.

Jake and Polly Scott are from Centerville, Utah and are powerful influencers in the world of overcoming pornography addiction. In this interview, Jake tells of his struggle with pornography addiction and his journey to find the road to recovery. Polly gives her side of the story about dealing with betrayal trauma after she found out about Jake’s addiction to pornography. We talk about some of the...

Liz Wiseman, is first, a loving mother and an incredible saint in the gospel. She's a Brigham Young University graduate, lives in Silicon Valley and has experience as an executive at Oracle Corporation. That career led her into leadership research and now teaches leadership to executives and emerging leaders internationally. I have been looking forward to getting Liz on the podcast. She has been e...

Meetings in the Church—it's a love/hate thing. Rarely do people enjoy attending meetings but we still discover ways to plan more meetings. This may come across as a blunt message, but meetings are either well done or toxic and it's important that leaders get them right. How you run a meeting has a dramatic influence on how you are loved as a leader. If you run a good meeting, those who follow you...

What is Ethnography and how does it apply to church leadership?

A story told by Elder Marvin J. Ashton in the April 1985 General Conference A few years ago I was in my office about 6:30 A.M. I am mentioning that so you will know I was there early—it takes some of us a little longer. My phone rang, and as I answered it, I recognized that special voice that said, “Marvin.” I replied, “Yes, President Kimball.” He said, “Could I come up and see you?” His office is...

Heather Mecham was born and raised in Indiana. Moved to Utah about 20 years ago and currently lives in West Jordan, Utah. She has two daughters ages 14 and 17. Until recently she had been serving as the Young Womens President in her ward until her husband was called as the Bishop. Heather first reached out to Kurt after his interview with @ldsEQpres recorded in May 2014 to give positive feedback s...

Brian Crane is the creator of Pickles Comic Strip (see more information below about Brian and Pickles), which is the fullfilment of a childhood dream. He is a life-long member of the Church who was born in Twin Falls, Idaho and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. Brian served in the Uruguay Paraguay mission (the same mission as Steven Shallenberger whose interview you can listen to here). He att...

Steven R. Shallenberger is the father of six grown children (five boys, one girl) and lives in Provo, Utah. His journey started in Vallejo, California where he learned about setting goals (he counted down to the time he could serve a mission--2,153 days). It is during this count-down that he was exposed to different economic conditions through various jobs he had and he began to wonder “what makes...

A story about unity in councils and meetings. Listen to how Joseph F. Smith urges B. H. Roberts to change his perspective about a church policy regarding politics.

Oswaldo Tello is originally from Lima, Peru where he was baptized at the age of 18. While serving a mission a little more than a year after his baptism in the Peru Mission his family slowly began to join the church. After his mission he started his family and career in the banking industry. In 1992 he was called for the first time as a bishop and served until a job change came which moved he and h...

This is an episode of random thoughts, I'd love to hear your random thoughts as well. My first thought is regarding the discussion of disciplinary councils. Have you participated in such councils? Has your experience been good? Bad? Spiritual? I shared some thoughts on the subject over at This Week in Mormons in my article titled Mormon Disciplinary Councils Aren't About Sin.  Please give the arti...

Mark Francis is the director of LDS-BSA Relations, which is a branch of the Boy Scouts of America that strives to maintain a positive and helpful relationship with the LDS church. In this interview we discuss: A brief history of relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America. How LDS Scout troops differ from non-LDS Scout troops The Green Scoutin...

Are you the same Bishop/President/Counselor/Teacher today as you were on week two of your calling? As you look back to the rookie you, are there ideas and a spark that made your new calling something exciting and your service such that benefited those you were called to serve? Has that changed if you’ve been in your calling for a while? If so, Liz Wiseman’s book Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats K...

Have you ever been frustrated with trying to collect home teaching and visiting teaching information? Brad Oldham is a software developer and winner of the 2008 LDS Tech Award from Irvine, CA. In 2006 his Stake President challenged his Elder’s Quorum to report their home teaching 3 times per month. In response to that challenge Brad, serving in an elder's quorum presidency at the time, began worki...

I wasn't planning on posting this episode until I was on the treadmill this morning (burning off the various calories that I will be eating over the next 24 hours). As I ran I was watching a BYUtv movie titled Silent Night. I strongly recommend you watch this. It's a great Christmas movie and one that teaches great church leadership principles. It's also free to watch on BYUtv.org. After watching...