Interview with Joey Lankford, October 30, 2018

Chloe Bellgardt: It is October 30th and here with Joey Lankford at Belmont University. Joey is the executive director of Nashville's own social enterprise, Cul2vate. Now before we get started, Joey, if you could just explain what Cul2vate is in a few sentences.

Joey Lankford: Sure, Cul2vate's a nonprofit that has two major objectives. It's reflected in the name C-U-L- the number two-V-A-T-E.org. First objective is growing food for food insecure areas; the second is helping people who have chronic unemployment due to social reasons, either things that have happened to them or things that they have done and they're trying to dig back out of a hole for some reason, and we just give them the opportunity to do that in a safe environment.

CB: Alright, thank you, sir. Now, jumping into the interview questions, the first one is what part of your personal biography or background led you to this position?

JL: I was in health care for 10 years and had a health care company and through just raising my family and the adoption process of our fourth child, we come to see the world a little larger and moved to Cape Town where I was thrust into greenhouse farming, trained by a Zimbabwean farmer, and that led to a pretty substantial, self-sustaining social development platform in Cape Town, just about 30 miles south of Cape Town. That was fully transitioned over to African leadership in about four and a half years. So that wet my appetite for being socially engaged in things that had economic values, but also relational value.Food is something that we all are going to need at some point during our days, so it's a very tangible way to connect people, and when we brought it back to the states with Cul2vate it was a desire, like I said earlier, to just connect people using food and find ways relationally that people who wouldn't otherwise meet would get to meet and discuss how we make each other better together.

CB: Wonderful. What cultural identities or experiences are most salient for you?

JL: Salient. I saw that word on your-

CB: That's a new word for me too actually. Like most notable or important.

JL: I think culturally when you minister and engage socially, cross-culturally, the one thing that has been impressed upon me as I've done it and been outside of my comfort zone with myself and my family frequently over the past 8 years is how patient you have to be. One is as a listener. You have to understand who and what the party that you're helping or the people that you're working alongside of desire. Until you understand the direction that they themselves want to go, you can't really help them. And so, I learned through past mistakes often that it does us well to listen any time we're in a place where we're in the deep water socially, relationally, spiritually, whatever. We're served the best just by listening first, and then adding value where we feel we do in a very humble and disarming way, and food allows us to do that a lot of times.

CB: What experiences have most shaped you as a leader?

JL: I think the people around me. One is learning that vision casting and operations are two different things, so it takes an army often. If you follow social media, I'm always talking about the fact that it does take many people to do great things, and you shouldn't celebrate one individual. I get the opportunity to talk about this a lot; it's just my position and what the Lord has allowed me to do. I'm often quick to say, as you know working on the farm, this is not a product of me, this is a product of many people, and I think servant leadership has probably been most impactful as I've watched others in my life, and truly come to believe that the greatest leaders amongst us, either past or present, are people who came into situations looking to serve rather than to lead. The leadership was just wired within them innately, and that's what they did, but the way they did it always impacted me, and so I think as I move forward that's one of the things that I hope becomes a legacy of my own leadership.

CB: Right, so you would say those communities or interpersonal connections shaped your own leadership style?

JL: Yes, and watching others excel in what they do, and what their wirings and giftings are, I guess the older I get really become motivational to me. So, I often say I do what I do because I enjoy watching the team that's around me do what they do. So, it's a domino effect of just having good people together, you know?

CB: Definitely. Were you called into leadership, or did you seek it because of held convictions?

JL: I was wired a certain way from birth by my creator. If you follow my story, you know that I am a Christian. That's the belief system that I subscribe to and have followed for 10 years pretty heavily. I think "calling" can be overleveraged in Christian conversations. We all have something to do that gives us life purpose and meaning to our lives, and we all have things that we know we do that drain us and leave us physically and spiritually and mentally sapped. I found that when I did release myself into the social development, kind of lending a hand to others, and the vesting of myself for the sake of other people, when I felt the internal reward and weight of that--sometimes I look at it and I'm like, "Man, I do this selfishly, in a lot of ways," because I realize every time that I extend myself that way, in a posture of giving, I'm the one that receives the most, and so I try to do that as much as possible, because I never know where the blessing is going to turn up. But it is without the calling and without the convictions of my faith, I probably wouldn't be doing that, so it was birthed out of a real--you know in my early 30's--a real desire to align myself up in deed with what I proclaimed with my mouth, and so--you've been around me a bit, so you know everything's 110 miles an hour, so it was just a matter of really believing and standing on, with all my weight, what I believe in, and then the rest of it just sort of transpired out of that. Make the first decision first and the rest will follow, I guess.

CB: I like that! I like that you bring up your faith in your leadership style, per say. Now with that, do you think it is just part of the Christian faith to kind of spread your testimony, or not so much testimony, so much as your beliefs and good doings in a way that a leader would, or do you think that falls more under those God given characteristics of leadership abilities?

JL: I think more of our responsibility as Christian should be to live it out… People should see it. We should make a tangible social difference. We shouldn't be always against things; we should be more for things, and in our efforts, we should walk with a very humble and righteous sort of longing so that people don't end up following the wrong things. Hopefully, we can stay focused. My faith to me is the underpinning of my own life. I tell people I have more non-Christian friends now than I ever have, and the reason I believe that is because I'm confident in it and it is part of my leadership, because when I'm not leading in public, I'm seeking council in private, and those people who are around me are… I don't like to be in a room that echoes, so there's varied voices that speak into my life. They don't have to agree with me all the time. I'd prefer that they didn't. I just left a meeting where I was actually inviting that. You need that, I think, to make the best decisions. That said, I believe our job as Christians is to try to move the needle socially and in every other way in a positive direction. It looks different at different times, as my kids remind me, often, but I think that is a part of leadership. I think our convictions and our leadership capacities lay to closely together, not to be leveraged towards one another.

CB: I surely agree. How have you learned from obstacles and challenges that you've faced?

JL: Wow… I'm a hard learner. I've got a thick, leathery head sometimes, and because of that it sometimes takes a while; so, through the process of forty-one years now this November, it's hard to believe that life is one of many different seasons, and if we look at it like seasons of the year, we can take our time in the learning experiences, realizing that we're not supposed to microwave everything. Pain and success and affliction produce endurance, and endurance produces good character, and good character produces hope for all of us, and so I think we just have to learn that it's a journey. It's one of seasons and to take my time, both in the pain and struggle and in the successes. Look at the broader picture and look at what God is doing, but be patient because He has infinite time and I'm obviously looking at it through the lens of a few short years.

CB: Sure. I can see how that definitely ties into Christian learning and faith of separating ourselves from our time and looking into His time.

JL: Trying to as best we can.

CB: Certainly. Now this is a very broad question, but what does leadership mean to you?

JL: Leadership to me is, if you look behind you and nobody's following you, you're not leading. I think leadership is not something you strive for, I think it's something that happens as you make decisions in life and you step out in faith. We can prepare ourselves for leadership, but the fact of the matter is some people just don't like to lead. You have different skills and giftings for different reasons. I was born wanting to lead--lead a business, lead a football team, lead whatever I was on. I wanted to be vocal and I wanted to be a spokesperson that motivated and encouraged for a goal, a group of people. I think when I surrendered having to manage that myself over to the Lord and received his blessing on it, it then became something that other people began to follow and aspire to be. Again, it's not an individual, it's more of a mindset, a lifestyle, a thought process if you will, so that's why even non-believers believe in generally helping their neighbor or extending a lunch to somebody who might not have one or walking across the road to help a little old lady up that may fall down. We all have these natural first-step reactions and we know when we do those things, again, we receive the most blessing. I mean you feel really good when you do stuff like that for people, not because you did anything miraculous or it overextended your pocketbook, at least most of them are just in our daily lives being more outwardly focused than inwardly focused, and I think that leadership is trying to set the example for that and then encouraging others to get behind the objective, push the ball forward, and one of the most important aspects for me is releasing people to do what they were meant to do as they align themselves with wherever you're leading. Release them, delegate. You've been to the farm; you know Matt leads on the farm and Charlie does certain things. I drift around. That's the best way to describe me. I drifty around, I meet people, I talk, but I find that a lot of growth takes place in other's lives as I do release them to do things and I do sort of entrust that God's going to do through me what He's doing, but He's also brought other people to put their fingerprint on what we're doing and make it some of theirs, if you will.

CB: Sure. I know I keep going back to the faith aspect of this, but because it is very central to, I'd say, the organization and clearly to you. It's beautiful really to think that, you know, leaders can come from a leader, that leader being God or Christ or whatever faith one's oriented around. I think that's really beautiful and even effective in leadership for sure. Now furthering this, I know you described yourself as a leader as drifting around, but other than that, how would you characterize your leadership style?

JL: Very engaging. Engaging to the point of if you work alongside of me, I want every ounce of energy and everything that you have to offer. I'm very loyal and I expect that in return… I get the question, you know, with the people that we work with, or whatever, "Do you ever worry about security?" No, I'd probably be the last one that they let somebody get to, just because of the way we build our family on the farm and the way we build our team; so, I'm a very loyal person and expect that in return. I'm a leader that wants people to do what's expected of them, not because I'm looking over their shoulder to inspect their work, but because it's their right and duty to do it and due do it better than anybody can do it around them, because I believe if you encourage the strengths of an individual and you believe that they're supposed to be there, they're going to do way better than you could ever do. It's a leadership style that's more hands-off of the details, but at the top I really, really have a good vision and grip on what's going on with all the moving parts, so that I can make sure that the interworkings of all of the teeth fitting together, and the cogs and the wheels are meeting, and that the objective that we're reaching for and going towards--we're all on the same page. I always ask the question, "Now this train is going North. If you're going North, get on," and that means, for the team, we all need to be going in the same direction, and if it any point we're not going in the same direction, or you don't want to be on the train, we will pull over to the train station, and you can get off. Not because it's mine, again, it's more of convictions and team, so even at board level decisions I invite the farmers to participate because we make decisions about their lives, so we should talk with them about it and we should gather information. Now a lot of times we don't get the most sound advice from them, but at least they feel like they have a voice, and that's important to me as a leader.

CB: I mean, your leadership style certainly does reflect the sense of community that is very apparent, to just me as a volunteer, on the farm. It really does feel like a small family, and that's a really amazing thing. Myself, as a leader, I still have to work on group skills for sure; so, speaking of personal-accountability, actually, what would you say your professional strengths and weaknesses are?

JL: My professional strengths are encouragement and relational. I love relationships. I'm engaged. I can be fully present for 30 seconds with somebody, and they feel like they've known me forever. It's this conveyance of, "We're friends, and here's what we're doing. Why don't you join us?" I think my weaknesses sometimes are in the follow through, because I can spread myself thin at times, relationally and with engagements, and overcommit. In that over commitment, it's becoming less frequent the older I get and the more I learn about my weaknesses, but in that over commitment I stress both me and others out, and so…my solutions to both the identification and way forward on my weaknesses comes through people. Again, it's community. It's having the right people speak in your life. It's having Jenn. You know, Jenn's relentless about protecting me, and so she comes up with ways for people to get what they need but to manage it on a time table that allows me to be with my family, and to do things that I personally think are rhythms of any healthy person. So yeah, that's my weakness--watching out even for my own health and protection. I mean, I can spread myself out and really overcommit, because I'm a people pleaser too. You know, it's part of being a leader and sort of this vision-caster, so I just really needed to have. People in my life and still continue to this day to have people in my life that can say, "You can't do that."

CB: It's funny that you bring this all up. It's very relevant. In one of my classes right now, we just read The Dictator's Handbook, and it stakes the claim that no leader can be unilateral, that it takes their coalition and it takes their supporters to build them up, so that's a perfect illustration of that, for sure. So, building on those who strengthen you, and I know you've mentioned Africa before, and that is a huge influencer--what or who has been your greatest influence?

JL: I think a guy, an Afrikaans man named Herrick Clemens. Herrick is the guy that took over the platform that we built in Africa. He was the leader that God brought in to take it to the next level. He is a tremendous operational and organizational mind. More than that, his impact on me spiritually over the twelve months that I got to live and walk side-by-side with him is something I may never see again in my life. He's a very spirit led person, one who has a lot of confidence in where he's going and where he's been, and he understands the redemptive grace and value of the message that we adhere to, and so he lives it out in a very determined, intentional way. He shaped and molded the way that I saw myself as a Christian and the way that I saw we as a faith and our role that we play in humanity and around the world. He had built an amazing farm in Malawi for thirteen years with ten orphan homes on it, so he lived the life of one that gave himself away for the sake of a broader cause, but yet had a wife and two kids and a house. He wasn't nomadic, loosey-goosey kind of guy, and so he really, really shaped me in that way, and I'm forever grateful. I'd be remised if I didn't mention my dad. My dad has raised me to look for the right things. He modeled that for me in my life, and I could only hope to do that for my young boys. He taught me how to love my mom and now my wife. He loved my mom well, so that rolled down to Courtney and I. He had taught me how to be a dad and focus on those things even when life throws you up and down--to make the main thing, the main thing and really focus that. So those two men really have provided a foundation and a base for what is now the work of whatever happens through my life.

CB: Leaders for your organization and your family.

JL: That's right.

CB: So, leaders help to turn ideas into action and empower others. How do you accomplish this?

JL: That's a great question. I think as a leader my philosophy is that I am to worry about obedience, and God is to worry about the outcomes, so that's the sort of arrangement we have. I think that to lead and encourage others towards something, and to do it passionately, it comes from a deep seeded place within you, which would be what I would label my convictions, and because of that my job is to articulate those and make sure those are at the forefront of what everyone is doing all the time, while they're on the team and while they're pulling the cart, but I really see it as a collective sort of pool of thought, energy, spirt. You know, I'm a leader that takes many, many, many different people and tries to pull in what their interest is to food and unemployment. It may because they saw dad be unemployed forever. It may be because they went hungry themselves when they were younger. It may be because they just have way too much money, and the conviction is we need to help our neighbor. Whatever their conviction, my job as a leader is to pull that in, and tie it in, or weave it in to the tapestry of Cul2vate and to give them a place and purpose and a platform to serve from--even if it's just financial, even if it's volunteering, even if it's, "I'm an addict and I need help in recovery," well we're your one-stop shop, if you will, so just come to the place, as Cul2vate has become known as just a farm. Anybody can show up, and people come down there all day, every day. Leadership is a more about just helping people leverage their strengths. They need to feel purpose from it. It's not Joey's. It's not whoever's, not whatever church. It's a collective effort and it's all of ours.

CB: It truly does all go back to community, no doubt, and connections, but to take it to a more individualistic route--Do you, as a leader in Cul2vate, feel it's important to delegate within the organization? If so, why? When and how do you delegate?

JL: It's extremely important. Delegation is really critical. Effective management only happens through four or five people I believe, so each individual under me can then manage for or five people, and then for or five people, and that's how you grow an organization. I surround myself with varied strengths and I delegate. Let's use marketing--I'm not a creative, and I'm not strong at that, so in order for us to do good as Cul2vate and come up with all the cool sweatshirts and hats that I see everywhere, I needed to give that over to somebody else and I take no credit for that. Farming--Dr. Coffee. Leadership--Me. I'm the one wrangling everybody in and saying, "What're we planting? When are we pulling it out of the ground? Who can we promise this to? When can we give this," so delegation is critical. It is important that when you delegate, you release, because if I'm flying over everybody, especially younger people, they're like, "No, no, no. Get me out of this place," so release it to them. Expect that they get it done and then follow up with why or how they did it, and make them feel apart. It's theirs, not yours.

CB: So, would you say a big part of delegation is giving responsibility?

JL: Release. It's release. This is your job, because it's your job. You're here and you're doing it. My own opinions of it, and even my encouragement of you, would be do it better than I could ever expect that you would do it. Not for me. I mean, I'm not going to fire you, but do it really, really good so you can be proud of what you're doing and the money will follow. I promise. I keep telling young people, "The money will follow," but take your responsibilities seriously, and do them better than anybody could ever do them, and you won't have a job security issue.

CB: How would you measure success and how do you learn from failure?

JL: I would say that I measure success biblically. Like, how do I feel that I am doing as it pertains in regards to my first commitment? Everything flows out of a life belief system, a passion. Mine happens to be Christianity. How am I doing on that front? My second most important mission in life is to be a good husband to my wife. How am I doing there and what do others think when they look in at that relationship? My children follow very, very closely to that. Then Cul2vate, and the ministry, and all the political ins and outs, and whatever we do creatively through Cul2vate. So, that's the measure for my success. I think the second part of that question was how do you use your failures or what you would term as failures?

CB: How do you learn from failures?

JL: How do I learn from failure? Quiet time, conversation with those who love me and I can trust, and meditation or reflection.

CB: I think we could all use more if that, for sure.

JL: Yes! It's an important discipline.

CB: Definitely. What are two or three action steps you believe are essential to enable others to be successful? I know this is a huge piece of Cul2vate, enabling others to be empowered whether that's personally, or financially, or any other aspect really, so what would those two or three action steps in your view be?

JL: The first step is to release yourself from anything that is holding you back. The demographic that I work in now, as you know, is one of sometimes poor life choices, so that was then, this is now. What are we doing now? That's a big part of the encouragement that I think people need, so actions step would be to encourage those around you, to help if and when at all possible to align them within their strengths and put them in the proper place to be successful, and then the third action step would be to give them the space and the tools to do and be who they feel called to be.

CB: What advice do you have for building relationships and trust in an organization?

JL: Be willing to be wrong. Be open to being wrong. Be open to, no matter how deep seeded or heartfelt your convictions, listen to others. There may be something in what they bring to you that you need to marinate in, because it may be sent to serve you in a really, really good way that's coming down the road that you can't see. I needed to say that as much as you needed to hear it, so I think relationally everybody has value. Everybody has value, so value them. Let them speak. I've been asked about tough subjects. People have disagreed with me in front of cameras, and I think the number one lesson that I've learned for a leader is just, that person has value, let them speak. You don't have to be the loudest voice in the room. Let them speak and continue to do what you feel called to do.

CB: Joey, I know you touched on this earlier in the interview, but could you elaborate a little more on what you want your legacy to be?

JL: I want my legacy to be one where people look at my life, and it aligns biblically with what I have talked about with my mouth. You can type my name in online and there comes up a lot of different videos and books where I have been vocally and in writing proclaiming, "This is the way. This is why I do this." I want my legacy to be, "No, he actually did that. He actually did what he believed and in a tangible way, made a," even if it's little, "difference in the world." I want my kids to see it as an example, and not an example to do exactly what I do, but to live freer than that, to have an expanded world view, and to reach for everything that God has to offer them. I would like for my community to be better as a whole, because I was there. I want the people who worked alongside of me to say, "That was fun." That's it.

CB: Beautiful. Now diving a little specifically into Cul2vate, into your organization, as an organizational leader--it's clear that Cul2vate has sort of an education piece to it, so in what ways do you think your services at Cul2vate are cultivating leaders?

JL: Not assuming that we or they know anything or have a captured market on any information, either financial literacy or worker readiness or agriculture, that we have the best curriculum or the only way or the best way, I think it's more of an atmosphere that we create of openness where we're challenging and exchanging ideas, and the number one thing that I tell people, cultivators as we call them on the farm, that I want them to take away from the farm is I want to train self-learners. I want them to go and learn themselves, so read, seek out information, be aware of political social conversations that are around you. Don't stick your head in the sand anymore. You're worth more than that, so go out and be a leader, engage in those kinds of things, and engage well. We all make a decision when we get up in the morning about how much time we want to give to everything, and I tell my kids when they say, "I didn't get around to that today, because I didn't have time-- "No, you had the same twenty-four hours that I had. You just didn't prioritize that in a place where you wanted to do it today," so I think that's what we're trying to teach them as leaders on the farm. It's all about using the time we've been allotted and using it well. We're open to discussions with you about how that could look better every day, and if you see things that we're doing or not doing or whatever, you're open to say it. We do communicate financial literacy, worker readiness, discipleship, agricultural modules. I don't think it's so much the meat that's in the material, as it is the relationships that come alongside the material.

CB: Alright, I actually think that might have answered my final question pretty well, but maybe just going into that a little more specifically--we've been discussing pretty broadly leaders in general, but there are certainly types of leaders, whether that's in a faith-based organization or a business organization such as yours, so if you were to be talking to wannabe business leaders or organizational leaders, how might you go about teaching them or advising them how to expand their businesses, and do you have any experiences in Cul2vate with expansion that might shed some light on that?

JL: Yes, my number one to leaders, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, is to operate with exceptional stewardship in what you have currently. When you do that, you will get others who will come and look at what you're doing. You grow by virtue of being good at what you do. You don't go out and try to conquer the Roman Empire in a day. You do one step at a time and you do it well. Focus on the little things. As a leader, a visionary like I am, I can get caught up 30,000 feet in the air when seeds have to go in on May the fifteenth, but that's where the delegation conversation came in earlier. It's like, pick your team, pick it wisely, and release people to do what they do really well. I think that's the more specific guidance for those who want to expand their ideal concept or brand. Let it just happen. If you're working on the details it'll happen. If you're doing it right, and it has value in the private sector or religious community, makes difference. People will come to you.

CB: Well Joey, I appreciate you coming out and speaking with me so much. Since you came and spoke with me and my intro to social entrepreneurship class, I know for me and the whole class you have been a great illustration of a leader, not only in business but in faith and family especially, so I definitely appreciate your time!

JL: Alright! Thank you for being interested.