Your Next Best Step

Brek Cockrell
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Hello, I am Brek Cockrell, founder of BC Leadership Co. and host of the "Your Next Best Step" podcast. With over 40 years of leadership experience, spanning ministry, coaching, and organizational strategy, I help leaders build lives of significance, not just success. Through practical coaching, transformative questions, and a deep belief in every leader’s potential, I create environments and experiences to help leaders and teams take their next best step.

  1. 5d ago

    Communication That Connects

    Every conversation you have is either making a deposit or a withdrawal — and most leaders never stop to examine which one it is. In this solo episode, Brek walks through the E.D.O.T. framework — Everything Depends On Trust — as a practical roadmap for communication that actually connects. Using stories from Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and three all-too-familiar workplace moments, Brek breaks down why your intentions don't matter nearly as much as your behavior, and why the leaders people trust most aren't just good at what they say — they're intentional about what they don't. You'll learn: Why communication is interpreted emotionally before it's processed logicallyDr. John Townsend's Four Quads framework — and why most leaders skip straight to #3 and #4The difference between making deposits and making excusesHow to run the Quad Check before any meaningful conversation this weekThis episode won't let you off the hook. But it will give you a clear next best step — before your next one-on-one, hard email, or hallway exchange. Your Next Best Step: Run the Quad Check before one real conversation this week. Ask yourself: Which quad does this person need from me right now — and which one am I about to skip?

    21 min

  2. May 22

    What Leades Build That Lasts

    Dave Rust didn't start with a playbook. He started with a problem: in 2012, Buffalo's high school graduation rate was 49%. Half the kids weren't making it. Today, it's 79%. That's not just a statistic — that's thousands of lives redirected. As the founding CEO of Say Yes Buffalo, Dave has spent over eleven years proving that when you remove barriers and build trust across systems that historically don't trust each other, transformation becomes possible. This isn't a nonprofit success story. This is a trust story. In this episode, Dave and Brek sit down in the Locker Room to talk about what it actually takes to build something that lasts — the coalition work, the culture work, the soul work. From raising $90 million in scholarships to leading 150+ employees to expanding the model into Niagara Falls, Dave opens up about the lessons that only come from staying in the grind. In this conversation, you'll hear: ✓ Why opportunity gaps create the deepest fractures in communities — and what leaders can actually do about it ✓ How Dave built a coalition that brought together school districts, unions, higher ed, city government, and the private sector around one table (and why trust was the only variable that mattered) ✓ The difference between being a leader who wants something FROM people versus FOR people — and how that shift changes everything ✓ What a 30-point graduation rate increase actually reveals about sustainable, people-first leadership ✓ Why culture doesn't stay fixed — it drifts — and how Dave's team protects it through anonymous feedback, listening to boots-on-the-ground ideas, and refusing to lead from the mountaintop ✓ Dave's next best step for leaders: learn to be an independent thinker in a world built on groupthink, and remember that hard work (not workaholism) is still a sustainable trait The locker room question you leave with today: What are you building that will still be standing when you're not in the room?

    42 min

  3. May 8

    The Moment Between Trigger and Trust

    Culture isn't created through mission statements on a wall. It's created in moments—specifically, in the moment between trigger and trust. In this solo episode, Brek explores one of the most overlooked yet critical aspects of leadership: emotional intelligence in real time. Most leaders are trained operationally but not emotionally. We know strategy, execution, and systems—but very few of us are taught how to pause before reacting, how to stay curious under pressure, or how to lead ourselves emotionally. Drawing from Daniel Goleman's groundbreaking work on emotional intelligence and the practical Six Seconds model, Brek breaks down four simple practices that help leaders navigate high-pressure moments with groundedness instead of reactivity: Pause yourself — Slow the moment down before you reactKnow yourself — Name what you're actually feelingChoose yourself — Lead from values, not impulsesGive yourself — Ask what trust requires of you in this momentBecause the truth is: people experience your leadership emotionally before they experience it strategically. And most leadership damage happens at the speed of reaction. If you've ever wondered why culture shifts so quickly in a room after one tone, one impatient response, or one defensive comment—this episode is for you.

    24 min

  4. Apr 24

    Values vs. Positions: The Leadership Test That Only Shows Up in the Storm

    Most leaders think they have values. What they usually have are positions. In this return visit to the locker room, Nick Kennedy — founder of RISE, author of The Good Entrepreneur, and executive coach — joins Brek to unpack a distinction most leaders miss until it's too late: the difference between a value (unmoving, like a rock) and a position (a finger in the wind). Nick traces the idea back to his summer internship with Watergate-figure-turned-minister Chuck Colson, who asked a room at Harvard not "Why do good people do bad things?" but "Why do bad people do good things?" — and why the answer matters for anyone building a company, a team, or a marriage. The conversation moves from the corporate DEI whiplash at Target, Coca-Cola, and Ford, to Nick's 28-year marriage, to a forearm tattoo that reminds him trust can't be broken by a single fight. Brek and Nick close with one prompt for the leader who's starting to feel hollow: what's the next best step back toward integrity? Values are built in the calm. They're tested in the storm. Press play. 🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

    28 min

  5. Apr 17

    You Gave Them the Title but Not the Plan

    You promoted your best performer. Six months later, they're overwhelmed, their team is disengaged, and everybody's wondering what went wrong. In this episode, Brek Cockrell digs into one of the most common — and most costly — leadership mistakes happening right now: promoting people because of what they produced, without preparing them for what leadership actually demands. Backed by research from Gallup, Harvard Business Review, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Brek breaks down why 65% of frontline leaders were placed in their roles based on past performance — not leadership readiness — and what that one decision costs everyone underneath them. He also walks through a real coaching case study of a leader who got the title, inherited the team, and was set up to struggle from day one. Not because she lacked talent. Because the structure around her was never reset for her to succeed. If you're the leader who got promoted without a plan — or the one doing the promoting — this episode will challenge how you think about what your people actually need from you. E.D.O.T. — Everything Depends On Trust.

    20 min

  6. Apr 10

    Ring the Breakthrough Bell with Kelly Diane Galloway

    What happens when a leader stops running from their most painful chapter and starts leading from it? Kelly Diane Galloway — award-winning humanitarian, founder of Project Mona's House, PBS documentary producer, and the woman who walked 902 miles along the Underground Railroad — joins Brek Cockrell in the Locker Room for one of the most powerful conversations we've had on this show. Kelly grew up in Buffalo with a strong foundation, but after losing her brother to gun violence at a young age, grief pulled her into the streets. She went from nearly finishing last in her high school class to building a nationally recognized organization where over 92% of graduates achieve homeownership and financial independence. Today she leads anti-trafficking work across the globe, empowers young girls through the Young Women's Empowerment Academy, and is turning 120 girls into published authors. In this episode, we talk about how trauma becomes a leadership asset when you stop hiding it, why trust is built through consistency, transparency, and celebration, and what it really costs to lead something that didn't exist before you built it. Kelly also drops one of the most unforgettable leadership metaphors you'll hear this year — involving a little girl, a dark room, and a light switch. If you've been waiting for permission to stop hiding your story, this is your episode. 🔗 Learn more: projectmonashouse.com🔗 Connect with Kelly: @kellydianegalloway

    1h 7m

  7. Mar 27

    Take the Full Ride: Leadership Lessons from the Field, the Academy & the Fire with Carlos V. Spencer

    What does it take to lead when the pressure is real, the stakes are high, and nobody handed you a playbook? In this episode, Brek Cockrell sits down with Carlos V. Spencer — transformational speaker, author of Flip the Switch: Let's Go, Let's Grow, Let's Get It, former New York State Trooper, and the first African American speaker invited to address the NY State Police Academy. Carlos takes us from growing up in the projects of Buffalo to captaining a Division I football team, leading 196 personalities through a paramilitary police academy, and stepping into full-time purpose work helping others break through the mental roadblocks holding them back. Along the way, he drops gems on what it means to lead from the middle, why consistency is the real cheat code, the difference between being nice and being kind as a leader, and why the pressure you're feeling right now might just be the tool that pulls someone else through later. Plus, Carlos shares a powerful story about fatherhood, showing up in spaces where he never had a model, and the moment a coach's words unlocked a gear he didn't know he had. If you've ever felt stuck, overlooked, or unsure whether the grind is worth it — this one's for you. Let's go, let's grow, let's get it.

    1h 15m

  8. Mar 20

    The Trust Talk Every Leader Needs To Hear!

    Who are you really trusting to run your leadership? In this solo session, Brek steps into the Locker Room to bring the full Throwdown Thursday series to life — and it all comes down to four letters: EDOT. Everything Depends on Trust. Built on the ancient wisdom of Proverbs 3:5–6, this episode breaks down a powerful framework for purpose-driven leaders: 3 lenses, 2 verses, 1 operating system. Through the lenses of Becoming, Producing, and Performing, Brek challenges leaders to close the gap between what they say they trust and how they actually lead — in the pressure moments, the high-confidence moments, and every daily decision in between. Trust isn't just a value. It's the soil out of which everything good grows. In this episode: Why the gap between what you say and how you operate quietly breaks down leadershipThe EDOT framework and why it's the foundation of everythingHow Proverbs 3:5–6 serves as a living operating system for leaders todayWhat it really means to lead with all your heartWhether you're in a season of growth or feeling the weight of the gap — this one's for you.

    26 min
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About

Hello, I am Brek Cockrell, founder of BC Leadership Co. and host of the "Your Next Best Step" podcast. With over 40 years of leadership experience, spanning ministry, coaching, and organizational strategy, I help leaders build lives of significance, not just success. Through practical coaching, transformative questions, and a deep belief in every leader’s potential, I create environments and experiences to help leaders and teams take their next best step.

Information

  • Creator
    Brek Cockrell
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Brek Cockrell
  • Show Website
    Your Next Best Step