Eddie, Set, Go

By Steven Mercado, 7 min read

In the eighth episode of The Bread Podcast, Eddie Moon, director of V3, shares his insights about leadership, the importance of trusting God through everything, and much more. Let’s dive into this episode’s conversation:

DELEGATING: AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF LEADERSHIP

In the earlier years of leading, I always felt like I needed to do everything on my own, so I would take on an ungodly amount of tasks and I would always feel behind, wanting to do more, but not having enough time to fulfill those things. So I started letting those things go and I started assigning and delegating certain things, certain tasks to certain people who can fulfill them, and I realized that I can focus on what's more important rather than doing all the small little busy things that most people actually do.

You need to be able to trust your team, your people, the people that you have around you, to fulfill these tasks and lead them to do so.

DON’T BE A CONTROL FREAK*

As leaders, we feel like we need to know everything, but what happens when we know everything is we start to become a control freak. We want to control every little detail. If you look at a lot of bigger companies, successful companies, the CEOs of most companies don't know what happened in HR, or what happens at the front desk, or what happens behind the scenes, but they are aware of what's happening with the entire company, the entire organization. For me, I feel like I need to be aware of what's going on with each of the little sectors and little sections of V3, but I don't need to know every little detail, or else I'm not going to get anything done.

BATTLING FEAR WITH “GOD-FIDENCE”*

I don't think I deal with a lot of fear in my life. In the past, I've gone through a ton of downs, but in those downs, I've always known that God is going to eventually pull me out, or at least God is going to teach me a lesson throughout this, and he's never disappointed me, anytime I've been down. I can't help but to thank God and trust God in any circumstance, whether good or bad.

CONSISTENCY: START WITH A VISION

It's so important because the ‘why’ will take you further. What you do and how you do it, you can get it done, real quick, real fast. You can do it by yourself. But when you have a vision and you have a destination, that's where you can go long-term. Often times, why people hesitate is because there's a little bit of selfish motivation behind it. Especially as a Christian, it's like, ‘I know that I should be doing this for God, but I kind of want to be doing this for myself.’ That's where a lot of the tension and conflict come in your heart because you know you should be doing this when you want to be doing that. That's why I feel like a lot of people have a mind battle.

GROWTH MINDSET VS. LIMITED MINDSET

In terms of starting, it's easy to feel discouraged, but I think this is where a growth mindset versus a limited mindset comes in. I personally believe that I have a very strong growth mindset. Anyone who has a growth mindset will face challenges and be like, ‘I don't understand this, but there's a "yet" at the end.’ Someone who has a limited mindset says, ‘I don't understand this at all.’ Someone who has a growth mindset will face a challenge and will say, ‘I look stupid right now, but I'm going to try my best to learn and get better at this.’ Anyone who has a limited mindset will say, ‘Man, I'm going to look dumb doing this, so I'm not going to do it at all.’ So always know that success and growth will require failure, it is a part of the equation, it comes with it, you can't avoid it.

PURPOSE, INTENTION, AND PATIENCE

Anything anyone wants to start, make sure it has purpose, make sure you're doing everything intentionally, and always understand, anything that's meaningful will take time. A lot of time, we want quick results, we want things to grow fast, and when we don't see the results within 3-6 months or a year, we feel discouraged or disappointed. But anything good takes time.

GETTING OTHERS TO BUY INTO YOUR PURPOSE

I always think about people, you know? Because as the director of V3, I have to imagine myself as the captain of this ship and when I'm leading, I need to make sure that my crew-mates understand where I'm taking them, and I have to make sure that they believe in the destination that they're going to. Yeah, I'm always thinking about the people in that sense. Where am I taking them? Do they believe in where I'm taking them?

HOW THE ARTS CAN BRING US CLOSER TO GOD

For me, there was a point and time where I had a hard time just reading. I was like, man, I understand what I'm reading, but I don't get it fully. But when the Bible Project came out and they showed everything visually, I was like, now I get it. I get these characters, I get what they went through, I see what the Bible is talking about because they use mediums such as art, video, graphic design to help portray what the Spirit may look like, or what God may look like, or what the Trinity may look like.

So art has definitely helped me improve my relationship with God and I would love to see V3 contribute to that, because we're just one step, one little stone, one building block that creates a path for future generations to do the same.”

A ROLE MODEL NOT OF THIS WORLD

I really look up to Jesus. The one scene that I always go back to is when Jesus carries his cross. When he is carrying his cross to Mount Golgotha, and anytime that I visualize him getting beat up, whipped, and constantly in pain and still carrying that cross because he cares for us and loves us, I can't complain about anything, so yeah, I look up to Jesus a ton, a lot, when it comes to that and the way he lived his life here on this earth.

POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES: ASK, SEEK, AND KNOCK

The first passage that comes to mind is Matthew 7:7-11. It talks about, ‘Ask, seek, and knock,’ and this is when Jesus is speaking. When I read that passage, it really gave me a lot of affirmation on how I'm doing my things. Oftentimes, what people do is they ask and they ask, and they wait. Ask and wait. Ask and wait. And when it doesn't happen, they become really disappointed and angry at God. But we forget that there's a seek aspect and a knock aspect. This means that you pray, yes, you ask, and then you seek. You go out, and in order to knock, it takes action. So yes, there has to be action with your prayers, with what you want, with what you need. Especially today, with what's going around the world. People pray and after they pray, they'll go turn on their television and watch their shows or go on Instagram. Their actions need to match their faith and their prayers.

FAVORITE V3 MOMENTS

You know what? I have no specific favorite moment, but I have favorite moments. It's when the team is together and they're having a good time. That's it. When I see the team together and they're laughing and having fun, those are the moments I always pause, and I just stare, and I'm extremely grateful for.

It is always a blessing to hear Eddie share his impactful words of wisdom. We hope what he shared about leadership and trusting God through every part of life encouraged you today. 

You can hear the full conversation by looking up “The Bread Podcast” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Be sure to check out our previous episodes as well!