The Remarkable Leadership Podcast

00:00:08:07 - 00:00:28:21
Kevin Eikenberry
You've watched hundreds of movies in your life, and regardless of whether you've thought about this before or not, it takes a lot of leadership at all levels to get a movie created so you can enjoy it. Today we have an accomplished movie director, producer, and writer joining us to help us see behind that curtain and look at the leadership lessons we can learn from him.

00:00:28:22 - 00:00:56:05
Kevin Eikenberry
I'm excited to have him join us, and I'm excited to have you join us for the next episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast, where we are helping leaders grow personally and professionally to lead more effectively, make a bigger, positive difference for their teams, organizations and the world. If you are listening to this podcast, you could have been live well, you could be live for future episodes is a better way to say that on whatever, whatever your favorite social media platform might be.

00:00:56:07 - 00:01:23:12
Kevin Eikenberry
And you can get access to when lives will be happening and know how to get connected so you can watch them live and therefore get this information sooner by joining either our Facebook or LinkedIn groups. Just go to remarkable podcast.com/facebook or remarkable podcast.com/linked in to do exactly that. Today's episode is brought to you by the second edition of our new book, The Long Distance Leader.

00:01:23:14 - 00:01:44:14
Kevin Eikenberry
Revised Rules for Remarkable Remote and Hybrid Leadership. If you lead a team that is distributed in any way, this book will give you new skills, insights, and the confidence to lead more effectively in the new world of work. Learn more. Order your copy now at remarkable podcast.com/l d l. And with that, it's time to bring in my guest.

00:01:44:14 - 00:01:58:08
Kevin Eikenberry
I'm going to bring him in. I'm going to before I officially introduce him, I'm going to tell you that, we're having a little internet challenge and a little bit of delay between he and I. So I'm going to try to be really patient, and I hope that you will be, too. But it'll be worth the wait, I promise you.

00:01:58:10 - 00:02:22:21
Kevin Eikenberry
Today's guest is Harold Cronk. He is an award winning director, writer, and producer. His big break came when his short film War Prayer earned him a best Director at the 2006 Beverly Hills International Film Festival. His first box office hit, God's Not Dead, and the sequel God's Not Dead two, landed him the opportunity to helm Unbroken Path to redemption for United.

00:02:22:21 - 00:02:53:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Excuse me, Universal Studios, based on the life of Louis Zamperini. The film received rave reviews from audiences, earning an A CinemaScore, as well as a movie guide award for Best Film for Mature Audiences. Recently, Cronk won what won his first Emmy for Outstanding Directing of The Quest, a high concept family adventure series for Disney Plus. His most recent film, which is one of the reasons that prompts us to be here today, is Average Joe, based on the life of coach Joe Kennedy, is currently in theaters.

00:02:54:00 - 00:03:17:13
Kevin Eikenberry
Currently, as We Are Your Life across the country and boasts the highest Rotten Tomatoes audience score of any Faith film and its opening weekend at 99%. A Rotten Tomatoes score of 99%. To date, his films have grossed over $100 million in domestic box office sales. He currently has several projects in the works at his studio in Michigan, where he joins us.

00:03:17:19 - 00:03:42:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Those of you that might know me well might know that I'm originally from Michigan. And yes, we know each before this. And at this moment we are less than ten miles apart. Even though we're not in the same physical location. So with all of that said, Harold, I'm glad to have you. Thanks for joining us, and thanks for being a part of the show.

00:03:42:22 - 00:03:49:23
Harold Cronk
Thank you Kevin. Appreciate it so much being here today. This is, this is exciting. I can't wait to hear the questions you have in store for me, because.

00:03:49:23 - 00:04:07:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Yes, everybody. I have not told them. Well, I told him one question. And that's the only one. So let's just start here. You know, it's always interesting to hear people's journey, but I think a lot of people look at the kind of work that you do and say, well, that's a really it has to be a really interesting story.

00:04:07:22 - 00:04:24:19
Kevin Eikenberry
So you grew up in a small town in Michigan, and how do you end up being a film director and producer? How did you even pick that path? Just tell us a little bit about sort of that journey. Don't give us, you know, give us the short version, but give us a sense of the arc, of your life.

00:04:24:21 - 00:04:43:11
Harold Cronk
Sure. You know, I was a I was an artist in high school and really had no idea where I wanted to take those skills. Take those talents? I was a little bit lost. My dad was a public school superintendent, and, I said, fine. As a dad, you know, I really think I want to go to film school.

00:04:43:11 - 00:05:02:14
Harold Cronk
To art school, to be a filmmaker and an artist. And he said, no. And he said, get your art education degree that way. Have your summers off, to pursue your passions. And, and, still have some stability and maybe some health insurance. So your mom and I don't have to take care of you for the rest of your life.

00:05:02:16 - 00:05:20:09
Harold Cronk
So there was some great wisdom in that. So that was really my path. I, I became a high school art teacher, and I loved teaching, loved working with kids, and, and just, just, did a couple short films in my summers off. And one of them got noticed by a producer from Hollywood, through some very fortuitous ways.

00:05:20:09 - 00:05:31:22
Harold Cronk
And, he said, hey, you really need to give this a shot. And, so I moved to Los Angeles and, and, sometimes when we step out in faith, great things happen.

00:05:32:00 - 00:06:01:00
Kevin Eikenberry
And so you've been in this business for quite a long while at this point, and you've had the chance to do some pretty interesting stuff along the way. So art school, not exactly the same as film. So, like, what's that? What's what's the connection to film? I mean, obviously it's about stories, right? So what sort of led you to wanting to tell stories on the screen?

00:06:01:02 - 00:06:21:17
Harold Cronk
Well, you know, what am I? One of the first things I ever did was I produced a Wild West gunfight and stunt show at White Pine Village in Ludington, Michigan. Was really the first thing I ever directed when I was 19 years old. Ron Wood, a neighbor of yours, I believe, my uncle came with this crazy idea.

00:06:21:19 - 00:06:41:10
Harold Cronk
I came him with this crazy idea. And for some reason, that man said yes. I have no idea. But it was my first opportunity to take, this production, you know, from from a script to a live performance. And it really just kind of felt like it hit all of my of my giftings and my personality and, the talents that I've been given.

00:06:41:10 - 00:06:51:18
Harold Cronk
And so I just, I loved it, and it said my soul. And I thought, okay, this is this is something. And, we just kind of went for it from there.

00:06:51:20 - 00:07:12:05
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, you know, the, the one of the reasons and you and I've had a lot of conversations, but we've never had this conversation until right now. Is that I think that your, your, I'll say your journey as a leader is probably in some ways quite similar to lots of people. In other words, you were really good at some stuff, right?

00:07:12:07 - 00:07:35:03
Kevin Eikenberry
You were really good at some, some technical things that you had some subject matter expertise, if you will. And then do you find yourself as a producer and a director really in a leadership role? So I'm curious sort of what what kinds of challenges did you find in your with your leadership hat on, or maybe even ones that you still see?

00:07:35:05 - 00:07:45:16
Kevin Eikenberry
After doing this for a long time? Like what? I guess I'll just put it this way. What are the challenges that you find when you put the leadership hat on, among all the other hats that you wear?

00:07:45:18 - 00:08:09:21
Harold Cronk
Sure. You know, it's it's funny, I think a lot of my leadership skills were formed on the athletic field. And, you know, in our hometown, being part of a team, being a servant leader, doing, doing whatever you can to support the team. Some of those things, you know, on the athletic field, on the basketball court, you learn those in, in the heat of the moment, in battle.

00:08:09:23 - 00:08:37:13
Harold Cronk
Through good coaching. And so I found that, those skills and then, my degree is K-12 art education and physical education. So I'm actually qualified to teach underwater basket weaving, which is really strange, but the, the training I received is my physical education, program at Central Michigan University with outstanding, classroom management and leadership skills, specifically through that program.

00:08:37:16 - 00:08:55:18
Harold Cronk
We're incredible. And then you throw on top of that going into a classroom and having to win 30, you know, unruly kids to your vision every day to accomplish the task of what were the objectives for the day? Really, I don't think there's a better training ground for a leader than than that.

00:08:55:20 - 00:09:12:08
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, and certainly one that I think most would say we're glad we've got folks that are doing that work. I'm not sure how good I could be. Well, maybe at a certain grade level I could be okay at that. But, I mean, I spend all of my time, in that role of of helping others. Right.

00:09:12:10 - 00:09:46:08
Kevin Eikenberry
And, and, and and, training more than educating. And yet, there's obviously a lot of connections there. So, what's what challenge have you found? Let's just let's just take it to two more recently, you guys, you've done you've directed, movies with larger budgets, sort of movies that people that you, as I read the in the bio movies that people, while they may not have seen, have probably heard of as sort of the stakes got higher and, the scope got broader.

00:09:46:10 - 00:09:57:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Are there any particular challenges that you found, maybe hard to overcome or that you had to work hard to overcome?

00:09:57:12 - 00:10:27:06
Harold Cronk
Yet the scaling of a film production, going from the independent world to the feature world with a studio at a major studio. It definitely was a a challenge. And it was a learning curve for me politically. The independence that I worked on before moving into the studio world where, you know, you raise private equity and then you're partners with the executive producer and you're working together.

00:10:27:08 - 00:10:52:03
Harold Cronk
So you really don't have a a boss, per se. It's your job to deliver on the project. When you take a job as a director with a studio. There are people that are come alongside you and have some pretty strict guardrails about what the expectations are, and then the interplay of those various studio executives and everybody fighting to keep their job.

00:10:52:05 - 00:11:21:17
Harold Cronk
Can make things really interesting. So that was something I learned that very quickly, that I was swimming with sharks in the studio world. But it was a great experience and it stretched me as a leader. And, I think what I learned from that was stay true to the vision that you have and the vision that you were hired to deliver and, and find a way to share that vision with the people that you're working for.

00:11:21:19 - 00:11:38:01
Harold Cronk
In a way that's going to speak to them and their goals. And, and they'll get behind you. Yeah. If and if you can make if you can make other people look good with, with what you deliver, it bodes really well for you.

00:11:38:02 - 00:11:57:08
Kevin Eikenberry
It's probably the best advice anyone could could give in terms of you. I get asked all the time about, well, how do I manage up right? How do I, as a leader in the middle somewhere? How do I manage up in that advice is probably about as solid as you could ever give. I'm. I'm curious, you know, the talent world that you live in.

00:11:57:10 - 00:12:22:03
Kevin Eikenberry
You know, every leader is, has to attract and retain talent. And most organization, most leaders will come to me and say, well, Kevin, you don't understand because I'm leading engineers or I'm leading doctors or I'm leading enter X, right. And they and they assume that the nature of those that profession makes it different. But and I'm so I'm sure that I'm not sure I buy that 100%.

00:12:22:04 - 00:12:42:15
Kevin Eikenberry
But I am curious because in your work you're leading people that are highly creative, right. And in many cases quite accomplished. And so I'm curious, if you have any insights about how to lead highly creative people in.

00:12:42:17 - 00:13:08:00
Harold Cronk
Great question. You know, there's the old saying, hire people that are more talented than you and give them the tools they need to get out of their way. And so I really do try to adhere to that. I've worked with some incredibly talented directors of photography, people that know more about the inner workings of a camera and lenses that I could ever dream of.

00:13:08:02 - 00:13:31:05
Harold Cronk
At the end of the day, it all comes down to vision and for me, hired to be the director, it's it's my job to have the vision and to help other people that are on the team execute it. And so I try to give creativity within constraints to all of the creatives I want, I want to hear my deepest ideas for shots.

00:13:31:06 - 00:13:59:20
Harold Cronk
I want to hear my costume designers, concepts for color palettes with, for various scenes. And if this person is wearing this during this moment, I love it when creatives bring that level of depth and creativity to a project, because it tells me that they believe in what we're doing, they believe in the project, and they're invested. And then and then I work really hard to try to shape that, that vision that they have for their specific departments so that it all lines up together.

00:13:59:22 - 00:14:08:09
Harold Cronk
And creates, a really compelling visual story and not a feathered fish.

00:14:08:11 - 00:14:28:01
Kevin Eikenberry
Feathered fish. So I have to tell you, and I tell everyone who's watching or listening that it's insights like, that is what I was hoping we would get as we come out of this. So like one of the things for those of you listening that I hope that you can take, I didn't want to say it at the beginning, but now that we're partway through, I want you to keep thinking about it this way.

00:14:28:03 - 00:14:55:03
Kevin Eikenberry
As as Harold shares these ideas from the context that he's in, which is totally different than your context. The insights are directly applicable. Right? So it's my hope that you're interested because it's a world that you know something about as a consumer, but not about not as a, not in you're not in that world. And yet to hear those insights and how they would apply to you as a, as a leader in your organization, in your daily work.

00:14:55:07 - 00:15:24:09
Kevin Eikenberry
There's a direct application. So I hope that you continue to hear that as we go. Harold, I'm curious, about, you know. There's there's plenty of people that want to be in movies, right? And there's plenty of people that, are trying to get the roles I'm assuming that you would be trying to fill. And yet you still have to think about talent attraction, just like every other leader on the planet.

00:15:24:09 - 00:15:42:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Like, what are your thoughts about, how do you attract the talent that you want? For for both the on on screen and off screen kinds of roles. Like, what are your thoughts about or your strategy for attracting the talent that you want?

00:15:42:02 - 00:16:03:21
Harold Cronk
Another great question. You know, for me, the, the vibe on set is super important. You you have to put together a group of people that you know are going to gel, people that are going to be able to collaborate. And people that, you know, are going to be able to pivot when you do give them a directive that's maybe not in agreement with what their concept was.

00:16:03:22 - 00:16:25:10
Harold Cronk
So I think personalities are a huge factor. In fact, a lot of the times when I, when I'm talking with actors before bringing them on, I will meet with them or go have a cup of coffee with them, and I will talk about everything. But the the story, everything but the character. I'll pay attention to how they treat the waitstaff.

00:16:25:12 - 00:16:47:11
Harold Cronk
I'll pay attention to how they they talk about their friends, and really get to know them at a, at a depth, just through awareness in the moment. Especially with actors, because they're, they're so talented and many of them are always acting. Even when you're having coffee with them as themselves. So I just really try to get a good sense of, of who they are as a person.

00:16:47:14 - 00:17:14:05
Harold Cronk
I'll ask questions without, you know, without getting too personal that that, the responses are going to intimate to me, where their values lie. So it's a little bit of a private investigation task, too. So obviously they're talented enough to do the role because they're there with me and I've invited them, but I really want to get below or beyond that talent to find out, you know, when it's time to promote this movie.

00:17:14:07 - 00:17:28:00
Harold Cronk
Is this person going to is are they going to be committed or are they just doing this for the paycheck? Because I don't want anybody involved with any production. I'm doing this just there for the paycheck. I want people that are buying into the narrative that we're that we're putting forward on the screen.

00:17:28:02 - 00:17:52:01
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah, that that like applies to every single leader on the planet. That that ought to be our our always be our goals. I love that. Let's take a second and, and have you do this. You're in a business that most of us have never seen behind the scenes. What's something about the movie set that maybe is a myth?

00:17:52:06 - 00:18:02:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Or maybe that, like, what's something that would surprise us if we were watching you make this off stage of a movie?

00:18:02:12 - 00:18:27:00
Harold Cronk
Okay. This this is great. We had a film that we were doing at our studio here in Manistee, Michigan, and we had a Disney star, Debby Ryan, who is in town. Debbie Huge on the Disney Channel, right? She has fans everywhere. And her first day when we started filming, we're filming in Manistee, Michigan, in the middle of this neighborhood.

00:18:27:04 - 00:18:52:20
Harold Cronk
And word got out that Debbie Ryan was filming, and there were all of the sudden hundreds of kids and parents like, it was like Halloween or something, right? Trick or treat. They were lined up on the street corners, waiting for her to come out of her trailer. And they stood around for about 45 minutes. As our crew put together the lighting, they were running cables.

00:18:52:20 - 00:19:12:21
Harold Cronk
They were moving dolly track. And finally, after about an hour and 20 minutes, people started to walk away. And then Debbie finally came of our trailer and she shot the scene. She was on set for 15 minutes and then went back into her trailer, and the guy started tearing down all the lighting equipment and moving the dolly track.

00:19:12:23 - 00:19:36:11
Harold Cronk
It's a lot like watching paint dry. There's so much that goes into it. So people left there. No one stuck around. I mean, maybe ten people stuck around for autograph, but but, in a lot of ways, filmmaking can be very boring. And that's it. So you have, you know, anywhere from 10 to 50 setups in a day where you have to move the camera, right?

00:19:36:13 - 00:19:59:02
Harold Cronk
And you have to move the lighting and you have to block with the actors. So you mentioned the sausage fact. That's basically, you know, that's really what it is. There's a lot of okay, now we're going to do it from here. And now we're going to do it from here. And it gets repetitive. But that's that's my job as a leader to keep you motivated so we can, so that we can make our day.

00:19:59:04 - 00:20:15:09
Harold Cronk
When you start a day film production, you have a set number of pages that you're going to shoot every day. And if you don't get to those pages, you have to add those pages to another day on your production schedule. And as you can imagine, production days are expensive, so making your day is a big thing.

00:20:15:11 - 00:20:31:05
Kevin Eikenberry
So, you know, it's it's. And you and I were talking about this before we came live for another project that you're working on that it's and you use the phrase project management. It sounds like it's textbook project management.

00:20:31:06 - 00:20:37:01
Harold Cronk
Yes. With, chaos and Murphy's Law thrown in.

00:20:37:03 - 00:21:02:22
Kevin Eikenberry
And weather and 100 other things. Right? So, so a little bit about this latest project. Average Joe, and people can go learn more by going to Average Joe movie.com. But tell us a little bit more. So this is a real life story based on a real life story, that a lot of people, although they may have forgotten it because it's been several years, but but that they may have heard of at least the ending of this story.

00:21:03:00 - 00:21:14:02
Kevin Eikenberry
Some point in the past. So tell us a little bit about the, the how it how the movie came to be and how, it and sort of a little bit about the movie.

00:21:14:04 - 00:21:42:06
Harold Cronk
Sure. The movie is Average Joe, and it's based on the life of Coach Joe Kennedy. Coach was, fired from his coaching position in Washington State for taking a knee and saying a prayer on the 50 yard line after his games, and coach was a 20 year combat veteran, marine. And, he he, he felt like it was his First Amendment right to say that prayer.

00:21:42:06 - 00:22:03:06
Harold Cronk
So when the school asked him to stop, he he refused. And his case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And after a seven year court battle, he he finally won his case, about a year and a half or two years ago now. And, the executive producer of God's Not Dead, Troy Duhon, came to me and he said, Harold, do you know, have you heard of this Coach Kennedy story?

00:22:03:07 - 00:22:22:10
Harold Cronk
And I said, yes, of course. It's been all over the news. He said, are you interested in telling that story? And I said, absolutely. And, one of the things I absolutely loved about about coach's journey is that he didn't do this just for Christians. He did this because he felt that it's a fundamental right of every American.

00:22:22:12 - 00:22:45:15
Harold Cronk
To worship how how they see fit and who they see fit. And, and so he, he just refused to give up on this battle for all of us, regardless of our beliefs. And I think it was just an incredible story. And this guy, he, I think he did what a lot of us would hope we would do in a, in a similar situation where most of us might fail.

00:22:45:17 - 00:22:46:08
Harold Cronk
So, you.

00:22:46:08 - 00:23:25:09
Kevin Eikenberry
Know, watching the movie, that's one of the things that was going through my own head. I mean, I was watching the movie knowing you and having heard a little bit about it before from you and knowing that we were going to have this conversation. But during the movie, that was one of the things that I was thinking like, would I, would I have persisted, and I don't want to give away too much of the story for people, but, you know, his wife at one point was sort of saying, which is more important, me or that and, and, you know, and that, you know, there's there's real, real stuff to think about for

00:23:25:09 - 00:23:52:16
Kevin Eikenberry
us as, watching it, whether what we would do in that moment. Right. I'm curious because, again, without giving away too much, he's, there are clips of the real Joe. Yes. He does not play that. He's not the actor, but like, there are clips of the real Joe before and after the film. So that tells me he was involved in some ways, how there's always got to be poetic license, I'm sure.

00:23:52:17 - 00:24:00:18
Kevin Eikenberry
But generally speaking, how how close does the storyline run with the real life story?

00:24:00:20 - 00:24:25:20
Harold Cronk
Yeah. You know, it's funny, when I went to see the film for the first time when it opened on Thursday, I didn't even know that they had did the interview with Coach and Kelly Shackelford from, First Liberty. I didn't realize that they had done that interview that plays before in the movie, which is interesting that a little bit of him afterwards introducing the special guest at the very end of the movie, I did I was aware of that.

00:24:25:20 - 00:24:26:11
Harold Cronk
And that was that.

00:24:26:11 - 00:24:28:17
Kevin Eikenberry
Was because that was in the movie, right?

00:24:28:19 - 00:25:03:08
Harold Cronk
Right, right. That's that's part of the actual, film. But, yeah, I look the great thing about this is I didn't have to make up a lot of this. What you see is, for all intents and purposes, what happened? I had to do you have to take some creative license, a few things, like for for a couple of the characters that were in Joe's life, we combined a couple of those people into one character, just for efficiency, efficiencies and storytelling.

00:25:03:10 - 00:25:24:20
Harold Cronk
But, you know, it's what what you see is, is really what happened. And, it's remarkable. I read the screenplay when it was first brought to me. There was an initial draft done, and, and I read it and I was like, okay, this is kind of that prototypical Christian film. It opened on the steps of the Supreme Court, and it goes back.

00:25:24:22 - 00:25:52:16
Harold Cronk
You go back in time, and you follow his journey through the process of coaching and the turmoil and all of that. And then the and then I read his book, and I read about all of the garbage and pain and suffering and, it is so remarkable what this man went through and how he ended up becoming the person he is today is nothing short of miraculous.

00:25:52:18 - 00:25:58:11
Harold Cronk
He totally should be in prison. I think. Yeah, it or the.

00:25:58:16 - 00:26:03:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Film, but that certainly crosses your mind.

00:26:03:02 - 00:26:28:17
Harold Cronk
Yeah. Destitute, homeless. He a drug he should there. So there were so many opportunities for him to just say I'm out, I'm going this way. But he just kept finding a way to fight for what he which has a super strong sense of justice. And that's really what it comes down to. And, and he's mentioned he wasn't a Christian through a lot of the story, through a lot of his life.

00:26:28:17 - 00:26:50:05
Harold Cronk
And came to God later in life through a whole bunch of problems with his marriage once he finally found the love of his life. And, it's just it's so powerful to see this man who is an average Joe, do, the amazing doing almost the impossible.

00:26:50:06 - 00:27:21:23
Kevin Eikenberry
Average Joe movie.com. And if you're watching this live or just within a day or two after this, you probably can still catch it in the theater. We're hoping that's the case and hopefully beyond that, eventually it'll be available streaming in a variety of ways. Before we wrap up and go around our final turn here, Harold, I'm curious, there are people that might watch this later I don't know that are in our initial audience, but there are people who are going to watch or listen this later that might be wondering, okay, how do you I mean, you sort of told us the story, but I think I want to be in film or I think

00:27:21:23 - 00:27:39:20
Kevin Eikenberry
I want to be in some other sort of creative endeavor where Mom and Dad might say, hey, teaching and then creativity in the summer, like your story. Like, what did you say to someone that wants to get wants to go in the direction of something like this? Do you have any advice for folks?

00:27:39:22 - 00:27:49:09
Harold Cronk
I do, go into real estate.

00:27:49:11 - 00:27:54:19
Harold Cronk
Sorry. Look at the plants as a career.

00:27:54:21 - 00:27:56:07
Kevin Eikenberry
Plastics.

00:27:56:08 - 00:28:28:03
Harold Cronk
Plastics. Is that the thing that, you know, It. A career in the arts is incredibly challenging. Any career is incredibly challenging. But this is what I tell people. I taught a advanced directing course at a, at a college not too long ago, and I walked in the room the first day of class, and I wrote .00 0 to 87, I believe, was the number.

00:28:28:05 - 00:28:39:15
Harold Cronk
And, finally kid raised it and he's like, what's the number? I said, that's the that's the chance that you have of directing a feature film that will be that will be released theatrically.

00:28:39:17 - 00:29:08:15
Harold Cronk
And I let that sit in for a minute, then just there. Okay. Let's talk about it. The last day of class, I wrote that same number on the board, and I'm like, you know what to quote console. Never tell me the odds, right? If you believe that you've been given a passion, if you believe that you have the talents and you wake up every morning and decide, today's the day and I'm going to do it today.

00:29:08:15 - 00:29:20:15
Harold Cronk
And if you do that every single morning, you can make it no matter what vocation you're. It just takes dedication, persistence, love and passion. And, and that's it.

00:29:20:17 - 00:29:37:23
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, everybody, for the for the main part of the of the show, we'll leave it there. But I have a couple more questions before we finish. I'm going to shift gears now, some of the things that you do for work, others might consider to be fun, although I think now they have a better idea that it is work.

00:29:38:01 - 00:29:44:05
Kevin Eikenberry
But but what do you do for fun?

00:29:44:07 - 00:30:04:17
Harold Cronk
I love art. I've always been an artist. I love to draw. I love to sculpt. Art is kind of my escape. I also have two, amazing children, a ten year old, boy and a 13 year old girl. And, I am loving spending as much time with them as I can. I read to them at night.

00:30:04:19 - 00:30:26:06
Harold Cronk
If you have kids, read to them at night. It's magical. Tell them great stories of heroic courage and show them that, that there's always hope within their circumstances of overcoming their circumstances. And, I do a little bit of fishing when I can. That's, it's something that my dad and I used to do together all the time.

00:30:26:06 - 00:30:28:22
Harold Cronk
And I am looking forward to going, deer hunting this fall.

00:30:28:22 - 00:30:32:06
Kevin Eikenberry
So it's not far away.

00:30:32:10 - 00:30:34:06
Harold Cronk
On your farm.

00:30:34:08 - 00:30:48:23
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, we'd have to have another conversation about that. So, tell them what? Tell us what you're reading. You said you read to the kids, which is fabulous. You can tell us what you're reading to them if you want. But what are you reading these days?

00:30:49:01 - 00:31:23:17
Harold Cronk
Okay, well, that's a that's two questions. So I'm for my kids. It's wonderful reading to them, but there's also a little bit of a business element to that. So I've written, three with a group of writers written three fairy tale adventure films, called The Legends of Fall Hollow. And, so I'm reading them the three screenplays, and it's full of wonder and magic and, heroes and villains and, my ten year old son especially is absolutely loving it.

00:31:23:19 - 00:31:46:11
Harold Cronk
So he's a good, good test audience. My daughter's liking it. One of the characters. Well, actually, two of the characters in this in the series are based loosely on my kids, so I haven't told them that. So if they're watching. Spoiler. But, that's been a lot of fun. I, I'm also reading, Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey.

00:31:46:13 - 00:32:11:19
Kevin Eikenberry
Perfect. We will have green lights in the show notes for you, and I think that someone on the show in the past has also mentioned that. But we'll make sure that everyone can get Ahold of, the information for that green light. But, Matthew, we kind of. Hey, and of course, you want to all check out Average Joe movie.com, or find the local theater and find yourself a seat for Average Joe.

00:32:11:21 - 00:32:19:21
Kevin Eikenberry
Harold, thanks so much for joining me for sort of, playing along with me and, and having this conversation. I really appreciate it.

00:32:19:23 - 00:32:23:01
Harold Cronk
Thank you. Kevin, this has been great. Appreciate it. Man.

00:32:23:03 - 00:32:52:17
Kevin Eikenberry
So before we go, everybody, I'm going to ask the question I always ask. And I know this episode has been a little different for a variety of reasons. And that's a question I always ask you as a listener or viewer is now what what action will you take as a result of being here? I know that Harold would like to like you to pick up a ticket to a movie, but beyond that, in all seriousness, there are all sorts of things that we talked about today, whether you made the connection or not, around culture, around talent, around project management, around focus.

00:32:52:17 - 00:33:14:20
Kevin Eikenberry
There were a variety of things that we talked about that are of direct and immediate impact for you. And so the question is, what action will you take as a result of being here? Because ultimately, while Harold's in the entertainment business and I guess I'm kind of in the entertainment business, I'm really in the business of as I said at the start of the show, is helping leaders make a bigger, positive difference.

00:33:14:20 - 00:33:27:19
Kevin Eikenberry
And none of us can do that unless we take action. So I hope that you will do that, and I hope that you will. If you enjoyed the show, that you'll make sure that you're subscribed wherever you watched it. So you come back again and certainly love it. If you would tell someone else to come watch it as well.

00:33:27:19 - 00:33:33:02
Kevin Eikenberry
We love you. Do that and we'll be back next week with another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.