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.
86% of leaders believe their people trust them completely. Only 33% of employees say they actually do.Sit with that math for a second. That's not a stat about bad companies. That's a stat about a blind spot.In this solo episode, Brek steps into the Locker Room to talk about the gap most leaders don't even know they have — the space between what leaders believe about their own trustworthiness and what their people are actually experiencing. And here's the hard part: it's not because leaders are lying to themselves. The higher you go, the fewer people tell you the truth. Somebody softens the feedback. Somebody hints instead of naming it. By the time it reaches you, you're leading off a filtered version of reality — without ever knowing it was filtered.Brek anchors the episode in King David's ask in Psalm 139:23–24 — search me, God, know my heart, point out anything in me that's off — and makes the case that this isn't a comfortable prayer. It's a posture. Not confidence in how we think we're leading, but the willingness to actually find out.What we get into:✔️ Why trust doesn't erode all at once — it erodes in the ordinary, untracked moments: the follow-up you never sent, the hard thing you let pass in silence✔️ Why the higher you climb, the more filtered the truth gets — and why that's not your people's fault✔️ E.D.O.T. — Everything Depends On Trust — the four-move framework for closing the gap: Examine, Define, Own, Trust✔️ Why most leaders tap out at "Own," and why that's the move that actually rebuilds something✔️ A real script for the conversation most leaders are too afraid to startYour Next Best Step: Pick one person on your team. Ask them, no ramifications: "What's it like on the other side of me — really?" Don't defend it. Don't explain it. Just keep asking "what else?" until the well runs dry — and let what you hear lead you somewhere better instead of somewhere more comfortable.Trust is the soil everything else grows out of. Go check yours this week.🎧 Listen now and take your next best step.
26 Jun 2026
Dreams, Drains, Doubts
Most leaders diagnose a stalled team as a motivation problem. It's rarely that.
In this episode, Brek breaks down the three forces actually driving disengagement on your team — Dreams, Drains, and Doubts — and why your normal motivation playbook misses all of them. Each force is different. Each one needs a completely different move from you as a leader. And if you don't know which one is active right now, you're not leading the problem — you're just managing the symptoms.
You'll walk away knowing how to ask the question almost nobody asks, how to name what you're noticing without shutting people down, and how to close a confidence gap without leaving your people more alone in the process.
Don't build the plan until you can name the problem. That's where this episode starts.
19 Jun 2026
Build Your Brand With Purpose
What's It Like on the Other Side of You?
If someone said your name in a room you weren't in, what would they say? Not your title. Not your output. Who you are.
That's the question Brek Cockrell explores in this episode, drawn from a leadership workshop on building your brand with purpose. Here's the challenge: most leaders are managing their image when they should be building their impact. The gap between who you think you are and what people actually experience is where trust lives—or dies.
What You'll Learn:
This episode unpacks E.D.O.T. as the Brand Pathway—a four-part framework adapted from Everything Depends On Trust:
Examine: What are people actually experiencing on the other side of you (not what you intend)?
Define: What do you want to be known for in one clear sentence?
Own: Are your daily behaviors building your brand or busting it?
Trust: Trust grows when who you say you are matches what people experience.
You'll also walk through the 3 C's of a trusted brand—Clarity, Consistency, and Credibility—and fill in your own Leadership Brand Statement: "I want to be known as someone who ___, because people can count on me to ___."
Then comes the part that gets real. Brek shares the Brand Builder behaviors (follow-through, owning mistakes, being curious, communicating early) versus the Brand Busters (overpromising, blaming others, assuming motives, going silent) that quietly shape your reputation every single day.
The 30-Day Challenge:
Pick one Brand Builder behavior. Practice it every single day. Then ask one trusted person: "What's it like on the other side of me?" And just listen.
Because here's what matters: trust isn't built in big moments. It's built in small moments, practiced consistently, until people know what to expect from you. And when they do—trust grows.
Ready to take your next best step?
Subscribe to Thursday Throwdown for weekly leadership lessons rooted in ancient wisdom that still applies today. Explore coaching at bcleadershipco.com.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Your Next Best Step
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Your Next Best Step?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
