An Extraordinary Mission for the Store

by Dan Angelo

Brett Culp’s work journey has led him to discover the importance of story-telling and how that makes for better leaders.

It was that message the documentary filmmaker delivered during his Morning Main Stage presentation, Energizing Your Future, at CAMEX25 in the Fort Worth Convention Center.

“I believe as an industry like yours grows, you all grow with your individual stores, and as each individual store grows and shares, you grow as an industry,” he said. “That’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

Culp has directed and produced the documentaries Legends of the Knight, Look to the Sky, and A Voice that Carries, and uses those films to support local charities through his not-for-profit The Rising Heroes Project.

Legends of the Knight features the true stories of people who have overcome adversity to make a positive impact because of their childhood love of the crime-fighting character Batman. It is a film that has played theatrically in 110 cities worldwide and has raised more than $100,000 for charitable organizations in each city it played.

Look to the Sky encourages viewers to find their superhero within themselves by looking at 10 young people and their journeys through adversity, while A Voice that Carries empowers fathers to be positive influences in their daughters’ lives. To Culp, the visual message that he provides through these films can be directly related to the work the campus stores does every day.

“The story of how your store intersects with the lives of real people empowers them and becomes a vehicle for them to live out their best stories,” he said. “And, when you can quickly explain what you do and how you do it from that perspective, you attract support, partners, excitement, energy, opportunities, and collaboration that you did not see before when you were focused on being a one-person support group for yourself.”

That’s how leadership is developed, according to Culp. He reminded listeners that real leadership involves inviting people on the mission rather than telling them what tasks to do.

“The idea of an invitation is inclusive, which means we need to hear from multiple voices whenever we solve problems,” he said. “It’s about framing your work as a mission. It’s not just a to-do list of things that we’ve got to get done. We’re going to frame the campus store as a mission, and not an average, ordinary mission, but an extraordinary mission. This is a noble quest we’re on.”

A leader is also a mentor, and not a taskmaster. Sometimes bosses tend to think about work as things to get done and their own need for control over those employees who have been tasked to do the work. That isn’t a positive approach because workers don’t want to be bullied.

“We’re moving in a world where people are more sensitive and they don’t want to be controlled,” Culp said. “That doesn’t mean they don’t want leadership, it means they don’t want to be controlled. They want to be coached.”

Coaching makes it possible to not only support workers, but it allows them to find out for themselves what is stopping them from being excellent contributors. The problem is that sometimes coaches tend to focus on the big moments and forget it’s the small ones that can make the biggest difference to the people who not only work in the store, but the customers who shop there.

However, being true to your own story comes first. Then, making sure to tell the stories of the store—what it does, the people who work there, and the positive impact they all have on the campus and the surrounding community—helps you become the powerful leader that unlocks the potential of their employees and creates the space to let their lights shine, according to Culp.

“Keep telling your story, and even when you feel like you are losing ground, keep swinging,” he said. “Even when it feels like everything is lost, keep holding space for what could be and what’s possible, for there are galaxies within you. You are filled with wonder and beauty and magic and light.”