Rick Gibson – Principal Owner of MGR Development | Los Angeles Leaders

Rick Gibson's leadership journey spans from bagging groceries in his father's Bakersfield market to shaping Pepperdine University's presence in Los Angeles as Senior Vice Chancellor. In this riveting conversation, he reveals how seemingly small moments—like his father telling him "you always have something to do" when caught idle—planted seeds that would bloom throughout his 30-year executive career.

With remarkable candor, Gibson shares how he transformed from an entry-level position to becoming Pepperdine's first Chief Marketing Officer by mastering the art of storytelling. "The technology served the story, not the other way around," he explains, offering a timeless principle in our tech-saturated world. His narrative takes us through the evolution of marketing from film photography to digital media while emphasizing that compelling storytelling remains the constant force driving connection and meaning.

What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Gibson's exploration of systems thinking in leadership. Drawing from his MBA experience and years guiding organizations, he illuminates how everything within institutions interconnects in visible and hidden ways. "There's not a neglected part or a dismissed part," he explains, challenging listeners to see beyond siloed thinking to recognize how all elements contribute to organizational success.

Now an executive coach guiding both seasoned leaders and emerging professionals, Gibson addresses the profound isolation many executives face when making critical decisions. His current work focuses on creating safe spaces for leaders to express doubts, test assumptions, and challenge limiting beliefs. The conversation culminates with a powerful reflection on shared vision, illustrated through NASA's Apollo mission where everyone from engineers to cafeteria staff united behind "We're going to the moon."

Ready to elevate your leadership perspective? Connect with our upcoming "Pathways to Advanced Leadership" workshop where Rick Gibson shares these insights in an intimate, collaborative environment designed to help you see further down the field of your career journey.

📌 ABOUT OUR GUEST:  
🔹 Name: Rick Gibson
🔹 Title: Principal Owner
🔹 Organization: MGR Development, LLC
🔹 Company Website: https://www.coachmgr.com
🔹 Gue

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Rick Gibson
• 2:11 Early Life and Career Beginnings
• 6:07 Learning Leadership Through Family Business
• 12:18 Rise Through Pepperdine University
• 17:21 Connecting Pepperdine to Los Angeles
• 28:01 Coaching Executives Through Challenges
• 35:38 The Leadership Workshop Initiative
• 53:01 The Power of Shared Vision
• 1:03:19 Episode Closing

Transcript

Narrator 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Los Angeles Leaders Podcast, where we dive deep into the stories of the visionaries shaping the future of our region. Hosted by Christopher Luna, this podcast brings you conversations with the movers and shakers driving innovation, leadership and community impact across Los Angeles. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a community leader or simply someone passionate about making a difference, this podcast is your gateway to the insights and inspiration you need to lead and succeed. Get ready to be inspired by the leaders making waves in Los Angeles and beyond.

Narrator 2: 0:36

In this episode, we welcome Rick Gibson, certified Executive Coach at MGR Development. Rick Gibson has 20 years of executive experience. His expertise lies in executive coaching centered around mission and strategic clarity, purposeful living and professional success. Rick guides key executives toward positive pathways by fostering deep awareness, insight and action through a transformative process. His primary focus revolves around mission and vision development for the purpose of clarifying the strategic intent of an organization. Rick has spent nearly three decades in leadership roles, including Senior Vice Chancellor at Pepperdine, and now runs his own executive coaching firm, mgr Development. Rick Gibson has served on the board of governors of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, and as director of the LA5 Rotary Club of Los Angeles Foundation. He is an active volunteer in the community and served as president of LA5 Rotary Club of Los Angeles in 2020. He assists clients in uncovering the compelling vision for their personal and professional endeavors, weaving these visions into captivating and motivating narratives that make these projects come to life. Please welcome Rick Gibson.

Christopher Luna: 2:11

Welcome to Los Angeles Leaders. I'm your host, christopher Luna. Today's episode is especially meaningful to me. I have Rick Gibson. Rick has been a close friend of mine and has really helped guided me both professionally and personally. Friend of mine and has really helped guided me both professionally and personally. He spent three decades in leadership roles as a senior vice chancellor at Pepperdine University and now he's an executive coach with his own firm at MGR Development. In today's episode I want to kind of help explore these leadership journey, but before I get there I would love to learn more about your upbringing and before you got into the leadership roles.

Rick Gibson: 2:48

Sure, Well, christopher, thank you for inviting me. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, my journey began many years ago in Bakersfield. That's the Central Valley. That's where I was raised. Still have family there, and I spent my formative years there, worked with my dad in the market that he used to manage independent markets. Grocery stores are a big part of our family's history and so I worked with him. I had different kinds of jobs there paper routes, whatever, wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I went out. I did know I wanted to go to the big city and so I packed up my gear and told my dad I'm moving and my mom moving down to Long Beach.

Rick Gibson: 3:38

I went to Long Beach State to start and that opened up a world for me. And that opened up a world for me and that's one of the most important things that I try never to forget is just how big LA is and the opportunities that are associated with that. I can't overstate that enough. That became clear to me. I began to consider many different ways of putting together a career. What was very clear early on was that it's also with great opportunity comes some great expense. So living here was going to take a lot. So I began to realize early on I'm going to need to have some kind of position that will be a management or leadership position. So that was the beginning of my time to begin to turn towards business and started off with communications and marketing. But that began to turn to business and then later on ended up at Pepperdine.

Christopher Luna: 4:39

But those were the early years, definitely what I want to capture, before you ended up at your, your, your career at pepperdine, because that was 30 years of your, of your life, right? So I want to really capture the beginning stages kind of your college years um, how, how, what positioned you to take on such a big role at pepperdine? Like, how was your college?

Rick Gibson: 5:04

year. You know that's a great question. I think that everything begins to add up, and so I'm sure it played an even bigger role than I knew. But what I did learn early on at a big university was that if you were going to get somewhere, get into the program that you wanted, whatever it is that you were working on, you had to learn to network. That meant to knock on doors, shake hands, get to know people. So there are probably other things if I were to give it some more thought, but there's no question that I, for the first time, understood what it was like to be a little fish in a very, very big pond, and I had to make connections. I couldn't just show up, I had to make some kind of statement, I had to find ways to stand out, and I would say that's an early lesson that played a huge role in my career at Pepperdine.

Christopher Luna: 6:08

But who taught you that lesson? I mean, we kind of skimmed through the part where your father was in the grocery industry and I don't want to skip through that because I've been having some discussions with some inspirational leaders and there's always some tie-in to entrepreneurship. The last person I interviewed, ms June Kim Lopez. Her father owned a shoe store here in Los Angeles and I mean, did you would? And I worked in the grocery store.

Rick Gibson: 6:49

I was working for my dad, so that meant for at least part of that time I wasn't being paid. I was just doing my job that he had me signed up to do, had my apron, all of that. But what I learned from my dad was just what it meant to serve a customer. One of the things Christopher that's very interesting and it's almost absent these days, I think, but was present in the independent grocery store was that my dad said these were people who they would trade with us. He would say he knew their names. There were times where he would send me with the customer who might have been an elderly woman, a widow or something, and she needed help with her groceries, and I'd walk down the street and take them in.

Rick Gibson: 7:36

I mean, that was what was there and I realized early on at the time it seemed just normal because this is the way it was. It's not until the absence of it caused me to realize just how big a deal it was. But no, they were forming a community there of people. That was very meaningful to me. I began to understand that even later in my career, but yeah, I would say that's a big part of what shaped me. My dad knew their names, he knew something about them. There was free coffee flowing all day long and people would come to the market and some would shop and others would gather around and drink coffee. But it was a gathering place, a community, and that was a rich experience that I think had impact on my thinking.

Christopher Luna: 8:27

Yeah, I mean I'm just thinking back on my family business and how I was raised in a business as well, and I mean there's different areas that we had. I mean we had a warehouse that was just kind of closed. It wasn't open to the public, but then we had the storefront in downtown LA that was open to the public and I was there at a really early age just literally doing everything, whether it was cleaning or restocking, charging the clients and just really helping them, and I think it does build character. It takes us out of our comfort zone. I can't even remember how young I was, but I was in elementary school, so I don't know, maybe I started, maybe, like literally probably at six years old. But you know, all the way, in eight, nine, ten.

Christopher Luna: 9:11

I remember driving a forklift that's how I learned how to drive and just unloading trucks and I was really there to help and it was fun. It wasn't work. I think as I got older it became work where you're like okay, you got to go work now on the weekends and work on the summers and it takes away a lot from your childhood too, right. But I really think that a lot of the people that I've been speaking with have some type of ties to that experience. Right, and it really builds that character.

Rick Gibson: 9:41

Yeah, it reminds me you're saying that I remember on one occasion it was a busy time I was boxing groceries, which meant bagging groceries and putting them in the cart, taking them out, collecting carts, but then part of the day it slowed down, and so I remember one particular moment standing around with my apron on but there wasn't anybody really lining up yet.

Rick Gibson: 10:04

I didn't really have much to do and so I had my hands in my pocket and I was just standing around with my apron on, but there wasn't anybody really lining up yet. I didn't really have much to do, and so I had my hands in my pocket and I was just kind of waiting around to do the bagging of the groceries and to do the work. So my dad sees me and he calls me over and he says so what are you doing? I said, well, I don't really have much to do right now. And he said you always have something to do. And I have to tell you I have never forgotten that those are just little tiny memory markers that shape who you are. And I believe not that I couldn't completely become my father, but I believe I even used that line once before to somebody who worked for me.

Christopher Luna: 10:49

I've done that with my kids, my son especially. I mean that's like the worst thing you can do in a family business is have your hands in your pocket. I mean, I think you can apply that now though, right Is, you always want to make yourself useful, you always want to support someone, right? So you find something to do. So I think that, again, those are the little things that I don't think we know that as kids, right, but as we grow older it's just really. It just becomes who we are. So, during your going back to your college years now, what type of positions were you working in and what kind of before you entered your career?

Rick Gibson: 11:25

I should say yeah, I was trying to make my way through college. I was in at Long Beach State massive school great education there, by the way, I'm a big believer in public education. But I had odd jobs, sometimes working for the people I was staying with when I lived down here. I ended up working at what used to be called Mervin's and I worked there for a while, but just really to piece together a living while I finished school. Shortly thereafter met my future wife, met Agnes, and we married.

Rick Gibson: 12:06

Didn't think it was young at the time, but in hindsight it was young. But then I began to take different positions and I found that I had the ability to speak the language of a leader or a manager. You know it wasn't like it was strong rhetoric or something, but it was speaking with a little bit of confidence, and even at times when I didn't have that confidence. But it did help me find different positions along the way. I did spend a little bit of time early on following a passion and important work. So I was in ministry for a bit, but that was a lead and a connection that led to Pepperdine and then that led to 30 years and a career that I would never have anticipated.

Christopher Luna: 12:59

How did that lead to Pepperdine? What were you doing so?

Rick Gibson: 13:02

there is an affiliation with the church and I was doing some work to help sort of stand up a new ministry that a church in South Orange County was trying to put together, and so I did that for a while. My work in graphic design and illustration caught the attention of a marketing director at Pepperdine. That led to an invitation to apply for a position. I took that position, worked there for several years, became the art director, then a management position, and eventually went back to school to get an MBA. A lot more to talk about there, I think. But yeah, I became Pepperdine's first chief marketing officer, but it started off as a very entry level, and I kept my hands out of my pocket.

Rick Gibson: 13:56

I worked every day, and I worked really hard, and that work was rewarded in a way that I would have never imagined.

Christopher Luna: 14:04

So you're at a ministry. I mean, were you referred over? What gave you the opportunity to apply for this?

Rick Gibson: 14:12

role. Thankfully, I was invited to apply and in fact I think it's the only time I was ever invited to apply for something. Once I got to Pepperdine every job I had at Pepperdine after that I asked for Wow, that's rare. Yeah, I said, look, I'd like to do this. And it didn't come immediately. But I began to just position myself and did the long. I mean it took 30 years to make all that happen. But yeah, it was just some work that got printed Back in the day. It was a cassette tape and then a CD cover for something that was being done at the university and the director saw it, said hey, would you be interested? And it just opened the door. Many opportunities came from that.

Christopher Luna: 15:04

So when you're on Pepperdine, I mean, how did you grow to such a senior role? Because I think that I mean you just said you were asking for these roles and these positions.

Rick Gibson: 15:14

Yeah.

Christopher Luna: 15:14

So I mean, sometimes they're not even available or they're not looking or they're not hiring, or it was something that you applied for, Like how do you have those conversations with your leadership and how did you grow from that?

Rick Gibson: 15:26

You know, a moment ago you said you know that's a rare thing. It is rare, but I'll tell you my, I'll tell you, I'll give you an example of how that came together. So, very early on, had learned the power of storytelling, you know, being able to put together a narrative that had impact, that was meaningful to people. It was not lost on me that our president could benefit from some help with presentations he was making. I had an opportunity and offered to do some PowerPoint behind it. He wasn't even sure what that was. We began to move from doing graphs, charts and data to images and evocative storytelling so that he could be the kind of carry the weight of the mission and deliver it to donors and faculty and all of that. So I began working with him and helping him and do these presentations. He would give me the script or the speech he was working on and then I would just work from that.

Rick Gibson: 16:46

One thing led to another and he said what do you think of this? So I looked through it, I made some suggestions and was amazed for some of it to show up in the speech. And then before long he said look, I've got a speech coming up. Would you do a little bit of homework for me and maybe get me started, and so that led to FaceTime with him. That led to me making the case for storytelling as a powerful tool of leadership, and then that finally led to the conversation around branding, and that's when the chief marketing officer role came about. There had not been a chief marketing officer at Pepperdine and I pitched it.

Christopher Luna: 17:30

I mean that's incredible, because to have a university president and it's not just any university right, it's Pepperdine.

Rick Gibson: 17:38

University.

Christopher Luna: 17:39

It's very well known and high respected To have a university president go to you and say can you review my speech and can you assist me in my presentation. I mean that just shows, I mean just the influence that you had at just an early stage of your career, right, it's not that you already had a certain position, so it's rare to have that opportunity of someone to come to you that way.

Rick Gibson: 18:05

Yeah, it is. But it also took him to have real self-awareness and humility to do that. I mean, not everyone's going to be willing to do that. So there was a fit there. I was also in a position where I could just say, here's my idea, and if he said, thank you, but that's not gonna work, then I would move on. I mean, you know, I just think that we began to learn how to work together. He knew that I was bringing something that he needed and yeah. So it took both. It took a little bit of courage for me to do that, but it also took a receptive leader to receive that, and that plays into his leadership style, right.

Christopher Luna: 18:54

I mean a lot of leaders are very I don't want to say closed-minded or closed, but they don't want to showcase that humble side to them, right when they're asking for help or they're asking support, so they're building a good team. So it shows the way he was able to feel comfortable doing that, because a lot of people are or a lot of leaders especially a university president like that may be, you know afraid to ask for that support and that assistance.

Rick Gibson: 19:21

No question. In my experience, many leaders don't feel that they can be exposed that way. They need to be somehow armored up and appear to be the person with all the confidence, all of the answers, and I mean we just know that's not true and so, but that's exhausting for them. I have to tell you, it is a major part of my coaching business now. It's because how do leaders find a way to get the help they need when they need it? Round out their skill set, augment it when it's necessary. Smart leaders know they need help. They're human beings and they know they have strengths and they know they have deficits and when they know to ask. I have to tell you, nothing that he did detracted from my admiration for him as a leader. It only actually strengthened it. But I can tell you I've worked for people who don't want that kind of support.

Christopher Luna: 20:38

And how can these leaders better understand the systems and is there a process to that? Like, how do they learn that right? Not just by experience, but I mean, how can you teach those skills? And you're talking about your coaching business now. I mean, are you teaching because of experience or is there an actual format to it?

Rick Gibson: 20:58

Well, I will say that a focus, a major focus of my MBA program was organizational behavior, and I'll say more about that, especially with systems, interesting that you say that and bring up that word, because I do have some strong convictions about how systems are at work around us. But back to the president who was willing to ask for the help. This wasn't just he wasn't just getting that kind of help from me, he was getting that from others. He knew to hire talent, he knew to trust them with. You know and you learn that through experience for sure you also have to be willing and he was for there to be some breakage. Occasionally it didn't work, but he never micromanaged any of it ever. And he learned to say all right, I trust you. And once he did, then he'd give you the keys to more things. And I think he learned that through experience but also came from some character that he had just to be respectful of people.

Christopher Luna: 22:11

But that goes back to, like the recruiting process, Right, and you're hiring like you want to make sure you hire the right person. But a lot of times I mean as employers we make the mistake, Right, we don't always know from a few interviews and a few interactions that we have. So it does take time to build that trust. But once you gain that trust, then it's I don't want to say it's easy, but it makes things a lot easier to assist in those ways right.

Christopher Luna: 22:38

Right. So when, before you became the senior vice chancellor of Pepperdine I'm assuming you managed a team of your own. You played a big role at Pepperdine. How did those leadership styles transfer to your role? What did you pick on and what did you do differently?

Rick Gibson: 22:59

I became involved with marketing at a time. Some will remember this time, but this was a time. Some will remember this time, but this was a time when IT owned the website and so it was becoming clear to many of us that the web was going to be the new mechanism for communicating to people. But it belonged, you know, organizationally it was housed inside IT. So I was there at a time where we blended IT and university marketing and we came together and we created what is now called the Integrated Marketing Group, and it's about 30 people, because we had five schools at Pepperdine and it was 30-plus people at times a combination of writers, designers, web people.

Rick Gibson: 23:49

As social media began to emerge, we hired social media people. I have to tell you, I completely took a page out of the president's playbook. I knew what I didn't know. I mean, my real role was trying to keep track of the story what is the narrative, what is the brand narrative. But I needed talent and I needed them to be able to interpret the story, and there are days we got it wrong and we learned that from a donor or a board member. But I adopted his advice and I relied heavily on people I hired.

Christopher Luna: 24:29

Let's put some years to this, just to kind of get an understanding right. Because 30 years is quite a time, and especially for technology, especially in marketing, right. So when did you start, pepperdine, and when did you end? What were those?

Rick Gibson: 24:45

years, all right, so I started in 97.

Christopher Luna: 24:47

Okay, so this is before the dot coms, right right, right Right. So that just shows you the transformation that you were a part of in a university, right, right. So you're managing the marketing side. You're telling the story. There's a way to amplify that, right? It's not like now, where everything's so SEO-driven or Google-driven and you just pay for ads right Before. It was done differently. So you're having to learn all of that. But in order for you to learn, you have to hire the right talent.

Rick Gibson: 25:19

That's right. Oh yeah, when we first started we were using film, kind of just waiting for this digital thing to blow over. You know, we'd get back to using film again and in fact when it first came out, we still had to use film because the digital technology wasn't high res enough. But that all changed. Everything changed. But here's what didn't change, christopher. It's still a compelling story. That will make the connection.

Rick Gibson: 25:50

The delivery is adjacent to the real issue, which is what is the story that's being told? Because it's over time, it's an evolving story. So how do you tell it? In a way, knowing that the university had to adapt in different ways but still had to stay rooted to its values and to its mission, so keeping the story. That was my role, and that part never, ever, changed in the 30 years. What changed dramatically was how we told that story, the tools we had available to us, and we were absolutely able to extend the reach. More people learned about who and what we were because of the technology, but the technology served. It served the story, not the other way around.

Christopher Luna: 26:39

And your position wasn't just internally. You had an external face to it. You're a part of multiple boards, a lot of organizations, and you're out within the community too, right? Is there a reason for that? I mean, were you trying to capture the knowledge externally as well? Because, I mean, you can't do everything from an office, right?

Rick Gibson: 26:59

Yeah Well, so I will stick with my point that it's still about storytelling, but a different kind of storytelling. So here's what I mean by that still about storytelling, but a different kind of storytelling. So here's what I mean by that. As my career moved and progressed and talent was hired, we had a lot of people in the integrated marketing group that we hired early on that stayed with us. They were interested in advancing their careers. They were looking to move from an entry-level position into another position, and so there needed to be room for that. There needs to be some kind of flow for people to be able to move. So as I grew older and technology began to move way beyond me early on I was actually doing designing myself.

Christopher Luna: 27:48

But as that began. I've seen some of your work. You're still a designer.

Rick Gibson: 27:56

But it began to move way ahead of me. So I began to realize that one of the stories we were telling was the narrative of the city set upon the hill. Set upon the hill, and that was the great idea that Pepperdine was at a special place in a special location, and our narrative was almost always around 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, that beautiful campus. But it became clear to me that we needed to be an LA story. And so this is when I developed the role into senior vice chancellor and my job was not to raise money but it was to come down and engage this city. We needed to be a Los Angeles story. Our roots were in Los Angeles, not far from where we are right now. Christopher is the original George Pepperdine College campus and it's still there 79th and Vermont, and we were a Los Angeles story and we were becoming less of that.

Rick Gibson: 28:57

So I felt, and the president agreed, we need to start showing up in Los Angeles. So I began to be involved with the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, served as its president 2019 and 2020. That took a long time to get there On its foundation board, worked with greater Los Angeles area scouts, was on the board of governors of the LA Chamber. We had a terrific partnership with AEG. We built a classroom inside what is now Cryptocom Arena. The whole point was to show up, and so we showed up here, and then I invited people that I met here to come out and see us there.

Christopher Luna: 29:40

Those partnerships were forged from you. What helped you or what gave you that inspiration to do that, though? Because a lot of people in these roles or these positions don't know how to transform that. They're waiting to be told to do that or be given this idea of, hey, maybe you should join this organization. So what led you to make that decision? Because that means you cared for the organization, you cared for the university, right, and I know a lot of this was your personal time too. It wasn't, you know, oh yeah.

Rick Gibson: 30:16

I mean, those relationships continue Even after my career at Pepperdine has ended. Yeah, I don't know that I've given a lot of thought to that, but I will say a top-of-mind answer is that when Pepperdine was at 79th and Vermont, when you fly over back into LAX and you look down you can see the campus and then a mile later— what's there now?

Rick Gibson: 30:46

It's the Crenshaw Christian Center. Okay, there now it's the Crenshaw Christian Center. The Faith Dome is there, and about a mile towards the ocean from it is SoFi. Anyway, what's interesting is when Pepperdine made the decision to move to Malibu, the decision to move to Malibu, it had to rely on friendships within the city, at government levels, at the California club. Imagine how it is now. Yeah, right. And so I took a play out of Pepperdine's old playbook and I was one of, but others that were out into the community were fundraisers, but I was not. That this was part of marketing. It was putting us out there making sure when there were important things happening in downtown LA. I was aware of that. I could then ask how could Pepperdine be involved in that? Let's face it, you've said kind things about Pepperdine, but this is a USC, ucla town. It is hard to keep your place in a town like that. So, yeah, it was a lot of working to know people and to make friends literally to make friends.

Christopher Luna: 32:10

I mean, you have so many great colleges here community colleges, public, private and there is a lot of competition, right, right. But when you represent an institution that way, it carries a lot of value when you're involved in all these organizations. So, again, it just amazes me that you're able to carry those relationships and, like you said, you still maintain those relationships and that's how I met you.

Rick Gibson: 32:36

That's how we met, that's right.

Christopher Luna: 32:38

So it does go a long way. I want to tap into the fires just a little bit, because Pepperdine is in the heart of that all. Have you talked to anyone about what's going? On in that area. I haven't visited myself. I should. I've been wanting to, but I know it's very restricted. But tell me a little bit about what exposures have you had?

Rick Gibson: 33:04

with it. Well, obviously the Palisades and Eaton are top of mind, but I was involved with the Emergency Operation Committee at Pepperdine during Woolsey so I know what it's like to be on campus when the fires are around. It is a traumatic experience to deal with that. One of the things I'll just say briefly is that we have a shelter in place agreement with Los Angeles County Fire Scary Because PCH, if it's blocked, or Canaan or Las Virginas, malibu Canyon, I mean they're really only two or three ways in and out. They said no, we want you to shelter in place. That works and there's a good reason for that. But boy, that story is hard to tell because you see the images of flames and all that and the students are there. It does not make for good coverage.

Christopher Luna: 34:07

I've seen some videos there and I can't imagine just being a leader to tell your students like we're staying, this is the policy that we have, and just to be I mean like being a captain in a ship right, just to be able to have make those decisions for so many lives, because it's scary. I saw those videos and I can't imagine being put in a place like that. I mean I can just like just being with my siblings or my kids and just being able to say we got to wait because there's help out there.

Rick Gibson: 34:41

And the president I was talking about a moment ago. He, in my experience, he was here during Woolsey. His great gift as a leader was to bring calm and courage to a hurting community, a scared community. He knew how to protect Pepperdine better than anybody. But what's also important to know, it's not just students who are there. There are faculty homes that are there. There there are over 250 residents, faculty staff, people who live on campus. I lived on campus for a while and they're also sheltering in place now. I've been on campus to visit friends and I'm Surprised and amazed once again how the campus has been protected. They take measures to take care of that, but it is staggering to see and I mean my favorite Thai place was Chilada. I used to go there for Thai food Gone. It is a staggering sight to see the destruction.

Christopher Luna: 35:48

I mean it's faith too, just having faith in the community, faith in the fire department and law enforcement and politicians, and just understanding that. You know, I know the road for recovery is quite long. It is. But just kind of hearing the news yesterday. We're very strong, you know these communities, la is very strong, we're big right, and you talk about having that distance between Malibu and downtown LA, for example, but LA as a region we're just strong and resilient. So you see, all the parties come together. I joined the board of the American Red Cross, as you know, and I joined right before the fires and you can just see how every institution, every non-profit, every company, every person was just activated, um, and everyone knew how to come together and everyone was supporting one another and everyone knew what their strengths and their weaknesses were right and um, you really get to see the, the sense of community right in such a big city, which is difficult and there's always finger pointing and things.

Christopher Luna: 36:53

But at the end of the day, we want what's best for the community and I think that you know things will come together again, but and there's also things that we can learn off of it. But I think that, because it's scary Just think about this this is a wildfire. I was in a conversation the other day and we're talking about earthquakes and I don't want to change the subject too much here. But with an earthquake you're going to have wildfires, you're going to have gas leaks, you're going to have a lot of scary things could happen with an earthquake and we've seen this in other parts of the world. But we need to be prepared and this was just kind of a taste of what could happen, right?

Rick Gibson: 37:34

I agree with that. La is just such an amazing place. But I don't know, there are very few cities on the planet that are operating at this scale and this is a real test to see how well cities can scale up. There are a few out there for sure, but LA, let's face it is one of the most globalized cities on the planet. All that's good, all that's bad about that, but it's a globalized city. London's probably a little more, but who knows? I mean depends how you measure that, I think. But again, as I even said at the very beginning of our conversation, there's real opportunity in such a diverse and large city, but there are unique challenges too, and you're raising one.

Christopher Luna: 38:21

So we're all in different positions in our career right now and I really see you as a mentor of mine. We speak quite frequently and when I came to you with this idea, you're already coaching. So tell me a little bit about your current role and what you're doing in the coaching world.

Rick Gibson: 38:39

Yeah, so I'm largely working with executives and their boards, for the most part with nonprofits, but I do have executives at senior levels in for-profit businesses as well, and it's largely based on the idea that executives work in isolation more than you might expect. If anybody has been in or near the top job, you know exactly how lonely that can be. When the Woolsey fire was taking shape, it was the loneliest, even though there was a committee around him. It was the loneliest spot for the president to be. So executives are isolated and they need to be able to express, with confidence and with confidentiality, their big ideas, their fears, their concerns.

Rick Gibson: 39:41

I mean, think about it, christopher, if you are a major executive at a major corporation or a nonprofit and you have some deep concerns about decisions that need to be made, or think about the world we live in right now, with all of the challenges that are a part of it, there's a lot of doubt that's mixed in. You might do a lot of homework, do a lot of analysis, do a lot of research, whatever, read lots of books, but at the end of the day, who do you talk to? Do you express those doubts and concerns up to your board? Probably not. Do you express them down to the rank and file? Probably not. We're all looking to you to be confident. Do you express them laterally to your colleagues? That, hopefully, but that can also be difficult. Sometimes there are rivals there.

Rick Gibson: 40:36

It's a weird moment and it's an isolated position just by its very nature. And so I have been doing this for many years, but not in a formal way. I formalize this sort of as I ended my career at Pepperdine. But I provide coaching, not necessarily consulting. Now I will offer my opinion if I'm asked. I will give my opinion if I'm asked, but my job is to help executives reframe the questions that are in their mind, to test them, to test their assumptions, to work into and tease out their limiting beliefs, and so I find great joy in that. But it is not hard right now to find clients, because they're actually they're finding you, because if you are trying to lead anything in this environment, it's challenging.

Christopher Luna: 41:39

I know it's an honor to have you for that one-on-one time as a coach and I came to you with an idea and maybe we'll get a chance to kind of talk about it a little bit. But before I get there, I know you're talking about coaching people at a senior level, but are you coaching people, I mean, besides me? I guess you should say but are you coaching someone like me that's growing in their careers? Like, how can we learn from you as well? Because there's a lot there. There's a lot that we can gain from that experience.

Rick Gibson: 42:09

Yeah, because there's a lot there. There's a lot that we can gain from that experience. Yeah, I definitely have younger clients, male and female, and very often they come to me because either a recommendation from someone else, because something is stirring within them, or there is a crisis that's beginning to bubble up or boil over. So usually I am getting contacted once there is some a triggering event. But I do think that coaching I a coach, I believe in coaching because it does allow me to express and think through and then reframe my thinking and I and so what I am able to offer my clients, whether they are senior executives or emerging professionals and I'm very interested in emerging professionals. I have children who are that age.

Rick Gibson: 43:19

I've spent my career at Pepperdine and these young people are preparing themselves for great careers and then they're finding the challenges of negotiating the structures that are in place right, both social and organizational structures and they're finding some headwinds, and so my coaching helps them navigate. That helps them resolve some of the angst or inner turmoil they might have. Some of the angst or inner turmoil they might have, and it really is rooted to one major question that is hard for people to get an answer for, and that is what do you really want? And it's amazing to ask people that question and to not be able to get an answer. I still don't know.

Christopher Luna: 44:12

You know and I think that's part of life too, right it is that want changes, the why changes and that's the nice thing about having a coach is that as you're growing in your career or in your family, you're going to understand a different approach to things. And I mean, I think it's only natural that that answer changes because we're evolving every year.

Rick Gibson: 44:35

I agree with that. Answer changes because we're evolving every year. I agree with that. But I will also say that there's something about the work ethic and I don't know what to trace it to and I don't. I'm not worried about that, but there's something about the work ethic that causes people to actually think they don't have the right to ask that question. They need to put on the shelf what they want until another time. I am coaching a lot of people at my age who are retiring and they don't have an answer to that question. You see, it's not just me, no, they don't. I get that, but it is a worthy question and it does help people to when they have that, it helps sort of solidify some conviction and that gives some real energy. We all act and respond to the things we believe to be true and if we believe that we've got something worth pursuing, you know we'll have the energy we need to find it or to achieve it. You know we'll have the energy we need to find it or to achieve it.

Christopher Luna: 45:40

So, uh, yeah, I, I just I just found it to be a very beneficial thing to help people process the big decisions and for my world largely around doing business, so when I came to you after you retired from Pepperdine um I, I heard about your coaching business and I think I approached you personally on a personal level there first. But then I came up with this idea and I tried tying it into what my idea is here with this podcast. Right, because and I'm not sure if I shared the complete story here yet, but I come across a lot of inspirational leaders and you're one of them. You've experienced such a great career and there's a lot of people who aspire to have that. Or, like you said, they're just in different positions of their life and what I'm trying to do is capture those skills the best way I know how.

Christopher Luna: 46:31

I can right, because when I go to these seminars and conferences I see them on stage and a lot of the times these leaders are talking about their initiatives or their companies and they rarely talk about themselves. And I know I'm going to have more time with you so I didn't really get into your personal background so much. We touched on it a little bit. But I came with you to this idea because on one-on-one coaching it can get a little expensive's. It's like having a personal doctor, right, and there's only so many hours in the day.

Christopher Luna: 47:04

So I'm I, I said what if we do this for a bigger audience, not too big, but that way we can really amplify your work and your in your, your values? Because if we can capture what you've done so far in your life, um, and what you continue to do for others in the service that you provide, um, I thought it was a great idea, right. So we came with the with this workshop, this idea of a workshop, and, um, I want to kind of touch on that just a little bit. Can you give me a little bit of a highlight of what, like, if I'm a student going to this workshop, what am I going to? Go back and get an MBA and I worked for an institution that offered one.

Rick Gibson: 48:02

And so I went through a program at Pepperdine called the Presidential Key Executive Program. I did so because I felt I needed to advance my career. Check that box put a notch in my belt, whatever. I walked in the first day and this particular program attracted C-level executives. These are people who had already achieved the corner office. Some had created, built businesses and sold them. But I was in the room with major executives from Toyota when Toyota was still in Los Angeles aerospace industry, the CEO of a hospital, aerospace industry, the CEO of a hospital and my first. We had an orientation weekend and my first weekend there. I walked in and I thought I am so far over my head, I don't belong at this table. And 22 months later I belonged at that table and they belonged at the table and we had a deeper understanding of what each other had to offer. It was literally transformative.

Rick Gibson: 49:07

And I will say the reason why this program it's an MBA program, incredibly rigorous, but it was strengthened by these relationships with these super smart people who were also being challenged and they were reframing their own thinking. And so I decided when you brought this idea to me, boy, I would have liked to have had some of this insight 20 years before or 10 years before, where I was, the things I learned from them. And it starts with self-awareness, understanding how you work internally, and that's what many call Peter Senge, in particular, call personal mastery. How do you, how do you even the scouts, do you know lead yourself, lead others right, how do you understand yourself? But then how do you understand the organizations you're working with, recognizing that everyone involved is a human being, which makes it messy and challenging and wonderful? So we went through some really rigorous and amazing material that I look forward to bringing to emerging adults to try to give to them some insight 10 years earlier than I got it, because I do believe it will help them navigate.

Rick Gibson: 50:35

The best way I can describe what happened to me. This was my message, because I had to give a little. We all had to give some kind of little speech at the end of our time together and one of the things I said was I feel like the NFL has just introduced a new camera that is, at the time, is suspended over the field, and it wasn't until that. We always had just a side view, but on the replays, with that new technology, I remember being able to see what the quarterback was seeing roughly, when he threw the pass. Well, when you see it from the side, it's two-dimensional. But when you see it from behind you go my gosh, he is throwing that and the receiver isn't there yet. You know, it is Wayne Gretzky, you know, go to where the puck is going, not where it is.

Rick Gibson: 51:30

The point is is that it elevated my vision of the field. I left being able to see further down the field. There's no question that was the great gift of this and that is what I think the opportunity is. What are those tools, what are those ways of thinking so that you can elevate your vision and look further down the road on your career and make some decisions in advance, that you're seeing the field, much more of the field.

Christopher Luna: 52:01

You learn that from the MBA. I also got an MBA and had a different experience. So the workshop that we're working with now, though, is like what kind of topics would we unpack in those leadership workshops? Like, cause, it's not an MBA program, right, it's not at that level or that capacity, but just bringing you, um, in front of these students, right, because maybe they already have their MBAs, um, but you bring something different to the table. You're very unique because, um, something different to the table. You're very unique because your leadership style is very unique, and I'm trying to uncover things that we don't typically read in a book, or we don't typically learn online or through an MBA program. So, when we formulated this workshop, you and I kind of worked together on that, and we're really trying to capture something that's unique and different. Right, that's worth the time and the investment, right, but can you give me some of those topics that are on that?

Rick Gibson: 53:04

Sure, we're calling it Pathways to Advanced Leadership and we start with personal mastery. What are those things that foundationally support me as a human being? You know, that build self-confidence, that help me understand who I am, where my strengths are, where my blind spots are, make me aware of the system within me. And again, even going back to the example of my dad or of the president of Pepperdine, you know there are certain life skills that come naturally to people, but there there are ways to hone those, to strengthen those, so that you become more self-aware and that you uncover some hidden strengths.

Rick Gibson: 53:58

The greatest part of my experience that started with the MBA and has continued to this day, is the real introduction of both the visible and hidden systems that are at work Inside your mind, inside your heart, inside the company you work for, inside nature. I mean, it may sound a little mystical, it's not. It really is the idea that there are systems at work that are interdependent and very often we're not measuring those. We don't eat we. They're the hidden system. They are the hidden systems that are very much active and present within a population of people trying to do something and to create a product, to make a profit, but that. But we often measure the bottom line oh yeah, you have your KPIs and your balance sheets and your P&Ls.

Rick Gibson: 54:58

But you don't understand that you have that there are balancing factors. So one of the things that's interesting, I think anyway, about systems theory is the idea, in fact, that everything is integrated, interdependent. I mean, we can even see that just even in nature, but also within our businesses. And when you see that you begin to respect the parts more, the different parts. There's not a neglected part or a dismissed part, no, they're an important part of the story, they're an important part of the mission. How do they fit together? How do they work together? The great gift for, I would say, anybody who goes to the workshop is moving beyond the introduction to what does it mean to be a part of or lead a learning team, but to know how to enact that when they go back to the office the next week or as they begin to build their careers.

Christopher Luna: 56:02

It's very action-driven, right, and that's what I like about it, because I mean, I've read a ton of leadership books and I still ask a lot of questions, right, and I think just having access to you and that knowledge, and then when I was talking to you about it, I'm like you're asking me, okay, but you're going to help me too, right, like you're going to be a part of this and I definitely bring something different to the table. Right, I don't have that role that you had at Pepperdine, but I actually my last interview with June Kim Lopez.

Christopher Luna: 56:32

she mentioned the newsletter that I write on LinkedIn about networking and, in my role, what I do now. I'm across, I go to a lot of events and there's a certain way to navigate that and to me it really does come naturally. And it wasn't until people started asking the questions like how do you do that? Where did you learn that? So I really try to gathering those thoughts and putting it in a newsletter. Right, and now, working with you, we're trying to formulate that we already have this curriculum, but we're trying to give this curriculum to others Right, where they don't have to get you on one on one all the time, because that could be, it's possible but difficult, but where we can teach this to a small group of 20 students, for example, right.

Rick Gibson: 57:14

Yeah, the idea is to learn how to compete by being collaborative. But, yeah, this is a competitive job market.

Christopher Luna: 57:27

It's important to be able to find your next step and you want to be able to get your footing. And how is this good for the company to be involved in? So, for example, if you're thinking about your organization or any other organization, if I'm a leader or a supervisor and I want to send one of my employees to this, is there a benefit for them to do that?

Rick Gibson: 57:45

Yeah, I mean, I'll just give you just an example from my PKE program, my MBA program. We spent the day at Amgen Amgen's out there at Thousand Oaks, major pharmaceutical company. We were just blown away by all that. We saw the scientists that were there, the engineers that were there, all of that, and we were hearing about the challenges of sourcing materials and products and all kinds of things. But we asked the CEO what is the thing that concerns you the most? He says every day and I'm sure this is more of a, you know, a slightly mythical story, but I get the point he says every day at five o'clock somewhere around 8,000 people begin to leave their offices and they get in their cars and they go home somewhere out in the community and I hope and pray they come back the next day. Talent, really good talent, is hard to find. It is hard to keep. If you do not invest in them and say I see something in you and signal that early on they will begin to look elsewhere.

Rick Gibson: 59:00

I listen to a lot of my peers talk about emerging professionals. Oh, they have no company loyalty and they blame it's meant to blame or criticize the young person, right? The millennial. They always will say, as if they really know what that is, when in fact they've done really very little to keep the person loyal and moving. I said it earlier, I felt this with my integrated marketing team. I had talented people and they wanted to know what their next step was, and I began to realize that I myself, by occupying this one position, made it difficult for them to advance. So I took my marketing to the next level and went to senior vice chancellor and became engaged in the community. But that opened my CMO role for another and things began to move. So I just think that there is real. It's important to invest in your people.

Christopher Luna: 1:00:03

Definitely. I have a friend. She went to UCLA for her master's and it was paid for completely by her organization, and when I talk to her it sounds like she'll never leave because she's loyal to them and we always want to continue to grow. So this is just kind of an opportunity for these employers.

Rick Gibson: 1:00:24

Yeah, I'm very excited about it.

Christopher Luna: 1:00:25

I think it'll be a great Well we're coming up on our hour and I appreciate your time. I know I'm going to get you again, hopefully. I'm going to get you again, hopefully. So I just wanted to kind of close this off and let our viewers know all the details would be available to them. I'm going to try to get you more on a personal time, maybe without so much production here, because this is a beautiful studio. Maybe we could do a Zoom call or something and just kind of really break it down even more.

Christopher Luna: 1:00:56

But before I go, I want to ask you some fire rapid questions, all right, so you mentioned a few books there and a few writers. What's a quote or a book that's changed your life?

Rick Gibson: 1:01:07

Well, I have a tattered copy of the Fifth Discipline written by Peter Senge. He's very much a way. He's done a fantastic job of really synthesizing the idea of systems, theory and learning teams and the power of that. The quote of his is something like this there's nothing more powerful in human affairs than a shared vision of the future. That's different than a declared vision of the future. Most that's different than a declared vision of the future. Most people are working. If they're working with a vision at all, they're working with a declared vision, the one that the boss has said. A shared vision is one that everybody is behind.

Rick Gibson: 1:01:51

Very quickly, I know we're wrapping up, but I give a presentation about this very thing around the Apollo mission, and we start with John F Kennedy's great speech from Rice University, where we're going to go to the moon, and in it he describes to do this we're going to need materials that have not yet been discovered, technologies that have not yet been invented, and you suddenly realize they don't know how they're going to get to the moon. And we got to the moon. What's amazing about this is that if you were to ask the engineers at NASA what are we doing? We're going to the moon. If you were to ask the astronauts we're going to the moon. Ask the scientists we're going to the moon. Ask the people who cleaned the hallways in the restrooms we're going to the moon. Ask the staff who served food in the cafeteria in Houston what are we doing? We're going to the moon. Everybody believed it. Anyway, I think that just underscores the quote. There's nothing more powerful in human affairs than a shared vision of the future.

Christopher Luna: 1:03:08

Wow, that's incredible. Thank you again, rick, for your time, and I really look forward to working with you and growing this relationship more and really helping others. Um, I wish I've had this opportunity. Um, like you said a little earlier, I think, um, I would be in a different position now, but I'm I'm looking forward what's to come and how I'm still going to continue to grow and learn from you, so I look forward for us to continue this relationship.

Rick Gibson: 1:03:38

Likewise, we have a lot to learn from each other. Whatever it is that we need to know, we know the people out there who can help us. So, yeah, let's do some good.

Christopher Luna: 1:03:47

Sounds good. Thank you again for joining us today and look forward to the next one.

Narrator 1: 1:03:53

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Los Angeles Leaders Podcast, hosted by Christopher Luna. We hope you found our conversation as inspiring as we did. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us bring more of the content you love, and be sure to follow us on social media for updates behind the scenes content and to join the conversation Until next time. Keep leading, keep innovating and keep making a difference.