👑 Stepping Forward Anyway

👑 What happens when showing up starts to feel like it doesn’t matter?

In this episode of The King’s Court, King Roberto steps into the weight of volunteering, leadership, and the quiet moments where doubt starts to creep in.

After years of building something that matters, a single question surfaces…

Is it still worth it?

From hard conversations and tough decisions to the reality of leading without recognition, this is a look inside what it means to carry responsibility when no one’s watching — and why some people keep stepping forward anyway.

Because leadership isn’t always loud.

Sometimes it’s just choosing not to quit.

There are families who feel the weight of every dollar.
Kids who grow because someone showed up.
And leaders who keep going… even when it would be easier not to.

Because the impact isn’t always seen.

But it’s always there.

⚔️ Royal Decree — Episode 8

“When it’s your turn to step forward… you step forward.”

Not because it’s easy.
Not because you’re thanked.

Because that’s what leaders do.

Not every moment in the kingdom is celebrated.

Sometimes it’s just doing the work…
carrying the weight…
and choosing to stay in the fight.

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🎙 About The King’s Court

The King’s Court is a podcast about leadership, legacy, family, brotherhood, faith, and life lived in real time. Each episode is part of an ongoing archive — preserving stories, perspective, and the voice behind the crown.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the King's Court Podcast. I'm your host, King Roberto. I'll be honest with you. The last few weeks, I found myself wondering, was it really worth it? Twenty years I've been all in with 4H. And I knew that I wanted my kids to experience camp. At that time, our county didn't have a camp, so we were partnering with other counties. And it became increasingly apparent that we needed a camp in our county. There was a demand for it. There were a lot of kids that wanted to go. And so it started my camp journey 12 years ago now. And I helped bring that baby to life. I knew one of the most important things was to try to keep it affordable for everybody to attend. I was a single parent at that time with three kids. Three kids who I knew wanted to go to camp. And I knew how hard that was. I knew how expensive it was. I felt it firsthand. That was one of the very first things when I started the camp that I knew I wanted to do. And it wasn't until lately that I caught a hint of just that feeling unappreciated. You know, that moment led me to question a lot of things I was doing. And it was at a recent board meeting because in all these years of 4-H, I've not only led the camp program, I'm the chairman of our volunteer management board. I got roped into that, there's no doubt, but when your friend asks you to step up and help, that's what I did. And it's just the way that it goes. You know, there's a there's a line in Pearl Harbor that goes something along the lines of there's nothing like the heart of a volunteer. When the need is there, they're the ones that step forward. But over the years, you know, the last 10 years of camp and project leaders, the same group of individuals are the ones who keep stepping forward. And I'm biased in my thoughts of them because I'm with them. They are my people, they are my 4-H tribe. You know, they are the ones who I know when there's work to be done or there's a need that's gonna benefit the kid kids of our county, they're gonna help. And I can count on them to help. And I think they can count on me to help. But recently, when our camp was announced and I checked the registration link, I saw that the cost had been raised to$450. And really, what I found myself in was this battle again over camp fees. And it's been a constant over the years. The answer from the CES was we're not gonna fundraise for it. We're not gonna do anything, we're just gonna raise the fees. And it got me to thinking, you know, am I doing this right? And there were some serious questions of maybe I'm just this stubborn person who is stuck in a time where, you know,$250 or$350 doesn't mean anything anymore that like it used to. And it started a discussion. You know, there was a there was a resolution to it, but before we got to the resolution, there was a lot of internal wrangling going on there. A lot of self-doubt over what I thought we were doing, what I thought was being created, what I thought the purpose of it was. And so I had some heart-to-heart talks with co-directors of camp, my former camp director, my wife. All of them pointed back to the same thing, though. If you retire, your friends are gonna retire with you. Camp will more than likely stop, and until you feel that weight, it's hard to explain that weight that you know is being carried. And for years we've done fundraisers at camp, and that's what kind of took me back, you know. We've done them all the time for camp. There's always been a way to raise funds to keep the camp fee affordable for everybody. The camp program was started knowing that you were gonna have to fundraise. And so, for this unilateral decision just being made, there wasn't collaboration, there wasn't discussion, there wasn't a partnership approach, it was just done with no consideration. And you know, I thought maybe I've been doing this too long, maybe I'm out of touch, maybe our goals are not the same anymore. And I had to really think about why I was doing this. Am I just giving all of this energy and devotion to a program that doesn't appreciate it? You know, my phone rings at seven o'clock at night from another leader who says, I need help. Can you go tag some pigs for me? I'm I haven't been a pig leader for five years. A lot of people I know would say, No, I'm busy. I don't have time for that. I don't have kids in the program. Go ask somebody to help you that has kids in the program. Not me. I'm picking up the ear tagger. I'm driving out to meet her to pick up some ear tags to go tag some pigs. For kids that I brought up in the pig program, I watched them from the time they were nine years old to getting into it now. And and I mean, it's a family that I know, and they was a lot of um anguish when I retired from being a pig leader. They enjoyed me leading that project and they enjoyed doing it with me as their leader. Their kids got something from it, you know, they learned, they grew into this particular family, had boys, and they were growing up to be great young men. And that mattered. So, for somebody who was, for lack of a better word, just completely disconnected from the camp program, to come in and say you're not gonna fundraise, we can't have an unbalanced budget because they don't operate in that world where fundraising is apparently allowed, to just say we're gonna raise the price was really a gut punch for me, and it really took me to some really deep inner depths of why am I doing this? Why do I continue to fight this fight? And I think back to all the people that I met over the years at camp who've come and gone. And there's always one or two every year that come up to camp that are special kids. You know, they have one of my favorite ones was a little girl who would hang out at the nurse's hut with the nurse and always say that it was too loud, it was too much commotion. But she felt safe over at the nurse's hut, you know. She didn't really, she wasn't a super outgoing, active kid, but you know, when she went to camp, she got to meet new friends, she got to do things she didn't normally do. And even if she just disconnected for a couple minutes, you know, five minutes over at the nurse's hut, she'd get back into it and she'd go back out and try new things. Those are the kids that make it worth it. And she had a sister that also went to camp and was her mom's a teacher, her dad is a construction worker. They are your blue-collar family out there, and and you know who these people are, you know what a teacher gets paid, and it's not anything near what they should be paid. Considering the work that they do, and and for us to have a camp that is raising its price to$450 a kid while these people are trying to send two kids to camp because of the experience they get from camp was just something that I couldn't stand by and let happen. And these kids are it's not just one of them, it's always multiple kids like this every year, and you see it in them, and you see the transformation of them at camp, and in just a week, how they change. And you and you see it in our junior leaders, our junior counselors, you see it in them. You see them through all of our trainings being quiet, shy, reserved, and at camp, they blossom into these amazing young leaders who are going to do great things for people, and that's what keeps me coming back every year. Those kids are the reason that I had to fight for camp. I had to fight to try to keep the fees down. The resolution was okay, we'll put camp out at$365 for two weeks and call it the early bird special. And it has to be paid in full. If they want to do payment plans, we'll do it for$405. And they can do payment plans of$50, you know, for their payments. Well, it turned out that registration got released, and the$405 that we talked about was$415. And it left me asking myself, you know, those questions. And it turned out that I came to the realization that we can do better, you know. And after that thought process, you know, I came to the conclusion that the question of does any of this even matter to people making the calls didn't really matter. Because if I've learned anything in all my years of doing this, it's that you don't quit. It's just not how I'm wired, it's not how volunteers are wired. They don't just give up. When the chips are down and you need somebody, they're the ones that step forward. But there's still doubt that creeps in when it's quiet. And even though that doubt creeps in once in a while, here's the truth about volunteers. They knew what they were stepping into. We all do. And they step forward anyways, and that means something. The countless hours that you spend working on a program, the countless hours that you devote to improving the lives of kids who are not your own. And it's and it's thankless. And we all know it's thankless. We're not doing it for the recognition, we're not doing it for the paycheck. We're doing it to make a difference in the lives of kids, kids who will be the leaders in our community one day. That's why we're doing it. And that realization is what brought me full circle back to why we're doing that. And it led me, you know, a week after this was all resolved, you know, I went to a camp conference. And I'm a member of the committee that puts on the conference. So, and you know who wasn't there? Yep, that's right. We won't name names or positions, but people who should have been there weren't there. But I was there and I had two kids that went with me who were my junior counselors, and they got a lot from that conference. But I got a lot from that conference too. And it wasn't until we sat down into our breakout sessions that it really started sinking in. Because when you're at this conference, you hear people talking about the same stuff that we're talking about. So I know we're not unique, but what really hit me with some of this was when the questions were being asked of why this or why that, and I would answer them, there was a validation that occurred. You know, a nod or a wry smile my way. We got there Friday night, we left Sunday morning. But that whole conference was enlightening because there are people who have written books about being a 4-H camp leader, how to run trainings, how to get the most out of your junior and teen staff. And when those people tell you, here comes my prized pupil, here comes the person that I wish all of our volunteers were modeled after. Boy, that hits. When you get the feedback that, you know, what are you teaching from this from these leaders? These, I mean, they're they're high up, they're esteemed individuals in the camping committee and in the camping community. When they say, what are you doing for your training on the first meeting and putting you on the spot? And and my answer is, well, I'm trying to set the tone of what camp is. I'm trying to establish the culture of what we want our camp to be. And people kind of look at you cross-eyed, they're like, huh? And they just start smiling and nodding, and they get it. I mean, by the end of the conference, I had other 4-H leaders asking me for our outlines, our material that we use for training, our stuff that makes our camp go, you know, and all of a sudden, all of those questions that I had at that time rolled right off my back, and the weight was lifted, and that reassurance that yeah, we're doing it right, we're doing a good job. Because you don't hear that from our own county people, but to hear that from the people that matter, the people that are overseeing the camp program at a state level for 4-H, that's something, and that is something that I wish more leaders of volunteer organizations understood. You gotta support your people, you got to support your people, and it's easy to ask the questions of why didn't you do this or why didn't you do that? But once in a while, how about a good job? We appreciate you, it's all it takes, and I got that. It wasn't a direct quote, and it wasn't a direct good job, we appreciate you. One of the colleagues that I have on the committee brought up a good point is we're not necessarily looking for the stuff that you're doing good, we're looking for the things that are going wrong, and we're trying to fix them. So sometimes the stuff that's good gets overlooked, it's not intentional, but it happens. That resonated. And at the end of the day, this isn't about me versus the county rep. It's not about me at all. Other than that need for a little reassurance once in a while, which I think that makes me human, though. I think some people need that once in a while. You know, I'm talking once every few years, just say a good job or something. But the ones that I'm doing this for are the kids. That one day they see that showing up matters, regardless of the circumstances, that the impact is the lives changed, the example's set. And nobody's getting rich doing this, it's not measured that way, but a lot of lives are getting better because of it, and that is why I volunteer is to make it better for other people and to share what I've learned and what I know, and hopefully help create a safe environment for kids to explore and learn and figure some stuff out when they're kids. So let's get to a royal decree tonight. Here's the line that I'm taking home, and the line that I want my kids to hear someday. When it's your turn to step forward, you step forward. Even if your own county wants 450 bucks, you've been the boots on the ground, and your boots are muddy from fighting for those 350 bucks, your back is sore from the overnight camp, and the thank yous are nowhere nowhere in sight. But you step forward anyways, because that's what leaders do, and that's what 4H has taught me, and that's what I'm I'm teaching my kids and hopefully all the kids who are with our camp program as leaders and as campers. So, yeah, maybe the support isn't there from the people right down the hall, the people who should be supporting us. And maybe the easy decisions get made without us even in the room. And that's not why we do it. We do it because it's our turn. And if it's not gonna be us, then who? And those kids at 350 bucks for camp? They're worth the fight. It's King Roberto. I hope you have enjoyed the podcast. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you at camp. Goodbye.