Not Everyone Steps Forward

Not everyone steps forward when you expect them to.

A guest lined up. A plan in place. And then… it didn’t happen.

Nothing went wrong.
 It just didn’t go.

This week in The King’s Court, King Roberto talks about what it means to keep moving when others hesitate — when your pace, your timing, and your expectations don’t line up with the people around you.

Because leadership isn’t about dragging people forward.

It’s about recognizing who’s ready… and continuing without resentment when they’re not.

From communication gaps to missed opportunities, this episode is about understanding timing, making decisions, and staying in motion—even when others aren’t.

⚔️ Royal Decree – Episode 10

Not everyone is ready when you are… and that doesn’t mean you stop moving.

🎙 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_01 0:10

Welcome to the King's Court. I'm your host, King Roberto. Had something lined up for this episode, and it didn't happen. And honestly, that's part of the story. Because not everyone steps forward when you expect them to. Not everyone moves at your pace. And if you're the one leading, you've got a decision to make in that moment. Scrap the whole thing, start over, or find a different path forward. So that's what we're doing. We're gonna find a different path forward. Now, our guest tonight for this podcast just didn't feel like the time was right for him to join us. Nothing went wrong. It just didn't go. And sometimes that happens. Just because you have a plan, or I have a plan, doesn't mean that it's automatically gonna fall into place. And I'm sure there's lots of us who can relate to that feeling. The plan we thought we had gets derailed. Or the guest we thought we were gonna have on the show decides not to come on. Whatever the reason, whatever it might be, there's no right or wrong to it. There's just the reality of it is what it is. And there's a little bit of a realization to that. You know, I had been talking about this guest for a while, was excited to have him on, and I was prepared for it to happen, and I was looking forward to it to happen, but it didn't line up for him, and he wasn't necessarily prepared when I was. But we didn't realize on their end that they had some stuff going on that they were locked out of the contract due to circumstances, and they need a little bit more time. And and sometimes that's a matter of communication, right? Um, and that and again, our guest not being here for this podcast, that could be my bad for not communicating more clearly with him. Um that this was gonna be the podcast for him to join us on, and communication is one of those things that's always evolving, you know. The the communication between friends, the communication between spouses, it's it's um a big part of why we're successful or unsuccessful in a lot of things that we do. And to an extent, I have learned as I've got older that that is such a large role in everything that I do. Good communication generally leads to good execution. You know, good directions, good uh definition of expectations and and whatnot, that is probably the number one area that I fall short in, but it's also one of my stronger areas. It's the consistency in having that clear communication with whoever it is. You know, most of mine is with my wife or my kids, or um at work with co-workers, colleagues, and other individuals, and and I've seen that growth in the way that I communicate over the years has evolved, I guess you would say. Where I was, you know, 20 years ago, the the communication style was pretty immature. Um, it was pretty appropriate for you know somebody in their late 20s, early 30s, but you know, it was something that I had not honed yet. And I'm getting better, and I and I've still got work to do, but I think it is getting better, and people who work with me or communicate with me would probably argue that, you know, I do a decent job of laying out the expectations, uh, giving decently clear directions. I mean, I'm not perfect at all by any means, and and more often than not it doesn't go perfectly, but perfection is something that's quite frankly unattainable. The perfect communication of wishes and directions and what have you that leads to good execution is a lot of the time on me. But the other side of that is that sometimes people they overthink things or overanalyze it. I mean, sometimes they're just not ready, you know, and we sit here and say, oh, it's a silly little podcast, which is really just this terrible thing that people listen to because it's not a very good podcast, and I'm the first one to admit that, but you know, sometimes people just aren't ready to be listened to, or they're not ready to be watched on YouTube, and that's something that even I, you know, when I started doing this, struggled with. Who wants to listen to me? You know, why would they want to listen to me? Who wants to watch me on YouTube? And why on earth would they want to do that? And it's not just, you know, it's not something that I think is a weakness or anything, it's just different timing. You know, the timing didn't line up. What feels normal to me might feel like pressure to someone else. And so all the all the ducks have to line up, all the cards have to fall into place for a guest to get on the show here. Now, I was fairly lucky to convince my wife to do it with me one time, and she reminds me frequently that that is the one of the highest ranked podcasts that I've done was with her. And she frequently volunteers to come back on to help me reach more people. She's definitely not hesitating, and she's definitely not overthinking it. Now, there was a moment that she would hesitate before that first one, and that she did overthink it a little bit, and it took some convincing to get her to sit down for 30 minutes and have a conversation with me. And that's really all we're doing on this podcast, right? We're just having conversations. But sometimes when you're not ready, I mean I've been in those shoes, not ready, uh, hesitated, overthink a situation. And a lot of times that is related back again to good communication and follow-through. Um, but you know, when I was younger and we were looking at properties to buy to build a house, there was several instances where I probably hesitated or I overthought it or over-analyzed the property, you know, just questioning whether it was the right one or or not. And then you'd watch that property get bought and developed, and the owner of that do exactly what you were planning to do, but you just didn't have the the nerve to pull the trigger or um get after it like they did, and and they do what you thought wanted to do and that you thought was possible, but you didn't do it because you hesitated, and you see the results of that upfront and personal, and that's sometimes it's a hard lesson to learn because those opportunities they don't always come back around. Um, a thing like buying a property, buying a house, buying something uh that is unique and one of a kind doesn't always come back around. An opportunity to get on the podcast um with me as a guest is something that doesn't always come back around. Now, in that particular instance with this um fellow who's not with us tonight on this podcast, the door is open, and he is welcome to walk through it whenever he wants. And when he's ready, he'll let me know that he's ready, and we'll have a sit down and and have a chat, and it'll still be fun. But that pressure for other people to perform or live up to expectations or live up to hype can sometimes be overwhelming. And I've seen it, people get paralyzed, they can't make a decision. And I had one recently came up to me and said, What should I do? I have option A when I can do this, and and this person laid out all of these expectations, and I have option B and I can do this, and laid out all of those expectations and asked me what should I do? And I and I told them that I can't answer that for you. You know because the truth about people is that everybody's their own individual, and what I think I could answer it from my perspective, but I can't tell them what they should do. So I try to outline it in a manner that um gives weight to their thoughts and helps them analyze the situation. I mean, we do a a decision grid in this family for major decisions, and we write down the pros and the cons and score them and weight them, and then wherever you end up with the most points is the logical decision. Now, there's not to say that your gut instinct doesn't carry a lot of weight in that, because if it's a decision that's a big decision and you've kind of done the decision grid and the matrix and put everything together and it's really close, that gut instinct matters, and that might be something that I would say, you know, trust your gut. Um, but but for me to answer a question for somebody else of what should I do uh just doesn't really work out. Now, if you're asking me a question at work and it's what should I do, we're gonna analyze that situation together and we're gonna come up with a strategy and a plan to move forward. The particular person that I I was talking to recently, this wasn't work-related. This was something about them in their life that they had to kind of sort through. And there was no right or wrong answer, it was just they were at a crossroads and kind of paralyzed for a little bit. And that happens from time to time, but the trick is to make that decision and keep moving forward, right? We talked about it on the last last podcast, you know, the ability to keep moving forward is something that um is valuable to people. And just as much as good communication matters, so does the um that ability to make that decision and and move forward and have confidence in your decision, even if it ends up being the wrong decision, you you see it through to the end, um, because that's the decision that you made. But you're also flexible enough that you can change or or you can kind of bob and weave with the punches as they come with you at you, and and that's part of the deal too. But yeah, I mean, when the guest said, Yeah, I'm not gonna make it, um, not really feeling it, you know, that was the one of the options there is you can kinda drag everybody along, drag them along with you, or you can um kind of make an adjustment, a course adjustment, and that's what we're doing tonight. You know, you don't drag people into your pace, you recognize who's already in motion, and that and that's kind of on me, you know. I gotta do a better job of making sure that guests when they're on the card to join uh the show, you know, I gotta make sure that they're ready to get on the show and that they're in motion, that they're moving the right way, because otherwise, when you thought you had a guest, you don't have a guest. Um but but the circle is definitely expanding, and it continues to expand, just not by force. In fact, just this last week I had a friend of mine come over for dinner one night, and he was shocked to know that King Roberto had a podcast. And it's not like I keep this a secret. I've got an entire Instagram page devoted to King Roberto, and the podcast is mentioned frequently on it, but um he was still a little behind the times. Now, admittedly, he had a large project for his work that took a lot of his time um over the last oh eight months or so. Turns out that he got that project done and then they uh cut back on staffing and he ended up getting laid off, which really sucks. But what are you gonna do? Um maybe one of these times I'll get him to come on the show with us. But yeah, we gained a new listener this last week, um, which is which is fun. I did warn him that this is a terrible podcast and that it's a waste of his time, but he insisted on listening, so good for him. Um, we love it when we get new listeners for sure. But you know, that might be something that starts gaining a little bit of momentum. And there's a couple of listeners out there who I know um who might join us on one of these shows. I gotta run it by them and see if they're ready for it because it is something that does take time, and um, there are expectations of showing up when you say you're gonna show up, and there are definitely um some lives that get affected when they don't show up. So again, that good communication, that clear uh definition of expectations, that's on me to make sure that that gets framed properly when I talk to them. So, yeah, on the podcast here, we kind of keep building, keep moving, leave the door open for those who want to walk through, but I don't stand in it. I'm not gonna be the one in the door saying, come on, let's go. Encouraging somebody to come on, that's kind of your decision, that's up to you to make that choice. And it's there's no like uh frustration or disappointment, but it comes with a little bit of clarity, uh, that um, you know, this isn't necessarily for everyone. And while I enjoy the heck out of it, uh there's not saying that anybody else is gonna enjoy the heck out of it quite as much as I do. So let's get into our royal decree here. And it kind of ties into what we're talking about tonight. Not everyone is ready when you are, and that doesn't mean you stop moving. The court's still here, and it's still growing. I am a little bit under the weather this week, so I appreciate you taking time to listen to the podcast tonight. It is a little bit shorter than normal, but um we're gonna wrap it up with that. And hey, if you want to join us on the podcast, you know how to get a hold of me. Send an email, send a DM on Instagram or X, and say, hey King Roberto, love to join you on the show. You can do it remotely. We've got that figured out how to do it. It was set up for uh tonight's, but we ended up changing gears and going a different direction. And with that, I'm gonna sign off from this one and maybe go have some warm tea with honey to feel a little bit better, and I will catch you next week on the next podcast. It's King Roberto saying goodbye.