We recently connected with Nick Brock and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nick, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Finding my purpose did not happen on a linear line for me. It has been a series of ups and downs.
Over the course of 20 years I discovered that I was better at some things than I was at others.
I also recognized over time that I had an ability to connect with people through conversations and creating contexts for them to interact with things and projects that interested me (e.g., religion, politics, fitness).
The difficulty with finding my purpose and then acting upon it is that it takes a significant amount of effort to put my purpose into action. I have a full-time job and have family needs that need to be met. Working on my “purpose” requires waking up early and spending time on projects before I go the work in the morning, or waking up before my family does on the weekends to work on my projects. In other words, a takes a lot of effort and time on top of other commitments.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m the Executive Director of Vote Common Good-West Michigan, the local expression of Vote Common Good. My goal is to inspire, energize, and mobilize people of faith to make the common good their voting criteria on election day. We also support local candidates by helping them to connect with their community.
We do these things by teaching the community about the local threats of Christian Nationalism, talking about topics that are relevant to the community on a podcast called Common Good Conversations, and engaging voters to support Common Good Candidates in their communities.
My current focus is educating the community of Ottawa County about a local group called Ottawa Impact that has brought local government into disarray with their far-right politics and Christian Nationalism agenda. This has been done with educating voters about Christian Nationalism and talking about local politics on the Common Good Conversations podcast. I’ve also created a platform to help local candidates express values that the community wants to see from their elected officials. When a candidate commits to the Common Good we help to showcase that commitment to the community.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey have been listening, creativity, and humility.
I put listening first because I could not do the work that I aim to do without listening to those who live in the community. I meet with them to hear their opinion and help me understand what I don’t know. Listening has helped me to grow my network of people who may have similar concerns or ideas about the common good in West Michigan.
Creativity is essential to my role. I am always seeking ways to interact with voters in ways that are unique and interesting to them. I’ve learned that creativity does not mean that large numbers of people will show up but its committing to what I think is important and may be helpful.
Humility has helped me to realize that the process for building a brand and connecting with people comes with a lot of hard work and time. Humility has taught me that I’ve got some things right; and other things not right.
I strive to maintain a disciplined work ethic to see me through it all. I commit to a schedule that enables me time to do the work of listening and creating.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Doug Pagitt of Vote Common Good has been the most helpful me to become successful in what I do with VCG-WM.
Since 2020 I’ve spent a significant amount of time with Doug traveling the country as we host rallies, do training seminars, and meet candidates. During this time I’ve witnessed the amount of hard work, dedication, imagination, and high-spirited energy that Doug brings to every thing that he does. What has been most inspiring, though, was seeing how Doug manages his expectations of what is successful or not. The success of an event is not based on the amount of people or the amount of press coverage that it gets (though those things are important) it’s about the creativity and the ability to inspire goodness in those he meets along the way. It’s about connecting to people and have people connect to the work.
Doug has also let me participate freely in these endeavors. From giving stump speeches to organizing rallies and trainings. Doug has provided me a lot of freedom in my partnership with him. He’s also provided a lot of guidance when I ask of it from him. Overall, Doug has inspired me to do what he does in West Michigan because has said “yes” to me and my ideas time and again when other people will tell me “no”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.votecommongood-wm.org
- Instagram: Vote Common Good-West Michigan
- Facebook: Vote Common Good: West Michigan – primary
- Youtube: Vote Common Good-West Michigan
- Other: Podcast (Common Good Conversations) available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
