Goals Need Community with John Darnell

In this special New Year’s Day episode of Ignite Cast, hosts Taylor Tutor and Judd Wilson sit down with John Darnell, CEO of Global Outreach International, to talk about goal setting with purpose.

As the leader of a mission-sending organization headquartered in Tupelo and working around the world, John shares how he approaches setting goals that are both vision-driven and flexible, especially when leading people across cultures and continents. The conversation explores aligning personal goals with organizational mission, leading teams through uncertainty, and staying focused on long-term impact rather than short-term wins.

John also offers insight into how leaders can begin a new year with clarity, intentionality, and humility—setting goals that not only move organizations forward, but also serve people well.

Whether you’re starting fresh on January 1 or simply re-centering your leadership priorities, this episode will challenge you to think differently about success, service, and the goals that truly matter.

🎧 Start the year inspired—because strong leadership begins with clear purpose.

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Transcript

S6 E5 John Darnell
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Taylor Tutor: [00:00:00] Hey, Judd. 

Judd Wilson: Hey Taylor. 

Taylor Tutor: Do you know what's coming up? 

Judd Wilson: When? 

Taylor Tutor: On Thursday, January the 29th. 

Judd Wilson: The Ignite Leadership Conference. 

Taylor Tutor: That's right, Judd. And where is it? 

Judd Wilson: The Orchard. 

Taylor Tutor: That's right. Again. One more. Do you know where to get tickets? 

Judd Wilson: Ignite leadership.com. 

Taylor Tutor: And you're right. Again, for more information on Ignite, you can follow us on social media.

Judd Wilson: Look forward to seeing everybody at 

Taylor Tutor: Ignite Ignite.

Taylor Tutor: Welcome to Ignite Where Ideas Spark Action brought. To you by the Community Development Foundation, your Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Engine for Tupelo and Lee County, thank you to our presenting sponsor, [00:01:00] iHeartMedia for powering this season of Ignite Cast. I'm Taylor. 

Jon Acuff: I'm Judge 

Taylor Tutor: and welcome to Ignite Cast

Judd Wilson: at Nightcast Taylor. I'm gonna be the first one to say this to you. Happy New Year. 

Taylor Tutor: Happy New Year to ya. 

Judd Wilson: The ball just dropped. I mean, the fireworks went off. It's, it's the new year, but you know what else? I like 

Taylor Tutor: what Judd, 

Judd Wilson: guess what? January brings hit. Night leadership conference is coming up January the 29th.

Judd Wilson: We even have people applauding about that. It's a good way to start the year. 

Taylor Tutor: But you know what? A better way to start the year is, 

Judd Wilson: I think I know where you're going with this, 

Taylor Tutor: with our guest, John Darnell. Look 

Judd Wilson: at that. There's no other better way to start a year than with John Darnell. John, [00:02:00] welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Judd Wilson: It's great to be here with you. Are you as excited about this year as we 

John Darnell: are? I, I am. I mean, fireworks. It's a lot energy isn't it? Dancing as we started the episode. Yes. I wish people really could have seen it. It was impressive. 

Taylor Tutor: The 

Judd Wilson: old at night podcast brings the energy, doesn't 

Taylor Tutor: it? That's right. John, well, before we really get started.

Taylor Tutor: Do you have your tickets to Ignite? 

John Darnell: I actually do have my tickets to Ignite. Yeah, I got the early bird discount as a, I should have known John 

Judd Wilson: was an early birder. 

Taylor Tutor: But if you haven't gotten your Ignite tickets, the new you, new you New Year, new you. So, wow. And it's your last chance to get that, that good discounted rate.

Taylor Tutor: So get your tickets today. I, I was about 

Judd Wilson: to say, say that three times real fast, but Taylor couldn't even do it once, so I didn't wanna New 

Taylor Tutor: year. New you. New year, new you. New Year, new you. But 

Judd Wilson: Uhoh. There you go. I'm glad we did. He didn't have to hit the bleep button, especially with John here. That would've been embarrassing.

Taylor Tutor: Any host. But let's get started. [00:03:00] John, tell us what the best leadership tip you've ever been given is. 

John Darnell: You know, I stepped into my leadership role as an interim leader of a nonprofit, 50-year-old nonprofit, huge, working in, you know, 50 plus countries in the world at the time, and I was frustrated. There were some different things happening, and I was ready to have some conversations.

John Darnell: So I was talking to one of my coworkers about it, and they said, John, whatever you do. Next do it with humility. And I thought, but I'm not the one that needs to change. You know? 

Taylor Tutor: So humble. Yeah, exactly. 

John Darnell: The irony, right? And that really informed every step I took next as an interim leader, how I approach the conversations that I could go and say, I'm wrong too.

John Darnell: Mm-hmm. I'm sorry. And that really set the stage for a pretty successful start to being in the position that I am today. Mm-hmm. So sometimes I forget it. Sometimes I need to be reminded of it, but coming back with true humility really helps us lead [00:04:00] and serve others really well. 

Judd Wilson: And, and that works in the workplace and even outside the workplace as well.

Judd Wilson: Correct? 

John Darnell: Yeah. I mean, think about with my kids, you know, I often have to go back to them, say, Hey, I'm, I'm sorry about that. You know, I wish I had done that better. And that's an opportunity to deepen our relationship and to build trust and to know that we, we can really be honest and real with each other.

John Darnell: It's been, it's been a great gift. And 

Judd Wilson: that, like you said, it kind of, you started as interim and now in that position and, but you've been with global, uh, outreach for, for a while. Kind of tell your, your history and journey through that organization. 

John Darnell: Absolutely. From the Mississippi Delta originally never imagined living really outside of the Delta, much less another country Ended up becoming a missionary.

John Darnell: My wife and I with Global Outreach, we moved to the mission field when. Our youngest daughter was five months old. This was early 2012, so we've been with Global Outreach starting since 21, so 15 years, and served as missionaries in the mission field most of that time at an outdoor [00:05:00] venture camp. Moved back to the states, started working in Tupelo in the home office of the organization in early 17, Taylor actually interned with us.

Judd Wilson: Look at that. One of those 

John Darnell: summers. So a star in the making. We saw it early, Joe. You did. You did. We saw it early and then stepped in as interim CEO, uh, six and a half years ago Now 

Judd Wilson: look at that. 

John Darnell: And then CEO, they voted me in as CEO, Joe, you're gonna love this. March the fifth of 2020. 

Judd Wilson: I, I know it was right around the, 

John Darnell: just in time for the craziness of the world.

John Darnell: For the chaos. Yes. But we're an organization that helps send and support missionaries around the world. And we have 368 and 70 countries. 

Judd Wilson: Right, right. Well, good. Well. She asked your favorite leadership tip. So I'm gonna ask this, 'cause this, this episode's really kind of based on goals and it sounded like, you know, through your work, through, uh, global outreach that, that you set goals and even kind of use that leadership tip to get the goal of, hey, this is where I want to be, not just for me, but help take the organization where it [00:06:00] needs to go.

Judd Wilson: Um, it's January. January, the January the first, the first. This is when people really start making goals and mm-hmm. Of course with anything. And, and, and she did a lot of this research. She just used Google. But what, 70? It's 

Taylor Tutor: not, it's not Google anymore. It's chat. 

Judd Wilson: Oh, it's chat. She used chat to, it's like, don't insult her.

Judd Wilson: Exactly. And, you know, so she shortened it to just chat and everybody knows what that means. But, um, basically 75% or so of the folks are making goals right now. Really probably more personal goals than anything else. I'd love to know what chat would say. The failure rate is a 74% that that do that. But kind of how do you set your personal goals at the first of the year?

John Darnell: You know, I used to be what my wife would call January John, and that was, you know, that sounds like a great country song by the way. She ought to write that song. You know, you were singing country before we went. I was, and I hate that we didn't get that recorded. But you know, the try to do too much. And, and, [00:07:00] you know, just pick one, pick some that were vain, but really it, it became more about who am I trying to become?

John Darnell: Was one thing, and it'd be more about vision and where I wanna be long term than it'd just be about, oh, I wanna lose weight, which every year, one year I said I wanna gain weight just so I could meet a goal. I don't know if you've ever done that. Uh, every year. Every year I just wanna gain weight. It's like 

Taylor Tutor: adding something to the to-do list that you've already done just so you can check it out.

Taylor Tutor: Did it yesterday. 

John Darnell: That happened yesterday. So that's, for me, it's about vision. Who do I wanna become? And then the other part that I think is missed often is community. So it, I was supposed to meet, actually one of the former co-hosts of this podcast. Rory Tire. Yes. 

Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

John Darnell: Was my workout buddy. And we would meet at Planet Fitness at 5:00 AM and I did not want to go.

John Darnell: I, if it were up to me, I wouldn't. I literally would never go to the gym and I knew he was waiting on me. Now, sometimes he would sleep in and I still thought he was there and I showed up anyway, so it worked either way. So I think about vision, who am I trying to become? And community who can, who's [00:08:00] around me that can help, help me become the person that I wanna be.

John Darnell: Because I think a lot of times Americans we're very individualistic, we're very, oh, I'm gonna do it myself. And then which day is Quitter's day in January? I forget which day it is. Well, for me it's the second it's, but um, but I think it's like 

Judd Wilson: the 21st, somewhere in there. Somewhere around there, yeah. Yeah.

Judd Wilson: About three weeks in. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. 

Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. I tend to set seven goals. Okay. But they're all in different categories. And I get that from Dave Ramsey. 'cause you know I'm a Ramsey or, 

Judd Wilson: yes, 

Taylor Tutor: but they, but it's like a financial goal, an educational goal, a goal at work, a personal goal. I can't remember 'em all.

Taylor Tutor: But when, when the seventh 

Judd Wilson: one is to remember the other six goals, to remember the, oh, and then there's 

Taylor Tutor: like a family one, like a, a friends or family, like a social goal. Always meet that one. I'm sure you do too, Judd. Um, but with those goals, we try to make them like, um, have a number, something reachable.

Taylor Tutor: What, what do you have to [00:09:00] say about setting goals? Like, what is it, what's the framework for that? Do you have that? 

John Darnell: Well, you know. Thinking about setting a number. We went through a strategic planning process as an organization. Mm-hmm. If you think organizational goals and you know the idea of a smart goal, you, you want it to be measurable.

John Darnell: That's the m right? Mm-hmm. Specific, measurable, achievable is the, a relevant and time bound was something we did as part of our strategic planning process, was we picked an audacious goal of a hundred new missionaries a year going to the field with us, which was insanity because we were doing 15 new missionaries a year, but.

John Darnell: What ended up happening is we had to, it revolutionized the way that, that we thought as an organization, and I think that's something in organizational goal setting that's a little bit different is we have to have such an extreme goal that it forces us to think, I have to work completely differently. I have to do this, I have to rethink this system.

John Darnell: It really caused a lot of introspection and evaluation in what we were doing and we're, we had 56 last year in 2025. [00:10:00] So we've been averaging 51 day, we'll wait to a hundred. So I think I, it doesn't feel like a failure to me that we haven't hit a hundred yet about four years into trying, because I've seen the process and, and how that's come about.

John Darnell: So I think it's important to, in some settings, have a stretch goal so that it force instead of, oh, I just need to work a little harder. Oh, I need to get up a little earlier. Mm-hmm. Oh, I can squeeze. No, I wanted to completely revolutionize the way we were thinking and I think a good goal can do that.

Judd Wilson: Mm-hmm. And, and so that you probably, like you said, never would've gone from 15 to 56 if you said, Hey, we're doing 15. Let's, let's try for 30. 'cause I mean, most people in the room are like, yeah, I think we can do that. Which is good, but. Like you said, kind of making it this audacious goal, like a hundred is, has John lost it?

Judd Wilson: What's he thinking? But it, it kind of stretched everybody, didn't it? I 

John Darnell: think two people fell outta their chairs. 

Taylor Tutor: Speaking of that, so some people are motivated by like a, a [00:11:00] big audacious goal and some people are intimidated. And overwhelmed by that. So how do you handle, 'cause I'm sure you have both on your team 'cause you have a good team and you know you want a diverse team.

Taylor Tutor: But how do you handle telling someone that and somebody is like, pumped, they're ready, let's go do it, and someone else falls out of their chair. How do you handle that? 

John Darnell: I found that it depends on where they were in terms of responsibility for that. And so for the finance team, you know, processing 20 plus million dollars a year in donations, like, oh my goodness, we're gonna grow by this much.

John Darnell: How are we gonna handle it? And it's the leader helping them evaluate systems and make different decisions. Well, for the person actually in charge of onboarding that many people and, and mm-hmm. Getting them through training. They're like, John, what's gonna happen to me if we don't hit that goal? And so then it becomes about, okay, we only control what we control.

John Darnell: What are the things? So you think of those as drivers, as some people call 'em. What are the daily activities, weekly, monthly, things that I can do that I can control in terms of activity? And we evaluate that together. [00:12:00] And if, if you're doing the things we've agreed upon that you think you should be doing to get to that goal, I, I'm not gonna be mad.

John Darnell: Now if we get to the end of the year and we didn't come close, we now talk about it and we say, okay, well what are we gonna do differently next year? For me, it's about honest communication and working on that together, evaluating process. So instead of just setting a big goal and hoping it happens, backing it down to what are the drivers, what are the things that I can do every day to try to get me there by the end of the year?

John Darnell: Mm-hmm. 

Judd Wilson: And taking everybody's perspective too. 'cause your team is so diverse and so different, you're gonna be able to use skills from all these other different individuals that are gonna help to accomplish that one goal. Mm-hmm. So the 

Taylor Tutor: way my brain works too, is. 

Judd Wilson: I love open enough this ubstance, how this works.

Judd Wilson: Well, some people 

Taylor Tutor: can see, you know, a long-term vision, a five year, 10 year, 20 year, and those are exciting to me. Yeah. But I wanna know what you want me to do right now. Like, what can I go to my desk and get done? So I tend to like break them down like, okay, [00:13:00] well if. Is the year goal, what's the month goal?

Taylor Tutor: What's the week goal? What's the day goal? Right? What's the hour goal? And so to some people that's super overwhelming to have that. But for me, that's the only way I can think about getting it done. But I think, you know, just to brag on CD, FA little bit, I think we do a good job of that here, having our big goals.

Taylor Tutor: And they can be overwhelming to me. 'cause I'm thinking how in the world are we ever gonna do that? And then breaking 'em down little by little to do that. And you know, having a team that supports. You in each, in each of those, even if it's not technically their job to hit that goal, but they, they help you with that.

Taylor Tutor: So I think that's good too. But, um, speaking of, you know, the team and different partners and stuff and setting goals, what about guiding your staff through that, where they're, were, they're all aligned, like they're measurable and they're realistic, but also spiritually aligned too. So how do you guide 'em through that?

John Darnell: Yeah. I mean, for our strategic planning process and actually create, help guide our organization through that mm-hmm. [00:14:00] Was the first part of goal setting and plan making is talking to the people who are gonna be responsible for the work. Mm-hmm. And talking to your constituents and seeing are we, are we who we say we are?

Judd Wilson: Mm-hmm. 

John Darnell: Who, where do we need to grow? Where, you know, and, and for us in terms of spiritual alignment, there's a prayer and fasting component to make sure that we're, we're in the right place. We're listening to the right voice and that we're headed in the right direction. And what we saw throughout that processing, you know, hundreds of missionaries, board staff, donors, looking at all the data and saying, okay, there's actually some commonalities here of what we want to keep, what we want to throw out.

John Darnell: So you should be arriving to the who we want to be and where we go in conversation on a common platform. So a lot of people, and, and I used to make this mistake too. You think, oh, this is what we need to do and I'm gonna go get people excited about it and, and people don't see the need for it. They don't understand it.

John Darnell: As opposed to, we've been thinking, we've been praying, we've been looking at the problem. Now we're on the same page about what the problem is and where God's calling us [00:15:00] now. Okay. What needs to happen in your area? You're the CEO of your area. What needs to happen in this area and change in the next year, two years, three years for us to get there?

John Darnell: And I found that, that people are motivated, they feel called in our context. We say, you know, this is a spiritual calling to pull that off. And it's much more bottom up than me having to show up and rally the troops every day. I haven't really had to do that. I've had to remind them of why. So that's more my job as the senior leader.

John Darnell: They've seen the problem, they've developed a plan. I need to tell stories of the future. 'cause the five and 10 year, the further out in the future it is, it should be more qualitative. 

Judd Wilson: Hmm. 

John Darnell: So we're describing a picture of the future that we want to see. It's qualitative, the nearer term, tailored to your point, it's quantitative.

John Darnell: So I need, what are the actual numerical, what things, what are the metrics that we need to see to know? Let's think about going to the Memphis Airport. I've, I've gone a lot in the, in the fall, you know, leading up to this. [00:16:00] And there's certain signs that you're getting closer, right? There's certain male markers.

John Darnell: You pass New Albany and Holly Springs and so forth and so on as a leader. People are flying blind unless you tell them where they are on the interstate. So how do you create metrics that show 'em, Hey, you did it, you got a little closer this week. You got a little closer, you got a little closer. Okay, we're there, we're we're where we wanna be.

John Darnell: And then you, you know, move the goalpost and you set a new goal. 

Judd Wilson: And, and, and like you said, it's where we want to be because as you mentioned, you surveyed all those folks. So it's, it's sort of buy-in already before the goal's even presented, which I think is very important. 

Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm.

Taylor Tutor: I thought you were about to say something. No, that was just, it was 

Judd Wilson: so poignant that it just, it was, it, it was a pause. 

Taylor Tutor: It was a, it was a pause to take it all in. 

Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. 

Taylor Tutor: Speaking of taking a pause, John Acuff at last year at Ignite, um, talked about goal setting and just. Kind of setting too many goals.

Taylor Tutor: So let's hear what he has to say about that and then I'll ask about it. [00:17:00] 

Jon Acuff: The most dangerous one for high performers is the chaos zone. This is when you try too many things at once, too many goals, and there's no progress. I see people struggle with this all the time. People come up to me and they go, John, I'm gonna get into running.

Jon Acuff: And I'll go, oh, that's great. And they go, yeah, I'm gonna do a marathon. And I'll say, you ever, you ever do a half marathon? You ever do a 10 K, a 5K, even just a K. You ever do a k get a tiny little medal and they go, no. I heard an Emine M Song, mom, spaghetti. I'm gonna lose myself. I'm doing it. I'm going to Kona this weekend, I'm running the Iron Man.

Jon Acuff: And I think that's, that's not gonna work. I did a survey once where I asked people how many goals they were working on. The average number was 28.2. You ever try to juggle three balls at a time? It's challenging. You ever try to juggle 28 at a time? This is what happens. The reason we have the phrase yo-yo diet in our country is because people, yo-yo, back and forth between comfort zone not doing [00:18:00] anything and chaos zone, trying to do it all.

Taylor Tutor: So, uh, January. John, 

John Darnell: it sounds like he's talking about January John. There, 

Taylor Tutor: he's, so, maybe this isn't the best question for you, but I was, um, thinking, you know, how can we avoid that chaos zone and how, how do we know, you know, how many goals to set? You know, I, I said earlier, I, I have seven. Is that too many?

Taylor Tutor: I personally don't think so. But you didn't 

Judd Wilson: give us a chance to answer that question you just asked us, 

Taylor Tutor: but how, how do you, you know, with your team avoid that chaos zone? 

John Darnell: Yeah, and I think it's, you know, we actually lived that in 2025. A little bit. I'll tell you what we did and how it became chaos and what we're gonna do differently this year in 2026, and then we'll have to come back and talk about it.

John Darnell: We'll, we'll see how it goes. A couple of, a couple of mistakes that we made. We tried to do a lot of new things at once because we have a lot of excited team members about, so they're coming up with, Hey, I wanna make this better, this better, this better. What we didn't take into account is [00:19:00] you, when you look at your year, you think, oh, I can work on that that week and that the next week.

John Darnell: And that what. Well, we have, you know, missionary onboarding orientation that consumes our whole staff for several weeks a year. We have these worldwide events we do. Last year we went to the Middle East and did one, and, and then you're like, well, I just lost half the year in productivity, but I'm asking, like, I'm acting like I have a year with like, I'm not doing el during my day job.

John Darnell: Mm-hmm. So I think from a, a team perspective, it's, you've gotta determine how much time you even have. To work on these things and making things better. And how much do you have for the next, the, the, just running the business. And so our team retreat that we had in the fall getting ready for this year, we just called it Run the Play.

John Darnell: So our goal actually is just do the things we did in 2025, but do them well because we kept trying to reinvent the wheel and reinvent the wheel and reinvent the wheel, and it just got so frustrating for our team. This year we're, do what we did last year, where we're actually gonna [00:20:00] do it well as opposed to trying to do something new every single week, which is hard for a passionate team member.

John Darnell: So that was one thing. Did you take into account the rhythms that your team and your organization has throughout the year? That big onboarding, that trip, that thing that's happening because it's a team, it's a time suck because then you're, you're coming to your one-on-one evaluation with your employer.

John Darnell: They're like, John, I, I've been. Gone for a month this year or this past quarter, when am I gonna work on this goal? So it's unfair to your team to not take that into account. Mm-hmm. And then we've just called time out and said, we tried a lot of new things last year. Let's exhale and just do 'em well this year, 

Taylor Tutor: 10% better take something.

Taylor Tutor: You did make it 10% better. And that's still a goal. 

Judd Wilson: Yeah. And, and the thing is, like you said, run the play. That should go better in 26 because they've done it, they just did it frantically in 25, right? Mm-hmm. 

John Darnell: And we're gonna have a better understanding this year, at the end of the year of where we are and what needs to improve.

John Darnell: Think if we win again and try to try a bunch, a whole new slew of [00:21:00] things. We're gonna be frustrated again. Yeah. As a team and, and I just saw the frustration and the overwhelm and I said, we're trying to do too much. I think that's our job as a leader. Are people not meeting their goals because they can't do the job?

John Darnell: Or is it that we've overwhelmed them? Mm-hmm. And we have to look and discern the difference? 

Judd Wilson: Well, it's kind of like what John said. JON. Do you ever get an debate with the JON people and the j I'm 

John Darnell: assuming it's short for Jonathan. It is, 

Judd Wilson: but it's still, I feel there's a divide. They. 

John Darnell: I've Heards. H Yeah. And the, I mean, the one in the Bible's an H so let's just there who, he just won the argument.

John Darnell: Look at that, the Bible, look at 

Judd Wilson: that. Um, but, but with that, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of doing the small things that, you know, good and letting that build to the next thing and the next thing, I mean, like he said, I mean, don't run a marathon. I mean, start with a KI mean, don't you feel that kind of helps with.

Judd Wilson: That's my kind of run is a K. Um, but don't you feel that helps your team when they can just build on the small and doing the small stuff good to, to make it bigger and 

John Darnell: that, and [00:22:00] that was something they realized, something that one of John's books he talks about, and after I saw him at night, last January, I went and read like five of his books.

John Darnell: I can't tell you which one this is from, but it's from him. And he talked about you evaluate a goal and you feel frustrated, like we'll cut the goal in half. And actually had that conversation with our team at our first 90 day meeting evaluating our strategic plan. It was like, John, I'm struggling with having this, this.

John Darnell: I said, okay, here's what John Jacob says in the book. Why don't we cut it in half? And how would that feel? 'cause just like we talked about with the a hundred new missionaries saying, well, we out to 50 and it's been phenomenal and we've agreed to celebrate that. So what if, what if you could just say, Hey, I get part of the way there.

John Darnell: That's a really good thing. I've grown, I've learned. I have better perspective. Like there's things to celebrate there. So I would even throw in John, other of John's advice, cut your goal in half and then see what happens. 

Judd Wilson: That's a great point. Great point. 

Taylor Tutor: It is. Well it's been great talking to you. Um. And [00:23:00] especially about goals to start the new year off.

Taylor Tutor: Good. So thank you so much for today, and we look forward to seeing you at Ignite on January 29th. 

Judd Wilson: He's always there. You can always count on John being in at night. Thank you for being here, John. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah.

Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast, presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe. And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review and remember, go forward and do good things.