Young Men Can Do Hard Things | A How I Lead Interview with Skylar Haws

Leading Saints Podcast

Leading Saints

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Skylar Haws has dedicated over a decade to serving youth in various church callings, including Young Men's President and Priest Quorum Advisor. He has also taught early morning seminary and worked as a youth Sunday School teacher. Skylar's passion for youth leadership stems from his own experiences and a desire to help young men grow spiritually and personally. He resides in Saratoga Springs with his family, where he balances his church responsibilities with work and family life.

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Highlights
Skylar emphasizes the importance of meeting young men where they are. He discusses the value of building relationships and creating meaningful experiences through high adventure activities. Skylar highlights the significance of pushing youth to embrace challenges while connecting their experiences back to Christ. He also addresses the dynamics of planning activities, engaging parents, and fostering a supportive environment for all young men, regardless of their individual circumstances.

04:00 - Skylar's Background in Youth Leadership
05:00 - Advice for New Young Men's Leaders
06:00 - Meeting Youth Where They Are
08:00 - The Power of Sacrifice in Youth Leadership
11:00 - Creating Spiritual Impact in High Adventure Activities
13:00 - Planning High Adventure Activities
18:00 - Engaging Boys in Planning and Preparation
22:00 - Handling Low Attendance at Activities
25:00 - The Importance of Relationships in Leadership
30:00 - Balancing Leadership with Family and Work
32:00 - Thematic and Dramatic Elements in Activities
35:00 - Service Opportunities and Miracles
40:00 - Managing Challenges During Activities

The award-winning Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org.
Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Benjamin Hardy, Elder Alvin F. Meredith III,

Transcript

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0:00.0	Attention youth leaders.
0:07.0	If you have recently been called to lead the rising generation,
0:10.0	I have a next step for you.
0:12.0	Listen to an awesome presentation by Yvonne Hubert and Peter Vidmar,
0:16.0	who are both respective members of the Young Women and Young Men General Advisory Council for the Church.
0:21.6	Their presentation really helps clarify ways on how to effectively lead the youth using the children and youth program.
0:28.6	They also cover topics like youth-led groups, how to lead through personal ministry,
0:33.6	how to meet youth where they are, identifying the youth strengths and capacities.
0:38.4	This presentation is part of the Young Saints Virtual Library, and you can access it at no cost by going to
0:44.3	leadingsaints.org slash 14. Again, simply click the link in the show notes or go to
0:50.2	leadingsaints.org slash one four.
1:02.8	So my name is Kurt Frankum, and I am the founder and executive director of leading saints and obviously the host of the Leading Saints podcast.
1:06.3	Now, I started Leading Saints back in 2010.
1:09.9	It was just a hobby blog, and it grew from there by the time
1:13.4	2014 came around. We started the podcast, and that's really when it got some traction and took
1:19.6	off 2016. We became a 501-C3 nonprofit organization, and we've been growing ever since. And now I get
1:26.6	the opportunity of interviewing and
1:28.7	talking with remarkable people all over the world. Now, this is a segment we do on the Leading
1:33.8	Saints podcast called How I Lead. And we reach out to everyday leaders. They're not experts,
1:39.4	gurus, authors, PhDs. They're just everyday leaders who've been asked to serve in a specific leadership calling, and we simply ask them, how is it that you lead? And they go through some remarkable principles that should be in a book that should be behind a PhD. They're usually that good. And we just talk about sharing what the other guy is doing. And I remember being a leader just simply wanting to know, okay, I know what I'm trying to do,
2:02.7	but what's the other guy doing?
2:03.7	What's working for him?
	...

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