Growing Our Future
Volunteer. Giving Back Becomes the Greatest Classroom
Hosted by Aaron Alejandro, this episode features a captivating conversation with Roger Rickard, the Founder & President of Voices in Advocacy®, and author of "7 Actions of Highly Effective Advocates." Roger shares his journey from humble beginnings in a blue-collar town to becoming a renowned advocate and leader in advocacy efforts.
In this episode, Aaron and Roger delve into Roger's early experiences in political campaigns, highlighting the importance of grassroots efforts and personal connections in advocacy work. Roger emphasizes the significance of believing in the impact of one's actions and staying informed about relevant issues.
Story Notes:
- Meet Roger Rickard
- The Power of Advocacy
- Belief as a Foundation
- Volunteerism
- Being Informed
- Getting on the Record
- Being a Resource
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Hosted by Aaron Alejandro, this episode features a captivating conversation with Roger Rickard, the Founder & President of Voices in Advocacy®, and author of "7 Actions of Highly Effective Advocates." Roger shares his journey from humble beginnings in a blue-collar town to becoming a renowned advocate and leader in advocacy efforts.
In this episode, Aaron and Roger delve into Roger's early experiences in political campaigns, highlighting the importance of grassroots efforts and personal connections in advocacy work. Roger emphasizes the significance of believing in the impact of one's actions and staying informed about relevant issues.
Story Notes:
- Meet Roger Rickard
- The Power of Advocacy
- Belief as a Foundation
- Volunteerism
- Being Informed
- Getting on the Record
- Being a Resource
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Erin Alejandro.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or whenever you are tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast, have I ever told you how much I just enjoy doing this podcast? I know it sounds a little selfish, but I enjoy doing it because of the people that I get to introduce you to, and today is no different. Y'all are getting to meet. I mean, if you saw us standing side by side, you might mistake us as twins, but y'all are meeting a guy. This is a big guy. 6a, where's a bow tie. He's known as the big guy with the bow tie. He's the founder and president of Voices and Advocacy and just a nice guy. Ladies and gentlemen, roger Rickard Roger, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Erin, thank you so much for having me, and I like the fact that. Hey, I'm just a nice guy. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Well, there's so many things that I want to tell y'all about Roger, and I'm going to get into that here in just a little bit. But, roger, one of the things that we do on this show is every broadcast, every podcast starts the same way, and so I'm going to start this one the same way, and I'm going to ask you a simple question, and that is, roger, what are you grateful for?
Speaker 3:Well, that's a long list, because I've been blessed and I am very grateful for everything that's in my life. I would start and I'd be remiss if I didn't start this with a loving family my wife, my son, beautiful daughter-in-law and my grand-girls. And, by the way, after we're done with this podcast today, I'm leaving to go to the hospital because my daughter-in-law is having surgery. I'm going to spend the afternoon with my son. I'm grateful for that time and to be in the same community with him, to be able to support him at this particular time. And finally, and this will be no surprise to you at all, I'm grateful for my voice, the voice to empower other people when it comes to advocacy, so that they can advocate for themselves, their careers, their industry, the things that matter the most in their lives.
Speaker 2:Wow, ditto. By the way, I agree with everything Roger just said. I'm the same way. I love my family. I love that I have the country that I live in that allows me to do all this, the technology that allows us to reach coast to coast and around the world. I mean, it's all just incredible, roger, your background I meant my goodness. Author of seven actions of highly effective advocates, you have your own podcast, voices of Advocacy. You're a knit me line. You've been on Voices in Advocacy, voices in Advocacy, and you've been on major, major television shows. What a career. What a career. Would you mind just for a moment because I know you did not just fall into that seat Something tells me that there's a journey that led you to where you are today. If you would take us through that and tell me how you ended up where you are and why you're so passionate about what you do.
Speaker 3:I grew up in a very loving family, very fortunate but I grew up in a lower middle class family. But I had a friend and that friend was Jeff Cox, and Jeff was a few years older than me and Jeff got involved in helping political candidates in their campaigns At 13,. But might I add, when you said my size, at 13 and at six foot three, I started working on political campaigns and I did all the hard work. I did the door to door, the knocking on the doors, the pounding the pavement, the standing in front of industrial complexes, going into football games on Friday night and handing out political buttons and brochures and asking for support. And I learned an awful lot about the grassroots of political campaigns, the literally looking people in the eye and asking them for the vote and listening to them. I did that for everybody I could possibly do it for and it was a wonderful experience. And I got to know a different level of people not better, but a different level of people, people that wanted to give back, people that wanted to be involved in public service, people that wanted to participate daily in our government. And, of course, by the time I was 18, I thought I know how to do this. So what I did at 18 and a half years old it was shortly after we changed the national voting age from 21 to 18.
Speaker 3:And I ran, at 18 and a half years old, for a local, little local position in the state of Pennsylvania, and the guy I ran against had been in office longer than I had been on earth. And I took a toll. And I went and did what I learned. I knocked on doors, I listened to people, I went and asked them for a vote. As you can tell, I'm not necessarily a young man, but this was in the 70s and this was at a time when a lot of older people were saying what's going on with this generation? They're going to hell in a handbasket. Look at what's happened in the late 60s. They're not supporting the war, they're in the drugs, peace, love, all those things that that generation didn't think were the right place to be at the right time. And I looked them in the eye and I said I'm in your community, I'm one of you, I want to be a part of this community and I want to be a part of the solution and not the problem. So if you ever want to prove that young people deserve a chance. This is your opportunity to vote for me. I ask you for your vote. If you need help, I'll take you. I was wonderfully and pleasantly surprised with the outcome because I won by five votes. There were about 3000 votes cast and in fact back in the day they would post the result on a paper sheet outside of each of the different precincts that and there were eight precincts and we in the rain that night, late at night, ran around and we're looking at the numbers with flashlights, looking at the sheets and totaling them up, and we thought we made a mistake and we had to go back and do the whole thing all over again because I thought I probably lost and there's no way that I won. But I won and I was rewarded two years later with another victory. This is all while I was still in school and a proud Dittany lion from Penn State and worked on those campaigns. I was gracious that one of the guys that I helped get elected to the state senate early on in this process afforded me an opportunity to work for him in the state senate and be a part of that in Pennsylvania and Harrisburg the capital there. And boy, you learn an awful lot when you're in those, those shoes, those places.
Speaker 3:I worked on presidential campaigns. I was the chairman of a group called the presidentials, which was a group of young people supporting President Ford, and that wasn't easy in light of everything that was going on, but had a wonderful opportunity to go to the national convention. Funny story, and I'll end with this I competed and I know you're based in Texas. They had a competition among all of the 50 state leaders of the presidential who could bring the most young people to Kansas City to the convention to support it. Now here, pennsylvania is on the east coast, kansas City is in the center of the state. I finished second in the country the taxes, wow. And with that you were given different rewards. One of the rewards were that there were certain members of the cabinet. You got to spend a day at the convention with all day. I got to spend the day with the secretary of treasury, william Simon.
Speaker 3:At the same time there was a young gentleman, an up-and-comer in Pennsylvania that was running for the US Senate seat by the name of John Hines, of the Hines catch-up pickle dynasty, if you will.
Speaker 3:Great guy worked on his campaign for him in Pennsylvania and we're one of the evening functions at the convention and I'm standing there and John Hines walks over and he was a tall gentleman, very stately, good-looking guy, should have been the president of the United States tragically died in an airplane accident.
Speaker 3:But John Hines is standing there and William Simon walks by, the secretary of the treasury and John Hines wants to show off and John Hines says hold on, roger, let me introduce you to the secretary of the treasury. William Simon puts his hand out and says Roger, didn't we have a great time together on Monday, okay, and just having all those things. You know, we grew up in a very blue-collar town, hardworking, a railroad capital, a place called Altoona, Pennsylvania, and to have those experiences and be around those people and realize that they put their pants on the same way I do, one leg at a time, they've got to do everything else that I have to do in life and that opens your eyes and that awakens you the possibilities that exist out there. And it took off from there, my friend.
Speaker 2:What a journey. That's why I asked the question. I mean exactly. You just proved once again that if you will listen to somebody's story, there are so many incredible nuggets that help them, seeds that were planted that help them get to where they are today, and you just outlined several of those. If you don't mind, can I pick some of those out for people?
Speaker 3:Sure whatever you like Before you go down that road. If you don't mind me making a comment, aaron has incredible stories and incredible background and things that I look at him and I look at the journey that he took and I am in awe of everything that you've accomplished in your journey and I wanted to pull that out for the people that are listening to your podcast.
Speaker 2:You're very kind, roger, thank you. Roger mentioned that he started very young. By the way, I really am impressed. I was not that ambitious at 18 years old. I would tell you that I was probably doing good to find my way down the hallway of a school at 18 before I graduated. So, roger, that's impressive. But one of the things I like about this podcast, by the way, and the reason that I wanted to hone in on some of these things, is I like to use the quote from Abraham Lincoln, where Lincoln said the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
Speaker 2:I like to talk about agriculture, that I tell people that if agriculture has taught me anything, it's taught me.
Speaker 2:If you want to know what the future is, grow it.
Speaker 2:You already, we just started and you've already given us some incredible seeds and, if you don't mind, I want to pick some of those out for the listeners, because this broadcast goes across classrooms all across the United States, all across Texas, and I want them to hear what you said at 18 years old, listening is doing something not only with your ears but with your eyes, and you were listening and you were looking for an opportunity to 18 years old.
Speaker 2:You said I'll start down here. You didn't say I'm entitled to be up here. You said I'm going to start down here. I was lucky to start down there, but you did. And as a result of starting there, and as a result of going back to what I said about listening, listening and listening, by the way, look at what you did. Success begets success, and so your path started, and then one success led to another success, which led to another professional network, which led to another professional network, and I've got to believe that those early seeds that you planted, the mentors that poured into your life along that way, helped grow you into this incredible career that you have today.
Speaker 3:One of the lessons that I learned at that age was to be gracious and I watched people. William Simon's background, if you don't know, and you go look it up on the Google machine William Simon's background was absolutely very different than my background and I'll leave it at that, but yet he had the graciousness to spend the day with me, to learn a little bit more about me, to spend the time listening both eyes and ears, and those things taught me and listening. John Heinz's background is very different than my background and because the Heinz dynasty began in like the 1850s, here we were in the 1970s, 120 years later, and so you know he grew up with privilege and with money and with every opportunity in the world presented to him in the way that we look at those Certainly right, the way we look at those and I had a very different upbringing and yet there was no differences. And we have. There's another lesson right there.
Speaker 2:There's another lesson right there. You just gave us another seed right there. If you're listening and looking and paying attention, you can learn from even the people that are closest to you, not the ones just because they're on a podium. Sometimes you can learn from the people. Like you said, you spend a day with the guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and one of the most interesting things is that you learn truly who they are when you close the door. And it's a long, long story and I won't get into it, but one of the people that I had admired well, two of them, one that I had admired I learned when you close the door that I really should admire them. And someone else who I admired was maybe even better when you close the door that's beautiful right there, and that lesson then teaches you you got to be you, you got to be real, and we can accept anybody else, everybody's personalities and little quirks about them and everything else, if you know that they're real and that they care.
Speaker 2:That's good. I love that. By the way, I wrote that down. I mean I love. That's the reason why I love these, like I said, these podcasts. There's just all these little words of wisdom. Be even better when you close the door. Yeah, that's powerful, that's powerful. All right, roger, let's talk about a little bit, and we're going to get into just a little bit more here about how we met and all that. But I want to kind of tee that up with this and I'm teeing that up with with an analogy that I hope that everybody that's listening, especially our young people, will understand there in.
Speaker 2:I don't know about Arizona. You're located in Arizona and I'm not sure in Arizona, how many high schools are? In Arizona, the state of Texas, there's over 3000 high schools. Now let that sink in for a second. 3000 high schools, that means they all have a graduating class this year. All those kids are going to get out. They're going to be looking for a job, a scholarship or an opportunity. Ask the kids all the time. The question is this what's your competitive edge? What separates you from the competition? Roger, if you were talking to an ag teacher or a teacher or to a young person right now in the terms of advocacy. How can advocacy provide you a competitive edge that will stand out when you get out in the real world, start looking for a job or a scholarship or an opportunity?
Speaker 3:It begins with the word you use, the word competitive. Competitive is competition. You know, you're not only competing with your own class when you step out into that world. You're competing with everybody who came before you. And, by the way, as soon as you're out there, you're starting to compete with the people that came after you.
Speaker 3:So one of the things that you have to do is you have to learn a number of different skill sets. There's a ton of them, but one of the things that I think that you need to learn is you need to learn to be a gracious listener. You need to learn to take an opportunity that is presented to you. Nothing is beneath you. You know, some of the greatest leadership lessons that I've learned is watching people serve others when they should have been served, and you've got to take those opportunities.
Speaker 3:And, first of all, it's being a self-advocate and standing up for yourself. It's knowing that you have a voice, knowing that you can communicate, and if you can't, you have to learn that skill. You must be able to communicate, and we've talked about listening with eyes and ears. Part of communication is that listening process and, by listening and being able to ask the follow-up question, being able to dive a little bit deeper, showing concern for somebody else, asking about them and not being selfish, that it's all about you. Those things begin the seeds to continue to grow and learn, and the more you learn, the more you grow, the more you realize that you haven't learned anything yet.
Speaker 2:All right, you're such a great guest, roger, you're teaing these subjects right. I mean this is beautiful. I mean you're taking us right where we want to go next. So teachers in Texas are familiar with our lead program. So we created this program in Texas called the lead program. It became the lead experience. The lead experience gave way through to the legislative lead program where we bring teachers from all career technical education programs to Austin to help them become the trusted advisor to their elected official. We try to give them those advocacy skills to become a trusted advisor to their elected officials.
Speaker 2:Now I want people to kind of know why Roger's here and how Roger and I got to know each other. My colleagues across the country. We formed an organization called lead leadership executives of agricultural and FFA development. So all the development officers from across the United States we got together, we formed this organization and we have our own professional development summit. We were in Arizona going through our professional development summit.
Speaker 2:The Texas FFA Foundation staff and I are sitting in the back of the room. This big guy with the bow tie walks in, he's up there with a couple senators and he starts sharing this pathway of advocacy to development officers. And I'm sitting back there shaking my head, going Yep, yep, yep, y'all. I hope everybody's taking notes. Yep, what he just said. Y'all need to be doing so. As a result of that, this last year at the Texas FFA or at a foundation legislative lead program, roger was our kickoff speaker and he came in and he shared some incredible insights on advocacy. Roger, I know you've got a whole book. Obviously we don't have time for the audio version. Can we do the cliff note version and could you walk us through, walk these kids through, walk these teachers through some steps in advocacy that if you could share with them where they could come in their classroom, walk out of their classroom, what steps in advocacy would you share with them?
Speaker 3:Well, we're talking about the seven actions of highly effective advocates, okay, and there are actions and not steps, purposely because there isn't a roadmap that says you start with this step and you put the left foot in front of the right foot and you keep moving forward. It's taking actions, and one of the things that I tell people an awful lot is find the actions that make you feel the most comfortable with and begin with those actions. You don't have to do seven, you can do one, you can do two, you can do three, you can work your way through. But in outlining those actions and I'll do that real quickly here in a second the first of the seven actions of highly effective advocates is that you must believe. You must believe that the action that you're going to take can make a difference.
Speaker 3:Listen, if I didn't believe, at 18 and a half years old, walking the streets, knocking on doors, asking for votes, that I even had a chance in the world, even if I went through the physical activity of doing it, I would have never come across and communicated in a way that I meant what I was doing. But when you walk up to the door, you knock on the door, you look someone in the eye, you shake their hand, you tell them why you're there, you ask them what matters to them, you show them the concern and then you tell them that you want to be a part of that solution. You must believe that you're going to make that. And that's the first of the seven actions of highly effective advocates, and I'll just list the rest of them.
Speaker 3:You've got to be informed. So, by listening to this podcast or listening to other podcasts, by participating, by reading, by staying up to date on what's going on, do your research. But I'm going to warn you that research has to be real. You need to know exactly where it's coming from, because there are a lot of people out there trying to let's use the football term juke and fake you along the way to get you to go down a path that is not realistic and not real. It's not true.
Speaker 2:Roger, are you telling me that chat GPT and AI would do that? Surely not.
Speaker 3:Not just chat GPT and AI but maybe a little bit of social media pressure being put on people that are responding and wanting to feel like they're a part of the crowd. You've got to be really careful. You've got to know your sources and you've got to rely on sources that have been around for a long time, that are trustworthy. But I want to add this they need to be divergent. Don't stay in a silo. That is only one silo, one ideology, one way of thinking. And, if we boil it down to the simplicity, if you're watching TV and you've got different table news shows to watch, don't watch one. Flip around and in fact I do this as my wife crazy, but I do this to where I will flip around right at that same time because I wanna know if there's a big breaking story, are they covering it all or are they doing something different and why are they doing something different? And you start to understand then who their audience is. Listen, they're business and they're following their audience.
Speaker 3:But by knowing that, you don't buy in necessarily to every word that's being said by everybody all the time. So, but be informed. And then, once you're informed on things, don't be afraid to discuss issues. But when you discuss issues, make sure that you're asking questions about the issues, make sure that you have thought it through and know what you can do with that. So that's actually the third of the seven actions. Another one, which is simple, which is really all about advocacy, is getting on the record. Why are you gonna communicate that? What story are you gonna tell? Where are you gonna tell it? How are you gonna tell it and when are you gonna tell it? But here's one that people forget, and this is one that's great for your teachers Be a resource.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Be a resource to the student but, more importantly, be a resource to other stakeholders that are out there that need to know and understand A what you're going through as the teacher in the classroom. What do you need, how do you need it and what is the outcome of what you do? Why?
Speaker 1:is it?
Speaker 3:important that you do what you do the way you do it.
Speaker 2:That is good, Keep going.
Speaker 2:I don't want me to interrupt you, but I was gonna say I hope that students and teachers, both here and there are a lot of good nuggets here, but I'm telling you that one right there when it comes to agriculture, when it comes to agricultural education, when it comes to FFA, when it comes to career technical education, when it comes to career technical student organizations and CTSOs what Roger just shared with us, that should be our flag, that we say this is the state we're putting in the ground. So when people see that, they know this is where you come from, that information.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right, and don't be afraid I often use this analogy People sometimes have a fear of being an advocate when it comes to government affairs, going to their state senator, their state rep, or to the governor's office or, at the national level, of being in Washington and meeting with US senators. They kind of have this fear. Well, maybe they know more than I do, aloney. They know about this much, and I'm talking about an inch high but miles wide, of all kinds of issues you walk in and what you do every day, day in and day out, it may only be this wide on inch wide, but it's miles high. You know more in most cases than they know.
Speaker 3:So, by walking in but being gracious and saying, listen, I can't expect you to know and understand everything about what we do and how we do it. But with that, how can we be a resource to you, so that when there's a piece of legislation that comes up, when someone wants to do something different than what has been done in the past, think about how is it going to affect our constituency, our core group, our teachers, our students, the people that are gonna build the future of agriculture that feeds the world? What are we gonna do Be a resource. Tell them I'm here to help you navigate that and, by the way, I'm not gonna know every answer, but, boy, I sure know people that can get the right answer to you. And you come to me and I'll find that pathway for you.
Speaker 3:That's being a resource, which, by the way, is the fifth of the seven actions of highly effective agriculture and the final two, but makes sense and it's kinda how I started this off. Six is volunteer At 13,. I started the volunteer for our community, for others, but you know what that became? That became my classroom.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I like that.
Speaker 3:By giving back. I walked into a classroom of learning how to do this. I didn't go to a book and sit down and say how do you run for elected office. I walked the streets. I learned day in and day out exactly what to do, how to communicate, how to reach out, not to be afraid to knock on those doors, because that's what I did for others and volunteerism becomes one of the great classrooms in the world and I highly encourage everybody to volunteer. Not only that you're giving back, but I will tell you you will get so much more than what you ever gave If you view it through that prism and finally contribute.
Speaker 3:Now that contribute can be money, but not everybody is gonna have the money or thinks it's the right thing to do with that. But contribute to the causes that you care about, contribute to the organizations you care about, condition to the candidates that you believe in. But if you can't contribute with money, there's time which ties it right back to volunteer. And those are the seven actions of highly effective advocate. Actions, not steps. Do whatever works for you first.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, I gotta be honest with you. I didn't know that I was gonna get this out of, roger, but I just wanna say, roger, thank you because, in all honesty, what you just shared was what I was hoping that we would get, because I think that you've done a brilliant job of capturing some really big topics with seven key strategies that are not hard to do, and I love the way you said that it's a matter of taking action, and I hope our young people heard that. One of our great sponsors, carlos Guerra, from the Rio Grande Valley. He says nobody's ever drowned in their own sweat. There's a lot of truth to that. You started your journey with hard work, knocking on doors, being willing to jump out there, and then these advocacy action steps were just that they are action steps. So I just wanna say thank you for sharing those, because that, to be honest with you, Roger, that's really what I was hoping you were gonna share.
Speaker 3:So I gotta share a little story. The seven actions the leave was the last of the seven in the original list Because I wanted people to go through the actions they could do and then wrap it in the bowl with the leave. And I'm sitting in an audience at a luncheon in which I was going to keynote and I'm sitting beside the mayor of Salem, oregon, as I was in the capital of the state of Oregon for statewide association and the person that invited me had known me for years and in the course of the conversation over lunch, before I spoke, the mayor turned to me and said how come you're not running for office now? And I said you know, I did that when I was young. And I tell the story about running at 18 1 1⁄2 years old.
Speaker 3:And the lady beside me who I had already known for maybe 15 years, said to me Roger, I never knew that. So she gets up to introduce me and she said I just learned something at lunch that I'm gonna make him share with the entire audience that I never knew about him because he was being humble about what he accomplished at an age and I felt awkward about it at first and then I wrapped in the believe thing, that you've got to believe that you can make a difference. And I show that in. One of the examples is by running at 18 1⁄2 and by running against somebody who had been in the office longer than I had been on earth, and by doing that and by learning that lesson, people came up to me and said that's, you're right, you've got to believe. So as I finally put the bow around the book of the seven actions, I really felt now believe has to be the first thing. You have to walk in with that belief that whatever you're doing, you're trying to make that difference. There you have it.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I just there's so much I mean listen, I hate these. This is one thing I don't like about podcasts, because you got to kind of keep them within a little bit of time, because I'm telling you my mind right now. There's so many other questions and we may have to come back and do a part two. Roger, just giving you a heads up. This has just been great. All right, speed round for me here. Real quick Speed round leadership young person sitting right now. Leadership development Roger. Three tips, if you could tell a young person right now. Here are three leadership tips. Put them in place in your life, water them, plant them, nurture them, grow them. What are they?
Speaker 3:Listen, learn and empower others. Wow, I mean, we focused on listening an awful lot and I got to tell you that's the hardest skill to learn.
Speaker 2:Well, you're. I mean just, I love the empower others. By the way, you know, you and I have talked before and I've said life's not a solo project. We weren't created to be the lone ranger. None of us is as strong as all of us I'm, at the end of the day. How much stronger is our advocacy?
Speaker 3:Well, I know, I know football is big in Texas.
Speaker 3:Okay, let me give you a great football now. Okay, you go to a football camp and a coach will sit there and tell you to fit on the ground and then you'll put the next person and have them sit behind them, back to back on the ground. Look at it face in opposite, back to back, and say now get up without using your hands, and together, if you push your backs together, you can both stand up. Then a football coach said brings a third person in and puts them in a little bit of a triangle, all back to back, and says work together without using your hands to get up, and the three of them can push up, then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the tenth. Now you're paying people together, working together, and all 10 can stand without using their hands. And then the coach whispers to the next one, don't help. So now you have 11 people that are on a football team and that one person doesn't help. All 11 can't get up. None of them can get up. Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:What an incredible object lesson Very powerful, that is powerful.
Speaker 3:So you all have to row the boat. You know what's the old nursery Row row. Row your boat gently down the stream Doesn't say row the boat up the stream, no, Just row it down the stream.
Speaker 2:Well, roger, thank you. Today. I mean, we've blown through this. That's how good this was. The reality of our world is we need young people that can embrace this incredible gift they've been given, to embrace this world and the blessing of America, a blessing of a land of opportunity. By the way, I hope people are hearing we're not talking about a state or a country without problems. Never said that. What we are saying, though, is that we have incredible, incredible freedom and liberty to pursue happiness, to pursue capitalism, to pursue a better way, if you don't like where you're at, change it.
Speaker 3:Pursue your dreams.
Speaker 2:Yeah to yeah, not have to live somebody else's. Roger, I remember when I was state FFA president in 1985, I remember seeing pictures of kids caught in the fence between East and West Berlin being shot to death because they wanted freedom. They wanted the chance to whine about not going to church or to whine about what I had to eat. And I'm sitting here thinking we live in a land where we can choose what we want to eat, choose what sport we want to play, choose what job we want. We have so much to be grateful for.
Speaker 3:And you know and I know you've heard me say this before, but I think it's important Our constitution begins with we, the people. It doesn't begin with either King or we, the Congress, or me, the president. It begins with we, the people. We were endowed in this country to have a voice, to have a say, to participate. So I know this goes out to the people that are teaching others, but it also goes out to young people. I please encourage you. The number one civic duty in this country is to participate by voting. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I never would Do your homework, do the proper research, but cast your vote, because, if not, you've given away a right that Aaron just indicated that others around the world have died to try to have that right, and you were born with it and I want to keep it, and so should you.
Speaker 2:That's enough, roger, thank you, thank you, thank you. That is so good. Okay, y'all, here's the thing In the comments, we'll make sure that you have access to Roger's website, his podcast. Take advantage of that, of being able to find out more about Roger, to order his book, to learn more about advocacy. I encourage you. He's got a really he's got a great platform and he explains it in a way where, just like this, it's digestible. So I want to encourage you to do that. Sure, as we get ready to wrap up, every guest gets one last fun question, so you get one last fun question, roger, what's the best concert you ever been to?
Speaker 3:When I was young, the best one I ever went to was Kiss.
Speaker 2:Oh, you saw Kiss.
Speaker 3:Because they were wild, they were crazy, they had pyrotechnics, they dressed up, they had the makeup, they had great songs. I went to rock and roll all day, party all night. But now, as an adult, I went and saw Adele and Adele's voice is like listening to God saying Wow Well, that's an endorsement right there.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, it's funny. You said that. Yeah, I'm a child of the 70s, so I grew up on Kiss. I loved Kiss and, to your point, I remember that was my first rock and roll album that I ever own. So anyway, roger, I want to tell you how much I've enjoyed getting to know you and how much I appreciate your willingness to pour into other people. There's a lot of things you could have been doing today, but the fact that you came on this podcast and the fact that you were willing to share your insights you are what we talk about. I mean, you are planting trees under who shade. You may never know who knows that because of what you said today, some young person may say you know what? I have a right to vote, I have a responsibility. It's not up to a committee, it's not up to a dictator. It's up to me to cast a vote, and that vote could make the difference, as whom my grandkids president is. So I just want you to know how much I value what you have done for us today.
Speaker 3:That was my first victory. We're going to leave it right there.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for stopping by the growing our future podcast Again. We enjoy the podcast. We love just bringing incredible guests. Today was no different, roger, thank you, thank you, thank you until we meet again. Everybody, go out there and do something extraordinary for somebody else and remember if you want to know what the future is, you can do it. If you want to know what the future is, grow it, grow it. Thanks, roger.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Aaron Enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the growing, our future podcast. This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. Learn more at mytexasffaorg.