The Talk

In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro interviews Dale Alexander, a certified financial planner and author. They discuss the importance of gratitude, passion, and purpose in life. Dale shares his journey of personal growth and how he became passionate about financial planning. They also discuss the power of giving and serving others, and how it can bring fulfillment and success. Dale's book, 'The Talk,' is highlighted as a valuable resource for young adults to make wise financial decisions and create a prosperous future.

Dale Alexander has poured inspiration into others for 30 years. As a well-known employee benefits broker and Certified Financial Planner, Dale also combines his passion for living with speaking opportunities to impact others’ lives and attitudes.

His stages have included numerous corporations, association conferences, school convocations and numerous media outlets.

Story Notes:

🎙️ The Power of Purpose and Growth

🎙️ Dale's Journey and the Importance of Studying

🎙️ The Talk: Wise Financial Decisions for Young Adults

🎙️ The Importance of Mentors and Pouring into Others

🎙️ Creating Opportunities and Determining the Outcome

🎙️ The Beach Boys and the Power of Music

🎙️ Wrapping Up and the Impact of Planting Seeds

Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

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, Aaron Alejandro.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast. Hey, listen. Number one, thank you for stopping by. And number two, let us say this we enjoy bringing the podcast to you. You know, we say all the time in the world of agriculture if it's taught us anything, it's taught us. If you want to know what the future is, grow it.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Well, how do you grow a future? Well, you've got to put the right seeds in the ground, you've got to take care of it, you've got to make sure you keep the weeds out and the pest out and the negativity out. You know, sometimes you even got to kind of build a fence around a little bit to protect it from unwanted guests. Point is, at the end of the day, you want to grow something that you can harvest, something that nurtures you, that you can share and grow others. And that's what this podcast is about Seeds of Greatness, and we try to look out for the best guests we can find. We said who do we? I tell people all the time, if you want to be the best, train with the best. Well, we're always on the lookout for great guests, and today we have found another one. I've been looking at his background and I don't even know where to start. Professional certified financial planner, author, speaker, motivator, encourager, all-around good guy. Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to welcome Dale Alexander to the show. Dale, thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 2:04

Thank you very much, Aaron. So glad to be with you all. That's an introduction right there. I got to live up to that.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Thank you. I have no doubt that you will. More importantly, dale, I know that you're going to share some incredible seeds of greatness and we're going to try to share those and get them planted and grow an even greater tomorrow. When we start our podcast, dale, we like to start with the same question. Okay, every guest gets the same question, and I think it's just a healthy place to start from, and that is Dale, what are you grateful for today?

Speaker 3: 2:42

That's a great question, by the way, you grateful for today? That's a great question, by the way, because I heard this one time the more we have, the harder it becomes to be grateful for it. So that's a great question that you ask and I'll say this is after my God, after my family and after my friends, and I don't say that lightly. I'll just take those top three out and say, but after my God, after my family and after my friends, which I'm unbelievably grateful for, I would say I'm grateful for a passion for what I do.

Speaker 3: 3:13

All of my life I've just I've had a I'm little, but I'm I've had just had a passion for everything that I do. For I'll have a passion for my marriage, for my children. I fell in love with what I couldn't stop thinking about when I was a young adult. I loved the study of my job and I just fell in love with it and I don't know why God just threw that in my heart. And so all of my career, in my life, I've just kind of been known as very passionate about my life and what I do in my life for my life.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Dale, I knew this was going to be a great interview. Everything that Dale just said I agree with. I'm the same way we like to say you know. Again, I like to use agricultural analogies, and one that we like to use is when you're green, you grow, when you're ripe, you rot. So we don't want to quit growing, and so growing requires us to know that we have a purpose. Amen, that's right. You know, we all. I hope everybody that's listening to this has a birthday. I bet they do. I bet everybody listening to the podcast has a birthday. And what happened on that day is we entered this world and we took an inhale, and one day when our purpose and maybe passion is complete, we're all going to exhale. So sometimes, when we stop and just remember all that we have to be grateful for our family, our friends, everything. It just makes us a little more energetic about the future.

Speaker 3: 4:49

That's exactly right. I heard someone once say remember that someone is praying for the things that we take for granted.

Speaker 3: 5:00

And isn't that so true that we can? Just we start taking things for granted, and certainly in this country. We have so much in this country and we have to at some point stand back and realize there are people all over that don't have what we're blessed to have and they're praying for these things that we just tend to take for granted. And I always say be grateful for at least one thing every day, and to verbally say it out, to verbally say it out loud, because it does become easy to be grateful for things the more we have and forget those things at times.

Speaker 2: 5:32

But anyway, Tell you what we could probably do a whole podcast on this topic alone.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Amen, we'll run off on a rabbit trail here. That's okay. Listen, that's okay. I tell people. I said February 6, 1966, I came into this world and y'all wrapped me in an incredible blanket. It was a blanket of freedom and liberty and opportunity, and you said we're going to grow you here. This is where you get to grow up. And I've just never forgot that. I thought how lucky am I to be here when I remember seeing pictures of kids caught in the fence between East and West Berlin and to see people, like you said, that prayed, prayed, to complain about all the things that we're blessed to have abundance with. So I love what you just shared. I wrote it down. The harder it is to be grateful for. If I could say something, real quick.

Speaker 3: 6:35

I was at a men's conference one time and they said give us the first word that comes to your mind when we say these things. And they said race and the men said exciting. And the men said competitive. And they said run. And they said you know validation and fast. And then they said this word, walk. And the men said slow, boring. And there was a man in the back that had severe cystic fibrosis and he says thankful. Think about this. I'm not grateful when I covet somebody's job, when I want their car, when I want their this, when I want their house, and he's grateful for the ability to walk. It puts new perspective on the things that we take for granted and realize that not everyone is that fortunate. So that's a great question to start with, love it, it's going to be fun. Hang on Well where that came from.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Just to give you a reference point, where that came from is one of our mutual connections is Tom Ziegler, the son of the late great Zig Ziegler, and Tom and I were talking about gratefulness and how it makes you feel. You know, gratefulness makes you feel energetic, hopeful. There's a lot of emotion, positive emotions, that come with gratefulness. He was on the East Coast talking to some kids at a university and he asked them what is the opposite of gratitude? And the room got quiet and they're all struggling and he finally said the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. Give it to me. That's not fair, that's mine. And he said watch what happens to the attitude when we go from being grateful to feeling entitled. So when we start a podcast, when we start our days, we can start our families and jumpstart our lives with an attitude of gratitude. Something tells me you look for the good, you look for the opportunities and you look for the good.

Speaker 3: 8:44

It's the difference in that or that.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Ooh there he goes. All right, y'all, here we go. So Dale and I had an opportunity to be part of a project with James McClam called Igniting the Next Generation, and I got to watch Dale and then I started following Dale. And I got to watch Dale and then I started following Dale and every time he posts a picture, every time he posts something, he's always smiling, the people around him are smiling, everybody's engaged, and I said I got to get this guy on the podcast, started digging a little deeper, found out former FFA member, and I said this is getting more and more perfect. So today we have the man, like I said author, certified financial planner. I meant this guy's got an incredible resume, but I don't want to talk about it. I want him to talk about it. Dale, I know you did not just fall into that chair that you're in. Something tells me there was a journey that's led you to where you're at. They'll walk us through that. How did you end up where you're at and why are you so passionate about what you do?

Speaker 3: 9:53

So great. This is a fascinating story. When I started my career, I was driving, started my company. I was driving about an hour and a half each way in Atlanta to where I was officing in south of Atlanta, and so I was going to be in the car for about three hours every day. And I made a decision. I don't know why I was blessed. God just slung in my heart a desire for growth, I don't know why. I looked at everybody on the road next to me on the interstate just sitting there, stop and go, and I said I can either have my mind just rot, like you said, or I can have it grow. And, aaron, I don't know why I chose growth. So I went around. This was I was about 24 years old and I went around to every library that you could go to around Atlanta, for about 30 miles all around the perimeter, and I would go in every library and I would go get these cassette series. Young adults Google what a cassette is, but I would go in libraries and get these because I remember pulling physically. I remember pulling them off. Guys like Jim Ziegler, jim Rohn, brian Tracy, earl Nightingale Let me just name them, les Brown I've listened to all of them and listen to this For five years, for five years sitting them, and I've listened to all of them and I would dictate notes into a microphone and my secretary would type everything up and for five years this poured into my brain.

Speaker 3: 11:35

It changed my marriage, it changed the culture of my company. It changed my friends. As John Maxwell says, the more you grow, the more your friends change, because you want it. It changed everything about my life. It gave me positivity, it gave me energy, it gave me listen, hope. It gave me hope. The second thing that and it gave me, by the way, an excitement and a path for success that was almost guaranteed in whatever I was going to do. There's a whole nother talk on that we can come back to. The second thing is I studied what I did.

Speaker 3: 12:17

If you're a young adult going into business, you're going to go into something. Study what you do, and I was fanatical about studying. I'll just tell you my story. I love the study of what to do with money. I just had a love, a passion for studying what to do with money and it landed in my heart and I loved reading about it. I loved listening to speakers about it, I loved studying it and I loved taking what my craft, my job, and trying to be the best at it I could be. Because here's the truth as you go out to begin work, no one really cares what you think. And I said study what the customer does. Study and build what you're going to build, as my pastor says, from an outsider's perspective, not an insider's. And so I started. I loved, I was passionate about this and all these speakers poured into my mind. See, when I left high school, I realized that most people did not care whether I was successful or not.

Speaker 3: 13:20

My mama did, but she just wanted me off payroll. But most people did not care about whether I was successful or not. When I left high school that was over. So I just said I'm going to study what I do. We'll talk more about that, because very few people do that and want to be great at what they're doing. So those are two things. It was a desire for growth and it changed everything about my life. Most importantly, it changed my marriage and my parenting. And the second thing was a study of what I was going to do in my work.

Speaker 2: 13:53

And that led you to become a certified financial planner. You became an author, a very accomplished author Then you. I guess that led to speaking, or speaking led to authorship, and FFA was part of your journey too. Is that correct? Sure was.

Speaker 3: 14:13

Sure, was Sifonia Josie. I've never forget that name, sifonia. Mr Sifonia Josie was my FFA teacher in Vianna. I'm from South Georgia, small towns, you know 2,500 people. You know you get a wrong number and you'd still talk for 20 minutes to somebody right on the phone. So I'm in South Georgia, very, very agricultural. All of my friends were farmers, my dad was the school superintendent, and so Sifonia Jose is my FFA teacher and he taught me how to apply myself to whatever it was I was going to do, because I could be a little bit of a cut up now in high school. I don't know if you'd realize it, but I could be a little bit of a jokester, a little bit of a joker. So attention span. And he'd say, alexander, look, if you just apply yourself, you can be great at what you want to do. I'll never forget Siphonia Josie, my FFA, feeling that corduroy jacket too.

Speaker 2: 15:06

Yep AgScience. We're very fortunate to have an incredible group of agricultural science teachers who take on that role of being that advisor. And then, like you said, kind of serving as that mentor, kind of craft some folks and their dreams and their direction, and not just in agriculture. Look at you, look at me. We had different career paths, but that's okay.

Speaker 3: 15:31

The principles still apply.

Speaker 2: 15:33

Absolutely. That's what I tell people.

Speaker 3: 15:34

Principles still apply with pigs or hogs or cows. The principles still apply to do rocks or whatever it is you're studying.

Speaker 2: 15:40

So people ask me all the time, dale, I've done this for 24 years as a development officer and we've raised millions of dollars, millions, and I'll never forget it. Somebody asked me. They said, aaron, how do you do it? And I said it's real easy. I said, when people ask me, what is it that separates our kids from everybody else, we get to say something that no other program gets to say, and that is this In the, the world of agriculture, if we don't do our job, something dies.

Speaker 3: 16:08

Wow let that sink in, so in the world of agriculture.

Speaker 2: 16:13

When you can instill that in a young person at an early age, where they know that what they do, whether it is a plant, whether it is an animal, but what they do depends on the life of that thing, that's something they'll carry every place they go for the rest of their life. It becomes a core value, which is why I believe folks like you and so many others excel in life because there's a core value there of something bigger than yourself, and you're just another great example of that, by the way. So thank you.

Speaker 3: 16:47

It's interesting having all of my friends who are farmers in South Georgia. I'm in Atlanta very not farming where I am. I, more than any of my friends, appreciate rain. I always notice rain. I always wonder how are my friends doing them? I always wonder was that too much rain to harvest peanuts? Was that, you know? Is it too dry, is it? I look at irrigation. You know ponds and I always noticed that because I grew up around that and I know how serious that is and the faith and the faith and the determination it takes to be in farming. It's fascinating the faith you have to have.

Speaker 2: 17:32

Dale, I want to jump into a topic here that's kind of synonymous with your brand, by the way, and you know I tell the kids all the time. Anybody that follows me on social media knows I go by the handle Live your Brand, because I believe that what you share, comment on, like and what you do on social media becomes the brand that people know you by. That's right, and I kind of know your brand. So I want to dive into your brand a little bit here if you don't mind. You wrote this book and this book has really spurred a lot of conversation and, more importantly, it's very. People are going to find out very quickly why I'm bringing this topic up, because you're very passionate about this topic.

Speaker 2: 18:15

But you wrote this book called the Talk and, as a matter of fact, I gave it to my son and said hey, by the way, I think I'm going to have the author, dale Alexander, on. I said I'd love to. You know, grab that copy so I can. I think he took it to school with him when I said grab the copy of the book, there it is, right there, the Talk. I think he took it to school with him when I said grab the copy of the book. There it is right. There the talk. Dale, tell us a little bit about the backstory, why it's so important and what you would hope viewers, listeners, would get if they would just grab it, study it, plant those seeds of the concepts of the book book, and what kind of harvest they will generate. Tell us a little bit about the talk.

Speaker 3: 19:01

All right, let me try and keep this under three minutes. I can do this. I can do that, all right. So I've been a certified financial planner. That's not what I do we do insurance brokerage but it's what I've studied for 30 some odd years the study of money. And I'm always talking to my kids about money. And three years ago, november of 19, my middle child said Dad, you need to tell all of our friends this story, this principle. And so I said get them all in my conference room, at the office, this room I'm standing right here. Four years ago told this story about money.

Speaker 3: 19:33

The book is called the Talk About Money, a Young Adult's Guide to the One Decision that Changes Everything and our young adults are about. If you're watching this, think back to when you were 18, 22, or if you have a young adult that's 16 to 24-ish, and you remember getting your first real job, that job you fill out, actually paperwork from a lady named Dottie. You remember that first real job and you're going to go from making basically nothing to the most money you've ever seen in your life, at least on a regular basis. When you get that first job paycheck, instead of taking all of it, stop and only take 70%. Make 70%, your 100. 70% of that first job paycheck is still going to be the most money you've ever seen in your life. You're at zero. Make 70, your 100. You don't have a standard of living established yet and whatever number 70 you accept as your standard, that becomes your reality. After two months you won't know. 70 is not a, that's just my hundred, it's just all I've ever known. And, by the way, the other 30, you invest 20% and you take 10% of it and give it away to the world. I don't care who you give it away to, I'll come back to that point. Give it away and here's the most important thing, I'll tell them.

Speaker 3: 20:53

This is why people read the book. They have one shot to make this happen, because if you take three of those first job paychecks, spending all 100% of it, you will never back down to 70. It's over and you will live life like most of America, which is broke, stressed, angry and anxious because of the weight of money, and you will not earn your way out of this problem. Most money problems are not problems about money. So I show a $36,000 starting salary out of high school to college. Every kid in the auditorium will achieve that. That's a normal starting salary in America. And if you make 70 or 100, you invest 20% and you give 10% away, you will have given away $437,000 and have 5.2 million on a $36,000 salary.

Speaker 3: 21:50

Look here it does not care what kind of family history you came from, it's a principle and principles don't care. It doesn't care I haven't said a thing about education. And it doesn't care what race, what faith or what country you're from. Money doesn't care. Anyone can be one of the wealthiest, most generous people in the world. It's just that the wealthy have a plan to have less going out than is coming in. And I've got the plan. I'll shut up now. No, I will talk for hours about this. No, keep going. Money's not hard. There's just a lot trying to make it impossible. And we talk about that.

Speaker 2: 22:30

What's interesting about what you just shared is, you know, I like to talk about the FFA jacket and I say you know, the thing I like about the FFA jacket that old blue, gold corduroy is it hugs whoever's inside. The jacket's never said I can't hug you because of the color of your skin or your religion or sexual or whatever we want to. The jacket just says come here, let me give you a hug. And here's an opportunity. Now think about what you just shared. You know a lot of people don't realize that within ag, science and FFA, our kids have to keep record books. We have to keep a record of our projects. So our kids are learning early on the importance of documentation of strategy, importance of documentation of strategy. But when you couple what that is with Dale's very simple roadmap to an incredible future, you have a competitive edge like no other. I guarantee there's not a lot of kids that will have this kind of wisdom, opportunity and tools at their disposal at an early age. Would you agree?

Speaker 3: 23:39

Amen, absolutely, one of the greatest parts of FFA, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 23:44

So I love it. By the way, there was a gentleman he's the largest individual donor in ffa history, by the way and, uh, they made a movie about him. Uh, val kilmer, um, uncle rico from napoleon dynamite, elaine hendricks from the parent trap, db sweeney they're all in this movie. It's called deep in the heart, and mr walrath, dick Walrath. Dick Walrath, who's a very, very dear friend, mr Walrath was an alcoholic and he lost everything. He lost his family, he lost everything, but he found his faith and when he found his faith, he began to turn his life around, his life around.

Speaker 2: 24:37

And one of the things that you shared, dale, that I want to share with you that Mr Walrath always says is he said, aaron, I've never been able to outgive God. He said God set me free and when he set me free, I feel like I'm always trying to pay it back. To date, he's given over $30 million to 4-H and FFA kids in the state of Texas. That's just in the state of Texas. He said, aaron, I'm never going to be able to give back. But he said, every time work got tough, every time the margin got thinner, every time we had to make some tough decisions, he said, I always gave some away and he said it never failed. When I did I was always blessed for doing so and that blessing just wasn't financial. Sometimes it was just a word of thanks and gratitude and appreciation at a time where you think you've got it bad and then you gave something to somebody and they say thank you, and you never know what that 10% that you're talking about. You never know what that 10% could do to change somebody's life.

Speaker 3: 25:46

You know, I believe that we should find our purpose in something greater than ourselves. I once heard a pastor, louis Giglio. He said if God answers your prayers today, will just your world benefit or will the whole world be better? And the greatest way to eliminate and I talk about this in the talk with kids, why would you give money? Why would you give money?

Speaker 3: 26:12

The greatest way to eliminate hopelessness and despair and anxiety and the things and anger and the people you may know somebody's dealing with it's to create a life that has meaning. It's through serving. It's becoming second to others. And when you have a purpose and you serve, everything about life gets new perspective. Kids dealing with you know bullying, depression, anxiety. Nothing corrects this like serving. It's becoming second and the world tells us to be first and we try and love ourselves by serving ourselves.

Speaker 3: 26:46

It's the world's greatest lie. Look, god puts something in our hearts. Our brain waves know this. You cannot place others first and have hopeless thoughts. It's physically impossible. Chemicals that get released in our dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins it's impossible to feel hopeless when you're giving hope and not being kind is just a complete lack of hope.

Speaker 3: 27:13

And social media, music, hollywood these things have people exactly where they want us. And social media and music and Hollywood these things have people exactly where they want us and we know that's not the answer. And people that can't figure out what do I give, what do I do? I just tell them this. My pastor said what breaks your heart? What breaks your heart in your world? If you're a young adult watching this and you just don't know where to start serving, where to start serving what breaks your heart? And then take the gifts you have and show somebody how much somebody loves them by how much you serve them, because the greatest among us served Coach Dabo Sweeney, the coach of Clemson. He said let the light shining in you be brighter than the light shining on you. Oh yeah, it's true. That is great.

Speaker 2: 27:58

Great, great quote. I took my son there, by the way, we were actually on the East Coast at a soccer camp and ID camp and we went to Clemson and you talk about just driving around in the culture of that campus. It's really phenomenal. You can feel it. You can feel it. You can feel it. Man, that is good stuff right there.

Speaker 2: 28:20

When I think about all this Dale, I think about you. Know, I can't speak for Georgia. Let me just tell you about Texas. So I like to ask the kids I said how many high schools are in the state of Texas? Never fail. Somebody say a lot. I'm like, yeah, there are a lot. There's over 3000 high schools in the state of Texas.

Speaker 2: 28:38

Now I said, now, think about that. Okay, stop and think about that. Every one of them are going to have a graduating class. That means there's going to be young people that are getting out right now. This year they're going to be looking for a job, a scholarship or an opportunity. And so my question to everybody is this what's your competitive edge? What separates you from everybody else? And I believe that the seeds of greatness, the things that we plant in life in those high school years and in those college years become the very things that will become the tools that we'll use to plant and grow into our career fields. When you think about that competitive edge, dale, you've already shared so many. Let's really kind of dive into that just a little bit more. You've already given these young people parents, even folks that are listening some incredible insight and tools of things that they can plant in place in their life. That will grow a better relationship. It will grow a better financial position.

Speaker 2: 29:44

By the way, one of the things I like that Mr Walrath said remember he's a very incredible philanthropist, but he said one time he said, aaron, he goes. I wanted to help people that were downtrodden. I wanted to help people that were downtrodden. I wanted to help people that were less fortunate than me. And he said I figured the best way that I could do that is not become one of them. The bounty of God blessing somebody, or the hard work, the harvest that comes with planting the right seeds, nurturing it, caring for it and growing it. There's a responsibility there and, by the way, you said something early on in this podcast that I have shared with my colleagues across the country. I said I want you to be successful. I'm going to share every tool, technique, everything I can do to help you be successful. But remember this with success will come entitlement and people want to get their hands on it. So that's why your wisdom I don't know if people caught that or not but there's a discernment that comes with how you disperse that 10%.

Speaker 2: 30:57

Because if you disperse that 10% the wrong way. Something tells me you might not harvest the same harvest the next time. So I think there's a responsibility and I'm kind of picking up that. That was really kind of an underlying theme of what you're sharing is the 10% is just a tool, it's a guide, but you're going to have to exercise some discernment of how you plant that seed in somebody's life.

Speaker 3: 31:26

I mean, you don't want to plant that seed in bad soil, right? Absolutely, you've wasted it. You've wasted it. And so I always tell people the 10% giving column will do more to and for you than the 20% investing column will. You'll start caring more about the 10% column than you. Anyone challenge me on this. I'll take you to dinner any year. If it doesn't work like this, you'll start taking from the investing and moving to the giving. You'll start caring more about the giving column. But here's the trick to giving what, youth? If you're a young adult, why would I give my money? Here's the trick.

Speaker 3: 32:03

You don't understand, when you start giving, what you think you want to get. When you start giving. Well, if I give you 10, I'm going to need to get 12 back, whatever 10 and 12 are let's say dollar, if I give you $10, I'm going to need to get 12 back. Here's the trick.

Speaker 3: 32:17

When you start giving, what you think you want to get back when you start giving is going to completely change. Because when it grabs your heart and you see what it does to you, you're standing in a checkout line and a lady standing there with tears in her eyes and doesn't know whether to push the milk back or the formula back and you sit there and go. I've got the bill, put the whole thing on my tab. You leave, god bless, take care, I've got this and you do that, and your whole life were built around just dropping grace bombs on everybody that comes behind you. Watch what happened. You think you know what you want to get when you start giving and everything is going to change because it all gets new perspective when you start giving. You can't help it. You can't help it. It'll completely change who you are.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Dale, and you're just. This is just great. Mr Walrath, you know I love these discussions, like talking to you. You know, we're just sitting in his office, you know, and he's giving these little nuggets of philosophy of life, you know, and I remember one time he told me he said, alejandro, he said I want you to do two things nice for somebody every day. Every day, I want you to do two things nice for somebody. And if anybody finds out about either one of them, that one didn't count, wow, wow, that side of what you're talking about, that side of generosity, that side of stewardship, you know, do we make the world better? You know, because we were here.

Speaker 2: 33:46

You know when we talk about leadership and leadership development. You know when we talk about leadership and leadership development, you know one of the sayings there's two sayings that we use around our shop a lot with our ambassador program is we always like to say when your values are clear, your choices are easy. When your values are clear, your choices are easy. And the second one that we like to use is the essence of leadership. And they say that the essence of leadership is to plant trees under whose shade you may never sit. And when we think about your willingness to take that talk and to make it audible, to make it in print, to make it a seed that can plant seeds. I meant who knows what incredible oak that you may plant that my grandchildren get to sit under one day? Who's to say that somebody listens to this podcast and they take away a seed that helps them accomplish something great in medicine and they become my grandson or granddaughter's doctor.

Speaker 2: 34:49

I meant we don't know Our job. You know I tell the kids all the time and this is for the adult audience I tell the adults all the time our job as of adults, our job is to create opportunities. That's our responsibility. Create opportunities, young people. Your job is to determine the outcome. That's our responsibility. Create opportunities, young people. Your job is to determine the outcome. That's on you. Our job is to try to get you to the opportunity and create more of them. But we need you to step up and help determine that outcome. Shows like today and the wisdom that Mr Alexander is pouring into us, this right here, becomes the seeds and the fuel to get through that door, to determine that outcome and then do it for somebody else.

Speaker 3: 35:36

And when you start doing that if you're that young adult watching this when you start doing that, when you start planting those seeds of just giving and grace and being the best you can be, of just giving and grace and being the best you can be, life begins to have hope. And when you live inside as I'm trying to get people to live inside financial margin, and when you're studying to be as great as you can be at what you do, when you're following what your heart, what you love, what you think is your purpose and you love talking about it, when you do these things, life just tends to land lighter on you. It's just more fun when you have a purpose in life and you're walking through. I think this I love what I do, I love my spouse, I love you know, I love what I do, I love blessing others. It's just more fun than following what the society and stuff wants to tell you to follow, which is very opposite of that.

Speaker 3: 36:33

It's not hard. There's just a lot of stuff trying to make it impossible. Tune it out. It's hard to tune it out. Tune it out.

Speaker 3: 36:40

I'll say this about a quick life hack that I used. It's a competitive edge. I use this like crazy. If you're a young adult, ask somebody, just ask somebody.

Speaker 3: 36:53

Look, seek people who are doing what you want to do at the level you want to do it, and ask them to pour into you, study them, learn from them. They're starving to tell you what they do. Why can't I need anybody? You aren't looking. You aren't looking right. Almost everyone wants to help somebody, but they're looking for people who want to be helped and chances are it may be somebody you've never met. You don't even know.

Speaker 3: 37:21

There's no shortage of jobs. There's no shortage of jobs and there never is a shortage of jobs. What there is is a shortage of people wanting to pour into themselves, to become the best at whatever it is they love and to be the best at it. That's what there's a shortage of, and every company wants and needs great employees. I'm a company, I'm an employer, I'm a hirer, and the problem is there's a shortage of people who want to be great employees, and there always has been. I'm talking about employees that want to study what the company does and learn how to do it better than everybody else, to learn it from the customer's perspective. That never goes out of, that never doesn't have a job, that never doesn't get promoted right. All owners want that and they'll pay top dollar for that.

Speaker 3: 38:07

If you're listening to this and, by the way, if you're an adult, listening to this, pour into a young adult. I heard a preacher say one time it's not my job to fill anyone's cup, but it is my job to empty mine. Empty your cup into someone else coming after you. Leave it better than you found it. Leave it better than you found it. Leave them better than you found them. You find a young adult to pour into. They're starving for truth, they're starving for answers. Take what you did and help them go further, faster. All right, sorry.

Speaker 3: 38:42

Let's go Say it one more time it's not my job to fill anyone's cup, it is my job to empty mine. That ain't my quote.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Wow, andy Stanley said that, still it's. It's just, it's incredible to think about. You know, I've studied combative martial arts for 20 plus years and you, you know my instructor. I was very blessed to have an incredible instructor that's tied all the way back to bruce lee and dan anisanto, and you know, just wow. And then combative arts, weapons arts and everything, but I loved his philosophy. He, his philosophy, is really assimilated into everything that I do, and what he taught us was this If you want to be the best, train with the best.

Speaker 2: 39:33

So we don't seek out to train with the black belt of a black belt of a black belt. Our philosophy is bring in the head of a system, bring in the top person, because if you want to be the best, train with the best. Wow, and what you just said is is that, if I'm a young person, even an adult right now, listen, and listening includes your eyes and your ears, listen, look around and say you know, I want to be, I want to be really good at something who's the best. And then, like you said, ask them. And then, oh, by the way, if you're one of those people that are kind of the best, you got a responsibility, you've got an obligation. Start pouring that cup out and start pouring it into the people that are going to follow in our footsteps, because that is the essence of leadership is to plant trees under whose shade you may never see, and I'm going to tell you if you're a young adult.

Speaker 3: 40:31

Well, nobody does that. Last night, a college linebacker from Drake University and I in the state of Iowa I talked to him for an hour because he heard whatever about me and said I got to know you and we talked for an hour. This morning, a golf captain on a college golf team taught him for 45 minutes that people are young adults, are doing this. They're calling people. You find people that are doing what you want to do that can help you go further faster and just make life easier on you, and that allows you to go out and be a blessing. Look, there's a sign in our office right here. It said when God blesses you, he seldom has you in mind. And so, look, you're going to be blessed and it's ultimately for others. So it may be part of your family, but it's going to help you go further faster and you use that to start helping others faster than the average person, ain't this?

Speaker 2: 41:24

fun. I tell you and again, this show's not about me sharing my story, but there's a lot of listeners that know my story and you know my journey wasn't easy and but everybody's got a story. Everybody has a story. Everybody has experienced something in life and I think it's hard to sometimes put our mind around what you just said, that all that we've been given was given to us possibly for one person at one moment in our life that we may never even know, which is why, as a person of faith, I like to tell people the reason we're going to need an eternity is it's going to take us that long to unpack all the connections because it's going to be well. You said something to this person who inspired this person and invested in this. It's going to take forever to figure it all out.

Speaker 3: 42:23

That's what that meant. What.

Speaker 2: 42:25

Yeah, anyway, dale, listen, I hate to wrap up, but we could keep going. I mean we might have to do a part two to this. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you. I appreciate your message, I appreciate your willingness to share, your willingness to share. Like I said, everybody's got a story, but not everybody's willing to share it, and the fact that you're sharing it is you're pouring into others. But, going back to what we like to say, you're planting seeds, seeds of greatness that, if people will just take them and nurture them and the harvest is that you're talking about are not just harvests of wealth. That you're talking about are not just harvests of wealth, financial wealth. They're harvests of wealth and happiness and hope and encouragement, and I just can't say thank you enough for what you're doing.

Speaker 3: 43:16

Thank you, appreciate you. Thank you, let me be on here.

Speaker 2: 43:21

Well, listen, listen. We wrap up every show with the fun question. So you're going to get a fun question. So tell us, Mr Alexander, what is the best concert you've ever been to.

Speaker 3: 43:37

It's going to be so disappointing for y'all. This is going to be so disappointing. So the beach boys this is so disappointing. Everybody's. I've been the stone rolling stone whatever. The Beach Boys this is so disappointing Everybody's. I've been to Stone Rolling Stone whatever. The Beach Boys are a band. If you're a young adult, they're a band from the 50s, 60s, whatever. And they were about surfing in California. I'm a massive skateboarder surfer and, by the way, this next week you'll see me do my handstand. I do handstands on skateboards. I do my annual birthday. It's coming up this weekend actually. So, but the Beach Boys all my life growing up, when I, when I was in surfing and skateboarding, I just listened to them all the time in South Georgia, and so it personally for me, it just meant a great deal for me to go see them, because it just brought back. I know that's a terrible answer. I've failed at that. That's a terrible answer, but for me, the Beach Boys and anyways, love it. Hey, listen when you Kenny Chesney, other than them, kenny Chesney, I've seen, kenny.

Speaker 2: 44:42

Here's what's amazing is think about this. It's just like foods. Right, I'm an ag guy, so, yeah, I love a good steak, but everybody that knows me knows I'm also a sushi guy and so, you know, I love watching man versus food and carnival eats, and so I'm a kind of a foodie. I love to go out and, you know, music's kind of the same way, and so if anybody were to pick up my playlist, they'd find anything from. You know, carmen, stephen, curtis, chapman, all the way through. You know, frank Sinatra, michael Bublé, all the way through. You know Bruce Springsteen, jimmy Buffett. You know and I think that's what's neat is to talk to guests. And, dale, we've had everything from Metallica to Pitbull, motley Crue, yeah, to George Strait. I mean it's incredible to hear people talk about their best concert. It's a great question. Anyway, dale, thanks again for joining us.

Speaker 2: 45:38

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for stopping by the Growing Our Future podcast. We just appreciate you so much. We hope today you found some encouragement, some inspiration. More importantly, we hope that you found some seeds of opportunity that you could plant, that you can grow, that you can harvest and, as you heard today, that you can share. Until our paths cross again everybody. Go out and remember. If you want to know what the future is, grow it. That means go out and do something nice for somebody else. You're going to feel good about it and our communities, state and country is going to be better because of it. Thank you for stopping by.

Speaker 1: 46:24

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. 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.