Fail Faster

In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro interviews Robert Smith, a magician and consultant in the fair industry. They discuss the importance of gratitude, the positive impact of organizations like FFA, and the power of storytelling and advocacy. Robert shares his journey from being a magician to creating unique experiences at fairs and expos. He also talks about starting the Fair Game podcast to document stories from the industry. The conversation highlights the resilience and adaptability required to navigate challenges and find opportunities for growth. The conversation revolves around the impact of the podcast and the importance of connection and empathy. It emphasizes the role of the podcast in providing an outlet for guests to share their struggles and process their emotions. The conversation also touches on the concept of personal branding and the need for gratitude and resilience in leadership. The importance of accountability and taking responsibility for one's actions is highlighted, along with the significance of empathy in dealing with criticism. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the challenges faced by students during the pandemic and the need for educators to adapt and support them.

Story Notes:

• The Power of Gratitude and Renewed Hope
• Building Experiences in the Fair Industry
• Storytelling and Advocacy for Connection
• Turning Challenges into Opportunities
• The Value of Podcasts for Storytelling
• The Power of the PodcastGratitude and Resilience
• Taking Responsibility and Embracing Failure
• Empathy: A Shield Against Negativity and Criticism
• Supporting Students in the Face of Pandemic Challenges

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, listen. Number one thank you for stopping by and number two, thank you for allowing us to bring the podcast to you. You know, we always tell people that if agriculture has taught us anything, it's taught us this. If you want to know what the future is, grow it. If you want to know what the future is, grow it. Well, to do that, you've got to plant seeds, you got to nurture them, you got to harvest them and then you got to share them. Well, to plant those seeds, we created a podcast platform to bring subject matter experts, people who have these incredible experiences and insights, on to share with us seeds of greatness, and today is no different. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about how I got to meet this man, but we're honored to have Robert Smith join us today. Robert, thank you for joining us on the Growing Our Future podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:26

Thanks for having me, Aaron. It's an honor to be here with you.

Speaker 2: 1:30

So again, we're going to get into a little bit more about Robert here in just a second. I want to share a little backstory there of how we met. But, robert, every guest that comes on here, I like to start every podcast off the same way, and I like to start with a simple question that's related to gratitude. So I'm just curious, robert, what are you grateful for today?

Speaker 3: 1:53

You know that is a solid question and in doing my own podcast you know we hear a lot of advice of, as podcast hosts, we should have a signature question. And while I don't have that just yet on my podcast, when I saw that that was your signature question I gave it a lot of thought because I wanted to make sure that it was something that would give some level of value to your listeners, to you, to the conversation. And when you gave me that question about a week ago, I didn't know the answer because I'm like, do I go with the standard? I'm grateful for my wife and son, I'm grateful that I got air in my lungs Like, yeah, I'm grateful for all those things. But I didn't know until yesterday exactly how I was going to answer that. And now I know and I can tell you today I am grateful for FFA and here's why I'm grateful for FFA.

Speaker 3: 3:05

No-transcript these kids and Gen X looks down and goes what's wrong with these kids and millennials look like we all, we all do it. But having that conversation with her renewed my hope for the future of america. In large part, that was that was happened because of ffa, because of the skills and talents that it allowed this young lady to develop. I was able to have this conversation with her and say you know what? I don't think that what we see on tick tock etc is actually representative of gen z.

Speaker 3: 3:45

I think someone like Ella Underberg, who is the state president for New York FFA I think she's representative of Gen Z and I think it's 85 or 90% of Gen Z looks and sounds a lot more like her than they do some of these weirdos on TikTok just going off. So a lot of that is because, like, the foundation of that comes from FFA, because of her involvement with that organization and while I was never involved with FFA I grew up in the suburbs, I'm a city kid Someone like her, I think, really can renew an old, grumpy, 44 year old's hope in the future for America. So yeah, I'm grateful for FFA.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Thank you, robert, and, by the way, I agree with you and I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say exactly what you just said. We invite people to come to our annual Texas FFA convention. So our convention is the largest youth-led convention in the state. We'll have about 17,000 people there for an entire week. It ranks in the top five of all conventions in the association conventions in Texas. But I tell people it's kind of like bring a friend to church day. I said bring somebody and let them see convention. And they say exactly what you just said. They said I've never been told yes or no, sir. Yes, ma'am, no, ma'am. I've never had so many kids shake my hand, firm handshake, look me in the eye, say their first and last name. They said Aaron. It's almost like it rejuvenates our hope for this country. Yep, absolutely did. And I tell people that all the time I said, yeah, it's a noisy world out there and we don't always get to see the good things because all we get to hear is the noise.

Speaker 3: 5:24

But it's awesome when I hear people that have a chance to meet people like ella yeah, when I think you know you say there's so much noise, we don't often hear the good things. I think part of that's because the we've bred so much anger into this country that it's easy, and now we all have phones that we can put it out, we can. Gary vaynerchuk talks about this, you know, and says social media didn't change us, it exposed us. If you were the type of person that you spread positivity, you now have a device in your pocket that you can instantly spread positivity globally. But if you were, if you were, you know, a jerk, if you spread anger and negativity, you also have that same device.

Speaker 3: 6:07

And unfortunately, these algorithms are kind of trained. It's like we all slow down to look at the car crash because for some reason, we all have this desire to see carnage, and so we're training the algorithm. The algorithm is not some mystical portal, it's responding to us, and so I think that's why we see so much negativities, because it's a natural human desire to see it. And I'm like no, you know what, I'm going to change my algorithm. I'm going to go look for things from FFA. I'm going to look at, you know, for more posts and feeds like that, and I will get it, because that's how the algorithm works.

Speaker 2: 6:51

If you want positivity, go find it. It's there Absolutely. And I agree with you, by the way, and I do appreciate what you said, and I agree also that there are so many things to be grateful for. One of my board members is the son of the late great motivational speaker, zig Ziglar. So Tom Ziglar is on the foundation board and Tom and I have a lot of these discussions about where we're at today and how we see things. We were talking about gratitude and that's kind of you know, one reason I really hone in on gratitude. I think it's an important motivation. People that are grateful seem to be more energetic, they seem to be more inspired, they're looking for something good. And Tom Tom was on the East Coast and he was talking to these college kids and he asked him. He said what is the opposite of gratitude? And he kind of let it sit in for a minute. I got to guess. Let me hear it.

Speaker 3: 7:40

Entitlement. That's what it is. That's what he said, is it?

Speaker 2: 7:43

It is. He said the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. And look at what happens to your attitude when you go from being thankful for things and appreciative to that's not fair, or that's mine, or give that to me. It just changes the whole dynamic of how you feel, how you see things. So when we talk about seeds of greatness and growing the future, I think we have a lot to stop and be grateful for. I tell people that on February 6, 1966, a bouncing baby boy came into this world and they wrapped me in this incredible blanket of freedom and liberty and a country full of opportunity, and I have so much to be grateful for that. I can choose what I want to eat, what job I want, if I want to go to church or what sports. I'm just the incredible gift that I've been given, and when we just stop and pause for a minute, it really is a great place to start. So thank you for helping me start the podcast with what we're grateful for, because it's the kind of seeds that I think can build great futures.

Speaker 3: 8:53

Well, and I would just challenge your listeners who are listening to this, before the end of the podcast, answer that question for yourself. Keep listening, we're glad you're here, but figure out today, wherever you're at, whether you're driving in your car, whether you're sitting on the back porch of your house having a cup of coffee listening to this figure out in the next 20 or 30 minutes what are you grateful for today?

Speaker 2: 9:13

Awesome. Thanks, robert, that's perfect. Okay, so let me start here talking a little bit about Mr Smith here here. So a few years back, a good friend of mine now was a lady who was the CEO of the International Association of Affairs and Expos, Marla Calico, who has been on this podcast, and Marla invited me to come out and be part of the keynote speaking panel at the International Association of Affairs and Expos convention in Las Vegas. I'd never done anything like that and it was a real honor for me. I go out, had a great time.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Well, as a result of that, all of a sudden my phone starts ringing and I start getting invitations to go to state association, fair association groups. So, anyway, I'm traveling to the great state of Arizonarizona and I was there and I'm there and I'm doing the keynote, and then I'm doing this workshop and there's this, this guy, and I'd already kind of walked through the career area and I'd seen, you know, I remember back when I was a kid growing up, I saw the movie big and, uh, tom hanks had this. There was a voltar machine, you know, and I want to be big. You know, I want to be big and that's it right there, look at there and I'm walking I've got.

Speaker 2: 10:33

I've got a little model of zoltar right here I see this guy, but his his gig was called the conjurer. Yeah, I was just real intrigued by that. So, anyway, anyway, I go do my workshop. Well, little did I know. The conjurer himself is in my workshop.

Speaker 2: 10:50

And so after the workshop, robert Smith came up to me and we got to talking and, like all great friendships, all great networks, all great relationships, they start with a great conversation. And Robert and I started a dialogue that day and we were talking about the importance of advocacy and what it means to advocate for agriculture, and talk about the positive things in our world and why it's important and what are best practices on engagement, and one thing led to another. Now here we are, years later. We've kept up with each other. When our travel paths cross, we try to get together when we can.

Speaker 2: 11:31

Robert has an incredible podcast called the Fair Game Podcast and where he talks to people. By the way, and I will let Robert really share more about this than I, because I don't know, but I found a whole new world with fairs and expos that I did not know existed. It is amazing everything that goes into putting on a fair and expo, and if you'll go back and watch the episode with Marla Calico. We talk about that a little bit more. But Robert is one of those vendors and his brand has expanded beyond just being the vendor. He's also now kind of a consultant to help people improve their brand presence, improve their effectiveness and communicate in their fairs and expos.

Speaker 2: 12:16

But anyway, that's how Robert and I met and so he honored me by having me on his podcast at one time and I told him that and we tried to do this before, but I said I really want to go back and get you on the growing our future podcast. Robert, I know that you didn't just fall into that chair, you didn't just happen into that chair. Something tells me there was a journey that brought you into this role that you're in, into the world that you work in, into the world that you work in, into this passion that you have for communication, marketing and advocacy. Kind of give us that background, walk us through that, tell us how you got to. Robert Smith Presents.

Speaker 3: 12:57

Well, I started my career many years ago as a magician and I was not the conventional type of person. When I graduated from college it was not that well, I'm gonna go get the job and I'm gonna. I just didn't have that fire for that I. I knew there was something different out there and when I realized, wait, I can get paid pretty good money to go do magic tricks at fairs, you know, four or five months, seven months out of the year, I I was like, okay, that sounds a lot better than than going to nine to five. And as that develops, the business side of me took over and I start seeing, well, it's hard, really hard in the industry to be a magician, because there's 10,000 magicians and there's always somebody that'll do it for 50 bucks less a day than you do, and it drives the price down. And, being where I'm located in New Mexico, there's not a lot of fairs. I need to be able to get into the Midwest and East Coast and Florida and markets like that, and it's very brutal to compete. So I said, well, I need something that's going to stand out, that nobody else does.

Speaker 3: 13:58

And so Conjure Fortune Machine was an idea that was hatched really by some of the entertainers at Triangle Talent. It's one of the agencies that supplies the fair market with entertainment. Guy's name is Richard Renner, he's out of Kansas City and we were trying to come up with a unique way to do magic and he says, well, you should do this Conjurer or this fortune machine. He didn't come up with the name, just like in the movie Big, and I was like, well, that's ridiculous, that doesn't make any sense. And then the agent, mark Sparks, was like, oh no, you should definitely do that. And so I said, okay, these guys have way more experience than me. I deferred to them and started building this thing, and now Conjure Fortune Machine took me to places I couldn't imagine, and we've developed other attractions along the way that have been very successful.

Speaker 3: 14:44

And so I've kind of realized my job wasn't to do magic tricks. My job was to provide an experience for people in the fair industry, and I guess, at fairs and as a business owner, that's when I realized, okay, that's where the money is. It isn't. Look at me, I can do a cool magic trick that makes you go, wow, it's. How do I provide experiences for people? And along that way, as everybody recalls, there were the dark years 2020 and 2021, where the entire events industry, pretty much globally, was shut down.

Speaker 3: 15:21

And that was a rough time and it had gotten into. I want to say it was September, october of 20. I was starting to feel lonely. I was like we're locked down Everybody's, we're in our homes, there's no fairs going on. I was. I was feeling isolated and I'm like, well, we got this glorious thing called the internet and I got microphones and I got I know how to talk to people and I got a webcam and whatnot to be able to to do zoom.

Speaker 3: 15:48

And so I got with 20 or 30 friends in the industry and I started the favorite game podcast and the whole purpose of that was to tell our industry story from all sorts of different perspectives from the perspective of a fair manager, from the perspective of concessionaires you know, I had Dominic Palmieri on who's fantastic guy. He's with RCS out there in California. They were in Houston, cause they do Houston show and they were, I think, like six or seven days in 12 days to go, and Houston pulled the plug, said you're done, they had how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock on hand that they just they cooked it and they gave it away or whatever they had to do. They gave it away to the homeless people, the people in need, or whatever, and they just took the loss on it and moved on. Stories from entertainers, stories from all sorts of different vendors, because, like you said, the fair market just has such a depth of people that are involved in it, stories from all different places.

Speaker 3: 16:49

And along that way I realized there's really something to this podcast, there is real value to it. Am I getting thousands of listens? No, am I getting several hundred, a couple hundred on an episode? Yes, and does it help those people at that time? Did it help them kind of feel less alone and less isolated? Yes, and so that kind of you know, along along the way, just before covet in in this journey, I discovered a guy named gary vaynerchuk and and your listeners may know him as g Gary V he's a marketing brand expert with the creative agency VaynerMedia out of New York and he always talks about, you know, document don't create. And I always wondered like what is he really saying? Like that didn't, and it didn't get to me until I started the podcast.

Speaker 3: 17:41

The podcast was nothing more than just documenting these stories, preserving them for all time, as long as you, as Spotify or YouTube or my website stay up and as long as I've got the files, we've got a documented history of what all of us were feeling in the middle of that pandemic. And now recently, we've decided you know what? Because it's been a year and a half for two years since we've done an episode. I said I've got some time, we're going to go back. We're doing 45 new episodes through 2024 with the Fair Game podcast starting on February 13th. The first episode is going to drop and we're not telling pandemic stories this time. We're just telling the story of awesome people in an awesome industry that services this nation that so often goes unseen. Was that a good, short-winded answer for you?

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yes, it was awesome. I mean I want to stay with this, but I do want to go a little further back. So you grew up in New Mexico and you decided to go to college, and what was your degree in? Tell us a little bit about that real quick.

Speaker 3: 18:38

Yeah, so I grew up in New Mexico. I was born in New Jersey but when I was about 10 months old, my parents, somewhere before I was born, had taken a trip west and they loved New Mexico, they loved the climate, they loved everything out here, and so in 1980, we moved out west and I grew up in New Mexico, ended up staying in-state for school, went to Eastern New Mexico University, which is right there in Portales, not far from you guys. I mean, you're always you're all about Texas, Tech, right and guns up and all that, and E&MU isn't. But I don't think you know, 75 or 80 minutes away from just on the New Mexico side, from Lubbock, it's a. It is an agriculture town and honestly, if I was to think about it, that's probably the first time that I was exposed to agriculture.

Speaker 3: 19:24

Like, obviously, growing up, I ate food, Like I know my food came from farms and whatnot. But I remember walking across campus at night to the computer lab or something like that. And keep in mind this was in the late 90s, so there were not. There were no iPhones, iPads, you know, Wi Fi wasn't really a thing. You had to have an Ethernet connection at that point. But I would walk across campus and because of the number of dairy farms that were all around town and the ethanol plant that was on one side of the town. Depending on which way the wind blew, you were either smelling manure or you were smelling ethanol. That's. That's what I was like. Oh man, I'm in an ag town for sure.

Speaker 2: 20:05

That's funny. Here's something I don't think you know about me, but I actually used to do. Dr Vaughn was the head of the ag science department ag ed department at EMU.

Speaker 3: 20:21

And I used to go out and do workshops over at EMU, long before you got there, by the way. So you know Peeville. You know the sign out on the north side of town when you come into town that says welcome to Portales, home of I don't know however many people that got. You know 10,000 people and three or four old grouches. That's their welcome to.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Portales sign. So yeah, so I think that's interesting and I think that you know again, robert, what I like about this podcast is listening to people's stories, because really, if you listen to their stories, there's really some, some words of wisdom and some seeds of greatness there, and you just shared some number one. I always tell people, if you'll listen to these guests, listen to these guests, they are listening, and when we say listening, we're not just talking about with your ears, we're talking about your eyes. And listen to what you just shared. Okay, you, you had this career. Nobody, nobody saw COVID coming. Nobody saw COVID coming, and we had to make some choices. At that moment, I think the popular word was pivots. We had to make pivots, and so we're all trying to Key.

Speaker 2: 21:26

Ross pivot, you know. So here's the thing. Some people what they heard was gloom and despair, yeah, and that's what they saw. Some people saw and heard opportunity to be empathetic, to say that maybe there's another way here, and I think that you're sharing your story, robert, of how you decided to take a technology and make it a platform for empathy, a point that we could share in the moment together. There's something that Robert shared with me and I don't know if it's him or his wife that said it, but I thought it was always good is that we might be in the same storm together, together, but we're not necessarily in the same boat together yeah, that was Sarah that was because she was.

Speaker 3: 22:15

She was dealing with that. Yeah, my wife's uh is a elementary school assistant principal and that was one of her observations is, and honestly, it may have, she may have picked it up from somebody else. So if we're, if somebody goes, wait, that's a so-and-so quote, sure credit whoever. But it was Sarah that brought it to my attention and I think it was a really astute observation, especially during that pandemic. Right, well, that's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 22:40

So again, if I'm a student right now in a classroom. You're going to have some challenges, you're going to have some storms in life and oh, by the way, if you don't want them, I can take you to a place that it never rains. I can take you there.

Speaker 2: 22:54

It's called a desert and nothing grows, but you show me somebody that's had a little challenge in their life, a little challenge in their business and I guarantee you I can show you somebody who's took that rain and made something grow out of it. And Robert is a great example of that. He took some challenges and he found a niche and he found a way to kind of leverage that as a communication tool. And to your point, robert, you know, I tell you know, one of my favorite books is a book called Same Kind of Different as Me.

Speaker 2: 23:24

It's a true story of a homeless man and a family in Fort Worth, texas, and the family, finally the husband wants the homeless man to speak in his church and they show up and there's just a handful of cars in the parking lot and the father goes inside and he comes back and he says I'm too embarrassed, I'm ashamed. And that old wise man just said, listen. He said God's got in there. Who God wants to hear this message? He goes inside and he gives the message. They opened up the back doors to the church true story. And by the time he finished it was standing room only in that church because people heard him and started flocking in. We never know who needs to hear what you're broadcasting. We don't ever know who's going to take something from this podcast. Our responsibility is that God gave us an incredible gift here to share, and that's our job is to share.

Speaker 3: 24:23

Well, and I look at it when I think about the podcast, you know I'm obviously fair game and growing our future. We're not Joe Rogan, you know we're not getting hundred million, multimillion dollar deals, we're just having these conversations and for posterity. And you know I've got one episode that had 23 listens, 23. Did it make a difference for those 23? Maybe, maybe not, but I tell you what. Who it really made a difference for was every one of those guests that came on the podcast during the pandemic, because it gave them an outlet to talk, gave them an outlet to verbalize it and talk about the hurt and the disappointment and the struggle, and maybe for somebody that helped them process a little bit better the stress and I don't want to use necessarily trauma because I feel like that's kind of an overused buzzword, but for some people, people it certainly was. And if that gave them the outlet, then here I am, I'll do it. Turn the mic on, let's go.

Speaker 2: 25:15

And what I say to that. Thank you, because you didn't have to. That's the whole point of this. I hope there's a young person out there listening right now. I've still got a Sunday school class that gets together. We still get together. I bust the age curve of that class because I'm probably the youngest member in there. There's a lot of widows, widowers, in that class, but I refuse not to help us bring come together during that time of we needed connection. I used to tell people through that time, robert, I used to say I will be physically distanced because he's telling me that that's what we've got to do is be physically distanced. I said I refuse to be socially distanced. Yeah, I just I refuse to buy into that and I believe that technology and things like this allowed us an opportunity to keep going.

Speaker 3: 26:03

So yeah, well, and the conversations we had had. You know, anybody who goes and listens to fair game podcast, um, you hear what we publish but unless you're involved in podcasting, you don't. You probably don't click that. I mean, you and I were probably talking for 20 or 25 minutes before we even started the recording and on mine it was 20 or 25 minutes afterwards and that stuff, you know, because it's outside of the recording once we've signed off. None of that will ever see the light of day. But I can tell you this the anxiety and depression and struggle, real struggle, and I wish we could have put some of it on the air. People didn't want it, they didn't want that all out public, but they were willing to open up to me. Those were some of the most valuable conversations and you said before you know, our friendship started on a good conversation.

Speaker 3: 26:53

My friendship with a lot of these managers started finding out that there were some struggles with alcoholism that had come back. There were struggles with depression. There were. Those were the. And, all of a sudden, that's when I realized ah God, that's how you're using me. That's that's the purpose of this. It's not for me to put out a podcast that gets thousands of listens. It's for that 12 minutes that we talk afterwards.

Speaker 3: 27:17

And that person says to me you're not recording anymore, right? No, I shut the recording off. Sounds like you got something on your mind. I just need like, I need to know it's going to be okay. You know, this is what's going on. And they would open up.

Speaker 3: 27:30

And that's when it was like, oh, this is my, this is my servant role to the community. Is this 10 or 12? It's not the hour we just spoke. It's this seven minutes that they're going to open something up and go. And then there were several guests that broken, broke down into tears at the end of it and I'm like man, they were all smiling and laughing and joking on the show, but then when it came down and the rubber met the road, it was like they were hurt, they were in dark places, and so that's when it was like, wow, the ability to listen, the ability to articulate, to help them process some of the grief that they were going through. That's what the podcast was for and you guys will never hear it because I, like I'm some of some of the times the recording. I had to stop recording some of the times it was still recording.

Speaker 2: 28:16

I won't, I just won't put that stuff out, you know well, the point is is that life is not a solo project, correct? We were not created to be the lone ranger and none of us is as strong as all of us, and when we go through challenges like that, it's nice to have a group that you can kind of lean into, uh, share with, learn from, and this podcast and your podcast is no different, so that's why I appreciate you, you coming on. Uh, robert, one of the things that I'd like about what you do and kind of your strategy behind things is you've got a gnat for trying to pay attention. Again, look and listen. Marketing promotion. I ask the kids all the time. It's funny. I ask the kids. I said tell me about your business. And they always tell me. They say I don't have a business. I said, yeah, you do, you're it your personal brand? I said, yeah, you do, you're it.

Speaker 3: 29:07

I said your personal brand.

Speaker 2: 29:08

I said what's your customer service? Do you show up to work on time? Are you friendly? You know, and we go through exactly that. Give kids some tips. Give us all some tips. Ag teachers, all of our listeners. Give them some tips on how to live their brand in an effective way that helps them share their competitive edge, but also helps them share how they can pour in and help others.

Speaker 3: 29:32

I think, just like we started off the top of the show, I think you need to bathe yourself in gratitude every day, like wake up every day. Listen, I have plenty of things I can be grumpy about every morning. Sometimes I am. I'm a 44 year old with arthritis, my joints hurt, my back is not what it used to be, my vision is not what it used to be, and I still wake up every morning and I look over and I go okay, my wife's still there, that's awesome, we got another shot. Let's see what you know. So that's a tip. No matter how, and it's got. It sounds so cliche. Oh yeah, gratitude, like that's a buzzword. No, it's real. Like. It's not a buzzword, it's a practice. It's medicine, it really is. It's medicine for the soul, it's a practice.

Speaker 3: 30:17

I like it. Yeah, I would also say I hope that people young people listening to hear this fail faster. Young people listening to hear this fail faster. There's too many people that spend so much time trying to avoid failing. I don't want to fail, or they never get started because they fail.

Speaker 3: 30:38

You know, I heard somebody say once that the real definition of hell is you die and God shows you the life you could have had. And it's like I heard that once and I went oh, but you were too scared of failing. You were too scared someone was gonna laugh at you. You were too scared someone was gonna say mean things and then comment on Instagram and so you didn't start. And so I would say fail faster, go try it. You're going to fail. I promise you you will get more from the people who have succeeded, from your actual peers, not the little blah, blah, blah, blah, blah naysayers on Instagram who have nothing better to do with their lives. Your actual peers are the people you are aspiring to be like, the people that have made it right. They will give you more respect than you can possibly imagine if you try and fail and you keep going. And then to I say to those people who are like oh man, but my, the people that you know, my friends at school. They always say mean things about me.

Speaker 3: 31:44

I would say the answer to that is empathy me. I would say the answer to that is empathy. What is? Imagine the, the, the level of pain someone has to be in to be like I'm going to go on the internet and I'm going to crap all over people that you know, random strangers, because I don't like their video. Man, what a rough place to be in. Deploy empathy. And all of a sudden you're going to start to click and be like wow, I'm almost like my skin is almost impermeable to any criticism because it just doesn't matter it, just so that negativity that gets dished out on the internet. Deploy empathy. That's kind of where my thought is for young people, for ag teachers, any teachers. I kind of have some intimate knowledge on this because my wife was in the classroom for many years and is an assistant principal. Just know that a lot of those kids that you're struggling with that you may want to throw up your hands and go this kid's a lost cause. Nope, they're not. They're not.

Speaker 2: 32:49

There's something they need that you're not delivering and it's your job to figure that out you know, I love that what you just said, Robert, one of the things I like to share as I ask audiences. I don't know about New Mexico, but I can tell you in Texas, friday night football's a big deal.

Speaker 3: 33:08

It's religion in Southeast New Mexico, so that's like we call that far West Texas. Southeast New Mexico is far West Texas.

Speaker 2: 33:15

But I like to ask the question have you ever been to a Friday night football game? Everybody chuckles. I said yeah, I went to one and I said there were seven coaches on the sideline. At halftime three more coaches came out of the press box and then I found out there were three more coaches that were out scouting other teams for future games. I said now do the math on that 13 coaches For what? For one night of one season of a kid's life? To do what? To compete on a football field. That kid's about to have to compete for their entire future. What are we doing to compete for their minds? What are we doing to compete for their attention so that we can share with them things that will get them through the competition of life, right? So when you said that, I think there's a lot of genius behind that, that there is a I can tell personal stories. There was an Aaron Alejandro sitting in your classroom that felt inadequate. That wasn't certain, that wasn't sure, that came from broken circumstances. There was somebody there that needed somebody, that was willing to take the time to say I'm going to compete for your attention. I'm going to compete for your attention because I want to share these seeds of greatness for you, and I was very blessed along my life's journey to have those people that were willing to share and pour into me and tell me not always what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear People that were willing to say let me make you better.

Speaker 2: 34:44

And because so much has been given to me, I guess that's why I enjoy getting to go out and share that with others. I was in Wyoming and I was speaking up there at the Farron Expo and I'll never forget it. I was leaving and it was actually Utah, and I was leaving and this gentleman said, well, where's your next gig? And I said well, I don't know what you're talking about. He goes where do you speak next? And I said, well, I don't know. And he said well, how do you make a living if you don't know? And I said this really isn't my job. I just enjoy doing this because, again, to whom much is given, much is expected, and I just felt like I need to give back and so when I get an opportunity to share, I just want to go do it and, like you said, find that person that needs a little extra, find that person that needs to have somebody compete for their attention yeah, well, and I'll tell you what.

Speaker 3: 35:40

There's a there's a group of kids that are coming up through the ranks right now that are going to need a lot of it. Um, right now sarah's seeing it kind of next year will probably be the actual reset year where kindergartners come in and actually hit the reset button. Because if you think when, when anybody who's going to go into kindergarten, first or second grade, even third grade, but let's say K through two the year the pandemic hit and we shut everything down, those first two or three years are not about the ABCs, they're not about counting, they're not about recognizing colors, they're about learning how to learn, they're about learning our systems, they're about learning lining up, learning about respect for others and how to start communicating. When someone takes your red crayon but you wanted to use it, how to regulate emotions, all those kinds of things. And right now, at elementary school, teachers all across this country are seeing is there is a block of students that are now moving. That were the COVID kids that did not get that development. They may be in fourth grade now, but they're still functioning on a kinder or first grade level because they didn't, because they were not in school.

Speaker 3: 36:43

We saw very similar results with 9-11 babies. Sarah could trace the kids that were where mom was pregnant when 9-11 happened and that stress and trauma. And all of a sudden there was this little group of kids that went through grade level by grade level where behaviors were just outrageous and then the kids before were fine and the kids a year or two after were fine. But this middle group was, and we're now dealing with it. So I can tell you there needs to be a whole lot of empathy. Our education system needs to restructure what, what they're teaching and how they're doing it, because the catch-up for these kids is going to be lifelong. You will have these kids who are third graders now, that don't know how to associate with people, that don't know how to interact, that don't know how to self-regulate. They're only 10 years from being out in the real world. That's not a lot of time to correct that.

Speaker 2: 37:32

Well, I think there's a lot of really good stuff here and I don't think it's new. By the way, I like to tell people I don't think there's anything new set under the sun. You know, you read the Bible. They face the same challenges we face today. They just looked a lot different. But there are things that remain constant and one of those is resiliency, and if we can train young people to be resilient today, they can be stronger tomorrow. Absolutely, we just have to be aware of what this is all about, which is what you're sharing, and we have to be willing to compete. And if we're willing to be aware and compete, maybe we can plant seeds of resiliency that make those kids stronger down the road. So those were some really good, good words, robert. We're going to start wrapping up here, but I'm thinking about leadership development and you know I like to give students and teachers things that strategies that can help them become stronger and better leaders. If you were going to share some leadership tips, what, what might be some leadership tips you'd share with young people?

Speaker 3: 38:37

Be prepared to take responsibility for everything. If you're going to be in leadership, be prepared to take responsibility for everything. That includes the failures of your team members. I get this from Jocko Willink. If any of your listeners want to look into him, he's former navy seal super good dude, um. But he talks about leadership and the amount of power that is in accountability.

Speaker 3: 39:06

When one of you know you talk about when he was on the seal teams, when he was, you know, a platoon commander or whatever the role was, if something wasn't happening right, he was the guy, not he. You know he didn't go. You know, ream out his guy in front of everybody. He pulled him aside and said I think I've made a mistake. I didn't. I must have. I didn't. I don't think I communicated this appropriately to you. He damn well may have communicated it correct, but he took the ownership and said this is on me. If you're not performing to your highest, this is on me.

Speaker 3: 39:37

And and I think there's a lot of power and accountability like I go back to and carrie v talks about this too I go back to the scene at the end of eight mile um, if that movie with eminem, where he's in the rap battle and instead of going and rapping about all of his opponent's weaknesses, he puts all his stuff out on the table and he's like yep, I'm a bum, I got a friend who you know, shot himself in the foot live in a trailer with my mom and blah, blah, blah. He puts it all out on the table and then he hands the mic to the other guy and the other guy's like I got nothing to say about him and so eminem wins the battle. Right, I think, if you, if you can wear your losses as a sense of a badge of honor, don't be afraid. If you're out there and you're like, yeah, this is my weakness, put it out there, put it out to the world because, right, I'm speaking mainly to young leaders, but certainly older leaders can take something from this.

Speaker 3: 40:43

Young leaders, what you're going to find, if you're willing to just put your weaknesses out there and articulate them, it takes their power away. And now you're not stuck, you're not stuck going. Oh well, you know, last time I spoke in front of people, I lost my train of thought and I felt like an idiot and I was a blubbering mess. No, next time you give a speech, go stand up and say you guys are probably expecting me to be a blubbering mess like last time. Oh bam, we just addressed that, that 800 pound gorilla, and now we're moving on. Um, I think lifetime value. You get a lot of respect if you just put it out there, and everybody's got something. Everybody's got a weakness every. If you just put it out there and everybody's got something, everybody's got a weakness. Put it out to the world. Be accountable for your behavior. Be accountable for what you need to be as a leader. Yeah, that's what I'll give for that one.

Speaker 2: 41:32

That's some good stuff. I'm taking notes.

Speaker 3: 41:35

That's a good thing. We recorded this. You can go back and listen.

Speaker 2: 41:38

I'm telling you that's good stuff, robert, listen. Hey, I just again want to tell you thank you. It's an honor to get to know you, it's an honor to get to work with you, it's an honor just to share some of the dialogues that we have. Where we're fleshing out, we're both trying to find what are best practices, what are best strategies. You share good stuff with me. I try to share some stuff with you, but you know what? It's just another example. Like we said, life's not a solo project and none of us is as strong as all of us, and I hope that we're all stronger today because of your effort to share with just not your audience, but now with our audience.

Speaker 2: 42:15

So thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 3: 42:18

Thanks, aaron, you know.

Speaker 2: 42:19

Robert every now with our audience. So thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks, aaron. Um, you know, robert, every guest gets one last fun question. So now you get the fun question.

Speaker 3: 42:26

So the thing you didn't send this one in advance. You sent me the the pre, the prep work, but I did not. It just says fun question on your rundown. So here's the.

Speaker 2: 42:35

What I'm nervous I'm just curious what? What's the best concert you've ever been to?

Speaker 3: 42:43

oh my god, best concert. Okay, um, let's see, was it? Was it boys to men? Was it boys to men or was it boys to men? I've been, I. So here's this. I'll give you the story real quick. I've been a motown fan, like a monstrous motown fan, since I was like 11 years old and one. So it would have been 2008, 2008.

Speaker 3: 43:06

That summer, sarah and I were living in orlando, but we moved back to albuquerque so we still had annual passes to disney. Well, it turns out that october, boys to men was going to be playing at Epcot. They have this annual food and wine festival and so they were going to be playing. Well, of course, when they do these concerts, they do like three concerts a night. They're like 25 minute shows and so we go and we're sitting out because we wanted to be front row. Because it's first come, first serve when you go to these shows, we want to be front row. So we're sitting out here waiting for like three hours and people are coming up to us going.

Speaker 3: 43:40

Man, I wouldn't come all the way to Disney world just to sit there for three hours, and I'm like I came all the way from Mexico for this, so we'd go all the way in for the first show and we get front row. And then, of course, when they sing all made love to you they hand out roses to the girls on the first couple of rows and Sarah would get a rose from one of them and then they'd clear the theater and we'd get back in line for the second show. But what would happen is is we got to the front of the line for the second show, we would stop and we now became the first people in line for the third show, so everybody else would file in past us and the third show we would go in, we'd have front row again and we would collect all these. She would get these roses again. So we did four shows in two days, hopped on a plane, went home. It was amazing.

Speaker 3: 44:26

And to this day, right up there in this box, right there, yeah that's the stuff that I had, the pictures from the show, uh, autographs from boys to men and the four roses are still in there and there have been like two others that have been added from other concerts when they've been in albuquerque. So am I a little obsessed with boys to men hey, that right there robert, I've asked that question to a lot of guests.

Speaker 2: 44:50

That could be one of the best answers yet so that means boys to men abc, bbd. Let's go, man, yep yep, I know it well. That's awesome, that's good stuff and I love it. And I think too, you know, asking that question to guests just shows you how unique we all are. Yeah, everything from Metallica to Harry Connick Jr to R&B, to, you know, a die-hard parrot head I love you know, jimmy, I love Bruce. I mean it's, you know, king George is always a popular one.

Speaker 2: 45:27

But the point is is, I think it's also unique to hear people's perspectives, and so thank you for sharing a very unique story yeah, my pleasure so we'll all know that if we ever show up to a Boyz II Men concert, just look for you and Sarah and we'll know where the front row is.

Speaker 3: 45:47

Look for the very bald dude with the shiny white head right up front where Boyz II Men is singing.

Speaker 2: 45:57

That's hilarious, robert. Thanks for being here today.

Speaker 3: 46:00

Ladies, my pleasure man.

Speaker 2: 46:01

Thank thanks for joining us for the growing our future podcast. Uh, again, we're just so grateful for the guests that we have that are willing to come on and just share their, their experiences, their insights, their expertise and and this incredible platform that we have that allows us to be engaged in classrooms, radios, you know, wherever it may be being viewed. Thank you so much for joining us. Remember, if you want to know what the future is, grow it. Grow the future you want, but you got to plant those seeds. You got to take care of those seeds. And then do me a favor when you harvest it, share it with others. Share it with others so they can plant great trees behind you. Until we meet again, go out and do something great for somebody. You're going to feel good about it and along the way, we just make our communities, our state and our country a better place to live, work and raise our families. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 1: 47:05

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.