February 3, 2025 • 30 mins
What drives a man to leap from a stable corporate career into the world of motivational speaking? How do personal struggles transform into powerful narratives that inspire change? In episode 145 of "Carlsbad: People, Purpose, and Impact," I sit down with the remarkable Devin Hughes, Chief Inspiration Officer at Devin Hughes Enterprises. Devin unveils his compelling journey from a challenging childhood, marked by struggles with literacy and discipline, to becoming a beacon of inspiration. Discover how a military-style high school set the stage for his success and how a chance suggestion led him to write his first book. We delve into the essence of organizational culture, the importance of psychological safety, and the power of human connection. Devin’s story is a testament to resilience, continuous learning, and the transformative power of kindness. Tune in and be inspired by Devin’s journey and his passion for creating impactful change.
Devin C. Hughes' Bio:
Devin is an award-winning keynote speaker, best-selling author, and internationally recognized workplace culture expert.
Devin’s unconventional and innovative views on business and leadership have attracted international attention. Devin has been invited to meet with various leaders and organizations in nearly every industry, from State Farm to Disney, from Lockheed Martin to Eli Lilly, and from big business to entrepreneurs to government agencies.
Devin was named to the power list of the top 200 thought leaders to follow in 2024. He received his BA from Colgate University and his M.S. from Southern New Hampshire University.
Connect with Devin:
Website: DevinCHughes.com
LinkedIn: Devin C Hughes
X/Twitter: @devinchughes
The "Do Anywhere" Gratitude Exercise!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12MYaFPjfpxyso_R64JmaU7DP2u1p8ht-/view?usp=sharing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
intro (00:02):
Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret (00:14):
Good morning and welcome everyone. My name is Brett
Schonzenbach. I am the presidentand CEO at the Carlsbad Chamber
of Commerce. I'm your hosttoday, and I'm pleased to have
with me Devin Hughes, the chiefinspiration officer at Devin
Hughes Enterprises. Goodmorning, Devin.
Devin Hughes (00:30):
Thank you for having me, Brent. Excited to be
here. Yeah.
Bret (00:32):
Great to have you. And I know we tried to do this couple
months ago and then schedulingand things happened. So I'm I'm
excited that we were able tobring it together.
Devin Hughes (00:40):
Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts in the world
if you hadn't noticed. So
Bret (00:43):
Yeah. And your world's got a lot in which we're gonna get
into today. But I wanted tokinda go back to your,
beginning. It looks like youwent to high school at Saint
John's or I'm sorry. Yeah.
High school at Saint John'sCollege High School?
Devin Hughes (00:59):
Yeah. And how was prep?
Bret (01:00):
College prep high school because of, you were you were a
basketball guy.
Devin Hughes (01:05):
I was, but I actually went there because I
was a rebellious kid.
Bret (01:09):
Okay.
Devin Hughes (01:11):
I, well, if I even go farther back, I couldn't I
could barely read and writeuntil I was in 5th or 6th grade.
Wow. So I acted out. Yeah. Ispent more time in the
principal's office than I spentin the classroom.
Uh-huh. And so St. John'sCollege Prep was not only in
college prep, it was alsomilitary. Uh-huh. So I was sent
(01:32):
there for a little bit ofdiscipline.
Okay.
Bret (01:34):
Yeah. And it I don't know. And only knowing you at this
stage in life, I'm gonna say itworked.
Devin Hughes (01:41):
Yeah. It actually it, changed my life. Yeah. I
hated it. It was all it was allmen, but, discipline, structure,
respect, all of thatfundamentally changed on how I
view my world and how I want myworld view.
So yeah. Absolutely. Wow.
Bret (01:58):
Very cool. And, and then you did play basketball there,
but also collegiately. Yes. Wehad
Devin Hughes (02:03):
a great basketball program. I was fortunate to to
play. We won and I got ascholarship to Colgate
University. That was the goal toplay division 1 basketball and
to match academics withathletics.
Bret (02:13):
Very awesome. Very cool. So that was out in New York and
then I saw later, you got amaster's degree at South New
Hampshire University inorganizational leadership. And
since then, you've gottencertificates at almost every
reputable university like in theworld, I think. You had certs
(02:35):
from what?
USD, UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley,UCSD. You're kind of addicted to
education.
Devin Hughes (02:43):
I am. I struggled so much, as I as I just alluded
to when I was a child. And soafter that, I education was more
transactional for me when I wasa kid, and then I I found a love
of learning. Nice. And it lit meup, and it made me happy, and I
could apply it.
So I just threw myself in, Imean, way in, surrounded myself
(03:04):
with other people. And, that'show I ended up in places at, you
know, UCLA or Cal or Stanford,wherever, just in rooms like
this, just soaking upinformation and experiences.
Bret (03:15):
Love it. Love it. So what brought you, what brought you
out to the West Coast? Becausenow you're here based, I think,
in Carlsbad, aren't
Devin Hughes (03:22):
you? Correct.
Bret (03:23):
Yeah. What what brought you to the West Coast in in your
journeys? And and tell us alittle bit about your career
before you started your DevonHughes Enterprises.
Devin Hughes (03:33):
Yeah. So I had a real job. You know, we have a
boss and performance reviews andall that type of stuff. I did
that for first 18, 20 years ofmy career Mhmm. And, primarily
in high-tech and biotech.
Manage teams and and a bunch ofstuff. And so I did that, and it
(03:54):
was great. And then my lastcompany, we're getting acquired.
And I was a little bit stale. Ididn't feel the same energy,
and, I was looking for what Iwas gonna do next.
I thought there was more juicein the berry. Yeah. And so
someone had come up to merandomly and said, hey, you're
so good in front of a room. Haveyou ever thought about being a
(04:14):
speaker? And I'm like, well, whothinks about that?
Bret (04:17):
I mean,
Devin Hughes (04:17):
it's just not you know, I didn't have a SWOT
analysis or some kind of, youknow, grid. And so I was like,
yeah. Whatever. No. And I said,no, really.
I mean, you could really make acareer, all these experiences.
So I heard it, but I didn'treally process it. Making a long
story short, I had given us, atalk at a rotary club. Someone
invited me to a rotary club. SoI spoke.
And, you know, I I don't mean tobe overly spiritual or how the
(04:39):
world works, but there happenedto be a publisher in that room
Nice. Who came up to me at theend and said, hey, have you ever
thought about writing a book?Okay. So now I'm like, okay.
Speed and then at first, I waslike, no.
And then he kept calling andcalling and calling. Fast
forward, I ended up writing abook, which propelled me into
(05:00):
the speaking career, and thatwas, you know, 16 years later.
Bret (05:05):
Wow. Wow. Very interesting. Yeah. You never
know.
Well, that's that's always agood lesson, in, mentoring young
professionals, college students.And I talked to them about, you
never know where youropportunities are. You know?
Here, you you got invited togive a talk at Rotary. Now what
(05:29):
what if you hadn't have put, youknow, your all into that talk
and kinda shirked it a bit andtanked it a bit.
Right? What what difference thatwould have made in your life?
But, you know, I don't exactlyknow what to talk on, possibly
on some of your lifeexperiences. But, you obviously
did a good job and look where itI mean, it's amazing.
Devin Hughes (05:48):
Yeah. And so it's funny you say that because I
look back now, and I thinkimprov in life, you know, in
improv, they say yes, end. Andyou just go where the energy
goes. Like, if there's anopportunity, you walk through
the door. You don't knowserendipitously where it's gonna
happen, but you know you're in aplace that you end up in a
better place.
And if I look at my career,that's kinda sort of how I ended
(06:11):
up. I just said yes. Have youever done it? No. Can you do it?
I don't know. I'll figure itout. And so to that point, I
ended up, you know, writing abook and then kids books. And
then I was a children's author,and I've never done that. But
you have a great life story, andit's compelling.
And and it's next thing youknow, you end up in places that
you just never would have knownjust by saying yes and being
(06:33):
open to the opportunity.
Bret (06:35):
Oh, man. That's awesome. I love that. When you started
speaking, like, how that'sstill, you know okay. So
somebody says, let's write abook or have you thought about
writing a book?
It's still a big step to go froma a regular paycheck
Devin Hughes (06:52):
Mhmm.
Bret (06:53):
To what you're doing now where you now it's established,
but it's like you said, it'sbeen 16 years to get it to this
point. Taking that that actualstep out of the comfort of a
monthly or whatever biweeklypaycheck to totally living off
of, you know, inspiring others,I guess, is one way to put it.
(07:14):
Yeah. I tell me how that was foryou.
Devin Hughes (07:18):
I tell people that the psychology, that's the
hardest part because I have somany people now. I'd love to do
what you do. Yeah. I have somuch domain expertise. And I
tell them, you may.
The hardest part is not doingthe work. It's the psychology of
being okay with not having apaycheck and getting the work.
Yeah. Exactly. As much as youmay complain about work, every 2
(07:41):
weeks an ACH shows up.
That's a
Bret (07:43):
pretty good deal. Yeah.
Devin Hughes (07:47):
And you you know, and and so and so you're right.
But that was really hard. So 2things, I think, helped me.
Number 1 was my wife.
Bret (07:54):
Mhmm.
Devin Hughes (07:55):
I mean, absolutely. When I there were
doubts that I was there was someself doubt. And then it creeped
in like Freddy Krueger.Absolutely. And then you had
other people in your innercircle poking holes in my cup.
Oh my god. What are you doing?Are you crazy? You right. All
that.
That negative chatter. But mywife was the one who's like,
look, haven't you always figuredit out? Haven't you always found
(08:17):
a way to get it done? So whywould you think now any
differently? And I was like,wow.
So when I knew that she you knowwhat I mean? The strip. Yeah.
Right? I was like, I'm not gonnabe halfway.
So I just so I went for it. Andthen the other thing I did is,
(08:38):
there's a National SpeakersAssociation Mhmm. Which is a
trade association forprofessional speakers. So I
went, and I'm like, okay. I'mgonna start to gather some data
and figure out who's who werearound there.
And, and so I startedinterviewing and having
conversations like this andspeaking to people. And what I
what occurred to me waseverything that I was
experiencing, they experiencedtoo. Yeah. So I was like, okay.
(09:00):
So this is not personal.
This is part of the journey.Yeah. I've gotta go through the
struggle. I've gotta fight. Noway around that.
No. So it's just part of it.Like, that hero's kinda Joseph
Campbell's hero's journey. Yeah.Gotta go through it.
And then the other thing Irealized is I made these
presumptions that these peoplewere maybe extra neurons or
(09:21):
cognitive, you know, rock stars.Yeah. They were normal human
beings, had life experiences,had a niche, and they had the
courage to craft it. And butwith all that said, then I was
like, I'm all in. And lastly,and I don't wanna overtalk this,
I didn't wanna cold call.
I didn't wanna be preachy. Ididn't wanna run around and
kinda just push myself onpeople. So the people that I
(09:45):
really that, fascinated me werecomedians. Okay. That's
interesting.
So how does a comedian build hisniche? Well, he doesn't start on
SNL. Right. He starts inCarlsbad Village at the Coyote
Bar with 4 people there. Right.
Or wherever. Right?
Bret (09:59):
Yeah.
Devin Hughes (10:00):
And 4 turns into 8. 8. So I was like, well,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'mgonna speak anywhere I can and
I'm gonna own my craft. Sorotary, anywhere,
Bret (10:09):
school district. Chamber.
Devin Hughes (10:10):
Yes. Yes. You did. Yes. Anywhere.
And I was just getting betterand better and better. And I
don't need everyone to say. Ijust need 1 or 2 people.
Bret (10:17):
To then invite you to the next thing and eventually it's
to paid things and that
Devin Hughes (10:21):
And that's 17 years, 16 years of doing that.
Bret (10:24):
Oh, wow. That's amazing. And I think that hopefully is,
inspirational for those who are,you know, considering something
like this because as you pointedout, the doubts are gonna be
there. You know, you're notyou're not gonna conquer those
before you launch. Mhmm.
This is not gonna happen. Thisis not gonna happen. It's just
gonna be part of what you haveto go through to get
(10:46):
established. Yeah. I mean, it'sjust what it is.
We're gonna take a brief pause.We're talking to Devin Hughes,
the chief inspiration officer atDevin Hughes Enterprises. When
we come back, we're gonna talkabout the different things that
he focuses on in his speakingengagements and all that, Devin
Hughes Enterprises is. So stickwith us. We'll be right back.
(12:07):
So, Devin, before the break, wewere just talking about how the
the kinda the the psychologythat you had to go through to to
leave the the security blanket,the 9 to 5, and go out on your
own. But tell people what youfocus on in your if they've
never had a chance to hear youspeak. What are some of the
things that you talk about? Imean, I've I've had the benefit
(12:28):
of hearing you speak here at theChamber as we we mentioned just
briefly ago. But, talk aboutsome of the things that you
focus on and that you bring tocompanies and that you like to
keynote on.
Devin Hughes (12:38):
Yeah. So I I usually get thrown in the
motivational speaker, like,sandbox, which I don't hate, but
it's I think I bring a littlebit more than the rah rah. I can
certainly do that, Chef Riley.But my niche is organizational
culture. Mhmm.
Because I come from a, you know,a work background. So I've been
on great teams, not so greatteams. I mentioned I went to my
(13:01):
high school was military. Iplayed collegiate athletics. So
the common denominator in thegood teams was culture.
And if I got the culture right,people dialed in. They felt like
they mattered. They belonged andoutcomes improved. So that
became my niche that if I couldcreate or replicate that, some
science based tools to create aculture where human beings could
come to work and actually feellike they mattered and make an
(13:24):
impact. And that's where most ofmy work I do now.
Bret (13:28):
Yeah. That's fantastic. And you've worked for, in doing
some research on on, you know,you You've worked with a pretty
broad spectrum. It looks likeeverything from startups to
Fortune 100 to schools andnonprofits.
Devin Hughes (13:43):
Yeah. All of the above. I mean, I've done from
the IRS to State Farm. I didsome work with Carlsbad Unified
School District a year ago tokick off at Lockheed Martin. You
name and if it's culturenonprofit, if you got humans at
work.
And I think this matters verybecause we spend more time at
work than we do at home in theaggregate. True. Right? So if
(14:04):
I'm gonna spend 40 to 50 hoursin a space with this many
humans, why would I settle forless than? And so that that's
the and I think everyone leansinto that.
Bret (14:14):
Yeah. I agree with you a 100%. I mean, we talk about that
here even with our own team.Right? We spend so much time
with each other.
Right? I wanna make it the bestpossible experience for my team.
You know, as a nonprofitchamber, we're a nonprofit.
We're not a charity, not a501c3, but we're we're still a
nonprofit. We're a 501c6.
(14:34):
And so a lot of my team couldget pay raises going somewhere
else and doing the similar workthat they do here. But, the
culture I try to create here atthe Chamber, I wanna make it
very difficult to leave. I wannamake it painful to go just to
get that, whatever it might be,$5,000 a year raise somewhere
(14:57):
else because of the culture isso good. Because like you said,
we spend so much time, you know,that experience at your work is
huge to our quality of life.
Devin Hughes (15:07):
Yeah. No. I mean, absolutely is. And I find that
there's 3 things that everyhuman being wants at work beyond
compensation, which you'dalluded to. We wanna be fairly
compensated obviously, but wewanna be seen, heard and valued.
Seen, heard and valued. And it'snot perks, parties and pizza or
it's the subtleties. It's theemotional connection that I see
you in the hall, that youappreciate what I do, the human
(15:29):
connection. And I think that'sexacerbated right now because in
the digital age, everything istext, Snapchat, tweet, email,
and other things. And at the endof the day, we want more human
connection.
I think it's even moreexacerbated right now in the
world we live in. Kinda wanna betone deaf to where we are. Yeah.
And so, you know, you talkingabout that kinda everyone talks
(15:51):
about b2b and b2c. I talk abouth to h.
Human to human. Human to human.Love it. And that's the magic
part. Yeah.
Yeah. I I love that.
Bret (16:02):
And I think, you know, to your point, people want to know
that you care about them as aperson before you're worried
about their performance on thejob. Right? What's their family
like? What's what challenges arethey are they experiencing in
that side of their life? Or, youknow, or what what joys are they
experiencing in that side oftheir life?
(16:23):
Or, you know, both and. Peopleand wanna know that you have
their back when they're having asituation outside the office
that it's not just about, youknow, are they gonna meet
numbers or something for themonth? You know? And so those
things matter a lot.
Devin Hughes (16:38):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so I just did a talk
yesterday actually and with theservice team, financial
services, and we were unpackingwhat great culture looks like.
And one of the commondenominators that I found was
what we call psychologicalsafety. And it's a really
emotional safety that I canspeak up, that I can take risk,
and that I can be my authenticself, that we can be a meeting
(17:01):
with all of us and that I canhave an idea and I can create a
safe place to just say it.
Yes. Yes. Or I can push back onBrett even though he's the
president, and Brett's gonnatake it because he knows assume
positive intent because he's
Bret (17:14):
Yeah. I love that. I love that because if if you don't
have that, then then you justhave people who are, swallowing
their ideas. Or if they bring uptheir ideas and they get slammed
or shut down or told that'sstupid or whatever, then, like
you said, it's not a safe placeto bring your own creativity,
and you feel stifled. Andeventually, you're gonna you're
(17:37):
gonna either leave or you'regonna so minimize yourself.
You're gonna go down to the,what's the bare minimum I can do
just to kinda get through theweek? And that doesn't help
companies thrive either.
Devin Hughes (17:48):
Yeah. We call those GoMos.
Bret (17:49):
GoMos. GoMos. GoMos.
Devin Hughes (17:50):
Go through the motions. Yeah. That's what
happens. They just they show upat 8:0:1, start at 8:4:59.
They're kind of looking aroundsneaking out into the parking
lot just enough, but there's somuch more potential, but they
felt like they could, you know,can't contribute or when they
did, they felt marginalized.
Bret (18:07):
Yeah. I love what you said about intent too because, I
found, and I'd love to hear kindof your take on this, that, in
general, we judge ourselves onwhat our intentions were in some
situation. Well, this is what Iwas thinking when I did that.
But we can fall into the trap ofjust judging others by their
(18:30):
actions and not taking the timeto ask the question. And so then
we make up the our own narrativeas to what they must have meant
when they did that.
And she's out to get my job, or,you know, she's trying to
sabotage me, and it's like,well, let's just go ask her. And
he was like, hey, Susie. Why didyou why did you do that? That
that came across kinda awkwardbecause now it put me in this
(18:51):
situation. Oh, I didn't think ofthat.
I was doing the but you make upyour own narrative. You don't
ask Susie. Right? And then youhave all kinds of problems in
the in the office.
Devin Hughes (19:01):
No. I mean, it's so true. Our personal and
professional relationships within the absence of data in that
space, I think, is where we wecreate up our own narrative. And
sometimes that's based on priorexperiences. Yeah.
So if we've had a priorexperience where someone we
thought malintent and then we'dgo right there Yeah. And then
that becomes the baseline. Andthat's not fair to the other
person, to your point if we havea conversation. So one way that
(19:22):
I found and, again, I don'tagain, for example, to create
more psychological safety,Airbnb. We all know it.
We've used them. Right? Yeah.They wanted to embed it,
institutionalize it because it'sone thing to know it. Right?
Yeah. But sometimes it's hard tooperationalize it, which is
where I where my niche is isoperationalizing this stuff. But
(19:43):
they have a concept calledelephants, dead fish, and vomit.
Bret (19:47):
Oh, this sounds really interesting.
Devin Hughes (19:50):
Okay. Fascinating. Right? So you give it a
language. Yeah.
Now it's not personal. It's notabout so elephants are kinda
sort of what you would think.Elephants are the things that
things that everyone kind ofsort of knows are in the
building, on the team, in theorganization, but we just don't
really talk about. Okay. We uselanguage, oh, that's just the
way we do things around here.
(20:12):
Okay? Yeah. So you'll you'lllook on an agenda sometimes at
Airbnb and it'll say, elephant60 minutes. Oh. So people know
when they walk in, you havepermission and there's certain
guardrails.
We don't talk about people. Wedon't Right. Tag character, But
if there's stuff that so and sothat's elephants. The other
one's dead fish. Dead fish arethe things that happened in the
(20:35):
past years ago, months ago, aboss ago that we keep talking
about.
And if we don't deal with thedead fish, they smell up the
organization. Interesting. So Iused to do something similar
called uncover the stinky fish.And it would be, what is
everyone thinking but no one issaying? Interesting.
And we would peel it out, andthen we'd go out for sushi. I
(20:58):
love it. And ritualize itbecause, again, all this stuff,
like, why are we emboldened tothe past? Yeah. I can't
relitigate it.
If we're gonna keep talkingabout it, let's learn from it,
but we've got to bear it. Andthen the lastly, which is a
little bit coarse, is vomit. Andvomit was the stuff that if you
see a lot of side conversationsthat are happening, people are
frustrated, don't get it, newsoftware upgrade, new policy
(21:20):
change, but no one's reallysaying it. They're sometimes we
close the door and finally wouldbe let's air it out.
Bret (21:30):
Let's get it out.
Devin Hughes (21:30):
Let's get it out.
Bret (21:31):
Yeah. Wow. Very interesting. Very interesting.
You talked about how, this kindof this journey kind of started
with, a book.
You know? It's, somebodymentioning that, have you ever
considered writing a book? And Ibelieve you're now the author of
21 books. Is that right?Correct.
(21:52):
That's amazing. And your firstone was very autobiographical,
your own journey. And I saw, itlooks like 2012, a biracial
man's journey to desegregate hispast. So tell me what that was
like writing that because, youknow, writing a biography from
what I've heard, I haven'twritten one, but could be is it
(22:14):
cathartic? Is it is it hard?
Is it I mean, it does it comenatural?
Devin Hughes (22:18):
Does it roll? How does how does that go? I mean, I
think everyone's experience isprobably a bit different. For
me, it was it was, I don't wannasay traumatic, but it was hard
because a lot of shame in
Bret (22:29):
that, a
Devin Hughes (22:30):
lot of pain. My mother had me when she was 18.
Bret (22:32):
Okay.
Devin Hughes (22:33):
Biracial. My father's African American. My
mother's Caucasian. Mygrandfather was in the Ku Klux
Klan. Oh, wow.
So I wasn't accepted necessarilyon that side. So my mother
literally is I say escape, butshe she had to leave, Knoxville,
Tennessee with her boyfriend atthe time, my father, to to go to
(22:54):
Washington DC to to literallystart a life because they
weren't accepted back in thesixties. So because of that,
there's a lot of trauma and painin that story. Yeah. Plus I was
in special ed.
Yep. I don't know if we werepoor. We didn't have a lot.
Sure. So, and then growing uptrying to fit in racially.
Yeah. If you I would show up inspaces, and I still do today,
(23:14):
and people don't know mybackground. Sure. So I'd be in
conversations even as a childand people making pejorative
comments about people of color.And I'm always feeling like so I
had a lot of that.
Yeah. But that full fullforward, it was cathartic. I
didn't realize how much of thatI compressed to
(23:35):
compartmentalize. And I use thatas a story not so much about
race, but other people who, atcertain points, don't feel like
they fit in.
Bret (23:44):
Mhmm. For whatever for
Devin Hughes (23:45):
whatever reason? Whatever reason. Yeah. And so
that's what the book is about,how my journey of finding my
place where I am what I am.
Bret (23:54):
Well, you've leveraged all that because now, you are you
are a huge optimist. You are ahuge optimist. And it's very
intentional. You're veryintentional about kindness. I
mean, your social media islittered with stuff about
kindness, on a daily basis,which I love because I follow
(24:17):
you, and I have for, manymonths, not a couple of years
now.
You're on the board of directorsat Kids For Peace, which is all
about the great kindnesschallenge and kindness certified
companies and everything, justfor those who might not know
Kids For Peace. Big fans oftheirs. So talk about talk about
that. Talk about yourintentionality behind kindness
(24:40):
and optimism and all that.
Devin Hughes (24:42):
Yeah. So the optimism part was when I was
trying to find myself, hope,belief was a big deal. And I I
remember my mother was notcollege or formally educated,
but I remember one time I camehome, struggling. And, and I
don't know where this comesfrom, but I I say she had some
(25:02):
of this deep seated southerncountry front porch wisdom that
you get on with a little bit oflemonade and a Yep. Yeah.
So I'm coming home and she looksat me and she says, son, there's
no such thing as bad weather,only inadequate clothing. And
their message was stop trying tocontrol the storm. The storm
(25:25):
will be the storm. I need you tocontrol how you show up in it.
Mhmm.
And I my parents both again hadthese little nuggets or
anecdotes, you know, telling meover and over again. And I still
use this today. You can't pourfrom an empty cup, son. Yeah.
Right?
Right? Very true. Right? Andthen another one was, like, are
(25:47):
the people in your cup I mean,in your circle, are they pouring
into your cup or poking holes init? So these little anecdotes
Yeah.
Like I had my parents and otherpeople. And then you get to a
certain point and you start tofigure out the only thing I can
control is my mindset, how Ishow up. I don't believe it
doesn't matter. And so being atthe right place at the right
time didn't matter if I didn'thave the right mindset. Yeah.
(26:10):
So that intentionality and thestruggles early in my life have
propelled me. And the one thingI could figure out is I gotta
believe and I gotta put myselfin situations. I gotta prepare,
but I just believe that I havethe capacity to do it. So to
answer your questionspecifically, I wanna empower
others to do that. Yeah.
There's a lot of other people, Ithink, at different points of
(26:31):
their journey who may bestruggling to figure out. Yep.
So that's a big part of mesharing as much as I do.
Bret (26:37):
No. That's awesome. It's very awesome. And, I know you
have, 4 daughters of your own. Ido.
And how what are their ages?
Devin Hughes (26:47):
So I've got twins, that are will be 26. Nice. I
have a 21 year old and
Bret (26:53):
a 19 year old. They're all young adults now? Yes.
Hopefully, doing well and
Devin Hughes (26:59):
Yes. It's interesting. So I blog a lot. I
write 3 articles a week. And nowI've been writing a lot about
one being in my fifties.
But, also, a big part of that iswhat does a dad look like for
adult children? Yeah. I'mwriting my own book right now. I
don't know what that is. Yeah.
I can't come in like asuperhero. They don't need that
right now. Sure. So adulting,fathering a lot. But so, yeah,
we are blessed.
(27:20):
All Carlsbad Unified Schoolkids. Okay. One's in San Diego
and PB, one's in Nashville,one's in Boston, and one's at
Gonzaga. She's a junior.
Bret (27:29):
Oh, wonderful. Very fun. Well, that is awesome. Now if
somebody is listening in todayand, well so couple of things.
The beauty of and theinteresting thing of podcast is
they just go.
They have a life of their own.And once we record this and
publish it, we could be talkingto somebody on the East Coast or
(27:50):
in the Bahamas. I mean,anywhere. Right? But you you
service people all over theworld, I think.
Devin Hughes (27:56):
I do. Yeah. So that's
Bret (27:57):
a beautiful thing. And if somebody is listening in today
and they're meeting Devin Hughesfor the very first time and
they're like, I would love totalk to him. I would like to
consider bringing him out to mycompany or whatever. Would your
website be the best place forthem to start? Yeah.
I'd say that. Devonchues.com.Devonchues.com. Okay. There you
(28:18):
go, folks.
So, I I've had the pleasure ofhaving Devin speak at some of
our events. So I'm gonna justgive out this 5 star ring
endorsement right now to anybodylistening. You'd be, very wise
to consider bringing him intoyour company and and hiring him
to come talk about culture withyour team. So, hopefully, you'll
(28:40):
get some get some love out ofthis.
Devin Hughes (28:42):
Yeah, Brent. I I wanna give you a little love. We
talk about culture in thechamber. I had lived here. I've
been here 17 years.
I joined, you know, a littlelate in the chamber, but a big
part of me I wasn't reluctant. Ijust didn't know what I didn't
know because I travel so much.Sure. But we talk about culture,
when I went to an event and Imet your director of fun. Yes.
(29:04):
Kathy. Yes. Right. And I metothers. And I'm I'm a culture
whisperer and then that's whenit snapped.
And then I was like, okay. Iwanna be a part of this. Because
Nice. Culture's like a Wi Fifeeling. Mhmm.
It's a vibe. It's a vibe. Right?It's a feeling. So just so just
so you know, when I walked inand the interactions with I was
like, okay.
This is real. This is authentic.This isn't transactional. They
(29:26):
really want to and so for whatthat's worth, there's a little
feedback for you, which is whyI've jumped, you know, knee deep
into being a part of thecommunity.
Bret (29:35):
Oh, I I appreciate that, especially from from you with
your experience with so manydifferent companies and working
with places. And I know youwouldn't say it if it wasn't
true, because that's you're allabout authenticity. So I I
appreciate that, and, I take it.And we feel blessed that you're
here in our community and youbecome a part of our Chamber
family. We do feel like ourmembers are family to us.
(29:57):
So and, love having you as partof that. So thank you so much
for taking the time, to come andshare with us. I'm this your
journey is amazing, and, I'm soexcited that, you share it
broadly.
Devin Hughes (30:11):
No. Thanks for having me. It's been fantastic.
My pleasure.
Bret (30:16):
Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People,
Purpose, and Impact podcast. Ifyou got value out of our episode
today, please hit the followbutton on your favorite podcast
app, and please tell a friend.Can't wait to see you next time
on Carlsbad People, Purpose, andImpact.
Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an
essential podcast for those wholive, work, visit, and play in
Carlsbad.
Bret (00:14):
Good morning and welcome everyone. My name is Brett
Schonzenbach. I am the presidentand CEO at the Carlsbad Chamber
of Commerce. I'm your hosttoday, and I'm pleased to have
with me Devin Hughes, the chiefinspiration officer at Devin
Hughes Enterprises. Goodmorning, Devin.
Devin Hughes (00:30):
Thank you for having me, Brent. Excited to be
here. Yeah.
Bret (00:32):
Great to have you. And I know we tried to do this couple
months ago and then schedulingand things happened. So I'm I'm
excited that we were able tobring it together.
Devin Hughes (00:40):
Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts in the world
if you hadn't noticed. So
Bret (00:43):
Yeah. And your world's got a lot in which we're gonna get
into today. But I wanted tokinda go back to your,
beginning. It looks like youwent to high school at Saint
John's or I'm sorry. Yeah.
High school at Saint John'sCollege High School?
Devin Hughes (00:59):
Yeah. And how was prep?
Bret (01:00):
College prep high school because of, you were you were a
basketball guy.
Devin Hughes (01:05):
I was, but I actually went there because I
was a rebellious kid.
Bret (01:09):
Okay.
Devin Hughes (01:11):
I, well, if I even go farther back, I couldn't I
could barely read and writeuntil I was in 5th or 6th grade.
Wow. So I acted out. Yeah. Ispent more time in the
principal's office than I spentin the classroom.
Uh-huh. And so St. John'sCollege Prep was not only in
college prep, it was alsomilitary. Uh-huh. So I was sent
(01:32):
there for a little bit ofdiscipline.
Okay.
Bret (01:34):
Yeah. And it I don't know. And only knowing you at this
stage in life, I'm gonna say itworked.
Devin Hughes (01:41):
Yeah. It actually it, changed my life. Yeah. I
hated it. It was all it was allmen, but, discipline, structure,
respect, all of thatfundamentally changed on how I
view my world and how I want myworld view.
So yeah. Absolutely. Wow.
Bret (01:58):
Very cool. And, and then you did play basketball there,
but also collegiately. Yes. Wehad
Devin Hughes (02:03):
a great basketball program. I was fortunate to to
play. We won and I got ascholarship to Colgate
University. That was the goal toplay division 1 basketball and
to match academics withathletics.
Bret (02:13):
Very awesome. Very cool. So that was out in New York and
then I saw later, you got amaster's degree at South New
Hampshire University inorganizational leadership. And
since then, you've gottencertificates at almost every
reputable university like in theworld, I think. You had certs
(02:35):
from what?
USD, UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley,UCSD. You're kind of addicted to
education.
Devin Hughes (02:43):
I am. I struggled so much, as I as I just alluded
to when I was a child. And soafter that, I education was more
transactional for me when I wasa kid, and then I I found a love
of learning. Nice. And it lit meup, and it made me happy, and I
could apply it.
So I just threw myself in, Imean, way in, surrounded myself
(03:04):
with other people. And, that'show I ended up in places at, you
know, UCLA or Cal or Stanford,wherever, just in rooms like
this, just soaking upinformation and experiences.
Bret (03:15):
Love it. Love it. So what brought you, what brought you
out to the West Coast? Becausenow you're here based, I think,
in Carlsbad, aren't
Devin Hughes (03:22):
you? Correct.
Bret (03:23):
Yeah. What what brought you to the West Coast in in your
journeys? And and tell us alittle bit about your career
before you started your DevonHughes Enterprises.
Devin Hughes (03:33):
Yeah. So I had a real job. You know, we have a
boss and performance reviews andall that type of stuff. I did
that for first 18, 20 years ofmy career Mhmm. And, primarily
in high-tech and biotech.
Manage teams and and a bunch ofstuff. And so I did that, and it
(03:54):
was great. And then my lastcompany, we're getting acquired.
And I was a little bit stale. Ididn't feel the same energy,
and, I was looking for what Iwas gonna do next.
I thought there was more juicein the berry. Yeah. And so
someone had come up to merandomly and said, hey, you're
so good in front of a room. Haveyou ever thought about being a
(04:14):
speaker? And I'm like, well, whothinks about that?
Bret (04:17):
I mean,
Devin Hughes (04:17):
it's just not you know, I didn't have a SWOT
analysis or some kind of, youknow, grid. And so I was like,
yeah. Whatever. No. And I said,no, really.
I mean, you could really make acareer, all these experiences.
So I heard it, but I didn'treally process it. Making a long
story short, I had given us, atalk at a rotary club. Someone
invited me to a rotary club. SoI spoke.
And, you know, I I don't mean tobe overly spiritual or how the
(04:39):
world works, but there happenedto be a publisher in that room
Nice. Who came up to me at theend and said, hey, have you ever
thought about writing a book?Okay. So now I'm like, okay.
Speed and then at first, I waslike, no.
And then he kept calling andcalling and calling. Fast
forward, I ended up writing abook, which propelled me into
(05:00):
the speaking career, and thatwas, you know, 16 years later.
Bret (05:05):
Wow. Wow. Very interesting. Yeah. You never
know.
Well, that's that's always agood lesson, in, mentoring young
professionals, college students.And I talked to them about, you
never know where youropportunities are. You know?
Here, you you got invited togive a talk at Rotary. Now what
(05:29):
what if you hadn't have put, youknow, your all into that talk
and kinda shirked it a bit andtanked it a bit.
Right? What what difference thatwould have made in your life?
But, you know, I don't exactlyknow what to talk on, possibly
on some of your lifeexperiences. But, you obviously
did a good job and look where itI mean, it's amazing.
Devin Hughes (05:48):
Yeah. And so it's funny you say that because I
look back now, and I thinkimprov in life, you know, in
improv, they say yes, end. Andyou just go where the energy
goes. Like, if there's anopportunity, you walk through
the door. You don't knowserendipitously where it's gonna
happen, but you know you're in aplace that you end up in a
better place.
And if I look at my career,that's kinda sort of how I ended
(06:11):
up. I just said yes. Have youever done it? No. Can you do it?
I don't know. I'll figure itout. And so to that point, I
ended up, you know, writing abook and then kids books. And
then I was a children's author,and I've never done that. But
you have a great life story, andit's compelling.
And and it's next thing youknow, you end up in places that
you just never would have knownjust by saying yes and being
(06:33):
open to the opportunity.
Bret (06:35):
Oh, man. That's awesome. I love that. When you started
speaking, like, how that'sstill, you know okay. So
somebody says, let's write abook or have you thought about
writing a book?
It's still a big step to go froma a regular paycheck
Devin Hughes (06:52):
Mhmm.
Bret (06:53):
To what you're doing now where you now it's established,
but it's like you said, it'sbeen 16 years to get it to this
point. Taking that that actualstep out of the comfort of a
monthly or whatever biweeklypaycheck to totally living off
of, you know, inspiring others,I guess, is one way to put it.
(07:14):
Yeah. I tell me how that was foryou.
Devin Hughes (07:18):
I tell people that the psychology, that's the
hardest part because I have somany people now. I'd love to do
what you do. Yeah. I have somuch domain expertise. And I
tell them, you may.
The hardest part is not doingthe work. It's the psychology of
being okay with not having apaycheck and getting the work.
Yeah. Exactly. As much as youmay complain about work, every 2
(07:41):
weeks an ACH shows up.
That's a
Bret (07:43):
pretty good deal. Yeah.
Devin Hughes (07:47):
And you you know, and and so and so you're right.
But that was really hard. So 2things, I think, helped me.
Number 1 was my wife.
Bret (07:54):
Mhmm.
Devin Hughes (07:55):
I mean, absolutely. When I there were
doubts that I was there was someself doubt. And then it creeped
in like Freddy Krueger.Absolutely. And then you had
other people in your innercircle poking holes in my cup.
Oh my god. What are you doing?Are you crazy? You right. All
that.
That negative chatter. But mywife was the one who's like,
look, haven't you always figuredit out? Haven't you always found
(08:17):
a way to get it done? So whywould you think now any
differently? And I was like,wow.
So when I knew that she you knowwhat I mean? The strip. Yeah.
Right? I was like, I'm not gonnabe halfway.
So I just so I went for it. Andthen the other thing I did is,
(08:38):
there's a National SpeakersAssociation Mhmm. Which is a
trade association forprofessional speakers. So I
went, and I'm like, okay. I'mgonna start to gather some data
and figure out who's who werearound there.
And, and so I startedinterviewing and having
conversations like this andspeaking to people. And what I
what occurred to me waseverything that I was
experiencing, they experiencedtoo. Yeah. So I was like, okay.
(09:00):
So this is not personal.
This is part of the journey.Yeah. I've gotta go through the
struggle. I've gotta fight. Noway around that.
No. So it's just part of it.Like, that hero's kinda Joseph
Campbell's hero's journey. Yeah.Gotta go through it.
And then the other thing Irealized is I made these
presumptions that these peoplewere maybe extra neurons or
(09:21):
cognitive, you know, rock stars.Yeah. They were normal human
beings, had life experiences,had a niche, and they had the
courage to craft it. And butwith all that said, then I was
like, I'm all in. And lastly,and I don't wanna overtalk this,
I didn't wanna cold call.
I didn't wanna be preachy. Ididn't wanna run around and
kinda just push myself onpeople. So the people that I
(09:45):
really that, fascinated me werecomedians. Okay. That's
interesting.
So how does a comedian build hisniche? Well, he doesn't start on
SNL. Right. He starts inCarlsbad Village at the Coyote
Bar with 4 people there. Right.
Or wherever. Right?
Bret (09:59):
Yeah.
Devin Hughes (10:00):
And 4 turns into 8. 8. So I was like, well,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'mgonna speak anywhere I can and
I'm gonna own my craft. Sorotary, anywhere,
Bret (10:09):
school district. Chamber.
Devin Hughes (10:10):
Yes. Yes. You did. Yes. Anywhere.
And I was just getting betterand better and better. And I
don't need everyone to say. Ijust need 1 or 2 people.
Bret (10:17):
To then invite you to the next thing and eventually it's
to paid things and that
Devin Hughes (10:21):
And that's 17 years, 16 years of doing that.
Bret (10:24):
Oh, wow. That's amazing. And I think that hopefully is,
inspirational for those who are,you know, considering something
like this because as you pointedout, the doubts are gonna be
there. You know, you're notyou're not gonna conquer those
before you launch. Mhmm.
This is not gonna happen. Thisis not gonna happen. It's just
gonna be part of what you haveto go through to get
(10:46):
established. Yeah. I mean, it'sjust what it is.
We're gonna take a brief pause.We're talking to Devin Hughes,
the chief inspiration officer atDevin Hughes Enterprises. When
we come back, we're gonna talkabout the different things that
he focuses on in his speakingengagements and all that, Devin
Hughes Enterprises is. So stickwith us. We'll be right back.
(12:07):
So, Devin, before the break, wewere just talking about how the
the kinda the the psychologythat you had to go through to to
leave the the security blanket,the 9 to 5, and go out on your
own. But tell people what youfocus on in your if they've
never had a chance to hear youspeak. What are some of the
things that you talk about? Imean, I've I've had the benefit
(12:28):
of hearing you speak here at theChamber as we we mentioned just
briefly ago. But, talk aboutsome of the things that you
focus on and that you bring tocompanies and that you like to
keynote on.
Devin Hughes (12:38):
Yeah. So I I usually get thrown in the
motivational speaker, like,sandbox, which I don't hate, but
it's I think I bring a littlebit more than the rah rah. I can
certainly do that, Chef Riley.But my niche is organizational
culture. Mhmm.
Because I come from a, you know,a work background. So I've been
on great teams, not so greatteams. I mentioned I went to my
(13:01):
high school was military. Iplayed collegiate athletics. So
the common denominator in thegood teams was culture.
And if I got the culture right,people dialed in. They felt like
they mattered. They belonged andoutcomes improved. So that
became my niche that if I couldcreate or replicate that, some
science based tools to create aculture where human beings could
come to work and actually feellike they mattered and make an
(13:24):
impact. And that's where most ofmy work I do now.
Bret (13:28):
Yeah. That's fantastic. And you've worked for, in doing
some research on on, you know,you You've worked with a pretty
broad spectrum. It looks likeeverything from startups to
Fortune 100 to schools andnonprofits.
Devin Hughes (13:43):
Yeah. All of the above. I mean, I've done from
the IRS to State Farm. I didsome work with Carlsbad Unified
School District a year ago tokick off at Lockheed Martin. You
name and if it's culturenonprofit, if you got humans at
work.
And I think this matters verybecause we spend more time at
work than we do at home in theaggregate. True. Right? So if
(14:04):
I'm gonna spend 40 to 50 hoursin a space with this many
humans, why would I settle forless than? And so that that's
the and I think everyone leansinto that.
Bret (14:14):
Yeah. I agree with you a 100%. I mean, we talk about that
here even with our own team.Right? We spend so much time
with each other.
Right? I wanna make it the bestpossible experience for my team.
You know, as a nonprofitchamber, we're a nonprofit.
We're not a charity, not a501c3, but we're we're still a
nonprofit. We're a 501c6.
(14:34):
And so a lot of my team couldget pay raises going somewhere
else and doing the similar workthat they do here. But, the
culture I try to create here atthe Chamber, I wanna make it
very difficult to leave. I wannamake it painful to go just to
get that, whatever it might be,$5,000 a year raise somewhere
(14:57):
else because of the culture isso good. Because like you said,
we spend so much time, you know,that experience at your work is
huge to our quality of life.
Devin Hughes (15:07):
Yeah. No. I mean, absolutely is. And I find that
there's 3 things that everyhuman being wants at work beyond
compensation, which you'dalluded to. We wanna be fairly
compensated obviously, but wewanna be seen, heard and valued.
Seen, heard and valued. And it'snot perks, parties and pizza or
it's the subtleties. It's theemotional connection that I see
you in the hall, that youappreciate what I do, the human
(15:29):
connection. And I think that'sexacerbated right now because in
the digital age, everything istext, Snapchat, tweet, email,
and other things. And at the endof the day, we want more human
connection.
I think it's even moreexacerbated right now in the
world we live in. Kinda wanna betone deaf to where we are. Yeah.
And so, you know, you talkingabout that kinda everyone talks
(15:51):
about b2b and b2c. I talk abouth to h.
Human to human. Human to human.Love it. And that's the magic
part. Yeah.
Yeah. I I love that.
Bret (16:02):
And I think, you know, to your point, people want to know
that you care about them as aperson before you're worried
about their performance on thejob. Right? What's their family
like? What's what challenges arethey are they experiencing in
that side of their life? Or, youknow, or what what joys are they
experiencing in that side oftheir life?
(16:23):
Or, you know, both and. Peopleand wanna know that you have
their back when they're having asituation outside the office
that it's not just about, youknow, are they gonna meet
numbers or something for themonth? You know? And so those
things matter a lot.
Devin Hughes (16:38):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so I just did a talk
yesterday actually and with theservice team, financial
services, and we were unpackingwhat great culture looks like.
And one of the commondenominators that I found was
what we call psychologicalsafety. And it's a really
emotional safety that I canspeak up, that I can take risk,
and that I can be my authenticself, that we can be a meeting
(17:01):
with all of us and that I canhave an idea and I can create a
safe place to just say it.
Yes. Yes. Or I can push back onBrett even though he's the
president, and Brett's gonnatake it because he knows assume
positive intent because he's
Bret (17:14):
Yeah. I love that. I love that because if if you don't
have that, then then you justhave people who are, swallowing
their ideas. Or if they bring uptheir ideas and they get slammed
or shut down or told that'sstupid or whatever, then, like
you said, it's not a safe placeto bring your own creativity,
and you feel stifled. Andeventually, you're gonna you're
(17:37):
gonna either leave or you'regonna so minimize yourself.
You're gonna go down to the,what's the bare minimum I can do
just to kinda get through theweek? And that doesn't help
companies thrive either.
Devin Hughes (17:48):
Yeah. We call those GoMos.
Bret (17:49):
GoMos. GoMos. GoMos.
Devin Hughes (17:50):
Go through the motions. Yeah. That's what
happens. They just they show upat 8:0:1, start at 8:4:59.
They're kind of looking aroundsneaking out into the parking
lot just enough, but there's somuch more potential, but they
felt like they could, you know,can't contribute or when they
did, they felt marginalized.
Bret (18:07):
Yeah. I love what you said about intent too because, I
found, and I'd love to hear kindof your take on this, that, in
general, we judge ourselves onwhat our intentions were in some
situation. Well, this is what Iwas thinking when I did that.
But we can fall into the trap ofjust judging others by their
(18:30):
actions and not taking the timeto ask the question. And so then
we make up the our own narrativeas to what they must have meant
when they did that.
And she's out to get my job, or,you know, she's trying to
sabotage me, and it's like,well, let's just go ask her. And
he was like, hey, Susie. Why didyou why did you do that? That
that came across kinda awkwardbecause now it put me in this
(18:51):
situation. Oh, I didn't think ofthat.
I was doing the but you make upyour own narrative. You don't
ask Susie. Right? And then youhave all kinds of problems in
the in the office.
Devin Hughes (19:01):
No. I mean, it's so true. Our personal and
professional relationships within the absence of data in that
space, I think, is where we wecreate up our own narrative. And
sometimes that's based on priorexperiences. Yeah.
So if we've had a priorexperience where someone we
thought malintent and then we'dgo right there Yeah. And then
that becomes the baseline. Andthat's not fair to the other
person, to your point if we havea conversation. So one way that
(19:22):
I found and, again, I don'tagain, for example, to create
more psychological safety,Airbnb. We all know it.
We've used them. Right? Yeah.They wanted to embed it,
institutionalize it because it'sone thing to know it. Right?
Yeah. But sometimes it's hard tooperationalize it, which is
where I where my niche is isoperationalizing this stuff. But
(19:43):
they have a concept calledelephants, dead fish, and vomit.
Bret (19:47):
Oh, this sounds really interesting.
Devin Hughes (19:50):
Okay. Fascinating. Right? So you give it a
language. Yeah.
Now it's not personal. It's notabout so elephants are kinda
sort of what you would think.Elephants are the things that
things that everyone kind ofsort of knows are in the
building, on the team, in theorganization, but we just don't
really talk about. Okay. We uselanguage, oh, that's just the
way we do things around here.
(20:12):
Okay? Yeah. So you'll you'lllook on an agenda sometimes at
Airbnb and it'll say, elephant60 minutes. Oh. So people know
when they walk in, you havepermission and there's certain
guardrails.
We don't talk about people. Wedon't Right. Tag character, But
if there's stuff that so and sothat's elephants. The other
one's dead fish. Dead fish arethe things that happened in the
(20:35):
past years ago, months ago, aboss ago that we keep talking
about.
And if we don't deal with thedead fish, they smell up the
organization. Interesting. So Iused to do something similar
called uncover the stinky fish.And it would be, what is
everyone thinking but no one issaying? Interesting.
And we would peel it out, andthen we'd go out for sushi. I
(20:58):
love it. And ritualize itbecause, again, all this stuff,
like, why are we emboldened tothe past? Yeah. I can't
relitigate it.
If we're gonna keep talkingabout it, let's learn from it,
but we've got to bear it. Andthen the lastly, which is a
little bit coarse, is vomit. Andvomit was the stuff that if you
see a lot of side conversationsthat are happening, people are
frustrated, don't get it, newsoftware upgrade, new policy
(21:20):
change, but no one's reallysaying it. They're sometimes we
close the door and finally wouldbe let's air it out.
Bret (21:30):
Let's get it out.
Devin Hughes (21:30):
Let's get it out.
Bret (21:31):
Yeah. Wow. Very interesting. Very interesting.
You talked about how, this kindof this journey kind of started
with, a book.
You know? It's, somebodymentioning that, have you ever
considered writing a book? And Ibelieve you're now the author of
21 books. Is that right?Correct.
(21:52):
That's amazing. And your firstone was very autobiographical,
your own journey. And I saw, itlooks like 2012, a biracial
man's journey to desegregate hispast. So tell me what that was
like writing that because, youknow, writing a biography from
what I've heard, I haven'twritten one, but could be is it
(22:14):
cathartic? Is it is it hard?
Is it I mean, it does it comenatural?
Devin Hughes (22:18):
Does it roll? How does how does that go? I mean, I
think everyone's experience isprobably a bit different. For
me, it was it was, I don't wannasay traumatic, but it was hard
because a lot of shame in
Bret (22:29):
that, a
Devin Hughes (22:30):
lot of pain. My mother had me when she was 18.
Bret (22:32):
Okay.
Devin Hughes (22:33):
Biracial. My father's African American. My
mother's Caucasian. Mygrandfather was in the Ku Klux
Klan. Oh, wow.
So I wasn't accepted necessarilyon that side. So my mother
literally is I say escape, butshe she had to leave, Knoxville,
Tennessee with her boyfriend atthe time, my father, to to go to
(22:54):
Washington DC to to literallystart a life because they
weren't accepted back in thesixties. So because of that,
there's a lot of trauma and painin that story. Yeah. Plus I was
in special ed.
Yep. I don't know if we werepoor. We didn't have a lot.
Sure. So, and then growing uptrying to fit in racially.
Yeah. If you I would show up inspaces, and I still do today,
(23:14):
and people don't know mybackground. Sure. So I'd be in
conversations even as a childand people making pejorative
comments about people of color.And I'm always feeling like so I
had a lot of that.
Yeah. But that full fullforward, it was cathartic. I
didn't realize how much of thatI compressed to
(23:35):
compartmentalize. And I use thatas a story not so much about
race, but other people who, atcertain points, don't feel like
they fit in.
Bret (23:44):
Mhmm. For whatever for
Devin Hughes (23:45):
whatever reason? Whatever reason. Yeah. And so
that's what the book is about,how my journey of finding my
place where I am what I am.
Bret (23:54):
Well, you've leveraged all that because now, you are you
are a huge optimist. You are ahuge optimist. And it's very
intentional. You're veryintentional about kindness. I
mean, your social media islittered with stuff about
kindness, on a daily basis,which I love because I follow
(24:17):
you, and I have for, manymonths, not a couple of years
now.
You're on the board of directorsat Kids For Peace, which is all
about the great kindnesschallenge and kindness certified
companies and everything, justfor those who might not know
Kids For Peace. Big fans oftheirs. So talk about talk about
that. Talk about yourintentionality behind kindness
(24:40):
and optimism and all that.
Devin Hughes (24:42):
Yeah. So the optimism part was when I was
trying to find myself, hope,belief was a big deal. And I I
remember my mother was notcollege or formally educated,
but I remember one time I camehome, struggling. And, and I
don't know where this comesfrom, but I I say she had some
(25:02):
of this deep seated southerncountry front porch wisdom that
you get on with a little bit oflemonade and a Yep. Yeah.
So I'm coming home and she looksat me and she says, son, there's
no such thing as bad weather,only inadequate clothing. And
their message was stop trying tocontrol the storm. The storm
(25:25):
will be the storm. I need you tocontrol how you show up in it.
Mhmm.
And I my parents both again hadthese little nuggets or
anecdotes, you know, telling meover and over again. And I still
use this today. You can't pourfrom an empty cup, son. Yeah.
Right?
Right? Very true. Right? Andthen another one was, like, are
(25:47):
the people in your cup I mean,in your circle, are they pouring
into your cup or poking holes init? So these little anecdotes
Yeah.
Like I had my parents and otherpeople. And then you get to a
certain point and you start tofigure out the only thing I can
control is my mindset, how Ishow up. I don't believe it
doesn't matter. And so being atthe right place at the right
time didn't matter if I didn'thave the right mindset. Yeah.
(26:10):
So that intentionality and thestruggles early in my life have
propelled me. And the one thingI could figure out is I gotta
believe and I gotta put myselfin situations. I gotta prepare,
but I just believe that I havethe capacity to do it. So to
answer your questionspecifically, I wanna empower
others to do that. Yeah.
There's a lot of other people, Ithink, at different points of
(26:31):
their journey who may bestruggling to figure out. Yep.
So that's a big part of mesharing as much as I do.
Bret (26:37):
No. That's awesome. It's very awesome. And, I know you
have, 4 daughters of your own. Ido.
And how what are their ages?
Devin Hughes (26:47):
So I've got twins, that are will be 26. Nice. I
have a 21 year old and
Bret (26:53):
a 19 year old. They're all young adults now? Yes.
Hopefully, doing well and
Devin Hughes (26:59):
Yes. It's interesting. So I blog a lot. I
write 3 articles a week. And nowI've been writing a lot about
one being in my fifties.
But, also, a big part of that iswhat does a dad look like for
adult children? Yeah. I'mwriting my own book right now. I
don't know what that is. Yeah.
I can't come in like asuperhero. They don't need that
right now. Sure. So adulting,fathering a lot. But so, yeah,
we are blessed.
(27:20):
All Carlsbad Unified Schoolkids. Okay. One's in San Diego
and PB, one's in Nashville,one's in Boston, and one's at
Gonzaga. She's a junior.
Bret (27:29):
Oh, wonderful. Very fun. Well, that is awesome. Now if
somebody is listening in todayand, well so couple of things.
The beauty of and theinteresting thing of podcast is
they just go.
They have a life of their own.And once we record this and
publish it, we could be talkingto somebody on the East Coast or
(27:50):
in the Bahamas. I mean,anywhere. Right? But you you
service people all over theworld, I think.
Devin Hughes (27:56):
I do. Yeah. So that's
Bret (27:57):
a beautiful thing. And if somebody is listening in today
and they're meeting Devin Hughesfor the very first time and
they're like, I would love totalk to him. I would like to
consider bringing him out to mycompany or whatever. Would your
website be the best place forthem to start? Yeah.
I'd say that. Devonchues.com.Devonchues.com. Okay. There you
(28:18):
go, folks.
So, I I've had the pleasure ofhaving Devin speak at some of
our events. So I'm gonna justgive out this 5 star ring
endorsement right now to anybodylistening. You'd be, very wise
to consider bringing him intoyour company and and hiring him
to come talk about culture withyour team. So, hopefully, you'll
(28:40):
get some get some love out ofthis.
Devin Hughes (28:42):
Yeah, Brent. I I wanna give you a little love. We
talk about culture in thechamber. I had lived here. I've
been here 17 years.
I joined, you know, a littlelate in the chamber, but a big
part of me I wasn't reluctant. Ijust didn't know what I didn't
know because I travel so much.Sure. But we talk about culture,
when I went to an event and Imet your director of fun. Yes.
(29:04):
Kathy. Yes. Right. And I metothers. And I'm I'm a culture
whisperer and then that's whenit snapped.
And then I was like, okay. Iwanna be a part of this. Because
Nice. Culture's like a Wi Fifeeling. Mhmm.
It's a vibe. It's a vibe. Right?It's a feeling. So just so just
so you know, when I walked inand the interactions with I was
like, okay.
This is real. This is authentic.This isn't transactional. They
(29:26):
really want to and so for whatthat's worth, there's a little
feedback for you, which is whyI've jumped, you know, knee deep
into being a part of thecommunity.
Bret (29:35):
Oh, I I appreciate that, especially from from you with
your experience with so manydifferent companies and working
with places. And I know youwouldn't say it if it wasn't
true, because that's you're allabout authenticity. So I I
appreciate that, and, I take it.And we feel blessed that you're
here in our community and youbecome a part of our Chamber
family. We do feel like ourmembers are family to us.
(29:57):
So and, love having you as partof that. So thank you so much
for taking the time, to come andshare with us. I'm this your
journey is amazing, and, I'm soexcited that, you share it
broadly.
Devin Hughes (30:11):
No. Thanks for having me. It's been fantastic.
My pleasure.
Bret (30:16):
Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People,
Purpose, and Impact podcast. Ifyou got value out of our episode
today, please hit the followbutton on your favorite podcast
app, and please tell a friend.Can't wait to see you next time
on Carlsbad People, Purpose, andImpact.
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