May 18, 2025 • 46 mins
What happens when your work no longer feels true to who you are? In this eye-opening conversation with Professor Richard Thompson, we explore the challenging yet rewarding journey from corporate success to educational impact – a transition that reveals profound lessons about purpose, authenticity, and personal reinvention.
After 25 years in telecommunications with companies like AT&T, Thompson reached a critical crossroads when he could no longer deliver the customer satisfaction that had once energized him. Rather than continuing down a path that conflicted with his values, he embarked on a journey of self-discovery that ultimately revealed his true purpose: helping people grow. This realization led him to education, where he now empowers students to find their own path by understanding their passions, strengths, and interests.
Thompson shares a practical framework for anyone contemplating career transitions: identify what you're passionate about (what you'd do without payment), what you're good at (as validated by others), and what genuinely interests you. By exploring careers connected to these elements, you can uncover dozens of potential paths aligned with your authentic self. The critical insight? You don't start over when transitioning – you repackage the valuable skills you've accumulated throughout your professional life.
For professionals feeling stuck or unfulfilled, Thompson offers reassurance that your experience is never wasted. The key lies in networking extensively, researching thoroughly before making changes, and understanding that modern careers require adaptability. As he wisely observes, three things are always in motion: social norms, technology, and time. Don't waste precious time in work that doesn't align with your true self. Instead, focus on who you want to BE rather than what you want to HAVE, and everything else will naturally follow.
Ready to discover your purpose and make a meaningful career transition? Listen now and learn how to turn professional expertise into personal fulfillment. Then share your own transition story with us – we'd love to hear how you're redefining success on your terms.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, thank you for tuning in to the Final
Brand Podcast.
I am your host, grant McGaugh,and I am filming live at
Atlantis University in Miami,florida.
People say you're in AtlantisUniversity in Miami Florida.
You just moved to Omaha,nebraska.
Well, I did, and weren't youjust in St Croix?
Yes, I was in the USVI, but Ialso have maintained offices
still in the Miami area and Iwanted to have a candid
(00:24):
conversation about a topic thata lot of people are finding
themselves in, that is,transitioning from corporate
America to education, or maybeeducation to business or any of
those types of things.
This is important when you'rein a transitional, pivoting
moment in your life, how can yousuccessfully make that move?
(00:44):
So I'm going to introduce youto Professor Thompson, who has
made that move from corporateAmerica, which we both worked in
for about 20 plus years, intoeducation.
We're going to have a candidconversation around those lines.
So, Professor Thompson, wouldyou like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you did all the introduction already and you
know me as Richard Thompson, butfor this conversation we'll
keep it at Professor Thompson.
That's okay with me.
You know I'm so happy we'reable to do this because we have
worked.
We worked together 30 years.
We've probably known each other35 years, but we worked
together for so long in thebusiness world.
(01:23):
But the most important thing iswe saw each other's journey
right, we were witnesses to eachother's journey, and so we get
an opportunity to talk about it.
I've watched your change, soit's not just my transition.
You were in the world rightnext to me.
Technology and this whole newthing that you're doing now is
brand new.
Now just want to make sure noone is asking why you're in
(01:46):
Miami.
Only thing people want to knowis why you're in nevermind Omaha
.
But no, it's a pleasure to behere.
I like the fact that we'rehaving this conversation.
I believe it's an importantconversation.
I've talked to so many people,whether or not they were forced
to or they chose to, transitionfrom what they were doing before
(02:07):
to something now, and sometimesa lot of them say, man, I wish
I had done it sooner.
So I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No, I'm happy you are here.
So let's jump right into it.
Because this I always look atthe pivot.
What was the pivotal moment?
Sometimes you have to have thatdefining experience.
You're going along, especiallyif you're going along for 5, 10,
15, 20 years in a particularprofession and then you come to
a point where a point in theroad, a fork in the road, more
(02:37):
or less, you've got to make adecision.
Help us understand yourparticular pivotal moment, as
you made that transition fromcorporate America to education.
Can you frame that story for us?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know, I'm sure everybody's story is different.
I'll share mine.
I'll give a little back story,just so that you understand.
I always say that I was luckyenough.
I was born in Jamaica and Igrew up in the Bahamas and after
college I moved to Miami.
So I've only lived places wherepeople come to vacation, right.
(03:16):
So I've lived my whole lifeseeing happy people, people
enjoying themselves, having agood time, and I come from the
world of hospitality, where it'syour job to make people feel
well.
Why do you do that?
So they come back.
Because people have choices,right.
So I came to the United Statesand I worked in corporate
(03:38):
America and I loved it, I wassuccessful at it.
But at some point in theprocess I realized that it
didn't feel the same anymore.
And the reason it didn't feelthe same anymore I went in front
of customers right, mycustomers, because I had many of
them and when I left I didn'tfeel the same.
The reason I didn't feel thesame wasn't about the customers.
(04:01):
Yes, the customers did change alittle bit, but I didn't feel
the same because I didn't feel Iwas able to deliver top flight
customer service.
I didn't feel necessarily thatmy product was the best, that we
gave the best service.
See what happens.
When I first started inbusiness, that's what my company
strived to do right when wewere AT&T.
(04:23):
When I used to walk into acustomer at AT&T and they used
to say you don't have to, youknow first part of a
presentation you say who am I?
You've done that before.
Every business person has donethat.
They walk into a room and theysay who is?
This is who I am, we're AT&Tand people look at me like my
mother and I own your stock.
We know what you do, right.
So at that point, for many,many years, all I had to do was
(04:47):
deliver on expectations.
The expectations were you'regoing to give superior product,
service, right and manufacturing, and we did that.
But, as you know, you weregoing through the process with
me with many companies.
As with many companies, thetransition happens where they
may no longer manufacture, wherethey no longer distribute,
where they no longer, and theybecome so sales-driven and so
(05:10):
competitive that you feel likethe customer isn't being
delighted anymore.
So that was a long answer to avery easy question is why I made
the pivot.
Because one day I realized thatI wasn't satisfying customers
anymore the way I'd like to.
Because one day I realized thatI wasn't satisfying customers
anymore the way I'd like to, orthis medium, what I'm doing now,
didn't satisfy customers theway I wanted them to.
So it's very simple for me.
(05:31):
I said well, who am I?
Who am I and how can I pivot?
How can I do somethingdifferent that makes me feel
that I'm delivering happiness tothe people I do business with,
and that's how it started.
I sat down one day and a goodfriend of ours helped me with
(05:53):
the transition.
I'll go into that later.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Sure, sure Now.
You talked about some of thispivotal in what I do and helping
people to understand theirbrand identity is a part of that
and you've got to do some soulsearching about who you are and
what you feel your purpose is inthis life.
And if you're living in thatpurpose, it's not work any
(06:16):
longer.
It is a passion of yours andyou enjoy doing it.
And what I heard you just sayis that you did this for a long
time and I remember we've hadthese conversations how you love
working for AT&T.
At the time you had the bestproduct, you had the best
service.
People didn't know, but youcould deliver on that premium
brand experience.
And then, but over time, as weall know, in our time, this
(06:40):
thing called voice over IPstarted coming out.
Other competitors startedcoming out.
Avaya at the time had to pivotin what they were doing and all
of a sudden, even though we weresaying we were the best, we
really weren't.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It was very competitive and you want to be
able to.
Your integrity means everythingright, because guess what we
are.
We are customer representatives,right?
Or business representatives.
So when we don't deliver or wemake promises we don't keep,
that customer doesn't want to dobusiness with you anymore and
(07:15):
he tells another and another andanother.
Right, we'll talk a little bitmore about this.
But networking and keeping yournetwork good is so important,
and so at some point you've gotto say am I willing, right?
Some people say, oh, but themoney's good, or a big company?
No, it's not about that.
At the end of the day, you haveto go to bed and you have to
(07:38):
wake up and you want to feelthat you delighted somebody.
You never have to pick up thephone and say I'm sorry, or I
missed the mark, or I have toget back to you.
I didn't like to do that.
One of my biggest things that Ihold my hat on is for 25 years I
was worked in the field,working with customers and
(07:59):
clients, and not one time in 25years did one customer have to
pick up the phone and call abovemy head.
In other words, I'm going tocall your vice president, I'm
going to call your director, I'mgoing to call your VP to say
you're not delivering what Ineed.
That's never happened.
I've never been called into aroom because I wasn't meeting
customer needs.
So when I got to the pointwhere I felt that you know what
(08:22):
I can no longer say that youknow what.
I'm the best, you're the best,our product's the best and we're
going to deliver on what wepromised, it was time for me to
look for other things, and atthat point some interesting
things happened and it got me towhere I'm at today, and I'll go
into that in a moment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, I'm glad that you made that change and that
you were able to do that, andit's a transitional period.
I would also say that yourideal client changed, meaning
you were selling to a certaingroup of people and that group
of people persons changed andthey had a different framework,
a different look on differentthings.
And when I say this, when youwere in the buyer world and you
(09:04):
were selling, you're usuallyselling to what we call the
telecommunications department.
That changed.
Now what we used to call MIS,but it's the information
technology world.
They were used to pluggingthings in on IP, not utilizing
an analog circuit.
It changed things and I want mycustomers, I don't want to get
too technical about that butwhen your ideal client changes,
(09:25):
your buyer changes and theperception changes.
You've got to start all overagain Because you don't bring
that legacy and that pedigreealways to the table.
Now you have been in tech, youhave been in sales for a very
long time.
Now you pivoted over into theeducational world.
How are you bringing that kindof mindset or that kind of skill
set to the education world forstudents?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Okay, well, I want to fill a gap before I go there
and answer that question.
I want to fill a gap because wewere just talking about the
business world.
Now I'm in education.
How did I get here?
Yeah Right, so we got to fillthat gap.
How I got here?
Let's do it.
So we have a mutual friend.
I was having a conversationwith my mutual friend about you
know where the state of thebusiness is today, mark Herman.
(10:09):
Yeah Right, mark, great guy,good friend of mine.
He said hey, you know what?
I went to this for the last lackof a better word retreat or
seminar.
It was like a couple of daysseminar and he actually gave me
a free pass for it to go and itliterally changed my life
(10:30):
because it allowed me to take alook at who I am, not what I do.
See, when you're in jobs, I ameven interesting conversation.
It irritates me now, but itdidn't irritate me before, when
somebody walks up to you and saywell, so what do you do?
Well, the minute you asksomebody that, now that defines
(10:51):
them.
It's not about what people do,it's about who people are.
So I went to the seminar andthey decide what I do.
I'm doing it because of who Iam.
So this is the first way ofdisconnecting from AT and
technology and IT, realizing I'mjust a person who does what I
(11:15):
do best but I'm actually doingit in technology and a person
like me, doing what I do best,can work in any field.
So I had to find myself.
So the way the seminar and theretreat worked was it talked
about abundance, that there's anabundance of opportunities out
(11:36):
there.
Okay, if we're willing to lookfor them with finding out who we
are.
So they do this little testthrough one of the people that
worked there, worked in thething do a little test where you
pit the things you like to doagainst each other and it's a
whole process right.
But at the end of the day, youfind out what are the top three
things you were good at, right,and then when you find out just
(12:01):
the same thing we've talkedabout before what is our purpose
, what are we good at?
What are we?
Interests are Whatever that is.
That's towards getting you tofind out who your purpose is.
So I found out that, really,that you know for lack of a
better term, it was the money,was a soft load, it wasn't any
of that what it is is.
I like to help people Grow.
(12:23):
That's literally how it camedown.
It's a process of elimination,a whole complicated thing.
I like to help people grow andthat's why I love business so
much.
Because I went into business, Ireally wanted, when I went into
a brand new company and had totalk to them about their
technology or their roadmap togetting best customer service or
(12:44):
getting clients right, I wasinto it because I wanted them to
get better customers and betterthings, so I wanted them to
grow, help people grow.
And while I was in thattransition to that for about a
couple of years, I started doingbusiness development for small
businesses Right, and when I wasdoing the, the business
(13:09):
development and helping them, Iwas sitting there and I realized
I, because of my and again,thank you AT&T and Lucent and
Avaya they gave me some amazingtools in terms of.
You know, we were always goingto training.
We didn't realize how much of ahigh-level training we were
getting in terms of because wewere dealing with high-level
(13:30):
customers High-level, if Imention some of the names that
we interfaced with they're someof the largest companies in
South Florida.
Those are the conversationswe're having.
But mid-sized companies andsmaller companies, they don't
get that.
So while I'm having thisconversation, these people were
amazed at some of theinformation I was getting.
So all of a sudden, I'mteaching them I'm not doing it
(13:53):
for them, I'm teaching them howto do best customer service, the
importance of data mining orInternet or research, doing
marketing, and they're like whoa, we didn't think about it.
I'm like wait a minute, you'rein business and you don't think
about it.
So I said, man, I enjoyteaching what I've learned over
(14:16):
this period of time.
And, like clockwork, I got acall from another friend of ours
which is here at AtlantisUniversity, was Dr Stewart, dr
Bert Stewart.
So she called and she actuallyjust asked me if I knew someone
that would be interested inteaching.
And I said, yeah, I gave herthe name of someone in IT and
(14:41):
then she came back again andsaid what about business?
And Sherry was sitting therewhile I was, because I turned to
her do you know somebody?
That she said why don't you doit?
You got a master's degree.
I totally forgot I had amaster's degree because I really
and I said you know what?
I've transitioned out oftechnology, and you know what I
(15:01):
love this, so I would love to doit, and this day one, I was
energized because, again, I'mhelping people grow.
That's what.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I found is my core.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Helping businesses and people to grow.
That is where I get mymotivation from.
So I'm doing it at the collegelevel, right, loving it.
And then the kids are coming in, the young adults are coming in
.
I'm saying, man, I really wishwe could reach them sooner.
And lo and behold, I get a callfrom Broward County Public
(15:36):
Schools and they said hey, youknow what?
We have an entrepreneurial,small business, entrepreneurial
program that we're trying tohave students get certified in
so that they leave college withthis education background.
I was like this is a blessing.
So that is how I made thetransition.
The transition came from thatyoung man in the Caribbean who
(16:00):
saw the value of seeing happycustomers to getting involved in
business, where my goal was tohave grow and have happy
customers, to now educationagain, and we'll talk about this
.
Yeah, I see students ascustomers.
Not everyone in education does.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
This is interesting that you frame it in that
context.
As I was saying earlier, youhave to know your client.
You have to know your customer.
You've got to know your buyer.
Who is that?
You, from what I just gathered,from what you just told me,
that in order to make to liveinto your core service that you
(16:40):
want to provide, you had to finda customer or a buyer, or a
persona or someone that couldreally enjoy what you do.
And you found that throughstudents, especially students
that were interested in business, and you said, wow, I'm
bringing all that to bear.
You bring up an interestingpoint where I think a lot of
(17:00):
people, when they'retransitioning, they feel like
they have to start all overagain.
when you're really not startingall over again.
They're really takingeverything that you've been
doing over the last 5, 10, 20,30 years and repackaging it in a
certain manner that someoneelse can benefit from that.
(17:20):
Right, you're still.
You still understand business,you understand technology, you
understand the sales process.
You understand how that happens.
You're able to give that tostudents as they begin their
journey of how they're going toengage and do the right thing
around, whether it's business orworking for a corporation and
that type of thing.
(17:40):
I applaud you for that, forcontinuing to do that and that
type of thing I applaud you forthat for continuing to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So the students have no idea.
Matter of fact, I'll tell you,most students do not want to be
in business.
They do not want to be anentrepreneur, so it's.
But what they do want is theywant to do what they love or
what they're good at.
Right, do what they love orwhat they're good at.
So it's, the first thing I haveto do is not approach them by
(18:10):
hitting them over the head andsays this class is about you
starting a business.
That would scare the heck outof them.
Yeah, no, the class is abouthey, what are you passionate
about?
As a matter of fact, tell methree things you're passionate
about.
Okay, now tell me three thingsyou're and I always define
(18:31):
passion as things you would do,even when you're not getting
paid for it.
Okay, even if you're not goingto get paid for it.
If you like dogs, you're alwaysgoing to have a dog, right?
If you're rich or poor, then Isay okay.
And then I say tell me thethings you're good at.
And I tell the kids what you'regood at is what people tell you
you're good at.
People always tell you hey, youknow, grant, mr McGraw, mr
(18:55):
McGon, you're good at fishing,or you're good at being cooking,
you know, especially whenyou're cooking the fried fish,
right, I'm saying, but whatyou're good at Right?
So tell me three things.
The last thing is what are yourinterests?
And I define that by tellingthem that what you're interested
(19:16):
in is things you have neverdone before but you have
interest in.
You know what I'd like totravel, I'd like to ride a camel
, I'd like to fly jets I don'tknow what it is.
Then you ask them well, now Ibrought them in, they're talking
about the things they love,they're engaged.
I said wouldn't it be great tobe able to do that for the rest
of your life and help somebodywhile doing that and make money
(19:38):
while doing the things you love,interest and passion about?
And all of them say yeah.
And then I say to them I saidokay, do me a favor In each of
the things you're eitherinterested in or good at right
or passionate about, tell mecareers associated with it.
What are the careers associatedwith it?
So now you have people.
(20:00):
Okay, let's say you said fishing, right.
So how many people in thefishing industry?
There are people who sell boats, there are people who sell
their marine life.
You probably could tell mebetter, but there's like maybe
nine or ten things that areassociated with just fishing as
being passion, interest orsomething you're good at,
whatever.
(20:20):
Right.
Then you do the next one andthe next one.
Right, I just asked for ten,yeah, so ten, twenty thirty,
just in the things you're goodat.
Ten, twenty, thirty in thethings you're passionate about.
Ten, twenty thirty in thethings you're interested about.
Right, that's ninety, right, 90.
(20:41):
I said and I have them draw iton a board and I said that is
your industry that you can workin.
Right.
Now, what are all the thingsyou can do in that industry?
Right, all those things you cando in that industry.
Right, all those things you cando in that industry.
You can, you know, you can justwork in the industry.
You can sell to the industry,you can provide products to the
(21:03):
industry.
Then we go down that rabbit hole.
Now they're seeing the world.
See the difference betweenadults and the corporate world.
You know we worked in a worldwhere it wasn't if these people
were going on vacations.
Where they're going on vacation, the level that we're dealing,
we're at the C-suite.
We're talking to people at CIOs, ctos, cfos.
(21:27):
These people have seen theworld right.
The difference is studentshaven't seen anything and,
specifically in the kind ofschool that I went to, which is
like more of a Title I school,right Inner city school, they
haven't seen much.
So the first thing you have todo in education is have them
open their minds and do research.
So for weeks we just have them,I just have them totally go
down that rabbit hole of whatthey love and do it.
(21:48):
Before I start to introduce thebusiness concept, but what I do
tell them is that once you havefound a career in somewhere
that you love, purpose, interestor good at, and then you're
able to help them Because,remember, my focus is to help
people, right, right, andthey're all now.
Yes, I want to help, yes, yes,I want to help people.
(22:09):
I said then you found yourpurpose.
I will tell you, nobody walksaway from their purpose.
See, the thing is about whatI've found a lot since I've been
in this world is that peopleare good to tell you what you
need to do.
Right, you need to find yourpurpose, but you got to give
people a roadmap on how to do itright and I just showed you the
(22:32):
blueprint.
Write down what you're good,interested and passionate about,
talk about careers in it, andyou know you could keep doing it
right, because you could putdown law enforcement.
And how many places can you gowith law enforcement?
You work in health care.
My God, how many.
If you just said I want to be anurse and I said that's great,
(22:54):
be a nurse, but do me a favor.
How many other jobs is there inhealth care?
You can reach thousands, andwhen you have that on the board,
it looks overwhelming andamazing.
But these are students that Inever want to be able for them
when somebody asks them, becausethis happens a lot.
It happened to me at a collegelevel.
(23:15):
So what do you want to do?
I don't know how can you notknow?
But if you've gone down thatroad, you say why do you want to
go into medical?
Well, they have all thesecareers, they have all these
trends, they have all thesethings going on.
And what kind of things are you?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
going to do in there.
Well, I can do this, and I cando it because they've researched
it right.
Well, if I, if I could jump inwhat I've heard you say just put
it into context is that youfirst, especially when you first
, engage with students, is youhelp them find clarity, focus,
and then their own purpose isnot given to them.
They define what it is thatthey really want to go into.
(23:57):
Cause you're going to investtime and money into your
education to eventually be ableto provide for yourself for
whether you're going to a careeror if you're going to business
for yourself.
You've got to have those babies.
What I really like, what youjust stated, is that I'm not
going to just tell you what.
You might come up with someideas, or you may have an idea
of what you want to do, right,but you've given them a process
(24:21):
that they can begin to utilizeover and over again to find
other things, because Iguarantee you, you will pivot
along the way.
I've interviewed over 200different executives.
Right, most of them all tell,especially when they're in their
collegiate years, but theystarted out doing something
completely different.
And then how they got into thisparticular field or this
(24:42):
profession sometimes it was byhappenstance, sometimes it was
in a certain way, like they justdid not know.
I talked to so many differentCEOs of hospitals.
I wanted to be a doctor, butthen I got into the actual room
and I saw blood and I was likethat wasn't going to be a doctor
.
Yeah, I got into the actualroom and I saw blood and I was
like that was yeah that's notgood blood and, yeah, that's not
gonna work.
So until you get into theprofession and really see what
(25:05):
it truly is about.
You only have an idea it'salmost like I have an idea to go
swimming, but once you get intowater you might find out.
Hey, this is a little bitdifferent from where I, but yeah
, you're giving them the process.
You can do the recalibrate youknow what?
Recalibrate that?
But go through yourexperimental stages while you
have the opportunity, cause, aswe both know, that you go
(25:26):
further and further down theroad of life.
It that your opportunities forchange lesson, because you have
responsibilities that you didnot have typically.
You know, when you're in in acollegiate world.
I want you to help usunderstand as you pivoted and
then you had to make thattransition within yourself, the
(25:49):
struggles and challenges.
You came across like, wow, oh,this is different, but then you
had to get your rhythm with it.
You had to find your balancewith it.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, so the first thing, and again, all of this is
different, but then you had toget your rhythm with it, you had
to find your balance with it.
Talk to us about that, yeah.
So the first thing and againall of this is transitioning
from one area that I did wellinto another area, but some of
the things, even though I didwell over here, didn't translate
over here, okay.
So the first thing that youhave to change is how you
communicate.
Like I mentioned to you before,ceos, well-traveled,
(26:21):
well-learned Now you're dealingwith people that don't care.
They don't care, it's highschool, they don't care, they
think they figured it all out,right, okay?
So your communication istotally different.
You have to be a lot morerepetitive, a lot more
(26:45):
structured, right, you've got tohold hands a little bit more.
The one thing you never dealtwith for the most part, we never
really dealt with it.
We never because it wasbusiness right.
We always said business andpersonal is different In
education.
They're the same.
It's their personal life,affects who they are.
(27:06):
Students will walk in and theyhave the weight of the world on
them.
They all come from differentsituations.
In the transition, in thetipping point, I could take my
strengths to the classroom,which was organization skills,
listening skills, because I usedto listen to customers, their
(27:27):
needs.
So now I'm listening tostudents and their needs.
I'm still learning from how toproblem solve, so I'm teaching
the students how to problemsolve.
I'm used to meetings, right,students are not used to
meetings, they're used to beingon their own in their room and
on their device, right, they'renot used to collaborating, right
(27:49):
.
So the importance I've seen thejoy of what collaboration has
done to students that have beenisolated.
They love it.
They don't want to do have beenisolated.
They love it.
They don't want to do it, butthey will love it.
So the differences that I'veseen I've been able to take.
But then the skills that haveworked for me.
(28:10):
Well is, as a naturalsalesperson, you learn to listen
.
First you have to listen toyour customer.
Business education I don't carewhere it is, when you lose
track of who the customer is.
And let me tell you it's not askill that a lot of people
understand, because I'm tellingyou, in certain fields and I
(28:34):
don't want to necessarily sayeducation they are very rigorous
.
These are the rules, you followthe rules and there's always
punishment associated with notcompleting tasks.
Right, it's kind of the wayeducation goes, smack right when
we in the world where we comefrom, we can't.
(28:55):
If I build a great restaurant, agreat Jamaican restaurant curry
goat curry, chicken, oxtailrice and peas, and I put it in
the middle of Coyote Show inLittle Havana and nobody comes
in, why am I going to yell atthe customers?
I can't yell at customers,right?
I'm not motivating them.
I haven't put the restaurant inthe right place.
(29:17):
I should have put it in LauderHill, with the other 30,000 of
them that are there, or inanother part, or Pembroke Pines.
You can't.
You have to know your customer,and so that has helped me well.
And so what we do is wemotivate customers to buy from
us.
That's what we've always done,right.
We do is we motivate customersto buy from us.
(29:39):
That's what we've always done,right, yeah, yeah, how?
How do I become that valuedasset to that customer, right?
And so that's what I'm tryingto establish.
The students know them.
And how can I be that trustedadvisor?
Remember that word we use ohyes trusted advisor.
So we continue to say so.
It doesn't matter thattransition.
So what I'm saying is nobodyhas to be fearful as they
(30:00):
transition.
You take what you know and whatyou've learned.
Those years of experience meansomething and you don't
understand.
If you just are willing to takea leap of faith, your skills
that you've learned over 20, 25,30 years will transition.
It will transition.
You don't just go through theworld and learn all of a sudden
it years will transition, itwill transition.
Right, you don't just gothrough the world and learn all
of a sudden it doesn'ttransition.
(30:20):
You just have to be patient andsay, wait, it will transition.
But how do I deliver it in thisspace?
Because you deliver itdifferently.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Well, you brought up something earlier that I think I
would encourage our audience totruly do.
First, sometimes you have tohave a pivotal moment or a lint
pen to get you to that nextlevel, or at least get you your
mind to start thinkingdifferently.
For you, that was that seminar.
You took the advice, you wentto that webinar, you started to
(30:49):
think differently, you startedto look at the possibilities of
doing something different.
We all need assistance and weall need help.
We can't always do it byourselves.
So you seek out certainindividuals that have expertise
in certain areas that you do not, because they're further down
(31:09):
the road that can help you inthat transition.
Me and you talked to your bestfriend now my mutual friend.
Hey, how can we, how can myskill sets transition to another
point in time in my life if Istart doing it early?
That's another thing.
You don't want to get into thesituation where you have to do
(31:30):
something now.
Sometimes you go through alayoff.
You got to do something.
Now Something happens.
In my particular case, I startedto look for what I have now for
five-star BDM five years before, because I went through a
layoff in 2019, 22, right beforethe pandemic, and I did get
another job and that type ofthing.
(31:51):
But I started to realize if Idon't begin to develop a way of
supporting and sustaining myselfthrough my own business skills,
it's going to get harder andharder for me down the line.
So I begin developing this typeof skill set that someone else
found valuable knowing yourcustomer, knowing who you're
helping and it all goes back tothis.
(32:13):
I want to end it like this, tothis.
I want to end it like thisYou've got to know your story
and you've got to know who wouldbenefit from the story that you
have lived.
If you can do that, you canstart making transitions and
knowing these transitions don'thave to be within a day, a week,
a month it can be over time,that you do that.
(32:35):
Before we conclude, becausewe're getting toward the end of
our time on the podcast, I wantyou to frame that story.
We've talked about yourtransition.
We've talked about your trueclient right now, which is the
students that you serve.
If you had to look back in timewhen you were a student, when
you were going to the Universityof Florida, and the teaching
(32:56):
that you got and theunderstanding you got, and then
what, the understanding thatyou're giving now to your
students, how is that differentand how do you think it's going
to be beneficial for them goingforward?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
the only thing I would change as I was younger is
I would have definitely said tomyself stay, I want to be.
I should have been a lifelonglearner.
And lifelong learning means it,doesn't.
It just means that you'repaying attention, right?
There's a term that we use infootball that's called head on a
swivel.
What that means is for thosepeople that aren't football is
(33:44):
that you've got to pay attentionto the world around you, right?
And when you pay attention tothe world around you, you have
to do that in football, becausesomebody will take your head off
if you're not paying attention.
Right, I would have paid moreattention to the world around me
.
I would say pay more attention.
That's what I'm trying to teachthe students to do.
In other words, they gotsomething I never had.
(34:09):
They've got a computer in theirhands, and I ask my students to
not take the time just to useit for entertainment.
If you can just give me 50% ofthe time even 40, at this point,
30% of the time to use it foreducation, right.
(34:31):
Every time you see, oh, that'scool.
What would it take to do that?
Oh, let me find out about that.
We were limited in ourcuriosity because we had to um,
either watch the news or go to alibrary or read a book or go to
a university, right, right, uh,they don't have that anymore.
(34:52):
They can it me.
I do it all the time.
We didn't even get into AI.
Right, ai is your.
I don't even like Googlingthings anymore because Google
gives me a lot of ads.
I have an AI partner.
Ai doesn't give me any ads, itjust gives me the answer.
(35:14):
So, yes, as a younger person andwith anyone, now, that's
transitioning and the reasonwe're talking about this.
Let me be very clear theyounger generation now will
change jobs as much as 10 to 15times, while our generation may
have changed it three to four orfive times.
Correct, so this is a new world, so embracing change is
something we all have to getused to.
The problem is is that we havea lot of people that have aged
(35:36):
out of the business world.
Aged out, whether they'refirefighters, police officers.
They've aged out and they'restill 50 years old and they got
30 years to live.
What are you going to do now,so I'm telling those people, is
find out your interests, whatyou're good at and what your
passions are, and then explore,right, explore, yeah, educate
(35:57):
yourself on those industries andyou will find, no matter what
career you had before, there issomething in your background
that you've learned, that you'vetrained over all those 40, 50
years you were weren't done forwaste.
Somebody wants those skills.
I am a testament to say youdon't take it for granted.
People understand that.
I have a testament to say youdon't take it for granted.
(36:18):
People understand that I have agood friend he's just
transitioned to.
He was in law enforcement andhe transitioned to have his own
training on trafficking, right,and let me tell you he's
passionate about it.
But I thought I knew I didn'tknow this stuff.
(36:42):
I listened to him.
I'm like, wow, I didn't knowthat.
Don't be afraid of change, don'tbe afraid of speaking,
networking, because that's theother thing I teach the kids In
order to get from purpose toopportunity, you have to network
.
So you found your purpose inlife.
You let everybody know.
So, right now, to transition ifeverybody doesn't know, don't
(37:06):
transition until everybody knowswhat you're looking for, right,
you're the king of LinkedIn.
Let people know Everybody.
Conversation.
This is what I want to do next,next, next, right, that's
networking.
Letting the people know whatyou want to do next, next, next,
that's networking Letting thepeople know what you want to do
next.
People remember that.
That makes you memorable.
Once you're memorable,opportunities come your way.
Hey, you don't have to bepresent.
(37:27):
So, yeah, so I would tell theperson I knew before the number
one thing and I tell it to youngand old is have your head on a
swivel.
Keep your eyes on what's goingon out in the world.
See which ones hit your, yourpurposes, explore them.
(37:48):
You don't just quit a job andgo work there, then you go.
Well, I didn't know this.
That used to happen before.
People used to quit a job andgo work there, then you go.
Whoa, I didn't know this.
That used to happen before.
People used to quit a job andgo work and then two weeks into
it, I didn't know it was goingto be like this.
Why didn't?
Speaker 1 (37:59):
you know it was going to be like this no research, no
, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You seek it out, you seek it out, you seek a network,
opportunity and place where youwant to be, and nothing feels
better than the place you wantto be, right.
There's a lot of people thatstart off by saying this is what
I want, right, I want this bighouse, right.
(38:29):
And then they say, well, whatam I going to do to get what I
want?
So they do want, do.
And then they're being andguess what?
They're unhappy.
Yeah, because they started offwith what do I want, so I'm
going to do this to get this.
And then you're here, yeah, I'mtelling you to reverse it.
Decide who you want to be, yes,okay.
(38:51):
And then you want to be, yes,okay.
And then you do, right, yeah,what you need to be this person.
And then you'll want fornothing.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, you'll want for nothing.
Those are just natural resultsthat go away.
This has been wonderful,professor Thompson.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You can call me Richard now.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
No, I'll call you Richard now.
No, I'm kidding, I'll call youRichard now.
No, and I do this with all myguests before I let you go, and
I always ask in the moment howdid you feel about this
interview?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
No, it felt good.
It felt good.
I love what you're doingbecause we are all a brand,
right, we're all unique.
Branding yourself is part ofwhat I'm talking about.
Exactly Branding yourself.
Is you believe it or not?
Is you letting the world knowwhat you are good at, passionate
(39:47):
about, interested in Same thingI've talked about?
So it makes people think youwalk around as your brand every
day.
People don't realize that theway you wear your hair, the way
you walk in clothes, the carsyou buy, you are a personal
brand.
The best thing to understandright now is that people are
making millions and millions ofdollars being influencers.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yes, what is that?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's all they're doing.
They branded themselves.
People go looking forfoolishness.
Yes, right, so you don't haveto be.
There's someone that needs whatyou have.
There's someone who wants whatyou have and they're willing to
follow pay for it.
There's so many channels foryou to get your brand out, and
that's why I love what you'redoing.
So I appreciate you having meon and you did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
You had my wife on before me.
I did, I did, I did.
I've had 200 other people onbefore we had this moment.
Because I've known RichardThompson for a very, very long
time Professor Efton Thompson Ihad to get his name correct.
You have to know the backstoryto understand why this had to
come out.
So I made sure that I did that.
But I want the audience.
First of all, kudos to AtlantisUniversity.
(40:56):
It's the second time they'vehad me in the studio and this is
a wonderful, wonderfuluniversity.
I came here the first time.
I saw the joy in your face andI saw it as you came across, and
so many people were warm to you.
This is like home for you, andI knew you were in your zone of
genius.
Wow, this is exactly what youneed to be.
(41:16):
Did you use the word genius?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Genius.
I don't think that word hasever been associated to me in my
life.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Professor Thompson, Zone of genius.
But I want to thank them forhaving us here.
But you've got to first of alllet them know how to contact you
and then how to contact theuniversity and, if you don't
mind, tell them about some ofthe coursework they can get here
at Atlantis University.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Well, atlantis University is an amazing
opportunity that I had here.
They have some core programshere.
I teach in the School ofBusiness and I teach marketing
and management and those sort ofthings and management and those
sort of things.
It's so important that we givestudents the full view of what
(41:56):
the world they're going toexperience.
So that's why I love being here, because one of the things I
didn't talk about before is thatI'm a real-world person talking
to them.
I'm not necessarily just anacademic who I'm talking from a
textbook, I believe, and what wetry to do here at Atlantis is
have professors that have realworld responsibility, so that
(42:20):
when we're talking to students,we're talking about LinkedIn,
we're talking about Instagramand the importance of that.
We're staying current.
I've been to some courses inother schools because I've
taught at other universitieswhere the minute I saw a book
and it said 2018, I said I'm notteaching from this book because
that was before COVID.
(42:40):
The world changed after COVID,right?
Everything Supply chain changed, online, everything changed.
So Atlantis is good.
It's here in Miami, florida,and it has a good undergraduate
program.
It has a very good graduateprogram.
All the professors here aresimilar to me.
(43:00):
We spend a lot of time talkingabout our previous lives as
opposed to talking about ourcurrent lives.
So and I want to thank them forgiving us this opportunity
definitely to be here the wholeidea of doing it in this setting
had everything to do with thefact that students need to
(43:21):
understand today that they'regoing to be changes in their
life, constant changes, and theyeither need to be in the
forefront of it or they're goingto be forced upon them.
Change.
There are three things thatalways keep moving, right, all
right.
So the one thing is definitelysocial norms.
(43:43):
So, today, you are a tie.
We always had to wear a tie.
Today, I'm not wearing a tie.
And then Zuckerberg doesn'teven wear a shirt, right?
No, I'm kidding, right.
So social norms are going todefinitely change.
We lived in.
The other thing that alwayschanges technology.
Don't sit down and say, oh, Iam not going to use my, I'm not
(44:04):
going to use the internet, I'mnot going to use LinkedIn to get
a job.
No, I'm not going to use AI.
I even heard educators say I'mnot going to use AI.
I said are you kidding me?
Ai is the most amazing thing toallow professors to give the
best information and get it backto the students.
Teachers have to learn how toask better questions, don't just
ask students to define it.
That's what Google is for, justlike.
(44:26):
Remember when we hadcalculators first came out and
they asked you to do mathlong-handed and you said why?
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Ask.
A came out and they asked youto do math long-handed and you
said why I have a calculator,Right?
I remember telling that to ateacher Everybody, no one cares
about using a calculator, nobodycould do long division anymore.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Why, why, right, right, and so definitely.
Technology continues to change.
Social norm continues to changeAlways moving right.
Yep, social norm is alwaysmoving Technology.
What's the other thing that'salways moving People?
Time.
Oh Don't, that's the biggest.
(44:59):
Don't slip on time, that's thebiggest thing I've heard.
I wish I would have done thissooner.
Okay, so understand Adapttechnology, understand the
social norms.
Social norms, changing isopportunities.
Yeah, that's all it is Changing.
And absolutely, absolutely donot waste a moment of your time.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
No, I couldn't have said it better Again.
First of all, they've got toknow how to email you and give
us the not email address, butthe URL for Atlantis University.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
I don't have it.
Everybody Google stuff, go toAI.
No, but reaching me is evertonE-V-R-T-O-N.
Dot Thompson atAtlantisUniversityedu.
Right, okay, and I believe it'sjust Atlantiscom.
So AtlantisUniversitycom,they'll find it, we'll find it.
Atlantis University Ask ChadTPT.
He, it's just Atlantiscom, so.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
AtlantisUniversitycom .
They'll find it, we'll find it.
Atlantisuniversity, you'relucky to ask Chat TPT, he'll
definitely get you there.
I want to definitely encourageyour entire audience, everybody
at Atlantis University.
They can come and see all theepisodes that follow the brand
at 5 Star BDM.
That is the number 5.
That is star.
That is B for brand, d fordevelopment infomasterscom.
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show, professor
(46:14):
Epton.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Thank you, sir, thank you.
Hey everybody, thank you for tuning in to the Final
Brand Podcast.
I am your host, grant McGaugh,and I am filming live at
Atlantis University in Miami,florida.
People say you're in AtlantisUniversity in Miami Florida.
You just moved to Omaha,nebraska.
Well, I did, and weren't youjust in St Croix?
Yes, I was in the USVI, but Ialso have maintained offices
still in the Miami area and Iwanted to have a candid
(00:24):
conversation about a topic thata lot of people are finding
themselves in, that is,transitioning from corporate
America to education, or maybeeducation to business or any of
those types of things.
This is important when you'rein a transitional, pivoting
moment in your life, how can yousuccessfully make that move?
(00:44):
So I'm going to introduce youto Professor Thompson, who has
made that move from corporateAmerica, which we both worked in
for about 20 plus years, intoeducation.
We're going to have a candidconversation around those lines.
So, Professor Thompson, wouldyou like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you did all the introduction already and you
know me as Richard Thompson, butfor this conversation we'll
keep it at Professor Thompson.
That's okay with me.
You know I'm so happy we'reable to do this because we have
worked.
We worked together 30 years.
We've probably known each other35 years, but we worked
together for so long in thebusiness world.
(01:23):
But the most important thing iswe saw each other's journey
right, we were witnesses to eachother's journey, and so we get
an opportunity to talk about it.
I've watched your change, soit's not just my transition.
You were in the world rightnext to me.
Technology and this whole newthing that you're doing now is
brand new.
Now just want to make sure noone is asking why you're in
(01:46):
Miami.
Only thing people want to knowis why you're in nevermind Omaha
.
But no, it's a pleasure to behere.
I like the fact that we'rehaving this conversation.
I believe it's an importantconversation.
I've talked to so many people,whether or not they were forced
to or they chose to, transitionfrom what they were doing before
(02:07):
to something now, and sometimesa lot of them say, man, I wish
I had done it sooner.
So I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No, I'm happy you are here.
So let's jump right into it.
Because this I always look atthe pivot.
What was the pivotal moment?
Sometimes you have to have thatdefining experience.
You're going along, especiallyif you're going along for 5, 10,
15, 20 years in a particularprofession and then you come to
a point where a point in theroad, a fork in the road, more
(02:37):
or less, you've got to make adecision.
Help us understand yourparticular pivotal moment, as
you made that transition fromcorporate America to education.
Can you frame that story for us?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know, I'm sure everybody's story is different.
I'll share mine.
I'll give a little back story,just so that you understand.
I always say that I was luckyenough.
I was born in Jamaica and Igrew up in the Bahamas and after
college I moved to Miami.
So I've only lived places wherepeople come to vacation, right.
(03:16):
So I've lived my whole lifeseeing happy people, people
enjoying themselves, having agood time, and I come from the
world of hospitality, where it'syour job to make people feel
well.
Why do you do that?
So they come back.
Because people have choices,right.
So I came to the United Statesand I worked in corporate
(03:38):
America and I loved it, I wassuccessful at it.
But at some point in theprocess I realized that it
didn't feel the same anymore.
And the reason it didn't feelthe same anymore I went in front
of customers right, mycustomers, because I had many of
them and when I left I didn'tfeel the same.
The reason I didn't feel thesame wasn't about the customers.
(04:01):
Yes, the customers did change alittle bit, but I didn't feel
the same because I didn't feel Iwas able to deliver top flight
customer service.
I didn't feel necessarily thatmy product was the best, that we
gave the best service.
See what happens.
When I first started inbusiness, that's what my company
strived to do right when wewere AT&T.
(04:23):
When I used to walk into acustomer at AT&T and they used
to say you don't have to, youknow first part of a
presentation you say who am I?
You've done that before.
Every business person has donethat.
They walk into a room and theysay who is?
This is who I am, we're AT&Tand people look at me like my
mother and I own your stock.
We know what you do, right.
So at that point, for many,many years, all I had to do was
(04:47):
deliver on expectations.
The expectations were you'regoing to give superior product,
service, right and manufacturing, and we did that.
But, as you know, you weregoing through the process with
me with many companies.
As with many companies, thetransition happens where they
may no longer manufacture, wherethey no longer distribute,
where they no longer, and theybecome so sales-driven and so
(05:10):
competitive that you feel likethe customer isn't being
delighted anymore.
So that was a long answer to avery easy question is why I made
the pivot.
Because one day I realized thatI wasn't satisfying customers
anymore the way I'd like to.
Because one day I realized thatI wasn't satisfying customers
anymore the way I'd like to, orthis medium, what I'm doing now,
didn't satisfy customers theway I wanted them to.
So it's very simple for me.
(05:31):
I said well, who am I?
Who am I and how can I pivot?
How can I do somethingdifferent that makes me feel
that I'm delivering happiness tothe people I do business with,
and that's how it started.
I sat down one day and a goodfriend of ours helped me with
(05:53):
the transition.
I'll go into that later.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Sure, sure Now.
You talked about some of thispivotal in what I do and helping
people to understand theirbrand identity is a part of that
and you've got to do some soulsearching about who you are and
what you feel your purpose is inthis life.
And if you're living in thatpurpose, it's not work any
(06:16):
longer.
It is a passion of yours andyou enjoy doing it.
And what I heard you just sayis that you did this for a long
time and I remember we've hadthese conversations how you love
working for AT&T.
At the time you had the bestproduct, you had the best
service.
People didn't know, but youcould deliver on that premium
brand experience.
And then, but over time, as weall know, in our time, this
(06:40):
thing called voice over IPstarted coming out.
Other competitors startedcoming out.
Avaya at the time had to pivotin what they were doing and all
of a sudden, even though we weresaying we were the best, we
really weren't.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It was very competitive and you want to be
able to.
Your integrity means everythingright, because guess what we
are.
We are customer representatives,right?
Or business representatives.
So when we don't deliver or wemake promises we don't keep,
that customer doesn't want to dobusiness with you anymore and
(07:15):
he tells another and another andanother.
Right, we'll talk a little bitmore about this.
But networking and keeping yournetwork good is so important,
and so at some point you've gotto say am I willing, right?
Some people say, oh, but themoney's good, or a big company?
No, it's not about that.
At the end of the day, you haveto go to bed and you have to
(07:38):
wake up and you want to feelthat you delighted somebody.
You never have to pick up thephone and say I'm sorry, or I
missed the mark, or I have toget back to you.
I didn't like to do that.
One of my biggest things that Ihold my hat on is for 25 years I
was worked in the field,working with customers and
(07:59):
clients, and not one time in 25years did one customer have to
pick up the phone and call abovemy head.
In other words, I'm going tocall your vice president, I'm
going to call your director, I'mgoing to call your VP to say
you're not delivering what Ineed.
That's never happened.
I've never been called into aroom because I wasn't meeting
customer needs.
So when I got to the pointwhere I felt that you know what
(08:22):
I can no longer say that youknow what.
I'm the best, you're the best,our product's the best and we're
going to deliver on what wepromised, it was time for me to
look for other things, and atthat point some interesting
things happened and it got me towhere I'm at today, and I'll go
into that in a moment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, I'm glad that you made that change and that
you were able to do that, andit's a transitional period.
I would also say that yourideal client changed, meaning
you were selling to a certaingroup of people and that group
of people persons changed andthey had a different framework,
a different look on differentthings.
And when I say this, when youwere in the buyer world and you
(09:04):
were selling, you're usuallyselling to what we call the
telecommunications department.
That changed.
Now what we used to call MIS,but it's the information
technology world.
They were used to pluggingthings in on IP, not utilizing
an analog circuit.
It changed things and I want mycustomers, I don't want to get
too technical about that butwhen your ideal client changes,
(09:25):
your buyer changes and theperception changes.
You've got to start all overagain Because you don't bring
that legacy and that pedigreealways to the table.
Now you have been in tech, youhave been in sales for a very
long time.
Now you pivoted over into theeducational world.
How are you bringing that kindof mindset or that kind of skill
set to the education world forstudents?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Okay, well, I want to fill a gap before I go there
and answer that question.
I want to fill a gap because wewere just talking about the
business world.
Now I'm in education.
How did I get here?
Yeah Right, so we got to fillthat gap.
How I got here?
Let's do it.
So we have a mutual friend.
I was having a conversationwith my mutual friend about you
know where the state of thebusiness is today, mark Herman.
(10:09):
Yeah Right, mark, great guy,good friend of mine.
He said hey, you know what?
I went to this for the last lackof a better word retreat or
seminar.
It was like a couple of daysseminar and he actually gave me
a free pass for it to go and itliterally changed my life
(10:30):
because it allowed me to take alook at who I am, not what I do.
See, when you're in jobs, I ameven interesting conversation.
It irritates me now, but itdidn't irritate me before, when
somebody walks up to you and saywell, so what do you do?
Well, the minute you asksomebody that, now that defines
(10:51):
them.
It's not about what people do,it's about who people are.
So I went to the seminar andthey decide what I do.
I'm doing it because of who Iam.
So this is the first way ofdisconnecting from AT and
technology and IT, realizing I'mjust a person who does what I
(11:15):
do best but I'm actually doingit in technology and a person
like me, doing what I do best,can work in any field.
So I had to find myself.
So the way the seminar and theretreat worked was it talked
about abundance, that there's anabundance of opportunities out
(11:36):
there.
Okay, if we're willing to lookfor them with finding out who we
are.
So they do this little testthrough one of the people that
worked there, worked in thething do a little test where you
pit the things you like to doagainst each other and it's a
whole process right.
But at the end of the day, youfind out what are the top three
things you were good at, right,and then when you find out just
(12:01):
the same thing we've talkedabout before what is our purpose
, what are we good at?
What are we?
Interests are Whatever that is.
That's towards getting you tofind out who your purpose is.
So I found out that, really,that you know for lack of a
better term, it was the money,was a soft load, it wasn't any
of that what it is is.
I like to help people Grow.
(12:23):
That's literally how it camedown.
It's a process of elimination,a whole complicated thing.
I like to help people grow andthat's why I love business so
much.
Because I went into business, Ireally wanted, when I went into
a brand new company and had totalk to them about their
technology or their roadmap togetting best customer service or
(12:44):
getting clients right, I wasinto it because I wanted them to
get better customers and betterthings, so I wanted them to
grow, help people grow.
And while I was in thattransition to that for about a
couple of years, I started doingbusiness development for small
businesses Right, and when I wasdoing the, the business
(13:09):
development and helping them, Iwas sitting there and I realized
I, because of my and again,thank you AT&T and Lucent and
Avaya they gave me some amazingtools in terms of.
You know, we were always goingto training.
We didn't realize how much of ahigh-level training we were
getting in terms of because wewere dealing with high-level
(13:30):
customers High-level, if Imention some of the names that
we interfaced with they're someof the largest companies in
South Florida.
Those are the conversationswe're having.
But mid-sized companies andsmaller companies, they don't
get that.
So while I'm having thisconversation, these people were
amazed at some of theinformation I was getting.
So all of a sudden, I'mteaching them I'm not doing it
(13:53):
for them, I'm teaching them howto do best customer service, the
importance of data mining orInternet or research, doing
marketing, and they're like whoa, we didn't think about it.
I'm like wait a minute, you'rein business and you don't think
about it.
So I said, man, I enjoyteaching what I've learned over
(14:16):
this period of time.
And, like clockwork, I got acall from another friend of ours
which is here at AtlantisUniversity, was Dr Stewart, dr
Bert Stewart.
So she called and she actuallyjust asked me if I knew someone
that would be interested inteaching.
And I said, yeah, I gave herthe name of someone in IT and
(14:41):
then she came back again andsaid what about business?
And Sherry was sitting therewhile I was, because I turned to
her do you know somebody?
That she said why don't you doit?
You got a master's degree.
I totally forgot I had amaster's degree because I really
and I said you know what?
I've transitioned out oftechnology, and you know what I
(15:01):
love this, so I would love to doit, and this day one, I was
energized because, again, I'mhelping people grow.
That's what.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I found is my core.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Helping businesses and people to grow.
That is where I get mymotivation from.
So I'm doing it at the collegelevel, right, loving it.
And then the kids are coming in, the young adults are coming in
.
I'm saying, man, I really wishwe could reach them sooner.
And lo and behold, I get a callfrom Broward County Public
(15:36):
Schools and they said hey, youknow what?
We have an entrepreneurial,small business, entrepreneurial
program that we're trying tohave students get certified in
so that they leave college withthis education background.
I was like this is a blessing.
So that is how I made thetransition.
The transition came from thatyoung man in the Caribbean who
(16:00):
saw the value of seeing happycustomers to getting involved in
business, where my goal was tohave grow and have happy
customers, to now educationagain, and we'll talk about this
.
Yeah, I see students ascustomers.
Not everyone in education does.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
This is interesting that you frame it in that
context.
As I was saying earlier, youhave to know your client.
You have to know your customer.
You've got to know your buyer.
Who is that?
You, from what I just gathered,from what you just told me,
that in order to make to liveinto your core service that you
(16:40):
want to provide, you had to finda customer or a buyer, or a
persona or someone that couldreally enjoy what you do.
And you found that throughstudents, especially students
that were interested in business, and you said, wow, I'm
bringing all that to bear.
You bring up an interestingpoint where I think a lot of
(17:00):
people, when they'retransitioning, they feel like
they have to start all overagain.
when you're really not startingall over again.
They're really takingeverything that you've been
doing over the last 5, 10, 20,30 years and repackaging it in a
certain manner that someoneelse can benefit from that.
(17:20):
Right, you're still.
You still understand business,you understand technology, you
understand the sales process.
You understand how that happens.
You're able to give that tostudents as they begin their
journey of how they're going toengage and do the right thing
around, whether it's business orworking for a corporation and
that type of thing.
(17:40):
I applaud you for that, forcontinuing to do that and that
type of thing I applaud you forthat for continuing to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So the students have no idea.
Matter of fact, I'll tell you,most students do not want to be
in business.
They do not want to be anentrepreneur, so it's.
But what they do want is theywant to do what they love or
what they're good at.
Right, do what they love orwhat they're good at.
So it's, the first thing I haveto do is not approach them by
(18:10):
hitting them over the head andsays this class is about you
starting a business.
That would scare the heck outof them.
Yeah, no, the class is abouthey, what are you passionate
about?
As a matter of fact, tell methree things you're passionate
about.
Okay, now tell me three thingsyou're and I always define
(18:31):
passion as things you would do,even when you're not getting
paid for it.
Okay, even if you're not goingto get paid for it.
If you like dogs, you're alwaysgoing to have a dog, right?
If you're rich or poor, then Isay okay.
And then I say tell me thethings you're good at.
And I tell the kids what you'regood at is what people tell you
you're good at.
People always tell you hey, youknow, grant, mr McGraw, mr
(18:55):
McGon, you're good at fishing,or you're good at being cooking,
you know, especially whenyou're cooking the fried fish,
right, I'm saying, but whatyou're good at Right?
So tell me three things.
The last thing is what are yourinterests?
And I define that by tellingthem that what you're interested
(19:16):
in is things you have neverdone before but you have
interest in.
You know what I'd like totravel, I'd like to ride a camel
, I'd like to fly jets I don'tknow what it is.
Then you ask them well, now Ibrought them in, they're talking
about the things they love,they're engaged.
I said wouldn't it be great tobe able to do that for the rest
of your life and help somebodywhile doing that and make money
(19:38):
while doing the things you love,interest and passion about?
And all of them say yeah.
And then I say to them I saidokay, do me a favor In each of
the things you're eitherinterested in or good at right
or passionate about, tell mecareers associated with it.
What are the careers associatedwith it?
So now you have people.
(20:00):
Okay, let's say you said fishing, right.
So how many people in thefishing industry?
There are people who sell boats, there are people who sell
their marine life.
You probably could tell mebetter, but there's like maybe
nine or ten things that areassociated with just fishing as
being passion, interest orsomething you're good at,
whatever.
(20:20):
Right.
Then you do the next one andthe next one.
Right, I just asked for ten,yeah, so ten, twenty thirty,
just in the things you're goodat.
Ten, twenty, thirty in thethings you're passionate about.
Ten, twenty thirty in thethings you're interested about.
Right, that's ninety, right, 90.
(20:41):
I said and I have them draw iton a board and I said that is
your industry that you can workin.
Right.
Now, what are all the thingsyou can do in that industry?
Right, all those things you cando in that industry.
Right, all those things you cando in that industry.
You can, you know, you can justwork in the industry.
You can sell to the industry,you can provide products to the
(21:03):
industry.
Then we go down that rabbit hole.
Now they're seeing the world.
See the difference betweenadults and the corporate world.
You know we worked in a worldwhere it wasn't if these people
were going on vacations.
Where they're going on vacation, the level that we're dealing,
we're at the C-suite.
We're talking to people at CIOs, ctos, cfos.
(21:27):
These people have seen theworld right.
The difference is studentshaven't seen anything and,
specifically in the kind ofschool that I went to, which is
like more of a Title I school,right Inner city school, they
haven't seen much.
So the first thing you have todo in education is have them
open their minds and do research.
So for weeks we just have them,I just have them totally go
down that rabbit hole of whatthey love and do it.
(21:48):
Before I start to introduce thebusiness concept, but what I do
tell them is that once you havefound a career in somewhere
that you love, purpose, interestor good at, and then you're
able to help them Because,remember, my focus is to help
people, right, right, andthey're all now.
Yes, I want to help, yes, yes,I want to help people.
(22:09):
I said then you found yourpurpose.
I will tell you, nobody walksaway from their purpose.
See, the thing is about whatI've found a lot since I've been
in this world is that peopleare good to tell you what you
need to do.
Right, you need to find yourpurpose, but you got to give
people a roadmap on how to do itright and I just showed you the
(22:32):
blueprint.
Write down what you're good,interested and passionate about,
talk about careers in it, andyou know you could keep doing it
right, because you could putdown law enforcement.
And how many places can you gowith law enforcement?
You work in health care.
My God, how many.
If you just said I want to be anurse and I said that's great,
(22:54):
be a nurse, but do me a favor.
How many other jobs is there inhealth care?
You can reach thousands, andwhen you have that on the board,
it looks overwhelming andamazing.
But these are students that Inever want to be able for them
when somebody asks them, becausethis happens a lot.
It happened to me at a collegelevel.
(23:15):
So what do you want to do?
I don't know how can you notknow?
But if you've gone down thatroad, you say why do you want to
go into medical?
Well, they have all thesecareers, they have all these
trends, they have all thesethings going on.
And what kind of things are you?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
going to do in there.
Well, I can do this, and I cando it because they've researched
it right.
Well, if I, if I could jump inwhat I've heard you say just put
it into context is that youfirst, especially when you first
, engage with students, is youhelp them find clarity, focus,
and then their own purpose isnot given to them.
They define what it is thatthey really want to go into.
(23:57):
Cause you're going to investtime and money into your
education to eventually be ableto provide for yourself for
whether you're going to a careeror if you're going to business
for yourself.
You've got to have those babies.
What I really like, what youjust stated, is that I'm not
going to just tell you what.
You might come up with someideas, or you may have an idea
of what you want to do, right,but you've given them a process
(24:21):
that they can begin to utilizeover and over again to find
other things, because Iguarantee you, you will pivot
along the way.
I've interviewed over 200different executives.
Right, most of them all tell,especially when they're in their
collegiate years, but theystarted out doing something
completely different.
And then how they got into thisparticular field or this
(24:42):
profession sometimes it was byhappenstance, sometimes it was
in a certain way, like they justdid not know.
I talked to so many differentCEOs of hospitals.
I wanted to be a doctor, butthen I got into the actual room
and I saw blood and I was likethat wasn't going to be a doctor
.
Yeah, I got into the actualroom and I saw blood and I was
like that was yeah that's notgood blood and, yeah, that's not
gonna work.
So until you get into theprofession and really see what
(25:05):
it truly is about.
You only have an idea it'salmost like I have an idea to go
swimming, but once you get intowater you might find out.
Hey, this is a little bitdifferent from where I, but yeah
, you're giving them the process.
You can do the recalibrate youknow what?
Recalibrate that?
But go through yourexperimental stages while you
have the opportunity, cause, aswe both know, that you go
(25:26):
further and further down theroad of life.
It that your opportunities forchange lesson, because you have
responsibilities that you didnot have typically.
You know, when you're in in acollegiate world.
I want you to help usunderstand as you pivoted and
then you had to make thattransition within yourself, the
(25:49):
struggles and challenges.
You came across like, wow, oh,this is different, but then you
had to get your rhythm with it.
You had to find your balancewith it.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, so the first thing, and again, all of this is
different, but then you had toget your rhythm with it, you had
to find your balance with it.
Talk to us about that, yeah.
So the first thing and againall of this is transitioning
from one area that I did wellinto another area, but some of
the things, even though I didwell over here, didn't translate
over here, okay.
So the first thing that youhave to change is how you
communicate.
Like I mentioned to you before,ceos, well-traveled,
(26:21):
well-learned Now you're dealingwith people that don't care.
They don't care, it's highschool, they don't care, they
think they figured it all out,right, okay?
So your communication istotally different.
You have to be a lot morerepetitive, a lot more
(26:45):
structured, right, you've got tohold hands a little bit more.
The one thing you never dealtwith for the most part, we never
really dealt with it.
We never because it wasbusiness right.
We always said business andpersonal is different In
education.
They're the same.
It's their personal life,affects who they are.
(27:06):
Students will walk in and theyhave the weight of the world on
them.
They all come from differentsituations.
In the transition, in thetipping point, I could take my
strengths to the classroom,which was organization skills,
listening skills, because I usedto listen to customers, their
(27:27):
needs.
So now I'm listening tostudents and their needs.
I'm still learning from how toproblem solve, so I'm teaching
the students how to problemsolve.
I'm used to meetings, right,students are not used to
meetings, they're used to beingon their own in their room and
on their device, right, they'renot used to collaborating, right
(27:49):
.
So the importance I've seen thejoy of what collaboration has
done to students that have beenisolated.
They love it.
They don't want to do have beenisolated.
They love it.
They don't want to do it, butthey will love it.
So the differences that I'veseen I've been able to take.
But then the skills that haveworked for me.
(28:10):
Well is, as a naturalsalesperson, you learn to listen
.
First you have to listen toyour customer.
Business education I don't carewhere it is, when you lose
track of who the customer is.
And let me tell you it's not askill that a lot of people
understand, because I'm tellingyou, in certain fields and I
(28:34):
don't want to necessarily sayeducation they are very rigorous
.
These are the rules, you followthe rules and there's always
punishment associated with notcompleting tasks.
Right, it's kind of the wayeducation goes, smack right when
we in the world where we comefrom, we can't.
(28:55):
If I build a great restaurant, agreat Jamaican restaurant curry
goat curry, chicken, oxtailrice and peas, and I put it in
the middle of Coyote Show inLittle Havana and nobody comes
in, why am I going to yell atthe customers?
I can't yell at customers,right?
I'm not motivating them.
I haven't put the restaurant inthe right place.
(29:17):
I should have put it in LauderHill, with the other 30,000 of
them that are there, or inanother part, or Pembroke Pines.
You can't.
You have to know your customer,and so that has helped me well.
And so what we do is wemotivate customers to buy from
us.
That's what we've always done,right.
We do is we motivate customersto buy from us.
(29:39):
That's what we've always done,right, yeah, yeah, how?
How do I become that valuedasset to that customer, right?
And so that's what I'm tryingto establish.
The students know them.
And how can I be that trustedadvisor?
Remember that word we use ohyes trusted advisor.
So we continue to say so.
It doesn't matter thattransition.
So what I'm saying is nobodyhas to be fearful as they
(30:00):
transition.
You take what you know and whatyou've learned.
Those years of experience meansomething and you don't
understand.
If you just are willing to takea leap of faith, your skills
that you've learned over 20, 25,30 years will transition.
It will transition.
You don't just go through theworld and learn all of a sudden
it years will transition, itwill transition.
Right, you don't just gothrough the world and learn all
of a sudden it doesn'ttransition.
(30:20):
You just have to be patient andsay, wait, it will transition.
But how do I deliver it in thisspace?
Because you deliver itdifferently.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Well, you brought up something earlier that I think I
would encourage our audience totruly do.
First, sometimes you have tohave a pivotal moment or a lint
pen to get you to that nextlevel, or at least get you your
mind to start thinkingdifferently.
For you, that was that seminar.
You took the advice, you wentto that webinar, you started to
(30:49):
think differently, you startedto look at the possibilities of
doing something different.
We all need assistance and weall need help.
We can't always do it byourselves.
So you seek out certainindividuals that have expertise
in certain areas that you do not, because they're further down
(31:09):
the road that can help you inthat transition.
Me and you talked to your bestfriend now my mutual friend.
Hey, how can we, how can myskill sets transition to another
point in time in my life if Istart doing it early?
That's another thing.
You don't want to get into thesituation where you have to do
(31:30):
something now.
Sometimes you go through alayoff.
You got to do something.
Now Something happens.
In my particular case, I startedto look for what I have now for
five-star BDM five years before, because I went through a
layoff in 2019, 22, right beforethe pandemic, and I did get
another job and that type ofthing.
(31:51):
But I started to realize if Idon't begin to develop a way of
supporting and sustaining myselfthrough my own business skills,
it's going to get harder andharder for me down the line.
So I begin developing this typeof skill set that someone else
found valuable knowing yourcustomer, knowing who you're
helping and it all goes back tothis.
(32:13):
I want to end it like this, tothis.
I want to end it like thisYou've got to know your story
and you've got to know who wouldbenefit from the story that you
have lived.
If you can do that, you canstart making transitions and
knowing these transitions don'thave to be within a day, a week,
a month it can be over time,that you do that.
(32:35):
Before we conclude, becausewe're getting toward the end of
our time on the podcast, I wantyou to frame that story.
We've talked about yourtransition.
We've talked about your trueclient right now, which is the
students that you serve.
If you had to look back in timewhen you were a student, when
you were going to the Universityof Florida, and the teaching
(32:56):
that you got and theunderstanding you got, and then
what, the understanding thatyou're giving now to your
students, how is that differentand how do you think it's going
to be beneficial for them goingforward?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
the only thing I would change as I was younger is
I would have definitely said tomyself stay, I want to be.
I should have been a lifelonglearner.
And lifelong learning means it,doesn't.
It just means that you'repaying attention, right?
There's a term that we use infootball that's called head on a
swivel.
What that means is for thosepeople that aren't football is
(33:44):
that you've got to pay attentionto the world around you, right?
And when you pay attention tothe world around you, you have
to do that in football, becausesomebody will take your head off
if you're not paying attention.
Right, I would have paid moreattention to the world around me
.
I would say pay more attention.
That's what I'm trying to teachthe students to do.
In other words, they gotsomething I never had.
(34:09):
They've got a computer in theirhands, and I ask my students to
not take the time just to useit for entertainment.
If you can just give me 50% ofthe time even 40, at this point,
30% of the time to use it foreducation, right.
(34:31):
Every time you see, oh, that'scool.
What would it take to do that?
Oh, let me find out about that.
We were limited in ourcuriosity because we had to um,
either watch the news or go to alibrary or read a book or go to
a university, right, right, uh,they don't have that anymore.
(34:52):
They can it me.
I do it all the time.
We didn't even get into AI.
Right, ai is your.
I don't even like Googlingthings anymore because Google
gives me a lot of ads.
I have an AI partner.
Ai doesn't give me any ads, itjust gives me the answer.
(35:14):
So, yes, as a younger person andwith anyone, now, that's
transitioning and the reasonwe're talking about this.
Let me be very clear theyounger generation now will
change jobs as much as 10 to 15times, while our generation may
have changed it three to four orfive times.
Correct, so this is a new world, so embracing change is
something we all have to getused to.
The problem is is that we havea lot of people that have aged
(35:36):
out of the business world.
Aged out, whether they'refirefighters, police officers.
They've aged out and they'restill 50 years old and they got
30 years to live.
What are you going to do now,so I'm telling those people, is
find out your interests, whatyou're good at and what your
passions are, and then explore,right, explore, yeah, educate
(35:57):
yourself on those industries andyou will find, no matter what
career you had before, there issomething in your background
that you've learned, that you'vetrained over all those 40, 50
years you were weren't done forwaste.
Somebody wants those skills.
I am a testament to say youdon't take it for granted.
People understand that.
I have a testament to say youdon't take it for granted.
(36:18):
People understand that I have agood friend he's just
transitioned to.
He was in law enforcement andhe transitioned to have his own
training on trafficking, right,and let me tell you he's
passionate about it.
But I thought I knew I didn'tknow this stuff.
(36:42):
I listened to him.
I'm like, wow, I didn't knowthat.
Don't be afraid of change, don'tbe afraid of speaking,
networking, because that's theother thing I teach the kids In
order to get from purpose toopportunity, you have to network
.
So you found your purpose inlife.
You let everybody know.
So, right now, to transition ifeverybody doesn't know, don't
(37:06):
transition until everybody knowswhat you're looking for, right,
you're the king of LinkedIn.
Let people know Everybody.
Conversation.
This is what I want to do next,next, next, right, that's
networking.
Letting the people know whatyou want to do next, next, next,
that's networking Letting thepeople know what you want to do
next.
People remember that.
That makes you memorable.
Once you're memorable,opportunities come your way.
Hey, you don't have to bepresent.
(37:27):
So, yeah, so I would tell theperson I knew before the number
one thing and I tell it to youngand old is have your head on a
swivel.
Keep your eyes on what's goingon out in the world.
See which ones hit your, yourpurposes, explore them.
(37:48):
You don't just quit a job andgo work there, then you go.
Well, I didn't know this.
That used to happen before.
People used to quit a job andgo work there, then you go.
Whoa, I didn't know this.
That used to happen before.
People used to quit a job andgo work and then two weeks into
it, I didn't know it was goingto be like this.
Why didn't?
Speaker 1 (37:59):
you know it was going to be like this no research, no
, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You seek it out, you seek it out, you seek a network,
opportunity and place where youwant to be, and nothing feels
better than the place you wantto be, right.
There's a lot of people thatstart off by saying this is what
I want, right, I want this bighouse, right.
(38:29):
And then they say, well, whatam I going to do to get what I
want?
So they do want, do.
And then they're being andguess what?
They're unhappy.
Yeah, because they started offwith what do I want, so I'm
going to do this to get this.
And then you're here, yeah, I'mtelling you to reverse it.
Decide who you want to be, yes,okay.
(38:51):
And then you want to be, yes,okay.
And then you do, right, yeah,what you need to be this person.
And then you'll want fornothing.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, you'll want for nothing.
Those are just natural resultsthat go away.
This has been wonderful,professor Thompson.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You can call me Richard now.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
No, I'll call you Richard now.
No, I'm kidding, I'll call youRichard now.
No, and I do this with all myguests before I let you go, and
I always ask in the moment howdid you feel about this
interview?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
No, it felt good.
It felt good.
I love what you're doingbecause we are all a brand,
right, we're all unique.
Branding yourself is part ofwhat I'm talking about.
Exactly Branding yourself.
Is you believe it or not?
Is you letting the world knowwhat you are good at, passionate
(39:47):
about, interested in Same thingI've talked about?
So it makes people think youwalk around as your brand every
day.
People don't realize that theway you wear your hair, the way
you walk in clothes, the carsyou buy, you are a personal
brand.
The best thing to understandright now is that people are
making millions and millions ofdollars being influencers.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yes, what is that?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's all they're doing.
They branded themselves.
People go looking forfoolishness.
Yes, right, so you don't haveto be.
There's someone that needs whatyou have.
There's someone who wants whatyou have and they're willing to
follow pay for it.
There's so many channels foryou to get your brand out, and
that's why I love what you'redoing.
So I appreciate you having meon and you did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
You had my wife on before me.
I did, I did, I did.
I've had 200 other people onbefore we had this moment.
Because I've known RichardThompson for a very, very long
time Professor Efton Thompson Ihad to get his name correct.
You have to know the backstoryto understand why this had to
come out.
So I made sure that I did that.
But I want the audience.
First of all, kudos to AtlantisUniversity.
(40:56):
It's the second time they'vehad me in the studio and this is
a wonderful, wonderfuluniversity.
I came here the first time.
I saw the joy in your face andI saw it as you came across, and
so many people were warm to you.
This is like home for you, andI knew you were in your zone of
genius.
Wow, this is exactly what youneed to be.
(41:16):
Did you use the word genius?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Genius.
I don't think that word hasever been associated to me in my
life.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Professor Thompson, Zone of genius.
But I want to thank them forhaving us here.
But you've got to first of alllet them know how to contact you
and then how to contact theuniversity and, if you don't
mind, tell them about some ofthe coursework they can get here
at Atlantis University.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Well, atlantis University is an amazing
opportunity that I had here.
They have some core programshere.
I teach in the School ofBusiness and I teach marketing
and management and those sort ofthings and management and those
sort of things.
It's so important that we givestudents the full view of what
(41:56):
the world they're going toexperience.
So that's why I love being here, because one of the things I
didn't talk about before is thatI'm a real-world person talking
to them.
I'm not necessarily just anacademic who I'm talking from a
textbook, I believe, and what wetry to do here at Atlantis is
have professors that have realworld responsibility, so that
(42:20):
when we're talking to students,we're talking about LinkedIn,
we're talking about Instagramand the importance of that.
We're staying current.
I've been to some courses inother schools because I've
taught at other universitieswhere the minute I saw a book
and it said 2018, I said I'm notteaching from this book because
that was before COVID.
(42:40):
The world changed after COVID,right?
Everything Supply chain changed, online, everything changed.
So Atlantis is good.
It's here in Miami, florida,and it has a good undergraduate
program.
It has a very good graduateprogram.
All the professors here aresimilar to me.
(43:00):
We spend a lot of time talkingabout our previous lives as
opposed to talking about ourcurrent lives.
So and I want to thank them forgiving us this opportunity
definitely to be here the wholeidea of doing it in this setting
had everything to do with thefact that students need to
(43:21):
understand today that they'regoing to be changes in their
life, constant changes, and theyeither need to be in the
forefront of it or they're goingto be forced upon them.
Change.
There are three things thatalways keep moving, right, all
right.
So the one thing is definitelysocial norms.
(43:43):
So, today, you are a tie.
We always had to wear a tie.
Today, I'm not wearing a tie.
And then Zuckerberg doesn'teven wear a shirt, right?
No, I'm kidding, right.
So social norms are going todefinitely change.
We lived in.
The other thing that alwayschanges technology.
Don't sit down and say, oh, Iam not going to use my, I'm not
(44:04):
going to use the internet, I'mnot going to use LinkedIn to get
a job.
No, I'm not going to use AI.
I even heard educators say I'mnot going to use AI.
I said are you kidding me?
Ai is the most amazing thing toallow professors to give the
best information and get it backto the students.
Teachers have to learn how toask better questions, don't just
ask students to define it.
That's what Google is for, justlike.
(44:26):
Remember when we hadcalculators first came out and
they asked you to do mathlong-handed and you said why?
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Ask.
A came out and they asked youto do math long-handed and you
said why I have a calculator,Right?
I remember telling that to ateacher Everybody, no one cares
about using a calculator, nobodycould do long division anymore.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Why, why, right, right, and so definitely.
Technology continues to change.
Social norm continues to changeAlways moving right.
Yep, social norm is alwaysmoving Technology.
What's the other thing that'salways moving People?
Time.
Oh Don't, that's the biggest.
(44:59):
Don't slip on time, that's thebiggest thing I've heard.
I wish I would have done thissooner.
Okay, so understand Adapttechnology, understand the
social norms.
Social norms, changing isopportunities.
Yeah, that's all it is Changing.
And absolutely, absolutely donot waste a moment of your time.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
No, I couldn't have said it better Again.
First of all, they've got toknow how to email you and give
us the not email address, butthe URL for Atlantis University.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
I don't have it.
Everybody Google stuff, go toAI.
No, but reaching me is evertonE-V-R-T-O-N.
Dot Thompson atAtlantisUniversityedu.
Right, okay, and I believe it'sjust Atlantiscom.
So AtlantisUniversitycom,they'll find it, we'll find it.
Atlantis University Ask ChadTPT.
He, it's just Atlantiscom, so.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
AtlantisUniversitycom .
They'll find it, we'll find it.
Atlantisuniversity, you'relucky to ask Chat TPT, he'll
definitely get you there.
I want to definitely encourageyour entire audience, everybody
at Atlantis University.
They can come and see all theepisodes that follow the brand
at 5 Star BDM.
That is the number 5.
That is star.
That is B for brand, d fordevelopment infomasterscom.
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show, professor
(46:14):
Epton.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Thank you, sir, thank you.
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