August 16, 2024 • 52 mins
In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro interviews Ron Kitchens, the CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. They discuss the importance of gratitude, the power of a job in changing lives, and the role of agriculture and FFA in creating opportunities. Ron shares his personal journey from poverty to becoming a leader in economic development, emphasizing the value of showing up, lifelong learning, and leaving a positive impact on others. They also address the workforce challenges faced by businesses and the need to invest in the younger generation.
The conversation focuses on the importance of mentorship and leadership development in shaping the future generation. It emphasizes the need to invest in young people and provide them with the tools and guidance they need to succeed. Ron discussed the role of education and the need for mentors and support systems in helping students achieve their goals. They also highlight the importance of continuous learning and personal development in becoming effective leaders. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the power of perseverance and thinking big in order to create a positive impact in the world.
Story Notes:
- Ron's Background and the Power of FFA
- The Transformative Power of a Job
- Agriculture and FFA: Creating Opportunities
- Challenges Faced by Young Men in the Workforce
- Creating Opportunities and Competing for the Minds of the Younger Generation
- The Power of Mentorship and Guidance
- Education and Support Systems
- Continuous Learning and Personal Development
- Perseverance and Thinking Big
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or
whenever you may be tuning into the Growing Our Future
podcast, hey, listen.
Number one thank you forstopping by.
We appreciate the fact thatyou're taking a pause in your
day to soak up some of thisincredible insight that we get
(00:50):
from our guest.
Today is no different.
I recently had a chance to meetthis guest and as soon as I did
, there was just several thingsabout him that caught my
attention.
Number one his enthusiasm wascontagious.
Number two I started hearingabout his background background
and there was a little thing inthere called FFA which got my
attention and I said listen,whenever we have an opening, we
(01:12):
need to get you on the show.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's anhonor to bring to y'all the CEO
of the Wichita Falls Chamber ofCommerce, but you're going to
learn more about that.
He's an author, speaker,all-around good guy.
Encourage your life coach, ronKitchens.
Ron, thank you for joining us.
Oh, thanks for letting me behere, ron.
We're going to dive into yourbackground here in just a little
(01:35):
bit and get into a littledeeper of maybe you know kind of
the journey that brought you tothis role that you're in, but I
like to start every episode off, every episode with the same
question, because I think it's agreat place to start, not only
a podcast.
I think it's a great way tostart every day.
And that question is this Ron,what are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, that's a great question, because I actually
just finished writing my weeklyblog for our newsletter and it's
on gratitude and it's this ideathat you know, gratitude's a
gift you give yourself.
When you express gratitude, itreleases dopamine and serotonin
in your brain and so youimmediately feel better by
(02:21):
expressing gratitude to someoneelse.
Then they get the dopamine andthe serotonin hit too, and so
I'm just a huge believer ingratitude and in my case, I'm
grateful for and the column Iwrote was that I get to live in
a rural America.
I get to live in this greatcity that I live in.
(02:43):
That's an hour and a half ortwo hours from the Dallas Fort
Worth Metroplex.
I have all those advantages,but I have incredible.
I got to see a band this weekthat I really liked.
I got to see it for half thecost it would have cost me in
Dallas there were 100 people inthe room and they're playing at
(03:03):
Billy Bob's next week andthere's a thousand people in the
room.
To me, that's an incredibleadvantage that we have in rural
America that we forget thatsometimes being smaller makes us
better.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh, that's really good.
By the way, I agree witheverything you just said.
I love the attitude ofgratitude.
By the way, I agree witheverything you just said.
I love the attitude ofgratitude.
I think when you really unpackgratitude, think about it.
Like you said, when you expressgratitude you feel hopeful, you
feel energetic, you feel likeyou're looking for something
(03:38):
good.
One of my board members you mayknow.
His father was the late greatZig Ziglar Absolutely Zig
Ziglar's son, tom Ziglar, is onmy board members.
You may know his father was thelate great Zig Ziglar.
So Zig Ziglar's son, tom Ziglar, is on the board, on my board.
And Tom was on the East Coasttalking to a bunch of college
kids and they were talking aboutgratitude and he asked them
what is the opposite ofgratitude?
And he let them kind of stewaround and think about it for a
(04:01):
while and then he said theopposite of gratitude is
entitlement.
And we said.
Now let that sink in.
What happens to your attitudewhen you go from being grateful
to well?
That's not fair.
That's mine.
Give that to me.
You go from this attitude andthis perspective of life that's
(04:24):
positive, hopeful, to aperspective that's disappointing
and angry.
And so I think when we startout with gratitude, it's always
a great place to start adialogue, to start a
conversation.
So thank you for sharing whatyou're grateful for, and I agree
with you.
I live in North Texas as well.
(04:44):
I tell people the same thing.
I'm two hours from Oklahoma,I'm two hours from Dallas-Fort
Worth, and yet I enjoy thecommunity that I live in.
I know my neighbors and I justI kind of like that part of the
life that I live.
But I do have an office inAustin and so I do get to fight
(05:07):
the traffic and the hustle andbustle of a big city, and it has
its pleasures as well.
But to raise a family I likewhere I'm at Amen.
So thanks for joining us, ron.
You and I met and you weresharing a little bit about your
background and I was realintrigued by that and obviously
(05:28):
I'm going to tee it up by sayingthis You're going to learn that
part of Ron's background.
He's from the Midwest up north,but part of his background
comes through channels of theFFA.
But he's in a different roletoday, which I think is unique,
and I think it's just anothertestament to what you can do
with the experiences in lifethat you have.
But, ron, you're the CEO of amidsize which I would say is
(05:52):
really kind of a large chamberof commerce.
I don't suspect you just fellinto that seat.
I suspect that there's ajourney that brought you there.
So if you could take us backand kind of walk us through your
life journey and what led youinto this role that you have
today, Sure, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You told me I had to be tight on time here, so I'll
go fast.
So I grew up in abject poverty.
Neither of my parents attendedhigh school.
My mother was 15 when I wasborn and my father 16.
My father was illiterate,couldn't read or write his own
name, not because he was dumb,but because he had a form of
dyslexia, the same form that Ihave.
(06:33):
But it was never addressed.
And so, at age 20, he waskilled in an industrial accident
because he couldn't read thesign that said don't do this,
and it cost him his life.
And so, growing up in poverty, Ilooked around and realized that
every family that had what Iwanted for my family had one
(06:54):
thing in common they had jobs,and I didn't know what that
meant.
But I know our money came froma government check once a month.
My mother had two kids, noeducation, no family support to
speak of early on, and so I knewthat a job was really important
(07:15):
.
Well, it wasn't until later inmy life that I realized that I
could create jobs.
It wasn't just about getting ajob for myself that I could
create jobs.
It wasn't just about getting ajob for myself.
I could live in a world where Icould help out people and
family and friends.
You know, it really struck meearly in my career and I you
know we're going to talk aboutthe FFA, but I would not be here
(07:38):
today if it wasn't for my FFAchapter Wow, period Wow.
I had no business background, Ihad no mentors, I had no idea of
knowing how to run a business.
Too many people think that whenwe talk about agriculture we're
talking about seeds and animalsand those are really important
(07:59):
things.
But what I learned was thoseare business.
How do you figure out earningson that?
How do you figure out your ledme to learning that NAFTA had
just hit the United States, myfriends.
(08:30):
I thought I was going to createjobs in my first businesses for
my friends so they could comehome to my little hometown and
after school what I ended updoing was creating jobs for
their parents because they losttheir factory jobs.
They lost that middle classopportunity, and that's when I
really began to see what we cando in job creation.
(08:52):
And so I've spent my careerboth in Texas, michigan and
Missouri running organizationsthat focus on my core belief
that the greatest force forchange is a job that we change
people's lives.
We change their futures.
We change the future of theirfamilies.
We can change generations.
(09:12):
If we can get good paying jobswith health care benefits and a
retirement program into thosepeople's lives, then they will
take care of themselves.
If you have the American dreamthen you can live the American
dream.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I wrote that down.
That's pretty good.
The greatest force for changeis a job.
Greatest course for change is ajob.
Think about that.
That's powerful.
I had a friend who had a, anaccident that left him with a
traumatic brain injury and, uh,what's interesting about what
(09:53):
you just shared kind ofinspiring is the fact that he
started working at a churchvolunteering his time, uh, and
he called it his volunteer joband the reason reason he wanted
to do it is because he feltvalue, he felt like he was
contributing to something biggerthan himself, and I think that
(10:16):
there's a lot of asset, bothpersonal, financial, that comes
with what you just said andthat's having a job.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, you know, and it goes at all levels of society
.
I had a friend who was a prisonwarden and he knew if he wanted
to lower violence in the prison, if he wanted to lower drug
abuse, if he wanted to lower allthose things that happen in
prisons, then the best thing hecould do is have meaningful job
training and meaningful work forthe people who were in there.
(10:48):
And it didn't matter that theygot 17 cents an hour or whatever
the amount was.
It mattered that they could dosomething meaningful that had a
future to it.
It wasn't just pulling weeds,it was learning electrical, it
was learning skills that theyknew they could use on the
outside, even though some ofthem never had any hope of
(11:10):
getting on the outside.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, there you go.
Listen to what we're talkingabout.
We're talking both about thatintrinsic and internal value,
but also the contribution thatwe make that people freely gave
their money to, through aneconomy, through a capitalistic
society that creates wealth.
And it's like I always tell theyoung people that I deal with.
I said listen, you know, I geta paycheck and if I handle it
(11:36):
right, at the end of everypaycheck I might have a little
bit left over.
And if I have a little bit leftover, I might be able to help
somebody else that might need alittle bit of help, because
we've all been in situationswhere we need that.
But you've got to have that sothat you can share it with
others.
That's right, and I do believeyou're right.
(11:57):
You can't give away what youdon't earn.
Amen.
By the way, you just summed upwhat this podcast is about.
What I always tell people is Isay listen, if agriculture has
taught me anything, it's taughtme this If you want to know what
the future is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow a future?
Well, you've got to plant seeds, you've got to take care of
(12:18):
those seeds, and then you'regoing to have to work and
harvest that crop and harvestthat reward one day and then,
when you get it, you're going tohave to work and harvest that
crop and harvest that reward oneday and then, when you get it,
you're going to share it withothers.
And that's what we're talkingabout.
So when we're talking aboutjobs or economies or
opportunities, what we're reallytalking about is look around
and because just listen to Ron'sstory and listen to mine not
(12:41):
everybody has the sameopportunities.
Sometimes we've got to searchand work a little harder to get
to those opportunities.
And then folks like Ron and Itell Ron, I tell the adults all
the time I said our job asadults, our job is to create
opportunities.
That's our job.
I tell the young people, yourjob is to determine the outcome.
(13:03):
So our responsibility is youknow what you're doing for the
city is you're trying to helpcreate economic opportunities.
You're trying to create jobs.
Now we got to get people thatare willing to step up, stand
out and step into those roles.
We need entrepreneurs andangels and all the others that
go into helping cultivate those.
(13:24):
But at the end of the day, weneed community members to help
determine the outcomes of whatour opportunities look like.
So you just said, what thispodcast is about is we're
hopeful that people that tune inwill hear something.
Maybe you know.
Here's the thing, ron you'refrom Michigan something.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Maybe you know.
Here's the thing, ron you'refrom michigan um a rich Missouri
now.
I worked in michigan for years,yep, but my Missourians will
get mad at me if I don't claimit.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I forgot that because I think I told you I went to
paris, missouri, and did afacebook live with josh bondy in
his ffa chapter.
But the thing about it is iswhether whether it is missouri
or michigan or any place in theUnited States, people who are
listening to this, they may haveheard something there they
never thought of.
Oh wait, a second, I'm an FFA.
(14:12):
I don't necessarily have to gointo agriculture.
I'm an FFA.
Maybe I could be that personthat just goes into creating
jobs and I become a chamber ofcommerce director, an economic
development corporate, an EDCperson that you know, a regional
planning commission person.
There are so many opportunitiesthat deal with job creation
(14:34):
that a lot of times people don'teven think about that.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
That's right, you know, I think, and from FFA I
learned, you know, great examplewas, you know there was a dairy
farm.
I grew up in an area that thereused to be lots of dairy farms
and so I would work whensomebody was sick or need
vacation.
I'd do some fill-in work, whichis the toughest business I
think in America is dairy farmer.
(14:57):
But you know, the farmer taughtme I can either take my wages
or he would give me a bull calfthat I could bottle feed and
showed me that I could take that.
Instead of that $10 or $15 or$20 I would make for that day's
work.
I could work three days, get acalf, and six weeks, eight weeks
(15:21):
later, I'd have $150 in mypocket.
Six weeks, eight weeks later,I'd have $150 in my pocket.
And so you learn these lessonsabout how you have more control
over your life than a lot oftimes we believe.
And I think it's incrediblyimportant that we learn.
And I was a city kid, soliterally we had an extra lot
(15:43):
next to this, our little houseand I'm raising bottle caps in
the middle of town.
You know, my FFA projects werealways rabbits or something that
I could do, you know, at home.
But you learn such incrediblelessons that transcend farming
(16:03):
and I would say I'm not suremuch transcends agriculture in
america.
When it comes down to it, thatreally is our core and without
it we're not gonna.
We're not going to be thecountry that we pretend that we
are some days.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Let me tell you what's so awesome about what you
just shared is more connectionthat we have not talked about.
I've got a friend here in thecommunity that who you know.
She's going to be on thepodcast here as well Jackie
Hager and Jackie's family has adairy over in Winthorst in
Archer County.
Kids my two when they were inFFA they bottle fed Holstein
(16:49):
cats, bull cats and exactly whatyou just described.
One of the things I like toshare and I don't want to derail
our conversation here, but Ithink it's important because you
brought something up about theimportance of agriculture.
I get asked a lot, aaron, whatseparates y'all's kids from
everybody else?
I get asked a lot, aaron, whatseparates y'all's kids from
everybody else?
They said you know, aarondoesn't UIL teach speech and
debate.
Aaron doesn't football teachteamwork and athletics.
(17:10):
And Aaron doesn't band teachensemble and choir.
You know ensemble and Aaron,what is it that you think this
ag, science and FFA thing doesthat nobody else does and I love
that question and I always tellthem I said, yeah, it's a good
question and there's some greatprograms and guess what my kids
and others have learned from allof those programs?
(17:31):
But the one thing thatseparates our kids from
everybody else is that in theworld of agriculture, if we
don't do our job, something dies.
That's right, and when youinstill that core value into a
kid at an early age that whatthey do matters, that something
depends on them to do their job,that is something they will
(17:53):
take with them for the rest oftheir lives.
It will become part of the corevalues of their family, their
community, their job, theirstate and their country, and so
I appreciate you sharing thatperspective.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
You know and I.
So I had a great mentor whowould, you know, I'd early on
you know nobody likes to get upearly in the morning and he'd
remind you you're not having tobust ice in the feeder this
morning, get up and go to work.
And today, even days today thatI don't want to get up.
I'm slow to get out of bed.
(18:26):
I think to myself, hey, what amI talking about?
I don't have to go bust ice inthe feeder this morning, I don't
have anybody who's you knowgoing to die if I don't do my
job.
And you know, there's a senseof obligation beyond ourselves
that FFA and agriculture give usthat otherwise, I'm not sure
(18:49):
where you learn those things.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I agree with you and I couldn't agree more.
My kids did it and guess what?
They didn't realize.
One of my other dear goodfriends here in our North Texas
area is the guy that ownsWarriors Way Martial Arts
Academy, and I remember when hestarted Warriors Way Martial
Arts Academy always got a kickout of it because they would
play dodgeball with focus mittsand if you got hit by the focus
(19:14):
mitt you had to do 10 pushupsand then you could get back in
the game.
And he and I were talking oneday and I said you know that's
pretty clever the way you'redoing that.
He said yeah, he said if I toldthe kids to line up and we're
going to do 50 pushups, theywould all complain about it.
But if I put it in a dodgeballformat, he goes they may do 70
pushups and never complain aboutit because they want to get
(19:35):
back in the game.
And so I think a lot of timesit's how we look at things, it's
how we evaluate them and how weengage with them.
Ron, let's go back here and talkjust for a second.
You know, one of the things inthrough my role at the
foundation is I get to work witha lot of corporate leaders
across the state of Texas andacross the country and I have
(19:55):
the opportunity to hear themtell me what their challenges
are, to hear what opportunitiesthey're trying to create in
their organizations and theirbusinesses, and I will tell you
that the number one issue that Ihear number one, there's not
even a close second is workforce.
Aaron, we need workforce.
We need people that will showup.
(20:16):
We need people that can getalong with their peers.
We need people that cancommunicate in a positive way.
I would argue that Ag scienceand FFA kids represent
everything that we just said,but I want to hear it from your
perspective, ron, from somebodywho's in that role of
cultivating businesses,attracting businesses.
If you could give kids a tipright now, if you could just
(20:37):
reach into every classroom andsay young people, listen, here's
some tools, here's some seedsthat, if you'll plant them, they
will help you get a job, keep ajob and get promoted in a job,
what would you share with them?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I think part of it is showing up and I think you know
, as we talked earlier, if yougot animals, you got to show up,
and so when I you know we dealwith folks every day and you
know we look at the data,there's 7 million young men
between the age of 18 and 26sitting on the sidelines.
They're not in college, they'renot working.
(21:13):
It's first time in Americapost-war this has ever happened.
When we look at the Americanworkforce, we have 4 million
fewer jobs today than we hadpre-COVID and we've got at a
time where 60% of all collegestudents are women.
It's never happened before.
(21:34):
There are more women asassociates in law firms than
there are men for the first timein the history firms and there
are men for the first time inthe history.
The graduate schools aredominated by women.
So I have this real fear foryoung men that they're getting
lost and they're just notgetting what they need in
schools to teach them to work.
(21:56):
And part of it is that you saidit's a sense of entitlement and
you know Ray Wiley Hubbard, thegreat singer, songwriter, says
the day I keep my expectationslower than my gratitude, I have
really good days, and so I thinkwe have to teach people that
you can get out of life,anything you want, but there are
(22:19):
certain rules you have to liveby, and those rules are you got
to show up.
You got to show up in life.
You got to show up for work,you've got to continue to invest
in yourself, and that meanslifelong learning.
You got to constantly belearning, and it's no secret
that women do that better thanmen, you know.
If we look at you know, as yousaid, I write books, huge
(22:42):
percentage, depending on whosenumber you believe 60 or 70% of
all books, maybe 80%, are boughtby women.
Average man doesn't read a bookin a year.
And so this idea that we've gotto continue to learn, and then
we've got to understand that wehave a responsibility to leave,
(23:04):
whether it's our family, ourworld, our community a better
place than it was.
You know, people talk aboutwhat's the meaning of life.
Well, the meaning of life to meis to make sure that on my last
day that I touched more livesand made them better than
invested in me, I gave back onemore dollar courage opportunity
(23:26):
than I received.
Now I'm going to think I'mgoing to do better than that.
But if we just live by thoserules, we'd have pretty good
opportunities.
But I'm terrified for the youngmen of America today because I
just don't see.
I see us losing a hugepercentage of people and we
(23:47):
can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Let's talk about that for a second.
By the way, you know one of theguests that's been on this show
I was fortunate to get to knowand spend some time with, and
he's kind of somebody that youwould know, a guy by the name of
Mike Rowe.
And Mike Rowe talks about thatvery thing right there of how
much talent is sitting on thesidelines.
(24:11):
And I guess one of the thingsthat I wonder, ron, that I don't
necessarily know that we lookat.
I kind of look at like WayneGretzky.
I like what Wayne Gretzky saidone time when they asked Gretzky
, what makes you such a greathockey player?
And Gretzky said most playersskate to where the puck is.
I skate to where the puck isgoing.
(24:33):
I think there's some wisdom inthat.
I skate to where the puck isgoing.
And so to your point, ron.
I think we look at point B andthat's what we see.
How do we fix point B?
We're right here.
How do we fix point B?
Well, point B is really aresult of point A.
Something happened here atpoint A that's created point B.
(24:57):
So when I look at point A, I'msaying this is where the puck is
going.
What are we doing to compete forthis, and the example that I
use is Friday night football and, as you know, being in Texas
for any period of time, fridaynight football is a big deal.
So I go to a Friday nightfootball game.
There are seven coaches on thesideline.
At halftime three came out ofthe press box and then I found
(25:23):
out there were three more thatwere out scouting other teams.
Now do the math on thatThirteen coaches For what?
For one night in one sport, inone field of a kid's life?
Simply to compete.
That kid's got the rest of hislife ahead of him, her life
(25:47):
ahead of them.
And I always ask adults what arewe doing to compete for their
minds?
What are we doing?
You know and I'm not going to,we won't get into a discussion
of communities, but the realityis, if we're not competing for
the minds of where the puck isgoing, how can we be
disappointed when it doesn'tturn out the way we want it to
(26:08):
turn out?
That's right.
Abraham Lincoln said that thephilosophy of the schoolroom in
one generation will be thephilosophy of government in the
next.
That's the reason I'm sopassionate about.
We got to plant the right seeds, we got to jump on podcast and
social media, and we've got tofind out where the kids are to
get in front of where the puckis headed, so that maybe we can
(26:31):
give them some insight, sometools.
And, like you said, ron, wedon't expect everybody to watch
the podcast or read the book,but guess what?
God's got who's watching thisfor a reason, god's got who's
reading it for a reason, and ourjob is to make sure that it
gets out there.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
That's right, you know, I served on the board at
Western Michigan University fora number of years and so I
really wanted to understand howour education worked, because I
can look at that and tell youthat somebody who's middle class
or upper middle class we neverbelieved anything different than
(27:10):
our daughter was going tograduate from school in four
years.
And we sent her to a schoolwhere all the kids believe
they're going to graduate infour years and, lo and behold,
they do.
Now why?
Because they have mentors andthey have assistants and we
invest in them and we're puttingtogether small groups that are
investing in them and we'retelling them here's what it
takes to get there.
(27:31):
We're in big, large publicschools.
We kind of go good luck, godbless, and hey, if you're here
for six years, that's, you know,another two years of revenue
for us.
And so we as adults have got tostep up and say this is what
success looks like and we'regoing to mentor you and we don't
(27:53):
have time today, but I'vewritten about it, we've talked.
You know I went into businessbecause, you know, my knee got,
got blown out, I couldn't playcollege football and I had no
fallback and I had six mentorswho came alongside me, who
taught me how to be in business,who taught me how to do my
books, who taught me how to paytaxes, who taught me how to
(28:13):
generate customers, who taughtme how to be grateful, taught me
how to expand and treatemployees, and without those men
I wouldn't be here today.
I wouldn't have the impact.
I have multiplied their impact.
We've got to make a commitmentand a recommitment to people
that we want to create impactthat can be multiplied.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well said, well said.
And you know, I think there's acouple of things in what you
just shared.
Number one you've got to bewilling.
I mean, if you're a studentright now listening, and it
doesn't have to be this podcast,it could be a coach, it could
be another mentor, it could beanybody.
But just listen to what Ronjust said.
(28:58):
The first thing is you've got tohave some want to.
There's got to be some want tointrinsic into your system that
makes you say I'm going to stepout here and maybe try to do
something better than what myparents had, or I'm going to do
something better than what I sawsomebody that was successful.
I want to be that successful,maybe even more successful.
It starts with a little bit ofwant to.
(29:20):
So the first thing we need isyou to find your want to.
And then, ron, I think you'reright, it behooves all of us in
adult roles and leadershippositions.
We've got to want to pass it on.
You know, one of the thingsthat we talk about in our camp a
lot is one of the quotes.
I've got two quotes that we usea lot around our shop.
One is when your values areclear, your choices are easy.
(29:45):
So when your values are clear,the choices that you make are
pretty easy.
And then, number two, theessence of leadership is to
plant trees under whose shadeyou may never sit.
People ask me all the time why Ido what I do, and I said, well,
it's because I don't know.
Maybe what I do is going tocreate my granddaughter's doctor
(30:06):
one day, or her electedofficial, or my grandson's
mentor or his teacher.
That's the reality of the worldthat we live in, is that we're
really planting seeds withpurpose in hopes that one day
they feed, help somebody else.
And I think, to your point,we've got to be willing to step
(30:26):
up.
One of the things that I askthe young people and you'll like
this is I said tell me aboutyour business.
And they always look at mepuzzled.
They say, well, mr Alejandro, Idon't have a business.
I said, yeah, you do.
You're it.
Do you get up on time?
Do you show up on time?
Are you customer servicefriendly?
Can I understand you?
There's a lot of stuff that youdo because that is your
(30:50):
business.
And then to your point, ron,you said something else I hope
people got, and that was thisGet yourself a personal board of
directors.
That's right.
Get you some people around youlike you just talked about.
That poured into you, that madeyou better.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Absolutely, and that's in.
You know, we know, nobody knowseverything.
And then you mentioned ZigZiglar.
So you know, there's this greatquote, my favorite, by Zig you
can have anything you want inthis world if you just help
enough.
Other people get what they want.
Well, when you get yourselfaround people who believe in
abundance, then that board ofdirectors becomes people who are
(31:32):
giving to you because they knowit's going to come back to them
and it may come back to them ageneration past them.
It may come back to theirgrandchildren, it may come back
to their church, it may comeback to the community that they
love.
It isn't directly quid pro quo,but people who believe in
abundance pour into each other,and why would you want to spend
(31:56):
your life with anybody whodidn't believe in that?
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I hope everybody was listening.
There was another one of thoseapples of gold right there.
People who believe in abundancepour into others.
Good stuff.
That is good stuff.
Let's stay kind of on thistopic, but stay with me here for
a second.
Let's talk about leadershipthis topic, but stay with me
(32:25):
here for a second.
Let's talk about leadership,Because I like to think that the
people that will listen to thispodcast or the people that
might be taking notes in aclassroom right now I've got to
believe there's some aspiringleaders in those situations.
If you were to share someleadership tips, what would be
some tips that you might shareto a young person to be a more
effective leader?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
don't confuse title and position with opportunity to
lead.
Too many times we think we haveto be granted something before
we're a leader, and I had agreat high school football coach
, a guy named Paul Skeens andCoach Skeens is a great guy,
(33:08):
great mentor, but he was thefirst person who came to me and
said, hey, you're a leader and Iwant you to know that that's a
muscle we have to build.
And so he gave me a book toread.
It was written by Grant Taft,who had, I think, was still or
had just been the head footballcoach at Baylor, and about
(33:32):
leadership, and it was the veryfirst leadership book I ever
read.
And so it was somebody who sawthat in me.
But what I realized?
That it was my behaviors.
What I did spoke far moreloudly than any title I had, and
that anything I said.
And so, as great leaders, justgo do the right thing every day.
(33:55):
You know it's not glamoroussome days and it's not sexy some
days, but the fact of thematter is those are the people
that are going to change theworld.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I agree.
By the way, I tell people I'veshared the same thing.
You just said a different way.
I always say if leadership wereeasy, everybody would do it.
I mean, I know in your job andmy job I get told no a lot, but
that's okay.
I was actually at a Tom Ziegler.
I was at a coach leadershiptraining and he said something
(34:28):
I'd never heard before.
And they said Aaron, you knowyou're in the right office if
they told you no.
And I'm like what?
He goes yeah, you're in theright office if they told you no
.
And I said well, how is that?
I don't understand that he goes.
If they had the authority totell you no, then you're in the
right office because they cantell you yes.
So now you've got to figure outhow to get them to yes, that's
(34:50):
right, but I thought that was agood point.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
And you know, and it is a leader.
So my team we go throughleadership training constant,
continuous.
There's a book laying on thetable behind me.
That's our next team book read.
So we read a leadership bookevery month and that's from the
(35:32):
person who answers the phone atthe front to our senior.
Most people we're developingconstant leadership strategy.
Everyone has to be the CEO ofan organization and that's okay.
But what we can do is everybodyneeds to be a great leader,
whether it's a great leader athome One of the toughest jobs in
the world is to be thatstay-at-home parent who's got to
lead.
Whether you're leading yourchild's Girl Scout troop, or
whether you're just teachingyour young children how to be
(35:52):
good leaders and understandingwhat that looks like.
We have to build those musclesand so, as organizational
leaders, if you're notdeveloping the team around you
every day to be great leaders,you're cheating them and you're
cheating yourself.
So I encourage you or intoleadership training and
(36:13):
development.
There's so much of it that'seasy and free, so much of it
that we can do together.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Boy, you've settled some really good stuff.
By the way, number one,leadership's a muscle.
You got to work it and you gotto have coaches and trainers
that help you improve it and Ithink, like you said, investing
in yourself and I didn't knowsome of the statistics that you
shared that was reallyinteresting about women versus
(36:41):
men and when it comes to readingand strategy and stuff, but
that is a common theme.
I will tell you about gueststhat have been on the show.
They talk a lot about you'vegot to invest in yourself,
you've got to improve yourself,you know.
And my philosophy you know.
One of the things I like toshare and, by the way, this is
one reason you're on this showalluded to earlier is harley
(37:11):
elmore, right here in wichitafalls, texas, who's the head of
warriors way martial artsacademy and early on he taught
us.
He said if you want to be thebest, train with the best.
So we don't go train with theblack belt of a black belt of a
black belt.
No, his philosophy is if youwant to be the best, train with
the best.
So who do we bring in?
The heads of systems, the toppeople?
Why?
Because when you hang out withthem and you hear from them and
(37:35):
you train with them, you'retraining with the best.
If you want to be the best,train with the best round.
If you're looking to be abetter leader, find somebody
who's a really good leader andyou may find that person in
person or you may find them onan audio book or in a printed
(37:56):
book but find that person andtrain with that person, and it
will make you better, if that'sanother way of saying it.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Absolutely.
I had a great ministry leaderin Chicago and the largest
church he was actually theminister at that time of the
largest church in America andBill would say my job is to
mentor tens of thousands ofpeople every year.
(38:24):
I can't do that one on one, soI have to create content for
them.
But what we have to do is createthat content in a way that's
agnostic, so you can read itonline for free, you can buy a
book, you can listen to an audio, you can come to a seminar, you
can do all these different ways, but in the end he was pouring
(38:46):
into ministry and businessleaders so that they could
embrace, you know, what he wasteaching.
And so, as leaders, we have toremember you know, just because
I like to read books, there arepeople who would rather hear it
on an audio, there are peoplethat would rather have a digital
version of it.
Get agnostic about how youlearn, but you got to be a
(39:09):
learner.
Agnostic about how you learn,but you got to be a learner, and
I've never met a CEO orsuccessful leader ever who
wasn't a learner ever.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I agree with you.
I tell people all the time Isaid every person, every
successful person that I'vedealt with, I bet you could say
the same thing there is one wordthat they have in their
vocabulary next, it doesn'tmatter if it's a failure, what's
next.
It doesn't matter if it's afailure, what's next.
It doesn't matter if it's asuccess, what's next?
And then I guess that kind ofleads me to a question I wanted
to ask you because in your bookwhich, by the way, uniquely you,
(39:40):
I'm going to throw a shamelessplug in here for you, I'll take
it In Ron's book, uniquely youhe's got a saying in there and
he signs off with it too and itkind of got my attention Always
forward.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Why always forward?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I was at a point in my life that I was young, I was
still in high school.
My high school football coachwas a great mentor to me and you
know I was lamenting, I justdidn't know what to do.
You know I wasn't particularlya great student.
I was dyslexic.
I hadn't been diagnosed withdyslexia, so I struggled
academically, happened to be apretty good athlete, and we were
(40:24):
having this discussion and hesaid, hey, doesn't matter how
fast you go, just always begoing forward.
Some days you're going to gobackwards.
And you know there's a rugbyball behind me and I played
rugby for years and got totravel the world doing it and
the sport of rugby you pass theball backwards to go forward.
(40:45):
Everything you know is you gotto go a little bit backwards to
go yards forward.
And so for me it's a constantreminder that it doesn't matter
what day I'm having.
It doesn't matter Some days weadvance the ball miles and other
days it's inches, but so longas we're always moving forward,
(41:06):
we know that in the end we'regoing to reach our goals and for
us that's more and better jobs,you know, and for me in
particular, you know, one of myoldest memories is of my mom
sitting in an orange Formicatable.
You know she's 19 or 20 at thetime and she's crying.
She got her checkbook out.
She's got to make a decisionwhether to pay the rent or fix
(41:29):
her car.
She pays the rent, we can stayin the house, but there's no way
to go get groceries.
If she fixes a car, we can livein the car, which we did
multiple times and you know, andshe can try to figure out the
next thing, I go to work everyday because I want there to be
one fewer mom crying at a tableEvery day.
(41:52):
I looked at a picture of anorange for my table every day
because if we can just goforward a little bit, I don't
need to do thousands of jobs,which I've done.
I've hung out with the greatestleaders in America and in the
world.
I've had private jets at mybeck and call, but in the end,
(42:14):
none of it matters if we're nothelping one more mom get an
opportunity for her and herchildren, if we're not changing
the life of one more person bycreating more and better jobs.
So I don't, I just have to goforward every day.
Some days it's big and somedays it's small, but I just have
to go forward every day.
Some days it's big and somedays it's small, but I just got
to go forward every day.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I love that philosophy and I really
appreciate you sharing.
I also appreciate the corevalue and the perspective that
drives your passion for thatpurpose.
It shows, ron, just so you know, and that's a good thing I'm
very people that know my storyknow I'm very driven for FFA and
(42:56):
ag science because it changedmy, it changed my world.
We're actually recording thistoday.
We're actually recording duringNational FFA Week.
How awesome is that?
(43:25):
And I basically said you know,hang on, kid, it's going to be a
heck of a ride.
When I look at what you'veaccomplished and the
opportunities that you've beengranted, I think there's another
leadership and seeds ofgreatness lesson here for
everybody.
Folks.
I had a person one time tell me, ron.
(43:49):
They said you know, I wished Icould just get away from the
storms of life and they confidedin me some of the challenges
that they were facing.
And I remember I looked at himand I said you know, I just want
you to know I hear you and Iempathize with you.
And I said I could solve yourproblem.
And they said, really.
I said yeah, I said I can takeyou to a place where you'll
(44:11):
never experience another storm.
I can take you to a place thatit never even rains.
And I said that place is calleda desert and nothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad some challenges, show me
somebody who's had a few storms,storms, and I will show you
somebody that, if they plantedthe right seeds, that they're
(44:33):
going to grow into somethingincredible.
And I think, ron, your storyand your testimony is part of
that.
Thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
You know it's nothing happens by accident in this
world and you know it's allabout what you do with the
lessons that you learn.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
And I've been blessed with great mentors that helped
me see the value in the journey.
Well, and I think somethingelse, ron, that I think I can
share with you on this podcast.
Um, that, uh, and it's in myrole too as a development
officer.
That, and it's in my role tooas a development officer.
A lot of times what peopledon't see is cultivation.
The only time you seecultivation is when the cash
register rains.
So they don't always see thebehind the scenes.
(45:22):
And I got to thinking about theChinese bamboo plant, and I'm
sure you've heard this story.
But you put a Chinese bambooplant seed in the ground and
you've got to care for it everysingle day.
And imagine how discouraging itwould be to care for it every
single day for an entire yearand nothing happens.
Year number two, nothinghappens.
(45:44):
It actually takes five years oftaking care of that seed in the
ground, with no sprout, withnothing, for it to one day stick
its head through the soil andthen hang on to your hat,
because within five weeks thatsprout goes from in the ground
(46:04):
to over 90 feet tall and whatyou don't see is the root system
that's being created under thesurface to withstand the weight
of that much growth that quicklyand when I think of what Ron
does in the world of businesscultivation and I think about
what we do in the world of agscience and FFA cultivation.
(46:25):
Unfortunately, a lot of timespeople don't get to see us
working behind the scenes andthe hard work and the ups and
downs, the challenges of what ittakes to propagate seeds that
may take a year or two to grow.
But when they do that, mom goesto work.
(46:46):
Absolutely absolutely when that,when they do that new mentor
becomes available in thecommunity.
So that was a great analogy,ryan.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I just want to thank you for sharing yep, and I love
the bamboos as an analogy.
It really does show that um,we've got to be committed to our
work and understand that if youwant immediate results, well
then the return on investment ofimmediate is pretty low and you
(47:19):
will live in a life of lowopportunity.
If you want big opportunity,you got to be committed to the
long term.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Well, and you said another word that I like, by the
way, and that is big.
I always tell people if youcan't think big, you can't teach
big.
If you can't think big, youcan't inspire big.
If you can't think big, thepeople in your care can never be
big.
That's right.
Think big.
All right, ron, listen, timeflies when you're having fun.
Thank you so much for takingsome time out of your day and
(47:50):
joining us on the Growing OurFuture podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Really do appreciate that you get one last question.
So every guest on this showgets the last fun question and
you get a fun question to wrapthe podcast up.
Tell us, Ron, what is the bestconcert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3 (48:11):
I got to see right after 9-11.
We had planned to go to NewYork and our trip got derailed
because of 9-11.
A few months later, presidentBush said hey, we need you folks
to come back to the city.
And so we did.
And this is pre-internet.
(48:31):
And so happened to find outthat Jimmy Buffett was doing a
fundraiser for his kids schooland we went and saw Jimmy
Buffett with 150 people at akids school fundraiser and took
our daughter her very firstconcert and I have a picture of
her us there.
She actually got to meet Jimmythat night and so it was one of
those.
Took our daughter her veryfirst concert and I have a
(48:52):
picture of her us there.
She actually got to meet Jimmythat night and so it was one of
those really rare, very coolmoments.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
All right.
So everybody, just everybodysome people have been watching
this podcast knows what I'mabout to say, but I get to get
to tell Ron.
Ron, what you don't know isthat I am a diehard Parrothead.
I didn't know that.
I have been to see JimmyBuffett, I think five or six
times in concert.
I'm definitely a bubbles upkind of guy and I've got
(49:20):
pictures of all my kids doingfins to the left and fins to the
right and I just want you toknow that is awesome, because I
would have loved to have been inthat position.
I think he's an incrediblesongwriter and I heard he's just
an all-around neat person.
I read a story recently about alady that was in her 60s or 70s
(49:45):
fishing on a pier in Florida andthis guy comes up and sits down
and says hey, do you mind if Ifish with you?
And she said sure, and he sitsthere and they just fish and
talk for a while.
He gets up and leaves.
She ultimately gets up andleaves and she stops by the
little concession stand on theway and she said the guy looked
at her and said well, you mustbe famous too.
(50:06):
And she said what are youtalking about?
And she said you're fishingwith famous people.
She said I don't know whatyou're talking about.
That man just came and we justsat and talked.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
They said, well, that was jimmy buffett and what a
great guy.
So it's.
And it tells you, good peopledon't need um, they don't need
pomp and circumstance, they justwant to be around other good
people.
And if you're surroundingyourself with those kind of
people in your life, greatthings are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Amen to that.
One of my board members,another one he's been to Wichita
Falls several times.
He spoke at Midwestern CleoFranklin.
Cleo has written several books,but one of the things Cleo and
I always talk about that heshares with me is he said his
grandfather told him he saidCleo, don't ever speak on the
obvious.
And he said game recognizesgame.
And so, to your point, don'thave to talk about it.
(51:01):
Trust me, game recognizes game.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,thanks for stopping by for
another episode of the GrowingOur Future podcast.
We know your time is preciousand you gave us some today.
We appreciate you stopping by.
We appreciate this incredibleplatform.
Who would have ever thoughtwe'd have the technology where
(51:22):
we could bring people like Ronand others on and just say share
with us seeds of greatness thatwe can plant in our lives?
That might help us along life'sjourney, and today Ron was
willing to share that with us.
As we say in the world ofagriculture, if you want to know
what the future is, grow it.
Today was an opportunity tograb some more seeds of
(51:44):
greatness, plant them and go outand do great things.
Until we meet again, dosomething great for somebody
else.
You'll feel good about it.
Guess what?
Our world will be a betterplace to live, work and raise
our children because of it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or
whenever you may be tuning into the Growing Our Future
podcast, hey, listen.
Number one thank you forstopping by.
We appreciate the fact thatyou're taking a pause in your
day to soak up some of thisincredible insight that we get
(00:50):
from our guest.
Today is no different.
I recently had a chance to meetthis guest and as soon as I did
, there was just several thingsabout him that caught my
attention.
Number one his enthusiasm wascontagious.
Number two I started hearingabout his background background
and there was a little thing inthere called FFA which got my
attention and I said listen,whenever we have an opening, we
(01:12):
need to get you on the show.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's anhonor to bring to y'all the CEO
of the Wichita Falls Chamber ofCommerce, but you're going to
learn more about that.
He's an author, speaker,all-around good guy.
Encourage your life coach, ronKitchens.
Ron, thank you for joining us.
Oh, thanks for letting me behere, ron.
We're going to dive into yourbackground here in just a little
(01:35):
bit and get into a littledeeper of maybe you know kind of
the journey that brought you tothis role that you're in, but I
like to start every episode off, every episode with the same
question, because I think it's agreat place to start, not only
a podcast.
I think it's a great way tostart every day.
And that question is this Ron,what are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh, that's a great question, because I actually
just finished writing my weeklyblog for our newsletter and it's
on gratitude and it's this ideathat you know, gratitude's a
gift you give yourself.
When you express gratitude, itreleases dopamine and serotonin
in your brain and so youimmediately feel better by
(02:21):
expressing gratitude to someoneelse.
Then they get the dopamine andthe serotonin hit too, and so
I'm just a huge believer ingratitude and in my case, I'm
grateful for and the column Iwrote was that I get to live in
a rural America.
I get to live in this greatcity that I live in.
(02:43):
That's an hour and a half ortwo hours from the Dallas Fort
Worth Metroplex.
I have all those advantages,but I have incredible.
I got to see a band this weekthat I really liked.
I got to see it for half thecost it would have cost me in
Dallas there were 100 people inthe room and they're playing at
(03:03):
Billy Bob's next week andthere's a thousand people in the
room.
To me, that's an incredibleadvantage that we have in rural
America that we forget thatsometimes being smaller makes us
better.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh, that's really good.
By the way, I agree witheverything you just said.
I love the attitude ofgratitude.
By the way, I agree witheverything you just said.
I love the attitude ofgratitude.
I think when you really unpackgratitude, think about it.
Like you said, when you expressgratitude you feel hopeful, you
feel energetic, you feel likeyou're looking for something
(03:38):
good.
One of my board members you mayknow.
His father was the late greatZig Ziglar Absolutely Zig
Ziglar's son, tom Ziglar, is onmy board members.
You may know his father was thelate great Zig Ziglar.
So Zig Ziglar's son, tom Ziglar, is on the board, on my board.
And Tom was on the East Coasttalking to a bunch of college
kids and they were talking aboutgratitude and he asked them
what is the opposite ofgratitude?
And he let them kind of stewaround and think about it for a
(04:01):
while and then he said theopposite of gratitude is
entitlement.
And we said.
Now let that sink in.
What happens to your attitudewhen you go from being grateful
to well?
That's not fair.
That's mine.
Give that to me.
You go from this attitude andthis perspective of life that's
(04:24):
positive, hopeful, to aperspective that's disappointing
and angry.
And so I think when we startout with gratitude, it's always
a great place to start adialogue, to start a
conversation.
So thank you for sharing whatyou're grateful for, and I agree
with you.
I live in North Texas as well.
(04:44):
I tell people the same thing.
I'm two hours from Oklahoma,I'm two hours from Dallas-Fort
Worth, and yet I enjoy thecommunity that I live in.
I know my neighbors and I justI kind of like that part of the
life that I live.
But I do have an office inAustin and so I do get to fight
(05:07):
the traffic and the hustle andbustle of a big city, and it has
its pleasures as well.
But to raise a family I likewhere I'm at Amen.
So thanks for joining us, ron.
You and I met and you weresharing a little bit about your
background and I was realintrigued by that and obviously
(05:28):
I'm going to tee it up by sayingthis You're going to learn that
part of Ron's background.
He's from the Midwest up north,but part of his background
comes through channels of theFFA.
But he's in a different roletoday, which I think is unique,
and I think it's just anothertestament to what you can do
with the experiences in lifethat you have.
But, ron, you're the CEO of amidsize which I would say is
(05:52):
really kind of a large chamberof commerce.
I don't suspect you just fellinto that seat.
I suspect that there's ajourney that brought you there.
So if you could take us backand kind of walk us through your
life journey and what led youinto this role that you have
today, Sure, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You told me I had to be tight on time here, so I'll
go fast.
So I grew up in abject poverty.
Neither of my parents attendedhigh school.
My mother was 15 when I wasborn and my father 16.
My father was illiterate,couldn't read or write his own
name, not because he was dumb,but because he had a form of
dyslexia, the same form that Ihave.
(06:33):
But it was never addressed.
And so, at age 20, he waskilled in an industrial accident
because he couldn't read thesign that said don't do this,
and it cost him his life.
And so, growing up in poverty, Ilooked around and realized that
every family that had what Iwanted for my family had one
(06:54):
thing in common they had jobs,and I didn't know what that
meant.
But I know our money came froma government check once a month.
My mother had two kids, noeducation, no family support to
speak of early on, and so I knewthat a job was really important
(07:15):
.
Well, it wasn't until later inmy life that I realized that I
could create jobs.
It wasn't just about getting ajob for myself that I could
create jobs.
It wasn't just about getting ajob for myself.
I could live in a world where Icould help out people and
family and friends.
You know, it really struck meearly in my career and I you
know we're going to talk aboutthe FFA, but I would not be here
(07:38):
today if it wasn't for my FFAchapter Wow, period Wow.
I had no business background, Ihad no mentors, I had no idea of
knowing how to run a business.
Too many people think that whenwe talk about agriculture we're
talking about seeds and animalsand those are really important
(07:59):
things.
But what I learned was thoseare business.
How do you figure out earningson that?
How do you figure out your ledme to learning that NAFTA had
just hit the United States, myfriends.
(08:30):
I thought I was going to createjobs in my first businesses for
my friends so they could comehome to my little hometown and
after school what I ended updoing was creating jobs for
their parents because they losttheir factory jobs.
They lost that middle classopportunity, and that's when I
really began to see what we cando in job creation.
(08:52):
And so I've spent my careerboth in Texas, michigan and
Missouri running organizationsthat focus on my core belief
that the greatest force forchange is a job that we change
people's lives.
We change their futures.
We change the future of theirfamilies.
We can change generations.
(09:12):
If we can get good paying jobswith health care benefits and a
retirement program into thosepeople's lives, then they will
take care of themselves.
If you have the American dreamthen you can live the American
dream.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I wrote that down.
That's pretty good.
The greatest force for changeis a job.
Greatest course for change is ajob.
Think about that.
That's powerful.
I had a friend who had a, anaccident that left him with a
traumatic brain injury and, uh,what's interesting about what
(09:53):
you just shared kind ofinspiring is the fact that he
started working at a churchvolunteering his time, uh, and
he called it his volunteer joband the reason reason he wanted
to do it is because he feltvalue, he felt like he was
contributing to something biggerthan himself, and I think that
(10:16):
there's a lot of asset, bothpersonal, financial, that comes
with what you just said andthat's having a job.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, you know, and it goes at all levels of society
.
I had a friend who was a prisonwarden and he knew if he wanted
to lower violence in the prison, if he wanted to lower drug
abuse, if he wanted to lower allthose things that happen in
prisons, then the best thing hecould do is have meaningful job
training and meaningful work forthe people who were in there.
(10:48):
And it didn't matter that theygot 17 cents an hour or whatever
the amount was.
It mattered that they could dosomething meaningful that had a
future to it.
It wasn't just pulling weeds,it was learning electrical, it
was learning skills that theyknew they could use on the
outside, even though some ofthem never had any hope of
(11:10):
getting on the outside.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, there you go.
Listen to what we're talkingabout.
We're talking both about thatintrinsic and internal value,
but also the contribution thatwe make that people freely gave
their money to, through aneconomy, through a capitalistic
society that creates wealth.
And it's like I always tell theyoung people that I deal with.
I said listen, you know, I geta paycheck and if I handle it
(11:36):
right, at the end of everypaycheck I might have a little
bit left over.
And if I have a little bit leftover, I might be able to help
somebody else that might need alittle bit of help, because
we've all been in situationswhere we need that.
But you've got to have that sothat you can share it with
others.
That's right, and I do believeyou're right.
(11:57):
You can't give away what youdon't earn.
Amen.
By the way, you just summed upwhat this podcast is about.
What I always tell people is Isay listen, if agriculture has
taught me anything, it's taughtme this If you want to know what
the future is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow a future?
Well, you've got to plant seeds, you've got to take care of
(12:18):
those seeds, and then you'regoing to have to work and
harvest that crop and harvestthat reward one day and then,
when you get it, you're going tohave to work and harvest that
crop and harvest that reward oneday and then, when you get it,
you're going to share it withothers.
And that's what we're talkingabout.
So when we're talking aboutjobs or economies or
opportunities, what we're reallytalking about is look around
and because just listen to Ron'sstory and listen to mine not
(12:41):
everybody has the sameopportunities.
Sometimes we've got to searchand work a little harder to get
to those opportunities.
And then folks like Ron and Itell Ron, I tell the adults all
the time I said our job asadults, our job is to create
opportunities.
That's our job.
I tell the young people, yourjob is to determine the outcome.
(13:03):
So our responsibility is youknow what you're doing for the
city is you're trying to helpcreate economic opportunities.
You're trying to create jobs.
Now we got to get people thatare willing to step up, stand
out and step into those roles.
We need entrepreneurs andangels and all the others that
go into helping cultivate those.
(13:24):
But at the end of the day, weneed community members to help
determine the outcomes of whatour opportunities look like.
So you just said, what thispodcast is about is we're
hopeful that people that tune inwill hear something.
Maybe you know.
Here's the thing, ron you'refrom Michigan something.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Maybe you know.
Here's the thing, ron you'refrom michigan um a rich Missouri
now.
I worked in michigan for years,yep, but my Missourians will
get mad at me if I don't claimit.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I forgot that because I think I told you I went to
paris, missouri, and did afacebook live with josh bondy in
his ffa chapter.
But the thing about it is iswhether whether it is missouri
or michigan or any place in theUnited States, people who are
listening to this, they may haveheard something there they
never thought of.
Oh wait, a second, I'm an FFA.
(14:12):
I don't necessarily have to gointo agriculture.
I'm an FFA.
Maybe I could be that personthat just goes into creating
jobs and I become a chamber ofcommerce director, an economic
development corporate, an EDCperson that you know, a regional
planning commission person.
There are so many opportunitiesthat deal with job creation
(14:34):
that a lot of times people don'teven think about that.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
That's right, you know, I think, and from FFA I
learned, you know, great examplewas, you know there was a dairy
farm.
I grew up in an area that thereused to be lots of dairy farms
and so I would work whensomebody was sick or need
vacation.
I'd do some fill-in work, whichis the toughest business I
think in America is dairy farmer.
(14:57):
But you know, the farmer taughtme I can either take my wages
or he would give me a bull calfthat I could bottle feed and
showed me that I could take that.
Instead of that $10 or $15 or$20 I would make for that day's
work.
I could work three days, get acalf, and six weeks, eight weeks
(15:21):
later, I'd have $150 in mypocket.
Six weeks, eight weeks later,I'd have $150 in my pocket.
And so you learn these lessonsabout how you have more control
over your life than a lot oftimes we believe.
And I think it's incrediblyimportant that we learn.
And I was a city kid, soliterally we had an extra lot
(15:43):
next to this, our little houseand I'm raising bottle caps in
the middle of town.
You know, my FFA projects werealways rabbits or something that
I could do, you know, at home.
But you learn such incrediblelessons that transcend farming
(16:03):
and I would say I'm not suremuch transcends agriculture in
america.
When it comes down to it, thatreally is our core and without
it we're not gonna.
We're not going to be thecountry that we pretend that we
are some days.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Let me tell you what's so awesome about what you
just shared is more connectionthat we have not talked about.
I've got a friend here in thecommunity that who you know.
She's going to be on thepodcast here as well Jackie
Hager and Jackie's family has adairy over in Winthorst in
Archer County.
Kids my two when they were inFFA they bottle fed Holstein
(16:49):
cats, bull cats and exactly whatyou just described.
One of the things I like toshare and I don't want to derail
our conversation here, but Ithink it's important because you
brought something up about theimportance of agriculture.
I get asked a lot, aaron, whatseparates y'all's kids from
everybody else?
I get asked a lot, aaron, whatseparates y'all's kids from
everybody else?
They said you know, aarondoesn't UIL teach speech and
debate.
Aaron doesn't football teachteamwork and athletics.
(17:10):
And Aaron doesn't band teachensemble and choir.
You know ensemble and Aaron,what is it that you think this
ag, science and FFA thing doesthat nobody else does and I love
that question and I always tellthem I said, yeah, it's a good
question and there's some greatprograms and guess what my kids
and others have learned from allof those programs?
(17:31):
But the one thing thatseparates our kids from
everybody else is that in theworld of agriculture, if we
don't do our job, something dies.
That's right, and when youinstill that core value into a
kid at an early age that whatthey do matters, that something
depends on them to do their job,that is something they will
(17:53):
take with them for the rest oftheir lives.
It will become part of the corevalues of their family, their
community, their job, theirstate and their country, and so
I appreciate you sharing thatperspective.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
You know and I.
So I had a great mentor whowould, you know, I'd early on
you know nobody likes to get upearly in the morning and he'd
remind you you're not having tobust ice in the feeder this
morning, get up and go to work.
And today, even days today thatI don't want to get up.
I'm slow to get out of bed.
(18:26):
I think to myself, hey, what amI talking about?
I don't have to go bust ice inthe feeder this morning, I don't
have anybody who's you knowgoing to die if I don't do my
job.
And you know, there's a senseof obligation beyond ourselves
that FFA and agriculture give usthat otherwise, I'm not sure
(18:49):
where you learn those things.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I agree with you and I couldn't agree more.
My kids did it and guess what?
They didn't realize.
One of my other dear goodfriends here in our North Texas
area is the guy that ownsWarriors Way Martial Arts
Academy, and I remember when hestarted Warriors Way Martial
Arts Academy always got a kickout of it because they would
play dodgeball with focus mittsand if you got hit by the focus
(19:14):
mitt you had to do 10 pushupsand then you could get back in
the game.
And he and I were talking oneday and I said you know that's
pretty clever the way you'redoing that.
He said yeah, he said if I toldthe kids to line up and we're
going to do 50 pushups, theywould all complain about it.
But if I put it in a dodgeballformat, he goes they may do 70
pushups and never complain aboutit because they want to get
(19:35):
back in the game.
And so I think a lot of timesit's how we look at things, it's
how we evaluate them and how weengage with them.
Ron, let's go back here and talkjust for a second.
You know, one of the things inthrough my role at the
foundation is I get to work witha lot of corporate leaders
across the state of Texas andacross the country and I have
(19:55):
the opportunity to hear themtell me what their challenges
are, to hear what opportunitiesthey're trying to create in
their organizations and theirbusinesses, and I will tell you
that the number one issue that Ihear number one, there's not
even a close second is workforce.
Aaron, we need workforce.
We need people that will showup.
(20:16):
We need people that can getalong with their peers.
We need people that cancommunicate in a positive way.
I would argue that Ag scienceand FFA kids represent
everything that we just said,but I want to hear it from your
perspective, ron, from somebodywho's in that role of
cultivating businesses,attracting businesses.
If you could give kids a tipright now, if you could just
(20:37):
reach into every classroom andsay young people, listen, here's
some tools, here's some seedsthat, if you'll plant them, they
will help you get a job, keep ajob and get promoted in a job,
what would you share with them?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I think part of it is showing up and I think you know
, as we talked earlier, if yougot animals, you got to show up,
and so when I you know we dealwith folks every day and you
know we look at the data,there's 7 million young men
between the age of 18 and 26sitting on the sidelines.
They're not in college, they'renot working.
(21:13):
It's first time in Americapost-war this has ever happened.
When we look at the Americanworkforce, we have 4 million
fewer jobs today than we hadpre-COVID and we've got at a
time where 60% of all collegestudents are women.
It's never happened before.
(21:34):
There are more women asassociates in law firms than
there are men for the first timein the history firms and there
are men for the first time inthe history.
The graduate schools aredominated by women.
So I have this real fear foryoung men that they're getting
lost and they're just notgetting what they need in
schools to teach them to work.
(21:56):
And part of it is that you saidit's a sense of entitlement and
you know Ray Wiley Hubbard, thegreat singer, songwriter, says
the day I keep my expectationslower than my gratitude, I have
really good days, and so I thinkwe have to teach people that
you can get out of life,anything you want, but there are
(22:19):
certain rules you have to liveby, and those rules are you got
to show up.
You got to show up in life.
You got to show up for work,you've got to continue to invest
in yourself, and that meanslifelong learning.
You got to constantly belearning, and it's no secret
that women do that better thanmen, you know.
If we look at you know, as yousaid, I write books, huge
(22:42):
percentage, depending on whosenumber you believe 60 or 70% of
all books, maybe 80%, are boughtby women.
Average man doesn't read a bookin a year.
And so this idea that we've gotto continue to learn, and then
we've got to understand that wehave a responsibility to leave,
(23:04):
whether it's our family, ourworld, our community a better
place than it was.
You know, people talk aboutwhat's the meaning of life.
Well, the meaning of life to meis to make sure that on my last
day that I touched more livesand made them better than
invested in me, I gave back onemore dollar courage opportunity
(23:26):
than I received.
Now I'm going to think I'mgoing to do better than that.
But if we just live by thoserules, we'd have pretty good
opportunities.
But I'm terrified for the youngmen of America today because I
just don't see.
I see us losing a hugepercentage of people and we
(23:47):
can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Let's talk about that for a second.
By the way, you know one of theguests that's been on this show
I was fortunate to get to knowand spend some time with, and
he's kind of somebody that youwould know, a guy by the name of
Mike Rowe.
And Mike Rowe talks about thatvery thing right there of how
much talent is sitting on thesidelines.
(24:11):
And I guess one of the thingsthat I wonder, ron, that I don't
necessarily know that we lookat.
I kind of look at like WayneGretzky.
I like what Wayne Gretzky saidone time when they asked Gretzky
, what makes you such a greathockey player?
And Gretzky said most playersskate to where the puck is.
I skate to where the puck isgoing.
(24:33):
I think there's some wisdom inthat.
I skate to where the puck isgoing.
And so to your point, ron.
I think we look at point B andthat's what we see.
How do we fix point B?
We're right here.
How do we fix point B?
Well, point B is really aresult of point A.
Something happened here atpoint A that's created point B.
(24:57):
So when I look at point A, I'msaying this is where the puck is
going.
What are we doing to compete forthis, and the example that I
use is Friday night football and, as you know, being in Texas
for any period of time, fridaynight football is a big deal.
So I go to a Friday nightfootball game.
There are seven coaches on thesideline.
At halftime three came out ofthe press box and then I found
(25:23):
out there were three more thatwere out scouting other teams.
Now do the math on thatThirteen coaches For what?
For one night in one sport, inone field of a kid's life?
Simply to compete.
That kid's got the rest of hislife ahead of him, her life
(25:47):
ahead of them.
And I always ask adults what arewe doing to compete for their
minds?
What are we doing?
You know and I'm not going to,we won't get into a discussion
of communities, but the realityis, if we're not competing for
the minds of where the puck isgoing, how can we be
disappointed when it doesn'tturn out the way we want it to
(26:08):
turn out?
That's right.
Abraham Lincoln said that thephilosophy of the schoolroom in
one generation will be thephilosophy of government in the
next.
That's the reason I'm sopassionate about.
We got to plant the right seeds, we got to jump on podcast and
social media, and we've got tofind out where the kids are to
get in front of where the puckis headed, so that maybe we can
(26:31):
give them some insight, sometools.
And, like you said, ron, wedon't expect everybody to watch
the podcast or read the book,but guess what?
God's got who's watching thisfor a reason, god's got who's
reading it for a reason, and ourjob is to make sure that it
gets out there.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
That's right, you know, I served on the board at
Western Michigan University fora number of years and so I
really wanted to understand howour education worked, because I
can look at that and tell youthat somebody who's middle class
or upper middle class we neverbelieved anything different than
(27:10):
our daughter was going tograduate from school in four
years.
And we sent her to a schoolwhere all the kids believe
they're going to graduate infour years and, lo and behold,
they do.
Now why?
Because they have mentors andthey have assistants and we
invest in them and we're puttingtogether small groups that are
investing in them and we'retelling them here's what it
takes to get there.
(27:31):
We're in big, large publicschools.
We kind of go good luck, godbless, and hey, if you're here
for six years, that's, you know,another two years of revenue
for us.
And so we as adults have got tostep up and say this is what
success looks like and we'regoing to mentor you and we don't
(27:53):
have time today, but I'vewritten about it, we've talked.
You know I went into businessbecause, you know, my knee got,
got blown out, I couldn't playcollege football and I had no
fallback and I had six mentorswho came alongside me, who
taught me how to be in business,who taught me how to do my
books, who taught me how to paytaxes, who taught me how to
(28:13):
generate customers, who taughtme how to be grateful, taught me
how to expand and treatemployees, and without those men
I wouldn't be here today.
I wouldn't have the impact.
I have multiplied their impact.
We've got to make a commitmentand a recommitment to people
that we want to create impactthat can be multiplied.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well said, well said.
And you know, I think there's acouple of things in what you
just shared.
Number one you've got to bewilling.
I mean, if you're a studentright now listening, and it
doesn't have to be this podcast,it could be a coach, it could
be another mentor, it could beanybody.
But just listen to what Ronjust said.
(28:58):
The first thing is you've got tohave some want to.
There's got to be some want tointrinsic into your system that
makes you say I'm going to stepout here and maybe try to do
something better than what myparents had, or I'm going to do
something better than what I sawsomebody that was successful.
I want to be that successful,maybe even more successful.
It starts with a little bit ofwant to.
(29:20):
So the first thing we need isyou to find your want to.
And then, ron, I think you'reright, it behooves all of us in
adult roles and leadershippositions.
We've got to want to pass it on.
You know, one of the thingsthat we talk about in our camp a
lot is one of the quotes.
I've got two quotes that we usea lot around our shop.
One is when your values areclear, your choices are easy.
(29:45):
So when your values are clear,the choices that you make are
pretty easy.
And then, number two, theessence of leadership is to
plant trees under whose shadeyou may never sit.
People ask me all the time why Ido what I do, and I said, well,
it's because I don't know.
Maybe what I do is going tocreate my granddaughter's doctor
(30:06):
one day, or her electedofficial, or my grandson's
mentor or his teacher.
That's the reality of the worldthat we live in, is that we're
really planting seeds withpurpose in hopes that one day
they feed, help somebody else.
And I think, to your point,we've got to be willing to step
(30:26):
up.
One of the things that I askthe young people and you'll like
this is I said tell me aboutyour business.
And they always look at mepuzzled.
They say, well, mr Alejandro, Idon't have a business.
I said, yeah, you do.
You're it.
Do you get up on time?
Do you show up on time?
Are you customer servicefriendly?
Can I understand you?
There's a lot of stuff that youdo because that is your
(30:50):
business.
And then to your point, ron,you said something else I hope
people got, and that was thisGet yourself a personal board of
directors.
That's right.
Get you some people around youlike you just talked about.
That poured into you, that madeyou better.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Absolutely, and that's in.
You know, we know, nobody knowseverything.
And then you mentioned ZigZiglar.
So you know, there's this greatquote, my favorite, by Zig you
can have anything you want inthis world if you just help
enough.
Other people get what they want.
Well, when you get yourselfaround people who believe in
abundance, then that board ofdirectors becomes people who are
(31:32):
giving to you because they knowit's going to come back to them
and it may come back to them ageneration past them.
It may come back to theirgrandchildren, it may come back
to their church, it may comeback to the community that they
love.
It isn't directly quid pro quo,but people who believe in
abundance pour into each other,and why would you want to spend
(31:56):
your life with anybody whodidn't believe in that?
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I hope everybody was listening.
There was another one of thoseapples of gold right there.
People who believe in abundancepour into others.
Good stuff.
That is good stuff.
Let's stay kind of on thistopic, but stay with me here for
a second.
Let's talk about leadershipthis topic, but stay with me
(32:25):
here for a second.
Let's talk about leadership,Because I like to think that the
people that will listen to thispodcast or the people that
might be taking notes in aclassroom right now I've got to
believe there's some aspiringleaders in those situations.
If you were to share someleadership tips, what would be
some tips that you might shareto a young person to be a more
effective leader?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
don't confuse title and position with opportunity to
lead.
Too many times we think we haveto be granted something before
we're a leader, and I had agreat high school football coach
, a guy named Paul Skeens andCoach Skeens is a great guy,
(33:08):
great mentor, but he was thefirst person who came to me and
said, hey, you're a leader and Iwant you to know that that's a
muscle we have to build.
And so he gave me a book toread.
It was written by Grant Taft,who had, I think, was still or
had just been the head footballcoach at Baylor, and about
(33:32):
leadership, and it was the veryfirst leadership book I ever
read.
And so it was somebody who sawthat in me.
But what I realized?
That it was my behaviors.
What I did spoke far moreloudly than any title I had, and
that anything I said.
And so, as great leaders, justgo do the right thing every day.
(33:55):
You know it's not glamoroussome days and it's not sexy some
days, but the fact of thematter is those are the people
that are going to change theworld.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I agree.
By the way, I tell people I'veshared the same thing.
You just said a different way.
I always say if leadership wereeasy, everybody would do it.
I mean, I know in your job andmy job I get told no a lot, but
that's okay.
I was actually at a Tom Ziegler.
I was at a coach leadershiptraining and he said something
(34:28):
I'd never heard before.
And they said Aaron, you knowyou're in the right office if
they told you no.
And I'm like what?
He goes yeah, you're in theright office if they told you no
.
And I said well, how is that?
I don't understand that he goes.
If they had the authority totell you no, then you're in the
right office because they cantell you yes.
So now you've got to figure outhow to get them to yes, that's
(34:50):
right, but I thought that was agood point.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
And you know, and it is a leader.
So my team we go throughleadership training constant,
continuous.
There's a book laying on thetable behind me.
That's our next team book read.
So we read a leadership bookevery month and that's from the
(35:32):
person who answers the phone atthe front to our senior.
Most people we're developingconstant leadership strategy.
Everyone has to be the CEO ofan organization and that's okay.
But what we can do is everybodyneeds to be a great leader,
whether it's a great leader athome One of the toughest jobs in
the world is to be thatstay-at-home parent who's got to
lead.
Whether you're leading yourchild's Girl Scout troop, or
whether you're just teachingyour young children how to be
(35:52):
good leaders and understandingwhat that looks like.
We have to build those musclesand so, as organizational
leaders, if you're notdeveloping the team around you
every day to be great leaders,you're cheating them and you're
cheating yourself.
So I encourage you or intoleadership training and
(36:13):
development.
There's so much of it that'seasy and free, so much of it
that we can do together.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Boy, you've settled some really good stuff.
By the way, number one,leadership's a muscle.
You got to work it and you gotto have coaches and trainers
that help you improve it and Ithink, like you said, investing
in yourself and I didn't knowsome of the statistics that you
shared that was reallyinteresting about women versus
(36:41):
men and when it comes to readingand strategy and stuff, but
that is a common theme.
I will tell you about gueststhat have been on the show.
They talk a lot about you'vegot to invest in yourself,
you've got to improve yourself,you know.
And my philosophy you know.
One of the things I like toshare and, by the way, this is
one reason you're on this showalluded to earlier is harley
(37:11):
elmore, right here in wichitafalls, texas, who's the head of
warriors way martial artsacademy and early on he taught
us.
He said if you want to be thebest, train with the best.
So we don't go train with theblack belt of a black belt of a
black belt.
No, his philosophy is if youwant to be the best, train with
the best.
So who do we bring in?
The heads of systems, the toppeople?
Why?
Because when you hang out withthem and you hear from them and
(37:35):
you train with them, you'retraining with the best.
If you want to be the best,train with the best round.
If you're looking to be abetter leader, find somebody
who's a really good leader andyou may find that person in
person or you may find them onan audio book or in a printed
(37:56):
book but find that person andtrain with that person, and it
will make you better, if that'sanother way of saying it.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Absolutely.
I had a great ministry leaderin Chicago and the largest
church he was actually theminister at that time of the
largest church in America andBill would say my job is to
mentor tens of thousands ofpeople every year.
(38:24):
I can't do that one on one, soI have to create content for
them.
But what we have to do is createthat content in a way that's
agnostic, so you can read itonline for free, you can buy a
book, you can listen to an audio, you can come to a seminar, you
can do all these different ways, but in the end he was pouring
(38:46):
into ministry and businessleaders so that they could
embrace, you know, what he wasteaching.
And so, as leaders, we have toremember you know, just because
I like to read books, there arepeople who would rather hear it
on an audio, there are peoplethat would rather have a digital
version of it.
Get agnostic about how youlearn, but you got to be a
(39:09):
learner.
Agnostic about how you learn,but you got to be a learner, and
I've never met a CEO orsuccessful leader ever who
wasn't a learner ever.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I agree with you.
I tell people all the time Isaid every person, every
successful person that I'vedealt with, I bet you could say
the same thing there is one wordthat they have in their
vocabulary next, it doesn'tmatter if it's a failure, what's
next.
It doesn't matter if it's afailure, what's next.
It doesn't matter if it's asuccess, what's next?
And then I guess that kind ofleads me to a question I wanted
to ask you because in your bookwhich, by the way, uniquely you,
(39:40):
I'm going to throw a shamelessplug in here for you, I'll take
it In Ron's book, uniquely youhe's got a saying in there and
he signs off with it too and itkind of got my attention Always
forward.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Why always forward?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I was at a point in my life that I was young, I was
still in high school.
My high school football coachwas a great mentor to me and you
know I was lamenting, I justdidn't know what to do.
You know I wasn't particularlya great student.
I was dyslexic.
I hadn't been diagnosed withdyslexia, so I struggled
academically, happened to be apretty good athlete, and we were
(40:24):
having this discussion and hesaid, hey, doesn't matter how
fast you go, just always begoing forward.
Some days you're going to gobackwards.
And you know there's a rugbyball behind me and I played
rugby for years and got totravel the world doing it and
the sport of rugby you pass theball backwards to go forward.
(40:45):
Everything you know is you gotto go a little bit backwards to
go yards forward.
And so for me it's a constantreminder that it doesn't matter
what day I'm having.
It doesn't matter Some days weadvance the ball miles and other
days it's inches, but so longas we're always moving forward,
(41:06):
we know that in the end we'regoing to reach our goals and for
us that's more and better jobs,you know, and for me in
particular, you know, one of myoldest memories is of my mom
sitting in an orange Formicatable.
You know she's 19 or 20 at thetime and she's crying.
She got her checkbook out.
She's got to make a decisionwhether to pay the rent or fix
(41:29):
her car.
She pays the rent, we can stayin the house, but there's no way
to go get groceries.
If she fixes a car, we can livein the car, which we did
multiple times and you know, andshe can try to figure out the
next thing, I go to work everyday because I want there to be
one fewer mom crying at a tableEvery day.
(41:52):
I looked at a picture of anorange for my table every day
because if we can just goforward a little bit, I don't
need to do thousands of jobs,which I've done.
I've hung out with the greatestleaders in America and in the
world.
I've had private jets at mybeck and call, but in the end,
(42:14):
none of it matters if we're nothelping one more mom get an
opportunity for her and herchildren, if we're not changing
the life of one more person bycreating more and better jobs.
So I don't, I just have to goforward every day.
Some days it's big and somedays it's small, but I just have
to go forward every day.
Some days it's big and somedays it's small, but I just got
to go forward every day.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I love that philosophy and I really
appreciate you sharing.
I also appreciate the corevalue and the perspective that
drives your passion for thatpurpose.
It shows, ron, just so you know, and that's a good thing I'm
very people that know my storyknow I'm very driven for FFA and
(42:56):
ag science because it changedmy, it changed my world.
We're actually recording thistoday.
We're actually recording duringNational FFA Week.
How awesome is that?
(43:25):
And I basically said you know,hang on, kid, it's going to be a
heck of a ride.
When I look at what you'veaccomplished and the
opportunities that you've beengranted, I think there's another
leadership and seeds ofgreatness lesson here for
everybody.
Folks.
I had a person one time tell me, ron.
(43:49):
They said you know, I wished Icould just get away from the
storms of life and they confidedin me some of the challenges
that they were facing.
And I remember I looked at himand I said you know, I just want
you to know I hear you and Iempathize with you.
And I said I could solve yourproblem.
And they said, really.
I said yeah, I said I can takeyou to a place where you'll
(44:11):
never experience another storm.
I can take you to a place thatit never even rains.
And I said that place is calleda desert and nothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad some challenges, show me
somebody who's had a few storms,storms, and I will show you
somebody that, if they plantedthe right seeds, that they're
(44:33):
going to grow into somethingincredible.
And I think, ron, your storyand your testimony is part of
that.
Thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
You know it's nothing happens by accident in this
world and you know it's allabout what you do with the
lessons that you learn.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
And I've been blessed with great mentors that helped
me see the value in the journey.
Well, and I think somethingelse, ron, that I think I can
share with you on this podcast.
Um, that, uh, and it's in myrole too as a development
officer.
That, and it's in my role tooas a development officer.
A lot of times what peopledon't see is cultivation.
The only time you seecultivation is when the cash
register rains.
So they don't always see thebehind the scenes.
(45:22):
And I got to thinking about theChinese bamboo plant, and I'm
sure you've heard this story.
But you put a Chinese bambooplant seed in the ground and
you've got to care for it everysingle day.
And imagine how discouraging itwould be to care for it every
single day for an entire yearand nothing happens.
Year number two, nothinghappens.
(45:44):
It actually takes five years oftaking care of that seed in the
ground, with no sprout, withnothing, for it to one day stick
its head through the soil andthen hang on to your hat,
because within five weeks thatsprout goes from in the ground
(46:04):
to over 90 feet tall and whatyou don't see is the root system
that's being created under thesurface to withstand the weight
of that much growth that quicklyand when I think of what Ron
does in the world of businesscultivation and I think about
what we do in the world of agscience and FFA cultivation.
(46:25):
Unfortunately, a lot of timespeople don't get to see us
working behind the scenes andthe hard work and the ups and
downs, the challenges of what ittakes to propagate seeds that
may take a year or two to grow.
But when they do that, mom goesto work.
(46:46):
Absolutely absolutely when that,when they do that new mentor
becomes available in thecommunity.
So that was a great analogy,ryan.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I just want to thank you for sharing yep, and I love
the bamboos as an analogy.
It really does show that um,we've got to be committed to our
work and understand that if youwant immediate results, well
then the return on investment ofimmediate is pretty low and you
(47:19):
will live in a life of lowopportunity.
If you want big opportunity,you got to be committed to the
long term.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Well, and you said another word that I like, by the
way, and that is big.
I always tell people if youcan't think big, you can't teach
big.
If you can't think big, youcan't inspire big.
If you can't think big, thepeople in your care can never be
big.
That's right.
Think big.
All right, ron, listen, timeflies when you're having fun.
Thank you so much for takingsome time out of your day and
(47:50):
joining us on the Growing OurFuture podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Really do appreciate that you get one last question.
So every guest on this showgets the last fun question and
you get a fun question to wrapthe podcast up.
Tell us, Ron, what is the bestconcert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3 (48:11):
I got to see right after 9-11.
We had planned to go to NewYork and our trip got derailed
because of 9-11.
A few months later, presidentBush said hey, we need you folks
to come back to the city.
And so we did.
And this is pre-internet.
(48:31):
And so happened to find outthat Jimmy Buffett was doing a
fundraiser for his kids schooland we went and saw Jimmy
Buffett with 150 people at akids school fundraiser and took
our daughter her very firstconcert and I have a picture of
her us there.
She actually got to meet Jimmythat night and so it was one of
those.
Took our daughter her veryfirst concert and I have a
(48:52):
picture of her us there.
She actually got to meet Jimmythat night and so it was one of
those really rare, very coolmoments.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
All right.
So everybody, just everybodysome people have been watching
this podcast knows what I'mabout to say, but I get to get
to tell Ron.
Ron, what you don't know isthat I am a diehard Parrothead.
I didn't know that.
I have been to see JimmyBuffett, I think five or six
times in concert.
I'm definitely a bubbles upkind of guy and I've got
(49:20):
pictures of all my kids doingfins to the left and fins to the
right and I just want you toknow that is awesome, because I
would have loved to have been inthat position.
I think he's an incrediblesongwriter and I heard he's just
an all-around neat person.
I read a story recently about alady that was in her 60s or 70s
(49:45):
fishing on a pier in Florida andthis guy comes up and sits down
and says hey, do you mind if Ifish with you?
And she said sure, and he sitsthere and they just fish and
talk for a while.
He gets up and leaves.
She ultimately gets up andleaves and she stops by the
little concession stand on theway and she said the guy looked
at her and said well, you mustbe famous too.
(50:06):
And she said what are youtalking about?
And she said you're fishingwith famous people.
She said I don't know whatyou're talking about.
That man just came and we justsat and talked.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
They said, well, that was jimmy buffett and what a
great guy.
So it's.
And it tells you, good peopledon't need um, they don't need
pomp and circumstance, they justwant to be around other good
people.
And if you're surroundingyourself with those kind of
people in your life, greatthings are going to happen.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Amen to that.
One of my board members,another one he's been to Wichita
Falls several times.
He spoke at Midwestern CleoFranklin.
Cleo has written several books,but one of the things Cleo and
I always talk about that heshares with me is he said his
grandfather told him he saidCleo, don't ever speak on the
obvious.
And he said game recognizesgame.
And so, to your point, don'thave to talk about it.
(51:01):
Trust me, game recognizes game.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,thanks for stopping by for
another episode of the GrowingOur Future podcast.
We know your time is preciousand you gave us some today.
We appreciate you stopping by.
We appreciate this incredibleplatform.
Who would have ever thoughtwe'd have the technology where
(51:22):
we could bring people like Ronand others on and just say share
with us seeds of greatness thatwe can plant in our lives?
That might help us along life'sjourney, and today Ron was
willing to share that with us.
As we say in the world ofagriculture, if you want to know
what the future is, grow it.
Today was an opportunity tograb some more seeds of
(51:44):
greatness, plant them and go outand do great things.
Until we meet again, dosomething great for somebody
else.
You'll feel good about it.
Guess what?
Our world will be a betterplace to live, work and raise
our children because of it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
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