August 30, 2024 • 44 mins
In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro interviews Jackie Hoegger, owner of Hoegger Communications. They discuss the importance of storytelling and empathy in leadership, as well as the value of mentorship and continuous learning. Jackie shares her journey of starting her own company and emphasizes the power of telling personal stories. She also highlights the significance of living your brand and leaving a legacy.
Story Notes:
- Discovering the Power of Storytelling
- The Importance of Failure and Learning
- Living Your Brand and Leaving a Legacy
- The Value of Empathy in Leadership
- Tips for Telling Your Story and Leading Others
- Leadership Skills: Empathy, Leading by Doing, and Continuous Learning
- Fun Question: Best Concert Experience
- The Inspiration Behind the Slinky
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Mark as Played
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 in tothe Growing Our Future podcast,
hey, listen, first thing, wewant to say thank you for
stopping by.
You know, time's the only thingthat we get to spend.
We can't save it.
So the fact that you'respending a little time with us,
we want you to know that weappreciate it.
(00:50):
We also appreciate a podcastwhere we get to bring on these
incredible guests, people thatare willing to share their
insights, their experiences,their expertise.
And, like we always say in theworld of agriculture, the one
thing we've learned is if youwant to know what the future is,
grow it.
Well, how do you grow a future?
(01:10):
You grow a future by plantingthe right seeds.
You grow a future and a betterlife by planting the right
information and then nurturingit and growing it.
Today we have another specialguest.
She is no stranger to the FFA.
She's been part of our journeyand we're honored to have the
owner of Hager Communications,jackie Hager.
(01:32):
Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor and a privilegeto be here.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We're excited about having you and we're going to
pick your brain.
We want to get some wisdom fromyou so that we can plant seeds
of greatness in the minds of ourstudents and our teachers and
the stakeholders that'll bewatching this podcast.
Jackie, we like to start everypodcast off.
Every guest gets the same firstquestion and I always like to
(02:02):
start with the question what areyou grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Ah, today.
Well, I'm grateful that I wokeup on a farm and as I was making
my coffee, I can see thesunrise.
And when I get out to go to myvehicle, I can smell that farm
life.
I think you know where I'mgoing to and that is an
incredible, sweet, amazing smellto me.
(02:30):
So I'm grateful that I get towake up on a farm before I drive
into work every day, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Jackie, that is so good.
I wished I could tell you thatI get that experience of waking
up on a farm, because there issomething special about that.
I can't tell you how manyfriends I've had that have had
professional careers that haveafforded them the opportunity to
buy a small plot of land andthey say there's nothing better
(02:59):
than that fresh air in themorning and a cup of coffee and
watching the world wake up,watching nature wake up.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I can hear the cows.
I can hear the cows.
I can hear the milk stanchionsgoing.
I can hear all the farmersdriving by feeding.
That's the sound I want to wakeup to every morning.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I'm with you.
The fact that we get to haveanother day to pour into other
people, something to be gratefulfor Amen Amen.
All right, jackie Hager.
So let me give everybody alittle background.
So I was familiar with Jackie,I was familiar with her company
(03:42):
and we we've been involved withan organization called Live Like
Johnny, and Johnny Cowan was aFord leadership scholar and he
was tragically lost in anautomobile accident.
And as we began trying to tellJohnny's story, we came across
and I was on the board of LiveLike Johnny and we came across
(04:04):
Hager Communications.
I knew Jackie and we watchedthem tell Johnny's story and it
really got our attention and wesaid there's something here.
And so one of my board membersand a couple of other people
said Aaron, we really need to doa documentary about the Texas
FFA Foundation.
And I really had never thoughtof it and I, you know I
(04:27):
struggled with it.
I mean, I really wondered isthat really the direction we
should go?
And yet there were so manysigns that kept pointing to the
positive of why we needed to doit, why we should go ahead and
go down this path, and we did.
And so if you go to the myTexas FFA website, as soon as
you get there it says watch thefilm.
All you do is click on the filmand you will see our Emmy
(04:51):
nominated documentary about theTexas FFA Foundation.
So that's how I got to have thisprofessional relationship and
working with Jackie and hercompany.
But, jackie, I want to dive alittle bit deeper than that and
I'd like to go back a little bitin time, if you will.
Something tells me you know, Isee all of these awards behind
(05:16):
you.
Something tells me you did notjust fall into that chair.
Something tells me that thereis a story, there is a journey,
there is a pathway that led youinto that role, into this
company that you now own andoperate Agri Communications.
Jackie, take us through thatjourney.
What did it look like to takeover and create this dream of
(05:40):
yours?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well, first of all, I'm a dairy farmer's daughter
and a dairy farmer's wife and myoldest son runs a beef cattle
operation of about 6,000 up to20,000 cattle, depending on the
year, and my youngest son and myhusband run the current dairy
farm.
So that's where it all begins,honestly, erin, because we were
(06:07):
born and raised to get up andwork on the farm and I really
think our work ethic for allfive of us kids came from that.
I have a very disciplinedfather and a very aggressive,
goal-oriented father and hereally brought that down to us.
And then we went to a smallschool that was very big and FFA
(06:27):
and 4-H.
I grew up more in the 4-H world, but I had friends and I
watched them grow up in the FFAworld and I think it goes back
to failure is not an option.
In fact, my dad would alwayslean on that sentence You'll
fail your way to success.
Failure is not a bad thing.
It makes you smarter, it makesyou bolder, it makes you bigger,
(06:50):
and so every time we would failat something he was so good at
sitting us down, going all right.
What is the teachable moment ofthis?
And there's a reason that thishappened to you, and how can we
keep that?
And I take that very same thingtoday to this agency because I
graduated here in Wichita Fallsat MSU and then I owned a dress
(07:14):
boutique for 26 years andmarketing that dress boutique
was my sweet spot.
So when I got the opportunityto sell it, I had no idea what
God had planned for me and myphone blew up.
After that sale.
All of my customers said comemarket my business like you
(07:35):
marketed that store.
So that started with me, withone person, and today there are
25 Team Hager employees.
We have clients in 23 statesand while we do everything from
marketing website, social, Ithink one of our favorite things
(07:58):
is storytelling.
That's our favorite thing, andso we spend a lot of time in the
video world storytelling.
So that's the quick 101 of howI got to this chair, and I
wouldn't change it for anything.
Not one thing would I change.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I can only imagine , Jackie.
I know how much I enjoy doingpodcasts because it gives me
this chance to get to know somany special people.
I met so many incredible peopleand so I can only imagine what
it's like to be in your seat andhave the chance to really dive
into somebody's story and sharethat story on such a dynamic
(08:42):
platform and share that story onsuch a dynamic platform.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
No kidding, we were just talking about this weekend.
We're going to go pick up somemore hardware on some
documentaries.
In fact, we're going to pick upsome hardware on our first
international documentary.
We shot it in Geneva,switzerland, in June, and we're
going to bring something homefor that.
(09:05):
Everybody's got a story.
First of that.
Everybody's got a story.
First of all, everybody's got astory and some people struggle
with.
I don't know how to tell my ownstory.
Well, I always say sometimeswe're inside our own tornado and
we can't really see the clarity.
And sometimes I think that'sthe gift we bring to the story
teller.
You know we're on the outside,looking in, taking a deep breath
(09:29):
and just listening, and then wenavigate them to get to the
sweet spot.
So many times they think Idon't know what this end result
is going to look like.
But when we show them the finalproduct, once we've all done our
due diligent hard work oftelling your story and listen,
(09:50):
the thing about storytelling issome of the smallest, simplest
stories are the most powerfulstories.
So I'm always on the lookoutfor a story.
Sometimes people don't knowthey have a story until I feel
it, sense it, and then I givethem a call and go, let's go to
(10:14):
coffee.
And I sit down with them and go.
You have no idea of thepowerful story that you own.
That needs to be told.
So many of our documentariescome out of that format.
So we have 25 amazing talentedpeople but it takes all of us to
(10:36):
get to the final product.
Does that make sense?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, I think, too, the genius of that that you just
shared.
And as we do these podcasts,jackie, one of the things that
I'm always looking for areelements along somebody's
journey that, if you'll listen,there's something that's
scalable there and somethingthat you just shared with us.
I think is one of those momentsthat I hope people heard.
(11:03):
Jackie sits down with peopleand they talk about this
incredible story, but then whatdoes Jackie do?
She brings other team membersin, and what's interesting is
they start seeing that storyfrom maybe a little bit
different perspective, and bybringing all of those
perspectives together, the scopeof that story and the
(11:23):
brilliance of that story becomesever clearer, and so it's the
old adage that none of us is asstrong as all of us.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh, like that, just gave me goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And so that's what's really interesting.
When you shared that, Jackie isnot only are you proud and
there's nothing wrong with that,by the way, I always tell
people when you're proud ofsomething, you want to share it.
We talk about our favoriterestaurants, we talk about
movies we like, we talk aboutbooks, so what's wrong with that
?
So when Jackie talks about,she's proud of the hardware and
the success of her company,that's a good thing, especially
(11:56):
when you listen to thebackground there.
It's the story behind thestorytelling, if you will.
It's the fact that she bringsthese great team members
together to help articulate thatstory.
That is no different thananybody that's listening to this
podcast.
You know, Jackie, one of thethings that we tell the kids all
(12:16):
the time.
Or I like to talk to the FFAkids and I tell them.
I said, tell me about yourbusiness.
And they always tell me.
They said, Mr Alejandro, Idon't havea business.
I said, yeah, you do, You're it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You're it right, here Everybody is.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Do you get up on time ?
What time do you open?
What kind of customer servicedo you deliver?
Do you know your material?
I mean, think about it.
We are our own business and so,to your point, jackie, we all
have an obligation to make surethat the story that we tell
about our business is one that'sgenuine, that it's authentic,
that it's grounded in good corevalues, and I think that all of
(12:56):
those things are elements ofyour success.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, I teach at the local university.
I'm in my 14th year of teachingthe final marketing class, and
we always start on day one and Itell these there may be 30
students sitting in there and Igo.
If you could crawl into themind of the student next to you,
can you imagine the story thatyou could tell?
Because you're a brand startingjunior high high school.
(13:23):
If you're a student listeningto this, you're a brand starting
junior high high school.
If you're a student listeningto this, you're a brand.
If you're a teacher listening tothis, you're a brand and
everybody's got a story.
And so when I teach thesecollege students that your brand
begins the day you go out inpublic and you start engaging
(13:45):
with the world, that's grand andit's ever changing and it's
ever exciting and you're.
The best thing you can do foryourself is not only tell your
story, but try to tell the storyof the guy or the girl sitting
next to you, because they havejust as powerful of a story and
together it's even better.
(14:07):
And that's what we do at Hagerevery day.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
All day, we tell stories you know, one of the
great motivators who's one of mymentors, by the way was a guy
named Zig Ziglar, and Zig's son,Tom Ziglar, actually is on our
foundation board of directors,and so Tom and I talk a lot
about these topics.
But you know one of the famousZiglar quotes.
(14:31):
As he said, if you help enoughother people, get what they want
, you'll get what you want.
Yep, and you know, testimoniesare powerful.
I've always been taught thatthere's two things in the world
you can't argue with, and that'ssomebody's testimony in the
Bible, Because you can neverlook at somebody, and I can
never look at Jackie and say,Jackie, that didn't happen to
(14:51):
you.
That would be ridiculous for meto tell Jackie that that story
that she just told didn't happento her.
And so to your point, Jackie,when we can harvest and harness
the power of a testimony, yes,that is so true.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know, we just finished two documentaries, two
totally different documentaries,both powerful.
Let me give you the subjectlines of both of these.
Documentary A about glass,glass.
Is there anything fun, crazy orover the top about glass?
Now I'm talking about the glassin high-rise buildings glass.
(15:29):
But oh my, it's not about theglass.
It's about the people thatmanufacture the glass and the
family that they bond inside thefactory and how they do it and
how then they drive down andthey see their glass.
(15:49):
That's the story we justfinished.
It, too, is going to bring somehardware and it went all the
way to the top to vitro and theCEO of vitro goes.
Now that's how we tell what wedo.
That's documentary A.
Documentary B we just releasedA young girl, an addict,
alcoholic, on drugs, living onthe streets in New York City, in
(16:14):
Manhattan, had a dream, butcouldn't get out of her own
world, of trying to beat heraddiction.
Took four times.
She beats her addiction one,baby step at a time, through a
lot of tough love.
Today she just opened her thirdbakery in Manhattan and she's
(16:38):
thriving, and I got to tell herstory.
We at Hager got to tell herstory.
It will give you goosebumps.
We're going to release it tothe public here in a week and I
can't wait for you and everystudent and teacher to see it,
because going from addiction,drug addiction, to glass on a
(17:00):
building, both helpful, bothgut-wrenching, both amazing
stories, because it wasn't aboutthe glass, it was about the
person making the glass.
It wasn't about the addiction.
It was the heart of this younggirl that a bakery believed in
(17:20):
her to begin.
Just let me clean your bakeryat night, when your bakery is
closed, to prep you for the nextday.
Wow, that's the story.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's how she started.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
That's how she started.
It's amazing, wow, so exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You reminded me of a man downtown that we've lost him
, but Ben Valadez.
He used to run Green'sFurniture.
He used to own Green's Furniturethere you talk about a story,
and his story started bysweeping the floors free of
charge for Mr Green.
So when you said that, it'sjust like, wow, yeah, jackie,
(18:01):
you know.
I'd like to dive into this alittle bit deeper here, because
you've said something that andyou're actually going where I
hoped you would go, and that isthis.
We've got an incredible brand.
The Texas FFA has been aroundfor 96 years.
We have a proven track recordthat our kids statistically
outperform their peers, theircompetitors.
(18:24):
They've got access toscholarships, they go to college
at a higher rate, theygraduated a higher rate.
They have fewer incidentreports in school.
We've got all this incredibledata but at the end of the day,
that's the data at 30,000 footview.
The reality is that data isactually contained in those
(18:44):
170,000 plus FFA members at thelocal level, all of which, as
you said, have a story.
So let's unpack this a littlebit.
If you could give some tips tokids on how to tell your story,
do these three things to tellyour story.
Do these three things for yourchapter to tell your local
(19:07):
chapter FFA story.
What would those be?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh, what a great question.
I would start by saying take abrand new, fresh notebook and a
fresh pen or pencil and sit insilence and start by answering
the first question who are youwhen you are going to describe
yourself?
How would you describe yourself?
(19:35):
That's question number one.
And really take some time todive into that Number two.
Who impacted you as a person asof today?
It could be a teacher, it couldbe a parent, neighbor, cousin,
brother, sister, aunt, uncle,could be more than one person.
And then talk about that person.
(19:56):
What value did that person giveyou in your life?
What value?
Because what you're going tonarrow down to are what are your
personal core values, what isimportant to you?
And then the third thing Iwould say is talk about the
(20:17):
company.
You keep the friends.
You keep the church friends.
You keep the students.
Talk about the company that youkeep, because we all know we
are who we run with.
And talk about those people.
What value do they bring to youevery day, those people?
(20:40):
What value do they bring to youevery day?
And then I would encourage youto go into a fourth question and
say where do I want to be injust three years?
I'm not asking about 20 years,just three years from now, where
do you want to be and what doeslife look like for you and what
do you think you have to do?
And then, where does your faithtake you?
(21:01):
Because, end of the day,something moves you inside.
Is it a book?
Is it your faith?
Is it your grandpa?
You know, for me it was my dad.
You know, my dad used to comein there going on Saturday
mornings with all my friends whodidn't live on dairies, could
sleep in and relax over theweekend.
(21:21):
My dad was like by 7 am, get up.
I've already put in a half aday's work.
Get your you know what out ofthat bed.
And, oh my gosh, I had no ideathe training.
All I could sense wasfrustration.
Can you just let me sleep late?
I'm a teenager and every Sundayafternoon when friends were
(21:43):
having pizza parties at twoo'clock, we were pinning the
cows to milk the cows and feedthe baby calves.
No one wants to do that on aSunday afternoon when you could
go hang out with your friendswhen you're 15, 16, and 17 years
old.
But I knew today man wasprepping me for the future,
because chance favors those inmotion.
(22:06):
I want to say that one moretime Chance favors those in
motion, and my father believedin speed, innovation and speed.
Get up and go and it all boilsdown to.
You can answer those four orfive things.
You've already started thejourney of telling your story.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Wow, that is powerful .
There we go.
There's those seeds ofgreatness I was talking about.
They're right there.
I love it, by the way, andyou've been around some of our
programs, jackie.
You've seen our ambassador roomand you've seen some of the
leadership training that we do,and that's one of the things
that we like to instill in thekid.
We all the kids.
(22:50):
We always say that when yourvalues are clear, your choices
are easy amen so, to your point,we've got to really find what
is that value structure?
What is it that we reallybelieve?
Because that's what becomes ourauthentic self to the public.
So you've really got to findthat value system internally,
because it will manifest itselfin everything else that you do,
(23:13):
and so you talked about that,which was absolutely great.
I love what you talked about,the company that you keep.
I can't tell you how manyguests we've had that have said
similar things all the way downto show me your friends and I'll
show you your future.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Amen, that is so true , Just that simple.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And the thing that I another one that I really liked
here, Jackie, that you said andI hope that the kids heard this.
Another one that I really likedhere, Jackie, that you said and
I hope that the kids heard thisIn it too.
You know we're not going todive into it, but I'm going to
tell you it's biblical, but yousaid it, and that is this the
Bible says where there is novision, the people will perish.
You have to have a vision, andit reminds me of the movie Alice
(23:55):
in Wonderland, when she came tothe fork in the road, if you
recall the scene in the movie,and there was the Cheshire Cat
yes, there's the fork.
And she said, well, which waydo I go?
And the cat said, well, wheredo you want to go?
And she said, well, I'm notreally sure.
And he said, well then, anyroad will take you there, and so
we can either be in charge ofour destiny or we can just react
(24:18):
to somebody else's destiny.
So I loved your comment aboutlook at where do you want to be
in three years.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Where do you want to be?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Which road are you going to take?
Because you know that's theroad you need to take to get to
where you want to be.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Amen.
And there's nothing wrong withhaving short-term goals, because
you know things could change inyour life in three years.
And there's nothing wrong withpivoting and adjusting.
I mean, isn't every day don'twe pivot our day?
What we think we're going to dothat day doesn't always work
out that way.
You have to learn to pivot.
And here's another thing whenyou sit down, just like today,
(24:57):
sometimes it's a gift.
I don't want to be the smartestperson in the room.
I don't, because my teammembers sometimes it's my intern
in a meeting that will blurbout something and we all spin
our heads and go there's ouranswer.
There's our answer becauseeverybody brings value to the
(25:19):
table.
So I love not being thesmartest person in the room.
I worry about who's going totake my place and am I prepping
for who's going to take my place?
Because I don't know whereGod's going to send me in the
next five or 10 years.
So if I'm not constantlyreplacing me, then I'm not
(25:41):
setting this company up forsuccess either.
So so many.
And let me tell you something.
Just because we have all thishardware, if you're a student
and you see that hardware, letme tell you about the grit and
the grind that took us to getthere.
If you think getting to the topis hard, let me just tell you,
(26:04):
staying there is 10 times ashard, aaron, we make mistakes
still every day in this office,every day, and we have to stop
and look at that teachablemoment and decide do we freeze?
Oh my God, we made a majormistake.
(26:24):
Do we freeze, do we flight?
Do we just abandon the projector do we fight to fix it?
So that's, you can freeze, youcan flight, you can fight or you
can fix it.
And I'm telling you, if youthink, a company that is 18 plus
(26:45):
years with this much hardwarehas it easy.
No, ma'am, no sir, no, ma'am,no sir.
It listen, tears are shed everymonth in this office because
something didn't go perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm just saying that's good stuff right there.
I mean, there's so much there,jackie.
Number one success begetssuccess.
There's no question that if wecan teach a kid to be a success,
they can model that into othersuccesses in their lives.
So success begets success.
(27:19):
And the other one that youshared there that I just thought
was really good is that, forteachers that are listening, I
can't tell you how many teachersI know that were really good at
teaching, but where theymight've dropped the ball a
little bit was they never didsuccession planning.
They never thought about who'sgoing to take their role one day
(27:41):
and keep that chapter at thetop of their game and who's
going to craft that.
You know I want to be state FFApresident, but my job is to
make sure that the next statepresident's right behind me.
It's that responsibility ofstewardship and it's right
behind me.
It's that responsibility ofstewardship.
And it's that responsibility,as you said, succession planning
(28:02):
.
And you know thinking about whowill fill their shoes.
And you know, tom Ziegler andZiegler, they talk about that
and they say we're all going toleave a legacy.
Everybody's going to leave alegacy.
You're either going to leave itby design or by default, and so
the key is to leave a legacy bydesign.
By design yes, and what comeswith that design, jackie?
(28:24):
It's everything that you'vejust shared and that is building
your fellow man up, buildingyour colleague up, building your
team up, because you know andagain you've been in our room
you've seen our quotes, andanother one of our big quotes is
the essence of leadership is toplant trees under whose shade
you may never sit.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Might be my favorite one.
You say that and every time yousay that it just stops me in my
tracks.
That is so true.
I mean, if you're a senior or ajunior and you're watching this
, so true.
I mean, if you're a senior or ajunior and you're watching this
I hope you're looking at thefreshmen today going.
Who's that leader in thatfreshman and sophomore class?
I think you should go.
(29:06):
I want to be a mentor to thatfreshman and I want to stay up
with that freshman, because whenyou're a senior in college,
that freshman is just going tobegin college and what a gift
you will leave your fellowstudents by helping those come
up right behind you.
(29:26):
That's some powerful stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
That's absolutely right.
By the way, I hope everybodyheard exactly what.
Jackie just said because that isexactly it, right there, and
that is.
You know, that's the beauty oflife.
By the way, people ask me allthe time.
They say, erin, why do you dowhat you do?
And I said well, if you've evermet Hattie or you ever met Liam
, my grandson or mygranddaughter, you'll know why.
(29:50):
Because the statistics.
I've read these statistics, bythe way.
They're some of the mostincredible statistics I've ever
read.
I don't know if you've everread the statistics on dying,
but they're very impressive.
One out of every one of us arenot going to make it out of here
.
So when we know that and it'snot necessarily a pleasant topic
(30:10):
, but the point is this If weknow that who's going to take
care of our families when we'regone, right, who's going to be
our leaders when we're gone?
Who's going to run ourcompanies when we're gone, and
with that becomes thisresponsibility of stewardship.
And if we can learn thatstewardship at a young age, to
(30:34):
learn that none of us is asstrong as all of us, to learn
that if we'll just take onmentoring our fellow man,
helping somebody up that needs ahand up maybe not a handout A
word of encouragement that couldchange something.
Another one that Tom Zieglertold me was he asked his dad one
(30:55):
time, or his dad asked him.
He said Tom, how do you know ifsomeone needs encouraging?
And Tom said well, I don't know.
And Zig looked at him and saidif they're breathing, they need
encouragement.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Amen At any level.
By the way, at any level.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's what I'm saying.
So, when you think about whatyou just shared, jackie, about
this pouring into others,mentoring take Jackie about this
pouring into others, mentoringYou're really transitioning me
into what I wanted to ask younext, but what you're doing is
you're being intentional aboutthe legacy that you're trying to
live.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And anyway.
So let's jump into that justfor a minute here.
Jackie, you gave us some greattips here already, but I'm going
to challenge you to do one more.
Okay, Talk about leadership,leadership skills.
Give me some leadership skills.
If you were, if you could talkto every high school kid in
America right now aboutleadership, what would you tell
(31:58):
them are three leadership skillsthat you've seen work?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
them are three leadership skills that you've
seen work Well.
First of all well, number onefor me is empathy.
You must have empathy for yourfellow mankind.
I mean, and notice, empathydoesn't have anything to do with
skill level.
I'm not asking you to be arocket science in any department
, I'm just asking you to haveempathy for your fellow mankind.
That's number one.
(32:25):
Second leadership skill youhave to lead by doing.
In other words, you can't talkthe talk and not act the act.
You have to be someone thatpeople see.
My two of my favorite words gritand grind, because that's what
my dad taught us.
(32:45):
If you want people to respectyou and if you want to be a
leader, you got to do the action, and that is getting down deep
and rolling up your sleeves andgetting to work.
And I don't care what it is.
You got to roll up your sleevesand get to work and show that
grit and grind your sleeves andget to work and show that grit
and grind.
And then the next one forleadership I think would be is
(33:06):
you yourself should never, ever,ever stop learning, ever stop
learning.
You too have to aspire.
Even at my age, I want to learnsomething every single day.
I want to share one quick thingwith you.
Yesterday I was at with mymother at a heart surgeon
(33:27):
appointment.
No one gets to see the top dogheart surgeon and if you do,
you're only going to see him forfive minutes.
Yesterday I had that fiveminutes with my mother from her
heart surgery with this stellar,amazing, high reputation heart
surgeon.
With this stellar, amazing,high reputation heart surgeon.
And my mother said could youtell me exactly what happened?
(33:49):
He turns over that piece ofpaper.
Students and teachers.
He turns that piece of paperover.
He spends 10 minutes drawing onthe back of a piece of paper
and walking my 82 year oldmother on exactly what he did to
her and what happened.
Now I'm taking all of this inand he's got eye contact with
(34:12):
her and he's down on her levelright across and explaining it
to her.
Now, to make a long story short,where this goes to on this, I
looked at him and I said thevalue, the value of empathy, the
value of slowing down yourworld to care about this
(34:33):
82-year-old woman, to say I hearyou, I hear you and I hear
today you need to visit with meand I'm going to give you
everything I got.
So that five minutes turnedinto 20.
When I shook that man, I said Ican't thank you enough when we
left that office, so I want youto turn that around.
(34:56):
So when that freshman comes upto you, or that sophomore, or
even that person that's having abad day right next to you, stop
, breathe, listen and giveempathy.
That alone is one of thehighest leadership skills I
think you could ever give tomankind, and that's what he did
(35:22):
that is so, so inspiring, jackie, that's just powerful.
Well, I thought about him allnight driving home from the
Metroplex and this morning going.
I hope God blesses that heartsurgeon today.
I hope whoever taught him tohave compassion and empathy for
his patients, because that's notalways the case.
(35:42):
Did he save her life?
Yes.
Did he do his job?
Yes.
Did he even have to tell herall of that?
No, but he did.
He did so.
Just be empathetic for yourfellow mankind and know when you
think people aren't looking atyou, they're looking at you.
They are.
People aren't looking at you,they're looking at you.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
They are.
I just all you're doing isreiterating for me.
I just I'm sitting herelistening to this and I always
tell, I think about things thatwe share with the kids, jackie,
and what, and adults too.
What we don't realize about ourtestimonies, what we don't
realize about our testimonies,what we don't realize about our
(36:26):
stories, is that our stories maynot be being created for a
stage, they may not be createdfor an audience.
The stories that we have andthe testimonies that we have,
god may have given us for thatone person that may cross our
paths one day, and at thatmoment we share that story and
(36:47):
we share that testimony for thatone person.
And maybe that one person wasthe one that's going to take the
stage.
Maybe that one person's the onethat's going to have an audience
or a constituency, but we'vebeen given something for a
reason and when we are willingto share that with this, like
(37:09):
you said, the spirit of corevalues and empathy what an
incredible seed of greatnessthat is when we talk about
planting seeds.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah, and just when you think you admire people and
you think their lives have to bejust so perfect, everything in
their life is perfect, well, a,that's not correct.
And B, everyone, everyone hastrials to get over and mountains
to climb and stories to tellabout how they made it over
(37:44):
those mountains.
So just know, ask, be bold.
Be bold to ask for the story ofthe people you admire.
Be bold, because you deserve tohear those stories.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I love it and I love what she just said.
She said ask it's okay.
Ask.
You're going to find that mostpeople, if you'll ask, they want
to share.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
They just need somebody to ask them, because
they don't always want to tellit.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow, jackie, time flies when you're having fun.
My goodness covered a lot ofground and you gave us some
incredible, incredible giftstoday Seeds of strategy, of
telling stories, of leadership,of living your brand.
You know, everybody that knowsme on social media knows that's
(38:32):
my handle live your brand.
Live your brand, because livingyour brand is telling your
story.
And, jackie, you gave us somesignificant tools to do that
even better.
So, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Well, thank you for the invite.
I loved the time.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Well, you're not done yet, so every guest gets one
fun question.
So here we go.
Your fun question, jackie Hager, tell us what's the best
concert you've ever been to.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, it would have to be.
I'll go back and tell my age.
It would have to be RonnieMillsap.
I go all the way back.
That was my very first concert.
Now, listen, I go from RonnieMillsap to Rihanna and 2 Chainz,
so you can see the wide variety.
But I'm a country girl at heartand I think country music tells
(39:26):
stories better than no other.
And while I'm a George Straitfan and you know all of those
guys, I will say Ronnie Millsapwas my favorite because he was
so relatable on that stage.
He also walked the aisles atMemorial Auditorium, walked down
the step, walked up the aisles,so I felt like I was the only
(39:50):
person at that concert he wassinging to.
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But, however, I will tell you, I was up dancing to
Rihanna and 2 Chainz too tellyou I was up dancing to Rihanna
and 2 Chainz too.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, I'm like you.
By the way, I do love RonnieMillsap and I think his story
and his performances areincredible.
The way that he'll walk to theedge of a stage and the crowd is
just enthralled.
He knows his awareness and yethis entertainer status is
unquestionable.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
However, I will tell you, there's nothing like a
stool and a guy and a guitar.
Three things a stool, a guy anda guitar.
And that was Eric Clapton.
So I left that concert quitemoved because he had a stool, a
guitar and himself period,amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Okay, so all guests get the fun question, but Jackie
, you've got something.
That's just prompting me to askone last question before we
hang up.
It may be absolutely nothing,but I'm going to ask what's up
with the slinky?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Oh well, how many of you played with this when you
were a kid?
So I challenged my I challenge,even my grandkids have this I
challenged my staff to freshenup our brand about eight months
ago and they hit a brick wall.
They hit a brick wall and I wasfrustrated, erin.
I was frustrated, we justcouldn't get there.
(41:21):
And so they trapped me in myroom and they go how do you see
this new Hager tweaking of abrand?
I go it's got to have movementand it's got to have stretch.
And then I remembered, two yearsago, in the closet in my office
, I bought, off of a whim, myvery favorite childhood toy,
(41:44):
which was an authentic slinky.
So I ran to the office, grabbedthat slinky, came back to the
office and I go this is yourinspiration, I want to stretch,
I want us to be bendable.
So now there is a slinky onevery desk.
It's also our business card.
When you come visit us, you geta slinky.
(42:04):
And so do you know how much Ilisten to this noise.
That's my sound of everyoneloving what they do every day
creatively.
And we all play with the slinkyall day long.
And that's this.
It was my favorite childhoodtoy.
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Love it, love it, yep , okay.
So what we need to do here,jackie, we need to figure out a
way so that slinky sales willhave a royalty to the Texas FFA
foundation, so we can anywaynext time you have to go and you
have to speak in front of acrowd, bring a slinky, because
they will look at that and go.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
no, what does that really mean?
What does this slinky mean toyou?
Did you know that the historyof the slinky was by accident,
how it was created?
And did you know that in theslinky original uh verbiage and
their mantra was the wordwonderful, wonderful.
So now the word wonderful is inour mantra.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
There you go, love it , love it, jackie.
Thanks again To everybody thatstopped by today to hear the
podcast again, thank you.
Thank you for sharing some ofyour time with us and you know
we're just thankful for thisincredible platform time with us
.
And you know we're justthankful for this incredible
platform, this technology thatallows us to bring incredible
guests on, like Jackie, and justshare, share words of
(43:31):
encouragement, seeds ofgreatness that maybe, if planted
, makes our homes, ourcommunities, our state and
country a better place to liveand raise our families.
So, thanks again for stopping by.
Until we meet again, go out anddo something nice for somebody
else.
You're going to feel good aboutit and guess what?
We're going to grow a betterfuture because of it.
(43:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode 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.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
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 in tothe Growing Our Future podcast,
hey, listen, first thing, wewant to say thank you for
stopping by.
You know, time's the only thingthat we get to spend.
We can't save it.
So the fact that you'respending a little time with us,
we want you to know that weappreciate it.
(00:50):
We also appreciate a podcastwhere we get to bring on these
incredible guests, people thatare willing to share their
insights, their experiences,their expertise.
And, like we always say in theworld of agriculture, the one
thing we've learned is if youwant to know what the future is,
grow it.
Well, how do you grow a future?
(01:10):
You grow a future by plantingthe right seeds.
You grow a future and a betterlife by planting the right
information and then nurturingit and growing it.
Today we have another specialguest.
She is no stranger to the FFA.
She's been part of our journeyand we're honored to have the
owner of Hager Communications,jackie Hager.
(01:32):
Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor and a privilegeto be here.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We're excited about having you and we're going to
pick your brain.
We want to get some wisdom fromyou so that we can plant seeds
of greatness in the minds of ourstudents and our teachers and
the stakeholders that'll bewatching this podcast.
Jackie, we like to start everypodcast off.
Every guest gets the same firstquestion and I always like to
(02:02):
start with the question what areyou grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Ah, today.
Well, I'm grateful that I wokeup on a farm and as I was making
my coffee, I can see thesunrise.
And when I get out to go to myvehicle, I can smell that farm
life.
I think you know where I'mgoing to and that is an
incredible, sweet, amazing smellto me.
(02:30):
So I'm grateful that I get towake up on a farm before I drive
into work every day, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Jackie, that is so good.
I wished I could tell you thatI get that experience of waking
up on a farm, because there issomething special about that.
I can't tell you how manyfriends I've had that have had
professional careers that haveafforded them the opportunity to
buy a small plot of land andthey say there's nothing better
(02:59):
than that fresh air in themorning and a cup of coffee and
watching the world wake up,watching nature wake up.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I can hear the cows.
I can hear the cows.
I can hear the milk stanchionsgoing.
I can hear all the farmersdriving by feeding.
That's the sound I want to wakeup to every morning.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I'm with you.
The fact that we get to haveanother day to pour into other
people, something to be gratefulfor Amen Amen.
All right, jackie Hager.
So let me give everybody alittle background.
So I was familiar with Jackie,I was familiar with her company
(03:42):
and we we've been involved withan organization called Live Like
Johnny, and Johnny Cowan was aFord leadership scholar and he
was tragically lost in anautomobile accident.
And as we began trying to tellJohnny's story, we came across
and I was on the board of LiveLike Johnny and we came across
(04:04):
Hager Communications.
I knew Jackie and we watchedthem tell Johnny's story and it
really got our attention and wesaid there's something here.
And so one of my board membersand a couple of other people
said Aaron, we really need to doa documentary about the Texas
FFA Foundation.
And I really had never thoughtof it and I, you know I
(04:27):
struggled with it.
I mean, I really wondered isthat really the direction we
should go?
And yet there were so manysigns that kept pointing to the
positive of why we needed to doit, why we should go ahead and
go down this path, and we did.
And so if you go to the myTexas FFA website, as soon as
you get there it says watch thefilm.
All you do is click on the filmand you will see our Emmy
(04:51):
nominated documentary about theTexas FFA Foundation.
So that's how I got to have thisprofessional relationship and
working with Jackie and hercompany.
But, jackie, I want to dive alittle bit deeper than that and
I'd like to go back a little bitin time, if you will.
Something tells me you know, Isee all of these awards behind
(05:16):
you.
Something tells me you did notjust fall into that chair.
Something tells me that thereis a story, there is a journey,
there is a pathway that led youinto that role, into this
company that you now own andoperate Agri Communications.
Jackie, take us through thatjourney.
What did it look like to takeover and create this dream of
(05:40):
yours?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well, first of all, I'm a dairy farmer's daughter
and a dairy farmer's wife and myoldest son runs a beef cattle
operation of about 6,000 up to20,000 cattle, depending on the
year, and my youngest son and myhusband run the current dairy
farm.
So that's where it all begins,honestly, erin, because we were
(06:07):
born and raised to get up andwork on the farm and I really
think our work ethic for allfive of us kids came from that.
I have a very disciplinedfather and a very aggressive,
goal-oriented father and hereally brought that down to us.
And then we went to a smallschool that was very big and FFA
(06:27):
and 4-H.
I grew up more in the 4-H world, but I had friends and I
watched them grow up in the FFAworld and I think it goes back
to failure is not an option.
In fact, my dad would alwayslean on that sentence You'll
fail your way to success.
Failure is not a bad thing.
It makes you smarter, it makesyou bolder, it makes you bigger,
(06:50):
and so every time we would failat something he was so good at
sitting us down, going all right.
What is the teachable moment ofthis?
And there's a reason that thishappened to you, and how can we
keep that?
And I take that very same thingtoday to this agency because I
graduated here in Wichita Fallsat MSU and then I owned a dress
(07:14):
boutique for 26 years andmarketing that dress boutique
was my sweet spot.
So when I got the opportunityto sell it, I had no idea what
God had planned for me and myphone blew up.
After that sale.
All of my customers said comemarket my business like you
(07:35):
marketed that store.
So that started with me, withone person, and today there are
25 Team Hager employees.
We have clients in 23 statesand while we do everything from
marketing website, social, Ithink one of our favorite things
(07:58):
is storytelling.
That's our favorite thing, andso we spend a lot of time in the
video world storytelling.
So that's the quick 101 of howI got to this chair, and I
wouldn't change it for anything.
Not one thing would I change.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I can only imagine , Jackie.
I know how much I enjoy doingpodcasts because it gives me
this chance to get to know somany special people.
I met so many incredible peopleand so I can only imagine what
it's like to be in your seat andhave the chance to really dive
into somebody's story and sharethat story on such a dynamic
(08:42):
platform and share that story onsuch a dynamic platform.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
No kidding, we were just talking about this weekend.
We're going to go pick up somemore hardware on some
documentaries.
In fact, we're going to pick upsome hardware on our first
international documentary.
We shot it in Geneva,switzerland, in June, and we're
going to bring something homefor that.
(09:05):
Everybody's got a story.
First of that.
Everybody's got a story.
First of all, everybody's got astory and some people struggle
with.
I don't know how to tell my ownstory.
Well, I always say sometimeswe're inside our own tornado and
we can't really see the clarity.
And sometimes I think that'sthe gift we bring to the story
teller.
You know we're on the outside,looking in, taking a deep breath
(09:29):
and just listening, and then wenavigate them to get to the
sweet spot.
So many times they think Idon't know what this end result
is going to look like.
But when we show them the finalproduct, once we've all done our
due diligent hard work oftelling your story and listen,
(09:50):
the thing about storytelling issome of the smallest, simplest
stories are the most powerfulstories.
So I'm always on the lookoutfor a story.
Sometimes people don't knowthey have a story until I feel
it, sense it, and then I givethem a call and go, let's go to
(10:14):
coffee.
And I sit down with them and go.
You have no idea of thepowerful story that you own.
That needs to be told.
So many of our documentariescome out of that format.
So we have 25 amazing talentedpeople but it takes all of us to
(10:36):
get to the final product.
Does that make sense?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, I think, too, the genius of that that you just
shared.
And as we do these podcasts,jackie, one of the things that
I'm always looking for areelements along somebody's
journey that, if you'll listen,there's something that's
scalable there and somethingthat you just shared with us.
I think is one of those momentsthat I hope people heard.
(11:03):
Jackie sits down with peopleand they talk about this
incredible story, but then whatdoes Jackie do?
She brings other team membersin, and what's interesting is
they start seeing that storyfrom maybe a little bit
different perspective, and bybringing all of those
perspectives together, the scopeof that story and the
(11:23):
brilliance of that story becomesever clearer, and so it's the
old adage that none of us is asstrong as all of us.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh, like that, just gave me goosebumps.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And so that's what's really interesting.
When you shared that, Jackie isnot only are you proud and
there's nothing wrong with that,by the way, I always tell
people when you're proud ofsomething, you want to share it.
We talk about our favoriterestaurants, we talk about
movies we like, we talk aboutbooks, so what's wrong with that
?
So when Jackie talks about,she's proud of the hardware and
the success of her company,that's a good thing, especially
(11:56):
when you listen to thebackground there.
It's the story behind thestorytelling, if you will.
It's the fact that she bringsthese great team members
together to help articulate thatstory.
That is no different thananybody that's listening to this
podcast.
You know, Jackie, one of thethings that we tell the kids all
(12:16):
the time.
Or I like to talk to the FFAkids and I tell them.
I said, tell me about yourbusiness.
And they always tell me.
They said, Mr Alejandro, Idon't havea business.
I said, yeah, you do, You're it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You're it right, here Everybody is.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Do you get up on time ?
What time do you open?
What kind of customer servicedo you deliver?
Do you know your material?
I mean, think about it.
We are our own business and so,to your point, jackie, we all
have an obligation to make surethat the story that we tell
about our business is one that'sgenuine, that it's authentic,
that it's grounded in good corevalues, and I think that all of
(12:56):
those things are elements ofyour success.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, I teach at the local university.
I'm in my 14th year of teachingthe final marketing class, and
we always start on day one and Itell these there may be 30
students sitting in there and Igo.
If you could crawl into themind of the student next to you,
can you imagine the story thatyou could tell?
Because you're a brand startingjunior high high school.
(13:23):
If you're a student listeningto this, you're a brand starting
junior high high school.
If you're a student listeningto this, you're a brand.
If you're a teacher listening tothis, you're a brand and
everybody's got a story.
And so when I teach thesecollege students that your brand
begins the day you go out inpublic and you start engaging
(13:45):
with the world, that's grand andit's ever changing and it's
ever exciting and you're.
The best thing you can do foryourself is not only tell your
story, but try to tell the storyof the guy or the girl sitting
next to you, because they havejust as powerful of a story and
together it's even better.
(14:07):
And that's what we do at Hagerevery day.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
All day, we tell stories you know, one of the
great motivators who's one of mymentors, by the way was a guy
named Zig Ziglar, and Zig's son,Tom Ziglar, actually is on our
foundation board of directors,and so Tom and I talk a lot
about these topics.
But you know one of the famousZiglar quotes.
(14:31):
As he said, if you help enoughother people, get what they want
, you'll get what you want.
Yep, and you know, testimoniesare powerful.
I've always been taught thatthere's two things in the world
you can't argue with, and that'ssomebody's testimony in the
Bible, Because you can neverlook at somebody, and I can
never look at Jackie and say,Jackie, that didn't happen to
(14:51):
you.
That would be ridiculous for meto tell Jackie that that story
that she just told didn't happento her.
And so to your point, Jackie,when we can harvest and harness
the power of a testimony, yes,that is so true.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know, we just finished two documentaries, two
totally different documentaries,both powerful.
Let me give you the subjectlines of both of these.
Documentary A about glass,glass.
Is there anything fun, crazy orover the top about glass?
Now I'm talking about the glassin high-rise buildings glass.
(15:29):
But oh my, it's not about theglass.
It's about the people thatmanufacture the glass and the
family that they bond inside thefactory and how they do it and
how then they drive down andthey see their glass.
(15:49):
That's the story we justfinished.
It, too, is going to bring somehardware and it went all the
way to the top to vitro and theCEO of vitro goes.
Now that's how we tell what wedo.
That's documentary A.
Documentary B we just releasedA young girl, an addict,
alcoholic, on drugs, living onthe streets in New York City, in
(16:14):
Manhattan, had a dream, butcouldn't get out of her own
world, of trying to beat heraddiction.
Took four times.
She beats her addiction one,baby step at a time, through a
lot of tough love.
Today she just opened her thirdbakery in Manhattan and she's
(16:38):
thriving, and I got to tell herstory.
We at Hager got to tell herstory.
It will give you goosebumps.
We're going to release it tothe public here in a week and I
can't wait for you and everystudent and teacher to see it,
because going from addiction,drug addiction, to glass on a
(17:00):
building, both helpful, bothgut-wrenching, both amazing
stories, because it wasn't aboutthe glass, it was about the
person making the glass.
It wasn't about the addiction.
It was the heart of this younggirl that a bakery believed in
(17:20):
her to begin.
Just let me clean your bakeryat night, when your bakery is
closed, to prep you for the nextday.
Wow, that's the story.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's how she started.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
That's how she started.
It's amazing, wow, so exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You reminded me of a man downtown that we've lost him
, but Ben Valadez.
He used to run Green'sFurniture.
He used to own Green's Furniturethere you talk about a story,
and his story started bysweeping the floors free of
charge for Mr Green.
So when you said that, it'sjust like, wow, yeah, jackie,
(18:01):
you know.
I'd like to dive into this alittle bit deeper here, because
you've said something that andyou're actually going where I
hoped you would go, and that isthis.
We've got an incredible brand.
The Texas FFA has been aroundfor 96 years.
We have a proven track recordthat our kids statistically
outperform their peers, theircompetitors.
(18:24):
They've got access toscholarships, they go to college
at a higher rate, theygraduated a higher rate.
They have fewer incidentreports in school.
We've got all this incredibledata but at the end of the day,
that's the data at 30,000 footview.
The reality is that data isactually contained in those
(18:44):
170,000 plus FFA members at thelocal level, all of which, as
you said, have a story.
So let's unpack this a littlebit.
If you could give some tips tokids on how to tell your story,
do these three things to tellyour story.
Do these three things for yourchapter to tell your local
(19:07):
chapter FFA story.
What would those be?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh, what a great question.
I would start by saying take abrand new, fresh notebook and a
fresh pen or pencil and sit insilence and start by answering
the first question who are youwhen you are going to describe
yourself?
How would you describe yourself?
(19:35):
That's question number one.
And really take some time todive into that Number two.
Who impacted you as a person asof today?
It could be a teacher, it couldbe a parent, neighbor, cousin,
brother, sister, aunt, uncle,could be more than one person.
And then talk about that person.
(19:56):
What value did that person giveyou in your life?
What value?
Because what you're going tonarrow down to are what are your
personal core values, what isimportant to you?
And then the third thing Iwould say is talk about the
(20:17):
company.
You keep the friends.
You keep the church friends.
You keep the students.
Talk about the company that youkeep, because we all know we
are who we run with.
And talk about those people.
What value do they bring to youevery day, those people?
(20:40):
What value do they bring to youevery day?
And then I would encourage youto go into a fourth question and
say where do I want to be injust three years?
I'm not asking about 20 years,just three years from now, where
do you want to be and what doeslife look like for you and what
do you think you have to do?
And then, where does your faithtake you?
(21:01):
Because, end of the day,something moves you inside.
Is it a book?
Is it your faith?
Is it your grandpa?
You know, for me it was my dad.
You know, my dad used to comein there going on Saturday
mornings with all my friends whodidn't live on dairies, could
sleep in and relax over theweekend.
(21:21):
My dad was like by 7 am, get up.
I've already put in a half aday's work.
Get your you know what out ofthat bed.
And, oh my gosh, I had no ideathe training.
All I could sense wasfrustration.
Can you just let me sleep late?
I'm a teenager and every Sundayafternoon when friends were
(21:43):
having pizza parties at twoo'clock, we were pinning the
cows to milk the cows and feedthe baby calves.
No one wants to do that on aSunday afternoon when you could
go hang out with your friendswhen you're 15, 16, and 17 years
old.
But I knew today man wasprepping me for the future,
because chance favors those inmotion.
(22:06):
I want to say that one moretime Chance favors those in
motion, and my father believedin speed, innovation and speed.
Get up and go and it all boilsdown to.
You can answer those four orfive things.
You've already started thejourney of telling your story.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Wow, that is powerful .
There we go.
There's those seeds ofgreatness I was talking about.
They're right there.
I love it, by the way, andyou've been around some of our
programs, jackie.
You've seen our ambassador roomand you've seen some of the
leadership training that we do,and that's one of the things
that we like to instill in thekid.
We all the kids.
(22:50):
We always say that when yourvalues are clear, your choices
are easy amen so, to your point,we've got to really find what
is that value structure?
What is it that we reallybelieve?
Because that's what becomes ourauthentic self to the public.
So you've really got to findthat value system internally,
because it will manifest itselfin everything else that you do,
(23:13):
and so you talked about that,which was absolutely great.
I love what you talked about,the company that you keep.
I can't tell you how manyguests we've had that have said
similar things all the way downto show me your friends and I'll
show you your future.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Amen, that is so true , Just that simple.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And the thing that I another one that I really liked
here, Jackie, that you said andI hope that the kids heard this.
Another one that I really likedhere, Jackie, that you said and
I hope that the kids heard thisIn it too.
You know we're not going todive into it, but I'm going to
tell you it's biblical, but yousaid it, and that is this the
Bible says where there is novision, the people will perish.
You have to have a vision, andit reminds me of the movie Alice
(23:55):
in Wonderland, when she came tothe fork in the road, if you
recall the scene in the movie,and there was the Cheshire Cat
yes, there's the fork.
And she said, well, which waydo I go?
And the cat said, well, wheredo you want to go?
And she said, well, I'm notreally sure.
And he said, well then, anyroad will take you there, and so
we can either be in charge ofour destiny or we can just react
(24:18):
to somebody else's destiny.
So I loved your comment aboutlook at where do you want to be
in three years.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Where do you want to be?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Which road are you going to take?
Because you know that's theroad you need to take to get to
where you want to be.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Amen.
And there's nothing wrong withhaving short-term goals, because
you know things could change inyour life in three years.
And there's nothing wrong withpivoting and adjusting.
I mean, isn't every day don'twe pivot our day?
What we think we're going to dothat day doesn't always work
out that way.
You have to learn to pivot.
And here's another thing whenyou sit down, just like today,
(24:57):
sometimes it's a gift.
I don't want to be the smartestperson in the room.
I don't, because my teammembers sometimes it's my intern
in a meeting that will blurbout something and we all spin
our heads and go there's ouranswer.
There's our answer becauseeverybody brings value to the
(25:19):
table.
So I love not being thesmartest person in the room.
I worry about who's going totake my place and am I prepping
for who's going to take my place?
Because I don't know whereGod's going to send me in the
next five or 10 years.
So if I'm not constantlyreplacing me, then I'm not
(25:41):
setting this company up forsuccess either.
So so many.
And let me tell you something.
Just because we have all thishardware, if you're a student
and you see that hardware, letme tell you about the grit and
the grind that took us to getthere.
If you think getting to the topis hard, let me just tell you,
(26:04):
staying there is 10 times ashard, aaron, we make mistakes
still every day in this office,every day, and we have to stop
and look at that teachablemoment and decide do we freeze?
Oh my God, we made a majormistake.
(26:24):
Do we freeze, do we flight?
Do we just abandon the projector do we fight to fix it?
So that's, you can freeze, youcan flight, you can fight or you
can fix it.
And I'm telling you, if youthink, a company that is 18 plus
(26:45):
years with this much hardwarehas it easy.
No, ma'am, no sir, no, ma'am,no sir.
It listen, tears are shed everymonth in this office because
something didn't go perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm just saying that's good stuff right there.
I mean, there's so much there,jackie.
Number one success begetssuccess.
There's no question that if wecan teach a kid to be a success,
they can model that into othersuccesses in their lives.
So success begets success.
(27:19):
And the other one that youshared there that I just thought
was really good is that, forteachers that are listening, I
can't tell you how many teachersI know that were really good at
teaching, but where theymight've dropped the ball a
little bit was they never didsuccession planning.
They never thought about who'sgoing to take their role one day
(27:41):
and keep that chapter at thetop of their game and who's
going to craft that.
You know I want to be state FFApresident, but my job is to
make sure that the next statepresident's right behind me.
It's that responsibility ofstewardship and it's right
behind me.
It's that responsibility ofstewardship.
And it's that responsibility,as you said, succession planning
(28:02):
.
And you know thinking about whowill fill their shoes.
And you know, tom Ziegler andZiegler, they talk about that
and they say we're all going toleave a legacy.
Everybody's going to leave alegacy.
You're either going to leave itby design or by default, and so
the key is to leave a legacy bydesign.
By design yes, and what comeswith that design, jackie?
(28:24):
It's everything that you'vejust shared and that is building
your fellow man up, buildingyour colleague up, building your
team up, because you know andagain you've been in our room
you've seen our quotes, andanother one of our big quotes is
the essence of leadership is toplant trees under whose shade
you may never sit.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Might be my favorite one.
You say that and every time yousay that it just stops me in my
tracks.
That is so true.
I mean, if you're a senior or ajunior and you're watching this
, so true.
I mean, if you're a senior or ajunior and you're watching this
I hope you're looking at thefreshmen today going.
Who's that leader in thatfreshman and sophomore class?
I think you should go.
(29:06):
I want to be a mentor to thatfreshman and I want to stay up
with that freshman, because whenyou're a senior in college,
that freshman is just going tobegin college and what a gift
you will leave your fellowstudents by helping those come
up right behind you.
(29:26):
That's some powerful stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
That's absolutely right.
By the way, I hope everybodyheard exactly what.
Jackie just said because that isexactly it, right there, and
that is.
You know, that's the beauty oflife.
By the way, people ask me allthe time.
They say, erin, why do you dowhat you do?
And I said well, if you've evermet Hattie or you ever met Liam
, my grandson or mygranddaughter, you'll know why.
(29:50):
Because the statistics.
I've read these statistics, bythe way.
They're some of the mostincredible statistics I've ever
read.
I don't know if you've everread the statistics on dying,
but they're very impressive.
One out of every one of us arenot going to make it out of here
.
So when we know that and it'snot necessarily a pleasant topic
(30:10):
, but the point is this If weknow that who's going to take
care of our families when we'regone, right, who's going to be
our leaders when we're gone?
Who's going to run ourcompanies when we're gone, and
with that becomes thisresponsibility of stewardship.
And if we can learn thatstewardship at a young age, to
(30:34):
learn that none of us is asstrong as all of us, to learn
that if we'll just take onmentoring our fellow man,
helping somebody up that needs ahand up maybe not a handout A
word of encouragement that couldchange something.
Another one that Tom Zieglertold me was he asked his dad one
(30:55):
time, or his dad asked him.
He said Tom, how do you know ifsomeone needs encouraging?
And Tom said well, I don't know.
And Zig looked at him and saidif they're breathing, they need
encouragement.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Amen At any level.
By the way, at any level.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's what I'm saying.
So, when you think about whatyou just shared, jackie, about
this pouring into others,mentoring take Jackie about this
pouring into others, mentoringYou're really transitioning me
into what I wanted to ask younext, but what you're doing is
you're being intentional aboutthe legacy that you're trying to
live.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And anyway.
So let's jump into that justfor a minute here.
Jackie, you gave us some greattips here already, but I'm going
to challenge you to do one more.
Okay, Talk about leadership,leadership skills.
Give me some leadership skills.
If you were, if you could talkto every high school kid in
America right now aboutleadership, what would you tell
(31:58):
them are three leadership skillsthat you've seen work?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
them are three leadership skills that you've
seen work Well.
First of all well, number onefor me is empathy.
You must have empathy for yourfellow mankind.
I mean, and notice, empathydoesn't have anything to do with
skill level.
I'm not asking you to be arocket science in any department
, I'm just asking you to haveempathy for your fellow mankind.
That's number one.
(32:25):
Second leadership skill youhave to lead by doing.
In other words, you can't talkthe talk and not act the act.
You have to be someone thatpeople see.
My two of my favorite words gritand grind, because that's what
my dad taught us.
(32:45):
If you want people to respectyou and if you want to be a
leader, you got to do the action, and that is getting down deep
and rolling up your sleeves andgetting to work.
And I don't care what it is.
You got to roll up your sleevesand get to work and show that
grit and grind your sleeves andget to work and show that grit
and grind.
And then the next one forleadership I think would be is
(33:06):
you yourself should never, ever,ever stop learning, ever stop
learning.
You too have to aspire.
Even at my age, I want to learnsomething every single day.
I want to share one quick thingwith you.
Yesterday I was at with mymother at a heart surgeon
(33:27):
appointment.
No one gets to see the top dogheart surgeon and if you do,
you're only going to see him forfive minutes.
Yesterday I had that fiveminutes with my mother from her
heart surgery with this stellar,amazing, high reputation heart
surgeon.
With this stellar, amazing,high reputation heart surgeon.
And my mother said could youtell me exactly what happened?
(33:49):
He turns over that piece ofpaper.
Students and teachers.
He turns that piece of paperover.
He spends 10 minutes drawing onthe back of a piece of paper
and walking my 82 year oldmother on exactly what he did to
her and what happened.
Now I'm taking all of this inand he's got eye contact with
(34:12):
her and he's down on her levelright across and explaining it
to her.
Now, to make a long story short,where this goes to on this, I
looked at him and I said thevalue, the value of empathy, the
value of slowing down yourworld to care about this
(34:33):
82-year-old woman, to say I hearyou, I hear you and I hear
today you need to visit with meand I'm going to give you
everything I got.
So that five minutes turnedinto 20.
When I shook that man, I said Ican't thank you enough when we
left that office, so I want youto turn that around.
(34:56):
So when that freshman comes upto you, or that sophomore, or
even that person that's having abad day right next to you, stop
, breathe, listen and giveempathy.
That alone is one of thehighest leadership skills I
think you could ever give tomankind, and that's what he did
(35:22):
that is so, so inspiring, jackie, that's just powerful.
Well, I thought about him allnight driving home from the
Metroplex and this morning going.
I hope God blesses that heartsurgeon today.
I hope whoever taught him tohave compassion and empathy for
his patients, because that's notalways the case.
(35:42):
Did he save her life?
Yes.
Did he do his job?
Yes.
Did he even have to tell herall of that?
No, but he did.
He did so.
Just be empathetic for yourfellow mankind and know when you
think people aren't looking atyou, they're looking at you.
They are.
People aren't looking at you,they're looking at you.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
They are.
I just all you're doing isreiterating for me.
I just I'm sitting herelistening to this and I always
tell, I think about things thatwe share with the kids, jackie,
and what, and adults too.
What we don't realize about ourtestimonies, what we don't
realize about our testimonies,what we don't realize about our
(36:26):
stories, is that our stories maynot be being created for a
stage, they may not be createdfor an audience.
The stories that we have andthe testimonies that we have,
god may have given us for thatone person that may cross our
paths one day, and at thatmoment we share that story and
(36:47):
we share that testimony for thatone person.
And maybe that one person wasthe one that's going to take the
stage.
Maybe that one person's the onethat's going to have an audience
or a constituency, but we'vebeen given something for a
reason and when we are willingto share that with this, like
(37:09):
you said, the spirit of corevalues and empathy what an
incredible seed of greatnessthat is when we talk about
planting seeds.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah, and just when you think you admire people and
you think their lives have to bejust so perfect, everything in
their life is perfect, well, a,that's not correct.
And B, everyone, everyone hastrials to get over and mountains
to climb and stories to tellabout how they made it over
(37:44):
those mountains.
So just know, ask, be bold.
Be bold to ask for the story ofthe people you admire.
Be bold, because you deserve tohear those stories.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I love it and I love what she just said.
She said ask it's okay.
Ask.
You're going to find that mostpeople, if you'll ask, they want
to share.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
They just need somebody to ask them, because
they don't always want to tellit.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow, jackie, time flies when you're having fun.
My goodness covered a lot ofground and you gave us some
incredible, incredible giftstoday Seeds of strategy, of
telling stories, of leadership,of living your brand.
You know, everybody that knowsme on social media knows that's
(38:32):
my handle live your brand.
Live your brand, because livingyour brand is telling your
story.
And, jackie, you gave us somesignificant tools to do that
even better.
So, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Well, thank you for the invite.
I loved the time.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Well, you're not done yet, so every guest gets one
fun question.
So here we go.
Your fun question, jackie Hager, tell us what's the best
concert you've ever been to.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, it would have to be.
I'll go back and tell my age.
It would have to be RonnieMillsap.
I go all the way back.
That was my very first concert.
Now, listen, I go from RonnieMillsap to Rihanna and 2 Chainz,
so you can see the wide variety.
But I'm a country girl at heartand I think country music tells
(39:26):
stories better than no other.
And while I'm a George Straitfan and you know all of those
guys, I will say Ronnie Millsapwas my favorite because he was
so relatable on that stage.
He also walked the aisles atMemorial Auditorium, walked down
the step, walked up the aisles,so I felt like I was the only
(39:50):
person at that concert he wassinging to.
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But, however, I will tell you, I was up dancing to
Rihanna and 2 Chainz too tellyou I was up dancing to Rihanna
and 2 Chainz too.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, I'm like you.
By the way, I do love RonnieMillsap and I think his story
and his performances areincredible.
The way that he'll walk to theedge of a stage and the crowd is
just enthralled.
He knows his awareness and yethis entertainer status is
unquestionable.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
However, I will tell you, there's nothing like a
stool and a guy and a guitar.
Three things a stool, a guy anda guitar.
And that was Eric Clapton.
So I left that concert quitemoved because he had a stool, a
guitar and himself period,amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Okay, so all guests get the fun question, but Jackie
, you've got something.
That's just prompting me to askone last question before we
hang up.
It may be absolutely nothing,but I'm going to ask what's up
with the slinky?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Oh well, how many of you played with this when you
were a kid?
So I challenged my I challenge,even my grandkids have this I
challenged my staff to freshenup our brand about eight months
ago and they hit a brick wall.
They hit a brick wall and I wasfrustrated, erin.
I was frustrated, we justcouldn't get there.
(41:21):
And so they trapped me in myroom and they go how do you see
this new Hager tweaking of abrand?
I go it's got to have movementand it's got to have stretch.
And then I remembered, two yearsago, in the closet in my office
, I bought, off of a whim, myvery favorite childhood toy,
(41:44):
which was an authentic slinky.
So I ran to the office, grabbedthat slinky, came back to the
office and I go this is yourinspiration, I want to stretch,
I want us to be bendable.
So now there is a slinky onevery desk.
It's also our business card.
When you come visit us, you geta slinky.
(42:04):
And so do you know how much Ilisten to this noise.
That's my sound of everyoneloving what they do every day
creatively.
And we all play with the slinkyall day long.
And that's this.
It was my favorite childhoodtoy.
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Love it, love it, yep , okay.
So what we need to do here,jackie, we need to figure out a
way so that slinky sales willhave a royalty to the Texas FFA
foundation, so we can anywaynext time you have to go and you
have to speak in front of acrowd, bring a slinky, because
they will look at that and go.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
no, what does that really mean?
What does this slinky mean toyou?
Did you know that the historyof the slinky was by accident,
how it was created?
And did you know that in theslinky original uh verbiage and
their mantra was the wordwonderful, wonderful.
So now the word wonderful is inour mantra.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
There you go, love it , love it, jackie.
Thanks again To everybody thatstopped by today to hear the
podcast again, thank you.
Thank you for sharing some ofyour time with us and you know
we're just thankful for thisincredible platform time with us
.
And you know we're justthankful for this incredible
platform, this technology thatallows us to bring incredible
guests on, like Jackie, and justshare, share words of
(43:31):
encouragement, seeds ofgreatness that maybe, if planted
, makes our homes, ourcommunities, our state and
country a better place to liveand raise our families.
So, thanks again for stopping by.
Until we meet again, go out anddo something nice for somebody
else.
You're going to feel good aboutit and guess what?
We're going to grow a betterfuture because of it.
(43:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode 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.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!