March 14, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro sits down with Dr. Coach Nate Hearne, an esteemed coach, educator, and mentor. They discuss the power of mentorship, leadership, perseverance, and faith in shaping young lives. From his humble beginnings to coaching state championship teams, Coach Hearn shares powerful lessons on building a culture of excellence and standing firm in leadership.
Story Notes:
- Grateful for students and their potential to shape the future.
- Inspired by the educators who mentored him in his youth.
- The power of testimony: "We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us."
- Building a championship culture at Permian High School with an 88.9% winning percentage over 35 years
- Creating the "Mojo" phenomenon that unified an entire community around student excellence
- The importance of knowing yourself and loving what you do, not just being good at it
- Breaking an arrow and throwing it away to protect a good student, demonstrating values-based leadership
- Three essential leadership tips: "Listen, listen, listen"
- The power of creating environments where others can experience personal transformation
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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 in tothe Growing Our Future podcast,
we really appreciate youstopping by.
We enjoy this podcast becauseit's an opportunity for us to
find folks that are willing topour into others, to share their
time, talent, testimonies,experiences and, like we always
(00:51):
say, if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
Well, the way you growsomething is you got to plant
the right seeds.
Well, today's no differentfolks.
We have got an extraordinaryguest.
Well, today's no differentfolks, we have got an
extraordinary guest, and Icannot wait to get to their
seeds of greatness that I know,if we plant them in our lives,
(01:15):
we're going to grow somethingmighty, have a harvest and a
bounty we're sharing.
And so, ladies and gentlemen,it is an honor and you're going
to get to hear more about thisman here in a second, but it's
an honor to have Dr Coach NateHearn Coach thank you for
joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
My honor to be here and I love the way you talk
about seeds because, oh man,those seeds were poured into me
by some great people over theyears and many of them.
That's an eternal friendship.
It's, it's gonna last forever,I'll never forget them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I'm with you, trust me.
That's the power of testimony.
What you just said, that's thepower of testimony.
Uh, we stand on the shouldersof the people that went before
us and we're grateful for theseeds that people share, which
is why, coach, we're gratefulthat you're with us today, so
that you're going to get achance to share with the
audience of students, withadults, with sponsors, with
(02:14):
educators, and it goes around.
Amazing, coach, how many peoplearound the world watch this
podcast Blows me away.
So, just know that your wordshere are going to become seeds
of greatness.
I appreciate you taking time tojoin us.
I'm honored.
Here's the thing Every personthat comes on this show,
(02:34):
everybody gets the same firstquestion Coach, what are you
grateful for today?
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today to
know that our future is with ourstudents.
That's been my heart forever,to know that they're out there,
they want to learn, they want togrow, they want to make a great
nation and I'm honored to be apart of that, to know that we
(03:09):
can do this and it has an effectfor the future.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I'm going to agree with you.
You know, when Tom Ziegler bythe way folks, coach Nate and I
have a mutual friend and TomZiegler, the son of the late
great Zig Ziegler, and when Tomand I first started talking,
coach, we were talking he said,well, tell me what you do.
And I said I'm in the futurebusiness.
And he said what do you mean?
(03:36):
I said I'm in the kid business,and if you're in the kid
business, you're in the futurebusiness.
And so I appreciate what yousaid because it's an honor I
know you're grateful for that.
It's an honor too for me to sitin the seat that I sit in and
have an opportunity to work withyoung people and to work with
educators.
So thank you so much for whatyou're grateful for, coach.
(03:58):
I know that there are some thatmay be tuning in that have heard
your story, have heard of you,but we've got a lot of young
listeners that might not know.
When we talk about Friday NightLights and we talk about Zig
Ziglar, sometimes it's notsomething that's immediate in
their wheelhouse.
I know the success that you'vehad as a coach, as a husband, as
(04:22):
a father, in so many roles thatyou've played.
I know you didn't just fallinto that seat.
Something tells me that therewas a journey, there was things
that happened, doors that opened, doors that closed, that led
you to where you're at today.
If you would take a moment andjust kind of walk us through
(04:43):
Coach Nate's journey and how yougot to where you're at today.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It's just awesome.
Yeah, the main thing is, likeyou said, I had seeds poured
into me, watered and nourishedby some great people.
Now, my parents were great,wonderful parents.
I came from a home of sevenother brothers and sisters and
(05:13):
my parents.
They poured into us the thingsthat we were supposed to do and
how we were supposed to do it,and the most important thing was
to be caring and kind andhelping, of service.
My parents were people ofservice orientation, but they
(05:35):
were not educators and grew uppoor.
I didn't know where my nextmeal was going to come from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going tocome from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going tocome home to the same house
sometimes, but my parents keptus together and provided for us.
School was different.
(05:56):
You need it.
You grow up in poverty and youknow that you're isolated out
there and things are just notthe same.
Sometimes a rural can be crueland you need that teacher figure
, authority figure, that cancome along and say hey, you're
okay, I think you're going to dogreat things someday.
(06:17):
Every one of us need that asmile, a pat, an encouraging
word.
So I got that from two greatmen.
A science teacher, seventhgrade, and my football coach did
that for me and I'm eternallygrateful for the seeds that they
planted in me, because Aaronand I would not have made it
(06:40):
without their encouragement,without their encouragement.
My science teacher he took meunder his wing, he made me his
lab assistant in his class.
My football coach a seventhgrade football coach, mark
Wallace.
My science teacher's name wasMr Clyde Hake.
Where was this at?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
coach.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
This was Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
West Texas, west Texas.
Yeah, this was Andrews Texas.
Andrews Texas, west Texas, westTexas.
Yeah, little small town, maybe5,000 people at the most.
You know they took me undertheir wing and nourished me.
I became, from theirnourishment, from their seed
planting, the thing that Iwanted to do and I decided at an
early age because of theirinfluence in my life.
I remember that I said you knowI was one of those, you know,
(07:28):
troubled children.
I had lots of trouble in school.
I wasn't successful until I metthose two men and they turned
me around.
My grades were bad.
I made C's, d's and F's inelementary school.
You know I had behaviorproblems.
And then I met those two menand it just flipped.
I went from making F's and D'son my report cards to being on
(07:53):
the honor roll because of theirinfluence and I decided in the
seventh grade that I wanted tobe a science teacher and a coach
, and in that moment I wouldnever let it go.
Wow, I never let it go Wow, andtoday I still follow their
leadership, the examples thatthey set for me.
(08:15):
Today I'm 73 years old and Istill follow the things that
they taught me when I was in theseventh grade.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I know we've got a lot more to talk about.
We could stop right there.
Just listen, coach.
Here's the thing.
When we talk about growing thefuture and seeds of greatness,
what I tell people the reasonwhy people's testimonies are so
powerful is if you'll listen tosomebody's testimony.
Tony Robbins said successleaves clues.
And if you listen to folks'testimony, you start finding
(08:46):
those seeds.
Just in your first sharing.
There you talked aboutencouragement, you talked about
expectation, you talked aboutaccountability and you also
trickled in a little want to.
And you also trickled in alittle want to.
Yes, because none of that wordsof encouragement and none of
(09:18):
that opportunity that waspresented to you could have ever
been nourished and broughtfruit if you wouldn't have had
some want to, and you obviouslyhad a little want to.
I think you sounds like youwanted to maybe have a little
more than what you had.
Growing up, you were encouragedby what somebody gave you, so
you wanted to kind of share thatwith somebody else.
Yes, I kind of picked up onthat that.
You know, these are the kind ofseeds of greatness that I hope
(09:39):
people hear.
One of the things that I sharewith some of our youth leaders,
coaches.
I tell them.
I said go ahead, get into schooland you can take all you want.
I said get into junior high,get into middle school, get into
high school and you can take.
I said if you go to college,guess what?
You still may find a fewopportunities to take.
I said, but once you get out inthe real world it's going to
(10:02):
get a little bit harder to take.
I said but once you get out inthe real world it's going to get
a little bit harder to take.
Yes, I said, but if you canlearn at an early age to serve,
when you get into high school,you can serve yes.
When you get into college, youcan serve yes.
And when you get out of collegeand you start a career and you
live in a neighborhood and youlive in a community, guess what?
(10:25):
There are going to be needs andan opportunity to serve Always.
So think big about that servicecomponent, because it doesn't
matter if you become a coach, itdoesn't matter if you become
director of a nonprofit, itdoesn't matter what your role is
in life.
Giving back to others isprobably one of the greatest
gifts, and you and I both knowwhat did Zig always say?
(10:48):
You know you can get anythingin life you want, that's right.
If you help enough other peopleget what they want, that's right
.
So you were a coach.
So tell me, you became a coach.
I know y'all did that.
You didn't just fall into astate championship.
So what does that journey looklike?
To build a team, to build aprogram and here's one for you,
(11:14):
Coach to build a culture ofexcellence and winning.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, you have to have the right mindset to build
that kind of culture.
You have to have a process andyou have to get the guys to
believe in that process.
It's like it's like anything inlife If it's going to be
successful, the most importantthing in any entity are the
people, the relationship withthe people, the relationships
(11:42):
with those young men, therelationship with the people,
the relationships with thoseyoung men.
We had to nurture and growthose relationships in order for
them to excel in that program,because it was a very difficult
program.
It was based on a college levelprogram.
We instituted the first coach,instituted that and came down to
the high school level andinstituted school level and
(12:08):
institute it and they begin totake off and for 35 years at
permian high school we had thatone percentage of 88.9 percent.
Six state championships,national champions, team of the
decade the times that I wasthere, 10 years, the years that
I served there we renamed a teamof the decade with uh, 122 wins
and 11 losses.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Just unheard of and most amazing thing about those
guys.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They were undersized One time.
Aaron, we're playing in thesemifinals for the state with
the smallest team in Texas, butwe're in the big school division
.
Our middle linebacker weighs145.
Our linemen are over 200 poundsthe smallest team in the state
(12:52):
and we're playing againstanother team and they have seven
Division One alreadyscholarship athletes on the team
.
They've got the 250s, the 260s,the 270s and those guys with the
heart of a line.
We lost that game 28-21.
So that was the nature of thatschool and a culture.
(13:14):
Because of that, the monikerwas Mojo.
Because of that, mojo, mojo.
We had a following.
They built a stadium in 1980and people thought they were
crazy.
They built a stadium in 1980 inOdessa, radcliffe Stadium that
(13:36):
seat 28,000 people for highschool football.
This was in 80.
And they thought we were crazyand they feel that stadium every
Friday night when we played athome for 31 years.
But 31 years, right, and withthat kind of atmosphere, with
that kind of following, we hadover 500 students in the band,
(14:00):
380 Peppettes, a community thatwould follow us to to the end of
the world to watch us play, tosupport us.
That program brought to thatcommunity.
And when you have somethinglike that, it changes the
community, it changes everybody,it affects a lot of lives.
When you have that kind ofculture in the school behind
(14:24):
students who want to excel, theywant to do the good thing.
They want to do the right thingthey're playing it's wholesome.
It's mom.
Apple pie, white picket fence.
That's what it was Right.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
You know, kyle, there's so much there.
Again, you just, for example.
I love doing these interviewsbecause there's so many little
things that people will justlisten that you can pick out.
Success begets success.
Listen to what you just shared.
(15:01):
It was so beautifully.
You didn't just talk about thefootball team, you talked about
how those successes wereduplicated in fine arts.
They were probably duplicatedin other classroom activity.
They were probably duplicated.
I guarantee you anybody thatknows small town Texas, you know
(15:24):
there's coffee shops whereeverybody gathers to cuss and
discuss what's wrong with thecountry and everything else.
But when you're winning, guesswhat they're talking about?
They're talking about success.
How did they get that success?
How did they plan that play?
How did they plan for that team?
How did we know we were goingto be outmanned, we were going
to be outweighed, but we weren'tgoing to be outhearted?
(15:49):
We, you know.
And so what you just shared isthe beauty of success.
One of the guests that I've hadon here, coach, is a guy that
he just matter of fact, I workedfor him when his company first
started.
He just made the largest giftin Texas Tech University history
.
He gave him a $44 million gift,oh man, and he very much
(16:14):
humbled beginnings and justbecame very successful.
But what he likes to say that Ilike is he says it's okay to
win.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's okay to win.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's okay to win.
Yeah, y'all put in a lot ofwork.
It's okay that you won.
It's true, no one gave it toyou, no one said you're entitled
to it.
You were grateful for theopportunity you put in, the work
and you reap the results.
It's okay to win.
(16:46):
It's okay to win, and successbegets success.
It does, and y'all did thatthroughout.
I can tell you and I think Imentioned this to you before in
1985, I was state FFA presidentand I would travel four to five
schools a day, five days a week.
I traveled all over the stateof Texas.
(17:07):
I've been in high schools allover the state and to your point
, to your point, in 1985, 86,and that year I remember coming
to Permian and I rememberdriving by the football stadium
and I remember saying that'swhere the mojo happens.
(17:28):
I also remember you'll rememberthis too I remember the Monday
Moguls.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yes, and I remember when they built a brand new high
school and football field inGilmer Texas.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You remember?
Yes, you remember.
And so it's amazing how astructure can become kind of a
flagpole, that's true, kind ofrally around.
But something you said, coach,and I'm always listening in
these interviews to find thetitle of this interview, and I'm
not saying I've got it yet, I'mjust giving you an example.
(18:04):
You can have all the structuresof this interview.
I'm not saying I've got it yet,I'm just giving you an example.
You can have all the structuresin the world, but if you don't
have the right people and theright culture, you just got a
pretty structure and the firstthing that you said when you
started to tell me about yourjourney was you said it's about
the people.
That was the first thing yousaid.
(18:25):
It's about the people, aboutthe people.
That was the first thing yousaid it's about the people and I
wrote that down.
That's it, because God didn'tcreate us to be the Lone Ranger.
No, life is not a solo project,and you said it.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You said it was all about the people yeah, and I I
know that you know this and andI hope this is what the students
get from this is that anythingthat you do in life, the thing
that makes that success is thatyou have to know who you are
right, knowing your identity,knowing who you are.
(19:02):
Becoming self-aware uh, johnmaxwell in his book
self-awareness he says that'sthe most important thing in life
that you have to be able toidentify who you are.
If you're able to identify whoyou are, then you can plan
anything, you can plan your life, because you know what you want
(19:22):
, you know who you are andthat's why the people are so
important.
And you said it you can get agood product, a good stadium,
you can have a great process,but if you don't have the people
who know who they are, it's notgoing to work Right.
They got it when my cat and I doa program called Core Clarity,
(19:44):
and it's all about helpingstudents identify their
strengths.
Because we feel this way If youknow your gifts, if you're an
achiever, if you're acommunicator, if you're a
relator, if all of those thingsyou know about yourself, when
you walk across that stage,instead of handing you the keys
to the Beetle Volkswagen,they're handing you the keys to
(20:08):
the Beetle Volkswagen.
They're handing you the keys tothe Audi, the Mercedes, the
Maserati.
Right, because you know who youare.
You're not guessing anymoreabout your future.
You know where you want to goand you know what you want to do
.
That seed has been planted andnow all it has to do is be
watered.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Writing that one down too.
Know who you are.
That's powerful.
And, by the way, when you saythat I don't mind throwing this
in, coach, because I'm notashamed of spirituality, I'm not
ashamed of faith, and thereason I appreciate you saying
you got to know who you are isbecause I know who made you, and
God doesn't sponsor any flopsand he doesn't make any trash.
(20:51):
So let me tell you somethingthere's not a person listening
to this show that was notcreated for anything less than
greatness, and all we got to dosometimes is look around, find
that encourager, find thoseskills and be the best version.
You know one of the guests thatwe've had on here, coach, and I
(21:11):
don't know if y'all's paths haveever crossed and if you haven't
, I'm going to make anintroduction but his name is Dan
Owolabi.
Dan Owolabi, well, let me saythis, coach, tom Ziegler, who's
a mutual friend of ours.
Tom holds you in very highesteem and he's told me he said
(21:34):
Aaron, coach Nate could be, nextto my dad, the best speaker
I've ever heard.
That's pretty powerfulcommentary coming from Tom
Ziegler, and I'm going to tellyou that Dan Owalabi could be
one of those as well that youneed to get to know.
He wrote a book calledAuthentic Leadership and he
(21:54):
talks about being your authenticself, yes, and not trying to be
something that you're not oryou're trying to become
something that the world's toldyou that you've got to become.
So when you said that you gotto know who you are, there's a
lot of wisdom in that comment.
A lot of wisdom in that comment.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, and you know you get people who will work and
do a job in some companies.
These people are really good atwhat they do, but if they don't
love what they're doing, theycan even be paid air handsomely
(22:35):
for it.
And sometimes if you don't sitdown and ask them, you know, get
to know them.
Just like you said at thebeginning of this, you got to
get to know people, you got totalk to people.
If you don't know them, youdon't know if they're happy in
that job or not.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even though they get paid haphazardly.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Even though people come and say, oh, you're great
at this, they might not like itbecause it's not who they are.
They don't identify with thatbecause there's parts of that
that they really don't love it.
And when you talk to them theygo I can do it, I do it well,
(23:10):
but I don't like it.
And if if you have a gift, wedo not call it a strength if you
don't love what you're doingit's not a strength.
It's not a strength if you don'tlove, you gotta love it, and
you know there's millions ofpeople out there doing things
that they don't love doing rightthere man, that's good.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Oh, coach, that's good.
I've, uh, I've been thedevelopment officer now here for
the texas ffa foundation for 25years and, uh, I've had my
share of opportunities.
As you might imagine, I've hada lot of people say, hey, if you
ever want to make a change, I'dlove to have you.
There's been some veryattractive financial offers, but
(23:57):
there's no amount of money thatyou can place on a heart that's
bent for a passion and apurpose that they believe
they've been given Not a purposethat they believe they've been
given.
And there were a lot of doorsthat closed on my journey and
there was a lot of doors thatopened to put me where I'm at,
(24:18):
and I couldn't agree with youmore.
I know a lot of people that havetold me, aaron, I make a lot of
money, but I wished I could beas happy as you are.
Thank you, told me, aaron, Imake a lot of money, but I
wished I could be as happy asyou are.
Thank you, and you know, at theend of the day, we're in charge
of that.
Nobody else is in charge of myhappiness.
(24:39):
No, you know, we're in chargeof that.
That's right.
And so, to your point, if youcan find that thing that makes
you happy, that thing that givesyour passion purpose.
You're going to be wealthy yes,you are.
You're going to be rich inspirit yes.
You're going to be rich withfriends yes, and you're going to
(24:59):
have enough money to pay thebills.
It's like I tell people ifyou'll just manage what you got,
maybe at the end of the monthyou might have a little bit left
over and there might besomebody that needs a little bit
.
Yeah yeah, yeah, and you get tohelp them, and that's a good
thing.
That's a good thing.
Coach, tell me about a timethat you had to take a stand for
(25:22):
what was right for yourstudents or your players.
What does it look like in aleadership role when you have to
make those kind of toughdecisions to stand for what you
think is right?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
There's so many, aaron, but I remember one you
might be familiar with this.
Students back in the daystarted, maybe 2003, 2040 went
to the zero tolerance policy andthey were legislators, were
hammering that zero tolerancepolicy.
(26:02):
Zero tolerance policy was basedon you know the weapon things,
you know knives, guns, thingslike that.
If a student was came to schoolhad those kind of things,
ammunition, things like that,that was the state was saying
and it was trickled down to theadministrators.
That's it.
(26:22):
You expelled, no warnings, no,you expel them and they're not.
It's not to their disciplineschool, it was to JJ AEP, the
Juvenile Justice AEP program,which is one step away from
prison.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Absolutely TYC used to be TYC.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yes, right, so you know right, so that's pretty
tough.
I see, yep, right, yep, so youknow right.
Yep, so that's pretty tough.
And we had a situation where ayoung man the officer brought
SRO officer, brought an arrowand an ID into my office early
on a Monday morning and he justlaid it on my desk.
(27:06):
He didn't say a word, he justshook his head and he just
walked back up.
I knew what it was right he didtoo, because we talked about it
.
That's zero tolerance.
Zero tolerance.
It's an arrow.
That's ammunition.
That's how they saw it.
That was automatic expulsion toJJ AEP.
Took the young man's ID, lookedhim up he's a senior, he's an.
AB student.
He has no discipline referrals.
(27:29):
He's got maybe one or twoexcused absences.
Good student, right, a class of1,100 students and he's the
kind you never see, right, younever get the chance to spend it
with the good ones, right, he'sa good student, right, I sent
for him.
Comes in and he says mr hernan,am I going to be expelled?
(27:52):
I said all the records showthat I say, everything here is
leaning towards that.
This is an arrow, it's in yourtruck.
And I said before we get intoall of that, tell, tell me how
this happened.
So he said I have a friendwhose dad bought him one of
those high dollar crossbows.
(28:13):
This is an expensive bow.
He and his dad hunts a lot.
And he called me and so we wenthunting, but not like he and
his dad.
We were just target practicing.
We shoot at rabbits or stufflike that, or just shooting some
targets, and that's all we weredoing.
But when we finished the day, Itook him home and when I
(28:37):
dropped him off I looked in mybackseat and there was the arrow
.
He said so I took the arrow,put it in the front seat, I'm
going to pick him up, we'regoing to go to lunch and I'd
give him the arrow back.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
He said Mr.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Herring, that's not my arrow.
I said.
I understand.
I said, but the state, theschool district, everybody sees
that possession is 99% of thezero tolerance policy.
It is in your possession.
If I called his parents andtell them that we have an arrow
in my office, they're going tosay he didn't bring it to school
(29:10):
and they're going to getlawyers and you and I are going
to become the bad guys and youmight lose your best friend out
of this.
So I need to call your parents.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
He said Mr Hearn.
I never knew my father.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
He left my mom and my little brother me, my mom and
little brother at an early age.
They got a divorce, so mybrother younger he never saw him
he never knew.
And he said my mother is in thehospital, in the ICU unit with
(29:55):
colon cancer.
You can call her, but they'renot going to let you speak to
her.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That situation just got darker, right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
That situation just got darker, right, I mean.
So I said I'm gonna send youback to class and I've got to
check this out.
I'll go by and check thehospital and then I'll call you
in in the morning and tell youwhat we're going to do with this
.
Immediately after he leaves,about five minutes later, I get
a call from the secondarysuperintendent over secondary
assistant superintendent.
(30:32):
He asked me what's going on.
I tell him about the arrow, Itell him about the student and
he's like oh, that's a prettyunfortunate situation, but our
funding is based on how wehandle these zero tolerance
policies, these zero tolerancecircumstances.
(30:54):
He said keep me updated.
The superintendent and sure theschool board wants to know.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So what is he?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
saying read between the lines.
Stay in the policy, do theright thing right this is a good
kid hold the policy, do theright thing.
I go to the hospital and he'sright and you know colon cancer.
(31:24):
They're in that IC unit.
They're covered with plasticTubes, are running Monitors
monitoring her and the headnurse on that unit.
She was nice enough to talk tome.
I could look inside, I couldsee it through the windows, and
she told me hey, there's not alot of, she doesn't have a lot
(31:45):
of visitors here.
She said maybe one or two, butthe prognosis doesn't look good.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Stage four colon cancer.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So I leave, get up in the morning, send for him, send
for the SRO officer take thearrow, I break it, I throw it in
the trash.
And so I said now this situationfor you is over, no one will
(32:19):
approach you again about this.
I sent him back to class.
Right In Tom's book the TenVirtues Leadership Virtues for a
Disrupted Time he talks aboutbeing the light right.
He talks about being the lightin dark situations, that we have
to be the leader.
We have to shine the lightright, and sometimes shining
(32:42):
that light is kind of toughbecause you know people put your
job on the line.
My job was nowhere near it asimportant as that young man's
life Right.
It didn't equate Right.
So sometimes being the lightmeans you have to take the air
break and throw it in the trenchRight, because you know who's
(33:04):
in charge.
God's always in charge.
God's always in charge.
He's always in charge.
And when we have thatrelationship with God, we don't
have to have anybody validate us.
We don't need to beated byanybody.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So much in that story , so much what a gift God gave
you with that young man, what agift God gave you with that
situation, because there's notelling how many times you've
had an opportunity to share thatstory and have people sit and
reflect.
My board chairman always saysAaron, the right thing is always
(33:56):
the right thing Always theright thing he said it's never
too late to do the right thing,Never.
And when you hear stories likethat, it just makes you
appreciate ethical leadership,core values, confidence.
It goes back to what you justsaid knowing who you are.
You knew who you were when youmade that decision.
(34:18):
You knew what value systemdrove you to make that decision
there was no hesitation there.
One of my favorite books onleadership is Captain Sully.
Oh yeah, that landed the planethere in the Hudson, yeah, and
of course they got everybody off.
(34:39):
Sully was one of the last onesoff.
The media is going crazy.
They want to interview him, butobviously they got to do a
debrief.
And as they're walking down ahallway, a flight attendant
she's still frazzled from theaccident but she runs up to him
and she hands him a piece ofpaper that's folded in half and
it's still wet, crinkled up, andon the outside of the paper it
(35:03):
simply read thank you.
And when he opened it up on theinside it said when your values
are clear, your choices areeasy.
When your values are clear,your choices are easy.
And when you share stories likethat, coach, that right there
for me is a reminder that whenwe face those moments that we
(35:27):
have to make decisions toughdecisions that when your values
are clear, your choices are easy, easy, powerful story coach.
Before we wrap up, give me a.
We got a lot of kids that'll bewatching this that want to be
leaders.
They want to aspire theleadership.
Give me three leadership tips.
(35:50):
If you could plant the seeds ofleadership tips, what would you
tell kids to become betterleaders three things listen,
listen, listen, got it.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
That's the only way to let people know that you care
about them.
Right?
I see it all the time and youdo too, aaron.
We get in there, we talk topeople and some people ask how
you doing.
Well, you tell me they reallydon't want to hear it.
Right, they really don't wantto hear what you got going on,
because they want to talk aboutwhat they have going on.
(36:28):
And when you sit and you listento a student, they know you're
listening.
I don't know how many timesstudents had come from talk,
come to me, coach kids that I'vecoached, kids in totally other
sports, kids that's in my room,kids who knew me from other
students talking about me, kidswho I coached that I wasn't even
(36:51):
their position coach would cometo me, come to my room and say,
coach, I have a problem.
And when they finished theysaid, coach, I came to you
because I knew you would listen.
How many lives do we touch,aaron, just saying, just
(37:14):
listening.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Just listening, what a powerful mentorship that is,
because if you can learn tolisten, there will always be
somebody that needs to belistened to.
I remember Tom Ziegler.
He tells a story about his dad.
He said, tom, how do you knowsomebody needs encouragement?
And he said I don't know.
(37:41):
And he said if they'rebreathing they need
encouragement.
And we're all going to gothrough seasons of life.
I had a lady once and she wasreally just sharing some really
heartbreaking events that she'sdealing with and I just listened
, like you said, coach.
I just I didn't have the answer.
(38:03):
I just listened and I finallylooked at her and I said I'm
sorry.
I said, by the way, I said ifyou want a place that it never
rains, I can take you there.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
And she said what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I said sounds like you've had some storms and I
said but I can take you to aplace that never storms.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And she said really, I said yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I said, it's called a desert and nothing grows.
Nothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad a little rain, a little
storm, yes, and with the rightmentors, with the right
encouragers, with the rightseeds, with the right
encouragers, with the rightseeds, with the right
stewardship, I'll show yousomebody that's bound for a
(38:48):
bountiful harvest.
Awesome, so so awesome.
Coach, I can't tell you thankyou enough.
I will never forget the firsttime we met.
Obviously I knew a little ofyour story before we ever met,
and sometimes you meet peopleand you wonder is the story as
good as the person behind thestory?
(39:08):
And I've got to say, coach, notonly did you meet that
expectation, you exceeded it andI value what you do, I value
what you've done and I valuemore what you're going to do,
because I know God's notfinished with you and there's
still a lot of work to be done.
(39:28):
There's a lot of lives to betouched, a lot of people to be
encouraged, a lot of people thatneed an example in the
mentorship.
So I just want to thank you,but you don't get out of here
without a fun question.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
So everybody that's been on the show gets a fun
question at the very end.
So the question is this CoachNate Hearn, dr Nate Hearn what's
the best concert you've everbeen to?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh my yeah, the best concert you know.
To tell you the truth, the bestconcert I've ever been to, I
put it together.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Let me hear it.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I was asked after I retired.
I was asked to see if I wouldbe a chaplain in the prison
system.
Yeah, exit to Portland CriminalJustice Center.
Yeah.
So I said no problem, because Iwant to go in there and help.
Right, that's my whole thing,that's right.
God says, hey, where were youwhen I was in prison?
(40:43):
Right?
So I'm saying I'm going to behere, right, I'm going to do
what you asked me to do.
So I know to touch soulssometimes music is key.
If you got the right music, ifyou're a pastor and you got the
right music and it's hitting andyou see the Holy Spirit coming
down, you don't even have tokeep you.
(41:06):
If you can humble yourself, youdon't need a message, Just
extend the invitation.
The Holy Spirit's alreadyworking.
That happened.
I brought a gospel fest to aprison unit.
Fifteen different groups of allgenre, of all ethnicity.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Blacks, whites, browns, just every kind of music
you want to hear.
And the inmates had to make arequest to attend.
1,100 men on the unit, 700asked to be to their tent and
the group got up.
They had the full ensemble allfive instruments.
(41:49):
They had background singers,they had a lead singer and they
started and they were reallyreally good.
They were really really goodand 700 inmates in white, just
picture this thing right 700 ofthem.
The music is Christian and it'sflowing.
(42:11):
A little bitty guy about fivefoot three on the very back in
the middle row outside seat.
He stood up and he just saidJesus.
And then he started doing fourrows and when he got to the
front he said Jesus and all theother inmates stood up and they
(42:34):
just Jesus.
They're clapping, they'redancing, and some are on their
knees, some hands extended, somejust circling.
You hear this, the CO'scorrection officer.
You hear those radios startcracking and go Major, major,
you want to lock him up.
You want to lock him up and theMajor goes yes, lock him up.
(42:55):
And then the warden says leavehim alone.
Leave him alone and then,there's a pause there and then
she says that's the Holy Spirit.
But that moment, aaron, theHoly Spirit ascended, came
(43:16):
descended down on those men andall that pin up.
You know, in prison there's alot of things going on.
All of that emotion cameflowing out of them and they
began to praise God.
Wow that was nothing but a Godmoment.
(43:36):
And I still I get goosebumpstelling that story, aaron,
because I saw it real, it wasreal.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I saw it.
Well, let me tell you something, coach.
What you just shared Number one, that was incredible.
And when you talk about aconcert, that was incredible.
But in closing, you also madeanother point that I like to
share with people, and that isthis you can never argue with
(44:07):
somebody's testimony Never.
You can never look at somebodyand say that didn't happen to
you.
So, folks, what you just heardfrom the coach, I have every
reason to believe, down to thedetail, that what you just heard
was the best concert that man'sever seen.
(44:28):
Far enough, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for
another episode of Growing OurFuture.
You know, I like to tell peoplethat our country's got three
vital and renewable resources,that's, young people and
agriculture and leadership, andwe combine all three and we get
(44:48):
to bring guests on that say, hey, let me tell you what I found
to be successful, let me sharewith you what I found to be
encouraging.
Let me share with you someseeds that helped me grow a
success in life.
And they're here sharing thoseseeds with us.
And today we were honored, wewere blessed by coach Nate Hearn
(45:10):
, dr Nate Hearn and coach again,thank you so much.
We appreciate you, weappreciate all of you that
stopped by today and until wemeet again, go out and do
something great for somebodyelse.
You're going to feel good aboutit.
More importantly, you mightjust be the example for somebody
else that's going to go out andchange the world.
(45:31):
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
We'll catch you down the road.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
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.
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,
we really appreciate youstopping by.
We enjoy this podcast becauseit's an opportunity for us to
find folks that are willing topour into others, to share their
time, talent, testimonies,experiences and, like we always
(00:51):
say, if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
Well, the way you growsomething is you got to plant
the right seeds.
Well, today's no differentfolks.
We have got an extraordinaryguest.
Well, today's no differentfolks, we have got an
extraordinary guest, and Icannot wait to get to their
seeds of greatness that I know,if we plant them in our lives,
(01:15):
we're going to grow somethingmighty, have a harvest and a
bounty we're sharing.
And so, ladies and gentlemen,it is an honor and you're going
to get to hear more about thisman here in a second, but it's
an honor to have Dr Coach NateHearn Coach thank you for
joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
My honor to be here and I love the way you talk
about seeds because, oh man,those seeds were poured into me
by some great people over theyears and many of them.
That's an eternal friendship.
It's, it's gonna last forever,I'll never forget them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I'm with you, trust me.
That's the power of testimony.
What you just said, that's thepower of testimony.
Uh, we stand on the shouldersof the people that went before
us and we're grateful for theseeds that people share, which
is why, coach, we're gratefulthat you're with us today, so
that you're going to get achance to share with the
audience of students, withadults, with sponsors, with
(02:14):
educators, and it goes around.
Amazing, coach, how many peoplearound the world watch this
podcast Blows me away.
So, just know that your wordshere are going to become seeds
of greatness.
I appreciate you taking time tojoin us.
I'm honored.
Here's the thing Every personthat comes on this show,
(02:34):
everybody gets the same firstquestion Coach, what are you
grateful for today?
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today to
know that our future is with ourstudents.
That's been my heart forever,to know that they're out there,
they want to learn, they want togrow, they want to make a great
nation and I'm honored to be apart of that, to know that we
(03:09):
can do this and it has an effectfor the future.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I'm going to agree with you.
You know, when Tom Ziegler bythe way folks, coach Nate and I
have a mutual friend and TomZiegler, the son of the late
great Zig Ziegler, and when Tomand I first started talking,
coach, we were talking he said,well, tell me what you do.
And I said I'm in the futurebusiness.
And he said what do you mean?
(03:36):
I said I'm in the kid business,and if you're in the kid
business, you're in the futurebusiness.
And so I appreciate what yousaid because it's an honor I
know you're grateful for that.
It's an honor too for me to sitin the seat that I sit in and
have an opportunity to work withyoung people and to work with
educators.
So thank you so much for whatyou're grateful for, coach.
(03:58):
I know that there are some thatmay be tuning in that have heard
your story, have heard of you,but we've got a lot of young
listeners that might not know.
When we talk about Friday NightLights and we talk about Zig
Ziglar, sometimes it's notsomething that's immediate in
their wheelhouse.
I know the success that you'vehad as a coach, as a husband, as
(04:22):
a father, in so many roles thatyou've played.
I know you didn't just fallinto that seat.
Something tells me that therewas a journey, there was things
that happened, doors that opened, doors that closed, that led
you to where you're at today.
If you would take a moment andjust kind of walk us through
(04:43):
Coach Nate's journey and how yougot to where you're at today.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It's just awesome.
Yeah, the main thing is, likeyou said, I had seeds poured
into me, watered and nourishedby some great people.
Now, my parents were great,wonderful parents.
I came from a home of sevenother brothers and sisters and
(05:13):
my parents.
They poured into us the thingsthat we were supposed to do and
how we were supposed to do it,and the most important thing was
to be caring and kind andhelping, of service.
My parents were people ofservice orientation, but they
(05:35):
were not educators and grew uppoor.
I didn't know where my nextmeal was going to come from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going tocome from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going tocome home to the same house
sometimes, but my parents keptus together and provided for us.
School was different.
(05:56):
You need it.
You grow up in poverty and youknow that you're isolated out
there and things are just notthe same.
Sometimes a rural can be crueland you need that teacher figure
, authority figure, that cancome along and say hey, you're
okay, I think you're going to dogreat things someday.
(06:17):
Every one of us need that asmile, a pat, an encouraging
word.
So I got that from two greatmen.
A science teacher, seventhgrade, and my football coach did
that for me and I'm eternallygrateful for the seeds that they
planted in me, because Aaronand I would not have made it
(06:40):
without their encouragement,without their encouragement.
My science teacher he took meunder his wing, he made me his
lab assistant in his class.
My football coach a seventhgrade football coach, mark
Wallace.
My science teacher's name wasMr Clyde Hake.
Where was this at?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
coach.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
This was Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
West Texas, west Texas.
Yeah, this was Andrews Texas.
Andrews Texas, west Texas, westTexas.
Yeah, little small town, maybe5,000 people at the most.
You know they took me undertheir wing and nourished me.
I became, from theirnourishment, from their seed
planting, the thing that Iwanted to do and I decided at an
early age because of theirinfluence in my life.
I remember that I said you knowI was one of those, you know,
(07:28):
troubled children.
I had lots of trouble in school.
I wasn't successful until I metthose two men and they turned
me around.
My grades were bad.
I made C's, d's and F's inelementary school.
You know I had behaviorproblems.
And then I met those two menand it just flipped.
I went from making F's and D'son my report cards to being on
(07:53):
the honor roll because of theirinfluence and I decided in the
seventh grade that I wanted tobe a science teacher and a coach
, and in that moment I wouldnever let it go.
Wow, I never let it go Wow, andtoday I still follow their
leadership, the examples thatthey set for me.
(08:15):
Today I'm 73 years old and Istill follow the things that
they taught me when I was in theseventh grade.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I know we've got a lot more to talk about.
We could stop right there.
Just listen, coach.
Here's the thing.
When we talk about growing thefuture and seeds of greatness,
what I tell people the reasonwhy people's testimonies are so
powerful is if you'll listen tosomebody's testimony.
Tony Robbins said successleaves clues.
And if you listen to folks'testimony, you start finding
(08:46):
those seeds.
Just in your first sharing.
There you talked aboutencouragement, you talked about
expectation, you talked aboutaccountability and you also
trickled in a little want to.
And you also trickled in alittle want to.
Yes, because none of that wordsof encouragement and none of
(09:18):
that opportunity that waspresented to you could have ever
been nourished and broughtfruit if you wouldn't have had
some want to, and you obviouslyhad a little want to.
I think you sounds like youwanted to maybe have a little
more than what you had.
Growing up, you were encouragedby what somebody gave you, so
you wanted to kind of share thatwith somebody else.
Yes, I kind of picked up onthat that.
You know, these are the kind ofseeds of greatness that I hope
(09:39):
people hear.
One of the things that I sharewith some of our youth leaders,
coaches.
I tell them.
I said go ahead, get into schooland you can take all you want.
I said get into junior high,get into middle school, get into
high school and you can take.
I said if you go to college,guess what?
You still may find a fewopportunities to take.
I said, but once you get out inthe real world it's going to
(10:02):
get a little bit harder to take.
I said but once you get out inthe real world it's going to get
a little bit harder to take.
Yes, I said, but if you canlearn at an early age to serve,
when you get into high school,you can serve yes.
When you get into college, youcan serve yes.
And when you get out of collegeand you start a career and you
live in a neighborhood and youlive in a community, guess what?
(10:25):
There are going to be needs andan opportunity to serve Always.
So think big about that servicecomponent, because it doesn't
matter if you become a coach, itdoesn't matter if you become
director of a nonprofit, itdoesn't matter what your role is
in life.
Giving back to others isprobably one of the greatest
gifts, and you and I both knowwhat did Zig always say?
(10:48):
You know you can get anythingin life you want, that's right.
If you help enough other peopleget what they want, that's right
.
So you were a coach.
So tell me, you became a coach.
I know y'all did that.
You didn't just fall into astate championship.
So what does that journey looklike?
To build a team, to build aprogram and here's one for you,
(11:14):
Coach to build a culture ofexcellence and winning.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, you have to have the right mindset to build
that kind of culture.
You have to have a process andyou have to get the guys to
believe in that process.
It's like it's like anything inlife If it's going to be
successful, the most importantthing in any entity are the
people, the relationship withthe people, the relationships
(11:42):
with those young men, therelationship with the people,
the relationships with thoseyoung men.
We had to nurture and growthose relationships in order for
them to excel in that program,because it was a very difficult
program.
It was based on a college levelprogram.
We instituted the first coach,instituted that and came down to
the high school level andinstituted school level and
(12:08):
institute it and they begin totake off and for 35 years at
permian high school we had thatone percentage of 88.9 percent.
Six state championships,national champions, team of the
decade the times that I wasthere, 10 years, the years that
I served there we renamed a teamof the decade with uh, 122 wins
and 11 losses.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Just unheard of and most amazing thing about those
guys.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They were undersized One time.
Aaron, we're playing in thesemifinals for the state with
the smallest team in Texas, butwe're in the big school division
.
Our middle linebacker weighs145.
Our linemen are over 200 poundsthe smallest team in the state
(12:52):
and we're playing againstanother team and they have seven
Division One alreadyscholarship athletes on the team
.
They've got the 250s, the 260s,the 270s and those guys with the
heart of a line.
We lost that game 28-21.
So that was the nature of thatschool and a culture.
(13:14):
Because of that, the monikerwas Mojo.
Because of that, mojo, mojo.
We had a following.
They built a stadium in 1980and people thought they were
crazy.
They built a stadium in 1980 inOdessa, radcliffe Stadium that
(13:36):
seat 28,000 people for highschool football.
This was in 80.
And they thought we were crazyand they feel that stadium every
Friday night when we played athome for 31 years.
But 31 years, right, and withthat kind of atmosphere, with
that kind of following, we hadover 500 students in the band,
(14:00):
380 Peppettes, a community thatwould follow us to to the end of
the world to watch us play, tosupport us.
That program brought to thatcommunity.
And when you have somethinglike that, it changes the
community, it changes everybody,it affects a lot of lives.
When you have that kind ofculture in the school behind
(14:24):
students who want to excel, theywant to do the good thing.
They want to do the right thingthey're playing it's wholesome.
It's mom.
Apple pie, white picket fence.
That's what it was Right.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
You know, kyle, there's so much there.
Again, you just, for example.
I love doing these interviewsbecause there's so many little
things that people will justlisten that you can pick out.
Success begets success.
Listen to what you just shared.
(15:01):
It was so beautifully.
You didn't just talk about thefootball team, you talked about
how those successes wereduplicated in fine arts.
They were probably duplicatedin other classroom activity.
They were probably duplicated.
I guarantee you anybody thatknows small town Texas, you know
(15:24):
there's coffee shops whereeverybody gathers to cuss and
discuss what's wrong with thecountry and everything else.
But when you're winning, guesswhat they're talking about?
They're talking about success.
How did they get that success?
How did they plan that play?
How did they plan for that team?
How did we know we were goingto be outmanned, we were going
to be outweighed, but we weren'tgoing to be outhearted?
(15:49):
We, you know.
And so what you just shared isthe beauty of success.
One of the guests that I've hadon here, coach, is a guy that
he just matter of fact, I workedfor him when his company first
started.
He just made the largest giftin Texas Tech University history
.
He gave him a $44 million gift,oh man, and he very much
(16:14):
humbled beginnings and justbecame very successful.
But what he likes to say that Ilike is he says it's okay to
win.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's okay to win.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's okay to win.
Yeah, y'all put in a lot ofwork.
It's okay that you won.
It's true, no one gave it toyou, no one said you're entitled
to it.
You were grateful for theopportunity you put in, the work
and you reap the results.
It's okay to win.
(16:46):
It's okay to win, and successbegets success.
It does, and y'all did thatthroughout.
I can tell you and I think Imentioned this to you before in
1985, I was state FFA presidentand I would travel four to five
schools a day, five days a week.
I traveled all over the stateof Texas.
(17:07):
I've been in high schools allover the state and to your point
, to your point, in 1985, 86,and that year I remember coming
to Permian and I rememberdriving by the football stadium
and I remember saying that'swhere the mojo happens.
(17:28):
I also remember you'll rememberthis too I remember the Monday
Moguls.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yes, and I remember when they built a brand new high
school and football field inGilmer Texas.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You remember?
Yes, you remember.
And so it's amazing how astructure can become kind of a
flagpole, that's true, kind ofrally around.
But something you said, coach,and I'm always listening in
these interviews to find thetitle of this interview, and I'm
not saying I've got it yet, I'mjust giving you an example.
(18:04):
You can have all the structuresof this interview.
I'm not saying I've got it yet,I'm just giving you an example.
You can have all the structuresin the world, but if you don't
have the right people and theright culture, you just got a
pretty structure and the firstthing that you said when you
started to tell me about yourjourney was you said it's about
the people.
That was the first thing yousaid.
(18:25):
It's about the people, aboutthe people.
That was the first thing yousaid it's about the people and I
wrote that down.
That's it, because God didn'tcreate us to be the Lone Ranger.
No, life is not a solo project,and you said it.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You said it was all about the people yeah, and I I
know that you know this and andI hope this is what the students
get from this is that anythingthat you do in life, the thing
that makes that success is thatyou have to know who you are
right, knowing your identity,knowing who you are.
(19:02):
Becoming self-aware uh, johnmaxwell in his book
self-awareness he says that'sthe most important thing in life
that you have to be able toidentify who you are.
If you're able to identify whoyou are, then you can plan
anything, you can plan your life, because you know what you want
(19:22):
, you know who you are andthat's why the people are so
important.
And you said it you can get agood product, a good stadium,
you can have a great process,but if you don't have the people
who know who they are, it's notgoing to work Right.
They got it when my cat and I doa program called Core Clarity,
(19:44):
and it's all about helpingstudents identify their
strengths.
Because we feel this way If youknow your gifts, if you're an
achiever, if you're acommunicator, if you're a
relator, if all of those thingsyou know about yourself, when
you walk across that stage,instead of handing you the keys
to the Beetle Volkswagen,they're handing you the keys to
(20:08):
the Beetle Volkswagen.
They're handing you the keys tothe Audi, the Mercedes, the
Maserati.
Right, because you know who youare.
You're not guessing anymoreabout your future.
You know where you want to goand you know what you want to do
.
That seed has been planted andnow all it has to do is be
watered.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Writing that one down too.
Know who you are.
That's powerful.
And, by the way, when you saythat I don't mind throwing this
in, coach, because I'm notashamed of spirituality, I'm not
ashamed of faith, and thereason I appreciate you saying
you got to know who you are isbecause I know who made you, and
God doesn't sponsor any flopsand he doesn't make any trash.
(20:51):
So let me tell you somethingthere's not a person listening
to this show that was notcreated for anything less than
greatness, and all we got to dosometimes is look around, find
that encourager, find thoseskills and be the best version.
You know one of the guests thatwe've had on here, coach, and I
(21:11):
don't know if y'all's paths haveever crossed and if you haven't
, I'm going to make anintroduction but his name is Dan
Owolabi.
Dan Owolabi, well, let me saythis, coach, tom Ziegler, who's
a mutual friend of ours.
Tom holds you in very highesteem and he's told me he said
(21:34):
Aaron, coach Nate could be, nextto my dad, the best speaker
I've ever heard.
That's pretty powerfulcommentary coming from Tom
Ziegler, and I'm going to tellyou that Dan Owalabi could be
one of those as well that youneed to get to know.
He wrote a book calledAuthentic Leadership and he
(21:54):
talks about being your authenticself, yes, and not trying to be
something that you're not oryou're trying to become
something that the world's toldyou that you've got to become.
So when you said that you gotto know who you are, there's a
lot of wisdom in that comment.
A lot of wisdom in that comment.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, and you know you get people who will work and
do a job in some companies.
These people are really good atwhat they do, but if they don't
love what they're doing, theycan even be paid air handsomely
(22:35):
for it.
And sometimes if you don't sitdown and ask them, you know, get
to know them.
Just like you said at thebeginning of this, you got to
get to know people, you got totalk to people.
If you don't know them, youdon't know if they're happy in
that job or not.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even though they get paid haphazardly.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Even though people come and say, oh, you're great
at this, they might not like itbecause it's not who they are.
They don't identify with thatbecause there's parts of that
that they really don't love it.
And when you talk to them theygo I can do it, I do it well,
(23:10):
but I don't like it.
And if if you have a gift, wedo not call it a strength if you
don't love what you're doingit's not a strength.
It's not a strength if you don'tlove, you gotta love it, and
you know there's millions ofpeople out there doing things
that they don't love doing rightthere man, that's good.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Oh, coach, that's good.
I've, uh, I've been thedevelopment officer now here for
the texas ffa foundation for 25years and, uh, I've had my
share of opportunities.
As you might imagine, I've hada lot of people say, hey, if you
ever want to make a change, I'dlove to have you.
There's been some veryattractive financial offers, but
(23:57):
there's no amount of money thatyou can place on a heart that's
bent for a passion and apurpose that they believe
they've been given Not a purposethat they believe they've been
given.
And there were a lot of doorsthat closed on my journey and
there was a lot of doors thatopened to put me where I'm at,
(24:18):
and I couldn't agree with youmore.
I know a lot of people that havetold me, aaron, I make a lot of
money, but I wished I could beas happy as you are.
Thank you, told me, aaron, Imake a lot of money, but I
wished I could be as happy asyou are.
Thank you, and you know, at theend of the day, we're in charge
of that.
Nobody else is in charge of myhappiness.
(24:39):
No, you know, we're in chargeof that.
That's right.
And so, to your point, if youcan find that thing that makes
you happy, that thing that givesyour passion purpose.
You're going to be wealthy yes,you are.
You're going to be rich inspirit yes.
You're going to be rich withfriends yes, and you're going to
(24:59):
have enough money to pay thebills.
It's like I tell people ifyou'll just manage what you got,
maybe at the end of the monthyou might have a little bit left
over and there might besomebody that needs a little bit
.
Yeah yeah, yeah, and you get tohelp them, and that's a good
thing.
That's a good thing.
Coach, tell me about a timethat you had to take a stand for
(25:22):
what was right for yourstudents or your players.
What does it look like in aleadership role when you have to
make those kind of toughdecisions to stand for what you
think is right?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
There's so many, aaron, but I remember one you
might be familiar with this.
Students back in the daystarted, maybe 2003, 2040 went
to the zero tolerance policy andthey were legislators, were
hammering that zero tolerancepolicy.
(26:02):
Zero tolerance policy was basedon you know the weapon things,
you know knives, guns, thingslike that.
If a student was came to schoolhad those kind of things,
ammunition, things like that,that was the state was saying
and it was trickled down to theadministrators.
That's it.
(26:22):
You expelled, no warnings, no,you expel them and they're not.
It's not to their disciplineschool, it was to JJ AEP, the
Juvenile Justice AEP program,which is one step away from
prison.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Absolutely TYC used to be TYC.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yes, right, so you know right, so that's pretty
tough.
I see, yep, right, yep, so youknow right.
Yep, so that's pretty tough.
And we had a situation where ayoung man the officer brought
SRO officer, brought an arrowand an ID into my office early
on a Monday morning and he justlaid it on my desk.
(27:06):
He didn't say a word, he justshook his head and he just
walked back up.
I knew what it was right he didtoo, because we talked about it
.
That's zero tolerance.
Zero tolerance.
It's an arrow.
That's ammunition.
That's how they saw it.
That was automatic expulsion toJJ AEP.
Took the young man's ID, lookedhim up he's a senior, he's an.
AB student.
He has no discipline referrals.
(27:29):
He's got maybe one or twoexcused absences.
Good student, right, a class of1,100 students and he's the
kind you never see, right, younever get the chance to spend it
with the good ones, right, he'sa good student, right, I sent
for him.
Comes in and he says mr hernan,am I going to be expelled?
(27:52):
I said all the records showthat I say, everything here is
leaning towards that.
This is an arrow, it's in yourtruck.
And I said before we get intoall of that, tell, tell me how
this happened.
So he said I have a friendwhose dad bought him one of
those high dollar crossbows.
(28:13):
This is an expensive bow.
He and his dad hunts a lot.
And he called me and so we wenthunting, but not like he and
his dad.
We were just target practicing.
We shoot at rabbits or stufflike that, or just shooting some
targets, and that's all we weredoing.
But when we finished the day, Itook him home and when I
(28:37):
dropped him off I looked in mybackseat and there was the arrow
.
He said so I took the arrow,put it in the front seat, I'm
going to pick him up, we'regoing to go to lunch and I'd
give him the arrow back.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
He said Mr.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Herring, that's not my arrow.
I said.
I understand.
I said, but the state, theschool district, everybody sees
that possession is 99% of thezero tolerance policy.
It is in your possession.
If I called his parents andtell them that we have an arrow
in my office, they're going tosay he didn't bring it to school
(29:10):
and they're going to getlawyers and you and I are going
to become the bad guys and youmight lose your best friend out
of this.
So I need to call your parents.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
He said Mr Hearn.
I never knew my father.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
He left my mom and my little brother me, my mom and
little brother at an early age.
They got a divorce, so mybrother younger he never saw him
he never knew.
And he said my mother is in thehospital, in the ICU unit with
(29:55):
colon cancer.
You can call her, but they'renot going to let you speak to
her.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That situation just got darker, right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
That situation just got darker, right, I mean.
So I said I'm gonna send youback to class and I've got to
check this out.
I'll go by and check thehospital and then I'll call you
in in the morning and tell youwhat we're going to do with this
.
Immediately after he leaves,about five minutes later, I get
a call from the secondarysuperintendent over secondary
assistant superintendent.
(30:32):
He asked me what's going on.
I tell him about the arrow, Itell him about the student and
he's like oh, that's a prettyunfortunate situation, but our
funding is based on how wehandle these zero tolerance
policies, these zero tolerancecircumstances.
(30:54):
He said keep me updated.
The superintendent and sure theschool board wants to know.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
So what is he?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
saying read between the lines.
Stay in the policy, do theright thing right this is a good
kid hold the policy, do theright thing.
I go to the hospital and he'sright and you know colon cancer.
(31:24):
They're in that IC unit.
They're covered with plasticTubes, are running Monitors
monitoring her and the headnurse on that unit.
She was nice enough to talk tome.
I could look inside, I couldsee it through the windows, and
she told me hey, there's not alot of, she doesn't have a lot
(31:45):
of visitors here.
She said maybe one or two, butthe prognosis doesn't look good.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Stage four colon cancer.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So I leave, get up in the morning, send for him, send
for the SRO officer take thearrow, I break it, I throw it in
the trash.
And so I said now this situationfor you is over, no one will
(32:19):
approach you again about this.
I sent him back to class.
Right In Tom's book the TenVirtues Leadership Virtues for a
Disrupted Time he talks aboutbeing the light right.
He talks about being the lightin dark situations, that we have
to be the leader.
We have to shine the lightright, and sometimes shining
(32:42):
that light is kind of toughbecause you know people put your
job on the line.
My job was nowhere near it asimportant as that young man's
life Right.
It didn't equate Right.
So sometimes being the lightmeans you have to take the air
break and throw it in the trenchRight, because you know who's
(33:04):
in charge.
God's always in charge.
God's always in charge.
He's always in charge.
And when we have thatrelationship with God, we don't
have to have anybody validate us.
We don't need to beated byanybody.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So much in that story , so much what a gift God gave
you with that young man, what agift God gave you with that
situation, because there's notelling how many times you've
had an opportunity to share thatstory and have people sit and
reflect.
My board chairman always saysAaron, the right thing is always
(33:56):
the right thing Always theright thing he said it's never
too late to do the right thing,Never.
And when you hear stories likethat, it just makes you
appreciate ethical leadership,core values, confidence.
It goes back to what you justsaid knowing who you are.
You knew who you were when youmade that decision.
(34:18):
You knew what value systemdrove you to make that decision
there was no hesitation there.
One of my favorite books onleadership is Captain Sully.
Oh yeah, that landed the planethere in the Hudson, yeah, and
of course they got everybody off.
(34:39):
Sully was one of the last onesoff.
The media is going crazy.
They want to interview him, butobviously they got to do a
debrief.
And as they're walking down ahallway, a flight attendant
she's still frazzled from theaccident but she runs up to him
and she hands him a piece ofpaper that's folded in half and
it's still wet, crinkled up, andon the outside of the paper it
(35:03):
simply read thank you.
And when he opened it up on theinside it said when your values
are clear, your choices areeasy.
When your values are clear,your choices are easy.
And when you share stories likethat, coach, that right there
for me is a reminder that whenwe face those moments that we
(35:27):
have to make decisions toughdecisions that when your values
are clear, your choices are easy, easy, powerful story coach.
Before we wrap up, give me a.
We got a lot of kids that'll bewatching this that want to be
leaders.
They want to aspire theleadership.
Give me three leadership tips.
(35:50):
If you could plant the seeds ofleadership tips, what would you
tell kids to become betterleaders three things listen,
listen, listen, got it.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
That's the only way to let people know that you care
about them.
Right?
I see it all the time and youdo too, aaron.
We get in there, we talk topeople and some people ask how
you doing.
Well, you tell me they reallydon't want to hear it.
Right, they really don't wantto hear what you got going on,
because they want to talk aboutwhat they have going on.
(36:28):
And when you sit and you listento a student, they know you're
listening.
I don't know how many timesstudents had come from talk,
come to me, coach kids that I'vecoached, kids in totally other
sports, kids that's in my room,kids who knew me from other
students talking about me, kidswho I coached that I wasn't even
(36:51):
their position coach would cometo me, come to my room and say,
coach, I have a problem.
And when they finished theysaid, coach, I came to you
because I knew you would listen.
How many lives do we touch,aaron, just saying, just
(37:14):
listening.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Just listening, what a powerful mentorship that is,
because if you can learn tolisten, there will always be
somebody that needs to belistened to.
I remember Tom Ziegler.
He tells a story about his dad.
He said, tom, how do you knowsomebody needs encouragement?
And he said I don't know.
(37:41):
And he said if they'rebreathing they need
encouragement.
And we're all going to gothrough seasons of life.
I had a lady once and she wasreally just sharing some really
heartbreaking events that she'sdealing with and I just listened
, like you said, coach.
I just I didn't have the answer.
(38:03):
I just listened and I finallylooked at her and I said I'm
sorry.
I said, by the way, I said ifyou want a place that it never
rains, I can take you there.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
And she said what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I said sounds like you've had some storms and I
said but I can take you to aplace that never storms.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And she said really, I said yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I said, it's called a desert and nothing grows.
Nothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad a little rain, a little
storm, yes, and with the rightmentors, with the right
encouragers, with the rightseeds, with the right
encouragers, with the rightseeds, with the right
stewardship, I'll show yousomebody that's bound for a
(38:48):
bountiful harvest.
Awesome, so so awesome.
Coach, I can't tell you thankyou enough.
I will never forget the firsttime we met.
Obviously I knew a little ofyour story before we ever met,
and sometimes you meet peopleand you wonder is the story as
good as the person behind thestory?
(39:08):
And I've got to say, coach, notonly did you meet that
expectation, you exceeded it andI value what you do, I value
what you've done and I valuemore what you're going to do,
because I know God's notfinished with you and there's
still a lot of work to be done.
(39:28):
There's a lot of lives to betouched, a lot of people to be
encouraged, a lot of people thatneed an example in the
mentorship.
So I just want to thank you,but you don't get out of here
without a fun question.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
So everybody that's been on the show gets a fun
question at the very end.
So the question is this CoachNate Hearn, dr Nate Hearn what's
the best concert you've everbeen to?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh my yeah, the best concert you know.
To tell you the truth, the bestconcert I've ever been to, I
put it together.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Let me hear it.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I was asked after I retired.
I was asked to see if I wouldbe a chaplain in the prison
system.
Yeah, exit to Portland CriminalJustice Center.
Yeah.
So I said no problem, because Iwant to go in there and help.
Right, that's my whole thing,that's right.
God says, hey, where were youwhen I was in prison?
(40:43):
Right?
So I'm saying I'm going to behere, right, I'm going to do
what you asked me to do.
So I know to touch soulssometimes music is key.
If you got the right music, ifyou're a pastor and you got the
right music and it's hitting andyou see the Holy Spirit coming
down, you don't even have tokeep you.
(41:06):
If you can humble yourself, youdon't need a message, Just
extend the invitation.
The Holy Spirit's alreadyworking.
That happened.
I brought a gospel fest to aprison unit.
Fifteen different groups of allgenre, of all ethnicity.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Blacks, whites, browns, just every kind of music
you want to hear.
And the inmates had to make arequest to attend.
1,100 men on the unit, 700asked to be to their tent and
the group got up.
They had the full ensemble allfive instruments.
(41:49):
They had background singers,they had a lead singer and they
started and they were reallyreally good.
They were really really goodand 700 inmates in white, just
picture this thing right 700 ofthem.
The music is Christian and it'sflowing.
(42:11):
A little bitty guy about fivefoot three on the very back in
the middle row outside seat.
He stood up and he just saidJesus.
And then he started doing fourrows and when he got to the
front he said Jesus and all theother inmates stood up and they
(42:34):
just Jesus.
They're clapping, they'redancing, and some are on their
knees, some hands extended, somejust circling.
You hear this, the CO'scorrection officer.
You hear those radios startcracking and go Major, major,
you want to lock him up.
You want to lock him up and theMajor goes yes, lock him up.
(42:55):
And then the warden says leavehim alone.
Leave him alone and then,there's a pause there and then
she says that's the Holy Spirit.
But that moment, aaron, theHoly Spirit ascended, came
(43:16):
descended down on those men andall that pin up.
You know, in prison there's alot of things going on.
All of that emotion cameflowing out of them and they
began to praise God.
Wow that was nothing but a Godmoment.
(43:36):
And I still I get goosebumpstelling that story, aaron,
because I saw it real, it wasreal.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I saw it.
Well, let me tell you something, coach.
What you just shared Number one, that was incredible.
And when you talk about aconcert, that was incredible.
But in closing, you also madeanother point that I like to
share with people, and that isthis you can never argue with
(44:07):
somebody's testimony Never.
You can never look at somebodyand say that didn't happen to
you.
So, folks, what you just heardfrom the coach, I have every
reason to believe, down to thedetail, that what you just heard
was the best concert that man'sever seen.
(44:28):
Far enough, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for
another episode of Growing OurFuture.
You know, I like to tell peoplethat our country's got three
vital and renewable resources,that's, young people and
agriculture and leadership, andwe combine all three and we get
(44:48):
to bring guests on that say, hey, let me tell you what I found
to be successful, let me sharewith you what I found to be
encouraging.
Let me share with you someseeds that helped me grow a
success in life.
And they're here sharing thoseseeds with us.
And today we were honored, wewere blessed by coach Nate Hearn
(45:10):
, dr Nate Hearn and coach again,thank you so much.
We appreciate you, weappreciate all of you that
stopped by today and until wemeet again, go out and do
something great for somebodyelse.
You're going to feel good aboutit.
More importantly, you mightjust be the example for somebody
else that's going to go out andchange the world.
(45:31):
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
We'll catch you down the road.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
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.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
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