Change Starts Here

Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work is Ahead of You is the new book by Cynthia Covey Haller. Haller, a teacher, and speaker outside of her writing duties, spoke with Dustin Odham about this inspirational book, guided by the wisdom of her late father and co-author of Live Life in Crescendo, Stephen R. Covey.

Haller calls herself the mother hen of the Covey family; she is the eldest of nine children. Haller’s also a mother of six and a grandmother; with this new book, she adds first-time author to her list of accomplishments. One lesson Haller learned from her parents that she carries with her today is to try harder than anyone she knows and own up to her mistakes.

For Haller, Live Life in Crescendo is a true labor of love. Her father passed away ten years ago, but they began discussing several projects in 2008. “The one that intrigued me the most was this idea, live life in crescendo because that was his personal mission statement for the last ten years of his life,” Haller said. “He said, what if you helped me out, take my ideas, interview me, and then you do the work.” It took a while to complete the book, but following the book’s mantra, Haller got it to the finish line.

The impetus behind the book is the concept that there isn’t an age when one packs it in. People should continue to learn, grow, and never be satisfied where they are; strive for more and don’t diminish. Haller views living life in crescendo as a new way of thinking. “It’s a new paradigm to look at life in every age and stage that you’re in, and it’s looking at a problem thinking, I’m going to make this better and find a way to make it work. I’m going to start with myself.”

Cathy Quiroz Moore is the Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, NC, the 15th largest school system in the United States. Moore came to the U.S. from Ecuador when she was two years old. That dual culture influenced who Moore is as a person and her actions as a leader. Her roots in the Wake County Public School Stem stretch back to 1988 when she entered as a French teacher. Being engaged and seeking out leadership opportunities are traits that Moore always fostered.

“Even as a beginning teacher, I looked for and had opportunities to take on small leadership roles within our regular school community setting, and those were exciting to me when I came to Wake County in ’88,” Moore said. “After a couple of years in the classroom, I had the opportunity to take on a student teacher from a local university.” This situation helped Moore realize there were more ways to influence education than teaching students; passing along knowledge and craft to others was equally essential. And soon, the organizational side of education opened to Moore, a role she could play an integral part in its success.

Moore’s transition to superintendent didn’t happen overnight. It took several decades, a lot of work, and until a few years ago, Moore wasn’t thinking about such a role. But her continued leadership persistence, hard work, and dedication to making a difference in education continued to narrow the path towards her destiny. “For me, it is about being invested where you are, learning as much as you can, growing your profession, and growing with colleagues,” Moore said.

Some of Moore’s experiences growing up led her to discover that teachers who recognize a student’s potential can positively impact those students’ lives. “Those experiences, at an early age, and those who, during the course of my elementary, middle school, and high school teacher administrators who believed in me, helped me understand that I had worth, value, and something to contribute."

Working within a positive culture creates optimal results in any setting, and that is especially true for those in K12 educational settings. Juan Bendaña, top youth motivational speaker, joined Host Dustin Odham to dive more into how to create and define a positive culture in the classroom.

Bendaña believes the first step to understanding students is to take a step back. “The most important thing is meeting them where they are, not where you think they should be,” he stated. He also emphasized the role emotion plays in understanding students. “We approach an emotional challenge with a logical solution,” he explained. “People don’t remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel,” Bendaña continued.

Once educators take a step back to understand their students, they can start to build a culture in which they can thrive. “Educators oftentimes focus solely or mostly on the information that they are trying to give students as opposed to the energy they are trying to show up with,” Bendaña said. This energy includes what educators are bringing to their building each day, which is directly controlled by the things they do to raise their own energy level daily. He added, “Energy is a choice…energy is a decision you make.”

The trust component of a culture is often missed but is one of the easiest components to build. Bendaña cited a UC Berkeley study that looked at preseason characteristics of NBA teams. They determined the strongest correlation with who won the championship was teams with the most touches—such as fist bumps and high fives—because it built trust. Bendaña used this to suggest that high-fiving students is one easy way to build trust. Building a culture of collective goals in the classroom and getting student input for accountability of culture is another necessary tactic.

It is not uncommon for educators to feel drained like they have an empty cup, which Bendaña touched upon. He suggested educators start filling their own cups by practicing saying “no.” “When you’re saying ‘yes’ to something, you’re also saying ‘no’ to something else,” he explained. “The process of avoiding burnout is being able to create space so it doesn’t have a way in,” he continued.”

Bendaña touched on several other topics throughout the podcast, including how to prevent bullying, fear of failure, and more. For more on building educational culture from Franklin Covey, visit Spotify, Apple iTunes, YouTube, or www.marketscale.com.

Who takes care of the teachers?

In the “Change Starts Here” podcast, host Dustin Odham chatted with author and associate at Marzano Resources and Solution Tree, Dr. Tina Boogren. As an advocate for the well-being and needs of educators, Boogren talked about a new shift towards emphasizing the wellness needs of teachers.

In her prior studies of educators, Dr. Boogren came to the conclusion that there was a link between efficiency in teachers and their wellness.

“One of the things that I found in doing that study … the most effective teachers are effective at the sacrifice of something else in their lives. So every single one of them had health issues and personal things going on,” said Boogren.

This realization offered an explanation to Boogren about going back to the drawing board. She stated that much of student achievement goals place a lot of importance on teachers and the instructional strategy. However, she added that teachers are also human beings who need to be well and healthy to provide the best education to their students. Because without that, strategy is ineffective.

“If the person providing that strategy is totally burned out, worn out, exhausted, compassion fatigued, that strategy is not going have the impact, and as schools move towards the incredible important work for social-emotional learning for students, all the research says... that work starts with the adults,” said Boogren.

She added that too often educators' needs are not prioritized nor considered because the system normally favors students' needs over theirs.

But the COVID-19 pandemic helped people see a new perspective as everyone faced lockdowns, and worried about their well-being away from socializing. That is when Boogren and a partner got to work on creating a wellness and self-care framework for educators.

Much of it includes ensuring educators get adequate sleep, make movement, be it in the classroom or exercising, and drinking water. But as simple as it may seem, the busy lives of educators can interfere with even some of the most basic daily functions. Boogren mentioned that self-awareness plays an important role in how they can incorporate Boogren’s four dimensions of wellness.

Boogren said there has never been a time where education wellness has focused on educators. But with the current work that is being done now to combat that, she believes future educators will change gears and said that change will start sooner than later.

“The next generation is going to force us to. They’re not going to work the way we do and did,” said Boogren.

Facing adversity from a young age, Dr. John “Push” Gaines, a professional speaker and leadership consultant, was not sure where his life would end up - but he was sure of one thing: he would persevere. On this, Dr. Gaines speaks to host Dustin Odham about his experience in persevering and the importance of leaning into the present.

“Persevere until something happens,” said Dr. Gaines. Dr. Gaines grew up in the Hilltop community in Tacoma, WA, a community notorious, at the time, for the crime. Now a mentorship advocate, Dr. Gaines’ childhood was unfortunately filled with traumatizing experiences, including finding his deceased mother, who passed away from a crack-cocaine overdose.

Despite this, Dr. Gaines continued to push through the pain to persevere. Although born with drugs in his system, he found an educator who helped him change his life. Decorated with pictures of inspirational changemakers, his childhood classroom teacher asked the class to write out their dreams. Seeing a picture of a man who looked like him, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Gaines knew two things: He wanted to be like the man he saw on the wall and a football player. He said, “I remember looking up on the wall and I saw a man that kind of looked like me that was doing something great…and I said ‘I want to be like him’...I want to change and inspire the world…” Dr. Gaines teacher told him that she believed in him. He reflected, “Her belief in me changed my life…that was the first time that I believed in myself.”

In addition to his goal to be like Dr. King, Dr. Gaines knew he also wanted to be what he never had: a present father. “I’m always thinking about my family. How am I elevating my family? How am I representing my family? How am I leaving a legacy for my family? So, who I am drives what I do,” said Dr. Gaines. As a husband and a father, everything else secondary, he said.

“Right now, I am in a season of perseverance until something happens and I believe that that is the core and the foundation of ‘push’ because I believe that perseverance is developed through pain,” reflected Dr. Gaines. While opportunities to continue or quit will come along, how you respond and who can support you in this response is key.

Every young person is one “I believe” away from changing their life, said Dr. Gaines.

In college, podcast host Dustin Odham read Rick Warren’s A Purpose Driven Life. He’s been living by a mission statement he created ever since – “to make a positive and lasting impact on every person I meet, every single day,” said Odham. He intentionally chose to create a mission statement that was not job-specific but would apply to all aspects of his life on a daily basis. The choices in Odham’s life, from marrying his wife to working at FranklinCovey, have been guided by his mission.

“FranklinCovey is all about an inside-out approach. First, a mirror to each individual. How do I get better? Then how can we collectively identify each other's genius and greatness,” said Odham. The focus is on the people, empowering the leaders and teachers so that they can model the care they get. Starting the podcast for FranklinCovey, Odham was hesitant to take the lead as host but he has grown into the role and has learned a great deal from the various guests over the last season.

In reviewing the past interviews, Odham recalls specific lessons that he now applies to work and life. He finds inspiration from leaders like Adolf Doc Brown, who " loves every minute of life and ignites joy in others,” said Odham. Each day Brown tries to connect with people. “He is genuinely trying to be good medicine. It’s something I remind myself of often,” said Odham.

After talking to Erik Weihenmayer, Odham faces challenges differently. Challenges that Odham used to avoid or go around he faces. He knows that one small step at a time leads to significant accomplishments. Weihenmayer was the first blind person to reach the summit of Everest. His no barriers mindset inspires Odham. “I love his thinking on embracing challenges,” said Odham. “What’s within you is stronger than what is in your way.”

Don’t miss an episode of the next season of Change Starts Here for more inspiration.

Throughout the second season Odham highlighted that he primarily focused on going more deeper and personal with his guests, by featuring the smaller tidbits of their lives like their hobbies, and how they contribute to their thought process. In the forthcoming season of “Change Starts Here” however, Odham plans on going a step further. He said he wants to discover how his guests beat adversity.

“This next season my goal is to get better at diving deeper,” stated Odham. “I want to hear more about the challenges people have experienced over their life. Because as we know life's tough, life’s not easy — it's full of ups and downs and so I want to continue to dive into these great people’s — these successful people's lives, and find out what bumps they've had to overcome or challenges they had to overcome in their life.”

Odham explained that he also wants listeners to gain some life lessons from the show. He said that listeners should expect to hear an episode, and easily find some value in the discussion to apply to their own lives. “I want to make sure that every time you listen to the podcast you walk away specifically knowing — feeling you're a better person, you got advice to be a better person, and then also to be a better educator,” said Odham.

His goal is to evidently, explore the little things that tend to play a role in the bigger aspects of someone’s success.

Odham gave thanks and said he challenges listeners to revisit the show’s past episodes for inspiration, but most importantly reach out to him on Instagram for specific requests, and who and what guests want to see on “Change Starts Here,” when it returns for its third season on August 16.

As an author and Childhood Trauma Motivational Speaker, Clark now considers himself a “hope dealer.” But this wasn’t always the case.

“I didn't grow up on love, affection, a wonderful mom and dad that just loved on me. I grew up on survival,” reflected Clark, “Over the years, I learned how to turn nothing into something.”

After attempts to kill Clark failed, Clark was brought into the world with an imprisoned biological father and a mother unfit to raise a child.

Brutally abused until the age of five by his birth parents, Clark was abandoned by those same parents at a psychiatric hospital, where the facility ultimately placed him in a shelter “for unadoptable kids”.

On this, Clark said, “...Every kid is adoptable…Every kid deserves love. Every kid deserves a family.” Despite his own trauma, Clark knew this cycle of abuse had to end with him. He said, “But I had to make sure that I was going to be conscious and intentional when I was an adult to pass on generational blessings to my kids and not generational cycles or generational curses.”

Clark did not know how to read or write until he was eight or nine years old, did not know how to speak at a level commensurate to his age, and could not walk the steps alone or run until he was seven. Given the abuse he faced and the labels given to him, Clark went through a series of foster homes in the area and was given one more chance to find a family before the state would take him to another facility.

After a failed attempt to run away, Clark found a family willing to work with him: two teachers. “What helped me was those two educators, those two teachers and permanency,” said Clark. With patience and courage, these two educators transformed Clark’s life, while providing a creative outlet for Clark to excel in.

What made a difference for Clark was this connection to people. Since then, the number one complaint amongst students Clark has surveyed is that they feel unheard.

“I’ve learned that the power of connection is meeting them where they’re at, listening, acknowledging, validating, and being that positive modeling adult,” said Clark. This means that coming to school can be and should be a safe place for those who feel unheard.

From a young age, Chris McChesney fell in love with Stephen Covey’s application of principles over best practices. He wanted to be a part of Franklin Covey so much that he landed his first job with them over thirty years ago by pretending to be a newspaper reporter as a fake intern. That’s dedication. Today McChesney is a National Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, and Global Practice Leader with Franklin Covey. He sat down with Dustin Odham to discuss how to create some wildly important goals this summer.

McChesney’s book, the 4 Disciplines of Execution, proved influential to Odham in his career path, so he asked McChesney to share the origins behind the approach. Through a Franklin Covey consultant some twenty-five years ago, McChesney saw doing unique work with organizational design that first got his wheels turning. Eventually, the portion that drew the most interest for McChesney was execution and how to execute strategy effectively.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution came out ten years ago, and with a decade of putting these ideas into practice, the question is, what makes these disciplines still valid today?

“There were a couple of things that were just huge,” McChesney said. “One of them was the whirlwind. People are shocked when they learn that we were at this for three years before putting our finger on the whirlwind and this idea of urgency addiction. It’s not about executing a goal. It’s about executing a goal in the face of this other force, which is the energy required to maintain the operation.” And the second thing was a conscious decision not to let the four disciplines be an overarching system. That doesn’t mean learnings from the years of putting these ideas into practice can’t change over time. There is a second edition of the book.

“Between the first and second editions of the book, there were some common areas where leaders struggle,” McChesney said. “We were so close to the methodology, we knew what we meant, but sometimes what you mean isn’t what you say. And we were much more deliberate about it in the second edition.”