SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:08

Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with The Good News. Well, we are talking to Scott Montgomery again, and his book is How Did You Get Here? Lessons of Unconventional Success. Welcome back, Scott.

SPEAKER 05 : 0:19

Thank you, Angie. It’s always such a pleasure to chat with you and talk the talk.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:25

I still can’t believe how similar our lives are in the ages of our children. You just took one to college. I just took one to college. And just like, you know, prepping for college, the trips we take to visit universities. I mean, really, we’re doing exactly one of your kids. I’ve got one with a permit learning to drive and you’ve got a younger one too, right?

SPEAKER 06 : 0:44

Yeah, my twins are actually both one month into driving with their driver’s licenses. They’re 16 and one month old. And my college student is pledge class president for his fraternity right now oh yeah literally two weeks in it’s been it’s been a crazy summer wow a little leader that happened fast he just got into his dorm room and he’s already the president of his pledge pledge class that happened fast well i yeah sometimes people say that’s a sucker play too right he’s got 16 pledges he’s got to corral and if he doesn’t corral them he’s got to bear the brunt of their uh lack of compliance oh that’s a good point

SPEAKER 04 : 1:23

That is a good point. Yeah. Is it an honor and a privilege or not so much? All right. Let’s talk about chapter five in the book. How did you get here? This is I love this one because I have a mentor, Jim Stovall, who has written 60 books. He’s blind and he’s become he was an Olympic weightlifter. And he’s just so – he does everything so well, and he’s such great advice. And so I turn to him when I have questions about things. I’ll even talk to him – the one person I’ll talk to about politics because I’m interested in – because he’s friends with Donald Trump, but he’s also – It’s just interesting to get some information from him about where he stands and how torn he might be over certain issues. So I love having a mentor, and this is titled Mentor, Advisor, Coach, Chapter 5. So teach away, Scott.

SPEAKER 06 : 2:16

Oh, well, no. First of all, Angie, thank you so much for giving me the platform and the opportunity to share with your listeners the different chapters of this book. And I love our series, and I love that we’re on Chapter 5. And And I’m really, the gratitude runs deep for the opportunity to sort of just play this out in Storyland with your listeners.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:34

Absolutely. It’s great for me, too. I mean, the beauty, I guess, and the blessing of doing this show is that I’m learning along with hopefully you listening and you doing the interview with me.

SPEAKER 06 : 2:46

And me learning as well. But, you know, one of the big things in this chapter, as I was thinking about our call today, that I really want to point out is that mentors, advisors, and and coaches do play such a critical role in the next generation of leaders. It will also help those who are feeling stifled or stagnant in their own career path. In the book, I do make reference to a couple of different folks that I was able to coach because I did get my certification in leadership coaching in 2018. I tell the story of how I helped them navigate a very productive shift in their career. and how every year I get a text from one of the coachees about where he’s at and how thankful he is for the opportunity. But mostly the thing that excites me about what he says is, and I’ll read it from the book, he says, thank you for seeing something in a personal trainer who handed out protein shake samples that he didn’t see in himself. So a coach and a mentor and an advisor for me is someone that holds up the mirror. They don’t solve the problem. They don’t consult a solution. They basically say, let’s talk about it. What comes up for you? What do you want to do about it? And so often that gets overlooked when people are trying to make a change. They think they got to do it themselves and they think they got to do it a certain way and it’s hit or miss. But with a mentor, an advisor, or a coach, you’re facilitating and you’re being facilitated into the change that you want to make for yourself. And I think that’s a really critical point for the whole chapter and for your listeners to recognize, hey, if you want to make a change, people can help you, but it’s really your change to make. And they don’t always have the right answer. You might have it within.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:24

You know, I also I think they help you kind of sift through everything to get to the important stuff. And the real easy visualization for me is, you know, if I want to get to, you know, Florida and I’m going to the Keys, you know, from Colorado, I’m probably going to have a difficult time getting there without a map. I’m going to make a lot of wrong turns. And hopefully if I get steered south, I can go maybe along the coast and work my way down there. But, you know, I think that. when you have a mentor that can help you make a roadmap to your goal you know and then you’re not just kind of like floating around and bumping into things like bumper cars where you’re taking more of a more of a straight line towards your goal and yes you might make some readjustments but i think like an accountability partner mentor coach these people really keep you on track because i think without writing down this plan or this map of your life and your goals I think we really do get willy-nilly and it’s like you’re in a wave pool, you know, and you’re going back and forth and you’re never really reaching anything of substance because you don’t have a plan.

SPEAKER 06 : 5:27

Right. And there’s such a distinction that I always love to make in opportunities like this one where coaching is about personal inquiry and self-discovery. The psychologist, the psychiatrist, the therapist and the advisors and the consultants, all very different. they’re telling you based on what they’ve learned how to solve your problem. But when you have a coach, they’re helping you facilitate your own personal growth and your own self-discovery, which is always better, more authentic, and more able to reach. So I think one of the things that’s really key about this chapter that I really do try and highlight for listeners is a coach is holding up the mirror, and they are giving you their inputs and what they’re seeing with permission in a coaching session, for example. But when you hire a consultant, you’re paying for advice. This is how you do it. Let’s go down that road. When you’re hiring a psychologist, they’re helping you unpack what got you where you are, and you’re solving the problem, psychiatrist, medication. But when you hire a coach, they’re really helping you. Where do you want to take this? How do you see yourself moving forward? And hopefully a coach can be a mentor too, right? You don’t have to pay them. They can be people you’re attracted to who are sitting in the seat you want to sit in when you get there. Or they can just be next to you, holding you along. And they’re valuable. They’re so valuable. And I love this chapter for that very reason, just helping people recognize you don’t have to do it alone.

SPEAKER 04 : 6:54

You know, you talk a lot about your relationships, too. And I know you told me before, and it’s in the book as well, but at Verizon, when you worked there, you had a lot of people, you know, serving you well as you transitioned. And I know you’ve moved some of the people you’ve met over the years into, you know, your own business. And I think that’s one thing that it’s not just for business. You can use these mentors, coach, advisors, not just to make money or to build your business. Like my son was at his business class and he was early. And I said, walk around and meet some of the professors, like walk around and ask a few questions. Well, then his professor happened to be there and he got to talk to her for like half an hour. And he’s trying to get into this particular Leeds Business School within the University of Colorado. So he’s going there and he’s taking some classes, but you can only take so many until you get in. And he’s taking right now the ones that you have to do well or you won’t get in. Right. And so I said, find out when their offices hours are. Look at the syllabus. See who she recommends to help you if you run into problems. I mean, that really is being mentored by a professor.

SPEAKER 06 : 8:02

Well, and you’re totally right, because, you know. you absolutely know now he will do well because he reached out and he’s getting the support he needs and he’ll get through those classes and the protocols and the paths are gonna be supported for him all the way through. I can’t, you’re so exactly right. Another way to look at it, you know?

SPEAKER 04 : 8:21

You know, my husband, he runs a business and I’ve always been in the news business. And so he started a company from the ground up. So he is the expert in the family. But when we were talking about taking macro and microeconomics, he’s like, well, you gotta take those separately and one before the other. I said, you know, I’ve been doing some research and there are two schools of thought. I said, if it’s the same professor on the same day there can be some advantages because you are learning some of the same things, especially if you have the same professor. I said, so please don’t make him drop a class till he goes to the class. So I’m like, let him go and talk to the professor. So he went the first day and he called me. He’s like, oh my gosh, mom. She said she teaches a lot of the same stuff for the first five weeks. I only have to go to one class because she teaches exactly the same thing in those first five weeks. And she said, definitely take them together because there’s so much overlap. And so I was thankful that, you know, he went to her and got the right information without us just guessing. There’s so much guessing in life.

SPEAKER 06 : 9:21

There’s too much guessing. And you know what? She’s there to support him. And that’s what her interests are. And he’s letting her. And that opens up the door for so many other things that could be possibilities for him in the future that may be even unrelated to the class itself. I mean, who would have guessed 30 years ago that the people that were mentoring me through Verizon were are now working for me and with me here at WorldGate. And we’re a Fortune 500 company. Inc. Magazine just recognized us last year as the best place to work, one of the best places to work, and the fastest growing company in the country. And it’s all attributed to those early, early, early years of, like you said, advising, mentoring, and coaching, right? Getting that sort of mentoring relationship going.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:03

Well, I think that’s interesting. And it could be weekly, monthly, here and there, making appointments, but make it something that’s not just a one and done. Keep in touch with these mentors and coaches. Now, we’ve talked a lot about how did you get here, your book, but we haven’t talked much about WorldGate. So since we’ve got a few more minutes, tell everybody what you do there.

SPEAKER 06 : 10:25

Thank you. Yes. So WorldGate was the genesis of Affirm.com. that I was supporting my school district clients in the beginning with supporting staffing needs in school districts. So some of those folks that I worked with at Verizon called me up to their need to consult them in their school district new jobs. So I’m not even saying this very clearly. The genesis of Worldgate was those who I worked with in my earlier career got jobs in the school districts and hired me to consult. Well, in that opportunity, I saw other needs for consulting and WorldGate was born. This was probably 2002-ish. And ever since then, we’ve been supporting school districts to implement and roll out their technology systems. So we live on the business side of the school district. And we are now also partnering with UKG to implement time tracking and HR systems that tie to people’s paychecks and, again, the business systems of school districts. We support up and down the East Coast. We have about 100 employees, and we’ve been doing this now for about 20 years, and we’ve probably got about 75 school districts we support.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:30

And how many employees did you say?

SPEAKER 06 : 11:32

About 100. We’re growing every year, so it might be a little higher at this point. But, yeah, when the book came out, it was only 75, and the book came out two years ago.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:40

Now, give us an example of, like, a problem you might solve or something you might consult on.

SPEAKER 06 : 11:45

So the school district would call us and say, hey, we need to liaison better between the IT organization and the client organization of, say, HR. And we are building systems to communicate better. Can we get a business analyst from your organization that can facilitate those conversations, capture and document those conversations so we can build out the right system platforms to communicate more efficiently, more effectively? So it’s the business side of IT that we typically live. We do support HR and we do support enrollment and some of the student systems as we evolve. But we definitely like to be in partnership with the district. And we are definitely bringing in resources from the big consulting firms at a lower cost and a more efficient way. And the school districts like that. We’re not as expensive. We’re not as demanding. And we’re more collaborative and in partnership with our clients than we are dictating solutions and answers that are super expensive.

SPEAKER 04 : 12:44

Now, we have about a minute left. I know you’re going to speak in New York to a bunch of teachers. What will you talk to them about?

SPEAKER 06 : 12:51

Thank you for that, too. Yes, the Teachers Union of New York City has actually engaged me to be up there in a couple weeks at an awards ceremony for their employees. And really, it’s about motivating them to think past challenges. where they are in their career and what they might want to do and ways in which they can get to the next level of their career. And they have taken a fondness to the book because as a collective, the chapters talk to people about how to make the change. It’s not just communications. It’s not just partnerships. It’s not just coaching. It’s a collection of these things. And they want me to get in there and sort of help unravel that with their teams so that they can continue to grow and be effective in their leadership roles.

SPEAKER 04 : 13:30

Wow, that’s pretty cool. It’s neat that you’ve built this over the years, and I’m sure made little adjustments into what it ultimately became.

SPEAKER 06 : 13:39

Well, I had a coach. I did have a coach, and I did have mentors, and I still do today.

SPEAKER 04 : 13:44

I love that. All right, I want to make sure people can find you, Scott Montgomery. How Did You Get Here? Lessons of Unconventional Success. Website, please. www.HowDidYouGetHere.com Well, that’s easy enough. Thanks, Scott. Thank you, Angie.

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SPEAKER 04 : 14:57

Fort Collins is listening to the mighty 670 KLT Denver. Hello, it’s Angie Austin with The Good News with Angie Austin. Hope you’re having a great day. Let’s start off The Good News with some good news, and then we’ll have a guest joining us talking about the Unity Blueprint, which I think you’ll find quite interesting. Let’s start with good news involving a young man. I love it when kids are involved in doing something that makes a difference in their community. And a lot of people think I don’t have the money or I don’t have enough people to make a difference. And I always think about the power of one. And this was one kid during the pandemic lockdown. Asher Rosenfeld, a New York City 12 year old at the time, started an organization by himself called the Audibles with Asher program, the Audibles with Asher program. And he hosts a weekly reading session over Zoom for children and young adults with special needs. And it wasn’t just like a group session. He was doing with lots of different kids once a week. So he was hosting weekly individual reading sessions over Zoom for children and young adults with special needs. And he wanted to give them kind of a routine and something to look forward to during the pandemic in the fall of 2020. Because remember, a lot of kids were learning from home and for special needs kids that go to a lot of different interactional programs, you know, therapy and classes and you know, course therapy and, you know, different exercise programs. They had to do a lot of stuff online and they were confined to their home and kind of, you know, isolated just like other kids, but maybe a little more confused about why they couldn’t go out and enjoy the world anymore. So it’s five years later and Asher is still doing this. And he said the bonds between him and the kids and adults with special needs have grown stronger than ever. So now he’s 17 and he’s still seeing the same kids and young adults every week on Zoom to read books and further their friendships. Because it’s online, it’s easy for every participant, no matter their physical or medical condition, to join from their home with Asher. The parents of a special needs kid say it’s been a lifeline for their children. And for the Upper West Side New York City teen, it’s been a lesson in empathy, consistency, and connection. I mean, he’s continued this journey. For five years as he’s gone through school, so he’s kind of grown up with these kids. How cool is that? And some of them, again, not kids. Some of them are young adults. And he said, the same kids I started reading with at the start of seventh grade, I’m reading with, again, at the start of my senior year, Asher said. We grew up together and have developed incredible, meaningful relationships with each other throughout these five years. Over time, I’ve realized it’s not actually about the books. It’s about the connection that happens while we’re reading and hanging out. That’s the part that’s stuck and the part that matters most to me. Asher reads to each participant, and then he donates and ships all the books as well. So he’s not just reading. He’s donating and shipping books as well, and there are some videos online as well. One of the books that he really likes is I Broke My Trunk, an elephant and piggy book written by Mo Willems for age 3 to 6. This year, Asher has partnered with the Nonprofit Friendship Circle, and this is an organization that creates greater awareness of people with special needs. And Audibles with Asher, his organization, and he said, I just love to read, and I’m thrilled to be able to share my passion reading one-on-one and connecting other stories that we can enjoy together so they connect over stories. I love that. All right, if you are just joining us, this is Angie Austin with the good news. Angie here, I’m really excited about our next guest. His name is Jeff Williams. He’s a civil engineer, CEO, and former mayor of Arlington, Texas. And he’s written a new book, and the new book is The Unity Blueprint. In it, Jeff is sharing strategies to help leaders unite business, government, and communities around shared goals. How cool is that? Welcome, Jeff.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:25

Thank you for having me, Angie.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:27

All right, so tell us what inspired you to write Unity Blueprint, and then let’s just get into what it is exactly.

SPEAKER 03 : 19:35

Well, I value bringing people together to work on a common purpose, and it’s amazing when people are gathered together what great things can happen. And here in Arlington, we have experienced great success when we do that, and we needed to. When I came into office, we were about to lose the Texas Rangers, our Major League Baseball team. We had not been bringing in many businesses, and we had pretty well stagnated. And so I needed an army of people to help me. And so we made a plan, which I think is so important. So many people don’t realize the importance of a plan. And they don’t even have one. And they just react to getting the promotion as a manager or getting elected to office. And yet when you make a plan and you involve people in that and then be willing to to get their input on the plan, then suddenly it goes from my plan to our plan and magic happens.

SPEAKER 04 : 20:37

I love that. So how do you unite these people, oftentimes, especially it seems like in the current climate, with opposing viewpoints to work towards a common goal?

SPEAKER 03 : 20:50

Well, it’s so important to find initiatives that need to happen, whether it be in your business or in your community. And as you find them, then you recruit people that have that passion for that purpose and And then as you bring them together, you’ve got to value them. You know, people are looking for leaders they can trust and leaders that value their opinion and actually engage them. And that’s something that leaders have got to be willing to do. And that is to become trustworthy and to value the people and then listen to them and then put your ego aside and be willing to change your plan to accommodate the other people when they have a good idea. And you’ve also got to be knowledgeable enough to be able to say that, hey, that’s not a good idea when something comes forward that’s not going to work. But you’ve got to tell them why, but then encourage them to bring other ideas back and to work together. And it’s amazing how people are yearning for unity. However, they are not doing much to work on it. And that’s what Forbes said when they assigned me to do this book. They said, America is hungry for unity and we need to give them the tools to be able to create unity.

SPEAKER 04 : 22:04

Now, can you give us an example where unity did change the outcome of a project and discuss that with us?

SPEAKER 03 : 22:13

I mentioned how we were able to come together and keep the Texas Rangers, our Major League Baseball, in town. And that was definitely through unity and bringing people together and working towards that. And it started with a few people and grew along the way. And then that led to us being able to bring in hotels and restaurants and a major entertainment complex that actually helped our city grow. And then we were plunged into a competition for the National Medal of Honor Museum. It was a 20-city competition, and Washington, D.C. has almost all of the national museums, but they weren’t going to go to D.C. because it was going to take 20 years to get it built. So here we had a chance to be able to house a national museum, but yet again, we needed help. So I had to find those people that were passionate for that purpose and then work out a plan to be able to bring the museum here because the other 19 cities were working on that same thing. And it was amazing how unifying that project was. And friends were forged, and ultimately we won the competition, and we just opened the National Medal of Honor Museum here in our community. And what a facility and what a museum it is.

SPEAKER 04 : 23:35

That is pretty cool. Now, this approach, can it be applied outside of city government as well?

SPEAKER 03 : 23:41

It really can. In fact, I’m a business owner myself, and as I turned out of office and came back to my business, I needed to hire, I’m an engineer, and I needed to hire young engineers. I had a lot of experienced engineers and So, consequently, I had to redo the culture here of our place. We needed to work on how we could show our employees that we valued them. We needed to also create career paths for younger people to show them how they could move in the company and advance themselves and become leaders themselves. So we also started a staff meeting every week in which we had an opportunity to encourage each other and share stories of where an employee had helped them and given rewards for being helpful. And also we started major training programs for them. We gutted our offices to be friendly because it’s interesting – Our employees want to work remotely, and we allow them to do that one day a week. But teamwork is so critical. And then yet people want to have a nice office to come to that’s inviting. And actually, our office is designed to promote collaboration. And when you have projects to work on, you don’t need conflict to really stifle the employees and to occupy their mind and hurt the morale. Instead, we need them to be productive and not have their minds occupied on the problem they have with a fellow employee. And then suddenly productivity goes off the charts. Everybody’s rowing in the same direction and great things happen inside your business and profits increase.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:27

It’s interesting. I wonder if I did this in a way when I worked at NBC in Los Angeles. I was in my 20s. It was my first job, but I was working with a lot of union guys kind of behind the scenes that did things a certain way. I remember once when I was on air, I’m really short, so I moved a chair so that at the set I could sit up there so I could be taller like the, um, the other anchors or whatever. And he said it was against union rules and he was all over me and he was so nasty. And I thought it was just so stupid. So, um, because he obviously was making a bigger deal out of it. Like, um, just to make a point. Okay. Okay. So with that said, there were other instances where like when I needed videotape from another city, I would arrange with like Kron in San Francisco to feed the video to totally different back then that feed a satellite feed to me in Los Angeles. Well, the guy back there that did the satellite feeds, he’d fall asleep sometimes. And then he just if he was mad at you, he just wouldn’t record it. And that makes your life so difficult. And so I’d read something somewhere about how these people that are making your life miserable at work somehow befriend them, be really nice to them, maybe go back there and wait for the feed to be coming in and said, hey, my feed’s coming in now. Could you record that for me? And it really did make my work life a lot easier because there were so many of these hoops to jump through with people that were two and three times my age at the time that really weren’t that eager to help me. And so maybe I did this on a small scale.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:58

Angie, you certainly did, and it really is coming back to valuing people, whether they be your clients, fellow workers, or fellow employees. It makes a difference. And then many times things are happening in people’s lives that we don’t understand. Right. If we meet that with respect and kindness, then we have a chance.

SPEAKER 04 : 27:21

Yeah, that’s a good point. There’s so much going on that we don’t know about it. All right, so we’re almost out of time. What advice would you give to someone to accomplish great things, and then where can we go to learn more?

SPEAKER 03 : 27:34

Well, my book is The Unity Blueprint by W. Jeff Williams. It’s on sale on Amazon. We have already made Amazon number one bestseller. Forbes published it, and they predicted that this was going to be a major topic because Americans want unity, but yet they aren’t doing a lot to help promote unity. Well, this book is very practical, has practical stories in it, and then we give leadership lessons there to be able to promote unity, whether it be in your workplace, in your nonprofit, or in your city as you’re leading and being a community leader or an elected official. but such an important thing. And we are looking forward to changing the cycle here in America. And there’s so many others that are working now to really build toward unity so that we can have a more productive and a much happier and joyful life.

SPEAKER 04 : 28:30

Well, a real pleasure to talk to you, Jeff Williams, the Unity Blueprint. Really looking forward to reading it myself. Thank you.

SPEAKER 03 : 28:36

Thank you, Angie. Appreciate it. And let’s build unity. Let’s do it. Today’s the day.

SPEAKER 02 : 28:43

Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.