Speaker 1: Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a
journey of exploration into agricultural science, education,
leadership development and insights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast,
we really appreciate you stopping by.
We enjoy this podcast because it's an opportunity for us to
find folks that are willing to pour into others, to share their
time, talent, testimonies, experiences and, like we always
say, if you want to know what the future is, grow it.
Well, the way you grow something is you got to plant
the right seeds.
Well, today's no different folks.
We have got an extraordinary guest.
Well, today's no different folks, we have got an
extraordinary guest, and I cannot wait to get to their
seeds of greatness that I know, if we plant them in our lives,
we're going to grow something mighty, 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 this man here in a second, but it's
an honor to have Dr Coach Nate Hearn Coach thank you for
joining us today.
Speaker 3: 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 the years and many of them.
That's an eternal friendship.
It's, it's gonna last forever, I'll never forget them.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, trust me.
That's the power of testimony.
What you just said, that's the power of testimony.
Uh, we stand on the shoulders of the people that went before
us and we're grateful for the seeds that people share, which
is why, coach, we're grateful that you're with us today, so
that you're going to get a chance to share with the
audience of students, with adults, with sponsors, with
educators, and it goes around.
Amazing, coach, how many people around the world watch this
podcast Blows me away.
So, just know that your words here are going to become seeds
of greatness.
I appreciate you taking time to join us.
I'm honored.
Here's the thing Every person that comes on this show,
everybody gets the same first question Coach, what are you
grateful for today?
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today to
know that our future is with our students.
That's been my heart forever, to know that they're out there,
they want to learn, they want to grow, they want to make a great
nation and I'm honored to be a part of that, to know that we
can do this and it has an effect for the future.
Speaker 2: I'm going to agree with you.
You know, when Tom Ziegler by the way folks, coach Nate and I
have a mutual friend and Tom Ziegler, the son of the late
great Zig Ziegler, and when Tom and I first started talking,
coach, we were talking he said, well, tell me what you do.
And I said I'm in the future business.
And he said what do you mean?
I said I'm in the kid business, and if you're in the kid
business, you're in the future business.
And so I appreciate what you said because it's an honor I
know you're grateful for that.
It's an honor too for me to sit in the seat that I sit in and
have an opportunity to work with young people and to work with
educators.
So thank you so much for what you're grateful for, coach.
I know that there are some that may 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 Night Lights and we talk about Zig
Ziglar, sometimes it's not something that's immediate in
their wheelhouse.
I know the success that you've had as a coach, as a husband, as
a father, in so many roles that you've played.
I know you didn't just fall into that seat.
Something tells me that there was 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 and just kind of walk us through
Coach Nate's journey and how you got to where you're at today.
Speaker 3: It's just awesome.
Yeah, the main thing is, like you said, I had seeds poured
into me, watered and nourished by some great people.
Now, my parents were great, wonderful parents.
I came from a home of seven other brothers and sisters and
my parents.
They poured into us the things that we were supposed to do and
how we were supposed to do it, and the most important thing was
to be caring and kind and helping, of service.
My parents were people of service orientation, but they
were not educators and grew up poor.
I didn't know where my next meal was going to come from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going to come from.
I wore hand-me-down clothes.
I didn't know if I was going to come home to the same house
sometimes, but my parents kept us together and provided for us.
School was different.
You need it.
You grow up in poverty and you know that you're isolated out
there and things are just not the same.
Sometimes a rural can be cruel and you need that teacher figure
, authority figure, that can come along and say hey, you're
okay, I think you're going to do great things someday.
Every one of us need that a smile, a pat, an encouraging
word.
So I got that from two great men.
A science teacher, seventh grade, and my football coach did
that for me and I'm eternally grateful for the seeds that they
planted in me, because Aaron and I would not have made it
without their encouragement, without their encouragement.
My science teacher he took me under his wing, he made me his
lab assistant in his class.
My football coach a seventh grade football coach, mark
Wallace.
My science teacher's name was Mr Clyde Hake.
Where was this at?
Speaker 2: coach.
Speaker 3: This was Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 2: Andrews, Texas.
Speaker 3: West Texas, west Texas.
Yeah, this was Andrews Texas.
Andrews Texas, west Texas, west Texas.
Yeah, little small town, maybe 5,000 people at the most.
You know they took me under their wing and nourished me.
I became, from their nourishment, from their seed
planting, the thing that I wanted to do and I decided at an
early age because of their influence in my life.
I remember that I said you know I was one of those, you know,
troubled children.
I had lots of trouble in school .
I wasn't successful until I met those two men and they turned
me around.
My grades were bad.
I made C's, d's and F's in elementary school.
You know I had behavior problems.
And then I met those two men and it just flipped.
I went from making F's and D's on my report cards to being on
the honor roll because of their influence and I decided in the
seventh grade that I wanted to be a science teacher and a coach
, and in that moment I would never let it go.
Wow, I never let it go Wow, and today I still follow their
leadership, the examples that they set for me.
Today I'm 73 years old and I still follow the things that
they taught me when I was in the seventh grade.
Speaker 2: 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 the future and seeds of greatness,
what I tell people the reason why people's testimonies are so
powerful is if you'll listen to somebody's testimony.
Tony Robbins said success leaves clues.
And if you listen to folks' testimony, you start finding
those seeds.
Just in your first sharing.
There you talked about encouragement, you talked about
expectation, you talked about accountability and you also
trickled in a little want to.
And you also trickled in a little want to.
Yes, because none of that words of encouragement and none of
that opportunity that was presented to you could have ever
been nourished and brought fruit if you wouldn't have had
some want to, and you obviously had a little want to.
I think you sounds like you wanted to maybe have a little
more than what you had.
Growing up, you were encouraged by what somebody gave you, so
you wanted to kind of share that with somebody else.
Yes, I kind of picked up on that that.
You know, these are the kind of seeds of greatness that I hope
people hear.
One of the things that I share with some of our youth leaders,
coaches.
I tell them.
I said go ahead, get into school and 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 few opportunities to take.
I said, but once you get out in the real world it's going to
get a little bit harder to take.
I said but once you get out in the real world it's going to get
a little bit harder to take.
Yes, I said, but if you can learn at an early age to serve,
when you get into high school, you can serve yes.
When you get into college, you can serve yes.
And when you get out of college and you start a career and you
live in a neighborhood and you live in a community, guess what?
There are going to be needs and an opportunity to serve Always.
So think big about that service component, because it doesn't
matter if you become a coach, it doesn't matter if you become
director of a nonprofit, it doesn't matter what your role is
in life.
Giving back to others is probably one of the greatest
gifts, and you and I both know what did Zig always say?
You know you can get anything in life you want, that's right.
If you help enough other people get 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 a state championship.
So what does that journey look like?
To build a team, to build a program and here's one for you,
Coach to build a culture of excellence and winning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to have the right mindset to build
that kind of culture.
You have to have a process and you have to get the guys to
believe in that process.
It's like it's like anything in life If it's going to be
successful, the most important thing in any entity are the
people, the relationship with the people, the relationships
with those young men, the relationship with the people,
the relationships with those young men.
We had to nurture and grow those relationships in order for
them to excel in that program, because it was a very difficult
program.
It was based on a college level program.
We instituted the first coach, instituted that and came down to
the high school level and instituted school level and
institute it and they begin to take off and for 35 years at
permian high school we had that one percentage of 88.9 percent.
Six state championships, national champions, team of the
decade the times that I was there, 10 years, the years that
I served there we renamed a team of the decade with uh, 122 wins
and 11 losses.
Speaker 1: Just unheard of and most amazing thing about those
guys.
Speaker 3: They were undersized One time.
Aaron, we're playing in the semifinals for the state with
the smallest team in Texas, but we're in the big school division
.
Our middle linebacker weighs 145.
Our linemen are over 200 pounds the smallest team in the state
and we're playing against another team and they have seven
Division One already scholarship 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 that school and a culture.
Because of that, the moniker was Mojo.
Because of that, mojo, mojo.
We had a following.
They built a stadium in 1980 and people thought they were
crazy.
They built a stadium in 1980 in Odessa, radcliffe Stadium that
seat 28,000 people for high school football.
This was in 80.
And they thought we were crazy and they feel that stadium every
Friday night when we played at home for 31 years.
But 31 years, right, and with that kind of atmosphere, with
that kind of following, we had over 500 students in the band,
380 Peppettes, a community that would follow us to to the end of
the world to watch us play, to support us.
That program brought to that community.
And when you have something like that, it changes the
community, it changes everybody, it affects a lot of lives.
When you have that kind of culture in the school behind
students who want to excel, they want to do the good thing.
They want to do the right thing they're playing it's wholesome.
It's mom.
Apple pie, white picket fence.
That's what it was Right.
Speaker 2: You know, kyle, there's so much there.
Again, you just, for example.
I love doing these interviews because there's so many little
things that people will just listen that you can pick out.
Success begets success.
Listen to what you just shared.
It was so beautifully.
You didn't just talk about the football team, you talked about
how those successes were duplicated in fine arts.
They were probably duplicated in other classroom activity.
They were probably duplicated.
I guarantee you anybody that knows small town Texas, you know
there's coffee shops where everybody gathers to cuss and
discuss what's wrong with the country and everything else.
But when you're winning, guess what 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 going to be outmanned, we were going
to be outweighed, but we weren't going to be outhearted?
We, you know.
And so what you just shared is the beauty of success.
One of the guests that I've had on here, coach, is a guy that
he just matter of fact, I worked for him when his company first
started.
He just made the largest gift in Texas Tech University history
.
He gave him a $44 million gift, oh man, and he very much
humbled beginnings and just became very successful.
But what he likes to say that I like is he says it's okay to
win.
Speaker 3: It's okay to win.
Speaker 2: It's okay to win.
Yeah, y'all put in a lot of work.
It's okay that you won.
It's true, no one gave it to you, no one said you're entitled
to it.
You were grateful for the opportunity you put in, the work
and you reap the results.
It's okay to win.
It's okay to win, and success begets success.
It does, and y'all did that throughout.
I can tell you and I think I mentioned this to you before in
1985, I was state FFA president and I would travel four to five
schools a day, five days a week.
I traveled all over the state of Texas.
I've been in high schools all over the state and to your point
, to your point, in 1985, 86, and that year I remember coming
to Permian and I remember driving by the football stadium
and I remember saying that's where the mojo happens.
I also remember you'll remember this too I remember the Monday
Moguls.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I remember when they built a brand new high
school and football field in Gilmer Texas.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: You remember?
Yes, you remember.
And so it's amazing how a structure can become kind of a
flagpole, that's true, kind of rally around.
But something you said, coach, and I'm always listening in
these interviews to find the title of this interview, and I'm
not saying I've got it yet, I'm just giving you an example.
You can have all the structures of this interview.
I'm not saying I've got it yet, I'm just giving you an example.
You can have all the structures in the world, but if you don't
have the right people and the right culture, you just got a
pretty structure and the first thing that you said when you
started to tell me about your journey was you said it's about
the people.
That was the first thing you said.
It's about the people, about the people.
That was the first thing you said it's about the people and I
wrote that down.
That's it, because God didn't create us to be the Lone Ranger.
No, life is not a solo project, and you said it.
Speaker 3: You said it was all about the people yeah, and I I
know that you know this and and I hope this is what the students
get from this is that anything that you do in life, the thing
that makes that success is that you have to know who you are
right, knowing your identity, knowing who you are.
Becoming self-aware uh, john maxwell in his book
self-awareness he says that's the most important thing in life
that you have to be able to identify who you are.
If you're able to identify who you are, then you can plan
anything, you can plan your life , because you know what you want
, you know who you are and that's why the people are so
important.
And you said it you can get a good 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 not going to work Right.
They got it when my cat and I do a program called Core Clarity,
and it's all about helping students identify their
strengths.
Because we feel this way If you know your gifts, if you're an
achiever, if you're a communicator, if you're a
relator, if all of those things you 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
the Beetle Volkswagen.
They're handing you the keys to the Audi, the Mercedes, the
Maserati.
Right, because you know who you are.
You're not guessing anymore about your future.
You know where you want to go and you know what you want to do
.
That seed has been planted and now all it has to do is be
watered.
Speaker 2: Writing that one down too.
Know who you are.
That's powerful.
And, by the way, when you say that I don't mind throwing this
in, coach, because I'm not ashamed of spirituality, I'm not
ashamed of faith, and the reason I appreciate you saying
you got to know who you are is because I know who made you, and
God doesn't sponsor any flops and he doesn't make any trash.
So let me tell you something there's not a person listening
to this show that was not created for anything less than
greatness, and all we got to do sometimes is look around, find
that encourager, find those skills and be the best version.
You know one of the guests that we've had on here, coach, and I
don't know if y'all's paths have ever crossed and if you haven't
, I'm going to make an introduction but his name is Dan
Owolabi.
Dan Owolabi, well, let me say this, coach, tom Ziegler, who's
a mutual friend of ours.
Tom holds you in very high esteem and he's told me he said
Aaron, coach Nate could be, next to my dad, the best speaker
I've ever heard.
That's pretty powerful commentary coming from Tom
Ziegler, and I'm going to tell you that Dan Owalabi could be
one of those as well that you need to get to know.
He wrote a book called Authentic Leadership and he
talks about being your authentic self, yes, and not trying to be
something that you're not or you're trying to become
something that the world's told you that you've got to become.
So when you said that you got to know who you are, there's a
lot of wisdom in that comment.
A lot of wisdom in that comment .
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know you get people who will work and
do a job in some companies.
These people are really good at what they do, but if they don't
love what they're doing, they can even be paid air handsomely
for it.
And sometimes if you don't sit down and ask them, you know, get
to know them.
Just like you said at the beginning of this, you got to
get to know people, you got to talk to people.
If you don't know them, you don't know if they're happy in
that job or not.
Speaker 1: Even though they get paid haphazardly.
Speaker 3: Even though people come and say, oh, you're great
at this, they might not like it because it's not who they are.
They don't identify with that because there's parts of that
that they really don't love it.
And when you talk to them they go I can do it, I do it well,
but I don't like it.
And if if you have a gift, we do not call it a strength if you
don't love what you're doing it's not a strength.
It's not a strength if you don't love, you gotta love it, and
you know there's millions of people out there doing things
that they don't love doing right there man, that's good.
Speaker 2: Oh, coach, that's good.
I've, uh, I've been the development officer now here for
the texas ffa foundation for 25 years and, uh, I've had my
share of opportunities.
As you might imagine, I've had a lot of people say, hey, if you
ever want to make a change, I'd love to have you.
There's been some very attractive financial offers, but
there's no amount of money that you can place on a heart that's
bent for a passion and a purpose that they believe
they've been given Not a purpose that they believe they've been
given.
And there were a lot of doors that closed on my journey and
there was a lot of doors that opened to put me where I'm at,
and I couldn't agree with you more.
I know a lot of people that have told me, aaron, I make a lot of
money, but I wished I could be as happy as you are.
Thank you, told me, aaron, I make a lot of money, but I
wished I could be as happy as you are.
Thank you, and you know, at the end of the day, we're in charge
of that.
Nobody else is in charge of my happiness.
No, you know, we're in charge of that.
That's right.
And so, to your point, if you can find that thing that makes
you happy, that thing that gives your passion purpose.
You're going to be wealthy yes, you are.
You're going to be rich in spirit yes.
You're going to be rich with friends yes, and you're going to
have enough money to pay the bills.
It's like I tell people if you'll just manage what you got,
maybe at the end of the month you might have a little bit left
over and there might be somebody that needs a little bit
.
Yeah yeah, yeah, and you get to help them, and that's a good
thing.
That's a good thing.
Coach, tell me about a time that you had to take a stand for
what was right for your students or your players.
What does it look like in a leadership role when you have to
make those kind of tough decisions to stand for what you
think is right?
Speaker 3: There's so many, aaron, but I remember one you
might be familiar with this.
Students back in the day started, maybe 2003, 2040 went
to the zero tolerance policy and they were legislators, were
hammering that zero tolerance policy.
Zero tolerance policy was based on you know the weapon things,
you know knives, guns, things like that.
If a student was came to school had those kind of things,
ammunition, things like that, that was the state was saying
and it was trickled down to the administrators.
That's it.
You expelled, no warnings, no, you expel them and they're not.
It's not to their discipline school, it was to JJ AEP, the
Juvenile Justice AEP program, which is one step away from
prison.
Speaker 2: Absolutely TYC used to be TYC.
Speaker 3: Yes, right, so you know right, so that's pretty
tough.
I see, yep, right, yep, so you know right.
Yep, so that's pretty tough.
And we had a situation where a young man the officer brought
SRO officer, brought an arrow and an ID into my office early
on a Monday morning and he just laid it on my desk.
He didn't say a word, he just shook his head and he just
walked back up.
I knew what it was right he did too, 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 to JJ AEP.
Took the young man's ID, looked him up he's a senior, he's an.
AB student.
He has no discipline referrals.
He's got maybe one or two excused absences.
Good student, right, a class of 1,100 students and he's the
kind you never see, right, you never get the chance to spend it
with the good ones, right, he's a good student, right, I sent
for him.
Comes in and he says mr hernan, am I going to be expelled?
I said all the records show that I say, everything here is
leaning towards that.
This is an arrow, it's in your truck.
And I said before we get into all of that, tell, tell me how
this happened.
So he said I have a friend whose dad bought him one of
those high dollar crossbows.
This is an expensive bow.
He and his dad hunts a lot.
And he called me and so we went hunting, but not like he and
his dad.
We were just target practicing.
We shoot at rabbits or stuff like that, or just shooting some
targets, and that's all we were doing.
But when we finished the day, I took him home and when I
dropped him off I looked in my backseat 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're going to go to lunch and I'd
give him the arrow back.
Speaker 2: He said Mr.
Speaker 3: Herring, that's not my arrow.
I said.
I understand.
I said, but the state, the school district, everybody sees
that possession is 99% of the zero tolerance policy.
It is in your possession.
If I called his parents and tell them that we have an arrow
in my office, they're going to say he didn't bring it to school
and they're going to get lawyers and you and I are going
to become the bad guys and you might lose your best friend out
of this.
So I need to call your parents.
Speaker 1: He said Mr Hearn.
I never knew my father.
Speaker 3: He left my mom and my little brother me, my mom and
little brother at an early age.
They got a divorce, so my brother younger he never saw him
he never knew.
And he said my mother is in the hospital, in the ICU unit with
colon cancer.
You can call her, but they're not going to let you speak to
her.
Speaker 2: That situation just got darker, right.
Speaker 3: That situation just got darker, right, I mean.
So I said I'm gonna send you back to class and I've got to
check this out.
I'll go by and check the hospital and then I'll call you
in in the morning and tell you what we're going to do with this
.
Immediately after he leaves, about five minutes later, I get
a call from the secondary superintendent over secondary
assistant superintendent.
He asked me what's going on.
I tell him about the arrow, I tell him about the student and
he's like oh, that's a pretty unfortunate situation, but our
funding is based on how we handle these zero tolerance
policies, these zero tolerance circumstances.
He said keep me updated.
The superintendent and sure the school board wants to know.
Speaker 1: So what is he?
Speaker 3: saying read between the lines.
Stay in the policy, do the right thing right this is a good
kid hold the policy, do the right thing.
I go to the hospital and he's right and you know colon cancer.
They're in that IC unit.
They're covered with plastic Tubes, are running Monitors
monitoring her and the head nurse on that unit.
She was nice enough to talk to me.
I could look inside, I could see it through the windows, and
she told me hey, there's not a lot of, she doesn't have a lot
of visitors here.
She said maybe one or two, but the prognosis doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: Stage four colon cancer.
Speaker 3: So I leave, get up in the morning, send for him, send
for the SRO officer take the arrow, I break it, I throw it in
the trash.
And so I said now this situation for you is over, no one will
approach you again about this.
I sent him back to class.
Right In Tom's book the Ten Virtues Leadership Virtues for a
Disrupted Time he talks about being the light right.
He talks about being the light in dark situations, that we have
to be the leader.
We have to shine the light right, and sometimes shining
that light is kind of tough because you know people put your
job on the line.
My job was nowhere near it as important as that young man's
life Right.
It didn't equate Right.
So sometimes being the light means you have to take the air
break and throw it in the trench Right, because you know who's
in charge.
God's always in charge.
He's always in charge.
And when we have that relationship with God, we don't
have to have anybody validate us .
We don't need to beated by anybody.
Speaker 2: So much in that story , so much what a gift God gave
you with that young man, what a gift God gave you with that
situation, because there's no telling how many times you've
had an opportunity to share that story and have people sit and
reflect.
My board chairman always says Aaron, the right thing is always
the right thing Always the right thing he said it's never
too late to do the right thing, Never.
And when you hear stories like that, it just makes you
appreciate ethical leadership, core values, confidence.
It goes back to what you just said knowing who you are.
You knew who you were when you made that decision.
You knew what value system drove you to make that decision
there was no hesitation there.
One of my favorite books on leadership is Captain Sully.
Oh yeah, that landed the plane there in the Hudson, yeah, and
of course they got everybody off .
Sully was one of the last ones off.
The media is going crazy.
They want to interview him, but obviously they got to do a
debrief.
And as they're walking down a hallway, a flight attendant
she's still frazzled from the accident but she runs up to him
and she hands him a piece of paper that's folded in half and
it's still wet, crinkled up, and on the outside of the paper it
simply read thank you.
And when he opened it up on the inside it said when your values
are clear, your choices are easy.
When your values are clear, your choices are easy.
And when you share stories like that, coach, that right there
for me is a reminder that when we face those moments that we
have to make decisions tough decisions 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 be watching this that want to be
leaders.
They want to aspire the leadership.
Give me three leadership tips.
If you could plant the seeds of leadership tips, what would you
tell kids to become better leaders three things listen,
listen, listen, got it.
Speaker 3: That's the only way to let people know that you care
about them.
Right?
I see it all the time and you do too, aaron.
We get in there, we talk to people and some people ask how
you doing.
Well, you tell me they really don't want to hear it.
Right, they really don't want to hear what you got going on,
because they want to talk about what they have going on.
And when you sit and you listen to a student, they know you're
listening.
I don't know how many times students had come from talk,
come to me, coach kids that I've coached, kids in totally other
sports, kids that's in my room, kids who knew me from other
students talking about me, kids who I coached that I wasn't even
their position coach would come to me, come to my room and say,
coach, I have a problem.
And when they finished they said, coach, I came to you
because I knew you would listen.
How many lives do we touch, aaron, just saying, just
listening.
Speaker 2: Just listening, what a powerful mentorship that is,
because if you can learn to listen, there will always be
somebody that needs to be listened to.
I remember Tom Ziegler.
He tells a story about his dad.
He said, tom, how do you know somebody needs encouragement?
And he said I don't know.
And he said if they're breathing they need
encouragement.
And we're all going to go through seasons of life.
I had a lady once and she was really just sharing some really
heartbreaking events that she's dealing with and I just listened
, like you said, coach.
I just I didn't have the answer .
I just listened and I finally looked at her and I said I'm
sorry.
I said, by the way, I said if you want a place that it never
rains, I can take you there.
Speaker 1: And she said what do you mean?
Speaker 2: I said sounds like you've had some storms and I
said but I can take you to a place that never storms.
Speaker 1: And she said really, I said yeah.
Speaker 2: I said, it's called a desert and nothing grows.
Nothing grows.
But you show me somebody that's had a little rain, a little
storm, yes, and with the right mentors, with the right
encouragers, with the right seeds, with the right
stewardship, I'll show you somebody that's bound for a
bountiful harvest.
Awesome, so so awesome.
Coach, I can't tell you thank you enough.
I will never forget the first time we met.
Obviously I knew a little of your story before we ever met,
and sometimes you meet people and you wonder is the story as
good as the person behind the story?
And I've got to say, coach, not only did you meet that
expectation, you exceeded it and I value what you do, I value
what you've done and I value more what you're going to do,
because I know God's not finished with you and there's
still a lot of work to be done.
There's a lot of lives to be touched, a lot of people to be
encouraged, a lot of people that need 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: Yes, sir.
Speaker 2: So everybody that's been on the show gets a fun
question at the very end.
So the question is this Coach Nate Hearn, dr Nate Hearn what's
the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3: Oh my yeah, the best concert you know.
To tell you the truth, the best concert I've ever been to, I
put it together.
Speaker 2: Let me hear it.
Speaker 3: I was asked after I retired.
I was asked to see if I would be a chaplain in the prison
system.
Yeah, exit to Portland Criminal Justice Center.
Yeah.
So I said no problem, because I want to go in there and help.
Right, that's my whole thing, that's right.
God says, hey, where were you when I was in prison?
Right?
So I'm saying I'm going to be here, right, I'm going to do
what you asked me to do.
So I know to touch souls sometimes music is key.
If you got the right music, if you're a pastor and you got the
right music and it's hitting and you see the Holy Spirit coming
down, you don't even have to keep you.
If you can humble yourself, you don't need a message, Just
extend the invitation.
The Holy Spirit's already working.
That happened.
I brought a gospel fest to a prison unit.
Fifteen different groups of all genre, of all ethnicity.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Blacks, whites, browns, just every kind of music
you want to hear.
And the inmates had to make a request to attend.
1,100 men on the unit, 700 asked to be to their tent and
the group got up.
They had the full ensemble all five instruments.
They had background singers, they had a lead singer and they
started and they were really really good.
They were really really good and 700 inmates in white, just
picture this thing right 700 of them.
The music is Christian and it's flowing.
A little bitty guy about five foot three on the very back in
the middle row outside seat.
He stood up and he just said Jesus.
And then he started doing four rows and when he got to the
front he said Jesus and all the other inmates stood up and they
just Jesus.
They're clapping, they're dancing, and some are on their
knees, some hands extended, some just circling.
You hear this, the CO's correction officer.
You hear those radios start cracking and go Major, major,
you want to lock him up.
You want to lock him up and the Major goes yes, lock him up.
And then the warden says leave him alone.
Leave him alone and then, there's a pause there and then
she says that's the Holy Spirit.
But that moment, aaron, the Holy Spirit ascended, came
descended down on those men and all that pin up.
You know, in prison there's a lot of things going on.
All of that emotion came flowing out of them and they
began to praise God.
Wow that was nothing but a God moment.
And I still I get goosebumps telling that story, aaron,
because I saw it real, it was real.
Speaker 2: I saw it.
Well, let me tell you something , coach.
What you just shared Number one , that was incredible.
And when you talk about a concert, that was incredible.
But in closing, you also made another point that I like to
share with people, and that is this you can never argue with
somebody's testimony Never.
You can never look at somebody and say that didn't happen to
you.
So, folks, what you just heard from the coach, I have every
reason to believe, down to the detail, that what you just heard
was the best concert that man's ever seen.
Far enough, ladies and gentlemen , thank you for joining us for
another episode of Growing Our Future.
You know, I like to tell people that our country's got three
vital and renewable resources, that's, young people and
agriculture and leadership, and we combine all three and we get
to bring guests on that say, hey , let me tell you what I found
to be successful, let me share with you what I found to be
encouraging.
Let me share with you some seeds that helped me grow a
success in life.
And they're here sharing those seeds with us.
And today we were honored, we were blessed by coach Nate Hearn
, dr Nate Hearn and coach again, thank you so much.
We appreciate you, we appreciate all of you that
stopped by today and until we meet again, go out and do
something great for somebody else.
You're going to feel good about it.
More importantly, you might just be the example for somebody
else that's going to go out and change the world.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
We'll catch you down the road.
Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our
Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthen agricultural science education
so students can develop their potential for personal growth,
career success and leadership in a global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.