Part 2: Author Your Own Story ft Dr. Frank Cuevas

The fastest way to lose your confidence is to spend your life trying to fit into someone else’s idea of who you should be. We sit down with Vice Chancellor Frank Cuevas from Student Life at the University of Tennessee to unpack a powerful mindset shift: you can be the author of your own story, and you build that story one decision, one risk, and one lesson at a time.

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Transcript

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Show Intro And Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Check us out and you believe it online with the volunteer to do. Javanta and your guests discuss everything from life, birth, and business with the Tennessee. Always relatable, always relevant, and always a good time. With it's talking tennis, and now your host, Yovaka.

Sponsor Message And Event Rentals

SPEAKER_00 0:22

This episode is brought to you by Turning Knox Rental, your go-to for event rental services. We have selfie machines, 360 photo machines, and food servicing machines that you can rent out to give your parties the best experience possible. Get the TKR experience with Turning Knox Rental. You can find us at www.turningknocksrental.com.

Meet Vice Chancellor Frank Quavis

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Welcome back to Talking Tennessee with Yovanka. I'm your host, and I am here with a good friend of mine, Vice Chancellor Frank Quavis from Student Life at the University of Tennessee. Welcome back.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Thanks for having me back.

Becoming The Author Of Your Story

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Well, he said you can be the author of your own story, and I need him to explain this because I think he's going to educate us all.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Okay. You know, I I think that so many times we try to figure out how to fit in and do other things or to conform. The reality is only we can define, only you can define who you are. And thinking about it, and it takes a little bit of self-confidence to get there, right? I just wait I wasn't born that way. It's over time. Over time, you do things, you step out a little bit and and say, I I think I can try this. I'm gonna give it a try. And if if I've It's like taking a risk. Right. You take a little, and I'm not a huge risk taker, but I think if you step forward and say, I'm gonna try this, if it doesn't work, okay, what did I learn from it? And I move on. Yes. But it if I take that lesson, it's becoming who I am. And I start to slowly to author a story about who is Frank? Yes. Who is Bonka? Yes. And what are the things that we've learned in our journey on life about who we are as people? And that that to me is what I talk about. Be the author of your own story is that taking what you know about yourself and then applying it and then taking it. And build and build from it. And then really building up from it. And I says, what are your goals? What are your dreams? And I I used to joke around with kids, tell me your hopes, your dreams, your passions, or something like that. And then like, what? But and I would joke with them, and I said, or their friends would come over, tell me about your hopes and your dreams. And I said, I'm joking. But I think we always have to be in a place where we start thinking about who do we want to be? Who do we want to be, and how does that create your story? Yes. Because at the end of the day, that's about that. And you know, I like human workplace. So I come in human workplace, I like you know, we joke around, but things but when it's time to get serious, we get serious. But but it's a part of who I am anyway, so why would I want to not bring that?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

And why would you not want the world to see who you are? You know, truly, authentically, who are you? You know, and I think that the quicker you search within yourself and figure out who am I today, that doesn't mean you're gonna be that tomorrow. Exactly. You're gonna grow and find your way. And, you know, I know what I was like at 20 versus in my 50s, you know, that type thing. I don't want to be what I was in my 20s. I was not I was not confident. I was oh, oh, self-centered like no other, and it and thought it was all supposed to be about me. Because when you're in your 20s, you make it that way. But when the older you get and the more people you get around you, it helps you to realize you don't have to be that way, you know, and you can be all you can be, but at the same time, you don't have to be self-centered, you don't have to be the uh I call it the lights, camera, action type uh person. Um, it's just do the work and find out who you are in the job that you're in.

What Impactful Leaders Do Daily

SPEAKER_01 4:18

What qualities do you believe defines the impact impactful for leaders to follow?

SPEAKER_03 4:26

I think you need to be a good listener, I think you need to be a good collaborator, I think you need to be uh a good advocate, and I think you need to be uh uh caring and supportive. Because I'm in the people business. Right. You are so I need if I'm going to try to help our students navigate their experiences in college, I've got to be able to form a relationship. I mean, I know every single student by name, by title, or what have you. They're w but what But he knows his students. But I I I always like to ask a student, tell tell me where home is. Where's home? Tell me about who you are, where's home? Because home could be any number of places. But and tell me a little bit about what what's that like? Tell me about your experiences here. How can we make it better for you? Because we want the college experience to be the best experience to be the best for them. So and I think those to me is qualities, and we can't do it ourselves. We have to partner with other people in on campus, in the community, to because collectively together like come together and say, this is what we want. We want you to thrive.

Work Life Balance And Avoiding Burnout

SPEAKER_01 5:34

How do you balance like leading one of the largest divisions and making students feel well about themselves at the same time remembering yourself, not getting uh so caught up that you forget about yourself. How do you balance that?

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Well, you know, one I you you I'm very fortunate, you hire good people. You get out of the way, you let you do you let them do their job and get out of their way. Yes. So I feel like empower them to do that, do the work that you hired them to do. That's the first thing. The other thing is it's important for me to get out of my office and to be out where our students are. If I'm the vice chancellor for student life, I need to be where students are. And you're always at. And yeah, there are days it is trying and long, but there are days, but I'm out because I want to be with this, hear about their experiences, to get to know them, to make a connection. At the same time, knowing that I talk to our staff all the time because we support students and we help them and we connect them and also take time to recharge. We cannot help others if we can't not be taken care of. Yes. So that was a message I delivered this morning where our award ceremony was like, now is we're in a season of the year where summer might slow down a little bit. So go ahead and take the time off.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Take the time off.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Take your vacation. You've earned it.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

And recharge because spend time with your family. Spend time with the people you love. Yes, and eat some great food. Exactly. Oh, yeah, eat some really good food. Eat some great food. But spend that time and travel, do this, whatever, whatever it's. Because you have to have a balance. And find that balance. Now, there are days where I'm better at it than other days. I think that's just work I think it's a working balance. I am all I I tell people when I hear work-life balance, yes, there is no recipe that's work-life balance looks so different for everyone. It's what works for you. Yes, makes it work for you, but don't lose sight of the fact that there are other greater things that that are um equally as important, or more important in my opinion, about creating that. So take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Take care of yourself and and know your limits. I think the biggest thing is that we want to, you know, fulfill all of the different things in our positions and that type thing. But sometimes you have to realize is that it takes time and it and and it's not today. If it's not today, it may be tomorrow, but you have to realize you have to have a balance because if you don't have a balance, uh you'll crash and burn. That's right. You know, that type thing, or you'll get burnt out. And I think a lot of people, especially in, you know, with student life, you're you're dealing with so many different emotions. You're dealing with so many different things that students go through personally and in uh at school and out of uh school. I think that you have to take out the time. Um, I bet you Kathy wants you to take out the time. You know, that type of thing. But you have to know uh your limits. So tell me this. Well, no, let me say this first.

Compassion While Making Hard Calls

SPEAKER_01 8:40

As I was researching you um and getting prepared for this um interview, I saw a quote from Chancellor Dondi Ploughman describing you as collaborative, compassionate, thoughtful in your leadership. So let me ask you this: how do you intentionally lead with compassion while still making different difficult decisions?

SPEAKER_03 9:06

I think for me it's about getting as much information as possible about and never losing sight of the fact that if I weigh uh one of my top strengths is dil dil I'm deliberative. It's one of my top five strengths, okay? Mm-hmm. Um you know, I tell you we're strengths campus, so context is always important to me. Knowing to have things understand, knowing where we were, where we've been, where we're going. Right. Okay. But also in doing that to my other within my other top five is deliberative and being intentional around when a decision is to be made, what information do I have?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

And getting people calling on the people who have may have other information that I know that I need to.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

And I know you make hard decisions that when you make hard decisions that really may not feel good at the time.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

And and there, yeah, and there are those decisions. And and at the end of the day, I feel for me, it's about I made the best decision bot possible. The decision was hard, but it's based on the information that I had at that moment. And reconciling that that is based on what I have, this is the best decision. And I always say, I always argue if I've made it in the best interest of our students, it's gonna win. It's gonna win. It's gonna win. So so for me, it's it's it's being attentive to that, being very deliberative about gathering information, testing and looking and asking people. If you got good people work for you, they're they're not they're not afraid to whisper in your ear and saying, Don't do that. Don't do that. Think about this, let's talk about this. Have you thought about all those things? And that's the kind of thing I like to surround myself around people who will do that. And will tell you the truth. Who break it down and get real. Yes. And and it helps me make a better decision. May not always, people may not always like the decision, but I feel but again, if I feel like in the right reasons, and I lay out the why, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And and you just have to lie in that and just trust that God is gonna lead you and and they will see in the long run it was the best decision. Absolutely. You know, at the time. So I want to ask this question.

Minority Leadership And Owning Your Value

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Um, what is it like, you know, as a minority? I'm a minority, you're a minority. What is it like to be in leadership and just leading and teaching how to not allow that to affect you?

SPEAKER_03 11:34

You know, sometimes you you have to think it's sometimes you have a moment, you're like, wow, you're the first. Yeah, yeah. And then you're like, okay, thinking about exactly the first. But for me, it's you gotta find, I always feel like you have to find an outlet to be able to talk to peers and colleagues. I have I have a great, I can pick up the phone and and call some friends who are in similar roles and great relations relationships with and say, tell me about your experience. So here's here this is my day. What's your day like? And this because again, that helps you build to put into context. Context is important to me and says, all right, understanding my own context in the bigger context of where we are. So it's it's about understanding that and about reaching out when I need to. Because again, I go back to I'm the author of my own story. Exactly. So therefore I'm gonna author my own story and uh I'm not worrying about all the other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And I you know the biggest thing as a minority in my mind I'm equal. So it and I operate that way. So people say, well, you know, how do you get to that? You just change your way of thinking, and not saying that things don't happen. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that as a minority, I I set a goal. I'm gonna win. At all costs, as long as God is is leading me, I'm gonna win when He wants me to win, and I never allow being a minority to be a crutch for me. That's right. I mean Okay, it's just I'm I'm just your bonka and I'm gonna win when God wants me to win. Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 13:20

I agree. I once did a video and it's it's funny that we did that to welcome students, and they said, What should students call you? I said, Frank. Just Frank. So it's funny because that whole year I'm driving around on campus and you know, a golf cart and different events, and you hear people and students were like, that's Frank. That's Frank. And it's funny because uh the reality is, to your point, I look, I'm Frank. Yes, I come to work every day. I'm here to support you, and you can tell me about your good day, your bad day, or you just want to say, hey, Frank.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

But see, I think that that's what makes students gravitate to you because, yes, they know you're vice-chancellor, okay? They know your title, but you operate in a humble way and you allow them to realize that you're human just like they are. And so when you say, Okay, I'm Frank, you know, and I was telling um Frank on uh off uh camera that what keeps me humble is to remember the most important thing that God made me was Yavanka. That's right. Okay, it the titles came, you know, over time, but I was Yavanka first, and that's what keeps me grounded. Absolutely. Do you feel the same way?

SPEAKER_03 14:33

I feel the same way. I look, I this I I am who I am. That these other things will come, and uh I've you know, been having been blessed with those opportunities, and that's great.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

So looking back at your journey from Florida State uh and being now being the vice chancellor at the University of Tennessee, um what would tell you that what is the biggest thing that sticks out at the University of Tennessee that says, I keep coming back for more?

Building A Student Experience At UT

SPEAKER_03 15:04

I love the people that I work with. I love our students, uh, I love what we're building and continue to build. Okay. That's what motivates me because I tell people all the time, we are delivering on this promise of making the experience for you that's unlike no other place you can go. You're gonna get a good you're gonna get a good education in a number of different places. But you know what's gonna say about difference makers, you're gonna get a really, really good, unparalleled student experience that you're gonna understand that people care for you. This is your home, that you can find your community, and and that that truly rocky top is home, sweet home. I think we're building that something special, and that's what drives me coming back and says, Yes, we're we're on we're we're on a roll, we're gonna keep rolling until they tell us we can't anymore.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I love the University of Tennessee for so many reasons, not just because of our business, it's so much deeper than that. It's because I can see what you're building, and it's like you you ever heard of drinking the Kool-Aid? Yeah, okay. We drink the orange Kool-Aid, okay, at the University of Touch. And we have literally had another.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yes, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, we drink the orange Kool-Aid, and we just believe in the institution and we believe what they're building. And I just thank God that we, as my family, the Landis family, has had the opportunity just to grow, not just in business, but just for David to be able to bring back uh a business to the university. To the University of Tennessee, where his beginning started. I I don't think people think about that. I'm like, he really got to bring back something. Um, and my viewers do know my father-in-law taught for 30 years at the University of Tennessee. You know, it it's pro he's so proud of that that the first thing we thought about when we opened this business was we wanted to give something to the University of Tennessee that was great and be a part of something. Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

That was the biggest thing. This is where I think you've helped us. You've helped us to elevate the experience and the engagement. Because you bring these things that that that um help everybody has a party, or those are but you take it to another help us take it to another level. Another level. And that I feel like it's that experience and engagement that helps complement what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

About elevating that experience for our students that tells that that's that is this is different. Yes. This is different. I have the opportunity to work with really good people that are committed to that, that are creative and say they're much more creative than I am, but are are saying, you know, we're on board, we're gonna do this. And then when we partner with someone who's coming from the the work that you do and come in and say, we can help you alongside. And we can elevate it. And we can elevate it.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

And give an experience. Win-win. It is, it is. And I thank you so much for giving Turn and Knox the opportunity to elevate your events and be a part of something and see students grow and and laugh and joke, and and they come together, they take a picture, and they're so excited to get on the 360, they're they're just having a great time, and they forget about any problem they have. That's our whole thing is when we come in, we want everybody to forget whatever is going on in their life for this moment, you're going to get elevated and you're going to win at the highest regard on Rocky Top. Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

There's a sense of joy in that moment.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Sense of joy. So I thank you. So as we end this, what is next for Vice Chancellor Frank Quavis?

What’s Next Goals And Recharging

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And what is next for Frank Quavis personally?

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Well, I I mentioned earlier what's next is for me, it's continuing to do the work and working with the great people that are around me to really think and improve on making it even better. I always say that's great that we had 22,000 students engaged with us the past year. Let's go for 25 next year. Let's go for 25. Why can't we?

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Let's raise that number.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Let's raise that bar, keep going more, that we're we're connecting and engaging and continue to do that. And and do it in a way that doesn't tire us all, but in a way that we can still be out there and still enjoy the work that we do. Because I really do. I really enjoy it. I I never complain about coming to work.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

I believe it. Because your spirit and just how you are, like I told you, you're the same. It doesn't matter who's in the room, it doesn't matter what he's going through, you always greet me with a smile. You and you always say, Thank you for everything you do. I mean, that says a lot. And he's on one of the biggest campuses in the country, most sought-out campuses in the country. And leads the student life like his eyes are closed. Because you know why? His eyes are closed, and he knows what the assignment is. And the assignment is to elevate students' life at the same time, make a mark on this world.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

That's right. And um what's next for me is vacation very soon.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Vacation, very soon. Him and Kathy going on vacation.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

I I was so looking forward. It's it's it's a good time to recharge and come back so I can hit the ground running when we get back in August and and uh help our students out.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Well, I thank you so much for sitting down with me. And the door is always open if there's ever a time that you want to come back. I've enjoyed this conversation. So the conversation is always open for you to come back and share about student life and what's next for Frank.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

All right.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yes.

Closing Thanks And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 20:47

I hope you all have enjoyed this two-part segment of Vice Chancellor Frank Quavis of Student Life at the University of Tennessee. And I have a feeling he'll be back, and he'll be back real soon. I would love to have him on the panel. Just tune in. Bye, guys.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Thanks for listening to Talk in Tennessee with Yavanka. Watch out for our weekly episodes from the first family of real estate. And check us out on the web, www.yovanka stylesrealestate.com. See our videos on Yovanka's YouTube channel or find us on Facebook under YovankaLanded and Twitter at YovankaLandit. And don't forget to tell the friend about us. Until next time, Yovanka signing off.