Career Cheat Code
Welcome to Career Cheat Code, a podcast that explores the stories of everyday people making an impact in the world through their careers and loving every minute of it. Whether you're already on your path or searching for your purpose, this podcast is for you.
Join us every Monday as we uncover the secrets behind successful careers and inspire you to make your own mark. Formerly known as Thank God It's Monday | TGIM, don't forget to subscribe for updates and share with your friends!
Career Cheat Code
074 | Community of Change-Makers with Stephen Minix
Imagine creating a career that not only fulfills you but also makes a significant impact on the world. Join us as we uncover the transformative power of mindset with Stephen Minix, the Senior Director of Community at UpMetrics, who champions the cause of connecting foundations, impact investors, and nonprofits through innovative data analytics. Discover how UpMetrics' software revolutionizes data collection and reporting, enabling organizations to concentrate on their true missions. We explore the art of building partnerships that inspire meaningful change beyond mere compliance, fostering dynamic relationships that promote genuine learning and understanding.
Key Points:
• Exploring the vital role of mindset in team success
• Understanding the functions of UpMetrics and its technology
• Building authentic relationships beyond transactional networking
• Highlighting the significance of curiosity in community engagement
• Sharing personal stories of challenges and growth in philanthropy
• Encouraging proactive communication for stronger connections
• Emphasizing the need for integrity and ethical decision-making
• Turning personal pain into progress for community impact
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Host - Radhy Miranda
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Producer - Gary Batista
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So what do I love about it? I love about it that you always got to bet on yourself, and not like yourself as in your own person, but like your team, like your squad, like yo. It's on us, y'all. We got to do it. Ain't nobody going to do it for us. And so it kind of ties back to old school, like when I was a high school basketball coach. Like how do you get people fired up to get ready to go play Crenshaw? How do you get fired? Well, you got to get their mind right, and for me, mindset is everything. 100% of everything is mindset. Do you have the right mindset to go at this? And for me, what's exciting about this work is I get to talk to cats that are doing philanthropic giving, world-changing, nonprofit work really awesome impact, investing stuff that I haven't even heard about. That can be before 9 am.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Career G-C Code. In this podcast, you'll hear how everyday people impact the world through their careers. Learn about their journey, career hacks and obstacles along the way. Whether you're already having the impact you want or are searching for it, this is the podcast for you. All right, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking the time to connect with us today. I don't typically like to spend a lot of time on the intro, so let's just jump right in there. Let's tell the world who you are and what you do for a living.
Speaker 1:Happy to be here, steven Minix. My role I'm the Senior Director of Community for an organization called UpMetrics. And what does the Senior Director of Community do at UpMetrics? Engaging spaces? Where we bring, we work with foundations and funders, impact investors and nonprofits and I create the convening space for us to kind of learn in public and get in the sandbox to where we, when you think about doing work together, sometimes you got to know each other first and a lot of nonprofits work with foundations and foundations work with nonprofits but they don't really know each other and they just kind of turn it into a relay race. What I try to do is use relationships and information to help kind of that work coalesce and actually be impactful. So I just use some facilitation and our technology, of course, to support that. But that's what I do create engaging experiences for our community of clients and partners.
Speaker 2:That's great. So tell me more about what the technology itself does.
Speaker 1:We built up metrics and I'm the first hire here, so I've been around for a minute. It's an impact analytics software where we're helping organizations take in data, whatever data you use to kind of look at what you fund, what you operationally do, etc. All the data, qualitatively and quantitatively, that you use to kind of inform your work and your enterprise. Well, usually it lives in a lot of different systems. What we've done is create an aggregator, a system that pulls it all together. So whether you're looking at communications, marketing, outreach, capital out the door doesn't matter. Purpose built the technology so that you can do it in one spot and not have to be a data scientist to understand what it is that you're trying to do. So it's a lot about demystification and making things simple and more possible versus using big enterprise software to kind of then circle square an issue. So funders use it to justify and articulate where they're putting out their capital tied to their initiatives and their programs. What are they trying to learn from that?
Speaker 1:Nonprofits oftentimes use us to best articulate what it is that they're taking on through their impact framework, building out an impact framework where they understand who do we serve, what do we serve them with, what is the quality of that service?
Speaker 1:Is anybody better off and how does it pertain to the community that we're trying to support? So when you start to help use technology and consultative services, I say, just make folks more dangerous in what they do. The reality is, nonprofits are always trying to justify their existence. I just think it's a whack way to exist. I always have. I think justifying why you exist is not nearly as fun as leaning into why you decided to do this work or what you try to care about, and sometimes that sausage making of data reports and annual reports and take you away from what it is that you actually care to be doing. Your true North of why I built this enterprise or why services. So we want to streamline that for folks so they can put their energy where it needed, which is in the work itself, not in the administration of the work.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense. So is that typically your ideal clients or foundations and nonprofits? Are those typically the folks that you work with the most?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the three legs of our stool are impact investors, foundations, philanthropic organizations and nonprofits. So those that are putting out capital, the impact investors or the foundations, and those that are taking in that capital to do the work on the ground level, the nonprofits that are taking in that capital to do the work on the ground level. The nonprofits, we see that as kind of a wonderful circle to be a part of, because they need help with the data collection, articulating what they're up to, better understanding the enterprise. Well, so does the funder, because the funder is putting out capital at volume and they need to understand what's happening. And we don't do it through a compliance conversation, we do it through more of an inspiration conversation.
Speaker 1:And when you say things like I want to create a partnership as a funder with a nonprofit, well, we know there's capital going one way, sure, but that capital is part of it. So is that lived experience of that nonprofit and that genius on the ground doing that work? Well then, that information coming up isn't just to report, it's actually to inform. And if funders are trying to learn, well, you need to learn something. And you don't learn from a static report only. You can learn from the relationship, the conversations, a lot of other things that we then try to facilitate in our relationships with our partners.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. So, as the senior director of community, what happens when you go into work on a Monday, like, how are you structuring your week? What is it that you're actually responsible for All of those things?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it's really interesting. It's the first day back from a holiday, so my Monday today is a little different. But look, my work is rooted in curiosity and I need to be curious and be thoughtful about what is happening in the nebulous kind of impact space what's going on in the world of philanthropy, nonprofit work, what's going on in social work, kind of, because that best informs me how I can engage my client, my prospect, my partners, et cetera. So being mindful and being curious. So for me most mornings start around 5.30 in the morning and that's just so I can get some brain food. I just I voraciously consume articles, blog posts, like I'm always trying to just learn as much as possible, but not in a, not in a choir, not in an extraction way. I'm not trying to take genius from someone, I'm trying to learn what's out there so that I can best be relevant when I'm having these conversations, whether it's about how I can help you, whether it's about who I can introduce you. To Point is, I have to be kind of a jack of all trades in that aspect as it relates to community, because by nature of the word, community it's a bunch of people in a community, it's not just one person or one archetype or one brain, right? So like if I think I have it all figured out as it pertains to where I'm at right now in San Diego and the philanthropic landscape, well now, I'm at right now in San Diego and the philanthropic landscape. Well now I'm dropping on a conversation with a brother from New York. He ain't got time to talk to me too much about what's going on in San Diego, right? Might have some contextual information from that, but kind of wants to know do I know what's cracking in New York? Do I know what's you know in those things? So you need to be well-read and well-traveled mentally.
Speaker 1:But also, look, I use tech to really help make myself dangerous. I do Google Alerts on things I want to learn about people. I want to learn about who's out there writing, who's nice with it in public, who do I like to model some of my behaviors on. I do a lot of that with tech and that helps me on those early mornings on a Monday, get up, understand where I can go, get some new inspiration, while I then lock into my actual kind of rhythm that I know that I need to have as a director in the company, which is you know your internal department stuff, planning for 2025, your Q4, you know projections, all the things that go into most company work. But none of that is possible if I don't first get that curiosity piece satiated in the front end, because that's what keeps me just kind of like geeking during the day, right, that fuels me.
Speaker 1:And then a lot of what I do is kind of check to be reality, is kind of check on some fishing lines I put out in the water months before, and I mean that not as in a sales way, I mean that in a partnership way. A lot of times I get pulled in to be a part of a convenings or public speaking opportunities, things like that. And so what I do is make sure that where I have those RFPs out, where I have the proposals out, where I have those collaborative partnerships out, mondays are my check-in days. Hey man, how you feeling, where's your mind at?
Speaker 1:You want to talk about like, like I like to keep people at a rhythm with me, not as a hey Stephen's here, like I don't want to play gotcha with nobody. I want you to know that I'm around, I'm available, I'm willing, I'm curious. Mondays are about that. That's usually where I get dangerous with my pen or my typing fingers and dropping notes and because then that's going to keep things noisy all week for me to then keep me excited about the work I'm doing all week, for me to then keep me excited about the work I'm doing. So it's a little bit more social on Mondays, a little more tactical on Tuesdays.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense and it's still, you know, I think, very much some some good cheat codes there, like Google is a good one, right Like.
Speaker 2:I definitely use that especially. You know I also I have a national portfolio as well, so like there are times when if I'm having a conversation with folks in El Paso, it'd be nice to know if they're dealing with some things on the ground that may trigger their minds to be elsewhere right, or may just be very important to our conversation. So I like to stay informed as well and just make sure that a lot of that I get as proactively as possible and, as you said, using technology to my advantage. You know where.
Speaker 1:I learned that the quickest was I started doing work in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge. You try to get some work off the ground. You won in Baton Rouge. You got Fat Tuesday coming around mid-February you got Mardi Gras. There's not a lot of business per se like jumping on a call on a Zoom. It's a lot more social there.
Speaker 1:And so what happened was I started having these partnerships go on and nobody would respond to my emails in early January, early January, late February. I'm like what's going on? I thought we were excited we closed these deals. I didn't. I wasn't thinking about what they experienced and it was the easiest thing to do is like, okay, now on my calendar today, these relationships have been going on for years. I know exactly when I need to be mindful of what's going on in Louisiana Right now. It's not like that everywhere, but there always is something else somewhere. So how can you be mindful? Because the worst thing you could do when you're trying to create a partnership is be thoughtless. You know what I mean. Like it's not understand. Like oh damn, I didn't even understand it was raining in your neighborhood. I didn't even understand that you're dealing with a flood and I'm trying to partner Like that. Eq goes a long way, and it's only strengthened by some tech help, for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. Or even as you think about, you know, natural disasters or things like bridge collapses in places, and you're talking about a report or something, that's just like dude, it's all hands on deck on the ground here, Like it's like dude, it's all hands on deck on the ground here, Like, and you're talking to me about some other stuff. You know it's definitely important, as you're building genuine partnerships with folks For sure. So tell me what's the? What's your favorite part of your role? Oh man.
Speaker 1:I'm look, I'm an optimist, so I'm a, I'm a caveat this with that, like I'm a find joy in anything but I love mean Like it's never the same. There is no. It's Monday, sit here, do these 10 things. Now, monday's over, right? It's not like that it's. You have to be disciplined, you have to be curious, because it's easy to be quiet, it's easy to turn the computer down, it's easy to act like you ain't got nothing to do, no one's calling. So why I got to?
Speaker 1:It's hard to create energy and I think in my role, the hard thing is you got to create it. People aren't just beating down your door. We're not like a name brand, like an Uber, like, oh, I need a car, call an Uber, I need a car, get a Lyft right. We don't got that kind of market kind of like establishment yet, right? So because of that, we got to make some noise to get people to pay attention. And what does that come with? It comes with getting up early. It comes with, like, the alert. It comes with tracking things down. It comes with some discipline.
Speaker 1:So what do I love about it? I love about it that you always got to bet on yourself and not like yourself, as in your own person, but like your team, like your squad, like yo, it's on us. Y'all we got to do it. Ain't nobody going to do it for us? And so it kind of ties back to old school, like when I was a high school basketball coach, like how do you get people fired up to get ready to go play Crenshaw? How do you get fired? Well, you got to get their mind right. And for me, mindset is everything. 100% of everything is mindset. Do you have the set to go at this?
Speaker 1:And for me, what's exciting about this work is I get to talk to cats that are doing philanthropic giving, world-changing, nonprofit work really awesome impact, investing stuff that I haven't even heard about. That can be before 9 am. You know what I mean, so I'm always what I call in the show. There's always something rad happening. You know what I mean. You're like yo did you hear what these dudes are doing? Did you hear what these ladies are doing?
Speaker 1:And, as a person that's already an optimist, you give me that kind of fuel. Yo, I'm going through life blazing, and usually that's a good thing, because my goal is to try to help the next person up right. Part of being on. This call today is about. That is the next cat up. How can we help the next cat up understand what are some bread crumbs, cheat codes, what are some things that can get you to success? These are how I got there. These are some examples, but that the most exciting thing is it's never the same as it was yesterday. And that, to me, is exciting because I'm adaptable, I'm curious, and if you're adaptable and curious and pretty driven, well then it's always a new day. And if you're adaptable and curious and pretty driven, well then it's always a new day. And now you've got a shot again tomorrow. You know what I mean. So that's some of the stuff that really geeks me out.
Speaker 2:That's great. I love that, and I think that also goes back to this piece, which is let's tell the world how we met. How did you and I meet? Oh for sure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. I'll speak his name directly. His brother, stephen Casey, a gentleman that I had met years ago through a virtual it was a philanthropic association was putting together some speakers and Stephen was involved and I had been thirsting for brothers in philanthropy. I'm like, where are the brothers in philanthropy? I just I'm in all these meetings. I don't see anybody. Now this was during the pandemic. A lot of it was virtual, so I understood it was a little bit muted. But when I saw him on this call I said yo, man, I just wrote him a direct Slack. I'm like, yo, you're a brother in philanthropy, where are the rest of us? And he said man, we got to meet and then we set up a call a couple of days later group of brothers in philanthropy cats that are trying to have kind of a resource group and build up Would you be a part of it? I said heck, yeah. And then that led to a couple kind of early get-together social conversations where like 60, 70 of us jump on a call and you were on that call. And one of the things that I do whenever I'm on those big group calls is I'll screenshot that Brady Bunch image of all the Zooms because I want to follow up.
Speaker 1:For me, relationships are my currency. I believe in that, the actual person. I don't want to ever be gatekept away from people, ever, and I will never gatekeep someone away from relationships I have. So when I did that screen grab, I started looking at after the meeting. I started looking at where all these people spent time, and yours saw Career Chico pop up and I'm like yo, this is it, this is what I care about. I'm the board chair of Mentor California. I mean, mentorship to me is a big deal. Mentorship and mindset you put those two things together. You got something. I looked on your site and I saw some of the stuff you're talking about. I'm like yo, I need to find out more about what he's doing. And then the next time we jump on a call, I wrote to you and I said yo, man, I'm still geeked on what you're up to. I would love to learn more. Just if I could support, I could help. And then got to rapping. And now we're here.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 2:No, I think that's absolutely right and I of just having just men of color that just are in this really not traditionally colorful space and we're just there and a lot of times it's just us being in the same room together or virtually right, Talking about what's going on, learning from each other. Sometimes we have a thematic approach to what's going on, but a lot of times it's just being in community with each other and, as you said, just following up with folks and then being able to say, okay, I know someone at this place, I know someone at that place. So if you have a question, how are folks approaching this? How are different organizations doing things? So you can actually find your tribe and really connect with that. So I really I'm definitely very fortunate to be invited into that group and just appreciate all, all of the great folks that have come out of that.
Speaker 2:So I just appreciated that because I wanted to mention that here. I wanted people to know that if you don't see the spaces that you want to see in your field, you can create them, and that's what you guys have done and you guys have put just whatever that affinity is to you all do it, create the space. If you guys put just whatever that affinity is to you all, do it, Create the space. If you have, you know and like we're doing it in different ways. We're doing it here with this podcast. You're doing it there with Brothers in Philanthropy. You're doing it with folks that have bereavement issues. Whatever the thing is for you do the thing. So I just wanted to like fake that so people could feel encouraged for that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's like look right or stop complaining about the fact that it's not there. So like for me. I think at this stage of life I'm now 45, the younger version of me would have made noise and been like why is this not? Why is it I made some noise? Well, then I get a little older and you realize, well, I can make some noise and try to find the solution. And it doesn't have to be you.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people think you got to be the solution, like no, sometimes you just got to call attention to the issue, right. So I didn't have to create a network of brothers in philanthropy. I had to be interested in does this exist? And by saying it in the space. Now, the lift for me was to use some social capital I had because they'd asked me in this room to be a speaker to then say where are the men of color in this space? Some people would have said you said that on a call. You didn't even know those folks. And I respectfully said hell, yes, I said that because that was in my soul, that was in my heart. If I'm going to be candidly a speaker, then I can't candidly get the mic and not candidly use the opportunity to candidly get what I want, which was where are we? And then that led to a snowball.
Speaker 1:And so I think sometimes people think you got to have it all figured out, you got to start to venture, you got to build it, you got to execute it, you got to fund it. No, sometimes it's just a matter of you got to identify it, or you got to tell somebody else, find somebody that's already doing it and get behind them. When didn't sail. And so that to me, is so many parallels between philanthropy and kind of this example we're talking about, which is everybody will spin up a new fund. There's a million funds doing things. Sometimes it's a matter about pulling them together and actually doing this instead of having a whole bunch of little things happening.
Speaker 1:And so I think I'm just come from an under-resourced background as an educator, and when I mean that meaning like I went to school as a department chair and was given like one dry erase marker for the year and told to go change kids lives. That under-resourcing, not the humans, right. And so because of that I learned to be like all right, you give me one pen, watch me get down with this one pen. That's fair. I love it, I mean, and to me, that energy is what I try to push into and that's why that collective was so powerful, because that's kind of what you hear. You hear other cats saying this is how I'm doing it. Can I share some information with you? Oh, check out this book, check out this resource, because that's what helps us galvanize more of our own behaviors and get that professional patina to go and like go wherever it is that we want to go, and I think that's that's kind of some of the cool things about finding your tribe to what you said earlier.
Speaker 2:Certainly, and I and I also appreciate that it's a it's a, it's a wide range and makes a focus. So it's folks that are just getting into philanthropy or just getting into this space, folks that have been here for decades, right and like you and everything between, so you can really learn from each other. Back to your role. So you've told me what the parts are that you love. What's the most challenging part of your role?
Speaker 1:It's a good point. I mean urgency, it's balancing the urgency right, like I want to run, but some of our partners are just now starting to put their feet in this idea of like trust or collaboration, right Versus perpetuating some systems that they know and that they're kind of in. And so an example would be we talk about reimagining reporting, using reporting in a different way, right, not using it to like check the box on compliance, but actually to inform, learning along the way. Well, some folks on the funding side will say I like that, right. But then they'll say but my board not necessarily like that, right, and so you're. So you, you have to like marry the excitement of oh, you're interested, great. And you also have this system of historical behaviors good or bad, no indictment, just the reality. And so sometimes you got to be urgent but still be very patient and disciplined to follow up, because very rarely is it? No, usually it's not yet. Usually it's like yo, I'm, I like this, I'm interested. But you know, switching the way we do things is not as easy as just me, it's my whole team and it's like so. So that part is a little little bit of uh, I'd say not that I don't like it, but it's just, it's a little bit of a pebble in the shoe right, because you know you wish everybody had the ability to run to the things that they want to run to. And I'd also say you know, just keep it a buck.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're in a, you're dealing with philanthropy money, man. Like, like, I have to decide how I want to use my social capital and I've acquired a lot of it respectfully and I'm proud of it. Do I yield it to help bridge the gap between disparate groups of people that have been stepped on by some of the groups that have earned the money? Like, do I use it to help teach the funding group how, more humanely, to partner with people that look like me in communities that they've never been to besides a transaction, that they've never been to besides a transaction, do I? So some of it is.
Speaker 1:I go on a lot of walks by myself after meetings where I'm like, okay, where am I at with this? What I won't do is mental gymnastics. I will never do some mental gymnastics and fall into some strategic principled issues just to get a transaction right. That ain't me, and I'm a man of principle. You're never going to move me with another contract to do something that I would not have done without the contract. Just not going to happen, right.
Speaker 1:And so that's some of the struggle is like, where's the line for me? And that's on me having to decide what that looks like. But it's a good struggle. You know what I mean. It's a good struggle. It's one of those struggles that kind of by yourself, with a pen, your journal, however you do it. These are the kind of conversations that you need to have sometimes with yourself when are you at, where do you align, what do you stand for, what don't you stand for? And I think that, although it's a struggle at times because of the work with philanthropic dollars, it is a beautiful place to be to try to figure that out.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense and just to make sure we're all kind of on the same page. You said you were the first hire there. How big is your team now. How big are you on now?
Speaker 1:We are a little bit fluid about 43 of us. I think it's 43 or 42 of us give or take. I know we're doing a little bit of higher rent now, so forgive me, I don't want to leave someone out, but we're in that space. Yeah, man, I came on board to help see if there was a there there here with this, with our CEO, and back in 2000, my first day was September 1st 2015. And so early versions of what we were trying to build, and we knew we were building towards a bigger picture on using data to tell stories. But we took a couple of pivots along the way, but I've always stayed true to this idea about how do we help get capital to communities quicker, and sometimes we think it's through data and information relationships, and so we've stayed true to that core.
Speaker 2:So let's go back. What were you doing before this Like? What would your life look like? Were you always in this technology space working with Lord, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, technology space working with Lord no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a high school PE teacher, basketball coach by trade, so like I lock high shouts out to lock high school lock saints in South Los Angeles, California. Yeah, I was an educator man, that's what I was. I was a Kines guy and PE guy, assistant principal, and then eventually I was an AD and ran after school in athletics for the whole school district and just believed in educational-based athletics and ownership activities and like how can you use education to inspire? That was always kind of what I was into and I taught. I was an adjunct professor at LMU for a while and teaching urban or a second secondary physical education in an urban classroom setting and so doing some really cool things education in an urban classroom setting and so doing some really cool things.
Speaker 1:But I took an $8 million loss when I was running after-school programs for a charter school district in Los Angeles Green Dot Public Schools, and I was a department of one. I took an $8 million loss and that was going to basically eradicate all the funding for after-school funds for a lot of our 24 schools at the time and I lost out because I lacked an effective data strategy to articulate the outcomes I aspired to have is what was essentially imprinted on me from the state of California. The reality was there was a market crash after 08. A lot of that money that was funding these 21st century programs got crushed. Thus, what was $118 million available went down to $18 million across the state of California, and then everybody had to compete, and what I learned really quickly was damn, if you don't have a bunch of grant writers, it's tough to compete right If you're in this real game. And so I had to go face a lot of families and talk to them about why I can no longer pay for historical black college trips, I can't pay for driver's ed, I can't pay for robotics, all these things that that a lot of schools across the country take for granted. I could no longer underwrite them.
Speaker 1:And when I tell you, I was respectfully cussed out for about four straight months by every parent that came to the meetings across the city of Los Angeles, and the reality is I was let to do that by myself, and it was the best development opportunity I ever got. There was zero and I mean zero support to go into those parent meetings and get yelled at Zero. And boy did I take them. And I just took them all on the chin. Why, why, and having to explain and having to ask how to get my talking points correct, had to understand the funding cycle. What was my plan to get the money back? How am I going to go backfill this man?
Speaker 1:I became such a great development officer I was going to LAPD and getting bread.
Speaker 1:I was going to all these afterschool providers having them backfill, pay us just crazy amounts of partnerships to try to make it happen for kids, and what I learned quickly was the most important thing you can do is tell people what time it is, show them what you're trying to do, be accountable and be consistent.
Speaker 1:If you do that, it'll start to grow back up, which it did. But by the time it grew back up, I was tired and wanted to pass it on and go kind of teach other people how to do this. I was tired and wanted to pass it on and go kind of teach other people how to do this. And when I saw that the data and information was the route, teamed up with our CEO who had an idea, that was like, hey, man, how can we use information and data to kind of help basically stop buying more soccer helmets or soccer goals. It's like what else can we do? Like what else can we do? So we teamed up and now a bunch of really rad humans behind us and around us and ahead of us that really understand this from like the technical side, to help build metrics.
Speaker 2:That's great. So can you also tell me how did you transition from PE to then being responsible for these budgets and these programs and all the things? How do you grow like that for these budgets and these programs and all the things? How do you grow like that? And then a little bit more about that moment when you're like man, this is tiring, exhausting. Maybe I'm ready to move out of the school district altogether.
Speaker 1:So I would say the first part is look man, I was a school president at my school. I was the middle school president, sixth grade president. Like I always ran for student office. I was a captain of teams. Like I always knew where I came from Spanaway, washington, kind of a gritty little spot in the Pacific Northwest not a lot of fancy up there, but if you wanted something you had to go. Recycle cans, you had to go. Man, I used to hop gates and like golf courses and take balls out of the lake and watch them and sell them back at the parking lot to the guys with the nice cars.
Speaker 1:I was a hustler when it came to like you need a little money in your pocket to do things. So I've always taken that same concept of teaching. I'm never going to be told as a teacher I can't do something with my kids because we can't afford it. Go fundraise for it, go get a partner to get it. If you want it, you'll make it happen. And so, as a teacher, I was a 22 year old teacher at Locke and I was able to kind of establish that pedigree pretty early, which is I was the girls varsity basketball coach and I was a softball coach. We had no budgets. Well, that's no excuse. Let's get this candy, let's get these t-shirts, let's do this car washes Start. You know, he started making things look nice and once you can identify, you can make things look nice. People are like how'd you do that? I did it like this, let's do it with this. So eventually I climbed up to be the athletic director, then the school. Just, you know, I just I always knew a way to kind of navigate, to help, so I've always wanted to help. You know what I mean? I've never wanted to be the man, I've always wanted to help. Now, that puts you in a position of oftentimes being seen as quote unquote the man or the guy in charge, of the person in charge. But that was never my impetus. My impetus was help, and so that became the way that I kind of built up my reputation. And if you needed something done in sport-based youth development and education in Los Angeles between 2002 and probably 2016, you're probably going to either see me, drop me a line or I'm going to be in the meeting with you because I had got that reputation and so it was great.
Speaker 1:But the way to the point of understanding the budgets and all that stuff was. I listened and I I hung around the meetings. I didn't go to the meeting just to get the bagel and dip Like I wanted the knowledge, like I'm not going to sit up here and listen to too many people tell me it's, it's this, when it's actually that. Like I'm just not that guy. My dad and mom taught me better than that and so. But I know how to disagree respectfully, right, like, and I think some people know how to pound the table and make noise and some people know how to disrespectfully move through their day and other of us understand how to make the case, make the argument, be respectful and move on the issue, and I think that's what I always cared about. So for me, I pivoted into it because they knew I could handle money. Once you can show you can handle money, then you get a chance to handle more money. So then my budget, my afterschool budget, just kept growing because I was able to backfill, fundraise, write grants. Once you learn the machine, you don't need too many people to tell you much more, and it's a matter of can you teach the next person what they need to know so they can be a part of it. I never want to gatekeep. I give you all the secrets. This was kind of the way I've approached it. But to your last part of your question of how did I pivot from PE to this or, excuse me, pe to leaving education, it's heartbreak.
Speaker 1:I, very candidly, we were getting ready to have our second kid and I was department of one and my wife runs schools and so I knew we needed help and I reached out to my leaders at my organization. I said I need help this summer and they said, okay, let's see what we can do. And, mind you, I was $8 million budget. I was like I have this guy that I've met. He's willing to stick around for two more months this summer and help. I need to pay his rent. It's $5,000. Can we do that? Yeah, we can do that On a Friday. We can do that. Come back on Monday. They told me we don't have that and I said we are a $100 million enterprise and we don't have $5,000 to pay this young man to stay on board so that I can actually take a PTO with my kid.
Speaker 1:The rose colored glasses came off that day, rap and I'm a loyal cat. They came off that day. That day I was starting to listen to other opportunities and I had a bunch, but I was loyal. I wanted to be with the kids. But that's the day that I realized that I was more of a piece of a machine as opposed to an asset. And then, a couple months later, my CEO, drew, and I started meeting. Ideas came up and, just like you and I got to rap and this is what happened. That's kind of how we got after it. So the pivot was because I was, I felt like I was no longer respected as an asset in that organization and if I'm going to respect myself and I need to find another way to do this and it wasn't there's no beef. I love the folks. They do great work. It's just priorities weren't where I thought they should have been relative to what I was doing, and so I can either complain, solve it or dip. And I found a better opportunity, and that was 10 years and some change ago.
Speaker 2:That's great. I love when people just own their careers and manage their lives accordingly. I think you can certainly outgrow places. You can certainly get to a point where you know the mutual benefits of the relationship are just not there and you can just part ways and it's fine. As you said, it doesn't have to be beef right. Like you know, I've left roles in the past and I love those people and we're in great spaces and, like you know, we have drinks and meetups and all things like the people and the beautiful relationships remain, but the employment doesn't have to. So you can always take some of that with you and then, you know, continue to grow elsewhere where you feel like you are being met in the ways that you want to. So I appreciate you sharing that because I just I recognize that there are people out there that may be in similar circumstances and just don't you know, may not, just may not know that they, that they can, that they can do that. Well, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And it's hard. That's why mentorship matters right, because it's hard to like take a step outside of a. It was a, you know it was a school district job I could have. I could have, I could have settled in. You know what I mean. Like I can tell you exactly what I'd be making today, 10 years. You know what I mean. Like you knew it was comfortable, you knew the benefit package, you kind of knew job security, but like that's, if that's what you want, then great, but that's not going to make me happy on its own.
Speaker 1:I need to also make sure that I'm stimulating the things that I care about, which is curiosity and learning and solving. And once you realize that those things aren't going to be available to you, what happens to me, in my opinion, is sometimes people start to calcify, they start to turn into the hard version of themselves so they can survive the work they're doing, and then the worst of them shows up every day. Right, and I don't mean that like bad people, I mean like the worst, like assets of them. And yo, I'm a leader, I'm a charismatic leader. I bring charisma to the party, sweat equity before I get there, and we're getting after it. We're going to have some fun, we're going to knuckle it out and we're going to dip, we're going to try to change the world in the middle of that. That's what we do, right. But if I get to a point where I'm showing up and I'm like, hey man, what up? Yeah, no, I'm good, yo, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like now, now, now the streets that I have are being muted, I'm not going to change, and then we just start to wonder why, man, it's Tuesday, it's Monday, can't do it right, so like, but the mentor side of it helps you kind of unlock some of that. I'm like yo, man, sometimes you change your shoes, your feet feel different, you know, and sometimes it's as easy as that, other times it's not. Man, it easy as that, other times it's not. Man, it's time for you. You got that mortgage. You better stay, because you got to make these decisions based on tomorrow, not 10 years from now and being able to help youngsters understand that, or not even necessarily youngsters, but people in that position that need a little bit of that guidance. I had a couple of cats like that in my life that really helped me stay grounded and stay focused. The prize that helped me navigate some of these things.
Speaker 2:That's fair. I appreciate that. So let's actually go a little further back. I know you mentioned growing up in Washington. Can you talk a little bit about your upbringing? Where were you born, raised, what was that like? And then, what did you want to be when you were 12, 13 years old?
Speaker 1:I was born in Las Vegas. I'm a military kid, so I'm the baby child of two military, two Air Force folks, but they were done kind of moving around the country mostly when I was born. So, born in Las Vegas, raised briefly in Arizona, luke Airport space outside of there, and then my family settled in Spanaway, washington, back in the time, the 70s, you could be a biracial couple and be up in the Northwest and they kind of leave you alone a little bit. So what my dad said, raised in Spanaway, tough part of South Puget Sound, seattle, tacoma, right below Tacoma, so it's about 30 miles south of Seattle Everybody grows up playing football, wrestling, baseball, basketball, fishing, you know what I mean. And if you had money you went skiing or up in the mountains. But it wasn't really a reality for us so we threw snowballs, you know. But it was a great place to grow up because it was tough, tough, not like tough, like violence, tough, tough like dilapidated fences and housing. You know it just wasn't wasn't a lot of a lot of frosting in my neighborhood, put it that way but a lot of pride. You know what I'm saying. A lot of pride, specifically school athletics, and I just loved it.
Speaker 1:But I have a unique kind of upbringing in the fact that my dad died of a very, very rare disease when I was in seventh grade, so 92. I'm 45 now but he died of something called disseminated coccidioid mycosis. It's a fungal infection often referred to as San Joaquin Valley fever. There's two versions, one disseminated, one non-disseminated kind of takes on like a mononucleosis, like immunodeficient or kind of depresses the immune system, but after about six, seven months you bounce back. The other one kills you.
Speaker 1:And so my dad raised me with a young man. His name was Steven. He says little Stevie, I'm dying, so you got to know how to do X, y and Z, I'm dying, so you got to do. That's just how he talked to me. There was no balloon animals, it was all love, but it was like yo man, I'm dying. So you need to know these things. And he caught it in 79 when I was born and he died in 92 when I was in seventh grade.
Speaker 1:So all the data I know on little brown boys whose dads are missing. I'm the opposite of all of those data points right, because a dude poured into me something vicious, and my mom as well, brother and sister as well, but like how to show up, how to shake hands, how to be respectful, how to bust your ass every day, how to really focus, work, love. My dad cut flowers. My dad sculpted ice. My dad was a chef. Just like yo, figure it out, man, find a way to bring joy into this world and do it with some focus and some discipline, and so that's kind of really what's always poured into me.
Speaker 1:A lot of the reason I went and became a teacher was that no-transcript, to have that kind of love. And like I had a buff Southern black military dad who just like gave kisses and hugs you know what I mean Like, just was, like just was getting chills even saying it like it was just unbelievable in like what it's like to be, in my opinion, a man like a loving, all supportive, caring, selfless man. And when you can do that with a partner and you see what that does for a family. You know we had our little stuff that we were dealing with and figuring out, but like it was always warm, was always fed, was always loved, right, and like that was regardless of salaries. And so when you go get your little college degree and think you're going to change the world, well, the foundation that I have is are we fed, are we taken care of, are we loved? Do my kids feel like they can run through brick walls if they want to?
Speaker 1:You know those little things, and so I got that from my dad, and my mom as well, of course, but my dad really poured that into me and I just think that if you have that kind of foundation, even if it's only for a year in your life, it's foundation. It really helps you stay focused, and so when I'm in conversations with people and I'm hearing things about what can be, what can't be, I always fall back to my ideas of like. I've seen it. I've seen the model. I know what it's like to walk with your head up and your shoulders back and look everybody in the eye, shake hands, be respectful, show up tomorrow and do it again, serve. You know it was modeled, and so it's not as hard to be successful in this world when you have a model for what success can be. You know.
Speaker 2:I think that's important, that's fair. I appreciate you sharing that. You know that's a real, you know that's a real story, right, and it's. It's one of those things that, like, are just formative and just shape your outlook on life. But I'm just, I do really appreciate that even at a young age it sounds like you recognize that he was pouring so much into you and now you're able to carry that forward, right?
Speaker 2:so I just you know I think, your perspective on such a circumstance is just remarkable and speaks a lot about you I appreciate it, man, it's what?
Speaker 1:but it's also one of those things like, if it helped you, why don't you gonna keep it to yourself like I'm just not one of those like. That's why I tell even my, my partner. I say, like, if you got something that you figured out, how can we learn in public so others can benefit? Like to me, the biggest injustice this world is is experienced. In my opinion, is Steven Minix, my dad passing away too early, before he got a chance to cook the rest of his life, like he didn't do the things because he was just so solid. So what can I take from him and share? Well, it's in these moments I can share. I can.
Speaker 1:I can give somebody a little bit of a nugget about what I experienced and how I turned pain to progress. That's the through line of my life, pain to progress. Right, lost $8 million, found out a way to kind of pivot into tech focused on data, so other people don't have to have that same problem. Dad passed away early. Use that to inform, kind of basically creating my own internal career coach, life coach, out of my dad's memory. Right, like that I use to kind of look in the mirror and hold myself accountable for, and so it's a pain to progress. I think it's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, as someone that is involved in mentorship and that very much believes in this, what are some pieces of information you wish you knew a little earlier in your career? Like just some of those some of those like career cheat codes that have just helped you along the way. Oh yeah, relationships in your career. Just some of those career cheat codes that have just helped you along the way.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, relationships are your currency. That's got to be the number one. I said it earlier Relationships are your currency. You need to understand People.
Speaker 1:Stop at networking. Networking is transactional, right. Relationship cultivation is not. Relationship and network go together. But if you stop just at the business card transaction or the op transaction, then you're missing out the relationship piece. If you put networking and relationship cultivation together, you will be endlessly relevant. You can make a phone call and get an answer. You can make a phone call and get an introduction. You can take a phone call and provide a reference. You start to understand your relevance and being a support. So, to the extent that you can get beyond just networking, go to the sessions. Don't meet 100 people, meet 10, right, don't get watered down, get depth. So those kinds of things are important. So to me, that's one.
Speaker 1:Another one is take notes, copious notes. Take copious notes, contemporaneous notes, copious notes. You should always have a Google Doc open on your computer that just says the date of that week. Yo, what do you got? Got some wax. Write it, write it, write it Just, even if it's like one or two things. You can do them with voice notes now if you want, but if you're not using the tech to help you, or I mean you can do it old school, you can do it pen and paper. I keep one next to me. I always write down some notes, some stuff I come back to.
Speaker 1:But a lot of us and I'll speak specifically to men we forget that we got to talk to somebody. Sometimes, if you don't have somebody to talk to, you can talk to your journal. You can write right. So if you don't have the money for the therapist, or if your ego won't let you get a therapist, or if you're whatever, you always can write. You know you always put a couple of things down on paper. Those things are powerful because even if you don't go back to seeing them again, getting them out sometimes catharsis that act of like getting it out.
Speaker 1:The next one I'd say is get really good at sending yourself email. Right, you write something, send that to yourself and step away from it for 30 minutes. Come back, it'll help you with your tone. I think some of us specifically I speak for me, men of color we get a little hot, we get a little pissed off. We want to write some stuff, we want to go a little bit. Your head's starting to bob. Well, before you press send externally, sometimes you want to make sure it's what you want. Not talking about code switching, I'm not talking about muting yourself. I'm talking about measure twice, cut once.
Speaker 1:If you're going to say something, you're going to put it in email or you're going to write something, make sure it's what you want, especially if it's a sticky topic or it's a little bit kind of like heated, send that email to yourself. It gets you that same exact exercise of writing it, catharsis of sending it, and it comes back to you. When you read it, I guarantee you you'll be like ooh, yikes, okay, hold on, let me change that, that's spelled wrong. That's this. And then, if you want to write it again, write it again and send it out. But that kind of stuff, because we usually don't get the benefit of the doubt, we usually get oh, y'all angry. Right Now you're playing with headwind. Now I got to prove to you I'm not angry Over time. I got time for that.
Speaker 1:Send an email, mute yourself. I mean check yourself that way. And I'd also say take the teacher or take the parent-teacher approach. Reach out to people when nothing's going wrong or you don't need something. Don't only reach out to them when your kid got in trouble, or like it's just the. I see it done wrong all the time. I see it done wrong in parent teacher conferences. Yo man, drop me a text on that parent app that says my kid is funny, right, more than you drop me off and say or drop me the note that says my kid has a discipline issue. Come in. If you only go to people when you need something, then you are needy and that's not a way to create a relationship. So those are some of the ones I would say, and all those can be done with no money right now.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that and I definitely relate to that. I tell a lot of the folks I also coach grad students now, and alumni and on a formal way and then, of course, other things. But one of the things I tell people is that, like, don't be the person that only reaches out when you need something. Because if every time I see your name you need something, that doesn't create a real relationship, like I need to be able to just send me a note, say, hey, by the way, I got a new job, just good to like talk to you, that's it All right, cool Update. But like, if every time I connect with you is like you need something, like that it's disingenuous.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like yeah, it's kind of like I'm sure in your life, just like in mine the last couple of days, a whole bunch of text messages coming in on Thanksgiving from people you haven't heard from in a long time. Y'all may have Thanksgiving, man, thinking about you, about you. Imagine if people took that same level, just that same level of thoughtfulness, six weeks before Thanksgiving and said yo man, hey, just thinking about you, dude, hope things well. Same message, but you don't need the holiday to be the prompt. Imagine how proactive people start looking at each other like yo man, I appreciate you. Last year I started that If I think of you in a moment, if something comes up, I think of you, it's on me to send you a note right then.
Speaker 1:And I'll say it Like yo man. I was just listening to this new Nas album blah, blah, blah. Remember when we were in college Done and what has happened is created some crazy cool conversations with some cats that I haven't talked to in a minute. And it's not fake, it's just simple, but it's just one of those examples of the power of proactive communication, and it feels good too. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So in this field I'm a big proponent that you can do good, and do well Absolutely. Can you give folks an understanding of how much money people can make in this type of field?
Speaker 1:Sure, sure. Well, it depends on. We're in tech, right. So there's engineers that are making very, very good money coding, writing code and doing that and you know you're talking about. You know six figures, you know 175, some of the starting rates of some of these engineers coming in. I'm on the external side. Most folks are on the six figure side of things, plus commission. So it just depends if you're selling product versus if you're tending to it.
Speaker 1:All of our staff members, all people that come into our company, get equity stake. So you get equity piece of the company, which is because what we want to do is have people actually working with something they believe in. And it's all disclosed on our website. So if you go to the careers page on our website, it shows you exactly what the benefits package is, the equity package is. A lot of folks will come in. They'll ask during the hiring process, like what's equity right? And it's just because not a lot of people have been taught that Education ain't a lot of nonprofit education folks having equity conversations in their social enterprise. You know what I mean. So like that's a cool thing. That's a cool thing, but it can kind of I mean you can plan on starting around this kind of $100,000 range and then starting to climb up from there. You know, depending on if you're on the commission side of things or the engineering side of things, things change a lot. But yeah, folks can make their bread, for sure, I love that.
Speaker 2:Are there any forms of media, so books, podcasts, things that you have consumed that have shaped you personally or professionally? It doesn't have to be professionally.
Speaker 1:Sure, I would say. There's a book called the Four Agreements I would encourage anybody to read. Just read it. It's a Toltec story about the way to navigate life. It's just powerful. I would suggest reading it.
Speaker 1:There's a book by John Gordon called the energy bus. That is, uh, he has a. He has about a series of about four or five books. One of them is the energy bus, one of them's the soup. Those two specifically, you could probably read them in a in a long bus ride.
Speaker 1:I mean they're they're very short but they're metaphor based stories that help you quickly understand some pretty meaty business principles that I've found to be solid. And there's a podcast called Real History that I would highly recommend. I just think past is prologue and I think far too often people are looking for new, funny, fancy, cool stuff and I think sometimes revisiting kind of history and real history real dictators, real it's a, it's it's real as the font and they have like a thing on the backend that I would suggest just because it helps you think about leadership in a different way and good and bad and what can happen if, if you think of yourself as a, as a leader, but I also say a masterclass anybody that if you want to invest in something no-transcript of the main ones that I'd say I'm diving into for sure that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else we haven't discussed that the world should know about you, Yo man, if you're not seeing me do this.
Speaker 1:I am. I am behind a grill or I'm gardening. That's my. I think that you got to find something that brings you joy besides my three daughters and my wife, who are just all the things, the best, the great. Yeah, this is not about that. You got to find something that also brings you personal joy, and I think a lot of us forget that. Like, personal joy is important. Being silly, play, goofing around those things are important to adults too, and you just got to find a way that they're appropriate in your life.
Speaker 1:Right, and for me, as soon as I get off a call like this, I go jump on my hill for a minute and toil in the dirt, because it helps me think about what I just did. It helps me, but also it plays into my creativity side of, like I'm not an artist but my landscaping on that Hill, where I got my broccoli, my cabbage, my artichokes, all that cracking that had to get there somehow Right, so my creative brain was satiated there. So, whatever it is that you're into, that can or that you want to be into, that can help keep those synapses firing, that joy, that fun, and it gives you a chance to mess up, you know what I mean. Like you have to have opportunities to swing and miss in your life, because if you don't, you'll never take risks. So for me, I can't go into big enterprise deals swinging and missing too often. I can swing and miss on my plot of where my Brussels sprouts are at right, but there's risks associated with both of Brussels sprouts are at right, but there's risks associated with both.
Speaker 1:But that same ability of like, taking a stance, deciding why I'm going to do it, putting in the effort, having the patience, following up, maintaining all the way through, cycle from seed to plate, that's discipline. Well, I can see the direct correlations back to that in building a team, building a company, right. And so to your question about things, about me. You don't know that's one of them. That's my secret weapon is I use gardening as my counselor, as my muse, because it tells you if you mess up, you know what I mean. You do too much, it'll tell you. You don't do enough, it'll tell you. And so I think there's some feedback there that's important. So, whatever it is for y'all, find your thing, but test your mettle with it and use your discipline, your structure, your focus, put it to something that's fun.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, thank you. Well, thank you for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Indeed man, thanks for having me. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, and believe on the mission we're on, please like, rate and subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're using, and share this podcast with your friends and your networks. Make sure you follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at Career Cheat Code and tell us people or careers you would like to see highlighted. See you next week with some more cheat codes. Peace.
