Dr. Nate Woods, Jr.: Let the Transformation Begin

00:00:00 Sumer Beatty: Welcome to Tomorrow Makers, where we explore how we learn, live, work and play now and in the future. I'm Sumer Beatty. 00:00:11 Carlos Ramos: And I'm Carlos Ramos. Sumer, it's been summer. 00:00:15 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, we're back. We're so happy to be back with everyone. Feels like it's been too long. We have an awesome season lined up too. 00:00:23 Carlos Ramos: Now we're actually recording this a little bit before, so there's a little cheating. We still have a little bit of our summer break coming up. 00:00:29 Sumer Beatty: We didn't need to tell them that. 00:00:31 Carlos Ramos: No, but no, because I want to actually want to set up something here. 00:00:34 Sumer Beatty: Oh, go. 00:00:35 Carlos Ramos: we talk about in, in this episode, about all sorts of things. Our guest today is Nate Woods, Dr. Nate Woods Jr., our special assistant to the president for, Transformation? No. 00:00:52 Sumer Beatty: He is, I think it's okay that you didn't know that because when we interviewed him the first time, he didn't know his whole title. So in his defense, he was fairly new. But anyway, he is the Special Assistant to the President for Inclusion Transformation. 00:01:06 Carlos Ramos: One of the things we talk about, which hit a little close to home was vacations. With the rest of summer coming, we have some vacations coming up and so I think there's going to be something for us to be able to talk about, in some future introductions, but what have you done so far this summer that has, it's, really weird in my head to say Sumer and summer. 00:01:28 Sumer Beatty: It is weird, right? Imagine just walking around in this world and people say summer all the time. I'm looking left and right. 00:01:35 Carlos Ramos: What was the funnest thing you've done so far? 00:01:38 Sumer Beatty: I think I hate to say the funnest thing is about to come, but it's been a great summer. I had a little getaway in the Adirondacks in June. So that was exciting. Did some hiking and paddle boarding and some biking. Finally got to ride my bike up to the top of Whiteface. So that's been a bucket list item. So it was very, cool. 00:02:00 Carlos Ramos: You rode it to the top. 00:02:01 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:02:02 Carlos Ramos: Wow. Access Road or, On 00:02:05 Sumer Beatty: the Main Road. 00:02:06 Carlos Ramos: On the Main Road. 00:02:07 Sumer Beatty: Yes. 00:02:08 Carlos Ramos: Very cool. Yeah, 00:02:09 Sumer Beatty: So take some money if you want to do that, because you can't just scoot by the entrance gate. 00:02:13 Carlos Ramos: Even on a bike, you can't? 00:02:15 Sumer Beatty: No. 00:02:16 Carlos Ramos: I thought it was a car fee. 00:02:17 Sumer Beatty: No. 00:02:18 Carlos Ramos: I guess not. 00:02:19 Sumer Beatty: If you tell them you'd do it If you don't have any money and you're really gung ho to go to the top, they will let you go, but it was a little awkward. I felt bad. 00:02:29 Carlos Ramos: Okay. And as I'm asking that, I'm like, gosh, I don't even know that, I've just been doing work, work and like just little things. I guess the little things all add up. but I, I also have a couple of days coming up, so maybe my answer will change for when we have our next introduction. 00:02:46 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:02:47 Carlos Ramos: So 00:02:47 Sumer Beatty: I'll hold you to that. 00:02:49 Carlos Ramos: So anyway, back to Nate, aside from his role here at the College, he's really involved with the community. He's involved in his faith based organizations. He's got a podcast he's working on with his sister, which sounds really exciting. I think he's got some great guests lined up, so he should be able to get some, really good listeners. He's an author. He wrote the book D.O.T.S. 00:03:12 Sumer Beatty: Developing Others Through service. 00:03:15 Carlos Ramos: Really important book, I think, that everyone should read, but I'm really excited, and I think you are, about his, he's got two books coming, but one of them he just started working on and is actually going to lap the other book. 00:03:28 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, so he started writing a book. I think near the time we met with him before and had him on the podcast. And then it sounded like he had this epiphany as he was working on that book and then just put that one aside. And then is creating this other book, writing this other book. That sounds like we have a couple of weeks, a couple of months maybe to wait for that. But yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a really cool. 00:03:50 Carlos Ramos: This is a man I truly admire. He just has so much going on and he is the nicest. guy you will ever meet. 00:03:59 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, I feel like he's, so evolved in his thinking that I don't know how old he is, but I think he's probably younger than me, but I do think he's like just running circles around, around people and he's got this high level of energy of trying to really make his mark. We talked a little bit about, life and death and, we don't want to leave these Stone's unturned at the end of this life. And, you just want to squeeze as much as you can out of it. And I think he's truly living that. 00:04:31 Carlos Ramos: We were talking about the podcast we listened to and Peter Attia came up right at the top of our lists of what we're currently listening to. And I mentioned the episode that he did with Dax Shepard talking about Formula One, and they're talking about Senna because, Senna is Peter Attia is Totally. 00:04:48 Sumer Beatty: Oh, he's nuts about it. It's so funny. 00:04:52 Carlos Ramos: they, made the comment about how Senna lived so much in his, briefly cut off life way more than most people will live. And, I think that's, I see that from Nate. Nate is living life. 00:05:06 Sumer Beatty: Oh, he is. 00:05:07 Carlos Ramos: And I think that for me, that was the lesson of the day is like, how can I make sure I'm getting as much, how much, how can I make sure I'm putting in the as much of myself into life. It's not getting it out. It's putting it in. 00:05:20 Sumer Beatty: Think he's efficient too, because he never seems tired. He was here and he was like, I wake up at 530, I get my workout in. What did he call it? A bonus hour or, investment, his investment hour. So we were talking about publishing this book. When's it going to be ready? And he says, I may need to reallocate my investment hour from working out to writing the book. So I do think he, He divvies up his day. He slices and dices and makes sure, and he's got a family, and I think he gives to all elements of life. 00:05:55 Carlos Ramos: I'm thinking about the morning routine, and it's I've added this, I've added this, I've added this. To get my morning routine in, I've got to be up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and I'm still banging against seven o'clock. 00:06:06 Sumer Beatty: And we need sleep. Speaking of Peter Attia, like the sleep is a huge piece for longevity. So we don't want to cut your sleep out. 00:06:15 Carlos Ramos: So what about you? Anything that you really took from it today? 00:06:19 Sumer Beatty: Oh, so many takeaways. I said it was like more questions than answers. There's just I think the gratitude piece is really important. We talk about that and how we just need to take time to say thank you. And it's free. you talk about giving back, that's such an easy thing we can all do. yeah, I like that piece. 00:06:40 Carlos Ramos: Alright, let's get into it with Dr. Nate Woods. 00:06:50 Nate Woods: So we, I connected with Flav when we were on this Virgin cruise and we were cruising the Mediterranean Sea, my wife and I. And it was so funny. Everyone's, we're doing dinners and everything and people are coming up saying, have you seen Flavor Flav? Have you seen him? And I'm like, what are you talking about? Have I seen Flavor Flav? We're on a ship. I'm not looking for Flav, right? They was like, nah, you need to go like he's on the ship. And everyone's nah, that's not real. People are coming up. Yeah, he really is. You just have, y'all don't stay up and party. So you would never see him. I said, I get that because that's not my life. We end up, going to, Whenever we cruise, we always take a hundred dollars and we'll go into the casino, never more than a hundred and we go in and I'm at the roulette table and I'm, just having a good time, nothing crazy. But then, we leave and my wife looks up and she was like, Oh, Flavor Flav's at the Blackjacks table. I said, I'm gonna go over there. So I take my little earnings and my winnings and I go over there and Flav and I'm trying to be like chill about this. And I'm like, Oh, that's Flavor Flav. Okay, this is cool. So I sit down and he's on the opposite end and he loses maybe $2,000 in two minutes. He reaches in his pocket, pulls out a stack of $1,000 chips so he can continue playing. And I was like, ooh, scholarships. I'm processing this. I don't have, I'm playing five dollar chips like the rest of the people. And I put some, on and I win five times what I bet. And he said, Oh, that's a good, that's a good look. That's a good hand. I said, I looked up like this. I said, yeah, Flav. And then I put my head back down. 00:08:48 Sumer Beatty: Play it cool 00:08:49 Nate Woods: everybody was rolling. laughing hysterically hard. It was just so funny, but it made an impression. So when we were in Ibiza, Spain, we were, my wife and I was having breakfast at a restaurant and he comes walking past. And when he walks past, he looks and says. Yeah, Flav. It's just funny. And then I just stood up and said, Hey man, can I get a photo op? May I have a picture? And he says, sure. And I went to do the picture, like a selfie. He starts talking as if I'm recording. I said, wait a minute, that's love. Wait a minute. Boop, record. And he kept going. And it was just the coolest thing. 00:09:30 Sumer Beatty: What did he talk about? 00:09:32 Nate Woods: No, he just gave a plug for my podcast siblings talk. but he, was like, nah, this is love right here. let the people know we out here. I said, what? He said, we're out here. I said, yo, we out here then. We out here. And I was like, I appreciate it. Thank you. 00:09:50 Sumer Beatty: So that was just this past summer. Like just last week, Okay. 00:09:56 Nate Woods: Oh, yeah, that was last week. 00:09:58 Sumer Beatty: Oh, nice. I was going to ask where you went, because when we initially tried to schedule this, you were like, oh, I'm going to be out of the country, so of course I have lots of questions about travel. 00:10:06 Nate Woods: Oh, yeah. Let's talk about it. So we, my wife and I wanted to just, we wanted to continue dating my wife and do certain things and so we save very well. We budget, we strict budgeters, and we set up a trip with Virgin Cruise, and so it was amazing. Adults only, no kids. Let me say that again, adults only, no kids. It was amazing. But we went to, we flew into Barcelona, Spain, and then we cruised from Spain, France, Toulon, France, and then we went to Italy. And so I was able to see Pisa, Rome, the Vatican. It was amazing. 00:10:46 Sumer Beatty: How many, two weeks? Is that about ten days? 00:10:49 Nate Woods: The cruise was seven, seven days. But we flew in two days early. And we stayed an extra day. so it was about ten. 00:10:59 Sumer Beatty: Nice. 00:10:59 Nate Woods: Yeah. 00:11:00 Sumer Beatty: Have you been? 00:11:02 Nate Woods: Never been to those locations before. But it was, we enjoyed it so much, we booked again next year already. So we're going to Greece. We'll check that out. I'll tell you about that next year. 00:11:13 Sumer Beatty: Okay, good. Yeah, the cruise is a great way to explore. You don't have to figure all of that stuff out on your own. And just drop you off in the good places. 00:11:22 Nate Woods: That's it. I think it's a sample. So I call cruising is like a sample platter. Yeah. You get to stop in a sample countries or places. And if you like it, you can go back. And then you can actually fly into them and stay there. If you don't, you can't. You don't have to worry about ever sampling that again. So if you walk in 00:11:42 Carlos Ramos: to the blackjack table again, Flav's sitting there, next year. 00:11:46 Nate Woods: Yeah, I'm going to say, What up Flav? Same thing, I don't have a relationship with him, so it was just, it was funny. And then also we always keep in mind, we're on a cruise, you're not going to see us anymore. Like these people are coming from everywhere, you're not going to see us again. But we built some great relationships with a couple of people that we will stay in touch with. 00:12:08 Carlos Ramos: That can be really freeing when you, know you're in an environment with a bunch of people that the, chance of seeing them again is just minuscule. 00:12:16 Nate Woods: Absolutely. And so I have video footage of how freeing that can be of some. 00:12:22 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Isn't Virgin sort of a party ship? 00:12:26 Nate Woods: For adults, they go hard. You think about when the kids are not away, when the kids are away, the adults want to play right? And so people really let their hair down. That's not really our scene. Like my wife and I were sitting down puzzling. No, we were sitting down doing puzzles. And so we built, we did so many puzzles because that's her thing. And I just want to spend time with her and love her and be in her presence. I just sat down and puzzled with her. I'd rather be in an arcade playing Ms. Pac Man or Mario Brothers or Mortal Kombat or something, but she wanted a puzzle. So I sat down and I puzzled. When we looked up, they said, you have so many people coming here to puzzle. Now that y'all are puzzling, we're going to build some activities around puzzling. So there were puzzling contests and everything. It was, cool. It was cool. 00:13:16 Sumer Beatty: You brought your own puzzles? 00:13:18 Nate Woods: Nah, they had them. They just have them. They have a game room with, 30 arcade games, I don't know, 100 puzzles, games, Sudoku puzzles, Tic Tac, Connect 4, Jenga, you name it, they had it. And apart from any other cruise that I've ever been on, when you pay at the beginning, it covers everything. Other than alcohol, and I don't drink like that, but it covered everything. So every restaurant we went into, it was, once you finish eating, just get up and walk out. That was awkward. 00:13:55 Sumer Beatty: And you can eat any time of day too. 00:13:57 Nate Woods: Anytime, all day. 00:13:58 Sumer Beatty: Oh, it's 10 o'clock, I want ice cream. 00:13:59 Nate Woods: You can sit down and order six entrees and they will bring you six entrees. 00:14:04 Carlos Ramos: That's dangerous. 00:14:04 Nate Woods: Do you want us to stagger them or do you want them all at the same time? I've never had this option before. My wife will order every dessert. Like it was fun stuff. 00:14:16 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, that's fantastic. I wasn't sure what type of knowing how philanthropic you are and you, I thought, Oh, is he on, I'm glad you treated yourself by the way, but I thought, Oh, I could also see you being like, Oh, I went on this missions trip or something like that. So either way, it's a good story to tell. Flava Flav or whatever happens next. 00:14:33 Nate Woods: That's good. So we do a lot of mission work, but I think, one of the things I was looking up and doing some research on, according to what I believe, There's a statement that says, you love your neighbor as you love yourself. The real question is, do people really love themselves? And because of that, we were talking about self help and, Carlos, you were saying how when you, instead of working out, you just did a walk because you was paying attention to your body. That's a part of loving yourself is paying attention to what your body is telling you, right? And so before I do any workouts, I do a warm up set with very lightweight weights. to see if my body is saying go hard or please don't do anything. So sometimes you do that warmup set with a five pound weight. You may turn around and say, Oh, I'm not feeling this today. I'm going to just stretch or I'm gonna stick with this five pound dumbbell when I normally lift fifty or sixty and it's okay because there's no ego here. I'm paying attention to what my body is saying, but enough. I don't think we have enough people that. that are really listening to their bodies. And we have this idea where we're going to push through and just push, push, And that's a culture. That's the culture that's in people's lives. That's in our work environment. We push, push, push. And a lot of times we need to, because we have to think about our systems, right? And so we have to push through. And so I just want to pause really quick and just say kudos to our team for working on systems and building out software and making sure that our school functions appropriately. I take my hat off to you, respect you. I don't talk a lot about my trip because I know we have some people on our team that are just, they're in grind mode right now. And that's the sacrifice, that they're making or they choose to make for the team right now. And there's going to be a point where we all sacrifice differently for the, for the betterment of the team. But I just love that. We have team members that are committed to the cause and that are putting in the work. So thank you. Thank you for your hard work and your dedication. 00:16:41 Sumer Beatty: A lot of really nice thoughts. And I think we could talk a lot about, self care and the importance of that, because when you're happy and when you're taking care of yourself, that's when you can give the most to your team, right? 00:16:53 Nate Woods: You speak my love language. Yes. 00:16:55 Sumer Beatty: it's just so essential. 00:16:57 Nate Woods: There's a children's book. I believe it's called Fill Your Bucket. It's a simple children's book, but it teaches children to make sure they replenish themselves so they have something to give to others. Great lesson for adults. make sure your bucket is filled so that you can pour into other people. 00:17:15 Sumer Beatty: And thankfully, we live in a culture where this idea and these, this culture is, uplifted. Yes. And I almost feel routinely. Why didn't somebody tell me that when I was, it's like this unlocking this next level of being, but not until you're, I'm too old to figure like, why didn't somebody tell me this when I was younger? 00:17:39 Carlos Ramos: You're young enough to take it all on. 00:17:41 Sumer Beatty: But imagine if you had this information when you were a teenager, we probably wouldn't have been able to digest it and make use of it at that time because we have so many other things happening, but even say 20. 00:17:53 Nate Woods: Yeah, no, so Robert Kawasaki says in his book, I believe it is the, Rich Dad Poor Dad. He talks about their quarters in life and he says from 25 to 35 is your first quarter and 35 to 45 second quarter, fourth and fifth quarter or third and fourth quarter, forgive me for miscounting. And so I think when you get to that first quarter, that's when you really start processing. if you think about research, your brain is not fully developed until you're 25, 26, around that period, and that's where he says the first quarter really starts. And my son right now runs track, and he's an amazing, great athlete, and he's committed, and we told him to take the month of July off, don't do anything. And he almost lost his mind. What do you mean? How am I going to be great if I don't? And I said, son, you're going to wear your body out. Yeah. You have to give your body. You have to give your body an opportunity to breathe and you have to step away from it because it's what you do is not who you are. if this was a movie, In the black culture, there's a movie called Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking juice in the Hood, right? There's a part in there where they, they have these hidden messages or gems that you can pick up and it changes your life. And at that point, it says, Message! So people know, you need to go back and listen to that again. But I think that was a point where I would just say, Message! really take time to give your body a chance to recoup. Because this is not who you are. It is what you do. That's it. And the same thing with our work here at Penn College. I love Penn College. I'm committed to Penn College, but it's what I do is not who I am. My identity is not in my work. It comes from somewhere else. 00:19:39 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, you and I were having a conversation in passing about that and it just gave me pause to think about it because there is so much of, every moment I will be thinking about how to solve some of the challenges that are happening. I, it will take me sometimes a 10 hour hike to finally get out of that. Yeah. Just to work myself to exhaustion, just to get to it. And so that was really important to me. And I thank you for that moment. 00:20:09 Nate Woods: I appreciate it. I think all of us, and it's easier for others, right? So for President Reed, it looks completely different. He thinks about this as a part of the senior executive team. I think about this, but I have to make sure I take a moment to disengage so that when I do re engage, I'm at my best and we need that. And it, and it's going to look different for everyone. So I'm not saying follow Nate's blueprint. Nah, it's going to look different for everyone. And we all need to make sure we're investing in ourselves. Truthfully, that's how we invest in, into our jobs, the institution, the students and to the mission. we have to sharpen our saw. If everyone has an ax and you just keep swinging for the next 10 years, You're going to kill yourself, break your back, your arms, you're going to be strong, you're going to look amazing. But if you never take time to sharpen the saw, you're actually putting in more effort than you think. And you would never know until the end. 00:21:19 Sumer Beatty: So I think the college is investing in the calm app or me. 00:21:23 Nate Woods: That's a nice plug 00:21:25 Sumer Beatty: It. Yeah. But I feel like you could replace it all together. I think we could just get emails from you. Voicemails better. Yeah. Because I just feel like these are so essential, not just to people here at Penn College, but to everyone. 00:21:41 Nate Woods: Yeah, it is. And I hope that is that ties into the work that we're doing. I was hired to do, right? And so how do we create a culture where people feel they're at their best and they can be their best in this workspace. So really creating a welcoming environment and that comes with having these types of conversations and saying, look, we're not trying to overdo it. I don't start taking a vacation, every other month that's not realistic, but are you taking a vacation? You should not have 350 days saved up in vacation days, and then you're miserable because you haven't taken any time off so that you can replenish yourself. Take the time off. It's not going to fall apart if you're not here for a week. And if it does, then we have bigger problems. 00:22:26 Carlos Ramos: Sumer's booting me out of here right now. Just start your vacation now. 00:22:34 Sumer Beatty: There's never a good time, honestly. If you look at a calendar, it's There's never a good time. 00:22:39 Nate Woods: You just look at it and you figure out what's the least that can be affected when I'm gone. The least amount of things can be affected when I'm gone. But it also comes to trust. One of my mentors told me this, he said, Nate, if you can leave work and your team can handle it, it means you trust your team. If you can't leave work because you're afraid something is not going to be done right, or things are not going to go the way that they should, then that means it's all on you as a leader. Either you don't trust your team to do the job, meaning they're incompetent, and that goes back to you, meaning you haven't trained them. Or that means they just don't know. And there again, it goes back onto you and you need to train them. And it all, and it changed everything about my life. Everything. So I figured if we get in and we start training and I spent more time with my team and we developed a team and I could take a day off and it was like, Oh, I only had 10 phone calls that day. Then the next time, I only had two phone calls, and then one day I was like, huh, I'm calling them. Are y'all okay? 00:23:50 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, they don't need me anymore. 00:23:53 Nate Woods: They were able to function, not at 100%, more like 75%, but they were able to do it. And I was like, okay, this is what it looks like to delegate and to empower other people to step in when I'm not there. So it was cool. 00:24:07 Carlos Ramos: One of the things I do, and yes, I need to take more time off. Totally trust my team. Have an awesome team. 00:24:14 Nate Woods: This is Carlos. 00:24:14 Carlos Ramos: I have the best team 00:24:16 Nate Woods: He's in a session right now. Just kidding. 00:24:20 Carlos Ramos: But it's to unplug. It's to take that device and shut it off. Yes. Put it away. I got three days coming up, I think I'm going to make it four days, where I'm just, it'll be there, it'll be in the car, that way, if anyone needs to know where I am, or at least where my car is, they'll have that. I got a tracker for other purposes, in case I end up falling to the bottom of the lake. 00:24:45 Nate Woods: Okay. 00:24:45 Carlos Ramos: Then I'll still be found. 00:24:46 Nate Woods: We do need to know where you're going to be. 00:24:50 Carlos Ramos: But no, I think it's important to, to have that mindset, to set yourself up with the systems and you started off talking about systems, but also to have your own systems so that I think there's a trust in yourself. You have to have as well. trust and love my team. Am I giving myself that same trust and love? 00:25:13 Nate Woods: Ooh, give me some. So it's not only trusting the team, but do I trust myself? I don't know. I think we may, need to do part three, four, five, and six. 00:25:28 Sumer Beatty: I think this is our sampler. We're talking about samplers. We're just going to tap into all these subject areas and then we can come back and explore them fully. 00:25:37 Nate Woods: Go deeper. 00:25:38 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:25:38 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. And while we're on it, please let us know which of these pieces you really want us to explore more. Hit us up at podcast@pct.edu. 00:25:46 Nate Woods: Ooh, let us know. 00:25:48 Carlos Ramos: Definitely. 00:25:48 Nate Woods: Love that. That's a nice plug, too. 00:25:52 Carlos Ramos: We need to do more of that. 00:25:54 Sumer Beatty: I don't think we've ever done that, actually. 00:25:56 Carlos Ramos: No, not that particular one. 00:25:58 Sumer Beatty: Sometimes I have said, somebody email me. Let me know that the email address is working. And I did get some emails. I think they felt bad for us. 00:26:07 Nate Woods: Please email me. 00:26:09 Sumer Beatty: We knew it worked, by the way. But I was just thinking, people are hearing you. And it's really cool because we do, I'm sure Carlos gets these comments too, but I sometimes talk to people and they're like, Oh my gosh, it's I'm on the podcast. I listened to your voice and now I'm talking to you. And it's sorry, it's freaking me out is what people say. I'm like, I want to freak you out, but that's cool. You put these messages out into the world and you don't always know who's hearing you. 00:26:36 Carlos Ramos: Our mutual friend, Kyle, he, let us know. He's we, need to know more about Sumer and Carlos. Absolutely. And it struck me this morning, and this isn't the podcast to do it, but maybe it's the part three or the part four or the part five with you, because we're going to have you back. 00:26:53 Sumer Beatty: I'm nervous to be interviewed by Nate. Is that what you're suggesting? 00:26:56 Nate Woods: I want to interview you. 00:26:57 Carlos Ramos: Let's have Nate interview us. 00:26:58 Sumer Beatty: We're going to get all kinds of information about our siblings and all kinds of stuff we don't want out there in the world. 00:27:04 Nate Woods: I won't put it out there. 00:27:06 Carlos Ramos: Actually, I was really excited to hear about that with the, I wanted to save Sibling Rivalry for later, but Let's get into it because I think you brought it here. This is a podcast that you don't have released yet. No, we haven't. Correct. With your sister. Correct. I think it would be amazing to have me and my two brothers on there because the dynamic between the three of us is wild and we're all successful in our own ways. 00:27:32 Nate Woods: Actually, that would be a great interview. Yeah. It'd be fun. I would love to do that. I will set that up with you. All right. so the podcast is called Siblings Talk and I was with my sister. Her, alias is Ms. Good News. And she just works at an interview. She works at a radio station at a college and Interviews so many people. It's ridiculous. And she does so much philanthropic work in the community, very engaged, she started off volunteering her time. So working a different job and then coming to volunteer to work at the radio station. And they said, we can't function without you. We need you. And so they hired her. 00:28:13 Sumer Beatty: I like that approach. 00:28:14 Nate Woods: Now she's, now she's the assistant director, for, communications and at the radio station. And she hosts some amazing shows. Very encouraging, uplifting. And so from that, we were just talking and she, I, we don't talk about politics and we don't talk about religion, at our institution and for good cause we don't. and so I'm a person of faith. I'll leave it at that. And one of the groups that I work with, she, my sister is a part of it. We have celebrities and actresses and professional athletes that come into this group that I meet with every Tuesday. I've been meeting with this group and it's been expanding for almost five years. And, she said, all of these people are in your group that so many influential people, we should interview them, like all of them. And so they come, they come to this space and it's safe and it's sacred and no one is puffed up. It's nah, we're here together and we're going to talk and build. And so after, two years, literally two years, I said, let's do this. Let's do this. And so we're going to just jump in and see how it goes. I'm not afraid to fail forward, and it's one of the best things in the world. There's a gentleman named, Dr. Myles Munroe, who died. Dr. Myles, Dr. Myles Munroe, he died, in a plane crash. but he wrote in one of his, hundred books, one of the things he said that was profound and stood out to me, and I wrote about it in my first book. He said, the wealthiest place in the world, It's not the oil fields in Iran and Iraq, not the diamond mountains and, on the continent of Africa. He said the wealthiest place on this planet is the graveyard, because there lies untapped potential, untapped desires or dreams and businesses that never came to fruition. All of this wealth is in the grave for people who did not live out what they were intended to live out. For whatever reason, for fear, didn't have the resources, whatever, these ideas are just in the garden. in a grave, just laying there. The wealthiest place on the planet, moved me, and I want to make sure, when I die, and I will, when I die, that everything's out. I've squeezed a life out of myself. Seriously, everything is out and that people can live and say, man, Nate did as much as he possibly could to love people, to encourage people, to build his family, run businesses, do this. He did it all. He lived. And that's what I want to be remembered as. 00:31:08 Carlos Ramos: And you've already lived 10 times more than most people. 00:31:11 Nate Woods: I appreciate it. Yeah. I'm putting in some work. I'm putting in some work. But that's where sibling talk comes from. is that idea of just let's live, let's do something. And it, it became more abundantly clear to me when I came and was hired here at Penn College. I went through, they should have never put me through that Innovation Series. They should have never put me through that series. I learned so much. And one of the things I learned from the innovation series is we tend to start things and we want to keep it forever. But in the innovation processes, sometimes you start something and you trial it or you pilot it, or you just do it for a year or so. And then you stop and it's okay. That doesn't mean it's a failure. You just stop and then you go back and reassess and maybe we need to do something different. And so things maybe are done for different seasons. People don't sow seed all year long because there's a time for the ground to replenish itself or heal itself, right? And I just take the same approach in business. 00:32:22 Sumer Beatty: You mentioned Innovation Series. Do we want to say what that is? Just in case people don't, aren't aware of it. so it's a certificate program. 00:32:31 Nate Woods: It is. 00:32:31 Sumer Beatty: Okay. And, they allow any staff, faculty to take it, of course, but also our students have access to this. So it can be added to associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and just, it's a really cool idea if you think about that, somebody coming from maybe that technical skillset. Adding this innovation mindset to it. I think you can all imagine how those two could connect and what advantage that may bring to someone, post graduation or even while they're here accessing our labs and having the opportunity to explore those skills, create products. And it's not all about a tangible product, right? It's about solutions. It's about unlocking this. thinking. 00:33:15 Nate Woods: There you go. 00:33:15 Sumer Beatty: And having a process for it, right? So it's just, 00:33:19 Nate Woods: I'm adding sound effects. Go ahead. 00:33:21 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. It's just, it's such a really unique opportunity. It is. And is it, do we have the option remote or in person or is it all in person? 00:33:31 Nate Woods: So we have, I don't, I'm not sure what the student version looks like, but we meet, with our instructor. So Chip is amazing. But we meet with the instructor, once every week or every two weeks for a semester. amazing program. You can earn your blue belt or your black belt. And I earned my blue belt. I am excited to go push forward to get my black belt. But it teaches a system. There's a system for innovation. And sometimes we'll say you hear people say, I'll need you to be innovative and give me a solution. Excuse me. 00:34:09 Sumer Beatty: You have to be creative. 00:34:13 Nate Woods: So there's a system to being innovative. And sometimes I think we're just in a rush. And we're just in a daily grind and we say, Oh, we need people to come up with ideas, but we're not creating the space or for the system to be put in so that it can generate or give us an output of innovative thoughts. Dr. Reed said to me, he said, Nate, if you put a good person in a bad system, the system will win every time. Changed my life. First time I ever heard that in my life. And it changed my life. And I said, Oh, the work is systems, system work more than anything. And that doesn't mean anyone's bad. And what it does is it takes people out of it, out of the work. And now we're looking at systems. We're tackling systems. We're attacking systems. we're tweaking and adjusting systems, not people. But when the people build the systems, we put our heart into it. Blood, sweat, and tears in it, and so this is my baby. No, it's not. It's a system. We're going to make some adjustments. And we tend to sometimes get offended because a system we built or developed gets adjusted. Yeah, I was just relocated. It can be hard, right? 00:35:30 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, systems have to change. They have to. The environment's changing around it. 00:35:35 Nate Woods: The people are changing. And because the people are changing, the system that was once established served and it met all the needs of the people. But as the people changed and evolved, That same system 5, 10, 20 years later could be a barrier for people coming in now. And so we want to adjust. That's, I'm telling you what I do. This is what my job is to go in and ask questions, build relationships, and then let's look at the system. What are some of the barriers that are in the way that are preventing people from coming in and having a welcoming environment? This being a welcoming environment so that they can be at their best. And I just covered six questions. 00:36:15 Sumer Beatty: I told you we weren't even going to look at the questions. 00:36:18 Nate Woods: We just started talking. I love it. Every time. 00:36:21 Sumer Beatty: I am glad that you brought up your role at the College because, so you're the first person who's ever filled this role, right? Yes. Yes. So we're in year two. And I'm curious, what does it look like now? that you're here, you're moving, you're shaking things up compared to how you thought it was going to look two years ago. 00:36:43 Nate Woods: I'm gonna be completely transparent. Imposter syndrome is real. And so initially when I started, excited, full of energy, let's go in and let's do this. And all the while feeling insecure, feeling out of place, not sure. And so I had to wrestle with my own internal feelings of Do I belong here? Is this right? Oh, I have great vision. I can see this thing could change. I have, like vision for days, but still the real work is internal. And what I'm realizing more than anything is if I can help my colleagues and our students to do more of the internal work, this, what we're talking about, creating spaces and tomorrow makers, that becomes a lot easier and people are less likely to be offended and hurt because we have, we're more empathetic to the fact that somebody may be insecure or someone, may have gone through a traumatic experience, and they're trying to come to work and just go super hard at work. And this idea of pushing through, I'm going to push through and just do my work, and I'm not going to bring all of this stuff with me, that's a lie, you always bring it with you. But no one's teaching us how to set this to the side, or compartmentalize, or is that even safe to do, should I do that, or should I just take a mental health day? Or this, project is pressing, I need to be present, I need to show up, so how do I show up and talk to the person that's next in command and say, look, I need you on your A game because I'm on my B game today. However you would say that, and just have those real conversations. And I think we're starting to have more and more of those conversations by doing QPR training. doing, 00:38:50 Sumer Beatty: Tell us what QPR is. Anytime we throw one of our acronyms out, I feel like we need to explain. 00:38:55 Nate Woods: I apologize. 00:38:56 Sumer Beatty: That's okay. 00:38:57 Nate Woods: So QPR is Question, Persuade, Question, Persuade, Refer, and it is a suicide prevention awareness training program for mental health, and so it's just informing or training our staff and colleagues and even students about what QPR is on how to look for different signs and symptoms of someone who may have a suicidal ideation, or may talk and say, I don't think I should be here anymore, or I don't think it would be cool if I was around. No one would miss me. what do you do with that? So you go in and you ask questions. And then after you ask questions, and the real question that you would ask is, Are you thinking about doing suicide or, attempting suicide? Are you thinking about harming yourself? And if they say yes, then you know what to do next. Persuade them not to make that move. And then refer them to the appropriate people that can help them. Because we're not a therapist. we're just here being therapeutic. 00:39:56 Carlos Ramos: Big distinction. 00:39:57 Nate Woods: Very big distinction, right? And we're just guiding people to the real people that can help them. And I just, I've learned over these two years that a lot of the barriers that people are facing are internal. Because I faced them within myself, right? And so I believe I'm at my best now because I've been able to address those, spend quality time talking to professionals and getting mentored and, those types of things. And so what I've seen in these two years on our campus, is that people love students. If we're not here for our students, I will call, I will put everything that I own on the table, on the line and say that we're here for our students and you can't ask a person on this campus that will say anything different than that. We're here for our students. Now how we execute being here for our students looks different and that's okay. and so we have The Cupboard, which has been expanded. we have the inclusion academy, which has been remarkably used. It's been used so well. And the conversations in the LinkedIn connections have been amazing with the LinkedIn Learnings through the Inclusion Academy has been awesome so much so that other departments are starting to use LinkedIn learning for professional development within their departments now. And so I think that's huge. And that's a great way to introduce, some products that we have on our campus that maybe some people didn't know anything about, the Lunch and Learns. are my favorite. And I'm saying things that require professional development because I think we need more of the professional development as we have people being promoted into leadership positions. Making sure we have leadership, professional development training, customer service training is a big deal. But I also believe, and this is something, President Reed talked to me about quite a bit, is having these professional developments because they not only provide information for us to grow, but also an opportunity for colleagues from different areas and departments to come together to work together and talk together and co mingle and build relationships and break down silos because now there's dialogue around how different departments work and we can cross pollinate and take behaviors that work best or best practices, we can share the secret sauce. 00:42:21 Carlos Ramos: You mentioned a few things in there that those that aren't part of Penn College community and even those, some that are in the community may not be familiar with. So The Cupboard. Yes. what's that? 00:42:32 Nate Woods: So The Cupboard is, let me back up and say it this way. We understand that there are food insecurities across our community. We know that a roughly 60 percent or a little bit more or less are of our students commute. And because of that, they may have food insecurities or may not have access to food regularly. And because of that, to mitigate that, we provide cupboards all over our campus where they can go and get food free of charge. and get, they can grab what they need and we replenish The Cupboard, and we're just grateful for the donors, those that give and that support The Cupboard. If you want to figure out a way that you can support, please, get connected with our college relations team. they can, help you, our foundation, they can help you get connected with The Cupboard so you can give toward The Cupboard, not only food, but also, hygiene products. Thanks. Those are very necessary, within the community as well, based on some survey data that just came out. And so that's a big deal as well. 00:43:36 Carlos Ramos: And it's more than just, boxes of macaroni and cheese. Yes. There's actually, milk and eggs. 00:43:41 Nate Woods: Yeah, there's a refrigeration unit in our main, location. And there are cold products, there are vegetables, there are, if you want to give, you don't have to just give cans, you can come bring frozen corn, frozen peas, frozen green beans, milk or whatever. They need items, and they're going to always need items because food insecurities doesn't seem to be going away. Not just on our campus, this is all campuses in our community at large. 00:44:08 Carlos Ramos: And I think there's the opportunity to do, actually, you can donate money so that one of the facilities here at the College that stocks these items, they, can get them. 00:44:18 Nate Woods: Absolutely. So we'll provide the links in the show notes for that. Yeah. So please, oh, let me just throw this out there. Don't bring items and put them in The Cupboard. Just follow protocol. Just give them to the appropriate people so the items can be vetted. And then they will stock The Cupboards. 00:44:36 Carlos Ramos: Last thing we need is that 30 day out of date yogurt. 00:44:40 Nate Woods: Do not stock them. 00:44:42 Sumer Beatty: People are trying to be helpful. We appreciate it. But yeah, there are systems to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Absolutely. I had to throw that out there. 00:44:52 Carlos Ramos: Lunch and Learn. I've been to several, if not most. So amazing. Great opportunity because it brings the community in for so many of these. 00:45:02 Nate Woods: Correct. 00:45:03 Carlos Ramos: Love to see more of the Penn College community there and more of the Williamsport community. 00:45:07 Nate Woods: Absolutely. I think that we have an opportunity to continue education. I believe education is vitally important and I see that we have celebrations that we're not educated anymore. I want to do a Lunch and Learn for July 4th. I don't, I'm not sure, maybe we should do a poll. I'm not sure if people remember what July 4th is. People will tell you what the holiday is. 00:45:32 Carlos Ramos: It's not just lights in the sky. Yeah, it's not a cookout. 00:45:36 Nate Woods: Yeah, picnics and some burgers and hot dogs. It's more to it, right? Why are we celebrating that? Why is that important to our history? And sometimes I don't think people really remember. And so I want to just educate or re educate people on the history. So that we can say, Oh, this is why we do this. but I want to do that across the board for most of our holidays. 00:45:58 Carlos Ramos: There's some intentionality that I think we've lost among all of those celebrations. 00:46:03 Nate Woods: Yeah, we just take a day off and go about our business and don't remember the significance of the day. And if we do that for another 10, 20, 30 years, who's to say that next generation is going to know what the holiday actually means if we don't go back and teach it. And so I would just like to inform and educate. That's what my whole purpose. But the Lunch and Lunch are just It's about getting people together. Let's educate on one small topic. We're not going to be able to go in depth. We don't have the time for it, but let's, create a pause for the cause. Let's create a pause so that people can say, oh, this is what this means. And this is why it's important to this particular people group. It's not important to me. I didn't know of it, but this particular people group, this is important to and I have people in my community are part of that demographic. And if they think that's valuable, maybe I should learn a little bit something so I can better speak to the people in my community. That's how I see it. 00:47:05 Sumer Beatty: So are you writing a book? 00:47:07 Nate Woods: Who told you that? 00:47:10 Sumer Beatty: I just assumed. You did. You were working on one when we met last time, I think. And I feel like maybe that one's out or it's still in the works. Okay. How's that going? 00:47:22 Nate Woods: It is work. My goodness. It's hard. It's hard writing a book. I'm not an author. Yes, I am. But it's difficult writing a book when my mind moves. And so I can be in the middle of, I have to learn to sit in the thought. and let it grow into something. I don't do that too often when it comes to writing. And so that's difficult. And I don't believe I'm a strong writer. And so I'm going to lean heavily on you. 00:47:52 Sumer Beatty: Is there something in my inbox I missed? I hope I'm not holding anything up. 00:47:59 Nate Woods: No, not at all. But once I get to that point, and so this is the, I'm being candid here. I started writing a book. And I'll even give you the title of the book. It's not coming out until I finish it, whenever that is. But the title of the book is 00:48:20 Sumer Beatty: Still being workshopped, based on the eyes to the ceiling. 00:48:23 Nate Woods: Nah, I'm contemplating should I even give it. I'm gonna go ahead and just throw it out there. The title of the book is, If we take a trauma informed approach, Do we need DEI? Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It's gonna be controversial. That's the purpose of it. But what I do is I present both frameworks and then let the reader decide which framework they lean more to. That's it. 00:48:53 Sumer Beatty: And so who's the audience for this book? 00:48:55 Nate Woods: Educators, anyone that's in government, policy writers, because it's influencing everything right now. There are 28 states right now in our country that either have executed legislation or have legislation that's about to cancel out DEI work across the state. And with that being said This is something that's on, it's on the front, forefront of everything, and anyone in a position like I'm in, that does this type of work around inclusion, their jobs are in jeopardy, that doesn't mean that institutions can't hire you, and I'm not saying that by any means, but what I am saying that, what I am saying is, we need to continue to move forward, and maybe the approach should shift. You remember I was talking about systems, some things can go and then we need to stop and then maybe do something different. And maybe we need to go back and reassess, are we going about this the right way? And maybe take a trauma informed approach, which framework is bigger, it's extensive, it includes more people. And then we can wrap the whole DEI piece in there and still serve the same purpose and move forward with healing and helping people to understand that we're just human. And although our, pigmentation is different, although our social structure, our social constructs may be a little bit different or we come from different backgrounds and economics or whatnot. At the end of the day, we're people, and we're trying to put our students in the most competitive position for long term success and we need to identify what are the things that are stopping them from doing it so we can push them forward. That's it. So I think the book will, really help provide what the frameworks should be because what we're doing here is working, so much so that, and other institutions are reaching out because they see that what we're doing is working. But in the middle of writing this book, I had an epiphany. I told you I was struggling internally, right? And what I was feeling internally, I started seeing in people around me, not just here on the campus, but in the communities, other institutions, and I'll, and Dr. Reed and I meet regularly and we're talking and as he's a mentor to me, he's just sharing things and saying, Nate, this is where you are and helping me to better understand. And I said, Oh, there's a new book. That's an idea. So I created a trauma informed competence model to help people navigate being put in new positions, new roles, students coming into school. What does that look like? What's that ebb and flow look like? And how do you best support people in it? And so I've been able to, through my experiences and some research that we've added to this model, I can tell you exactly where you are based on conversations with you, where you are in this model, and can give you tools to help you get to the next phase so you can continue to move forward. So that's going to probably be the one that comes out first. That book is powerful. I did a presentation on it yesterday. 00:52:07 Sumer Beatty: Where was this? 00:52:08 Nate Woods: For our adjunct. Faculty day training 00:52:12 Sumer Beatty: On a Sunday. Sorry if it could be not yesterday, but, Friday. Oh, okay. Was that recorded? 00:52:20 Nate Woods: Nope. 00:52:22 Carlos Ramos: I wanted to attend just for that session, but I ended up with a conflict. 00:52:26 Nate Woods: Yeah, it was really good. I've only presented it twice. and by presenting it, it helps me to wrap my mind around it as well. And so when I sit down and write, it's oh, I get this idea. This idea, this works, this. And so I think it's, that will be powerful and it's going to be a quick read. It's going to, it's not going to be, extensive by any means. 00:52:48 Sumer Beatty: What was the reception like? How did, what feedback did you get? Because this is a, wild, like some of this stuff, these feel like wild ideas to some people. if you're just, I almost feel like I said earlier about unlocking. different layers. It's you can't sometimes get to here if you don't understand what's happening here. Like getting out of yourself to even realize, okay, I'm at a place where I can explore these topics. You need to first realize I'm in charge of my thoughts. it's that's such a huge thing. Sometimes when I feel anxious, I'm like, you're doing this to yourself. Chill out. Like you're in charge here. You're no one else's. You're all in there yourself. Yeah, you're doing this. So if you're doing this, you can also do something better. You can fix it. 00:53:35 Nate Woods: Absolutely. you're knocking it out of the park. So that's exactly what this work is about is helping people to say, Hey, pause. Let's look at your environment influences you. But after your environment influences you, you still do all the processing internally. So how do we help you to process differently? And how do we put the supports around you to help you process? Because some people don't know how to process or due to life, that part of their brain is not as strong, strongly developed as, it is for others. And so just want to, I want to provide tools to help people so they can have a better life and they can do better work. And this book is, that one's amazing. It's life changing. And so the response, all unsolicited, Nate, I should have had you in my classroom before I retired. Yeah, that's what someone said that I missed an opportunity that I should have had you in my classroom before I retired. others. We really need this. This would be an amazing presentation for individuals that are transitioning from being incarcerated to coming into as a civilian again. So that because that mindset could be It could prohibit them from being at their best if they feel like, man, I'm, I don't have nothing to offer. I don't have any. No, you actually do. You do. Even coming from that situation, you have a lot to offer the world. And so we want to make sure we give you an opportunity to do it. the feedback was amazing. I'll leave it at that. 00:55:16 Sumer Beatty: So how can someone who's listening get this book, or what's the time frame? Because I'm excited. I'm just curious. 00:55:26 Nate Woods: My goal is in the next two to three months have it done. 00:55:29 Sumer Beatty: Oh, okay. 00:55:31 Nate Woods: So that means Maybe I don't work out at 5:30, but I changed my investment hour. And so I believe in an investment hour at the beginning of my day. And my investment hour is either working out or writing. And so I may have to add another hour, get up at 4:30. No, seriously, I won't do that. But just making adjustments to my life so that I'm not killing myself doing the projects, but I'm still investing in my future in that way. I think there's opportunity. Someone said, Nate, with the things you do, will that pull you away from Penn College? I said, actually, it brings more light to Penn College. And I think we have so many talented people on our campus that need to be highlighted. And that's why I'm so grateful for what you do, PRM, right? Public Relations Marketing Team. You see how I handled that one? Handled that acronym. I'm just, I'm grateful because you highlight so many great talent. that we have on our campus. I believe Dr. Reed says it like this, We're, a talent dense campus, right? I fall out laughing every time he says it, but we're a talent dense campus. And so people need to know the talent that's on our campus. So then it continues to shine light. So people know about Penn College and what we offer and how our students are coming out and that graduation rate and that, that was the 97 percent... 00:57:00 Carlos Ramos: placement. 00:57:00 Nate Woods: Yeah, that placement rate, forgive me for not saying that but the placement rate and understanding that our students are coming out. top of the line, being promoted faster, knowing the work, as soon as they step into the office or when they step into their place of work, they know their work because of this hands on approach because we have so many talented faculty members. We have so many talented staff members that are supporting our faculty and supporting our students. And so we need everybody. And I just think you do a great job of highlighting that. So thank you for your great work. Thank you. 00:57:34 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, thanks. 00:57:35 Nate Woods: I say a lot of thank yous because I think we don't say it enough. 00:57:38 Sumer Beatty: Oh, I think that's so valuable. I like the community aspect too, and I'm thinking the more influence you have on, and all of us have on our students, and then they're all going out, this 97. 7 percent placement rate, then they're influencing. Absolutely. And so the book should come out sooner because the influence is just far greater. There's more density, right? Yeah. 00:58:01 Nate Woods: Yeah. I love that. I love it. Oh, 00:58:04 Sumer Beatty: I would be thinking you have this valuable information the sooner it comes out, 00:58:08 Nate Woods: It is good. It's good. 00:58:11 Carlos Ramos: But you want it to be. 00:58:13 Nate Woods: I want it to be right. 00:58:13 Sumer Beatty: Yes, of course. 00:58:14 Nate Woods: Yeah. I think that's dangerous to sometimes put the work out. Just put the work out we talk about it doesn't have to be a Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa was not a perfect picture 00:58:24 Sumer Beatty: No. 00:58:25 Nate Woods: It's the flaws that made it great. 00:58:26 Sumer Beatty: I don't want it in my house. It's just not even I think we can say that now. No one's offended by that. 00:58:36 Nate Woods: But now is sometimes we shoot for perfection, but I think the journey. And I had to tell a couple of our students that the journey is where the real work happens. And sometimes we make the end goal, everything, when it should be celebrated, but it's not everything. It's the journey. It's everything. Anybody can get a degree, but never take a class. Honorary degrees are passed out all the time. No disrespect to anyone that has a honorary degree. But what I'm saying is there's something about going through the journey. Taking the classes, the hardship, the staying up late to study, the cramming classes, or gotta, I have to get in my labs and put in 25 hours, and 30 hours, and 60 hours, all of the, there's, that's the journey, talking to colleagues and saying, or friends, or students, other students, that are going through similar situations, and working through that, and learning myself, as I'm learning this information, that's everything, that is, A degree can't give you that. The degree just says you went through that and you did it well. Laughs. Doesn't make sense. so the degree is important, but the journey carries so much weight. so much weight. And I don't want us to lose sight of the journey. And that's what makes this institution like remarkable. It provides a great journey for people. 01:00:04 Sumer Beatty: I feel like that when we speak about journeys, it's not just about our students. It's about anybody, anywhere. So I think you gave us so many powerful things to consider today. Just more questions than answers. 01:00:18 Nate Woods: Yeah. 01:00:19 Sumer Beatty: Just kidding. Because we need that book. 01:00:23 Nate Woods: I will say this. We need more conversations like this with more people. And if we do that more often, we realize that all of us are feeling the same anxieties, have the same fears, same trepidation, and it's fine. Now that I know that you feel the same, you have same insecurities I have. Okay, let's link up and let's do this together again. Now it's not me. I'm not in this by myself and I don't feel this way alone. We're in this together. Let's go win. We're already winning. Let's just keep winning. 01:01:02 Carlos Ramos: This next thing is going to scare Sumer. 01:01:06 Sumer Beatty: Go ahead. 01:01:07 Nate Woods: Oh, here it is. 01:01:07 Carlos Ramos: See, I'm thinking this conversation, and maybe it's the, I think it's the next one. We do this on the stage. 01:01:15 Nate Woods: Oh, I love it. 01:01:16 Carlos Ramos: We do this with the live audience. 01:01:18 Nate Woods: Okay. So timeout. So you, okay. do you realize that people are taking our podcast on tour? 01:01:24 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. Smartless. 01:01:25 Sumer Beatty: We are not Smartless. No, we're Tomorrow Makers. No, people are taking their podcasts on tour. It's the wildest thing, but really doing it and lives are being changed. It is the coolest thing. Yeah, some of my podcasts I listen to, I would definitely go see live. I would too. Yeah. 01:01:45 Nate Woods: What are some of your favorite podcasts? I have to put it out there. 01:01:47 Sumer Beatty: Okay. Yeah. 01:01:50 Nate Woods: Early interview. 01:01:52 Sumer Beatty: I really am a big fan of Peter Attia, longevity expert, I love Peter Attia. 01:01:57 Carlos Ramos: That's funny, that was the first one that came to my mind too. 01:01:59 Sumer Beatty: Oh really? 01:01:59 Nate Woods: Nice, look at us. 01:02:02 Sumer Beatty: And I enjoy, I'm a trail runner, so I enjoy free trail, Dylan Bowman, and I think because he was a taste that was acquired, I first heard him speaking and I thought, who is this guy with a journalism degree that thinks he can interview people, but you do find yourself latching on to some of the things and the questions and the just the pauses. I'm a fan of that one. And then I do like armchair expert. I feel like Dax Shepard, I think he brings in a unique perspective because he wasn't I just think about his history, he didn't grow up with everything. And so he had to do a little fighting. He's a little gritty. He also flexes. So in this situation, he's talking to this person, so he meets them where they are. He also does a ton of research with his guests. So I think he comes in, he's read the books, he's, he's looked up, he's watched the movies. 01:03:04 Nate Woods: That's awesome. 01:03:05 Sumer Beatty: Couple of highlights. 01:03:05 Carlos Ramos: I'll have to listen to him. He and Peter Attia just did an episode together. 01:03:10 Sumer Beatty: Oh, I bet they did. Oh, so yeah, they're both fanatical about, is it the car one? 01:03:14 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, Formula One. 01:03:15 Sumer Beatty: Okay, yeah, you can not like Formula One, but if you like those two guys, it's very interesting. 01:03:20 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, it's really interesting. 01:03:22 Nate Woods: What are some of your favorites? If you want to share, you don't have to. 01:03:25 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, Freakonomics and Tim Ferriss were the two I first got into. Freakonomics. And I still listen to them to this day. Okay. Big questions with Cal Fussman, I really like, he's a great interviewer. His voice is just, 01:03:39 Nate Woods: it's perfect. 01:03:40 Carlos Ramos: It's not a radio voice, 01:03:42 Nate Woods: it's perfect. 01:03:42 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. It's unique to him. You hear his voice, you know it. Yeah. So those are ones I'm listening to right now regularly. 01:03:49 Nate Woods: That's awesome. That's awesome. I, tend to Bigger Pockets. And so I buy real estate. And so Bigger Pockets is a podcast I listen to because I'm always. Looking at how can we continue to expand and serve our community through the housing market. And that's a big one for me. There is a couple called the Perrys. Jackie Hill Perry and Preston Perry. It's more faith based, but very strong. This young couple, she was, they both met, they were poets. They, poets, and they met on a tour doing poetry. Ended up getting married, and she released an album. crazy, released an album, he continued a tour doing poetry. but they just came together, and during COVID, they would do Conversations With The Perry's. That was it. Just on their living room couch, mic'd up, Conversations With The Perry's, and it blew up. And they completed a tour, I think they did 25 cities, sold out every one, sold out every single one. I said, this is crazy. And so I had an opportunity to talk to some people that know the Perrys and they said, Nate, you have something to share, just share it. And so I would encourage anyone listening, if you have something to share, just share it. Just share it. If it's meaningful, that will help someone, and you know your audience, gear it toward your audience, and put it out there. 01:05:30 Carlos Ramos: And it doesn't take a big audience. 01:05:31 Nate Woods: It does not. It does not. 01:05:33 Carlos Ramos: They say you need a, what is it, a thousand true fans? Ten thousand true fans? 01:05:37 Nate Woods: It's a thousand true fans. 01:05:39 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, ten thousand's a lot. But yeah, a thousand, yeah, we can deal with that magnitude. 01:05:44 Nate Woods: Absolutely. 01:05:44 Carlos Ramos: That's easy enough. 01:05:45 Nate Woods: And just be you. Don't change for it. Just be you. have conversations but more than anything if your students listening we need your wisdom. We need your gifts, your talents, your skills. If your faculty and staff or soon to be faculty and staff, or anyone going into the workforce, You're so valued. We appreciate you. we thank you for your contributions to our community, to our institution. I just want to just have a gratitude piece real quick. I am so grateful. Our senior executive team is so grateful for all of our staff and employees, our faculty. You are what makes this college what it is. We cannot function without you. And so please don't stop. Please don't stop being you. Please don't stop bringing your energy, your wisdom, your expertise to the, table because we need it. We need it. And we just thank you so greatly. Thank you. 01:06:39 Sumer Beatty: And it feels good to express that gratitude too. So I think the other lesson is Go out there today and tell someone, thank you. 01:06:45 Nate Woods: Tell someone, thank you. 01:06:46 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 01:06:47 Nate Woods: It matters. It matters. 01:06:49 Sumer Beatty: We all like to hear it, too, on the other side. 01:06:50 Nate Woods: No doubt. 01:06:52 Carlos Ramos: I was touched. One day, walked into my audience, my office, my audience. 01:06:59 Sumer Beatty: He's 01:06:59 Carlos Ramos: always on a stage. I am always on a stage. and on my keyboard, the tiniest of the little, tiny envelopes, and it had the whole, international airmail coloring on it, and it just said, thank you. 01:07:17 Nate Woods: Yeah, I'll put that on your desk. Yeah. 01:07:18 Carlos Ramos: That was touching. 01:07:19 Nate Woods: Yeah, Dr. Reed and I put out a hundred of those, and we just, we would see people, thank you. Grounds keep, if you worked in GS, and Grounds would see you and just say, thank you. We need to remember to continue to do that. Not overdo it, not overkill, but we just need to say thank you. Your work matters. And you're not beneath us, you're not beneath anybody. Your work is so important. And someone said to me, I'll say this and then I'll get out of here. someone stopped me and said, I was working in, dining services. I'm serving food. I have my hair in a net. And someone says, why are you here? This is beneath you. And I took great offense to it. And I said, don't ever say that I'm not beneath you. I said, you don't realize that by you serving food, you're freeing up other people's minds so they don't have to do that so that they can do what they're gifted and talented to do because they can't do this like you do. And I said, you are putting our students in the most competitive position for long term success. And they eyes will just lit up. And I said, you're valuable. Don't think less of yourself anymore. This is extremely important. As is as important as what the president does. That's your job because we can't do your job. And they said, are you serious? I said, I'm so serious. Everyone plays their part. And if everyone plays their part, we all win. Don't ever look down on yourself. Your work is important. We need it. 01:09:00 Carlos Ramos: What a great note to end on. Thank you, Nate. 01:09:04 Nate Woods: Thank you. I appreciate you. 01:09:08 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 01:09:10 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 01:09:14 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mentioned in today's episode. 01:09:20 Carlos Ramos: You can also find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones at pct.edu/podcast. 01:09:27 Sumer Beatty: And of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. So send those over at podcast@pct.edu. 01:09:36 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 01:09:37 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time. I have the mom ears so I can hear what's going on far away. 01:09:45 Nate Woods: You can be sleeping here or something. 01:09:47 Sumer Beatty: Yes. 01:09:47 Nate Woods: I hear the cat moving. 01:09:48 Sumer Beatty: Exactly. He is the special assistant. Add this to the end of the blooper rolls.