The Power Of Education In Building A Resilient New Generation With Lizzy Johnson

Life happens, and not always the way we expect it to. Every single day we face change, stress and uncertainty. What if you could learn to thrive no matter what life throws your way? Resilience expert Adam Markell and his inspiring guests explore breakthrough strategies to fully embrace change and build the resilience required to become change.

Proof.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Change Proof podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markell and today I have an amazing woman you're going to absolutely love, love, love listening to her. She's got this, the greatest energy in the world. Her name is Dr. Lizzie Johnson and Lizzy, as she's called, spent 25 years in the Texas public education system, beginning as a classroom teacher, coach, campus, and then district level administrator. For the past five years, she's led her own company, Transcend4, through numerous initiatives throughout the state of Texas. And along her with her mighty team of five, they are impacting decisions made for students and not adults. Sit back. You are going to enjoy this conversation with the amazing Dr. Lizzie Johnson. Enjoy. Okay, Lizzy, so you are like me a very. I used to object to the word busy and it's funny now. I don't mind it at all. I mean, it's like I don't use it a lot still because I've kind of trained myself to say things like dynamic and varied or whatever, just other words. But I mean, you know, I'm embracing the busy more. And I know you've got a lot. You've got a dynamic calendar and very active and, and obviously based on your bio, you know, you've done some really amazing things in the world. So my question to you is, what is one thing that is not part of your bio and your intro as it is that you would love for people to know about you?

Oh, I love that question. I would love for people to know that I am raising an incredible human. I have a 17 year old daughter who's finishing her junior year and she is my highest accomplishment because I've raised her myself. And you know, it's so funny when you become a parent, nobody hands you a handbook or tells you, you know, gives you a, a guide user's manual. None of that happens. And they just send you home with this little baby and you know, all they do is check the car seat, make sure it's in right. But you know, I have learned so much from her and mostly from her generation because she's in such a unique generation who I feel are going to be the catalyst of change for our world and who are Totally understand the concept of pivoting. And they are not married or, you know, connected to. To a way of things. And they're so easily. They. They're a group that can just easily change on the fly. And I just love it because I've watched her grow into this person who in a year's time, will be leaving me, and it'll be me and my fat dog. And, you know, I know it's rough, but I'm just so proud of her. And when people ask me about, you know, how is Chloe? I never say, oh, she's fine. I always say, man, she is so awesome. You know, because I just have this feeling like I did really, I did a good job with her. You know, she's got some accolades that I never would have achieved at her age, and it just blows my mind. But I will tell you a story about parenting. I read a lot of books, and, you know, that's just me. I. I try to bring in as much as I can to be better. Mind shift is change in mindset. It just. Carol Dweck. I would use that book with my administrators when I was a director, assistant, soup, things like that. And I started thinking, this is a parenting book, too. Like, you have to be able to shift your mindset with another human in order to be better for them. And so I learned to do that with Chloe, and I learned to be flexible with her. And not that we didn't have discipline and order in the home, but I've learned that she's growing, and I had to be able to do that. And so one of the things it says is, you know, positivity is key and ensuring that the person can learn to be positive about things because, you know, we all get down and out, we all get bad attitudes. That's just human nature. So when Chloe, every day, when I would either take her to school or she would walk to school, we live in an incredible area where we had a middle school and elementary a block from our home. And so it was such a blessing. And so one of the reasons why I chose to buy this house. And so every morning before Chloe left for school, I would say, chloe Claver, who's better than you? And she would say, nobody. And, you know, it's. There's something to be said about positive affirmations, especially with children. And so not only did I do that with Chloe, but I started doing that with my students in the hallways, in cafeteria, you know, when I was an administrator. And then as I transitioned into being a central office administrator, I Would do it with the people that I supported, the principals, assistant principals, and things like that. So it kind of became a mantra. And I just wanted people to realize that they can be the best at what they are and that. Just keep striving for that.

You're going to literally even make me cry. I got to. I got to believe people are listening to this right now, literally tearing up. No, I love you. You're just this. The reason why I wanted you on the show. I mean, we don't even know each other but a minute, right? Literally, like, but a minute. And. But I knew when we met months ago, and I was. It was wonderful to be able to work together at one of your events, that you were just amaz. You're just amazing. So what you said is reflection. You know, often we say things that are projections of. Of things that we feel that are related to ourselves. And I'm going to say this to you, Lizzy. Nobody's better than you. Nobody's better than you, Lizzy. Right. Isn't that true?

Yeah, that's right. You better believe it, and you'll achieve it. You know, you'll get there. Yeah.

Good on Chloe. I mean, how she just, like, hit the mommy lottery is what I feel like. That's just so.

She. She. You know, and that's the great thing about her. She' cognizant of that and aware. She has friends and acquaintances and has grown up around other kids and realizes that she's got it pretty good. And, you know, and I think some of that, too, is I waited until I was in my mid-30s to have her, and that was purposeful on my part because I wanted to be ready and prepared. Not that you're ever truly ready, but I really felt like I needed to be in a place professionally and personally to. To tackle that. Yeah. And so that worked out as well.

I said, I got to do this. I. I don't got to do this. I want to do this. I. Our kids. We have four kids. I might have mentioned that to you along the way, but, you know, they hit the mommy lottery. Yeah, they did. I mean, and. And what's neat. So I just completely resonate with how you described, you know, what it's like when. When you take these kids home and. And a couple of things. I just want to reflect on what you said. One is, yeah, they let you take the baby out of the hospital. It's like, what are you thinking? I mean, especially with the first one, but, you know, it's like, what are you. Are you do you, Are you kidding me? Do you not know me? Because we were, we were young at the time. I mean, we were really young babies ourselves, you know, and it's like, well, the babies are taking a baby home and it's like, wow, I don't. It's crazy, but. And they don't come with a manual. And you got to figure it all out. And you're going to make maybe it's a little bit like IKEA furniture. Like if you've ever bought an IKEA thing, right. And you put it together and it's maybe. I don't know if it's a male thing, but it's definitely a me thing that I be like, I can't deal with this instructions. There's too many of them. It's all in like Scandinavian on one side. And you know, I don't know even if that's. But so you put it together and you go, oh, wait, that's backwards. You gotta take it apart and put it together again. You know, And I think that's the way it is with parenting. You know, you're gonna, you're gonna put some stuff together backwards and, and things are gonna be, you know, a little sloppy at times. He goes through that with four kids. The one thing I can tell you for sure is that it's not a one size fits.

All right.

So to be agile or adaptable the way Chloe is, the way her generation. Want to come back to that in a second here. I think, you know that that's one of the greatest skill sets, resilience wise of parenting. So if I was going to write a book or, you know, blog or something about resiliency in connection with our, our parenting.

Yeah.

Lives. You have to be, you have to be agile. You have to be adapt to the environment as it changes. That's what Darwin said. Wasn't about survival the fittest, actually. It was survival of those who are the most adaptable to their changing, constantly changing environments. So amazing. Let's talk about for a second, you know, Chloe's generation. This doesn't come up on our podcast that often. And so I'm thrilled for it. You know, we, we. A lot of, A lot of kind of goes out when we like talk about millennials. They get a lot of crap and then Gen Z's is a whole other thing. Right. And. And Chloe, is she Gen Z or she's some other generation at this point?

Yeah, yeah. Because she doesn't that fall. She was born in 05. Think that where that falls. Yeah.

She may be Gen Z. Right. So, you know, there's a lot of things that are just that we're looking at. These are kids coming out of a pandemic.

Oh, yeah.

By that. These are kids on their technology. Almost like it's an adaptation of their, like another hand or something. Right. So there's that. But they're also. You said something like they're not so attached to the status quo the way a lot of other people are that have difficulty changing in the midst of the fact that the universe is nothing but change.

Right, Right. Oh, so true. And you know, like, even things now, technology is big. You're right. And they like the best technology. But I'll be honest with you. Chloe would prefer to go to a, like a, a vintage thrift store and buy clothes, then go to buy brand new clothes. They're very conscious of waste and how they will. You know, I've watched her friends do things and I thought, oh my God, like she, she's real weird about how we recycle. And, you know, she's taught me so many things and I'm like, oh my gosh. You know, even the like little cotton balls or cotton pads, she's like, we don't buy those. You know, like, we use ones we can wash. I'm like, okay. You know, I mean, I just think about them and the amount of information that they have received in their lifetime. Like, when I was young, to have an Encyclopedia Britannica was like the pinnacle of knowledge. Right?

Like, really, we're literally like brother and sister. And we had that, that whole big set that some sales came to the door, convinced my dad to buy amazing.

And like, you could go open that and learn about other countries and cultures and just things that there were pictures. And I was like, oh, this is great now, Adam. I grew up in poverty. And so that transitioned when I was around the age of 10 and my mother married my stepfather. And so we came into an a change where we had another income and we had things like that. So when that those books came into my life, you know, at 10, 11, I was just gobsmacked. I was like, oh my God, this is the craziest thing ever. And then I'm gonna tell you another funny story. But my first year of teaching, we didn't have the Internet, right? No email, no Internet. And within that year, the, you remember, we had the CDs, the, the discs that you could put in the computer.

Yes.

It was like an encyclopedia. Like you could Google, like Martin Luther King and his speech would come up or all these things about him, and you could watch it. So my cousin, who's very much like my brother, we were raised together, he had a computer in his home, and I've stayed with him a little while during my first year teaching. And I would put those CDs in that computer and watch that stuff, and it was the same feeling like, oh, my gosh, it's amazing. But then the Internet came, my second year teaching, and I thought I'd hit the jackpot as a history teacher.

Right.

Who would love to show those things at the quick, instant, quick information, all coming rapidly. The kids were enamored by it, you know, and so I wasn't the best teacher, but I had some great resources, right? And so I think about Chloe and her generation and how they've been inundated from birth with visual images and videos and information. Just constant, constant, constant. And so that's a reason why I think they are able to adjust and change rapidly because they have to be aware of the things a. That come at them that may not be truthful. Right. That they have to.

I don't think that could possibly be the case. Let's definitely not go there.

Those kids and some of the younger millennials are the best private investigators in your life. Okay?

They're like little Columbos.

They don't have degrees in it or credentials, but you give them a name or an idea, and, boy, they can write a dissertation on it. So I think that's another reason why is they've had all this information thrown at them for so long that they've had to create or come up with that survival skill of really vetting and understanding what's true and what isn't, and then using that knowledge to their benefit.

Yeah, because I guess when we were kids, and not to date us or anything, but that whole. It's like my dad, when he got those books, and he didn't buy anything from anybody, so it was hysterical that of all the things that got through, and it was expensive. Like, I mean, I almost remember the price. I won't even say it out loud, but it was such stupid amount of money. And. And he was a civil servant. He. He worked for the. For the Parks Department. He was a preschool teacher. He didn't earn $30,000 in his 30th year. There was. And he spent, like, almost 2,000 bucks on. On this big set of books. And then when I would ask him stuff or my brother would ask him things, he'd be like, look it up, look it up. That was all he would say to us, then we look it up. He would point at those books, go, crack that book open. I know, but we would open up the book that Encyclopedia Britannica and it had some authority, you know, almost like when I became a lawyer and I would open up the law books, it was like what was ever. Whatever was written in that book was the quote. That was the truth. That was the gospel. Right. And I think you're right today, you know, information, content is coming from so many places. They're taking in so much more content by, by. I don't even know what exponent you could even, you know, attached to it. But so much more. And they really have to discern not only so much more, but also so much more quickly than required to discern between things so that we could know where we stood. It's a very different environment. Yeah.

And, you know, I think people of you and my generation and older, you know, you would hear something and you would believe it. 100, right. No doubt. Like, you know, whatever it was, whoever said it, then that's what we do. And that's another key component to them is I think they, I know, I don't think they're. They're seekers of the truth and they are going to ensure that this world course corrects and gets back to that way. And you know, there. Some people dismiss them as. Because they're young. Right. I mean, I choose older than Chloe. I used to tell parents that when they would come in my office and get frustrated, their middle school kid, like, I'm, like, I have shoes older than your child and their brain is not formed. Why are you so frustrated? Let's, let's just tap the brakes here. You know, this is what school's about. They're learning and they're learning how to, you know, work through these things and how to be better citizens. And so I just think they're, they're the key to us figuring out how to be a better society because they don't just take things for face value.

No. And, you know, I want to bring something up that I don't, I'm not bringing it up to be controversial. In fact, it never shows up in, in this podcast, meaning, you know, opinions about politics or things like that. So I'm bringing this up and this is my disclaimer. There's the lawyer in me. But this is the caveat for people listening that I'm not taking a position one way or the other on the thing I'm about to bring up, but more on the point that you're making, Lizzie, which is that in the, in the, the time frame that we're recording this, this podcast right now, there has been a, a lot of demonstration in, in this, in the, in Tennessee, in the city of Memphis and in Nashville and, and these two particular lawmakers, African American young men, one of them, one that I've been just listening to a bit seeing, et cetera, he's 27 years old, which just happens to be because you brought up MLK earlier. So Dr. King was 27 around the same time when he was, was also protesting and being jailed. And you know, in hindsight, I don't think anybody would debate or dispute the fact that, that Dr. King was both a person of peace and a person with incredible influence. Well, before the influencer thing, right, he would have been the, you know, whatever, whoever Kylie Jenner or whoever has the most, you know, now. Right. Kind of thing. You know, he was an influencer about something that we all needed to take notice of, that we, we needed to be influenced. Our world needed to change. And, and the powers that be were not all that excited about making a change when that change might impact them different in some way. So I just feel like, you know, there's a 27 year old person and I don't remember how old the other gentleman is, but let's say he's about the same age who are, who are, you know, stood up to power, are making quite a stand in that area. And regardless, and I mean this truthfully, regardless of whether, you know, you're in favor of the thing that they were objecting to or you're not, that's not the point. I think the point is what you're saying that that's a generation of young people that are, are going to have at it and that's what we want. Let them have at, let them get their turn to decide the kind of world that they want to live in and raise their children in and that's the way it's supposed to be.

Absolutely. They are, they are next in line. You know, and of course every, there's bad humans and good humans and I'm not, you know, going to dispute that at all. But I do think that sometimes we discount people because of their age and that is a really dangerous thing to do because I have been around some really smart, very young people who may not have all the life experiences as an older generation or older person, but that doesn't mean they don't have the will, fortitude and knowledge to make good change that we Need. And so, you know, I just. Because you said that, I'll say this as well. Those kids are all getting ready to be voting age. And, you know, when I turned 18 and could vote, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, that was a huge deal for me because I had a teacher who was very good about telling us, that is your civic duty. You live in a country where the vote is an honor and a privilege, and there's so many people who want that. They don't get it, so you better use it. And he was just such a great mentor to a lot of students at my school. He was an English teacher, and I'll never forget that. And I thought, well, I have to go sign up to vote, because no, Mr. Henry said, that's important. We have to do that. Right?

Yeah.

So I think the majority of our. Our group in that class that had him felt that way, but that's not the norm. That wasn't the norm when we were young. Right? And not. And still to this day, I come across people my age that still don't go vote, and I'm like, I don't care how you vote. You should go vote. Everyone should vote.

You.

You. We are letting a small minority group of people of numbers decide big decisions for a swath, a huge swath of population. But I'm gonna. I'm gonna tell you, changes are coming, Adam, because these kids, I mean, they are chomping at the bit to get registered to vote. And, you know, they. They know what they want and what they want to see their world to look like. And so I think that's going to enact change in other areas to meet them in the middle.

Yeah, it. It's a little bit like when you. When you see. You know, when you're a young person and you see someone who's succeeding in sports or in music or some. Some other thing, and you go, wow, they're. You know, that's. That's a model for what's possible for me. If that person. Literally, if that person can do that, then there's absolutely no reason other, you know, why I'm not, you know, also able to do the same or better or something different. So, yeah, it's. It's a big deal. And you know what? It's the other side of it, too. So people listening to this and going, you know, there's a lot of this age discrimination on. On both. Both aisles ends of the aisle, right? So you got young people that are dismissed, as you said, and you've Got people that are older. And by that I mean you may be people that are in their 60s or 70s or older than that who are dismissed, have been dismissed in our society for a very long time. And to this day, you know, there's a lot of, of sort of ageism in that area too, where what, what would be more important, I think, than, than almost anything is to cultivate the wisdom of people that are at a place where, you know, they're not necessarily want to, you know, get out there and hustle every day for a living, but have all this knowledge, information, wisdom to share with people and, and that, that's not always, you know, looked upon nicely. Again, it's a funny thing when you think about the people who are running a lot of the show right now. They're, they're, they are older, as it turns out. And, and while I'm fine to be critical of practices, policies, decisions, performance, be critical, but what I can't, I just can't wrap my head around is why you dismiss a person. Because you, you call them old, right?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, that just. You got to be kidding me here, you know, like.

Well, and I think we have to also realize age is a different factor than it used to be years ago because of the way we live and how we take care of ourselves now.

Yes.

You know, the, the medicine and science has come so far in the last 50 years that someone in their 70s today is a very different person than in their 70s, in the 50s, or even in the 60s, 70s and even early 80s. I think those are just different people now. And that's why we have. So I'm going to tell you what's so crazy. In our city, we have a senior center, it's through Parks and Rec, which you're probably familiar with now that you just told me your dad works. It worked at Parks and Rec. You know, it's a gathering place. They have programming and seniors go there. They have card games, all that kind of stuff. Well, when I first moved here to my community was in 1995, or, excuse me, 1996. And that was a place where they would have like square dancing, right. Bridge games, you know, they let. Do quilting, you know, those kind of things. 96, right. Today. Oh, no, that is a different place. They're doing like Zumba and they're taking trips all over the state together. There's weight rooms in there. I mean, it's, it's a totally different atmosphere. And look at how short a time that was ago. So I think that's a great point that you're making. And, and to reflect on how age has changed over the years.

Yeah, I mean, our brain hygiene is so, you know, because I'm a resilience speaker, but researcher as well. And, and I'm constantly just cult culling through information about things like our brain health. Because you're right, Lizzy, our bodies are going to last longer. You probably, you know, we are all anecdotally able to, to see that around us as well. People are going to live longer. But I also have a business partner whose mom is dealing with dementia right now. And you know what? The ad. The idea that we'll live 10, 15, 20 years, who knows, longer than we might have. And our brains aren't, aren't fully functioning, functional at that moment. That's, that's not negotiable for me. I just, you know, so we think about it. It's like, what are the things you do? Like, I'm drinking, I got a green drink right here. I use this stuff called the athletic greens, which I love. There's lots of other great products. I know some people that use momentous, some people just make their green drinks. That's what we used to do, but with a busy schedule and all that kind of thing. I've been using this, you know, sleep how you sleep, figuring out how to sleep. There's a lot of ways to actually get better rest, right? Moving your body, exercise and the like and hydration. I mean, these are basic things. And then there's some out, you know, things that, that people don't always hear about. But the studies have shown that if you get in a sauna three, four times a week, you go buy a sauna or go to the Y or some other place, a club that has a sauna three, four times a week reduces the incidence of early onset Alzheimer's dementia by 60%. By more than 60%. That's remarkable.

Small things. Small things.

Small things.

Right. Right to your normal routine. You know, I have a friend that I went to college with and we travel sometimes together with a group of us, and we were on a trip together and I said, have you drank water today? And he goes, I'm gonna have to tell him I told you this. And he's right. And I'm said, I said, you need to drink some water. So now he has this water jug he takes with him everywhere because he always thinks, Lizzie says, drink water, I gotta drink water. It's time to drink water today. And I always text him every once in a while and Say, have you drank water today? Because it blows my mind. The amount of people that do not drink enough water. That is life essentials. Right?

Isn't that trippy? I mean, that we. We don't understand better? I mean, we're only like 70 water ourselves, right? So it's like, who would figure. But the. The. The. What I understand is that sometimes when we eat, we think we're hungry. We're not. We're dehydrated. You have a little ache and pain in your body, and you think, I gotta rub something on that or take a pill or whatever it might be. It's like, no, you're dehydrated. Yeah. It's like water.

It's literally the answer to the majority of the problems that people have. And, you know, brain fog. Water, Water. Like Chloe, she is a water connoisseur. Like, both of us, we drink water all day long, and that's all we drink when we go to restaurants. Know, I may have a cocktail every now and then at a restaurant if I'm with my friends, but I'm a water drinker, and I love that I've instilled that in her because it is the solution to a lot of problems people have with their bodies. Absolutely.

Interesting. So you've been active lately in. In a. It's not a pivot in your business, but would you share. Just bring us up to speed on some of what you. What you're up to. Because along the way in your stories, which I love, that's why you're. You're a fab. I know you don't speak for a living, but you make a fabulous speaker. I mean, you literally knock the COVID off the ball. If you ever, ever want to do that, okay. On top of everything else, but, you know, you see it along the way, some of the things that you've been doing that you were in the classroom and then you were an assistant superintendent, and you work with schools. You. You are passionate, if I'd say anything that I know about you, you are passionate about kids. You are passionate about education and helping parents and communities better serve their kids. So what. How does that lead into the work that you do in the world today?

Oh, great. So like you said, I spent 25 years in public ed, and I started as a classroom teacher, and I just loved it, you know, it was like the best thing ever. And that gig just. I was meant to do it, you know, you just know in your life when you find what you love to do. And along the way, like most educators, you Start getting challenged by others like, you should think about this or what's next in your career. Career. And honestly, I just was very resound being a classroom teacher and being with students, you know, in the majority of my day. I started coaching swimming and I loved that. It was just another outlet and seeing kids achieve. And then eventually I worked my way into a master's degree and decided to go into central office and did a lot of different positions at central office, but never superintendent because I always joke I never wanted seven bosses. And you know, most superintendents have a board that they answer to and they have seven to nine bosses. And that just wasn't a good gig for me. I don't even want one boss.

I hear you, sister.

You know, and so, you know, after doing all those different positions and being in schools and just realizing we as educators, at least in Texas, I'm not sure about other states, I can't speak to that. But sometimes we just kind of sit back and let others make decisions for us. And I started getting really involved being vocal, especially when I left the umbrella of the public ed atmosphere and started my own company in 2018. And you know, what we do is we go out and advocate for kids in various types of program management for school districts. So one of the big things my company transcend for does is we assist school districts with their community members who are putting together a potential bond package for their citizens to vote on which of leads to better facilities, new facilities improvements, safety and security upgrades. All those kind of things are very important in our world today because I've done even research with a couple of research partners that I work with. We, we all have our doctorates and we've done research on why schools are important for student and teacher engagement and how ensuring that those schools live up to those expectations for our kids. And so we, we do that in the bond area. And then we also love to go out and help school districts with their collaborative visioning, which some could liken the strategic planning, but we prefer to call it something different. We do it a little different as well. It just helps the district cast a vision for the next five to 10 years so that their citizens and community know what they're doing for students. And Adam, all this work revolves around kids, like all of it. Everything is always pointed towards what's the best decisions for students. We don't do work about adults. Now ultimately our teachers benefit our campus administrators, district office and you know, they'll benefit from these things, but the decisions made in these rooms are all about students. And then we do different kind of program management as far as helping school districts with different things that they need to move forward in and have continuous improvement. As far as academics or leadership coaching for principals and things like that, or aspiring principals. That's one of my favorite things to do. I love to work with people who are in a role in a school district but want to be a principal because Adam, that is the hardest job there is in education is leading a school to campus. And I would even say it's harder than superintendent because you know exactly the direct impact you have on students with outcomes and teacher effectiveness and all of the change and you know, things that happen in schools that that principle has got to be strong. And so we love to work with aspiring leaders. That's like one of the just joys. I don't even feel like it's work. It's just such a blessing to be able to do that. And lately we are branching out into working with cities and municipalities to bring this similar type of atmosphere. What we're doing in those spaces is good for the citizens of that community. Education is the bedrock of any strong community, any strong civilization. It all goes back to education. And if we don't take care of kids and we don't have the best environment for kids, then we've not done our job. And then on my spare time, haha, when I'm not raising a kid and taking care of everybody else, others kids, I really like to go out and advocate for strong school boards. We, we're under attack around our nation and we have to be resilient in making sure that our school boards are not politicized. Because a school board is not the place for a Republican or a Democrat to gain notoriety. A school board is a place for leaders to come together and to work to make the best decisions for kids. And school boards are governors, not managers. And in our society we've got to get course correct and get back to a time and a place where we have school boards that are not chaotic. Because I have worked in situations in my career where the school board became very chaotic. And I'm going to tell you what a direct result was of that. And that was student outcomes just declined rapidly because the focus shifted away from kids and onto adult drama. And we got it. We got to stop this nonsense in our society and we have to go back and reset and make sure in your communities that the people that want to be on school board want to be on it for the right reasons. I am working on empowering people within communities who don't work for the school district, but who are concerned citizens and who have the vested interest in their community. I'm empowering them and working with them to basically create a bench of people who would be good for school boards and to, to educate them, not just say, hey, I'm tapping you. You should run for school board. And that's not enough. We have to make sure that we are working on teaching them what it's about to be on the school board and, and what you are, what kind of service you are providing to your community and, and why it's such a big deal. And this is not 15 minutes of fame. It's not an ego trip. This is. We got to get. We got to stop this nonsense. So I'm really engaged in that space right now. Now my child's getting ready to, you know, start her senior year. And, you know, many people would probably walk away at that point, but I'm not leaving this area and I'm not leaving Texas, at least not for. Anytime soon. And I want to make sure that we get back to a spot where our kids, 5 million of them in our state alone are, have the best support and the best leaders that are working for them. They are our clients, and we have to make sure that we stop this nasty rhetoric and that we do the right things for kids.

The idea of creating almost like a farm system for the, for the school board, the way in baseball, you know, there's a farm system that when, when somebody's ready, they get moved up to the major leagues and all that kind of thing. But the idea that people in the current environment that are quality, quality people, by that, I mean, you know, they, they have the right, they have the right heart for that service. They have the right agenda for that service. They don't have a conflict of interest in that, in that case, etc. Like you said, they're not looking for fame or, or, or an ego trip or whatever it is that those kind of people are not going to be attracted to the type of boards that exist in the moment right now because those, those and those kind of people are not attracted to politics. But we're not going to try to clean up. At least I'm not, I'm not gonna spend time trying to clean up politics in part because that's the way politics have always been. It's always been a very. Kind of a dirty business and not very polite. I do think that we've gone way too far. There used to be that even in, in the dirtiness of politics that the wheels stay, Stayed greased. You could grease the wheels so that people could work together and get stuff done. I'm not certain that that' efficiently anymore. And that's, that's a big problem, you know, nationwide. But to, to start with the, you know, something so fundamentally important, like, as you say, the people who are impacting the direct experience of, of our, of our youngest, of our kids, there could be no room for conflict there. There just can't be. You got to have the right people there. And, and that means vetting, and that means training, and that means not creating an environment or allowing, tolerating an environment that would, that would keep good people from wanting to get involved.

That's it. You're right. And you want to attract those people, you know, keep them. We've had a school board here in my community that's been very strong for many years with educated people who get it and who understand the role they play. And recently we've, we are experiencing a, a shift where we have outsiders who haven't lived in this community long who now want to be on our school board, but not for the right reasons. And it's going to take some committed citizens who are vocal and who have some. A circle of influence to write this. And I'm, you know, I've stepped up to help and I've recruited others, and we all have a vested interest, but I think this is around the country, we're seeing this, Adam. And sure, I understand change is good and change is needed, but it's got to be the right change, and it has to be for the right reasons. And if you have a struggling school district and the leaders are not doing well and nobody's checking them, then yes, I think there needs to be a change on your school board. Absolutely, 100%. But if you have a very stable school district that has outcomes that are knocking it out and doing right things for kids, and you've got kids succeeding and programs that are meeting all of their needs, not just college kids that are geared for college, but I'm talking kids in every vast arena. If that's happening. And then you have people attacking your school board and attacking your leaders. Something's wrong there. They're not in it for the right reasons.

Indeed.

Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Holy smokes, Lizzie. I didn't, I didn't expect we'd go there. And I'm glad we did. Really am. You know, 2018, you created a brand new business, which was a, was a leap. You know, it was a pivot. Anything you want to say about that, just for the folks out there that might be inspired by. Because I think we're gonna, as you said, we're living longer and we're going to be healthier and, you know, we'll be out there, you know, getting our black belts and karate at age 70 and all kinds of great stuff. Right. And all that. So why not a second career or a third or fourth, right?

I mean, so yeah, you know, and that's so funny you say that because in our space in Texas and in K12 public ed, people retire, but they're not, they're not, you know, elderly. Right. They've put in their work and they're in their late 50s, maybe early 60s, and they still got a lot of life in them. They're ready to work and think of the experience they bring to the table.

Exactly.

So that I'm going to tell you was one of the biggest jumps for me was to undertake this business and to, you know, cut myself free from my stable world. And Adam, I know nothing about business. I do not have a B.A. i am not a business savvy. I mean, I, I, I'm gonna tell you right now, that was a big deal. So, I mean, I'm an educator. I don't know anything about marketing or any of that stuff. But I did know something. I knew that I, I had a lot of experience and a lot of life experience as well in the area of K12. And when I stepped away and started this, you know, my goal was, if in a year I can't pay the bills, I'm going to go back to what I know, but it just didn't happen. I mean, we have expanded and we have moved forward so rapidly. As you know, Texas is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. And because of some things that we offer, business wise, but people are moving here and they're not leaving. You know, some states see an influx of people, but then they see people leave as well. But we're the opposite. And so when students move in, I have a superintendent's dear friend of mine in my community, it's my child superintendent, he said this the other day and it was just so resounding. He said, lizzie, these kids are coming, but they're not bringing schools in their backpacks, you know, and he's right, right. And they're not bringing teachers and all these other things. So we got to meet them where they're at. So I think what happened was this business started at exactly the right time when we started seeing the surge in our state and the need for educators to help other educators. And you know, I'm a huge proponent of K12 vendors. I like to call them partners. You know, people who work with educators, provide services and goods and all that. The good people, they're solid, but you don't find a lot of them that have former educators in their ranks and in their organization. And the thing about my company is at myself and all of my amazing consultants and even our executive assistant who is an angel from above, all of us have worked in school districts and been in various positions and led school districts and led initiatives and it just, all that experience comes into this company now and it's priceless. And I will say one of our, you know, our mission in our company is we make decisions for students. And I think that's why we've been so successful is because we talk the talk, we walk the walk. We've been there and we can really help school leaders. And so even though I knew nothing about business or about a company or starting a company, I did know good practice and you know, doing things in the space that made sense.

Yeah. And you didn't even read the book pivot to do it.

So I did read the book later.

But later I, so you and I, just to recap for, for our audience, we'll, we'll take a couple more minutes here. We met at one of the events you put on and that was exciting for me. That's how we got to meet. And that's right when we. That event took place at the Dallas Cowboys stadium. I don't know if what Jerry Jones calls that stadium stadium. There it is. Because he's a smart businessman. So he got, he got a big time sponsor for his stadium. Right. But that was a blast to have that conversation. And, and I know there were some superintendents that were there. I've spoken to a lot of school superintendents and, and school districts, but I haven't yet spoken and I mostly speak to corporate audiences and the like. But, but lately, like I just got back from the city of Palo Alto who had me come up there and do two days of worth of training in resiliency for about a thousand of their municipal employees. And, and I haven't yet had an audience of just principals. And you said earlier that's the toughest job in the whole, the whole thing. So I'm going to put it out there. I'm going to intend that. I ended up being able to talk to some principals soon. But if you ever choose to pivot again, Lizzie you, you just like you're a dynamo. I mean, we'll get you, get you on stage, anywhere. People be like, ah, she's amazing.

It'd be like stand up comedy, I'm afraid.

Oh, it's always good to make them laugh, man. If you can make them laugh, make them cry, just do the whole thing, you know, you could do a back if I could do a backflip still. I do other stuff, but yeah. So I just have so appreciated your time and your presence here today, Lizzy. Thank you for that. We've got show notes for our audience. Transcend4.com will be in those show notes. You can find out more about the work that Lizzy and her team, her consultants and everybody are doing there. And if you've got questions, either questions for Lizzie, for myself, you can go to AdamMarkel.com podcast, leave a question, comment, anything there. It will be answered, I promise. Promise you it won't be by a bot or AI. It'll be a real, real person, real human. Also, if this conversation resonated with you, if there's somebody else in your life, colleague, friend, family member that would just enjoy listening to some of what was discussed here today, feel free to share this episode. And it's actually a request that I make and I started doing this a couple of months ago and it just feels true. It's right to ask for the support. You know, the algorithm as it goes tells us and you know what we want to, you know, it assumes what we want to see in here and all that kind of thing. We want to see this show end up in front of more people. So the more you can refer it out to others, the more you can give it a five star rating if that makes sense to you or some other thing on the platform that you consume it, the more it helps us to see this show proliferate and we appreciate that support greatly. That's the last thing I want to say other than to wish everybody just an amazing rest of your, your day or evening, wherever you are at the moment. Lizzie, again, thank you so much for being a part of our show today Day.

Thank you, Adam. It's been a pleasure and honor and you sign me up anytime.

Awesome. I don't think I oversold this podcast at all. Lizzy. She is just amazing. Dr. Johnson has, is somebody that truly, truly, when you, when you meet somebody that really walks, the talk is just so congruent as a, as a, as a mom, parent, as a, an educator, administrator, and now as a entrepreneur that's supporting how school districts impact students. For her, at the moment, it's across the state of Texas, but it really is a global or a national movement. And I would imagine at some point it'll be global, because how can it be? We have to recognize that where our greatest assets are and our greatest assets are with kids. It'll always be that way. I think it's always been. And hopefully we will start to recognize it, that we can't take our kids and their start in life, their education. We can't take these things for granted, and we certainly can't let things interfere in what is truly in their best interests and not allow there's other things to get in the way of that, other conflicts of interest to impede what is in the best interest of kids and how we get there. But today's conversation only covered just a bit of that. We talked about so much more, starting with what parenting is all about from the very beginning, which is kind of being the blind. You know, like literally, no, no manual, no handbook for how to be a parent. They just let you take that kid home from the hospital. It's shocking. I remember my wife, Randy and I, when. When our first child was born, our beautiful girl Chelsea. Yeah, we just literally looked at each other go, they're gonna let us leave. Like, when. When are the doors gonna close and the alarm's gonna ring? Like, these guys don't know what they're doing. They're just, you know, they're clueless. They're babies themselves. They're having babies as babies. So we had a laugh about that. And. But that led into talking about how. How adaptable kids are today. So Lizzie's youngest is 17. Our youngest is 22 now. And, and they are just so adaptable. They have learned how to be so agile. And, and there's a lot that we can learn from them in terms of being agile and, and adaptable. And that is truly what resilience is about. That's what Darwin said. He, He. He really didn't talk about the survival of the fittest. It's the survival of the most adaptable to changes in the environment. That's what we're talking about there. And I loved how she, she. She talked about her daughter in such glowing terms. And, and how she said and says to her, her daughter Chloe, nobody's better than you. Nobody's better than you. She asked her, who's better than you? Her daughter's answer is, nobody, Mom. And, and that's the statement that that accompanies how she's Sent her daughter off to school since she was a little, little kid. I think that's just brilliant. I, I so enjoyed talking about how it is that, that we, that we are seeking, seeking greater truth in the world and, and our willingness to learn from, from those that have a new perspective. So from the, the ones that are coming online literally from the time of birth on up to, on up to their, their teenage and early 20s and, and how we can learn from those folks, as well as how we have to cultivate the wisdom of people who are later in life that have seen more and done more and experienced more and that we, we can't apply or diminish people or, or dilute the importance of people or discriminate against people based on their age, whether it's because they're young, they're in their 20s, and they're, they're wanting to see change happen in the world and they're, they, they want it, they want to speak up and be heard on subjects or that people who are older or are sometimes thought of as, you know, not as capable anymore and relegated to things that, that are less consequential and, and that kind of discrimination is, is just as insidious, just as deleterious to our, our society. We got to cover and talk about a bunch of. That sounds awful serious, but honestly, today's talk was light and funny and just, you know, a breath of fresh air. So as I leave you to it, I hope you'll share this episode with your friends. Colleagues. Friends, family members, I should say. And, and that it always helps us when you, when you do that helps the podcast grow. When we get more people that are downloading and subscribing and all that. If you haven't subscribed, we'd love it if you do that. If you'd leave a review on your platform of choice. That' also super helpful in connection with the algorithm. And if you have yet, yet to determine your own resilience level. And by the way, this is snapshot in time. So even if you did it a month ago, you might find that your results are different today. You can Simply go to resiliencerank.com resiliencerank.com and in three minutes you'll get your assessment results. It's entirely free. And then you'll get some amazing resources to help you to develop even greater resilience. Mentally, emotionally, physically, and even spirit. That's all there for you. Just for being a part of this community, I want to say thank you again and I want to leave you with the words of Dr. Lizzie Johnson when I say nobody is better than you, Nobody's better than you. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. We hope you now have even more tools and greater insights to build resilience and become change proof. Remember to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and you may be featured in an upcoming episode. For more resilience tips and strategies, including support for building change proof teams, visit AdamMarkel.com to get your own free resilience assessment, go to rankmyresilience.com.