Brent Schlenker, a learning and development strategist with over 20 years in the field, shares how an interview with Patty at a jazz festival the morning after Miles Davis died pushed him toward people-focused work. He argues that human connection matters more than technology or certifications, and that learning is a long-term process, not just an event.
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¡Hola! All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today I have Brent Schlenker with us. He is a training, learning, and development strategy consultant and brings the power of communities into the 21st century through innovative use of collaborative technologies. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thanks for having me, Tyler. I appreciate it.
Of course. Of course, pumped to have you here. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Brent, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, starting off with the deep questions. I think probably my favorite story— everybody has moments in their life where they— that cause you to take pause and maybe take a severe left turn in your life. For me, it was working in television in my early career and being— wanting to be the best at it and always looking to get the story and always trying to find the best story. And I remember very distinctly interviewing Patty from Tuck and Patty at a jazz festival. The morning after Miles Davis passed away. And so not many people had heard about it yet. And so I was getting reactions from people and she hadn't heard about it yet. And when I told her, it was the last question I had for her in this really short interview. And it went very silent and she burst into tears. And I remember thinking to myself, not, "Oh my gosh, how horrible this is." I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, this is gonna make for great television." And I remember driving back to the studio thinking, "That's probably not the person I wanna be the rest of my life." And very shortly after, quit that career and decided I'd rather have a career where I actually, it cared more about people than I did about the job.
Yeah, thanks for sharing that, man. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
So I've been working in the learning and development industry for over 20 years. So corporate training, just the basics of learning, how we learn, adult learning theory and whatnot. And I don't know if there's really one valuable piece of information. I think there's a lot of valuable pieces of information, but I think it's easy to get caught up with the technology for a lot of different reasons. Technology is changing fast. There's a lot of very cool tech out there, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, You know, just you name it, bots, all that that's out there. But at the end of the day, life and our job and our work, it's about people. And I think the better we can get at putting the tech down and actually connecting with people, I think the better off we're all gonna be. And that goes for learning too. There's enough tech out there for us to maintain and have control over our own learning. And I think more people need to put less of the responsibility on industries and certifications and degrees and put more of the onus on themselves to actually learn and to do things.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice and not necessarily industry specific?
Overall business advice, I would say be patient. You know, build a network and, you know, work hard, but overall be patient and enjoy the ride. It's not all about the end game.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Try to take life a little bit more seriously, you know, at an earlier age. Don't— I think a lot of people would probably say relax and don't stress out so much. But I didn't stress out much at all. And I would probably tell myself, step it up a little bit, take life a little bit more seriously. Don't wait until you're 30 before you start trying to grow up.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think knowing who you are and knowing, you know, what you need to do in life and where the value lies, putting others first and not letting what goes on around you, either in the bigger world or even in your immediate world, impact you so much. Be fascinated by those things you you can't control and manage the things that you can.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that? Oh, wow.
Books. I've got a ton of books and I've learned a lot from each one of them. I don't even really know if there is a best, but I think recently I've been— well, not recently. I mean, for years now I've been quoting and recommending A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster. And he talks about what is fun and how, you know, what makes a game and what's the difference between a game that's fun and a game that's not fun. And one of the interesting quotes is that with, you know, with gaming, learning is the drug. It's a fascinating book to read. Super easy, really short, but hits on a lot of key points.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Oh, man.
And it doesn't have to be word for word. It could be, you know, close.
I don't even think I can come up with a quote. Shoot, I should have prepared for that one a little bit sooner, but I—
No, no, it's fine. Or even like something you stand for, like a mantra or something like that?
Yeah, well, I mean, I always, you know, it was just a few years ago that I finally put into words what I really thought my career and my job is all about. And so I guess I could use that. And I tell people training is an event, learning is a process, a long-term process, technology supports them both, but our ultimate goal is in improving performance.
Got it, dude. Thank you, uh, so much for coming on. Uh, the last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
I, I am all over the internet as B. Schlenker, so B-S-C-H-L-E-N-K-E-R, and you could just Google Brent Schlenker. I am not the fly fisherman in Montana. I'm the other Brent Schlenker.
Awesome, bro. Thanks again for joining us.
All right, Tyler, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
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