C-10 Mentoring & Leadership Podcast: Recent Episodes
Matt Fulks/
Each episode of the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership Podcast brings listeners thought-provoking and educational conversations with community-minded leaders and mentors. Hosted by “C” You In The Major Leagues Director and author Matt Fulks, along with various guest co-hosts, we dig deep to see how successful leaders view leadership. Each episode’s guest shares thoughts and experiences with a focus on the foundational elements of CYITML: Care, Character, Coach, Commitment, Competitor, Composure, Comprehension, Concentration, Confidence and Courage.
In Episode 166 of the C-10 Podcast, we're thrilled to present a special conversation with Mike Garrett, recorded live at Music Theater Heritage in Crown Center. Led by veteran sportscaster and C-10 mentor Todd Donoho, this engaging discussion captures the wisdom of the 1965 Heisman Trophy winner and Kansas City Chiefs legend.
From his groundbreaking career at USC to his memorable years with the Chiefs, Garrett's journey exemplifies excellence and perseverance. As we release this episode to coincide with the start of the Chiefs' 2025 season, his reflections on football, leadership, and personal growth resonate deeply with both our C-10 students and the broader Kansas City community.
This unique interview, conducted in front of our C-10 students and mentors, offers invaluable insights from one of football's most accomplished figures, demonstrating how athletic achievement can translate into lifelong success and impact.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In Episode 165 of the C-10 Podcast, we present a unique and powerful conversation with General Richard Myers, recorded on a snowy February evening as part of a virtual C-10 session. This special episode, which includes thoughtful questions from our C-10 students, offers unprecedented access to one of our nation's most distinguished military and educational leaders.
General Myers' remarkable 40-year Air Force career led him to become the 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2001-05), serving as the principal military advisor during one of America's most challenging periods. As a Kansas City area native who rose to the highest levels of military leadership, his journey embodies the potential that lies within every aspiring leader.
The conversation takes on added significance as General Myers shares insights from his transition to academic leadership as the 14th President of Kansas State University (2016-22). His unique perspective on leadership in both military and educational contexts provides valuable lessons for our students and listeners alike. (And by keeping the students' questions in this week, you might be getting a hint of an exciting change coming to the C-10 Podcast this fall.)
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Join us for Episode 164 of the C-10 Podcast, recorded live at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center with our C-10 students and mentors. Our guest, Sam Brown, shares a powerful story of resilience and transformation that captivated our audience.
After losing both parents by age 11, Sam's journey was shaped by the guidance of his 23-year-old sister and his own unwavering determination. From playing in the NFL and CFL to becoming a Project Engineer in the mechanical engineering field, Sam's path demonstrates the power of perseverance and adaptability.
In this inspiring conversation, Sam opens up about his latest venture, SB Impacts, where he creates supportive environments for individual and community growth. His message of personal development, self-reliance, and community impact resonates deeply with our C-10 mission of mentoring and leadership.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In memory of Rob Browne, the CEO of YouthReach International who died on May 1st, we're revisiting a fun and powerful conversation from 2021 that exemplifies servant leadership and the impact one person can have across the globe. Rob's unexpected passing, following the loss of his wife to cancer just 13 months ago, leaves a void in many hearts but also a legacy of service that will continue to inspire.
From the basketball court at Lipscomb University under legendary coach Don Meyer to the challenging terrain of Siberia as a missionary, Rob's journey was anything but ordinary. As President and CEO of YouthReach International, he established mentoring communities for vulnerable youth around the world, touching countless lives through his dedication to serving others.
In this conversation with host Matt Fulks, who had been friends with Rob since college, Rob shares invaluable leadership lessons learned from Coach Meyer, entertaining stories from his basketball days, and how these experiences shaped his mission to serve vulnerable youth across the world. His wisdom, humility, and heart for service shine through in every moment of this memorable discussion.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
To join us at the 4th Annual C You At Topgolf on May 29, 2025, to give students a mentor, visit here.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In this special episode of the C-10 Podcast, recorded at Music Theater Heritage in Kansas City's Crown Center, we welcome Shawnie Nix, whose journey with C-10 exemplifies the power of meaningful mentorship. As a former Kansas City, Missouri police officer, Shawnie brought unique insights when she helped develop the C-10 program as a member of the curriculum committee. Her commitment to youth development grew as she later stepped into roles as both a pinch-hit mentor and eventually a one-on-one mentor.
With regular host Matt Fulks away, curriculum committee chair Max Utsler steps in as guest host for this engaging conversation. Recorded shortly before Shawnie's relocation to Phoenix, this episode captures her reflections on law enforcement, mentorship, and the lasting impact of the C-10 program. Her story demonstrates how different life experiences can shape our ability to guide and influence young people.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
To join us at the 4th Annual C You At Topgolf on May 29, 2025, to give students a mentor, visit here.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
For more than 25 years, Ryan Lefebvre's voice has been synonymous with Kansas City Royals baseball. In Episode 161 of the C-10 Podcast, we sit down with Lefebvre, who grew up immersed in baseball as the son of former big league player and manager Jim Lefebvre.
Ryan's journey in broadcasting began at just 19 years old, and after graduating from the University of Minnesota, where he also played baseball, he worked his way through the minor leagues, and a stint with the Minnesota Twins before joining the Royals broadcast team in 1999. But beyond the broadcast booth, Ryan's story is one of remarkable courage and transparency.
In this powerful conversation, Ryan opens up about his personal battle with depression and addiction, a journey he detailed in his memoir "The Shame of Me: One Man's Journey to Depression and Back." His willingness to share his story has helped countless others face their own challenges, making him not just a voice of baseball, but a voice of hope and recovery.
This episode was recorded in front of the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program students and mentors in February 2025.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
To join us at the 4th Annual C You At Topgolf on May 29, 2025, to give students a mentor, visit here.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Episode 160 of the C-10 Podcast features a conversation with contemporary Christian music powerhouse Matthew West, recorded during our C You In The Major Leagues' 10th anniversary celebration in December 2024. In this special episode, Emmy Award-winning Fox 4 anchor Abby Eden teams up with CYITML Executive Director Matt Fulks to co-host an engaging Q&A with Matthew West. Eden, who later served as emcee for the evening's celebration, helps bring out unique perspectives in this meaningful conversation.
As a five-time GRAMMY® nominee and recipient of ASCAP's 2023 Golden Note Award, Matthew has established himself as one of Christian music's most prolific songwriters, with an impressive 34 number-one songs to his name. But beyond the accolades – including an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, and multiple GMA Dove Awards – lies a story of persistence, faith, and the power of using your gifts to impact others.
In this intimate session, which includes an audience Q&A, West shares personal insights about his creative process, the challenges of the music industry, and how his faith has guided his career. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to his music, this conversation offers valuable lessons about pursuing your passion while staying true to your values.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
To listen to Episode 39, which features a previous chat with Matthew, go here.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Episode 159 of the C-10 Podcast welcomes former Kansas City Chief and current Chiefs Radio Network color analyst Danan Hughes for a special live recording at Music Theater Heritage in Crown Center. In front of our C-10 students and mentors, Hughes shares his fascinating journey from New Jersey to becoming a two-sport star at the University of Iowa, where his athletic prowess caught the attention of both the NFL and MLB.
After being drafted by both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Milwaukee Brewers, Hughes chose the gridiron, spending five seasons as a wide receiver with the Chiefs during a transformative period for the organization. His insights into those years provide a unique perspective on a crucial chapter in Chiefs history.
Following his playing career, Hughes has built an impressive second act in Kansas City's financial sector, currently serving as a senior business development officer and mortgage originator with Community America Credit Union. Now in his fifth season alongside Mitch Holthus as color analyst for the Chiefs Radio Network, Hughes continues to impact the Kansas City community both on and off the air.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Episode 158 of the C-10 Podcast takes listeners on an exciting new journey with our first-ever (and possibly last) "car chat" featuring Fox4 news reporter Matt Stewart. In this unique and intimate setting, we dive deep into Matt's career, exploring the journey that led him to become a respected figure in the Kansas City media.
As we, um, cruise through the conversation, Matt shares invaluable lessons from his days as a college football player at Northwestern University. These experiences helped shape his views on leadership, team building and how every person matters to a team.
In a poignant turn, Matt opens up about his personal battle with cancer, offering a raw and inspiring account of his journey. This powerful episode showcases Matt's resilience, determination, and positive outlook in the face of adversity, making it a must-listen for anyone seeking motivation and perspective in their own lives.
LINKS:
To order Matt Stewart's books or "Stewart Strong" merch, visit his website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
On Episode 157 of the C-10 Podcast, we're chatting with Mari Foster, one of this year's six Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees.
Mari has been a coach in the Kansas City Public School District for more than 25 years. She started at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy Middle School in 1998, and then created the Tiger Dance Team in 2005, which reached the state championships just three years later, in 2008. In addition to dance, Foster has also been the head boys’ and girls’ track and field coach at East High School since 2019 and is USA Track and Field Level 1 certified.
Additionally, she works with House of Hope KC.
As her nominator, Dr. Lee Allen Sr. wrote: “Coach Foster has been a coach and mentor to hundreds of students in multiple schools throughout her illustrious career. In addition to founding the Tiger Dance Team and growing it into one of the best dance teams in Missouri, she’s also helped capture multiple state championships and has had several of her student-athletes continue their careers at the collegiate level. Because of her love of children, Kansas City Public Schools asked her to serve in a role where she can mentor other district dance teams, and replicate her success district-wide. She means so much to so many students, past and present.”
LINKS:
For more information about the Blue KC Coaches with Character program, visit this page on our site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
For Episode 156 of the C-10 Podcast, we're featuring Tim Kluempers, the second of six 2024 Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees.
Tim started the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints Rugby team in 2007. Under his direction, the Saints have won the Kansas state championship nearly every year, and they’ve competed on the national stage, also. Before getting into coaching, Tim played for the US National Rugby team from 1996-2001, and for the Kansas City Blues Rugby team for more than 20 years. By day, Tim is in Business Development for Budnick Converting.
Additionally, he's heavily involved in youth rugby in Kansas City area.
LINKS:
For more information about the Blue KC Coaches with Character program, visit this page on our site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
On Episode 155 of the C-10 Podcast, we're chatting with the July Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree, Jill Courter, the girls golf coach at Blue Springs High School.
Jill Courter has worked in the Blue Springs School District for more than 25 years, and has been the golf coach since 2007. During the past 17 years, she had an undefeated team that won the Missouri state championship in 2014, she’s had one individual golfer win the state championship, and she’s had five all-state golfers.
But, as Alli Bowers, one of Jill Courter’s former golfers and her nominator wrote: “Jill’s tireless efforts to create a place where female athletes are respected and loved is her priority. I still remember the love, care and concern she gave me as a young athlete. Constantly encouraging, teaching, and pushing me to be my best self.”
LINKS:
For more information about the Blue KC Coaches with Character program, visit this page on our site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In Episode 154 of the C-10 Podcast we're chatting with Rob O'Byrne, the retired president of CBIZ Employee Services. Before that, he was the President and CEO of other employee benefits firms Robert D. O’Byrne and Associates, and the Grant Nelson Group, before they were acquired by CBIZ in December 1997.
Rob O'Byrne, who's the husband of C-10 Curriculum member and previous C-10 Podcast guest Diane O'Byrne, chats about his career, how leadership has looked throughout, a great lesson his dad taught him early, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In Episode 153 of the C-10 Podcast we're chatting with Brian Bracco, who spent most of his career in leadership at various stations around the country. Most notably for those of us in Kansas City, he was the news director at KMBC — channel 9 — for 13 years, from 1987-2000. He then spent 13 years as Vice President of News for Hearst Television, before spending a little more than four years, 2013 into 2017, as vice president/general manager at KSHB — channel 41.
Bracco chats about his career, how leadership has looked throughout, TV today, our C word CONFIDENCE, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is an extra special episode of the C-10 Podcast, as you get to hear from the three seniors from the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, John Wilson IV, Topher Rauth, and Norman Davis Jr.
Each, during interviews with Max Utsler in front of the students and mentors in the C-10 program at Operation Breakthrough on May 15, discuss how much they've changed because of C-10, what they learned in the program, what advice they'd pass along to new students, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In this episode, we're chatting with Mike Sewell, who's the co-inventor of the StepNpull foot-operated door opener. (You've probably seen it in some public restrooms.) Mike led the company through its exponential growth and international recognition as businesses look for ways to minimize the spread of germs, particularly in light of Covid.
Part of that growth in 2020 came from Mike — and StepNpull — being featured on the hit television show, "Shark Tank," where entrepreneurs seek funding from five or six investors. (More on that momentarily.)
Mike’s focus shifted to long-term initiatives such as recruiting key talent, expanding StepNpull’s product line, and implementing new processes.
In December 2022, in addition to his work with StepNpull, Mike became the Procurement Manager with Ubiquity, a communications company that works on digital infrastructure for communities.
In addition to all of that, from a personal side, Mike happens to be the step-father of one of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students, Elijah.
This interview was conducted in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To watch part of Mike's segment from "Shark Tank," click here.
To sponsor the 3rd Annual C You At Topgolf event, go here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
In this episode, we're excited to be joined by someone who's helped shape some of the things we do at C You In The Major Leagues on the fundraising side. Steven Screen is the co-founder and creative director at The Better Fundraising Company, which launched 10 years ago this month in the Seattle area. And he’s been with other agencies that work with nonprofits during a 31-year career.
CYITML Executive Director Matt Fulks -- who's hosting this week's C-10 chat -- has leaned on Steven's expertise, as well as that of The Better Fundraising Co., to help with several of our donation appeals, newsletters...well, many things that have landed in our donors' physical and virtual mailboxes.
During this conversation, Steven talks about legacy, his dad's influence on the fundraising business, the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1980s, tips on telling stories, and so much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To learn more about The Better Fundraising Company, visit their site.
To sponsor the 3rd Annual C You At Topgolf event, go here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
You might know the name Jeff (or Jeffri) Chadiha from his time at Sports Illustrated or ESPN, or what he’s doing now at the NFL Network.
But Jeff, who makes his home in the Kansas City area, is a great spark for several nonprofits in the KC community.
In fact, he’s been vital to several things we’ve done at C You In The Major Leagues during the past seven or eight years.
He was a part of the curriculum committee to help develop what became the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, he has participated in our Wiffle ball and Topgolf fundraisers, and he’s been one of our Character Champions to help raise money for C You In The Major Leagues. He’s recruited some of our mentors, and so much more. Frankly, C You In The Major Leagues is lucky to have him involved.
This is a conversation between Jeff and C-10 Podcast (and CYITML Executive Director) Matt Fulks in front of our C-10 students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center on Wednesday night, March 13.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To sponsor the 3rd Annual C You At Topgolf event, go here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’re a long-time Kansas Citian, you likely recognize the name Toby Cook. He was an anchor for eight years on Fox4 in Kansas City. And then he spent more than 14 years with the Kansas City Royals as the Vice President of Publicity.
But then in the spring of 2021, he had a job pivot — in his early 50s — when he left the Royals and became the Director of Public Relations for the University of Kansas Health Systems.
Additionally, Toby is the chair of the committee for the C You At Topgolf fundraiser, which is coming up on May 23, 2024.
In this episode we talk to Toby about the job he’s doing now, what advice he'd give to someone looking for a job, the upcoming C You At Topgolf event, and he takes a swing at a Billy Joel version of our Pre-Game Batting Practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To sponsor the 3rd Annual C You At Topgolf event, go here.
To listen to Toby's first appearance on the C-10 Podcast, Episode 60, click here.
To listen to Toby's second appearance on the C-10 Podcast, Episode 119, click here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Matt Dimmick served as the Director for Russia and Eastern Europe on the National Security Council Staff. He previously served as the Russia Director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Through that he consulted a president on Russian affairs. He also held the positions of Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché in Tbilisi, Georgia, Deputy Foreign Policy Advisor for the Chief of Staff of the Army, and Assistant Army Attaché in Moscow.
A veteran of the US Army, Matt served as an infantry officer and foreign area officer for 29 years with overseas assignments in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, Russia, Iraq, and Georgia. Matt is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, holds a Master of Arts degree in National Strategy from the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, and a Master of Arts degree in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Kansas.
He retired from the Army and joined the nonprofit Spirit of America in 2022 as a regional program manager.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
On this episode of the C-10 Podcast, we're chatting with Ryana Parks-Shaw, the Mayor Pro Tem in Kansas City, Mo. She began serving her first term as council woman in the 5th District in August 2019. She has lived in the 5th district with her family for more than 22 years.
Mayor Quinton Lucas appointed Ryana Mayor Pro Tem of Kansas City in August 2023. She also serves as the Chair of the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee, Chair of the Land Bank Commission, Vice Chair of the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Commission, and Co-Chair of the Health Commission. She previously served as the Chair of the Mayor’s Houseless Task Force. She is also a member of the Kansas City Zoo Board of Directors and the Starlight Board of Directors.
Mrs. Parks-Shaw is a long-time healthcare executive. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Missouri State University and a Master of Science degree from Southwest Baptist University. She is an alum of Ruskin High School in the Hickman Mills School District. She has a deep passion — a COMMITMENT — for community service and improving the quality of life for Kansas City residents.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Episode 145 of the C-10 Podcast is a fun chat with Chase Coffman, who grew up in the Kansas City area, before becoming an All-American tight end at the University of Missouri, and then a journeyman career in the NFL.
Chase, whose dad starred at Kansas State before a career in the NFL with Green Bay and Kansas City, chats in this conversation about his football career, how faith played a role in his decisions, what he would've done had football not panned out originally, and MUCH more.
This interview was recorded in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center in December 2023.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Episode 144 of the C-10 Podcast is a fun chat with Karli Ritter, who's been a meteorologist with Fox4 in Kansas City since March 2007. She’s currently on the morning broadcasts.
Karli got her start as a student at Florida State University and worked in Sarasota, Florida, and Montgomery, Alabama before moving to Kansas City.
She enjoys traveling, cooking, yoga, spending time on a boat and playing or watching any sport. And she’s involved with several nonprofit organizations here in Kansas City…including being a celeb at C You In The Major Leagues' C You At Topgolf event for two years.
This interview was recorded in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center in November 2023.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is Episode 143 of the podcast, and we're chatting with Dayton Moore, C You In The Major Leagues' Founder and Board President.
Dayton talks about Christmas memories and movies, some "Hot Stove" talk, the Texas Rangers' World Series victory, and so much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a year-end financial gift -- that'll be DOUBLED -- to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is Episode 142 of the podcast, and we're chatting with a great storyteller and filmmaker, who happened to start a conference to help folks in the nonprofit world get better at their jobs.
In short, Chris Davenport is a storyteller by heart. He’s had a career in Hollywood and doing documentaries, but he’s making his biggest impact working with nonprofits — working with organizations on videos of need and impact, and with a concept about 10 years or so ago for a conference to help nonprofits called the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference.
As you'll hear, Chris' background is in films and Hollywood. He'll share some wonderful stories (and lessons) from a couple of films, how the death of his brother changed his outlook on work, and the importance of storytelling for businesses and leaders with any type of organization. And much more.
LINKS:
To learn about the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a year-end financial gift -- that'll be DOUBLED -- to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is episode 141 of the C-10 Podcast and as we do occasionally, we're turning over the hosting to Al Wallace, a longtime sportscaster here in Kansas City — and now one of the mentors in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. This week, Al interviews Max Utsler, who taught journalism at both the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas, and was instrumental in helping to develop the C-10 program.
If you’ve listened to many of the previous 140 episodes, you’ve heard Max a time or two. We even did an interview with Max during the early days of this podcast, episode 16 to be exact, in August of 2020. But this week you’ll hear a little different side of Max as he’s interviewed by one of his longtime friends, Al Wallace.
A little about Max, though.
In 2020, Utsler received broadcast journalism education’s highest honor, the Edward L. Bliss Award. Before retiring, he was also recognized at KU as the top mentor among his peers.
Prior to joining the faculty at KU, Utsler served as assistant news director at KOMU-TV (NBC) and Associate Professor for the School of Journalism at Missouri. He joined the KU faculty in 1984 and served in both teaching and administrative positions. After serving as assistant news director at KSDK-TV (NBC) in St. Louis, he was a reporter, producer, and freelance writer with major media outlets like MLB.com, MLB-TV, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN. He spent half a year at KPNX-TV covering sports in Phoenix, Arizona.
Utsler, who's from a farm community in central Illinois, graduated from Knox College before starting his career as a junior high English teacher in Minnesota.
This interview with Max and Al Wallace was recorded in front of the C-10 students and mentors in November.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we’re chatting with one of the Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees from this season, Klee Nelson.
What is the Blue KC Coaches with Character program? Well, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.
This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?
Klee Nelson, the football coach of the Kansas City East Lions, was this season’s first honoree back in April.
Klee Nelson has been coaching at KC East, a homeschool organization in the Kansas City community, since 2015 and never takes a single day of his job for granted. His passion for coaching makes him a key asset in helping student-athletes engage in fun, happy and healthy competition outside of their homeschooled environments.
Through coaching, Nelson is able to give homeschooled kids an opportunity to play sports that they never thought they could. He says that it is his honor and privilege to be able to serve homeschool and small private-school communities when they feel they do not have any other options. He is providing opportunities that he never had as a child, and he knows how fulfilling it is to the players who he and the rest of the staff coach and mentor.
LINKS:
Here's the article about Klee Nelson as the April Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Reggie Morris, the boy's basketball coach at Raytown South High School, and one of this year's Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees.
What is the Blue KC Coaches with Character program? Since 2017, CYITML has partnered with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals for a program called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.
This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast, because, who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?
Reggie Morris, the boys’ basketball coach at Raytown South High School, was our second Coaches with Character recipient this year, back in May.
Morris is starting his third year at Raytown South after a successful stint as the coach at Grandview High School, where his teams won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019. Morris’ resume includes being selected as KC Metro Basketball Coach of the Year twice, the Conference Coach of the Year award winner three times, from 2017-2019, and the District Coach of the Year for four consecutive years from 2017-2020.
Ultimately, though, Morris is about what happens away from basketball for the young men he coaches. Culture is huge for Morris. And his goal, like it is with our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, is to prepare his players, as well as other students with whom he comes in contact at Raytown South, for their next stage in life.
Morris talks about all of that, defines COMPASSION, takes a swing at Pregame Batting Practice, and much more.
LINKS:
Here's the article about Reggie Morris as the May Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.
Here's a link to the Blue KC documentary, Not Good Enough, that Reggie and Matt reference.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Butch Rigby, a Kansas City developer — or restorer, might be a better term — entrepreneur, lawyer and founder of Thank You, Walt Disney.
Rigby has developed real estate in and around the Kansas City area for more than 30 years, starting when he was a full time student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, and a Juris Doctor from the UMKC School of Law.
Right after school, he headed to Hollywood to work in movies. A few years later, Butch returned to Kansas City with some great stories.
He founded the Screenland Movie Theatre Circuit, and as a part of that venture, he restored the Historic Granada Movie Theatre Building in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. He then renovated the historic Armour Theatre Building in North Kansas City, Mo. He placed the two buildings on the National Historic Register.
In the 1990s he formed Thank You Walt Disney Inc., and as Chairman of that organization, he and a group of volunteers purchased Walt Disney’s first cartoon studio, the Laugh-O-Gram building near 31st and Troost and took the building off of the city’s condemned building list, restored its structural integrity and have prepared it for re-use as an interactive historic site.
Butch will talk about those things and much more, including taking a swing at some "Pregame Batting Practice."
LINKS:
To learn more about Thank You, Walt Disney, please visit their site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Jessalyn Kincaid, who's made a name for herself during the past two decades as an actor in numerous theater performances in Kansas City and beyond.
Jessalyn is the Audience and Donor Relations Manager at Music Theater Heritage, a job she’s held for about three months. Before that, going back to 2016, she was MTH’s Manager of Artistic Operations. But she’s also a director, producer, former event coordinator…and former waitress, which will come out during this episode.
You'll hear about all of that, and much more, including Jessalyn's swings at "Pregame Batting Practice."
This episode was recorded on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage.
LINKS:
For tickets to MTH's production of "Ain't Misbehavin'," which goes until October 29, please visit their ticket site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Chris Giuliani, the CEO of Spring Venture Group, a national insurance company based in Kansas City that focuses largely on Medicare.
Chris Giuliani joined Spring Venture Group in 2011 as Executive Vice President, and was promoted to CEO in 2012. Shortly after that, in 2014, he was selected for Ingram magazine’s “40 Under 40” list. Under Chris’ leadership, Spring Venture Group grew from 27 employees in 2012 to more than 1,200 today. Additionally, Spring Venture Group has been on INC. magazine’s "Inc. 5000" list, plus Business Insurance’s "Best Places to Work," The Kansas City Business Journal’s "Fast 50," and has been inducted in the “Ingram’s 250” three times.
In full disclosure, Spring Venture Group has been a sponsor of our Crown Town Wiffle and C You At Topgolf events, and recently hosted our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors for a field trip.
You'll hear about all of that, and much more, including an unexpected opening and Chris' swings at "Pregame Batting Practice."
LINKS:
For more information about Spring Venture Group, please visit their site.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with C You In The Major Leagues founder and board president Dayton Moore. We discuss the one-year anniversary of the Kansas City Royals firing him, Ned Yost's Royals Hall of Fame induction, the importance of coaches, and why teams like the Royals can take five out of six games from the Houston Astros, while the Texas Rangers struggle with the Astros. All of that and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Tim Kennedy, the longtime and extremely successful baseball coach at Bishop Miege and Blue Valley High School here in the Kansas City area.
Now, why are we talking with a high school baseball coach on a podcast that mainly features business leaders and talks about leadership and mentoring?
Well, as you may know, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.
This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?
A graduate of Blue Valley High School in 1990, Tim Kennedy put together a successful 2023 campaign in his first year as head coach at his alma mater after having previously served as a math teacher and an assistant coach at the school since 2013.
Tim’s coaching and teaching background started in 1997, shortly after graduating from Kansas State University. After five years as an assistant coach at Bishop Miege High School, Kennedy became head coach of the Stags and served in that role from 2003-2011 before his tenure at Blue Valley High School began in 2013.
As his nominator, Peggy Rose, who was a Blue KC Coach with Character honoree a few years ago, wrote, “Coach Kennedy is what first class looks like as a teacher and a coach. He works with his students in Algebra 2 and AP Calculus in the same way he works with his high school baseball players – in a patient, respectful and encouraging manner that fosters a sense of confidence that has manifested itself in several league and state titles, as well as success in the mathematics classroom. He always does the right thing and wants what is best for the team and to make kids better through sports. Tim always has time to talk and listen to fellow coaches, teachers, students and athletes.”
In this chat, we talk about that coaching career, leadership highs and lows, building a team, and much more.
LINKS:
Here's the article about Tim Kennedy as the June Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week you’re going to be hearing from two more of the mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program: Shawnie Nix and Todd Donoho. (Technically, you’re hearing from three C-10 mentors as Al Wallace, a longtime Kansas City sportscaster, leads the discussion.)
This was recorded on Wednesday night, September 6th, in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center here in Kansas City.
We interview mentors from time to time because we want the students in the program to hear about leadership within different companies, and see that most of our paths aren't straight between high school and a possible career to the ultimate career in a person's life. We recorded these four with the idea that they'd be episodes of the C-10 Podcast.
We actually recorded four interviews that night, and you can hear the first two — Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh — in last week’s episode.
As mentioned, though, this week are Shawnie Nix and Todd Donoho.
First up is Shawnie, who happened to be the guest of our second-ever C-10 Podcast in 2020. (Link below.) But Shawnie has a special place in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. She used to bring groups from the Police Athletic League to Kauffman Stadium for a program we used to have called C You At The K. That program ended up being the impetus for what became the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program….and because we’d gotten to know her really well through C You At The K, when we put together the curriculum committee to form C-10, we asked Shawnie to be a part of that. And, about three years ago, as she was nearing retirement from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, she became a mentor in the C-10 program. And we’re so lucky to have her as a part of this.
After Shawnie you'll hear from longtime sportscaster Todd Donoho, who’s been with C-10 as a pinch-hitter mentor — a substitute mentor — since our first year. As you’ll hear, Todd had a long and successful career as a sports anchor in Michigan, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Besides being one of our most active pinch hitters, Todd has also been an important part of our C You At Topgolf committee for the past few years.
One quick note about Todd's interview because it’s unlike the other three that you’ve heard up to this point. Although students and mentors could ask questions of each guest that night, we took those out. But you’ll get a chance to hear a couple of the students’ questions for Todd. We’re leaving them in because the answers are insightful and entertaining.
LINKS:
To hear Episode 2 of the C-10 Podcast, which features Shawnie Nix, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week you’re going to be hearing from two of the mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program: Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh. (Technically, you’re hearing from three C-10 mentors as Al Wallace, a longtime Kansas City sportscaster, leads the discussion.)
This was recorded on Wednesday night, September 6th, in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center here in Kansas City.
We actually recorded four interviews that night, so you can hear the first two this week and then the next two in a future episode.
We interview mentors from time to time because we want the students in the program to hear about leadership within different companies, and see that most of our paths aren't straight between high school and a possible career to the ultimate career in a person's life. We recorded these four with the idea that they'd be episodes of the C-10 Podcast.
Up first are Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh.
Jen is in her fifth year as a C-10 mentor. Here’s a cool thing about Jen and the program: she was paired with a student in her first year, but the student didn't return. She was paired with a new student for her second year. Again, the student didn't return for a second year. We promised Jen, though, that she wouldn’t have that issue with her third student.
And she didn’t. It was a perfect fit. Jen and her third student, Alissa, bonded quickly. And Alissa excelled in C-10. So much so that she was selected as a member of the C-10 Student Leadership Council last year, and this year, as a college freshman, Alissa is back as a mentor in training.
By day, Jen, who’s the mother of two teenage girls and is the wife of Bob Fescoe, a morning host on 610 Sports Radio, is a high school teacher.
After Jen you'll hear from Jim Unruh, who's in his third year as a C-10 Mentor.
Jim, who's in leadership in commercial real estate with Collier's, has had the same student for his first two years, Manny. Like Alissa, Manny has been so well thought of by his peers that this year he's a member of the C-10 Student Leadership Council. (Incidentally, Manny is the second of three students from his family to be in C-10. His older brother was in the program for more than three years and his younger sister joined this year.) That's a direct correlation to his experience with his mentor, Jim Unruh.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Shelli Vaughan, the longtime and extremely successful dance team coach at Notre Dame de Sion High School here in the Kansas City area.
Now, why are we talking with a high school dance coach on a podcast that mainly features business leaders and talks about leadership and mentoring?
Well, as you may know, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.
This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?
Shelli Vaughan was not only the coach of the dance team, which won numerous state championships, but she also helped start the program….when she was just a junior in high school.
Since she took over as head coach in 2000, her teams won 15 Missouri state championships, including an incredible streak of 11 in a row. In 2020, Vaughan was selected as a “Coach of the Year” nominee by the National Dance Team Coaches Association.
In this chat, we talk about that coaching career, leadership highs and lows, building a team, and much more.
LINKS:
Here's the article about Shelli Vaughan as the August Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week on the C-10 Podcast we’re chatting about mentoring with long-time sports anchor, Al Wallace.
Al joined the sports department at WDAF-TV/FOX 4 in Kansas City in May 1985, and spent 33 years at the station. His broadcasting roots started in 1978, when he began working in production at KAMC-TV in Lubbock, Texas, where he eventually became sports director. He has also been weekend sports anchor and executive sports producer for KXAS-TV in Dallas, Texas and KVBC-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He retired from FOX 4 on December 18, 2018.
Today he teaches in the journalism department at the University of Kansas, and he’s a mentor in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we’re talking with Brandy Burch, a co-founder and the CEO of Benefitbay, a company that works with other companies and ICHRA — Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement, which is a health insurance solution for a company to offer its employees.
Brandy started her professional career in the Kansas City area, including two years with Visit KC. But she’s had an interesting journey — at least certainly not a straight line. She graduated from Emporia State with a degree in accounting before working for various companies. But then about 10 years after graduating, she went back to school for another undergrad degree before getting a Masters of Business Administration. In 2021 she was part of a group that started what became Benefitbay in Omaha, Nebraska. A year later, in April 2022, she was selected as the company's CEO. After securing a second round of funding, Brandy moved the company's headquarters to the Kansas City area earlier this year. She did all of this — ALL of this — as a mother.
So, we chat about Brandy's background, the "long and winding road," her persistence to overcome adversity, and the COURAGE it's taken to do all of this.
LINKS:
To find out more about Benefitbay, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
When you were young, did you ever dream of staying up all night during the summer to play your favorite sport or game? For many, especially in the summer, it was baseball.
Well, this week we’re talking about that dream of playing all night as we talk about an idea of an “Endless Game.”
But it’s not a bunch of 12-year-olds who’ve hatched this idea. No, it’s a group of, well, middle-aged (or slightly beyond) men and women who came up with the idea of playing an all-night game…for about four nights and five days. And, along the way, they’re hoping to break a Guinness Book World Record…and raise a lot of money for various charities in Kansas City, including C You In The Major Leagues.
This week we’re chatting with one of the main instigators of this idea — and someone who happens to be a big supporter of C You In The Major Leagues — Jerry Weaver. (In full disclosure, as you'll hear, Jerry and his wife Janice are monthly donors to C You In The Major Leagues, and he's participated in our first two C You At Topgolf fundraising events. The photo for this week is from this year's event when Jerry's team won the "Far From First" award.)
By day, Jerry is a Regional Sales Manager with Minerals Technologies. But by night and weekend, Jerry plays and helps run the Kansas City Men's Senior Baseball League.
LINKS:
To find out more about the Endless Game, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Periodically on this podcast since February, we've been introducing you folks who have turned doing "one good thing" into life-changing experiences and moments for people in the Kansas City community (and beyond).
The series is part of the new book, titled "One Good Thing," that was co-authored by CYITML Founder/Board President Dayton Moore, CYITML Executive Director and host of the C-10 Podcast Matt Fulks, and Ray Jarrett, the Executive Director of Unite KC. (You can learn more about the book at OneGoodThingBook.com or through one of the links in the show's notes.)
So far in this occasional series, you’ve heard from Jeremiah Enna of The Culture House, Will Gurley, founder of the You Matter Festival, and Rex and Jennifer Hudler from Team Up For Down Syndrome.
Well, this week you're going to hear from Dayton Moore, as he shares why he wanted to write the book, what he learned about people during this process, why it's important to him to give back to the community and much more.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Becky Browne, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Lockton Affinity, a subsidiary of Lockton Companies.
Lockton Affinity is an insurance brokerage firm working with affinity groups, nonprofits, associations and franchises.
Becky has been with Lockton since 2001, first as a recruiter and then VP of HR with Lockton Affinity and then about a year ago, Senior Vice President of HR. Incidentally, Lockton Affinity started in 1987, making it about 36 years old…and Becky has been with them since 2004. So she’s been with Lockton Affinity for more than half of their lifetime.
Becky, who's originally from Detroit, got her degree in Textile Apparel Studies from Western Michigan University, and then started her career at Kohl's before moving to Kansas City and going to work for Lockton Companies.
She talks about that transition, keys for job seekers today, the importance of culture and looking for the right people to fit a culture, and much more. (And, of course, she takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice.)
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we talk with CYITML Founder and Executive Chairman Dayton Moore regularly throughout this year, we're chatting this week about the recent CYITML Baseball Camp -- and how a tragedy turned into this camp nine years ago. And, of course, we talk baseball, including the Texas Rangers' draft, the evolution of pitchers and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Dave Youker, the swimming & diving coach at Olathe East High School here in the Kansas City area.
Now, why are we talking with a high school swimming and diving coach on a podcast that mainly features business leaders and talks about leadership and mentoring?
Well, as you may know, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.
This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?
Dave Youker, the swimming & diving coach at Olathe East High School here in the Kansas City area, happens to be the July Coaches with Character honoree.
Coach Youker has been at Olathe East since it opened in 1992 — so for 31 years, he has built an incredibly successful program that has turned out championship swimmers who understand the importance of becoming something bigger than themselves. And there was even a stretch about 10 years ago when he was coaching two high school teams at the same time: Olathe East and St. Thomas Aquinas.
In this chat, we talk about that coaching career, leadership highs and lows, building a team, and much more.
LINKS:
Here's the article about Dave Youker as a Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week on the C-10 Podcast we’re talking with Jonathan Jones, the Cultural Conversation Leader at DEMDACO.
What does a Cultural Conversation Leader do? And just what is DEMDACO? We’ll find that out momentarily.
Jonathan has been with DEMDACO since September 2006. He joined the company to help its leaders focus on their mission and culture. As part of that, in full disclosure, DEMDACO -- thanks to Jonathan -- has been a sponsor at our first two C You At Topgolf events, the most recent at the end of May.
Recently, Jonathan and DEMDACO launched a podcast called Lift the Spirit, which you'll hear about as well.
Before joining DEMDACO, Jonathan was a pastor for about 12 years — first in Florida and then in Leawood, and finally in Belton, Missouri.
LINKS:
To find out more about DEMDACO, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week on the C-10 Podcast, we're featuring a "One Good Thing" chat with Michael Loney, the founder of Freedom Hoops, a basketball ministry in the urban core of Kansas City.
Michael founded Freedom Hoops in 2014 alongside friend and mentor Kevin Kacy of Freedom Fire. Throughout his career, basketball seemed to promise fulfillment but God used basketball to teach Michael to solely boast in Christ. He has a passion to follow Christ, romance his wife each day, point his sons to Jesus, and to use basketball and the gospel to disciple and transform urban youth to know God.
In this conversation, Michael talks about going from small-town Iowa to a career setback that led to founding Freedom Hoops. And much more.
LINKS:
To order the book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
To find out more about Freedom Hoops, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we hit summer this week, it's a great time for baseball camp. And it's a great time to pick up our bimonthly chat with C You In The Major Leagues Founder and Executive Chair Dayton Moore.
This was recorded during our ninth annual C You In The Major Leagues Baseball Camp at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City.
This week we chat with Dayton about his old friend Rusty Kuntz, who was one of our camp instructors, the art of scouting, C You At Topgolf, his gig with the Texas Rangers, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you might've seen in the title, this is episode 120. It's going to be a little different from most episodes, but it's an exciting one for us.
See, on May 31st, we closed our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership school year with our annual salute to the seniors. This year, in addition to the normal pomp and circumstance, we asked each senior to deliver a 2-5 minute speech on one of our 10 C words. Each C word could be picked only once. Funny, but the seven words chosen by these seniors fits each one perfectly.
So this week's episode features those seven speeches. You'll hear about the C words, how the C words have influenced each student, and how the C-10 program fits with that C word in their lives.
The order:
Avary (Character)
Lisa (Care)
Treyton (Courage)
Isaiah (Confidence)
Alissa (Commitment)
Dawson (Competitor)
Korey (Coach)
We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’re a long-time Kansas Citian, you likely recognize the name Toby Cook. He spent more than 14 years with the Kansas City Royals as the Vice President of Publicity. Before that, he was an anchor for eight years on Fox4 in Kansas City. In the spring of 2021, he had a job pivot — in his early 50s — when he left the Royals and became the Director of Public Relations for the University of Kansas Health Systems.
In this episode we talk to Toby about the job he's doing now, what he's learned about himself, our C word, COMPOSURE, the recent C You At Topgolf event, and he takes another swing at our Pre-Game Batting Practice.
LINKS:
In this episode we mention the legendary Bill Kurtis and how he's a past guest. To hear Episode 40 with Bill Kurtis, click here.
This is Toby's second time on the C-10 Podcast. To hear his first visit, Episode 60, go here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're joined by Mary Esselman, the President and CEO of Operation Breakthrough here in Kansas City. Mary has an interesting background in education, starting as a teacher in a prison before focusing on children from under-resourced areas. She taught in the Kansas City area, moved to Detroit, and then came back to KC to begin working at Operation Breakthrough. (If you’re not familiar, Operation Breakthrough, which started in 1971, provides a safe, loving and educational environment for children in poverty and empowers their families through advocacy, emergency aid and education.)
We’re incredibly fortunate that Mary and her incredible team at Operation Breakthrough allow our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program to use their space on a fairly regular basis during the school year.
Mary takes our Pre-Game Batting Practice before diving in to the 10 questions, including one about our C word, COMMITMENT.
LINKS:
To learn more about the awesome work at Operation Breakthrough, visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week on the C-10 Podcast we're chatting with Ryan Watson, a one-on-one mentor in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. Ryan is finishing his second year in the program. As his student Korey heads to college in the fall, Ryan is eager to get his next student.
Ryan grew up in the Kansas City area, graduated from Rockhurst High School and then Kansas State University. Incidentally, he is the nephew of award-winning jazz musician, Bobby Watson.
For eight years, Ryan was a District Manager with EcoLab. For the past seven years, he has worked his way up to agency owner with Farmers Insurance.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
One of our favorite nights on the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program calendar happened recently. It’s when we invite the next year’s cohort of students to come to a session and see what C-10’s about. As part of that, we interview the current seniors to see what they’ve taken from their two to four years in the program.
So, this week you’re meet and hear from five of this year’s seven seniors: Alissa from Sumner Academy, Avary from Piper, Dawson from Liberty North, Lisa from Wyandotte, and Trey from Truman. (Our other two seniors, Isaiah and Korey, weren’t with us due to high school baseball games.)
As an extra bonus, these five seniors were interviewed in front of the group by longtime Kansas City sports TV anchor — and C-10 mentor — Al Wallace.
One final note: if you’re a supporter of C You In The Major Leagues and, specifically, the C-10 program, as a financial donor, a mentor, an in-kind donor…whatever it might be…THANK YOU! You are making all of this possible.
LINKS:
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
To go straight to the auction page, which closes on May 25th, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
For those who've met her in the last 10 years or so, Mandy Shoemaker is an entrepreneur. And rightly so. In 2013, she and her sister-in-law Michala Gibson founded Prairie Elder Care, which provides residential care in a unique setting for people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. And then last year they launched Connectivities, a subscription-based service that provides boxes of supplies for activities to help build connections for families and other caregivers for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Before 2013, though, Mandy had a much different career. She started as an elementary school teacher in Oregon, where she worked in some challenging circumstances. She returned to the Kansas City area -- her childhood home -- in 2005, first as a principal in the Blue Valley School District, before moving over to the Olathe School District.
With all of this awesomeness that she’s been a part of, Mandy was a 2019 Women Who Mean Business honoree from the Kansas City Business Journal, and then in 2020, Prairie Elder Care was one of the Kansas City Chamber’s Top 10 Small Businesses.
We chat with Mandy about her career, building relationships, the importance of CARE in leadership, and much more.
LINKS:
To learn about Prairie Elder Care, go here.
For info about Connectivities, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Periodically since February, we’ve been introducing you to the remarkable people featured in the new book, "One Good Thing."
This week, you’re going to “meet” Ryan Lefebvre. We're putting "meet" in quotation marks because although you likely know Ryan’s work as a Royals broadcaster for 25 years, you’re going to hear a different side of Ryan in this conversation, as we chat about race, how George Brett’s brother helped Ryan get his first real glove, and how that led to a project that’s put gloves on the hands of hundreds of boys and girls in Kansas City. And much more.
Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a former Major League player and manager, before going to the University of Minnesota on a baseball scholarship, where he was a first-team all-Big 10 selection in 1993.
He spent the first four years of his major-league broadcasting career with the Minnesota Twins before coming to Kansas City in 1999, replacing the popular Fred White. (He mentions that in this conversation.)
Ryan is the founder of Gloves for Kids, which has raised money for youth programs in Kansas and Missouri since 2001. In 2011, he was the recipient of the John J. “Buck” O’Neil MVP Award for his commitment to youth in Kansas City. In 2015, Ryan was named the recipient of the Olathe NAACP Diversity in Sports Award.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Sandra Olivas is a Kansas City lifer. She grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, went to the University of Kansas, spent a brief time with a TV station in Topeka, Kansas, before coming home and becoming one of the top reporters for KCTV-5.
Sandra spent about 14 years at the station. But then her family, through the tragic death of her mom in a car accident caused by a high-speed police chase, altered her career.
She then went into the banking world, first with Bank of Labor Community Bank and, since January 2021 with First Federal Bank of Kansas City, where she is the Community Development Officer.
(On a side note, if you’ve listened to other episodes of the C-10 Podcast you know that First Federal Bank sponsors the Student Spotlight that hits around the middle of each episode. We are incredibly grateful to bank president JR Buckner and the First Federal Bank family for their continued support of C You In The Major Leagues and, specifically, the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.)
This interview was recorded in front of our C-10 students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center on Wednesday night, April 19.
As we do with many of these interviews, we’ve taken out the students and mentors’ questions at the end, but you’re left with a fascinating conversation with someone who followed her dream, pivoted after tragedy struck — although not right when that happened, as she will point out during this chat — but she’s continuing to make a great impact on her hometown.
Max Utsler, who does interviews on the C-10 Podcast from time to time, was one of Sandra’s college professors at KU and interviewed her for this week's podcast.
LINKS:
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including how current eighth to 10th graders in the KC Metro can apply, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
One of the most interesting sessions we do with our C-10 students is what we call “student podcast night.” We started this last school year as a way to encourage the students to listen to the C-10 podcast with more intentionality.
Here’s how it works. We pick four students and they each pick a different episode of the C-10 Podcast. They listen to it, pick a 30-90-second segment that speaks to them the most, and then we play that in front of the group before they’re interviewed by their mentor. Of course, they then go through a Q&A with the other students and mentors.
So, that’s what we’re doing this week. And, as you might’ve guessed from the artwork for this week’s episode, you’re going to be hearing from seniors Isaiah, Lisa and Korey, and junior Topher.
This is not the typical guest, obviously, but we think you’ll glean a lot from the students, their views on leadership, and their views on our world.
LINKS:
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including how current eighth to 10th graders in the KC Metro can apply, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Periodically on this podcast since February, we've been introducing you folks who have turned doing "one good thing" into life-changing experiences and moments for people in the Kansas City community (and beyond).
The series is part of the new book, titled "One Good Thing," that was co-authored by CYITML Founder/Board President Dayton Moore, CYITML Executive Director and host of the C-10 Podcast Matt Fulks, and this week's guest, Ray Jarrett, the Executive Director of Unite KC. (You can learn more about the book at OneGoodThingBook.com or through one of the links in the show's notes.)
So far in this occasional series, you’ve heard from Jeremiah Enna of The Culture House, Will Gurley, founder of the You Matter Festival, and Rex and Jennifer Hudler from Team Up For Down Syndrome.
As mentioned, Ray is the ED of Unite KC, a relatively new movement in Kansas City that wants to bring racial healing in the Kansas City community through faith and our churches. They’re doing so with a diverse group of folks from every sector across the board — “domain leaders” — with the idea that we can bring about racial harmony and justice to this community.
Jarrett, who’s also the CEO of Impact Leadership Resources, has a proven track record of coaching leaders and helping them to understand and correctly interpret the vision for their business and translate it into actionable items and a tangible direction. Ray consistently delivers results by establishing a strategic direction that facilitates company growth and profitability.
We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
For more about Unite KC, click here.
To listen to Episode 38, Ray's previous time on the C-10 Podcast in January 2021, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Periodically on this podcast since February, we've been introducing you folks who have turned doing "one good thing" into life-changing experiences and moments for people in the Kansas City community (and beyond).
The series is part of the new book, titled "One Good Thing," that was co-authored by CYITML Founder/Board President Dayton Moore, Ray Jarrett, the Executive Director of Unite KC, and Matt Fulks, CYITML ED and host of the C-10 Podcast. (You can learn more about the book at OneGoodThingBook.com or through one of the links in the show's notes.)
So far in this occasional series, you’ve heard from Jeremiah Enna of The Culture House, Will Gurley, founder of the You Matter Festival, and Rex and Jennifer Hudler from Team Up For Down Syndrome.
This week you’re going to hear the inspiring story of Taylor Penrod, the community liaison for the Overland Park Church of Christ, but also the founder and CEO of The Barefoot Mission, a nonprofit that’s focused in the Argentine area of Kansas City, Kansas.
Incidentally, on two cool side notes, The Barefoot Mission was our partner organization last year for the C You In The Backyard Tee Ball League, and Taylor's husband Jimmy has been on our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership curriculum committee since its inception.
Taylor is a terrific storyteller, but more importantly, she has an incredible heart for people. You’ll learn that quickly during this conversation.
We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
For more about The Barefoot Mission, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week, we're turning over the interviewing to Dr. Max Utsler, our C-10 Curriculum Coordinator, who, like this week’s guest, spent several years in television before going into a second career. In Max’s case, that was about 40 years as a journalism professor.
For this week’s guest, it was television and into public relations.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
See, as we close out International Women’s Month, it seemed like a perfect time to have this week’s guest join us.
A product of Raytown, Missouri, Cynthia Boles started working full-time in television in Wichita, Kansas, where she became the first female anchor in the state of Kansas. She also had career stops in cities such as Houston and Kansas City, Chicago and Los Angeles. (Not all in TV, as you’ll hear.)
Cynthia and Max worked together when Cynthia was getting her start in broadcasting at KOMU while she was a student at the University of Missouri. And, later, the two worked together, along with Cynthia’s husband, Kenny, at KMBC here in Kansas City.
After several years in Tyler, Texas, following the death of her husband Cynthia moved back to Kansas City. She has attended a few of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership sessions. In fact, this particular interview was conducted on Wednesday night, March 23, in front of our mentors and students at Music Theater Heritage in Kansas City, Missouri.
Although we removed the students' and mentors' questions at the end, we think you’ll enjoy this chat about being a female pioneer and a great leader in TV and PR between two longtime friends.
LINKS:
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament happening right now — and the championship of the NAIA national tournament being crowned last weekend — this seems like a great time to chat with this week’s guest.
But, frankly, it was just by happenstance that we even found out that he played basketball collegiately.
See, we know him as the Chief Operating Officer at Operation Breakthrough, an organization in Kansas City, Missouri that does incredible work for kids and families — and has been an awesome meeting spot for our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for the past couple of years. Before that, for the bulk of his career, he was with Hallmark Cards, retiring in 2014 as Vice President of Retail Operations.
Mike Thomas, though, learned many of the leadership lessons applied at Hallmark and Operation Breakthrough as a captain on the Seattle University basketball team in the early 1980s. During Thomas' four years at Seattle, the program went from NCAA Div-I to the NAIA. Unlike the majority of his teammates, Thomas stuck it out and learned some incredible leadership lessons along the way.
In this episode, he shares about those experiences, some of the highs and lows from his 31 years at Hallmark, and the great work happening at Operation Breakthrough. (Of course, he leads off with some Pregame Batting Practice.)
We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Every couple of weeks you’ve been hearing more about the new book, "One Good Thing," and, specifically, hearing from the remarkable people featured in the book. As we recorded the interviews for the book, we did so with the idea that they’d be used on this podcast.
(If you’d like more information about the book, you can go to OneGoodThingBook.com….or click on the link below.
So far in this occasional series, you’ve heard from Jeremiah Enna of The Culture House, Will Gurley, founder of the You Matter Festival, and Dr. Artrell Harris, the head of Christian Family Services.
This week you’re going to hear from Rex and Jennifer Hudler.
If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve likely heard the name Rex Hudler, particularly if you’re a fan of the Angels or the Royals. And if you’re familiar with Rex’s work, you know he’s an incredible energy-giver who has…well, has a certain way of saying things.
Well, whatever you know about Rex or think about Rex or any preconceived notions you have about him, throw them out the window.
About 26 years ago, Jennifer was pregnant, and the son that she had — Cade — was born with Down Syndrome.
And this interview is an incredible testimony to love. Love for your spouse and love for your kids. Incidentally, Rex and Jennifer are Christians — as is each other person in the book "One Good Thing" — so you’re going to hear about their faith journey and how that has played into their story.
What an incredible story it is.
We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
For more about Team Up for Down Syndrome, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you may know — as we’ve mentioned on previous episodes — one early goal of this podcast was to introduce you to the great leaders who speak to our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership group once a month. Another early goal was to introduce you to the incredible mentors in the C-10 program.
Well, this week, we’re combining both.
Several months ago, C-10 Curriculum Committee Chair — and occasional guest host of the C-10 Podcast — Max Utsler interviewed two of our mentors, Lina Baquero and Lenin Guerra, as that month’s guest speakers.
Although we’ve interviewed mentors as guest speakers before, these two had special stories to share as they had two of the farthest journeys to come to the Midwest. And each came to the United States in similar fashion — around the age of 17 or 18, right after high school…the same age as our C-10 students — and came alone, as each came to this area to attend college on athletic scholarships.
One of our C words is COURAGE. Think about the COURAGE it took for Lina and Lenin, or anyone else who's done something similar, to leave home alone at 17 and 18, respectively, and go to a foreign country. (And keep in mind, for Lenin this was before cell phones and video chats.)
Obviously these types of stories are great for our students to hear, but they’re great, also, for the rest of us. Stories of overcoming doubt and hardship and difficulty…and in the case of both Lina and Lenin, holding on to their faith.
Again, Max Utsler conducted this interview in front of our whole C-10 Mentoring & Leadership group at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Throughout the next several weeks on this podcast, you’re going to be hearing about the new book, "One Good Thing," which was written by CYITML Founder Dayton Moore, Unite KC Executive Director Ray Jarrett, and CYITML ED and host of this podcast Matt Fulks.
The book is a collection of first-person profiles of people who are doing "one good thing" in Kansas City to make a generational impact on this community.
(Among the show’s notes this week, you will see an Amazon link to order the book, plus a link to order signed copies.)
We should add that 100 percent of the profits from the book are going to support the work of Unite KC and C You In The Major Leagues. And we’re making grants to the organizations that are featured.
The purpose of these C-10 chats that you’ll hear in the coming weeks and of this “One Good Thing” book is to shine a light on people just like you and me who are striving to make our community a better place. It’s about love and forgiveness. And at the end of the day, we hope it’ll inspire you to do “one good thing” to make a difference for someone else.
This week you’re going to hear a great story from Dr. Artrell Harris, the Executive Director of Christian Family Services and preacher at the Roswell Church of Christ.
Dr. Harris is a native of Middle Tennessee and holds degrees from Tennessee State, Pepperdine and Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has more than 25 years of experience managing non-profit organizations in Tennessee, Indiana and Kansas City.
But he has a unique story and unique calling to not only work in the nonprofit world — and many of us in this world consider it a calling — but he’s also a preacher. He was also a successful referee in the college ranks.
He’s a terrific storyteller and has an incredible heart for people. You’ll learn that quickly during this conversation.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
To get a copy of "One Good Thing" signed by Dayton Moore, click here.
For more about Christian Family Services, click here.
Register here for the 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we do about once a month, we take part of an interview with a guest speaker with our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors and turn it into a podcast episode. After all, the guests we bring in to speak to that group are either great leaders in their fields — people who can teach us all about leadership — or people with stories that can inspire us.
This week, you get a little bit of both.
This past Wednesday, February 15, we moved to a Zoom session so we could speak with Col. Chris Moeller, who’s the Air Force Strategic Planning and Programming Branch Chief based in Washington, D.C.
Chris, who grew up in Nebraska, before attending the Air Force Academy, has had a deep career in leadership. Essentially, he went from fighter pilot to F-16 instructor, to squadron commander in Japan and he continued up the ladder to his current job of Strategic Planning and Programming Branch Chief.
His career and personality make him a special leader. You'll hear that pretty quickly in this episode.
Now, as is often the case, we took out some of the students and mentors’ questions, so much of the conversation can remain private. But the result is a fun and informative 30-minute chat that will leave you with a lot of great thoughts and inspiration as a leader, whether that’s in an official capacity at work or at your home, your church, wherever you have opportunities to lead.
And, of course, we start it off with Pregame Batting Practice...
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
If you're interested in playing in or supporting students through our 2nd Annual C You At Topgolf event on May 25, go to the event page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
To order "One Good Thing," the new book by Dayton Moore, Matt Fulks and Ray Jarrett, from Amazon, go here.
Throughout the next several weeks, you’re going to be hearing about the new book, "One Good Thing," and, specifically you’re going to be hearing from these remarkable people featured in the book. As we recorded the interviews for the book, we did so with the idea that they’d be used on this podcast.
Among the show’s notes this week, you will see an Amazon link to order the book, “One Good Thing.” Very soon we’ll have links for you to order signed copies of the book and to nominate someone you know who’s doing one good thing.
I will add that 100 percent of the profits from the book are going to support the work of Unite KC and C You In The Major Leagues. And we’re making grants to the organizations that are featured.
The purpose of these C-10 chats that you’ll hear in the coming weeks and of this “One Good Thing” book is to shine a light on people just like you and me who are striving to make our community a better place. It’s about love and forgiveness. And at the end of the day, we hope it’ll inspire you to do “one good thing” to make a difference for someone else.
This week you’re going to hear an incredible story from an amazing young man named Will Gurley.
Now, I’ll pause and give you a trigger warning. We’re going to be talking about anxiety and depression, and you’ll hear Will talk about the day about six or seven years ago when he went home from school with the intention of committing suicide. We do not go into specifics, but that moment is what set Will on a path toward getting help and getting better, and, eventually, starting the You Matter Music Festival.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please remember these phone numbers: 1-800-273/8255 or the new cell number: 988. That’s 1-800-273-8255 or 988.
But Will Gurley, who’s now a sophomore in college, is an amazing young man. He has taken a dark time in his life and turned into a way to help others. Besides starting the You Matter Music Festival, he speaks regularly to younger students at schools and at churches. Last year, Will was even one of three panelists that came and spoke to our C-10 students and mentors.
With that, here is this week’s chat with Will Gurley. We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
To order the new book, "One Good Thing," from Amazon, go here.
For more about the You Matter Music Festival, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Earlier this week, my wife, who spent the first 28 years of her life outside the Midwest, saw a social media post about the Chiefs heading to the Super Bowl and it referenced No. 16. And she asked me, “Who’s number 16?”
That was Len Dawson, I told her. She knows enough about football and Chiefs’ greats — and has lived in Kansas City — long enough to know Len Dawson was one of the best ever for the Chiefs…first as a Hall of Fame quarterback and then a Hall of Fame broadcaster.
She also knows that Lenny, who died in August at the age of 87, is one of my all-time favorite interviews. I had the chance to interview him countless times for articles and book projects and so on.
By the way, in case you don’t know, Dawson led the Chiefs to Super Bowls I and IV. That was at a time when players didn’t make very much money playing in the NFL or the American Football League — now what we know as the AFC. So Lenny, as a player, began a long career as a sports anchor at KMBC, channel 9, here in Kansas City. And he became the long-time radio analyst — including a long stretch when the flagship station was 101 the Fox.
Dawson was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1987…and then in 2012 he received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Hall of Fame, becoming just the third person to be honored as both a player and a broadcaster.
As I’ve thought about Len Dawson this week, especially with the Chiefs going back to the Super Bowl this year, I started listening to a couple interviews that I’d recorded with him.
And that brings us to this Friday Flashback.
What you’re about to hear is one of those interviews.
Coincidentally, as this episode drops on February 3rd, this interview was recorded exactly 13 years ago, on February 3rd, 2010. I used to co-host a morning show with another longtime KMBC sports anchor, Dave Stewart, on a streaming radio station. This was an interview that Dave and I did with Lenny a few days before that year’s Super Bowl.
I’ve taken out some of the questions about that year’s game, but what you’re going to hear is a fun conversation about the early days of the Super Bowl. As we focus this podcast on leadership and mentoring, listen for that. Len Dawson, known as Lenny the Cool, was a great leader on the field. And the coach of those Chiefs teams, Hank Stram, was a great leader. A lot of that will come out during the next few minutes.
Again, this is episode 102, and we’ve done something like this only once in our previous 101 episodes. So we won’t have many of these Friday Flashback episodes, but this week is special. And this guest is special.
I hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you follow us on social media, you may remember around this time of the year, we take our C-10 students and mentors to an incredibly moving production called “Underground” at the Kauffman Center here in Kansas City. It’s put on by the Culture House and Störling Dance Theater. It’s a dance interpretation of a story of three runaway slaves seeking refuge in the Underground Railroad.
This week’s interview is with one of the main people behind the Culture House and the Underground performance, Jeremiah Enna.
Jeremiah Enna received his BFA in Theatre from UCLA and immediately upon graduation moved to Sweden to take a position with Kreative Mission, an international artist community, where he was a dancer and composer. In Los Angeles, he was awarded the Carol Burnett Award for his work in Musical Theatre under the direction of John Hall and was fortunate to have a rich theatrical education under the leadership of Michael Hackett. In Europe, Jeremiah traveled, performed and taught extensively under the direction of Vibeke Muasya, together with the professional artists in her company, Eternia.
Jeremiah met his wife, Mona, in Israel. They moved to Kansas City in 1995 to establish The Culture House and Störling Dance Theater. Jeremiah is thankful to be a part of various community projects, including UniteKC, aimed at making Kansas City a thriving community. He and Mona are the proud parents of four wonderful children who are growing into adulthood at a rapid pace.
Joining Jeremiah for part of this conversation is Christiane Lisabe, a dancer from France who’s been coming to Kansas City every year to perform in “Underground," Matthew Roberts, a first-time cast member, and Lorna Jarrett, who, like Christiane, has been in "Underground" since its inception.
We recorded this on Zoom on Wednesday night, January 25, 2023, with our C-10 students and mentors. You'll hear questions from them toward the end.
We chat with Jeremiah about his background, the Underground Railroad, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To find out more about the Underground performance, please visit the Storling Dance Theater's website.
To listen to our previous chat with Jeremiah Enna, episode 75, click here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
How do you deal with grief? Especially when you're in a leadership role and someone in your company or organization dies unexpectedly, how do you grieve and help the people around you?
This is a special episode of the C-10 Podcast. For one, it's the second in 2023 of C You In The Major Leagues Founder and Executive Chairman Dayton Moore joining us every other week. Two, it's episode 100. But, three, we're going to talk about grief and tragedy. See, January 22, 2023 marks the sixth anniversary of Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura's fatal car accident in the Dominican Republic.
Dayton and C-10 Podcast host (and CYITML Executive Director) Matt Fulks are going to chat about Dayton's recent trip to a coaches' convention and to the Dominican Republic before spending most of this conversation reflecting on the life, career and death of Yordano Ventura.
This was recorded on Tuesday morning, January 17, in Dayton’s home office. We hope you enjoy it.
By the way, as we have Dayton on as a regular guest and move to weekly episodes of the podcast, now’s the perfect time to subscribe, and we hope you’ll share this with your family and friends.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Welcome to episode 99 of the C-10 Podcast.
This episode is one of our most unique episodes of the previous 98…or one of our most unlikely guests.
Here’s why. Typically, we’re talking with people who have been in leadership roles with companies, or have been around great leaders throughout their adult lives. However, this week’s guest will show you that age doesn’t matter. And, as importantly, great leaders can be found in unique places.
As you may remember, last summer we took nine of our C-10 juniors and seniors, plus three mentors, on a trip to New Mexico with Wilderness Trek.
One of our guides on the trip through the mountains in New Mexico was a young man by the name of Avery Van Zee. Talking with Avery during a couple of the hikes — when he was coming to the back of the pack to make sure no one was left behind — it was obvious that he had a passion for helping others, he had the respect of each adult on the trip, and he has outstanding leadership qualities.
Think about it. He’s led multiple trips for the past two summers, and he has to get each group, regardless of hiking ability and camping background, on the same page within a few minutes for a successful trip.
Well, come to find out, Avery was originally from Pella, Iowa, which is near Des Moines…about three hours from Kansas City.
He connected in such a cool way with our students and mentors that we’ve stayed in touch with him. We’ve tried offering him encouragement as he figures out what’s next in life.
But last weekend, on January 7th, Avery, who spent the holidays with his family in Iowa, came down to Kansas City for a day. And we had a reunion that included seven of the students and all four adults from the trip. (The two students who couldn’t be there had previous commitments.)
After the reunion, Avery and Matt Fulks sat down for this chat.
Avery, who’s 23, is a young man who’s going places in life. You'll hear some of that in this chat.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
If you'd like to hear our episode with Paul Talley, the Executive Director of Wilderness Trek, who has an incredible story, click here.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
C You In The Major Leagues Founder and Board President Dayton Moore and CYITML Executive Director (and C-10 Podcast host) Matt Fulks were chatting on January 2, 2023 about the new year, and they started talking about the podcast. After all, it’s been awhile since Dayton's been on, and we wanted to have him on shortly after the Royals fired him in September, but the timing hasn't worked.
But as Dayton and Matt talked, they came up with a great idea: Dayton will be a guest every other week in 2023. You’ll hear more about that during the episode, but it’s going to be a great time with informative conversations. That certainly applies to this episode.
This was recorded on Wednesday morning, January 4th, in Dayton’s home office. We hope you enjoy it.
By the way, as we have Dayton on as a regular guest and move to weekly episodes of the podcast, now’s the perfect time to subscribe, and we hope you’ll share this with your family and friends.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is episode 97 of the C-10 Podcast, and with December 31st in our sights, this is the last episode of 2022.
What's the significance of those two things?
Well, they're both tied to this week's guest.
First off, this week’s guest, Dan Britton, happens to be the same person who joined us for episode 94 about a month ago. The second part of that — and the reason he’s joining us so soon after his previous chat — is because of a book that he co-authored a few years ago called “One Word.”
Are you a New Year's Resolutions kind of guy or gal? Instead of setting a resolution, which statistically speaking won't be successful, how about focusing on one word that can change not only your year, but your trajectory for the next several years.
Dan will share a three-step gameplan to finding your word and then sticking to it.
"One Word" is one of about 20 books that Dan has authored or co-authored.
By day, Dan serves as the Chief Field Officer with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has been on staff since 1990, serving first as field staff in Northern Virginia for 13 years before moving to Kansas City to join the executive leadership team.
As Chief Field Officer, he travels extensively around the world to work with thousands of leaders in more than 100 countries who are passionate about and called to sports ministry.
LINKS:
TO DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT BEFORE DEC. 31 to provide mentoring for students in our community, click here.
To see the 2022 CYITML Gift Catalog to double your impact for kids and families in KC, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
If you'd like to listen to our previous chat with Dan Britton, it can be found here.
To purchase "One Word" through Amazon (and/or find the "One Word Journal"), click here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we do once a month or so, this C-10 conversation features an interview that took place in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors. But this episode, our 96th, is unlike any other we've done.
During many of our recent weekly C-10 sessions, we've been using the mentors to show the students that they don't have to have the rest of their lives figured out right now; that many times, if not usually, a person's first career out of high school or college isn't the last one. One of the best examples of that in and around C-10 is C You In The Major Leagues' Executive Director Matt Fulks.
So, after some coaxing from some students and Max Utsler, the chair of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership curriculum committee, this episode features a conversation with Fulks.
What's different about his career? As you can read in his bio on our website, Fulks started a career in journalism in 1989, while attending Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, after his baseball career was cut short due to a lack of ability. Besides being the author/co-author of more than 25 books, including Dayton Moore’s "More Than A Season" and the upcoming "One Good Thing," Fulks’ journalism background includes working as the managing editor for a book publisher, as the sports director at a radio station in the Nashville market, as a newspaper writer and editor, and TV sports producer. But, he's also been a cell phone salesman, a bill collector, an International Eligibility Representative for the NAIA Eligibility Center, in charge of media relations for a minor-league baseball team, a church janitor, and a forklift driver. So, anything but a straight path to the nonprofit world.
Fulks started with C You In The Major Leagues in May 2015. While Fulks has been the Director/Executive Director, C You In The Major Leagues became a 501c3, developed the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, which has given mentoring to nearly 40 high school students from urban and suburban areas of Kansas City, and started the C-10 Leaders Scholarship. Earlier this year, CYITML launched C You In The Backyard, an instructional tee ball league geared toward areas with Title I elementary schools.
As we usually do, we took out some of the students’ and mentors' questions at the end, but we did leave one important one. After Utsler interviews Fulks and opens it up to questions, he starts with Matt's wife (and C-10 mentor, Libby). For Fulks, who gets into a discussion with Utsler about being an introvert, this dives a little deeper into his personal side than he'd prefer.
But we hope you enjoy it. (If you do, please feel free to comment, share, like and subscribe to the podcast from your favorite platform.)
LINKS:
TO DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT BEFORE DEC. 31 to provide mentoring for students in our community, click here.
To see the 2022 CYITML Gift Catalog to double your impact for kids and families in KC, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we do once a month or so, the C-10 Podcast features a conversation that took place in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors. And that's what we're doing this week.
On this episode, we are joined by the Vice President of Jaeger Sports, China McCarney. Jaegers Sports is known around the world as a leader in athletic stretch bands known as J-Bands. Jaeger Sports specialize in arm health, arm conditioning and mental training for baseball and softball.
Originally from Southern California, China was the ultimate five-tool baseball player in high school and was named CIF Player of the Year in 2005 at Vasquez High School. He played collegiately at College of the Canyons and Cal State Northridge. He was drafted in 2008 by Cleveland and in 2009 by Tampa. He has a bachelor’s of science in psychology with an emphasis in kinesiology and is certified in Sport and Fitness psychology.
In addition to his role with Jaeger Sports, he is the founder of Athletes Against Anxiety and Depression.
China started the foundation because he deals with anxiety on a daily basis, and felt the need and desire to “Be The Change” instead of waiting for a change. China resisted and fought his anxiety disorder for five years before he finally decided to attack it head on.
He discovered that the second he embraced anxiety as just being a part of who he was, just like all of his other attributes, it no longer had the severe crippling effect that it had in the past. As he began to study anxiety and depression, he realized what a stigma the mental health issues had. That stigma is a huge part of the problem. People feel they have to be embarrassed because they are dealing with one or more of these issues and they hide and hold on to it as tightly as they possibly can.
This conversation was a C-10 session on Zoom with China, along with our students and mentors. Stann Tate, one of the original mentors in the C-10 program, is filling in as the host this week. In addition to hearing from Stann, you'll hear outstanding questions from some of the high school students in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To learn more about Athletes Against Anxiety & Depression, visit their website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
What does CARE look like in leadership? This week you'll get a sense of a leader with CARE as we chat with Dan Britton, the Chief Field Officer for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Britton has been on staff since 1990, serving first as field staff in Northern Virginia for 13 years before moving to Kansas City to join the executive leadership team.
As Chief Field Officer, Britton travels extensively around the world to work with thousands of leaders in more than 100 countries who are passionate about and called to sports ministry.
Britton played professional lacrosse with the Baltimore Thunder, earning a spot on the All-Star team, and he was nominated by his teammates for both the Service and Unsung Hero awards. He has co-authored seven books, including: "One Word," and the "One Word Journal," which came out the day we recorded this interview. (In fact, we've twisted Dan’s arm to join us again in December to talk about "One Word" as we head into 2023.)
Britton is a frequent speaker for companies, nonprofits, sports teams, schools and churches. He has appeared on national outlets like CBS News and FOX News. He still plays and coaches lacrosse, and he enjoys running marathons—he’s finished the Boston Marathon twice. Dan and his wife Dawn have three married children.
Additionally, Britton led the efforts to keep 29 FCA leaders and their families from Ukraine in the United States, including the Kravtsovs, the family featured in our most recent C-10 Conversation.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
We reference the episode with Andriy and Lindsay Kravtsov. You can listen to that here.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Imagine not only going out of town, but going out of the country. And after just a day or two of being in this foreign country, war breaks out in your hometown. And it’s not safe for you to go back. Suddenly, you’re in a foreign country, all of your friends are halfway around the world, much of your family is halfway around the world, and all you have possessions-wise are the clothes and whatever that you packed in your suitcase.
This week we're chatting with a husband and wife who have faced -- and continue to face -- just that.
See, in February, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which is a worldwide organization based here in Kansas City, was holding a conference in Texas for their ministry leaders from around the world.
Some of those ministry leaders were from Ukraine.
As you’ll hear in this conversation, it became more than just the ministry leaders from Ukraine. In fact, 29 people — men, women and children — came to the U.S. for this conference, realizing that Russia could invade their home country.
Of course, that’s what happened.
In this episode you’re going to hear from the main ministry leader, Andriy Kravtsov and his wife Lindsay. Andriy is FCA’s Divisional VP, North Global.
One goal with the C-10 program is to expose our students to various leaders and people overcoming adversity. Knowing Andriy and Lindsay fit both of those descriptions, in early October, they came to a C-10 session to speak to our students and mentors.
With emotion and a candidness, Andriy and Lindsay share about their journey, how leadership has played into this, and how they've found strength.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Have you gone through a career change, perhaps by your own choosing, as we saw coming out of Covid, or by a company downsizing? As a leader, have you ever felt stuck? Felt as if your leadership can be better, but you’re not sure how to get to that next level?
This episode's guest can help.
Early in his career, Dan Deeble was the Marketing Director for McDonald’s of Santa Barbara. He had a career shift and, for several years, was the lead pastor at Heartland Community, a church of about 3,500 here in the Kansas City area. And then a couple years ago, he had another career shift. He left preaching and launched Lost Ball Consulting, which is a firm that works with leaders and companies to help them get to the next level.
He has taught, coached, and trained organizations and thousands of people, including many C-level executives, in whole-life skills such as relational conflict, work/life balance, change versus transition, and leadership development. And he started an organization called KC Wiffle, which brought together men and women of all ages to relive their childhood Wiffle prowess.
We start off this chat with Dan Deeble with our Pregame batting practice...
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
We reference Joe Ungashick and how he was a guest on this podcast...episode 77, to be exact. If you'd like to listen to that, here's the link.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is episode 91 of the C-10 Podcast. The only reason we tell you that is because this will be unlike any of the previous 90 episodes in terms of content and length.
Our first 90 episodes — and our future episodes — are interviews with leaders and/or people who have been influenced by great leaders.
For the past seven or eight days, something has been on the mind of host Matt Fulks, so this week you’re going to hear from only Matt. But we hope that something during this shorter episode will encourage you to think about people who have a great impact on you — maybe even pick up the phone and call them or drop them a note. And encourage you to "be the one" for someone else.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we do from time to time — as this podcast was designed — we are featuring an interview that was done in front of our C-10 students and mentors. This interview was done just a few hours ago…on Wednesday night, September 14th, in the Crown Club at Kauffman Stadium.
It features a conversation with former Kansas City, Missouri, mayor Sly James.
Sly James has worn many hats over the years – lead singer in a band, military police officer, trial attorney, mayor who oversaw Kansas City, Missouri’s renaissance, and award-winning author. And we touch on most of those hats.
Sly’s uncanny ability to bring a bold vision to life are evident through results like the construction and expansion of a transformative modern streetcar line, overwhelming passage of an $800 million infrastructure package, collaborating with our C You In The Major Leagues founder Dayton Moore and the Royals to build the Urban Youth Academy, and closing the gap between the city’s third grade reading proficiency and the state average by a third.
Sly graduated from Rockhurst University with a degree in English, and then earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota.
Shortly after leaving the public sector, Sly became half of Wickham James Strategies & Solutions, which helps clients with strategic communications, crisis communications, government relations, public policy, political strategy and mediations.
We start off this chat with Sly James with our Pregame batting practice…
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Typically with this podcast, we focus on leaders and great mentors in Kansas City, or formerly of this community. Well, this week we’re going outside of the area, but it’s someone with ties here. Of sorts.
This week we're joined by Dave Heller, the owner of the Royals’ high-A affiliate, the Quad Cities River Bandits. He and his group, Main Street Baseball, have owned multiple minor-league teams. So we'll talk a little baseball.
Dave also happens to be one of the top political media consultants and campaign strategists in the Democratic Party. As president of Main Street Communications, an award-winning political media firm, Dave has compiled the best won-loss record in the Democratic Party helping 30 clients win election to Congress. He has helped elect and re-elect more African-Americans to Congress than any other media consultant, including current and former U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson, Jr., the late John Lewis, and Maxine Waters.
Now, outside of talking about some of his clients, as any self-respecting C-10 fan knows, we don’t talk politics on this podcast. This week is no exception.
The readers of USA Today and 10Best.com voted the Bandits’ ballpark, Modern Woodmen Park, “Best Minor League Ballpark in America.” The Bandits have won Ballpark Digest’s “Best Ballpark Improvement Award” five times. The Bandits also won Ballpark Digest’s “Commitment to Charity” award four times since 2015 (no other team has even won twice). In 2016, his organization, Main Street Baseball, was named Ballpark Digest’s Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year, one of the industry’s most prestigious awards.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For information on the inaugural C YOU AT TOPGOLF fundraiser for C-10 on September 8, please go to the event page.
To see some of Dave Heller's work, visit this page on the Main Street Communications' website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
https://CYouInTheMajorLeagues.org/Topgolf
This week we're chatting with Casey Wright, president of Chief of Staff Kansas City, a staffing firm in Kansas City.
Casey, who's been in recruiting most of his career, is a great fit for our C word this week, COACH. In the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular, COACH is someone who understands the big picture, is an independent thinker, a good self evaluator, and offers enthusiasm.
Chief of Staff KC is a recruiting firm that specializes in accounting and finance, administrative and marketing, human resources, operations and sales. Their focus is “treating people how they’re supposed to be treated and doing business the right way.”
We’ll dive into that with Casey to see how that looks, we'll chat about his background as well as look at the current job market. And, of course, Casey takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For information on the inaugural C YOU AT TOPGOLF fundraiser for C-10 on September 8, please go to the event page.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Paul Talley, the Executive Director of Wilderness Trek in New Mexico, where nine C-10 students and four mentors are going to be spending a week on an immersive leadership hiking/camping trip.
About 20 years ago, Talley was the youth minister at the Overland Park Church of Christ. That's where he and C-10 Podcast host Matt Fulks met and became fast friends. That gig in the Kansas City area sandwiched one in Colorado and another in Texas.
He left ministry — at least formal church ministry — to become the Senior Business Operations Manager at Big Bear AggieTech, the largest privately-owned oilfield pumping unit service company in the Southwest. As the Senior Business Operations Manager, Paul oversaw 11 departments that managed over $12 million in annual spending and $5 million in assets.
Finally, after about six years with Big Bear AggieTech, Paul took what might be one of his dream jobs, when he became the Executive Director of Wilderness Trek Christian Camp in New Mexico.
This week, we chat about Paul being one of the grief ministers at Columbine High School and a therapeutic project he took on, about leadership lessons he's learned in ministry and business, and we chat about what our students and mentors can expect during their Wilderness Trek experience.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For information on the inaugural C YOU AT TOPGOLF fundraiser for C-10 on September 8, please go to the event page.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
After spending time with a few of our C-10 seniors in the previous episode, we wanted to give you a chance to hear from four of the mentors in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. During one of our sessions in April, when a guest speaker had to postpone because of a family emergency, we called on these four mentors to talk on the stage in front of all of the students and other mentors.
That's turned into this episode.
You're going to hear from four of our mentors -- Stann Tate, Eli Medina, Andrew Kreiling and Caroline Odell -- as they were interviewed at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center. You'll hear them share about their experience in C-10, leadership lessons they've taken away, and advice they'd give to their 17-year-old selves.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For information on the inaugural C YOU AT TOPGOLF fundraiser for C-10 on September 8, please go to the event page.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we come to end of the 2021-22 school year, we wanted to give you a chance to hear from the seniors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. So, during one of our sessions in May, we invited next year's cohort, along with all other current C-10 students to hear interviews with our current seniors.
That's turned into this episode.
You're going to hear from four of our six seniors -- Sidney, Jameson, Naomi and Jacob -- as they were interviewed by C-10 curriculum chair Max Utsler in front of the rest of our students and mentors. You'll hear the students share about their experience in C-10, what they learned in the program, advice for younger students and much more. (Two seniors, Jayden and Naya, were unable to attend this session because of graduation commitments.)
We open the episode with our guest host, C-10 mentor Al Wallace.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is the 84th episode of the C-10 Podcast. Our first episode was about two years and a week ago, on May 14, 2020.
Well, this week we’re doing something we’ve not done before in the previous 83 episodes covering two years and a week.
We are going to replay an interview that we originally posted in December 2020 -- episode 32 to be exact. It may seem odd, considering you could go through our list of episodes, find this interview and, if you like, go back and listen to it. Likewise, we could simply post a link to episode 32.
But this episode -- this guest -- deserves more than that.
See, on May 12, 2022, the college basketball world lost one of its greatest coaches. Kansas City lost one of its kindest, best people. William Jewell College lost, perhaps, its greatest ambassador. And, frankly, we lost someone we considered a friend. Larry Holley.
Coach Holley was one of the genuinely good people on this planet. He cared about his players, his family, his friends, and everyone else with whom he came in contact.
He was a great friend to C You In The Major Leagues, including being instrumental in making sure that William Jewell College became one of our C-10 Leaders Scholarship partner schools.
In case you don't know much about Coach Holley, his name became synonymous with William Jewell College. And vice versa. After all, Holley was the school’s basketball coach for 40 years, compiling 916 career wins, which made him the ninth-winningest coach in college basketball history at any level when he retired in 2019. He is the winningest coach in the state of Missouri. He earned 15 Coach of the Year awards, including the NAIA national coach of the year in 1996, and the 2018 Kansas City Sports Commission coach of the year.
In 2019, he was selected as the "Blue KC Coach with Character" honoree for the month of April.
In this episode, which we've edited from the original to take out some Covid references, we talk about Holley's leadership background, how he and William Jewell have been intertwined, how he used to get the most out of his players, and he took a swing at our "7 Questions."
We hope you enjoy it, and see why we felt now was a good time to go into the archives for this special episode.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s guest is Marine pilot Lt. Col. Jacob Jones, who works with one of our C-10 mentors, Alan Epps….so you might hear a reference to Alan.
Upon graduation from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and after two deployments as a reservist, Lt. Col. Jones was commissioned through the Officer Candidate Course in August 2004.
During his career in the Marines, he’s been a pilot and an Aircraft Maintenance Officer. He was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Odyssey Lightning.
In the summer of 2017, he transferred to Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey where he earned dual degrees, a Master’s of Science in Information Technology Management and a Master’s of Business Administration in Information Technology.
Following Naval Postgraduate School, Lt. Col. Jones was assigned to the Manpower Information Systems Support Activity, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director.
Among Lt. Col. Jones’ awards, he’s received three Navy and Marines Commendation Medals, the Navy and Marines Achievement Medal, and a Combat Action Ribbon.
This chat with Lt. Col. Jones was recorded on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at Music Theater Heritage in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors.
Unlike most of those conversations, you'll hear our main interview, plus the students' questions.
We chat about Lt. Col. Jones' career in the Marines, why he wanted to serve, and a near-death experience, but we lead things off with some pregame batting practice.
LINKS:
In case you're interested in previous podcasts that featured retired members of the military, there's this one with actor/comedian Rob Riggle, one with Ret. Gen. and former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, plus this roundtable discussion that included Gen. Myers, and this one with George Norton.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Denny Matthews has been the one consistent radio voice with the Kansas City Royals since their first year, 1969.
For his first few years in the booth, Matthews, who grew up in central Illinois, worked with the legendary Buddy Blattner.
When Blattner retired in 1974, Matthews became the "voice" of the Royals and has been the Royals' top broadcaster ever since. From 1974 through the 1998 season – a stretch that includes some of the best seasons in the Royals' history – Matthews teamed with Fred White. During their 25 seasons together, "Denny and Fred" became one of the most beloved broadcasting duos in Major League Baseball.
In 1999, the Royals fired White and replaced him with Ryan Lefebvre. Despite a tremendous age difference, Denny and Ryan integrated their styles well and became popular with Royals fans.
The Royals inducted Matthews into the Royals Hall of Fame in 2004. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, and then he was presented with the Ford C. Frick Award by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
This chat with Denny, who has become a major supporter of students and families in crisis through C You In The Major Leagues, was recorded on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, at Music Theater Heritage in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors.
The C word with our C-10 students and mentors was CONFIDENCE, which, in the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular means someone who accepts constructive criticism, will try something new, has a positive attitude, and views self as a winner.
This interview with Denny focuses largely on that word Confidence and how it pertains to managers and players Denny has been around since 1969. Frankly, we do not do a dive into a lot of anecdotes from Denny’s career. This is likely a side of Denny that you have not heard before.
We lead things off with some pregame batting practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s “C” word is Competitor. In the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular, Competitor means someone who has a desire and ability to compete, has high expectations, is tough minded, and brings out the best in those around him or her. And this week’s guest certainly fits that.
Jenny Housley is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Blue KC. She oversees the Medicare, Small Group, Mid-Market and Large Group sales teams, the sales operations team, commercial product development and customer experience. She is responsible for the retention of key customers and strategic oversight of the company’s new business development.
Before joining Blue KC, she held multiple leadership roles at Lockton Companies including Executive Vice President, Producer where she was responsible for new business acquisition and retention of existing clients.
She was recognized as one of Business Insurance Magazine’s, “Women to Watch” in 2009, and in 2021 she was one of the Women Who Mean Business selections by the Kansas City Business Journal.
She is active in the Kansas City community with organizations ranging from Starlight Theater to the Greater Kansas City YMCA.
And she happens to be a longtime friend of C-10 host Matt Fulks, which makes this a unique episode.
Housley talks about that word Competitor and how it's helped her as a leader, why she shifted from one strong KC company to another, she takes a swing at our pregame batting practice, and much more.
LINKS:
For more info about the Blue KC Coaches with Character program, click here.
We reference an episode with Christina Lively. Here's the link for that.
We've featured Blue KC's Mark Garrett, also, on this podcast. To listen to that, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This month’s “C” word, Confidence, and this week's guest go hand in hand. As a gold medalist and former professional athlete in a sport where the difference between winning and losing can be less than one-tenth of a second, confidence has to be there.
In the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular, Confidence means someone who accepts constructive criticism, will try something new, has a positive attitude, and views self as a winner.
For about a decade in the 1970s and ‘80s, Phil Mahre was one of the best alpine skiers in the world. In fact, he won 27 World Cup races during his career, which puts him fourth all-time among American skiers. And he won the overall World Cup title three consecutive years, 1981-83. Oh, and he won two Olympic medals -- a silver at Lake Placid in 1980 and a gold at the ‘84 Games in Sarajevo. (Maybe it's appropriate that this is episode 80 of the C-10 Podcast.)
With the Olympics ending a few weeks ago and the World Cup skiing season ending a few days ago, we thought the timing was perfect to have him on.
Mahre talks about his motivation in winning a gold medal in 1984, why he retired at 26, why breaking his leg (twice) was good for him, he takes a swing at our pregame batting practice, and much more.
Joining host Matt Fulks this week are C-10 Curriculum Chair Max Utsler and C-10 student, Dawson.
LINKS:
Here's a great video from the '84 Olympics, featuring Mahre's slalom run and, around the 2:45 mark, a feature that ABC did on Mahre. You can see that here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you were asked who's scored the most points in college basketball history, you'd see this week's guest near the top of that list.
For a stretch of time in the late ‘80s, Philip Hutcheson was one of the best players in the NAIA playing on one of the best teams in the NAIA. During his outstanding career he was selected as an NAIA All-American each of his four seasons, and the NAIA player of the Year in 1990. During his career the Bisons won an astonishing 139 games, including a national record 41 wins in 1990. "Hutch" was just as successful in the classroom as he graduated as Valedictorian with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. At the conclusion of his career his uniform became the first Lipscomb jersey to ever be retired. In March 1997, Philip was honored by the NAIA with his induction into the NAIA Hall of Fame.
For the past 13 years, Philip Hutcheson has been the Athletic Director at Lipscomb University in Nashville, overseeing a program that has 17 men’s and women’s teams at the NCAA Division I level. Before that, he spent 11 years in Business Development with a paving company in Nashville.
Now, in case you’re wondering why we’re having the AD from a small school in Nashville on this podcast. Well, a couple of reasons. First, Hutcheson has a unique tie to Kansas City, and made basketball history on the court at Kemper Arena about 30 years ago this week. And then, in full disclosure, C-10 Podcast host Matt Fulks and Hutcheson have known each other for more than 30 years Hutch for more than 30 years, and we've wanted to have him on here since we launched a couple of years ago.
Hutcheson is an outstanding leader, a combination of lessons he learned from his parents, and also things he learned from his college coach at Lipscomb, Don Meyer.
And how did he make history at Kemper Arena more than 30 years ago? On March 16, 1990, he became college basketball's all-time scorer when he surpassed Travis Grant. (Incidentally, about four years later, Hutch's roommate during his senior year, John Pierce, broke Hutch's record.) Hutcheson finished his career with 4,106 points and scored in double figures in all 155 career games.
Hutcheson talks about playing for Meyer, breaking Grant's record, the difficulty of becoming Lipscomb's AD, and he takes a swing at our pregame batting practice.
LINKS:
Matt references a C-10 episode with one of Philip's former teammates, Rob Browne. To listen to that episode, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This year’s Winter Olympics may be over, but the lasting impact of something that happened in the Games 42 years ago this week is still fresh in the mind of this week’s guest. In fact, it’s still vivid for many of us.
Ken Morrow has heard the stories. Countless people could tell him today what they were doing 42 years ago this week. In fact, he gets letters and cards nearly every day.
That’s likely how it is for most anyone born in the United States before the mid-1970s or so.
To the players this was a seemingly simple hockey game between a bunch of kids, true amateurs, from the United States, beating an invincible team from the Soviet Union, a team that had won all but one Olympic hockey gold medal since 1960. In local terms, and no knock to my KU friends, but this would be like the Jayhawks beating the Kansas City Chiefs. To the rest of Americans, it meant so much more. See, this hockey game between the United States and the Soviet Union just happened to come during the Cold War, along with Russia invading Afghanistan and rising gas prices.
The oldest player on that 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team was 23 years old. And since the 1990s, he has called Kansas City home. He is Ken Morrow.
Morrow became the Director of Pro Scouting for the NHL’s New York Islanders in 1992.
The Islanders drafted Morrow in the fourth round (68th overall) of the 1976 NHL Draft, and he played defense for the team from 1979-1989, collecting 105 points (17 goals, 88 assists) in 550 career NHL games. He was an important member of the Islander teams that won four consecutive Stanley Cups.
The first of those came just a few months after Morrow helped the United States win gold as part of the “Miracle on Ice” team, making him the first player in NHL history to capture an Olympic Gold Medal and the Stanley Cup in the same year.
Morrow visited our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership group on Wednesday, Feb. 23. That's when we recorded this episode. This episode, however, is a little different from most of our others that we do with our group. Whereas you typically hear Matt Fulks' interview with the guest and then we delete the questions from our students, this time we’re flipping that.
To honor our students and the donors who make this program possible, we're using the Q&A part of the program as this episode.
That said, a few notes:
- If you'd like to read two Q&As with Ken that we’ve posted previously on our C You In The Major Leagues blog, links are below.
- Joining Ken at our session was his son Evan, whom you’ll hear from a couple of times.
- Finally, here are the students and mentors asking questions: students Topher, Dawson, Avary, John, Alejandra, and Jameson, plus mentors Lenny and Stann. Keep in mind that that list of students includes a freshman, two sophomores, two juniors and a senior.
LINKS:
To read Part 1 of the Q&A with Ken Morrow talking about 1980 and coach Herb Brooks, click here.
To read Part 2 of the Q&A with Morrow, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This month’s “C” word for our C-10 students and mentors is Coach. In the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular, Coach means someone who understands the big picture; is an independent thinker; a good self-evaluator; and offers enthusiasm.
Joe Ungashick certainly fits all of those, whether the receiver was an employee for Joe's nearly 30 years at Shick, or a fellow CEO or a friend or a mentee.
Ungashick is the retired CEO of what was then Shick USA, a company that designs, manufactures, installs and services ingredient automation systems for customers worldwide. Their expertise includes automation of bulk, minor/micro, liquid ingredients and process design. We’ll figure out in a few minutes what all of that means.
He was one of our Crown Town Challenge Character Champions last fall, he has hosted our Wiffle ball and other events at his house, and he’s active in the Kansas City community, including serving as a board member for C You In The Major Leagues.
Joe shares his story of growing up in Kansas City, what exactly Shick does, that word Coach, and, of course, he takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word this week is Care, which in the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular means someone who puts others first, evaluates everyone honestly, and understands everyone’s impact.
This week’s guest certainly fits that.
For the majority of Mindy Garrett’s career -- about 13 years -- she was a vice president and then senior vice president in human resources in North America and internationally with Swiss Re, followed by a brief stint as the Director of HR Consulting with Cerner. And then last summer she was announced as the Chief People Officer of Henderson Engineers, a national building systems design firm based here in Kansas City.
We chat with Mindy about her background, this term "Chief People Officer," changes in the workforce because of Covid, she takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you follow us on social media, you may remember around this time of the year, we take our C-10 students and mentors to an incredibly moving production called “Underground” at the Kauffman Center here in Kansas City. It’s put on by the Culture House, and it’s a dance interpretation of a story of three runaway slaves seeking refuge in the Underground Railroad.
This week’s interview is with one of the main people behind the Culture House and the Underground performance, Jeremiah Enna.
Jeremiah Enna received his BFA in Theatre from UCLA and immediately upon graduation moved to Sweden to take a position with Kreative Mission, an international artist community, where he was a dancer and composer. In Los Angeles, he was awarded the Carol Burnett Award for his work in Musical Theatre under the direction of John Hall and was fortunate to have a rich theatrical education under the leadership of Michael Hackett. In Europe, Mr. Enna traveled, performed and taught extensively under the direction of Vibeke Muasya, together with the professional artists in her company, Eternia.
Jeremiah met his wife, Mona, in Israel. They moved to Kansas City in 1995 to establish The Culture House and Störling Dance Theater. Jeremiah is thankful to be a part of various community projects, including UniteKC, aimed at making Kansas City a thriving community. He and Mona are the proud parents of four wonderful children who are growing into adulthood at a rapid pace.
Joining Jeremiah for part of this conversation is Christiane Lisabe, a dancer from France who’s been coming to Kansas City every year to perform in “Underground.”
We recorded this on Wednesday, January 12, in front of our C-10 students and mentors at Musical Theater Heritage inside Crown Center.
We chat with Jeremiah about his background, the Underground Railroad, he takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice, and much more.
LINKS:
To experience the "Underground" performance on Feb. 4 and/or 5 at the Kauffman Center, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Reggie Sanders played in the Major Leagues for 17 years, spending time with eight teams along the way, finishing in 2006 and ‘07 with the Royals. Those dates are important, and we’ll get into that during this episode.
Sanders had a career year in 1995 with the Cincinnati Reds, when he finished with a .305 batting average with 148 hits, including 33 home runs, and 99 RBIs. He was selected for the All-Star team that year, went to the postseason six times, including the World Series three times: in 2001 with Arizona against the Yankees, in 2002 with San Francisco against Anaheim, and in 2004 with St. Louis against the Red Sox.
Today he’s a special assistant with the Royals, working on leadership development alongside Matt Marasco, Willie Aikens and Mike Sweeney.
We recorded this interview in early December as a C-10 session on Zoom with our students and mentors. It happened to be on Reggie's 54th birthday. You may hear that referenced during the chat, as well as our Pregame Batting Practice, what he'd tell 17-year-old Reggie, and much more.
LINKS:
To change a life and have some fun, while DOUBLING your gift, here's the link to the 2021 CYITML Gift Catalog.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s episode is a little different than most. But in this season of giving, we think we're giving you a tremendous gift with this episode.
Going into this school year we decided that we wanted our students in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program to dive deeper into leadership. To be more intentional about how they think about leadership.
With that in mind and feeling that the guests we have on this podcast offer great leadership lessons, throughout this school year we're having the students listen to an episode of the C-10 Podcast, and then discuss its leadership lessons with the group. And then, after they talk or are interviewed by their mentor, we open it up to questions from the other students and mentors.
So, this week, three students from our C-10 program are going to be the stars — the experts, as we told them — for this episode.
Keep this in mind: we typically have about 40-45 people at each session, and the three students you’ll hear from in this episode all volunteered to be in this group. They volunteered to get up in front of the group and speak. Take charge of this. That alone speaks to their leadership now and in the future. This group includes two seniors and one new student, a sophomore.
We’ll introduce each student and mentor along the way, but here’s who you’ll hear:
— Senior Jameson and his mentor Larry Hettinger after a clip from Royals Hall of Famer Mike Sweeney.
— Sophomore John and his mentor Steve Perez after a clip from former KCMO mayor Sly James.
— Finally, senior Naya and her mentor Eli Medina. Naya, who graduated from high school this month, selected a clip from actor, comedian and former Marine Rob Riggle's episode.
It’s a little different week, but we hope you enjoy hearing from some of our students.
LINKS:
To change a life and have some fun, here's the link to the 2021 CYITML Gift Catalog.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word this week is Confidence, which in the C You In The Major Leagues vernacular means someone who accepts constructive criticism, will try something new and has a positive attitude. This week’s guest certainly fits that.
You see, this week’s guest is Craig Donaldson, who has held a wide array of leadership roles around the world. I first met him in about 2015 while he was working for DST Systems here in Kansas City. He and his wife Cheryl have been longtime supporters of C You In The Major Leagues, for which we are tremendously grateful.
Craig Donaldson has spent the majority of his career on the legal side of things. With DST Systems, he was vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer, and he launched DST’s inaugural global ethics and compliance program. He then moved to Charleston, South Carolina and did the same as head of compliance and ethics for Volvo Cars Americas.
Craig got his undergraduate degree from UCLA, his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and did graduate work at Fuller Theological Seminary.
He was with Young Life in Austria and Hungary -- Vienna is one of my favorite places on the planet, so we may get into that -- he’s been vice president of Splenda. And, after some changes at Volvo, he became the Southeast Director of the in-house counsel team for Major, Lindsey & Africa, which is a legal executive search firm.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
"Five out of five people have mental health." That's a light-hearted way that Ian Adair stresses the importance of discussing mental health.
But it's true. And this is a perfect time of the year to talk about mental health. (But then again, when isn't a perfect time?) In particular, as leaders, how do we approach mental health with those around us?
This week's guest is perfect to discuss these topics. Ian Adair is a TEDx speaker, and recognized expert in leadership, fundraising, and nonprofit management. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Gracepoint Foundation, which is part of one of the largest behavioral health organizations in the state of Florida, impacting the lives of more than 30,000 individuals each year. He is the author of the book, Stronger Than Stigma. A Call to Action: Stories of Grief, Loss, and Inspiration!
He regularly delivers keynote addresses on mental health and leadership. In 2019, Ian was named as one of the Top 100 Charity Industry Influencers on Social Media in the world, and last year Ian was recognized as one of 30 Nonprofit Founders that will Impact the World in 2020. Ian is one of the leading nonprofit speakers in the country, and has presented to more than 15,000 people over the last three years.
On this episode, Ian takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice before talking about how his childhood influenced his work in the nonprofit world, along with tips on what leaders can be doing for the people around them AND for themselves.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
To connect with Ian on social media:
Twitter:@IanMAdair | Instagram:@ianmadair
LinkedIn:IanAdair|Website: Strategy27.com
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
For the first two years of what's now the annual Crown Town Challenge campaign to thank and honor mentors, Stepp & Rothwell has stepped up as one of our sponsors. As such, they've been the presenting sponsor of this podcast. Well, on this episode we're pleased to be joined by the "Stepp" part of Stepp & Rothwell, as co-founder Kathy Stepp joins us.
Kathy, who's served on various nonprofit boards in Kansas City, is a financial planner and advisor for individuals and families across the United States. She founded her first financial planning firm in 1992, eventually leading to the creation of Stepp & Rothwell, Inc. in 1997. Kathy is frequently quoted in The Kansas City Star, the Kansas City Business Journal, Medical Economics magazine and Financial Planning magazine.
Kathy has served as a national spokesperson for the Citibank Mastercard and Visa consumer financial education program “Keeping Your Financial Balance,” and has appeared on CNBC and many regional television stations throughout the country. Locally, she is WDAF-TV Fox 4’s financial expert.
On this episode, Kathy takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice before talking about what she learned from attending seven schools as a child, her early dreams, and her focus as a leader and entrepreneur.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge campaign to thank your mentor AND provide mentoring for high school students in Kansas City, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
To find out more about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, visit their page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we mention from time to time, this week's episode is a little different. But just as powerful as the others. And this is one week you may want to share with others.
In fact, a college president was listening when we recorded this, and asked for the link to this podcast episode so he could share it with his team.
Here's why: this week you'll hear most of the webinar we did with three outstanding leaders to wrap up the Crown Town Challenge: civic and business leader Karen Daniel, Chiefs president Mark Donovan, and Royals president/CYITML founder Dayton Moore. As a bonus, you'll hear from the NFL Network's Jeffri Chadiha, who moderates this week's chat.
It's a little different week, but we hope you enjoy hearing from some tremendous leaders in our community.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge campaign to thank your mentor AND provide mentoring for high school students in Kansas City, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
To find out more about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, visit their page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s episode is a little different than any other since we launched about 17 months ago. We're biased, but we think it’s going to be really cool.
Going into this school year we decided that we wanted our students in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program to dive deeper into leadership. To be more intentional about how they think about leadership.
With that in mind, and feeling that the guests we have on this podcast offer great leadership lessons, a few weeks ago we told the students about a new project they’re taking on this year. We asked them to pick an episode of the C-10 Podcast that they wanted to listen to, pick a segment that spoke to them the most, and then prepare a short talk about that segment...or be interviewed by their mentor about that segment. (All five students in this first group chose to be interviewed.) And then we opened it up to questions from the other students and mentors.
So, this week, five students from our C-10 program are going to be the stars -- the experts, as we told them -- for this episode.
Keep this in mind: we typically have about 40-45 people at each session, and the five students you’ll hear from in this episode all volunteered to be in the first group. They volunteered to get up in front of the group and speak. Take charge of this. That alone speaks to their leadership now and in the future. This group includes two new students -- a sophomore and a junior, two more juniors and a senior. Two of the students in this group are actually siblings.
We'll introduce each student and mentor along the way, but here's who you'll hear:
-- Alissa and her mentor Jen Fescoe after a clip from Olympic gold medal swimmer Shannon Vreeland.
-- Dawson, who’s regular mentor was not there, so pinch hitter Todd Donoho will interview Dawson after a clip from two-time Olympic silver medalist in gymnastics, Terin Humphrey.
-- One special person our students have heard from a couple of times during their weekly sessions is Carl Jemison, who grew up in Birmingham during the Civil Rights movement, and knew Martin Luther King Jr. Second-year student Trey and his mentor Stann Tate will talk about Carl.
-- First-year student Norman and his mentor, Andrew Kreiling, will talk about a segment from one of our other mentors, George Norton, who spent the bulk of his career in the Army.
-- Finally will be Andrew's other student and lone senior this week, Sidney, who selected a clip from KMBC meteorologist Bryan Busby’s episode.
It's a little different week, but we hope you enjoy hearing from some of our students.
LINKS:
We're currently in the Crown Town Challenge campaign to thank your mentor AND provide mentoring for high school students in Kansas City. For more info, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COURAGE. In the “C” You In the Major Leagues vernacular, COURAGE in leadership is someone who wants the opportunity to decide the outcome; someone who’s not afraid to fail; and someone who fears no one.
This week's guest definitely fits that.
Whether you live in the Kansas City area or not, you’ve undoubtedly seen his company’s work out there somewhere. That t-shirt with the heart and KC in the middle that have been worn on national TV by the likes of Rob Riggle and Paul Rudd? They came from his company.
The Crown Town shirts that are part of fundraisers for “C” You In The Major Leagues to support mentoring and leadership development for high school students? Those came from his company, also.
And, by the way, earlier this summer his company, Charlie Hustle, was selected as the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 Mr. K Small Business of the Year Award winner.
He, of course, is Chase McAnulty, founder and CEO of Charlie Hustle apparel here in Kansas City.
In this episode, Chase takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice, discusses the importance of the Mr. K Award and the importance of giving back to the community, the COURAGE it takes to fail as an entrepreneur, and much more.
LINKS:
A gift of at least $100, which is DOUBLED until Oct. 15, gives a student more than five weeks of mentoring AND you get the Crown Town T-shirt designed exclusively by Charlie Hustle. To do that, click here.
For more about the Charlie Hustle brand, visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COMMITMENT. In the “C” You In the Major Leagues vernacular, COMMITMENT in leadership is someone who has a strong work ethic, is not easily distracted, prepares accordingly, and prioritizes.
This week’s guest certainly embodies that.
Dr. Elbie Loeb, who grew up in Junction City, Kan., and then got his degree from Kansas State University, spent much of his career as a doctor here in Kansas City -- an internal medicine specialist, to be exact. In 2009, he began a stint as a doctor for the Kansas City Royals -- until, after the 2014 World Series season, an infection took his eyesight in a matter of hours and forced him to stop doing something he loved to do.
This interview was conducted in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program students and mentors at Musical Theater Heritage.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COMPOSURE. In the “C” You In the Major Leagues vernacular, COMPOSURE in leadership is someone who is calm in the eye of the storm, slows the moment down, is poised and under self control.
When you’re leading efforts to put on a big event or launch a new program, you need that COMPOSURE. That leads us to this week's guest.
A couple of weeks ago there was an event here in Kansas City called the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Summer Classic. The organizer of the event happens to be a past guest of the C-10 Podcast and one of the mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Menorah Medical Center, Stann Tate.
Before joining Menorah in April 2014, Stann was the Marketing Director for the Community Blood Center of Kansas City, the Director of Community Relations for AMC Entertainment, the Director of Public Relations for the Kansas Speedway, and the Assistant Director of Championships at the NCAA. (And, during this episode, he explains what each of those jobs has in common.)
On the side, Stann is a for-hire DJ by the name of DJ Stann.
LINKS:
To learn more about the NLBM Summer Classic, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COACH. In the “C” You In the Major Leagues vernacular, a COACH in leadership is someone who is an independent thinker, understands the big picture, is a good self-evaluator and offers enthusiasm.
With the fall high school sports season upon us, we thought this would be a great time to chat with John Dehan about that word COACH. No, John isn't a coach -- at least not in the sense you’re expecting. Since 2004, he’s run an organization called Call the Game, which assigns officials in the Kansas City area.
LINKS:
To learn more about Call the Game, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COMPETITOR. In the “C” You In the Major Leagues vernacular, a Competitor is someone who has a desire and ability to compete; has high expectations; is tough-minded and has the ability to overcome obstacles; and brings out the best in teammates.
This week’s guest certainly fits that. Although the Olympic Games in Tokyo are over, we wanted to bring you one more guest who’s medaled in the Olympics and definitely fits the word Competitor.
Terin Humphrey helped the U.S. gymnastics team win its first gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships in 2003, and then won two silver medals a year later at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
She then went to the University of Alabama, where she was an 11-time NCAA All-American, and won the national championship in the uneven bars in 2005 and 2007. Unfortunately, she had to retire from competitive gymnastics in 2008, during her senior year, shortly before the NCAA national meet.
She’s in the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, where she was inducted as part of a team in 2008, and then individually in 2015.
As if all of that’s not enough, she competed on American Ninja Warrior twice, she’s a former police officer, and she was on the selection team for USA gymnastics for the 2012 and ‘16 Olympic Games.
This interview was recorded at the end of July in front of our C-10 students and mentors at Musical Theater Heritage inside Crown Center in downtown Kansas City. As is the case with these conversations that we record in front of our students, some of the chat has been deleted to keep some of the conversation private between Terin and the students.
Before we introduced Terin that night, we showed the video of her silver medal performance on the uneven bars, and you can find that link in this week’s show notes. We open the conversation by asking Terin about the nervousness she felt before and during that routine.
LINKS:
To watch Terin's silver medal performance at the Athens Olympic Games, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word this week is CONCENTRATION, which in the “C” You In The Major Leagues vernacular is someone who has an ability to focus, hones instincts, and prepares with a purpose.
Without a doubt, this week’s guest certainly fits that.
Shannon Vreeland has gone from club swimmer with the Kansas City Blazers to standout at the University of Georgia, to Olympic gold medalist, to an attorney.
After swimming for the Blazers under coach Pete Malone, who’s now Veronica Malone, Vreeland continued her career at the University of Georgia, where, as a freshman in 2011, she won the Southeastern Conference title in the 500 meter freestyle. That same year she was First-Team All-SEC, on the SEC's All-Freshman Team...oh, and she was on the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll and the Spring Athletic Director's Honor Roll.
In 2012, she made the U.S. Olympic swimming team that won the gold medal in the 4x200 freestyle relay in London. Throughout her swimming career, Shannon Vreeland won 19 international medals.
Today, Vreeland is an associate attorney in the Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources Group with a firm in Atlanta.
We're joined later in this episode by two of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program mentors, Caroline and George.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COMMITMENT. This week’s guest, Geoff Cottrill, certainly fits that. Shoot, anyone who is great in the marketing world, does a great job with Commitment. But this week you’ll hear a slightly different take on how that looks in marketing.
And that's a good thing. If fact, you may want to make sure you have pencil and paper handy for some notes (you do that every week, right?) because Geoff might be one of the top marketing minds in the world today...and he offers some awesome advice throughout the interview.
Geoff has served in top marketing roles for some of the world’s most well-known brands including Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse (which is owned by Nike), and back to Coca-Cola.
Most recently, Geoff was head of marketing at Coca-Cola in North America, where he led all advertising, media, digital, social media, regional marketing, sports and entertainment properties, and college & university relationships for all brands in its portfolio.
Prior to that, he was the General Manager & Chief Marketing Officer for Converse during an unprecedented period of growth. During his time at Converse, he managed all brand related marketing, footwear and apparel product development, and their digital direct-to-consumer business. He launched various artist friendly marketing platforms, which we discuss, and Geoff and his team built the second largest brand footprint on social media (behind Coca-Cola), growing Converse’s Facebook audience to more than 75 million fans. During his tenure at Converse he was recognized as BrandWeek’s Marketer of the Year.
Geoff is a founding partner of MARVIN Magazine & Media, LLC, which is a publication focused on storytelling centered around today’s emerging voices in fashion, art, and music. The company also produces original content for several of the top digital platforms such as Apple News and Amazon Audible.
Two additional people you'll hear in this episode, besides Geoff and host Matt Fulks, are this week’s co-hosts -- frequent C-10 Podcast contributor Max Utsler, and Dawson, one of the students from our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. You’ll hear from each of them a little later in this episode. But without further delay, let's get to it with Geoff Cottrill.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our “C” word for this week is COACH. In the “C” You In The Major Leagues vernacular, a COACH understands the game, so to speak, is an independent thinker, a good self evaluator, and offers enthusiasm. This week’s guest certainly fits that. Shoot, anyone who does a good job in public relations, helps personify that definition of COACH.
If you’re a Kansas Citian, you likely recognize the name Toby Cook. He spent more than 14 years with the Kansas City Royals as the Vice President of Publicity. Before that, he was an anchor for eight years on Fox4 in Kansas City. A few months ago he had a job pivot -- in his early 50s -- and since April he has been the Director of Public Relations for the University of Kansas Health System.
In all of those jobs Toby Cook has embodied the word COACH.
On this week's episode, Toby talks about changing careers in his mid-30s and changing jobs in his early 50s, he offers advice for those looking for a job, shares his favorite Royals memory and, of course, takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you may know, the C-10 name of this podcast comes from the name of our leadership and mentoring program for high school students: C-10 Mentoring & Leadership. And that comes from the “C” part of “C” You In The Major Leagues. In short, at the backbone of what we do are 10 leadership traits that start with the letter “C”: Care, Character, Coach, Commitment, Comprehension, Composure, Concentration, Competitor, Confidence and Courage.
When Royals General Manager Dayton Moore and his wife Marianne launched “C” You In The Major Leagues, they did so with the idea that, although the term “C” You In The Major Leagues and the 10 “C” words began with the Royals’ player development, really all of us could benefit from doing our best to live out these 10 C words. Not to be Major League Baseball players, but to be major-league people in life. In our communities. In our roles as leaders and mentors.
With each week’s guest n this podcast, we want to focus on the “C” word that may apply to him or her the best. And since the word CHARACTER is really at the heart of the 10 “C” words -- not to mention one of the 10 words -- we wanted to start there.
Without question, this week’s guest embodies that word CHARACTER.
Mike Sweeney was one of the most consistent players during his long career with the Royals from 1995-2007. He was a five-time All-Star, and he’s in the top 10 for several career numbers including games played, runs scored, hits, doubles, home runs and RBIs. Not surprisingly, he was elected to the Royals Hall of Fame in 2015, his first time on the ballot.
But Mike is one of the most positive people, one of the most character-driven people you could possibly meet.
As Dayton Moore has said, “Mike breathes life on people unlike anyone I’ve ever been around in the game. He’s extremely positive, optimistic and encouraging, which is perhaps one of the most impactful ways to motivate people -- giving them hope and believing in them.” And then he added, “One of the most important aspects of leadership is to delight in where you are. Mike Sweeney does that as well as anyone I’ve ever been around.”
This week, we share part of a conversation that we had with Mike Sweeney and the students and mentors from our C-10 program. We hope you enjoy hearing Mike take a swing at our "Pregame Batting Practice" and then talking about being a man of CHARACTER throughout his career, on and off the field.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
With the end of the school year a few weeks ago -- meaning nine of our C-10 students graduated -- and being in the middle of the Major League Baseball season, we felt this would be a good time to get "C" You In The Major Leagues' founder and Royals General Manager Dayton Moore with us.
Last week, we recorded this conversation while standing in the middle of a large baseball and softball field at the Jewish Community Center on a very windy day while watching three fields packed with about 130 boys and girls learning baseball skills -- and just enjoying one another -- at the annual CYITML baseball camp.
This week we chat with Dayton about the importance of giving back through the baseball camp, the Royals, the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program and more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’ve listened this month, you know that we’re celebrating Dads here in June and, specifically, we’re talking with folks who were greatly influenced by their fathers.
This week’s guest is particularly intriguing because it can be fascinating when a son or daughter decides to follow in his or her father’s footsteps...especially when that's in the media.
Jim King was a legendary journalist, working for the Chicago Tribune and then a couple of radio stations before eventually helping to launch WQAD-TV up in the Quad Cities area -- and he had a couple of interesting stops in the middle.
For nearly 40 years, Jim King’s oldest son, Kris Ketz, has been a fixture at KMBC-TV and two of Jim’s grandsons -- Kris’ sons -- have followed in his footsteps...one in radio and one in TV.
In case you’re not familiar with Kris, here’s part of his credentials: he is an Emmy-award winning anchor and investigative reporter, having captured a Midwest Emmy for best anchor in 2008. He also won in 1991 for an in-depth report on the influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the Kansas City area. He was nominated for a 2003 Emmy for best anchor, and nominated for a 2011 Regional Emmy award for “general assignment reporting.” In 2015 he was one of four local news anchors chosen to interview President Barack Obama in a one-on-one interview.
Kris is a graduate of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. He began his broadcasting career at the age of 18 as a weekend news anchor for radio station WQUA in Moline, Ill. He progressed to afternoon and morning anchor, until he became the station's news director.
And in 1998, about a year before Jim King died unexpectedly, Kris and Jim co-anchored the Father's Day edition of KMBC 9 News at 10.
Kris takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice and then discusses his dad's legacy, following in his footsteps, and being the father of two in the media. And much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As we mentioned last week, here in June, the month of Father’s Day, we’re talking with folks who were greatly influenced by their fathers. And this week, Father’s Day week, appropriately enough, we're chatting with Kansas City Star columnist Vahe Gregorian, whose father Vartan died in mid-April at the age of 87.
But what a life he lived. Vartan was born in Iran to Christian Armenian parents and by the time he came to the States in 1956 to attend Stanford, he spoke seven languages. We’re going to talk more about his life, but we'll add these distinctions and honors: he taught at multiple universities, was the President at Brown, and also led the New York Public Libraries and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. While there, he helped lead an initiative with other foundations called the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, which made grants to nine countries totaling $440 million over ten years, improving conditions for 4.1 million African students enrolled at 379 universities and colleges. Oh, and there’s this: President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Humanities Medal, and President Barack Obama appointed him to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships.
This will be unlike most of our podcasts but we think it'll be a tremendous blessing as you hear about a great leader who wanted to make a difference for others.
Vahe takes a swing at our "Pregame Batting Practice," and then he discusses the influence of his parents, particularly that of his father.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s chat features Jennifer Dehan, the President and COO of Velocity Staff, which is a different kind of staffing agency.
Jennifer started her career in staffing in 1993 shortly after graduating from Kansas State University, and about 10 years later had a chance meeting with an Entrepreneurial Technologist that led to the founding of Velocity Staff, Inc.
In addition to her work Velocity, Jennifer is a founder, board member and volunteer of Hoops4Hope, a not-for-profit that raises funds and awareness for organizations that support cancer patients in need in our community. She also works with the Natalie M Foundation to support scholarships for college bound students interested in pursuing STEM disciplines and works with the Foundation to encourage and educate young women to celebrate their strengths and capabilities.
Jennifer, who is a graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School, enjoys spending time with her husband John, who I hope to have as a guest on this podcast one day, and three step-children.
Jennifer takes a swing at our "Pregame Batting Practice," and then Jennifer and Matt discuss the influence of her parents in her leadership journey, the keys to finding a job now at any age, and Jennifer shares a great story about how Ewing Kauffman set her up on her first blind date.
LINKS:
To learn more about Velocity Staff, Inc., visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week’s chat features an old friend of host Matt Fulks, Rob Browne. Although most of these episodes feature someone with Kansas City ties, we're breaking that this week. Rob is from Atlanta and lives there now, but there's no doubt that you’ll be entertained, enlightened and encouraged after listening to this conversation.
Rob played basketball at Lipscomb University under Hall of Fame coach Don Meyer before embarking on a career focused on serving others. Not long after graduating from Lipscomb, Rob became a missionary in Russia, but not just any part of Russia...Siberia to be exact. He eventually became the Director of Russian Operations for YouthReach International, and nearly 10 years ago -- in December of 2011 -- he became the President and CEO of YouthReach International, which establishes local mentoring communities to serve vulnerable youth. Their locations include Ukraine, Zambia and Beirut.
Rob and Matt discuss the leadership lessons of Don Meyer, tell a story about how Rob had a chance to make the Bisons better once, and how those leadership lessons have carried with Rob as a missionary and nonprofit CEO.
LINKS:
To learn more about YouthReach International, visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is a special week as we're joined by two-time Emmy Award winner and Peabody Award winner, Andrea Kremer. To make it even more special, this episode, which was recorded during a session with our C-10 students and mentors, includes questions from a few of our students.
In 2017, Kremer was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2018 she received the Pete Rozelle Radio-TV award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
She was ESPN’s first female correspondent and in 2018, she and Hannah Storm became the first ever all-woman NFL broadcast team when they started calling games on Amazon Prime.
She has done in-depth interviews with and profiles on some of the most recognizable names in sports including Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Pete Carroll and Bill Parcells. She’s covered championship games in nearly every major sport, plus the Olympics. Oh, and she teaches a journalism class at Boston University’s College of Communication.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
With this 52nd episode -- so a year of the C-10 Podcast -- we bring you a conversation from one of our C-10 sessions with our high school students and mentors.
This one's a little different than all of the others, though. It was a roundtable discussion recorded on April 28 at Menorah Medical Center. Moderated by Stann Tate, a C-10 mentor and the VP of Marketing for Menorah, it featured the following three leaders from Menorah:
Angel Monroy, the Assistant Chief Nursing Officer, who helps oversee all nurses at Menorah. Angel has worked in the intensive care unit at Truman Medical Center, a level I trauma center. He holds three degrees: BA in Psychology, a BS in Nursing, and a MS in Nursing. Additionally, he works with Sporting Kansas City as part of their medical staff.
April Rahe, who's the Director of Respiratory, Neurology and Sleep Services at Menorah. She recently graduated and received a Leadership Certificate from the HCA Healthcare Leadership Institute, and is currently working on a Leadership Certificate through Rockhurst University.
Denise Culver (BSN, RN, SCRN, CEN), who's the Neuroscience Coordinator at Menorah. She is responsible for the hospital's stroke and neurosurgery programs. She is also a certified stroke nurse and a certified emergency nurse. For the past six years she has been a nurse leader in the management of two stroke programs.
As with many of the sessions with our students that we turn into podcast episodes, parts of the discussion were reserved for them. But we wanted to share these great insights into crisis management and leadership with you.
With that, here is C-10 mentor Stann Tate with Angel, April and Denise.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you probably know if you follow us on social media or have gone to C10Mentoring.com, there are two huge goals for the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students here in the Kansas City area. One is to help develop a servant-leadership heart in them -- or to continue developing that. The second is to help prepare them for the next stage in life.
This year with our nine seniors we have been more deliberate about helping to prepare them for that next step. One of the ways we do that is with teaching them about money and budgeting and investing.
In early May we had a Zoom session with our seniors, their parents and guardians, and their mentors, as we introduced them to the idea of a donor-advised fund, which, essentially, is a savings account to use for charitable purposes.
Our guest speaker that night was Evan Lange, who’s the President of the Midwest division of The Signatry, which is a Christian community foundation. Before joining the Signatry, Evan was an associate attorney with a couple of the big law firms in Kansas City.
As with many of the sessions with our students that we turn into podcast episodes, most of our conversation with Evan was focused on the seniors and some things we’re doing for them, but we wanted to share Evan’s story, his leadership journey, and thoughts on the idea of generosity with you.
LINKS:
To learn more about The Signatry, please visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
We have a signed book to give away this week! But first...
This podcast, as you know, focuses mainly on leadership and mentoring. What better person to have on this week than a leadership coach and someone who, literally, wrote a book about leadership.
Marc Pitman is the CEO of the Concord Leadership Group. He has a Masters in Organizational Leadership and certification as a FranklinCovey Coach. His clients have included Maine Public Broadcasting, Georgetown University, Habitat for Humanity, and the Association of the U.S. Army.
In essence, he helps leaders lead their teams with more effectiveness and less stress. His latest book is "The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be." He’s also the author of "Ask Without Fear!" – which has been translated into Dutch, Polish, Spanish, and Mandarin.
Marc’s expertise and enthusiasm engages audiences around the world both in person and with online presentations. And has caught the attention of media organizations as diverse as The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Al Jazeera, Fox News, SUCCESS magazine, and Real Simple. Marc tweets regularly at @marcapitman.
LINKS:
We have a signed copy of "The Surprising Gift of Doubt" to give away to one lucky winner. To be entered into the drawing, simply visit our contact page and let us know why you listen to C-10 and where you're listening from. We'll have a drawing on Wednesday, May 5, at 10a CDT.
For more information about Marc's book, please visit this link.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
One of our initial goals with this podcast was to highlight the outstanding mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. We also use this podcast to highlight the guest speakers we have for our students and mentors during the weekly sessions.
Well, in this week’s episode, we’re combining both of those, if you will. On Wednesday, March 31st, we did relatively short interviews with three of our mentors in front of our students on the main stage at the Musical Theater Heritage location at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City.
This week, you’re going to hear one of those interviews, as we chat with third-year mentor Lori Top.
Lori grew up in the Kansas City area, and after getting a degree in architecture from the University of Kansas, she went to work as a Design Manager for Starbucks Coffee out of Seattle. She was in charge of rebuilds of Starbuck stores throughout Canada. Eventually, she came back to Kansas City, where she is a principal and Aviation Projects Director for Burns & McDonnell.
One thing to keep in mind as you hear those last couple of sentences and then listen to this conversation, as an architect, Lori has spent the majority of her career in male-dominated professions. She has a couple other characteristics that she’s open about in this conversation -- one has made her self-conscious, particularly in a male-dominated profession, and one has helped her throughout her career. You’ll hear both of those in this chat.
Finally, some quick background. Lori was the third mentor we interviewed that night for our students, so there’s a reference or two to George and Fred, the other two mentors we interviewed. And Lori directed a lot of her answers to our students. But, frankly, whether you’re 14, 54 or 74, her answers can apply to all of us today.
With all of that being said, we hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Our goal each week with this podcast is to bring you guests who have great stories and have been successful leaders or mentors in various fields. Although we’ve had some well-known guests, there are so many outstanding leaders out there who have stories and principles that you and I can apply to our everyday lives.
That’s the case this week.
We’re joined by longtime college golf coach Ed Bethea, who actually joined us for our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership session and spoke to our students for a few minutes this week.
Ed was the women’s golf coach at Dodge City Community College for 20 years -- actually helped start that program -- and had incredible success. The success that most of society uses to determine the success of college coaches, but also success in the number of student-athletes that he helped mentor, and still mentors today.
You'll hear about that, as well as Ed's thoughts on working with students today, and he takes a swing at our Pregame Batting Practice.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’re a long-time listener of this podcast you know that one of our initial goals was to highlight some of the outstanding mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. We also use this podcast to highlight the guest speakers we have for our students and mentors during the weekly sessions.
Well, in this week’s episode, we’re combining both of those. On Wednesday, March 31st, we did relatively short interviews with three of our mentors in front of our students on the main stage at the Musical Theater Heritage location at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City.
This week, you’re going to hear one of those interviews, as Max Utsler, who’s been a co-host on this podcast, chats with mentor George Norton.
George has been a mentor in C-10 since our first year, and he’s served on a couple of committees for “C” You In The Major Leagues. George is very active in the Kansas City community. He has served -- or is serving -- on various nonprofit boards and committees, including Musical Theater Heritage and Kansas Public Radio.
George has led an interesting life. He was a career Army officer, which you’ll hear about during this conversation, including serving as the Public Information Officer for the Army in Berlin during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But the cool thing about this chat is that it’s two old friends talking. Max was a professor at KU when George was working on his Master’s, and they developed a great friendship that’s spanned about 40 years.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
We wrote this last week, but if you want to know what it looks like to be a leader in business and in the community, you don’t have to look any further than our guest this week.
J.R. Buckner has been the President and CEO of First Federal Bank of Kansas City since April 2014.
After receiving his degree in accounting and management from Park University, Buckner went into banking through a management trainee program in 1994 at a community bank in Lee's Summit, Mo.
Community is at the heart of his focus, professionally and personally. In fact, under his leadership, FFBKC is involved with various nonprofits and community service projects throughout the greater Kansas City area, including CYITML.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you want to know what it looks like to be a leader in business and in the community, you don’t have to look any further than our guest this week.
Carolyn Watley has been with CBiz since 1977, during which time she has gone from office manager to President, and is now the Vice President of Community Engagement. Oh, and speaking of community engagement, she’s the Chair for the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, she’s served on various committees and boards in the community from St. Luke’s South Hospital to her alma mater (and one of our partner schools, Benedictine College), to Starlight Theater. And, she was one of the driving forces behind the construction of the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
It's perhaps the toughest basketball tournament in the country: the national tournament for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), which starts on March 18 in historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
We're joined this week by the President and CEO of the NAIA, Jim Carr. We talk hoops, leadership, the relationship between the NAIA and the NCAA, and Jim takes a swing at our "Pregame Batting Practice" questions.
Jim Carr joined the NAIA in July 1998 as Managing Director and General Counsel and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, while retaining the title of General Counsel, in 2000. In September 2006 Carr became the seventh President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAIA.
Before joining the NAIA, Jim practiced law in Birmingham, Ala. from 1994-1998. His primary areas of practice were public finance, and corporate and intellectual property. He also worked in the athletics development office and served as Director of Licensing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from 1989-1991.
LINKS:
To learn more about the NAIA's basketball tournament, visit the NAIA.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’re a long-time Kansas City resident -- “long time” as in you were here in the 1980s and even ‘90s -- you likely remember a movie theater inside Crown Center. It wasn’t huge inside...in fact, the theaters could be called cozy. But in 2007, after the movie theater closed and Crown Center renovated the space, they approached Musical Theater Heritage, which had been producing shows since 2003 on a loading dock, about moving its shows there.
That was a great move for all, as nearly 50,000 people see shows at MTH each year in that renovated 244-seat theater. They do much more than shows, though.
Joining us this week is a former "singing waiter" in Kansas City and Los Angeles, and someone who helped market those loading dock shows, the Executive Director of Musical Theater Heritage, Chad Gerlt.
In this episode of the C-10 podcast, Gerlt talks about his leadership journey and the importance of finding good mentors, takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions, and much more.
LINKS:
To learn more about Musical Theater Heritage, visit MusicalTheaterHeritage.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you’re into college sports at all, you’ve likely heard the name Bill Hancock. He was the long-time director of the NCAA Final Four, the first executive director of the Bowl Championship Series and the first executive director of the College Football Playoff. Shoot, you may have even seen him TV helping to present the championship trophy to the game’s winning coach.
Or, if you’ve ever had to deal with the unimaginable grief of losing a child, you may have read his incredible book, "Riding with the Blue Moth," which he wrote a few years after the death of his son, Will, in the 2001 Oklahoma State plane crash. Frankly, it’s a must-read for everyone.
On top of all of that, Bill, who’s a longtime Kansas City resident, is one of the most genuine, caring people you will ever meet.
In this episode of the C-10 podcast, Hancock talks about his leadership journey and the importance of putting others first, takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions, shares how he's dealt with the loss of a son, and much more.
LINKS:
To read our 2018 blog post about "Riding with the Blue Moth" and Hancock's journey, click here.
To purchase copies of "Riding with the Blue Moth," visit Amazon.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Something must've been in the water at Shawnee Mission South High School in the late 1980s because in a two-year span, 1987-88, it produced Michael Brandt, a successful writer/executive producer of movies and a hit TV series -- not just a single show, but a series of shows -- and two Hollywood actors: Rob Riggle, who was on this podcast last spring, and this week's guest.
He can be seen pretty much every Wednesday night as “Capp” on the hit NBC show, Chicago Fire. He’s also been in movies including, Men of Honor with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr., and The Double with Richard Gere. From Shawnee Mission South class of 1987, Randy Flagler.
In this episode of the C-10 podcast, Flagler shares stories from his career, talks about a different type of leader, takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
There's a good chance, regardless of your age, you know Bill Kurtis. If you're a little older, you may remember him from WIBW-TV in Topeka, or as the anchor of the CBS Morning News, or as the host of various shows on PBS and A&E. If you're a little younger, you may just know his voice from the movie “Anchorman,” or from hearing him each weekend on NPR’s awesome show, “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me.” (You may have even seen his video for our Crown Town Challenge last fall, talking about his mentor as a young man in Kansas.)
In this episode of the C-10 podcast, Kurtis shares powerful stories from his career, talks about a different type of leader, and takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Stories are a powerful tool in leadership and mentoring. One of the best storytellers today is this week's guest: Contemporary Christian singer and songwriter, Matthew West.
West has had 10 No. 1 songs on Billboard's Christian Airplay chart, including "More," "Hello, My Name Is," "The Motions," and his latest hit, "Truth Be Told." He is also a fantastic writer, and if you follow him on social media or seen him in concert, you know he’s pretty funny as well.
In this episode, Matthew talks about the power of stories and being a part of someone else's story, he takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions, and much more.
LINKS:
To get tickets to the Feb. 12-14 "West Love Fest" virtual concert, click here.
To hear Matthew's current hit song, "Truth Be Told," please visit his YouTube page.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
There is a relatively new movement in Kansas City that you may not be familiar with. It’s called Unite KC. In essence it’s the idea that through faith and our churches in Kansas City, along with a diverse group of folks from every sector across the board, we can bring about racial harmony and justice to this community. In full disclosure, one of the people who helped start Unite KC is the founder of “C” You In The Major Leagues, Royals General Manager Dayton Moore.
This week's guest is the Executive Director of Unite KC, Ray Jarrett. In this episode, Ray shares about some of his experiences of racism in Kansas City, how Unite KC is working toward fighting social injustices, and he takes a swing at our "Pregame BP" questions.
LINKS:
For more about Unite KC, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Precision Printing, please visit PrecisionPrintKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
One of the most exciting aspects of our C-10 program is how our graduating seniors will be able to receive a C-10 Leaders scholarship. On top of that, though, we have partner schools in the region that are willing to go above and beyond that to help the students realize their dreams even more.
One of those schools is Avila University here in Kansas City. We are pleased and honored to be joined this week by Avila's president, Dr. Ronald Sleptiza.
After growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Slepitza has worked at the University of Maryland (10 years), Creighton University (9 yrs), Xavier University (13 years), and now at Avila for almost 15 years. Additionally, he has been involved with a mentoring program through the Leawood Rotary for more than 10 years, is an Ambassador for KC Scholars, and has served on a number of local and regional boards.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Precision Printing, please visit PrecisionPrintKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you may know, when we have a guest speaker for our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program students, we oftentimes like to use part of that conversation for this podcast. And that’s what we’re doing this week.
With the holiday this month celebrating Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., our students heard recently from a Kansas City area resident who knew Dr. King. His name is Carl Jemison. He grew up in a single-parent household in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Civil Rights era. Carl’s uncle was with the national office of the NAACP, so Carl was around several giants in the Civil Rights Movement. Carl moved to the Kansas City area in the mid-1980s to work as a chemist at the Sunflower ammunitions plant. He is now retired and active in the caring ministry at the Overland Park Church of Christ.
In this episode we talk with Carl about some of his memories of Dr. King, the Civil Rights Movement, and what we can do to make a difference for each other.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, including the application process for current high school freshmen and sophomores, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Precision Printing, please visit PrecisionPrintKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week we're chatting with Brian Diddle, a long-time CYITML supporter and the owner of Precision Printing. Shortly after graduating from MidAmerica Nazarene in 1980, Brian went to work for a local bank for two years. About two years later, though, a friend started talking to Brian about opening a printing firm. And the rest, as they say, is history.
In this episode we talk to Brian about why he started Precision, how much technology has changed the printing business, the importance of Precision's culture in keeping employees, how the company survived the pandemic in 2020, and much more.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Precision Printing, please visit PrecisionPrintKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week, as we close out 2020 and charge into 2021, we're chatting with someone who has a special place in our hearts (learn why during the episode), Dr. Matt Tidwell, who is the assistant dean at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. Dr. Tidwell also serves on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Business Communicators – one of the world’s largest communications associations with more than 9,000 members on five continents.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Tidwell worked in marketing communications as a vice president at two Midwest communications agencies and served in communications leadership roles for companies including Great Plains Energy and St. Luke’s Health Systems. And he’s the co-host of a podcast focused on marketing professional development called “The Cultivated Marketer.”
LINKS:
Until 11:59p on December 31, we have a $7,500 matching gift available to provide mentoring for students in Kansas City. If you'd like to double your impact, please visit our donation page.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
On this week's episode we chat with one of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program mentors, Eli Medina.
Eli grew up in the Kansas City area before attending Truman State on a volleyball scholarship. She went on to earn her MBA at Rockhurst. It was during this time that Eli became a licensed realtor. She now is part of the Medina Team for ReeceNichols, working for her dad George Medina.
In this episode, Eli takes a swing at our "7 Questions," discusses leadership and the housing market in Kansas City, and talks about her experiences as a mentor in the C-10 program.
LINKS:
Until 11:59p on December 31, we have a $7,500 matching gift available to provide mentoring for students in Kansas City. If you'd like to double your impact, please visit our donation page.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
The two names became synonymous with each other: Larry Holley and William Jewell College. After all, Holley was the school’s basketball coach for 40 years, compiling 916 career wins, which made him the ninth-winningest coach in college basketball history at any level when he retired in 2019. He is the winningest coach in the state of Missouri. He earned 15 Coach of the Year awards, including the NAIA national coach of the year in 1996, and the 2018 Kansas City Sports Commission coach of the year.
Last year he was selected as the "Blue KC Coach with Character" honoree for the month of April.
This week we talk about Holley's leadership background, how he and William Jewell have been intertwined, how he used to get the most out of his players, and have him take a swing at our "7 Questions."
LINKS:
Until 11:59p on December 31, we have a $7,500 matching gift available to provide mentoring for students in Kansas City. If you'd like to double your impact, please visit our donation page.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
We’ve mentioned before how a year ago, when we first started talking about this podcast, the idea was to release a new episode every two weeks. One week would be a conversation with one of our mentors, like we had last week with long-time L.A. sportscaster Todd Donoho. The other episode each month would feature the conversation with that month’s guest speaker for the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.
Obviously COVID changed a lot of things with the C-10 program and this podcast, including the release of a new episode each week.
But, this week you get to hear a conversation from our C-10 session on Wednesday night, December 9, between C-10 curriculum chair and contributor to this podcast Max Utsler and long-time Kansas City meteorologist Bryan Busby.
Bryan has been in Kansas City since November 1985. He had an opportunity several years ago to join the cast of Good Morning America, but, as you’ll hear during this conversation, he ultimately chose to stay in Kansas City. And this city is better for it. Besides being one of the most recognizable faces on TV here in Kansas City, Bryan is very generous toward many nonprofits in our community with his time, talent and treasure. "C" You In The Major Leagues is one of those, and we're thankful to Bryan for that.
You’ll hear about that and much more during this conversation with Max and Bryan, which was recorded in front of our students and mentors at the Otten on Main in downtown Kansas City.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
One of our original goals with this podcast was to introduce you to the mentors and committee members that are so important to the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. So, this week, you'll hear from one of those mentors, Todd Donoho.
Todd was a television sports anchor in markets including Cincinnati and Los Angeles before joining the Mizzou Tiger Sports Network as a pregame and postgame host.
In this conversation, Todd takes a swing at our "7 Questions" before sharing memories from his career, and talking about some of the great leaders he's been around, including legendary college basketball coach John Wooden.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you may remember or have have seen -- or you might’ve been on the original call -- in October we ended the month-long Crown Town Challenge campaign with a celebration webinar on leadership featuring Christa Dubill, the Chief Communications Officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Retired General Richard Myers, who is a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and current President of Kansas State University, and “C” You In The Major Leagues Founder and Royals General Manager Dayton Moore. The NFL Network’s Jeff Chadiha, who has been a guest on this podcast, moderated the discussion.
The group discusses leading through difficult circumstances, the importance of mentoring, and so much more, including answering viewer questions.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is a special episode for a couple of different reasons. One, our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program Committee Chair Max Utsler is co-hosting and two, because our guest is Steve Minnis, the president of one of our C-10 Leaders Scholarship partner schools.
Minnis became the president of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, in October 2004. Before that, he had a long legal career in the Johnson County prosecutor’s office and with Sprint.
This week we talk about Steve's leadership background, how he and Benedictine have been navigating the pandemic, how Covid might positively affect colleges and universities in the long term, and have him tackle our "7 Questions."
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Mark Garrett has been the Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer for Blue KC since July 2019. Before that, he had distinguished careers in leadership with Smithfield-Farmland Foods, Kansas City Public Schools, Hallmark Cards, and he’s on the board for the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
This week we talk about Mark's leadership background, a time when he struck out and when he hit a home run as a leader, what you can do right now if you're looking for a job, how Covid might affect companies in the long term, and have him tackle our "7 Questions."
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Al Wallace shouldn’t be new to anyone who’s lived in Kansas City during the past 35 years. After all, you invited him into your home countless times. He retired from WDAF-TV (Fox 4) in December 2018, but since then he’s written a book, "One for the Coyotes," he’s taught classes in the journalism department at the University of Kansas, he’s led tours at historic Allen Fieldhouse, he’s co-hosted an episode or two of this podcast and he’s been a terrific mentor in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.
This week we talk about some of Al's memories from the 2015 World Series, have him tackle our "7 Questions," and discuss a couple of the things he's doing today.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, please visit BlueKC.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This week's episode features Diane O'Byrne, one of our C-10 Curriculum Committee members and the founder and Managing Partner of Competitive Resources, a Kansas City based sales coaching company. Although her background is in media and advertising, Diane’s client list is varied from international companies such as Black and Veatch to a local automotive dealer. The sales skillset she coaches can be applied across any industry.
In addition to sales coaching, Diane has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Kansas for over twenty years in the William Allen White School of Journalism, teaching sales, presentation skills and capstone courses. She has also taught in the MBA program at KU.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month’s presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, please visit SteppandRothwell.com.
If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
We have been looking forward to interviewing this week’s guest for a few months. In fact, as you may recall from an episode in June, we told his “brother from another mother” that we needed to get him on the C-10 Podcast. So it’s a huge honor to introduce you to this week’s guest, the Executive Director of the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy Darwin Pennye.
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Pennye, and he spent five seasons in the minor leagues before getting into coaching and then becoming the Athletic Director in Texas. He came to Kansas City to become the Executive Director of the Urban Youth Academy when it opened.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, please visit SteppandRothwell.com.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
We have a unique episode for you this week. As you may have seen -- or you might’ve been on the original call -- this week we began closing down the Crown Town Challenge campaign with a celebration webinar on leadership with three tremendous leaders. One of those was Dayton Moore. After the first hour of the webinar with the three leaders, Dayton Moore and Matt Fulks spent the last 30 minutes answering viewer questions. Since it was an interesting conversation and we're pretty much at the "Dayton's Dozen" episode, this seemed like a good week to share this conversation.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
For more information about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, please visit SteppandRothwell.com.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
After recording the initial episode of the C-10 Podcast with CYITML founder Dayton Moore, he said, "Marasco is someone you need to get on this podcast." As you'll hear in this episode, Dayton was right. Marasco, the Royals' Director of Leadership Development, shares a lot of wisdom about the overall subject of leadership and the differences in leadership styles between players such as Alex Gordon and Whit Merrifield...and how that can apply to anyone in a leadership position.
LINKS:
For more information about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, please visit SteppandRothwell.com.
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
The beauty of this podcast focusing on leadership and mentoring is that when a company sponsors the podcast, it’s not a shameless plug to interview one of that company’s leaders. As we kick off October, this month's presenting sponsor is Stepp & Rothwell, Inc., and we're chatting with the company's Director of Client Relations, Ron Fredman.
Ron joined Stepp & Rothwell earlier this year, after a varied career in leadership and fundraising. He’s been a fundraiser for the Kansas City Ballet and the Kansas City Symphony, he’s worked in management consulting and public relations, and he even had a stint as a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star. Fredman, who's actually an Eagle Scout, has been active with the Boy Scouts for 40 years.
LINKS:
For more information about this month's presenting sponsor, Stepp & Rothwell, please visit SteppandRothwell.com.
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Today’s guest is somewhat of a unicorn in today’s business world -- someone who has been with the same company for more than 25 years...basically since college. We’re excited to be joined by one of our Crown Town Challenge committee members and someone who’s active with various nonprofits around Kansas City, the Senior Vice President of Finance at Cerner, Ed Enyeart.
After opening with "7 Questions," we talk with Ed about his leadership journey, how much Cerner has changed in 25 years, how many companies might be changing because of Covid-19, and about the importance of mentoring.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Mark Collins, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, who played in the mid-1990s with the Chiefs, chats about Bill Parcells and Marty Schottenheimer, and reminisces about his team's biggest championship of all -- the Collins' Crushers of the 2019 Crown Town Wiffle Weekend.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
It's funny how things happen sometimes. In the summer of 2019, our curriculum coordinator and occasional C-10 podcast co-host Max Utsler met a man who'd recently retired from a 34-year career at Hallmark. During the next few days, Max told the man how, since he was now retired, he should become a mentor in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. The man, Chris Colliatie, got home and immediately filled out the application. He has since become invaluable to "C" You In The Major Leagues as a mentor and a committee member, helping with this spring's (cancelled) "C" You At The Tee event and the current Crown Town Challenge.
In this podcast, Chris talks about meeting Max, the value he sees in C-10, the importance of the Crown Town Challenge and, of course, leadership and mentoring and being retired.
Incidentally, where did this original meeting between Max and Chris take place? On a river cruise. In Germany.
LINKS:
For more info about the Crown Town Challenge, visit CrownTownChallenge.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
As you talk with people who work for or with Christina Lively, or you just spend a few minutes with her, it's obvious that she's a leader with confidence who cares about the people around her.
Christina has held various positions over the last few years with CommunityAmerica Credit Union, H&R Block and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC). Early in the pandemic, she made the difficult decision to leave Blue KC to become the VP of Global Supplier Marketing for C2FO.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
He's been a guest co-host on other C-10 episodes but today you get to hear another side of our C-10 Curriculum Committee Chair Dr. Max Utsler.
Dr. Utsler was instrumental in getting the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program planned and launched before the 2018-19 school year. And, lucky for us, he was about a year from retiring as a long-time journalism professor at the University of Kansas.
Earlier this summer, Utsler received broadcast journalism education’s highest honor, the Edward L. Bliss Award. Before retiring, he was also recognized at KU as the top mentor among his peers.
Prior to joining the faculty at KU, Utsler served as assistant news director at KOMU-TV (NBC) and Asst. Professor for the School of Journalism at Missouri. He joined the KU faculty in 1984 and served in both teaching and administrative positions. After serving as assistant news director at KSDK-TV (NBC) in St. Louis, he was a reporter, producer, and freelance writer with major media outlets like MLB.com, MLB-TV, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN. He spent half a year at KPNX-TV covering sports in Phoenix, Arizona.
Utsler, who's from a farm community in central Illinois, graduated from Knox College before starting his career as a junior high English teacher in Minnesota.
LINKS:
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
This is a special episode. And a fascinating one as we talk with retired 4-star General and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Kansas City native and the current president of Kansas State University, Richard Myers. It's particularly fascinating when hearing General Myers talks about leadership as someone who sat in the Oval Office countless times during a tumultuous time in our country’s history.
Joining host Matt Fulks this week is returning co-host Max Utsler, along with “C” You In The Major Leagues founder and Royals General Manager Dayton Moore, C-10 mentor and career U.S. Army officer George Norton, plus two of our C-10 students, Jared and Carmen.
We recorded this interview at the end of April so we don’t get into terribly much about how classes could look this fall at K-State or General Myers’ thoughts on today’s political climate amid the pandemic. As we promised you from the beginning of this podcast in May, though, you’ll get an incredible look into leadership...and this week it happens to be with the 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who’s won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
LINKS:
To learn more about K-State President Richard Myers, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
If you've run one of the big races in Kansas City, if you're involved with any nonprofits in Kansas City, if you've ever watched the pledge drive on PBS Kansas City, or if you follow influencers in Kansas City, you've likely come across the voice or the name of this week's guest, Jake Jacobson.
After working in the sports department at The Kansas City Star, and then in public relations for Garmin and Children's Mercy Hospital, Jake is now the VP of Growth & Partnerships for Native Digital.
Jake and host Matt Fulks have known each other since about 2004, when they worked together on the desk at The Star. So, as Jake puts it, you're eavesdropping on two old friends talking about the world of public relations, how Garmin was staying a step ahead of Jimmy Buffet, and working with the Big Slick fundraiser for Children's Mercy.
LINKS:
To learn more about Native Digital, click here.
To see the awesome menu at Spokes Cafe, click here.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
On this episode we talk with "Survivor" winner, entrepreneur, coach, wife and mom, Danni Boatwright.
Danni grew up in the Kansas City area -- Tonganoxie, KS, to be precise -- as a huge fan of the Royals and Chiefs. And, since she probably couldn't play for either team when she "grew up," she wanted to be a sportscaster.
That's not exactly how things worked out, but she has been a show host, and she did travel the world as a model, but she made a name for herself as the winner of "Survivor" in Guatemala in 2005. She was a contestant on the show again this past spring, in season 40, "Winners at War."
On this episode with Danni, we take a behind-the-scenes look at "Survivor" with a slant toward leadership, and we talk about the challenges of being an entrepreneur during a pandemic, as well as a mom to two boys and the wife to former Chiefs lineman Casey Wiegmann.
LINKS:
For more information about Danni's business Sideline Chic, visit their website.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, visit our website.
If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.
Every 12th episode or so, we want to take you behind the scenes with "C" You In The Major Leagues' founder and Royals' General Manager Dayton Moore.
In this episode, which was taken from a Webinar that we did with donors and other supporters in May, Dayton talks about the foundation, the impact of the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, and leadership through normal times, as well as a pandemic.
Links:
You can make a donation here to the foundation and get information on an upcoming exclusive webinar with Dayton Moore.
You can find out more about our C-10 program at C10Mentoring.com.
You can contact us at this page.
On this week's episode, we talk with Stann Tate, the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Menorah Medical Center. Stann also happens to be one of our second-year mentors in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program.
Before joining Menorah in April 2014, Stann has been the Marketing Director for the Community Blood Center of Kansas City, the Director of Community Relations for AMC Entertainment, the Director of Public Relations for the Kansas Speedway, and the Assistant Director of Championships at the NCAA. (And, during this episode, he explains what each of those jobs has in common.)
On the side, Stann is a for-hire DJ by the name of DJ Stann.
Links:
You can find out about Stann at www.DJStann.com.
You can find out more about our C-10 program at C10Mentoring.com.
You can contact us at this page.
Dan O'Dell and his wife Maria run one of the most successful residential real estate groups in the Kansas City area, Group O'Dell. Although they've been supporters of "C" You In The Major Leagues, we invited Dan to join us for this episode because he's a great encourager and mentor to other leaders. His daily focus is to encourage those around him.
Ironically, we first met Dan O'Dell when he invited CYITML founder Dayton Moore to speak at a leadership breakfast that they host each year.
Some notes:
-- You can find more about Group O'Dell at their website.
-- We talk about the book, "Acres of Diamonds." Here is an Amazon link to that book.
-- Dan mentions Brian Buffini. His podcast can be found at TheBrianBuffiniShow.com.
-- If you have comments or suggestions for a future guest, you can contact us here.
On this week's episode, we chat with Royals broadcaster -- and Kansas City native -- Steve Physioc about broadcasting for his hometown team, how he got into broadcasting, leadership lessons he's learned from great managers and coaches such as Sparky Anderson and John Wooden, and what's his perfect "Super Soul Sunday."
This interview was recorded in February 2020 at The Otten on Main in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors.
To learn more about Steve Physioc, please visit https://www.stevephysioc.com/.
To learn more about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, or to make a gift to make a difference in a student's life, please visit https://www.cyouinthemajorleagues.org/mentoring/.
If you have a comment about the podcast or a suggestion for an upcoming guest, you can send a message through our contact page: https://www.cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/.
This week we sit down during a break at our sixth annual baseball camp at the Jewish Community Center with Gene Watson, the Kansas City Royals' Director of Pro Scouting. Gene takes a swing at our "7 Questions" before talking about what he's learned about leadership from Dayton Moore, how the most pivotal trade for the Royals' 2014 and '15 postseason runs came to be, and the importance of mentoring.
Some notes:
-- We mention the book, "More Than A Season." You can order signed and unsigned hardcover copies directly through the foundation here: https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/shop-online/.
-- If you'd like to make a difference for students and families in crisis with a one-time gift or, like Gene and his wife Melanie, on a monthly basis, please click here: https://give.idonate.com/the-signatry-foundation/the-c-you-in-the-major-leagues-fund.
-- If you know someone who'd be good to talk about leadership and/or mentoring, or you have other comments, please let us know here: https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/.
Kathy Nelson is perhaps the most influential person in the overall landscape of sports in Kansas City. Kathy spent several years in the media with Fox4 and Time Warner Cable/Metro Sports, before joining the Kansas City Sports Commission in August of 2010 as the Director of Win for KC. She became the Sports Commission’s President/CEO in November of 2011.
Kathy's involved with countless boards throughout the city and has won numerous awards locally and nationally, from Emmys to the Dancing with the Kansas City Stars grand champion. The list goes on and on.
Besides hearing from Kathy, longtime Fox4 sports anchor and C-10 mentor Al Wallace joins us as co-host, along with one of our C-10 students, Carmen.
Helpful links:
The Kansas City Sports Commission: https://www.sportkc.org/
We mention a CYITML/C-10 fundraising team for the KC Marathon (and other distances). If you're interested in that, send us a note: https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/
More about C-10 Mentoring & Leadership...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/mentoring/
To donate to C-10 and/or CYITML...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/donate/
To send us your comments or questions...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/
This week we talk with Jeff Chadiha from the NFL Network. We talk about the racial issues facing this country, Colin Kaepernick, leadership needed right now and the importance of mentoring during a time like this.
Helpful links:
"The Conversation" ... The 45-minute documentary Jeff Chadiha did on Colin Kaepernick for the NFL Network: http://a.video.nfl.com/films/vodzilla/54968/NFL360_THECONVERSATION_FORWEB-20170224_17015316_5000k.mp4
More about C-10 Mentoring & Leadership...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/mentoring/
To donate to C-10 and/or CYITML...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/donate/
To send us your comments or questions...https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/
Sly James was sworn in as the 56th mayor in Kansas City, Missouri, history in 2011, and he served two terms, leaving in 2019. Sly's life has always led to service of others, an attitude instilled in him by his parents. Sly served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, came back to Kansas City to study law, and then was a successful attorney before becoming mayor.
This episode was recorded on Zoom in early May for this podcast and our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students. Even though it was well before the recent protests over racial injustice in the United States, Sly shares a lot of lessons that apply to what we're facing as a country.
For more information about Sly James, visit: https://wickhamjames.com/who-we-are/sly-james/
To learn more about "C" You In The Major Leagues: https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/
If you or your business would like to sponsor or help underwrite this podcast, please use this form: https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/contact/.
In this episode, we're joined by Royals manager Mike Matheny, plus guest co-host, Max Utsler.
Matheny, who became the Royals manager last offseason, is a student of people and leadership. So we go in depth on everything from the importance being a mentor and having mentors around you, following a Hall of Fame manager in St. Louis, and important lessons he's been passing along to the Royals players during the pandemic.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, please visit C10Mentoring.com.
If you or your company would like to sponsor or help underwrite this podcast, please contact Matt Fulks. His email address is matt.fulks (at) CYouInTheMajorLeagues.org.
Actor and comedian Rob Riggle, an old friend and classmate of CYITML Director Matt Fulks, recorded a Zoom session with our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors. As one would expect, Rob had us laughing for much of that interview. What might be surprising to those who know about Rob through only TV and movies, he is a deep thinker. The result is an engaging interview about leadership and mentoring, including some lessons that Rob learned in the Marines and serving on the "bucket brigade" at the twin towers after 9/11.
For more information about Rob Riggle, visit: http://www.RobRiggle.com.
For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program:
https://cyouinthemajorleagues.org/mentoring/.
One goal for the C-10 podcast is to highlight and honor mentors and committee members with our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. In this episode, recorded in front of our students and mentors at the KCMO police headquarters, we talk with committee member Shawnie Nix, who's with the KCPD and, specifically, the Police Athletic League.
There's no better way to start this podcast series than with "C" You In The Major Leagues Founder and Royals General Manager Dayton Moore. In this first "real" episode, Dayton and Matt Fulks sit down outside to discuss Dayton's vision for the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, leadership philosophy, the importance of mentoring...and Dayton takes on the "7 Question" segment.
In this short episode, we give you a quick idea of what's to come in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership podcast.