Stand Tall Leadership Show Podcast

This is a stand tall leadership show. I’m Steve bowler also known as stand tall, Steve and you are listening to the number one podcast for educational leaders, practitioners, and experts who want to improve their leadership and get results. When you stand tall, you don’t think small<inaudible> Hey everyone. This is Steve bowler. Often understand Paul, Steve, and you are here back for another episode of the stand tall leadership show.

And as you know what the fan told leadership show, we’re providing value and inviting engagement to all of you out there. You educational leaders to move you forward in your journey in education and in leadership. Now, today we have a great guest. I’m excited about our guests. We have LaVonna Roth who’s from IgniteYourSHINE.com. She has a wonderful message.

Awesome thought leader in the world of education. Welcome LaVonna. How are you? Hey, Steven. I’m fantastic. I hope you are the same. And thanks for having me. Yeah, Definitely. This is going to be exciting and it’s going to be good because I looked into your website and night IgniteYourSHINE.com. I found out a little bit information about you, and I’m really interested in this Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E. concept, but we’ll get into that in a minute. But before that, one of the things I always do with all of my guests is I, I love to find out your story. Meaning how did you get here? What did you do? What was the process that got you to where you are right now?

Tell me about it. Well, it’s a process I never planned on. I’ll put it that way, but then again, whoever really plans out their story or their journey, you know, it’s, it’s what we think. One thing. And then the other thing happens. But when I was younger, it was my mom and I, I did not know my biological father and my mom was obviously a single mom and I was raised in poverty for a good majority of my childhood.

I’ll put it that way. And my mom and I actually lived in government housing that they had to tear down because it wasn’t livable. And my grandpa had a welding shop and behind there was a little building. And so at one point, my mom and I actually lived in this little building, which was once believed to have been in the chicken coop.

And we lived there for about three years and now take all of that and buy point, but that’s going to be a lower self-esteem. And then I got into high school. And when, once I get into high school, my grades started to decline even more than they did in middle school. And fast forward, I somehow got into college. I have no idea how and my first semester, because literally I had DS enough. So my high school report card and I got into college and I had my first semester an outstanding GPA of a 1.2. Oh, well, you Rocked it.<inaudible> there you go. It Takes a lot of effort. My friend, it takes a while. So bottom line is the self-confidence did not increase there. And I was actually put on probation, no shock, but I was put on probation to be kicked out of college. And so once again, I had this message of you’re just not good enough. You weren’t good enough for your father to stay in your life. You’re not good enough in school. You’re not smart enough. And now you’re about to be kicked out of college. And what are you going to do?

And I was the first person in my family to actually go to college. And so bottom line is out of frustration. I pulled the university catalog and I thought, you know what? I’ve had multiple jobs where I’ve interacted with somebody who was deaf and I couldn’t communicate. So either we had to show pictures or I had to write everything out. And as I looked at this, I thought I would love to learn sign language. So when I pulled the university catalog, I thought, do they even offer sign language? And when I got to it, they shouldn’t have did, but in order to take sign twnguage, you actually had to go into education. That was my turning point. That was when my GPA did a complete flip, I loved what I was doing, loved education. I taught for 10 years, elementary and secondary got my educational leadership degree as my second master’s and was headed completely on that path. When I have opportunity to step out in different ways, working for different companies, working for corporations that gave me some of that insight. And the last straw was I was working for a company who was one moment, one moment. I was cussed out and screamed at. And the next minute they’re hugging me and saying, God, put your life for a reason. We’re so blessed to have you. Oh. And after that I went, you know what? After four months I came home to my husband and I said, you know what? If they can run a company and treat people like that, then I can run a company and treat people. Right. And I didn’t know what that meant, but 12 years later here we are. So it’s been quite the journey. It’s been incredible. I’ve loved it. Wow. Isn’t that something, you know, it’s so interesting because when I listen to different people and I hear their story, I in turn kind of look at my own story with things.

Now I did go to college for education. I wanted to be an art teacher. I don’t know how I got in because my grades were not the greatest either at out of high school. And the reason for that is I’m dyslexic. And I didn’t know it was dyslexic. So that, that was the thing. But I got him and then, you know, going through college and you finding that love of everything was there. And I also was a part of a company. It was an outside company that was working for one second. They loved you. The next second. They’re cursing you out and telling you off. And I’m just like, bump, I’m better than this. You know, like it’s a better way of, of, of, of working with people, interacting with people and doing this. So that’s, that’s the way that I kind of stepped out further and do it with doing what I do. So I love to hear your story as to how you do it. And it’s, it’s funny how, you know, certain things happen and certain people, and you can really relate with that.

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. It’s so does, and I think, you know, Stephen there’s are those paths in life that we have a on whether we’re going to take the victim stance and oh, woe is me and go down wrong paths or just say it is how it is. And I can’t do anything about it. Or we can draw strength from what has happened and use that to motivate us to continue in a path like I, for one, never want to be back in poverty. I hated that life. I didn’t, you know, I don’t want to ever be there again. So that is one of my driving forces plus the love of education, you know, and knowing how much I care about people and love people and wanting to see students not go through the same path that I went through with challenging and, you know, being challenged in school that you talk about dyslexia, right? I don’t want to ever be, feel stupid again. And I now know that I’m not, but I want others to also believe that about themselves. So that is my that’s my drive. Those two things are big That’s and that’s, that’s the best. And I know that a lot of the people listening here, they have a drive, they have something that’s pushing them or moving them forward. A lot of times it’s a circumstances in their life. Other times it might be someone that they look up to or someone that they saw, someone that was in their life. It might be somebody that they never met, but they can connect with. But it’s hard pressed to find an educator out there anywhere that doesn’t have something that’s moving them forward.

And if they don’t, they probably need to leave what they’re doing and go do something else. So that’s, yeah, that’s a strong statement. So let’s dive into a little bit of, you know, Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.. I mean, I really liked that it, because, you know, first of all, the word Ignite means that you’re starting it off.

You’re you’re, you’re getting it, getting it going. You’re you’re sparking it. And then that S.H.I.N.E. part. I mean, I know that I love the S.H.I.N.E.. I, you know, it’s, it’s just how I roll on a regular basis. So tell me a little bit more about, you know, how did that came about first of all, what does it mean? And then how did it come about? So S.H.I.N.E. is actually an acronym and I love that you pointed out the word Ignite, right? Because that’s what we do. We give energy or life to someone or something. That’s the actual definition of Ignite. And so I want us to give life or energy to other people. And so the word though is S.H.I.N.E. is an acronym, but it wasn’t originally the word S.H.I.N.E.. And now that, you know, part of my backstory, you’re gonna understand the word was originally smart. And I was going after an education. What we define a smart and because we are so phenomenal at putting kids into a box and that box is reading, writing, math and science. And I believe our kids are way more than that.

And so I wanted to come afterwards, smart. I want to redefine it. I believe every child is gifted. The question is how, but in the United States we say math and science. Nope. You know, and I think back how many times I say to my students, Hey, Sue’s had to gifted. Charlene had to gifted. I just want everybody else.

You’re not gifted. Yes. Right? Yes they are. So the word was smart and I had somebody right or wrong. Somebody said to me, Levante, you will never change the definition of smart and education. And part of my personality went, watch me. I’m the same way. I’m like, oh yeah, you think You just touched the button?

Yeah. I mean, it was like, but wait, what if they’re right. So you push the other button, right? The other confidence, lack of confidence. And so I thought about it and I’m actually grateful to that person because it, wasn’t just smart that I’m going after. I want people to believe in themselves. Right. So I want that core to be that confidence.

So let me share with you about S.H.I.N.E. and then I’ll circle back, back to what I was just saying. Okay. This episode is Dom BOM. Hey, if you’re an educator who wants to speak, train or consult professionally as a career change or a side hustle, check out my training, just for educators go to within our ranks.com. This is about self, right? So what is self, what are your strengths, gifts, skills, talents. And using that if what you can do, what you’re given, what you’ve developed into a strength versus what you can’t do. And if we teach or we lead through that lens, it’s a completely different approach, right? And then we get to H H his heart all about passion.

So it’s what actually energizes you, what lights you up. And it’s the two together that we look at. So we want your strengths married with your passions. And we have, like, for example, we have SHINEtastic lessons that lead kids through this. And that’s our whole point is if we can teach through that lens and we get kids to become aware of that so much magic happens.

And I’ll give you one example. For example, if I believe in who I am, because I know my strengths, and I also know I have weaknesses, right? That’s a confidence thing is my confidence, right? As a student who bullies other kids, the reason if I, if I’m a bully, the reason I bully is because I am going to put you down a bully you to help myself feel better.

The thing is that doesn’t work, right. We know internally, that’s not right. So we feel worse. So what do we do? We bully even more. We create this awful cycle, right? I think about suicides outside of a chemical imbalance. They don’t happen with people who are confident, it’s happening with kids who don’t believe in themselves and adults.

So if we really approach this from the strength and the mindset and the belief that you can, but you also take that time for you and take care of you and understanding that you are a priority too. And we marry that with passion. That’s when we start to have that fulfillment in life, but we can also teach through that lens leaders in schools, in districts, they can teach through that lens too, and really come from that approach, which changes the culture entirely. Right now, we get into, I, I as inspire great package, right? But life is going to throw curve balls. And Steven, we know that more than ever right now, life is going to throw curve balls. So how do you stay inspired?

How do you inspire others? Right? Then you get into end and navigate. I just explained all of this greatness about you and what you can do, but it’s putting in an action. What are you going to do with it? What do you want? Your story, your journey, your goals to be. And then he is exceptional. You’re an exceptional person.

You were meant to be that anybody else that you were meant to be. And so our whole goal is when we look at brain research, which is where I originally started before he Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.. I’ve eight books based on how the brain learns and strategies to engage students in the classroom with that, the learning was not escalating. Like I knew it should be because we’re literally teaching how the brain learns, which I mean, how many of you, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re in the car, you’re in a room. I want you to literally raise your hand. If you ever took a class on how the brain learns. And I’m going to bet. Majority did not, at least as our undergrad is teaching. So I got super involved in this super excited, got the books out there, but we still weren’t seeing what I should have been seeing and what others should have been seeing. And then it hit me. You cannot get the brain to learn. If it’s not in a state of learning, Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.. That is one of the major goals. We, we, we now know it as SEL when I first started it, that wasn’t the term social-emotional and at least it wasn’t well known that way. And I didn’t, wasn’t familiar with it, but it’s all about social, emotional learning, you know, and getting that brain to a state of learning. And now, as we ignite the S.H.I.N.E., right in our students, in our teachers, in our leaders, in our school and our community, our parents, the staff, everybody, because it’s a message for everyone. And then once you do that, now we can work our way into better teaching content with how the brain learns. Yeah, there you go. I love that. And you know, and it’s, it’s so true. And this is something that I talk a lot about with whatever I’m doing is getting, and I love to how you put this, getting the brain ready to learn, getting into a state of learning the whole SEL. It’s not just fluff. It’s not just feel good stuff. All right, let’s do a little fluff love here. Now this is what’s going to make instruction good. This is what’s going to make learning quality. You, you, if you can get this right, you can go so much further than what it is that you can do without it. Why? And my thing is, why leave it up to chance? You know, especially now that you know, so I love that with the, the, the, the S.H.I.N.E. itself, heart inspired, navigate, and being, being exceptional.

And it’s simple, it’s easy. It’s, you know, five, five words that you can, you know, utilize in your learning in your space. Now you say you have a curriculum and some, some lessons that go with each one of these. Yeah. So we created SHINEtastic lessons that it’s one to, to kick off Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E. with your students.

And they are videos for students to watch. And then there’s a couple in there for teachers just to bring them on board with what it is, but then there’s two lessons for each letter. But in addition, we’ve had requests. So now we have five lessons that are specific to virtual, even though the other lessons can be changed to virtual if you’re teaching virtually.

But then we also have five for parents now, too, to be able to do with their child at home, and we can do to build, but they’re actually free. Like we used to charge for them, but we have made them totally free. So if people go to IgniteYourSHINE.com like you, before they have access to them, That’s, that’s best that line. Goodness. That’s wonderful. And, and, you know, to be able to have them free, just go there, get them, use them, learn about you, and learn about what this is all about and just make it so much better. And I think that’s great because I know as leaders, we get caught up in a lot of things, you know, I was a building principal. I was a superintendent you just do. And when you can find something of quality that could be dropped in there at that level, but yet it’s still free. That’s why you hit a home run on a lot of different levels there. So that’s perfect. That’s wonderful. No, he just wanted to support, you know, we just wanted to support because, and obviously, you know, there’s all kinds of, ways of support, but that was one of the things that we’ve just gotten so much great feedback from it and people sharing stories. And, oh my gosh, I’m gonna tell you this one, this week on Twitter, a teacher sent me a message that a parent had done.

Their students are going through the Ignite, Your S.H.I.N.E. lessons, the SHINEtastic lessons, and have the student, the T, or the parents sent a picture of a lamp in her home, a white lamp that her child had written in permanent. Marker. The word, sign on it with a light bulb. Ah, ah, Clearly S.H.I.N.E. has hit our home.

Yeah, definitely. Well, it means something there that, that does it really connects and it really means something. And that’s perfect. That is awesome. Now, along with this, you and you have a team though, you, you, you have, it’s more than just, you, you have others that are within your group. You can also go to schools, go to organizations as well as virtually provide PD direction and, and training as well. Yes. You know what? We actually just switched to virtual. Obviously we had to write those to continue the message and supporting in that way. But I have, I still have done some interface. It’s just been social distance when I’ve arrived. But yes, we we’ve done virtual in the, in the team. We, we’ve worked really hard over the past few months to support schools so that we do have that available for them. And, you know, we have myself, we have, I have a team of speakers that can also do some professional development, but we’re also the other part that we started not too long to go. It’s been less than a year is that it’s Prime to S.H.I.N.E..

And this is where we actually teach educators how to get into consulting. You know, whether it’s one time a month, once a year, full-time whatever they want that to look like. So that’s part of what the other team is working on is those that want to make an impact beyond the walls of their school or classroom. Then we provide that opportunity to take the knowledge of what I’ve been doing for 12 years and saying, Hey, what does that looks like for you? Like, even if it’s one keynote or you wanna do breakout sessions at conferences, we make that available. Oh, that’s awesome. That’s wonderful. And that’s, you know, actually that’s something that I’ve done as well. I, I, because you know, the, the, the impact that you can make by doing a keynote, doing a breakout session, doing a PD to other adults, to others so that they can take what it is that, you know, and move forward. That’s one of the best things in the world. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s exciting. And I know that I have a thing called within our ranks where I provide that same type of thing.

So looking at that, cause I know there are some people and I, I push this all the time on my, on my, on the podcast here to allow people the opportunity to go out and start sharing their story and sharing their S.H.I.N.E. or sharing what they know. Are there a couple of tips that you can give some of the listeners now, if they want to start doing that, what are some things that they need to keep in mind to do if they want to start moving in that direction? So we actually take people through the letters of S.H.I.N.E. for that, you know, with some of the tips is that one of the things that I find is, and I did this as starting out, you know, 12 years ago, I, I was just like, oh, you need that. I’ve experienced with that Sheryl do it. Oh, you have that training. Yep. I have experienced in it. I can do it. And I was just like, hodgepodging it, you know what? Right, right. So what we did is we encouraged people to go through the S and the H and that’s actually how our courses built.

And our membership, the membership site is centered around all of that, like digging into those strengths of what you have and your passions. Because as you know, consulting, yes, it is amazing. Like, I love, love, love what I do. It is also very hard work. Right? Depends upon the level you want to take it because of that.

It’s also, it’s important to stay within your strengths and your passions. And it’s also only fair to others because if you’re not passionate about it, it shows if you’re not in your strength, it shows. So we put those two things together again with consulting lens. And so I definitely would have you identify where their strengths, where those passions and passions can shift a little bit strengths.

Don’t really according to Gallup research, once a strength is a strength that stays a strength, but a weakness will actually never become a strength. So if you look at what is it that I’m really good at doing? So that’d be one thing. And then the second tip I would leave with everyone is that so many times we under value what we have to offer.

Like we think, well, everybody in my school is doing it. So everybody in the world must be doing it, or I have this knowledge. So everybody else in the world must have this knowledge and that’s even close to being true. What a great episode, man, listen, if you want to move your climate and culture closer to what you respect and value, let’s set up a complimentary consultation, just go to stand tall. steve.com/contact. My very first time I went to, I got in started consulting and it was in Illinois and they had said, Hey, would you come do a bootcamp on our Bazell leaders? We didn’t really like what the publisher did. So do you come train us better on this? And I was like, absolutely. So I was doing it by grade level and I’m in the first grade one and I held up a leveled reader and I said, so this, you would use, you know, obviously for your small groups, I didn’t even finish barely the sentence. And a hand went up and I said, yes. And she said, what do you mean by small groups?

And I was like, well, you know, like when you pull students based upon a skill set that they’re lacking and you would pull them. So this is like years ago that this is happening. Right. And so, and she said, just like shook her head at me. And I, and so I asked them, I said, okay, let me ask you how many of you are doing small group and not one hand went up. I said, so I guess you’re doing whole group then. Yeah. There’s only other two. There’s only two choices, right? Yeah. Steven, I literally couldn’t wrap my head around it. Cause we’d been doing small groups for so long and I’m thinking, wait, how are you not doing small groups? So I’m literally like saying an obvious question because I’m so flabbergasted. But that’s when it hit me so many times and it’s proven over time. So, so many times that you think everybody knows it, but they don’t, they’re not in your shoes, in your world, in your experience with your story.

Right. And you know, I totally agree with that. I mean, even now, because I’ve been doing this for 15 plus years, you know, speaking and training, even when I was a building superintendent and principal and stuff like that, I got out and I do that. And I even now, sometimes I’m like there, everybody understands climate and culture.

Why they, why are they asking me? And it’s like, but you have to get over that. So even here’s the other thing, even if they do know it, they hearing it from you is different than way that they’ve been hearing it all along. It had them there’s so many times I’ve come in and I’ve said, I did my whole shebang beautiful presentation and everything.

Principal comes to me and says, I’ve been speaking about this for 10 years. They don’t listen to me. But because you came in and said it, now everybody plays the Titanic and they love it. Yeah. And it, and it goes back to, if you’re wanting to do this, you gotta believe in yourself. You have to go. And like you said, what is your cash? And what is it that you want? Because when I do my training with them, I say, what do people say that you’re good at? You know, take that because sometimes they still can’t get over it themselves to say, oh, I’m good at this. Fine. Forget yourself. What other people say that you’re good at?

And they’re like, well, they say this. Okay, well then grab that and go, and that’s your springboard to really go and do those presentations and things. I love that story though. I mean, it’s small groups and it’s like, well, you’re talking about small groups. And I go in there and I talk about leadership. And one time I did a presentation for a group of superintendents and I was going to talk about decision-making and I’m just thinking, oh, how am I going to teach superintendents about decision-making? You know? So I went through my five levels of decision-making and everything like that. And I don’t think that there could have been smoke coming off of the notepads that were writing so fast. It just blew my mind. And I’m like, there’s superintendents. So I Love that. Yeah. And then we just assume everybody has the same knowledge of the same process.

You know, this are saying it the same way. So I love that. You know, that’s one of the things that I talk about a lot is that, you know, people get so worried about, well, somebody is already presenting on that consulting on that. So I can’t, I can’t, that’s one person who cannot handle the entire world.

I love this idea of steaming. Cause I’m a very big believer in that, you know, people say, don’t you worry. So like, for example, right now I know people would say to me, don’t you worry that Steven also does the same thing? No, no, because we speak to the different people. We have different approaches, we have different language.

And yet we compliment, like I just got a keynote from a speaker who unfortunately has to have surgery and he referred me and I’m doing this keynote, but you know where that came from. Cause I referred him back in January for a keynote, you know? So I just, I love this approach. And I just think, you know, just getting to that mindset that people have about whether it’s competition, whether somebody else is already doing it or everybody already knows what I know. I just love this conversation because absolutely not. Let’s blow those doors open, just blow Those doors open. There’s more than enough business out there for everyone. I mean, I’m in New Jersey, just in New Jersey alone. I think we have like 600 districts and we’re a tiny state.

You know, many districts are, are around the country. It’s millions. And then on top of that, there’s tons of associations. And on top of that, there’s a saw a lot of nonprofits. And then on top of that, there’s a lot of youth organizations that people that work with you it’s there’s enough for everyone to showcase what it is they have.

And now through virtual, the possibility of getting to people is 10 times more, 10,000 times more, which is absolutely wonderful. And that’s just the United States. Let’s go, let’s get to Canada, let’s get it across seas. That’s the other thing. Have you done any international things? Have you done any of that? I have, I have EOA.

My favorite was my very first one and that was Beirut Lebanon. And that was unbelievable. So obviously my heart broke immensely with recently with the explosion that they had because that’s right where I had been and the people there are beautiful, but yes, I’ve done the I’m Switzerland. I’ve done Spain a few times. Ecuador, Canada. I feel like I’m leaving something out.

I’m going blank. Oh, Puerto Rico. I mean that’s international, but not internet. Yeah, but that’s still good. That’s it? Yeah. I’ve done. I’ve done a lot in Canada. That’s my area. I haven’t gotten, I’ve done virtually across seas Ireland and a few other places virtually, but haven’t physically gone anywhere and I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon with what’s going on, but at any rate. All right. So that’s it. So, Hey, this has been a cook conversation. That’s what I was talking about. This is good stuff. So I have two final questions for you. Two final question. The last question is how do we get connected? Stay connected and find you and Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E. in other ways.

But the question before the last question is what is one idea? One concept, one thing that you would like to leave all of our stand Paul leader, Stand tall leaders. First of all, keep rocking it out. You seriously are doing incredible, amazing work. And it’s so easy to look at what is not going well or the uncertainties or the unknowns, or the fact that you didn’t get a pandemic manual with everything. Just remember you’re human too, and take that time for you. And so one of the biggest quotes that I had first time I ever gave it was during a graduation commencement speech. And I talked about moments in our life. And it’s also the first time I actually told my story about my father and the full story.

And I had a young lady come up to me at the end. And she said, you know, I, my story is very much like you. And I said, in what way she shared with me. And she said, but you know what I learned? And she quoted back to me this quote moments don’t define you, allow them to refine you.

And so we’re all in a huge moment right now. So some moments are very quick. Some of it’s a longer one, a very huge moment right now. And you’re in the middle of that storm of that moment. But I just want to remember it. Doesn’t define you unless you let it right. Allow these moments to refine you as that stand tall leader.

There You go. I love that. That’s perfect. I’m going to use that in the future. That that’s, that’s perfect. That’s that’s going to be some good stuff. All right. Thank you. So last question then how do we get connected and stay connected to live on a rock? Well, all on social media. So it’s LaVonna Roth and it’s @IgniteYourSHINE is everywhere too. On Instagram. It’s at IgniteYourSHINEnow. But other than that, yes, I would love to can connect. I just love educators and inspiring and supporting any way that I can. So, Steven, thank you again so much for having me on this that I’ve really appreciate it.

Oh yeah. I appreciate it too. And I always say this to a lot of people that I definitely mean this. I have a new friend now, you and I we’re going to talk some more. I, cause I think our mindset is so connected so much that I think there’s a lot that we can do together. And I know we’re going to have to have you back again eventually on stand tall leadership show because we got some good information and things that we can share with all of our listeners here.

All right. All right. That’s it. I love it. I love it. All right. So thank you again for being on the stand total leadership show. Have a good one. Well, that’s another ending of the stand tall leadership show. If you like, what you’re hearing, rate us on iTunes or whatever format you listen, please subscribe.

Tell a friend or colleague, check out all the resources and all episodes@standtall-leadership.com. Every member, when you stand tall, you don’t think small.