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Welcome back to the School of Greatness.
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We re going to do something a little bit different today in the feed.
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We re sharing an episode of a podcast called Real Good by U.S.
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Bank.
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Now, every season, the Real Good podcast seeks to tell stories of people putting in the work.
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And it s a podcast that shows us that while the world is an imperfect place, there are people out there trying to make it better.
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This podcast is hosted by Emmy-winning journalist Faith Saley and U.S.
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Bank s chief diversity officer, Greg Cunningham.
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Now in this specific episode, they will discuss the power of listening and how it shapes our identity as a person.
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Something that we talk about so much here on the School of Greatness.
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And it s always our goal to deliver a positive message through storytelling and listening to impactful guests.
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This episode drives home the importance of just that.
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If you like what you hear, please go listen and subscribe to Real Good wherever you get your podcasts.
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Thanks again for listening today.
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Welcome to the School of Greatness.
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My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
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And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
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Thanks for spending some time with me today.
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Now let the class begin.
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This is Real Good by U.S.
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Bank, a podcast about helpers.
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I m Faith Saley.
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Today, we re going to talk about what s at the heart of the show, the act of listening, listening to people doing good work, listening to people we might not hear from all the time, listening to those affecting positive change for their communities.
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As your hosts, we try our best to listen to our guests.
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We stand in for you, the listener, asking questions you might ask to best get to know their history and their work.
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And we ve noticed our guests value the act of listening as well.
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For many, it s core to their own work and inspiration for what they do.
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So we ve decided in this last episode of the season to look closely at some of the things our guests said about listening.
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It s educational.
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It s moving.
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It s empowering.
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And we ll let you know a little of what we ve learned from listening along the way.
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Greg, I am so glad that I get this time one-on-one with you today at the end of season five because the journey that we went on this season has been joyful and
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fascinating and illuminating and hopeful.
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And I have to be honest that today I feel kind of sad.
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Why?
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Because I just want to acknowledge what s going on in the world right now as we re recording this.
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And I think it will still be going on in the world when this episode comes out.
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And yeah, with the war in Israel and Gaza and the sadness around that.
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And you know, we started this whole thing almost four years ago, at a time of darkness.
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Yeah.
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And here we are again.
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the incredible amount of divisiveness that remains and all of these things just continue to draw divisions between people.
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And it is incredibly sad, but I also felt that this season, what was special to me about this season was just the incredible stories that we got to hear.
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That s the one thing, if I could put a theme to this year, it was about story.
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And they were such incredible stories.
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And hopefully there s something in that that we can look back upon today that gives us some hope and leaves us just feeling a little more hopeful and optimistic.
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Do you know, have you ever heard the phrase Tukun Olam?
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No.
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I had not heard it either until a few years ago.
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You know that I, my husband is Jewish.
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I m not.
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I was raised Christian.
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We re raising our kids Jewish, but we celebrate all mom s traditions too.
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And there is this Hebrew phrase that has come into our lives and, and tekun halam means repairing of the world or heal the world.
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And when all of this has been going on, you know, we work to shield our kids from the worst of it and talk about the realities of it.
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I m sure families all over the world are figuring out how to talk about these difficult things with their kids.
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And my 11-year-old son said, mom, I just don t, I m just sad.
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I just don t feel like there s anything I can do.
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And I said, I understand that feeling, honey.
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And remember what we say about tikkun olam, about healing the world, that there are things we must know.
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We must not only believe, but we must know that every single day, every single chance to connect with another human being is something within our power.
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That is tikkun olam.
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And I do, without sounding vainglorious, I do feel like these stories, Greg, like the gift you and I get of asking and listening, every single one of them has to add up to some kind of heal, to K un Halam, some kind of healing the world.
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What I hope that we use this opportunity for is to help our kids understand that the way that we change the world is one interaction at a time.
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one engagement at a time, one action at a time, and not to sound cliche about it, but one person actually can change the world.
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Continue to remind ourselves and remind the next generation, our young people,
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And taking advantage of these opportunities to hear these stories to internalize these stories and make them our own and and make them human stories that we can use to improve our interactions with each other.
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We can make a real difference in this world.
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And I think even the work that we ve done through this this platform that we ve had.
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and to use platforms like this in the most responsible way and to have these courageous conversations that we ve been having for five seasons now with the success and the reception to these conversations that we ve gotten from the general public and our listeners has just been astounding to me.
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And I m so proud of it.
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I m so proud of it.
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And I m so proud of what we ve done together.
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I m so proud that I get to do it with you, but I m just so proud in how people have responded to these really brave conversations that we ve been having.
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of course, you can have a whole lot of stories, but they don t mean much if people aren t listening.
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And you and I getting the gift of listening in the moment, we do a lot more listening than we do talking.
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And that s exactly the ratio it should be.
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Correct.
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And so what we wanted to do with this sort of look back this this final episode of season five is talk about the lessons of listening that our guests also kind of dove into.
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And I ll add one more thing.
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You know, one of the many things I get to do for a living is ask people questions.
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And when my kids are really little and they d be in the bath together and they d hold the shampoo bottle, they d be like, OK, let s do mommy s job.
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And they would hold the shampoo bottle like it s a microphone.
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Oh, my God, that s adorable.
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As if anybody holds microphones anymore.
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Right.
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That s 20th century.
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So they d hold the microphone and they d be like, okay, what s your name?
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How old are you?
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What s your favorite color?
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And I d say, yes, like that s half of what I do.
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But actually, actually it s less than half of what I do.
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Mostly what I do, y all, I d say to my kids, is I listen.
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Like my job is a lot of listening.
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Yes.
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And as a communicator, that is, it s the most important part of communicating, right?
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Is listening.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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So we re going to play for our own enjoyment and to help listeners remember some of these kind of highlights from this past season.
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And we re going to start with our friend Claudia Romo.
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Did you hear I rolled my R s there a little bit?
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That was a good one.
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You ve been practicing.
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You ve been practicing.
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Yeah, I m not sure.
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I can tell.
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She s the founder of We Are All Human.
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Boy, do we need that phrase too.
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Reflecting here on how her father taught her to listen while sitting in restaurants as a child and how it affected her view of the world.
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My mom and my
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dad couldn t be more different, right?
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Like mom is round, dad is square.
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And so he is.
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And they are divorced since I was two.
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When my my siblings died, they couldn t actually stay together.
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And it was a lot of trauma for them.
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And so every Sunday, my father would come and pick me up and to go to this one same restaurant to have the same one breakfast.
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But every time when I was like six or seven, for a number of years,
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not once, but for a number of years, he would put me into the restaurant.
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He would say, like, I ll be back.
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And so half an hour later or something dramatically long for me, he came back and he was like, all right, close your eyes.
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So what s the color of the shirt of the person behind you?
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How many plants are in the restaurant?
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How many items are on the menu?
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What is the cheapest item that you found?
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And so week after week, he would just test me and the period of observation was shorter every time.
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And so I literally was, and my father would actually take note.
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If I did well, he was happy with me.
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If I didn t, he wouldn t be that happy with me.
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So what I what I what I what he did to me was that he trained me to be hyper aware, like literally Terminator.
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I could come into a room and I was like when I was with my dad, I was like scanning things.
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And so when he would say, OK, and I d like eight lamps, three plants, you know, like so on.
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But I think that, you know, like as a as a kid, I didn t enjoy that.
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I suffered it a bit.
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It was stressful, particularly because his love was a bit conditional on how well I did in certain things.
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But more than anything, now that you ask me that, I see that I am hyper aware.
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Right.
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Like I have this training of coming to a place and seeing it.
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But also because I had to be able to be fast and respond.
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I was I think that I started seeing trends like patterns, like, OK, when the family comes with two kids, normally they would ask for a basket of bread or, you know, like these kind of things where you start seeing trends and patterns.
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And I think that overall throughout my life, I ve been
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like looking at these, for example, micro privileges that I was able to see in different realities where people wouldn t notice them.
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And I was like, yeah, yeah, there is something here that we have to address.
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And because I was able to see trends, it was easy for me to put patterns and frameworks in place.
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And I think that that s what I ve been doing all my life, like which is setting up frameworks and doing global mobilization campaigns and frameworks that are able to move those
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issues and sometimes just bring them to the awareness of others.
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Her kind of listening there is like a it s like a witnessing.
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Yeah.
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You know what struck me about.
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Claudia s story, when I was listening to her in the piece that she mentions really, really briefly, but sometimes gets overlooked in the story, she talks about her siblings died and.
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her parents were unable to remain together, maybe partly because of such trauma.
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But it was interesting, even based on how we started this conversation, we talked about how a parent interacts with a child during situations of trauma.
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And I m sure her father was going through this incredible trauma and was trying to prepare her
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as best he could, whether we agree with the methodology he used or not, but I think it had served her well that her dad was smart enough to know he needed to prepare her for a world where she needed to be able to make change and these patterns and frameworks she talks about and the global mobilization and the work that Claudia has done to advance
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issues for the Hispanic community, primarily on the global stage, is a direct result of those lessons she learned as a kid, probably sparked by this incredible trauma that happened to her family at a very young age.
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you know, her dad was asking her to witness things or to notice things that were age appropriate, right?
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How many plants, what s the most expensive things on the menu?
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She goes on to talk about how that evolved to her noticing
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micro-privileges, to her noticing dynamics, the way the world works.
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And further into the conversation with you and me later, we ended up talking about this word that I don t think I ve ever really used until that conversation, which was invisibilization.
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of people.
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And she, at that point, a Mexican girl, grew up to notice her Hispanic and Latina counterparts all over the world being invisibilized.
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I remember that specifically and we talked a lot about that because
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that community in particular that is a very real problem is you know particularly with some of the positions that they hold.
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And there s a very interesting nugget in our translators film which I m sure we ll talk a little bit about today.
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But there s a very interesting nugget in the film
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where one of the immigrant families talks about the parents are educated people, but when they come to this country because of the language barrier, they re asked to take lower paying jobs.
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And in those positions, that s where the invisibility happens.
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We don t notice the person who comes in, who s cleaning.
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But these are human beings with depth and story and education.
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And story, like every single one of them is a story.
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And I thought that was such a powerful moment in what Claudia talked about, as well as this notion of patterns.
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and being able to discover pattern through those exercises that her dad put her through, which she s just such an incredible lady doing such incredible work.
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We could talk all day about her.
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I think we ve already established a theme for today s conversation, which is parents and children, because I think I know about one of your children that she is or intends to be a professional storyteller in her own way.
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And something I often
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say to my kids, and particularly my daughter, who even at nine kind of identifies as an artist, whatever that means, performer, visual artist, writer, is that I say, you know what you do?
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Her name s Minerva.
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You know what you do, Minerva?
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You notice.
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You re always noticing.
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And to notice is to listen, is to witness, is to be our most fully human.
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Because, right?
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It involves a respect, a namaste of the other person.
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I see you.
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Curiosity.
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We aren t curious enough.
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more broadly these days.
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What prevents us from listening and being curious is we are so bombarded with information and soundbites and social media, we ve become
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We ve developed this lack of curiosity about each other and really understanding each other with any depth evolved into more of a validating our own points of view and seeking out information that just sort of validates the stance that we ve had.
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And I think I d love that Minerva sees herself as an artist because to me, what that means is she s an incredibly curious person.
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Yeah, thank you.
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Yeah, she is.
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And I once heard a psychologist or an expert thinker on this subject talk about how we ve become a culture of echo chambers instead of idea labs.
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And that difference is that we seek validation.
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We re surrounded by people who think the same way we are or are so loud that we might as well just relent and let them label things.
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And what you and I, I mean we keep expressing our gratitude for this, what you and I get to do in these conversations is have the expanse, to have really big, deep, broad, nuanced conversations.
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We get to paint together, Faith, like we have a canvas and we get to paint together.
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And the guests that we bring on are the actual colors that we get to throw on this incredible canvas.
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And when you talk about an idea lab,
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I just love that notion, and I love joining collections of people where we re able to co-create together.
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And this notion of thinking about the platforms that we have, and I mean this for all of us, we all have canvases that we paint on.
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The difference is what you choose to paint that you choose to throw on that canvas.
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And I think we ve had some beautiful colors that we ve been able to throw on this canvas.
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Joelle Martinez also
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Yes!
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Love her.
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I do too.
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I saw her in Denver.
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I saw her in Denver.
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They re all our favorites.
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They re all our favorites.
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I just saw Joelle in Denver too, so she s top of mind.
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Well, I hope you gave her a big compliment and I hope she accepted it because because that s what to tell you.
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Hello to oh good.
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Thank you.
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That s um, that s what her Story is about the one we chose to listen to to re-listen to today.
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Um, just to remind folks she s the president and ceo of the latino leadership institute and
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She was reflecting on the importance of listening and absorbing and compliments.
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And in her words, how it is a particular challenge for the community she s grown up in.
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in the Latino community, you re taught to be humble.
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It s actually really hard.
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It s still hard for me to take a compliment or hear people give me compliments.
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I get awkward, actually.
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And part of that is I remember my grandparents saying, Mija, be humble, Mija.
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Mija, be grateful, Mija.
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And those are good teachings.
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I think humility is important, but sometimes it can come at a cost where we actually can t receive compliments and we diminish our successes in a way, and this perpetuates some of those feelings.
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Module two deals with those very things that again are unique to Latinos in the workplace.
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I know what some of these messages have been throughout our lives and the things we ve been taught and how do we reconcile some of that with actually the ways of the workplace and how do we bring out both sides of that?
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So in module two, we actually have them practice taking a compliment and it s a huge aha moment.
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People will ask me, how do you overcome imposter syndrome?
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I overcome my lack of confidence by actually listening and accepting compliments, step number one.
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And it s crazy, but by module two, they re actually having to self-teach how to take compliments because for so long, that was not necessarily accepted.
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And in some cultures, in the Latino community, some that are first, second gen, who moved over here, particularly from Central,
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America, humility is really important to them in their culture, and they struggle a lot in the workplace feeling confidence without this weight of humility, you know, kind of being an intention.
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So they get to work through some of that and figure out what works for them.
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I always say that when someone gives you a compliment, that person is giving you a gift.
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So it is a generous act to accept it.
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I don t know if that helps you, but you accept the gift.
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I m a complimentary nut.
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I love to give compliments.
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I love to give them.
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I m a work in progress in receiving them.
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I m going to be honest.
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I always, I m always, I m always honest.
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And that is, it is a work in progress.
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And I think for a lot of Latinos, it is as well.
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It s just, it s something that goes against maybe some of our early teachings in our, in our early lives.
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So we have to be intentional about receiving those compliments.
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It doesn t come easy.
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for some of us.
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You re a leader, Greg.
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How do you feel about giving compliments to the people you lead?
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How do you go about it?
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It s essential, Faith, and it starts with a complete understanding that as a leader, once you become a leader, you realize that it s no longer about you.
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It s actually about the team.
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You said this in conversation with Eric Toda and my husband was listening to that whole episode and he was nodding his head so hard.
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He was, he was like, yeah, he just talking at you.
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He was like, that s right, Greg.
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That s your, your success is actually the sum of the successes of all of your people.
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And you, you have to make sure that.
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And I believe I said this, not in that same episode, but maybe in a prior episode, that sometimes leaders get too caught up in trying to be the boss.
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and they don t understand that their most important role is actually to be a coach.
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We got too many bosses and not enough coaches.
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Church, church.
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And once you understand that your role is to be a coach and the success of all of your efforts are tied to the success of your people, it becomes a lot easier to provide compliments and feedback, right, is how we talk about it in a corporate setting, it s feedback.
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And sometimes we equate feedback with always being negative.
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But I also believe that feedback is positive.
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It s a positive, to your point, it s a gift.
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Whether the feedback is an observation that you need to coach somebody around, or if it s an observation that celebrates an action that you want, or a behavior that you want people to repeat.
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This notion of feedback is a critical part of whether it s leadership or whether it s human behavior and how we interact with each other.
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There s a trust element to that.
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That s really important when we have an interaction and we feel psychologically safe enough with each other.
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If I have to say something to you, that might be something I observed that you did that didn t make me feel great.
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We have a good enough relationship that you would take it as a gift and say, wow, that s made me better.
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And I, as a leader, think it s absolutely essential.
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And I literally tell my team, you can ask anybody on my team, I tell them, do not call me your boss.
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I m not your boss.
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I m your coach.
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As your coach, that means I m in it with you.
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I m going to call the plays.
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You have to perform, but I ma observe and give you feedback, whether it s positive or it s an observation, an opportunity to get better.
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And at the end, they get to dump the ice on your head.
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Yeah, I ve had that a few times.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s the payoff.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s the payoff.
2
SPEAKER_02
You know, what Joelle is expressing here as relates to her culture and her upbringing, it really demonstrates that accepting praise is kind of a crucial part of solidifying pride for a lot of the Latino guests whom we got to speak with.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and she brought up something really important, and that s this notion of imposter syndrome.
2
SPEAKER_00
and a lack of confidence.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I think for many Latinos, but I think it s true for a lot in the black and brown or diverse communities, whatever you wanna, however you wanna position it, that you come into these situations, particularly in the halls of influence that Joelle and many others frequent,
2
SPEAKER_00
that sometimes you walk into those situations and people are questioning, did you get there because you were some sort of diversity hire?
2
SPEAKER_00
Are you here to sort of fill some quota?
2
SPEAKER_00
And so you walk into those situations feeling an undue amount of pressure to prove yourself and to prove your worthiness.
2
SPEAKER_00
And there are times where you do show up in those situations and you do have a little bit of an imposter syndrome.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I thought it was important for her to say accepting compliments is one way to sort of overcome those two issues.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s such a specific point of view that never would have crossed my mind had she not shared that with us.
2
SPEAKER_00
I felt that throughout my career.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I could not agree with Joelle more.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, your ability to sort of
2
SPEAKER_00
not only accept the compliments, but more importantly, to believe it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, because that s self-possession.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s when we say, own it, own it, own it, own it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because what typically holds us back or propels us forward
2
SPEAKER_00
is what we say to ourself about ourself.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s that voice in your head that says, I don t have this, or I don t have enough of that, or I don t, or I m more than this, or the people who are successful have said to themselves, I don t need the 10 qualifications that this job says are required.
2
SPEAKER_00
I got six of them and it s go time.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, I m going.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m going.
2
SPEAKER_00
Some of us feel like I at least need to have nine of the ten, even to put my hat in the ring and consider myself for positions of increased influence and responsibility.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it is that voice in our head and what we say to ourself about ourself that either propels us forward or holds us back.
2
SPEAKER_02
What s the best compliment you ve ever received?
2
SPEAKER_00
That I was kind and earnest.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s, that, that, that, that s it.
2
SPEAKER_00
I wish we were in the same studio so I could- That was it, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
That was kind.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s the best compliment I can give.
3
SPEAKER_02
other parents, because you know, everybody s got a smart kid.
3
SPEAKER_02
We all think our kids are so smart.
3
SPEAKER_00
Of course.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right?
3
SPEAKER_02
Your kid s fast and your kid does math.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_02
When I tell somebody, you know, your son was a really kind friend to my daughter.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s like the most I can say.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it s not nice.
3
SPEAKER_02
Nice is different, right?
3
SPEAKER_02
Nice is different.
3
SPEAKER_02
You live in Minnesota.
3
SPEAKER_02
We know Minnesota nice.
3
Right?
3
SPEAKER_02
But kind, deeply kind.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it s what I want for my kids, too.
3
SPEAKER_00
And people ask me about my kids and what I m most proud of.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not some job they have or what schools they went to.
3
SPEAKER_00
It is that they re kind.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, it s that they re kind.
3
SPEAKER_02
The most wonderful compliment I have gotten in recent memory was from you.
3
SPEAKER_02
And we were texting after we listened to the Eric Tota episode.
3
SPEAKER_02
I was walking through Central Park and I just, I don t even know what time it was Central Time, but I was like, I m gonna text him.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think I texted you fire emojis.
3
SPEAKER_02
Cause I was like, I love the conversations we get to have.
3
SPEAKER_02
And you said to me,
3
SPEAKER_02
that you ve learned so much from me.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I stopped and I stopped by sheeps meadow and I like grabbed my heart because I don t know, Greg, that s me to you.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like I don t know what you ve learned from me besides doing corny jokes.
3
SPEAKER_02
But but it was such I because I would add to the list of compliments that you must have gotten in your life kind and earnest, also generous.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s just that was so generous of you to say so thank you for that compliment.
3
SPEAKER_00
But it s all true.
3
SPEAKER_00
And
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t take any interaction with people, and I certainly don t take our interactions for granted.
3
SPEAKER_00
I ve learned from you so many things, but the one thing that definitely comes to mind is I learned to be an explorer.
3
SPEAKER_00
and you are an explorer.
3
SPEAKER_00
The way that you approach these conversations with, and I ve said this to you a thousand times, with the depth and preparation and care and respect that you put into this canvas that we, as I said, we get to paint on, I ve learned that.
3
SPEAKER_00
And this notion of exploration is definitely one thing that I ve taken from you amongst many, many things.
3
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
3
SPEAKER_02
I am deeply grateful.
3
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
3
SPEAKER_02
I ll take that verb and use it as a segue.
3
SPEAKER_02
Let s explore with one of our guests what it means to try to share Latino history with America.
3
SPEAKER_02
This has been Jorge Zamanillo s challenge.
3
SPEAKER_02
He is the director
3
SPEAKER_02
of this new Smithsonian Museum of the American Latino, which, as we know, I don t even think a brick has been laid yet.
3
SPEAKER_02
These things take a while.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, but they have a temporary location at the Smithsonian, which is really cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
We ll talk about it on the other side of the clip, but I had an opportunity to visit, so I m excited to share a little bit about that experience.
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh, good.
3
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
3
SPEAKER_02
I want to hear about that.
3
SPEAKER_02
First, we re going to hear Jorge talk about stories and listening.
3
SPEAKER_02
He s going to describe the story of finding the man who crossed the ocean.
3
SPEAKER_02
He was a Cuban refugee, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
In a boat.
3
SPEAKER_02
And, well, I ll let Jorge tell the story.
3
SPEAKER_01
The first week I started at the Museum of History Miami in 2000, I find this wallet on my desk and it s had a little note on it, a little piece of paper and said this wallet was found in the Cuban refugee boat that we have at the warehouse.
3
SPEAKER_01
So we had this boat that was found with no other information.
3
SPEAKER_01
The Coast Guard had picked it up.
3
SPEAKER_01
and marathon key that had drifted in.
3
SPEAKER_01
Nobody knew where it came from.
3
SPEAKER_01
They knew it was Cuban because some of the belongings on there inside the boat, uh, made out of metal kind of Frankenstein looking thing bolted together with screws everywhere and bolts, uh, big Russian inboard motor, big Ford steering wheel on it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, just, you know, does not look seaworthy at all.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, really heavy looking some gas cans inside of it and nothing else.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I find this wall and I open it up.
3
SPEAKER_01
from the previous curator, and inside is an ID and a photograph of a little girl.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the ID has a person s name on it.
3
SPEAKER_01
His name is a Russian name.
3
SPEAKER_01
Many people in Cuba, many people name their kids with Russian names going back to the 70s and 80s.
3
SPEAKER_01
And his name was Yuri Cardente Hernandez.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so I said, well, that s curious.
3
SPEAKER_01
It has his photo, his photo ID.
3
SPEAKER_01
Um, and I said, this, you know, it s tied to the boat.
3
SPEAKER_01
We got to find this guy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, and this is 2000.
3
SPEAKER_01
Google is still not very effective.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m dating myself here for the internet back then.
3
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t what it is today.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I m going crazy for weeks and I can t find anybody named Yuri Hernandez anywhere.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, so I decided, you know, let me go look at the white pages.
3
SPEAKER_01
Do people still know these?
3
SPEAKER_01
I m sure you re still familiar with the white pages.
3
SPEAKER_01
The yellow pages and the white pages.
3
SPEAKER_02
Putting on my acid wash jacket to flip through those.
3
SPEAKER_01
So we had the entire, you know, white pages going back, you know, like a hundred years actually in our collection.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I go back and I started looking year by year and I said, well, this boat, I think he arrived in 93.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I started looking in 94, 95, 96.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I couldn t find Yuri Hernandez, but somebody told me, he goes, you know, you re looking for the wrong name.
3
SPEAKER_01
His name is Yuri Cardente.
3
SPEAKER_01
Hernandez is a surname, his mom s name.
3
SPEAKER_01
When you come to the United States, you usually drop your second surname.
3
SPEAKER_01
Tell me about it.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I look up Yuri Cardente, and there he is in the phone book.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s two addresses for him.
3
SPEAKER_01
I start calling.
3
SPEAKER_01
Back then, again, there s no cell phones.
3
SPEAKER_01
So the number you re calling is a landline.
3
SPEAKER_01
And why would he pick up the phone from nine to five while I m at work when he s at work, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I find his side.
3
SPEAKER_01
Let me let me go in person.
3
SPEAKER_01
So one day I leave work late.
3
SPEAKER_01
I wait till like 630 and it s in that little Havana neighborhood I grew up in.
3
SPEAKER_01
So on the way home, I stopped by this duplex and knock on his door and he.
3
SPEAKER_01
This person I knew, I had his photo ID.
3
SPEAKER_01
He opens the door, kind of startled, like, what did I do?
3
SPEAKER_01
Who are you?
3
SPEAKER_00
Who are you?
3
SPEAKER_01
I hear something in the background.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I say, you know, Yuri, is this your wallet?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I open it up and he looks at it and he just breaks down crying.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s his daughter.
3
SPEAKER_01
He left in Cuba.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he was the owner of this boat.
3
SPEAKER_01
And just one of those moments, you know, we both can get so emotional because that s my idea.
3
SPEAKER_01
Where did you get this?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I said, we found this wallet in your boat.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he goes, what boat?
3
SPEAKER_01
That boat was lost at sea when they rescued us.
3
SPEAKER_01
So he goes on to tell me this amazing story, which I ll paraphrase here because it s longer.
3
SPEAKER_01
But so they want to leave Cuba, him and his brother and a friend of his.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they start building this boat.
3
SPEAKER_01
He worked in an auto part in a body shop.
3
SPEAKER_01
fixing cars and every day he would steal or take home one little bolt or screw so they wouldn t notice that he was taking them.
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_01
Eventually he starts getting, uh, sheet metal from different abandoned cars in the streets.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they start putting together this boat, this Frankenstein looking boat and the sheet metal, they can t weld it.
3
SPEAKER_01
They can t do anything else.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I had to screw it together with these bolts that he took each day and they find an old generator for a motor.
3
SPEAKER_01
They put this thing together.
3
SPEAKER_01
They launched it in the river, him and his brother and a friend and they, uh,
3
SPEAKER_01
In the dark of the night, they time when the patrol boats are going by on the coast so they won t get intercepted and caught.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they finally launch, and it breaks down within like 100 feet.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they re devastated.
3
SPEAKER_01
After months and months of planning, they have this thing hidden under a tarp in their yard, and they re scared of getting caught.
3
SPEAKER_01
They had said goodbye to their family already, leaving his wife and daughter behind.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they had to drag this thing back.
3
SPEAKER_01
They have no trailer.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they go looking for a part for the carburetor that broke down.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they find someone that has the part.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he says, well, I ll give you this part, but you got to take me and my cousin also.
3
SPEAKER_01
So now it s five men on this smaller boat and they launch again and they make it out to sea.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s amazing.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re out in the ocean.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re trying to get on the straits because if you find a current, it will just take you up along the Keys and along the coast of Florida.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s only 90 miles from launch point.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s amazing.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they, um, they get on there.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re sitting on the gas cans.
3
SPEAKER_01
The gas fumes are killing them.
3
SPEAKER_01
He decides at one point to change to his swimming trunks, takes his pants off that has his wallet inside, rolls it all up and puts it under the center console and forgets about it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they re drifting.
3
SPEAKER_01
The boat breaks down.
3
SPEAKER_01
They see a big freighter coming by like a day or two later, you know, they ve been thunderstorms and sharks everywhere.
3
SPEAKER_01
Typical story.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he says, well,
3
SPEAKER_01
There s a freighter approaching the freighter drops a rope ladder to rescue them.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they re worried that says this is Soviet freighter.
3
SPEAKER_01
Is this a friendly freighter?
3
SPEAKER_01
So he says, I ll go.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ll go up the rope ladder.
3
SPEAKER_01
If it s friendly.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ll wave you on if it s, if it s not friendly of Soviet, I ll take my hat off my baseball cap and throw it into the ocean.
3
SPEAKER_01
So he, so that s the plan, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
He says, if it is just start swimming, do not get on, get away from us.
3
SPEAKER_01
So the, uh, scary.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they, so he starts climbing the rope ladder.
3
SPEAKER_01
It turns out to, I think it s like a Danish or Swedish ship.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s friendly.
3
SPEAKER_01
They take them on, they bring them to the coast guard and the keys.
3
SPEAKER_01
And back then the policy with the wet foot dry foot was that if you made it to land or you were
4
SPEAKER_02
you were allowed to stay in the United States.
4
SPEAKER_02
So they, they made it, they get to the United States, their boat is left out in the Gulf somewhere in the Straits, or in the Straits of the Atlantic, and eventually it drifts and makes it to shore in the Keys, and the boat is found by someone, and it s donated to the museum.
4
SPEAKER_01
Jorge.
4
SPEAKER_01
Holy moly, that story.
4
SPEAKER_03
That story.
4
SPEAKER_03
And I ll tell you, back in July, we had our board meeting in DC, and we actually had our board dinner at the museum.
4
SPEAKER_03
And so we took our entire board through the exhibit, and I gotta tell you, there were some real emotions being displayed, and that story and so many other stories like that are being told in this exhibit.
4
SPEAKER_03
So I would encourage anybody who, if you happen to be in Washington, D.C., please take the opportunity to visit the Museum of the American Latino.
4
SPEAKER_03
It is certainly worth the time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Isn t that exhibit, it s called Presente, I think?
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s right now housed in the National Museum of American History, right?
4
SPEAKER_03
Correct.
4
SPEAKER_03
And it was certainly worth it.
4
SPEAKER_03
There are so many incredible stories.
4
SPEAKER_03
I mean, what really struck me about it was just these stories are just so incredibly human and relatable.
4
SPEAKER_03
And these are the kinds of stories that need to be elevated.
4
SPEAKER_03
that bring us together, that close these gaps and divisions between people.
4
SPEAKER_03
Because you cannot listen to that story and not feel the incredible desire and the love.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the yearning, yes.
4
SPEAKER_01
To do anything to improve them.
4
SPEAKER_01
To be an American, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
All of that, all of that.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the pictures of his kid.
4
SPEAKER_01
These are not one side or the other stories.
4
SPEAKER_01
These are human stories.
4
SPEAKER_03
That s could you imagine and seeing that photograph of your daughter who you leave behind to it s just so heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I m reluctant to add this coda, but I don t think it will surprise you.
4
SPEAKER_01
I saw in the news fairly recently, there was a Time article and there was a New York Times article about controversy surrounding our friend Jorge s efforts.
4
SPEAKER_01
It boils down to, so perhaps you know this, US Bank Funds is helping to fund the museum, but 50% of funding comes from the government.
4
SPEAKER_01
So that means Congress gets to vote on this.
4
SPEAKER_01
There has been pushback from conservative Latinos in Congress.
4
SPEAKER_01
Some Republican Congress people have asked to put some exhibits that were planned.
4
SPEAKER_01
There was an exhibit planned about the civil rights, the Latin civil rights.
4
SPEAKER_01
history of the 1960s and that exhibit has been put on hold and a new one on salsa and Latin music is being developed in its place to be fair and to give voice to both sides.
4
SPEAKER_01
Conservative activists are
4
SPEAKER_01
adamant that Latinos should not be painted as victims of oppression.
4
SPEAKER_01
And liberal activists and historians believe that Latinos fight against injustice is a vital part of their history.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it just, I mean, Greg, once again, it comes back to stories, just tell all the stories, tell the stories, like this doesn t have to be a fight, tell all the stories, tell all the stories.
4
SPEAKER_03
And
4
SPEAKER_03
you use the word truth and that s really what s being debated right now, isn t it?
4
SPEAKER_03
What is true anymore and who s true?
4
SPEAKER_01
And who gets to tell, that s right.
4
SPEAKER_03
And who gets to tell it.
4
SPEAKER_03
And what s changed for me in such an incredibly beautiful way is what you just said, who gets to tell the history is what has changed.
4
SPEAKER_03
And so from my perspective,
4
SPEAKER_03
we have gotten more at the truth now, because it s not just a certain point of view that has been able to document the history, but now we re able to include more inclusive voices, different perspectives, lived experiences that actually are individual and collective truths.
4
SPEAKER_03
And there are some who don t want that to be shared.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that s what you and I get to do.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s what we do in the show.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I will add, it s not just letting new or invisible voices, if that s a thing, speak and amplifying them.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s also more, I would like to think more people are listening, right?
4
SPEAKER_01
Again, you can have all the stories in the world, but if people aren t listening, where are they landing?
4
SPEAKER_03
People are listening because they re looking for their stories to be told.
4
SPEAKER_03
They re looking for their voices and faces to be represented in every aspect of our culture and business and politics.
4
SPEAKER_03
People want to see themselves in their lived experiences reflected.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that, my friend, is the perfect segue to this next clip, because it s about Rudy Valdez, the incredible director of a film that you re the executive producer of.
4
SPEAKER_01
I know a little bit about it.
4
SPEAKER_01
Award-winning film.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes, sir.
4
SPEAKER_01
And counting.
4
SPEAKER_01
Award-winning and counting more, I think.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is Rudy talking about what it meant to him to listen to John Leguizamo.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was always somebody, even as a young kid who wanted to tell stories and wanted to be a part of that landscape and wanted a voice so badly.
4
SPEAKER_00
And, you know, I loved things like The Wonder Years and I love things like Stand By Me and I love, you know, so many of these films that people are goonies, you know, that are pillars in, you know, the coming of age stories.
4
SPEAKER_00
But what I noticed at a very young age is
4
SPEAKER_00
There s nobody who looks like me in any of these.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that was very apparent to me.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it was very frustrating to me as a young kid, especially as I started to become an actor and a writer.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I really wanted to go out into the world and talk about a full circle moment.
4
SPEAKER_00
I had a friend send me this or give me this VHS tape which was a bootleg recording of a one-man show called Freak by John Leguizamo and I remember watching that and being in just
4
SPEAKER_00
absolute awe of what was happening on that stage.
4
SPEAKER_00
Here was somebody who looked like me, who was commanding the stage, who was entertaining and had everyone in the palm of his hand with his story, with his narrative and controlling his narrative.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that was one of the final straws in my life that was like,
4
SPEAKER_00
I didn t watch that and think, oh, I can do that.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like I never thought that, but I watched it and I said, I know it s possible now.
4
SPEAKER_00
I know that that can happen.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I dropped out of college and I left.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was like, I m going to New York and I m going to figure out how to have a voice and how to do some of these things.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that changed me.
4
SPEAKER_00
It truly changed something in me to say, you know, and that s why these stories that are emblematic of larger stories are important.
4
SPEAKER_03
Rudy s incredible.
4
SPEAKER_03
He s such a great storyteller.
4
SPEAKER_03
But I hope everyone has had an opportunity to see the film.
4
SPEAKER_03
And if you haven t, you can still watch it at translatorsfilm.com.
4
SPEAKER_03
It s the story of 11 million kids who currently translate everyday life for their families.
4
SPEAKER_03
And Rudy s the director.
4
SPEAKER_03
And US Bank was proud to bring those stories to life.
4
SPEAKER_03
But Rudy touched on it perfectly.
4
SPEAKER_03
If you can t see it, then you don t believe it s possible.
4
SPEAKER_01
the kids themselves who are in the film, it follows three different kids and their families, expressed to you and me, I was lucky enough to be at a screening, that not until they saw themselves on screen in this film did they realize that they were part of something bigger.
4
SPEAKER_03
So first of all, we should say that three kids are Denzel, who at the time of the film was 11.
4
SPEAKER_03
He s now, they re all a year older.
4
SPEAKER_03
Denzel, Hottie, who was 13 at the time of the film filming, and then Virginia, who was 16.
4
SPEAKER_03
And from the first time I met them as these shy tweens and teens who were just sort of
4
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overwhelmed by this whole experience and why these cameras were coming into their homes and why these cameras were in their face.
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To now being, coming to these movie premieres in New York City and Los Angeles.
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Red carpet.
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Now they re taking selfies and even, you know, they re feeling this immense, not only sense of pride, but self-worth.
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And I just, it s one of the incredible benefits and outcomes from this entire project is just seeing how it is.
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change the perception that these kids have of themselves.
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And not only the kids, but the families as a whole, like the parents who were very hesitant because they didn t speak great English very early on in the process.
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Now they show up at the premieres, you know, dolled up and doing media interviews, and they re just excited to do media interviews, and they don t care that their English is not perfect.
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They just lean into the process, and it s just been a beautiful, beautiful experience in every way for the entire family, and certainly for all of us that were involved.
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So these kids felt
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that they were separate, that they had no idea how many other kids were like them.
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And every day they speak for their parents, but it took being seen in this way, in this film, to feel like they were listened to, right?
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And now they can be heroes for, you know, 10,999,997 other kids.
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I hope I did the math right.
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Yeah, close enough, close enough.
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Just the way that John Leguizamo was that for Rudy?
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A hundred percent.
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And we did a screening, as you know, Faith, the three families are all from the general Tampa area, just coincidentally.
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And we did a screening recently for the Friends and
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for the friends of the families and relatives of the families in Tampa.
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And so they invited the aunts and the uncles and the boyfriends and the girlfriends and the teacher in the films.
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I won t ruin it for those.
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She was there.
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And just to see the impact and the influence that it has not only on the immediate families, but all of the folks around them and just the shared joy and collective sort of pride that comes with them.
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They re so proud of that.
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The story is being told.
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We re all translators in one way or another.
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We all translate, whether it be for colleagues at work,
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or our parents, right?
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Teaching my mom, who s 93, how to text or use social media or understand certain things.
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I think we ll all be able to relate this notion of how we translate everyday life for each other.
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We translate lived experiences, we translate culture, and we do that for each other.
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And that s part of our coexistence.
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Was there someone when you were younger who was
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you know, what John Leguizamo was to Rudy was was there a a person who represented something for you where you re like, wow, either you could see yourself in him or her eventually or or they inspired you.
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Yes, it was not even somebody who s
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name I even remember.
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I must have been like six or seven and my mom had given me some money to go get my hair cut.
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And I was sitting in the barbershop and there was this magazine, and on the cover of this magazine was this black gentleman in a suit and tie and a briefcase.
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And he was walking, you know, it was a still shot, but he s apparently walking through a city like New York City with these caps.
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And I just remember looking at that photograph and saying, that s going to be me.
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I m going to be a businessman.
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I m going to wear a suit to work.
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Because nobody in my neighborhood was wearing suits.
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I m going to have a briefcase.
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Remember briefcases?
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But I just remember looking at that and saying, that s what I m going to be.
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I hadn t seen that.
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I had never seen that.
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That wasn t part of my experience at that time.
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But seeing that, it was aspirational for me.
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I love that you just placed that as a kid at a barbershop because we ve had the gift of having so many interviews that you may or may not remember this one, but somebody we interviewed in like season one or two said that the defining moment in his life was when he went to the barbershop and he noticed that it was either the owner of the barbershop or someone who drove up to have his hair cut, drove up in the nicest Mustang.
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And he was like, did he steal that?
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And the guy was like, no.
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And he said, and this was, this was the, the, you know, I remember that this was the culture that this kid lived in.
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Right.
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So he s like, well, does he sell drugs?
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He s like, no, it has a job.
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He s a businessman.
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And that kid s head exploded.
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Uh-huh.
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Like, what is that?
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What is a businessman?
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What does that mean?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I just remember that so vividly.
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Greg, I love that you are, you re not, this reminds me of the movie Anchorman.
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You re not just a businessman.
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You re the businessman, but you, you wear the suits.
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I m a business man.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, I learned that in season three, I think.
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That s a Jay-Z lyric, everybody.
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You re welcome.
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You re welcome.
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But you also wear the fly sneakers.
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Like, you make it yours.
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I do.
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You re not wearing any wingtips with your briefcase and your suit.
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Yeah, no, I usually have some fly sneakers on to go with mine.
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It s just a part of, but it goes back to some of what I think, you know, Rudy is talking about and what these kids are experiencing.
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And I literally said to each one of them, at the end of the screenings in Tampa, we provided each one of them with a movie poster with their image on it.
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And I had the privilege of presenting each one of them with their movie poster as a gift on behalf of USF.
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And to each one of them, I said the very same thing.
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I said, you are enough.
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Don t change for anyone.
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You are enough.
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Who you are is enough.
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And I literally said that to each one of them as I handed them this.
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And I could tell, you know, each one of them reacted a little bit differently.
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You know, they won t necessarily know what it means until years later.
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And I said, it probably doesn t mean anything to you right now, but I just want you to remember this moment that somebody said that to you and years later, it ll, it ll make more sense to you.
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And I was just so proud that I had that opportunity to share that with them because you, you could just see how much that they ve grown over the course of this process.
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And look what you re doing, you re helping out Joelle on her mission to help people accept approbation and validation, right?
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The sooner the better, seeing these kids and telling them they re enough, yeah.
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So the last clip we have today is our friend Eric Toda.
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Talk about generous.
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He was so vulnerable.
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in conversation with him.
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Holy moly.
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He s the global head of social marketing at Meta and the executive general manager of Meta Prosper.
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And here he talks about, well, he talks about being asked to speak and actually trusting that there would be people to listen to what he had to say.
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And boy, were there.
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At a surge of anti-Asian violence in New York and Oakland and San Francisco, there were about eight, nine days straight of attacks against the community that left a few people, a few elderly people dead.
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And then we go into the Super Bowl and all the Super Bowl spots are very positive, you know,
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Joe Biden s in the administration now.
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Hooray.
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You know, and like we got through the summer, you know, and I thought that was really wrong.
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I thought that was really wrong, mostly because as an advertiser and a marketer.
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All it takes is for one, it s going to take consistency to defeat racism.
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It s going to take, it s going to take consistency, you know, to stand with minority communities.
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It s, it s going to take consistency of messaging, you know, to reinforce your commitment, you know, to your employee base.
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That probably isn t just one race and none of the brands did that.
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And it was very disappointing to me.
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And I get a phone call from ad week, um,
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asking if I wanted to write a thought piece on what s happening to the community as an Asian American executive.
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I said, no, pretty quickly.
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I was in 10 seconds.
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I said, no, I was like, wrong person asked, sorry.
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And the reason is because I was like, I don t have a place to do this.
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Like this is what, what, what, what possibly could I say?
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What possibly could I say that could help people?
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And well, there, and the convincing argument to me from them was,
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Eric, you re actually our last call.
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There were about eight other executives that said no to us.
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Wow.
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Eight other.
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And wow.
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I know every single one of those eight.
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Right.
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And I respect them.
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I respect them.
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I respect why they said no.
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And to me, I was I felt ashamed.
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I felt super ashamed.
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And, you know, those other eight executives speak other languages.
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You know, they re they re further down the spectrum than I am.
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You know, and and I was like, you know what?
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Like, I might have something to say.
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I might.
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And
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And that s when I put pen to paper and I wrote it and I sat on it for about 48 hours.
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And we kept calling like, did you do it?
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Did you write it?
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We don t watch this thing, man.
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I was like, I was like, I wrote it.
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I don t know if it s any good.
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I don t know if people are going to read this, but I wrote it and I wrote what was in my head and my heart.
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And I remember sending it in to Adweek.
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and crying, crying quite a bit.
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I remember not sleeping.
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I remember my wife asking me why I m not sleeping.
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And I was just really nervous.
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I was really scared.
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I was scared for a couple of different reasons.
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And this is kind of what part of the evolution of me.
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I was scared because I didn t think I had a place to talk about the community or lead the community or even be a leader in the community.
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I ve always known I ve been in a great executive, a great leader that certainly looks like other people.
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But that was never like a con, like I was never like, yes, and that s me, an Asian-American leader.
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let s go.
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It s always Yes, that s me.
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I m a marketing executive.
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And I just happen to be Asian.
6
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And, you know, still continues to be true.
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But now there s this other part of me where I m like, but the part of my identity that I was not proud of before I am proud of now.
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And that was the change that I am proud of now.
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I am proud of it.
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And even if you don t like it, and even if you don t think I should be proud of it, or even if you don t think I have the right to be proud of it, I m going to be proud of what I see in the mirror.
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And that was the change when I sent that piece in was I became proud of what I saw in the mirror, and everything, my faults, where I was on the ethnicity spectrum, all that stuff.
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Like, I was like, that s it.
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Now, as an advertising and someone that s also in corporate comms, launching something on any publication on a Friday is not advised.
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It s not advised.
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And Adweek was... It s Shabbat, man.
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They re like, and they re like, they re like, you know what, this is launching today, Friday.
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And I was like, I was like, guys, no one s gonna read this.
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It s also President s Day weekend.
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No one s gonna read this.
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I was like, this is doomed.
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This is doomed forever.
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And I was so sad.
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I was so sad.
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I was like, I poured my heart into this piece.
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And now no one s going to read it.
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And I went to sleep.
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And when I woke up,
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I look at my phone and I m, you know, as a brand marketing professional, you always tell your agencies and, you know, the people internally, like, Oh, I m going to make this go viral.
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You know, I m going to like, watch this, go watch this, watch this start to trend, like watch this.
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And then you do things and you make work and it goes viral and it trends.
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And like, I won like one literal awards for doing just that, but seeing.
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what I wrote that represented me, that represented my truth, that represented my experience, do what I do for a living, do those types of numbers, have those numbers dance, have those numbers shut down ad week because they didn t have the server space.
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It showed me that I
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Oh, I shouldn t have waited so long.
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And I felt really bad about that.
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I felt super bad about that.
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And it opened the floodgates to a number of different people speaking up.
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I think a lot of people saw me go into the fire and not die.
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And so they spoke up too.
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But the biggest thing that I felt was, damn, I didn t know it was going to be so easy.
6
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to be proud of who I was.
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Wow.
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Where he landed on that, when he said, what took me so long, is something that I think strikes a lot of us who
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who do this work, and when I say this work, meaning the work of being in service of others and being in service of something bigger than yourself, is it does take a great deal of courage and bravery to put yourself, your personal capital and everything that you ve worked so hard for, status, money, whatever it is, and you have this fear of putting yourself out there.
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Safety.
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Yeah.
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And once you muster up the courage to do that, you know, it goes back to where we started this conversation like that.
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We all have an individual responsibility to help make the change happen.
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And, uh, and we have, we just need to lean into that.
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And I m so glad that Eric did.
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It also really drives home how hungry people are to listen.
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The fact that it went
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viral.
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Beyond viral, right?
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It goes back to something you were saying before.
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People are so hungry to see themselves and to listen to people who are brave enough to tell their own stories.
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That
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somehow with the alchemy of storytelling, the most specific human, honest story that s only about you becomes universal because there s so many points of entry for people.
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And the listening, as we ve said a number of times today, it s having the curiosity because in order to make those numbers dance, as Eric said, there are a lot of people who aren t a part of the Asian community.
6
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who took a great deal of interest, who took action and found inspiration from his words.
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So this notion of listening has a profound effect beyond your intended audience.
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And it also empowers others to take action and accept their responsibility as well.
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And you never know who s listening and whom you are affecting.
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And you know, his story, what he wrote for Adweek and what he told us in our conversation with him begins with his grandfather, who was fifth generation American, didn t even speak Japanese, but was a Japanese American and who was beaten.
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And P.S., who also served in World War II after his own family was put in an internment camp.
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I ve told that story to my kids who aren t Asian American and are incredibly moved by it.
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And, and Greg, you know, you have like a magician s hat of stories.
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You know, you can just put, you pull out the rabbits, you pull out the scarves.
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You, you have so many stories, you forget how many stories you have, but I have soaked them up.
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And, and the stories I have reminded my son, for example, who, who, you know, is a big baseball fan.
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And I ve reminded him like, hey, you know, my friend Greg used to tell me that when he played baseball, the other teams didn t want to come to their field because it was all there was no grass.
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It was rocks and branches.
6
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And, you know, that s when we have to, like, leave the island of Manhattan to go somewhere and it takes forever and it s raining.
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I m like, hey, kid, you got grass.
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At least you got grass, right?
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Right.
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Or I ll never, I ll never forget, this is like briefest little story, but when you mentioned that you and your brother used to switch shoes on the basketball court, one of you would go in and get to wear the shoes with the good souls and then come out and switch shoes.
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Cause, cause your mom was a single mom and she didn t have enough money to buy you both great basketball shoes, right?
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Most embarrassing thing ever happened to me.
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was that, having to do that.
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Those stories stick with you.
6
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My kid knows your stories.
6
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Wow.
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I m honored.
6
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And I think that Eric said something else that really stuck with me.
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When he said, it s a part of his identity that he wasn t proud of before, but is proud of now.
6
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And that journey that he went on is a journey that I think all of us learn to accept the things that make us who we are and to be able to share that proudly and to lead out loud.
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I was glad he touched upon that.
6
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I m glad he had gotten to that place in his own personal journey.
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It was one of the most important things that he said amongst many, many really important things.
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We re coming to the end of our conversation today.
6
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And it s really gratifying to see that this conversation that s been woven through with lessons about listening ends again with pride.
6
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Because if you have something to say and people listen, that s going to make you proud.
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A hundred percent.
6
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You said you never know who s listening.
6
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That really sticks with me as well.
6
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Thanks for listening to another episode of Real Good.
6
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We ve been doing this for five seasons, and in this episode, we looked back at only our most recent set of interviews.
6
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And I have to say, there is so much more to check out in our catalog.
6
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I was held at gunpoint in utero because of this issue of race.
7
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after the Civil War, this was one of the first ways for black men to be entrepreneurs, because white men didn t do service work.
7
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When a tornado stays on the ground for hours and travels 200 miles and destroys everything in its path, who puts that back together?
7
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If you like what you heard, subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
7
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Check out those earlier seasons.
7
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As for what s next, we hope to see you soon after a little bit of a break.
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Real Good is brought to you by U.S.
7
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Bank.
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It is hosted by me, Faith Saley, and my very good friend, Greg Cunningham, Chief Diversity Officer at U.S.
7
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Bank.
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This season was produced by Willis Arnold, Thea Pope, and Jenner Pasqua.
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Edited by Matt Winneger.
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Executive produced by Heidi Riley and Erin Goulden.
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Special thanks to Courtney Morales, Caroline Ehringer, and Samantha Yates.
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And all the folks working behind the scenes that helped bring this season to the life.
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Thank you for listening and for doing the good work.
7
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I hope today s episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
7
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today s show with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on apple podcast.
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If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend.
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Leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes.
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I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better.
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And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.
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And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.