The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 124: Don Wettrick – Pure Genius: Learning From The Innovation Teacher

Episode Date: May 15, 2016

Episode 124: Don Wettrick – Pure Genius: Learning From The Innovation Teacher Don Wettrick has become a great friend over the last three months.  I absolutely love what he is doing for the students he's leading at Noblesville High School.  It takes a dynamic and fearless leader to create and implement his idea for an Innovation factory within a high school.  I love it!   Don Wettrick is an Innovation Specialist at Noblesville High School, just outside Indianapolis, IN. He is the author of "Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level". Wettrick has worked as a middle school and high school teacher; educational and innovation consultant; and educational speaker. Don is passionate about helping students find their educational opportunities and providing them with the digital tools they need to give them a competitive edge. Don has lectured across the US and Europe about collaboration, social media use, and work environments that enable innovation. He also hosts an internet radio program, InnovatED, for the BAM! Radio Network.  Most importantly Don works with educators and students to bring innovation and collaborative skills into education. Episode 124: Don Wettrick – Pure Genius: Learning From The Innovation Teacher Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show "Students Have The Arrogance Of Belief" In This Episode, You Will Learn: Having a broader view of the journey leads to sustained excellence Why Prince is the definition of "sustained excellence" to Don (**Note – This conversation was recorded prior to Prince tragically passing away) How Don was inspired by Dan Pink's TED Talk The students have the arrogance of belief – it's great Learning can be a problem if the only destination is getting into college The art of non-conformity The heroes journey is life Don wants adventure – "Too many people are busy watching someone else's and not doing it themselves" The importance of "Just Asking…" And what it can lead to Being a learning leader means you are embrace the failures and learn from them "Don Wettrick has incorporated a range of creativity-generating concepts into his teaching and turned his classroom into an innovation factory." – Dan Pink Continue Learning: See why over 31,000 people follow Don on Twitter: @DonWettrick Read: Pure Genius Go to: TheInnovationTeacher.com To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Don Wettrick on the show, please don't hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell Bio From The InnovationTeacher.com Don Wettrick is an Innovation Specialist at Noblesville High School, just outside Indianapolis, IN. He is the author of "Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level". Wettrick has worked as a middle school and high school teacher; educational and innovation consultant; and educational speaker. Don is passionate about helping students find their educational opportunities and providing them with the digital tools they need to give them a competitive edge. Don has lectured across the US and Europe about collaboration, social media use, and work environments that enable innovation. He also hosts an internet radio program, InnovatED, for the BAM! Radio Network.  Most importantly Don works with educators and students to bring innovation and collaborative skills into education.

What journey are you taking? Everybody loves to watch the journey. It's so much more fulfilling to be on your own. And I wanted to get my kids to where they're taking their journey because it is what's life is all about. But it's the reason why people watch reality TV or porn or, quite frankly, sports. Dudes watch other dudes. Do what you couldn't do.

Fine. Find your thing, man. Or get out and play, even if you're not getting paid for it. I want you to experience not watch. And too many times in education, we're watching somebody else's curriculum, and you're just going through the motions because it's not your motion. And of course, you don't like it as much. But when you can set a kid on their journey and it just happens to be your classroom,

man, Ryan, that's a little slice of heaven. So that's why I do what I do. It's fun. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey everyone, it's Ryan.

I wanted to make a quick announcement. A number of you had sent me emails in regards to asking for a place to further this dialogue with like-minded people, other listeners, fans, and friends of the Learning Leader Show. So I set up a group on Facebook. It's Facebook.com slash groups slash learning leader. It's a closed group. But if you'd like an invite, simply shoot me a quick note. And I'd be happy to bring you into the group.

This is a place where we can freely communicate and discuss leadership, learning, creative ideas, podcasting, and new and innovative ways of thinking a place where we could potentially argue a little bit, have an open mind and have constructive dialogue. I've loved the early response from the people who are already in the group. group, but simply send me a note. I'll add you to it. I look forward to talking with more of you very soon. Hey, and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, absolutely thrilled with tonight's featured leader. It's with Don Wetrick. Don is an innovation specialist at Noblesville High School just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. He is also the author of pure genius, building a culture of innovation and taking 20% time to the next level. Don is lectured across the United States and Europe about collaboration, social media use,

and work environments that enable innovation. He also hosts an internet radio program for the BAM radio network. But most importantly, Don works with educators and students to bring innovation and collaborative skills into education. A few of the topics we got into. Don explains why too many people. people are busy watching someone else's life. He urges people to take action for themselves instead of just watching others. And then both of us shared some great stories on the importance of simply asking.

If you don't ask, then we both will guarantee the answer will always be no. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Don Wetrick. All right, Don, man, so excited. I know I've been really looking forward to this conversation since you and I have talked a few times about some of the great things you're doing. So first I wanted to say welcome to the Learning Leader Show. And I've been excited because I'm a fan of your show. Awesome, man. I appreciate that.

First question is around sustained excellence. I love studying people who have been able to sustain excellence over an extended period of time. And this is part of what you do. You're certainly one of these types of guys. is you actually surround yourselves with a classroom full of them on a regular basis, as well as other great leaders like Dan Pink and Seth Godin and others that we'll talk about later on. I'm curious from your perspective, what are some of the common characteristics that leaders who have sustained excellence

over an extended period of time all seem to share? They have a broader look of the journey. I think that they accept failure as a fun. learning experience. And I think that's also why they weren't necessarily good at school, but they were better at learning. This is something we fight. I've got an unusual class where the innovation classes, and it's actually called innovation

and open source learning, that it's their time to work on the things that they feel like they need to work on, they're passionate about. So the most successful ones that we've had in here put aside the good boy, good girl, good student label, and they start working on things. knowing that it's going to mess up. You know, I often, I actually had an epiphany years ago when, you know, we always talk about how kids don't like failure and they don't want to do bad in school. And I watch some students mess up at video games.

And if you watch any student or any kid or actually anybody, you know, if you ask them, hey, if you beat the game, you know, you drop 60 bucks and you beat the game on the first life on your first try, what do you think? And then other than the ego boost, they'd be like, that's not a challenge. That stinks. And yet, you know, most people, if they had a quote-unquote easy teacher and they didn't have to learn anything, they'd embrace that, they'd appreciate that. Well, that's no. So a lot of the circle of awesomeness, these people that I've been fortunate enough to meet from the entrepreneurial world and other places.

And these people all have that characteristic. They, when they're messing up, they're going, ah, sweet, this is going to be great the next time. or, you know, just like in a video game, instead of turning left, I'm going to turn right. Instead of a, you know, bone arrow, I'm going to use a knife or, you know, I'm pretending like I know a video game. I'm not that much of a game. I got you. Are there, yeah, outside of your students, and we're going to get into exactly what you do, who are the first people that come to mind when you hear that phrase sustained excellence,

people who accept the journey and have a broader view of it? See, I'm such an audiophile. I mean, I know, and I love your podcast. And I should say, you know, some sort of entrepreneurial juggernaut. But I'm going to say Prince. I love it, dude. I don't necessarily want to, you know, I mean, there are common stock answers there. And it's nice to hear something.

I want to hear why. I'm not going to go Stephen Jobs. I'm not going to go Elon Musk. I'm going to go Prince. You know, belittled, made fun of, and had his own thing. And then deliberately did his own thing. And then when he got, you know, some attention, they wanted him to do an album that sounded like this. And he didn't.

And then when he had his own sound, people say, okay, we want purple rain too. He's like, nope, I'm going to do things. And he's constantly, constantly trying things. And when it doesn't sell, he doesn't care. He does it for him. And he's learning and he's adapting. And he's, yeah, he's amazing. I mean, I'm that way with a lot of, again, I'm an audiophile.

Like the story of Neil Young getting taken to court because he didn't sound like Neil Young. You know, they were so upset that he didn't do his, you know, harvest moon. thing twice and, you know, how dare you? And, yeah, I love it. People like that. So yeah, that's my, that's an answer, Prince. I love it, man. Let's dive into you, Don, and exactly what you're doing now on a daily basis. It's a really, I'm, I absolutely love it. I know I was happy that we were introduced by previous guest, Tom Bill You, and who's also awesome. And you went out to LA and did his show Inside Quest, which I've watched multiple times, which is awesome. I recommend people checking that out too.

But Don, can you describe what you do on a daily basis? The simplest way I can put it is if I gave you, so we meet every other day. We're on block classes. And if I gave you an hour and a half every day to work on the things that you wish you had time where you always wanted to work with or a person you've always wanted to work with, what would you do? And that's the class. And anyway, hold on.

Let's take it all the way back. You're in a high school outside of Indianapolis teaching. Yes. I'm based in the suburbs of Indianapolis, and I'm a teacher. And I guess the genesis of the story is I listened to Dan Pink's TED Talk five years ago. And so five years ago, I thought, you know, let's try that. And it was actually the worst experience ever because I asked students, I'm like, hey, because, you know, they liked the video too. And Dan's exciting.

And they're like, hey, what would it be like if we gave you time to work on the things you always wanted to work on? And it's like it's just the same way people when they said, you know, this year I'm going to lose weight. This year I'm going to do blah, blah, blah. This year I'm going to learn how to play guitar. And it's fun to say those things out loud. But the reality is most people like their prison cell. It's easier to complain about the things that you don't get to do when you're not put to the test. And that's what I learned.

And it was weird because it almost counterintuitive, the students that really struggled the most had straight A's. and they almost more like said, hey, we had a deal. I sat here, I nodded my head, I told you what you wanted to hear. I'm a good boy, I'm a good girl. You gave me a good grade. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm telling you, I want you to move around. I want you to collaborate. I want you to Skype with people.

I want you to leave the building. I want you to fail. I want you to try things. I want you to prototype things. And they're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, say, no, no, no. Because if I prototype something and it doesn't work, I get a bad grade, right? I'm like, no, no, you get graded on improvement. Well, that doesn't make sense to a lot of people.

And yet it's the most basic way we learn. And so, you know, along we went and a couple years, well, I should give credit where credits do. I actually, this was an experiment in a high school English class. And it went well enough for some people that I wanted to give it its own class. And so I asked my principal and I said, hey, you know, could I have this own time? And he said, not unless you find a Daniel Pink course in the state catalog. And, you know, kind of like dumb and dumber. I'm like, so you're saying I got a chance.

So I found this really vague course description, and we ran with it, and they still said no, but I pretended that he said yes. So I started asking for help, and I thought, and at the time, I'm just, I'm naive. And I'm like, I'm not reading Dan Pink's books yet. I'm not privy to Peter Thiel or, you know, even Seth Godin or people like that. I'm not a part of that realm yet, right? No silence in it yet. So I just dumb found my way into getting a hold of Dan Pink.

And it's a long story, but basically I said, hey, man, I need your help. I really want to start a class around what you said. Would you skypen? You know, no big. And he said, sure, let's do it. And lo and behold, the principal was a big fan. And it's amazing the things you can accomplish when you have a little bit of help behind you. And then formed some strategic partnerships and one of the really nice professor at Stanford University

and actually two from Stanford University. So all of a sudden, I could name drop some Stanford names. and Dan and poof, it got started. Carol Joach? No, have not met Carol. And I know Tom's a big fan. Tina Seleag, who actually has three excellent books in her own right, I'm a big fan of.

Actually, her last book, our class is Chapter 4. So plug for Tina Seleag. That's the question I was thinking of as you were describing this. You go, so what were you teaching in high school prior to this innovation class? Yeah, this is also my journey. I went from teaching basically an English class, but I also, really this is the way I taught. I did broadcasting and documentary film class, two different ones. And the way we learned is exactly what we do in innovation class, because I basically took a

challenge. I was kind of tired of doing the same thing, and they were like, hey, you had an endorsement in journalism, you want to do TV. And I'm like, I don't know how to turn on the pro, you know. Like, I literally walked in the class that day, I'm like, who knows how to turn on the the equipment? And they gave me this dumb look like, are you, this guy? Are you serious?

So I'm like, no, I don't know how to do it, but let's learn together. And it was the best time ever. Because when I said, hey, you know, who's going to be, who's going to help me? I'm like, great, you're in charge. You're station manager. And they're like, wait, what? And I'm like, yeah, let's all pitch in together. And I empowered them.

And that's why Dan's, you know, TED Talk meant so much to me because it rang true. I was just like him. I thought if you just dangle money in front of people to work hard, no. If you give people some freedom and autonomy and the things, you know, Well, hey, I'll give you a chance to make a difference. Man, that's what we want. We just believe that we can make a difference through money. But it's so counter, you know, now that we know, we know.

But all of a sudden, I'm empowering my students, and I'm like, dude, I don't want you to be subserving to me. I want you to kick life in the ass, right? And let's make that digital brand. And now, so, yeah, now my students understand branding. They want to get their name out there. They want to collaborate with people like you. They want to collaborate with people like Dan or some of these other All-Stars. And heck, in some cases, I'm jealous of who they get to work with.

I mean, they have the, actually, I think this is the Tom Bill you term. They have the arrogance of belief. Yeah. You know, they've been doing this for a while. I'm in this class. We have a pretty robust social media following. And so they're like, hey, yeah, I'm in the innovation class and you should work with me. I mean, they don't stay that condescendingly, but they're pretty confident.

They're going to get yes. So, you know, that's part of the class. I want them to collaborate with people that are way smarter than me. What's the, so let's go to the day to day. So you said you meet every other day. How many students are in your class? How do they get to be in your class? Because I would imagine, as it's grown in popularity, you have more students who want to be in it than maybe you can even handle.

Do you know, though, that that's not, no. No, it's not the case? Yes and no. Okay. Yes and no. So I thought I'd have a waiting list and I haven't yet because at first it was like, oh, this is an easy class. Then it became the truth of this is harder than it's way more engaging. It's more fun.

And I think that most people would agree with that. But you can get paralyzed with fear because it's on you. And so, you know, I had some, unfortunately I had one student that his mom wouldn't let him take it because it wasn't a weighted grading thing. and, you know, like to get into college. All hail the 4.0 kind of thing, and that's not us. And so some of the students that, you know, if I take a risk,

might I get a B, they didn't want to take it. Oh, that's terrible, man. I know, but that's, and it's funny, one time we got compared to being a cult, and I was okay with that

because we were a cult of opportunity finders. You know, our mantra here is opportunities are everywhere, and we get excited, but, you know, our students will hear other students complain, and they're like, oh my gosh, that's a pot of gold. You know, we know that the world's wealthiest people and the most successful people solve small problems. So now we, you know,

some of our students have businesses, and we have some apps we've written, we've had some social organizations we started. I mean, we're, you know, we're all over them. We had four patents filed last year, and all of them are because we saw problems and we thought we got, we have some cool solutions for you. And there's not that many people out there that are ready for that. But that's why my bigger journey is, you know, I'm starting to develop a lot of content, and I'm working a lot with elementary students.

Or training. And because this can go right away at elementary school. And a matter of fact, it's, to no degree of irony, kids love school in kindergarten in first grade, and they stop liking school when most state standardized tests are imposed.

When all of a sudden school isn't fun anymore, and it's all of a sudden is serious. And this innovation class, this 20% time that some people are calling at the elementary level, it's the gateway, man. And it's what our purpose is. I was listening to a Freakonomics podcast, and I love those guys, too. And they left a series once when they asked a policeman, what is the purpose? What is your role as a policeman? And he instinctively said, well, to serve the public and catch bad guys. And he stopped himself, but he's like, you know what?

99% of what we do is cash bad guys. And of course, famously, you know, Malcolm Gladwell had that one section of the police force that they started giving people money around Christmas to let them know they were there to serve them. And lo and behold, the police had a better relationship. So I even asked that to myself, what is the purpose of education? And it's to foster learning. Well, learning on whose terms?

And when did we create this curriculum? How long ago? And so if my student has a desire, they want to come to learn, and they says, hey, man, I want to learn about sensors or artificial intelligence or glass blowing. I don't care. Shouldn't a school be the destination to learn? We've gotten so far away from that, Ryan, that I'm like, okay, we need the spot. We need the space to where the kid that wants to learn how to either glass blow or work with, you know, guy that's working on 3D printers. We need to learn that. And this is a, this is a destination to learn.

I'm shocked to hear that it isn't, but I mean, unfortunately, that's the, I think the world we live in currently. I've had some other great educators on as well. Jessica Leahy first comes to mind when we look at specifically around report cards. I mean, the significance and the importance that parents, I think it starts at home with parents, because that might be the next place you have to go. and really champion is with parents of these kids because they're so fearful of their kid not getting into a big time college. Keep going. But that's the problem. Keep going.

And so where, like Jessica Leahy talked about failure, which I know you're really big on, she was saying that, you know, the way we should discuss and review report cards with our children is we look at the comments written by the teachers. hopefully there are comments. I've spoken with some educators where it's just grades and not, because I, you know, since I put this into practice, you know, get the report cards and what did specifically the teachers say, meaning, you know, I like to ask the teachers during those conferences, you know, what type of questions does my daughter ask? How does she treat the people that she works with, her peers? How does she treat you? You know, you want your child to be curious, to ask questions, to be respectful, to be a good person. And certainly, you know, I understand the importance of grades,

but I care more about the comments and the actions than the grades themselves. And I think, and I don't know, I hope I can continue that. Maybe when I get into high school or my girls get into high school and all of a sudden colleges are there, I don't know. I can't claim that I've been there because I haven't as a parent, but I hope that guys and girls like you, Don, are out there trying to, teach these great innovation classes, which really, I'm guessing, celebrates failure, meaning as long as you learn from it. And you're truly looking for new and innovative ways to solve problems,

which is what we need. Right. And in every situation you talked about, you were focusing on the learning. You know, and, you know, Carol Dweck, you know, now the term mindset is so out there and ubiquitous. But it is about the mindset. It is about the learning. And then you said maybe we can talk parents. The problem is that the destination is college. And thank God, you know, there was announcement it was about two months ago that they're going to quit looking at SATs as the be all end all because the market is demanding it now. You know, we have a lot of subservient people who when they get out and they're like, okay, here, here's your job. Man, our company's against some hard times. Let's try to figure things out. Hey, I can do a really good scan tron test.

No, no, no, no, no, we need some creative solutions around this. I can write you an essay and tell you what you want to hear. So all of a sudden, the market's like, dude, now the people are starting to get mad at the colleges. So the colleges hopefully can start learning that, and I've got to get a shout out. So I'm an Indiana guy, but, you know, Purdue University, I just was a part of their panel, and they have a summit, and they're starting a thing called the Purdue Polytech program where they want to, like the things we're talking about, that's what they want. And they even said, you know, we have to stop looking at the 4.0 great SAT All-Star.

Case in point, I've got a couple of students that are, unfortunately, one dropped out, but he's doing well. And there's a lot of entrepreneurs pursuing him and his product, which I can't talk about yet because it's going to launch soon. But, you know, this kid was a bad student because he was inventing at night. And now all of a sudden colleges are interested in him because he's proving his worth. So how did you get that message to the colleges, though? There's been news stories about them. Wow. And it's a good guy from your class.

Yeah. How does that work from an ownership perspective if there's a patent involved? I mean, somebody's going to pay for that. So how does all that work? Well, that was, so it can be tricky. But the nice thing is, is that, you know, we kind of got some things off the table that a lot of schools, especially universities, if you invent something, quote unquote, on school time, they take your IP. And again, once again, shout out to Purdue and Mitch Daniels that they switched that. That when a student event something, it's theirs.

So the other thing is, is that we formed a partnership that we kind of, again, it's so important to be transparent. Because if you're doing cool things and no one knows it, then no one knows it. So, you know, we blogged a lot of things and we have a robust Twitter following. And we somehow, some way, we're at a conference and there were some lawyers there and they're like, you know what, we do pro bono work. How about we hook you up and do some patent work? we're like, yeah. Wow. So, yeah, so that was, so it's a blessing for sure.

Wow. Yeah, and that's the other thing is, you know, we don't necessarily have equipment laying around. We want you to earn it. We want you to find creative ways to get there. So when a kid's like, man, I would love it if we'd have, you know, I wrote that in my book. You know, I used to teach broadcasting and you will never have enough budget in film. Never. And so when we are like, man, especially in the early days of DSLRs and, you know,

all of a sudden, like, you could have a budget of not much and make it look like a million bucks. And so I'm like, all right, let's enter some contests. Let's win some money. Let's do some commercials. And when we get that money, then we can shoot the better commercial. And, you know, heck, you're a guy, you know, when all of a sudden your mom or dad made you buy your own really cool shoes or your own equipment, you earned that thing, man. And you, you know, you really put it to use a lot better. You know, Don, as I was preparing for our time, one of the questions that I thought was very simple yet, I thought,

could potentially unpack maybe a creative answer from you was, why do this? Why? Because it's so much easier just to teach English for you to show up, teach class, go home, watch TV, do whatever you want to do, still have a good impact on kids by being a great English teacher. But why go through all the trouble of having to get people to approve this class, to find these lawyers, to get kids who are willing to be fearless when it comes to potentially not having a 4.0? Like, why do you do this? Can I give you a metaphorical? I'm so sorry. Do it whatever you want. I'm a Joseph Campbell guy. Okay. All right. So the hero's journey is life. And it's my big, it's my big problem with where I see a lot of people because it's fun and it's exciting and I want an adventure is my short answer. My a little bit longer

answer is too many people are watching other people succeed. If you ask people, what they're really passionate about, I can guarantee you most people will answer 90% somebody else's passion. I'm a really big fan of the Colts. I'm a really big fan of this band. I really can't wait for this movie to come out.

What journey are you taking? Everybody loves to watch the journey. It's so much more fulfilling to be on your own. And I wanted to get my kids to where they're taking their journey because it is what's life is all about. But it's the reason why people watch reality TV. or porn or quite frankly sports. Dudes watch other dudes do what you couldn't do.

Fine. Find your thing, man. Or get out and play, even if you're not getting paid for it. I want you to experience, not watch. And too many times in education, we're watching somebody else's curriculum and you're just going through the motions because it's not your motion. And of course you don't like it as much. But when you can set a kid on their journey and it just happens to be your classroom, man, Brian, that's a little slice of heaven.

So that's why I do what I do. It's fun. I love it, man. And to see the impact that you can have on a kid, you literally have the ability. You've put yourself in the position to change lives. Not only the kids, I mean, certainly the kids that you work with, but then the people that their products and services and things they create can impact. Like that could potentially be limitless. which for me, I get kind of juiced up, man, just thinking about it, the fact of the impact that you're having.

So how long have you been doing this? So this is, I think, my 19th year teaching, which is kind of a funny story. Well, first of all, let me perhaps it by saying, I'm not batting 100, right? Or a thousand. I'm not batting a thousand. There's still some students that said on the sidelines, which ironic, though, quite literally, I'm at school right now. I'm almost done. For the record, it's a study hall.

I don't have students right now. but I just literally 30 minutes prior had some students come in and are like, I get it now. The things that you were trying, like some of these things were setting in on them, and now that they've progressed, they're like, oh, that's what he meant. So it's not like this is for everybody. It takes some time for some students. But back to the other point, this is my 19th year of teaching, but my fifth year of this class. And it actually defines what innovation is.

So I wasn't always in public, sorry, I wasn't always in teaching. I did my first two and a half, three years in PR for a think tank in Indy. And it's funny, everybody in my family is in education. And so therefore I promised myself I'd never be an ed. And when I just didn't like it and I wanted to be more like my dad, I was like, I want to him like, hey, I'm not asking for money. But I'm going to go back and get, you know, a teaching degree. And so I thought he was going to say, no, don't do it or run away, which he never bashed education. He loved his job.

But he's like, he said, you know, Donnie. I don't care if you teach for the next 20 years. This promised me you won't teach one year 20 times. And to me, that's what the innovation class has been. It's never been done the same way. Everything is, I always get feedback on what I'm doing wrong. I love to hear what I'm doing wrong from the students. I'm not in charge.

I work for them. And even though I assign a grade and I can sometimes know what's better, I like their feedback. And so, yeah, it's, it's eerie. My dad told me not teach one year 20 times. Next year will be number 20. So now you're also you know traveling really the world sharing this message with others. I would imagine part of the reason to do that is to create innovation classes in other schools or maybe perhaps you can share that other aspect of your profession of traveling around and talking to others.

Yeah. Yeah. I do a fair amount of keynotes and it has. I've been lucky that I've done some things in Europe and actually a student brought me out to Africa to help him work with some. female entrepreneurs and empowerment things there in Ghana. And I've led a charmed thing there. But yeah, I go to other schools and I help set up. And here most recently, I'm ramping up some things online to help teachers and students that will be coming out probably towards the summer. Nice, man. You said initially you were inspired by Dan Pink.

And you talked about Seth Godin and those guys. What type of relationship have you been able to build with them? Can I tell you a funny story that's, if you're into self-deprecating humor, this is, so, yeah, I've, Dan, Dan was an absolute, just, he'll get back. He's not too bigger than him, you know, he's just a good guy. I mean, I, yeah, I can tell you, I found him to be, literally within five minutes of talking to him on the podcast, probably less than that. One, you know, like, I don't know if you felt this way, but I'm glad, glad what this came up. When you first got on Skype with him, like sometimes it, for me, it's a little bit surreal because you hear and you watch them do TED talks. This happened probably with Seth God and it happened with Dan. It's happened with others.

And then all of a sudden you're like, well, like, I'm talking to him directly. It's just us, just me and him. And but then you're like, wait a second. He's just another guy. Put his pants on the same way. Yeah. Yeah. And they're good guys.

You've had quite a lineup. I know. I know. Everyone I'm like, dang, he scored. Yeah, it's the same way. As a matter of fact, I have a Skype interview with him on YouTube. I watched it, yeah. Yeah, it was just like pretty casual.

And the same thing. And at the end, he made me so comfortable that the last two or three minutes, we're talking about the Washington Nationals. Yeah. So, yeah. So what I'm going to release, I kind of wanted some, you know, Peter Diamandes talks about super credibility, which ironically enough, I'm working with Stephen Kotler.

And so I was like, hey, you know, it would be great to more or less have not just a little bit of their name behind it, but maybe an endorsement. Because on some of the things that we're going to sign, some of the supplemental reading material I'm going to recommend is books by, you know, Hank and Godin and Cynic and some of these guys that I adore. And so I write this wonderful email to Dan. And I'm like, you know, dear Daniel and, you know, hey, a couple years back, you really helped me.

I really appreciated it. I'm going to be doing the following things. May I have your permission to use blah, blah, blah. And I send it and I'm feeling good about it. like, you know what? I should write to Seth Godin because before I wrote my book, I was looking for possibly a blurb, and I sent it way late, and I said, hey, you know, would you endorse my book? And, man, Seth gets back to things really quick. And so he writes back, he's like, you know what? I don't know if I have that kind of time because you're going to release it soon, but mail me a copy of your book.

And I write back immediately. I like, well, I would write to you, but I don't have your address. He writes back within 10 seconds. He's like, well, if you'd have cared. I carefully read my email and scroll down at the bottom. My address is here, and he puts on that big red arrow, like it's like the idiot button, right? So I feel stupid. So anyway, fast forward to yesterday, literally. And so after I wrote this Dan Pink email, I'm like, you know what, I can almost copy and paste this thing. So I copy and paste it, except I changed it because there's some certain things that were very much specific to Dan.

And then I, you know, mentioned some things about, you know, lynch pen and how he went on education. I change it and I read it maybe two times and I press send 20 seconds. Dear Don, clearly this wasn't for me. It's the opening line is, dear Daniel. Oh my gosh. You didn't take switch the name. I switched everything except the name. And so I'm like, this man has gotten five emails from me in his life.

And two of them, he pointed out that I'm completely inept and stupid. So he was nice enough to laugh at me because I wrote him back and like, oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know whether I should, you know, laugh at my haste or shake my head out of my ineptitude. And I'm like, so let me start over. Dear Seth, you know, and so he's, you know, he's like, look, you know, do the fault. The same thing, the kind of response you got, you know, give it some time. I don't want to commit to anything yet. Grow young man.

And I appreciated that. Yeah. But oh, my gosh, I felt like an idiot. So here's the teacher not. former English teacher, not proofreading the opening salutation. So I love it. I love it. Well, yeah, I think in my experience, just hopefully he laid out some sort of time frame.

For me, when he said, get back to me in nine months, when you've got a big, massive show, I've written about this. It's out there, but it absolutely motivated me to literally get back to him in exactly nine months and share with him exactly what happened over the course of those nine months. Yeah, I love that podcast because you timed it almost to the hour. Yes. Yeah, I missed it by like eight minutes. But I mean, literally I wanted to do it at the exact same time.

But it was definitely the same day and the same hour to say, Seth, it's basically been exactly nine months. And here I am and I tried to, you know, be compelling and shared some of the what's happened and some of the other guests to add some credibility and some of the things that I learned. And right, he held up his end of the bargain. And like you said, he responded very quickly. and then we booked it on Skype and yeah he was he was definitely one of those guys where like the instant that you connect on Skype you're like whoa like this is yeah that's him um there's his voice yeah yeah yeah especially you've seen him like Simon Sinek was definitely like that too because he got like this such a cool accent and I'm like wait is yeah oh okay

and then it just takes a minute and then you're then you're you just have to get into it like you normally would and so that that was you almost expect the beginning of the conversation to be the little Ted bumper audio bumper. Always saying it's not there. Yeah, it's really you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

You're treating your podcast the way I would want my students. And actually, I've got a couple kids that do have their own podcast. Yeah. Like, you have turned, like, the coolest, this is what I'd really love to do. And you're like, well, hell with it, let's do it. That's, like, literally you're living what my class is at its most optimal. You saw a niche, you thought, why not me? and you have the excuse.

I think it was when you were interviewing Ryan Holiday. Yeah. You know, like, I looked for excuses to work for people. I thought, I'll write for a school newspaper just to give me the excuse of being able to talk to people that are that cool. And for that, man, I tip my hat. I look at who you've gotten to interview. I'm like, lucky.

Although I will say, I will gladly tell you that I can get yeses out of people because I'm like, hey, man, I'm just working with kids. And they're like, oh, okay. Yeah. No, you were, I saw you talking about that. It might have been with Tom. I'm getting some of the videos mixed up. But basically, and I think it's actually a good topic to bring out for people,

because I recently gave a speech to college athletes, great, great kids at the University of Dayton here, close by where I live. And it's an incredible school, great athletes, great students. And one of the parts that I brought up, and I want you to, maybe you can help reinforce this, is the power of just asking. And there's great Steve Jobs videos out there. There's one specifically that I read if you probably Google Steve Jobs and I think it's just ask or ask. But what can happen if you have no fear of asking people for what you want?

And I think that's really been the only way that my show has done what it's done is because I've had zero fear when asking. and that's led to, you know, 120 plus whatever it is now, episodes with incredible people like a Simon Sinek and Seth God and the Dan Pink and Henry Cloud go on and on and on. And so I think it's a great message to send to kids at an early age to not have any fear. I mean, what's the worst that's going to happen if you ask? Here's what's going to happen. That's why I tell the kids in college. They're really going to say no or they're going to ignore you or they're going to say yes. So two of those three, you're already there if you don't ask.

So why not just ask? Because you've got a shot for the third one to actually happen if you do. Now, it's got to be compelling and you've got to have some strategy and you've got to think about it. You don't just blindly send garbage. But I think it's important to at least have the mindset to ask. And even if you get a no, make it memorable. Right. You'll stick out.

Yeah. Yeah. I was telling that story to Tom when we went to the Super Bowl media. a day. And again, we had some decent, actually, we had nice equipment. And I'm like, hey, if we put on a tie, we act like we belong, let's see if we can get in. Like, that was the goal, to not hover around media a day, to get in and interview, you know, Tom Brady or Eli Manning. And so our mantra as opportunities are everywhere. I'm like, all right, guys, find some opportunities. So they're just, you know, they're interviewing person on street A and B and some volunteers. And then all of a sudden,

we saw a former somebody, I forget. And we interview a news. crew talking about the event and then all of a sudden we recognized demora smith and i'm like dude grab him that's the guy you need and it was great because you know tyler was like he played the i'm just a kid i mean he was like excuse me sir we'd like an interview and he doesn't look at him he's like he's walking in and he's like i'm sorry guys we're not doing interviews today it's for the players and then tyler's like almost in a mean joe green way he's like i'm just a student and he turns around, he's like, I'm sorry. And he turns around and he sees a crew where we have a sound guy, we have a camera guy,

we have a student in a tie, and two wireless microphones. And he's like, you know what? Okay, let's do this. And he does such a bang up job that after it's over, he's like, I'll see you guys inside. And then he once again works as magic. He's like, well, actually, sir, we don't have media credentials. We're just hoping we can. And of course, you know what happens?

Well, you do now, son. Here, take this, tell them it's okay. And yeah, and then 30 minutes later, we're interviewing, you know, the Patriots and the Giants. Love it. The great story. It's the importance of asking, I would, I just urge anyone who's listening to do it. I wrote another piece on that when it comes to, or I've talked about it in speeches when it comes to writing for the Huffington Post. I mean, actually, I don't think I've told this on the podcast, but just in speeches, but I read that website, Huffington Post, and there's a lot of different areas, and I know millions of other people do too.

And one day I was reading, I'm like, well, why don't, you know, I should publish my work on the Huffington Post. Why not? And I thought, well, what's the best way, what's the best way to get them to accept my work and for them to publish some of the things that I write? I'm like, well, I'm guessing the easiest route is just to go straight to the decision maker, which I thought was Ariana Huffington. And so I found her email address, sent her what I felt was a compelling, you know, cold email, shared some of my work with her. So she had some examples to make sure that I could actually put sentences together. And they said yes. And so now I get to do that, you know.

And so I think it's the same thing. Like I know what would have happened if I didn't ask. I'd be in the same place as if they would have said no. So I think it's just that you never really know what could happen without giving it a shot. And unfortunately, and this is, you know, I know you've talked about this too often that people don't, they don't do it. And I can't imagine that the possibilities that are out there if people actually just go and do it and give it a shot, it's crazy. I mean, it is, there's, it's endless. And so that, that, those stories that, that you just told are inspiring to me,

especially with about high school kids and the fact that you are teaching that, and you are creating the culture that creates that behavior, which is just phenomenal, man. Yeah, I echo it. I love it. The reason why I end up writing a book, because, like, why not? Why not me? And, and, uh, if the worst thing I get was a no, and, uh, you're, you're exactly right. the only problem I see is a lot of, especially teachers, we're so humble.

They were like, oh, shucks, it's just me. Hey, man, be transparent, be loud, get out there. And that's the biggest transformation we've made. And then, like, you've proven, now you get to have conversations with people that are, like, other than me, like, really cool. And do you ever, like, thinking, like, I'm, this is my job. I get to enter, like, I love that podcast you do with Ryan Holiday when he's, like, when he's, like, you know, you should be thanking yourself. You get to get all this information from some of the coolest people.

So I'm loving what you do as well. It's cool. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. And I, it's, I love it, obviously. And that's why I do it and want to stay consistent and just being able to meet so many incredible people because of it and get referrals now. And just been introductions, it's, it's blown me away.

And that's why I have absolutely no intention to stop because it's, led to a lot of great opportunities and great people, first and foremost, in friendships, like legitimate friendships that I love. Man, Don, I love this. I know we're kind of up against it. I got one more question for you, which you probably have an idea of what it is. But when you hear the phrase learning leader, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Embracing the failure and reflecting on it and adjusting and then demonstrating it to others.

that it was a worthy ride, boldly taking risks, owning up the failures. Yeah, that's what it means to me. Boldly taking risks. I love it. Right now and I went down, man. Thanks so much, Don. Where would you send everyone to learn more about you online? So, honestly, I can tell on the website, but the hub, I am so active on Twitter,

showcasing what we're doing in class or whatever. So I'm a big Twitter guy at Don Wetrick. That's W-E-T-T-R-I-C-K. I have a true need of an overhaul for a website of Innovationteacher.com. And, you know, yeah, if you want to check out some stuff on YouTube, you can just type in my name. We've got some interesting things. Actually, even the Super Bowl thing, I just remember that.

If you type in FCTV Super Bowl Media Day, you'll watch my student interview those people. Absolutely. That was still out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, Twitter is the lifeblood for sure. Awesome. Well, again, really appreciate your investment of time. Obviously, you and I will be continuing this dialogue as we both progress, man. Thank you so much, Ryan. All right, man.

This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.