Shownotes:
Are you ready to be inspired and edutained by Stand Tall Steve!?! "Edutained", did I just make up a new word??? Update: I Googled it, no, I didn't, but I'm loving it! Press play now and listen as Steve Bollar defines the difference between compliance and commitment. Plus he explains how gratitude is the fuel for motivation!
About Our Guest:
Steve Bollar, a.k.a. Stand Tall Steve, is an educational thought leader, former Superintendent of Schools, principal, author and a school culture and motivation expert. He is known for his quick wit, creative thought, and humorous personality. Steve is the author of the books Stand Tall Leadership, Ideas, Ideas, Ideas! and is a contributing author in Because of a Teacher. Steve openly shares his knowledge, experiences and creativity with others. He currently speaks to students, staff and communities throughout the world about how to think differently about schools, education, and life.
Website: standtallsteve.com
Twitter: @StandTallSteve Instagram: @standtallsteve
About Lainie:
Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, podcaster, and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. Her latest book, Evolving with Gratitude, was just released. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.
Twitter - @LainieRowell
Instagram - @LainieRowell
Evolving with Gratitude, the book, is now available! Purchase here!
You can also get bulk orders for your staff (10 copies or more) at a discounted price! Just fill out the form linked below and someone will get back to you ASAP! bit.ly/ewgbulkdiscount
Transcript:
Lainie Rowell: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello, my friends. I have Steve Bollar, also known as Stand Tall Steve. He is an educational thought leader, former superintendent of schools, principal, author. I mean, the list is long and impressive. He's a very motivational speaker, and I know that I get a lot of inspiration whenever I get the opportunity to hear from him.
So that was like the intro that I jumped into before I even got a chance to say, hi, Steve .
Steve Bollar: Hello. Hello. It is so good to be here. I'm glad to finally connect with you. We've known of each other and we've followed each other and stuff like that. But now here we are, we're we're together. This is good.
I love it.
Lainie Rowell: I love it too. And we're actually in a book together.
Steve Bollar: Yes.
Lainie Rowell: Shout out to George Couros. We're in Because of a Teacher together, the original one.
Steve Bollar: The original one, the first
Lainie Rowell: We were not trying to throw shade on anything. Just saying we were, we were the first, but no, I'm just kidding.
Steve Bollar: We we're the OGs.
Lainie Rowell: Exactly.
Exactly. Well, and you're an a very prolific writer, author, podcaster. I am not doing your bio justice, but I'd love for you to tell us the names of your books and the projects you're working on. Just tell us a little bit about yourself. What do people need to know about Stand Tall Steve.
Steve Bollar: Okay, wonderful.
Well, well first off I know everybody's kind of wondering what's the deal with Stand Tall Steve? Why not just use your regular name? My regular name is Steve. It is Steve Bollar, but if you've see me, you can't see me here, but I'm a tall guy. I'm six seven. All right. I don't blend in. I stand out. You notice me.
No, I'm not a basketball. Yes, I can play. I won't do it for you. Yes, I can dunk the ball. No, I won't do it for you. Yes, I played in high school. No, I did not play in college. Yes, I enjoyed the sport. No, I did not know any professional basketball players. I get asked that everywhere I go, but , so it's, it is a physical thing.
Yes. But overall it has a lot to do with standing tall, staying focused, and doing your very best. I am an educator by, by trade. I started my career off as an art teacher. I taught art pre-k to third grade art. Actually. Little tiny people. Yes. They barely came up to my knee or my hip. I did step on a few of them, but we settled outta court.
They're fine. , they're fine. Don't worry. Whatever they said, they are fine. I didn't see 'em down there.
Lainie Rowell: They're fine. No long term damage.
Steve Bollar: Yeah, no one turned me in, but I started off as a visual arts teacher and did that for many years. Assistant Principal. The bulk of my career was as a building principal at the elementary level and upper elementary level.
I became assistant superintendent, superintendent. So, you know, I, I did my tour of duty within education. All while I was an administrator, specifically, I really got into the art of public speaking. I enjoy speaking in front of people. It never bothered me. My father's a minister. I was put in front of people all the time.
My brother has, has a degree in theater from Visual and Performing Arts School in Philly, like we are in front of people. So I really got into speaking and training and one of the things that was most important to me was the climate and culture within my school and how leaders make decisions and how they move through life and do things.
So that's what I spoke on. And so for the last five years, that's what I do. I speak full-time speaking, training, consulting on culture and climate. Leadership development, idea development. That is it. Can I do curriculum? Yes. I don't want to . Can I do data analysis? Yes. I don't want to, can I do instructional strategies?
Yes. I don't want to. I do climate culture, leadership development, idea development, and as you said, yes, I have some books. Stand Tall Leadership. It's all about leadership. How to be that stand tall leader to be your very best. My other book is Ideas, ideas, ideas. A collection of ideas to improve the climate and culture of your school.
I have another ideas book, which talks about academic pep rallies and how they have those happen, as well as the one that you and I are in together, the original because of a teacher. So there you go. That is Steve Bollar, Stand Tall Steve.
Lainie Rowell: That is amazing. You are putting so much goodness out into the world, and I really do just get so amped when I listen to you talk and I've heard you on other podcasts and I just think it's a joy to listen to you.
You really, like I said, I don't know how else to say it. You get me on fire, you get me excited, and that's what we need in our schools, right?
Steve Bollar: It is what we need in our school. You know, one of the things that I've never held back is being my authentic self. I am not ADHD. I've had people say, oh, you and your ADD.
No, I'm not. I've never been diagnosed. I'm not ADD I can control myself. It's just that I have a deep passion and a love for education and helping other people. And yes, I want it badly and it means a lot to hear from you and from others that, that is transferring, whether it's through, through the voice, through my actions, through my videos, through my other people and it get other people going to do their very best as well. So thank you. I really, really appreciate that.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah. Well thank you for not holding it back because I know we sometimes get this feedback like, oh, it might be a little much. No, bring it. Bring it. We need it all.
Steve Bollar: That's it. That's it.
Lainie Rowell: Well, my friend, I would love to hear as someone who is so focused on culture and climate and obviously through a leadership lens, but I just wanna hear from you.
My friend Steve, I'm gonna call you my friend now, because now we've actually done something synchronously. We've been connected for a while, but now that we're actually talking live, I get to
Steve Bollar: Yes, my friend. Yes.
Lainie Rowell: I would love to hear what does gratitude mean to you?
Steve Bollar: Gratitude means to me, it's being grounded.
A lot of times when you do good things, all right? You do good things. You do even great things. You do amazing things. All right. In my life, I've done some good things. Everybody's done some good things. Even if you feel like you haven't, you, you help someone up, whatever, you're doing great things and gratitude helps with the grounding of those great things.
It's very easy to get caught up into your head. You know, it's, it's very easy sometimes to say, you know, I don't know. I did. Sure enough, you know, look at the results that I got. Or you do something, you mess it up, all right? You mess it up, but every time you mess up, it's a learning opportunity. Right?
Absolutely. Finding opportunities and being grateful and having gratitude for those who are with you, those who even received what it is that you've done. Having that time to reflect on those things, and that's the big piece of it. Reflection. You gotta reflect on gratitude. You have to take the time to think through gratitude.
Hey, thank you. Wow. Look what happened. Look at the work that I put in. Look at the things that I was able to do to help other people. These are the people that helped me to be able to do that. I think that is a huge, huge piece of gratitude. For those who have gratitude journals, which is I think is widely important.
Something that. I have started to do a good friend of mine, Kim Strobel. I love Kim. Kim is, ah, that's my girl. Really has turned me on to, you know, gratitude journals and taking the time to think back through, you know, thanking people and what are you happy about?
And it's not just people, it's events and opportunities, things that you have in life to take the moment to kind of reflect on those and to write those down. And, and it, and it does, it keeps me humble. It keeps me focused, and it turns that into motivation. You know, I believe gratitude is the fuel for motivation.
It allows you to keep going. People have said to me, I'm a motivational speaker and things like, I can't motivate you. I can inspire you, I can influence you, but motivation comes from within. You have to be motivated to do it. Ask my teenage daughter. Ask my teenage son . You can ask them to do anything.
You know, like they don't feel like doing it. They're not motivated, you know, take out the trash. How many thoughts I gotta tell you, you know? But when you have gratitude for whatever that might be, you take the time to reflect on that gratitude. You feel good. It's a good feeling, it's an understanding, it's a humbleness.
It can help fuel the motivation to move forward into whatever it is that you need to do and make. So there's my long, outlandish focus of it, but that, that's what I think. That's where I'm coming from.
Lainie Rowell: I really appreciate that and this is the tough part. You're a podcaster, so you know this, right?
This is the tough part, is like I'm in this moment with you. I'm also like, just trying to reflect on what you said and I'll listen to this several times and get to have more opportunities to reflect on it. But I thought that was really powerful. When you said gratitude is the fuel for motivation.
And this idea that we're using gratitude to reflect and keep us, I heard you say grounded kind of thinking, centered, when it's really, really good, keep you grounded and centered. When it's really, really bad, keep you grounded and centered either way.
Steve Bollar: Yeah. Yeah.
Lainie Rowell: And so I think that's really important.
So I hear you talking about, you know, the gratitude as reflecting in it. You know, I like to think about being present in it, but also the way you're talking about how it's gonna move you forward.
Steve Bollar: Mm-hmm.
Lainie Rowell: That's really powerful.
Steve Bollar: Thank you. Yeah, and it does. It can move you forward. Here's the thing. Nobody wants to be stagnant forever.
All right? Even if you're cozy with your big warm blanket in the window seat, nice warm, it's raining outside. Good book. You're cozy into whatever your situation might be. At a certain point, you wanna move, you wanna keep going, and sometimes people have a lot of issues. They got depression, they have other things that are going on.
If you need that little bit of fuel, you need that little bit of, you know what, Hey, I could keep it going. Think of what it is that you're thankful for. Think of those that you're thankful for who have been in your life. Think of the things that are great, and if that doesn't begin to give you a little fuel will begin to give you a little bit of, huh.
I want a little bit of more of that. I want a little bit of excitement of that. I wanna, I wanna feel that a little bit more. We are emotional creatures to me that is a little bit of that fuel to motivate you, to keep going to do more. If you're grateful for people, certain people, let's put names to it, all right?
You have gratitude for certain people that you can specifically name. You don't wanna disappoint them. Whether there are people that have been in your past, people that you're constantly currently in your present, you know, maybe they're ancestors that are gone, you don't wanna deny their name, you don't wanna make their spirit see you in a negative light.
So again, is that motivation to keep going, to continue to make them happy, to continue to forward their name, their memory? I would say yes. So that's why I say, you know, gratitude is the fuel for motivation. That's, that's where that is. That's where that's coming.
Lainie Rowell: I'm like ready to run a marathon now. You've like got me all... You got me...
Steve Bollar: I know, right?
Lainie Rowell: You got me amped. Let's do this. Okay. I love asking that question cuz there's no right or wrong answer and to me it's also contextual. So I could probably ask you tomorrow and you might have a slightly different spin on it, right?
Steve Bollar: I could, yes.
Well, quite so, yeah, I mean, you know, again, I think about, you know, your podcast and you're talking about gratitude and that resonates with me. And I was thinking through those things and there's a lot of other different pieces. I could go to it, you're right, you could ask me tomorrow. And I, I would still say that I think it's the fuel, but you know, there's a, there's another angle that might go with it.
And, you know, I might wake up tomorrow, I had a bad night of sleep. Things aren't going well. You got me on a good spot right here, and you know, it is like, yeah, gratitude. You know, I wish I had something more. You might feel a little bit a different way. Yeah. Everybody has their own little take with it.
You're right. There's no wrong answer for it. Everybody has their own definition and what they think of it and how they feel about that.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah, and the way that we experience and express it. You mentioned the journaling, which I often say, journaling is great. It's not for everyone.
There are other practices, but it's, you know, very easy for journaling as far as the gold standard of research. That's a pretty easy one to track. So it's very often cited as evidence that gratitude is a powerful practice and also putting it into language and there's so much to it. So the journaling is a really good practice.
If it's not for you, there's other stuff, but I'd love to hear about what else is going on in your life where you're experiencing or expressing gratitude?
Steve Bollar: It, it's interesting just today, it, it, speaking of today versus tomorrow or another day earlier this morning I had a meeting with my assistant Jessica.
And we meet often obviously, you know, to go over the business and what I'm doing and things like that. And something is manifesting right now with me. You know, before we clicked into our podcast, I was mentioning a little bit to you, I've had within the last week, multiple people coming to me talking about teacher retention. Mm-hmm. Talking about keeping teachers in the profession, not just keeping 'em in your school, keeping them in the profession. Bringing in quality candidates. Schools are having issue with it, and more and more I'm hearing about this, I've had multiple people ask me, do I speak on this?
Can I talk about this? And, we're talking about gratitude and, you know, and I think that kind of, there's something with that, you know? Yeah. Having that level of gratitude and that love for the profession, for wanting people that are in your schools, that are the right kind of person to come into your schools, to keep the ones that you.
And here's the other side of it. If you do need to let someone go, letting 'em go with respect. Mm-hmm. You know, cuz here's the other thing. You know, you let somebody go from your school, all right? They didn't get tenure, they resigned, whatever it might be. They're still, they're still friends with other educators, right?
They're gonna leave and they're gonna talk about your school, they're gonna talk about your district, right? Do you want them saying as many negative things as possible about your school and your district or do you want other people to come? So letting people leave with respect, you know, being thankful and having gratitude for what they did bring to your school.
So those are the things that are kind of resonating with me right now, and I'm getting a lot more people talking about this. They're asking more for it. I'm developing a keynote on it. I'm actually gonna be writing a book about it so that's a serendipitous or whatever that you and I are talking now about, you know, gratitude and things.
Cause this is what's on the front of my mind. And that's a big piece of this that I think that is a, a major part of, of keeping teachers in the profession and allowing them to stay here and administrators thinking about ways to connect with them better so that they want to stay in the profession.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah. I like how you're connecting the gratitude and the respect. I haven't really thought about those two so closely together, but that makes a lot of sense as you're saying it, because even if, you know, you gave a very specific example of it's not a fit and this person is going to not be on your campus anymore,
Steve Bollar: Mm-hmm. Right. Right.
Lainie Rowell: You can still be grateful that they served when they did.
Steve Bollar: Yes.
Lainie Rowell: Be grateful that, you know, this is the time we had together and with respect, I send you off and I hope you find a better fit. We do these things cuz they're the right things and cuz we care about people.
Mm-hmm. . And then I like how you're also pointing out, there's also a bit of a PR thing to consider here too.
Steve Bollar: Very much so
Lainie Rowell: I know that as educators we're very altruistic and we care about people and that's our primary motivator, but, , if nothing else. We have to also be aware of the reality that if we are not taking care of people in whatever interactions we're having, they're gonna wanna leave.
Steve Bollar: They're gonna wanna go
Lainie Rowell: And take people with them potentially
Steve Bollar: And take people with them. Not only are they taking people with them that might be already in your organization, they may be taking people that are yet to be in your organization.
You don't know who they know. Just because they're a hot mess and they need to leave doesn't mean that their friends are all hot messes and they need to leave and never come to you. All right. So you, you, that, that all has to be a part of the bigger picture and Yes, there's a big PR piece about this as well, right?
We wanna put our schools in a good light. We want our schools to be spoken about well. We want people to know that teachers are happy to be in our building. Mm-hmm. All right. Not just students and parents and community to be happy with it. We want our staff to be happy to be in the building. Now, I'm not saying we're gonna kiss people's bottoms and gonna forward, we got work to do.
But that is something to keep in mind and to. Gratitude is a big piece of that, right?
Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
Steve Bollar: One thing I do is I work a lot with administrators, or I do with teachers, but I do a lot of work with administrators, obviously with the Stand Tall Leadership and everything like that, and I think administrators get caught up in administrivia, If I may.
All right. You hear my tone here. Administrator, you know, they get all caught up in administrivia and I think administrivia gets in the way of humanity. And then sometimes you have it too far the other way. You know, you have administrator. I wanna coach you. I wanna, yes. Let me, let me feel you. We have to find the good balance here, right?
Where you understand the importance of administrivia and you also understand the importance of people's feelings and understandings, right?
Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
Steve Bollar: And the way that you can balance some of that or any, all of that is having a bigger understanding of where people are having a good vision. Having good values and making sure you're making those decisions based off those vision and values and a big piece of that vision and values.
Let's go back to what we're talking about here, is gratitude. Showing gratitude for the work and the effort that people are putting in to what they're doing. The number one reason why people leave a job isn't money. It's not, you can Google that, y'all, right? . It's recognition and respect for what it is that they do.
Lainie Rowell: Oh, there's so much there. I really think one of the many things you're very good at, and you even talked about this in a different light, but on your podcast there was an episode about administrators have gone soft.
Steve Bollar: Oh yes. I just did that.
Lainie Rowell: I know. I don't wanna take it outta context. So people are gonna be like, what is that? Maybe that's the teaser that they need to go listen to it. But one of the things you're very good at is articulating the nuance between, you know, we have to have this humanity.
We still have work to do, but we have to have this recognition and respect. And I think that's a. It's a tough needle to thread at times, but it's very possible. It's doable. We can do it and it's really about being thoughtful and intentional with it. And I love that you articulate that so well to get us thinking about it.
And it's like, it's not one or the other.
Steve Bollar: Yeah. It's not And that, that's the polarization and going to what you were talking about, administrators are going soft. Yeah. It is talking about the extreme of one or the other. You know, administrators we have gotten into and, and we should, the coaching administrator, let, let me coach you through, let me explain how this really is, and you know, I want you to, intrinsically teachers really go with the, sometimes you're being too soft.
Sometimes, be an administrator. This is what you need to do. But you're not going to the extreme on the other end. And so that's why when you talk about those nuances, it's that stuff in the middle and being able to understand the two sides of the middle. And it doesn't mean you have to be polarized.
It is 100% possible. And y'all love the word that you said. Purposeful. Purposeful thinking, purposeful actions. And it's not hard. That's the other thing. Sometimes it gets too hard and so we just fall back on what we're most comfortable with, which you could be whatever you know, is not working for you. It is purposeful.
It is not that hard. And I try to, and I'm glad you noticed it. I tried to break it down for people like, no, it's. Not that bad. You can kind of do this. You can kind of do this. Right.
Lainie Rowell: Well, being a human is messy and working with other humans is messy too and I think of like, yes. You know, I think of like not only in our professional world, but you're a father.
I'm a mother. Yeah. And I think about this constantly through both the lens of an educator and as a parent. And there's of course an extra layer of personal when it's your kids, cuz they're an extension of you and you start to put some more stuff on that and that get you into some real trouble. Mm. But we always want the best for kids, whether they're our biological children or our students and for our staff as well.
And so when you were talking earlier and you're like, you know, if someone's like a hot mess right now, this might not be the place for them, but maybe it's just not the right place for them right now.
Steve Bollar: Right now.
Lainie Rowell: And maybe the best thing for them to do is to step away for a little while. And when we give them that grace and we say, Hey, we you know, this isn't for you right now. When you're ready. If it is, come back. And I know that we're not offering that up to everyone, but there are...
Steve Bollar: Yeah. Not everyone. Mm-hmm.
Lainie Rowell: Especially, in recent years there are some people who just, they need to take a break. Yeah. And we can allow them to do that without feeling guilty and just say, mm-hmm.
Hey, you know, if, if things change and you wanna come back, we'd love to talk to you about it. Mm-hmm. .
Steve Bollar: Yeah. And that, that's totally possible now for, you know, my HR people who are out there, you know, We've got a compliance and everything.
Lainie Rowell: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Steve Bollar: Maybe cringing 100% at all of this. But I think you're absolutely right.
Some things, you know, this is not your season. You know, you, you, this is not your season, this is not your time. There's growing that needs to take place. I was willing to help you with that growth. You're not ready to receive that help for growth, because that's the other thing. An administrators removing someone, they hopefully they have done their due diligence to provide the assistance necessary to allow them to grow to the point where they what they need to be.
And there's a little bit of administrivia in that, that they have to have timelines and da, da, da, da, duh. So you've gotten to a point where it's not working, you've done the timelines, you've done the administrivia, you've done the coaching. It is time for you to find somewhere else to go. And it's right.
They may not be ready right now. All right. They go off, they leave. I mean, hopefully it's a situation where you're not removing them from the world of education. You're not going after their license or something crazy like that. Yeah. And I don't wanna say crazy cuz sometimes it might be necessary.
People need to grow at their own speed. A lot of people now just think back to your friends and people maybe in your family or whatever like that, where there's been a big change in their life. Something's happened and you know they're fighting this change. Look what is happening to me. Oh my God, this is terrible.
It turned out to be a good thing. It turned out to be a good thing. While they're going through it, they don't know, but a lot of times. We are resilient. People are resilient . All right. It may turn out to be a good thing. So when you're looking back to our original topic where people may need to leave or a job or whatever like that, sometimes it might just be a good thing.
Lainie Rowell: And I love that you brought HR into this and it's so interesting to me because HR Human Resources is actually one of the most lovely job titles you could have, right. Is that you, you see humans as such a resource that you wanna take care of them, right?
Steve Bollar: Yes.
Lainie Rowell: Whether you're bringing them in, helping 'em when they're struggling, keeping 'em, whatever it is. I think that's part of where you're very good. You brought that up now because you do have to be careful about that compliance stuff, which is, is guardrails to make sure that you're doing things that don't ultimately hurt people.
Steve Bollar: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Lainie Rowell: Because we have to be super careful with these communications that we're not doing something that would cause unnecessary harm to anyone involved, to any of the parties involved. Right? So we have these, these guidelines, these guardrails if you will, and. we can with our humanity also, just be really careful that, you know, we're doing the things we need to do to make sure everything's in place, but we're humans and we wanna make sure we take care of the other humans.
Steve Bollar: Yes, definitely and that's what it is. We want to take care of them. One of the things I do talk about is I talk about the difference between being compliant and commitment. Cuz school's, what are we, we are compliant driven, we really are.
And, and there's nothing wrong with it. You have to have compliance. It is important. And, and I love what you say, your guardrails and that's what they are. They're keeping it together. But when you think of compliance, what do you think of? You think of words like rules, policy, have to, standards and those are all good things.
You got, you have to have them. . But ultimately, I think if you get to the mindset and you get people to the commitment level, what words do you think of there? Commitment, dedication, love, grace you know guidance, leadership, gratitude. Those are words that you think of when you hear the word commitment. And here's the thing. If you can get your people, those are involved, your educators, your people in the school or in your families whatever, if they get committed to what you respect and value to the school today, compliance will take care of itself. True compliance will take care of itself.
It will, you will have compliance because they're committed. They're committed. I'm all in. I'm all in. I'm there. My heart's there. Now, when we. Let's jump back to what we were talking about before, about keeping teachers in the profession, keeping people there. If you can get, as a school, as a whole, as a leader, or whatever it is, your teachers to the commitment level where they're committed to what you respect and value, they're committed to, not just the students, but they're committed to the profession, they're committed to the drive, they're committed to the the needs.
You're not gonna lose 'em. Mm-hmm. , you're not gonna. , you're not gonna lose 'em. Yes. Will they come back at you? Yes. They want fairness and things like that. They want all those kind of things, you know, but they're committed to it. This is a lifestyle. Yeah. And then compliance will take care of itself.
Gratitude is a big piece of that. Being committed. Yeah. You know, and all those pieces.
Lainie Rowell: That's a great connection. Again, I'm so appreciative of how thoughtful and intentional you are with your words. Talking about like, it doesn't mean they're never gonna push back on you. No, that's not what we're saying.
Steve Bollar: Not what we're saying.
Lainie Rowell: It's just that they know where we're going, what's important to us. So even when they push back on some things, they're overall, they're on the bus with you.
Steve Bollar: They're on the bus, that's right. Yes. I love that. You know, they're on the bus. You know, it's funny, when I was talking about the keeping teachers with us, I was talking to my publisher about topics for book titles, and one of the topics that we're thinking about is called Stay on the Bus. Yeah, you know, for, for keeping. It's what you say, it's to get on. They're on a bus with you. One of the titles that we're thinking about is Stay on the Bus. How do we keep teachers retaining in the, you know, with us a little bit funny?
And it's funny you should say that. That's really neat. ,
Lainie Rowell: We're on the same page, my friend.
Steve Bollar: Yes. Yes, we are. We're in sync. Right.
Lainie Rowell: I love that you have given us so many pearls of wisdom. I could take all of your time, but I, I wanna be respectful of you. I am very grateful for this time.
I do wanna give you an opportunity to give a shout out and then wanna make sure people know how to connect with you.
Steve Bollar: Yeah, definitely. Well, as, as far as my shout outs go you know, big shout out. I, I gotta say it's my family. Of course. You know, they're going through this journey with me like crazy.
But my assistant, Jessica, that's my girl, we've, been ride or die, you wanna talk about gratitude. When I was a superintendent. I was a part of a charter network. Most of my career has been with public school, and I stepped away, did a little charter work, I hired her as my secretary.
Never been a school secretary before. Right. I needed one. She never did it. I think she processed loans at a car dealership or whatever like that, and I, I remember it was the craziest interview ever. I said to her, I says, look, . I need somebody who's willing to learn and can get me. Hang with me.
Girl, can you do that? Like that was it? She looked at me right now and she says, I got you. I said, do you? Oh yes. She says, I, I'm with you. I could do it. Are you sure? Yeah. And I'm looking at her like, come on girl. She's like, yes. I said, okay, you got it. And we worked out salary, I mean, seriously, in the interview, whatever.
Lainie Rowell: That's amazing.
Steve Bollar: Yes. So when I left that position. She stayed there for a little bit longer, but then I started doing speaking training full-time. I called her up, I said, Jess, I need you. Could you? Yes, I got you. She said, I'll, I'll help you out. And now she has a full-time business doing virtual assistance for speakers all over the country.
I love Jessica. That's my girl. She is with me, ride or die. So huge gratitude to the support and help that she provides. I gotta put that out there.
Lainie Rowell: I'm so glad you... I actually had written her name down from earlier cause I was gonna put it in the show notes, but I had a feeling you might give her the, the shout out in addition to your family, obviously.
I love that. And these people, who are side by side, shoulder to shoulder with us doing this work they just make all the difference and that I love that. "I got you." This is one of those times where I don't want anyone to see my face cuz the makeup's not great today.
But I would love for people to see your face. Cause the way that you're putting that out there, I feel like I am there with you and Jessica and I'm seeing this partnership form where it's just this amazing, like we're gonna. Incredible things.
Steve Bollar: Yes. And that's what it is. We are. I told her, you and I we're, we're growing together and she has her own business.
It's called Lean On Me Live, Lean On Me Live virtual assistance, whatever like that. And Stand Tall Enterprises. Stand Tall Steve. Boom, we're rolling with it. So that's that. Great gratitude. I think the other part was how to get the, get ahold of me, how to please the see me please and all this things and that, that's stand tall.
Anything you put Stand Tall Steve in Google, you will see me pop up everywhere. I have StandTallSteve.com. That is my website. I have a podcast called Stand Tall Leadership. You can check that out as well. You get me on Twitter or Facebook, Instagram, I'm even TikTok. StandTallsteve. You put StandTallSteve, anywhere and I will pop up the book Stand Tall Leadership. Ideas, Ideas, Ideas, book. Go to my website. You got that. And I'm working on, I'm developing something called within our ranks and within our ranks is training for educators who want to speak professionally. And there's so many educators who are tired of boring, professional development.
Professional development should be relevant. It should be quality content and slightly entertaining and I try to help educators who want to do that, be able to do that. So that's me, that, that's, that's Stand Tall Steve. All the way from New Jersey coming at you. That's it.
Lainie Rowell: I love it. Okay, so this was, this was only a, a short podcast and an amuse-bouche of Stand Tall Steve, if you will.
And just that little taste should be enough for everyone to get on your website, follow you on the socials if they haven't already. Grab your books. All right my friend. I am gonna let you go now and I just wanna say thank you for your time and thank you all for listening.
Steve Bollar: Thank you. Had a great time.
