Episode 233: Racing the Future with Brad Waid - AI, Industry 4.0, and Leadership

Darrin Peppard (00:00.992)

All right, my friends, welcome into Episode 233 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. And today's conversation is one that is just absolutely spectacular and that you are really going to love. Joining me on the show today is Brad Wade. Brad is an award winning emerging technology leader. He is an international keynote speaker and a global futurist who specializes in AI.

Industry 4.0 immersive technology and the future of education and work. Brad was ranked in the top 20 global futurists and keynote speakers. He's a leading voice in augmented reality. Brad has worked with Fortune 500 companies, school districts, governments, startups across five different continents. And Brad has a brand new book out or actually in pre-release.

as we are speaking out very soon coming out on the 17th of September titled racing the future how industry 4.0 is shaping the world of work business and education this is a really spectacular deep dive into all of those pieces I just talked about this is a really fun conversation with somebody who has become a really good friend of mine cannot wait to dive into this so let's get to it

with Brad Wade.

All right, Brad, welcome into the leaning into leadership podcast, man, this is this one's been a long time coming. So I'm excited to have you here on the show.

Brad Waid (01:40.498)

Hey Darren, it's good to see you. Thanks for having me. As you said, we've been just getting on calls and chatting and enjoying conversation for a long time now. So I guess it's fitting we're officially on the podcast together now. Thanks for having me.

Darrin Peppard (01:53.442)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, of course. Of course. So, you know, before we jumped on here into the actual recording, I talked a little bit about, know, some of your background, some of the stuff that you do, but maybe just real quick to further orient our listeners and our watchers on YouTube, maybe fill in a couple of the blanks that I didn't cover as far as who Brad Wade is.

Brad Waid (02:17.91)

Sure, yeah, happy to. So my career actually started in the classroom. So I was a classroom teacher for 15 years, third grade. Never expected to leave. Something happened in my classroom about 12 years in or so. The iPad came out and I started learning about it and used it in my classroom, even before I had a camera. Once I had a camera, I started finding different

technology applications to use with my students. And what I found, and you reference augmented reality at that time in 2012, it was brand new technology. And what it is, is image recognition and software to bring digital things to life. I used it with my students and I saw something I hadn't seen in well over 10 years, an engagement so deep that I felt I could teach any learning outcome I wanted. So I spent two years trying to prove that.

And so I leveraged technology well before we had tech coaches and everything and ended up starting a blog. It went crazy. Started just posting. Next thing I know, I got asked to speak about what I was doing in my classroom and that all of those steps led to where I am today, becoming a keynote speaker, a consultant, all around technology, whether I'm working in school districts to talk about adoption and not only just how to, but like...

why, you know, because a lot of times we really want to know the why, not just the here's five great tools, because there's a lot of amazing people doing that. My lens is a little broader than that. Like here are some great things that you can do, but here's, you know, the scope and sequence over the next few years, five years, 10 years, 12 years. How do we get students ready past our education system? And so my lens is very broad lens of a teacher with the application and the impact on a student and ultimately

our environment as humans and our community.

Darrin Peppard (04:20.137)

So many, so many good things in there. And, know, one of the questions that I had wanted to ask you is how does, how does a third grade teacher become, you know, one of the, the, the global gurus on, on tech and AI and, augmented reality, but, in a lot of ways, you kind of already hit some of that. So, so let's do that. I want to talk about education, but I also want to talk outside of the education space. I want to talk about some of the work that you do in the corporate space. Definitely want to talk about the book, but

Let's let's maybe stay in the education space and I'll share with you just a couple conversations I've had just in the last maybe three or four days, specifically with schools about AI and about the use of AI. One of my brand new clients, one of the districts in the greater Metro Omaha area that I just started with, we were having a conversation yesterday and they have a group of teachers.

in this particular high school, it's one of those destination high schools, know, one where once teachers get there, they don't leave until they retire. And so he has, you know, a pretty veteran staff and AI is really making them uncomfortable. Now, I will say this, the principal is doing a really good job of trying to find ways to make that happen. The second conversation right here in the Omaha Metro,

Brad Waid (05:26.09)

Yeah. Yep.

Darrin Peppard (05:47.002)

West Side School District, their high school principal, Dr. Jay Dostle, who's been on the show a couple times, good friend of mine, multiple times state principal of the year in different states. They have taken on right head to head with policy implementation, all of this around AI. One of the first districts that I've heard that just said, Hey, we're not going to put a, let's ban it. We're going to put in a how we're going to teach it.

Brad Waid (06:16.95)

Mm-hmm.

Darrin Peppard (06:16.981)

I say all of that to ask the expert in education and not just AI, there's a lot of other pieces here. Talk a little bit about maybe what you suggest to teachers, to administrators, maybe even to parents that, I mean, this rapidly changing world of AI in particular, a lot of people are playing catch up. So what are some?

What are some wise words you can share with them?

Brad Waid (06:50.174)

Yeah, it's a great question and a lot to impact there, but there's some pretty high level things that we can touch on. And you mentioned three different stakeholders. You mentioned the staff, you mentioned the administration, and you mentioned the parents. Those are the adult stakeholders, and then we have the students. So one of the first things I always talk about is awareness. you have to, know, high tide raises all boats. Having that awareness and conversation. So.

People are already aware of AI since ChatGPT came out, it just blew up. So now people are aware in a sense of, we know it's out there. The real awareness comes to understanding what it's capable of and where people have access. Another point that you really want to remember is students, kids are already well ahead of most of the adults. Most of the teachers, most of the parents, I mean,

I'm an AI expert and there's probably still things that my children have experienced and know just because they live in a different generation with different tools and stuff like that. So the first thing is really just awareness and education. One, knowing it's out there. And then where do we start? Like, you know, with the typical bell curve, you're going to have early adopters, you're going to have people who are a little nervous about it. So really it's really educating that front end.

group that parents are a little unsure, teachers are a little uncomfortable, and that's usually veteran teachers. The teachers that just coming in from college, they are already using it. They're already like, oh, it's fine, I'm already using it. I helped with my lesson plans and stuff. So I work with the school district in California, and this is my fourth year going in with them. And we always, made a full plan about involving all the stakeholders because it looks different.

Darrin Peppard (08:26.346)

Right.

Brad Waid (08:42.582)

for every group. It looks different for teachers, it looks different for parents, administration and students. And so really, there's about a five step process. There's awareness, there's application, there's ethics, and then you go into data. There's so much to that, like bias. So when you go into ethics, it's fairness and bias are really some of the big things that we talk about. And accessibility as well, who has access, who doesn't.

when someone's using AI, what does that look like? Is it skewed? Is it telling the truth? Is it accurate? And just like, like I'm to date myself for a moment, but you know, when we were, you know, in college, you know, we had to cite work, we had to go to references and like validate things. You know, timeframes for validation is so much shorter now. A lot of people make assumptions that just because AI says it, that it's true. And

Darrin Peppard (09:27.466)

Yeah.

Brad Waid (09:38.351)

It's very accurate, but it's not 100 % accurate. And when I do keynotes, I do a lot of keynotes on AI and education and in corporate. And I always show a lot of different screens and results where AI is clearly not accurate. So, but anyways, that's a lot. But the biggest thing is knowing who the stakeholders are and addressing them individually. You can do them as a whole, but you wanna make sure you address the real things with them. Because students are gonna be at a different level than the parents and so on.

Darrin Peppard (10:09.227)

And I think too, you know, and this is true in all walks of life, certainly, you know, a piece with with my work specifically with leaders, you know, AI can be an incredibly powerful tool that can be an incredible time saver. In just the last, yeah.

Brad Waid (10:24.234)

And that's you, that's exactly right. That's the number one, number one takeaway.

Darrin Peppard (10:29.131)

Yeah, well, I mean, even, you you think about it as a classroom teacher, you know, being able to, you know, take an exam that you want to put out for your students, drop that into chat GPT, maybe just have it analyze it, you know, at what level am I asking, you know, students, if you're in a school, if you're in a district that's working on having more.

rigorous types of assignments, rigorous types of assessments, or even just assessments that are well aligned with what the standard is asking, leverage ChatGPT because it will do that for you. It really will. Just again, with leaders being able to plan your time, be more efficient with what you do. There's so many great things that you can do with the tools. Let's maybe cross the aisle, if you will.

into the corporate space. You work in so many different corporate spaces and I don't want to try and go through like every single one of them. One of the things I love about the book, you talk a lot about the future of work. You talk about work 4.0, what that looks like, how technology, all of these different pieces of technology continue to reshape what work looks like.

We're a little slow in education to reshape. Some other corporate spaces would probably say, no, we're slower. Certainly the folks I know in healthcare would say, no, we're way slower than education. No, you're not. But we could go with all kinds of different corporate spaces, but either go general or maybe just pick one that's maybe fresher that you're maybe focusing on for.

Brad Waid (12:02.549)

Yeah.

Brad Waid (12:07.872)

Right.

Darrin Peppard (12:21.502)

an upcoming keynote and let's talk about how, you know, that, next phase of work, what, does that look like and how does, how does the technology kind of pull that together? And, and, and again, this is kind of the core of your book.

Brad Waid (12:37.366)

Sure, yeah, no, that's a great reference, Darren. You know, as you referenced in the book, this book really came out of two working manuscripts, if you will. One was a book and one was a guide. And so I started doing a lot of research and I put all my data in a spreadsheet. And what I ended up finding out was I ended up making columns, everything on about, okay.

had technology on one, then had like skills was another. And so I ended up learning about, and this came from working with corporations, C-level executives, hiring managers, HR, and asking, you know, what are you looking for, for students coming out of the education system? And they would tell me, and so much of this were the soft skills. You know, the, you know, being able to work with

you know, a group or a partner, being able to communicate, whether it's in email, whether it's in person, you know, shaking hands, like something in the eye. But then it came down to then looking at all the technology and the hard skills, know, typing, word processing, you know, and then any dependent skill, you know, based on what job you want to go into. And so, you know, there's a big outline of here are, you know, a bunch of skills that

we should be looking at in the education system. Like when I was in my school system, we always had a scope and sequence K through 12. every few years you get back to certain things that you reinforce. And so by the time somebody gets through the whole system, they're well grounded in X, Y, Z, so many things. And so in the book, I point out so many of the skills that we're looking for. Because then it transcends. And we look at.

What I always say and people you always you know look at me funny I say I believe this is how we see technology makes us more human even AI Because what it shows us time and time and time again Technology we use to you as a convenience save time save money get closer social media brought the world closer You know we were friends before we even met in person you can go through people have been on Twitter for a decade You know we say the same thing

Brad Waid (14:56.918)

This is an example of how technology makes us more human and then that way when we're going into the workforce, you know, I work with food, I work with manufacturing, I work with automotive, and so many of the things are true. When I go work with an organization, there's usually about 65, 70 % of technology adoption and communication that is standard, no matter what business I'm in.

because what they have to get better at is like, okay, like anything, Darren, and you know, because you coach, you have coaches, it's identifying the problems. And sometimes it's a workflow problem. Sometimes it's a time problem. Sometimes it's a communication problem. So once we identify those, then what we see is like, okay, what hard skill or program can we use that will help us that we can adopt to save time? And then what other soft skills can we use to

help us in our communication, whether it's in email, whether it's in a Zoom call, whether it's in person, addressing a group. And then in the book, we go through some fun things. I think I identified 10, 15 fun jobs that people have never heard of, drone pilots, digital forensic scientists, all kinds of fun things that I wanted this to be not only for teachers, parents, but also for students, that you could go in there and you could.

as a teacher or parent, you could see some jobs that maybe get a kid excited or you see a kid or a student that has really good skills. Like they're really good at doing Minecraft or they're really good at art. There's so many different things. can get kids excited about a job or you can get kids excited about a skill and then show them towards a job and then go into the higher workforce. So I know a lot there and I went all over the place, but.

Darrin Peppard (16:47.35)

That's okay. No, actually what I really appreciate about that, and I know you know this about me, I'm recovering high school principal and a big part of that work was designing programming for students and to prepare them for what may come next. And so much of what we talked about, not only with business partners, but within, you know, within the walls of our school.

Brad Waid (16:55.179)

Yes.

Darrin Peppard (17:15.828)

wasn't necessarily that we need to teach kids the skills they're going to use on the job site, the specific technical skills, but much more of those those soft skills and hearing you say that, you know, it's been, I don't even know eight or nine years since I stopped being a high school principal. And to know that still, you know, what what is demanded out there in the workspace is still

the ability to communicate, the ability to solve problems, to resolve conflict, to think critically, to communicate well, all of those types of things that even back in our early Career Academy development days when we leaned heavy into that and yes, we had thematic academies, but there were consistencies across just like you talk about the 60 to 65 % of...

you know, needs across the board are the same. That's, that's pretty much how we applied that. So that, that's like one of my biggest takeaways from what you just said, what you just said. Certainly for, you know, for our educators listening in our school leaders listening in, keep leaning into the soft skills because that stuff is just so very important. And this, this takes me to, to another question and I'm going to bet this is a question you've heard before, but

People have got to be thinking this. I would imagine, especially if you go and speak in a school, I mean, it's one thing, you may hear this in the corporate space too, but how often have you heard and what might be the response to, well, computers are just going to replace human beings in the space of work? Am I wrong? I mean, you've heard that before.

Brad Waid (19:06.324)

No, I, yeah, I've heard it very often and I get asked that question all the time. And it's interesting because, you know, like, you know, this as well as I do, you can go find statistics that are going to bear out whatever you really want to emphasize from all of my research that I've seen, you know, the best research I can get grounded in confirmation is that AI, you know, these stats are a few months old, but AI, I'll just use AI for this example.

because AI computers, same thing, 10 years ago, was computers gonna replace us. It's AI gonna replace us, it's robots are gonna replace us, automation. It's true, we continue to evolve our technology, our society continue to evolve, but every time we evolve, what we do is we find out what makes us more uniquely human. So I'll give you a stat. One of the last stats I saw was AI is going to replace about.

you know, 85 million jobs. And that on the surface sounds like just scary as can be. But when you do the deep dive, you find the other number and it says it's going to create about 97 million. So it's a 12 million net gain. Okay. Now that I do believe that's pretty accurate. Now there are some things like junior level programmers and coders, you know, people who are programming on computers. That is probably the job that is being

that's disappearing the fastest right now. And that is very accurate. But what we're doing is we're getting other jobs that are higher level than that that are opening up because so many different things need to be managed. So to the question of will AI or what, you know, it's gonna happen anyways. So I have a friend who's also a teacher, he's a middle school teacher and he's been for over two years now. His thing in his classroom is

challenging AI to be better than AI. He's like, it's out there. He said, but let's really find out why humans are better than AI and why you're better. So he uses AI as a tool, but then always uses, finds out ways to show that, well, I used AI to start here, but here's how I improve upon it by being human. And it's really a fascinating thing. So to that point, so many jobs are going to change and evolve. Just like, you know, like,

Brad Waid (21:28.746)

Do we make many chalk erasers anymore? No, not really. You can find like in 1895, I remember there's an old newspaper article where somebody's complaining and say the slate and tablet will never be replaced. mean, obviously it's going to be replaced. Now we have digital smart boards. Everything's going to continue to evolve. We need to be looking at what can we do as humans to stay ahead of it. AI needs to be.

managed, all technology needs to be managed. know, whether we're, know, when it's automation, we saw if you look at any factory or any automotive line, you know, automation, know, Henry Ford started that in the 1910s, 1915. That was a big revolution. That was like the second major revolution in industry. And that stayed around. It just improved what we were doing, brought costs down, brought jobs up and so on. We'll continue that cycle. Some jobs will go away.

But jobs will be different. There's going be new jobs that, if you told me there was going to be drone pilots and drone racing and FAA drone pilots and pilots for drones in the military 15 years ago, you'd probably be like, I don't get it. We just didn't know enough. But now that's accurate. And so there's a whole area around just that one job. And that will continue to evolve as

Darrin Peppard (22:50.633)

Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, you kind of referenced it there with with Henry Ford. That was one of the things I was thinking about as, as you were talking, you know, you mentioned early, you know, automotive is one of those, one of those corporate spaces that that you have leaned into. Let's let's just maybe just dig a little bit more there. I'm just really curious. And I want to I'll use automotive as as an example, because I think that's one of the things we think about is, you know, now

Brad Waid (23:10.55)

Sure. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (23:17.641)

you know, the assembly line, so much of that repetitive work can be done by robot. But how are, let's use automotive. How is the automotive industry taking that, that work or the jobs that are being replaced by technology and retraining and moving them into other spaces?

Brad Waid (23:44.661)

Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. And we'll stick with automotive because some of the transitions are easy to see. When we reference them, people could see this. So think about, you know, I work with one plant that still has, that it has actually two different sides. It has one that is still very much human labor and then one that is more automation, more robotic. Now, what can happen is let's just use the evolution of an automotive plant. So you think about

the labor force that has to physically put things in, whether they're putting a transmission in, they're doing all that. Let's just say there's 200 people in that plant doing, because I live in the Detroit area, so there's an automotive, like there's stamping plants, there's assembly plants, there's all kinds of specialty plants, and in every plant they do very specific skill, and they're doing that. Well, what you can do, let's just say you have 200 workers who are doing that skill. Well, now,

They're going to invest $600 million in 20 robots that do that. Well, all of these workers are displaced. Now, this happens a little bit over time. But if you look at the evolution, what that does is now somebody that's a laborer, that turns into more of an engineer. Because those machines, now they need maintenance people. So the machines break down.

So they need maintenance people. So 15 of that 20 is now going to move over into the maintenance side. Also, it needs programming. needs 20 programmers to work on the software. So also, 20 of those move to that. They're going to be engineers. They need 10 engineers. So you've got 10 engineers. Then there's another 20 different jobs that come with automation. So many different things to work on preventative maintenance.

keep, you know, timing, schedule, everything, you know, so it's, it's just, when I say it makes us more human, what we're doing is, you know, like we now have bulldozers, we have things that dig trenches, we have, you know, earth movers, things that would take, you know, we as humans a long time, like, you know, if you see a house being built and they're doing a basement, they've probably got a big piece of machinery, a scoop or a bucket, you know, digging it out.

Brad Waid (26:03.764)

you know, 50 years ago, if you had a basement, you probably were on a partial hill and you had to take it out by hand. So that same principle continues to evolve is, you know, where the labor goes that something that can be automated, you know, physically, then it moves to us using our brain a little more because we have the, you know, we have the problem solving skills, we can, you know, pivot real quick, we can look globally, because even if you ask chat GPT, a very complicated question.

multi-step, it'll work on it, but as you know as well as I do, you have to work with it a long, long, long time to get it really down to making some process correct. Whereas human evolution, we can say things, we know communication, we know the language, we can put syntax together real well and be like, I understand the global problem, this is how we'll address it.

Darrin Peppard (26:53.828)

So much good stuff in there. this is, folks, this is why you got to get get a copy of this book. And you get if you're watching in particular, you could probably hear it. But if you were watching this on YouTube, you could see just how passionate Brad got about that particular topic. Yeah. And so I mean, and there's just so many great things in this particular book talking about exactly what he just shared.

Brad Waid (26:59.783)

Ha

Brad Waid (27:08.82)

I love it. I love it. Yeah. Thank you.

Darrin Peppard (27:19.402)

and from lots of different perspectives and all kinds of different pieces. mean, you've got big pieces in there around cloud computing, the internet of things, on and on, cybersecurity. mean, just so many incredible pieces that tie into what this future may potentially hold for us.

Brad Waid (27:29.364)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (27:45.579)

One more question before I jump to the final question I ask always here on the show. Again, related to the book, but just related to this overall topic. The title of the book is Racing the Future. Talk a little bit more about where that comes from and how you kind of wrapped your arms around that concept.

Brad Waid (28:08.362)

Yeah, back in, that's a great question. Back in is probably, I'm gonna just say 2015, so about 10 years ago, I was giving a keynote and you know, when I first started it was augmented reality and then it was augmented and virtual reality and then it was emerging technology and what I realized was even being in all of this, everything was evolving so fast and this was even.

this phrase and this title came to me even before AI. And once AI came out, evolution's happening so fast. We're seeing it on such a rapid scale of how fast things are evolving. So I was doing a keynote and I was trying to come up with a title. I was doing it for a school district. And I just thought, gosh, we're just racing. We know the phrase, if you're a substitute teacher and you're doing math, I just got to be one day ahead of the students. I got to be one day ahead of the students. I just need to know.

Darrin Peppard (29:02.248)

Yeah.

Brad Waid (29:04.31)

what I'm doing for the lesson tomorrow. And so as technology comes around, being in the classroom for 15 years, I had all kinds of colleagues and I just remember some colleagues saying, I can't do it. And one thing I just always say is like, if you know, if awareness is a huge thing and just knowing is helping. So staying ahead of that. And so I felt like we're always in a race and it came to me as like, look, we're in a race, we just need to know what race we're in and we need to know.

what's around us and we're just trying to stay ahead. I just feel like now there's so much going on that, know, lot of us can feel, I don't want to say defeated, but if you're in education system, you're in business, you know there's a lot that's pushing at us. And it's like, I can feel a little overwhelmed. And so I did a keynote called racing the future and it was getting a handle on technology and understanding how to stay ahead and how to work with it.

And so this book was written out of keynotes. know, as you know, when you read it, it's me keynoting because basically every chapter is a keynote. Basically I designed the book that way. So, cause people ask, they want to see more of my keynotes. And so I wrote the book in that way. So every topic under industry 4.0, everything from augmented reality, artificial intelligence, IOT, cyber, digital twins and everything in there.

is basically me giving a keynote and sharing and explaining everything about the technology, what you need to know and how it's impacting us in education, in business and in industry. so racing the future, I just feel like it's a constant evolution that I want us to say, look, you may be scared, you may be like, I feel like I'm so far behind. You know what? Once we have the awareness, it's okay. Let's just get a handle on it, start somewhere. We can do this and you can stay ahead of it and just...

You know, it's great. I just, it's a fun title. It was fun making the cover. It's, you know, I just, I love this because it allows me to share my knowledge, my passion to try to help and elevate, you know, any environment, any community, any school system, any business I can.

Darrin Peppard (31:17.192)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and certainly, you know, shifting out of podcaster mode and into road awesome publishing mode. We're pretty doggone excited about the book too, because obviously, you know, we have the opportunity to partner with you and to release this book with with the road awesome stamp on it as well. So super excited about the book, folks. It comes out on the 17th of September, but it is available right now for pre order, both on Barnes and Noble and on

Brad Waid (31:36.48)

Thank you. Thank you.

Darrin Peppard (31:45.338)

Amazon. So make sure you check that out. We've got those down in the show notes. You can go hit the links and get that book so you have it in advance. So Brad, we're at that point in the show. I'm going to ask you the same question I ask everybody here on the show. This is the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. So what are you doing right now to lean into leadership?

Brad Waid (32:03.926)

Yeah, that's a great question. you know, now that I've been in my industry and have some gray hairs and experience under my belt, really what I'm doing now, you know, outside of my keynoting and stuff is really, you know, I'm coaching, helping. I feel like my job now, outside of just my professional work is to help anybody, you know, elevate themselves, help a community, help a business, help a school. And so

taking that leadership role, sharing as much knowledge and help that I can, whether that's somebody that's learning how to speak on stage or whether that's a teacher in the classroom or it's an executive at a business, at a corporation. It's really sharing everything that I know to help them be better and leave the world better than we came in. And that's really my leadership role now is

saying, okay, these are some things I've learned, I'm gonna share as much as I can in context for you to where, hey, we're gonna shorten that learning curve. And I remember learning stuff from my elders that are still true today. And so that's how I lead into leadership is helping anyone I can to accomplish things that I have experience in.

Darrin Peppard (33:24.379)

Outstanding. So people are going to want to get in touch with you. We've shared with them how they get the book, but how do people get in touch with you, bring you into speaking their school, what their organization and so forth.

Brad Waid (33:37.45)

Sure, yeah, so they can always reach out on social media. I'm at TechBradWade on Twitter and X, BradWade on LinkedIn, Facebook. They can always go to my website, bradwaid.com, get information there, see me in action, see what I do. reach out, and I always say, reach out wherever you're comfortable. I'm on most platforms, so just get ahold of me. love hearing where people are at, what they're interested in, and then working with people. So any mode.

techbradwait.gmail.com is my email, so I handle that myself and you know anywhere they want.

Darrin Peppard (34:14.363)

Outstanding. We'll put all that stuff down in the show notes so folks can get in touch with you. Man, this was a lot of fun. I'm so glad we finally had the opportunity. Brad, thank you so much for joining me here on Leaning Into Leadership.

Brad Waid (34:25.462)

Yeah, thanks Darren. It's always good talking to you and I appreciate you having me on the show. This has been a great conversation, a lot of time. I appreciate the people watching and listening, allowing me to come into their living room in their car while they're on their way to work. So I appreciate it. Thank you, Darren. I appreciate everything.

Darrin Peppard (34:40.552)

Yeah, absolutely.

Darrin Peppard (00:01.324)

All right, folks, just one more big thank you to Brad Wade for coming and joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. It was a lot of fun to sit down and have a conversation with Brad and certainly to talk about the future of work, the technology advancements and just how it impacts each and every one of us in our daily lives. So once again, thank you, Brad, for joining us here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Everything you need to get connected with Brad, to pre-order his book, to go to his website, all of that stuff is down in the show notes.

And now it's time for a pep talk. So earlier this week, I had the opportunity to start working with another new client. And this particular school district is here in the greater Omaha area. And I spent a good portion of the day with the building principal and the assistant principal at this particular high school. And one of the things that they had shared with me is the work that they have done to really identify the core values of their school.

They've done really, really wonderful work here. And one of their core values, they have four core values, is being intentional. Now, I will tell you the other three so you're not left in suspense. It's perseverance, relationships, and community, but being intentional. It really resonated with me, and I asked them to go a little bit further. And they said, well, what we really have identified is that being intentional means we strive to act with purpose, thoughtfulness,

and clarity in everything we do, from teaching methods to relationships and to decision making. I found that just super powerful. And the more that I've been reflecting on this, and of course, two of my favorite words are in there, intentionality and clarity. But the more that I've thought about this, how powerful is it that we can instill in our kids, our staff, and our leadership team?

to be intentional. They've taken it even a step further. When they see that intentionality happening, they recognize reward and reinforce it. They've created bracelets that have each of their four core values, different ones for each of the four core values. And when they see that, they give the kids a bracelet. So of course, being the guy who's loving intentionality, I have their intentional bracelet.

Darrin Peppard (02:28.312)

which I think is wonderful. So my challenge for you this week on the pep talk is to really lean into being intentional. Think about, think about their words, acting with purpose, thoughtfulness and clarity with everything that you do. When you as a leader are really intentional about what you do, when you're intentional about your communication with your presence in the hallways and in the classroom,

with how you align your priorities, with how you utilize your time, think about how much more effective you are going to be as a leader. And for that matter, how much happier you're gonna be as a leader. That's what I've got for you this week, folks. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Leading Into Leadership podcast. Get out there, have a road to awesome week.