Navigating the Path to Success: Tips for Youth and Parents

0:00 Dr. William T Choctaw: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very, very special guest brother Keith Hanson. Who we've known for a number of years, but who's been involved with some very unique activities, specifically involving education and involving our youth. And because we were so impressed with the work that he has done. We invited him to join us on Healthy, Wealthy and Wise podcast, and he graciously agreed for him to share some of that. This is about leadership, and this is, this podcast is part of our Leadership Masterclass. And so our hope is that as you listen, to the work of Brother Hanson and other leaders that you too will be inspired to do something like what he's doing or just certainly assist him or help him in doing what he has been doing.

0:49 So, welcome again, Brother Hanson. Thank you. It's good to be here. Thank you., so what about the future now? You're actually here because you made a presentation at the Men's Fellowship Council that impressed me. And I said, wow, those are good ideas. You know, I need to talk with this guy and find out blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I guess my point is I think the challenge now is that those of us who are of like mind need to work together, whatever that means, to sort of help to solve the problem because no one person can do it by himself or by herself. One, one of the things, a, again, after that meeting the, the Chief Production Officer, Mr.

1:32 Hammonds and I had a conversation, we, we, we had a conversation and we decided based on that meeting to start a pod, a youth podcasters club. That, you know, any youth, doesn't matter what church you go to, where you are, if you're interested in podcasting or learning about it or whatever, whatever, whatever, you know, contact, go to our website and we'll get you information and start you on your way. That's great. Most of the stuff is free. You know, you know, like you can start a podcast for like six months for free, you know, on and on and on. But that's just a small part. The more important part in my judgment is the focus on education and, and, and the substantive things that, that can be done with that.

2:20 So, you know, how, what, what else, what help do you need? To help you move forward with some of the things that you're doing. And it's always, it's like the stock market, it's always up and down, you know, and that's okay. Keith Hansen: Well, I think getting the, getting the information out there I have some, and I'll share it, gladly share it with you guys so that you can pass it on, do with it as you wish to, to brighten and enlighten some of these people's lives. But again, to your point, some of the things that I learned to try to help our kids. And it can be done anywhere. When I found out some of our kids that things that they wanted to do, I tried to put them in contact with people that look like them, that do what they want to do so they can know that it's believable.

3:04 There was some that wanted to be firemen. I put them in contact with Mr. Fonville and some of the others. One of my relatives, he was a fire captain for a Compton fire department. Matter of fact, he worked with Mr. Fonville and when they saw somebody that they knew at church or whatever, it changed, it was very different. I used to take a matter of fact, one of the ones I did with Doris Simpson's daughter and Patrick's son when they graduated college, which I had talked with them and stuff before, but when they graduated college, one had a poli sci degree. And the other, I believe hers is in marketing. I took them to my job with me. I work at Metro and they have. floors of people that do all sorts of things based on their degrees that they did.

3:45 27 floors of people. So I took them there and I took them to the different departments where they could utilize their degree and have them meet people, get business cards from them so they could talk to them and hear their story, what they did and how they got there. And those things make a difference. There was one of the little girls at church, she wanted to be a lawyer. So I took her there to see a lady named Nedra Jenkins one of the only African American female lawyers that Metro had of, I think they had about 15, 10, 15 lawyers. And I asked her before, why do you want to do that? And she gave me these reasons, which weren't good ones, but I had to take her to shore to meet this lady. And it made a difference. She was talking about, she's going to be in court and do this, that, and the other, make all this money. But before you get there, I asked her, do you, how are your reading and writing skills?

4:28 I don't like to write. I read when I have to so she goes in this lady's office and she's got stacks of books up and she's writing she's typing and she's like, wow, when she started explained to her before you go on stage at court you have a lot of this background stuff that has to be done before you get the bright lights and glamour of going to court. And she was devastated. And then she realized this isn't for me then. And so kind of like I tell some of our kids now when they're not sure exactly what they want to do, I encourage them to go take the ASVAB test, the arm surface vocational aptitude battery test for the military, not to go into the military. But if you know, the three of us here, anybody that went in the military, usually they get a job that they saw and do well.

5:11 It's not magic. How it happens is because of the tests that they take shows their strengths and their weaknesses, and they guide them into careers and jobs where they're strong at. If they see that they suck at something, they're not going to push them into that and let them struggle and founder. And so the same thing, once they take that test and learn that I'm good at English, or I'm good at math, or I'm good at. Mechanics or whatever. Let's embrace the careers that utilize those skills that are easy for you to do and you take it and use it to get something that is scalable, sustainable and marketable and set yourself up and you'll be fine. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of things we can do again by sharing the information.

5:51 I tell the kids again. A lot of them talk about money and finance for college and worry about that. Like you said, and I said, if you, well, a couple of things I usually do this presentation and it talks about the three D's of success. And I draw this triangle and I tell them about how a triangle is the strongest geometrical shape known to man. It can build and do wonderful things. I says, and on one side of this triangle, you have. Dedication and the other side, you have determination, but the base of the triangle that makes it strong is discipline. And without discipline, you will not be successful in life at all.

6:33 It takes discipline to do anything. And especially matriculate through a college campus. You have to be disciplined. You have to be focused. You have to be deliberate and you have to be intentional. And you can do that now as high school students. Take ownership of your education and drive it where it needs to go. So Dr. William T Choctaw: I think one of the things that we can do and again, you know we'll get approved from the chief production officer. I think there's a lot of, I think we can provide a platform. For you to communicate and in our podcast, we're approaching 20, 000 downloads and this is why this is not just U.

7:15 S. or California, but at the very least. We can get the word out and it could be certain type of people who are getting the word out to certain type of people and everybody else, but at least that can be done, you know, and, and, and I think just, just in the last, just this month in terms of knowing what you're doing and you're knowing some of the things that we're doing and sort of merging some of that so that we can all help each other with. To focus on the youth. I, I just think that, you know, you, you can't a group a race, a, a, a team, a culture cannot survive if you don't focus on your youth. You, you, Keith Hansen: well, here's the thing.

7:55 If you, if you look at others that are thriving and surviving and excelling, they're doing something that we don't do is networking help each other. Yep. Right now at the Cal Poly campus, during the summer. There's so many programs they have on there for Latino youth and this, that, and the other. And I was there. And it's like, wow, all these kids are putting in extra work, doing extra stuff. But where are our kids? You know, Dr. William T Choctaw: I benefited in the seventies, you know, in the seventies from going to summer programs in Nashville at my high school, Tennessee State University had a summer science program.

8:35 It's like about three or four weeks. I went there my first time ever being on a college campus, and I said, wow, I really like this. But that then caused me to get interested in biochemistry, which was my major at college. I told my kids growing up summer is not relaxation time. Summer is time you use to get ahead. You know, you make up stuff. Keith Hansen: That needs to be preached. That needs to be. Yes. Yes. I learned that. A lot of our kids is laying up and being cute during the summer instead of putting in work. Well, I think it's, it's Dr. William T Choctaw: sort of what we taught them and, and it's sort of what they're told that's expected of them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

9:18 Well, I, I think moving forward and I, I want to be respectful Keith Hansen: of your time. No, no, I'm fine. You said something there about this and here's one of the things again I did with my kids. And at first I caught backlash from them, but then it became a way of life. Couple of things. Our, most of our stuff that we did was at church, near the church, this, that, and the other. And it's at least 30 minutes away from my house. So I would tell the kids wherever we go, whenever we go different places that we go, cause we were very, very involved with their sports and this, that, and the other, as well as church choir mission programs. So we were always on the road. I'd get off the train and my wife, sometimes would give me one or two of them.

9:59 I'm taking some, some, she's taking some another place, but I'd tell them wherever we go. If it's longer than 15 or 20 minutes in the car, you got to bring a book to read. She started them on reading books each week. They had to spend an hour and a night reading. And every Friday they would go to the library and she would get a new batch of books for him for the next week. So some of these things that you, you have to do, but during the summer I started a thing and I started telling some of my, and it takes the work of the parents. And if they're not willing to do it, it won't work. But I had a thing for my kids. I called it the summer success Academy. During the summer, I would have, get their next year's You can go to the library and they have an accelerated reading list for the next grade that they're going to so you can get some of those books and get them early and get them exposed to it.

10:43 You can have them write book reports, you know, I used to have the youngest one she did a little basic one, the middle one she did a little bit more. And my son, he had a complex one that he had to do, have them during this, during the summer, pick some of the books that you find out that they're interested in certain things to do that. I would get the next year's math. And right now there's like one I don't know if you heard of, call it Khan Academy and others that you can go to Khan Academy. Yeah. Their next year, their next year's math. And and have them get exposed to it and start to learn it before time. You can work with them with writing. I would give them writing assignments and things like this. Sometimes they would want to do stuff for the summer, go somewhere and I'd say, write me a paper and persuade me, write a persuasive essay that why we need to do this or why I should, you know, and they would say, Oh, dad, but they did it.

11:33 And starting off with my son and then with Jasmine and with Jada, they're phenomenal writers as a result of it, as it gets. Further down the road because it started doing it more and more and it became that's the way we roll, you know We I'll say this real quick. We went one time to a family reunion. We did a red eye flight to Chicago We went to the reunion But the next week we went to Pittsburgh and we drove from Chicago to Pittsburgh is over eight hours one way Right, and everybody said how did you stay in those in the car with those kids for eight hours? We took books and this and that and we had videos and stuff like this, but we never turned them on. We played games with them. We taught them different languages. We taught them. I had a math game that I play with them in the car, a spelling game.

12:15 I play with them in the car on and on and on. And those things doing that stuff. It works. It takes a lot of work and stuff, but it works. So it takes a lot of extra stuff you have to do to turn out some products that are able to do that. Well, but Dr. William T Choctaw: what we can do, we can help you. We can provide a platform and it could be multiple things. I, you know, I'll leave it up to you and Jesse in terms of Which categories and all that, but, but we can provide a platform that folks can access, I'm talking about kids specifically, can access to get information or refer them to, number one.

12:56 Number two, that there's a gentleman by the name of Chavarria, As I mentioned, is he's a, a college math mentor, and I'd never heard of college math mentors, but his job is that he contacts college students either right before they go to college or during college and helps them. It advises them with difficult situations, you know, difficulties. I never heard of that, but I will put you in touch with him give you his information, vice versa. And so you guys can talk and maybe you guys can do something to help each other. You know, he's a graduate of Walnut high school. I met him back when I was mayor and he remembered me.

13:37 And we just started talking and, and then I, you know, I'm having him do some podcasts with us, but, but he's, he's working in the same area that can help, they can help with that. But, but specifically we can focus on the kids that we see the most, which to some extent, kids at church, other places and provide these things Keith Hansen: for them. I think you're, you're exactly right. I have. Some of our kids at church I tried to hold on one second here. Let me tell my wife, we're still doing this one. Okay. Tell her we're Dr. William T Choctaw: almost done.

14:22 Keith Hansen: Okay. She said, Oh, wow. I forgot. Anyway I've acquired different people that can help kids. Like I tell some of our kids I was telling some of the other week, if you have any needs Academically get help as soon as you realize there's a problem. Don't wait till it's too late. One of the boys he was telling me he had problems with his spanish and one of my nieces that was here She's learned spanish And she said, I'll help you with it. So she gave him her phone number and I says, you work with him. And then my daughter Jada speaks fluent Spanish and writes fluent Spanish. And so she said she would help him. So when we find resources, I try to put the kids connected with them. I have a couple of math teachers that help my son.

15:03 One of my friend's daughter and she's got a master's degree in math and she has helped in matter of fact, some of the kids that I mentioned earlier, she's working with them now teaching them and then another lady Jasmine wall. She's a mechanical engineer. She has a math club. She has. Okay, she has a business where she does this tutoring and helping kids. She has a Friday night math party on a website for the kids and she makes it fun and exciting, but she does tutoring individual all these things when we have them together. I'm going to I'll share with you. I'll share with you about the different scholarships. Okay. Okay. Dr. William T Choctaw: And so we can put all that on the website. And so there's a place that they can go to just get information, you know, because this is the age of technology and AI and all that.

15:48 And we can do that. We can Keith Hansen: do that. Yes. So there's a lot of resources. I had told you one of the things and I'm going to try to do it with my SQL, a database that I wanted to make, and I haven't got to, I just got some stuff for how to make it work the other day, and I've got to make it happen, but I need to create a database of careers. Our kids, even in our church alone, there's so many people that have careers that they never even knew of, thought about, they need to know. They need to know. Dr. William T Choctaw: You know, the attorneys that I know at St. Stephen's who've been there for years who, who worked with me and vice versa. And right, we, we have assets that we don't know about constantly.

16:28 We don't utilize those assets. And, and so I, we, we can, we can help with that. We, we can help with that. I think Keith Hansen: it's, I think it's a great thing again, like you said, and we said, when you see people doing things that you think of and you say, well, I don't know if that's available or whatever. My kids we were there at in a community hospital and we were walking down the hall and they recognized your picture on the wall and they flipped out and they were like, Oh, that's Dr. Choctaw. And again. Seeing what it was there for and this, that, and the other, once you explain to them, they're like, this is a believable thing. I was at Queen of the Valley, your old stomping grounds there. And I don't know if you know, Dr.

17:09 Hatchinova. I was with him because my father in law. had an issue. He went to the hospital and I've gotten because of so many things, real into medical stuff. He was sitting there for another purpose and I'm watching his EKG and he's going bradycardic. His heart's going real slow and then it speeds up and he was saying he felt fine. So then when Dr. Hatchinova found out, he's like, Oh, no, we've got to get a pacemaker in there. When they went to do that, the kids from Medtronics, these two young kids that brought all this equipment in there and they were getting ready to go in there and put this pacemaker in. So I got their business cards and I was saying, these are the kind of things our kids need to learn about these kind of jobs and get into these careers. One of my daughter's friends, she.

17:51 Was a biology major, I believe, at UC Irvine, and I just turned her on to meeting those people and exposing her to that so she can dive into those kind of career fields that again, our kids don't know anything about stuff like that. I used to do biomed and love it. So that's why when I saw that, I said, wow, this is something you know, I worked with surgical equipment and this and that. And again, a lot of all these things that I learned were from what I learned in the Air Force. I'll say this real quick. It would be done in Dr. William T Choctaw: surgery. I, you know, our surgical assistants, the scrub techs were, were military. They served in the 70s and the 80s. They were all military. Keith Hansen: Wow. Yeah. That is amazing. Oh, absolutely. The job that I got when I, real quick, and it'll be done.

18:33 From the biomedical stuff that I learned about or that I did when I got out of the Air Force I studied electronics, avionics and stuff in the Air Force, and it was like going to college. The stuff that I learned was equal to like a two year degree. So then, when I got out of the Air Force, I went to DeVry and to Zeus Pacific and kept going with computers and electronics, but I had an opportunity to work. With a guy who had a medical contract for Queen of the Valley Foothill Press and Intercommunity doing Biomed. I my son Joshua was a premature baby and I saw him in the NICU with all this equipment hooked up and I said, that is phenomenal. I would love to work on that. One of the nurses took and introduced me to the people who did it.

19:15 Talking to that guy. This is how God, God hears it and makes it happen. He introduced, she introduced me to that guy and I started talking with him. He said, we need some help right now. I said, really? He said, here's the owner's name, Vince De Palma. Call him. I called him, never met him on the phone, send him a resume showing what I did in the Air Force. This guy hired me over the phone, never saw him, hired me over the phone. And I started going to Queen of the Valley, Footeo Press and Intercommunity. And from what they taught me, I dived in there, grabbed the books and stuff, ordering parts and start working on that stuff from surgical equipment to ICU stuff, to ventilators. Was doing it but it was all from what I learned in the military that equipped me that I was able to dive in there Hit the ground and I know one place at fudeo press I caught some opposition because there was nobody there that looked like me Right and some of the guys in the engineering Dr. William T Choctaw: More conservative of the three that you mentioned of the three.

20:07 Oh man. It was the Keith Hansen: most conservative. Yeah Interesting. I don't know if you know dr. Bracey Yes, I do. I got to know her well from going in and out of surgery and working on the equipment and her and I were the only two that look like us there. Yeah, the doctors and people. It was very interesting. Some of the things that happened as a result of it. You know, but it was a blessing to be in that realm and help people help patients, some of the labor and delivery equipment I work with. I got to minister to the people as well as work on the equipment is very rewarding. So I say that to say that sometimes stuff that you learn can propel you into areas that you never thought in your life. I always tell the kids, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready, so, right, right.

20:50 If you do good Dr. William T Choctaw: preparation, but one of that I have learned in the last 10, 15 years that I never appreciated before was networking. Yes. Well, I used to minimize ice. I, no, I don't do that stuff. Whatever, whatever. But the reality is it's an efficiency mass method that allows you to get more done. As a team, then you can't buy yourself. I like to always say you can be very, very good as as as an individual, but you can't be excellent as an excellent comes from the team. And so what I've learned is to embrace teamwork. As a net on a networking platform. And so the work that you're doing and that sort of thing and people like you're doing that we can connect with you, you know, give you a platform to communicate whatever you want to communicate and still achieve the same goals because we all want the Keith Hansen: same thing.

21:43 I think when you said about networking, networking again, like you said, I heard of it and thought of it before, but never learned until the last few years, the power of it. Networking and delegating. Sometimes when you have certain things to do, when we did the church anniversary years ago, we were asked to help do it, my wife and I, and my wife was first and she was overwhelmed with all this stuff. And I had learned from a lady from second Baptist Renee Willis, because we worked with the African American employees association at work. And we did all these events, but she learned to delegate and give stuff to the right people and get it done. That made everything work together and lighten the load off of her. Recently, I just learned. In the situation where my son has stage three esophagus cancer by networking with people, we got access to so many things.

22:28 One in particular, I happen to network with Sister Nickens, who works at City of Hope. And by networking with her, opened my son up to a contact and connection of treatments and help and this and therapy, it has been phenomenal. So the power of networking sometimes can put you in touch with things that. Make stuff happen that you could have never done on your own. And that's what happened in that case. There's power and networking is phenomenal. Dr. William T Choctaw: Absolutely. Well, you know, Keith, we are, we are absolutely delighted again with you sharing your very precious time with us. And certainly, you know, in terms of some of the things we talked about moving forward, because I really, really, really, really, really appreciate it.

23:08 Want to set something up that we can help the youth and get going, you know, don't be perfect You know, we'll modify we'll learn from it. You know, we'll grow with it. You know, it's a growth process You know when when Jess and I first started the podcast a little over a year ago It took us three or four months to just get some basics, right? So I you know, we end that's part of the process but having said that we're still here I mean, the podcast is still here, and we can do things to help individuals like yourself by providing platforms, and it can be more than more than one area. I, you know, you mentioned a number of different things, and you know, Jessica can sort of help to decipher that and see what we can do and all that sort of stuff, Keith Hansen: but again, anything I can, anything I can do to help you.

23:56 I'll be glad to anything I can share with you. I'm very transparent with it. I don't. If you can use it or give it to somebody that can use it. I'm fine with it. I don't care if you can use it to get rich. I don't care what God is good. We're already Dr. William T Choctaw: rich. It's a good word about Keith Hansen: that. This is true. I, I, I, 1 of the things I really push and tell our kids that 1st and foremost. Make yourself available to go to college. And if you choose to, we had some that chose to try to do that. And it was after December and he hadn't done this stuff before. And so therefore I said, you force yourself and pigeonhole yourself into a different situation.

24:38 I hadn't taken SATs, ACTs and changed from wanting to go to the military to go to school, and it was in December. I said the deadline for the UC Cal State is December 1st. So. You know, but it worked out that person went to the military and he's soaring and doing well. He's in the Air Force and okay, killing it. But I tell them, don't let money be a factor factor of stopping you from going to college. And again, if you study something like I said that meets those requirements, even if you have to take some student loans to get where you need to go, that's not a bad thing to be able I have a good friend of mine. He's a professor at Mount Sac now got a doctorate degree, but Along the way, he and I were I especially was a campus clown, not a class clown, the campus clown.

25:24 When I was in elementary, junior high, high school, just there having fun. Didn't take it seriously. But my friend, he went through and got his bachelor's, his master's, his doctorate degree, and he teaches now. But even if you have to get loans and stuff, you're in a, he's in a position to pay those, still take care of his family and survive if you have to do that, don't let these dreams of being a doctor, whatever be stifled by money and finance, it's a doable thing. There's ways around it. There's ways to make it happen. I'll give you an example real quick and I'm done. Sister Thomasina, Thomasina she, I saw her when she and Chaz were fresh out of high school and they wanted to be physical therapists.

26:04 And at the time you only needed a four year degree, just as they finished it, they'd move the fence. Oh, you got to get a master's degree. So they jumped in master's program. They moved the fence. You got to become a doctorate degree. Well, what she did, she took a commission in the Navy to pay for that. And so now she just graduated and now she's down in San Diego, Coronado. working there with the Navy, learning what she learned and getting it paid for at the same time. It's a great way to make it happen. The Air Force Academy. That's another way. You know, a lot of our kids don't know anything about that Coast Guard Academy. I don't know if you know more of our congressmen and senators. Kids get free education from going through the Coast Guard Academy, and a lot of people don't know nothing about it.

26:45 They get their kids in there and let him get that free education. Get out of there. And they have, they don't have no bills, everything's paid for. But our kids don't know anything about those things. Dr. William T Choctaw: And that's why we want to put that stuff out there. And we can help to do that. We can help to do that. The first thing they used to do in terms of education said, well, we weren't smart enough. Then the second thing was, we aren't rich enough. You can't afford it. You know, and so we get rid of that, you know, on and on and on. And then the rest of it is process, process, process. We can, we can mitigate some of those process issues by, by giving instructions, by giving information by providing it free you know, to students and that sort of thing.

27:29 And on and on and on. Well, again, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you Keith Hansen: go. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm enjoying it. I thank you so much. I'm honored and I thank you so for so much for allowing me to be on a professional podcast as you guys and I am an amateur, but thank you for allowing me to be in your presence and I'm grateful. We're all Dr. William T Choctaw: amateurs. No, but, but, but thank you so much. And I continue to be impressed. The more I listen to you with your passion, because I think it takes passion to really use it because that's what gets you through the rough spots. You know and we need leaders like that, particularly who are dedicated to the youth. And so whatever we can do to help you and that's what then we will continue to do that.

28:13 If, you know, if you want to come back and do another podcast, just let us know. Work that out, but definitely we will provide a platform for you to speak to however you want to speak, Keith Hansen: you know, again, like I says, I appreciate it. And I'm glad that you're doing what you do to help change lives and educate people. and prepare them into greatness through these type of things. And I think it's a collective effort of the village, you know, with that village to help raise kids and take them to new levels. Yes. And I think we can all do a part of it to make it happen.