Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates
Courageous Leadership with Dr. Travis Yates Podcast examines what it means to be a Courageous Police Leader. Join us weekly as the concepts of Courageous Leadership are detailed along with interviews with influencers that are committed to leading with courage. You can find out more about Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates at: www.TravisYates.org
Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates
Eureka Leadership Conference: Day 2
Discover the essence of leadership that resonates beyond badges and ranks, as we unpack the learnings from the Eureka County Sheriff's Department Leadership Conference. With Roland Clee and John Kelly sharing their wisdom, we delve into how their insights that inspire officers to cultivate a culture of integrity and wellness within the force. The electrifying presentations of John Kelly and Tom Rizzo have left us not just with strategies, but with a renewed sense of purpose that's rippling through law enforcement communities across the nation. The Ivory Tower program introduced by Tom is a beacon for professionals seeking to rise above the ordinary in pursuit of excellence while John's excellent presentation provides the means and solutions to not only survive a career in law enforcement but thrive.
Meanwhile, Eureka County's captivating beauty and the genuine camaraderie encountered here remind us that there's a place where every lawman can find solace and kinship.
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Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.
Travis Yates:Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored you've decided to join us today for day two of the Eureka County Sheriff's Department Leadership Conference. I have with me two gentlemen that you know already. I have Mr Roland Klee and John Kelly. If you don't know who these gentlemen are, turn the dial back on that podcast and listen to my full podcast with each of these gentlemen Fantastic people, and I want to get their take on day two of this incredible, incredible leadership summit. Now I have Roland here, and Roland, of course, gave you the breakdown for day one. I want to get his impression on day two. Roland, how was day two?
Roland Clee:Day two was just absolutely full of energy Between John Kelly and Tom Rizzo. They just did a fantastic job through the whole day. You were mesmerized. No one was dozing off, everybody was engaged, everybody was interested.
Travis Yates:You know that was the first time I saw Tom Rizzo and, of course, his program, the Ivory Tower. You now know why Tom has crisscrossed this country. Man, imagine the difference the profession would be if we had, I don't know two of them or 10 of them, of people like Tom doing what he does, and it just is so empowering, it's so enlightening and it's so motivating. And obviously, have you met Tom before? Roland?
Roland Clee:No, we had spoken on the phone before and we enjoyed our conversation. We spoke for about two hours, but I was really looking forward to getting to meet him in person at this event.
Travis Yates:Yeah, Tom Rizzo, the only way I would describe him those of you that have not seen him in person probably the best way I would describe him. He's the real deal. Everything you think you're going to see when you see him. He's the real deal. He engages at a level with the audience that is just so rare today and it just it. It's just. There's no doubt in my mind. There's been thousands of lives impacted by his program, so I know I was honored and blessed to be with him. But in the afternoon then comes john kelly uh with and, uh, his program. Uh, you're well aware of it. I'm gonna have john here in a minute before we get to john's presentation. We haven't heard john's take on eureka and his travel travel up here and this sort of unique town. John, you've got to tell our audience that isn't here, your impressions of Eureka County.
John Kelly:I'm telling you, man, holy smokes, Get off a plane in Reno and you've got almost a four-hour ride, and if you needed a little medicine and you didn't have any, you get in that car and you take a ride east on 50, and, man, that was one of the best meditation sessions I had ever been. A part of the landscape. You couldn't an artist couldn't paint something so beautiful.
Travis Yates:Yeah, it's known for, if you want to look it up, folks, it's called the loneliest road. Look it up, folks, it's called the loneliest road in america, and but it wasn't lonely. I mean that my impression was the same, john it's just the second time I've driven the road.
Travis Yates:First time I drove it at night, so I did not get the impression this time because I was in the daytime. This time it is mesmerizing it's probably the way I would describe. I took a run today out on the road and with the in the background, and I'm blown away by what is here. And it's not just that environment, it's not just the mountains, but it's the people. I mean, we have been mingling with the people that live here all week and, Roland, just tell us your impression of that.
Roland Clee:It's a place like no other. You're talking about a county that's 4,100 square miles and it has about 2,100 people. It's the highest per capita income in the state of Nevada. Did I say Nevada, right?
Travis Yates:Well, they call it Eureka because of the gold, right? I mean people that don't know this. The history is during the Civil War days. A lot of these towns up here were Civil war born because of the gold was was financing the civil war and you still see so much of that. Uh and john, what about the people you've met here?
John Kelly:oh, my god so you, you get off of 50 and you end up into this town called eureka and uh, and it's everything I've never been a part of. It's just absolutely amazing. I grew up in boston, uh, live in florida, and you walk into a town here that has you know so much rich history and, um, and everybody, everybody that I have met, they wouldn't live anyplace else yeah, and I'm sitting here staring at you, john, and you're a city boy.
Travis Yates:No doubt you got your converse on and your slick outfit and you fit right in. People are not discriminating against you for your slick hair or anything.
John Kelly:Oh, my goodness. No, I feel at home, man, I feel at home. Hospitality's been amazing.
Travis Yates:That's the key man. They know you're an outsider, because there's only about 300 people that live in these city limits, but they just make you feel at home. It's, it's, and you're right when you say therapy. Uh, that's why I wanted to come up here all week. I've been here before to teach one day and out, but I knew that I needed to stay up here all week. You, gentlemen, of course, have agreed to come up all week with me. We were sort of linkedin friends before now, no doubt no doubt, but, uh, this has been an incredible, incredible week.
Travis Yates:so, john you, uh, this is the first time I saw your presentation. I will tell you that it's incredible, and just the emotion and the power, the stories that you have. It's a message that everybody listening to this needs to grab. I want you to, as you talk, give them their website, talk about it, but let's talk about your presentation and why this presentation is so needed today in the profession. Can.
John Kelly:I comment on Tom Rizzo before we do that.
Travis Yates:You can do whatever you want. You got the microphone brother.
John Kelly:Yeah, man, I think one thing that I think everyone comes away with in a Tom Rizzo room is that he touches your soul. There's no way you walk out of that room the same way you walk in, and I think that's his gift.
Travis Yates:There's no question, it's a unicorn, right, he's very mesmerizing in that effect. And you know, listen, I'll just speak for myself. I've been around the block. I've been on the teaching circuit for 22-plus years. I've seen pretty much every presentation you can think of. It's tough to impress me, me and I'm blown away. Uh, it's. It's hard to say that someone's presentation changes you. That's a as a as an instructor. If someone ever tells you that, that's just, that's gold. And every time Tom steps in a room he's changing lives. He changed me. Today I have a feeling your gentlemen have the same thing. I'm just blessed to be able to be at the same conference as he is. To see him Truly, truly special is the great way to describe him.
John Kelly:No, 100% man. He's a master at connecting. He's got great teeth as well. A great mouth and great teeth, chisel physique.
Travis Yates:Well, I was just noticing his mouth and teeth.
John Kelly:I'm a mouth guy. That's troubling, man, that's troubling. This conversation just got really weird.
Travis Yates:Yeah, we're going down the rabbit hole. We probably ought to just move on down the road.
John Kelly:Oh, too funny man. Yeah, I just wanted to make that note because I think you can hear about a lot of people Right.
Travis Yates:But when you experience it, I think you can hear about a lot of people, right, but when you experience it, well, let me stop you because it's interesting, because we're all on LinkedIn.
John Kelly:We're all on social media.
Travis Yates:We all run around this and it's a small circle of law enforcement trainers, not comedians, very small circle.
John Kelly:It most certainly is.
Travis Yates:Sometimes, if I'm honest, the marketing outweighs what you get, and I've been let down more times than I've been encouraged.
John Kelly:You and me both. That is not Tom Rizzo, no man.
Travis Yates:That's not John Kelly, that's not Roland Klee. It's the real deal, and it's just so neat to be able to see that when you go, okay, what you see on social media, you get better when you see them in person. Yeah, that's the way it's supposed to be.
Travis Yates:Well, yeah, but it's usually not right, no doubt I'm not going to name names but, trust me, there's names our audience knows right now that I've been to and I've thought to myself are you kidding me? Right, we need to do better than that, and there's a difference between a presentation that is a you know hey, I'm making money doing this as a presentation, let's do some entertainment and there's a difference between that and someone that leaves you with things that change the way you look at the world, and that's what all you gentlemen in this room, that's what Tom Rizzo does and that's. We need more of that.
John Kelly:I think that you know we talk about culture and making a difference and changing. There's no other way to go about doing it Standing at a podium reading off of some sort of scripted PowerPoint that you know these are the points I have to hit. That's not going to move the needle man. That's not going to, it's not going to impact and motivate and challenge people to be better. And if you know if we're going to be in this thing and if we're going to do this, you know you need to walk out of that room. A better version of yourself that walked in.
Travis Yates:Well, I really thought the ICP pledges would change things.
Roland Clee:What do you think about it, roland? Oh man.
Travis Yates:I mean, you don't think those pledges there's? No way we weren't going to go down that road.
John Kelly:I'm surprised it took us 10 minutes, to be honest with you.
Roland Clee:Yeah, no doubt We've left enough casualties from that. We made a guy. He had to go bury his hat. You know he had a fbi national academy ad and he just got tore up with the national organizations. We, he, uh, tom rizzo, he didn't pull any punches, but he was so organized, he was so ready, he had his message, a dynamic, and he just captured you every second.
Travis Yates:I mean, it was no death by powerpoint, anybody would appreciate his message yeah, well, I appreciate the acrobatics of him jumping on stage and I was thinking about doing that on thursday guys, but I think I would have to pull it man, I think. I think the way that's going to go is I'm gonna have to put my my rear end on the stage and roll onto the stage.
John Kelly:He was doing a vertical leap yeah, I think we might just open the side door for you and have you walk up the stairs.
Travis Yates:That's not funny. Now you're challenging me to actually do it. I'll try to do it in the last half. So if I break my leg, we're good. Yeah, you can teach from where you're from those of you that weren't here he would. This stage is seven foot tall. Six foot tall, let's just say five foot tall. Foot tall, let's say let's just say five foot tall. He would jump, yeah, onto the stage and point at the screen instead of pointing from the floor and uh and uh, he's.
John Kelly:His acl is still intact yeah, that's uh better him than me, man so let's talk about john kelly enough about your boyfriend tom yeah, let's talk about john kelly man and and?
Travis Yates:uh, let's talk about what you do, man, because it was impactful. Let's let's not diminish that. Not only did you have to follow Tom Rizzo, but you brought it, which was one of the most incredible eight-hour days I've ever been at. I say that with sincerity, because I've been at a lot of days where I thought I just wasted my time. This was not one of them and, as both of you know, I wasn't feeling great this morning and I stuck it as just as long as I could because it was so impactful. Let's talk about your day, why you do this. It's incredible. Just give us a brief rundown on it.
John Kelly:You know. So the, the program, um and the whole initiative really it was born out of. I wish I had somebody yelling at me, man, back in the day.
John Kelly:I wish I had somebody providing me some direction and some guidance and some mentoring and really setting me straight on the way I needed to be. And, fortunately, unfortunately, man, I figured this out at the end, right, I mean better, better, you know, but you figured it out, but I figured it out right. And so, if you figure something out right, if you're, if you know, man, I think it's incumbent upon you to share that with our brothers and sisters. And so, really, that's what this is about, man the program, your personal, professional, financial, physical and mental health, and how you make you a priority right, how you serve you, how you love you, so you can be all those things that you need to be to those people that you love and that love you and if I could combine tom rizzo's mouth with your hair, that would be what ai would.
Travis Yates:This is it, man.
Travis Yates:This is it it's thinning brother, so I'm gonna take a picture of it man, because I don't know how much longer it's gonna be around what I appreciate from you, john, is is is so personal and you, you, you, you're an open book and it's so personal. I know every time I'm not going to speak for you, but in my mind you have to give a piece of you up when you do this class and you are, uh, bearing, bearing your soul, so to speak, to help that audience and, uh, once again, life-changing. I'm just going to stop and think. Tyler thomas and sheriff jesse watts are putting these band of bad news bears together for a week in these classes, because it has been. We're only in day two and it's been incredible.
John Kelly:Yeah, it's. You know we talk about paying it forward, right, and what does that mean? And what does that mean? I think paying it forward is letting our brothers and sisters know that vulnerability is a strength, that your failures don't define you and that the measure of you is every time you get up. Just keep getting up, man Just keep getting up.
Travis Yates:Folks, if you haven't seen Tom Rizzo, if you haven't seen John Kelly, you gotta see him. John, where can they reach you?
John Kelly:Thank, you Travis the website's probably the easiest way lawenforcementlifecoachcom. Lawenforcementlifecoachcom. I'm on LinkedIn and I am available and ready to be part of your solution, man.
Travis Yates:Yeah, Roland, just a quick recap. Day two what's your closing thoughts?
Roland Clee:well, John Kelly's unique in the wellness space. I mean he really brings a leadership message to everything. I want to get him in front of every young police officer, because leadership isn't stars on your collar. Leadership needs to be occurring at all ranks and he's giving people the tools to avoid some of the pitfalls and some of the mistakes that people can make and he puts people on the trajectory for a really great career. For a really great career. He wants you to be a better person, not just a better cop. So I mean he really hits the nail on the head and it's a commodity. You can't get it anywhere else. I mean he's the real deal and I never tire of reading his work or listening to his podcast or seeing him in person.
Travis Yates:Yeah, such an incredible time in this profession, gentlemen. And once again, if I would have found both of these classes 20 years ago, my life would look completely different, but I'm so blessed to have found you now. John Kelly, roland Klee. Day two recap. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here, and if you are listening to this, thank you for being here. And just remember lead on and stay courageous.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates. We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www. travisyates. org.
