From the Stage to the Classroom: Why He Gave Up the Mic

So Rylan Brown.

Yeah, let's hear it.

Rylan Brown, class of 97, Mr. Brown. He's a freshman math teacher. He's also on the varsity basketball coaching staff. And he goes to everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. He's going to all these kids sporting events. He's going to watch them play e-sports, chess, ⁓ DECA. Like he's taking light rail to different events because he's South and he's coming all the way North if they got like an event at Roosevelt.

Wow. Wow.

And he's doing it because he wants to. He's not getting paid extra to like go to these things. He's doing it because he wants to show the kids that he cares. But then on the flip side, which I love is as a teacher, he has very high expectations, right? So like he's and he's going to have extra office hours where they can come and get more help. So it's like he's showing them that he loves and cares because he's attending these other things and because he expects them to do well scholastically, right? Like.

Right? All Right.

That is his expectation and that I think is just awesome.

So Dave is the alumni director at O'Dea High School in downtown Seattle, a school known for producing athletes, leaders, and men of serious character. He's also one of the most sought after independent MCs in the city. performing at the Capitol Hill Block Party, the Boys and Girls Club Fundraisers, events in front of thousands of people. But what I love most about Dave isn't the stage presence, it's the guy behind it. This guy who genuinely believes that showing up for people, whether that's a room full of donors to say that I see you, that is the work that Dave puts in. Dave and I go way back to the mid-90s, and sitting down with him reminded me that the most impactful careers aren't always the loudest ones. Sometimes they're the ones building quietly in the corner consistently, and over decades even. Dave's been doing this for years. He's an inspiration and a person who genuinely is a great human being. Here's my interview with Dave Mazzeo This is Work Unscripted. I'm your host, Savan Let's get it.

Welcome to Work Unscripted. I'm your host, Savant, and today I've got my good friend Dave. Dave, what's up? How are you doing?

What's up dude? good. How are you bro? It's been a minute.

It's been a minute, man. A lot has changed. Life, work, all the things. I want to catch up on that today. Dave, want to start off with a simple question. You are a man of many talents. But if you could describe yourself in one sentence to our listeners, how would you do that?

Uh-huh. That's a great question. One sentence to describe myself to the listeners.

Yep. Yep.

charismatic, versatile, confident individual.

Nice, nice, nice. I love that. Especially nowadays, man. The confidence is definitely waning generally in society and we gotta bring that back somehow.

Yes. I agree. I mean, I see it all the time. ⁓ Not even necessarily just in the day to day, but across media, you just see people, think, unfortunately, you know, social media ⁓ for as great as it can be. I think it also, unfortunately, gives people a false sense of confidence. So it kind of takes away what's the organic ⁓ confidence that was that should be built when you're younger. So that part is definitely a frustrating and lacking thing that I see for sure.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I actually want to circle back to that later on in this conversation because I think it's an important point. Dave, you sent me series of notes and what we're going to break down today because the show is focused on people that have unique, extraordinary, very interesting jobs. You have two jobs, is that right? That actually pay you money to do something.

That is correct, yes. Yes.

Nice. All right, so what you sent to me was you are an alumni director at a school, which we'll get into, but you're also an emcee. Now the juxtaposition of that to me is like super interesting because you would never put the idea of an alumni director at a high school with being an emcee, right? And I find that super fascinating. And you and I grew up together. We've known each other for a long time. How do you balance that act of being this responsible person for high schoolers, high school boys, and then all of a sudden you gotta go hype up a crowd, or you gotta go get people to be excited about something? How do you balance that?

I think the biggest thing for me is I treat each job as the lone independent job, right? So yeah, there's gonna be times where there might be a little bit of crossover, but for the most part, it's always been like two different disciplines for me, right? So my job is my job. You what I do, you know, nine to five, that is my job. And that's fine, because I love it. I enjoy it. It's great. The MC.

Yeah. Yep.

thing is something that has always kind of been a part of me and because of the job, it's kind of allowed me to expand that role and get bigger gigs that is not necessarily just, you know, small time things like potential like MC in a wedding ⁓ or, you know, maybe going out and doing like a Little League fundraiser or something like that, which are great. I'm not saying those are not important events, ⁓ but it's also great to get up there in front of like

Yeah. Right, right, right.

A thousand plus people and help raise money for you know, the boys and girls club is to Homish County for example That's super important and fun work. So by treating each of those things as individual disciplines I feel that I'm actually able to get more out of both jobs Because I I kind of like flip the brain depending on which ⁓ Discipline I'm gonna be you know using for the day so to speak

Yeah, I love that man. And you know, the older you get, the more you start thinking about how you can leverage things from different parts of your life to benefit other parts. And I would imagine, you know, the work that you're doing right now in terms of being the alumni director at O'Dea and the people that you meet there that are so talented that come out of that school, whether they've graduated or they've worked there, I'm sure there's a lot there that you've leveraged as well, just going into your MC career and vice versa. Like you probably have done shows and people know you from those shows and they're like, ⁓ man, I'd love to get my kid into this school. What's it about? You know, there's some synergy there, I'd imagine.

100%. A lot of it does actually overlay. And, you know, a good example is I was doing the ⁓ St. Paul's grade school auction. This was probably five or six years ago, right before COVID. And a couple of the people in the crowd were also O'Dea alumni, and they didn't know that I was going to be up there MCing the event. And so I get these emails when I get back to the desk the next morning from these guys that were in the crowd that were like,

Yeah. Yep.

Yo, you killed it. It was so cool to see you up there. Thanks for representing for a day. So like it's, that's a cool piece, right? Where it's like, I can still do both things individual of themselves, but because I treat both of them like, you know, professional gigs, ⁓ I'm to put my all into it. So to be able to utilize that and have that kind of crossover happen, it's really cool. And then because of that, you know, other people will reach out and they'll be like, Hey, you know, you did such a good job at this. We would love to hire you to do this event. ⁓

Nice. Yep. Yeah, no, for sure.

And that piece of it is cool. And I think part of it also is because I'm not out there like, ⁓ I don't utilize my job to self promote the side hustle, if that makes sense. So I'm not out there using like the O-Day alumni base as my way of like securing side events to do. It's more of people are reaching out to me because they know of the good work that I do. I don't need to, you know, promote myself in that way, which I think is kind of a

Yeah.

a slimy way anyways, I don't want to take one thing and kind of dirty the other because of it. So I like having both on separate ends. And then when they come together, it's like this really beautiful, cohesive piece that just feels organic and feels good.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that's amazing, ⁓ Dave, I want to maybe talk a little bit and start off with your MC job and your MC work. What are you known for in that world? Give the listeners a few things that you've done in the past that you're proud of.

Yeah. So to be honest with you, it all started as you know, but the listener wouldn't, it all started because of music and being a part of the Seattle hip hop scene during like the early two thousands through probably like the mid 2010s. And by that, I mean, just as far as being like active and trying to get shows and, know, promoting the music and releasing full full length albums. So getting on stage and performing has led to some really cool things.

Yeah. Yeah.

Um, down the road. So from 2015 to 2018, I was able to be the on-field MC for Husky football, which was awesome because every single game I've got 70,000 people watching what I do. Um, which also led to some really cool connections that I made down the line that then led to working with the boys and girls club was in Homish County. Um, or led working with different, you know, schools, grade schools, high schools, uh, colleges and emceeing a lot of their events. So.

Yep, remember that. Remember that. Yep.

taking that music thing, which was how I built my confidence on stage and just kind of flipping it into hosting events. it's, you know, they're very similar. You're basically, you know, as a rapper, you want to control the crowd. You want to engage the crowd. You want them to feel your confidence, right? Or else the music's going to be good, especially on stage. So that translates to hosting an event because you want them to know that you're invested in whatever this event is.

Yeah, for sure.

and you're giving your all and you're trying to engage with the crowd. And so that's where it all came from. And it's really led to some cool things that, you know, at this age, man, I'm not out there trying to on stage as much as I used to. ⁓ So being able to do something a little bit easier as far as athletic skill, just standing there and hyping up people, it's worked out really well.

Right, right. Yeah, I mean, you were at some pretty big things like ⁓ I remember ⁓ Capitol Hill Block Party. Weren't you a part of that in some way? Yeah. Tell us about that.

Yeah, that was amazing. So Capitol Hill Block Party, God, this was probably 2011, I want to say. And it was kind of like right at that peak, right? So, you know, Mack had just started to blow up with Thrift Shop and kind of everyone that was associated with him, ⁓ you know, got vaulted up a little bit just because, hey, Seattle hip hop was hot. Seattle hip hop was what people wanted to know more about.

Yeah.

And so ⁓ Grinch, one of my favorite people in this whole world, super, super, super, super talented MC out of Ballard. He's always been like, far as like music goes, that guy's like my musical brother. He just, it's funny cause he's younger than me, but he kind of took me under his wing and gave me so many great opportunities, which I can never pay back. mean, it was just the stuff that he did for my career musically.

Yep. Yeah, shout out. Yeah.

is phenomenal and Capitol Hill Block Party was one of those things. And it was the first time that I was able to really get in front of like a really big crowd. And people actually like knew the words to the songs and I was blown away by that. It was like, yo, this is nuts. Like, and yeah, sure. It was the time and the place, but it was such an amazing organic experience for me that, ⁓ like to be totally honest with you, it's hard for anything else to kind of compare to it. because it was just this like time capsule in the moment type of thing. And it's so funny because when I go back to watch like ⁓ video footage, as soon as I get on stage, like the XLR, the mic cord had ripped off the mic. So in my head, it's like five alarm blades, right? Cause I'm just like, my goodness. But as an MC, whether it's rapping or hosting an event, you just have to pivot. can't like, like show the crowd that you're freaking out. ⁓ But looking at

⁓ man. Right. Right. So what'd do?

footage man it was I mean I just kind of went with it I I reached out and grabbed Grinch's mic and just kind of kept going and luckily it didn't mess up my flow in my head because then that's like worst case scenario then you just have to freestyle and it's not good so we were able to pivot and make it look good and I don't think really anyone noticed outside of of course us because it was happening in the moment but but stuff like that just makes you better right like just like an athlete I'm gonna go back and watch film critique myself and get better from it but that experience was absolutely incredible.

Right? Yeah, that's amazing, man. So like you started off, you know, with aspirations to have a hip hop career in some capacity. At what point did you start to transition more into the MC role? Like, were there things that had happened or didn't happen? And you were just like, man, this is probably, I'm past my prime. I need to go and look at something else. Like, how did that happen?

Mm-hmm. So it actually worked out really well on both sides. You know, the job that I have, I'm very lucky that, you the hours that I have allow me to do a lot of things like in the afternoons or evenings or weekends, ⁓ which of course most hip hop shows are going to be late night anyways. So I could do that. And I was younger, right? So I could work eight plus hours, go to Bellingham, do a show, drive back to Seattle, go to bed at like 2 a.m., wake up at 6 a.m. and go right back to work.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's rough.

But that's a young man's game, right? And I was like, okay, that's not, I'm not living that lifestyle no more. can't, I need at least six, seven hours of sleep to be functional. Right. So 2010s, I would say around then, you know, music was good. Music was getting better. ⁓ but it also was something that I always knew was like, okay, this is cool, but this is definitely a side hustle. And unless something big pops off, I need to kind of figure out how can I transition this into.

Yep. Uh-huh. God bless.

you know, something that's gonna still keep that drive alive and want me to do things on stage, but in a more practical sense for, you know, someone my age. And it just kind of worked out that at the time we were going through some changes at the school and people were basically like, hey, you know, we know that you do music, you get on stage, what's your thoughts on emceeing some of our events? And I was like, okay, yeah, sure, that sounds cool. So.

Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

And it's not like just some events. I mean, we're talking like our biggest fundraising events of the year. So our celebrate Oday auction, our athletic wall of honor fundraiser. I mean, these are like our big, big money making events. So they obviously had trust and faith that I could do it and do it well. And so that's where that started. And then people that would attend those Oday events, you know, if they're representing like another school or another business or entity, they would be like, Hey, you know, we saw you at the Oday auction. You were fantastic. Could you do.

Yeah, they're big.

X Y & Z and so that's how it started and just kind of you know building momentum from there And it's actually really cool because I'm able to do I can be I can kind of pick and choose Now, you know what events I do on the side I don't have to be tied down to like, know, like an auctioneer company or something like that Which is nice because then I can kind of you know, I'm like an independent contractor

Right.

And it's it's more fun that way because then I really do get to pick events that I feel passionate about I'm not up there faking the funk. I really do care and I really do want to help so the transition it just worked out perfectly for me and and and now In my 40s mid 40s. It's great because now I can still do music right like on the side like record music release music You know perform every now and then

Right. Yeah.

And that's nice because it's just kind of like a cherry on top piece. Exactly. 100%. And that to me is what it's all about, man. Like, I just feel really blessed that I'm able to do all of these things and enjoy all of them at the same time. I feel like a lot of people don't necessarily have that. And I do recognize it. And it's really cool. It's a really cool life that I get to live.

Mm-hmm. For the love of it. Yeah, I that's amazing. I feel like there's a lot of people that aspire to be an MC because they enjoy getting in front of people and making them excited for something or getting them fired up to be a part of a special event. ⁓ What are some of the character traits that make up being a good MC? Because I've seen a lot of really bad ones, bro, and it's not good, right? Because you're sitting there, it's like pulling teeth to get through that event.

Mm-hmm. 100 100 % I think the biggest thing honestly is you need to be a good listener, and I know that sounds weird But you need to go in Knowing that you are there to help you're not there to self promote and so You're absolutely not and you and and it shouldn't be that way right now if you have like a celebrity MC like you know for example like let's say a Doug Baldwin or a Nate Burleson comes and they do an event okay, I get that but

Mmm, yeah. Right, you're not the prime act. Yeah, okay.

But they're so good at what they do, especially Nate, they're not doing that as a way to self promote themselves, right? They know what to do. So I think being a good listener is huge because, know, whatever this event is, the people obviously care about it and they want their attendees to have a good time. So they want to hire someone that is actually going to believe in what they're saying and then just be a part of the, like, I'm just, I'm a, you know, what is it?

Right. Right. Yeah.

in the cog or a cog in the whatever it is. I'm part of the machine, part of the machine that makes it work. And, you know, I like to sit down and speak with the people that have hired me to do the event, ⁓ multiple times leading up to the event. you know, make sure I've got the script right that they need, ⁓ ask questions, make sure I've got name pronunciations correctly. ⁓ you know, ask them like, Hey, I was thinking about potentially, you know, doing like some sort of joke about this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, Yeah.

or making like a personal connection story here. Is that appropriate? Is that okay? And getting all that info so that way the night of the event, I feel better equipped to just be a part of it and not try and dominate the evening. So many people, want to get up and grab a microphone and just like make it about themselves. And I think that that's where the big failure is with being an MC. Especially with these types of events, you cannot make it about yourself or you're destined to fail. And like all it takes is one person to like

Yeah. Yeah.

Woo you up and then you're just like thinking that you're killing it and you're not and I see it all the time And it's it's like and that's why I always say for our events. I always say Don't let anybody else touch the mic and it's not me being like stingy It's just me being like I care about this event and I don't want it to go off the rails because it happens all the time

Yep. Yep. Hahaha Yeah. How do you handle things that are surprises where people, maybe they're booing or maybe, you you get some sort of negative energy from the crowd. How do you handle that? Like what are some of the things that you've done to get yourself through those moments?

So a lot of times what I like to do is kind of toss in a little bit of humor. So if I feel like people are feeling a little frustrated or uneasy, I might throw in a little humor that might be aimed at me. kind of, so to not make the events or the people working the event the butt of a joke, but myself. You know, like a good example, this is not necessarily an MC event, but at a performance a couple of months ago.

Okay. Right.

our DJ had an issue with the beat playing and I could tell some people were getting restless because you know, it wasn't working. He was kind of fidgeting and instead of just like standing there and like twiddling my thumbs, I just started to engage and like ask questions and like just kind of have fun with the crowd to kind of keep them engaged until we were able to kind of get it fixed and move forward. ⁓ I've been lucky enough that I have not had to work an event where I've dealt with people booing. Thank God.

I see. Yeah. Yep. Right. Woof!

That's definitely that's a that's a scary thing man, but it definitely can happen. ⁓ I was lucky that when I was the MC for Husky football it was during the phenomenal four year period where they were basically winning all the time. So I have to worry about booze. ⁓ But that's tough like you really have. You have to you know, put your. Thinking cap on, but be quick about it. You can't just sit there and like.

Right? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. Right.

you know, overthink it because then that whole event could just go haywire. It could take a left and you're just out there like looking not great. ⁓ and I always want to make sure that the people that I'm working for look great. So we always, whatever it is, you know, try to just keep people engaged and smiling and having a good time.

Yeah. Yeah, I love that man. love that. Dave, know that you're good friends with Nate Burleson Phenomenal talent across many different industries. As you are looking at your career, like you mentioned, you're in your mid 40s, I'm in my mid 40s, we're no spring chickens anymore. There's a certain point where you start to...

Yeah.

accumulate mentors for things that you want to get good at. I would imagine Nate is a big mentor for you just in terms of giving you tips and things that you can do to maybe be a better MC or be better in public. What are some of those tips and how are you sort of like parlaying that into the younger generation for people that want to do what you do or maybe they want to get into the music industry or they want to get into sports and they need to be able to speak in public, right? Or they need to be able to speak in front of a crowd. what are some of those tips that you've learned from your mentors like Nate and then how have you sort of like parlayed that into the younger generation?

So the biggest thing, and again, ⁓ a lot of it is just luck, but being classmates with Nate in high school and just building an organic friendship during those years ⁓ and having all the same interests and then moving on in our lives after high school. And obviously, our careers took a different path, but we've kind of now met in the middle, obviously, with his middle being way higher, and that's fine.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not hosting CBS mornings and that's okay. But it's kind of cool that a lot of the stuff that we talked about as teenagers in high school are things that we then have done as adults, which is like a really fun and unique thing that I think sometimes a lot of people, they'll talk about it and then they just won't take action. And they're scared to actually like, you know, put their toe in the water and actually see what could happen. ⁓

Right.

I always say, especially with the kids, I always tell them it took a long time until I felt confident as an MC, as a rapper. It took a minute, man. I definitely did not have a lot of the natural ability ⁓ that so many other people do when it comes to that specific skill set. And it took a lot of hard work. And it definitely took a lot of self-reflection. And a lot of just, you know, kind of like sitting with myself and being like, okay, what can I do that can make myself better? But that could also, you know, set myself apart from just, you know, the rest, right? From being just a crab in the bucket. And I think the coolest thing about Nate [Burleson] and my relationship is we always stayed connected. So even when he was playing in the league, we would still talk and he would ask, you know, what I've been up to, he would ask about the music. His thing, his thing always, like always, always, always to me was

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Like just be yourself and be confident because worst case scenario, if people don't like it, they don't like it. But if you're being yourself and you're confident, like you're going to attract way more people just because of the fact that you're an organic, confident person that people can relate to. If I'm out here struggling, but then also trying to be somebody that I'm not musically that's doing nobody any good. So not only am I now giving product that isn't

Mm-hmm. Yep. Right.

true to who I am as an individual, but it's also letting people be like, ⁓ this guy is not that, like this stuff that he's singing. And the cool thing again is like, I always share music with Nate. Like as soon as I record a song, he's one of the first people that I text the song to, to get feedback. And he'll leave me like a voice note and he's like, man, I'm bumping in the car right now. This is dope. I love this bar. Like, it's not like he's just saying, yeah, good job. Like he's actually like listening.

Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. Right.

giving me feedback exactly which is 100 % and vice versa.

Giving good constructive feedback. He'll probably tell you when it's trash too, right? Like, it's... Yeah.

Because we go so far back, we have that love where we can tell each other something constructive and not take offense and be like, and actually use it more as a conversation that is like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. Okay, cool. Let me try this, this, or this. And it works and it's phenomenal. So it's really cool that that friendship with Nate has

Yep.

you know, kind of helped expand our ⁓ success in the mediums that we have chosen to be a part of. And I mean, watching him do his thing, like I'm obviously very proud and him reaching out to me to let me know that he's proud of what I'm doing too. it's, it's a really cool feeling, man. And it's, you know, a lot of people, when you ask me about Nate, I always want to tell them like the biggest thing with him is that he's stayed

Yeah, for sure.

the same person that he's been since the mid to late 90s. Like he has not changed. The only thing that's changed is he's just now in front of a bigger audience. But he's the same person. And it's really cool because, you know, there's many of times where, you know, we've been able to do events together, which is like really cool. And because we're friends, it's just an organic, ⁓ natural type of conversation that we're having as we're co-hosting whatever this event might be. So it just works.

Right. Yeah, you got that natural banter back and forth. Yeah.

Exactly exactly and we can kind of like tease each other ⁓ Or we can like toss in a quick little throwback that we understand that other people might laugh about So yeah, it's just it's really cool having that connection maintaining that friendship ⁓ And having that help right help us in our in our life moving forward. It's really cool

Yeah. Yeah, I love that man. And I want to parlay that into your day job. I was going to say your full-time job. They're probably both full-time. To your day job where you're the alumni director for O'Dea High School. So for our listeners that aren't from Seattle, O'Dea is an all boys school in downtown Seattle.

Mm-hmm.

They're known for a lot of things, but I think specifically they've been able to produce a lot of really successful alumni that have gone on to do big things in sports and entertainment and all those things. ⁓ You know, being ⁓ in a place where you can influence youth like that in a way where you can help mold them to be successful. What are some of the things that you think about every day as part of the alumni director role? Because like a lot of these things are written down on a piece of paper, right? It's just sort of you naturally build up that cadence. You naturally build up that relationship with these students. But like what are some of those things that you think about where you're trying to help them out and be successful in that next stage of their lives.

I always think about what it was like my four years as a student. And obviously I had a great time at O'Dea as a student. ⁓ But there were also things that I thought could have been better as far as making me as an individual feel more celebrated. And that's, know, I mean, I'm sure a lot of schools have those types of, you know, problems or issues.

Yep. yeah.

⁓ and so when I started working at the school, I look at these kids and I see myself or I see my classmates every single year. Like I, I just, I see how they're acting. I see what they're doing. And it makes me think back to when I was a student. And so I think it's really important to have people at the school that genuinely care. Right. Because for a lot of people, you know, a job is a job. It pays their bills. It's something that they do because they have to do. I think.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

A job as a vocation is different. ⁓ It's no secret people that work in nonprofit are not being paid tons and tons of money. Right? But I think that you know you're not the majority of people are not going to get in those jobs for the money, which I think is good. I think you need to get into it because your heart is in it and I think that.

Right. or government.

Man, like the teenage years are just so awkward in general and having people, adults, like in a school setting where they feel like, this is a safe space for me to be. Like if they want to come in my office and ask me a question or shoot me a message on Teams, or if they just like see me walking around the school, like say what's up. I think that's really important because in my role as alumni director, I want them to graduate and have strong feelings. And be like, man, it was really cool when I was a student because, coach Mazio was looking out for me or, know, coach P was doing like, I think that is so important. And a lot of people might not necessarily think about that. And I think that they're thinking like, okay, how do I maximize, you know, donations or how do I get, you know, a lot of our older alums to, you know, give a lot of money? Well, it starts with what you do with the students right now. And if they're feeling loved and cared for and appreciated and valued.

Mm-hmm. Preach.

then they're going to be those types of alums that come back and want to support. And I think that's what's important. I think that if you don't look at it like if you look at it as, OK, these kids are here. It's my job to teach or interact with them. But then when they're gone, they're gone and whatever. I'm a give. mean, a lot of people at O'Dea do great work and I don't want to single out one person, but I will just because this one person to me always goes above and beyond. So Rylan Brown.

Right. Yeah, let's hear it.

Rylan Brown, class of 97, Mr. Brown. He's a freshman math teacher. He's also on the varsity basketball coaching staff. And he goes to everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. He's going to all these kids sporting events. He's going to watch them play e-sports, chess, ⁓ DECA. Like he's taking light rail to different events because he's South and he's coming all the way North if they got like an event at Roosevelt.

Wow. Wow.

And he's doing it because he wants to. He's not getting paid extra to like go to these things. He's doing it because he wants to show the kids that he cares. But then on the flip side, which I love is as a teacher, he has very high expectations, right? So like he's and he's going to have extra office hours where they can come and get more help. So it's like he's showing them that he loves and cares because he's attending these other things and because he expects them to do well scholastically, right? Like.

Right? All Right.

That is his expectation and that I think is just awesome. And being an alum that works at the school that shows that they care is just, I think, a huge piece. And I think that any school that has people that graduated from it, it's like a step up because the kids are going to be like, OK, so and so graduated from here. So they get it. They know what this is about. But you can't just let it be there. You have to then show these kids that, I do, but also I care about you guys. And I want you guys to be successful. And I want you guys to come back as alums and celebrate your successes with everyone else and with these current students. And so one of my big things, ⁓ I would say in like probably the last 10 years is engaging our young alumni and letting them know, I know you guys are still in college or maybe a couple of years out and you're still figuring it out.

Mmm. Mm-hmm.

But I want you guys to come and talk to these young guys about it because that's vital information. Like they can ask these guys stuff that yeah, someone that graduated in the 70s, 80s or 90s could answer sure, but it's gonna be a very different answer than appear. And I just.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I love that, Dave, and you know, it's funny ⁓ that you mentioned that. Over the summer, it wasn't even over the summer. think it was like late last year towards the end of this, of the school year, I was invited to go back to lakeside, where they had a career day and, was fortunate enough to talk to a bunch of kids about my work at the department of defense and, serving the country and all these things. And in some ways I felt like a lot of what I was talking about, they just sort of glazed over it just because I am a little bit older the magnitude of the work is maybe a little bit beyond sort of what they're thinking about Whereas I think like when I went and talked to career day at O'Dea with you when you invited me there I think that landed a little bit better Although you did put my ass after Macklemore which is a very hard thing to follow up on and I'll never never forget that bro, but I feel like

Okay. Fair.

You're absolutely right, you know, there's certain demographics of people that can reach these kids a lot easier, especially if they're tuned into certain types of things.

Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Man, talk to me a little bit about what your day to day looks like, man. You wear a ton of hats, you coach, you go to events, you do all these things. What's a day to day like for an alumni director?

It changes every day, which to be totally honest with you is great. I don't like having my days be stale. like how each day is going to be a little bit of the same and a little bit different every single day. ⁓ I start super early, which I actually like because I'm not really a morning person. So I get in at like 6 a.m. and that first hour.

Yeah. Wow.

No one else is in the office and it's, beautiful. I'm able to knock out some emails, ⁓ you know, get some things done that I might need to focus a little bit more on without having, you know, interruptions during the day. And so by the time everyone else starts showing up between like seven or eight, I'm I've already kind of woken up. I've gotten the main things I need to get done done. And then I just kind of go about the day and the day, like I said, is different, which is fantastic. A good example is, on Friday, I'm going to be giving the tour of the school to an alum.

Yeah.

from the class of 1954 who hasn't been back to the school in decades because he lives down in California. And his daughter reached out and was like, you know, he hasn't been back to the school since like the eighties and he wanted to walk around and would you be willing to show him around? said, yeah, absolutely. I would love to. So that's gonna be happening Friday. Like that's so cool because then I get to, you know, take a part of my day and basically.

Yeah, that's awesome.

talk with this gentleman who was at Oday at an entirely different time and hear his stories and then show him what's happening currently. And that's like a really cool mix that I love about my job is I get to like, you know, connect with these kids because I'm on campus every day. And then I'm connecting with the alumni when they come visit or when they're, you know, attending events or whatever it might be. So it's really cool that each day is a little bit different. ⁓

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

But yeah, the majority of each day is going to be kind of some sort of mixture of, you know, ⁓ being like the PR person for the school for the alumni. like they're like, Hey, what's the basketball schedule look like? Or how can I, you know, do a live stream? I heard the chess team is doing a live stream or the e-sports team is doing a live stream. How can I watch that? Or what day is graduation? I just was curious. Like the types of questions I get, they'll be like, is there a swimming pool at O-Day now? And I'm like, nah, there's not. ⁓ But so that's neat because each day I'm just kind of, you know, doing a little bit the same and a little bit different. And that makes it where I don't get burnout because people always ask, say, how have you been able to stay in that role for so long? Because a lot of these roles in nonprofits, especially private high schools, it's like usually two to three years. And then they move on to something else. There's not a lot of people that stay for the long term. And I think that.

Yep. Absolutely.

at least with my role and having all these different hats, it actually helps make me feel reinvigorated really every day. And it makes it seem like I haven't been at the school for as long as I have, but I was literally just talking to someone about it now. think I'm currently either seventh or eighth as far as like current staff at O'Dea that has been there as long that I've been there, which is like crazy to me.

That's wild, man, that's wild. What's one of the things that you absolutely love about your job that you couldn't find anywhere else in the entire world? What would that one thing be?

You know, it's funny, cause I was going to say, that's a, that's a tough question, but it's actually not. It's seen every single year, this mixture of kids from 90 different zip codes come together at a school in downtown Seattle and learn and grow together as brothers. And that never gets old. It just doesn't. It's so inspiring to see these guys. And like, yeah, I know that, you know,

Yep. Yep.

We give Gen Z a lot of crap for a lot of different things. But as far as how these guys are when they're together with each other, know, cause Oday is small. mean, you know, you came and you spoke to these guys, you know, each class is roughly between like 95 to 120 kids. So we're not talking like huge groups of guys. And that's just so inspiring to me, man. It's just, it's a beautiful thing to see these guys supporting each other, even if they're totally different, like.

Yes we do. Yeah. yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.

Different demographics, different background, different race, like come from different financial backgrounds, like all these things, but yet they use each other as like learning tools. And I think that's so, so profound and it's not something you really get to see. So to me, that's just, that's the biggest thing. And it just, it makes me happy, ⁓ you know, to see that these kids at O'Dea are, it's, still the same kids, man. It's just a different generation as all.

Yeah. I mean, you touched on the word brotherhood and you sent me some notes and that was one of the themes that I saw just keep coming up. ⁓ You know, Being a person who's never gone to an all-boys school ever in my life or been to the military where it's mostly men, what is brotherhood to you and how is it a constructive thing, especially for young boys, to be able to grasp and then hopefully use that to be successful later on in life?

think the biggest thing about it is, especially nowadays where we talk more thankfully about men's mental health. ⁓ Brotherhood is basically like you're taking someone that is not related to you by blood and you are basically saying, hey, you're a part of my family and I'm going to share things with you and you're gonna share things with me and we have each other's back. And it starts day one.

Yeah.

when they have, whether it's freshman football practice or the first day of school, and it goes through their entire life. And I get to see that because of my role as alumni director. So, you know, one of the sad things about my job, but also a beautiful thing is, you know, those times where I need to alert classmates of one of their classmates passing. And when the funeral services are, if there are funeral services, because the guys want to know, because they want to be there. They want to go to support the family.

Yeah.

They want to go to be there for their brother. And I think that that's like so telling. ⁓ You know, when I got married, my groomsmen were O-Day guys. The majority of my attendees were O-Day guys. It's just, it's something that is, to people that don't necessarily experience it, you know, like you had mentioned, it's really hard to like put into words until you actually see it in action. ⁓ You know, I don't,

Yep.

condone violence in any way. But I think a good example of this was when I was a senior, ⁓ there was a kid who had a little interaction with a guy from a public high school. I won't say the name of the school. these guys, actually neither, actually neither. But so these guys thought it would be smart to ⁓ show up to the school to try and punk this kid at O'Dea. And...

Probably Garfield or Franklin. I'm one of those. Hmm. Yeah.

And they thought after school was going to be the best time to do this. And when I tell you, bro, there was probably 150 Ode boys out there that were willing to throw punches for this one kid. To me, that's what it's all about, man, is it's like just loving one another, supporting one another, regardless of if you're like next door neighbors or you've barely even been in the neighborhood that these guys live in.

⁓ man! Yeah! Yeah! I love that.

And it's just, it's a really cool thing. And I feel really blessed to be a part of it. do.

Yeah. That's amazing, I wanna maybe ⁓ take it a click up and ask you about, because you've been at O'Dea for how long now? Including high school, how long have you been there?

So including attending this 25 years.

Wow, okay. So a quarter of a century. So taking that into account, a lot's happened in the world in 25 years. There've been a lot of different presidents, the economy's gone up and down, immigration policies, all those things. What have you seen at a day?

Yeah, that's weird.

based on either the enrollment or the things that you guys have been teaching that have been consistently there, regardless of what's changing in society. Has it stayed pretty consistent in terms of the amount of boys that are enrolling, the things that you guys are teaching, and what does that look like?

Yeah, so it has, it has stayed consistent. You know, obviously admissions is gonna kinda ebb and flow with the economy. So, know, in like the late 2000s, there was a little bit of a dip. ⁓ But after that, you know, we shot back up to our usual numbers. ⁓ COVID is actually a really good example where a lot of the Seattle Public School kids ended up actually enrolling at O'Dea ⁓ because their families were like,

Right? Yep. Wow.

You know, there's no plan for our student and you guys have not missed a single day because literally the very next day we had all of our teachers and students learning online. It was already something that they had worked on and more so for snow days. But so it worked right? So then our you know our numbers went through the roof like it was like over 500 kids. So obviously once we came back full term it was like whoa, this is a classroom for a little big. We don't want it to be too overfilled, but.

Yeah. Right, right.

We've been lucky in that regard that O'Dea is definitely a very desirable place that people want to send their young men to. ⁓ Our open house, which I also MC, is proof of that. And the cool thing with that is we've got probably 100 of our students that are working this event, they're ⁓ standing next to ⁓ a poster board of whatever club or sport they're doing. or they're actually upstairs in the school talking about their experience as a student to the parents. And then the entire faculty and staff is there to ask questions or excuse me, to answer questions. So it's just, it's like a command performance that everyone looks forward to because you get to sell the school that you're passionate about it. But that being said, to your point, yeah, I mean, you know, it's, there's been so much change and I think what's been at least

Right? Right?

the way I look at it really positive. The way I see it is that Oday has continued to ⁓ to move forward instead of like stay back and scared to you know, this is who we are and this is what we stand for. Like Oday stands for love, like point blank period. It's all about love supporting each other and doing for others like that's like that is the motto. That is what we are known for. And I think that that's a big, big selling point is, you know,

Mm-hmm.

These families want to make sure that their boys are going to a school in which they feel that they're truly cared for. And I think that, you know, earlier in the day, back in the day, ⁓ was, you know, a little bit more rough and tough and you had to kind of survive. And, and I think, and that's why I say it's, it's, it's good because Oday has continued to kind of like progress and be about student centric services, you know,

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaking our counselors that traditionally were just college counselors. And now they're full. They do everything like our counseling team is phenomenal. They do. You have to check in with your counselor like it's not like, I just talked to them when I'm a junior about what college I want to go to. No, it's like you check in about your classes, about your mental health, about if you feel safe, about all these different things. And I think that that's again, proof in the pudding that. ⁓ The school cares about the young men because they want them to be successful and they realize that not every student is going to be coming from a happy home. You know, there are a lot of students that need some extra care and love and support. And so that piece of it to me is a beautiful thing because, know, on the outside world, and I always say like, Odeh to me was kind of like a bubble. I even did like a spoken word piece about this probably like 10 years ago because, which can be good and bad, but it was like in this bubble, I was like, hey, I go to this school with all these different people. And we all love each other. And then we go out into the world and it's like, this is not what I experienced here on the day to day. So it's. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I felt like that too, going to Lakeside. That was comparable in size probably. I don't know what it is now, but yeah, that definitely was like a universe that you just like walked into and the minute you left and I lived in South Seattle, as you know, bro. And you couldn't be more different in terms of the demographic and the race and all those things. How do you keep kids that are going through that, that have sort of like this huge discrepancy in certain lifestyles, ⁓ and then they have to go back home and maybe their parents are struggling or maybe they've got depression and all these things, like how do you help them stay even keeled enough to be successful when they're graduating?

So that's a great question. And in 2015, ⁓ Oday started using a house system model. it's, I always say it sounds a little Harry Potter-esque, which is fine. ⁓ But the way the house system works is the entire school, so students, faculty, and staff are randomly mixed into these four different houses. And...

What is that? Yeah.

In these houses, they meet every single day, so literally every single day, all four years, in smaller classroom-sized groups. So again, mixed, freshmen through seniors. And they do activities together, right? So whether it's, you know, like the Christmas ⁓ fundraising thing that they do where they wrap gifts and then deliver them to families, or whether it's the, ⁓ you know, they go on a lot of retreats and stuff like that together. And then they also have days called Brotherhood Block where they get together and they actually have activities using talking points, but to kind of get some of that stuff out from these guys. you don't have to share, it's not like every kid has to, but a lot of the kids, especially in the beginning of the year that might be more quiet, who might have something that they're embarrassed to share or scared to share, they end up. getting that stuff off their chest and it's like, and seeing how the guys respond and react to them in that moment, my gosh, it's ridiculous. It's so like, it's just beautiful to see these young teenage boys who, you know, for so many years, if guys, you know, show concern for other men, it's used as a negative. And seeing these guys now, because of what the house system started, using that,

Mm-hmm, absolutely.

to lift each other up, it's like the coolest thing to see. And you've got seniors and juniors that, you know, traditionally want nothing to do with freshmen and sophomores now taking on this big brother role because they're the leaders of these groups. They're the ones that have to like, you know, facilitate it's run by the students. Like we as faculty and staff are there to support and help, but this is a student ran thing and each house has different. each within each house,

Right? Right?

There's each mentor group and each mentor group has student leaders. So now instead of just having your traditional ASB, you've got leadership roles for like 60 different kids and it keeps cycling. So now we've got kids as freshmen that maybe they were very shy and quiet, but because they had a dynamic senior that took them under their wing, now them as a junior or senior, they're leading a group and they're paying it forward or back, I guess I should say. And that is like,

Mm-hmm. Wow. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

such an inspiring thing to see for these young guys. And so in my role as alumni director, for the first time ever, I've had people reach out to me and say, hey, can you put me in touch with so-and-so? He wasn't in my class, but he was a senior who looked out for me when I was a freshman and I was going through some really tough times. And he helped me get through that. And I wanted to reach out and tell him because now I'm doing such and such and I'm being successful. And so much of that is because of what he did for me. So

Yeah.

The proof was in the pudding and it's a really cool way to kind of use, ⁓ you know, the spirit of brotherhood to help better each person. Because to your point, like you said, man, you don't know what a lot of these kids are going through. You can't assume that every kid is coming from a parent household in a nice house with working Wi-Fi, with food.

Yeah. Yup. Yup. Yup.

⁓ you just can't assume those things and you know, it's so many of our kids are receiving some form of financial aid So, you know, it's not like every kid that's going to Oday is just coming from this sunny background And yeah, I just think it's so cool that with this house system that we've had now for the last 11 years It's really opened the door to making those kids that you know might not have felt comfortable there for at least the first two two or three years To start feeling comfortable as freshmen. It's a really big start for their high school career.

I love that. Are there other schools that's doing something similar to that?

There are, and there's not that many. There's now more. ⁓ But so the our team that grabbed it, they grabbed it from Moller High School in Cincinnati, which is actually where Ken Griffey Junior went to high school. Very cool. So that's where we got it from, ⁓ and it's worked so well that now we have teachers and students actually go speak at conferences and not just locally or virtually. They'll go to like Atlanta.

man. Nice.

or New York and they'll talk to a big crowd about how the house system has benefited Oday and how it makes things, I mean, easier to be totally honest with you. Like, look, it's teenagers, bullying can happen at any time, but the level of bullying is like dramatically down than what it was before. When we have assemblies, you don't sit as freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, you sit as your four houses.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

So you're still mixed with your guys. And then they compete against each other. They'll have like house games. So they'll do like flag football, basketball, dodge ball. And each of those mentor groups will have teams and they'll play each other. So it's not again, just seniors against freshmen. And all of these things work so well. And it's really cool because since we kind of bought in early, we now have other schools asking us about it and asking if we can speak with their administrators about why it works so well.

that's great. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing, man. And I feel like the success of that is probably because everybody bought into it in some way, Yeah.

Exactly. And you have to have the buy-in. ⁓ You know, the first year I was definitely nervous because here is this senior class, the class of 2015, who for three years had seen the seniors get their senior lounge, the seniors get this like special space in the assemblies, and that got taken away. They didn't have a senior lounge. It became the house hub.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Dang.

which now is where all the leadership meetings happen for our student leaders and faculty and staff leaders. They don't have the senior slot in the assemblies, right? Because now that, so for the class of 2015, they were definitely not feeling it at first. And I think once they kind of started to see the benefits and especially now that they've been graduated for 11 years, looking back on it, they feel really proud that they were the first group of seniors that got to partake in that.

That's great. Yep.

And then every other class after them is just, I mean, that's just what they know. So they don't know any better and they just think it's like the coolest thing. but yeah, it's funny cause I just, think about those guys and anytime I see them, like late last year they have their 10 year reunion and you know, some of them were still like, man, I wish we still would have had our like true senior year. I get it. ⁓ but a lot of them are also like, man, it's really cool to see that the house system is not just like still happening, but thriving.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, ⁓ Dave, what's the most frustrating part about your job as an alumni director? What frustrates you? Maybe it might be one-off things or consistent things, but what's that?

Yeah. The hardest part, to be totally honest with you, is because I've been in my role for so long, and my cell phone hasn't changed, ⁓ there's a ton of alums that have my cell phone. So I get it. They know me as the guy that's going to help them answer a question or share something with their class. ⁓ But I always have to be like, thanks for reaching out.

Yep. Ha ha ha! Yep.

Can you shoot this to my email or something like that? ⁓ So that's probably the hardest part. ⁓ But it also does, you know, it also does make me feel good that they, ⁓ you know, feel comfortable and want to reach out to me ⁓ because, you know, that shows that they genuinely care about O'Dea or about their class. And I think that that piece of it is a unique thing that O'Dea definitely has always been successful with is that people are very proud.

Yeah, yeah.

have a lot of pride being graduates of Oday High School. But yeah, but the 10 PM Tuesday night text are not my favorite things to get. ⁓

Yep. That's awesome, Last two questions and we'll wrap it up here, but I want to get your take on some of the things as we're looking forward. Let's just say the next five, 10, 15, 20 years, whatever. ⁓ As you're looking forward here and I think the role that you have and the role that teachers have is very thankless in many ways You don't get paid enough you work a ton of hours. You're Expected to do extra things even though it's not mandatory. I mean the list goes on and on and ⁓ As you're looking out, you know, over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years, how do you think that the education system in general, this is not just a day, could improve? And what would be, maybe like if you had a magic wand, what would be the one thing you could do to change it so that it can improve so we can have more successful kids that graduate?

Man, now that's a tough one. I think, like anything, the hardest part just working in a school is ⁓ when kids choose to leave, to transfer to go to another school, ⁓ especially if it's for a reason like, ⁓ they got cut from the basketball team or they didn't...

Yeah.

get as much playing time on the baseball team, or they felt like ⁓ they didn't get the role and leadership that they wanted. And that part's tough because, and I know you can relate to this, as an 80s baby, we had to constantly kind of prove ourselves and deal with, hey, life isn't always gonna be peaches and cream.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

If something doesn't work out, you need to be able to work hard to fix that, right? You can't just be like, okay, well that didn't work, so I'm gonna now move on and do something else. And I understand that, you for some people there's other, you know, ⁓ external things that are happening, I get that. But when it's something like specific to those things like I mentioned, that's where it's really frustrating. And in today's like NIL world,

Mm-hmm. Yep.

it's going to continue to keep happening more and more. And kids are just going to be like the second something goes wrong, boom, we're out of here. And I just wish that that didn't happen so much. So it's going to be tough. Like we, as the adults really have to figure out how to kind of navigate this whole NIL world and deal with the fact that a lot of these, you know, young women and men are, you know, not necessarily thinking

Yeah. Yeah.

what might be the best thing for them. And they're just looking at, what's gonna make tomorrow or next year better? But then the future might not necessarily be that. And I think that's like the hardest thing is how do we keep these young kids engaged and loved and appreciated, but also like, hey, you need to work hard. to earn what you get and not just kind of keep turning to the next door to see if it's something that can make it better for you. I think that that is unfortunately something that I've seen happen way more in the last five years, I would say really with the whole NIL thing. And ⁓ it's sad because I'll see, and this has nothing to do with that, but there'll be people that'll reach out to me that didn't graduate from O'Dea and nine times out of 10, they're like, man, I never should have left. It's like my biggest regret. like you still send me like the magazine or put me in contact with my classmates. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Cause in my mind, if you've attended O-Day for four years or for like four weeks, like you get it, you're part of it. like that's a special thing. And if you want to still like keep in touch with those guys, then yeah, I'm all for it. ⁓ But I just don't want to see situations where people are leaving whatever school it might be, not just O-Day.

Mm-hmm. Right. Right.

and just trying to go to what they think is the next best thing, not realizing that the place that they are in is probably going to be the best spot for them.

Great. Probably the best. Yeah, I mean, that's super interesting. And especially with the NIL stuff, Seattle in general produces a lot of... very good athletes ⁓ that play at the highest level. They also produce some of the best ⁓ computer scientists, scientists in general. mean, the list goes on and on. ⁓ With the NIL and also with the competitiveness of Seattle sports, Pacific Northwest sports, ⁓ how do you get kids to understand, sometimes you've just got to grind and you got to be patient and you got to follow the process? Because that next big thing that next shiny thing is there. They've seen their friends maybe jump around, they're going from school to school because they're getting more time. I mean, I'm sure it's happening more in high school now, now that they're trying to go to a college where that gap between them getting paid is significantly smaller, right? Before it was like, you gotta go pro to get a bag. Now it's like, if I do well, I may get some sort of sponsorship when I'm a freshman or sophomore in college, so I need to get more time. How do you have conversations with with them to be able to get them to understand. Like, let's just put a pause on that and talk about the big picture.

Yeah. I think the biggest thing really again, and I feel very blessed that we have him, but you know the counselors that we have at Oday are fantastic in that, you know. They talk to these guys and kind of like are like OK, here's here's the deal. This is what you're telling me that you want to potentially do. This is what you've already done here and what you could potentially do here, right? So you've already put in the work right like.

Right. Yep.

If you go to this next thing, like, yeah, sure, that might seem like it could work out, but you have to start over again. Here you've already accomplished whatever it might be and you can keep moving forward. So I think it really does help us and benefit us having such a strong counseling team at the school. But I think also it just, it's important for every single faculty, every single adult. So every faculty, staff, coach, volunteer, any adult that is at the school. It's an equally shared responsibility that we need to make sure that these kids feel that their love that they're cared for and that they're appreciated and that they are a big part of Ode High School. And I think that that's important because it just that type of thing is going to make it harder for a kid to leave if they actually feel like man, I'm going to let down Mr. So and so or Mrs. So and so because God, they've been so good to me and I don't want them to like, you know.

Yep.

be upset if I leave. Like I really do believe in that. I think that the power of connections and the power of networking is a huge combatant to these kids potentially leaving where they're currently at. Now it's not obviously foolproof and it's not a hundred percent, but if every single adult buys in, I just think it makes it that much better ⁓ for retention.

Yeah, I agree with that, man. All right, Dave, last question, my friend. ⁓ More of a reflective question, but you've been...

Yes, sir.

in around a part of a day for 25 years. I'm sure you've had your roller coasters of good things, bad things, horrible things, exciting things. What's the one thing that keeps you coming back? How have you built that resilience to be at an organization that long? Because it's unheard of nowadays, especially like, you know, on the tech side, you see people working somewhere for a year, year and a half. They get a bonus somewhere else. They leave sports, same thing. Colleges. same thing, how do you build up that resilience and what's that one thing that's keeping you there?

I think the biggest thing is... just knowing that I have a voice and that I am valued and that they, they, meaning our administration and school board care about my thoughts about the school and the potential moving forward. Um, you know, when I started working at the school, obviously it was, you know, I just needed a job and I thought, Oh, this seems like it's a cool thing. Who knows how long I'll be here. I would just, you know,

Yeah. Right.

mutually agreed to leave working for the Seattle Supersonics with inside sales. It did not work out well. And so I was like, let's just try something fresh, something new. And I think the fact that with each year being there, just getting more and more say in kind of the helping mold the future of the school is a huge thing. And I think part of that was, you know, in 2018 when we were able to

Yep. Right.

Form our diversity and equity committee at the school that I co-chaired I don't think that that's something that I could do if it was like my third or fourth year working there and I think that because they trust me and have You know, they know that I'm gonna always put what I think is best for the school I'm not doing it for myself

Right.

I'm doing it because I want to make sure that all these young guys that come through and then all the guys that have graduated still feel like they're loved by this place and that it's a great place to be a part of. And I think that that's a huge thing for me is just kind of being like, man, they're asking me questions about, hey, what's your thoughts on, you know, this potential construction project that we're thinking of doing a couple of years down the road or, ⁓ have you checked out, you know, the update that we have down on the field over at St. Paul's like,

Yeah.

It's really cool to actually, you know, feel like ⁓ there are people that care about what my thoughts are when it comes to the school. And I think that's, you know, that comes with time, right? Like if you're constantly bouncing around at jobs three, four years, you know, people aren't going to necessarily think like, this is someone that we want to potentially take advice from about something 40 years down the road. You know what I'm saying? Like,

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

as opposed to someone that's been there and put in the work and truly has shown that they care about the institution they're at, then all of a sudden their voice becomes a lot more powerful and holds a lot more weight. So for me, that's a huge piece of it. And then, like I've said before, man, it's just being able to see these young guys go through these four years and come out the other side, amazing young men that are just benefiting society and doing such good work and being pillars for their communities like gosh, that type of stuff is like like inject that into my veins man. I love. So yeah, that's those are the biggest things for me for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Dang. I mean, there's this quiet, powerful thing about knowing that you're being heard. And you don't even need to have the person react to it anyway, but just knowing that they're listening to you and understand what you're trying to say, that is absolutely powerful,

Truly.

all right, my friend that wraps up the show. Dave, man, you are an inspiration, bro, from getting people fired up at shows, Husky games to what I think is actually probably even more inspiring is helping out kids in Seattle and so on down the line. But man, it's a privilege to call your friend. I appreciate you coming on.

I'll do it. Thank you brother. appreciate all that you have done and continue to do seriously. And I think this is a really cool endeavor that you've gotten yourself into. It's really awesome that you're highlighting a lot of these people and I'm looking forward to watching more of what you do, bro. Cause I've always believed in you and you're the man. I appreciate you.

You're one of three, so we'll chalk that up. All ⁓ right, brother, you take care, man. I appreciate you. All right, see you.

I love it. Me too. Love you, man.

So you just heard my conversation with my good friend Dave Mazio from O'Dea High School. He's a gifted alumni director, but also one of the most talented MCs in all of Seattle. And here's the one thing that stuck with me. Dave talked about a teacher named Mr. Rylan Brown. First of all, the name Rylan Brown is already off the charts in terms of swag, but guy takes the light rail to watch his students compete in basketball, football, e-sports, chess, you name it. He's there. He's not getting paid any extra to do it. he just shows up for the kids because he wants them to know that someone is there that truly cares about them. not just in class, but also outside of class. but here's the thing that got me. Mr. Brown also holds them to the highest expectation in the classroom. Extra office hours, accountability, all of it. You don't see that anymore in schools these days. And Dave said something I haven't been able to shake since we had this conversation. Showing up, and holding high standards aren't opposites. They're really the same thing. That's what real investment looks like. if you're leading people, whether that's a team, a classroom, or a family, ask yourself, are you showing up for them outside of the work? because the ones who feel seen are the ones who stay. If this conversation with Dave hit just a little bit differently, do me a favor, hit that subscribe, and every time you do, it keeps the conversations like alive. More guests, more stories, more of the stuff that actually matters. I'm your host, Savan and I'll see you on the next one.