Ten percent of Utah's children were using roughly ninety percent of the state's behavioral health funding, and no one system owned them.In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Denise Jensen, LMSW, Partner and Lead Operating Officer at Stronger Consulting, and the founding director of Utah's children's system of care.Denise grew up as the oddball in a family of seven kids in a conservative Idaho Mormon household, where the mother stayed home and the father went to work. She questioned that from childhood, made a lot of her family angry, and built her own path anyway. That questioning became a career: therapist, then state system builder, then the person leading client delivery across a national consulting firm.She walks Mike through what a system of care actually is. The kids arriving through corrections, courts, child welfare, disability, and schools, all with nowhere to land. The judges, school districts, Medicaid administrators, and parents she pulled into the same room. The state hospital she asked to loosen its own admission criteria. She also earned Utah's Governor's Award of Excellence for tearing apart substance use treatment payment models so people in recovery could choose their own care instead of being told what recovery had to look like.The second half turns to leadership. Denise makes the case that leaders, and women leaders in particular, are still armored up in a professionalism handed to them by people who are no longer in the room. Her word for the alternative is softening, and she is specific about what it buys an organization.Listen in for why she believes every person already knows what they need, and what leaders owe them once they admit it. Chapters: 🎙️ 00:27 Denise Jensen on leaving a conservative Idaho childhood to build systems🚪 03:37 The oddball in a family of seven who made people mad👩‍👧 06:09 Refusing to let motherhood be her only identity🎭 10:47 You cannot be one person, so you wear many hats🧩 11:58 Ten percent of kids, ninety percent of the funding🏛️ 12:39 Getting judges, schools, and Medicaid into the same room🏆 16:47 The Governor's Award for letting people choose their own recovery🗝️ 19:34 Everybody already knows what they need🪓 24:54 Scalpel, hammer, and sometimes chainsaw🔁 29:31 Retention beats replacement, and the cost is momentum🛡️ 31:19 The armor women leaders are still told to wear🌿 35:29 Softening creates psychological safety, and safety keeps teams🧭 37:57 Find your community and know your value💡 42:51 You do not control everything, and that is okayLinks:LinkedIn:  Denise Jensen | LinkedInCompany LinkedIn: Stronger ConsultingWebsite: Stronger Consulting Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong. 

Dr. Nadia Lopez banked 156 unused sick days. When she finally got too sick to work, the Department of Education separated her from payroll and told her she could come back to work.In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Dr. Nadia Lopez, award-winning educator, best-selling author of The Bridge to Brilliance, and the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for a conversation about educator wellness, burnout, and what it costs to give a system everything you have.Dr. Lopez never planned to teach. She trained as a critical care nurse, detoured through Verizon, and was rejected from the NYC Teaching Fellows before a mentor forced them to put the rejection in writing. They could not. She landed in a seventh grade special education classroom in Fort Greene and brought her nursing philosophy with her: know the child before you read the IEP, treat the behaviors and not the label, understand the context before you diagnose the problem.She talks about asking her students whether they had a library at home and realizing they did not own a single book, while thousands sat unused in school storage rooms. She talks about the Global Teacher Prize taking her to Dubai, Sweden, and Korea, and what those systems understand about sustainability that we do not. She talks about her mentor Karen, who ignored her own symptoms the same way Dr. Lopez ignored hers.And she talks about the autoimmune diagnosis that ended her principalship, the medical sabbatical the DOE denied her, and the fight to get insurance back so she could have surgery.Tune in to hear why Dr. Lopez believes leadership is responsibility, not martyrdom, and what her HEART framework asks of leaders who have never once been asked how their heart and spirit are doing. Chapters:🩺 02:53 Dr. Nadia Lopez never wanted to be an educator, she was supposed to be a nurse✉️ 06:56 Rejected by the NYC Teaching Fellows, until a mentor asked them to put it in writing🏫 11:31 Seventh grade special education in Fort Greene, and the nursing philosophy she brought with her📕 15:30 The question she asked every student: do you have a library at home🇬🇹 20:27 Guatemala, the food pantry, and the child nobody knew was struggling🌍 23:44 The Global Teacher Prize, teaching under a tree, and what other systems understand❤️ 29:30 The question she asks educators everywhere: how is your heart and spirit🕯️ 31:26 Karen Giles, glioblastoma, and the signs they both ignored🚫 41:16 The HEART framework, 156 unused sick days, and the sabbatical the DOE denied👩‍👧 45:14 Walking away as the lesson she was teaching her daughter about her own worth📋 50:36 We have attendance protocols for students and nothing for leaders💭 54:58 The Ronderings question: listen to your body or you become a hypocriteLinks:Website: www.thelopezeffect.com Work with Dr. Lopez: www.thelopezeffect.com/workwithme Socials: @thelopezeffect on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and XDr. Lopez coaches women leaders in education on building careers they can sustain, and she is launching a new health and wellness endeavor. Reach out to her if you are leading a school or a system and no one has asked you lately how your heart and spirit are doing.Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

Dr. Aidé Acosta went from a first-generation college student navigating higher education without a map to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at National Louis University. Her guiding line comes from her Sinaloan roots: like a turtle, she carries home on her back, and she has built her career making sure students never have to leave theirs behind.In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Dr. Acosta, VP for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at National Louis University in Chicago, to talk about what it takes to build a genuinely student-centered institution across every campus and learning modality.Aidé traces the arc from a childhood shaped by migration and family sacrifice to Southwestern College, UC Riverside, and a doctorate at the University of Illinois. She explains why so much of her work is about naming the invisible rules of higher education, the ones first-generation students are expected to already know, and why belonging is not a nice-to-have but the actual mechanism of student success.They get into social mobility as multigenerational impact, why access without support is an empty promise, and how an institution keeps its mission consistent when students arrive through wildly different doors. Aidé is candid about carrying her community into every room she enters and what she wants her own child to inherit from that.Tune in to hear why Aidé believes the deepest work in higher education is helping students succeed without asking them to leave home behind. Chapters:🐢 01:37 Meet Dr. Aidé Acosta: first-generation student turned dean of students🌎 02:28 Why she carries home on her back like a turtle🎶 02:50 Sinaloan roots, migration, and the family that made the path🎓 08:14 Southwestern College to UC Riverside: learning the rules no one taught her🔍 26:41 Naming the invisible rules first-generation students are expected to know🤝 30:05 Why belonging is the mechanism of student success, not a nice-to-have🌱 34:59 Access without support is an empty promise🏛️ 40:18 Keeping one mission consistent across every campus and modality💛 44:11 Social mobility as multigenerational impact and what she wants her child to inheritLinks:Website: nationallouisu | LinktreeLinkedIn: Aidé Acosta, Ph.D.Company's LinkedIn: National Louis University Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong. 

Julie Chan was a Yale and MIT-trained urban planner building a career in economic development when a spontaneous spiritual awakening opened intuitive abilities she never asked for and could not explain. Today she helps entrepreneurs and executives find their life purpose, and she is on a mission to bring science and spirituality back into the same room.In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Julie Chan, founder of Being My Purpose and an intuitive life purpose coach, to talk about what happens when the analytical mind you built your career on suddenly is not the only way you know things.Julie's path did not start with crystals and channeling. It started with degrees from Yale and MIT, work in healthcare technology, biotech, and small business development, and a very grounded life in New York City. Then the awakening arrived, unbidden, and with it came clairaudience, clairvoyance, and a set of experiences her training gave her no language for. Rather than run from it, she went looking for a framework big enough to hold both the data and the download.She and Ron get into what it actually means to channel the Akashic Records, why she has written thousands of pages of guidance for clients, and how someone with her background makes peace with abilities that science has not yet caught up to. They talk about purpose as something you uncover rather than invent, the fear that keeps people from expressing it, and why Julie believes healthcare, education, and business are all overdue for a more expansive view of what human beings are capable of.Ron brings his own curiosity and a little healthy skepticism, and Julie meets all of it with warmth and specificity.Tune in to hear how a self-described analytical planner learned to trust a way of knowing she once would have dismissed. Chapters:🌱 02:05 Julie Chan on leaving urban planning for a life she never planned🎓 05:30 What a Yale and MIT planner did before the awakening⚡ 11:20 The spontaneous awakening that opened abilities she never asked for👂 18:40 Clairaudience, clairvoyance, and learning to trust a new way of knowing🗂️ 24:10 What it actually means to channel the Akashic Records✍️ 27:29 Writing thousands of pages of guidance for clients🧭 34:05 Purpose is something you uncover, not something you invent😨 41:30 The fear that keeps people from expressing their purpose🔬 46:15 Why science and spirituality belong in the same room🏥 48:20 A bigger view of healthcare, education, and human potentialLinks:Website: beingmypurpose.comFacebook: facebook.com/beingmypurposeInstagram: @beingmypurposeConnect with Julie Chan at Being My Purpose to learn more about her work helping entrepreneurs and executives uncover and express their life purpose through intuitive coaching and the Akashic Records. Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

Bobby Blount has served on the Northside ISD school board for 27 years, and he has spent every one of them refusing to get distracted from the one thing that matters: whether kids actually have a shot.In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Bobby Blount, a Northside Independent School District trustee, President of the Texas Caucus of Black School Board Members, and a department head at MITRE who was working in cybersecurity before the word "cyber" meant anything.Bobby grew up a military kid who attended ten different schools before he finished high school, including years in Mississippi during integration and a stretch in Utah where he was one of the only Black students for miles. He traces how those experiences turned into a single conviction: he had opportunities others did not, and his job was to reach back and create more of them.He shares the programs he is most proud of, from a third-grade reading competition that logged 11 million minutes across 105 schools to a solar race car event he built in 1996 that now reaches thousands of elementary students. He is candid about how politicized school boards have become, and why the work of running them takes people who know how to stay focused when everyone around them is yelling.Listen in for a conversation about vision, institutionalizing the things you build so they outlast you, and the discipline of keeping your eye on the ball.Chapters:👋 01:27 Meet Bobby Blount: 27 years on a school board and a summit asking which way is up🌍 05:29 Ten schools before high school: growing up a military kid through integration and isolation🎓 08:34 From the Air Force Academy to doing cyber before anyone called it cyber💡 11:30 The DJ, the roller coaster, and the day bored kids finally leaned in📖 14:18 A reading competition with 10,000 third graders and 11 million minutes read💃 15:49 Dancing with the Stars as a fundraiser, fifteen years running🎯 17:23 Moving the needle: why onesie-twosie wins are not enough🏛️ 18:48 Why school board seats became a target and what keeps the focus on kids🔬 23:08 STEM labs, magnet programs, and AI in elementary school🤝 31:34 Inside the UP Partnership and the Future Ready 70 percent goal⚾ 35:46 Keep your eye on the ball: the manager's line Bobby never forgot🌱 36:32 Vision, focus, and institutionalizing the things you build so they outlast you⚽ 38:48 Coaching five soccer teams and what it teaches about leadership🧭 42:27 Parting advice: try everything, work with everyone, and master one thing🎧 44:38 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.orgLinks:Bobby Blount on Ballotpedia: ballotpedia.org/Bobby_BlountSan Antonio Area African American Community Fund: saaaacf.orgNorthside ISD Board of Trustees: nisd.net/board/membersReach out to Bobby to learn more about his work building career pathways for kids, from third-grade reading competitions to solar race cars to the Future Ready vision in San Antonio.Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters: booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.orgFor more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong.