Jorge, as you look at the partnership, how would you describe it to the audience from a Bellarmine standpoint? What's the value there?Jorge Pazmiño
Well, there's a lot of value when you look at developing students and developing the talent in this community. There's a lot of synergy that's happening just organically with what Leadership Louisville was doing in the community and what Bellarmine is attempting to do. It's all about developing talent. You talked about the undergraduate students and how important it is to expose them to different opportunities, access to resources and information.
When you look at how you develop the next generation of leaders, it goes outside of the classroom sometimes. I know faculty bring speakers all the time to the classroom and that's great, but I think providing access to opportunities such as micro-learnings or sessions where students can just hear from community leaders, business leaders, people that is actually doing the work. I think it adds tremendous value that goes beyond the theory that we can do as far as higher education.
When Paul and I started talking about this opportunity to work together, it made a lot of sense. At the undergraduate level, I know we talked about some executive MBAs, MBAs in general. I think there's a lot of value into working together to position the university in a very unique spot to provide access to all these resources as part of their education at Bellarmine.
Paul has been great in providing us with information for upcoming sessions and having provided access to these micro-learnings and opportunities in person for students to attend. Students are taking it and they're attending, whether it is virtually or in person. The feedback has been tremendous. So, when you say value, it's not just working together and giving students something that they can do, but it's something they can do that will impact their careers and their development process while they are still in the classroom.
Networking and Talent Retention in Louisville
Jim Ray
Well, and I love the fact that it's exposing them to different opportunities, different organizations, different roles, and different perspectives. So much of that is important, especially when you're trying to formulate that, because you're still young enough that you're not upset at FICA yet. You're still trying to figure out the world. Now, you've got these executives, these leaders coming in to really share experiences and provide advice. And it really augments what they're already learning in the classroom and in their Bellarmine experience. But it's also here in the real world. We're out there now and these are some of the things that you need to be preparing yourself for.
As we look at this, Paul, it's also about retaining talent in the Louisville market. Do you want to speak to that topic?
Paul Bolton
I will and I want to add something real just really quick. At the Leadership Louisville Center, we're a convening space and in these classrooms, there's things that they're learning. Our courses are interactive so a graduate student coming into a course with us is going to be in there with non-profit leaders. They're going to be in there from with leaders from many different organizations and industries within Louisville, Kentucky. So, networking starts to happen. Accountability partners happen after courses, and things like that. When we're talking about retention of talent, you start exposing yourself to what's available and you also start seeing other leaders that you aspire to be like.
You start getting names and connecting with people on LinkedIn and so many different resources. I think you start learning a little bit more about yourself and the type of leader that you want to be. And when we can do that, while they're still here in our own backyard, I think we increase our opportunities and chances because Louisville is a big-little city and it is who you know. And to be honest, we wouldn't be sitting here now if Jorge and I had not connected a while back. Your network is everything that you have.
And we want to be able to tell a student, “Hey, go build your network.” You can show them the path and how they can do that. That's what we're trying to provide.
Jim Ray
I love the fact that the connectivity is the focus. Louisville is a relatively small town and it seems like everybody knows everybody. But if you're not from here, it's a little harder to get plugged in. If you're not familiar, or maybe I'm the first one to go to college in my family. I may not know how to cultivate those relationships because we just haven't been exposed to it. I love the fact that this partnership builds that platform, builds that runway.
I can remember when I was very young, coming up, you know, after graduating college. I would take any kind of informational interview. I would just tell people or ask people, “Look, can we just grab coffee? Could you just tell me about what you didn't? How did you prepare for that? How did you get into that role? Is it what you expected?”
All those things just started to build. It kind of gave some clarity to the path, I guess, because I had a general idea of the direction I wanted to go. I just wasn't sure how to get there. So those kinds of conversations now that Bellarmine's got this program set up, I think it's going to afford many more of those collisions between, I'm interested, I'd love to have this knowledge and those that already have it have kind of earned their way. Now these two groups are colliding here and I think it's going to be great.
Paul Bolton
Selfishly, we get to meet the future leaders. They're coming while they're still in school. And some of those that are in that program are already at some organizations and they're beginning to do things. So selfishly, we're also getting to introduce ourselves to them and begin to utilize your resources. When you graduate, you know some people outside of just the university and yeah there's something about that.
Well, I think everyone sitting here knows that that's something to be said for. That is a very big opportunity for those students.
Bridging the Gap Between Education and Community
Jim Ray
No, I think it makes a lot of sense because again, I'd walk through the door, if I knew where the door was and this is a great way for them to kind of get dialed into it. It's a good way for the people who are out there in leadership positions to once again give back. It's not that they have to give back money; it's just some perspective. Share a little bit of time with these upcoming leaders and let's see if that can't cultivate a whole new crop, as you said, a whole new group of young leaders.
Jorge, let's talk a little bit about the gap that this partnership is starting to bridge, not just on campus, but in the community at large.
Jorge Pazmiño
Yeah, absolutely.
So when you look at what we do as a higher education institution, we're developing talent, right? But at the end of the day, we are producing the product that employers are consuming, right? So, we want to produce a high-quality product that make contributions in not just the community, but the economy, making sure that the development that happens in the classroom makes an impact overall. So it's quite important not for us in the School of Business, but also as Bellarmine.
It's quite important to make sure that students are connected with opportunities in the community. And I think that this partnership with Leadership Louisville Center makes a lot of sense. They're doing some quality work and they're making sure that there's access to opportunity for not just working professionals, but also up and coming students and executives. Working together allows us to bridge the gap between making those intentional connections beyond the classroom. As I said, professionals are always looking for talent. Universities are producing the talent. So, let's connect the dots, right? Providing information about up and coming sessions, providing not only for undergraduate students, but also graduate students with those networking opportunities to collaborate or at least identify opportunities to collaborate with established leaders in the community to continue to make impact in all aspects of the economy. It makes a lot of sense.
I think that bridge of students' education in community works quite well in that this partnership opens access to information, to connections, to the networking capabilities with an established organization as a Leadership Louisville Center, makes a lot of sense.
Program Structure and Offerings
Jim Ray
I'm just excited to learn about the program and the fact that it's underway. Structurally, Paul, how does it roll out? I mean, what are the formats? How do people get involved with it? Is this something that happens on a frequent basis, or is it more of an ad hoc, hey, we've got somebody that's willing to step into a classroom or step into a discussion? How does it work?
Paul Bolton
I haven't had to explain how it works. No, not like that. So, one thing I wanted to add is that we have some core values that are big for us at the Leadership Louisville Center. Those are innovation, curiosity, storytelling, and impact. In everything we do, we want to embrace diverse perspectives. We want that authentic expression and have active listening, but we really want to also make sure that we're empowering our leaders to create meaningful change in the organizations and the communities. So the things that we have available to the graduate students at Bellarmine will lead them into those core values we have. One of those areas that they can explore is our program, Focus Louisville, which is a two and a half day program that actually came out of the Leadership Louisville flagship program.
They’re going to learn about the different sectors, the nonprofit sector, education, etc. They're going to hear from community leaders, government and businesses. But then we also have our open courses and micro-learnings. So those courses, and we are not, I love saying it, we don't “sage on the stage.” We're not in there just talking theory. We're talking application. And we're not only just talking application.
You're coming out of there with some next steps. You're coming out of there with some action plans. So there are tangible things that you're going to be able to take and implement by just spending a half-day or a day with us, in a small dose or in a larger dose.
We also have something actually coming up in April, the Leading Better Summit, which is another networking opportunity. It's that opportunity to kind of get out there and meet other leaders, hear from some great speakers and walk away in one day with some next steps that you can begin. Again, tangible things that you can apply immediately, but also it keeps people curious of thinking like, what else is out there? And they continue to want to learn.
That's where I think that Jorge and my path crosses. People that are like, we're always curious and always trying to get out there and figure new things out. So I think we're both probably in the industries that serve us best and that we can also serve as well. We love the work that we do. I'm glad again this partnership’s awesome and going to be a game changer for the students and we love having the students. There were some Bellarmine students not so long ago in one of our micro-learning courses and it's cool like you have graduate students in there with some executives and with some middle managers.
They're bringing a completely different perspective to some things and they might have some ideas of some things that maybe the executive next year hasn't thought about yet, you know, and it's like, that's like not a bad idea, you know, and so I think everybody kind of wins in there.
Interactive Learning Experiences
Jim Ray
So describe how a micro-learning event works. Is this a classroom format? Is this a hotel ballroom type thing? I mean, what's the environment? A conference room?
Paul Bolton
We have a classroom at the Center. So, it's either in person (and we're down on Main Street across from 21C), then we also have virtual. We do about four or five of those a year. And then we have about 10 to 11 open courses a year. And those are going to be anywhere from team dynamics for new leaders, or how to speak and embrace and talk through conflict. These are the things that you're going to be sitting in the classroom that you're getting some instruction about it, but it's different when you jump in there and you're doing some interactive sessions. You're asked in a breakout to do a role play with another business professional. Seeing yourself do those things and you're actually preparing yourself.
I know there's graduates that are going to graduate from Bellarmine and they are going to be in leadership positions and there might not be any formal training that they are given for quite some time. You might be surprised how having some things under their belt already that they know, one, I know a resource I can utilize, but two, I've had a little bit of experience and I can kind of speak to that and also I know where to go get more, if needed, right in your own backyard.
Jim Ray
Well, I love the fact that it's interactive. It's not just going to be, come sit in the chair and listen to some people talk for a few hours. You're going to be sleeves rolled up. You're going to be deep into it.
Paul Bolton
Yes, the interactive piece is a big part of what we do. Again, we want people leaving with more than they came.
Jim Ray
And how long would an event like that last?
Paul Bolton
Anywhere from just your eight, nine to four for like an open course to a 90 minute micro-learning. So those are situated based on what we've learned from the businesses in Louisville. So a lot of the things that we have are through our meetings with local area businesses.
I spent a lot of my day meeting with HR professionals, learning and development professionals.
Either talking with them through some solutions that we have at the center for them, or we're also utilizing them as a resource to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the time in the community, and so that we're offering opportunities that do our solutions that work in alignment. So those are some things that I spend a lot of time, on a daily basis.
Jim Ray
How do you find the speakers, the presenters, the executives who might be engaged here? You're not developing something for them. They're actually bringing something to the community, which is a little bit different.
Paul Bolton
Well it’s all of our facilitators at the Center, as well as, our president and CEO, who is a fantastic facilitator and speaker. If you go to leadingbetter.com or just Google Leadership Louisville Center, you'll find us. That's the easiest way, right? But we have a number of facilitators. The thing about our facilitators, because it is interactive, storytelling is a big piece of what we do.
All of our facilitators have real world experience. They're able to add that to the facilitation. And again, it's facilitation. So, they're not doing all the work. There's a lot of, if you come to one of those, you're going be doing some work too, which is why you're there, right? So, but all of our facilitators, and we just actually brought a new facilitator on, the director of our leadership development, Don Woolridge, he comes with many years of learning development. We have people on our team like Lisa Zangari, Cynthia Knapek, Aaron Miller, and then Cara Boardman. All of those facilitators that I just named, like whoever you get, it's going to be awesome. It's going to be great. I'm just work there. Of course, I'm saying that you can see for yourself. Just Google us up and give us a shot.
Micro-learning is a great way to do that actually, just kind of test out some of that content.
Jim Ray
Now obviously, would there be a cost for this? If I were going to enroll in say a micro-learning event, just go to the website and sign up?
Paul Bolton
Yes, all of our prices are on the site. Check them out. But this program that Bellarmine has with us really is something that we've been doing for a while. And we kind of worked with Bellarmine to make sure that it worked with what their needs were. But they're able to plug those students in. I love when I'll see Bellarmine registrations come through on some of those micro-learnings. It's awesome to see that too. Because again, we want curiosity, lifelong learning, and you need to have that diversity in that audience because it's the collective intelligence of that classroom that makes it magical while you're in there. You're hearing from other perspectives. That's what it's like being at work every day. You need to be able to take that, embrace it and work through it and with it.
The Importance of Networking
Jim Ray
That's fantastic. And I like that because again, you're also getting not only a range of opinions and perspectives, but the range of ages, the range of backgrounds. It's a good mixing pot, which I think it can't do anything else but produce something really unique and interesting.
Jorge, let me come back to you for a few minutes. Let's talk about really the importance of networking because I know a lot of students aren't exposed to that. Maybe they're not used to doing a lot of networking. Maybe we've all got a close circle of friends. And this younger generation to begin with is much more screen-oriented than face-to-face.
The way we grew up, it was all, hey, let's go out and grab our bikes and ride through the neighborhood. We get to know each other, right? But this is a little bit different now. Then after the pandemic, people have kind of lost some of social skills. So, we think events like this would really lend itself well to redeveloping, or for the first time maybe developing, those networking skills.
Jorge Pazmiño
Absolutely, Jim. And I get excited when I hear Paul talk about all these different connections that students can make and intentionally expose themselves to professionals in different industries. When I was a student many, many years ago, this didn't exist. And I don't know how Paul feels about this in his own journey as far as higher education. I think that’s the way this partnership is established and it is intentionally in place to provide those avenues to connect, right? Because it's all about connecting. In the classroom, when I talk to students about career development, about seeking your opportunities, you know, trying to go for that career or that job that you want to, there is a huge component that is very, important. That is networking, right? It's who you know, not necessarily how many applications you're going to put in for a job.
So, I get excited when I hear Paul talk about different professionals from different industries mingling with our students, because those connections happen. When they're collaborating in groups, when they're going over scenarios, I mean, these folks are doing the work. They have those jobs. In many cases, they're going to be in the same space with our students. So I feel that that networking component, that's something that doesn't necessarily happen in the classroom, right? Because everybody is a student, right? Taking students and providing that access and making those connections is quite important because it becomes an asset. Your network is an asset.
After you graduate, that should be the first place where you explore opportunities or the people that you met throughout your journey and see, hopefully, you have a good relationship with them, whether it is electronically or you met them in person, and leverage that network to open opportunities for yourself. I think those are conversations we have with our students across the courses that they take when they have career advice and appointments with our staff at Bellarmine.
And when they go and meet folks in the micro-learnings or some of the courses that they can have access to as part of this partnership. There’s lots of value there. Networking is a piece that needs to be part of their journey. As they move on to that next chapter in their lives, which is professional opportunities, that's where they need to be first is leveraging the network.
Jim Ray
I think a lot of people wonder, well, what if that person doesn't do what I want to do? And so I'm in this group, maybe they're not really of value for my network. It's not about that person that's right across the table from me. It's about access to their network. And hey, you know what? Internally, we've got some positions coming up. Maybe there's a reorganization that's going to open up something, and they already had that information, which you may not. So, it may not be that you're going to try to get a job from or with that person directly, but it's that next level that you now have access to and it just starts to mushroom.
Then one person sponsors you into a conversation or “Hey you guys ought to get together and have coffee and I'll be happy to send an email.” I do a lot of that where I'll send an email between someone I know and somebody else I know and just say hey guys let me just set up a professional introduction. Here's how I know this person. Here's how I know the other person and why I think you guys ought to get together. Best of luck. Here's the contact information. I hope a good conversation comes out of it. You just never know.
Paul Bolton
You know what happens? It’s what you just said is they think they don't need that person across from them and they don't know what they don't know, right? They don't know that. And what happens is you start to learn that you collect people along the way. And if you collect everybody from your industry, just like you, your network's not that great, right? You need to connect the dots. But you don't know what you need until like it's like, whoa, I wish I some of the connections that I've made and over my career. I don't value some of them until I'm like, oh, you know what? I'm so glad that I went to that event and met that person. And I didn't feel like it that day, but I went across the room and had a conversation and we exchanged information. Now you can just jump on LinkedIn. I don't know how many people carry business cards. I'll just look you up on LinkedIn. Now we're connected and we'll figure it out later on. But you never know when that's going to come up.
So I think those are positive things that happen. Anytime you're in graduate school or whatever education you're in, you're in there to conflict yourself. Because if you already knew everything, why would you go to anything? It's like, what's the purpose? Go conflict your current state, have some growth, and come out a little bit better. And then you're going to pay it forward because you're going to grab somebody else down the road and go, you know what? I used to think that same thing too. And then, you know, those fine people are there to hit me over the head with some knowledge and I'm a little bit better today.
Jim Ray
Well, just a pro-tip on this. Once you make a connection and maybe you've connected on LinkedIn afterwards and there's some initial surface level conversations, you need to cultivate that relationship. Every quarter or something at a minimum, try to reach back out and ask, how have you been? How are things going? Would you have time for another cup of coffee? It doesn't always have to be what can you do for me? It's hey, I'm interested in getting to know you better. You just never quite know because Louisville is a such a such a small town. You're going to see somebody at a restaurant. You're going to see somebody at an event. You're going go out to the Bats game and run into somebody. It's always nice to have a familiar face in this big crowd and feel like wow this is my hometown and I'm kind of connected.
Paul Bolton
And just ask them what high school they went to? If you don't know what to say to them, just be like, where'd you go to school? And you'll know they're not from here when they're like, why do want to know that? Or they give you your college instead of your high school.
Jim Ray
Exactly. Got to go update my LinkedIn. No, it's all good. Jorge, you were going to say something.
Conclusion and Call to Action
Jorge Pazmiño
Yeah, listening to Paul really triggers something in my head and I'm like, you know what I always tell my students, “Seek out mentorships because there are professionals out there that I mean with the right time in and it has to be somebody that is interested. But there's always that willingness to help a young professional.”
Seeking out those opportunities should be part of your repertoire as a student, right? And I'm not necessarily just talking to undergraduate students, but also graduate students, because you never know. Somebody might have this part time, or they might just want to be involved in somebody's development. So, seek out those opportunities. think that those connections that we talk about and those relationships that you establish, they only happen when you ask. So ask.
Jim Ray
Absolutely. Gentlemen, this has been a fantastic conversation. I'm really excited about this partnership. This is something that we need more of, obviously. I love the fact that Rubel's actually saying, you know what? We're the Rubel School of Business and we're going to help our people. This is one other way. This is yet another way that we can prepare our graduates, our alumni base, to really go out there and have an impact in our local community.
Jorge Pazmiño, always good to see you, buddy. Thanks very much for your time. And Paul Bolton, it's been a pleasure to meet you, man. I'm going to have get on the website and check out the micro-learnings and some other opportunities coming up.
By the way, if you're listening to this episode and you're interested in learning more, in the show notes, that'll be just below where you're actually listening to this, I'm going to put a link to the website so that if you heard this and said, wow, that is kind of interesting, or I wasn't aware of it, or how do I get more information, it'll be right there for you. So, from all of us here at the Bellarmine on Business podcast, swords up and let's go Knights!
To Learn More about the Leadership Louisville Center:
Website: https://leadershiplouisville.org
Leading Better: https://leadingbetter.com/
Paul Bolton: https://leadingbetter.com/about/people/
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