Ep03 Dr. Nicholas Valenzuela, Ph.D., Stanford: Leadership Development podcast

 This leadership development podcast is brought to you by: Ovi Vasquez, Inspirational Leadership Keynote Speaker. Fatherless farm boy from rural Guatemala—Inspiring teams to peak performance. He challenges teams to embrace change and step into bold leadership through leadership culture. He grew up in a village off-the-grid, migrated to the U.S., learned English in two years, graduated from high school in three years, earned a B.A. in management, in two years.  Ovi has worked for Apple, Tesla, Salesforce, and Uber. He is a TEDx speaker, author, and a social entrepreneur. 

Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela is a Stanford-educated coach, leadership strategist, and former Silicon Valley executive who has helped hundreds of students and professionals discover their purpose and excel. With four degrees—two from Stanford—and a career advising CEOs and even Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Dr. Nick now dedicates his life to coaching the next generation of leaders, especially underserved youth and the educators who guide them. 

Find our guest at: LinkedIn – Dr. Nicholas Valenzuela
Find our host at: https://www.ovinspires.com

Leadership Keywords: leadership development, emotional intelligence, dyslexia, youth empowerment, career transition, Stanford, values-based coaching, human potential, education equity, mindset, communication, mentorship, Silicon Valley, cultural identity 

Leadership Summary: Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela shares the life lessons that shaped him from a struggling student in Texas to advising billionaires in Silicon Valley. He explains how a fifth-grade teacher changed his life with one sentence and how a traumatic experience pushed him to prove everyone wrong. Dr. Nick discusses the importance of teaching leadership and communication skills early. He reveals how educators and mentors can shape future leaders without even realizing it.

10 Takeaways on Leadership:
✅ Teach self-awareness and communication early.
✅ Asking “why” helps students and leaders find purpose.
✅ Emotional intelligence and behavioral skills are often missing in corporate layoffs.
✅ Mentors must demonstrate leadership, not just teach it.
✅ Everyone has value. Show respect to build self-esteem.
✅ Leaders don’t always realize the impact they’re having.
✅ A single sentence can change someone’s life trajectory.
✅ Young people need to feel seen to thrive.
✅ AI should be a thinking partner, not a crutch.
✅ Leadership is helping others do their best. 

5 Titles for Leadership:
✅ Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela: From the Barrio to Billion-Dollar Boardrooms
✅ Dyslexic, Determined, Doctor: A Stanford PhD’s Leadership Journey
✅ Purpose, Pain, and Power: How Dr. Nick Transforms Lives 

5 Sound Bites for Leadership:
🗣 “You are destined for greatness.”
🗣 “Leadership is not a title. It's helping others do their best.”
🗣 “Ask why. Then ask how.”
🗣 “Know yourself. Find your purpose.”
🗣 “Your life matters. Act like it.” 

#OVinspires
 #LeadershipMessengers
 #leadership
 #community

Leadership Culture podcast
Management podcast
Business leadership podcast
Executive leadership podcast
Organizational leadership podcast
Transformational leadership podcast
Top Leadership podcast for managers 
Building High-Performance Teams podcast
Corporate leadership podcast
School leadership podcast 
Educational leadership podcast
Professional Development podcast 
Change Management podcast
Educational leadership podcast
Professional Development podcast
Corporate leadership podcast

Transcript

Ovi (00:00.161)
Welcome to this episode. This is going to be a special one for you because as you know, our mission in Leadership Messengers is to help you develop the next generation of value-driven leaders. And today's guest is not only a person of a professional that I met, but he's also a friend of mine, a mentor of mine. And let me tell you a little bit about him so you understand the impact and the great insight that you're going to learn from Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela.

Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela and I have been friends for nearly a decade now, I would say, and he not only has one degree, not two, not three, not four, well, he actually has four, and two of them are from Stanford University. He grew up in a very, in a situation that was difficult in the state of Texas in the United States and went on to explore life pretty much on his own and

Everything that he's learned along the way through mentorship, resources and strategic moves that he has made landed him and some working for some of the largest corporations in Silicon Valley. He'll share with you a little bit about those. Now he dedicates himself to help others achieve their own goals, academically helping students getting to the college of their dreams and professionally helping professionals like yourself.

through coaching 101 and to group coaching, help you achieve the very next goal that you have in mind. Dr. Nicolas Valenzuela has helped me tremendously. Spending one day with him feels like being in a college class for a whole semester. So everyone help me welcome Dr. Nicolas Valenzuela. Hi, Dr. Nick, how's it going? I'm fine, very good. Thank you for doing this, Ovi. I really appreciate it. It's So how can I help you?

Well, Dr. Nick, you've already helped me plenty. Hopefully you can help everyone in our audience today. And as you know, the format for this interview is pretty open format, inspirational style, where we share insights, tools, resources, every framework that you are aware of so we can help our listeners develop the next generation of leaders. Let's jump right in. Dr. Nick, please tell us who are you now and

Ovi (02:23.597)
Who do you currently serve? Who am I now and who do I currently serve? That's a really, really good question. As you already know, I've had a number of careers and successes in number of areas. And at this point in my life, I've dedicated the rest of my life to helping young people and their teachers to create better leaders, better communicators, better individuals that will really help and serve this world.

their community, the people they know. I wanted to be successful. And I feel that I can do this because of the success that I've had, the struggles I've had, the experience I've had in my particular temperament for trying to always understand what makes somebody successful, what does it take, how do you do it and why. I'll talk more about why as we go forward. So who do I serve? I serve young people, meaning from the teenagers.

that are trying to figure out what they're gonna do in high school, how they're gonna prepare themselves to take the best courses, to be ready to go to college, to be ready to be successful in life. I also serve the administrators and the faculty, the teachers, the counselors, because they often also ask me, what should I be doing to help my students better? And finally, I also speak to the parents, because the parents are the ones that aspire for their children to do their very best.

but they often don't know what to do or how to do it or what they should be telling their students, what they should be allowing them to be able to do and what they maybe should be trying to guide them to do differently. Those are my audiences and that's what I do. So let's go on with the next question and I'll tell you more because I don't want to dominate everything with just one answer. Go ahead. I love it, Dr. Nick. As you can see, Dr. Nick is always very mindful about what's happening in this situation. And because of that,

He connects deeply with those who he mentors and he coaches. And I have seen it myself how he helps people transform their lives. Given that we have now been friends for nearly a decade, I see the transformation that he helps people make in their lives. So Dr.

Ovi (04:37.79)
You grew up in a situation where not most people would even think of coming to an institution such as Stanford University and even working to advising at the time the richest man in the world. Could you share with us maybe a short version of your path? How did you get here? Was there a particular formal or informal educational program that changed your life that allowed you to achieve those things?

Yes, yes. I'd to preface it by saying that in the community that I grew up in, and I'm thinking about when I was a teenager in middle school, I remember when I was first going to go to the middle school thinking, God, you know, I hope I don't get stabbed or shot. Because in my community, it was much more likely that someone was going to end up in jail than they were in college. I didn't know anybody had gone to college. I had no mentors. Most of the people in my community spoke Spanish. But I did have two people early on.

that influenced me a great deal about valuing education. One was my mother, because she always talked about it. And she was always very sad that she was never allowed to go beyond the eighth grade, because my grandmother thought that for her to walk about a mile to go to school was way too far for a young woman to be walking by herself. My grandmother was from Mexico. Although my mother was born here, most of my aunts and uncles were born in Mexico. So my grandmother had traditional views.

But the other person that influenced me a great deal was a teacher when I was in the fifth or sixth grade, Mr. Joe Bernal. he changed my life like a few other people also did, but he's the one that really changed my life in a very significant way, in a way that I wasn't really conscious of until I was older, until I was an adult. And looking back, why did I achieve the things that I achieved? Mr. Bernal came to me one day. I was sitting in my chair. There were other students all around me.

And he said, you are destined for greatness. And I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. But I had it in the back of my memory. And it wasn't until a few years ago when I was listening to another coach, another college admissions coach say the same thing to his students that it came back to me. That's what Mr. Bernal, Mr. Joe Bernal in center 200 Texas told me. And that is what sustained me.

Ovi (07:06.048)
The other person that had another of several people that had a great deal of influence in my life was the person that gave me my vision of the goal in my life. It was a negative experience. It was a hurtful experience. It was a traumatic experience that I still carry with me today because she, a teacher in middle school, took me out in the middle hallway and scolded me.

and told my advisor, my home room advisor by telling me, stop talking about going to college. You're not college material. I was devastated. I was hurt. It was like a stab to my soul, stabbed to who I was. I was frozen. I didn't know what to do, but I knew two things. I knew that she was wrong and I knew I was gonna prove her wrong.

That gave me my goal in life. I'll come back to that a little bit later, but the short version of why I achieved the things I achieved was because I had a vision and I was very dedicated to making that happen. These days though, I talk to young people about, don't want you to have to go through the traumatic experience I went through to find your vision, to find your purpose, find your goal, find what you're dedicated to doing in life for your purpose. Instead, I show them techniques.

of how they can find their vision, how they can find what brings them happiness, how they can find the skills that they do well and to be able to find that energy to keep them going so that when they have a difficult time reaching their goal, they can reach back to that energy and keep on going. So I'll leave it at that if that answers your question, but ask me more questions if it's not quite clear.

We appreciate the detail, Dr. Nick, because it really helps paint the picture as to what the positive impact could be and what the not so positive impact could be in people. And hopefully, not only thinking about the young people in schools, but also the professionals when a new employee joins an organization, right? The things that we say to them, how they will perform, and the tools and strategies that we give them and the performance that we expect from them.

Ovi (09:26.228)
Dr. Nick, you have a wealth of knowledge. I always say that you're like a walking library. And as you have learned all throughout your life in the public sector and the private sector, are there any tools or strategies that you believe education leaders could leverage today so that they can develop more leaders in today's world? Yes. Yes. I'm thinking of several things.

But to answer your question directly, the very first thing that comes to mind is the importance of teaching young people to know themselves and to be able to communicate well. When I've worked in human resources and in employment coaching, among the many jobs that I've had, the number one skill that a lot of people who have been laid off and are desperate, like, I don't know what to do next. I don't know what...

I don't even have a resume ready. I'm lost because I identified my entire worth on that job and now I don't have it. You it wasn't my fault. They said all 2000 of you in this section, we don't need these functions anymore. Don't take it personally, but we have to let you go. And by the way, we're going to hire Dr. Nick to help you find a new job. But the thing that they had missing was the behavioral skills. They didn't realize how important communication

behavioral skills, building a career support network was, and that comes from appreciating others. Yes, they're gonna get the benefit back. And I don't want young people in particular to feel like, okay, I'm only doing this because I know that I'm gonna get a return and I want that return immediately. What I think that educators should be emphasizing a great deal more are things like leadership, communication skills, being able to shake a hand.

firmly, being able to communicate and ask questions, ask a lot of questions. I'm going to come back to that after a while, but there's two questions that I think are really, really important for young people to know, to practice, to know and to use. One is, how do you do that? But the more important question, and this is really critical for the growth of individuals to build their self-esteem, to build their knowledge.

Ovi (11:49.248)
to find what it is that they want to do in life is to ask why. Why is that done? Why should I do this? Why should I do that? If they keep asking those questions, they're gonna come back to answering for themselves what they feel is important. And then they can start asking how, how can I get that done? So those are the technical tools, how to get it done. But the inspiration for what is valuable

What they want, the difference that they think they need to make in life or what they want to aspire to do or to change, how they want to change the world, how they want to feel that they are relevant is by answering the question for themselves, why? So that is what I would recommend to educators, to teachers today. Talk to students about communication skills, talk to them about leadership skills. By the way, leadership skills is not so much of, got the title, it's more about

How can I help other people to do their best? And they will see by your example, by the leadership, by doing those things, you will be an example for other people that you're helping to develop their skills. They will see you as a leader and they will gravitate to you. They will prop you up. You will get a lot of accolades about it. So communication skills, leadership skills, and the two most important questions is why?

and then how. That's what I recommended to teachers today. That is perfect. Thank you, Dr. Nick. And I can only imagine that those are very transferable also to a professional setting, right, where leaders are trying to develop their next leaders for either becoming regional managers, managers, supervisors, and things like that. I appreciate that, Dr. Nick. The next question I wanted to ask Dr. Nick is,

Either in your educational journey or in your professional journey, I can only imagine that you have been through so many educational trainings. And is there one in particular that you feel impacted your life the most as you developed yourself into a leader?

Ovi (14:05.662)
Is there one training that I think impacted me the most? I think for much of my life, I was driven to gain an education, but my attitude was, especially early on was, I need to gain those tools, that knowledge that is in these courses. And in order to pass the courses, in order to get the degrees, in order to then go on and work and...

hopefully make a difference or hopefully be successful. But those questions or that attitude was all about how, it wasn't about why, it wasn't about knowing myself, it wasn't about self-examination and asking myself.

What do I think is most important in life? And then how can I get it done? So if there's a revelation, it happened when I started asking myself, what am I all about? What's important to me? Who am I? I think that was the key question. And this came after my degrees. This came after I left Silicon Valley and I was in the coaching frame of mind. I had to ask myself,

If I'm going to be a leader, if I'm going to be an inspiration to other people, if I'm going to make a difference, I have to ask myself, what are my values? What am I all about? What do I think is important? And how can I then share that to have a positive influence on other people? Because that's the one number one thing that I've come to the conclusion that I'm trying to do for the rest of my life is make people who listen to me better at whatever they want to do. Help them find themselves, help them find

what it is that's important, and then also start finding the ways of how they can make that difference. The reason that's important is because there isn't only one way to live. From a very young age, I thought to myself, wow, it's very interesting that I grew up in the 1900s in the United States. What an advantage or what a set of experiences I'm getting to have as compared to having been born

Ovi (16:25.608)
100 years earlier or 500 years earlier or a thousand years earlier. The same resources, opportunities or knowledge, general knowledge that people had was not the same as when I was born. And of course it's different today for young people that are in their teens right now. What an advantage to be born at this time when there's all this technology and other tools, other things that they can use. The other question I asked myself very early on that I think is important for people to realize in terms of

I'm answering the question about what changed my point of view. And that is, what if I'd been born in another country? What if I've been born in Africa? I wouldn't have the same opportunities available to me right now. What if I've been born in Guatemala or Mexico or just any other country? It would not have been the same. And does that make what I have better? Or does that make them better? No, it's just different. It's just appreciating different people for who they are.

Because back to my main point on this, we all have value, but we have to realize it in ourselves. We have to go forward with confidence and we have to make our point of view made. We have to make our opinions made and then be willing to listen to somebody else and negotiate because we create this world through cooperation, not by authoritarianism, by you do what I say and that's it. We cooperate together because we're all valuable.

There's a little antidote that used to be told a great deal of NASA back in the 1960s, that they achieved what they achieved of getting the man to the moon within 10 years when President Kennedy said, this is our goal, even though there were innumerable challenges, technical challenges and people challenges that had not been solved. They didn't know how they were going to do it, but he said, this is the goal and this is the timeline, 10 years.

And what NASA discovered is that one person doesn't have the answer. We get better answers and we all come together and all contribute and all negotiate. And then we move forward with the consensus of what is going to work. Now somebody's got to be the leader that says, is what we're going to do, but we need the opinions of everybody. So we all matter. Yes. Students matter. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Thank you, Dr. Nick. I appreciate the response on this one.

Ovi (18:51.888)
Dr. Nick, you've lived a good while now, just about a few decades, right? I am barely like halfway there. And did you ever imagine you were going to get this far? What surprised you the most about your life's journey, Dr. Nick? Obi, it reminds me of when I met you some years ago. At one point, you asked me.

Dr. Nick, what do you think that I think about you? And you knew that I had the degrees and you knew that I love to coach people. And you asked me a lot of questions and I would give you my opinions or I would give you facts or strategies for how to succeed. And I reflected on that and I said, well, you probably think I'm really smart because I got these two degrees, a master's and a PhD from Stanford that was

named a Fulbright fellow even before I finished my PhD. I worked in Silicon Valley at the executive level coaching the other executives, the VPs, the CEOs, people that the companies. As I said, at one point I worked for Microsoft and I found myself advising the strategic plans for a certain section of our company to the richest man in the world, to Bill Gates in the 1990s.

And I never imagined I would do that. But when you asked me the question when I first met you, what do you think that you think about me? And I answered, well, you must think that I'm really smart. And then you asked me, so, you told me, so why don't you introduce yourself as Dr. Nick Valenzuela? man, I was.

I was really taken back because I thought, no, no, no, no, that's too much ego. That's not, you know, I'm not about ego. That's not my personality. I'm about helping improve people. And that's what was going through my mind. But what I answered was, well, you know, in Palo Alto, if I was at a restaurant, Palo Alto where Stanford University is, if I was at a restaurant someplace, having a cup of coffee and friendly chat with other people, I would never introduce myself as Dr. Nick Valenzuela because half the people in that restaurant.

Ovi (21:09.66)
would look at me like, who do you think you are? Half of us in here are all PhDs. You're nothing special. That's what I thought. And your answer to me was, you're not in Palo Alto anymore. People need to hear who you are, your experience, what you've done, because you are a role model for other people. I really had not thought about it that way. One other person that made me realize the same thing of the influence that we all have on other people.

was a good friend of mine that I grew up with from the middle school where that teacher embarrassed me. And he reminded me a few years ago, his name is Ed, Ed Vallejo, a good friend of mine, still a good friend. That's one of the things I really value. I have friends that I've had all my life, because I'm loyal to people. When we bond, I'm loyal to them forever. And Ed, at one point, reflected. He said, you know that school that we went to, middle school?

not everybody in the school went on to college. There were only a few of us, like he could name maybe less than a dozen that went on to college. And he asked me, do you know why our little group, the people that kind of, you that we knew you and we knew each other, do you know why so many of them went on to college and not people throughout the whole school? I said, no, why? And he said, because you,

We're always talking about going to college. You influenced us. You were the leader. You were the person that set our minds or our goals that yes, we too could go to college. We too could achieve our dreams. I never knew that I'd had that kind of impact on other people. I wasn't conscious of being a leader, but looking back, I realize now I was talking about the things that I saw that I thought were important.

and I was influencing other people and it changed their lives. From that group, there's at least one millionaire and there's several others that have had very, very, very good lives. Actually, there may be a couple of millionaires from that group. And that makes me proud that I help people even then. And that's what I've been doing all my life, but I've more formally decided in the last few years, in the last 10 years, that that's what I've dedicated. That's what I am dedicating my efforts for the rest of my life.

Ovi (23:30.652)
to help other people be successful, be leaders. Yes, sir. And I can attest to that because when I shared with you my goal of I said, Dr. Nick, I'm going to become a millionaire. I'm going to make my first million. You said you're going to need at least 10 million and I'm going to help you get there. So I was like, I am in the right place with the right person. And I appreciate that forever. Dr. Dr. Nick, share with us. What is your why?

What matters most to you today? very good.

Ovi (24:08.54)
I'll start with me and then I'll continue with the influence I want to have on other people. I want to continue to develop myself. Why? Because the better I know myself, the good parts and the failures that I've had in life, the struggles I've had in life, the challenges that I've had to overcome, the better I know myself and understand how did I get here? What made it happen? Not so much how.

but the psychology of what I used when I failed the course, which I failed the course and or when somebody dissed me, when somebody disrespected me or ignored me or didn't give me an opportunity or has happened like with that teacher told me, you don't belong here. You shouldn't be doing this. You're not capable of doing this. How did I overcome that? It was my determination.

My self view that yes, I did have self worth, even though I didn't always boast about it. I didn't always put myself up there like a peacock saying, I'm the best. I'm the one that everybody should be following. I knew my self worth. I knew I could do it. And so me continuing to know myself in order to get knowledge and experience, insight into how

Did I overcome those challenges? How did I organize my life to be able to succeed? How can I help other people to understand that we're all alike? We all have the same challenges. We're all going to have dreams, but we can't give up on them. We have to act on them. I have to know myself better to be able to tell other people, to be able show other people, act on their dreams. And when you fail, as we will all fail, pick yourself up.

Don't let that define you, but instead look at it and say, okay, what can I do different to have a better outcome the next time? And you keep building on it, building on it, on it. And building on habits that are going to give you strength, that are going to make you grow towards the goal that you're trying to achieve. Just like an athlete doesn't become an Olympian by saying, I want to be an Olympian. I'm going to go out there next week and I'm going to, you know,

Ovi (26:34.824)
being an Olympian, do it better than anybody else in the world. No, they have to practice. They have to get better. They have to strengthen themselves. And in my world, what I share with people is how to strengthen that emotional, that right side thinking, that emotional part of intelligence that allows you to be creative, allows you to be sensitive to other people, that creates those behavioral skills and enhances them so that you can influence other people.

and so you can become a better leader. So yes sir. That's what I is important. Absolutely Dr. Nick. And I think you sort of already answered the answer to my next question which was going to be, and please elaborate if you feel that there's more to add here, because my next question was going to be, you know, what is your message to those leaders and educators who are working on developing our next generation of leaders?

What is my message to them? Yes. To the educators that are responsible for developing the next generation leaders. Yes. And even the leaders in a professional setting that they may be working on, hey, these are our new leaders. Let's instill this in them. Or maybe the approach on how to instill whatever the knowledge and lessons they are going to share with their new leaders. Right.

It is the whole, it is the messages or the details that I've been talking about in terms of caring for other people, becoming a leader by example. If you want other people to have certain traits, certain ways of dealing with others, leadership skills, then you have to demonstrate the leadership skills. And

When educators are talking to students, to the people they're educating, have them feel, have them know that you feel that they are important. Build up their self-esteem. You can't say it. You have to show it to them. You have to show that you respect them as you respect their opinions. So it's hard. It's hard for a teacher with limited time, limited resources, too many students to have to serve.

Ovi (29:04.035)
to be able to spend a lot of time with each individual student. But it's an attitude. It's an attitude of saying that each and every individual is important. And we've all been there. I went through that. They're going through that. And if they're not at the same level that you expect them to be, realize we all go through different stages of development. So instead of asking, instead of saying,

You know, why don't you get it or why do you not have the right attitude about this? Instead, remember that we all grow. We're all at different stages at different points in life. So give them a break, but continue to reinforce it and let I know that at your stage of development in your view of the world or in this assignment or learning algebra or learning whatever it is that we're trying to teach, you are here, not over here. So let's talk about where you are.

and how I can help you progress. So it takes a bit of effort and time. And I know we don't have the resources for that, but what you have to do, and I do believe this have to do, is instill in the individuals that they can do it for themselves as long as they believe in themselves. They can do it for themselves if they have a vision of what it is they're trying to accomplish. They can do it for themselves if you inspire them that

You have the tools, but you have to have the vision. You have to have the goal. You have to have what you want to do. Because once they have that, they're going to come up with the energy and they're going to start problem solving. They're going to realize that they have agency, that they have the power to decide what they want to do and how they're going to do it. That's what I would tell people. Another way of encapsulizing that is build their self-esteem.

I'll leave it at that for right now. Yes, sir. No, I think that is really the way to go. And I hope our listeners can implement this so that they can help those leaders that they are working on developing on a daily basis. Now, Dr. Nick, before we jump into sort of what I like to call rapid fire questions for quick answers, let me ask you this one last question. Where can people find you so that they can follow you, learn more about you or support your mission?

Ovi (31:28.876)
Can they find you somewhere where they can follow you and support your mission? There's two places right now that I would say, I would ask people to start with LinkedIn. Look for me under Dr. Nicholas Valenzuela. Incidentally, Nicholas is spelled the European way, not the Latino way or the Spanish speaking way. It has an H in it. it's D-R-O-L, Dr. Nicholas, N-I-C-H.

O-L-A-S Valenzuela, V-A-L-E-N-Z-U-E-L-A. Look for that in LinkedIn. You can also send me an email if you have a question. And that is exactly the same words, DR period, N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S period, Valenzuela, V-A-L-E-N-Z-U-E-L-A, at gmail.com.

drnicolasvalenzuela.gmail.com. Those are the two ways that I would recommend. I would like you to go to LinkedIn first because you'll see more information about my background, what I've done, my goals, the tools that I use, the impact that I want to have on people. And from there, well, with this video here, we're going to start seeing more and more of me on YouTube and on other social media places. So they'll be able to see me more there.

and they'll also have a link for how to get a hold of me. That is perfect. And thank you for sharing that Dr. Nick. Are you ready for the rapid fire questions? And first thought that comes to mind, give us some quick answers. If you give me a thumbs up, we'll get started right away. All right, let's do this together. All right, Dr. Nick, what is an accomplishment you're super proud of? What is an accomplishment that I'm super proud of? Well, as you know, Obi,

I've, when I answered your question about why don't I call myself Dr. Nick, I shared with you that I don't have a super ego. So it's not something that I achieved like getting the PhD from Stanford, writing the first description of how Spanish language television started in the United States, the first analysis of how Spanish language television started in United States. It's not having won a whole lot of scholarships and fellowships and

Ovi (33:57.888)
pay for school, the Fulbright included and many others. I would say

Ovi (34:07.19)
The thing that I'm most proud of is.

helping hundreds of students. I lost count. Hundreds of students, not only getting into college, the colleges of their choice, Ivy League schools, private schools, public schools as well, state schools, but also helped, again, it's hundreds of people, and it's probably in the thousands, to be able to realize what they really want to do in life for a living.

In other words, change their careers. That's what I'm most proud of is having helped countless, countless people. And I really do mean countless because I was never keeping track so I could boast about, how many people I've helped. But looking back through your feedback, because I respect you and I know you're super smart. You are influencing hundreds of thousands of people. I've come to realize, hey, I need to look back and see what I've done for others.

Because that is the thing that I find the most valuable in terms of what I am giving to the world, how I'm making the world a better place. So that would be my answer to you. love it. Are there one to three books that you believe every leader should at least check out? OK, there's one book. don't know what to answer, but there's one book that I really do admire a great deal and

And that is, hold on, let me look for a moment. Well, Simon Sinek, I love Simon Sinek and I love the book that he's written, which is titled, hold on, Start with why? Why? That's the one. That's the one. Simon Sinek book on why? Because as you've already heard me say, I really think that when people start asking themselves,

Ovi (36:11.604)
not how do I do something, but when they start asking themselves why, they're going to get to a better place that is meaningful in terms of the impact they have in the world, as well as meaningful in terms of their self-esteem and their happiness. When they start answering the question why, whatever the issue might be, they're going to get to a better and better place as to really understanding why they were born.

What is your purpose? What is it you want to do? When they start asking those kinds of questions, then they're going to be motivated. Then they're going to have a goal. Then they're going to have a vision of something they want to do. And then they're going to start asking, how do I get there? And that's going to make a big difference in the world. Yes, sir. Dr. Nick, we are in the AI era, artificial intelligence. Is there a particular AI tool that you use?

that you like to use and if so, why?

I've been sticking to chat GPT because I still feel that I'm a novice about it. However, I think it is super, super, super important that everyone start using AI, not just chat GPT. There are a lot of different engines that you can use. Some of them we've already been using. don't even know it. Gemini from Google and others, ones from Microsoft and others, whenever we go searching and

We get back all these results and then we start getting offers for things that are similar. Those are all AI generated. And we don't know that we've been using them, but we've been putting input and on the backend, the companies that we've been visiting, you the we've been visiting use that to understand our desires, our wants, and they feed us more about that. That's both good and bad because in the social setting, you get more of what you've asked about. And so your thinking starts to get narrowed.

Ovi (38:13.068)
But when it's not about social, when it's about other interests, you're gonna get more about that and you're gonna get more information. Now, I just finished listening to a podcast yesterday and today that basically made one point. In the diffusion of innovations, there's the entry point and the innovators, then there's kind of a lull when people are trying to figure out what to do with it. And then it starts to spread to all the society and then it starts to take off. We are at that lull.

where we know that artificial intelligence is here. We know that there are people that are using it, but most of us don't understand it. And where I am and where I think most people are right now is that I realize that it is about to take off and I have got to start using it. I've got to start using it and so does everyone else. Now I know that students, I've been told, I don't want you generate

answers or responses to the assignments by AI. But I think the teachers need to start figuring out how to incorporate it into the teaching so that students use it in the right way, not to give you the right answer as often students want is like, I didn't want to get the assignment give you the right answer. Instead to teach them how to use AI as a partner in thinking so they can ask questions and go back and forth, gap and forth, and they make the decisions about what they think.

not let AI tell you what it is you're supposed to think. That is the power of it. That it can be your assistant to help you be more powerful, to do better marketing, to get better ideas, to organize your time so that you have more free time to devote to what's really important, which is the people skills. To free your time from the tasks that we all have to do and allow some more of your time to love the people around you, to communicate.

to actually get off the phone and have interactions with individuals. That's especially important for teenagers. You know, as I know, and maybe a lot of the educators know that among the big problems today is too much time on the phone. You know, they spend hours on the phone and teenagers, and they spend minutes on actually people-to-people interaction. And what's the result? There's an epidemic of depression and suicides among teens.

Ovi (40:35.552)
Maybe not in every school, but certainly in the schools that push students the most. If you go to Palo Alto and look at the schools of some of the youngsters of the leaders in Silicon Valley, suicide is a big problem. And the solution is use AI to help you think better, to help you learn about yourself, to free time to spend more time with other individuals. Because we are all as human beings, social animals.

And what makes us happy, what makes us valuable, what makes us really unique and better and makes the world better place is that human communication. Just like I talked about earlier that those individuals that got laid off 20 years ago when I was doing a lot of employment coaching, they said, I don't know who I am. I don't know what I'm doing because my whole being, my whole self-esteem was devoted to what I did in that job. Instead of realizing they are important, the job just helps them to be better individuals. Yes, sir.

Yes, Dr. Nick, if someone needed a mentor, where could they potentially find one?

I think that's a good question, but I think another good question is how to select a mentor. So where can they find mentors? I think they should start with identifying people that they admire. And so some people might say, know, the people I admire most, a billionaire or the head of some institution, they would never talk to me. Well, they might, they might not, but they're not the only people that you should be looking to for mentoring.

You need to find people that are going to have time for you, that are doing things that you admire, because if you admire what they're doing, you're probably going to want to do some of the same things. So find people that you admire. They can be local. They can be around your community. They can be your teachers. They can be wherever you live. Or they can be people that you've seen online that are in your city or your area. Or they might be somebody that can only help you online.

Ovi (42:41.687)
And now when I mentioned online, there's a lot of people that will charge you for becoming a mentor. And I don't think you need to start there. I think you need to start with people who will listen to you, will ask you, will allow you to quote unquote, ask dumb questions. And I've done that before. I've gone to people and say, look, I want to talk with you. want to get your advice, you know, bear with me while I ask dumb questions. By dumb questions, mean questions that I feel.

embarrassed to ask because I think they might be too simple. So I might even say, you know, I know that a lot of people might have an answer for this, but I want to hear what you have to say so that I can reflect on whether that's what I agree with or not, or if it makes sense to me. So look for mentors around you anywhere. They don't have to be a titled leader of some institution. They can be people that are doing something that you admire and just say, hey, I'd like to ask you questions so that I can learn from you, and then ask a lot of questions.

but pick somebody that is going to have the time and the interest in you. That's what I would say. Absolutely. Dr. Nick, is there a free educational resource that you think more people should know about? Well, the Khan Academy is certainly one. There's a Ted Ed as well that has a lot of videos that are educational about different topics.

There's numerous ones for coding or for other technical skills, but I would also go to YouTube and search for things that you're interested in. There's an awful lot of free information. In fact, you know, one of the things that's really, really unique to this period in time is that you don't need to have the teacher in front of you teaching you how to learn or what to learn. You can go to

these resources that I just said to learn the skills. Like I mentioned the Khan Academy and that's going to answer a lot of questions of how, but you also want to explore the whys. Ask a lot of questions about why is this important and see what you get either through AI tools, through the TEDx, TED Ed actually is called, or on YouTube. Now here's one thing that's really critical right now though.

Ovi (45:06.653)
There's a lot of misinformation, a lot of trash, a lot of bad stuff that people are putting out as well. By bad, mean things that going to, that could potentially hurt you. So every individual, and I can say that to young people, parents can say that, educators can say that to young people, but young people are still going to pursue whatever it is they're interested in, they're go looking for stuff. So what you need, what I advise that we tell young people is,

You have to learn critical skills, critical information consumption skills. You have to try to do your best about the self-regulatory in terms of, yeah, I'm very interested in this, but maybe that's not something that I really need to know about now. It is part of life, whatever it might be, but maybe I'll wait until I'm ready to deal with that. What I am ready to deal with right now is this question that I started with, and I need to answer that question. My brother who is...

retired would tell me, I hate to get online on the computer because I get overwhelmed and it's going too many directions. I get too much information. That's part of what I'm calling being a critical consumer of information and media. You have to limit yourself to what it is that you're trying to find out and the right resources. The other part of critical thinking is when you see something and somebody's telling you on that, whether it's YouTube or whatever it might be,

not Khan Academy so much, but maybe on TedEd, ask yourself, where is this person coming from? Why should I believe what they're telling me? Because I don't know what kind of background they are. I don't know what assumptions that individual is making. So do a little background research on who it is that's speaking and where they're coming from. And you'll find out a lot more about, yes, I really admire what that person stands for, what that person has been affiliated with. I want to...

to hear more about what he has to say. I'm going to put some value in it as opposed to hearing that, my God, that person belongs to these organizations that I really do not think are positive. So I'm going to take what their advice is with a grain of salt. I'm not sure that I'm going to accept it. Those are the answers I would give you. Amazing answers, Dr. Nick. Amazing answers. If there was one life-changing hack that

Ovi (47:31.803)
you ha that you know about. And you would want to make sure you share this life changing hack with someone you deeply cared about. What would these life changing hack would be?

Ovi (47:49.787)
I think I've referred to it several times already. It would be know yourself, know your values, and with that, come up with a vision of what you want your life to be like. I don't mean be a doctor, be an engineer, be a lawyer, or be a millionaire, be a musician, a movie star. I want you to ask yourself, what do you want your

What do you want your life to mean when you are at the end of your life? I want you to be able to look back and say, I asked myself, what is important in life? And I came up with this vision. And then I realized, yes, more and more, I got confirmation that is the best thing to do. And now I ask myself, how do I do it? How do I accomplish that? How do I make a difference in life?

Back to summarize, find your purpose in life. Why were you born? What were you meant to do? When you start to ask that over and over and over again, what's it gonna change through life? You're not gonna have the same answer as a teenager. You're gonna have your 20s or in your 40s or your 60s or 70s. But keep asking that question. Why was I born? What difference does my life make to the rest of the world? You're gonna have a vision, you're gonna have a goal, you're gonna have a purpose.

You're to be driven to accomplishing. That is the hack that I would recommend. Ask yourself, why was I born? What is my purpose? Amazing, Dr. Nick. Last two questions for this rapid fire section, which is the last one for our interview. And could you share with us one to maybe three songs that make you come alive? Well, I love music, but.

I can never remember titles or what. I just know that when I hear something, I really like it. However, having said that, my favorite genre of music is from the 50s and the 60s. What I grew up knowing as rock and roll and later I realized was called do-wop. But I liked the platters, which is not really rock and roll. But I like the platters. liked, yeah, my tokayo, my namesake.

Ovi (50:15.739)
Richie Valance, his name was shortened from Valenzuela to Valance. And I like, what was it? I can't remember the name of the song anymore. La Bamba, I love the Bamba. That always makes me rock and get energetic. But there are lots of other ones. So I don't know that I can name any three that I really love. I I liked and I still like a lot of the slow romantic type of music.

that might be boring to a lot of people. They're not really going to make you rock. But I liked it because when I was growing up, I did a lot of self-reflection. So I liked music that calmed me down and made me feel good inside, made me feel that everything was okay and that I could then focus on myself and what I wanted to do, what I felt. It was actually a form of meditation that I fell into. So you asked me what kind of music really gets me jumping up and down.

Yes, there are some of the ones I mentioned like La Bamba and stuff, but there are also these other, this other genre of music that, that settles me down, puts me in a state of mind, like a, like a meditative state of mind that I really, really love. And I would recommend that to anybody. You know, Obi, I need to tell you, know we're coming, we've come to the end, but I need to share something with the audience here. Please. I just remembered that, or that I should mention this because I said, I like music that calmed me down.

What I have not mentioned and you haven't asked me about, because I know you know about this, is that at the end of my career in Silicon Valley, working with these founders of companies and executives and doing presentations to other executives or other billion dollar companies, I had to go see a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist came back after he gave me all these tests. And by the way, this has been confirmed again by yet another psychiatrist just in recent years.

And that psychiatrist asked me, how did you do everything that you've accomplished? How did you get these degrees? How were you able to get all this? How were you able to work at the executive level in strategic planning, advising people to whose job it was? Your job was to help them make decisions that were going to make their companies multi-billion dollars.

Ovi (52:42.481)
How were you able to do this? Because you have a severe learning disability. You're dyslexic. You have time management problems. You have organizational problems and a slew of other things. How were you able to do it? I think it's important for my audience, people listening to this, to understand and know that I had that. And most of my life, I thought that I was stupid. I thought I had to work extra hard.

because there's something wrong and I can't get this easily. Well, it turns out that everybody that's going to accomplish something has to work extra hard. They have to be motivated to do it. What I didn't realize until I learned this about being dyslexic and having ADD, attention deficit disorder, which today is called attention deficit hyper disorder, but I don't have the hyper part. What I didn't realize is that

That part of the brain that controls that, where that deficiency is, is my left brain.

Ovi (53:46.909)
The left brain is what controls things such as how you get things done. That's the time management, organizational skills, things of that nature. That's what I always struggle with all my life. However, for anybody out there that has ADD or ADHD,

Feel good about yourself because the right side of your brain is the creative side, the side that deals with complex issues, how to do it, but why we do this, why we're alive, what's the meaning of life? What can we do best to help other people? How can we be whatever we want to be? It's the creative side. Einstein, one of the greatest thinkers.

was a right brain thinker. He didn't stick to how he went to why, why does this happen? He came up with creative ideas that no one else thought. And then he went about asking how, how do I create the formulas to do that? Amazing. Well, thank you for sharing that Dr. Nick, because I think it brings insight as to seeing the potential for other people, because they may not be aware of what they may be, what could be.

like hindering them and they may just be going through stuff, right? So I appreciate that. Last question for you, Dr. Nick. This one is a serious one. What's your favorite snack? my favorite snack. Well, I have to come back to my lifelong favorite that started when I was

making sandwiches for myself at home because my mother worked late. And so I got the things around me that I liked the best. I would get two pieces of white bread. I would get my favorite snack, which I'll name Fritos. And I would put Fritos in every piece of the white bread. I would close it and that would be my first snack. Today, my favorite snack is still Fritos because I grew up in Texas.

Ovi (55:59.457)
and they were very prominent there. I remember once I mentioned this to a friend who was from Wisconsin, he said, Fritos, who eat Fritos? I said, I eat Fritos and most of the people that I knew growing up in Texas ate Fritos. So that's still my favorite snack. Nice. That's nice. I can see the smile on your face just by mentioning Fritos. Thank you, Dr. Nick. And I appreciate the insightful and inspirational conversation that we have had here. Is there any last thought?

that you would like to share with our audience as we close out this episode? Yes, especially for the adults, the leaders, the teachers, the administrators, and the parents. Call me. I love nothing better than to work with young people to inspire them. As you can see by everything I've said, this is what I consider my

my mission in life. This is what I'm dedicating the rest of my life. Call me. Let me help others because that will make me feel like there is meaning to my life, to the years that I've lived and the experiences that I've gained. I have a great deal of wisdom, I believe. I humbly present to you. I have a great deal of wisdom to share, to help people, motivate them. Please call me.

Yes, please do so. I can attest to everything he's saying and he doesn't need for me to attest to anything because he is what I call him pretty much every time we meet in person and every time we speak on the phone, a legend, a living legend. Dr. Nicolás Valenzuela, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. And thank you, everyone, for listening. This has been Leadership Messengers podcast where we help you develop our next generations of leaders.

See you on the next episode.