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Up Your Average is the “no nonsense” podcast made for interesting people who think differently. Learn to navigate your life with unconventional wisdom by tuning in to Keith Tyner and Doug Shrieve every week.
Being a teacher, you have to be willing to understand I'm not always gonna hear the high
points, or I'm not always gonna hear the successes, but that just be faithful day after
day.
You never know what this day can mean to somebody.
Welcome to the Up Your Average podcast, where Keith and Doug give no nonsense advice to
level up your life.
So buckle up and listen closely to Up.
You're a
Doug, good morning.
Hey, good morning, Keith.
You are fresh off the trails of travel and ready to rock and roll, huh?
Yeah.
Glad to be here.
Glad to be back.
We are um kind of revisiting up your average number ninety-five.
a few weeks ago we talked about how can you change your world in ten minutes.
And we're honored to have Dan Strauss with us today.
And I think
You're an example of changing the world in ten minutes at a time.
And we have if I threw out names, Doug, I like if I think of the name RJ, like RJ would be
Gimbal Financial Famous.
And so uh Dan, what I understand is that you are heritage Christian famous.
And so we've had a lot of friends and people that have traveled through Indianapolis
Heritage Christian and we've heard really cool things about you over the years.
Well good.
It's good to have a good name, I guess.
A good name is more valuable than precious metals, they say.
So so in kind of prepping for our time together, you told me you're the youngest of nine.
Yes, I am, and that probably was very formative uh in my life, to have uh seven older
brothers and then the oldest was my sister.
And with all the different personalities, uh I think probably by fourteen or fifteen I had
a
a good grasp of psychology and sociology and all those things just to to see how families
work and the different personalities and the strengths and weaknesses.
It was very valuable for me to to grow up in that situation.
Wh where did you grow up?
South Bend, Indiana.
Okay.
Was that a uh Catholic influence, a farm influence?
How did you get such a big family?
wasn't a Catholic influence.
Um
They were the other guys.
We did like Notre Dame, but I just the s my dad liked to have children, I guess.
You know, they I guess they didn't use birth control or whatever.
That is awesome.
I think that's a great answer.
Yeah.
Most dads do.
Yeah, yeah.
Having a bunch of boys to kick around too, that must have been a blast for your dad.
It well, it was great for me.
There's always somebody to play with.
We'd invent games in the backyard.
I mean we just it's great childhood.
Yeah.
We were just talking about that a few weeks ago about the idea of an unplanned childhood
and how creative that is.
And with inventing games and having a bunch of people to play with.
I don't I don't even know if that goes on a lot today.
Uh, I don't think so.
It just
Yeah, everything is planned out now, so Yeah.
Limits a lot of creativity, I think everything planned.
So, um in in one of the great things you mentioned was being, you know, one of nine
children and then you moved here after college.
What was college life?
Where was that?
It was in excuse me, the Washington D C area.
I went to Washington Bible College and um from there I
had a lot of good professors and really had a desire to teach Bible.
And when I graduated I had a opportunity either to go back to the South Bend area where
there's a school that wanted me to come and teach high school Bible, which is what I
thought I wanted.
Uh, and then Heritage, they just had a position for sixth grade.
And so one was exactly what I wanted.
The other one was just an offer.
But I really felt the Lord
Directed me to Heritage and 41 years later, I'm so thankful that's uh I I followed what I
thought God wanted me to do.
I love that.
Yeah.
Love it.
Yeah, but um to get from South Bend to Washington, DC, and then back to Indianapolis.
That's quite a journey there.
Uh my high school principal took us on a senior trip.
And we visited New York and Washington DC and Philadelphia and we stopped by the Bible
college while we were there and it just made an impression on me so that when I was ready
for college, that's I thought I'd like to go there.
So turned out great.
Doug, have you have you like gone on a tour of like DC, um Philadelphia, like historical
tour before?
Is that something you've done?
Like they
I know a lot of schools do that.
Is that something you did?
My wife is leaving tomorrow at four AM to chaperone, help chaperone three hundred plain
middle school eighth graders.
Sounds like well, something just like that.
And so she's the pro.
She she's done that a few times now.
Uh any tour I've done, uh, I probably didn't pay that much attention to it.
Uh so so I would enjoy a tour like that.
yeah.
I think he would too.
Yeah.
Yeah, man, what a what a wonderful opportunity.
Uh, when I think of Philadelphia, the young Caleb we we were going through they had
changed it from when I'd been there before, but they had like a you had to go through a
metal detector and going into Independence Hall and then in there somewhere behind the
velvet rope was the Liberty Bell.
And I don't remember how old he was, but he disappeared.
And we're
We're like, where did he go?
And the next thing we know, he's behind the ropes.
He's gonna just lean it on the Just leaning on the Liberty Val.
We're like, Okay, here we go.
I think uh you know, that what a great part of your education to have someone who believed
in getting outside of your town, outside of your city, seeing what life is like in another
place and then investing in you guys to do that.
Um I mean it can you imagine that the headache that it took to pull that off?
Yeah, I mean arranging transportation and and and we where to stay and I mean but those
things are really important to get outside of your regular view.
Yes, I I appreciated the opportunity and we were in a a school bus.
wow.
Uh this back in the seventies and so that's just rode a school bus, but when you're
seventeen years old it you can do it.
Yeah.
I wouldn't want to do it today.
No.
was all right back then.
Yeah.
Well, Phil Byers asked us to hang out and and he he was stirred by I guess you'd call it
your hobby.
I don't know what you would call it, but your reputation is with a pen and paper.
And and why don't you tell our friends a little bit what that that is, but without me
trying to describe it.
Well, to go back to uh feeling like the Lord called me to to Indianapolis and to heritage,
the position I had was to teach sixth grade and that wasn't my plan to do that the rest of
my life.
I I wanted to do high school Bible and after four years there's uh the principal said,
Would you consider teaching in the middle school?
Uh, we'd like to uh have a middle school bible teacher that that's all they do.
And I thought, hmm, middle school.
I I've seen them walk by.
They're a little wild.
I wanted to do high school, but I thought, well, this would be a stepping stone to get to
high school.
And after my first year in middle school, I thought I'd I love this.
This is I love the age.
I love the energy, just the excitement of being around them.
The they're so um fun to be with.
And uh I thought this this is where I wanna be.
And
I was able to look back over my entire life and see how God had kind of just brought me to
that place.
I always wanted to be in God's will.
and and I felt like I was there when I got into middle school.
And so after the first year I thought, what is some way I can have some contact with the
students?
I coached some when I was in the sixth grade.
But we started a family, so I needed to be home more, wanted to be home more.
And I thought, Well, everybody has a birthday and so uh I said I could just get
everybody's uh address information and I'll just write a little birthday note when their
birthday comes around.
So that started my second year when I was in the middle school and had no idea that
It would go on for forty five years.
So so like a what what would a birthday note look like if you're writing it to Doug and he
opened it up, what would it say to him?
Well, I'd I'd start with the greeting.
I wanna make sure that um he understood it was his birthday.
Uh so happy birthday, and then I wanna include something about him.
I wanted to make it personal so that uh they didn't think it was a form letter, you know,
just writing the same thing.
And so I would uh write a little letter and say that was really interesting learning about
your trip that you were just on and or about the uh little Lego Porsche that he has on his
desk.
Yeah, th I wouldn't I'd write something about that and then include a verse at the end and
happy birthday.
And so just so he knows that I I know who he is.
I think there's something about the word
belonging.
And when someone believes that they belong, you know, y you can really you can add to
competence and and change the world.
And so that that's what you're doing is you were saying, hey, you belong I the I think
that was probably a goal that I had.
I wanted the students to know that I knew them, that I cared about them and uh over the
years it's been interesting to
get letters and things back and and they use words like that.
And so I think, okay, well God accomplished what he wanted to do with this with the
letters.
So it it's nice to hear say, uh, I appreciate every year.
I feel celebrated, feel like I'm known.
Uh so it's been great.
God was able to accomplish what he what he wanted to do.
So so uh I I think I look advertising this I was kinda
quoting a uh a Chinese proverb like that the that the the the water is what uh water can
just carve a stone, right?
Like so it's the gradual process, the the constant process in in starting this out in the
seventies, right?
I was October first, nineteen eighty four, I think.
yeah, Yeah.
So starting it did did you have any idea what you were kicking off then?
no no idea at all.
I I just uh I thought well I wanna make sure I do it through the summer 'cause some of the
students have birthdays in the summer.
I don't wanna leave them out.
And then uh the kids went on to eighth grade and I thought, Well, I still
love them, I still care about them and so I just kept writing and just going to college,
get married and that's
Just never found a good way to stop.
Al although now that I'm retired I'm starting to cut back a little bit of sending some
final letters out.
But uh at the peak, how many were you sending out?
Probably yeah, a few thousand a year.
And you're paying for the stamps yourself and the and you're licking all the envelopes?
That's a great question.
M my first month of doing this, I remember I started keeping track of how much money I
spent on postage and paper and stuff like that.
And and it's like the Lord said, Are are you doing this just to add things up and to see
how great you are and all that?
Really?
And I thought, Oh, you're that's so right.
I d
So I I decided I wasn't gonna keep track of anything like that.
But over the years people started sending me uh stamps and uh so I started keeping track
of that.
And um this is way long.
Uh this would be like twenty years after I started, but there was one year I got six
thousand stamps that people would sent to me and given to me.
So in one year.
Yeah, in one year.
So uh
The answer to spending money on stamps, I probably want thirty years of without buying a
stamp.
So that's really cool.
Yes.
That's why I was just doing the math.
So that first year was twenty cents a stamp.
And now we're up to eighty two.
I put I put a little bit of decoration here.
Basically one of these, you could almost say one of these sheets is twenty bucks now,
right?
Like so like the idea of going old school and taking a pen and paper, um, it definitely it
leaves a mark.
Right?
Like that Well, you're speaking Keith's love language, literally.
Uh he likes to write letters.
Okay.
And he loves to use um stamps that pop.
Yes, I do too.
And uh and so you you guys not only do both of you do that really well, but but to Keith's
point is it's it's the consistency.
And um that consistency also, you know, besides the belonging.
I think says, Hey, you can count on me.
I've got your back.
Right.
Yes.
I that's one one of the goals that I had.
And so yeah, just uh every year you know it's gonna come.
So you have to use a few of the flag stamps, because some people have gone into the
military and so you have to make sure you put a flag stamp uh on on those
But yeah, I like I like these uh the the route sixty six.
I've got a couple of those, those are great.
So the if you if they were going to the military, there was a time in the early nineties
where you didn't even have to put a stamp on if you were sending it to somebody if they
were overseas.
I don't know if you recall that or no, I don't.
Yeah, yeah.
So if they were stationed abroad and you could just write uh something on the on the stamp
and it would it would go to back.
in those days.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, kind of fancy stuff back then.
So um so that that is why I was curious.
Like if if somebody sent you said they sent you six thousand stamps in I over the course
of the year, six thousand stamps had coming 'cause I I thought, well if God is providing
for me, I think it's okay that I uh
keep track of what God is doing.
Yeah.
So that's pretty cool.
So wasn't anything on my my part.
It was the God providing these stamps.
And so I just would write down every time I receive some and add up at the end of the I
took I I think I think it was Nick Murray.
Do you remember that name?
Uh the investment guru guy in in
What Nick said in one of his books or somewhere, he said that a way to keep a good
attitude is to send somebody a note.
Hmm.
And and I think that's probably what kicked me off doing it more aggressively, Doug, was
that um trying to manage my emotions in a crazy business is that if you it I think his
premise was if you wrote a note a day, you would have a good attitude.
And and you could send it to your waiter or waitress, you could send it to your post
man or whoever, but if you did that a day and so I I think that's how I started doing it,
Doug was just and and what happened to me, Dan, was um I was just looking for stuff to
write on.
And so I don't remember who it was, but they they had fancy little letterheads or note
cards and and I was printing those things out.
They were like a buck a piece or something like this getting expensive.
And then I had the same experience.
Somebody em
Appreciate what I was doing and then they the like I in the trunk of my car I've got like
two thousand pieces of letterhead that person printed for me and wow.
It it it's gonna take me a day or two to get rid of those.
But yeah.
It's it's interesting how much people appreciate just to to know that they're known.
So Dan, w when you're sending these rook day carts out, you're going through life too.
You're going through seasons of highs and lows.
And so like one of the challenges of the encouragers
How do you get encouraged?
I think just uh having that uh contact with them, uh and like keeping a good attitude.
Not not every day in the middle school is gonna be your most fun day.
there are some difficult days, but to sit down and write to you start remembering um some
of the good things that happened or some of the th uh accomplishments they've had.
And so that that that keeps me encouraged and keeps me going like that.
Uh
There are different um things in life that you I would might start to share in a letter,
but I kept most of it focused on on them and and w where they were in their life or their
high school, college, or beyond.
But and then then to get feedback from time to time makes you feel like, I think that's
worth it.
That was that was good.
I'm glad I I did that.
And there were letters that I wrote when I got to the end, I thought
Wow, that wasn't what I s started to write, but somehow those words just came together,
must be exactly what they need for that day.
So it's kind of nice to have that happen.
So nineteen eighty-four, I'm I'm thinking back to nineteen eighty four.
There really wasn't I don't think there were as PCs in nineteen eighty four.
Like a BC was maybe later in the eighties.
So there had to be some tracking system to do this.
So I don't
I'm just envisioning either pieces of paper or how did you keep this thing organized?
'Cause it I'm sure writing the first twenty of didn't really require a lot.
And and then our friend used to say you're like the dog that caught the car.
It's like, what do I think now?
Well, uh there was uh I would go to the secretary in the office and ask if uh sh she could
print out the students with their addresses and things.
And so she did that for me.
So that's where I would have addresses for a few years.
When I started getting letters back from people and they might say, Well, we moved, here's
a new address.
And I started with uh some folder f uh file folders and I would put A B C for their last
name and so I keep it in there and I'd write down the new address there and that that soon
filled up and wasn't able to do that.
And somewhere along the line around
two thousand, two thousand one, my daughter came up with a look database for me.
That was a real life saver, changing addresses, keeping notes and and things like that.
That made it a lot easier.
So it it's just it grew.
It's kinda like the the straw on the camel's back.
You just keep adding to it.
But uh always something to make streamline it, make it easier.
So it's
Do you remember a time in your life where you received a letter prior to nineteen eighty
four that meant something to you?
Oh, good question.
Uh well, really, if you ask how did this get started writing letters, it goes back to no,
excuse me, first grade.
Um for some reason the teacher taught us how to write a letter.
And so here I'm just a little crumb snatcher.
And I I just remember that day thinking, this is so cool.
You can r put their name down, you write a little bit, put it in the envelope, and and
they'll send it to that person.
And you know, as a first grade, I just fascinated by that.
I didn't know that that was going to become part of my life later on.
But then in fourth grade, we had a new teacher that came to the school.
Uh she and her husband were missionaries, and she'd been to several different schools
around the
country and she said, Would anybody like to be a pen pal?
And I thought, Well, that sounds like fun, you know, writing the letters, Sunny.
And so she would have a list of some of her former students from other places.
And I picked out this one, Danny uh Lempinaw, I think was his name, and he was from Kansas
Wichita, Kansas.
And since that was my name, I picked that out.
And we wrote to each other all the way through high school.
and it was just fun.
uh you send a letter and then you get one back and and I just enjoyed that so much.
And so just some some things like that I just see how God prepared me all the way through
to to come up at the time when I'd write letters, you know, every day.
Uh s and also it's encouragement to first grade teachers.
You never know what what the little kid is learning or what what's what's gonna connect
with them.
So my first grade teacher don't even know where she is.
Uh but
She had a big impact on this.
And uh so it's just good to remember you you don't know what what that student's thinking
or what they're gonna gonna take from your class.
So does that answer your question?
Fantastic.
Yeah.
The the pin pal was that was a lot of fun to do that.
Yeah.
Doug, I've been uh as you might know, uh cleaning out a bunch of corruption as we're
getting ready to move next week.
And I
I had a sixth grade teacher that was teaching us something like that.
And we had a really it was a term paper we had to write and we had to write letters to
people.
And I chose to do it on cartoons like uh the comic strips and and we wrote to these famous
comic strip artists and almost a hundred percent of them responded.
I was blown away by the response to that and and so the access
Particularly young people.
If they write somebody to know, I think there's a high chance somebody's gonna respond to
them.
Well, that's interesting.
So so when you're out in public, are you a quiet guy?
oh, pretty much.
I think I probably light up when I see a former student or something like that.
But uh it's always fun to come across s somebody like that.
But no, I'm not I'm not real outgoing.
I'm not
Bombastic at all, that's for sure.
Yeah, the the reason I I asked is um my friend Thad, he's got a a song that he produced.
Uh it's called Texaco.
And it in the song, he describes his mom giving him some instructions about writing a
letter.
um And how you have to be brave when you learn to write a letter.
And and the reason why it's so important is
Because no one reads a letter just once.
And so your words matter, so I could see you out in public not being the boomastic guy,
but uh with the letter, I could see those words being just carefully are carefully chosen
to meet the person at the right time so that when they go, they might read it two years
after they've received it and be encouraged by it.
I have been surprised and uh
letters that I've received back from students who've said, I've got every one for the last
twenty years or I go back and read every year on my birthday.
Uh I had a grandparent show me a picture of his granddaughter's wall where she had the all
the letters pinned up on the wall, uh, in different students saying, You know, I went back
to read two years ago and you wrote this and I just want to thank you for that.
And so yes, it
It I that's something I hadn't thought of when I started this, but when it's on paper it's
there and and it's something that can be reread and looked at many times.
So is it possible that somebody has forty of these?
my my oldest students that I had are in their mid fifties, so um probably forty would be
if they kept them all.
Wow.
Probably the the first class it would be yeah, it would be around forty now.
Somebody out there is famous with those forty letters.
That is impressive.
Yeah.
I I don't know if they're the ones who kept them or not, but Doug, have you written
anybody forty letters?
No.
Nobody?
No.
What would you think what would prevent somebody today, a viewer starting to write people
letters today?
Like what what
Why wouldn't we just pick up a piece of paper today and do it?
Like why wouldn't somebody that's listening start today?
Uh a lot easier to send an email or text.
I don't think either of those are his lasting, do you?
Like uh no, I don't I don't think so.
But uh it's just I mean, when was the last time you got a letter in the mail?
Uh you don't even get bills in the mail anymore.
Yeah.
And so yeah, to write a letter it's just maybe old fashioned, but it's it was a good way
to go.
That that's what stirs me to think about it.
If you've never written in your in and no matter who you want to write, like you're
probably gonna get access to whoever's address you have, right?
Like if if I I bet if you wrote the president of the United States a letter, you probably
would get a response today.
And and and so whoever you wanna write, why not why not pick up the pen and paper today
and do it?
Why not give it a shot?
Great great idea.
I I just think however you want to get the message across I letters
a ten on a ten.
I think however you want to get the message across to somebody on a consistent basis that
they belong and that you're for them, that's the thing to do.
And so, you know, that could be a voice text, it could be a text.
It w whatever it is.
But I mean that that's the meat in the sandwich.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And I I think in the um somewhere in the gospels, I I can I I'm not going to get it.
Exactly right.
But it it was like Jesus said something like, When I wa when I was alone you visited me
and be being a pen pal of somebody, reaching out to somebody um there's a lot of people
that just need a uplifting word, whether it is in a letter or voicemail or whatever, but
there there's uh plenty of opportunities out there today.
I remember a teacher one time saying, how can we reach these kids 'cause they they care
about the rock stars, the sports stars, and they care about, you know, the all this
culture and stuff and and I remember thinking, well, all those heroes or idols that they
have don't know when their birthday is, don't know when their cat died or their dog died,
or when they scored the winning basket in the basketball game.
And so as a teacher, as you
pick these things up, you learn these things along the way, you can re re remind them and
let them know that you saw that or you were uh felt that or whatever, it it can make a
bigger impact than some sports idol or somebody that we might look up to in culture of the
day.
That's really cool.
That is unbelievable.
The the idea that we live in the most connected time, maybe in history
Yeah.
But maybe arguably the loneliness time at the same time that by just taking a little bit
of effort, you you can let somebody know they matter.
Yeah.
And that's what I've tried to do and hope that that's uh made an impact.
Seems like it has.
Seems like it's gone a long way.
I I think the other component, just hearing your story, is, you know, yes, there's the the
paper out there, there's the stamp, there's the letter, but
the amount of thinking time that it takes to write just a little bit to someone.
My guess knowing you just for this short time, there's prayers that go into that too.
right.
Yeah.
And so there's some behind the scenes communication happening from a spiritual level that
hits a connection point as well.
Yeah.
Many times uh well, the prayer is, Lord help me to write something today that we'll
will impact them, something that's important to them.
Uh send the letter out, Lord, make sure it gets there at the right time and and uh just
use this in their lives.
So yes, there's a lot of a lot of background prayer that goes into that.
And my would I be right to think that that's what you're doing today?
Praying for them?
yes, yes.
Still So the letters may have s slowed down, but but the uh the prayers are still steady.
Yes.
That's exciting.
I was at a funeral last week and uh one of the people talking said looked at the children
and the the grandchildren and said, Just remember your mother's prayers are still active.
She's in heaven now, but they're still active.
And that was a great encouragement to me.
I thought that is really good.
I like that.
And uh and so those those prayers they're they stay active.
Then my mom was uh a lot of her adult life was a first grade teacher, and I was at a
camping situation with a group of people probably a decade ago, and this lady was sitting
in the circle and she came up to me and and my that was in Evansville, and I I was down at
Holiday World this thing and she said, Keith, your mom was my first grade teacher and she
changed my world.
And and so
When I think about the education system today and I think about the challenges that are
out there, but to think that my mom had been gone probably a decade when that person said
that to me, um, what encouragement would you offer the teachers today as they're you
always as long as I remember the teaching thing is like the the kids today are always
that?
So what would you encourage to a young teacher today so that when they get to the end of
their journey, the kids will say,
Man, I'm glad I had that person.
Well, uh teaching is not just the classroom, you have to use that as the basis, but
there's so much beyond the classroom that you can do, going to ball games and and
eventually weddings and sometimes funerals and and just to to build that relationship is
so valuable.
Uh there's this saying that uh you you don't
I don't care how much you know, I want to know how much you care.
And so that that uh I think is something that you have to have part of your teaching, you
have your curriculum, you have your classroom that you have to have solid, but it's all
things beyond that that can really make an i impact on uh on somebody's life and to to be
to develop that relationship I think is important and and that's what uh carries on beyond
the classroom.
Wow.
I think that to to play the long game and to be consistent is um is really something that
we all need some encouragement with.
Yeah, and as as I mentioned, like my first grade teacher, Miss Hannah, that's all I know.
Um, she was old at the time when I was in first grade, so she's been gone for a while, I'm
sure, but uh she never knew the impact that she had on me.
And so being a teacher you have to
Be willing to understand I'm not always gonna hear the high points or I'm not always gonna
hear the successes, but that just be faithful day after day.
You never know what this day can mean to somebody though and what this day can can uh can
impact a child.
And uh I had a student that had come back from the mission field and she was only uh there
for that eighth grade year.
And
I believe it was Pakistan.
I don't remember.
Somehow I came across some some money a ruble or whatever that they use in Pakistan.
I don't remember how I got it, but I thought, I oughta give it to her.
So one day in class I just walked up and gave it to her.
Years later she she writes and she tells me the how great that was because it's very
difficult for her to come back to the United States and very difficult to kinda adjust to
new school and and just that little act that
uh happened that day, just encouraged her.
She even wrote it down in her journal.
She she made a copy of it sent to me, you know, ten years later.
And so y you never know just uh what what's gonna what's gonna impact a child.
Just be faithful and consistent and be there every day.
Like God use you.
That's very cool.
Doug, what else?
Anything else?
Thanks for the time, Dan.
I wanna in closing I wanna throw out a challenge to you that are listening that if you
or inspired to pick up a a stamp and an envelope and a piece of paper.
Today will be a great day to write to one of those teachers that has had a big impact on
you.
I bet you can go to Google and find their address and they will be surprised, shocked, and
encouraged.
But today's a great day to try something cool.
Thanks for hanging out with us.