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He's been hosting the podcast for over 100 episodes, but how much do you really know about Zach Garza Sr? Did you know he was hired as a teacher because the principal assumed he spoke Spanish? Did you know he's a Google Slides wizard? Do you know how and why he started Forerunner Mentoring in the first place? Dive into this week's episode to get the download on one of our long-time hosts: Zachary Garza Sr.
Show Notes
He's been hosting the podcast for over 100 episodes, but how much do you really know about Zach Garza Sr? Did you know he was hired as a teacher because the principal assumed he spoke Spanish? Did you know he's a Google Slides wizard? Do you know how and why he started Forerunner Mentoring in the first place? Dive into this week's episode to get the download on one of our long-time hosts: Zachary Garza Sr.
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
Email Zach:
zach@youcanmentor.com
Email Stephen:
stephen@youcanmentor.com
youcanmentor.com
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
Email Zach:
zach@youcanmentor.com
Email Stephen:
stephen@youcanmentor.com
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast. My name is Stephen Murray. I'm here with Zachary Garza senior, and we're introducing ourselves even though we're a 100 episodes into this podcast. Zach, how the heck are you?
Speaker 3:Hello, Stephen. I am fantastic.
Speaker 2:I see your rep in an Under Armour Polo. Did you did you bring those to the mentoring alliance?
Speaker 3:I switched from Nike to Under Armour. Yes.
Speaker 2:That was in the contract?
Speaker 3:I just felt like it was time for a change. Just Under Armour it's just a different feel. You know? I'm a new man, new city, going from Dallas to Waco, new job. Figured I might as well get some new polos as well.
Speaker 2:What is Under Armour's, like, slogan? I know Nike is just do it. Under Armour doesn't have something, does it? No. We must protect this house.
Speaker 2:That's what it is.
Speaker 3:Yes. Protect the house. Protect the house. That's good.
Speaker 2:Well, this episode is not about Under Armour. It's about you, Zack. Zack, why why are we doing, you know, these introductions? What what's the whole point? What do you think?
Speaker 3:I don't know. That's the thing, Steven. I don't know what we're doing, honestly.
Speaker 2:Well, we figured we did figure that we've been doing this podcast for 2 years now.
Speaker 3:And A 100 and a lot of episodes.
Speaker 2:And we've kinda shared I I feel at at first the first episode, we shared a little bit about ourselves, and then we just got into interviewing people and talking. And so we figured it would be a great idea to kinda circle back and let people know who they're listening to, who's the voice behind all these equippings and encouragements and funny voices. And so, Zach, we wanna get to know you today. So may maybe you could give us the elevator speech of who Zachary Garza is. Just real quick for our people, maybe maybe 2 to 3 minutes.
Speaker 2:Go.
Speaker 3:2 to 3 minutes. That's great, Murdoch. Thank you. So my name is Zachary Garza. Like Steven said, senior, show some respect.
Speaker 3:I feel really weird whenever I call myself that because I'm really not that old. I'm, like, still in my thirties. You're almost 40. I am almost 40. That's a true statement.
Speaker 3:I found a gray hair the other day. So
Speaker 2:That's when you're there.
Speaker 3:Anyways, I'm married to my wife, Sarah, and we have been married 8 years, so I'm pretty much an expert. And we've got 3 kids In what argument? I'm an expert on sleeping on the couch. I've got 3 kids, Zachary junior. He's 6.
Speaker 3:Steven Caleb, he is
Speaker 2:I did not know Caleb. Woah, Steven Caleb.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. I like that. He's 5. And then Joanna Beth, she is 2. Totally.
Speaker 3:And we also just added 2 new people to our household, Bill and Frida. They're our 2 kids we just adopted. So I grew up in Richardson, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas. My mom worked at elementary school as the computer assistant, and then whenever her and my dad split up, she went and worked for an engineering firm as the executive assistant. My dad was a firefighter his whole life.
Speaker 3:My parents split up whenever I was in 12 no, whenever I was, I was 12, so I was in 8th grade, I think, and that just like set me on a path towards hurt, towards hard. And so all I wanted as a kid was to be loved, acceptance, affirmation, all the things that we talk about, and I wasn't receiving that at home, so I tried to find that outside of the home in ways that weren't the most godly, and the Lord in His kindness just kinda saved me by an older man taking me under his wing whenever I was about 21, and he was kinda my first mentor. I don't think that he would say that he was my mentor, but he did all the things that a guy who mentors a kid does. And then just the Lord in his kindness and his sovereignty from age like 21 to 28 just put different men in my life to teach me how to become all that the lord has for me, teach me how to shake a hand, make eye contact. If you have paid attention to this podcast at all, you know that I have a speech impediment, and they taught me how to have self confidence despite that, taught me how to lead, taught me how to pursue my wife and deal with my anger, deal with my pride, forgive my father, all of those things.
Speaker 3:So I got super serious about my faith whenever I was about 28. I had a encounter with the Holy Spirit, just kinda one of those things where you walk in the room one way and you encounter him, and then you leave a totally different way and you don't ever look back. So kinda felt like I got this call to become what I did never have as a father. My profession, I was a 8th grade football coach and health teacher, and I actually asked the guys on my team one day, I said, who in here lives in a home where there's not a father figure present? And, you know, it was a title 1 school.
Speaker 3:It was a low income school, and about 45 of the guys' hands popped up. And so that's when I I just was like, how did the Lord change my life through intentional mentoring relationships? I'm gonna go see if I can do the same for these kids. And through that, started a nonprofit called 4 Runner Mentoring and did that for the last 10 years and gave that over to this guy named Stephen Murray. And I partnered with a nonprofit out of Tyler, Texas called the Mentoring Alliance, and we just started a new mentoring region in Central Texas in the city of Waco.
Speaker 3:So I compare it to, like, if 4 Runner Mentoring is the local church, serving, like, a 100 to 200 people, the Mentoring Alliance is like the megachurch. Like, now we're talking about scale, systems, processes. Like, it's our dream to have multiple sites in the next 10 years and try to figure out how to do that well, so.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Here are some more things. I'm tall, 6.8. I've got great hair. Just my hair, it looks like
Speaker 2:You really do.
Speaker 3:The waves of the ocean. Just I love basketball. I love being with people.
Speaker 2:And your last name is Garza. You are Hispanic, kind of, or you are? Is that a weird question?
Speaker 3:Kind of Hispanic. It's like kind of being yes. That's I'm offended right now. If anyone listening to this podcast heard that, I just want you to know that Steven's heart is good. You just you just made a mistake right now.
Speaker 2:I remember you sharing, like, the story about how you got the job at the junior high. Can you share that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So gosh, man. So so like I said, I do have a speech impediment. And whenever you're, like, 24 years old and, like, you have lots of tits on your face and you might not be the most, like, self confident dude out there, and then you have a speech impediment, getting a job, going through the job interview process, you know, it was terrifying. I definitely wasn't the guy who was like, hello, let me share with you why you need me on your team.
Speaker 3:Instead, I was like, oh, kids. So I tried to find a job in San Antonio. I tried to find a job in Austin. After college, I went and worked for a church in San Antonio, and then decided that I didn't wanna pursue the church route. Keep in mind that I had no business working at a church due to my faith, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Speaker 3:So I said, Hey, I think I might wanna become a teacher, and I think I had 20 job interviews in the San Antonio and Austin area in June July and couldn't get a job. Like, every time that they'd ask me questions, I'd just freeze up and I couldn't speak. And it was like the middle of August, school's about to start, and my college roommate called me up and said, Hey, man, if you drive up to Dallas and interview tomorrow, the job's yours, and we'll be coaching together. So I was like, Well, that's easy. I don't have a job and I need one, so let's go.
Speaker 3:Wow. So I go up there and I'm dressed up in my suit, and keep in mind that I just bombed 20 job interviews, so, like, I'm not the most confident cat in the world. And I'm sitting there, and, like, my job interview's at, like, 2 o'clock, and 2 o'clock comes, and there's no sign of the principal. And, like, you know, 2:15 comes, there's no sign of the principal. And finally, at 2:20, this lady bursts through the door like the Kool Aid man, you know, just a and she doesn't even sit down.
Speaker 3:And she's a larger woman, like, 6.3, like, £300. And maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but and she, like, slams her hands down on the desk, and she goes, I got one question for you, Garza. And I go, yes, ma'am. She goes, do you like drama? And I go, no, ma'am.
Speaker 3:I don't like drama. And she goes, good. You hired what? What just happened? Well, fast forward, like 6 weeks, and I'm teaching ESL class.
Speaker 3:It's the class where, like, kids who don't speak English go, so, like, they can help, you know, develop their skills without knowing the language, and I'm supposed to, like, help them. I've I've got, like, 6 kids in my classroom, and they're all, like, trying to do their homework, and I'm trying to help them, but I don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English, so it's hard. And the principal walks in and she's, like, staring at me. She's like, what are you? She's like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3:She's, like, giving me the stare she's, like, staring through me. And finally, I get done with it, and she goes, come here? And I was like, yes, ma'am. And she goes, why aren't you speaking Spanish to those boys? And I go, I don't speak Spanish.
Speaker 3:And she goes, your name's Gaza. Right? And I go, yes, ma'am. And she goes, well, then why in the world did I hire you? And I go, I was asking myself the same question.
Speaker 3:So she hired me because she thought I could speak Spanish because my last name is Garza. So here we are. I don't speak Spanish.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that story so much. Oh, I also love, like, the Forrest Gump voice you try to give her. What was that?
Speaker 3:She's from, like, New Orleans or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great. Oh my god.
Speaker 3:She's awesome. She's she's a great principal after she almost fired me. But yeah. So that's why I'm here because in that school is where we started our first mentoring organization and started helping kids, but the lord has a sense of humor. Right?
Speaker 2:It is awesome. It is the best story ever. Like, the the fact that, like, one of those interviews could have gone well and that all of this never would have happened. Like, that that kinda is what it feels like.
Speaker 3:Do you like drama? That's great. That's a great question.
Speaker 2:Oh, man. I don't
Speaker 3:like drama, man. I don't like drama.
Speaker 2:Is that the is that that's the same school we made, like, 800 hot dogs for the other
Speaker 3:Yes. Yes. That was awesome. And you were just sweating on the hot dogs just profusely.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. I remember seeing a picture of you when you were leaving. It was like you were reading a Coaching for Dummies book on Yes. On the football field.
Speaker 3:It was awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So So Go ahead. Let me
Speaker 3:flip this back on you, Murdog. You tell me what your take was on me whenever you first met me.
Speaker 2:Well, I just I mean Well,
Speaker 3:first first tell how you met me and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:I think the the first time I saw you, you were speaking at Antioch. And you came to my church, and you gave a message about your work. And I had been thinking about who are the guys that are mentoring kids that don't have dads. And you, like, popped up on the stage. I was like, that was crazy.
Speaker 2:Like, I've been literally thinking about this. So you took me out to Jake's Burgers, which is, like, the nastiest burger I've ever had.
Speaker 3:No. Not true. Great burger.
Speaker 2:Greasy. Greasy. I'll say greasy. And you told me I didn't know if I passed the interview or not. You said something like, well, I wanna make sure that you're the right guy for to mentor, so I wanna see if you're committed.
Speaker 2:So let's wait 6 months and see if you're still around. And I was like, what? And so I I just remember waiting for the call, and you always kept reaching out to me and checking in, seeing how I was doing. You you're like the king of voice memos. There there aren't very many people that do voice memos, but the people that do are the best people, in my opinion, and voice mails.
Speaker 2:So you're always just the guy that would randomly lead a freestyle via a voice mail, because I never answer the phone, which is something I'm working on. I don't know if you've noticed. You probably haven't noticed. I'm still not answering the phone. And you matched me with a junior high kid, and I remember you we went to their apartment.
Speaker 2:And I from what I remember, z had gotten in a fight with his quarterback, and that's not something you should do when you're a running back is get in a fight with the guy that passes you the ball. And his mom and she would be okay with me saying this. She was like, that's alright. My son keeps it 100. And that was just an experience that you and I shared together was me jumping into mentoring, and then all of a sudden, I mean, 5 years down the road, you hired me to oversee the mentoring program.
Speaker 2:And so I got to see, from a distance, as a volunteer, how you were running 4 Runner and cultivating this community endeavor to mentor kids from the same background that you had. And yeah. I mean, I just loved it. I loved going to family dinners, getting to see all the families that were apart. I remember wanting to take pictures because I was a photographer and just wanting wanting to help get the story out of what you guys were doing.
Speaker 2:I would see little YouTube videos that y'all would put out, and I would just be like, oh, that is so cute. They have no idea what they're doing. And
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure, made that on, like, PowerPoint using, like It's like Microsoft Paint.
Speaker 2:All those things that, like, mirror letters, like, it's in a Yes. A a sea of glass or something. And Mhmm. I I just had compassion on you. Like, you were a sheep without a video program.
Speaker 3:Like, if if you give me access to transitions in Google Slides or PowerPoints, like, watch out because I'll, like, make them disappear. They'll come back. I mean, it they'll fade in. They'll fade out. I mean, it's just I'm like a wizard.
Speaker 2:It's great. Well, you you're creative in your own way. Let's put it at that. But you you have giftings of obviously, you write. You wrote a book.
Speaker 2:You created I mean, just trainings based off of everything that you had learned over the years that when I came on to staff, really, your philosophy of what you're trying to do as 4 Runner was kind of put in place, and I just made it look better. You know, that's just my job. I just make things look better. Yep. Even though I don't have as great a haircut as you.
Speaker 3:Your hair looks pretty good today, buddy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man.
Speaker 3:It's pretty good.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So that that's that's a little of my perspective. I did experience you on staff. I I experienced the coach, Zach Garza. Always felt like while we were on staff together that it was like my West Wing experience.
Speaker 2:Like, anytime and I don't know if our listeners ever watch West Wing. If the is that a liberal show? I feel like every time I talk about NPR and West Wing, I lose people.
Speaker 3:I don't I mean, I don't know anyone under the age of, like, 60 who watches The West Wing. So
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, in The West Wing, they're they're yelling at each other. They're trying to make the country the best it can be. They're talking about policies, and there's a lot of disagreement. But at the end of the day, they make up, and they say, you know what? We're making America the best it can be.
Speaker 2:I that's probably a paraphrase, but they shake hands, they go to bed, they wake up, and go go at it again. And I always felt like you gave me my West Wing experience. I had never had that in a work environment. I maybe had it in my snow cone shop, but that was not a healthy experience. So so yeah.
Speaker 3:That's great, buddy. Well, I don't
Speaker 2:wanna I don't wanna share too much about you, but but yeah. So you're the founder of 2 organizations. How does that make you feel?
Speaker 3:Great. Like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Just Why did why did you start You Can Mentor? Maybe maybe we'll go there.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Let's go there. So I love You Can Mentor. I just I wish I wish I had a ton of time so I could just invest into these incredible mentoring organizations and mentoring leaders who are doing great things. And so why I started You Can Mentor, well, it's multifaceted.
Speaker 3:So the first thing is this. Whenever I started 4 Runner Mentoring, there wasn't like a book on how to start a mentoring organization. And so I'm just kinda one of those dudes who, whenever I get an idea, I just go for it. And so I got this idea, I wanna start to mentor some kids who come from the same background as me. Who else is doing this, and how can I learn from them?
Speaker 3:So I just Google search, and when I would find a mentoring nonprofit that's doing mentoring in the name of Jesus, I would just call them up, and I would either have an email chain with their executive director or founder, or I would drive up to their place and observe and ask questions. I would take them out to lunch, anything I had to do to get time with them. Right? And that's how I learned over, you know, 4 to 5 years as I was growing 4 Runner. You know, we do 1 on 1 mentoring because this nonprofit in West Dallas does it.
Speaker 3:We do After School Program because this nonprofit in South Dallas does it. We do single moms because this nonprofit in Fort Worth. You know, that's what they do. And so I just kinda stole, in a super godly way, all of these things. And as 4 Runner was growing and advancing and expanding our reach and things like that, that's whenever you came along, and we kinda got this staff, right?
Speaker 3:Like, you and Caroline, Cash Tidwell, and you and Beth, and Daniel de Jesus was a part of our team, and we were just having these incredible conversations about, like, mentoring philosophies and scaling. And, like I mean, we would just sit in our office for, like, hours and have these deep conversations. And so the first one was, I started You Can Mentor because if someone wants to start a mentoring organization or if someone wants to mentor outside of a nonprofit, we wanna be able to give them as many tools to equip them as possible. 2, we're having these conversations that I think can help advance the kingdom and mentoring at large that I think other people can benefit from. So I wanna record those and give people access so that they can learn.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The third thing is if you're mentoring kids from hard places, if your experience is anything like mine, fruit is hard to come by, and discouragement can rear its ugly head fairly often. And if the enemy can get you discouraged, then he can get you off vision. He can make you believe you're not making a difference, and you can get down on yourself. And I believe discouragement is one of the main tools that the enemy uses to keep people from mentoring or to get them to stop mentoring.
Speaker 3:So we wanna encourage, tell stories of life change, tell stories of, I was going this way, then I got a mentor, now I'm going this way, to keep people on the road of mentoring. Right? And then we love to have different nonprofits on so that we can learn from them. So we are not the mentoring experts. Hear us say that.
Speaker 3:We are the guys and the gals saying, We don't really know what the heck we're doing, but we're trying these things. Do you want to come along this journey with us and learn from our failures and learn from our successes and let us learn from what you guys are up to. And so it's kinda just like, how can I get in the room as many people who are passionate about mentoring and passionate about children and passionate about Christ as possible, and how can we sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron? Right? How can I surround myself with godly counselors and people who, they don't care whose name is on the banner?
Speaker 3:They just care about mentoring and advancing the kingdom through mentoring at large. And just like we, or I, kinda just had this vision of, like, I don't know of a place that's like the one stop shop for equipping and encouraging mentors and mentoring nonprofits. And so we're gonna try to become that. I don't know if it'll work. I mean, we both have full time jobs right now that are fairly demanding, but let's just keep being faithful, and let's keep moving the ball forward, and let's keep this thing going, and let's just see what happens.
Speaker 3:Because, I mean, I'm 38. Steven, you're 33. Right?
Speaker 2:32.
Speaker 3:And 32. And so if we can do this for the next 5 or 10 years, like, we're both gonna grow as executives, and we're both gonna grow from experiences and from stories and from all of these other things. And if we can get to know some more people who are doing the same, then we might be able to advance the kingdom in a major way through mentoring, so.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man. So that's why I started You Can Mentor. And I just love it. If the Lord can do it to me, he can do it to any kid. And I believe every community in America needs a mentoring nonprofit because there's so many kids in so many communities who they might not have one adult in their life who loves Jesus, who gives a rip about them, and we get to fill that gap.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, so that's why I wrote my book. That's why we do the podcast. That's why I'm trying to get you and Beth to write books, and we're just trying to find ways to help people mentor better.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and we're trying to make it an even more collaborative effort in inviting other hosts into the podcast. We got lieutenant Wayland Cubic coming on, who leads FACT Mentoring in Oklahoma City. Got Josh Meadows coming on, who leads Neighborhood Hope in in outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Got Kia from behind every door here in Dallas that's jumping on.
Speaker 2:Is there anybody else? Beth Winter here at 4 Runner Mentoring. Yeah. And so you're gonna hear from more voices that kind of even are just the next iteration of making You Can Mentor into a collaborative effort where organizations are sharing best practices and doing exactly what you said, coming to learn, but also coming to share. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, I mean, I would love to see this thing, you know, whether it's infographics or, like, a national mentoring conference. I mean, just, like, there's a lot of different ways that we can go if the lord continues to put his hand on it and if we continue to, you know, find room in our schedules to try to equip and encourage. So I
Speaker 2:don't know.
Speaker 3:I mean, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:I like what you said about you getting to know these other organizations, seeing what they're doing, seeing the impact they're making, and kinda copying and pasting. Okay, will this program work in my community? Could I could I pull this off? And slowly walking through different iterations to where 4 Runner is now a very comprehensive mentoring program. And I I just I I think it's it's cool to hear your 10 year journey of taking 4 Runner from asking boys to raise their hand to now it's a almost a $1,000,000 budget nonprofit in in East Dallas.
Speaker 2:Like, I I I just think that's pretty cool. And who else is out there that is at that first stage that may need an encouragement, may need to hear from somebody that they can do it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, I mean, my my joy in life is to help people in the realm of mentoring. And whether it's I'm mentoring them or I'm helping them mentor others or I'm helping them build a mentoring nonprofit or just to see you take over executive director, to see Beth grow into the director of programs for 4 Runner, to see some of the kids that I've mentored now get married and have professions and things like that, like, there isn't anything that brings no more joy than that. And so if you are listening to this podcast and you have any questions or anything like that, like, we are here to help you. Like, we want to get to know you.
Speaker 3:And, like, yeah, like, we might not have, you know, like, a ton of time, but we'll we'll more than happy we are more than happy to hop on a call or to start a email conversation and just, like, whatever we can do to help you, that brings us joy. And because, like, if we can, quote, unquote, mentor you as you mentor others, well, that sounds a lot like the kingdom to me. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Love it, Zach. What what's your favorite office item? Do you have a favorite office item?
Speaker 3:I don't know what that means. Office item? What?
Speaker 2:Like I'm just trying to create, you know, just like, we were talking long form. Now we're going, like, short, like a short question.
Speaker 3:Okay. Like, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite office item.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I mean, I'm
Speaker 2:a fan
Speaker 3:of a good stapler.
Speaker 2:Okay. I was thinking whiteboard, but I was, I'm trying to set
Speaker 3:you up. Are you kidding me? Sorry. Dang it, man. I love the whiteboard.
Speaker 3:If you toss me on a whiteboard, I'm just like, just like a fish in water.
Speaker 2:No. I've been trying to do that while while you've been gone, and I actually got some great feedback from staff. I did a strategic planning meeting, and I just stayed on the whiteboard the whole time. And everyone said it was amazing. I think it was more they just were thinking about meetings with you, and it gave him a good nostalgic feeling.
Speaker 3:It's just so fun. I don't know what it is, but I just love hopping on a whiteboard and creating. That is that is one thing that I found to be really interesting is, like, Stephen Murray is, like, your stereotypical creative. Like, he can he's an artist. He can draw.
Speaker 3:He can paint. He can do Photoshop and Illustrator and create videos and all this stuff. I'm this, like, weird, like, outcast creative. Like, I'm a writer, and I like I'm an entrepreneurial, and, like, I didn't ever think that I was creative until, like, 5 or 6 years ago. But
Speaker 2:So you realized you had a 1,000 Google Docs in your drive of just little little snippets of encouragements and devotionals or Yeah. Whatever. That's crazy.
Speaker 3:But I guess getting on the whiteboard is kinda me getting my creative outlet on. So
Speaker 2:It's awesome. I wonder maybe this could be our last our last thing, but one of the reasons we started the podcast was to equip and encourage mentors because, in a way, two of the main reasons that mentors quit is because they don't know what their job is or no one's encouraging them within the relationship that they're creating that needs support. They need to know you got this. And to to feel affirmation from a mentoring organization is a is a huge support to keep mentors in the game, but I wonder how much how much support mentoring leaders need to stay in the game. What are the discouragements and obstacles that mentoring leaders face, and how how can you can mentor really benefit a leader and keep keep them in the game?
Speaker 2:I think that's something that we've been considering.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And and I think as I've grown and as I've kinda become who the the lord has me to be, that's kinda my sweet spot now is I just love this organizational development, board structure, vision, strategic planning, like, all the things that I had no idea were even a thing like 6 years ago. It's just where I believe I can make the most impact right now. And back whenever I was 28, I could I could really make a dent in how to mentor, how to spend time with kids. But as I've kinda been entrusted with this heavier load of more like, okay, now it's fundraising, not so much hanging out with kids.
Speaker 3:Now it's strategic planning, not so much being with the mentors. I've just kinda had to learn a new skill set, and that's why I think collaborating with people is so important because I don't really hang out with the kids that much anymore. You are getting to a point where you don't really hang out with the kids that much, so we need to have people on our podcast who are. You know, whether that is Beth or someone else from outside of our nonprofit. I mean, I just got a new job at the Mentoring Alliance, and there's, like, 40 people who I could interview tomorrow.
Speaker 3:And so, I mean, it I think that everyone has an opportunity to bring something to the table here. And, office next to me might talk about how to bond with parents. I might talk about strategic planning. You might talk about marketing. Beth might talk about programs.
Speaker 3:You know? Wayland Cubitt might talk about, you know, how to deal with kids who have gotten in trouble with the law. Josh might talk about community engagement. Kia might talk about after school programs. Like, we all have something to offer, and so many of the nonprofits that we meet with, you know, they are multifaceted.
Speaker 3:They do 101220. They do after school programs. They do parent support. They do academic stuff. They do sports.
Speaker 3:So we're just trying to give people as many ideas and as much encouragement in the areas that they're focused in on as possible. So
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, I mean, I just believe that you can mentor, and we need more mentors. And I wanna see a discipleship movement through mentoring, you know, because there's really not a huge difference between mentoring and discipleship. And I think Jesus was pretty passionate about discipleship. I read my Bible once and he says something about that, like, go and go and make disciples maybe.
Speaker 3:Is that what he says? And there's, like, these 12 guys and started, like, this movement that doesn't understand. Well, we don't have time for that. But it is becoming harder and harder to follow Jesus in this day and age, and people need support. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And how to love a kid who has been through a hard time no matter what, regardless of political affiliations or sexual orientation or the decisions that they're making. You know, like Jesus calls us to love, period, end of story. He doesn't say love if, and that's getting harder and harder to do. And so we need to abide in the Lord, but we also need friends and other people who can help remind us of that call and encourage us when we get down and equip us when we don't know what to do. So
Speaker 2:So good. Yeah. And I I mean, I hope You Can Mentor becomes that community for somebody that really needs like minded leaders who are who are running after building a mentoring movement in their city and in their community. So when you hear Zach Garza's voice on the podcast, you'll hear business, you'll hear mentoring leadership, you'll hear vision, you'll hear futuristic kind of bent. Zach sees things where they're headed, not just where they're at right now, but what's next.
Speaker 2:And I think if you're a Christian mentoring leader, you'll you'll benefit from any episode that Zach's on. So be sure to tag you, Zach, in every episode you're in. So if anyone likes your voice or just likes the things that you say, they can check you out.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, like, this will be my this will be kinda my last plug, but if you guys get anything from these podcast episodes, like, we really wanna hear from you. Like, what the Apple Podcast you know? Like, if you could leave a written review, like, it would really help encourage us because Steven and I ask each other all the time, like, is anyone listening to this? Like, is anyone benefiting from this?
Speaker 3:And so we need encouragement too, but I just keep on coming back to this. You know? If a kid grows up in a home where there's not a positive and productive adult, if a kid lives a life where there isn't one person who they know that's following Jesus, How in the world is that person going to fulfill their potential in the name of Jesus? How are they gonna come to know the living God? How are they going to know what it looks like to be a positive father or husband or professional or mother or wife?
Speaker 3:You know? Like, you can't be what you can't see, and that's why mentors exist, and we need more. So let's rally around each other. Let's encourage each other. Let's invite our friends in, and let's go make disciples.
Speaker 3:And let's be the answer whenever this kid's 50 years old, and they are they have overcome all the obstacles. And someone says, how in the world did you get here? Like, weren't you some poor kid without a dad in the inner city? And they're gonna say, yeah. I was.
Speaker 3:But this guy named Steven, this guy named Zach, and your name can be the answer to how I got here. And and then you get to give credit to the lord. Right? Like and, you know, 1 kid mentored 2 lives changed. You know?
Speaker 3:It's like, the lord will change your life too. It's not just about the kid.
Speaker 2:That's good. So good, Zach.
Speaker 3:Thanks, man. Thanks, dad. Do you like drama?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Well, that's Zachary Garza senior ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for listening to the podcast. We're we're gonna post some more episodes with just introductions to new hosts. So get ready for those.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. Let us know. Share share a 5 star with us. Share one of them 5 stars, and let us know. Let us know if you listen this far into the episode.
Speaker 2:We'd love we'd love to get to know you. So zach@ucanmentor.com. That's that's what it is. Zach, you better watch out and get some emails.
Speaker 3:Zach.
Speaker 2:Zach.
Speaker 3:How'd you guys be dusting that k on there? Like Zack Morris, Saved by the Bell. Man.
Speaker 2:I never watched it. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Man. Great show. Alright. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll link to that in the show notes and Zach's email. We love you guys. If there's anything if there's nothing that you picked up from this episode, why are you even listening?
Speaker 3:No. What he had to say is this. You can mentor.