C-10 Mentoring & Leadership Podcast

This is episode 141 of the C-10 Podcast and as we do occasionally, we're turning over the hosting to Al Wallace, a longtime sportscaster here in Kansas City — and now one of the mentors in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. This week, Al interviews Max Utsler, who taught journalism at both the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas, and was instrumental in helping to develop the C-10 program.

If you’ve listened to many of the previous 140 episodes, you’ve heard Max a time or two. We even did an interview with Max during the early days of this podcast, episode 16 to be exact, in August of 2020. But this week you’ll hear a little different side of Max as he’s interviewed by one of his longtime friends, Al Wallace.

A little about Max, though.

In 2020, Utsler received broadcast journalism education’s highest honor, the Edward L. Bliss Award. Before retiring, he was also recognized at KU as the top mentor among his peers.

Prior to joining the faculty at KU, Utsler served as assistant news director at KOMU-TV (NBC) and Associate Professor for the School of Journalism at Missouri. He joined the KU faculty in 1984 and served in both teaching and administrative positions. After serving as assistant news director at KSDK-TV (NBC) in St. Louis, he was a reporter, producer, and freelance writer with major media outlets like MLB.com, MLB-TV, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN. He spent half a year at KPNX-TV covering sports in Phoenix, Arizona.

Utsler, who's from a farm community in central Illinois, graduated from Knox College before starting his career as a junior high English teacher in Minnesota.

This interview with Max and Al Wallace was recorded in front of the C-10 students and mentors in November.

LINKS:

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we’re chatting with one of the Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees from this season, Klee Nelson.

What is the Blue KC Coaches with Character program? Well, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.

This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?

Klee Nelson, the football coach of the Kansas City East Lions, was this season’s first honoree back in April.

Klee Nelson has been coaching at KC East, a homeschool organization in the Kansas City community, since 2015 and never takes a single day of his job for granted. His passion for coaching makes him a key asset in helping student-athletes engage in fun, happy and healthy competition outside of their homeschooled environments.

Through coaching, Nelson is able to give homeschooled kids an opportunity to play sports that they never thought they could. He says that it is his honor and privilege to be able to serve homeschool and small private-school communities when they feel they do not have any other options. He is providing opportunities that he never had as a child, and he knows how fulfilling it is to the players who he and the rest of the staff coach and mentor.

LINKS:

Here's the article about Klee Nelson as the April Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with Reggie Morris, the boy's basketball coach at Raytown South High School, and one of this year's Blue KC Coaches with Character honorees.

What is the Blue KC Coaches with Character program? Since 2017, CYITML has partnered with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals for a program called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.

This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast, because, who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?

Reggie Morris, the boys’ basketball coach at Raytown South High School, was our second Coaches with Character recipient this year, back in May.

Morris is starting his third year at Raytown South after a successful stint as the coach at Grandview High School, where his teams won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019. Morris’ resume includes being selected as KC Metro Basketball Coach of the Year twice, the Conference Coach of the Year award winner three times, from 2017-2019, and the District Coach of the Year for four consecutive years from 2017-2020.

Ultimately, though, Morris is about what happens away from basketball for the young men he coaches. Culture is huge for Morris. And his goal, like it is with our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, is to prepare his players, as well as other students with whom he comes in contact at Raytown South, for their next stage in life.

Morris talks about all of that, defines COMPASSION, takes a swing at Pregame Batting Practice, and much more.

LINKS:

Here's the article about Reggie Morris as the May Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.

Here's a link to the Blue KC documentary, Not Good Enough, that Reggie and Matt reference.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with Butch Rigby, a Kansas City developer — or restorer, might be a better term — entrepreneur, lawyer and founder of Thank You, Walt Disney.

Rigby has developed real estate in and around the Kansas City area for more than 30 years, starting when he was a full time student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, and a Juris Doctor from the UMKC School of Law.

Right after school, he headed to Hollywood to work in movies. A few years later, Butch returned to Kansas City with some great stories.

He founded the Screenland Movie Theatre Circuit, and as a part of that venture, he restored the Historic Granada Movie Theatre Building in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. He then renovated the historic Armour Theatre Building in North Kansas City, Mo. He placed the two buildings on the National Historic Register.

In the 1990s he formed Thank You Walt Disney Inc., and as Chairman of that organization, he and a group of volunteers purchased Walt Disney’s first cartoon studio, the Laugh-O-Gram building near 31st and Troost and took the building off of the city’s condemned building list, restored its structural integrity and have prepared it for re-use as an interactive historic site.

Butch will talk about those things and much more, including taking a swing at some "Pregame Batting Practice."

LINKS:

To learn more about Thank You, Walt Disney, please visit their site.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with Jessalyn Kincaid, who's made a name for herself during the past two decades as an actor in numerous theater performances in Kansas City and beyond.

Jessalyn is the Audience and Donor Relations Manager at Music Theater Heritage, a job she’s held for about three months. Before that, going back to 2016, she was MTH’s Manager of Artistic Operations. But she’s also a director, producer, former event coordinator…and former waitress, which will come out during this episode.

You'll hear about all of that, and much more, including Jessalyn's swings at "Pregame Batting Practice."

This episode was recorded on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, in front of our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage.

LINKS:

For tickets to MTH's production of "Ain't Misbehavin'," which goes until October 29, please visit their ticket site.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with Chris Giuliani, the CEO of Spring Venture Group, a national insurance company based in Kansas City that focuses largely on Medicare.

Chris Giuliani joined Spring Venture Group in 2011 as Executive Vice President, and was promoted to CEO in 2012. Shortly after that, in 2014, he was selected for Ingram magazine’s “40 Under 40” list. Under Chris’ leadership, Spring Venture Group grew from 27 employees in 2012 to more than 1,200 today. Additionally, Spring Venture Group has been on INC. magazine’s "Inc. 5000" list, plus Business Insurance’s "Best Places to Work," The Kansas City Business Journal’s "Fast 50," and has been inducted in the “Ingram’s 250” three times.

In full disclosure, Spring Venture Group has been a sponsor of our Crown Town Wiffle and C You At Topgolf events, and recently hosted our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership students and mentors for a field trip.

You'll hear about all of that, and much more, including an unexpected opening and Chris' swings at "Pregame Batting Practice."

LINKS:

For more information about Spring Venture Group, please visit their site.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with C You In The Major Leagues founder and board president Dayton Moore. We discuss the one-year anniversary of the Kansas City Royals firing him, Ned Yost's Royals Hall of Fame induction, the importance of coaches, and why teams like the Royals can take five out of six games from the Houston Astros, while the Texas Rangers struggle with the Astros. All of that and much more.

LINKS:

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week we're chatting with Tim Kennedy, the longtime and extremely successful baseball coach at Bishop Miege and Blue Valley High School here in the Kansas City area.

Now, why are we talking with a high school baseball coach on a podcast that mainly features business leaders and talks about leadership and mentoring?

Well, as you may know, since 2017 we’ve had a program in partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals called Coaches with Character. Each year we recognize six coaches who are making Kansas City a better place.

This year we are featuring the coaches on this podcast because who knows better about leadership, building teams, team chemistry and so on than successful high school coaches?

A graduate of Blue Valley High School in 1990, Tim Kennedy put together a successful 2023 campaign in his first year as head coach at his alma mater after having previously served as a math teacher and an assistant coach at the school since 2013.

Tim’s coaching and teaching background started in 1997, shortly after graduating from Kansas State University. After five years as an assistant coach at Bishop Miege High School, Kennedy became head coach of the Stags and served in that role from 2003-2011 before his tenure at Blue Valley High School began in 2013.

As his nominator, Peggy Rose, who was a Blue KC Coach with Character honoree a few years ago, wrote, “Coach Kennedy is what first class looks like as a teacher and a coach. He works with his students in Algebra 2 and AP Calculus in the same way he works with his high school baseball players – in a patient, respectful and encouraging manner that fosters a sense of confidence that has manifested itself in several league and state titles, as well as success in the mathematics classroom. He always does the right thing and wants what is best for the team and to make kids better through sports. Tim always has time to talk and listen to fellow coaches, teachers, students and athletes.”

In this chat, we talk about that coaching career, leadership highs and lows, building a team, and much more.

LINKS:

Here's the article about Tim Kennedy as the June Blue KC Coaches with Character honoree.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week you’re going to be hearing from two more of the mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program: Shawnie Nix and Todd Donoho. (Technically, you’re hearing from three C-10 mentors as Al Wallace, a longtime Kansas City sportscaster, leads the discussion.)

This was recorded on Wednesday night, September 6th, in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center here in Kansas City.

We interview mentors from time to time because we want the students in the program to hear about leadership within different companies, and see that most of our paths aren't straight between high school and a possible career to the ultimate career in a person's life. We recorded these four with the idea that they'd be episodes of the C-10 Podcast.

We actually recorded four interviews that night, and you can hear the first two — Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh — in last week’s episode.

As mentioned, though, this week are Shawnie Nix and Todd Donoho.

First up is Shawnie, who happened to be the guest of our second-ever C-10 Podcast in 2020. (Link below.) But Shawnie has a special place in the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program. She used to bring groups from the Police Athletic League to Kauffman Stadium for a program we used to have called C You At The K. That program ended up being the impetus for what became the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program….and because we’d gotten to know her really well through C You At The K, when we put together the curriculum committee to form C-10, we asked Shawnie to be a part of that. And, about three years ago, as she was nearing retirement from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, she became a mentor in the C-10 program. And we’re so lucky to have her as a part of this.

After Shawnie you'll hear from longtime sportscaster Todd Donoho, who’s been with C-10 as a pinch-hitter mentor — a substitute mentor — since our first year. As you’ll hear, Todd had a long and successful career as a sports anchor in Michigan, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Besides being one of our most active pinch hitters, Todd has also been an important part of our C You At Topgolf committee for the past few years.

One quick note about Todd's interview because it’s unlike the other three that you’ve heard up to this point. Although students and mentors could ask questions of each guest that night, we took those out. But you’ll get a chance to hear a couple of the students’ questions for Todd. We’re leaving them in because the answers are insightful and entertaining.

LINKS:

To hear Episode 2 of the C-10 Podcast, which features Shawnie Nix, click here.

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This week you’re going to be hearing from two of the mentors in our C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program: Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh. (Technically, you’re hearing from three C-10 mentors as Al Wallace, a longtime Kansas City sportscaster, leads the discussion.)

This was recorded on Wednesday night, September 6th, in front of our students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center here in Kansas City.

We actually recorded four interviews that night, so you can hear the first two this week and then the next two in a future episode.

We interview mentors from time to time because we want the students in the program to hear about leadership within different companies, and see that most of our paths aren't straight between high school and a possible career to the ultimate career in a person's life. We recorded these four with the idea that they'd be episodes of the C-10 Podcast.

Up first are Jen Fescoe and Jim Unruh.

Jen is in her fifth year as a C-10 mentor. Here’s a cool thing about Jen and the program: she was paired with a student in her first year, but the student didn't return. She was paired with a new student for her second year. Again, the student didn't return for a second year. We promised Jen, though, that she wouldn’t have that issue with her third student.

And she didn’t. It was a perfect fit. Jen and her third student, Alissa, bonded quickly. And Alissa excelled in C-10. So much so that she was selected as a member of the C-10 Student Leadership Council last year, and this year, as a college freshman, Alissa is back as a mentor in training.

By day, Jen, who’s the mother of two teenage girls and is the wife of Bob Fescoe, a morning host on 610 Sports Radio, is a high school teacher.

After Jen you'll hear from Jim Unruh, who's in his third year as a C-10 Mentor.

Jim, who's in leadership in commercial real estate with Collier's, has had the same student for his first two years, Manny. Like Alissa, Manny has been so well thought of by his peers that this year he's a member of the C-10 Student Leadership Council. (Incidentally, Manny is the second of three students from his family to be in C-10. His older brother was in the program for more than three years and his younger sister joined this year.) That's a direct correlation to his experience with his mentor, Jim Unruh.

LINKS:

For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.

To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring, visit our secure donation page.

For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.

If you’d like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.