Discover the transformative power of leadership with Wendy Frizzell, executive director of Leadership Tyler. She discusses the influence of this organization’s development programs on individuals and the local community. If you’re longing to elevate your leadership skills and fuel your desire for community involvement, this episode is your treasure map. Frizzell gives us a walk-through of Leadership Tyler’s core program, which shapes participants over nine months.
Whether you are a seasoned professional or an aspiring leader, tune in to connect with Tyler’s leadership community and discover how you can be a part of shaping its future.
TRANSCRIPT
LANDESS:
The names of Leadership Tyler graduates from over the last 37 years reads like a who’s who of Tyler and East Texas. I’m UT Tyler Radio News Director Mike Landess. To find out more about this organization and its mission, UT Tyler Radio Connects with Executive Director Wendy Frizzell. This nonprofit entity is training many people who are already successful in their own fields.
FRIZZELL:
Yes, definitely.
LANDESS:
So, how do you get them in? Why do they want to be there?
FRIZZELL:
Well, Leadership Tyler helps them take their leadership abilities and skills to the next level. Like you said, most of them are already successful, but they’re just ready to take that next step for community involvement. And sometimes even to find their passion for that. And Leadership Tyler equips them to do that, gives them tools and information to take that next step into, “OK, I’m doing great in my career. Now, how can I give back to my community?”
LANDESS:
Give me the Wikipedia definition of Leadership Tyler and what it does.
FRIZZELL:
Our mission statement says that we equip leaders to enrich our community. And basically, the way I think that what that states for us is our job is to empower people to find their passion and then follow their passion to make Tyler the best community that it can be.
LANDESS:
Well, when you get this group, how many people are in the average class?
FRIZZELL:
So for the core program our average class size runs about 35 to 37. And that’s yearly. It’s a 9-month program. So they bond, kind of like a fraternity, and they have a great time. So but that’s, our average class size is about 35.
LANDESS:
And it is over 9 months, as you say. Tell us a little bit about it. Started in 1986, first graduating class in ’87. Now there was sort of a reboot in 2002, I understand. Can you tell us about that?
FRIZZELL:
Sure. Originally the Leadership Tyler was started by the Chamber of Commerce and was part of their programming. And then at that time when they stopped to do the reboot, they realized that they needed a little more meat in the program. And it had kind of become stale, maybe would be the word, and interest was kind of lagging. And as the powers that be, the board of directors and others, started looking at other leadership programs, they realized there was so much more that could be such a better and more robust program with leadership training and not just community involvement, but really how to be a better leader, how to communicate better, how to be a better board member, things like that. And so they stopped for a year, and they went and checked out other leadership programs and brought back the best of those and made it what it is today.
LANDESS:
So now are there different levels of training related to experience?
FRIZZELL:
There are not. Right now the core program is just one level, and then when you join the Alumni Association, we try to do some continuing education maybe, and we’ve kind of booted that up now, that we have a part-time Director of Alumni Relations Jackie Cannon. We’ve started doing some continuing-education type programs, but right now the core program is the same level for everyone involved.
LANDESS:
So there’s the core program, but there’s another program as well, as I understand, involving… Tell us about that.
FRIZZELL:
We have the Executive Orientation Series, which is a program that was developed to help executives at the C level who come to Tyler new and have been here less than 2 years to really get acclimated to the community more quickly. To kind of give them tools and give them connections that it takes a while to make and maybe help them do that in a little bit quicker fashion. So it’s a shorter, abbreviated program. It’s a 5-week program where it takes the core program and kind of gives you, like you said, the Wikipedia version of it, kind of gives them a little taste, but it also helps them meet other executives. And then of course, our speakers are people like Henry Bell and Scott Martinez and Ed Broussard and the mayor, and so they get to meet some of those high-level leaders who perhaps maybe they haven’t had the chance to really get to know yet. And then we also have our Catalyst 100 program. And that program is basically a quarterly program where we have leaders come together, and they’re looking at Tyler for the next 100 years. And what do we need to do to make sure Tyler is ready to be the robust community it needs to be for 100 years? We look at things like do we have enough water, and what is autonomous vehicles? What are those going to do and how do we get ready for that, and things like that. So it’s a group that’s really community-focused in that respect.
LANDESS:
Who’s teaching all of this?
FRIZZELL:
Well, it’s a variety of different people. So for Catalyst, we bring in different speakers, experts in their field. Those are four meetings a year. For the core program, I have wonderful volunteers who come, my city leaders and our educational leaders, most of whom have been through the program or been through one of our programs and have seen the benefits of it, and so they come back to pour into the next class, which is great. So we have the mayor, and we have the city manager, and we have, like I said, all our educators are willing to step up and come in and so, depending on the topic of the program, we bring in the expert to speak to that.
LANDESS:
Now, it should be pointed out that, because Leadership Tyler is a nonprofit entity, there is a fee for those who join the classes. Can you tell us about that?
FRIZZELL:
Yes, so the fee for the core program is $2,250. We do have limited scholarships available in case someone’s perhaps self-employed, because that can be challenging, but a lot of times, the employer will pay a portion or all of it. And we do ask that the candidate pay $150 personally, no matter what the employer is willing to do, so they have some skin in the game. And then the EOS program is $2,750. And it includes the executive and their spouse. And then Catalyst 100 membership is $150 for a year.
LANDESS:
It is interesting if you talk about skin in the game. This is someone who is a part of this program, is someone who really wants to be there. Nobody’s shoving them into it.
FRIZZELL:
We hope not. We hope not.
LANDESS:
No, no, I mean well, and the classes. How many classes have there been now?
FRIZZELL:
So, we’re on class 37 right now.
LANDESS:
As you look at the pictures of the different classes, I start picking it, you start picking it, yet there, so-and-so, there she is, there he is. I mean you’ve got some great alumni in all of that.
FRIZZELL:
We do. They’re wonderful people, and they’re very passionate about Tyler, and they stay very passionate about Leadership Tyler. It is amazing. I’ve been here a year and a half, and I’m fascinated by the stories I get to hear and the connections that I get to make with people. That’s our first common ground is Leadership Tyler, and then we just grow friendships from there. But all the way back to class number one, we have some amazing folks who really have poured into our community.
LANDESS:
Let me drill down a little bit deeper on this. What’s the draw for a program like this, or who is being drawn into a program like this?
FRIZZELL:
Well, for our core program, we really hope to have a very diverse class in all respects of what diversity is: industry, gender, race, everything. We want it to reflect our community. So we try to have that core program. We want to have enough applicants who come from all walks. We want extroverts, we want introverts, we want everybody to come through that really feels like they could benefit from the program. And the application process is very competitive right now because there are so many. And typically it’s our alumni that encourage people to apply because the program’s meant so much to them that they’ll tell friends you really got to do this, you really got to be a part of this, it’s going to be great for you. And of course, the connections you make are lifelong, and the Alumni Association continues that connection going forward. So you all of a sudden have, you get on a bus with 34 people you might not have ever met before, and when you graduate you have 900 people in your network that you can reach out to and you start by saying, “Hey, I’m LT, class 31.” And they’re like, “Oh, I’m LT, class 14.” And then you argue about who’s the best class ever was, and then you’re friends.
LANDESS:
Well, now, one of the things I was interested in is to get a sense of when you’ve graduated from this class, and you move on to the next level. How many people are looking at this for a political career or some involvement in politics? And I asked this based on a question. I talked with Mayor Don Warren, and I asked him, I said, “Who’s coming along behind you?” And he said, “Boy, that’s a tough one.” He said because, like “Leadership Tyler is bringing a lot of great people, but they’ve got lives of their own at the moment. They’re building their careers. They’ve got young families.” Tell me what your take is on that.
FRIZZELL:
Well, I think from what I’ve seen and the stories I’ve heard, and I can give you a personal example of my friend James Wansley. He didn’t come into Leadership Tyler with aspirations to be the mayor of Whitehouse, but when that opportunity presented itself, Leadership Tyler and Smittee Root particularly, were the people who said, “You absolutely could do it. You’d be amazing.” It’s one of those things where you’re going through the core program, and then it raises your awareness of how you want to be involved and how you want to give back. I do have some folks from the most recent class who are looking at the possibility of running for city council because they got to hear about what the council does, they got to hear about how it works. They’re like, “You know what? I think I could be helpful there.” And so our hope is that our curriculum is broad enough that it shares the story, and it shares how you can make a difference, and then you pick that category. So I don’t know that people come into the program with those aspirations, but I do know that sometimes they leave with those aspirations, for sure.
LANDESS:
Do those who’ve graduated from the different classes over the years tend to stay in East Texas?
FRIZZELL:
They do, they do. Yeah, we do lose some, particularly in the EOS program. Sometimes those leaders come in, and they start great things, and they make great things, and then 3 or 4 years later, their companies move them up again and move them on. But for the most part, we’ve seen graduates stay. I would say probably three-quarters of them stay because they’re they’re bought in to be in here. They’re raising, like you said, they’re raising their family, they’re building their career here. And so when they take this step and they invest in themselves and in the community, then they want to be a part and continue that on.
LANDESS:
What are your goals for the program as it moves forward?
FRIZZELL:
Well, we’re excited. Right now, the board really is looking at how can we grow, how can we, as Leadership Tyler, continue to meet the needs for leaders in our community, for growing leaders in our community. And so there’s a lot of conversation around perhaps, maybe additional programming. We were growing our alumni programming, like I said before, Jackie’s been a catalyst in that, and that we’re hoping not just to have the social aspect. We’ve got that part pretty well down but even to have those continuing learning opportunities for folks maybe that are ready to take that next step, but they don’t know exactly know how. So we don’t really have anything particularly fleshed out, but we’ve got, you know, we’ve got a vision for being continuing to be that program that you know prepares leaders for our community, and hoping that, as we see the needs, we can be the the group that reaches out and and can fill that space and meet those needs.
LANDESS:
There’s work being done at the drawing board.
FRIZZELL:
Absolutely, yes. The board is very active at the drawing board right now, for sure.
LANDESS:
Any final thoughts you’d like to share about Leadership Tyler, with people who don’t know much about it?
FRIZZELL:
It’s such a personal journey that I think when you look back on it, you think — you know, I started my journey. I was class 31, and my goal when I got in the class was I was gonna try everything and do it all and, you know, not be shy and not be worried about it, and get out of my comfort zone. And it certainly opened some doors for me and my career outside my comfort zone because I was going to look past what I was accustomed to doing. And so if you’re, you know, if someone’s looking for a program to challenge them or to encourage them to maybe grow or be, you know, become a new part of who they are, maybe grow a part that they’ve had a little seed, I think Leadership Tyler, is that. And I think you’ll find that community there that would say, “Yeah, you should go for that. How can we help you?” And that will come around you and help you be that person that you’ve been called to be, to be in our community and to fulfill your spot that we, you know, we need folks here who are passionate about Tyler and Smith County. And that’s who I think we want to be as an organization overall.
LANDESS:
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio Connects with Wendy Frizzell, executive director of Leadership Tyler. To share, listen again or for a transcript of this interview, visit our website uttylerradio.org. To be notified about future episodes, subscribe to UT Tyler Radio Connects on your favorite podcast platform. For UT Tyler Radio News, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
