Thank you welcome Greek you Nations episode number 359 of the fraternity foodie podcast I’m your host Mike ilon CEO of Greek University I’m a speaker and also an author our third book came out recently it’s called from letters to leaders leveraging your fraternity or sorority experience to land your dream job so go
And pick up that book on Amazon today we call these episodes the fraternity foodie podcast because there is nothing like great food to bring fraternity and sorority leaders together fun fact stepping and strolling has to be my favorite part of fraternity and sorority life if you don’t get moved and
Passionate about fraternity and sorority life when you see stepping and strolling on stage then you might not have a pulse I wish it was part of my undergraduate experience but I’m fortunate to see it every year on campuses across the country as well as conferences all over the country as an alumnus this
Celebration of culture has the power to unite all councils all students on campus so keep that in mind when you’re thinking about ways to engage the students on your campus we’re going to talk a little bit more about it today with our next guest Eddie Francis is a marketing and Communications
Professional he’s a speaker and an award-winning mass media veteran who dedicates his time to helping people and organizations Express the value of their identities so that their brands Stand Out Eddie producers and hosts the four-hour edification podcast as well as the enrollify podcast networks I want to
Work there he also presents the black Greek success program to Show members of African-American fraternities and sororities how to enhance their leadership skills and lectures to livelihood to help college students prepare for their careers the New Orleans native earned his master’s degree in strategic leadership from Tennessee State University love
Tennessee and his bachelor in NASA Communications from Loyola University New Orleans he he of course is a member of the American Marketing Association and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Eddie is the proud husband of Zeta Phi Beta sorority Incorporated member Dr Halima leak Francis and he is
Also the proud father of Stevie welcome to the show Eddie Mike thanks so much for having me man this is definitely a pleasure to be on a fraternity foodie pot especially since I’m a foodie I love my food as well so yeah it is great to
Be on the podcast yeah I figured what I’d like a podcast and it’s called the fraternity foodie podcast he had me right here you had me right here that’s great we have a lot in common that is for sure so all right let’s talk about it you decided on Loyola
University in New Orleans for your undergraduate experience tell our audience why didn’t you choose Loyola Loyola chose me um you know so this is really a an interesting story about um social capital and how it can work you know I I was trying to get out of Louisiana for college
Um and so I was looking at all these different universities and I had these dreams of just going off and going to a really big university um and then it was crunch time I had to figure out where I was gonna go and how
I was going to pay for it I mean I had been accepted to a lot of universities but I didn’t know I was going to pay for it and one of my teachers at my high school said Hey listen you should try out for this program at Loyola and it
Comes attached to a scholarship and yeah I was like all right I don’t really I don’t want to go to school in New Orleans and he said we’ll try it you know make it your plan be whatever and I’m going all right fine um and as it turns out
Um I I tried out for this program um and the social capital part comes in because this teacher he knew some of the people who were reviewing the applications and he said hey take a look at this guy I think he I think he’s
Actually good for it and so I was uh I was accepted to Loyola but I was awarded the scholarship and and the rest is history I went on and uh became part of the wolf pack and I graduated from Loyola I love it I love it same thing
Happened to my son I think Money Talks you know especially nowadays it’s a lot more expensive to go to college today than it was when you were in school it is I mean if you get a you know a nice scholarship and you don’t have a lot of
Debt I mean you got to look real close at that that’s all exactly that’s all I’m gonna say exactly and you were also a very involved student there I mean you served as black student union vice president you you were the inner fraternity Council VP of promotions and programming and you’re
The chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated now I am sure 100 sure you could have chosen any student organization you wanted to get involved with and they gladly would have taken you in what made you choose Alpha Phi Alpha again it chose me and so
Um so you know what this this is actually I love telling this story you know I went to college the summer that school days was released and so that summer you know Spike Lee kind of put the word out on black fraternities and sororities to that movie and so I went
To school thinking yeah I don’t think that’s for me and I remember someone uh uh a woman who actually became like my my big sister um she it was she was you know she’s an AKA and she goes hey Eddie you have a thought of being in a fraternity and I’m
Like no no I don’t want to do that ridiculous is you know blah blah blah and I use some Choice words actually I was just like I’m not doing it I’m not doing it and so the guy who is now her husband a guy by the name of Emil
Actually approached me one day and said hey you know we have an interest meeting why don’t you just come check it out and you know I was like uh you know all right maybe as a matter of fact a good friend of another good friend of mine
Was a sigma at the time and he was a member of Phi Beta Sigma and he actually had also invited me to their interest meeting and so I thought about it I thought about it I was like yeah I don’t know I don’t know and I had gone to the
Alpha interest meeting and I was really impressed uh that there was so much depth to what Alpha does but what really really got me was this guy named Victor and Victor I’ll never forget this I’m sitting in the Student Union one day and Victor was this brother like this deep
Chocolate brother you know tall muscular brother you know slender but muscular he walks in the student union with a t-shirt on now this is this is 1989 okay the the the spring of 89. so the T-shirt had the felt the felt iron on letters on it and all that good stuff
And it was kind of tight on him but he he was tall slender muscular so it worked for him and all that good stuff he has on his T-shirt slacks dress shoes and a briefcase and I was like okay who is this who is this dude
So then Mike I’m sitting with a group of girls and we’re all just sitting there just you know chatting it up right victus is down and I’m like oh okay here’s super smooth brother okay and they look at Victor and they go victim why don’t you sing something for us and
I was like what what’s this Invicta star seems like who and he starts singing and they just started swooning while Victor was singing and I was like yeah I want to be in the alpha I’m going to be [Laughter] I like that like just throw your hands up you know
If you’re like yeah I mean all together but to be clear I mean it was the depth of the service there was the membership it was the it was the commitment that Brothers had to education and all that good stuff that’s what’s up with me but I cannot argue
With Victor there that day I was just sitting there going oh okay you see that I mean it’s like they say in the industry right people join people you know you saw this guy you’re like yup okay yeah it’s Alpha I mean that was it you know listen I’m Sigma is a
Fantastic organization has great history has great Brothers I’m friends with so many of them as well yeah but when you see something like that you’re like people join people you’re like that’s my guy exactly that’s great I love that story now you know we talked a little bit about
Stepping and scrolling certainly a huge part of divine nine organizations you know what interests me is that you believe that there are some career lessons that we can learn from stepping talk to us about that when I was in college I was a step master
Um and I love stuff and I mean I just loved it I mean you know so so Mike the other day I decided I was working out I decided to pull out some of my old moves and I survived but here’s the thing but um
I you know I when I was uh when I was actually working with one of the groups that I did choreography for um I I didn’t realize how much I was really learning about leadership in those moments and some of the things that I learned that I actually have
Taken throughout my career with me is number one is that success doesn’t come without risk you know there was this a situation where um I was one of those guys who I always wanted to try to do something that I didn’t think the audience had seen
Before and a lot of groups they would come out and they would come out to the same songs because they were the popular songs and they would they would do some of the same stuff on stage because they saw somebody else do it and and they
Knew it would bring the house down and I would always insist that we do something that was just really different for at least the local market right up that went South a couple of times okay let’s be clear that went South a couple of times I had a couple of
Embarrassing shows but it eventually paid off because there was a group that uh you know we got together we placed second in the Bayou Classic which is a huge Greek show we placed in a couple of other Greek shows and one of the things that I learned throughout my career is
That if you’re going to get something done at some point you’re gonna have to be creative you’re gonna have to be Innovative you’re gonna have to take a risk if you’re gonna go from Level a to level B to level Co to you know wherever
You want to go to go to the higher levels um the other thing I learned knowing that same pain is that leadership is not a popularity contest not at all um one of the one of the decisions that I hated to make is that our team uh
There were a couple of members of the team who just were not doing what they were supposed to do they weren’t attending practices and so the team said Hey listen Eddie we need you to make a decision and it just so happened that one of the people with whom they asked
Me to make this decision was a very very close brother and I it and it tore me up I was just like man this dude and I we have been on stage together so many times but he’s just not acting right on this particular occasion and the team
Decided they wanted to win and they didn’t think that would happen with his you know record there and so um that that’s a lesson I took with me um and as someone who has worked in higher education nothing has taught me that leadership is not a popularity contest like watching
College presidents um College presidents it is a sexy looking thing to do I I hear all these people say I’ve always wanted to be a president and I’m sitting there going yeah but do you want to be a president when you have to make a decision that’s going to really hack off
Your students is going to hack off the alumni but you know it’s for the betterment of the institution do you want to be a president then um and I’m actually watching somebody now who said that they always wanted to be a president they became a president and handling those tough situations is
Really really hard so one of the things that um one of the things that that stuffing did teach me um it looks great when you get a trophy when you place but it’s not a popularity contest to lead a team um and then another thing I learned is that people
See what they get you know if you rehearse well it’s gonna show up um if you if everybody does what they’re supposed to do it is gonna show up and it’s the same thing in the workforce I mean you show up to those meetings unprepared that shows up people see what
They get you know um and so that that’s a pretty big one um I learned that uh the the details and and I really wish Mike I can say I’m the biggest detail-oriented person in the history of the workforce I am not okay I I details I have to focus real hard when
It comes to details they’re paying but they pay off you know one of my favorite quotes um is uh Mike Golic gold NFL player who I’m sure you know oh yeah and I I love this quote he said 99 of winning is what people don’t see you doing
Um and so people don’t see those step rehearsals when you are trying to get it right they don’t see the pain of making sure all the arms are at the right angle angles you know making sure the steps are precise making sure everybody has the right looks on their faces
Um they don’t see all that stuff and it’s the same in your career people do not see when you were preparing for that big presentation they don’t see you rehearsing for that big presentation they don’t see you talking yourself through when you want to go to your boss
And you want to lobby for a promotion or raise or something like that they don’t see those steps and so um so the details are pain when you go over all of those things and you have to go over in order to get what you want
But if you can Master the details then you’re gonna get what you need and then the final thing and and I think this is probably my biggest lesson from stepping is um you got to know when to trust your team you’ve got to know when to trust your team we had a situation
There was a brother who his brother had gotten sick right before a show I mean he’s sweating and he’s sneezing and he’s coughing and all this stuff and I’m going he’s not gonna make it man this is this isn’t gonna work and then on top of
That I put together this intro and the team was not very shy about telling me that they didn’t think the intro was very good and I was just like how could you say this no no this is a great intro and it’s just like Yeah Eddie we love
You but no not this one and so I did two things one I just let it go and I said okay fine if you if you got a better idea for an intro let’s do it so they all got together you know I didn’t I didn’t want
To take part in this in this new intro because my ego was hurt but I did and the intro was great the brother who was sick he figured out how to get himself together and he he just he just did all this stuff and it was great we wound up
Doing a great job in the show and so that was a huge lesson in trusting the team and it happened to me also when I was a director of communications and marketing you know I I would have all these ideas of how I I thought we could better promote the University where I
Was um where I was leading the effort and there was one person in particular the social media coordinator and I had all these ideas for her you know and I’m like yeah yeah no no no you do it this way do it this way I tried it I tried it
And that’s all the numbers go up well Mike I started micromanaging her and I was reading her I was reading her body language and I was like okay I’m really annoying her right now because I keep telling her what to do and I’m not letting her do her job
And and at that moment I said you know what let me sit back shut up hey let me just see what she can do because after all I hired her so she must be good at something and so I trusted her and then I and from there you know she did them
She did an amazing job of the social media for the University numbers shot up like a rocket did some stuff I didn’t even think about and then on top of that I started to ask the team hey what do you think we should do how do you think
This should go and in trusting them we we got some good results from a lot of stuff that we were doing so yeah so those are a bunch of the lessons um that I learned just from Stephen and I I’m I’m glad I was able to kind of
Um get that stuff and and move it into my career and uh it’s something that I hope a lot of other folks can get as well man that’s incredible I mean that’s a presentation right there all the lessons from stepping I mean that’s just incredible stuff you’re absolutely right
On just about everything you talked about I mean you know you think about accountability you know making decisions this chapter as you know president of the University you can learn those lessons as you know president or Treasurer in your local chapter as well because you got to make some difficult
Decisions and uh sometimes it’s not popular uh you know getting rid of somebody you might have to get rid of somebody in your chapter to protect the chapter and that’s that accountability is really really hard for students um so you know I think that that’s a
Great lesson there and I also think you know of us as speakers you know people look at us as speakers on a stage and they’re like yeah that’s sexy right there yeah it is sexy but you have no idea how much work goes into getting onto that stage yeah that is our reward
Is up on stage you don’t see the sweat and the tears and the you know the sleepless nights and how am I going to pay the bills yeah when I’m up on stage yeah you know Mike I used to do stand-up comedy and there
Was this guy who I used to uh I used to do shows with and I would watch him rehearse the same joke over and over and over again and he would rehearse it down to how he would hold his hand and and he was a smoker so he would rehearse it
Down to how he held his cigarette and everything and and and I sat there and I just watched him one day and and and at first I was like man he’s really obsessed and I said no he’s really focused um and he knows how much work is going
To take if he’s gonna do a good routine and his routines were always great and everybody thought that he was just coming up with this stuff on the fly on stage like he was rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing and he put a lot of hard work into the uh into the
Routines that he did yeah that’s really good and you know you’ve also done incredible work in terms of public relations Communications marketing you’ve worked for several higher ed institutions we’re talking about Southern University of New Orleans Paul Quinn college Dillard University what is the biggest challenge right now in your
Opinion for higher education in the area of marketing and Communications they’re actually two things that keep me up um one thing keeps me up at night is how internal politics can compromise the marketing Communications operations on campus one of the unfortunate things is that everybody thinks marcom is easy
Work so they honestly the way that they approach it is oh you have the Arts and Crafts shop just go ahead and make it pretty for us and it’s like no that’s not our job you know marketing number one is on the business side of the house
Communication is more on is more on the business side house but it’s a different part and so you know is is really um is really tough when you have these internal politics and people make a whole lot of marketing decisions before it even gets to the marketing department and then now we
Have to clean it up right and so that’s one thing and and it compromises marcom operations all over campus I don’t care what university you’re talking about I have all these colleagues who are just like from Big 30 000 student universities to small thousand student universities you know
Um but the biggest thing that keeps me out up at night this is my main thing is that we have a big external challenge in higher education and that is this sense of cynicism that is growing uh the Chrono The Chronicle of Higher Education did a big article and they asked the
Question does does higher education need a big tent type of marketing campaign like the got milk campaign from years ago to Dairy Farmers and um and and I had a quote in that article and one of the things that I I talked about when I I was talking to the reporter is that
You know we have got to do a better job I think nationally you got over 4 000 colleges and universities we have to do a much better job of showing higher education as one big buffet and how students can can choose whatever they want from that Buffet as opposed to
Trying to make students go to certain colleges and universities you know and so you have the families of privilege who are saying well my kid has got to go to Stanford my kid has got to go to Georgetown they’ve got to go to uh Northwestern or Harvard or someplace
Like that and then you have on the other end of the spectrum you have a lot of black families who are saying oh no my kid has got to go to an HBCU they better go to nhbcu well instead of doing that show these kids the entire Buffet right
And and and I think by trying to make kids go in certain directions I think that really really really grows that sense of cynicism that we see um and I think I think also that contributes to this thing that we have and it’s always been a thing it’s not
Like it’s a new thing at all but I think it’s getting a little bit more pronounced where you’re getting more of that colleges and for everybody sentiment um and I agree with that college isn’t for everybody but in a black community that affects us worse than anybody else
Because now if you have a black kid who is saying College isn’t forever everybody well that’s one less black doctor and that’s one less black lawyer and we need those doctors and lawyers in the black community in particular so I think this growing sense of cynicism is
Something that really really is a big challenge for the communications and marketing area because now we have to constantly figure out how to authentically present these colleges and universities so that students are saying to us or you just want you just show me the picture of the Happy Kid ah nobody’s
Happy all the time he’s like yeah no you’re right nobody’s happy all the time but I’m certainly not going to show you a picture of the disgusted kid get out of here but but I think I think our challenge is to deal with that cynicism we have to
Figure out how to present our colleges and universities in a much more authentic way but then also um in a way that is much more accessible for students of various types of tastes that’s great Insight from a veteran in the industry I really like that a lot and you’re right about that growing
Cynicism I think especially for public universities that get funding from the state there’s a lot of pressure to show results with that money and now you’re starting to see politics and higher education are starting to weave together you’re getting University presidents that are really politicians that are
Starting to step into that role and now everything is all uh convoluted uh in terms of politics and and universities so yeah really interesting landscape that uh we’re looking at right now for sure yeah yeah it is that that the the pop the political sentiment is really
Going to make things much much tougher on everybody on campuses unfortunately yep yep for sure now I want to talk about your program because I think it’s amazing since 2003 the black Greek success program has helped divine nine College members to enhance their leadership skills by focusing on their
Unique identities as Protectors of a proud Legacy of service within divine nine organizations talk to our audience about that Legacy of service you know one of the things I was trying to figure out when I when I thought about this program um was I was trying to figure out how is
It that members of African-American fraternities and sorority specifically the divine nine how do we manage to get into these spaces all the time where we can make this change how do we I you know and it was just it was really I don’t I don’t want to say it was
Bothering me it was intriguing me how we were able to make an impact a very small group of people making a large impact all over the place and I don’t think that in a Divine act we think of ourselves that way all the time uh and we should think of ourselves that way
And so I I think when you talk about having to um when you talk about having to to protect this Legacy um you know let’s let’s think very simply about something like the Harlem Renaissance you know when you think about the Harlem Renaissance excuse me 9
Times out of ten the first name that anybody is going to think about is probably can you think of somebody by any chance are you familiar cheese probably and you would know better than I so so Langston Hughes is the first one that’s going to come up right okay
Langston Hughes was a little was a member of Omega sci-fi sure uh you you’re gonna get people who are going to blurt out immediately zorny or Hurston and say to Phi Beta you’re gonna get people who are going to blurt out immediately James Weldon Johnson he was
Phi Beta Sigma and so you have all these all these uh members of the at the time the grade eight who were some influential somehow influential on one of the biggest intellectual movements in American history and then you think of um you think of the Civil Rights Movement right Civil Rights Movement
First name is gonna come up it’s gonna be Martin Luther King absolutely right so Martin Luther King he’s a member of alpha uh Ralph Abernathy who was often right next to Martin Luther King Kappa Alpha Psi um John Lewis who we lost a few years
Ago or a couple years ago a member of Phi Beta Sigma and then if you think about the big political movement that happened um where you have had these these um uh pioneering African-American leaders you know in politics right now we have Kamala Harris who we all know is an AKA
Right a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha but were it not for surely Chisholm you know a member of Delta Sigma Theta we might not even have seen a Kamala Harris yeah um and then you have some of the other Pioneers uh like the first black governor of Maryland West Moore who’s a
Member of Alpha Phi Alpha the first black governor of uh Virginia Douglas Wilder who’s a member of Omega sci-fi so this is what this is the Legacy that I think we have to protect and I think now is the time for us to reach our college
Students and to really let them know you were standing on the shoulders of some incredible Giants here yeah um so you have an enormous responsibility but it’s not a responsibility that somebody is forcing on you you decided that you want to be a member of one of these fraternities and
Sororities that these people came from now you made that call so since you made the call you have chosen to taken up a pretty enormous mantle a pretty heavy mantle and so um with the black Greek success program does is that it it first of all it makes
The argument to students that you have this unique identity but then it also makes the argument to students that with this unit we unique identity you got to do something about it you got to do something with it and so uh you made this Choice what do you do with this
Unique identity how do you put it into action as a campus leader and then let later on as a community leader yeah it’s like Spider-Man right with great power comes great responsibility I mean yes that’s really it is when you put those letters on there’s a responsibility that
Comes with that and I don’t know that people really understand that when they first join so thank goodness for uh the Black Creek success program to really frame that up uh in terms of that Legacy of service and uh you’re absolutely right I mean you can trace that through
The divine nine I think having those conversations especially with newer members that might not be familiar with all of that right that’s huge I mean that that’s absolutely huge and changes the way they think about their membership in the organization um so you know how do you make the most
Of your college experience then yeah I think you know one of the story that I really love to tell students is that um you know I I kind of missed the point of college while I was there um I was there I mean you know my parents were College alumni I mean they
They both have master’s degrees and and they were both High School teachers they were both Educators and so the next logical thing for me to do after high school was to get my butt on somebody’s college campus and and so I kind of went to it blindly to be honest
With you you know because to me it was just something I was supposed to do and one of the things uh that I admit to students you know Mike I’m sure you’ve heard the joke that they’re those who graduate some of laude there those who graduate magna laude any of
Those are graduate thank you Lottie right so I was a thank you laude graduate so and so I talk about that you know um and and I tell students that what I learned through my experience of just kind of floating through college and and and you know kind of have to beg
My way out of college you know beg my way to graduation um is is that first of all you have to ask yourself why are you even here why are you even on the campus but I found that when it comes to students there’s a difference between asking them why are
You in college and what do you plan to do with that degree you’re going to earn and there’s a big difference between those two questions that second question is the one that really gets them thinking and so when it comes down to making the most of the college
Experience I think the way students make the most of their college experience number one is by having a sense of vision visualize what it is you want to do with that degree but then also having a sense of purpose understanding why it is that you were here and then also having a sense
Of accountability uh holding yourself accountable for all the mistakes that you make when you’re in college being very honest about those mistakes but at the same time celebration victories and have a good time please by all means go to the parties and and do all the do all the fun stuff but
Um but definitely have that sense of vision purpose and accountability to carry it through makes total sense to me now you know a lot of the fraternity and sorority members that are listening right now they’re thinking about uh Brotherhood they’re thinking about Sisterhood they’re thinking about solidarity in their organizations and I
Feel like you know a lot of that leads to hazing and other problems you know and that’s a conversation for another time but you talk about this gumbo theory of improving your chapter chemistry tell us about the gumbo Theory because everybody listening wants to improve their chapter chemistry yeah
That that actually is a fan favorite uh students love it when I do the gumbo Theory and that’s because first of all I’ll talk about gumbo I mean you know who doesn’t like that yeah exactly who doesn’t like gumbo except for people who just don’t know their purpose in life yeah so
Um so first of all you know the so I I’m a cook you know I I spend a lot of time in the kitchen that the kitchen is my happy place so I make gumbo and when I cook gumbo it always amazes me how you get all these ingredients and there’s
This process involved in doing it and you have to figure out how to get all these ingredients to work together for one of the most popular dishes in the country and so um you know the way it works is that I like to look at every personality in a
Chapter as an ingredient in gumbo and there are these distinct parts parts of Gumbo that you have you know you have the meat you have the seasoning you have the roux you have all these different parts of it but the trick is and and without giving too much of what I talk
About away the trick is how to get all these how do you get the meat to work with the spice how do you get the spice to work with the roux how do you get the root and interact with the water and all these other things
Um and one of the things like with any other dish if you put too much of anything in something it’s probably not going to turn out too great if you don’t put enough of something then it’s not going to turn out to be great in gumbo the the worst thing you’re doing gumbo
Is mess up the root that is the absolute worst thing and for those who don’t know ruins your gravy base basically and so one of the things that I tell people is that if you mess up the rule of the gumbo that’s like having that’s like having very flawed
Leadership in your chapter because they are the base you know they set the tone you know you can’t you can’t burn them you know you can’t you can’t undercook it you can’t do any of that stuff and so what I talk to the students about when I
Talk about the gumbo theory is number one identifying those Personalities in the chapter but then also getting those personalities well first of all identifying the personalities but then number two realizing that every personality has value that is a huge part of it even those annoying spicy people in a chapter who are always
Argumentative who are always saying stop the meeting I know we’re almost done with the agenda but I have an issue here don’t give me point of order because I need to speak you know so you know but they bring value and the question is how do you take what it is
That they’re giving you and how do you use it so that there’s that value added to the chapter it really is more of an art than a science Mike and you know that as well as anybody absolutely I really like that analogy a lot I mean
You know the reason why I say that is is that you know we’re almost fighting um the way that we’re wired as humans because we want to bring people into the chapter that are just like us I mean that’s kind of the way that we’re wired
And you kind of have to fight that a little bit and think about this logically and say okay what are we missing from the chapter what positions do we not have you know maybe somebody who’s an accounting major to be a Treasurer or somebody who’s very
Creative and and you know is going to help us win Greek week I mean there are things pieces that you need and even you know Greek week is a is a really good example I mean you need to show talent in a lot of different areas not just
Athletics you need to have scholarship and academics down you got to have creativity for the banner that you’re going to be making you know so you need all of these pieces and if you’re going to only get guys that are all from your high school you know it’s not going to
Work out well for you yeah and you know like it’s it’s the thing about fraternity is that you get dropped into this ready-made family yeah you know like like the the concept of like you don’t have you don’t have time to get up to speed on it you get initiated you get
Your letters and now you got to be somebody’s brother and you have to really understand what that means like there is weight to that right and so it’s not so much that you have to do it but everybody else around campus sees the they see the label fraternity on
Your group so their expectation is that you will actually be brothers or you will actually be sisters and one of the things I do mention um in the black Greek success program is you have those people outside of your chapter who who kind of like to try to
Pick your chapter apart to see what you’re really made of um and so that happens to everybody you know who’s in a fraternity or a sorority so you know you get dropped you get dropped into the gumbo man you got to figure out how you’re gonna mix it up
With those other ingredients and how you’re gonna make it work yeah and you know the same thing is true when you get out in the real world you’re gonna have a team of people reporting to you you got to figure out how you’re going to make all these pieces work together and
And work in unison and that I think hopefully the fraternity and sorority experience gives you that ability to do that out in the real world um you know one of the things that we should definitely talk about you know sexual assaults are happening on college campuses all across the country
Um and we’re seeing sometimes even demonstrations out in front of fraternity houses um and and you see that the students are asking for um just more accountability from uh the university when it comes to these cases more transparency when it comes to adjudication of these cases how can
Fraternity men specifically help in the fight against sexual assaults yeah I’m giving my top three the number one thing is guys you gotta have an open discussion like you have got to openly talk to one another about it and you gotta be willing to go into those uncomfortable parts of the discussion
Which includes if you yourself have been sexually assaulted um and and a lot of guys we don’t like to talk about that but you have to because if you don’t get it out in the open then nobody is going to understand how big of an issue it is and how
Pervasive of an issue it is um I think the second thing is men I think really need to produce more domestic violence awareness events um especially surrounding sexual assault um because women are looking to us you know let’s be clear as men we have a lot
Of power and we have a lot of influence and We Know It We Know It And so when we are the ones who are walking up and and saying you know what we’re going to produce an event and we would like your guidance on this event ladies and and I
Think that’s really a tremendous thing that any group of men can do to show that they are in tune and we want to do something about it um and I think the other thing is and this is really I think a big thing is volunteer a domestic um domestic abuse shelters
Um I think that’s a great opportunity for men to learn um and and of course when it comes down to doing it if there’s a if there is a domestic abuse shelter um in your area that you can volunteer at first of all ask what it is that you can do
Um and then a lot of times what they may say they may some they may say uh um small jobs like just fix a couple of things at the shelter it may be as simple as painting something or something like that um but when they do tell you what it is
Uh that they would like for you to do to assist assist take the time to listen to some of the stories and don’t just listen to the story to be listening to the story really really pause and think about it and in the case of sexual assault think about this person you know
Being someone very close to you if you’ve never had or if you’ve never been told about um about an incident that happened with someone close to you so those are three things that I think men can do I love those tips I think they’re fantastic and I think you know just reflecting after
You volunteer at a shelter like that I think could be really helpful I mean if all of the brothers would just Journal their thoughts about what they saw and heard and learned that particular day by volunteering at a shelter and then maybe sharing it with each other I just think
You can have incredible conversations around that so I think that reflection is super super important when you come out of something like that I hope that Brothers will take the time to do that um and listen to your words I think that’s really really important one last
Thing I love talking about which is because you know I believe in the fraternity and sorority system um and I think it really does help you in terms of you know leadership skills communication skills motivation skills I mean the list goes on and on and on but how can fraternity and sorority leaders
Improve their resume through that fraternity and sorority experience well one thing that I I that I want to fall back on um is you know you and I talked about how you know you can carry that experience from the gumbo Theory and all these personalities into the workforce one of the beautiful things
About the fraternity experience for me is that being around so many strong personalities uh I remember the first couple of professional meetings I sat in and I was sitting there like I’ve seen this before you know it was like I’ve seen these personalities before nothing in here nobody here surprising me at all
Because I have seen all of this so that being said though you got to show people now I’ve been in Talent acquisition and one of the things that I really want fraternity and sorority members to know is this there there has been there has been studies uh about how long it takes
Hiring managers and recruiters to look at resumes the average time is around 6.2 seconds that someone is going to look at a resume I used to be a high volume recruiter so I would look at hundreds of resumes per week my average time was between four and five seconds
Because I I just I had to get the room right I had to get through them and I had to get some candidates out there and I had to get some people into the pipeline with that being said stuff on your resume has got to really really
Show up and in the top third of the resume that’s where I think you have an important opportunity to really uh show people What You’re Made Of and one of the ways the major way I’m gonna say one major way is to really take the experiences that you’ve had with your
Chapter take take the experiences you’ve had on campus um the people skills that you’ve learned the technical skills that you’ve learned and sync as much of that as you can into a short profile at the very top of your resume right below your contact information
Um and as a Greek you’ve done it you’ve done it I mean like a fraternity a sorority that is a ready-made lead Leadership Institute so you you’ve you’ve had these opportunities to gather great communication skills uh great collaborative skills um project management is really something that a lot of people
Overlooked if you if you are someone who had to put together the last fundraiser you were the chair and you were the one who saw that thing through from beginning to end and then you did some sort of debrief on the back end of that
Of that uh of that event then guess what you have gotten some project management skills under your belt and that needs to be on your resume um and so really really um um take inventory of all the things that you are doing in your chapter and throughout campus gather all of those
Skills write those skills down and start putting those skills on your resume go to your career center and have the folks in your career center help you with this stuff or if you have people in your fraternity a sorority on the alumni level who you know are always evaluating
Resumes and that sort of thing if you know they run a business and that sort of thing ask them for help use your resources right and so I think the biggest thing that fraternity and sorority members can do is they can collect all of those skills that they
Are learning in Greek life and on campus put them on paper and start finding ways to incorporate that on the resumes beautifully said I love it now you and I both love good food I mean there’s no secret there where should we go for a
Great meal when we are in the new New Orleans area my favorite spot is dookie Chase uh dookie Chase is a historic restaurant it’s an old Creole cooking restaurant um I will put it to you this way I grew up a few blocks from ducky chase the
Gumbo at dookie Chase tastes just like the gumbo my dad used to make and so it is I mean it is a thing of beauty they use this Creole they they put Creole hot sausage in it um look at Chase also now my wife is she is a fried chicken connoisseur
And if you ask her dookie Chase serves the best fried chicken in New Orleans and so you just can’t go wrong with them um if you if you love great Creole cooking or if you want to try great Creole cooking dookie chases is my top love her all right I’m gonna go and
Check that out I mean how can you go wrong with fried chicken and gumbo I mean it’s like heaven on Earth right there and I do miss good Creole cooking I mean I live in Franklin Tennessee and there used to be a really good Creole restaurant uh with a couple of owners
That were from New Orleans they brought it to Tennessee and it was fantastic right downtown uh and my wife and I we fell in love with Franklin Tennessee because of that restaurant that’s how we knew this is where we were going to move from New York and unfortunately they
Went out of business during the whole pandemic a lot of the restaurants unfortunately had closed down and they were one of the casualties so now I gotta go to New Orleans in order to get real real cooking so so I’m gonna see you there for sure I’ll give you a call
We’re gonna go and we’re gonna go check that out please do man absolutely absolutely definitely gonna make that happen all right so if our listeners if they want to hire you to speak they want to bring the black Greek success program to their campus where should they go in
Order to connect with you and get you to speak on their campus Eddie francis.com just go to my website Eddie francis.com Eddie f-r-a-n-c-i-s um Eddie francis.com is where you can find me um and I will be more than happy to talk to you and uh one thing I one thing I
Love to do when it comes to the black ring success program if it’s okay with the people on campus you know the whoever is whoever’s organizing the event I’d really love to invite all Greeks to the event because I have found that all Greeks will come to me and say
Wait a minute that is not just for the Divine diet that works for us too um and then and also people who are interested in Greek life I love to extend that invitation to them as well that’s great that you’re making it open to all students on campus I think
There’s a ton to learn here I mean you know we put together these books that are primarily aimed at fraternity and sorority leaders but all the concepts that we teach any college student can use this in order to advance their career or to be successful Beyond
College so I agree with you there I love that it’s open to everybody and who knows maybe you invite a student to come to the black Greek success program and they end up joining a fraternity or sorority on campus that’s not a bad thing I mean we should do a little bit
More of that in my opinion yes absolutely you know I I always you know I always tell folks um you never know what kind of special student you’re missing out on if you don’t extend that invitation to them and sometimes the best prospects of the students who don’t say anything at all
Because they don’t think it’s for them um I I really don’t think that I would be in the divine nine today if a brother had not come to me and it simply invited me to a meeting um and so you know you never know who is
Being way too shy to say something and don’t hold it against them that they’re shy please don’t do that um because again you just don’t know what kind of potential leader you’re going to be growing if if you don’t say something to that student who you who
You know to be really talented and you know that they’re really smart and you know they will look good in your letters so yeah so I that’s why I love to open that invitation up yeah don’t dismiss those shy people out there I tell you
What I was one of them and now I’m a public speaker speaking to 4 000 college students believe me you’re going to get all kinds of skills as a result of the fraternity we’re all better because of our affiliation with the organization so don’t forget that you know people don’t
Just come right out of the shoot as an instant leader they develop those leadership skills over time in the organization so give them a chance and invite them and all of us as members we were invited to come to a recruitment event at some point so you got to do the
Same thing and you got to extend it to another student absolutely this has been a lot of fun Eddie I’ve really enjoyed it thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom with our audience today thank you so much Mike I really really appreciate it and I have fun man very
Good it’s been a pleasure and to our listening audience if you enjoyed this talk with Eddie make sure that you like it and you share it on social media if you want to invite him to your campus go to eddiefrancis.com and go and bring them to your campus he is absolutely
Fantastic thank you so much for joining us and we will see you on another episode of the paternity foodie podcast we’ll see you next time foreign
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