There's a moment when someone stops talking about success and starts living it so visibly that the room shifts. It happens quietly—not in grand statements, but in the way a person describes picking up trash from a factory floor at dawn, or remembering the name of the one employee who sweeps each morning. This is what happens when values aren't decorations on a wall; they're reflexes.

Keith Mundee, president of American Hat Company since 2011, brings a legacy built on something larger than commerce—a cattle brand turned mantra, a symbol that means "positive times," and a commitment to the next generation. In this episode of Growing Our Future (FFA), you'll hear how a simple hat becomes a mirror for who you choose to be, and how one person's decision to show up every day changed everything. This conversation is about discipline, consistency, and what it means when your choices finally match your values.

Aaron Alejandro, host of Growing Our Future (FFA), has spent his career in agricultural education watching young people discover their own potential. He recognizes something in Mundy's approach—not because it's theoretical, but because it works. They're both architects of the same future, just building in different spaces.

Author, speaker, and life coach Brad Lomenick sits down to discuss life strategies like the "who factor" people in life that encourage, equip, and empower. Be a positive catalyst in an organization and the importance of being humble, hungry, and full of hustle.

We explore how gratitude beats entitlement, why access plus hustle changes careers, and how H3—humility, hunger, hustle—becomes a durable edge for students, educators, and leaders in agriculture. Brad shares the “who factor,” feedback loops, and the art of creating mile markers that last.

• gratitude as a leader’s temperature setter
• entitlement contrasted with service and hospitality
• R2A2 framework for turning ideas into action
• Brad’s journey, mentors, and the who factor
• building networks and using access without entitlement
• curiosity as a core leadership habit
• H3 framework: humility, hunger, hustle in balance
• rhythms that prevent burnout and enable generosity
• agriculture’s future: tech, relationships, communication
• feedback loops and practical self-awareness
• memory moments and creating mile markers for others

Go out and do something great for somebody. You might just plant that tree under whose shade you may never see

Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org

On this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, we have the chance to sit down with Kerri LeDoux, Executive Director of the Live Like Johnny Organization and mother to the late Johnny Callan. Kerri shares a heartfelt testimony of Johnny's life and the example he led. She shares his desire to help others and how the FFA became the vehicle for him to live his brand.

At the time Johnny was a Ford Leadership Scholar and President of the Area IV FFA Association, Tyler Koch was the Leadership Development Coordinator. He shares the following about Johnny, "Johnny Callan wore the blue jacket like so many before him, and set the gold standard for genuinely selfless service like no other." He went on to say, "In my office at the Buzbee Law Firm I keep two photos, one of my daughter Meadow, and the other is of Johnny’s Dock. Johnny’s dock is my daily reminder to try and live, work, serve, and love like Johnny, so that my daughter just might live like Johnny too."

You'll enjoy this story of Johnny and how we too can "live our brand" to make a meaningful impact on our community.

Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org