Living in Joy, Empathy and Imagination with the Co-Creator of Kid President

Change Starts Here and host Dustin Odham, Thought Leader for FranklinCovey Education, are back with another thought-provoking and inspiring episode – this time featuring a bona fide legend in the field of education.

 

In 2013, a video swept through the internet, bringing joy to all who viewed it. It featured then-11-year-old Robby Novak, dressed to the nines in a suit, tie and sneakers, delivering a pep talk as the now fabled “Kid President.”

Brad Montague, Novak’s brother-in-law, was part of the dynamic duo that made that video happen. Since, Kid President’s videos have been viewed over 100 million times.

Montague, whose stated mission these days is to “create stories that cultivate empathy and imagination in kids and former kids,” joined host Dustin Odham on this episode of Change Starts Here to explore how he and his family are “joyfully rebelling” against the way things are to craft a better world.

Since Kid President, Montague has authored “Becoming Better Grownups” and helped bring to life “Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome,” and his conversation with Odham centered on ways to focus on love and your “why” as opposed to the simple “what” of your day-to-day journey through life.

Montague told a story about how he and Novak met Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who sidestepped Montague’s most-dreaded question, “What do you do for a living?,” with a new one – “What do you love about what you do?”

“It’s really cool when you hear somebody put words to their love,” Montague said. “I’m a words person, so I need to hear those things. I think for any team, anywhere to hear from their fellow team members why they love being with them, why they love the little things about their work. … That breathes life to even more good.”

The opinions in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of FranklinCovey or the Change Starts Here Podcast. You can access the full notice and disclaimer at this link: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e498c459-cdca-4a53-80c5-33d53c9a1359

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

AI
What Does Winning Look Like in the Age of AI-Driven Marketing?
November 24, 2025

As AI-powered tools—from agentic browsers to enterprise copilots—rapidly reshape how consumers search, learn, and buy, leaders are being forced to rethink not just their tech stack, but their teams, processes, and expectations. With 92% of companies planning to increase AI investments while only 1% consider their deployments mature, a clear disconnect emerges between AI excitement…

Read More
Karen Alter
Why the Best Leaders Don’t Climb Straight Ladders: How Karen Alter Built Success Through Detours
November 24, 2025

As companies push to decarbonize, modernize infrastructure, and bring new technologies to market, the leaders who stand out aren’t always the ones who followed a straight career path. Increasingly, it’s the people with the zigzags—the folks who’ve worked across different industries, adapted to new environments, and learned to make decisions under pressure—who bring the clarity…

Read More
intuition
Allowing Inspiration to Grow from Intuition: How Inner Guidance Drives Real Career Growth
November 21, 2025

In a workplace culture increasingly shaped by rapid change, rising expectations, and new definitions of leadership, professionals are redefining success beyond titles and output. Empathy, intuition, and inner alignment — once seen as intangible “nice-to-haves” — are now emerging as competitive advantages. As recent workforce studies show that human-centered leaders drive higher engagement and…

Read More
SEO
SEO in the Age of AI: What CMOs and CEOs Need to Know About AEO and GEO
November 20, 2025

In an era when AI-driven search experiences are reshaping how customers discover brands, marketing leaders are navigating a confusing landscape of new acronyms, shifting behaviors, and bold industry predictions. Despite widespread claims that “SEO is dead,” the data tells a different story: organic search traffic has continued to grow even as platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini,…

Read More