From Lifelong Immigrant to Education CEO: Leading With Compassion for Multilingual Learners – with Dr. Daniel Velasco

Mike Montoya: 00:00:00 Welcome to the Stronger podcast. Each week we have honest conversation with education and social impact leaders about their leadership and career journeys. We talk about their origins, inflection points, and the work that they're doing today. The conversations are honest, human, and practical. If you're here for real stories, and real takeaways, you're in the right place. Let's jump in and let's get stronger together.

Mike Montoya: 00:00:30 In this episode, my guest is Daniel Velasco, the president and CEO of Ensemble Learning. Our chat starts where leadership often begins, lived experience. Daniel and I talk about what it takes to lead through complexity, especially when your work is personal. He brings a clear message. Sustainable change comes from strategy, compassion, and relationships, not just urgency. Let's jump in.

Mike Montoya: 00:01:00 Before we dive into today's conversation, I want to give a quick shout out to podcastmatter.com. Their mission is to help impact driven voices get the visibility they deserve. If you want to share your message with the world, check out their website in the show notes.

Mike Montoya: 00:01:30 Good morning, Daniel.

Daniel Velasco: 00:01:32 How are you, Mike?

Mike Montoya: 00:01:34 I'm great. It's good to see you. Thanks for being with us. Um, our audience, this is Daniel Velasco, and him and I have known each other. We accidentally ran into each other, I don't know, like 10 years ago roughly, um, at some meetings and some places. And so, here we are together uh, many years uh, practicing our friendship and our and our work relationship. So, um, thanks for being here.

Daniel Velasco: 00:01:58 Of course. I can't say no to you, Mike.

Mike Montoya: 00:02:02 Um, can you tell just for the listeners to know like tell like tell us who you are and like roughly in the world where you are physically um so that we all have a picture of your life. That'd be great.

Daniel Velasco: 00:02:15 Sure. So my name is Daniel. I go by Daniel or Danny or Daniel. Um I am the president and CEO of Ensemble Learning. Um I am originally from Peru. I'm half Colombian, grew up in Venezuela, have been an immigrant my whole life. Um and the US and Spain and France back to the US. Um I live in Miami, Florida and I've been with my current organization for just under three years.

Mike Montoya: 00:02:40 Awesome. And we um we have we have to immediately talk about Peru because I did not know that's of your origin because I just went to Peru uh and just came back with all my body intact. So let's talk about that. Did you grow were you born there and grew up there?

Daniel Velasco: 00:02:58 Oh, so I was born in Lima and then uh around a year older. So, my family immigrated to Venezuela and my dad was a foreign service worker um representing Peru in Venezuela.

Mike Montoya: 00:03:10 Okay.

Daniel Velasco: 00:03:11 And we were there for roughly 10 years. Um and we'd spend most of our time in Caracas, but then would go back to Bogota for a couple months a year. And so we would kind of go back and forth and of course we we had to go back to Lima uh for a certain amount of time every year. So we did that.

Daniel Velasco: 00:03:31 So when you listen to me speaking in Spanish, it's pretty hard to discern where I'm from. Because I think as a child in order to survive socially, you're trying to like blend in. You don't want to be like different. And so as like a 6, seven, 10-year-old, you're kind of mirroring the accent of where you're at because you're being bullied, right? Like I would get to Colombia and my cousins would bully me because I sounded different.

Mike Montoya: 00:03:52 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:03:54 And I would get to Peru and then we sounded different again and then we'd come back to Caracas and we no longer sounded like we lived in Venezuela. And so so when I'm around Colombians, I'll like back into my Bogota accent. Not consciously, but it is just like my brain turns that channel on, you know.

Daniel Velasco: 00:04:20 Um, and I've noticed it in myself and now, um, my family just immigrated to Spain like a month ago. Um, and so they're back in and they're now in Valencia and I can't wait to see my nieces and nephew because I know they're going to sound Spanish. Uh, they're one, seven, and nine. And so, um, we definitely picked up the Spanish accent when we lived there. Um, in their 20s. So, it'll be it'll be it's a fun fun way to live our lives, I guess.

Mike Montoya: 00:04:45 It's a fun way to live your life. I mean, yeah. So, that's so interesting like the the dialects, right, that come out in the and as you said, the emphasis, right, in different pieces of the South America, right? Kids get picked on. I mean, just as you said, getting no matter what, right? Like it's just like a natural thing for children to be with each other. It sometimes becomes traumatic, right, of of sorts. So, um what was what was school like in Venezuela? Like what is it similar to a US experience like or not at all or what do you how would you explain that?

Daniel Velasco: 00:05:22 No. So, we went to a a private um dual immersion uh school. It was a K12 um probably 500 kids across the whole school. Um so it was Spanish English immersion. Um and it was very much like the 1% of Caracas or Venezuela went to school with us. It was all the international workers kids, like the American ambassador's kids, the president's granddaughters. Um so we moved in this world of like bodyguards and things like that. Um where like safety was um a huge concern as kids like we couldn't be alone. We certainly couldn't be out on the street by ourselves. And this is in the 90s, you know, this is before Venezuela got like rough.

Mike Montoya: 00:06:08 Creepy. Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:06:10 Yeah. Um when we would go to Bogota, it was similar, you know, like we weren't really out in in the city with our cousins. We were very very much watched. Um and it was it was quite a shock I guess moving to the states um in the late 90s. We moved in the actually right around this time. It was like the 28th of January, something like that. Um to New Jersey on a Friday and we moved just with our dad. Our mom stayed back in Venezuela to try to like get rid of some of our stuff.

Daniel Velasco: 00:06:46 And that weekend our dad took us shopping. You know, we were 11 and 13 and we'd never shopped for or I'd never shopped for my own clothes. Like everything was always laid out like here's your uniform and then here's your like soccer uniform and your Sunday clothes were always kind of provided. Um but that weekend we had to go shopping for clothes to go to school in in the winter and we'd never like had to do that. And on Monday my sister and I had to walk to school which in the snow. Um, and it is kind of that little stories.

Mike Montoya: 00:07:22 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:07:23 You know what's so hysterical is my dad, bless his heart over the weekend, he drove us, it was like four blocks. It was not that far. Um, he like drove in the car while we walked to school cuz my sister and I went to the middle school just to make sure that we knew the route. Like the next that Monday, my dad would leave at 6:00 in the morning to go into New York City because he was going to school at NYU. So my sister and I were left to kind of fend for ourselves to get to school.

Daniel Velasco: 00:07:50 We the on the way out of the house we we made the wrong choice. Like the very first point we went the wrong direction. And so like 20 minutes later there's a crossing guard that's like really far away from the school and she was like where are you going? And we were like we're going to Eastbrook Middle School. And she's like you're in the wrong direction. She drove us to school.

Mike Montoya: 00:08:18 To school.

Daniel Velasco: 00:08:19 Oh my god. And so we showed up at the school like the new kid kids in the middle of the year, late, lost, looking like total clowns cuz like we didn't know how to pick out clothes. So that was our first day in American public schools. Um I eventually went to we moved to Florida and I went to um high school in Sanford where only 52% of us graduated high school. Those started um 9th grade. And so it was very different. Um it was large comprehensive high school where you know eventually those would get coined as like dropout factories.

Mike Montoya: 00:09:00 Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:09:02 It's a horrible way to describe a community but um I went into an IB program that kind of um sheltered me in a way.

Mike Montoya: 00:09:10 Protected you from the chaos of the big.

Daniel Velasco: 00:09:12 Yeah. From the chaos of being in a 30,000 student high school. You know, I'd been in a in school in Venezuela three years before where there were like 30 or 40 kids per grade.

Mike Montoya: 00:09:25 Yeah. Huge difference. Well, and I'll just kind of give this to the listeners, right? Like the the the concept of large suburban comprehensive high schools, right, is like a part of a, you know, the machine of the American public school system. And when 50% of the kids don't make it through high school, uh they're kind of like, you know, not doing their job very well is kind of the the argument, right? And then they have these programs that are like magnets or things that call out um kind of kids that are more gifted in some ways or their parents are more I call it engaged, right? In their school experience like this is how we're going to make sure you get through, right? But a lot of kids just don't make it, right? Half of the kids in that particular set of circumstances, right?

Daniel Velasco: 00:10:08 Even those that made it into the program, right? We started 250 kids or something like that in the IB program, 9th grade, and we graduated like 48.

Mike Montoya: 00:10:20 Yep.

Daniel Velasco: 00:10:21 And then those 48, like only 40 got the IB diploma. So, it was you were cutting it. And it became more and more white as you moved, you know, like wealthier, whiter, wealthier, whiter as we went through like all the kids of color from lower SES that had less access to tutor and less access to things like that. I was I felt very isolated and I still felt I'm a light-skinned Latino uh cisgender man and I still, you know, I think was trying to blend into like white society because of that.

Mike Montoya: 00:10:55 Because you still have dark hair, right? And and like you have an accent still spinning off and they.

Daniel Velasco: 00:11:02 And I'm lit right now. So, and it's a winter, you know.

Mike Montoya: 00:11:06 We're all pale. It's a pale season. Wait till the summer um then you have more guts. So uh so lots of um and then you went to college somewhere successfully uh um and made it through and I think you ended up with a couple of degrees. So what did you end up studying in college and graduate school like and how did you get to that focus?

Daniel Velasco: 00:11:28 So I um started at University of Central Florida um and I went for a degree in international relations and comparative politics and economics. About halfway through that, I decided I wanted to move abroad. And so I moved to Spain for a semester and then to France for a year. And while I was in France, I went to school there and I got a bachelor's in business administration. So I finished in France first, then got them to let me try. Well, I got UCF to let me be in France on my full ride. And so they took all the credits from France and applied them to my degree in the US. So I graduated with almost 200 undergrad credits. It was kind of wild.

Mike Montoya: 00:12:15 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:12:17 Yeah. I came back and um I had essentially a semester or so left, but I had a full ride. So I wanted to live out the full four years. So I did um a semester in New York and then a semester in DC doing like full-time internships um unpaid, which you know I I won't take an unpaid intern personally because I think it's it really locks people out. It was really hard for me to be an unpaid intern. Um, but then I I finished I went I did Teach for America in California. Um I helped open a a charter school that then became a network of dual immersion schools.

Daniel Velasco: 00:12:43 Um went to grad school there for teaching because in California you need to be in a master's program in order to be in an emergency credential. Uh like a teaching credential.

Mike Montoya: 00:13:08 Credential. Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:13:10 Um I finished teaching. Um, I didn't see teaching as a pathway to the middle class for my family. I've I've spoken about this before in other interviews and um, unfortunately I left because I love teaching. I'm still in touch with a bunch of my kids that were kindergarteners and are now a handful of them are teachers. Um, but I left to Boston um, went to Clark University for a masters in international development and social change. And I kept kind of getting pulled into education as like the lever for social change like how you can actually create intergenerational change in society.

Daniel Velasco: 00:13:44 Um, I finished that and it was we were still in sort of the great recession. Jobs were really hard um to get. So I stayed in school. Uh, then went to Harvard for education policy and management. And that was a pivot point. You know, I do think that like the world perceived me differently. I don't think I was all that different coming out of Harvard, but the world to this day like sees they hear that and like you people pause, right?

Mike Montoya: 00:14:18 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:14:20 Um, and that just says something to what we've told the world is of value, you know, is worthy.

Mike Montoya: 00:14:26 That particular school, right, in particular, I mean, like your contemporaries and your peers, a lot of them have advanced degrees, right, from special, you know, Ivy type schools, right? And so like it doesn't feel abnormal amongst the peers, right? But you start to get into like, you know, a couple of levels removed from your core group and you're like, oh, people are like, oh s***, Harvard is a real thing. And it becomes so shiny for some people, right?

Daniel Velasco: 00:14:52 And we've I've noticed the further away I get from Boston, the more like impressed people are. Um, yeah. And I try to activate that for good to be honest. Like I mean, I guess I could have gone into lots of other types of work, but um I try to think about the privilege that that has given me and how do I broker that for others that will never get into or go to Harvard nor should they have to in order to have leadership voice in the sector.

Daniel Velasco: 00:15:49 Um, but I finished that and that was a program um that also took me to the business school to do um like a part of it was in strategic planning for nonprofits and then uh so I kind I've gone to school to do the thing I'm doing you know um to um get a doctorate at Hopkins um and I focused on educational leadership but specifically change management in schools.

Daniel Velasco: 00:16:18 Um I should mention I've worked full time since I was um in undergrad. So, I worked all through all those degrees to help pay for school, but also to support my family. Um, and at the time that was hard and it sucked and I saw all my other classmates having a different experience in grad school than I did. Um, but I still had a lot of fun and I still made a lot of friends and um I I got work experience while I was in school. So, I do think it made me slightly more competitive at the on the way out because I I still I'd been doing things, you know, in the sector. Um, but that was it. Once I was finished with my dissertation, I think I was 29 or 30. I was like, yeah, unless I don't recommend the scenic route that I took to most people.

Mike Montoya: 00:16:45 Well, it's a it's a that's a long route, right? And and but you were doing your you were working at the same time. So, maybe can we pull on the thread of like this like economic mobility piece? You talked about like a pathway to the middle class, right? So, in in the United States in particular, right? So, I don't know what there's an immigrant story here, right? One, and then there's I don't know what your family's resources were like uh in Venezuela, but in the United States, it became a different conversation possibly, right? So, like is there a driver for you here to like make sure that you're safe and secure and your family is safe and secure financially or what's that like?

Daniel Velasco: 00:17:28 Yeah, I mean I having experienced like what it having access and then when we immigrated here, it was very different. It was we moved into a basement in someone's house in New Jersey and then uh my dad did eventually work but then the dot-com bust lost his job like we were kind of relied on by the time I turned 22 or so um my parents had effectively lost like everything and so it became clear to my sister and I that we were going to have we always knew that we would take care of our parents I don't think we anticipated doing it so young.

Mike Montoya: 00:18:05 So early yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:18:08 Yeah So we we witnessed like I sat in the driveway of my parents house while like the bank came to itemize my mom's stuff and they came to take the cars and like so that I think was really jarring and I was at Harvard at the time right so it was this like juxtaposition of being in this place of privilege while watching like my family's like wellness just be fully just like the floor pulled from under us. And so I think I took on um sort of a role of caregiver or of like okay someone has to like I finished um undergrad before my sister and so even though she's a little older because she'd had her own like path she was going through and I think I self assigned myself to that that like I have to make sure that like this family finds a way into the middle class and like entrenches ourselves there right that like one loss of a job doesn't create this kind of ripple, you know?

Mike Montoya: 00:19:05 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:19:07 And so that was part of why I left. Like I knew that, you know, my parents um uh economic problems didn't happen overnight. They were like many years from the time I was in college to the time I finished at TFA. So it's probably three or four years. In fact, I I said to my husband, Ray, I think our first date or soon thereafter that I couldn't see myself like buying myself a home until I put my parents back in a home of their own. And that was 2011. In 2016, we bought my parents their house in our Well, we bought the front porch, right? Like we put a down payment on the house.

Mike Montoya: 00:19:48 Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:19:50 But we put them back in like a home of their own. And we like depleted every asset we had in order to do that because I couldn't see myself like I would have a lot of guilt going to like a restaurant or doing anything for myself because I felt like I was falling short of this like larger responsibility of like ensuring my family um was safe and secure and that there wasn't going to be um you know another round of this. Um I like pressed my sister really hard to go to grad school and then eventually she did and she killed it and she's like thriving, you know, um because she's a really hard worker. Um but I I put that on myself, right, of like the only path forward in this country is through like not just higher education but like getting into these white dominated like Ivies, right? Um where people will open doors for you all of a sudden.

Mike Montoya: 00:20:45 Yep. Social capital becomes a real um right when you get into circle, right? Yeah, for sure.

Daniel Velasco: 00:20:52 Yeah. And and I think for those of us that are for you know immigrants like gen zero immigrants um there has been this like there is this layer of pressure that like you know going into education was not celebrated at first um as a sector, right?

Mike Montoya: 00:21:10 Yeah, sure.

Daniel Velasco: 00:21:12 My family was like, "Well, you should be going into something that.

Mike Montoya: 00:21:15 Go be a lawyer.

Daniel Velasco: 00:21:17 Yeah. Go be a lawyer. Go like, you know, go into banking, go into something that will like speed up the family's ability to be stable. Um and I think they always meant it from a van the vantage point of my sister and not having more access. I don't think my parents ever anticipated that some of the decisions they made along the way would lead them to that situation. But yeah, um I'm really proud of what we've accomplished as a family. I think we've done it together. I couldn't have done it without them or without my husband. So, um it does take a village.

Mike Montoya: 00:21:55 It does take well and like the respons the transfer of responsibility. This has happened with as you said gen zero kids, right? They become either the interpreters for their family, right? Um they become the medical uh liaison, right, for for families.

Daniel Velasco: 00:22:12 Um you you learn the financial systems, right? As a as a as you are forced to, right? And then you have to learn to navigate for yourself and for your family, right? Because um there is like both a love maybe and an obligation, right? Or you know I grew up where guilt was a huge thing, right? Like where you felt like unable to feel good until you were taking kind of safety, right, around the other people. So that's I don't know if that's like every immigrant experiences that, but I've certainly heard it many times before.

Mike Montoya: 00:22:45 So um your story resonates in that way. Um, and I appreciate, thank you for sharing about that. I mean, like sometimes people can't see they see the polish, right? Uh, and we'll talk about like as we transfer to work here a little bit, right? People see the polish of this individual. Um, and then they're like they never know what's kind of behind it. And this is kind of what the whole conversation is intended to be about is to help people to see and hear, right? These are the folks that are leading, right, like yourself in our space, um, and are coming from a place that like most people don't even have a sense about, right? Uh, and so, um, it's a huge. It's a huge thing. So, let's talk about what you're doing kind of now, right? And um and and like maybe there's a purpose behind the work that you're doing. Um and then I'd love to hear kind of about like this idea of like how you're leading as a as a mature adult. I'm going to say that versus how you were leading uh 10 years ago, right? So, let's talk about like those kinds of things.

Daniel Velasco: 00:23:55 Um sure. So, I um I get to work at Ensemble Learning, which is an nonprofit organization that supports multilingual learners by creating educational ecosystems where they can learn and thrive. Um we um are based out of LA but we operate um coast to coast. We've been around for um gosh like seven or eight years now. Um I'm the second CEO here and the work that we do supports um school systems at large with sort of data analysis to understand how multilingual learners are uh learning or where they may be falling short based on um systemic obstacles. And then we help schools by creating we like embed ourselves into a school. We'll do uh schoolwide PD leadership coaching, instructional coaching, demo lessons. We'll do walkthroughs.

Daniel Velasco: 00:24:50 Um we've also helped schools transition to becoming dual language. Um we just finished the largest study um uh done so far, transitioning 60 sites in Texas to becoming dual language schools. Um that was through a federal contract that of the Office of English Language Acquisition. We're in our final um six months or so on that. Um and then the last part um the last two things we're working on are supporting dually identified students, so children that are both have IEP, so um individualized education plans, children with learning differences, um and their multilingual learners because that's a population that is both overdiagnosed for things like ADHD and then under diagnosed for things like dyslexia. So, we're helping um create a baseline of research uh through a a grant from the Oak Foundation to support 20 school sites and doing this particular project.

Daniel Velasco: 00:25:45 Um and then finally, we are uh working we're working across the ecosystem, right? Um we're also working on the teacher prep side to try to produce multilingual learner ready educators. And I think that's part of what I feel the most excited about because I think one of the big reasons that we lose more than 40% of teachers by their fourth year of teaching is because they don't know how to work with a child that doesn't speak English at home, right? They're like, "Oh god, and they can't be successful with them."

Mike Montoya: 00:26:40 Yeah. And so and because they've not been trained on that, they don't have the tools, skills, or networks, it it would frustrate anyone, you know, and so eventually you leave because no one wants to work that hard to not see success.

Daniel Velasco: 00:26:55 Yeah. Sure. You know, and so we're partnering with the National Center for Teacher Residencies to to develop um a bilingual teacher residency. We're also looking at how do we produce multilingual learner ready educators out the gate from all sorts of different types of teacher prep programs. Um and we're also launching this year um a bilingual credentialing uh like course that teachers that are ready to be bilingual credentialed can take with us for like eight weeks or so and then be ready to take the test. Um I'm I see hope and optimism in the work that we do.

Mike Montoya: 00:27:35 Sure.

Daniel Velasco: 00:27:36 You know, I see myself in the children and families and educators and leaders that Ensemble Learning serves. I was that student. Um, I was then that teacher. Um, I've then run schools and helped schools do turnaround. Um, and so for me it's very personal. You know, everyone in my family is a multilingual learner. Um, I have an auditory processing delay. So, I would have been one of these dual identified students or I would have probably been underdiagnosed in the US.

Mike Montoya: 00:28:05 Nobody knew. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you weren't diagnosed really. Were you ever at that point? No.

Daniel Velasco: 00:28:12 I was in Venezuela.

Mike Montoya: 00:28:14 Okay. Okay.

Daniel Velasco: 00:28:16 Um and so because in Venezuela the the private school system was very different, right? Like I was my parents layered in like therapy and like speech therapy. I had a I had seven years of speech therapy to get rid of my accent. And so because my parents saw how hard it was for them to have really thick accents and how they were perceived in the world, They did not want us to walk that way.

Daniel Velasco: 00:28:58 Um, so I think the question was, is there do I find purpose, right? Um, I do. I mean, I get to I love the people I work with. Like I can't underscore that um, strongly enough. I really like the people I work with. They're all really competent, really nice people um, that are doing really hard work every day on behalf of children and families. And that makes it easy to like overcome some of the challenges that we've faced over the last several years around, you know, financial stability as an as a nonprofit. Um, breaking into the nonprofit uh philanthropy sector. Um, and then just navigating the politics of the of our country right now and how that affects immigrant children and immigrants themselves, educators, um, communities of color. And so it is hard work, but it is I get to do it alongside um the best of the best.

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Daniel Velasco: 00:30:35 You know I think we've talked about this offline before like I believe in the universe putting in front of you the things people and challenges that you need when you need them. Um I was not looking for this. I've actually never wanted to be a CEO. Like I've always enjoyed the role of president if you know if I can tell you a little bit typically a president runs the organization like the programmatic work operations and the CEO is out there being the face like you know raising money filling the budget. essentially I'd like to spend and so um so when I left my last organization where I had been president um it was a kind of tumultuous departure and I didn't know that I wanted to be in education anymore like I I feel like I made a number of like I had trusted things and people in a way that I just felt like I was really um questioning my instincts and so I was supposed to be on sabbatical.

Daniel Velasco: 00:31:25 Um my husband Ray said something very sweet when I left my last organization which was you know you've been helping to take care of your family and me for the last almost 20 years and we may not know how to do it as well as you have but we might surprise you if you give us a chance and so and he was like just don't work you know like take a minute to like come up for air. And so that was really hard because I've been, you know, my first job was cleaning houses with my mom when I was 13. So like I've never not worked and I'm I'm kind of hyperactive. Like my brain is always going. I like multitasking. I'm always doing a million things, you know.

Daniel Velasco: 00:32:15 Um and so I had a call with a friend um Brian Greenberg. I'll give him a shout out. He used to run the Silicon Schools Fund and he said, you know, say yes to people like whoever wants to talk to you right now in this moment like just say yes just listen to what people are excited about not because you're going to go do it or but just give yourself the opportunity to hear what people are feeling like optimistic and happy and like good about and that stayed with me and I actually then gave him that advice when he left Silicon Schools. I was like a wise man once told me um and because of that I was friends with the chair, the former chair, she's still on our board, um but Simone Pilkinton of Ensemble.

Daniel Velasco: 00:33:05 She originally asked me to join the board or to be considered for the board six months before. And six months before I was employed, I was on four different boards. I was tapped out, but I had said, I'm happy to it sounds like a cool company. I'll help you find someone. So, my last organization had a board program. So, I was like, let me see if we can't find someone through that program to serve there. So when her and I reconnected maybe a month or two after I had left um that last organization, she said, "You know, I know you're probably not looking, but Ensemble Learning is actually we've stopped looking for board members because the CEO wants to transition the organization to someone new." And I said, "That sounds amazing. Um good luck. I would love to give you feedback on the job description if you want it. Um, I'm happy to send you recommendations to people. I'm happy to help promote it. Um, I was like, I'm even happy to be like on your committee for free if you want because I'm not doing anything and this sounds important. So, I like, you know, redlined um the track changed to the document and was like, I think that if you want this organization to grow, you need the CEO to be external. They can't be in schools doing PDs. And so, I like outlined that and was like, and I think need to make the role national, not California based. And I think you need to pay it this much more if you want if you really want this place to like take off.

Mike Montoya: 00:33:50 Take off. Yeah. So then speaking of you wrote your job description.

Daniel Velasco: 00:33:58 I I gave my take on the job description and then I took off. Um I went to Brazil. I was trying to live my best life. I was supposed to be on sabbatical. Um I came back in March and so like a month later uh to a bunch of voicemails from the recruiter and a couple emails and they were like, you know, the committee looked at your track changes and they were like, one of the board members was like who was part of my Pahara cohort was like, wait a minute, why is Daniel track changing this? Like what is he doing? And so cuz I hadn't been very public about leaving my last organization. So I think there had been not a lot of people knew that I was um not working. And so they asked if I would consider it. And I originally said no because of the reasons I'd said in the document. You know, like I just don't think I'm your person. You know, I want you to find the right person to do this. I'm also not emotionally well enough to lead um right now. And so, but again, I was like, "Have you talked to these people?" You know, like I sent them names again. Maybe a week or two later, they came back and they're like, "They really want they're willing to meet you out of all these things that you put on there if you become the candidate. They'll meet you at all those things. Do you want to be the candidate? And at that point, I mean, I hadn't been looking for work. I hadn't put my name out anywhere. I hadn't told anyone. I would have called you, Mike, right? Like, hey, help me find a job. You know,

Mike Montoya: 00:35:40 We were I was on I was ears up. Always ears up.

Daniel Velasco: 00:35:45 Yeah. And so, I was nervous that like, you know, I didn't know where the sector was or going to like um move towards. Now, with retrospect, I think that people that were going into CEO type jobs in 2023ish could kind of write their ticket because people were recoiling from pandemic. So, not as many people wanted to be in the top seat. Um, and so I just decided to trust that the universe was putting in front of me this opportunity to do this thing um with an organization that I knew like mechanically what needed to be done in order to like propel it up and to bring it out of insolvency and to create like a a financial model that could could last. I knew how to do it and I knew it would be hard. Um and I didn't know if we could do it honestly. So we the first six or eight months we were running parallel track. So I felt like this happens if we raise money and this happens if we sunset the place. Um and I believe that it was put in front of me for a reason. You know, I don't think I'll be here forever and my team knows that and the board knows that I think I'll be here um maybe 3 to five more years. Um we just finished succession planning so we have a document that will like clearly outline what happens if and when I win the lottery and

Mike Montoya: 00:37:05 Keep playing.

Daniel Velasco: 00:37:07 Well, yeah, I've diversified my portfolio with scratch offs. Um but you know, I think that we're we're meant to do certain things and I think I was meant to live through the chaotic situation I lived through leaving my last organization even though it was surprising and painful. Um I think that it me it was meant to like open my eyes and to kind of help me pivot my leadership and re like assert on like why do I lead the way I lead? Um and it took me a bit it took me pro I mean my first week on this job I I only started five hours a week I should say when I accepted the job until August. So from like April when I said yes to the job until August, all I what I suggested to them was you just need me to raise money. Like all you should pay me to do is to make a deck and to go talk to people in philanthropy because I think this is fundable. I think like the philanthropic community will pick this will pick up on this.

Mike Montoya: 00:38:15 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:38:17 But it takes 12 to 18 months for those things to mature and so you really can't afford to not start raising money today. Um and So, that's what we did. I started full-time August of 2023 and it was bumpy at first, but I think um in in so much as I I feel like I had a panic attack the first week I was on like I ended up in the emergency room because I was still unwell. Like I was still not fully um I hadn't regained like my confidence in like I think I was feeling very much this like imposter syndrome or this like you know on my way out of my last organization I had been told a lot of um ad hominem attacks about like my leadership and who I am as a human being um that like came from someone that I had trusted for a long time and so that it took a while to like recover that power of like I I never should have placed so much trust or um or you know let be influenced in that way. But it's hard because you come from a place where as a as a gay man and as a gay child, we heard we were I heard I was insufficient, right? Not in that.

Mike Montoya: 00:39:45 Who you are. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:39:48 Not with those exact words, but there was a like this isn't what we what we wanted. And so I was this like um broken version of the child my parents wanted, right? Or like and so maybe this threads through right of like wanting to always be the best or always wanting to be providing and being the rock for everybody because I felt like I had to make up for not being this like perfect version that they wanted. The straight version I should say.

Mike Montoya: 00:40:15 Yep.

Daniel Velasco: 00:40:17 Um and so that bleeds into your relationships, your work. You you like are willing to compromise portions of your wellness in order to provide for others. Um ways that are not just or equitable. And that's something I've learned over the last few years is that justice is a really strong core value for me. And that's good and it's bad. But whenever I feel like that core value is pinched, I become that cartoon with like the fire coming out of my ear. And it can be something really simple, but it will like it is very triggering for me. So I've I'm working on it. I think it drives me. It is why I do what I do. It is why I try to advocate on behalf of those that, you know, don't get a seat or a mic, um, or to hand the mic when possible. Um, but I think that it can also get in the way when you feel like you have to do everything or solve everything. You're you're inadvertently taking agency from others.

Mike Montoya: 00:41:35 Yep.

Daniel Velasco: 00:41:37 Right. You're not If my knee-jerk reaction is to solve the problem versus just like hearing it and saying, "Okay, What are you what do you need?"

Mike Montoya: 00:41:45 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:41:47 Versus like on it, you know, it I don't know. It kind of manifests in different ways, right? Like I I was robbed in Brazil a few years ago and I knew to do nothing cognitively, but that like set you off.

Mike Montoya: 00:42:05 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:42:07 And so I got into this huge fight and I ended up in the hospital and I'm I'm fine, but I put my husband and my friend in peril by doing that, you know, and but it was just this like I couldn't I couldn't control it. It was like uh no.

Mike Montoya: 00:42:25 Serious sense of well I mean not not being a psychologist right and and being able to like draw all the conclusions from this but there there is something about you like now that you're showing it's like you've learned you got you kind of got beat up a little bit right in in a couple of ways right that sounds like sounds like professionally but also in in Colombia so uh but you're doing Okay. Now, and I would say like you're you're kind of finding your element, right, now that you just like the way you just described the work that Ensemble is doing and like how you prepared yourself for this role, right? And this team that I call it very caring individuals that you committed also that you're that you're leading through and with, right? Um, so how does it feel to be I don't know, it's almost like you're like I'm going to call it your grown-up self, right, is showing up here uh in this stage of your life. Um, and like the you are clearly good enough because you pulled out all pulled off a a trick, right, by taking this organization from like insolvency to to thriving in a short period of time. And so, but it's it wasn't the way that you maybe would have thought about engineering it, right? It's it's you sort of shifted gears here about how you lead, right? So, tell me about that.

Daniel Velasco: 00:43:55 Um, I think I feel uh I I do feel pride um to know know the people I know that work here um and that are board members and that are supporters and that um like you Mike have been champions for for me for us for the work itself um because I think that that is the product of like trying to lead with like compassion and being not just trying to be competent and there's a lot of things I'm not competent at but trying to create a competent team that is also warm, that is also like human first, right? Like we are all people. We have to care for one another. We can't be everything to everyone. But I think the people that are in your immediate proximity that you're working with every single day. Like we do need to humanize each other. And um I feel proud to have gotten to to lead that way. And there have been times when I've questioned that because I've felt betrayed, you know.

Mike Montoya: 00:45:05 Sure.

Daniel Velasco: 00:45:07 But I have, I guess, made a choice to just keep leaning into that and trust that the universe will like provide, you know, that um when I've had to let people go, I I do feel like I've done that in a way that has been like humane and compassionate and and smart because it's still an organiz like so running an organization off of, you know, public dollars or civic dollars. Um but we can still we can still lead with kindness and so I think that that kind of permeates the environment that you're in and um I've spent the last several years trying to care for myself first like me Daniel first above my partner above my parents above my organization I think for a long time like my a big part of my identity was like my work and like it's not not a part of my identity but is not the most important part. You know, I think my own wellness um it's like the grabbing the oxygen mask first. They've they've had we've been told this for decades save yourself and then help go you know um and so I I feel good about it. I think that there will always be outliers you know you will always because everyone comes into work or you know life with their own lived experiences and their own trauma as their own like misgivings and distrust and they we don't always and I don't always show up 100% how I want to and how I want my team to but um I think we become better at recognizing when we misstep owning it and apologizing if if needed and moving forward you know like

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Mike Montoya: 00:47:47 Well, there's like this like assumption sometimes that like the the leader has to always they know the answer and be, you know, always be, I call it, um, perfect, right? Or you or you're the tyrant leader. There's like there there's lots of leader types, right? Type of thing, right? And we all had seen those people or worked with them at some times. Um, but the what I'm hearing, you know, and I'll just emphasize this like like there's a um a tendency for those of us who grow up with like less stuff, right, to grow up and then try to help others, right? And and we it's almost in some ways we're trying to like repair some of the the pain that we experienced as children or we saw We we get this in the world, right? We're like we want to make it easier or better. And it comes at a cost, right, to to you as to us as humans as leaders, right? And because there's a tremendous drain of energy, right, to be a good leader all the time takes focus and attention, right? It doesn't just show up that way. But if you have it inside of you and you're able to show up that way and you can be kind like maybe and if that's your way of leading, right, it can be super effective, right? Because you almost like I said, you attract the best team that can function underneath that umbrella, right? It just shows up, right?

Daniel Velasco: 00:48:45 I think the the greatest compliment that you can give a leader um is to want to work with them again. And I get to work with people that I worked with before now.

Mike Montoya: 00:48:58 Yeah.

Daniel Velasco: 00:49:00 And I think that following you around.

Mike Montoya: 00:49:05 Yeah. That's they want to.

Daniel Velasco: 00:49:08 And maybe someday I'll work for them and I don't and I would be happy to, you know, because I hope that I've treated and cultivated them and their leadership and their own growth. Um, such that like I I would recommend a friend go work for them or someday I work for them. Um, like they say in Spanish like the world turns and turns and turns and you never know where things are going to take you or who you're going to end up um who's going to end up on your side or by your side.

Mike Montoya: 00:49:40 By your side for sure. Yeah. And like that that part's super um I I sometimes people reflect back with me. They're like, "Hey, you made a real important difference by doing this thing that I don't even recall. I have no memory at all, right, of this this thing that I did, right? That was but it had mostly to do with just like being a decent human, right, at the right time. And I'm like, oh, okay, I can just keep being a decent human." And that's a lot right now, especially.

Daniel Velasco: 00:50:10 Yeah.

Mike Montoya: 00:50:12 So, it's kind of those kinds of things. Um, uh, we're gonna kind of wind our way out of here, but I'm curious like now that you're Let's say you have a little more seasoning, right? You sounds like um you're more grace.

Daniel Velasco: 00:50:28 Yeah.

Mike Montoya: 00:50:30 You're you're healthier. I mean, and but now you're in this place where people like look to you for like I call it like modeling off of you, right? Um in the ways that they're going to lead and the ways that they lead in their work. So, um is there something that you would like, you know, in your best scenario that you want people to take away from like a mold from Daniel? Like like what's the thing that you hope that people pick up and and carry forward in their own work?

Daniel Velasco: 00:51:00 Oh, that is such an uncomfortable answer. I'm going to answer it. But um I think to be sincere like if you are if you work hard sincerely not you don't have to be at 100% every day but if you like are sincerely working hard towards submission or the the endgame of your role um I think you will earn people's trust and in doing so you'll get to live like a higher quality life because people will like invest back in you, right? People will have grace with you whenever you inevitably miss something or make a mistake. Um, and so I hope that people will put like compassionate leadership as like a one of the pillars in their leadership as they go on, right? Like I don't want you don't you the world doesn't need a 100 Daniels. Um, maybe three. maybe a couple um but because I think we all we all benefit from there being diverse leadership and so I but I think that if people take from me um my attempt at being compassionate in leadership I think that that would make the ecosystem a friendlier one when one where people are cared for more um no one's getting rich doing the work that we do you know we've all chosen to do this um because we care about children and families and educators and so um We have to remind ourselves of that that like the person across the email or whatever that isn't doing the thing you think they should be doing is also like in their own universe trying to be sincerely good at what they're doing.

Mike Montoya: 00:52:45 Yeah. Yeah. The the tolerance for like I call it um imperfections in humanity, right, that we need to deal with in a professional way. Like that's like a real it's easy to jump over them because the pressure and there's a fair amount of pressure and and the urgency, right? We've been talking about urgency since TFA was founded, right? Like the urgency to to write the the opportunity gap and the urgency to tackle these problems and it's like it's still urgent but we can't things are not emergent, right? like if you are not in a role that is putting a meal in front of a child or a roof over their head or putting a physical fire like the word is urgent not not always emergent and so we have to allow the temperature to come down. Um we I'll mentioned briefly, we took our team to Orlando two weeks ago for a team retreat and it was probably it was one day of training on persuasion and motivation. We brought a facilitator down from Hopkins and it was amazing. Um, Dr. Steven Cohen, shout out. Um, but we then spent a day at a theme park, you know, where we did like scavenger hunts and small groups with people that you don't typically work with and it was just people having fun together. And I've been telling everyone about this because I think that, you know, Show me your budget and I'll show you what you care about. We can talk all day long about being compassionate and about people first and d but if we don't put resources behind like we are going to take people to do this thing for them to like build relationships with each other so that when they eventually disagree with one another down the line about something else they've had this like they they put social capital in the piggy bank, right? That they can draw from when they need someone to have grace with them. It's not just coming out of nowhere. It's like a Oh yeah, like I know that I know this person's life a little bit. I know what they're what they're like. I know what might be going on. Um and I think that that ultimately yields higher performance as an organization. Uh so it's like totally worth the investment um of doing things like that that might seem a little silly but that are actually a way to build um cultivate culture.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:15 Well, and like the culture strategy, right? There's a lot of like data out there about how important it is to have this like fabric woven in the organization, right? Where people are are have a tapestry of sorts where they're relatable to each other and that that basis of trust right and relationship that supersedes the actual tactic right is like a you know part of the container we're all in right so

Daniel Velasco: 00:54:30 Um and a lot of that like I don't need to be in the room in fact it's like often better if not to be to for them to like have their own relationships that don't so they're not always looking to me That's a spoke and hub.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:38 Yeah. Spoke and hub. Yeah. That's the hard I mean in some ways I think as a leader that's like one of the most successful ways you can get there, right? Is to like basically when you're not around people still behave and perform in ways that are congruent with your values as an organization and you're chasing, right? So

Daniel Velasco: 00:54:45 I took almost a month off last summer and I was only able to do that because I have a team of really smart, creative, problem-solving people that are excellent in their domains and I had to be brought in once that whole month because of what was happening with title three and what might have been happening but otherwise like they were make they were given the space to make decisions and I knew that the organization would be absolutely fine while that was gone.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:53 Yeah. Kudos to you. You built you built a team a team organization. It's not that easy folks. Um uh Daniel um thank you so much for being here and I have, you know, appreciate you for who you are and for the work that you're doing. Um, and congratulations on finding a safe uh spot for the time being. Um, and and we appreciate you. So, uh, any any last words for the audience?

Daniel Velasco: 00:54:53 No, just you are enough. You are doing enough. We are all doing enough. Um, thank you, Mike. It's always nice to spend time with you.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:53 You're welcome. All right. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:53 As we wrap, I keep coming back to Daniel's reminder that leadership doesn't require perfection. It requires sincerity, clarity, and care. Whether it's investing in team culture, lowering the temperature on emergencies, or leading with compassion even in hard moments, he leaves us with something that we all need to hear. You are enough and you're doing enough. Have a great day ahead.

Mike Montoya: 00:54:53 Thanks for joining us and tuning in today. To find out about other podcasts that matter, visit podcastsmatter.org. Thanks for listening to the Stronger Podcast. If this conversation inspired you, we invite you to Follow the show and share it with someone who's on a journey to become a happier and healthier version of themselves. Links and resources are in the show notes. See you next Thursday, 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. Have a great day and stay strong.