In this week's episode, we are joined by Lance and Penny Davis, teachers, and Kevin's parents. They take us on a journey from Africa to the United States and how they started a school that teaches children about serving others and so much more. They impart building into other people's lives and being purpose-driven. Find out how Lance and Penny are living in their sweet spot, and are Changing the Rules.
Podcast Co-host: Kevin Davis: kevinkaera@comcast.net
Podcast guests: Lance and Penny Davis: lancedavis@livingscience.com
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:02
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:16
Good morning, everybody. This is the lively host from we're sitting in the podcast studios and in wildfire podcasting, and Woodbury, New Jersey, our engineer here, Taylor is here to make sure that everything runs smoothly. And we can focus on just talking to our guests. And we have wonderful guests today. So Kevin, say hi to everybody. Kevin is our co-host for this month.
Kevin Davis00:44
Hi, everybody, Ray, thanks so much. It's a privilege and honor to be back here. You bought me back again, we're on a roll here?
Ray Loewe00:52
Well, because we're doing fun stuff, and Kevin and I did a great podcast a couple of weeks ago. And it focused on five things that are kind of the theme for this month. And let me bring, let me kind of recap those four. So the luckiest people in the world that have to know what they want. Now, our definition, the luckiest people in the world are those people who actually take the time to personally redesign their own lives, and live them under their own terms. And if you don't know what you want, how are you ever going to design your own life. So we found that there are five key characteristics of why some people, the lucky ones, are able to design their own life, and then redesign it when things change. And we certainly get a lot of that today. And they're able to pivot and they're able to stay on type of life. And they're able to enjoy it and get the most out of it. So the five things are the luckiest people are purpose-driven. They know why they're here. And they remind themselves why it's so important to go back to purpose. They're mission-driven. They're, interested in other people, they want to help other people and their best when they help other people. Whenever they get into trouble, they go back to their values, they have a list of values and might be family, it might be faith, it might be a whole lot of other things. But their values are important. And they base their decisions on what they want on their values. They throw in excellence, okay. And you know, we're all good at some things. And life is more fun when you're working on things that you're good at. And it gives you the best chance of being able to do things for other people. And last but not least, they come back to the fact that at the end of everything when they put all these things together, they want to like their day. So, Kevin, we beat those up a while ago. And we're going to talk more over here. So why don't you introduce Lance and Penny, and give us a little background and start us off on this wonderful world of exploring life?
Kevin Davis03:13
Sure, well, so it is. It's an honor and I say this with a bit of trepidation to have Lance and Penny Davis, my parents here, you know, Ray, you know, I love a good story. And I have a bunch of them. We're gonna have to be careful today with the funny stories because, for everyone I have, they probably have two or three about me. So but I'm gonna have to call you mom and dad. But so mom, dad, thanks so much for joining us today. Super excited to have you on the podcast here. That's okay. Okay, thank you.
Ray Loewe03:48
We don't want you to do that of all things. Don't mind your manners and misbehaving is part of the game. So let me start out with something you guys a big part of your life was you're both missionaries in Africa. Why don't you give us kind of the short version of what happened there, because that certainly created a foundation for where you're going.
Lance Davis04:12
Yeah, we were both teachers early on in life. And then we went to the States, and we went to a college, up in your neck of the woods. And then we went back to Africa as missionaries, and we were already there for about four years. And during that time, Kevin was about seven years old. So he went back with us and his early life was riding on a motorcycle behind me sitting on the backseat, and riding around the neighborhood, getting kids together and having them to our house so that we could have Bible storytimes and things like that, and then starting a church and he'd Sing with us. So it was an amazing time. We actually left Zimbabwe or it used to be Rhodesia came back to the states and went back to college. And that's where the rest of our life sort of sprang up in the northern part of the United States, but then in about 93, we didn't like the cold so much. Tell me why you think that is. We came down south to Atlanta, Georgia, and we've been here since 1993. And are absolutely loving it.
Ray Loewe05:26
And go ahead, Penny.
Penny Davis05:29
I was just gonna say I'm not I don't think we're doing a whole lot very differently. Because I think it's all wrapped up in what you said, we're living in our sweet spot. And so we just take our sweet spot everywhere we go.
Ray Loewe05:39
Okay, so you guys actually formed a school?
Kevin Davis05:44
We did. Yes, that's correct. Ray doesn't everybody?
Ray Loewe05:51
Well, you know, some of us don't think that far ahead. But give us an idea of what the school is and what it's about because I think this is going to drive the rest of our conversation.
Kevin Davis06:03
Well, let me add a little context before you answer that because I'd love this as part of the answer. You didn't just form a school, you waited until you were at a stage of life where your kids were grown and off and married, where, you know, Ray and I met in the financial industry. And so a lot of what we did professionally was helping people prepare for this thing called retirement. And under a normal plan, you would have been 10 years away from that. And so rather than coasting into the retirement years, 25 years ago, you guys decided to start a school. So there's some context to explain it.
Penny Davis06:43
Yes, of course. So I mean, really, the whole essence of what we need to be doing is building into other people's lives. And we'd like kids and kids are more palatable and more pliable. So that was the best thing to do. And that's our training. So I love your five points because we definitely are purpose-driven. But our purpose is based on our mission. And you know what, that's what we're doing every day of our lives. And so we come home exhausted loving it, and we go back the next day. And what's that word? retirement? I don't compute.
Ray Loewe07:18
Thank you for that. So if you don't mind, can you share with everybody your approximate ages at this point?
Lance Davis07:26
Oh, yes everybody knows. I'm 29. Again, every single year reminds the kids that and it's a test question at the end of the year. How old is they don't call her Penny? They call her Mrs. D. How old is Mrs. D? And if you get 29, you get extra credit.
Penny Davis07:44
So, therefore, as a school teacher, my answer to your question is that if you go back to the age that most people are retiring at 65? Or will we breezed past that by 10 years? So you can work that one out?
Ray Loewe07:57
That's higher math. Okay, so I need to go to so I can learn that, he can do that. And I think this is one of the purpose of things is, is you guys have just kind of taken this thing called retirement. pushed it out of the way. And you're living life under your terms.
Lance Davis08:19
Yes, yeah, it almost seems re it almost seems like we are loving it more now doing what we do now than in the past. And I don't know how that computes. The sweet spot really is something that we look forward to every day. And sometimes an average year, we'll experience that sweet spot a couple of times, hugely, like when we come back from an expedition to the Golden Isles of Georgia, with 100 kids or something like that. And we have seen what changes have been made in their lives. And a parent calls us up and said, What do you do to my kid? And we say, Well, what do you mean? And they say, Well, he's come back changed. He helps me in the house. He takes out the garbage. He's civil to me, doesn't bad mouth, his siblings and we say Good, good. That's the sweet spot, hearing all that stuff. Cool.
Kevin Davis09:19
You know, Ray. I want to connect the dots here for some of our listeners who might have been listening last week when we talk with Joe Colavito. You know, he gave an interesting definition for purpose. And I don't know if I got it exactly verbatim, but he said an individual's unique design for how you can help improve the status of others. And you know, we talked about how it was others-focused. And we're hearing that same theme here today, which I think is pretty interesting. Could you guys share a bit about you have this program that you've developed a Living Science to Stem Academy? You call it a servant leader program? Talk a bit about that, because I think that ties in so much to this idea of building into the next generation helping others, being others-focused.
Penny Davis10:15
Okay, so I think the first thing I want to say is that you do gain wisdom as you get a little older each year. I mean, we've made lots of mistakes. But what are you going to do with that wisdom bury it? No, you have to take that wisdom. And it's got to be pulled down to the lowest common denominator. So wisdom continues so sweetheart how do we do that? What are we doing?
Lance Davis10:35
Well, one of the things that Mrs. D has always had in the classroom, is her philosophy of education is this, it should be preparation for life. And so our kids are servant leaders. For instance, in the high school, ninth through 12th graders, they are taught the tips, T I P S, which stands for target, which is your vision, influence, you influence others and others influence you and passion, always find your passion and go with it. And then the last one is servant leadership. And those are the hallmarks of our servant leaders. And the last one is we teach them how to be leaders, by helping them to serve others.
Penny Davis11:18
Then, of course, they make mistakes. And so that's a wonderful teaching model right there. I think the big thing here is that we do this with encouragement, not negative and put-downs, we are teaching them how to build others up and we're trying to build them up, we actually have a rule, no put-downs. And we also have another saying which you'll love Ray, there will be change. And I just they've learned to hold their hands off and say they will be changed. Because in any given day, especially when we're on mission on the Golden Isles on the beaches with 100 to 150 kids. I mean, doesn't everybody do that when they're supposed to be retiring it's such fun? The river changes, the tide changes, and they have to know how to react on the dime and turn around now they're not perfect. We're not perfect, but boy, they're amazing, and how much they are learning?
Lance Davis12:10
Yes, but here's the thing, if you start doing that with a ninth-grader, and he experiences the wisdom of changing and maybe how difficult it is to change or how hard it is, then he does that again in the 10th grade. And then in the 11th. By the time he gets to the 12th grade, he's learned that aspect of life, right, and he's preparing himself for the future, there will be change. And another saying that we've always used is there's no growth in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growth zone. That's one of the things we teach them. It's purposeful teaching.
Penny Davis12:49
And we use it, we use something else as we really working with them. And this is for the parents as well. Well, it starts with us, we use a term form and function. See, what you were saying is, you have to make changes. And yes, that's your form, the form of education since we first started all those bunkies years ago has changed. But the function, our goals, you know, what do we want coming up the other end, that hasn't changed? It's just the road to get there. That's changed. So if kids can learn this, they're going to be successful.
Kevin Davis13:22
Yeah, okay, so let's have a fun story to give an example of what some of that could look like. Because most of the people listening, have no idea what an expedition is. And I'll frame it, it's this crazy, thought that you put 100 plus kids into a whole convoy of cars, you drive five or six hours, down to the Golden Isles, you know, on Georgia. And then you spend the next five days teaching kids out on the beaches and in the marshes. But the weather doesn't always cooperate. And then I remember there was one year where we had tsunami-like weather flooding. And you had to have these kids change the entire agenda on the fly because you couldn't go outside. I mean, it was torrential that year.
Penny Davis14:14
Actually was like Noah's flood that that year was really bad. There was a second one. Yeah.
Kevin Davis14:20
And the ark wasn't quite finished. I remember.
Penny Davis14:25
So actually, that's amazing that you say that because we have the forethought to say what if the weather isn't cooperating. And we've been watching the progress of the weather report, and we just said, well, just in case. So we have teams, and there were eight teams that year. So instead of just having eight rotations, we actually created boxes the day before we left because my science team is well trained. I said here, here's what we're going to be doing run for the equipment, get the boxes, and we packed up eight additional boxes. And the place where we stay was kind enough to give us a second hall and we just simply arranged the kids inside doing the most fun things. We've got videos of amazing things happening. If they'd known what we were doing in their halls, they might have charged us double that year, but they never did find out. So we have lots of fun.
Lance Davis15:14
But that's what we lead them to we let the kids know there will be change. And you've got to be proactive. And you've got to say, What if? What's your plan B. And now the kids all know, what are we going to take for Plan B? So we look at it very carefully a couple of days before we go. And we say now it's not needed. We don't need that much. We'll only take a few things. But now they have a principle. Well, if
Penny Davis15:41
we travel in cars, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, Kevin. We have such funny stories about the cars, they're all numbered, and everybody's in small convoys so that it's a safety issue? And this one year we just lost a whole convoy of I think was four or five cars. And we're like, oh, my goodness, we're not allowed to lose kids. I mean, the parents is fun, and we lose. We can't lose the kids. And finally, we got and this was before everybody had their cell phones. And we were using actually CB radios, CB radios. We finally got this one lady who was kind of meeting this up. She says, No, no, really. I'm in the convoy. I'm following Mr. Parker. Silence, honey, Mr. Parker is not on this trip. We don't know who you are following, but you got all our kids stop and turn around.
Ray Loewe16:34
Go ahead, Kevin. Where's
Kevin Davis16:36
So I was gonna say it's interesting, Ray? You know, you see the thread of all these different conversations we're having. One of the things that you and I have talked about is how, you know, you have a plan, but then life throws you a curveball. You know, my famous quote about Mike Tyson's comment, everyone has a plan to get punched in the mouth. And what we've observed, as you know, the luckiest people in the world have learned how to pivot. It's not that they've got this airtight plan. It's that they know how to pivot when things get kind of crazy. And I love that. You know, this servant leadership program is trying to teach kids that skill. You know, we're here trying to encourage adults to exercise that skill. Right, Ray.
Ray Loewe17:12
Well, yeah, but you know, why not drop it down to kids? I mean, why shouldn't somebody in their 30s and their 20s enjoy life more? Why shouldn't they find their purpose and know their mission and life in and figure out where they're going? And then take that all through life? Too many of us don't find it until we get old.
Penny Davis17:51
Yeah, yeah, that's sad. That's sad. Now, you know, COVID hit us pretty hard. And so last year, we weren't able to have an expedition because we were all sort of locked down as a school, we were allowed to have a certain number of people. And so we just said, well, we're not canceling this. The kids have looked forward to this the whole year, we said, we will have a virtual expedition. And we were called mad, but that's okay. Because we know we are. It was so much fun our servant leaders, we trained them to put together bags of equipment, so that we could be online, showing these kids and having fun with these kids online. And they could be at home actually doing little labs and having fun. And we said, All right, how are we going to get these there. So we got convoys of kids driving out to all over creation because people come from far away. And we hand-delivered sacks of lots of fun things, t-shirts, and all the equipment. And we actually had an amazing experience during a virtual expedition.
Lance Davis18:48
Yeah, at that time, there were six teams, and we have six separate rooms, and they were all on zoom. And the seven leaders were in groups of two to four, and our science team, kids who are normally the 10th graders, they were running from room to room with different sets of equipment, because our seven leaders were actually doing the experiments in front of the kids and watching the kids do the experiments at home. It was just an amazing time.
Ray Loewe19:17
And that comes from the fact that you have a well-defined purpose and a well-defined mission and you know what you want to accomplish? So you're gonna get there somehow, someway even though the world is not necessarily going to let them take the path easy. How many kids do you have in your school?
Lance Davis19:38
Oh, 150 Plus, it goes between 150 and 200. And that's kindergarten through 12th grade.
Ray Loewe19:44
And the whole purpose of this is to build this kind of sense of leadership into kids and experience so that there'll be better people and they know where they're going.
Lance Davis19:55
Yeah, Ray part of our mission statement is we want our kids to become leaders so that they can drive truth and godly values into society. That's actually the last part of our purpose statement. So we keep that in mind all the time. And the how question comes at, well, how are we going to do that now? And last year? So how are we going to do that in this particular situation? Well, we came up with some ideas.
Penny Davis20:22
And I think to add to that, being an educator and having been one for more years, and most people, most of our parents are old. And that's a fact. You know, what, you can't just throw information at kids and expect them to be excited about doing something with that information. So we are very, very big on doing hands-on things, and getting the kids excited to want to learn if they don't want to learn, there's no purpose and trying to show them the excitement that's outside of the school. One has to get them saying I want this they have to be hungry. You know, there's a saying that you can take a horse to water and you can't make a drink. That's not true. Feed it salt, it'll want to drink.
Ray Loewe21:06
That's mean and nasty, but it works, doesn't it? The, you know, take a minute and talk a little bit about the sweet spot that came up several times. And the sweet spot is what you guys are living. I think I know, I'm sure everybody else is living it too. But you keep talking about you find the sweet spot in life. What do you mean? How does it drive you? I don't even know how to ask the question any better than that?
Lance Davis21:37
Well, the sweet spot I've described is at the end of an expedition, I'm exhausted. And I relax. And I say wow, that, to me is the best expression in the world. Wow. And we try to put the wow into learning. But when it happens to you, it's even better. And so when I see results, that helps me, my sweet. I'm doing what I love to do now, even though I get seems like every year I get a little bit more tired. But that doesn't matter. That's him, that's not Mrs. D.
Penny Davis22:09
So I think you know, when you talk about sweet spot, to me, it is getting to the end of the day and saying, I am so thrilled with what I've been able to impart unto others but much more than that. I'm so thrilled at what I see them giving back. Because we're not meant to live forever. And so we need to make sure that we can share our values and share how to have a mission and how to be purpose-driven so that these kids grow up into adults that want to give back. That's so satisfying. That's a sweet spot for us.
Lance Davis22:41
Yeah, Ray. Here's another thing, often parents look at us and they say, Wow, once again, they say this is the best environment for our kids because they see you two. And I'm thinking, how does that compute? Well, you two are still together, you two to fight together, you are doing everything together, you're going on trips, and you're upholding each other, you're giving the kids a visual picture of what their lives could be. And we hold hands all the time to by the way. Oh, yeah. And once in a while, we will kiss, you know that peck on the cheek, and the kids love it. And we will say we have a license you don't. Yeah. Cool.
Ray Loewe23:23
So can I say, Wow, as a result of this podcast, because I got so psyched up listening to you. And you know, first of all, you're not letting age get in the way at all. You're focusing on life, not about age, and you're making a difference, and you've got a purpose. And that purpose gets thrown roadblocks, and you seem to get around them pretty well. What a great lesson in life.
Kevin Davis23:48
You know, Ray, when they talk about they get a little tired, and they imply they might slow down, I got to give context. People in their 40s can't keep up with them. So when they say, they, get a little tired, I laugh because I'm looking at you know, all of the people laying on the ground with their tongues hanging out. But I think that goes to, you know, passion. And purpose matters infinitely more than age. When you're in your sweet spot. When you're purpose-driven. You're doing something that gives you energy. Others will look around and go How do you keep going? And what do you mean, how do you not? And all of a sudden age is immaterial. It's more about, you know, doing what you love. And I want to touch on one last thing because we're running out of time, Ray? This the fifth thing that you had mentioned at the very beginning that we've observed, the luckiest people in the world tend to have they like their day. Yes. Does like your day mean everything's great and easy or is there a different definition of what that might mean?
Penny Davis25:00
Are you asking us? I think liking your day means that you fulfilled a purpose. And you've taken action in the hard things, and you survived all the attacks.
Lance Davis25:12
Yeah, maybe that's easy. Just that's the best way of putting it. We survived. Yeah.
Ray Loewe25:19
Yeah, but at the end of the day, you have joy. And I think Kevin's right. I mean, life is not simple. Life isn't smooth. Everything doesn't work right every day. But at the end, if you can sit back and say, Wow, yeah, I'm that word is now part of my library. Okay. Cuz I there's no better way to say it. It's just Wow. Okay. Yeah, we give you permission, you can use it. Well, thank you much. And we have time. Do you have any quick last comments that you want to make before we break off here?
Penny Davis25:58
Just very, very quickly, I think that what I want, I want to say and I hope that people really hear this is such a funny little quip. When you aim at nothing, you hit it every time.
Lance Davis26:11
Yeah. See, that's the first. The target is what we teach kids, we teach them. Here's your target for this year. Oh, sorry, wrong statement, what is your target for this year? And so we don't give them a target. We force them to make a little target, whatever it is, because if they don't buy into it, then they're not going to shoot for it. If it's my target, they'll just say, No, I don't think passive it's got to be their target. And then we teach them how to go with passion. And often it's because their friends lift them up and their friends encourage them.
Ray Loewe26:51
Well, incredible. So you know, thank you so much for being with us. And we'll have to do this again because I think there's so much wisdom and enthusiasm in here. So we'll give you a little time to prepare for the next one. How's that? And then we'll do another Wow. Wow. We'll be around. Thank you, Ray. Well, thanks for being with us. And stay tuned, because next week, Kevin, and I will be back. And we'll be interviewing a young man by the name of Steve Franklin, who's interviewed a whole lot of people over the age of 100. And I think what you can see from our meeting with Lance and Penny today is to quit focusing on age and focus on living. And you just get all those extra years of all that extra excitement, and Lance and Penny. Thanks again, and I'm going to finish off with one word. Wow.
Kris Parsons27:49
Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do that too. Join us with your lively host of Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.