Personal Development Speaker | Mills Rodgers Speaks | Services

Keynotes, Workshops, & Professional Development Services

Mr. Rodge is a speaker who is unique in his ability to be credible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. His experiences as an educator and parent to a child with disabilities allows him to be cognizant and inclusive to those who are often overlooked and marginalized. He connects well with all audiences through his diverse experiences (military veteran, educator, retail, entrepreneur, disabled family member) which help him to be relatable, authentic, and knowledgable.

Mills bases his services on the three editions of his book Success Is A Process, Not An Event! The concepts can be customized (and often are) to meet the needs of your group, whether it's school districts & college programs, corporations, community services, or non-profits. The following concepts can be presented as a series of workshops, individual presentations, or as a combined, customized presentation (which is most common).

You Can Win Being You! (signature talk): Many of us feel inadequate or undeserving of success because of an unreasonable degree of self consciousness. We must understand our purpose; purpose leads us to having vision, ultimately resulting in tangible outcomes in performance. Let's begin the process of attracting the change we want in our lives by beginning to find our purpose!
T.A.K.I.N.G. C.A.R.E.©: Leadership is all about serving others, i.e. servant leadership. We talk about servant leadership, but what does it look like? How do we take care of others as leaders? I have created an approach to servant leadership titled T.A.K.E. C.A.R.E.© that can be delivered in the form of a keynote or workshop for your events related to leadership. It is a tangible approach that will resonate with audiences and is something they can use daily as leaders. It also incorporates resilience, character, and equality.
A New Season: Mr. Rodge believes that sports emulates life in many ways and provides us great, compact examples we can apply to our lives. In this presentation, he uses the analogy of a new season and the accompanying adversities most sports teams face as a comparison with our day to day lives.
Get R.E.A.D.Y. - The 5 Skills That Pay The Bills : A career readiness presentation. The necessary skills that translate to success in school and which transition over to the job world. Very thought provoking for those going into the professional job market.

Professional Development (Education, Non-Profit, & Corporate)

Being A Champion For Kids: Addressing Disproportionality: We've all seen the awesome Rita Pierson Ted Talk about every kid needing a champion. Well, what does a champion look like in regards to being an educator? What are the standards and expectations of a champion educator, one who makes a difference? "Being A Champion For Kids"is a half day or full day workshop on topics such as building productive relationships with students and families, the importance of structure for classroom management, leadership as an educator, and equity, among other topics that can be chosen. We talk about how cultural conditioning and stereotypes can impact relationships and discipline of students. Growth mindset, in a practical sense, is discussed.
Being A Champion & Ally: Very similar to the previous description but more from an objective of improving workplace and community culture through appropriate advocacy of marginalized populations (race, gender, disability, orientation). We talk about how you can make a difference for those populations while not appearing to have a "savior" mentality or approach, which can be perceived as demeaning. We explain the similarities and differences between being a champion and ally, equality vs. equity, and the day to day experience of microaggressions.
Teaching Two-gether: As you may know, co-teaching and inclusion of special education students can be a challenging task for teachers to navigate. That's where Teaching Two-gether comes in. This workshop is designed to provide educators with the tools and strategies they need to effectively co-teach and include special education students in the classroom. Topics include the benefits and challenges of co-teaching, effective communication and collaboration, differentiated instruction, legal and ethical considerations, and the use of technology and other resources to support inclusion.
Inspiring A Mindset To Flourish As An Educator (keynote): We talk about social emotional learning for students, but what about for our educators? Let's face it, being in the classroom is very rewarding, but extremely demanding on a psychological level. In this presentation, Mr. Rodge takes us through the "why" of what we do, with practical application. He uses his experiences as an educator and parent to a child with special needs to add context to the importance of SEL for educators. He also ties in the importance of cultural relevance and relationships in becoming a more effective educator on a holistic level. Some key objectives include: practical insights and skills to help educators handle their own emotions and mindset; strategies to help limit unnecessary turnover, which tends to impact students who need stability the most; and strategies to empower teachers to realize the autonomy they possess to impact students in their own unique way.
If It IS Broke, Let's Fix It! We've all heard the saying "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" Unfortunately, we have programs that do need fixing from time to time. Mr. Rodge has worked with 2 struggling programs for at-risk students. Through his guidance and collaboration, both programs made drastic turnarounds, which resulted in a positive impact on the students served, reflected by data. In this interactive session, Mr. Rodge shares insights on how to change the culture of a struggling program. Some key objectives are understanding how programs get to the point of struggling and what is needed to turn the program around.

Advocate for Children with Special Needs & Their Families/At-Risk Students

Rodgers Speaks is passionate about issues that impact special education students and the education of at-risk students. His oldest daughter is diagnosed with severe autism; he has also served as a special education teacher and case manager for many years. As a result, Mr. Rodgers has valuable professional and personal insights into issues related to special education and at-risk students. He has customized presentations to faculties based on establishing relationships with students/parents, classroom management, developing empathy, growth mindset, and diversity awareness.

Fees

Because Mr. Rodge is not associated with any agencies and bureaus, he has the latitude to negotiate a fee that will meet the needs of your budget. He sincerely wants to share practical positivity with audiences, thus he is flexible within reason with fees. Depending on the size of the anticipated audience, he is willing to offer added value by giving organizations the option to purchase his books for participants, in advance of the engagement, in lieu of a speaking fee; many organizations love this option. He also recommends schools in close proximity "block book" (2 or more schools booking on an agreed upon date) to share and save on costs.

If you are interested in Rodgers Speaks visiting your organization , click "Contact" in the menu above and fill out the required information. You can also call (210) 651-2026 or email mr-rodge@successisaprocess.net.