Adam Torres and J. Ken Johnson discuss Ken’s new book.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
New book alert! In this episode, Adam Torres and J. Ken Johnson, Counsel at Martin | Walton LLP, explore Ken’s new book, Mission Matters: Mission-Based Leaders Share Inspiring Stories on Leadership and Success (Texas Leaders Edition Vol. 1).
Watch Full Interview:
About J. Ken Johnson
Ken Johnson ’86, Of Counsel at Martin | Walton LLP, was recognized Wednesday for his seven years of distinguished service as chairman of the South Texas College of Law Houston Board of Directors and 20 years total service on the board.
“We are extremely grateful to Ken for his wise and gracious leadership of the South Texas board since 2014,” said Michael F. Barry, president and dean. “He will continue to be an active member of the board, and we value the experience and knowledge his service will bring.”
With Johnson’s transition, Genora K. Boykins ’85 begins her five-year term as chair of the STCL Houston board. Boykins, who served as regional assistant general counsel of NRG Energy, Inc. and Reliant Energy for 31 years, is the first woman and African American to hold this position at the law school.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today we’re celebrating the release. Of our book with Texas FFA and I have one of the authors on the line.
So Ken Johnson, he’s a counsel over at Martin Walton, LLP. First off. Hey, Ken, just want to say welcome to the show and congrats, man. We’ve been working on that book for a long time. So good to have you here. Well, Adam, I thank you for the opportunity to visit with you today. I look forward to our discussion.
So Ken as I’ve been putting together this series we’ve been, we’ve been laboring over here and, and we’re big fans of Texas FFA and FFA in general. And we went to the conference last year where I’ll be heading out there with my team to, I think Houston is the next one. I’ve never been to Houston, so I’m really excited to get out there.
But as I get, you know, little by little, I’m getting more and more integrated. This will be year three for me going to convention. So I feel like I’m getting a little bit of credit over here. I’m learning some things. It’s been, it’s been, you know, when you’ve done something three times, it’s tradition at that point.
So we’ll look forward to seeing you every year. Oh man, I’m in, I’m in. I tell you every year I go I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll try. It’s like. this dose of just inspiration optimism, even just energy being around all these young, bright minds that are so ambitious that have such good hearts.
And that, you know, there, it just gives me hope. It really gives me hope for the country, for the future, everything. What, what drew you to FFA originally? Like give us some of the backstory so we can start there. Maybe. Yeah, well, I’m a farm boy from Nacogdoches, Texas, which is a little town up in East Texas, but Our family connection to the Texas FFA and agriculture education actually goes back to the late 1940s.
My dad was a FFA student. He then became an agricultural science teacher, and then moved into university administration and banking and served in the legislature and did a lot of important things in his life. But the way it kind of worked back home was the 8th grade speech teacher. Was kind of the pipeline to the ag program and when she saw some folks that look like they had a clue, she would tell the ag teachers and basically I got recruited into the FFA program and we had at that time.
1 of the largest chapters in Texas. We had about 200 members. That was big back in the day. You know, now there’s some chapters with 7 or 800 members, but. I’m like you. The first thing I got to do as an FFA member was the ag teacher. One of the ag teachers loaded up a car and took four of us to Kansas City, Missouri to the National FFA Convention.
Oh, wow. And that was the most impressive thing I’d ever seen in my life. Yeah, walking out of that place. The goal was someday I want to be like those guys and the ability to lead a meeting, the ability to persuade people the ability to think and do things that were far beyond what was bouncing around between my ears as a freshman in high school in 1972.
So. At any point. So I did four years of FFA in high school and then was lucky enough to serve as Texas FFA president. So I spent a year on the road, visited about 500 high schools, gave speeches at high school assemblies and all those kinds of things. Then following that year. Was elected to serve as national FFA president, so another year away from school, but got to travel the country and, and do essentially the same thing.
So, finished that went to a and m, finished at a and m with a degree in agriculture, economics, and then I decided to go to law school. And so I’ve been practicing law ever since. Hmm. But third, I was the second generation FFA members, both of my sons. went through FFA here in the Houston area in the Spring Branch Independent School District.
And so the ultimate degree or achievement in FFA is your American farmer degree. They call it the American degree now. My dad earned it. I earned it. Both of my sons have earned it. And they as I think about the FFA and I think about that energy and I think about my first time, like Aaron Alejandro, he, I remember he tells me, he’s like, Hey, Adam, that first year he told me just come and I’m like, what?
And he’s just like, you just have to go. And I get. there and I’m telling you, it’s more like a rock show than a, I’d never been to a convention like that. Like there’s lasers and this, that thing, I think the first year was in Waco off the top of my head. And it was like or, or yeah, no, it was a Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Fort Worth.
I said, Waco, Fort Worth. And and I think it was like 16, 000 people, there’s this big arena and I’m like, Man, they didn’t, maybe they had something, but I don’t remember. I’m from Michigan and I’m like, I’ve never seen that. This is a rock concert. This isn’t a, a supposed convention for agriculture. I’m like, how do they pull that off?
Well, and, and, you know, Organizing and leading those types of events is a skill set into itself. But what that convention is really about is concluding a year and starting a new year. And so what you do is you recognize all of the members that have advanced in their degree level within the organization.
You recognize those that have been successful in competitions. What we talk about there is skill development competitions and You recognize all of that. You give out the college scholarships. You thank your sponsors and all the people that support the program. But then you focus on what you’re going to do going forward.
It’s always about getting better and doing more. Let’s talk about leadership. So in the book you the title, your chapter was leaders are Problem Solvers. And just to give the, the audience a little bit of context for some of the material in there. The some of the headings, the importance of leadership.
Good leaders boost morale. Good leaders engage people. Good leaders build trusting relationships. Good leaders inspire confidence. Good leaders enable innovation, so a lot of different. routes you could have went and the content that you submitted and you’re an expert in many different things. Why was leadership like, why was that so important to you and bringing that out into this book?
Well, I, I think what FFA really stands for is leadership development. It, you know, in life, it kind of comes down to three things, knowledge, skill, and performance. Can you do those three things in a succession such that you accomplish the goals or the mission that you’ve, you’ve set? And the first real leadership exposure or training I got was an FFA.
It’s a hands on experience. You’re learning by doing. So to organize things, to set goals, to solve problems. That has just been something that’s fascinated me since high school. And what I see is when you boil it down, everything rises or fails on the quality of leadership that’s involved. I mean, I kind of look at it like 80 or 90 percent of whether or not a venture succeeds.
Is based on the leadership. Have you done the right planning? Are you diligent and executing your plan? You know, there’s sometimes things from the outside that can mess up your plan, but most of the time, if you have a plan, you know what you’re doing and you do it, you’re going to get to where you want to go.
In those early years as you were like traveling, doing all these, all these, and I’ve heard this many times and I’m just like, I can’t even think about like now in retrospect, I’m like having that type of experience where you were traveling, you were speaking in front of chapters. You had all these.
Things you were doing, like most people, I would argue, don’t, if they ever experienced in their life, it’s not until adulthood, they’re trying to figure some of this stuff out, but growing up in that environment where it’s just, it’s the normal, right? Like how, how has that like helped you in your career now?
Would you argue? Well, in most every way it’s affected me. So the develop of basic skills. The opportunity to practice those skills. That was something that I had the opportunity to do. You know, as a high school student, as someone just out of high school, those skills translate. And so no matter where you are in life, if you’ve got the ability to see what needs to be done, if you’ve got the ability to figure out a plan, how to solve the problem.
If you Understand the work and the focus that it takes to get to the finish line. If you’re able to work with people to get a joint plan in place and moving forward, it doesn’t matter where you are. If it’s at home, if it’s in business, if it’s in government, that’s what we need. We need everybody in the boat rolling together in the same direction.
And so one of my big my big goals here in doing this series and otherwise is to bring, you know, not just, you know, bring the Texas FFA and to new audiences as well that maybe aren’t that didn’t grow up in that environment like myself, and especially corporate leaders, like individuals, when, when people in this country talk about, like, people don’t want to work or the future or the youth or all this, I tell them, come to a Texas FFA convention.
You want to see some leaders, our future leaders? Come to that convention. Why for the corporate leaders out there, in your opinion for the corporate leaders out there, like, that aren’t aware of it or that aren’t showing up, like, why do you think some of them should come and see it for themselves?
Like, why, why do you think that? Well, I, I think it for a variety of reasons. One, As a society, our greatest resource is the next generation, and so what they learn, what they know, what they’re able to do will shape the future of the country. So what we have an FFA is a program that has done that for almost 100 years, and it really can be summed up in the FFA motto.
And I want you to think about how these things fit together. Here’s the motto learning to do doing to learn earning to live. And living to serve. All right. Learning to do is about knowledge. Knowledge is great. We all need it in every walk of life. But if you can’t use that knowledge, it’s pretty worthless.
So that’s the doing to learn. And the beauty of this program is, is that whatever you learn, you have to apply in your competitions, in your what we call supervised learning. Agricultural education project you’ve got to apply the knowledge and when you do something, it’s in your bones. You’ve really learned it.
And so the next point is earning to live. So, when you have knowledge and skill, then you’re able to do something that’s productive. And you can pay your own way that establishes personal responsibility. And then ultimately, you put those 3 things together, and it’s about living to serve. And what we’re talking about there is being productive members of society.
So, that’s what’s ingrained in these students from the time they may enter the program is middle schoolers or high schoolers. They’ve got 2, 4, 6, 8 years of this experience. And so, you know, pulling back off of that a little bit, what you’ve got is career skills. All right, career skills. Sure. They’re targeted towards agriculture, but teamwork, leadership.
Those go everywhere. They’re transportable fundamental business skills. We have to have projects. In other words, we have to have a business endeavor, whether it’s a crop or livestock or a business. There’s fundamental business skills there, including accounting, finance, and those types of things. What it really comes down to is work ethic.
And so think about those kids that are getting up before school and going out to tend to their projects. Yeah. Same kids come back after school and tend to their projects. And like Aaron likes to say, if we aren’t doing our job, something’s going to die. Yeah. We’ll die. The animal will die. The project will die.
So those are the types of skills. That these students demonstrate my belief is, is that any walk of life. They’re going to be applicable. So if you look at FFA members, they are in every profession. They are in every walk of life. And some of the leaders in business or government or sports, or you name it, they’re all FFA guys and girls.
So for example, Dan Campbell, the head coach of the Detroit lions, who’s turned that whole thing around. He’s a good Aggie, a good Texas Aggie, but he’s also a former member of the Texas FFA. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Go lions or record for everybody watching this or listening to this. I mean, it’s January 25th of 2024.
One more game and we’re in the Super Bowl, man. I’m over here. I’m sweating. I’m from Detroit. Originally. I don’t know if you know that Ken, but I’m from Detroit. That’s why I mentioned Dan and the tigers are the lions rather. Yeah. I’m like, Oh my gosh. I’m like, that is just everybody’s on pins and needles.
But either way, hey, I’m, I’m, I’m in. And it’s a great, it’s great for the city and it’s great overall. But think about it, what Dan’s doing there, it’s all about leadership. It’s all about a vision and a plan and then executing that plan. Yeah. And think about this, you know, there are people that don’t want Dan to succeed.
Who did they just beat last week? I’m, I’m drawing a blank now. I’ve forgotten. I am too, but go ahead. Those guys were gonna mess up Dan’s plan. Oh, yeah. Was able to pull through San Francisco next week. That’s what they wanna do. That’s right. Yep. That’s right. I want you to take a boic, Ken. I, because I, I just find in my life this is true.
And, you know, benefit of hindsight, right? Like, sometimes you’re going through experiences and you don’t necessarily know at the time, and you reflect back and you’re like, huh, I wish I’d have known that. If you can talk to some of those those current Texas FFA members that are going through the program and that are, you know, immersed in it again, you reflecting back in your time, what kind of things would you tell them?
Well, what I would speak to the kids or the members, excuse me, the members, there are great opportunities for every member. Do your best to take advantage of every one of those. It’s not necessarily about winning or being the best, but it’s about learning something. It’s about growing. It’s about figuring out where you want to go and what you want to do.
And so in the fall, we focus on leadership skills. In the spring, we focus on career skills. Each student needs to do something on both of those fronts. You don’t want to be one dimensional. You want to be the person that can lead the project, that can be counted on to complete the project. But likewise, you need to have that knowledge and skill that you can get the job done.
Yeah, it’s great. So one of the things you talked about in this was solving problems and leadership and the ability to do that. So in your day to day at Martin Walton LLP, I mean, you’re solving complex business problems daily, especially in civil litigation. Maybe tell us a little bit more about that.
Yeah, so I did something that no one else in my family had done. My folks were basically educators. And so I decided you want to be a lawyer. They’re like, what? Well, it wasn’t what, but you know, it was, are you sure you want to do that? And the answer was, yeah, I think so. And there were a couple of reasons.
1, I never wanted education to be a limitation on what I could do. And the cool thing about being a lawyer is that you can do anything except prescribe medicine and perform surgery on humans. You can run a business, you can lead government, you can be in a courtroom, you can do anything. So in that regard, it’s, it’s a wonderful opportunity.
And I chose to go into litigation because I want to help people. And what I basically do is either I help clients avoid a problem. But in most instances, I’m trying to help a client solve a problem. So. I have handled every kind of legal matter, I believe, except family law and criminal law. So any kind of civil litigation, I’ve probably handled one.
But over the last 20 years or so, I’ve kind of fallen into a niche where we’re doing complex civil litigation involving large bankruptcies where we’re trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. In other words, there’s been something that caused that entity and the people that invested in it or the creditors to be left.
without the money that they should have. And so if there has been malfeasance or wrongdoing, it’s our job to go out and try to collect that, bring it back to the bankruptcy estate, and try to get people some money that they’re, that they’re due. And when I, one of the reasons I asked you this to, of course, of course, just to bring this to my audience, but also so that even some of those Texas FFA members and people that are listening.
And when I think about your story and it’s a good representation of just life, like we don’t know, like if you’re, if you’re. Putting this pressure on yourself, whether you’re in high school, college, that you have to have it all figured out or everything else, like you, you knew that even, even the way you say it, like, well, I think so.
Like, I think I want to be a lawyer, but then even if you even look earlier in your law career, did you know that you were going to. Find this one, this particular niche that’s been fruitful for yourself. You’ve helped a lot of clients. I mean, some of the other things you’re doing, you know, working on coal miner cases, bank bankruptcy, trustee engagements, like all these different things, if you were to go back even to the Ken that was just getting started as a lawyer, just think that, okay, I’m going to be working on coal miner cases.
You would have probably that probably. Correct me if I’m wrong. That probably wasn’t, you didn’t know, like, you probably didn’t even know it existed. Maybe, maybe, maybe. No, no, that’s exactly right. Did not know it exists. But. What this represents is that when you start things, opportunities and conflicts or, you know, difficulties will come your way, you deal with those and one thing leads to another.
So, you know, my goal has always been to do the best I can. On the case or the project that I have right now for the benefit of the client, you know, you talk about mission matters. Well, you know, what we’re talking about here is if I accept the mission, we’re going to do everything we can. Within the facts and the law to achieve a just outcome for that client.
Now, sometimes that means we don’t win. But generally, since I’m on the offensive side, I have the advantage of trying to figure out the merits of the case before we pick the fight and further, you know, what I’m trying to do is even before we launch litigation, we may spend 6 months, 9 months a year doing due diligence to get the facts and the evidence together to make sure that we’re prepared.
On good legal grounds are a good legal basis to proceed and then we know what we have evidence wise and what we need to get to complete. the jigsaw puzzle. Completing the jigsaw puzzle, Ken. I think, I think that’s a great way to end this one. The, the jigsaw puzzle of life. But Ken, if somebody’s listening to this and they do want or watching this, they want to follow up and, you know, continue the dialogue, learn more about Martin Walton, LLP.
How do they do that? Well my email address is k johnson at martin. M. A. R. T. I. N. Walton. W. A. L. T. O. N. Law. L. A. W. dot com. And heck, I’ll give you my cell number. 7139078325. Text me. I’d be happy to speak with anybody that’s got any questions or concerns or opportunities that they want to discuss.
Wonderful. Well, Ken, again, appreciate you coming on the show to the audience. Hey, if you’re watching this or listening to this and you haven’t hit that subscribe button yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Get, get that taken care of. Hit that subscribe button. We have much more content and amazing guests, just like Ken, that we want to bring straight to you.
So hit that subscribe button. So you don’t miss those episodes. Ken really appreciates the, all the FFA members out there. Hey, love what you’re doing. Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see you at convention. Thanks again, Ken. Look forward to it, Adam. Thank you, sir.
