Welcome to Mentoring For Change
My Mission is assisting leaders that are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and young adults. In becoming a catalyst for their personal growth, happiness and having a vibrant future.
A very wise person told me that I needed to highlight why I’m doing this.
Thank You, Alan Allard,
Nearly 50 years have passed since I was a child, perhaps a lot longer. If it hadn’t been for several kind and wise men that saw something in me, or, maybe a bit me in themselves, took me under their wings guided me to a different path than the one that I was on. I am very certain that without them I would not be here today and I wouldn’t have become the person that am today. I owe my life to them. To them, I dedicate this Mentoring For Change Program. You will meet them in the pages that follow if you dare to read on.
Rod Dion,
Things that I have done that make me qualified to do this.
The state of Kansas, Supervisor over halfway homes for kids 13-18 wards of the state.
40 years as a business owner-operator or partner in multiple businesses.
Completion of over 50 SBA certification programs,
Certified Life Coach, Speaker, and Trainer.
Kaine Ramsey Certification 2017, Former Green Beret,
The John Maxwell Team 2018 Certification
Mentoring and Life group Leadership Training at Family Worship Pueblo Colorado, 2019
I could continue but I think you get the point.
Kaine Ramsey’s Certifications took more than 100 hours to complete Properly. Step-up programs and materials. It can be taken online and it is pretty intense and thought-provoking. Not overly expensive but time-intensive.
The John Maxwell certification programs are ongoing with thousands of hours of training, PDFs, Powerpoints, websites, etc. leaders in their class. They operate in every country in the world today. Having this tool box is a game changer for any growth program
HISTORY
Let me share my story with you and why this is important to me. This may take a while and evolve as time pass’. I’m catching up as I go along.
I have been fortunate to have some great mentors in my life. My hope here is to inspire you to reach out in any small way to advance the life of another… We all have special skills that once you share them you can’t imagine the reward that you will feel.
My story and why this is important to ME!
I was raised by a vicious and angry man back in a time when parents could beat their children and their wives and get away with it. I will spare you the details but let’s says I’m lucky to be alive today.
My early years were spent back and forth on the family farm 8 miles from a town of 200 people.
At the age of 13 our ancestral home was destroyed by a tornado and we moved to the outskirts of the nearby town with 100,000 population. So off to a public school I went. It was a hard transition because the city kids were different. They were cool, high-water tight pants, argyle socks, the Fonzie look you know back in 1968. Enter me with my oversized baggy jeans and crew cut that got me lots of harassing from the bully’s. It was the 6th grade.
One Friday, I was required to be the safety patrol outside of the school and on that day the nightmare of bullying and verbal abuse got worse.
Mark———, who was the school’s biggest bully threw a rock and broke out one of the teacher’s car windows. That was the day all hell broke loose for me. I was required to tell the truth about what I saw and who the culprit was. This event and what transpired afterward was that like letting a tornado out of the barn.
The police were called, and a lot of bad things happened that day.
The bully now in a police squad car, parents summoned lots of yelling and screaming by his parents. Well as you can imagine the rest was something out of a dramatic TV movie. The next couple of weeks I was beaten up by the bully and his gang repeatedly and once again the police we involved. The incident at school happened only two weeks away from the summer break.
Great, I lived only a block from the bully and his lifelong friends who were loyal to him.
That summer: in 1968. that summer our next-door neighbor Mr.kim _______ (mentor Number One) who had moved here from Japan and was a master in the martial arts became Mr. Miagge from the movie Karate kid for me. A true story of kind neighbor and a great human being who went out of his way to help me just a neighbor kid. He taught me self-defense but he also introduced me to life discipline. Not the kind that my father had shown me but one that would serve me the rest of my life.
I spent most of the summer learning to defend myself against attacks without the use of a weapon. Even though I was smaller in height than the bully I was strong from working on the farm throwing bales of hay and other farming jobs, so with strength and karate I was ok.. I thought.
Now, with my new-found skills of self-defense well underway I was able to defend myself against the attack one or two people at a time, so my attacker decided to recruit more of his gang and once again the police became involved. When that didn’t work out, he got older and bigger kids to attack me. When was this going to stop, I asked myself? The answer was Never, so a decision was made that I would transfer and commute to a school 5 miles away from my home to avoid the constant threat of conflict from the gang during school and after.
Wow, a fresh start, and yes it was. I was taken under the wing of Mr. Jack—— ( mentor Number two)- who was made aware of the full scope of my situation including my abusive father. He was the school’s principal and a truly great man, and I had so much respect for him. He was well-respected in his community, truly loved by the kids at school. He also had a great family and was truly an example to live by. He was truly a great leader and touched to the lives of many kids.
Jack_______ was very involved with the Boy Scouts of America and had a troop at the school. He was also the head of the Jayhawk Area Boy Scouts of America. The camp which was a week at a time home for hundreds of kids in the BSA program in the summer was one of the largest camps in the United States next to Filmomt, which is in New Mexico.
Since I already had outdoor skills from years of farm life and being outdoors, I excelled in the skills taught in the BSA program. I advanced rapidly to be the first kid my age to complete the program and became an eagle scout within one year and at the age of 16 in the council.
Jack invited me to become a camp counselor in and spend my summers at the camp, (which was a win for me) I give credit to my father for allowing me to go. I spent the next three summers at the camp and went on to teach scouting skills to kids not much older than I was.
I started out teaching swimming, canoeing, archery, firearms and wilderness survival. I eventually taught many other skill sets required for advancement programs that were offered at the camp.
This was my first taste of mentoring. Little did I know what the value of that time was for me but, let me tell you it made the difference of my lifetime and I highly recommend Boys Scouts to all kids who want a brighter future. I went on to Explorers, which is another level of BSA.
I Cannot express how important this experience was in my life and I can honestly say that without it I would have LOST MY LIFE. This allowed me to get away from my problems of going outside into a brutal situation and my father’s wrath .. a win-win.
The school came easily to me. I loved to read and was an A+ student. In the 8th grade I was running in PE class I caught the eye of Coach _Goodier, ( mentor Number 3) The physical education teacher and also the cross-country, track, swimming and tennis coach at the school. He asked me to run cross-country on his team. I was a fast and strong runner. He was also made aware of my home life and the situation that had brought me to his school. I think he had come from a similar situation in life and took a special interest because he knew what it was like.
He wound up coaching me in all the above sports the rest of my time at the school and fortunately for me he was also promoted to coach at the High School that I went to, so all in all he was my coach and mentor for 5 years. He was also a great strong leader in my life, even if he did push me harder than others at times. Special note here and I’m not bragging but honoring my coach, I was the only freshman in the first year of high school at a 5A school to letter in a varsity sport which was a big deal. I lettered in varsity cross country and swimming. Thanks, Coach.
I guess you could say so far, my adversity had become a win for me.
Chapter two: The journey continues.
My next mentor had a strong and dramatic impact on my life in business which has been a 42-year long journey. Meet Bob Roenbaugh, I first met Bob thru his son Kent who was my best friend, We met in Jr. high. His dad, Bob, a businessman, a banker – owning several banks, and auto dealerships, multiple hotels and motels, 100s of rental properties and heavily invested in the stock market. Bob R. Was A mover and shaker in our area. He was associated with many very successful world-renowned businessmen.
This man had a major impact on my business life, showing me how business was done and what it took to be a success at any endeavor.
Bob became kind of like a father to me. We would later do several business deals together and over the years we
remained good friends, Bob is 94 and has lost his hearing but Kent and I still keep in touch, so I know how he’s doing. Bob, is a great man and will always be remembered with my highest respect, love, and admiration.
It is to these men that I dedicate Mentoring for Change, they truly were the reason I made it here and I hope someday, a smarter and wiser old person will say the same things about me.
This is what I believe we are here for, to assist those less fortunate than ourselves. To inspire, lead, guide, support, encourage our next generation. Let us all take a hand in this great challenge of make a difference in the world we live in.
“Mentoring for Change, The reason why..”
Chapter 2.
My life’s path,
I was put on a positive course when I became interested in being in business, great thanks for this passion goes to my mentor Bob R. He was instrumental in guiding me in the process of starting a business with the end in mind. Building a successful enterprise that served the needs of others and made a profit year after year.
He introduced me to the SCORE. which stands for( Senior core of retired Executives.)
This was a part of the Small business Association, a government organization that still exists today to assist small business owners to get going and stay profitable..
Bob, also encouraged me to attend SMI ( Success Motivation Institute) in Waco Texas, A friend of Bob’s from college was the mastermind behind this great organization that produced and published many self-motivation and development programs for individuals and businesses… This became the springboard that was just what I needed to flourish. The knowledge and experience of great leaders of the time on tape for me to absorb and expand on. To this day it is still one of my most valuable tools, and with the advances in technology, it is readily available to all willing to listen to Youtube, Hoopla, Overdrive, Libby, Audible, and a wide variety of specialized Podcast that are produced today not to mention without the cost we paid in the old days..
I can’t stress enough this process which we will get into in more detail later in this process’ on growth chapter.
I listened and read all of the time absorbing everything that I could get my hands on. From business Psychology, sales, communication, and the list goes on.
I’m not going to go into the intricate details of all of the business that I was involved with but I am going to list the business’ that went into and list to time frames to allow you to get an understanding of my experiences. I think that a teacher should have experience in order to offer advice to others. My practical hands-on process is important for you to understand what I have done and how it helps me relate to the real world.
I would also like to say, business and photography have always been my passion and I was always looking for a challenge.
This list of businesses and or Jobs is from the age of 16. Some of the time frames will overlap since most of my life I have I operated multiple businesses’ at the same time with the help of partners, employees and team members. To all of them, I am most grateful, they helped me become the person that I am today, each and every one!
1969-2017 Real estate Investment, Purchased FHA. foreclosed homes and rehabbed them for sale and rentals and worked in various capacities over the years. In the early years, I did most of the work myself if time allowed. I have owned to date over 100 properties
1974-1979 Studio one, Lawrence Kansas, In partnership with my hairdresser I rehabbed the space and my partner. I had a 5-year buy-out contract and she ran the day-to-day operations of the hair salon.
We converted one of the rooms into my office and It also served as the pick-up location for university photo which brought all the college kids in to pick up their photos..win-win
1973-1975 Campus Photo, Photographing Fraternity and Sorority party on KU Kansas University campus.
1973- 2005 Auto resale: with my passion for fine cars I bought repossessed sports cars from the bank’s and resold for profit… I did drive them for fun.
1979-1980 I built the second Studio One In Kansas city Missouri, Purchased a Historic home just off of the J,c Nichols Country Club Plaza,, one of Kansas Hottest attractions, and shopping areas I converted to a 3 story, 7 room home into a 14 chair salon with semi-private rooms that were rented to stylist and nail techs.. I sold in one year to members of the salon group to move to California for hopefully better weather.. haha
1979 -1980 I formed video Replay, Video productions, We offered home inventory recording, weddings, bar-bat mitzvahs, music videos, and Life and times video portraits.
In 1980-1982I Moved to San Jose California, just outside San Francisco Ca. That is where I met Tim Murphy, who was looking for someone to share a very large space with. Tim and I met and discovered that with my skills as a motivator, business partner/ promoter we would be a great team. Tim had worked for a modeling agency in Las Angeles, Ca. as their fashion photographer, Tim had an interesting concept but Tim, was a burly, bearded man, a fabulous fashion photographer but not the outward image you think of when you think of a talent scout and definitely not a business guy. Together, we rapidly built one to the bay area’s most profitable agencies, representing hundreds of fashion models, commercial models, store models, and children.
The next chapter,
1982-1999 Travelers Motel and Shady Acres Mobile Home Park, Topeka Ks,
1984-1999 Designs International and Images by Rod Dion Photography
I moved to Mission Kansas and Bought another building to convert to a salon under the name Design’s International Salon and Image’s by Rod Dion photography business.
1999-2006 Blackhawk Investments LLC , purchased foreclosure homes at court house auctions, rehabbed and resold on open markets.
1989-2001 I became partners in Mission Antiques and The Adirondack Chair company.
My role in The Adirondack Chair Company mostly financial management, marketing and sales.
In 1999 I moved to Overland Park Ks, I purchased a 3 story 6,000 square ft. home on 1.5 acres and moved my office to the lower level. This would accommodate my growing family photo clientele.
Over the years I grew into a ranked photographer winning several national awards for best portrait of the year. My commercial clients would include Hallmark Cards, Bayer Aspirin, Coca-cola Harrah’s Casino, and many others.
I loved the art of portraiture and began photographing families at my outdoor home studio. I build a large pond with a stream that had 2 bridges over it. I planted thousands of flowers in different parts of the yard so that I could work right at home and control my environment. The public parks had gotten strict on their use for commercial purposes.
Photography has always been my passion I’ve created 1000’s of portraits over the years and still love photography to this day.
Well, that’s a glimpse at my story. The reason that what I have done is important is that without my early day mentors none of this would have happened. I believe this with the utmost certainty.
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