Leadership Lingo (w/ Mateo Portelli)

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5. Ladies and gentlemen, you're ready, you're ready, you're ready, you're ready.

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I'll brainstorm this later. We'll edit it later for now.

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Welcome to Leadership Lingo. My name is Matteo Portelli.

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Today, we'll be hearing from a few folks and their experiences as leaders and find out the best principles and practices that make our community a better place. Welcome to Leadership Lingo. He was born in Edison, New Jersey, grew up here in Las Vegas.

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He's currently a junior majoring in business management, and he's been president of Nevada

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Phi Delta Theta Beta, which was founded here on campus in 2021. He's been president since last year, December of last year. Dylan Farley, thanks for being on the show. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you being here, but this is a special edition of Leadership Lingo because we have not just one, but two guests. Here, our second born in South Carolina group here in Vegas. We have Noor Benjelan. He's graduating this semester. Congratulations. Majoring in philosophy with a concentration in law and justice. And he's been Phi Delta Theta's secretary since last December as well. Noor, thanks for being on the show. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. So I don't know the last time that you've had three different Phi Deltas on a radio show on campus. In fact, this may be a first in fraternity history. So folks, I'm glad to be making history with you. But I'm so thankful for you being on the show. I'd like to start off with Dylan telling us a bit about Fight Alpha Theta, what we stand for as a fraternity, and then we'll go into your roles as officers in the organization. So our three cardinal principles are friendship, sound learning, and more rectitude. Anyone who kind of comes through the fraternity, the only way you're accepted is if you exemplify those three in the best way possible. And we like to transmit those three cardinal principles better than how we got it. So like you said, we started in 2021 here at UNLV. So none of us had any idea of what we were doing or how to transmit these principles, but now we have a better understanding. So just following those three cardinal principles, getting the guys that we want in to transmit it better the next time just is gonna lead to some of the best growth that I've seen, and we're already seeing it currently with just the men around campus who have come through Phi Delta Theta or have known Phi Delts. They're just all in all better leaders. Yeah, that's outstanding. What are some of the activities that we're seeing on campus Phi Delta spearhead? Other than like awesome game board nights. I don't think Phi Delta necessarily spearheaded anything. I wouldn't say like that. It's more of like we would team up with groups and like, you know You have the Greek weeks and homecoming and we just make sure that we show out we make sure that people know who we are what we represent and I think it's actually like bringing a difference to the idea of what Greek life and what Greek culture actually is very good No, I'm curious to hear how you got involved in fight out In fact, I remember last year when you and I were looking at rushing, but I'd love to hear your entry into the organization.

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Yeah, so I had been a bit skeptical of Greek life as we all have been, and I had, well now my brother, he had reached out to me, Ryder Hankins, we had been friends for the last four years, since my first day of undergrad, and he had consistently kind of told me about Phi Delta, and I was kind of looking to establish a new support system on campus, as well as within my personal life, and try something new. I had always been involved in so many different things and wanted to try something for comfort, and I had joined Fight Out. I wanted to better who I was and who I am, but I also wanted to develop that support system. And now I can say I have a support system of people who I am and also better understand other people, as well as kind of defeat the stigma and stereotype around Greek life. It's been extremely inclusive and extremely accepting.

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That's outstanding. I actually want to ask about your perspective. Obviously born, I guess, on the same half of the country, but different backgrounds, different foundings, but you both came to UNLV, you both found Phi Delta, and I want to know what your initial perspective was at Greek life and then now that you guys I mean you guys are on an executive board of personally one of the best fraternities on campus obviously you're in it now like you guys are the establishment so for a freshman who's looking at entering into Greek life or anybody of course what was the sort of difference that you saw? So actually I didn't join FIDEL until I was a sophomore I actually rushed a different fraternity as a freshman. It was a mistake. I won't name the fraternity. But I guess when you're going in and rushing for all underclassmen, it's don't be afraid to check out everybody and don't listen to what other people say. Because people will tell you that like, oh, these guys are the most popular, they throw the best parties. Yeah, at the same time, you go through and you realize that you don't really like these guys as people, or you don't like them as like brothers, or they can say like, hey this group is kind of weird or they're small, kind of like how people talked about Fight Out at least from the start, and then you come and you see that oh these are actually like a really cool group of guys or these guys are just chill, they're just smaller than some of these other groups. And being like open-minded to the idea of like find your purpose, find your home, and coming into college with just a higher mindset than just partying and trying to get girls, is going to really help you find a place where you belong.

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So for me, I had always kind of heard of the stereotype that Greek life isn't necessarily accepting when it comes to being a part of the LGBT community, at least that's the stigma I had throughout three and a half years of college. So I had always tried to kind of avoid through it, so I felt like I couldn't be myself, I couldn't be who I was, and exemplified the kind of guy that I am. Heading into Phi Delt, I had kind of experienced the exact opposite. I met a lot of people who just accepted me for me. They accepted me for who I am and what things I like to do as well as what I want to do in the future. I definitely have ambitious goals for my career and I wanted to join something where I could align myself with the ambition and goal-minded people who are also inclusive. I had also rushed a fraternity before FIDO, which I would also not name them, but I also encourage what Dylan said. Find your chapter and find out who's best for you. Don't listen to other people. I have people telling me, I had people telling me that Greek life was really bad and I had joined FIDO, and I absolutely love them, and I encourage all students, quite frankly, to check out our chapter, but also just find out who's for you and where you feel like you can be yourself.

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I think it's awesome I wonder you know living on a unless you do live on campus but attending a commuter school as we are. We have literally dozens of thousands of students over 400 undergraduate student organizations let alone the other RSOs that include grad and you know mixed levels of college. There's a lot to do, but I get the vibe that the rebel spirit, the rebel community is still being built up and I'm of the opinion that Greek life is something that should be more involved on campus. Curious to get your perspective as as executive board officers, what do you think UNLV should be doing more, whether it's, you know, boosting Greek Week more or what can we do to help support the Greek life, Greek life in general? Coming from a more personal perspective, I think, I mean, I know there's Las Vegas laws, but having Greek housing, having a bit stronger, like, hey, we want our Greek life here. You know, there are fraternities that mess up and there are punishments that happen and you'll hear about it on the news and whatnot, but that's not Greek life as a whole. That's when you have bad leaders getting into bad positions. And I think if you and LV started promoting Greek life in a bit of a higher standard than what they do, Greek life will become more popular. In terms of just hard as like you and LV in general, I think from all colleges, we're very different because a lot of the other colleges that have larger Greek life, they're not to offend anyone who might be from out of state. But they're in like middle-of-nowhere towns, you know, they're college towns. We have the world's playground right on our back door. So people don't see the need to be a part of a group. It's like, I'll get five friends in class and we'll go to the strip and party and do the same thing fraternities do for far less money. But I feel like if UNLV promoted it more, UNLV trying to make it look in a nicer light, maybe have more stuff around campus at least for Greek life. I know they're, shout out to Amani, building a Divine 9 thing next to CBC around there. I'm sorry I don't know the official name of it but it's gonna look amazing so like that's a step in the right direction but more stuff like that to really promote what Greek life is all about and how like we're all just people we're all just trying to make it, we're all just like trying to have fun and create like a group for us.

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I would echo Dylan's point that you and I, we should do more things to promote the image of Greek life in a positive light and leaders should take initiative to do things like that. Actually the Divine Nine stands by CBC was an initiative that I built when I was University Initiatives Chair up in the CSUN Senate, way back when I had gotten together with one of the senators and the faculty advisor and we had asked how can we promote the image of Greek life and we had worked with the Divine Nine sororities to kind of take a measure like that. But personally, I never knew how to get involved with Greek life. I only heard bad things about Greek life. And I was pretty skeptical. The only reason I joined was because one of my really good friends had told me about it, had told me all about the chapter, and I was able to confide in him, which is why I had joined. So I felt like UNLV should take more measures to highlight Greek life. We always have the involvement fair highlighting all 400 student organizations all over social media, but we never really highlight fraternities and sororities specifically on the scale that we highlight student organizations. Sure, we have Greek week, we have booth days, but we don't have it on the scale where we have the involvement fair, where we have a social media takeover, an email takeover, and a campus takeover. So more initiatives to promote Greek life and help students get involved and learn what it is outside of the stereotypes.

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Well, also too, to interject here, even when we do have the boothing days and that, they kind of put us in areas that most, a lot of foot traffic, but most people wouldn't want to just stop and talk. And when we do the Greek booth days, we're all in like one small spot surrounded by other organizations and um, you know, they made some changes this past year where they took away like we can't put greek letters in the front of Our booth during these days and we can only have a couple people at our booth at a certain time um to try to um, they said something about how like people were intimidated, but I also think that like It creates a sense of brotherhood because at the same time, you see a lot of these guys, if you've ever been to a Greek booth day, are still standing near their booth. So you're kind of defeating the purpose of what they're trying to accomplish. So just having the guys there, you're right, it's a little intimidating, but at the same time, it's like you have to understand that in Greek life, these are a group of brothers. Or in sorority life, it's a group of sisters. So it's like, of course we're gonna be together, of course we're gonna be close, and they all wanna be clumped together maybe having like more Greek booth days and kind of like when you and I know they don't let us but like having stuff being able to promote in housing like they in Tonopah because they don't allow that right now which I guess I can kind of like agree to you because like you know they're trying to get rid of partying I know they have like a no smoking thing and whatnot and a lot of what people think Greek life is is partying but it's such like, that's such a very front level, like tip of the iceberg of what Greek life actually is. Look, and it's not just because I know that the founder of LinkedIn was a Phi Delt, that I know that Greek life is more, you know, than just farting, right? The amount of professional growth and development that you can receive by being a part of Greek life is actually mind blowing. Part of the reason that I decided to join and rush Phi Delt was not just the networking aspect to it, obviously, right? You find that community, but also it was the philanthropic bridge, allowing me, what would you say, I guess a safe space to explore how to better my community. You don't really find that anywhere else. Maybe even on volunteers, they do a lot of good work on campus and there are a few other service-based RSOs, they do a lot of good work. And obviously if you're in an honor society, that too. But here you really get a whole package and I think it's pretty unfortunate that the university doesn't seem to be as accepting of Greek life as Greek life is accepting of the university. Well I think part of that comes from what happened about a year ago with, I won't name the fraternity because we all know who it is and what happened, but that really sent a negative view towards down there one's spine because, like you know and I think the school even though like legally they're not taking blame takes blame for what happened because they let it be promoted on like campus grounds there was clearly faults with it that they didn't like take heed to check out and I think if they had done that like things would have been different but now it's kind of like they see one thing that could be close to like punishable, they'll do it in the max way possible to kind of like deter others from either doing it or deter others from like trying to have a good time in my opinion. Do you think that puts a burden on Greek officers like yourself? Because the actions of one person, obviously, you're never responsible for the free actions that someone else makes. But obviously, we're all a part of Greek life. There is that superordinate community that every Greek member Ideally would share with one another. Do you feel that kind of weight on you as you try to lead? Fidel going forward. Well as president and I can't really speak for nor but as president You know the second I took up this thing it My actions aren't my own anymore. My actions are my chapters actions and even their actions are my actions So if someone messes up, it's on me. If something goes wrong, it's on me. And I feel like Greek life as a whole, you see that one person messes up, it goes on everyone. Because then everyone looks at you with a negative aspect. And you know, people will be like, oh, like, you're a frat president, or like, oh, that's so weird. Like all you do is plan parties and whatnot. And it's just like, or they're scared you know you hear about the hazing you hear about stuff that goes on in other schools and people freak out and people are like they don't want to even attempt to look at it which I understand completely but you know spending some time to check out an organization a lot of times what people will say it'd be false it's just because what they see on TV what they hear from like one or two chapters. It's kind of like the bad apples are poisoning the whole tree.

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I would definitely add to that. It's not only just the president whose image is all of Greek life. I mean, I definitely agree that there is this image of Greek life. There is this stereotype of Greek life that you carry with you as this boat and that you kind of need to defeat. I always say don't judge a book by its cover. Don't judge someone by something you may have heard, or don't judge a chapter based off of what you've heard of Greek life as a whole. Get to know that chapter or person for who they are. I would say personally, as well as being in Greek life, it's also not just being in an officer position, it's also being a member of that chapter. Things you may do off or on campus, or within your friendships or relationships will also impact the view of that chapter. We try to promote being the best version of yourself, you know, following our three values and things like that, and we look for people who exemplify those values. Because if one of us slips up and does something, it impacts the entire chapter of who we are and the image we carry. Not only that, but on the last point, I think you and Ovi should also change the image of Greek life. I have people telling me I'm not going to pay for friends. I view Greek life as much more than that. I don't want it to sound cheesy, but I say friends come and go in life, and that's just how it is. But I say brothers should be people you can rely on for life, whether, you know, it's with your personal life, someone if you need a call up at midnight who you know will be there for you. And that is one reason why I joined FIDELT is because it's a group of people I know I can rely on, and if I need someone I can call them up

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To add on to that too for like people who are gonna listen into this The bonds and the friendships you make are real a hundred percent. What you pay for is not you're paying for friends It's you're paying to go to certain events. I know Like about a year ago our fraternity we went to Topgolf, you know for a group of guys Which is like 10 11 strong at that point it was 500 something dollars that you know I can't just make that out of air I can't just pay for it all myself you know like we're all college kids are all struggling so what you're paying for is kind of like what you're getting out of it you know the boothing days that we have that some people say like the parties or some people like rush events those all have to be paid for and also just to bear the name Phi Delta Theta on any campus, you have to pay our GHQ. So, what that money goes towards is to be able to wear Phi Delta Theta on your chest, be able to say, hey, I am part of Phi Delta Theta, and to be able to experience stuff with your brothers that, in all honesty, if it wasn't free, you'd be paying for it in full, which can be, at the end of the day, more costly, because, you know, we also get funding. The school will give us like some money if we request it depending on how outrageous it is. But like the bonds are real. I mean, these guys, I would live and die for these,

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my brothers right now. Not only that, but I also see the connections that you make through FIDO, no matter what your career path is, as someone who cares about politics and law and that whole kind of thing. I've met people up in positions within the Nevada State Senate. I've been able to develop those connections because they were in FIDO back in the undergrad days. And I've gotten connections to the Nevada legislature. I've gotten connections to different lawyers, different law firms. I've been able to expand my network and help push myself to be the best version of myself where I can be by achieving my career. Joining FIDO is definitely, I have all the bonds that are for life, but I also have been able to better myself by developing connections and networks to people within the fields of work that I want to get into.

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Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Fidel on Arutz Sheva Radio. Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Fidel on Arutz Sheva Radio. Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Fidel on Arutz Sheva Radio. Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Fidel on Arutz Sheva Radio. First for Dylan, being president is obviously a big role, right? You're the face of the organization. You're the official liaison between the organization and the outside world. And of course, you lead your brothers, effectively. That's what they like to do as president. So you already spoke a little bit about your day to day. What is your philosophy when it comes to leadership? How do you handle problems that arise? You have to be very open-minded. I think that's the first step, is to be open-minded to change new ideas because when you're leading a group of people No matter where you are in life and no matter what business if you're in fraternity or not You're leading a group of diverse people so it's going to be everyone's going to have a different idea about something So to be open-minded to change being open-minded to oh, hey Like I never thought of it like this before being able to change on the fly But also being stern because sometimes being too open-minded means that you're gonna get walked over. People are just gonna go over you with your ideas. So the next step is to be stern and be like, hey, you know, I got elected here for a reason. You guys trust me, so you need to trust me on this. And it takes also a lot of just general, the word of like, sorry, I'm blanking on the word, but like inspiring. You have to be inspirational to people. They have to look up to you. You know, the second you get into this type of position, and honestly with any of our exec positions, like people look up to our secretary, or people look up to my vice president, JP. They look up to us for advice. They look up to us for leadership skills. They look up to us to set an example. So being able to inspire them to keep going. And with this new class we have, we really hit a home run with inspiring these guys to do great things, to be better than they were the day before. And that's really like, as an underclassman, that's what you should be striving towards, to be open-minded, but also be stern, and then also be inspiring to others. What are some pitfalls, again, in your capacity as president that you recommend others avoid? Because obviously it's good to have those values and benefits. What are some vices that we should avoid if you end up being president? The best thing you should do is delegate. You're never just going to be alone on an island for the most part. You're going to have a group of teams that you can rely on, at least for the most part. If not, at least some of those people you can rely on. Being able to delegate tasks, being able to do that, is going to save you a lot of stress and time. I know in the past with this chapter, our presidents would take on larger roles than what they necessarily needed to. And you have a lot of stress and sometimes people start to question that leadership because they're seeing that you're that they're doing everything, people are doing nothing. So it's like, is this person really doing nothing? Or am I just taking over? So being able to say like, hey, this is your job, I'll let you do your job and having a lot of and like the best thing is to really think about also if you're ready I think one of the biggest downfalls for some people is that they'll try to jump into a leadership position too early because they think they're ready for it or they're like oh well like no one else is gonna do it so I'm gonna do it and then it leads to some problems and then they tend like people they might look bad on themselves and it's really not on them it's just you're not ready for it and it takes time to be a leader it takes time to get into that position. You know, I got blessed with stuff in high school where I got to be leaders of groups and organizations from a young age. So I already had leadership capabilities, I already had leadership experience. But not everyone has that. So you have to kind of like really sit down and if you want a position, be sure that you're ready. It's all a time commitment, it's all like, you have to have passion for it. So just like, be ready and don't overdo it with yourself because then you're gonna burn out and then you're gonna hate what you're doing.

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Yeah, I agree.

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No, that makes a lot of sense. Noor, I know you've had 1,001 different titles and leadership positions and it's obvious that people trust you to be in those positions. In your capacity as secretary, of course, being secretary is a huge responsibility, right? You're responsible for the minutes and records and plenty of other duties. What advice would you give for someone who maybe wants to be secretary one day, again, of Fidel specifically, or any organization?

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Well, I would say no matter what leadership position you're in, I would say it comes down to one of two things. The first one, A, being able to inspire people, being able to motivate them to keep going. Of course, I feel blessed with the amount of leadership opportunities I've had in college. It's crazy to me, and the amount of people who have consistently believed in me and consistently elected me to higher and higher positions. It's taking that step to inspire people, serving as a role model, not only for the chapter, but as a person and as a leader, someone who is honest and someone who is transparent, someone who is doing the position because they have a passion, because they have a passion either for the chapter or they have a passion for a bigger mission as a whole, whether it's reforming the image of Greek life, whether it's the philanthropy sense of being able to make a change on campus or off campus. The second one would be being honest and being able to delegate. Within my capacity as secretary, there's definitely been times where I haven't been able to go and I'll give an example. I was out of state last week and before that, I was sick the week before that so I had told not only the people in the chapter but also the executive board hey I'm sick I don't want to put anyone at risk let me know what I can do remotely within my capacity let me know if there's anything you need me to do or I would go ahead and let them know if I have something coming up so I had let them know next week I'm gonna be out of state I have a business trip let me know what I can do now to make sure that nothing happens on your side where you fall behind or I would delegate to them and have them take over one of my duties. So I would say it comes down to those two.

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Very good.

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Gentlemen, I really appreciate your time and everything you do for both our fraternity and the campus. If folks want to get involved with Phi Delta, they want to see what we're about, where can they learn more? The best thing, go to UNLV Phi Delta on Instagram, follow us, DM us. You can DM me, my personal page is dylanf1195. Reach out, ask any questions you want. We're a very open book. But that's gonna be your best way. Awesome. Well, it was a pleasure. Gentlemen, I hope you have a phenomenal night,

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and I understand you guys have an executive board meeting right now. So, thanks so much,

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and I hope to see you guys back on the show.

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Thank you. Thank you.

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If you want to find out more information

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about the folks we interviewed here today

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or just learn more,

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you're more than welcome to follow us at Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn at Leadership Lingo. You can also shoot me an email at mateo at leadershiplingo.show. That's M-A-T-E-O at leadershiplingo.S-H-O-W. We'll catch you next time. We'll catch you next time. Stay safe, stay hydrated, have a great day.