-Hello, this is Don McCorry.

West Tennessee PBS is working hard to bring you more local shows and quality PBS programs, and they need your financial help because they don't run commercials.

They rely on your support.

It's easy to donate.

Go to the website WesTNPBS.org and click on the donate tab.

Your donations to Channel 11 stay local and help WLJT continue their mission to be as local as possible.

[music] -Straight ahead on Tennessee Wr.. Terry Hollenback.

He spent over a quarter of a century working at the Social Security Administration.

I'm sure he has thoughts about all the changes with Social Security, but now he's in charge of training for a local bank.

He's also a husband, a dad, and loves playing trivia, which may explain why his book combines pop culture with management techniques.

From Harry Potter to Pac-Man, we'll find out how they can help build better companies.

Get this, each year he dresses up as a banana.

Social Security, pop culture, bananas, and we may even play som.. Remember that?

It's all ahead.

Brew a fresh cup of coffee and find a comfy chair because Tennessee Writes starts right now.

-Books about Tennessee.

-Books that come from Tennessee authors.

-Books and stories with a Tennessee twist.

-West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee Writes.

-Hello and welcome to Tennessee Writes.

We're glad you're joining us for this unique show that goes beyond the book to let you get to know the author in a personal and revealing way.

My name is Peter Noll.

We're about to get up close and personal with another Tennessee.. Finding out all about them, from where they're from, how they began writing, and where their stories come from.

They'll even share advice for you if you want to write your own book.

I'll also play the very popular lightning round as we see how many questions they can answer in two minutes.

-Today, Tennessee Writes welcomes author Terry Hollenback.

He's spent over 25 years working for the Social Security Administration before moving into project management.

Now he's working for a local bank developing training programs.

He lives in South Bolton, Tennessee, where each year he dresses as a banana.

Tennessee Writes welcomes Terry Hollenback.

-Welcome to Tennessee Writes.

-Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

-Thanks for coming on in.

Have a seat.

-Appreciate that.

-Do you really dress up as a banana?

-Yes.

It's an exciting opportunity.

We-- -Have you always wanted to be a banana?

-It wasn't really something that was big on my list, but I used to be the Kentucky Wesleyan Panther back when I was in college.

A mascot.

-Where was that at?

-Owensboro, Kentucky.

I was the mascot for the multi-time national championship, Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers.

-You were a Panther.

-Yes.

-The Twin Cities Banana Festival in Fulton, Kentucky, South Fulton, Tennessee, was looking for a new banana, and that was you?

-That was me.

I put on the outfit.

I knew that I was going to be in for a very hot day.

100-degree heat in a very hot banana costume.

I became a baked banana.

-Does the banana talk?

-The banana does not talk.

He got a big assist from looking like Mr.

Peely from the Fortnite video game.

He's very popular with the kids.

-You're originally from where?

-Originally from Owensboro, Kentucky.

I have lived in several states throughout the Southeast: Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

-All of that was with the Social Security Administration?

-Most of those moves were made because of job opportunities that became available with the Social Security Administration.

-What was that like?

-Well, I developed a well-known thing of being the person who got called to go to bad offices.

By bad offices, I just mean poorly run.

They had great employees, great people, but they just lost their way for some reason.

-You were the fixer?

-I was the fixer.

-Did you like that, or did that get tiresome?

It's like, "Oh, what messes do I have to clean up now?"

-It honestly was very exhausting, but it made me feel good.

You could see the results from the work.

You could see that the employees appreciated coming into work more when they felt like they were seeing the results from what they put in every day.

-Did you meet your wife at the Social .. -Yes, we're from the same town and both from the Owensboro, Kentucky, area, but we went to two totally different high schools.

She'll get mad for me sharing this, but she's a year or two older than me.

We just didn't happen to run in the same groups and in the same circles.

I went to work at Social Security and had the opportunity to meet her.

As it turned out, we weren't really that interested in each other when we started out together.

-She was working for the Social Security before.. -Yes.

-Oh, wow.

Okay.

-Yes.

Again, she didn't recommend me.

We didn't know each other and just showed up and developed a friendship over time.

Started going out to lunch together and realized we had a lot in common and just really enjoyed each other's company.

-Fast forward, you've been married how many years?

-Been married for 28 years.

-Wow.

Most people just get their benefits from Social Security.

You got a spouse.

-I got a spouse.

Have a son as a result of that relationship.

It's been a blessing.

-Talk to people watching.

There's a lot of people watching that rely on Social Security benefits.

What's one piece of advice you would tell them, having seen the other side of the curtain there?

-The probably biggest misconception a lot of people had about Social Security benefits is just they always thought that their benefits were based on the last one year of work, the last three years of work, the last five years of work.

The key thing whenever I would go out and make presentations, whenever I would appear on the radio or on television shows, is just to make sure that people were aware it's based on your highest 35 years of work.

One bad year, one good year is not going to make that much of a.. in your overall benefits.

Just keep working.

Despite the concerns that you hear in the news today about benefits going away in 2033, that's not the case.

It's that they will not have the full amount of benefits available starting in 2033 to pay exactly what they're paying now.

-There's been so much news about all the cuts for customer service reps and making things AI.

How have you heard through the grapevine that that's impacting offices that you've been at?

-Actually, my son has started working there now.

I don't actually just have to hear-- -Wow, multi-generational Social Security Administration workers.

-Yes.

I don't have to just hear through the grapevine, but I still stay in touch with a lot of the folks that I worked with.

Technology's been a big push for Social Security ever since technology has been around.

It was always going to do away with some workers, just like AI was going to, just like self-checkouts were going to, just like robotics was going to.

It just hasn't materialized.

There have been some cuts, but as far as I know, they haven't really had a direct, major, significant impact on customer service.

I hear about the waiting times on the National Social Security 1-800 number.

Those waiting times were bad when I was there too.

It may have gotten a little bit worse, but not significantly so.

-Let's move on to something a lot more fun, trivia.

Do you go to bars?

You're going to The Keg in South Fulton to play trivia night?

What's been your fascination with trivia?

-It's just something that my wife and I have found to do as far as in the smaller communities that we really enjoy.

-You've done this in multiple places?

-Multiple places.

We really like going to The Keg now in Fulton, Ken.. Bricks and Brews in Union City, Tennessee, also offers trivia, and we've enjoyed that.

We've actually met my son and his girlfriend in Clarksville, Tennessee, to go play trivia with them just to get a chance to see each other, get together, and have a fun time.

-Were you a Trivial Pursuit player in your younger days?

-I was a very bad Trivial Pursuit player in my younger days.

I've gotten a lot better.

-You didn't get all pieces of the pie?

-No.

-Okay.

For those of you too young, Trivial Pursuit, Google it.

You probably can find the games on eBay.

-Yes, you can.

-We won't play any.

You retired how long ago?

Was it a year or two ago from Social Security?

-July 2021.

It'll be five years this year.

-Okay.

What did you plan to do?

-My plan was to do very little.

I was going to do some traveling with my wife.

We were going to spend some time visiting some of the places that we thought about going and just work as I felt like, or if we decided that we needed something to.. when it wasn't as much fun to go outside and go hiking because that's another activity that we really enjoy.

Things just haven't quite worked out that way.

-Now you're a consultant, like management, development consultant, and working at a local bank.

Was it First-- -First Community Bank of Heartland.

-First Community Bank of Heartland.

You develop training programs there.

-Yes.

Mainly, I've gone to work there as a project manager and then moved into the training area.

As far as consulting, yes, I record a lot of videos.

I record a lot of training sessions.

I try not to use my voice too much because of the fact that people already get trained by me one-on-one quite a bit, so hearing more of me the rest of the time.

I don't want them hearing my voice when they're as.. which the training sometimes puts them there.

[music] -Terry, let's go deep into How I Manage.

It's got a fun cover.

Video games, aliens, is it Bon Jovi or whoever the rockers are, but you take pop culture references and use those as a hook into different management organizational techniques that are good, whether you're in a small company or a big mammoth company.

My favorite one was always the George Costanza fire episode reference that you had when I read there, but you have from the Foo Fighters.

It's a fun book that if you just want to read a chapter or two, you can put it down and come back to it.

It's not a "got to read the whole thing and, oh, I got to go back."

How did this come about?

-Well, a big impetus in coming up with the book .. was when I got into management, there just wasn't a whole lot of training for it.

There was training on goals, what they expected me to make sure that the employees got done, but not really on how to do that.

I'd gone to college.

I'd taken some management courses.

-What did you stud.. -Accounting, but I did a lot of business administration and management courses.

Again, they really aren't focused on the big thing that's going to make you successful or unsuccessful when you're managing, and that's the people.

It didn't really tell you how to deal with the people, how to make sure that you help them and help them succeed.

A big push for me was to come up with something that took some of the lessons that I learned.

As an employee in the federal government, I couldn't use raises to motivate people because I didn't have any power over that.

I couldn't give them extra vacation time.

I couldn't threaten to fire them, or I could threaten, but it wasn't going to happen.

There were a lot of restrictions on that as far as in federal government hiring and firing.

I wanted to look at ways that you could work with people to motivate them in order to help them be more successful and to also make you more successful.

I really got the idea around the time that Ready Player One came out, book and the movie by Ernest Cline.

Great book.

It just took the obsession that we seem to have with pop culture from the '80s and the '90s and take it to another level.

I was like, "You know what?

I could take my lessons and make them more relatable if I could gear them towards something similar, things that people are already familiar with, things that they're already comfortable with, and things that entertain them and make it a little bit more fun."

-To help people understand your book a little bit more, let's play finish this sentence about your book.

The one word that best describes my book is?

-Easy.

-I hope my book leaves people feeling?

-Entertained.

-The number one reason I wrote this book was?

-To assist people when they're starting out in their careers or if they're struggling.

-My biggest inspiration to write my book was?

-Again, probably Ready Player One as far as the theme and the organization of the book.

-The biggest fear I had when writing this book was?

-That absolutely no one would read it.

-The number one lesson I want people to learn from my book is?

-The importance of success is making sure that there's team and group success.

It's not about you.

It's about the entire organization.

-This is book one in a series of books called what, The Culture of Success, I read?

-Yes.

-You've got two out, correct?

-I've got this one that's already out.

-Your second one is called what?

-That Didn't Go as Planned.

This one was mainly focused on success and how to succeed.

That Didn't Go as Planned takes a look more at failure and why some businesses, even big businesses, have struggled and made some bad decisions.

I talk about something that I call success amnesia.

Basically, it's just forgetting what you did that made you successful in the first place and steering away from it.

The third book in the series is going to be called The Shortcut Era.

It's talking about our focus on the easy road, not doing the work that you have to to get into that place of success in the first place.

[music] -Terry, now it's time for the Tennessee Writes Lightning Round.

It's very popular.

It's where we ask authors a set of quick book-related questions and see how many they can answer in two minutes.

If you don't know an answer, just say pass, but the key is to try and get as many questions answered in those two minutes as you can.

We'll put two minutes on the clock, and I'll start counting down to zero after my first question.

Terry, do you want to play the Tennessee Writes Lightning Round?

-I'm very excited and highly competitive, so let's do this.

-Okay.

Two minutes on the clock.

If you could have a book signing in any city in the world, where would it be?

-Probably Nashville, Tennessee.

I'd like family and friends to be able to come.

-What's one thing you would change about your book cover?

-I probably would have made it look slightly less cartoonish.

-What's your favorite movie based on a book?

-Pass.

-What's the last audiobook you listened to?

-Flash Forward.

-What's the most money you've spent on a single book?

-$29.99.

-How often do you check your Amazon book reviews and ratings?

-When I first started, every day, probably several times a day.

Now, not at all.

-Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction books?

-Nonfiction.

-What is your favorite book of all time?

-I'm probably going to go with the Bible.

-What animal best represents your book?

-Cheetah.

-Name the last book you finished reading.

-Bazaar of Bad Dreams.

-What author, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with?

-Stephen King.

-Where would you go for dinner?

-No place he picked out.

-What's your least favorite book of all time?

-I don't really have one.

-What book have you read multiple times?

-All of them.

-How many times have you read the book you've read the most?

-The most, probably in the mid-30s, and it's probably Ready Player One.

-Roughly how many books do you own?

-As far as hard copy books, now I'm under less than 10.

As far as audiobooks, over 350.

-How long did it take you to write your book?

-Around two years.

-What's the first book that made you cry?

-Manhattan is Missing, back in elementary school.

-How many books are on your nightstand?

[music] -Terry, we always love to hear authors speak the words that they wrote on a page, speak it themselves.

Would you mind reading a short reading from Somehow I Manage?

-Absolutely.

Thank you.

What I've picked here is Chapter 11, and it's key number six out of my six keys to success, and it's Look Outside Yourself.

The first thing that I have is a quote from Zig Ziglar.

You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.

Effective management is vital for organizational success, yet many managers inadvertently place the spotlight on themselves rather than their employees.

You may have heard teamwork makes the dream work, but a fair number of managers seem to believe that team success is solely the result of their excellent planning, their hard work, and their amazing leadership skills, while team failure is chalked up to employees who just can't listen.

The self-centered approach quietly erodes morale, productivity, and ultimately, the culture of the workplace.

As we look at different situations, it becomes easy to see how their selfish focus leads not just to disappointment but often to full-blown disaster.

When managers prioritize their personal aspirations, whether it's a promotion, stock options, their image, or even their home problems, they risk alienating the very people whose support they rely on.

This creates an environment where employees feel undervalued, unheard, and unseen, and when that happens, productivity just doesn't just slow, it dis.. You might find yourself thinking of Carly Simon's You're So Vain.

Maybe your boss doesn't fly in on a Learjet or strut into the office like they're walking onto a yacht.

But do they hijack every conversation in the break room to talk about themselves?

Do they act like every problem in the office is just another chapter in their heroic story?

As Simon sings, I bet you think this song is about you.

It becomes a fitting theme song for managers who make everything from morning meetings to milestone celebrations about themselves.

It's a lyrical reminder that leaders who center their own narratives over the teams often miss what truly drives success, collaboration, empathy, and shared ownership.

Pop culture is practically a case study in self-absorbed leadership.

Take Michael Scott from The Office, endearing in his own way, but his relentless need to be the star turns basic staff meetings into stand-up routines.

Early Tony Stark, brilliant yet blindingly self-absorbed, prioritizes legacy over impact until he learns painfully that real leadership means sacrifice.

Then there's Walter White from Breaking Bad, a man who's always claiming he's doing it for his family while every decision screams self-glorification.

As he spirals deeper into ego and control, his leadership becomes a cautionary tale of how unchecked pride consumes everything.

These characters are fictional, but their leadership failures mirror real-life issues.

They remind us that when a leader becomes the main character in every scenario, the team suffers.

True leadership isn't about being the most talked-about person i.. It's about making sure everyone else in the room feels heard, respected, and essential.

You're not directing a solo performance.

You're conducting an orchestra.

Success comes not from the spotlight, but how well you can light up others.

-Terry, did you self-publish this book, or you got a publisher?

-I am self-published, and I'm doing that with all three of the books in this particular series.

-We have both types of authors on Tennessee Writes.

What advice do you have someone sitting out there going, "I've always wanted to write a book like that, or I've got a story?"

What would you tell them?

How do they get the book done?

-First of all, the first thing I would tell them is, yes, you absolutely have a story.

If you have something that you feel is worth sharing, share it.

There's an audience out there who's waiting to listen.

The second thing I would tell them is before you start writing the book, start marketing your idea.

One of the things that I honestly just didn't know and that I learned through this process was that marketing takes up more time than the actual writing.

As far as the book itself, it took me almost two years to get it done.

There were big gaps where I would start and stop, start and stop.

Sometimes, I would just get discouraged.

I went back and just ripped three, four chapters out at a time and was like, "I'm not happy with any of these."

I'd go back three months later, pick it up and get started again.

-Did your wife read your book?

-Yes.

-What were her thoughts?

-She's very kind.

She already puts up with me a lot.

She was also willing to marry me.

She's willing to accept a lot from me.

I really couldn't rely on her as an independent third-party corroboration.

She mainly checked for grammatical errors because she is very willing to do that for me.

-Were you guys working in the same office?

-We very rarely got the opportunity to work in the same office.

We started out in the same office in Owensboro, Kentucky.

After I started my management career, she was no longer allowed to work.

-She couldn't work for you.

Yes, managing your wife is not a good thing.

-It's not something that's going to ha.. No.

I can't do it at home.

I certainly wasn't going to get the opportunity to do it at work.

-Where can people get your book?

Where do you send them?

-As far as finding the book, if you do a search.. for Somehow I Manage, Terry Hollenback, you're going to find it.

Primarily, it's available on Amazon, but it's also available on Barnes & Noble and through a variety of other book-selling options.

You can actually order it as well through Books-A-Million and other bookstores.

-You do consulting work and speaking and things.

How can people get in contact with you?

-The easiest way is just to reach out to me at my email address.

More than happy to come and speak.

-What is that email address?

We'll put it up on the screen too for everyone.

-The easiest one is just my name.

It's tlhollenback1@gmail.com.

I also have one primarily geared towards my speaking engagements, which is mondaymorningmanager@gmail.com.

I respond, of course, to both.

-Okay, great.

Terry, we've come to the end of this edition of Tennessee Writes, but we want to really thank you for coming on and sharing about yourself, your books, how you came into writing, and so much more, and about your banana costumes for the Twin Cities Banana Festival.

That's coming up.

Again, it'll be here before we know it.

-Planning is already starting for this year.

-Before you leave us, would you mind signing your book?

-Oh, not at all.

-Thank you.

[music] -Success is what you make it because everybody's idea of success is different.

You just have to be true to yourself.

-Thank you so very much.

We also want to thank you for watching Tennessee Writes.

A parting gift, like a good game show, is a Tennessee Writes writing kit.

This is an organizer, a messenger backpack, a bag, a water bottle, a latte mug, notebooks, and a plethora of pens to help with future writings and seminars and anything you may need.

-Thank you so much, and thank you for having me.

-Again, thank you for coming on, and thank you for watching.

We want to thank everyone who watches us on TV and streams this edition of Tennessee Writes, and we hope you join us again as we get up close and personal with another author.

Remember, you can stream all past episodes on YouTube and the PBS app.

As Walt Disney said, a good story can take you on a fantastic journey, so keep on reading, Tennessee.

-For comments about today's show or to suggest a Tennessee author for a future program, email us at tennesseewrites@westnpbs.org.

Tennessee Writes, on air and streaming now.

[music] -The program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

[music]