Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [2:25] How Eduardo Montano’s first door-to-door sales job taught him persistence and communication skills
- [5:53] The role of efficient management and processes in educational success
- [08:20] What inspired the creation of Family Forum, and how does the method help families?
- [12:27] Teaching emotional intelligence by identifying children’s feelings
- [15:40] How to help children set realistic and achievable goals
- [20:05] The importance of constructive communication and empathy in resolving family issues
- [26:04] Why playing games is essential for building family communication and connection
- [28:21] Eduardo explains the concept of “Power Skills”
- [34:07] How to use AI as an educational tool for learning and critical thinking
In this episode…
As parents navigate a rapidly changing world driven by technology and artificial intelligence, one looming question remains: How do we ensure our children are not only prepared for the future but also emotionally grounded and resilient? With digital distractions on the rise and traditional education systems struggling to adapt, the role of parents in shaping children’s development is more vital than ever.
Eduardo Montano, a highly accomplished entrepreneur and visionary in education, dives deep into actionable strategies for raising future-ready children. Drawing from his experience running three schools and authoring books on parenting, Eduardo introduces the concept of the “Family Forum” — a structured, engaging method for families to build trust, solve problems, and foster emotional intelligence. Eduardo also unpacks the 14 “power skills” he believes are critical for success and happiness in the AI era, emphasizing self-directed learning and digital literacy.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Eduardo Montano, CEO of Colegio Montano, about parenting strategies for the AI age. Eduardo shares insights on developing emotional intelligence, teaching kids goal-setting, and integrating AI into education. He also discusses family communication methods, skill-building techniques, and the evolving role of schools.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Eduardo Montano: LinkedIn | Website | YouTube
- Foro Familiar: Cómo maximizar el potencial de tus hijos (Spanish Edition) by Eduardo Montano
- EXTRAordinarios: Impactemos a nuestra comunidad a través de la Familia (Spanish Edition) by Eduardo Montano
- Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish
Quotable Moments:
- “Parents often minimize their kids’ problems, but for them, those issues are just as big as ours.”
- “Power skills are what truly set us apart from machines; they’re emotional, human, and essential.”
- “AI is a tool. It can either do the work for you or help you better understand how to do it yourself.”
- “If the forum changes how a child feels from start to finish, then you’ve created a connection.”
- “Don’t let kids win. Let them earn it. That’s how confidence and resilience are built.”
Action Steps:
- Implement a family forum at home: Start with a monthly session where each family member shares feelings, goals, and challenges. It builds emotional intelligence and opens up communication between parents and children.
- Redefine soft skills as power skills: Emphasize to kids that emotional intelligence, communication, and problem-solving are not optional; they are powerful tools for life and future careers. Labeling them as “power” changes their perceived value.
- Use AI as a learning assistant, not a crutch: Encourage kids to use AI for idea generation and comprehension, not for copying. This ensures they still develop critical thinking and research skills.
- Set clear, kid-owned goals: Help children define SMART goals in areas like school, sports, and relationships. This ownership fosters motivation, accountability, and long-term vision.
- Balance technology with real-life interaction: Limit screen time and promote offline play. Social dynamics, like resolving sibling disputes, are essential to developing emotional and social intelligence in an AI-dominated world.
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about how to prepare and educate the next generation of kids and give them the skills they need to be successful and to thrive in an age of AI. My guest today is Eduardo Montano. He’s a successful entrepreneur who’s got ten different companies, three of which are schools, helping to prepare the next generation of young kids. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you more about him in a second.
Intro: 00:25
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:41
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of the show. And every week we talk to smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
We’ve had Netflix and Grubhub, Grubhub and Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, lots of great episodes. Check out the archives and you can dive into those episodes. And before we get into this, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that?
We do that by helping you to run your podcast. We are the easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. And we do three things: strategy, accountability, and full execution. In fact, we invented what some are calling the Wix of B2B podcasting. It’s our podcast co-pilot, Podcast Copilot, our platform podcast Copilot. Now to learn more about it, you can go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected]. All right. Our guest here today is Eduardo Montano.
He has, as I mentioned earlier, about ten different companies. He is the Founder and CEO of Colegio Montano and MAC S.A. They are based in Guatemala. He’s been sorry Guatemala. He has been an entrepreneur for 20 plus years. He’s also the author of the books Family Forum and EXTRAordinary, which are two books, impactful books that have helped countless parents and children across Latin America and beyond. And as I mentioned, he’s got three different schools. So we’re going to talk quite a bit about leading kids and training kids in the age of AI, which is something that I, as a parent of four kids, think about a lot. Lots of parents are thinking about it. But Eduardo, let’s start by getting to know you a little bit more and what you were like as a kid. You, at 16 years old, were going around doing sales for a cable company. Tell me a little bit about that, how did you get into that?
Eduardo Montano: 02:26
Well, first of all, thank you for having me on your show. It’s a pleasure for me to share my message to your listeners. Well, I was always like that. What do you call a salesperson by nature? And when I was six years old and was on vacation from school, I went with my father and I said, help me find something to do what he told me.
Well, a friend of mine is opening a new cable company. At that time nobody knew. It was very new. So he told me, well, the friend, he told me this is the place you have to go door to door explaining what a cable company is and trying to sell. So yeah, in three months, I made a lot of money.
It was a very fun job. Very first fun job where it was a very nice experience. And I learned the importance of sales from a very young age.
John Corcoran: 03:27
What did you learn? I’ve interviewed a number of people that have done door to door sales. I kind of did it when I was in college, but for political candidates, I volunteered for different campaigns, and it’s hard to go and knock on doors and face that rejection. What did you learn around that experience?
Eduardo Montano: 03:46
Well, how to approach people that you don’t know. It was incredible. Some people just shut the door and they didn’t want to hear anything about you. The other people said, well, this is a young kid. What do you have to say? I learned how to greet people. I learned what to give them, for them to take me seriously and not just say that.
John Corcoran: 04:10
Because you’re a 16 year old kid at this point, right? So was that a struggle to get was that on your bike? Was that a struggle to get them to take you seriously?
Eduardo Montano: 04:18
Yes, yes it was. But yeah, it was fun. It was fun. Maybe there were houses. I had to come back two, three, four times until they said yes. Okay, tell me, what’s this about? Yeah.
John Corcoran: 04:30
Yeah. And you were educating people. People didn’t know what cable was.
Eduardo Montano: 04:34
Yes. And that was also very, very fun because in that time that was technology. And it’s very new technology and how this can improve your life in some way or entertaining life or whatever. It’s also a fun thing to do.
John Corcoran: 04:50
Now your father also opened, owned a school. So that’s kind of how you got into owning schools. Tell us a little bit about that, what that experience was like.
Eduardo Montano: 05:01
Yes, he has always been an educator. He owned the school with another partner. Later he opened a new school. But the school was not going well financially. So that’s when he called me.
I had other companies. I was 30 years old, starting more or less my entrepreneurial business after ten years of experience. So I said, well, it will be fun coming to, to try to, to rescue their, their business, his business. But it was only a temporary job. So I went in, I did what I could do. So two years later we were in black numbers. We were doing okay.
John Corcoran: 05:49
What was it you discovered? That was the reason that it wasn’t profitable?
Eduardo Montano: 05:53
The management was not efficient. The finances were not managed well. A it was not in an orderly manner. There were no processes. So the first thing I did was certified ISO 9001 2000.
At that time, just to understand the business, understand the processes, make KPIs, establish goals and make sure that the quality was standardized. That was another thing we depended on. If the teacher was good or bad, I wanted a process to guarantee all teachers were going to deliver what I promised the students, what I promised the parents. So yeah, I made all of these changes.
John Corcoran: 06:45
And was it hard stepping in into this school that your father owned, did you have authority to go into it? And, you know, here’s this young kid, the boss’s son is coming in. And then there’s the family dynamics. You know, sometimes, you know, parents understandably feel insecure about that. Their son came to the rescue. What were those family dynamics like?
Eduardo Montano: 07:09
It was a challenge. It was a challenge. But people knew that. They quickly learned that, I mean, business. I was willing to work.
I was willing to put the hours in. I was willing to learn about them, about the business. And I think they learned to appreciate it and respect me eventually.
John Corcoran: 07:32
Yeah, eventually. It took a little while. Yeah. So you turn it around, you make it more profitable.
Eduardo Montano: 07:36
Yes, yes. And I learned to love education. So, long story short, ten years later, I offered to buy the school from my father and. And that’s where it all started for me as an entrepreneurial and as a business, as a, as a profession, as a legacy that I wanted to, to to make the difference.
John Corcoran: 08:01
Yeah.
Eduardo Montano: 08:02
From then on.
John Corcoran: 08:04
And you’ve written a book. Your first book was written about the Family Forum book. Explain to those who don’t know what the forum is and what you spin on. Was it for it? Your spin on it was for the family dynamic?
Eduardo Montano: 08:20
Okay. After 15 years or so of paying attention to all the problems that kids had, the successes that kid had. Why is it that some kids are very good at sports? Some are very bad, some are very good, and in school, some are very bad, some are socially accepted, some are socially rejected. What’s different?
What’s happening there? And the interesting part that I discovered is that it mostly came from home, from their parents, from their environment as a family there. That’s the root of all the good things and bad things. So I wrote all the findings that I had, and then I researched all these findings, and I discovered that these findings were global, were not in my school. It was everywhere.
It’s the same thing. So when I understood the findings, I developed this method called Family Forum, where you can contrast all these findings that I had. And this method improves communication. Parents, children develop trust, help the children discover their strengths and help them take control of their lives. Because now it’s a complicated thing.
Kids don’t have control. It’s social media friends and there’s a lot going on. So this method helps them get this control problem solving techniques, the sense of belonging and social appreciation that it’s such a hard thing for any person not being socially accepted. Self-esteem, sense of security motivate them. Mindset of constant growth. It does a lot but in a fun way because that was one of the things I was yeah, I was looking for it, making it fun. Because if it’s not fun, they’re not going to do it.
John Corcoran: 10:32
Now, you and I are both members of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which has the forum. And the forum is generally a group of, you know, 7 to 10 business owners that meet on a regular basis and have a particular agenda. Explain to us you know what the format was for your family forum. A forum that is for your family forum. How are you. How is it inspired by that business format?
Eduardo Montano: 10:56
It is inspired by that, but in a family way, because when you discuss it with your entrepreneurial friends, it’s going to have a business or family focus, but you never interact with them personally. You tell them about your things, but they don’t involve the other people in the family. Most of the issues that you talk about involve someone else inside the same circle. So that’s a challenge. Yeah, it’s six steps.
It’s six easy steps. And yeah, the first one. Like Ennio, we help develop emotional intelligence by being in contact with your feelings. So how do you feel? And the interesting thing is that you start with how you feel and you end with how you feel? What we want to compare if, if, if, if the form was a successful one, if you.