What’s the one essential thing you’ve received from Nantucket Bike Tours? Cole Crouch: Smiling. I’m really happy.
The Cole Crouch smile tells me that this emotional intelligence thing works. It’s everywhere—that big, chin-up, toothy grin.
It’s a welcome change.
Four years ago—heck, even two years ago—that smile wasn’t there. Cole was another student a little too driven, focused on a career in law, with a countenance that teetered between boredom and indifference.
Two years after serving as an intern for Jason and Courtney Bridges, Cole is transformed. He remembers when and where NBT’s mantra “Be Interested, Not Interesting (BINI)” took root. He was two weeks into his Nantucket internship in 2015 sitting in the backseat of a car on Polpis Road headed out to Sconset.
“It overcame me physically. I was looking at the road, and thought, Oh my gosh. This is what this is going to be like from now on. I just saw people differently. Now I value those relationships.”
Cole tells the story of a family from San Francisco that had booked a tour, a 20-miler called the Spin to Sconset, and the forecast called for heavy rain. Cole was hoping they’d cancel. The kids changed his perspective.
“I realized that this was a golden opportunity for me to put all this stuff that we talk about into practice,” Cole says. “You have two little kids who are really positive—how can that not bring you up?”
He rode through every single puddle with those kids over those 20 miles, including most of the flooded downtown historic district.
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike tour,” he says. “I’ll never forget it. We were drenched. We spent 10 minutes in the shed together overcome with joy over what we experienced. Those kids will never forget the time they vacationed in Nantucket and took a bike tour in the rain.”
opening up to others wasn’t easy for Cole. He had developed a multitude of excuses to avoid it.
When he got to Nantucket and encountered the Bridges’ EQ ideas, he struggled. That led to some blunt and difficult conversations with Jason.
“Having a family atmosphere, having the interns live with us—kind of waking up at the same time, sharing dinner together, and having these conversations every day—it builds trust, which allows us to build relationships, and then we can get into all the good stuff,” Jason says. “To improve emotional intelligence, you have to be vulnerable. You have to be able to listen to some criticism that is not easy to hear.”
After some soul searching and a change in focus, Cole finally broke through.
“Since then, there has not been a single person that’s gotten to me or that I can’t somehow think, All right, there’s something else to this person, I just have to find it. I can look at someone differently and take time to get to know them and still build a relationship.”
When he returned to campus after his internship, some of his fraternity brothers were shocked by the changes. Suddenly he was the happiest guy in the Beta house.
“Everything I worked on over the summer carried over.” He laughs. “I was too happy. I doubt they thought I was completely genuine; then over time, they realized, he’s not breaking this.”
After his stint in Nantucket, Cole spent a semester in Greece, where his EQ skills helped him meet and get to know all 60 people in his program. One of those was a young woman named Caroline, who is now his girlfriend.
When he returned from Greece, Cole stopped by Nantucket to ask for the opportunity to manage the business.
“What I learned two years ago was to be interested in other people, step outside myself, and try to build community. Now I’m managing and mentoring two guys who have never done this. I have to be empathetic to where they are personally. I’m the go-to person now. These guys ask questions constantly, and I love that.”
The past two years have been a whirlwind for Cole. He’s grateful for the mentors he has in Courtney and Jason, and he’s thankful Career Services Peer Advisor Tyler Hardcastle ’15 suggested he apply for the internship.
“My entire life is night-and-day different. I’m not only more thankful for everyone around me in a very genuine way, but I can also physically get animated around people in a way I didn’t before.” He smiles. “I’m a hugger, now.”
FROM GROUCH TO CROUCH
COLE CROUCH (far right), during a Wabash Democracy and Public Discourse gathering in 2014; Cole Crouch 2017
“I enjoy being challenged all the time,” Cole says of his stint as manager at Nantucket Bike Tours. “This place kicks your butt in so many different ways, but for me to be a more outgoing person, and to be this way all the time, is pretty cool.”
We were drenched. We spent 10 minutes in the shed together overcome with joy over what we'd experienced together.