Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3: A low.
Speaker 4: Ways, Well, if you were to call up Central Casting
Speaker 4: and say get me a CEO, I think it's fair
Speaker 4: to say they would not get you. Our next guest.
Speaker 4: He's a self described trailer park kid who lived in
Speaker 4: twenty three states before even getting to high school. He
Speaker 4: went to college, but he didn't get an MBA from
Speaker 4: an Ivy League school, like so many of those who
Speaker 4: do end up leading companies. He started as a copywriter
Speaker 4: at a local ad agency just out of college, and
Speaker 4: from there worked his way up to become an EVP COO,
Speaker 4: president and ultimately co founder and president and then CEO
Speaker 4: and chairman of Young Brands. It's the largest fast food
Speaker 4: operator in the world world based on number of restaurants.
Speaker 4: It's the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell.
Speaker 4: And he attributes his success to a simple thing, being
Speaker 4: an active learner. It's what he writes this new book about.
Speaker 4: We're talking about David Novak. He chronicles all of this
Speaker 4: in a new book it's out today. It's called How
Speaker 4: Leaders learn master the habits of the world's most successful people.
Speaker 4: David joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive at Brokers Studio.
Speaker 5: Welcome Tim. Thanks for that really outstanding introduction. You're welcome
Speaker 5: the least likely CEO ever. I love it.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, that's actually where I want to start,
Speaker 4: because you've got a really interesting story, especially as a
Speaker 4: young person. How did you end up living in twenty
Speaker 4: three places before high school?
Speaker 2: Well, my dad was a government surveyor, so he did
Speaker 2: the longitude and latitude points and mark maintenance surveying in
Speaker 2: basically small town America. I was born in Beeville, Texas.
Speaker 2: Lived in small towns, never on the East coast, never
Speaker 2: on the west coast, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Dodge City, Kansas.
Speaker 2: I'm the only person you know that's lived in Dodge City,
Speaker 2: Kansas twice. We moved every three months. We hooked up
Speaker 2: the government trucks. My dad was with the surveying party,
Speaker 2: so we had like fifteen families and we all lived
Speaker 2: in trailers, and we moved from trailer park to trailer park.
Speaker 4: And so you're with the same families the whole time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had in my neighborhood I thought everybody did it.
Speaker 2: Everybody says, how could you live in a trailer and
Speaker 2: move all that time? But it was actually an I
Speaker 2: think idellic upbringing. You know, I learned when you move
Speaker 2: into new environments all the time, you have to learn
Speaker 2: how to scope out situations, new situations, learn you know people.
Speaker 2: It really helped me with my people instincts. I always
Speaker 2: learned your like one one friend away from happiness. My
Speaker 2: mom always checked me in these schools and she said, David,
Speaker 2: you better make a friend because we're.
Speaker 5: Leaving and hello.
Speaker 2: I also learned that when you go into a new situation,
Speaker 2: tim it's really nice when you have somebody come up
Speaker 2: and make you feel welcome. So, as I moved up
Speaker 2: the ladder in business, I when I saw new people
Speaker 2: come in, I always made it a priority to come
Speaker 2: in and come up and say welcome to the team,
Speaker 2: Glad you're here. But there are all kinds of learnings
Speaker 2: I got from that upbringing, one of which is you
Speaker 2: just can't stereotype people. You know, there's no such thing
Speaker 2: as trailer trash. I had fifteen families. All they wanted
Speaker 2: for their kids to was live the American dream. When
Speaker 2: I played little League Baseball I had, I had, you know,
Speaker 2: ten people out there watching me, other people lucky to have.
Speaker 5: One of their parents there.
Speaker 2: It was very supportive and encouraging, and that environment it
Speaker 2: was something I really tried to take into the corporate
Speaker 2: world as well.
Speaker 3: So can you walk us through a little bit more
Speaker 3: of your career path and then we'll get into your book.
Speaker 3: But I think everyone is so curious, you know, how
Speaker 3: did you go from this kid in the trailer park
Speaker 3: to eventually CEO of the multi national.
Speaker 2: Well, it has a lot to do with the book.
Speaker 2: You know how leaders learned because you don't have a
Speaker 2: very untraditional path. I went to the University of Missouri.
Speaker 2: I got a bachelor in journalism. My first two years
Speaker 2: I was a very poor student, but then I found
Speaker 2: out I loved advertising, and I majored in advertising, and
Speaker 2: then I became really turned on. I started learning everything
Speaker 2: that I possibly could about it. I graduated in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy four, and that was back when inflation was almost
Speaker 2: twenty percent. I know, we talked about it now, and
Speaker 2: you know how hard it is to get jobs and
Speaker 2: journalism anyway, But I got the first job I got
Speaker 2: was a copywriter at a really small advertising agency in Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. I liked that a lot, and then I
Speaker 2: moved on into account management in the advertising world, worked
Speaker 2: on Heinz fifty seven sauce. Then I went to Dallas
Speaker 2: and ran the Tostitos account and work my way up
Speaker 2: the Freedom account, which was a part of PepsiCo.
Speaker 5: And there I had a lot.
Speaker 2: Of success with the senior management there and they recommended
Speaker 2: me to go to PepsiCo to run marketing for pizzad
Speaker 2: And I was the first non MBA to ever go
Speaker 2: to PepsiCo and to run a marketing department.
Speaker 4: Was was this before or after you invented cool ranch
Speaker 4: to ride?
Speaker 2: It was after I invented the cool ranch Doritos.
Speaker 4: That was part of the success that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I write about in.
Speaker 2: The book because you know, one of the learnings I
Speaker 2: have is that you can really, uh multiply your creativity
Speaker 2: and your innovation by being a pattern thinker.
Speaker 5: So we had nacho Cheese to.
Speaker 2: Ritos, which was really doing well, but it was starting
Speaker 2: to slow down a little bit. So we were looking
Speaker 2: for a new product idea for free to lay.
Speaker 5: So I said, team, let's go to the.
Speaker 2: Grocery store and see what's happening there. So we walked
Speaker 2: up and down each aisle and we got to the
Speaker 2: salad dressing aisle and we saw that ranch flavor salad
Speaker 2: dressings was the most popular new flavor that had been introduced.
Speaker 2: So I came back and I called Dennis Hurd, the
Speaker 2: head of R and D for Free to Lay, and
Speaker 2: I said, you think we could do a ranch flavored
Speaker 2: Dorito And he said absolutely.
Speaker 5: And I'll tell you when.
Speaker 2: I when those those cool ranch stritos came off the
Speaker 2: line and we had them, we knew we had a
Speaker 2: home run. Tasted great, and then we we learned from
Speaker 2: from nacho cheese doritos. Nacho cheese is you have a
Speaker 2: known quan of ea cheese and you want to put
Speaker 2: a unique image to it, which is not just. So
Speaker 2: he said, what can we call our ranch flavored to edo?
Speaker 2: And we call it cool ranch to Rito's and the
Speaker 2: rest is rest is history.
Speaker 4: I mean, now you've got, you know, taco shells made
Speaker 4: out of Dorito's.
Speaker 2: Dorito's and ranch flavored and you know, So that's again
Speaker 2: pattern thinking where you take two seemingly unrelated things and
Speaker 2: you bring them together and you come up with big ideas.
Speaker 2: You know, I always say most innovation is a derivative
Speaker 2: of something else that's.
Speaker 5: Going on somewhere in the world.
Speaker 2: And as a learner, you need to be curious enough
Speaker 2: to see what's going on out there, and then asking
Speaker 2: yourself a very simple question, you know, how could I
Speaker 2: apply this to my business? Or if you're learning from
Speaker 2: an individual, what is that individual doing that I could
Speaker 2: do to propel my career or make me better, make
Speaker 2: me stronger at what I do.
Speaker 3: So at what point in your career did you come
Speaker 3: to this idea that you talk about in the book
Speaker 3: Active Learning? Was there a particular moment that you remember
Speaker 3: it kind of struck you?
Speaker 2: Well, you know what happened to me was when I
Speaker 2: started loving what I did, I wanted to learn everything
Speaker 2: I could about it. And then when I was, you know,
Speaker 2: at Young Brands as a CEO, I was always interviewing
Speaker 2: people and it really hit me that the avid learner
Speaker 2: is really what you want because they love what they
Speaker 2: do and they're trying to get better. And then when
Speaker 2: I was writing this book, I started out with the
Speaker 2: thought of being an avid learner, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: it's more than that. Because you can be a learner
Speaker 2: and be BookSmart, but if you don't put it into use,
Speaker 2: if you don't make it active, you're not really applying
Speaker 2: it like you should. So I said, what we're really
Speaker 2: talking about here is teaching people how to be active
Speaker 2: learners in their life and in their business. So it
Speaker 2: was sort of a progression, Emily.
Speaker 4: Despite the fact that you are no longer CEO and
Speaker 4: chairman of Young Brands, you've still been actively learning and
Speaker 4: you have a podcast I should note that has had
Speaker 4: millions of downloads How Leaders Lead. Some of the folks
Speaker 4: on the podcast are featured in the book and vice versa.
Speaker 4: You have some incredible names featured in the Tom Brady,
Speaker 4: Eric Church, Jamie Diamond, Andrew Nui. Talk a little bit
Speaker 4: about who you wanted to feature in the book and
Speaker 4: really the message and how their message sort of ties together.
Speaker 2: Well, I've done about one hundred and eighty podcasts so far,
Speaker 2: and I just really was looking for stories that would amplify,
Speaker 2: you know, the points that I wanted to make about,
Speaker 2: you know, how to be an active learner, like how
Speaker 2: to prepare you know, Yamini Rangon, she's the CEO of HubSpot.
Speaker 2: I got to tell you she was so prepared for
Speaker 2: my podcast that she made me want to do a
Speaker 2: good job for her, you know. And but that preparation
Speaker 2: is so important, and all the great leaders really have preparation,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's I just kind of picked the
Speaker 2: leader and the story that would amplify the points that
Speaker 2: I wanted to make.
Speaker 4: Yeah, talk about that from the Tom Brady perspective, because
Speaker 4: people might look at Tom Brady and say, this guy,
Speaker 4: you know what, during his career was good enough at football,
Speaker 4: but he's still his routine. The prep that he did
Speaker 4: was just remarkable.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think people ask me a lot of times
Speaker 2: who's the most impressive leader I've ever met. I think
Speaker 2: it is Tom Brady really, because he knows his trade,
Speaker 2: he knows how to inspire his teammates, he knows how
Speaker 2: to raise the bar, he knows how people are different.
Speaker 2: He treated Gronk different than Walker Welker. You know, he
Speaker 2: just understood, you know, how to pull all the levers,
Speaker 2: and he was active is an active learner right now.
Speaker 2: I know he's getting ready for the broadcast booth, and
Speaker 2: I guarantee you he's going to want to be the
Speaker 2: best color commentator for Fox that he can possibly possibly
Speaker 2: be because that's who he is. But I know he's
Speaker 2: spending time with Nance, I know he's learning a lot
Speaker 2: from other people, and you know that's what he's that's
Speaker 2: what he's into. And like he went to Tom House right
Speaker 2: to learn how to throw the football and throw it better. Now,
Speaker 2: he could have gone to Tom House and learn and
Speaker 2: go back and do the same old thing, and he's doing. No.
Speaker 2: He turned it into action and improved his footwork and
Speaker 2: he thinks that's how his career was extended.
Speaker 4: I want to get right back to David Novak. He's
Speaker 4: the co founder and former CEO and chairman of Young Brands.
Speaker 4: He's here with us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio.
Speaker 4: He's got a brand new book out. It's called How
Speaker 4: Leaders Learn Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People. David,
Speaker 4: I want to go back to a question that Emily
Speaker 4: asked a little earlier and sort of ask it in
Speaker 4: a different way and just kind of like here, No,
Speaker 4: it was a really good question, but it's just like
Speaker 4: I want to know when you realize, like when you
Speaker 4: realized at the when that you were an active learner like,
Speaker 4: was it when you sat down to write this book,
Speaker 4: or was it at some point in your career you
Speaker 4: realized that the reason I'm moving faster in the corporate
Speaker 4: world than my peers is because I'm doing this. Did
Speaker 4: you realize it at the time or did you only
Speaker 4: know it when you sat down to think about your career.
Speaker 2: I think I've realized it over time. I don't know
Speaker 2: if there's exact epiphany point. But the one thing that
Speaker 2: I've always done a lot of.
Speaker 5: Is self reflection and self awareness. So I started that
Speaker 5: very early on in my career and.
Speaker 2: Would always like, if I was working in one job,
Speaker 2: I'd look at my boss and I'd figure out, what
Speaker 2: does that person have that I don't have? How do
Speaker 2: I get that skill so I could move up? And
Speaker 2: I constantly tried to get better and better. And I
Speaker 2: always told people, I'm not going to tell you I'm
Speaker 2: the smartest guy in the room, but I don't think
Speaker 2: there are too many people that are better at learning
Speaker 2: and collaborating than I am.
Speaker 4: That's exactly why I wanted to ask this was because
Speaker 4: I don't think a lot of people make time for
Speaker 4: self reflection for their career as much as they should,
Speaker 4: and I'm wondering how you can work that into your
Speaker 4: day to day at your job, Like what tips do
Speaker 4: you have for folks who are listening right now who
Speaker 4: might say themselves, you know what I do? Go to
Speaker 4: work every day and I think a lot about my job,
Speaker 4: but I don't like take a step back and kind
Speaker 4: of look at the thirty thousand foot view of my career.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's a great point toom because I
Speaker 2: think if it's important, you got to put pross some
Speaker 2: discipline around it to really make sure that happens. I
Speaker 2: think it starts out with an annual assessment that you
Speaker 2: make of yourself. And I always did what I called
Speaker 2: the three by five card exercise with the four x
Speaker 2: six it really doesn't matter, but on one half of
Speaker 2: the card, I write down this is what I am today,
Speaker 2: basis everything I know. And then on the other half
Speaker 2: I write down, this is what I need to be
Speaker 2: tomorrow to be even more effective. And that was where
Speaker 2: I would start on the self reflection. And then what
Speaker 2: I would do is I would send out my three
Speaker 2: x five card to the top fifty leaders and they
Speaker 2: would send me theirs, and then we would talk about
Speaker 2: how we were doing on that throughout the year in
Speaker 2: addition to going through our objectives, and then how do
Speaker 2: you build it into your day to day.
Speaker 5: Well, I always started out the night before.
Speaker 2: I would always think about what I needed to get
Speaker 2: done the next day, and then I would think about
Speaker 2: who I had to influence, what the issues were going
Speaker 2: to be, and I get myself paired to leverage whatever
Speaker 2: skills I need to have to make a successful meeting.
Speaker 2: Then in the morning, I wake up and I would
Speaker 2: always work out to get my physical being moving, and
Speaker 2: then also taking time to have personal reflection and I
Speaker 2: would write down I write down three gratitudes because I
Speaker 2: think one of the best things you can do as
Speaker 2: a leader is go in to work with your mood
Speaker 2: elevator high. You know that you make your best decisions
Speaker 2: when you're grateful and you're in that state of gratitude.
Speaker 2: You make your worst decisions when you're angry, revengeful, down
Speaker 2: at the very bottom of the elevator. So I always
Speaker 2: try to move myself up to at least six or
Speaker 2: seven in the mood elevator, which is curious and interested
Speaker 2: because I really believe that you have to bring your
Speaker 2: positive energy to work. People got to be looking at
Speaker 2: you and saying, okay, thanks are good. You know, if
Speaker 2: you're walking around like e or and you're the head
Speaker 2: of the company, that's a bad thing.
Speaker 3: I saw something on Twitter that was about reframing the
Speaker 3: things that you tell yourself when you're going into work,
Speaker 3: So saying I get to go to work today instead
Speaker 3: of saying I.
Speaker 1: Have to go.
Speaker 3: Just these little simple changes have they've helped me? I mean,
Speaker 3: I love getting to We.
Speaker 2: Write about in the book we talk about just adding
Speaker 2: one little word yet you know I haven't done it
Speaker 2: yet exactly, just to add that, just reframe it a
Speaker 2: little bit, and you know, flip the script. Somebody's you know,
Speaker 2: telling you you can't do something, you know, asking well,
Speaker 2: how would.
Speaker 5: You do it right?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: One another kind of like cliche that you hear a
Speaker 3: lot is people say learn from your mistakes, learn from
Speaker 3: your failures. You had a failure that was made fun
Speaker 3: of on SNL. Can you tell us about, you know,
Speaker 3: how how that went down and how you act to actually.
Speaker 1: Learned from your failure?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: What you're talking about is crystal pepsi. When I went
Speaker 2: to pepsi, the category was declining carbonate soft drinks needed
Speaker 2: a real boost. When I looked around on to find reality,
Speaker 2: looked at the market, I saw that the clear beverages
Speaker 2: were really doing well. Clearly Canadian water, anything it had
Speaker 2: any kind of healthy overtones or perception seemed to be working.
Speaker 2: So I was sitting in my office one day and
Speaker 2: I said, what if we came up with a clear cola?
Speaker 2: And you know, I thought it was a great idea.
Speaker 2: I called Roger and Rico. They had a Pepsi and
Speaker 2: I said, what do you think?
Speaker 5: He is great? You know, I think I could be good.
Speaker 5: You know, check it out with consumers. So I go
Speaker 5: to consumers. They love it.
Speaker 2: Now I think I've really got a great idea. I
Speaker 2: rush it into test market. He goes into Boulder, comes
Speaker 2: off the line. You know, Dan Rather, CBS News says, today,
Speaker 2: you know, Pepsi launched crystal Pepsi.
Speaker 5: You know, I think I'm a genius.
Speaker 2: Now I go to the Pepsicola bottlers and they say, David,
Speaker 2: this is a really good idea. There's only one problem
Speaker 2: with it, and what's that? And they said, doesn't taste
Speaker 2: enough like pepsi. And I said, well, we don't want
Speaker 2: it to taste like pepsi because it's a different kind
Speaker 2: of pepsi. And they said, well, doesn't have enough colon notes.
Speaker 5: Oh, yes it does. We don't want to have too.
Speaker 2: Many colonotes because we'll cannibalize based pepsi. So I totally
Speaker 2: dismissed what they had to say, and so I was
Speaker 2: a heat seeking missile got it on the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: It was the only product in the history of Pepsicola
Speaker 2: Company that was premium priced as an introduction because the
Speaker 2: Pepsicola bottler said that it wasn't going to be around
Speaker 2: that long, you know, because they knew they could sell
Speaker 2: a lot of it, but then it.
Speaker 5: Wouldn't be a repeat and so we launched it. Guess
Speaker 5: what happens.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody buys it, but the repeats very low
Speaker 2: because it didn't taste enough like pepsi.
Speaker 5: They were right.
Speaker 2: And the learning that I had is that, you know,
Speaker 2: one thought I always had was some people say it
Speaker 2: can't be done every step of the way, and that
Speaker 2: means you, as the leader, you.
Speaker 5: Got to just step up.
Speaker 2: You got to get it done no matter what, because
Speaker 2: they don't get what you get. Well, the first thing
Speaker 2: you got to ask yourself is are they right or not,
Speaker 2: And I was such a heat seeking missile to get
Speaker 2: this into the marketplace. I didn't really I knew I
Speaker 2: was right and I didn't care what anybody else had
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 4: We have thirty seconds left. But talk about how you
Speaker 4: recovered from that and kept moving forward.
Speaker 2: Well, what I learned was You've always got to overcome
Speaker 2: the barriers and obstacles, and you know you need to
Speaker 2: get the input, and you need to be a much
Speaker 2: better listener.
Speaker 5: And I've never forgotten that lesson.
Speaker 4: David, thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 4: David Novak is the co founder and former CEO and
Speaker 4: chairman of Young Brands. His new book it's out now.
Speaker 4: It's called How Leaders Learn Master The Habits of the
Speaker 4: World's Most Successful People. Got some great interviews in the book,
Speaker 4: including Condolly's of Rice, Tom Brady, Eric Church, Jamie Diamond,
Speaker 4: among many many others. He's also got a podcast out
Speaker 4: with a lot of the folks who I just mentioned
Speaker 4: and more executives who see's interviewed. It's called How Leaders Lead,
Speaker 4: and he also includes stories from his own life too. Again,
Speaker 4: the new book, How Leaders Learned Master the Habits of
Speaker 4: the World's most successful people, Well Emily. Twenty five years ago,
Speaker 4: the singer, songwriter, dancer, superstar Usher Raymond Fourth, known to
Speaker 4: all of us simply as Usher, Usher start an organization
Speaker 4: two in its own words, transform the lives of under
Speaker 4: resourced youth through a comprehensive program which develops passion driven
Speaker 4: global leaders. Since then, the now nonprofit has worked with
Speaker 4: more than fifty thousand young people Here in the US,
Speaker 4: We've got with us Kresha Moore, President and CEO of
Speaker 4: Usher's New Look, also known as the unl Foundation. Krisha
Speaker 4: joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Welcome,
Speaker 4: Thank you, Tim and Emily.
Speaker 1: Nice to see you and be able to share a
Speaker 1: little bit more about you and l.
Speaker 4: Well, and welcome to New York because I believe based
Speaker 4: in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I'm based in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: What brings you to New York?
Speaker 1: Today? We are hosting our Women of Influence Spring tea
Speaker 1: that we host here annually to celebrate women in business,
Speaker 1: in philanthropy and in the community for the great things
Speaker 1: that they're doing that relate to the mission of the organization.
Speaker 1: And so we have this tea will be on ing
Speaker 1: some women from IBM Chase as well as SAX. But
Speaker 1: there'll be women from various industries as well as youth
Speaker 1: in our program to be inspired but also to inspire.
Speaker 3: So tell us more about NL. How did it come
Speaker 3: to be and what was Usher's involvement In the beginning.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, Usher was thinking, how can I
Speaker 1: help young people get a new look on life? He
Speaker 1: and his mom they actually sat in the courtroom of
Speaker 1: Judge Glinda Hatchett and observed a court proceeding, a juvenile proceeding,
Speaker 1: and they said, these young people their leaders. They just
Speaker 1: need mentors, they need some support, they need exposure. And
Speaker 1: so he created Usher's New Look to be able to
Speaker 1: provide that and give youth a new look on life
Speaker 1: through workforce development, but also exploring their spark, their passion.
Speaker 1: He found his passion early on and knew that that
Speaker 1: changed his life, and so to be able to provide
Speaker 1: that to young people twenty five years later is exactly
Speaker 1: what we're doing.
Speaker 4: I want to share with people information about the program
Speaker 4: because I think it's unique in several ways. One is
Speaker 4: that it's a decade long program, but also that it
Speaker 4: starts essentially when these kids are teenagers. So it starts
Speaker 4: relatively late. Take us through what exactly happens to these
Speaker 4: teenagers over that ten year period.
Speaker 1: So from fourteen to twenty four, our young people can
Speaker 1: participate in Usher's new look, and we have standard, bear
Speaker 1: and comprehensive programming that starts with one day training that
Speaker 1: we host in schools, and the unique thing about that
Speaker 1: is that it's peer to peers, So our post secondary
Speaker 1: students are standing in front of their peers fourteen year
Speaker 1: old and teaching them about leadership, about business, about financial literacy,
Speaker 1: and their spark. We also have an after school program
Speaker 1: for high school students in Atlanta as well as in
Speaker 1: New York, where they do a deep dive into our
Speaker 1: four pillars talent education, career in service. We believe those
Speaker 1: four pillars help to develop global, passion driven leaders. And
Speaker 1: then once those students graduate high school, which we have
Speaker 1: one hundred percent high school graduation rate for students who participate,
Speaker 1: they go on to post secondary and we support them
Speaker 1: with transition into adulthood by teaching them executs and functioning skills,
Speaker 1: but also connecting them with companies, internships, and learning about
Speaker 1: life skills that they need to be amazing citizens that
Speaker 1: they are.
Speaker 3: It's interesting that you start in middle school. Can you
Speaker 3: talk a little bit about, at least for the youngest
Speaker 3: kids in the program, what are the top resources that
Speaker 3: they need right now?
Speaker 1: The top resources that they need. And we just did
Speaker 1: a study actually last year with young people, what do
Speaker 1: you feel is the most prevalent issues facing you and
Speaker 1: your peers? And those top things that came out right
Speaker 1: now are mental health supports and strategies to help them
Speaker 1: cope with those things. As we know, we have come
Speaker 1: out of a global pandemic and so that has changed
Speaker 1: a bit. But also learning about financial literacy and exposure
Speaker 1: to various careers. You know, if you can't see it,
Speaker 1: you can't be it, is what we say, and so
Speaker 1: being able to show them various careers where they can
Speaker 1: use their skills and talents is important as well.
Speaker 4: Why is fourteen to twenty four the right age to
Speaker 4: focus on I was talking with Elizabeth Cedrin, our producer,
Speaker 4: about this earlier and the idea there are a lot
Speaker 4: of nonprofits that focus on essentially college to cradle, right
Speaker 4: the idea are cradle to college excuse me, the idea
Speaker 4: of starting very young and going to college age. Why
Speaker 4: focus on fourteen to twenty four.
Speaker 1: That's the age where they're starting to increase their future orientation.
Speaker 1: They're understanding their you know, their agency and developing the
Speaker 1: life that they want at that time. And so we're
Speaker 1: able to share and embark upon the impart upon them
Speaker 1: the skills and strategies that they need to be successful.
Speaker 4: Do you ever get any pushback from folks who say
Speaker 4: that's too late, we need programs earlier.
Speaker 1: You know what, No, there are forty two million young
Speaker 1: people here in the United States, and so there are
Speaker 1: organizations that focus on younger and we happen to focus
Speaker 1: on that fourteen to twenty four. It's not a silver bullet,
Speaker 1: it's not just one year, but we stay with them
Speaker 1: for the entire time. As you notice, fourteen to twenty four.
Speaker 3: It's intern season. Tim, I'm wonderful.
Speaker 4: I saw I came in yesterday morning. It said welcome interns.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of interns. There's a lot of kind
Speaker 3: of early career career energy in the building right now. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, how, how what kind of resources are you
Speaker 3: giving to those older I guess students in early career
Speaker 3: people in the program?
Speaker 1: What exactly are they looking for? Right So? We partner
Speaker 1: with various private and public sector entities to help do
Speaker 1: resume reviews for the students. They do mock interviews, they
Speaker 1: learn about different careers that are out there. They also
Speaker 1: learn about the internship process. You know, we don't want
Speaker 1: to assume that they know exactly how that works, and
Speaker 1: so we start teaching them from the time that they
Speaker 1: are in high school, eleventh grade through college what they
Speaker 1: need to do to be ready, but also providing them
Speaker 1: with the skills that they need, especially when you're talking
Speaker 1: about work of now in the work of the future.
Speaker 1: So we have a partnership right now with IBM where
Speaker 1: our students are having access to IBM skills built so
Speaker 1: that they can learn more about artificial intelligence, but also
Speaker 1: career ready skills so that they're ready to not just
Speaker 1: do the careers of the future, but also lead.
Speaker 5: We're Bloomberg.
Speaker 4: We love numbers. Yes, you mentioned one percent graduation rate,
Speaker 4: which is just incredible for any program. I don't care
Speaker 4: what program we're talking about here, but one hundred percent
Speaker 4: anything is amazing. What are some other metrics that you
Speaker 4: use as kids get closer to aging out of the program.
Speaker 4: I can't call them kids actually, as their young adults.
Speaker 4: Young adults get closer to aging out of the program.
Speaker 4: That is a metric for success, like how do you
Speaker 4: know this is working?
Speaker 1: Right? So we work very closely with evaluators. We have
Speaker 1: a logic model that focuses on our objectives and what
Speaker 1: we're looking for is change in behaviors and attitudes. So
Speaker 1: we're looking to the fact do they have a physical resume,
Speaker 1: are they ready to go to work? But also do
Speaker 1: they have a change thought about their impact and what
Speaker 1: they can do in their community, how they can lead
Speaker 1: in their community, as well as the skills that they
Speaker 1: have gained. Do they have a bank account? Do they
Speaker 1: understand what savings and personal budgeting means for them? And
Speaker 1: so those are some of the objectives that we have
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 4: We talk about this all the time, these personal finance skills.
Speaker 4: This is not taught in school. You only know about
Speaker 4: this stuff if you learn from family friends. Meant that's right,
Speaker 4: So you leave college or leave high school not knowing
Speaker 4: simple things that look simple to a lot of people
Speaker 4: but are actually kind of tough to do on your own.
Speaker 1: Exactly, And we find ourselves busting a lot of myths
Speaker 1: that they may have around credit, around saving around, just
Speaker 1: earning potential and those sorts of things. And what we
Speaker 1: find is that again through our evaluations, that financial literacy
Speaker 1: scores the highest on all of our training. It's what
Speaker 1: our young people say, I didn't know much about that
Speaker 1: at all, and now I know a lot, and I'm
Speaker 1: able to share that with my peers as well as
Speaker 1: my family. So you're right. I mean, we don't talk
Speaker 1: about it a lot. It's pretty taboo, but they're learning
Speaker 1: and they're able to go and share and be ambassadors
Speaker 1: with their community. It's really empowering.
Speaker 3: And that's a I'm wondering if you have any other
Speaker 3: examples of kind of a statistic like that, so we
Speaker 3: can end on a high note.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So when you talk about first generation college students
Speaker 1: about fifty one percent in the United States, and we
Speaker 1: are now at about eighty percent of our students and
Speaker 1: getting them on to go on to career, we end
Speaker 1: up with about ninety percent of our students going on
Speaker 1: to college. And so when you have eighty one percent
Speaker 1: first gin and ninety percent of them are going to
Speaker 1: college and graduating within five years, that is something that
Speaker 1: we are very very proud of.
Speaker 4: It is a really cool program. Thank you so much
Speaker 4: for joining us during your visit to New York. That's
Speaker 4: Karsha More, President and CEO of Usher's new Look. It
Speaker 4: is the now nonprofit that twenty five years ago, the singer, songwriter, dancer,
Speaker 4: superstar Usher Raymond the Fourth started with his own mom