Speaker 1: Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly
Speaker 1: conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small
Speaker 1: decisions we can make to become the best possible versions
Speaker 1: of ourselves. I'm your host, doctor joy hard and Bradford,
Speaker 1: a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or
Speaker 1: to find a therapist in your area, visit our website
Speaker 1: at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com. While I hope you
Speaker 1: love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is
Speaker 1: not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with
Speaker 1: a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining me for session four fifty one of the
Speaker 1: Things for Black Girls Podcast. We'll get right into our
Speaker 1: conversation after word from our sponsors. Student loans have always
Speaker 1: been a source of stress from many of us, but
Speaker 1: with recent policy changes shifting repayment requirements and propose funding
Speaker 1: cuts to certain graduate programs, that stress has reached a
Speaker 1: new level. From confusion about repayment restarting, to fears about
Speaker 1: forgiveness programs disappearing, to conversations about reclassifying degrees like nursing, psychology,
Speaker 1: and social work. There's a lot of information circulating and
Speaker 1: not all of it is accurate to help us or
Speaker 1: through what's really happening and what we can do about it.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by doctor Sonya Lewis, also known as a
Speaker 1: Student Loan Doctor. Doctor Lewis is a financial expert who
Speaker 1: has helped tens of thousands of borrowers navigate repayment, forgiveness,
Speaker 1: and financial strategy. What began as her answering questions after
Speaker 1: church has grown into a seven figure consulting business with
Speaker 1: coaches around the world. If something resonates with you while
Speaker 1: enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social media
Speaker 1: using the hashtag TVG in session, or join us over
Speaker 1: in our Patreon to talk more about the episode. You
Speaker 1: can join us at community dot therapy for Blackgirls dot com.
Speaker 1: Here's our conversation. Well, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us today, doctor Lewis.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: I would love for you to tell us more about
Speaker 1: how you got into the work that you're doing supporting
Speaker 1: families with financial aids.
Speaker 2: So this work begun two thousand and fifteen in Philadelphia, PA.
Speaker 2: That's where I'm from. I was really on a journey
Speaker 2: trying to figure out my own financial situation as it
Speaker 2: relates to just becoming an adele understanding student loans. And
Speaker 2: also that's my professional background. And I took a financial
Speaker 2: literacy course at church and what I realized and this
Speaker 2: course was there was no one to really talk about
Speaker 2: student loans or what to do with them. And so
Speaker 2: because that's what I have already been doing professionally, at
Speaker 2: that point, I said, well, I can help people and
Speaker 2: teach them after class at the church, having lines of
Speaker 2: people coming in for a consultation that I never said
Speaker 2: I would give. But we're in the house of the Lord,
Speaker 2: so how because you not? And then I said, oh okay,
Speaker 2: I said, well, if people are willing to come, I said,
Speaker 2: they could pay me for my time. We could meet
Speaker 2: at corner bakery. I feel like every great business starts
Speaker 2: at a bakery somewhere with the plug and Wi Fi.
Speaker 2: And then sometimes you have to flirt to get the
Speaker 2: table with the plug. But it's all right. So that's
Speaker 2: how it went for like the first six months. I
Speaker 2: didn't know any better. I was just trying to charge
Speaker 2: an hour when I got paid at work, because there's
Speaker 2: no concept of where you're supposed to be paid as
Speaker 2: a business owner and then I was like, I think
Speaker 2: I need to go up with my prices. I need
Speaker 2: a row office. Long story short, I was able to
Speaker 2: growing into well technically it's a seven figure business now
Speaker 2: consulting business, and I have coach all over the world,
Speaker 2: but it really just started with me answering and helping
Speaker 2: people at the church. So here we are today, yea.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine that you have seen so much
Speaker 1: in terms of how the landscape has changed from year
Speaker 1: to years. Are there some major themes that you feel
Speaker 1: like have come up in your work with your students
Speaker 1: or with your clients, and you've been maybe your coaches
Speaker 1: and their clients that you think are important to kind
Speaker 1: of highlight. I think that every administration has a different
Speaker 1: tone of how they handle student loan repayment, and so
Speaker 1: we brace ourselves because I've now been through a few
Speaker 1: administrations with this and unfortunately right now the timing of
Speaker 1: this podcast where it is miss stuff just making sure
Speaker 1: that people understand that this administration they won't require you
Speaker 1: to pay, They're going to not make things so easy.
Speaker 1: We're coming off of a five year repayment pause because
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, so there's a lot of anxiety there's
Speaker 1: a lot of unknown There's a lot of unclear and
Speaker 1: not true information circulating around too that we try to
Speaker 1: clear up for people. But we know that student loans
Speaker 1: lives in the middle really of everything, financial health, emotional health,
Speaker 1: just even.
Speaker 2: How people interact with their personal relationships. If I get married,
Speaker 2: do I have to tell my partner about my student loans? Yes,
Speaker 2: it shows up later it's time to go buy a
Speaker 2: home together. So depending on what they come to the
Speaker 2: table with will depend on the problem that we're tackling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it sounds like a lot of the questions
Speaker 1: recently have been around like repayment, right, Like, whereas you know,
Speaker 1: in the past couple of years, we've had a little
Speaker 1: bit more laxed, a little bit more leeway, And you're saying,
Speaker 1: now with this administration, folks really should be focusing on, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I actually start to repay these loans?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because if you don't, they will. So what I'm
Speaker 2: telling everyone is that the process of repayment has started, right.
Speaker 2: A lot of people didn't know that, which is okay.
Speaker 2: Over half of them have started repayment, but over half
Speaker 2: of them didn't know. You only find out when your
Speaker 2: credit score drops or when you go to make a
Speaker 2: big purchase and then it shows up. So people are
Speaker 2: really surprised that. And I think that there was like
Speaker 2: this thing that people were going to be notified that
Speaker 2: that repayment was happening. They're not notifying anyone.
Speaker 1: And so you mentioned that you feel like there's also
Speaker 1: a lot of misinformation out there, maybe about the repayment
Speaker 1: process or maybe about the process of getting loans in general.
Speaker 1: Can you clear up maybe some of those nets or
Speaker 1: bad information that you've heard out there. So a change
Speaker 1: that was recently announced with this administration was that they're
Speaker 1: going to be reclassifying or declassifying certain programs that really
Speaker 1: put people on the uproar because it feels like a
Speaker 1: personal attack, like, what do you mean my nursing degree
Speaker 1: is not professional? Right, we'll use that field for example.
Speaker 2: Technically, what the administration was saying is that certain fields,
Speaker 2: because of the return on investment from a student loan perspective,
Speaker 2: did not pay out as well as others over the years.
Speaker 2: I think this administration did not lead properly with we
Speaker 2: are declassified or we classify in certain fields because there's
Speaker 2: a high default rate. If the administration would have led
Speaker 2: with numbers. I think people could understand numbers better than
Speaker 2: just you're not a professional. I think that there was
Speaker 2: an opportunity to educate people instead of like penalizing them.
Speaker 2: But here we are. So that's one big change. You
Speaker 2: have to know for those listening that are going to
Speaker 2: go back to grad school or just in general go
Speaker 2: to college, or they have family members, or if someone's
Speaker 2: listening to their child's about to go to school, if
Speaker 2: your child wants to be let's say, a teacher or
Speaker 2: a nurse, the question is there enough funding to take
Speaker 2: them all the way through? Therapists are including this too.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people business owners like for nbas
Speaker 2: is there enough funding to take you all the way
Speaker 2: through to complete your degrees at a master's or a
Speaker 2: doctoral level? So should you choose right? That's first big
Speaker 2: change because if not, that requires people to say we're
Speaker 2: gonna need scholarships, were gonna need grants, We're going to
Speaker 2: need to help our child pay for school. The second
Speaker 2: big thing is they're eliminating some repayment plans, So now
Speaker 2: we have to make sure that people are educated on Okay,
Speaker 2: this is what repayment looks like. This is what you're
Speaker 2: going to be required to pay all your credit score
Speaker 2: is going to drop. We want people also to be
Speaker 2: aware that forgiveness programs still exists, they're still around. The
Speaker 2: problem with that, though, is that the funding for forgiveness programs.
Speaker 2: I want to use an example like Barber's defense. If
Speaker 2: you went to a school that was a for profit
Speaker 2: school like University of Phoenix or DeVry, you're eligible to
Speaker 2: get some of those loans or all of those loans forgiven.
Speaker 2: The challenge with that is that after July they can
Speaker 2: take some of that funding away. So in our space,
Speaker 2: we're trying to educate the new person coming in, we're
Speaker 2: educating the person that's in, and then we're educating the
Speaker 2: person that doesn't yet know about forgiveness programs they're eligible for.
Speaker 2: So every day we're kind of like in three headspaces
Speaker 2: with our clients. Just depending what the person has going on,
Speaker 2: we kind of see what part of the conversation they
Speaker 2: need to deal with first. Does that answer your question?
Speaker 2: Because there's so many things.
Speaker 1: Be does and I have a lot of follow up
Speaker 1: questions that I'm sure will also help to kind of clarify.
Speaker 1: So one you just mentioned that like people are in
Speaker 1: three different phases, right, Like they are coming into the system,
Speaker 1: they're currently in, or they're like kind of out and
Speaker 1: still figuring out. Like what the repayment options are, So
Speaker 1: student loans, I'm wondering they do not work on like
Speaker 1: you follow the guidelines that were set when you answered
Speaker 1: the program. Right, So if I like got loans ten
Speaker 1: years ago, and like the rules were that, you know,
Speaker 1: I had ten years to pay it back or whatever,
Speaker 1: does that change with every administration? Or am I locked
Speaker 1: up or whatever I signed at the time I signed it.
Speaker 2: I'm going to answer this question professionally. People signed a
Speaker 2: promisary note, you can't do that. They're like, okay, take
Speaker 2: it back. So to answer your question, in general, that
Speaker 2: is not legal to do. So I always say, we
Speaker 2: don't know what this administration, what day, and what hour
Speaker 2: you'll get. So to answer your question, if you signed
Speaker 2: up for student loans ten years ago, there's a promisary
Speaker 2: note in which you will abide by those terms are
Speaker 2: still so relevant today.
Speaker 1: God very okay, perfect, Like you said, in general, right,
Speaker 1: because we don't know what could be happening tomorrow. So
Speaker 1: the next question, and I definitely want to spend more
Speaker 1: time talking about this. I am trained as a psychologist,
Speaker 1: so there has been lots of conversations in the mental
Speaker 1: health states around this, like declassifying and changes in classification
Speaker 1: to things like psychology, nursing, social work. This is the
Speaker 1: first time I'm actually hearing it put the way that
Speaker 1: you put it, and so I do agree that you
Speaker 1: know that is the messaging that maybe could have let it.
Speaker 1: But I think for a lot of people this has
Speaker 1: felt very targeted, right because we also know that this
Speaker 1: is a space where we find lots of black women,
Speaker 1: right like in the helping professions. I'm curious if these
Speaker 1: seals are the ones that you're saying are not having
Speaker 1: like a high return on investment, what feels actually had
Speaker 1: a higher return on investment in terms of the ones
Speaker 1: that maybe are still classified as professional.
Speaker 2: So when we talk about the reclassification, we know that
Speaker 2: historically students entering these fields that we're targeted are coming
Speaker 2: from a people of color, working class families, first generation backgrounds, right,
Speaker 2: you name it, and so there's already financial barriers there.
Speaker 2: And so what we're seeing is that when we looked
Speaker 2: at the data, like let's just talk about data, the
Speaker 2: data show that students that completed degrees, particularly not so
Speaker 2: much at the bachelors of I do want to stress
Speaker 2: that though, and the masters in the doctoral level had
Speaker 2: a higher default and less repayment rate. Now, there could
Speaker 2: be a lot of things that we could really dive into, right,
Speaker 2: and now we're talking about adults too. We're having trouble
Speaker 2: with prioritizing repayment. And so this administration said, and I
Speaker 2: don't agree with this, by the way, I'm just saying
Speaker 2: data data shows that there were high default rates in
Speaker 2: these areas, but it also could be that there just
Speaker 2: could be a lack of understanding money, understanding how student
Speaker 2: loans work, understanding repayment options. And I want to say this,
Speaker 2: a lot of these programs are really expensive. So doctor Joy,
Speaker 2: what I always like the answer here is that don't
Speaker 2: make just the student or the barrower accountable. Make the colleges,
Speaker 2: the universities accountable. Why are these programs six figure programs?
Speaker 2: So then when someone comes out they're going into the
Speaker 2: field of psychology, for example, everyone's not starting off with
Speaker 2: six figure salaries.
Speaker 1: Most people are not.
Speaker 2: But they borrowed it, right, Yeah, So the problem is
Speaker 2: is that it's not a good investment in terms of
Speaker 2: money wise, that we would say, okay, borrow two hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: but you're only going to get paid fifty. But when
Speaker 2: we talk about fills that are on track with repaying
Speaker 2: their loans, let me say this too. This administration has
Speaker 2: taken away a lot of data driven websites. So my
Speaker 2: background is that I was studying how African American women
Speaker 2: were impacted by Loan Day. So there were websites that
Speaker 2: I would use to pull on for data like this
Speaker 2: because that's what I will study it and my doctoral degree. Girl,
Speaker 2: they're going now. So what I will tell you to
Speaker 2: be true is when we think about someone that is
Speaker 2: going to be agnor well, they probably won't take that
Speaker 2: financial funding away from them because the school won't comply
Speaker 2: with changing their prices. See what I'm trying to say
Speaker 2: is that this is a big problem with our entire ecosystem.
Speaker 2: The education system is so messed up that why are
Speaker 2: we allowing schools to charge this amount of money? Then
Speaker 2: people have to borrow this amount of money. This administration
Speaker 2: does not believe in federal funding period. This administration believes
Speaker 2: that funding should come from states or private So when
Speaker 2: we saw them pull what I call a chess move
Speaker 2: and say, hey, we're going to take some funding away
Speaker 2: from these degrees. What they want people to do doctory
Speaker 2: let's not forget who makes money from this when they
Speaker 2: leave office. They want you to go to a local bank.
Speaker 2: Let's say go to a local P and C. And
Speaker 2: they want people to apply for a private loan at
Speaker 2: P and C. Now we know that credit is not
Speaker 2: treated fairly amongst black and brown women specifically, so then
Speaker 2: there could be what denials. I see your question directly
Speaker 2: by saying that there isn't necessarily a published site that
Speaker 2: shows the programming of who are paying back their loans, right,
Speaker 2: It's just that they honed in on these particular fields
Speaker 2: which historically affect people of color, particularly women.
Speaker 1: More from our conversation after the break, and I think
Speaker 1: it is a conversation around the larger ecosystem of care
Speaker 1: because you mentioned like, oh, they're probably not going to
Speaker 1: take away funding from people who are going to medical school,
Speaker 1: for like the neurosurgeons. But the neurosurgeon can't do his
Speaker 1: work if the nurse is not available to also of this.
Speaker 2: It's right here.
Speaker 1: Well, so it does feel like this weird ranking which
Speaker 1: I think is always a conversation in the medical space, right,
Speaker 1: see six people in an hour. A social worker is
Speaker 1: only seeing one person in an hour, right, and so
Speaker 1: the rates are already not the same, and so it
Speaker 1: is a larger conversation I think around just the hierarchy
Speaker 1: that exists both in the mental and medical se but
Speaker 1: also then what does that mean in terms of care
Speaker 1: for our community? Because we know when there are more
Speaker 1: black therapists, like social workers, black nurses, then we are
Speaker 1: also typically working or at least a higher rate of
Speaker 1: us are working in spaces where our community is also serviced, right,
Speaker 1: And so that means I think a lack of care
Speaker 1: or the level of care and consideration that we would
Speaker 1: be expecting for our community to be able to get.
Speaker 2: So, doctor Joe, I could trigger with this conversation a
Speaker 2: couple of ways, right, because as a black woman, when
Speaker 2: the information first came out, I was all in my feelings,
Speaker 2: let's just I'm human. I was like, oh wait a minute.
Speaker 2: Then I'd put my scholar head on. Okay, they had
Speaker 2: put a scholar head on. And then I started doing
Speaker 2: some data research just to kind of see what they
Speaker 2: were saying. And something I think that was important to
Speaker 2: come out was that it wasn't just about any particular profession,
Speaker 2: although we know who it impacts the most. It was
Speaker 2: really re evaluating the program and the borrowing limits because
Speaker 2: of the data. Just the money part of alone, right,
Speaker 2: And when I look at what I do, I've helped
Speaker 2: over fifty thousand people collectively with my team, and if
Speaker 2: I could be honest with you, yeah, these fields have
Speaker 2: a higher borrower and default rate. I have data that
Speaker 2: shows it just in my back end. Now let's just
Speaker 2: put that on the table and say that this doesn't
Speaker 2: make people bad people, and I mean paid enough to
Speaker 2: pay back what they borrow. But we still need these
Speaker 2: people in these fields and professions. But then doctor Jorie
Speaker 2: put another hand on and this is just me personally
Speaker 2: moving into a more philanthropic stage in my life. I
Speaker 2: think about what we really need our community to start
Speaker 2: being community, Like we really need to start looking at
Speaker 2: where are our dollars going and how can we support
Speaker 2: students in these fields, Like where could my dollar be
Speaker 2: better served at in terms of scholarship money. Now, I
Speaker 2: also want to demystified in this season that everyone listening
Speaker 2: could do a scholarship back to one person at their church,
Speaker 2: their high school, their college, to help our next nurse,
Speaker 2: to help our next therapist, our next psychologists. And it
Speaker 2: really is going to have to start to look like
Speaker 2: that because I just think that the funding window federally
Speaker 2: is going unless we get some change of administration, it's
Speaker 2: going to get smaller, more restrictive, more biased. And then
Speaker 2: I think that we're going to have to really call
Speaker 2: on bigger entities like with the NAACP does right, our
Speaker 2: churches are going to have to be more targeted with
Speaker 2: the students in our community, our community members such as
Speaker 2: you and I. Could we have a scholarship for the
Speaker 2: therapy for black girls. And I think that's where I'm
Speaker 2: leaning into because sometimes there are problems that are just
Speaker 2: bigger than us. The first question I just asked myself
Speaker 2: when all this came out is well, what can you do?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: I know what I can do as a professional. I
Speaker 2: can on my platform, I still long doctor platform. I
Speaker 2: can educate, I do free classes every Monday. Anyway, I
Speaker 2: maybe I do some more right, Maybe I could and
Speaker 2: actually not. Maybe what caused me to do this was
Speaker 2: when this news came out, I reached out to a
Speaker 2: lot of specific platforms like those that do, for example,
Speaker 2: with nursing, and I said, hey, I want to go
Speaker 2: to a hospital and see a black nurse. That's what
Speaker 2: I want to see. I want to work with black therapists.
Speaker 2: I want my dinnis black. Like I'm really very selective.
Speaker 2: That's what I want. But if I want that, then
Speaker 2: I got to support that too. And so now, see,
Speaker 2: doctor Jerry, I got to open up the ecosystem. Now
Speaker 2: we got to open up the community. We really in
Speaker 2: this country, we have an education problem, down to investing
Speaker 2: in ourselves, down to let's not support these institutions that
Speaker 2: are costing this much money. Why don't we support our
Speaker 2: community in state colleges more. We got to destigmatize that
Speaker 2: you went to a community or state college. You should
Speaker 2: go there, right because it's the same teacher teaching. Hear
Speaker 2: it and I lead school at the same day. And
Speaker 2: then as a community, what can we start doing within
Speaker 2: our own communities. I know this year, doctor Joy, I
Speaker 2: gave a lot of money to my high school, and
Speaker 2: I'm committed to giving more to my high school and
Speaker 2: to my college. That's where my giving between that times
Speaker 2: in the community. That's what I'm doing because that's the
Speaker 2: only thing I could think that would make me feel
Speaker 2: better about investing in the future of the landscape of
Speaker 2: these professions. Okay, I'm answering your question in several ways
Speaker 2: because I'm a woman, a black woman, you a practitioner dollar.
Speaker 2: This is a huge, huge problem, and I don't want
Speaker 2: this conversation to be it. So I appreciate you asking
Speaker 2: these questions because I don't want this conversation to be
Speaker 2: swept under the rug because it's not a headline anymore
Speaker 2: because someone's listening their kids or their cousins.
Speaker 1: Or their We're in that window right now, like people
Speaker 1: are getting their acceptances and yeah, so this is the
Speaker 1: time to really start thinking about it. So when does
Speaker 1: this like new law go into effect, doctor Lewis, So
Speaker 1: at what point is this.
Speaker 2: It's still got if right?
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's still it's not official yet. This is
Speaker 1: just something on the table.
Speaker 2: Let me say something about this administration, Honey. They can
Speaker 2: put out something like it's done. I need the laws,
Speaker 2: like I mean, but it doesn't matter because he's not
Speaker 2: really following the laws and rules as it's written. Pull
Speaker 2: out your chat GPT. It matters because when we have
Speaker 2: mid term elections and we have bigger elections at large
Speaker 2: because we know that these things aren't law yet we
Speaker 2: can still have things in place to change them. It
Speaker 2: does matter. And I'm glad you said that because you
Speaker 2: could feel listening or seeing headlines like it's right here
Speaker 2: and then you can check out. I'm telling you almost
Speaker 2: to me, So I'm telling everyone listening to check back in.
Speaker 2: You can still enforce change. So they're proposing for these
Speaker 2: changes to occur as of July first, like there are
Speaker 2: opportunities with really just at our local, our state government
Speaker 2: that impacts what happens even on federal levels. So yes,
Speaker 2: to your point. When this administration shares things, I'm saying
Speaker 2: this for everyone listening, it could feel like that's it.
Speaker 2: That's how they drop announcements these days. I ain't see
Speaker 2: nothing about it. Now you will think that there's no
Speaker 2: judicial process. What I do appreciate is that there are
Speaker 2: still judges and there are still courts that are cutting
Speaker 2: this stuff down the side. They put out an announcement
Speaker 2: and then you got to stay with the news, right,
Speaker 2: you got to see that the courts over said, no,
Speaker 2: overrided it. No Congress stepped in. So I'd be like, Lord,
Speaker 2: thank you for letting somebody be there normal.
Speaker 1: So that feels like it could be like an intervention
Speaker 1: point is to actually, like when you talk about writing
Speaker 1: letters to Congress or getting on the phone and calling
Speaker 1: your congress son, this is an opportunity because this is
Speaker 1: not something that has been signed into lawduss, Well, I do.
Speaker 2: I can even share with your team what I share
Speaker 2: out on my Monday classes of how they can get
Speaker 2: into contact with people who would make a change in
Speaker 2: this space. So yes, I'll get that information over to
Speaker 2: you guys, because we can still do something and you
Speaker 2: have to be annoyingt and you have to call, and
Speaker 2: you have to be documenting, but you still have to
Speaker 2: be professional, like we don't want a bunch of people
Speaker 2: calling up there customing you know, things of that nature. Literally,
Speaker 2: I gave my students a script what to say, what
Speaker 2: to do, hang up? Yeah, okay. Change.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like, you know, this is changing the
Speaker 1: ways that you're having conversations with your students about maybe
Speaker 1: would they even want to pursue? Right, So, if I'm
Speaker 1: somebody who has dreamed of being a psychologist and now
Speaker 1: maybe I find with this, you know, maybe proposed change,
Speaker 1: I have to think about funding differently, right, because I
Speaker 1: know for a lot of people psychologists specifically, like there
Speaker 1: was a forgiveness program and you may know more about
Speaker 1: this ten years than your loans were forgiven. And that's
Speaker 1: something that's also on the shopping block as a potential
Speaker 1: that's going to go away.
Speaker 2: There's a program called Public Service Loan Forgiveness, yes, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't necessarily have to be rural. It just has
Speaker 2: to be a nonprofit or not for profit. That program
Speaker 2: did not get clipped or cut. That is still through Congress.
Speaker 2: So I need everyone listening to know that there are
Speaker 2: two types of programs, a Congress program and a Department
Speaker 2: of Education program. Department of Education programs can be changed,
Speaker 2: clip cut, modified per administration. Public Service Loan Forgiveness is
Speaker 2: a Congress program. So we're good.
Speaker 1: More from our conversation after the break. But I do
Speaker 1: think Stilvi, it's back to my original point of you know,
Speaker 1: I think this could lend itself to people thinking differently
Speaker 1: about like what kinds of things they want to pursue
Speaker 1: in terms of career. Because you mentioned you haven't seen
Speaker 1: it so much kind of getting cut at the bachelor's level,
Speaker 1: but a lot of these programs that you're talking about.
Speaker 1: There's very little that you can do with a bachelor's
Speaker 1: in psychology, right, like you have to get a master
Speaker 1: that leads to be able to practice and stuff. And
Speaker 1: so what kinds of conversations are how are you helping
Speaker 1: your students think through.
Speaker 2: A lot of our clients are already done with school.
Speaker 2: So I bring these conversations to our platform because we
Speaker 2: were working with a lot of parents and a lot
Speaker 2: of people who are investing in their loved ones that
Speaker 2: are going to school. To answer your question, what I
Speaker 2: would advise anyone listening that's think about going to school
Speaker 2: for their masters or their doctoral degree, Let's just make
Speaker 2: sure we have enough funding to be able to cover it,
Speaker 2: because they cut out what's called grad plus funding, which
Speaker 2: is very significant to pay for your master's or doctoral
Speaker 2: level degrees. Also, the thing is someone could still go
Speaker 2: for a master's or a doctoral degree, but it's probably
Speaker 2: going to require them to work and go to school.
Speaker 2: So before you could just do one or the other
Speaker 2: because there was enough funding to support your lifestyle while
Speaker 2: you were in school. But now it's not the case.
Speaker 2: And I want to also say this, can we find
Speaker 2: someone else to pay for school. Can we find an
Speaker 2: employer to help us pay because there are employers that
Speaker 2: will help you pay for write offs too, And that's
Speaker 2: one thing I think this is underutilized. I've often seen
Speaker 2: people get a master it's not really doctoral degree, but
Speaker 2: a master's and then not even work in the field,
Speaker 2: Like why do we take this degree on? So we
Speaker 2: need to make sure that people have a clear understanding
Speaker 2: before borrowing at this level what it is that they
Speaker 2: want to do in the world. Too. This is not
Speaker 2: the season to enroll and then figure it out. This
Speaker 2: is the season to have things pretty already figured out
Speaker 2: and then wrong? Am I saying that right, doctor Jory?
Speaker 2: Because you know if this happened to you, but it
Speaker 2: happened to me in my undergrad In my undergrad I
Speaker 2: was a psychology major, Yes I was. I got to
Speaker 2: my junior year, I tell you, and I could not
Speaker 2: pass the class called methods. I had to the staff
Speaker 2: cuss yet methods. And then there was another class I
Speaker 2: couldn't pass. It was too I had to keep a
Speaker 2: rat alive. What was that class called?
Speaker 1: Oh, experimential psychology? Uh huh.
Speaker 2: I couldn't pay it, can't pass it. And I was
Speaker 2: on a scholarship too, and they were about to take
Speaker 2: my scholarship because I couldn't pass a class, and I said,
Speaker 2: may not be for me, So then I had to pivot.
Speaker 2: My bachelor's is in anthropology, but the core of it,
Speaker 2: what I really really wanted to be, doctor Joy was
Speaker 2: a teacher. But there was a negative connotation that teachers
Speaker 2: don't make money. All the people in my family are teachers.
Speaker 2: But I think that I wish that there was an
Speaker 2: opportunity to have some more coaching career coaching for myself
Speaker 2: at that point around what did I want to be
Speaker 2: or do before going into college. So I'm using the
Speaker 2: story to say anyone listening to has children, family members,
Speaker 2: we have to sit our young people down and ask
Speaker 2: them what do you want to be? What would make
Speaker 2: you happy before just allowing our students to just blindly
Speaker 2: study and figure it out. It's a hard thing is
Speaker 2: the times are changing. There's not an infinite amount of
Speaker 2: money anymore to be able to just kind of figure
Speaker 2: stuff out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does feel like because I think historically,
Speaker 1: you know, college is a time where you explore, right, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I want to do. That's why
Speaker 1: you take a bunch of stuff, right, and you're saying
Speaker 1: the landscape has changed so much that it's expensive to
Speaker 1: try to explore like at that point, right, Like the
Speaker 1: exploration almost has to happen ahead of time before you
Speaker 1: spend a bunch of money pursuing something that's not going
Speaker 1: to be a good bail for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, internships can help with that. Pre college experience can
Speaker 2: help with that. I would rather someone go to a
Speaker 2: community college before a traditional college to alleviate costs with that.
Speaker 2: There has to be a way to explore without putting
Speaker 2: out all of that cost because that money is so
Speaker 2: short now that that pool of money is no longer
Speaker 2: available like it once was.
Speaker 1: You mentioned doctor lewis an option, and I would love
Speaker 1: to hear other things maybe that you share with your
Speaker 1: students in terms of looking at like employers who will
Speaker 1: sometimes help you to pay for the cost of schooling.
Speaker 1: Are there other creative things that people should be exploring
Speaker 1: that maybe they're not aware of in terms of finding
Speaker 1: other entities to pay for a school.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that let's just go back to employment.
Speaker 2: You ever look at your employment policy and they say
Speaker 2: that they'll help you with tuition reimbursement. You know, you
Speaker 2: can propose to your lawyer, and I don't have it
Speaker 2: in front of me, so just use chat, GPT or
Speaker 2: you know, just find this out. But you could take
Speaker 2: that same policy and ask them for student loan reimbursement.
Speaker 2: Employers are able to reimburse student loans the same way
Speaker 2: they give up front for tuition, but people don't think
Speaker 2: to ask that because it's not a common practice. But
Speaker 2: I dare someone listening to have a meeting with your
Speaker 2: manager and say, I see that there is a tuition
Speaker 2: re imbursement policy, but what's missing is a student loan
Speaker 2: re imbursement policy. Is there any way that could be
Speaker 2: consider if I was able to show proof that I'm
Speaker 2: paying on my student.
Speaker 1: Loans, doesn't hurt this questions there.
Speaker 2: This is actually something that's in the text code that
Speaker 2: allows employers to do this. And when I found this out,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow. I was like, I wonder
Speaker 2: why more employers don't use it as a tool for hiring.
Speaker 2: So we just have to access number one. Number two,
Speaker 2: doctor joy, something I've done in my real life. Anyone listening,
Speaker 2: did you all just starting to negotiate in some things
Speaker 2: in your raises and your bonuses when you are please
Speaker 2: don't do this if you're not the best at your job. Okay,
Speaker 2: so that's my carry. I got to be sharp. So
Speaker 2: I was really really good when I was working at
Speaker 2: the college, and I can say that when complained about it.
Speaker 2: I really love my job. And I realized that the
Speaker 2: metrics that were set up for bonuses and raises that
Speaker 2: were just a little low for me. And I was
Speaker 2: doing the work of like two or three reps. I
Speaker 2: was working in college admissions, and I just simply asked,
Speaker 2: I said, hey, listen, just wondering if there's a space
Speaker 2: for a couple extra thousand for my bonus this year,
Speaker 2: said my student loan payments have gone up. That was
Speaker 2: my sact words. I just asked. But I was really
Speaker 2: good at my job, and I said, please don't answer now.
Speaker 2: I say, if you want to mean about it and
Speaker 2: get back to me. I'm laughing because that was a
Speaker 2: lot of audacity in my twenty something years alife. But girl,
Speaker 2: my payments went up. I needed to acts right, and
Speaker 2: they came back and say yes. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying some unconventional conversations might need to happen
Speaker 2: this season because employers want to retain good talent, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: So if someone's listening that's not eligible for public service
Speaker 2: on forgiveness and they already do charitable good work and
Speaker 2: they want to have their own nonprofit, Like, don't just
Speaker 2: start a nonprofit for the sake of getting your loans forgiven.
Speaker 2: But if you have a nonprofit or you're starting one
Speaker 2: and you have a board, you've taken the time to
Speaker 2: formalize it legally and you're compliant, your board member could
Speaker 2: sign off for you to get credit towards public service
Speaker 2: loan forgiveness. So there are quite a few thousand people
Speaker 2: we've helped with this. What I appreciate is I know
Speaker 2: that we impact change because I noticed that the studentad
Speaker 2: dot gov website started changing their verbiage around what to
Speaker 2: do if you have your own nonprofit and how to
Speaker 2: be compliant. I was like, I know we impacted some
Speaker 2: things in the world. You get tell me nothing. But anyway, Also,
Speaker 2: at this time, we were doing a lot of work
Speaker 2: with the Biden administration and Secretary of Cardona or how
Speaker 2: we miss them so much, So it wasn't unbeknownst to
Speaker 2: me that there could have been someone on our free
Speaker 2: class hearing us talk about that, because we do have
Speaker 2: people that, especially those that are listening to your podcasts
Speaker 2: that are therapists. You know, sometimes it's hard for therapists
Speaker 2: to get qualified for PSL left because they're doing private work.
Speaker 2: But what if you're listening and you have your own
Speaker 2: nonprofit and you do do great work in the community,
Speaker 2: could one from your boards sign off to be able
Speaker 2: to attest to you working in this nonprofit. Just thought.
Speaker 2: If we're thinking about going back to school, I think
Speaker 2: what I see is that a lot of my older
Speaker 2: students that are going back for a master's or a
Speaker 2: doctoral degree feel a little like embarrassed, if you will,
Speaker 2: or a little ashamed for going towards scholarships because they
Speaker 2: feel like that's not something for older people, and it's
Speaker 2: like who gave you that? I like to take that
Speaker 2: away from them today, so that a way this year
Speaker 2: and go apply for some money. So we have something
Speaker 2: in our community called don't be weird. And I say
Speaker 2: this to my students. People say the all the time,
Speaker 2: Doctor Lewis. When I worked at the hospital in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: I left there, But I don't know if they liked
Speaker 2: me when I worked there, Like did you work did
Speaker 2: you work there for thirty hours? Or your student loans
Speaker 2: and good standing? Did you work there? Yes? Like, go
Speaker 2: get your paperwork signed, and let's get this credit towards forgiveness.
Speaker 2: So I do want to say that, because I didn't
Speaker 2: say that early. Anyone listening that worked in a qualifying
Speaker 2: field nonprofit or not for profit two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: In twenty and twenty two, you can go back to
Speaker 2: your employer you work there at least thirty hours a
Speaker 2: week and have them sign off a testing that you
Speaker 2: work there. It doesn't matter even if you never made
Speaker 2: a student loan payment, as long as you work there,
Speaker 2: your student loans were good standing, you worked there for
Speaker 2: thirty hours a week, you can still get credit towards forgiveness.
Speaker 2: And that that program public service on forgiveness because people
Speaker 2: will forget that they work places, or they think because
Speaker 2: they left and they don't remember leaving on the best terms,
Speaker 2: or did you work there? Where are you're a good
Speaker 2: standing thirty hours a week? Go get your credit? You
Speaker 2: know what I mean? People we get forgiven a week
Speaker 2: with that program, about like sixty people a week get
Speaker 2: forgiven just for that one. They got to go do
Speaker 2: the work right, they got to go get a sign.
Speaker 2: Then one lady, oh my god, God bless her, almost
Speaker 2: blocked her. She kept messaging me and she just kept saying,
Speaker 2: I just feel uncomfortable reaching out to them. It's been
Speaker 2: so long ago. I told her, I said, this is
Speaker 2: my last time responding. I said, you need to go
Speaker 2: do the work all right, fast work I'm speaking at
Speaker 2: I think invest fast or something I don't know. And
Speaker 2: she like flew in just to give me a hug,
Speaker 2: and she said, thank you for not blocking me. She said,
Speaker 2: I wanted to tell you because you motivated me to
Speaker 2: go and to get my paperwork signed. She got two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand forgiven. So we were say in
Speaker 2: our community, don't be weird, go get your paywork cred.
Speaker 2: So anyone listening, I'm telling you right now that has
Speaker 2: some work history that they have not claimed towards forgiveness
Speaker 2: and that window is still open to get that paperwork sign.
Speaker 1: So where did you start this process? Like is this
Speaker 1: something that still exists on the studioa dotm website? So
Speaker 1: what should people look for to like maybe check on
Speaker 1: this studenta.
Speaker 2: Dot up and then type in TEPSL left so Temporary
Speaker 2: Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The form will come up
Speaker 2: and then you just go to your You want to
Speaker 2: fill out the first one or two pages, but there's
Speaker 2: an employer section. All we need is their name, their email,
Speaker 2: their phone number, their signature they're testing. The middle hours
Speaker 2: a week is thirty hours a week for that time
Speaker 2: period two thousand and seven to twenty twenty two. Okay,
Speaker 2: here's the next question. Well, what if they closed? What
Speaker 2: if my manager no longer works there? Errol, don't you
Speaker 2: know it's something called Facebook LinkedIn Instagram. Most times we're
Speaker 2: in connection with our old employers and some capacity. But
Speaker 2: go find the people that used to work in management
Speaker 2: HR at those jobs.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't need to be like your direct boss.
Speaker 1: It could be somebody who was in HR over the
Speaker 1: entire company that didn't even have any And even if
Speaker 1: you never knew them, they should still have your records, right,
Speaker 1: so they can still pull it up and say, yes,
Speaker 1: I can see this person worked there from this date.
Speaker 2: To this day. Doctor Joey. There's a lot of women
Speaker 2: that listen to this podcast. Ladies. If somebody was coming
Speaker 2: after your men, he was fuying her. But pull up
Speaker 2: somebody listening. Let's say they owe three hundred thousand study loans.
Speaker 2: Act like the person to this signature owes you three
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars, because they do. We need to get
Speaker 2: rid of these student loans. Go find someone to sign this.
Speaker 2: You want it to be if possible with signature, or
Speaker 2: you can like email the form. They could scan it back.
Speaker 2: In my experience, like, but not to be funny, you
Speaker 2: might need to pull up on the job, like, go
Speaker 2: get a signature. Yeah, three hundred thousand is on the
Speaker 2: line here, You've got time. So that's why I tell
Speaker 2: people when we start framing it that way, you'd be
Speaker 2: surprised we saw all these signatures coming through our community.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I love that I'm here to be respected. So why
Speaker 2: I'm pleasant, I'm very straightforward in this community because these
Speaker 2: are adults that we do not have time to coddle
Speaker 2: in the world. Their student loan forgiveness is dependent upon
Speaker 2: home buying. It's depending upon the people that are counting
Speaker 2: on them. So why we do not have the time
Speaker 2: to baby people in this community. So yes, we're giving
Speaker 2: it to straight today.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I love the example that you're giving me
Speaker 1: because I do think like you mentioned, right, like, there
Speaker 1: are so many stories that we create in our heads
Speaker 1: that are not based in any truth, but are often
Speaker 1: based in fear or like anxiety or insecurity. Are there
Speaker 1: other things that you find yourself kind of having to
Speaker 1: challenge people around in the best interests of you know,
Speaker 1: kind of going after their money or getting the support
Speaker 1: they need.
Speaker 2: This is True Therapy podcast And by the way, I
Speaker 2: really do love your brodcast. Listen, this is up here
Speaker 2: near over with me, honey. So there's this conversation with
Speaker 2: money that I was having with myself that I didn't
Speaker 2: know I was having. Now I'm working some stuff out
Speaker 2: because I was telling my therapists, but from going from
Speaker 2: overdrafting like I used to overdraft my account, like I
Speaker 2: planned for that all right, so my account is overdraft
Speaker 2: to now I don't overdraft. Now I'm in surplus. I
Speaker 2: do very well with money, right, but there's still some
Speaker 2: broke behaviors that are showing up in my life, right,
Speaker 2: Like why is this still showing up? And it's because
Speaker 2: even though I have some money, and even though I
Speaker 2: pay my bills on all the pay you know, there's still
Speaker 2: a thing that I haven't let go, which is a
Speaker 2: scarcity mindset. And so what I'm seeing here with those
Speaker 2: that are figuring out their student loans. Some people, yes,
Speaker 2: cannot afford to pay their stud loans, Yes I agree,
Speaker 2: but there are some people who can. And that there's
Speaker 2: this old stigma that you don't have to pay them back.
Speaker 2: You're not going to pay them back. You may not
Speaker 2: be using the degree, why should you pay it back?
Speaker 2: And the only person that's hurting is themselves. You're hurting
Speaker 2: you right now. If you're listening, you're hurting you. You're
Speaker 2: not keeping up with your counterparts who are in the
Speaker 2: world that are buying homes, investment properties, crypto whatever, we're
Speaker 2: doing right with our moneyes and we have to doctor Joey.
Speaker 2: We've got to start having some real conversations to say,
Speaker 2: let's figure out what we can afford. Let's figure out
Speaker 2: what we can do with our student loans so we're
Speaker 2: not left behind in this ecosystem. Because the student loans
Speaker 2: shows up with the credit, it shows up with the
Speaker 2: home buying, it shows up when it's time to invest,
Speaker 2: it shows up if your child needs you later on.
Speaker 2: So we've got to overcome these conversations about money with ourselves,
Speaker 2: and I think that for anyone that truly believes in therapy,
Speaker 2: I would like for them to ask themselves what are
Speaker 2: their thoughts about money this year and let that be
Speaker 2: a conversation to work through with their therapists, because it's
Speaker 2: starting to play a role into what people are are
Speaker 2: not doing with these loans. So what's coming up for
Speaker 2: me with our clients is we're not therapist. Let me
Speaker 2: be clear, Okay, So we always take it back to
Speaker 2: what is showing on student a dot gov and what
Speaker 2: happens is before we can even talk about what a
Speaker 2: payment could look like and figure out, you got to
Speaker 2: hear the client for ten minutes talk about the shame
Speaker 2: around what they borrowed or the feelings about what they
Speaker 2: borrowed or and we let people talk. But the theme
Speaker 2: is people it's like they feel bad. We want to
Speaker 2: move them from feeling bad to empowerment to going to
Speaker 2: doing something about this. So that's what's coming up a
Speaker 2: lot for us right now. There's a lot of shame
Speaker 2: around what people owe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think just historically we
Speaker 1: know this, right like, there's a lot of shame just
Speaker 1: around money, I think in general in our community, right,
Speaker 1: like and and it does them from the scarcity and
Speaker 1: like us just not having it historically, right, And so
Speaker 1: now even if you do have some, they're all these
Speaker 1: old messages, old stories that really need to be reconstructed.
Speaker 1: Something you said made me think of For a long time,
Speaker 1: people thought about student loans as good debt, right, like,
Speaker 1: this is not something that you have to worry about, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you can pay the least amount. And so I'm glad
Speaker 1: that you keep bringing us back to like no, no, no, y'all,
Speaker 1: Like this shows up on your credit report, Like there's
Speaker 1: not a separate credit report that exists only for like
Speaker 1: student loan stuff. It's all lumped in together with like
Speaker 1: credit card and anything else that you have accumulated.
Speaker 2: They're using defaulted loans as a metric they as in
Speaker 2: government officials to not give people government clearances or jobs. Okay,
Speaker 2: you could have and this is what's really crazy. You
Speaker 2: could have went to school, you could have did, and
Speaker 2: if you ever default on a student loan, you could
Speaker 2: block yourself from a clearance with the government, even as
Speaker 2: a contractor. And so that's keeping a lot of our
Speaker 2: black and brown people from advancing because they didn't know.
Speaker 2: Like I'm sharing it on this podcast. This happened like
Speaker 2: in the last year at least like fifty of our
Speaker 2: clients reported that they lost a job because of it, Like,
Speaker 2: so they got hired. I'll use an example, Lackey Martin,
Speaker 2: contractor of the government hires you, loves you, excited about you.
Speaker 2: You can't pass the security clearance because of the default
Speaker 2: is still a long yeah, yeah, what do you want
Speaker 2: to do the like Also you can't like get it
Speaker 2: out of default and like being reapplied, but you defaulted
Speaker 2: at least once in your life. I feel like being
Speaker 2: more talked about because people are going back into repayment
Speaker 2: and are finding out a surge of it because now
Speaker 2: people can actually be in default and that wasn't the
Speaker 2: case in like the last five years.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, got it. There's so many more questions, but
Speaker 1: I do want to I don't want to take up
Speaker 1: your whole day, but I do want to make sure
Speaker 1: we address you know, instead of going into default, Like
Speaker 1: if you realize, okay, I just got laid off, this
Speaker 1: is going to be difficult for me. What should people
Speaker 1: do instead of defaulting on loans? Like what kinds of
Speaker 1: options do you have.
Speaker 2: First of let's just take a depreath, because life happens
Speaker 2: right and you are not the lay off. It's about
Speaker 2: tell people like stop to joy the layoff, be the layup. Okay, pocus.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 2: But what I want people to know is that if
Speaker 2: they can remember, because life is lifeing, they would go
Speaker 2: into student hay dot GUV under the loan repayment tab,
Speaker 2: click the income driven application and they're just going to
Speaker 2: do an update or a new application. And there's a
Speaker 2: question that says do you have taxable income? The answer
Speaker 2: would be no. So you go through the applications like
Speaker 2: on page three or four, do you have taxtble income? No.
Speaker 2: You have to then check where it says do you
Speaker 2: want your loan provider to do a manual review of
Speaker 2: your income? You have to hit yes. Okay, so income
Speaker 2: change or taxable income no, manual review? Yes? Has there
Speaker 2: been any changes with your income? Yes? And then says
Speaker 2: do you want your loan provider to do a manual review? Yes?
Speaker 2: Do you have taxable income no? That's it so very
Speaker 2: important how you answer those questions because those questions will
Speaker 2: then trigger you to have a zero dollar payment for
Speaker 2: the year. So that way you don't go into default.
Speaker 2: They require no payment of you because we're saying that
Speaker 2: there's a life change, there's no taxtbal income, We're fine.
Speaker 2: So that's important for people to hear because if not,
Speaker 2: most people won't do anything. They're in a headspace and
Speaker 2: then they go into default and the application could have
Speaker 2: taken care of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I appreciate you sharing that and walking us through
Speaker 1: those tips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, God's go like this. Let me say this, hopefully
Speaker 2: people stay in touch with me after this episode because
Speaker 2: every Monday apm eest we do a free class where
Speaker 2: we literally log in the student aight dot gov together
Speaker 2: and we see what's going on together. After I'm not
Speaker 2: making this up. Every two weeks, they're changing that website
Speaker 2: and application, so they're like re ordering the questions, very sneaky.
Speaker 2: I don't like it because you might have heard me
Speaker 2: say this before, but now you got to go click
Speaker 2: another place. And so we just want people to stay
Speaker 2: connected with us. And literally we have people that show
Speaker 2: up for the last year every Monday because stuff is
Speaker 2: changing all of the time. Where would you find out
Speaker 2: about these updates? It didn't get published anywhere, it didn't
Speaker 2: get published on the website and didn't get published on
Speaker 2: the news website. So it's like unless you're in there
Speaker 2: clicking around, you wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: So necard Lewis, you've mentioned this a couple of times.
Speaker 1: I definitely want to make sure we know where to
Speaker 1: point people, So where can people stay connected with you
Speaker 1: to find out about the classes and all the things that.
Speaker 2: You offer, So we act like a news reporter. Our
Speaker 2: Instagram page, the student Loan Doctor is where it's my
Speaker 2: favorite social media platform for where I put up like
Speaker 2: ninety second to three minute clips of what's happening in
Speaker 2: the world right. And then outside of that Monday nights,
Speaker 2: they can register through the Instagram page or the website
Speaker 2: is doctor Please help Me dot com. It's a free class.
Speaker 2: You don't have to pay to be there. It's about
Speaker 2: a two hour class and we literally teach you from
Speaker 2: the rooty to the two D re payment plans forgiveness programs.
Speaker 2: Let's log in together. You'd be surprised people put in
Speaker 2: the chat. I haven't logged in four years, so they're
Speaker 2: filling in power right. And then from there, if we
Speaker 2: can help them, we will. But most times people just
Speaker 2: need to be in an environment that's safe, that we're
Speaker 2: all tracking the same way. Sometimes I do a poll
Speaker 2: like I might do one tonight that says how much
Speaker 2: do you all ow? I do that sometimes because I
Speaker 2: need people to see you ain't the only one that
Speaker 2: got five hundred thousand, you know, like last month we
Speaker 2: got a guy forgiving nine hundred and ninety seven thousand
Speaker 2: dollars right, that's right at a million, and we didn't
Speaker 2: make him fel bad about it. So we want anyone
Speaker 2: from the little bit to the lot in class so
Speaker 2: that they can just learn without pressure and then you
Speaker 2: go in the world and figure out what you need
Speaker 2: to do. So I really love the community we're creating.
Speaker 2: Nobody's showing up weird, nobody's being no bully. We actually
Speaker 2: set the tone for class. I love doing that. If
Speaker 2: you show up me where you will be dropped from
Speaker 2: the zoom never to return. We don't have those issues,
Speaker 2: and it's a safe face and people you could see
Speaker 2: with their notebooks taking their notes and really participating and
Speaker 2: playing along. And then I just feel really proud that
Speaker 2: we're a part of educating the community at large about
Speaker 2: their student loans and before our class, I just love
Speaker 2: to say there was not a lot of people that
Speaker 2: were talking about this topic. Honey, don't mix this in
Speaker 2: with credit either. We're not that, Like, we just want
Speaker 2: to talk about student loans, right. And then I love
Speaker 2: that we are Finally, we've been in business now for
Speaker 2: ten years, doctor Joy. We're doing press like CNN, we
Speaker 2: just the ABC World News. We're doing some really big
Speaker 2: stuff in the world. And I'm like, we aren't that
Speaker 2: because we show up every day all day. I had
Speaker 2: to put my appoint at that for the world to
Speaker 2: do my little update because see you, I remember and
Speaker 2: you know about this, like when something big comes out,
Speaker 2: people's brain can't always process it and they're looking for
Speaker 2: someone they trust to give them the facts right in
Speaker 2: a safe space and then they can go on with
Speaker 2: their day. So that's what we do. So when you
Speaker 2: came to see my little AI advertire, mind your business
Speaker 2: because that work to day that by makeup wasn't done
Speaker 2: or something. And I got a little AI that looked
Speaker 2: like me. I say, it's Ai. I'm be trying to
Speaker 2: trick nobody say powered by Ai Yasha because when news
Speaker 2: comes out, who am I to go get you or
Speaker 2: buy lashes done or something. Christen just take information going
Speaker 2: about to day.
Speaker 1: I love it when it's definitely needed right now. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that service because it sounds
Speaker 1: like it's helping a lot of people, and we will
Speaker 1: be sure to include that information in the show, not
Speaker 1: so that people can get connected with you and your coaches,
Speaker 1: so that they can learn even more about how to
Speaker 1: take care of themselves and their financial health.
Speaker 2: And thank you so much for your platform. I'm telling you, girl,
Speaker 2: you done gotten me through some stuff, but you have help,
Speaker 2: and so I think your platform is just so important
Speaker 2: because it's a lot like this is not yesterday's yesterday, yes,
Speaker 2: and you're trying to process personal relationships, professional relationships, the
Speaker 2: different roles you wear, Oh you got your finances on fire,
Speaker 2: like who are we? And sometimes it's just good to
Speaker 2: just take a moment, take a beat, to be like
Speaker 2: is it really that serious? And then I feel like
Speaker 2: your voice is so befitting, Like I don't know, God
Speaker 2: gave me the voice because I'm like, if doctor Joyce's son,
Speaker 2: go get some shy tea and work out the problems.
Speaker 2: So just continue, doctor Joyce. I don't know how much
Speaker 2: longer you want to do this work, but we love
Speaker 2: itppreciate the work that you're doing.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I was so thrilled with the invitation. It really was.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is like my Oprah moment. I mean
Speaker 2: the Oprah you could call me though. Nice. No, no,
Speaker 2: don't forget it.
Speaker 1: Confused, Okay, we will still accept the invitation.
Speaker 2: But I love, love, love the work that you're doing.
Speaker 2: You've helped me out many times. You got a lot
Speaker 2: of people say for being cussed out, the Lord is
Speaker 2: doing a work in you. Because I said, what did
Speaker 2: she say before? I call this? Persons back?
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. I appreciate that. Thank you,
Speaker 1: and thank you for spending some time with us today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yes, thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm so happy doctor Lewis was able to
Speaker 1: join us for today's episode. To learn more about her,
Speaker 1: or to register for her free Monday night student loan classes,
Speaker 1: or stay up to date on policy changes, be sure
Speaker 1: to visit the show notes at Therapy for Black Girls
Speaker 1: dot com slash Session four fifty one, and don't forget
Speaker 1: to text this episode to two of your girls right
Speaker 1: now and tell them to check it out. Did you
Speaker 1: know that you could leave us a voicemail with your
Speaker 1: questions or suggestions for the podcast. If you have toime
Speaker 1: topics you think we should discuss, drop us a message
Speaker 1: at Memo dot fm slash Therapy for Black Girls and
Speaker 1: let us know what's on your mind. We just might
Speaker 1: feature it on the podcast. If you're looking for a
Speaker 1: therapist in your area, visit our therapist directory at Therapy
Speaker 1: for Blackgirls dot com slash directory. Don't forget to follow
Speaker 1: us over on Instagram at Therapy for Black Girls and
Speaker 1: join us in our Patreon channel for exclusive updates, behind
Speaker 1: the scenes content, and much more. You can join us
Speaker 1: at community dot Therapy for Blackgirls dot com. This episode
Speaker 1: was produced by Elise Ellis, Indechubu and Tyree Rush. Editing
Speaker 1: was done by Dennis and Bradford. Thank y'all so much
Speaker 1: for joining me again this week. I look forward to
Speaker 1: continuing this conversation with you all real soon. Take good care.