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Speaker 2: All right, guys, welcome, I'm back Episode thirty one.
Speaker 3: Ey L thirty one Episode thirty.
Speaker 2: One in the earlier age of podcasts. So today's a
Speaker 2: special special episode for us for a few different reasons.
Speaker 2: It's the first episode that we've had two guests. We're
Speaker 2: breaking new boundaries and we're going to talk about a
Speaker 2: lot of things that we haven't talked about yet. But
Speaker 2: before we go into the episode, August twenty second, we
Speaker 2: are coming to Houston, Texas to do our Meet and
Speaker 2: Greet networking event. You know, we've we've done in three
Speaker 2: different cities so far, La, Brooklyn, and Atlanta. So this
Speaker 2: is the fourth installment of the Network Meet and Greet.
Speaker 2: And the purpose of the Network Meet and Greed is
Speaker 2: really for us to interact with our supporters, but more
Speaker 2: importantly to bring people together. And you know, one of
Speaker 2: the most important things in business is relationships. So you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times you might live in the same
Speaker 2: city as somebody, you might live in the same neighborhood,
Speaker 2: but you never really interacted with them on a business level.
Speaker 2: You never know how somebody can help you, Like that
Speaker 2: might be your business part it might be your real
Speaker 2: estate partner, you don't know. So we want to just
Speaker 2: bring the people out and it's going to be dope.
Speaker 4: And I think there's like a misconception, like people think
Speaker 4: like we're going to be having a seminar.
Speaker 2: Not a seminar.
Speaker 3: It's for people to meet and greet with each other.
Speaker 4: Because even when we leave that city that we're in,
Speaker 4: like the relationships that you've developed at that meet and
Speaker 4: greet will still be there.
Speaker 2: The meet and greet is a vibe within itself. It's
Speaker 2: a whole vibe. It's not a seminar. It's it's a way,
Speaker 2: as I said, the interact, but it's it's dope because
Speaker 2: people come and then they interact with us, and then
Speaker 2: we bring some of our guests with us. We're definitely
Speaker 2: gonna bring some guests with us and they talk to
Speaker 2: them and then they get some advice, and then they
Speaker 2: network with each other like a episode. It's like a
Speaker 2: party with productive tendencies, you know what I mean. There's
Speaker 2: something productive characters. You know, you have a couple of drinks,
Speaker 2: and it's just a it's a good energy, it's good vibe.
Speaker 2: So Houston, we need you guys to come out, rs VP.
Speaker 2: The link is in our bio on our website and
Speaker 2: it's under the events tab. So we're looking forward to
Speaker 2: touching the town and and seeing everything that Houston has
Speaker 2: to offer. For sure, yeah, man, for sure. So forward,
Speaker 2: all right, So we're gonna we're gonna get right into it.
Speaker 2: We have a very special episode. Today, we have Lenny
Speaker 2: Williams and Jeff Desk. So this is interesting because both
Speaker 2: of these gentlemen work at colleges back in school time.
Speaker 4: Right now is the time where, yeah, college is back
Speaker 4: in session again. Yeah for sure, the fall semester has begun.
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, for sure time, that's a fact. So
Speaker 2: they both work at Jersey City University. Lenny is a
Speaker 2: business professor and Jeff is a director of student leadership.
Speaker 2: Jeff used to be a professor as well. But they're
Speaker 2: not like your typical professors or like college administrators.
Speaker 3: Like the type of professors. I wish.
Speaker 2: It's a little different. So they put a different swag
Speaker 2: on it. And you know, they they've did pretty major.
Speaker 2: They've been all over. They've been featured on CBS, Fox, Boston, Globe, Ebony, Black, Enterprise,
Speaker 2: Hot onety seven, They've done ten X talk, So you know,
Speaker 2: they have an interesting outlook on education. They take a
Speaker 2: different approach on education. We're gonna talk about education and
Speaker 2: a few other different topics. But first and foremost, thank
Speaker 2: you guys for joining us.
Speaker 5: Welcome fellas, appreciate it, Thank y'all.
Speaker 6: Man, appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2: Yeahah for sure. So we jump right into it. So
Speaker 2: you guys are college professors, right, and you know, college
Speaker 2: is something that is very it's a hot topic, and
Speaker 2: it's it's something that triggers a lot of emotions in people,
Speaker 2: especially nowadays. It's like anytime we put a post on
Speaker 2: Instagram about college, we get a thousand comments and people
Speaker 2: saying like it's a scam, no waste your money, and
Speaker 2: other people saying all kinds of stuff. Right, So I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna jump I'll just jump right into it. Is
Speaker 2: college still necessary to be successful? Or was it really
Speaker 2: ever necessary? But in today's society, it is college still necessary,
Speaker 2: still needed?
Speaker 7: I mean I think that college, I mean it's not needed.
Speaker 7: It's that means something that you can do, It's something
Speaker 7: that's possible. I think it should be an option, right.
Speaker 7: I don't think it should be forced upon that people
Speaker 7: have to go to college. I know, I will say
Speaker 7: there's other ways of being successful and going to certain
Speaker 7: fields that college is not needed as much as it was.
Speaker 3: Five years ago.
Speaker 7: But some things you do need, like if you want
Speaker 7: to be a lawyer or a doctor, or you're in
Speaker 7: a stem fields like college can be very productive. But
Speaker 7: then there's some other majors where honestly you can you
Speaker 7: can learn on YouTube, or you can learn by reading books,
Speaker 7: or you can learn by just doing so. I don't
Speaker 7: think it has to be a necessary thing to go
Speaker 7: to college, but I do think it should still be
Speaker 7: an option.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I think also one of the biggest things about college
Speaker 8: are the networks and the relationships that are made.
Speaker 6: So it's very far and.
Speaker 8: Few in between that you get to sit in a
Speaker 8: room with a doctor, a future lawyer, a future dentist,
Speaker 8: a future teacher and have conversations that are not about
Speaker 8: your fields of study.
Speaker 6: And because we all know that.
Speaker 8: Once we get into our you know, our real lives
Speaker 8: after college, it starts to become a little bit closer
Speaker 8: in the bubble where you're just dealing with people who
Speaker 8: are who have similar interests. So college, for that particular space,
Speaker 8: there's not many other places that create that type of environment,
Speaker 8: and academically there are some fields that do.
Speaker 6: Still need it.
Speaker 8: But you know, I think that these institutions, a lot
Speaker 8: of them are just not created for the benefit of
Speaker 8: the students. I mean, there are a number of colleges
Speaker 8: and universities that are doing that work, but I think
Speaker 8: there are a lot that are scamming people, and I
Speaker 8: think there are a lot that are not doing the work.
Speaker 4: It used to be looked at as a badge into
Speaker 4: middle class life, but if you had to have that
Speaker 4: piece of paper, if you wanted to get a good job,
Speaker 4: get a house, Like that's going away with Like what
Speaker 4: anyone was just saying is like some things we're just
Speaker 4: going to learn on the fly.
Speaker 3: Like we say this all the time.
Speaker 4: We have no training in broadcasting, but we're doing a podcast, right,
Speaker 4: Like we're learning these things as we go. And I think, like, yes,
Speaker 4: there are options that you can do outside of going
Speaker 4: to school, but if they're our careers like lawyers and doctors,
Speaker 4: like you said, then yeah, it's mandatory.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm a college guy.
Speaker 4: Right, Like we had to do it an education, But
Speaker 4: like I said before, like I feel like we could.
Speaker 4: I could have done it out of high school had
Speaker 4: given the proper training rather than seven years of dedication
Speaker 4: to that career.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I think what college does is we live in a
Speaker 2: society where image is very important, right, So what college
Speaker 2: does is that it gives you a badge to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: I have a certain level of success already built in
Speaker 2: because I've completed my degree, so now I can at
Speaker 2: least speak to you on an intelligent level when I
Speaker 2: can be taken seriously, which not is not always the case, right,
Speaker 2: because there's plenty of people that graduated from what Kanye
Speaker 2: s people with Kanye said, people graduate from college will
Speaker 2: be still stupid, that's all the time every year. And
Speaker 2: then you got some people who never went to college
Speaker 2: who are brilliant or never finished college that are brilliant.
Speaker 2: So my personal opinion on it is that I think
Speaker 2: that college is beneficial. It can be beneficial from the
Speaker 2: social standpoint, specifically from a social standpoint and growing as
Speaker 2: an adult, right because especially if you go away to college,
Speaker 2: that's probably your first opportunity living on your own, and
Speaker 2: you mature, you develop a certain relationships, you meet people
Speaker 2: that part you really can't get just going out of
Speaker 2: high school. In the real world, you can, but it's
Speaker 2: a lot more difficult. You're not in an incubator where
Speaker 2: you're just around a thousand people and you can just
Speaker 2: develop those type of relationships. It's not easy to do
Speaker 2: that in just real world life. But I feel that
Speaker 2: a lot of times people are misguided right when they
Speaker 2: go to college. So this is my next question. As
Speaker 2: far as you know, one of the biggest things for
Speaker 2: college for me is majors. Right, So you guys are
Speaker 2: on the inside, and I see. I saw that even
Speaker 2: when I was in school. Anybody that doesn't know I
Speaker 2: have a communications degree, I don't have a business degree.
Speaker 2: So but when I went to school, they told me, like, look,
Speaker 2: just get a degree. It doesn't matter. If you're not
Speaker 2: trying to be a doctor or a rocket scientists. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. And it honestly didn't because when I graduated,
Speaker 2: I'm a financial advisable. When I graduated, in order to
Speaker 2: do what I had to do, I had to pass
Speaker 2: like three different tests, so I had to study for
Speaker 2: like nine months. So it doesn't matter if I would
Speaker 2: have got a business degree or not, I still would
Speaker 2: have had to study. So it's kind of like I
Speaker 2: went to college. After I went to college anyway, and
Speaker 2: now I have my licenses so I can do whatever
Speaker 2: I want to do. So but I could have had
Speaker 2: an art degree. I could have had any kind of degree. Right,
Speaker 2: So how important is it to pick the right major
Speaker 2: and how do you determine what is the right major?
Speaker 7: So this is for parents and people got in students
Speaker 7: for college. So before I was a professor, I used
Speaker 7: to work in a mission. So the most important part
Speaker 7: when talking to parents or talking to students is when
Speaker 7: you're choosing a school, especially when it comes to majors.
Speaker 7: Your major should be a top five major within that school.
Speaker 7: What I mean by that is top five with enrollment
Speaker 7: and also they have placement for companies that deal exactly
Speaker 7: what you're major. And if you're not in those top
Speaker 7: five areas for your major, what can happen, honestly is
Speaker 7: you can be two years in at the school and
Speaker 7: if there's not enough students enrolled in that program, your
Speaker 7: program is dropped and now you're still at that college.
Speaker 7: So it's very important as we guide our students comeing
Speaker 7: to go to college. Yeah that's great, but please make
Speaker 7: sure whatever field you're trying to go into is one
Speaker 7: a popular major within the school. Two has the partnerships
Speaker 7: outside of the school with the different companies. And then last,
Speaker 7: but not least, is the mentality of knowing where the
Speaker 7: United States or where your country where you're living at
Speaker 7: is going to be the next five years as far
Speaker 7: as the job market and careers and.
Speaker 3: What's going to be in demand.
Speaker 7: Not what I always say, this mentality of not five minutes
Speaker 7: from now, start taking five years from now right. So
Speaker 7: when you're making that decision, what does a communications degree look.
Speaker 3: Like five years from now? Right? What does that feel
Speaker 3: looks like, look like? Is even going to be around photography?
Speaker 7: Is that's something that you really have to go to
Speaker 7: school for when you can potentially learn that, you know?
Speaker 7: So that's that's kind of the key when picking your
Speaker 7: majors is making sure that the school provides the resources
Speaker 7: but can also place you at the job, but it
Speaker 7: also is in demand.
Speaker 3: But in the next few years.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more man Like a lot of times,
Speaker 4: especially in our community, when our kids think about college,
Speaker 4: the first thing they think about is the athletics, right,
Speaker 4: Like I want to go to do or I want.
Speaker 3: To go in North Carolina, I want to go to
Speaker 3: Yukon right.
Speaker 4: And when you get there, if you're not there on athletics,
Speaker 4: it's like, well, I want to study communications. Well that's
Speaker 4: not one of those majors that is one of the
Speaker 4: best things at that school.
Speaker 3: So like you should be looking past just like yo,
Speaker 3: I'm alumni and I.
Speaker 4: Go to that school for the sports, right if it means,
Speaker 4: it doesn't mean as much when you come out of
Speaker 4: Yukon with a communication de gree.
Speaker 2: I have a communication degree.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: But I want to go back to what you said.
Speaker 4: I don't go back to what you said because you
Speaker 4: said that it doesn't matter, And in my head, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter if you're on an athletic scholarship. If
Speaker 4: it matters to a guy like me who was like,
Speaker 4: I'm studying physical therapy and I don't want to be
Speaker 4: a physical therapist, right and I've paid thirty thousand dollars
Speaker 4: for four years, It's like this matters a lot, right,
Speaker 4: Like now what do I do? Do I have to
Speaker 4: continue going when I don't want to do this, or
Speaker 4: do I have to figure out what can I do?
Speaker 4: Like that, I kind of fell into that thing. It
Speaker 4: was like the school I was at it was great
Speaker 4: for physical therapy. I couldn't pass the science classes. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna be a physical therapist. I gotta figure
Speaker 4: out what I can get. And gratefully, I was able
Speaker 4: to go to school with a health science degree and
Speaker 4: I was like, all right, well, what does that even
Speaker 4: mean you know what I'm saying, So I have to
Speaker 4: start figuring out.
Speaker 3: Like and what's gonna happen.
Speaker 7: We talk about this all the time, and Jeff in
Speaker 7: particular use this analogy of you know, and everything else
Speaker 7: you buy something, you challenge to make sure that the
Speaker 7: service that they're providing is correct, right. And I feel
Speaker 7: like people are not challenging some of these schools when
Speaker 7: they're paying all this money. You know, you're paying and
Speaker 7: maybe because you're not physically using cash and handing over
Speaker 7: fifty thousand dollars, you're not seeing the money, so you
Speaker 7: maybe don't care as much as if you're going to
Speaker 7: a restaurant, like you know, Jeff always says about you know,
Speaker 7: if you order steak and they bring out chicken nuggets,
Speaker 7: are you gonna eat chicken nuggets?
Speaker 3: Or you're gonna say I ordered steak.
Speaker 7: And many times students are paying all this money for
Speaker 7: a school and then not providing the services that they're
Speaker 7: promise and they're not challenging the school right or asking
Speaker 7: questions before. And I don't know, maybe it's because again
Speaker 7: you're not physically handling that money over and you think, I, oh,
Speaker 7: I'll just get a job and I paid off later,
Speaker 7: But I think it should really treat it like everything
Speaker 7: else you purchase.
Speaker 4: That that's a problem especially in our community, man, like
Speaker 4: we don't know how to advocate for the things we want.
Speaker 4: Like I've seen it over and over with parents not
Speaker 4: being able to advocate for the kids. But then the
Speaker 4: kids grow up and they don't know how to advocate.
Speaker 4: So if they all being mistreated a school and the
Speaker 4: things are not people about it, it's like.
Speaker 2: Who do I ask? How do you challenge the system?
Speaker 2: Because I mean that's like going up against that system.
Speaker 2: How do you challenge?
Speaker 5: So I don't want to say, like challenge the system.
Speaker 5: It's simple things.
Speaker 7: So if there's like a college fair at your school,
Speaker 7: like every school, typically at high school, they bring in
Speaker 7: college representatives, you know, instead of asking questions, like students
Speaker 7: get these questions from guidance counselors and some people. I
Speaker 7: don't know where they get these questions from, like what's
Speaker 7: the percentage of student success at your school? Like that's
Speaker 7: not the question you'ld be asking you, she'd be asking
Speaker 7: you know, Look, I want to be an engineer. How
Speaker 7: can you how can this school help me become engineer?
Speaker 7: How can this school help me become a bio mechanical engineer?
Speaker 3: Like whatever?
Speaker 7: How does how? What are the tools at your school
Speaker 7: to get me there? But also is this major a
Speaker 7: popular major at your school? Can I talk to somebody
Speaker 7: at the institution the career center and find out how
Speaker 7: many people you placed at a.
Speaker 5: Job in the last three to four years at some point?
Speaker 7: And you know, like those type of questions need to
Speaker 7: be asked, and unfortunately we don't. We don't provide those resources,
Speaker 7: them tools enough, And that's why we create a platform
Speaker 7: that we create. That's part of the things that we
Speaker 7: deal with to let students know, like you do have
Speaker 7: a voice number one and number two to ask those
Speaker 7: type of questions before spending all of this money.
Speaker 2: CF I wanted to ask you a question. We spoke
Speaker 2: of CAM about the hitting curriculum.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so the idea, so it kind of goes into
Speaker 8: the aspect that the students don't know who to ask,
Speaker 8: so that there is that problem I don't know where
Speaker 8: to go, and the institutions are not doing the job properly.
Speaker 8: A lot of institutions are not doing the job properly
Speaker 8: and creating a space for students to under understand things
Speaker 8: like acronyms that students don't know. So I don't know
Speaker 8: what FASSA might stand for, and that's talking about financial aid.
Speaker 8: If you don't know what that means, then you're out
Speaker 8: of luck. If you don't know what the bursar office means.
Speaker 8: And these are the things that are just directly dealing
Speaker 8: with your money.
Speaker 4: Sounds, so you don't know what these things are.
Speaker 8: So I think it's just essential for And this is
Speaker 8: where I think the big problem is is that there
Speaker 8: are institutions that are about creating careers for.
Speaker 6: People who want to be educators.
Speaker 8: So they want to go up the ladder and become
Speaker 8: vice presidents and become deans and become provosts and presidents
Speaker 8: of institutions without caring about the students. So then they
Speaker 8: create these platforms and they create these spaces where the
Speaker 8: students cannot succeed.
Speaker 6: So I'm not I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
Speaker 8: There are academic institutions that are out there primarily just
Speaker 8: to build careers and primarily just to make money. The
Speaker 8: proper institutions that are doing the work are the ones
Speaker 8: that say we are going to make sure that you
Speaker 8: know who to speak to and with the hidden curriculums
Speaker 8: that just this means that there are things that are
Speaker 8: being hidden in regular nomenclature. So it's saying we know
Speaker 8: what it is, but a seventeen year old does not
Speaker 8: know what that is, and we expect them to know
Speaker 8: what it is, then succeed in that space and then
Speaker 8: excel beyond that, and then by the time they hit
Speaker 8: to year two or three, we see the retention level
Speaker 8: drops because the student doesn't know what the term retention
Speaker 8: even means. So we're saying, we want to keep you here,
Speaker 8: but are we even doing the work that needs to
Speaker 8: be done. So ultimately, at the end of the day,
Speaker 8: that's where we have to start to do more work,
Speaker 8: is saying what are the students getting and who do
Speaker 8: they need to speak to?
Speaker 6: So to really touch on the comments that we were
Speaker 6: just saying.
Speaker 8: One of the things that I can tell all people
Speaker 8: who are sending any of their students to college or
Speaker 8: are going back to school themselves, is that you have
Speaker 8: to really find particular individuals on your campus. I can't
Speaker 8: stress the I can't stress it enough that you have
Speaker 8: to get involved, and I means you have to find
Speaker 8: somebody who's already doing the work, and make sure you
Speaker 8: align yourself with that. Find the Jeff or the Lenny
Speaker 8: on your campus and sit in their office introduce yourself,
Speaker 8: because what ends up happening is I'm the one that's
Speaker 8: gonna put you in touch with this person, that person,
Speaker 8: this individual to help you succeed, because doing it by
Speaker 8: yourself is literally impossible.
Speaker 2: Now we were talking off camera too, and it's difficult
Speaker 2: because I think my experience is a little jaded because
Speaker 2: I was I played basketball, so when I went to school,
Speaker 2: I got I was on athletic scholarship. So if anybody's
Speaker 2: not familiar athletes, it's different, especially at a Division one school.
Speaker 2: So when I got to campus, you know, we had
Speaker 2: our own study hall just for the athletes. We had
Speaker 2: our own advisor just for the athletes. Our books was free,
Speaker 2: and you know, they would stay on us, like make
Speaker 2: sure like what you're doing, like you just going to class,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's like, so it's easier
Speaker 2: because it's more structured. But for somebody that's just going
Speaker 2: to college on their own, and especially if your if
Speaker 2: you know, your parents didn't go to college, but you
Speaker 2: don't your first generation, it's a lot that goes into
Speaker 2: college that's different from high school. Like I remember the
Speaker 2: vali valedictorian of my school a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: that my high school that I went to. He's a
Speaker 2: lot younger than me, obviously, and I spoke to him.
Speaker 2: He's in Harvard, and I was asking him, like, how
Speaker 2: you're doing at Harvard, and he's like, you know, I
Speaker 2: wasn't prepared. This is the valedictorian of the school. He's
Speaker 2: a smart kid, obviously, but he's like high school which
Speaker 2: is just so easy for me, and I'm in Harvard
Speaker 2: and it's just way different. And he was like, you know,
Speaker 2: I never realized how much I wasn't prepared until I
Speaker 2: was in that position. And I think that that happens
Speaker 2: all the time. And like you say, a lot of
Speaker 2: times unfortunately, especially you know, you might have family issues, whatever,
Speaker 2: kids just drop out because you know, you fall behind
Speaker 2: a couple semesters and let alone, not even talking about
Speaker 2: financial issues, just social issues and just dealing with school
Speaker 2: and structuring your time. It's like, how can somebody fully
Speaker 2: equip themselves for making that jump from high school to college.
Speaker 8: First you sign up with Trill or not Trill, but
Speaker 8: you know to fully equip yourself. It takes a lot.
Speaker 8: And this is where we have to really invest. We
Speaker 8: were just talking about that off camera too, about how
Speaker 8: much money you place on a college degree, whether you're
Speaker 8: going there for free or you're paying full tuition. There's
Speaker 8: no I mean, outside of a house, there's no larger
Speaker 8: investment that you're really making probably throughout your life. And
Speaker 8: in the same way that you invest in the house,
Speaker 8: you're searching for multiple houses.
Speaker 6: But then even before that, you.
Speaker 8: Want to know how is the house, how you know,
Speaker 8: how is it built, what was What do I have
Speaker 8: to do to fix this space?
Speaker 6: What do I have to do to.
Speaker 8: Make sure that my family if I want to start
Speaker 8: a family, goes in here. It can't just be let
Speaker 8: me just show up, pull up and figure out the
Speaker 8: rest investment? Right, And so what people have to do
Speaker 8: is is really start to invest in a child and
Speaker 8: a student's education before they even get in there and
Speaker 8: find the programs because colleges and universities some of them
Speaker 8: will do it, but a lot of them will not.
Speaker 8: And say, listen, we're going to give you a two
Speaker 8: day orientation session to figure out how to succeed in college,
Speaker 8: and you know you and they're trying to holler at
Speaker 8: other people. You and there trying to have fun, you know,
Speaker 8: because they're also doing that too.
Speaker 6: There's a DJ at that time, you know, and you're.
Speaker 8: Sitting here thinking like, man, I don't even know what
Speaker 8: registraw is. And I remember, like as a college student,
Speaker 8: I was like, is it register? And they're like, no,
Speaker 8: it's registrar And I'm like, why what does that even mean?
Speaker 3: Right when you're registering for class?
Speaker 6: Correct, when you're registering for class.
Speaker 8: So there are these simple little things that that students
Speaker 8: aren't prepared for. And so for me, I just think
Speaker 8: that you have to invest in the same way that
Speaker 8: you would invest in a house, the same way that
Speaker 8: you wouldn't buy a car without making every possible detail
Speaker 8: before it.
Speaker 6: You have to do the same.
Speaker 7: And I think the key is invest past financials because
Speaker 7: a lot of people always talk about college and investing
Speaker 7: and it's only the financial piece when we're saying about
Speaker 7: the investment, saying due to research as well and understand
Speaker 7: where college is going, what colleges are doing a different degrees,
Speaker 7: because it can be really beneficial for you.
Speaker 2: And it's also very important. I think what Jeff said
Speaker 2: as far as to find people on campus that know
Speaker 2: the deal and because that's that helped me out a lot.
Speaker 2: As far as like when I first got there, I
Speaker 2: had somebody shout out to my mansion. Well, he's from
Speaker 2: the Bronx and he was a junior when I was
Speaker 2: a freshman. He was on the team and he was seasoned.
Speaker 2: He was there for two years. So he kind of
Speaker 2: explained to me, like, take this class right, don't do
Speaker 2: this and have this many credits, and like this professor
Speaker 2: is cool, and he kind of walked me through it
Speaker 2: and from there I was able to have a small transition.
Speaker 2: But I think it's important to have that mentor. I
Speaker 2: don't know if schools.
Speaker 7: Have program they do and then the other thing before
Speaker 7: even talked about what you want. The mentors just don't
Speaker 7: get too caught up on titles as well. Right, looking
Speaker 7: for somebody with a leadership title to be a mentor.
Speaker 7: There's just people on campus that literally run the campus
Speaker 7: but don't have any fancy title.
Speaker 3: There could be a person that works.
Speaker 8: In a book store, right everybody, and they've been there
Speaker 8: for twenty years, so they know exactly what books to get,
Speaker 8: they know exactly where to go, there's.
Speaker 6: The person who's cleaning up the student union building.
Speaker 8: They're know, hey, listen, you know you need to join
Speaker 8: this club, or hey, you know you need to talk
Speaker 8: to Jeff, because Jeff knows who everybody is. And so
Speaker 8: that's where, you know, we always talk about the difference
Speaker 8: of what a mentor means. So we tell people, number one,
Speaker 8: you need a digital mentor. And the digital mentor is
Speaker 8: somebody that is online, that has an online presence at
Speaker 8: that institution or otherwise that you know, you can just
Speaker 8: watch what they're doing. And that might just mean I'm
Speaker 8: watching somebody's Instagram feed or Twitter feed and saying, all right,
Speaker 8: you know what I need to just know because this
Speaker 8: person is providing a wealth of information. There's a generational mentor,
Speaker 8: So that means you also need to know somebody who
Speaker 8: is from a different generation than you are, younger and older,
Speaker 8: who have different mindsets and different viewpoints that you can say,
Speaker 8: all right, this is the generational mentor that's older than
Speaker 8: I am, that's going to be providing me the.
Speaker 6: Traditional sense of leadership.
Speaker 8: But then here's this person that's also maybe a little
Speaker 8: bit younger than I am that I can give them
Speaker 8: information and then they give me back some information.
Speaker 7: And then like your boy that you said at your school,
Speaker 7: be what we call a peer mentor right right, somebody
Speaker 7: that's in that same age range, same age bracket doing this,
Speaker 7: you know, the same things that you're doing, and that's
Speaker 7: a fellow peer of yours that can really help you out.
Speaker 2: I'm boring, yeah for sure. All right. So now we're
Speaker 2: going to go into the next seven. We're gonna talk
Speaker 2: about the financials, and we're also going to talk about
Speaker 2: chill and natural so yeah, yes, I love that part.
Speaker 2: All right. So now we're going to talk about the
Speaker 2: number one thing when it comes to school is how
Speaker 2: to pay for it? Right, money, money.
Speaker 4: As we said, man, it's the it's the biggest financial
Speaker 4: decision that they're going to make. And they have, especially
Speaker 4: high school sudents, they got about three years and that's
Speaker 4: you're making that decision at eighteen. Like a lot of
Speaker 4: people won't get approved to get a loan for a house,
Speaker 4: they probably won't. They may not get approved to get
Speaker 4: a loan for a card, but they will get approved.
Speaker 2: Student loan is real and something like I said once again,
Speaker 2: I was fortunate not to have to a loan because
Speaker 2: I had a scholarship, but I have brothers and sister
Speaker 2: and they both have to I think they're both still
Speaker 2: paying on it. I'm still playing myself. They're both older
Speaker 2: than me. But student loans is real. Financial ladi is
Speaker 2: definitely real. All that is real.
Speaker 3: So you can't escape it. No, no, no filing for
Speaker 3: bankrupcy on doing a loan.
Speaker 2: Oh they're gonna want their money, thank you, so so,
Speaker 2: But like, what's what's what's some hacks that parents because
Speaker 2: a lot of parents listen to our podcasts and you know,
Speaker 2: might have children in college or children getting ready to
Speaker 2: go to college. What's some hacks that that and even
Speaker 2: children or young adults can use to minimize the cost
Speaker 2: of college.
Speaker 7: One of the big hacks for high school students is
Speaker 7: taking college courses while you're in high school. Now, some
Speaker 7: high schools and some districts provide that, and they're called
Speaker 7: like articulation agreements, another fancy words, another fancy higher edward,
Speaker 7: but their call articulation or dual agreements or partnerships where
Speaker 7: a lot of community colleges now and some four year
Speaker 7: schools are trying to build upon their enrollment. So what
Speaker 7: they're doing is they're allowing high school students to start
Speaker 7: taking classes at a lower rate or for free.
Speaker 3: So that's something to.
Speaker 7: We look at in your in your area, your region,
Speaker 7: your district, especially within the community colleges, your kids can
Speaker 7: take some of those level one hundred courses at a
Speaker 7: lower rate.
Speaker 3: How do you how do you get going on campus
Speaker 3: to do that? You can go on campus, so you
Speaker 3: can call.
Speaker 7: What you can do is you can call most colleges
Speaker 7: have what they call like a pre college program, pre
Speaker 7: summer program, summer academies, and look inside of some of
Speaker 7: those programs, those summer camps and maybe don't send your
Speaker 7: kid to maybe a sports camp in the town. You
Speaker 7: send them to a business academy camp at like let's
Speaker 7: say at Pace University, and then they can potentially get
Speaker 7: credits for class while they're at that camp. So that's
Speaker 7: the way to kind of look at it. I would
Speaker 7: look at your local community colleges first, give them a call.
Speaker 7: A lot of them do allow high school students to
Speaker 7: take classes on Saturdays and at night, so that's something
Speaker 7: that you can you can definitely look out for, and
Speaker 7: you can go in as what they call another fancy
Speaker 7: college where like a non matriculated student's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good word.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 8: I think another thing too is to just be honest
Speaker 8: about going to community colleges.
Speaker 6: So community colleges.
Speaker 8: Are way less expensive than they are than for your
Speaker 8: institutions are. And so if your student is not fully
Speaker 8: prepared because they just don't know.
Speaker 6: I mean, at eighteen, you just may not know.
Speaker 8: And at eighteen, thought I was going to be a
Speaker 8: high school basketball coach, teaching English classes in my old
Speaker 8: high school, and that's what I thought I was going
Speaker 8: to do. And I went into college thinking that that
Speaker 8: was the plan. And I realized that I didn't want
Speaker 8: to do that at all about two years into the game,
Speaker 8: and so I had I don't know if community college
Speaker 8: was particularly for me, but I'm paying. I paid for
Speaker 8: those two years, and I paid a lot of money
Speaker 8: for those two years. And for some people who are
Speaker 8: just not quite sure if they want to go to
Speaker 8: college or if this institution is go to a two
Speaker 8: year and bang out two years of college that are
Speaker 8: going to be a lot less expensive, and then succeed
Speaker 8: at those two years and then you can get into
Speaker 8: whatever school you want.
Speaker 6: I mean, Harvard is giving.
Speaker 8: Away full scholarships to students who excel at a community college,
Speaker 8: as are so many other excellent institutions, So you know,
Speaker 8: I think that's one that's another way to minimize some
Speaker 8: of the costs. And another thing I wanted to add
Speaker 8: is alumni offices are a secret hidden money giving a
Speaker 8: space you're It's called advancement at most universities, but your
Speaker 8: alumni offices are always collecting money from donors who are saying,
Speaker 8: we want to give money to a black male student
Speaker 8: from upstate New York who enjoys watching soccer, and they
Speaker 8: literally will say, that's the only way we're going to
Speaker 8: give five thousand dollars to this program. Or we're going
Speaker 8: to give five thousand dollars to a student who's involved
Speaker 8: in the Haitian Students Club, and that's the only way
Speaker 8: we're going to give five thousand dollars. I donate to
Speaker 8: my school, and I give money only to the Black
Speaker 8: Student Union that helps shape my career. So we have
Speaker 8: money that we give to you have to be involved
Speaker 8: in that club. But students don't know because they don't
Speaker 8: always announce those scholarships. They're just there on the website
Speaker 8: that nobody knows. So I tell students once a month
Speaker 8: going to that office and say are you offering any
Speaker 8: scholarships and they will be there.
Speaker 7: And then for those people, I mean, we both did it.
Speaker 7: We both donated and created our own scholarships. I created
Speaker 7: one out of community college, created one out of high school.
Speaker 7: And for those people that are watching that don't know
Speaker 7: how to give back money, you can call the foundations
Speaker 7: and advancement and alumni offices at these colleges and do
Speaker 7: a two hundred and fifty dollars scholarship or a five
Speaker 7: hundred dollars scholarship to help students as well. Another misconception
Speaker 7: is that you have to finish a community college in
Speaker 7: order to transfer.
Speaker 5: That's not true. Every school is different.
Speaker 7: So for example, in New Jersey where I live, there's
Speaker 7: two things that I want to kind of put out there.
Speaker 3: There's two things in New Jersey.
Speaker 7: Let's say you have twelve credits in the two point
Speaker 7: zero you can transfer into most four year state schools
Speaker 7: in New Jersey. Excise me two point five into most
Speaker 7: state schools in New Jersey. New Jersey also has another program,
Speaker 7: and most states do have programs like this called NJ
Speaker 7: Stars where a student maybe didn't do particularly well in
Speaker 7: their SATs, but they're in the top twenty percent of
Speaker 7: the top ten percent of their class. And if you're
Speaker 7: in the top ten percent of your class, you go
Speaker 7: to college for free, community college. Then when you go
Speaker 7: to community college, if you get your associate's degree and
Speaker 7: you have a three point two GPA, you can get
Speaker 7: another scholarship to go finish your back degree out of
Speaker 7: four year college and that'll be it in J Stars two.
Speaker 7: So in J Stars one is community college, you can
Speaker 7: transfer out and then you go into in J Stars two.
Speaker 7: So these are type of programs that they have in
Speaker 7: a lot of I just know that particular because I'm
Speaker 7: from New Jersey, but they have these type of programs
Speaker 7: within the states. So don't get too caught up saying, well,
Speaker 7: I'm top twenty percent of the class, I want to
Speaker 7: go to this big school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you might be.
Speaker 7: Your top twenty percent might be different from another high school,
Speaker 7: so you might not get as much money as far
Speaker 7: as scholarships, So take advantage of the scholarships that you
Speaker 7: do have, maybe at that community college, and then go
Speaker 7: on and then potentially transfer and get scholarships as well.
Speaker 5: So it's just transferred scholarships to as you're.
Speaker 4: Talking, I'm listening because we do this this project with
Speaker 4: the kids who are going into college. Like even saying
Speaker 4: associate's degree, they like have no idea. So that's traditionally
Speaker 4: fifty six credits, right, and then obviously a bachelor is
Speaker 4: when you finish traditionally one hundred and twenty credits of school.
Speaker 3: That might take for four or five years, hopefully because
Speaker 3: it's going to close you bright and you don't.
Speaker 7: But and on top of that, you know, after a
Speaker 7: certain amount of credits, after I think one hundred and sixty,
Speaker 7: I want to say, you run out of financial aid. Yeah,
Speaker 7: it's important, continue to go to school. They'll let you
Speaker 7: go to school, they don't care. But your financial weight
Speaker 7: can you can exhaust your financial weight?
Speaker 3: That's important.
Speaker 4: And I was going to say, like, in addition to that,
Speaker 4: like a lot, there's a misconception with community college, like
Speaker 4: you said, like after those two years you transfer to
Speaker 4: a four year school, Like when you graduate and you
Speaker 4: go into your career, nobody's looking at like, yo, what
Speaker 4: junior you transfer from community college? And then New York
Speaker 4: State has now like in the past two years they
Speaker 4: started the Excelsi your program. So State School is also
Speaker 4: a good thing. Right, if it's a.
Speaker 3: Least, it's less than if you went to a private school.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So, if you go to state school and you live
Speaker 4: in New York and you know your parents make under
Speaker 4: a certain amount of money, you can have I think
Speaker 4: room and board for free, and tuition's blower not well,
Speaker 4: So that's another option. If community college is like, it's
Speaker 4: not something you want to do, go to your local
Speaker 4: state school if you live in New York, and then
Speaker 4: I think the only recommend the requirement is that you
Speaker 4: have to work in the state four years after you
Speaker 4: or however long.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of schools are doing.
Speaker 7: You know, if your parents make seventy thousand hours, your
Speaker 7: household income is seventy thousand and knowledge you go to
Speaker 7: school for free. That's something that's happened in New Jersey
Speaker 7: where all the community colleges will be free start in September.
Speaker 7: These are again, these are the type of programs that
Speaker 7: you should know. But most importantly, you just brought up
Speaker 7: a really good point. Public understand what a public college
Speaker 7: is and a private college. Right, nine times out of ten,
Speaker 7: a private college costs more than a public college. And
Speaker 7: it doesn't mean that and it goes back what I said.
Speaker 7: It doesn't mean that they're a better school. It's literally
Speaker 7: because they're privately funded, so it's a little it's a
Speaker 7: little bit different when it comes to how much they
Speaker 7: charge for tuition. So it's very important to know what
Speaker 7: a public college is and a private and a private
Speaker 7: and know the difference.
Speaker 3: That's important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I actually did a podcast before and somebody
Speaker 2: asked me that question, and I was saying that nobody
Speaker 2: kids like, especially if you plan on getting a degree
Speaker 2: outside of the other first degree. So like you if
Speaker 2: you know you're going to get a four year degree
Speaker 2: and you go into a two year school, or if
Speaker 2: you know you're going to get a master's degree, right,
Speaker 2: they only care about the last degree that you have,
Speaker 2: truth and that school that you went to. So like
Speaker 2: Barack Obama is a perfect example. He went to his
Speaker 2: first school that he went to for two years is
Speaker 2: like some no name school in California. Then he went
Speaker 2: to Columbia and then he went to Harvard after that. Right,
Speaker 2: when you hear the stories, it's only that he went
Speaker 2: to Harvard Law and he graduated from Columbia. They never
Speaker 2: say the first school that he went to. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: But you save a lot of money, you prepare yourself,
Speaker 2: and you grow. So a lot of times I'm not
Speaker 2: the best person to give this speech because I went
Speaker 2: to the University of Hawaii. But you might have to
Speaker 2: humble yourself and stay home right and learn, learn the ropes,
Speaker 2: and you know, stay at home for a couple of
Speaker 2: years and then go out on your own. Or you know,
Speaker 2: you might just sacrifice for four years, stay at home,
Speaker 2: save money, go to your local school in your area,
Speaker 2: your state school. It'll you might not get the same
Speaker 2: joy as you know going out on your own and
Speaker 2: you know, going to a crazy destination, but the grand
Speaker 2: scheme of things, it might make a lot of sense
Speaker 2: the term.
Speaker 3: That's my story in itself.
Speaker 4: Right, I stayed home, I went to school locally, right,
Speaker 4: But what I did during that time was I was
Speaker 4: able to get experience. Whereas somebody who comes out of
Speaker 4: school and is looking for experience, I already have four
Speaker 4: years on you.
Speaker 3: So sometimes when.
Speaker 4: You go to a career or job, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you have this, but do you have the experience? Like
Speaker 4: I'm doing that as I'm going to school and obviously
Speaker 4: I don't have to pay for room and board or
Speaker 4: anything like that.
Speaker 3: So it helped in that way.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and also look at another point by experience. Also
Speaker 7: look at the career centers within the college. I know,
Speaker 7: in my junior year, my job, my internship was also
Speaker 7: kind of as credits, so it could be considered like
Speaker 7: a co op program. So your class can actually eliminate
Speaker 7: I mean, your job can actually eliminate you taking a
Speaker 7: certain class because the work that you're doing, the experience
Speaker 7: that you're doing is learning learn, learning experience. And then
Speaker 7: they'll give you a professor to kind of you know,
Speaker 7: follow you along and then you write a paper about
Speaker 7: it in a semester. And not only did you get
Speaker 7: paid to work, but you also got credits which saved
Speaker 7: you money as well.
Speaker 2: So, Jeff, if you have an interesting story about J Cole.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so you know, this is the thing about college.
Speaker 8: So this kind of goes into this conversation about how
Speaker 8: to find money and how to be more successful in it.
Speaker 8: So I went to Saint John's University and I went
Speaker 8: to school with J. Cole, and you know, I was
Speaker 8: president of our Black student union which was called Harayah,
Speaker 8: and at that time we were the largest organization. They
Speaker 8: had a massive budget, over one hundred thousand dollars. And
Speaker 8: what we were able to do was I became president
Speaker 8: of that. And becoming president of that, they gave me
Speaker 8: a five thousand dollars stipend. So right there, I got
Speaker 8: an extra five K that I didn't have for doing
Speaker 8: some student work on top of the stipend. With that budget,
Speaker 8: I was able to also bring in a bunch of
Speaker 8: different speakers. I mean Cornell, Wes, Maya, Angelou, all these
Speaker 8: people that I wanted to meet, we had the money
Speaker 8: to bring them in. Now, the j colepiece is is
Speaker 8: leveraging the networking opportunity. So if you're going to go
Speaker 8: to a college, I don't care what school it is,
Speaker 8: I want you to go in there and make sure
Speaker 8: you meet as many different people as you possibly can
Speaker 8: get yourself into every room. And so when I think
Speaker 8: about Cole, one of the things that you know, I
Speaker 8: remember Jermaine was just wrapping in the random open mic
Speaker 8: or wrapping in the residence hall in the dorms, and
Speaker 8: then that flipped into him getting involved. He eventually became
Speaker 8: president of our Black student union. And then when that happened,
Speaker 8: he always had a crowd. There was always five hundred
Speaker 8: people that were guaranteed that were going to buy the mixtape,
Speaker 8: that we're going to come out to the show, that
Speaker 8: we're going to support him at the open mic, that
Speaker 8: we're going to go out to this and me, I
Speaker 8: see it all the time as we do speaking gigs
Speaker 8: that I still perform poetry. Half of my audience are
Speaker 8: people from Saint John's from my undergraduate career. So I
Speaker 8: tell people make sure that once you get in, get
Speaker 8: yourself involved, get yourself entrenched in the university, because that's
Speaker 8: how you get them to start paying you back.
Speaker 6: And that's the thing. School's really expensive.
Speaker 8: But I'm going to find out how do I become
Speaker 8: a resident assistant. And a resident assistant is when you're
Speaker 8: in charge of a residence floor and you're in charge
Speaker 8: of a dorm floor, they pay for your housing that
Speaker 8: I did not pay for housing for three years of
Speaker 8: my college career. And when you get into those spaces,
Speaker 8: I was an orientation leader, which were the people who
Speaker 8: introduced the people when they came to college. I got
Speaker 8: paid for that. So that's where you find the money.
Speaker 8: You leverage the money by the network work, by the
Speaker 8: capital of the individuals as well as the capital that
Speaker 8: the that the school has.
Speaker 2: You said something interesting, you said that Jay Cole, being
Speaker 2: the president of the Black student Union, he was in
Speaker 2: a unique position because he booked concerts. So then that
Speaker 2: opened up for them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was. It was fascinating.
Speaker 8: I mean I remember, you know when I was wrapping
Speaker 8: back in the day, that was the same thing. I'm like,
Speaker 8: I put on my little resume. Yeah, I opened up
Speaker 8: for Kanye, I opened up for quality, I opened up
Speaker 8: for comment And he did the same thing every time
Speaker 8: we had a major artist. He was one of the
Speaker 8: performers that opened up for it. And then that just
Speaker 8: again creates more leverage, creates more opportunities. You get practiced.
Speaker 8: And he didn't pay a dime. He didn't pay anything.
Speaker 8: You use the studio that's on campus, use every possible
Speaker 8: resource that they have, because they're they're.
Speaker 6: They're taking the money from you.
Speaker 8: They're never gonna they're never gonna say, hey, you know what,
Speaker 8: it's okay.
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Speaker 6: Have to pay today. So I'm gonna say listen, I
Speaker 6: want They're never gonna say that, right.
Speaker 8: I want the studio, I want the gym, I want
Speaker 8: I'm taking everything.
Speaker 6: That this school could possibly give me.
Speaker 2: And he was like a straight a student someone.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean he was a good student from what
Speaker 6: I heard.
Speaker 8: I mean I was in in the classes with him, right,
Speaker 8: but he was I mean, And that's the thing is
Speaker 8: that I can't stress. And I'll say this over and
Speaker 8: over again. You have to succeed in that space. So
Speaker 8: do everything you possibly can to leverage every opportunity that
Speaker 8: they have.
Speaker 2: So that's interesting because you know that's that's culture, hip
Speaker 2: hop culture and music. And one of the things that
Speaker 2: you guys do is that you blend culture with education.
Speaker 2: And you have a company called Trill and not Trill, right,
Speaker 2: So that's an interesting name. Trill and not trial put
Speaker 2: off the Texas, put off the Texas a right, but
Speaker 2: a trill and not Trill For people that might not
Speaker 2: be familiar, what do is trill mean?
Speaker 6: So for us.
Speaker 8: I mean, like you said, you know, we got it
Speaker 8: from from listening to you GK. And the idea of
Speaker 8: trill in essence is true and real coming together right,
Speaker 8: So can you be truthful? Can you be honest? But
Speaker 8: can you keep it authentic? And for us, that's what
Speaker 8: we do. We're educators who are making sure that we
Speaker 8: keep it real every single time that we speak to somebody,
Speaker 8: and we're authentically us also at the same time.
Speaker 6: And Trill or Not Trill started out as a blog
Speaker 6: we threw.
Speaker 8: I used to throw a hashtag on my Facebook pages
Speaker 8: back in the day saying is this trill or is
Speaker 8: this not trill? Then I said, if I wrote a blog,
Speaker 8: would y'all read my blog? And you know how people do, Yeah.
Speaker 6: We're gonna read it.
Speaker 5: Read it right, I got you.
Speaker 6: That's it. So the blog picked up.
Speaker 8: And what happened was I hit up Lenny randomly because
Speaker 8: we were meeting about something else, and I said, yo,
Speaker 8: I got this blog and is starting to cook a
Speaker 8: little bit.
Speaker 6: Do you want to you want to maybe write about it?
Speaker 8: And Lenny, with the business background, said, you know, I
Speaker 8: think this could be larger than a blog, and I
Speaker 8: think that we might be able to turn this into
Speaker 8: a business model and a business idea to transform education.
Speaker 8: And we put all of our minds together and we said,
Speaker 8: this is what we are. We are going to be
Speaker 8: the change agents of education. So we are the individuals
Speaker 8: who are going to take this thing called higher education,
Speaker 8: flip it on its head, keep it real with everybody
Speaker 8: that's that's listening, a president of a school, to the
Speaker 8: to the lunch person, to the student. Every individual when
Speaker 8: they see us walk into the room, they're going to
Speaker 8: understand what trill or not trill really means. And we
Speaker 8: are a leadership institute that trains professionals that train students
Speaker 8: to make sure that everybody understands what it means to
Speaker 8: be culturally responsive. That's the term that that's another term, right,
Speaker 8: but we're gonna put in the dictionary, right, so, culturally responsive,
Speaker 8: which ultimately means that we're taking care of the needs
Speaker 8: of the students. We are interested in what they're watching,
Speaker 8: what they're listening to, what they're reading, what they're involved in,
Speaker 8: and that is included in every aspect of the education.
Speaker 7: The needs of Now you know, we're not using the
Speaker 7: same thing from last semester. Every semester is different. Every
Speaker 7: generation is different. There's the Millennials, the Generation Z. So
Speaker 7: we able to you know, continue to be current and
Speaker 7: make sure that we're reaching every student dope.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's important too, because you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times we have these narratives of what
Speaker 2: a professional looks like, right right, Like, so I taught
Speaker 2: a financial literacy class.
Speaker 6: Let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: I've been teaching financial literacy Troy. Troy has a program
Speaker 2: every summer for six weeks for kids like sophomores and freshmen,
Speaker 2: and I teach a financial literacy classes part of his program.
Speaker 2: I went doing it for like six years. And I
Speaker 2: come in just off the street, like I'm dressed that day.
Speaker 2: That's how I come in. Some days I'm dressing the suit.
Speaker 2: Some days I have flip flops and shorts on. So
Speaker 2: one day particularly, I have flip flops and shorts on.
Speaker 2: And somebody that came in to observe it, they were
Speaker 2: a little disturbed and they they he told Troy like,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't think that's that's a professional manner
Speaker 2: to like, what are we teaching the kids? And Troy's like,
Speaker 2: what what does that mean? He's like, well, he's not
Speaker 2: he's dressed like, you know, he's off the street, and
Speaker 2: Troy's like, well, that's one of the benefits of his
Speaker 2: professional dues. He does whatever he wants to do, right, So,
Speaker 2: and this is the thing that we really have to
Speaker 2: get out the mindset up to say, like, Okay, you
Speaker 2: have to look like this? Why who said that? You know?
Speaker 2: There's no rules to that, like, and that's one of
Speaker 2: the good things I love about tech. They break all
Speaker 2: rules like Steve jobs wor whatever he wants, Mark Zuckerber,
Speaker 2: whatever they want exactly. It doesn't matter, like you know
Speaker 2: what I mean as far as obviously you know there's
Speaker 2: certain environments where you have to dress accordingly. It's just
Speaker 2: common sense. You don't go to a wedding with a sweat, right, Well,
Speaker 2: he came with a batman. But for the most part,
Speaker 2: it's like now we you know, this is this is
Speaker 2: what we are, right, So we were a hat backwards.
Speaker 2: We might wear Jordan's, we might wear Didas, but that
Speaker 2: doesn't devalue the information that we're we're giving.
Speaker 4: Right, And that's the thing I was like, judge him
Speaker 4: on his character, Like what he's wearing is not important.
Speaker 3: What is delivering is important. I had a gentleman tell
Speaker 3: me right.
Speaker 4: I was doing a parent orientation and I had some
Speaker 4: AM MAX on and he was like, you're really going
Speaker 4: to do a presentation for parents in AMX and I
Speaker 4: said yeah, and he was like, well, this isn't really professional.
Speaker 4: I said yeah, I'm changing the narrative of what professional is.
Speaker 4: And he was like, what do you mean. I said, yeah,
Speaker 4: the guy wearing M max is now hiring your daughter
Speaker 4: to be in this program. Right, that's a professional, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, Like, we're changing this narrative, right,
Speaker 4: So like I don't judge him on the character.
Speaker 3: Right, what we're delivering more important than what we have
Speaker 3: on you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Well, that's why that's why schools get left. And I
Speaker 6: always talk about it every time.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 8: I remember my dad used to say, listen, if y'all
Speaker 8: aren't downstairs by eight fifteen for the ride, I'm leaving, right,
Speaker 8: And that was the test that said I I'm never
Speaker 8: going to get left again, and I don't ever want
Speaker 8: to be left. And that's what's happening to these institutions.
Speaker 8: And that's why it's important for people like all of
Speaker 8: us that are sitting at this table to be in
Speaker 8: the educator space because you know, we have a new
Speaker 8: book that's coming out quick plug in the fall.
Speaker 2: Call.
Speaker 6: You know what I mean. We wear kicks to work, and.
Speaker 8: That means that's just sowing y'all that we can pull
Speaker 8: up to any institution at any space.
Speaker 3: Y'all see their feet right now. But listen, they came
Speaker 3: here today.
Speaker 6: You want to see I'm here.
Speaker 2: Go to class like this too. It's important though it
Speaker 2: really isn't. And it's like because I used to see
Speaker 2: my college professors come dressed having it when they wear
Speaker 2: boat shoes and ye, but it's like from a different culture,
Speaker 2: so it's never quite yep. But when we wear what
Speaker 2: we feel comfortable in our culture, now, it's like, what's
Speaker 2: going on here? No, it's what it is.
Speaker 7: We're gonna be honest with us. It changed the game,
Speaker 7: you know, us wearing kicks with our suits. You know,
Speaker 7: students were legit out of college with two weeks ago
Speaker 7: and these two black kids was walking out and two
Speaker 7: African American students walking out chilling on campus and they
Speaker 7: literally stopped us.
Speaker 5: It was like, yo, y'all, y'are fresh man.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I.
Speaker 5: Don't know what y'all hear from y'all, y'all basketball, what
Speaker 5: ch'are doing here?
Speaker 7: And it's funny, those same kids ended up in our
Speaker 7: presentation right, and they volunteered and they came up to
Speaker 7: us after they emailed us, and it was like, listen,
Speaker 7: we would love to just build with you guys and
Speaker 7: learn from you, and we can learn from them too,
Speaker 7: So you know, I really believe. Yeah, you know, probably
Speaker 7: at first people like we're sneakers the work. I'm sure
Speaker 7: people said it behind the scenes, but when you are
Speaker 7: really doing the work, and especially in the college campus
Speaker 7: and students are reacting to you the way they are,
Speaker 7: you can't deny it.
Speaker 3: You can't deny it. So it's been truly success.
Speaker 7: It's been a successful thing for us to wear these
Speaker 7: kicks because it puts us in spaces in conversations that
Speaker 7: typically maybe been a little awkward at first, or the
Speaker 7: students like it was awkward, but now it's it's you
Speaker 7: on them kicks a fly. Then it's like, oh, so
Speaker 7: how's that business course going? Oh it's not going to
Speaker 7: come come see me, or how's your financialad going? You know,
Speaker 7: come come see me. I'll make sure we'll get that fixed.
Speaker 4: I'd say, it's all the time, like you, that's the
Speaker 4: unwritten language, right. A kid when he sees those sneakers
Speaker 4: automatically he relates to you. A lot of times in education,
Speaker 4: they don't have people that they can see that it relates.
Speaker 4: I can wear Jordan's and I don't have to say
Speaker 4: anything to a kid for my culture. He knows that, like, oh,
Speaker 4: he wears the same things as me, so like I
Speaker 4: already have connected by him. Right, So it's now it's
Speaker 4: like whatever I said going forward, he's going to listen
Speaker 4: because he's like, yo, he looks like me, and he's dressed.
Speaker 3: Like wait, he listens to the same music. Right, We're good.
Speaker 7: It's like what we always say, you know, putting the
Speaker 7: medicine in the apple sauce. Right, honestly, it's it's also
Speaker 7: just it is not just wearing sneakers too. I don't
Speaker 7: want people to think like, oh, no, I'm gonna pull
Speaker 7: up in some off. Don't don't do that. It's about
Speaker 7: culture in general. Like you know, people complain about, oh,
Speaker 7: generations Z does this, Generations Z does that. Instead of saying,
Speaker 7: you know what, how can I immerse myself and get
Speaker 7: myself so involved with that that now I can add
Speaker 7: that to the curriculum so we all understand each other
Speaker 7: a lot better. But then also lead the traditional stuff
Speaker 7: that's in there that's important, so they don't have to
Speaker 7: be sneakers. It can be movies, it can be music,
Speaker 7: it can be anything that you enjoy. I fight, people
Speaker 7: gotta an education. They gotta disconnect from the things that
Speaker 7: they enjoy just to help people pass the test or
Speaker 7: pass a class. Now we got to add thats and actresses.
Speaker 6: Man, that's the thing.
Speaker 8: You know that kid kid just won three million dollars
Speaker 8: for playing Fortnite, right, And instead of saying, man, I
Speaker 8: can't believe a kid won three million dollars for Fortnite,
Speaker 8: you need to start thinking, how do I include Fortnite
Speaker 8: in my curriculum? What conversations do I need to be
Speaker 8: having as an educator, or as a financial literacy person,
Speaker 8: or as an I cannot as an economist, or as
Speaker 8: a graphic designer, or as a storyteller that says, look
Speaker 8: at this, look what happened here. Now let's show how
Speaker 8: we can you know, spand upon this idea. But you know,
Speaker 8: when people are you know, so small minded, what happens is, man,
Speaker 8: I can't believe you want three million dollars.
Speaker 6: Man, my kid's gonna start playing Fortnite too. That's just
Speaker 6: not do to health.
Speaker 3: Without his brain breaking news, spending more time and crazy.
Speaker 2: Did you say that? Because even my son, like he
Speaker 2: was telling me like he wanted to be a YouTuber
Speaker 2: and I'm like, let's do it. And then like peoples
Speaker 2: like that's not something real. I'm like, I will tell
Speaker 2: the kid that made twenty two million dollars year, right,
Speaker 2: that's what's real money is actually, So it's like, oh, yeah, well,
Speaker 2: you know what is this doing. It's doing the same
Speaker 2: thing everybody else is doing.
Speaker 8: And when that kid with that YouTuber when he turns sixteen,
Speaker 8: am I going to be the one that says, hey,
Speaker 8: you should go to college and study marketing.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know, now, I think he's figured it out.
Speaker 6: He should be he should be teaching the class, right.
Speaker 2: All right, So in the next segment, we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about public speaking, and then we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about some other things as far as get yourself off
Speaker 2: the ground falls business is concerned, all right. So we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about public speaking. That's something that's very big.
Speaker 2: But before we do that, I want to talk about
Speaker 2: something that's in the news, and that is a new
Speaker 2: I guess you can call it a scandal for us
Speaker 2: for lack of a better word, And so forty wealthy
Speaker 2: families in Illinois they got caught or they found out
Speaker 2: that they were they were doing this thing where they
Speaker 2: gave up guardianship of their kids like when they turned sixteen,
Speaker 2: like eleven and twelfth grade, and in return for doing that,
Speaker 2: now on paper, the kid looks like their homeless's like
Speaker 2: they're poor, right, and then they get a boatload of
Speaker 2: financial aid, but the parents are like filthy rich. So
Speaker 2: a lot of some people were on Instagram. It was
Speaker 2: actually interesting because some people were saying like I knew, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Some people were saying like that's messed up, that's bad,
Speaker 2: but more people were saying like, oh, they just they
Speaker 2: just gaming the system, like I wish, I wish I
Speaker 2: knew that I'm gonna do that, Like you know, I'm
Speaker 2: not mad at them for doing that. So how does
Speaker 2: that work? Because I used to work in the missions, right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I'm I'm working at missions. Of course, I'm
Speaker 7: not an expert when it comes to financially. But I
Speaker 7: know enough when it comes to finding out loopholes such
Speaker 7: as that as I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Call it a loophole where parents.
Speaker 7: I even seen read an article the dad somebody parents
Speaker 7: are getting divorces right legally separating so it looks like
Speaker 7: they have one parent in the house, which is crazy.
Speaker 7: I'm not telling you to do that, but that's somebody
Speaker 7: back there like, yeah, but.
Speaker 6: We're not about to break up this.
Speaker 3: Let's got a kid going.
Speaker 7: They're gonna be a doctor. It's gonna benefit. But anyway,
Speaker 7: so you know pretty much what people do is you
Speaker 7: can also say your child is paying rent. Your child
Speaker 7: depends on how you classify yourself or how you do
Speaker 7: your taxes is the most important part when it comes
Speaker 7: to faster So you can do do different loopholes as
Speaker 7: far as you know, being a person that lives in
Speaker 7: the house and you pay rent. The same thing that
Speaker 7: happened in Illinois. I'm not saying is good or bad.
Speaker 7: I'm just saying that it is possible, and that stuff
Speaker 7: is true and people have done it for years. What's
Speaker 7: tricky is that every university is different when it comes
Speaker 7: to financial rules. So what may happen is you'll get
Speaker 7: this thing called verification and you have to give it
Speaker 7: a bunch of documents and improve. These type of issues
Speaker 7: are hardships, as they would say, there's also a hardship form.
Speaker 7: So even on the other side for people that are struggling,
Speaker 7: maybe you don't have faster because your parents were literally together,
Speaker 7: or you was living with your parents, or your parents
Speaker 7: passed away, or what your financial situation changed. For example,
Speaker 7: my mom had lost her job when my sister was
Speaker 7: in school. What you can do is before she had
Speaker 7: her job, taxes showed that she made enough money.
Speaker 5: When she lost her job, of course she didn't have
Speaker 5: as much money.
Speaker 7: You can go to financial Weight and ask for a
Speaker 7: hardship form, right, and you can fill out and explain
Speaker 7: and find it's up to financialate to make that decision
Speaker 7: and find you money. So again I'm o here to
Speaker 7: police it and say it's good or bad. But that
Speaker 7: stuff is true.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I remember I got financially it was like
Speaker 4: twelve dollars.
Speaker 3: Twelve dollars I went through more people. What were going
Speaker 3: to do with this? I couldn't buy a pack of pencils.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like create hours, that's true middle.
Speaker 2: Class get screwed when it comes to that stuff because
Speaker 2: they make too much, but they don't really make enough realistically,
Speaker 2: because even in New York, you make one hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: that's not that's not real money.
Speaker 5: Like you know what I mean, who's a fifty five
Speaker 5: thousand a year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're struggling, like one hundred thousand. You struggling.
Speaker 3: I told you, I mean I used to.
Speaker 4: I tell the kids every time, like every day, like,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure there's not a middle class because whatever
Speaker 4: somebody from the local sales economic status has, it will
Speaker 4: be subsidized so that we're on the same playing field, right,
Speaker 4: So like a kid that their parents don't make as much,
Speaker 4: like they're gonna get a full scholarship as I'm going
Speaker 4: to get told I was financial aid, right, So we're
Speaker 4: gonna be in the same boat. Matter of fact, you
Speaker 4: might be in a better position if you take advantage
Speaker 4: of this.
Speaker 2: I think that's an interesting conversation because I had this
Speaker 2: conversation with somebody who my friend, he's a doctor and
Speaker 2: he lives in and he looked in Wall Street at
Speaker 2: the time, and we was talking about like what's middle
Speaker 2: class for New York City for Manhattan. All right, I asked, everybody,
Speaker 2: wish your number New York City, Manhattan, und middle class,
Speaker 2: middle class.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say two hundred, two fifty, two.
Speaker 3: Fifty, I said.
Speaker 2: I said as a couple, I said three fifty as
Speaker 2: a couple, a couple, and I said to fifty. As
Speaker 2: an individual, you make anything less than two fifty, and
Speaker 2: mad you struggling, struggling, struggling. But so the thing about
Speaker 2: it is like, so when you thought out your financial
Speaker 2: aid form, they're doing it the same as somebody in
Speaker 2: Idaho two fifty in Idaho. You you even in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: you make two fifty in Atlanta, you you get a
Speaker 2: dope house like you can like you know, you're living good.
Speaker 2: So it's like, it's really it needs to be changed
Speaker 2: because you can't judge that as the sole reason to
Speaker 2: give somebody money, right, It's like, you know, two fifty.
Speaker 2: It may look like it's a lot of money on paper,
Speaker 2: but in all reality, you can be completely struggling and
Speaker 2: be dead broke.
Speaker 4: You're not financially you're making two fifty. No, not forget
Speaker 4: the twelve house, you get zero. Don't even follow now
Speaker 4: on the flip side.
Speaker 7: I will say if you do get if you get
Speaker 7: free or reduce lunch at your school, you should be
Speaker 7: taking advantage of finding out all the grants that are
Speaker 7: out there, pell grant, TAG grant and other grants and
Speaker 7: programs at these And every institution is different, so don't
Speaker 7: go by what you see as like a blanket answer
Speaker 7: or just one answer, one generic answer.
Speaker 3: Every school is different.
Speaker 7: You should rely reach out not only to the admissions office,
Speaker 7: but to that financial aid office and find out you know, hey,
Speaker 7: my child, as you know, free of reduce lunch. Sometimes
Speaker 7: schools offer scholarships to the high school and also even
Speaker 7: more important college board. If you have free or reduce lunch,
Speaker 7: you get to take the SAT and the ACT for
Speaker 7: free twice.
Speaker 3: That's key.
Speaker 7: So if you go to guidance, they have to give
Speaker 7: you that form to fill out or the paper whatever
Speaker 7: it is, but they give it.
Speaker 3: To you and you can go to school.
Speaker 7: I mean you can take the SAT twice and the
Speaker 7: ACT twice for free.
Speaker 4: Now, so you said two key words that those are
Speaker 4: those terms grants and scholarships.
Speaker 3: That's money you do not have to pay back.
Speaker 4: Like people need to know that you do not have
Speaker 4: to pay that money back that it's granted to you,
Speaker 4: and sometimes it's for the duration of the time you're live,
Speaker 4: or sometimes it might just be for one year or
Speaker 4: the semester.
Speaker 3: So like I always look for so many of.
Speaker 6: Them, so many out there, so you know that's that's key.
Speaker 7: And also let me tell you another trick that school's
Speaker 7: doing and I want people to know since we on
Speaker 7: this financial piece, is don't compare scholarship amountain numbers to
Speaker 7: a particular school because every tuition is different. So for example,
Speaker 7: the school I work at, New Jersey City University, let's
Speaker 7: just say I'm just still a number out to make
Speaker 7: it easy. Let's say it's twenty thousand hours a year
Speaker 7: to go to the school for four years, so it's.
Speaker 3: Eighty thousand hours.
Speaker 5: Let's say you get a full scholarship.
Speaker 7: That's eighty thousand hours as an award right over the
Speaker 7: over the four years. Another school MutS say, competing school
Speaker 7: Seaton Hall is forty thousand hours a year, right, so
Speaker 7: forty times for us is one hundred and sixty right,
Speaker 7: so one hundred and sixty thousand. The school Seaton Hall
Speaker 7: might say we're gonna give you a scholarship for ninety
Speaker 7: five thousand dollars, right, and just she was giving a
Speaker 7: scholarship for eighty thousand hours. People will go to Seaton
Speaker 7: Hall because the scholarship is more, but you still owe
Speaker 7: sixty five thousand dollars. So don't get confused by people
Speaker 7: get confused by that all the time. They go, well,
Speaker 7: your school is giving me twenty thousand, but that oder
Speaker 7: school is giving me forty. And I'm like, listen, that
Speaker 7: school is three times as much as our school here.
Speaker 7: So be very mindful when you see those award letters
Speaker 7: that say that the student is receiving this amount of money,
Speaker 7: make sure adds up or subtracts well with the tuition.
Speaker 4: Now when they receive that money, right, and this happened
Speaker 4: to a gentleman, I know, like the money is made
Speaker 4: out to the student right now that check?
Speaker 3: How does that work? Do they have to Does money
Speaker 3: directly go to the school?
Speaker 5: Mostly directly goes so it depends.
Speaker 7: When it's a college merit based scholarship at the college,
Speaker 7: it goes directly to the school. But let's say you
Speaker 7: get a local scholarship or a state scholarship. So for example,
Speaker 7: my last two years of college, I did not have
Speaker 7: to pay tuition because I had the internship and I
Speaker 7: got free tuition. Now in addition that I was still
Speaker 7: applying to other scholarships. I had like over ten different
Speaker 7: local scholarships. I literally took the check, went to bursar
Speaker 7: and it gave me a refund check. So I was
Speaker 7: getting paid technically to go to college, right, I had.
Speaker 7: I had that much excess fund that I was typically
Speaker 7: getting paid to go to college. So if it's a
Speaker 7: national merit base or merior base through the school whenever
Speaker 7: things like that, it's usually paid directly to the tuition.
Speaker 7: But you can you can also receive other scholarships where
Speaker 7: it's just a check they give to you and then
Speaker 7: it's written out to the Burstar office and the burst
Speaker 7: has to give you a refund.
Speaker 2: Got it all right? That's that's the good information. Can
Speaker 2: we talk about public speaking because that's something that is
Speaker 2: very big right now and a lot of people want
Speaker 2: to get into the public speaking, spake, motivational speakers, all
Speaker 2: kinds of different speakers. But that's something that you guys do.
Speaker 2: So yeah, can you talk about that?
Speaker 6: We can? So I have a very we both do.
Speaker 3: We both I know exactly where you're going.
Speaker 8: I have a special feeling about public speakers because you know,
Speaker 8: I always go back to this Tupac quote from Hit
Speaker 8: Him up.
Speaker 6: At the end where goes on his rent.
Speaker 8: He says, you know, when I first started out, I
Speaker 8: told you all this was just about Biggie and then
Speaker 8: everybody had to open their mouths with the mother f
Speaker 8: an opinion. And when he said that, it just really
Speaker 8: articulates the world that we live in today, where everyone has.
Speaker 6: Everyone you know what I'm saying, Everyone has an opinion. Now,
Speaker 6: there's nothing wrong with having your opinion. I support it.
Speaker 8: Talk good talk, but we have so many platforms for
Speaker 8: people who are not doing the work. And that's the
Speaker 8: problem that I have with public speaking. So we're gonna
Speaker 8: I'm here to help. I'm here to have this conversation.
Speaker 8: But it's it's an important precursor to say. Just because
Speaker 8: you have some quotes on your Instagram page and you
Speaker 8: are retweeting Gary Vee or Eric Thomas, right, you know,
Speaker 8: and that's what happens is that people will watch your podcast. Right,
Speaker 8: They'll be watching your pod, watching your podcast, listening to
Speaker 8: your podcast, gather information, and then that person will then say,
Speaker 8: I'm a financial literacy expert, it's like, well you're not.
Speaker 8: And then they'll and then they want to be public
Speaker 8: speakers and say, well I should be speaking on financial literacy,
Speaker 8: and I say, what's your credit? Well, you know, I've
Speaker 8: been telling you about this, and I'm like, where'd you
Speaker 8: get your your information from?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, one of my my main resources is
Speaker 6: earn your leisure. Then why don't I just go get early?
Speaker 6: You know? So with public speaking, that's the first thing.
Speaker 8: You know, if you're one of those people, God blessed,
Speaker 8: I'm you know, I don't support it. But if you're
Speaker 8: an individual that's really going to be providing content, see
Speaker 8: these individuals who need it, because there are young people
Speaker 8: and and and older people who need the help and
Speaker 8: you have to be able to to support that. So
Speaker 8: in our in our space, I think one of the
Speaker 8: first things is to recognize what is it that you
Speaker 8: are providing to the know, to the audience. If you
Speaker 8: can't say, here are five things that I'm going learning outcomes,
Speaker 8: right here are my learning outcomes exactly that you're gonna
Speaker 8: walk away from, then you are not ready to be
Speaker 8: a public speaker quite yet.
Speaker 6: So that's number one.
Speaker 8: Number two is your audience so I'm not a financial expert,
Speaker 8: so I'm not going So when somebody says, hey, Jeff,
Speaker 8: can you come talk to us about leadership and financial literacy,
Speaker 8: I'm gonna say.
Speaker 5: No, don't be a jack of all trades.
Speaker 6: Don't do that.
Speaker 8: So make sure that you're very specific in the content
Speaker 8: that you're delivering. That's what actually separates you from everyone else.
Speaker 8: Sure there are a bunch of leadership speakers, Sure there
Speaker 8: are a bunch of people talking about financial literacy. Sure
Speaker 8: there's a bunch of people talking about mental health. That's fine.
Speaker 8: Your job is to figure out how do I separate
Speaker 8: myself from that particular core group. And you're not going
Speaker 8: to be able to do that if you're talking about
Speaker 8: seven different things at the same time. So those are
Speaker 8: some of the quick tips about public speaking, and you
Speaker 8: also have to do.
Speaker 6: It over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 8: There's a lot of us who thought that, you know,
Speaker 8: just because we're funny in the group chat doesn't mean
Speaker 8: that we can be stand up comedians. And you learn
Speaker 8: that quick when you're a public speaker. My first ever
Speaker 8: gig was at NYT and they said, we need you
Speaker 8: for an hour and thirty minutes and I said, I've been,
Speaker 8: you know, leading workshops in my class, and I've been
Speaker 8: talking to my people's I pulled up at NYT and
Speaker 8: at thirty minutes into this speech, I was done.
Speaker 6: I'm keep it rolling.
Speaker 8: And you find yourself in there thinking like, man, all right,
Speaker 8: maybe I could just spit a quick sixteen Maybe I
Speaker 8: can just draw on the board.
Speaker 3: We're going to take a fifteen break.
Speaker 8: So you have to really have that content because you
Speaker 8: got to be able to do that. And so I
Speaker 8: remember that saying I just wasn't prepared, but you got
Speaker 8: to do that. You got to take that first l
Speaker 8: to say, all right, this is what I can do, dude,
Speaker 8: to get better.
Speaker 6: This is what I have to learn.
Speaker 8: How to stand, how my posture works, how my speaking
Speaker 8: intonations go.
Speaker 6: All of those things are are really important.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think also learn the power of leverage.
Speaker 7: So a lot of people going to public speaking or
Speaker 7: want to speak at colleges, for example, and they're charging
Speaker 7: this crazy amount with no background. Right, So being willing
Speaker 7: to say I'm going to do it for free just
Speaker 7: to be at certain locations or get things on your
Speaker 7: resume is very important as a public speaker. But I
Speaker 7: also want to even say, there's so many public speakers,
Speaker 7: and I'm happy to see that it's grown. But I
Speaker 7: also want people. I've been thinking about a lot of
Speaker 7: just I don't want people to be doers, man to
Speaker 7: do more. I need more people in the classroom, right.
Speaker 7: You know, if you look around the country, nationally is
Speaker 7: under five percent is black faculty members tenure track black
Speaker 7: faculty members maybe less than five And it's even you know,
Speaker 7: I'm in meetings and Jeffson meetings and we're usually only
Speaker 7: black person in the room, you know, And you want
Speaker 7: to look at not just speaking, but finding ways to
Speaker 7: change legislation, create programs, create platforms like this in addition
Speaker 7: to you just being a public speaker, because our students
Speaker 7: already are being oppressed in certain institutions and are already
Speaker 7: being taken advantage of. And the last thing we need
Speaker 7: is for somebody to come in and say, get excited
Speaker 7: and leave or another panel.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, you know, you know I have a very
Speaker 8: hard line on some of these things that enough is enough.
Speaker 6: We got to start doing some work.
Speaker 8: And I don't know how many times I've been to Hey,
Speaker 8: the seven most effective people to learn about leadership in
Speaker 8: your community while you're wearing natural hair.
Speaker 6: And also I don't need that. I don't need all
Speaker 6: these panels, and.
Speaker 3: It turns to like passive shade.
Speaker 8: And people, I'm the best person at this, and then
Speaker 8: everyone walks out the room with no content. And there
Speaker 8: are these young people that need our help. And there's
Speaker 8: a lot of us who are at working at NBC's
Speaker 8: that are working at pfizers that are working at large
Speaker 8: banks and intitutions, are entrepreneurs that need to say, as
Speaker 8: we go in there and perfect our speaking, can we
Speaker 8: help these students and build for the future. So you know,
Speaker 8: those are such essential pieces to the process. And getting
Speaker 8: paid as a speaker, you're you think that there's a
Speaker 8: quick way to just go in there and get these checks,
Speaker 8: and it's just not And you know, you might have
Speaker 8: all this clout, but that cloud is not going to get.
Speaker 6: You to return if you can't do anything when you
Speaker 6: get there.
Speaker 2: But but what is all right? Fair enough? You should
Speaker 2: have good purpose and you should be educated. Assuming you are, now,
Speaker 2: what's the steps to actually got cool?
Speaker 6: So I had to get that off.
Speaker 5: Hale lot.
Speaker 7: But I think one of the I always tell the
Speaker 7: story I started posted on my Instagram out the day
Speaker 7: I started out in the boys and girls club. Right,
Speaker 7: it was a boys and girls club. My friend of
Speaker 7: mine is Ron Brangman. Shout out to him, told me
Speaker 7: and never forget. He was like, I know you want
Speaker 7: to become, you know, a speaker, you want to get involved.
Speaker 7: Said I'm gonna give you two things. I'm gonna give
Speaker 7: you this space, but I'm also going to tell you
Speaker 7: that boy's not gonna like you. Right, just just know that,
Speaker 7: like you're not gonna go in every room and every
Speaker 7: audience is going to love you. So this is the
Speaker 7: space here, have fun, do what you want to do,
Speaker 7: and then you know, five years later, you know, Jeff
Speaker 7: and I are going to like Iowa State, Kentucky, Ucla.
Speaker 7: But I was humble enough to start in like a
Speaker 7: boys and girls club where twenty people was in the
Speaker 7: room and fifteen. Honestly, will key with my family, right,
Speaker 7: it's pulled up because they didn't want to see me fail.
Speaker 7: So you know that's that's the most important, is having
Speaker 7: that humbleness, but also having an expertise. Right, So we
Speaker 7: said earlier, don't be a jack of all trades. Right,
Speaker 7: So if you worked in HR and that's your experience.
Speaker 7: And then you also have a little motivation behind you
Speaker 7: be able to provide that that nowledge you got from
Speaker 7: being an HR rep or that now what you got
Speaker 7: from being a financial advisor, and that with the inspiration,
Speaker 7: now people are gonna want you more because you're providing
Speaker 7: them with things and question. You're providing them with a
Speaker 7: service or a product that they can actually use, like
Speaker 7: a tangible thing. So be a tangible speaker more than
Speaker 7: a public speaker. That's all I want to say, Like
Speaker 7: have tangible items in addition to that, but also be
Speaker 7: willing to say, yeah, I'm going to go speak for free.
Speaker 7: And the second piece, the third piece, is having content.
Speaker 7: So we started as bloggers and we blocked to a
Speaker 7: niche market, Like we knew people that deal with students
Speaker 7: at colleges. Their office is usually under student affairs, so
Speaker 7: we knew that there was a student affairs group and
Speaker 7: there's region conferences and programs, So we made sure that
Speaker 7: we implemented our blogs within that audience group so they
Speaker 7: know who we are. So when we had the blog,
Speaker 7: we already knew in the back of our hands we
Speaker 7: wanted to be speakers. So we had the programs ready
Speaker 7: with the learning outcomes and objectives, and that's how we
Speaker 7: started getting more involved in the school. So when you
Speaker 7: are expert, you do become you do get a niche
Speaker 7: market and it helps you get paid more and you
Speaker 7: understand your pricing and things like that.
Speaker 3: Can you talk about the names of the blogs. I
Speaker 3: thought they were brilliant. We talked about it.
Speaker 5: Also.
Speaker 7: Some of the blogs that we created in the beginning
Speaker 7: were like Beyonce Beyonce and Social Change Model, Kevin Durant
Speaker 7: and Retention.
Speaker 3: I know you don't want to justin Bieber.
Speaker 8: Yeah, what we did what Drake can teach you about
Speaker 8: conflict management and we also did Nicki Minaj and non
Speaker 8: verbal communication and so you know, you add all those
Speaker 8: things and just give some other quick tips about public
Speaker 8: speaking is so content, So video content is key. So
Speaker 8: people need to know that you're actually speaking. So people
Speaker 8: would rather see you speak than here you speak or
Speaker 8: a photo. So get the content, and you know, whether
Speaker 8: you're using an iPhone or a camera, just make sure
Speaker 8: that you're getting content of you speaking about whatever it
Speaker 8: is that you're speaking about.
Speaker 6: And that's how you can leverage it.
Speaker 8: So sometimes you can go to a school or an
Speaker 8: institution and say listen, I'll do it for free, but
Speaker 8: can you allow me to get video content. Number two
Speaker 8: is whatever you speak, make sure you get a mailing list,
Speaker 8: so you want people to always know that you're speaking
Speaker 8: as many times as possible and let them know, hey,
Speaker 8: this is what I'm doing, so people will always remember.
Speaker 8: So that mailing list is really key and one of
Speaker 8: the big leverages that's going to allow you to move
Speaker 8: into different spaces. Another key thing is recognizing in your
Speaker 8: field or area of expertise, where are the conferences that
Speaker 8: are hosting content on your area. So for us, it
Speaker 8: might be student Affairs and there's NASPA, and there's a ACPA,
Speaker 8: and there's NAKA and there's all these specific conferences that
Speaker 8: have all their specific acronyms, and you want to just
Speaker 8: be able to know which one fits. And there's literally
Speaker 8: conferences for everything. So you want to know when are
Speaker 8: the deadlines to present to submit a workshop, because that's
Speaker 8: really how we got I got in. I submitted a
Speaker 8: workshop to a conference five times and got rejected five times.
Speaker 8: Then I just paid my way to go to the
Speaker 8: conference as an attendee, went to the conference, and then
Speaker 8: met and shook hands with every single person possible, every speaker,
Speaker 8: every host, and said how do I get myself into
Speaker 8: I was friends with the person who was the MC.
Speaker 8: The MC introduced me to the person who ran the conference,
Speaker 8: and then they said, let's see your stuff. I didn't
Speaker 8: have any content, so then I had to go get content,
Speaker 8: make content, then show them my stuff. Then they liked it,
Speaker 8: and then they say, hey, listen, we'll get you as
Speaker 8: an MC first, right, and then I did the MC
Speaker 8: and embodied it, showed up and then killed it and
Speaker 8: they said, do you want.
Speaker 6: To do a workshop?
Speaker 2: Did that?
Speaker 8: After I did a couple of workshops, I said, can
Speaker 8: I do a keynote? They said, let's test you out,
Speaker 8: testing me out. Nailed the keynote, got the keynote speech
Speaker 8: right fast forward. Lenny and I Triller not Trill. We
Speaker 8: run the conference like literally in a five year span.
Speaker 8: I started out as somebody who's getting rejected to now
Speaker 8: we curate the entire conference and bring in speakers. It's
Speaker 8: called NCSL. It's the National Conference on Student Leadership. It's
Speaker 8: in Orlando this November for all student leaders. So we
Speaker 8: bring there's about five hundred students from all over the
Speaker 8: country that show up and that's how it started, you know,
Speaker 8: so you got to just do it over and over it.
Speaker 7: And then I want to add two more tips to that.
Speaker 7: Another one is one is for social media. Don't get
Speaker 7: caught up on how many followers you have, get caught
Speaker 7: up again on the niche. Make sure your niche market
Speaker 7: is following you. So we don't have a large I mean,
Speaker 7: we have a decent amount of followers, but we have
Speaker 7: a bunch of decisions makers at college campuses that can
Speaker 7: bring us in or help us run a conference. And
Speaker 7: then the last piece is writing books, right, so we
Speaker 7: talked about that earlier. I know we talked about that
Speaker 7: off camera. Is when you write a book, if they
Speaker 7: can't pay you, they'll also buy your book instead, or
Speaker 7: a bookstore can actually pay for your book. And then
Speaker 7: you can also come in through the bookstore at a
Speaker 7: college campus.
Speaker 2: So let me actual you to Let's say they email
Speaker 2: you and they want you. You know, they say, okay,
Speaker 2: we want you to come in. Somebody at a student
Speaker 2: at a student union organization says we want to bring
Speaker 2: you in. What do you say, Like, do you say, okay,
Speaker 2: I want to come, but this is my rate to come.
Speaker 7: So the first thing you do, first thing we do,
Speaker 7: we send you a pre program survey. And I'm be honest,
Speaker 7: we didn't do this in the beginning, and that's when
Speaker 7: it got a little tricky. But on the pre program
Speaker 7: survey it says budget, what is your budget period? So
Speaker 7: then we now because we have a team now, before
Speaker 7: it was just Jeff and Notch was a little different.
Speaker 7: Now we can kind of figure out how can we
Speaker 7: based on that budget, what can we really provide for you?
Speaker 7: And it's effective for our side as well as your side.
Speaker 7: So honestly, just being able to ask the budget. You know,
Speaker 7: I'm I'm I'm married to an artist, right, and I
Speaker 7: remember when I first used to send out the form
Speaker 7: and she was like, dude, you're not asking about the butt.
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't step foot out the house without
Speaker 5: knowing what the budget is.
Speaker 3: Going to be.
Speaker 7: So do you know, just ereck any other field, just
Speaker 7: ask them and be transparent. And then I always say,
Speaker 7: whatever their budget is, there's probably it's probably a little
Speaker 7: bit higher than that, right, So then you start to
Speaker 7: you start to ask for other other little things.
Speaker 2: Within that information. All right, Okay, well, thank you guys
Speaker 2: for coming on. We appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, this is great.
Speaker 2: Can you tell the people how to contact you? Your handles,
Speaker 2: your your your website, all information.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So personal handle is at professor dot wims. You
Speaker 7: can find Traill and out trail anywhere. Just put at
Speaker 7: troll and our trail and our website is Trail natril
Speaker 7: dot com.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I'm at mister Jeff Desk m R j
Speaker 8: E F F D E S S on all platforms
Speaker 8: and then again at trial or natrill. We've got a
Speaker 8: lot of really cool content coming out this fall, a
Speaker 8: lot of new team members, a lot of new works.
Speaker 3: So yeah, man.
Speaker 7: And if you also work for a company and you
Speaker 7: know we always talk about doing this work and you
Speaker 7: have the connections or you know, you can help students
Speaker 7: get jobs and internships. We know some amazing students across
Speaker 7: the country. Feel free to reach out to us and
Speaker 7: will help you. Even come in and speak to our
Speaker 7: students as well.
Speaker 3: Two hundred schools right at the.
Speaker 6: Two hundred, I mean we're at I think that maybe.
Speaker 7: More now we're closer to two hundred in US. Virgin
Speaker 7: Allan's in Canada.
Speaker 4: Troy, Yeah, man, So we're just gonna call out Patreon
Speaker 4: dot com. That's how Proud to pay program and it's
Speaker 4: been going amazing. I gotta give a huge shout out
Speaker 4: to Danida. Dania's from Houston and we had a call
Speaker 4: and she was super excited about us coming. She wants
Speaker 4: to lay out of itenterary for us. So shout out
Speaker 4: to Danida and everybody in Houston. And I want to
Speaker 4: give another one to Amaya, who actually hit us up
Speaker 4: on Instagram when she saw a post about our program.
Speaker 4: Since we're talking about doing things and we had an
Speaker 4: hour conversation just about what she can do in Daytona
Speaker 4: and some of the things she's doing.
Speaker 3: She put me on the game. Shout out to her.
Speaker 4: But yeah, Patreon dot com Backslasher and Realisia. We have
Speaker 4: five different tiers. Feel free to join any tear. Our
Speaker 4: merch is out on elisia dot com.
Speaker 3: Our website is that a construction under construction, under constructions
Speaker 3: just being.
Speaker 4: Really it's still up, so feel free to buy the
Speaker 4: merch and support that.
Speaker 2: And yeah, man, yeah, Patreon is is a community first
Speaker 2: and foremost, and it's a it's a way to interact
Speaker 2: with me and Troy and a lot of time people
Speaker 2: want like you know, mentorship or they want to have
Speaker 2: like real so you can actually have like FaceTime conversations
Speaker 2: with us. And it also allows you early access to
Speaker 2: the podcast. More importantly, like I said, it's really a community.
Speaker 2: We really established strong relationships with our patreons and so
Speaker 2: that's the way to a financially support the podcast, but
Speaker 2: also build relationships with me and Troy and just be
Speaker 2: part of the early leisure community for sure. And the
Speaker 2: merch I got merch on Ustle for your last name.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be rolling out some new merch Eyo universities
Speaker 2: on its way and.
Speaker 4: That means that the alumni now welcome to the alumnu.
Speaker 2: And yeah, Houston won. One last thing is Houston, Texas.
Speaker 2: We are coming on the twenty second, so don't think
Speaker 2: it to o rs VP and yeah, we'll see you
Speaker 2: guys soon.
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