Alright guys, so a lot of people access how do they make a podcast? I'm let you in on a secret on the easiest most productive way to start a podcast and get it up and running and that is the app called anchor is free. They have all kind of cool creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. They will distribute your podcast for you to all of the major Outlets including spot.Why Apple Google many more and you can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership is everything you need to make a podcast in one simple easy place. So if you're interested in starting a podcast Go download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started. Let's do it. All right, guys, welcome back episode 31 eyl 31 episode 31. Are you leaves of podcasts? So today's a special special episode for us show a few different reasons. It's the first episode that we've had two guests. Yeah. We're breaking new boundaries. Yeah. We got to talk about a lot of things that we haven't talked about yet. But before we go into the episode August 22nd, we are coming to Houston Texas to do our meet and greet networking event. You know, we've done in three different cities so far LA Brooklyn and Atlanta. So this is the fourth installment of the network meet and greet and the purpose of the network meet and greet is really for us to interact with our supporters, but more importantly to bring people together and you know, one of the most important things in business is relationships. Yeah. So, you know a lot of times you might live in the same city as somebody you might live in the same neighborhood, but you never really interacted with them on a business level. You never know how somebody can help you like that might be a business partner might be a real estate partner. You never know. Yeah, so we want to just bring the people out and it's gonna be dope and there's like a misconception like people think like we're going to be having a seminar at the seminar is for people to meet and greet with each other because even when we leave this, I studied our in like the relationships that you've developed at that meet and greet will still be there. Not a meet and greet is a Vibe within itself. It's a whole vibe is not a seminar. It's so way as I said for the interact, but it's dope because people come and then they interact with us and then we bring some of our guests with us. We definitely gonna bring some guests with us and they talk to them and then they get some advice and they network with each other like a live episode really. It's like a party with productive Tendencies like never It's something productive active character. Yeah, you know you have a couple of drinks and it's just it's good energy is good about so Houston. We need you guys to come out RSVP. The link is in our bio on our website and it's under the events tab. So we looking forward to touching the town and seeing everything that Houston has to offer for sure man for sure so forth. All right, so we're going to be going to get right into it. We have very special episode today. We have Lenny Williams and Jeff. Yes, so this is interesting because both of these gentlemen work at colleges. It's back to school time right now is the time when yeah colleges is back in session again. Yeah, so like after the fall semester has begun. Yeah for sure for sure damage. That's a fact so they both work at Jersey City University Lenny is a business professor. And Jeff is a director of student leadership. Jeff used to be a professor as well, but they're not like your typical professors or like college. Administrators like you're like the type of professors. I wish I yeah, it's different. So they put a different swag on it, and you know, they are pretty major. They've been all over. They've been featured on CBS FOX Boston Globe ebony black Enterprise Hot 97. They've done tedx talk. So, you know, they have an interesting outlook on education. They take a different approach on education. We don't talk about education and a few other different topics, but first and foremost. Thank you guys for joining us welcome fellows. Appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate y'all. Yeah, for sure. So we jump right into it. So you guys are college professors, right? And you know college is something that is very it's a Hot Topic and is something that triggers a lot of emotions in people, especially nowadays. It's like anytime we put a post on Instagram about college we get thousand comments and people saying like it's a scam no each of money and all the people saying oh God, right? So I'm just going to jump right into it is college still necessary to be successful or it wasn't really ever necessary. But it in today's society is college still necessary still needed. I mean, I think that college I mean it's not needed. It's I mean something that you can do to something that spot so I think should be an option right? I don't think it should be forced upon that people have to go to college. I know I will say there's other ways of being successful and going to certain fields that college is not needed as much as it was five years ago. But some things you do need like you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or you into stem Fields like college can be very productive, but then there's some other Majors where Honestly, you can you can learn on YouTube or you can learn by reading books or you can learn by just doing so I don't think it has to be a necessary thing to go to college but I do think it should still be an option. Yeah, I think also one of the biggest things about college are the networks and the relationships that are made so it's very far and few in between that you get to sit in a room with dr. A future lawyer a future dentists a future teacher and have conversations that Not about your fields of study and because we all know that once we get into our you know, our real lives after college, it starts to become a little bit closer in the bubble where you're just dealing with people who are hat who have similar interests so college for that particular space. There's not many other places that create that type of environment and academically there are some fields that do still need it. But you know, I think that these institutions a lot of them are just not created for the benefit. Of the students. I mean there are a number of colleges and universities that are doing that work. But I think there are a lot that are scamming people. I think there are a lot that are not doing the work. Yeah. It used to be looked at looked at as a badge and to middle-class Life by that you had to have that piece of paper if you wanted to get a good job get a house like that that's going way we like what then he was just saying is like some things we're just going to learn on the fly. Like we say this all the time we have no training in broadcasting, but we're doing a podcast right like we're learning these things as we Go nothing, like yes, there are options that you can do outside of going to school. But if there are careers like lawyers and doctors like you said and it's mandatory man, I'm a I'm a college guy, right like we had to do it in education. But like I said before like I feel like we could I could have done it either High School had I given the proper training rather than seven years of dedication to that career, you know, I mean, right I think I think what college does is we live in a society where image is very important, right? So what college does is that it gives? Tziu a badge to say okay. I have a certain level of success already built in because I've accomplished my degree. So now I can at least speak to you on intelligent level when I can be taken seriously which not it's not always the case, right because there's plenty of people that graduated from what call you speak was call. You said people graduate from college if you still stupid. Yeah, that's all the time. You got some people who never went to college who are brilliant or never finished. Is that a brilliant absolute so my personal opinion on it is that I think that college is beneficial. It can be beneficial from the social standpoint specifically from a social standpoint and growing as an adult right because especially if you go away to college that's probably a first opportunity living on your own and you mature you develop certain relationships. You meet people that part you really can't get just going out of high school into the real world you can but it's a lot more difficult you're not In an incubator where you're just around a thousand people and you can just develop those type of relationships. It's not easy to do that in just real world life. But I feel that a lot of times people are misguided. Right right when they go to college. So this is my next question as far as you know, one of the biggest things for college for me is Majors, right? So you guys are on the inside and I see I saw that even when I was in school anybody that doesn't know I have a communications degree. I don't have a business degree. So But without when I went to school, they told me like look just get a degree doesn't matter. If you're not trying to be a doctor or a rocket scientist doesn't matter and obviously didn't because when I graduated from a financial advisor, when I graduated in order to do what I had to do I had to pass like three different tests. So I had to study for like nine months. So it doesn't matter if I would have got a business degree or not. I still would have had to study so it's kind of like I went to college after I went to college anyway, and now I have my licenses so I can do whatever I want to do. So by could add to our I agree. I could have any kind of degree, right? So how important is it to pick the right major? And how do you determine? What is the right major? So this is for parents and people got in students for college. So before I was a professor still working on Mission, so the most important part when talking to parents or talking to students is when you're choosing a school, especially when it comes to Majors, your major should be a top five major within that school what I mean by that is top five with enrollment and also they have placement for the companies that deal exactly what your major and if you're not in those like top five areas for your major what can happen honestly is you can be two years in at the school and if it's not enough students enrolled in that program your program gets dropped and now you're still at that college, so it's very important as we guide our students come to go to college. Yeah, that's great. But please make sure whatever field you're trying to go into is one a popular major within the school to has the Partnerships. Outside of the school with the different companies and then last but not least is the mentality of knowing where do United States or where your country where you living at is going to be the next five years as far as job market and careers. And what's going to be in demand not what I always say this mentality of not five minutes from now start thinking five years from now, right? So when you're making a decision, what does a communications degree look like five years from now, right? What does that feel looks like look like for is even going to be around photography is that's something that you really have to go to school for when you can potentially learn that you know, so that's that's kind of the key when picking your Majors is making sure that the school provides the resources but can also place you out the job but it also is a demand but if in the next few years, I couldn't agree more man, like a lot of times especially in our community when our kids think about college the first thing they think about the Athletics right? Like I want to go to Dubai want to go in North Carolina. I want to go to UConn right and when you get there, if you're not the owner Athletics, it's like well, I want to study Communications. Whoo. That's not one of those Majors that is one of the best things at that school. So You should be looking past just like yo, I'm alumni and I go to that school for the sports. Right? It means it doesn't mean as much when you come out of Uconn with the communication group. I have a communication to know what I'm saying, but I want to go back to church and you said that it doesn't matter and in my head. I'm like, yeah, it doesn't matter if you're on an athletic scholarship if it matters to a guy like me who was like I'm studying physical therapy and I don't want to be a physical therapist. Right? And I've paid $30,000 for for years. It's like this matters a lot. Right? Like now, what do I do? Do I have to continue going when I don't want to do this or do I have to figure out what can I do like that? I kind of fell into that thing. It was like the school I was at it was great for physical therapy. I couldn't pass the science classes. I'm like, oh I'm not going to be visible therapist. I got to figure out what I can get in gratefully. I was able to go to school to health science degree and I was like, all right. Well, what does that even mean? I'm saying so I had to start figuring out like and we want my hat was happening. We talk about this all the time. In Jeff and particular use this analogy of you know, and everything else you buy something you challenged to make sure that the service that they're providing is correct, right and I feel like people are not challenging some of these schools when they're paying all this money, you know, you're paying and maybe because you're not physically using cash and handing over fifty thousand dollars. You're not seeing the money so you maybe don't care as much as if you're going to a restaurant, you know, Jeff always says about, you know, if you order steak and they bring out chicken nuggets. Are you going to eat chicken nuggets or you going to say I ordered state? Take and many times students are paying all this money for a school and and not providing the services that their promise and they're not challenging the school right or asking questions before and I don't know maybe it's because again, you're not physically handing that money over and you think I go I'll just get a job and I'll pay it off later. But I think it should really truly like everything else you purchased that that's a problem especially in our community man. Like we don't know how to advocate for the things we want. Like, I've seen it over and over with parents not being able to advocate for the kids, but then the kids grow up and they don't how to advocate so You are being missed you at school in the things are not being provided is like who do I talk to about how grass what? Am I supposed? How do you challenge the system? Because I mean that's like going up against that's a compliment like that system. How do you challenge him to say like challenge? The system is simple things. So there's like a college fair at your school, like every school typically high school. They bring in college Representatives, you know, instead of asking questions, like students get these questions from guidance counselors and some people I don't know where they get these questions from like, what's the percentage of Student Success at your school? Like that's not The question should be asked and she be asking you know, look I want to be an engineer. How can you how can this school help me become an engineer. How can the school helped me become a bio mechanical engineer like whatever. How does how what are the tools at your school to get me there but also is this major a popular major enter school. Can I talk to somebody at the institution to Career Center and find out how many people you place that a job and the last three to four years at some point, you know, like those type of questions need to be asked and unfortunately, we don't we don't provide those resources. Choose enough and that's why we created a platform that we create as part of the things that we do is to let students know like you do have a voice number one and number two to ask those type of questions before spending all of this money. Yeah, Jeff. I want to ask you a question. We spoke off-camera about the hidden curriculum. Yeah, so the idea so it kind of goes into the that aspect of the students don't know who to ask. So so that there is that problem. I don't know where to go and the institutions are not doing the The job properly a lot of Institutions are not doing the job properly and creating a space for students to understand things like acronyms that students don't know so I don't know what FAFSA might stand for and that's talking about financial aid. If you don't know what that means then you're out of luck. If you don't know what the Bursar Office means and these are the things that are just directly dealing with your money sounds like foreign language already so ready to write so you don't know what these things are. So I think it's essential for and this is where I think the big problem is is that There are institutions that are about creating careers for people who want to be educator. So they want to go up the ladder and become vice presidents and become Dean's and become provost's and presidents of Institutions without caring about the students. So then they create these platforms and they create these spaces where the students cannot succeed so I'm not going I'm not going to sugarcoat it. There are their academic institutions that are out there primarily just to build careers and primarily just to make money the proper institutions that are doing the work are the ones that it's a we are going to make sure that you know who to speak to and with the hidden curriculum that Justice means that there are things that are being hidden in regular nomenclature. So it's saying we know what it is but a seventeen-year-old does not know what that is and we expect them to know what it is then succeed in that space and then Excel beyond that and then by the time they hit two year two or three we see the retention level drops because the student doesn't know what the term retention even means. So we're saying we want to keep you here. What are we even doing? Work that needs to be done. So ultimately at the end of the day that's where we have to start to do more work is saying what are the students getting and who do they need to speak to? So to really touch on the comment that we were just saying one of the things I can tell all people who are sending any of their students to college or going back to school themselves is that you have to really find particular individuals on your campus. I can't stress the I can't stress it enough that you have to get involved. So that means you have to find somebody who's already doing the work and make sure you align yourself. Self with that find the Jeff for the Lenny on your campus and sit in their office introduce yourselves because what ends up happening is I'm the one that's going to put you in touch with this person that person this individual to help you succeed because doing it by yourself is literally impossible. Now, we was talking off camera to and it's difficult because I think my experience is little jaded because I was I play basketball so when I went to school I got I was on athletic scholarship. So if anybody's not familiar athletes, it's different, especially at a division one school. So When I got to campus know we had own study hall just for the athletes. We had our own advisor just for the athletes are books was free and you know, they would stay on us like make sure like where you doing like you just going to class, you know, it's like so it's easier because it's more structured but for somebody that's just going to college on their own and especially if you're if you know, your parents didn't go to college, but you don't know your first generation, right? It's a lot that goes into college that is went from high school. Like I remember the validate valedictorian of my school couple years ago that my high school that I went to he's a lot younger than me, obviously and I spoke to him. He's a Harvard and I was asking like how you doing a harp and he's like, you know, I wasn't prepared. It's the valedictorian of the school. He's a smart kid obviously but he's like high school with two. It's just so easy for me and I mean Harvin and it's just way different and he was like, you know, I never realized how much I wasn't prepared until I was in that position and I think that that happens on I mean like you say a lot of times unfortunately, especially, you know, you might have family issues. Whatever kids just drop out because you know, you fall behind a couple semesters and let alone not even talking about financial issues just social issues and just dealing with school and structuring your time. It's like how can somebody fully equipped themselves for making that jump from high school to college first you sign up with trailer not Trails, but he know to fully equip yourself. It takes a lot. A lot and this is where we have to really invest. We just talked about that off-camera to about how much money you place on a college degree. Whether you're going there for free or you're paying full tuition. There's no I mean outside of a house. There's no larger investment that you're really making probably throughout your life. And in the same way that you invest in the house you're searching for multiple houses, but then even before that you want to know, how is the house how you know, how was it built? What was what do I have to do to fix this space? What do I have to do to make sure that my Family if I want to start a family goes in here. It can't just be let me just show up pull up and figure out the rest return on investment. Right? And so with the what people have to do is really start to invest in a child and a student's education before they even get in there and find the programs because colleges and universities. Some of them will do it. But a lot of them will not and say listen, we're going to give you a two-day orientation session to figure out how to succeed in college, you know when they're trying to holler at other people you and they're trying to I have fun, you know because they're also doing that to DJ at that and I remember like as a college student I was like, is it register and they're like, no it's registrar and I'm like, why what does that even mean? Right when you're registering for classes, correct? When you're registering for classes, there are these simple little things that that students aren't prepared for and so for me, I just think that you have to invest in the same way that you would invest in a house the same way you wouldn't Car without making every possible detail before it you have to do the same and I think the key is invest past financials because a lot of people always talk about college and investing and it's only the financial piece when we say about investment saying do the research as well and understand where college is going what colleges are doing it different degrees because it can be really beneficial for you. And it's also a very important. I think what Jeff said as far as to find people on campus that know the deal and because that's that helped me out a lot as far as Like when I first got there, I had a so my child to my Mansion. Well, he's from the Bronx and he was a junior when I was a freshman. He was on the team and he was season he was there for two years. So he kind of explain to me like take this class right? Don't do this and have this many credits and like this professor is cool and he kind of walked me through it. And from there I was able to have a smooth transition, but I think it's important to have that Mentor. I don't know if schools have program and they do and then and then other thing before Talk about leaving with the mentors is don't get you caught up on titles as well. Right looking for somebody with a leadership title to be a mentor. They're just people on campus that literally run a campus but don't have any fancy title. There could be a person that works in a bookstore, right, you know saying right everybody and they've been there for 20 years and I know exactly what books to get they know exactly where to go and there's the person who's cleaning up the the Student Union building they are no Hey listen, you know, you need to join this club or hey, you know, you need to talk to Jeff because Jeff knows who everybody is and so that's where you know, we always talk talk about the difference of what a mentor means. So we tell people number one. You need a digital mentor and a digital Mentor is somebody that is online that has an online presence at that institution or otherwise that you know, you can just watch what they're doing and that might just mean I'm watching somebody's Instagram feed or Twitter feed and saying, all right, you know what I need to just know because this person is providing a wealth of information. There's a generational Mentor. So that means you also need to know somebody who is from a different generation than you are younger and older who have different It sets and different viewpoints that you can say. All right, this is the generational Mentor that's older than I am that's going to be providing me the traditional sense of leadership. But then here's this person. That's also maybe a little bit younger than I am that I can give them information and then they give me back some some information and then like your boy, but you said at your school be what we call a peer mentor, right? Right somebody that's in that same age range same age bracket doing this, you know, the same things that you're doing and that's fellow peer reviewers that can that can really help you out some boring for sure. Alright, so now we're going to go into the next segment we go. Talk about the financials and we also going to talk about chilling nitroso. Yeah, I love that environment. Yeah. Ernest you currently paying off student loan debt interested in improving your financial literacy or looking for new ways to earn income and today's ever-changing digital landscape. Well on the talk money with the mesh lakhani podcast mesh will follow Paper Trails chat with experts break down complex ideas and bring Clarity to the mystical Financial phenomenon. Each episode will be filled with compelling stories covering a broad range of subjects from buying Bitcoins. Dinner with student loan debt and everything in between. So listen to talk money with mesh lakhani on Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast and learn how to spend invest in earn in today's economy. Alright, so now we're going to talk about the number one thing when it comes to school is how to pay for it. Right money money. We said man. It's the it's the biggest financial decision that they're going to make and they have especially high school students think about three years. And that's you're making that decision at here seem like a lot of people won't get approved to get them going for house. They probably won't they may not get approved to get a loan for a car, but they will get approved in alumni student loan is really something like I said, once again, I was fortunate not Have to unlock the high scholarship where I have a brother and sister and they both have thrown away. I think they both still paint on it. There's no I'm still paying myself my brother older than me, but student loans real financial aid is definitely where all that is real. So you can't escape it. No, no, no filing for bankruptcy on student loan. All right on with their money this way. He graciously helped stop knowing that parents. Could a lot of parents listen to our podcast and you know might have children in college on children getting ready to go to college what some hacks that ain't even children or young adults can use to minimize the cost of college. One of the big hacks for high school students is taking college courses while you're in high school now some high schools in some districts provide that and they're called like articulation agreements another fancy word for nothing fancy higher Edward, but their car articulation or dual. Mansoor Partnerships where a lot of community colleges now and some four-year schools are trying to build upon their enrollment. So what they're doing is they're allowing high school students to start taking classes at a lower rate or for free. So that's something to really look at in your in your area your region your District, especially within the community colleges. Your kids can take some of those level 100 courses at a lower rate. How do you how do you get out of going on campus to do you go on campus? So you can call what you can do is you can call most most colleges have what they call like a pre-college program free summer program summer academies and look inside and some of those programs have summer camps and maybe don't send your kid to maybe a sports camp in the town you send them to a business Academy camp at like let's say a Pace University and then they can potentially get credits for class while they're at that camp. So that's a way to kind of look at it. I would look at your local community colleges first. Give them a call A lot of them do allow High School. To take classes on Saturdays and at night so that's something that you can you can definitely look out for and you can go in as what they call another fancy College bird like a non matriculated student. That's the that's a good word. Yeah. I know that one. I think another thing too is to just be honest about going to community colleges. So community colleges are way less expensive than they are then four-year institutions are right. And so if your student is not fully prepared because they just don't know. I mean that 18 you just may not know and at 18. I thought I was going to be a high school basketball coach teaching English classes out of in my old high school and that's what I thought I was going to do and I went into college thinking that that was the plan and I realized that I didn't want to do that at all about two years into the game. And so I had I don't know if Community College was particularly for me, but I'm paying I paid for those two years and I paid a lot of money for those two years and for some people who are just not quite sure if they want to go to college or if this institution is go to a two-year and bang out two years of college that are going A lot less expensive and then succeed at those two years and then you can get into whatever school you want. I mean Harvard is giving away full scholarships to students who excel at a community college as are so many other excellent institutions. So, you know, I think that's a one that's another way to minimize some of the costs. And and another thing I wanted to add is alumni offices are a secret hidden money giving space your it's called advancement as at most universities. He's but your alumni office is are always collecting money from donors who are saying we want to give money to a black male student from upstate New York who enjoys watching soccer and they literally will say that's the only way we're going to give $5,000 to this program or we're going to give $5,000 to a student Who's involved in the Haitian students club? And that's the only way we're going to give $5,000. I donate to my school right and I give The only to the black student union that she helped shape my career. So we have money that we give to you have to be involved in that club but students don't know because they don't always announce those scholarships. They're just there on the website that nobody knows so I tell students once a month go into that office and say are you offering any scholarships and they will be there and then for those people I mean we both did we both donating and create our own scholarships. I created when a community college, so he went to his high school and for those Those people that are watching that don't know how to give back money. You can call the foundations and advancement and alumni offices at these colleges and do a $250 scholarship or $500 scholarship to help students as well. Another misconception is that you have to finish a community college in order to transfer that's not true. Every school is different. So for example in New Jersey where I live, there's two things. I want to kind of put out there. There's two things in New Jersey would say you have 12 credits in a 2.0 you can transfer into For years State schools in New Jersey screaming 2.5 and to most State schools in New Jersey New Jersey also has another program in the most states do have programs like this called in J-Stars where a student maybe didn't do particularly. Well on your SATs, but they're in the top 20% of their top 10% of their class. And if you're in the top 10 percent of your class you go to college for free Community College then when you go to Community College if you get your associates degree, and you have a 3.2 GPA you can get another scholarship to go finish your bachelor's degree at a four-year. Four year college and I'll be in J-Stars to so in J-Stars one its Community College you can transfer out and you're going to engage starts to so these are type of programs that they have in a lot of studies know that particular time from New Jersey, but they have these type of programs within the states. So don't get too caught up saying well, I'm top 20% of class. I'm going to go to this big school. Yeah, you might your top 20% might be different from another high school. So you might not get as much money as far as scholarships. So take advantage of the scholarships that you do have maybe at that Community College and then go on and then potentially transfer and get Swaps with the transfer scholarships today as you talk and I'm listening because we do this this project with the kids who are going into college, like even saying associate's degree, they like I have no idea sir predict traditionally 56 credits, right and then obviously a bachelor's is when you finish traditionally a hundred twenty credits of school, right? I might take for four or five years hopefully, right because it's going to cause you a problem you don't but and and on top of that, you know, after a certain amount of credits after I think a hundred sixty I want to say you run out of financial aid. Yeah, that's like an important, right? Continue to go to school. They'll let you go to school. You don't care but your financial aid can you can exhaust your financial aid that's important and I was going to say like in addition to that like that. There's a misconception Community College like you said, like after those two years you transfer to a four-year school like when you graduate and you go into your career nobody's looking at you know what Junior College you that's what from Community College and in New York state has now like in the past two years. They start the Excelsior program. So state school is also a good thing, right if it's at least it's less than if you went to a private school, right? So if you go State school and you live in New York and you know your parents make under a certain amount of money. You can have I think room and board for free art and to wish I was lowered down well, so that's another option if you if community colleges is not something you want to do go to your local state school. If you live in New York, and then I think the only recommended threat requirement is that you have to work in the state right for years after you however long, you know, a lot of schools are doing you know, if your parents make $70,000 your household income is $70,000 you go to school. For free that's something that's happened in New Jersey where all the community colleges will be free starting September. These are again, these are the type of programs that you should know but most importantly you just brought up a really good point public understand what a public colleges and a private college right nine times out of ten a private college cost more than a public college and it doesn't mean that and it goes back to what I said earlier. It doesn't mean that they're a better school. It's what it because they're privately funded. So it's a little it's a little bit different when it comes to how much they charge for tuition. So it's very important to know what a public Is in a private and a private and no difference that's important. Yeah correctly did a podcast before somebody asked me that question and I was saying that on nobody cares like especially if you plan on on getting a degree outside of the other first-degree, so like if you if you know, you're going to get a four-year degree in you're going to a two-year school or if you know, you're going to get a masters degree, right? They only care about the last agree that you have true. And that's cool that you weren't too. So like Barack Obama is a perfect example. He went to his first school. He went to for two years. This is like some no-name School in California. Then he went to Columbia and then he went to Harvard after that right when you hit the stories is only that he went to Harvard Law and you graduated from Columbia. They never say the first school that he went to doesn't matter. But you save a lot of money you pay yourself and you grow so a lot of times I'm not the best person to give this speech because I went to the University of Hawaii, but you you might have to humble yourself and stay home right and learn learn the ropes. You know stay at home for a couple of years and then go out on your own or you know, you might just sacrifice for four years stay at home save money go to your local school and your area your state school. It'll you might not get the same joy, as you know going out on your own and you know going to a crazy destination, but the grand scheme of things. It might make a lot of sense. So that's my story. And it's alright. I stayed home. I went to school locally, right? But what I did during that time was I was able to get experience. Whereas somebody who comes out of school and is looking for experienced already have four years on you. So sometimes when you go to a career or job, it's like yeah you have this but do you have the experience like I'm doing that as I'm going to school and obviously I don't have to pay for room and board anything like that. So it helped in that way. Yeah, and also look at another part of my experience also got the Career Centers within the college I know. My junior year my job. My internship was also kind of as credits so it can be considered like a co-op program. So your class can actually eliminate your job can actually eliminate you took in a certain class because the work that you're doing experience that you're doing is learning learning learning experience and they'll give you a professor to kind of, you know, follow you along and then you write a paper about in the semester and not only did you get paid to work, but you also got credit which saved you money as well. So Jeff you have an interesting story about Jake. Cole yeah, so, you know, it's this is the thing about college. So this kind of goes into this conversation about how to find money and how to be more successful in it. So I went to st. John's University and I went to school with Jake. Oh and you know, I was president of our black student union which was called her Ayah. And at that time we were the largest organization they had a massive budget over a hundred thousand dollars. And what we were able to do was I became president of that and becoming president of that. They gave me a five thousand dollar stipend. So right there I got an extra five. That I didn't have for doing some student work on top of the stipend with that budget. I was able to also bring in a bunch of different speakers. I mean Cornel West's Maya Angelou all these people that I wanted to meet. We have the money to bring them in now. The J.Cole piece is I is is leveraging the networking opportunity. So if you're going to go to a college, I don't care what school it is. I want you to go in there and make sure you meet as many different people as you possibly can get yourself into every room. And so when I think about Cole one of the things that you know, I remembered A man was just wrapping in the random Open Mic or wrapping in the residence hall in the dorms. And then that flipped into him getting involved. He eventually became president of our black student union and then when that happened he always had a crowd there was always 500 people that were guaranteed that we're going to buy the mixtape that we're going to come out to the show that we're going to support him at the open mic that we're going to go out to this and me, I see it all the time as we do speaking gigs. I still perform poetry half of my audience are people from st. John's for my undergraduate. Career, so I tell people make sure that once you get in get yourself involved get yourself in trenched in the University because that's how you get them to start paying you back. And that's the thing schools really expensive, but I'm going to find out how do I become a resident assistant and a resident assistant is when you're in charge of a residence floor and you're in charge of a dorm floor they pay for your housing, but I did not pay for housing for 3 years of my college career and when you get into those spaces, I was an orientation leader which were the people who introduced the the people when they came To college I got paid for that. So that's where you find the money you leverage the money by the network by the capital of the individuals as well as a capital at the school has he said something interesting? You said Jake old being the president of the black student union. He was in the unique position because he booked concerts. So then that was opened up for them. Yeah. I was it was fascinating. I mean, I remember, you know, when I was wrapping back in the day, that was the same thing. I'm like I put on my little resume. Yeah open up for Kanye. I opened up for quietly opened up for comment and he did this. Thing every time we had a major artist. He was one of the performers that opened up for it. And then that just again creates more leverage creates more opportunities you get practice and you didn't pay a dime. You didn't pay anything you use the studio that's on campus use every possible resource that they have because they're they're taking the money from you. Actually it's wishing. They're never gonna they're never gonna say. Hey, you know what? It's okay, you don't have to pay today. So I'm going to say listen. I want the never gonna say that right I want the studio. I Want the gym I want I'm taking everything that the school could possibly give me and he was like a straight A student coming to her. Yeah. I mean it was a good student from what I heard. I mean I was in a classes with him, right but he was I mean and that's the thing is that I can't stress and I'll say this over and over again. You have to succeed in that space. So do everything you possibly can to leverage every opportunity that they have. So that's interesting because you know, that's that's culture hip-hop coaching music and one of the things that you guys do. That you blend culture with education and you have a company called trilling Nitro, right? So that's an interesting name. Tryla Nitro shot the punk are not your people that might not be familiar with astronomy. So for us I mean, like you said, you know, we got it from from listening to UGK and the idea of trill in essence is true and real coming together, right? So, can you be truthful? Can you be honest but can you keep it authentic and for us that's what we do. We are Educators who are making sure that we keep it real every single time that we speak to somebody and we're authentically us also at the same time and trailer natural started out as a Blog we through I say throw a hashtag on my Facebook pages back in the day saying is this true Or is this not true then I said if I wrote a Blog good job read my blog and you know how people do. Yeah, we're going to read it but not quite agree. All right, I got you know, there's we re that's it. So we the blog picked up and what happened was I hit up Lenny randomly because we were meeting about something else and I said yo, I got this blog that starting to cook a little bit. Do you want to you want to maybe write about it and Lenny with the business background said, you know, I think this could be larger than a Blog and I think that we might be able to turn this into a business model and a business idea to transform education. And we put all of our minds together and we said this is what we are. We are going to be the change agents of education. So we are the individuals who are going to take this thing called higher education flip it on. Its head. Keep it real with everybody that's listening a president of a school to the to the the lunch person to the student every individual when they see us walk into the room. They're going to understand what true or not true really means and we are a Leadership Institute that trains professionals that train In step to make sure that everybody understands what it means to be culturally responsive. That's the term that we rest another turn. Right? What are we going to put a dictionary so culturally responsive right which ultimately means that we're taking care of the needs of the students. We are interested in what they're watching what they're listening to what they're reading what they're involved in and that is included in every aspect of the educational needs of now, you know, we're not using the same thing from last semester this every semester is different. Every generation is different is the Millennials their Generation Z. So we able All to you know continue to be current and make sure that we're reaching every student that's dope. And I think that that's important too because you know, a lot of times we have these narratives of what a professional looks like right like so I thought a financial literacy class. Let's talk about yeah, let's talk about financial literacy program for six weeks for kids like sophomores and freshmen and I teach a financial literacy classes part of his program. We're doing it for like six years. And I come in just off the street. Like I'm dressed that day that I come and some days. I'm dressed in a suit some days. I have flip-flops right and short time. So one day particular, I flip-flops and shorts on and somebody that came in to observe it they were a little Disturbed and they stay we told Troy like, you know, I don't think that's a professional manner to like, what are we teaching the kids? And Troy's like what does that mean? Like, well, he's not he's dressed like, you know, it's all the street and she was like, well, that's one of the benefits of his profession. Do you know whatever you want to do? Right? So keep it. Yeah Trudeau and this is the thing that we really have to get out the mind set up to say like okay, you have to look like this why are you know, right there's no rules to that like and I that's one of the good things. I love about tech. They break all rules like Steve Jobs wear whatever. You want Mark Zuckerberg. We would have any more exactly. It doesn't matter like, you know me as far as obviously You notice certain environments where you have to dress accordingly. It's just common sense. You don't go to a wedding with a sweatshirt right plus your Genius. Well, he came with a Batman but for the most part it's like now we you know, this is what this is what we are right. So we were a hat backwards. We might wear Jordans we might wear deters but that doesn't devalue the information that we're getting right that that's the thing. I was like judge him on his character like who what he's way is not important. What is delivering is important, right? I had a gentleman tell me Right. I was doing a parent orientation and I had some excellent. He was like you really going to do a presentation for parents and MX. And I said, yeah, he was like, well, this isn't really professional I said, yeah, I'm changing the narrative what professional is and he was like, I don't what do you mean I said, yeah, the guy wearing and Max is now hiring your daughter to be in this program, right? That's a professional. You know what I'm saying like that changing this narrative, right? So like I don't judge them on the character, right? What would the liver is more important than what we have on you know, I mean, well, that's why that's why schools. Then left and I always talk about it every time you know, I remember my dad used to say listen if y'all aren't downstairs by 8:15 for the ride. I'm leaving right and that was the test that said I am never going to get left again and I don't ever want to be left and that's what's happening to these institutions and white. That's why it's important for people like all of us that are sitting at this table to be in the Educators space because you know, we have a new book that's coming out quick plug in the false called, you know, I mean we wear kicks to work and that means that that's just showing y'all that we can pull up to any in. Stuh tution at any space I could games. I know they can't see their feet right now. But listen, they came here today. I'm here with a class like this too. It's important. It really is sure and it's like because I used to see my college professors come dress having a wonder where boat shoes and yeah, but it's like they from a different culture. So it's never questioned. Yep, but when we wear what we feel comfortable in our Now it's like where we was going on here knows what it is. I'm gonna be honest with us that it changed the game, you know us when chicks would I shoot, you know students whose legit out of college with two weeks ago and these two black kids walking out and two African-American students walking out chilling. I'm on campus and they literally stopped us was like yo y'all fresh man. Yeah. It's the other way. I hear from y'all. Funny those same kids ended up in our presentation, right and he volunteered and it came up to us after they emailed us was like listen. We love to just build you guys and learn from you and we can learn from them too. So, you know, I really believe yeah, you know, probably at first people I like wearing sneakers to work. I'm sure people said it behind the scenes, but when you are really doing the work and stress in a college campus and students are reacting to you the way they are you can't deny it you can't deny so it's been Chuy's excited has been a successful thing for us to wear these kids because they put is the spaces and conversations that typically maybe been a little awkward at first or the student feel like it was awkward. But now it's yum kicks a fly then it's like oh so how's that business course going? Oh, it's not come see me or how's your financial aid going? You know what come see me. I'll make sure we will get that fixed. I say it's all the time like you that's the unwritten language right a kid when he sees those sneakers automatically he relates to you write a lot of times and education. We don't have people that they can see that the release I can wear Jordans. And I don't have to say anything to a kid from our culture. He knows that like, oh, he wasn't same things as me. So like I already have a connection, right? So it's now it's like whatever I said going forward. He's going to listen because he's like, yo, he looks like me and he's dressed as I can't wait. He listened to the same music right? We're good. It's like what we always say no put the medicine in applesauce. Right? Honestly. It's it's also just it is not just wearing sneakers to I don't want people to think my own. I'm going to pull up in some small my time. I don't don't do that. It's about learning culture and Arrow like, you know people complain about Our Generation Z. Does this generation Z. Does that instead of saying you know, what how can I immerse myself to get myself so involved with that and now I can add that to the curriculum. So we all understand each other a lot better, but then also lead the traditional stuff that's in it that's important. So now I have to be sneaky as it could be movies. It can be music. It can be anything that you enjoy our fly people got an education got a disconnect from the things that they enjoy just to help people pass a test or pass a class now. We gotta add that bit of f actors and actresses man. That's the thing. You know, that kid just was kid just won three million dollars for playing Fortnight, right and instead of saying man. I can't believe a kid won three million dollars or Fortnight. You need to start thinking how do I include Fortnight into my curriculum? What conversations do I need to be having as an educator or as a financial literacy person or as and I cannot as an economist or as a graphic designer or as a Storyteller that says look at this. Look what happened here. Now, let's show how we can you know expand upon this idea, but you know, when people are you know, so Small-minded what happens is man. I can't believe you want three million dollars man. My kids going to start per fortnight to that's just not as I do too its Health without his brain breaking news. It's been in more time before they say that because they even my son like he was some like he want to be a YouTuber and I'm like I was do it and then like people was like that's not something real like I will tell the kid that made 22 million dollars last year. That's what right that's real money. So it's like oh, yeah. Well, you know, what is this doing? It's doing the same thing about the door like when that kid. That YouTuber when he turned 16, am I going to be the one that says hey you should go to college and study marketing. I'm like no. No. No, I think he's figured it out. So in the next segment, we're going to talk about public speaking and then we're going to talk about some other things as far as get yourself off the ground upon business is concerned. Yeah. What's up, y'all? So if you're listening to this you obviously like podcast and you probably like music just as much on Spotify. You can listen to all your favorite artists and podcasts in one place for free. You don't need a premium account Spotify has a huge catalogue of podcast on every topic including the one you're listening to right now on Spotify. You can follow your favorite podcast. So you never miss an episode premium users can download episode 2 Listen to all flying wherever you are, and it's really easy to share what you've been listening to with your friends on Instagram. If you haven't done so already be sure to download the Spotify app search for earn your leisure on Spotify or browse podcast in the your library tab. Also, make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode of Ernie Leisure again. Alright, so we're going to talk about public speaking. That's sometimes very big. But before we do that, I want to talk about something that's in the news lately and that is I knew I guess you can call it a scandal. Yeah, that's for lack of a better word. And so 40 wealthy families in Illinois. They got quarter and they found out that they were doing this thing where they give the gave up guardianship of their kids like when they turn 16 you like 11 12 grade and in return for doing that now on paper the kid looks like the homeless like the poor right and then they get a boatload of financial aid, right, but the parents are Filthy Rich, so a lot of some people were Instagram exactly interesting because some people were saying like how much I know know know some people were saying like that's messed up that's bad. But more people were saying like, oh they just they just gaming the system. I got what I want you I knew that I'm gonna do that like, you know, I'm not mad at them for doing that. So how does that work? Kinda used to work in the missions? Right? Yes. I'm in I'm working on missions. Of course. I'm not an expert when it comes to financial aid, but I know enough when it comes to finding out loopholes such as that someone called a loophole where parents I haven't seen read article that they are my parents are getting divorces, right legally separating. So it looks like they have one parent in the house. Yeah, which is crazy. I might tell you to do that, but somebody might be like, yeah, I'm going back to break up this mess. Let's go. Benefit but anyway, so, you know, pretty much what people do is you can also say your child is paying rent your child depends on how you classify yourself or how you do your taxes is the most important part when it comes to FAFSA so you can do different loopholes as far as you know, being a person that lives in a house and you pay rent the same thing that happened in Illinois. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm just saying that it is possible. And that stuff is true and people have done it for years. What's tricky is that every University is different when it comes to financial aid rules. So what may happen is you get this thing called verification and you have to give him a bunch of documents and improve these type of issues or hardships as they would say, there's also a hardship form. So even on the other side for people that are struggling maybe you don't have FAFSA because your parents were literally together or you was living with your parents or your parents passed away or what your financial situation. Age for example, my mom had lost her job when my sister was in school. What you can do is before she had a job taxes show that she made enough money when she lost her job. Of course. She didn't have as much money. You can go to financial aid and ask for a hardship form, right and you can fill out and explain and if I needed something financially to make that decision and find you money. So again, I'm out here to police it and say it's good or bad but that stuff is true. Yes. Yeah. I mean I got financially it was like $12 $12. I went through more pain. What was it what we gonna do with this? I couldn't buy a pack of pencils. It goes in like crazy fucking hours. That's true. And I don't get screwed when it comes to that stuff because they make too much but they don't leave make enough yet realistically could find even in New York you make $100,000. That's not that's not real money. No, like, you know, I mean, so those are 55,000 a year. Yeah, you're struggling like fucking now that you struggle it. I told it I mean that's how the kids every time like every day. Like, I'm not sure there's not a middle class because whatever somebody from the lower socioeconomic status has it'll be subsidized so that we are on the same playing field, right? So like a kid The parents don't make as much like they can get a full scholarship as I'm going to get total financial aid, right? So we gonna be in the same boat matter of fact, you might be in a better position if you take advantage of this, I think that's an interesting conversation because I had this conversation with somebody who my friend. He's a doctor and he lives in he looked at Wall Street at the time and we were talking about like what's middle class for New York City from my hand. What is everybody? What's your number, New York City Manhattan hundred fifty on this any file middle class middle class. It's almost say 200 250 250. Like I said, I said as a couple I said 350 as a couple. Oh, yeah couple years to 50 as an individual you make anything less than 250 man struggle struggle. So that's why it's open. It's like so when you thought your financial aid form, they doing it the same as somebody and Idaho, right 50, Idaho. You you even in Atlanta you make 250 in Atlanta. You you can a dope house like you can now, you know, you live in good so it's like it's really it needs to be changed because you can't judge that as the sole reason to give somebody money. Right? It's like, you know 250 it may look like it's a lot of money on paper, but in all reality you can be completely struggling and be dead broke you're not And everybody actually make it to 50. No, that's where we get the $12 you get 0 don't even file now on the flip side. I will save you do give if you give free or reduced lunch at your school. You should be taking advantage and finding out all the grants that are out there Pell Grant a grant and other grants and programs at these and every institution is different. So don't go by what you see as like a blanket answer or just one answer one generic answer it every school is different. Should we reach out not only to the admissions office but to that financial aid office and find out you know, My child as you know free or reduced lunch sometimes schools offer scholarships to high school and also even more important college board. If you have free or reduced lunch, you get to take the SAT and ACT for free twice its key. So you can go to guidance. They have to give you that form to fill out a paper that whatever it is, but they give it to you and you can go to school. I mean you can take the SAT twice and act twice for free right now that they'll you said two keywords that those are those terms grants and scholarships. That's money you do. Do not have to pay back right people think people need to know that if you do not have to pay that money back that is granted to you. And sometimes it's for the duration of the time you there. Sometimes it might just be right put it one year or two semester. So like there's so many of them so many out there. So, you know, that's key. And also let me tell you another trick that schools. Do I want people to notice as we own this financial piece is don't compare scholarship amount numbers to a particular school because every tuition is different. So for example, let's go Look at in Jersey City University. Let's just say I'm still a number of the make it easy would say it's $20,000 a year to go to school for four years. So it's eighty thousand dollars. Let's say you get a full scholarship. That's 80,000 hours as an award right over the over the four years another school mistake competing School seen Hall is $40,000 a year, right? So 40 times force is Hunter 6660 rights 160,000. The school Co home I say we're going to give you a scholarship for $95,000, right and just use give me a scholarship for 80,000 hours. People will go to see a halt because of scholarship is more but you still owe $65,000, right? So don't get confused by people get confused by that all the time it go. Well my your school is giving me 20,000 but that other schools giving me 40 and I'm like listen that's cool is three times as much as our school here. So be very mindful when you see those award letters that say that the student is receiving it. On the money make sure adds up or subtract swell with the tuition. That was when they receive that money. Right and that's how this happened to a gentleman. I know like the money is made out to the student right now that check how does that work? Do they have to do this? This is money directly go to the school is giving it directly mostly directly goes so depends when it's a college merit-based scholarship at the college. It goes directly to the school. But let's say you get a local scholarship or a state scholarship. So for example, my last two years of college I did not Not have to pay tuition because I have the internship and I got free tuition. Now in addition to I was still applying to other scholarships. I have like over 10 different local scholarships. I literally took the check went to Bursar and it gave me a refund check. So I was getting paid typically technically to go to college right? I had that much excess funds that was typically getting paid to go to college. So this National Merit base or marriage through the school whenever things like that this usually pay directly to the tuition, but you can even you can also receive other scholarships. It's just a check they give to you and then it's written out to the Bursar Office and in Versailles to give you a refund got it. All right, that's that's good information. Um, can we talk about public speaking because that's something that is very big right now write it down. A lot of people want to get into the public speaking speak and Streisand motivational speakers all kind of different speakers, but that's something that you guys do. So, yeah, he talked about that we can I have a very we both do we both I know exactly where you going. I have a special feeling about public speakers because you know, I always go back to this Tupac quote from him up for a song by the way. Yes at the end. Which what goes on his rant. He says, you know, when I first started I told you I have this was just about Big E. And then everybody had to open their mouths with the mother effing opinion and when he said that it just really articulates the world that we live in today where everyone has Everyone who I like how you feeling everyone has an opinion now, there's nothing wrong with having your opinion. I support it talk the talk, but we have so many platforms for people who are not doing the work and that's the problem that I have with public speaking. So we're going to I'm here to help and we were to have this conversation, but it's an important precursor to say just because you have some quotes on your Instagram page true. And you are retweeting garyvee or era Thomas or are you lose or right? These are orange, you know, that's what happens is that people will watch your podcast, right? They'll be watching your pot watching your podcast listening to your podcast gather information. And then that person will then say I'm a financial literacy expert about it's like, well you're not and then they'll come back and then they want to be public speakers and say well I should be speaking on financial literacy and I say It's your credit. Well, you know, I've been telling you about this and I'm like, where'd you get your content your information from? Well, you know, one of my main resources is earn your leisure then why don't I just go get her, you know true. So with public speaking, that's the first thing I you know, if you're one of those people God bless I'm you know, I don't support it. But if you're an individual that's really going to be providing content. See these individuals who need it because our young people and and and older people who need the help and you have to be able to support Port that so in our in our space, I think one of the first things is to recognize what is it that you are providing to the nod to the audience, right? If you can't say here are five things that I'm going on. How comes right here on my learning outcomes exactly who that you were going to walk away from then you are not ready to be a public speaker quite yet. So that's number one number two is your audience. So I'm not a financial expert so I'm not going so when somebody says hey - can you come talk to us about leadership and financial literacy? I'm gonna say no now don't be a jack-of-all-trades. Don't do that. So make sure that you're very specific in the content that you're delivering. That's what actually separates you from everyone else. Sure. There are a bunch of leadership speakers sure. They're a bunch of people talking about financial literacy sure. There's a bunch of people talking about mental health. That's fine. Your job is to figure out how do I separate myself from that particular core group and you're not going to be able to do that if you're talking about seven different. At the same time. So those are those are some of the quick tips about public speaking and you also have to do it over and over and over and over again. There's a lot of us who thought that you know, just because we're funny in the group chat doesn't mean that we can be stand-up comedians and you learned that quick when you're a public speaker. My first ever gig was at NYIT and they said we need you for an hour and 30 minutes and I said, I've been you know leading workshops in my class and I can see I've been Into my my peoples I pulled up at nyt and at 30 minutes into this speech I was done correctly and you find yourself in there thinking like man. I all right. Maybe I could just spit ask a quick 16. Maybe I can just draw on the board we go take a 15-minute guys to break. So you have to really have that content because you got it. Be able to do that. And so I remember that saying I just wasn't prepared but you got to do that. You got to take that first L to say, alright, this is what I can do to to get better. This is what I have to learn how to stand how my posture Works. How am I speaking intonations? Go all of those things are really important. Yeah, I think also learned the power of Leverage. So a lot of people go into public speaking or want to speak at colleges for example, and they're charging this Amount with no background, right? So being willing to say I'm going to do it for free just to be at certain locations are good things on your resume is very important as a public speaker, but I also want to even say this so many public speakers and I'm happy to see that it's grown. But I also want people I mean think about it. I just I want you to be doers man to do more. I need more people in the classroom, right? You know, if you look around the country nationally is under 5% is black faculty. Members tenure-track faculty members may be less than 5 and it's even you know, I'm in meetings and Jeff's and meetings and we're usually only black person in the room, you know, and you want to look at not just speaking but finding ways to change legislation create programs create platforms like this in addition to just being a public speaker because our students are already being oppressed and certain institutions and are already being taken advantage of and the last thing we need is for somebody to come in and save our I'll get excited and leave for another E panel. You know what I mean? I'm sorry, I you know, I you know, I have a very hard line on some of these things is that enough is enough. We got to start doing some work and I don't know how many times I've been to. Hey the the seven most effective people to learn about leadership in your community while you're wearing natural hair and also I don't need to I don't need all these Panama turn this like passive shade and people I'm the best person at this and then everyone walks it off the room with no content. And there are these young people that need our help and there's a lot of us who are at working at NBC's that are working at Pfizer's that are working at large Banks and institutions are entrepreneurs that need to say as we go in there and perfect are speaking. Can we help these students and build for the future? So, you know, those are such essential pieces to the process and getting paid as a speaker you you think that there's a Way to just go in there and get these checks and it's just not and you know, you might have all this clout but that cloud is not going to get you to return if you can't do anything when you get there. So but but what is all right fair enough. You should have good purpose. You should be educated. So many you are now what's the steps to actually got cool. So I've had to get that off my chest a lot. But I always tell the story I got started. I post them on Instagram other day. I started out in the boys and girls club right was boys and As Club my friend of mines Ron bring men. Shout out to him told me. I never forget. He's like, I know you want to come, you know speaker want to get involved. He stopped me give you two things. I'm gonna give you this space but I'm also going to tell you that everybody's not going to like you right just just just know that like, you're not going every room and every audience is Gonna Love You So This is the space here have fun do what you want to do and you know five years later, you know, Jeff and I are going to like Iowa State Kentucky UCLA, but I was humble enough to start like a boys and girls club with 20 people was in a room and 15 honestly will accuse my family. I just pulled up because they didn't want to see me fail. So, you know, that's that's most important is is having that humbleness but also having the expertise right? So we said early don't be a jack-of-all-trades. Right? So if you worked in HR and that's your experience and you also have a little motivation behind you be able to provide that that knowledge. You got from being an HR rep or that now that you got for being a financial advisor in that with the inspiration now people are going to want you more because you're providing them with things in question that you're providing them with a service or a product that they can actually use like a tangible thing. So be a tangible speaker more than a public speaker. That's all I want to say like have tangible items in addition to that but also be willing to say yeah, I'm going to go speak for free and the second Pete the third piece is having content. So we started as bloggers and we blocked to a niche market like we knew people that deal with students at colleges their offices usually under student affairs. So we knew that there was a student affairs group and there's region conferences and And program so we made sure that we implemented our blogs with in that audience group. So they know who we are. So when we have the blob, we already knew in the back of our heads we want to be speakers. So we had the program's ready with the learning outcomes and objectives and that's how we started getting more involved in the school. So when you are expert you do become you do get a niche market and it helps you get paid more you understand your pricing and things like that. Can you talk about the names of the Vlogs? I thought they were brilliant we talk about the whole also some of the blocks that we created in the beginning. We're like Beyonce Beyonce and social change. Kevin Durant and retention. I mean they wanted Justin Bieber. Yeah, what do we did with drink can teach you about conflict management? And we also did Nicki Minaj and nonverbal communication. And so, you know, you add all those things and to just give some other quick tips about public speaking is so content. So video content is key. So people need to know that you're actually speaking. So people would rather see you speak then literally speak or a photo so get the content and you know, whether you Using an iPhone or a camera just make sure that you're getting content of you speaking about whatever it is that you're speaking about. And and that's how you can leverage it. So sometimes you can go to a school or an institution and say listen, I'll do it for free. But can you allow me to get video content number two is whatever you speak make sure you get a mailing list. So you want people to always know that you're speaking as many times as possible and let them know. Hey, this is what I'm doing. So people will always remember so that mailing list is really key in one of the Leverages that's going to allow you to move into different spaces. Another key thing is recognizing in your field or area of expertise. Where are the conferences that are hosting content on your area. So for us it might be student affairs and there's NASPA and there's a you know a CPA and there's not gonna use all these specific conferences that have all their specific acronyms and you want to just be able to know which one fits and there's literally conferences. Is for everything right? So you want to know when are the deadlines to present to submit a workshop? Because that's really how we got I got in I submitted a workshop to a conference five times and got rejected five times. Then I just paid my way to go to the conference as an attendee went to the conference and then met and shook hands with every single person possible to speakers every speaker every host and said, how do I get myself into I was friends with the person who was the MC the MC? Is me to the person who ran the conference and then they said let's see your stuff. I didn't have any content so that I had to go get content make content then show them my stuff then they liked it. And then they say Hey, listen, we'll get you as an MC first, right? And then I did the MC and embodied it showed up and then killed it and they said do you want to do a workshop did that after I did a couple of workshops? I said, can I do a keynote is it let's test you out testing me out nailed the keynote got the keynote speech right fast forward Lenny and I Euler not Trill, we run the conference like literally in a five-year span shark. I started out as somebody who's getting rejected to now we curate the entire conference and bring in speakers. So perfect it's called ncsl. Is that a national conference on student leadership? It's in Orlando this November for all student leaders. So we bring there's about 500 students from all over the country that show up and that's how it started, you know, so you gotta just do it over and over and then I'm going to add two more tips to the another one is one is for social media. It caught up on how many followers you have get caught up again on the niche. Make sure your niche market is following you so we don't have a large. We have a decent amount of followers, but we have a bunch of decision-makers at college campuses that can bring us in or help us run a conference. And then the last piece is writing books. Right? So we talked about that earlier we talked about the off camera is when you write a book if they can't pay you they'll also buy your book instead or a bookstore can actually pay for your book and then you can also come in through the bookstore at a college campus. So let me ask you two questions. How do you decide your rate? Like like, how do you how is that determined how somebody's rate determined because I've heard rates from all different people and they always kind of different. Yeah, let's do it at question first. Yes. I think you wanna know. Yeah so rate, why's it all varies? So it depends on what it is that you're doing what it is that you're delivering to the audience. So for us our rate is determined. So we have some standard rates, but we also have some rights to say listen if you have over this many That are going to be in the room. Then the rate goes up. If you're if I have to travel to LA from New York then the rate increases from there. So we have a program in the program might be an hour talk is a certain rate if it's a two-hour talk, that's a certain rate. So we determine it based off of that piece first, but then also looking at the market so we know that certain colleges and universities are just not going to spend 25 30,000 40,000 dollars on somebody that's not you know, DJ Khaled. You know, what? I mean so for us it's important to know how much money that the people are spending corporate institutions pay more money than academic institutions. So, you know you want to be able to know that and then also just know that, you know, try to find other ways to get the money. So right our rates also determined based off of our experience. So for us, you know, your rate goes up when you can say that we've now done this so when I became a tedx speaker, we have to change the rate when I said listen now we Spoken at 200 schools instead of 50 schools that that changes the rate so, you know, I tell people start off low. I'm super honest. I did freeze gigs for a long time and I was in Vegas a hundred dollars a month just right and that that was for a year where we're just figuring it out and you're afraid to say listen, can I do this? But you know, if you say that, you know, I say you test the waters and my first gig at a school in Nebraska. So is my first time getting on a plane to speak. They charged me. I think it was two thousand dollars. I said the rate and that was I didn't include flight. I did include anything else. I made like almost nothing back, but I knew right there. Okay there people are going to pay to K for this and then you incrementally raise it as the as the time goes. That's why I think it's important to for us. We work in higher ed. So we know what those budgets look like. So getting involved or getting a job and I know this is a big era of everybody wants to be a boss and entrepreneur I get it but being able to Into a job and also using their resources to springboard you was great. I know places like I've just seen a recent former student of mine did a public speaking presentation at Chase, you know, that's big for a resume because now she wants to go to public speaking. It doesn't matter that people are going to ask. How did you get into Chaser? Did you work? No, they're going to say, oh, wow, you did presentations professional development at Chase that helps not only her resume but helps the pricing you start to understand how much they pay for somebody like this. So getting involved at your job and you And as professional development whether his presentations within the school within your job or having a job send you out to different conferences where you can present that can also help you as a public speaker. So it looks it email you and they want you, you know, they say, okay we want you to come in and somebody had a student at a student union organization says we want to bring you in. What do you say like, do you say Okay, I want to come but this is my rate to come. So the first thing you do first thing we do we shouldn't you ask pre-program survey and I'ma be honest. We didn't do this in the beginning and that's when I got a little tricky but on the pre-program survey it says budget, what is your budget period so then we now cuz we're we have a team now before it was just Jeff and Ice was a little different now we can kind of figure out how can we based on that budget? What can we really provide for you? And it's effective for our side as well as your side. So honestly just being able to ask the budget, you know, I'm married to an artist, right? And I mean when I first used to send out the form and she was like dude, you're not asking about the but I don't I don't step foot out the house without knowing what the budget is going to be. So do you know just ever at any other field just ask them and be transparent and then I always say whatever their budget is. There's probably it's probably a little bit higher than that, right? So then you start to start to ask for other little things within that at that's--that was good information. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Well, thank you guys for coming. We appreciate you John. That's great. Can you tell the people how to contact you? You handles? Yeah website on information. Yes. So personal handle is at Professor dot Williams, you can find true or not true anywhere just put actual and I trail and I website is trolling outro.com. Yeah, and I'm at mr. Jeff Des Mr. Je FF D ESS on all platforms and then And that true or not true, we've got a lot of really cool content coming out this fall a lot of new team members a lot of new work. So yeah, man, and if you also work for a company and you know, we always talked about doing this work and you have the connections or you know, you can help students get jobs and internships. We know some amazing students across the country feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you even come in and speak to our students as well. So that's one of the school's right. It's wonder and they wrap. I think that maybe more now we're closer to 200. Yeah US Virgin Islands In Canada, Troy Yeah, man. So we just got a call out patreon.com. That's how proud to pay program in has been going amazing. I got to give a huge shout-out to the needed any news from Houston and we had to pull and she was super excited about us coming. She wants to lay out an itinerary for us. So shout out to Danita and everybody in Houston and I want to give another 1/2 a mile who actually hit us up on Instagram when she saw a post about our program since we're talking about doing things and we had an hour conversation just about what she Do in Daytona and some of the things she's doing she put me on the game. So shout out the huh. Yeah, patreon.com back stache Andrew leesia. We have five different tiers. Feel free to join any tier. I Birches out on your leisure.com. I'll website is under construction. We get under construction. All right. Sorry constructions used to being ready to be done by still up just is still up. So feel free to bottom urge support that and you hit man. Yeah Phi is a community first and foremost and it's a way to interact with me and Troy a lot of times people want like, you know mentorship what they want to have like real so you can actually have like FaceTime conversations with us and also allows you to early access to the podcast more importantly it like I said, it's really a community release establish strong relationships with our patrons. And so that's the way to 80 financially support the podcast will also build relationships with me and Troy and just be part of the earn your leisure Community for sure and emerge. I got my merch on also for your life. Name we're going to be rolling out some some new merch UIL University is called away on his way. And that means that they alumni now welcome to the alumni and we are we are coming on the 22nd. So don't forget to RSVP. And yeah, we will see you guys soon. They space.
Lenny Williams and Jeff Dess, aren’t your typical college professors and administrators. Jeff is an author of five books with a Masters Degree in English Literature and Lenny is a professor within the business departments at 4 different institutions, with an MBA. They joined forces to create an educational platform called “Trill or Not Trill”, which bridges the gap between pop culture and student development. They have worked with the NFL and have been featured on CBS, The Boston Globe, Ebony Magazine, Black Enterprise, and Fox. They also are big names on the college speaking circuit, they have visited over 40 colleges and universities to give lectures and panel discussions. In episode 31 we sat down with the dynamic duo to discuss higher education, college hacking tips, ways to fund education without going into debt and the importance of culturally responsive teaching. They also gave valuable information on the public speaking industry; which includes tips on how to get started, how to know how much to charge and who to market to. Guest’s IG: @professor.williams and @mrjeffdess   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app  · Talk Money With Mesh Lakhani Podcast: On The Talk Money with Mesh Lakhani podcast, Mesh will follow paper trails, chat with experts, and break down complex ideas to bring clarity to the mystical financial phenomena behind your finances. 