Interview With Shellee Howard - College Ready

welcome to this episode

 

of the wolf and the shepherd today with

 

us we have

 

Shellee who is from collegeready.com

 

Shellee it is so

 

great that you could join us today thank

 

you so much for having me i look forward

 

to it

 

now Shellee you've obviously come too

 

late to the table to help

 

the shepherd and i through this process

 

but oh well don't jump ahead now maybe

 

she could figure out a way for us to

 

actually go back to school and learn to

 

do something other than this podcast

 

i think there's a limited number of

 

times you can register for community

 

college

 

oh is there yeah and but i thought

 

that's why we were paying our

 

county taxes and everything so i wonder

 

if you can get a degree in podcasting

 

now

 

probably yeah the university of phoenix

 

online

 

yeah but maybe we could actually be

 

professors there

 

you know they always say that those who

 

can't do or and those that can't teach

 

or maybe i just

 

have backwards can't remember yeah those

 

that can't remember right so

 

maybe maybe that's what we're missing

 

maybe that's the way we actually make

 

money doing this

 

is we teach all the other people to yeah

 

go out and do this pay us money we'll

 

tell you how to do it

 

right so basically this is what you're

 

dealing with now that's an exaggerated

 

type of

 

level of knowledge or non-level of

 

knowledge that you're going to have

 

along a lot of parents

 

but parents do find themselves taken by

 

surprise even though they've had 18

 

years to prepare for this process

 

at least mentally so what is given our

 

idiotic scenario we just played out what

 

is your most common thing that you find

 

among parents

 

that you absolutely cannot believe in

 

this information age

 

people still don't know

 

wow that is a open can of worms because

 

every day i get phone calls that i'm

 

i'm still shocked that i get um this

 

morning i got one

 

and the mom calls and says i know i'm

 

really

 

early for this college planning thing

 

and i'm like

 

outstanding what grade is your student

 

in and she goes well

 

he's going to be a senior and i have to

 

just pause and think

 

what made them wait so long to start

 

planning for college

 

in all reality back in the day

 

you really didn't have to put the energy

 

in that you do

 

now but we start our students as young

 

as when they promote from eighth grade

 

so for somebody to think that they're

 

coming early to the game

 

the senior year or the summer before the

 

senior year

 

it it makes me concerned for that

 

student

 

and potentially what they could have

 

done had they known

 

that it could have helped them so most

 

of it is

 

people just don't know what they don't

 

know and are

 

shocked to find out when i get to

 

educate them

 

how much uh opportunity there is

 

for students to really stand out

 

to be unique not in a crazy way but to

 

really be

 

genuinely them and that's what colleges

 

want they want to know who the student

 

is and why

 

why it matters so what exactly just to

 

kind of give us a breakdown

 

what is collegeready.com all about

 

you know in a nutshell what what would

 

cause a parent to want to come to you

 

and say hey

 

help me be college ready don't don't

 

wait until they're a senior

 

or whatever so talk to all ages and all

 

that good stuff

 

what what would want a parent to

 

you know come to your side come to your

 

program

 

and figure out a way to get their kids

 

into college

 

yeah that's a great a great question

 

so college ready was founded

 

when my son was in middle school and he

 

came home and said mom i know exactly

 

what i want to do

 

when i grow up and i was like really

 

because i'm still trying to figure it

 

out and he's like yeah mom

 

i figured it out today i want to be a

 

brain surgeon and i want to go to a

 

top-tier school

 

and i need your help and and i smiled

 

and looked at him like most parents do

 

and we're like yeah we'll figure this

 

out

 

so fast forward without all of the

 

details

 

we went to his high school counselor

 

they really couldn't help

 

and so i went back to school and i got

 

my master's degree

 

and i started touring 25 colleges a

 

semester

 

and when my son graduated he had seven

 

full-ride offers

 

ended up at harvard four years for free

 

and then all of a sudden college ready

 

was founded

 

it happened to me versus me going out

 

and starting

 

a business right now

 

understandably there's a little conflict

 

of interest

 

that exists there which really shouldn't

 

exist and that be that

 

banks make interest from

 

loans to parents or to students to go to

 

college and if you suddenly save parents

 

money and they don't need so much money

 

they

 

don't need to save as much money the

 

banks aren't making as much money so do

 

you think that

 

perhaps the lack of information online

 

or a lack of credible information online

 

and the difficulty in finding it is

 

somewhat deliberate because i can

 

guarantee if i was a bank and i was

 

going to be losing millions and millions

 

of dollars

 

in interest because somebody was going

 

to be you know cutting some of the loans

 

our customers take in half you can bet

 

probably the insidious side of the

 

company would be paying me to go online

 

and

 

providing a lot of disinformation oh

 

don't chase these

 

you know systems which are going to save

 

you money they're all scams blah blah

 

blah

 

i mean you get one person for two weeks

 

it suddenly ruins the credibility or

 

throws into doubt

 

everything out there which is genuine

 

absolutely

 

it's not just the banks either the the

 

other piece of it

 

is the lack of knowledge comes from many

 

different angles it's people who don't

 

want to share because they want their

 

child to have the competitive edge i

 

always

 

i always have to have a giggle because

 

my wonderful clients who think

 

that college ready is the best i mean we

 

earned our students 10.7 million dollars

 

this year

 

class of 2021 and i asked his parents

 

would you like to leave a review and

 

they like

 

no you're you're like the best

 

babysitter we're not gonna

 

share what you have with the world

 

because then everybody else would have

 

what we have

 

and i'm like that makes no sense to me

 

because my mission is to reach a million

 

families and let them know

 

they don't have to go into debt to go to

 

college

 

so to answer your question i think it's

 

even deeper than just the banks

 

well no that makes sense to me i mean

 

it's kind of like when you're growing up

 

and you find this really cool band

 

right and you go to that show and you're

 

like

 

oh this is a great band you don't want

 

your friends to know it because

 

you're kind of keeping that a secret

 

like oh i'm kind of one of the insiders

 

so to speak

 

i have all this knowledge i knew them

 

way back when

 

it's like the dream back when i was in

 

an alternative rock band it's like

 

opening for nirvana back in you know

 

1991

 

before they made it big or whatever so

 

it's kind of that same thing like well

 

if this information gets out too much

 

does it dilute down to where it won't

 

help me because maybe

 

i have that kid that's now 18 and going

 

to college but i also have

 

an eight-year-old and i want to make

 

sure that this is all good in 10 years

 

so i don't want too many people to know

 

about this because i want it all to stay

 

valid for that amount of time well also

 

there's the fact that some of the i

 

guess some of these money-saving ways

 

there's a limited amount of money

 

a limited pot to actually claim from so

 

obviously if everybody's claiming from

 

it

 

you'd figure that's less division up

 

among yeah that's true

 

it's it so did you start a secret

 

society

 

is this gonna turn into a conspiracy

 

theory podcast and and this is all

 

hidden in a secret society or something

 

like that

 

it's fascinating you say that my son was

 

part of a final club

 

at harvard and there's so much history

 

and mystery

 

around that um type of

 

uh club this is not a private club

 

my mission is to help people understand

 

i wrote a best-selling book

 

how to send your student to college

 

without losing your mind or your money

 

then i'm happy to give away to families

 

who can't afford the book

 

but you can buy it on amazon for 15

 

where i

 

explain what you need to do

 

now i can't go into how you need to do

 

it because every student brings their

 

own gifts and talents

 

so i'm not trying to keep anything

 

secret

 

on the contrary i'm trying to let people

 

know

 

you need this information to make wise

 

decisions for your return on your

 

investment

 

some colleges are not a good investment

 

for certain majors

 

some students do not need to go to a

 

certain

 

college for what they want to do for

 

their future so

 

it really comes down to the individual

 

student

 

being their greatest version of them

 

it's i i tell people it's like this if

 

you're in business

 

and you have a opening and i bring you a

 

really

 

nice resume are you not gonna pay me top

 

dollar

 

versus the person who says this is my

 

first job can you give me an opportunity

 

they get minimum wage so it comes down

 

to

 

really developing the student to be the

 

best they can be

 

which means the entire world has a shot

 

at this

 

that's why it's not limited it's really

 

what

 

your student can do to be the best

 

version

 

of them now um

 

other than that misdemeanor you got for

 

public trespass it's been a long time

 

since either the shepherd or i were in

 

high school

 

so it has been a lot what do they teach

 

in high school nowadays to the students

 

in terms of getting ready for college

 

because

 

i can't remember this them teaching us

 

too much

 

you know well didn't they teach you in

 

high school

 

basically be a really good soccer player

 

so you don't have to go to college

 

and then get a professional soccer game

 

yeah which is basically what they did

 

with you

 

yeah yeah they mocked my ease to aids

 

just yeah yeah exactly

 

because and and let's be honest you know

 

there are so many kids that think well

 

let me focus on sports

 

you know let me be a good football

 

player let me be a good baseball player

 

let me be a good soccer player whatever

 

and then i'll get a scholarship so then

 

i can go to college and of course they

 

really want to focus on the sports and

 

not on the college aspect right

 

and then they realize they don't get to

 

go to the nfl they don't get to go to

 

the nba

 

and now they walk out of college and

 

they don't have anything there

 

and that's really in the united states

 

the way that everything is focused as

 

far as scholarships are

 

or other than like band or something

 

like that which is almost the same thing

 

it's like oh i got a scholarship to

 

college to play the french horn

 

now i'm out of college and i spent four

 

years playing the french horn now what

 

am i supposed to do

 

and so kind of your program is you don't

 

have to focus on those things there's

 

other things that you can actually look

 

at yes so

 

that that's the big piece to our program

 

is

 

we're unique in the fact that we just

 

don't if you're good at math we don't

 

say go to mit

 

it doesn't that's a very simplistic way

 

of looking at it

 

we help students really focus on their

 

academic rigor

 

being challenged in the classes that

 

they are good at

 

naturally and maybe not so much in the

 

other

 

or a test strategy test optional

 

is it really optional is what a lot of

 

people want to know

 

community service is part of our

 

standout strategy because when teenagers

 

are focused on helping their community

 

they're not focused on themselves

 

and they can find out a lot about their

 

leadership skills

 

and they can find out do i like to you

 

know help young people or old people and

 

then the extracurriculars and the

 

leadership

 

it takes a well balanced student

 

a high gpa is no longer your ticket into

 

any school anymore just like being left

 

footed and right footed

 

as a forward on the football team

 

is not going to guarantee you into the

 

olympics so it's having a whole bag of

 

tricks

 

that is going to make you a valuable

 

candidate

 

so basically it sounds like you taylor

 

make

 

the package to each student and set a

 

parents

 

in a case-by-case basis rather than

 

having a one-size-fits-all solution

 

what do you find is well who do you find

 

is harder to kind of educate about the

 

process

 

the students or the parents because you

 

know obviously there's a certain amount

 

of choice involved in the kid

 

in terms of what school they want to go

 

to but also the parents budgetary

 

constraints have a huge factor on that

 

but then when you bring in

 

other plans obviously opens up more

 

opportunities so

 

is it kind of a close working

 

relationship with the kids and the

 

parents or do you have to kind of deal

 

with them separately so people aren't

 

tearing each other's heads off

 

you're a wise man um what we do is we

 

work one-on-one with the student

 

we create a standout strategy in which

 

it's our we we have an online platform

 

so they have everything completely built

 

out with a plan a

 

and a b and a c because we don't know at

 

any point if they're going to have that

 

teacher or that subject that is going to

 

get everything off rail

 

so what we do then is we record the

 

priest the the meeting with the student

 

we send the recording to the parent who

 

has a

 

wonderful listening experience hearing

 

their

 

young adults speak to a complete

 

stranger when we start

 

but we get very close at the end and

 

that parent gets to hear their child

 

talk about what they want for five years

 

plan

 

10 year plan how much rigor are they

 

willing to do

 

how much are they not willing to do and

 

it is

 

amazing how much the student or the

 

parent learns about the student

 

so an answer to your question i think

 

it's more challenging for the parents

 

because they come with a lot of

 

what they know where the student is like

 

just help me get

 

my dream i'll do whatever it takes help

 

me get there

 

so they want to play the game the

 

parents are

 

struggling well that's not how it used

 

to be

 

and so we have this challenge and then

 

of course the student doesn't want to

 

listen to the parent

 

because that is the relationship where

 

they're happy to listen

 

to us because we want to get them their

 

dream

 

so in your perfect client

 

how young is too young like what is the

 

age that you want to grab a hold of

 

these

 

and obviously not the age of the parents

 

but the age of the kid right

 

how how old would you say this

 

this is my cadillac client this is the

 

perfect client this is how you can

 

deliver

 

the best experience for them

 

absolutely so if i got to pick

 

i would pick that student who just

 

promotes from eighth grade

 

because that first semester before high

 

school is the most

 

wasted summer of all summers and that's

 

the first

 

thing that colleges can you can include

 

on your application

 

so i get a three-month jump start if i

 

can get that student at that window

 

the reality is people find us everywhere

 

in the process

 

and right now we're being bombarded with

 

high school seniors who were online all

 

year and had

 

no contact from their high school

 

counselor and they're freaking out

 

so we'll still take them it's just a

 

little bit more of a fire hose

 

than a gentle nice fun time

 

yeah do you find um that when you

 

kind of put this program in front of

 

people that there is some skepticism

 

because everything nowadays you get

 

is offering to save you money i mean the

 

latest craze obviously has been

 

certainly during the pandemic is

 

everybody getting endless voice messages

 

from people exchanging your car warranty

 

because it ran out on a car you haven't

 

owned for 20 years

 

so do you find that there is that kind

 

of skepticism and you have to

 

almost like prove to the parents look i

 

am here for you i'm not just doing this

 

to earn some commission and really you

 

know you can end up saving 25

 

and i make 500 absolutely

 

i think we're at an all-time high where

 

everybody's

 

a little bit on edge and you know i

 

simply tell students

 

i don't take all students if i have a

 

student who crosses their

 

arms and rolls their eyes and is not

 

interested

 

i will not take their money i absolutely

 

will tell them straight up that this is

 

not a good fit

 

and then i show them the diploma behind

 

me that is a real

 

harvard diploma that my son earned

 

and then i can show them the statement

 

that it didn't cost me a penny

 

so as much as somebody would like to

 

tell me that

 

maybe this is too good to be true i

 

simply

 

show them that the results this

 

this year i can show them every single

 

student

 

scholarship and how it all adds up to

 

10.7 million dollars so

 

i'm happy to prove it i'm happy to put

 

them with past

 

clients and the bottom line is is

 

if it's not a good fit that's okay by us

 

we we don't want somebody who doesn't

 

think

 

i've but i've never had a parent say you

 

know what i'd rather pay

 

full price for college i'd rather go in

 

debt

 

and i'd rather do this on my own that

 

doesn't happen very often

 

yeah absolutely true but i can also

 

think

 

kind of along your lines of the extended

 

warranty i mean we do

 

live in this world where you're

 

bombarded with social media ads

 

you're bombarded with internet ads that

 

everything is the get rich quick

 

just click here and all this is taken

 

care of

 

and trying to navigate through those

 

waters of trying to say hey we

 

this is not some scam right that we're

 

actually trying to help you

 

and yeah we're maybe you make a little

 

money doing that but

 

no harm no foul with that there's

 

absolutely no reason

 

why you shouldn't make money doing that

 

but it's always that well what's in it

 

for them

 

why is she have this program out here

 

that's gonna

 

save me all this money you know i

 

do i have to sell makeup door-to-door

 

do i have to sell essential oils on the

 

side you know what am i supposed to do

 

is this some kind of multi-level

 

marketing scheme

 

you know because everybody's on their

 

toes right now

 

with all of these scams that constantly

 

come out so i can see

 

kind of where you're pointing to that it

 

just does

 

seem like well you know what's in it for

 

y'all

 

and you're trying to explain that

 

hey no it's really not about that that

 

we're you're really trying to help

 

because you were in that position before

 

and now you've gathered

 

all this knowledge together and all

 

you're trying to do is

 

share your hard work which you ought to

 

get compensated for

 

although you know we do kind of work

 

hard every once in a while and we still

 

don't get compensated because

 

we didn't work hard enough well we did

 

we did 30 minutes yesterday

 

we did work hard apparently there's a

 

threshold of minimum expectation before

 

they actually pay

 

you that's still kind of up there and

 

we're still gonna

 

you didn't bring that to me when we

 

started this is in the fine print

 

oh okay but you see where we're going

 

with that right

 

a hundred percent and and that's why i

 

think it's important

 

for families to do their due diligence

 

i i i caution parents you know hockey

 

i love hockey it is the most expensive

 

sport to play

 

with just the equipment don't even get

 

me started on the private coach and on

 

the different sticks and

 

and the skates and the blades and all of

 

that

 

we are not half as much as hockey and

 

hockey

 

doesn't guarantee you anything so

 

be careful what you buy into two percent

 

of students

 

who go through this process get a

 

athletic

 

full-ride scholarship two percent

 

but yet parents are pouring their time

 

and money and all of that

 

into this hope in this wish where i'm

 

saying academics will never fail them

 

having what's in their mind will never

 

harm them yes i was a scholar athlete

 

yes i see the value of it you know

 

so i'm not saying athletic athletics are

 

bad i'm just saying

 

know all your options so you can make a

 

wise decision

 

i think that's probably why most people

 

in england don't go to college because

 

they spend all their money on polo

 

on polo yeah oh yeah

 

no i'm talking about oh no riding riding

 

the horses

 

and everything no not marco polo you

 

know because over here yes i agree with

 

her that

 

hockey is very expensive but i'm

 

guessing over in england where they're

 

playing all that polo i mean you gotta

 

have a horse you gotta feed the horse

 

you gotta pet the horse you gotta do all

 

that

 

and i'm sure there's very limited polo

 

scholarships to

 

what is it oxford that everybody wants

 

to go to over there

 

are you making these observations based

 

upon you watching a whole season of

 

downton abbey or is this like

 

no i i think my wife watched some show

 

about some english people over there and

 

they were all

 

playing polo yeah yeah you know that

 

that makes

 

more sense to me but i i totally agree

 

with you on the whole

 

hockey thing right because yeah it's a

 

very expensive sport

 

but depending on which sport or

 

or which route you want to go down you

 

can make it

 

very expensive with the camps and with

 

all that stuff i mean my daughter

 

spent years in cheerleading and

 

i'm i might pose a bet with you that

 

cheerleading might actually be more

 

expensive than

 

hockey just i'm just saying you know

 

because now they're calling that a sport

 

and it's not an activity and there's a

 

lot of money that goes into that

 

and then you've got to admit you

 

probably had some parents

 

where you've talked to and you've said

 

look at all this money

 

that you spent on this if you would have

 

just grabbed all that money up throwing

 

it in a

 

529 plan you could have probably paid

 

for a year and a half two years of

 

college

 

but i don't think you're kind of trying

 

to point them to

 

hey you misspent some money here it's

 

it's

 

more about here's the the plan behind it

 

so you're not trying to be a financial

 

advisor basically

 

so it's nothing like that it's more of a

 

plan correct

 

well we actually do have the financial

 

side

 

because i had to master that

 

with my own personal experience i was a

 

single mom going through the college

 

admissions

 

process with my first and um

 

i had a 529 and let me tell you that was

 

big disaster for us

 

um they wanted to take away all my son's

 

merit scholarships because i did

 

such a great job in saving and so

 

we moved that money and we did it

 

legally

 

and you know it went down to his son's

 

sister um four years later and and so he

 

was able to take advantage so

 

we advise families on what the fafsa

 

looks at

 

what they don't look at which you can

 

look up it's not a hidden thing

 

it's not easy to find it's like reading

 

tax code

 

but it's there you know you would hire

 

a cpa for taxes because you want the

 

back

 

best tax advantage we give you the best

 

college funding advantage we do not move

 

money we do not sell a product so we

 

have

 

nothing to gain again other than

 

when my son graduated from harvard he

 

made a hundred and six thousand dollars

 

his first job

 

at 23 and had zero debt

 

that's why i do what i do because that's

 

a great way to start a life

 

yeah now um i don't think it's

 

surprising that a lot of parents don't

 

really

 

do adequate planning for kids going to

 

college because the majority of people

 

don't plan adequately for retirement

 

so i think if you're not bothered being

 

age 68 and living under a bridge

 

sitting in a puddle of your own pee i'm

 

not sure that you've kind of got that

 

mentality which um you know is

 

really akin to a good forward planning

 

mentality i suppose but

 

that's really a trojan horse for how do

 

you actually reach out and find these

 

parents i mean

 

or how are they getting to you because

 

it's one thing having a social media

 

presence and having a website but

 

you know what type of channels or

 

distribution do you

 

use to actually reach out to parents in

 

the situation where they might benefit

 

from you

 

so majority at least 50 percent if not

 

60 come from referrals that's how we

 

actually ended up going to international

 

we started out here in the us

 

based in california because of our uc

 

school system

 

i'm from california so that was a nice

 

easy fit

 

but as we started working with students

 

then they sent it to their aunt

 

uncle niece's nephews we went

 

international so now we bring

 

students in we take students out we help

 

everybody navigate the process

 

and it is all word of mouth other than

 

that

 

it's giving these types of

 

uh situations where i'm giving

 

information

 

i love to share i don't take every

 

student so i'm not looking to sell you

 

anything

 

if you think it's a good fit because i

 

give you some really solid helpful

 

information

 

then people reach out to us so i don't

 

do

 

any advertising or i don't do

 

any you know goodyear blimp type posters

 

it it truly comes from

 

i lead with my heart though i want to

 

help people

 

and when i'm interviewed on fox 5 news

 

or like shows like yours

 

people see that i'm genuine and that i'm

 

here because i have a heart to serve

 

and i love teenagers so if i get to talk

 

to teenagers all day i'm in a very happy

 

place

 

is there an age of a a kid a potential

 

college student

 

where you say and when i say age i guess

 

i should say grade level

 

that it's too late that there's nothing

 

you can do

 

past a certain point at all

 

once a student accepts a school

 

they say yes i i accept your offer

 

i can't help them up until that point

 

age is not a big deal um

 

i've helped adults before i've helped

 

transfer students

 

i've helped students going into med

 

school or law school

 

so it that part is is the same

 

now the reality is if you go into debt

 

your first four years

 

you're going to compound that debt

 

because getting money for grad school or

 

law school

 

is not half as easy as getting money for

 

undergrad

 

so i tell families create a five-year

 

plan and a 10-year plan because if that

 

student wants to go on to that next tier

 

of schools

 

then they should be going to the first

 

tier of schools without going into debt

 

because otherwise they're going to

 

compound that debt

 

and then other if they're not going to

 

be a doctor a lawyer

 

something in that that that tier is it

 

makes sense for their return on

 

investment

 

and that that really comes down to the

 

student and the school

 

so why is it so much harder for the what

 

do you call like a master's program or

 

a postgraduate program why is it so much

 

harder for somebody to

 

get a hold of that money versus the

 

undergraduate program hunting the

 

bachelor's degree

 

so the majority of the scholarships that

 

we help our students get come from the

 

institutions themselves

 

they come from picking the right college

 

for the right

 

student when you get into master's phd

 

law whatever that is there is no money

 

given

 

or very little money given i should say

 

for that

 

level because a lot of um jobs

 

a lot of corporations they will pay for

 

people to go and get their mba or phd

 

so colleges don't feel that they need to

 

step up to do that because they're an

 

adult now

 

and that kind of falls on the shoulders

 

of being an

 

adult where children or 18 year old

 

young adult they are still they still

 

have no concept

 

i i play this game with students called

 

the millionaire game

 

and what we find out very quickly is

 

they have no idea what it feels like to

 

have a million dollars and

 

it is quite interesting to listen to

 

young adults talk about if they had a

 

million dollars what would they do

 

so it really comes down to the majority

 

of the students

 

and the parents draw drawing the line

 

and saying let's really talk about the

 

academic fit the social fit and the

 

financial fit

 

way before we apply what people do is

 

they apply

 

and say oh if they get in we'll figure

 

it out

 

that is disaster waiting to happen

 

it's probably good that we didn't get a

 

million dollars because she would have a

 

tough time

 

trying to tell us what to spend it on

 

because i think we'd be through a

 

million bucks in

 

what 14 days should be maybe near

 

talking to an empty screen

 

yeah exactly yeah that money that money

 

would be

 

gone quick fast and in a hurry yeah now

 

um

 

what was my question going to be oh did

 

i distract you

 

i know well i heard the million dollar

 

thing and i'm like gosh what could i do

 

yeah no i remember now um do you partner

 

with any other kind of educational

 

bodies or organizations or run alongside

 

any

 

government programs although i'm sure

 

that's not always a great idea because

 

it doesn't matter who's in power they

 

always somehow manage to screw it up

 

um but you know are there anybody else

 

you know in terms of organization or

 

people you have who

 

support your vision and you know kind of

 

help you deliver the message

 

at this point we have not found

 

the perfect partnership i'm very much

 

open to it we've looked at a couple of

 

programs

 

that the challenging part is

 

um alignment i i'm not looking for a

 

fast dollar

 

this this company is not about making a

 

quick dollar

 

it's it's more about the mission that

 

we're on

 

trying to make an impact and so we

 

partner more with organizations like

 

a21.org which is stop human trafficking

 

or nonprofits where i can align my

 

teenagers to show how they can

 

impact the world which gives them this

 

huge confidence to go and impact the

 

world

 

so our partnerships tend to be with

 

non-profits in support of my students

 

other than large governmental

 

organizations but like i said if if

 

somebody has a great idea i'm not

 

i'm not ever opposed so

 

not to throw a turd in the punch bowl so

 

to speak

 

but i want to shift gears here a little

 

bit

 

and what about the fact that there's

 

been a lot of talk about

 

college really isn't that important

 

anymore

 

you know there's not enough people in

 

trades there's not enough electricians

 

there's not enough plumbers there's not

 

enough welders and

 

these kids or young adults as you call

 

them

 

they can go and they can get an

 

apprenticeship and become a welder

 

and make just as much money as somebody

 

with a college education

 

and not assume any debt obviously if

 

they didn't go through your program

 

because they're going to go through

 

college and then they're not going to

 

have any debt

 

but just because you get that college

 

degree

 

doesn't guarantee you a job like it did

 

say

 

20 years ago when i graduated college i

 

got that piece of paper

 

and yeah i could go ahead and throw this

 

out and i had job offers but

 

nowadays that college degree doesn't

 

guarantee you

 

entry into the workforce and then the

 

trades

 

their their shows are so short staff

 

so to speak that they're basically

 

begging people what

 

what kind of advice would you give there

 

so it it comes down to helping the

 

student

 

know themselves high school students

 

don't do a lot of

 

introspection they don't know their core

 

values they they

 

they're so outward focused about social

 

media and all the things

 

out there that i recommend it's time to

 

look within

 

if a student is not going to go

 

into engineering or accounting

 

or medicine or law or something that

 

absolutely you need that piece of paper

 

it is okay to look at what else is out

 

there

 

on the flip side i do tell every person

 

i'm a huge entrepreneur this is my

 

seventh business

 

i believe in entrepreneurship both my

 

parents were entrepreneurs

 

i wanted to skip college and my dad gave

 

me the best piece of advice

 

he said you can go and just start your

 

own business

 

or you can go and see how other people

 

screwed up their businesses by getting a

 

business degree

 

and skip all of that and then you can go

 

and light the world on fire you can do

 

whatever that is if it's

 

plumbing or electrical or digging ditch

 

whatever that is you're still gonna have

 

to understand

 

how to manage the money that you do get

 

after you you'd work the job so

 

understanding how to have a budget

 

understanding

 

how to save for a retirement these

 

things

 

they don't have to be taught in college

 

but if you just go into the working

 

world

 

you do skip the opportunity to learn

 

about finance and accounting

 

and some of the other how to write

 

well those type of things so i always

 

tell a student

 

unless you have to jump right into a

 

trade school

 

it is okay to be taking community

 

college classes and

 

learning as you're going because that

 

will just take you to

 

a beautiful opportunity to run your own

 

business at some point where

 

you now make your own schedule versus

 

punching a clock

 

so our our job is just to let these

 

students know what their choices are

 

but there is no one-size-fits-all there

 

is not you

 

must go to college my nephew is a

 

brilliant welder

 

and he chose not to go to college and i

 

gave him

 

you know kudos for that he is really

 

gifted at what he does he builds race

 

cars

 

and he loves every second of it but he

 

will always work for someone

 

that's what i want people to think about

 

for the long term

 

again it's the short term and the long

 

term

 

so regardless college or no college i

 

think students

 

should look at what their 10-year plan

 

is

 

right now you mentioned it um that

 

you've had other ventures in the past

 

and you've been very successful as an

 

entrepreneur

 

now with trying to get the name college

 

ready out there

 

what is the kind of temptation to more

 

perhaps

 

ride on your previous successes as an

 

entrepreneur

 

as opposed to having the focus actually

 

on the brand of college ready

 

do you feel that you're going to have to

 

carry and wave the flag until the name's

 

known a little bit more

 

so that people trust in you even if you

 

know this is a new concept to them

 

i i think that that's a very valid point

 

um

 

you know technology wasn't there my last

 

six businesses

 

so i've been doing this 13 years so

 

technology in itself

 

has been an amazing ride i'm on more

 

social media platforms than i ever

 

thought it was ever going to exist

 

i have like 19 000 followers on linkedin

 

and you think how can i possibly

 

be that brand name to everyone so i

 

look at it as we may not be a perfect

 

fit for everybody

 

but for some students it could be an

 

amazing gift that their family can give

 

them

 

so i look at it as i'm not meant for

 

everybody i'm not looking to be

 

starbucks i'm looking to work with

 

individual students to help them reach

 

their full potential

 

now do you think this would have been

 

possible to do without

 

today's technology you mentioned when

 

you set up your previous

 

businesses that you didn't have the

 

benefit of technology or at least

 

as much as you have today would college

 

ready have been

 

possible without technology i

 

that that would be difficult it would be

 

really hard

 

uh to get out what we're able to do

 

for people um my my last career was

 

a professional photographer again i

 

walked right into that but i had my

 

portraits

 

all over the community so people saw my

 

work

 

now we post it we share we give

 

and that's how we're able to be

 

national and international where my last

 

businesses were very

 

localized because we didn't have that

 

opportunity

 

to do these kinds of things with zoom

 

and these virtual calls

 

yeah so so you didn't tell me that she

 

used to be a professional photographer i

 

didn't know

 

because she tried it professionally yeah

 

but she tried to

 

take a picture of us and now because

 

she's a professional photographer

 

that picture's gonna look really bad

 

because she's gonna

 

be able to focus in and zoom in and show

 

you all our flaws

 

yeah yeah exactly i mean we ended up

 

getting this new camera and we both said

 

oh we look a lot older and a lot worse

 

now that we have a better camera

 

and now we have this professional

 

photographer over here taking a picture

 

you should have told me about this

 

before we got started yeah this camera

 

supports 4k

 

but i think we've currently got it going

 

at about 480p i hope so

 

yeah i hope so right and we should have

 

it in the old school four by four yeah

 

yeah maybe because yeah exactly because

 

yeah we

 

we're a couple old men yeah but i was

 

going to say Shellee you actually

 

reminded me when you were talking about

 

having no technology um we were talking

 

to an author earlier today and he was

 

saying that

 

you know he opens his emails and reads

 

some of the comments

 

readers have sent him about his book and

 

he said you know every now and then i

 

might get an email

 

saying you know your book is a piece of

 

crap but

 

when you were saying then about not

 

having technology it reminds me of a

 

meme i saw the other day

 

and this guy sitting down he goes son i

 

grew up without the benefit of the

 

internet

 

he said some days people would walk

 

miles just to tell me i was an [ __ ]

 

[Laughter]

 

true and and to make you feel better

 

i i would walk to your house to tell you

 

that yeah

 

well but i'd probably get lost walking

 

through your house though yeah

 

so well it's so great that you could

 

join us

 

can you give everybody a way to get a

 

hold of you

 

get more information kind of give

 

yourself like a

 

30 second to a minute commercial that

 

you know the

 

people that are listening that are gonna

 

see this on youtube and

 

of course listening can get a hold of

 

you

 

and find out more information about this

 

absolutely

 

so hopefully uh you will find me on

 

social media

 

we the easiest way to find all of my

 

platforms is by going to our website

 

and so that's www.collegereadyplan.com

 

so that is number one uh

 

linkedin if you wanted to look me up

 

it's

 

Shellee s-h-e-l-l-e-e

 

name howard h-o-w-a-r-d

 

and we are literally on every social

 

media

 

platform so we have a private facebook

 

group that i wanted to invite you all to

 

because that's where i share every week

 

the latest and greatest tricks of the

 

trade if you want to call them

 

on how to help your student stand out

 

it's a private group where i give

 

some really solid information and that

 

private facebook group is college ready

 

debt

 

free so please look us up

 

friend us we are here to help i do offer

 

a free discovery session

 

and all you have to do is go to the

 

website click the button and sign up

 

and that's where i requested the student

 

be in the room so i can help them

 

understand what colleges are looking for

 

and set a little bit of their

 

expectation

 

and a little bit of a reality check i

 

think is good for them to have as well

 

gives them something to work for yeah

 

and obviously you can trust

 

a woman named Shellee because when i was

 

a kid

 

we had a garden in the backyard and

 

there was a turtle that came back

 

every year and i named that turtle

 

Shellee i knew i knew this was going to

 

be a tenuous link the moment his mouth

 

opened

 

yeah i know i know well Shellee so glad

 

you could join us please visit that and

 

of course on our website we've got all

 

your links as well

 

and we'll share that on social media as

 

well so that will do it for this episode

 

of the wolf and the shepherd

 

Shellee thank you so much for joining us

 

and we will catch you on the next one

 

[Music]

 

thanks for listening to this episode of

 

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