you
Hey Melinda. How are you? I'm on mute. How are you? I'm doing well. Good. Right now it looks like it's a private meeting. So did you did you see my reply to your first to your welcome post in the accelerator?
About your family lives here? Yes. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, that's crazy. Where do you work? I teach at Tabor College. Tabor. Okay. Yeah. Okay. My sister went to Bethel. Yeah. My mom ended up graduating in Bethel. So funny. Okay. Yeah. So we are same faith school based basically.
Yeah, Tabor is about 30 miles north. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So is your mom Karen? No, Nancy. Nancy. Okay. She was Nancy Jargo. I think her brother was a big deal in sports.
What was her brother's name? Tracy. Tracy Jargo. Hey, Chris, you know, Tracy Jargo. Heidi Jargo. Cousin, I think. Cousin. Went to school with my husband. Oh, fun. That's awesome.
One of my, my success coaches, her family's from Newton. My mom's family. Yeah. Yeah. Her mom's family. What was your brother's name? Nancy Jargo. Who's the, your brother? The one that did sports? Tracy Jargo. Yes. Thank you. Basketball a lot.
Remember Heidi. And then there was another Jargo. Probably in the nineties, 93. Oh, okay. My sister. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, I know that family. That's so crazy. I used to recruit at Bethel. Oh, nice. Yeah.
Corinne's here. So how are you doing this week, Melinda? What's up? What's new? Hey, Corinne. Corinne. Hi, guys. Working on another product. So Chris and I have another idea for a product that we're going to, that we're working on. So he, we reached out to a couple of manufacturers yesterday and Chris was kind of working on that. I submitted a new trademark application.
Okay. You're going through with that? With my young ingredient. I went ahead and just went for it. And I, so I submitted the trademark application just last night. And so we have our suppliers. And so it's crazy. So in Newton, we have a company called future foam. Okay. And they make foam. I mean, I've, so we, our product is a punching bag.
So we have a martial arts school out at the outlet mall. And so Chris has a problem with the punching bags that are made are made for more for adults. They're too big for his, for his littles, for his little kids. And so he wants something that's a smaller that the kids can get their arms around so they can do the moves. Right. So, but to ship. So if you, if you ship them just without the foam,
Compared to if you ship them with the foam is a $60,000 difference because they're now big and bulky. Right.
So Chris called future foam, which is a company here in Newton makes foam and that's what we need to put in the bag. So we're waiting on getting a quote from them to see what's our price going to look like. If we get just the bags made in Pakistan shipped here to us. And then we go to future foam here in Newton and buy the foam inserts.
Yeah. Then I got to figure out how to ship them because they're big. And so shipping is going to be right.
Very cool. Working on that.
Awesome.
Oh, this is totally open for you guys.
I have some interesting personal slash business questions.
If nobody has anything they want to chat about, but if you guys have something
you want to chat about, you can open it up for that first, Melinda.
I have a great freight forwarder out of China that might be able to orchestrate
if you're shipping just to yourself, to, to, to do the filling of the bags.
If you want it, I can connect you with them and they could do a quote for you.
Just if you get to that stage, let me know.
Okay.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
I, I, I currently ship, I ship my current product DDP from my manufacturer.
So I might be interested in just getting that just for my current product too.
So thanks.
Yeah, I've been shipping outside of my factories for a while now.
I just have noticed that it's been, and they handle my logistics sometimes
if I need to move inventory, even within the States.
So I've been really happy with them and as tempting as it is to switch over to
I feel pretty loyal to them cause they've, they've really, they've caught a couple
of big things that would have been very expensive mistakes for me had they not
been caught before they got on a boat.
And so I've, I've really appreciated their sort of personal touch on, I don't
know about what they do at in and out of Pakistan, but I think they
handle mostly everything globally.
So certainly welcome to reach out to them.
I can connect you.
Awesome.
Thanks.
Very good.
Welcome everyone.
I got some, a couple more people jumped in, in the last couple of minutes.
Anybody have anything you want to chat about, discuss, ask questions on, or are
we going to open it up to some questions that I have for today?
I just had a quick question about the AI platform.
The P&L one that Stephen kind of talked about, is that something that like, maybe
I missed it, did they do some sort of like implementation on that or to tell
us like how to use that or what that's for or what kind of, did you watch
the video attached to that tool?
Cause there's a little, there's like a little how to video attached to every
of the tools, it tells you like how to use them.
Oh no.
It was that in the, the trainings?
Yeah.
So you're looking at the new, on the new platform, right?
Yeah.
Like the AI, the eight figure AI platform.
Yeah.
I thought he merged all of the videos into the toolkit.
So they're in the same spot.
Okay.
I could have totally missed it.
I just wasn't sure how to use it.
Okay.
Did anyone else like look into that at all?
Has it been helpful or no?
Okay.
I used it when it was on the Rainmakers app and after it migrated to the new
place, I haven't, I only used it one time when I was on the startup call with the
the person who was kind of explaining where everything was at and what I
understand is if you used it when it was on the Rainmakers app, then you would
already have kind of a word document explaining your product or in your brand
and kind of where you're going.
And you're going to need to continue to kind of use that with the current tools.
If you have more than one thing, you're trying to use the AI app, the AI tools
for, you have to tell it every single time you're using it for that.
And so, so that it can kind of stay organized and give you relevant
information for that one thing.
But the person I was talking to, he was, he was kind of saying, if you upload
that attachment every single time, when you're having, when you're using each
of the tools to kind of let it know how, where you're at in the process
and where you want it to go, then that will help give you better,
more relevant information.
Got it.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Have you tried your, have you booked your implementation call yet?
Me?
Yeah.
Oh, no, no.
I didn't even know there was one.
I just was like, maybe I missed something on it.
Like, I felt like I must've missed something because I was there.
Should be a button at the top of the screen.
Christie saying yes to book an implementation call.
Okay.
Get in there and get help using it.
Got it.
Okay.
Cause mine's at the top, like 10 free points or something.
I just didn't know, like, is it, do I, is it just for the PNL that they had put
the link to, or am I supposed to use all of it?
I just, I don't know.
I mean, I must've totally missed something.
In the emails that they sent out, there was also a link for like a calendar
lead kind of thing where you could book an implementation call as well.
Is that through the accelerator or just through the AI thing?
It's through the AI thing.
It's a separate thing.
Okay.
Maybe that's what I'm confused.
Cause I just had, I just saw it.
I just was exposed to it through the accelerator.
And so I was just trying to figure out how does it fit into what?
we're doing, or did I, I just wanted to make sure.
It depends on where you are in the process.
It's mainly, it was made for more just like
general business owners, people who've already
started up, already making money doing things.
So part of it'll make sense for you, part of it won't.
But yes, it is separate.
It's separate from the Rainmaker, everything.
Okay, got it.
Thank you.
Okay, so my first business icebreaker,
whatever, get to know each other question.
What business, what in-person business events
have you gone to and what have been
some of the best things you've learned?
Anybody gone to Masterminds or in-person networking stuff?
No, Corinne says no.
Melinda says no.
It's been a long time for me.
I haven't been into anything.
What, where'd you go?
Where'd you go to?
I don't even remember the last time I went
to like a networking event.
I'm just trying to think.
I haven't been to like Tony Robbins or anything.
I haven't been to anything like that.
That's like big, big time, but you know,
different seminars here and there,
but I just can't, I'm trying to think of the last one.
I don't remember.
Looks like Kristy's a no.
I've never been for e-commerce specifically,
but I used to volunteer for a local organization
called StartMe and they had,
it was kind of an accelerator like this,
but more geared towards service and tangible products
that were made here in Atlanta
and trying to support local businesses kind of starting up.
And we would, you know, review each other's business ideas,
give each other advice,
help market each other's businesses
within the local communities.
And there was to some degree,
some assistance of getting things pushed online,
but a lot of it would be onto like an Etsy platform
because that's what was being made,
like, you know, different like face creams
or stuff like that.
But I also, I still go to like a lot of academic conferences
and I have been to some like investor conferences
in the med tech space where people are pitching
to get, you know, 20 million, $50 million investments
for med tech companies.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think the thing that it's like the best
about those in-person networking events
and even the like Zoom based networking events for me
is just this type of forum
where you're just like sitting there chatting.
And even though there are specific talks
where you get a lot out of whatever they're presenting
on the slides and like you take a photo of the slide
and like have that information kind of handy
later after you leave,
it's really just like meeting people
and like kind of having a resource of somebody
that you can text to say,
hey, do you know a reimbursement strategist?
Can you give me their name?
Or, hey, do you know somebody who knows how to,
you know, do FDA submissions, stuff like that
to help basically get there faster, you know,
to your next milestone.
So it sounds like when you go to the castle,
your favorite times are gonna be the meals
and the after party.
Probably, yeah, honestly.
Yeah, afterwards, networking dinner,
social time, cocktail hour, whatever you wanna call it.
Yeah.
Yeah, and for me, it's always cool
to hear other people's ideas
and like why that's where they wanna put
all their time and energy,
like why they're really passionate
about what they're doing so much so
that they're like, you know,
driven to try to make it successful.
Yeah.
That's definitely the interesting aspects of it.
This is Vin.
I've been to, oh, I can't even remember how many
that I've been to.
The very first one I went to was Tony,
I'm sorry, Tom Hopkins for sales training.
Sorry, I spent a whole weekend out in Vegas.
Because when I first got into sales,
I didn't know what I was doing
and I didn't make enough to pay rent.
And so I said, never again.
And so that's when I started taking the training
and I've had a lot of sales success from there.
With that, you know, I've done countless sales training.
various different people, time management through Stephen Covey, motivational speakers like Les
Brown, Tony Hopkins, Grant Cardone, some of the latest ones. But it's always continually learning
and I'm always investing in myself. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that.
Did you attend Grant Cardone's Unbreakable Business thing a couple years ago?
I attended one, yes, a few years ago. The one I did was in Orlando for that one. I did the Tony
Robbins one where you walk on fire, you break the arrow on your neck. Yeah, it's-
Did you do those things?
I did those things, yes. Yeah, so it was pretty interesting. With those weekends,
you expel a lot of energy. They don't let you sit. Every five minutes, they got you standing up
doing something and you break off in groups and you really get out of your comfort zone.
Did you find that when you went back home, back to normal life,
did the energy stick or did you dwindle as soon as you go back into your normal environment?
Oh, no. When you get home, you just got to decompress because your body is just like,
it's not used to exerting that much energy. Especially with the Tony Robbins one,
you have no time. You got six hours of sleep as well to give you. You're up in the morning again.
I don't know how he does it. With that, it just takes a couple of days to decompress.
It's been a few more days going over your notes and what you've learned and so forth. Then just
implementing things in your life takes some time to do. It's not overnight. Just because you went
to a weekend seminar, things doesn't happen overnight. I went to one. I was in a mastermind
for a couple of years and they did one or two in-person events every year. I went to San Diego
for one. It's always so much fun to meet the people in person who you're always on Zoom with
all the time or just seeing the Facebook groups. One of the mentors told me, pick one thing that
you learned and implement it. Because when you look through your pages and pages of notes,
it's like, okay, I can do all this stuff. Then you go home and nothing happens because you're
back in your zone and back in your normal routine and you don't actually take action.
That was super helpful for me. I find out that if you spend the money to go do something like that,
you're already there with like-minded people. Find some people that you have things in common
with or that you'd like to work with and then become each other's accountability partners
outside of. When that's over, you have a weekly Zoom call. It says, hey, what's going on? Then
every week you're on that Zoom call. You hold each other accountable. That way it goes, oh man,
I didn't do my thing and shoot. Oh, dang, we got that Zoom meeting tomorrow. I got to go get it
done now. You jump on it. If you're going to do something, find a mastermind or accountability
partners to where you can have ongoing support. 100%. I did that for the first time. I joined
one of Amy Porterfield's things last year. In part of that, you find your own accountability
group. If you want accountability, you get in the Facebook group. They had Zoom networking
events where you can find people who you like. You create your own accountability group. Then
you're responsible for the Zoom meetings and what happens and all of that. There's three of us
ladies who have been together for about a year. That is something I never would have thought I
would enjoy. I'm like, this is super awkward. We're all at different phases, but we clicked
instantly. We text each other. We get together pretty much every other week unless there's a
conflict. It's been fantastic just for what you said, Ben. I can definitely be that kind of person
where I'm the doer. You get it done. You just do things to get in your own zone. Even having people
to chat with on the weeks that you didn't really do anything is such a huge motivation
and a big accountability because you can get to tell people why you did nothing
or what's coming up or what the roadblocks are. The feedback and advice is always super helpful.
Yeah, the feedback on the roadblocks of just having a like-minded person to help you brainstorm
and think of three different things that you can try next after you have thoughts
left, especially before the invention of chat GPT.
Yeah.
So if you guys were starting over, you're back in your 18, your 19,
would you go to college or would you jump straight into the workforce or entrepreneurship?
I would not go to college.
Why?
Um, I think the, well, I guess it's kind of a complicated in the sense that I don't have
the, like, if I had the knowledge I have now, if I had it then that would probably inform
a different path for me.
But I think going back, back, back, back, back, like, I wish, like, I would have loved
to have had, like, more education around, like, I guess, life education and experience
kind of leading up to that launch into adulthood of, you don't have to follow this system.
There's actually other options that are available to you.
And it just took me in my own experience, um, getting there.
So I mean, I don't know who would have taught me that.
Obviously my parents didn't.
So, like, I don't know who would have taught me that.
Um, but if I did have that education and that know-how or that, like, you know, there's
another option.
Um, I don't think I would have gotten, I'm very grateful that I went to college, but
I don't think I would have gone to college, I think would have charted a different path.
So would you have done, like, a gap year where, like, you just take a break after high school,
kind of figure out life, do some things?
Yeah.
Maybe.
Yeah.
And then, um, yeah, I felt like, yeah.
And I probably would have, like, surrounded myself or like, like, like kind of tied myself
maybe to someone like in an apprenticeship sort of a thing, like more clear on, like,
I want to go this path and do the things I want to learn because this is what I want
to implement in my life.
And so I would have wanted to, like, gain more hands-on practical experience and exposure
to people who are doing what I want to do, um, and, and learned it way earlier so that,
you know, by mid to late twenties, I could be well on a path towards launching something
or having already launched something, but it would have had the more practical experience.
It was a business in or in college.
And so much of it is head knowledge.
Like there's not, it's great.
You're going through all these accounting classes and marketing classes, but when you're
not like practically applying it to a real life experience, it's really hard to like
get that.
You know what I'm saying?
Like without having, I feel like I'm relearning all the same stuff I learned years and years
ago now that it's applicable.
I mean, obviously it's a different time now, but yeah.
So I mean, I'm grateful for it.
I'm not like, I don't regret it or anything, but yeah, I think it would have been a different,
I'm, I'm prepared.
Like my husband and I talk about it often, like, I don't, I don't know that we're like
going to set our kids up to like go to college necessarily.
I want to show them other options.
Like if they want to, or they have a trade, they want to learn great, but like there's
other options available.
You don't have to do this.
So anyway, those are some of my thoughts.
Yeah.
What's up?
Oh, me?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I can tell you my experience here is I don't have a high school diploma.
I finally, I, and I finally, I still don't have a high school diploma, but I finally
got my, my bachelor's degree at age 42 and I'm 56 now and have never used it when I worked
in a corporate world.
I got a job at Ingram micro kind of like through the back door.
There was, they, they had this back then they, they, they had this cattle call.
So they put out this, the word that they're hiring.
So they bring in all these college graduates and stuff and everybody's flying in from everywhere.
And they sit with a panel of like five managers and they go through and they get grilled and
interviewed and everything.
Well, I missed all that.
I just gave my resume to a friend who are somebody I've met that already worked there,
sent me in, sat down with one manager.
And when I went home that day, this was back when we still had tape recorders for our answer
machines.
I listened to it and they said, they, they offered me the job and I go, Oh wow.
Okay.
So I went and I got the job and then, and when, when I'm there, I'm sitting in the cafeteria
and things with all these people and they talk about what colleges they went to and
everything.
And I'm just sitting there going, okay, well, I didn't even finish high school.
And that was for some reason, my dad got in a car accident.
And so I had to go to work at an early age to support the family.
I tried to go to college a few times, City College, but I just didn't have the money
to finish it.
And so oddly enough, when I tell them, I go, I went to Long Beach City College.
I don't have a degree and they're like, wow.
But none of them were upset because my sales were like double to triple what they were
doing.
And, you know, and they were, they were kind of like surprised.
They thought I had like this, this prestigious degree or something because of my knowledge
and my work ethic and everything else.
He goes, no, I was just more desperate than you guys.
Yeah.
And then the reason I got my degree was when.
you know, the economy hit hard. I was in the, I was in a mortgage broker. I was in wholesale.
And when 2008 hit, and that crashed, and I stayed in way too long, because that was my career.
And then I couldn't get a job anywhere. So I ended up working for an online university.
And then so they paid for my schooling. So I stayed there four years, got my degree and then left.
That was, but to do it over again, I think that unless you're going to be specializing in
something, like if you're going to be a lawyer, you're going to be a doctor, or you're going to
be something like that, then yes, you need that in order to do it. But if you're going to be a
business person there, I learned, I have a business degree. And I learned nothing. I use none of it
in my in my day to day business. Is it because it was theory or just not applicable or just
out or outdated? Because they're just, yeah, things are just outdated, they don't keep up
with anything. And, and, you know, it's kind of like, well, nobody's doing that anymore. I mean,
it's, it's like it business moves so fast, that, you know, once you build a curriculum and in a
Yeah. And really cool. I love that you found your way in and just work your way,
work your way through. I would say take the money, spend the money and go to like,
special like workshops on on what you and find like a guru or something on what you
on the field that you want to be in. That's that would be better spent.
Totally agree. So Christy, I don't think you were here. The next question is,
would you go to college or jump straight into the workforce or entrepreneurship?
And I love that you got your box. Everybody else got in their box.
I literally I accidentally hung up when I was getting into my car and I got the box whenever I
went to my car. And I'm super excited. I'll have to put the hat on when I get back home. But
so I love that show. If everybody remembers, but I mean, I'm basically a nuclear physicist.
And what I do requires a college degree. And I, when I was in high school, I was like,
pretty adamant that I was going to get an engineering degree. And I would say for me,
yes, I would go back and do it all over again. And I would study engineering. And I feel like
I'm really happy with the path that I have. But I have to say that when I started college,
we were just transitioning out of dial up internet into Ethernet. And I finally got
a cell phone like cell phones became like a real thing when I was in my second year of college.
And so now like for my nieces and nephews, and, you know, when they're asking me,
what should they study? And I'm telling them, you know, like all the engineering jobs are being
offshored as well. Like most of the engineers entry level engineering positions are in India
and China and, and the job market is fierce and you have to be scrappy and adaptive and like
kind of information is at your fingertips, anything that you want to know, you don't have
to go to college to access that information. And so like, I'm just kind of telling them,
you have to look at the ROI on the actual degree that you're getting. And if there is a real need
to have an actual degree to do that profession. So like I have one niece and she's like in this,
it's like insurance statistics, basically, she calculates probabilities for insurance. And like
you do actually have to have a degree to get that position. Whereas I have like other nieces and
nephews, and they're like a bank teller, or they're like a manager at a grocery store,
and you don't really need degrees to like enter into that workforce. And so it's kind of one of
those situations where it's, it's an investment of time and money, in my opinion, it's not just like
a next phase in your life, go away party for four years. And so I do think that there is a lot of
in a college education, but I don't think it's valuable for all.
life paths. Totally agree.
Well, a college degree just shows you how to go get a job.
It prepares you to be an employee. If you want to be a business owner
or something that you just get out there and get real world experience.
I also think you have to be really, oh sorry Corinne, go ahead. No, you go ahead Jen.
Just a quick comment. I also think that it's important for young, I mean the burden of debt
is so high I think as well. So I think and I think it's hard for young people to comprehend
that. Like I wish I had understood that. I was fortunate to work and I paid off my debt like
really early out of college. It was like I felt burdened by it. But I don't think that that's like
the same for, I don't know that there's a lot of education that goes into the financial
implications of that four-year degree and how you could potentially use that money otherwise.
So I just, it's interesting the whole the whole model and how it can be really burdensome. Unless
like like Chrissy you were saying or even or Vin, you know that it's important for a particular
path that you're going to pursue like engineering or whatever. But yeah.
Like what Vin said, they teach you to be employees and that's why there's you know your
fall fest booth whatever at college like sign up for a credit card. Let's make it easy for
you to get in debt so you get a get a job and pay it off the rest of your life. I mean that's
that's the whole model. I know Robert Kiyosaki talks about it a lot. Like they pay they were
all taught to be employees. That's one of the cornerstones I was just gonna just double down
on what Vin said is like I talked to you know this is a this is a hot top you know I have a
12-year-old and you know she's got a college fund and I've got an 11-year-old and a nine-year-old
and they their college is paid for if they want to go and the more I kind of look at the landscape
and the more I sort of unpack you know my experience and their dad's experience and and
sort of where those how those stories played out and you know you look around and and it really
for me literally boils down to as a parent you know what even my experiences when I had a very
unconventional experience which I'll tell you in a second but for me right now in terms of how I'm
thinking about it and how I'm and guiding my kids is I'm raising bosses not employees
and I think that there is a mindset thing that you can instill really early that just gets
my kids now thinking more critically about like what is the ROI of any of this you know and you
know I have a master's degree in mental health counseling from NYU. I did not go to college in
a traditional way. I did my entire undergrad degree online so I started my undergraduate
degree in 2002 when it was distance education and your professor mailed you a packet with your books
and a binder and a fax number and a phone number to contact them when you needed help and then
as I progressed I took seven and a half years to do my undergrad degree and just was working and
living my life and having you know my experience of my 20s and whatever and really kind of taking
my time and learning what the options were that were available and then I decided that
I really you know I really like the psychology and I was going to go into the mental health
counseling stuff but you know I'd been modeling for 15 years and so I was like hello master's
programs at NYU I've been a model forever. I'd like to get into your program please and I had
to figure out I had to get scrappy about how I was going to pitch myself to this program that I wanted
to go into and one of the suggestions from one of the counselors was go volunteer go do some
volunteering and I volunteered at a suicide hotline in New York City for three years and they had this
Samaritans I don't know if anybody knows the Samaritans network of hotlines they're out of
the UK but they have an amazing training program okay so bookmark that. Then I go I finally I
applied one year got waitlisted didn't get in applied the second year got in the second year
they were like let her in she's not coming she's not going to stop before we do and had a wonderful
experience loved it I'm a learner I'm a nerd I'm a student I don't see it as a waste however
it was $120,000 for two years that I graduated with that kind of debt got married got pregnant
in my last year started having babies never really went to work and then fast forward to 2020 and I'm
a mom now of three kids scrolling through my Instagram and who pops up in a target
it but Chelsea and Steven. And I'm like, oh, this looks like something I can do while I'm
waiting to go back to what I'm doing. And I will tell you that in terms of ROI on the things that
I've invested in for myself was that hotline volunteer training, which was free. The skill
set that I learned in that I have applied in all aspects of my life. Learning active listening is
I think every profession should be taught. And the brain maker mastermind. I have ROI that
$5,000 investment like nothing I could ever do with my graduate degree. Doing dollars for hours,
trading counseling sessions and being a therapist. And what I've done is I've taken what I learned
and I've implemented it now into a program, you know, and become an entrepreneur around that. But
it's all been built on everything that I started with with Rainmakers and, you know, being creative
and being nimble and being, you know, thinking like a boss and not like an employee. So the
short answer is, I think for me, it's not about to college or not to college. I think it's about
being intentional about what the landscape of the jobs look like for the various things you can get
educated for and going into it with the right expectations and perspective on what the actual
value is. And so, you know, I'm going to make my kids that they all know when they start high school,
they have to start a business and that's it. And I don't care if it's like a lemonade stand or
something, but I'm going to start giving them the perspective that they're going to need to,
that by the time they're choosing college, you know, if they want to be a doctor or a lawyer
or an engineer or whatever, you know, whatever. I mean, my kids are very, all three very different.
So it's going to be fun to watch. But I think that it's a, I think it's a perspective thing.
And I think it's a delineation of that. Exactly what Vin said, exactly what you said, Jenna, like
are we bosses? Are we employees? You know? And I think, you know, not to get a little political
or whatever, but like, I think there's something in the system here in this country in particular
that really loves us to be employees. 100%.
And I think, you know, I could deep dive on that, but I think you guys all kind of get it. And I
think you're right. I think it's, you know, there's a lot of mechanisms in our culture
that keep us vulnerable when we think that way. And so it's use it, don't let it use you
kind of vibes, right? Like what do you need and what's the real potentiality of any education,
no matter what you pay for it or how much time you invest in it, you know? And does that mean,
you know, dollar value? Does that mean personal growth value? Like all of those things
matter, I think in the end, but you know, I think it's a really good question actually.
And one that I hotly debate with my parenting friends. And it's really interesting to see,
it's really interesting to see who's still that traditional conventional mindset and how upset
they get when you tell them that you aren't going to force your kids to go to college if they
pitch you a better idea, you know? And then the people that are like, oh yeah, obviously not.
It's really interesting. And I think it's an exciting time. Everything that's changing in
that whole system right now, really, I think creates opportunity if you know where to look for
it. Totally. I saw a post a couple of weeks ago from Alex Formosy. He said, it's never been easier
to build up. He said, it's never been easier to have success, not even build a business. But then
he also said, and it's also never been easier to be distracted. That's totally true. But I love what
he said. Arizona is definitely like an entrepreneurial hub. And several weeks ago,
it was probably a few months ago by now, our doorbell rang. And there was like this little
group of kids, probably like five to 10 years old. And they were talking so fast. It was like,
wait, what's going on? But they were asking if we had a dog they could walk, so they could earn
money because they wanted to go down to the convenience store and buy gummies. And they were
so excited. And we're like, no, sorry, we don't have a dog. And then they all just like ran over
the next house across the street. And it was so cute. And I was like, hey, first of all,
yay parents for letting your kids go out and wander around. Because our area is not,
it's not bad. It's not dangerous. It's super quiet. And I thought, way to go kids for like,
you want something, you're going to go out and you're going to find a way to get it. Like,
you're not going to sit around and ask your parents for money so you can go buy gummies.
You're going to go find a way to make some money and get your own gummies.
How to figure that out. Yeah, it was awesome.
I know I make my kids repack my returns when they come back, I have all my returns come.
And then I have my manufacturer send me brand new empty boxes. And so
the returns that come back to the house have to be unboxed, inspected, to make sure that they're
resellable. And then they have to be organized and then repacked. And so I set up a little
child labor assembly line and I make the kits. It's literally, this was the one of the things,
this was one of the things that was tricky about this business was that it's unseen by my children.
And so they're like, sure, mom, you have a job, right? Whatever. And they're like, honey bear,
sure. And then I'm like, no. And so I don't know that it's even economically
good or valuable for me to even be doing that as an exercise, but I think it's an important
thing for them to be hands-on about it. And then what I do is I pay the minimum wage
prorated by the minute, which is 25 cents a minute in California. And I make them invoice
me once a month. And so they each have a little file folder in the kitchen and they have to,
they do their hours, they have to clock them and then they have to fill out their invoices
and then they have to add it up and put the date and what they did and how many minutes they did.
And then just to get them thinking and I'm on the fence. I said, I think that once they're 13,
they're going to start losing taxes off that money too.
I love that. Plus you want to invest in real estate, right? Get that money back.
Totally. Corinne, you may already know this, but there are ways to
like tax wise to have all your kids be employees and you can benefit. So just making sure you know
that and are doing that. Cause there's really great benefits even from like infancy. I think
you can, I was like. The real loophole is, I think it's like, they just, you just have to
have the model on your Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Like take a picture and yeah. And then there's
like a minimum amount of money you can say to them every annually. Yeah. Yeah. My uncle did
that years ago, like 20 years ago, he had corporations and his kids were employees and
yeah. It changes every year. It was last I checked, it was $12,000. You can pay them
max a year without it. I think that's what it still is. I think we just checked this this year.
So, yeah. So cool. Yeah. Well, I, I, I haven't weighed in on my answer to that question, Jen,
I'm going to college. So I, I'm a huge advocate for education. I'd say, yes. I was a career
technical education director. So I was in public public education for 27 years and now I'm in
higher ed. So I'm like, I'm the college business professor. Oh my God. I love that. We're all
talking. I'm that person. So I was a high school business teacher for 22 years. And then a high
school principal, my last five. And I also was the director for the career technical education
programs. And so I'm huge advocate for skilled trades and we've seen a big surge in those coming
back today. It used to have a stigma of it's those kids. I hated that vocational is what we
used to be called, but now we're career technical education. But those kids I'm telling you are
super smart and the math they can do in their welding classes would beat any business major.
I'm telling you. That's awesome. What are the top vocational things that you're,
that you see? And you just said welding. What else? Yeah. So welding, machining, anything,
ag, ag mechanics is, so I'm in Kansas. So they are that yes, Corinne, they are very secure jobs
right now. So, and there's, there's always this swing, you know, there's this swing in education
of don't send your kids to vocational ed, you know, career and tech ed. That's, that's the
stigma of it's those kids who can't make it in the regular school. Right. And now we're seeing
this big swing back of yes, put them in the skilled, skilled trades. So I, I did that. I wrote
grant funding. I did all the Perkins grant, all the things for current technical education for
our district. And then now I teach in higher ed at Tabor college. I'm a business professor.
So, and I would say, yes, for me, yes. Go to college. Does every kid need college?
No. There are kids who college just isn't, isn't for them. It's not the fit for them.
But I think one piece that we haven't talked about is for kids going to college, it is a,
is a time of maturity. You know, I see these kids come in as freshmen and I see them leave
as seniors and the growth that they've made in maturing and the decision-making just the
development of their brain and their thinking is, it changes dramatically. And I, my challenge now
in education is what Corinne just put in there was.
AI? How do I teach critical thinking and problem solving when kids just want to put it in
that GPT and get their paper done, right? So that's really been changing higher education.
It's a big conversation now in higher ed is how do we teach? Is higher ed losing its value because
of AI? And how do we combat that to still make a college education valuable asset to students? And
it's a challenge. It's a big conversation in my world right now. I'm speaking at a conference
next month on it. How do I change my... So anyway, would I go to college? Yes. I love school. I went
back to my doctorate when I was 50. I started school and I'm still in school. Doing this is
learning. I mean, I love to learn. But could some of these kids went out and started a business on
their own? Maybe. Yeah. A few of them. But a lot of them just need to grow up. And college kind of
gives them that space between leaving home and doing the thing to get to that point for some
of these kids. I'm really glad you said that because, well, two things I've seen recently.
Number one, there was this big thing. I don't know. I was scrolling Instagram. And it's like
a problem now that parents are so attached to their kids. It's like a competition of who has
the most glamorous dorm room. And it's like, it's not about you, parents. It's about your kids. And
they're like, you know, kids used to be like, let's goodwill. Let's thrift this because I have no
money. What can I do? And now that's totally changed. And then we're just talking. I was out to breakfast
with some friends a couple months ago. And she is working in a high school. And actually, in senior
years, they're having to... It's like a... What'd she call it? She called it like a transition year to prepare
kids to be ready for college because they are so ill-equipped to take care of themselves.
Just look at the statistics on the number of parents that go to job interviews with their kids.
Just Google that. It's crazy. Or how many parents call the employer of the kid?
How many parents try to call me as their business professor? I'm like, I'm not talking, FERPA.
But it's amazing. And our kids aren't are equipped to even to transition. And at least college gives
them that a little bit of that space, you know, to get to that point. But you're right here,
I'm not quite. So I'm curious, as I love your hat, Christy. So as a business professor,
do you feel like you are keeping up to date with what they need to know?
It's a challenge. I mean, so I read all the time. You have to stay current with current events. A
textbook is old the day it's published. So you have to constantly keep up. So OER resources
are the best things because they're constantly updated. It's a different game than what it used
to be, where you can make a PowerPoint and you can use that PowerPoint over and over for the next
three or four years. But now kids can learn it. They have to know how to use it. And that's what
higher ed has changed. You can't just you can't just be the sage on the stage. It's not a stand
and deliver anymore. It is interact, critical thinking skills. How do they work with each
other? Teamwork. Google, what are the top skills that employers need today? They can learn knowledge
if they want to. They don't know how to interact and collaborate. And
so those kind of things are what we have to focus on in higher ed to get kids ready.
How to find the information, the right information and use it. So.
So interesting. Anybody else?
Okay. I'm curious, what is the last book you've read or what current book are you reading?
Business, professional, anything? Or has it been a year since you picked up a book?
I just finished the perfect week formula by I think Megan mentioned it, not last week,
the week before in the Thursday call. And so I got that book. And that was, yeah,
like a lot of the same threads that we had talked about in the first week of the accelerator,
maybe just explained a different way, or maybe just adding to some of those same concepts.
And yeah, that was, it was a good book. Definitely was good supplement to everything
that we had talked about.
in that first week.
Nice.
Atomic Habits, love that.
I've not read it yet.
I've just heard a lot about it.
What do you, when, are you currently reading that
or have you finished it?
I do an audio book.
Nice, okay.
And it's trying to kill time.
So I go for a mile and a half walk
with my dog every morning.
So I have an audio book on
and I just have these speakers that go around my neck.
So that way my ears are free
so I can hear what's going on.
So I have that one.
And then the other one is called
Dynasty Building a Championship Insurance Team.
That one's just got released
and I just got it in my hands.
So I'm pausing Atomic Habits to read that one
because that's shorter.
Atomic Habits is pretty lengthy.
Okay.
It's like 10 hours, you know.
Well, I can listen to podcasts all day long.
If I listen to a book, my mind goes,
I have to read.
Listening to a book is useless for me.
Yeah, that's how I sometimes it's,
I like it, you know, I have audible
so it breaks down in chapters and I can rewind
and go, whoa, wait, hold on.
I just, my mind just wandered.
So let me go back to that.
Nice, okay.
I've been reading two books.
One, I finished, I love Malcolm Gladwell.
If you haven't read his book, I think they're really good.
No, I just finished reading his second one
that just came out on The Tipping Point.
That's really good.
And then I'm also reading a book
to kind of go along with my brand
to help me kind of develop my brand.
It's called Raising Resilient Kids
by Rhonda Spencer Wang.
I'm not sure how you pronounce it.
Anyway, it is such a good book for my brand.
It's aligned so perfectly.
So I'm taking a lot of what things
that she has talked about in her book
and making, rewarding it
and kind of restructuring a little bit,
but making freebies for my Instagram account.
So that's what I've been working on.
I'm reading a book called Habits of the Household.
It's about like liturgies in house.
It's cool.
It's a good book.
And I saw Corinne's doing the 5 a.m. Club.
Are you in the 5 a.m. Club?
Are you awake at that hour?
I go through spurts where I do it.
I've been, it just depends what's going on with my kids.
Some days I'm like up and raring to go.
Like I've had a couple of 4.30 a.m. starts
the last week or so.
And then sometimes I'm like, nope,
today my brain needs the sleep to work properly.
And it also depends on what kind of like sprints
and deep work sessions I have planned.
So if I know I have lots of like meetings
and like collaboration stuff happening that day,
I like to get up earlier and do my alone work.
But if I know I'm gonna have a chunk later in the day
to do that, then I'm not,
I don't feel as driven to get up and do 5 a.m.
It's a lovely idea to do it every single day.
And I know that like the book prescribes
like just tough it out for 90 days
and then you'll like, it'll be locked in.
But I'm just, you know, 90 whole days.
I don't, who hasn't in a row to do the same thing?
Like that's a lot of days.
So I'm getting there, I'm getting there,
but I do love it when I do it.
I'm like, oh yeah, this is, I'm getting so much done.
And my brain is so clear and creative
first thing in the morning, I can get so much done.
And so I do like to do it when I can,
but I'm also managing my sleep hygiene
and my wellbeing and my burnout at the same time,
which so it's not always the most practical thing to do.
So, you know.
I've gotten to the point where I wake up before five
without an alarm, but we'll see,
we'll see what happens as it gets darker.
Because right now for like the last four months,
the sun's been shining in my window about 20 to five.
So you will see, but I love it.
All my after mornings are the best.
Nothing like a good early morning, get stuff done.
So much done.
Okay, final question.
What podcast do you listen to?
None, none, none, none.
If I have time, I go to that Dr. Shannon Irving podcast.
I'll go to her Green or Irving website
and I'll like scroll through her podcast
and like pick something that's like
resonating with me right then.
But mostly I honestly don't have time.
Then are you cutting up all the podcasts you listen to?
Yeah.
I listen to Alex Ramosi.
He does it on marketing.
So he has some amazing stuff on marketing and stuff.
And he has two books, actually, on Spotify that I've been listening to.
One's called 100 Million Dollar Offers.
And then the other one is...
Yeah, so his podcasts are pretty good on there.
So if you want marketing stuff, I'll write his name down on here in the chat so you can
see it.
I love that.
Do you ever listen to the Why That Works podcast?
Have you heard of that?
It's the guy, Donald Miller, the Story Brand Framework?
No.
His is super entertaining, really good.
They just go through random campaigns, marketing stuff, like why that worked, why that didn't.
The last one I listened to, they were evaluating the most successful but most obnoxious infomercials
and why it worked, what they did, and it was super good.
There's another podcast called Business Wars.
And it would be, for example, it'll take two businesses, like Honda and Harley, and the
war that they had.
Or it would take Coke and Pepsi, it will take Blockbuster and Netflix, and it just dives
into the history of it and all the things that goes, wow.
We lived right in the middle of it, but we didn't even see what was happening in the
background of all these name brands that we know and how they came about.
Yeah.
See, Crenn?
Very cool.
That's why I like the Why That Worked, like what is going on that made this thing go viral?
What did they dig into?
It's really cool.
I definitely have my, I probably have 12 that I rotate through.
I listen to Dr. Shannon's mindset stuff, marketing stuff, the Why That Worked.
There's one guy who's super funny.
It's all about email marketing, and it's called Do This, Not That.
And they're all under 10 minutes, so that's my Saturday binge.
And then Mark Hyman, what's his name?
Andrew Huberman is a productivity neuroscience guy.
So those are my morning and evening education.
No more grad school.
I thought I was going to get a psychology degree after my dietetics degree, and I actually
did Dr. Shannon's neurocoaching instead.
I was like, yep, I don't need a degree anymore.
I just went through her program, and I'm good.
So podcasting.
Podcasting is my current ed, Melinda, my current higher ed.
Anything else for today before we hop off?
I just have a really quick question, just back to the content for this week.
Is everyone using the Relay Bank that the Mastermind suggests?
I'm just curious if other people are using different banking.
Yeah, you're using that, Melinda.
Yeah, I set it up when I very first started.
I can't even remember.
It was Clearback in phase one.
Yeah.
I did the same.
I just did.
I didn't know any different.
I have the accounts, like she says, but I don't even use them yet.
Yeah, okay.
Well, that's what you did.
Okay.
I was just curious.
That's what I did, too, but I was curious if other people are further along in doing
something different.
I just did it because I didn't know any different, and I had read Profit First before doing that,
so that all kind of made sense.
I understood where she was going.
So I just did it because I thought, well, I could do this in my own bank, but then I'd
get everything all mixed up.
Yeah.
I did it because there's no fees, and it was easy, so.
Okay.
Awesome.
Thanks.
I have a Chase business account, and I got it because Chase also has credit cards that
you can do no interest for 12 months or no interest for 18 months, and I feel like they
increase your credit limit faster if it's adjoined to your checking account, and they
can see your checking and balance and how much is flowing through.
That's my personal thought, and I don't have ... I mean, I guess I could have put my $3
of profit from July into a separate savings account, but I did not do that.
I haven't really gotten to the point where I need separate bank accounts.
Dividing it up.
Yeah.
Everything is separate.
still just personally backed.
Unless you start allocating what you're willing to spend on inventory, on
advertisement so that you don't overexert your personal finances, growing the business.
So I am working on that this week with the spreadsheets and
Michelle's profitability calculator.
Um, it's been helpful for me to rewatch some of the training on how to use the
calculator because I, when I was trying to do it last month, I'm like, I must have
broken this calculator because it does not like the numbers that it's telling me are
not making any sense.
Like when I just hand count things.
And so I'm, I'm, I'm trying to get there.
And I do hope to be able to set a hard budget line around advertising expenses.
I mean, the cost of goods are already sunk, so can't do anything about that now.
Right.
Alrighty.
Well, I will watch you guys after the fact on Thursday's call and I'll see you in the
group in the meantime.
Thanks.
Bye everyone.
Bye.