Today we were joined by Marli Williams of LifeLaunch to talk about Lifelaunch, education and empowering youth. See our conversation below.
o welcome to living a remarkable life we have Marley really joining us today Kevin is somewhere warm to tropical nice sounds awesome yes I’m still echoing but it would obviously didn’t have some type of technical issue yeah sometimes that happens in life and you just got to go got to keep going got a person he Rebecca through the idea Cole difficulties okay it’s funny because it’s very happy each week hmm yes yeah and sometimes it clears up on its own
sometimes it doesn’t yep yeah yeah so lots of metaphors there for sure so we thought this week we would talk a little bit about education yeah but some yeah I know you love
talking to just been doing other things so tell me a little bit about what you
yeah so for those of you out there that I haven’t met my name is Marley Williams
and I am an educational speaker a leadership trainer and what I like to
call an inspiration generator I believe that this generation wants to make a
difference and they really just want the guidance the tools the skills the
strategies and the inspiration and the confidence to actually do something that matters do something for Marko remarkable with their life and that’s what I’m up to in the world I do that by creating programs I created a program last summer called life launch which was for recent college graduates or anyone in their 20s who’s asking themselves that question what’s next right I work in higher education that’s what my master’s degree is in and time and time again I see students go through the educational system and graduate after four or five or six years of college and still not know who they are what they want or how to get there oh my daughter would be one of them mmm and to me I like that get to be fired up because I know that they want something more and they there’s just no one out There helping them figure out how to do that and how to find work that matters how to how to live a meaningful life and they’re just we’ve just been told to go through all of the motions you know X you know to get good grades go to a good college and then you’re going to get a good job all of a sudden and that’s not happening and I think the way that work is shifting and changing is evolving and I don’t think education education is keeping up with it so they’re with me here I’m trying to microphone on this okay that’s where I thought that might get rid of our feedback okay okay okay so yeah I think that is absolutely credible what you’re doing it’s really going to help chance in the long run I think so I hope so that’s the goal yeah okay is that strictly that’s Annie that’s good if it’s not for you then we will just leave it and keep going okay that’s all good yes so I know I’m very passionate myself about making sure that their kids are able to discover what they want to do I feed my own senses they’re going through school as I mentioned I have one daughter in her fifth year of college and she’s still not quite sure what she’s going to do I have a 17 year old trying to make decisions now what does she want to do mm-hmm so how do you see the future of post-secondary education do we need to do something different with it and we need to incorporate more creativity into it hmm I think that we need to ask better questions as educators ask students that are questions in particular you know I was my student sometimes they first I work with a lot of first quarter freshmen they go home right during Thanksgiving break I’m sure they have them experience this over the holiday weekend where they go home and their aunt and uncle’s are sitting around the table having dinner and they say you know hey hey Bobby what are you majoring in and and he’s the first quarter freshman deer-in-headlights he’s like a little no yet but maybe he’s in a psychology class or he’s really fascinated by it and so what does he say like well I don’t know like I’m considering psychology and the next question we can almost guarantee is going to be what are you gonna do with that and that from this like I’m super curious like Oh tell me why you’re interested in psychology what about it it’s very much like what are you going to do for a living for a career and is a first quarter freshman and I’m like I asked people who are over 30 how many of you knew that you would be doing what you’re doing now when you were 18 mm-hmm not many people that well true and so I think that we need to stop putting all of the pressure on these young folks to have it all figured out and we need to shift the conversation to curiosity and wonder I always say you know I ask I ask just asking better questions you know sometimes you just walk into my office and they don’t know what they want to do for a living they don’t know what they want a major in their walk alone confused they think that they’re the only one that doesn’t know and I say you know ask them things like if you were locked in the library for 24 hours and you had to read as many books as you could what section of the library would you go to or if you like had a day to yourself how would you spend that time um but you had to learn something so trying to help them think through their educational journey and really like claim their education because I think that they’re also going through the educational system and it’s a very passive process they’re told these are the classes you have to take these are the things you have to learn and then they get to college and they don’t have the capacity or the ability to make those choices for themselves about you know there are 1,500 classes and you get to do three each quarter that can be stressful because they haven’t developed the skills to like make choice and I think that we there’s a really great book called the paradox of choice it talks about how the more choices we have the less satisfied with we are with it with the ones that we make so instead of choosing like chocolate or vanilla or you know teacher or lawyer you’re choosing between not just thirty two flavors of ice cream but like three hundred different majors and like endless careers and so this whole uh fear I think comes from I’m going to make the wrong choice and I say the only choice you can make they’re they’re only wrong choice is no choice because for sure if you take a class in accounting come you’re interested in accounting and you take it and you hate it great that’s information what else are you interested in oh I want taken art history class you know great so take an art history class like but get excited about it you know and and I and I I just see students on college campuses right now seeing it as this like four year prison sentence like I just have to get through this I just have to get to the end and and then all of a sudden magical things are going to happen and I’m going to get a job that I love and I don’t think that that happening for students and so I really help them navigate that university experience so that they can walk away better than when they started or more more aware of themselves I love my friend Julian Gordon he gave a great TED talk he calls it the other 4.0 and he says your major may not matter so get a masters and that’s the thing I think if we can help students help young people cultivate self awareness about their passions their skills their values then they can make decisions from that place of knowing themselves not knowing what they want to do but it’s knowing who they want to be in the world and how they want to show up and then figuring out what are the different options based on those things that they’re good at there or skills or passion etc you are so completely on point with all those issues I find that as we go through a traditional ruling we start basically telling because you can’t yet do that and when we start telling them what they can’t do we stop blowing being it we what I can’t mmm-hmm so we really need to bring back the ability to imagine self as a tester dog yes or anything else when is the last time we said to each other we’re going to be an astronaut right mm-hmm yeah yeah and and I do see people struggling perhaps just a high global unemployment level this is Jeremy crazy I got so much feedback I’m here myself twice so anyways global youth unemployment level extremely high people are leaving post-secondary they can’t get job they’re not excited they’re already feeling down about life because they don’t know what to do and they’re not finding something that needs to meet I love the idea being able to pick from more courses you may want to be an accountant but maybe you need to let go of that creative side too and take an art history take something else it interests you hmm yeah and and that’s I mean I I work at a liberal arts university right now and we have what’s called the general university requirements there are a lot of schools that have some version of this general education requirements whatever and it’s just so interesting because the first couple years are spent completing what’s called the Guys you just come into my office and they’re like how do I get these done with it’s like they have this box what the college is this giant scavenger hunt I just need to check all these boxes and then I’m going to get this piece of paper and then like get on with my life or you know and it’s like this is your life right now it’s happening right now and these Girls that you just want to Get done with can either be I always say an opportunity or an obstacle is an opportunity to learn something new right like you know that you want to be a biology major great and you know you want to be a doctor but like taking those that art history class or that amuse ik appreciation class or a history class or something the idea is that it creates depth and critical thinking and awareness of other people cultures experiences you know and and to make that as a valuable part of their education but they see that as like it’s in my way and the helping helping them shift their mindset of like well what does it mean to be a well-rounded global citizen of the world and and that’s I think it’s just interesting because I mean I went to college a little over 10 years ago and I remember when I went it was more about going for the experience and the experience was beyond the classroom it was I just remember like oh it’s like who you need it’s all these different people from different walks of life you know like you grow up in your neighborhood or your school or your community and it’s pretty homogeneous and then the idea of going to college oh you get to meet all these different people and I think you know that is such a critical component of that experience the ability to get along with other people the ability to communicate with people who might have a different perspective and that those are those like the interpersonal transferable skills that are hard harder to pinpoint other than like oh I took this class it’s like oh I learned how to the talk with and get along with all sorts of different people and and that’s such a valuable skill to have if you have your own business if you work for someone most people don’t quit jobs they quit bosses or they quit culture snakes they don’t feel supported you know all these different reasons not because they can’t do the job and so those skills I think are really really critical for students to see the value in and how to develop those for sure and I think we should explain a little bit I’m in Canada so we have community army of colleges which are usually more vocational focus and then we have universities which I believe you will refer to as colleges in the u.s. correct yeah I mean college and university are a bit interchangeable we do have a community college system which is a two-year degree and some of those are just you know it’s called an associate’s degree and outcome of those are just like going and taking certain amount of classes some are technical colleges where they get a technical degree and then four-year colleges or universities like yes there’s evergreen college and then there’s Western Washington University bourbeau their four-year schools so I guess I okay so we basically have two or three year diploma colleges okay and then our University of 40 okay and we also have University College partnership where you might have shared appalling and then two or three years of university on top yeah so it’s a little bit different but the end goal is to give students the knowledge they need to be able to either to their feet up our college seem to do a better job of hearing be job ready mm-hmm but overall they all need to be doing to inspire a little bit more hmm yeah that’s why I completely agree I just it just blows my mind that you know college should be this really exciting i opening and i remember being in college and yeah like I had pen side to study for I’d work I had to do but for overall like I was stoked and also I’m just doped in general so maybe that’s just me but I was like this is the coolest thing ever there’s like events every week there’s lectures there’s concerts there’s programs there’s all these different things going on that really helps you develop who you are and what you what you want to be and and it’s all those outside of the classroom experiences too that I think really cultivate that self-awareness you know I fully believed the outside following that’s all interior for you or doing it yeah having internships I mean having those meaningful hands-on tangible experiences and I honestly think that is what students are looking for that they’re not getting that really helps make their education come to life I’m see the reason behind what they’re learning and the and how that’s going to impact their future or their career or what it is that they want to do it’s a little bit like when you go to events sometimes the best conversations for the best part of the event are the hallway conversations yeah it’s where you really get to know people you find a little bit extra information and it just keeps you Going so it’s those non-college college event right that really are the reason to me to go and as I help my kids choose their own colleges I ask them to look what else the college offer you other than the education we know the education is there but what else they look right what are you get to go to this little verse at school and what are the extra opportunities right and how do we encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity yes there’s so many times where there’s a ton of free events in our college but they don’t come out the students don’t come out how do we charge them hey this is a three event go learn these people this is going to help you in the future yeah and they’re sitting in their dorm room watching Netflix and kickin it and and I mean that is I talk to my students about that all the time because I’m like what are Y like I ask them like and they’re just like you have just this lazy like well it’s give the air aware of that but what are you going to do about it you know and every time student I encourage them to go I give them extra credit all these different things and they go and they’re like oh my gosh that was amazing it’s like if you can encourage them to go to one or two things that they get how incredible those things are then hopefully they’ll go in the future and they’ll learn and they’ll see the value and doing that but the other thing that you mentioned is the having having conversation the others real-life human and I see students really being having a hard time with that having a hard time connecting with people not on social media and using technology which you know I think it’s great to have that but the ability to neck network and connect really with other people on their college campus whether that’s their peers mentors advisors professors like it’s those those advisors and those mentors and those professors that are going to be able to open those doors more to help you and that internship or to see that next opportunity that you don’t even know you’re aware of but if you aren’t building those relationships like the whole time you’re there I think that that’s a huge part of the college experience too is that access point to those other people that are there Network you know if you build a relationship with a professor and they know someone who does research at Yale or wherever you know at a then you have an in you know I mean those those relationships I really do believe open those doors for students so helping them develop a confidence to connect with each other and with their mentors and with those professors and building those relationships I think is so so valuable for that experience as well so we have a quick question on the side are there just asking about my t-shirt socially oh yeah really quickly socialite is conference at Alden brought to you without also in Vancouver and it is about leaders impacting global humanity I can’t regret the T stands for but it’s all about leadership and having that global impact and they have a lot of university and college to come out to it as well as people all across the nation it was just held last Saturday wonderful event awesome so as Seth Godin came to speak I was so happy to meet oh wow that’s awesome that’s great yeah yeah so back to what we’re talking about what do you think we can do to help students see the value of building relationships well was I giving them an assignment which is what I do oh you know it’s fascinating I do give them an assignment where they have to go interview one of their professors and I talk about informational interviews and coming up with interesting questions you know what do you want to know what do you want to find out about and you know a hundred percent of the time well most of them are terrified to go and talk to their professors and so I think unpacking that fear like you know they’re maybe they’re in a big lecture hall and they’re like they don’t know who I am and and saying with you it’s okay to be scared and I talk about courage you know courage is that not being played courage is being afraid of doing it anyway and that I joined Billy Anderson speaks on courage and says exactly that yes he says if you stop being afraid you’re no longer having your courage basically exactly you always need to be afraid you always need to be conquering your fears so we talked about building that courage muscle and when you build that courage multi-view it also I think simultaneously builds your confidence and so I can share with them this assignment we talked about it’s okay to be scared you’re gonna do it anyway I promise you won’t get attacked by a lion everything’s going to be easy and they go no lion just a teacher this is yourself they go to the office hours they have these conversations and then I get the papers back and they’re like oh my gosh Mike my professor likes the trail run too or no we both grew up in Iowa or whatever like they start to see the connection something I would their professors and when you connect with your professors you also engage in a different way and you show up and you pay attention and maybe you sit in front now and then you do better on the next test and then you do better in the class and then you have a better time learning you know it’s like I think again it’s like that entry point of like you don’t you know maybe I’m not going to say you have to go meet everyone on campus but I say have one conversation with a professor in a field that you’re interested in pursuing I have one getting part of the problem that they’re not feeling they can approach other people yeah I think that they’re they’re scared I think I think that they like I said we’ve like lost the art of the ability to have a conversation like a real live human human conversation because so much conversation is happening online that I think that they’re just losing the ability to to do that or maybe they want to they don’t know what to say the things they’re going to say the wrong thing or what is my professor you know or what if they’re not doing good in the class and their fear of judgement and embarrassment I know that some people don’t want to go into office hours because of that you know and that’s why I say the first three weeks of the cut of your semester or quarter to go in and just say and just introduce yourself I’m really I’m really excited about taking this class and I look forward to what I have to learn and for sure it’s very hot very scary when approaching someone especially feel maybe they’re not very available hmm and that should be a glaring point – you don’t want to interrupt your bug people right and that’s hard I mean I think that there are some professors that are definitely more approachable than others and so you know maybe I say start with someone who you think might be more approachable you know you don’t have to go climb Everest and just go climb the mountain over here kind of thing and like build up your confidence before you go and into the next because if you have a positive positive experience you’re more likely to continue to do it but if you go and you have a negative experience with that professor who might be more intimidating that would be that would be harder to keep hit keep doing that for sure and so it’s something and incretins do early on I tell them go talk to your teacher if you don’t understand something ask questions ask him what you can do ask practice or her and it really seeing the help something else that one of the early teachers taught me check our map my children have been shorted before so they can get home talk to the teacher and they get a better mark it’s all about building that relationship and if you can start it earlier in elementary school it will help carry through right if yeah you don’t start approaching teachers or talking to teachers at L university or college it’s very hard to change that mindset that hey I’ve been talking to these people yeah a few years you could be colleagues with these people which is even leering and it’s I think it’s about learning to be yourself out of the advocate you know to to say you know I sometimes I think about colleges the only place that we we pay a ridiculous amount of money like a lot of money for an education or for this fix this experience and we expect less of it you know we pay to go to conferences we’re like I want to get as little again out of this or we pay for you know a really nice TV and we’re like I want it to be the best thing and if it doesn’t work then you call our customer service and say doesn’t work you know if something isn’t working for you to be able to approach your professor and claim your education and say hey will you explain this to me like this is your like they are that is what they’re there for that is what office hours are for but some of some of the language like well what is office hours like this idea of I want to interrupt them or because they’re doing work and so we we’ve thought about how do we even shift the language calling it suited ours mm-hmm these are hours for new shifted language and is absolutely perfect way to describe it yeah and I think that helping students and I particularly work with students that are the first in their family to go to college and so this link you know college has all of these foreign languages and foreign terms like office hours they’ve never had office hours and they had perfected they had teachers in their classrooms with you know 20 30 students and their teachers knew their name and here they go to you know there’s office hours and their professors and there’s like you know this intimidation factor that I think it can be really hard to overcome that so how do we shift language or how do how do we help professors what I call like learn learn teaching professors how to build learning communities for sure we really need to know that that’s been something that I’ve really struggled with in higher education is that professors don’t need to have a degree in adult learning theory or like all of these things that I think really enhance the educational experience they need to be knowledgeable in their subject and that doesn’t make them a good teacher necessarily but doing things at the beginning of beginning of class like one-minute exercises work like turn to your neighbor and share what you learn from the readings that you did last night so I think in pace yourself and here one thing that you learned and it’s just like in one minute if you did 160 seconds every day before you start a class and you created a ritual or something like that you get people connected engaged to their learning paying attention woken up you know the especially in a big lecture hall you can do that but it’s like they have to professors have to be willing to give up that control and then be able to draw them back in and it’s a skill but it’s not hard to to develop and I think that there’s a lot of value in those types of engagement experiences in inside the classroom help students really think about what they’re learning in a more meaningful way and to connect with each other grace it’s like opening that door for connection is so valuable you know not everybody’s going to turn into their neighbor while they’re waiting for the professor and say hi I’m Marley nice to meet you would you learn in the book last night if the professor it’s like hi might we might but not mostly do it you remember how we met yeah probably don’t we should you remember at last cleared guru staying around big whites were asking questions is that UDF yeah that was me so I remember you from last year because I was the one who was getting out of my comfort zone and I decided I was going to go and talk to as many people as I could and I don’t know what it was that year so that little push that little bit of bravery and let me mean a ton of people and it’s nothing to courage our kids in class by doing hey say hi to your neighbor share something with them then that is so amazing and that will lead them to a life yeah mm-hmm exactly building that little muscle of courage and confidence when you do those things you’re like oh wow like that was awesome and it doesn’t have to be so severe of an issue that introverts are going to be scared off and extrovert riot going to be like silver dress over or something it’s just as simple through new to someone assuming hi sharing one thing it’s not standing up in front of the class it’s not talking to grey attend to twenty people if having conversation was one person mmm-hmm yeah exactly I agree mm-hmm get that yes so what else wants to talk about what else do we want to talk about Rebecca there’s so many L me about life launch I’d love to hear a little bit more about what you’re doing with it yeah so last year so this was just an idea that I had to help recent college graduates help launch into their life after graduation and really have a better sense of who they are what they want and how to get there and what what it was was a four day retreat in the North Cascades Mountains here in Washington State and at this beautiful is called the North Cascades Institute it’s a beautiful facility in the mountain and it’s just a great place to take a step back and reflect on their on their college experience and really think about how did I grow what did I learn and really the three the three main questions that were asked over the course of those days are Who am I so the first day was really about self-awareness and cultivating that what are my strengths my values my skills my passions all these things telling your story so we told our life stories around a camp fired our first night of you know where are you what is your what is your story the next day we talked about what do you really want so things like what is what a success mean to you and we created visions I love vision we looked about all of these things words like you know for some people that’s making a lot of money for some people traveling for some people it’s having a family but it’s like whatever mountain you’re climbing makes sure it’s your mountain and not just the thing that you think you’re supposed to you to make someone else happy or to make society accept you because if you’re ultimately chasing something else you’re not going to be fulfilled you’re not going to be happy and that’s really the whole point and so it’s like knowing what what is the mountain you’re climbing what a success mean to you and then that last day was like how are you going to get there and so then we did some practical things we talked about you know how to network with the pro kind of thing like how to how to connect with anyone and building that courage and confidence to do those informational interviews so finding those people that are in your it field that you’re interested in and reaching out to them having conversations with them asking them some really good questions we did some resumes cover letters LinkedIn that whole kind of like all of those I don’t know like the nuts and bolts of 12 great you know you know who you are you know where you want to go but now it’s like the health part and it’s not something I was taught to school mm-hmm and then I mean in the midst of all of that we went hiking every morning we did like a morning ritual so the first day we did yoga the second day we had a morning dance party and then the last day we jumped in this freezing cold lake together and we talked about starting your day on purpose starting your life on purpose you don’t have to wait to have the perfect job to start living your life right now for sure as you’re applying for a job and working at Starbucks like your life is happening right now and what you do every day matters and so it was this amazing four-day experience in the last day we had this beautiful circle where everyone just it was like I call it like a love fest where they appreciated each other they said here’s what I see your strengths are and here’s where I see you going and thank you for bringing your kindness and your wisdom and your creativity and you know so and it was just really beautiful to see them walk away with more confidence courage and clarity and who they are what they want how to get there and so my my hope it was a really small group this year but it was awesome and intimate and wonderful in so many ways but I want to create what I’m going to call the life launch leadership something that sounds amazing this summer where we talk about all of those things and have like many workshops and talks and but they still have a small group and they had a small group facilitator where they go and they do these different kind of components of the curriculum or they’re diving into these these things in a deeper way that Transocean so that’s my vision for the summer hoping to get you know if my goal for the program is that if anyone we took a recent college graduate or someone who’s about to graduate and they say I have no idea what I want to do you’re like oh my gosh you got to go to this life launch thing it’s amazing it’ll blow your mind so that’s like what I want to create because I really I really want to help this generation launch into their life and take those next steps with confidence and conviction and courage and clarity and all these things instead of fear and anxiety and pressure it’s it’s so sad at such a young age people students young people are walking around feeling like you were saying kind of generally I hated oppressed under lifestyle radio or you don’t know like everything is going to be alone I promise like you know and but you have to just take and one of my things that I tell students is it’s more important to take in perfect action than perfect inaction absolutely I know that from my own and very scary I just I see the anxiety and kids and I see them with a greater need not only to discover who they can be but also to develop some of the basic skills even financial literacy they don’t have read it’s not being taught they feel completely lost they’re stressed out of their minds and they haven’t even got to adulthood yet it’s not a right way to be and I’m not forgetting my own program to watch where I’m working with youth aged 10 to 18 so I’m trying to hit them before college to help them build their own self empowerment entrepreneurial skills life skills so we’re working on that over here awesome I love it I think that’s so great and you know what I see with with life launch is bringing in those those experts of those people that you know helping you develop your budget for yourself and you know like it’s like the budget the resume the cover letter like but those the life skills where when and how do we ever learn those basic things and it just blows my mind that even be people are graduating from the educational system and not having the skills I think that that’s really you know it’s a disservice to students and to young people to they’re being launched into their life without much I saw a post the primal wisdom and it just seemed to be very much reality I’m talking about how they’re in their late 20s and they don’t have kids and they don’t do their friends so and they don’t know how their care their friends would because their friends could barely take care of themselves and it’s that line the frames can barely take care of themselves it scares me a little bit it sounds like we’re not preparing the next generation really be able to take care of themselves with helicopter and parenting and squishing people down saying no you can’t do this you can’t do that I know teens who are not even allowed to ride a bus by themselves yet in three years we’ll throw them out the door college we don’t right here that are going to get you to trouble they have no idea how to take care of themselves or do things for a house mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah I think it’s it’s so important for to build help students build those skills because our help mr. brilliant they are absolutely yes and they’ve got straight yummy and untapped energy items just have to help guide them along and stop telling them we can’t do it yeah yeah and it’s amazing I mean I have students often come into my office and this is just one really tangible example of parent parents that want this certain path further for their kid she comes in and she’s like trying to major in business has over 100 credits but can’t declare the major because she doesn’t have the GPA she needs and keeps getting like c’s and d’s and these accounting and economics courses and I’m like it doesn’t really seem like you’re into this and she’s like whoa I’m not really my parents want me to major in business and I’m like well what do you want to major in and she’s like I don’t know and she says I grew up in I grew up in this town and there was a store it was really really cool it had all this stuff that had flowers but it had these like kind of antiquey things and she was like describing like in detail this store and she’s like so I’ve kind of thought about like maybe art history or something and and so we pull up the art history major like the what in it and what it describes and oh and I read it out loud and almost who is he it described exactly what she says that she’s interested in like art and artifacts and did it it you know she talked about museums and you know I asked her that question if you were stuck in a library what books would be read and all these things and she her face just like completely lit up and I wish you can own your own business like you could create a store like this if you wanted if that’s what you really want to do and there’s a new entrepreneurship minor here on cam you can you know you can major major in our history and minor in entrepreneurship and have the time of your life and you don’t have to take any more accounting and economics you know but I think the other thing is like I think young people only know what they know and they don’t always know the possibilities or well you know what MD William because I always yeah and I always say like if what you were saying is like if you really good at something and you’re really passionate there is you can find a way to make a living doing it and I think it drives me crazy when I hear a students at such a young age like yeah their dreams their goals are getting squandered by parents out of fear instead of like love you know like I I think the goal should be that you find one of my favorite quotes is your work is to find your book and then with all of your heart give yourself to it agreed your work is to find your work and that is why you’re in college and so like go out there and get after it and try to figure out like where do you really love what is it you want and it’s hard sometimes when I hear these stories from students who their parents are wanting them to go down a certain path because that’s the path of stability and security but no really no security any why you’re good to be no there’s no security and would you rather see your kid be an accountant and be miserable or own their own little shop and build community and have the time of their freakin life actually like what would you rather want as a parent you know what I mean and I’m like and I think it all of those the whole like what are you going to do with that those questions come from a place of fear and I really encourage students like don’t let their fear be your fear for sure and the other thing you don’t think about is the fact that a lot of the jobs of the future don’t even exist yet so how do you know what to take when it’s not ready their social media manager hmm so what if that would it be jobs in Jesco right you know like if you love Facebook and Twitter like you can get paid do that for a living you honestly can and you can get paid really well or you know when I see these students that want to major in English or creative writing and I’m like I think about copy copy writer you have copy editors for all these blogs and magazines and online things a lot of them don’t even know that that’s a thing and you can get he can work from home and make it amount of money doing that but that I think it’s that’s why it was what I said at the beginning I think like the way that the world of work its shifting and I don’t think the educational system is helping students he knows kind of unconventional paths for sure we actually have life that was ill and tried to be talking about that same thing the educational system is broken are teaching kids potential and how to succeed and sadly I think it’s true we need to do more to teach them their potential the other thing that I find is very important to discuss is the fact that if you’re from a small town you never be a grow certain career how do you need to think of that as a possibility for tech for example if you know nobody who works in tech why would that be a career option to you because you have no idea of what it is so we need to expose our kids to more opportunities to what is it possible to that outside of that thinking right and I see students I mean when I bring in guest speakers into my class about you know I I have a friend who’s a doctor and she came in and she told she told the students her story and her path and they like lit up and and I think it’s fascinating you know she majored in sociology and Spanish for her grad degree and then went on to do a post back in pre-med and now she’s a doctor but everybody sees like oh I have to major in biology if I want to be a doctor and they don’t hate these other these other passes and so I think when students see your other people’s journey on how they got to where they are and what some of those options are I think that that is powerful and opening up their mind and their awareness to what they can do and that there isn’t just one way to get from point A to point B and there is no point A to point B you know it’s like you kind of instead of like from here to here it’s like here and then here and then over here and then I went over and that oh you’re here you know and I think that’s the helping Them be okay that the journey isn’t necessarily super straight you know that they’re there on their path or on their way and know for sure I think that there’s there’s a lot of value in them hearing those stories for sure I’d love to share stories and enough to hear how people ended up where they are today so if you’re a life coach what led you to that if you’re a lawyer what made you yeah I’d love with the path was it because you witnessed an injustice was it because you like money is it because your dad’s a lawyer it could be as simple as that let’s hear what your story is what has led you down your path what has helped form your life experiences so I know for myself I go right back to being a teen mom at age 16 and always having to push forward and do everything I can to get to where I am today so you just have to keep pushing I know other people who went on to do amazing things that are completely different from what their education is and getting interesting to see where those paths change mm-hmm yep yeah I think when students can hear hear those stories it really does expose them to helps them get out of it out of that living of thinking of how it’s both could be you know I go to college I major in accounting and I become an accountant you know usually it’s like oh I went to college and I majored in sociology and that I did this internship and then I did a rotation in the hospital and then I really discovered my love for medicine it’s like I think that there’s this assumption that the people that have figured it out like they always do and I think that there are those people that like always knew but I think the people that didn’t are like constantly asking questions like you know and like I said from that place of wonder and curiosity like I wonder what I meant to do with my life you know I wonder like what am I really passionate about what lights me up what makes me feel what makes me come alive what who’s someone in my world or that I look up to or has a career you know maybe it’s your parents friend who is a realtor and you’re like wow that sounds fascinating showing people’s houses like absolutely regazzi talk to sesame mill but ask better questions meet people get out there and expose yourself to those things and I think one of the other things that I love to tell students is pay attention to what captures your attention yes and what are you drawn to what you spend time thinking about looking at like I mean from books to movies to people it’s about I think it’s like cultivating that mindfulness and paying attention to those moments where you’re like oh this is it and not ignoring it not not ignoring it but listening and tuning in because I think I think our tuition intuition is powerful sorry the notion we they’re playing minecraft in the other room yeah he’s a little loud at times and my mics a little sensitive I think yeah that’s right uh-uh no it’s definitely we need to expose them as much as we can and we need to make sure that we’re brave enough to have conversations with other people and find out what’s happened yes events are adamantly were going to do it and so I think out combinations of strangers coming on things like blab joining in the conversation Twitter chat yeah they’re all great way to learn things and of course reading mmm-hmm so we’re near the top of the hour and I think we’re about ready to finish a can you share yeah a chip in the favorite book tip and a favorite book um let’s see well I think if you’re a are they’re educators out there I think really encouraging students to to connect with other people I think that is such a valuable skill to have and I think that’s what opens the door to helping them build confidence courage and clarity and who they are and what they want where to go how to get there so I think encouraging limited connect with other people and being that connector for them a few here that they’re interested in graphic design you know I invited my friend out for coffee who’s a graphic designer last week and we hung out and and now this I have a student who could be my intern to do graphic design for me and I’m like oh this was great it’s awesome so it could be actually beneficial Oh books we were favorite book and like looking at my bookshelf over there I I love to two authors one Bernie Brown she’s amazing staring greatly is such a powerful book for really really just going for it and being in the arena I think that’s like such a valuable skill to teach students to dare greatly in your life and in college and to take those for sure and I love Danielle Laporte’s book the fire starter sessions I have those two on my shelf right now that’s what I was looking at but I have neither one to those but I have both of them on my reading list I’m well Beth yeah I’m back at what am i reading being eight habit by Stephen Covey right now mmm and I just finished thinking Grow Rich and oh how would I want to know more about that we should have a tab that was good it was good I’m going for the first part of the courses in December so I’m going to go register and then really excited about it really all about night your eyes set and it’s something that I’m having my kids read – so my teenagers are going to read that because when you change your mindset and you start thinking positive you start visualizing things that are in front of you and visualizing very much I like to go it completely changes what happens and things start coming to you and you’re out for following a little bit of your passion as well which is absolutely awesome yeah okay yeah mindset is huge that’s one of the things growth mindset mindset by Carol Dweck you I mean I’m sure you’ve heard I don’t think I have that book mindset by Carol Dweck and she talks about this idea this concept of growth mindset and I teach all of my students okay I have to look at it it for super powerful so I would check that one out too as they were thinking about assets okay well thank you everybody for joining us today thank you Marlon Williams we will put a resume of this WWWF on board on TV and Marley I don’t know if you have a website or not yeah it’s uh w w mr lee williams calm you can check out what I’m up to over there and there’s more info about life launch there it’s awesome and you can find us both on Twitter as well we will be just next week by a special gas pump Evan still away in a somewhere warm it’s a little cold here in Canada right now and we’re on every celebrity morning at 11 a.m. 9 a.m. est so thanks for joining us thank you