SupportED Learning Podcast

Episode 60 - 8-Figure Founder Who Left College: The Passion Project Colleges Actually Want - Chris Stapleton

β€’ Dr. Joe β€’ Season 1 β€’ Episode 60

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:05:52

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the SupportED Learning Podcast, Dr. Joe sits down with Chris Stapleton, co-founder of the eight-figure business Clients & Community and founder of the software company Client Genie, to talk about what school never teaches β€” and what parents get wrong about pushing their kids toward success.

Dr. Joe and Chris discuss why a free passion project beats an expensive one, the Great Lemonade Crusade and teaching kids real economics before high school, how a teenager can get into the room with people already doing big things, whether college is still the right path in an AI economy, and the balance between challenge and support that keeps over-supported kids from self-sabotaging.

This episode is especially useful for parents of ambitious teens, high school students with a business idea, first-generation and immigrant families weighing career paths, and educators looking to support student entrepreneurship.

πŸ“² Connect with them: www.clientgenie.ai
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisjstapleton/?hl=en

πŸ“² Learn more about us: https://supportedtutoring.com/
Facebook: Dr. Joe
Instagram: @dr_joe_ap_exams 

Thanks for tuning in to the SupportED Learning Podcast with Dr. Joe. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe for more insights on education, critical thinking, and AI integration in learning. Visit our website at supportedtutoring.com

Remember to share this podcast with fellow parents and educators who are passionate about reimagining education for tomorrow's world. Until next time, keep supporting learning! 

SPEAKER_01

You're listening to the Support Ed Learning Podcast, where we challenge the status quo of education and reimagine what learning should be. I'm Dr. Joe Sebastian, and in every episode we dive into critical thinking, Bloom's Taxonomy, educational innovation, and how AI is shaping the future of learning. Whether you're a teacher, parent, policymaker, or lifelong learner, you're in the right place to rethink, reshape, and revive education. Welcome back to the Supported Learning Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Joe Specian. I have a very, very special guest today. I want to introduce him as first a friend, but also a mentor, someone who has taught me probably more about learning than my entire 16 years of education has taught me, just because of mindsets, about never giving up, about growth. But also, he's a co-founder of an eight-figure business of Clients and Community, where they helped coaches start and build profitable Facebook groups, turning those into businesses. He also built a software company, Client Genie, here today on the podcast. My friend and co-founder of CNC, Chris Stapleton. Chris, welcome.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for having me, Joe. Really appreciate it. Long time coming too. We've known each other for many years. I remember seeing you come into one of our events when you were, I don't know, I think like at $10,000 a month. You had a big vision to help people win, a big vision to help students in their educational journey and a ton of heart. And it's just amazing to see you grow, you know, over the last few years, how many people you've helped win, how many people you've brought onto your team and expanded. Um, I knew it was coming, man. So I'm just happy to be here any way I could contribute. I appreciate it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Let's talk about you because, you know, we were talking a little bit before the podcast today, and we help a lot of students. We get some amazing students in our program. I'm very blown away because of just looking on my own education journey of just the ambition a lot of kids have. A lot of kids looking to go to amazing schools and do amazing things with their career. But there is a whole space of business owners and entrepreneurs, and actually, we need a lot more of those in this changing times. You've actually started a business, scaled it, and exited a business as well. And so there's a lot of kids out there that want to start nonprofits or have startups. Let's just start with how did you get into being an entrepreneur? Where did this all start? Did you always want to do this? Just kind of talk about your education journey from high school to where you are today.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if we've gone into that, Joe. Like how deep, you know, I've been in this game, how many mistakes I've made, um, and the relationships along the way. I think for me, you know, I'm coming from going to my background, right? My mom had like two jobs growing up. And I watched her climb the corporate ladder in her career, starting as a desk clerk, working her way up to executive suite level, and then, you know, moving our whole family from Connecticut to Arizona for a job promotion to manage the city here that we live in. So she was in charge of all the hiring and firing. So talk about corporate ladder. I mean, she was the epitome of that. And she succeeded and did really well. But on the flip side, my dad, he was a general contractor who ran his own business. So I saw my dad, you know, swing a hammer for 25 years, build his own business, create his own success there. So I was kind of split down the middle and, you know, going the college route or kind of starting my own business. So I had a lot of back and forth with that. But at the end of the day, I felt like I was more of a creative person that knew I had something in me and knew I could create something special with my own business. So I had to kind of draw a line in the sand and said, you know, I wanted to pursue the business side. And I didn't know what that looked like. I just wanted to make 10 grand a month. 10 grand a month back in the, you know, that was like a million dollars to me. So I was like, if I could just figure out a way to make $10,000 a month, I would be so happy. And I actually, you know, if you want to talk high school, my first business was a videography business. So I started, I bought saved money for like a $2,000 camera, went, you know, all in on like creating videos. I started in my passions with skateboarding. I found out there's no probably no money in that. Um, and then all of a sudden I kind of got invited to do a wedding. So I got paid like a thousand bucks to do a wedding, and I started my first business as a wedding videographer. Um, learned a lot of mistakes, learned a lot of, you know, different things in that uh opportunity. But this is where kind of everything changed, Joe. And I think we can have a conversation about putting yourself out there, putting yourself in positions to meet new people and just get started, right? I didn't know anything about hutting videography, but at this one wedding, this one guy came up to me. He said, Hey, Steve, you seem like you're a sharp guy. You know, um, there's some other avenues I think you could do well in. And it was a sale, it was pretty much sales, sales organization for a product at the time. And I was like, that's interesting. He had people making $15,000, $20,000 a month on that opportunity. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna get into that. And that's where like my sales journey really started. Direct sales, one-to-one. And that's where I think my entrepreneurial journey really started to kick off, where I started reading books like Think and Grow Rich, um, learning from Napoleon Hill, started buying books on sales and mindset, and I it just cracked me open to a whole new world of potential. And even though I didn't go on to, well, I actually did have some success in that. You know, if $2,000 a month is success, I think at, you know, 21, 22, making a couple thousand dollars a month with a sales organization. It was a success to me. But that's where things really started to kick off and open me up into affiliate marketing, direct sales, and you know, we can keep going, Joe, but it just kind of pointed me in the direction where I finally met the mentor that truly changed my life, changed my ideas around education, around relationships. Um, Mark Holmes is his name. Um, I found him because I was online looking for people to learn from, typing in keywords like how to make money online as a 22-year-old, how to set myself up for financial freedom and all these things. And I came across a mentor. And mentorship is, I feel, the number one way to kind of fast track your way to the results you want. Um, but when I met Mark, that's where everything started to change for me. So I kind of started off, you know, if you rewind back, just a scrappy 19-year-old kid that wanted to get his hands in business. I jumped into something I thought I was good at, which was like video content, you know, getting niche. But little did I know that just pursuing a passion project that didn't turn out would open me up to a whole new lane of opportunity, of education, of business, mentorship. And that's where really things started to change around like 2009.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'll be honest, Chris. You're probably one of the most authentic people I ever know in terms of in genuine, and you know, we talk about that on that for kids that want to stand out, authenticity matters because if you're not, if you're only surface level deep admissions officers, people are gonna see right through that. If you're only doing it to get it, if your goalposts are only to get into college, you're selling yourself short and you're really not putting yourself in a position to showcase what your true ability is. And so obviously, a lot of kids want to go to these top schools, their goalposts should be a lot further. And I would say, even, you know, we look at the UC Berkeleys, the Stanfords of the world, they want the next, the great, the business owners that have come from those, many of those that you probably have actually met too, the Fortune 500 CEOs, people that have built amazing businesses as well, they come from that spirit of entrepreneurship, of wanting to create something. So authenticity, but then also the ability to have that mindset of never never stop learning, of, of chasing those dreams and putting those into action. So, where in terms of a passion project, you know, a lot of kids, I think, will do it as a as a gimmick without that authenticity, but want to put it into an action. And you mentioned something of creation. Creation or synthesis is the highest level of learning. Bloom's taxonomy, you being able to create something, put all those skills, stack them up to create things. And so it's really what schools should be doing and promoting, but sometimes we fall short. We fall at that surface level knowledge and understanding. What was what was the ultimate? Was it that mentorship that said, I'm not not gonna did you pursue college? Did you graduate from college? Where did that line in the sand come where you're I'm pursuing entrepreneurship now?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, it's actually right around that story time. So, you know, I jump into this opportunity where it's just direct sales. I'm able to sell a product for small businesses. So it's a company called Send Out Cards. If you're OG way back in the day, you might have heard of it, but it was a product that allowed people to use handwritten cards automated. So you can, let's say, Joe, you had a you wanted to write a card to a student. You can go on this website, type it, it'll write it out in your handwriting and send it out. So I was approaching small businesses, yada, yada. All the, all the, you know, belly to belly. I mean, I got kicked out of schools, not the school I was attending, but going to try to recruit people and and try to sign people up. I got kicked out of public libraries. I mean, I I was going after it at during this time. And I remember being in college, I was pursuing a business, uh, a bus a business degree. My mom and dad were fronting the cost. And I think, you know, it was stretching them a little bit during that time. And I remember being in class making money, and I remember just missing calls, like sales calls, opportunities. And I just, I had to draw that line in the same moments. Like, this is what I want to do. I want to go sell, I want to go, you know, make money, build a business. So I remember going to my parents' house at the time and saying, hey guys, I think I'm only going to save that money because for me, I just feel like I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I'm going to be going all in on this. And I remember my mom crying that night. She was just upset because, you know, sometimes they have the vision for where I was going to go. But she did believe in me. And I think as soon as I kind of drew that line in the sand moment, I feel like a lot of other opportunities started to open up. I started to make a little bit more money. And um, you know, I made my prep my mom and dad proud a few years later. But it's always a gamble, right? Because there is a lot of value in school, especially if you're going down the path of a doctor, lawyer, tradesman. You need skill sets and those credibility, uh, that credibility. You need to understand what you're doing in those trades. But if you're an entrepreneur, you got to understand how to fail and fail fast. And learn from your mix and being able to pivot and just get good at sales and marketing, right? And I knew I had that kind of intrinsic gravity toward that. I knew I was going to be good at it. So um, to answer your question regarding kind of my college journey, it's a little, it was a little different. Kind of went to college for two years, but I walked away at that two-year mark to pursue business. It's not for everybody, right? But it is for some people, you know?

SPEAKER_01

What was life like in school for Chris Stapleton? Did you think it actually prepared you for this journey? Or like, I mean, you you can be completely honest. Like, do you feel like, I guess, what do you feel like schools could do better to create more entrepreneurs or people that want to scout their passions and leverage them into businesses or other opportunities than just your traditional do this, go to school, get a job?

SPEAKER_02

Totally. That's a great question, man. I mean, my so my high school was 4,000 students. So it was like almost like a small community college. A lot of people, a lot of diversity. I felt like myself in in in high school, in college, I was, I knew one person from every kind of niche in the school. And I was friends with those girls. I had a friend in the athlete clique, I had a friend in the nerd group, right? Um, in the study group, I kind of was, I was pretty good with people, right? And I think in school, what I learned the most was, you know, you look at education in general. You've got book smarts and you've got EQ, educational intelligence. I really think school doesn't highlight the amount of value it brings around emotional intelligence, understanding, you know, how to become a leader within your group, understanding teamwork dynamics. I feel like school really can elevate in a way where if they focused on EQ, how to how to how to shine your light, your gift, uh, in the moments that matter. I feel like entrepreneurship is obviously when I was getting started in school, like entrepreneurship wasn't cool. Like it wasn't the cool thing to do. Yeah. Now movie social network, and like everyone's an entrepreneur now, right? You put the hoodie on and you're an entrepreneur. And it's it's actually a really, it's almost a cool thing to do. And now, like kids are starting up businesses, it's just a whole different landscape. So I think the opportunity for a lot of these schools and colleges and universities is really leaning on that trend and supporting kids in entrepreneurship. We talked a little bit about before this call and how colleges are looking for ways to help kids kind of start something up before they, you know, get admitted into certain schools. They want to see some like skin in the game, you know. I think once you get admitted to college, what can we do to continue that journey to support kids and different startups, right? Creating little clubs on the side to help people understand how to speak, how to learn marketing, sales. Because if you know how to sell, you can sell ideas, you could sell colleges, and you know, I'm sure you've talked about that with your students. You have to know how to sell yourself a little bit. Yeah. So I learned a lot of EQ in school, understanding, you know, how to get around and and you know, find yourself in certain pockets of people and how to kind of shine your light and understand how to how to get what you want, right? So I think I learned a lot, wasn't necessarily in school a book smarts guy. I feel like I kind of forced myself to win in those educational environments. But what's funny enough, Joe, is after college, once I dropped out, and I hated using that word, but you know, dropped out. Um, once I left that scene, I started consuming and investing more into my education in the first six months to a year of dropping out than I did the last 10. Right. Because you almost have no choice in self-education. You have to learn. Um if you want to succeed, you have to be in pockets of education, right? You can't just let school be the last thing you learn from. So I really went all in, Joe. I mean, I put money on credit cards, buying courses, buying, you know, books, showing up to live events, which was really one of the big catalysts for me is getting around the right people was the biggest needle mover for my success. And actually still is to this day. The people in my circle.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, that's like right. And that's like a that's a big, that's a big jump. That's a like for a lot of probably a lot of parents be like, well, I do not want my kid doing that, but I also want to promote this spirit. I want because it is ultimately that spark, that creativity, that unfortunately I think for whatever reason, we'll call it systematic reason. I think that spark is extinguished in a lot of kids. And there's a there's a saying that, you know, A students end up working for C students because C students are your entrepreneurs, and those A students who just conform and do exactly what they're supposed to do end up getting jobs for people who have that creative energy, but the school system, the way it's designed, didn't actually support that. But it's funny because you mentioned starting early as a kid, and I'm reflecting my girls are in Girl Scouts, and so there's the Girl Scout cookie. You actually have created the Great Lemonade Crusade. And for every kid out there that's cute and puts down a lemonade stand, that's actually a great opportunity, not only to teach about entrepreneurship, but about financial literacy. Can you tell us about where you think what does that tell us about when entrepreneurship should actually start?

SPEAKER_02

The Great Lemonade Crusade, what a what an amazing thing. That was came from my mentor, Mark Hoverson. You know, he's passed, he passed away to pancreatic cancer, unfortunately, when he was 39. And at that time, he was like a father figure, one of my best friends, business partner. We were actually weaved as business partners when all that happened. But one of the products he created was the Great Lemon Lake Crusade. And it's an amazing opportunity for kids to understand the fundamentals of what makes the world go around. And people's like, oh, just a lemonade stand, you know, you just throw it out, where we actually gamified it. And the younger you can start children on this path of understanding economics and make it fun for kids, the better. So the great lemonade Crusader gave the kids the opportunity not just to throw out a lemonade stand, but understand each part of it to where the sign is designed for traffic. The sign should be written in a way that's clear, concise, and drives people to your lemonade stand. Once people are at the lemonade stand, there's called conversions. So we do things like teach people, we teach the kids, studies show when there's fresh flowers on the table, conversions increase. We actually found also when instead of charging a dollar for a lemonade, we found that free lemonade actually made more money because once the free lemonade, it said free lemonade, people would throw two bucks down or five bucks down or ten bucks down versus just the dollar. So we started teaching all these kids these direct response mechanisms to driving traffic, putting it in a busy roadway, right? Bringing people to the stand, having fresh lemons cut on the table, having fresh ice, having an actual good product, hand delivering the lemonade with a smile, with fresh flowers on the table. And all these things add up to where when they both start their own business, they have to understand those mechanisms, right? Where's the traffic going to come from? What's the is the product gonna be very high quality? What are we gonna do for conversions? What are we gonna do for pricing, right? So, you know, you teach them pricing, sales, marketing, direct response with this fun cute lemonade stand at nine years old, 10 years old, you know, we had to eat with some 14, 15, some high school kids getting into it as they kind of went to the college route. And they came out saying, this is the best experience I've ever had when it came to business. And some of these kids walked away with three, four hundred dollars a weekend. Like, so you know, you talk about Joe, like, where should I go? There's all these opportunities right now. It's almost overwhelming. What kind of business should I start? What should I do? There's ways you can introduce this to you know high schoolers, even before high school, elementary, in a way that can kind of seed them. It's all about planting those seeds. And then once they get to college, right, or that that age where they're you know graduating high school, they're kind of entering that college zone. There are so many things you could do to create something special that it doesn't even need to be a business right now. Doesn't even need to be a big business where you have to take out a, you know, ask your mom or dad for credit cards or, you know, take out a loan. You can create audiences right now that will show colleges this person is sharp in their field of expertise. They're passionate, they know how to communicate, they know how to get attention. This is someone that we want coming through our doors because we know they're going to create something here. So there's a lot we can go off of that, Joe.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, there's just I mean, it's opportunities. It's almost yeah, there's so many different ways we can go with this. It's like uh probably about three content here. Um exactly. It's funny because you bring that up, and I actually we just had an interview with um Elise Fam. So you I don't know if you know who that is, but do you know who she is? No, I don't. Tell me. Okay, so um, because she's actually was she actually was in um she was in boardroom and coles off her.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, I might I might know her then.

SPEAKER_01

She started the ultimate Ivy League guy. So she's 22 years old. She got into Harvard. She is her, she's uh comes from a single family home. Mom, I think, unfortunately, passed away from cancer when she was young. She got into Harvard. That was her dream. She thought she was going to medicine. She was posting on social media and ultimately created guidance on how to get into Ivy League and turn that into a college consulting company. Now she doesn't know where she might built basically a seven, seven-figure business overnight just through organics.

SPEAKER_00

Following that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And now it's like, well, and she's taking us like a gap year right now at Harvard. Uh, it's pretty amazing story. So it can happen anywhere. I think what I was gonna ask is because you know, all those things are important and they those skills stack. And I'm just I'm a student comes to mind of a parent, they were there a lot of our families are immigrant or first gen Americans. And you actually at one of the masterminds had, I forget his name now, but he was it was like there was like the first first mastermind I had was uh Cerrar. Who was the guy who had the family office? The guy who came and spoke with family office.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, dang. I do not remember his name, but I remember the offer. Funny enough.

SPEAKER_01

He talked about his wife was Korean and his wife's family uh parents were like immigrants and they came and work. It's funny because the the immigrant journey in America is come and just work and grind to provide a better life for your kids. Or pursue an American dream and do a startup business, do this amazing business, and then you have a and then eventually you have a business and you provide for your family. And I this and it was like juxtaposed to I know a family, I know a kid whose parents own businesses, they own gas stations and have like a pretty profitable because they have that from their Zoom call with a pretty nice house, and they want their daughter to pursue medicine, right? And I'm like, what about pursuing business there? So and I'm I juxtaposed it to a lot of people view business as self-employed, of I have to do all the work. And there's that next level, like we admit schools don't teach the the entrepreneurial skills, but then on top of that, they don't teach what true entrepreneurship is in terms of owning the asset of people of employing people that do the work and the profitability aspect of that. And so I've kind of learned that from you just being associated with you of like the real goal of business is not grinding yourself into oblivion, it's actually building this structure, a community, this organization, because the other part, you've built an amazing culture too, just from the people who were employed by you. So where did you figure out that? And how is that different than what most people think self-employment or being in the business for themselves is?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I believe in my heart, the two highest paying skills that you can learn as a person is sales and marketing and leadership. And leadership is one of those things you got to learn with getting your hands dirty a little bit. And as you know, Joe, how big is your team now? Started off small. Started off small when we first met. Now you have 30 people and you learned a ton about leadership. Things that you wouldn't have been able to learn if you were just hustling, right? Just getting out there and kind of breaking stuff. So I learned a lot of that with getting under the tutelage of a mentor that had the results I wanted. And I was grateful enough to be able to become friends with that person because he's it was Mark, Mark Overson. He saw something in me. And when I got under his tutelage and really started to understand how he led people, that's when I started to understand it's almost like a, you know, with your team, it's it's almost like a family in a way. It's a it's a championship sports team. And there's so many, we can go down a lot of rabbit holes, but the power of entrepreneurship is having that leverage, having other people on your team that can see blind spots that you can't see, that can hold up and road the ship when you're not there. And really that camaraderie of bouncing ideas off your team, being able to lead those people and incentivize those people in ways that might not be the way that lights you up. Right. You might be money focused, you might be recognition focused, but every single person on your team has a different drive. So having those personal conversations, understanding the emotions of those people, what makes their heart tick, what's going to get them on the bad days to perform. Um, those are some of the biggest life lessons I think you learn as entrepreneurship is understanding people. Because every business is just a group of people. Like people think businesses sometimes are like this warehouse where these machines just create stuff and ship it out. Every product, I mean, you can look around. I've got products all over the place, right? Product, product, product. I was looking for your hat today, Joe, by the way. I had the AP hat on. I couldn't find it. Everything around you is a product, and every single product is literally just a group of people working as a team. And when you kind of start to think about that, yeah, we can keep going on that.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna say, because you're you're hitting on something I wanna I want to double down on with that, is so we have kids that are have started something small. What would be the best piece of advice you tell them? I want to ask a leadership question too on that. But the best piece of advice you would give them right now that even if they have a shoe flip in business or something, or they have a landscape. I know a lot of kids that start landscaping businesses, right? But they want to leverage that. They actually want to go to college and maybe they want to get into business, a study business. How what's the best piece of advice you would give them right now in how to either leverage that or showcase that? What where should they go with that?

SPEAKER_02

It's a great question. And man, it's just such a great time to be alive. Like it's just, you know, I'm jealous of the kids going into college right now in a lot of different ways because there's so many things you can do. Like when I started, there wasn't even social media. Right. Like I didn't have the opportunity to maybe start a podcast like you are here, Joe, or being able to start a TikTok page that focuses on what was the example you gave me? Like a lawnmowering business. Yeah, like landscape business, sure. Landscape business and being able to create content. So it's like kind of a two-fold question. If I had something small where I was kind of the main person driving all the revenue, and I wanted to showcase my ability leading into leading up to a college, I would number one, you really have to, for me personally, I think getting around people that are doing big things in your niche, that's where you're going to learn the most. Understanding how they talk, how do they walk, how do they speak to their team. I know some people are just they, I don't have a network. Well, there's a lot of people online doing big stuff you could search up. And if I were you, I would be looking at that person and being like, you can call like maybe a Fortune 500 long business in your in your area that has 10,000 customers that are doing millions a month. I would be like, hey, I've just started up a small little, you know, mom and pop thing. I'm nine, I'm 17 years old. I've got a few customers. I would love to just show up and figure out how I can serve you. Can I do a free internship for 30 days? Maybe I can shadow your number one guy on the job. I just want to watch on how you operate, how you communicate, how you incentivize. And imagine going to a college where it's like, you know, you're you're on a call and you're like, hey, I've got this business. It's making a couple hundred dollars a month. I've also accepted an internship with X, Y, and Z company in my area that does $2 million a month with their thing. Here's what I'm learning. Here's where I see I could take my business, right? So finding ways where you can kind of like, you know, I'm a little biased on this Joe, but it's a little bit of what I did was I found a mentor and I just figured out ways I can serve this person. When I had when I met Mark for the first time, I didn't have a lot of skill sets. So I had a live event, I was almost like his personal servant. And I know that sounds a little weird, but I would like to walk up to him at lunch and be like, Mark, can I give you water? And he'd be like, Oh, yeah, no, I would love that. Not a single person at the event asked Mark if he wanted water. And then I was like, hey, you're going up on stage uh in a couple minutes. You want me to go grab your camera uh from the room and I can maybe make some videos for you? He's like, no, that's a great idea. And then like next week when we went home, because I was at a live event where I've spent money out of my own pocket to show up at live events. So if you're in the landscaping niche, where are the expos in your area? Where are the live events happening? I'm sure there's something happening around this opportunity where you can get in and start finding ways to serve the kings. Because if you can serve the kings and queens of your niche, you can serve the masses. So there's a proverb, you know, crafting for kings, and Mark taught me a lot about that. Um, and then twofold. So that the twofold, the one answer is, Joe, is like get around people doing bigger things and finding out how you can serve them and kind of enter their network. And it, if you want to work for three for 30 days and find a few things you could do to assist the company, do it. You will learn so much. And then number two, I think in 2026, man, if you can create some kind of platform, meaning like an Instagram page or a TikTok page where you're just sharing value, sharing your story. You send that to an advisor. It's like, oh yeah, by the way, I built an audience of 5,000 people in the landscaping it just well, where I answer questions, I'm helping people start their own businesses. That's free. That doesn't cost any money. And you can do that. And that is an asset that I wasn't able to have when I started in 2009.

SPEAKER_01

So I've literally said this on calls with families of ninth and tenth graders that want to go to a top schools and want to do these amazing things. And I said, listen, the greatest asset you have is your time. I said, you can you can invest six, eight thousand dollars in this passion project or this research thing. But what if you just literally DM'd a thousand people in the space and said, Hey, can I just interview you? Can I learn about what you do? Because like we talk about it starting with the why. Like, why do you want to be a doctor? Why do you want to be a business owner? Why do you want to do this? Like, have you actually ever talked to these people and figured out what they do? Because start there, shadow, do free internships, volunteer your time. It's hard because you're not, it's we're instant gratification and their kids, you're not going to see that overnight. It's going to take time. Also, to your point, a passion project does not have to cost thousands of dollars. If you start a social media platform, like do some a YouTube channel, a podcast, a TikTok, whatever, and you just consistently post about something you're interested over three years. When you show up to the interview in your college application, you have a channel with this many people, and you've done this. That that's very hard to fake, right? So that goes back to that authenticity, but the compounding of time. This episode is brought to you by Supported Tutoring, where we don't just help students get better grades, we help them become critical thinkers. Whether it's mastering AP exams, maximizing college applications, or building lifelong learning habits, our expert tutors focused on critical thinking, confidence, and real growth. Head to supportedtutoring.com to find the support your student deserves.

SPEAKER_02

But let me ask you something just to double down on that, Joe. I really I love what you said there because both of those things require no money. To showcase yourself as a leader and to showcase yourself as I'm in this thing. Right. I mean, presenting yourself and getting into these Ivy League schools, they want to see someone that thinks outside the box a little bit. But I love what you said about the social media, right? Starting a TikTok, Instagram page, just interviewing people, sharing your tips of day number 79 of starting my own landscaping business. Here's the mistakes I made, here's the pivots, right? The lessons I learned heading out heading into my you know third quarter. You know, you just start talking. And at the end of the day, you don't need 10,000 followers or 5,000 followers or be getting a ton of views. But what I want to see as a college, and you correct me if I'm wrong, Joe, but consistency, dedication, right? This person has been recording a video every single day or every single week or doing podcast interviews for the last two, three, four months. This person has grit. Those are the kind of characteristics we want in our school. And so I just wanted to validate that anyone listening that's kind of thinking, what should I do? It's like get around people doing great things, serve those people for free for a little bit, learn everything you can, take notes, and then start something on the side that is also free and start getting eyeballs on you a little bit. Start providing value and build that consistency out. Because you'll learn more, Joe. I'm sure you started this podcast and just showing up in your business. You'll learn more about doing something over and over again and staying consistent than you would reading a thousand books on it on the topic.

SPEAKER_01

Well, we we we say it. You're hitting all the points. We learn how we no notes either. We we learn by doing we learn by doing telling is not teaching. We learn by doing. That's what that's our big model in the AP space. You know, it's funny because I just saw a video, you know, the Savannah Banana, Savannah Bananas, right? You know, the owner. Oh, yeah. So he apparently was, I don't know if he was in a mastermind or whatever. Gary, like he was in the uh a boardroom with Gary V, and he literally asked, I think almost 10 years ago, what do I need to do to basically make this the next major league baseball or next day? He's like literally just post content every just record content of you literally doing it every single day. And he's and look where he's at now. They're they're crushing like that. So it's so interesting. Do you I gotta ask you something controversial? And it's okay because we are an education company, but it it's it's not a let's have some fun. What do you still think college with AI and with all this uncertainty and all this fear right now, too? Because you you have that positive outlook, you have that mindset, it is a great time to be alive. There's so much that you can do with what is available to you out there, but there's a lot of fear as well, competing with that, a lot of scarcity. Do you still think college is the right path for a kid who wants to be an entrepreneur? I'll even go further. Do you think college is still the right path for any kid? Or is that a conversation more complicated than it was 10 years ago? Well, what would you it's a lot more complicated, Joe?

SPEAKER_02

Like I really believe that because you know I could say the same thing for entrepreneurship. Is entrepreneurship the right move for people at a young age? Is college the right move for the right people at a young age? And it really has to come from your heart. Now, I will say if you're gonna become a doctor, lawyer, anything trade skill where you need that certification, I don't want anyone operating on my body that has not gone to college. Okay. And they get paid very well. If you're a dentist, I just got a cavity, literally, yesterday. I got to get like that person, I want to go to college. All right. So I think, you know, yes and no. Like, for example, one of my good buddies, Cole Gordon, you got you know Cole, one of the most successful guys in like the internet marketing space and sales and stuff. He was a straight A student. He actually went to college, learned a lot. He was gonna become a doctor, actually, and he pivoted to to sales. Uh similar to kind of my story, but I didn't have the money. I think he might have had a a float on that. He probably got something there. But here's what I think you do learn in college that I think if I were looking back on it, I would have leaned more into is you kind of learned operations in college. You're organizing a lot of things, you're managing a lot of things, a lot of tasks. You have to stay organized. Like Cole's one of the best operators I know when it comes to like managing a company and managing a big team. And I think there's a ton of skills that can get pulled out of that. You have to sit down with yourself and you have to ask yourself, what am I good at? What do I want to do? Where do I see myself going? Because college can assist with that. But if you're more like me, like a little bit more scrappier, have a little bit of a higher risk tolerance. I think risk tolerance is kind of a factor into you know deciding things here. Where do you see your future? If you're more gravitated towards sales and marketing, I would say you don't need college. You need to get a sales job, you need to get your hands dirty, you need to go make a ton of mistakes and learn. Um, and then of course, with AI now, it just throws a whole new category into the scene. Because at the end of the day, I think AI is huge. Joe, you use it, I use it. But at the end of the day, you still need to be educated because you have to understand how to use it, because AI is backed by humans. So no great AI was created without a human behind it. Like when we use AI, it's our heart and soul and mind and thought going into producing the right prompts, producing the right inputs to get the right outputs. If college, you know, if an AI university launched, I'd be pretty intrigued by that. Um but you know, it's one of those things, brother, where it is so unique, it's so personalized that it really is one of those heart-seeking moments where you have to kind of go deep and you have to ask yourself those questions. Right? You need to ask yourself the right questions. Now, going to the debt, can you get a free college degree? That changes the game a little bit. You know, are you gonna have to go into debt to get into college? That changes the game a little bit. There's all these variables and you have to almost get it clear on a piece of paper pros and cons and get them all down. And I'll say this whether you're an entrepreneur or not, college can absolutely help because you learned social skills, social dynamics, you know, yeah, being able to commit to an a project and finish it because entrepreneurship is a lot about commitment, it's a lot about you know being able to make mistakes and overcome those mistakes. So you learn a lot of that in college. So man, I wish I could just have like yes or no.

SPEAKER_01

No, I think it's I think that's a real answer.

SPEAKER_00

Let's even avoid, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Let's pivot to mindsets in learning for a little bit. And I want to set this up by saying, you know, I think where the transformation happened for me in terms of like just a switch in my brain. And I'm still I still need to do a lot of work on my mindsets as well. The first event I was able to attend was April. Oh, geez, that was 2023 now. And you know, I'd done your course, seen you on YouTube, seen like seen you, but never actually talked to you. But you're a little bit of a celebrity. Like, you know, like it's like the you know, you're you're actually there, this is this is the person, right? This is owner. But coming from the education space, and I know a lot of people in the corporate space, it is not always the best mindset. There is like a level of competition, a level of undercutting. It is not, it's funny because we're in an institution of learning, but we have fixed mindsets. We don't have growth mindsets, and we always see the positivity and light. And I was a little intimidated to go into that room, kind of like shy, socializing a little bit. And you and Landa were up with the things like, hey, don't put us on a pedestal. Like we're we're just like you, we're just at these different levels. And I was just like, it's so, it's so interesting how that shift in there. But to frame it in the terms of like where I was going with this in education, we have a lot of I'm still baffled by, and I've unfortunately seen the negative side of these things where kids put a ton of pressure on them, a lot of high-achieving families, a lot of a lot of tough classes, need to get top scores, do a million different things. And unfortunately, sometimes parents will will we avoid failure at all possibility because they have to be perfect to get into this top school to get this job. It's just a runaway train with this.

SPEAKER_02

So throw in social media to that too, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01

So uh a lot of high achieving fan of students might get to the end of their high school journey or even college and freeze, and they've always been told like what to learn and do this. How do you build that self-direction muscle early? Because you said yourself said you had it, you were scrappy. How does one start building the ability to overcome, like build resilience to overcome those obstacles that are inevitably going to happen to all of us if they've never actually been pushed in that direction? And the first time the real stakes are involved, they just crumble. How do you how do you do that?

SPEAKER_02

That's a great question. It's a great question. I I give a lot of credit to kids growing up right now in 2026, man, with social media and the highlight reels and just everyone's battling for your attention. Every company, every influencer, and it can get very overwhelming. One of the biggest things, even if you're heading into a top-ranking career or entrepreneurship, accepting the fact that it's gonna probably be one of the hardest things you'll ever do, but also one of the most rewarding things you'll ever experience. And that's that's just bottom line facts. I don't really, and you know this, Joe, I don't really sugarcoat entrepreneurship. I think a lot of people made on entrepreneurship became this cool thing. You know, once the social network came out and Zuckerberg launched Facebook in his teens and all this stuff, and it's like, oh my gosh, yeah. But it it's hard. It's gonna challenge you in ways you've never thought it's possible. You're gonna look in the mirror sometimes and like you won't even recognize, like, why am I doing this? How am I gonna overcome this? Right. And those are the moments that if you understand they're coming, you won't be as blindsided when you kind of get overwhelmed with a challenge or somebody's influence coming in and yapping in your ear of like, hey, maybe you shouldn't do this. Have you considered this? Right. So going back to like that independence I feel like sometimes it's kind of built in you a little bit where that DNA structure, Joe, like you have that, you have that entrepreneurship. Bug in your heart. And the only way you found that out is because you actually tried something. So I think when it when everyone's yapping in your ear and trying to pull you in all these different directions, the best thing you can possibly do is ask, are you willing to try something small to get things started? See if you have this bug. Because if you know you have the bug, like I do and you do, that entrepreneurship DNA, I guess you can call it, you know there's actually no way you'll be happy and fulfilled unless you do your own thing at some level. And once you've accept that fact, you're willing to jump through like break through, crawl over glass to get to achieve your dreams, punch through brick walls to overcome and become that person you know you can become. So everyone has their own journey. I think right now it's more important than ever to protect your your energy, protect your biology, put the phone down, right? Put the phone down for at least an hour or two a day to kind of ask yourself the tough questions. And because if you're constantly consuming, consuming the internet, social media, consuming other people's opinions, it's going to be very difficult for you to kind of carve your own. And to answer that, to kind of tie back, it's like, how do you create that independence? For me, I wanted a big, I wanted something great. I wanted to produce great results for not only myself, but for other people. I don't know where that came from, but I made a lot of mistakes in my early career, just jumped into, you know, sales position. For me, I was very money motivated in the beginning. You know, I told you that 10K a month was like this trophy achievement that I wanted to accomplish. So I was, I wanted some of the nice things. I wanted it to do the nice trips and have a family and all of it. And when you when you get motivated by that, it kind of pulls you into certain directions where you just kind of fall on your face and you make mistakes. But when everything kind of latched on, is I mentorship. It's funny how it all comes back to mentorship, getting in the right communities that gravitate with your beliefs and your values and your goals. And having that, it's almost like, what's that happens when the plants kind of metamorphosis? You get around the right couple, like Joe, your students get around you and they start learning things about how to think about their education a little differently, how to position themselves differently. These are things and seeds that are planted in their minds that they didn't have before. And metamorphos kind of takes over. It's like, no, I am an Ivy Leaf school applicant. I am person, I am someone that believes that I deserve to be in Ivy schools, or I believe to be entrepreneurships. It's hard to operate when you're in a silo and you have all these people, the whole world pouring their beliefs over you, what you should do, your parents, even your teachers, right? The ads when you're scrolling TikTok and Instagram telling you, you know, you need to think like this and that. If you're in a silo, it's easy to get kind of persuaded by some of some of those ideas. But when you're in a core group that you can lean on, that you can ask questions on, your vision just becomes locked in. So it helped me become independent in a funny way was becoming a little bit more dependent on mentorship and getting around the right people to help me believe I'm good enough. I believe in myself enough. I can do this. And then once you have that belief again, you understand entrepreneurship's gonna be hard. You're gonna make a lot of mistakes, but it'll forge you into the right person. You kind of get these blinders on where a lot of like the noise starts to get a little bit more quiet. And you can kind of focus in and just lean into your craft, lean into your community, lean into your mentorship, and the rest will take care of itself. But you know, how do you describe yourself, John, when you kind of came into entrepreneurship? Because it's like it's one of those things where if you have that seat and that bug, it's really hard to walk away from. But I know guys in, you know, from high school that are amazing intrapreneurs or number two, number three guys who have jobs, but they work inside companies and they create great results for those companies. So you kind of gotta, you know, balance your risk tolerance on the DNA bug. Do you feel like you're built for something more where you're willing to take those risks and create something beautiful and magical for not only yourself, but the people and your team and your families, and then all the families, Joe, that you're impacting.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

All the families that are, you know, you're helping. And you told me two stories before this call, amazing stories, like truly changing people's lives and their futures. You couldn't do that without the entrepreneur butter.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I appreciate that. I I think of like you're you're speaking on something that it's so hard to kind of like when we explain it.

SPEAKER_02

It's not tangible.

SPEAKER_01

It's not tangible, but it's also extremely personalized. And like the college of mission and journey for us, we we deal in frameworks because there's not a cookie cutter for like every kid literally has a different journey. And that's I think the hardest thing for parents to hear is that like we're gonna like you still have to let them experience this, and where it takes them is where it takes them. But it's the like, you know, it's it's a journey of self-discovery in a way, and you're it's you know, it doesn't, it's not always gonna, it's like where is like go back to the original analogy, where are the goalposts, right? Is the goalpost just to get into this school or is it something greater than that? And most of those schools are looking for something greater than that. And I think that's where a lot of kids unfortunately sometimes have a short side in this or sell themselves short. Yeah, totally. Let's talk about your impacts. I know we're coming up on time here, so I want to make sure I respect yours as well. The um, I appreciate this conversation, Chris. This is awesome. You've impacted so many people's lives, families, parents, a lot of adults making like a lot of transformation. You've worked with a lot of families building businesses together. What do you think, just from your experience and in building that community and helping other people, what do you think the most parents are missing when they're coaching their kids towards success? Because you built this amazing community, you've coached a lot of people into success. But for a parent that doesn't have this, what do you think they're they're missing when it comes to that?

SPEAKER_02

Really good question. Really good question. You know, I'm not a parent yet into my goal very soon. You know, I think if you look at any affirmational relationship with parent to child or mentee to mentor, there is a balance between challenge and support. And, you know, we might have talked about this a little bit, Joe, where throughout the years of our mentorship, but you can't have too much support without challenge, and you can't have too much challenge without support. Because what happens is with kids, you know, kids, I could even tell myself with my parents too, right? You get too much support in your life and not enough challenge, you will actually go and create challenge for yourself and you can self-sabotage them in ways you wouldn't even imagine. And we can go deeper on this, but if you're just constantly support, support, support, you're doing great, you're doing amazing. The body, human nature, like you need a challenge to feel like a human being. And if you don't get challenge from your parents, you will go create challenge for them to be pissed off about, or you for you to self-sabotage. We see it in business and mentorship all the time. If you create too much challenge where you're constantly, you're not doing good enough, you need to push yourself harder, you're way better than this, blah, blah, blah. And you don't give them their flowers. That's a way to completely just shut down any person, right? Right. So I think one of the biggest things is really understanding that that balance, that you know, it could be 50-50, it could be 730, depending on what season you're in. Sometimes you do need a little bit of support, a little challenge. It kind of wavers back and forth. Even for us, Joe, there was times where I challenged you. There wasn't, it wasn't always just like, dude, you're great, you're amazing. Like there were times where I called you out on some stuff. I asked you the hard questions, I challenged you. So really understanding that balance of challenge and support is going to keep that balance and it's going to allow the your children to have both dynamics. And you, you know, there might be parents going to the comments on YouTube where you can ask yourself, man, the seasons where I just cheered him on and he was doing great or she was doing great, and it's just constant support, support, support. Out of nowhere, she or he did something absolutely dumb out of his, you know, out of his normal behavior and completely sabotage the last three weeks of results. And it's so interesting how we'll do that. This happens in relationships, you know, having a thriving marriage, having a thriving relationship with your parker. If you're not bringing the level of challenge and support and having that balance, you'll find ways like, why are we fighting right now? Oh, it's because I haven't challenged the relationship in four or five weeks. So there that that's one that I learned again. I I credit so much of this to Mark and like what he taught me. When it comes to clientele, when it comes to business, when it comes to parenting, understanding the level of challenge and support and not weighing on either side will create that natural balance to allow that person to thrive and feel more loved. And they feel more loved, they feel more supportive when there's that balance. Because if you're not challenging, it's almost like you don't be indifferent about it. That level of challenge does show love. But if you have too much challenge, the support will kind of waver out. And then you're like, what am I doing this for? Yeah, I am as you contemplate marriage, you'll be challenged.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. I'm absolutely prepared for that. Yeah, here you go. You got the right mindset for it. Let me call a new brother. This is this is that's necessary.

SPEAKER_02

These this anything but I hope that you know that's a really good question. And I think, you know, at a really high 30,000-foot view is like understanding the balance of both of those things. Yeah. Because I think there's there's over-supportive parents that don't challenge their kids hard enough, and life is hard. If you don't challenge your kids, life will, and they will look for wings to be challenged. And sometimes those challenges aren't what they want. I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, again, going back to the authenticity thing, you know, I say, because there's only eight Ivy Leaf schools, and there's University of Chicago and there's Stanford's, there's 10. Of all the spaces that are available to those freshman classes at the top 10 universities, there's more Val Victorians graduating than there are spaces in those schools. So, what does that tell you? They're not looking for the top students across the board. They're looking for a diverse set of kids. They're looking to build and that actually those kids become their marketing because when was the last time you ever seen an ad for Harvard, right? You have CEOs and presidents and people like that that are 100% that are those people. But that authenticity is important. And I think what obviously you've had experience sharing in this, but like tying it all together and knowing you don't have to be perfect to do great things and tying it all together to tell that narrative to accentuate the struggles. There's so many people that come off in their personal letters, or like they just they're trying to manufacture struggles. Like life is hard enough that if you actually did real reflection and deep work, you could actually talk about those times that you had to overcome, but it's only possible if you were put in those positions to challenge yourself. Like, if maybe I did spend a whole year trying to do outreach to entrepreneurs and I got nowhere. That sucks. Like, what is you know, like in terms of that. So, really, you have to be authentic. You have to put all those things you just talked about together to really, really serve well. So there is a bridge between all this and kids virtual.

SPEAKER_02

And one more thing, man, is like, you know, there's so many things when it comes to parenting. I mean, as a non-parent, I've got a lot to share. But man, just thinking about it, you know, the challenge and support idea, that was a big needle mover for me when it came to working with clients and all those things. But I think one thing that you just hit on authenticity, understanding yourself better. I think there was a lot of parents that could say, hey, this isn't out of your, you know, your textbooks right now, but what's one book on personal development that we can pick up around maybe leadership next week that you might be interested on? Right. Or, you know, a book about a founder that created, you know, amazing companies and changed the world, like learning outside of your academic. I know it might sound like a big mountain to climb sometimes, but even if it's just a page or two a day, what you'll become in the marketplace is more of a multidimensional person. And I'm sure colleges love to see multidimensional aspect of your life, things that interest that okay, you're coming in, you want, you know, you're entering the business degree uh program, blah, blah, blah. But hey, by the way, here's some other things that I'm very passionate about. Like I got very passionate about biohacking last year, and I learned all these things about the body, or I learned a ton of things on communication, it's public speaking, or there's just, you know, there's books behind you, Joe. I'm sure there's probably 30 books in there that have helped shape you and become more multidimensional as a person. And I think that can that all ties back to more authenticity. Because if I mean, if you have an acceptance letter that's like, I'm gonna write things, all the things that the colleges, I think they're gonna want to hear, like book smarts, grade A student showed up on time, blah, blah, blah. You know what you put in the letters better than me, Joe. But if you had a little aspect that's like, and I'm incredibly passionate about X, Y, and Z, by the way. And here's what I've done the last six months to learn about this, because it it calls me, right? I think that's very underrated. And I think parents can do a really better job of kind of opening up the door to that when it comes to maybe some personal development or some side things that you're just interested in. Become an interesting person, right? And multidimensional, because in business, I know the people that really succeed and that I admire, they're not just great at making money, they're they're great fathers, they're great teachers, they're good communicators, they take care of their health, right? These are things that I admire as kind of a multidimensional person. So if you can pick one of those pillars and add it to your Rolodex, I think it just you become a more valuable person in the marketplace.

SPEAKER_01

Let me close on this with this question. So looking back on your career, on your life, looking back to you as a high school 10th grader or junior, what's one thing you wish someone had told you at 16, 17 years old that would have accelerated everything that came after?

SPEAKER_02

That's a great question. You know, part of me, part of me wants to get a little bit more granular. Um, because there were so many money-making opportunities that I was blind to back in the day that if I would have known about, I would be, you know, so far beyond uh where I am now. But it, you know, one thing is just like paid advertising, for example. I know that's kind of like a granular kind of strategy. We're in the world of playing. Yeah, yeah. But if I, you know, I'm getting into paid advertising faster, being a little less scared of spending a dollar to make a few back, I think would crack me open into a whole new world. Um, but I'm trying to think of something practical. I mean, you know, in high school, I was, I think I was a very different person than I was in those two years of college. I really started to branch out in college. I would have found I would have found a mentor much earlier. If I were to whisper in my ear, it's like, you know, go find someone that has what you want, find how to serve that person, get under that person's tutelage, and learn from that person faster. Because mentorship, it just expedites results so much faster. And I think between junior year of starting that wedding videography business and then going into college, uh, there was probably a three-year time window where I just coasted solo. Yeah. Coasted solo. I'm just trying to figure things out, running into issues, have no one to ask for help for. You know, being willing to ask for help earlier would have been massive. And how you do that is you get around people doing what you're doing, doing what you want to do, figure out ways to either serve that person or get a little bit of that person's time, become a friend, you know. Next thing you know, it's just your whole world. And that's like, you know, if you rewind this, that's where things change, where I got that mentorship, my whole world opened up. So I'll have three year runway on that. Who knows where life would have taken.

SPEAKER_01

If you had your marketing acumen now and were able to help your data in the contracting business.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You ever think of that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. All the time, all the time. And I did my best, bro. Trust me. Like, I don't my my way of helping my dad, in quotes, was you know, creating a cool little logo at Sub Church. And I remember GoDaddy, I created a simple little website, but I wasn't doing direct response marketing. We weren't doing any paid advertising. I wasn't helping with any of his fulfillment or customer follow-up or just overall customer experience. All things that we do we know and love now, my goodness. Well, it's we had all marked them are at heart, right? So I think marketing and sales are just one of the best things you can learn as an individual because it can help you in every different career path.

SPEAKER_01

Not to start on another tangent, but I literally had that con. So, like my dad and I have my I mean, I love my father. We we've we've gotten closer as we've grown apart in distance, right? Like we we've had an up and down relationship as a teenager and things like that. But you know, he's a lawyer, I mean, he has his own private practice. So he's a great lawyer, but didn't really learn how to run a business. And I and I'm like literally reflecting on my journey right now, and not that I'm where I want to be at, but like, you know, we're heading that direction. Like, if I knew what I if I could have helped you back in the day of what I know, just the surface level about marketing, like where what we could have done. He still doesn't have a cell phone. I'm like, you're a lawyer without a cell phone. But he's retired now. But I just I had that conversation with him on in a car one time, so I just think like that. So but anyway, it's amazing. Yeah. Chris, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for joining us and sharing your insights. There are so many parallels, so many things to take away. Um, I can't wait until this with this episode comes out to share that. And I hope we'll have an opportunity to come back. Uh, probably we probably need to do an in-person one one time. We could probably talk for a different thing. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, thanks, Joe. Appreciate you, man. Happy to serve and and uh give something back to you and the and your audience. Anyone watching, you know, I don't want to do a shameless plug here, but Joe's the real job.

SPEAKER_01

If you want if you're if you not for me, point back at you.

SPEAKER_02

Point back at you, bro.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no. I'll read like for people who want to learn more about what you do, what you offer, or just reach out to maybe talk if someone that's that's interested in business, like where can they find you? What do you work on?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you can so you can shoot me a message on Instagram, Chris J. Stapleton. You can find me there in the DMs. Happy to help if you have questions or anything like that. Uh, right now I am doing some consulting for people behind the scenes. So if you need any help in your business or anything like that, you can touch base with me. But I was just gonna turn it back on you, man. Like from people watching, you are in good hands. Joe has one of the biggest hearts I've ever met in this industry, helping a ton of people. So I'm just happy to be on, show some light, you know, uh, from my experience. And, you know, I feel like I am so jealous of the 20, 20, uh, 18, 17-year-old kids watching this right now, or you know, being able to work with you in their shoes, the opportunities this world has, not only with, you know, education, college, but just the ability to start businesses. It has never been easier to accomplish your dreams. So um, if you're watching this, lean into it, you know, take notes, continue to watch all the all the YouTube podcasts that Joe will be dropping because it's going to be really good for you to pull in from. So thanks, Joe, for having me, Brock.

SPEAKER_01

Chris, thank you so much. And again, we'll see you all next time on the Supported Learning Podcast. Thank you. See ya. Thanks for joining us on the Supported Learning Podcast. If today's conversation inspired you, challenged you, or sparked a new perspective, be sure to subscribe and share with a fellow change maker. We'll be back soon with more voices, more insight, and more ways to elevate the future of learning together. Until then, keep learning and keep pushing the conversation forward.