78: Jennifer Ledwith: Owner of Scholar Ready, Educator, Student Advocate + Entrepreneur

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And today my special guest is Jennifer Ledwith. She is the owner and teacher of Scholar Ready. Jennifer owns an educational services company, ScholarReady, teaches math, writing and reading, conducts personal essay writing workshops, and prepares students for the psat, SAT and ACT exams. Sixteen years ago, she started Scholar Ready to help students to graduate with as little student loan debt as possible. The keys to college scholarships are perseverance, strong writing skills, and competitive test scores every day. Her story inspires her to help her students confront their academic challenges. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me. I've gone to your website, I've looked at all your information and I'm super excited to talk about your entrepreneur journey today.

Thank you Destiny.

So why don't you begin and take the audience back to when you started. You can go back as far as you want. And just tell us a little bit about your journey into entrepreneurship and how you got to where you are today.

Okay, I will start. My first taste of entrepreneurship was when I was in elementary school, and I would be selling pencils, mechanical pencils. My dad worked at a petrochemical company, and he would always bring these mechanical pencils home. And then I had another classmate whose dad worked at the same petrochemical company, and he would bring mechanical pencils home. So we got together and we started selling our parents mechanical pencils to our classmates. And then we started reinvesting and buying lead and erasers. I think the legal term. I think the term for that is called fencing. So I've since moved on to more legal entrepreneurial ventures. When I graduated college, I graduated College with only $1,000 in student loan debt. And I thought that what I had done was normal. This is in an era where I graduated from college when tuition and fees were escalating, were growing, like, really, really fast, really, really quickly. And I thought that what I did was normal. And I was able to graduate with only $1,000 in student loan debt because I had scholarships and because I had worked part time throughout college and my scholarships, I can attribute my scholarships to my test scores, my high test scores, my essay writing skills, and my perseverance. So I am from Houston, Texas, and I graduated from the University of Oklahoma, so I had to continue. So even though I had out of state fees, my education at the time for four years was $64,000. I graduated with only $1,000 in student loan debt. And that was. I only had those student loans because I wanted to buy plane tickets. I didn't want to ride the bus anymore, so I wanted to buy plane tickets. And that's why, you know, that's why I had those loans. And I wanted to start a company that could help students to be able to do what I did, to be able to graduate with little to no student loan debt. I looked around and I looked at my classmates, I looked at my relatives who were graduating around the time that I did. And even just, I mean, I'm talking about graduate program just with undergraduate degrees owing, you know, tens of thousands of student. Student loans. And I started with Scholar ready. I started, you know, working with math tutoring. And parents would start asking me, jennifer, can you help with the essay writing? Can you help with the psat, sat, act? So eventually I grew the portfolio to include psat, SAT and ACT Prep, act, as well as essay writing and math tutoring. I've been doing this for 16 years, as destiny said, as you say at Destiny, and it's been interesting, especially with COVID So I have a private practice, and I have a large group practice. My private practice meets online. Even before the pandemic, private students met with me online. And now my large group practice, and that's my large group, is the practice of teaching PSAT and SAT preparation. Those classes have migrated online in the wake of the pandemic.

So let me ask you this. What was your degree in when you graduated?

My degree is in finance and economics. My degree is in finance and economics.

I thought you were going to tell me it was like a teaching degree.

No, but you know what? My mother is a semi retired math teacher. My aunt is a retired counselor. Another aunt is a retired librarian. My grandmother is a retired elementary school teacher. My grandfather was a football coach and a chemistry teacher. So teaching runs in my blood. I, you know, I will tell you this, the degree, because people are like, you have a degree in finance and economics, but you do this. And I'm like, yeah, because I mean simply. I just love it. And the finance and economics degree helps me to think about my business very strategically, especially when, you know, when in the wake of the pandemic, when all. When there was something much uncertainty, I really started looking at my business like an investment and like how my teachers at OU taught me how to evaluate investments. And I started stepping back and I started thinking about, well, where is the value? Okay, where is the value? And, you know, where do I think this is going to go? And what do I think this is going to look like on the other side of the pandemic? And if it's just that degree helps me to work on my business, not necessarily to work in my business. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So I can definitely see how that has benefited you as an entrepreneur. I'm trying to do the math in my head, and obviously I'm having trouble. What year did you graduate and did you start your business right after that?

Okay. So I graduated in 2004 from OU and I started my business. I have the incorporation paper somewhere or the DBA filing somewhere. September 15, 2004. Because I graduated from college and I couldn't. Even though I had an internship, I had stellar grades. I was having a hard time finding a job. And I knew, even though, you know, I had moved back home, and my mother is incredibly supportive, but I knew that I could not live at home and not work. Well, good for your mom.

I mean, she's teaching you how to be an adult.

Yeah. Exactly, exactly. Exactly. And my, you know, when I had a, When I was. The summer before my senior year of college, I had an internship. And it was so transformative because I had gone into. Throughout college, I had wanted to become an investment banker. I wanted to become an investment banker or an oil, you know, an energy trader and oil and gas trader, because I'm from Houston. And that's what I wanted to do. And then I had a summer internship at a retail, at a nonprofit retail store in Houston. And we had volunteers, and we had volunteers who had been investment bankers. And they told me what it was like and they told me what their lives were like when they were investment bankers. And I said, no, no, thank you. And then my manager taught me how to sell because we were selling these very expensive high end items. They were expensive because we were a fair trade retail store. So, so the items that we sold from all over the world, from these less developed countries or these emerging, emerging countries from all over the world weren't created by, you know, by sweatshop labor. These were created by folks, usually women, who were getting a fair wage to create their items from. For the, you know, these artisans were getting paid a fair wage for this, these instruments and dishes and housewares that we were selling. And so we had, so you had a. It's just not going to sell itself like something off of a, you know, a discount. You go into a discount retailer and you find a bowl and you just stick it in the basket and you might just buy. It doesn't really have to be sold, but this stuff had to be sold. And she taught me how to sell. And you know, coming from a family of educators, you know, I never really just learned how to sell. And just the magic of sailing, it just stuck with me. And my plan when I returned to Oklahoma that fall was to get a job. I kid you not. My goal was to get a job in oil and gas and then get, and make a lot of money and eventually get laid off, because that's how the industry works. Eventually you get laid off and they give you a severance package. And I was going to start my business with that, but I was able to do that earlier than I expected because I never got the big finance job with the, with, you know, with the, with the big salary in the seventh. I never got that. But, but that's what, that, that's what, that's when I started my business. I started in 2004 because I couldn't find a job. And, and I could just help people right Away. I would start with meeting students at the library and. Or other public spaces. And then over time, I had a parent who wanted me to meet with her daughter, and her daughter was about an hour and away, and I said, well, that's not going to work because we are an hour away. And she suggested that I go online. This was maybe about 2010. She suggested that we meet online. And I started with one online platform, and it was okay. And then I started, you know, I started, you know, tinkering with other online platforms and found one I really liked, and we just. And I started meeting with all my students in private practice online.

So you were. It was like, probably didn't have Zoom back then, but it was like a zoom type call that you were doing. Was it Skype that you were using?

Correct? It was. It was Skype, absolutely.

Okay, so. So you're just, you know. You know, I guess Originally in 2004, you were meeting students at the library. So these were local to your area. How are you finding them?

Okay. So I was finding my clients through, you know, through word of mouth. My very first student came from my aunt, who at the time was still working as a counselor. She had a. She had a coworker whose daughter needed help with math. And so I announced to my family, I said, I'm starting this business. I'm going to help students to write essays for college, because that's how I got my scholarships, and that's what I'm gonna do. And my aunt, as lovely as she is, she said, oh, well, you know, my neat. My little niece is good at. My aunt still refers to me as her little niece, and I am super duper grown. But my aunt was like. My Aunt Joyce was like, you know, my little niece could do. My little niece is good at math. She could do it. So the lady called me and asked her if I could tutor her in math. And I was like, well, I mean, finance and economics is just applied mathematics. And so I just started her. I started working with her in algebra 1. And that young lady was one of a few students in her freshman class who passed the state exam that year in math. And I said, okay, well, I'm good at this. And so I just started getting word of mouth. And then what I noticed. And so I started talking to my students and asking what they were involved in and so forth. And I started to get. I started to reach out to parents and ask them, oh, well, can I come and speak to this group? So I would have students who would, you know, you know, they Would go to church. You know, certain churches, they might be involved in certain athletic clubs, maybe a. Some kind of youth group, what have you. And anytime my students were involved in some kind of group, I would always ask the parents, hey, can I come and speak to this group? Or who can I speak with? To. To come and speak to the group. And I put together a presentation. It's called how to go to college for Free. And it just. So I would give these presentations, and that's how I was able to get my clients. They would come and they would listen to my. They would be lured by the message of going to college for free. But then what they got in return was someone who's very passionate about helping their students to improve their literacy skills and their math skills. And so they come in there looking for how to go to college for free, but they leave with what I think is so much more. And they would start hiring me, and then they would say. And then I started to write a newsletter and my news. You know, clients would share newsletters with their. With their friends and their colleagues, and it just grown from there. Wow.

So let me ask you this. When you were giving away, you know, or doing these presentations, was the audience or the target market for this presentation, was it the actual student or the parents?

No, it's the parent.

Okay, gotcha.

The presentation is for the parents. So what I do. What. What I will do is there are some, like the school. So the school district from which I graduated high school, I will go and get presentations for their kids. You know, counselors can call me and I'll present to the kids. You know, it's just me doing community service. But for everyone else, parents need to be there. Because the parents are as wonderful as my students are. They are not going to volunteer. They don't have the money to pay me. So they're not the decision makers. The parents are the decision makers. So I strive to get in front of parents, and another group of people I strive to get in front of are counselors, because referrals from counselors are incredible. They are amazing. So getting in front of parents, getting in front of counselors, that's who I strive to get to appear in front of for. For my presentations.

So let me ask you this. I know that you have an online course. Can you walk us through why, you know, about the time frame that you started thinking about it? What led you down the path to say, oh, I'd like to develop this and launch this in the marketplace and.

Tell us a little bit about how.

That'S going and a little bit more about your course. So I threw a lot at you.

Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So what. So, Norm. So I was teaching, you know, online. You know, I have been teaching students online since probably about 2010 in my private practice. But when we're talking about a course with multiple students, you know, that's a. That. That was. I was reluctant to do that. You know, I said, I'm never going to get these parents to move their kids online. And so when I think about the. The online course that we're. That, you know, that we're talking about is definitely the PSAT and SAT class. That course that I teach through. Through my partnership with University of Houston Clearlight, that class, I always thought that class had to be in person. It is. And I'm going to be honest with you, on the other side of the pandemic, I will be excited for us to gather again, because it is, like, it's wonderful. You know, the kids are on a college campus, so they're getting a flavor of what it's like to, you know, be on a college campus. So there's a layer. There's a indirect level of expectation there that's placed on the students. There is, you know, I can, in a classroom of that class is. Has usually about at most, 25 students. And to have those students in the class and to see them making friends, because they'll tell me later on, they'll be like, miss Jennifer, we all started this Snapchat group, and we all still reach out to each other. And I'm like, good. So, you know, and. And they, you know, they kind of make friends. They, you know, they were doing a bowling night. They were like, miss Jennifer, we're gonna do a bowling night. I said, okay, and we want you to come. And I was like. I was like, okay. Well, because it's, you know, the class is, you know, so here I am. I'm having a full week of teaching my private students. And then I go on Saturday mornings from 8 to 12, and I teach this class. And then when I. The first Saturday after when the class ends, I'm off. And they're like, well, Jennifer, we're going to go bowling next Saturday. And I'm thinking, I'm. Oh, my God. So I'm like, you know. And so I was like, well, y' all just. And so I said, all right, y', all, tell me when y' all gonna do the bowling night. Yeah, but. So I just love. I just love the kind of community that the class creates. I think it's because when I was in college, I was a resident advisor and such a big part of my job was creating community among the residents who lived in my dormitory. But so I love that. And then also having the students, you know, having them ask questions and then go to the board, you know, I miss that. Although I've been able to replicate that online a little bit. And then the final class I have, the final class is basically a big carnival of games and learning. So, like, the very last class is what they do. I've done puzzles where I've taken. I've written the answers to questions on the back of puzzle pieces or I've written questions on puzzle pieces. And it's so many students. Like, you know, so I'm able to divide the students into like three or four teams. And each team is looking for a certain kind of. They're looking for puzzle pieces to fit their puzzles. And they're like, Ms. Jennifer, what is my puzzle supposed to look like? And I'm like, I'm not going to tell you. And I don't even bring the box so they can see. I don't know what it's supposed to look like either until they complete it. But having stuff like that, I brought in pinatas, I brought in hula hoops, cornhole. I mean, it is intense. And they are, you know, I bring in musical instruments they have, if there's gamification. So they're able to win these powers where they. They have powers. So if they complete their work, their assignments during the week, they could shut down the games that we play. They could swap points with other teams. It's just so many things that they could do with their powers if they do their work. And just to see them in the classroom just reacting to that and reacting to one another in that physical space, it's amazing. So I will be excited about us gathering again in person. So because of how much I love. I mean, I even wore. Have worn a costume before. Like, it's just. I just. I simply love it. I mean, they do learn. Learning does occur. Learning does occur. But it is. But. But I make it fun. And so I said, so when my colleague at U of H. Clear Lake, Brenda Guerrero, told me that the university was, you know, shutting in person classes down in the wake of the pandemic last March, In March of 2020, I said, oh, no, what's going to happen to this vibrant class that I built? And so I said, well, we'll just move it all online. We'll move it all on Skype. So we moved a course of 22 students online. So the good thing was that they were already used to completing their assignments online. I have some learning management software that I use and, you know, they have quizzes and so forth and different tutorials on that learning management software. So they were already used, they were already accustomed to, to my expectations and, you know, being online, but boy, I tell you. And so I was like, all right, I'm ready to go. You know, we communicated with the parents about how to join the parents and the students about how to join the online class. And I was just excited because there's. There, yes, there is the magic of that in person classroom. But also I've done online tutoring, you know, for years, and it's magical as well. And I was like, all right, we're going to, you know, and then, and then what else happened that day? I think that day or that week, my Internet had been messing up. And so I was. So I was at my mother's house on her kitchen table teaching the first class, and it was just like, oh, God, what else is gonna happen? And, you know, I was just disappointed because, you know, you had students who were. I mean, we were all getting used to this newness of the pandemic. And these students, many of them had been on a two week spring break, so this is the first time that they're doing any type of instruct, they're getting any type of instruction, and it was just destiny. It was just like, you know, looking at all these students on the screen and having to manage them, and it was just, it was hard. It was, you know, it was hard. And, you know, we got through it. We got through all five online classes and we played games, but it wasn't the same. Things took longer online and they still do. They take longer online than they do in person. And it was just, it was, it was challenging. Like, it was like, I was like. And what I would do is I would have students, I would see, you know, if students weren't there, if they hadn't arrived yet, I had their parents, cell phone numbers. So I would text the parents and say, hey, where's Johnny? Hey, where's Jessica? You know, and, you know, and then I would have to, you know, troubleshoot the students, you know, connection issues and so forth. So it was just, I was like, oh, my gosh, it was just a challenge. And then to meet with students online for four hours on a Saturday, that was just a lot because, I mean, truth be told, I mean, this is A class that is arranged through the university. So I can't just change it and say, okay, well, we're only going to meet, you know, we're going to change these times around and we're not going to be online for four hours straight. So that was such a challenge. And I would just, I had students, I gave students assignments throughout the week and I would notice if some students were completing their assignments and I would reach out to the parents and I'll ask them what was going on, you know, what was, you know, what. And they would tell me, they'd be like, because of the pandemic, you know, I'm stuck here. I'm, you know, we came here for spring break, we went to, we went out of state for spring break, and we're stuck here because of pandemic travel restrictions. So, you know, my son. So, you know, the student is at home with grandparents. So I knew that no work was going to get done with grandparents. Oh. So it was just, that first class was just a disappointment and it was a, you know, and I think some parents, you know, some kids did learn and they did get stuff up out of it, but with my high standards, I was like, there has to be a better way.

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So what I'm hearing, and I'll ask a few questions here, was this the first time that you had offered that particular program online?

Absolutely, that's the first time we had offered that particular program online.

And it's. And it's through the University of Houston. Correct. So you have a contract with them. Were these high school students that you were teacher.

High school students?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So.

And then go ahead.

You go ahead.

And another thing that kind of demoralized, I think that was kind of demoralizing was just the constant shift in, you know, students activities and you know, their extra activities and their school day. They. I think we underestimate how much that structure contributes to their overall well being. And I think we underestimate how much of everything else revolves around that. You know, them going to school for so many hours a day and getting assignments, just, you know, just the pre pandemic way of going to school and having to, you know, the students were jolted by that, parents were jolted by that. And it was just, it was very challenging to. And then the tests, the exams were getting canceled left and right. So it was very challenging to keep this thing growing. I mean, we started this class in 2000. We started offering this SAT prep class at U of H. Clear Lake in spring of 2013. And we had grown that program from having a class of like four or five, six students to consistently selling out the class. And we limit the class of 25 students to consistently selling it out and getting this traction and thinking about different ways that we can grow and so forth. And this was just. And it was like, wow, Covid knocked us on our sides. Now there's. I want to say, there's an. I want to say what it really knocked us on, but my students may be listening.

And we have a G rated show. So they are.

Right, Correct, correct, correct. So I want, I want to say it knocked us on our side. Yeah, so it knocked us. Yeah.

So did you run it again in the fall or what? What was your schedule like?

So what we did was we said, okay, we. So what happened was we had a. Because we were so successful in recruiting and building that class that we offered in March, we created a wait list course. And so we had a waitlist course that was starting in May. And the waitlist course was considerably smaller. Were there maybe like eight students in the waitlist course? And so we said we're going to proceed. So we did it. And I said, man, this is so. Because, I mean, I was just so excited to have. I mean, it does something to your ego when you grow something from, you know, three to four. I mean, basically we created something from nothing and to grow it to, you know, to selling out and having to have weightless classes for a few years straight. I mean, this is just, this is amazing. And then I look at the enrollment numbers and it's eight students. And I'm just deflated. And then what I said was. And I said, well, this is. And then as I started teaching the class, I said, this is Awesome. I said, because these students are able to ask questions, I'm able to give them more attention, you know, if they have. I'm able to have some time to look at their assignments and give them feedback and, you know, more consistently. And I said, this is. And then we would get these. We would get feet. You know, we would do the, you know, the parent, you know, the parent surveys and the student surveys, and they came back really favorably. And the students were saying, we really like how Ms. Jennifer takes the time to think through a question. We like how she takes her time with every question that we ask. Because I can do that because it's only eight of y'. All. So that was. And then what would happen is of those students, one of them. I know. Let me just start with I know. One of them came into private practice for some more individualized test preparation. One of them came into private practice to prepare for her essays. Another. And then her. Her mom enrolled her brother in one of our other PSAT classes. And then one of the other students was that student was going to. Or like the one of like his younger brother was. Had talked with. Or the parent had talked to me about enrolling another brother at another class. So we had this. And then there was word, and then we had word amount from that class that feel that helped that August class to leap in enrollment. So we offer an august PSAT course. And though, even though there were colleges saying, hey, we're going to go test optional, you don't have to take the sat, you can still apply, there were still students willing to prepare for the exams because you have test optional admissions. But then the students still wanted to get scholarships. And often the scholarships were and still are being tied to the test score. And so from that small class, we were able to generate not only more students from that class, but also to aid. To generate word of mouth and referrals that helped us to grow. That. That next class that we taught in August was considerably larger, but it wasn't at 25 students, which was good. It was still at a number that was manageable. But we had more students in that class. And in that class, those students would come back and say, oh, my test scores went up 200 points, or however many points. We had a couple of students whose scores went up like 200 points. And that's when I said, okay, well, I think we've hit a sweet spot here in terms of the number of students we have in a class. And I think we're onto something with having these smaller classes.

So tell me a little bit about the course itself. And it sounds a little bit like a group coaching program, if you would. Is it a week long? Is it two weeks long? And how much time do they spend actually doing the assignments in the course?

All right, so the class, so the class is 24 hours. And initially it was spread out among six Saturdays. So we would meet for six. Each Saturday we would meet for four hours from 8am to 12 noon in person. And I said, oh no, we can't. Oh no. I said this is not gonna work online. No, no, no. And so what, what we've done now is we've taken that class and we. It's three, it meets three days a week. So Tuesday, you know, like a, like a Tuesday Thursday, Friday, like a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or something like that for only a couple of hours at a time. And but we still get them that those 24 hours of instruction. And we've even taken and expanded on that. We said, you know, in these surveys, some students say I need more math, some students say I need more writing and language. So what we did was we created these specialized classes where students could focus on, you know, some students say, hey, I just need help with the reading and the writing in the language. So we created a 12 hour course for that. And, and we created a same thing with math. They said, hey, you know, I need more math. And we created a 12 hour course that just focused on the math portions of the PSAT and sat. So students do come. So we're looking at a course of 24, you know, spending 24 hours with me. Now, the amount of time they spend on homework, after every, after every session they have homework. So what I'm striving to do, Destiny, is to teach my students how to prepare for an exam. Because these students are, are going to college and they are going to have to keep on preparing for exams. Many of them, many of my students go on to graduate school. So I have students who are having to take the MCAT for medical school, the DAT to get into dental school, the GRE to go to graduate school and the GMAT to get into business school. And then of course, all the tests that they're going to have to take while they're students. It is not realistic for. It is not realistic and it is not financially feasible for them to drag me through all of these testing experiences. So I am striving to teach my students how to prepare for an exam. What happens with students at school is that they will get A's on their homework and their Classwork. And then they'll go and take the test, and they'll go get a C, D, or F on the test. And it's because there's a disconnection about how they go about preparing for these exams. And I. And what I'm doing in this class is I'm teaching them what happens when you consistently work toward a goal. So they have homework. So if we meet Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the students have homework assignments that are due on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And it's like that in all my classes. They have homework when we're not meeting. They have homework assignments too. And they're, you know, they're open note, open book, open Google assignments. I write the assignments. So they can't just go to, you know. Of course, there are online resources that allow students to find answers to questions that can't happen in my class. So they have to actually do their work. And then also there's a gamification component to it to where students who score the most points on their Students who score the most points on their assignments can get gift cards to different restaurants or to different retailers. They also have. And then also, when students do their work, they're able to powers that we play once a week, we play a game and they compete against one another in teams. And then I have. I give the team prizes at the end of the course. So they have homework assignments. And my expectation is that they do them. Some students are going to do it because they want to learn and they are engaged and they know that they're going to. They know they need to do their work. Other students need a little more. A little more motivation. And. And that's why I include the point system and the games and the prizes and so forth.

So, Jennifer, let me ask you this. I know that you had to change your business and your model a little bit because of COVID of last year. What do you see as next steps in 2021?

In 2021, I really see. I see this class, the SAT class, class that, the original one, with, you know, where I work, where I prepare students for all the subjects. I see that meeting in person again. So I see. I see us meeting in person toward. Toward the end of the year, probably the fall. I see that class meeting in person again. But that's what I see with that class. What I see with the. But we've been able to, as a result of our marketing. So it used to be that we would market. We would go to visit counselors and give presentations to counselors. Can't do that anymore because of COVID So we started offering this online continuing education courses for counselors because counselors refer and refer, refer and refer students to our program. And so we still found a way to get in front of the counselors. So because of the counselor outreach and because we were able to expand and then we started thinking about, okay, well, you know, Covid hit at a time when the oil and gas industry, which is a major industry in Houston, was declining. And we said, well, what can. So we started, we expanded our outreach to counselors beyond the Houston metropolitan area. We started thinking about, okay, and this is me with my finance and economics degree thinking, you know, well, what, you know, where is, if I were to invest in an industry at this time during the pandemic, what would I invest in? So we started thinking about it. We started thinking about food and things of that nature. So we started reaching out to counselors, we started reaching to hubs with IT industries, grocery industries, food industries. So we started expanding beyond the boundaries of Houston metropolitan area and started reaching out to counselors in the Dallas Fort Worth area, counselors in the San Antonio area, Austin and in the Rio Grande Valley. And we said this, you know, and so because we've been able to expand our outreach, we actually started attracting students who were not, you know, who could not come to University Houston. Clear Lake, which is located University of Houston, Clear Lake is right behind Johnson Space center. And it's in, you know, even if you live in, I'm not sure, doesn't give been in Houston, but it's, it's huge and it's spread apart. And University of Houston, while it is University of Houston, Clear Lake is not in downtown Houston. It's far from downtown Houston. And you may have, you may meet someone who says, yeah, I live in Houston or I'm from Houston, but they may live way out in one of the suburbs, you know, north of Houston or northwest and northeast. And they're not driving a Clear Lake on, you know, you know, every, every week. It's just, it's just too far for them to make that drive. So with those students. So we've been able to teach classes where we've had students from other schools who we would never dream of asking them to drive to U of H. Clear Lake. So we'll probably keep some of the classes online, probably some of the subject specific classes like the class that focuses on math, the class that focuses on reading and writing and language, those classes will probably be remain online to capture those students who, you know, who like my teaching style who like what we offer at U of Hill, but don't really don't like it enough to drive on a regular basis.

So let me ask you this. Have you ever had interest or has anybody ever reached out to you from an area, even from another state, who's interested in taking that class? Is that a market that you're kind of thinking about?

Yes, we had students to. Yes, we've had students to come to our boot camps. And so we even had someone come from California to come from it. But we're having. And people come to our. So the boot camps that we have are free. And, you know, we talk about SAT and so forth and, you know, we offer a mock for our practice sot. And we. And I mean, we did that one time. We had students from Dallas, you know, Austin, San Antonio, California. But for some reason we have struggled converting those students into students taking the class. I mean, we've had. We've been successful in getting students who are like, so we're in. So U of H. Clear Lake is in like the southeast, let's say it's in a suburb southeast of Houston, even able to have students in our class from northwest. So, like northwest of Houston, like, way, way, like going out, like very much northwest of Houston, like those students would never have. So we've been able to attract students who live in like, the farther suburbs, but we have not been successful in converting those students who are from those other areas as well as we have with these. And we're still working on it because we still have to think about, well, what happens. I don't know if anything like Covid will happen again in our lifetimes, but certainly with the energy industry going through its ups and downs, we need to be able to have students from other parts of the country, other parts of the state. So we're still working on that. We're still working on trying to get more students to enroll in that class who are from, you know, they come to our free stuff. But when it's time to come to our paid class, it's still primarily students in Houston metropolitan area now, not necessarily students who live near the U of H. Clear Lake campus, but we still are able to get students who are from like, farther away. But boy, so that's something that we are still working on and trying to figure out how to get more of our students from far away to become our students.

I love that you're thinking about that. And it just goes to show you that in business there's always areas to kind of look at and approve and tweak and figure out what you want to do. I have one last closing question for you, Jennifer. You've been doing this for 16 years. You have a ton of experience in entrepreneurship. What advice do you have for other online course creators or entrepreneurs out there?

I would say to stay focused on your goals and to think about what, think, you know, I examine my sales and think about where my sales were coming from. So you asked me at the beginning, Destiny, how did you get your clients? And one way was through word of mouth. I mean, and, you know, people would, you know, before COVID people were going and they were, you know, they would see each other out at the. They would sit next to their, you know, to their. To their mom friends at the games while they watch their kids play. And they would sit there and talk about, you know, the, you know, oh, well, parents say, oh, well, you know, Johnny needs help with math. Oh, well, I have this great tutor for. You need to call Jennifer. And that's how, you know, that's how that word of mouth would go. But nowadays, when, you know, when people are, you know, in the thick of COVID you know, things are opening up more now because of the vaccines and so on. But you have, you know, at the height of COVID you know, people were afraid to go to the grocery store and, you know, and folks would, you know, and I know for me, if I would go to the grocery store, I had on my mask and I would be running in and running out. I actually stopped going to the grocery stores in my neighborhood because I would run into people who I knew and I couldn't hug them, and it was just like, it's just too hard. So I would start going to grocery stores outside my neighborhood where I didn't know anybody. And so you don't have that word of mouth. Also, I would generate word of mouth by just kind of like these casual encounters. I volunteered at my corps, volunteered at the meets, and I would talk with parents there, and they would ask me questions, and I would say, well, you know, this is what I recommend you do. And eventually they will become my students or my clients or they will refer people to me. You know, going to the gym, going to the, you know, there were all these natural places where I would run community meetings where I would run into clients and prospective clients. And, you know, they would stay, you know, I would stay in front of their minds. And I didn't have that anymore. And I can trace a lot of my sales to that. So I would think, okay, well, now they can't see me in person, so what can I do? So what I say to entrepreneurs is think about, examine what was driving your sales before the pandemic. And you know, if those things, if those things aren't available anymore, you need to figure out how to replicate them online. Even the, even the in person events, I, I would go and give these presentations and get clients from that. Those things were gone. So as an entrepreneur, you have to think, well, how can I replace this? Because I still have to. I still have a business to run and there are still people who need my services. So what I started to do was I started to stay in front of my clients more. I have a newsletter that I was sending out, but I wasn't sending it consistently. I was sending my newsletter when I felt like sending it. And I would send my newsletter. I try not to send it too much because people would get turned off. But then I start, I said, no, I'm going to send a newsletter every week. So I sent a newsletter every week. And that lets people know, hey, scholar ready is still here and Ms. Jennifer is still here to help us. And even though, and you have to. And I had to focus on my goals. My goals are to generate sales. And, you know, people would drop from the newsletter. Like I've seen every, when I said it weekly, I have seen more and more people unsubscribing from my newsletter. But I also would see people responding and saying, all right, Jennifer, we're ready. You know, we want to take this course. You know, how do we go? How do we get started? And that's what, and that's the focus. The focus is on that if people drop from the newsletter, that's fine. You know, they weren't, you know, they, and I would look at, I would look at that list and I'll say, these people weren't referring people to me. They're not clients anymore. It's okay to let them go. So I had to focus on. So that, so that's me staying in front of my clients like I would when I would see them in person. And then for the events, I started conducting online events like, you know, how to go to college for free, how to, you know, conducting. I would go and present at counselors conferences. And what I started doing was offering continuing education because I have a continued. I'm an approved continuing education provider for educators in the state of Texas. I started offering continuing education to stay in front of the counselors. And that generates referrals and that generated referrals. So as an entrepreneur, you need to think about what your goals are and think about how you were able to reach those goals in the past and see if you can adapt adapt in the online environment to reach those goals.

So thank you for all of those tips and I liked what you said about basically not worrying about if people unsubscribe from your newsletter. Like in your case, maybe they didn't have kids of college age anymore or maybe they had already graduated from college. Jennifer where can people find you?

They can find me@scholarready.com it's the word scholar scholar and the word ready pushed together in one word, only one r in the middle. So S C H O L A R e a d y.com they can find me there. Scholarly no matter what happens with these exams with SAT and ACT, we will still be here to help students to get ready for their next level.

And I will make sure that that link is in the show notes so they can very easily find you. Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing your journey today. It was extremely inspiring. I loved everything you had to say. So thanks for all the tips and everything that you gave us.

Thank you so much Destiny. Have a lovely day.

Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you love the show, we'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast platform and show us some love there. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.