3/1/21 - Grown Growth with Guest Ashley Quire @InquireHigher

Well, hey everyone, welcome to Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. I'm so glad you guys continue to join in with us each and every Monday as we use this podcast to encourage you to know that you were Made for Mondays. Mondays don't own you, but you own your Mondays. And so welcome into our time together. This Monday, it's March 1, 2021, and I'm happy you guys are joined in with us. I want to give emphasis to a few things before we jump into our time together. First of all, you guys know Pandemics. We wrote a book called Necessary Endings last year. And thank you all of you who took the time to purchase it, but maybe you have little ones. And my son and I got together, we actually wrote a book called Brown Dad, Brown Boy, Brown Basketball. And it's a book that kind of details our morning routine and morning journey. And I hope that you guys will take a moment to go onto Amazon and to purchase that book as well. It's just a book simply to encourage fathers and son relationships. And so maybe you have a father or a male figure in your kid's life and you want to encourage them. That's the purpose of this book. It's a simple 25 page book that's to the point for children that really details a morning routine. And so it'll be, it's a way to encourage, a way to enliven and a way to empower you to start your Mondays and any day you want to off. And it's been awesome to hear the feedback from so many different parents and people who have been encouraged by this book. And so you can actually purchase it on Amazon, there's a link in the show notes. And if you also want to take a look at the first book, if you're new to the podcast, first book that we wrote called Necessary Endings, you can go right ahead and do so in the comment section as well in the description below. But you guys are tuned in this morning to hear from our great guest. Our great guest today is a young lady by the name of Ashley Choir. Ashley Choir is the CEO of Inquire Hire. She went to a great school named Marquette University, graduated just a year after I did with a Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology. And she was a part of the McNair Scholar Program. And since then she's been an admissions advisor, application reader and is so well versed in behind the scenes in admissions operations. And together with her husband Selvin, they founded a company called Inquire Hire and she's the CEO of Inquire Hire and what they call the Black Student Success Network. And I'm really excited to have been on their podcast and to even continue the journey and participate in the journey that they're on and that she's on, leading in Inquire Higher in terms of gathering great black leaders and bringing them together to encourage collegiate students, high school students, to be everything that they possibly can be. And so I couldn't think of anyone better to on, to learn from, to glean from in a wonderful field in higher education than Sister Ashley Choir. Now, this podcast was recorded on Zoom. The audio quality and video quality may not be perfect, but it's perfect for you to be everything that you possibly can be this day. Take a listen to our podcast today and welcome our guest, Ashley Choir, the CEO of Inquire Hire, as we learn from her and glean from her. Today we talk about leadership, entrepreneurship, growth, and truly just what it means to lead today. So let's take it away.

Welcome, everybody, to Made for Mondays. I'm Justin here, and I'm really, really happy to continue our series on Made for Mondays this month. And today, we're really blessed with the new CEO, if you will, of Inquire Hire. We went to Marquette together. Didn't really get a chance to meet on campus, but I met her husband, knew her husband well, and get a chance to engage holistically in the great work that they're both doing at Inquire Hire. So, you know, she's an amazing person, but she went to Marquette University and is doing amazing work in higher education. And what I love a part of her bio is you'll find her planning, volunteering, or diying just about everything. And so shout out to another diyer. Absolutely.

Love it.

And so would you guys help me? Welcome to the podcast today. Ashley Choir. Welcome.

Thank you so much for having me today. How are you doing?

I'm wonderful. I'm wonderful. And I'm glad to have you just here with us. Now, before we jump into this, I didn't tell you this beforehand, but I guess I'm curious, what is the last thing you diy? Because I'm just. This wall is kind of my last thing. So I'm curious, what's that?

That's actually the last thing I diyed for our podcast. This wa has been. Has gone through its ups and downs, and it's transformed into so many things. I think we're pretty content with where it is right now.

Wonderful. There's, like, a whole market out there now for, like, Zoom backgrounds and Zoom walls. And, like, is there. Yeah, like, it's just how to design. Like, this was our attempt at it here. And then I just redid this whole, like, piece in our basement that did not go well. Cause I did LED lights that decided they wanted to fall.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

So there's the fails and successes, I guess, of do it yourself. So.

Yeah.

Ash, welcome. Like, so the first thing I want to start with. I believe there's power in storytelling. Just really. I know it's a large question, but just who are you and how did you get to where you are now?

That is such a loaded question. Right? Where do I start? Well, I am Ashley Choir. I am, as you mentioned, CEO of an online network called Inquire Hire. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm a child of God. I was born in Texas, but I grew up all over Chicago. West side, south side. Eventually settled on the north side in Rogers park at the age of 12. Come from a single parent household, which is my mom and my younger brother. I grew up Catholic. Black Catholic. It's a thing. Look it up. And so naturally, I went to a Catholic High School, St. Ignatius College Prep, which is very competitive to get into here in Chicago. I then went to Marquette University, where you went as well. And as you mentioned, I met my husband there, and I majored in psychology. After undergrad, I got into admissions because that's something that my mom's been in. She still works in admissions and she loves it. I fell in love as well. I love giving back to students and helping people get that much closer to reaching their success or helping them along their journey. So that's been something that's been amazing. And it's kind of snowballed into what I do today with Inquire and college preparation.

So what exactly is Inquire Hire? Because I've been to the website. But if you were to. Not even the elevator pitch, but like, if you were to sum it down, like, what. What does Inquire Hire do? Because I love the mission and work that you all do, and I'd like to hear from you.

Yeah. So Inquire Hire is something that has evolved over time. And starting last year in the summertime, we've kind of made this switch to making it, turning it from a college consulting platform to a black success hub. So Black students success hub, specifically. So we connect black students, inspiring educators, mentors, successful professionals that they can relate to all in one spot. So I guess that's the elevator pitch without getting too far into it. That's also where you can find the Black Student Success podcast where we interview black professionals. You were a guest as well. And it was so, it was so great hearing your story and having you on. So that's something that's out there.

Yeah, No, I love it and I love the, I love the mission for it. And it sounds like it comes from a really deep place for you as well. And I love that because I think it's amazing. As leaders, I think it's so important to name like where our source is. Right. And hearing your own story as well, I think that's just, it's powerful. And to know that you guys are pouring into college students, I think it's just absolutely amazing. And I love the mission of it. So, like, when I first heard about it and read about it, I was like, man, this is amazing. I wish I had this one. I was in school.

Right?

As well.

Yeah.

So how are you setting yourself? I know like you're the CEO of Inquire Higher. How are you setting yourself up in terms of like your physical, your spiritual, your mental well being for your future as you continue to grow as a human, as you continue to grow as a person? What are you? I guess, like, I guess the question, I guess a better question is like your practices that you do on a regular basis that keep you healthy for the amount of work that you do every single day.

When I saw this question, I giggled because spiritual, mental and physical. I don't know about physical. Quarantine has been tough. We have. I've been cooking. I am a new cook. I did not cook before and now I'm, you know, I'm always in the kitchen making something. Food is great, especially in the wintertime, you know, on the east coast and such. A true story. Oh, yes. So let's not say anything about physical. I mean, I stretch in the morning, but it's not like I could do better. What about. Let's leave it there as far as spiritual and mental, I have found myself reflecting more on a daily basis and I try to do that in the morning before I get started with anything. I have a daughter in school, you know, that's remote learning, so that's challenging, just working. And then we have a one year old and that's. Everyone knows how that is. Okay. So having that moment to reflect in the morning is very helpful. And then I do journal in the evening before I go to bed. So that's how I'm keeping myself going as far. As far as setting myself up for the future. Naturally I'm a very caring and giving person. If I could, I would give you everything to help. You know, if you needed something, I'm there. And so just naturally I am. I think that's something that's been rooted in me from a child just growing up Catholic. We're very service oriented people and, and that's something, you know, that I've wanted to do as a, as a. From birth, basically to help as many people as I can. That's something that's always been part of a part of me. So in building inquire higher and watching it grow and helping more students at one time, you know, breaking down that equity barrier by making college preparation, college or career readiness ready and giving that access to as many people as possible, we're limiting that equity barrier, bringing it to more people. Just building inquiry has been really fun. I'm not only building it with my family and for my family. I say with my family because we call our daughter our junior consultant. She's always giving that advice. She knows everything. She's at that age. And our son, we call him the intern. He's not really helpful at all. He's more of a pain and a challenge than actually helping. But he's the intern, right? And so we're not only doing that together, but we're also doing it or I feel like I'm also doing it for the greater good, if that makes sense. And so I want us as a people as far as the black community to all win and to grow together. So that's how I'm setting not just myself, but other people up for the future.

How have you been able to keep that mindset just in terms of helping everybody win? Because that's not a, that's not a normal, you know, mindset that a lot of people have because we have a lot of selfish people. How have you kept that and stayed sane as somebody who also tried to do that? Like, how have you kept that type of mindset and stayed sane in the process of wanting everyone to win? Even at times it sounds like as well, even if it means at the expense of some of the things that you personally want to do or engage in, have you kept that everybody with mindset and sake sane?

Oh, that's so hard. A lot of prayer and a lot of reflection. I feel like this is something that it's a calling and I feel like it's been a calling since forever and I can't seem to let it go to help as many people as possible, especially my people, people who look like me, just a lot of prayer, a lot of reflection and that's about it. That's all I got. I can't even say rest because rest is not in that equation.

I don't even know what rest is. When people have kids, I always laugh because like, you know, I really want kids. Really. Because they have them. I'm like, for 18 years, you're never going to sleep again.

No. You're never going to stop worrying. You're never going to, you know, when, even when they're sleeping, when they get a little bit older, you still want to, you know, check in a little bit. Are you breathing? You know, it's never going to stop. You'll never stop thinking and worrying at all.

At all. Though it's. My sister is currently, she's expecting her first in July and she was joking the other day. She said, like, what you call it? I'm just afraid of like all these different things. You got to take the gas out. And so I was like, oh. I said it got better from three years ago when we had our kid. I said, nosfrieda. Nosfrita is like automated now. I didn't know that. And yeah, wait, what it is exactly, right?

Oh, no, it was like a. Okay, I'm not going to explain how it used to work.

But yeah, no, like we're sucking it out and I'm sitting here, my wife was like, yeah, no, it's automated. And my sister's like, wait, what? And so like you just put a battery in it and it sucks out. Was like, see, y' all are lucky. I'm like, we had the, we had to suck in and hope the thing worked.

Yeah. And it didn't. It never worked for. It didn't work for us. You have to get really creative and.

I think that's as safe as possible. How we got sick so many different times because we were just trying to do all of that. But that's funny. Speaking of children in childhood, if you could have, I don't know, coffee, maybe not coffee. You wouldn't have coffee with the 12 year olds up. If you could sit down and have a conversation with your 12 year old self, what's something you would tell them? Whether it's a warning, whether it's encouragement, whether it's a push, what would you tell your 12 year old self?

Yeah. So sitting down with my 12 year old self without giving too much away, first of all, I would like to give that little girl a hug. And yes, she was drinking coffee because she went to a very competitive School. And she started in the seventh grade. Drinking coffee. Okay. No, still addicted to coffee. Don't do it. I'd give her a hug, first of all. And I would tell her that I guess everything happens for a reason. And no matter, I guess, whatever you have experienced or that you may experience in the future and things may seem unfair, God has a higher plan. You might not see it right now, but everything will come together and everything will make sense.

That's wonderful. No, thank you for sharing that, too. The last question I have for you, I wanted to reframe it just a little bit, but it still goes what we originally talked about. If you could give advice to somebody and you knew they would listen, what would you. What would you tell someone.

During COVID before or after?

Whatever this new normal is, whatever that.

Is, I'm going to say during COVID take it one day at a time. And if you can't take it one moment at a time, it'll get better.

That's powerful, Ashley. Thank you.

Thank you.

This was wonderful, you guys. Please, if you can tell us, Ashley, how can we find you? Whether it's on the socials and LinkedIn, all of that, how can we find more about Inquire Higher as well?

Yeah, so Inquire Higher. We are everywhere under inquire.hire, instagram, YouTube. The podcast is the Black Student Success Podcast. You could find us there. Any other way you need to reach me, let me know or let Justin know if you're trying to get into contact with us to get any type of college help, college preparation, if you need a mentor, if you're just feeling lost, we're here to help.

Awesome. Thank you. And we'll put all this information, everyone, in the show notes. So you just go click over to the show notes underneath this podcast. You guys will find that. And those of you who are watching this online, all this information will be in the comment section below me. And you guys can go ahead. Please make sure you're connected. You follow the work that Ashley and her husband are doing. It's absolutely amazing. Necessary, essential work. And so, Ashley, thank you again for joining us here on Made for Mondays.

Thank you so much. This was a great time.

Thank you.

Well, thank you all for joining in once again. And thank you, Ashley. And I really hope that you guys gleaned some great information from Blessed and Paige and Ashley this month. It's been such a wonderful month of leading and learning from some amazing, amazing black women. I want us to get past just seeing black women, but also seeing black women and seeing them in positions of authority. That's one of the reasons I wanted to give emphasis to the stories and to the power and to leadership opportunities behind the beautiful skin of our wonderful black sisters. So if you have an opportunity to please go back and listen to Paige, go back and listen to Blessed and be encouraged and be enlightened and be enlivened by the work and the wisdom that they poured out and go and support their work. Go take a look at Inquire higher. Go take a look at what Paige is doing at Duke's Biocorps and go take a look at what Blessed is doing also in the work that she's doing now. Let's say our affirmations today and we'll go on about our weeks. If you repeat after me, just simply say I am me, I can be me and no one will stop me from being me. Listen, have a wonderful week. You were made for this. Mondays don't own you. You own your Mondays. Now go in. Have a great week, everybody.