Masterclass: Guiding Your Teen's Future- Career Exploration and Finding Their Passion

All right, welcome everyone. Awesome, here they come. Hey Susan, Denise, Aubrey, great to have you. Virginia, welcome. We are gonna get started right away. So as soon as I just open up the floodgate, and so as soon as everybody comes in, We're gonna get started straight away. So feel free to, um, grab something to drink, a little snack, turn off all distractions, tell the kids you're busy. Just kidding. Um, but do what you can to be all in because tonight we're gonna share some really great things about not only helping your child prepare for college, but life well beyond college, right? Sometimes we think college is the end goal. It's not the end goal at all. It's the stepping stone to the end goal. So what we're going to share tonight is all things about helping you help your child find their passion, their gifts, their talents, their core values, their advocacy. And then, um, Ms. Tracy, she is going to help us understand how do we find that career. Like we're going to take you all the way through. So if you have a child, this is what I have found. If you have a child that's really good at a lot of things, this is really hard for them. If you have a child that's good at one thing, this is much easier for them. I know it seems counterintuitive because you're like, what? I don't understand. But when you're good at a lot of things and people are giving you good feedback, you're like, Well, okay, I'll do that, and then I'll do that, and I'll do that. And then you really don't commit and don't explore and expand. So I get so excited about this stuff. So I'm going to go ahead and jump on in. We're right at the, at the right time. My name is Shellee Howard, and I am the founder and CEO of College Ready, and we are so excited to have you on the call with me tonight is Tracy Bacon Hafter. Did I do it right, Tracy? All right. And she and I would like to help you as parents help your children. Nobody in their high school is going to do this. And if it's left to you, the parent, and you only know what you do or what you're good at, it could be a little daunting. I know when all 4 of my kids were trying to figure this out and we were, you know, trying to put together their positioning for college and their standout strategy. And, and then I started thinking, well, wait a minute, what exactly do they want to do regardless of what college they want to go to? And sometimes just getting them to Choice 1, choice 2, choice 3. Let's get real, did we know at 16, 17, and 18 what we were going to do for the rest of our life? No, probably not. Few do. My oldest did and he stuck to it, but not everybody does. So I first want to just say, if your child is like, I don't know, it could potentially be they really don't know. They're not trying to be like giving you a hard time. They just feel stuck. And I would say probably half the students that I've worked with over the last 17 years start out in this place of either, I want to do this. A typical thing is, I love Legos, I want to be an engineer. And you're like, wow, that's kind of a big leap, but okay, we'll go with that. Or, you know, I love being on stage, so I want to go to Broadway. That's like another extreme. Being on stage and being on Broadway, obviously not identical. But then we get the student who is like, Shellee, I really don't know. Like, I'm not kidding you. I have no idea even what I'm passionate about. And so I wanted to give you, for being on the call, some secret sauce. And so I'm not going to go with a bunch of slides tonight. I'm going to go from parent to parent, and students, if you're listening, this is for you too, um, some things you can do to help your students, your children navigate this. So we really love helping students figure this part out, and so I'm going to help you help your child. Now keep in mind that as a mother of 4, I do realize that sometimes our children may not want to hear it from us, and sometimes you need to hire a professional, and they blab. They— I mean, I've had many students talk their head off in front of me, and their parents are like, who is that? So you know your, your child best, and if you've tried and they're stuck, just you try something different, right? With my first, him and I, we had that discussion from the time he was a toddler. Super easy. With my second, she really kind of knew but wasn't 100%. She got down to top 3. My third completely didn't want to talk about it. My stepson was like zipped. He did not even want to talk about the idea of talking about it. And my fourth is like, well, My oldest brother is a doctor. My oldest sister's a nurse. My, my next brother, he has no clue what he wants to do. I think I'm going to be an entrepreneur. And we're like, whoa, didn't see that coming. So just know, having gone through this several times myself and so many times with my clients' children, one thing I can tell you is it has to be custom to them. There's not one way of doing this, but I can get you started down the right track. I see a lot of great clients on. I'm so excited. And Carrie is also on the call. I'm gonna move her into a panelist, and she can be answering questions. So Carrie is my assistant, and she will pop onto the screen in just a moment. Keri, can you wave hi? Are you there? There she is. Excellent. So as I'm going through this and you're like, but, but, but, but, instead of stopping, put it in the chat, and Keri will monitor it. If she can't answer it, she'll run it down for me when I'm done, and then we'll pass it on to Tracy, and we'll do the same for her. So please know Kari's there for you to support you. Okay, so here we go. We're gonna dive in. And so first thing I want to talk about is how do we help our child navigate this process? So if you get to have dinner time with your family at the table, that's a real treat. And in order to make it really fun, I came up with a few things you can do that don't quite feel like asking them what they want to do for the rest of their life, but it's a simple way to have a really great conversation. So there's only 2 rules to this process. We call it a game because kids like games. I started this when my oldest was in 5th grade, so I've been doing this a bit and it works like genius. 2 rules. So includes for the parent and the children at the table, everyone, all siblings included. One at a time. I always start with the oldest because they're— they process quicker. So first rule is regardless of what I say, or what the person who has the stage says. No rolling eyes. Not acceptable. There's no like, huh, or nonverbal cues that you are completely not agreeing. Okay, so for a lot of people, I call it like the stoic, the poker face. Like, yes, I'm listening. Yeah, okay. And you're just kind of like there, but you're not like, are you kidding me? So we have to kind of play that game, and then it's really hard for siblings because they're dying. They're like, you wanna do what? Um, or sometimes parents. The second thing is there can be no judgment on the idea. So if they say, I would like to take all my friends on a trip around the world and I pay for all first-class tickets, you cannot fall out of your seat. It cannot be like, oh my, like, shocker. Okay, that's it. That's the only rules to the game. So here's the game. You say to the child, if I gave you $1 million cash— now, if they're not smiling, you're in trouble. They hopefully will be smiling, going, yes, I would like $1 million cash. And I say, I gave you $1 million cash. You have 24 hours to spend it, or you have to give it all back to me. What would you do? Now, keep in mind, I am not telling you to spend all your money. This is not a coaching thing on money. We are just talking about if money was no object, what would you do with it? Now, I have had students who would say, Well, I would spend, you know, probably $1,000 on clothes and $1,000 on shoes. And then I, you know, I get my hair done and my nails done. Not— that's usually, you know, somebody who's caught up in that situation of their life. I've had students who've said, I have no idea. Like, they're paralyzed. They really don't have a concept of what they would do with that money, and it's real for them. And so it's the first time you really get a glimpse into, wow, wait a minute, we have some opportunities here. I've had some students say, Shellee, I would take all my friends, we'd all fly to Hawaii, then we'd fly to New York, then we'd take a yacht, then we— and it goes on and on and on. And when I have that, I'm like, excellent, let's break that down. So how much are you going to spend of your million dollars on your first trip? And they're like, oh, how much does it cost to go to Hawaii? I'm like, okay, that's a good question, give me a guesstimate. Okay, and now you're starting to really see the lack of financial awareness. We do such great job as parents of meeting all their needs that sometimes they really don't know. I had one student say, well, I just want to buy the house next to my parents because I really want my own house, but I really love being next to my parents. And I'm like, that's so sweet. How much would that house cost? They look, and I'm like, your parents can't help you. And what they're doing is they're processing, I don't know, I don't know what to say. And I just, I enjoy just kind of helping them go through this mental path of here's some interesting things to consider. And then I've had some students who say, well, first I'd buy a fixer-upper. And I'm like, wow, where are you going to get the money? He's like, well, I've already got the savings. And I'm like, wow, that's quite impressive. And then I would fix it up myself and I would flip it and I'd buy 2. And I'm like, wow, that's, that's amazing. I said, are your parents in real estate? Oh, well, yeah. And I'm like, that makes a lot of sense.

Good on you.

So it will bring out a lot of what your student, your child knows and what they don't know. My second child got really stuck on this, and what we ended up doing is we helped her to come up with at least 10 things that she felt were worthy of spending her money. She can spend my money all day long. Let's not be like joking around with that. Super easy to spend my money. But you know, when I ask her to pull out her wallet It gets really tight. So I said, what are some things? And she wrote them down. And I said, great, do you want to share them? And she shared them. And what we found out is she really enjoys buying gifts for other people. Whoa, didn't know that. What we further found out is she really has a heart to serve her community. And that is how she found her way into being a nurse. So it all started with this game and all 4 of my children. So my first, he's now 30, went to Harvard, UC San Diego Medical School, UCLA orthopedic surgery residency, and he obviously knows what he wants to be, and it's been that way since he was in 7th grade. Never ever missed a beat. Number 2 is bumpy. Number 3, we're still exploring. I'm not gonna lie and say, oh, my kids are perfect. No way. He still is trying to find his way. He thought he'd do media broadcasting, then he got a degree in it and realized that there's really not a lot of opportunity, and now he's kind of seeking something else. Some kids are willing to get advice and help, and others are just going to be I want to figure this out on my own. So first, I just wanted to share my own personal story so you know that I empathize with all of you. After you play the Millionaire Game— excuse me— the next step is to help your child learn how to journal. Okay, some students are like, what's a journal? And I say, pull out your phone, go to notes and start typing your thoughts. Oh, got it. No problem. So speak their language, whatever that is. I do think a journal next to their bed where they can put down their last thoughts or their first thoughts is such a great way to capture. But I also meet them where they're at. The second thing I tell them is I would like them to come up with 10 things that they are passionate about. And I have to explain, what is a passion? It's a very overused term right now. I mean, I've been using it for 17 years. It's very overused. Now what we're calling it is, what is that thing that gets you up on Saturday morning? That's what we call it here. It's if you didn't have anything else to do, what would you do with your time? And let's get real, for some students or some children, it would be getting— playing gaming. I mean, I had two boys, uh, they were both gamers. I get it. For others, it may be shopping or going to the beach or whatever that is, but they're gonna find by number 4 or 5 that it's no longer as easy as just putting down some fluffy stuff. And if they don't know, if they really don't know then we go into exploratory mode because we can't leave them there. I don't know if you realize it, but colleges make them pick. It's not like it's my choice, my decision. I, I wouldn't do that to a child, but I have to help them understand. I get, you know, I start with students as young as 7th and 8th grade, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. Transfer students, the whole gamut. What I have to help them understand is we're not preparing for college. We're preparing for your life to get into college, life at college, and after college. So my job I take very serious. My team is genius. We have somebody who specializes in just passion with purpose. Okay, so now your mind is ticking. Tick, tick, tick, tick. This generation is hugely advocating for someone or something. It is a really great opportunity for you to find out what's inside of them. So I haven't met, honestly, a teenager in this next 4 years of, of high school that doesn't have a care about something. It could be the environment, it could be about trash, it could But they're pretty passionate. So the next thing we do is we dig into what do you advocate for? And I had a young lady tell me one time, well, my mom says that I'm a really good arguer, so I just want to argue for people. And I'm like, okay, that makes sense. Do you, you know, have you explored that? Well, no, but my mom says that's what I do. And I'm like, Let's see what we can do with that. And then we're able to offer 4, 5, 6— here's some ideas. We brainstorm it, we popcorn it back and forth, we let everything be a possibility. There's no such thing as no or shooting them down, and that's probably why we have so much fun. And then we come up with their purpose and their service. So it is my belief that if every student in the world before they graduated high school did 200— and that's just a number— they did several community service hours, that our world would be a better place. And I haven't had too many people disagree. I have had somebody call it child labor, but for the most part, people do understand that the idea is while you're serving your community, the child gets to be like, do I like the elderly? Do I like babies? Do I like research? Do I like sales? Like, they get to test all of these really cool hats while not being concerned about doing it 100% right. This generation is not used to failing. It's a really tough thing. We call it failing forward, so it takes the pressure off of them, and we celebrate. That is, we are so lucky you found out that you don't like to talk to people. We are so lucky because now, as you look into your career, we can put you in something that you have very limited time to speak with random people. I had a student. I'll tell you about a passion project. This passion project, I'm not kidding you. He said, Shellee, I don't like people. I'm like, okay, no problem. I said, what do you like? He says, I like Comic-Con. I'm like, what is that? And I Google it and I'm like, you like comics? He's like, it's way more than comics. And I'm like, okay. And I'm digging. I'm like, tell me about it. Like, I'm curious. And he's like, we have these big conventions. And I go, that sounds really exciting. You can see he's just lighting up. And I'm like, there's people there, right? And he's like, yeah, but we're in costume. We're like superheroes and stuff. And I'm like, oh, okay. I'm following you now. And he says, and what I really love is I like to go on eBay and buy the merch, the stuff, and then I like to collect it. And when I go to these conferences, we trade and we buy and we sell. And I'm like, wow, I had no idea you liked all that. And after some brainstorming and some really deep digging, it turns out that what he really loved was to buy low, fix it up, and sell high. He didn't like the people part, he didn't like the other part, but he liked the money part. So his passion project turned out to be genius. What he did is he created an eBay account. He started buying low, fixing up, selling high, and donating that money to his favorite charity. He is now the number one Comic-Con eBay store To this day, he makes more than his parents, and he got a full ride to Chapman University. So here's an example of— he didn't have a clue. He knew he didn't like people, or we figured that out, but his parents were very frustrated by his love for Comic-Con. And I've been there when my oldest had a love for gaming. It made me crazy. He now tells me how ambidextrous both of his thumbs are when he does robotic surgery and how that really prepared him for that opportunity. And I'm like, I'm humbled by that. Okay, mom moment. But let's just be open to sometimes We see our own child in a certain way, and that's what we do is we help that child do it differently. For just a few more minutes, hang in there with me. I'm going to show you an opportunity your children can do, cost you nothing, super easy to get involved with, and it's something that we started with one of my students' passions. I'm gonna share it briefly, and then we're gonna move on to Tracy. So hang in there with me, and I will open it up for brief questions. So, um, Carrie, keep that in mind, but I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. Now, this organization started, um, can you see my, my screen? Okay, thumbs up. Okay, good. Awesome. So this program is called EmpowerEducation.World. You can see it right here. I encourage you to go check it out. This started with myself and one of my students a year and a half ago. I had just gotten back from a trip to Uganda where I was asked to teach women in Uganda how to start their own business so they could feed their families, right? Instead of giving them food, we wanted to teach them how to provide for their family. Well, when I came back, I was on fire. I was like, oh my gosh, we're blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Obviously, I was passionate about it, and he's like, well, Shellee Howard, how can I help? And that's how this got started. So I won't go into the depth of it, but I do want to call out some hot things to you. If your child would like to be part of this, I encourage you to put, um, yes in the chat, and Carrie will get you connected. Okay, that's all you have to do. If you would like to find out more, go to this website, and then you can connect with us. Again, this is just an opportunity. So myself and now a group of 5 students, we meet once a week and then they lead this organization. I am now just a mentor. I'm their biggest cheerleader, biggest supporter. It has grown from me and one other to now me Well, 47 students. Carrie is now part of the organization, and what we have learned is these kids are on fire. So I just went to Uganda on behalf of Empower Education in June. They raised $18,000, built 2 schools in Uganda for 850 children to be educated. That is massive. These kids are killing it. When colleges look at your child, they want to see international, national, regional, local, and school. So if your child is spending all their time creating Pokémon clubs at school, they're going to be at the very lowest point. Remember, I'm tying this back into college. Colleges are looking for international impact, international awards, national impact. This is a group where we have students from all over the world. The, uh, our person on the ground, Yona, actually comes to the meeting. It's like 3 in the morning for him, and he comes on and motivates and tells these kids how awesome they are and shows them videos of what they're doing. It is a real thing in real time. So I won't go on and on about this, but so many webinars you get on and they tell you this idea, this idea, this idea. As a parent, I need a solution, and this is the solution to helping them find their passion. If you go to the committee section, you will see that there are a lot of committees. We have medicine and science and athletics and VAPA and business and STEM and literature, and it goes on and on and on. So we're not here just doing for the organization. We're here to connect students to their passion where they get to provide pianos for the school to be able to teach them about music. So we lean into that, and that is what students can write their essay about, their interview questions, so on and so forth. So I can talk about this all day and all night, but I don't want to take all the time. So, Carrie, before we move on to Tracy, is there any questions that I need to ask— answer? No questions. Okay, awesome. Tracy, it's all yours.

Awesome. Well, thank you. Let me see if I can share here. Should be able to. Sweet. Alright, let me know when you guys see that. Okay, good, sweet, awesome, perfect. Okay, bear with me here as I readjust. Now that my screens are all wonky and everybody disappeared, because you know, that's how that goes when you share your screen on Zoom. There we are. Okay, so hi everybody. I am so excited to be here. I appreciate you, Shellee, allowing me to come in and kind of just do this with you. This has been really great. I love that. I love that organization. That's amazing. And I love the opportunities for students to get involved too. I think that's like, wow, that's, that's so helpful on that involvement side. Like you said, especially for preparing for college or careers, that involvement is so important. And especially if you can get international involvement and be, you know, uplevel those, those involvement skills. So I think that's great. So I'm gonna talk about the exploring career options and that whole exploration piece with you guys today. So kind of talk a little high level of a lot of this. Things to be doing to really help your student figure out what that career looks like. So think about this is the now practical— here's the things to be doing while you are still in those teen years, because those teen years are a great time to utilize these things before they go off to college. Because once you're in college, it can get a little costly if you're spending time trying to figure out your career path while you're in school. And so trying to help kind of save that time now. So a little brief intro of me. So my name is Tracy Bacon Haster. I am a career coach. I work with teens through young adults. I am also the founder of an organization called Adulting University. So Adulting University, we help homeschool families with all things career, college, and life skills. So we have a whole co-op that we do with that, and we can talk more about that later. But that is, that is who I am. I've been working with youth for over 12 years now. I've owned the business for over 4 years. And yeah, so I, I've spent a lot of time with youth in a lot of different aspects, and I'm very passionate about being able to help students kind of find that direction. I know for me, when I was a young adult, I had no clue what I wanted to do as a teenager. I was the one that was like all over the place. I wanted to do all the things, and I always joke and tell people, especially when they look at me, they laugh at some of them. Like at one point I wanted to be an interrogator in the CIA, which is really funny. I know you're allowed to laugh at that. It is funny. Uh, but I thought that was the coolest thing. I used to love the criminal books. And CSI and all the shows. I was like, I'm gonna be an investigator. Ooh, I'm gonna interrogate people. Yes, that, that went really well. But I was the one that had all these interests. I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I went to college, still had no idea what I wanted to do, changed my major a zillion times. And then I worked with students once I did finally figure it out on the higher ed side in the same space. And so that's kind of what prompted me to really start this business, to help families in this space. So if you spend any time with us at Adulting University, you are going to learn very quickly that we operate on a pillars and blocks kind of model. So everything we do is based on these foundational pieces. So when it talks about career exploration specifically, we believe there are 4 foundational pillars that every student— if you want to know what you want to do with the rest of your life and you want to know what you want to do as a career, it is really doing these things. And so we're going to talk about each one of these pillars. But the 4 pillars are simple. It's purpose, lifestyle, research, and hands-on. And we're going to talk about what each of these are. So if you're kind of like, what the heck does that mean, Tracy? Don't worry, we're going to get to it. We're going to, we're going to go through each of these so that you can kind of have an understanding of what this entails to help you on your journey. The other piece about this is just like anything else, that's when we talk about a foundational piece. When you're building a house, you put the foundation in first, then you build each layer on top of it. So with our pillars, we work from left to right. So our left pillar is our foundational pillar, and then you have to have the next one, and they build on top of each other. You don't wanna just go right into the hands-on if you've never done the purpose or lifestyle pillars. It's so important to work through this as a process, and there's a lot of great ways you can do this with your student. And like Shellee Howard said earlier too, drop questions in the chat. We will gladly answer those as we go. So feel free to pop those in there. And I'm also gonna get you guys engaged in the chat. So get your keywords ready because I'm gonna have you guys kind of engage with me a little bit because I like to, I like to see what's going on and what everybody's thinking and all the things. So, all right, up first, Pillar 1. This is purpose. I'm not gonna spend a ton of time in this because I know Shellee talks a lot about this, which is great. But there are 4 main areas when we're talking about your purpose, right? Why am I here? What am I being called to? What do I bring to the table? That is such a great way to be able to start to figure out that career direction. And it starts with those passions. What is your student passionate about? You know, what do they love to do? What gets them excited? Rather it's Comic-Con or, you know, maybe it is Pokémon, you know, whatever that is for them. How— what is that passion? Then we go into interests. Now, interests are a little bit different than passions because passions are— when I work with students, I explain to them a passion is something that you're like, I'm all in. I will go to town and toe to toe with somebody over this. It's something I truly believe to my core. An interest is something that you just have an interest in, like, oh, I like to read. That's an interest of mine. I am not overly passionate about reading. I like to read. There's a difference. And it's important to understand where that overlay is, because that is kind of where we start to build these things. Then we have strengths, and this is what I always love to tell students, because they might really, really have something they're passionate about and they're really interested in, and they might be absolutely terrible at it. It's not a natural strength to them, and it's important to know where the overlap is. Same goes for your strengths. I could be really, really good at something and absolutely hate it, right? Math's a good example. I see that a lot with students. The ones that are really, really good at math doesn't always mean they like math. They're just like, I'm really good at it. I don't want to be a mathematician. I don't want to do anything with math. Right? So it's important to see where do all of these line up. And then the fourth one is one a lot of people overlook, which is values. What are your values? And these are your family values. These are things that, again, what is it that means the most to you? And so when we work with students in this space, we go through each of these. And actually, in our career course, we literally work one week at a time through these because it's a lot to dig into. There's great assessments out there that can help you to kind of start to uncover these things. But a lot of it's going to be those conversational pieces and really sitting, taking a step back and being like, hmm, you know, I've never thought of this. I remember the first time I was in a classroom at a public school, and it was filled with juniors and seniors. And there was, I think, 40 of them in this classroom. It was a very big classroom. It was like two classrooms that came together. And I was talking to these students and I asked them, who here knows what they're passionate about? You know, maybe 50% of the kids raised their hand. Then I asked, you know, well, who knows what you're really good at? Maybe like 20% raised their hand. And then when I said, who knows what their— where the overlap is, what you're passionate about and what you're really good at? Nobody raised their hand. And it blew my mind because I'm like, man, you're juniors and seniors in high school. And you're not sure what you're good at or what you bring to the table or what you really enjoy. No wonder it's so hard to find careers because how are you going to find careers if you don't know these things first? So this is why this is our foundational pillar. I would love to hear from you guys in the chat. Rate yourself or your teenager 1 to 5. 1 being like, yep, we have absolutely no idea what our calling is. We have no clue what passions are. What our strengths are, 5 being like, nailed it, right? We know all of them. We are solid on this pillar. So I wanna hear from you guys. Where do you feel like you are when it comes to this pillar purpose? Where do you feel like you're at? 1 to 5 in the chat.

1 to 5. So 1 being low, 5 being high.

Yes. Yep. Exactly. I'm gonna move my little Zoom thingy outta the way here so I can see you guys better. Yeah, lots of 1s and 2s, which is totally normal. So don't beat yourself up over that. This is one of those areas that is really hard, especially for teens to try to figure this stuff out. They're like, I don't know, I have no idea what I'm passionate about, right? I like video games. Does that mean I'm passionate about video games? So it's hard to sometimes figure these things out. So that's, that's great. I appreciate you guys engaging with me on that. Best way to start to do this is conversations like Shellee Howard, having those conversations at the dinner table. Start to ask those questions like, you know, if they are talking a lot about— and that's the other thing. Sometimes it's just being very observant as a parent. What is it that your kid could talk about all day long and just talk your ear off? The things that you're like, oh, please stop talking to me about Pokémon. I don't care about Pokémon, right? That's my son. He's, he's getting out of that stage now. He's in the preteen stage. But it was Pokémon all day, every day. And I'm like, buddy, that's so cool. But I don't care, right? It's that thing of like, oh, but what is it that they're talking about all the time? Where do you see them really thriving in certain subjects with school or in certain areas of their life? Right, man, they're really good at this. Start helping them start to uncover those things. A lot of it's going to be observation and just having great communication with your kiddo. All right. Next up, lifestyle. This is another one area that a lot of people skip over in the career exploration process, but it's so important. Because we could find great careers that align with our strengths and all the things. But what if they don't align with what we want out of life? Right. And I'll give you a great example of this. So I was working with a student that was in one of our classes. This was a couple of years ago. She was a sophomore at the time, and we— she was all in on forensics. She wanted to be a forensic psychologist. That was her thing. She— we did all the research, all the stuff. As soon as she started to learn about the lifestyle, the work schedule, that you're on call all the time, that you're working crazy hours all the time, because guess what? You're the forensics person. Somebody, something happens in the middle of the night, you gotta go check it out. You gotta evaluate that crime scene. And it was like that huge aha for her, cuz for her, she was like, I don't want that. I wanna work 40 hours a week. I wanna have family. I wanna have that flexibility. And so immediately this job that she thought was the right job all of this time was gone. It was right off the list. So lifestyle is so important. So understanding the work environment— do you want to work in a factory? Do you want to work outside? Do you want to work in an office setting? Helping them understand that schedule flexibility, that work-life balance, those goals that they have— all of this goes into play with the lifestyle piece of what do they want in life. We just did a couple weeks ago a vision board with our students. We did 2 different versions of it. The first one was very much just lifestyle. What do you want in life? And you know, they had houses and cars and travel and just all these fun things of like, what do you want when you're an adult? What does life look like for you? And it was so fun for them to like build this vision board and put all these pictures together. And then we created goals behind that of like, okay, how can I achieve that? Then the next week we worked on career-specific goals. What do we want out of a career. This is before they even looked at career options. It's specifically, what does that look like to you? Are you working in a cubicle? Are you working nights? Are you working weekends? Like, what does that look like for you? What do you enjoy? Are you at a computer? Are you engaging with people a lot? And helping them visualize that is so powerful. So lifestyle is a really big one, and this is one, again, everybody skips over because we just don't think about it. And then we're in the job and we're like, man, This is not for me. I don't really enjoy being on call all the time, or I don't like working 60 hours a week. I'd much rather work 40 hours a week. So tell me in the chat where you guys feel like you are in the lifestyle space. Do you think your teenagers know what they want out of life and in careers? Have you had conversations around different schedules and opportunities there? Or are you kind of like, mm, one, not having these conversations yet, don't really know what they wanna do in a career as far as far as that lifestyle piece goes. So tell me in the chat where you feel like your teenager is. So 1 being low, not so great, 5 being like, yes, solid, we got it. Awesome. Couple 2, 3s, 1s. Yep, yep. Ooh, a 3 to 4. Okay, okay, getting up the, up the scale there. Very good. I like it, I like it. All right, awesome. Yes. And again, the biggest one with this one is exposure for students. Talking about these things, educating them on what that looks like. A lot of students don't realize— they all know what remote work is because that's what they all want to do now. They all want to work from home. But understanding that, well, not every career field offers that. Not every job offers that. You don't want to limit yourself either. So it's like, what do these work shifts look like? You know, some people might think, oh gosh, 3/12, that sounds terrible. But then when you really break it down, it's like, wait a minute, I only got to work 3 days a week and then I'm off the rest of the week. Hmm, you know what, 12s don't sound too bad. It's just having those conversations with them and educating your students on what this looks like and then making it fun, right? Like the vision boards, like the goal setting, helping them get excited about what's to come so that it makes the career exploration piece so much easier. All right, pillar 3. This is where the rubber hits the road. So this is where we start to put things together. So this is our third pillar, which is research. When we do this pillar, we start with a lot of assessments. These are skills assessments, could be career assessments. I love to have students because there are so many careers out there. It is challenging to just go out and try to find them. So I do love career assessments. Even as a career coach, it is really helpful because even if it's not the exact career, it gives you an idea of the direction to go. So now it's saying, okay, I have some— oh man, all of my careers ended up being in this industry, it's probably a good idea that I need to dig into that further and see what other options exist. It's helping you utilize those things. And here's why we do it the way we do it. If you haven't noticed, we started with a lot of self-awareness, a lot of goal planning, and we do all of that before we even take an assessment. Why do you guys think that that's the model to do it? Why do you think that's how I teach career exploration? Why should you do all the self-awareness and goal setting first before diving into any assessments or research? And you can pop it in the chat as well. Any thoughts? Why would that be the way to go? You guys are like my students, everybody being all quiet over here. Yep, to be happy in your career. Yep, absolutely. Because it's gonna give you a lot more accurate results when you've already done the heavy lifting to figure out who you are. What you bring to the table, what your strengths are, what you enjoy. You know what you want in life. Now when you go to answer a career assessment, you're going to be a lot more intentional with your answers around you instead of, well, this sounds kind of good, or maybe I like this, I don't really know. And so the results that your student's going to get are going to be so much better than if they just go off and do a career assessment without spending the time on these other pieces. The other pieces of this— and this pillar is the one that can take the longest, I will be honest with you, because it is a lot of research. It's now digging into, okay, we have 10, 15, 20 careers or in different industries that we're really looking at. Now we need to go learn about those. And this is where the statistics and the information comes, right? How much is the salary? You know, what's the growth rate of the career? You know, the important things that you can find on paper. This is where this comes into play. So this is where you really do want to understand and have your student understand, okay, if these are your career goals, let's go find this information about these careers so that we can make a good educated decision on if this is the right direction or not. So it's taking that knowledge of, okay, I want to work a 9-to-5 job, and then you go do some research and find out, well, actually this career doesn't work 9-to-5 jobs. It's a nursing job, and nursing jobs in the hospital work blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? This is where you actually go find the information to see if it aligns with what you want in life. One caveat with this is to help our students understand not to narrow their focus too much, because then they're gonna be like, oh, well, none of these are lining up with my goals. None of these are lining up with my goals, 'cause my goals are very specific and very narrow, and I have no wiggle room. So it is important to not be overly microscopic as we're doing this, but it does help with the process. Looking at career stats, some really important ones, especially with how fast our careers are changing and the workforce fields are changing and the dynamics are changing, is, is that career actually going to be here in the next 10 years? And the best stat to look at for that is going to be looking at employment growth and opportunity and the demand for that career. If it's going to incline, it's going up, up, up, that's good. You want to see that. The ones that are kind of flatlining, declining, declining, really wanna consider if that's gonna be a good option because that career may not be here in the next couple years, and then your student's kind of starting all over. So that's a really important piece. And then the last part of this, and this is still in the research piece, it's not in the hands-on because I consider this much more research, is informational interviews. Who's heard of informational interviews before? Shellee's like, me! Yes, I've got, I've got Shellee. I've got Shellee Howard. Has anybody else heard of informational interviews before or heard that term before? Most of the students when I talk to them, they've never heard it in their lives. They're like, what the heck is that? And I tell them, well, what do you think it is? Couple of you have? Okay, awesome, right? It's an informational interview. So I always joke with them. I'm like, well, what's an interview? And they're like, oh, you know, you interview for a job and this, that, the other. I'm like, okay. Informational interviews are the exact same concept, except the role is reversed and you're interviewing them for information. And they're like, oh, right. It's that time to connect with people in industries you're interested in to see and learn more about it from a person who's actually in the field's perspective. It's that time to start to ask the questions that you can't find online, like, do you like your job? Do you not like your job? What's your favorite thing? What would you tell somebody who's interested in going into this career field? Right? Actually talking to people that are in that field. And this is why this is so important to go through this research first, because if you got 10, 15, 20 careers on your list you're interested in, that's gonna be a lot of people to talk to when you get to informational interviews. So try to narrow that list. I always say the top 3 to 5 careers or industries, and then start to interview people from there, because realistically you wanna try to get at least 3 people in each career, each industry to talk to. Because let's be honest, we're all human. Nobody's perfect. And you might get Negative Nancy that wants to just completely destroy the career and sounds horrible, but maybe she's just miserable from some other things and it's not actually the career that makes her miserable. But if you go solely on that, your kiddo might be like, oh well, Nancy said all these horrible things. I don't think I want to go in that career field anymore. So talk to a couple different people. And kind of balance it out. You know, you might have one person that raves about all the things. They're Mr. Positive and they just love everything about their job, right? That's not always realistic. That's not everybody. So talking to some different people to get different perspectives is so powerful because you're going to actually get to ask those questions that you can't find online, right? And so that's a, that's one of the most important pieces of research is talking to people. Okay, so how do you guys feel about this one? If you had to rate yourselves 1 to 5, how do you feel about research when it comes to looking into careers? What to look for, who to talk to, what to ask, all the things. 1 being like, ah, help me. 5 being like, got it, we're, we're golden. We've already talked to 20 people. We've got this, right? Couple. Okay, got a 1, a 3. Yep. Absolutely. Couple 3s. Okay. Okay. The research is the one that most people are a little more— have a better grasp on because it's like, okay, I can go do some research. I can Google some stuff. I can ask some questions online, you know, go to ChatGPT, whatever. Yeah, it's fine. Get some information out there. Informational interviews are a little more challenging sometimes because it's how do I reach out to this person? What do I say? Absolutely. Awesome. Okay. Our final pillar, and this is where it all comes together. So this is our hands-on. I am a 100% true believer. You have not decided on a career yet until you have tried it out in some capacity, or at least seen it in action. This is the one thing I'm sure Shellee Howard can attest to this too. So I've worked in higher education for over 7 years, and the number one reason I see people change their major is they finally get into the class class for their major and they hate it and they're like, this is not at all what I expected it to be. And they either drop out or change their major because they finally get to try it out. And they were 100% like, this is my career. I am dead set on this. Let's go. They get into it and they're like, ah, brakes. What am I doing with my life? Right? And then now they're all back to square one. This is crucial. The challenge is not every industry is easy to try out or get hands-on in, but there are some ways that you can try to do this. So number one, the simplest way that you can get into most industries is kind of a job shadow. This is just, can I come in and see the job in action? Obviously, anywhere that's dealing with crazy dangerous things or privacy issues, you're not going to probably be able to do a job shadow without some paperwork or any of those things first. But it does not hurt to ask. Job shadows are great because it's just, hey, even if it's for 2 hours, let me just come shadow you for 2 hours to get a feel of what this job looks like in action. You want to be a pharmacist, maybe you can't go shadow the pharmacy, but maybe you could stand outside the pharmacy window and just stand there and watch them for a little bit and just kind of get a feel. Maybe talk to the pharmacist a little bit, right? Get creative. There's okay with getting creative in this. Skill building, skill building is another one. So when we talk about skill building, this is great for those careers that maybe you really don't have a lot of opportunities to get into while you're still in high school, but maybe you could get a certificate in or take an online course in. Or some way to get hands-on in it without having to go get into the actual career itself. So this could be taking a college-level course while you're in high school. It could be finding an online computer science credential that you could study and take the exams for, right? Different ways to try things out to just get the experience of if you actually like that field or not. Summer camps are another great opportunity for that. Summer camps can be great. There's a lot of career-focused summer camps out there. We have a whole guide on it actually that lists a bunch of different summer camps based on industry. Internships are the best. Like if you can do internships, they are hands down the best way to get hands-on experience. But again, in high school they're a little more limited and depending on the industry that you're looking at can be a little more challenging. But if you can find internship opportunities, that's the way to go. It's a great way to— because you're doing the job right. You might be fetching coffee and stuff for people and you might not be always doing the job,, but you're gonna be at least seeing it. You're in the environment, you're in the space, you're gonna get a feel of what it looks like. And then finally is that getting involved piece. So maybe it's like, oh, I can't do internships. There's not really a lot of credentials, but maybe I can volunteer my time somewhere that at least puts me around it, or at least gets me— maybe I can't go into the hospital, but maybe I could ask my doctor's office if I could come help them file paperwork, or if they have an activity or something I can come do. So there's different ways. It's just really getting creative in this space on getting involved. But at the end of the day, the main goal is to try out the career in some capacity or at least see it in action to see if it's still a good fit. Because you could go through all these other pillars we've talked about and then still get hands-on in it and be like, oh, not for me and not loving this, right? And I've seen it. I've seen it happen with students a lot where they finally get to do that and they're just like, this is not what I thought it was. Because let's be honest, let's all go back as parents to our teenage years. We all probably had pretty good images in our head of things that when we became adults and actually saw the real truth, we were like, wow, that is not at all what I thought it was, right? We've all had those moments, and it's no different with a career. I remember when I would do tours sometimes at manufacturing plants, which was always so fun because I would always love taking students and parents because everybody pictures like the '50s style of manufacturing where it's like old and dusty and scary and, you know, not a safe place at all. And then we would take them into a plant where the robotics are insane and it's pretty much completely automated and they're just mind blown, mouth dropped like, wow, like, this is crazy. And the people that are, you know, it's just, it's so interesting because it's not what we always expect it to be. We get this image in our head and that's not always reality. So getting to show them the reality is really where it's at. So where do you all feel like you are on this one as far as opportunities to get hands-on, how to find those opportunities? All the things. So 1 being like, not really sure how to do any of this, would love to, don't know what I'm doing. 5 being like, yes, we have done job shadows, we know people, we know how to ask them, all the things. Yep. Couple, which again is very normal because it's like, okay, this sounds great, but where do we find this stuff? And the biggest struggle there is, I would say, start with your network first, right? If you're employed, if your spouse is employed, if your siblings are employed, anybody in your network that's employed in area that's similar or pretty close to what your kiddo's looking at, see if they have these opportunities. All you gotta do is ask, do you guys do job shadows? Do you offer internships? You know, what ways could we involve, right? Get involved. Yes. An internship. Yes. And there are some really specific websites. Beth, if you wanna reach out to me afterwards, I can, I'm happy to talk to you about that. There's some very specific websites to help with finding internships that are literally internship-specific, um, job searches. So kind of like a LinkedIn for interns. So happy to connect you with those. So feel free to reach out to me after this and we can definitely connect on that. And I'm happy to share this with you. But these are, these are the things to kind of start to do. This one's a little more challenging. Yes. And I'll actually have a slide here in a second. You guys can— will be able to also schedule a call with me as well if you would like to. And I'll reach out to you guys too after this. So, yep, exactly. And depending on the career. Exactly. So and sometimes some internships you have to be 18 for, you know, some of them there are those. Those pieces. So if your 16-year-old is really wanting to do an internship, they might have to wait a couple of years. But here's the thing. I know Shellee might not love this, but— and I get it on the college side too. But as a career coach, I am a firm believer if your kiddo is still not sure at all whatsoever what they want to do, take a break, take the time to figure it out before going to college, if college is in the plans. Like spend that time instead of going in completely undecided, completely having no clue whatsoever, because your kid's just gonna spin their wheels and they might get lucky and land into the right thing, or they might not. And then they drop out and they're unhappy and then they feel defeated. I say take a gap year if needed and do these things, cuz then they're gonna be 18. They'll be eligible for internships or an apprenticeship program or something like that where they can actually go try some stuff first, spend more time on the passions and the strengths area, and then say, yes, Is college still the plan? Perfect. Now I know what to do. Now I know what major to go into. So again, that's, that's coming from a career coach. That is one of the areas that I'm always like, yes, it's okay to take that step back if you need to, to figure things out first. All right. Really quickly, some common roadblocks that do happen, which I'm sure a lot of you guys experience. This is number 1, that identity crisis for your student of like, who the heck am I? Understanding that whole piece of, I'm not sure what I bring to the table. I don't know what I like. Like, it's kind of like they just get overwhelmed. They shut down. So really struggling to pinpoint. So helping them kind of breaking things down slowly, just focusing on one little piece at a time. It's not— it is not a race. It is, if anything, it is a, you know, long-term— you're the Olympics person that's doing the laps 100 times before you get there, right? Limited exposure is another one, having, you know, not having a lot of opportunities to explore different things, even as parents, right? We've only known one industry. It's kind of hard for us to help our kid with different industries. The research challenges, you know, how to find those things and then those opportunity gaps that sometimes happen too, right? Like the internships, those opportunities to get hands-on. So again, knowing these are sometimes some of the challenges, we— I'm happy to help you, happy to discuss this as well. And just knowing, taking one piece at a time is truly the way to go with this. Focusing on those foundational pieces first where they can identify who they are, what they are enjoying, you know, what they love, what they're passionate about, what their strengths are, starting to put the puzzle together and then slowly work their way into that career piece. Okay. So key takeaways, very holistic approach with this, right? It is all around when it comes to career exploration. I see so many families and so many people, they're just like, oh yeah, just go do some research. Or, oh, you like that? Like Shellee Howard was saying, oh, you like this? So you must want to be— I remember I got told growing up all the time, I love to argue, which I'm like, I only like to argue with my siblings. I don't know. Or my sibling. I don't know what it was with that. And I was like, oh, you should be an attorney. Could you imagine if I was an attorney today? I would be like, I would lose every case I did because I just care too much about people. It wouldn't work well, right? Holistically, it's not just research. It's not just, oh, I think you're good at this, or I like this one thing, so let me just run with it. Like, let's look at it holistically. Approach. It is a gradual process. It is continuous, right? Our interests will change over time. Our strengths will change over time. And it's okay for our teen— teens to feel that, like, even if this is a career you choose now, it doesn't mean you're stuck with it forever. Stuff changes. Life happens. But at least getting you in the right direction is ideal, right? And then that support piece, right, you as family members is crucial. In this process, helping your kiddo not feel that overwhelm of, I don't have it figured out, my friends have it figured out, and everybody knows what they wanna do. They don't, let's be honest, they don't. But that's how our teens feel sometimes, like, oh my gosh, all my buddies are going off to college, or they're all figuring this stuff out and I have no idea what I'm doing. Guess what? That's okay, because they're gonna be back at your spot here in a few years cuz they didn't take the time to do it now. So just helping understand and be there for your kiddos to support them. So. I would love to hear in the chat from you all, what is your biggest takeaway from this presentation so far today? What is your biggest takeaway that you've learned about career exploration, finding your passions, all the things?

Tracy, we do have a few questions and we are coming up to the hour, so I want to respect your time and theirs.

Absolutely.

So if you want to take the questions, um, that might spur on people to say, oh, that was the great takeaway.

Absolutely. Yes, questions. Okay, let me scroll through here, guys. Bear with me a second.

My oldest is a junior in college and really needs an internship. Not sure how. We kind of talked about that. Um, will you post your contact information? Yes, she's gonna do that.

Yes.

Current classes before they are sure still wait and let them find a direction first.

So concurrent classes, can you clarify that in the sense of like at college, or are you talking about in high school, like while they're going to high school, like doing college-level classes at the same time? Is that just— can you clarify that for me, Aubrey?

And while she's doing that, I'm going to touch real briefly on the gap year. A gap year is a wonderful plan If the gap year has a plan.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

If you— your child's like, I don't know what I want to do, and there's no plan, that is a disaster if they want to apply, apply to college later. No plan gap year is, is really a bad situation for all around. A lot of students right now who are not sure are studying internationally. Because they can get a lot of, uh, exposure and experience for a very low cost. So there's some other things versus just taking a year off. The other thing is your, your student will be a lot more successful applying to college while they're in high school versus thinking it's going to be easier when they get out and have a job or an internship or so on and so forth. They can defer if they request it at most schools. So I just kind of wanted to put the whole umbrella on that versus just if they're not ready, don't go. Because I, I get a lot of students who are— they've taken 1 and 2 community college classes and now they're still lost. And now we're still in that situation. So it really has to be case by case. But Tracy is so wise to do this work ahead of time for sure. If your child's more immature and unsure, there are some things that Tracy and I can do to help you get them closer to that. So I just kind of wanted to wrap that in a, in a bow.

Yes, absolutely. And like you said, the, the structure behind the gap years— I mean, there's gap year programs out there that help students with these exploration. But exactly like Shellee Howard said, if college is part of the thing, it's really important to do this stuff before graduation and just like work on this stuff now and you'll just be so much happier to just kind of keep going through the process there. And so yes, Aubrey, to clarify, yes, in high school, go ahead. And so yes, that is perfect because especially a lot of the time with the concurrent classes, depending on all things, but getting an associate's degree, because a lot of time the associate's degree, it's a general transfer degree anyways. You're getting general education classes done. It's a good way to kind of try some stuff out, especially for homeschoolers. A lot of homeschoolers do that as dual enrollment that hits both, right? Checks both boxes. It's the high school class and it's a college class. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that and still working through the career exploration piece while they're doing those pieces. So I wouldn't say that if your student's ready to take some college classes while they're in high school, don't— you don't have to wait for that just because they don't know what they want to do career-wise. You can just take some of the gen eds that'll transfer your English, your math classes, those types of things. Absolutely. What other questions were there?

I think that was it.

Okay, perfect.

Outstanding. So Tracy's offering a complimentary call, we're offering a complimentary call, so the resources are there. Um, I would encourage you to take advantage of that. If, uh, you just need some free resources, feel free to go to our websites and and grab those resources. Tonight was about empowering you, the parent. Tracy, thank you so much for being on the call.

Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. It's great to, to work with everybody tonight. I know this is one of those areas that can be really overwhelming sometimes as parents and students, so glad to get to give you guys some, some insights and roadmaps there of working through this process. So thank you so much, Shellee Howard.

All right, if you have any further questions, reach out to either of us and we would be happy to help you. This will go out in an email tomorrow or the next day. So in case you missed anything, that will happen as well. So thank you all and have a wonderful evening.

Bye, guys. Bye-bye.