001intro about you um and then and then we're going to jump into who you are and why you're here today so janayan is um someone who actually has a a company named no degree.com however uh janai does have a degree in actuarial science so we're going to talk a little bit about how you got from having a degree in actuarial science what that means being an actuary and how you got to having this company called no degree.com so um tell us just a little bit about you yeah i mean so i started no degree.com because i wanted to help people without college degrees find meaningful careers that pay well and within my own journey it's varied right because people ask me like oh you have a college degree why did you sort of start and
002it was mainly because it's not like i didn't like work it's just that work that part of work wasn't necessarily fulfilling for me like i'm more of an entrepreneur right i'm some people like stability i like i'm a big dreamer so for me like i you at a company is very hard to sort of implement your own ideas because there's a lot of structures in place right i would have probably been more suited at a startup and i did work for a startup and that was where i felt more alive so that's kind of why i did that and it just kind of grew from there it started as an idea six years ago what'd you think the no degree your no degree idea yeah so it started like six seven i forget like six
003seven years ago and it started no six years ago i started in a basement a bunch of guys just kind of talking and then you know now it's here where it's like you know this is what i do full time this is how i make my living and i'm really happy i'm able to do what i want so what do you what do you do what's the it that you do so i do a lot of things career related so on no degree.com i'll have a lot of career related articles like how do you become xyz and even though it is no degree.com i the advice is relevant like how to interview it doesn't matter whether you have a degree or not i you know focus on how to interview i have a podcast called
004the no degree podcast where i interview p people without college degrees and have them share their stories and even then a lot of the careers it's like how do you become a graphic designer how do you become an entrepreneur how do you get into this industry how do you work in sales right and these are people who make you know very good money just coming from different backgrounds because i like helping others just figure out because every and you're going to see that even people have all different types of backgrounds people have all different type of skills that they have all different types of experiences and that leads to them getting into what they you know their careers so i just like helping people and you know kids teenagers people of all ages kind of
005just kind of understand like it's okay you're gonna have a different story but it's okay you know take some learning things and use it to get to that wherever you want to be so you talk about interviewing and as somebody who i i've done a ton of interviews and throughout my career um and so i'm wondering is there an interview that you can think of that you've had in your life and was that an impetus at all to do this or things that you learned through through a particular interview that that maybe went well or did yeah so i so i used to work i used to be an actuary and i used to work at metlife and for those of you who don't know what an actuary is they're the ones who come up
006with insurance prices so it's a lot of math like how do you charge for car insurance in chicago if your car is red and you're a 22 year old male right versus if you're a 54 year old female right they're different prices they have different risk factors because the 22 year olds car insurance or the 18 year old the 16 year old like our audience that amount of money that i know i pay for my kids car insurance is way more than the 50 year olds right unless that 50 year old has a lot of crashes but you never know there's some there's some reckless 50 year olds out there so um what would you ask interviews in interviews okay yeah so for interviews it's i had an interview and i remember it was so
007actuarial science is very competitive to get into one of those industries like your first internship or your first job is super hard to get in once you get it it's easy and you're gonna find a lot of people like that once you get your first great job after that's so much easier right because then people just it's just they just have this idea of you they kind of you're just easier to get in the door right a lot of times the inter getting to interview is the hardest part so i had this interview and i i didn't i only had like one interview i had like two interviews without the one i wasn't qualified for and i prepped a lot and my business partners they gave me like two you know two three mock interviews
008and since they knew me when i answered the question they're like hey this is a good answer but what about that experience what about that or you know i think you could say it this way and when i went and i practiced saying my answers out loud and when i went to the interview and i asked for feedback i got the job and they said i was the best interviewer that they had and you know because i talked to the people and it just showed how that made such a big difference it's like a small thing a lot of people don't practice saying their answers out loud so the first time that they're saying it is in the interview and what ends up happening is in your head you say one thing and it's perfect
009and then when you come out it's like um there was a time when no no the actual real time but this is what happened and it just ends up looking bad on you because if they compare you to someone else who's more prepped they're just going to think better things of them so you practiced with some of your who were your friends at the time they're your business partners now yeah but you practice the questions how did you do that did you give them questions to ask you did you have like how did you even know what questions to ask so i mean i did i did my own research but they one of my business partners he's about like 10 years older than me so he he has interviewed people in the past but
010it's a typical like tell me about yourself and a lot of interviewing is knowing what you bring to the table like what experiences did you have name a time when you had conflict how did you solve a problem what's your accomplishment what do you want to do what are your career goals i mean these are things you should know anyway it's just in an interview they have to come across as very polished so you practiced yeah and you practiced with people by the way for our students who are watching when you go through your sessions today you're going to get a reflection form and janaya we're going to do a raffle is going to work with three students either on interviewing skills or resume writing so tonight thank you also for for doing that i
011want to plug that right now for our audience yeah i know right because you you do this and you do this right now with lots of you i think you told me over 800 people you've worked with i mean i've done over like 800 quick reviews i've worked over a hundred people intensely i've done over 800 hours of like resume writing slash interview prep this year and i would have done more it's just i have two businesses so that's why it's like it that's why i don't do as much now but i used to do a lot of resumes every month is there a common theme or mistake or something that you see that's a simple thing that that individuals you know for our students who are who are applying for jobs are starting to
012build their resumes might be thinking about um avoid these you know you know what i think a lot of people really downplay what they do so it's they'll be like hey i'm a cashier and that's although right but it's like how many customers do you interact with how much money do you handle what else do you do what other issues do you solve and you'd be surprised it's like hey i work with you know i process like 200 plus transactions that are totaling like i don't know 20 000 daily right so again it's yes it's just a cashier but be able to talk about what you did like don't downplay yourself that you know i worked as a i was never a cash yeah i was a cashier but you know i did all these
013jobs and it's like those were the stepping stones to get the next job right and in your interview you deal with conflict right you deal with customers you deal with your boss you deal with the issues in the workplace you try to figure out how to do things better right really don't downplay yourself and try to communicate it to the best of your ability and the other thing is people try to make resumes art projects and when you're applying online it's like these computers they have trouble scanning these art projects right it's like art is very hard to skin right unless you have like complex ai so make it simple just realize that someone's only looking at your resume maybe 7 to 20 seconds on average so make it easy for them to absorb make
014him look at boom okay this is dr stacy gonzalez she does xyz boom i want to call because most people don't even read your full resume they read a few lines and then they figure out whether or not they want to call you and that's just unfortunately when you have like 100 200 to look at they're just not going to spend that much time on your resume so adding some adding some numerical data i'm wondering does that come from your actuarial math background right a little a little trying to put some trying to put some descriptors in numerical form around what you've done that was a great example with with the cashier where were you a cashier i was i used to work at a starbucks it's not a starbucks but it's the barnes noble's
015cafe serving starbucks coffee so just the make of drinks and all that stuff that was that was an interesting fun job what was interesting were there any anything that stands out to you or any moments in that job like if you could go back to yourself looking at where you're at now and think about how you were then no you know i was always a dreamer and stuff and you know it was like i was a decent worker i wasn't necessarily the best worker in that just because i i knew that's not what i wanted to do in the future but i learned a lot about interacting with people it helped communicate just like being friendly goes a long way in having people remember you i'm still friendly with the people that i worked with
016so like a couple of people i saw them so it's just cool to just i think one one advice i would have is just just be friendly with people you just never know where it can lead to and how your roads cross and how you can benefit them in the future or how they can benefit you yeah and i think you're really good at that right so you've been that's how we know each other from building a social connection um and so what do you think that you do differently or how how how do you become intentional about that especially i think when we were talking and prepping for this you were sharing with me that you weren't always really outgoing and you know that wasn't that mean who you were i was a sh
017i was a shy kid um until like my junior scene senior year is like when i really did you know really blew out of my shell and it was just because it's like i stopped like caring like in high school you really care what other people think and it's i'm not saying don't care at all right there's there's a stream of not caring to the point where it's detrimental to you but don't let it ruin who you are because who you are is very important and i think you're going to see that especially when i was in high school like if you watched anime you're like a loser now it's like a big thing so like if you like something just kind of own it like people make fun of you but it's like at
018the end of the day if that's more of a reflection on them and it's not you that if you like something you enjoy something that's a part of you don't let it stop you like i've seen people who were like judged for because they were doing other things right and now it's a big part of who they are and now they're successful whereas like you know you'd be surprised that i've seen people who are great students who did not end up doing well some people who were bachelors who turned around and you know it's just like in general it helps to be a good student just because you have more flexibility but just realize that you're going to change this person right i'm not the person i was 10 years ago i'm not the person
019i was even five years ago or even last year right and it's like you're always gonna change and just the changes is a part of life and you and just take your experiences and carry it forward and you're pretty young you're not that far removed from high school you you know i mean i hit my ten year reunion last year you know earlier last year last year not here's corona did you did you go to your 10-year reunion yeah what i won what was that like it was cool because you really see how people change right there are some people you're like i thought you're gonna be a doctor and they're like in the arts and then you see some people who you're like wow you're in on the business side so it's just and
020then some people you're like oh you're exactly who i expected you to be some people don't change and you're like wow you know you didn't change in high school and then some people really grow but you're going to see just so much variation and you you kind of said you were in were you into anime in high school no no i was not no you were not what were you into what were you into in high school so i was the captain of my wrestling team so i'm still in so i'm an assistant wrestling coach that's a big part of who i am and again like it's not surprising it's i'm still friends with my high school coach and he's still exactly the same guy he was 10 years ago which is kind of funny
021so that was me is i mean i i used to read a lot and i still read a lot just because it's like that's how i learned right i learned from a lot of people's experiences and that's how i started my company like i looked at random comments on like reddit where people like hey xyz this is what i did and i figured out okay i can apply this to my business oh this doesn't make sense and i just kind of take a lot from others is there anything that you wish you would have learned in high school that you know now that she would have known then you know i think i would have started networking even more just because a lot of people even adults don't really know what networking is right you're
022gonna see and especially as you grow older that your friends grow apart and all that and it's so easy because you get caught up in work you get caught up in projects that it's so easy to not talk to someone for years at a time and the thing is i'm only here where i am today like by keeping in touch with the people who are close to me like i've had a connection who gave me a facebook ad course i was like 100 hours long that was like a couple thousand dollars and it was his brother's course so i got it for free so there's so many things that i got for free purely by coincidence right and it's not because i tried and i kept in touch with them because i knew they were
023going places it was more just i was their friend i kept in touch and i've helped a lot of people too like there were some people who you know like my friend from elementary school i i'm helping him with this interview and he got an interview at like sony music right and it was just these type of things like i wasn't friends with him saying hey one day i'll help you get an interview but you know we just always kept in touch and that's that's how life is is like you the more you put yourself out there the more things happen like i met my mentor at a networking event right and now she's given me advice that i probably would have to pay 10 to 20 000 plus for but i get it for
024free but i also help her out right i help her out in her own instance and all that that's a good point there's i was just reading something there's there's some sort of uh i think it's like a chinese saying that basically what goes up must come down yeah and so this idea of um sometimes we're gonna put something out there we're gonna make these connections and they're going to come back to us but they might not necessarily come back to us from the people we think they're going to come from or where they're going to come from so so kind of back to your not starbucks starbucks example right like you you put out being friendly you put out networking and connecting with people in authentic ways which is how how we became connected
025right we yeah we connected on linkedin and then uh planning this virtual career day at some point there was this idea for a keynote and and you immediately popped into my mind as the person who i thought would really be able to share some cool stuff and really make an impact for our kids do you do you think that there's a a way in which that that happened or why that that happened i mean i try not to think too much about it it's just you put yourself out there and things will happen and you really there's no like formula like hey if you do this x y z this is exactly what's gonna happen right my my business has pivoted like if you have last year i only did a handful of you know
026just friends resumes right this year i've done over 100 i've seen over i've seen thousands and i wouldn't have predicted that last year if you asked me last year would you do resumes next year i'd be like resumes why but now it's like something i enjoy doing but i also figured out how to enjoy it right if you told me to do a resume behind the scenes for someone without interacting with them i wouldn't like it but i like doing it in front of them and like talking to them i like talking to people i like interacting with people and i think especially in high school it's really good to figure out like what brings you energy and what drains you some people like being behind the scenes some people like being in front of
027the scenes figure out what that is and also test you know make yourself a little uncomfortable right that maybe you're not comfortable talking to people maybe you're not but you know talk a little more right and this is what people don't get is the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step right people overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in like 10 20 years right so they think oh i'm gonna get so much done over the summer i'm gonna get so much done over a month i'm gonna get so much done before the end of the year but then i forget like you can get a lot done in five years you can get a lot done in 10 years yeah you can and that
028that what's one step you said a couple of things that are really key what's one stop that you can take today that's a little bit uncomfortable do you do you have like a mechanism how do you know when you're kind of taking a step that's just stretching you enough out of your comfort zone and how can our kids kind of understand what that feels like so let me give like an example let's say you're uncomfortable going to like a public event right don't go to the largest public event right don't go like say let's say you have to go it's going to be like 500 people and you're uncomfortable or you're afraid of performing don't perform in front 500 people the first time i mean you can but i would not i would not suggest
029it perform in front of two people right you're you're uncomfortable interviewing with someone you don't know okay so interview with someone you know first right then interview with someone like casual acquaintance that you don't know that well and build it up that's what like a lot of people don't realize that a lot of people prac put themselves in situations and they keep on increasing it so think of like something super uncomfortable and scale it down there's always some way to scale it down in a way that you are more comfortable so so what can our kids right we're in the middle of a pandemic yeah and you know a freshman just to senior year in high school it's hard to get jobs right now what yeah what are some ways that you know if they're
030looking for career opportunities or they're they're thinking about next steps how what are some ideas or ways in which they might be able to connect especially given everything we're facing right now so i mean social media is a good way to really stay connected because remember when i was in high school it was just kind of starting out people like you didn't really have mobile data and even the phones they weren't like what browsing on the phone like it was like terrible experience another thing that i would say a lot of kids should do is really read and explore the fact is that just explore so many things and compared to 10 years ago podcasts are definitely the way to go i think listen to podca they're podcasts about any topic you can possibly think
031of and i've i think one thing that i wish i started earlier was this in a podcast in that you can be you know cleaning your room and listening to podcasts right you can be sort of in the middle of something you can be working out and i really recommend that and focus on like the emotional intelligence because you know who knows when the pandemic will end but it'll eventually end right and you want to come out with some skills right you want to come out thinking like with an action plan so i would say really think about and one thing that people really don't it's hard to learn is emotional intelligence so i would there's a book called emotional intelligence 2.0 and the common book of how to win friends and influence people so
032i would say focus on the soft skills right focus on like negotiation selling because regardless of what you do you'll always be negotiating in your life in some capacity whether you're negotiating your job offer you're negotiating your rent or even negotiating with your friends like hey i don't want to go like some people don't realize like hey i don't want to go to that party i don't want to go there or i don't want to do that how do you negotiate to be like in a in a in a way that doesn't make you look like the person that's annoying yeah that that's a great point um i love podcasts podcasts right like in the last 10 years there's a podcast for everything our students listening you could even start your own podcast you were
033on jordan's podcast i know jordan's 21 and has done like written books done podcasting and is out there so there's no limit on on that um do you have top podcasts that you would recommend what are your favorites i mean i'm see what i do is i go i listen on topics so the one podcast that i like and i think it made it some of the topics end up getting really advanced but i listened to like marketing speak by stefan spencer but honestly what i would recommend is if there's a book you like oftentimes the author has a podcast oftentimes so i kind of listen to like my there's one mastering college to careers um he's a good friend of mine daniel botero i really like his podcast just because he just interviews people
034different people and i would say if there's a person you like they've probably been on a podcast if there's someone you look up to kind of listen to that so that i won't really name because that's just not how i kind of do it i kind of um i if i want to learn something oh i want to learn marketing i'll listen i'll search up marketing look up the marketing process listen to that i want to get better public speaking i'll send a public speaking podcast i want to get better at podcasting there's a podcast about podcast advertising so that's kind of how i'll do it it's just like search something that you're interested in and sometimes i'll just listen to topics on like movie reviews or all that stuff and i know murder mysteries
035are like the big thing but yeah just there's history podcasts i know that they're and they go really in depth and it's a great way to just become more knowledgeable and just just become a better person yeah that's a that's a great idea especially because um we always have our phones with us it's not like back in in my day when podcasts first came out about you know 15 years ago and we had to plug in and download and get it and carry it on an actual ipod right yeah um the search feature i think what you're saying is search up any topic and you know even i listen to a lot of podcasts when i'm trying to fall asleep so i can you can set the timer for 30 minutes or whatever and it'll
036play and then you fall asleep and even if you just take one nugget out of that pocket you don't have to listen you made a great point about reading books right if you're not a reader if you're not i buy a ton of books and and i don't read all of that you know i don't read the whole book but if i could take one one piece out of there yeah which and a lot of authors you're right with podcasts they're they're certainly um putting out their content in podcasting yeah and um the other thing is a lot of people think of like a mistake you've made there's probably a book that you should have read that would have helped you and i've seen people make very obvious business mistakes and it's because they should
037have read this one book that's like very common like hey if you start a business read this book and it's gonna make it i think like business-wise there's a book zero to one the e-myth revisited so it's like these type of things like i've read books on like content marketing and that helps me to this day on like linkedin that's how i grew up so just kind of if there's something read or listen to podcast so yeah would you would you say now is the time you know given that we've got some down time is now the time for you know you mentioned it start social media um what would you recommend to high school students about starting their professional networking how do they even do that now i think first check in your own
038network a lot of people don't realize that they have a network regardless of how small right your parents have people you have the people in your community and like for example i got my first job that it helped like i got my first job for my dad right like i worked at popeyes for a summer and i got like the next job like i tutored like the neighbors kids right so you'd be surprised and i know someone who's like a piano tutor and again people from the community and dennis starts from word of mouth so ask your if you want to become like a doctor ask your parents do they know a doctor or check the local doctors and then kind of just ask you'd be surprised at asking like hey can i talk to
039you for 30 minutes on you know what you do because a lot of kids they they don't really know what these careers do they have an idea like what they see on tv but tv is not an accurate representation like they don't show the doctor working on billing and malpractice insurance and all that right they just show the doctor doing with the the most exciting things that are good for tv so i would say first start with that because you know people talk about growing your network but people don't realize that you have an existing network and you should utilize it most people don't even ever utilize that fully yeah that's a great point and that's why we're doing this career day virtual career day today is exactly that is so that students have an
040opportunity to talk with individuals in those fields and what we found as we've been planning is that we have people who are working in business but they have psychology degrees or similar to you you're an entrepreneur who went through a traditional college route right so i'm gonna use this time again to plug that on your reflection forms today students uh chennai is gonna we're gonna do a raffle with three students who he'll help either on interviewing skills or resume skills so make sure if you want to have an opportunity to work with him directly you fill that out and we'll we'll randomly select three people you are gonna hear an interesting story so one of my friends from college right uh he went to so colombia has a master's in financial engineering program and is
041one of the best in the country super hard to get in like every he he might have been the dumbest guy in the pro he was very smart very smart kid but he might have been the dummy like he had like a russian physicist all these people super phd people coming in and you know but he did well he worked as a stock trader and you know he left his job because he sells pickles he started yeah so you know the thing is it's like and he started it two years ago it just ended up growing it was like a passion project you know he's always sort of been an artist and you know i'm not surprised at all like i knew him and you know it was a tough decision but you just never
042know like you know imagine telling someone in that program that he's gonna sell pickles one day they're like what are you talking he's not a farmer but it's just something he grew out of his basement so that's what the thing about life is is that you never know how things are gonna take you and at some adds his story like hey i was at a stock trader to pickle right selling pickles and i called them you know the other and again networking i saw it on my facebook i called him i said hey what's up i talked to him for 10 minutes and i ordered three jars of pickles he said it's gonna be you know take some time so it's like a month or two i have some spicy pickles and it's just funny
043how these things just turn out so you similar right not similar i mean you don't sell pickles but you did go to you know university in actuary science which by the way is super hard and rigorous to get into it's not like you know i certainly couldn't have applied to get into actuaries like that never would have happened right i couldn't get a phd either so that's okay right we all have our we all have our things but so you did that and then your parents i remember when we when we were talking about this you said your parents were pretty strict and had like this vision for what they wanted for you to become or do with your life right yeah i mean my parents are super strict like my parents were the type
044oh you got a 95 well why don't you get a 90 even if i got 100 they're like oh why don't you get this extra credit and it was just one of those things that but you know that's all they knew right that's all they thought success was you know grades and stuff they still don't know what i do they're like he just stands in front of the computer with this light above his head and he's on facebook does he make money doing that and all that stuff but you know they just don't know so it's just ev but you know it did have value right like you know i am at a point where it's like if things hit the wall right i can get into a company maybe like a google or facebook
045and go back in just because i know someone who works at google right i know google recruiter i have a friend that works at twitter i have another friend that works at microsoft and again through networking is made being possible but realize that networking is only one component right if you're not smart they're not going to refer you right you still have to be competent and good at what you do they have to know you you've the people that you know at google or wherever right they they know who you are they know your character they know your work ethic talk to me a little bit about though um when you told your parents you were quitting your corporate job to do your own thing let me tell you i didn't tell them at first
046because i was working from home and then like they were just like he's not in front of the computer all day like he used to be he's like going out and you know eventually i had to tell him because i was hired by my dad's friend he had to start he's like a wealthy guy who had a startup and i you know it's funny i still help him out even though i left that job like i'm still involved like he still uh pays me for some other things and it i kind of told them and they're they're like oh just like that's guy's an idiot i don't know what i wanted to do and look for the first year i didn't make money right i cashed out i cashed out my retirement it wasn't much
047in 2018 and i still live at home and i made that conscious decision because i was like look if i live at home i can really i can reinvest that money new york city is expensive i can invest that's like two thousand dollars more that i don't have to worry about that i can reinvest into my business and look two years later it's paid off right and now i'm in a very good position where it's like i i was able to hire my friend right i have a podcast editor all these things right they cost money right oh my gosh i love that because i so for all the adults watching and who think that at 18 or 22 or whatever the kids are leaving they're not leaving i you know the trend is you're
048they're staying home longer right and you're still home and you're owning that and it's helping you and for our students who think like i'm gonna be 18 or 22 and then i'm going to be done and moving out like that is that's certainly a cultural shift that we're seeing now right yeah and look i come from i'm an immigrant and it's like it's like you don't leave until you're married and you know look i would have left but nyc is so expensive like the cheapest house is like 800 000 like a million and it's like yeah you know look money's good right now but that's still a lot of money right you still have to save up and all that and it just gives you the flexibility that you're going to see a lot of
049entrepreneurs there the average entrepreneur is actually over 50 years old most people start businesses when they're in their 50s because of experience their kids are older they've saved enough money right money is the biggest thing or you see these young tech entrepreneurs and if you look at their backgrounds right they come from a lot of them come from wealthy families or they have a support it's just so much harder when you have to worry about rent you have to worry about bills look if i didn't live at home i wouldn't have been able to quit and go that year without making much money right i needed that year of not making much money to get to where i am right now to where i can right and again i'm thinking about building for the future
050i want to invest like 10 to 20 000 in like 20 you know february certain things because i know they'll have a return but it's those things you just have to be patient and it takes time but you know by the time i'm whatever 32 i want to be in a position where you know i have much more than i would have if i did it the other way so yeah so what's the dream what's what's the dream for you dream is just i want to do just more like podcasting more of that stuff like i like these things i like talking to people i like influencing i i like being able to just help people you know like helping these students right the three people i you know i'm really excited for that and
051just you know kind of doing like interviews on like tv and all that more more of that and just being able to impact more people right like my website gets a decent amount of visitors but just growing the podcast growing the website and just kind of really influencing decisions uh because a lot of kids they just really don't like i didn't know right and i was still better off than the average kid but there are some kids they just like they need some info right they need to be able to have some ideas and just i just didn't know a lot a lot about careers and it's like now the thing is at 18 if you start doing the right things and i did the right things right but i could have done more of
052some of the right things and you can just make such a make moves i know like people who are like you know 20 22 right by the time they're 23 24 right it's not like hey do i get a job it's like where do i work how much do i make right like my cousin so my cousin i think he got a job at facebook i think he started was like 120 130 000 and he got a hundred thousand dollar signing bonus but he did the right things right he had a bunch of internships and all that so it's like be strategic if you want if you want to put yourself because if once you're set at like 22 to 23 then by the time you're 30 oh man you could you could have a
053house you could have the car you want you could have whatever you want yeah but but maybe is there a part where you didn't have those things i think what we were talking you were saying how you're driving a honda or you're driving i'm driving i'm still driving like a 1999 car i drove a 1998 camry i'm not even kidding that had duct tape on it for a while uh because my dad pulled the side mirror off moving it and people were like why aren't you getting a new car i drive i drive a minivan now that people make fun of me i love my minivan it's paid off it doesn't cost me i don't have a car payment and you know i want to go the other way that it's okay not to have
054everything figured out at 22-23 like i come across a lot of people you know like even like me right like i wasn't success necessarily successful until like even the last few months right like i was making money in the beginning of the year but it's really after the pandemic that like my business like blew up and it's okay like you don't need to be successful at 20 you know it's good if it's better you just have more options but the road is just very different i know people who don't really hit it till the 30th or 40s but when they hit it they hit it so big and let's talk about what the hit it is right let's talk about what success is success is a moving target and you're constantly you know i know
055for myself i'm constantly redefining what success means for me i'm the only one i'm the only one you're the only one denying that can say success for me tomorrow is going to look like this you know for me today success for me today is to get through this interview to get through this day and to figure out then reflect and how can we do this better next year that's success for me right now and i really want to re-emphasize that is that don't let someone else define success for you oftentimes look sometimes i see people they have their parents to find and again just realize that most people are well intentioned but don't let your friends don't let you know other people define success for you because when you hit it you just don't it
056doesn't mean much you're like yeah this is this is it this is like not what i expected and it's not what you expected because it's not what you truly want it's not in alignment with who you are and who you want to be it's a great point it really is that internal you know that not letting those those other people knowing internally what's right for you and taking that right next step yeah i talk a lot about what's the next right step maybe you can do two steps you know the next two steps but what's the next right step you know you never know what the next right step is but at least step step somewhere you'll make the wrong steps you'll make a bunch of that but the wrong steps will help you make
057the right ones right i've made a lot of mistakes i should have done things differently but that's everybody regardless of what you do you'll make a lot of mistakes but it's just mistakes that make you who you are just don't keep on making the same mistakes over and over again don't make the same mistake over and over and when you do recognize it is there is there one saline one big idea one piece of advice if if students walk away with nothing other than this one thing the most important thing what would that thing be that you would say if anything else think about this is one thing you'd hope for them to take away just really again that everybody has a different road in life and it's okay it's just how life is right
058and if everybody have the same road life is going to be boring and just focus on and some roads are you know some people have straighter roads than others some people are curvier some are narrow some have like dead ends and they make wrong turns but that's just how life is right life is that you just keep moving forward right keep moving and your destination will change right the all the other things will change and that's okay just focus on moving forward and just realize that you know people bounce back right i've seen people bounce back from the worst have a good support system be smart about it and just you know grow as a person well tonight appreciate you being an awesome person an awesome support person a great connector if students want to
059just learn more about you in general what are your social media handles so i mean linkedin is the best way to kind of sort of find me so you you see the spelling of my name j-o-n-a-e-d last name iqbal listen to the podcast um the no degree podcast and you know it's valuable regardless of whether or not you went to college because some people went to college and they'll kind of say what they should have done or what they should i mean they went for a little and they dropped down they kind of talked about why they dropped out so maybe you don't want to drop out so you want to figure out what you could have done or what you could have learned and that's i think that's sort of the best way to
060get in touch great so we've got got your contacts for our students out there remember when you go through session one session two session three you're going to have a reflection assignment at the end of that assignment there's going to be um an area for you to indicate if you want to be a part of the raffle and uh janae is going to meet with three students we're going to randomly select for you to work with anything that that the three of you you want to work on and so we just appreciate your time your effort and for you taking the time today to be with us and show up here you're welcome the pleasure is all mine thank you so much have a great day everybody you're gonna move on to session two your
061first session session one you're gonna go log into your netpers account and you're gonna join your first session and we hope that this day um gives you at least one nugget that you can take away with you for the rest of your life