February 20, 2025 • 48 mins
Innovation Unleashed: The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs & Problem Solvers – Part 2 with Jeremy Qualls
What happens when young minds are given the tools, mentorship, and freedom to innovate?
In Part 2 of our conversation with Jeremy Qualls, we dive into the incredible stories of student entrepreneurs and changemakers who are redefining what’s possible through creativity, resilience, and real-world problem-solving.
Jeremy shares a sneak peak at the innovators of tomorrow:
Anthony Beckett of Brentwood High School transformed traditional classroom learning by developing an interactive digital education tool, now making waves internationally. His journey highlights the power of mentorship and perseverance in bringing an idea to life. Another remarkable young entrepreneur tackled a critical issue—drink spiking—with her innovative product, Spiky. Designed as a keychain equipped with tampering detection test strips, her invention is already being adopted by major universities. We also explore how Hickman County Middle School is reshaping education by integrating entrepreneurship and leadership into the classroom. The Educate, Inspire, Challenge (EIC) mentality is fostering a culture of collaboration and student empowerment, proving that real-world skills can be taught at any level. From game-changing tech to personal safety innovations and leadership in education, this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable insights. Whether you're an entrepreneur, educator, or lifelong learner, these stories will motivate you to embrace creativity and charge forward with confidence! Tune in now!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You have to go through that trial by fire, you
have to understand, you have tolose, you have to go 5-21 in
your first year to say, hmm,what's the problem?
And then I went 6-20.
Hey, I improved a game.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So much today has been watered down by us not
keeping score, by us not talkingabout somebody won and somebody
lost, and what you need to do,what you need to fix.
They're so quick to remove painfrom the situation that the kid
never learns how to deal withit, and so then that's where we
(00:31):
end up with.
You know, 20-year-olds thatcan't hold a job or can't make
it through school because theycan't handle somebody holding
them accountable.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's the confidence in people and confidence in
yourself, that I'm not worriedto bring in the right people on
that are smarter, better.
It's okay because we're goingto make a cool team dynamic and
culture.
That's a non-negotiable.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store,
in your company, in yourdistrict, in your household.
However excited you are, whatyou believe is possible,
whatever that threshold is, Ithink you've got an opportunity
(01:15):
to maybe get it this year too.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We do so last year and I think if people are still
listening and watching this andsay, okay, talk more about the
EIC, here it is, if people arestill listening and watching
this and say, okay, talk moreabout the EIC, here it is.
So you've got an opportunity totake a hypothetical problem and
solve it right with the idea ofyour own Young man, anthony
Beckett, sitting in BrentwoodHigh School, sitting in a math
class.
You know, brentwood's averageACT score is 27.
(01:39):
Very high, high-achievingschool, as we all know.
Sitting in a math classteacher's doing as we all know.
Sitting in a math classteachers doing everything on the
whiteboard.
He can't keep up.
We're racing.
He's like, hey, man, can I getkeep up?
He's racing the board and he'ssitting there in the back of
class thinking now he's a coderby nature.
Everybody's got theirChromebooks out and they're open
(02:03):
, but we're still using awhiteboard.
He's going why can't we streamthis to everybody's screen and
vice versa?
So he started coding.
He came to what we called atechnopreneurship Shark Tank
event at the EIC that we hosted,and he was coming purely from
IT.
He was not in the EIC and I sawhim present this and I went
over to him and his dad.
I was like you need to be herenext year.
(02:23):
I said we'll get you launched.
And they're like Hmm, you thinkI was like I know.
So sure enough, he applies, hecomes in.
The rest is history 22,000lines of code.
He, he launches his productcalled where you take a pdf.
You take all that work he wasdoing on the whiteboard, put it
(02:45):
in a pdf, drop it in there in apowerpoint because they're all
creating powerpoints every dayanyways.
He takes your powerpoint and itmakes you become an interactive
whiteboard, regardless of the,regardless of the device you
have.
Yeah, and the better part aboutit the student engagement goes
up.
Why?
How?
This is him.
I'm selling this product forhim because I've heard it so
many.
I I've been his second dad.
Yeah, is that it'scollaboration without the chaos?
(03:07):
So I put a five math problems upon the board in his program,
sends everybody a six-digit code.
Now everybody's in the program.
I can see everybody that's onthere.
If somebody goes and opensanother tab and is looking at
XYZ, it tells me.
So I say, hey, jim, get back onthe lesson.
So I say, hey, jim, get back onthe lesson.
So I start the process ofwriting on the program and it's
(03:27):
doing it in real time oneverybody's screen.
So if I'm doing a two-stepequation, I can actually watch
the process.
And then vice versa, I can sayJim, do number five for me,
reverse it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Give you the ability to do it at your desk and
everybody gets to see it, andthen you save it, drop in the
file and next thing you knowyou've got it as a pdf saved.
Well, the other just ancillarybenefit that I see there is then
you don't even have.
You've overcome the visionproblems too, like think about
the kids that need to be in thefront of the class or trying to
look, or there's something inthe classrooms it's blocking the
way.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's you just gave me chill bumps, man, because we
were talking about this lastnight.
I was talking about okay, ifwe're going to become a category
, can you give me your threenon-negotiables that you're
solving?
Accessibilities is number one,something I tend to overlook.
He's like look, I'm givingeverybody the access that some
of them don't have.
Whether it's a vision problem,hearing problem, all of that
(04:20):
you're being able to see closelyat your own and you're not
embarrassing anybody by doing it.
Here's the part of the story Ilove.
Six months after him launchingMarkify, he hosts a professional
development for all theteachers at Brentwood High
School, including the one thathe created a product for, who,
probably sitting here, even ifhe had the groundness of
(04:43):
watching this and wanted to beprofessional learning and try to
grow which he probably will notdidn't even know that he
created the product because ofhis problem in his class.
So I think it's phenomenal.
Right now, like I said, he'sgot more customers in Spain.
Don't even know how he's on ashoestring budget.
We send him to Chicago.
We've had a bunch of top tens.
(05:03):
Top only the top five get to goto chicago.
He was the first top five toget to chicago, within 30
seconds of him starting thatprocess of his pitch in chicago.
I looked at our team and I waslike he just won this thing.
Not only did he win it, he gotseed fund and I think it was
thirteen thousand dollars incash.
He had like two of the foursharks like want to angel invest
(05:26):
.
Oh that's great, and I haven'tseen that.
We've been going.
Even though we didn't have topfive, we go anyways to see and
there's some professional growthstuff there as well.
So, fast forward to today.
He's winning.
He comes to the EIC it's opendoor once you graduate,
obviously and he pretty much hotdesk in our place and he comes
in and we touch base and talkNot that I'm by any stretch can
(05:51):
tell him where to go, but we'vegot a couple of guys that are
angel investors that arecircling that he meets with at
our place as well, and we've puthim in front of some VCs and
it's a matter of time.
It's a tough category to sellbecause when you get in that
technology, especiallyspecifically educationally,
there's a lot of competitors.
Oh yeah, now here's an18-year-old kid that turned 18
(06:13):
before he won so he was 17during this process that he's
getting these million-dollar,multi-million-dollar established
programs that have social mediainfluencers that all of a
sudden are starting to feelempathetic and sympathetic
towards this kid and start doingstuff, that are getting calls
to the million dollars.
I said if you do another one ofthose, we're going to cut you
off.
And I thought you've won thegame.
(06:34):
Dude, they're looking at youright now.
I really think that he could beabsorbed by any of these
companies.
He's got a magic number in hishead.
He's a coder by heart, bynature, and what he built that
on the platform, I think, is hisbillion dollar idea.
Yeah, not this one.
This is just going to help himget out there.
So you mentioned I apologize,you're going to tell me to shut
up.
No, no, it's good.
(06:55):
So this year we have a younglady Interesting story Her dad.
I love the story of her dad.
Her dad, they came fromHollywood.
Okay, we've got tons ofCalifornians that move to
Williamson County.
I think they're trying to getout of politics is what they all
say.
I mean, honestly, it's thething about it.
It's strange, but they'retrying to get out of that and
(07:16):
they come to us.
He had the largest directedconsumer as seen on TV
production company.
Okay directed consumer as seenon tv production company.
Okay, so if you remember theold uh infomercials back at 2 am
, you're scrolling and like ifyou buy one now we'll give you.
You know you got your timeright when it went from that to
(07:36):
looking like the crock pipe wason, oprah and everybody's in
this audience and clapping andthat's his business okay and he
was super, super successful.
Son Sony Walkman is on hisportfolio.
I mean, it's just likeremarkable what he's done.
So she's got a perfectopportunity.
And when I say her, her ship is, is gassed up, ready to launch,
(07:57):
sitting on the pad, it's gotthe cold smoke coming off of it,
ready to go.
Elon's ready to push the button.
She is ready.
She's got an unbelievableproject and she's independent
and she came up with her ownidea and I love this.
So she was at a specificentrepreneurial program at
either berkeley or stanford I'mgonna get this wrong.
Over the summer she gotselected, got in and just tell
(08:20):
you what level she's on and, um,she, one of the problems they
threw at him to hypothetically,I think, just to kind of solve
was there is a drink spikingissue with the age demographic,
from college age and beyond,specific towards it's not just
on females, but specific tofemales Sure.
(08:40):
So she's sitting there thinking, all right, how did we come up
with this?
You know, let's look at theproblem solving.
She started taking the EICstuff of it and started looking
at what's already out there.
How can we change the game?
So they came up with this spiky,spikyfirstcom, and spiky is a
key chain that within the keychain, she worked with a UK lab
(09:00):
that has test strips.
They get the test strips.
They get the test strips, theyput them in the keychain.
The keychain automatically goeswith you.
It's discreet.
You pull it out and within 15minutes you can tell whether
it's been spiked and they've runit against every single drug.
So brilliant idea number oneUltra portable.
Ultra portable Subscriptionmodel.
(09:23):
Oh, I like it.
Reoccurring revenue yes, yousee where we're going.
This is all her.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Now, where do we go?
First thing that you think ofis hey, we've got to get you in
front of these Greek life folks,Because if you can make it
customizable to the colors andto the letters and to all that,
or maybe even the universityitself.
I mean, why would a universitynot say we've got 10,000
incoming freshmen and we'regiving everybody one, Absolutely
(09:49):
, as a part of their safety plan?
Sure, why would you not?
Let's not act like nobody'sdrinking, Right?
So let's get past that.
Right?
So we got her in front of thenumber one thing that other than
fell off and fell.
For we talk about networks,grow your network.
Know somebody that knowssomebody that knows somebody.
Six degrees of separation,Kevin Bacon.
(10:09):
Right?
So we knew somebody that wasChris.
Knew somebody that she workedout with.
It happens to be, in her words,I think, somewhere up in the
Greek life of one of thesororities we call this lady.
She comes up, not only she, sheis the international president
over a OPA.
So within 30 minutes of I said,well, you just indulge me and
(10:34):
listen to her pitch and see ifthis is even viable.
So within 30 minutes of herfinishing her deck, she's going
um, I need 6,000 before springbreak.
And I looked at her.
It's like, can you fulfill that?
She's like we'll do everythingpossible.
Yeah, it's like there might besome screw ups and that's okay,
but this woman is offering toput them in two houses, one at
Ole Miss and one at UT, which isthe largest in the country.
(10:55):
I was like and this is thebreak that you needed, yeah, and
it's over, it's over.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Since over it's over.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Since then, though, she didn't.
She didn't rest on laurels,that was two months ago.
Yeah, it's over christmas break.
She's sending me pictures andtext.
She's got this thing down to a3d printed, full encased product
that has a slide out tray thatsnaps.
You just put the trips in there, you flip it over and it can
have your name raised and raiselettering and all this.
I mean it's just like shedidn't just sit there and think
(11:26):
about okay, how am I going tofill it?
She is constantly evolving.
She's going to win this thingagain.
We're going to be two in a row,and even if she doesn't, it
doesn't matter.
She didn't even need that,because that's what we do at the
IC.
Yeah, that's.
You don't have to come in witha preconceived notion.
She had one.
All we did was help foster it.
We fed it gas.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, and I think the energy that's created in that
space not just by the teachersthat are fostering it, but also
that's what everybody's therefor, like all these students are
there because they're not thenorm, they're not every day,
they're trying to figure outtheir space, or they're trying
to figure out what their spaceis going to be, and so there's
(12:07):
that collaborative nature thatjust creates energy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It does.
One of my favorite stories is aguy that graduated probably
three, maybe four years ago.
It all runs together and itgoes to show that the diversity
of what we have in this spaceyou're pulling from 10 different
schools, 10 differentbackgrounds, 10 different
cultures, a gazillion differentlifestyle cultures.
If you want to get down to thehome life of that different
(12:33):
process, it doesn't matter.
It's a, it's a melting pot andit's it really, really drives
innovation.
And the number one thing thatindustry people are telling us
is look, we just want peoplethat'll sit, listen, coach, show
up on time, right and then notbe negative towards whatever the
environment we've alreadycreated.
So what we're doing at a bareminimum is, when they show up
(12:56):
into this melting pot, you'reempathetic towards other
people's ideas, opinions.
We're talking about cleansingthe palate and being able.
It may not be your idea and ifit's not, it's your group's idea
.
You got to roll with it becausethat's real life.
Yeah, jesus comes to us.
We didn't know he had a speechimpediment Gets to the interview
process.
I didn't interview him butapparently he did a great job
(13:16):
interviewing Just had a goodwork ethic about it, didn't have
any.
You know different.
You could tell he was different.
Comes to us.
Jesus was living out of his van.
He had no idea.
Oh wow, fighter, he's fighting.
He didn't have everything togive to him.
He's fighting, which is anumber one aspect.
You know he's going to besuccessful.
He's a fighter, let's give hima chance.
Starts the year very quiet,gets in a group, comes up with
(13:39):
an origami product that hecreates because he's brilliant
at geometry and other things inthe math world and he can take a
picture, put it on this origamiand when you form the origami
it's got your pictures or a logo.
So Tennessee Titans are anofficial partner of ours in the
facility.
So we're doing this Titansproject and he comes up to me.
(13:59):
He said I want to do a pitch tothe Titans.
I was like hmm, okay.
So I told the Titans, when y'allcome in on Thursday, this guy's
going to do something.
He gets up and leads his teamon this and what he's trying to
do is get them to do a kids clubdeployment with his product.
You know, I'm sitting therethinking full circle moment.
It kind of faltered out,stalled out a little bit.
(14:21):
We never got it to the finishline, but at a bare minimum.
This is the contrast to, loadedon the launch pad, fueled up,
ready to go to pitch, to theTitans overcame some fears,
speech impediments.
Okay, that did not falter ordid not take my idea and crush
it.
You just think about that.
(14:45):
In a bare minimum.
And that's not even part of thecareer.
It's not even like we'restriving to do that Right.
That is a byproduct of what wedo every single day.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Absolutely.
Well, and it's that you know,yeah, maybe that didn't get
across the finish line, but itgives him the confidence that he
can lean into the next time inorder for his pitch and and, and
hopefully and probably, abetter product period.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
oh yeah, he's standing in front of an employer
now he can go up there withconfidence and like, hey, you
know what I may?
It may sound different becauseof my impediment, but it doesn't
.
It doesn't shadow the fact thatI can be a great employee and
work and that's what I loveabout what we do.
Not everything's going to, noteverything's going to be sent to
the moon.
I mean, we had a young lady,ray Litlock, one of our
(15:27):
favorites all-stars, that camethrough.
She had a bullet journal thatshe created.
She sold I don't know.
I don't know how many units shemoved.
I want to say 500 units.
So she made quite a bit, youknow, for an 18-year-old kid, a
couple thousand bucks movingthese things.
But, more importantly, theconfidence that she has.
Anyway, she gets into LoyolaChicago, very exclusive private
(15:50):
school in Chicago.
It's hard to get in.
Not only does she get in, shegets accepted to their
entrepreneurship program.
She goes in to meet with theguy that's over.
It unrolls her portfolio, saysI'm so happy to be here, this is
what I've done.
This Unrolls her portfolio,says I'm so happy to be here,
this is what I've done.
This is how many I've sold.
Here's my business plan, ifyou'd like to look at it.
Here's this, this, and the guygoes yeah, you're not going to
be in this program.
(16:10):
She goes what do you mean?
He goes I ain't have anythingto offer you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, you're already there.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That's a testament to , and I've got several of those
kind of stories.
I love to tell that storybecause true academic practices
within a school building, ifthey would listen and learn and
take practices not all but someof those EIC principles and
overlay it, they would be somuch more fulfilling and I think
(16:50):
in my mind they would be moresuccessful.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
What advice do you have out there?
And I'm going to, I'm going topoke some bears with this one,
but I really don't care.
You know, cause I see theopposite, and you know we're
we're in an area where I feltlike our education system was,
was pretty good, um, but we hitmiddle school and I,
legitimately, the very firstnight, within the first three
(17:18):
minutes of the principalspeaking, wanted to pull my, my
child, out of there.
It was, it was horrific.
Um, it was the opposite ofinspiring.
It was.
They sucked all the energy outof the room.
The first thing they did waswas talk about everything that
the middle school is not.
You came in here, you'reexcited.
(17:38):
Well, don't get excited aboutthis, don't get excited about
this, don't get excited aboutthis Like they just sucked all
the energy out.
And then the second thing theydid was go over the disciplinary
action.
Now, that's how you, that's howyou did intro night to middle
school.
Yay, oh, my God, it was a trainwreck.
And then they have, I mean,they are training, uh, and and
(18:00):
no, no offense to anybody thatwants a factory job but
literally, but literally, asfifth graders in a middle school
, you are required to walk theright side of the hallway in
single file.
If you're in the middle, you goto detention.
If your hands are not visibleat all times, you go to
detention.
Meaning if your hands are inyour pockets, you're headed to
(18:21):
detention.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Are we in penitentiary?
What are we doing?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Exactly.
So what?
What do you?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
what do?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
you advise to um, let's just say, educators out
there.
How, how does a, how does a asingle educator, or how does
somebody that's in admin at amiddle school or a high school?
How do they foster some of theEIC mentality?
I love this question.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And one of the favorite things I get to do is
opportunity to go talk to peoplelike that, so I go back.
Let me give you just a littlebit of context for answer that.
When I was 31 years old Ibecame principal Hitman County
Middle School.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I've been in my career.
Fortunately, I've been on allthree levels as administrator
Elementary one year can get outof there fast enough, not me.
Most of my time has been on thehigh school level high school
basketball coach and then becamean administrator.
Middle school is a sweet spotfor me.
(19:19):
I'm glad you mentioned that,because the kids are still
fearful enough that you can runa good disciplinary program and
disguise it and they don't knowSure, with appropriate rewards.
Secondly, they're eager.
They're still eager to learnand participate.
So why crush dreams there?
Right?
Do you know what the differencebetween a one room schoolhouse
in 1920 to now is?
The buildings have gottenbigger.
Nothing has changed intraditional public school.
(19:42):
Yeah, nothing has changed intraditional public school.
Yeah, my father, who is a mentorand a hero of mine, has been a
lifelong educator.
Actually was in one of thoseunit schools at one time as a
principal.
As a young principal becamesuperintendent of schools and
under Ned Ray McWhorter wascommissioner of education.
So here's a country redneckfrom Linden, tennessee, that has
(20:05):
climbed educational ladder asfar as you can go.
Sure, there's a there's not.
But one job that he did nothave and that would be that, the
federal level, which he'd laughat you and say that's a joke
anyways.
But he always told me that ifwe're not careful he's been
saying this for years thatpublic education is going to die
because it will not evolve ever.
(20:28):
The people that shouldn't be incharge get in charge.
The people that should berewarded burn out.
The people that should be firedfrom a.
If you're in any other businessfor performance couldn't make
it.
But those government checkskeep coming right.
So how do you take all that?
You can't coming right.
So how do you take all that?
You can't change that.
So how do you take all that?
And you make them believe?
I had a lot of luck in mycareer early on.
(20:50):
Philosophy has not changed, butI had luck.
It could have easily gone theother way and we'd have failed
miserably and everybody wouldhave been like I told you.
So your philosophy doesn't work.
Hickman County Middle Schoolwas 82% free-induced lunch.
I want you to hear me again.
82% of those kids were inpoverty.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, and that doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Middle Tennessee, poor, 98% white.
We had kids living in pallethouses this is no lie with tarps
draped over the top of it.
We had a rule no cell phones.
Now this is 15 lie, with tarpstripped over the top of it.
We had a rule no cell phones.
Now this is 15 years ago.
Sure, the most powerful toolever created, don't bring it.
So we did a, we did a littlebit of research 91, 82 free,
(21:38):
reduced, 91 had phones.
Now it goes to show you what,as another microcosm of our
society and culture, that thatplays precedent.
We've got to have that overother right.
So we thought what are we goingto do to foster that we had?
We had people that were stillusing chalkboards.
They refused to use, evenanswer emails.
Are you kidding me?
they got a dust cover over theemail right so the number one
(21:59):
thing that they wanted to do.
So I'm getting to your answer,I promise yeah.
Yeah, just trust me, I'm goingback to your discipline.
Instead of talking about whatyou're going to do and what's
going to happen if things gowrong, let's talk about things
that you're going to get to do.
If you do things right, that'sright.
So we changed the culture, theculture.
When I came in the year beforeme, there was a 1400 referrals
(22:24):
for three grades, for 420 kids.
I was like something's off.
This is six, seven, ninthgraders.
What, what?
How come there's 14?
So I started looking throughthem.
Didn't bring a pencil class,didn't do this, didn't do that,
walking down the center of thehall.
I'm like that has zero bearingon the educational impact of
what we're doing.
But by sending them intodisciplinary positions such as
(22:45):
ISS detention, it has a negativeeffect and you're taking them
out of the classroom with theonly person that can teach them
Because, guess what, they'regoing home to uneducated people.
So why, number one?
Why are we sending four hoursof homework to people?
That's going to get it wrong.
So they're going to do fourhours of homework wrong.
Number one.
So we started talking abouthomework practices.
(23:07):
We started talking aboutdiscipline practices.
It's like all right, let's getto the bone.
We've got 27 rules here.
That's bull.
We're going to power it down tothree.
I said I'm going to let you allselect.
This isn't a faculty meeting.
This is my first fact to me, 31years old.
I love it.
What do you want to change?
Discipline, discipline,consistent discipline.
Great, I'm going to make youpick the three rules.
(23:29):
We're taking 27 out.
You're going to pick three whenyou send it to me.
It's out of your jurisdiction.
So if I send them back, youcan't get mad.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
But I want to know, when you send them to me, what
infrastructure have we got inplace that you have tried to
prevent this from happeningrepeatedly?
That's right.
I said not bringing your pencil, not bringing your book,
walking down the center of ahall, that's you problem.
That is a culture problem.
Change your culture, change therules.
So we came up with what wecalled the three bone system,
(24:01):
because we were bulldogs, and Isaid OK, if we change the
discipline, we're going to havea positive effect on what
academics?
So at this time I'm doing mydoctoral thesis.
So I thought we're going toimplement a positive behavior
program and we're going to lookat we are.
When I got handed the keys tothe building, the superintendent
said well, he introduced me tothe whole group.
(24:22):
No lie, we had a lot ofapplicants, had a lot of good
ones.
Here's jeremy.
I'm like.
Well, I'm glad I'm the only onethat finished a race, thanks.
Then I had the state departmenthad a person in there in the
building every single daybecause they had been on the
list, the naughty t-cap list forso many years, like if I didn't
get things turned around, theywere going to have a takeover.
(24:45):
This is no lie.
So.
So the superintendent said well, here's the best of what's left
.
Hey, as long as I don't get nophone calls, you keep between
ditches.
We're good state department'son my back, 31 years old, I am
the second youngest in thebuilding.
There was 11 teachers on thatstaff that had me as a kid.
(25:07):
Now you think about this in 81%,82% free and do so much
population.
How are we going to fix this?
Make them believe that this isthe best eight hours of their
life?
Yeah, so a lot of these thingshappen to do with dress policy.
I don't.
Dress policy is ridiculous.
Dress policy is ridiculous.
Cell phone policy is ridiculous.
That's a culture issue thatsome old 30-year-old plus
(25:29):
veteran teacher can't standbecause their class is so boring
.
So they look for reasons to getrid of kids.
Girl gets sent to the office.
She's got these pants flayedwide open.
We had a rule it was boardpolicy no holes between knees.
A rule, it was a board policyno holes between knees and
shoulders.
Right, okay, whatever.
So she marches her up there.
(25:52):
What are you going to do aboutthis?
Now teachers are saying this infront of the kid.
I put my arm around the kid.
I said come on, she's cryinghey, what's up?
Yeah Well, my house burnt down.
And I hey what's up?
Yeah Well, my house burnt downand I'm living out of the back
of a truck and that's all I got.
I said what do you need from us?
You need some clothes, needsome food?
She's like well.
I was like, don't be embarrassed, it's all good.
(26:13):
So we went to the store and gotsome stuff, came back, I called
a impromptu faculty meeting.
I said I need everybodystanding up in the lobby.
I'll see you at 245.
I got in there and I just lostit.
It's like I was coaching again,right?
I just said don't you everembarrass a kid without finding
(26:35):
out what's going on?
I said I sent that kid back.
You came back down the hallway.
You said a few choice words tome and you were mad.
I said do you remember what wesaid in the first day when you
said them to me?
It's out of your jurisdiction.
I said, second of all, thatkid's house burnt down and she
had no clothes and she wasembarrassed to tell anybody.
Did you even bother to ask?
Now, we pulled her out of yourclass.
(26:56):
She lost instruction timebecause you think you saw one
thing and thought of another,because you think you saw one
thing and thought of another.
Yeah Of course everybody'scrying.
I mean, it's one of thosemoments, it's one of those aha
moments in my career thatchanged me.
I was like we won this battle,it's over, because I just showed
in front of her Because sheembarrassed that kid and I
embarrassed her in front ofeverybody.
Faculty-wise, I said do notever and that goes for everybody
(27:20):
standing here send another kidup here without knowing
personally what's going on.
So number one that you've gotto change is relationships.
You've got to know what thosekids are doing to make them tick
.
They have to think that youlove them or they have to know
that you love them if you wantto change anything.
So that way, when I hammer youand say, jim, I need you to sit
(27:42):
down in this class and be quiet,jim knows that I love him and
he'll do it.
That's right.
So that way, when I hammer youand say, jim, I need you to sit
down in this class and be quiet,jim knows that I love him and
he'll do it.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So that's, that's number one relationships.
Number two infrastructure.
A good positive behavior styleprogram where everybody buys in
the culture's right.
Do away with minimalistic stuff, All the minimal.
Don't major in the minors,that's right.
OK, they're kids, they're stupid, we are all there, right.
And then three on the academicpiece at.
(28:08):
This is my philosophy.
Not everybody subscribes to.
It is a mastery style ofacademics.
We, when we made the change, wewent from I'm now on the state
list, if I don't turn this thingaround in six months, to the
top 10% of state and growth.
In six months we did that.
Wow.
Tcap-wise, we were a level oneschool and we're level five.
(28:31):
And level five from that pointout.
Why?
So, instead of complaining thatthe TCAP is driving academics,
we don't get to teach and wecan't be autonomous anymore.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame.
We don't get to teach and wecan't be autonomous anymore, and
that's it.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame.
We know what the game is.
The game is T-cap.
So let's break down the T-capand let's look according to
(28:51):
state standards the higherpercentage one we ought to spend
more time on.
So we, we gamified it.
But the question is what do youdo when they don't know it?
And what do you do when they doknow it?
Because that's where we failthe most, because the high
achieving people we stick overin a corner and the people.
That ain't good, they ain'tworth our time.
(29:12):
So let's hit the middle 80.
So we broke it down to smallerchunks of learning with kick out
opportunities when they know itand when they don't know it,
and it just changed the game.
It changed changed the game, sohomework went from hours to max
of five problems.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And with kickouts according to that homework.
Sure, and we also did a flippedclassroom model too, which is
another thing I subscribe to,specific to demographics like us
, where you have 82% free andreduced.
Use the classroom time as yourstudy hall.
Put your lessons on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So the homework is go on, watch this five-minute
video.
We're going to introduce a newconcept tomorrow in class.
We're going to do it togetherbecause I know if I send it home
with you, you're not going toknow how to do it and you
probably don't have a goodopportunity to have anybody
around you know how to do it,sure.
So with all of that it couldhave easily gone the other way.
Those three right there arenon-negotiables for me.
I have a few other ones inthere that I did with our staff.
They hated it, but they endedup seeing the deal Because when
(30:20):
I was doing my thesis, westarted looking at discipline
and hot spots of discipline.
Day of the week, honestly, doyou think is the hottest time
for disciplinary actions?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
friday, why everybody's ready to get out of
there okay.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What does the appearance of the teachers on
friday have?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
what is the appearance of the teachers?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
now I have softened my view a little bit on this,
since, because of the EIC andthe way people dress, now
Usually Fridays are a dress downday.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Okay, and when?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
teachers have a dress down day, the referrals go up
because the respect and the lookis not there.
So that was one of my firstnon-negotiables with us Forget
jeans, we're going to look thepart all the time and they're
not going to know any different.
They're going to respect youfor that.
Now I did give an occasionalevery now and then, and I have
since.
I don't know about jeans, thejeans part, but I backed off a
(31:15):
little bit to that professionaldecor that I see with our
mentors.
Those people that aresuccessful learn from them,
right.
So if I went in, I'd be likeokay, here's, here's, here's a
good, standardized what weshould look like when we're
doing this.
And blue jeans never plays apart in that, unless it's a
specific pair that looks to partwith a sport coat.
(31:36):
That's different.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Right, and, um, most people out there listening to
this probably I've already cutit off by now they're like that
guy's crazy.
But I'm just telling you rightnow.
I studied it, I did my thesisover it and my doctorate is all
around that and there is acorrelation between days of the
week, hot spots, the way youdress, all of those things, and
so we try to mitigate all ofthose things.
(32:00):
So discipline relationships notonly with the admin and
teachers, but teachers tostudents.
Let the students be in controlof their learning.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
And then having some good infrastructure around it.
Man, I'm telling you, it cantake the biggest naysayers and
turn them around.
We used to have these plasticlemons.
I used to have all these things.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame Ships.
I've already said a couple,right?
Yeah, grade band, that prettymuch was going to be the
(32:32):
disciple of the information.
She gave me a box of artificiallemons that sit on like for
looks on your table and put allmy sayings on them.
So anytime I was down they heldme accountable.
They'd pitch me an imaginarylemon because we said you know,
if you get thrown a lemon, youwill make lemonade.
So, if I was coming down thehallway and I was kind of down
(32:53):
and I could not high energy,she'd look at me and she'd go
and throw that imaginary.
So we held each otheraccountable.
So I threw a lot in there.
I think it could be par down tothose three particular pieces,
though really, really simply.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, I love that.
And that I mean we get tochoose right.
I mean we get to choose right.
I mean I can remember, withoutgoing too far down this rabbit
hole, I can remember, you know,I used to teach my team,
everybody in the company, all500 of them every single month
in person.
Now I don't know too manypeople that ran a company that
they took the first three weeksof every single month and it was
(33:27):
so important to get in front ofpeople so they heard it
directly from me what are wedoing?
How are we doing it?
What's their part in it?
What happens when we win?
And uh, one morning I dropped myson off.
He's 18 months old.
I dropped him off at uh GraceBaptist, their daycare pre-K pro
or you know whatever childprogram, and I'm like seven
(33:49):
minutes from work.
Well, in that seven minutesthis woman almost ends my life,
like she cuts me off to thepoint where I almost was unable
to prevent what was probably alife-ending event.
I almost wrecked and in thatmoment in my head I visualized I
pulled over to the side of theroad, pulled out a bazooka, shot
(34:12):
her car, walked up and laughedas she spent her final moments
because she was willing to takemine and I'm like I've got to
teach my team in 10 minutes.
How do I go from this toxicmentality that I'm in?
I'm like you know, if I go inthere and I got 20 people and
for the next two hours I spewevil into their world, what does
(34:35):
that do to them?
What does that do to theirfamily?
What does that do to our sales,like all the things?
So I get my mind right and, uh,we do class or our training,
and I get finished and I tellthem about this.
I'm like you know what?
This is the mentality I came inhere with and they were like we
would have never known, likehow did you do that?
Because this was the besttraining we've had in two years.
(34:57):
But you have that ability.
You have that ability to getyourself under control and be
the person you're supposed to be.
And I would encourage everyeducator, every parent I mean
you all have.
Every single one of us has theability to be who we need to be
and if we allow ourselves to getcaught up in the situation and
(35:21):
nobody's perfect, but you haveto be intentional about what you
project on other people,especially children, especially
your kids, and if you're ateacher, that's got to be at the
forefront of what you do everysingle day.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I've got one quick story on that and that's so
astute and brilliant I mean itreally is it can be boiled down
to that period.
I had one of those moments.
It's probably a stupid idea.
I think about it and I thinkhow stupid was I to even shoot
from the hip and not think thisthrough.
We had a particular situationwhere you're talking about the
toxicity, and I had a particularteacher that just would not
(35:54):
change regardless, but I had tomake them see the light somehow.
So I was thinking what if I didthis?
So I went to this cafeteria andI took some butcher paper.
I put it on every table.
I put every teacher's name onthat paper, spread them out.
So I went class by class.
(36:15):
Okay, let me have your kids goget a coat, take a break.
I got them, I went down thereand I got all the kids in the
room.
This is year three, so we werewell little machine things going
well.
I said I want you to go putyour name under the teacher that
you think loves you the most,that you would close the door,
(36:36):
spill the guts and lay down inthe row for them.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
So here they go, here they go.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
And I'm thinking all right, I know that Ms Smith's
going to get a bunch and I knowthat Ms Carter's going to get a
bunch.
I'm very interested in thisparticular person.
Two things happened, one that Idid not ever foresee.
One is, obviously, their listis going to be shorter than
everybody else.
So once I finished thatexercise, teachers had no idea
(37:02):
what I was doing, so I broughtthem in.
So once you go find your name,everybody stood by their name.
I said uh, here's the way Iportrayed this.
People started bawling, crying,bawling, crying.
This particular teacher issitting there looking around
going.
I'm like that's right, keeplooking, buddy, because
(37:24):
everybody else has got 20 namesand you've got two.
The one thing I did not see,though, foresee happening is the
one that I hated the most jimcrips in the class.
That will not shut.
Let me refute the jeremy quallsin the class, not jim crips,
the jeremy qualls in the classthat will not shut up.
It's heavily opinionated, that'sfull of energy and I just
really haven't done a very goodjob.
(37:44):
I just hope he just stays overthere and gets out of my class
as quick as possible.
Put his name under my name.
I had no idea that this kidcared this much for me and I've
been hammering him.
Yeah, and it really changed it.
We went from a if you're on afive point scale, if you will,
we were at about a three and ahalf four at that point in time
and it put us at a, probably a10.
(38:05):
Because even the worst one inthe building said I've been
messing up.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I was like yeah, we have.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I said but that's okay, we're here to learn
together In turn.
I'm just like that's right,buddy, you know that toxicity
you want to say I tried to tellyou, but you, just you keep
suppressing it because the pointhas been proved and just a
simple exercise is that?
I mean, that was purely a.
I was sitting there, this iswhat I'm going to do.
It's probably I don't know ifit's even the most professional
(38:36):
thing in the world to do, but itpainted a picture and then I
said okay, teacher A, you've gotJeremy on your list.
He obviously thinks highly ofyou.
So, ms Smith, when you have aproblem with Jeremy, who are you
going to call?
You're going to call thisteacher and this teacher is
going to come over and that'sgoing to be the safety release
(38:56):
for that kid.
It just changed everything westarted doing.
You said don't poke the bear,right, we had an eighth-grade
science teacher, coachHuddleston.
He always said don't poke thebear.
So if Jeremy is the bear whoselist is Jeremy on, let's let
them deal with it, because theyrespect each other.
Sure, when I left there, wewent from 1,400.
(39:17):
Remember the year before?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
40.
That's great.
I love this.
I mean, you know, and I've gotmy favorite teacher on this
planet and I need to introducey'all because I don't think
y'all have met before KateMcGlasson, she's the dean over
at Innsworth.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
What does Kate exude that you like so much?
I'm curious what makes youthink of her immediately.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Well, I'll tell you, it got started off rocky in that
, the very first homeworkassignment, I completely forgot
what subject Geometry.
Okay, very first homeworkassignment.
And so I realized that as Iwalk in the door I'm feverishly
trying to get through with it.
I end up with a 30 on that,that quiz.
And uh, she asks why did youget a 30?
And I said because I onlyanswered five of the you know,
(40:02):
uh, five of the 15 questions.
And now keep fast forward.
I ended up with 100 in geometry.
The following year I was her um,I was her student aid.
And the next year I was herstudent.
Yeah, it started a student aidagain and she was pregnant and
had a, a tough pregnancy.
Well, this one particular weekto 10 days, uh, she goes, jim,
(40:26):
you're going to teach class.
And I was quiet, I was not thatguy.
But I got up and taught classand I was like, oh, I like this,
it's a catalyst moment for you.
It was a hundred percent.
Now I was.
I was also cognizant.
I didn't want to get paid likea teacher.
So I was like nobody does.
So I said how do I?
How do I?
(40:46):
How do I do this?
How do I, how do I figure thisout?
And what it ended up is I ran abusiness and I got good enough
that I kept going up the ladderand then I started teaching
every person there every monthin person, and that was the
catalyst for everybody knowingexactly what their role was.
We did amazing things and butthey, just like you said, I knew
(41:08):
them, I knew what they wereabout, I knew what they wanted
in life, what their goals were,and they could come to me when
things weren't right.
But we also did that with ourleaders and said look,
somebody's having a rough go ofit.
I don't want to see it.
I don't want to see it right up.
I don't want to see atermination.
I don't want to see any of thatuntil you tell me what went
wrong, where it happened, what'sgoing on.
(41:30):
And that's not to say that wedon't fire people because we
absolutely held accountability,but if it's something that we
did wrong or if it's somethingthat we should show some grace
with, well then everybody hadthat ability to show that grace.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
You just summed up talent development in a nutshell
.
She saw something in you.
She knew you had the ability.
You may not been putting forththe effort, so she put you in an
accountable role which youfound love for and passion for,
and all of a sudden you startedcaring more than what you did
before.
That's talent development,that's all.
It is Absolutely Kobe's here.
He'd be shaking my hand like,oh yeah, I got the framework for
(42:04):
it and he does Redneck logic astalent development.
She saw something in you andshe saw something in you and she
cultivated what you are today.
I mean, that was the momentthat started it and he needed
something.
We all have that, that momentof OK, this is what I'm born to
do, and you know.
So.
In teaching, you know thoseteachers, those that can and
(42:26):
those that can't.
I hate to say it, but you knowthere's a lot of those that that
reinvent, involve year in andyear out, and there's a 30 year
teachers that have done it once,well, once, and repeated 29
times.
It doesn't evolve.
And you know, teaching is, issuch, a, it's a fulfilling
(42:46):
employment.
Right, I mean, it has to be.
You're not getting, you're not.
You're not getting rich Right,so why be negative?
It's not like they're leavingthe best ones at home, they're
sending you all they have.
So for eight hours a day, yougot a chance to make a
difference.
Yeah, yeah, it's not going togo your way every day.
Yeah, it's going to beexhausting, but to hear the Jim
(43:09):
Cripp story about Kate and howshe changed a guy's life, that's
what we do.
That's fulfilling, absolutely.
That's what the coach is right.
You always want to get invitedto your players' weddings.
You always want to get theannouncements when they have
kids.
You want to get all that kindof stuff and checking in.
That's the way you know thatyou made a difference.
It has zero, zero to do withwinning losses.
(43:31):
Everybody thinks it does.
The wins, or the statechampionship, could be a
catalyst moment for you tochange them, but that's few and
far between.
It literally comes down to howdid you treat me?
And here's Kobe on my shoulder.
Am I valued Right?
Am I loved?
And is my opinion valued?
Sure, so that's all I mean.
(43:53):
It's literally what you justthe story you just told.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah Well, Jeremy, there's so much I want to get
into and we are pushing theenvelope on time.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
So we're going to have to have you come back.
I just told people stillhanging in there with us, right?
Speaker 2 (44:05):
now right?
Well, if they're smart, theyare, Because this is just nugget
after nugget whether you're aparent, whether you're an
educator, whether you're runninga business, all these things,
and I'm so excited about thethings that you guys have going
on there at the EIC.
And next time I want to dive into really what makes you tick
and the the family part of it,Cause I know you're a strong
family man Love, love your wifeand kids.
(44:29):
And and get dive into the healthside of things, Cause that's a
whole that's a whole, wholesection that we're not even
getting into today, but I dowant to ask this one question
before we go have you put anythought into how you want to be
remembered?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I do that every day.
Uh, it doesn't necessarily.
It doesn't.
It's not what drives me.
My philosophy on this haschanged as you get older.
Professionally, I definitelywant to be, have this legacy and
leave, but it's not near asimportant as what my three kids
did.
You know, I'm in that point oflife right now where I've got
(45:07):
separation anxiety from a 16year old.
He used to be on my hip.
I love that, love him so much.
And how do you exude that?
How do you teach them?
How do you discipline them?
And still you know you can't betheir friend, you can't be
there.
You know all those things arehappening right now.
Um, but I think about that allthe time.
What are my kids going to thinkof me?
Like I think of.
I just hope and pray thatsomething is that I say breaks
(45:32):
through at some point in time,like my father, and have the
same regard for me as I do myfather.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
So I think about this all the time.
Yes, uh, professionally, hetreated us fairly, um, and he
always had the right, uh goal inmind with whomever we're
serving, not for self-serving.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I love it.
I love it.
Well again, I love what you'redoing down there.
It's a breath of fresh air whenyou walk in that building and
it's clearly something you'vecultivated, that you've put in
place, and I can't wait to seewhat comes next.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Yeah, if you're listening to this and you want
to become a mentor, always feelfree.
Open Door Policy come find us.
We're in the middle of Franklin, tennessee, at Franklin high
school, at the annex building.
How do they get in touch withyou?
Yeah, just the easiest way isjust to email Jeremy dot quals Q
U a.
L L S at WCS dot com.
Okay, no, dot edu.
Pardon me, wcs dot edu, I'vebeen out too long man.
(46:28):
New.
Zealand.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I love it.
Um well, jeremy, we'reabsolutely going to have to have
you back and continue thisconversation and check in on all
the great things that are goingon at the EIC Everybody out
there.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you took something awayfrom it, whether it's to work
with your children and work withyour employees, or work with
other people in your life, ormaybe to inspire somebody else
(46:50):
that you know your life, uh, ormaybe to inspire somebody else
that you know.
I do want to dedicate this one,uh, to one of the educators
that uh made a big change in mylife my third grade teacher, uh,
miss Francis hall.
Uh, to all those that knew her,she was just absolutely a
beacon of light.
And then, uh, also to my goodfriend, a classmate and educator
and coach, who recently passeda classmate and educator and
(47:15):
coach who recently passed, drewJohnson, who was taken from us
too early.
Yeah, just know that you madean impact on people's worlds and
it will not be forgotten Untilnext time.
I'm Jim Cripps with the ChargeForward podcast.
Again, thanks again to oursponsors, hitlab Studios here in
Nashville, tennessee, chargeForward Solutions and Sense
Custom Development Take careTeam.
(47:35):
Is Jim Cripps here with theCharge Forward Podcast.
I just want to tell you I loveyou, I appreciate you listening,
I appreciate you forsubscribing and sharing the
Charge Forward Podcast withpeople you know and you love,
because that's what we're herefor.
We are here to share theamazing stories, the things that
people have been through, theways that they were able to
(47:55):
improve their life, so that youcan take little nuggets from
theirs and help improve yourstory and be better tomorrow
than you are today.
I hope that this is the toolyou needed at the right time and
that you find value in theamazing guests that we bring
each and every week.
Thanks so much and don't forgetnew episodes drop every
(48:17):
Thursday.
You have to go through that trial by fire, you
have to understand, you have tolose, you have to go 5-21 in
your first year to say, hmm,what's the problem?
And then I went 6-20.
Hey, I improved a game.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So much today has been watered down by us not
keeping score, by us not talkingabout somebody won and somebody
lost, and what you need to do,what you need to fix.
They're so quick to remove painfrom the situation that the kid
never learns how to deal withit, and so then that's where we
(00:31):
end up with.
You know, 20-year-olds thatcan't hold a job or can't make
it through school because theycan't handle somebody holding
them accountable.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's the confidence in people and confidence in
yourself, that I'm not worriedto bring in the right people on
that are smarter, better.
It's okay because we're goingto make a cool team dynamic and
culture.
That's a non-negotiable.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store,
in your company, in yourdistrict, in your household.
However excited you are, whatyou believe is possible,
whatever that threshold is, Ithink you've got an opportunity
(01:15):
to maybe get it this year too.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We do so last year and I think if people are still
listening and watching this andsay, okay, talk more about the
EIC, here it is, if people arestill listening and watching
this and say, okay, talk moreabout the EIC, here it is.
So you've got an opportunity totake a hypothetical problem and
solve it right with the idea ofyour own Young man, anthony
Beckett, sitting in BrentwoodHigh School, sitting in a math
class.
You know, brentwood's averageACT score is 27.
(01:39):
Very high, high-achievingschool, as we all know.
Sitting in a math classteacher's doing as we all know.
Sitting in a math classteachers doing everything on the
whiteboard.
He can't keep up.
We're racing.
He's like, hey, man, can I getkeep up?
He's racing the board and he'ssitting there in the back of
class thinking now he's a coderby nature.
Everybody's got theirChromebooks out and they're open
(02:03):
, but we're still using awhiteboard.
He's going why can't we streamthis to everybody's screen and
vice versa?
So he started coding.
He came to what we called atechnopreneurship Shark Tank
event at the EIC that we hosted,and he was coming purely from
IT.
He was not in the EIC and I sawhim present this and I went
over to him and his dad.
I was like you need to be herenext year.
(02:23):
I said we'll get you launched.
And they're like Hmm, you thinkI was like I know.
So sure enough, he applies, hecomes in.
The rest is history 22,000lines of code.
He, he launches his productcalled where you take a pdf.
You take all that work he wasdoing on the whiteboard, put it
(02:45):
in a pdf, drop it in there in apowerpoint because they're all
creating powerpoints every dayanyways.
He takes your powerpoint and itmakes you become an interactive
whiteboard, regardless of the,regardless of the device you
have.
Yeah, and the better part aboutit the student engagement goes
up.
Why?
How?
This is him.
I'm selling this product forhim because I've heard it so
many.
I I've been his second dad.
Yeah, is that it'scollaboration without the chaos?
(03:07):
So I put a five math problems upon the board in his program,
sends everybody a six-digit code.
Now everybody's in the program.
I can see everybody that's onthere.
If somebody goes and opensanother tab and is looking at
XYZ, it tells me.
So I say, hey, jim, get back onthe lesson.
So I say, hey, jim, get back onthe lesson.
So I start the process ofwriting on the program and it's
(03:27):
doing it in real time oneverybody's screen.
So if I'm doing a two-stepequation, I can actually watch
the process.
And then vice versa, I can sayJim, do number five for me,
reverse it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Give you the ability to do it at your desk and
everybody gets to see it, andthen you save it, drop in the
file and next thing you knowyou've got it as a pdf saved.
Well, the other just ancillarybenefit that I see there is then
you don't even have.
You've overcome the visionproblems too, like think about
the kids that need to be in thefront of the class or trying to
look, or there's something inthe classrooms it's blocking the
way.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's you just gave me chill bumps, man, because we
were talking about this lastnight.
I was talking about okay, ifwe're going to become a category
, can you give me your threenon-negotiables that you're
solving?
Accessibilities is number one,something I tend to overlook.
He's like look, I'm givingeverybody the access that some
of them don't have.
Whether it's a vision problem,hearing problem, all of that
(04:20):
you're being able to see closelyat your own and you're not
embarrassing anybody by doing it.
Here's the part of the story Ilove.
Six months after him launchingMarkify, he hosts a professional
development for all theteachers at Brentwood High
School, including the one thathe created a product for, who,
probably sitting here, even ifhe had the groundness of
(04:43):
watching this and wanted to beprofessional learning and try to
grow which he probably will notdidn't even know that he
created the product because ofhis problem in his class.
So I think it's phenomenal.
Right now, like I said, he'sgot more customers in Spain.
Don't even know how he's on ashoestring budget.
We send him to Chicago.
We've had a bunch of top tens.
(05:03):
Top only the top five get to goto chicago.
He was the first top five toget to chicago, within 30
seconds of him starting thatprocess of his pitch in chicago.
I looked at our team and I waslike he just won this thing.
Not only did he win it, he gotseed fund and I think it was
thirteen thousand dollars incash.
He had like two of the foursharks like want to angel invest
(05:26):
.
Oh that's great, and I haven'tseen that.
We've been going.
Even though we didn't have topfive, we go anyways to see and
there's some professional growthstuff there as well.
So, fast forward to today.
He's winning.
He comes to the EIC it's opendoor once you graduate,
obviously and he pretty much hotdesk in our place and he comes
in and we touch base and talkNot that I'm by any stretch can
(05:51):
tell him where to go, but we'vegot a couple of guys that are
angel investors that arecircling that he meets with at
our place as well, and we've puthim in front of some VCs and
it's a matter of time.
It's a tough category to sellbecause when you get in that
technology, especiallyspecifically educationally,
there's a lot of competitors.
Oh yeah, now here's an18-year-old kid that turned 18
(06:13):
before he won so he was 17during this process that he's
getting these million-dollar,multi-million-dollar established
programs that have social mediainfluencers that all of a
sudden are starting to feelempathetic and sympathetic
towards this kid and start doingstuff, that are getting calls
to the million dollars.
I said if you do another one ofthose, we're going to cut you
off.
And I thought you've won thegame.
(06:34):
Dude, they're looking at youright now.
I really think that he could beabsorbed by any of these
companies.
He's got a magic number in hishead.
He's a coder by heart, bynature, and what he built that
on the platform, I think, is hisbillion dollar idea.
Yeah, not this one.
This is just going to help himget out there.
So you mentioned I apologize,you're going to tell me to shut
up.
No, no, it's good.
(06:55):
So this year we have a younglady Interesting story Her dad.
I love the story of her dad.
Her dad, they came fromHollywood.
Okay, we've got tons ofCalifornians that move to
Williamson County.
I think they're trying to getout of politics is what they all
say.
I mean, honestly, it's thething about it.
It's strange, but they'retrying to get out of that and
(07:16):
they come to us.
He had the largest directedconsumer as seen on TV
production company.
Okay directed consumer as seenon tv production company.
Okay, so if you remember theold uh infomercials back at 2 am
, you're scrolling and like ifyou buy one now we'll give you.
You know you got your timeright when it went from that to
(07:36):
looking like the crock pipe wason, oprah and everybody's in
this audience and clapping andthat's his business okay and he
was super, super successful.
Son Sony Walkman is on hisportfolio.
I mean, it's just likeremarkable what he's done.
So she's got a perfectopportunity.
And when I say her, her ship is, is gassed up, ready to launch,
(07:57):
sitting on the pad, it's gotthe cold smoke coming off of it,
ready to go.
Elon's ready to push the button.
She is ready.
She's got an unbelievableproject and she's independent
and she came up with her ownidea and I love this.
So she was at a specificentrepreneurial program at
either berkeley or stanford I'mgonna get this wrong.
Over the summer she gotselected, got in and just tell
(08:20):
you what level she's on and, um,she, one of the problems they
threw at him to hypothetically,I think, just to kind of solve
was there is a drink spikingissue with the age demographic,
from college age and beyond,specific towards it's not just
on females, but specific tofemales Sure.
(08:40):
So she's sitting there thinking, all right, how did we come up
with this?
You know, let's look at theproblem solving.
She started taking the EICstuff of it and started looking
at what's already out there.
How can we change the game?
So they came up with this spiky,spikyfirstcom, and spiky is a
key chain that within the keychain, she worked with a UK lab
(09:00):
that has test strips.
They get the test strips.
They get the test strips, theyput them in the keychain.
The keychain automatically goeswith you.
It's discreet.
You pull it out and within 15minutes you can tell whether
it's been spiked and they've runit against every single drug.
So brilliant idea number oneUltra portable.
Ultra portable Subscriptionmodel.
(09:23):
Oh, I like it.
Reoccurring revenue yes, yousee where we're going.
This is all her.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Now, where do we go?
First thing that you think ofis hey, we've got to get you in
front of these Greek life folks,Because if you can make it
customizable to the colors andto the letters and to all that,
or maybe even the universityitself.
I mean, why would a universitynot say we've got 10,000
incoming freshmen and we'regiving everybody one, Absolutely
(09:49):
, as a part of their safety plan?
Sure, why would you not?
Let's not act like nobody'sdrinking, Right?
So let's get past that.
Right?
So we got her in front of thenumber one thing that other than
fell off and fell.
For we talk about networks,grow your network.
Know somebody that knowssomebody that knows somebody.
Six degrees of separation,Kevin Bacon.
(10:09):
Right?
So we knew somebody that wasChris.
Knew somebody that she workedout with.
It happens to be, in her words,I think, somewhere up in the
Greek life of one of thesororities we call this lady.
She comes up, not only she, sheis the international president
over a OPA.
So within 30 minutes of I said,well, you just indulge me and
(10:34):
listen to her pitch and see ifthis is even viable.
So within 30 minutes of herfinishing her deck, she's going
um, I need 6,000 before springbreak.
And I looked at her.
It's like, can you fulfill that?
She's like we'll do everythingpossible.
Yeah, it's like there might besome screw ups and that's okay,
but this woman is offering toput them in two houses, one at
Ole Miss and one at UT, which isthe largest in the country.
(10:55):
I was like and this is thebreak that you needed, yeah, and
it's over, it's over.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Since over it's over.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Since then, though, she didn't.
She didn't rest on laurels,that was two months ago.
Yeah, it's over christmas break.
She's sending me pictures andtext.
She's got this thing down to a3d printed, full encased product
that has a slide out tray thatsnaps.
You just put the trips in there, you flip it over and it can
have your name raised and raiselettering and all this.
I mean it's just like shedidn't just sit there and think
(11:26):
about okay, how am I going tofill it?
She is constantly evolving.
She's going to win this thingagain.
We're going to be two in a row,and even if she doesn't, it
doesn't matter.
She didn't even need that,because that's what we do at the
IC.
Yeah, that's.
You don't have to come in witha preconceived notion.
She had one.
All we did was help foster it.
We fed it gas.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, and I think the energy that's created in that
space not just by the teachersthat are fostering it, but also
that's what everybody's therefor, like all these students are
there because they're not thenorm, they're not every day,
they're trying to figure outtheir space, or they're trying
to figure out what their spaceis going to be, and so there's
(12:07):
that collaborative nature thatjust creates energy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It does.
One of my favorite stories is aguy that graduated probably
three, maybe four years ago.
It all runs together and itgoes to show that the diversity
of what we have in this spaceyou're pulling from 10 different
schools, 10 differentbackgrounds, 10 different
cultures, a gazillion differentlifestyle cultures.
If you want to get down to thehome life of that different
(12:33):
process, it doesn't matter.
It's a, it's a melting pot andit's it really, really drives
innovation.
And the number one thing thatindustry people are telling us
is look, we just want peoplethat'll sit, listen, coach, show
up on time, right and then notbe negative towards whatever the
environment we've alreadycreated.
So what we're doing at a bareminimum is, when they show up
(12:56):
into this melting pot, you'reempathetic towards other
people's ideas, opinions.
We're talking about cleansingthe palate and being able.
It may not be your idea and ifit's not, it's your group's idea
.
You got to roll with it becausethat's real life.
Yeah, jesus comes to us.
We didn't know he had a speechimpediment Gets to the interview
process.
I didn't interview him butapparently he did a great job
(13:16):
interviewing Just had a goodwork ethic about it, didn't have
any.
You know different.
You could tell he was different.
Comes to us.
Jesus was living out of his van.
He had no idea.
Oh wow, fighter, he's fighting.
He didn't have everything togive to him.
He's fighting, which is anumber one aspect.
You know he's going to besuccessful.
He's a fighter, let's give hima chance.
Starts the year very quiet,gets in a group, comes up with
(13:39):
an origami product that hecreates because he's brilliant
at geometry and other things inthe math world and he can take a
picture, put it on this origamiand when you form the origami
it's got your pictures or a logo.
So Tennessee Titans are anofficial partner of ours in the
facility.
So we're doing this Titansproject and he comes up to me.
(13:59):
He said I want to do a pitch tothe Titans.
I was like hmm, okay.
So I told the Titans, when y'allcome in on Thursday, this guy's
going to do something.
He gets up and leads his teamon this and what he's trying to
do is get them to do a kids clubdeployment with his product.
You know, I'm sitting therethinking full circle moment.
It kind of faltered out,stalled out a little bit.
(14:21):
We never got it to the finishline, but at a bare minimum.
This is the contrast to, loadedon the launch pad, fueled up,
ready to go to pitch, to theTitans overcame some fears,
speech impediments.
Okay, that did not falter ordid not take my idea and crush
it.
You just think about that.
(14:45):
In a bare minimum.
And that's not even part of thecareer.
It's not even like we'restriving to do that Right.
That is a byproduct of what wedo every single day.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Absolutely.
Well, and it's that you know,yeah, maybe that didn't get
across the finish line, but itgives him the confidence that he
can lean into the next time inorder for his pitch and and, and
hopefully and probably, abetter product period.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
oh yeah, he's standing in front of an employer
now he can go up there withconfidence and like, hey, you
know what I may?
It may sound different becauseof my impediment, but it doesn't
.
It doesn't shadow the fact thatI can be a great employee and
work and that's what I loveabout what we do.
Not everything's going to, noteverything's going to be sent to
the moon.
I mean, we had a young lady,ray Litlock, one of our
(15:27):
favorites all-stars, that camethrough.
She had a bullet journal thatshe created.
She sold I don't know.
I don't know how many units shemoved.
I want to say 500 units.
So she made quite a bit, youknow, for an 18-year-old kid, a
couple thousand bucks movingthese things.
But, more importantly, theconfidence that she has.
Anyway, she gets into LoyolaChicago, very exclusive private
(15:50):
school in Chicago.
It's hard to get in.
Not only does she get in, shegets accepted to their
entrepreneurship program.
She goes in to meet with theguy that's over.
It unrolls her portfolio, saysI'm so happy to be here, this is
what I've done.
This Unrolls her portfolio,says I'm so happy to be here,
this is what I've done.
This is how many I've sold.
Here's my business plan, ifyou'd like to look at it.
Here's this, this, and the guygoes yeah, you're not going to
be in this program.
(16:10):
She goes what do you mean?
He goes I ain't have anythingto offer you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, you're already there.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That's a testament to , and I've got several of those
kind of stories.
I love to tell that storybecause true academic practices
within a school building, ifthey would listen and learn and
take practices not all but someof those EIC principles and
overlay it, they would be somuch more fulfilling and I think
(16:50):
in my mind they would be moresuccessful.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
What advice do you have out there?
And I'm going to, I'm going topoke some bears with this one,
but I really don't care.
You know, cause I see theopposite, and you know we're
we're in an area where I feltlike our education system was,
was pretty good, um, but we hitmiddle school and I,
legitimately, the very firstnight, within the first three
(17:18):
minutes of the principalspeaking, wanted to pull my, my
child, out of there.
It was, it was horrific.
Um, it was the opposite ofinspiring.
It was.
They sucked all the energy outof the room.
The first thing they did waswas talk about everything that
the middle school is not.
You came in here, you'reexcited.
(17:38):
Well, don't get excited aboutthis, don't get excited about
this, don't get excited aboutthis Like they just sucked all
the energy out.
And then the second thing theydid was go over the disciplinary
action.
Now, that's how you, that's howyou did intro night to middle
school.
Yay, oh, my God, it was a trainwreck.
And then they have, I mean,they are training, uh, and and
(18:00):
no, no offense to anybody thatwants a factory job but
literally, but literally, asfifth graders in a middle school
, you are required to walk theright side of the hallway in
single file.
If you're in the middle, you goto detention.
If your hands are not visibleat all times, you go to
detention.
Meaning if your hands are inyour pockets, you're headed to
(18:21):
detention.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Are we in penitentiary?
What are we doing?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Exactly.
So what?
What do you?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
what do?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
you advise to um, let's just say, educators out
there.
How, how does a, how does a asingle educator, or how does
somebody that's in admin at amiddle school or a high school?
How do they foster some of theEIC mentality?
I love this question.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And one of the favorite things I get to do is
opportunity to go talk to peoplelike that, so I go back.
Let me give you just a littlebit of context for answer that.
When I was 31 years old Ibecame principal Hitman County
Middle School.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I've been in my career.
Fortunately, I've been on allthree levels as administrator
Elementary one year can get outof there fast enough, not me.
Most of my time has been on thehigh school level high school
basketball coach and then becamean administrator.
Middle school is a sweet spotfor me.
(19:19):
I'm glad you mentioned that,because the kids are still
fearful enough that you can runa good disciplinary program and
disguise it and they don't knowSure, with appropriate rewards.
Secondly, they're eager.
They're still eager to learnand participate.
So why crush dreams there?
Right?
Do you know what the differencebetween a one room schoolhouse
in 1920 to now is?
The buildings have gottenbigger.
Nothing has changed intraditional public school.
(19:42):
Yeah, nothing has changed intraditional public school.
Yeah, my father, who is a mentorand a hero of mine, has been a
lifelong educator.
Actually was in one of thoseunit schools at one time as a
principal.
As a young principal becamesuperintendent of schools and
under Ned Ray McWhorter wascommissioner of education.
So here's a country redneckfrom Linden, tennessee, that has
(20:05):
climbed educational ladder asfar as you can go.
Sure, there's a there's not.
But one job that he did nothave and that would be that, the
federal level, which he'd laughat you and say that's a joke
anyways.
But he always told me that ifwe're not careful he's been
saying this for years thatpublic education is going to die
because it will not evolve ever.
(20:28):
The people that shouldn't be incharge get in charge.
The people that should berewarded burn out.
The people that should be firedfrom a.
If you're in any other businessfor performance couldn't make
it.
But those government checkskeep coming right.
So how do you take all that?
You can't coming right.
So how do you take all that?
You can't change that.
So how do you take all that?
And you make them believe?
I had a lot of luck in mycareer early on.
(20:50):
Philosophy has not changed, butI had luck.
It could have easily gone theother way and we'd have failed
miserably and everybody wouldhave been like I told you.
So your philosophy doesn't work.
Hickman County Middle Schoolwas 82% free-induced lunch.
I want you to hear me again.
82% of those kids were inpoverty.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, and that doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Middle Tennessee, poor, 98% white.
We had kids living in pallethouses this is no lie with tarps
draped over the top of it.
We had a rule no cell phones.
Now this is 15 lie, with tarpstripped over the top of it.
We had a rule no cell phones.
Now this is 15 years ago.
Sure, the most powerful toolever created, don't bring it.
So we did a, we did a littlebit of research 91, 82 free,
(21:38):
reduced, 91 had phones.
Now it goes to show you what,as another microcosm of our
society and culture, that thatplays precedent.
We've got to have that overother right.
So we thought what are we goingto do to foster that we had?
We had people that were stillusing chalkboards.
They refused to use, evenanswer emails.
Are you kidding me?
they got a dust cover over theemail right so the number one
(21:59):
thing that they wanted to do.
So I'm getting to your answer,I promise yeah.
Yeah, just trust me, I'm goingback to your discipline.
Instead of talking about whatyou're going to do and what's
going to happen if things gowrong, let's talk about things
that you're going to get to do.
If you do things right, that'sright.
So we changed the culture, theculture.
When I came in the year beforeme, there was a 1400 referrals
(22:24):
for three grades, for 420 kids.
I was like something's off.
This is six, seven, ninthgraders.
What, what?
How come there's 14?
So I started looking throughthem.
Didn't bring a pencil class,didn't do this, didn't do that,
walking down the center of thehall.
I'm like that has zero bearingon the educational impact of
what we're doing.
But by sending them intodisciplinary positions such as
(22:45):
ISS detention, it has a negativeeffect and you're taking them
out of the classroom with theonly person that can teach them
Because, guess what, they'regoing home to uneducated people.
So why, number one?
Why are we sending four hoursof homework to people?
That's going to get it wrong.
So they're going to do fourhours of homework wrong.
Number one.
So we started talking abouthomework practices.
(23:07):
We started talking aboutdiscipline practices.
It's like all right, let's getto the bone.
We've got 27 rules here.
That's bull.
We're going to power it down tothree.
I said I'm going to let you allselect.
This isn't a faculty meeting.
This is my first fact to me, 31years old.
I love it.
What do you want to change?
Discipline, discipline,consistent discipline.
Great, I'm going to make youpick the three rules.
(23:29):
We're taking 27 out.
You're going to pick three whenyou send it to me.
It's out of your jurisdiction.
So if I send them back, youcan't get mad.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
But I want to know, when you send them to me, what
infrastructure have we got inplace that you have tried to
prevent this from happeningrepeatedly?
That's right.
I said not bringing your pencil, not bringing your book,
walking down the center of ahall, that's you problem.
That is a culture problem.
Change your culture, change therules.
So we came up with what wecalled the three bone system,
(24:01):
because we were bulldogs, and Isaid OK, if we change the
discipline, we're going to havea positive effect on what
academics?
So at this time I'm doing mydoctoral thesis.
So I thought we're going toimplement a positive behavior
program and we're going to lookat we are.
When I got handed the keys tothe building, the superintendent
said well, he introduced me tothe whole group.
(24:22):
No lie, we had a lot ofapplicants, had a lot of good
ones.
Here's jeremy.
I'm like.
Well, I'm glad I'm the only onethat finished a race, thanks.
Then I had the state departmenthad a person in there in the
building every single daybecause they had been on the
list, the naughty t-cap list forso many years, like if I didn't
get things turned around, theywere going to have a takeover.
(24:45):
This is no lie.
So.
So the superintendent said well, here's the best of what's left
.
Hey, as long as I don't get nophone calls, you keep between
ditches.
We're good state department'son my back, 31 years old, I am
the second youngest in thebuilding.
There was 11 teachers on thatstaff that had me as a kid.
(25:07):
Now you think about this in 81%,82% free and do so much
population.
How are we going to fix this?
Make them believe that this isthe best eight hours of their
life?
Yeah, so a lot of these thingshappen to do with dress policy.
I don't.
Dress policy is ridiculous.
Dress policy is ridiculous.
Cell phone policy is ridiculous.
That's a culture issue thatsome old 30-year-old plus
(25:29):
veteran teacher can't standbecause their class is so boring
.
So they look for reasons to getrid of kids.
Girl gets sent to the office.
She's got these pants flayedwide open.
We had a rule it was boardpolicy no holes between knees.
A rule, it was a board policyno holes between knees and
shoulders.
Right, okay, whatever.
So she marches her up there.
(25:52):
What are you going to do aboutthis?
Now teachers are saying this infront of the kid.
I put my arm around the kid.
I said come on, she's cryinghey, what's up?
Yeah Well, my house burnt down.
And I hey what's up?
Yeah Well, my house burnt downand I'm living out of the back
of a truck and that's all I got.
I said what do you need from us?
You need some clothes, needsome food?
She's like well.
I was like, don't be embarrassed, it's all good.
(26:13):
So we went to the store and gotsome stuff, came back, I called
a impromptu faculty meeting.
I said I need everybodystanding up in the lobby.
I'll see you at 245.
I got in there and I just lostit.
It's like I was coaching again,right?
I just said don't you everembarrass a kid without finding
(26:35):
out what's going on?
I said I sent that kid back.
You came back down the hallway.
You said a few choice words tome and you were mad.
I said do you remember what wesaid in the first day when you
said them to me?
It's out of your jurisdiction.
I said, second of all, thatkid's house burnt down and she
had no clothes and she wasembarrassed to tell anybody.
Did you even bother to ask?
Now, we pulled her out of yourclass.
(26:56):
She lost instruction timebecause you think you saw one
thing and thought of another,because you think you saw one
thing and thought of another.
Yeah Of course everybody'scrying.
I mean, it's one of thosemoments, it's one of those aha
moments in my career thatchanged me.
I was like we won this battle,it's over, because I just showed
in front of her Because sheembarrassed that kid and I
embarrassed her in front ofeverybody.
Faculty-wise, I said do notever and that goes for everybody
(27:20):
standing here send another kidup here without knowing
personally what's going on.
So number one that you've gotto change is relationships.
You've got to know what thosekids are doing to make them tick
.
They have to think that youlove them or they have to know
that you love them if you wantto change anything.
So that way, when I hammer youand say, jim, I need you to sit
(27:42):
down in this class and be quiet,jim knows that I love him and
he'll do it.
That's right.
So that way, when I hammer youand say, jim, I need you to sit
down in this class and be quiet,jim knows that I love him and
he'll do it.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So that's, that's number one relationships.
Number two infrastructure.
A good positive behavior styleprogram where everybody buys in
the culture's right.
Do away with minimalistic stuff, All the minimal.
Don't major in the minors,that's right.
OK, they're kids, they're stupid, we are all there, right.
And then three on the academicpiece at.
(28:08):
This is my philosophy.
Not everybody subscribes to.
It is a mastery style ofacademics.
We, when we made the change, wewent from I'm now on the state
list, if I don't turn this thingaround in six months, to the
top 10% of state and growth.
In six months we did that.
Wow.
Tcap-wise, we were a level oneschool and we're level five.
(28:31):
And level five from that pointout.
Why?
So, instead of complaining thatthe TCAP is driving academics,
we don't get to teach and wecan't be autonomous anymore.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame.
We don't get to teach and wecan't be autonomous anymore, and
that's it.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame.
We know what the game is.
The game is T-cap.
So let's break down the T-capand let's look according to
(28:51):
state standards the higherpercentage one we ought to spend
more time on.
So we, we gamified it.
But the question is what do youdo when they don't know it?
And what do you do when they doknow it?
Because that's where we failthe most, because the high
achieving people we stick overin a corner and the people.
That ain't good, they ain'tworth our time.
(29:12):
So let's hit the middle 80.
So we broke it down to smallerchunks of learning with kick out
opportunities when they know itand when they don't know it,
and it just changed the game.
It changed changed the game, sohomework went from hours to max
of five problems.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And with kickouts according to that homework.
Sure, and we also did a flippedclassroom model too, which is
another thing I subscribe to,specific to demographics like us
, where you have 82% free andreduced.
Use the classroom time as yourstudy hall.
Put your lessons on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So the homework is go on, watch this five-minute
video.
We're going to introduce a newconcept tomorrow in class.
We're going to do it togetherbecause I know if I send it home
with you, you're not going toknow how to do it and you
probably don't have a goodopportunity to have anybody
around you know how to do it,sure.
So with all of that it couldhave easily gone the other way.
Those three right there arenon-negotiables for me.
I have a few other ones inthere that I did with our staff.
They hated it, but they endedup seeing the deal Because when
(30:20):
I was doing my thesis, westarted looking at discipline
and hot spots of discipline.
Day of the week, honestly, doyou think is the hottest time
for disciplinary actions?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
friday, why everybody's ready to get out of
there okay.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What does the appearance of the teachers on
friday have?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
what is the appearance of the teachers?
Speaker 1 (30:41):
now I have softened my view a little bit on this,
since, because of the EIC andthe way people dress, now
Usually Fridays are a dress downday.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Okay, and when?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
teachers have a dress down day, the referrals go up
because the respect and the lookis not there.
So that was one of my firstnon-negotiables with us Forget
jeans, we're going to look thepart all the time and they're
not going to know any different.
They're going to respect youfor that.
Now I did give an occasionalevery now and then, and I have
since.
I don't know about jeans, thejeans part, but I backed off a
(31:15):
little bit to that professionaldecor that I see with our
mentors.
Those people that aresuccessful learn from them,
right.
So if I went in, I'd be likeokay, here's, here's, here's a
good, standardized what weshould look like when we're
doing this.
And blue jeans never plays apart in that, unless it's a
specific pair that looks to partwith a sport coat.
(31:36):
That's different.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Right, and, um, most people out there listening to
this probably I've already cutit off by now they're like that
guy's crazy.
But I'm just telling you rightnow.
I studied it, I did my thesisover it and my doctorate is all
around that and there is acorrelation between days of the
week, hot spots, the way youdress, all of those things, and
so we try to mitigate all ofthose things.
(32:00):
So discipline relationships notonly with the admin and
teachers, but teachers tostudents.
Let the students be in controlof their learning.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
And then having some good infrastructure around it.
Man, I'm telling you, it cantake the biggest naysayers and
turn them around.
We used to have these plasticlemons.
I used to have all these things.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame Ships.
I've already said a couple,right?
Yeah, grade band, that prettymuch was going to be the
(32:32):
disciple of the information.
She gave me a box of artificiallemons that sit on like for
looks on your table and put allmy sayings on them.
So anytime I was down they heldme accountable.
They'd pitch me an imaginarylemon because we said you know,
if you get thrown a lemon, youwill make lemonade.
So, if I was coming down thehallway and I was kind of down
(32:53):
and I could not high energy,she'd look at me and she'd go
and throw that imaginary.
So we held each otheraccountable.
So I threw a lot in there.
I think it could be par down tothose three particular pieces,
though really, really simply.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, I love that.
And that I mean we get tochoose right.
I mean we get to choose right.
I mean I can remember, withoutgoing too far down this rabbit
hole, I can remember, you know,I used to teach my team,
everybody in the company, all500 of them every single month
in person.
Now I don't know too manypeople that ran a company that
they took the first three weeksof every single month and it was
(33:27):
so important to get in front ofpeople so they heard it
directly from me what are wedoing?
How are we doing it?
What's their part in it?
What happens when we win?
And uh, one morning I dropped myson off.
He's 18 months old.
I dropped him off at uh GraceBaptist, their daycare pre-K pro
or you know whatever childprogram, and I'm like seven
(33:49):
minutes from work.
Well, in that seven minutesthis woman almost ends my life,
like she cuts me off to thepoint where I almost was unable
to prevent what was probably alife-ending event.
I almost wrecked and in thatmoment in my head I visualized I
pulled over to the side of theroad, pulled out a bazooka, shot
(34:12):
her car, walked up and laughedas she spent her final moments
because she was willing to takemine and I'm like I've got to
teach my team in 10 minutes.
How do I go from this toxicmentality that I'm in?
I'm like you know, if I go inthere and I got 20 people and
for the next two hours I spewevil into their world, what does
(34:35):
that do to them?
What does that do to theirfamily?
What does that do to our sales,like all the things?
So I get my mind right and, uh,we do class or our training,
and I get finished and I tellthem about this.
I'm like you know what?
This is the mentality I came inhere with and they were like we
would have never known, likehow did you do that?
Because this was the besttraining we've had in two years.
(34:57):
But you have that ability.
You have that ability to getyourself under control and be
the person you're supposed to be.
And I would encourage everyeducator, every parent I mean
you all have.
Every single one of us has theability to be who we need to be
and if we allow ourselves to getcaught up in the situation and
(35:21):
nobody's perfect, but you haveto be intentional about what you
project on other people,especially children, especially
your kids, and if you're ateacher, that's got to be at the
forefront of what you do everysingle day.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I've got one quick story on that and that's so
astute and brilliant I mean itreally is it can be boiled down
to that period.
I had one of those moments.
It's probably a stupid idea.
I think about it and I thinkhow stupid was I to even shoot
from the hip and not think thisthrough.
We had a particular situationwhere you're talking about the
toxicity, and I had a particularteacher that just would not
(35:54):
change regardless, but I had tomake them see the light somehow.
So I was thinking what if I didthis?
So I went to this cafeteria andI took some butcher paper.
I put it on every table.
I put every teacher's name onthat paper, spread them out.
So I went class by class.
(36:15):
Okay, let me have your kids goget a coat, take a break.
I got them, I went down thereand I got all the kids in the
room.
This is year three, so we werewell little machine things going
well.
I said I want you to go putyour name under the teacher that
you think loves you the most,that you would close the door,
(36:36):
spill the guts and lay down inthe row for them.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
So here they go, here they go.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
And I'm thinking all right, I know that Ms Smith's
going to get a bunch and I knowthat Ms Carter's going to get a
bunch.
I'm very interested in thisparticular person.
Two things happened, one that Idid not ever foresee.
One is, obviously, their listis going to be shorter than
everybody else.
So once I finished thatexercise, teachers had no idea
(37:02):
what I was doing, so I broughtthem in.
So once you go find your name,everybody stood by their name.
I said uh, here's the way Iportrayed this.
People started bawling, crying,bawling, crying.
This particular teacher issitting there looking around
going.
I'm like that's right, keeplooking, buddy, because
(37:24):
everybody else has got 20 namesand you've got two.
The one thing I did not see,though, foresee happening is the
one that I hated the most jimcrips in the class.
That will not shut.
Let me refute the jeremy quallsin the class, not jim crips,
the jeremy qualls in the classthat will not shut up.
It's heavily opinionated, that'sfull of energy and I just
really haven't done a very goodjob.
(37:44):
I just hope he just stays overthere and gets out of my class
as quick as possible.
Put his name under my name.
I had no idea that this kidcared this much for me and I've
been hammering him.
Yeah, and it really changed it.
We went from a if you're on afive point scale, if you will,
we were at about a three and ahalf four at that point in time
and it put us at a, probably a10.
(38:05):
Because even the worst one inthe building said I've been
messing up.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I was like yeah, we have.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I said but that's okay, we're here to learn
together In turn.
I'm just like that's right,buddy, you know that toxicity
you want to say I tried to tellyou, but you, just you keep
suppressing it because the pointhas been proved and just a
simple exercise is that?
I mean, that was purely a.
I was sitting there, this iswhat I'm going to do.
It's probably I don't know ifit's even the most professional
(38:36):
thing in the world to do, but itpainted a picture and then I
said okay, teacher A, you've gotJeremy on your list.
He obviously thinks highly ofyou.
So, ms Smith, when you have aproblem with Jeremy, who are you
going to call?
You're going to call thisteacher and this teacher is
going to come over and that'sgoing to be the safety release
(38:56):
for that kid.
It just changed everything westarted doing.
You said don't poke the bear,right, we had an eighth-grade
science teacher, coachHuddleston.
He always said don't poke thebear.
So if Jeremy is the bear whoselist is Jeremy on, let's let
them deal with it, because theyrespect each other.
Sure, when I left there, wewent from 1,400.
(39:17):
Remember the year before?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
40.
That's great.
I love this.
I mean, you know, and I've gotmy favorite teacher on this
planet and I need to introducey'all because I don't think
y'all have met before KateMcGlasson, she's the dean over
at Innsworth.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
What does Kate exude that you like so much?
I'm curious what makes youthink of her immediately.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Well, I'll tell you, it got started off rocky in that
, the very first homeworkassignment, I completely forgot
what subject Geometry.
Okay, very first homeworkassignment.
And so I realized that as Iwalk in the door I'm feverishly
trying to get through with it.
I end up with a 30 on that,that quiz.
And uh, she asks why did youget a 30?
And I said because I onlyanswered five of the you know,
(40:02):
uh, five of the 15 questions.
And now keep fast forward.
I ended up with 100 in geometry.
The following year I was her um,I was her student aid.
And the next year I was herstudent.
Yeah, it started a student aidagain and she was pregnant and
had a, a tough pregnancy.
Well, this one particular weekto 10 days, uh, she goes, jim,
(40:26):
you're going to teach class.
And I was quiet, I was not thatguy.
But I got up and taught classand I was like, oh, I like this,
it's a catalyst moment for you.
It was a hundred percent.
Now I was.
I was also cognizant.
I didn't want to get paid likea teacher.
So I was like nobody does.
So I said how do I?
How do I?
(40:46):
How do I do this?
How do I, how do I figure thisout?
And what it ended up is I ran abusiness and I got good enough
that I kept going up the ladderand then I started teaching
every person there every monthin person, and that was the
catalyst for everybody knowingexactly what their role was.
We did amazing things and butthey, just like you said, I knew
(41:08):
them, I knew what they wereabout, I knew what they wanted
in life, what their goals were,and they could come to me when
things weren't right.
But we also did that with ourleaders and said look,
somebody's having a rough go ofit.
I don't want to see it.
I don't want to see it right up.
I don't want to see atermination.
I don't want to see any of thatuntil you tell me what went
wrong, where it happened, what'sgoing on.
(41:30):
And that's not to say that wedon't fire people because we
absolutely held accountability,but if it's something that we
did wrong or if it's somethingthat we should show some grace
with, well then everybody hadthat ability to show that grace.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
You just summed up talent development in a nutshell
.
She saw something in you.
She knew you had the ability.
You may not been putting forththe effort, so she put you in an
accountable role which youfound love for and passion for,
and all of a sudden you startedcaring more than what you did
before.
That's talent development,that's all.
It is Absolutely Kobe's here.
He'd be shaking my hand like,oh yeah, I got the framework for
(42:04):
it and he does Redneck logic astalent development.
She saw something in you andshe saw something in you and she
cultivated what you are today.
I mean, that was the momentthat started it and he needed
something.
We all have that, that momentof OK, this is what I'm born to
do, and you know.
So.
In teaching, you know thoseteachers, those that can and
(42:26):
those that can't.
I hate to say it, but you knowthere's a lot of those that that
reinvent, involve year in andyear out, and there's a 30 year
teachers that have done it once,well, once, and repeated 29
times.
It doesn't evolve.
And you know, teaching is, issuch, a, it's a fulfilling
(42:46):
employment.
Right, I mean, it has to be.
You're not getting, you're not.
You're not getting rich Right,so why be negative?
It's not like they're leavingthe best ones at home, they're
sending you all they have.
So for eight hours a day, yougot a chance to make a
difference.
Yeah, yeah, it's not going togo your way every day.
Yeah, it's going to beexhausting, but to hear the Jim
(43:09):
Cripp story about Kate and howshe changed a guy's life, that's
what we do.
That's fulfilling, absolutely.
That's what the coach is right.
You always want to get invitedto your players' weddings.
You always want to get theannouncements when they have
kids.
You want to get all that kindof stuff and checking in.
That's the way you know thatyou made a difference.
It has zero, zero to do withwinning losses.
(43:31):
Everybody thinks it does.
The wins, or the statechampionship, could be a
catalyst moment for you tochange them, but that's few and
far between.
It literally comes down to howdid you treat me?
And here's Kobe on my shoulder.
Am I valued Right?
Am I loved?
And is my opinion valued?
Sure, so that's all I mean.
(43:53):
It's literally what you justthe story you just told.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah Well, Jeremy, there's so much I want to get
into and we are pushing theenvelope on time.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
So we're going to have to have you come back.
I just told people stillhanging in there with us, right?
Speaker 2 (44:05):
now right?
Well, if they're smart, theyare, Because this is just nugget
after nugget whether you're aparent, whether you're an
educator, whether you're runninga business, all these things,
and I'm so excited about thethings that you guys have going
on there at the EIC.
And next time I want to dive into really what makes you tick
and the the family part of it,Cause I know you're a strong
family man Love, love your wifeand kids.
(44:29):
And and get dive into the healthside of things, Cause that's a
whole that's a whole, wholesection that we're not even
getting into today, but I dowant to ask this one question
before we go have you put anythought into how you want to be
remembered?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
I do that every day.
Uh, it doesn't necessarily.
It doesn't.
It's not what drives me.
My philosophy on this haschanged as you get older.
Professionally, I definitelywant to be, have this legacy and
leave, but it's not near asimportant as what my three kids
did.
You know, I'm in that point oflife right now where I've got
(45:07):
separation anxiety from a 16year old.
He used to be on my hip.
I love that, love him so much.
And how do you exude that?
How do you teach them?
How do you discipline them?
And still you know you can't betheir friend, you can't be
there.
You know all those things arehappening right now.
Um, but I think about that allthe time.
What are my kids going to thinkof me?
Like I think of.
I just hope and pray thatsomething is that I say breaks
(45:32):
through at some point in time,like my father, and have the
same regard for me as I do myfather.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
So I think about this all the time.
Yes, uh, professionally, hetreated us fairly, um, and he
always had the right, uh goal inmind with whomever we're
serving, not for self-serving.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I love it.
I love it.
Well again, I love what you'redoing down there.
It's a breath of fresh air whenyou walk in that building and
it's clearly something you'vecultivated, that you've put in
place, and I can't wait to seewhat comes next.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Yeah, if you're listening to this and you want
to become a mentor, always feelfree.
Open Door Policy come find us.
We're in the middle of Franklin, tennessee, at Franklin high
school, at the annex building.
How do they get in touch withyou?
Yeah, just the easiest way isjust to email Jeremy dot quals Q
U a.
L L S at WCS dot com.
Okay, no, dot edu.
Pardon me, wcs dot edu, I'vebeen out too long man.
(46:28):
New.
Zealand.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I love it.
Um well, jeremy, we'reabsolutely going to have to have
you back and continue thisconversation and check in on all
the great things that are goingon at the EIC Everybody out
there.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you took something awayfrom it, whether it's to work
with your children and work withyour employees, or work with
other people in your life, ormaybe to inspire somebody else
(46:50):
that you know your life, uh, ormaybe to inspire somebody else
that you know.
I do want to dedicate this one,uh, to one of the educators
that uh made a big change in mylife my third grade teacher, uh,
miss Francis hall.
Uh, to all those that knew her,she was just absolutely a
beacon of light.
And then, uh, also to my goodfriend, a classmate and educator
and coach, who recently passeda classmate and educator and
(47:15):
coach who recently passed, drewJohnson, who was taken from us
too early.
Yeah, just know that you madean impact on people's worlds and
it will not be forgotten Untilnext time.
I'm Jim Cripps with the ChargeForward podcast.
Again, thanks again to oursponsors, hitlab Studios here in
Nashville, tennessee, chargeForward Solutions and Sense
Custom Development Take careTeam.
(47:35):
Is Jim Cripps here with theCharge Forward Podcast.
I just want to tell you I loveyou, I appreciate you listening,
I appreciate you forsubscribing and sharing the
Charge Forward Podcast withpeople you know and you love,
because that's what we're herefor.
We are here to share theamazing stories, the things that
people have been through, theways that they were able to
(47:55):
improve their life, so that youcan take little nuggets from
theirs and help improve yourstory and be better tomorrow
than you are today.
I hope that this is the toolyou needed at the right time and
that you find value in theamazing guests that we bring
each and every week.
Thanks so much and don't forgetnew episodes drop every
(48:17):
Thursday.
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