Are you feeling the pressure of how to afford college for your athlete without accumulating massive debt? You’re not alone. Many parents share these concerns, and today’s episode is here to provide some relief.
Join me as I chat with Shellee Howard from College Ready, who shares practical strategies to ensure your athlete can graduate college with little to no debt. This conversation is packed with insights that can make a real difference for your family’s financial future.
In this episode, we cover:
- The story behind College Ready and why Shellee started it.
- The importance of academic scholarships for athletes.
- How to balance academics and athletics for maximum scholarship opportunities.
- The best time to start planning for college scholarships.
- Building a standout profile with extracurricular activities and leadership roles.
- Different types of scholarships and where to find them.
- Tailoring the approach to each student’s strengths and interests.
- Practical tips for financial literacy and career exploration.
- How College Ready supports families through the college admission process.
Don’t miss out on this valuable episode! Listen to the full conversation to discover actionable steps you can take to help your athlete graduate college with minimal debt. Tune in now to learn how to set your athlete up for success both academically and financially.
Come hang out with Shellee on social @collegereadyplan and learn more about working with her!
For Guest Interview Email: shellee@collegereadyplan.com.
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Setting college-bound athletes up for success with little to no debt. In this episode, Shellee Howard shares tangible tips for athletes to gain scholarships beyond athletic scholarships.
[03:14] College readiness, scholarships, and athletic opportunities.
[08:47] Balancing athletics and academics for college scholarships. Learn the importance of balancing academics and extracurriculars alongside sports.
[14:23] College scholarships and athletic recruitment. The importance of focusing on academics, including taking standardized tests like the PSAT, to qualify for scholarships.
[19:52] College admissions, athletic scholarships, and financial literacy. Helping children understand the cost of college and financial literacy is crucial before making decisions.
[25:55] College planning and financial aid for families.
Next Steps:
Join our FREE Training for Sports Moms - How to Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter's Mental Game so She Believes in Herself as Much as You Do
- Visit our podcast website for more great episodes
Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission and leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Raising Elite Predators podcast.
I'm Coach Brie, a mentalperformance coach for girl
athletes.
I am excited that you're herefor today's episode.
I had the pleasure ofinterviewing Shelly Howard of
College Ready all about how toset your athlete up to graduate
college with little to no debt.
Her conversation with me wasvery enlightening.
(00:22):
I'm going to get into thedetails in a second, but first I
want to give a shout out to amom inside our community.
Her daughter is going throughour program, the elite mental
game.
This is our self paced trainingprogram for girl athletes,
proven to strengthen theirmental game.
In fact, we have a 14 day moneyback promise on that program
because of how fast changeshappen in athletes mindset and
(00:45):
in their confidence and this momtexted us recently.
She said this I see a hugeimprovement in my daughter.
We've been struggling to gether sportsmanship up, so this
athlete shows horses.
She goes on to say creating apresence by keeping her head up
and her shoulders back.
It has finally started tohappen.
I can see it is easier for hernow to show the confidence she
has and this has helped her.
(01:06):
In the latest competition shewon.
This qualified her for thenational competition in July.
Now, this is really coolbecause I know as a parent it's
sometimes hard to watch yourathlete If she doesn't have
great body language when she'scompeting.
You know that her body languageis connected to her confidence
and how she feels, and beingable to get that message across
is sometimes hard, and we talkabout that in the program.
(01:26):
We tell athletes how importantbody language is, what it looks
like to have their head back,shoulders high and their chin up
, and how that impacts how theyshow up.
So I'm so happy that this wastranslating for this athlete and
mom you noticed and then itpaid off for her.
So amazing all around.
All right, let's get into thisepisode today with Shelly Howard
.
Like I said, we're talking allabout how to set your athlete up
for success in college and howto help her graduate with little
(01:50):
to no debt, and that soundspretty enticing.
One thing I love about Shelly'sconversation is that she talks
about how to use her athleticsto get an academic scholarship.
So it's very different thanjust hoping that your athlete is
going to get an athleticscholarship A lot of athletes
don't.
So it's very different thanjust hoping that your athlete is
going to get an athleticscholarship.
A lot of athletes don't.
There is a majority of athletesout there who actually maybe
(02:13):
have a partial athleticscholarship, but the majority of
athletes that go to college arenot on full ride athletic
scholarships and so we've got totalk about how we can help
those athletes still use theirsport and still use their
athletics to gain scholarship,but maybe not athletic
scholarship.
So Shelly dives into how to dothat and gives very tangible
tips that are so relatable, nomatter where you are in the
(02:34):
journey.
If you've got a younger athleteand you're thinking ahead, or
maybe your athlete is going awaypretty soon to college and
you're looking for opportunitiesto help offset that cost.
So I think you're going tolearn a lot.
I hope you enjoy this episodewith Shelly as much as I enjoyed
interviewing her.
We actually got to bring herinto our community of sports
moms and go even deeper withthis.
So moms of athletes goingthrough the Elite Mental Game
(02:58):
got a little deeper dive withShelly and got some free
discovery calls with her as wellfor being a part of our
community because their athletesare going through the Elite
Mental game.
So enjoy this episode withShelly and I will see you in the
next episode.
Welcome, shelly to the RaisingElite Competitors podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I am really looking forward to our conversation.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yes, I'm excited to have you.
So I had the honor of being onShelly's podcast recently, which
was great, and Shelly and Ihave a lot in common and come to
find out that you know we'reboth like into athletics and
former athletes and raisingathletes and all the things.
So Shelly is very well-versedin what she does and what you do
at College Ready, but also inthe world of athletics.
(03:34):
So can you give us a littlebackground on what you do and
how you help families?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely so the college ready was started a
little over 17 years ago and itwas because my oldest wanted to
go to college and I was thefirst gen to go to college and
my parents were not helpful andI kind of muscled through it a
little bit and I was a scholarathlete looking for an athletic
(04:03):
scholarship because it soundedpretty cool.
And what ended up happening isI navigated the process on my
own and I applied to two schools, got into both and I remember
going to my parents and sayingwhat do I do now?
Like I got into both of them, Iapplied to and they said let's
(04:23):
talk about why you applied.
And I said I want to go toColorado to snow ski and I want
to go to San Diego State to goto the beach.
And they're like I know aboutcollege.
And I'm like, yeah, exactlythat's what I want to do.
And now I can look back andgiggle, but I still have
students who have the same planthat I did.
I want to go to UC SantaBarbara because the dorms are in
(04:46):
a beautiful location.
And so college ready was startedbecause I wanted my own, my
firstborn, to not make all themistakes I made.
I, as a scholar athlete, I putall my eggs in a basket and then
when I got to college and Iplayed my freshman year, I
didn't like it and I didn't likeit controlling my social life
(05:08):
and I felt like it was a job.
And then all of a sudden I'mlike now, what do I do?
So I love that you get to talkto students at such an early age
so they can navigate this,because for me, I just went into
it and then figured wait, thisis not what I want to do.
So that's how college ready wasstarted was just my firstborn
(05:32):
having a need and wanting to go.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That's awesome and how relatable.
Even when I, like I had apartial scholarship but I had no
idea the cost of college, how Iwas going to pay for it, I was
actually like this sounds sosilly.
And also because my parentsdidn't know, like my mom didn't
go to college, my dad did for alittle bit, but they didn't know
.
When I graduated and then I gotthe like bill for how much debt
(05:56):
I had accrued, I was like wait,what I have to pay this back.
I know I was like so uneducated, like we just finished paying
off my student loans like fiveyears ago, and that was even
with a partial athleticscholarship and being in state,
you know, and I was.
I just didn't know what Ididn't know, and so what you're
doing is so important.
So I'm like I don't want mykids to go through that, you
(06:19):
know.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I don't think any parent really wants their child
to go through it.
I think either you put yourhead in the sand and just go
like I don't know how we'regoing to do it, but we'll figure
it out, and that's probablywhat happened to you, or it was
like me, where it was kind oflike I asked a few questions,
but not the right questions, andnobody told me they could pick
(06:42):
my major because I was in anathletic scholarship.
I'm like what do you mean?
I don't want to do that major.
And so they.
It felt like they owned me andnobody talked about it at all.
And there's the people who arelike well, I'll just leave it to
my 17 year old that it's timefor them to figure it out.
Well, as you know, most 17 yearolds don't understand $300,000
(07:07):
worth of debt.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's just content Uncomprehensible.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, yeah, and so what I have found is if I can
start students having theseconversations with their parents
at an early age seventh, eighth, ninth grade then they're going
into it eyes wide open.
They know exactly the plan, theprocess.
They know how much it's goingto cost before they apply where
(07:33):
to get the big scholarships.
Now they're armed and ready togo and making good choices and
choosing which path they go.
So I did it the wrong way and Iwanted better for my own
children.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love that.
I love that you're paying itforward to all these other
families.
You told me on the last podcastthat you helped families with
how much money in debt?
Scholarships, scholarships.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, yes.
So in 22, 23, our studentsthere were 51 students earned 23
million in scholarships.
So the money is there.
Unfortunately, it's not allthere in athletics, right?
And so we say to students beinga scholar, athlete is like
(08:18):
double dipping you get thescholar and you get the athlete,
and if you get injured youstill have the scholar.
So there's a lot ofopportunities if you're working
all the angles.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Okay, yeah, let's dive into this.
So we'll talk scholar athletes.
I think that there's moms anddads listening that are like,
okay, my athlete maybe is goodenough to get some sort of
athletic scholarship, and someare like, yeah, that's what
we're banking on.
And some are like, no, that'smaybe not in the cards.
But let's talk to the parentswho are maybe just getting
(08:50):
started on this journey.
So we have listeners who haveathletes that are in middle
school, high school, gettingclose to college, but let's just
, where would they start?
When we're talking aboutchoosing colleges, how to find
scholarships, how to pay for it,where do we start?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So, speaking to that athletic family, your student
has a desire, right, let's startthere to be, let's just say,
soccer.
It's easy enough.
And that was my firstborn.
He had talent, maybe at a D2level, maybe D3 he could have
(09:26):
started, but his hopes were onD1 because that's the only place
money came from and he was notever going to be a D1 player.
He just didn't have thatdedication or that gift right.
Not every child comes with thatgift Right and so what I hope
families understand is, likemost things in life, you don't
(09:48):
want to lean all heavy on onething.
Because that my oldest heactually got injured, broke his
nose and didn't want to playanymore.
Gotten the academic to balancethe athletic we would have been
in big trouble.
But that's the same young manwho got a full ride to Harvard.
(10:09):
So he used his athletics to getthe coaches talking to him and
looking at his resume and thenhe used his academic GPA and
test scores to stand out because, as we know, athletes need to
have a certain GPA on a team.
The whole team rises or thewhole team falls, based on that
(10:32):
overall team GPA.
So to start back to yourquestion, the best thing you can
do is to have balance.
I have so many families who andI was one of them my daughter
was a competitive cheerleaderand we spent probably $12,000 a
year, since she was three,banking on.
(10:54):
She was going to go full rideand all of that time and travel,
all of that dedication, hoursand hours and hours, all of that
dedication, hours and hours andhours.
And we didn't focus on heracademics and it ended up
backfiring on us.
And so I learned as a parent tohelp that, even the gifted
(11:15):
athlete, because one injury andI hate to keep going back to the
injury, but it's just one thatconcussion stopped her from
cheerleading.
She's fine, but we had to pivotquickly on her community service
, her leadership, herextracurriculars, like we had
everything in that one bucketbanking on.
(11:36):
That's how she was going to goto college.
So I would say balance is keyand you know just as well as I
do that right now, you know backin the day, you can do multiple
sports.
Right Now they're having youchoose so early for a single
sport.
It's hard to put all of thatbalance into life because kids
(11:57):
are getting these privatecoaches and it just goes on and
on and on.
So, in summary, it's balance.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay, all right.
So getting the balance and notputting all our eggs in one
basket, even if we're like, Ithink they've got a future here.
You know, I saw my six-year-oldscore a goal last weekend and I
was like, here we go, soccerstar, full ride.
Okay, I'll reel myself in.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Reel yourself in a little bit and go you know what
I'll read to her about a soccerbook and help her vocabulary
expand and love on her passion.
Okay, okay, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Got it All right, great.
Okay, where are all thesescholarships that you speak of?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So the place to get the big scholarships.
There's so much money out thereand this is the sad part is,
with social media being soforward facing, you hear a lot
of my kid was perfect this andthey didn't get anything.
And there's so much negativity.
I'm here to tell you there is aton of money and how you go and
(13:01):
get it is just like thisAcademic with rigor.
The number one way to get aFulbright scholarship is your
academia, that GPA.
So don't skip it, even ifthey're an athlete.
That GPA is gonna matter forthe team Number two test scores.
You can earn a free educationif you score well on the PSAT,
(13:24):
your junior year.
Again, it has nothing to dowith their athletics, but that
will get them a very nice largescholarship.
And then you get into theextracurriculars and the
community service and theleadership and that's building
their standout strategy.
So what College Ready focuseson is taking the student and
(13:47):
making them the best they can be.
So for people who live in theathletic world, think about it
like this I remember a child, myson's soccer team at five he
was scoring half the goals Likeyou could not keep him down, he
was just truly gifted, kickingwith both feet.
(14:07):
It was amazing.
So is that hard to continue himon that path?
Probably not.
But you may have that academicstudent who started reading very
early on or finds a love ofreading.
Continue to put that into thedaily plan.
So it's just as much as youwould support and provide for
(14:33):
the athlete you want to do thesame for the academia, because
colleges will pay you for aresume.
Okay, just like a job.
Think about this.
Some people find this easier.
If you own a company and I cometo you and I have no resume,
but I'm like Rhian, I love whatyou're doing, I really want to
(14:57):
work for you, will you hire me?
And you say, well, yes, shelly,I'll give you a shot, but it's
minimum wage.
Now I, as another person, cometo you and I'm like I've done
your job.
I can increase your sales.
I've got this.
All you have to do is go onvacation.
I've got this.
Would you pay me minimum wage?
(15:17):
No, you would not.
That's where the money comesfrom.
So if you're this student whohasn't done anything but played
games on the computer or hungout at the beach, colleges are
not going to throw money at you,the student who's built the
resume, who's really put time incommunity service and
(15:38):
leadership and extracurriculars.
They're going to pay them tocome to their school.
Why?
Because college is a business.
When you wear those lettersacross your chest and you're a
winner of a Pulitzer Prize,nominee, whatever, and they're
going to say, oh my gosh, youwent to school X, I want my
(15:59):
child to go to school X, sothat's what it's all about.
They're bringing in the best ofthe best and they're willing to
pay for them because that's thefuture of their school.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And they're willing to pay for them because that's
the future of their school.
Okay, that makes a lot of sense.
Can you speak to so say they wehave students.
Okay, we're going to focus onacademics.
We're going to make sure thatwe have.
We were doing the PSET junioryear, like getting the tests
that we're supposed to get.
Do they just automaticallyqualify for some of these
scholarships or do they have togo find them on certain websites
?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Or is that?
What College ready helps withis to find those things.
Yeah, so it's all of the above.
So there's merit scholarships,athletic scholarships,
need-based scholarships,institutional scholarships and
independent scholarships.
Okay, well, it's a lot ofscholarships, right?
So the important thing is, ifyou don't know where to get them
, they don't exist.
After 17 years of doing this,we've seen when my son got a
full ride to USC, I didn't evenknow that was a thing.
(17:00):
They just told him hey, you wonthe presidential here, here's a
full ride.
And I'm like what does thateven mean?
And I'm like, what does thateven mean?
Well, now that I've been doingthis for so long, we're able to
let students know it's all aboutpicking the right college,
because colleges fight over thestudent.
They'll do financialnegotiations.
(17:34):
Harvard knew that.
Usc you have two liberos rightIn volleyball and there's not a
lot of room for liberos on ateam.
There's not a ton of them.
So it's going to be competitive.
How are they going to pickwhich libero?
Well, they're going to do theone that has the overall stats,
the overall strength, all state,all league.
That's the one they're going topick.
It's building the resume.
(17:56):
That student couldn't walk ontoa volleyball court and say hey,
I'm going to be a libero andI'm going to go and get a full
ride at the college.
That's what I'm talking about.
So it's setting them up forsuccess and then knowing where
the money comes from.
That's where College Ready isable to help.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, okay, wow, like there's so many.
I didn't know there were thatmany scholarship opportunities.
I yeah, that's amazing.
I mean pair that with, like,like you said, the attention
that you get from being anathlete or really using that,
leveraging your athleticabilities and being on team,
with all those opportunities.
Like I could see how someonecould go to college and graduate
(18:37):
with little debt with this.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I have a student right now at Stanford and she
was a coxswain.
A coxswain in rowing yeah, inrowing, and there's one in a
boat right.
There's a whole bunch of themand Stanford picked her up
because of her GPA.
So here she's a great athlete,but she's a scholar athlete,
(19:00):
which means Harvard.
I'm sorry, stanford, just onedouble right.
That's what we're talking about.
That the coach walked in toadmissions and said I need this
student and the admission saidshe's brilliant, we need her too
, and we're going to throw abunch of money at her because we
(19:22):
don't want school B, c or D toget her.
You starting to see how allthat plays together.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Okay, there's two things thatare popping up in my mind.
I'm trying to think which orderto ask them.
Okay, we'll go with this.
What if we've got a student whois not as academically gifted
or strong?
Is there any opportunity there?
How can we help them?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So with that student who maybe is athletics thinking,
oh you know, they're a 2.5student, no, they're not
valuable like a 3.0, 4.0 studentwould be so number one is get
them help and bring up theirgrade for sure.
The second thing is get them infront of a lot of eyes
(20:32):
athletically, so they startcompeting over that student and
they become the hot commodity,right?
If everybody's fighting overthis gifted athlete, then it's
going to be a lot easier for thecoach to say, hey, if we don't
score on this student, so-and-soschool's going to take them and
(20:54):
they're just going to fightthat much harder.
I had a kicker for Penn andagain, one position on the field
is I don't know how I get thesestudents, but he ended up
getting in not because of hisacademics, it was because of his
athletics and that was becauseother schools were fighting over
(21:15):
this one kicker.
So you have to create thaturgency, that need for the coach
to recognize, and that's goingto be going to the combines.
That's going to be the club.
That's going to be somethingother than just regular high
school.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Okay, yeah, that's good.
Okay, on the flip side of that,say that we do have an athlete
who you know is enjoying theirsport, doing well, but doesn't
want to play that sport incollege or maybe can't.
Can they still somehow usetheir athletic experience to
bolster them to get ascholarship or help them out
(21:53):
with admissions?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, so I mean there's many different forms of
that, but, to speak to kind ofthat person you're speaking
about, you can use it in manyways.
You can use it depending on howgood they are.
If they are just, you know,freshmen, fresh off JV, junior,
fresh sophomore, and thenvarsity senior year, like just
(22:18):
the standard student, then youwant to go with longevity and
hopefully they can be a teamcaptain to show leadership and
they will then probably playsome type of intramural or maybe
a JV some type at theuniversity.
So you can use that commitmentand that leadership to build the
(22:42):
resume and it will help showthat the student's been able to
be a good student while holdingall of this athletic commitment.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Okay, yeah, okay, that makes sense.
So there's still merit and thatstill demonstrates a lot like
being on that team and being aleader For sure, and colleges
love athletes because they havereally good core values.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Athletes come with right.
They don't give up easily,they're more tenacious, they're
more determined, they're morefocused not all, but these are
the qualities that you often seein a competitive athlete, which
is exactly what you need incollege.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, exactly Okay.
The other thought that waspopping in my head is kind of
it's kind of backing up a littlebit.
It was when you were talkingabout you know, I want to go
here because I want to go skiingand I want to be here because
I'm near the beach.
So let's say that I mean that'salso what I hear from the
athletes that I coach.
They're like well, I justreally love the beach.
In that decision of where to goto college, I know that's a big
(23:56):
question, but where should theystart?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, so it depends on maturity of the student,
right?
They all mature at a differenttime.
We start working with studentsin seventh and eighth grade.
Some of them are ready to havethese conversations, Some are
not.
Some of them are ready to havethese conversations, some are
not.
So first thing I would sayparent, even if you have
multiple kids, meet them wherethey're at right, Because every
(24:20):
one of them is going to bedifferent when to have that
conversation.
You know, when we go on vacation, we go to museums, we go to
amusement parks, we go and wetalk to our children about our
past, about special things inour life, about aunt Susie was
actually my college roommate.
She's not really your aunt andwe confuse them and so then they
(24:44):
start asking more questions.
So it's important when you'retalking about this that you help
the child understand.
If you want to be a botanistand you just want to plant
plants for a living, you don'tneed to go to an Ivy League
school to do that.
That's not a good return oninvestment.
So when you're sitting aroundthe dinner table, what we used
(25:06):
to play at my house was calledbe the millionaire and I would
ask at different times in mykid's life.
I would say to them if I gaveyou a million dollars cash and
you had to spend it all in 24hours or you had to give it back
to me, what would you do withit?
And you will quickly find out.
Their financial literacy isterrifying, because they would
(25:29):
take all their friends to Hawaiion their private jet and then
they would buy a yacht.
And so first you have to fixthat before you can really help
them understand the cost ofcollege.
So helping them understand, youknow, at some point do you want
to buy a car?
This is how much cars cost, andthey're like whoa, they're
(25:51):
shocked.
And then this is how much itcosts to live on your own
electricity and rent.
And dah, dah, dah, dah.
No, families are having thesekinds of conversations not none,
but not a lot.
And so if you just out of theblue, go, either we can't afford
college, you can't go, I'veheard that.
(26:11):
Or my parents think college isstupid.
Because we can't afford college, you can't go, I've heard that.
Or my parents think college isstupid because we can't afford
it.
So you have to be careful of ifyou make it all about the money
, some students will just say,well, then fine, I won't go, but
they won't tell you what theirbackup plan is.
Right.
They're going to be aninfluencer.
Now what did you just do, right?
(26:32):
So you're like, oh my gosh, nowI have to really figure out how
to help that.
So the conversation that we havewith students is really easy
because we're not their parentand we have no judgment.
So when we find out that Johnnywants to be an engineer and and
we start to talk about why, andhe says because I was good at
(26:55):
Legos.
And then we talk about whatdoes that mean?
What kind of career would thatbe, how much money that career
makes, how much college it needsto get that career, we're just
educating, we're just havingknowledgeable conversation where
the student doesn't feel judged.
They feel like, oh, I didn'teven know that and we can help
(27:19):
that student.
See that, why botany?
Well, I like to save myenvironment.
Well, that's environmentalism,yeah, and they're like, oh,
that's a thing.
So a lot of times it's reallyjust having those conversations
to say you know why?
I tell parents remember whenthey were three and all they
(27:40):
said was but why?
Why?
Without judgment of why wouldyou want to do that?
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, that's not going to pay off.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, so it happens a lot with my artists, right,
where parents are like, pleasedon't let them go into art, and
I'm like, why do they want to gointo art?
I don't know, I've never askedthem, right?
Yeah, that's the first question.
It's just a very easy gentlewhy I'm interested, I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, yeah, okay, that's good.
Okay, I love that you mentionedlike you're the one that's like
asking the student thesequestions.
Can you tell us how you workwith families, how you work with
students themselves?
Do you educate parents?
I'm assuming you do a mixtureof things, but how do you?
What do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah.
So we have several differentprograms.
We have do it yourself, wherewe just give you the knowledge
and then let you lead it.
We have where you say they'retoo much for me, shelly, they're
all yours, you handle it.
And so we have those twoextremes and everything in
between.
(28:49):
We support our families byhelping them understand what's
on the FAFSA, the CSS profile,their student aid index to get
the big scholarships, becausethey do understand the financial
consequences.
And then we also work with thestudent on building their
standout strategy, theirpositioning.
How are they going to combineathleticism and academics and
(29:15):
have one super strong profile?
So it really comes down to whatdoes the student need?
Where do they want to go?
If they want to go to a localstate school very different plan
than if they want to go to atop tier Ivy school.
So helping them navigate whatit takes.
It's nothing like it used to be, even five years ago, more
(29:39):
competitive and more expensive.
So we need to help educateparents.
You can't do what you didbecause your child will not get
into college and they won't getscholarships.
It's a whole nother tier ofwhat families need to navigate
and that is what we do.
(29:59):
So it's really everything fromsetting the student up for
success, helping them to grow tofigure out what major, what
career can I afford it?
To getting scholarships,picking the right colleges,
preparing essays, applications,test strategy.
It's a lot and that's a lot fora parent to handle on top of
(30:22):
their career.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Oh, but I mean such great resources.
My kids are still young and weshould just set up like a 529
for them, but I'm like that'd beamazing if we didn't have to
use that Like they could use it,I guess, into their Roth IRA
you know, like different waysthat they could actually like
utilize that money.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Oh yeah, there's a lot better ways.
I use my son's college fund tohelp buy him a new home.
Hey, yeah, exactly that's theway to launch a kid into a
successful adulthood.
So there's a lot of better waysthat we can spend our money.
But most people just getfrustrated because they just
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Right, wow, well, amazing.
Where can our families find youand find more information about
all of the things that youoffer?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yes, absolutely so.
I'd like to offer yourlisteners a 30-minute
complimentary discovery call toask their questions, and you
just go to collegereadyplaninfo,and then you can always go to
our website, which iscollegereadyplancom.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Okay, great, I will link those in the show notes.
How generous that you'reoffering your time like that.
Thank you.
And then Shelly also is cominginto our community in a couple
of weeks, so into our communityof sports.
Moms who are whose athletes areinside our programs, and so
we're going to go a little bitdeeper with all of this.
So if you are one of our momsof athletes in our programs,
(31:46):
you'll be seeing Shelly prettysoon.
All right, shelly, thank youagain.
This has really opened up myeyes and I hope that it's been
just as valuable for ourfamilies and just really
appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's my pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Welcome back to the Raising Elite Predators podcast.
I'm Coach Brie, a mentalperformance coach for girl
athletes.
I am excited that you're herefor today's episode.
I had the pleasure ofinterviewing Shelly Howard of
College Ready all about how toset your athlete up to graduate
college with little to no debt.
Her conversation with me wasvery enlightening.
(00:22):
I'm going to get into thedetails in a second, but first I
want to give a shout out to amom inside our community.
Her daughter is going throughour program, the elite mental
game.
This is our self paced trainingprogram for girl athletes,
proven to strengthen theirmental game.
In fact, we have a 14 day moneyback promise on that program
because of how fast changeshappen in athletes mindset and
(00:45):
in their confidence and this momtexted us recently.
She said this I see a hugeimprovement in my daughter.
We've been struggling to gether sportsmanship up, so this
athlete shows horses.
She goes on to say creating apresence by keeping her head up
and her shoulders back.
It has finally started tohappen.
I can see it is easier for hernow to show the confidence she
has and this has helped her.
(01:06):
In the latest competition shewon.
This qualified her for thenational competition in July.
Now, this is really coolbecause I know as a parent it's
sometimes hard to watch yourathlete If she doesn't have
great body language when she'scompeting.
You know that her body languageis connected to her confidence
and how she feels, and beingable to get that message across
is sometimes hard, and we talkabout that in the program.
(01:26):
We tell athletes how importantbody language is, what it looks
like to have their head back,shoulders high and their chin up
, and how that impacts how theyshow up.
So I'm so happy that this wastranslating for this athlete and
mom you noticed and then itpaid off for her.
So amazing all around.
All right, let's get into thisepisode today with Shelly Howard
.
Like I said, we're talking allabout how to set your athlete up
for success in college and howto help her graduate with little
(01:50):
to no debt, and that soundspretty enticing.
One thing I love about Shelly'sconversation is that she talks
about how to use her athleticsto get an academic scholarship.
So it's very different thanjust hoping that your athlete is
going to get an athleticscholarship A lot of athletes
don't.
So it's very different thanjust hoping that your athlete is
going to get an athleticscholarship.
A lot of athletes don't.
There is a majority of athletesout there who actually maybe
(02:13):
have a partial athleticscholarship, but the majority of
athletes that go to college arenot on full ride athletic
scholarships and so we've got totalk about how we can help
those athletes still use theirsport and still use their
athletics to gain scholarship,but maybe not athletic
scholarship.
So Shelly dives into how to dothat and gives very tangible
tips that are so relatable, nomatter where you are in the
(02:34):
journey.
If you've got a younger athleteand you're thinking ahead, or
maybe your athlete is going awaypretty soon to college and
you're looking for opportunitiesto help offset that cost.
So I think you're going tolearn a lot.
I hope you enjoy this episodewith Shelly as much as I enjoyed
interviewing her.
We actually got to bring herinto our community of sports
moms and go even deeper withthis.
So moms of athletes goingthrough the Elite Mental Game
(02:58):
got a little deeper dive withShelly and got some free
discovery calls with her as wellfor being a part of our
community because their athletesare going through the Elite
Mental game.
So enjoy this episode withShelly and I will see you in the
next episode.
Welcome, shelly to the RaisingElite Competitors podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I am really looking forward to our conversation.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yes, I'm excited to have you.
So I had the honor of being onShelly's podcast recently, which
was great, and Shelly and Ihave a lot in common and come to
find out that you know we'reboth like into athletics and
former athletes and raisingathletes and all the things.
So Shelly is very well-versedin what she does and what you do
at College Ready, but also inthe world of athletics.
(03:34):
So can you give us a littlebackground on what you do and
how you help families?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely so the college ready was started a
little over 17 years ago and itwas because my oldest wanted to
go to college and I was thefirst gen to go to college and
my parents were not helpful andI kind of muscled through it a
little bit and I was a scholarathlete looking for an athletic
(04:03):
scholarship because it soundedpretty cool.
And what ended up happening isI navigated the process on my
own and I applied to two schools, got into both and I remember
going to my parents and sayingwhat do I do now?
Like I got into both of them, Iapplied to and they said let's
(04:23):
talk about why you applied.
And I said I want to go toColorado to snow ski and I want
to go to San Diego State to goto the beach.
And they're like I know aboutcollege.
And I'm like, yeah, exactlythat's what I want to do.
And now I can look back andgiggle, but I still have
students who have the same planthat I did.
I want to go to UC SantaBarbara because the dorms are in
(04:46):
a beautiful location.
And so college ready was startedbecause I wanted my own, my
firstborn, to not make all themistakes I made.
I, as a scholar athlete, I putall my eggs in a basket and then
when I got to college and Iplayed my freshman year, I
didn't like it and I didn't likeit controlling my social life
(05:08):
and I felt like it was a job.
And then all of a sudden I'mlike now, what do I do?
So I love that you get to talkto students at such an early age
so they can navigate this,because for me, I just went into
it and then figured wait, thisis not what I want to do.
So that's how college ready wasstarted was just my firstborn
(05:32):
having a need and wanting to go.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That's awesome and how relatable.
Even when I, like I had apartial scholarship but I had no
idea the cost of college, how Iwas going to pay for it, I was
actually like this sounds sosilly.
And also because my parentsdidn't know, like my mom didn't
go to college, my dad did for alittle bit, but they didn't know
.
When I graduated and then I gotthe like bill for how much debt
(05:56):
I had accrued, I was like wait,what I have to pay this back.
I know I was like so uneducated, like we just finished paying
off my student loans like fiveyears ago, and that was even
with a partial athleticscholarship and being in state,
you know, and I was.
I just didn't know what Ididn't know, and so what you're
doing is so important.
So I'm like I don't want mykids to go through that, you
(06:19):
know.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I don't think any parent really wants their child
to go through it.
I think either you put yourhead in the sand and just go
like I don't know how we'regoing to do it, but we'll figure
it out, and that's probablywhat happened to you, or it was
like me, where it was kind oflike I asked a few questions,
but not the right questions, andnobody told me they could pick
(06:42):
my major because I was in anathletic scholarship.
I'm like what do you mean?
I don't want to do that major.
And so they.
It felt like they owned me andnobody talked about it at all.
And there's the people who arelike well, I'll just leave it to
my 17 year old that it's timefor them to figure it out.
Well, as you know, most 17 yearolds don't understand $300,000
(07:07):
worth of debt.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's just content Uncomprehensible.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yes, yeah, and so what I have found is if I can
start students having theseconversations with their parents
at an early age seventh, eighth, ninth grade then they're going
into it eyes wide open.
They know exactly the plan, theprocess.
They know how much it's goingto cost before they apply where
(07:33):
to get the big scholarships.
Now they're armed and ready togo and making good choices and
choosing which path they go.
So I did it the wrong way and Iwanted better for my own
children.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love that.
I love that you're paying itforward to all these other
families.
You told me on the last podcastthat you helped families with
how much money in debt?
Scholarships, scholarships.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, yes.
So in 22, 23, our studentsthere were 51 students earned 23
million in scholarships.
So the money is there.
Unfortunately, it's not allthere in athletics, right?
And so we say to students beinga scholar, athlete is like
(08:18):
double dipping you get thescholar and you get the athlete,
and if you get injured youstill have the scholar.
So there's a lot ofopportunities if you're working
all the angles.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Okay, yeah, let's dive into this.
So we'll talk scholar athletes.
I think that there's moms anddads listening that are like,
okay, my athlete maybe is goodenough to get some sort of
athletic scholarship, and someare like, yeah, that's what
we're banking on.
And some are like, no, that'smaybe not in the cards.
But let's talk to the parentswho are maybe just getting
(08:50):
started on this journey.
So we have listeners who haveathletes that are in middle
school, high school, gettingclose to college, but let's just
, where would they start?
When we're talking aboutchoosing colleges, how to find
scholarships, how to pay for it,where do we start?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So, speaking to that athletic family, your student
has a desire, right, let's startthere to be, let's just say,
soccer.
It's easy enough.
And that was my firstborn.
He had talent, maybe at a D2level, maybe D3 he could have
(09:26):
started, but his hopes were onD1 because that's the only place
money came from and he was notever going to be a D1 player.
He just didn't have thatdedication or that gift right.
Not every child comes with thatgift Right and so what I hope
families understand is, likemost things in life, you don't
(09:48):
want to lean all heavy on onething.
Because that my oldest heactually got injured, broke his
nose and didn't want to playanymore.
Gotten the academic to balancethe athletic we would have been
in big trouble.
But that's the same young manwho got a full ride to Harvard.
(10:09):
So he used his athletics to getthe coaches talking to him and
looking at his resume and thenhe used his academic GPA and
test scores to stand out because, as we know, athletes need to
have a certain GPA on a team.
The whole team rises or thewhole team falls, based on that
(10:32):
overall team GPA.
So to start back to yourquestion, the best thing you can
do is to have balance.
I have so many families who andI was one of them my daughter
was a competitive cheerleaderand we spent probably $12,000 a
year, since she was three,banking on.
(10:54):
She was going to go full rideand all of that time and travel,
all of that dedication, hoursand hours and hours, all of that
dedication, hours and hours andhours.
And we didn't focus on heracademics and it ended up
backfiring on us.
And so I learned as a parent tohelp that, even the gifted
(11:15):
athlete, because one injury andI hate to keep going back to the
injury, but it's just one thatconcussion stopped her from
cheerleading.
She's fine, but we had to pivotquickly on her community service
, her leadership, herextracurriculars, like we had
everything in that one bucketbanking on.
(11:36):
That's how she was going to goto college.
So I would say balance is keyand you know just as well as I
do that right now, you know backin the day, you can do multiple
sports.
Right Now they're having youchoose so early for a single
sport.
It's hard to put all of thatbalance into life because kids
(11:57):
are getting these privatecoaches and it just goes on and
on and on.
So, in summary, it's balance.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Okay, all right.
So getting the balance and notputting all our eggs in one
basket, even if we're like, Ithink they've got a future here.
You know, I saw my six-year-oldscore a goal last weekend and I
was like, here we go, soccerstar, full ride.
Okay, I'll reel myself in.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Reel yourself in a little bit and go you know what
I'll read to her about a soccerbook and help her vocabulary
expand and love on her passion.
Okay, okay, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Got it All right, great.
Okay, where are all thesescholarships that you speak of?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So the place to get the big scholarships.
There's so much money out thereand this is the sad part is,
with social media being soforward facing, you hear a lot
of my kid was perfect this andthey didn't get anything.
And there's so much negativity.
I'm here to tell you there is aton of money and how you go and
(13:01):
get it is just like thisAcademic with rigor.
The number one way to get aFulbright scholarship is your
academia, that GPA.
So don't skip it, even ifthey're an athlete.
That GPA is gonna matter forthe team Number two test scores.
You can earn a free educationif you score well on the PSAT,
(13:24):
your junior year.
Again, it has nothing to dowith their athletics, but that
will get them a very nice largescholarship.
And then you get into theextracurriculars and the
community service and theleadership and that's building
their standout strategy.
So what College Ready focuseson is taking the student and
(13:47):
making them the best they can be.
So for people who live in theathletic world, think about it
like this I remember a child, myson's soccer team at five he
was scoring half the goals Likeyou could not keep him down, he
was just truly gifted, kickingwith both feet.
(14:07):
It was amazing.
So is that hard to continue himon that path?
Probably not.
But you may have that academicstudent who started reading very
early on or finds a love ofreading.
Continue to put that into thedaily plan.
So it's just as much as youwould support and provide for
(14:33):
the athlete you want to do thesame for the academia, because
colleges will pay you for aresume.
Okay, just like a job.
Think about this.
Some people find this easier.
If you own a company and I cometo you and I have no resume,
but I'm like Rhian, I love whatyou're doing, I really want to
(14:57):
work for you, will you hire me?
And you say, well, yes, shelly,I'll give you a shot, but it's
minimum wage.
Now I, as another person, cometo you and I'm like I've done
your job.
I can increase your sales.
I've got this.
All you have to do is go onvacation.
I've got this.
Would you pay me minimum wage?
(15:17):
No, you would not.
That's where the money comesfrom.
So if you're this student whohasn't done anything but played
games on the computer or hungout at the beach, colleges are
not going to throw money at you,the student who's built the
resume, who's really put time incommunity service and
(15:38):
leadership and extracurriculars.
They're going to pay them tocome to their school.
Why?
Because college is a business.
When you wear those lettersacross your chest and you're a
winner of a Pulitzer Prize,nominee, whatever, and they're
going to say, oh my gosh, youwent to school X, I want my
(15:59):
child to go to school X, sothat's what it's all about.
They're bringing in the best ofthe best and they're willing to
pay for them because that's thefuture of their school.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And they're willing to pay for them because that's
the future of their school.
Okay, that makes a lot of sense.
Can you speak to so say they wehave students.
Okay, we're going to focus onacademics.
We're going to make sure thatwe have.
We were doing the PSET junioryear, like getting the tests
that we're supposed to get.
Do they just automaticallyqualify for some of these
scholarships or do they have togo find them on certain websites
?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Or is that?
What College ready helps withis to find those things.
Yeah, so it's all of the above.
So there's merit scholarships,athletic scholarships,
need-based scholarships,institutional scholarships and
independent scholarships.
Okay, well, it's a lot ofscholarships, right?
So the important thing is, ifyou don't know where to get them
, they don't exist.
After 17 years of doing this,we've seen when my son got a
full ride to USC, I didn't evenknow that was a thing.
(17:00):
They just told him hey, you wonthe presidential here, here's a
full ride.
And I'm like what does thateven mean?
And I'm like, what does thateven mean?
Well, now that I've been doingthis for so long, we're able to
let students know it's all aboutpicking the right college,
because colleges fight over thestudent.
They'll do financialnegotiations.
(17:34):
Harvard knew that.
Usc you have two liberos rightIn volleyball and there's not a
lot of room for liberos on ateam.
There's not a ton of them.
So it's going to be competitive.
How are they going to pickwhich libero?
Well, they're going to do theone that has the overall stats,
the overall strength, all state,all league.
That's the one they're going topick.
It's building the resume.
(17:56):
That student couldn't walk ontoa volleyball court and say hey,
I'm going to be a libero andI'm going to go and get a full
ride at the college.
That's what I'm talking about.
So it's setting them up forsuccess and then knowing where
the money comes from.
That's where College Ready isable to help.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, okay, wow, like there's so many.
I didn't know there were thatmany scholarship opportunities.
I yeah, that's amazing.
I mean pair that with, like,like you said, the attention
that you get from being anathlete or really using that,
leveraging your athleticabilities and being on team,
with all those opportunities.
Like I could see how someonecould go to college and graduate
(18:37):
with little debt with this.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I have a student right now at Stanford and she
was a coxswain.
A coxswain in rowing yeah, inrowing, and there's one in a
boat right.
There's a whole bunch of themand Stanford picked her up
because of her GPA.
So here she's a great athlete,but she's a scholar athlete,
(19:00):
which means Harvard.
I'm sorry, stanford, just onedouble right.
That's what we're talking about.
That the coach walked in toadmissions and said I need this
student and the admission saidshe's brilliant, we need her too
, and we're going to throw abunch of money at her because we
(19:22):
don't want school B, c or D toget her.
You starting to see how allthat plays together.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Okay, there's two things thatare popping up in my mind.
I'm trying to think which orderto ask them.
Okay, we'll go with this.
What if we've got a student whois not as academically gifted
or strong?
Is there any opportunity there?
How can we help them?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So with that student who maybe is athletics thinking,
oh you know, they're a 2.5student, no, they're not
valuable like a 3.0, 4.0 studentwould be so number one is get
them help and bring up theirgrade for sure.
The second thing is get them infront of a lot of eyes
(20:32):
athletically, so they startcompeting over that student and
they become the hot commodity,right?
If everybody's fighting overthis gifted athlete, then it's
going to be a lot easier for thecoach to say, hey, if we don't
score on this student, so-and-soschool's going to take them and
(20:54):
they're just going to fightthat much harder.
I had a kicker for Penn andagain, one position on the field
is I don't know how I get thesestudents, but he ended up
getting in not because of hisacademics, it was because of his
athletics and that was becauseother schools were fighting over
(21:15):
this one kicker.
So you have to create thaturgency, that need for the coach
to recognize, and that's goingto be going to the combines.
That's going to be the club.
That's going to be somethingother than just regular high
school.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Okay, yeah, that's good.
Okay, on the flip side of that,say that we do have an athlete
who you know is enjoying theirsport, doing well, but doesn't
want to play that sport incollege or maybe can't.
Can they still somehow usetheir athletic experience to
bolster them to get ascholarship or help them out
(21:53):
with admissions?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, so I mean there's many different forms of
that, but, to speak to kind ofthat person you're speaking
about, you can use it in manyways.
You can use it depending on howgood they are.
If they are just, you know,freshmen, fresh off JV, junior,
fresh sophomore, and thenvarsity senior year, like just
(22:18):
the standard student, then youwant to go with longevity and
hopefully they can be a teamcaptain to show leadership and
they will then probably playsome type of intramural or maybe
a JV some type at theuniversity.
So you can use that commitmentand that leadership to build the
(22:42):
resume and it will help showthat the student's been able to
be a good student while holdingall of this athletic commitment.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Okay, yeah, okay, that makes sense.
So there's still merit and thatstill demonstrates a lot like
being on that team and being aleader For sure, and colleges
love athletes because they havereally good core values.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Athletes come with right.
They don't give up easily,they're more tenacious, they're
more determined, they're morefocused not all, but these are
the qualities that you often seein a competitive athlete, which
is exactly what you need incollege.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, exactly Okay.
The other thought that waspopping in my head is kind of
it's kind of backing up a littlebit.
It was when you were talkingabout you know, I want to go
here because I want to go skiingand I want to be here because
I'm near the beach.
So let's say that I mean that'salso what I hear from the
athletes that I coach.
They're like well, I justreally love the beach.
In that decision of where to goto college, I know that's a big
(23:56):
question, but where should theystart?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, so it depends on maturity of the student,
right?
They all mature at a differenttime.
We start working with studentsin seventh and eighth grade.
Some of them are ready to havethese conversations, Some are
not.
Some of them are ready to havethese conversations, some are
not.
So first thing I would sayparent, even if you have
multiple kids, meet them wherethey're at right, Because every
(24:20):
one of them is going to bedifferent when to have that
conversation.
You know, when we go on vacation, we go to museums, we go to
amusement parks, we go and wetalk to our children about our
past, about special things inour life, about aunt Susie was
actually my college roommate.
She's not really your aunt andwe confuse them and so then they
(24:44):
start asking more questions.
So it's important when you'retalking about this that you help
the child understand.
If you want to be a botanistand you just want to plant
plants for a living, you don'tneed to go to an Ivy League
school to do that.
That's not a good return oninvestment.
So when you're sitting aroundthe dinner table, what we used
(25:06):
to play at my house was calledbe the millionaire and I would
ask at different times in mykid's life.
I would say to them if I gaveyou a million dollars cash and
you had to spend it all in 24hours or you had to give it back
to me, what would you do withit?
And you will quickly find out.
Their financial literacy isterrifying, because they would
(25:29):
take all their friends to Hawaiion their private jet and then
they would buy a yacht.
And so first you have to fixthat before you can really help
them understand the cost ofcollege.
So helping them understand, youknow, at some point do you want
to buy a car?
This is how much cars cost, andthey're like whoa, they're
(25:51):
shocked.
And then this is how much itcosts to live on your own
electricity and rent.
And dah, dah, dah, dah.
No, families are having thesekinds of conversations not none,
but not a lot.
And so if you just out of theblue, go, either we can't afford
college, you can't go, I'veheard that.
(26:11):
Or my parents think college isstupid.
Because we can't afford college, you can't go, I've heard that.
Or my parents think college isstupid because we can't afford
it.
So you have to be careful of ifyou make it all about the money
, some students will just say,well, then fine, I won't go, but
they won't tell you what theirbackup plan is.
Right.
They're going to be aninfluencer.
Now what did you just do, right?
(26:32):
So you're like, oh my gosh, nowI have to really figure out how
to help that.
So the conversation that we havewith students is really easy
because we're not their parentand we have no judgment.
So when we find out that Johnnywants to be an engineer and and
we start to talk about why, andhe says because I was good at
(26:55):
Legos.
And then we talk about whatdoes that mean?
What kind of career would thatbe, how much money that career
makes, how much college it needsto get that career, we're just
educating, we're just havingknowledgeable conversation where
the student doesn't feel judged.
They feel like, oh, I didn'teven know that and we can help
(27:19):
that student.
See that, why botany?
Well, I like to save myenvironment.
Well, that's environmentalism,yeah, and they're like, oh,
that's a thing.
So a lot of times it's reallyjust having those conversations
to say you know why?
I tell parents remember whenthey were three and all they
(27:40):
said was but why?
Why?
Without judgment of why wouldyou want to do that?
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, that's not going to pay off.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, so it happens a lot with my artists, right,
where parents are like, pleasedon't let them go into art, and
I'm like, why do they want to gointo art?
I don't know, I've never askedthem, right?
Yeah, that's the first question.
It's just a very easy gentlewhy I'm interested, I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, yeah, okay, that's good.
Okay, I love that you mentionedlike you're the one that's like
asking the student thesequestions.
Can you tell us how you workwith families, how you work with
students themselves?
Do you educate parents?
I'm assuming you do a mixtureof things, but how do you?
What do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah.
So we have several differentprograms.
We have do it yourself, wherewe just give you the knowledge
and then let you lead it.
We have where you say they'retoo much for me, shelly, they're
all yours, you handle it.
And so we have those twoextremes and everything in
between.
(28:49):
We support our families byhelping them understand what's
on the FAFSA, the CSS profile,their student aid index to get
the big scholarships, becausethey do understand the financial
consequences.
And then we also work with thestudent on building their
standout strategy, theirpositioning.
How are they going to combineathleticism and academics and
(29:15):
have one super strong profile?
So it really comes down to whatdoes the student need?
Where do they want to go?
If they want to go to a localstate school very different plan
than if they want to go to atop tier Ivy school.
So helping them navigate whatit takes.
It's nothing like it used to be, even five years ago, more
(29:39):
competitive and more expensive.
So we need to help educateparents.
You can't do what you didbecause your child will not get
into college and they won't getscholarships.
It's a whole nother tier ofwhat families need to navigate
and that is what we do.
(29:59):
So it's really everything fromsetting the student up for
success, helping them to grow tofigure out what major, what
career can I afford it?
To getting scholarships,picking the right colleges,
preparing essays, applications,test strategy.
It's a lot and that's a lot fora parent to handle on top of
(30:22):
their career.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Oh, but I mean such great resources.
My kids are still young and weshould just set up like a 529
for them, but I'm like that'd beamazing if we didn't have to
use that Like they could use it,I guess, into their Roth IRA
you know, like different waysthat they could actually like
utilize that money.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Oh yeah, there's a lot better ways.
I use my son's college fund tohelp buy him a new home.
Hey, yeah, exactly that's theway to launch a kid into a
successful adulthood.
So there's a lot of better waysthat we can spend our money.
But most people just getfrustrated because they just
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Right, wow, well, amazing.
Where can our families find youand find more information about
all of the things that youoffer?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yes, absolutely so.
I'd like to offer yourlisteners a 30-minute
complimentary discovery call toask their questions, and you
just go to collegereadyplaninfo,and then you can always go to
our website, which iscollegereadyplancom.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Okay, great, I will link those in the show notes.
How generous that you'reoffering your time like that.
Thank you.
And then Shelly also is cominginto our community in a couple
of weeks, so into our communityof sports.
Moms who are whose athletes areinside our programs, and so
we're going to go a little bitdeeper with all of this.
So if you are one of our momsof athletes in our programs,
(31:46):
you'll be seeing Shelly prettysoon.
All right, shelly, thank youagain.
This has really opened up myeyes and I hope that it's been
just as valuable for ourfamilies and just really
appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's my pleasure.
Thank you so much.
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