Unlock Your Greatness

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The kids who get labeled “trouble” are often the ones carrying the most untold story, and they’re also the ones schools struggle to reach with typical discipline cycles. From the SCABS conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we talk with Coty Martin, CEO of Adversity University and a licensed therapist, about what it looks like to build student resilience before things fall apart. 

Website: spotlight4success.com 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I am Devin Pentosa, your host.
We are here in Sunny MyrtleBeach, South Carolina at the
Scabsey Conference.
And we are here with our specialguest today, Cody Martin, CEO of
Adversity University.
Yes, sir.
Cody, thank you for joining ustoday.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
All right.

(00:26):
Cody, tell me a bit about whatbrings you here to Scabsey.
What are you doing here as uhexhibiting?

SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
Well, first, you know, you know, I'm a I'm a big
component of education, excuseme, I'm a big component of
education and the importance ofactually um, you know, guiding
our young people, not just ouryoung people, but adults that's
that are leading the youngpeople in terms of the
educational field.
I'm actually a licensedtherapist and I own a mental
health education company,Adversity University.

(00:53):
And I developed curriculum andframework and I work with school
districts and I work with youthorganizations and sports
organizations to be proactive asit relates to the mental health
and the emotional instabilitiesthat put that plagues our
community.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06):
Wow.
So what what was your driver tosay I'm gonna because you you
started this university as afounder?
Yes.
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14):
So what was your driver to say I'm gonna start at
Versity University?

SPEAKER_01 (01:19):
Um, well, again, I am a licensed therapist, right?
So I worked at the communitycouncil in the beginning and I
taught for four years.
And I saw that, you know, thethe mental, the mental, excuse
me, the mental instabilities andthe struggles amongst our young
people, it was like a lot of theissues were similar, but a lot
of the issues were the lack ofconsistency and structure,

(01:42):
right?
So once I began to work withyoung people and I began to get
positive outcomes, I mean you'retalking years of personal
experience and professionalexperience, and once I did that,
I grouped that together and Iactually launched uh excuse me,
I authored a book in 2017 calledPassport to Life.
And that book did so well, uh,and everybody received it so

(02:04):
well, I developed a curriculumaround that, around that
Passport to Life framework, andthe curriculum is called Unlock
Your Greatness, and what we dois we break the curriculum down
into three different levels,right?
So it could go for 30 weeks, buteach level is designed for 10
weeks.
So you know, organizations maywant the whole 30-week program,
they may only want the 10-weekprogram and kind of you know
stagger that.

(02:25):
But how is designed with thethree levels?
It's level one is designed toprocess your past, level two is
designed to manage your present,and level three is designed to
focus on your future.
And goal setting andaccountability is at the
forefront of the whole program.
So what's happening is they'relearning how to be structured,
right?
They're learning how to setgoals and actually reach those
goals.
In the beginning of the program,they set the big picture goal,

(02:46):
then weekly they set theshort-term seven-day goals that
allow them to actually uh reachthe goals and hit their targets.
And that's how you see theoutcomes and the positive
outcomes that they get becausethey're actually learning how to
set goals, objectives, andaction steps to be able to
accomplish those goals.
Not only that, there's aself-evaluation portion that
goes along with it.
So, did I accomplish my goal?
Yes or no?

(03:07):
Okay, write down what did youlearn from that?
And that's the most importantpart.
You know, learning frommistakes.
I preach to young people andadults, we have to make
mistakes, right?
That's that's how we becomeresilient people.
We fail.
We make mistakes, but we learnfrom it.
And when we learn from it, wecan apply the positive things
that we learn and we can moveforward.

SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
That is so true, Cody.
That's beautiful.
I love that.
Can you tell me uh a bit aboutuh the results you've seen in
the schools?
So you have some examples ofwow, this was so great.

SPEAKER_01 (03:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
Some of the quote unquote worstkids in the in when I first
started, I'm gonna say that uhsome the quote unquote worst
kids, they'll throw them at me,right?
Yeah.
Um, you know, kids that don'tshow up in school, kids that are
you know constantly gettingsuspended, and you know, grades
are not doing well.
So we group with these kids oncewe got in, and because we start

(03:57):
with self-awareness, right?
When we start fromself-awareness and then end with
leadership.
So once we get in and allow themto become more self-aware,
understand themselves, becausewe begin with them understanding
their personality type, right?
Then with that, we teach themhow to manage conflict and
interact with people utilizingpersonality type.
Once they become self-aware ofwho they are, they begin to

(04:19):
realize the mistakes thatthey're making.
And they no longer want to makethose mistakes.
So you begin to see kids show upto school more, right?
You see them managing conflictbetter, right?
You see the grades going upbecause they don't want
referrals, they don't want toget kicked out of school.
They actually have aspirations,but see, these things are barren
in young people who don't feellike they have a voice.

(04:39):
So it's our job to pull that outof them.
And that's essentially whathappens.
We pull out the greatness.
That's why I call it unlock yourgreatness.
We pull out the greatness ofthese young people and they see
the light.

SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
Oh, that is great.
What a what a wonderful programuh to establish in the
communities and uh and get thatgoing.
That's great.
How can people from Scabsy findout more information about your
organization?

SPEAKER_01 (05:03):
Well, they can uh visit my website,
adversityuonline.com.
Um, I mean they can email me,Cody, at adversity you at
AdversityU Online, and you know,we can get any information that
we need to you.
I love to, you know, support inany way that I can.

SPEAKER_00 (05:23):
Okay, that's wonderful.
Well, I appreciate uh the workyou're doing in the community
and uh thanks for joining ustoday, Cody.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
All right.