May 16, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Verie Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
On the air.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's Charlie from BlackBerry Smoke. I can feel a good
one coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's the Michael Berry Show. Any attempt to restrict drinking
and driving here is viewed by some as downright undemocratic.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Stationary and would like to read along.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
The accompanying materials on the worksheet for the next discussion
will be degree free dot com. Degree free dot com.
This woman helps folks get jobs without buying college degree
tech to trades, she describes it. She's based in Montgomery, Texas,
(00:57):
and that gives me occasion to patrip to. I believe
the late Great I think he passed because I never
got to meet him, and I was bummed about this
relatively recently.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Right, Oh, this is not right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Francis Rodney Zambone, I believe it was his name. Francis
Rodney Zambone was from Montgomery. He wrote under the name
Mark James. I wish he'd kept Zambone because I think
that's a I mean, Frank Zambone. I like that better
than Mark Jane. Mark James is just anyway. He wrote
always on my mind that Elvis made famous Moody Blue
(01:31):
Suspicious Minds. The only Elvis song ramone that I ever
know of being covered with any facility, with any success,
and that was Dwight Yoakum's version. And that's because he
kind of he took it to punk country, and so
that changed the style, and I think that's the only
reason I tolerated. He wrote, uh, hooked on a feeling?
(01:52):
Or what's his name for bj Thomas? Anyway, he was
from Montgomery, She's from what That's all he wrote? I
just a few what he wrote? Her name is Hannah
or Hannah? Before we ask her, what do you think
it is? You're gonna go Hannah? Okay, Hannah Mario Maru Yama,
Maru Yama probably a good Japanese name. The website is
(02:16):
degree Free. This is the kind of thing that I
think could help a lot of folks. So, Hannah or Hannah,
which is it?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's Hannah, It's Hannah. Thank you so much for having
me on. Michael.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Now tell me you reached out to me with a
kind of here's what I do or your PR person
did or whatever. Did you know this is something that
don't lie? Did you know this is something that I
talk about often or were you just scattershotting out there
to everybody that might put.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You on.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
No, sir, I had a list and you were on.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
It, and I did. I did do a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Of research prior before I gave I gave instructions to
my to my guy to reach out.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Okay, your site degree free dot com. The book you
can get wherever you buy books. It's called Degree Free
Way Workbook.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Parent.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What is your purpose here? What are you trying to accomplish?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
What I'm trying to do is I am trying to
keep the next generation of Americans out of unnecessary student
loan debt, and I am trying to save them hundreds
of thousands of dollars in years of their lives that
they do not have to spend on a college campus
learning from people who have never done the things that
they're teaching them how to do.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And what got you interested? You have experience with you
in your own life or with your children with this.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I do so.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I personally just finished working in AI and machine learning
for the past three and a half almost four years,
and I built a fairly successful tech career where I
out earned the media and PhD by I would say
probably about two hundred and fifty percent. And I did
that without buying a college degree myself. And seeing what
I saw when I was doing that really helped me
(03:56):
to understand how employers are hiring in the disconnect and
the amount of misinformation there is around what parents think
their kids have to do to get the jobs that
are actually going to help them live the way they
want to.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wait a minute, you're a redhead.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Did you know she's a redhead? Jud sound like a redhead?
What is your maiden name? O'Shaughnessy or for.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's it's Shattck. But yes, I am very Irish. My
husband's the Hawaiian Japanese one.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Well, Hawaiian Japanese is our executive producer, Chad Makanishi.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So you're in good company here. I'm looking at your
at your.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Oh yeah, he's he's thicker than Chad, but I think
Chad could take him because Chad fights every day.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And what is mister? What is mister? He's a boxer?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No, no, no, I was asking if Chad was a boxer.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He's a ground game guy.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Although if I'm bragging on him at this point, he says,
I'm not any good anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But he's got the cauliflower ears.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
He trains every day, but he can't strike anymore because
his shoulders destroyed and he doesn't want to have another
surgery on it. He has absolutely ruined his body by
fighting so much, so long. He came back the other
day and he had a big old scrape across his leg.
And he leaves in the middle of the day. So
we work like two shit. He gets in insanely early.
(05:16):
He gets up and works out at two thirty. He
gets in it I think four or four thirty, who knows,
nobody's here yet, And he preps all the way up
till eleven thirty, leaves, goes and trains, and then comes
back at two and then he's here for who knows
however many hours, like he works a graveyard shift compared
to the rest of us, because it's all he has
to get.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
His training in. So what does mister maru Yama do.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Mister Marialma runs all of the other side of the business,
so that all I get to do is talk about
the problems that I see, the solutions that we can make,
and then work with the young adults.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And so he does all the boring.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Back of the house stuff for the business, so I
can do all the fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I look y'all up, and it says, I don't
know how old you are now, but y'all were twenty
nine and twenty six at the time you were living
in Honolulu. I'm assuming that's where he's from. Chad's from
the Big Island by the way, and then and you're
from Montgomery. Y'all decided to come back here.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So I'm actually not from Montgomery myself, my husband, and
my husband is from Hawaii. He his entire family is
from there. I lived there when my dad was in
the military, and that's actually how we ended up meeting.
But we moved to Montgomery during COVID because Hawaii got
pretty crazy during the lockdowns, and so we decided that
that was not a fit for our family and the
(06:32):
things that we wanted to the way we wanted to
live our lives, and so we came here.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
We picked it off a spreadsheet, we did.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
A bunch of research about places that were good to live,
and this is the place that we ended up and
we've been here for four years and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
We love it.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's crazy. Nobody's in Montgomery from Hawaii. Because they found
people were in Montgomery because they got a job, their
family lived there, and they they're there and they like it.
But nobody looks at the mountain and says, well, I
guess we'll end up in Montgomery, Texas.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That is nuts.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We did, Okay, it was top of the list. It
was top of the Excel sheet.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Did you go toge.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I did not.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I'm degree free, so I guess technically I did.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Like a disease, I'm degree free. I'm safe.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well have you have you if you've met a recent
college graduate, you know it is a little bit, but
you know, I went for about I actually got into
a university when I was sixteen. I do well enrolled
where I grew up in Savannah, Georgia, because my dad
was stationed there in between me moving back to Hooi,
and I ended up fully dual enrolled. And then my
(07:34):
experience in college was that I did not do well
because I ask why too often, and my professors were
not interested in people that ask why and don't adhere
to the orthodoxy that's present on campus.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And because of.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That, I wasn't I think that the way that I thought,
or the questions that I asked were more of an inconvenience,
which kind of shocked me because I wasn't expecting it
to be so anti intellectual when I went on a
college campus, all.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
On just just a moment, Hannah, Yeah, that Hannah Shattuck
from Maria.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
One must dignity to come up with the right kind.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
With Michael Barry, that's how I found my first ten wives.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Number of years ago.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There were a group of us I grew up all
about the same age. Our kids were about the same age,
and there was they were from all different schools, but
they had grown up together playing ball.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
They were.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I guess my son was a junior at the time,
maybe a sophomore. Michael t was probably junior or sophomore.
One of the kids was a senior, and some of
the other kids were seniors. And so it started with
the natural questions by mommies. They don't mean ill, they're
just trying to engage with the kids. It's hard to
engage with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So do?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
What do you gduate? What are you gonna do? You graduate?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
When you graduate high school? And they all told where
they were going to go to school. Georgia U t
A and m TCU. The one kid said I'm going
to work, and it was like the oxygen was sucked
out of the room.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I'm going to start with a plumbing company. I think
I want to be a plumber. Start with a plumbing company,
and then if I like it, I'm going to go
to plumbing school. So they start asking questions like he
had just he had just become a quadriplegic. The questions
were things like, well, what do you what?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What will you get paid? What if you get hurt?
Do you do you? Have you ever done that before?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It was a it was a cross between mommy panic,
desperate panic, and Dad's thinking, oh, you're gonna regret that.
And I don't know what the kid what will happen?
But I know I've watched a lot of kids go
off to college. Mommy and Daddy spend a freaking fortune.
(10:16):
When you hear numbers of what people spend for college,
I'm going to tell you, in some of the circles
I run, those numbers you're hearing reported are way low.
TCU at Miami, they're spending over one hundred thousand dollars
per year. It's insane and many times I've seen this happen,
(10:39):
many times, way more than you realize. They go there
and flunk out, they go there and get in trouble,
they go there and get distracted, they go there and
fall out of love with this concept of you know,
the same path that everybody else has been on. So
they pull to Charlie Robinson and go work on uh
you know, go work out in.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
The oil patch and.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Go find themselves, or go to the military, or go
to cops school, or go to firefighter school.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So we need to be.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Careful that we don't assume the natural thing you ought
to do when you graduate high school's go to college.
Our guest is Hannah Mariyama. The website is degree Free.
I was poking around on it during the break. There's
a lot there and you can learn a lot about her.
And then she's got books. There's a one on one
you can do with her. And yes, it will cost money.
I know people nobody has a problem paying for some things,
(11:35):
but they don't want to pay for other things. It's
the craziest thing that legal work is the funniest one
for me, Hannah. People would, hey, you have a lawyer
who just looked this over me real quick. Yeah, before
I do that, what's your budget of what you're.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Willing to pay? Well, I don't need to hire me,
and I just wanted to look it over.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But you understand they're looking it over because they spent
all this money to go to law school. Lawyering is
the one thing people think they ought to get for free,
Like they want to walk right up to the edge
of when they'll ever have to spend a dollar and
then pull back so they get enough legal advice but
never have to pay for it. Nobody says I'm gonna
go to the dentist. He can clean about half my teeth,
(12:10):
but don't give me the fluoride rans or any of that.
Just half it, and when it's not free anymore, let
me know and I'll get up and run out. It's
the weirdest thing anyway. I like what you're doing here, Hannah.
What are some the ten cool careers teens can land
without a degree. Let's talk about what kind of careers
we're talking about. It's not all digging ditches.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
No, it's definitely not, Michael, And that's actually one of
the things that while I do appreciate a lot of
a lot of the people who do talk about this,
people who have done a lot of work raising awareness
about the trades. People like micro and that comes to
mind where he frequently talks about this. But the thing
for me that stands out is a lot of kids
(12:49):
already know about the trades. They can see the trades,
they already know about jobs, they can see. One of
the things that we've found when we work with young
adults a degree free is that they're very limited. They
only really can name about six to eight jobs, sometimes
twelve on the high end, but they're all jobs you
can see. There's a reason they all want to be cops, firefighters, teachers, doctors, nurses.
And then every girl you meet right now, every teenage
(13:12):
girl wants to be a psychologist. And I think it's
because a lot of the teachers just wish they had
become psychologists.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, and because these they're all going to therapy.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yes, that's right, So it's it's something they can see.
And so one of the things that's such a rub
for me is that people a lot of these kids
know about the trades. The problem is that now everybody
wants to go into the trades, and there's nothing wrong
with that, and then so Ryan, my husband was a firefighter.
Actually he has an economics degree that he didn't use,
(13:42):
and then he became a firefighter later in life. My
own youngest sister is actually a structural welder at a
steel company. She currently works on rocket ships. She makes
more than a master's degree holder. It's very she's the
only it is hot, and she's also the only girl
at the whole steel company.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Oh no, I mean in terms of you know, it's
really you can sweat a lot at that job.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Oh no, she does. She gets burned all the time too,
but she.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think that's cool, and I do think it's hard.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So let's talk about some more of these shows hard work,
and let's talk about some more of these coopers.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
One that I really think people need to know about
that doesn't fall into I'm going to give you a bunch.
All of them are going to out earn the average
master's degree holder. None of them require college degrees. You
do not, your child does not to buy a college
degree to do these things. And none of them are
actually trade. So the first one is a pilot. Right now,
there's not a single US airline that still requires a
(14:38):
college degree.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
To become a pilot.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Delta is the last one to remove it in twenty
twenty two, so it's old news.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Which is probably surprisingly is awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I think a lot of people don't know that because
people tend to be pretty surprised when I say it.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Also, there are flight schools.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Your average flight school right now with a guaranteed pipeline
into one of these airlines is going to cost you
in the average bachelor's degree, which is going to run
you about one hundred and four to one hundred fifty
six k. And so if you want your child to
have a high earning skill that's tied to a legal license,
then pilot a pilot's license is definitely a good one.
The next in Houston specifically, too, is going to be
(15:14):
cloud computing Specialists, which is a type of it's type
of data tech certification, and Houston is getting an inflow
of data centers.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
There's a ton of work in those.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It's a little bit of software, a little bit of hardware,
a little bit of electrical work, but it's not a
trade necessarily. It also crosses into cybersecurity, high paying, high demand.
A lot of people will train on the job for
that surgical technologists also high demand.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
That's very medical.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
You assist in operating rooms, and it's a cert program.
Q Shortage of fire alarm installation texts so nice at
certifications where they go in and train them how to actually,
you know, do low voltage low voltage installation, and that
leads directly into business ownership for a lot of kids too.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Can I interrupt you, Hannah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I have a friend who has a company called Platinum
Environmental and they've got you said nisis or nass.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
However you want to pronounce it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
He got certified for environmental remediation and environmental consulting. They're
working on the border wall. He's doing city, county, state work, federal.
It's amazing. Hold on a single degree, free dot com,
stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Lifeless black eyes to get dollars. Brandon Wrights.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I know I've recited my professional story several times to you.
It's practically an annual campfire tale by now. But this
Hannah is talking right to my wheelhouse. I consider my
path as serendipitous as it is circuitous. My time in
college was nothing short of rudderless. But God bless her
for taking on a mission like this. She's going to
help so many people. Tip of the hat to both
(16:51):
of you. That was subject line. A note on Hannah's call.
The website is degree free dot com. Not only is
she present options and guidance and instruction and mentoring to
finding a career without a degree, she is creating a
(17:11):
mindset for people who are choosing not to go to
college to not only not be ashamed of it, but
to be proud that you didn't get fleeceed, you didn't
spend all that money. For some people, college is the
right thing to do. For many people, it's not. But
we try to push everybody to go, and that is
a huge That's how you end up with a trillion
(17:33):
dollars in student loan debt that nobody wants to pay
back and they don't have jobs. That's a problem. Hannah
Maruyama is our guest degree free dot Com. I want
to go back to those careers you talked about, but
I want to talk about what the one on one
sessions look like.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Sure, so the do you want me to do the
careers first and finish.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Up that list?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
How many more did you have?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I got five more?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Okay, why don't you do one? And then like a
minute on the one on one and then one career.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I'm just sitting, but finish the careers.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Go ahead, gotcha my next one. I have a young
lady pursuing this right now. Actually she's in Louisiana. Is
court reporting and stenography, which is a really really good,
great job, a lot of flexibility. She wants to be
a mom long term, so that's something that really fit
into what she wants in the futures for as flexible work.
(18:26):
Actuary is one that people are often surprised does not
require a college degree. It's a series of very difficult tests,
but it is in fact, there is no degree that
is legally required for that job. Just persistence and heavy math,
heavy math, heavy stats. Another one that people are overlooking,
but there's a lot of retirement in is construction and
(18:47):
oil field scheduling, and that's something that's a little bit
like project management, but you can get assistant in junior roles.
There a ton of people retiring, a great opportunity, great
industry often that pays over one hundred thousand dollars as well.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
So great six figure job.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Audio engineering, which is big as you know, broadcasting, film,
podcast production, and then digital marketing, which is one that
can often often be got through very inexpensive, very very
accessible certifications online, and then it's just a matter of
you know, applying to enough jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well, and then we take for granted. And I think
people get burned on this when I talk about sales jobs,
which I know salesmen that make a lot of money,
a lot hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that
may or may not have college degrees and certainly weren't
required to have one. Is everybody that wants to get
into sales sees a sign while the drive down the
roads it says, you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Know, you can make up to X amount of money.
They never go into and.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It ends up being telemarketing, and nobody wants to do that.
They've all seen Glengarry Glenn Ross and they don't want
to end up Jack Lemon's character. But there are lots
of small companies and mid sized companies that are looking
for people that are presentable and that can present, that
can communicate, that can show up to work every day.
As you know, Hannah has the battle, and being successful
(20:08):
is showing up, not being drunk, not being under the influence,
not having a bad attitude, looking people in the eyes,
delivering on what you're told to do and managing to
show up to work. That is so hard for people
to do, especially early in their careers. And if you
can do that consistently, especially small owner operated, you can
end up rising through the ranks.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But who am I telling you? Tell me about the
one on one sessions.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Sure, so, my, I'm very proud of the process that
we've created, mostly because we've done it through just trial
and error, put hundreds of kids through this process at
this point, and basically, the way we teach young adults
to pick careers now is kind of insane. We've completely
disregarded Mauso's higher group needs. We don't think about what
they actually need to make, where they want to live,
how much you know, what kind of schedule they want
(20:55):
to have, And so instead we do the opposite because
right now in high schools, high schools are just college blends.
All they do is cell degrees, all they do is
sell paper, and all they do is push. They push
one hundred percent of these kids into college. If they
don't want to do that, they ignore them, they let
them fall through the cracks. And then if the only
other tool they have is the military, now they're kind
of using trade schools a little bit, but instead we go, oh,
(21:16):
like follow your heart, Oh your test scores are this,
so you can be an engineer, or you know, here's
some random personality tests. Do you like to work with
your hands, so go be an electrician. That's a terrible,
crazy way to have seventeen and eighteen year olds choose
what they're going to do first after they graduate, and
so instead we've done the opposite. So it's a complete
one to eighty, which is what do you want your
life to look like? Where do you want to live?
(21:37):
Do you want to stay in your hometown? Do you
want to move somewhere you know? If and this is
a huge one, but schedule you know long term?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Do you want to have a family? Do you want
to be home with your kids?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And this is for boys and girls, but one thing
that's completely under addressed to women for sure, is that
a priority for you. If so, we're looking at a
different set of skills, different set of work that's going
to help you to accomplish that in your life, because
that's what's going to make them actually fulfilled by their job,
because their job's not their life. And then after that
we talk about, you know, how much money do you
(22:07):
want to make to do the things that you want
the right A good example is is Chad You're you're
you know, you're you're in your you're in house Hawaiian.
Uh he you know, he trains and it cost money
to train. And so I worked with the young man
who really wanted to spend a lot of time training
in jiu jitsu.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
But that's expensive.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know, as he moves out of his parents' house,
he's responsible for his own bills. He's got to make
enough money that he can pay to train, you know,
and that's something that he cares about, and so we
were looking at jobs that will fulfill that so he
can pay you know, pay for his rent, pay for
his food, love of protein.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And then you know, go train.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And then we also think about the type of schedule
that they want to have. You know, do they want
to work you know, they want to work swingshifts, they
want to work oil field work? Do they want to
work four days a week? You know, because that's going
to give you a different set of jobs. And what's
the priority to them. And when once we put those
things in order, then our team goes out and We
just research. We just go out to the whole internet.
There's three thousand and six thousand different jobs out there.
(23:03):
We add hundreds more every single month, and we go
through and we find where they live or where they
want to live, what jobs are going to fit those things,
and then what skills employers actually need them to learn,
and then we give them options to.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Learn those things.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
All of them are faster and cheaper than a college degree,
because a college degree really just slows you down. Nowadays,
I'm going to cost way too much for what they're
going to teach you, and they're actually not going to
teach you anything employable. So you're going to get out
and have to do the exact same process that we
do a degree free.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
You know, eighteen year olds.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
What you're talking about there, and it's just very important
that people here is that you have agency over your life.
I know so many people, and I've known since I
graduated high school that they get out of school and
they're like being blown about like a leaf because they
don't know nobody told them. And where did you go
to work? Well, so and so was hiring. What did
(23:53):
you do well? They put me over here doing this?
What were your hours. Well, they had me working overnights.
When you create, we live in a glorious time for this.
When you create that skill set, that ideal life for you,
and you consider your skill set and passions and all
those sorts of things and you go looking for it,
it's amazing. And it might be a dog rumor, it
might be a karate instructor, it might be an oil
(24:15):
field scheduling, or actuary or court reporter or any number
of other things. That's what I love is the idea
of planning the life you want and then going to
find it rather than who's hiring. Well, that's not a
long term that's not a long term success goal. I
love your approach here and I absolutely love it. I
think this is fantastic. It's degree free dot com, Degree
(24:39):
free dot com. Coming up, I'm going to ask Hannah Maruyama.
I'm going to ask her the however many minutes we
have available the most, the things that most people don't
know that would make the biggest difference, So the low
hanging fruit, the things that come up the most that
she helps people with, and how you can get started
today as a parent or as a young person. I'm
(25:01):
a big person, big one forgetting your kids involved in
this process.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Mommy, don't do it all for them.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
I think the term anal intercourse on your.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Program, Michael Arris, if it's relevant to this story for
journalistic purposes, those are rites. After two years of college,
I found out what I would be making after graduation,
I quit. I went to electrical apprentice. After fifty years,
I retired with a great retirement and full of cash.
So many of these stories coming on people that went
(25:34):
into not just electrical employing, but all sorts of other things. Okay,
Hannah Maruyama, the redhead married to the Honolulu native, I
want to know what are the issues that come up
the most when people start their one on one training.
By the way, you can you can have one on
one training with her, or you can buy the book,
(25:55):
or there are workshops and workbooks and all sorts of stuff.
It's all at degree dot com. And I'm not saying
don't go to college, folks. I'm saying, just explore your options,
plan your life. Don't be blown about by the wins. Okay,
what are the low hanging fruit, Hannah.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
So low hanging fruit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, there's a few things that parents need to know.
I think and that's parents are the biggest drivers of
whether or not they're kids buy college degrees. But a
lot of parents just don't have the right information. They
think their kids can only get good jobs if they
go to college. But really that's just not the reality
of it anymore. The market right now shows that a
zippercruiter's quarterly reports came out fourteen point five percent of
(26:37):
job listings mentioned college degrees at all, and then on
indeed it's eighteen percent, So it's the less than one
in five that even say a.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
College degree is preferred.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
We actually went through the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
we counted and found that only seven point seven percent
of jobs in our entire country actually legally require the purchase.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Of a college degree to get.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Interestingly, Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, he removed degree requirements
from all state jobs that weren't necessary. There's i think
twenty four states that have done this so far in
the last two years. But when he did that, it
mirrored our data and it freed up ninety two percent
of the state jobs in Pennsylvania, so almost a direct
(27:17):
you know, directly related to our data, which is ninety
two point three percent of jobs don't require degrees. So
it's just staggering. All our parents should think, oh, this
is the only way for my child to be successful.
It's the only way for them to get a spouse.
I'm sure you've heard that. Actually, Michael, how how many
people do you think meet their spouse on a college
campus these days?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Have a good I have a good one for you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
For people who go to If you don't go to college,
you can't meet your spouse there. But let's say for
people who go to college, I'll bet they can't fifty
eight percent meet the person while they're at college.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Point seven four percent of people meet their spouse on
a college campus.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Right not wow, okay, so even just going to just god, wow,
that is very interesting, very you know, there's so much.
I have so many friends that are big ut families,
or big Texas A and M families, or big Alabama
family I've talked to one of my dogs yesterday and
his daughter's graduating from Auburn, so I sent him war
(28:19):
Eagle and they're so proud. And families invest in the image,
you know. I know people that the most important thing
they want you to know about them is they went
to ut or they went to A and M, and
they they're seventy five, right, and it's their identity the
way somebody's a Vietnam bet, that's their identity. I'm an
(28:40):
aggie and you go, okay, that's great. But I think
that people see that and they take from it the
wrong thing.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I would agree with.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
That, and I completely see why people do. It's because
it's such an emotional purchase for them. Right, They're spending
so much money so early in their life, where their
families are and nowadays, I mean, the goal, and this
is the thing we all should be asking, is why
is there so much pressure on high schoolers to do this?
This is the only kind of debt that is bankruptcy exempt,
and it is bankruptcy exempt specifically for seventeen and eighteen
(29:15):
year old kids whose parents are.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Co signing on these loans.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Why in the world is there so much pressure on
these kids to do this so young. College is not
going anywhere. Colleges are businesses, they're hedge funds. They're always
going to take your money. They're always going to take
your kids money. Because it's bankruptcy exempt debt. It's six
figures on average but why don't you wait until your
child's twenty five, because you might be able to cover
the whole cost of their degree if they actually need
(29:39):
it at that point, because no longer will your income
be determining how much your child's getting charged, because they're
not trying to.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Reach through your child to get you.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The largest group right now that's taken out student loans
is actually grandparents because they've tapped the parents out. The
parents have their own student loans, and now they're going
to the grandparents to get them to take out loans.
And now you're threatening holl homes, you know, pensions, all
kinds of different things because of the amount.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Of death panna and there's no questioning value.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
How's your kid going to be a sigma cat if
they're not in college?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know what, Michael, I'll take you my my middle sister,
she was actually in the military, because there's no my
family didn't have the money to pay for four kids
to go to college. You know, I was paying my
own way when I did go before I broke out.
But my youngest, my middle sister, not the welder, but
the other one, was actually often in the military.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
She still has.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Student loans she's paying off even though she had rot
you know, she went ROTC but just you know, taking
on loans to live the life, to live the college
life that you haven't earned yet. And so many kids
get caught up in that and parents are the ones
that are on the hook for it. But the parents
are the ones that told them they had to go
in the first place, and so they can avoid that.
(30:53):
It's not you don't go, just don't go until you
actually need to or until you're sure what you're doing,
because so many of these kids have no I do
with out there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
And that's the biggest thing we found. But in the meantime,
I'm a huge fan of sales.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I think that all kids should go into into sales.
I think that if you're looking for how can you
equip your child now for the future of work. And
because I just came from AI, one thing I tell
parents is there's three big things you can do. One
thing is Toastmasters or local small business Chamber of Commerce.
Amazing everybody has access to those things. Find those groups.
(31:27):
It doesn't matter how small the town that you live in.
I know there's one in Montgomery and it's a small town.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
But there's toastmasters.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Go take your kids and teach them how to public
speak if you want them to be able to conquer
the world, because these kids cannot a lot of them.
They can't look people in the eye, you know, you know,
just they can't look people in the eye.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
They can't speak. And all your child has to be
able to do is do that and let them use AI.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Tools heavily, because colleges are punishing them for doing that
right now. And it's like watching somebody pay somebody one
hundred thousand dollars to kick them ines before they.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Have to go run a marathon.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I'm glad you said, I'm glad you said. I didn't
think you were going to say, nees. And I love
what you've done. I love what you've done.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
And in the midst of it, not lost on me
is you have done exactly what you're teaching other people
to do. You have You and Ryan have created a business,
right and you've you've used technology, you're you're obviously the
face of the company. You're a great communicator, you're you're
you're good at this, you're good online. And so in
the midst of all this, here is yet another business
(32:36):
that is being created, and some people are uncomfortable with that.
You know, I like to talk about making money and
how we make money and how much money you want
to make and how you want to live and what
you want to do with that money and all the
fun you can have and things. But I love, I
love that you have set this off, that y'all have
created this life, that you you find a spot on
the map based on all the factors you want. You know, uh,
(32:59):
low cost of living close to in the airport, you know,
all the things that probably went for you, a low
crime rate. It's how you want to live. And it's
even beyond your career. It's a question of what kind
of life do you want to live? What kind of
person do you want to marry? Whoever shows up next
to you at the bar and you sleep with and
you wake up the next morning why not? Or somebody
(33:20):
that shares your values that you would want to go
on a road trip with what you want to do
for a career, where you want to live.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I love it, Hannah. We should have you back.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You're wonderful. Hell Ryan, thanks for sharing you with us
for has.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
It been an hour? Wow? Whole hours? Okay? That was fun.
Did we lose her. She's already handling, she's already got
other people going on.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
ELUS.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Thank you and good night.
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Verie Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
On the air.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's Charlie from BlackBerry Smoke. I can feel a good
one coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's the Michael Berry Show. Any attempt to restrict drinking
and driving here is viewed by some as downright undemocratic.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Stationary and would like to read along.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
The accompanying materials on the worksheet for the next discussion
will be degree free dot com. Degree free dot com.
This woman helps folks get jobs without buying college degree
tech to trades, she describes it. She's based in Montgomery, Texas,
(00:57):
and that gives me occasion to patrip to. I believe
the late Great I think he passed because I never
got to meet him, and I was bummed about this
relatively recently.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Right, Oh, this is not right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Francis Rodney Zambone, I believe it was his name. Francis
Rodney Zambone was from Montgomery. He wrote under the name
Mark James. I wish he'd kept Zambone because I think
that's a I mean, Frank Zambone. I like that better
than Mark Jane. Mark James is just anyway. He wrote
always on my mind that Elvis made famous Moody Blue
(01:31):
Suspicious Minds. The only Elvis song ramone that I ever
know of being covered with any facility, with any success,
and that was Dwight Yoakum's version. And that's because he
kind of he took it to punk country, and so
that changed the style, and I think that's the only
reason I tolerated. He wrote, uh, hooked on a feeling?
(01:52):
Or what's his name for bj Thomas? Anyway, he was
from Montgomery, She's from what That's all he wrote? I
just a few what he wrote? Her name is Hannah
or Hannah? Before we ask her, what do you think
it is? You're gonna go Hannah? Okay, Hannah Mario Maru Yama,
Maru Yama probably a good Japanese name. The website is
(02:16):
degree Free. This is the kind of thing that I
think could help a lot of folks. So, Hannah or Hannah,
which is it?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's Hannah, It's Hannah. Thank you so much for having
me on. Michael.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Now tell me you reached out to me with a
kind of here's what I do or your PR person
did or whatever. Did you know this is something that
don't lie? Did you know this is something that I
talk about often or were you just scattershotting out there
to everybody that might put.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You on.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
No, sir, I had a list and you were on.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
It, and I did. I did do a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Of research prior before I gave I gave instructions to
my to my guy to reach out.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Okay, your site degree free dot com. The book you
can get wherever you buy books. It's called Degree Free
Way Workbook.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Parent.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What is your purpose here? What are you trying to accomplish?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
What I'm trying to do is I am trying to
keep the next generation of Americans out of unnecessary student
loan debt, and I am trying to save them hundreds
of thousands of dollars in years of their lives that
they do not have to spend on a college campus
learning from people who have never done the things that
they're teaching them how to do.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And what got you interested? You have experience with you
in your own life or with your children with this.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I do so.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I personally just finished working in AI and machine learning
for the past three and a half almost four years,
and I built a fairly successful tech career where I
out earned the media and PhD by I would say
probably about two hundred and fifty percent. And I did
that without buying a college degree myself. And seeing what
I saw when I was doing that really helped me
(03:56):
to understand how employers are hiring in the disconnect and
the amount of misinformation there is around what parents think
their kids have to do to get the jobs that
are actually going to help them live the way they
want to.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Wait a minute, you're a redhead.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Did you know she's a redhead? Jud sound like a redhead?
What is your maiden name? O'Shaughnessy or for.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's it's Shattck. But yes, I am very Irish. My
husband's the Hawaiian Japanese one.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Well, Hawaiian Japanese is our executive producer, Chad Makanishi.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So you're in good company here. I'm looking at your
at your.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Oh yeah, he's he's thicker than Chad, but I think
Chad could take him because Chad fights every day.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And what is mister? What is mister? He's a boxer?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No, no, no, I was asking if Chad was a boxer.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He's a ground game guy.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Although if I'm bragging on him at this point, he says,
I'm not any good anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But he's got the cauliflower ears.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
He trains every day, but he can't strike anymore because
his shoulders destroyed and he doesn't want to have another
surgery on it. He has absolutely ruined his body by
fighting so much, so long. He came back the other
day and he had a big old scrape across his leg.
And he leaves in the middle of the day. So
we work like two shit. He gets in insanely early.
(05:16):
He gets up and works out at two thirty. He
gets in it I think four or four thirty, who knows,
nobody's here yet, And he preps all the way up
till eleven thirty, leaves, goes and trains, and then comes
back at two and then he's here for who knows
however many hours, like he works a graveyard shift compared
to the rest of us, because it's all he has
to get.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
His training in. So what does mister maru Yama do.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Mister Marialma runs all of the other side of the business,
so that all I get to do is talk about
the problems that I see, the solutions that we can make,
and then work with the young adults.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And so he does all the boring.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Back of the house stuff for the business, so I
can do all the fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I look y'all up, and it says, I don't
know how old you are now, but y'all were twenty
nine and twenty six at the time you were living
in Honolulu. I'm assuming that's where he's from. Chad's from
the Big Island by the way, and then and you're
from Montgomery. Y'all decided to come back here.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So I'm actually not from Montgomery myself, my husband, and
my husband is from Hawaii. He his entire family is
from there. I lived there when my dad was in
the military, and that's actually how we ended up meeting.
But we moved to Montgomery during COVID because Hawaii got
pretty crazy during the lockdowns, and so we decided that
that was not a fit for our family and the
(06:32):
things that we wanted to the way we wanted to
live our lives, and so we came here.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
We picked it off a spreadsheet, we did.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
A bunch of research about places that were good to live,
and this is the place that we ended up and
we've been here for four years and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
We love it.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's crazy. Nobody's in Montgomery from Hawaii. Because they found
people were in Montgomery because they got a job, their
family lived there, and they they're there and they like it.
But nobody looks at the mountain and says, well, I
guess we'll end up in Montgomery, Texas.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That is nuts.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We did, Okay, it was top of the list. It
was top of the Excel sheet.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Did you go toge.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I did not.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I'm degree free, so I guess technically I did.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Like a disease, I'm degree free. I'm safe.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well have you have you if you've met a recent
college graduate, you know it is a little bit, but
you know, I went for about I actually got into
a university when I was sixteen. I do well enrolled
where I grew up in Savannah, Georgia, because my dad
was stationed there in between me moving back to Hooi,
and I ended up fully dual enrolled. And then my
(07:34):
experience in college was that I did not do well
because I ask why too often, and my professors were
not interested in people that ask why and don't adhere
to the orthodoxy that's present on campus.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And because of.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That, I wasn't I think that the way that I thought,
or the questions that I asked were more of an inconvenience,
which kind of shocked me because I wasn't expecting it
to be so anti intellectual when I went on a
college campus, all.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
On just just a moment, Hannah, Yeah, that Hannah Shattuck
from Maria.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
One must dignity to come up with the right kind.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
With Michael Barry, that's how I found my first ten wives.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Number of years ago.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There were a group of us I grew up all
about the same age. Our kids were about the same age,
and there was they were from all different schools, but
they had grown up together playing ball.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
They were.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I guess my son was a junior at the time,
maybe a sophomore. Michael t was probably junior or sophomore.
One of the kids was a senior, and some of
the other kids were seniors. And so it started with
the natural questions by mommies. They don't mean ill, they're
just trying to engage with the kids. It's hard to
engage with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So do?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
What do you gduate? What are you gonna do? You graduate?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
When you graduate high school? And they all told where
they were going to go to school. Georgia U t
A and m TCU. The one kid said I'm going
to work, and it was like the oxygen was sucked
out of the room.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I'm going to start with a plumbing company. I think
I want to be a plumber. Start with a plumbing company,
and then if I like it, I'm going to go
to plumbing school. So they start asking questions like he
had just he had just become a quadriplegic. The questions
were things like, well, what do you what?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What will you get paid? What if you get hurt?
Do you do you? Have you ever done that before?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It was a it was a cross between mommy panic,
desperate panic, and Dad's thinking, oh, you're gonna regret that.
And I don't know what the kid what will happen?
But I know I've watched a lot of kids go
off to college. Mommy and Daddy spend a freaking fortune.
(10:16):
When you hear numbers of what people spend for college,
I'm going to tell you, in some of the circles
I run, those numbers you're hearing reported are way low.
TCU at Miami, they're spending over one hundred thousand dollars
per year. It's insane and many times I've seen this happen,
(10:39):
many times, way more than you realize. They go there
and flunk out, they go there and get in trouble,
they go there and get distracted, they go there and
fall out of love with this concept of you know,
the same path that everybody else has been on. So
they pull to Charlie Robinson and go work on uh
you know, go work out in.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
The oil patch and.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Go find themselves, or go to the military, or go
to cops school, or go to firefighter school.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So we need to be.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Careful that we don't assume the natural thing you ought
to do when you graduate high school's go to college.
Our guest is Hannah Mariyama. The website is degree Free.
I was poking around on it during the break. There's
a lot there and you can learn a lot about her.
And then she's got books. There's a one on one
you can do with her. And yes, it will cost money.
I know people nobody has a problem paying for some things,
(11:35):
but they don't want to pay for other things. It's
the craziest thing that legal work is the funniest one
for me, Hannah. People would, hey, you have a lawyer
who just looked this over me real quick. Yeah, before
I do that, what's your budget of what you're.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Willing to pay? Well, I don't need to hire me,
and I just wanted to look it over.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But you understand they're looking it over because they spent
all this money to go to law school. Lawyering is
the one thing people think they ought to get for free,
Like they want to walk right up to the edge
of when they'll ever have to spend a dollar and
then pull back so they get enough legal advice but
never have to pay for it. Nobody says I'm gonna
go to the dentist. He can clean about half my teeth,
(12:10):
but don't give me the fluoride rans or any of that.
Just half it, and when it's not free anymore, let
me know and I'll get up and run out. It's
the weirdest thing anyway. I like what you're doing here, Hannah.
What are some the ten cool careers teens can land
without a degree. Let's talk about what kind of careers
we're talking about. It's not all digging ditches.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
No, it's definitely not, Michael, And that's actually one of
the things that while I do appreciate a lot of
a lot of the people who do talk about this,
people who have done a lot of work raising awareness
about the trades. People like micro and that comes to
mind where he frequently talks about this. But the thing
for me that stands out is a lot of kids
(12:49):
already know about the trades. They can see the trades,
they already know about jobs, they can see. One of
the things that we've found when we work with young
adults a degree free is that they're very limited. They
only really can name about six to eight jobs, sometimes
twelve on the high end, but they're all jobs you
can see. There's a reason they all want to be cops, firefighters, teachers, doctors, nurses.
And then every girl you meet right now, every teenage
(13:12):
girl wants to be a psychologist. And I think it's
because a lot of the teachers just wish they had
become psychologists.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, and because these they're all going to therapy.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yes, that's right, So it's it's something they can see.
And so one of the things that's such a rub
for me is that people a lot of these kids
know about the trades. The problem is that now everybody
wants to go into the trades, and there's nothing wrong
with that, and then so Ryan, my husband was a firefighter.
Actually he has an economics degree that he didn't use,
(13:42):
and then he became a firefighter later in life. My
own youngest sister is actually a structural welder at a
steel company. She currently works on rocket ships. She makes
more than a master's degree holder. It's very she's the
only it is hot, and she's also the only girl
at the whole steel company.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Oh no, I mean in terms of you know, it's
really you can sweat a lot at that job.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Oh no, she does. She gets burned all the time too,
but she.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think that's cool, and I do think it's hard.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So let's talk about some more of these shows hard work,
and let's talk about some more of these coopers.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
One that I really think people need to know about
that doesn't fall into I'm going to give you a bunch.
All of them are going to out earn the average
master's degree holder. None of them require college degrees. You
do not, your child does not to buy a college
degree to do these things. And none of them are
actually trade. So the first one is a pilot. Right now,
there's not a single US airline that still requires a
(14:38):
college degree.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
To become a pilot.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Delta is the last one to remove it in twenty
twenty two, so it's old news.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Which is probably surprisingly is awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I think a lot of people don't know that because
people tend to be pretty surprised when I say it.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Also, there are flight schools.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Your average flight school right now with a guaranteed pipeline
into one of these airlines is going to cost you
in the average bachelor's degree, which is going to run
you about one hundred and four to one hundred fifty
six k. And so if you want your child to
have a high earning skill that's tied to a legal license,
then pilot a pilot's license is definitely a good one.
The next in Houston specifically, too, is going to be
(15:14):
cloud computing Specialists, which is a type of it's type
of data tech certification, and Houston is getting an inflow
of data centers.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
There's a ton of work in those.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It's a little bit of software, a little bit of hardware,
a little bit of electrical work, but it's not a
trade necessarily. It also crosses into cybersecurity, high paying, high demand.
A lot of people will train on the job for
that surgical technologists also high demand.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
That's very medical.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
You assist in operating rooms, and it's a cert program.
Q Shortage of fire alarm installation texts so nice at
certifications where they go in and train them how to actually,
you know, do low voltage low voltage installation, and that
leads directly into business ownership for a lot of kids too.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Can I interrupt you, Hannah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I have a friend who has a company called Platinum
Environmental and they've got you said nisis or nass.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
However you want to pronounce it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
He got certified for environmental remediation and environmental consulting. They're
working on the border wall. He's doing city, county, state work, federal.
It's amazing. Hold on a single degree, free dot com,
stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Lifeless black eyes to get dollars. Brandon Wrights.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I know I've recited my professional story several times to you.
It's practically an annual campfire tale by now. But this
Hannah is talking right to my wheelhouse. I consider my
path as serendipitous as it is circuitous. My time in
college was nothing short of rudderless. But God bless her
for taking on a mission like this. She's going to
help so many people. Tip of the hat to both
(16:51):
of you. That was subject line. A note on Hannah's call.
The website is degree free dot com. Not only is
she present options and guidance and instruction and mentoring to
finding a career without a degree, she is creating a
(17:11):
mindset for people who are choosing not to go to
college to not only not be ashamed of it, but
to be proud that you didn't get fleeceed, you didn't
spend all that money. For some people, college is the
right thing to do. For many people, it's not. But
we try to push everybody to go, and that is
a huge That's how you end up with a trillion
(17:33):
dollars in student loan debt that nobody wants to pay
back and they don't have jobs. That's a problem. Hannah
Maruyama is our guest degree free dot Com. I want
to go back to those careers you talked about, but
I want to talk about what the one on one
sessions look like.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Sure, so the do you want me to do the
careers first and finish.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Up that list?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
How many more did you have?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I got five more?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Okay, why don't you do one? And then like a
minute on the one on one and then one career.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I'm just sitting, but finish the careers.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Go ahead, gotcha my next one. I have a young
lady pursuing this right now. Actually she's in Louisiana. Is
court reporting and stenography, which is a really really good,
great job, a lot of flexibility. She wants to be
a mom long term, so that's something that really fit
into what she wants in the futures for as flexible work.
(18:26):
Actuary is one that people are often surprised does not
require a college degree. It's a series of very difficult tests,
but it is in fact, there is no degree that
is legally required for that job. Just persistence and heavy math,
heavy math, heavy stats. Another one that people are overlooking,
but there's a lot of retirement in is construction and
(18:47):
oil field scheduling, and that's something that's a little bit
like project management, but you can get assistant in junior roles.
There a ton of people retiring, a great opportunity, great
industry often that pays over one hundred thousand dollars as well.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
So great six figure job.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Audio engineering, which is big as you know, broadcasting, film,
podcast production, and then digital marketing, which is one that
can often often be got through very inexpensive, very very
accessible certifications online, and then it's just a matter of
you know, applying to enough jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well, and then we take for granted. And I think
people get burned on this when I talk about sales jobs,
which I know salesmen that make a lot of money,
a lot hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that
may or may not have college degrees and certainly weren't
required to have one. Is everybody that wants to get
into sales sees a sign while the drive down the
roads it says, you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Know, you can make up to X amount of money.
They never go into and.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It ends up being telemarketing, and nobody wants to do that.
They've all seen Glengarry Glenn Ross and they don't want
to end up Jack Lemon's character. But there are lots
of small companies and mid sized companies that are looking
for people that are presentable and that can present, that
can communicate, that can show up to work every day.
As you know, Hannah has the battle, and being successful
(20:08):
is showing up, not being drunk, not being under the influence,
not having a bad attitude, looking people in the eyes,
delivering on what you're told to do and managing to
show up to work. That is so hard for people
to do, especially early in their careers. And if you
can do that consistently, especially small owner operated, you can
end up rising through the ranks.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But who am I telling you? Tell me about the
one on one sessions.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Sure, so, my, I'm very proud of the process that
we've created, mostly because we've done it through just trial
and error, put hundreds of kids through this process at
this point, and basically, the way we teach young adults
to pick careers now is kind of insane. We've completely
disregarded Mauso's higher group needs. We don't think about what
they actually need to make, where they want to live,
how much you know, what kind of schedule they want
(20:55):
to have, And so instead we do the opposite because
right now in high schools, high schools are just college blends.
All they do is cell degrees, all they do is
sell paper, and all they do is push. They push
one hundred percent of these kids into college. If they
don't want to do that, they ignore them, they let
them fall through the cracks. And then if the only
other tool they have is the military, now they're kind
of using trade schools a little bit, but instead we go, oh,
(21:16):
like follow your heart, Oh your test scores are this,
so you can be an engineer, or you know, here's
some random personality tests. Do you like to work with
your hands, so go be an electrician. That's a terrible,
crazy way to have seventeen and eighteen year olds choose
what they're going to do first after they graduate, and
so instead we've done the opposite. So it's a complete
one to eighty, which is what do you want your
life to look like? Where do you want to live?
(21:37):
Do you want to stay in your hometown? Do you
want to move somewhere you know? If and this is
a huge one, but schedule you know long term?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Do you want to have a family? Do you want
to be home with your kids?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And this is for boys and girls, but one thing
that's completely under addressed to women for sure, is that
a priority for you. If so, we're looking at a
different set of skills, different set of work that's going
to help you to accomplish that in your life, because
that's what's going to make them actually fulfilled by their job,
because their job's not their life. And then after that
we talk about, you know, how much money do you
(22:07):
want to make to do the things that you want
the right A good example is is Chad You're you're
you know, you're you're in your you're in house Hawaiian.
Uh he you know, he trains and it cost money
to train. And so I worked with the young man
who really wanted to spend a lot of time training
in jiu jitsu.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
But that's expensive.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know, as he moves out of his parents' house,
he's responsible for his own bills. He's got to make
enough money that he can pay to train, you know,
and that's something that he cares about, and so we
were looking at jobs that will fulfill that so he
can pay you know, pay for his rent, pay for
his food, love of protein.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And then you know, go train.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And then we also think about the type of schedule
that they want to have. You know, do they want
to work you know, they want to work swingshifts, they
want to work oil field work? Do they want to
work four days a week? You know, because that's going
to give you a different set of jobs. And what's
the priority to them. And when once we put those
things in order, then our team goes out and We
just research. We just go out to the whole internet.
There's three thousand and six thousand different jobs out there.
(23:03):
We add hundreds more every single month, and we go
through and we find where they live or where they
want to live, what jobs are going to fit those things,
and then what skills employers actually need them to learn,
and then we give them options to.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Learn those things.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
All of them are faster and cheaper than a college degree,
because a college degree really just slows you down. Nowadays,
I'm going to cost way too much for what they're
going to teach you, and they're actually not going to
teach you anything employable. So you're going to get out
and have to do the exact same process that we
do a degree free.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
You know, eighteen year olds.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
What you're talking about there, and it's just very important
that people here is that you have agency over your life.
I know so many people, and I've known since I
graduated high school that they get out of school and
they're like being blown about like a leaf because they
don't know nobody told them. And where did you go
to work? Well, so and so was hiring. What did
(23:53):
you do well? They put me over here doing this?
What were your hours. Well, they had me working overnights.
When you create, we live in a glorious time for this.
When you create that skill set, that ideal life for you,
and you consider your skill set and passions and all
those sorts of things and you go looking for it,
it's amazing. And it might be a dog rumor, it
might be a karate instructor, it might be an oil
(24:15):
field scheduling, or actuary or court reporter or any number
of other things. That's what I love is the idea
of planning the life you want and then going to
find it rather than who's hiring. Well, that's not a
long term that's not a long term success goal. I
love your approach here and I absolutely love it. I
think this is fantastic. It's degree free dot com, Degree
(24:39):
free dot com. Coming up, I'm going to ask Hannah Maruyama.
I'm going to ask her the however many minutes we
have available the most, the things that most people don't
know that would make the biggest difference, So the low
hanging fruit, the things that come up the most that
she helps people with, and how you can get started
today as a parent or as a young person. I'm
(25:01):
a big person, big one forgetting your kids involved in
this process.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Mommy, don't do it all for them.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
I think the term anal intercourse on your.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Program, Michael Arris, if it's relevant to this story for
journalistic purposes, those are rites. After two years of college,
I found out what I would be making after graduation,
I quit. I went to electrical apprentice. After fifty years,
I retired with a great retirement and full of cash.
So many of these stories coming on people that went
(25:34):
into not just electrical employing, but all sorts of other things. Okay,
Hannah Maruyama, the redhead married to the Honolulu native, I
want to know what are the issues that come up
the most when people start their one on one training.
By the way, you can you can have one on
one training with her, or you can buy the book,
(25:55):
or there are workshops and workbooks and all sorts of stuff.
It's all at degree dot com. And I'm not saying
don't go to college, folks. I'm saying, just explore your options,
plan your life. Don't be blown about by the wins. Okay,
what are the low hanging fruit, Hannah.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
So low hanging fruit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, there's a few things that parents need to know.
I think and that's parents are the biggest drivers of
whether or not they're kids buy college degrees. But a
lot of parents just don't have the right information. They
think their kids can only get good jobs if they
go to college. But really that's just not the reality
of it anymore. The market right now shows that a
zippercruiter's quarterly reports came out fourteen point five percent of
(26:37):
job listings mentioned college degrees at all, and then on
indeed it's eighteen percent, So it's the less than one
in five that even say a.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
College degree is preferred.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
We actually went through the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
we counted and found that only seven point seven percent
of jobs in our entire country actually legally require the purchase.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Of a college degree to get.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Interestingly, Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, he removed degree requirements
from all state jobs that weren't necessary. There's i think
twenty four states that have done this so far in
the last two years. But when he did that, it
mirrored our data and it freed up ninety two percent
of the state jobs in Pennsylvania, so almost a direct
(27:17):
you know, directly related to our data, which is ninety
two point three percent of jobs don't require degrees. So
it's just staggering. All our parents should think, oh, this
is the only way for my child to be successful.
It's the only way for them to get a spouse.
I'm sure you've heard that. Actually, Michael, how how many
people do you think meet their spouse on a college
campus these days?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Have a good I have a good one for you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
For people who go to If you don't go to college,
you can't meet your spouse there. But let's say for
people who go to college, I'll bet they can't fifty
eight percent meet the person while they're at college.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Point seven four percent of people meet their spouse on
a college campus.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Right not wow, okay, so even just going to just god, wow,
that is very interesting, very you know, there's so much.
I have so many friends that are big ut families,
or big Texas A and M families, or big Alabama
family I've talked to one of my dogs yesterday and
his daughter's graduating from Auburn, so I sent him war
(28:19):
Eagle and they're so proud. And families invest in the image,
you know. I know people that the most important thing
they want you to know about them is they went
to ut or they went to A and M, and
they they're seventy five, right, and it's their identity the
way somebody's a Vietnam bet, that's their identity. I'm an
(28:40):
aggie and you go, okay, that's great. But I think
that people see that and they take from it the
wrong thing.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I would agree with.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
That, and I completely see why people do. It's because
it's such an emotional purchase for them. Right, They're spending
so much money so early in their life, where their
families are and nowadays, I mean, the goal, and this
is the thing we all should be asking, is why
is there so much pressure on high schoolers to do this?
This is the only kind of debt that is bankruptcy exempt,
and it is bankruptcy exempt specifically for seventeen and eighteen
(29:15):
year old kids whose parents are.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Co signing on these loans.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Why in the world is there so much pressure on
these kids to do this so young. College is not
going anywhere. Colleges are businesses, they're hedge funds. They're always
going to take your money. They're always going to take
your kids money. Because it's bankruptcy exempt debt. It's six
figures on average but why don't you wait until your
child's twenty five, because you might be able to cover
the whole cost of their degree if they actually need
(29:39):
it at that point, because no longer will your income
be determining how much your child's getting charged, because they're
not trying to.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Reach through your child to get you.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The largest group right now that's taken out student loans
is actually grandparents because they've tapped the parents out. The
parents have their own student loans, and now they're going
to the grandparents to get them to take out loans.
And now you're threatening holl homes, you know, pensions, all
kinds of different things because of the amount.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Of death panna and there's no questioning value.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
How's your kid going to be a sigma cat if
they're not in college?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know what, Michael, I'll take you my my middle sister,
she was actually in the military, because there's no my
family didn't have the money to pay for four kids
to go to college. You know, I was paying my
own way when I did go before I broke out.
But my youngest, my middle sister, not the welder, but
the other one, was actually often in the military.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
She still has.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Student loans she's paying off even though she had rot
you know, she went ROTC but just you know, taking
on loans to live the life, to live the college
life that you haven't earned yet. And so many kids
get caught up in that and parents are the ones
that are on the hook for it. But the parents
are the ones that told them they had to go
in the first place, and so they can avoid that.
(30:53):
It's not you don't go, just don't go until you
actually need to or until you're sure what you're doing,
because so many of these kids have no I do
with out there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
And that's the biggest thing we found. But in the meantime,
I'm a huge fan of sales.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I think that all kids should go into into sales.
I think that if you're looking for how can you
equip your child now for the future of work. And
because I just came from AI, one thing I tell
parents is there's three big things you can do. One
thing is Toastmasters or local small business Chamber of Commerce.
Amazing everybody has access to those things. Find those groups.
(31:27):
It doesn't matter how small the town that you live in.
I know there's one in Montgomery and it's a small town.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
But there's toastmasters.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Go take your kids and teach them how to public
speak if you want them to be able to conquer
the world, because these kids cannot a lot of them.
They can't look people in the eye, you know, you know,
just they can't look people in the eye.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
They can't speak. And all your child has to be
able to do is do that and let them use AI.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Tools heavily, because colleges are punishing them for doing that
right now. And it's like watching somebody pay somebody one
hundred thousand dollars to kick them ines before they.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Have to go run a marathon.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I'm glad you said, I'm glad you said. I didn't
think you were going to say, nees. And I love
what you've done. I love what you've done.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
And in the midst of it, not lost on me
is you have done exactly what you're teaching other people
to do. You have You and Ryan have created a business,
right and you've you've used technology, you're you're obviously the
face of the company. You're a great communicator, you're you're
you're good at this, you're good online. And so in
the midst of all this, here is yet another business
(32:36):
that is being created, and some people are uncomfortable with that.
You know, I like to talk about making money and
how we make money and how much money you want
to make and how you want to live and what
you want to do with that money and all the
fun you can have and things. But I love, I
love that you have set this off, that y'all have
created this life, that you you find a spot on
the map based on all the factors you want. You know, uh,
(32:59):
low cost of living close to in the airport, you know,
all the things that probably went for you, a low
crime rate. It's how you want to live. And it's
even beyond your career. It's a question of what kind
of life do you want to live? What kind of
person do you want to marry? Whoever shows up next
to you at the bar and you sleep with and
you wake up the next morning why not? Or somebody
(33:20):
that shares your values that you would want to go
on a road trip with what you want to do
for a career, where you want to live.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I love it, Hannah. We should have you back.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You're wonderful. Hell Ryan, thanks for sharing you with us
for has.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
It been an hour? Wow? Whole hours? Okay? That was fun.
Did we lose her. She's already handling, she's already got
other people going on.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
ELUS.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Thank you and good night.
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