Confidence, Careers, and Community with Kim Nicholas

Education isn't about preparing for life. It's life itself. I just think the conversation has been so stagnant on standards and standardized testing that it's crippled many people and we are paying the price for that. Hey everyone, welcome back to Make It Happen Mondays where we talk about sales, business, entrepreneurship, personal growth, mental health, and everything in between with guests who I truly respect and I think make a positive impact on the world around us and talking about making a positive impact. Kim Nicholas, she is the executive director of Genesis Works Chicago and this one's a little different. There's some sales stuff in this one but this one is about trying to change the game from an education standpoint, opportunities for underserviced and underprivileged youths and also helping businesses in quite a fantastic way.

Like the program that Genesis puts together, they help underprivileged kids in inner city of Chicago and they place them from high school into corporations at, you know, low cost for a corporation. They get tons of experience and the results they get are off the charts. Like these kids graduate at a higher rate, they drive revenue for the business, they put money back into the local communities. It's just across the board. It's an incredible thing that she's doing. I want to listen to her story because she's really come from a very unique, she came from a underprivileged background and she went to the public schools and saw all the challenges there and actually started a charter school before charter was really even a thing and not even started the school but also created an entire framework called the discipline life which has three pillars, self-perception, respect for others and productive persistence.

And this is about teaching people not just, you know, the tests and reading, you know, how to take them out of tests, whatever, but just how to be a good person and how to, how to have confidence in yourself and how to, you know, look for opportunities. And in a lot of these kids, they don't get exposed to this. And once they do, the world opens up to them. And so it was a really refreshing conversation to have with somebody who really cares. And I mean, if you talk about, you hear me say all the time, sales is the transfer of enthusiasm. And the number one thing I need, I think you need to be successful in sales is a belief in what you do. And if you listen to this one, probably about three quarters of the way through, you will hear how much she cares about what she does and who she works with.

So I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Let's make it happen. Kim Nicholas, welcome to the Make It Happen Monday podcast. How are you doing today? Great. I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on here to talk about important issues in our cities and opportunities we have to really get after some of the challenges. And I appreciate the platform. Yeah, thanks for coming on. I was, you know, this was a unique one because, you know, a lot of times we talk about sales and all this stuff, but I like to explore a lot of other things. And, you know, education is, as we were just talking about, is a tricky one for me right now, right? I think high school, obviously, right? We got to kind of go through that process just if nothing else to learn who we are a little bit as a human being.

And college, you know, when I grew up, I realized looking back on it, I think it's more of a social, like the initial cause, my opinion here is it's much more of a social education than it is an actual education. And I always had a hard time with these universities that would charge massive amounts of money, put these kids in major debt and to get a $40,000, $50,000 a year job. That was before AI. And so now with AI, I have a hard time looking at any kid going into college right now and saying, your job is going to be there in four years of what you expect, because who knows? And so I think the work you're doing with high schoolers, and we're going to get into this as far as, you know, the work you're doing to help elevate these underprivileged kids and give them opportunities and also help organizations excel with this model is huge.

So before we do all that, though, I always love to get the origin story here. And this is this stuff that is not LinkedIn, right? Because I got we having all that fun stuff, too. But talk to me a little bit about where you grew up, what your parents were like, where where did the influences come from for you to kind of shape your early years? That's a great question. I will say that my personal background mimics many of the young people that I work for and work with. I grew up low income. And in that understood some of the assumptions that were made about students in school and what they had exposure to or had experience with as it pertains to even growing into a professional career pathway or going on to post-secondary of any sort, whether that's a training, certification or college, that exposure wasn't available in my youth.

Now, there was a military background. Right. And I just didn't see myself moving in that direction. But what turned me on was being able to have some of the experiences experiences that were provided to me through my friendships and their parents that opened my perspective and my goals and allowed me to roll into what became my career, which is this, right? Make no assumptions about what young people are capable of or what they already know and provide this opportunity within their educational experience before they're making a career decision and they will flourish. But so I just think there's a lot of assumptions that are built into public education about the students that need to be fixed as well.

Yeah. Sidebar question. Why do you think they don't teach? Like when I was growing up, they had home economics, they had a few other things that like taught you like real world stuff. Forget about calculus and biology, which is all interesting. Don't get me wrong. That's cool. Right. Right. But like, why do you think university, like not university, it's a public school specifically. And we'll get into the charter school because I know you started one even before they were charters. But public school, why don't they teach like financial literacy, like how to balance a checkbook, like how to do normal, like grown up things at that? Why do you think that's missing so much? And why are we taking it away?

We've taken away gym, we've taken away art, we've taken away home ec. And I think it's, it's doing nothing but, but diluting the talent that we have. Um, I would say that we became standardized test score obsessed. Yeah, I agree. And that's what killed public education. Um, I think most of us could look at our own standardized test score performance and not necessarily tie that to the career that we're in. Right. So like, I think that hurt, uh, us. Um, and then the question about why do we not have professional career opportunity understandings within the public school system is again, I think about priorities and that the public schools have been taxed and evaluated and beat down with a set of standards and testing standards that they've had to adhere to.

So to pull off and now, you know, go more on the career pathway development and career technical education and all these other really massively future important for a person's success. It's a nice to do. And yet when you look at the data on what happens between high school and somebody ever getting into a professional career, it's depressing. What happened? It's like a cliff. They finished high school and then what happens? And in, in, in, in Chicago in particular, it's dramatic in that we have 45,000 kids on the South side of Chicago between 16 and 24 that are neither in college school nor in a career pathway on any pathway. 45,000, 45,000, 16 to 24. So what are we going to do about that? And is that we have to start paying attention to what are we doing with high school seniors before they are handed that diploma?

Because what we've been doing is failing a lot of kids. Some are succeeding and probably the ones that have parents with profiles that match that career pathway. It's easier. They're helping their child make those, those decisions and those transitions, like you were talking about early on, like, you know, the college decision and the career pathway decision and why this pathway. And is this a passion of yours? And do you want to eat right? Those kinds of conversations are being had where there's a large group of kids not having that conversation ever. And then graduating with a diploma. Hey, I hope you're enjoying the conversation so far. I want to take a quick minute to share with you what I'm working on these days with my new JB sales membership.

It includes live monthly training delivered by me on my two signature courses, which are filling the funnel and driving a close that cover all aspects of the sales process. It also includes monthly workshops that I'll be running on specific sales skills and different tech skills like ChatGVT and how to leverage AI throughout the entire sales process. Finally, the membership gives you access to my entire online catalog with every course and every tip I've ever done. And as an exclusive offer to my podcast listeners, if you go to jbarrows.com, click on the individual membership link and use coupon code podcast at checkout, you'll get 25% off. Now let's get back to the conversation. And mainly graduating just because they like, I mean, the whole, I remember when we were, you know, again, when I was a kid, there was the, there was the, you know, there was different levels of, of sec, right?

There was the advanced kids, there was the regular, then there was the special needs, right? And everybody kind of had their, and then all of a sudden, no child left behind came in and took all the money away from the advancement stuff and put it down to the no child left behind. So it was the lowest common denominator. And that is not, that has nothing to do with the quality of the people I'm talking about. I'm talking about like the needs for these children. And there are certain special needs children that need special attention, period. And now they're all in the regular class with everybody else. And we went to like, I'm a public school, but my wife and I would both went to public school.

I was a huge public school advocate. And then when we, our daughter was going into public school, we had her in Montessori, which I think is a fantastic model in general. But, but when she went into first grade, they were like, well, she, she missed the cutoff, right? And it was like, it was her birthday, September 24th. And it was September 1st. And, and all her teachers were like, don't put her in first kindergarten. And she, she needs to go in. And we're like, well, like, can you, can you just test her? And they're like, absolutely not strict rules. So we put her into private school and she's stayed there. Right. And it, I feel it's unfortunate because I want to contribute to the public school system.

I want to, to help by having my daughter there, by having my wife and I engage, but they were, they were almost not allowed to, for whatever reason, way too strict. And they, and they just, then when I started to look at like the curriculum and how they bring, and, and how even teachers we talked to said, if your daughter is advanced in any way, don't send her here. And we were like, what? And they were like, we just, because if she's not a problem, we don't focus on her. And I, and it was devastating for me to hear that because I'm like the kids who need the, the, the support should have the support, but now you have like an extra teacher in the room for that one kid who has the special needs that's distracting from everybody else.

And then, and it just is this, this snowball effect of, of, of downward spiral. Is there a way to, I mean, let's not get political here because happening with the department of education, but I do want to get to the charter school, but the privatization of it, but, but is there a way, how do we fix the public school system? It's, it is difficult. Um, but I think if you get a model that takes into account multiple modalities of learning versus we are going to teach the way we've been teaching for the last 200 years in, in our high schools, we're going to, we are so outdated. Right. So I just think it's kind of the John Dewey philosophy, which they call old that is, right? But education isn't about preparing for life.

It's life itself. So what kind of life are our students having in a room now, what kind of life are they having as a high school senior? What is that life and why are they living it? And what does it do to set them up for what they want out of their lives? And what do we need as a country, as a community for our educated people to be able to do? And I, I just think the conversation has been so stagnant on standards and standardized testing that it's, it's crippled many people. And we are paying the price for that and we're paying it on the backend, right? We're going to pay it heavy on the backend. Yes. That's where I have a little bit of hope for AI. Yeah. Because I think like I'm seeing schools right now where, because each kid learns differently each, right.

And one teacher, I mean, I'm a trainer. I train 30, 40, 500 people sometimes at a time. And there's just no way I can communicate with everybody the way that their communication styles are. I try my best, right. But my style is not going to resonate with some people. And I don't know how you learn compared to somebody else. Whereas AI knows how you learn, how I learn and can tailor the content to it. So I'm seeing schools where like two hours where the kid has the headset on and they have an AI coach, then they're working with it. And then the rest of the time they actually spend doing EQ things like, like being a human, like, you know what I mean? Learning how to shake hands and look people in the eye and work on stuff.

And I think that model, I really hope that model starts to take over because AI is, it's not a budget thing. I mean, really at the end of the day, like you could light up chat GPT, create a custom GPT for that school. And then here you go. I mean, I know there's a lot more to it, but that's where I have a little bit of hope for AI as the education. Cause I see that as the number one use case. Yeah. Differentiate it, right? This is differentiated learning that is relevant and empowering and teachers want it. They just don't necessarily have the tools or the skill or the coaching or the training to execute that way. And when they do, they feel successful. You know, the teachers are the hardest working people in our society and they want to ensure everybody achieves success, financial, personal, all that.

But yet you're handed a challenge that is that, okay, we got to see this much standardized test score growth in a year's period. And we need you to move it as fast as you can. And we're going to test it every nine weeks or every whatever, and make sure that you're moving this needle on these standards. And so they get kind of boxed in as to how innovative they can be in a classroom because the worry is what if my, my numbers don't move. But what I have experienced is the numbers move by having real world experiences. Standardized test scores go up because young people have experiences that show them how this world works. not a teacher telling them and they're reading it out of a textbook and whatnot.

And it's some theory about what ultimately is going to happen in your future. That is a disengaging experience for students. So the more this experiences that young people have, the more equipped and confident they have about their future because they've experienced this while being supported by teachers in an educational environment versus, you know, having that first experience happen in their first job. And it's a rude awakening, right? So like this, this is, uh, the way we just need to evolve our public school system to be more authentic to what life is. Exactly. Yeah. And not what it was. Cause I, to your point, like we haven't changed education, what we're, what we're actually teaching with 200 years.

I mean, we went through industrial revolution and then the, you know, workforce revolution and we're now in the AI world and, and we're still teaching. Like we were, we're, we're back in 1965 and it's just like, we're, we're sitting in classrooms where it's like, whoa, this is not the world these kids are in right now. And so I, the evolution and is that why, cause you founded Perspectives Charter School, right? Kind of even before charter schools were a thing. Yes. We, yeah, we started as just a program and then there was no charter available in Illinois whatsoever. And then was provided an opportunity to create a program that then was tapped to apply to become a charter network at charter school.

We ran that for 10 years and then became a charter network with investments from philanthropists to grow this model within the city of Chicago. The model itself is very much predicated on this conversation you and I had where we have to be conscious about the culture in which young people learn. We have to be conscious and the culture that we're bringing to the classroom as human beings, all of us, this is life. This isn't preparation for life. We're all coming in this room together and we got to work together. And this is the way life goes, right? That's how life is. That we're looking at the experiences young people are having besides learning how to read and write well. Yes, got to do it.

But what are the eye-opening learning experiences young people can have that can then ignite passions and opportunities that otherwise wouldn't even be tapped? And make sure that the model goes there. Also include the parents, for God's sakes. They have to be there even at the teenage level and definitely at the teenage level. They are our partners in this and this was the kind of model that we created. And so rigor, academic rigor definitely, but then also these experiences. So with that, we then were able to grow it. We have, then I've transitioned into kind of my capstone here, which is when we provide experiential learning to high school seniors in a professional way, they have higher academic outcomes, they have higher college attendance, higher college persistence, and getting to a living wage by the time they're 25 years old.

If you don't do that, what happens in Chicago is a cliff. They get to the end of that senior year and 35% of them keep going and the other drop off the cliff. You know, so it's just like, no, we got to. Now I'm in this world of sales and that I'm providing this real world experience to as many high school seniors as I can because the impact and the outcomes on their life and on the Chicago community is quantifiable. You cannot deny it. It's just, can we get our butts moving faster in that direction then before we lose the next 65%. Well, yeah. And I think that's, it's also the kind of the short-sightedness of our entire society. It was just here in America where it's like, yes, okay, we might save a few bucks here because we're cutting back on this, but when you look in the future and you're like, you got 65% of these kids who, what are you going to do?

They're not, they're going to be a suck on our economics. Because we're going to have to welfare and all that fun stuff to support them because they can't get a job. They don't have the resources. They don't have the opportunity. So it's, it's such a short-sighted view of education to not think of it from a long-term perspective. And I think sometimes we think about the suck and that's what gets people caught up. Oh, you're sucking up. Okay. You know, what we need to do is look at what we need them to be contributing. And we are losing out, you know, on this, as the number said, $1.2 million of earned income on individuals that don't step into a professional career pathway. And think of the taxes that go away on that too.

What is that like $400,000 in taxes? Well, what would Chicago do with $400,000 in tax? That's one kid. That's one kid in their lifetime. The difference. You do that times 5,000 kids or the 20,000 that are leaving the system this year. And all of a sudden this, oh, we're so cash strapped. We don't have any money for our budgets, our streets, our libraries, and whatnot. If we had more kids join in the professional career pathways, yes, we would. The money would be there. So let's get the money there versus blame the kids for sucking on the system because they didn't know how to get into the professional career pathway. They did not know how to do it. So let's help them do that and we'll all be better for it.

Yeah. And so when you talk about this differing approach, right? And you didn't just do the charter school. You created a framework, right? A disciplined life. Yes. And with the three pillars of self-perception, respect of others, and productive persistence. Could you kind of walk us through kind of A, how you came up with that, why you came up with that, and then what it's really about and how it's implemented? Yeah. It's so exciting to talk about it. You know, having been an educator before I started a charter school, I could see what some of the challenges I was experiencing were was just about a common set of framework about how we engage with one another. And then also start to work on some of the opportunities on confidence and communication and productivity.

And what are some of the, what are some of the skills of productivity? And can we look at what makes somebody more productive? Organization, things like that. And so knowing that that honest to God is what keeps you employed, what keeps you as a friend or in a marriage or any of that. Like, let's, let's make sure that we're helping young people develop that foundation. And then everything else is on it. And it's not to say that it's, it's a judgment call. And that's why we kind of really codified it. It's not a teacher's values versus a kid's values. So what's in that culture we all value. All of us will say we value integrity. Okay. So we all want integrity. So what does that mean in a classroom?

What does that mean when you're turning in your assignment? Are you working with AI? Let's make sure integrity is still here and that we bring integrity into the conversation that it's, that it's all rooted in values that are common in our culture. And see if we can strengthen some where others need help. Like my own son, I had two kids and they have different challenges, right? So let's work on those things that help make us all successful. But yeah, so that was a disciplined life. So, and it's what you do for yourself. It's not what somebody does to you. So I'm a disciplined person. Someone's not disciplining me. So what is those to be a disciplined person? Like you, we were talking about the, what is grit?

That's self-discipline, isn't it? But where do you learn that? And you know, how do you move that and strengthen that are some of the experiences that you have? Do you, do you go through the value exercise with them? Like of, of identifying values or is, is this kind of a value structure that you bring them into? No, we, yeah, we definitely, first of all, we change these things too. Are there things missing in our culture? Like, I don't know, be curious. Is that a part of our culture? It doesn't seem to be in here. Let's, so young people could come forward and say, you know, we need to add this. So that's, that's evaluating what we set as our common values and determining whether those still are relevant.

But then also individually on a quarterly basis, at least under the charter school process was that we, the young, I call me a professional students at that point would set goals. Like, which are the ones, right? Like, for example, you know, if there are 26 principles of a disciplined life, what are the ones that really hurt me, you know, because I don't do them well consistently? And let me see if I can put some targets around growth here and also maybe some tools for helping me grow, not just like randomly want to be better, but I don't have a tool to get there. So we do that on a very formalized quarterly basis through perspectives charter schools. Yeah. But that was, you know, a while ago.

So I'm, I, I have since moved away from June, 2019. I left perspectives and now I'm, you know, transitioned to my new role. Nice. Six and a half years role. So it's been a while at perspectives, but. Yeah. You know, what's great is my organization that I'm the executive director of now actually has some of these young people come through here and they're like, oh, I don't know. Like, where'd you go to high school? And they tell me and I'm like, oh, perspectives. Have you heard of it? I'm like, yeah, I've heard of it. I've heard of it. Yeah. And a little something about it. Yeah. So let's explain before we bridge to the kind of the corporate side of that. Explain what the program is. Like you go and you go to, you know, businesses and you try to partner with them and you get funding.

So talk, just tell them, tell us what it is. Cause then I want to bridge to like, okay, now you're selling, you said earlier, now I'm in sales and I got to go get this. So we want to talk about that, but talk about what kind of the pitch is, if you will. Right. So the pitch is that we have an opportunity for both our corporations to get no, basically to get talent that they might not see if we do not go and recruit them and put them before you. When we put these young professional into your office, they're going to work for you for 800 hours during their high school senior year. It is a serious commitment that our young professionals have made. And they have also been successful through a two month summer training program before they're seated in this internship.

And it's a full year kind of early apprenticeship within a company for 800 hours. And they work on a team or they're shared between a couple of teams, but it's that same young professional showing up and they work all year. So at the end of that, things can happen. A young professional can immediately become their talent. They hire them outright and it's happened. And our local talent then stays in Chicago, love Chicago, and maybe is, and many times, like 90% of our young professionals are in college. So even if they're employed and our young professionals have to be employed while in college, if that makes sense, right, given their economic status. So they've got to be employed. So why not have it be employed within a company that's going to lead to a career pathway, right?

So that's an option. The other option is that this young professional makes their way back once they've gotten their college degree and stayed on that, you know, interest and came back. And so it's an early talent pipeline for corporations. For the young professional, I mean, it's getting paid as a high school senior. Oh, I get out of class half the day, sign me up. That's their motivation, right? Raising their hand. They don't even know. Like, are you interested in operations, in business, in finance? They're like, I don't know. I need to make some money. So, right? And so they raise their hand and that's great. Perfect. That's all. You know, you have an interest. Had young people say, I was so afraid because in my family, I am going to be the earner.

And I'm like, how? Right? My dad's got, you know, some disability and my mom's working really hard. And now I'm coming out and I don't know what job I'm supposed to take. Right? So I'm raising my hand because Genesis work showed up. So they step into this opportunity, they're paid for their summer. They've paid for their internship. So they're, they've got real money in their pocket during a vital year. That high school senior year, they're making investments in things like cars or, you know, just cheap cars that they can have that flexibility to go to and from work with. They are investing in things post high school for college and all that. And we're paying them. And they're also taking that money and spending it in their communities.

It's their money. It's in their pocket. And so that, that helps. And then ultimately the outcomes, you can say these to a high school senior and they might be slightly impressed, but it's like, whatever. I don't even know what normal outcomes would be. So it's impressive. But for the world, the, the chances that our young professionals complete college are three times that of kids without an internship opportunity. Three times. And they, they are, um, set to make 30,000, $35,000 more at 25 years old than someone who did not join the professional career pathway and is likely working in a service industry. And their starting salary is about $35,000 less than someone who's starting salary comes with, uh, professional capability.

Um, so that is the pitch. And the high school kids, you know, what's their motivation different money and I want to get out of high school, but what ends up happening is a complete transformation of their motivation. The one piece that I've been floored by is even all that work I did at perspectives and just trying to provide a more relevant education model that then would produce more meaningful outcomes. Even our most elite kids who had gone to college, had engineering degrees, would come back and ask me to help them find a job. And I'm heartbroken because I'm like, what are you talking about? You're better educated than I am. You've got an engineering degree. You're black. You've got like everything.

You've got it all. And you can't find a job. And it's like no network, no professional network. So now they're out of college. Like you said, with this college debt, they're, they're professional and capable, but they have no network and in road. And so that's something also Genesis works provides is you end up with a professional network and you're 17. And so you're using that network and you're using this organization for the next six years at minimum. That's our model. But, you know, we're never going to say no and helping you, you know, navigate your next transition. So that's the sales pitch for the young professional and the corporate side. It's an early talent pipeline. So early talent pipeline, you know, this approach, it's obviously different, right?

It's, and because the corporate is very, you know, hey, traditional, like, okay, let's post on LinkedIn. Let's get, you know, pedigree people based on their, like, I'm in the, mostly the SaaS and the tech industry. And I'm thankfully, I think about two or three years ago, they started loosening up on the, you know, having to get a degree from the best school. And I, and I always laugh, like, especially sales leaders that I would talk to. I remember this one time I was, I was not, I was presenting in front of a room and, you know, I usually do a pretty good job engaging, right? And all that stuff. Good vibe, whatever. And there was this one set and I don't want to name the company. One of the big tech firms out in California.

And during the, and I just wasn't like connecting with the audience and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. They were quiet. They weren't. And, and during the break, one of the managers comes over and I was like, hey, he's like, how you think it's going? I'm like, I think I'm bombing up there, quite frankly. I'm like, I don't think I'm, I've been never bombed on a train. I'm like, I think I'm bombing. He's like, why? I go, I don't know. I can't figure out these kids. And he goes, no, they really like it. I've gotten some really good feedback. And I go, what? And I sat there and I thought about it for a second. And I was like, can I ask, what's your hiring profile? And he said, oh, well, we hire from the best schools, the best, the best students for the best schools.

And I was like, ah, that's why I'm like, I'm a state school kid. I drank my way through four years of college and I worked my ass off. And I'm like, I'm not one of these little brainiac kids. I'm like, first of all, in sales, what are you doing? You don't want the smartest kid in the room. You want the grinder. You want the 2.5, you know, kid who worked his way through college or her way through college and grinded a dot. Like, that's the kid you want if you're in sales. But it was like the pedigree and the Stanfords and the this. And it's like, ugh. And to me, that's why I love sales as a profession because it's open to everybody. But there's still that corporate mentality of we got to get the best and that's how you can still your pitch to these corporations.

What works? Like, what resonates with them? Because you're fundamentally shifting their approach to hiring and you're making them look in a totally different direction. Not even to people of color and stuff like that, but literally to high school kids of, right? So how do you identify these companies and then convince them to take this monologue? Well, there's a couple of ways to do it. First of all, you got to make it easy for them, right? So everyone's looking for the easy button and because everyone's got too much work and not enough time. So we definitely lay out why is this cheaper, better, smarter for you as a company? And by the way, we are the employer of record. So in that case, all risk management gets, you know, people freak out of being a 17-year-old, being in a corporate environment.

That's our risk. That's your liability. And we never had it hit us in the face. You know what I'm saying? So we managed that. We managed that. Basically, it's a no-cost talent acquisition strategy for our companies. I've had companies say, I have tried to do this myself with the district schools. And I'm like, it is difficult. Security's tough. You got to pass a lot to just step in front of a bunch of kids. So if you want young high school seniors to hear about your sector being an auditor, for example, or something like that, if you partner with us, we're going to put kids in your audit firm. And guess what happens before they even go to college? They realize they sign up to be an auditor in college versus us trying to get them recruited backwards three years later in their junior year in college.

Like, we exposed them to these professions, right? So that is important, especially for companies who really see a talent shortage coming down the pipeline. How are we going to curve this? And you got to be a little bit long vision, though. You can't say, I need to turn this on a dime tomorrow because, yes, this kid is 17. So low-cost, you know, that we're the employer of record. We do the coaching, the performance management. We actually help supervisors learn how to supervise by supervising young professionals. And so that's kind of the pitch. And then we also provide illustration upon illustration of high school 17-year-olds doing impressive stuff in our law firms, in our financial firms, our professional services firms.

And we, I mean, hired out right, hired out right at the end of that internship. And it's like, how did you get that kid? It's like, because I got them when they were 17. I didn't wait until they were 22 standing in line at my table at a recruitment fair. And so that's kind of the pitch to the corporate partner side. And they have different, you know, what do they say, sort of value propositions, too, and that you want to contribute to the city that you're working in and have a difference in those communities. So they want to do that. And here's a way to do it that can pay yourself back for that investment. Love that. And to your point, it's less expensive than going the route of, you know, recruiters and paying those fees for people that might, I mean, the talent pool, to your point.

There's some professions out there that, you know, there's a million different professions and a lot of people stumble into them because it's just, you know, eventually they come across something. Whereas if you expose it to them early, it's like, no, you're creating that pipeline so that when they come out, like, they're going to pull right into your system. Right. Love. Awesome. So how do you, let's see, let's talk about breaking barriers versus building bridges here. Yeah, I'd like that question. That was interesting. I was like, hmm, maybe you really have to dig in. I was like, what do I mean by that? Really? Yeah. Talk to me about, so what's the distinction? And I guess why the transit, like, this goes to the long-term vision, too, right, of building that bridge.

Yeah, just talk to me about kind of your mentality around both of those pieces and how we apply. Okay, so barriers. I think barriers are things like parents. What have we, all of us have parents that are barriers, don't. But it's like what you are being exposed to is heavily influenced by what your parents provide you. And so if your parents are not in a career pathway that you might have an interest in, how would you ever learn about it? So, right, so Genesis Works provides, that's a barrier. The other barrier could be confidence, right? I don't even have an idea how to walk into a company and get an interview. Like, I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to apply to college. I don't know how to fill out a financial aid form.

These are straight-up barriers. So let's teach these things. Let's ensure that every young professional that's in our care has exposure. So you break these barriers, and the barriers are there because the public school system can't get to it. We need to, somebody's got to get to it. We're getting to it. And bridges, so the bridges is more like the actual placement, right? We are walking you into a company across the water into a place that you have fear about. Whether you think these are going to be old, boring people, that is going to be a bad job, and no one ever talks about sports and all that. And then we put you in there. We walk you over the bridge, put you in the position. Now, you're living this experience, but we're still there with you to make sure you succeed.

Not dropping you off and saying, bye-bye, here's your first job. Like, you're 17. So we know we're going to have to coach you on little things, big things, all of it in your first professional experience. So from then on, you're good to go. And by the way, our data really shows that. If you get an internship as a high school senior, it has more impact than if you had another one as a sophomore or as a junior in college. Like, you might never have another internship, and the outcomes for you because you had that high school senior internship are game-changing. So, you know, that's the barrier and the bridge, and maybe there's some semantics in that. But there's, you know, there's systemic barriers, which I'm not getting into those because that is not what I'm worried about.

I'm literally just worried about helping kids figure out how to get on a professional career pathway. And there are skills in it and making sure that they know what those skills are and have had experience with them and walked in. What's one of your favorite stories that I think, you know, that you think encapsulates the ethos of junior? Like, do you have a student that you saw, like, brought from here to there? Like, is there one of your favorite stories where you look at and be like, this is why I created this? Like, this scenario, this person, this company, is there one that kind of pops to the top of your head as far as, like, the why behind Genesis? Yes. Well, first of all, I did not start Genesis Works.

However, I will say that our, the charter network, we put young people through Genesis Works, and I could see the dramatic difference. I see kids who had a great charter network, but no professional internship, and kids who had it, and the professional, and you can still, to this day, see those outcomes play out. So, that's, that's my experience. Going back to just stories that keep me doing this work, and I will say, you know, working in sales, you probably made a lot more money in sales than I have. Because, you know, I'm, I'm always selling, providing high school seniors with better experiences to help our whole society. That's a sale, but I feel it, and I know it, and I've watched it, and the data is there, right?

So, what is the story is a, a young man who, you know, grows up on the west side of Chicago, raises his hand because he wants to get out of high school earlier. And he's already got the grades, you know, he's on point, so he has no idea what he wants to do. And then transitions into our summer training program. Again, which track do you want to go on? Operations or finance? He's like, ah, put me wherever. Put him on the tech side. You know, he's building computers in his internship. He's, you know, navigating software. He's literally implementing software and working on, you know, cyber security and tech tickets and just all these experiences. Also, he's completely turned on and realizes, okay, I need to stay local because of my mom.

So, I'm going to stay local, go to college here in the city and get my computer science degree. But I'm going to stay working for this company where I had my young, my internship. Stays the entire time. Ends up with this degree. Is now supervising young professionals from Genesis Works that end up in these opportunities at that company. But he's, you know, one of the decision makers and the supervisors. And then when I say, hey, what do you do, you know, what are you doing now? Are you driving a Lamborghini? Like, what's going on? You're making the big bucks. You got the college degree and all that. Here's what he says. I'm helping my family buy their first house. You know, I'm helping my sister through college.

You're like, oh my God. But, but his kids are going to drive Lamborghinis. And right. But it's this, this transition. He, he not only, you know, transformed himself, but his, the kids that come up behind him, his personal family. And yes, he's got income, but he, you know, is making a contribution to those that come behind him so that they too can have a more, you know, financially successful life and be able to afford and, you know, provide the things that have meaning to us. That's incredible. Yeah. And are the majority of the kids that you work with, are they first time going to college type of thing and their family, that type of stuff? Because nobody ever really had the opportunity to. Right.

Yeah. Right. Vast majority, which is great. And so to be able to do that while in a professional career pathway, before you actually get the degree and get the big job, that too provided stability and support while he's accessing, you know, the degree that's going to take him further faster. And yet, you know, what do you, the selflessness of what do you do with that income? I think people underestimate, you know, trickle down economics is crap, but it's almost like trickle up economics is better, right? You give people like that an opportunity, you give them money, they're going to spend it in their community, they're going to spend it on their family, they're going to spend it on stuff that matters and not put it in the stock market, not buy crypto with it.

Well, probably somewhere, but you know what I mean? It's like, it's, it's absolutely a healthy, uh, ecosystem versus. I will say though, I have asked, you know, I always ask her, you know, how, what are you doing? Some kid told me, uh, I'm, I bought my first Roth IRA. Now they're like, I didn't even know you could do that at 17, 18, like I didn't get mine until way later. Right. So we definitely teach financial literacy through Genesis works so that they are investing in themselves while making these investments in their family and their future. Yeah, I think that's the, that's the thing. It's giving them an opportunity. Yeah, it's, I have this tattoo on my arm. It says, uh, when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

And the idea there is most of us don't have any idea what privilege we have. Right. It just kind of takes it to the ground. Like for me, you know, white male in America, like, right. Seriously, me waking up in the morning and not having to worry about what I dress like. That's privilege, right? Me waking, driving down the street and getting pulled over by a cop and being able to tell a cop to piss off. That's privilege, right? Um, me having two parents that, that were economic, I mean, again, middle ish class, but had jobs, had careers. And I was just in an environment where that was normal. You know what I mean? Like financial literacy was normal to me because my parents talked to me about, they gave me it right.

And, and if you don't have that, you don't understand the disconnect. Like for, for somebody like me to hear that a kid's like, I don't know, man, just put me anywhere. It's like, wait, what? Like you don't even know what you like. It's like, no, you don't because you've never been shown anything other than. Right. What's your parents doing. Right. And your parents probably, you know, potentially working in the service industry. Yeah. You're like, do I really want to? Yeah. And the, uh, the sad part is, and this is why I love this program because the sad part is the vast majority of people I'm guessing, I don't know the exact stat, but is they don't go to school because they need to make money.

They need to support their family. So they're like, Hey, I don't have, like, I'd love to go to school, but I have to go get this $12.99, you know, $12 an hour job because I need to put food on the table because my mom can't work. My dad said, whatever it might be. And it's just like, if you give them the opportunity to learn and get paid and work, like everybody wins. Everyone wins. Literally, we all win. Think about, I mean, I, I, I think about the mathematical impact, uh, or the economic true dollar impact. I say in Chicago, we're always looking for new revenue streams, right? And like, Oh, let's bring in the Divi bike and let's bring in this other thing. And we're going to get, you know, let's charge more ticket price or what, you know, so we can get more revenue.

Cause we never have enough to cover the services we want to provide in our city. Great. This is it. I'm telling you, invest in high school seniors is like buying a, uh, uh, quantum, what, uh, you know, having quantum technology on the South side. Quantum technology is providing professional learning opportunities for high school seniors in our city. And per kid is going to generate $400,000 of tax revenue in their career. And you do that times, all these kids coming out, all of a sudden we have a new revenue stream that we haven't had. That is how I want our city to think. It's not about nice to do for young people. It's about nice to do for ourselves, for our city. And it's, it will pay itself back.

And I've seen it so many times that, like I said, there's nothing that turns me on more than this, you know, because I've watched it time and time again, a kid on a track to make $35,000 a year is making a lot more than I'm making right now. Right. So, and I'm just like, oh man, why did I, I thought I should be taking his road, but no, it's just the best. It's the, the ultimate payoff. And then our companies too, it's like, you look at how many companies that Genesis Works has pumped with outstanding employees and leaders and managers and all, it's that they're benefiting as well. And so we just need more of that same willingness. I think your point up front, like don't penny pinch for what, for your, like it's rounding errors in these company balance sheets.

So don't, don't not do this, maybe cut an expense someplace else. Uh, but this one pays us back dividends and yeah, let's just stay with this one. Right. Last question. Uh, just more logistically, just so I can understand who else to make introductions for you. Um, yeah. Are these companies all over the place or are they, are like, are, are they enterprise, mostly enterprise companies that have big, or are they small businesses, mid-sized businesses, anybody in between all the above? Okay. We have nonprofits only a couple though, because of the price, but we have for profits. We have fortune 500s. We've got mid tier size companies. We've got, like I said earlier, financial services. We've got, uh, you know, medical, we've got hospitals, um, law firms, you know?

So anyone, it's not about what the sector is or the size of the company. It's about what this, um, professional pathway can bring to individuals, companies, and our city. Perfect. Have you ever heard of sales assembly? No, I feel like maybe I should have. So I think I, I can make the introduction over there. Sales assembly is a, is a group of businesses, mostly tech and SaaS where it's, and it's Chicago focused, all Chicago companies, uh, blah, I think they might've expanded, but hype, you know, a hyper-focus on Chicago and great organization, great, you know, group of, of growing companies, like doing cool things. And I think it should be a really good, just connective tissue between two years to get some more exposure, even in the tech side of the house or the sales side.

Fabulous. That'd be terrific. All right. I'll, I'll make the intro after this. Okay, cool. So any, um, and you're, we're going to wrap it up here, but any last final thoughts or things that, uh, that you wanted to get out there to people? I think all the pressure that we can all apply to our public school system and what, what does it actually mean to be a high school senior? Uh, and, and, and making that transition into college and career pathways that we really apply pressure there on our whole society, not just the public school system, but on the corporate community as well. That when we do that, well, you know, we're setting ourselves up for future success across the board, minus any standardized test score, this is going to actually put people in a, a better successful career, career, and just, you know, personal pathway having had these experiences that are true to life and more authentic than maybe some of the experiences our high school seniors are currently having.

Love it. Awesome, Kim. Well, I love the conversation. I love what you're doing. Uh, where can people find out more information about this? Where they, how can they help? Uh, talk to me. Okay, great. Well, of course you can reach out to Kim Nicholas at Genesis Works Chicago. Um, and, uh, you know, in terms of anything additional above and beyond that, I mean, we're in the, we're in the loop, uh, for our young professionals to get to in and out easily to their, um, jobs. And, uh, I don't know, you know, if you want to call me 773. 3-8-3-5-8-7-6. I'll take your call. Uh, and looking for employers. So the more, the merrier, it only helps us accelerate how many young people we can admit to the program.

Go ahead. Awesome. Kim. Well, again, thank you so much for the conversation. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for coming. Well, I enjoyed it as well. Thank you for being so, you know, um, warm. And I'm getting, of course, uh, and yeah, keep, uh, keep fighting the good fight here. Hopefully we can kind of create the groundswell and, uh, the trickle up economics. I'm going to, I'm going to start pushing that, the triple up economics. It's trickle down. Definitely is not work. And for those of you that heard my voice crack and cry, that's standard for me when I start talking about the impact because it's a game changer and it truly changes lives, communities. And so it's also something that I, you know, talk about a lot when it comes to sales, right?

I, I personally think that the number one thing you need to be successful in sales is a belief in what you do and not just a belief, but a belief that you make a difference because when you believe, and it could be a software, it could be what it doesn't matter. But when you, when you genuinely believe in what you do, then sales is really nothing more than the transfer of enthusiasm. Yeah. Provide people the opportunity to do what is so clearly the right thing to do and something that we would all benefit from. I agree 100%. This is, would have been my answer. It's like, what would I tell my 19 year old self about sales is believe in what you're selling because if you believe in it, it's not pressure sales.

It is getting the word out for what you know to be true and helping more people come into the fold because they may not have that same experience. Yeah. That's huge. And that, and quite frankly, that is what also prevents burnout. In my experience, because if you don't believe in what you're selling and you're just doing it to get a paycheck or your commissions or whatever it is, you'll probably make some decent money for a period of time, but you will burn out because you just won't enjoy what you're doing and you won't think that you're making any difference. And there is a subconscious or conscious factor of that. But when you believe it, that's what gets you to the grind. That's what gets you through to crap.

And that's what gets you to the next level. And so that's to me is the first thing is to find something you believe in. And it's obvious you believe in this camera and I really appreciate you coming on. Well, thank you so much for the invitation. And we'll hear from you soon and listen to you all the time. Thank you. Take care. Likewise. And everybody, hopefully you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. Like I say, I've done all these podcasts here. Go out there and make somebody smell today because no matter how bad your day is going or how bad you think it went, if you make somebody smell today, you know you had a good day and the world needs a lot more of that right now. So thank you all very much and I will see you on the other side.

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