IAM207- Founder and Entrepreneur Helps Busy Parents Secure Top-Tier Education

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today I've Treasure Shields Redmond of Get The Acceptance Letter Academy. Treasure, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Treasure Shields Redmond 0:37

Oh, it's fantastic to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Yes, it's super fantastic to have you on and what I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Treasure so you can hear about all the awesome and fantastic things that she's doing. And Treasure Shields Redmond, known as the the “#DebtFreeDegree Expert", is a founder of Get The Acceptance Letter Academy. This is a community where she helps busy parents of college bound teen secure tops tier education without massive debt.Treasure, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Treasure Shields Redmond 1:06

I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:08

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Treasure Shields Redmond 1:15

Sure, you know, I am someone who didn't come from a lot. I was raised primarily in the federal housing projects in Meridian, Mississippi. And my mother, who was a brilliant woman was unable to finish college because she battled mental illness. And the other parent in my house was my grandmother, who was a woman who had come from a sharecropping background, and hadn't even finished school. So here I was, in the project, this smart little girl, and luckily, the village was in action. And there were these caring women, all who had been members of a sorority, and they gave me a book scholarship to go to Jackson State University. So that's my background, people stepping in caring adults helping me even though my family didn't have a lot of the pieces that were necessary to help me get into college. So a few years later, I am a high school English teacher, and I am seeing so many Treasures, so many, so many students who are like me, coming out of poor backgrounds, who have parents who have a lot of positive feelings about their future, but not the tools or the strategies to help them achieve those goals. So I became the teacher that started to pull people to the side and help them with their essays and help them fill out the FAFSA, help them find scholarships, and over a 20 year teaching career first in high school. And then as a college professor, I just gained more and more expertise for how to navigate college admissions. And it grew into what is now a thriving community of parents, it operates on a subscription model, they pay a small monthly fee. And inside of the subscription community, they get downloadables principals, videos, lessons, and I come in live and talk to them. And there's a moment where they can schedule for me to work privately with their college bound family. So that is how Get The Acceptance Letter was born.

Gresham Harkless 3:15

That is absolutely awesome, you know that you had that experience. And now you're looking to get back. It's funny that you say that because one of my very first ventures a buddy of mine in high school, we started this organization that eventually was called Metacharacter, Virginia. But one of the most important things that we wanted to do was to basically help young men especially to be able to navigate the process of getting to college, because it is a navigation that you need to know kind of like how to do it. And a lot of that sometimes is unknown. So it was great to hear that, you know, you've been able to do that for yourself, but you're also giving back to others, you know, through your community.

Treasure Shields Redmond 3:50

It's so true. I mean, you know, the process is full of jargon and acronyms and all these little landmines that if you make this one little mistake, it could really cost your kids 1000s of dollars. So yeah, I'm, I'm really excited about all the success stories I get to take part in because it's there's almost a guarantee if you have a competent guide and mentor that a kid who wants to go to college will get in and we'll be able to do a debt free.

Gresham Harkless 4:18

Absolutely, absolutely. And like you said, it takes a village and you creating that village as well. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about this village as you have your community and what you're doing to kind of help support these students and parents.

Treasure Shields Redmond 4:29

Well, you know, what I discovered was that parents just need someone to break it down and show them how to move from step one to moving them into the dorm with their mini fridge. How do you get from this kid is in high school and I can't get them to study to I'm driving away from campus. You know what I'm saying? I've moved them into a dorm and I created a 12 step debt free degree blueprint and it starts with just filling out a scholarship questionnaire and it includes all kinds of strategies creating a college resume, how to write, scholarship winning essays, how to even secure your ACT scores or SAT scores, how to get PDFs of your transcripts, like all of those things that you kind of need in your war chest, not just to apply to college, but to apply to scholarships, you know, quickly. And it would seem that in high schools that they would be, you know, kind of making these steps clear these strategies clear. But the truth is, they don't think about it in the way that someone who's a parent, and a teacher thinks about it. And I think that's one of the strengths that I bring to the table. I've parented children, a child of my son, who is now a freshman in college. And I have taught high schoolers headed to college and people who just entered college and freshman writing classes. So that's a little bit more about what's inside that community.

Gresham Harkless 5:57

Nice. And that's, you know, definitely, you know, great to hear. Because, you know, like I mentioned before, understanding the game and understanding how to navigate that game and what things to do to be able to set yourself up for success and set the kids up for success is insanely important. And I love the fact that you broke it down to like those 12 steps because a lot of times, you know, for some people maybe being and going to college and later than on going to college from that debt free perspective is something that is not possible in some people's eyes, but to be able to just like any big goal to break it down step by step makes it a lot more manageable to be able to achieve that.

Treasure Shields Redmond 6:30

So true. And you know, a lot of the I did a podcast I have a podcast called Get The Acceptance Letter. And every week I share, um, you know, strategies and tools for getting into college and doing it debt free. And one of the podcast episodes I created was called we know about first generation but what about second generation shakey? So you know, a lot of us we've moved on past the first gen status, like we're no longer giving birth to children who are first gen or our first gen ourselves, but a lot of us are second gen shakey. The people who did go to college, they weren't they didn't become experts in it, right? Just because you work at a hospital doesn't make you a doctor. So just because our parents went to college doesn't make them experts on how to get in and how to do it without the massive debt. So it you know, that was about the majority of parents in my community are part of that second generation shakey generation. Where they have college experience, they probably had parents who went to college, or they were the first one and now their child isn't going to be the first one. But they kind of did it hook and crook you know, I barely got in or when I got in, I just took out a bunch of loans. There are a lot of parents in my community who one of the reasons such a fire is lit under them about not taking out loans is because they're still paying back loans. And they have a 17 year old child that lets you know that those loans are crazy.

Gresham Harkless 7:56

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's great to hear that you're empowering people to do that. You might have already touched on this, but could you touch on maybe a secret sauce or something you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization?

Treasure Shields Redmond 8:08

Hmm, you know what, I think that teaching background where I break things down, you know, I have a FAFSA tutorial that has about almost 30,000 views now where I just go slide by slide, just breaking it down. So my you know, my tech is to break that things down into steps. I also tell people, you know, get those five items, if you can get those five items together, you can apply to college and scholarships, and those five items are, recommendation letters, a college resume, a copy of your transcripts, a copy of your test scores and a couple of essays. If you just have those five things, if you can get together with your team and pull together those five things, you will be a good bit of the way toward your goal.

Gresham Harkless 8:58

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Yeah, I love that, again, breaking down everything to just these five simple things that you need. That'll put you at a different level. And I love how that's broken down. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Treasure Shields Redmond 9:15

Well, one of the things that I do is I found a way to batch produce my media and my social media. So there's a wonderful app called Anchor. It's anchor.fm. And it's a podcasting app. So I'm sure you know that when you do the podcast, you have to pay for the hosting for your audio. And it can be a bit of a learning curve to get the podcast art, right. Certain platforms won't take it if it's not the right number of pixels and type of file. So I found a way to hack that by using Anchor FM which is a podcasting app where you just upload the audio and they handle everything else. So on Sunday nights I do a YouTube Live. Its called scholarship talk live, then I take the audio, pull it off of the video, and it becomes Wednesday's podcast. Every Monday, I send out scholarships to my list who are paying and one scholarship to my larger list who are just following me for tips and strategies. And Wednesday, I tell them about the podcast, and Friday, I give some freebie last Friday's freebie was the list of all the colleges on the common app. And I told my followers that they could go through the list and find all the ones where it doesn't cost anything to apply to the college and apply to all those first, you know, fish with a net and with the hook and see what kind of response you get. So the way that I've streamlined how I am keeping in contact with my community that pays my community that follows via my email list. And my community that follows on the various social medias, is a big CEO hack. A lot of us are afraid of technology, and I get it. But you've got to get a basic mastery, you've got to get a basic mastery of live video and whatever other way you're gonna stay in touch with your community, whether it be blogging, podcasting, or video, you need to get a basic grasp of it.

Gresham Harkless 11:19

Absolutely. Yeah, those are great CEO hacks. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Treasure Shields Redmond 11:30

If I could hop into a time machine, I would just say execute, go ahead and execute you know, you you often hear that phrase, shoot, then aim. I don't know what famous guru probably said that. But you know, so often, especially with women entrepreneurs, there's the you know, the the disease for perfection, the disease to please and, you know, perfection moms, everybody wants to have a perfect website and a perfect logo and you know all their legal paperwork in order before they even launch. And the truth is, put up a sales page have a way for people to pay you. You can even launch your program or service as a live experience. You know, there are so many people I know who, whether it's taxes, spreadsheets, how to look wonderful on camera, interior design, they launched it as a live experience. They said, hey, come join me over the next four to eight weeks, I'm going to come live and give you these strategies. I'm going to email you some things to go with it. And then they turn that into an evergreen webinar series or a series of courses. So my nugget would be do it stop waiting for it to be perfect. And do it you can shoot and then you can course correct and improve it later shoot then aim.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

Absolutely that's a great CEO nugget. And I don't know who said it either. But I feel like I've been listening to it and doing it as well. Could you just try to keep moving forward. And I always say tell everybody is the 1.0 version. So anytime it's not necessarily perfect. Just tell him he's gonna continue to get better. Because that's kind of like the mentality you have to have.

Treasure Shields Redmond 13:09

Very true.

Gresham Harkless 13:09

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Treasure, I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Treasure Shields Redmond 13:22

Being a CEO means to me that I've taken control of my destiny. You know, you and I talked a little bit before this, a few what was it last week, probably about a week, just in preparation for this. And one of the things that we touched on in that conversation was we've all been raised to be employees, and you know, for some people to find their fulfillment, and you know, really enjoy being a part of a company or part of a team rising in the ranks as a as an employee, that's fine. But I think there are a lot more people who could be CEOs. If that mindset of the buck stops with me, my income is determined by me, if they could accept that and get over their fear of stepping out and moving into CEO territory. So my CEO nugget would be that anyone can be a CEO, if they're willing to take control of their own destiny.

Gresham Harkless 14:16

Absolutely. I love that. And I love that perspective. Because a lot of times that's what it's about, you know, taking control of your destiny, whether you're an employee, whether you are a CEO of a big huge company, or you are a solopreneur or whatever it is, it's all about taking control and saying I want X, Y and Z and I'm gonna do what needs to be done to make that happen. So I think that's a phenomenal reminder and Treasure, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course how best they can get a hold of you listen to your podcast and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing.

Treasure Shields Redmond 14:47

Oh fantastic. You know, this is the part of the year for those busy parents who are raising college bound seniors. This is the part of the year where where the reality is hitting them that we are less than five months away from graduation. It's January it's the end of January you got February, March, April and in May a lot of our cousins are baby. Do you have anyone graduating in your family?

Gresham Harkless 15:11

Yes.

Treasure Shields Redmond 15:12

So get your get your gift cards ready because it's happening in May. And you know what, unfortunately, there are still parents who because of many reasons haven't even gotten started, haven't had their kiddo fill out the FAFSA, they haven't applied to colleges, they're still hoping to take the ACT in what February and the SAT in March to get a better score. And I want to tell them take heart, everything's gonna be fine. It's never too late to start, but you got to start now. And if they're interested in finding tools and strategies for free about how to get out of the hole that they may feel they're in, they can go to gettheacceptanceletter.online and they're all kinds of things there to help them especially the parents who are parents of seniors and fill in behind the God.

Gresham Harkless 16:03

Absolutely. Treasure I truly appreciate you for developing all this content and all this information of course, you know, dedicating your time and your energy and your life to this. So again, I truly appreciate you for your time today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Treasure Shields Redmond 16:16

You too and I love this podcast.

Outro 16:20

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai