The blog post below is a rough transcription of the video above – so please listen to the video if possible – otherwise, here is what was on the video:
I just finished my speech at the University of Houston entrepreneurship school.
You know what's really exciting about this? It is hands-down the most diverse program in the entire nation.
I will tell you speaking to that classroom totally diverse. It was unbelievable, such an experience.
I just have to say, it was really awesome because I wasn't expecting it to be so good. It sounds horrible to say that, but I had all my slides prepared, like I had also done this thing where I had my speech priority and everything.
But you know what I realized? Sometimes you just have to speak from the heart and I was surprised but apparently I was just so open, like I have been broken open.
This past weekend I was in Austin at a conference specifically for entrepreneurs, mostly female entrepreneurs, and they were just talking about the importance of like purpose and grit and passion and how that's so important.
I think today was kind of the first day I had experience being able to really express full why I created my company.
Out towards the end it was amazing. First of all it was a 45-minute speech, which doesn't sound like a long time, but that's a long time. Then it was 45 minutes of questions.
They were kids who are smart, like kids are smart, they ask hard questions. I was like "That's a hard question dude!"
These kids were ranging between the age of like 18 to about 26 want to be entrepreneurs and learn how it's done.
What it takes, everything, and I just got real with them.
I talked about the four key factors of being an entrepreneur. The first thing I said was branding matters and I showed them some of my first websites that we had.
Some of you that if it would be for a long time have seen the evolution of our brand because we started off kind of ugly. Kind of like you know with braces. The training wheels on the tricycle that's how we started.
Then we grew and made this incredibly beautiful brand. Really being able to share our message and having the right copywriters write our copy in this design and everything.
It's just they were floored at the evolution and I said "branding matters." There's a reason why people buy from Apple versus Micro Center. And I love Apple all the way, just so you know, if that makes you mad.
The second thing I talked about was being a CEO and what that means. I asked them what a CEO stands for, and they said Chief Executive Officer, and I said "No, it stands for Chief Emotional Officer and Chief Energy Officer."
I talked all about the importance of understanding how important your emotional compass is.
I'm sure there's parents to be, moms, dads or anybody listening to me right now that knows there's nothing worse than feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and anxiety, and frustration.
I talked a lot about about what that's like. It's not always peachy keen in my world. Like there are times where I'm not even doing Facebook, like I'm just going through a lot, or there's a lot of stuff going on in the world, or you know parents share with me about what's going on.
Yesterday, I talked to a mom, and her son was extremely bullied to the point where they have to take classes, at home, that are online to make sure their kid is safe.
I'm like, "What? I am here, you lean on me honey, I am here. We will send the right coach over so they're taken care of." That is not okay, you know?
It's not always easy and I talked about being Chief Emotional Officer.
The third thing I talked about was "Teamwork makes the dream work." And that is true.
The weirdest part was two of the students came up to me afterwards were like, "Dude, I know people on your team," I was like "What?" So again, "I know that tutor." I was like "really?" "Ya, like a friend of mine and they're do the brightest of the brightest."
I know because literally I only hire certain amount of coaches.
I said, "Just so you know, I get a hundred resumes a week to be on my team in any position." We constantly have resumes it's like a non-stop issue of people that want to join us, you know professors, whatever you want to name, like tons.
It's amazing that our team is such a rock star team and two people randomly in entrepreneurship class we're like "Dude, I know part of your team."
It was like get passed, in a way and out of myself, to realize that if you want to build a company, you need a team.
I tell parents all the time. "You want have a rock star kid? You need a team honey."
I'm sure to tell you my mom was not the only one involved in my success, neither was my dad. They were awesome, they were rock stars too, but they were busy. My parents worked 8 in the morning till 11 at night, 7 days a week. You think they are time to check my homework? No, okay, teamwork makes the dream work.
There are mentors, coaches, academic coaches, tutoring consultants, piano teachers, soccer teachers, theater teachers, who all teach for a reason.
Because we love kids.
I'm going to tell you it's kind of crazy but here to tell you teamwork makes the dream work.
The last thing I talked about was purpose because these are purpose driven kids you know that age that millennial group, they want purpose. They want to make a difference.
When I asked them what entrepreneurship is, no one said I want to make a million bucks. No one said I want to be Elon Musk. No one said I want to run tests against an industry.
Do you want to know the answers when I first started? If there's a problem I want to create the solution. I want to make a change. I want to make a difference. So we've installed different hardware on these kids. These are like humans 3.0.
I'm here to tell you they want to have purpose. I talked a lot about why I started what I did, the purpose behind what I do. The fact that I like sleep, eat, breathe, dream, about my work.
I told them a little story. I said you know sometimes when I snooze in the morning, for 30 more minutes, I am awake. I'm like oh man I gotta handle that email, more about that mom that needs tutoring, who didn't reschedule her appointment, we need to talk to her, and I can't go back to bed.
As if that's how hungry you have to be. If you want to be successful you've got to be that hungry.
You got to be ready to work hard.
It was really a great lecture. Big time. My four key components.
Then they ask questions and at the end like ten kids came up to me. I couldn't believe that they like one of them was like, "Dude, we've had 14 speakers come through and like this is the best speech we'd ever heard."
That's a high tall order, they've got some entrepreneurs coming in there that make a lot more than I do that have bigger teams than I do. That are much more successful than I am.
Financially, and numbers, and scalability of their businesses, and disruption to the market because I know some of the entrepreneurs that have spoken in that class and I was so surprised.
I told them, I said "You know after this week, I realized what are my skills, why I love being a project manager."
A lot of people don't realize that like I actually love being the project manager under the mom and dad. If you look at the org shirt it says like mom and dad. It would be like me underneath and then their children.
I will tell you it's awesome because I love doing that and I am not used to always being in the front or being on stage or speaking and. I told them I like what I'm used to just getting a lot of stuff done.
I love to get stuff done.
I love to work for my clients.
I love to make sure we get those essays done, the resume done.
I love to make sure the test preps happening, like I am your project manager. I'm doing the schedule things. I love to make sure the deadlines are happening.
I keep your kid on track, like keep them on my track.
It was just interesting getting such positive feedback. I know I work hard.
You know I wonder if like this is what parents feel like? You work so hard, but you never hear back the feedback like am I being a good parent today? Or was today a lucky day? Did I suck at being a president of this household?
I hear that a lot from moms, which is why I always tell moms and dads like you are awesome, like you made a baby that is pretty smart, let's just a tweek them a little bit!
I know it's funny but I'm actually feeling a lot more free today because I just have so much energy from like a hundred students in me. I don't if you can feel that.
Anyway, like I was saying I was floored you know, and I know that typically I'm always prepared and I have a perfectly written out speech. Certain things I do are perfectly scripted.
For the first time ever I just made a few slides and was like I'm just gonna gauge the energy of this room. Based on the energy of this room, I'll go from there and I've never done that before.
I'm more of a systemized kid. You know the kid that like prepares everything and wants to do it right and prepares the script etc. I'm telling you I had more impact in that room that I've ever had before really.
It felt like it so I just had to share that with you guys. It's huge it was huge breakthrough moment for me you know for a while I was like really getting geared up to do more speaking engagements etc.
Then there's a point in time I'm like I don't know if I'm good enough. I know that sounds crazy but like the teenager and me still worried. It's like am I still good enough to be on stage do all that for stuff because really I thought I'd be behind the scenes and get the work done.
I'm realizing I have a message to share and I have a passion that is so big.
It's like I'm pregnant with passion.
It's like you eat too much and then you feel like there's no more space, but my sister would do this thing where we would eat together. You may not know this, but I eat a lot of food like a disturbingly large amount for someone who's five-one.
What I will say is, yes, pregnant with passion, right? That's where I was going with it.