The Relational Parenting Podcast

Samantha (00:01.859)
I love the camera.

Jennifer Hayes (00:02.911)
All right. It went from four to zero. Okay. All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Relational Parenting Podcast. This week is week five of the education series that we started back in the very beginning of March. And today we have Samantha with the company Sam Catalysts.

Jennifer Hayes (00:30.210)
with families to plan their children's educations. And that can start anywhere from pre-birth to 18 years old. And so she's a strategic education planner and helps families look at all of their options and figure out what is best for their family. So Samantha, without further ado,

Samantha (00:44.497)
you

Jennifer Hayes (01:00.150)
yourself and tell us a little bit more about your company.

Samantha (01:05.937)
Thank you, Jennifer. I'm so happy to be here. Well, my company is really born out of my 20-plus year career in education. And I started really questioning my opportunities growing up for independent schools, for just the many options growing up in Baltimore. How in the world did my family and my parents, in particular, figure out where to send

Jennifer Hayes (01:09.255)
Yes.

Jennifer Hayes (01:24.333)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (01:36.077)
us. And as I continued going through my experience, going through Catholic or parochial elementary and middle school, then going into an independent school with a scholarship, we didn't know that independent school existed. So there was a whole world of education options that my parents weren't aware of. And so as I continued going on and just questioning and just being really curious about what's available to different families, because I could see, and either in my family or

Jennifer Hayes (01:36.992)
Mm.

Samantha (02:05.997)
in my friends that we were all going to different places. So fast forward, I go to college, I go to grad school for education, and I start teaching as my first real job out of grad school. And then I go into education research because I'm still trying to figure out what are all these options? Some are better than others, some are more appropriate than others, but then I also heard and read

Jennifer Hayes (02:07.850)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (02:10.252)
Hmm.

Samantha (02:35.897)
I experienced a lot of the negatives where schools weren't great for some families, for some communities. And the more I studied and the more I went further in my career, I got to a place where I really landed in strategy. And it was not planned in a way that I could look back and say, this is exactly where I said I would end up.

Jennifer Hayes (02:42.092)
Hmm.

Samantha (03:06.077)
and more how organizations, so school districts or nonprofits or even just individual schools, how they thought about what they were offering to families, what they were offering to communities. And a lot of the leaders, once I was further into my career, a lot of my work focused on how do we improve, how do we do what we do better, and really bringing in equity in ways in the last maybe five

Papa Rick (03:21.493)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (03:24.713)
Yeah.

Samantha (03:36.217)
that we weren't talking about 20 years ago when I was just starting to teach. And so a lot of the work that I did before I transitioned into starting my own company was really around these bigger questions of what is the aim of the organization that we are leading. And it's a big question that it's really hard to turn a ship quickly. And you have to know

Jennifer Hayes (04:04.514)
Yeah.

Samantha (04:05.937)
where you're turning it to and why, and what you need to put in place with organizations, change became too slow for me. Now I still consult with organizations, but I really wanted to focus on how can I help families think about what their longer term plans are for their children. And one of the reasons I started doing this and I founded my company is because as I was working with schools

Jennifer Hayes (04:15.523)
Hmm.

Samantha (04:35.997)
talking with parents, they were asking these questions. And I thought, well, the schools are not

Jennifer Hayes (04:40.250)
Yeah.

Samantha (04:45.437)
Some schools are not designed, no, let me take that back. Every school can serve its students well. I think the question that I started hearing more and more was is this the right school for me, for my family, for my child? And finding that right path for that family became something I was really curious about and started thinking that there's a way to support families

Papa Rick (05:10.594)
Hmm.

Samantha (05:15.457)
supporting leaders of organizations to think more strategically. So I started talking more with families, talking more with parents, inviting conversations, but then parents were also asking me questions out of the blue. And I thought, well, there's something there.

Jennifer Hayes (05:30.334)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (05:32.770)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Papa Rick (05:34.891)
Yeah, I can think of a number of people that would benefit from that.

Jennifer Hayes (05:40.530)
Especially like in a lot of our education episodes so far, we've talked, I think every episode we've touched on students with non-typical needs, especially looking at different kinds of schools. You know, the primary enrollment being public school and then all the other options around that.

Samantha (05:40.832)
Mm.

Samantha (05:54.370)
Okay.

Samantha (05:57.419)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (06:10.830)
on in your description is working with schools and systems on the inequity. And I'm curious what...

Samantha (06:20.897)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (06:24.410)
if you can tell me more about that piece of it.

Samantha (06:30.637)
So there are a lot of different components to what that could look like. The most typical way that that shows up in the work that I do is

Jennifer Hayes (06:35.592)
Yeah.

Samantha (06:44.618)
is around racial equity.

Jennifer Hayes (06:47.050)
Okay. I wondered, but I didn't want to assume.

Samantha (06:48.601)
as sort of the entry.

Samantha (06:51.417)
Yeah, no, I mean, as the entry point. Now, I think once an organization thinks more deeply about that and tries to figure out what that means for them, it tends to, the way I like to say it, is giving every child what they need to succeed. And that becomes really challenging given, really,

Jennifer Hayes (07:12.400)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (07:21.297)
really go back to just why schools exist in the first place. And a lot of the changes that I think the field is making in terms of making organizations more able to serve all students equally well. And it doesn't necessarily mean giving every child the same pathway, for example, or giving them all the same pace of learning.

Papa Rick (07:45.731)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (07:45.950)
great.

Jennifer Hayes (07:48.850)
break.

Samantha (07:51.297)
anymore because the purpose of education, if you think about why we wanted to educate children in the same way, along the same pathway, for whatever the purpose was 100 years ago, 50 years ago, but now every child is a unique learner. And we still have sort of this universalized approach, standardized approach to education.

Jennifer Hayes (08:07.921)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (08:12.753)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (08:18.635)
Yeah.

Samantha (08:21.337)
there are so many schools that are working to break free of that. I think two or three or four or five different podcast episodes could go into really how different schools are positioned to be able to support all the students that come to them and the differences between public education and independent schools and what their flexibility is, what their resource capacity is really factors into how they can really serve students well.

Samantha (08:51.597)
But the equity piece was really important for me was, the reason the equity piece is so important to me is, again, visibly, I am a Black woman and I grew up in an education environment where I was one of few Black students all through school. And I also was introduced to wealth inequality.

Jennifer Hayes (09:13.035)
No.

Samantha (09:21.677)
status, I mean, going from the school. So we are not independently wealthy. We did not grow up in the wealthiest of circumstances. And so when I went into my independent school environment for high school, I saw and experienced firsthand the difference in wealth. And then I started thinking, okay, this is different. This feels different. And then in my career, I could see resources

Jennifer Hayes (09:22.371)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (09:40.833)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (09:48.355)
Yeah.

Samantha (09:51.517)
inequality, both from organizational standpoints, like a public school getting funding versus an independent school, and just a family's circumstance. What do they have available to them in terms of financial resources that will allow them to select from a pool of school options that's vastly different depending on how much money you have.

Jennifer Hayes (10:04.313)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (10:20.114)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (10:20.310)
Yeah. Do you ever? So there is definitely a socioeconomic difference. And when we're on here talking about, we've done a lot of talking about if you're advocating inside the public school, and public schools have the resources, and they want to do what's best for each child,

Jennifer Hayes (10:50.370)
as much as they can, but sometimes the resources just are not available. And then your option there becomes to change schools or homeschool. Homeschooling could be considered a luxury for some people. Like if you have, unless, one, either both parents continue to work and you pay someone else to homeschool your child, or one of the parents has to stay home and homeschool the child.

Jennifer Hayes (11:20.790)
income. And private school requires income. And I don't know enough about things like scholarships or grants or things like that. But I'm curious what options are out there. Are there even things that help people who come to the conclusion that the public school

Samantha (11:22.018)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (11:51.452)
But they also can't afford what a different education might cost.

Samantha (12:01.203)
Mm-hmm. That's a loaded scenario.

Papa Rick (12:05.011)
That's a very complicated scenario too. We, I raised kids in a rural setting where if someone needed a behavior disorder classified kid needed to be shipped to another town that had that resource. Cause we, we were in rural Illinois. We had about $4,000 per kid and to ship a kid up to Peoria, you know, to get them the program they needed.

Samantha (12:08.118)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (12:34.331)
thousand dollars I remember and so that's how do you split that up on a practical matter there's a we have a different tax base the Collier counties around Chicago they were more at that time this was in the 90s early 90s had more like 15 or 18 thousand dollars per child on average per year and we had

Jennifer Hayes (12:37.250)
Jesus.

Samantha (12:51.497)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (13:04.451)
figure out how to spend the same amount on every child in America no matter where they're sitting that's going to be a hard if you have a if you have an unusual need and you are in a restricted area right for whatever reason then that's going to it'll never be perfect I understand that but boy we sure could do a better job of evening things out a little bit you know

Samantha (13:32.962)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (13:34.470)
Well, and that's, so I'm not necessarily asking about the system inside the school, you know, the per capita per child. I'm talking about families who have gone through the public school system and tried to utilize all the resources that that school can afford and the school just isn't the right setting. Whether it's the resources or the teachers or the administrator, like whatever it is, maybe there's kids there they don't get along with.

Papa Rick (13:54.014)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (14:04.550)
different things. I was asking more about the options outside of public school being much more expensive and if there are options for families to get aid.

Papa Rick (14:05.922)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (14:25.359)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (14:26.953)
in doing those things.

Samantha (14:31.538)
So the short answer is yes, but, or maybe there's an and. Yes and it depends on where you live. So geographically, it depends on your state. It depends on.

Jennifer Hayes (14:35.650)
Bye.

Jennifer Hayes (14:40.796)
Hehehehe

Jennifer Hayes (14:43.714)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (14:44.276)
Check.

Jennifer Hayes (14:46.257)
Yeah.

Samantha (14:51.097)
the options really that are within your reach, whether that's virtually within your reach, there's a lot of new models that are, and I'm still learning more about this, but a lot of new models where you're taking courses online, you can actually attend virtual, you can do schooling virtually, but still be enrolled, you still enroll in a school. So it's not a homeschooling option

Jennifer Hayes (15:07.657)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (15:13.097)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (15:15.270)
Eh, eh.

Samantha (15:21.837)
you're physically at home and there's an adult that is teaching you and maybe your sibling or one other child, there's actually online school. Now, so virtual education and every independent school you would have to inquire, so whatever is within your reach. So this is where a lot of the questions that come to me from parents originate is that

Jennifer Hayes (15:31.255)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (15:51.437)
or they're considering an option for the first time and they're wondering, this is my first time, I think I like these schools, but I'm not sure which one makes the most sense. Can I even afford it? How would I go about affording it? How early do I need to start planning? Is there a wait list? What's the process? If it's a charter school, is there a lottery? Is there really, I was gonna say a pipeline,

Jennifer Hayes (16:16.450)
Hmm.

Samantha (16:21.277)
that's language that gets used in this space as well. But what are the schools that are good for students to start in so that they can kind of have that pathway to another good school that a parent may be eyeing? So when I get those types of questions about, is this even available or affordable to me or what's out there in terms of financial assistance, whether it's financial aid, scholarships, grants,

Samantha (16:51.117)
That's the type of legwork that parents will begin to do. And it helps to have narrowed down at least the direction that you're going in. So some families say, we are committed to public education. And unless there's some circumstance that would really jeopardize my vision for my child, we want to stick with public schools. And I've had families tell me that.

Jennifer Hayes (16:54.292)
Yeah.

Samantha (17:21.297)
I want my child to be in the environment that's right for them, whether that's public, private, parochial, whatever that is. And so we start to go back and say, well, then what is your vision? And try to unpack what that is, but then why that is, so that we can start to maybe narrow down the schools that they're looking for. And then you can say, well, out of these five schools,

Papa Rick (17:39.273)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (17:44.251)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (17:51.718)
or scholarship opportunities are. And that typically is the route that I see a lot of parents taking.

Papa Rick (18:00.931)
Well, it sounds like there's a real niche for, and what it sounds like to me is basically a consultant who specializes in knowing the school systems in an area that can help a parent, especially a young parent, especially with early children that haven't been through, you know, when you have your first kid, you don't know nothing usually. And to have somebody who can call and say, well, you know, let me look around, or has already looked around for somebody else

Samantha (18:24.184)
Right.

Papa Rick (18:31.011)
a similar, you know, I have an autistic child or I, you know, I have all these special needs. I'm getting, my kids getting bullied here. Let's find a better fit, you know, and be, and being strategic in, in schooling your kids. Yeah, that sounds great.

Papa Rick (00:00.153)
need of, you know, that's not just right down the middle average educate yourself kid.

Samantha (00:06.759)
Well, that's actually so important because again, the universalization of education, it's easier to just kind of mass produce things than to do things more individualized and it requires more resources. And it...

Jennifer Hayes (00:19.550)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (00:26.873)
as easier as in cheaper, ultimately in everything, time, money, you know, yeah, yeah.

Samantha (00:31.339)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So there's that balance that I find a lot of parents are trying to strike between you have to go to school, so that's compulsory. And what's the best environment that you can then balance between what you're able to supplement, complement alongside what's happening in the classroom

Papa Rick (00:36.878)
you

Samantha (01:01.481)
I know a lot of parents with exactly.

Papa Rick (01:01.593)
That's right. What's the best outcome? It's not, nothing's going to be ideal, but helping, helping parents engineer the best outcome they can manage that's available. Yeah.

Samantha (01:10.462)
Absolutely.

Samantha (01:13.819)
That's it. That's it.

Jennifer Hayes (01:15.490)
Well, and it's also, it's not always, we've spent a lot of time on every episode of the education series on special needs or atypical needs. And there's also Samantha in your work specifically, there's another component which is the parents and or child's combined goals for where they actually are headed.

Samantha (01:26.806)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (01:45.590)
to college? Are they headed to trade school? Are they headed to, you know...

Jennifer Hayes (01:52.270)
Are they headed to being an entrepreneur? Are they going to be a musical artist? They're going to go to a musician-specific high school. The path that someone chooses has so many different pieces. What you do is really extremely strategic.

Jennifer Hayes (02:23.052)
individualize the education for each of each of their children. I would think even inside of a family, the children might go to different school paths.

Samantha (02:29.119)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (02:34.553)
Yep. Yeah. Even Decatur, even, even the little town I'm in has three or four schools that a kid could go to, magnet schools and that kind of thing. And that, that would really add value to be able to pick and choose per kid. Yeah. They have tremendous and long-term value. This is an investment when they're young that turns into a mountain in interest later on, you know.

Samantha (02:35.019)
Yes. Yes.

Samantha (02:50.260)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (02:59.762)
Absolutely.

Samantha (03:03.019)
Absolutely. I like to think of it as helping families to zoom out before we get super specific, because I think a lot of the urgency comes from, I need to make a decision, because the full year cycle is requiring me to right now. And what I'm hoping that I will eventually be able to

Papa Rick (03:04.273)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (03:17.371)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (03:17.417)
Right.

Papa Rick (03:22.094)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (03:32.999)
is to start that thinking early, so that once you're faced with that decision, again, unless you have unlimited resources and you can simply say, I want my kid, and even then, you can't

Samantha (03:49.639)
You can't buy your way into every school. When I say that, I mean, afford the tuition because there is a limit. And so you do still have to make a choice or make a decision. Sometimes it's just easier when you have more available resources. But when you start to take sort of that big step back and think bigger picture earlier, you already have done some of that heavy thinking

Papa Rick (03:52.917)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (03:56.513)
Yeah. Yeah.

Samantha (04:19.659)
bit easier when it comes time to pull the trigger and make a decision in the moment, it feels less daunting. And I've had families say that too, where I ran a workshop and one of the moms, her daughter's three, and she said, you know, I'm really putting in a lot of effort right now to think ahead. And it was a three day workshop.

Papa Rick (04:23.521)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (04:49.799)
each day. And after the first day, I'm sorry, the second day when we came back and reflected on that first day, she said, you know, it didn't seem like a lot to think about. It was a few questions, but she said, I thought about it some more and it's actually a lot to think about. And she didn't, yeah, she didn't say it was overwhelming, but she didn't realize that one question really, you know, spawns a whole set of questions. And so it's really just going deeper and deeper.

Papa Rick (05:16.953)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha (05:19.619)
By the end of the time together, we'd gone through a dozen or so questions and she said, wow, this is a lot to think about. Thank you. And it actually confirmed that she was on the right path for what was right for her and her family. But she also said there were things that she hadn't thought about that were helpful. So it's really about just getting, really getting to the core of as a parent, as a caregiver,

Papa Rick (05:29.153)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha (05:50.619)
ultimate vision is and you may not know if it's I need my child to go to the same college that I went to if you even went to college or it could be I never went to college and my child has to. It's individual and my role I see is really guiding families to identify what their right path is.

Papa Rick (06:04.554)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha (06:14.299)
And it can always change too, that's the other thing. Circumstances change.

Papa Rick (06:18.893)
Yeah. Timing. Timing is everything.

Jennifer Hayes (06:19.050)
That was going to be my question. That was, well, and you also, like you talk about that you really like to work with pre-parents and new parents or getting children young, right, and helping them start to plan their education as early as possible. You get a jump start on things, thinking ahead, that gives parents some time to really parse

Samantha (06:20.743)
Yeah!

Papa Rick (06:34.116)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (06:50.891)
and waiting lists can be five years long. So working that early on, eventually they might put an 18-year plan in place for their child. Child turns seven and shows a serious knack for like, oh, I can play six musical instruments now and they have to change course.

Samantha (07:13.419)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (07:19.130)
a family navigate that, like where you help them put a plan in place or maybe they had a plan in place and then sought your services because all of a sudden, okay, child has an opinion, child shows promise in these specific areas where they had to, yeah, go in and switch gears a little bit.

Samantha (07:43.601)
Yes.

Samantha (07:47.319)
So that's an interesting question, because when I think of strategy, a strategy is really about your actions along the way. And so strategy is what you do. And a mom that I was working with, four children. And so, Papa Rick, getting back to what you were saying, having multiple children in the same family going different places, this mom got a whiteboard.

Jennifer Hayes (07:55.492)
Mm.

Jennifer Hayes (08:07.650)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (08:12.674)
Yeah.

Samantha (08:17.519)
out where her children, so as early, as young as, not yet in kindergarten, and then I think the oldest was in fourth grade. And so managing where all of her children were going, and it'd be nice if all of the kids could go to one school because it was possible, but was it right? Because each of the kids are different. So the oldest child is twice exceptional.

Papa Rick (08:29.253)
Okay.

Jennifer Hayes (08:29.472)
Go.

Papa Rick (08:47.274)
No, boy.

Samantha (08:47.519)
of different needs were arising there and it was like, oh, we have to, we have to make some different decisions now because we now have more information. We now have more direction. And so it was, it was really a situation where, because mom and her husband had been thinking about, this is even before coming to me, they were really deeply thinking about now and in the future. Oops, sorry about that. Um, actually.

Papa Rick (08:54.033)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (09:15.810)
Okay. Do you need to set that back up?

Samantha (09:18.419)
Yeah, yep. I had this all like easily set up. This might work.

Papa Rick (09:18.640)
I talk with my hands too. That's a good thing, I think.

Jennifer Hayes (09:21.792)
I think.

Papa Rick (09:26.653)
Take a minute if you need. Natalie's gonna hate us.

Jennifer Hayes (09:26.835)
It's okay. It's okay.

Jennifer Hayes (09:30.850)
I smacked my microphone, I think, for the first five or six episodes. Like, I could not get a handle on not waving my hands in front of my face.

Samantha (09:31.306)
Oh.

Papa Rick (09:36.953)
Hahaha

Papa Rick (09:39.653)
with.

Samantha (09:42.739)
So this is actually a makeshift setup here because I didn't have my original.

Samantha (09:50.199)
If I turn this off, the quality is going to look really different.

Papa Rick (09:55.413)
Most cameras will adjust to some degree.

Samantha (10:00.014)
One second.

Papa Rick (10:01.893)
If it's off now, you look fine to me now. What do you think, Jen?

Jennifer Hayes (10:06.670)
Yeah, you still look great. I can still see all the parts of your face. Nothing's like mushing together or, you know, shaded out.

Samantha (10:09.039)
Awesome. OK.

Samantha (10:13.401)
Thank you.

Papa Rick (10:13.874)
Alright.

Papa Rick (10:16.913)
Facial recognition still works.

Samantha (10:19.619)
I was like, in the moment, okay.

Jennifer Hayes (10:21.792)
Love.

Papa Rick (10:25.016)
So.

Samantha (10:25.019)
Thank you, Natalie. All right, Natalie.

Jennifer Hayes (10:25.790)
Uh, oh yeah, mom had, mom had planned for four and then a twice exceptional child came along.

Papa Rick (10:28.594)
That's right.

Samantha (10:31.959)
Yeah. And what was really helpful for her is the sessions that we had together, it was really just an opportunity for her to talk through all the things that she and her husband have been thinking about. But they had a pretty good foundation for what they valued, what they were looking for as sort of the ultimate outcome for their children. One of the questions that I really

encourage families to think about is, what do you want education to accomplish for your child? And that's a huge question. And that was one of the questions that that mom in the workshop, when she thought about it and then thought about it, it got deeper and deeper. And so on its face, it's an interesting first question that really takes you in so many different directions.

Papa Rick (11:10.895)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (11:18.791)
I love that.

Papa Rick (11:22.653)
Hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (11:25.855)
Yeah.

Samantha (11:31.919)
at every decision, whether it's in the direction you thought you were going, or if you have to make a sharp turn in a different direction, the thinking process or the way that parents get to arrive at that decision typically is similar. It's around just asking, me asking them questions, or just listening to them and then giving back to them

Samantha (12:01.919)
that they can hear, okay, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Or no, that's what you heard, that's not the way that I want to go. So it's just a partner, thought partner in a lot of ways.

Papa Rick (12:10.033)
Right, clarification, yeah.

Papa Rick (12:14.653)
Very cool. Yeah. There's so much value in having a plan. Just the, I used to work for a guy and he wanted a six week plan for, for software development updated weekly. And I was like, when's the last time we got to the end of one of these plans? And it looked anything like it looked six weeks ago. He says there's value. He taught me there's value in the process sitting around and talking about it. Right. Do it.

Jennifer Hayes (12:16.031)
Yeah.

Samantha (12:20.140)
Hmm?

Samantha (12:32.340)
Right.

Samantha (12:40.623)
Yes.

Samantha (12:44.064)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (12:44.733)
It all kind of stays between the standard process control lines better. If you're, if you're thinking about six weeks out this week, you know, and, uh, doing that with, with kids, with educating your kids, that sounds like a terrific idea and having a resource to talk to, to lead you down those, Oh, I didn't think of that. Oh, I didn't think of that. Oh, I didn't think of that. Okay. Let me, I'll be back in six months. You know.

Samantha (12:52.180)
Yes!

Samantha (12:56.066)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (13:00.282)
Thank you. Bye.

Samantha (13:06.540)
Yeah.

Samantha (13:10.239)
Exactly. I had one dad say, you know, you helped me think of the questions that I don't even know to ask.

Papa Rick (13:18.713)
Exactly. Exactly. That's the real value. This is what people think of.

Jennifer Hayes (13:19.270)
Yes.

Jennifer Hayes (13:21.970)
Yeah, cause in Willem there's...

Samantha (13:23.547)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (13:26.050)
When there's so many parts to education, like I've learned anything from this five part series, it's how little I actually knew about the education system. And like I knew enough, but I, but I didn't, there's, um, you know, we've talked to someone who's studied education from a historical perspective. We've talked to someone who's taught, who works with schools as a

Samantha (13:34.019)
Thank you.

Papa Rick (13:38.728)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (13:55.950)
psychologist, but outside of the schools. We've talked to my mom who's a psychologist inside of the schools. And then there's so many different kinds of schools. And then you come in and you have this strategic, you know, the different types of schools and like all the right questions to ask. Because someone who, any parent who either has a job or they're

Samantha (13:58.819)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (14:26.250)
and keeping the house or, you know, keeping track of everyone's soccer schedule and making, you know, meal planning and grocery shopping and laundry and all, you know, the car needs fixed and whatever. Like, all of the things that a human being is keeping track of on a daily basis, it's something like education and an option other, like an intentional choice, right?

Papa Rick (14:33.553)
Yep.

Samantha (14:53.519)
Thank you.

Jennifer Hayes (14:56.270)
people who it's just an automatic like like I grew up and went to public school and then Graduated and did that, you know did my thing and it's just like an ingrained thing And so that's what they do with their kids and that's what their kids do and it's just like a repeating process But something that you and I say Samantha have in common is this intentionality piece of Sorry not to exclude you dad. I know that you were intentional

Papa Rick (15:12.653)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (15:26.110)
parent. Our philosophies as entrepreneurs inside of our companies is what I was referencing. Is the intentionality inside of this piece of parenting and the piece where we are not just putting each kid in the same box and shipping them out to do their

Samantha (15:30.619)
Mm-hmm

Samantha (15:42.119)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (15:56.210)
while they grow up and then we hang out after school and after work and on the weekends. But we're actually deeply paying attention to our child and what their needs are, what their strengths are, their natural gifts. And then we are, as parents, creating a plan for them for each child. And if you have multiple children, it gets even more overwhelming.

Samantha (16:06.319)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (16:26.630)
all of the options available, someone who can find out more for you if they need to, and walk them through the overwhelming thought process of planning each child's education, is absolutely invaluable. Yeah. When I heard that this is what you do, I was like, we need to talk.

Papa Rick (16:27.375)
Yep.

Samantha (16:43.419)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (16:44.433)
especially from ground zero.

Samantha (16:48.642)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (16:53.673)
When you have a child, I mean, you should go to Lamaze classes and, you know, start thinking about this stuff, you know, so that when they get to be school age or preschool age, you've given this some thought instead of just like we did, which is we're out in the country and there's one school district nearby and you throw your kids into the system and trust and then kind of keep an eye out when there are problems.

Samantha (17:02.719)
Yeah.

Samantha (17:13.719)
Right. Yeah.

Papa Rick (17:23.013)
pre-thought and understanding that there are options and if there's funding and you know, what is known, what's possible that without having to do six years of research while you're in the middle of, you know, doing everything else Jenny was talking about. Yeah, you know, just because it's so dynamic and busy. That's, that would be a tremendous leg up.

Samantha (17:30.380)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (17:35.650)
Surviving, parenting, right?

Samantha (17:38.919)
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Samantha (17:43.819)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's not a, I think to your point, it's not a one time you come have an hour, two hour, three hour conversation, answer some questions and then you're done. It's, it's an ongoing thing. Exactly.

Papa Rick (17:48.225)
Thank you.

Papa Rick (17:56.763)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (17:56.871)
Right.

Papa Rick (17:58.853)
It's a periodic, yeah, like a counseling or a, let's have our daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever, check in and keep our wheels up to date. Something you'd keep up to date along with everything else. Then when something does happen.

Samantha (18:07.719)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha (18:14.939)
Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Hayes (18:15.870)
Well, it's not like a quiz that you can just, like it's a highly strategic and you need a human being to come in and hear everything and like work with you back and forth.

Samantha (18:20.519)
you

Papa Rick (18:25.153)
Mm-hmm

Papa Rick (18:30.413)
Yeah. Yeah.

Samantha (18:30.745)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (18:32.550)
back and forth. That piece, yeah.

Samantha (18:34.220)
and it can be so overwhelming.

Jennifer Hayes (18:38.690)
that most of the people that I've interviewed for the podcast, I'm like, I'm going to hire you in the next zero to five years.

Papa Rick (18:51.294)
That's right.

Jennifer Hayes (18:53.251)
But the quote that you said, what can the education or what can the school do for my child versus, because for me that's such a flip because I just think of like kids go to school. So like kids go into the system and you just, you do your thing.

Samantha (18:56.619)
you

Papa Rick (19:08.497)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (19:09.561)
Sure.

Samantha (19:16.161)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (19:20.510)
Right? But that reversal of mindset around, it's the same as government. Government is meant to serve the people, not the other way around. Your school should serve your child's needs, not the other way around. And I love that. I think that's such an important question.

Papa Rick (19:21.293)
Like it's one thing, yeah.

Samantha (19:29.381)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (19:42.902)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (19:45.545)
Yeah.

Samantha (19:48.099)
If I may add another layer to that, another layer. So I start with a question around education. So what do you want education to accomplish for your child? Then going back to, I think, a question that you had, like what if you notice that your child has either a special talent, ability, interest, or need, and you need to go in a different direction, now it's about what do I need a school

Jennifer Hayes (19:51.243)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (19:58.275)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (20:01.653)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (20:17.795)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Samantha (20:18.759)
So it's the bigger vision around education, big picture. And then each of those decisions as your child grows, as your family changes, as you mature, as your preferences might change, then it's about what does the school need to have so that my child can thrive.

Papa Rick (20:40.653)
That's right. You start to look at changing. You can go to the system. You can go to the school and start saying, here, where's this program? How do you handle kids with this program? Oh, and maybe get involved. You know, okay, well let's help start up Head Start or a math with program or, you know, some kind of program that serves your kids.

Samantha (20:46.203)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (20:50.161)
Yes.

Samantha (20:54.581)
Yes.

Samantha (20:57.339)
Yes.

Samantha (21:00.982)
Thank you.

Samantha (21:03.660)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (21:06.353)
Yeah, people, it's not about the system. So coming back from the school board side of things, it's not about those needs change, there'll be different waves of kids going through a school system. There'll be different needs at one time. The school can't just automatically serve every need for every child that comes through simultaneously. They need feedback from parents. So the better prepared parents are to go in and battle and make good cases and,

Samantha (21:28.382)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (21:36.373)
the resources, the better off they're going to be through the course of their kid's career.

Samantha (21:39.210)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (21:41.782)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (21:43.054)
Yeah, that all sounds great.

Samantha (21:48.079)
And there's absolutely, I don't have a.

Samantha (21:55.899)
a judgment or a preference around, you know, if a parent says, I just want my kid to just go to the neighborhood school. Okay. You know, that's totally valid. So my position is not, Oh, every parent has to have, you know, this notebook and they have to write it down and have a plan. I do think that there needs to be forethought and intentionality.

Samantha (22:26.179)
Where we live and what's available to us as a public school set of options works for us now the challenge does come in when a Family where they may not be thinking ahead enough and when I say thinking ahead meaning Once my child is you know going through elementary school and middle school. What's what's available for high school? Would we likely still be living in the same area?

Papa Rick (22:32.373)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (22:52.574)
Yeah.

Samantha (22:55.959)
of let my child enter into, you know, the public school system where we are, what typically happens to children when they graduate from the school system? Is that what we want? To then think, if it's not what you want, then what do we need to do? And at what point do we need to make some different choices? When possible. I know that, I know that again, not every family has the luxury of

Papa Rick (23:07.353)
There you go.

Papa Rick (23:16.273)
And more so that.

Samantha (23:25.819)
That's also tricky sometimes when you're thinking about what you would love to give to your children and what's available.

Papa Rick (23:35.273)
A lot of that information is available too. What happens to kids after high school and that kind of thing. I know our little school district had, would do little studies following up with kids, try to track them for a while. And colleges, no doubt, have incoming and probably trades. I'm sure there's somebody compiling information like that about how it goes for kids.

Samantha (23:40.203)
Oh yeah.

Samantha (23:49.544)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (23:56.950)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (24:00.442)
Absolutely.

Jennifer Hayes (24:03.050)
So how does, this is more of a personal curiosity that I don't, yeah, I don't know if anyone else is wondering about this. But I've never, because I grew up in a small town, it was, there was one school and you just went there your whole life. But in most other towns, there were multiple schools and then there were, there were feeder schools.

Samantha (24:23.709)
What's that? What's that? What's that?

Samantha (24:31.841)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (24:33.210)
you went to. And my understanding was that the district you lived in determined the school, the grade school you went to, which then determined which school that fed into. But the more that we're talking and that I've talked to other people, I'm under the understanding that there's choice. Dad, your camera went off again.

Samantha (24:59.219)
Hehehe

Samantha (25:02.961)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (25:03.193)
I didn't touch anything.

Jennifer Hayes (25:05.330)
I know that's so weird. Hold on, nope, it didn't. Okay, recording continues smoothly, live video will return. Okay, it's still going. Okay. Yeah.

Papa Rick (25:09.234)
check. Thank you.

Samantha (25:11.919)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (25:12.793)
You got it? Okay.

Samantha (25:16.603)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (25:17.790)
that there's choice so that even if the school you wanna go to is outside of the district that you live in, you can somehow still go to that school that gets fed to a different high school. How does that work? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Samantha (25:34.499)
It's different everywhere. So for example, I'm located in Baltimore. And you can choose which high school to go to. So you don't have to start in one elementary school and then automatically have to go to the feeder middle school

Jennifer Hayes (25:36.290)
Everywhere, yeah.

Samantha (26:06.400)
There are opportunities where in some middle school cases, you can apply to go to a different middle school with the rise of charter schools. There's also, so charter schools are not, so traditional public schools and you have neighborhood schools where based on where you live, that determines which public school you attend. And,

Jennifer Hayes (26:25.332)
and

Samantha (26:32.679)
In some places, that's not always a straight path because there are opportunities where you can either apply to the traditional public school options or go to a charter school if you're staying sort of within the public school offering. And then there's a whole host of other school opportunities that are not public that at any time you can choose to go to those schools.

Jennifer Hayes (26:44.692)
Yeah.

Samantha (27:02.619)
So it's different in every district and you would have to know, you would have to just know if you're thinking of making a move where you might be headed to know what those, basically what those rules are, what those policies are.

Jennifer Hayes (27:18.171)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (27:20.413)
Yeah, where I'm at now, the public school system, where you go at whatever age is, you know, as a base determined by where you live, you know, there's a map and lines and because that's the transportation thing there, if they're going to supply free transportation, then they need to know how many bus drivers and how many buses they need and how much ground they can cover. But I believe even here, it's a town about 60 or 70,000.

Samantha (27:33.960)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (27:51.073)
There are matasori grade schools as opposed to public grade schools and I don't know what Christian schools, you know, parochial schools. And then once you get to, well, and there's a big, there's an enormous Catholic grade school, been here for decades, which is not free, right? So there's certain to run into resources there if you really like that or, you know, then you have to.

Samantha (27:58.303)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (28:20.373)
have scholarships, but not for everybody. So there's competition or whatever. And then the same with middle schools. I think there's three middle schools. I think one's a charter, one's a magnet for STEM or something. They're already kind of making determinations. I forget what the emphasis of the old one is. And then just the one that you would go to because you're in the district. And then there's, we're down to two high school. When I was

Samantha (28:28.366)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (28:50.473)
here, there were five high schools, we're down to two. And I'm not sure if they have differentiated programs there, you know, if there's a great art program at one or science at another or not. So it's kind of, there's kind of a mix and sorting it out for the first time and even ongoing or if needs changed, that could be very complicated. And I can't even imagine a place like Baltimore with so many options and, you know, such a population

Papa Rick (29:20.393)
options you might have. And then homeschooling, there's a whole cadre of people that's way more common than it was when I was raising kids. You know, that was pretty fringe back then, but now there's consortiums of parents that get together and one of the big turns educating and you know, that's become very sophisticated.

Samantha (29:20.819)
Thanks for watching!

Samantha (29:42.559)
Yes, absolutely.

Samantha (29:46.239)
So I'm sorry, it's not an easy answer. It's not a standard answer, I should say.

Jennifer Hayes (29:46.534)
No.

Papa Rick (29:49.993)
Yeah, it's complicated. Wow, interesting.

Jennifer Hayes (29:51.950)
No, that's fine. That's okay. I, yeah, I don't ask questions expecting like clean cut answers. I'm curious, like, so, okay. Charter schools, magnet schools, parochial sounds like it's associated with religion.

Papa Rick (30:02.814)
Ten words or less.

Samantha (30:18.419)
Mm-hmm, you got it.

Papa Rick (30:18.573)
That's probably, I'm probably dating that. Yeah. There's, there's Christian and Catholic and Lutheran schools that I can think of around here, they run schools districts.

Samantha (30:27.724)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (30:28.570)
So a charter can be public. It is public, okay.

Samantha (30:33.559)
It is public. Absolutely, always.

Papa Rick (30:34.013)
Hmm. It is public.

Jennifer Hayes (30:40.090)
So what's the difference then between a charter school and the public school next door?

Samantha (30:46.619)
So a charter school allows families to opt in, if you will. So that's where if you live on the other side of town and you apply to attend a charter school, the enrollment is through lottery most often. And that's where you don't pay. It's publicly funded, but the charter, so they have a charter. So every state has a charter,

Papa Rick (31:04.568)
Oh.

Samantha (31:16.959)
has a charter law. Every district, the board in a school district decides whether they want charter schools or not. The charter lays out what the charter schools are accountable for. So obviously they're accountable for academics, but there's a lot more flexibility that the leadership has in designing the curriculum,

Jennifer Hayes (31:19.250)
Hmm.

Samantha (31:46.619)
day. You still have to meet certain requirements in terms of teacher qualifications, in terms of provision of special education. I mean, there are certain things that as operating as a public school, it still has to fulfill. The opportunity for parents is that they are

Samantha (32:16.699)
is receiving because you are choosing from a set of options which school fits best for your child. And typically, and not all charter schools are created equally. Some of them have a very specific focus for their curriculum. Some of them are themed. Some of them, their approach to discipline is different. And so it's a lot of flexibility that

with being a charter school, but they are held accountable to what's provided in the law and their charter and charter schools can be shut down. Well public schools can be as well, but again each district is different and each state is more, it's different.

Papa Rick (32:50.853)
Mm-mm.

Papa Rick (33:04.496)
Illinois.

Papa Rick (33:08.213)
Yeah, in Illinois, it was, it's kind of like the charter schools were kind of market oriented. If there's a lot of people in, and I think they're, I think they're more common in larger school districts than they are in smaller school districts, because there's more flexibility with the funding. But a charter school might arise because people want, you know, the college track or the not college track or special needs or science education.

someone might start a charter school where they just do the bare minimum with PE or whatever. These are not concrete examples, but they can back off on some of the trying to cover the whole gamut equally. They'll back off on pieces and emphasize music or science or something. The issue I remember was that when a student

Papa Rick (34:08.553)
the nominal public school and goes to the charter school they in Illinois they were talking about I think there's different ways of funding them. They would basically have a chit they would take their funding with them Whatever state and federal funding went from the nominal school to the other school And so when there's very limited resources very limited funding then that can get dicey because then then the services drop in the nominal school visibly and

Papa Rick (34:38.794)
competitive instead of specializing somewhat. So that's just a real complicated issue.

Samantha (34:43.924)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (34:48.519)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're getting into voucher territory. And that's not my, mm-hmm. Yeah, you described it. And that's what it's called. And those are just things that, in terms of parents understanding what's available to them, again, based on where they live, goes into the things that you would need to research if you are looking

Papa Rick (34:54.773)
That's the word I was looking for. Yeah.

Papa Rick (35:13.144)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (35:19.139)
a change from where you currently are. There's something I was going to say about charter schools. They're publicly funded. If I remember and it makes sense, I'll come back to it, but I feel like there's something I meant to say about that.

Papa Rick (35:37.434)
But it still plays into the, boy it can be complicated to figure out what's available, you know, what are my choices in educating my child, and very helpful to have somebody who's already done a lot of the legwork and can advise you.

Samantha (35:54.919)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (35:57.161)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (35:59.637)
Hmm.

Samantha (35:59.683)
Yep.

Jennifer Hayes (36:01.050)
There's so many, my head is just like swimming with all the options that I.

Jennifer Hayes (36:08.530)
You know, I thought I knew, I thought I knew most of the options. And then, I mean, charter, I've never actually understood what a charter school is, um, other than I knew that there, the one charter school I had any experience with was one when I was a nanny and took the children to it. Um, but I didn't understand like what, like, it was just like a fancy private version of school in my, in my mind that they, one of their kids to go to smaller

Papa Rick (36:14.853)
Thank you.

Jennifer Hayes (36:38.570)
more, you know, the, I think the discipline or the learning style or both were Montessori based. They weren't a Montessori school, but the values and the way that they handled things reflected Montessori and child led education. But yeah, there's just so many moving pieces and like,

Samantha (36:50.619)
and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Jennifer Hayes (37:08.870)
and what your values are and what your child is good at, what your child likes, what your child wants to do. Like, and then there's just, it's like, all right, well, you've narrowed it down to seven choices. Good luck.

Samantha (37:12.519)
Thanks for watching!

Samantha (37:16.519)
Yeah.

Samantha (37:22.219)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (37:23.293)
That's right. At least you shortlisted it.

Samantha (37:25.743)
Right, right.

Jennifer Hayes (37:26.250)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (37:29.150)
This is crazy. I love this.

Papa Rick (37:29.853)
Yeah, I've got to go do some reading on charter school funding. I don't remember all, it was a new thing in Illinois. I don't know if they just approved them back in the early nineties, or it was new to me anyway. And we decided not to do it. We couldn't swing having another school in the district. We were doing good to have one grade, one middle and one high school. Um, or we, we, we could, but we'd had to raise taxes and nobody

Samantha (37:38.519)
Hmm.

Samantha (37:54.819)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (38:00.214)
you know, there was no, nobody was going to vote for that. So a lot of, you know, resources are important.

Samantha (38:05.940)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (38:07.133)
Sometimes you got to move somewhere where the opportunities are, I think, just like a job. Right? Kids going to school is a job for a kid.

Jennifer Hayes (38:12.470)
I was just gonna ask, cause...

Jennifer Hayes (38:16.370)
Have you ever, Samantha worked with a family that literally moved because they didn't have?

Jennifer Hayes (38:25.350)
good education options for their kids. I feel like that would be a very extreme.

Jennifer Hayes (38:33.052)
situation.

Samantha (38:33.584)
Not.

Samantha (38:36.359)
not where that was the only reason for looking for a move. So no, I've.

Jennifer Hayes (38:39.671)
Mm.

Samantha (38:46.319)
Is that true? I have a family that is thinking about it. Actually, a couple of families that I'm talking to that may not be next year, but they've started to think ahead and they've said, well, we see what is available to us in the future. I'm not sure that these options are really what aligns with what we want and need. And so the wheels are starting to turn. If we move, when would we move? And to where?

Papa Rick (39:04.053)
..

Papa Rick (39:09.653)
Thanks for watching!

Jennifer Hayes (39:16.272)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (39:16.453)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (39:17.019)
but not where someone is actively making a decision to move because of education. Usually it's, we're thinking of moving, oh, let me think about what the education opportunity looks like there, and then we kind of talk through that.

Jennifer Hayes (39:19.432)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (39:30.953)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (39:35.213)
That sounds a lot like that brings to mind the, uh, the, uh, you know, upward mobility thing. It's like, well, I'm making more money now. And so I can go buy a better house in a better school district for a better school. Or, you know, you get a new job and you get to get a chance to, you don't have to move expressly for it. You're already moving because you took a job in another town. And so now you're thinking a little more strategically about which school district do you want to be in, you know, instead of

Samantha (39:42.319)
Thanks for watching!

Samantha (40:05.460)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (40:05.474)
being in the one you were in when you started having babies and

Papa Rick (40:10.853)
Yeah, yeah, this is a real moving target. Raising kids is complicated.

Samantha (40:11.923)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (40:18.859)
There's no manual, there's no handbook, there's no parent school.

Papa Rick (40:22.073)
I know, right? I keep telling people that. I wish someone would write the manual.

Jennifer Hayes (40:32.234)
right?

Samantha (40:34.746)
I think we're bringing in all of the pieces. Yep.

Jennifer Hayes (40:34.910)
We're all, we're all working on it.

Jennifer Hayes (40:38.950)
Right?

Papa Rick (40:39.213)
Go to the library. I need the manual on parenting.

Jennifer Hayes (40:43.650)
and I'll hand you my business card. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha.

Papa Rick (40:45.953)
There you go. And Samantha's. You guys will have to form a consortium of full service. Ask us anything, we got a specialist for you.

Jennifer Hayes (40:53.950)
Right?

Samantha (40:57.239)
I mean, really, that's what it's gonna end up being. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Hayes (40:57.570)
should do like a parent retreat. You could co-host a parent retreat where they do, they get special one-on-one coaching sessions and then they get one-on-one education planning strategy sessions and then.

Papa Rick (41:12.333)
I think that's where it's getting.

Samantha (41:14.239)
Let's do it.

Jennifer Hayes (41:14.850)
Yeah, that'd be cool.

Papa Rick (41:16.453)
You get, uh, it's getting, it's getting, people are learning the system we've got is complicated and you can't do it all. And so if you want to do the very best you can and be able to look back on it and say, you know, I left no stone unturned. Well, I took care of the laundry and I went to the banquets and, you know, and did all that. And I abbreviate, you know, I, I was actually able to be a little strategic about my kids, uh, upbringing.

Samantha (41:32.932)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (41:46.653)
education and I hired a consultant a couple of times you know we kept in touch with a consultant and touched base when we needed to and that would be a very enlightened way to go about it if everybody could do that.

Jennifer Hayes (42:00.570)
It reminds me of a financial advisor. Like you don't just hire a financial advisor once and then you're like, all right, my money's good. Like you hire someone and it's an ongoing relationship of like, let's check in, you know, and like I want to check my portfolio. Let me, you know, where's it at now? I'm going to invest more in this, blah, blah, blah. You need to start the 529, like, you know, and that's kind of what this whole conversation is making me think of as you, Samantha,

Samantha (42:00.919)
Mm-hmm.

Papa Rick (42:04.953)
Yeah.

Papa Rick (42:09.815)
That's right.

Samantha (42:09.861)
Right.

Papa Rick (42:14.193)
Yeah. Yeah.

Papa Rick (42:21.574)
Yeah. Yeah.

Samantha (42:23.440)
Yeah.

Jennifer Hayes (42:32.415)
You're an advisor, like someone who's like, people want to keep you in their pocket.

Samantha (42:34.190)
Mm.

Papa Rick (42:37.333)
You know, an education advisor, just like a financial advisor.

Samantha (42:40.319)
Thank you.

Samantha (42:43.821)
Absolutely.

Jennifer Hayes (42:45.210)
Yeah. Awesome.

Papa Rick (42:47.453)
It will get normalized. It'll everybody will do it for too long. I feel it. I have a good feeling about the whole thing.

Samantha (42:50.619)
you

Jennifer Hayes (42:51.053)
Right?

Jennifer Hayes (42:55.298)
All us entrepreneurs out here.

Papa Rick (42:56.213)
Yeah, exactly.

Jennifer Hayes (42:59.270)
Well, Samantha, is there anything we didn't cover about what you do or any last piece that you would sum up your work with before we wrap things up here?

Samantha (42:59.519)
Thanks for watching!

Samantha (43:16.119)
I think I would just reiterate that...

Samantha (43:20.979)
Really the big question that parents either articulate in this way or in some way, shape or form are kind of just, you know, mulling around in their heads is what is the right path for me? Now it might be that they are thinking way in it way ahead or they're again faced with a decision like right now, they still want to know, is this the, they want the confidence to know that they're making the right choice.

Samantha (43:51.619)
comes from knowing you, knowing yourself, knowing your child, and then knowing what you want and what you don't want. Some things we talk about is what are some non-negotiables? It's really helpful to know what those are. Exactly. And so the earlier, the better to start thinking about some of those things. And

Papa Rick (44:05.333)
Yeah. What's your bottom line? Yeah.

Samantha (44:18.679)
Really, when parents come to me to talk one-on-one...

Samantha (44:24.499)
it's because they've started thinking about things and they're like, well, am I missing something? What is it that I'm missing? Or I don't know what to do next. And so it's really about, again, me helping parents to become discerning by giving them information, by increasing their awareness. And then being a sounding board, being someone who I've worked in private, traditional public,

Jennifer Hayes (44:31.571)
Hmm.

Papa Rick (44:32.893)
That's right. That's right.

Samantha (44:54.559)
schools, private schools, and that's like parochial and independent schools, there's so many types. And I've seen so many different settings that I have sort of this big picture view. I've worked in classrooms and I've worked in school districts where I've been advising leaders. And so I can provide a perspective that, again, this should go in my book. I'm going to say it here.

Samantha (45:24.659)
I know parents need and putting that into book form. Now I have that as a workbook where it's probing questions, but then there's so much more. So that's a project that I'm working on getting off the ground. But I would say to just kind of close out the reason I titled my course, You Are the Architect is because parents, I mean, and you said it too, Papa Rick, you said

Jennifer Hayes (45:24.678)
and

Papa Rick (45:28.635)
There you go.

Papa Rick (45:39.497)
Good.

Samantha (45:54.720)
what a parent can do and

Papa Rick (45:59.113)
And you're doing it, whether you do it intentionally or not, the time will pass. You know, it's the looking back as an old dad, you know, it's like, what would I have done different? You know, that's a lot of, there's a lot of value in spending a little bit of time in the limited time that young parents have. And spending a little bit of that time upfront pays big dividends in the long run, just,

Samantha (46:03.644)
Yes.

Samantha (46:17.484)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha (46:25.119)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (46:27.753)
lockers.

Samantha (46:29.183)
Yep.

Papa Rick (46:31.233)
Let me know when you write your book. I want to buy a copy.

Samantha (46:33.059)
will. Thank you. I will let you know.

Jennifer Hayes (46:38.110)
So Sam, real quick, let everybody know where they can find you.

Samantha (46:42.599)
Well, my website at www.samcatalyst.com. And that is where a link to my course is as well. I'm transitioning to a new website, so you can certainly find that information there. But once my new website is ready, I will be adding more resources that parents can just kind of go and grab and just help you think through some things. And it doesn't have to be a one-on-one conversation.

doesn't have to be a course, but I want to make things more available for parents so that they can start thinking about what's important to them and questions that they might not know yet to ask. So there's the website. And then I'm also on LinkedIn and I'm also on Instagram. And

Samantha (47:34.959)
That's where I am, virtually.

Jennifer Hayes (47:36.750)
awesome.

Papa Rick (47:37.513)
Make sure you hang on to your old URL and have it redirect to your new one so you don't lose anybody.

Samantha (47:43.239)
Thank you so much. I will certainly make sure that happens.

Papa Rick (47:46.973)
Hehehehe

Jennifer Hayes (47:48.830)
Awesome. Well, Samantha, thank you so much for being here and being our finale to the education series. I know that I learned a lot, which means I'm sure a lot of other people did as well. So thank you so much.

Samantha (47:49.919)
Thanks for watching!

Papa Rick (48:01.273)
Me too, me too.

Samantha (48:06.419)
Great. Thank you. Thank you for doing this series.

Jennifer Hayes (48:11.194)
Aww, you're welcome.

Papa Rick (48:11.453)
Great to meet you, Sam.

Samantha (48:12.819)
It's great to meet you too.

Jennifer Hayes (48:15.031)
Alright, bye everybody.