0:05

Hello everyone, welcome back to HigherEdLive, I'm Nicole from

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PlatformQ Education joining you from Chicago and this week I will be serving

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already, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter below and connect with us on

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social media using the hashtag HigherEdLive. For our podcast listeners, all

0:47

this information will be in the episode notes. And this week we are

0:51

discussing supporting and motivating adult students and I am

0:55

lucky and thrilled to have Erica Music. Erica serves as registrar at Paul

1:02

Laurence Dunbar High School and let me tell you a little bit more about

1:06

Erica and then I'll let her introduce herself a bit more. Erica's

1:11

educational journey has led her to develop a series of strategies for

1:14

adult students by using her story to encourage motivate and rejuvenate adult

1:18

learners who carry the many complex burdens and responsibilities of

1:21

pursuing a degree. Erica offers a fun, realistic and interactive presentation

1:25

that helps each adult learner prepare to build your own army. As a successful

1:29

track athlete, Erica believes in pursuing a degree and adult students

1:33

should always remember if life presents a barrier that hurdle is never bigger

1:36

than the finish line. I just love it and I am so thrilled to introduce Erica

1:40

to all of you because she's amazing. So Erica tell us a little more about yourself. Thank

1:44

you, thank you Nicole first, you know I love you so I'm excited to be with you

1:48

again. But yes, my journey started, I want to go back to the year 2000 when

1:53

I graduated high school here at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, which I am

1:57

currently the Registrar. But while I was here I was very successful, you

2:01

know, I had a high G. P. A. I won three state titles here and one of

2:06

them is in track and two of them were in cheer and so that led me to

2:10

university liberal where I was able to get a D1 track scholarship. So let's

2:15

talk about that. So you know I went to college, I was a college

2:21

athlete, I was in a new world where pretty much when

2:26

you go to college, you're just there, you know, they just put you out

2:30

there, you have your 8 a.m. classes and you have your 6 a.m.

2:33

practices before you go to 8 a.m. classes and you know, I just didn't have

2:38

the guidance that I needed to finish my degree while I was at

2:42

University of Louisville. So I end up dropping out because I ended up, I mean

2:46

my balance was off, let's just be honest, I was doing more partying than

2:49

I was studying. I was missing classes, which therefore, I wasn't

2:53

doing really good on my, on my exams and you know, I ended up in a place

2:58

that a lot of people end up in I just ended up, I thought maybe it would

3:01

be best for me just to drop out and go into the workforce and as you know,

3:06

13 years later I end up getting my college degree, I end up going back to

3:09

school at Kentucky State University when I was working as an administrative

3:13

assistant and my boss at that time encouraged me to go back and

3:18

finish my degree because I had credits, you know, I had been

3:22

working a lot of low paying jobs and I was like, I always had that potential,

3:26

but until I had someone to actually push me to finish my degree, you know,

3:30

then that sparked a little interest and I was like, you know, I could do this,

3:34

I can do this, I can do this. So eventually I ended up enrolling at

3:37

Kentucky State University, they had some online programs where I was able

3:41

to do online and then I had to do some night classes, which you know,

3:45

that is a big struggle as an adult learner because you have to figure out,

3:48

you work 9 to 5 and then you also have to, I had kids, have two

3:53

kids at that time, and so you have to figure out their practice

3:56

schedules on top of me going to night classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and

4:01

online class and so it was a lot to juggle and it was a lot to balance but

4:06

I had a really good boss at that time and he allowed me to get

4:09

things done if I had some down time at work so I didn't have to

4:12

stay up all night and things like that. So his support helped me a lot

4:17

to start my degree to go back to school. But ultimately I ended up at a

4:23

barrier where Kentucky State University didn't have a complete online adult

4:26

program and I couldn't finish so I was stuck and so I end up

4:33

looking for another school to transfer to and I ended up at Midway University

4:38

and they actually have a complete online adult program and they actually

4:43

have two campuses, Midway University is in Midway, Kentucky which is about 20

4:47

minutes outside of Lexington, Kentucky. But they also have a satellite program

4:51

that was in Lexington just for adult programming on completely online.

4:56

They have their own advisors, they have different hours, they have evening

4:59

hours and that was very appealing to me and so I transferred. They made it

5:04

very easy for me, they accepted all my credits and I ended up finishing my

5:09

degree. So 2017 I finished with my bachelors in Marketing and

5:14

Communication and it was a great honor. It was something that - it was a

5:19

huge accomplishment and I didn't think it was that important until I did it.

5:23

So now I'm encouraging other adult learners to go back and get it

5:26

because we can always go through the continuous cycle, but until

5:30

you want better or do better then you have to make that sacrifice

5:34

to do it. Absolutely, yeah. And it's just so inspiring because you speak to so many challenges

5:40

that so many adult learners have right? Balancing kids and care and

5:45

a 9 to 5 job and everything else. It's so powerful to hear not only

5:52

how you kind of navigated that yourself, but now you're helping others to

5:56

experience that and I loved when we were preparing for this,

6:01

we talked a lot about midland and how they, or Midway, excuse me not midland,

6:05

Midway and that you realized that they were the right place for you and

6:09

you spoke to some of that, transferring credits and the locations

6:12

of campuses, but what other things as you were learning about them,

6:15

what do they share about themselves that you went, oh, this is the kind of

6:18

supportive space that I know? Right, well not only do they have the satellite campus,

6:22

they have a complete online program, they worked easily to transfer over my

6:26

credits, which was huge because I didn't want to start over. I think as

6:30

an adult learner, you end up with a lot more questions than you do answers. And

6:34

for them, they had more answers than I had questions. So I mean it worked, it

6:38

worked for me because they checked a lot of boxes that I needed and I was so

6:42

close, I only needed two more years so I can finish my degree and they

6:48

made it easy. They didn't have where I had to start over and that was the most

6:52

really important for me. They accepted all of my credits and they didn't just

6:55

accept them and put them like as electives, they put them where I didn't

6:59

have to completely start my degree completely all over. And I think that

7:02

is huge. It was a huge point because I didn't -- for an adult learner it's

7:06

like, okay, two years, but I don't have to do 2.5 years. I don't want to do

7:09

an extra year. I mean, it's already hard taking that first step. And I

7:13

think what colleges need, and Midway realized that it was like, oh,

7:16

we can help you. I mean, I had professors that were very

7:20

giving. They have eight week courses instead of 16 week courses. So you can get a lot

7:32

done within those eight weeks and each eight week course you still get your

7:35

three credit hours, which is amazing. So I was able to finish

7:40

faster and you can still get your financial aid at the same time. So the

7:44

thing with Midway, was the resources, they checked a lot of my

7:47

resources that I knew I needed as an adult learner. So it was really, really

7:51

easy. And I would also like to speak of another school that I was researching

7:55

that just because I like to research. Yeah. Morgan State University

8:01

they do something similar to that they're a university that is in Baltimore

8:05

and they cater to their adult learners. I mean, they have a complete online

8:09

program. They even offer in-state tuition to all of their online

8:14

programmers. So I'm like, you know, that's huge. So the adult

8:19

learning program is getting bigger. I mean, there are more adult

8:23

learners than, well I can't say there's more, but our numbers are definitely shifting,

8:29

they're definitely shifting, and I think it's really important for colleges to

8:32

start to realize that, you know, we need our own space, we need online

8:36

programming, we need the resources and we need to be retaught how to

8:42

learn. That is huge as well. When I was at Kentucky State University, I had

8:47

to reteach myself how to learn. I was out of school for like 13 years, you

8:52

know, I had more work experience than I did school

8:55

experience. So I had to reteach myself how to rebalance my life scheduling,

9:01

create to do lists, I like to do lists. So, you know, things like

9:06

that. So I had to find things that made it work and not only

9:10

Kentucky State University, they started my process, but they can only carry me

9:14

so far. And then once I found Midway University they

9:18

had exactly what I needed, so I could finish and be successful. And so

9:23

that's why I ended up choosing them. Yeah, and

9:26

you're bringing up so many important points that I just wanted to say

9:29

like so many of them, but you know, a few things that you

9:34

mentioned, I think it's too rare, the fact that there are a

9:39

handful of institutions that jumped out at you is great, but so

9:42

I feel like it's too rare that if you do a good job of saying to adult

9:46

learners, hey, we can support you, we have thought ahead, I feel

9:50

like it's really unfortunate that for so many institutions, adult learners

9:53

can be an afterthought or same with transfer students and it's an afterthought that

9:56

comes later. Or maybe you're lucky enough - I worked in a wonderful

10:01

admissions office that I'll say, well, I wish we'd done better by adult

10:05

students, although we had online programs and things, so there

10:08

was a lot there, but I was very lucky to have a colleague that always

10:12

said, okay, but what about transfer students what about transfer students? And

10:15

you need that advocate in the room because what's going to work for a

10:18

traditional first year student is not always going to work for adult learners.

10:21

If anything you really gotta be intentional and thoughtful about, okay,

10:25

this is not going to cut it or we need to be thinking about the fact

10:29

that folks have been away from education for this long. The other

10:33

point that you brought up, that was kind of making me think of my own

10:36

experiences, I worked as a transfer counselor for a bit and I see students

10:39

that had gone to a few different institutions and it broke my heart when

10:42

we couldn't take all of those credits. And so I know that it's easier said

10:46

than done in some institutions, but that flexibility, like you said to not

10:50

have to redo so many things over again that can make or break the choice

10:55

for some students to end up going somewhere. And I'm sure it probably is

10:57

the case for you. And another kudos I would like to give to Morgan

11:01

State that I recently found, and I think other universities will totally

11:05

benefit from, is credit for work experience. For

11:10

those who actually want to start over from the beginning. So we

11:14

have programs for colleges to give credit

11:19

for those who have work experience that goes into the field

11:22

that they want to get into, which is a lot of adult

11:26

learners, I mean, I think that's another great opportunity for

11:30

resources for universities to look at, to give us work experience

11:35

credit because, again, I was out for 13 years. So

11:39

that's just my story. There's so many of us that have that

11:43

same story. And you know, and also as adult learners, we help with retention.

11:48

Let's just be honest. I mean if you keep us, and we will help

11:52

bring others in because as I'm speaking about my university that I graduated

11:56

from all the wonderful resources that they had just for me that

12:01

I benefited from. So obviously I want to go and share that

12:04

to the world. It's like, hey, look at look at this university and

12:07

other universities are doing in other states, but as you said before, it's

12:11

rare and it needs to be bigger because we're making up like 35% of college

12:15

campuses and our numbers are getting bigger, so something has to

12:19

happen. Yeah, absolutely. And to your point about

12:25

the motivation that comes with adult learners, I think of my own college

12:28

experience and some of my best group mates were adult learners, I love

12:33

having them on my team because they were serious, they were --

12:37

where I had to chase some of my classmates down for slides or their

12:40

piece of the presentation never had to do that with adult learners and it's,

12:44

I don't wanna throw sweeping stereotypes out there, but you know,

12:48

it's to your point, like, you have a goal and you are ready to

12:54

get there and you will not let anything stand in that way. And, you know, I

12:58

think more institutions would benefit from thinking about that more

13:01

intentionally and doing more intentional work to cultivating and

13:05

supporting adult learners. And with the percentage that you shared, I can't

13:10

help but think about that the pandemic has had such a fascinating

13:15

impact on higher education and I can only wonder and

13:21

we can only make so many predictions right, hearing the stories of some

13:26

students kind of opting out of going to college right away or not wanting that

13:29

experience, where, especially the last two years if they were doing a

13:34

lot of that virtually, and some students might have said, you know, that's not the college experience I want to have, I can't help but wonder

13:39

if we're going to see an influx in the next few years between those students

13:43

going to college or someone our age that is

13:49

starting to think about a different profession, a

13:53

different career. I think a lot of us got really introspective and

13:57

really soul searching during the height of the pandemic. So I can't help but

14:01

wonder if we're going to see some significant shifts over time, even more

14:05

so than we've already seen. I agree with that and with my

14:09

job as a registrar here I have 2100 students in this building, so

14:13

I see a lot of students come and go and I think where I impact them the most is

14:19

I don't focus so much on college college college, but what is it that

14:22

you want to do? Because for me that's all I knew was you have to go to

14:26

college, you have to go to college, you have to go to college and I'm like, It

14:29

didn't work for me. I wasn't ready and I understand that as an adult, but I

14:34

did not understand it at 18 and I think that's what a lot of parents,

14:37

we focus so much on college, college college, but what does the

14:41

child want, what does your student want? You know college isn't for

14:45

everyone. Some people want to go into the work life and that's why,

14:49

when I was talking about Morgan state University and they offer

14:51

the credit for work life experience and you can get for credits, I'm like, well

14:55

there you go. That bridges that gap, for kids who don't want to go

14:59

straight from high school to college and they want to work or they want to

15:02

experience life and figure that out. For me, I don't

15:06

know I was 18, I didn't think I just had to do what my mom said

15:09

to do and that's what I did and you know, later on I found out that wasn't

15:13

for me and then once I bumped my head a few times and

15:16

I had kids, I had family and I was like, once I realized I wanted

15:20

better for myself and my profession and I knew where I wanted to be and where I

15:24

wanted to grow and where my career path wanted to be, then I

15:28

went back to school. So to your point, it's so true that to think

15:33

that an 18 year old, a 17 year old, 18 year old knows what they want to do

15:37

with the rest of their life is a wild thought to have,

15:43

like, I look back at who I was when I was 18 and how different I am now like, night

15:48

and day. Not to mention the fact that there are professions that we can't even

15:52

predict are going to be in the world, right? And so rather than

15:56

being so, you have to go to college, you have to go to college, I

16:00

don't think either of us need to be convinced of the value of higher ed for

16:04

some institutions that's so viable. We both experienced it ourselves,

16:08

but you're right, it's not the right path for everyone. And sometimes

16:13

it's so much more vital to sit back and think about, you know, I

16:17

used to talk to students of like what makes you happy,

16:20

because sometimes there's things to be found in there. Like I

16:23

remember having this conversation with the student where I realized she loved

16:26

puzzles and she loved just like sorting through logical things and I said,

16:30

harness that and there are so many opportunities out there, explore

16:34

those more. Don't feel like you gotta link up to one particular path and

16:38

feel like that's the be all end all for you. I mean I went to school to be an

16:42

elementary education major and now I'm doing marketing and

16:46

sales, we never know where life's going to take us, right? I totally get it. When I

16:52

first started college at the University of Louisville in 2000, I

16:56

was a chemistry major. Now I have a marketing communication degree and I

17:00

work in education, so you know, what can we say? We can't predict the future.

17:06

You're absolutely right. Yeah, absolutely. And is

17:11

there anything, you shared kind of that insight with students? What else,

17:14

I know you speak in front of these groups on different campuses,

17:18

what else is part of the message that you share with folks because it's

17:22

just like, I know part of it's telling your story, but what else do

17:25

you kind of try to leave folks with? Well, I talk

17:30

about different things of how to create your own support. So I call it my army

17:34

because that's how I was able to be successful. So when I'm creating

17:39

my army, my army consisted of my parents, well at that time it was my

17:43

mother because my father passed, but that's the reason why I had to go back.

17:46

But my mother, the father of my children, I had to let them know what

17:51

was going on. My boss, my work was supportive because if you work to

17:55

support you it makes it kind of difficult. And then you know, it's

17:59

just creating all of my friends. I mean it's just creating that support group. So

18:04

finding people that you know that are going to be in your corner and then

18:07

when the time that you feel like you want to give up, they're the ones that

18:10

keep you pushing because it's hard. I mean as an adult learner, you have

18:14

kids and it's like, oh I don't feel like doing this, I don't have time for

18:17

this. Sometimes you want to give up. There's plenty of

18:20

times that I wanted to, I just didn't want to do it anymore. I was like okay

18:23

fine, I don't care, I don't want to do this anymore. But you have those that are in

18:26

your corner that are like, no Erica, go ahead and get it done. You have to do this you're so

18:30

close. Those people that are in your army that lack certain

18:35

skills, I mean or whatever sets that you are lacking, add them to your army

18:40

as well. I wasn't really good, like I said I had to relearn how to

18:44

study. I did not know how to do that. So I found that resource and I added

18:48

that to my army because I knew I struggled with that. So the things that

18:51

you struggle with, you have to be realistic with and find people

18:55

or find resources that fill that gap and that void so that you can be

18:59

successful. Because they're there and the resources are out there. You just

19:03

sometimes you have to find them. They're hidden. But you know, first

19:06

things first, every time I speak at a campus build your army, you have

19:10

to find your balance. You have to. Balance is a major thing. I did

19:15

not have that as an 18 year old, my balance shifted and I went from being a

19:20

studious student to freedom and then you know

19:25

where freedom gets you. But you can't completely take that away as

19:29

well, you have to find your balance for your social life. You have to have

19:32

time for that. That is important just as well as time for your family time

19:36

for school all of that. You have to find the balance and if I

19:40

haven't said anything else, that is probably the most important thing that

19:43

I feel like that has helped me so so much is finding my balance. Then

19:48

you create your army, then you find your purpose and you know,

19:52

I'm really big about vision boards and things like that. I know it may be

19:56

silly, but that helps me find your goal. I mean however way that you like to

20:00

plan, you know, some people like to do road maps, I'm a visual person. So I

20:04

like to do vision boards and I knew I wanted to get my degrees and put that

20:08

in the middle and you find different ways to get there because there's no

20:12

one path to get to any way. There's several paths to get to your goal. So

20:17

as long as you know that, you know there's going to be bumps, there's going to

20:19

be bruises. But at the end when you walk across that stage there's

20:24

nothing like it, there's nothing like it to know that you did

20:26

this. Of course you had everybody to support you, but you did it. Absolutely.

20:31

And if you're lucky you have some of those members of that army cheering you

20:34

on. Exactly. Exactly. I love the concept of finding your army. And I

20:41

never really thought about that until very recently. It's funny, I worked

20:45

with this coach and she started to talk about this concept and

20:49

she's like, I am part of your army. I go to therapy, your therapist

20:53

is part of your army. Your friends are part of your army, your family, those people that

20:56

can, like you said, fill these spaces of -- you know,

21:01

you don't just need yes men in your corner, you need these people that

21:05

are going to challenge you right and say no, you can't give up what the heck is

21:08

the matter with you? Like keep going and helping to fill those spaces where

21:13

that coach helped me. I would brain dump at her and she'd

21:16

translate it in a way that I'd sit there and go, yeah, that exactly that.

21:20

How did you do that? And all the more people that you can put in

21:23

your corner the earlier on too, like I love that you're sharing this with

21:27

young students and students of all different ages like

21:31

that. That concept doesn't just matter in education. It matters in life, it

21:35

matters in those pursuits that you want to chase. So I absolutely love

21:38

that that concept. That's so great. I know we've kind of swooped away

21:46

from it, but I'd love to go back to sort of practical things

21:52

that institutions can put in place. You know, we started to allude to some of

21:56

them of having some of this flexibility with how they're bringing

21:59

in credits and things. But there's also a lot of support on the other side too,

22:03

where I know that when you and I were chatting about this topic, we started

22:06

talking about institutions having scholarships for adult learners and

22:10

things like that. So I know a lot of our listeners are in

22:14

admissions offices. So if we were to give them some thoughts of like, here's

22:18

better ways to support adult learners, what might you recommend

22:22

that they be thinking about that we haven't covered already? You know,

22:25

there's lots of scholarships for various things. There's

22:29

your first time in school scholarship, why not

22:33

have transfer scholarships or adult scholarships catering just for those? Of

22:39

course you have to fill out your FAFSA so that you can get that

22:42

money if that's left. As adult learners we run into that as

22:46

well because we're going in and out of school or we're transferring to

22:49

different schools and and all of that goes against your FAFSA. So you

22:53

have a you only have so much time with your FAFSA. So

22:57

that's one thing that I do think universities need to look at. So not

23:00

only do you look at FAFSA, but extra scholarships to help with that because

23:05

going back to school that's that's a big expense as well. College

23:09

is not cheap, it's not cheap. So now you have to be honest that's an extra

23:15

bill. Do you want to have this extra bill? No. But we have to

23:19

find other ways of getting it. So we need to look at scholarships, we need

23:22

to look at the credits that come in that

23:27

would help but-- oh, tuition assistance. A lot of, well I think that

23:34

some jobs they offer tuition assistance. When I

23:37

worked at Kentucky State University, as an administrative assistant that helped

23:41

me, they paid for two of my classes. So, not only did I get

23:45

two classes for free, but then I add an extra two classes that I was able to

23:48

either make payment plans on or take out a loan, that was also

23:53

available for me. But as an adult learner, to be honest, loans are

23:57

not what we want to do. That is an extra bill that we're going to have to pay

24:03

later. So scholarships, scholarships, scholarships, we need them or some type

24:07

of work related scholarship for that. And like I said,

24:11

the wonderful thing about maybe tuition reduction for online programmers if

24:17

you're only doing certain online programming because

24:21

at Midway University where we only had like eight week courses

24:25

reduction would have helped a lot. I had a scholarship when I went

24:29

back to college so that helped me a lot, but also had to take our a loan

24:33

too, so I'm still paying on, but that's okay.

24:38

But I do think scholarships will help tremendously just for

24:43

transfer students or adult learners that are in certain programs. And

24:48

tuition reduction helps to which some type of tuition assistance

24:51

will help us a lot, but like I said, loans is not the answers and I

24:56

just don't think universities should just put that as the first thing,

24:59

oh you sign up for this long, that's not appealing to us. I would

25:05

love to have universities to offer more scholarships or more

25:09

resources. Another thing I know I'm about to get off, but one good thing

25:14

that Kentucky State University did have was their own space. They had their

25:20

own transfer department and that was just catering just for transfer

25:25

students and they had like a little section for kids where they would have

25:30

their kids and so us adults can go and study and have our adults on this

25:33

little kitchenette where we can eat and gather and things like that. But that

25:38

was really important as well. Not only was accepting the credits important,

25:42

tuition systems helps with scholarships, but also having a space

25:47

that is just for us where we can be around our age, our like

25:51

minded people, you know? Being around 18 year olds is not always appealing to

25:55

someone that's 30 or 40 trying to go back to school. So that is another

25:59

resource that I think universities need to look at as well, having our own

26:04

space so that we can feel comfortable and giving us our own week.

26:09

I do believe, we have, when freshman go in, they

26:13

have like a new student orientation and they go all out for

26:17

18 year olds, they're freshman. Well, why can't you do that for adult learners?

26:20

They could have a transfer week or adult learner

26:24

week or something, make us feel special so therefore,

26:27

you feel like you're pouring back into us as much as we're pouring back

26:30

into you. I love that idea. Yeah, more institutions should absolutely do that. It's true.

26:36

You know, like there's so much time and attention thrown at these first time

26:40

students and yeah, we need to just as equally celebrate all the other

26:43

students that make up our student body and make of that the

26:47

amazing community that builds on college and university campuses. So true. I was

26:53

thinking about, and this is going to be a little self referential to an episode

26:58

from our first season, but I spoke with a colleague about experience mapping.

27:02

And one of the things that experience mapping does is you interview folks

27:06

from a particular population, like adult learners, and try to

27:10

understand what that experience was like during the decision

27:14

making process. And I'm thinking that so many institutions would benefit from

27:18

interviewing adult learners like yourself that they've

27:21

worked with to understand what was that process like for you and what

27:25

challenges did you face? What was stressful, what feelings

27:29

did you face along the way? Because I think it can be so easy for

27:32

institutions to get in that box of thinking only about what first year

27:36

students need and it's true, daycare, space that you can gather in

27:41

and attention and time paid to students and not having them feel

27:45

like an afterthought. All of these things are so valuable. And I think

27:48

sometimes you can capture those things and having those interviews and

27:51

chatting with students and actually understanding what the experience is

27:53

currently like for an adult learner on your campus and learning about ways

27:57

that you can improve that. So you're bringing up really, really

28:00

valuable things that I hope the listeners out there going, oh yeah, we

28:03

should totally incorporate that into the way we work.

28:07

Oh yes. And I know we're nearing kind of the end of the

28:14

episode, but I want to give space to, is there anything else that

28:19

you share with others, a message that you want to share?

28:22

I don't want to leave listeners with missing all the

28:27

wonderful things that you share. So is there anything else we haven't talked

28:30

about that you want to kind of leave the episode with? I do. One thing, I

28:34

think also one of the programs that I like to talk about because I did talk

28:38

about it is that one of the universities, I spoke with a minority

28:42

women's leadership group. And I talked a lot about self care and self care

28:48

goes along with adult learning and the two go hand in hand because once you

28:53

realize that you want better then you do better, then

28:58

you start making changes to make that happen. And that starts with self care

29:02

that starts with here first. And do whatever you need to do

29:06

that's necessary. Make the sacrifice, make the vision

29:12

board, make a plan. Do whatever you need to do for yourself to

29:16

better yourself because time is going to go on regardless. Two years is two

29:20

years, but why not sacrifice those two years to get to your end goal?

29:25

Do what's best. I'm all about doing what's best for myself.

29:29

I'm always trying to find different ways of bettering myself.

29:32

I happen to figure this out later in life, which is okay, but you know,

29:37

long as I'm spreading that word and I'm helping someone because you know, I

29:40

have that person that helped me and now I want to be that person to help

29:43

someone else. So it all starts with self first. So thank you Nicole for

29:49

having me, I really, really, really appreciate you having me. It is

29:56

such a joy and what a great message to end on. It's so true. You know, you

29:59

have to be, at the end of the day, you are the only person you

30:04

can truly count on for yourself, right? And you need to take care of yourself

30:08

first and foremost. That's true. I do believe once you decide to take care

30:13

of self, everything else falls in line. The reason has to be

30:18

you, I mean of course your other reasons can be your kids or your family

30:21

or your mom and your dad, but it has to be you and until you figure

30:25

that out or realize that then you're going to keep hitting that wall

30:30

or keep going over that variant cycle. It has to start with you. So if I

30:34

end up with anything boundaries, set your boundaries, get you a

30:39

vision, make a plan and start with yourself. I love it. I love it. Oh my

30:44

gosh, what a joy! And I hope that like so many folks seek you out after this

30:50

to communicate with their students. I know you've shared your message

30:54

far and wide. So if folks want to connect with you Erica, where is the

30:57

best way to find you? How to reach you. I have a new website. It's

31:03

www.EricaNMusic.com and that's N, the letter N as in Nancy but

31:10

EricaNMusic.com. Please, all my information is on there. It will have

31:14

where my next speaking engagements are, how to book me, if you have any

31:18

questions we can talk, we can contact all of the information that's on my

31:22

website. Awesome, awesome. And I hope folks do that. You are just such a joy

31:26

and I'm going to have to find a way to keep bringing you back for future

31:29

seasons. We're just going to keep chatting. Anytime Nicole, anytime. Well,

31:35

thank you again Erica and thank you to the viewers and we will see you next