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Learn how college does not have to be a debt sentence.
TEDx speaker, international best-selling author, and coach to parents of college-bound teens, Denise Thomas inspires, educates, and equips parents to take an active role in supporting their children to live a life of financial freedom. Her mission is to ‘flip’ the student debt statistic in the U.S.
Denise is a 20-year homeschool veteran having homeschooled her two children from Pre-k through high school. Using her proprietary repeatable strategy, they attended their first-choice college on 17 scholarships exceeding $199,000, walking out of college with cash in hand. They got paid to go to college. Denise says, you can keep your money. Send your kids to college on other people's cash! “College doesn't have to be a DEBT sentence.”
This is your affiliate link to my free 12 scholarship secrets checklist https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/a/24307/CfKooz8u
About the Host:
I am Saylor Cooper, Owner and host of Real Variety Radio as well as the Hope Without Sight Podcast. I am from the Houston, Texas area and am legally blind which is one of the main reasons why I am hosting this show surrounding this topic , to inspire others by letting them know that they can live their best life and reach their highest potential. I am beginning my journey in Entrepreneurship to overcome the challenges of making a living with a disability and to demonstrate that it indeed it is possible by putting in hard work! Of course I am not sure what is in store, but I am extremely excited for what is to come. My future goals include getting booked to speak on stages and write a collaborative book with my podcast guests.
Contact card, which includes all of my website and socials: https://ovou.me/livefasetiyacehe
About the Co-host:
My name is Matthew Tyler Evans and I am from the Northeast Texas area. I am blind like Saylor is and we have the same retinal condition. I decided to join Saylor‘s podcast because I have a strong interest in teaming up with him and I think together, we can inspire the world with others with disabilities.
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#freecollege #collegestrategies #Debtfreeeducation #Hopewithoutsight
Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of
Saylor Cooper:Hope Without Sight with your host, Saylor Cooper and
Tyler Evans:your host, Tyler Evans, cohosts actually
Saylor Cooper:This is Episode 32, cracking the code to free
Saylor Cooper:college. On this episode, we have a very special lady. She is
Saylor Cooper:a TEDx speaker, a coach, and a mastermind on how you can send
Saylor Cooper:your children to college and leave college with money in your
Saylor Cooper:pocket. And of course, to make college not a debt sentence,
Saylor Cooper:because so many college students are broke the paying back the
Saylor Cooper:loans, and it's just awful. She homeschooled her children, from
Saylor Cooper:pre K, all the way to 12. She struggled during the financial
Saylor Cooper:2008 financial crisis. And despite that, she came out on
Saylor Cooper:top please welcome our very special guests. Denise Thomas,
Saylor Cooper:Denise, how you doing today?
Denise Thomas:Saylor? I'm so excited to be here. It is a
Denise Thomas:beautiful day.
Saylor Cooper:Yes it is a beautiful day And also you've
Saylor Cooper:got the voices of women Summit coming up right after this. It's
Saylor Cooper:International Women.
Denise Thomas:Yeah, it's an awesome day. I'll be speaking
Denise Thomas:several times on several summits today. So it's gonna be a blast.
Saylor Cooper:You're gonna speak about cracking the code of
Saylor Cooper:free college, right?
Denise Thomas:Absolutely.
Saylor Cooper:So, Awesome tell us about yourself
Denise Thomas:it was a it was a whirlwind, if I can tell you
Denise Thomas:that. Sometimes God puts us in positions. And at the time, we
Denise Thomas:don't know what the reason is, and how we're gonna come out of
Denise Thomas:it.
Saylor Cooper:TseFor sure.
Denise Thomas:My husband had been in the corporate world for
Denise Thomas:about 15 years, and we were doing he had us built our dream
Denise Thomas:home, the one we thought we would retire on a really, really
Denise Thomas:beautiful house. It was on a lake, it was big enough to let
Denise Thomas:the church borrow it for for their events. I mean, it was
Denise Thomas:really, it was what I wanted everything to be. It was
Denise Thomas:fabulous. Just a couple, two or three months after it was
Denise Thomas:finished, and we had moved in. My husband got laid off from his
Denise Thomas:corporate job.
Saylor Cooper:Wow,
Denise Thomas:I was cool. Um, guy. Okay, cool. That's all
Denise Thomas:right. Well, we'll just go ahead and put the house on the market.
Denise Thomas:And no, because I'm, I'm one of these very conservative people.
Denise Thomas:When it comes to money. I don't want to be stuck in any, you
Denise Thomas:know, weird places. So we put it on the market, he was able to
Denise Thomas:get another job pretty quickly. That was awesome. We could
Denise Thomas:breeze because this was, you know, not a small house note. So
Denise Thomas:the house he moved, you just moved into actually got laid
Denise Thomas:off, you thought you go ahead and put it on the market and
Denise Thomas:sell Yeah, it's like it's like, I'm not I can't be attached.
Denise Thomas:When I see something like that coming. And he got a new job,
Denise Thomas:thank goodness. But then he got laid off again.
Saylor Cooper:Ouch
Denise Thomas:the market that he was in at the time, we
Denise Thomas:weren't paying a whole lot of attention and world events,
Denise Thomas:we're going weird as well. So it was just one of those things
Denise Thomas:where it was like a trifecta of issues that happened. And at the
Denise Thomas:same time, right after that second layoff, the stock market
Denise Thomas:crashed. So we lost everything that we had. everything, our
Denise Thomas:life savings, totally gone. What I didn't know at the time, is
Denise Thomas:that my husband thought we would use our retirement savings or
Denise Thomas:some portion of that to pay for our kids to go to college. I
Denise Thomas:know now that would have been a really bad idea. But then that
Denise Thomas:wasn't even on my mind. So after the money totally ran out, we
Denise Thomas:got to the point where I realised we had only one choice.
Denise Thomas:We had to declare bankruptcy because we could no longer pay
Denise Thomas:the bills. And we had just enough left in the account to
Denise Thomas:pay for a bankruptcy attorney and to buy a lawnmower and a
Denise Thomas:trailer so that we could put food on the table. There was
Denise Thomas:nothing left. So the house went into foreclosure and the
Denise Thomas:bankruptcy was liquidation. Everything we had was sold. We
Denise Thomas:also had two dogs and because we had to move into some All
Denise Thomas:apartment, our two dogs had to go as well.
Saylor Cooper:Wow. So it was from up on a high mountain tops
Saylor Cooper:or the top of a roller coaster, to a downward spiral. Right
Denise Thomas:I'll tell you about what went. several times,
Denise Thomas:I found myself flat on the floor, face down, bawling my
Denise Thomas:eyes out begging to God, why? The good news is I knew that we
Denise Thomas:would never be homeless in the physical sense. Now because we
Denise Thomas:have family, you know, and you know, when I see people on the
Denise Thomas:street, I always wonder where is their family? I knew that, you
Denise Thomas:know, it would not be fun for anybody because I hate you know
Denise Thomas:what's before us. But we would have someplace to lay our head
Denise Thomas:if it all went to crap. But it was a very difficult time
Denise Thomas:because I got no answers out of the why me? You know, why is
Denise Thomas:this happening? What would out I could not or see the good we did
Denise Thomas:everything right. We we didn't spend ridiculously amounts of
Denise Thomas:money we saved you know, we we didn't have debt other than the
Denise Thomas:house, right? I just nothing made sense. We invested. We did
Denise Thomas:all the things right financially, yet it happened
Denise Thomas:anyway. So fast forward just a few months being into this small
Denise Thomas:apartment with two kids. My daughter was about to start high
Denise Thomas:school. My son was a few years behind her. And suddenly I
Denise Thomas:realised, wait a minute. College is four years away? How are we
Denise Thomas:going to pay for this? Yes, we have no savings. We have no 401
Denise Thomas:K to borrow against. We have no house to borrow equity from. And
Denise Thomas:that bankruptcy means we can't cosign for those student loans
Denise Thomas:everyone likes to talk about. See they they talk about student
Denise Thomas:loans, you know, every couple of years it becomes a political
Denise Thomas:football, but they forget to mention somebody has to cosign
Denise Thomas:for those puppies.
Saylor Cooper:Wow.
Denise Thomas:And that's the parents or the grandparents
Denise Thomas:usually when we couldn't cosign, so how are they going to go to
Denise Thomas:school? How on earth would we pay for college? Makes sense?
Denise Thomas:Because in order to take out a loan, they need to see that you
Denise Thomas:have you know, that income to pay it back? And surely light
Denise Thomas:and credit and to have a good credit score. You know,
Denise Thomas:bankruptcy is not good.
Saylor Cooper:Bankruptcy affects your credit score.
Saylor Cooper:Really?
Denise Thomas:It does. I mean, it affects it for years, like a
Denise Thomas:dowel.
Saylor Cooper:Ouch
Denise Thomas:Now, what's it what's, what's funny about that
Denise Thomas:is that it doesn't take too long, just a couple of years or
Denise Thomas:so before credit card companies start sending you credit cards
Denise Thomas:again, or invitations to build up your credit again. Hopefully
Denise Thomas:most people who have gone bankrupt, understand that's a
Denise Thomas:really bad idea that many people that's the whole reason they
Denise Thomas:went bankrupt. But anyway, I digress. When I was sitting
Denise Thomas:there, realising we could not pay for college. It really
Denise Thomas:struck me a lot harder than I think. Maybe some families
Denise Thomas:would, because what was going through my mind at the time, was
Denise Thomas:what I had to go through for my own college degree. You see,
Denise Thomas:when I was growing up, we always heard when you go to college,
Denise Thomas:not if you go to college, from my parents. It was just assumed
Denise Thomas:you were going to get a college education. But nobody talked
Denise Thomas:about how it was going to get paid for.
Saylor Cooper:Exactly.
Denise Thomas:And Saylor kids. Teenagers live in their own
Denise Thomas:little world. They don't have any idea what their parents
Denise Thomas:finances are like, they have a roof over their head food on the
Denise Thomas:table. They get a Christmas present every year a birthday
Denise Thomas:gift and they're cool. They have no idea. especially back then
Denise Thomas:nobody talked about money in families. And I don't know that
Denise Thomas:it's a whole lot different today. So, at about between my
Denise Thomas:junior and senior year, that summer, the topic of paying for
Denise Thomas:college came up and my mother said, Oh no, we're not paying
Denise Thomas:for you to go to college. That's on you.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah,
Denise Thomas:I was I had no idea I had just assumed they
Denise Thomas:were paying for college. But Saylor looking back on it. Years
Denise Thomas:later, I realised there was no way they could have afforded
Denise Thomas:College. We were poor. I didn't know we were poor. Nobody said
Denise Thomas:we were poor at Slack. Like I said, we had food we had
Denise Thomas:birthday present a Christmas present, what I didn't realise
Denise Thomas:until many years later, we shopped at the thrift stores for
Denise Thomas:clothing. My dad and I would take like little, twice a week
Denise Thomas:road trips around the neighbourhood on trash night,
Denise Thomas:looking to see if anybody quote has any good trash. What that
Denise Thomas:meant was, does anybody have anything that they put out on
Denise Thomas:their lawn? For the trash that he could fix? A bicycle, a
Denise Thomas:lawnmower, a desk, a rocking chair, we got all of that,
Denise Thomas:because somebody put it out on their lawn as trash. Going away,
Denise Thomas:you would kind of go dumpster diving to find Yes, it was it
Denise Thomas:was dumpster diving, you know, back when I was a teenager, and
Denise Thomas:you know, bicycles. And if we had four kids in our family, I
Denise Thomas:was the oldest bicycles that was handed down bikes, you know, Dad
Denise Thomas:would slap a new seat on it, paint streamers, and you know,
Denise Thomas:walleye would get handed down to the next kid. So I didn't
Denise Thomas:realise any of that growing up. And I went to college on the
Denise Thomas:Pell Grant, which is for low income families about Yeah, it's
Denise Thomas:it's it's part of a FAFSA, the Federal Student Aid title you I
Denise Thomas:know, you're familiar with that, because you fill that out?
Denise Thomas:Exactly. I am. I filled it out every year. Yeah, every year.
Denise Thomas:And the Pell Grant, though, is not intended to cover
Denise Thomas:everything. For college. You're not intended to go away to
Denise Thomas:school. It's for your local, regional college. And it covers
Denise Thomas:pretty much most of that for most kids, if they're living at
Denise Thomas:home. But I didn't live at home. I went away to school. It was a
Denise Thomas:public school, but I still, even with the Pell Grant, I still had
Denise Thomas:to work three jobs. And even then, I had to lift food from
Denise Thomas:the college cafeteria, so I could eat on the weekends. Dang,
Denise Thomas:I did not want my kids to go through that. No. So that was
Denise Thomas:where the story began. That was where I got the determination
Denise Thomas:that, by golly, there's got to be a way what are we missing?
Denise Thomas:And that's when I started doing the research. And in my research
Denise Thomas:Saylor, I found that it's 70% of college students graduate with
Denise Thomas:student loan debt. But I can do the math. That means 30% are
Denise Thomas:graduating debt free.
Saylor Cooper:Wow,
Denise Thomas:what are they doing? And why don't we know
Denise Thomas:about it? Why isn't the media talking about that?
Saylor Cooper:Yeah,
Denise Thomas:I asked to figure out what was going on what was
Denise Thomas:different. And what I did is, if something I found sounded
Denise Thomas:remotely like it might have an effect, I put it into action
Denise Thomas:with my own kids. From late middle school and force, my son
Denise Thomas:was younger, all the way through high school. In the end, my two
Denise Thomas:kids were accepted to every college they applied to. With
Denise Thomas:scholarships, they attended college on 17 scholarships,
Denise Thomas:totaling more than $199,000. They both walked out of college
Denise Thomas:debt free with cash leftover.
Saylor Cooper:Now, I'm now going to detail how did you How
Saylor Cooper:are you able to allow them to do all that whenever you were broke
Saylor Cooper:and bankrupt yourself? How in the world? I mean, to me, unless
Saylor Cooper:you explain how you did it? That's just not possible. What?
Denise Thomas:Okay, I'm glad you asked. So here's the thing.
Denise Thomas:When I used to talk about this on stages, I would end with that
Denise Thomas:and was like, and that'd be it and people what I didn't realise
Denise Thomas:is that a mom came up to me in 2019 when I got off of a stage
Denise Thomas:in California and said Your kids must be geniuses, because my kid
Denise Thomas:applied to 40 scholarships in one night. What I had failed to
Denise Thomas:mention was that literally half of the scholarships my kids want
Denise Thomas:$100,000 Worth did not even ask for GPA or test scores. So no,
Denise Thomas:you don't have to be a genius to win all of these scholarships.
Denise Thomas:What you do have to do is understand what scholarship
Denise Thomas:committees are looking for. You have to apply to the right
Denise Thomas:scholarships, not the wrong ones or sweepstakes drawings. And you
Denise Thomas:have to know what colleges are looking for early enough, and
Denise Thomas:scholarships early enough so that you can plan that strategy
Denise Thomas:throughout high school. So your kids have what they're looking
Denise Thomas:for. Yes, kids application is that oh my gosh, this kid is
Denise Thomas:awesome. We're gonna pay them to come here.
Tyler Evans:There you go
Saylor Cooper:But I plan to plan ahead.
Denise Thomas:And we got to plan ahead. You've got to start
Denise Thomas:early. Sorry. That's not what we're told today. You know, for
Denise Thomas:decades, we've been telling kids and even my own friends when I
Denise Thomas:was doing the research, Denise, you're starting to early. Wait
Denise Thomas:till junior year for that.
Saylor Cooper:No, now
Denise Thomas:Yeah, start now. I don't care. Look, I don't care
Denise Thomas:if you've got a kindergarten kid. There's a scholarship for a
Denise Thomas:kindergartener. that now you can do it anytime.
Saylor Cooper:Let's face it. Did you kids graduate, like top
Saylor Cooper:of the class validictorian and all that? Or were they just?
Denise Thomas:Well, they're home?
Saylor Cooper:They will homeschool? Yeah. Oh, they will
Saylor Cooper:homeschool?
Denise Thomas:Yes. So their grades are you know? Yeah, they
Denise Thomas:have no they did not have they did not have perfect AC T scores
Denise Thomas:or SATs scores. That was good, but certainly not perfect. You
Denise Thomas:know, not even close.
Saylor Cooper:So how did they get into all those colleges
Saylor Cooper:without the scores? Because that's what most colleges
Saylor Cooper:require unless you go to a community college, right?
Denise Thomas:Well, they did send their scores in. But the
Denise Thomas:colleges are looking for three important things. Will you pass
Denise Thomas:and graduate? That's number one, because they need to have kids
Denise Thomas:that are going to continue and they're going to stick it out.
Denise Thomas:And they're going to actually get their diploma, because that
Denise Thomas:affects some of their statistics, their graduation
Denise Thomas:statistics. So your child's grades in high school, their
Denise Thomas:test scores, yes, colleges do still want the tests, even if it
Denise Thomas:says it's test optional, and also the course rigour. So are
Denise Thomas:they taking AP classes or dual enrollment classes at the local
Denise Thomas:community college? Or any or honours classes? What What are
Denise Thomas:they doing to present themselves academically as trying to go for
Denise Thomas:something a little harder than, you know, quote, whatever easy
Denise Thomas:classes might be available?
Saylor Cooper:Exactly.
Denise Thomas:Now, for us, we homeschooled. We didn't have
Denise Thomas:access to AP classes. And the truth is, what parents don't
Denise Thomas:realise is that high schools add extra points to your GPA when
Denise Thomas:you take AP classes and honour classes. So you have what's
Denise Thomas:called a weighted GPA versus an unweighted GPA. Well, every
Denise Thomas:college strips, those weighted points off of your GPA, they
Denise Thomas:take it off. They are levelling the playing field, they have
Denise Thomas:their own formula for recalculating your GPA. And
Denise Thomas:here's how this works. If your kid, let's, let's say your kid
Denise Thomas:goes to a high school that has that offers 15 AP classes. And
Denise Thomas:your kid took 12 AP classes from your school. But there's another
Denise Thomas:kid applying whose high school only offered two AP classes, and
Denise Thomas:they took the two that was offered. So it doesn't seem fair
Denise Thomas:for your kid to get the 12 Extra points because they took those
Denise Thomas:AP classes, then this other kid who didn't have that chance. So
Denise Thomas:they're going to weigh this and they're going to recalculate it
Denise Thomas:based on how many you took and and what's available. So if your
Denise Thomas:high school offered 15, and you only took two? Well, now they're
Denise Thomas:wondering why only two, yet the other kid who's only offered two
Denise Thomas:classes, and you took all of what was available, that looks
Denise Thomas:even better. So it's just it's a, it's just a way of looking at
Denise Thomas:it for the college. They want to know that you are taking
Denise Thomas:rigorous classes and that you're trying really hard and that
Denise Thomas:you're getting good grades. So that's number one. Number two,
Denise Thomas:they want to know how do you fit into the campus community.
Denise Thomas:They're looking at your extracurricular activities. Did
Denise Thomas:you have a job? What kind of community service have you done
Denise Thomas:things like that? So I call that the resume portion of your
Denise Thomas:application. What that tells them is what do you love? What
Denise Thomas:is it that lights up your kid And the kid that bounces around
Denise Thomas:from one thing to another, that doesn't tell them anything, it
Denise Thomas:might say that you're trying to pad your resume with a bunch of
Denise Thomas:stuff that you really didn't care about. So they're not
Denise Thomas:looking for the jack of all trades. They're looking for that
Denise Thomas:one or two things that says who you really are. And what is in
Denise Thomas:your heart. What what thing that you do that you absolutely love?
Denise Thomas:Doing is there's one internet Yeah, exactly.
Saylor Cooper:How What I'm trying to guess since your kids
Saylor Cooper:were homeschooled. How did you kids, like, get into those
Saylor Cooper:colleges? How did they meet those requirements? How do they
Saylor Cooper:deal with all the AP requirements you're talking
Saylor Cooper:about and extracurricular activities since they were
Saylor Cooper:homeschooled? That's what I'm trying to get.
Denise Thomas:Right, right. Well, homeschoolers do have
Denise Thomas:options. You may not have cheerleading, you may not have
Denise Thomas:dance team. But you may have a local dance facility, a building
Denise Thomas:a place that has dance classes, you may have, let's say your
Denise Thomas:child likes to play baseball, you might have the local
Denise Thomas:recreational park that has baseball for your for your boys
Denise Thomas:or girls. You may have softball, you may have all kinds of sports
Denise Thomas:available. There's other things as well, for example, if your
Denise Thomas:kid likes to play chess, okay, maybe he starts his own chess
Denise Thomas:club. He can start it online, have a you know, and and do a
Denise Thomas:Zoom Room type of chess club, right? You can play chess like
Denise Thomas:that.
Saylor Cooper:Right?
Denise Thomas:You could you could do if you can start at
Denise Thomas:your own high school if you have a high school if you
Denise Thomas:traditionally schooled. So they're looking for, what is it
Denise Thomas:that is going to take you hopefully from freshman year all
Denise Thomas:the way through high school, but certainly at least sophomore
Denise Thomas:year, all the way through. And here's why. Saylor back when I
Denise Thomas:was in, I'm sorry. Not submitted until the spring of senior year.
Denise Thomas:But today, college applications are submitted early fall of
Denise Thomas:senior year. Wow. So if your kid, so regardless of what it is
Denise Thomas:that you have, whether it's an activity or grades, freshman,
Denise Thomas:sophomore, and junior year is what counts. You're not even
Denise Thomas:putting on senior year activities, because you haven't
Denise Thomas:started senior year for a lot of these kids when they put in
Denise Thomas:their applications. Exactly. So you've got to lead up to and
Denise Thomas:plan to already have things that have leadership in it or that
Denise Thomas:look like leadership. And leadership doesn't have to be
Denise Thomas:you know, president or vice president of a club. Leadership
Denise Thomas:looks like a lot of things. But for my kids, you ask, what did
Denise Thomas:they do for their coursework, or they didn't have AP classes?
Denise Thomas:They took a couple of community college classes while they were
Denise Thomas:in high school, and how that all they were homeschooled. I see.
Denise Thomas:While they were homeschooled. We as far as activities, they
Denise Thomas:didn't have band and they didn't have you know, Student Body
Denise Thomas:Government. My daughter was a dancer. So in high school, she
Denise Thomas:did ballroom dancing. My son did martial arts. So he had martial
Denise Thomas:arts from the time he was three years old. And he loved that
Denise Thomas:and, and ended up with his third degree black belt by the time he
Denise Thomas:graduated from high school. And he was an instructor as well. So
Denise Thomas:but you know, I say there's always this one thing, but it
Denise Thomas:can be more than one thing your kid can they can be in
Denise Thomas:leadership in their youth group at church.
Saylor Cooper:Exactly, exactly.
Denise Thomas:So many Options.
Saylor Cooper:I mean, as long as the homes it makes sense as
Saylor Cooper:long as homeschoolers, even though like they may not there
Saylor Cooper:may not be extracurricular activities at first because
Saylor Cooper:obviously to mean homeschooled, as long as they get engaged
Saylor Cooper:within their surrounding community say like, all the
Saylor Cooper:homeschoolers get together and, you know, create a club,
Saylor Cooper:assemble activities, just stuff to do or say if they volunteer
Saylor Cooper:for church, that all counts. Everything counts. Everything
Saylor Cooper:counts. Yeah, literally. And I don't care if you're
Saylor Cooper:homeschooled or or traditionally schooled everything from the
Saylor Cooper:second your kid gets out of eighth grade. So the summer
Saylor Cooper:between eighth and ninth grade is your ninth grade summer store
Saylor Cooper:starting there, everything counts that your child has done
Saylor Cooper:if they if they got up out of bed, went to school, came home
Saylor Cooper:and did homework. Okay, what else is there?
Denise Thomas:Hopefully not just played video games 24/7
Denise Thomas:After that, no, no. If that is your kid, too. Teach them coding
Denise Thomas:and have them learn how to write video games. And yeah, tell them
Denise Thomas:to their friends.
Tyler Evans:Okay, you go, there you go.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah, that's a good one,
Denise Thomas:then there's always something think outside
Denise Thomas:of the box. Okay, I'd love to.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah.
Denise Thomas:So the third thing that colleges are looking
Denise Thomas:for, and this is sometimes kind of a gut feeling. What kind of
Denise Thomas:an alumni, will you be? How will your adult life reflect back on
Denise Thomas:your alum, your your alma mater, they're looking for the next,
Denise Thomas:Elon Musk. They're looking for the next Michelle Obama after
Denise Thomas:he's not going to be as an adult. Exactly.
Tyler Evans:Right.
Denise Thomas:And there's a there's a gut feeling about
Denise Thomas:that, depending on what your kid has accomplished during high
Denise Thomas:school, you know, and some of it is community service. I
Denise Thomas:mentioned that before. It is a good indicator, if if colleges
Denise Thomas:are looking at two kids that have the same GPA, same test
Denise Thomas:scores, they're going into the same field. And maybe, maybe
Denise Thomas:they have the same activities. Right?
Saylor Cooper:Right.
Denise Thomas:But if one of them has only the number of
Denise Thomas:community service hours required for graduation, maybe it's 25
Denise Thomas:for their state, or 50. And the other kids has 100, or more
Denise Thomas:community service hours in a specific area that they love.
Denise Thomas:What that tells the college is that here is someone who is
Denise Thomas:likely to continue serving their community in some way as an
Denise Thomas:adult. And that reflects back on their college,
Saylor Cooper:it does sure does. up as valuable, well said,
Saylor Cooper:then this makes sense. And you've done a great job now, are
Saylor Cooper:you? You, obviously you prepared early, you prepared your kids
Saylor Cooper:early, even though financially, you're weren't in the best
Saylor Cooper:shape. Now, how did y'all get out of that hole out of that?
Saylor Cooper:Out of that Bankruptcy? I mean, get your husband get another
Saylor Cooper:job? Like, what? How did y'all get out of that?
Denise Thomas:I'm glad you asked. Okay, so that lawncare
Denise Thomas:business, the mowing lawns to put food on the table. We grew
Denise Thomas:that to a six figure company. And we did that by showing up
Denise Thomas:literally by showing up, what we realise is that a lot of the
Denise Thomas:service oriented companies, at least in our own personal
Denise Thomas:experience, just didn't show up when they said they would. But
Denise Thomas:if you showed up, guess what? You get paid. And if you show up
Denise Thomas:all the time, regularly, every time you get referrals. And if
Denise Thomas:you do an excellent job at what you're been hired to do. It's
Denise Thomas:it's it just grows by leaps and bounds. And I'll give you an
Denise Thomas:example of that. When my husband would be called up and asking
Denise Thomas:somebody would ask, Hey, you know, I'd like you to come give
Denise Thomas:us a bid and tell us what it would cost to have you come do
Denise Thomas:our lawn on a regular basis. Cool. And he would say Well,
Denise Thomas:before I come over once you go over to a couple of these other
Denise Thomas:houses in your neighbourhood that I do, so that you can see
Denise Thomas:the kind of work and oh, well you know, it's just mowing. No,
Denise Thomas:it's not just mowing the grass, I promise you go take a look at
Denise Thomas:you. Matter of fact, I'll just give you the corner address. And
Denise Thomas:I'm not even going to tell you which house it is. And you'll be
Denise Thomas:able to tell which one is mine. That is how good of a job he
Denise Thomas:did.
Saylor Cooper:So he worked as he worked his tail off and you
Saylor Cooper:see I see on paper I can then job because even though you're
Saylor Cooper:in a hole, struggling financially, y'all put your
Saylor Cooper:bootstraps up. Even though you were on the floor, just crying.
Saylor Cooper:And y'all y'all didn't stop. Y'all just started a company
Saylor Cooper:yourself instead of him looking for another job and I really
Saylor Cooper:commend Java that which is the reason why me and Tyler doing
Saylor Cooper:this entrepreneurship journey as you know, it's it's it's so hard
Saylor Cooper:for us to find jobs as disabled people for obvious reasons
Saylor Cooper:employers just don't want to understand and it's it's not
Saylor Cooper:only frustrating and it's wrong, and that's why, you know, I even
Saylor Cooper:though This journey I'm on is unknown. I'm still figuring
Saylor Cooper:stuff out putting up pieces together. I commend myself for
Saylor Cooper:standing up and going out there fearless and just jumping out
Saylor Cooper:jumping ships swimming and doing it and I know we talked about
Saylor Cooper:this before but I've and I'm figuring it out more and more
Saylor Cooper:I've been working with Michelle Abraham gonna set up membership
Saylor Cooper:sites for the podcast I now you do you do do you do paid
Saylor Cooper:speaking or speak to sell
Denise Thomas:both actually paid speaking and speak to sell
Denise Thomas:I'm going to be at six conferences this year already?
Denise Thomas:Five homeschool conferences and one financial conference that
Denise Thomas:happens to be in Florida that one I can it's not as far from
Denise Thomas:me as the others. I love I love speaking speaking is great.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah, cuz I'm, I'm gonna do for now, because I
Saylor Cooper:don't have any offers yet. That still stay. I'm still on that
Saylor Cooper:stage, as you know, but I did sign up with Frank king he and I
Saylor Cooper:were going to start working together I'm going to do paid
Saylor Cooper:speaking gigs at colleges, associations, even cruises. I
Saylor Cooper:signed up for flank because you know, Joe, Mr. Always good
Saylor Cooper:speakers Playhouse live. That's what he recommended. She
Saylor Cooper:recommended. He recommended his programme. He recommended
Saylor Cooper:Frank's programme for me over play 100 Because Because play
Saylor Cooper:100 It's more speak to sell and plus, I don't know what I don't
Saylor Cooper:know what you've seen with me what. But what Mr. Always could
Saylor Cooper:have seen with me is that I could be very good at paid
Saylor Cooper:speaking. That's my niche.
Denise Thomas:I agree. I agree. And Frank is awesome. I'm also
Denise Thomas:working with Frank. Just so you know.
Saylor Cooper:Oh, good.
Denise Thomas:Frank is fabulous. And yeah, you know,
Denise Thomas:it's interesting. When my daughter was 16 years old. She
Denise Thomas:had started competing in ballroom dance, I think she was
Denise Thomas:14. And at age 16, she had three dance partners for three
Denise Thomas:different styles of dance for a regional championship. And it
Denise Thomas:was probably about May, April or May of that year. And we were at
Denise Thomas:a friend's house having a crawfish boil, everybody was
Denise Thomas:having a good time and they had just put up a zipline in their
Denise Thomas:yard. So everybody was enjoying the zipline. And then my
Denise Thomas:daughter gets on it and she slips off from the top like from
Denise Thomas:the platform at the top and she breaks her pelvis play
Saylor Cooper:Ouch Ouch
Denise Thomas:This was not only painful for her but devastating
Denise Thomas:because she was six weeks from this ballroom dance
Denise Thomas:championship. Now the reason I'm bringing this up is because for
Denise Thomas:the first several weeks, she was pretty much on bed rest I mean,
Denise Thomas:she was not allowed to move this it was like just don't freakin
Denise Thomas:move. The doctor said you just can't move this is we are we are
Denise Thomas:we have got to get the bone to start healing. And luckily
Denise Thomas:because it's not a straight bone bones that are curved in our
Denise Thomas:body will heal a lot faster. So as long as she didn't move and
Denise Thomas:she stayed stationary for a few weeks, you would be be okay. So
Denise Thomas:she stayed still stayed home didn't go anywhere. But once she
Denise Thomas:was allowed to be in a wheelchair, we would take her to
Denise Thomas:you know, just to get out of the house, we would go to Walmart
Denise Thomas:and you know TJ Maxx and some other stores. She found how un
Denise Thomas:physical disability friendly the stores are. And then she became
Denise Thomas:an advocate. And she would write the stores and let them know
Denise Thomas:what they needed to make changes with.
Saylor Cooper:The accident was a blessing in disguise in a way
Denise Thomas:it was it was an eye opener even for us because
Denise Thomas:you know, we're not physically disabled. So we don't generally
Denise Thomas:even pay attention to whether or not a doorway is wide enough or
Denise Thomas:the dressing rooms at the store. Can you get in and out of it
Denise Thomas:with a wheelchair, you know, and they might appear to be large
Denise Thomas:enough. But for reals they're not and it's just something that
Denise Thomas:they you have to put yourself in a wheelchair to know that. So
Denise Thomas:that was quite interesting, but fast forward just want to finish
Denise Thomas:that story with her. She last couple of weeks, last three
Denise Thomas:weeks or so, before the competition, she's in the
Denise Thomas:wheelchair she's not allowed to get up. That's it wheelchair and
Denise Thomas:bed. She had the three dance partners one of them had never
Denise Thomas:competed before he says I'm out I can't not practice and compete
Denise Thomas:can't can't possibly do that. The other was her brother she
Denise Thomas:was going to compete with the passa doble with her brother.
Denise Thomas:But the doctor was very specific. He said you cannot do
Denise Thomas:that pounding with the passa Doble, even even after your
Denise Thomas:quote, ready. It's just not there's no too soon too soon for
Denise Thomas:that. So that was out. And the other gentleman had competed
Denise Thomas:before. He was willing to be coached by her from the
Denise Thomas:wheelchair while I was filling in for her as his dance partner,
Denise Thomas:and she would coach him as to what he was doing and not doing
Denise Thomas:so that the doctor told her in order to compete, you cannot
Denise Thomas:practice at all you will get out of that wheelchair and walk onto
Denise Thomas:the dance floor. And that's exactly what she did. And she
Denise Thomas:won that competition.
Saylor Cooper:So she she was able to participate in that
Saylor Cooper:competition and won it after all, cool
Denise Thomas:even without practising it was just muscle
Denise Thomas:memory. It was muscle memory. And she did have a little bit of
Denise Thomas:physical therapy and the physical therapist, we gave him
Denise Thomas:tapes of her her performances before so that he could see how
Denise Thomas:she was supposed to be able to move. And he was very thankful
Denise Thomas:because hadn't I had he not seen that he's a physical therapist
Denise Thomas:for professional athletes. So we made sure that she was going to
Denise Thomas:the right person in those last couple of weeks. And he told us
Denise Thomas:the thing he said, the difference between professional
Denise Thomas:aid and everybody else is the amount of pain you're willing to
Denise Thomas:go through. To get back on the field.
Saylor Cooper:And now your daughter is fine.
Denise Thomas:Yeah, absolutely. While still dancing, still
Denise Thomas:dancing.
Saylor Cooper:What a story. And so, of course, I imagine you're
Saylor Cooper:no longer bankrupt anymore. You're you're financially set.
Saylor Cooper:So you had to give up that first house. Yeah. Hello, everybody.
Saylor Cooper:What house are you in now?
Denise Thomas:hahaha Well, I am in an aeroplane hangar. I live
Denise Thomas:in an apartment in an aeroplane hangar on an active private
Denise Thomas:airport in Florida. My husband, my husband hobby is flying
Denise Thomas:aeroplanes.
Tyler Evans:Ooh,
Saylor Cooper:what aeroplanes? Does he fly? The 730 sevens
Saylor Cooper:have?
Denise Thomas:No, he has a Cessna. And I can't tell you
Denise Thomas:which one because I stay on the ground and take pictures. I
Denise Thomas:don't fly.
Saylor Cooper:Wow.
Denise Thomas:So that you know going through all of that is why
Denise Thomas:I'm able to help other families. If it had not been for us going
Denise Thomas:through that bankruptcy, I never would have gone through that
Denise Thomas:effort to find out what to do. I would have been just like every
Denise Thomas:other family either in debt co signing for our kids loans or
Denise Thomas:using using up our retirement for it right. So it was a
Denise Thomas:blessing was definitely a blessing.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah, and I think we're I'm going through now, as
Saylor Cooper:you know, what I'm feeling is totally normal, still figuring
Saylor Cooper:things out. I tell myself, when this is all said and done. I'm
Saylor Cooper:not gonna look back. I'll never have to worry about finding
Saylor Cooper:another job again, which is going to be exactly credible.
Saylor Cooper:And so how many tedX, have you been on speeches have you given
Saylor Cooper:and what are your future goals?
Denise Thomas:Well, I've only done one TEDx. And as much as I
Denise Thomas:would love to do another one that is not at the forefront of
Denise Thomas:my my goal. What's on the forefront for me is speaking as
Denise Thomas:often as I possibly can to families to get as many families
Denise Thomas:as possible on board so that they too can crack the code of
Denise Thomas:free college for their kids and their grandkids. The the way the
Denise Thomas:difference between coming out of college with debt and coming out
Denise Thomas:debt free. The amount of freedom is just just incredible. Your
Denise Thomas:kids can do anything when they come out of college without that
Denise Thomas:monkey on their back.
Saylor Cooper:Exactly. but also just like also just know that
Saylor Cooper:college indeed is not for everybody, you know?
Denise Thomas:Absolutely. That is the thing that I know, you
Denise Thomas:don't have to go to college to be successful in life. No, that
Denise Thomas:is another myths are a lie or belief that has been perpetuated
Denise Thomas:for decades. It's why we are lacking. And in need of the
Denise Thomas:trades. There's not enough mechanics, there's not enough
Denise Thomas:electricians or plumbers, or hairdressers, or name the trade.
Denise Thomas:Because we've been telling people you have to go to
Denise Thomas:college.
Saylor Cooper:Exactly.
Denise Thomas:And the amount of requirement,
Saylor Cooper:maybe you should even add that to your portfolio
Saylor Cooper:too, because I went to college for two years that I didn't
Saylor Cooper:finish, because I just, I just didn't like it was just too
Saylor Cooper:much. And also, I'm going to mention the frank. The topic I
Saylor Cooper:really want to cover at colleges is I'm not going to go into the
Saylor Cooper:specifics, but I want to, I want to spread a message about
Saylor Cooper:preventing hazing. And a lot of the A lot, a lot of the bad
Saylor Cooper:stuff that happens in fraternities, because I'm not
Saylor Cooper:gonna go into the specifics, but my sister had a really bad
Saylor Cooper:experience in college, and a fraternity and it really, it
Saylor Cooper:really has affected you know, myself and my family.
Saylor Cooper:financially, emotionally, it just, it just has cost us
Saylor Cooper:everything. And so what I want to work on is just spreading
Saylor Cooper:awareness. You know, if you're gonna go to college, please be
Saylor Cooper:very careful. And don't don't get yourself into trouble when
Saylor Cooper:you don't need to, and just fraternities and sororities if
Saylor Cooper:you're going to be on campus, behave yourself, you know.
Denise Thomas:Yeah, I think kids don't understand that.
Denise Thomas:Technically, they're adults at that age. And they they should,
Denise Thomas:they should understand responsibility.
Saylor Cooper:Yeah,
Denise Thomas:and how their actions affect other people. A
Denise Thomas:lot of that, I believe, Saylor, I'm not going to, you know, go
Denise Thomas:on too much of a tangent here. But a lot of that comes with how
Denise Thomas:kids are raised, you know, I fully believe that a lot of
Denise Thomas:today's woes. And look, I am, I'm not a Dr. Seuss person or
Denise Thomas:whatever, you know, I, I believe that parents do have an
Denise Thomas:extraordinary impact on how their kids turn out as adults.
Saylor Cooper:Exactly.
Denise Thomas:You know, and it some of it stems from very
Denise Thomas:young, emotional trauma, you know, or not, et cetera, how you
Denise Thomas:handle things. And, you know, just just the simple things.
Denise Thomas:Inherently parent says, Oh, my kids come home, comes home from
Denise Thomas:college and, you know, leaves everything laying on the floor,
Denise Thomas:and just respectful and, you know, coming in and all our
Saylor Cooper:Yeah.
Denise Thomas:Nothing changed between, did you think there was
Denise Thomas:suddenly going to grow up from high school to college? You
Denise Thomas:know, what, were they able to pick up their clothes when they
Denise Thomas:were in high school? Or, you know, or, you know, did you have
Denise Thomas:a curfew, then do they understand that mom and dad have
Denise Thomas:to go to work in the morning? You know, it's, it's about
Denise Thomas:communication. It's about understanding and train, it's
Denise Thomas:training, training your kids to be adults that can go out into
Denise Thomas:the community and serve other people?
Saylor Cooper:Yes, indeed. Yes. You know, yeah. So
Denise Thomas:yeah, I'm excited for you, Saylor.
Saylor Cooper:Thank you, Denise. And so, I know you have
Saylor Cooper:an affiliate programme. Please share that, and I'd be happy to
Saylor Cooper:help promote it.
Denise Thomas:Awesome. Well, first of all, if, if any other
Denise Thomas:entrepreneurs out there would love to promote what I do, I do
Denise Thomas:have an affiliate programme. And I would love to have you on
Denise Thomas:board helping to support families, to be able to get that
Denise Thomas:message out. I have a gift for parents and grandparents if you
Denise Thomas:are interested. It is a 12 point checklist. So that if and when
Denise Thomas:your children apply to colleges and scholarships, get this
Denise Thomas:checklist and don't submit until you've checked all these boxes,
Denise Thomas:because these are the things that colleges and scholarship
Denise Thomas:committees see. That automatically puts your kids
Denise Thomas:application in file 13, which is the trash bin. Yes. And I
Denise Thomas:believe I had that in the show notes as well. Awesome.
Saylor Cooper:So I don't believe I have anything else but
Saylor Cooper:before we wrap up with our customary ending Tyler do You
Saylor Cooper:have any other questions for for our guests today?
Tyler Evans:Um, well, I believe, who was it that was at
Tyler Evans:your daughter that was submitting information to stores
Tyler Evans:about the decision about how not disabled friendly, really
Tyler Evans:friendly? Well, I had an experience where I was in
Tyler Evans:college, I was at a junior college. And I noticed one of
Tyler Evans:the buildings was not brailled. And so what I did, I contacted
Tyler Evans:the dean of the Community College, the, of that building.
Tyler Evans:And just before I graduated, they got the project on it. And,
Tyler Evans:and the building is now brailled the classroom doors are brailed
Tyler Evans:now. That's fabulous.
Denise Thomas:I love it. I love it. Yeah, if you saw something,
Denise Thomas:say something, right?
Saylor Cooper:Exactly.
Denise Thomas:You don't have to live with it. If it's if it's,
Denise Thomas:you know, not helpful ask people to make a change. And that's
Denise Thomas:right. And I believe employers, if they just know, if they knew
Denise Thomas:our situation about blindness, I do believe that most of them
Denise Thomas:will work with 100% believe and that's what are out there.
Tyler Evans:That's right, because blind people don't just
Tyler Evans:have to be entrepreneurs that can work.
Denise Thomas:Yeah, absolutely. So many options out there for
Denise Thomas:people to speaker is also a great option. Right?
Tyler Evans:I mean, blind people can clean it, they clean
Tyler Evans:their houses. I mean, I clean my bathroom by myself.
Denise Thomas:Yeah, it's just about getting to know your
Denise Thomas:environment and and the your senses. Everybody knows this.
Denise Thomas:You know, when when you're blind, do your senses. other
Denise Thomas:senses are enhanced? And I believe your memory is enhanced.
Saylor Cooper:Oh, for sure. Yeah,
Denise Thomas:So your memory for spatial awareness. Right. So
Denise Thomas:certainly you can be look, I paid good money to have my house
Denise Thomas:cleaned.
Tyler Evans:Yeah,
Denise Thomas:because it was important to me.
Tyler Evans:Yeah, have you ever had a blind person clean your
Tyler Evans:house?
Denise Thomas:Oh, we did not have a blind person from our
Denise Thomas:church. I had somebody from our church do it for me. I wanted to
Denise Thomas:keep the money in the family.
Tyler Evans:Cool
Denise Thomas:Oh my so our take our customary ending So Denise
Denise Thomas:is despite everything you've been through, it's clear come
Denise Thomas:out on top from bankrupt to
Saylor Cooper:I don't know if I should say wealthy
Denise Thomas:Living in an Aeroplane hangar. Yes. Wealthy,
Denise Thomas:definitely comfortable,
Saylor Cooper:a wealthy entrepreneur to helping other
Saylor Cooper:college kids go to college fleet get flee. What advice would you
Saylor Cooper:give to anybody who is struggling in life and doesn't
Saylor Cooper:know where to turn and doesn't even know if they're gonna come
Saylor Cooper:out on top of not
Denise Thomas:one of the things that I learned from my dad and
Denise Thomas:remember, we we grew up poor. But he always smiled. There was
Denise Thomas:always a silver lining. I don't care what the situation is. And
Denise Thomas:you may not see that silver lining today. But at some point
Denise Thomas:in time, God is going to show you where that thing is.
Tyler Evans:There you go. Yes.
Denise Thomas:This whatever struggle you're going through
Denise Thomas:right now. This is a moment in time. It'll pass it there is
Denise Thomas:there is something next something good coming out of it
Denise Thomas:later.
Saylor Cooper:Yes. Wow,
Tyler Evans:there you go.
Saylor Cooper:Well, Denise, thank you so much for being on
Saylor Cooper:hope without sight. Everybody please giving up for Denise
Saylor Cooper:Thomas, cracking a code free college. Stay blessed.
Denise Thomas:Thank you so much, Saylor.
