Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blueprint brought to you by Brilliant Pathways. I'm your host, Manny Tejeda. In this forward thinking podcast, we explore the evolving challenges and opportunities in preparing students for college and career success.
Offering expert insights, actionable strategies and real life stories to help listeners better support young people as they draw their future.
This summer on the Blueprint, we've been exploring a powerful idea. Preparing students for the future is not about helping them choose a destination.
It's about helping them build the mindset, skills and confidence to navigate what comes next. Today's guest is Selena, the founder of Waverider Wellness. She's a certified nutritionist, personal trainer, yoga and Pilates instructor. In a life coach, Lina's story is especially powerful because it blends her personal experience, entrepreneurship, and then turning that into service.
We're excited to hear how she turned her story into a calling and what she wants students to know about finding their own path.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: And I often say this, but as much as I love nutrition and exercise, this work to me really isn't even about exercise or the food or the nutrition.
It's really a reflection of the rest of your life, right? So when we build confidence in ourselves and when we're able to up level our lives, it really ripples into every other facet of life, whether that be career or family or relationships or whatever it also might be.
It's about who you are outside your yoga mat. It's about how you show up on a day to day basis.
It's about living in integrity. So every single choice and decision you make, coming back to that inner compass.
And my mentor Katie that I just mentioned, she talks about living in alignment. And what does that actually mean?
And what she says, living in alignment is when your thoughts, your feelings, your actions and your words all line up.
So any time in life when I feel like I'm a little bit off or whatever, like I feel like, hmm, this isn't feeling quite right. I always come back to this idea of living yoga and it always brings me back to my center.
If I had to highlight one, I think I would probably choose agility.
And we've touched on this already so many times in our conversation, but really, agility is about a willingness to pivot, to try something different, to change directions, and giving yourself permission to take the pressure off, to shift gears, to evolve and learn as you go.
And this really reminded me of something that I check in with myself every single day on. And it's this question I ask myself, which is what is the next best decision I can make? And I know that sounds really simple, but for me it's very profound because I think so often in life we can get caught up in the past or have anxiety about the future, but if we can really stay present and grounded in what's happening now, what is the next best decision I can make? We're going to be golden.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: So from your work, what have you learned about recognizing what truly energizes people? And how might that apply to those guiding students?
[00:03:23] Speaker B: That's such a good one. I think there was a time in my life when I felt immense pressure to figure it out. And I don't know exactly where that came from, but over time I would say, you know, taking the pressure off of needing to figure it out is huge.
And from an educator perspective or a student perspective, instead focusing on experimenting, trying a lot of different things is going to be so beneficial.
One thing I'm always trying to do is to stay curious, stay open minded and stay, stay adaptable. I think that's where some of the biggest learnings come from. One of the biggest lessons I've learned as well, and that I think could help others is really paying attention to and taking stock of what energizes you and what drains you. That's going to be a huge indicator of what lights you up and what some of those interests might be moving forward.
Another huge thing, and this will be the last thing I think, trusting that you don't need to have the whole, whole plan figured out question that's on
[00:04:33] Speaker A: the minds of employers, educators, families everywhere. How is AI changing work and what does that mean for our students? Joining me today, we have James Roth.
So James, I know it was a kind of a long introduction, but you've spent a lot of time in finance, you've worked with AI across different industries. What are your thoughts in terms of AI in the workplace, particularly as it relates to entry level jobs in early career positions?
[00:05:01] Speaker C: I think the issue is that things are moving so rapidly and basically right after we have this conversation it might be obsolete, but in terms of what we're seeing, I think things were happening somewhat slowly and it was a bit of a drip and then are happening all at once now that the capabilities of some of these tools have really grown exponentially in terms of their capabilities, their subtleties and the things that it can do and the speed at which they can do them and the breadth of, of what these tools can do. It just has big implications and frankly, it can be exciting and scary at the same time and it's very uncertain. I Can't remember another time in my life when things have been this uncertain as it pertains to the future of, of most things, let's put it that way.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: What do you think, thinking about in the school setting, what does that mean for schools? How do we inform what we should be teaching and how should we be mentoring students when it's not so much about the information, right, but. But more about the critical thinking skills that you might need to figure out how you asked AI to give you the information or how do you assess the information to make good judgment into. Is this good data based on what's
[00:06:20] Speaker C: been fed or super loaded question? Lots of ways to go there.
I can, let me just start with, I guess, a couple of observations. So you're absolutely right in terms of learning by doing and learning by making mistakes.
And I also think in terms of being able to learn, it's all about, in some instances it is about repetition and it is about making mistakes. And so for young folks, you know, it isn't. I don't necessarily think it should be about putting our heads in the sand and pretending like AI is not here and it's not going to impact you. But I do think that everything now moves from the not how you do it, which is, call it the execution or the mechanics or the formulas or the steps. It's more about what you do and why you do it. So, meaning human taste, human judgment, which problems matter to solve. What's a good question, What's a bad question? Why does this approach work?
What would break this approach? So it's more about, and again, this is more what I'll call, I don't want to say softer skills, but it moves more towards, in my mind, critical thinking and about how to think. And why would a potential assumption hold as opposed to not another one? And so it will. Even with the advent of AI, it'll still require a human who actually knows how to think. And it requires mastery of a subject.
So in terms of, you know, what that means is it means teaching judgment. I also think human skills, so being able to socialize, being able to public speak, being able to debate, being able to communicate effectively, those human soft skills I think will be dramatically elevated. But I do think if we skip to the AI and that's all we kind of teach students, and we don't teach them how to, how to write, how to read, how to do core concepts in terms of math, we don't teach them, you know, how to think, then all is lost, you know, and the machines have definitely Won because what the science probably will say is that the more we use it, the dumber it makes us. So there's lots of examples of where this can elevate, but that's only once you've learned mastery in all these subjects so that you can leverage it appropriately. I do think there's a lot of applications for teachers today because they're masters of their craft and they understand how to use it in such a way. So sometimes there's a paradox of choice there when the whole world is your oyster. So, I mean, for me, I think as AI keeps improving, what, you know, what, what should the students spend more time being great at? I think it's foundational learning. So that would be. I honestly maybe call me old fashioned, but I do think it goes back to the basics, which is like reading, writing, math, logic, verbal communication. Like, we gotta dial those in and try to spend as much time on those with as little AI helping as possible so they can get the reps, particularly when they're also younger too. And then I also think we have to teach kids humanity, right? So the soft skills of like courage, integrity, leadership, empathy, I think machines, maybe we can encode them for that, but probably not in my opinion. So I think also teaching of humanity is a huge one that I think we should put an emphasis on. So I think being deeply human, deeply discerning, I think all of those things are super important for the kids as they go forward. The drive to ask questions that are beyond the realm of curiosity. It also will create the drive to continue on when things get hard. I think spending a little bit more time on that as well as to, you know, where you should go into a career, I think is really important. And that will just, you know, that'll be highlighted as, as, as AI becomes really good at, you know, kind of most things.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Just to recap, AI is changing not only what entry level work looks like, but also the skills students will need, the experience students have in the classroom.
It doesn't make our work with students less important. If anything, it makes their human strengths more important than ever. Today's episode is really about a mindset shift that we all need. It's seeing failure not as a personal flaw, but as a valuable set of information.
Too many young people internalize setbacks as I'm a failure. Instead, this strategy didn't work.
You should be saying what should be next. We're going to talk about how to treat failure as a source of feedback and information and pointing us in the way forward rather than shutting down Hope so. Today I'm welcomed and joined by Ray McNulty. Why do you think so many people equate failure with their identity? And what's a better way forward?
[00:11:23] Speaker D: The whole concept of failure and being attached to somebody like, you know, I failed, so I'm terrible is, you know, it's something that, you know, comes. It grows with us when, when we're very young, when young children are doing things, you know, a toddler, they're praised for things that they do well. And, and that, that kind of starts to reveal that, you know, failure is.
You're crossing the line to something that's.
That's not important.
And, and so they, you know, our minds feel things, and so we believe that success is.
Is what it's all about. It's just, you get. You feel better from that. The child didn't say, oh, hell, I don't want to try this walking stuff anymore. Right. They recover and they get up and they show resilience, and they push and they push, and we praise them for that, right? When they fall, we pick them up.
And, you know, in education, we have to start to think about that at a much higher level because what we do know is that our, the brain learns more from failure than it does when it answers a question. Right?
And it's. And that's, that's the strict neuroscience kind of issue. And, you know, the whole concept that we want our children to be resilient and strong, if we want them to be that, then know, resilience isn't built by protecting our kids.
And it, It's. It's built by supporting them. Not protecting them, but. But supporting them. So when something goes wrong, you know, you have a sense, right? A sense of, you know, well, what didn't work and what should we do to make it work rather than, you're wrong, right? So identify what didn't work and then what will we do to make it work. And with a lot of students and a lot of children, it's about practice.
And, and we see, we see more of that in education now. We see teachers being trained to, you know, get away from that concept that, you know, failure is not good because quite frankly, the business world is one of the leaders in this, and they, they want people that have. Have overcome failure and.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:38] Speaker D: And we just don't seem to position ourselves effectively for that. But I, you know, I think that's one of the, One of the real keys is that we have this. We play. We play like the world is a right and wrong world, and it's you know, it's only wrong if you stop if you don't want to make it better, if you don't want, you know, you don't want to achieve something.
Failure is a part of learning. It's not, it's not the absence of learning. It's a piece of learning.
And we see it when we watch athletic games. The coaches build a plan for the game, then they run the first play and they realize they got to change the plan.
They didn't fail. They realized, now what do we have to do to be successful? Right. We thought that was going to work. It didn't. So now what are we going to do to be successful? So it's a whole different thought about how we look at this work.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: I think I want to highlight a couple of stories about obviously we're all familiar with the Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb talks about. I didn't fail many times. I just learned different ways of not getting to the goal. Right. Or Michael Jordan not making it to his high school varsity team. You know, there's something about that persistent piece that you talk about, but I think it's really just a setback in the heart of the long term achievement. So as you know, one of the essential skills that we have at Brilliant Pathways is, is that goal setting. And I think bringing it into failure really puts it into perspective because then it touches upon the other piece of the perseverance. Right. Like how do you keep going? How do you use that not yet mentality, Right.
And I think if it's okay with you, I would like to talk a little bit about how do we do that in education. Right.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: You know, there's this concept of what they call failure framed classrooms, right. Where they normalize feedback as a mechanism to have higher levels of creativity, collaboration and confidence in the students by not talking about failure but framing it, that this is part of learning. If you don't fail, all you're doing is regurgitating information, you know, out of your head so you're not getting any smarter. You're not picking up anything new. And when you gain the new knowledge, right? Particularly after you failed and you gain the new knowledge, it's, it's a giant stimulus to the brain. It's like, yeah, baby, I got it. You know, and I didn't get it right away, but I got it. Now I've got it. I could do it. And, and that's, that's, that's the sense of a growth mindset.
We want our students to be learners, not content specialists. That just memorize things. We want them to be learners. And so the key.
When I think about Brilliant Pathways and the work you all do, and I think about this, I think it's a quote I've been playing with this morning.
Failure isn't the opposite of success.
It's the pathway to it.
That's a brilliant position to be in, that failure is. Is a stop along the road to success, the pathway to where you want to go. And by the way, when you work with students. And one of the wonderful things that I. I see you all doing is helping kids build goals and directions for their future.
And some of the work I've been looking at will say, are they. Are they building three pathways, you know, or just one pathway? Because what happens when they have a pathway that they start to not, you know, make a connection to? And so what should they do? So is there a backup? Anyway, I. I do think, Manny, and, you know, and in the work that you all do, and when I. When I think about how we can guide students that are looking for that. That future that they. They want to excel in, is that they have to realize that in order to get there, the pathway goes through a lot of failure and a lot of challenges. But the more we see them, and, you know, people talk, always they use the term failing forward, and I get that, but I think teachers need to have that, you know, when. When something failed. Well, what worked in this and. And what didn't work and, you know, what will you try next? And kind of we, as educators, coaching them with the kind of questions that are not shameful questions. They're just questions that help them think differently about what failure is. Failure in learning is not.
It's not conclusive. It's something you can overcome.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Right. And it's only failure if you stop, like you said. Right.
[00:18:33] Speaker D: It's only failure if you don't. Yeah. If you decide. No.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Support for this podcast comes from Brilliant Pathways, an organization that had spent over 30 years helping students make opportunities happen.
Connect with us wherever you get your podcast. And thank you for joining us on the blueprint. I'm Manny Tejeda, your host, and I'll see you next time.
Taken together, these conversations remind us that success is not a straight line and readiness is not a checklist. It's the ability to adapt. Think critically in a changing world. Take initiative and care for yourself and others.
Keep moving forward with purpose.
