S 4 EP 9: Talking It Out To Figure It Out/My 2023 Reflection

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to School After Hours podcast, where we talk about all things related to out of school time program and education. I am your host, jay Lee, and today is a solo show. It is our reflection episode for the year of 2023. So let me give you the lowdown. I have absolutely no plan. Let me start there. I have absolutely no plan. Like I tried to sit down and really, really think about the things that I wanted to say during this episode, like pinpoints. I was like, okay, put myself in the mindset of if I was on site, if I was doing this activity with the students, what would I do? I was like maybe we'd go over highs and lows and then talk about changes that we made when we're making a new year. Maybe we'd go ahead and highlight our highs and, you know, just embrace those things before transitioning into the next year and then talk about some things that we want to change. All the things, all the things. But when it comes to putting it down on paper of what I wanted, identifying my eyes, what my lows or what my values may have been, and then the changes that I wanted to see, I got nothing. I have absolutely nothing, you know, and it be like this. Sometimes, like sometimes, you know at the time that you want to figure it out. You might not be able to figure it out. So since I couldn't figure it out on paper, I'm just going to talk it out with y'all and see what happens. We're going to hope the best. So if you're interested, go ahead and stay tuned. Alright, so let's get into it. One of the things that was a high for me this year if we're doing, you know, high points or accomplishments of the year is being able to go to Booth Conference and the School After Hours podcast being featured at Booth Conference. It was one of my first live recordings, but it was also a big deal because it was at a national conference, so it checked all the boxes for me. It was a great way to network, it was a great way to get more people to recognize the show and introduce them to the show, and we got like a lot of good feedback from the audience that was there. It also got a good number of followers from that space too. So it was awesome in the sense of promoting the podcast but also meeting new people, just based on the field of work, you know, being in youth, development and in education all together. So that was a lot of fun and having conversations with a variety of people just to see where they are and how they're managing the space. Coming back into programming, you know, navigating what that looks like and fighting for students to get the resources that they need to be successful, not just in a classroom but also developmentally, because we've seen that disparity when they came back. So, talking out strategy, figuring out what is working, what's not working, and having people throw out ideas, and just having some brainstorming sessions, like in the middle of some of the craziest places with different variety of things going on like 10,000 things going on but just sitting down, like at a table, talking with everybody about well, what if we try this? Well, have you tried this? And like just having that whole brainstorming session was like great, it was really, really cool. But it also gave me the reassurance in the knowing that you know you're not the only one that's experiencing this. At the time I was a site director. Like you're not the only one that's experiencing this as a site director, so don't take it like you're failing because you're not. This is something that's happening all over the place, like all over the nation. So it's just some things that have to be done differently because what we've done traditionally may not be working, based on you know where our children are. So just mentally pivoting from, like, traditional practice or what used to work yesterday doesn't mean that it's gonna work today, mentally pivoting from that point. So it just gave me a lot of reassurance that, okay, it's not just me going through this or experiencing some of these challenges, not just within behavior, but also with academics at the same time. Another thing that came to mind while I was at Boost was duplicating this live stream podcast, not only in a national conference, but taking this to state conferences. One of the things that crossed my mind was you know, we don't always get an opportunity to see a good portion of the state conferences and the workshops that they offer, some of the things that they do behind the scenes, all those other wonderful things, as the same thing for national conferences at the same time. But I also feel like, to some degree, state conferences don't always get their due and have it contribute to the field itself. So in my mind, I was basically saying to myself well, this might be a good idea to take this from a national conference and duplicate it at state conferences. So everyone's getting a chance to kind of show what they're doing and the workshops that they're bringing to their state, based on what their program providers may need or OST professionals period may need. So I'm thinking about a way to kind of bring that into the fold for school after hours. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like but I am working on a plan. So more details on that later on in the year across my fingers. But you know, if you're interested, shoot me an email. You know we would love to pop up in your city, town or state If you're doing an educational conference or youth development conference. You know, let us know. You know we might be able to show up and show up. But, yeah, definitely want to make that happen and not just looking at it from a state point of view but also looking at it from a national point of view, because from the state to state out of school time program it looks different. From town to town Our school time program looks different. What does it look like across the board, not just on the national level but on an international level, right? So what does our school time program look like if I was going to Paris, or if I was going to London, or if I was going to South Africa. You know what I mean Central America, south America. What does it look like if it is happening? You know? So in my mind I wanted to be where we're going, from state to state now to nation to nation. So we'll see, we'll see what happens with that. I just wanted to share that with y'all and you know, hopefully that will be the vision. Moving forward for school after hours give you a full scope of what out of school time program looks like, not just on a state level, not just a national level, but an international level. So we'll see, stay tuned. Okay, on to the next thing. So I'm going to put one of my highs for the year. Let me think one of my lows for the year was not recruiting enough clients for my business and making those decisions based out of fear. So, for those of you that may not know, I started educational consulting business, basically helping program providers and site directors get their logistics together for like to their day to day programming or building out like the systems in their program to have it run, you know, efficiently and effectively. But I did not market my services a lot because I was fearful of it not being accepted, but also, potentially, people feeling like this wasn't something that they needed and need. Going around to different organizations, I could definitely see where it could be needed, but me not marketing the value of that service, right? I feel like that's where I fell short because of my concerns about, well, what would people think? What if it's not needed? What if it's not profitable, right? What if you can't scale? All of the what ifs come into play and all of those thoughts causing me to want to shrink and not do what I do. Well, you know what I mean. So, with that, just learning to own my skill and be more confident in what I do and know that I do it well, if that makes sense, and also looking back at my business and look at what other services could I add to my business, right, because you have a client that comes to you that may want to, like, build out their systems, build out their strategies, execute their plan, go ahead and I'll develop a curriculum if they ask me for it. That's part of one of the packages, all those things and they get to a place where they're doing well, like, what other services can I offer once they get to that point where they can manage on their own right If I'm still needed, like if I'm not needed? You know, I did my job. You're like you're killing it. Probably fine, that's all well. But building our services to where? Now, once that person gets to where they need to be, like, how do I begin to help them stay on track? So not thinking about that part of the business and not really knowing who to talk to about it? I feel like that's another thing, cause, like educational consulting and youth development consulting, it's not something that you know, that's just wildly out there. Everybody wants to talk about it and do it, you know. So it's trying to find those circles to like, have those conversations with the people that have done well, so you know you collaborate and you know figure out some things and so on and so forth. So figuring out this new landscape of being a business and a brand and learning what services to add to my business, but also what systems I need to have in place to make sure that my business is not at a standstill, we're always at a place where we're not just sustaining, but we're at a place of growing as well. So I wish I would not have played into or let my fear of failure and my fear of rejection keep me small, if that makes sense. So that's where I felt like I felt short. Ooh boy, that was a lot, so, down to the last one change. One of the changes that I definitely want to make in the new year is not letting work consume my time. Right, I've been a workaholic forever and as I'm getting older, I'm just realizing a lot of the things that I miss because I put work over a lot of other things. That's going on in my life and getting down to the root of why that is right and mostly getting down to it is a survival mentality for me, which I'm realizing. I worked so that I could have, but there's more to life than work. You know what I mean. So as I'm getting older, as I'm realizing different things, I want more time and more space to spend time with family, go to different functions and just altogether experience life. Because at the end of the day, when they are putting you in the dirt and At the end of the day, when they're putting dirt over your casket and you're reflecting over your life, what is one of the things that you want to say that I worked hard, that's crazy. Space ain't that wonderful, but what was you doing with your time? It's one of the things that comes to my mind. What was you doing with your time? What would you do? What was you doing with your life that impacted, influenced, touched other people around you, and what impression did you leave on others? So that's what my mind is processing. I guess now and in this new chapter, I want to be able to experience the things to all things travel, be at massive family functions, because family is a big thing for me and a lot of the things that I missed out on was because of having super cold time, just to make sure that ends with meat, but financial reasons as well, because money just wouldn't come together. So I want to be in a space where I'm enjoying the small things as well as the big things, as well as the people that are around me that consistently pour into me and make a space for new people to come in at the same time and add to the life that I'm trying my best to live and the abundance that I'm trying to create. So, yeah, definitely going into the year. I just want to reprogram my mind, to put work down and experience life and love on more the people that are around me and that I keep close to me. Yeah, definitely what I want to go. Definitely that's what I am making a top priority for the upcoming year. That's it. Well, everyone that brings us to the end of our show. Thank you for spending this time with me and helping me get through it, because I definitely did not have a plan. So thank you for allowing me to talk it out so I can figure it out, because I had absolutely nothing when I first started this recording. But it's like that sometimes. You know you gotta roll with. It can't always be scripted. So, with that being said, hopefully you enjoyed. So go ahead and hit that like button and think about subscribing to be part of our community as well. You're gonna get a chance to see a good portion of the releases that we are going to have in the upcoming year. We're going to be doing some more site tours to give you a different perspective of different sites and different programs that are out in the Richmond community, and also when we release some more dope content around different conversations that's taking place in the education and youth development space. So make sure that you subscribe. All right, y'all. I hope that you enjoy your holiday. I hope that you all will enjoy bringing in the new year all the wonderful things. Be safe, take care of yourselves and also take care of the people around you. With that really said in the words of Mr Arthur Ashe start where you are. This is what you have, see, what you can. Until next time, y'all, bye-bye.