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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#153: Prom, Friends, and Real-World Skills: A Homeschooled Grad Tells the Truth
What happens when a homeschooled kid grows up, skips the “missing out” narrative, and builds a real community of motivated teens who want to create, lead, and launch?
In this episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, I’m joined by Malcolm—a homeschooled graduate who spent years in Classical Conversations (CC) and is now the founder of Teen Mastermind, a fast-growing entrepreneurship community for teens that’s already reaching beyond the U.S.
We talk about what homeschooling was actually like from the student perspective—socialization, friendships, motivation, prom/homecoming alternatives, and why Malcolm says he didn’t miss out… he dodged a bullet. You’ll also hear a clear, simple breakdown of the classical education model (grammar, dialectic/logic, rhetoric) and how CC works week-to-week for families considering it.
Then we go deeper into the part parents don’t always know how to teach: entrepreneurship. Malcolm shares what he learned from attending business events with his family, why masterminds matter, and how being around the right people can change a teen’s trajectory.
If you’ve ever wondered:
- “Will my kids resent homeschooling?”
- “How do homeschoolers actually make friends?”
- “Is Classical Conversations worth it?”
- “How do I raise a motivated teen with real-world skills?”
…this episode is for you.
Resources mentioned:
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
I didn't plan to homeschool. I started asking hard questions, realized how little control parents actually have, and made the hard decision to leave a government job to homeschool my kids. Now I interview other homeschooling parents to learn how this all works. I'm Cheryl, and this is the Homeschool How to Podcast. Let's learn this together. Welcome. And with us today, I have Malcolm. Malcolm, thank you for being here.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:So you were a homeschooled kid, right?
Speaker:Yes, I was.
Speaker 1:This is awesome because I remember when I first started the podcast, like I really wanted to hear the perspective of the kids. Like all of us parents are like, oh, I'm so nervous to homeschool, so nervous to homeschool. And a lot of that is that we're worried that like we won't give the kids everything they need to know. But also it's like, are these kids gonna resent me for like missing the traditional prom or football game? And you know, are they gonna find friends? So I'm excited to talk to you today. So, how long did you homeschool for?
Speaker:So we started homeschooling, I think, when I went into second grade. Uh, and then before that, it was kind of I went to a private school for first grade and I think kind of a public school for like kindergarten before that. But even in like the kindergarten and preschool, my parents were always there. Like it was supposed to be like only one parent of like the whole school would be there just to like keep watch. But my dad was always there every single time because he didn't want to leave me alone.
Speaker 1:Like every day, all day?
Speaker:Yeah, so every time we would go. I don't think the preschool was like every day. He he was always there and always wanted to make sure I was safe and all the other kids were safe too. So that was cool.
Speaker 1:They took baby steps getting into homeschooling. They're like, we'll try the public thing, and they're like, eh, let's do private.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's just homeschool.
Speaker:Yeah, so and I think my mom, um, I have to like verify this with her, but I think like she came from uh a Russian background, she grew up in northern Siberia. I might be getting that wrong, but she grew up in Russia. Homeschooling was not a thing, and public schools were very different. I mean, it's nowhere near the same as the public education system in America. And so the whole idea of homeschooling, I believe in Russia, was kind of like that's kind of that's kind of weird. That's like the typical, like what you think of as a homeschooler is like that's kind of their thinking on it. But so my mom never thought that she would ever homeschool until eventually it's like second grade happened. It's like, okay, this private school thing isn't working. And then finally, conversations came into town. So that homeschooling program came in, it opened up that year, and we decided to join it right when it started. So that's how that happened.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome. Yes, I've had some people from Russia on my podcast before, and they're like, Yeah, our family thinks we're not for doing this, it's so out of the question. But yeah, when you know, they the immigrants would come to this country for like the freedom, and and then kind of what they're seeing now in the schools is like, oh, it's ending up like where I left. So I can totally understand wanting to kind of change the tide there. So did you uh what did you think about homeschooling at that time? Like, were you sad to leave the regular classroom?
Speaker:I don't really remember the transition from homes from you know private school to homeschooling, but I I don't know, I just I really enjoyed it. So I don't remember like feeling negative about leaving the private school. So that was it wasn't a huge impact on you. No, it wasn't a huge impact. And yeah, our our family like really likes to stick together. We always go on trips together, so that was like it just kind of felt normal. It's just like how it was meant to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like a Saturday, you know? But every day is the Saturday, as it was described to me once. Okay, so getting into classical conversations. Now, why don't you kind of tell people what classical conversations is, and then maybe we'll go from there and I'll have a clue about what I'm talking about.
Speaker:Yeah, so my best explanation for classical conversations, I often call it CC, that's what everyone usually calls it. But um, it's it gets its name from the classical learning model, which is in three phases. There's the grammar, there's the dialectic, sometimes called logic phase, and then the rhetoric phase. So grammar is where you're learning all the vocabulary, all of the just stuff. It's all about memorization, learning what things are, and not so much the you don't really learn so much of like the reason behind it or like the connection yet. And so that's kind of the so in CC that takes place in the foundations program, which would be up until middle like school kind of. So um probably sixth grade and up is when you go into the next programs. And so after the grammar stage is the dialectic stage or the logic stage, and that's where you start learning about why thing why the things that you just memorized actually matter and how they all connect. And it's kind of learned like learning why the information is important and starting to put the pieces together. Then the rhetoric stage is taking all that information and now communicating it yourself. So that that's kind of the their idea of the learning, the classical model of learning. Vocab first, then why does it happen? And then teaching you how to communicate that in your own words. So that's kind of I'm probably butchering that a little bit, but that's kind of the idea. And then it goes foundations is like is all the uh memorization stuff, essentials gets into like the writing. Then there's the challenge classes, challenge A and B are like middle school, I think what seventh and eighth, no, sixth and seventh grade, eighth, eighth through twelfth grade would be your high school years, and that's when you go to challenge one, two, three, four, and that's where you start getting into the dialectic or sorry rhetoric phase where you're learning to pull all the information together and create your own works out of it. So, and really learning how to communicate. That's where debate comes in, all the essays and presentations, all the learning about Shakespeare and like learning how to deliver and present is the big focus on the later years of CC.
Speaker 1:Okay. And so is this like five days a week or one day a week? And um, where was the other question I had on that? It's only for like English, right? So you're still doing like a science and a math separately.
Speaker:So CC does like all of the subjects. Certain communities, and I think kind of kind of all the communities are pretty linear on like it's really the parents are still the teachers. They are still the main teachers. You just have a class that you connect with once a week on in like this community day, which is kind of like the school day, like kind of your traditional school day, but better in my opinion. They have curriculum for all of the subjects, math, science, languages, but mostly Latin, English, history, what else? Like logic, all that stuff. So they have curriculums for all of that. Of course, it's optional for the parents to just do something else. A lot of the math we did was like different from the regular CC curriculum. So it's kind of they give you all the uh the information, you get all the books and stuff, and they kind of have a set curriculum, a set path. You can choose a little bit. So that's that's the idea.
Speaker 1:All right. Did you like doing it?
Speaker:I really like doing it.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at all of the curriculums out there. I don't know that you're selling this. Really? You're like, it's six years of memorization. Yeah. Is it better than that though? I mean, I know there's a song, there's a 12-minute song, so they make the memorization fun, right? Like, did you enjoy that part?
Speaker:Yeah, it's kind of like a funny CC joke, like inside joke in the community. It's like everybody is haunted by the songs because they're all like the you know, classical uh, you know, children's rhyme songs, just with history sentences of like how like the of Columbus and all that other stuff. So uh I'm haunted by those a little bit, but I I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of the big benefits came from the later years in high school, uh, in like the challenge classes. And you're actually like in comparison to public school, like you're actually learning about history and like what actually happened, and you have a a pretty clear timeline of like, oh, this is everything that happened in the world. And even though, like, again, it's kind of up to you to really dive into those areas if you want to, but I mean you have a good idea of like what happened and what happened before you and why things are the way it is today. So I really liked the later years in challenge, and and that that came into that's where like the community really came into play and where I really got to connect with my other classmates.
Speaker 1:Okay. And it meets in person, right?
Speaker:Yeah, and that's a big thing from like other homeschooling. Like, if you just homeschool on your own, you're kind of from my understanding, you're kind of just stuck in your own house. You don't really have classmates. But with CC, it's like we all met up once a week to kind of like review and also go over the new the curriculum for the next week. And that was a time for us as friends to get together. And I I just really enjoyed that because the community and the values that CC has brought the correct brought the right people, brought the right kind of students into it. And so I'm still friends with a lot of the my classmates now. And like I think a lot of people will lose connection after CC. I think we'll stay connected for a really long time.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome. What state are you in?
Speaker:Uh, we're in Oregon.
Speaker 1:Cool. All right. I don't think I've interviewed anyone from Oregon. Do you know about your homeschool laws there? Like what the reporting requirements look like?
Speaker:I have no clue. Honestly. Um, I don't think we care too much about the reporting stuff. I don't know. Like, I just I guess like if you're going to college afterwards, I guess that kind of makes sense. And but I mean, for us, college is like, why spend like so many years at home imparting the family values onto your kids to then ship them off to somewhere else who have completely different values and are often against your for $300,000 for $300,000. And so you're gonna pay them to change your kids' values. Like that why?
Speaker 1:Well, so because every state has different reporting requirements. So, like in New York, we're actually pretty strict. Whether you're going to college or not, they you know make you do like a um notice of intent that you are telling the school that you are going to homeschool, and then you have to write a IHIP, which is like an individualized home instruction plan, like of what you're gonna do for the year. And then every quarter you have to report what you did and where there can be improvements, and then there's like an evaluation or a test at the end of the year on certain years. So it's like, and I thought that was normal until I started talking to people from other states, and they're like, We just tell them that we're homeschooling and that's it. They just like want to know the kid is still breathing. That's all yeah.
Speaker:No, I think I've heard like New York stuff is like really strict. So I don't I don't think it's as strict, you know, Oregon's a blue state, but it's not as I don't think it's as strict. I like, I don't know. I don't think we've really done too much with the reporting.
Speaker 1:As they're knocking on your door right now, excuse me, you haven't graduated yet. All right, so okay, so I know that you found, you know, a big worry with parents is the socialization. You found friends through classical conversations. How else did you kind of like find friend groups and you know, did you feel like you were missing out at all and not being in the public school?
Speaker:I don't think I missed out at all. I think I dodged a bullet a little bit. But uh the other way is I I actually missed a lot of the community days for CC because our family was going on so many business trips. And it was about nine years ago when my parents decided, hey, we don't like going on trips separately anymore. One of the like either mom or dad will be away for even just like a few days, but they just didn't like it. They didn't like being apart. And so nine years ago they decided, hey, we are going to take the kids, we're gonna take the whole family on every single business trip, no matter what. We'll figure out a way, and you know, if there's a will, there's a way. They figured it out every time. And uh that's how I've I've been able to go to a bunch of business events and masterminds and learn from super high-level entrepreneurs and talented people. And uh, but also other parents had the same idea, and so I've met some other teens through that, and I was like, wait, I'm not the only kid who gets exposed to this entrepreneurship stuff. Like you guys also like business? This is cool. So that's kind of how uh I don't think they were aiming for socialization. Um, but I mean, I got to I talked to a lot of adults from you know going to those masterminds and talking to also happen to talk to some other teens too while I was at those events, which is part of how the teen mastermind started as well.
Speaker 1:All right, so tell us about that. You created a company called the Teen Mastermind. What is that?
Speaker:Yeah, so on these business trips, one of the big problems I had was when I would go back home, uh, I'd be so pumped up and excited about all the entrepreneurship stuff, the business stuff that I had learned. But nobody else really was interested in it. They I I just they just didn't get it. So I felt kind of like lonely in that aspect because I didn't get to talk about what was like really cool to me. Um but I had met some teens at these events. But the other problem was like we never stayed connected afterwards, it'd be like a year until like the next event, and we'd be like, hey, what do you do again? Who are you? And eventually like that happened again and again. And then a year and a half ago, I finally decided, hey, I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna create a Discord server. And it was at like a family business event that this guy, Russell Brunson, hosted. Uh, I at that event, I created a Discord server and just decided I'm gonna invite all the teens to it, and we're gonna have like this chat room for us to all uh communicate in during the event and afterwards so we can stay connected. And so we started doing that. It was uh it was great, and then we had the idea, hey, let's do a call every single week. And so we started doing that, kept staying connected. We were looking forward to like to the next events, and ever since then, uh we actually like made a video for Russell Brunson, showed it to him to try to get on his stage at the next big funnel hacking live event, which is like his main like the one of the biggest marketing events in the world, has like multi, like a few thousand people, a few thousand business owners show up there just to learn from about marketing. It's like a big they call it like the rock concert for entrepreneurs. And so we were like, hey, what if we try to get on stage? And so we made a video, tried to pitch it to Russell, and he said there are no more spots on the main speaker list. However, we do have something called round tables, which was basically 60 round tables, and each of them were hosted at uh were hosted by a bunch of high-level entrepreneurs, and we got to be among them as the teen mastermind table. And it was so cool, it was such a good opportunity to meet other teens who came to FHL and like tell them about the teen mastermind, learn about like what they want to do if they want to start a business. And we did like our own impromptu, they gave us a room at the event. They we did like an impromptu teen mastermind with like 30 teens all in a room talking about business and our goals and our vision for life. It was so fun. Then we just did our first live in-person event for the teen mastermind about a month ago. We're doing another one next month, and so it's just like grown so much. I just started it as a friend group, honestly, and that and now, like ever since then, they were like saying, Hey, you gotta monetize this, you gotta make it a paid program. So it took me a while, I finally did, and then now it's really exploded after that. So that's wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was trying to look him up, but because that name sounds so familiar, but I don't I don't think this person that I pulled up on Instagram is him. So the name sounds so familiar. So are you holding the events in Oregon?
Speaker:Yeah, so uh the first event was in October in Oregon, which was like kind of weird for like my parents thought it was crazy. I mean, everyone thought it was crazy. Like, what do you do? Like an 18-year-old hosting a three-day in-person event about entrepreneurship. That's insane. Like, nobody does not even like a lot of business owners do that.
Speaker 1:You're like not technically an entrepreneur yet because you're just starting your business with this event.
Speaker:Yeah, and like like most business owners, I heard this. We had a guest speaker on one of the teen mastermind calls. That's another thing I forgot to mention. We've had a bunch of guest speakers, including Russell, and I think we've had over 30 guest speakers. All of them have been like high high-level entrepreneurs. They all they come on the calls and talk to the teens and give them a bunch of advice, and it's like a big QA. It's super fun.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker:So uh one of them, Eileen Wilder, she was a guest speaker, and she said that only like nine or 10%, like less than 10% of entrepreneurs ever do an in-person event. And I was like, I want to be part of that 10%. So and then the first event being a full three-day event in little old Roseburg, Oregon, of like a population of 24,000 people, is tiny. And my parents have never done like they don't they've done in-person events before, but not like asking people to fly in to little Roseburg, Oregon, just for an event. And I was like, of course, people will do that. Why not?
Speaker 1:So so these people came, they like paid for their own airfare, or did you have to pay for that?
Speaker:So they they bought tickets to the event, they paid for their plane tickets, and like I was like half of them were local, but another half of them came from out of state. And some there was a one family, there's a family from f all the way from Florida, and there was another family, I think, who came from like North Carolina or or South Carolina, and they decided to do that like a week before the event happened. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They were gonna like make it a little world schooling trip. Yeah. Stuff along the way. Now, what about the speakers though? Did you have to pay for their airfare to come in?
Speaker:Some of them, yeah. And a lot of them, I mean, I kind of I guess I get to take a little bit of advantage of like I'm young, and so like uh adults want to like help out, and especially like the entrepreneurs like want to help out the next generation, which I'm super thankful for, and like it's like I'm super appreciative of it. Um, and so a lot of them are just like, yeah, of course I'll do it. And so we paid airfare for some of them, and uh it was kind of like a mix of like deals kind of, but they all we had a bunch of like some of the speakers who have been on Russell stages and like are super in the uh super well known in the entrepreneurial space came and spoke at the event, which is so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know uh Andy Frasilla, but he might have a few too many F bombs for like for this kind of audience. I could hear I well, I used to listen to him all the time, and I couldn't hear him as my husband's playing it in the workout room in the morning. I'm like, my god, the kids are still asleep, but that's loud. He probably peps up a room though. But that's so cool. I mean, I I have been thinking about hosting a homeschooling event in New York. I think we used to have one and they don't anymore. And I'm like, yeah, I should do it. And I'm like, but God, that seems overwhelming. I don't know, or who would come? Nobody would come to it, and or who would actually fly in to speak at it. And I don't know, do people really want to sit there and listen to speakers? I don't know. Obviously, they do, and people like community, especially nowadays after COVID. So, all right, when you how old are you now?
Speaker:I'm 18 now.
Speaker 1:18. So have you graduated?
Speaker:I have graduated, yes.
Speaker 1:All right, did you get to graduate early?
Speaker:I did not. I think so. I actually didn't do the last year of CC, which would have been challenge four. I think I didn't have any there weren't any classmates for me to actually have a challenge for class with. So my last year of homeschooling was kind of just me going to business events. Like I kind of just didn't do schooling technically, but I mean I went to a bunch of masterminds and learned how to make money through businesses and and learned about real estate.
Speaker 1:So that was, you know, well, that's gotta wait real world stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That kind of counts. But but I love that that because like I said in the beginning, one of parents' biggest fears is that I'm not gonna give my kid everything they need to know by the time they're 18. And here you are, like, well, I just didn't do, you know, the foreign language in my senior year, or that trigonometry class, or that earth science class. What does it matter? Like you kind of said, if you're not going to college, what does it matter anyway? You only need that stuff as a stepping stone to get into the next stepping stone for the next stepping stone. But if you're creating your own mountain, you don't need the stones to walk on.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So, okay. So the why don't you tell me what is a mastermind? Is it just a round table?
Speaker:Yeah. So The term comes from I think Napoleon Hill, which was he was like um a huge he wrote the book Think and Grow Rich and a bunch of other ones. That that's like his most popular one. But the term came from him, and it's the the mastermind is the idea when two brains come together and they start brainstorming ideas, and that's when the third mind comes out, which is the mastermind. And so it's basically a place where people are sharing ideas with each other all together, and that's and it's it's a pretty popular business term as well. For like Russell has his inner circle, which his the inner circle mastermind, and there's like Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi has mastermind.com. And so there's it's it's not only just like a popular term used in the business and entrepreneurship like industry, but yeah, the term means like when two people come together, they brainstorm together, it creates the mastermind.
Speaker 1:And that makes a lot of sense. I was listening to a YouTube video last week about it, it was a business thing, like more of an online business thing. But the guy was saying, you know, people ask me why I went into business with someone else, and it was because I could have like the whole grapefruit, or I can have half of the watermelon, and half the watermelon makes more sense, right? It's gonna be a bigger thing because you've got more minds in it. And I know just from podcasting and the Instagram stuff, like you'd think that's just two things to learn, right? Just oh, how to do a podcast and then how to like run an Instagram page to promote it. And oh my lord, it's like writing code to get the website up and you know, the the messaging people and the back end and promoting stuff, and it like there's a whole science to it, and it's so overwhelming. So I can't even imagine like a physical business or you know, adding more components to it. Like you having someone else's thought process is huge, and that's kind of the way the world works anyway, right? Yeah, but where what do you see for the future for it?
Speaker:So as soon as I turn 20, I'm no longer a teen, and therefore I'm kicked out of the teen mastermind. And so one of the biggest things for me is building leaders who build more leaders. And so I think I'll always be the founder of the teen mastermind and always be behind the scenes, but eventually, like I want other teens to be leading. And that was a really cool thing about the teen mastermind is it's not just like another schooling program where you're getting talked at by uh adult teachers, and not that that's like wrong, like kids should 100% be learning by people who have done life before. We are not experienced, we haven't had as many years as the adults, and so we should be learning from them. But again, the camaraderie and the community that comes from like like being led by someone who's has a little bit ahead of you and not like 20 years ahead of you makes makes it so much easier, and you have you have a real connection to it. You have like like this is it's kind of like peer pressure a little bit, but like in a good way. Because I mean, you you do what a lot of kids are like motivated by like my friends think this is cool, so therefore I think it's cool. Well, if good stuff is cool, if entrepreneurship is cool, if being successful, building like a vision for your life is cool to your friends, then hey, I want to be with those people who also think that's cool. So I always want to keep it teen-led. I think like having the events themselves hosted by teens will be a really cool thing. And so I'd love to have it. I mean, it's kind of already international a little bit. We have uh a couple, we have a teen in Colombia, a couple in Canada, one in India, one in Australia, one in England. So it's already international, and so that would be the vision for it is making it a worldwide phenomenon.
Speaker 1:And so are these people taking like your business model and holding events in their town?
Speaker:So that's probably the next step. I mean, it's still like I've done it for a year and a half. This is our second event that we're gonna be doing next month. So I'm still kind of building out the structure for myself and testing it out to make sure it works for me. But I think that'll kind of be the idea is them taking on kind of those areas of the teen mastermind, being the leaders on like some are gonna be leaders on the calls, some are gonna be uh organizing events. I think a big thing will be like the event we're doing next month is like kind of like the I guess big main stage event. Another idea we had was like, well, what if we do like little pop-ups, little mini events in all the different communities uh around the states, around the world. That could be cool as like you know, a little thing to kind of in between the big teen mastermind live events. So I'm still kind of crafting the the big vision. It's like it's grown really fast. So I'm I'm kind of trying to mentally catch up a little bit, but that's that's the cool thing. Um I know it's definitely not just my plan, it's 100% God's plan, like, and I'm just trying to follow along.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And what's the youngest age that you have in it?
Speaker:The youngest person we had at the event was like 10 years old. So, and she was like super motivated. She's like working on writing a book, uh, which is awesome. But I don't know, anywhere it again, it depends on like maturity, like it's not necessarily teens, but like 10 years old is probably the youngest.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah. So, and is everybody a homeschooler that's involved?
Speaker:Uh that's the interesting part, is probably most of them are homeschooled. That obviously obviously gives you a lot more freedom with like going to events and and like your curriculum, what you're learning, but some of them are public school, and I really applaud those people because that takes a lot of effort to also be in the mastermind learning about business and entrepreneurship while still kind of in that traditional public school routine. So it's I'd say most of them are homeschool, some of them are even CC like me, but some are public school as well.
Speaker 1:What do you think the most valuable bit of advice or information about being an entrepreneur has been that you've received?
Speaker:That's a hard one.
Speaker 1:I should have sent you a list before. It just came to me. Like, I'm like, if I want to teach my seven-year-old son or my three-year-old daughter something about owning a business, a tip or a trick or uh uh mindset or um like the most important aspect of your own business. Yeah. Maybe something with money.
Speaker:I think probably the biggest thing is honestly finding people who have gone before or on the same trajectory, the same path as you. And that was kind of the purpose of the teen mastermind is I want to be with my peers who are also pursuing entrepreneurship. And so I already had the kind of like mentorship part solved by learning from these entrepreneurs. Now I needed I mean, of course, there were other adults who had businesses, and so, but I mean, like, you know, no matter what, I always kind of teens want to connect with other teens, and adults probably want to connect with other adults more so than kids. So I was missing that element of like, okay, I have the mentors that I'm learning from who are the people that I'm sharing that advice with, and who are the people that I'm discussing and sharing ideas with. I want I found that I had that problem, and then I solved that problem, and other people needed that problem solved too. Yeah. So that would be the biggest thing is finding the right people. You are the people you become like the five people you hang out with the most is a common quote. So pick those five people wisely.
Speaker 1:So true, so true. And it's hard when you're homeschooling too, like well, or even in school. And I guess if your kids are in school, you don't have a big choice on who they can hang out with because they've just got those 30 other kids every single day. But when you're homeschooling and it's like, especially as kids are becoming who they are becoming and learning traits about other kids, but of course those kids are becoming who they're becoming, and it's like, okay, no, don't hang out with them. Okay, go hang out with them. Oh, don't hang out with them. So it is tough, but I think yes, as we become adults too, it's like that's when it's really important, right? Like, who do you want to be around? The person that's watching desperate housewives every night, or someone who's like, you know, reading books and and furthering their career along. Now, all right, let me. This is just one other maybe hard question that came to mind as you were talking. The entrepreneurs, like, is there a difference that you can see with like, or like the people that would want to come to your event or or any sort of mastermind? Is it the people that like might own a pizza shop? Or is it all the people who are like CEOs of million-dollar companies? Like, is there like a curve, or is it all like the top dogs? The one percent in the world.
Speaker:Yeah. I think it's a mix. I think my community's pretty connected to like Russell's, and so they're all kind of have that idea of like internet marketing and doing online business stuff. So that's kind of you are what you like, you get inspired by the things you take in the most. And so, like, I've been learning about entrepreneurship for so long, and it's like it was so cool to me. So, like, why not share entrepreneurship? That was just the idea. Like, I've been like learning about like doing been in events, I've been in masterminds. Why not do my own mastermind? So I think that environment kind of shapes like what you want to do, but um, going back to uh the scale that teens want to go to, um, I think it can be a variety. I think it's I think I think it's a variety for my group right now. Um I might it might change depending on like when we get more people. I might see the the numbers shift, but I think it's pretty variety. Some people want to like just do a cool little side hustle thing, but some of them want to make it like really big, like a global thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Um and that yeah, and as we're kind of raising our kids and kind of putting into their head what are the what what's the scale of like, you know, obviously the more the bigger your company is, the more work there probably is, the more responsibility. Not necessarily, but a lot of you know, a lot of times you can pass off things, but so it's a fine line too. Do you want to spend all your time working or maybe get that done early on so that you can have a little breather once you're, you know, have kids of your own and that sort of thing, or like be able to do obviously. Your mother, did she leave a career so that she could homeschool?
Speaker:So my parents got married and opened their dojo the same year. And so they've been business owners, they've been business partners and life partners for the same amount of time. And so that's also part of my upbringing is I've always been doing judo and jujitsu. I'm actually testing for my black belt finally this month, which is insane. I've been working my whole life for that, and it's coming up so quickly. So I really I need to really lock stuff down. That's so that that's a huge part of my upbringing, is the dojo as well. And they've been business owners the whole time I've been alive. Again, already like I've been growing up in that environment of being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, and that gave them more free time to be at home with me and with my sister Vera to homeschool us and be with us and go on trips together as a family. They because they chose that path, I think that gave them a lot of freedom to do that. Of course, it took a lot of work to actually get to that point. And when they first started, they were still working other jobs, multiple jobs. Eventually, the the promise with entrepreneurship is it gives you more freedom later. So that's uh that's what they were able to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. I'm always telling my husband to quit his job and start his own business with HVAC, but keeps telling me no. He says he'll be working a lot more if he works for himself. But I don't know. I think I think I'll get to him one day. And you know, you're the inspiration there. Hey, look at he's 18 doing this. Come on. But all right, so as we as we finish out, oh, there was one more question that came to my mind. So what when we talk about inter entrepreneurship too, when we're like thinking about preparing our children for that sort of world, right? And I think most homeschoolers probably do. Like we didn't want to be educated by the man so that we can then have our children work for the man, like we I mean, or or woman, it doesn't really matter because it's like the government. I worked for the government, I worked for the government for 16 years, and it's nothing I would wish upon my children. It is just the brain cells melting away. Is it like, would you say it's equal parts, like the marketing, the financials, as far as like investing and what to do? Because there's the whole aspect too of like, okay, maybe you make your first thousand, but how can you roll that into the next 2000 and the next you know, like there's a whole system that people much smarter than me have written written books about about what to do? So there's that aspect, the marketing aspect, the you know, hiring and training aspect, and like is it is that kind of what your mastermind goes into, or do you do you actually think about all of those aspects when you're putting together your events?
Speaker:Yeah, so I there's so much to entrepreneurship, and I think uh my mindset going into how I'm kind of structuring the events. Again, I'm still kind of going through the process myself. I think the current stage I'm at is like figuring out how to duplicate myself uh through you know hiring uh or use of tools. Like, I mean, AI is the big thing right now, everyone's talking about it. So, of course, like I need to be figuring out how to duplicate myself with AI as well. So I'm still on the path 100%, and I've been learning about all this stuff, but learning is not the same as actually doing stuff. Like, I've heard a lot of things about like hiring, like you have to look at the the strengths and the personality tests, and you can use that for hiring. But it's like I haven't I've never hired someone yet. So I'm still on different stages, and so my thought process is actually not necessarily me teaching, but finding the experts and bringing them to the teens, and then we continue to discuss and continue to keep each other account. That's a huge thing, and then the team mastermind is keeping each other accountable, keeping each other on the path and encouraging each other. It's like, hey, let's celebrate the wins, let's figure out why things didn't go well and correct it. And so I think a lot of the and I always am trying to look for what's the current problem that's uh a lot of the teens are having right now in their business and what stage are a lot of them at. So that's how I figure out which guest speakers I want, what questions I want to ask them, and also how I'm structuring the event. And so I think the event is kind of like a how I'm structuring right now is kind of like a sort of an introductory into entrepreneurship, throwing them here's a bunch of ideas for things that you could do, but then also here's how you actually execute on it. The three pillars of the event are community implementation and fun, because a lot of events, it's like you just get talked at and then nothing happens, you're left with a bunch of ideas and you have no idea what to execute first. Community is a huge thing. Um, there's like, yeah, you want to do it with people, and so many events I think like, especially like the smaller events where you very easily could do this, you just don't know the people. The hosts don't make a good enough effort to actually introduce people and make sure that everybody knows each other. And so that was a huge thing that we did. And then implementation, actually doing stuff during the event and fun. You know, you learn way faster, you learn way more when you're having fun. And I mean, it's an event for kids, so it's kind of supposed to be fun. But I mean, kids like adults loved the event too. We did a teen peneur ball, we did uh English dancing, everybody got dressed up at the very end to kind of celebrate. And a lot of the parents really loved it. And uh, some of them were talking about like, this is the first time like I've danced with my husband in years, and so it was so super sweet. And at the end of the event, like some of the teens were like crying because they it was over and they had to go home. And it was like uh and I had like known these teens for a while, and it was like the first time I had seen them cry because the event was over, and it was it was so heartwarming, and they like they were like, I we have to do this again really soon. So I'm so happy, see, yes, it was it was their prom. And that was that was honestly a huge inspiration for us. Like, what about prom? Like, yeah, like we want a prom, but better. Because I've been to homecomings of like public schools, and it's like they don't you're kind of expected to just go out there and dance. We had a caller that like taught you the dances, so everyone participated, no matter like they didn't know how to, even if they didn't know how to dance, everyone participated, they were taught, and everyone had a ton of fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. So cool. All right, where can people find you if they want to check out the Teen Mastermind?
Speaker:Yeah, so the main website would be theteenmastermind.com, and then our next uh in-person event is gonna be in Scottsdale, Arizona at the end of January, and you can find that at teenmastermindlive.com.
Speaker 1:All right, I will put all of those links in the show's description. Congratulations on your success and good luck at your black belt. I know nothing about that stuff, but I know it's important.
Speaker:So thank you so much.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Thank you so much, Malcolm, for joining us today. This has been so informative and so cool.
Speaker:That was so fun. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Homeschool How To podcast. If today's episode helped you, please be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It's the best way to support the podcast. And if you're just getting started or need a reset, head to thehomeschoolhow.com and grab my free 30-day homeschool quick start guide. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and thank you for your love of the next generation.