An Army of Normal Folks - HIGHLIGHTS: Inside the Town Run Entirely By 10-Year-Olds | Junior Achievement

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

7 out of 10 kids who go through Junior Achievement find a career they're excited about. However, only 3 out of 10 believe they can actually get there. That gap is exactly what keeps Leigh Mansberg up at night. In this conversation with Bill, Leigh breaks down how Junior Achievement uses experiential learning to unlock economic mobility for kids K-12 - and why giving a child hope might be the most important thing a community can do. This episode will change how you think about education, opportunity, and what it means to invest in the next generation. ARMY ACTIONS Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us! Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/ Take The 10 Level Challenge, "the hero's journey for service" at 10LevelChallenge.org Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our generation knew how to do better than our parents, and that is diminished by 45%. It is becoming harder and harder to outperform your parents, to achieve more. For generations, we've viewed the American dream as our children building a better life than we did, or at least having the same quality of life that we did, but the ability of our children to actually achieve that has declined by 45% according to the Brookings Institution. And too many people can't see a path from where they are to where they want to go. We had students say, I found a career I never knew existed, and I'm super excited about it. But the correlation, only three out of ten of those children believed that the region would make

that opportunity accessible to them. Today's guest, Lee Mansberg, is fighting to make economic opportunity accessible to as many children as she possibly can. When she became CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-Saheastern, South, they were serving 12,000 students. And seven years later, they're serving 46,000 students like this. So what they are doing over the course of five hours is they have prepared and trained to run an economy for five hours. They are serving as CEOs, CFOs, sales managers, plant managers, and all those CEOs have taken a loan. They've taken a loan. They have taken their business. To run their business. And they get five hours. So you're teaching with 10.

to have coronaries due to distress from the pressure of the bone. Well, that's what I feel every day. But yes, they are under stress, and not everybody wins. Not everybody's going to pay it back, and there are a lot of leverage. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, we don't give trophies for participation. That is not the way the world works. Junior achievement is all about using experiential learning to empower kids with career readiness,

financial literacy, and a taste of entrepreneurship. And these guys have 99 offices across the country, which means they're probably in your backyard too. In this episode, Lee will teach you what kids really do need to succeed in today's world and show you practical ways that you can help them get it. Through your coaching, you know that one-to-one contact and the impact it's had on those specific children. There is no AI learning that can replace the relationship and what is precious that exists between this space between you and me. This right here is where hope lives. People with

hope who know their future and family are taken care of don't tend to do bad things. And when you feel like you can build a future and get the future you want and imagine the life you want, you're going to make really different choices. This is the Army of Normal Folks podcast. We're Our mission is to make service easier for all of us, and together, change this country. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHard Radio app.

Make some noise. Wooee! Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie Listen, Hey Jonas, and Las Culturistas. Now with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments. Comments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHR Radio app.

Search video podcasts and tap watch. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller.

The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves open. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great.

I call him Tarot Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. Yeah. I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that.

I haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenberg. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really.

I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's release. responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you.

Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomeneka Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on our new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should. have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika and I'm out.

Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Nick Titoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my A new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street Pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins.

What are you doing, my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness. Delivering happiness.

Mariano Rivera. Oh my God. And many, many more. Open your free high, hard radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutro. And listen now. All right, everybody. We have super exciting news coming at you.

I mean, Alex is excited about it, but I'm not sure how excited I am. The podcast is now live on YouTube, which means now you get to see me in case you prefer watching it there. and we're switching up the audio format of the podcast. You can now either listen to the full version of the podcast on the same episode, meaning you no longer have to go to part one and part two to hear a whole episode we got going, or you can listen to a 30-minute version of the podcast that will be labeled as highlights. And we get it. Many listeners who aren't as into long-form podcast or struggle to find the time to listen to the whole thing each week have requested something like this.

And so Alex got off his butt and we finally created it. We're really not perfect. Nobody is. But we really do try to take in all of your feedback and advice. We hope to create a product that makes service easier for you. and all of us. So check it out. And keep it coming.

You can email us anytime at normalfolks.org, and we will respond. Now, let's go to the episode. Junior Achievement has 99 offices in all 50 states, so any Army member can get involved with it. And no matter where you are, even though you're hearing a story about Lee and Junior Achievement, specifically in Memphis, this organization exists across our country.

It does. And really in a very cohesive way, moving forward in a national strategy, to make sure all of our children are living lives of purpose wherever they live, rural, urban, north, southeast, west. Junior achievement is really designed to grow and keep our talent and our children in their communities so that their families can be together. I got to also tell you something. Oh, no.

I think we've known each other probably seven, eight, nine years through other associations or whatever. I also think this interview is important for people who know that junior achievement, because junior achievement is the name most people have actually heard. And I'd certainly heard it. And I knew Lee, cool lady, does good work. Junior achievement, that's great. But I got to tell you, and I think most listeners or many listeners may be in my boat, I had no idea what it was.

I knew it worked with young people doing good stuff, but it ended there. And it wasn't until, what was it, I came and visited you. Oh, we opened the new building in January of 23. Yeah. But I just visited you, what, four or five months ago? Yeah, to see the program in action with the kids there. Yeah, well, then is when I went like, oh, junior achievement actually is pretty awesome. So the other reason I think the sport is, even though you may have heard of junior achievement,

I think most people may not even know what it is. And so I think you are not only speaking for junior achievement, Memphis, but Junior Achievement nationally to let all of our listeners understand that it exists and what it does and that it's everywhere. So let's drive right in. What is the problem that Junior Achievement seeks to solve? Economic mobility is declined by 45% in recent decades, according to your stats. what is junior achievement looking to solve

and what's wrong in the first place that it has to solve it? It's a great question. So economic mobility from a junior achievement perspective is let's wrap it up in the American dream, the accessibility to do better than the generation before you. And it used to be pretty easy to do, particularly following the World Wars, particularly into the 50s, 60s and the 70s.

our generation knew how to do better than our parents. And that is diminished by 45%. It is becoming harder and harder to outperform your parents to achieve more than what your parents or the generation that takes care of you had hoped. So junior achievement is really coming together and launching a very difference. So the junior achievement that most of your listeners know is over 100 years old, started by Horace Mann. And for most people, they remember it from this program called the company program where they built businesses and their schools, they sold a product, they make shares. I mean, we're 71 years old in the region. So the bulk of people over the age of 40 here only know it as this high school company program. And then along came the 1990s and the 2000s and we started

switching and focusing on children younger saying, is the American dream accessible to those children? And it means you still have to work really hard to get it, but what's in the way of that? And so how we educate is our educational system serving our children well? Is it getting them ready to launch? So I think I've asked and answered my own question pretty well is that we are in an epic crisis moment nationally as a country and junior achievement gets to come in alongside, even in the state of Tennessee. We serve over 153,000 children a year in the state of Tennessee as an organization. And so what does it mean if all 100,000,000? and 53,000 of those children in Tennessee

starts seeing a pathway to a future they choose where they can thrive and become more mobile in this lifetime. Do you think it's true? I mean, at least and I have four kids, right? And you always want your kids to just

achieve a little higher than what you did. And honestly, that is the American dream. A little more investment, a little nicer home, a little more money to go on a nicer vacation than you did as a kid. And you're right,

if you kind of think about depression-era parents who then had children, who then World War II parents, who then the 50s and the 60s and the 70s and the mobility of the American public to achieve more than their parents did. And I look at my kids now, and I look at the cost of housing. I look at how hard it is to earn more in a job. It does feel like that economic mobility and that ability to grow

greater than what your parents achieved is becoming more difficult. Absent the work that junior achievement does, is that a reality? Do you guys look at data points on all of that? How do you measure a lack of economic mobility, I guess is what I'm asking. We're really fortunate to have incredible partnerships, which is why it's so important that junior achievement of Memphis, the Mid-South, and all of the junior achievements nationally are part of our parent organization, JUSA, which serves as our research hub for us, partnering with the Ipsos, partnering with the McKinsey's, making sure that what we are doing is data-informed and then beta-tested in these incredible 99 offices. and markets throughout the country, we get to beta test. So, for example, in Memphis, JUSA and the Memphis office partner tremendously on this high school teaching pipeline.

And so how do we make sure with a shortage of 500 to 1,000 teachers a year just in this region, our staff is uniquely aligned. We have over 500 high school students who want to become elementary teachers who work 30 hours a year in elementary schools in Memphis. And the country, and so JUSA watches that, and then they wrap the studies around it while we give them raw data and opportunities. And so they've come down to watch us perform at different elementary schools to meet our students to say, how are we doing it in different markets? So if you go over to Denver, for example, they have created a program called the Dream Accelerator, which is in beta test now that is in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver. and now they're rolling out a mobile unit

and they're beta testing these mobile units. So that's a market like ours, we're a perfect market because we're so spread out to have a mobile unit, potentially, of like a dream accelerator where you can actually see yourself and have greater exposure

to what the careers are. How do I get there and what's the pathway there? Do you think access to opportunity has a, is that a big, of it. Huge part of what we do. It's why we started our Career Institute. And as a nation, junior achievement is solving four core pillars. And pillar number three is about access to opportunity and how are we as an organization nationally looking at it? And then core question that we're answering number four is, are the children we work with ready for the world of work? And how are we

measuring that? What are their soft skills? How are they communicating? Are they getting away from being on phone and learning how to make that human conduct. Are they learning how to work within a team and realize that our success as a country depends on our unique ability as a country to unify and innovate and execute? And so our final two foundational questions surround that. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, earlier this year, something we're really proud of. Army members launched six ANF local service clubs around the country. Their design is to make service easier for your fellow community members by really having zero requirements of the club's members. All you got to do is just sign up and join our service activities whenever you can,

when it works for you. And you welcome kids to join us for everything. And they cultivate an in-person family-like tribe, for lack of a better term, that makes service even more rewarding. We are now really because of the success of these first six looking at launching more local service clubs. And if you'd be interested in either leading or serving on the leadership team of a new one in your community, email Alex at www.org, and he'd love to connect with you about this cool opportunity. We'll be right back.

You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHare Radio app. Make some noise. Oohie! Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie Listen.

Hey Jonas and Las Culturistas. Now with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHHRRRRRRRRR. radio app, search video podcasts, and tap watch.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode, we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard.

The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spread. spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Mouthing. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own.

That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah.

I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenberg. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really, I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Terturo. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lease Black Landsman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro,

I deliver pizza from Prince Street pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing, my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr.

I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tutu. It's called Happiness. Delivering happiness. Mariano Rivera. Oh my God. And many, many more.

Open your free high-heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutro. And listen now. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yamanika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was?

New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Like I said, three, four months, I knew you, I'd heard Junior Achievement, didn't really understand it, and I went and hung out with you and watched it in action.

Tell us the fun part, how Junior Achievement actually is improving economic growth. How are they doing it? What are they doing and how do they do it? Great question. So everything we do is about experiential play-based learning. Say that again. And people need to understand that because I'd heard that, but I didn't know what that meant. So experiential play-based learning is everything that we, that traditional schooling isn't. Because it just is a whole different capacity.

So what it means is a teacher prepares academically his or her students. But rather than take a test, rather than. do things where children are stuck at a desk again, we say, let's create an experience. Let's create context and career context to take this learning and actually do something with it rather than kind of just in a very single plane write something down. So they get to bring the world of work. And so rather than vilifying work as a dirty word, we're saying, no, no, no, work is fun. work is empowering, work is opportunity and hope, and it's actually where you can have more control over your life rather than less. So when the 10-year-olds come to our kind of pivot program in the middle of their life experiences and they're 10 years old, we're saying a city should be made for you.

You should be able to run a city in the way you think is best. You don't have to sit around and live the world just because people tell you this is what it is. At some point, you can decide what it will be. And at Bistown, that's what they get to do. They get to come. It's called Bistown. Jay Bistown. All right.

So let me paint a picture before you go forward. Okay. You walk into this thing and it's a building. But once you exit the hallway and you enter, I guess that is Bistown at then the hallway. It is. So it's storefronts along. both sides of this auditorium, but it doesn't look like an auditorium or a building because it's storefront after storefront after storefront. And between the storefronts, there's,

I guess, Main Street, whatever. It's a road kind of with a kind of a makeshift park thing in the middle. And at the very end is a platform or a stage, for lack of a better term, where I think everything launches from. And then each of these kids assumes a municipal role, maybe a business owner, maybe a mayor, maybe a sheriff, maybe a whatever. And then they go out and actually enter Biztown in their roles. And what do they do when they do that? Explain that. Because I watch these kids running all over place having fun and quote Biztown. And it looked like a little Munchkin City. So what are they doing? So those are great questions. So the stage at the end is City Hall. And so we are the end is City Hall. That's what it makes. That's what it is in City Hall. And so

there's 19 businesses in City Hall. So what they are doing over the course of five hours is they have prepared and trained to run an economy for five hours. But what they are doing is is they are serving as CEOs, CFOs, sales managers, plant managers, if you're at the international paper. And all those CEOs have taken a loan. And the children all understand what a free enterprise market is. They've taken a loan. They have taken a loan. To run their business. To run their business. And they get five hours. So you're teaching mid-10 to have coronaries due distress from the pressure of the home. Well, that's what I feel every day. Well, fair enough. I'm in that club.

Okay. But yes, they are under stress, and not everybody wins. Not everybody's going to pay it back, and there are a lot of less. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. We don't give trophies for participation. That is not the way the world works. Sometimes nonprofits brag about how many folks they serve, but that doesn't always answer the question about how well they're served.

Alex has a really good job of prepping me, and so I've got all these numbers. but I'm just going to let you do it. Share with us some of the research that Junior Achievement has done about not only how many they've served, but more importantly, it's impact on students and maybe some of your personal

favorite success stories. So first of all, that's what drives me every day is collective impact because it doesn't do. The conversation with our investors is of no use if it isn't changing the system.

So we reach a huge number of children. And a friend asked me, I was with a supporter the other day, said, to what end? That's a fair question. It's a great question. And so one of the things and the other strength of this J.A. Partnership that I'm so grateful for is we're putting in benchmarking across every single program. So for us over the next five years, we do have an aggressive push to reach an additional 22,000 children in the region with inservent. in-person services.

How many did you reach last year? In-person, almost 28,000. We'll see a 10% increase in that. And then we reached an additional 20,000 children through virtual. The question about those 20,000 children in virtual, I don't know the impact of that. I'm skeptical about it. I think it's great exposure.

I don't think it makes them economically mobile to have been on our virtual platforms. I believe working with our team members, I believe working with volunteers. That's interesting that you say that. So you're saying the virtual's nice exposure, but you're suspect about whether or not that does any good. I am. I think that there are parts of virtual that are great.

So, for example, we offer here to career. And it's a calculator online that anybody can use. There's no fees. There's nothing for it. It allows you to see if you want to become a welder, it allows you to enter where you want to go to welding school, how long it'll take you and how much it's going to cost you and what's available in your zip code. That is a great use of a virtual tool to answer questions in lieu of a person. Now, I don't know if everybody has access to a phone.

I don't know if Internet's in the neighborhood where they live. It's a great tool. I can't really measure access. I have all kinds of geolocating, blah, blah, blah on it. But what I know is through your coaching, you know that one-to-one contact and the impact it's had on those specific children. And there is no AI learning that can replace the relationship and what is precious that exists between this space between you and me. This right here is where hope lives. And that's why volunteering and getting out in the community, Boobber, Martin Boober, who is one of my favorite writers, talks about the I and the Thou and there's you and there's me and everything that is graceful and good in this world is what we're

lives in the space between the two of us, which is why we are so focused on getting to in-person services. So what we are doing is creating it. You're going to start seeing over the next several years a dashboard show up that's going to show how a child perceives their future after each program, how a child perceives accessibility to the career they want. Do they even understand the path to it? So we'll start, we will start, you'll start seeing very public benchmarking over the next few years coming out from us, it's going to take some time. Because we also have to ask at what age. We are working with data partners on that.

Cradle to career is incredibly important. But my children would answer, is the future accessible to you? They would have always said yes, because I was going to make sure it was. So we want every child answering that. And we're really excited because our early data, I mean, literally just came in on Finance Park last week in partnership with JUSA, and we're doing great. These programs are working here. What's the data said?

The data is showing that almost 90% of our children are telling us, these are seventh graders, are telling us, we just sampled 385 of them. And 90% of them said, okay, I understand the connection between my career and my paycheck now. I understand what I have to take home. And I understand that there are different careers that can change this. For a 13-year-old, I'll take that. Like, I can't change. Especially a 13-year-old that is possibly coming from a family life experience where the adults don't understand.

Correct. And we have to give those children grace because you're navigating it with the help of others. And we don't need to judge their families. It's just, it is just their family. But trying to give them the tools they need and seeing that perception start to work is very exciting. and that's taking place nationally everywhere. So all JA offices will be looking at this and bringing this. We'll be right back.

I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, wolf parades, I'll believe in anything, and tattoos, all the things.

She said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes

and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a lot. The movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves Mouthins.

Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Tarot Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha.

I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. I don't think she was an American pie, but I still liked that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game?

I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets. It gets worse. The world gets crazier and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomeneika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yomeneke. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network. the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women,

then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Nick Titoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Least Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street Pizza to a new guest.

Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing, my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am.

And now we even have more great guests coming up. including the great John Tuturo. It's called happiness. Delivering happiness. Mariano Rivera. Thank you. Oh, my God. And many, many more.

Open your free high, hard radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro. And listen now. The other stat that there's a bunch of them here, but one of them that really got me is that, according to Ipsos, it found more than four and five J alumni say they continued an education after high school or engaged in job and skills training during and after high school,

like 87%. Is that a Memphis number? That is pretty close to a Memphis number. That's incredible because if you think about upper mobility, financial, all of it, I mean, if 9 out of 10 or 8.7, we'll call it 90%, 9 out of 10 of the junior achievement, kids that went through the junior achievement are saying, oh, I get it. This is what I want to be. I need to continue my education or I need to go to this trade school or I need to learn the skill. That in itself is by definition chasing upward mobility.

It is. I mean, that's the lid right there. That's the whole goal. It is the whole goal. And so let's be careful with that stat because that is from the children's perspective. now let's ask, is our community actually doing it? What do you mean? Well, we had a really interesting, just local staff that I found fascinating.

So after our eighth grade inspire, we had students say, seven out of ten of them said, thank you, junior achievement. Here we go to your stat, right here. Seven out of ten said, thanks, junior achievement. I found a career I never knew existed, and I'm super excited about it. Well, let's just stop before you keep going. Yeah. That's awesome.

I found something I want to do. It helps me my upward mobility. My financial literacy training has led me to understand why it's important, am I excited about it. Yep. But the correlation, only three out of ten of those children believe that the region would make that opportunity accessible to them. Now, that's what a child believed. Okay, so hang on. So seven said I found it, but the same kids have said they found it, only three of ten.

believe that they can get to it. So they're excited about it, but they don't have the hope. That's heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking. And so that really informed a lot of our work as we started showing them the pathways just in this region that are actually being created that are accessible, going to TCAC, going to Southwest, making use of Tennessee Promise. There are so many amazing tools that the children don't know how to access.

Oh, so the thing is now it's not just exposing them to the upper mobility, but also showing them how to go get it. Correct, because there are such underutilized resources that I don't even care what state you're in. It's true of every state. Governments are putting amazing resources into place. How people can access those resources, and this comes down to transportation. The government can put amazing resources into place, but then did not create the transportation to get to them. T-Cats's incredible. All of the campuses are incredible. But if you live in North Memphis with very little transportation access to get to downtown to the closest T-Cat,

how are you going to get that certification? And so that's the other side of it that we're always dealing with is that we've got to become, and all of our cities nationally, have got to address transportation and saying, can everybody get to where he or she needs to get

to achieve these things? If we were the most elite country in transportation access for all of its citizens, We would change health care outcomes. We would change so many different things. What do we have to fix? Well, I think that's a great question. One of the things I'm really excited about that junior achievement, it is a partnership in both directions.

One, our schools have to be fixed. Like, we have got to change the quality of facilities for every, the first thing a child learns when their school isn't updated is, am I not worthy? And I'm little. Like, you know, especially, I asked one time a school leader, when do the children, when does a light switch flip? They said, well, about middle school when they start playing sports and they go to other schools and they come back and say, why do they, why does that, why do those kids get to go to such a pretty school and nobody's touching mine? We start as adults communicating those messages and they are not hidden messages. They're very over.

I mean, that is a statement to a child. young. And so as a business community, there's a lot that the business community can do outside of helping parents get in there, but also, you know, we're so excited. We've got these 23 businesses involved in our Career Institute for Advanced Manufacturing. And they're all agreeing to work differently. They're creating a different culture of how children in high school will experience internships and be a part of all of that. It's early. It's nascent and it's creation. But, it's starting to generate this impact. An amazing human, Angela Massey at Morgan Steele did this at multiple different locations where people who worked in her plant.

She had high school students working one on one with mentors in her plant, but she created, I always want the kids to understand this is a marathon and we've got to stop talking about life as a sprint. And so, you know, can the business community, like, and it's very expensive. and I know that I can be deeply unrealistic at times, but I'm also just going to be hopeful, is a sense of how does a business look at its employees and start to audit the own mobility of their own employees? Do we offer education? Do we offer advancement for this?

And so that it starts to trickle down from up here. So like this kind of message from the elders is that you need to go to work for the good guys. You need to go for the work for the people who want you to keep getting better. because listen to me. So I think we have a real conversation to ask ourselves, you know, how do we create more mobility within families as well so that doesn't get double-downed on?

So it's a big conversation. But we have to ask ourselves, where are children getting this message reinforced to them? I don't think the conversation even starts until you recognize that these kids do find things they want to do that they're excited about or willing to do the work, but they just don't believe there's access. and as a society, if we're not working to create that access, then we can expect more the same, really. Correct. And we need to quit blaming the children.

To all the people listen to you now, one, what would you tell them about service in general, that you think they need to hear? And two, if someone wants to get involved with junior achievement in wherever they're listening from because there's opportunity across this country, what would you tell them? So first, what would you tell people generally about service that you think they need to hear in two?

If they want to get involved in junior achievement, what would you say about that? Absolutely. So, first of all, serve from a place of a true heart. Like, if it's for your resume, I mean, if you truly want it to fill your heart, you need to serve, you need to want to serve and be there and not out of duty or obligation. to serve where you're comfortable and where your passions are. But the other thing is that I know you say, many people will say, I don't want to do my day job for my service job.

Well, go into it. Like if you're an accountant, if you're a lawyer, if you're an educator such as myself, people need me because of what I know about education. People need me because of what I've done for education in a strategy space. So yes, you can go and cook. I love to do that too. but when you want to make transformation in the community, you have to give away what you're really good at for free

and do it with a big open heart and say my company, my own personal skills, we can change this world that we live in. But pick an area that you love because, like, I've done some service work. Like, I can't do, I'm not good at the arts because I am terrible at the arts. I got Tennyson's name wrong.

I just forgot who wrote proof rock. And so for any of those watching and your eyeballs rolled up, I'm like, I think Tennyson, no. But I think it's T.S. Eliot. I think that's where I got it wrong. But do what you love because the arts isn't what I love. What I love is taking care and serving children and making sure that universal pre-K is accessible. I do love cooking and serving in kitchens when I can because that's my jam for my own family. If you want to get involved in junior achievement, it is a, there is something for everybody, your storytelling, Every life out there has a journey. Please go to J.A. USA. It's just all you got to go on your internet is just J.A. And Google it. You'll come right to J.A.U.S. site.

If you're specifically in an area, no matter where you are in this country, we cover you all. So just enter the name of your city. There's not a county in the United States. Pretty much there is not. Uncovered by. Pretty much there is not. And if there isn't, if you're in a county that isn't covered, like every county in Tennessee is covered, but if you're in a county that isn't covered, start yelling loud enough to your closest office

or just reach out to me and I'll make sure to get you connected because we don't want to leave any child behind. And online, just J-U-S-A? Yeah, USA, it's just that easy. It pops right up. It's sort of big. We are up for our fourth Nobel Prize. Lee, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for being here. Thank, Bill. I appreciate you. And thank you for joining us this week. If Lee Mansberg has inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action by volunteering with junior achievement in your community, donating to them, exploring starting one, or something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us. And if you write me, I'll respond. If you enjoyed this

episode, share it with friends and on social, subscribe to the podcast, wherever you're watching or listening to it. Rate it, review it. Join the army at normalfolks.org. Join or start one of our local service clubs. Take the 10-level challenge and buy our merch, any and all of these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

Until next time, do what you can. Summer Blockbush. The Masters are back. The Odyssey and Spider-Man. Brand new day have taken over cinemas, and Raiders of the Lost podcast has all the coverage you need, including our interview with director Destin Daniel Cretton.

What surprised to you about Tom Holland? He shows up to every meeting early. He's the first one on set. Aside from learning all of his lines, is also able to memorize everybody's name on set. Download the free IHeartRadio app. Search Raiders of the Lost podcast and listen now. This is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clemens. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller, Danny McBride, Riz Ahmed, and Mary Steenberg. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tuturo. You probably know me from NYPD Blue,

the longest yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Tatoro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone, from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt?

To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness. And many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio

app, search delivering happiness with Nick Tutoril. And listen now. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men.

Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.