Blaze Your Own Trail - How One Musician Is Revolutionizing Homeschooling with Jordan Page

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today with an awesome name. This name's Jordan, too. I like to welcome Jordan Page. How you doing, Jordan? I'm doing great. Great to meet you, Jordan.

Starting point is 00:00:18 Yeah, absolutely. And you spelled it right and everything, which is pretty awesome. So what I want to have you do is just tell the audience, just a quick, who are you, what do you do, where are you from? and then we will get rock and rolling. Sure, sure. Well, my name's Jordan Page. I live up in the Pacific Northwest. I am first and foremost, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Starting point is 00:00:38 I am a husband and father of seven children ages 8 to 18. I am the founder and CEO of Firefly Education Network, which is essentially an operating system for parents for the worldwide homeschool movement, to make homeschooling easier to provide parents access to resources, tools, community, everything that they could possibly want or need to be successful at homeschooling, including curriculum. I'm also a filmmaker, and I have a film coming out soon called The Book of Atlas, which I would love to chat about. And I'm also a musician, and I've been a professional

Starting point is 00:01:13 musician, most of my adult life. I've been a musician almost my entire life, a guitar player, singer, songwriter, and I've toured all over the world and put out albums and singles. And so I'm, I try to put my hands in a lot of different types of things. But everything that I do, I really care about having a positive impact on the world. And so I'm very selective about the things that I devote my time to because I'm, you know, I don't believe in wasting time. And I'm not really interested in things that are only just about me. I'm interested in solutions that help everyone. And so that's why, you know, my wife and I really committed ourselves to building something that would serve other homeschool families like ours.

Starting point is 00:01:53 because we really feel like the education system has been such a colossal failure and that homeschooling is on the rise for a number of reasons. And we want to really, you know, build infrastructure for this very underserved market. And so, you know, we're very focused on that. We've just launched a Firefly and our mobile app is in Google and Apple app stores. And we are, you know, online at fireflyedu.org. And so we're, you know, we're trying to change the world one family at a time. Love it.

Starting point is 00:02:22 appreciate that intro and I know people are going to get excited, especially those folks that are out there and they've been on the fence for years. They're like, you know what, I just don't think I can do this. I don't think I have the capacity. I don't think I have the knowledge and the know-how. So I'm excited for this type of tool to be out in the marketplace because anytime we can collapse the timeline for people and make it easy in the process, that's what converts, right, in learning, in education, and all these different text acts. And we're going to have to talk offline because I just built, you know, a whole ecosystem for entrepreneurs and business owners to create community, collaborate more, make it easier

Starting point is 00:03:02 to network. And so I'm excited to show you behind the scenes of that tool later on. That'll be fun. So my favorite part of the show, Jordan, is I love taking a rewind and getting deep context into our guest story and their journey. And in order to do that, we need to travel back in. times. Where was Little Jordan, you know, born and raised? And what kind of kid were you? What type of things did you get into? Were you into sports? Were you into the academic side? I'd love to get some

Starting point is 00:03:29 context. Sure. Wow. So we're going way back. So I haven't thought about Little Jordan in a long time. So I would say I was raised. My formative years were in Massachusetts. And I was very interested in in music. I was very interested in sports. I was, you know, I played soccer and baseball as a kid, but I was very interested in acting. And recently, one of my childhood mentors passed, and I've been really introspective about at that time, because this man came to my, my elementary school when I was in the fourth grade, and they did, they did these, they put on these plays with the different fourth grade classes. And the play that he did with my class, he cast me as the lead. He saw something in me and cast me as the lead. And that was the first.

Starting point is 00:04:14 time I really got on stage and got a taste of what it feels like to perform. And I developed the love of being on stage and being in theater. Then, you know, fast forward a few years, my family moved down to Maryland down in the Mid-Atlantic on the eastern shore of Maryland. And I got a taste of another form of performance, which was music, which was, you know, I started playing the guitar and singing songs and writing songs. And I remember I was like, you know, I was 12 years old. And I performed at this community variety show. and I got a standing ovation from the whole audience because I was just a kid. I played a couple of songs and I realized like this is for me.

Starting point is 00:04:53 This is what I really want to do. You know, I remember being a kid and my mom had been, you know, a real music buff throughout this in the 1960s and she had this huge collection of 45 records of like like 45s. And I had this little Fisher Price record player that I would play in my room and I thought I was very high tech. I mean, it was like, I love this record player, but I would play all of her old records and got to know all these old bands and really just developed the love of music and songwriting. And then when I had the opportunity to become a musician, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was really like my path forward. And I've been a professional musician most of my life as a result of that time.

Starting point is 00:05:36 And I've written hundreds of songs and I've performed all over the world. Around 2006, I had a pretty big sort of, I would say, awakening in terms of my place in the world and what's really going on in the world outside of my little bubble and what I thought was going on. And I had, I would say very much kind of like an intellectual and spiritual transformation in the sense of like really stepping into my calling, stepping into what God had for me to do and to be a voice for voiceless folks and to be an advocate for. for things that needed to be spoken about that maybe other people were too scared to. You know, if you Google Jordan Page music, you'll find a lot of stuff. I was very involved in the Ron Paul campaigns in 2000,

Starting point is 00:06:22 particularly in 2012. I kind of got involved in that whole scene around 2008, because I had this awakening around 2006. I started writing songs about war and government corruption and just things that, things that most people weren't writing songs about anymore. Like that was sort of a lost art form. Like when you'd think back to like the 1960s and 70s, there were a lot of artists that were writing songs, you know, denouncing war and, and all the

Starting point is 00:06:50 shenanigans that the state ends up, you know, dragging us into. And I really felt compelled to use my talents for poetry and music to be a voice for those causes. And that caught the attention of Ron Paul in his campaign. And I ended up doing, you know, quite a few large shows with him and developed a national following through that process and have continued to play shows and tour and put out, put out albums. This year, I'm actually putting out my first praise and worship album, and it's still a rock and record. I'm a rock and roll guy. I'm like a folk, southern rock and hard rock guy. And that hasn't changed, but I'm really devoting my talent right now to, and from now on, to serve in the Lord and proclaiming the gospel. So that's a, that's a really exciting project that we're,

Starting point is 00:07:38 that we're finishing up right now. Yeah, that's great. Well, you talked about being involved in soccer and baseball, the sports side of things. Can you share with the audience, like what was the impact of doing that, of being part of team, you know, having common goals, having coaches, having mentors? Is that something that's added value to the other things that you built after that going into becoming a musician and traveling? You know, honestly, I think it was, it really was quite the opposite.

Starting point is 00:08:06 I did not have the experience that you're describing. I felt very, I think very isolated and alone. And I felt that way a lot at different times in my life. And I remember always wanting a mentor that would help me and guide me and walk me through things. And I never got that. And it was something I was always looking for. And so I would try to find elements of that mentor in people that I revered, like different, you know, artists or movie stars, you know, as a kid as a little kid.

Starting point is 00:08:44 And then, but the way that God works, though, is like he will take like a longing that you have and he will use it to create something great in you and through you. And so what ended up happening is that mentor that I needed and wanted, I ended up because, becoming that guy. And I ended up, you know, teaching guitar lessons for about eight years. And I taught about 3,000 kids in the course of eight years. And I ended up mentoring like hundreds of them. And I still am in contact with quite a few of them, even now, many, many years later. And I was able to become the guy that I needed. And I was able to bless these other children and teenagers and give them healthy guidance at, you know, at a critical time when they, many of them felt long. And And I mean, and I related to them because I felt exactly the same way that they did when I was their age and really grew up through trials by fire.

Starting point is 00:09:42 And rather than having like my path laid out for me, it was it was more of like a discovery process. The lessons and the wisdom and the example that I needed, I became that person for those for those kids. So it was really kind of a full circle thing there. I think a lot of kids feel, you know, out of place or like they don't fit with the, with the herd. They don't fit with the groups. They don't, they don't necessarily just naturally conform. And they're looking to really find what their identity is and unsure of how to find that. An example would be like in our culture, what does it mean to become a man?

Starting point is 00:10:23 Like in terms of not just an adult, but like what is what is a man? Like what is the definition of when? and where does that happen when there's no rights of passage that are prevalent in our culture anymore. Like it's sort of this nebulous thing that, you know, at what point do you understand that that is who you are and that is what you are and that and that this this role has shifted from, from boy to man. And so having discovered that on my own without any, any real serious guidance, I've been able to help other young men figure that out, you know? So if I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way because of the impact I've been able to have. And I've been able to do that for my own children and guide them along and be, and again, be that mentor that I needed, but also as their father. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love the fact that you take your environment, circumstance, whatever you want to call it, and then you become that version for other people and help them along the way. Yeah. So you probably heard the quote, you know, a rising tide lifts all both.

Starting point is 00:11:28 right. So as we can continue to grow in our journey and bring other people along, other people can learn from us. And then if they go teach that to other people, it's just a duplication process. So awesome. I love that. You know, you become a musician. You're traveling. You're doing a lot of things that there's, frankly, listeners that will listen to us and go, man, that would be cool. Like if that was just my thing, that would be cool. But then here you are. We're talking about homeschooling. We're talking about a bunch of other things. So let's give the audience some content. here. Obviously, I learned offline, you are a father of seven. So that's, that's six plus one for if the audience was trying to catch up seven children. And in, even in the United States,

Starting point is 00:12:12 that's a lot of kids. I mean, I'm a father of six and people always freak out and they're like, what, what do you mean? Six? Like, that's crazy. It seems nuts. So here you are with one more. So talk a little bit about, hey, what fatherhood means to you, being a father and being able to kind of set the tone in your house and be the example for your kids that maybe you didn't see or that you want them to aspire to be. And then you also talk about your faith. So I'd love to hear what's your relationship with your Heavenly Father because I'm sure a lot of the foundational things in your household have to stem on those principles. So I'd love context on both sides. Sure. That's a great question. Well, one flows from the other. I've taught my kids from day one,

Starting point is 00:12:56 well, from the day that they could understand, that there are three tiers of importance to anything in life. And the very top is God. And then there's family. And then there's everything else. And not that there aren't things in the everything else category that aren't important. Of course, they're very important things.

Starting point is 00:13:18 But nothing in the everything else category is ever going to be as important as family. And then above that is God. And the family, the blessing of family is flows from him. You know, I always say that my wife, Mary, is my greatest blessing, you know, because, you know, through her, all the joy in my life has flowed into my life through her influence and through her presence in my life. And that would, you know, would absolutely be, you know, centered around like our family and our love. We have a great love story. But we, in terms of like my faith, it has been a lifelong, a lifelong journey.

Starting point is 00:13:55 I was raised Roman Catholic. I realized, you know, around in my early to mid-20s that it really was not the path for me forward. I didn't, I mean, it works for a lot of people. It just did not work for me as a pathway to having a real serious personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You know, it is, it's an age-old system. And for some people, that is how they, that's how they worship it. That's how they practice. And I'm not putting it down.

Starting point is 00:14:20 I'm just saying that it was just not for me. And I really was seeking a deal. deeper personal relationship without the church as the intermediary between me and him. And my journey with him has been, you know, it's had its ups and downs, mostly because I was a broken person and was really searching for my identity. And again, because I was, I was fairly lost and didn't really know who I was. I was trying to figure out who I was. And ultimately, I found who I was through my relationship with him, you know, and the way that his blessings have flowed, you know, even when I really, you know, by my estimation, I would not have deserved it. But, you know, here he is and

Starting point is 00:14:58 his grace and mercy, just continuing to show up for me time and time again. And then, you know, when he, you know, I got to a point where I, I was ready to meet my partner and was in some dead end relationships. And I just told him, look, I'm ready to meet my partner. And a month later, she walked in the door. And I knew exactly who she was when she walked in. And I never met her before, but I knew she was, she was the one. And, you know, he has, he has blessed me like that, you know, so many times in my life. And then she and I had been on this journey together. We met when she was 23 and I was 24. And so we really grown up together over the last 20-some years. Yeah. So he is really like the source of everything that I'm doing in my life. He's the source of my joy and my industry.

Starting point is 00:15:43 I always tell my kids that they are the most important work I will ever do. Like no, there's no song, There's no concert. There's no business. There's no anything that's ever going to be as important or have as much impact as the impact that they will have. As the work that I'm doing and raising them to be whole people, not broken people. Because I was raised fairly broken. And it ended up as an adult, like really not being prepared for life at all. And so we've really worked hard to.

Starting point is 00:16:16 Welcome to the club, brother. Well, see, and this is where I feel like homeschooling really can change things because you're sending your kids to a system, to really an indoctrination system that most of the time does not really share your family's values and in many cases. And then they're not really teaching you to be thinkers or teaching you to be workers. And that's the way that the school system was designed to be. And you get through this system and then you enter the workforce. They don't teach entrepreneurism. They don't teach leadership. They just teach memorization of facts, how to obey authority, how to stand up when the bell

Starting point is 00:17:00 rings and ask permission to use the bathroom. You know, I ended up my high school career. I mean, I did well because I was naturally gifted, but I can't really say that I learned a ton from that. experience. I was too busy break dancing in the halls and going to class, you know, so that was my high school experience. Nice. Well, yeah, I mean, I was I was kind of a rebel and I was, you know, not not acting right and doing, I was doing a lot of the wrong things as a teenager because again, I didn't have a lot of guidance. But I came through it all and at my core, I always, I always knew

Starting point is 00:17:36 that God was, was, had had something better for me. He had a plan for me. And I didn't know what it was. And I wanted to do things my way. And I did for many, many years. I'm finally, I feel like I'm finally doing things his way, which is, which is good and is opening up a lot of doors and pathways in my life. But my wife and I, she was getting her master's degree in teaching in 2020. And she really, the things that she was reading really shocked us. And I'm not easily shocked. I've seen a lot. And I was really shocked to read what she was reading in these textbooks and having to regurgitate and, you know, pretend. And, to agree with in order to not fail the class because that was how a lot of these classes were. You had to agree with what was being said.

Starting point is 00:18:22 And we really saw what the agenda is. There's very much a very radical agenda at work in the public school system. And you see it when you realize what they're teaching teachers. And then you also see it in the fruit and what's happening in the youth in our country and the sentiment where the young citizens of the country hate the country. And so we decided very much, we were both very convicted in the spirit by the egregiousness of what we were reading in her textbooks that we had to do something about it. It was really, it was her idea. She said, we'd got to do something.

Starting point is 00:18:56 And I think a lot of people would have just taken that moment and been like, you know what, just keep your head down. Just get through it. Get your degree. And this will be over soon. We said, no, we can't let this stand. We have to do something. I think what's the saying, the same boiling water that softens potatoes hardens eggs, right? Like that's like an old saying.

Starting point is 00:19:19 I think I heard Cameron say that at some point recently. But that really strikes me as that moment for us. Like strengthened and hardened our resolve to do something. And she said to me, whatever we do, we have to call it firefly. And I said, well, why? And she says, because we have to teach kids to be lights in the darkness. And that really, like, struck me. I mean, it's a very simple statement, but it struck me so hard.

Starting point is 00:19:43 It was like a gong, boom. And it really inspired me. And I ran with it. And we just conceived of this platform where, you know, we would be able to give parents resources, tools, community, and all kinds of help, curriculum, so that they don't have to piece it all together like we have all these years. I mean, we've spent crazy amounts of money, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:04 patchworking together, all these tools and resources, you know, trying to, trying to find people that thought the same way that we did, that wanted to join us on the journey. I mean, the first four years we homeschooled when my kids were little, we had no one. It was very, we were very isolated, it was so hard, and we wanted to make this experience easier for people.

Starting point is 00:20:22 It's never gonna be as easy as dumping them at the indoctrination camp. It's never gonna be that easy, okay? And people need to manage their expectations, but it doesn't have to be as hard as it does. And you know, you said something earlier about how, like, there's a lot of people out there that think, oh, you know, I can't do this or, I mean, we wanted really dispel that myth that you can't teach

Starting point is 00:20:43 your own children. Because indeed, for the vast majority of human history, schooling was done at home, unless you were like an elite and you could afford a tutor. If you were wealthy, you could afford a teacher, you know, but like for the vast majority of human history, education has happened at home. And so you can, no one is ever going to work as hard to teach your kids as you No one, like no teacher at a public school is going to be as invested in their success as you are. So my wife and I both, that is one of our big, big messages, like in myths to kind of debunk, is that even if there's a subject that you're not necessarily good at, it doesn't mean that you can't get good at it or that you can't find a resource that will,

Starting point is 00:21:28 that will help your child to get there. And that's what we're putting together at fireflies. Live teachers, we've got live teleconferencing for classes. if there are classes that you couldn't teach. Like, I'll be honest with you. I couldn't teach my teenagers trigonometry. I didn't do well in trigonometry. It was like, it was like Greek to me.

Starting point is 00:21:46 You got to call my wife. She would teach that. She's like, that's her deal. Calculus trigonometry, all that. Very hard math stuff. I was out when they started putting the alphabet with it. I was like, no, we don't mix letters and numbers. Like, what are we doing here?

Starting point is 00:22:01 Well, we got to call up Mrs. Mendoza and get her on board as a, as a trig teacher. She would love it probably, actually, yeah. But it's been that, like, homeschooling, we've been through so many different iterations of it, Jordan, that, like, we've seen the vast majority of the ups and downs, the pitfalls, you know, and the things that really, really work. And so we've poured all of that into Firefly to help families be successful with this,

Starting point is 00:22:26 not just the kids, but we're very, our platform is very parent-facing. You know, we've, we're very, we're very, I've been very skeptical about AI since it came out. I mean, I grew up in the 80s and 90s when every sci-fi movie, the AIs were destroying the world. So when Chad CPP hit the scene, I was like, okay, let's see where Skynet is at today.

Starting point is 00:22:49 But then I started realizing, like, this thing is not a living thing. It's a computer program. You know, it just happens to be able to aggregate all of human knowledge, you know, all at once. And, you know, you can use it to increase your productivity. And so I, you know, we've really, we've incorporated AI into Firefly on the parent facing side. The danger of AI in learning right now, I think, is on the student facing side because when you already know something, AI increases your productivity exponentially.

Starting point is 00:23:20 It can help you to just, I mean, just go leaps and bounds beyond where you might have just been able to do yourself. It is a tool. It's a ladder. But if you're a kid and you don't know the subject and don't know what. you're talking about and you use the AI to do your thinking for you or doing your work for you, you're not making those neural connections, you're not, you're getting dumber, you're not learning how to think and because it's doing your thinking for you. And that's a very, very dangerous thing. It's a very dangerous place to be. And that's why our AI tools are not student facing,

Starting point is 00:23:52 their parent facing. You know, we do see education moving in that direction with AI teachers. And, you know, like, we are not really on that wavelength. We really believe in human teachers interacting with human kids. But the AI helping adults to streamline the teaching process at home is something that we have built. So we've got an AI course builder that you can build your own curriculum for your kids based on their interests. You know, there's a lot of different homeschooling styles, many of which include, you know, getting the kids involved in what, in the direction that it goes based on what they're interested in and what. what they're naturally gifted at.

Starting point is 00:24:30 And so you can use our course builder called Firefly Chalkboard to build courses from scratch, like in minutes. It's really, really a great tool. And then you can customize it as the human being. You can then customize it and add things to it, take things away, rephrase things, however you see fit because you're the one building the course. And then when you publish it, not only are you and your kids able to use it through our learning management system, but me and my kids can too.

Starting point is 00:24:57 And so can you and yours? So all the community-built courses go into what we call Firefly Co-op, which is the community-cureated course catalog. And so we also have an AI system called Translate Plus, which will take video content. Like let's say I'm lecturing on something. Like, for example, I'm doing a course right now on St. Paul. And all the course videos have me on camera in this setting, and I'm speaking.

Starting point is 00:25:25 Well, it will translate what I'm saying. into any language that I choose while cloning my voice, the timbre of my voice, and dubbing my mouth movements to match that language. So it's a very realistic presentation of me speaking in Portuguese or Chinese or, you know, I mean, any language. We've got over 45 languages that we can, major languages that we can do. And so we wanted to make Firefly internationally accessible so that it could be used anywhere by anybody in any language.

Starting point is 00:25:55 And so the entire site can be translated with a click of a book. button, but also using Translate Plus, we can translate course videos as well. And we also have an AI chatbot slash tutor slash assistant, Freddie the Firefly, that is there to kind of guide you through the process. Love it, love it. Well, I love how you've kind of taken the topic, you know, of homeschooling, right, which to a lot of people, it could be overwhelming. It could be this, like, big thing. And you've said, no. It's not as big as you think. You can optimize this.

Starting point is 00:26:31 You can create systems. You can have resources. You can make it up to date with the technology, if you want, with the AI components. And so you've basically kind of almost relieved the pressure, if you will, off people that would otherwise be like, there is no way in heck, I'm ever going to tackle this thing. And was that kind of the goal? Was it just to say, listen, I don't care if you're the knucklehead that was the class clown in school, like you're, you're. serial entrepreneur brain and you don't know how to put together a wooden table. You could figure this out because I would just explain myself, right? That's like, that's me. That's kind of explaining me,

Starting point is 00:27:08 right? But what you're saying is anybody can homeschool their kids. And I think you probably argue that everybody should try. So what's your stance on that? Do you think that everyone should at least attempt it? And do you have some type of trial or system built to where if someone says, hey, you know what? I want to give this the old college try and at least see where this goes? Can people try this out before they commit to having to leverage this as their tool? Sure. You can do a monthly subscription and cancel at any time. But you can also, but you'll save quite a bit of money doing the yearly subscription. But I recommend people all the time, just try it for a month and see if it helps. You know, we're going to be implementing a full K through 12 curriculum this year. And that will also take a lot

Starting point is 00:27:57 of the guesswork and patchwork out. Something else I want to really just bring up into this point is that homeschooling doesn't have to be school at home. That's not necessarily what it is. I mean, if that's really what you want to do, that is a particular type of homeschooling, but it doesn't have to be homeschooling. You can get the majority of the schoolwork done for the day in two to three hours.

Starting point is 00:28:25 I mean, like a lot of times we're done with the, the formal school stuff by noon, you know? And then we have the rest of the day to do other things. And there's lots of different ways to learn. And when you homeschool, you have the freedom to take your kids places, to take them on field trips. I mean, there's one of the great features of Firefly is we have an app called Compass that has 15 mini apps in it. And one of those mini apps is our field trip planner.

Starting point is 00:28:51 And you just type in your location, it has a map. And it gives you hundreds of field trip options within 100 miles. radius of your location. And then you have a planner right next to it where you can then plug those things in and plan field trips for you and your kids to go on. I mean, we do it all the time. We've taken the kids all over the country, you know, like on excursions and learning things.

Starting point is 00:29:13 We took them to Crescent City, California a couple years ago. And we spent a week there doing, you know, ecological discovery and just having a blast but learning things. And we've published videos on our trip there and the different trips that we take to give people an idea that it doesn't have to be your kids are sitting for eight hours at the kitchen table doing school

Starting point is 00:29:39 or that their eyes are glued to a screen. That's another thing that we're really not for that. Screen time can be very, very damaging. So Firefly isn't a system where like many online education systems, you're plopping your kid in front of the screen and they just go through their lessons. But that's not what Firefly is.

Starting point is 00:29:58 It's still very hands-on. And there is, it's an online platform. Of course, there's going to be some screen time. Everything that we have, you can print out. You can do in-person with your kids. We're not trying to have folks have their kids just staring at the screen for eight hours a day. That's damaging. So we're coming at it from an old school approach, but using modern tech.

Starting point is 00:30:19 You know, we've got a lot of different resources, a lot of different things on the platform. But we're really focused on. on parents and giving them the support that they need. And one of those things that they need is community, is other parents, it's other families. Whether those families are in their general location, they can create friendships and meet up in real life. They can also foment friendships across borders,

Starting point is 00:30:44 whether it's nationally or internationally. Because again, the site can be translated into any language so you can communicate with folks in other countries if you wanted to and create those relationships. So we've got a really robust community building suite that is private and really anything that Facebook can do you can do on Firefly except we're not minding your data and selling it to the government. That seems like a worthy benefit right there just in itself. So awesome, I appreciate you given the context and outside of just saying use our platform, because that's probably the, that's probably

Starting point is 00:31:20 going to help solve any of the people I'm going to explain's problem. What would you say to the person, and they're on the fence. They've thought about homeschooling before, either just general dinner conversation and maybe one of the person, people in the relationships like, I will never do that. We don't have time for that or whatever,

Starting point is 00:31:39 enter many excuses here. What three things can you give to the audience outside of your platform, let's say your platform is kind of like the bonus, to kind of ease their burden and give them the confidence that whether your platform existed or not, because your life existed before building this platform, what three things can you encourage people with to show them that, hey, listen, you can

Starting point is 00:32:05 homeschool your kids? Again, if they want to, if some of the things you've said previously rang true and made sense, like, hey, you don't want to be indoctrated with this. You don't want to just become a worker, right? This is not really setting them up for success, right? If they already believe in that now, what three things could you share with them that say, hey, you can actually do this even if my platform didn't exist? Okay.

Starting point is 00:32:28 Well, let's work through that. I would say, number one, you need to believe in yourself. You know, God gave you these kids as a blessing and as a gift, but it's also a responsibility. You know, it's your, and, you know, I'm not lecturing to any parents out there. I'm just saying, God gave you these kids. Like, they are in your care. and no one is going to teach them the way that you can. But you have to believe in yourself.

Starting point is 00:32:57 I mean, I'll tell you, anybody listening out there, we certainly struggled with those feelings of self-doubt. You know, there's such a thing as imposter syndrome, and we certainly had it, but we pushed through that knowing that we wanted to raise our kids. We didn't want somebody else raising our kids. If you think about the amount of time that your kids spend at the school, that's the majority of their childhood and their adolescence.

Starting point is 00:33:24 It's not with you at home. You might get a couple of hours a day with them when all is said and done. So you only have one chance to raise your kids and to spend that critical time with them, you know, sewing into them who they're going to become. You know, do you want some stranger sewing into them? day long, teaching them things that you wouldn't want them to learn, and then having to undo that damage. I think a lot of people also feel that, you know, just like financially, it's quite a burden.

Starting point is 00:34:00 And I would say, you figure it out. It was certainly a financial burden for us, too, for many, many years. And it can be very expensive. And, you know, again, not to just plug the site, but we have priced Firefly very, very reasonably to make it accessible to families for whom money is an issue. You can go to our site and you can check out our pricing. It's very, it's very reasonable, especially in comparison with other platforms and with what you're going to be spending out there piecing curriculum together and all these resources. But I would say you find a way, you know, make sacrifices. You do.

Starting point is 00:34:34 But those sacrifices are worth making when we're talking about your kids. I mean, there's there's certainly things that we gave up to make sure that we, we have, we gave up to make sure that we could do this. And it has made all the difference. You know, my oldest son is his younger brother, who's turning 17. They're both graduating from high school this year in May. They're graduating, they're graduating with their associates degrees. And so they'll be entering college as juniors. And my old, my second son is taking a gap year. My elder son is going to college. And they're putting him on a fast track to get his master's by the time he's 20. And that is a direct result of all the hard work he's put in and all the hard work that my wife and I have put in in,

Starting point is 00:35:22 in creating a self-directed learner in him. So that comes from homeschooling. If you really want to get your kids on a long-term track for academic and professional success, they have to be self-directed learners. Right. And so that is not happening in the school systems by and large. And college admissions counselors and departments are looking for homeschool kids now because they understand the difference. You know, we saw pretty early on that the proof is on the playground, the kind of kids that you're raising, okay, versus the kinds of kids that the school systems are raising. Now, all children are made in the image of God. And it's not their fault if they're not being raised correctly. And if they're learning bad lessons from

Starting point is 00:36:11 wherever their influences are. But we saw very early on that our kids and the other homeschooled kids in the playground were much nicer kids. And they were cooperative with one another. And if somebody fell down, they would pick them up. And whereas the public school kids were throwing rocks at each other, you know,

Starting point is 00:36:30 and bullying each other. There's a very different culture. And one of the rumors I wanted, or one of the old myths I want to dispel is about the socialization component. you would be very surprised, you know, potential homeschool families out there, how many other families are doing this, how many kids there are, and you can get together with other families and have lots of social interactions. Our kids have had great social interactions growing up.

Starting point is 00:36:56 They've had tons and tons of friends. And they're not, you know, awkward or like weird homeschool kids, you know, and they're able to speak to other kids of any age and adults. my kids can look an adult in the eye and have a conversation with them which you know most kids being raised by the state they can't really do that you know and half the time

Starting point is 00:37:16 it's like the the youth culture is just I feel like it's kind of like it's kind of morphed into this thing where all these young people are at war with themselves they're at war with their own bodies they're at war with their own minds

Starting point is 00:37:31 they're at war with their own cultures and that is that's by design that is by design. And so if you want your kids to grow up to be the kind of people that you dream that they could be, well, it's up to you to get them there. You can't outsource that and expect a great result. And so with Firefly, we're trying to make it easier for you. But even if Firefly didn't exist, you know, you find a way because you're that kid's parent.

Starting point is 00:38:00 You find a way to do it. Love it. Love it. Great tips. Great advice there. And the good news is that all of the things that he said are get eliminated with Firefly because it has all the systems. It has all the know-how.

Starting point is 00:38:15 It has all the knowledge. And so I want to make sure that we're going to plug the website in the show notes. Go ahead and tell everybody, go ahead and drop the website right now as well. And then we'll just talk about the best place for folks to get in touch with you. There might be people that are listening to say, you've been thinking about this home schooling thing and you've got my attention. They may want to reach out. or they may hear some of the other things you've done as a musician,

Starting point is 00:38:38 and they may say, hey, man, I've been trying to learn guitar. I've got a kid trying to learn this. What tips could you share? So drop the website for Firefly. We definitely want to send folks there, and then where's the best place to find you? Sure. Well, FireflyedU. org.

Starting point is 00:38:56 Fireflyedu. org. And you can create a free account and join the community, or you can join with a paid subscription, and then get access to all of these tools. So the community platform is free, but if you want to use the tools, it's a monthly or annual subscription.

Starting point is 00:39:12 And you can't, what was the other question? I'm sorry? Yeah, best place to reach out to you if people have questions. Sure, sure. You can reach me directly at Jordan, J-O-R-D-A-N at Fireflyedu.org. We also have a helpline

Starting point is 00:39:27 that's on the website, on the contact page that you can call and you will speak to a person on our staff. It might even be me or my wife, Mary, but we have other folks on staff that answer the phones and help parents and teachers. And also, if you're a teacher and you want to teach on Firefly, please reach out. We have an instructor application on the site, and we review every application. We're actually having a teacher summit this evening for all the teachers that have signed up in the last month and a half. We've had quite a few. And so we're going to be doing

Starting point is 00:39:57 some Q&A, and we're going to be doing a lot of different Q&As and walkthroughs to the platform to get teachers interested and excited and signed up and understanding how the platform works. There is no upfront costs for teachers to teach on the platform. There's no financial investment, just your time, love and talents. And you can monetize your courses. There are a lot of courses that will be free. As I mentioned, we have a community catalog of courses that people are building even now. But then if you're an instructor and you're going to teach live classes or pre-recorded classes, you can monetize those courses, and parents can choose to pay for them as an upsell.

Starting point is 00:40:34 Awesome. And I'm sure your website has all the list of possible teacher options from a course standpoint. Yeah, so you fill out the application. We do an interview with you. We go through a vetting process, and then, you know, once you're approved, we give you an account.

Starting point is 00:40:51 We cover the expenses of what all of that entails, including your teleconferencing abilities to use our Firefly Connect, which is our teleconferencing native app. And then it's up to you and you can use chalkboard to create courses. Or if you already have courses built, you can use our LMS and just plug them in and then start and start. Love it. Love it.

Starting point is 00:41:11 Well, hey, you heard it here first, folks. If you want to apply to be a teacher, maybe you've got a background in education, you've got a knowledge base, you're an expert in some area. There are students out there looking for information. You know, and Firefly has the ability to let you apply for that process. So, Jordan, thank you so much for coming on the show. I know that our listeners are going to get value from your story and journey. You're definitely continuing to blaze trails.

Starting point is 00:41:38 Love what you're up to. And any final parting words for the audience? Well, I appreciate the time, Jordan, for sure. Thanks for having me on the show. And I just want to encourage all the folks out there that, you know, God has, if you are, if you are a parent, God has chosen you to be the most important person in another person's life. And I just want to encourage you that you can do it. You can absolutely do it.

Starting point is 00:41:59 And we're here to support you. We want to support you. And just believe in yourself, believe in your kids. And this journey is a journey. It's not just a destination. And there will be ups and downs. And there may be times where you feel like you're failing, but you're not. You're not failing.

Starting point is 00:42:17 If you're getting up every day and you're doing your best and you're trying hard, you're not failing. And you will find your stride. You will find your community. And, you know, we're here to help provide that. Love it. Yes. Yes. The trail is never easy, folks.

Starting point is 00:42:31 There's going to be bumps on the trail. There's going to be snakes. There's going to be fires. There's going to be all kinds of obstacles. But as long as you get back on the trail and as long as you keep pushing forward, then you'll eventually get there. Appreciate the advice, the encourage. I do want to share with the audience, our new platform, the Trailblazer ecosystem, which very similarly is designed to help entrepreneurs have all the resources that they need

Starting point is 00:43:00 to create community, to get knowledge, to network with each other, is officially live. The platform is B-Y-O-T groupcoaching.com. You can sign up for your free account, and then if you decide you want to level up and access the creator hub, which has lots of tools to have. help you along your trail, then you can check all of that out. B-Y-O-T groupcoaching.com. Jordan, thank you so much for coming today, taking time out of your schedule to share with our audience.

Starting point is 00:43:28 We just across 88 countries, so excited for everybody to hear about this. I know there's going to be listeners that decide to check out your platform and take advantage of it. So keep up the great work, and we'll talk soon. Thanks so much. My pleasure.

Blaze Your Own Trail - How One Musician Is Revolutionizing Homeschooling with Jordan Page

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