This Week in Startups - Bridging education and business with The OC’s Dr. Justin Terry | E1949

Starting point is 00:00:00 That's so awesome. It's really leveled the playing field. I love that part of this, is that, you know, it really isn't fair. You know, parents who are affluent, they can afford the tutor. They can afford Kuman on the weekends, whatever it is. Maybe they get them the internship. I see that happen over and over my industry. My friends who are affluent in Silicon Valley, man, their kids get such a leg up.

Starting point is 00:00:22 They get these internships at incredible companies. What you've done is made that available to everyone. What you've done could change, educate. in the United States and make us more competitive. Has anybody come to study this and say, I've got to do it in my community yet? Yeah. Because I caught you in year one. I think that what you've built is going to become the standard.

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Starting point is 00:01:16 name, address, mail service, phone, email, website, and domain. Visit Northwest Registeredagent.com slash twist today. And lemon. hire pre-vetted remote developers. Get 15% off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon.io slash twist. All right, everybody, welcome back to this week in startups. I am obsessed with what jobs will be available for our kids. Now, it's not just because I have three daughters, two eight-year-olds and a 14-year-old,

Starting point is 00:01:51 that I'm interested in this, but it is a big part of it. I'm wondering, how do I prepare my own kids for the future? at chat GPT, everybody's saying jobs are going away. And my lord, college seems like it's disconnected in many ways from the job market. I know this because at my venture firm launch, we invest in 100 companies. And I watch who startup companies are hiring. And you know what? They're hiring half as many people and they're twice as productive this year as they

Starting point is 00:02:22 were three years ago. And so you're going to have to be entrepreneurial. You're going to have to take the bull by the horns. going to have to, I believe in the future, be able to learn and navigate this crazy professional world, you know, in some way that's different than Gen X did or even millennials. So I was just reading about education and I stumbled. I stumbled upon a person who was taking careers and education and putting them together in a way that I had never seen. His name is Dr. Justin Terry, and he's the superintendent of the Forney Independent School District

Starting point is 00:03:07 and the mastermind of the OC project. Dr. Terry, welcome to this week in startups. Glad to be here, Jason, and thanks for the invitation. And look forward to our discussion today for sure. So tell me what. you've built in the great state of Texas, right? This is in Texas, correct? Yes, it is. We're in Forney, which is just a little bit about us. We're about 20 miles east of Dallas and in a suburb. And we sit as the gateway into the fastest growing county in the

Starting point is 00:03:42 nation right now. So we're extremely fast growth. And, you know, it's, we're a booming town, booming bedroom community. And so we, we tried something new in education. and I appreciate the nice words that this is my mastermind, but we just had an idea that we had a great community and board and a lot of teammates put a lot of time and effort into this to create something pretty special. Can't wait to talk to you about it. Maybe we'll pull up a couple images here

Starting point is 00:04:11 and you can describe what you and your team. It takes a team, and I want to give you solo credit for it, but I understand you're the mastermind. Take a look at somebody's pictures. Tell everybody what you built. Some people are listening. Some people are watching. Sure thing. I was visiting with somebody the other day about this and to, you know, to give an elevator speech about this facility is pretty challenging because the building we built is really a first of its kind and how we operate it is also the first in the nation and the way that we do it.

Starting point is 00:04:40 It's, if you can believe it's about a 350,000 square foot facility and, you know, it is really three levels, but it has so many different components to it. It's a gorgeous building, as you can see. And, you know, it's basically the first floor, you know, as you come in, is open to the public, which makes us really unique. The facility really focuses on three Cs, what we call three Cs. And it's career, college, and community. And that community aspect is really what makes this facility different than other trade schools or college and career facilities that you've probably seen and heard of in the past. because our goal is, and we just had this idea that, hey, what if not only are we teaching kids, these great career pathways, but what if we could put them in the experience right there in that

Starting point is 00:05:30 same facility and that our community is a part of our small businesses and startups and maybe even we create our own, that they're part of that educational process, that they're part of the learning for our younger generation as they begin to go into the workforce. So it's three stories. We built basically a mall on the first floor, if you can believe it. And then a two-story school on top of it. It's got a 7,900-seat arena in the middle. It's got a...

Starting point is 00:05:57 7,900 seat. That is a theater like the size of the theater at Madison Square Garden, beacon in New York, Radio City Musical. I mean, you can do a really big event. And for people who are not watching, go to YouTube.com and just search for this weekend startups. This is, it looks like it's more beautiful than a mall, but this gorgeous glass enclosure and the first floor is retail. Around it are all the homes in the area, I assume here?

Starting point is 00:06:24 You know, we've got a lot of room to grow. If you can believe you see all that open land, we're working on some ideas and plans for what that could be and how we could develop community around it. But we do have a lot of homes that surround this. So on the first floor is a retail experience. On the second and third floor, our class. for people to learn. And what ages are here? Is this high school, college, trade school? What's the age range in this giant 350,000 square foot facility? Well, you're going to laugh at this, but our goal is that we can educate and people can come to learn from three years old because we

Starting point is 00:07:01 have a pre-k center all the way up to 103 years old and everything in between. Okay. What is it today? Is it college kids or high school kids? So right now we serve. currently, we have a pre-k center of about 400 plus 3 and 4-year-olds. And obviously, we're growing teachers, right? So they get an opportunity to go over there and experience that and in turn. But we also educate mainly 10 through 12th graders. We're about to kick off some college classes and different things like that. We're bachelor's, master's, doctorate programs. And we've got another program called Engage, again, that really focuses even on senior adults and things like that that's about to roll out.

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Starting point is 00:09:12 Are you learning to be a barber or chef? Are you starting your own direct-to-consumer store or product line? Tell me what you're doing with that retail space. And then you're saying it's open to the public, so consumers can come there to interact. So let's get inside the retail space. Absolutely. And you know what also makes this facility different is most schools are open from 8 to 4,

Starting point is 00:09:36 and then they're empty, you know, before and after schools and Saturdays and Sundays. And this building's actually opened from 7 a.m. till 9 p.m. 6 days a week, about to expand to 7. And so the answer to your question earlier was, yes, all of the above. The inspiration, one of the inspirational places that we looked at was actually the container park in Vegas. It's kind of some of the inspiration behind this. Yeah, that was my friend Tony Shea's container park. that he built in downtown Las Vegas from Zappos. So, Small World, he was one of my best friends.

Starting point is 00:10:12 He's been on the show multiple times. Oh, well, that's great. From Zappos, yeah. Love to connect with him at some point in time. No, no, he passed away, tragically. Tony, Shay passed away. You know, he's got a great legacy. And he wrote the book, Delivering Happiness,

Starting point is 00:10:24 and he did all these extraordinary things with spaces. And he believed in collisions. And the concept of collisions was, you know, if you have different people bump into each other, great things can happen. And you have retail here combined with teachers, community members, the theater, maybe people go see a show and all that kind of comes together. So walk me through what you have there in the retail space. Sure.

Starting point is 00:10:47 So we have really three different types of spaces that we have. Some are we've actually created our own businesses inside of our school district that are either our kids help design and run with our goal being that we have pop-ups in the future that they've really. you know, started an incubator for that hopefully they begin to grow into our community. And then we have, we have lease spaces that some of our local businesses, you know, engage in. And then we have sponsored spaces as well that some of our partners

Starting point is 00:11:20 just want to be a part, you know, and they need to grow their workforce as well. Got it. So I see here some of the experiences of easy experiences that are currently happening, Martin's Automotive, Southern Social Edict. Pine and Home DECWR and lighting. Tell me, tell me about some of these experiences.

Starting point is 00:11:40 Sure. So what you see here are some of the local businesses that have come in. And Martin's Automotive, for example, if you can picture, you know, a four or five bay automotive center that you can drive up into. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:52 two bays or we're teaching 40 ISD and Dallas College courses. And then the other two bays that are Martin's automotive, and they're running a satellite business out of. And, you know, the great thing is our kids, it's not just a separate classroom. They're just going back and forth. Okay.

Starting point is 00:12:07 And learn from each other. That's how it works. Let me see if I get this correctly. You have a business that already exists, a barbecue, a floral store, you know, a florist.

Starting point is 00:12:19 They decide, hey, you're going to put them inside this retail space. They get a good deal on the retail space, maybe, or it's just, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:29 market rate? Well, so we have a couple different models for that. And so basically what we do is look at market square footage, whether it's a salon or, you know, culinary space or automotive or just a retail, you know, type setup. And then the more students that they agree in our partnership to serve, the lower their rent per square footage. Oh, my goodness. So that's incredible. And correct me if I'm wrong here, but finding people to work in retail establishments, restaurants, bakeries, even finding mechanics, this type of employee has been hard. We have the lowest unemployment of our lifetime.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Justin, you look like we're about the same age here. Right. You know, maybe Gen Xers. Like, we live through 10, 15% unemployment our lifetime. Now we're down at three, four, five percent. They must be pretty happy with you getting them somebody to work in those bays, correct? Well, yeah, it's a really unique partnership because we're able to provide workforce. I can tell you story. We have a coffee shop there, White Rano. It's about their 13th location in Dallas and you know, I was watching one day and we have kids that go in an intern throughout the day. Well, some of his, to your point, some of his early morning workers didn't show up and there's a line out the door. Well, three or four of our kids who have

Starting point is 00:13:44 been interning, they see him he's in need of help. They just walk behind the counter and their function in just like clockwork. So we're providing workforce. We're building workforce, but we're also creating daytime traffic for these guys. So it's almost built in customers as well. So it really is a great point. partnership when it comes to the business and how we function together. Tell me which restaurant, which careers, paths, have been the most successful to date, and how long have you been doing this one? So we just opened this year, and it is kind of a soft opening that we're kind of rolling out

Starting point is 00:14:20 small pieces as we go. And what we do is, I mean, there's not necessarily a pathway in education right now for, for example, pine and ivy home lighting and decor, right? But what course is that like math, physics, like lighting and decor? I mean, maybe it's in the theater club, interior design, but I don't remember in high school, interior design existing, but interior design is a, there's hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people who work in that category in America. And so our goal is not necessarily to put them in a stagnant pathway that's, that's very limiting, but it's to take all of the careers. And we, whether it's a veterinarian, we're trying to create. you know, teach or we can teach great cosmetology. We can teach somebody how to change oil. But what we realize is that, you know, if you can't run a successful business down the

Starting point is 00:15:14 road, it doesn't do you much good. And so we're running a parallel pathway of what we call entrepreneurship or future-ready skills. And so it doesn't matter what business you're in, you can have that experience. So our kids, whatever career path they're in, they might go into Pine and Ivy and work on marketing or the, you know, the books. behind or advertising. You know, she tells a great story of how our kids have come in and taught her TikTok,

Starting point is 00:15:38 for example. And the next thing, you know, they're tagging the right areas. And, you know, her online sales go up tremendously. And so they're learning from each other. But our kids are getting this vast amount of experience in all of these different settings. Is there some origin story to this? I know in Japan, there is a very popular theme part. And what this theme park does is you go there as a kid and you can dress up as a firefighter, a dentist, a teacher, a chef.

Starting point is 00:16:10 And literally, you go do these careers. And what they've done in this Japanese amusement park is instead of like going to Disney and playing Star Wars characters or whatever it happens to be, nothing wrong with any of those, Pirates of the Caribbean, it's a small world, those are great rides. But the rides in this theme park in Japan are careers. Was that part of the inspiration by chance? Or how did you manifest this in the world? Is there an origin story here that we should be aware of? Well, I mean, you kind of kicked it off with some of the same ideas we had.

Starting point is 00:16:41 And so we started with a futurist, if you can believe that, and said, hey, come help us figure out what the future of education and workforce looks like and what the needs are going to be. You know, and he was really up front with us. And he said, well, first off, it's got to be integrated. and these jobs are going to revolve around different areas of skills that I think, what is it, 60% of our second graders or something like that, are going to be working in jobs that don't exist today. And so as the workforce evolves, you know, it may be entertainment oriented, for example, which we are really expanding our career pathways into. So to say that there's a foundation, I think we really are not trying to look backwards or trying to look forwards and how to prepare these kids for. for 20 years down the road.

Starting point is 00:17:26 So some futurist you engaged, you said, hey, tell me about the future rotation. Who was this future? Is this like, I don't know a futurist was like a thing. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:17:34 a futurist or a thing. They are Tom H-O-U-L-E. He's out of Sarasota. It does great work. And we actually brought him as part of our strategic planning approach. And he really kind of gave us, scared my committee to death, first off,

Starting point is 00:17:49 about what the future is going to look like. They're walking out of there asking for when Jesus is coming, I think, with some of the things he's talking about. But it is really eye-opening to get us out of the traditional approach to workforce and what the skills that our kids need. Reading, writing, arithmetic is really important, right? They're basic skills we all need.

Starting point is 00:18:09 But how about how to tell your story and personal finance and advertising and marketing and communication and all those skills? That's really the vital thing that we've got to begin to layer into education, no doubt. And how to interact with a customer. That's right. how to understand a customer's needs. I mean, something as basic as that. You know, once you've done it, my lord, it opens up a world of possibilities.

Starting point is 00:18:30 And then you mentioned marketing and meeting people there halfway to understand that. What's the youngest age that you've had a child get involved with business and entrepreneurship? Where's the youngest group? Because I could see the, I mean, I have eight-year-olds and they ask me questions about my day job all the time. So what's the age you think folks will start doing this stuff? My dad had me polishing silverware at the age of six in the restaurant in Brooklyn. I mean, I was running my own baseball card company at 10. I get it, right?

Starting point is 00:19:03 I mean, so we got to find where they connect. But it's got to be intentional as well. We've created, you know, we're trying to teach personal financing kindergarten and grow that up, right? So we've created some core courses in fifth through eighth grade, for example, to begin to teach these skills to prepare them for this facility. and it's going down to kindergarten here in the next few years. But I'll give you a good example. We've got a business we partnered with, and every partnership we have is unique.

Starting point is 00:19:27 It's just about meeting each other's needs and finding a win-win for both. And, you know, one of them is kind of an artisan market. And the partnership we said was, well, what if we took part of your store and let the students create their own product and begin to sell that product? So we call them the goods. Like an in-person Etsy, right?

Starting point is 00:19:47 Something to that effect. Yeah, right. Right. So they can, they have to, you know, we had 60 applicants, I think, right off the bat, all the way down to elementary school throughout our district. And, you know, they had to propose their idea in a business plan approach and, you know, present their idea. And then they get a 60-40 split with the owner. So it, it, they're, they're understanding, you know, yeah, they're understanding how the business functions and reacts to, you know, what products they have out there. Okay. Are you ready to launch your business without the headache? Well, with Northwest registered, agent, you can set up your entire business identity in one place. In just 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you'll have your business officially formed and ready to go. They take care of everything, giving you a complete business identity setup. This means an address, a phone line, a website, hosting, and a free domain, all under one roof. You need a trademark? They got you covered

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Starting point is 00:21:14 formation pack for just $39 plus state fees. Northwest will handle your complete business identity, getting you up and running in no time. Visit Northwest registeredagent.com slash twist today to get that great offer. Northwest registered agent.com slash twist today. Is the vision here that the facilities you've created, because I'm an entrepreneur, I'm looking at this and I'm saying, wait a second, you're doing, you got public dollars to do this. You got the government to do this, right? This isn't a private enterprise. That's correct. The school district cones the facility. We have a bond committee come together and they said

Starting point is 00:21:50 let's build a college and career center to serve our kids. And we plus that, I think, and we really brought community and some of the needs of the community into it. We're a bedroom community. So we needed retail, for example. How long did that take for you to get this through? Because I'm

Starting point is 00:22:06 from the formerly great state of California. I grew up in New York. We are completely dysfunctional in California. We cannot build a bathroom. Like literally we built a bathroom in San Francisco for $1.7 million. You can look it up. One bathroom. Now, you've built what I think is the most innovative educational experience,

Starting point is 00:22:25 perhaps in the world. You have a theater and you have retail. Those things are going to generate revenue. That revenue, I believe, would be enough to underwrite the cost of the school, perhaps. Does that pencil out? Because a six, seven thousand square foot theater, I mean, you get start having. comedians come there. Now you're running like a casino in Vegas style facility that, you know, I mean, we're not gaming there, but the fact is, like, you know, you could have

Starting point is 00:22:56 a Dell or somebody come there saying. You could have Chris Rock, a comedian come there, you could have Joe Rogan do a podcast there and sell tickets for a hundred bucks. This thing could be making a half million dollars a week, a million dollars a week, just doing shows. You know, I think the key word of there is opportunity and it's limitless. And as you described, and one of the core tenets of the facility is that every square foot is multi-purposed and multifunctional. So you're right. We need it, you know, we don't have entertainment out here. And we don't have components like, you know, meeting spaces.

Starting point is 00:23:31 We have a we work built into the front. You know, we have a rework? Well, basically, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you have a co-working space there is fun. It's a co-working space.

Starting point is 00:23:40 So up at the front, it's sponsored by Huckabee Architects. And they, you know, we have, you can come and you'll see a group that they'll bring their business in, riding on the whiteboards. And you'll have a realtor bring their client in. And you'll have some teachers hanging out. You'll have some kids working on a project. And it's called the mix. And because intentionally it is that co-working space.

Starting point is 00:24:00 And so we can serve anywhere from two all the way up to 7,900, and every venue in between. Amazing. Yeah. So, I mean, we can hold large concerts and graduations and conventions in the Vera Arena. but the theater is kind of a, it's a really unique space. That's actually the arena there. You can kind of see it as size. This is the arena, so that's where you have a sporting event.

Starting point is 00:24:21 But I'll talk about that while you get it pulled up. That's right, because this kind of describes the multifunctional aspects. But every one of those seats moves. And so you can see kind of on that, you know, when all the bleachers will pullback, you got eight volleyball courts there so we can host, you know, recreation. The second deck there, if they drive forward and backwards and behind them are pickleball courts. courts, you know, Taekwondo. So we rent those out, you know, to different groups in our community, but it's also recreational opportunities. So banquet spaces on the backside, you saw that. They

Starting point is 00:24:54 all drive forward and backwards. So, you know, we've, we opened this thing with about a five or six thousand person, you know, concert. And, you know, it was, it was a really cool community event bringing that many people together. The theater, basically what it is, about a 10,000 square foot, massive black box, but everything again, we can put it into quarters, we can make it halves, we can have a, we had a great thrust setting for theater and a performance there for community theater. We have, you know, cups deck and competitions for junior Olympics, and the next thing, you know, we got pro wrestling in the middle of it. It's being rented out. And it's, it's pretty unique space. It's all flippable and moldable to whatever the need is at the time.

Starting point is 00:25:36 But there is definitely an opportunity to really build economic development throughout our community for sure. From inception, when you had this great idea, working with this futurist, trying to close the gap between what graduates are going to experience when they start their careers and what they're learning in school and you just basically smashed it together. From that brilliant insight and then planning to breaking ground, to opening this year, tell me about the timeline that you got this done in. Well, I had a crazy idea probably about 10 or 11 years ago that what if you could learn on the second floor and put it into practice and experience on the first floor?

Starting point is 00:26:21 And that idea has just blossomed. And that was probably 10 or 11 years ago from design probably, you know, we started probably four years ago on that. And then the build itself was about an 18 month and now ongoing up to two years to finish out some of the final components of it. Wow. Just to let people, you know, in California, you would basically be in court right now, fighting over what frog or, you know, a tree, butterfly you were going to destroy with this building, and you would have everybody fighting over the shade that you were throwing, not the shade you were throwing with your words,

Starting point is 00:27:01 but literally people stop buildings because it's going to put shade on something. This is what's amazing about Texas. Is Elon built the gigafactory in 18 months? You built this thing in 18 months. Man, in Texas, you get stuff done. You know, we do. And we go. And again, it starts with a really supportive community, which we have here.

Starting point is 00:27:20 And, you know, there's a cool story about the cost of the build, too, I think. Please, yes, tell me. Probably is something unique. You know, we built this thing. And at the same time, we were bidding it out. You know, we went ahead and priced out like a comprehensive high school for the same type of enrollment. And it's about $100 million cheaper to build this facility with all the extra components that we've got built in. So it's a pretty cool story. Explain why it's so much cheaper to build this.

Starting point is 00:27:48 Well, it starts with the multifaceted approach that we've taken. Some of the larger venues that we can put, you know, students into to integrate through. We got you, you know, that pre-K center, for example, it doesn't have a kitchen. So we use a commissary and pipe food in to kind of save cost, but also to create flexible spacing. So we just did some unique things to really use space the right way and use it for a lot of different things. And it's revenue generating. So some amount of the revenue, how much of the budget of the facility gets covered by ultimately the revenue? Like, let's say you had this thing cranking, all the retail space rented out, you know, in the theater, you know, at a solid capacity or reasonable capacity, how much of the budget would get covered by. that commerce occurring in this multi-use space?

Starting point is 00:28:41 Well, I think that's still a story to be told as we open. Our goal is, you know, with everything we're doing is to cover overhead on operations and things, but it's already starting to exceed that. So I think that's going to be a story that we continue to keep track of and tell. But I think the bigger revenue-generating component is really the economic commerce and development with the community as a whole. You know, because we're bringing in, think about it, you know, let's say you had a concert or volleyball, you know, tournament. I mean, think about the people that are coming from the outside in.

Starting point is 00:29:15 Ah, yeah, people are taking dollars in our community. That's right. Yeah, yeah, now you're a destination. That's fantastic. Yeah, this is a cool program we offer to, the Engage program. And this is what I was talking about, about really having something for everybody. And really, we allow our community to put, you know, pitch ideas of, or in our, teachers, you know, they don't make enough money, you know that.

Starting point is 00:29:37 And so they're able to pitch ideas to come in and actually create their own little service or course with their teaching. And so you can kind of see some of those. There's a Disney planning. So an English teacher can say, hey, I want to do this creative writing, somebody who's in hospitality or in film, they can go do a film. And these are the teachers who get to do, be a little entrepreneurial themselves, make a little 10% extra on their salary, 20% extra on their salary, get a little pocketer.

Starting point is 00:30:05 change, yeah. Yeah, you got it. And the kids, too. I mean, they can do this as well. So, you know, community, you name it. And so, and teachers don't have to teach English and creative writing. I mean, those are, a lot of those courses, you know, if they can sew or crochet and they think somebody'd be interested in that, great, but the idea and then make some money off the facility for yourself and let's keep our teachers around. So the whole community has been activated to be entrepreneurial, including the teachers, and you don't resent them for having a side hustle. you celebrate them for being entrepreneurial. That's right.

Starting point is 00:30:38 You invite them and you market them and you, you know, that's one of the cool things. Just from an educational standpoint is it's not just us as a school district trying to tell a story about what we do. Yeah. The businesses are, you know, the community members are. They're bragging about this facility telling the great things going on. And it's really been a unique experience and it's working. It really is. There's a ton of space in Texas.

Starting point is 00:31:01 You've got a ton of space around this facility. Yeah. I'm curious have you considered housing, because when people do these multifaceted spaces now, they're always like, hey, let's put some housing, let's put some retail, let's book some community. Okay, you've taken this to a whole other level. You've got education and community spaces, the theater, entertainment. But I don't see housing here. But, you know, teachers have a hard time with housing and, man, finding great teachers,

Starting point is 00:31:28 if you said to them, we're going to give you housing within a bike ride of the school and the facility, and we're going to give you a deal, hey, we'll give you a zero percent mortgage on it, or we'll underwrite half the cost or a third of the cost. Man, people could come here as a destination. You can steal great teachers from around the country to fly in and move in, and you just house them or give them a discount. I mean, I think you're seeing, so can't spoil all the surprise, because we've got to come back and talk to you again, right?

Starting point is 00:31:57 Yeah, of course, Jason. So let's just say that the OC that in its current state is really, if you want to think of it as kind of phase one, we sit on about three or four hundred acres out there that we could potentially do some really creative things with, as you're describing, you know, residential would be one of those feature. How about police, fire, you know? Worse. Could we do some housing? But also, there's a lot of components that can't be done from a community standpoint, from an entrepreneurial standpoint, you know, within that facility as it is. So there may need to be some additional spaces, some different spaces, but what if the concept stayed the same, right?

Starting point is 00:32:36 That we're integrating career college and community in every type of space. Yeah. You may need a hotel one day, a restaurant hotel management. What about, you know, medical plaza or something like that to where we can begin to get engaged in those experiences for our kids in our community? In a way, you're looking at this and saying, let's take life writ large, you know, the whole concept of living in a town. and you're saying, hey, what if education, you know, tracked all the aspects of life? Hey, a hospital, an emergency clinic. Now somebody can learn to be a nurse, nurse practitioner, an EMT.

Starting point is 00:33:12 I mean, all of those things could be adjacent. And this is for public school and trade schools and everything. And then a hotel. What a brilliant concept. Hey, you come to the theater, stay for the hotel. You stay overnight. Maybe go to the restaurants. And it's really like a platform you're building.

Starting point is 00:33:27 What I thought was most interesting was. this ability to have some spaces that could rotate and be experimental. Because when you can, retail is hard. You've got to make a couple of your commitment. But if the students can take something over for a month before Thanksgiving or Halloween, seasonal stuff, Mother's Day, they can make all kinds of interesting pop-up experiences. Has the pop-up stuff started yet? And what's the early result of that?

Starting point is 00:33:54 Yeah. So we're doing small pop-ups. I kind of mentioned a couple of those on Proposin different things. from our students into a good setting or a service, you know, experience. They're doing, our students are running a lot of just, like, for example, Blooms is our florist that we run as a district. And, you know, they'll do a pop-up, you know, wreath-making set up. And the kids will run that.

Starting point is 00:34:18 And every, and I should have mentioned this, all of our students are making money for themselves here in all of these different experiences that we're offering. Wait a second. You come to school. Yes. And you leave with the, you get a paycheck at the same time. You got it. And you're getting college education and workforce credit at the same time.

Starting point is 00:34:38 And in our partnership for no cost. That's amazing. So maybe minimum wage or something just while you're at school or it's like a stipend. How does that work? I'm curious. So we do a mixture of both. I got to be careful how I word this with the public sector for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:56 Conceptually, we do wage for sure. but what if a student creates a, I'll stick with the floral concept, if they create a bouquet and they design that, create that, then they're getting part of that profit off of that sale. Okay, so unlimited upside there, like a lemonade stand. So when we look at a lemonade stand on steroids, hey, you run a lemonade stand, we all did it, you have a paper route, you start learning about the economics of work. Here, hey, I have an idea for a wreath and a wreath class,

Starting point is 00:35:26 and here's the cost, here's the price. Here's the profit. Maybe I get a little, I wet my beak, as we say in the business, get a little taste. Right. And, you know, they do events, too. I'm just staying with that same concept. So if they recruit the event in, obviously, they'll get a little more of that profit for a wedding that they're going to go out and do or whatever it may be. So it's teaching all aspects, you know, and what we're hoping is we can get to the point.

Starting point is 00:35:49 And, you know, we're learning every day with this facility because it's never been done. But, you know, kiosks are something really common in a mall. we see that as a next phase for a true pop-up for students that can really create and design and develop their own. And not just the district that they're having to work within that, you know, kind of an entrepreneurial setting, but more of literally their own team business that they can create and run. So that's coming soon to a kiosk near you. I love it. There are national brands that would love, love to develop workforce. So a Starbucks, a Target, a Walmart, pick the brand.

Starting point is 00:36:31 They need to have trained people, sweet greens. I had the founder of Sweet Greens on the podcast this year. He needs managers for these sweet green salad restaurants. Now, you put a sweet greens salad in there. I can connect you with the CEO, if you like, offline. But imagine you had a management training program of how to run an In-N-Out Burger or a Buckees, whatever. And so you run a little Buckees in there, but you're learning to be the

Starting point is 00:36:56 manager, right? Like, you learn all aspects. They might actually pay you, you know, to run a program like that. Have the national brands, the bigger brands, the Starbucks of the world started to get hip to what you're doing yet and maybe want to engage there? We're always looking for partners, Jason. Okay. So we haven't, we don't have a national brand that's engaged just yet. You know, I think in the future, that's something we definitely would be interested in looking at. But as you said, I mean, the great thing about that facility and maybe some additional. in the future around that land is, you know, we got room to grow. We got room to flip and change. Another component and facet of this facility is it's future-proofed, that as workforce changes and needs change, that we can change that facility and the programs within it. Right now, startups have to do more with less. We all know that. And founders have to be smart with how they deploy capital. Investors are very tuned in to being capital efficient. So, if you need great tech talent,

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Starting point is 00:39:11 This is very exciting because we do have an issue with people dropping out. We got kids who are anxious. They skip school. Got this COVID generation who got really weird because they had to stay home, maybe not as much in Texas. Here in California, man, kids got weird.

Starting point is 00:39:26 Parents, too. Everybody got a little weird being cooped up for two years. What has it been like for them? Tell me about the students and the stories you see there. Delinquency, you know, it would seem to me,

Starting point is 00:39:37 I was very entrepreneurial. And if I could come to a school and make a little bit of money, man, I wouldn't have left the school. I would have been there seven days a week. So tell me what this has done to the student body. How are they reacting?

Starting point is 00:39:50 Yeah, it's been, an awesome experiment. It really has. And not just in the workforce side, but even on the social side. And I'll speak to both if that's all right. But you know, we put these kids, we dropped them in a completely new environment that they never have been in before. They're used to, you know, walking halls and, you know, having to go bell to bell. There's no bills in this facility, obviously. You know, and they have freedoms and the ability to do different things based on what their need is for that day. So, um, they, um, they're, They have really engaged. In fact, one of the auto, Martin's automotive that we have in there, he actually had a son that was just that story that dropped out before. And he really wanted to be this partner because he never wanted to see that again. And we've got kids now engaging in those programs that are, you know, coming to school, engaging in a level they've never done before. But we're also, as you said, the rebound from COVID created a lot of new behaviors, let's just call it, in the not only in schools, but in the world. And, you know, we hadn't had one fight in this facility, period.

Starting point is 00:40:55 You know, we don't have behaviors in this facility because the kids, you know, they're adapting to that environment. When you've got a group of business people standing right beside you, you know, I've got more adults in this facility with eyes on kids and growing kids than any facility we've got in the school district. So it's a whole other level of just the students responding to the environment they're in. And it's been awesome. The kids are doing great. This is really important because in a school, you traditionally have like, you know, one or two adults, well, 20, 30 kids. The kids are going to model the other kids' behavior.

Starting point is 00:41:32 Here you have business. Kids model what they see around them. And if there's three or four people who are running a business and there's 10 students in there and it's three to one, you don't want to get kicked out and go to a regular school. If you got this dope school where you can go and learn and make a little money and get your career, These kids are smart. They realize this is an opportunity, I bet. And they don't want the person who's running the store they want to work in to be like,

Starting point is 00:41:56 you know what, you started a fight or you got loud or you said something inappropriate to a customer. We don't need you here. We have options. And you know what? You're teaching them the real world consequences of their behavior. They get freedom, but there's responsibility. And this is what we as parents.

Starting point is 00:42:12 I don't know. You have kids. I do. I have three. Yes. I mean, we all want it. We want them to be, as a goal, to be independent and strong and survive in the world. That is our jobs.

Starting point is 00:42:24 At some point, they walk away from us. And you know you did a good job if they don't turn and run back or don't turn and they're scared. As tough as it is to watch your kid walk away. But if they walk away confidently, you did your job as a parent. You're dead on it. And I really do think this gradual release of responsibility. And, you know, the kids, the students, they respond to that. They respond to you giving them some responsibility.

Starting point is 00:42:47 And yes, they're going to make mistakes. Just like you and I did, we all have done that. But that's how we learn. And, you know, they, these are not, you know, you have to apply to get into this school. These are, the doors are open. We take one and all from our school, our campuses. This is a, this is both of our campuses. We have two high schools and, you know, they both come together into this facility.

Starting point is 00:43:10 And to get into a program where you're getting in a practicum and getting paid for that, you have to apply. You can get fired. So they're learning that aspect as part of their class as well. It might be the most important part of this is, you know, bridging that gap between, hey, you have to go to school, the teachers or, you know, lord. And their perception kids, like, oh, these teachers have given us a hard time.

Starting point is 00:43:34 All we got to do homework. And then it's like, or I can try to get this dope internship. And I could be, you know, learning a skill, making some money. and then I got a weekend job. I mean, kids are going to respond to this. And I would think the kids, you know, we talk a lot about the wealth gap in the United States. We talked about the opportunity gap. You know, kids who have less, and I came from a lower middle class family in Brooklyn,

Starting point is 00:43:59 we had less than the kids in Manhattan. So we worked harder, we hustled harder. We appreciated any opportunity we got. It's kind of counterintuitive because you think, oh, these are the bad kids, these are the kids who are causing trouble. And we're causing a little bit trouble on the street, I'll be honest. But once we got opportunities, that took our energy. So maybe you could tell me about like rich kids, middle class kids, kids who are from

Starting point is 00:44:21 poorer families, how are they responding to this? And is this something that maybe we could help make the world a little bit more? People talk about equity or quality. Let's just talk about opportunity here. Is this closing the opportunity gap in your mind? Yeah, I think it is. I think, you know, the key to me is finding something to connect and engage our students. Finding something they're interested in and letting them run, right?

Starting point is 00:44:48 As you talked about earlier, and, you know, I couldn't tell you what kid goes to what high school or what, you know, a fluency or low socioeconomic. You can't tell the difference. They're all functioning and working in that environment together. Fantastic. And, you know, they all engage at a different level just based on their interest. So it really is, like I said, it's been a really cool social experiment to watch and it's working. It feels like a great equalizer to me, but being honest, because if you are running the florist or a restaurant or, you know, a coffee shop or a co-working space, you get five kids. The kids in Manhattan, their dads and moms got them the internships at Condé Nast or whatever.

Starting point is 00:45:31 They just had such a leg up. And we had to like fight our way in. But here, you know, you've kind of leveled the operations. opportunity. Like you said, you don't even know. You don't know which is a rich kid, which is a poor kid, which is a middle class kid, who's got a trust fund, who does? They all have to come in and they got to do a great job and they got to make that employer, that manager, think this person is doing a great job for our customers and delighting our customers and as responsible human being. That's so awesome. It's really leveled the playing field. I love that part of this,

Starting point is 00:46:03 is that, you know, it really isn't fair. You know, parents who are affluent, they can afford the tutor. They can afford Kuman on the weekends, whatever it is. Maybe they get them the internship. I see that happen over and over my industry. My friends who are affluent in Silicon Valley, man, their kids get such a leg up. They get these internships at incredible companies. What you've done is made that available to everyone.

Starting point is 00:46:26 What you've done could change education in the United States and make us more competitive. and I am so proud and enamored with what you do. And I invest in the greatest entrepreneurs in the world as my day job. I saw what you were doing. And I said, find me, I told my producers, find me the person responsible for this piece of brilliance. What you've done is so tremendous. And has anybody come to study this and say, I've got to do it in my community yet?

Starting point is 00:46:55 Yeah. Because I caught you in year one. I think that what you've built is going to become the standard. Well, and we hope that, you know, it does begin to transform not just education and Forney, but throughout the, you know, Texas and the world. That's our goal. We've already had, you know, visitors, school districts, and architectural firms and a few businesses all the way from Vegas to Tampa Bay and everything in between. And so we've gotten to the point, honestly, where we're getting so many tours and interest that we've set up some site visits that people can sign up and come to and learn.

Starting point is 00:47:31 how we did it. And I think it's not, it's not something you just take and can and put somewhere else. It's, it's about, you know, meeting the needs, but also just looking at things in a different way. And, and meeting the needs of the community that you're in. And it doesn't matter if you're a tiny little school district. You can do something like this, you know, or a massive urbanized, you know, district. There's a lot of opportunities. And, you know, I think it's, it's about just finding the right niche for your, community and then taking a chance at it. And it's risk. There's no doubt about it.

Starting point is 00:48:06 But, you know, it's working and we hope that, and we'll be happy to share how to come and visit the O.C. Because we can show you pictures. And, and, but until you actually walk this facility, you really don't understand it. And so, Jason, one day, I'm a tour of you when you come to Texas. Oh, no, you know, listen, I got, I got family in Texas. I'm in Austin all the time. Let's go. I find myself in Houston once in a, once in a while.

Starting point is 00:48:30 And I know you're somewhere within spitting distance of those locations. So I am coming down to see this facility. I am so thrilled about what you're doing because I love entrepreneurship. And I believe that America is best represented by the state of Texas right now. And I think what, and listen,

Starting point is 00:48:47 I lived in three of the greatest cities in this country, New York City, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area San Francisco. I lived in three amazing cities. What I'm seeing in Texas, the enthusiasm, the entrepreneurship, and the boldness to me is the best of America. And this is what we need. We need entrepreneurship.

Starting point is 00:49:07 Because I can tell you right now, I am watching startups and they are sending job to Manila. They're automating them. They're, you know, sending them to Canada, to other places where people appreciate work, where people are lower, there's a lower cost, and we can do things remotely. So America really to stay competitive is we need to get our students, our children, more confident, and we have to make them love entrepreneurship. And right now there's like a, I feel there's a little battle going on. People who believe in socialism, communism, they don't believe in capitalism, they don't believe in entrepreneurship. And I don't know what the reason is.

Starting point is 00:49:48 But what you're doing is letting them know entrepreneurship is open to everybody. you don't need to work for somebody else. You could be the boss. And here's the path. Rich kids, man, their parents show them all the path. They open the book and they're like, here's the playbook. I did it. All my friends did it.

Starting point is 00:50:06 We'll start you on third base. All you've got to do is make it home. Your doing is taking every student and you're starting them on second base, at least in year one, you're starting them on second base. If they know how to behave at work, they know what jobs are like, at the ages of 13, 14, 15, they are going to crush it. The greatest gift that ever got was my dad made me work in his restaurant, like a dog, doing every position.

Starting point is 00:50:30 That made me fearless. You're doing that for an entire community. What you're doing is amazing. Dr. Terry, I am enamored with it, and I salute you. And the great state of Texas, we're getting this done. This is a lesson for New York in these other cities, California, New York. You got to move faster. You've got to be bold.

Starting point is 00:50:49 You've got to try things like this and get the red tape out of the way. That's right. And like you said, I think it's the future. But, you know, I really believe our nation was founded on, you know, two of those tenets. You just talked about. Public education is the great equalizer. But entrepreneurship. I mean, we were founded on that, but it's also our future.

Starting point is 00:51:08 And we've got to continue to embrace both of those, you know, to ensure that everybody has that equal opportunity to do great things. You know, it's one thing to be an entrepreneur and start your business. But those same skills work inside a lot of. corporations, you know, Google talks about that all the time, right? They want entrepreneurs. They want the same skill sets and mindsets. So it is, I think it's vital to our success today and in the future, for sure. I wish you the best. I'm going to check in with one year from today. We're going to put you on the schedule to get an update. And I am guaranteeing you in the next year. I'm going to come down there. We're going to do an

Starting point is 00:51:41 episode a lot. I want to come down there. I want to see this for myself. This is the greatest thing I've seen in education in a long time. I'm so excited. We got a podcast studio that's about to open just for you. So we're going to be ready whenever you are. I am going to come down there and I am going to give, if you want me to, I will do, I will host a full day seminar on podcasting and I'll teach these kids how to do it. Let's do it.

Starting point is 00:52:05 I would love to come down there and give a talk on podcasting and how great it is. I mean, literally, it's helped my career tremendously. I've done 2,000 episodes. It makes millions of dollars. But more importantly, it helps me connect. neck with the world's greatest innovators, including yourself. So if people want to learn more, you can do a search for... TheOC.net.

Starting point is 00:52:27 TheOC.net. You actually got a link. There you go. The OC. We have an app they can download. If they'll just search Opportunity Central, you can go ahead and before your visit, pre-plan your food options, you know, figure out what shops you want to visit. So there's also the site visit information on there.

Starting point is 00:52:45 just hit explore and we'd love to have everybody out to visit and take something away from Forney. The OC.net. Everybody go check this out. If you're an educator, you know somebody who's an educator, send them this episode. They got to see this. And then here's the Japanese amusement park. I just want to show it because I mentioned it earlier. I've got to take a look. It is called Kid Zanian. K-I-A-N-I-A. Here's a little look at Kid Zan-I-A. Here's a little look at Kid Zania. And I think they're going to, they're bringing this all around the world. But it's in, you know, you go to an amusement park and look, they built a little town and you go around the town and you pick, you know, and this is for, you know, I guess kids who are four or five years old to maybe 12 years old preteen and you learn how to be an optometrist, you learn how to drive a car, you just do all adult things. The kids who go to this have more fun at this than an amusement park. Because what do kids want, especially of a certain age, they want to be part of the adult world. They want to be part of being an adult.

Starting point is 00:53:51 It is part of the maturation process. You're always looking at the kids a couple of years ahead of you and aspiring to be like them. And then when you become a teenager, you're looking at the adults. And when you're an adult in college, you're looking at the people who had successful careers. And when you have a successful career, you're looking at the people who had a successful life. And you're always trying to emulate that next group. And, man, I just love what you're doing. I cannot wait to come visit.

Starting point is 00:54:13 we're ready to have you in uh kidsania actually uh was actually um the concept behind what we call OC junior. So the play area we have for our pre-K uh is a smaller version. Uh, but they've got a lot of those careers. And then, uh, with that, we actually flip it and we, um, have our entrepreneur program actually run that for birthday parties and rentable space in the, on the weekends, just do exactly what you're describing right there. So fantastic. All right, everybody, we'll see you next time on this week in startups bye bye

This Week in Startups - Bridging education and business with The OC’s Dr. Justin Terry | E1949

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