This episode was prerecorded as part of a live continuing education webinar. On-demand CEUs are still available for this presentation through all CEUs. Register at allceus.com slash counselor toolbox. So I'd like to thank everybody for being here today. We're going to be talking about addressing transition issues among high school and college students.  So, you know, this was kind of a timely presentation for me to put together. We're going to review 15 common issues students face when transitioning to college and interventions that counselors can consider. And, you know, again, even if you are not on a college campus as a counselor, as a therapist, you may be in the community and you may still be working with youth who are in college, either because they don't want to seek services on campus or because services don't exist on campus. Or you might be seeing a high school senior who is getting ready to transition and wants to proactively try to prevent problems. And we're finally going to discuss ways colleges and campus counselors can engage students. That's one of the hardest things. And yeah, pizza helps. But there are a lot of different groups of students that we need to figure out how to engage. It's much, much, much easier to engage the students that live in the residence halls and to engage the students who are in sororities, fraternities and athletic teams because they are sort of captive audiences. But for those students who are over traditional age, those students who live off campus, it can be more difficult to engage those students and really assist them in knowing what services are available and encouraging them to access those services. So the first question, what are three things you did when you entered college that were most beneficial to your success? And you know, I will share while you're thinking. Residence halls. I stayed on campus. I actually stayed on campus through my entire career. The first semester I was just a regular old resident and then I became a resident assistant and I was a resident assistant or some other position within housing, living in the dorms for the entire four years that I was in college. So residence halls were awesome for me. They helped me develop friendships and really get integrated into college community life. Time scheduling. I'm typically kind of rigid anyway when it comes to scheduling, but I found out that it was even more important. And I had to do, when I was in high school, you know, I was the one who would be doing fourth period homework and third period. And when I got to college, you know, you couldn't do that. So making sure that I scheduled my time appropriately. And then at the university that I was at, the residence halls actually had their own student council. And in our residence hall group, we had five different residence halls. Each residence hall had representatives and, you know, we got together or they got together and decided on activities that would be for the entire residence hall area, not just for, you know, one floor, so to speak. And we had some great things. One thing we had was called Mudfest every year. Every October we would have, we would dig a pit in the middle of all of the different residence halls and fill it with mud, hence the name Mudfest. And we would have all kinds of activities and festivals and competitions to see which floor in which building would be the champion.  But it created an immense amount of camaraderie among the different teams that we would have in the main sitting area on each floor. I can't think of what it's called right now. There was a picture window on every single floor and every floor decorated that for their team. So there was a lot of team spirit that was going on. And it was a really fun thing that became an annual tradition in that set of residence halls. So that was one thing that was really cool about being in the residence halls. Exploring the campus on your own, Andrew suggested that. And that's really important too, because it helps you feel more comfortable knowing where your different classes are and knowing how to get to your different classes. But it also, when you explore the campus, you find resources that you didn't even know were there. I mean, there are all kinds of wonderful little hidden out of the way things on a lot of campuses. The UF campus is sprawling and we have like Alice and different jogging tracks and fitness center and, you know, we had a lot of different opportunities and different things that weren't necessarily front and center like the stadium, for example. So going and exploring, you find a lot of nice places and you can also find really cool places where you can go study where it's quiet. And engaging in school sponsors, social activities definitely is beneficial to meeting other people, even if you're not in the residence halls. If the university offers things at the Student Recreation Center or whatever they call it, where you went, that's nice. We had a restaurant at the Student Recreation Center. It was called the Orange and Blue and they had open mic night, they had karaoke night, they had a lot of different things. And it was kind of like a sports bar, but not. So that was a really fun place to go. We also had bowling lanes and pool tables and other different things where you could just go and hang out, even if you weren't in a residence hall, if you were living off campus, you could come to campus and hang out with people that were your own age that had, you know, potentially similar ideals. For some people, one of the best things they can do is get their own apartment. And that's true because you need the space, you need the quiet in order to do studying. And you know what your goals are. And, you know, especially for people who tend to be more introverted, being around a lot of people isn't necessarily ideal or even wanted. You know, I'm an extrovert, so I like to be around a lot of people. I like a lot of energy and a lot of activity going on around me. But there are a lot of people that I know that, you know, they have two or three study buddies or they hang out with their roommates, but that's their social group. They don't want to be bombarded with 50 people in the University Bowling Alley, for example. And that's cool. So definitely knowing where the best place for you is to have your downtime. But then that also leaves you the ability to go on campus and do things when you feel like it and making sure that you get yourself out to do those sorts of things. One of the things that I suggest to a lot of high school students that are transitioning, if they want to live in an apartment, not on campus, is to consider getting an apartment with one or two friends, one or two roommates. And that can be, you know, you've got to find the right people to room with. But if you are in an apartment with a couple of roommates, generally you're going to have somebody that occasionally says, come on, let's get out of the house for a little while. Let's go to the beach or wherever. What are three things you wish you would have known or done differently that would have eased the transition? And again, for me, homesickness. You know, I got really homesick. My boyfriend was still back in Fort Lauderdale when I came up to college. So it was, you know, difficult and figuring out how to deal with that. And you know, I missed being around my dad and my stepmom. I missed the routines. I missed where I used to work, you know, because I had a job went all through my senior year. And I really missed all of that stuff. So that transition was a little bit bumpier. And I wish I would have been a little bit more prepared. Conflict resolution skills would have been great. My first roommate and I did not get along very well. And it was, it was a challenge. And then class scheduling was another thing. I remember my first couple of semesters having a class across campus, which was like a 20 minute walk every morning at 730. No, my attendance at those classes was not good. So I needed to learn, you know, not only scheduling and trying to avoid the 730 a.m. slot, but also, you know, how to schedule my time. So if I had to take a 730 class, you know, what I could do to be prepared ahead of time. So all I had to do was kind of roll out of bed and grab my book bag. A lot of universities, there's a test out option for low level classes that many students don't know about. So it's important to talk with your admissions counselor and ask about the ability to test out of certain things. So you don't have to take intro English or composition or whatever when you first, when you start college. So prevention tasks that we can engage in as, you know, clinicians, parents, whatever you want to, whatever role you want to don in this particular class. We can help students develop a sense of belonging on and off campus. It's really important that students feel like they've got a place to go. They don't feel like that's the campus and it's a scary place. It should be home away from home. So campus wide activities and festivals help reduce isolation and encourage developing social support. We had a center place among a bunch of buildings next to the student union where they would have movies on the lawn whenever the weather was nice every single weekend. And that was a great activity where you could just come and bring a blanket and sit out and watch some movie for free because a lot of times college students don't have a lot of money. And people were able to just kind of hang out, play frisbee, you know how it goes when you have a long type festival. Residence Hall team building activities like I mentioned the mudfest that we used to have. Now, you know, I saw some other things go on on certain floors where the youth really bonded, but it wasn't necessarily the best choice. The male floor that was right above ours decided to construct for themselves a hot tub in their lounge. And, you know, you can think about the structure and having a hot tub in their lounge.  There was also an incident which I will admit that I took part in. We had tile floors in the hallway in our residence hall. So we kind of got it a little bit damp and we put a little bit of laundry soap on it and we created a ginormous slip and slide. Now that probably wasn't the best idea, but it was a lot of fun. So not that I'm advocating for those things, but there are different activities that if it sounds fun, people will likely get involved in. We can help students develop connections to faculty and staff who will advise, register and help students apply for aid. Now, a lot of universities have a financial aid office that will help with a lot of this stuff, but also connecting with faculty. At my university, there were a lot of times it was really hard to get into certain classes and you would have to go through dropout. And there was this whole process, the first week and a half of class every semester that was a little overwhelming the first time you did it. So if students have connections to faculty and faculty can say, okay, I know you need this class. Let me tell you what you need to do to try to get into it. That can help. If they have faculty who can help advise them on the sequence of classes to take or, you know, what they probably should look at for extracurriculars when they're or not extracurriculars but when they are in their lower division classes so they can prepare best for whatever upper division college they want to apply for. So there's a lot of different things that faculty can actually help with as well as staff. We want to provide opportunities for students to learn life skills like money management, time management, study skills and conflict resolution. And how we reach out and engage students and teach this is going to really vary. We can, you know, obviously hold workshops, we can hold seminars, we can have videos online. We can, you know, fill in the blank on different things you can do.  There's a lot of different ways to do this and we're going to talk about some more later. And we need to ensure that students are aware of all the resources available to help them with housing, finances, extracurriculars, disability accommodations, transportation, counseling and health. Not all of that is going to fall under the auspices of the university, especially if they live off campus. Transportation may be an issue. They may need to learn to ride the bus to campus and for a lot of us we've never ridden the public bus system before. So that can be kind of overwhelming. They may, you know, you may not have a lot of counseling and health resources on campus. So what are the resources in the community? So we need to think broader than just what does the university offer? We need to think what services might a student need and where can they find them in our community, which includes the university, but also includes a lot of other stuff. Develop a week-long summer bridge program or mandatory orientation where students will complete a variety of assessments to diagnose learning strengths and weaknesses. So we're not just diagnosing disabilities here.  Do you know the best way to study for you? So this week-long program can, you know, it can be all day or it can be four hours a day for that first week. You know, think about, you know, when you went to college, the first two weeks, usually the dormitories open two weeks ahead of time. So you have time for panel and a grush and all those other things. Okay. Well, a lot of students could probably squeeze this in in the morning and rush can take the afternoon and this can take the morning where students are required to come and get checked off in these things. They begin to develop the skills and strategies necessary to succeed in their courses, including time management, stress management and wellness. So they're coming in, they're going through these classes and in order to register for classes, they have to have a certificate of completion or whatever in the system in order to register for classes can be one way to enforce the mandatory part of the orientation. Students meet in daily workshops that build skills around team building, group support, interpersonal skills, and again, conflict management. That one's going to keep coming up. But a lot of students haven't had to really reach out and work on developing in depth groups and things, you know, when they were in high school, there was this occasional group project here and there. At least where I went to college, we did group projects a lot. So knowing how to work within a team and knowing how to reach out to friends for support, etc. It's going to be important. And for a lot of students, not all, they went to school with the same people for four, eight, 12 years. And they're coming to college now and they may not know anybody there. They haven't had to make a whole new cohort of friends since they were knee-high to a grasshopper. So thinking, you know, well, Sally was so popular in high school, yada, yada, yada, she'll have no problem transitioning. Well, if you pluck Sally out of her hometown school where she knows everybody since they were in diapers and plop her into a university setting where she knows nobody, it can still be a huge shock. So we want to help students develop that. Questions we want to ask students, what are your short and long-term goals both academically and personally when you get to college? So, you know, this means more than getting good grades. What are you wanting to do with your life? What are you wanting your social life to look like? You know, what are, what are these goals? What are your health goals? You know, let's really think about, as I've said in other presentations, what is a rich and meaningful life look like to you? So it's going to college is not just about studying and it's also not just about partying. It's about discovering who you are. It's about, you know, starting on your career and certainly academics, but there's so much more to that. We want students to start thinking about that because when they're working on time management, if they say, okay, I'm going to manage my time and this academics is my focus. They may take a 15, 18 hour load and then not have time for anything else and then they get out of college and they're exhausted. They get out quickly, but they're exhausted and they look back and go, you know what, that wasn't very much fun and I missed out on a lot. So I want to make sure when they're managing their time, they're integrating all of their aspects of self. We want to ask students, how do you think your relationships with your family will change when you go to college? And it can change with siblings. It will change with parents. The person is, is fledging. They're leaving the nests now. They're starting to have to pay their own electric bills and, you know, get ready to get a job and be more responsible and all that stuff. So they're going to be changes. And do you expect your college grades to be similar to those you got in high school? If so, how will you feel if they're not and how will you deal with those feelings and improve? A lot of students, there's a huge gap between what's expected in high school and what's expected in college. And a lot of students who may have made straight A's in high school go to college and it's like, oh my gosh, this is so much harder or so much more work. I remember the first time I taught at a community college.  So I went into the community college and was teaching this class and I told them, okay, you know, you're going to have a paper that you have to do. It's 10 pages and I expect an outline by midterm and their eyes got like this big. They had never written a paper over two pages before and a lot of them had never even done an outline. They had no clue what an outline was. So I needed to backpedal a little bit and go, okay, let's start with the basics. So we want to make sure that students understand what's going on but we want to help them realize that they're not necessarily going to get straight A's right away. Where will you find help to do well in your classes and this is where I want students to start thinking about where are you going to reach out. You can reach out to your parents. You can reach out to your people who are in your class. You can reach out to tutors. There are a lot of different options but I want students to start brainstorming because there are going to be classes where they may need assistance making sure that they do well. How will you discipline yourself to keep academic commitments such as going to class and being prepared and what will you need to manage your learning and your time. Encouraging students to just start thinking ahead about, all right, how am I going to make sure that I get this stuff done. I always took the syllabus. I loved getting my syllabus the first day of class because then I could plan out my entire semester when I was going to have what papers done and make sure that I didn't have, you know, three papers do on the same Friday and expect to do all three papers that week. So I was able to organize my time for academics and then I would plop in my social and recreational stuff around that. And finally, when you feel stressed out at college because you will identify five ways to deal with it. So this is sort of that strengths based question or solution focused question that says what do you do with to deal with stress right now because they've had stressful things happen in in high school. So let's figure out how they deal with their stress. And another question that that Pat brings up is we may want to ask students, why are you going to college. They recently passed a law, I guess it would be in the state of Tennessee where students who get a certain amount on their ACT, which is like 18 or something can get two years of college for free as the governor's mission was to make sure that everybody could at least get a two year degree. So there are a lot of students who wouldn't necessarily have ever even thought about going to college, who are now enrolling in at least two year programs. So they come and a lot of times they are relatively ill prepared, but they're like well why let the money just go so I might as well do something with it. So we want to know why are you here, you know what is it that you hope to gain out of being in college, and how can I help you achieve those goals. Some students, you know, may not have had a lot of guidance they may be going to a school because they're a legacy, and they were expected to go to such and such. You know I was a legacy at UF my, my parents went there my grandparents. So I was expected to go to the University of Florida, and you know, I loved it. But I really didn't think for undergrad about any other colleges. Some students may feel that way and if they are not book learning inclined, maybe they tend to do better with manual things like tech programs, then they may feel pressured into going into a field or maybe they don't want to be an engineer, but they're expected to be an engineer because their dad was their grandfather was and their great great grandfather was. So we need to start encouraging them to think about what is it that you want to get out of this experience. So question for you guys, what issues caused you the most angst when you were a freshman. I mean, obviously there were issues, or I had issues, interpersonally with my first roommate. And that caused a little bit of angst there. Otherwise my residence hall experiences were really pretty good. Another thing we had was the bell curve. And in certain weed out classes, the person at the end of the semester who ended up getting an a actually only ended up having like a 45% because the tests were so hard and they were trying to get people to drop out, which I could never make it to the end because I couldn't look at my grade and go well as long as somebody doesn't skew the curve and get an 80 on that final exam I can pass. So helping students get through that and you know, I think it's an unfortunate practice, but it was what it was.  So that was that was a huge thing for me because I was used to, you know, that bell curve where people actually did get good grades. Proofing each other's papers can be a little bit frustrating. When you when you're in college because you're reading it and you're seeing all these mistakes and there's a desire to not want to hurt somebody's feelings but there's also the desire to want it to be right. So that can put you in awkward positions too. Another thing that causes a lot of people angst is finding their niche, whether that be pledging a sorority or a fraternity or being on a sports team or an intramural team. And if they find a niche that they want to belong to and they don't get accepted, it can be devastating for a lot of youth. So one of the first things that students experience is feeling overwhelmed, you know, they get to college and they didn't know what they didn't know. They didn't know what questions to ask because they didn't have any idea to ask the questions. So that's the first thing to help students really walk through the process, do a dry run. If there's a bridge program, that's awesome. For our drop ad, for example, at the University of Florida, I had no idea how to do that that first semester, and I didn't know that there was such a thing as drop ad so I didn't know to ask about it. So we want to make sure students are prepared and they've got ideally a mentor or somebody who can help them along the way. And the gap, as I mentioned before, between the level of learning required for college versus high school, so students can start to feel overwhelmed really quickly. Normalizing that is really important. Environmental changes with no curfew, it's easy to stay up really late and stay out really late if there's nobody saying you need to be home by 11. There can be culture shock if somebody's coming from a little rural community and going to a school in the big city, or they've been an only child and now they are living in a dormitory and have three roommates. There's a whole lot of different scenarios where somebody has their culture of origin, their home, what they're used to, and they come to college and for most of us, it's a bright new world and there's a lot of adjustment, there's a lot of getting used to being around different types of people. And just moving out of the parents' home. I know a lot of youth who moved out of, you know, moved out, went to college, and they would go home every weekend to have mom do the laundry because they still didn't know how to do their laundry. So there are little things that people need to figure out how to do and to keep them from feeling overwhelmed. We want to make sure that they feel efficacious at, you know, kind of grabbing life by the coattails. And it's easy to get disorganized. When you have that many classes, plus managing other things, if the student lives off campus, then they probably also have bills to pay. If they live on campus, then everything is kind of covered under the residence hall bills. But if they're off campus, they've got to pay their electric, pay their water, pay their cable, yada, yada, and it can get really overwhelming really quickly for some people. Identity development is the next thing because this is the time, I mean, think about Eric's and Stasia's. When youth are figuring out who they are, what their values are, what they stand for, where do they fit in, you know, all that kind of stuff. They choose a major, they figure out what they're going to do. And it's really hard for a lot of students because they choose a major and a lot of times they will change their major two or three times before they get into upper division. And for some students, they feel very nervous about that because they're like, well, I committed to doing this. I entered as pre-med, so I've got to stay pre-med. No, you entered as pre-med. Now you've experienced college, you've experienced some harder classes, and you've started to figure out what you might be interested in. So is this the direction you still want to stay? That's what the first two years is about, is figuring out the direction you want to go. Wanting to belong or find that niche, as I mentioned on the last slide, can also be really challenging for a lot of people if they don't get accepted. If you're familiar, and I think all of us are familiar to more or less extent about fraternity and sorority rush, but you rush and you are invited back to a subset of houses and then you identify the houses that you want to belong to. And then they look at the lists and they figure out who that wants to belong to them, they're going to accept. And it's just this negotiation, so to speak. And when people don't get accepted to the sorority or fraternity that they want to be accepted to, even if they get accepted to a different one, it can still be devastating. And we want to help people really work on their coping skills and their self-esteem during this period. They may have difficulty balancing multiple roles. Sororities, for example, take a lot of time. You know, especially during the pledge period, there is a lot of stuff that you're expected to do. Working, if the person also works part-time, that's going to take time. Plus going to classes, plus doing studying, plus doing the grocery shopping and the laundry and all that stuff. So people need to know how to balance those different roles in order to make it all work. And social anxiety can also be huge. Like I said, a lot of these students have known the people they've been going to school with forever and a day. And now they're in a sea of, you know, thousands of new people and it can be a little bit overwhelming. And if somebody has social anxiety, you know, it may come out. It may not come out until college and it may start coming out then because all of a sudden they're having to meet new people and they're not, you know, already known. You know, in their hometown, they were a known entity. Exploring new aspects of self and others is also a stressful time for a lot of youth. They're figuring out what their values are, what's important, what causes are you going to take up? They're learning more about their culture.  And all of this can be very tumultuous for a lot of youth, especially if they're exploring aspects of themselves that they don't think are going to be accepted by their parents or by their friends. And it's a time they need to be able to have like others to reach out to.  We had a LGBT Student Center. We had student centers for different groups of people where they could go and feel like they belonged. They could walk in there and know that they belonged. Social pressures and expectations. Yeah, they existed in high school, but they can be even worse in college because parents aren't there. Drinking, partying, staying out late, attending social events all the time. I remember living in the dorms. I had friends who went out every single night. And, you know, a lot of times they went to the Student Union or went to somebody else's dorm or whatever, but they were going out. They weren't staying home and studying and they were staying out till 11, 12, 1. I'm a pumpkin. Even in college, I was usually in bed by 10. And the pressure to go home or not. You know, students have the pressure to stay, to party, to do things on the weekends with their new friends. But they also likely have pressures from their friends at home to go back from their significant others at home to go back from their parents who are experiencing a little bit of emptiness thing going on to go back. So they're having pressure from both sides and they need to figure out how they're going to manage the pressures from all those different people and be authentic with themselves. What is it that they want and need? Time management, encouraging students to know their limits. Schedule time for fun and take breaks to keep their mind fresh and clear. It's important to have balance. Yes, it sounds great to take 15, 18 hours a semester and be out in and go three semesters a year and be out in three years or whatever. That sounds great, but in reality, it's not much fun.  So encouraging students to find balance so they can rest and recharge. At home, parents, teachers and coaches provided structure schedules and timelines for completing homework assignments. College professors, they give you a syllabus and a lot of times it's like four tests in a paper. And other than that, you're expected to be studying and getting the stuff done. So it's important that students figure out how to create for themselves their own timeline. When students get behind, they may not know how to get caught up. They get halfway through the semester. They haven't cracked the book yet.  I have no idea how to get ready. Well, it's probably going to be difficult, but they may need to have some assistance in figuring out what are the bare necessities I need to do in order to prepare. And some students may feel overwhelmed just looking at the syllabus. You know, one university in Lebanon, the psychology program, the freshmen are told that to graduate, they have to do a senior thesis, which is going to be a minimum of 30 pages. And that weeds out like a third of them right there because they're like, I can't even think of writing a 30 page paper. Life skills are another stressor for high school students when they transition. And some students get anxious or overwhelmed because they've never had to develop these independent living skills. They've never had to go to the store. There's one comedian that I love that talks about going to the store and he's like, I walked through the aisles and all I saw were things to make food, but there was no food. His point being that there were all the ingredients, but he had no idea how to put them together. He had no idea how to create a shopping list in order to prepare the meals that he wanted to prepare. There are a lot of adulting skills that we take for granted that we need to make sure that students learn. And one of the best ways for them to learn. And you know, I would love to say mentorship with their parents and we can hold their hands and that would be great, but we ain't got that kind of time. YouTube videos on adulting are out there. Encourage them to, you know, consult resources and learn how to find decent resources online to help them with some of their adulting skills. Online videos and residence hall workshops can educate students about how to do laundry. Money management and paying bills, study skills and self advocacy. And what I mean by that is how to stand up for themselves if they want to return something and, you know, the customer service person won't take it back. How do they advocate for themselves and talk to a manager? You know, kind of goes with conflict resolution, but if they definitely desperately need a class in order to get into upper division and they've tried for four semesters and they still haven't gotten in. How can they advocate for themselves? Money management comes up partly because a lot of youth haven't ever had experience with managing money and paying bills and doing that kind of stuff. But also sometimes people spend more than they should because they have anxiety about not fitting in if they can't afford to go on the trip with their friends. If they can't afford to go shopping, if they can't afford to buy, you know, all of the, the, the letters, the bags and shirts and everything with their sorority or fraternity letters. So they may spend a ton of money and they just, they can't afford it. They may run out of money before their bills are paid. So it's important to help students learn how to, you know, prioritize, know what their resources are and develop an appropriate spending plan. Seek the advice of a financial planner or counselor. A lot of times there are people within the financial aid department who can help them. Consider student loans if they don't have any. The subsidized student loans typically don't start charging interest until like six or 18 months after you've graduated. The unsubsidized student loans often start accruing interest right away or as soon as you graduate. So have them look at subsidized student loans to at least take a little bit of the pressure off. Encourage them to be careful about being drawn into credit card opportunities that are offered to college students. I remember that there were all of these opportunities all over the bookstore when you would go in to buy your textbooks, which were really expensive and they are just getting more expensive. So it was really tempting to apply for a credit card, but a lot of students have difficulty understanding and managing credit cards and paying off balances. Encourage them to look for a job. A lot of universities have a board or website now where they have student work opportunities on the university and places in the community can also post job opportunities. Encourage them to not spend money unnecessarily and take advantage of discounts that are offered at various businesses remembering to be creative. One of the things you can do if you're doing a group with incoming freshmen or if you're doing a group with high school students who are getting ready to go to college is have them identify 15 creative things they can do that don't cost any money or cost less than $5. Because sometimes you got to drive there and that's the gas does cost money. Making new friends, you know, we've talked about the niche, but also just making new friends. Some people go from being, you know, the prom queen, the football hero, the this, the that to just a number. You know, there is a quarterback or football hero for the university and that's not you. And it can be really difficult for people to go from being preeminent to just being themselves. They may have feelings of isolation, especially if their friends go to a different university, making sure to help people make connections. We used to as residents advisors, we used to try to create a list the first week of the interests of the different people on our floor, and we had a bulletin board, and we would connect people by their interests with little strings. So they could see, you know, who may share a similar interest. Another thing we don't talk about a lot, but it occurs quite frequently is people experiencing jealousy when their old friends start to make new friends. So maybe this cohort of five students from one high school went to the university. And then, you know, they're all best friends, but then they start making new friends. Well, some of the people in that cohort may feel left out or jealous or wondering if they're going to be abandoned by their friends. So we want to make sure that we work on those interpersonal communication skills and any attachment issues that may be there. Failing to network can also be a problem. When students don't get to know and spend time with classmates, professors and other academic advisors, they lack support and a place to go for ideas and answers when a problem does arise. I can tell you, you know, as after many semesters of teaching, with the exception of the one semester that I made it mandatory that everybody come see me at least once during office hours. I saw students maybe six times, not a year, six times in the five years that I was teaching. So, you know, we really want to encourage people to get in there and network and at least talk to the professor and get some ideas about what they might be able to do to succeed in the class or whatever. Practical experience and internship opportunities should always be available to provide maximum networking opportunities for students. So if we can encourage them to participate in any sort of internship opportunities or practical experiences, that's less formal than the classroom. They have more opportunity to talk to one another. When they go to class and, you know, they can find out about study groups that are being formed within the class. They can find out about special study groups that the professor may be holding that they wouldn't find out about unless they went to class or went to the professor's office hours. And very true remind students Pat points out that their tuition pays for them to have one-on-one time during office hours with their professors. So they're paying for it. They might as well use it. Homesickness can bring on feelings of grief and longing.  So especially for students who choose to live off campus by themselves, this can be troublesome. They may miss their pets. You generally can't have pets in dorms and a lot of students choose not to have pets even if they live off campus. You may miss the comfort of home turf. You know, when I went to college, I had to learn my way around the city. I had to learn where to shop. I had to find a new hairdresser. I had to find, you know, a new doctor, a new dentist, all that kind of stuff. I missed the comfort of knowing where everything was and how long it took to get there. Missing the things they used to do and routines they had. Yeah, you know, it's different.  Encourage students to remain on campus during the week and on weekends to get to know the campus and become more involved in athletic and social events. There's definitely networking that can happen there. Have them force themselves to become part of the culture within their new academic world. That means forcing themselves to partake in some kind of activity where other students will be around, even if that means just hanging out at the library. You know, lots of people hang out at the library. Stay in touch with friends back home through email and phone and ask friends and family to email, call and send care packages. Students used to just their eyes would light up when they would come down to the front desk at the dorm and they would have a package waiting for them. So that's definitely something that can help ease homesickness and encourage them to plan a visit home once every month or two. You know, if they're going home every single weekend, it's probably going to make it harder for them to ever detach from the old and embrace the new depression. Every problem that happens can raise a student's stress level and contribute to hopelessness and helplessness. So we want to empower students with options. Let them know what resources are out there. Let them try to help them figure out how to solve their problems. Encourage staff, faculty, staff, residence hall staff, etc. And other students, because I mean if you're living with three other people in a dorm room or in an apartment, they're going to be in tune to some of your mood changes. So encourage staff and other students to stay alert to students starting to fail by skipping class, failing grades, withdrawing, moodiness, anything that might indicate that they are starting to flounder so they can be connected with some sort of resources. Some students find temporary relief and partying, which may contribute to poor grades and depression because, you know, that partying leads to exhaustion and a disruption of neurotransmitters, which can compound the depression. You know how hard it is to go to class when you're hungover. Students need to grieve. They need to grieve the ending of their childhood and embrace young adulthood. Yep, at a certain point you got to start adulting.  It doesn't mean that they're totally gone. You can still email and communicate, but it's not the same. And they need to grieve the changing relationship with mom and dad, where mom and dad aren't necessarily doting over them as much anymore, and they may miss that. So they may need to go through a grieving process. Unresolved relationship issues commonly cause bitterness, resentment, and anger. They may break up with a high school sweetheart before they go to college or during their first semester, and that can be very traumatic. There's pressure to choose the right major and get good grades, especially if they're the first person from their family to attend college or they're expected to follow in a parent's footsteps. That can cause a lot of relationship tension if Sally was expected to go to med school and she decides, you know what, no, I want to be a mathematician or a computer engineer or whatever it is. And she tells her parents that the parents may take that as a slap in the face, so to speak. So we need to help students figure out how to identify who they are and what they want and negotiate these conversations with their parents. It can also get even more tense if parents are paying for their college. They're not on scholarship because parents can say, well, I'm paying for your education, so you are going to go to medical school or you are going to go do this. And encouraging students to look at what other options are out there. If you truly just are not happy doing this, how could you continue to fund your education if your parents decide to withdraw their support. Lack of acceptance from parents of the new identity or new friends.  Or parents may not be liking the new identity. Maybe somebody was very quiet and demure before and they're kind of coming out of their shell in college. Whatever it is, sometimes people who are LGBT don't acknowledge their identity until they get to college. So that may be another thing that they start to embrace in college that makes the relationship with parents difficult. And as I've mentioned multiple times, lack of acceptance into a group or discharge for failure to comply can cause bitterness, resentment and anger. People who don't get accepted into the sorority or fraternity that they want to. And they may be very resentful of that sorority or fraternity. Guilt for leaving a chaotic home environment. Some students come from not the best home environment, and they have been the one that's been taking care of their younger siblings. And so they have guilt for leaving them behind because somebody else has to pick up the slack since mom and dad are not capable of doing that. Any of these feelings can cause students to lose focus of the goals that they're attempting to achieve in college. So we need to help them figure out how to navigate that. Roommates, students may never have had to share such a small space with someone before, let alone a perfect stranger. So this is an adjustment. Conflicts will arise and conflict management skills will be tested, which can lead to high distress. You know, when people are angry and bickering, it can put everybody in the room on edge and avoidance of one another, eating disturbances, sleeping disturbances. If you're in a tense environment, it's harder to relax and get your work done. So we need to help students figure out how to negotiate these roommate conflicts and interpersonal issues. Encourage them to set rules for the room or suite that everybody can agree on. This usually revolves around, you know, what time is lights out, what do we do if we're going to be late, yada yada. Learn that roommates don't have to be best friends. The important thing to remember is to respect one another. And help students recognize and learn that they're not going to be liked by everybody all the time. Some students have difficulty accepting if they are not best friends with their roommates. They just, they can't handle that. They can't stand living with somebody who doesn't just adore them. Educate students about cultural differences because a lot of times you have people that are smushed together in the same 300 square foot room from very, very different backgrounds. And encourage them to learn how to live with the fact that you aren't going to be liked by anybody all the time, you know. Failure. Don't be afraid to fail. It's going to happen. That means you're getting outside your comfort zone. The reality is if the students actually do their work, they're probably not going to fail. But a lot of students tend to get really worried when out of nowhere they get a B in a class which can seem like a failure to them. They've not gotten Bs before or they've not worked that hard and gotten a B before. Helping them adjust to the realities is important for us in helping them make a transition and not start to get consumed by anxiety or feelings of helplessness. And sometimes people switch majors or even universities. A lot of students may look at that as a failure. They started out, they had a plan and now they're having to adjust their plan or even maybe switch to a smaller university. And that doesn't mean they're a failure. That means this is not the right fit for them. So helping them embrace that change of, that paradigm shift is going to be important. Poor grades. Freedom coupled with a lack of accountability makes it really easy to fall short of completing the necessary studying to succeed. Failure to dedicate the appropriate time to studying and reading is likely to have negative impacts on grades. Some people can skate by, but they're the few. Have students try to be accountable to others for their academic performance. So have a study buddy. Know each course, the syllabi, the requirements and the professor's expectations. For papers, for essays, for anything that is somewhat subjective, encourage students to ask the professor for a grading rubric so they can identify if they're covering all of the main topics. When students are not in class, they're not receiving the benefit of the instruction or the information given regarding grading, future assignments or opportunities like study groups. When I taught, I always resented being in a class where the professor just read to the book, read to us from the book. I'm like, I already read the book. What am I here for? So when I taught, I told my students, you're expected to read the assignments that I've given you. We're not covering those in class. I mean, we'll touch on them. We're going to integrate them. But in class, we're going to talk about how do we put this into practice. Set aside a certain time each day devoted to studying and encourage students to study with other classmates.  And you're going to have a more complete picture of the notes when you put the two of them together. Encourage students to set realistic goals and reward themselves for accomplishments. So setting the goal of getting your homework done each day. And each day there should be some sort of little reward. It sounds silly, but it's true, especially for those classes you don't like a lot. Encourage them to avoid pulling all nighters which can interfere with work quality as well as mood and attentiveness in other classes as well as reduce immunity. You know, you see a spike in illnesses right after midterms and final exams because students just didn't sleep while they were preparing. Have them get their study habits evaluated. A lot of universities have options for this. And if they're having difficulty and they're struggling to get good grades, have them get evaluated for learning disabilities or ADHD if it seems appropriate. Wellness and nutrition. Good nutrition helps. It helps them increase focus and concentration and improve mood. Why do you think that we have all of these free breakfast programs for elementary, middle school and high school students? Because you need to have food in your system to feed your brain so it can learn. Alcohol is a depressant and can impair sleep. And it also creates situations students regret and it can impair learning. So there's a lot of reasons why alcohol needs to be used only with moderation if it's going to be used at all. So don't drink while you're studying because it's going to impair your memory formation. Eating lots of junk food and drinking too much alcohol as well as sugary beverages can cause students to pack on the pounds which can take a hit on their self-esteem. And in addition to good nutrition, encourage students to exercise. It improves mood, sleep quality and self-esteem, especially if they do something they enjoy. It doesn't have to be a group activity. They can go to the student recreation center. But it gets them out and it gets them feeling more positive and exercise we know increases serotonin. Sleep is also vital. Exhaustion impairs concentration and learning, makes it take longer to get things done, leaves less time for pleasurable activities because it's taking longer to get things done and it reduces immunity. So why do you want to be exhausted? You know, it's just not worth it. Encourage students to cut down on the caffeinated beverages and the sports drinks. Get at least eight to nine hours of sleep each night. You're laughing right now probably. I tell them this is an ideal. You know, they're probably not going to get eight to nine hours most nights, but they can try. Avoid alcohol and antihistamines before bed, which impairs sleep quality. Have them develop a sleep routine to help them get to sleep quickly. And encourage them to invest in earplugs and a sleep mask is needed. If they've got noisy roommates, it may be important, especially if they've got a roommate who snores like a Mack truck. Other tips. Students need to do what they like, not just what boosts their resume. Encourage them to do some fun things every single week. They also need to learn to take time for themselves. Sorry. They need to take a step back from everything and de-stress. In college, so much can be going on that you need to step back and breathe and get some perspective.  So what resources did your university offer that were helpful? And what resources do you wish would have been available? The transition from high school to college is not an easy one. To ensure student success, colleges including professors, administration and wellness providers all need to be aware of common challenges that students face, especially in that first year transitioning from high school. There are many ways to provide resources and education to students to ensure their success. If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe, either in your podcast player or on YouTube. You can attend and participate in our live webinars with Dr. Snipes by subscribing at allceuse.com slash counselor toolbox. This episode has been brought to you in part by allceuse.com, providing 24-7 multimedia continuing education and pre-certification training to counselors, therapists and nurses since 2006.


It's time to get honest about Canada's forest industry and its impacts, part one. Every year the Canadian government puts out a glossy report putting up green spin on how our forests are doing and how awesome our logging industry is for the climate, biodiversity and well, apparently everything. Canada is misleading the world when it comes to how we're doing in forest management with this glossy state of the forest report. Here we explain why the report matters and how we can fix it. This year some groups have come together to set the record straight, issuing their own report. What we're calling the actual state of the forest, seeing through the spin, complete with recedes. Let's break it down. Finding number one, counting clericuts as forests. Since the international definition of forest includes forests that have been logged but likely to eventually regrow, Canada is able to report near zero levels of deforestation, despite the fact that we log up to a million hectares per year. The entire country could be clear cut tomorrow and the government could report zero deforestation. So clearly we need another way to measure impact. Forest degradation is a term scientists use to measure the loss of forest quality as opposed to quantity. This includes ecological health and productivity, biodiversity and all those good things. But Canada doesn't report on that. In our next video we'll touch on how Canada poorly reports on how much area has been logged and forestry's impact on biodiversity. In the meantime, do your part, get involved at the link in our bio.


This is start of star front approximately 20,000 businesses apply to be on Shark Tank each year. That means over all 14 seasons, they have received over a quarter million applications to be on the show. What's crazy is that only about 1200 or point 43% of the applicants make it on air. Some brands apply once, while some apply every year in the hopes of finally making it on the show. In today's episode, we chat with Mindy Zemrak, the casting producer for Shark Tank. Mindy and her team sort through all the applicants to decide what brands make the cut to be on the show. So if you've ever been curious about what it takes to make it on the Shark Tank floor, this is the episode for you. We discuss the most memorable Shark Tank pitch that left everyone in tears. Why after years of being surrounded by entrepreneurs, she's never once tempted to take the plunge herself and the four tips she tells every entrepreneur before they enter the tank. All right. Welcome to the podcast. We're talking to Mindy from casting from Shark Tank. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. People who don't know. What do you do? I am the supervising casting producer for Shark Tank. And you've been on it for how long? I've been on it since season one. Since season one. Since the very beginning. Since the beginning. So you've seen a change. I've seen a change. I've seen entrepreneurship become accepted and mainstream and not looked down upon. I have seen a world. Talk about that. Was it looked down upon at the beginning? I believe it was. I think way back when the show began, no one was really going out and doing their own thing. There were some, but I don't think it was as widely accepted as it has been. You were kind of crazy, I guess, if you did that. Yeah. It was looked down upon. And so I think now it's, I mean, schools show Shark Tank to their students to teach them about business. There are college courses about entrepreneurship. There's majors in college and for entrepreneurship, and it's just wild to see when I started the show, I was much younger and now I'm, I'm a little older and it's, we're doing, we're in 15 right now. 15. Yeah. So it's been crazy. And it's been the original four sharks. And now you guys do some guest sharks to give them a little vacation, right? Correct. Yeah. To give them a vacation. Is that why they do it? No, they pretty good. They're like, I'm going to Italy this week. I can't. No, definitely not. No, I think that the nice thing about Shark Tank is, you know, you want to keep the show moving and progressing and staying ahead of the game or staying on trend. And with that comes making sure you bring in sharks who spice things up, have different, you know, industries that they can speak to. I think the addition of Daniel Lubecki and I'm agreed have, have changed the course of our show. You know, they're, they're amazing additions and we have some new ones coming this year. I can't tell you who. But they're, they're good. That's awesome. They're good ones. At some point. So you guys review how many applications per year today? Each season, each year, we get approximately 20,000 applications to go through. At what point do they meet you? At what point do they meet Mindy? Well, pre-COVID, they would meet me at an open call. And then the last three years, we have been grounded, as I like to say. We haven't been on the road at all. And this is the first year that we finally were allowed back out. So we've are now scouting trade shows. I'm actually heading to Chicago next week for a trade show scout. And then we did our first open call in three years back in March here in LA. And we'll be heading to Maryland in July. And so people only really meet me if I'm at an open call or at a trade show. Otherwise, if they apply online, they don't meet me. They talk to someone on our casting team. And they go through all of those rounds. And then if they make it all the way to filming, they could see me. Yeah. Because I'm running around set. Do you get harassed? People know who you are. They want to get like the secret ingredient?  Actually, when I was driving here, I was like looking at my DMs, and I'm like, oh my God, there's so many messages. So they, they definitely hit up the DMs. Okay. So they tell people not to DM you, but usually they're probably asking you for advice. What's the thing that you would want them to know?  What would you tell them? We kind of have like three or four kind of like tips that we tell everyone. The first and foremost is be excited about what it is that you're pitching. You have to tell people that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Like, hi guys. I'm here with new underwear line. You guys like my new underwear? So at our open calls, I give them a whole spiel. It's not American Idol. The people that don't do well won't be shown on TV. No. And we encourage everyone to come out. It is a big step. Like you are kind of bearing your soul to some of these people. You joked before we started recording, this is your therapy session. Welcome. In some ways it is a therapy session because they are taking what they've been working on probably, you know, in the depths of their homes or wherever and bringing out to a whole public display to judge, critique and hopefully get investment. And so when they're coming to an open call, they're applying online. We tell everyone, we don't have money to invest in you. I have none. And that's probably for the best. And so if you make it further down, you'll get more serious. But right now I just want to talk and get to know you because Shark Tank is 50% about your business or your product, but 50% about you and your backstory because everyone has a different backstory and a journey and our show is about promoting that and celebrating it because the Sharks could resonate with someone's story and then also four, five, six million viewers could resonate and then want to support that, you know, entrepreneur or product. So the four tips we give is one is be excited about and passionate about it because if you're not excited about it, how is anyone else supposed to get behind it and get excited about investing? The second thing is numbers. Now we know Mr. Wonderful will grill you till you are blue in the face about numbers. That's his thing. But from our perspective, if you don't have numbers for your prototype and your startup and you are pre rev, that is okay. Just tell us how you're different and unique, which goes right into the third point of tell us how you're different and unique these days. No one's really creating bread for the first time, but a lot of people or, you know, figuring out a wheel. Brasi bites is just done. They made cheesy bread. They're delicious too. Let me tell you crushing. Okay. Um, but if you are different and unique or doing a new spin, tell us how that is different and unique from anyone else on the market or already out there. Um, and then the fourth thing is to just really hammer home why you need an investment and we tell everyone, don't ask for all the money in the world. It's not money tank. Be strategic and you can always adjust your ask.  At that point, but you want to make sure that you're not overvaluing your company because then they might look at you and say, I can't get behind it. And the rule of Shark Tank is you have to walk away with what you ask for or more. You can't all of a sudden halfway through be like, yeah, this isn't going so well. How about I reduce my ask? You have to walk away with that. So those are kind of the big four things that we tell everyone in the casting process really get out initially because we'll get it in a split second. What's the red flag?  Like what's the hump? Let's say there's a hump and everyone gets to a point and then there's like junior year thermodynamics and half the school, half the class is gone. What's what's the wipeout thing? There's not really any rounds or big hurdle or red flag to get through per se. It's just kind of you're in the process. Like we have 20,000 applications each year and our casting process starts in January and goes through the end of July. So it takes us months to get through everyone and the network execs and everyone are constantly reviewing every application that comes in and it's just really look and the sharks don't not and cannot know anything about anyone before they go in the tank. And that's on purpose because we want to catch it on camera and get their genuine reactions. If we bring in a naked man that they have to paint, which has happened. We did that once that happened. Yeah, we brought in like a paint and sip company and we brought in a man who disrobed. We strategically had a pineapple in front of things and Barbara was like Barbara and Lori were shocked. And Cuban was like, what the heck? So we always want to get on camera. I think they did. Yeah. I think they did once the guy removed the pineapple. Possibly what's like the surprise? We always say you're like, you're in the process until you're either on the show or maybe you didn't make it past a certain point. So it's just kind of like hanging on and don't change anything for the sake of Shark Tank, because it's such a small amount that get through. But we've had people that have applied 12 seasons in a row, nine seasons in a row, and then they finally get on. Oh, wow. Okay, so keep it going. That's interesting. What's a good backstory? Like in my head, I just went, I don't know why I did this, but in my head, I just went like emotional. Like, oh, I lost a fish when I was a kid. And then I wanted to create a fish tank where the fish wouldn't die. And here's my product. Like that. I don't know why that went in my head, but what's a good back? Is that a good backstory? It's emotional if it's if it's emotional and specific to you. That's a good backstory. Totally made it up by the way. No, I assume the thing about backstories is everyone automatically thinks and I think there's a stigma that has to be sad. It has to pull on your strengths. It doesn't because your journey is different from his, from hers, from mine, and that's what makes you special and unique. It's not, let me tell you all the things. Now we tell everyone when you're, you know, when you go in the tank or even way before like at a casting call, if I want to get to know you and your company, I want to know also the hurdles that you've gone through. They don't have to be sad. It could be something like I sold my house might be sad, maybe not, maybe you did it for the sake and passion of your company. So everyone's different, but your backstory is really just about the journey you've been on to get here and maybe what you've had to give up or what you've encountered. And that's what we like to shed light on. Do you guys help them on the rehearsal side of it in terms of like, so usually on TV anyway, we'll see that there's like a beautiful setup, a beautiful presentation. How much work goes into that from your side working with these brands? So I don't, we don't do much on the casting side of things. Once they're, once they get through kind of the first couple rounds and they get to producer teams, we let the producer teams deal with them. They do rehearse and work on their pitch because timing wise, it has to be dialed in and then they work with the art department in terms of this is what we'd like for our display, but there's also a matter of, you know, weight and dimensions and we can't bring in like camel. Well, maybe we could bring in a camel. You never know. We've had other animals in there before, but, you know, certain size cars fit and whatnot. So there's a lot of back stuff and new diligence that we do on our and that no one sees because we have to do a lot of it, but there's, I can't really go into too much detail. If there's a process in terms of like, if they have a product, do you try the product? Oh, yes, you do. Well, we have to try everything. And if it's bad, you'll, you'll tell them. I don't tell them. Everyone has their own, you know, but if it's bad, let's just say you have a good, no, no, no, pre-sharks, pre-sharks, like during the application, maybe when they get accepted on the show, do you try the products? We try everything. We have to, we have to vet everyone because we have to make sure that if your product's not good, you're probably not going to make it on. Well, safe to say it's, it's all subjective. You may not like the drink of something you're trying, but I might. And, you know, everyone has a different palette, as you said, but if the product does not work after we vetted it, it might not be a good fit because then it's not really good to put a company on a national television when your product isn't working. So maybe we would wait until improvements have happened, you know? Can you give me a story of a product that didn't work? No, I cannot. I'm under NDA. It's funny, but sometimes when you see Mark and he'll go into his like, this is a scam. Yes, Mark gets very heated and passionate about supplement companies mostly, but in there are a lot of supplement companies, unfortunately, who have taken our likeness and scamming people. So please be aware of that. Of all this time working, who is, what is your most memorable like moment during the casting? During the casting or during the show's run? Let's say during the casting and then we'll do the show's run. So during actually it's the same for casting and for the run of the show. It was when I reached out to the young family of Cupboard Pro, which Matt and all other four other sharks all invested in. And it was season 10. They all invested in all five sharks invested on that panel that day. And when I emailed Kaylee, I knew about what her father had created. I saw an article and her, their father had passed away about a month to the day that I emailed her and they lost their mother to, I believe it was breast cancer a couple of years prior. And they had just lost their father, who was a first responder at 9-11. And he passed away from 9-11 related illnesses. And so when I talked to Kaylee a month later and then when they actually ended up coming out to film, it was Father's Day weekend, totally not planned. And then they got a deal. It was very like, OK, Keith, we know you're looking down on them right now. And it was you could hear a pin drop and every single person on that set was in tears because that's something that affected the entire country, but really affected this family. And those three kids were in our orphans, but they've really rallied together. And that was out of everyone who have installed all the other entrepreneurs we've had on that one was like that one meant the most for sure. Did it make you think differently about the show? And maybe it's impact in terms of like maybe following that trend. And so less venture capital, more purpose, more mission driven. Yes, absolutely. And that's the thing that I think I love the most about Shark Tank is you see companies that sure come in and their Silicon startups or whatnot and they get that funding and everything. But for me, it's about the entrepreneurs and what they've gone through and what they're currently going through to just hustle and really just put your nose to the ground and go, go, go. And they weren't giving up on their father's dream and it became a bigger thing. And just, you know, that's to me, it's it's one of the pinnacle highlights of my casting career was meeting that family and then seeing how it all ended up down the road. And they've given back to that fire department, that firehouse, you know, a lot of funding. And it's it's it's amazing. You can't make that up. Who's your favorite guest shark? You like a transition there? I do that. Well, now I feel like you want me to say, Matt, we I miss Matt.  I do love Matt Higgins. Thank you, Matt, for introducing the both of us, by the way. No, Matt is great. Definitely miss him. But, you know, all the shark, all the guest sharks are very different. What is the vetting process for them? I'm not involved with that at all. Sometimes when I watch, I'm like, I wonder if they actually make investments or if they're just here to sort of entertain, which is fine, to know they certainly make investments. Like the whole point of from what I know, and I'm not involved with the shark side of things, except for I film social media for the show when we're filming. But from a guest shark perspective, I am not involved. I'm only on the entrepreneur side, but I know that if they come in, they are absolutely ready to go and invest because they have that experience and they want to kind of, you know, open up their portfolio a bit more. Yeah. So, and it's all their money. It's no one else's. That's true. That's one thing Matt said, actually, he said, like, it's very primal. Yes. He says, like, you watch them on TV and you're thinking they're just throwing jabs at each other. But the reality is it's like, they're really betting their money. Oh, yes. And in some cases, they're fighting for the entrepreneur to, like, pick them. Yeah. And that's hard. And the judgment is also like what they've done. And maybe it's an entrepreneur is doing their own analysis of like, do I even want this shark? Exactly. Maybe there's how they have the reputation or they're just not the right fit, but landing a deal maybe maybe gets me on TV. And so there's all this analysis happening in real time. And it's like super primal in nature, which I think is like the coolest. I think that's for me, that's the coolest part of the show. There's like an anthropological part of me that just goes, oh, this is human nature. It's wild because a lot of entrepreneurs come out of the tank and then they're like, what happened? They black out. Oh, totally. They're like, what happened? I was in there for, I was in there for two hours and we were like, you're in there for 45 minutes. And so, and it's funny because you mentioned Jim and say, but they blacked out after they came out and take Mindy, what happened? And I was like, let me fill you in. You got a deal. Top five companies you remember? You like the most? So I can tell you the top five or six actually most successful companies thus far. So scrub daddy, obviously the one that everyone knows probably the most I'd say at this point, but there's also the books, which is the flower company there. So scrub daddy, the books, bombas. I only wear bomba socks. I will tell you that. They're so good. They're the best. I miss that one. I was I was late to the bombas party. You can join now. No, I am in it. I just mean like on the investment side, I was, it was like, I wish I had. And then Everly Well is also a very successful company of ours. And they did a deal with Lori and then Love Pop greeting cards, which did a deal with Kevin. And so those are kind of like the big top six right now. The comfy's not in there. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot the comfy. Yes, the comfy, of course. And I have one of their original prototypes. What's how big is it, by the way? Is it like a blanket? Oh, were they too big or too small, the original prototypes? They were perfect. Oh, perfect. They came down to like my shin and or just below my knee. And it's just like a warm, comfy hug that I just I have one of actually, I have Mr. Wonderful's prototype that they gave him. And then I got it. No, it's gray. Oh, so it's perfect. It's perfect. I love gray. Yeah. But yeah, it's such a fascinating. Yeah, we talked to obviously we were talking about this before, but when we had them on the podcast, I just thought it was crazy that they'd go on there with a prototype. No business, no sales. Well, they only had four prototypes. They didn't even have five and there's five sharks on every panel. So they didn't have enough to hand out. They were like, you can share this one. Which kind of fits the, I mean, that's what it is. That's the grind. Yeah, use what you have. Yep. But that story, I think that's just so brazen to go in a room asking for money with no sales. We met them in Denver at a casting call and they had a whole jingle and everything. And I remember we, because we asked, as mentioned, we talk about, you know, we have to vet all the samples and we were, but we tell everyone, don't send us your prototype because that's your prototype and we don't send samples back. So, you know, because we have to vet it. So we were like, in this instance, can you just send us the prototype? We will send it back and thank thank goodness they did because that ultimately helped, I think, help move them forward in the process was, I was putting it on and be like, oh, okay, we like this. It's comfy. What does Mindy the human like in terms of like, so you meet entrepreneurs all the time who are bringing you products.  No. Like we have a podcast. We get things shipped here all the time. And at the beginning it's cool. And then you're kind of like overwhelmed. Like you only have so many friends you can give free stuff to. But what, what is it like for you? We have a whole office of samples of mail and I don't like opening mail just because I hate packing peanuts with a passion. My casting team knows us. They'll play pranks on me and like post them up, stick them on the walls.  Anyways, but there's a ton of mail every single day from months and months and months, you know, we all work from home now still because of COVID. Not that it is a thing anymore, but we're just working from home. But we do have an office where everyone sends samples. So we just open up samples and mail every single day. And then when I'm pitching companies to the executives, that is when they start interacting with all the samples and products and everything. And then if they move through the process, then, you know, more people have to vet that product. So it goes through a couple rounds and no, I don't have a lot in my house. I, I like, I'm a simple church and state and keep it separate. When it comes to you seeing all these products, you've probably seen everything ever invented or like a version of something. Are you ever like, I wish I would see this. I wish someone would just invent maybe, maybe, maybe a packing peanut that doesn't do the thing that I don't know. I just get rid of packing peanuts. No, every year, I mean, we get a lot of stuff that you don't see that we'll never see the light of day on the show. And every year we see interesting items is what I'll say. Maybe not, you know, not safe for work type products and stuff like that. So it's never a dull moment. But every year I'm like, man, I've seen it all. And then the following year I'm like, well, I haven't seen that. So, you know, on genuity and everything is still well working out there. But it's, it never, never ceases to amaze me that after 15 years, people are still coming up with amazing things and things that I'm like, OK, well, yeah, why, why didn't I think of that? But I'm like, I don't want to start a business like the company. Personally. So that's another question. So you've been so close to it for so long where you're seeing these entrepreneurs, you're interviewing them, you're getting to them really well. There hasn't been a single part of you that said, let me go. Let me go do this. Never. You never got the bug. Nope. I like what I do. I meet a lot of amazing people. I obviously have fun doing my job. But it does seem like a fun job. I love it. It is one of the best because I also change people's lives in some way. Some. Yes. Some. Yeah. And hopefully everyone has a good experience going through the process, whether they make it on the show or not. And a lot of people say I didn't make it on this year and they apply the next year and they're like, man, I learned so much or they made connections standing in line with someone at an open call. And so there's all of that. But I don't want there's a lot of hard work. And I tip my hat to all entrepreneurs that do it. Some people have said I'm an entrepreneur in my own way. And I kind of see it, but I also disagree. I just don't have any inkling at all to embark on a journey where I start a business. And I have a lot of friends that do and it's just it's just not for me. But I applaud everyone that tries and goes through because I know it is not easy. After all the data, though, being so close to it, do you think you could write like a like a how to land on Shark Tank book? Probably, right? You could be like, and it's probably mostly like, don't do these things. Yeah, I would hope so. At this point, I'd have to get a lot of approval. So yeah, not assuming you will. But no, I wouldn't. But no, I mean, you know, people are always like, you repeat the same tips and I'm like, but that's the honest truth. Like that's I'm not if there was a secret sauce, I would tell everyone. But it's just be yourself. Tell us what sets you apart. Be excited and, you know, see what happens to be excited. One's funny. I find that so fascinating. So I'm like, how would you not be excited? The potential of of being on the show alone? Well, I think I think a lot of people are shy and not everyone that comes on Shark Tank is going on to be on a television show, per se. So I always try to and say, don't look at it as a television show. Look at it as you are going into a board meeting. It's just a little more fun, not as laced up and, you know, rigid. And so you can have fun. You can make fun of Mr. Wonderful's bald head or Mark's shark socks or whatever. Well, I don't tell them that, but I'm like, but you see people make jabs at them for that all the time. I find that so interesting, too. I'm like, well, how would you do that? It's a wonderful TV. He does. He likes to get poked. Listen, he has a good time. He has a good time in there. He's intense, but he has a good time. What are some of the things that you know that the average viewer doesn't know? Well, I don't even know where to start. You'd have to ask like specifics like maybe there's 20,000 companies that apply. 20,000 apply. How many would you say you see or sit down? Well, we look at every single application that comes through. Right. And then. And then from there, they vet down. We don't have set quotas. That's the nice thing. So we just look at every single one. I think that's what surprises people. They're like, that is surprising. A lot of people at OpenCalls, how many people are you taking from this? As many as I. It's not like an admission class. No, in terms of making it to the next round, those that end up on the show depends on our episode order, which we just got renewed for 15 yesterday officially. Episodes. No, season 15 officially. And then the episode order is TBD still. But usually we air anywhere from 22 to 24, 25 episodes. You're looking at 88 to 100 that make it to air. So from 20,000 to 100. There's a drop off. How many words? Yeah, that's what I was asking before. So from 20,000, you see 20,000. We see thousands that go through. OK. To the following rounds. Yeah. And then as they make it through, because we do background checks and patent checks and entity searches, we do a ton of vetting on our end because we have to. So if you have like a criminal history that you don't get on the show, it depends. Everything's case by case. Depends what you've done. Yeah. Tila Pita told us that. Hector said, he's like, I think my they know more about I think Mindy knows about me more than my wife. I saw that quote the other day and it made me laugh because I'm like, well, we do a lot of reading on those applications. How many seasons do you think this the entire show will go? Like is there shark fatigue? I don't know. Viewers love the show. It seems like it's done super well. Streaming hasn't affected it really. No, I think streaming has helped, honestly, because a lot of people it's funny because we're in syndication on other networks and even when I fly, all of a sudden I'll look at the TV in front of me on my airplane and I'm like, oh, there's Mr. Wonderful, like I can't get away from it. Even when I'm flying to go do something for Shark Tank, I'm seeing the show. But I think the syndication and the streaming things going viral on TikTok now, like there's opened up a whole different can of worms, which is a good thing. I hope that the show keeps going for a while. But you just don't know. But entrepreneurship is certainly only gaining speed. It's not slowing down, especially with everything that's happened in the last year with banks and Silicon Valley and everything and just the economy. It's similar to when we started the show. I was going to say 2008. Yeah, it's like the same exact thing happening all over again. Exactly. So it'll be very interesting next month when we start filming to see what happens, to see if there's a shift from the last couple of years that we've seen in the tank. I mean, during COVID, more LLCs got started than I think at any other time, probably since 2008. Yep. Yeah. They all put their jobs or lost their jobs and they just ventured out. And the thing that always gets me with TV shows is for some reason people want to like spice it up in some way. But it seems like the Shark Tank has a formula. You don't need to spice anything up. It's like you have the spice are the startups, the different products. And Mr. Wonderful. And Mr. Wonderful wearing red more often. Well, he has his signature suit and the watch. The watch thing, the red watch and the pen. Now he does a pen that matches his watch. I had to do a whole series last year for social about his pens and his watch. So every day I'd be like, Kevin, let's do it. The last question I want to ask you is when I I'm going to apply on Shark Tank, by the way. Oh, we're going to launch a company. OK. It's called Fatty Balls. It's not a joke. You're getting an exclusive like this is a year. A year. Fatty Balls. Season 17. OK, so we're recording this. This is like me telling you the future. OK. It's going to be me and a chef. His name is Chef Kuo. OK. He has little fatty and marbista. I've been. So good. Yeah. And so he's got this meatball that he makes that's like gone viral on all these social media platforms. I've not had that. And so we're going to make this a consumer package. Good. A CPG company. And after like by that point, we'll have like 300 episodes of this podcast out. Yeah. And so I'm just like learning from all of these individuals. And it's like, we're just going to package that. And we're going to take all the learnings. I'm going to start a company and we think we have the right team, the right socials team, the chef, the whole thing. And then we're going to do it. I'm going to go on Shark Tank. I'm going to see you again. Listen, I look forward to that day. That would be cool. That would be cool. It would be a cool story. Yeah.  First backstory. Now you know how to. You like to pass the backstory test. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Matt. I do. Yes. But I look forward to that. And you know how to find me if you want to find you now. Yeah. No, we'll see online. We'll see. That's the idea. We'll see what happens. All right. Mindy, thank you. Thank you for helping all these new entrepreneurs get through their process and not enter your DMs. The DMs will probably still blow up, but it's it's a very special show to be part of. Like I said, I cast a lot of different shows also, but this one certainly to be a small part in seeing someone's business and dream really get pushed to another level. It's really special to just kind of see them reach heights that they've never dreamed of. Hello. That's cool. Well, thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me. If you made it this far, I bet you loved the episode. So you should join our YouTube channel membership for only $2.99 a month. This gets you access to one, the whole unabridged conversation. Two, you get the episodes on Monday, one day earlier. Three, you get two additional entries to our giveaways. Check out our Instagram to see what we've given away. And four, you get access to seasons one through three. That's over a hundred episodes of wisdom and life-changing advice. What are you waiting for? Join.