Business School Is Dead, Here's the Replacement with Felena Hanson

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down how business school is dead. Here's the replacement. And to drop these value bombs, I brought Felina Hansen into EO Fire Studios. Felina is the founder of Hera Hub, a spa-inspired shared workspace and business accelerator. She has two company-owned locations in San Diego and licensed locations throughout the country. She's on a mission to support thousands of women in the launch and growth of their business.

0:32And today, for our nation, we'll talk about outdated curriculum. We'll talk about college professors. They mean well. Talk about high cost, low ROI, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Felina and our sponsors. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to take your business to the next level. Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire.

1:10Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Felina, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Awesome. What's up? What's up? I'm super excited to be here, John. Something that I talk a lot about as it relates to entrepreneurship that a lot of people disagree with is grit.

1:54I think grit is the most important quality in being an entrepreneur. And I think we're not teaching that in school and we're not raising our kids in that way anymore. And I think truly grit is what it takes to make it happen in entrepreneurship. Well, Fire Nation, there's something I know about you as my listeners. You have or are quickly developing grit. So good on you. And today we're talking about how business school is dead. I mean, put a fork in it and here's the replacement. Now I want to talk, Felina, about outdated curriculum. I mean, most college programs teach theory, not real world skills that we need as entrepreneurs to launch and grow a business.

2:38So what should entrepreneurs take away from this reality? Yeah, John, and I think it's important to say I did a business undergrad and an MBA. And I also taught college for eight years for fun when I had a previous business. I taught entrepreneurship. I developed curriculum for entrepreneurship. So I know this world well. I'm not just poking at it, you know, as a bystander. I've been in it. Number one, one percent of U.S. companies receive venture capital, one percent. And within that one percent, women in particular receive one percent of the one percent of venture capital. But business schools and John, did you go to business school?

3:23I did not. A lot of business schools and entrepreneurship programs specifically still today. The idea is you're going to pitch. You're going to pitch and raise money. So a lot of the programming is pitch contests, build a deck, which AI can do in five minutes now.

3:43pitch contests, right? That's building a business for the 1%. And 99 % of people aren't going to build a business where they're going to pitch for equity investment. And so I think we're just, it's outdated. We need to really look at the reality of what types of businesses are people launching. And now with AI, it's changing absolutely everything. Schools are not keeping up. And so this idea of like, you know, memorize and test and, you know, it's just, it's bullshit now. I mean, we have every answer we need in our pocket 24 hours a day. There's other things that really matter in entrepreneurship and business schools are not teaching that.

4:24I mean, you were a college professor, like you mentioned, and you do know and realize that college professors, I mean, they mean well, but the fact is they just lack firsthand entrepreneurial experience, at least most of them. So expound upon that. I mean, where is the flaw within this? Yeah. So again, gross generalization, some colleges have, you know, professors that have started a business from scratch, but it's completely different to run a business than it is to start it from scratch. You know this, right? Plus a lot of entrepreneurial professors, I think about this in San Diego, where I am and some of the folks I know, they maybe had a startup up 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and they've been teaching this whole time.

5:11The world is changing minute by minute right now. And if you don't have real life entrepreneurs who have started businesses, you know, last week, last month, last year, you're really missing the mark. So again, a lot of schools, you know, they're teaching theory, they're thinking, you know, teaching case study. In my MBA program, it was all Harvard case study, you know, for these big companies, Like that has absolutely nothing to do with startup culture. So we're just, again, we're missing the mark when it comes to the talent that is leading the next generation of entrepreneurs. Now I want to talk about high cost, low ROI.

5:50That's return on investment. I mean, today more than ever, students are graduating with tons of debts and little applicable knowledge. I mean, listen, I'm 45 years old and I have friends that are still paying off college and law school and medical school and whatever, you know, graduate business school that they went to. I mean, it's crazy sometimes. So can you tell us more about this? Yeah, absolutely. I have people showing up on my doorstep almost daily at Hara Hub or a co-working space and business accelerator. And they'll say something like, well, I don't have an undergrad in business, so I think I'm going to go back to school.

6:28you know, learn business, learn entrepreneurship. You know, MBA programs in particular can be up to $200 ,000. And a lot of people are taking that on as debt. When you look at the total cost of even a four-year degree, you know, students are coming out with 200 grand in debt. Fancy schools like Caltech, my partner's son is looking at Caltech right now. He's got great grades. He might get in a half a million dollars,$500 ,000 for a degree at Caltech. Yes. It's just absolutely insane. So what I tell people is, you know what, just go do it. Go work for an entrepreneur. And honestly, at this point, John, I say skip college unless you are going to become a brain surgeon.

7:19Obviously, you need that education. Lawyers need an education. But if you're going to try to be an entrepreneur, I say just go do it. Go work for a startup company. Work for free if you have to, right? If you can get paid, all the better. But work for free, and it's not going to put you in debt, right? You're going to learn a ton. You're going to get a ton of experience. You're going to learn what to do, what not to do. Entrepreneurship is really, in my first comment, it's grit. It's just getting in there and figuring it out. And I think students these days and folks coming out of school haven't really been taught that figure it out mentality.

7:54They've been taught, you know, how to memorize things. They've been taught how to follow, you know, follow the rules. Entrepreneurship is totally different. I mean, I'll tell you what, I have an 18 month old son and I just don't know if I see a world where he is going to college. I mean, I guess there is a world, like you mentioned, if he's going to, if he's, you know, die hard about becoming a doctor or a lawyer or some brain surgeon, like you mentioned, I mean, I guess that's the path. But man, I can see this kid being 16, 17, 18 years old and being like, dad, like, I've got this business idea.

8:27And I'm going to be like, you should go do that thing. Like, I can help you like with guidance. You know, if I know you're working hard, I may, you know, fund some of it to kind of help you get off the ground. I mean, to me, man, I look back on my college days. They were the four of the best years of my life. They were so fun. I mean, I had so much fun, but that's the word, fun. Yeah, well, and you're learning how to learn, right? You're learning how to connect with other people. You're learning how to work on teams. I'm not saying college in general, throw it out the window, but I'm saying specific to entrepreneurship education, we just have a lot to learn.

9:05I mean, I don't even honestly know if I can say that I did learn. I mean, maybe I did learn to learn, like you said, because there are some things. I mean, if you can tell me, like, what, you know, did I actually take away from my theology class my sophomore year or my physics class, my junior year? I mean, maybe I learned how to learn, like you said, which I could apply to other things. And, you know, I got plenty of bad grades and maybe I learned how to bounce back and, you know, come back and apply myself a little harder. But I mean, to me, I look back at college, it was just like for the social experiment, which I think, you know, there's some validity there as well.

9:38Like I definitely want my son Bo to have a great, fun, social experience. And, you know, I mean, what is that going to look like? I don't know. But I mean, let's be honest, like things that you're creating, Felina, like you're creating fun, social experiences for entrepreneurs and they can go do that at very young ages as well. Yeah, exactly. You're absolutely right. Fire Nation, we have a lot to talk about when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Fire Nation, is this your year to take your business to the next level? Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories?

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12:30High level, join the revolution. Felina, most college programs, they don't allow students to build and iterate on real businesses as part of the learning process. They just don't. Some do, but most don't. why is that an issue? Yeah. I mean, you have to learn by doing, you have to learn by failing and making mistakes. And so the really, again, the best way to become an entrepreneur is just become an entrepreneur, just get in there and figure it out, frankly. And, and this, you know, theory is just, it's, it's so outdated. So even the, the projects I did in my MBA program and my entrepreneurship class, you know, it was, it was, again, it was theory.

13:15It wasn't getting our hands dirty. They weren't assigning us to a local business startup to go in and help them. Right. There was just no practical application. My formula for entrepreneurial success, I think is 50 % mindset. Wow. I don't know if you agree with me on that, but I, you know, I see it every day, John, I see we focus on supporting female entrepreneurs and the lack of confidence around starting a business is just, it's terrible. It's, it really scares me for whatever reason, you know, and again, it's the school system, right? Like you're taught to be, you know, look to this one person, your professor that has all the answers for you and is going to teach you.

13:56And I think that really drives people when they get into business to hire a coach, right? Like I'm going to have this person and there's a lot of great business coaches out there, don't get me wrong, but I always say community over coaches. Go find an amazing community of entrepreneurs who are doing it, who have been there, done that, and really surround yourself with the right people as opposed to looking to just one person for all the answers and for the accountability. That's another piece of what I think a formula is. It's really, you know, knowledge is part of it, maybe 20%, but surrounding yourself with the right people is like 40 % of the equation, just being in the right company.

14:41And then you don't have to spend thousands, you know, thousands a month on a business coach. Fire Nation, I'm loving this. And the reality is the pace of change in entrepreneurship, I mean, especially around tech and AI, it's literally at warp speed these days. So, Felina, is academic curriculum updating fast enough to keep up with this? Not even close. So here's the problem, right? And we get this. We want a university that is accredited by an objective third party. But I know because I developed entrepreneurship curriculum at the college level, that process takes a long time. You have to go to this particular board and lobby why you need to change your educational structure.

15:28It can take a year. And like you said, things are changing every single minute, especially now. I mean, when I went to business school, yeah, things were fast paced. Now, every single day, things are changing. So this idea that you're going to sign up for a class on AI, by the time you even arrive at that class, the whole landscape has changed. So again, I just don't think this is the right place to learn. Now, one thing I want to talk about is the lack of focus on women and underrepresented founders. You mentioned a couple of percentages at the beginning of the episode, which are, you know, kind of mind blowing.

16:05You're obviously doing a lot to rectify this. So can you share some of your thoughts on this topic? Yeah. You know, it goes back to that previous comment. It's the 1 % that are building businesses for venture and especially women and, you know, diverse founders. A lot of times they're taking a passion, something they're interested in and molding that into a business. You know, think a hair salon, think, you know, a marketing consultant. And so, you know, again, the curriculum is really, really based on that pitch, venture, scale, right team, fail fast. You know, even a lot of those terminologies don't fit for 99 percent of entrepreneurs.

16:49And so I hear this from young women all the time. And I talk to folks who run entrepreneurship programs at various colleges, and they always ask me, why don't more young women pitch? Why don't they get involved in these pitch competitions? Because that's like kind of the main thing for a lot of these campuses. And they get sponsorship dollars off of it. I get it. But it's just not the environment that women are looking for, right? It's not about collaboration. It's about competition. And a lot of us aren't wired that way. So I do think schools really need to think about, you know, again, not only the type of business, but the approach a particular individual would take in launching a business.

17:29Felina, you've dropped so many value bombs here today. I know that my audience is grateful for what you've done and what you're doing. If there was just one takeaway that our listeners would walk away with from this episode, what would you want that takeaway to be? A couple of things related to this topic. We are such a quick fix society, right? We want to take a pill. We want to get skinny. We want to get rich quick. If you go on Instagram or TikTok, there are plenty of people there telling you, Do this one thing and you'll become a millionaire in six weeks. Right. There is no quick fix to entrepreneurship.

18:05And that, again, goes back to this idea of finding community. Right. Don't hire a business coach right out of the gate. Go find an amazing group of entrepreneurs in your city. Join a local co-working space. Get involved in whatever industry organization that you're in. You know, the industry you're in and go find community. Go find people who have done it and ask them if you can support them, if you can help them in some way and learn from them. Don't ever ask anybody if you can pick their brain. I hate that phrase more than anything. I like my answer to that is that sounds painful. But offer to volunteer, offer to help them with a project and their business, offer to be of service to them so you can learn from them.

18:51Find that community that can support you. And then you're not, again, looking for that one person that has all the answers. You have a variety of perspectives and you can then share that experience and what you learned back into the community. I think community is the answer to almost everything. We're in a loneliness epidemic and community is the answer to that. Felina, if Fire Nation is really connecting with this content, what is your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah, get out of your freaking spare bedroom. Get off of Zoom. Go out into the world in real life and find community. If you're in a city, a small town, and there's not a group, there's not a community, there's not a co-working space, consider starting one, right?

19:40Get people together. Put something online and say, hey, I'm meeting in this coffee shop next week. Come meet with me. There's so many great online tools out there to get people together in real life. Be that leader. And if people want to connect with you, how would they do that? Yeah, I'm easy to find. My name is Felina, F-E-L-E-N-A. So literally, if you type that into Google, I'm the first person to pop up. Wow. And Hera Hub, as in the Greek goddess of women, is my business. It's a network of co-working spaces and we have two formal business accelerator programs. So what I lobby for is find a business accelerator that fits your need, fits your industry, and go through a program like that.

20:26It could be six weeks, nine weeks, so much more, you know, cheaper. Obviously, you're not having to go into debt to go into these programs and also quicker to get you, you know, off and launched and hit the ground running. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with FH and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Felina in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. Felina, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

21:04Hey, Fire Nation, a big thank you to Felina and our sponsors for sponsoring today's episode. And if you've ever thought about starting a podcast, check out freepodcastcourse.com. That's freepodcastcourse.com. It's free. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to take your business to the next level. Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire.

21:42Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.