Bridging education and business with The OC’s Dr. Justin Terry | E1949

0:28That's so awesome. in the United States and make us more competitive. Has anybody come to study this and say, I got to do it in my community yet? Yeah. Because I caught you in year one. I think that what you've built is going to become the standard. This Week in Startups is brought to you by Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website. Go to squarespace.com slash twist for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain. Northwest Registered Agent Northwest Registered Agent will form your business quickly and easily.

1:10For just$39 plus state fees, Northwest will handle your complete business identity. Name, address, mail service, phone, email, website, and domain. visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash twist today and lemon.io hire pre-vetted remote developers get 15 off your first four weeks of developer time at lemon.io slash twist all right everybody welcome back to this week in startups i am obsessed with what jobs will be available for our kids now it's not just because i have three daughters two eight-year-olds and a 14-year-old um that i'm interested in this but it is a big part of it i'm wondering how do i prepare my own kids for the future we got chat gpt everybody's saying jobs are going away and my lord college seems like it's disconnected in many ways from the job market i know this because at my venture firm launch we invest in 100 companies and i watch who startup companies are hiring and you know what they're hiring half as many people and they're twice as productive this year as they were three years ago and so you're going to have to be entrepreneurial you're going to have to take the bull by the horns you're going to have to i believe in the future be able to learn and navigate this crazy professional world um you know in in some way that's different than gen x did or even millennials so i was just reading about education and i i stumbled i stumbled upon a person who was taking careers and education and putting them together in a way that i had never seen his name is dr justin terry and he's the superintendent of the forney independent school district and the mastermind of the oc project dr terry welcome to this week in startups oh glad to be here jason and and thanks for the invitation and i look forward to our discussion today for sure so um tell me what you've built in the great state of texas right this is in texas correct yes it is we're in um forney which is uh just a little bit about us we're about 20 miles east of Dallas and a suburb.

3:37And we sit as the gateway into the fastest growing county in the nation right now. So we're extremely fast growth. And, you know, we're a booming town, booming bedroom community. And so we tried something new in education. And I appreciate the nice words that this is my mastermind. But, you know, we just had an idea that we had a great community and board. and a lot of teammates put a lot of time and effort into this to create something pretty special. Can't wait to talk to you about it. Maybe we'll pull up a couple of images here and you can describe what you and your team takes a team. Yeah.

4:15I don't want to give you solo credit for it, but I understand you're the mastermind. So take a look at some of these pictures. Tell everybody what you built. Some people are listening. Some people are watching. Sure thing. I was visiting with somebody the other day about this and to give an elevator speech about this facility is pretty challenging because the building we built is really a first of its kind and how we operate it is also the first in the nation in the way that we do it. If you can believe, it's about a 350 ,000 square foot facility and it is really three levels but has so many different components to it.

4:50It's a gorgeous building as you can see but it's basically the first floor, you know, as you come in is open to the public, which makes us really unique. The facility really focuses on three C's, what we call three C's, and it's career, college, and community. And that community aspect is really what makes this facility different than other trade schools or college and career facilities that you've probably seen and heard of in the past because our goal is, and we just had this idea that, hey, what if not only are we teaching kids these great career pathways, but what if we could put them in the experience right there in that same facility and that our community is a part of our small businesses and startups and maybe even we create our own, that they're part of that educational process, that they're part of the learning for our younger generation as they begin to go into the workforce.

5:45So it's three stories. We built basically a mall on the first floor, if you can believe it, and then a two-story school on top of it. um it's got a 7900 seat arena in the middle uh it's got a 7900 seat that is a theater like the size of the theater at madison square garden beacon in new york radio city musical i mean you can do a really big event and for people who are not watching go to youtube.com and just search for this week in startups this is it looks like it's more beautiful than a mall but this gorgeous glass enclosure and the first floor is retail around it are all the homes in the area i assume here you know we've got a lot of room to grow if you can believe you see all that open land we're working on some some ideas and plans for what that could be and uh and how we could develop community around it but we do have a lot of homes that surround this so so on the first floor is a retail experience on the second and third floor are classrooms for people to learn and what um ages are here is this high school college trade school what's the what's the age range in this giant 350 000 square foot facility well um you're gonna laugh at this but our goal is that we can educate and people can come to learn from three years old because we have a pre-k center um all the way up to 103 years old and everything in between okay what is it today is it college kids or high school kids?

7:11So right now we serve, currently we have a pre-K center of about 400 plus three and four year olds. And obviously we're growing teachers, right? So they get the opportunity to go over there and experience that. And in turn, but we also educate mainly 10th through 12th graders. We're about to kick off some college classes and different things like that for bachelor's, master's, doctorate programs. And we've got another program called Engage, again, that really focuses even on senior adults and things like that. that's about to roll out. All right, startups, you ever notice how successful businesses are constantly evolving, they're constantly adding new features, and you get that product velocities?

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9:30Absolutely. And, uh, you know, what also makes this facility different is most schools are open from eight to four and then they're empty, you know, before and after schools and Saturdays and Sundays. And, uh, this building's actually open from 7am till 9pm, six days a week about to expand to seven. Um, and so the answer to your question earlier was yes um all of the above uh the inspiration one of the inspirational um places that we looked at was actually the container park in vegas uh it's kind of some of the inspiration behind this yeah that was my friend tony shay's container park that he built in uh downtown las vegas uh from zappos so small world he was one of my best friends he's been on the show multiple times from zappos yeah love to connect with him at some point in time no he passed away tragically tony shay passed away you know it's he's got a great legacy in the the he wrote the book delivering happiness and he did all these extraordinary things with spaces and he believed in collisions and the concept of collisions was you know if you have different people bump into each other great things can happen and you have retail here um combined with teachers community members the theater maybe people go see a show and all that kind of comes together so walk me through what you have there in the retail space sure so we we have a um really three different types of spaces that we have some are we've actually created our own businesses inside inside of our school district that are either our kids um help design and run uh with our goal being that we have pop-ups in the future that they've really um you know started an incubator for that hopefully they begin to grow into our community um and then we have we have lease spaces uh that some of our local businesses you know engage in and then we have sponsored spaces as well that some of our partners just want to be a part you know and they need to grow their workforce as well got it so i see here um some of the experiences of easy experiences that are currently happening martin's automotive uh southern social eatery uh pine and home decor and lighting tell me tell me about some of these experiences sure so some of what you see here some of the local businesses that have come in and martin's automotive for example if you can picture you know a four or five bay automotive center that you can drive up into um and you know two bays or we're teaching 40 isd and dallas college courses uh and then the other two bays that are martin's automotive and they're running a satellite business out of and you know the great thing is our kids it's not just a separate classroom they're just going back and forth okay and learn from each other that's how it works let me see if i get this correctly you have a business that already exists um a barbecue a floral store you know a florist they decide hey you're going to put them inside this retail space they get a good deal on the retail space maybe or it's just um you know market rate Well, so we have a couple different models for that.

12:33And so basically what we do is look at market square footage, whether it's a salon or culinary space or automotive or just a retail type setup. And then the more students that they agree in our partnership to serve, the lower their rent per square footage. oh my goodness so that's incredible and correct me if i'm wrong here but finding people to work in retail establishments restaurants bakeries even finding mechanics this type of employee has been hard we have the lowest unemployment of our lifetime justin you look like we're about the same age here right uh you know maybe gen xers like we live through 10 15 unemployment our lifetime now we're down at three four or five percent they must be pretty happy with you getting them somebody to work in those bays correct well yeah it's a really unique partnership because we're able to provide workforce i can tell you a story we have a coffee shop there white rhino it's about their 13th location in dallas and you know i was watching one day and we have kids that go in and intern throughout the day well some of his to your point some of his early morning workers didn't show up and there's a line out the door well three or four of our kids who have been interning, they see him, he's in need of help.

13:47They just walk behind the counter and they're functioning just like clockwork. So we're providing workforce, we're building workforce, but we're also creating daytime traffic for these guys. So it's almost built-in customers as well. So it really is a great partnership when it comes to the business and how we function together. Tell me which restaurant, which careers, paths have been the most successful to date and how long have you been doing this one so we just opened this year um and it is uh kind of a soft opening that we're kind of rolling out small pieces as we go um and what we do is is i mean there's not necessarily a pathway in education right now for for example pine and ivy home lighting and decor right but what course is that like math physics like lighting and decor i mean maybe it's in the theater club interior design but you i I don't remember in high school interior design existing, but interior design is a, there's hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people who work in that category in America.

14:50And so our goal is not necessarily to put them in a stagnant pathway that's very limiting, but it's to take all of the careers. And we, whether it's a veterinarian we're trying to create, you know, teach or we can teach great cosmetology. We can teach somebody how to change oil. but what we realize is that you know if you can't run a successful business down the road it doesn't do you much good and so we're running a parallel pathway of what we call entrepreneurship or future ready skills and so it doesn't matter what business you're in you can have that experience so our kids whatever career path they're in they might go into pine and ivy and work on marketing or the you know the books behind or advertising you know she tells a great story of how our kids have come in and taught her tiktok for example and the next thing you know you know they're tagging the right areas and uh you know her online sales go up tremendously and so they're learning from each other but our kids are getting this vast amount of experience in all of these different settings is there some origin story to this i know in japan there is a very popular theme park and And what this theme park does is you go there as a kid and you can dress up as a firefighter, a dentist, a teacher, a chef, and literally you go do these careers.

16:13And what they've done in this Japanese amusement park is instead of like going to Disney and playing Star Wars characters or whatever it happens to be, nothing wrong with any of those Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a small world. Those are great rides. But the rides in this theme park in Japan are careers. Was that part of the inspiration by chance? or how did you manifest this in the world? Is there an origin story here that we should be aware of? Well, I mean, you kind of kicked it off with some of the same ideas we had. And so we started with a futurist, if you can believe that, and said, hey, come help us figure out what the future of education and workforce looks like and what the needs are going to be.

16:51You know, and he was really upfront with us. And he said, well, first off, it's got to be integrated. And these jobs are going to revolve around different areas of skills that I think, what is it, 60 % of our second graders or something like that are going to be working in jobs that don't exist today. And so as the workforce evolves, it may be entertainment oriented, for example, which we are really expanding our career pathways into. So to say that there's a foundation, I think we really are not trying to look backwards, we're trying to look forwards and how to prepare these kids for 20 years down the road.

17:26so some futurist you engaged you said hey tell me about the future rotation who was this futurist is this like i didn't know futurist was like a thing yeah it's a futurist or a thing they are tom houle h-o-u-l-e he's out of sarasota uh does great work and we actually brought him as part of our strategic planning approach and he really kind of gave us um scared my committee to death first off about what the future is going to look like they're they're walking out of there asking for when Jesus is coming, I think, with some of the things he's talking about. But it is really eye-opening to get us out of the traditional approach to workforce and what the skills that our kids need.

18:05Reading, writing, and arithmetic is really important, right? They're basic skills we all need. But how about how to tell your story and personal finance and advertising and marketing and communication and all those skills? That's really the vital thing that we've got to begin to layer into education, no doubt. and how to interact with a customer that's right how to understand a customer's needs i mean something as basic as that you know once you've done it my lord it opens up a world of possibilities and then you mentioned marketing uh and meeting people there halfway to understand that what's the youngest age that you've had a child get involved with business and entrepreneurship where where's the uh the youngest group because i could see the i mean i have eight-year-olds and they ask me questions about my day job all the time so what's the age you think uh folks uh will start doing this stuff my dad had me polishing silverware at the age of six in the restaurant in brooklyn so i mean i was running my own baseball card you know company at 10 i get it all right i mean um so we got to find where they connect um but it's it's got to be intentional as well we've we've created you know we're trying to teach personal finance in kindergarten and grow that up, right?

19:12So, we've created some core courses in fifth through eighth grade, for example, to begin to teach these skills to prepare them for this facility. And it's going down to kindergarten here in the next few years. But I'll give you a good example. We've got a business we partnered with and every partnership we have is unique. It's just about meeting each other's needs and finding a win-win for both. And one of them is kind of an artisan market. And the partnership we said was, well, what if we took part of your store and let the students create their own product and and began to sell that product so we call them like an in-person etsy right something yeah right so they're uh so they can they have to you know we had 60 applicants i think right off the bat all the way down to elementary school throughout our district and you know they had to propose their idea in a business plan approach and you know present their idea and then they get a 60 40 split with the owner so it it they're they're they're understanding you know yeah they're understanding how the business functions and reacts um to you know, what products they have out there.

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21:29Northwestregisteredagent.com slash twist today. Is the vision here that the facilities you've created, because you know i'm an entrepreneur i'm looking at this and i'm saying wait a second you're doing you got public dollars to do this you got a the government to do this right this isn't a private enterprise that's correct the school district owns a facility we have a we had a bond committee come together and they said let's build a college and career center to serve our kids and we plus that i think and we really brought community and some of the needs of the community into it we're a bedroom community so we we needed retail for example how long did that take for you to get this through?

22:05Because I'm from the formerly great state of California. I grew up in New York. We are completely dysfunctional in California. We cannot build a bathroom. Literally, we built a bathroom in San Francisco for$1.7 million. You can look it up. One bathroom. Now, you've built what I think is the most innovative educational experience perhaps in the world. You have a theater and you have retail. Those things are going to generate revenue that revenue i believe would be enough to underwrite the cost of the school perhaps does that pencil out because that a six seven thousand square foot theater i mean you could start having comedians come there now you're running like a casino in vegas style facility that you know i mean i'm gaming there but the fact is like you know you you could have adele or somebody come there sing you could have chris rock a comedian come there you could have joe Rogan do a podcast there and sell tickets for a hundred bucks.

23:04This thing could be making a half million dollars a week, a million dollars a week, just doing shows. You know, I think the key word there is opportunity and it's limitless. And as you described, and one of the core tenants of the facility is that every square foot is, is multi-purposed and multifunctional. So you're right. We, we needed, you know, we don't have entertainment out here and we don't have components like, you know, meeting spaces. We have a WeWork built into the front. You have a WeWork? Well, basically, yeah. It's called The Mix. Yeah. Okay. So you have a co-working space there as well.

23:38It's a co-working space up at the front. It's sponsored by Huckabee Architects. And you can come and you'll see a group that they'll bring their business in, riding on the whiteboards. And you'll have a realtor bring their client in. And you'll have some teachers hanging out. You'll have some kids working on a project. And it's called The Mix. And because intentionally, it is that co-working space. And so we can serve anywhere from two all the way up to 7 ,900 in every venue in between. Yeah. So, I mean, we can hold large concerts and graduations and conventions in the arena, but the theater is kind of a really unique space.

24:15That's actually the arena there. You can kind of see it as size. This is the arena. So that's where you have a sporting event. But I'll talk about that while you get it pulled up. That's all right. Because this kind of describes the multifunctional aspects, but every one of those seats moves. and so you can see kind of on that uh you know when when all the bleachers are pulled back you got eight volleyball courts there so we can host you know um you know recreation the second deck there if they drive forward and backwards and behind them are pickleball courts uh you know taekwondo so we we rent those out you know to to different groups in our community but it's also recreational opportunities so banquet spaces on the back side you saw that they they all drive forward and backwards um so you know we've we opened this thing with about a five or six thousand person you know concert and uh you know it was it was a really cool community event bringing that many people together the theater basically what it is about a 10 000 square foot massive black box but everything again we can put it into quarters we can make it halves we can have a we had a great thrust setting for theater and a performance there for community theater we have um you know cup stacking competitions for junior olympics and the next thing you know we got pro wrestling in the middle of it uh and it's it's being rented out and it's it's pretty unique space it's all flippable and moldable to whatever the need is at the time but there's definitely an opportunity to to really build economic development throughout our community for sure from inception um you know when you had this great idea working with this futurist trying to close the gap between what what graduates are going to experience when they start their careers and what they're learning in school and you just basically smashed it together from that brilliant insight and then planning to breaking ground to opening this year tell me about the timeline that you got this done in well i had a crazy idea probably about 10 or 11 years ago that what if you could learn on the second floor and put it into practice and experience on the first floor um and that idea has just blossomed and that was probably 10 or 11 years ago from you know design probably you know we started probably four years ago on that um and and then the build itself was about a 18 month and now ongoing up to two years to finish out some of the final components of it wow but just to let people you know in california you would basically be in court right now fighting over what frog or you know uh tree butterfly you were going to destroy with this building uh and you would have everybody fighting over the shade that you were throwing not the shade you were throwing with your words but literally people stop buildings because it's going to put shade on something this is what's amazing about texas elon uh built the gigafactory in 18 months you built this thing in 18 months man in texas you get stuff done well you know we do and we go and uh again it starts with a really supportive community which we have here and um you know there's a cool story about the cost of the build too i think please yes tell me probably is is something unique you know we built this thing um and and at the same time we were bidding it out um you know we went ahead and priced out like a comprehensive high school for the same type of enrollment and it's about a hundred million dollars cheaper to build this facility with all the extra components that we've got built in so it's a it's a pretty cool explain why it's so much cheaper to build this well it starts with the the multifaceted approach that we've taken uh some of the larger venues that we can put you know students into to integrate through we got you you know that pre-k center for example it doesn't have a kitchen so we use a commissary and pipe boot in uh to kind of save costs but also flexible spacing uh so we just did some unique things to to really use space the right way uh and and use it for a lot of different things and it's revenue generating so some amount of the revenue how much of the the budget of the facility gets covered by ultimately the revenue like let's say you had this thing cranking all the retail space rented out but you know in the theater you know at a solid capacity a reasonable capacity how much of the budget would get covered by you know that that commerce occurring in this multi-use space well i think that's still a story to be told um as we open um you know our goal is you know with everything we're doing is to cover overhead on on operations and things but it's already starting to exceed that so i think that's going to be a story that we continue to keep track of and tell but i think the the bigger revenue generating component is really the economic commerce and development with the community as a whole um you know because we're bringing in think about it you know let's say you had a concert or volleyball you know tournament i mean think about the people that are coming from the outside in ah yeah people taking dollars in our community that's right yeah yeah now you're a destination that's that's Yeah, this is a cool program we offer to the engage program.

29:25And this is what I was talking about, about really having something for everybody. And really, we allow our community to put, you know, pitch ideas of our teachers, you know, they don't make enough money, you know that. And so they're able to pitch ideas to come in and actually create their own little service or teaching. And so you can kind of see some of those. something there's a disney teacher and say hey i want to do this creative writing somebody who's in hospitality or in film they can go do film and these are the teachers who get to do be a little entrepreneur themselves make a little 10 extra on their salary 20 extra on their salary get a little uh pocket change yeah yeah you got it and the kids too i mean they can do this as well uh so you know community you name it and so and teachers don't have to teach english and and creative writing i mean those are a lot of those courses you know if they can sew or crochet and they think somebody be interested in that great but the idea and then make some money off the facility for yourself and let's keep our teachers around so the whole community has been activated to be entrepreneurial including the teachers and you don't resent them for having a side hustle you celebrate them for being entrepreneurial that's right you invite them and you market them and you You know, that's one of the cool things, you know, just from an educational standpoint is it's not just us as a school district trying to tell a story about what we do.

30:50The businesses are, you know, the community members are there. They're bragging about this facility, telling the great things going on. And it's really been a unique experience and it's working. It really is. There's a ton of space in Texas. You got a ton of space around this facility. Yeah. um i'm curious have you considered housing because when people do these multi-faceted uh spaces now they're always like hey let's put some housing let's put some retail let's book some community okay you you've taken this to a whole nother level you've got education and community spaces the theater entertainment but i don't see housing here but you know teachers have a hard time with housing and man finding great teachers if you said to them hey we're going to give you housing within a bike ride of the school and the facility and we're going to give you a deal hey we'll give you a zero percent mortgage on it or we'll underwrite half the cost or a third of the cost man people could come here as a destination you can steal great teachers from around the country to fly in and move in and you just house them or give them a discount i mean i think you're seeing uh so um can't spoil all the surprise because we got to come back and talk to you again right Yeah, of course.

31:58In the future, Jason. For sure, for sure. Let's just say that the OC in its current state is really, if you want to think of it as kind of phase one, we sit on about 300 or 400 acres out there that we could potentially do some really creative things with, as you're describing. You know, residential would be one of those feature. Yeah. How about police, fire, you know? Of course. Could we do some housing? But also, there's a lot of components that can't be done from a community standpoint, from an entrepreneurial standpoint. you know, within that facility as it is. So there may need to be some additional spaces, some different spaces, but what if the concept stayed the same, right?

32:36That we're integrating career college and community in every type of space. You may need a hotel one day, a restaurant hotel management. What about, you know, medical plaza or something like that to where we can begin to engage in those experiences for our kids in our community. in a way you're looking at this and saying let's take life writ large you know the whole concept of living in a in a town and you're saying hey what if education you know tracked all the aspects of life hey a hospital an emergency clinic now somebody can learn to be a nurse nurse practitioner an emt i mean all of those things could be adjacent and this is for public school and and in trade schools and everything and then a hotel what a brilliant concept hey you come to the theater stay for the hotel you stay overnight maybe go to the restaurants and it's really like a platform you're building is what i thought was most interesting was this ability to have some spaces that could rotate and be experimental because when you can retail is hard you got to make a couple year commitment but if the students can take something over for a month before thanksgiving or halloween seasonal stuff mother's day they can make all kinds of interesting pop-up experiences have has the pop-up stuff started yet and and what's the early result of that yeah so we're we're doing small pop-ups i kind of mentioned a couple of those on proposing different things from our students into a good setting or a service um you know experience uh they're doing our students are running a lot of just uh um like for example blooms is our florist that we run as a district and you know they'll do a pop-up um you know wreath making setup up and the kids will run that and every and i should have mentioned this are it all of our students are making money for themselves here um if in all of these different experiences that we're offering wait a second you come to school yes and you leave with the you get a paycheck at the same time you got it and you're getting college education and workforce credit at the same time and in our partnership for no cost that's amazing so uh maybe minimum wage or something just to while you're at school or it's like a stipend how does that work i'm curious so we do a mixture of both um i gotta be careful how i word this uh with the public sector for sure but yeah yeah conceptually uh we do wage for sure uh but what if a student creates a a uh i'll stick with the floral concept if they create a bouquet and you know they design that create that uh then you know then they're getting uh part of that profit off of that sale okay so unlimited upside there like a lemonade stand so when we look at a lemonade stand on steroids hey you run a lemonade stand we all did it you have a paper route you start learning about the economics of work here hey i have an idea for a wreath and a wreath class and here's the cost here's the profit maybe i get a little i wet my beak as we say in the business get a little taste right and you know they do events too i'm just staying with that same concept so if they recruit the event in obviously they'll get a little more of that profit for a wedding that they're gonna go out and do or whatever it may be.

35:44So, it's teaching all aspects, you know, and what we're hoping is we can get to the point and, you know, we're learning every day with this facility because it's never been done. But, you know, kiosks are something really common in a mall and we see that as a next phase for a true pop-up for students that can really create and design and develop their own and not just the district that they're having to work within that, you know, kind of an entrepreneurial setting uh but but more of literally their own team business that they can create and run uh so that's coming soon uh to a to a kiosk near you how about that i love it there are national brands that would love love to um develop workforce so a starbucks a target a walmart but pick the brand um you know they need to have trained people sweet greens i had the founder of sweet greens on the podcast this year you know he needs managers for these sweet green salad restaurants now you put a sweet greens salad in there i can connect you with the ceo um if you like offline but imagine you had a management training program of how to run an in-and-out burger or you know a bucky's whatever and so you run a little bucky's in there but you're learning to be the manager right like you learn all aspects they might actually pay you you know to run a program like that have the national brands the bigger brands the starbucks of the world started to to get hip to what you're doing yet and maybe want to engage there?

37:11We're always looking for partners, Jason. Okay. So, uh, we haven't, we don't have a national brand that's engaged just yet. Uh, you know, I think, I think in the future, that's something we definitely would be interested in looking at. But, uh, as you said, I mean, the great thing about that facility and maybe some additional facilities in the future around that land is, you know, we got room to grow. We got room to flip and change. Um, another component and facet of this facility is it's future-proofed. that as workforce changes and needs change, that we can change that facility and the programs within it.

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38:53And twist listeners get 15 % off their first four weeks. Stop burning money, hire developers smarter, visit lemon.io slash twist. let me ask you how the students are adapting to it this is year two or year one of enrollment for these kids year one okay this is very exciting because we do have an issue with people dropping out we got kids who are anxious they skip school got this covid generation who got really weird because they had to stay home maybe not as much in texas but here in california man kids got weird parents too everybody got a little weird being cooped up for two years what has it been like for for them tell me about like the students and the stories you see there you know delinquency you know it would seem to me i was very entrepreneurial and and if i could come to a school and make a little bit of money man i wouldn't have left the school i would have been there seven days a week so tell me what what this has done to the student body how are they reacting yeah it's been an awesome experiment it really has and not just in the workforce side but even on the social side and i'll speak to both if that's all right but you know what we put these kids we dropped them in a completely new environment uh that they never have been in before they're used to you know walking halls and uh you know having to go bell to bell there's no bells in this facility obviously um you know and they have freedoms and the ability to do different things uh based on what their their their need is for that day so um they have really engaged in fact one of the auto um martin's automotive that we have in there he actually had a son that was just that story that dropped out before.

40:29And he really wanted to be this partner because he never wanted to see that again. And we've got kids now engaging in those programs that are, you know, coming to school, engaging in a level they've never done before. But we're also, as you said, the rebound from COVID created a lot of new behaviors, let's just call it, in the, not only in schools, but in the world. And, you know, we hadn't had one fight in this facility, period. You know, we don't have behaviors in this facility because the kids, you know, they're adapting to that environment. When you've got a group of business people standing right beside you, you know, I've got more adults in this facility with eyes on kids and growing kids than any facility we've got in the school district.

41:13So it's a whole nother level of just the students responding to the environment they're in. And it is it's been awesome. The kids are doing great. this is really important because you know in a school you traditionally have like you know one or two adults with 20 30 kids the kids are going to model the other kids behavior here you have business kids model what they see around them and if there's three or four people who are running a business and there's 10 students in there and it's three to one you don't want to get kicked out and go to a regular school if you got this dope school where you can go and learn and make a little money and get your career these kids are smart they realize this is an opportunity i bet and they don't want the person who's running the store they want to work in to be like you know what you started a fight or you got loud or you said something inappropriate to a customer we don't need you here we have options and you know what you're teaching them the real world consequences of their behavior they get freedom but there's responsibility and this is what we as parents i don't know you have kids i do i have three yes i mean we all want it we want them to be as a goal to be independent and strong and survive in the world that is our jobs at some point they walk away from us and you know you did a good job if they don't turn and run back or don't turn and they're scared right as tough as it is to watch your kid walk away but if they walk away confidently you did your job as a parent you're you're dead on it and i think i really do think this gradual release of responsibility and and you know the kids the students they respond to that they respond Rhonda, you giving them some responsibility and yes, they're going to make mistakes just like you and I did.

42:50We all have done that. And, uh, but that's how we learn. And, um, you know, they, they, these are not, you know, you have to apply to get into this school. These are the doors are open. We take one and all from our school, our campuses. This is a, this is, um, both of our campuses. We have two high schools and, um, you know, they both come together into this facility and, but to get into a program where you're in a practicum and getting paid for that, you have to apply. you can get fired um so okay they're learning that aspect as part of their class as well might be the most important part of this is you know bridging that gap between hey you have to go to school the teachers are you know uh lord in their perception kids like oh these teachers are giving us a hard time oh we gotta do homework and then it's like or i can try to get this dope internship and i could be you know learning a skill making some money and then i got a weekend job.

43:45I mean, kids are going to respond to this. And I would think the kids, you know, we talk a lot about the wealth gap in the United States. We talk about the opportunity gap. You know, kids who have less, and I came from a lower middle-class family in Brooklyn, we had less than the kids in Manhattan. So we worked harder, we hustled harder, we appreciated any opportunity we got. It's kind of counterintuitive because you think, oh, these are the bad kids, these are the kids who are causing trouble. And we were causing a little bit of trouble on the street, I'll be honest but once we got opportunities that took our energy so maybe you could tell me about like rich kids middle class kids kids who are from poorer families how are they responding to this uh and is this something that maybe we could help make the world a little bit more people talk about equity or quality let's just talk about opportunity here is this closing the opportunity gap in your mind yeah i i think it is i think you know the key to me is finding something to connect and engage our students um finding something they're interested in and letting them run right as you talked about earlier and um you know we i couldn't tell you what kid goes to what high school or what you know uh fluency or or um low socioeconomic you can't tell the difference they're they're all functioning and working in that environment together and um you know they all engage at a different level just based on their interest so it's it really is um that like i said it's it's been a really cool social experiment to watch and it's working it feels like a great equalizer to me i'm being honest because if you are running the florist or a restaurant or you know a coffee shop or co-working space you get five kids the kids in manhattan their dads and moms got them the internships at condé nast or whatever they just had such a leg up and we had to like fight our way in but here you know you've kind of leveled the opportunity like you said you don't even know you don't know which is a rich kid which is a poor kid which is a middle class kid who's got a trust fund who doesn't they all have to come in and they got to do a great job and they got to make that employer that manager think this person uh is doing a great job for our customers and delighting our customers and is responsible human being that's so awesome it's really leveled the playing field i love that part of this is that you know it really isn't fair you know parents who are affluent they can afford the tutor they can afford kuman on the weekends whatever it is maybe they get them the internship i see that happen over and over my industry my friends who are affluent in silicon valley man their kids get such a leg up they get these internships at incredible companies what you've done is made that available to everybody what you've done could change education in the united states and make us more competitive and i am so proud and enamored with what you do and i invest in the greatest entrepreneurs in the world as my day job i saw what you were doing and i said find me i told my producers find me the person responsible for this piece of brilliance what you've done is so tremendous and uh has has anybody come to study this and say i got to do it in my community yet yeah because i caught you in year one i think that what you've built is going to become the standard well and we hope that uh you know it does begin to transform not just education in forney but uh throughout the you know texas and the world that's our goal uh we've already had you know visitors um school districts and and architectural firms and a few businesses all the way from uh vegas to tampa bay and everything in between um and so So we've gotten to the point, honestly, where we're getting so many tours and interest that we've set up some site visits that people can sign up and come to and learn how we did it.

47:32And I think it's not it's not something you just take and can and put somewhere else. It's it's about, you know, meeting the needs, but also just looking at things in a different way and meeting the needs of the community that you're in. And it doesn't matter if you're a tiny little school district. You can do something like this, you know. Yeah. Or a massive urbanized, you know, district. There's a lot of opportunities. And, you know, I think it's about just finding the right niche for your community and then taking a chance at it. And it's risk. There's no doubt about it. But, you know, it's working.

48:08And we hope that and we'll be happy to share how to come and visit the OC because we can show you pictures. And but until you actually walk this facility, you really don't understand it. um and so jason one day i'm gonna tour you when you come to oh no you know listen i got i got family in texas i'm in austin all the time let's go i find myself in houston once in a once in a while and i know you're somewhere within a bit of distance of those locations so i i am coming down to see this facility i am so thrilled by what you're doing because i love entrepreneurship and i believe that america is best represented by the state of texas right now and i think what and listen i i lived in three of the greatest cities in this country new york city los angeles and the bay area san francisco i lived in three amazing cities what i'm seeing in texas the the the enthusiasm the entrepreneurship and the boldness to me is the best of america and this is what we need we need entrepreneurship because i can tell you right now i am watching startups and they are sending jobs to manila they're automating them they're you know sending them to canada to other places where people appreciate work where people are lower uh there's a lower cost and we can do things remotely so america really to stay competitive is we need to get our students our children more confident and we have to make them love entrepreneurship and right now there's like a i feel there's a little battle going on people who believe in socialism communism they don't believe in capitalism they don't believe in entrepreneurship and i don't know what the reason is but what you're doing is letting them know entrepreneurship is open to everybody you don't need to work for somebody else you could be the boss and here's the path rich kids man their parents show them all the path they open the book and they're like here's the playbook i did it all my friends did it we'll start you on third base all you got to do is make it home you're doing is taking every student and you're starting them on second base at least in year one you're starting them at second base because if they know how to behave at work they know what jobs are like at the ages of 13 14 15 they are going to crush it the greatest gift i ever got was my dad made me work in his restaurant like a dog doing every position that made me fearless you're doing that for an entire community what you're doing is amazing dr terry i am enamored with it and i salute you and the great state of texas for getting this done this is a lesson for new york and these other cities california new york you got to move faster you got to be bold you got to try things like this and get the red tape out of the way that's right and you know and like you said i think it's the future but you know i really believe our nation was founded on two of those tenets you just talked about.