Approach It Like a Business, Not a Trophy: Shellee Howard on Debt-Free College and Building College Ready

Joanne Skiles[00:00]
Welcome to Her Career Unplugged, the podcast where you build your career playbook, one strategy at a time, using real takeaways from each episode. I'm Joanne and I'm here with my co-host Vimala. And today we have Shellee Howard joining us. So, Shellee, I am so thrilled that you are here today. It's really not every day that you meet a mom.

Joanne Skiles[00:23]
Who gets her son into Harvard with multiple full scholarships and then says, wait, I need to teach other families how to do this. And that's exactly what you did. You built College Ready from the ground up, now helped over 2,700 students. Your students have earned more than 80 million in scholarships. You have a hundred percent college acceptance rate. So every single student, every single year, you've been on Fox, CBS.

Joanne Skiles[00:52]
NBC, you were featured on Next Level CEO alongside Daymond John. He's the founder of a fashion empire, but I know him as the Shark Tank guy. Being in that room says a lot about where you are as a business leader. And just recently, you were named the 2026 Global Educational Consultant of the Year. So this is truly one of those stories that motivates you to take what you know.

Joanne Skiles[01:22]
Bet on yourself and build something really big. So thank you. Thank you and welcome to Her Career Unplugged.

Shellee Howard[01:29]
I am so excited to be here and I hope to give your listeners a ton of worthy information and resources that they can move forward on and be inspired.

Joanne Skiles[01:41]
I think it'd be amazing just to see how you've grown College Ready and what you have done, but also helping others. I'm very passionate about it. One, as people know, I am a professor, but two, I'm passionate about this because that's what I like to do. I like to take what I do and help others. The fact that it became a business model is even more amazing.

Shellee Howard[02:03]
So good. Well, I can't wait to dive in and let's just see where it takes us.

Joanne Skiles[02:07]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[02:08]
I'm gonna hand you over to Vimala, my wonderful co-host, who will ask you a bunch of questions. We're gonna have a lot of fun there. So Vimala, take it away.

Vimala Pydi[02:16]
Awesome. Thank you so much, Joanne, and welcome, welcome, Shellee. Just listening to the intro, I was like, wow, so many hats that you were wearing, and you got so many accolades, and I'm sure you've been really giving your best to get where you are. But before we jump in, I just wanted to hear who Shellee was before she started wearing so many different hats.

Shellee Howard[02:43]
Oh my gosh, that's a great question. I talked a little bit about this on Next Level CEO and it was really the first time I did some self-introspection.

Shellee Howard[02:53]
And really, who I was was a very shy, a very timid young lady. I remember my mom making me call to order pizza, and it terrified me just to talk to a stranger on the phone. And my mom was so frustrated by that. She was a hairdresser, and so she talked to people all day long. So she didn't understand my fear of just communicating.

Shellee Howard[03:22]
And so it wasn't until high school, she put me in cheerleading. She pretty much told me if I wanted a car, that that was what I had to do to get it. And so that's what I did. And I tried out for cheerleading and it changed my life. It truly took me from this very timid person to the woman I am now. And I give a lot of credit to my friends who supported me, my family who supported me.

Shellee Howard[03:51]
Both my parents are entrepreneurs, so they think very outside the box. And I think it's been a journey as of now. I have two daughters and two sons. And just watching them now go through the process is just a whole nother thing to look at. So I was a shy child.

Vimala Pydi[04:12]
Wow, that's such a great insight and also inspirational for our listeners who are timid or shy about going and talking, just listening to your story. So thank you for sharing that.

Vimala Pydi[04:27]
So I have to ask, when you started your journey, one of the areas that I looked at was you were working and helping your son get into colleges and he got into a really good one, being part of Harvard.

Vimala Pydi[04:43]
I had my daughter go through that too. It's very intense. I can totally understand how it is draining for you and the kid. But you did something different than others. You took it and started helping others. How did that get started?

Shellee Howard[05:02]
It was

Shellee Howard[05:03]
interesting. Well, I'll take you back. Spring of eighth grade, my eighth grader, my oldest, comes into the kitchen for a snack after school and says, Mom, I know exactly what I want to do after high school. And I'm like, Whoa, I didn't even know if I was going anywhere after high school. And he's like, Yeah, I want to be a brain surgeon. I want to go to one of those Ivy things. Can you help me? And I was like,

Shellee Howard[05:30]
Sure. And I thought it was just help me find the right people to support him. I didn't realize it was going to be me. And so I made an appointment for him and his high school counselor. And unfortunately, she said, Why would you want to be a doctor? They don't make money anymore. And he looked at me and I looked at her and I was like, whoa, I was not expecting that comment. And so he's like, now what? And so it was up to me.

Shellee Howard[06:00]
I ended up going back to school and then I became an independent educational consultant through UC San Diego. But it wasn't until I started traveling and visiting colleges all over the globe that I really found out the common thread is they just want to know who the student is and will they be successful at their university. That's it. Everybody's checking boxes, and I'm like, I figured it out.

Shellee Howard[06:28]
And so at my son's high school graduation, by that time he had applied to 12 schools, got into 11, seven full ride offers, got a full ride at USC. I was like, I'll learn the fight song. I don't know anything about it, but I'm so excited. And then Harvard came a-knocking, and Harvard matched USC. And how could we say no to Harvard? So it was at his high school graduation where a young man sitting next to me says, dude.

Shellee Howard[06:56]
I didn't even know that kid was smart. I'm like, did you call me a dude? And he goes, I'm so sorry. And I was like, wow, that was wild. He goes, Did you know that kid was smart? He didn't know I was the mom. And I'm like, Yeah, I did. I go, did you? And he goes, No, he's like soccer captain. He's like ASB president. Like, he's a normal guy. And I said, That's exactly

Shellee Howard[07:23]
what I think every high school student should get to experience. He wasn't freaked out, he wasn't stressed out, he wasn't building a resume to get into a college. We were just adulting. We were really navigating on how are we going to help him be a successful adult? And college was the stepping stone to get there. And so that's how College Ready got started.

Vimala Pydi[07:49]
Wow, okay. Yeah, that's a great story. And also how organically it grew, right? So now College Ready has served over 2,700 students, helped families earn more than 80 million in scholarships, and you have a 100 percent college acceptance rate. Those numbers are really wild, it's really cool.

Vimala Pydi[08:16]
But can you take me back to how you shifted College Ready into a real business?

Shellee Howard[08:25]
It's a fun place to be. College Ready is the seventh business I've started. So I am a serial entrepreneur. I've been at this one 18 years. And so this is almost my longest. I had one for 23 years. So I started my first business at 12, and I fell in love with problem solution. Here's a problem. I have a solution. Now I just need to go help them fix it.

Shellee Howard[08:53]
And so for me, that's how each of my businesses were started and how I ended up exiting and starting the next one. So College Ready really came from that first young man who was sitting next to me, because after the graduation ceremony, he grabbed his parents, he was only a junior. Mom, I need you to meet Shellee. I need her help. That's her son. And they were my first client. So it was that.

Shellee Howard[09:21]
It fell in my lap. I did not set out to do this big corporation. And what I learned is I was doing it on the side of my full-time career and I fell in love with it. I get to inspire teenagers to be the best version of themselves, get into their dream school, and graduate without debt. I can't imagine a higher calling for me.

Shellee Howard[09:48]
And so that's how College Ready initially got started. When it became my full-time career is when my son crossed the Harvard stage and he handed me his diploma and he says, Mom, we had a bet. When I graduated from Harvard and I did it without debt, you were gonna write a book. Where's the book?

Shellee Howard[10:10]
And I was like, no, he remembered. I thought it was just another one of those things that parents

Vimala Pydi[10:14]
Mm-hmm.

Shellee Howard[10:17]
say, like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that book. And he was very determined that that was gonna happen. And so I took three months off and I just wrote the book. It was a bestseller in 24 hours. And the title is How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money.

Shellee Howard[10:39]
And that's really what College Ready is all about. It's about clarity, about getting to know your student, and about doing it with wisdom and not just taking on debt or using your retirement. And so it was my mission to help... my goal is a million families, and I still have a long way to go. But I have a small ask every single podcast, and that is, how can I help?

Shellee Howard[11:09]
What can I do? How can I support you? And so it's been a wonderful opportunity. Prior to COVID, I was public speaking everywhere. And now podcasting is amazing

Joanne Skiles[11:21]
Ha ha.

Shellee Howard[11:22]
because I can help so many more people. And it's just such a great opportunity for families to tune in while they're at the gym or at the soccer field, wherever. So that's how it got started.

Vimala Pydi[11:35]
Awesome. Yeah, so for our listeners, looks like you need to have a mission and then you had a calling to help others, started a business, and then you started with writing a book and also podcasting. Let's dive into that second part. In my research I saw you have been on over 150 podcasts until now.

Vimala Pydi[12:01]
And you have hosted 70 plus guests on your own show. And again, you wrote a book. How intentional was that media strategy, and what has it done for your brand?

Shellee Howard[12:13]
I think it's such an important question. And I've battled this for 18 years, literally, because my biggest struggle was my client is a busy working parent. How do you market to them? Right? How do they hear your message? They're not the first to pick up a book and try to do it themselves because they know better. There's their own challenges, right? So I tried 33 different marketing techniques.

Shellee Howard[12:43]
And what I realized is parents are talking about their child and their money. Those are two very sensitive areas. And so I needed to connect. I needed parents to see that I'm a real person. I'm a mom of four, I've done it myself, I've been doing it for others, and successfully. I think as a busy parent, there's no better way

Shellee Howard[13:12]
to say yes than to really see what I've done and the impact I've made. And so for me, it was connecting. Podcasts are intentional because they get to know, like, and trust you, right? It's a wonderful way to connect. Just like when I used to be on stage, they would see who I am. I'm not perfect at all. And I think they appreciated that, that I had my challenges.

Shellee Howard[13:39]
And then of course I did all of the media strategies, the social media and the webinars. And I'll tell you, parents are webinared out. They will sign up and they won't show up. And then they'll ask for the recording and then they don't have time to listen to the recording. So all of these challenges are real. And so I like to let families, parents, entrepreneurs know that you really need to get clear on the person you're trying to help.

Shellee Howard[14:10]
And as soon as you get that clarity and really lean in on how I can best serve them, everything else fell into place. And so starting my own podcast was really about bringing a village of resources to my listeners. I have everything from

Shellee Howard[14:30]
lawyers and CPAs and financial advisors and therapists and test prep and tutors. Just honestly, if you were a busy working parent, all of the people that you would want to grab onto without having the time to do all of the vetting. So that's what my podcast was all about. It was never about growing College Ready. It was like, how can I truly help my people?

Shellee Howard[14:55]
And so I think leaning into that was the best thing I ever did because I'm getting to work with some of the most amazing families.

Vimala Pydi[15:05]
That's amazing. And as we are peeling the onion, you can see you have really good strategies for people who are trying to build their business and also for parents who are in a similar boat, trying to get their kids into college. So that's awesome. Thought leadership, going on podcasts, having 30 plus marketing strategies.

Vimala Pydi[15:29]
Those are definitely a few areas where you can build your strategy and marketing as you're trying to grow your own business. The next question would be more on being a woman building a business, specifically in education, a space that's often undervalued. What's something that you've had to push through

Vimala Pydi[15:51]
that you think men in similar spaces just don't deal with?

Shellee Howard[15:56]
Wow, I don't know of any. I honestly don't. I don't look at it like that. There's so much need. Every single family who has a teenager needs this information. So I'm thinking about, I mean, it's endless, in my opinion. And as far as the men and the women part, I believe it's more of a personality than it is the genetics.

Shellee Howard[16:23]
I believe that there can be some really powerful women and some really meek men. And so it's more about stepping into her power than saying somebody else has more opportunity. I've just never looked at life like that. I'm like, the sky's the limit, and let's go get it. And my favorite thing I tell my students is, let's go fail forward. Let's go get it.

Vimala Pydi[16:48]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[16:49]
That's

Joanne Skiles[16:50]
a very Silicon Valley statement there. Let's go fail forward. I like that.

Vimala Pydi[16:53]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[16:55]
I think education, the field is a little more level, so it does come down to your personality in certain ways. There's

Shellee Howard[17:05]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[17:05]
a little bit of bias at the lower level.

Joanne Skiles[17:09]
Not the higher education. Elementary, high school, that's a little more biased towards women. Higher education

Shellee Howard[17:13]
Okay.

Joanne Skiles[17:14]
had a little more bias towards men, but it's little in some ways, right?

Vimala Pydi[17:21]
Right.

Shellee Howard[17:21]
Sure.

Vimala Pydi[17:21]
And sometimes it helps, knowing your audience, having your mission, running your own business. You may not be seeing those biases because you own your company, right? That might be a little different than working somewhere where you have a room full of men and you're the only woman and you're trying to survive. So maybe it's a little different in your field because you own your business and you're already working with your clients

Vimala Pydi[17:50]
directly. Makes sense. I just wanted to ask that to see if there's anything specific that our listeners need to know if they are on the same path as you. All right. So yeah. Go.

Shellee Howard[18:01]
I will say, right after

Shellee Howard[18:03]
college, I started working for a Fortune 500 company for eight and a half years. And I was told I had to wear a skirt and pantyhose every day. So

Vimala Pydi[18:14]
There was

Joanne Skiles[18:14]
Yeah.

Shellee Howard[18:15]
there were times in my life where I'm like, you're gonna tell me what to wear, really? And by the time I left at eight and a half years, we were wearing whatever we darn well pleased. So I think it's who's in the room and who's in leadership.

Shellee Howard[18:30]
But I think we've come a long way. In my industry, as a certified college consultant, it's very mixed. Men, women, I don't really see a difference. Corporate America, there was a difference.

Vimala Pydi[18:45]
That's really good to know. Just for our listeners looking at different fields. We have listeners from early careers to very seasoned. So just to know which areas they will have to have strategies and which areas their skills would matter more. So it looks like this is one of the areas where your skills would matter more.

Vimala Pydi[19:06]
Awesome. Yeah.

Shellee Howard[19:06]
For sure.

Vimala Pydi[19:07]
Next section I want to really focus on the actual work that you're doing, more on how you're helping students get into colleges, and parents. One question we always ask our guests is AI. It's on everyone's mind. It's everywhere now. You recently talked about AI watermarking and college essays. What are you telling families about using AI?

Shellee Howard[19:32]
I think it's very important that families are part of this discussion, number one. A lot of times they will put their head in the sand and be busy and not want to talk about this kind of thing. And I think it's not safe to do that. And so what I'm advising families is sit down and do AI together in a safe way so that student has parameters. I call them guardrails. Because once you learn how to use a tool properly,

Shellee Howard[20:01]
wow, it is so powerful.

Vimala Pydi[20:03]
Yeah.

Shellee Howard[20:04]
It checks all my emails every morning. This is amazing, right? But it's not thinking for me. It's doing my busy work. And so there's a difference. And so when I talk to families, I focus more on how AI will affect your career, because most of my clients are from seventh grade to 12th grade.

Shellee Howard[20:25]
They are in the thick of it and I don't want them to get out of college four years later and not have a job. So I am talking about AI in a very different way. And I'm saying, I can tell you the top 100 jobs that are going to be the first to go away. That doesn't mean there's not going to be new amazing jobs coming to fill those spots. And so a lot of people like to stop on the first side and I'm like, no, no, no.

Shellee Howard[20:53]
We're just gonna use your brain more. Instead of just being data entry, you're gonna get to think and collaborate. You're gonna get to be in a room of leaders. It is a really exciting time. And everybody's shocked at how excited I am about all of this. But I remind them, remember, or we don't, but what would it have been like when there was a horse and carriage and the first car drove up? Whoa.

Shellee Howard[21:22]
People would be thinking, everybody's gonna get lazy, right? And then there

Vimala Pydi[21:26]
Right. Yeah.

Shellee Howard[21:27]
was the calculator, and everybody's like, everybody's gonna be terrible at math, their mushy brain. And then there was the cell phone, that's not gonna last. But look at what it's done for us. Not everything is roses and sunshine, but I will say I'm really excited. Here's what students need to know about applying to college. Some colleges

Shellee Howard[21:51]
are fine with AI. Totally fine. Some colleges are absolutely not. Last year I had 25 of my students get their essay kicked back because they found out they were using AI. And so they gave them a chance to rewrite it and resubmit it. That was a year ago. Think how far AI has come in a year. And now we have watermarking and we have all this other fun stuff. What I want students to hear.

Shellee Howard[22:21]
Well, first, parents, don't write their essay. That's number one. Period, double space. So just don't write the essay. Secondly, if you're going to utilize AI, do it on another computer. If it touches your work and you're sending it to a school that does not want AI coming through admissions, well, that would be good to know.

Shellee Howard[22:47]
First off, right? What school you're applying to and how they feel about AI. That's what we help our families understand. Some are great. I just talked to a professor at Vanderbilt. He's on the board there, and he said, We are all about it. As a matter of fact, we are so all about it, I let them do every assignment except the final, that's verbal.

Joanne Skiles[23:10]
Mm. Mm. I'm considering

Vimala Pydi[23:13]
Hey

Joanne Skiles[23:15]
oral exams again. Go back to the eighties, it'd be good.

Shellee Howard[23:19]
Right. And so

Shellee Howard[23:21]
when he said that, it's like, yeah, you can cheat your whole way through, but at the end of the day, if I don't feel that you have a grasp on the subject, I'm not passing you. How

Vimala Pydi[23:32]
Right? Yeah.

Shellee Howard[23:34]
amazing was that? I thought, way to lean into it

Shellee Howard[23:37]
and be forward-facing and tell your students, let's do this, let's use AI for research, collaboration, da-da-da-da. But at the end of the day, your whole grade's gonna depend on can you articulate what you've learned?

Vimala Pydi[23:51]
That's amazing. And also keep that authenticity, right? I always say it feels too perfect if you are just using AI. It loses your authenticity, your voice. Use it to help, but don't let it write everything for you.

Vimala Pydi[24:10]
Just learning how you can use AI and

Vimala Pydi[24:15]
helping us to understand how we evolve with emerging technologies. So that brings us to the end of the conversation and we'll be going into rapid fire, Joanne.

Joanne Skiles[24:26]
Yes. But

Joanne Skiles[24:27]
first-generation students going into college. They don't have anyone at home who's been through the college admission process. So I'm just curious, what's the first thing you tell those families to get them up to speed?

Shellee Howard[24:41]
I would say for the listeners, go to Amazon. My book is on sale for four dollars for your listeners. If you can't afford four dollars, email me and I will send you a free copy. So just so you know, I used to have it on there for free and nobody would get it because it was free. So now it's a cup...

Joanne Skiles[24:59]
Right. It's a weird system, I get it.

Vimala Pydi[25:02]
Ha ha ha.

Shellee Howard[25:03]
No, it's a cup of Starbucks, right? So it's understanding the foundation, but at the bottom,

Shellee Howard[25:10]
the very most important thing I will share. This is what colleges want to know. Who are you? What have you done? And how have you proven it? That's it. They really want you to... Are you going to be a good academic fit, a good social fit? Is this going to be a really great experience for you? Because if it is, you're going to make that university better and you're going to point at the diploma on the wall after.

Shellee Howard[25:38]
And you're going to tell everybody how amazing that school was and now you're marketing for them. So college is a business, and it's really important that you realize there's a lot to it and you should approach it as a business, not as a trophy.

Joanne Skiles[25:53]
Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. It is a business, approved. That is the professor there. I'm like a hundred percent. And we do

Vimala Pydi[25:56]
That's really good.

Shellee Howard[25:59]
That's the professor.

Joanne Skiles[26:03]
care. We care about retention. So it's not about

Shellee Howard[26:06]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[26:06]
just accepting students. We want students to stay. If we didn't care, then we would just accept everybody and be like, we've got your money, and bye when you don't pass. There is an actual plan to it.

Joanne Skiles[26:18]
I'm not involved in all that stuff because that's not something I'm interested in. I just want to teach computer science. All right. So, with that, thank you so much for my improv question. So let's go into rapid fire, quick answers, no overthinking. Warning you here. First one: one word families always assume about college admissions that's

Joanne Skiles[26:43]
completely wrong.

Shellee Howard[26:45]
Expensive.

Joanne Skiles[26:46]
Yes. Yes. And get more details from your book. All right. The scholarship application line that gets ignored the most, but shouldn't.

Shellee Howard[26:58]
Optional.

Joanne Skiles[27:01]
Yes. Yes. Very true. Anything that says optional

Vimala Pydi[27:04]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[27:06]
is... think about it. It's not optional.

Shellee Howard[27:07]
Not optional.

Vimala Pydi[27:09]
Okay.

Shellee Howard[27:10]
Unless you don't want to go there, then it's optional. But yeah.

Joanne Skiles[27:14]
Yes.

Joanne Skiles[27:16]
I should have had you help me with my college admissions. I mean, I

Shellee Howard[27:18]
Ha ha ha.

Vimala Pydi[27:20]
Right? Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[27:21]
was just a little lazy though at the end of the day, so

Vimala Pydi[27:25]
Yeah.

Shellee Howard[27:26]
You're not alone.

Joanne Skiles[27:28]
It's

Joanne Skiles[27:29]
like suddenly I'm like, accept it. I'm done. Okay. Morning person or night owl?

Shellee Howard[27:35]
Morning person.

Joanne Skiles[27:36]
Morning person. I could tell, you've got that demeanor. All

Vimala Pydi[27:38]
Yeah, I could tell too, for some reason.

Joanne Skiles[27:43]
right.

Joanne Skiles[27:44]
If your son hadn't gotten into Harvard, do you think College Ready still exists?

Vimala Pydi[27:50]
Great question.

Shellee Howard[27:51]
Wow, that is a good one.

Vimala Pydi[27:54]
Ha ha

Shellee Howard[27:55]
No.

Shellee Howard[27:56]
Mm mm.

Joanne Skiles[27:57]
Nice. All right. All right. We got it. You left your

Shellee Howard[27:58]
I don't think so. I left my last career.

Joanne Skiles[28:02]
last career. Yeah. Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[28:04]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[28:04]
There we go. Good job getting into Harvard.

Vimala Pydi[28:07]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[28:08]
Love it. Good for all of us. Say thank you for getting into Harvard to your son. So

Shellee Howard[28:14]
You got it.

Vimala Pydi[28:15]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[28:15]
Yeah.

Joanne Skiles[28:17]
Best piece of advice you'd give your younger self before any of this started?

Shellee Howard[28:24]
Just do it.

Joanne Skiles[28:25]
Nike slogan right there.

Vimala Pydi[28:27]
Ha ha

Shellee Howard[28:27]
Yeah.

Vimala Pydi[28:28]
ha.

Joanne Skiles[28:30]
AI in college essays, green light or red flag?

Shellee Howard[28:35]
Yellow. Be cautious.

Joanne Skiles[28:36]
Yellow. Yeah, we got the teaser

Joanne Skiles[28:39]
from up above. It's like you gotta know what the college is looking at, what they expect, if they're gonna throw it right back at you. Okay,

Shellee Howard[28:48]
Mm-hmm.

Joanne Skiles[28:49]
so we've got it all here. We hear College Ready. What's next for you?

Shellee Howard[28:54]
Hmm. Well, my secondborn is getting married in three weeks. So I married off my first in May. My second's getting married in three weeks. And so for me, I'm hoping that we'll have grandkids pretty soon. And when I'm not working, which is a lot, I will have that new side to be able to start really

Shellee Howard[29:21]
enjoying that part of being the mom. You know, all four of my kids have gone to college now and graduated debt-free, which has allowed them to buy homes, which has allowed them to get married and be adults. So I'm just celebrating all of our wins and just leaning into it. It's a great season coming up.

Joanne Skiles[29:41]
Yes. And I love that. You had four

Vimala Pydi[29:42]
Congratulations on that.

Joanne Skiles[29:44]
you have four children and they all graduated debt-free. And I think that's something really important for people to understand, that it is possible, and not just possible if you happen to be born with a silver spoon, but possible by being strategic and looking into it. College is expensive. It's not that it isn't expensive, but there are ways to make it not as expensive.

Shellee Howard[30:10]
Yes, we didn't even talk about that, but there's four buckets of money. And if you're curious, go to collegereadyplan.info. And I talk about my four buckets of money. There's so much money. Last year, our students got $11.8 million. There's so much money, families, but it's not going to come and sit on your lap.

Joanne Skiles[30:31]
Right.

Shellee Howard[30:32]
You gotta go get it.

Joanne Skiles[30:33]
Yes, you gotta go get it. Just a personal anecdote: my first year, the state of Florida gives you a good scholarship. So I had that.

Shellee Howard[30:43]
Yes.

Joanne Skiles[30:44]
But once it was getting to the point that I was gonna go to graduate school, I wasn't gonna have that money. So I needed to figure something out. And that was for graduate school. So it is there. You don't have to do it alone. Other people have done it.

Joanne Skiles[31:02]
Yes. So Shellee, thank you so much. This has been honestly a great conversation. Thank you for being so open and generous with your story. Before we wrap up, I think you said collegereadyplan.com. People can probably follow you as well on LinkedIn. Anywhere else that you would like people to connect with you on?

Shellee Howard[31:23]
I'm on every social channel. So truly, I have the most amazing intern. That's another thing I would tell you, you wonderful women out there, is utilizing what's available to you. I had a senior who graduated and she didn't want to leave College Ready, and she's like, Can I be an intern? Her social media is on fire. She's of the generation and

Shellee Howard[31:51]
she's probably underpaid, but other than that, she's amazing and she's going to college and this is her play money. So think outside the box on the resources that are just around you. But yes, every social media, please follow. If you would like a free complimentary clarity call, go to collegereadyplan.info. If you are curious about what it is that we do, go to collegereadyplan.com.

Joanne Skiles[32:22]
Thank you so much again. And everyone listening, thank you for tuning in to Her Career Unplugged. If this episode spoke to you, please subscribe on YouTube, follow on LinkedIn, find us on our handles at HerCareerUnplugged or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. And don't forget to actually rate the episodes. We're trying to bring in some more ratings, so this would help other women

Joanne Skiles[32:47]
find these conversations. So until next time, stay intentional, stay career focused, and stay on...