Career Bound by Praxis

Marla Szwast is a freelance writer living in Marietta, GA, with her husband, six kids, two dogs, one cat, and a bird. (Yes, she is a wee bit crazy.) She writes about homeschooling & the brain @ www.jumpintogenius.com. You can also follow her on Medium for more ramblings on education, parenting, writing, and health. (With an occasional poem thrown in, because everything good starts with a poem....

Matt Beaudreau is the Founder and CEO of Acton Academy Placer.   Matt is a long-time educator, having worked as a teacher, administrator, and athletic director in public and private schools at the K-12 level. He has also been involved in higher education as a corporate trainer, consultant, guest lecturer, and keynote speaker for schools including Stanford, Sacramento State, and William Jessup...

Kelly Smith is the Founder & CEO of Prenda School, an in-home microschool led by mentors. Excited to dive in deeper to his personal story and learn more about Prenda.   Kelly's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellysmith35/  Kelly's Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellysmithinaz   -----   Questions discussed in this episode:  First – what are Prenda schools?  Le...

Tyler Hawk is the Director of Marketing at Meratas, a leader in more affordable education financing through Income Share Agreements. Full Disclosure: Tyler is also an alumni of Praxis. He's got an awesome story about how he went from college drop-out to Director of Marketing at an early stage startup that's crushing it and growing fast. ----- Praxis is a 6-month bootcamp that results in a full-tim...

Welcome, Matt Streck – Financial Advisor. For the better part of the past decade, Matt's been helping people manage their personal financial plan. And today we're gonna get his take on tips + advice for people just starting out.   -----  Questions discussed in this episode:   - What are the most important things for somebody 18-25 to get right about their personal finances? &nb...

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019).  In addition to her regular column at Forbes.com where she spotlights innovative K-12 learning models, Kerry's articles have appeared at Th...

Mitchell Broderick is the SVP of Client Development at Platform Marketing – previously VP of Authority Marketing at ForbesBooks and VP of Biz Dev at Advantage Media. And not to mention an all-around great dude. Full Disclosure: Mitch is a Praxis alumnus. But not only is he an alumni. Mitch is "The-OG" of Praxis alumni. The very first customer from our very first class way back when. He's now 5+ ye...

Keith Holsten is the CEO/Founder of K/H Financial our mission is to make a difference in our client's lives and our community each and every day.   https://www.kh.financial/  Questions discussed in this episode:   -How long have you been in the financial advising world?   -What do you love most about your work?   -What did you do before?   -When did you know financial...

In this episode of Self-Directed we discuss the changing tide of education with Corey DeAngelis. Corey DeAngelis is the Director of School Choice for the Reason Foundation, an Adjunct Scholar at Cato Institute, and the Executive Director at Educational Freedom Institute.  You can follow him on twitter at @DeAngelisCorey Discussed on this episode:   - Corey – what's your backstory? What s...

This week on Self-Directed, we're diving into side projects. Side projects are not only a great way to build a new skill, but it is also an incredible way to build a signal to places you want to work for in the future. In this episode:  - How do side projects help?  - Great examples of side projects - Why businesses like seeing candidates with side projects - Stories of people landing jo...

Discussed on this episode: - Thinking about confirmation bias when it slows our learning - Why it's okay to be controversial  - The rub between finding "Your Audience" and "Learning Quickly" - The art of charitable interpretation - way easier to learn when you're not taking stuff personally - When is it valuable to ignore people you disagree with? When should you try to learn from them? - The...

If I could recommend only one job for you to start your career, it would be a job in customer support or sales. Why is customer service the best place to start your career? Customer support and sales jobs are what I call highly-leverageable jobs early in your career. These two job types offer you maximum exposure to the business with the most transferable skill sets to other roles. Both sales and...

Discussed in this episode: - How to create your own learning plan - How do you decide what to learn? - Using your interests as a guide - Getting lost in learning rabbit hole - Documenting your learning process & tips for building your own documentation system - How Mitchell leveled up his copywriting by diving down a rabbit hole - Why you should learn how to learn on your own - Pros and cons o...

Discussed in this episode: - The pros and cons of moving away - The risks and challenges of staying in your hometown - The impact on your career and option set - "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family." –Mark 6:4 - How to address your situation: should you stay or should you go? - The upside opportunity - Lessons from our own personal...

Discussed in this episode: - When to follow rules on the job hunt and when to break them - You get laid off today and need to replace your income ASAP – where do you start? - The worst popular advice you see being promoted about the job hunt today. Hint: it's *not* a numbers game - Costly signalling - Why the normal hiring process isso ineffective Interesting Statistics:  - The average job op...

Discussed in this episode: - The rise of online learning - College and school shutdowns - Does online college fulfill student needs and desires? - What would college look like without the social experience? - The real reasons people choose college - How to make a more valuable use out of your "college years" Recommended Reading: -Disrupting Class, Clayton Christensen -A New U, Ryan Craig -What Sch...

"Self-directed" is about taking ownership of the things within your control. From your mindset to your money to your education and career – we're going to explore what it takes to build a meaningful life and career: on your own terms.  ------ Self-Directed is brought to you by Praxis!  Praxis is a twelve-month program that places young people with startups to apprentice, learn, grow, and...

On this episode of Self-Directed, we dive into the backstory of Cameron Sorsby, our co-host and Praxis CEO – and explore how following your interests can lead to unlocking the kind of work that matters. Lessons for this episode: -How to follow your interests while you figure out what you want to do -How sometimes the most valuable thing you can do to help an entrepreneur is become an early custome...

On this episode of Self-Directed, we discuss Mitchell's career journey – from over-achieving high-school with a life-plan to an early startup employee at college. We discuss some of the bumps and bruises collected along the way as a college student, the first few years in the real world, and how he accelerated his career working directly for the CEO of an early-stage company years later. Lessons f...