Special Youth Episode: Tom interviews Tiffani Hockings

SYE - Tiffani Hockings
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:26] Hey Everybody it's Tom here with screw the commute podcast. This is the special youth episode. This is my first special youth episode where I plan to feature outstanding youth who are starting and running businesses and are making a difference in the world. Right now there are lots of youth who are making a difference in the world but that difference might not be so good. I like the ones who are making a good difference and who better than to kick off this special episode than Tiffani Hockings. I've known this young woman since she was a little girl and the first day I met her I knew she would turn out to be something special and you'll see that too when I bring her on in just a moment. Now I encourage anyone listening to this to send me notice of outstanding youth who you think would be good candidates for a special episode on screw the commute. Now they should be running a business or a non-profit and I'll run it by my secret board members and we'll try to select at least one young person a month to do a feature. All right. Today's sponsor is the distance learning school the internet marketing Training Center of Virginia. Don't even think about retraining yourself or sending your kids to college. Until you check out our webinar on higher education I do not want you wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars and putting yourself and your kids under crushing debt. The webinar is at screwthecommute.com.

[00:02:04] All right now let's get to the main event. Tiffani Hockings is the founder of discovering me Mentor Program and the author of the book discovering me because a girl's life is an adventure. She graduated from Liberty University with her degree in psychology and life coaching and now she's found her own passion of helping the next generation of girls discover their life purposes. Tiffany welcome to the show.

[00:02:30] Thank you so much.

[00:02:32] I'm thrilled to have you on here. But before I get into all the things you've been doing I want to tell everyone about when I met you I was staying at your parents’ home for some reason I know we were doing an event together or something long time ago and you were just a little girl and I got up in the morning and I'm half groggy and I'm hearing an audio play and it's it's the Count of Monte Cristo. And I don't know you must have been I don't know eight nine ten years I don't know you were listening to the Count of Monte Cristo I thought this girl is going to be something one of these days because I have no idea to this day what that show is about. But I know it's famous though she's she's brilliant so. So you grew up in an entrepreneurial family in fact that's how I met your dad. So tell us about what it's like growing up in the entrepreneurial environment that you did.

[00:03:33] Well it's very interesting actually because Every day kind of looks a little different. And I didn't really see my dad you know go off to work and then come home and talk about his job. I got to hear about the businesses during lunchtime because he would you know come out to the kitchen while I was doing school work I was homeschooled too. I got To see my parents a lot.

[00:03:55] So I would see him during lunch and he'd explain to me you know what was going on in the business. He was working on it at the time and he even let me start doing things for for my family in their businesses. You know I would just and I would address envelopes or I would go in to the offices if they had one at the time and you know work on the computer and data entry or you know anything that was able to help. So I got to really learn even from a young age I had to have a work ethic how to bring value to people and to have a passion for something to go for that passion to make a business out of it. To help people. And then also to see what the freedom was like of not having a 9 to 5 job where you only get you know two weeks of vacation time. You know if you work if you work a lot during the week you know you can have weekends off or you can you know take a day off or take some time off during the week. You can work on the weekends. And so it was just it was very interesting and I saw a lot of the pros and cons because some people like to have you know that job security. But and it can also be boring. And so yeah I think I was very blessed with the family that I grew up in. And it's gotten me to where I am today.

[00:05:23] And I've never met a homeschool kid that I didn't just fall in love with because you know the you know the parents care about education and the kids learn. I think they learn better because they can learn and things they really like and take off in directions and not be stuck in the exact curriculum although you yeah you have to learn certain certain things the math proper language and spelling and all that but but you can probably imagine you did a lot of things like Count of Monte Cristo. I can imagine what you started listening to after that if that's what you were listening to at eight years old. I got a surprise pop quiz for you. I don't expect you to know it but I wouldn't be surprised if you did know. All right. So here's the deal. One of the first power bars in the world considered one of the first power bars in the world had two main ingredients. What were they.

[00:06:27] Oh goodness. The first power bars.

[00:06:31] She's probably looking it up on Google.

[00:06:34] Well let's see off the top of my head. Goodness gracious. I would think sugar is probably in it.

[00:06:44] Well indirectly. I'll tell you it's a trick question anyway. Deer meat and cranberries because you love cranberries and there's one sitting on your desk because I researched you before I got you on here. What's that. What's up with that. You're a cranberry fanatic.

[00:07:09] I Am. Oh my goodness. I don't know why but I just love them so much.

[00:07:13] Well I think I think that on one hand if you just have so many of me keeps you from getting kidney stones but if you have too many you get kidney stones.

[00:07:26] I know I might turn into a cranberry one day.

[00:07:27] You actually have you know that was also an Irish rock band. I think in the 80s the cranberries.

[00:07:36] Yeah I actually have heard of them.

[00:07:39] So now you've got a new worthless piece of information. You're welcome. All right. So tell us about what is that discovering me program. What is it.

[00:07:51] Ok. So discovering me program is a mentoring program for teen and young adult girls. It's all online. It's interactive and then it's designed to help these teen girls discover their God given life purpose and help them with their confidence in their identity and what they're supposed to do with their lives.

[00:08:12] So you say it's only online.

[00:08:15] Correct.

[00:08:16] OK. And and are you going to have any live events. Because I can as soon as I heard about this I'm picturing you in front of thousands of teens and their parents at big events. And you're the big superstar. And since I thought this up in my head excuse me you have to make it happen.

[00:08:34] Absolutely. Because you said it gonna happen now.

[00:08:38] That's right. It has to be.

[00:08:41] Yes I would definitely love to do that. And at the moment there is nothing planned. But you know that's that's life. Things are always coming up always changing.

[00:08:51] This is in its formative stages now people can sign up now. It's ready to go. But it's in the beginning stages. Sometimes people do what they call charter memberships in the first you know so many hundreds of people that sign up and then they lock that price in forever. So that's something to think about and people do love that term. I was at the beginning I was a charter member and if they quit. See they can't if they come back they have to come back at the higher fee. So that makes them not want to quit. Just a little sidebar there for you now what if somebody wants to coach with you one on one or have their daughter coach with you one on one. Would you do that.

[00:09:36] Yes actually I would. That is something that I do not have you know currently at the moment but it's definitely something again in the planning stages I would love to very soon actually even be able to offer that my passion really is to connect with girls one on one and you know in person or over Skype or something like that and be able to actually help them with their specific you know whatever's going on with them specifically there are a lot of general things that pretty much every teen or young adult girl will face. And so that's what the you know the program is for. But then there are just you know specific issues that just only a few girls face. And I would love to be able to just kind of walk alongside them through those.

[00:10:23] Well I'm sure you've probably helped some people for free or probably just talk this through a lot of people that ask you questions right.

[00:10:31] Yes true.

[00:10:33] How did you come up with the idea.

[00:10:36] So this is an interesting question because it's basically something that I wish I would have had when I was growing up. I was an only child and homeschooled so I had socialization I had you know those older girls I looked up to for sure but I never really got a chance to kind of ask them questions or kind of open up to them about what I was personally going through at the time. And so you know if there were. If there were things I was going through I might have thought that I was the only one you know walking through those because it can be so easy to look at the people that are kind of further ahead of you and the oh well they have their life together they never went through what I'm going through. You know their life is perfect and kind of getting to the age I am now I'm realizing how funny. There's no way that their life was perfect you know they were going through the same things that I was going through.

[00:11:29] And you're twenty three now.

[00:11:30] Correct.

[00:11:32] Now I know that you are very close with your mother but that's not the same thing. Right. Let's have as having a sibling or someone your age.

[00:11:42] Yes absolutely. My mom is amazing.

[00:11:45] She is awesome to the nth degree I agree. It's just different though.

[00:11:49] It is. It is. Yeah I would definitely consider her my best friend. But at the same time she grew up in a different generation than I did. She didn't grow up with the Internet and social media. And you know the standard of beauty being you know the supermodels. And so for her to say something encouraging to me or to you know helped me walk through something I'm absolutely grateful for. You know the words that she spoken to me and then at the same time I still kind of wanted more like someone who actually really related to my specific place in history even you know with what's going on in the world.

[00:12:30] And that's funny you say your mother grew up in a different generation because she still looks 12 years old and that really sucks. But for all the parents listening out there yeah you can be the greatest parents on Earth and nobody is taking that away it's just different they have somebody at your age range that's right there in the trenches with you they will understand certain things better. So any parents out there thinking Well I don't really need this I got everything together with my daughter. Do you really. That's what I wonder. So. So what all do they get in this thing.

[00:13:07] So the first thing they get. So it's a yearlong program 52 weeks basically. So whatever you know whatever day they start out that's when they're week one starts.

[00:13:17] If It's a leap year do you give me an extra video. You got to plan your business carefully. You don't want people complaining on leap years.

[00:13:29] So true I guess if I just say you know they'll get 52 videos 52 weeks no matter what. So they get 52 weekly discovery videos what I'm calling them. And each video is going to be about a specific topic. And that teen girls generally will most likely face at some point in their lives. So they're going through it right now or they probably will once they graduate high school or start college or something like that. And then they'll get newsletters that have articles interviews fun little things member profiles. And member submissions those kind of things. And then there will be twelve monthly online get togethers. So the girls can submit questions that they want to hear me answer alive and they'll kind of be able to get together and like a group call kind of thing and then a personal assessment template will be sent to them at the very beginning and we'll just kind of help them track. Where they feel like they currently are in their lives and then help them kind of see how their journey looks and assess their progress. I guess you could say as the program continues and then the last thing is my book discovering me because a girl's life is an adventure it's kind of like a companion book. So each chapter discusses a different piece of discovering your life purpose and so with certain program. And what's all the same program but certain memberships I guess you could say you can either get a free copy or you'll have the opportunity to purchase that.

[00:15:10] Okay so. So you said you're your mother was another generation for you. I'm like I don't know maybe ten or twelve more generations like your great great great great grandfather. So I'm wondering what are some of the issues you talk I think at bullying dating. I mean I don't know fashion. What are the issues that kind of issues you're going to talk about.

[00:15:32] Yes definitely I definitely talk about friendships. You know cliques bullying or something that kind of is a new maybe not a new thing but you know definitely something that happens these days identity how to deal with authority because I know a lot of in this generation there's a whole lot of you know empowerment going on and you know you have your rights as a human being and that's so true. But then also realizing you know there is just there's an authority over you as well you know you have your teachers you have your bosses you have your parents. How do you respectfully you know handle authority while also making your own decisions. How age kind of plays into your dreams if there are age restrictions. How do you still go for those your values being kind. You know confidence. How do you overcome things overcome obstacles just a lot of things like that.

[00:16:28] Well I could go on for 500 weeks.

[00:16:32] I mean it's hard to narrow things down to 52.

[00:16:37] Yeah. What are the. The weekly online things is going to be like are they going to match that week's video or just be free for all for questions. How is that going to work.

[00:16:47] Yes. So to kind of. What's what's the word. Rein things in I guess you can say that's what I would have the girls submit questions previously so I can kind of choose which ones kind of go together maybe even make a theme. You know there's there's a lot of questions about this certain The certain topic or this certain fear or time of life. And so I would definitely make sure to choose an choose a theme basically. So it's not it's not a free for all and it's very there's a purpose for it.

[00:17:26] And what did you figure out what platform you're going to use to do that.

[00:17:32] At the moment I'm looking at Zoom.

[00:17:35] I've had good luck very good luck with that. I mean we're doing Skype right now but because most people have Skype but zoom is coming up really fast and I've never heard a bad I anything bad about it.

[00:17:47] Yes it is. I've heard great things about it too and so basically I will be using whatever. Is good at the moment. So if at some point you zoom doesn't become good then I'll find something else to make sure that it's still a good experience for the girls.

[00:18:02] Yeah. There was your research in this little bit before I talked to you. I totally agree with you know that teen girls need the consistent positive influences from someone who is relatable just just like you but and it's not a celebrity you know there's been so much celebrity hype and in a lot of the celebrities are not good role models to start with. I mean that's. I'm really glad except you're gonna become a celebrity so I hope you can remember us peons when you when you hit the big big time and they give you a big show and movies about Tiffani. Well no it's going to happen. You're only 20. Twenty three. I mean you know I already predicted when you were eight you're gonna be great. But more seriously I saw something where you said at some point a young girl says why am I here on this earth. Talk to me about that.

[00:19:05] You know this is a question where I think everybody goes through this but I can't speak for it but I speak for girls that You know you're born and you know you have a limited amount of time that you only live once. That phrase that fly flies around and you want that time to matter. You don't want to just live your life and then come to the end of it and go OK. Cool. That was that was fun I guess you know like well what did I do. And I think we all have something innately in us that says you know we want to matter. We want to do something that makes a difference. We want to have a purpose or else you know why are we getting up and out of bed in the morning. You know why are we going to school why are we doing anything. And so to find your place in this world I think is just such an innate thing that just everybody goes through and especially teen girls when they when they see you know the role models like you said the celebrities that they seem so perfect. But you know how relatable are they. How do they how how can a you know an ordinary teen girl per say make a difference in the world if they don't have the same kind of platform that celebrities do. And so that really just struck me because I believe that everyone does have a purpose and everyone can make a difference. It's not always going to look like a movie star or a singing and singing artist or something but everyone has an opportunity to touch even one person's life or to have an impact on their family and or make a difference in their job. And I just really wanted to encourage girls that they can find something. And I do believe there is something for everybody.

[00:21:00] Yeah. And another one thing I'll dispute with you a little bit is that the celebrities seem so perfect. Some of them may seem so imperfect. And and I mean they they do a lot of bad behaviors in court half the time they're doing their rehab. And we certainly don't want to go down that path just just to have celebrity and money is certainly not worth selling your life out for. That's for sure. Well speaking of money how much does it cost to join your your organization. It's called Discoveringme.com. For people would like to see a really cool website that I threatened to duplicate with me instead of Tiffani dancing around with an umbrella.

[00:21:53] So I said I would love to see that.

[00:21:55] Oh a lot of people would love to see that until they got sick. So what's the cost. What's the membership cost.

[00:22:04] So monthly if you just do month by month it's twenty nine dollars. If you want to pay for a whole year upfront it's or in three monthly payments and one hundred and sixteen in three consecutive months but you'll get the entire 52 weeks and all of that. And then if you want to pay for all of it completely upfront it's three hundred nineteen and you'll end up getting a month free. And then with both the second option. So the 116 you know for three months and a 319. The girl will receive a free copy of the book as well.

[00:22:39] Ok. So that's that's cool. Now like I've got an idea and use our platform here a little bit. This was not mentioned ahead of time to Tiffani but I suggest anybody out there that has connections to companies that you sponsor scholarships so you pay the fees on behalf of a worthy girl or have a contest or have an employee essay contest. Why my daughter should have this. You know I don't know. We can work the details out later but and I think I could probably talk Tiffani into which you sponsor 10 or 20 young women to give some kind of discount what do you think Tiffani.

[00:23:23] Yes I would. There I'd be willing to definitely talk about that.

[00:23:26] Yes sure. So we'll we'll figure out some group discounts for corporations that want to get involved in something really really good and powerful that's going to help a lot of young women. And you know I'm going to bring this up even though this is a very upbeat thing today but there's this bullying stuff and the young women are committing suicide because of some of the bad things that are going on. And when somebody like Tiffani steps up and and does something about these things that's that deserves a lot of support. So any companies out there if you have a connection to any company please get in touch with Tiffany and do something it will be great for the community. Great for your employees but get the young girls involved and it certainly would be a tiny tiny amount of money compared. I mean what I've done I've speeches Tiffani at luncheons that cost a million dollars to a company just the lunch. How many girls this you know if they if they get rid of that lunch let's see a million divided by 300. That's a lot of girls you can help and there is this big stadium that's going to fill up when you're on stage. So. So I like that idea. We've got to take a brief break and when we come back I'm going to ask Tiffani what's a typical day like for her now building this this business and what keeps her motivated.

[00:24:58] So folks do you know what colleges and universities are doing. According to gradeinflation.com they're raising grade point averages to make it look like they're doing a better job of teaching when there's a mountain of evidence that they aren't. So I want you to watch the eye opening higher education webinar at screwthecommute.com to potentially save yourself and possibly your loved ones friends and neighbors hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt when they go for higher education. Just go to screwthecommute.com and click on free webinars. Set yourself about 90 minutes aside and it will definitely be worth it whether you're going to college whether you're in college already whether you have kids nephews nieces neighbors in college. It's potentially saving you enormous amounts of money. So check out that webinar.

[00:25:55] All right. So back to our main event Tiffani Hockings is with us and she is with discoveringme.com. It's her brainchild to help teenage girls and what's the age range Tiffany.

[00:26:12] Probably from 16 to 22.

[00:26:17] With lots and lots of life issues so wonderful. We really love that. So before I get to work what's a typical day like. I'd like to know how did you kind of decide. Well I'm qualified to do this. What makes you think that this cause you are a girl in that age range or what.

[00:26:35] So this is something actually that I have asked myself ever since I kind of started to develop discovering me. And it really it really got to me at some points while I was doing this and thinking well you know why am I qualified and to be completely honest I had to realize that I guess the reason that I feel like I am most qualified is because I'm not perfect and I'm still going through things I'm still learning things. I have definitely because of experiences that I've had and just you know I've gotten out of my teenage years I've graduated college now I can look back and see you know this is what worked this to what didn't work. These are some tips that I've learned. But at the end of the day I am still I'm still learning too. And I think that people do not relate to perfect people.

[00:27:35] People relate to people who do have struggles because that's that's where they are too. And if I can come alongside and use the experience that I've had and I'm still gaining to encourage a girl. And to just help them along through life because everyone's life is going to look different anyway just because you know somebody may seem like they have it all together it doesn't mean that everybody's life is going to look you know cookie cutter exactly the same. So there are some general tips and tricks that I've kind of picked up along the way about you know how to overcome fear if you're in a new situation or but that doesn't mean that I don't still get fearful sometimes.

[00:28:19] But I so I I guess at the end of the day what makes me qualified is that yes I was a teen girl. I have gone through these things but I'm willing to admit that I don't have everything altogether and that I'm learning too. That I have been through. You know what these girls are going through and you just share the things that I've learned.

[00:28:43] And you did major in psychology and life coaching which I didn't know that was a major nowadays.

[00:28:49] Yes. Yes it is. And that's that's where some training has come in as well for sure.

[00:28:54] Yeah. And I kind of teased about that term because in the coaching industry there's so many people that never did a thing in their whole life want to be your life coach. So I kind of rag against that but you took the time to go to a whole college about this and study and learn and and I know that you've been doing things all your life even though it's a young life but you've done more in your young life than a lot of people do in their entire life. So I really applaud you for that. So what what's a typical day look like for you.

[00:29:28] So a typical day right now looks like creating the content that the girls will see. I purposefully didn't create everything first and then start or launch I guess discovering me. I wanted to make sure that the content was relevant just for an example a couple of weeks ago. I actually went through a situation where I had to realize you know like hey I need to be more confident in this area. And it happened to be the same week that I was deciding to write you know what I was going to say in my video about confidence.

[00:30:06] And it is it's very interesting how that kind of that has happened a lot with a lot of these videos that I've done where I already kind of went into it thinking OK you know I've got this down and then you know I went through a situation thought well this is perfect to share now because I have even more insight and so a typical day really does look like you know sitting down seeing what kind of inspiration I have to write about these topics either for you know an article for the newsletter or you notice write down what I want to say in a video to the girls.

[00:30:41] And so that everything is very stays relevant and it's not it's not forced. Because that was the last thing that I would want to just you know write or do something for the sake of doing it. I want to make sure that the content that I put out is quality and that it's something that I can stand behind.

[00:30:58] And what are you doing about video because your dad and I have a long history of video stuff together. How are you shooting this.

[00:31:05] I'm actually shooting it on my iPhone 8. With an external microphone.

[00:31:12] What kind of microphone.

[00:31:13] It's called a purple Panda.

[00:31:15] OK. Yeah. No because it's been difficult to get an external mic into iPhone. So we're all looking for ones that people actually like.

[00:31:24] Yes. Purple panda has been awesome. I would recommend it. And so what's nice about having the iPhone too is that you know with the tripod I can take it on location so to speak. I've been able to go around a lot of places where I'm kind of sneaking into some places to go where I wouldn't have had necessarily you know been able to maybe with a huge camera and also it just I feel like it makes it look more real like this is just me. You know it's not I'm not trying to have a whole studio production. It's it's a conversation. You know sharing my experiences and I'm shooting it on my iPhone.

[00:32:04] Going to interview anybody.

[00:32:07] I will be interviewing or yes there are interviews in the newsletter And we'll have to see. Like I said not all of the videos at the very end weeks have been completely finished yet. And I'm always open to redoing some of the videos that I've already done.

[00:32:25] Yeah we'll get we'll get somebody else to go with us. And you and I. Oh we'll dance through that city of wherever you live with umbrellas. And you can interview me while we're at it.

[00:32:40] That sounds Perfect.

[00:32:42] All right. So the Web site is discoveringme.com did that I read somewhere there's a sample of a video there or not. I don't remember.

[00:32:52] Yes there is. If you go to discoveringme.com you can enter your name and email address. It's a good example of one of the discovering me videos. It's actually a sample of one of the videos that is actually there so you'll see like you know kind of half of what the video will look like kind of get a feel for you know just me. Me and how and how the videos work. And yes I would love that.

[00:33:19] Great. All right. So go over to discoveringme.com. We'll have that in the show notes for you. And Tiffani will you come back and let us know how to go on after a while.

[00:33:29] Absolutely I would love to do that.

[00:33:31] So this has been the first of an ongoing special series on great entrepreneurial youth. So check out all Tiffani's stuff in the show notes for this episode. And remember to watch the webinar on higher education. Tiffani I love you to death. And we'll catch you on the next time.

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