Part 1: The Kid They Never Built a Brochure For

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I got free lunch in a laminated envelope color that told every kid in line exactly who I was before I said a word.

My parents were on food stamps. I knew what it felt like to watch a cashier's face when the EBT card came out. I knew what it felt like to sit in a guidance counselor's office and get handed a pamphlet for a four year school two hours away with a price tag that might as well have been written in a language I didn't speak.

Nobody in that office was lying to me. They just weren't talking to me. They were talking to the version of a student they knew how to serve. Good grades, involved parents, a savings account somewhere, a plan that started with "apply" and ended with "graduate." I didn't have the first thing on that list and I definitely didn't have the last three.

So I did the thing nobody put in a brochure. I went and got a job in sales.

Nobody in my family had a background in sales. Nobody told me it was a smart move. I found it because it was the first place in my life that didn't care where I came from. Nobody asked about my parents. Nobody asked about my GPA. They asked if I could speak about the product and sell it. That was it. That was the whole application.

Turns out I could produce. And somewhere in the middle of two decades of doing that, I built a trade school funded entirely through WIOA dollars, scaled it fast, and exited it. Now I spend my time inside trade schools across the country, in the enrollment calls, in the marketing meetings, in the rooms where these institutions decide how they're going to talk to the next kid standing where I stood.

And here's what I've found sitting in those rooms.

The same blind spot that guidance counselor had in 1998 is still sitting inside almost every college and vocational school marketing department today. They are still building their message for the student they know how to serve. Not the student who actually needs them most.

I'm going to spend the next two newsletters proving that to you with receipts, not feelings. I've mystery shopped enrollment lines at schools across this country. I've listened to hundreds of hours of admissions calls. I know exactly where the language breaks down between what these institutions are saying and what a kid like I was actually needs to hear.

Because here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud in higher ed and workforce development right now. You are not losing students to your competitors. You are losing them to silence. To a kid sitting in a chair, hearing a script built for someone else, deciding nobody in that building actually sees him, and walking out the door for good.

I walked out of a lot of doors like that. I know exactly what it sounds like when an institution loses a kid it never even realized it had.

Next week I'm going to show you what that sounds like from the inside, using real mystery shop data from real enrollment calls, and why almost every school is making the same mistake without knowing it.

I appreciate you all for reading along, for being on this journey with me, and for spreading awareness about trade schools.

Control what YOU can control, take action on something, and don't forget to smile. Connect with me here.

https://x.com/TS_Secrets