# Financial Tips: She educates you on how to avoid student loan debt and how to simplify scholarship applications.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 3 Feb 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/2c0d0c46-a0ab-4206-9bea-b39e012dbc8e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Jocelyn Pearson. Purpose of the Interview The interview on Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushion McDonald and Jocelyn Pearson aimed to: • Share Jocelyn’s journey of graduating debt-free by securing $126,350 in scholarships. • Educate families on how to avoid student loan debt through her proven system, The Scholarship System. • Dispel myths about scholarships and provide actionable steps for parents and students. Key Takeaways • Scholarship System Approach • Jocelyn developed a six-step process to simplify scholarship applications and avoid overwhelm. • Focus on breaking the process into small, manageable steps rather than a vague “go get money” directive. • Common Myths Debunked • Too early or too late to apply: Start by junior year; it’s never too late—even college seniors can apply. • Only perfect students or low-income families qualify: Many scholarships don’t require high GPA or athletic ability. • All good scholarships are gone: Smaller, local scholarships ($500–$5,000) add up over time. • It takes too much time: With a system and reusable materials, effort decreases each year. • Avoiding Scholarship Scams • Beware of “easy,” “enter to win,” or sweepstakes-style scholarships—they often sell personal data. • Real scholarships require effort and personalization. • Role of Parents • Parents should help with planning and identifying legitimate scholarships but not complete applications for students. • Committees can detect when parents write essays. • AI in Scholarship Applications • Jocelyn warns against copy-pasting AI-generated essays. • Her platform introduced TESS, an AI assistant for ethical guidance and support. • Financial Aid Basics • Submit FAFSA even if you think you won’t qualify; some colleges and states require it. • Combine all sources—government aid, institutional aid, and private scholarships. • For Current College Students • Check with financial aid offices, academic departments, and organizations for scholarships available after freshman year. • Entrepreneurial Journey • Jocelyn turned her passion into a business by starting with a book, building an email list, and launching webinars. • She emphasizes persistence and ignoring naysayers. Notable Quotes • “I had to accumulate my way to getting college paid for—the mere mortals’ way to going to college without tons of debt.” • “Most families want scholarships, but they get stuck in the overwhelm.” • “There’s no big red easy button—but with clear steps, it feels less daunting.” • “We’re saying no to the broken system… It takes, on average, 21 years to pay off student loans.” • “With great power comes great responsibility—AI can help, but only if used ethically.” #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
[0:01] Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:04] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:07] Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't want
[0:10] Speaker 2: to miss an episode, so please take a moment right
[0:12] Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[0:16] Speaker 1: It's free.
[0:17] Speaker 2: You can follow me on iHeartRadio, app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
[0:21] Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
[0:24] Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
[0:28] Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
[0:30] Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
[0:34] Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
[0:38] Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My guess is the founder and
[0:40] Speaker 2: CEO of this scholarship system. Like many families, Jocelyn was
[0:45] Speaker 2: middle income. She wasn't a straight a student, all star athlete.
[0:49] Speaker 2: You still manage to graduate completely debt free by securing
[0:53] Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty six three hundred and fifty dollars
[0:56] Speaker 2: in scholarships.
[0:57] Speaker 1: It didn't happen by chance.
[0:58] Speaker 2: She developed a prove repeatable strategy that transformed the daunting
[1:03] Speaker 2: scholarship search into a clear, step by step system. Please
[1:08] Speaker 2: welcome the money making conversation Mastic class. Joscelyn Pearson. How
[1:11] Speaker 2: you doing, Joscelyn, I am wonderful.
[1:14] Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having.
[1:15] Speaker 2: Me one hundred and twenty six thousand dollars and scholarship.
[1:20] Speaker 1: Was that for over a four year period? Did you
[1:21] Speaker 1: go to graduate school?
[1:23] Speaker 4: Talk to us that is only undergraduate It is over
[1:26] Speaker 4: four years. That's actually a very important point with the
[1:30] Speaker 4: scholarship system. My university did not offer me a free ride,
[1:35] Speaker 4: so I had to accumulate my way to getting college
[1:40] Speaker 4: paid for, which I like to joke is the mere
[1:42] Speaker 4: mortals way to going to.
[1:43] Speaker 3: College without taking on tons of debt.
[1:45] Speaker 4: But I was not one of those students where you know,
[1:47] Speaker 4: we see them in the papers ten million dollars in
[1:50] Speaker 4: offers and they get their choice. I had to scrounge
[1:53] Speaker 4: together some funds. But that's, in my opinion, the more
[1:58] Speaker 4: likely way for an average family student to get there.
[2:01] Speaker 3: And so it was.
[2:02] Speaker 4: It was actually gradually accumulating my way. But each year
[2:05] Speaker 4: I snuck by where not only did I have enough
[2:07] Speaker 4: to cover that year, but I actually received an overage check.
[2:10] Speaker 2: That's awesome because I realized that, you know, you know,
[2:14] Speaker 2: people trying to pay back loans. People graduate from college
[2:17] Speaker 2: and they got things they want to start their life,
[2:19] Speaker 2: got that tremendous debt tied to their name. Because it's
[2:22] Speaker 2: really easy to get a loan. They're just signed it.
[2:24] Speaker 2: They don't credit check you, they just give you the money.
[2:27] Speaker 2: But the payback is daunting, and now people are trying.
[2:30] Speaker 1: To ask for forgiveness.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Please don't allow us to pay it back when you
[2:35] Speaker 2: have a system right now, the scholarship system that allows
[2:39] Speaker 2: people to get scholarship. When you use their word step
[2:41] Speaker 2: by step, educate us own that, Jocelyn Sure.
[2:46] Speaker 4: One of the reasons I've found a lot of families.
[2:49] Speaker 4: Let me back up, I think most families want scholarships, right.
[2:52] Speaker 4: We all want free money, other people's money to help
[2:55] Speaker 4: pay for college before we have to sign the dotted
[2:57] Speaker 4: line for that debt. But where we get stuck a
[3:01] Speaker 4: lot of times is the overwhelm they say to their student,
[3:04] Speaker 4: are you applying for scholarships?
[3:06] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[3:06] Speaker 4: Mom, Yeah, I'm getting there. And next thing we know,
[3:09] Speaker 4: they submitted a couple applications that were easy put in
[3:12] Speaker 4: there right in front of them, and that's it. But really,
[3:14] Speaker 4: they probably did go to Google. They probably did google scholarships.
[3:18] Speaker 4: They probably saw tons of scams and things that didn't
[3:21] Speaker 4: pertain to them, got overwhelmed and quit. And so when
[3:25] Speaker 4: I got my free ride, when I got paid to
[3:27] Speaker 4: go to college, I had friends and.
[3:29] Speaker 3: Family ask me how did you do it?
[3:31] Speaker 4: And when I was walking them through it, I sounded
[3:33] Speaker 4: like a broken record, right, And that's when it dawned
[3:36] Speaker 4: on me, Oh my gosh, these are clear steps. These
[3:39] Speaker 4: are repeatable steps that they just need to follow. And
[3:42] Speaker 4: I think that's why our families have successes because instead
[3:45] Speaker 4: of getting overwhelmed and just giving students and families this
[3:48] Speaker 4: big task of go get money, we say, okay, right now,
[3:52] Speaker 4: let's just.
[3:53] Speaker 3: Set a plan.
[3:54] Speaker 4: Okay, next step is okay, right now, let's understand what's
[3:57] Speaker 4: the bill?
[3:57] Speaker 3: Okay, next step?
[3:58] Speaker 1: All right?
[3:59] Speaker 4: This so it's one step out of time, and by
[4:01] Speaker 4: breaking down this big, scary, overwhelming process into a micro
[4:05] Speaker 4: focused step out of one step.
[4:07] Speaker 3: Out of time, that's how we can get to that
[4:09] Speaker 3: finish line.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Okay.
[4:10] Speaker 3: So that's why we call it the six Steps to scholarships.
[4:12] Speaker 2: Okay, we're early in the conversation, but you brought it up.
[4:15] Speaker 2: Is there a website. This guide us to the website,
[4:18] Speaker 2: and then out of that website conversation, I want to
[4:20] Speaker 2: talk about scams because I want to let people know
[4:23] Speaker 2: that there are truly scams out there and we want
[4:26] Speaker 2: to avoid them because you have some next step. But
[4:28] Speaker 2: let's talk about that website first. But we just before
[4:31] Speaker 2: we discuss scams.
[4:32] Speaker 3: Yeah, so they can go to the Scholarship System dot com.
[4:34] Speaker 2: We do tons of freecuresystem dot com.
[4:38] Speaker 4: Okay, thank you for rereading that. Yes, so the Scholarship
[4:42] Speaker 4: System dot com. And we are also on Instagram, TikTok,
[4:45] Speaker 4: all over social media. So we primarily actually coach parents
[4:51] Speaker 4: and then their students can implement the process. But it
[4:54] Speaker 4: really does help having that parents buy in to get
[4:58] Speaker 4: their students motivated and going to the scams. Like you asked,
[5:02] Speaker 4: this is also an important piece for parents to understand.
[5:06] Speaker 4: So a lot of parents will ask me, well, can
[5:08] Speaker 4: we just do it for them me my ethics, my
[5:12] Speaker 4: moral boundaries. Absolutely not. But even more so, I have
[5:16] Speaker 4: interviewed committees that have given out millions and millions of
[5:19] Speaker 4: dollars and they say, sure, we can't prove it, but
[5:22] Speaker 4: we know when a parent is doing the application for
[5:25] Speaker 4: their child. We know, and so we don't want to
[5:28] Speaker 4: cross the boundary of doing it for them. But where
[5:30] Speaker 4: can a parent help building that list and so understanding
[5:35] Speaker 4: the list of scholarships, helping them build that understanding what's
[5:38] Speaker 4: a scam and what's not. This is so perfect for
[5:41] Speaker 4: a parent to use their skills to help their student
[5:43] Speaker 4: and set them up for success.
[5:45] Speaker 3: Now, I will say, we do have a free webinar.
[5:47] Speaker 4: On that website at the Scholarship system dot com where
[5:51] Speaker 4: we talk about the how to spot the scams in
[5:54] Speaker 4: more details. They want visuals if they're a visual kind
[5:57] Speaker 4: of person. Okay, but here's a quick breakdown. When we're
[6:00] Speaker 4: talking about scholarships. If we can knock it out in
[6:04] Speaker 4: five or ten minutes. If it has words like easy
[6:09] Speaker 4: enter to win, weekly drawing, monthly drunk these it's scam.
[6:15] Speaker 3: Might be harsh. However, they're based on luck.
[6:19] Speaker 4: They're basically a sweepstake, and many of these organizations are
[6:24] Speaker 4: selling the information. They are actually using this as a
[6:28] Speaker 4: way to collect marketing information, collect emails, selling them away.
[6:33] Speaker 4: How do I know this? I'll tell you what my
[6:35] Speaker 4: email that I used for doing these. So for those
[6:37] Speaker 4: parents that are hearing this and saying, oh, no, we've
[6:39] Speaker 4: been doing those. I did them too. I wasted an
[6:42] Speaker 4: entire year before I figured out which ones to focus on.
[6:45] Speaker 4: My email had over twenty thousand emails. And this was,
[6:51] Speaker 4: you know, over a decade ago. This is before we
[6:53] Speaker 4: were getting twenty thousand a day.
[6:55] Speaker 3: But that they flooded me by selling my email.
[6:59] Speaker 4: And so we don't if it's based on luck, if
[7:01] Speaker 4: it says enter to win weekly drawing, if they just
[7:04] Speaker 4: have to write a sentence to win, that those are not.
[7:08] Speaker 3: Worth our time.
[7:09] Speaker 1: Now let's go talk about some this. I'm talking to Joscelyn.
[7:12] Speaker 2: She is the incredible founder and CEO of the Scholarship system.
[7:16] Speaker 2: She secured for four years, one hundred and twenty six thousand,
[7:20] Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty dollars in scholarships for herself.
[7:23] Speaker 1: Let's go with this first one.
[7:24] Speaker 2: It's too late or too early to apply, Joscelyn, your thoughts?
[7:28] Speaker 3: Yes, I love this one.
[7:30] Speaker 4: So I always joke I speak to parents with juniors
[7:34] Speaker 4: in high school or younger, and they say, oh, it's
[7:37] Speaker 4: early yet, we don't need to focus on.
[7:39] Speaker 3: Scholarships just yet.
[7:40] Speaker 4: And then I speak to my senior, my families with
[7:43] Speaker 4: seniors in high school and they say, oh my gosh,
[7:46] Speaker 4: we're freaking out.
[7:46] Speaker 3: We're behind the curve.
[7:48] Speaker 4: And I always joke, where was the school year in
[7:50] Speaker 4: between junior year and high school and senior year in
[7:52] Speaker 4: high school where they actually realize now's the time. So
[7:56] Speaker 4: it's just it always happens where we're in junior year.
[7:59] Speaker 4: We think we've got plenty of time. We get to
[8:00] Speaker 4: senior year and it is crazy. Our student has so
[8:03] Speaker 4: much stuff on their schedule. We're trying to get admissions
[8:06] Speaker 4: under our belt, BAFSA, all these things, and then we're
[8:10] Speaker 4: waiting until spring to do scholarships.
[8:13] Speaker 3: So the challenge with that is we.
[8:15] Speaker 4: Already missed dozens and dozens and dozens of deadlines that
[8:18] Speaker 4: our student could have submitted not only the fall semester
[8:21] Speaker 4: of their senior year, but actually junior year in high school.
[8:24] Speaker 4: If I could, I would have all families being in
[8:27] Speaker 4: this by spring semester junior year, no later. That said,
[8:31] Speaker 4: the other half of that myth is it's never too late.
[8:34] Speaker 4: So earlier I mentioned my six figures in scholarships was not.
[8:38] Speaker 3: In one big win. It wasn't even by the end
[8:40] Speaker 3: of high school.
[8:41] Speaker 4: I worked my way to it over the four years
[8:45] Speaker 4: I was in college. So I continued applying every single
[8:49] Speaker 4: year in school. In fact, my final check I cashed
[8:52] Speaker 4: was on my way home from college graduation, and that
[8:55] Speaker 4: is I did not miss speak. I won five hundred
[8:58] Speaker 4: dollars in my senior year in college. So for those
[9:01] Speaker 4: that are listening to this thinking, oh man, my student's
[9:03] Speaker 4: heading to college soon, or or they're already there, we
[9:07] Speaker 4: missed the bus, that's not true either.
[9:10] Speaker 2: Wow, that only here's something I was a student. I'm
[9:13] Speaker 2: gonna taste them. I went to college seven years. Okay,
[9:17] Speaker 2: I did lead dead free because I had loaned not long.
[9:20] Speaker 2: I had financial aid that they meet a page for
[9:23] Speaker 2: my college program because of my parents' income. So this
[9:26] Speaker 2: leads perfectly to me. The only only perfect students are
[9:30] Speaker 2: low income families qualify for scholarships. Your response to that.
[9:35] Speaker 4: Yes, so this is the other side is okay, Well,
[9:38] Speaker 4: we're willing to do the work. However, we've been told
[9:40] Speaker 4: we make too much money, or my student is not
[9:44] Speaker 4: a superstar athlete. I will spare you all from too
[9:48] Speaker 4: many embarrassing details about my athletic skills. But there was
[9:51] Speaker 4: no way I was getting any athletic scholarships, but also
[9:55] Speaker 4: my SAT score. I didn't even take the act. My
[9:58] Speaker 4: SAT was below average. I had to find the ones
[10:01] Speaker 4: that matched me. And believe it or not, there are
[10:04] Speaker 4: tons of scholarships out there that don't even ask for
[10:06] Speaker 4: GPA or maybe it's a three point zero or higher
[10:10] Speaker 4: requirement for the scholarship system. We actually give out thousands
[10:14] Speaker 4: of dollars in scholarships every year for the last decade
[10:17] Speaker 4: as well.
[10:17] Speaker 2: You know my wife and that we have a scholarship
[10:19] Speaker 2: program at the University of Houston give like an annual
[10:22] Speaker 2: least three or four students five thousand dollars scholarships who
[10:26] Speaker 2: are in stam or the College of Optometry. So with
[10:30] Speaker 2: that being said, what is a good scholarship Joscelyn.
[10:36] Speaker 4: Yes, So that's another one of the myths is all
[10:39] Speaker 4: the good scholarships are gone, right, And so that's where
[10:43] Speaker 4: a lot of students think, Oh, it's the Coca Cola,
[10:45] Speaker 4: the doctor Pepper, the free ride that the university gives out.
[10:50] Speaker 4: It's the one big win that gives them a free ride.
[10:53] Speaker 4: The thing is, in reality, like I said, for most families,
[10:57] Speaker 4: that's not going to be how we're going to pay
[10:59] Speaker 4: for calle that was not my path, and for many
[11:02] Speaker 4: of our families that have had success, it's not theirs either.
[11:05] Speaker 3: We're talking about smaller dollar, low hanging fruit, local scholarships.
[11:11] Speaker 4: This way we can slowly accumulate our way, we can
[11:14] Speaker 4: add up to a free ride five hundred, one thousand,
[11:17] Speaker 4: two thousand dollars, four thousand dollars.
[11:20] Speaker 3: But I would say most of our families their wins are.
[11:24] Speaker 4: In the five hundred to five thousand dollars range. We're
[11:28] Speaker 4: not talking about ten, fifteen thousand, hundred thousand dollars scholarships.
[11:33] Speaker 2: And that's what we did. We'd at five thousand dollars range.
[11:35] Speaker 2: And as a student, I think that does make a difference.
[11:39] Speaker 3: Oh, that's huge.
[11:40] Speaker 2: So we feel blessed to be in that position. And
[11:42] Speaker 2: let's talk about the work. Because I was in college
[11:46] Speaker 2: long time ago. Oh boy, just sitting down there trying
[11:50] Speaker 2: to fill out these applications.
[11:52] Speaker 1: It was just so daunting to me. Johncelyn, talk to
[11:56] Speaker 1: me about how.
[11:56] Speaker 2: Do you just inspire not only the parent, but a
[12:00] Speaker 2: child that want to fill out applications?
[12:02] Speaker 1: What are you offering to the table? What advice?
[12:05] Speaker 2: Right?
[12:05] Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's such a perfect So that fourth myth
[12:09] Speaker 4: is about it just has to take tons of time.
[12:11] Speaker 4: And I do want to say this is not something
[12:14] Speaker 4: that does not require work, right, So there's no big
[12:17] Speaker 4: red easy button that just does it for us. However,
[12:21] Speaker 4: when we do have clear steps, when we have a
[12:23] Speaker 4: clear process, when we have a system to follow, it
[12:26] Speaker 4: can feel a lot less daunting. And that's actually also
[12:30] Speaker 4: why we loved calling it the scholarship system is because
[12:33] Speaker 4: it's rinse and repeat. So where that free webinar on
[12:38] Speaker 4: our website, I mentioned I've got a visual and it's
[12:41] Speaker 4: the amount of money I accumulated in a bar charts
[12:43] Speaker 4: growing up up up each year.
[12:46] Speaker 3: But the amount of work, the amount of effort is opposite.
[12:49] Speaker 4: It's inverse, right, and so it's a line that's just
[12:51] Speaker 4: going down, down, down each year. Why because once I
[12:55] Speaker 4: got a few winning essays, once I was able to
[12:58] Speaker 4: document everything that was repeated.
[13:01] Speaker 3: You know, I was able to create in.
[13:03] Speaker 4: My Google Drive lists of out my activities. When I
[13:07] Speaker 4: was able to create documents of what kind of information
[13:10] Speaker 4: do they frequently ask? These little tricks save us time
[13:14] Speaker 4: and so that's where we can rinse and repeat. So
[13:18] Speaker 4: I love reusing essays in the right way. We have
[13:21] Speaker 4: to tweak them a little bit each time.
[13:23] Speaker 5: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
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[14:04] Speaker 2: I gotta ask you this quick question, Jocelyn. You know
[14:06] Speaker 2: other scholarship system and AI. AI is such a tool
[14:11] Speaker 2: as being danced around. We talked about repeating paragraphs or
[14:16] Speaker 2: pei there.
[14:17] Speaker 1: Why you want this scholarship?
[14:18] Speaker 2: Does AI in your system play a role in enabling
[14:22] Speaker 2: students to qualify for scholarships?
[14:25] Speaker 6: I love that you asked this, so I have been
[14:30] Speaker 6: trying to figure out ways to use it in an
[14:32] Speaker 6: ethical manner right and of course to use it in
[14:35] Speaker 6: ways that do not get them disqualified because and I
[14:38] Speaker 6: know this isn't perfect, but even we run our winners
[14:40] Speaker 6: through AI and say did you write this?
[14:42] Speaker 4: And I know it's been known to claim credit for
[14:45] Speaker 4: things that it didn't right, but it is pretty good
[14:47] Speaker 4: at finding ones that it did. We even this last
[14:50] Speaker 4: year had students that submitted for our.
[14:53] Speaker 3: Scholarship and it said you could tell they just.
[14:56] Speaker 4: Copied and pasted an essay out of a out of
[14:58] Speaker 4: chat GPT and it said enter your personal information here,
[15:01] Speaker 4: and they didn't even read it thoroughly enough to replace
[15:04] Speaker 4: that enter your personal information here line of text.
[15:09] Speaker 3: So there is the right way to use AI, and
[15:11] Speaker 3: there is definitely the wrong way of AI.
[15:13] Speaker 4: And so actually we just released Tests, right, So Tess
[15:18] Speaker 4: is our AI Scholarship Assistant. She's a twenty four to
[15:21] Speaker 4: seven sidekick for our families in the scholarship system.
[15:24] Speaker 3: Isn't that?
[15:25] Speaker 4: So Tests we got her from TSS, from the acronym
[15:28] Speaker 4: for the scholarship system. You know, one of my favorite
[15:31] Speaker 4: things about Tests is she's been she's got a download
[15:35] Speaker 4: from my brain, and so you can just go in
[15:37] Speaker 4: there and ask her questions and you're basically getting.
[15:40] Speaker 3: The response that you get from me.
[15:41] Speaker 4: Even if it's at midnight on your favorite Saturday, that
[15:44] Speaker 4: you're partying it up and doing scholarships right, And so
[15:47] Speaker 4: we've just were able to serve people better when used
[15:51] Speaker 4: the right way. Now, with with great power comes great responsibility.
[15:56] Speaker 4: But I think she does a good job at coaching
[15:58] Speaker 4: without doing right.
[16:00] Speaker 2: Let's start going to tell you some I have something
[16:02] Speaker 2: a screenshot from our social media page. I mean, this
[16:07] Speaker 2: young lady delivers the questions and the answers on social
[16:11] Speaker 2: media as well as a website.
[16:12] Speaker 1: The scholarship system.
[16:13] Speaker 2: Let's start here, why some social middle class families are
[16:16] Speaker 2: paint sixty thousand dollars less for college and how are
[16:20] Speaker 2: they doing it?
[16:21] Speaker 4: Jocelyn so well, so this is where we're of course
[16:26] Speaker 4: talking about scholarships.
[16:27] Speaker 6: Right.
[16:28] Speaker 4: So when we want to with middle class families, we
[16:31] Speaker 4: call these in the income gap. So we're not we
[16:35] Speaker 4: can't just cut a check to pay for college. We
[16:38] Speaker 4: also are not going to get this free ride because
[16:40] Speaker 4: of our income level, right, and so where can we
[16:44] Speaker 4: quickly secure ways to reduce our price of college? That's
[16:48] Speaker 4: where we're going after these scholarships and they can add
[16:51] Speaker 4: up our families. I would say, well, I got six figures.
[16:55] Speaker 4: But we've had many families that have gotten six figures,
[16:57] Speaker 4: but that dollar amount that is something over four years.
[17:00] Speaker 3: Certainly many of them have accomplished.
[17:03] Speaker 1: Wow. Now, my whole thing is that there are so
[17:08] Speaker 1: many myths.
[17:09] Speaker 2: There's so many things that stop parents and students from
[17:12] Speaker 2: going to school and applying. Now the number one college
[17:17] Speaker 2: funding myth that keeps middle class parents, you believe, paying
[17:22] Speaker 2: full price versus pursuing scholarships opportunities. What do you think that?
[17:28] Speaker 2: Is it the process? Not knowing where the gold like
[17:31] Speaker 2: you have a platform they can go to. What is
[17:34] Speaker 2: stopping them? And also, why are we stereotyping our children
[17:40] Speaker 2: and saying they can't get scholarships because of where they
[17:43] Speaker 2: stand in the class rankings or they stand as a students,
[17:47] Speaker 2: And that's not.
[17:47] Speaker 3: True, right, And that's I think exactly.
[17:51] Speaker 4: What I was speaking about earlier, right, is that we
[17:53] Speaker 4: stopped before we even get started.
[17:55] Speaker 6: Right.
[17:56] Speaker 4: So many families, I've had families tell me, well, so
[18:00] Speaker 4: and so I work with They submitted FAFSA, for example.
[18:03] Speaker 4: FAFSA is a free application through the government. Every family
[18:07] Speaker 4: should submit FAFSA. And if you don't get anything through
[18:12] Speaker 4: the government, it's still some colleges require FAFSA in order
[18:16] Speaker 4: to get money from them. But a coworker says, well,
[18:20] Speaker 4: I didn't get anything through FAFSA, so you shouldn't submit it.
[18:23] Speaker 4: I met a family they missed out on seventeen thousand
[18:25] Speaker 4: dollars a year because they took this advice. They went
[18:28] Speaker 4: in her second year saying, we can't afford this anymore,
[18:31] Speaker 4: and they said, well, let me pull up your FAFSA.
[18:33] Speaker 4: Oh wait, you didn't do it because someone told them so.
[18:38] Speaker 4: And that's where there's a lot of naysayers. We actually
[18:41] Speaker 4: so in the scholarship system. We call our families hashtag
[18:44] Speaker 4: rebel families. Okay, if you can't tell, I have a
[18:46] Speaker 4: little bit of a rebellious bone in me. And so
[18:50] Speaker 4: we say, we are saying no to the broken system. Right,
[18:53] Speaker 4: we're saying no to the.
[18:55] Speaker 3: White picket fence.
[18:56] Speaker 4: Has to come with this decades of student und debt.
[18:58] Speaker 4: You mentioned the student debt takes on average twenty one years.
[19:02] Speaker 4: Twenty one years, So that means if your student is
[19:04] Speaker 4: borrowing to pay for college at eighteen, they're going to
[19:07] Speaker 4: be paying on it for longer than they've been alive.
[19:10] Speaker 2: Now, that is why a word that I had never
[19:13] Speaker 2: heard a faf SAW FAFSA. I've I viewed a lot
[19:19] Speaker 2: of people in the scholarship of opportunity lane, but this
[19:24] Speaker 2: is the first time I've heard faf SAW. Please educate
[19:29] Speaker 2: me as well as about audience exactly what that is.
[19:32] Speaker 4: Sure, and so this is technically like beyond private scholarships,
[19:37] Speaker 4: but it is our first line of defense. So when
[19:39] Speaker 4: I'm talking about the scholarship system, if you go to
[19:42] Speaker 4: my YouTube channel, yes my bread and butter is scholarships.
[19:45] Speaker 4: But ultimately we just want to pay for college. We
[19:48] Speaker 4: want a free ride. How do we get there. We
[19:50] Speaker 4: get there by combining every possible source of money. The
[19:55] Speaker 4: first and foremost is government funding. So and this is
[19:59] Speaker 4: even money that states have set aside. For example, I
[20:02] Speaker 4: live in the state of South Carolina. They have something
[20:04] Speaker 4: called Palmetto Fellows and this is as long as your
[20:08] Speaker 4: student hit certain numbers, and then you submit FAFSA. Your
[20:11] Speaker 4: student automatically receives this money every single year as long
[20:13] Speaker 4: as they maintain certain numbers. So this is there's need
[20:17] Speaker 4: based money. But it also by submitting this government form,
[20:21] Speaker 4: the universities use it to look at your family's financial
[20:24] Speaker 4: situation and decide what money they will give you, and
[20:27] Speaker 4: also certain states will use it to decide what money
[20:30] Speaker 4: they will give you, so our families know, yes, we
[20:33] Speaker 4: want to go after those small dollar scholarships one hundred percent.
[20:36] Speaker 4: But in step two, when we're covering paying for college
[20:40] Speaker 4: one oh one, we've got to know about FAFSA and
[20:43] Speaker 4: all the other types of money out there, because we
[20:45] Speaker 4: want to know.
[20:46] Speaker 3: No rock should be left unturned.
[20:48] Speaker 4: We want every possible free dollar to get us to
[20:53] Speaker 4: close that gap to the free ride.
[20:55] Speaker 1: Okay, the scholarship system.
[20:56] Speaker 2: Let's walk us through the process of going to your
[20:59] Speaker 2: web site and how it works and how you assist
[21:03] Speaker 2: a parent or a student who's eighteen years of old.
[21:06] Speaker 2: I'm assuming they have to be eighteen years old to
[21:08] Speaker 2: go to your website and use it or not. I
[21:10] Speaker 2: don't want to give out any incorrect information.
[21:13] Speaker 4: We have many students that watch our videos. There's no
[21:15] Speaker 4: problem with that. They can go to our YouTube, our instagram,
[21:18] Speaker 4: our our Facebook profile, our blog, so that's fine. I
[21:23] Speaker 4: will say, primarily it's parents that are coming looking for
[21:25] Speaker 4: the resources and then they are coaching their student through.
[21:28] Speaker 4: Now we've got tests to help, so, but you start
[21:31] Speaker 4: off at the scholarshipsystem dot com and at that website
[21:34] Speaker 4: you'll see tons of buttons saying join the free webinar.
[21:37] Speaker 4: That free webinar is about an hour and ten minutes
[21:40] Speaker 4: hour and fifteen minutes long, where I'm going to talk
[21:42] Speaker 4: about in more detail those four mits. I'm also going
[21:45] Speaker 4: to give visuals of what the good scholarships are so
[21:49] Speaker 4: you can see how I use.
[21:50] Speaker 3: Google in a certain way. And i will tell.
[21:52] Speaker 4: You this is an area that AI is very limited.
[21:55] Speaker 4: We have actually tried building AI to automate that and
[21:58] Speaker 4: it is just not there yet.
[22:00] Speaker 3: It cannot beat our methods that we teach.
[22:02] Speaker 4: So you go to that webinar and if you decide
[22:05] Speaker 4: you want to join us, by attending that webinar, you
[22:07] Speaker 4: get a major discount and you can join us at
[22:09] Speaker 4: the end and join our course. So in our course,
[22:12] Speaker 4: we've got six steps laid out, it's all videos, we've
[22:15] Speaker 4: got worksheets, we've got a Facebook community, we have live
[22:18] Speaker 4: Q and a's two times a week that families can
[22:21] Speaker 4: jump in at any time, so it's basically free coaching
[22:24] Speaker 4: at any time, sorry twice a week. And then we've
[22:28] Speaker 4: got tests and that way tests can answer their questions
[22:30] Speaker 4: at any time. So we're doing everything we can to
[22:33] Speaker 4: keep a human component for support, keep curriculum for support,
[22:37] Speaker 4: and then now we've got our awesome little chat assistant
[22:40] Speaker 4: there to help them as well.
[22:42] Speaker 1: Let's talk about this, Johncelyn. The scholarship system.
[22:45] Speaker 2: We're talking about high school students going to college, but
[22:49] Speaker 2: what about the student who's in college just struggling, don't know.
[22:53] Speaker 1: Where to go?
[22:54] Speaker 3: Where I would start.
[22:55] Speaker 4: I'm going to give just some very quick places to go,
[22:58] Speaker 4: because I know that if we're in college and we
[22:59] Speaker 4: need money, it is urgent first and foremost. Go into
[23:03] Speaker 4: the financial aid department at the office. It might be
[23:06] Speaker 4: called the bursar's office, but whoever collects the money, and
[23:09] Speaker 4: ask them if they have some scholarships that they can
[23:11] Speaker 4: apply for. There are sometimes scholarships that freshmen incoming freshmen
[23:16] Speaker 4: are not considered for.
[23:18] Speaker 3: They have to apply once they're already there. They do
[23:20] Speaker 3: this on purpose.
[23:21] Speaker 4: They want to see are you actually going to graduate?
[23:23] Speaker 4: And so this is especially common. You'll see this with
[23:27] Speaker 4: nursing majors. They cannot get money. They start really applying
[23:30] Speaker 4: for scholarships through the university. Then it's hard to get
[23:33] Speaker 4: money through the university until they're sophomore year in college
[23:37] Speaker 4: because so many fail out that those first two years.
[23:41] Speaker 4: So that said, we want to go into the financial
[23:43] Speaker 4: aid office and see if there's any money we haven't
[23:44] Speaker 4: been already considered for. Secondly, we want to go into
[23:47] Speaker 4: our specific department. So I was a business student and
[23:51] Speaker 4: I did this. I needed that little extra amount for
[23:54] Speaker 4: the next following year, and so I went in and
[23:56] Speaker 4: they said, actually, we do have one, and we have
[23:58] Speaker 4: very few applicants. I said, you guys are a business school,
[24:01] Speaker 4: you should be good at marketing this, but I didn't mind.
[24:05] Speaker 4: I ended up getting eighteen hundred dollars a year the
[24:08] Speaker 4: remaining three years, but they did not consider incoming freshmen
[24:11] Speaker 4: at all. I had to go to my department and
[24:14] Speaker 4: ask them about money. We had another student who did
[24:16] Speaker 4: this after me giving the tip, and they said, well,
[24:19] Speaker 4: we really need help with this, so if you do that,
[24:21] Speaker 4: how about we give you a thousand dollars scholarship. Okay,
[24:24] Speaker 4: So we've actually had departments make scholarships, so speaking to
[24:28] Speaker 4: the bursar's office, speaking to the department, and then if
[24:31] Speaker 4: they are involved in any organizations looking locally.
[24:35] Speaker 3: State and nationally.
[24:37] Speaker 4: So I was in a business fraternity actually, and they
[24:41] Speaker 4: had a smaller local scholarship, but then they had national scholarships.
[24:45] Speaker 4: So also looking through any honor societies for attorneys, sororities,
[24:50] Speaker 4: clubs were a part of If they are part of
[24:52] Speaker 4: a bigger name, which usually are, oftentimes they will have
[24:55] Speaker 4: scholarships out there too.
[24:56] Speaker 2: How did you get past the fear and the planning
[24:59] Speaker 2: stages to be at this point where you've been interviewed
[25:02] Speaker 2: and a highly successful person.
[25:04] Speaker 1: What a business you created for yourself?
[25:07] Speaker 4: Well, I appreciate that, and we have. I've been full
[25:10] Speaker 4: time the scholarship system for a decade as of this
[25:13] Speaker 4: past July. And it started off with actually putting it
[25:17] Speaker 4: into a book. So a friend said, you know, I
[25:20] Speaker 4: was clearly passionate about it.
[25:22] Speaker 3: I was repeating myself over.
[25:26] Speaker 4: Imagine I was even more passionate without two kids that
[25:28] Speaker 4: kept me up at night. So I went ahead and
[25:32] Speaker 4: put it into a book.
[25:33] Speaker 3: And so that was supposed to be it.
[25:35] Speaker 4: I was still in the corporate world, and I woke
[25:37] Speaker 4: up an hour extra early each morning.
[25:39] Speaker 3: I got the book out on Amazon.
[25:42] Speaker 4: Luckily, a friend said to me, they said, in case
[25:44] Speaker 4: you ever do want to turn this into something, put
[25:47] Speaker 4: in something some kind of email collector. A year later,
[25:51] Speaker 4: I had a thousand emails from the book, and I said,
[25:54] Speaker 4: you know, I would really love to do this more on.
[25:59] Speaker 3: More intimately with families.
[26:01] Speaker 4: So I invited the thousand people to a webinar and
[26:05] Speaker 4: I said, I didn't even have the product yet. I said,
[26:08] Speaker 4: if I do this with you all live each week,
[26:11] Speaker 4: will you pay me. I got eight customers that night
[26:14] Speaker 4: and put in my two week notice that following Monday,
[26:17] Speaker 4: and that was it. Now, I will says eight customers,
[26:23] Speaker 4: I made like four hundred dollars or something.
[26:25] Speaker 3: It was not It was not sustainable. However, I will
[26:28] Speaker 3: say I was.
[26:29] Speaker 4: A very big Dave Ramsey fan. In fact, actually his
[26:34] Speaker 4: debt snowball is what made me so terrified of debt,
[26:37] Speaker 4: that made me pursue scholarships.
[26:39] Speaker 3: So I so I had a.
[26:40] Speaker 4: Six month emergency fund, so I knew I had at
[26:42] Speaker 4: least a six month what do they say a flight
[26:47] Speaker 4: line or whatever, I have a runway.
[26:49] Speaker 3: I have a six month runway.
[26:51] Speaker 4: And I from that moment I delivered the best I
[26:54] Speaker 4: could for those families. We got results, we got testimonials
[26:57] Speaker 4: from there, and then I just kept testing marketing and
[26:59] Speaker 4: built a small team, and I think my team is
[27:02] Speaker 4: the actually the reason that we are able to do
[27:05] Speaker 4: what we do. I will say, you said, what did
[27:08] Speaker 4: your friends and family say? And I will never forget
[27:10] Speaker 4: my boss. When I told him I'm going to start
[27:13] Speaker 4: my own thing, he said, oh, I remember when I
[27:16] Speaker 4: was young and impulsive.
[27:17] Speaker 3: You'll be back. I doubled my salary within a year.
[27:22] Speaker 1: Congratulations, I was going to get this story.
[27:24] Speaker 2: The truth is fear stops people, and also people can
[27:28] Speaker 2: stop you from pursuing your dreams. And I know I
[27:32] Speaker 2: left IB able to be a stand up coming, so
[27:35] Speaker 2: believe me, it was a whole lovel of people scratching
[27:38] Speaker 2: their head over that they pursuing a scholarship system of
[27:43] Speaker 2: helping people people.
[27:44] Speaker 1: You're gonna go and stay to be the next day
[27:45] Speaker 1: to Murphy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it.
[27:49] Speaker 2: But I want to thank you you know again, You're
[27:51] Speaker 2: such a motivated, such an inspiring person.
[27:54] Speaker 6: Uh.
[27:54] Speaker 2: The scholarship system, Uh, these these they are so important
[27:58] Speaker 2: for students and paying understand there are options and education
[28:02] Speaker 2: in so many ways are available for us to pursue.
[28:05] Speaker 2: It's even better when we can financially afford it. Thank
[28:09] Speaker 2: you for coming on money Making Conversation Masterclass Jocelyn.
[28:12] Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.
[28:15] Speaker 2: No, I need for you to do me a favor
[28:17] Speaker 2: right now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
[28:21] Speaker 2: It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
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[28:29] Speaker 2: me that favor, follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations.
[28:34] Speaker 1: Keep winning

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