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Carlee (00:01):
Are you a parent trying to navigate the pandemic, the at-home learning, the whole nine yards with kids at home? If you are, you are not alone. Hi, I'm Carlee Myers, your friendly stress management expert. And this month we're focusing on at-home learning and pandemic parenting. And I brought on an incredible guest, Dr. Steven Greene, a great friend of mine, who I actually met during the pandemic. Um, he is a career educator. His company Make The Grade supports families with school-age children. Dr. Greene specializes in academic topics like math and sciences, as well as test prep for SAT and ACT exams, and college admissions. Um, his book Maximum Education, an Amazon number one bestseller, provides executive function support for students of all ages. Welcome to the show. Steven
Steven (00:52):
Carlee, thank you so much for having me. Excited. I'm excited to be here. Beautiful day.
Carlee (00:58):
Excited to have you. This is a topic that I really...
Steven (01:00):
Stress. No stress today.
Carlee (01:03):
There you go. There you go. So this is a topic that I really wanted to be, I wanted to dig in since they, since the school shut down of the pandemic, so I'm really, really excited to have you on. Um, but before we talk about, you know, how we can support our listeners around, you know, navigating this time in terms of at home learning, would you mind sharing a little bit about how you ended up here? Like how did you end up being the expert in terms of, you know, supporting students in math and sciences and the whole nine yards?
Steven (01:34):
Uh, I went to college to be a teacher. I continued on to graduate school. I originally wanted to become a principal and even a superintendent of schools. Uh, I decided I just liked working with people and through a series of events who, nobody's life exactly works out the way they want. Um, I ended up starting a support company when I was at Rutgers, uh, in, in their departments, which we could talk about later. And that morphed into basically becoming a tutoring company. My original mission was to coach up students who wanted to go to college, but just didn't have the chops. They just didn't have the grades. They didn't have the background. In some cases, they didn't have the financials. Um, in today's world, we would call these in underserved communities. They didn't use that terminology back in my day. Um, but, but that's what happened.
Steven (02:27):
And, uh, it just basically morphed into what I do. More recently, five, six years ago, I had got started involved in virtual education and video-based education and things like this. And it all kind of just came together, you know, with the unfortunate realities of what broke basically in March, you know, when all the schools shut down and almost everybody went completely virtual. So it's sort of a perfect storm in a sense of people needing help, which was always there. But people needing help in a different framework than they're accustomed to. There's always been online learning. There's always been homework. It's just the dependence on it became such a priority that, and it got blind and everybody got blindsided. You know, literally in the span of a week, people went from being in school, learning into traditional normal sort of so to speak way to sitting at home, staring at a computer six hours a day, and it it's, uh, you know, I don't think we're quite back yet. It'll normalize eventually, but, um, I've never tried to position myself as the only person knows what's going on here. There's a lot of people that know what's, you know, how to help people. But I think I have a unique combination of having done this a very long time. Having worked in schools, having worked with a lot of families one-on-one and being very comfortable and very adapt at the virtual piece. So it, it it's been able to help me to serve my clients and a lot of people I interact with very effectively for the last nine, 10 months now.
Carlee (04:00):
Yeah. And it's funny cause I, I know that, you know, a lot of people had to do a huge pivot when the pandemic came around. And I mean, I think we all had to do a little bit of a pivot, you know, regardless if we were all online or not before, but I think you were really set up for success and having your experience of, you know, 10, 10 plus years of, you know..
Steven (04:22):
In 25 years. I mean, I don't, I don't look it, but uh, I've been doing this. I've been doing this since the nineties. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, listen in the end, any business like we're in, which is serving people is partly understanding what people's needs are. Understanding what they need help with and understanding how to provide them in the simplest way, in their mind and in their functionalities without help. Right? This is not about saying here's the only way to do this. And if you can't do it, your loss, this is about saying, Hey, look, what are you good at? What are you not good at? Where do you need support? What can I provide you with? Maybe there's things out of my realm too. Maybe I need to bring other people in or bring in other professionals like yourself. Um, but it's still ultimately about meeting people where they are and being willing and, and listening. You know, it amazes me how, um, a lot of times people just don't listen. Five minute conversation, you learn so much about what people need and it's been so much more effective to help them. Um, and I think, I think that's been something that I've been able to bring to the table as well.
Carlee (05:34):
Yeah. So speaking of which, you know, I really want to get you, like, talking about helping people and supporting people. You know, I know that there's a lot of parents at home that are really struggling, this, this, you know, back and forth between in-person and online. And especially, you know, if we, if they've got businesses and careers and they're trying to navigate this as well. So how, you know, if you had one piece of advice to give a parent right now, who's navigating this with their kids, what would that be?
Steven (06:03):
Very, very simple. Structure. All boils down to one word, structure. You must create a structure in your home, which is not a bad idea anyway, this is not a bad idea, anyway. And, and if I can elaborate on a little bit, I've identified five structures and I've done workshops and stuff on this, but real short, skinny of it, there's an academic structure. There's a time structure, there's an accountability structure, there's a physical structure. And then there's also just sort of, uh, who are you going to go to for help, a support structure. That all need to be in place, and they all have to work together. And you could probably make it work if a couple of them are weaker, but it's not going to work if they're not working together. Um, you know, physical structure, do you need a desk? You need a computer?
Steven (06:52):
I mean, we are all internet dependent now, right? Like it or not, you don't have a decent enough wifi or whatever, you're going to be challenged. And your desk is a mess. If you can't manage your time. It's not going to work. If nobody's keeping you accountable, it's not going to work. Where are you going to go? If you need help, that's always something you want to plan ahead of time. And ultimately everybody's gotta be on the same page. So one word, structures, structures. And, uh, I think that's, I don't know if it's the secret is the right word. It's certainly not a panacea, but it definitely will get people in the right place to work up to their potential. And that's really the goal, not everybody is going to get a hundred on everything, right? Not everybody is going to be perfect.
Steven (07:38):
It's all about working to potential and being able to do the best you can. Even in trying circumstances. Let's not be naive. There are always going to be stresses and anxieties associated with education, right? Homework has always existed. Kids fight with their parents about doing homework has always existed. People stressed about grades has already, has always existed. This is just a different environment that we have to deal with it. And so, because it's a different environment, we have to have different approaches to dealing with it. This is where I think these five structures are so critical. None of them are hard to do, none are that challenging, but it takes a mindful, conscious, uh, decision to put them into place. And everybody's gotta be on the same page. This is not, I don't, I'm not a person to give parenting advice, but this is not a time for the parents of a house to be on different pages in terms of how this is going to be managed. This has to be a collective singular effort.
Carlee (08:35):
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's, it's funny that you say that because I was just doing a training with my own clients, my own community about how, you know, 2020 was the year of reacting, right? We, we maybe were just jumping in. We didn't know what the end goal was, but we were just trying to survive and, uh, going into 21 what's required and really what was required in 2020, we just didn't realize it yet, was intention. Being intentional about how we show up in every area in, in, you know, with our kids, with at-home learning, with, with parenting, with our businesses, with our relationship. I mean, I can go on, intention everywhere. So this was really helpful. This was a really great start. Now, if people need more support, Steven, where can they find you?
Steven (09:23):
Simplest place would be my website. That's core to my hub for everything which is makethegrade.net, M A K E T H E G R A D E.net. All sorts of stuff on there. There's places that people can contact me there. Um, that's probably the simplest way to do it. They can email me as well. And we can probably put that in, you know, whatever show notes, makethegrade.net. Um, that's the easiest thing. I offer a lot of free service. I will refer a lot of information based things. I do a, an event, a show every Thursday night that I'm hoping to get you on sooner than later, um, podcast. So there's a lot of stuff out there. People can, uh, digest as it were if, if they want. And of course, you know, I have consultations to help people as well. So all starts with reaching out. Cause I, I can't find you, you gotta find me for better or worse,
Carlee (10:16):
So plenty of resources. And just to be clear, uh, Dr. Steven Greene works with everyone all over the country. If I'm not correct.
Steven (10:25):
I am in lucky 13 States right now, and three foreign countries. I have a student in India. I have some in Japan, couple in Germany, actually four, I left one out, uh, England, Germany, Japan, and India.
Carlee (10:40):
Beautiful. Yeah. So it doesn't matter where you are. Steven, Dr. Steven Greene can absolutely support you. Now, if you are dealing, Oh, go ahead.
Steven (10:49):
I'm gonna say, and that's not new. I just, you know, I'm not a new adopter to all this. I've been working in, you know, online for several years, but yeah, it, it it's out there. So
Carlee (11:01):
That's the beauty, uh, Dr. Steven Green has been doing this. This is not new. It wasn't a huge pivot for him. This is something he's incredibly experienced with. Now, if you're feeling overworked and exhausted, I've got some good news for you. The Stress Less Company works with high-achieving executives, business owners, and managers, just like you to find that sense of peace and freedom that they desire. And as a result of our work together, they learn not only how to deepen their spiritual connection, whatever that looks like for them, [phone ringtone playing in background] The universe is sending us some good Juju here. Um, you know, not only do they learn how to deepen their spiritual connection, they also learn those tactical tools so that they can experience more free time, more efficiency, and yes, even more prosperity sounds pretty great, right? Well, you can apply for a complimentary stress assessment today to start the conversation about working together. Visit stresslessco.com/apply for more information and of course, to apply. So this concludes this episode of the Stress Less Show. I want to give one last big shout out to Dr. Steven Greene. Thank you so, so much for coming on the show.
Steven (12:08):
My little side kick here.
Carlee (12:11):
There you go.
Steven (12:11):
Old school Yoda, not new, old school Yoda.
Carlee (12:19):
He's got a Yoda, he's holding up a Yoda! May the force be with you!
Steven (12:19):
Do not try. Or whatever he always says.
Carlee (12:22):
Beautiful. So if you've enjoyed this week's episode, let us know by giving us a big old thumbs up and hitting that follow or subscribe button. Thanks for listening. Share if it resonated and we will see you next week.