Dreaming Big with Motivational Speaker Jonathan Medina - The Way to College Podcast Ep. 202

Hi, this is Dr. Osset. I'll leave it with another episode of the Weed of College podcast. When I started the podcast, it was all about sharing stories, sharing stories with my students who I think were apprehensive and a little anxious about what the world what awaited them after high school. And so many of them were convinced that they had to find that one job, the one perfect job that they were going to do for the rest of their lives. And I wanted to share stories because I think that is very uncommon these days. Most people will change jobs multiple times, some take a while to figure out what it is that they want to do. And throughout my journey as a podcast host, educational consultant, what have you faculty member, I've met countless people who are doing amazing work. And today's guess is one of those individuals I was familiar with his work because I've seen him across social media. And then last year our regional educational service center was hosting a college workshop or a day long series. And he was our featured speaker or keynote, needed a phenomenal job. And he was even I was even more impressed to hear him in person. And so finally after after some time he'd he'd committed to the podcast then. And it was my fault for not falling through with it, but I'm glad to have him here today. So Jonathan, would you mind introducing yourself to our listeners and viewers out there? Yeah, absolutely. My name is Jonathan Medina. I go by America's number one school motivator. I have been featured on ABC NBC Fox and now this podcast. But done over like 2000 and 3000 events, some crazy numbers over a million people reach live in audiences have a couple of books. My student leadership playbook went to number one best seller. I think the other day I shared with you that I have one coming out. If I look to my left, I can see the edit pages of the book that should be coming out in a week or two on mentorship. But now I'm probably most proud to say that I am a husband and a father. Those, if you hear me speak, I sometimes will share that that was my big old dream. And not just old because I'm losing the hair in the back of my head. I think you're a little bit farther ahead of me Joe, but I'm sure I'll get there. I think that has hardly any hair. So I'll get there eventually. You might you might be lucky. Yeah, my father has a full head of hair. And I'm such a lot of scus. It's gift him and I'm, yeah, I'm the one without the hair. But Jonathan, thank you. But I'm being tall. So I get to hide it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And for our listeners and viewers out there, if you've never met Jonathan or if you've never seen him speak in person. Yeah, he is. He is a rather large individual. So yeah, just just to put that out there. And I think larger than life and I will, you know, love the personality. But today I've invited him on because I want to hear his story. Yeah. And I know he's shared, he shares his story throughout a lot of his, his speaking engagements. But, you know, I wanted just to create a space where it's sort of that. So that's all, that's what's on the table is let's get into his story and how his story has kind of shaped the work that he does today. So Jonathan, my question that I always open with is if you had to identify a starting point for your educational journey. Where would that starting point be? The starting point for me definitely goes along with. I'm in middle school and I get a vision. I had already started going to school and and. You know, maybe some of the good propaganda of the world told me that if I wanted to change my life education was a big going to be a part of it. But I still had not actually seen what it was like. I hadn't been exposed to it. And I referenced this story in my book that I'm about to publish in a couple of weeks. But I go on a college visit through a program called gear up. And I remember what it was like. The bus drives up to the campus. I see how green everything is. I see the kids with their backpack. They're on their way to class. And we went to go visit Texas. And I believe. And all of a sudden I have a vision that I could be just like these students. I saw it. I dreamed it. I imagined it. And I made it part of my identity that that was what I was going to be. And so even though life takes a ton of huge turns right after that. It's still always started with that spark of going on that first college visit. So that kind of gave me that vision of really having higher education as a goal. Jonathan, thank you for sharing that. Whenever you know. I think a lot of folks can relate to that. A lot of folks will talk about that moment when maybe they participated in the gear. The gear has certainly changed the lives of thousands and thousands of students around the country. But when they get that opportunity, they see themselves on campus. They see themselves. I could do this. I could be doing this. It's a profound moment here is just as you've shared. Did you go and then share that with somebody? So I came back and I was a shy little middle schooler. I was, you know, people see me now. And you mentioned that I'm a big guy. I played college football. I walked on to my college team. But when I was in middle school, I was a shy kid. We moved from place to place. So my mom had some drug issues which she still struggles a little bit to the day with. And so we were moving from place to place. I lived in all across the Ruger Valley from Ruhondo to start. Then Sam and I know Harlan Jen Westlaco. A couple of places in Houston before coming back down to the Valley again and graduating from Ruhondo. And so it just hadn't. It made me for a shy kid. I saw, you know, some places, if I start off and I made a couple of jokes and people started liking me. At that school, I was a popular kid in other schools. If people made fun of me right away, I became the shy quiet kid. It wasn't really until high school when I started to, to share with things. And, you know, I get the benefit of being in a lot of programs. So going into my senior year, I was also part of a program called the Leadership Enterprise for a diverse America. Lead of scholars. And on that one, by then I was confident. So going into my senior, this organization got me to where I got to meet, you know, the experts on how to get into the Harvard, the MITs, the Georgetowns. I got to meet admissions officers from every place. And they taught us all the secrets. And I came back home. And I told all the students, you need to apply next year. We got to spend a summer for free at Princeton. They took us to, I list all the benefits. I tell them how you're going to get confidence. And they're going to teach you the secrets. But, you know, sometimes it doesn't always, I don't think any other real harm to kid has ever gone to that program. But it changed my life. Anytime any student comes back and. And. Yeah. This is a common narrative. And I don't know if this is the case for you. Confirm or refute this. And it's not just for your students, but. Was there was there support for you? Yeah, so I, I absolutely came right back to my counselor, walked into the office, told my council here are the 11 12 schools. apply to 12 schools, you know, have a combination of some safety, some semi-reaches, and then some like home run level reaches. And so I come back and I give my high school counselor my list. And just like you would want it to be, my counselor tells me that I'm wasting her time. She actually tells me that I'm wasting her time, the school's resources, and I'm wasting my own time. That I probably wouldn't get into those schools. And even if I got in, I probably wouldn't make it once I got there. And I were walking out defeated. I mean, I have my shoulders down, heads down. But luckily for me, they're, you know, every school assigns you like a through, you know, F is one counselor. And so the counselor that was not assigned to me, now I'm a person of faith. So I'd say they weren't assigned to me by the school system. But maybe they were assigned to me by God. Mr. Necortez sees me walking out. And Mr. Cortez grabs me, pulls me to science is what's going on. And the way I always describe it in a speech is that Mr. Cortez got low. He got low, got to hear my story, got to see my goals. And he knew all the things, you know, part of why the previous counselor had said those things was I was a, I was a migrant student. I'd been homeless. And I came from a school who that does not historically send kids out and have success at places like that. So I don't think that she was trying to be a negative or mean. She just was trying to protect me. But I had dreams up here. And, and that moment it felt like they were brought down. But Mr. and I court this came in told me he believed in me. And over and over and over going throughout the process, junior, senior year, before he was even, before this moment had even happened, he had always kind of been that guy that always just seemed to have a belief on a shoulder that he wanted to pass on to all the students. And so during my senior year, even though he wasn't assigned to me, he became that person that became my cheerleader, that mentor that helped me on the moments that I didn't even believe in myself. Well, yeah, you weren't kidding. It sounds like Mr. Cortes, yeah, the fortunate, I don't know, call it fortunate, call it karma, call it faith, right? But just it sounds like you were blessed to have this individual step into your life, see something in you and help you. So Jonathan, where did you apply? I applied to Harvard, Princeton Yale, which I think is kind of the responsibility of every top 10% kid graduating from high school. But how did not been for that lead a scholarship program? Those were the only three that were on my radar to apply to. But at that summer, lead a camp, they also told me about some of the, they had us with a counselor. She worked for admissions for hard, but she actually told me she was, I think you'd be the perfect fit for Georgetown because I had said I wanted to be able to try out for the football team, potentially make the team. And then I also want to rest have a good basketball team, but still be academically great. Now, I did not know about the academic standards at Georgetown. I did not know the basketball history, even though I was a basketball buff. I don't know any of that, but she just goes, I think Georgetown would be the better fit for you. But I had, all my senior year, I was an athlete and I had Princeton calling me every week. I had letters in the mail from all these other schools. And then all of a sudden, none of them give me a scholarship. None of them invite me to be a football player after all, even though Princeton called me every week. So I applied to Harvard, Princeton Yale. I applied to Georgetown to Boston College. And then the Texas schools that I applied to were Texas rice. I didn't finish the application to Baylor, but they still went ahead and sent me a denial letter. And then I also applied to Texas Day and M. And so when it came time to making the decision, where did you go? Georgetown University is where I decided to go to in transparency. I did not get into Harvard Princeton Yale, but I got into Georgetown. I got into Boston College. At that time, of course, there was the automatic acceptance to all the Texas State schools. I believe I did not get into rice. And that same leader's scholarship program paid for me to go visit Georgetown, go on campus, and everything was confirmed there while I was there. It's like, oh, this is the place for me. Now earlier, you shared that this counselor, your assigned counselor, said, even if you get in, there's a chance you're not going to go. Did that doubt creep into your mic? Oh, absolutely. It creeped in my mind. When I opened those letters that said no, it creeped into my mind every time that I felt like I was having a study harder than the other kids in college. It creeped in my mind as a football athlete when I show up. I was way smaller than the other players that played my position. Sometimes it even still creeps in my mind to this day. If I really felt it, I think sometimes I don't know who all of your audience is, but if it's a counselor out there or someone who've influenced over students trying to make this decision, you may not even know it, but these are probably going to be things that these students remember forever. They'll remember just like I said, that counselor didn't believe in me. Then I never say the name of that counselor because for just to not be mean or anything, but I will gladly play praise. Mr. Daniquita is everywhere. I go, I'll praise coach Guzmán, coach Gavasos. I'll praise coach Jalerozo, all the people that believed in me and did things to help me follow that belief. Wow. Wow. So, Jonathan, you said that doubt creep into your mind and yet you persisted. You went to Georgetown. What was that like for you? Coming from, you know, you know, for our listeners out there, you said Río Ando. Graduate for Río Ando. And so for our listeners who maybe aren't familiar with South Texas or the family, compare Río Ando to Washington DC in the home of Georgetown. So in Río Ando, yes, I was a poor kid, but didn't feel that bad because we kind of the whole area of South Texas kind of considered the lowest, the lowest income, the lowest cost of living place in America. You know, I'm a nerd and I like to study some of the economic development stuff of the area. But also while I was at that leader scholarship program, I remember they put on a documentary that showed all even in Detroit and the slums of New York. And then they made a little clip of the Rho Grande Valley. And I'm like, oh, I didn't. I never had to saw the Rho Grande Valley as being a lower income area. But even in the Rho Grande Valley, you know, we're migrant field workers in my family. We had no air conditioning in the house. You know, the cars that we drove have no air conditioning, anything like that. And I get to Georgetown where basically every kid is the richest person from their neighborhood in the world. My next door neighbor was a prince down the hall for me was a Kennedy. I'm hearing, you know, football player teammates of mine talk about how their dad is the vice president of the bank and not like the vice president of the local branch like VP nationally. Kids have their own planes. I always tell a story of, you know, I had my two free bags on Southwest, Southwest Airlines, you know, resting piece that promotion. I had that. I had my two free bags. I flew into the VWI. The coach picks me up. Takes me to my, I go up to room 808 and I pack way my car hole in my drawer. I'm done like in five minutes. I come downstairs and I watch all your kids beginning to arrive. And dads have huge flats, green TVs. The moms are crying over the kids. They're like, oh, man, I'm so proud of you. Well, okay, I was the only Latino so they're all white. It was more like Trevor, Trevor. I'm so proud of you. You can cut that part so I don't get canceled. No, I think that, I think you make your point, right? So who's, who, you, you made the trip by yourself? Yes, all by myself. And for a moment, I sat in that chair that I'm talking about. And yes, I made the joke of it. But you mentioned that did that creep in what the concert told me. And I remember sitting there and people had their whole families there. They had, they had those nice SUVs. They, they had their pretty little Apple laptops. Once to winter hit, they all had their North Face jackets. And I had one that I bought on clearance set that was way too big for me at Burlington Co-Factor is the ugliest green jacket in the world. But I remember my mom for all her troubles. My mom was a nurse and she would, I bought her these scrubs from Georgetown and she wore these Georgetown scrubs. I'm sure they're for like the nursing students, but I just fell on and I bought them for my mom. And she would go to the doctor's office wearing her scrubs in the hospitals. My mom was a nurse that would fill in for the other nurses and agency nurse. And so she went to hospital after hospital and they'd say, Oh, do you know someone they went to Georgetown? She's like my son. And over and over, my mom loved it here and the doctors go, Oh, I wanted my kids to go there, but, but they didn't get in. And so I went, Oh, the doctor wanted the kids in, but my son's in Georgetown. You know, but after, after a year, you know, all those things that first year, it really felt, it, it crept in hard on me. I didn't feel like I was good enough. I didn't feel like it was the right place. I was, I missed home. But after that first year, I realized, you know, students or students, whether I have an Apple laptop or I have the one, the cheapest one, they sell it Walmart, whether they have, you know, blackberries back then that turn into iPhones during when I was there, or I had the free phone from T-Mobile. It didn't matter. We all were trying to figure out how we can finish school, make our parents proud. And then you had the question at the beginning of the podcast of what we were going to do next, because I went to school the time when, I think it was 08 was when it crashed the economy. And so all my friends who had the fancy internships, where they were going to get, you know, bonuses, all these banks went away. And they lost their secured future at that time. So whether it all the way back in 08 to now, it's always a question of what these students are going to do after they go on to the next level. Wow, you know, Jonathan, being periodically in these interviews, I'll ask folks to give, give advice. And what do you, this is, we are in the season of colleges, or ramping back up, freshmen are making their way onto campus in the coming weeks, if not already. And what would you tell, what advice would you give somebody, what piece of advice would you give somebody that maybe you wish you knew when you were getting there? Aside from like, you know, the number one thing I think that students, I work in the college market a lot. So I know that they struggle with their identity is one of the major things, whether it be regional identity of where they were further from, whether it be a faith identity of what they've always been raised to believe in and now are exposed to, whether it be the 100 different kinds of identities we have, right? But I always tell people, you know, take the good of where you're from. And, you know, some of those things, they're core to you, they will help you, you know, my grandfather only had that second grade education, but he taught me to a little child, which is to fight and wrestle. You would tell me, you missed to be that kid, Luke Child, and so it doesn't matter whether my grandfather only went to the second grade hard work, can it be applied to any student? And then there's other things like I would say, when I go speak at colleges for orientation, I use an acronym called Win, and the win, the W is welcome. And so I say, go welcome, new things, go join clubs, go join organizations. And I actually always say, go to at least seven events in the first couple of weeks, whether it be a club that you might have joined, whether it be, you know, the first football game at the university, whether it be, you know, going to the new church group at the university, a Bible study, whatever it might be, but go to seven events, and when you go to seven events, that starts to help to build that identity for you. And so if you don't start getting connected with the university and start getting it that, oh, I am a Georgetown student, you know, I got the benefit I was a football player, so I'm forced to go to, you know, seven different meetings just on football in the first day that I got to university, but essentially it's very important to get those first seven events in so that way you can start to build that identity as, oh, I'm a Georgetown student, I'm whatever university student and I belong. I love that, thank you, I think that's perfect. Here you are, you're an athlete, and you decide you're going to walk on, what was that process like for you? And I don't mean like, sort of the logistics, but I think just mentally, because I think, you know, and I'm sure you come across this when you speak to students, the countless high school athletes that aspire to play college ball, and I'm sure some that are like, I'm going to be a professional. It's one thing, I think, and, you know, I'll share a little bit of myself, right? Like, I went away to school, and I'm not a big guy. I was an offensive lineman in high school, but I remember I love football, and I loved the physicality of it. And I remember I missed it when I got to college, but there was also this realization, right? I had classes with football players. The guy, my buddy down the hall was a punter, and he was like 64 and like, you know, two, two, 3240, you know, so, so I realized, okay, this is very different from where I'm coming from. So my expectations were tempered a bit. For you, what was that process like? Like, you know, I've got one walk out walk on for the team, was there doubt? Was there, did you have supreme confidence? Just what was that like for you? Well, I definitely had doubt. So some of the logistics part, I emailed every coach. I had signed to play football at Kingsville. So Texas, and I'm Kingsville. So I was already, I knew I had a division two scholarship. And so the coach at Georgetown, he basically emailed me and he's the head coach this day. Now, at the time he was an assistant coach, but he's the head coach now, coach Scarlotta, super pumped. They're about to have their first game, I think, in two weeks. I know I've been getting texts from him on the countdown of the days. He keeps in touch with me. He's if I were to give credit earlier on people that believed him, he's one of them. But he said, in that first email, if you're good enough to play at Kingsville, you're good enough to come here, and play for us. And they invite me like he just goes, just try to be in somewhat shape. And I show up and the first things that happened is I show up in the first two guys that I meet play offensive line. One of them is 6-7, like 3-20, the other guy is like 6-4, 300 pounds. You know, I didn't know that they were going to be like the worst players on the team, but even worse than me once I got big enough. But when I met them, I was like, oh, they're so huge. I definitely don't fit in. I'm people, I think, back in the days to call it the IBM, the 80-BD Mexican philosophy or mindset. I kind of felt like that because when I got there, I was a walk on. So that's not, they don't want me to be there. I'm just kind of an extra body. So my coach, Scarlotta and some of the other coaches will say that I was the one of the greatest walk on in Georgetown history. Minus Dickimbi Matumba was also technically a walk on. So I think him is 18 years in the NBA, beat me a little bit. But I walked on. And so that's, you know, my body type is I'm not Rudy. You know, hopefully I would have gone to some plane time at Lamakian, I were here from, but I know I watched Rudy the other day on the plane and Rudy has like, it's tiny small guy. I had the frame. I just needed to get, I had never been exposed to eating the right way. And within one semester, I was like, I was one of the first guys traveling on the football team as a freshman. There was only like five of us that were doing that. So I quickly separated from like having no belief, like I don't even belong here to, oh, wow, I'm one of the five freshmen out of the 25, 30 kids that's on the travel team because of my type of athleticism that I was. Your success, Jonathan, I think you take part in these programs early on, right? Gear up, Lita. And then you identify things that you want to accomplish. You're going to apply to these schools, top notch schools, some of the best finest schools in the world, in the country, even if not the world, right? And you make it, I'm going to walk onto the football team. Were you typically, I mean, have you always been a student who set goals for yourself? Always set goals for myself. I think it's important. And then you mentioned kind of having the supreme confidence. I kind of was like a weird and that I didn't believe. But as soon as there was even like a little spark, it was always like, oh, I can go do it. So it was, it was like a weird. I just needed that little, just a little bit of momentum. And I'll run with it. I just needed someone to, that's where, you know, that little bit of belief that my coaches or Mr. Cortez had in me was enough for me to just take off with it. Sorry, I forgot your original question. No, no, no, I asked if you said goals. And yeah, you absolutely answered that. Yeah. Yeah, always set goals that kind of, I think, or you went to Stanford, right? Is that? So even that very first time that they called my school to ask for my transcripts and and let my coaches know they were going to start recruiting me. They became like, oh, that's, there's the goal. And then there's the new goal. And so I was like, oh, I was kind of praying and hoping that maybe I could play college athletics. And then it was like, oh, the first school that I recall was Stanford and their division one school. And two of their players that played my position are projected NFL athletes. So I was like, okay, that's the goal is to, to go to one of these top notch schools and to get in and become a scholar athlete. I kind of, I always opposed being considered a nerd, but I also didn't want to be considered a jock. I was like, I'm a scholar athlete. There you go. There you go. I like that. I hope, you know, you stress that I think with your, is particularly when you talk to the athletes, because I think in my experience, athletes tend to tend to, it's like firmly entrench themselves in one of those camps, like I'm a jock or or I'm this or, and a lot of students tend to do that, right? They form their identity around one of these, these types. But I think, yeah, there's, there's something to be said about the scholar athlete. Jonathan, you're, here you are. You're a Georgetown University. You walked on the football team. You're traveling as a freshman. And now I've got to wonder, what do you set your sights on next? Because here you are. You've really done and you're, you're playing, well, what's next for you? What's the next goal that you set for yourself? That's one of the things where I would, if you would ask me, is there some more advice to give a student that had kind of been my dream for, you know, four years of high school, maybe even a little before that, a middle school was like, Oh, I need to get to a dream school. I hadn't made that the goal. So I knew that every test, every quiz, you know, you're in class with the other top 10 kids. So you, we're all kind of secretly checking in on each other's grades also. We're, when you get your quiz grade, I'm looking to see if it's better than my grade and things like that. But it's been the goal for so long to get into the dream school. You know, I held that chip on my shoulder because that counselor that didn't believe in me. And so I was motivated by Mr. Kruthet. I was kind of also motivated by the counselor that didn't believe in me. I had that chip on the shoulder. But then freshman year, I'm kind of doing it. And I also felt a little bit of where I was kind of felt a little out of place. I was like, Oh, everyone here's so rich. And I'm not. I kind of for a moment resented the success that I was having. And I think that puts you in a little bit of a dangerous spot because sometimes you can sell sabotage in order to make yourself fit in or to the identity that you once carried. And so I always tell students, you know, there's, there's that goal. But you have to think in my speech, I talk about the big old dream. So that's where I was like, Oh, marriage and husband or husband and a father now. I had spent so much time thinking about that goal, but I realized it as a freshman. I'm there. I'm doing it. And I didn't know what to do with the fact that I'd kind of gotten to one of my main goals. It's like, Oh, well, you have to make new goals that are going to take, you know, another good amount of years in sacrifice and time and effort to accomplish. And so, you know, I wish I had made other goals of having good grades. My grades were not particularly good at Georgetown. It's enough to, to, to go and get by and to walk the stage and do all those things, but to stay a football player and all that. But I let myself use excuses when I got there. It's like, Oh, well, I'm at this dream school. And I play football. I had my, my job. I had, I had to work while I was there. So it's like, I kind of let myself, so I was like, Oh, bees are fine. And then, then be honest, it's became fine. And I started to, to let myself slack off for no real reason. That's kind of what I don't like. It's like, I didn't have a reason to slack off in that moment. And I let myself. But it was because I hadn't really set up, you know, that future goal, you know, those my teammates who were, you know, they were trying to get that job on Wall Street. So they had to have 4.0 or the ones who were trying to get into med school, you know, they had grades because they were trying to get to that next thing. I hadn't really figured out what my next thing was. So when it's real hard to get an A, and it's like, well, why am I going to try that hard? If I don't even know if I need that kind of thing. So I wish I had made stronger goals after freshman year. Well, your friends are thinking about Wall Street and working in various sectors. And you said you didn't have, you hadn't really set that next level of goal. But were you thinking about different fields that you might be interested in? I mean, well, what is it that you were studying at that point? I was, I still was undecided. So I was undecided. The journey for me picking my majors were, I really liked and enjoyed sociology classes and theology classes. So I kind of took too many early on. And it was like, okay, well, and if I want to graduate on time, I better just make these my major and minor. And so that's what I did. But the thinking, I was thinking of what I wanted to be. But I hadn't defined it very driven by purpose in life. I think you can expect that motivational speaker worked for nonprofits, raised funds for nonprofit boards and things like that. Very driven by purpose. I just didn't know what I would do with that. And so even in my high school interview with in Brownsville with a teacher from American lady who I didn't particularly like the interview with. But that was one of the things that she grilled me. She was like, she said, what do you want to be when you're upset? I don't know what I want to be. But I remember saying, I just want to be in a position to give back to people. And now that I'm an adult, I learned there's a lot of ways to get back and give back with your effort, your time, your mentorship, your knowledge, your funds. You could donate money. You could, there's, you can connect them to people. There's so many ways you can give back to so many different things. But at the time, I hadn't, I didn't know any of those things. I just knew that, you know, there was a lot of organizations that helped me out along the way. There's people that helped me out along the way. And there were some very, very critical people. So the, the Cortez is the coaches along the way. And even in the community, I had family members that were kind of like secret benefactors to me over and over and over. So I just, I wanted to be like those people. I wanted to help the next generation. And so I went and served in a non-profit when I first graduated college and then started my business. But everything has been an experiment on helping other people. You, thank you for that. And I'm sure, you know, having taught on, on my and having taught thousands of students, there are countless students who want to do the same who think about what they'll do with that first paycheck or what they're going to do for their parents or for their younger siblings or their community. So kudos for you to you for having all of these goals, but then also being able to fulfill them. You said that when you graduated, you served on a non-profit, for nonprofit on nonprofit board. How long, how long before you realized I have the gift to be a motivational speaker. What was that time period like between, you know, the moment you graduated until realizing, you know what, I've got a powerful story and a powerful message that I can share. Well, I definitely been a student of public speaking. I was fascinated by it. I was a little bit gifted with it. And then I studied and worked on it a lot. Definitely was one of the the things that separated me from the other students. So the teacher always thought I was smart. People thought I was smart. I liked being the one that the newspaper came to to quote or the news came on my athletic team. So, oh, I know that I'm going to say the good clip. So, they're going to put me on the TV. So public speaking had always been something that I was really fascinated with. I actually started off when I was a freshman in college speaking at conferences and camps. But I hated sharing any personal details of my story. In fact, the very first in college, I, my speech, I talked about big John. I did not talk about Jonathan Medina. I'd say, oh, big John, these things, big John had a secret he had overcome this. Big John was scared of, and I was scared of everybody knowing about my mom being in prison in high school. I was successful. I was captain of teams, president class, all those things. I didn't want people to know that I came from a family like I did. So, there was a lot of kind of weird separation. I didn't like the way people, it felt like they had pity. And I didn't like that feeling growing up. Now, I understand that that's the natural response to things. But I hated that feeling of people having pity for me. And so, I just never told people. And so, when I became the speaking, and then I profited, I spoke a lot. It was a Christian organization that, and so I often could, I could teach you a nice little Bible study lesson. Very good at that. But I never shared a lot of my personal story until a mentor of mine. I was just texting with him a few moments ago before I came on. But a gentleman named Keith Davis brought me or started asking questions about my life. And he said, oh, well, you should be a speaker. There's not a lot of Latinos out there. It'd be great for Hispanic students to see an Hispanic male share their story. It's a black gentleman. He asked my boss if I can go with him, a San Antonio for a week. And I went and spoke at probably close to four or five thousand students in one week and with him. And he kept whispering. And I would kind of just brush and like, oh, you know, I did these things. And my parents were the prison. And I still did it anyways. And I persevered. I need to be like, you got to speak deeper, tell your story more. And the moment that I understood the power of it was after one of those speeches in San Antonio, there was a little boy that insisted to his parents. So I need to speak to the speakers. I need to speak to the speakers. And I had only brushed upon my story a little bit. And Keith has two Rose Bowl rings. I think he was undefeated against Stanford when he played, but he played at USC. I'll just bring that up for no reason. He'll say, I would hold that against. He played at USC during the time when they were super awesome. And the other speaker that day, there was three of us. The other speaker won the National Championship with Florida State when he was in college. And they both played in the NFL. And something in the kid wants to talk to them. And as soon as the principal asked us if it was okay, he rushes over to me and tells me, I'm motivated by your speech. I'm the second oldest. My mom died two weeks ago, but drug overdose. But I know that I can be a leader in my family. And I want to make an impact and show my siblings that I can be successful and soak in there. And in that moment, I realized it's not whether Jonathan Medina, me, whether I wanted to share my story, it was about the impact that it makes for others. And so I started to suck it up and share my story more and more. And the business kind of took off. And I've gone to see the impact that has had that the event that we were both at. There was a little girl that said she had these dreams of going to a school like the ones that we've got to go to. She said she'd never met anyone that made her believe that she could actually do it. And so I'm going to ask them at Region 1 ESE and their Garrett program. Who's this? They had a speaking event in the Valley and they knew so they said, Oh, we're with this little girl. She just shared the story and the director was crying, hearing it on the side. And so they said, Oh, the boss is crying. The little girl just shared how at the last event you spoke and she she now believes that she can do it. Can you come say, Hi, I just wasn't able to make it. I had a speech at the island. I couldn't make it back in time before they their buses went home. But I'll definitely be searching this year to now that school's about to start. Give her an autograph book. And I would like to go meet the young lady and tell her from my mouth that I believe in her. She can do it the same way that Mr. Cortez did it for me. You know, Jonathan, that's a that's a powerful story. And I'm sure you have countless powerful stories right of where your story has left an impact and inspired and motivated, you know, another young person to to follow their own dreams. How many students would you say you you've spoken to? You're not saying your time. That's just the wrong numbers. It's it's over a million. I want to say it's probably over 1.5 million getting close to two. It's yeah, there was early in the career, it was doing a lot of school. So now we do leadership camps. We go deep with working with students. We'll work with them all year long or multi year. So it's changed quite a bit. But early on, it was just, you know, a thousand in one speech and we do four or five of those in a day. And the next day, we're doing another 1,000, 1,500 audience doing two, three of them a day. And the numbers quickly added up. But it's those individual moments. You know, there's the ones that I remember are after the speech, the kids that got to talk to me or when they sent me messages on social media and, you know, kids saying that their parents left them, you know, one of the one of my favorites was in Fresno, California. The kid happened to have my last name. But he had his little FFA jacket. And if you know about Fresno, California, that's heavily agriculture areas. The kid has FFA jacket. He's a leader. And he tells me in a social media post, he sends me the photo and I said, Oh, you're the FFA student, Mr. Medina. And he's like, Oh, you're remembered me. And so, oh, yeah, you had the FFA jacket. And you had my last name. So I, of course, I remember. And he goes, well, sir, I want you to know that I live in my truck. My mom kicked me out when she was 18. Told me that that she wishes she had had an abortion. So as soon as I turned 18, she kicked me out of the house. And I'm determined to go to college. So I go when I sell vacuums, door to door, I live in my truck. And I thought, if I get to go help kids like that, you know, it doesn't matter whether it's in Fresno, California, in the valley, New York, all the places that we go, it's moments like that are the ones that I remember the, you know, because it does seem to go on the flights and the hotels. And now, after years, maybe we have some nice perks of being, I've gone to so many. So you get some reward points and stuff. But it's still a sacrifice to leave the family to go to these places. And but every time I hear a story like that, you know, with the kid before, those are the ones that that motivate me to keep on the good work, to motivate me to encourage teachers. You know, this time of year, it's all speeches to teachers. And so it's, you know, I go share the stories of how Mr. Cortez impacted me. And they're going to have students that were just like me and they're going to be that next Mr. Cortez. So I love doing this time of year working with the staff that gets to work with these students every day all year long. Jonathan, earlier you shared that what you were thinking about what you were going to do next, what came after George Ted? You wanted to help people. It sounds like that is another goal that you can scratch off. That's getting, as being accomplished. So congratulations there. Congratulations on, on all of the success you had. And I think the impact that you've had on, on folks on, on, from, you know, the youngest of your audience members all the way to the oldest, right? Congratulations on all of that work. Keep up the great work. What's next for you? Some of the things that are next, you know, I've been a husband now for three years, so I pretty much have that mastered. I know that. No, I think that's a meme. So go ahead, continue on. I know I constantly feel it that I feel it. The moments of being a father, I feel it, leading the business. So, you know, my journey, my goal is, you know, continue to share the message, but also to, I love training new speakers up in doing this, helping them get their first events, helping them get started. And then we've started now that we've doing a lot of these mentorship. It's been strictly leadership based, but I know some of your audience probably, they, they probably aren't, shouldn't go into school like ours, the ones that we went to. And so I think in the next few years, it'll be coaching some students on their journey from high school to go on to a top university like that. So maybe adding some coaching, more coaching of speakers, more coaching of students. And, and then learning how to be a good husband and father that I definitely have not mastered. That has been the biggest change over the last few years. And so weighing out just constantly growth. I think that's, you know, I think it's important to, to have the piece of being content in that, you know, not in a overly obsessive way, trying to be better all the time kind of, but also seeing those things to keep on getting better. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm sure just like with everything else, right, you will continue to get better and you'll get achieve those those goals as well. Jonathan, as we transition out, what final piece of advice would you like to leave for listeners and viewers out there? My final piece of advice is to dream big. That's that's my message always. I've gone from the dream big tour to the dream bigger tour to the dream big erratory because I'm a Taylor Swift fan also. And so I haven't figured out what the new title is, but it will be something around dreaming big. You know, everyone has their own big dream, but that's the fun part is to dream big and then to persevere through all the things of whatever it takes to get to that big dream. And you know, the great philosopher, Molly Cyrus, I believe she said, it's the clamor, whatever that song, something like that, the mountain or whatever it was. But the way you grow that when you have that big dream, you become a kind of person, it's going to take you growing to accomplish that dream. So have that big dream and then figure out all the things that it takes to build into that person to accomplish that. The world's counting on the students in the future, the world's counting on the educators that are working with these students, the world's counting on the other perfect husbands and fathers just like me to go and do that. So that's the, you know, it's always passing on to the next group. So we got to go be that example for everybody. Jonathan, I appreciate your message today. No, and I appreciate the time. I know you're very busy. So I appreciate the time you've carved out to share your story. And, and though I know you like over a million people, right? Million and a half people have heard your story. I think, you know, I think it's always good. It's always refreshing to share our stories into your stories again. So thank you again. Oh, no, thank you. This was, this was awesome. I appreciate you asking me to be a part of it. And getting to meet you after following each other on social media. And then I realized that we, we happened to run into each other at a local nice coffee shop that we both happen to live by. So yeah, shout out to them for making great coffee and or just being a place where we can run across other great people. But thank you, Joe. It's pretty cool being on this. So if you ever want me to come on again, feel free to reach out. Hopefully, I'm not canceled for making that one joke earlier today. Or many of them that I've done throughout this podcast. No, you're good, man. You consider you consider this consider you have a standing invitation of the podcast whenever you'd like to jump on. If you, I just posted today, I posted an episode that I recorded last week with a guest and a friend, a Latanya resmiles. And then it was her third time with me. And so she was sharing, she just started a podcast so she was able to share that. So, you know, when, when that book, when the book on mentorship, when you've got it ready and it's out, feel free to jump on. We can get into the book. We can talk about mentorship a little more. But you've got a standing invitation, man. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I'll definitely reach out. If I can finish the edits today, maybe they can be done by the time you release this. It'll be the mentor, mentor leadership playbook. And I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say this at the end, but you know, when I watch other podcasts, they do at the end. So you can find me at topschoolspeakers.com. I'm also the co-founder of 360 athletics.org. And we are on a mission to go help the next 1.5 million students. And up in awesome. I'll be sure to share all of those links on on the podcast, on the notes and everything. But thank you again. And this concludes another episode. The way to college podcast. Thank you to my guests. Thank you to our listeners and viewers out there. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, share all of that good stuff. Do us all a favor and share the podcast with one other person. You appreciate it. We'll talk again soon. Thank you and bye-bye.